Chapter 46: No More Dark Hearts, Young Lady

  “No fair!” Kendra whined. “Magic is cheating.”

  “I never said you couldn’t use magic,” Primith replied. “It would have taken you a lot less time to find it if you focused mana on your eyes.”

  Not that I was looking for the coin, but that didn’t dawn on me either. When I did, the magic items in the room stood out, including the wooden coin. For all the gold in the room, remarkably few of the treasures had any magical aura. I noticed the various things Primith picked up were all magical. It reminded me of how I shopped at weapon and potion shops.

  It became obvious which players were more developed in handling their mana. Michael, Darrin, and Kiavi’s eyes glowed with mana while Kendra and Alan stared about blankly.

  It didn’t take Carlito long to select his prize. He returned with a small box that looked like a mini fridge.

  Box of Unending Fast Food (BUFF)

  Do you enjoy the cheap delicacies of the uninitiated? Fear not, you don’t have to wait in their silly lines. Your BUFF will supply you with a limitless supply of classic favorites, like McDonalds, White Castle, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Just think your order and infuse the box with mana and out comes fresh delicious fast food.

  Melvin laughed. “I bought that from a magazine back on Earth when I was fifteen. If you like, I can get you an interplanetary version.”

  “What’s the difference?” Carlito asked.

  Melvin held up a gold coin which suddenly became another fridge.

  Box of Unending Fast Food (BUFF) (Interstellar Edition)

  Feeling lucky? Get food from thousands of unique worlds with but a thought and a dash of mana. Think “mystery meal” for a random treat.

  Carlito looked at his BUFF and then at the enhanced one for a long moment. “Uh, does that one come with all the Earth food, too?”

  “Yep,” Melvin replied with a grin.

  Carlito sighed. “Fine. I’ll take it. Just promise nothing’s gonna come out of that thing that’ll kill me.”

  Melvin laughed. “Don’t worry about that. You can also get magical antacids from the BUFF.”

  “I want one of those,” Michael spoke under his breath.

  Melvin produced a catalogue out of his bag. “It’s in here. You can get all kinds of magic items, and it’s cheap too.”

  “How does that work?” Darrin asked, looking over his shoulder.

  “Well, first, you need money,” Melvin began. “I’m sure you got some on Gaia, right? Then you choose the item you want and give the page a little mana. The magazine does the rest.”

  “It does?” Michael asked before screaming when a BUFF appeared out of the magazine and fell on his foot.

  Darrin picked it up and snickered. “I’ll take this one. We can settle up later.”

  “Whatever!” Michael grumbled, rubbing his foot where the BUFF had fallen. “Can I keep this magazine?”

  “Sure,” Melvin replied. “If you give the last page a little mana, you’ll get a subscription. I swear, whoever came up with that was a genius.”

  “Can we go home now?” Alan asked. “It’s been too long since I saw my family.”

  “Yeah,” Michael agreed. “I’m ready to go too.”

  “Actually,” Kiavi said, sauntering up to Melvin and whispering in his ear.

  “Are you sure?” Melvin asked.

  She giggled and nodded.

  Melvin looked at Kendra. “Do you want to go to Purrtail, Kiavi’s home planet?”

  Kendra blushed and nodded sheepishly. “Uh huh.”

  “Okay,” Melvin replied. “Anyone else have any requests? Shall I drop you off on Mars?”

  Primith snorted. “Wouldn’t we die if you did that?”

  Melvin shrugged. “Don’t know. Never been there.”

  “I need to go back to Gaia,” Carlito said. “I need to check in on Amberly before returning to Earth. I’d like to take her and her family with me.”

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  I shrugged. “That shouldn’t be too difficult.”

  “Actually,” Melvin interjected. “There’s a magic council on Earth that keeps track of migrations like this, but I don’t think they will be difficult to persuade with the right amount of gold.”

  “And you definitely have plenty of that,” I said, looking around the treasure room.

  “Speaking of which,” Darrin said, looking longingly at the hoard. “Can you hook us up with some? Some of us didn’t make nearly as much as Alex here.”

  “How do you know what I made?” I shot back defiantly.

  Darrin spat. “Oh, come on, man. We all saw you on television. You got gold wherever you went and suddenly you became king of a nation. Now, you’re what? A dark god? Don’t even get me started.”

  “Calm down, everyone,” Kaliphae said. “You can each have a handful of gold. That’s it. Now, you’re all going home before you say anything you’ll regret.”

  “Is that it for the game?” Michael asked, bending over to scoop up some gold along with the others. “Seems kind of anticlimactic.”

  Melvin shrugged. “Actually, I don’t know anything about the game. They can’t film here, so their viewers probably think the game got suspended when the universe almost ended. I’ll work something out with them after we get you all sorted out.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Darrin said, adjusting his grip on the BUFF. “Let’s get going before I drop this.”

  Melvin walked over to me. “You’ll need my help to teleport off Origin. It’s shielded from the outside.”

  “Sure,” I replied.

  Before anyone could say or do anything else, Melvin took us back to the void.

  Once it was just the three of us, he continued. “If you tried to teleport from Origin, you’d be transported back to the throne room. That happened to me when I first got here and it was so annoying.

  That is not true. Melvin Murphy fails to realize your potential as Primordial. The void is your domain more than it will ever be his.

  I filed that info away and decided not to mention it to Melvin or Kaliphae. It wasn’t like I planned on invading Origin.

  “You know,” Melvin went on. “You should come back to Origin once this is all over. We have our own Camelot, the original one.”

  “What do you mean, the original?” I asked, wondering where Melvin got his facts. “King Arthur is in my Camelot, in Albion.”

  Melvin chuckled. “He was relocated along with everything else a long time ago. We also have Atlantis and many other forgotten, mythical cities here. Humanity began on Origin and was moved to a variety of planets around ten thousand years ago. It’s all documented on Origin.”

  “I see,” I mumbled, still not ready to concede the fact.

  Pi?

  It is true. Humanity indeed traces its origins to the planet aptly named Origin. It was the doing of the system’s creator, Merlin Wyllt.

  “Wait,” I read the name three times in my head. “I thought your last name was Murphy.”

  Melvin rounded on me. “It is. So what?”

  “Are you sure Merlin was your dad?” I asked. “His last name is Wyllt.”

  Melvin shrugged. “Yeah, I know. I go by my mom’s last name. Merlin didn’t raise me or anything.”

  “Besides,” Kalli added, squeezing Melvin’s arm for reassurance. “I like the name Murphy better.”

  “Alright,” Melvin cleared his throat. “Let’s sort this out. I’ll take the girls to Mittens. Where do you want me to drop you? I trust you can handle taking the others back to Earth.”

  “Take me to Yew,” I replied. “I gotta face Aura sooner or later.”

  Melvin parted the fog around Origin with his hands. “I don’t know how you handle so many women. I got my hands full with Kalli.”

  Kaliphae punched Melvin in the shoulder, but the smirk on her face told me she wasn’t mad.

  “Here we go,” Melvin said, and the next thing I knew, we were in downtown Yew, just down the street from Helen’s shop.

  “See ya,” Melvin waved as he vanished with Kaliphae, Kiki, Alariel, Kiavi, and Kendra before anyone else could say anything.

  A moment later, everyone got their bearings. Darrin looked up at the green sky and glared at me. “This isn’t Earth. Why didn’t you take us home?”

  “Pit stop,” I replied. “Besides, I don’t know where you all live. Let’s grab lunch and I’ll take you home after.”

  While I could tell they wanted to complain, they soon caught the scent of the aroma coming from Helen’s shop and shut up. I walked them in and waved to Helen when she came out of the kitchen.

  “Hi Helen, can you take care of my friends while I run a few errands?”

  Helen smiled, wiping her hands on a towel before motioning to an empty table. “Have a seat, everyone. The special of the day is lightly breaded fish filets.”

  I didn’t hang around and headed straight to my house and the small shack in the yard. “Aura, we’re home.”

  A portal opened, and I stepped inside…right into a hoard of monsters.

  “What have you done to my daughter?” Aura raged as three massive libears bared their fangs at me.

  Libear

  Level: 50

  Class: Rank A Monster

  Affection Level: Murderous

  Note: Mess with the mama bear and get the claws. Cross between a lion and a bear.

  While normally I could see the dualities of gaian monsters, the libears just looked like fat lions. The one in the middle licked its chops while the others circled behind me.

  “Wait,” I said, holding up my hands defensively. “I can explain.”

  In response, all three libears roared at once. I was about to summon my golems when Bori appeared in her non-shadow human form.

  “I’m fine, Mommy, trust me,” she walked right past the libear and into the room. “I touched this slimy heart thing that changed me, but Daddy ate it, so we’re safe now.”

  The lead libear staggered back a few steps and fell on its haunches. “He ate it?”

  It was weird hearing a fat lion talk, but I knew it was Aura. “Yep. Problem solved. Universe saved.”

  The libears vanished and an angry human with green hair spawned in their place. She again asked, “You ate it?”

  If I could belch on command, I would have done so. Instead, I just nodded dumbly. “Yeah.”

  “What happened to you?” Her voice took on a tone of concern as she gazed into my eyes.

  “Well, that’s a long story…” I began.

  “I see,” Aura sighed when I finished telling the story. “So the two of you saved the universe, and I’m not supposed to care that my baby came back soaked in tar?”

  “It’s primordial ooze,” Bori drawled. “We went over this, Mom. Get with the program.”

  “Fine,” Aura snapped, her human form morphing into a five headed dragon that filled the room we were in. “Show me this primordial power you’ve obtained.”

  I managed a step forward when Bori cut me off. “She means me, Daddy. Go over there where it’s safe.”

  I was about to object when Bori dissolved and was replaced with a dozen mini primordials. The dragon roared a challenge, and the central head blew flames at the closest primordial. Only it wasn’t there. None of them were. I smirked as Bori attacked. She didn’t target the dragon. Her monsters sunk into the massive shadow under the dragon and it froze mid breath attack. It took a couple of steps backward, its heads looking at the ground trying to see where Bori had gone, before letting out a rasping noise and collapsing. It twitched for a while before vanishing into nothing.

  I was a little worried Bori had damaged her mother when Aura spoke. “That was a surprising attack. Not very useful for a dungeon, but it will help you survive if someone tries to hurt you.”

  Bori reappeared in her human form. “I’m still a puzzle dungeon. With shadow magic, I can make more comprehensive labyrinths for my delvers. I’ll only fight when I’m with daddy.”

  “And no more dark hearts, young lady,” Aura scolded her daughter.

  “But mom…” Bori whined.