Save State Hero 2 -ch 7- (Patreon)

“— in other words, this is Ryker’s home world? This is where he came from?” Edmund mumbled, staring out at all the towers around them.

As far as he could tell, they’d been constructed of magic.

All of them reaching up into the sky in different ways and different designs. None of them the same.

“Yes,” Oz confirmed. “This is where Runner became the God-King he is and where Ryker was born. You could physically walk to the place he was brought into the world.”

Edmund blew out a long and slow breath. Gazing outward and shaking his head.

The more he thought he knew, the faster he realized he knew almost nothing at all.

“It’s kinda mind numbing,” he said, his eyes flicking to a group of young people walking amongst the towers. Even from the distance he was at, Edmund could feel a sense of strength from them. “I can’t tell if it makes them more human, or makes me more terrified.

“If Ryker and Runner were both mortal once, doesn’t that… that mean that someone made them? Something made them?

“Or did no one make them. But if no one made them, how did they themselves become deities? It’s just… it’s all… I don’t know.”

“Yes. That’s a very fair thought process,” agreed Oz. “It’s hard to not question everything, when nothing is truly knowable. There is unfortunately only one thing that you could possibly ascertain through all of this.”

“What’s that?” Edmund asked in a quiet tone. Feeling rather empty as he considered the totality of the universe.

“You exist,” Oz stated plainly. “You can clearly state that you exist. Everything beyond that is outside of your ability to verify.

“Thankfully you only have to worry over yourself and anyone, and everyone, is secondary to that.”

Edmund chuckled, laid his head down to the stone wall and continued to watch the people as they walked.

“Did you just pat me on the back and tell me ‘I think, therefore I am’? Because that’s what it felt like,” Edmund said accusingly with a smirk.

“Yes. Because that is the truth. In doubting your reality, you prove that you, at least, exist,” offered Oz. “While nothing else can ever truly be verified, you can at least be sure of that.”

With a grunt, Edmund stood up, moved away from the edge, and walked over to the trap door that led into the tower.

Dot had taken the man below and that’d been the last he had seen of either of the two.

“I’m sure you analyzed this super more than a few times. Any basic idea on how his power works?” Edmund asked, staring at the closed trap door.

“Yes and no. It will be good to have it verified from him directly to what I believe I know,” said Oz. “Which is that his attack tears the soul out of whoever it strikes, and causes them to forcefully have an out of body experience.

“From what I can tell, it wasn’t originally meant to be an attack, but something he fostered into one. This is what I can tell from my scans, analysis, and observation.”

“That does kinda solve most of the issues we saw, doesn’t it,” mused Edmund. “People not able to be brought back due to their soul missing. That happened to more than a few people.”

“Yes, which is good to confirm, but that doesn’t answer why Andrea never came back,” Oz stated, reframing the point of the talk. “The others all yet live in other save-states despite being struck by the same attack.

“Andrea did not. Why not? What is so different to what struck her?”

Chewing at the inside of his lip, Edmund did his best to really consider that. He went through the situation again and again, and nothing really stood out to him as any different.

In fact, there were those who had indeed died to this man even on this save-state and would have problems being brought back.

A strange thought wriggled to the surface.

“Oz, I think we might be wasting our time looking in the wrong place,” he spat out as the thought blossomed fully. It was something he couldn’t really deny or push aside. “I need you to check something for me.”

“Of course, Edmund, what is it I can do for you?”

“You know that there was a massive reality rip during that fight, right?”

“Yes. I’ve inspected it more than a few times. It’s size was immense and the fact that Ryker and Runner were able to seal it is beyond my ability to comprehend.”

“In all of my echoes, that rip in reality happened. To me, it has always happened, will happen, did happen. That’s my reality that’s all I’ve ever known.

“But… there was one save-state I played out where I started dating Romina where I don’t think that rip ever happened.”

“Searching. One moment.”

Edmund nodded his head, letting his thoughts continue to carry him off.

The more he considered what he was thinking, the more it felt correct.

It wasn’t that the man’s attack had changed, but that the status of the world had changed. Even in the save-state Edmund was in, there had been a tear in reality. Just as there always had.

Except Edmund lived his life from the point of loading into it, rather than living through it. When it was freshly torn and only just repaired.

Like trying to compare a scar to a scab.

One was fresh and trying to heal, the other long since so.

If Edmund took the thought process that whatever it was that happened to the world was a fresh wound, rather than a scar, than it was possible that Andrea’s soul had gone through it.

Which is why whenever I reset the save-state, those whose souls are in the save-state return.

Andrea’s… escape.

Didn’t it.

It left the save-state and that’s why she never came back. She can’t.

“I can confirm it, Edmund,” Oz said with some actual excitement in his voice. “There are indeed save-states that exist where reality didn’t need to be mended.”

“Alright. When people died to the attack in that save-state, they were just dead, but reverted on load,” Edmund tried, speaking his thoughts aloud. “Andrea died in that very first pass-through just after reality was mended.

“Is it possible that her soul squirmed it’s way through that recently torn asunder reality? Could she have slipped through before it was completely and truly healed over?

“Is it like a scab, where it’s there to keep the body safe and prevent infections, but it could have a hole where things could slip through?”

“Yes. That is theoretically possible. Especially given the size and scope of the tear in reality,” confirmed Oz. “Felix did it. He was trying to forcefully merge his wish with reality. He has done other such things in the past.

“The tears were much smaller but did take time to fully ‘heal over’.

“Unfortunately, even if we were able to cause Felix to not do such a thing, Andrea would remain lost. There is no way to prevent the situation as it has already occurred, but it is good to know how it was caused.”

A long groan escaped Edmund and he looked to the stones beneath his feet. If this theory was right, and it felt right, than there really was nothing to be done here in this save-state.

“Let’s hear what Dot has to say when she’s done, then see if we can’t… I don’t know… try and figure out where Andrea’s soul went,” Edmund got out in a defeated voice. “Do you know where that tear in reality went? Can we go to the other side of it and see if there’s any traces there?”

“Yes, that isn’t an issue,” confirmed Oz. “I know the exact location that it tore upon into and what would be on the other side.

“I can attempt to scan for Andrea’s soul once there. If it exists in that save-state, I should be able to find it. Should be able to, at least.

“Given that her soul is unattached and able to roam, there is the distinct possibility that it left. Or it could have gone to any number of other locations if it tried to double back.”

“Wait, really? Why?” Edmund asked.

“The place Felix tore open reality to, was another plane. Except he did it on top of a very unstable location. A tear in reality to another plane on top of a portal intersecting another portal.

“It’s entirely likely that Andrea’s soul, if we’re correct that is, could have been dumped out into many different places. Portals would effect such an immaterial thing very differently than just a person.

“A person would be ground up into a fine mist and dispersed. A soul… well… I don’t even know. There’s a number of places it could have ended up.”

“Errr… I hate to ask… but… I imagine Felix has tried numerous times to call her back. Numerous times and with a great deal of power. Could he have shifted it’s location?”

“That’s unlikely. One of the reasons he was able to bring people back was they wished to be and their soul allowed it.

“Contract or not, he can’t own their souls.

“Once Andrea’s soul fled the save-state, his plane, it went beyond his ability to call out to it. It’s also why he couldn’t reach those who had been killed by the super’s attack.

“A very similar problem, just more difficult.

“The souls would have had to make it back to their own body on their own, then he’d be able to call them back.”

“Does that mean that Andrea could technically make it back to her body all on her own if I waited around long enough?”

“Theoretically. Yes. Though highly improbable,” Oz cautioned. “The odds of that happening are extreme.”

The trapdoor popped open then and slammed against the stones it was set in. Dot was there in the trapdoor and gazing up at him, holding to the ladder that led up.

“Oh, yes,” Dot said in a strange way. “Hello. I’m all done.”

“Hello, Dot,” Edmund said with a strained smile. “I’m glad to hear it. I assume it went well. What can you tell me? How does his power work?”

Dot opened her mouth, hesitated, then clambered up the ladder. She got to the top of the tower, closed the trap door, and looked out to the towers around them.

“I’m not supposed to be like this?” Dot asked instead, leaning against the wall surrounding the rim of the tower.

“Uh, like what?” Edmund replied, walking up to stand beside her.

“Angry all the time. Fucked up,” growled Dot, glaring at the towers around her. “That I enjoy hurting people and-and-and I haven’t had a steady relationship in my entire life. That I’m not supposed to be anything like this.”

Unable to help himself, Edmund let out a rough breath and leaned against the wall just as Dot was.

“You’re not the same person you were before,” Dot said accusingly. “You said a lot of things that only leaned into that and there was a lot of sudden magic around you that didn’t belong.

“It’s hard not to believe you after things like that show up in front of me. So… yes, I believe that I’m not supposed to be this way. You yourself said this time-line was fucked up, after all.”

“No, you’re not. You’re not supposed to be like this,” Edmund answered honestly. “Normally you’re a very sweet and kind woman. One that asked me out repeatedly in cute ways that always left me feeling like you were a hopeless romantic.”

Dot snorted loudly at that, then laughed.

“Funny,” she said and then went silent. “Spiritualist. A shaman of sorts. That’s what his power is. It’s to put people on a spirit journey and allow them to search far and wide for enlightment. To bring themselves closer to harmony within.

“He weaponized it, forcefully only allowed his power to start the process, and curtailed the end of it.

“Stunted it so that the soul forced to go on this spirit journey would have to manage the return all on it’s own. Which according to him, has never happened before.

“Before you ask, he can’t call a soul back that he’s sent out, as the power is a continual thread for it work as a whole. He sends them out, lets them explore, then guides them back.

“He has been forcefully breaking that thread no sooner than he learned to cast his ability outward. It’s a one-way trip without any trace for those lost to find their way home.”

“It isn’t to kill a soul, or to launch it into another plane, or anything like that. Right? It’s just to force them to go on a spirit journey and most people immediately get lost,” Edmund asked. He wanted to confirm he understood it.

“Yeah. He said that no sooner than the soul is ejected, than they lose all sense of themselves at first. They will wander off and lose themselves very quickly,” Dot murmured. “Theoretically, they could find their body and get back into it. A lot like how one would enter their home.

“The problem is that by the time they managed it, their body would already be dead. The thread being broken the way it does literally causes the body to shut down.

“He was a real nasty piece of work if I’m being honest. He took what was supposed to be a power to help people heal and become greater than what they were, and used it to sever their soul from their body.

“Won’t lie… after hearing what you said, and what I was doing, as well as what he did, it gave me a lot to think of. To think about. But it doesn’t matter at all. Does it?”

“Not really,” admitted Edmund. “I’ll probably never come back to this time-line. There’s no point in it. The only thing I needed here was confirmation on what that guy’s ability was.”

“Well, that’s good at least,” grumbled Dot. “I won’t know it, will I? That I don’t exist or anything? Do I just… die?”

“You’ll cease to exist,” Oz put in when Edmund didn’t answer. “You as you are that is. The Dorothy of other save-states will exist of course.

“Whichever time-line Edmund moves into would be the Dorothy that is alive and active.”

“That’s a bit of a mind-fuck, ain’t it,” Dorothy got out with a wheezing laugh. “Makes me want to try to put together a spell and see if I can’t peer into the world. Push myself out of this place and somewhere else.

“Part of myself or… or… I don’t know. To just not exist sound almost cruel.”

Blinking at that, Edmund really hadn’t considered it.

Not from her point of view at least.

In the past, he had always viewed these type of save-states as ones that didn’t matter. That these people, weren’t people.

Not one of them was an actual person and that he could do whatever he wanted. Since it didn’t matter and wouldn’t impact reality at all.

“Would you even want to? You don’t seem happy,” Edmund blurted out before he considered the words.

Dot’s shoulders hunched up and her posture went rigid. Her face had screwed up into a colossal grimace as well.

“I mean… there’s always hope, isn’t there? I could get better. I could… I could go to therapy and try-try to work through it all,” she whispered, her face and body relaxing.

Her words struck a chord with him, but it also left him feeling strange.

Andrea had lost her soul, but had across every single save-state.

That made him feel like there was more connecting each iteration of one’s self to another. More than Oz was letting on or willing to admit, at least.

“I mean, I managed to talk Claire into helping me try to save Ryker,” Edmund said after a long pause. “She put a lot of spellwork on me to try and-and help me find Andrea.

“To find Andrea to try and save Ryker. He knows he’s going to die, by the way. Its all part of his expectations and plan.

“I have no idea how his mind works but this is all… all to plan. I guess I’m going counter to his plan to save him but the only way I can save you, is to save Ryker.”

Edmund had almost said “and Felix” but realized that it didn’t matter if he mentioned that bit or not. This Dot wouldn’t be moving forward, but there was no reason to cause her distress before he left.

In this brief conversation, his entire world view on save-states and the people in them, had changed.

“Me, huh,” Dot said, turning to look at him with a grin.

“I did mention we normally flirt a lot. You asked me out quite a bit. I just had other women on my hands at the time,” acknowledged Edmund, meeting her gaze and holding it. “Ellie, Alina, or Romina. I haven’t really sought you out too much but that’s because you go crazy when Ryker dies and run off. Become the next Zeus and try to kill Runner.”

“Yeah. That sounds about right. I blame Runner for Ryker being as involved as he is,” she said, her eyes moving away from Edmund and looking off at a tower. “If you save Ryker, that’d certainly save me, I suppose. Or a version of me. I wonder what’s different with her than me. What really changed me to be so different.”

“Your Uncle Robert lives. The other Dorothy’s all have a relationship with him,” Oz answered. “Ryker forgave him and learned from it. Many others were forgiven and you were able to be brought along in that redemption if you so chose.

“In almost ever situation that you’re given a choice to be more, to become more, you do so. As long as you’re given the choice, that is. In this life, this version of you, you weren’t given many choices or opportunities.”

Edmund didn’t have to be a genius to read between the lines that Dot had been given a few opportunities but hadn’t taken them.

Though he couldn’t blame her for that.’

In fact he had to wonder if he couldn’t have done any better himself in her position.

It sounded like the few times she might have been given the tools or ability to know how to respond to these opportunities correctly, were never given to her.

“Really? Huh. Sounds idyllic,” mused Dot. “Well… I suppose that’s that then. You’re leaving then?”

“Yeah, I’m leaving. I need to go see if I can find Andrea’s soul. Anything you want me to pass on to your other self?”

Dot’s brows slowly moved downward until they were like clouds over her eyes.

“A lot like toad soup, he chose it,” Dot murmured after an entire minute ticked by. “That. Tell me that. A lot like toad soup, he chose it.”

“Alright. Oh, and by the way. I kinda like the makeup,” Edmund said, grinning at her. “You being a edgelord or channeling your inner goth-chick is pretty hot.”

With a guffaw, Dot peered at him, then shook her head.

“Run along. Leave me to my oblivion,” she said.

Edmund loaded up his save-states and did just that.

Shifting back to the Alina twilight tunnel load.