The Ceterian Wall Chapter 2

Pasufaindā Hakuen and Wolik currently sat at the inn, at the counter mainly as Wolik asks calmly. “What first?”

Hakuen rubs his chin thoughtfully as he sat on the stool across from him. “Uh… Well for starters, those big guys in armor, who are they?”

“The men at the gates? They’re known as the Royal Union, or at least one of their branches, so basically they’re the Military Police Branch, since they’re more likely to survive non-stop combat than the currently equipped Union Police. It’s a lot of ranking mumbo jumbo, so just think of them as the most well known military and police forces.”

“Right… What makes them so elite?”

“Well normally only members of the Union are allowed to be in their ranks, outside of a few minor exceptions, such as the Elementals.”

“Elementals? And they are…?”

“Elementals are similar to say, mages or the such, but the difference with mages is they do not have natural magical talent, however they are able to control a kind of element, which they are only able to use them from certain parts of the body, like some Ice Elementals are able to encase their fists in hardened ice, which in turn increases their overall effectiveness with punches.”

“Huh, alright then, odd, but alright.”

“As for the rest of the Union, you’re as likely to find as many here as you would in any outskirt town, they’re too powerful to go wasting major groups of them to one place, so they spread them out.”

“If they’re so powerful, then why the h.e.l.l do people do crimes here, IF they do crimes here?”

“Well there are people who commit crimes, heck, there’s an entire group that broke off from Cetera, and the Ceterians among them are war-loving slavers with a deep need for murder. I’d never trust them, no matter how much they claim to be the future.”

“Ceterians?”

“Oh right. Ceterians are, here anyways, the highest rank in n.o.bility, evolution, and overall prowess. They’re no Union soldier, but they’re still quite powerful in their own league. They come in all shapes and sizes, from animals to humans, demons to angels, monsters to heroes, and everything in-between. The thing they all have in common though is a unique genetic mutation given to each new Ceterian, which in turn makes them internally a hybrid of all known species in known reality.”

“...How… Does that even work?”

“You’re really asking that? After already hearing what they can do with the void and the fact they vary in all shapes and sizes?”

Pasu sighs heavily. “I guess you got me there, but still, it doesn’t really seem possible… I mean it obviously is, but it just doesn’t sound real.”

“Understandable.” Wolik sits forward. “You’re not even allowed in Cetera unless you’ve become a Ceterian, their way of crime control and whatnot.”

“Then how do you know so much?”

“Travelers and merchants tend to take on the rank in exchange for goods to trade and sell, so they usually swap tales with people all over.”

“So you don’t even know if any of this is true?”

“I’m sure they are, trust me.”

“Rather hard to trust those words there.”

Wolik waves it off and folds his arms. “Anyways, moving on. Outside of the Ceterians, they all, actually none of the Ceterian Wall, would exist if it wasn’t for the First Emperor.”

“You mentioned that guy earlier, what’s the deal with him?”

“The First Emperor, known as Ethan Mason to his friends, is a very powerful individual, so much so he could take on a squad of Royal Union Elites in a match of one on 6. He managed to make all of this possible, and he’s the mind behind everything, like Void-Tech and the food, drinks, equipment, supplies… Everything. He’s the one thing we all look up to, a true monarch. However, like all great people, at least I a.s.sume like them, he disappeared long before the Ceterian Wall truly came to be.”

“What do you mean, Ceterian Wall?”

“Ah, yes, that is the reality we currently reside in. It’s also known as the Crossroads, or Limbo in the most common.”

“...So I’m dead?”

“Oh no, it’s not actual Limbo, those who arrive just call it that, don’t ask me why though, I still haven’t figured it out.”

“Fair enough.” Pasu sits back. “So I’m… What, in the middle of all known realities and dimensions?”

“Correct.”

“...What, seriously? I was just making something up!”

“Well you made a great guess, so yeah, welcome.”

Pasu just stared at him for a long time, before sitting up. “Okay, so I’m in a place where I could literally go somewhere and find quite possibly some people from Hundred, or guys from Knights and Magic or even that smartphone one?”

“No, not that deep. Truth be told while a lot of elements from those realities exist here, their people and factions do not, instead you have reforged factions among them, such as the Gurretians, what you’d a.s.sume to be Hundred users or whatever.”

“...Riiiiiiiiiiiight.”

“Anyways, that’s about it for the time being, I could tell you more later, so we’ll get to that. But for now, how about we go and get you something more decent?”

Pasu looks down at his outfit. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”

“Nothing, but you can’t defend yourself or travel in them, not with a world full of danger.”

“I thought it was safe…”

“This reality has no end. No matter how far you go there’ll be land unexplored off in the horizon, making this a land of unlimited adventures. Truly.”

Pasu sighs heavily at this, but nods reluctantly. “Alright…”

“Now, once we get our equipment, I think I’ll take you to the Magic College out of town.”

“And it’s called?”

“Hyabentai Academy.”

“What the h.e.l.l is with that name?”

“It’s the last name of the guy who founded the place.”

“...Fine…”

With that, they two stood up, and headed out the building. Walking down the streets, and gazing at the scenery, Pasu couldn’t help but be impressed at the fine work that was put into this medieval-like town. He even took note of a couple women in an alley nearby talking with some guy.

“What’s going on over there?”

Wolik looks. “Ah, it’s just the usual jist, damsels talking with rugged men, like that’s original…”

“Want to check it out?”

“Why not? We could start the harem here and now for fun!” Wolik starts walking.

“Come on, man! I’m not like that!” Pasu runs after him.

Once in the alleyway, they both could hear the conversation now.

The older woman looked like a copy n’ pasted Selesia from Re:Creators but then turned into a type of descendant of her, Claire Harvey, and Mirei Shikishima, the point being that she was hot as h.e.l.l and had the look of being bada.s.s enough to throw a pervert clear across the sky.

Pasu took note that while the woman had the red hair and jacket of Selesia, she had the body of Claire Harvey, and finally the hairstyle and eye color of Mirei, outside of that she was nothing else similar to them. Given that Pasu had seen those anime characters, he didn’t exactly watch the full anime, but he did save images of them on his computer, mainly to freak his mother out whenever she snuck into his room to dig through his stash of snacks and manga.

As for the second girl, she looked no older than 11, long violet hair, draconic red eyes, and a draconic tail that swung back and forth as she carried what looked like a large encyclopedia, large enough to cover her entire torso, yet she hugged it to her chest like a teddy bear. All the while she wore a cute red dress.

As for the guy, he looked to be about 16 years old, kinda dull, and had rags on.

Pasu clears his throat upon stepping up to them. “Excuse me, what’s going on here?”

The guy turns to him. “It’s nothing, just negotiations…”

“Negotiations?” The older woman asks. “I already told you, I’m not handing you these journal pages. The very fact they have evidence on that criminal is enough to say no.”

The kid rubs his head. “C’mon, miss, I’m being paid big to get these journals, it’s not like anyone will pay me 45 Silver Glowstones, I could get a nice house with that, ya know.”

“I said no, and I mean no.” She said bluntly.

Pasu looks at Wolik. “Couldn’t we pay the guy the same the boss of this guy is?”

“Well yeah, but that’s cutting into our gear expenses.”

Pasu rubs his chin, before the little girl speaks. “If you two could kindly pay the man the money, we’d be willing to pay you both back in some way.”

Wolik blinks, then glares at Pasu. “No Pedo-Bear thoughts, right?”

Pasu immediately coughs a few times before looking at the guy. “ARE YOU INSANE?!”

“Just making sure, I’ve met some insanely creepy people.” He digs into his satchel and pulls out a rather large wallet made out of some kind of leather. After pulling out 45 stones that glowed silver, he handed them to the guy. “Will this get you off their backs?”

The kid takes it. “Sure, money is money, I just need to make enough to survive, and with this I can start doing the more decent jobs.” He gives a thumbs up, then leaves.

With that dealt with, Pasu looks at the two girls, before going blank in his expression upon seeing the older woman kneeling to him. “...This some kind of custom?”

The woman says calmly as she knelt. “It is custom in my home to kneel before those who help you. I thank you both for the aid, and as such, until the debt is repaid, I shall aid you both in your travels.”

Pasu’s eyes cross. “Deja Vu with Ma.s.s Effect 2…”

Wolik ignores him as he looks at the two. “Of course, we were heading out to purchase some equipment before going to the academy to test my friend here.” He puts his large hand, which said hand and wrist were covered in wolf fur by the way, on Pasu’s shoulder and gives a thumbs up with the other.

The woman stands and gives a bow of the head. “Hynnia Jollik, second daughter to Boris Jollik, the Mayor of Hyn Hill.”

“That’s an interesting rank.” Wolik muses. “Not many would openly say they’re related to town leadership, given how it gains the attention of the lowlifes.”

“So being the mayor’s daughter makes her…?”

“One step above common citizen, meaning that, while she’s no n.o.ble, she does have and gain more wealth than we would.”

“Gotcha… And you little girl?” Pasu asks as he lowers down to her height.

“Pym.”

Pasu gives an awkward smile as he thought of that Oblivion mod. “Right… Pym…”

She nods.

“Any t.i.tles of your own?”

Silence.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“Thank you.”

Pasu gives a blank expression, as he expected her to feel more comfortable and tell instead of that. Shaking his head he turns to Wolik. “Well, let’s get going then, hmm?”

“Quite, we still have quite a bit of supplies to start buying.”

“Where to first then?”

“Depends, you prefer range or melee?”

“...Range for the win!”

“Very well, then we’re going to head for the local Void-Tech Manufacturing Facility.”

“How much does that cost?”

“Given how easy it is to use void tech, the highest they’ll ask is for a 5 Holy Silver for a XMV-55 a.s.sault Carbine with twelve magazines.”

“XMV-55? That something special?”

“It’s a advanced combat rifle using alien machinery constructed from the void.”

“Fancy, I’d like that then.”

“Heck no.”

“What? Why not?”

“We have no idea if you can even USE a gun, so we’ll do something simple, like a 22LR Bolt Action Rifle, we aren’t even going to try something so advanced until you get the jist of these things.”

Pasu slowly nods. “Fair enough, alright then.” Pasu simply nods, and follows.

Hynnia pokes her head in from between the two. “I’d suggest collecting a simple bowie knight as well, so to help him learn close range when it comes down to it. Better to be prepared and all, right?”

Pasu immediately steps to the side awkwardly with a large blush. “Y-Yeah, sure, makes sense…”

Hynnia blinks at him. “Your face is red, are you sick?”

“No, I’m fine!”

Hynnia shrugs and returns to Pym.

“...And usually the story is about the guy being the dense one…” Pasu mutters.

...To Be Continued...