by Han Yang
I spun on my heel to see Ginli grinning up at me from the bed. She held up a hand, stopping me midway as I moved forward to help her to her feet.
“I never thought I’d see this place again.” She slowly twisted around until she was sat on the edge of the bed, as though she wasn’t quite sure of how to control her body. “Wow, I really am tall, aren’t i?”
“Are you… okay?” I glanced back at the door as I contemplated calling the elderly doctor in, but the moment I turned to leave Ginli called me back.
“Bradley, we have a lot to talk about, but not much time to do it.” She gave me an apologetic smile as she shook her head sadly. “I don’t know what you did to bring me back, but I can’t stay long. Take me to Joanna, I have something important to tell you. Something you both need to hear.”
Chapter 33
Ginli moved with an elegant grace I had never seen her use before as I led her back out into the corridor. The venturebots watched on as I took her down the hall and into my room.
Joanna still slumbered quietly on the bed, but she woke up as the elderly doctor bid us farewell, snapping the door closed after she left.
“Ginli!” Joanna made to push herself up out of the bed, but I reached over and laid a gentle palm on her shoulder.
“Easy now. You need rest.” I pulled over one of the chairs and settled down beside her so she could take my hand as Ginli moved up to the end of the bed.
Her eyes were warm as she looked from us, then to the dual crib set up at the side of the room beside us. Though I knew babies were some of the loudest and smelliest things in the universe, ours seemed like angels as they napped quietly in the corner.
That could all change at any minute, of course.
“Joanna. It’s good to see you again.” Ginli gently lowered herself down onto the edge of the bed and took Joanna’s other hand in hers. “You’ve been through a lot.”
“You too,” Joanna huffed as she glanced at me, likely annoyed about how carefully we were treating her, but she couldn’t hold back her happy smile as she turned back to her friend. “But you’re here now, and that’s what matters.”
“I- Yes, that’s true, I guess.” Ginli bit her lip as she looked in my direction for a moment. After a short pause, she said the words I knew Joanna would never want to hear.
“I can’t stay long. After this conversation, I need to leave.”
“Why!?” Joanna gripped our hands hard as she shouted the question out to the world. “You’re welcome here for however long you want to stay! This is your house as much as it is ours!”
“Trust me, it’s not you, it’s me.” Ginli chuckled softly as she spoke that age old, tired line, but her seriousness returned a moment later as she shook herself off. “You had a visit by a strange man, right? One who told you to go to a place no one had ever been before? And that’s where you found this?”
She lifted the absorption device, which pulsed erratically in her hand. More energy was filtered out of Ginli’s body with every passing second, but she didn’t even seem to mind in the slightest as she pulled out a weird satchel and placed the shivering container within its silky confines.
“This isn’t native to Gearnix, nor is the one who visited you.” She paused for a moment as she set the bag with the absorption device on the side table. “It shouldn’t be here, and neither should I.”
“I- You’re their godmother!” Joanna pulled the shocked Ginli into her embrace as she revealed the news that we had both planned to deliver before Ginli’s disappearance. “They need you. I need you!”
“I- I’m sorry.” Ginli returned Joanna’s hug for several seconds before she pulled herself away again. Her expression grew even more conflicted than before as she took a deep, shuddering breath. “I need you two to promise to not say anything until I’m done. Can you do that?”
I fought the urge to demand some explanation that made sense before I gave her a curt nod. Joanna followed suit a moment later, though I knew she likely had a harder time than even I in keeping her emotions calm enough to remain silent.
“You fought the corrupted being. Do you remember how he got there, or where he escaped to?”
I blinked as she started with a query I hadn’t expected in the slightest. My mind jumped back to the battle against the slugferra. From there I recalled the peculiar diary I had written at that time.
It took a great deal of control to avoid asking her where she was going with her line of questioning as I gave her yet another nod.
“Good. That thing is related to all of this.” She leaned back in her chair and looked out of the window with a strange, almost wistful look on her face. “I can’t remember much of my time there either, much like you. It was the same for my time here when I was there.”
What the hell is she- Oh.
People moving around from place to place. I had arrived in the middle of nowhere after surviving a crash that had killed everyone else, but no one knew how we had even got to that point. Nothing about my back story made sense, and for some reason, I didn’t mind.
It was almost as though a part of me had grown to accept it. Or, more precisely, that I had accepted it long before I arrived on Gearnix.
“But I remembered you two. You did everything for me, helped change my life for the better. And that’s why I’m going to take a risk.” She gave Joanna a small smile before she pulled her hand free.
We watched on as Ginli moved away from the bed to stand in the center of the room. The air seemed to buzz with anticipation as she turned to us, as though the world itself was waiting for whatever she was about to say.
“Keep growing, bring as many cities together as you can, and prepare for the worst.” She paused for a moment as she gave us one final, wide smile. “And keep an eye out for doors between worlds. They will come at you sideways. Some might strike direct, but others -”
The space around Ginli shivered and twisted as the air itself seemed to crack into pieces. I watched on, barely able to keep myself from shouting out as she squeezed her eyes shut and shouted out one final warning.
“Hydrox is the key! You need enough to -”
CRACK!
Ginli vanished before she could finish her last sentence. The smell of singed carpet hung in the air as Joanna’s shoulders dropped. She collapsed into me, crying and sobbing as the harsh reality hit home.
Our friend had vanished, gone to wherever she now called home. She had used her last moments to warn us of enemies we barely knew, even though that action had obviously put her in extreme danger.
“We’ll do it, won’t we?” I pulled Joanna close as I contemplated Ginli’s warnings. “For Ginli. For everyone. We’ll keep our world safe. We have to.”
Epilogue
Langshire mansion - Tycoon’s Office
The Tycoon as Langshire gazed at the report on his desk without even blinking. Though Gearnix hadn’t asked him to do anything beyond returning the items stolen from the mistress’ little princess, he knew that things wouldn’t end there.
If the planet itself was backing the upstart Baron Lord, then throwing some of his own cards into the pile just made sense.
Still, the exploits his agents had written about boggled the mind, even though they had all been confirmed by other sources after the fact.
Tier four walls and docks, a trading hub, and this was after they saw off a surprise assault from not one, but TWO major cities.
And then he had used that fact to turn the situation to his advantage. Portin and Darden had gone through several downgrades as they fought to pay off the debt to Norn for the war, and even that was seen as the bare minimum they could do.
All the loss, no political gain, and the sly young Baron Lord had even pulled Hexpa into the mix.
Charlie didn’t believe Hexpa would sit quietly on the sidelines as another city developed itself as a trading center, but they didn’t have any choice but to wait. Their reputation was the main selling point, and any adverse moves against a city they had an active trading agreeme
nt with?
Well, that just wouldn’t be possible, would it?
But it was the final piece of news that had Charlie on edge.
The Baron Lord’s personal blimp had returned and, by all accounts the man himself had crash landed it in his own gardens. Though no one could say for certain why he had left Norn, Charlie had no difficulty imagining that the reasons were beyond normal people’s understanding.
But the trip had left a key member of his staff injured.
The advanced venturebot who served as the Baron Lord’s second in command had been damaged, though it was reported that the bot had yet to shut down completely. The odd thing was that the head of that very bot had been found in Tarco’s warehouse.
The old snake had overlooked a treasure, but Charlie’s agents had worked tirelessly as they searched for the missing piece of the puzzle and, after several fruitless months of searching, they had found it.
But, after all that time, effort, and expenditure, Charlie could decide how he wanted to proceed with what they had brought back.
He looked at the pristine venturebot body which had been propped up against the far wall of his office as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It took several hours of contemplation before he finally decided how he would use the golden card he had in his hand.
“He better appreciate this.” The Tycoon of Langshire huffed angrily as he pulled a piece of parchment from his desk and tugged a pen and ink from the side table. “But this is worth the risk. Langshire needs to survive, and we need him.
“We need this alliance.”
Hexpa Trading Hub - Managers Office
Lashina shivered as she watched the leader of Hexpa read the report she had brought for what seemed like the hundredth time. The office was deathly silent as Leslie’s gaze shifted along the file.
“And you’re sure this is correct?” She finally looked down at her underling as she carefully folded the document and stored it away in one of her folders. “This Baron Lord went from fighting in our pits and barely surviving, all the way to defeating the combined forces of two major cities?”
“Well, they didn’t send their whole detachments… but yes.” Lashina did her best to keep her voice calm and composed as she answered. “Regarding his expedition, we have yet to find any information, but I expect an updated by -”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Lashina’s face drained of all color as she watched Leslie pull out a sealed binder from her desk drawer. Though there wasn’t anything written on the cover, she knew full well what was contained within it.
Top secret wasn’t even close to describing the contents.
But Leslie didn’t even hesitate as she broke the seal and poured a number of documents out onto her desk. Most were quickly discarded before she finally settled on one and held it out to her shivering employee.
“Prepare this and contact the idiot leaders of Portin and Darden.” Leslie watched like a hawk as Lashina took hold of a corner of the sheet, but she didn’t release her grip as she added. “And don’t mess it up this time.”
Lashina fought against the urge to flee as she carefully stored away the document and turned to leave the room. She had wanted to try to suggest that Hexpa needed to form closer bonds with Norn, but clearly such comments would be ill received.
And now they had to make a deal with the devil.
“I feel sorry for him, a bit.” She muttered softly once she had moved out of earshot of the manager’s office. “Bradley really is a big fish in a little pond… but he grew too fast. Damn it.”
Portin Mansion - Upper Council Lounge
“So, you’re saying we need to give in? Capitulate?” Marin, the elderly leader of Portin, growled angrily as he paced back and forth across his office. “This is unacceptable! After what he did -”
“You mean defended himself? His city?” Lemix sipped on his coffee as he watched his friend wearing holes in his overpriced carpet. “Look, what else can we do? Even if we sent all our forces, it would be a hard battle to win against the technology Norn now holds. Maybe he really is watched over by Gearnix…”
Marin fell silent as they both considered that terrifying thought. Gearnix rarely interfered directly with any conflicts. Every person living on its surface had the same opportunities open to them, though their birth and natural talent were limiting factors.
But the Baron Lord of Norn had squashed all that rubbish. No one knew where he came from, he had no backing or funds to speak of, and he was overall a weakling who could barely kill a croc in the wilds.
And then he became the leader of a dying city, turned it around in a matter of months, and gave the pair of them a series of black eyes and bruised egos they would never be able to live down. They knew it was a choice between surrender and a slow death by attrition, or taking one last chance to seize the treasures Norn held, but who would back them up in such a risky endeavor...
“There is one option.”
The two leaders swung their gazes toward the door as a weird, crackly voice rang out into the room. Each of them dropped their hands to the holsters at their hips as they waited silently for whatever was going to come next.
“And what is that?” Marin finally asked as he stepped back to put his massive desk between himself and the door. “Another weirdo asking for an alliance? You think we’d agree with that after what happened with our last agreement with Hexpa!?”
“Indeed, you really did mess up there.” The door creaked open slowly, revealing the one who had evaded their patrols and arrived at their doorstep without a sound. Marin and Lemix froze in place as they watched the figure stroll into the most well protected place in Portin without a care in the world. “And I… will help you fix it.”
“Wha- Why are you here?” Lemix glanced at his friend, though Marin clearly was still blown away by their visitor’s appearance. “And what the hell are you?”
“Oh, that is simple.” The figure chuckled as it pulled its hood down, revealing a grossly distorted face marred by three glowing eyes. Pressure filled the room, as though the energy in the air had been enhanced multiple times over, pushing the two leaders down as they fought to stay conscious.
“I… am your salvation.”
AFTERWORD
What a ride! This was an epic adventure and I loved writing about Bradley in Gearnix. Even tied it into Isekai Magus.
I obviously want a sparkling book with zero errors. I paid for an edit and a proofread and still found a few things. Another edit is coming as soon as I can afford it. This… was a grand adventure inside the book and outside with publishing.
Where do we go from here? A book 3 is inevitable. If you want to encourage me, kindly leave a review. A nice review would help, like a lot. Please and thank you. Until book three.
You can find other great books and resources for reading in this genre at these three wonderful groups.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books
https://www.facebook.com/groups/litrpgforum
Cheers.
Han!