Chapter Text
Weird things happened a lot to Alger. Not just the normal weird things that were inherent to being a Beyonder with other Beyonders and sealed artifacts around every hidden corner. No.
These weird things started with the day he’d been summoned to The Fool’s Court and haven’t stopped since.
So Alger’s first though when, in the middle of the quest he’d been undertaking for the sake of getting strong enough to one day stand at the side of his god, he got caught up in some strange…inconsistency with the world was not one of bafflement. Or of desperately trying to understand his situation.
It was: Yeah… this might as well happen.
When he came to, and the feeling of wrong, wrong, this isn’t right, finally settled down, Alger found himself on top of an unfamiliar building, looking at an unfamiliar sky.
The sun looked normal, at a glance, and the sky was a soft blue with the occasional cloud. But the skyline…
Alger rubbed his eyes and glanced around quickly. The buildings were strange; tall, with more glass than stone and almost monolithic. Even the building he’s landed on was unfamiliar, the stone both rough and smooth as if the entire thing had been carved from a single piece with not a brick or wooden post in sight.
Internally, he felt fine. The scepter Mr. Fool had gifted him was no where to be seen, dropped when Alger had been transported here, but his own internal checks came up normal. Nothing lurking and whispering in the back of his mind, no pain or obvious limits to any of his abilities.
Just normal confusion.
He wasn’t even just in his spirit body like when he was summoned to Sephira Castle.
Then again, he would still be sure to check with Miss Justice once he got back, just to make sure there really wasn’t any corruption. He never forgot the warnings of Mr. Fool.
Even the thought of Him who can’t be named still sent shivers down Alger’s spine.
The easy thing to do would be to jump off the roof and land among the crowd of strange people he could see on the ground far below him. And if he was still near the sea, he would’ve already done it.
But it would cause a commotion.
Or a possible commotion. Alger wasn’t certain if using beyonder abilities in this strange place would be like using them near the sea where no one really thought twice about it, or if it would be like using it in the middle of a city like Backlund where such things were considered myths and drew far too much attention.
So instead, he looked for another way down.
There was a door, metal and ugly, in the middle of the roof that Alger was sure led down into the rest of the building. He took one more glance down from the roof, saw that there was no where hidden like an alley for him to use, and decided to try the door.
The lock was practically tissue paper and Alger quickly made his way down the stairs, an oddly unfamiliar echo with each step.
It looked sterile. The walls were too smooth and the doors on either end of the hallway were identical and evenly spaced. Unfamiliar symbols marked each of the doors and there were shelves filled with colorful bags and random trinkets right outside each one. The lights were also blindingly bright, like trapped lightning rather than flame.
Alger could even feel it, similar to when he was standing in a lightning storm but without the untamed ferocity.
It was strange.
There were voices, young voices, that sounded bored and unfamiliar. Alger thought for a moment.
Was he at some kind of school? It looked somewhat close to the kind of schools Alger was becoming more and more familiar with as a Pontiff of the Sea God. It was just the architecture was so strange.
Wait, Alger stopped for a second, his mind racing. He was wandering around an unfamiliar school. If he found a suspicious looking guy like him in one of his schools he’d kill the man before asking questions.
Solutions ran through his mind, one of which being running and making sure he left the building before being caught—but that would make him look more suspicious if he did get caught.
The least suspicious thing…
He grit his teeth.
Was probably the most embarrassing. At the very least it would give him plausible deniability.
He walked to one of the doors and knocked.
No one answered for a second but inside the room went quiet.
When the door did slide open, sideways for some reason, it was indeed a teenage girl that was on the other side. In a very strange state of dress.
If Alger hadn’t been a pirate for as long as he had, something might have shown on his face at even the thought of a girl this age wearing a skirt that short.
Other than the skirt though, her outfit looked mostly like a school uniform so Alger assumed that was what it was and forced himself to stop thinking about it.
Especially when he saw the all-girl class all wearing the exact same thing.
Well, it wasn’t any stranger than Emperor Rosell’s fashion, Alger thought. Was someone trying to advance in the Dark Emperor pathway?
“Sorry to bother you,” Alger said as politely as he could, “But do you know where the exit is?”
If he asked where the exit to the building was, it implied a few things that could keep people from being too suspicious of him. For one, it implied he was trying to leave, and that he was lost or new to the building. It also subtly implied he was supposed to have entered or was allowed to have entered at some point, even if he was trying to leave now.
It was easily the safest option, and was something like hiding in plain sight until he made his way out without the commotion jumping from the roof had been.
Unfortunately, despite Alger’s carefully crafted question, the teenage girl just looked confused.
One of her friends walked up behind her, and the two of them whispered in a strange language between them.
Did…did they not know Loenese?
Alger frowned.
In hindsight, it did make some sense. Little Sun also didn’t know any Loenese and he was originally from a strange land hidden from the rest of the world. Is that where Alger was now?
It certainly hadn’t looked the way the Forsaken Land had been described to him, and the obvious sun in the sky and abundant population made Alger’s brain run through and discard all sorts of possibilities.
The mysterious eastern continent? No, he wouldn’t be able to see the Sun, right? And Mr. World had described the strange fog, and even given them a rough estimate of how long it would take before it thinned and allowed any passage through.
Somewhere else then? A future version of the world, one that had averted the Apocalypse?
He shook his head, he didn’t have enough information. For now it was best to be cautious and not make any assumptions.
“Ahjussi, do you speak Korean?” the teenager asked in her strange language.
Alger was about to respond to her in Hermes and then possibly Jotun to see if they could find at least one shared language between them, when the door behind him slammed shut.
Everyone in the room jumped, especially Alger, who had been keeping half of his attention on the hallway at his back just in case, and knew that no one had passed by and no wind had blown hard enough to so much as move the strange door, much less slam it closed.
He grabbed the handle and used his strength to try and open it.
Unlike the door to the roof, however, this one stayed shut.
Something mystical then.
Alger had already expected that, since he hadn’t exactly come to this place by normal means. But that didn’t make him feel any more confident.
He still had no idea what was going on.
The teenage girl took the opportunity when he stepped aside, to try the door herself. Even turning the locking mechanism a few times only for it to have no effect.
Her voice sounded dark and confused as she shouted something to the rest of the class.
Alger really didn’t want them to think he had something to do with this, so he gently pushed her over to the side and used some of his demigod strength to try and kick the door down directly.
It quivered just slightly before the rebound shocked its way back up Alger’s leg.
His pathway was easily one of the most powerful when it came to destructive abilities. It was very much not a good sign that even he, as a Demigod, couldn’t get the door open.
The girls also didn’t react well to the sight, a few of them trying to slam against the door while one particularly clever girl grabbed a long metal stick that had markings along one side like measurements and tried to use it to pry the door open.
Nothing worked.
Alger was just about to use some real power to break whatever seal was on the door when an unfamiliar voice spoke from the front of the room.
It was that same strange language the teenagers had been using, except Alger could actually understand what was being said.
[The Free Service of the 8612th planetary system has come to an end.]
Everyone turned to look as the thing in the front of the room continued to introduce itself.
A monster? Alger had never met one that could talk, so maybe it was a spirit creature. As a sailor, he didn’t have as much experience with such things as Mr. Star and other Beyonders in his pathways, but Alger’s lightning had similar cleansing properties as the Sun pathway’s light.
Besides, if it wasn’t a spirit and really was a strangely sentient monster, Alger’s pathway was second to none when it came to dealing damage.
He continued to listen as the thing described the end of a world subscription service.
The children were shocked and clearly panicking, a few stepping closer to Alger despite him being a stranger. Comfort in at least being trapped together he supposed.
Was this a messenger of the things Mr. Fool warned them about? The ones that heralded the apocalypse? If so, was that why he’d been brought here? To interfere with the Fool’s plan to protect the world—to make it so Alger could not fulfil the mission granted to him and help his god wake up once more?
His fist clenched.
Wait and see, he told himself.
Don’t act rashly. Don’t stand out any more than you already do. Just watch what happens and get as much information as you can for the next Tarot meeting.
And if you’re right… then find out if the others are here too.
Constellations are now making an entrance.
Prove your value. Kill one or more living organisms.
Penalty for failure: Death
Alger blinked.
None of the girls moved, or did anything to each other. Whispers passed with worries and explanations. Desperate and panicked theorizing between whether it was a trick or something else.
Alger read the mission again.
Then he looked at the faces of the young girls and their shaking hands as they clung to each other and he thought about the Sea God’s school that had been leveled in the war.
His eyes flashed.
Lightning struck in from the window, shattering the glass and hitting the strange monster dead-on.
It didn’t let up, even as the thing screamed and burned, until it was dead on the floor. Nothing but charred fur.
A notification popped up only in front of Alger.
The First Kill Mission has been Achieved
His eyes widened. Hadn’t the strange creature been the one controlling these illusions?
If they were still here, and knew Alger was the one to kill it…
“We need to leave,” he said, momentarily forgetting the girls didn’t speak Loenese.
They looked back at him anyways, some mildly suspicious but most just openly confused.
Then he remembered that he was somehow able to understand them so maybe…
“We need to leave.” It was like an entirely new language had somehow been given to him the same way knowledge and abilities came with each potion he drank.
Luckily, the girls didn’t look to question that and followed him out of the door.
The barrier had disappeared with the creature’s death at least.
One of the girls, taller with her hair tied up high, took the lead to get them away from the building. It was a rush before more of those things appeared and Alger wouldn’t have the advantage of surprise next time.
Other than running, the group payed no attention to the so called constellations and the strange messages popping up in their periphery.