Ominous Odyssey (Overworld Chronicles Book 13) (28 page)

Shelton sat down across from me, a huge grin on his face. "You in heaven?"

"Om-nom-nom," I moaned in pleasure. "You're my hero."

He took a gulp of wine and leaned forward on the table. "Yeah, I know."

"Aren't you going to have one?" I asked.

He laughed. "Man, I ate the first three that I made."

Adam sat down next to him, three burgers on his plate. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the legendary Harry Shelton."

Shelton threw up his hands. "Guilty as charged."

Elyssa dropped into a seat with two burgers on her plate and gave Shelton a respectful nod. "I'll admit it—you really pulled off an epic mealtime."

"Guess what I'm making tomorrow?" A grin split Shelton's face.

It wasn't hard to figure out since we'd shared our culinary fantasies after being stuck with Seraphim cuisine for so long. "Pizza!"

"Can I use the word epic again?" Adam said. "Because pizza would be totally epic!"

"Dude, the food here is so fresh, it's unbelievable." Shelton sighed and looked at our burgers. "Damn, I think I'm hungry again already."

Adam grinned. "I won't tell Bella if you won't."

Shelton raced away to get another burger.

The Atlanteans, for the most part, seemed a bit unsure about the burgers until the first few bit into them and loudly exclaimed their divine nature.

"Surely, this is food from the gods," one man said between mouthfuls of French fries.

Shelton sat back down. "I think they like my cooking!"

Adam polished off his last burger and sat back, swishing wine in his goblet. "While I am tickled pink to have real food once again, I think we should talk about why we're here."

For a moment, I'd stopped thinking about our mission. Now that I'd finally tasted hamburgers again, it was time to talk business.

Shelton sighed. "Thanks for spoiling the mood."

"No, Adam's right." Elyssa wiped her mouth with a cloth napkin. "We've finally reached the middle of Voltis, but we have no idea where the secret weapon is."

"Man, these people wouldn't know war if it bit them in the ass." Shelton looked at the cavorting crowd as the music picked up once again. "Ain't no way they have a super weapon tucked away somewhere."

"Unfortunately, I think I know exactly what Kaelissa wants." Adam's eyes looked troubled. "And if she gets it, we're screwed."

Chapter 24

Adam's statement sent a chill through me. Ever since the first time I'd met him, he'd proven himself to be a genius when it came to coding magical spells and seeing patterns where most people would only see gibberish. That was why, when he thought we were screwed, odds were pretty good that he was right.

Elyssa proved she was no slouch at evaluating danger and stole some of Adam's thunder. "It has to do with the bloodstones."

Surprise flickered through Adam's eyes. "Yeah, that's exactly right." He chuckled. "You're definitely your father's daughter."

Her cheeks flushed red and her eyelids fluttered with pleasure. "Thank you, Adam. That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all day."

Shelton groaned. "Do you think Kaelissa wants to use the bloodstones on the Atlanteans?"

"No," Adam said. "On the gods." He jabbed a finger into the distance. "She wants to control the Fallen."

I smacked the heel of my hand on my forehead. "Of course! It's so simple."

"Do you really think Gallifer and his pals are that strong?" Shelton shook his head. "I know they're ancient and all, but what makes them more powerful than any other Seraphim?"

"They're second or third generation Seraphim," Adam said. "They're probably just as powerful with Brilliance as they are with Murk."

"Not only that," Elyssa said, "but they've had access to mortals over a thousand years."

Feeding on human soul essence amplified Seraphim magic considerably and Daelissa had proven that the feeding on humans over centuries flushed her with even more power. Unfortunately, Daelissa had limited her feeding to only light essence and driven herself insane. If the Fallen had been feeding on human soul essence all this time, there was no telling how strong they might be.

"First thing in the morning we should pay a visit to Heval." I munched on a fry and considered our approach. "At least since the Fallen tried to use a bloodstone, they'll know how serious a threat Kaelissa poses. Maybe they'll know how to counter her."

Shelton held up his hands. "Do we really want to visit the Fallen? They might just kill us."

Adam frowned. "In all the time they've been here, they don't seem to have harmed the locals."

"We can't just let Kaelissa get the drop on them," I said. "I'm sure they'll be grateful. Then we can go home."

"Speaking of which," Adam said, "that might be harder than you think."

"Son of a—"Shelton put down his half-eaten burger. "You really know how to spoil my mood."

"After Justin found out about pocket dimension, I studied Queens Gate and the Grotto." He leaned back in his chair. "The scans came back almost identical to my scans of Eden, but they also have slightly altered gravity—a side effect of touching the Glimmer."

"Does this place have the same gravity?" I asked.

Adam shook his head. "No. I think this place is not a full realm or a pocket dimension. I'm just taking a guess, but putting together the puzzle pieces from the stories Narine and the others told us, I think this might be a fragment of the original Earth."

Elyssa's mouth hung open. "You mean before the Sundering?"

"Pristine Earth?" Shelton said.

Adam nodded. "Do you remember when the Alabaster Arches weren't working?"

"Yeah, kinda hard to forget," I said.

"Remember the gray static and lightning when the portals tried to form?" Adam showed us a video of an arch sparking and roiling with gray clouds where a clear portal should be.

It looked an awful lot like—"Hang on. You're saying the aether storm in Voltis is similar to the energy in a malfunctioning arch?"

"I'm going further than that," Adam said. "I think Voltis is one huge malfunctioning portal."

"Son of a butt-munching unicorn." Shelton chomped down on a fry. "It kinda makes sense."

"The fact that it's a malfunctioning portal creates a problem." Adam gave an apologetic look. "I'm still analyzing the data, but simply reversing our course back through Voltis might not get us back to Seraphina. It might take us somewhere else."

Shelton face-palmed. "I'm gonna throw up."

I didn't like that thought either. "Let's hope you're wrong."

"If it's one huge portal, that means there must be a way to other realms," Elyssa said. "It means we might be able to get to Eden."

Shelton's face brightened. "Hey, that's right."

"There are numerous possibilities," Adam said. "We just have to narrow them down."

Before we could dig deeper into the mystery, Adonis came up behind me and politely tapped me on the shoulder. "Justin, now that dinner is concluded, would you do us the honor of telling one of your stories?"

"Uh, sure." I scooted back my chair and gave Adam a sharp look. "Give some thought to the portal theory. I need to know if there might be a way back to Eden from here."

He gave me a thumbs up. "You got it."

I walked across the spacious citadel and hopped onto the central pedestal. It was time to educate these people on how they'd ended up here at the end of the universe. Seconds later, the crowd surrounded me, faces lit up like kids about to hear a fairy tale for the first time.

"Once upon a time, the world was whole." I channeled a sphere of Murk and traced the continents onto the globe.

Oohs and aahs filled the room.

"The Seraphim ruled the skies, the Sirens the sea, and the Lyrolai lived in the forest, the glade, and the glen." I continued the story Cora had told me about how the Apocryphan had conquered the kingdoms and how their war had split the Earth into realms, making the globe of Murk shatter into pieces and reform into their own globes, much to the amazement of my audience.

"It wasn't until thousands of years later that the Sirens anchored the worlds together by creating the Glimmer." I shattered one of the globes and did my best to recreate the shattered realm of the Glimmer. "It seems no corner of the world was untouched by the Sundering and the Anchoring except for Atlantis."

"But why?" asked a child. "Did the gods protect us?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "If there's one thing I've learned about magic, it's that sometimes you just have to accept certain things and move on."

That drew a chorus of laughter and knowing looks.

I continued with the story of the First Seraphim War, leading up to a Siren named Melea who removed the Chalon from the Grand Nexus without properly attuning it for removal. "The magic within the arch exploded!" I channeled a globe to represent Eden and simulated a dark wave of Murk racing across it. "This Desecration drained the light from anyone near the arches, turning Seraphim into husks, and mortals into shadow creatures that hungered only for the light of the living." I formed the globe of Murk into the image of an infantile creature with skin like tar. It held up its arms as if grasping, and I made the dreaded cry I'd heard so many times before. "Da-nah!"

A woman screamed and the kids shrank back from the monstrous apparition.

I released the channel and let the image fade away. "It was at that time that Atlantis was cast adrift from the world," I said, using all my best words for poetic points. "For thousands of years, nobody knew what had happened to the lost city. Now, we have finally found you."

Anyone sitting down leapt to their feet and joined the others in a raucous round of cheers.

"We are reunited!" someone shouted. And then the chant started—"
Reunification! Reunification!
"

I felt a bit guilty, because I sure as hell didn't know how to actually reunify this fragment of a realm with Eden or any other realm for that matter. There were plenty of more stories to tell, but I decided this was enough for now. I caught a glare from Aesop who was busily scribbling on a sheaf of rough parchment. I imagined they didn't have much in the way of paper here, but given the critical shortage of stories in these parts, the old man probably figured it was worth writing down what he heard.

Adonis and the others bowed deep when I stepped down. "Surely, you are one of the gods," Adonis said. "We have never seen such magic."

"No, I'm not a god, and don't call me Shirley."

Shelton snorted and Elyssa rolled her eyes.

Adonis's forehead wrinkled. "I apologize if I offended you."

I waved off his apology. "No, it was a bad joke on my part." During my story, I'd only skimmed the surface of Seraphim powers, and barely mentioned Daemos and other supernatural types. It seemed only right I let him and the other mortals know the Seraphim weren't gods, but beings with magical powers.

"Your people can learn magic," I said.

Adonis flinched. "We can only use that which the gods have gifted us. To do otherwise is blasphemy."

"Like the food preservation spell?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes. The gods give us what we need."

"Interesting." It sounded like oppression to me, but I wasn't here to start a rebellion.

"How did you do your magic?" Adonis asked, and the weight of a hundred stares settled on me.

"I'm part Seraphim," I explained.

That rocked the crowd back on their heels.

"He is god!" someone shouted.

Many sank to their knees, soon joined by their neighbors. I held up my hands. "Hey, enough of this! I'm not a god."

Adonis looked up at me. "Many apologies, Almighty Justin, but if you are not a god, what are you?"

Elyssa's groaning sigh penetrated the silence that followed.

I barely kept myself from laughing. "I'm just a guy with super powers."

Judging from the murmur of conversation, it seemed that the Atlanteans had a great topic of conversation to keep them occupied for a while.

We excused ourselves and headed back down the road. Shelton stared up at the moon as we walked. "Do you think the moon used to be blue instead of gray like it is in Eden?"

"If this is really a preserved slice of old Earth, then yeah," Adam said. "This place is fascinating. I wish we didn't have to hurry back."

Shelton groaned. "If I have to eat another glurk, I'm gonna puke."

I just hoped Shelton's gripes were the least of our worries.

Bright and early the next morning, the four of us walked to the
Falcheen
and convinced Illaena to fly us over to Heval. Narine and her besties didn't make an appearance, but I figured when we got back I'd have to give them the same history lesson I'd given the mortals.

Mortals.
It was damned strange to be labeling humans like that, especially since I'd grown up believing I was human. Since Daemos were part human and part demon, I had a slice of humanity lurking in me, but I definitely wasn't one of them.

As the
Falcheen
cast off and headed north toward Heval, I began to have doubts about our unannounced visit. "It seems like the Fallen enjoy being gods around these parts."

"Maybe," Elyssa said. "On the other hand, they might just want to be left alone. We should assess the situation by asking the locals for information."

"Good idea," Adam said. "Walking into a den of malicious vipers like Daelissa would be pretty bad."

Shelton snorted. "Understatement of the day."

A towering black silhouette appeared in the mists on the horizon when we were about twenty miles out to sea. Mount Olympus rose so high its peak was lost above the clouds, making the mountain in Atlantis look like a molehill. The town of Heval was packed onto a wide plateau on the southern side of the mountain where some strange act of geology had created a square mile of land with grass and trees. Though it was plenty of room for people to live, it wasn't arable, which meant they most likely traded for food with Atlantis.

"How do you figure they get down off the mountain?" Shelton said.