Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The sands and the star people

The next day, Lud had a small hangover and couldn't fully go back to things as usual. Nevertheless, he assigned a meeting where every battalion commander and some others would gather at a meeting hall.

Once everyone had gathered, Lud started by saying "Thank you all for coming today. I… must sincerely apologize for my actions these past few days. I'll make sure that everything will be as usual after I recover from this… Um…" And Illi said "Hangover. The word you are looking for is hangover. You are holding up surprisingly well given how wasted you got yesterday. I take it you aren't much of a drinker."

Lud chuckled nervously and said "That's right. Back when I… was alive in… my original world… Ahem! Back when I was in my original world, I didn't often have the luxury to drink as all my money went to making sure my brother would live as long as possible. But enough about that, we must discuss what happened four days ago. The abyssal banshee."

Li says "That thing. We didn't even get to make a scratch on her." And Xu says "Indeed. She even shrugged off poor Bai's killer moves and took over for a moment."

Lud asks "How is she, by the way?" To which Xu answers "She had some of her image shaken, but she is still holding her head high as usual. Though she was crying to me about the jacket and how Li is going to be mad at her. How is the jacket coming along Li?" And Li answers "I'm almost finished. The materials we have are little lacking, but that's not something little ana can't fix."

Then Lud says "I see. But back on topic, now that we have seen that there are more powerful beings in this world that can hurt us, we must find a way to improve ourselves. Or at very least, find a way to fight back." Then Maumar's head just pops to existence in the middle of the table saying "I think you don't have to worry too much about that." This shocked Illi, Lych, Elisia, Sarah and Lud to the point of them almost falling off their chairs.

Lud shouts "Why are you…! But then his head begins to hurt and stops shouting. Then he says in a normal voice "Why are you here? In fact, can you stop just appearing out of nowhere." To this, Maumar says "So it is the presentation that you are looking for. In that case, wait just a moment." Then, like it appeared, the head disappeared.

There was a small moment of silence, until they started to hear music coming from the hallway as if someone was blasting it on stereo. The music consisted of a few string instruments as well as an organ and a flute. The music was coming closer, until Maumar appeared to phase through the door like a ghost while holding a handheld stereo like a ghost.

Lud wanted to shout, but his head was hurting, but he also couldn't deal with the music, so he ended up trying to shout "Can you…!" But Maumar shut the stereo off before Lud could finish what he was saying. As he was shutting it down, he sat in the middle of the table like it was the most normal thing to do.

Lud asked "Did… did you just come here… with your own theme music?" To which Maumar said "You asked for me to present myself first, so I used one of Copelius' music pieces that he made for every god back in the day."

Li says "Copelius was… the god of music if I recall." To which Maumar says "You recall correctly."

Lili asks "Did he make a theme music for every god?" To which Maumar answered with a "Yes. He has made music for all kinds of things that gave him the mood. Summer. Life. Nature. Jogging. Love. Ice cream. War. Ham. Death. Fishing. Peace. Grass. Time. Broccoli. I can go on if you want more, but I suppose that your time is precious, so I leave it there."

Everyone has to gather themselves for a moment, and before anyone says anything, Maumar says "So about the situation four days ago. You shouldn't worry about anyone that strong ever appearing here." Elisia asks "Why are you so certain?" To which Maumar says "Because her appearance was a slip up that I didn't think was possible. Now that I know this thing can happen, I've made extra measures to make sure that any of my miscarriages won't come back from the metaphorical shoot. Or would the word abortion work better in this instance."

Illi asks "But aren't you a guy? How can you have any of that?" To which Maumar says "The method of reproduction is something that shouldn't exist for gods. And as I am a former god, me reproducing would mean I break the thresher hold that makes it impossible. But to answer your question more directly, there isn't a straight method of making one's own child when it comes to gods, hence I have to find methods different for the child to be realized. And as for the metaphor of me being the child carrier, the abyss is what remains of my physical being and in that abyss, I nurture those children that may have a chance of being born both from, not only my body, but from my real being. Abyssal creatures are just one or the other, but never both. For both to be present, there must be an intermediary, hence, a soul from the outside. Hence cases like Aileen Freigner."

Lych asks "Then what are we seeing right now? A ghost?" To which Maumar says "Most accurate description that I can think of is "Maumar's Willpower Manifest", but I suppose ghost is something that is easier to understand. Like a ghost, I linger and can affect things around me even though I'm not physically there. I can grab and hold things as I see fit, but if I don't want to be interacted with, that is how it will be."

Li says "You said to me once that the abyss is one of this world's world organs and you are its host. How does that work if you don't have a physical body?" To which Maumar answered "Let see. The easiest thing to describe is that while my physical being is the abyss itself, the unnamed part, let's call it "Mobius Hole" for now, is what makes the abyss work the way it does. But further details are not for mortals to dabble into, so I refrain from speaking further."

Brutus asks "So what makes that banshee a failure?" To which Maumar answers "They lose their true selves and become things that cannot be sated. When those souls that I have grabbed come to me, I offer them to have something in exchange for their contribution. When they fail, they lose sight of what it is that they want and become unable to recognise it when received. By that time, the soul has become tainted, twisted and torn by the forces of the abyss as the influence of it is often too much to bear. To make it simple, their soul becomes necrotic in a manner of speaking, meaning that it cannot be salvaged. In the early days I even tried to remove this tainted part and tried again, but those results were even less successful than the last, so I abandoned that approach."

Lud asks "What are these extra measures you speak of?" To which Maumar says "That is only for me to know. But to soothe your worries, if by some miracle one of those miscarriages pops up again, I'll take immediate action before they can act. I just hope that that version of Adam doesn't pop up, or we are going to have an issue."

Lud asks "What did you say? Didn't you say Adam refused the offer?" To which Maumar answers "I have looked at souls from many places. That includes alternative worlds different from yours. There is a version of Adam that did take the offer, though she was a little crafty when she came here."

Lud asks "She?" To which Maumar asks in turn "Is there a problem?" To which Lud says "But Adam is a boy though?" To which Maumar says "In your world at least. But the less we delve into it, the better."

Then Illi says "If we are moving past that and move to the matter about what shenanigans you pulled four days ago, what did you actually do and why can I remember myself clearly dying?" Maumar says "To the uninitiated, time is a fascinating concept. Most beings see it as a linear thing that maybe even can branch to different realities. Then there are the people who believe that the past, present and the future exist in one "blob" so to speak. Both of these are correct in Lutah and both can be manipulated via different means."

Elisia says "So you say that you manipulated time." To which Maumar says "Close. I extended the reach of the abyss to Elysium and since it was inside of me and my general powerset, I could manipulate certain aspects that make up time. This time, the concept was memories from the future sent back to a moment of my choosing. Me being there was realized because the abyss' presence was extended to Elysium."

Xu says "So then there must be a version of us that didn't receive those memories, correct?" To which Maumar says "Incorrect. The way you are looking at things is how things worked on Mundus. This is Lutah and the time works quite differently. Normally yes, it would create a separate timeline, but in this instance, the timeline wasn't changed since what was in the future came to the past. And I was in that future, so I was there as well. The easiest way for you to imagine when you think time is linear is that the timeline did a loop back to the moment where Aileen showed herself. But to be more accurate, I made a delicate hole in time in one moment and pushed only the memory bits to the past whilst traveling myself back to the future where you think I was present. But if we think of a way that time is one big blob, then just changing order or the memory progress will suffice as explanation."

Li says "Since you are able to manipulate time, I assume that your domain as a god was time also." To which Maumar says "Partially correct, but what my domain was is unimportant now. I have dabbled into many powers and gained many abilities, so I can do many things as long as they are within the abyss."

Li thinks for a moment "While I don't understand the base structure of Lutah, I believe that to move abyss from across realms, you require certain skill not limited to time. Then it must be…" Then Maumar says "So in summary: Don't worry about the miscarriages since I will deal with them and don't worry about your memories too much since you technically did and didn't die. Okay, bye."

Then Maumar raises his stereo and his theme music begins to play. This time it sounds like a sad piano meant to show on the outros of some series. He is spinning and slowly sinking through the table to the ground as the music plays. A bit of violin could be heard at the end as he disappears with the music.

There is a minute of pure silence.

…

Then Lud asks "So now that that's out of the agenda, do you have any noteworthy information, Tear?" Tear answers "Ye-Yes. There haven't been many changes in the war during these past four days. The acting king Soramaja hasn't published any statements that would indicate their surrender, which has in turn made civil unrest rise amongst the citizens. Some seem to think that their king shouldn't have to suffer such humiliation and demand acceptance of the contract, albeit not planning on following it. The others want to drench Elysium with our blood for the audacity of placing their king in such pitiable state. Vortias' situation has subsided after the incident, but there is unrest amongst all three demon countries. So far, we have sent a few Xu's Fingers in place of Bai to honor our agreement with Vortias. That is all the necessary information that is needed in today's meeting. I'll send you further details about it to your office later."

Lud says "Thank you. I'll read them carefully. Was there anything else?" Tear says "Yes. We have found few points of interest in the dark elf queendom Rusteror. First and foremost is a tower that seems to reach the orbit of the planet we stand on. The locals call it "Terrotertuska" but our scouts manage to translate the writings on it. The builders of it called it "Babel 3" and a description saying it was a "Space elevator". So far we are unaware if it's functional anymore, so I suggest we send some experts there."

Lud says "You mean to say that there is space in this world? I thought that, since there are three different realms named after their positions, that the world would be flat or something. Do you know something, Li?" To which Li tries to say something, but then suddenly Maumar's voice can be heard from the middle of the table saying "Quite simple really." This made the same people spooked like the last time.

Lud was thinking of shouting, but for his head's sake, just asked "Didn't we talk about you not doing that? In the first place, why did you come back?" Maumar says "I forgot to do something, to which I'll get into in a minute, but first, let me explain how the realms work. Ahem. To put it in your terms, Ludwig Freinger, the realms are just three separate galaxies stacked up against each other. Outside of the abyss, smaller realms and the god realm, there is nothing past these realms. Think of it kind of like an egg… No… a burger will be more fitting of analogy. Well, the egg thing could be more useful when speaking about a solid structure. But it is all layer amongst layers. The abyss being the bottom bun, god realm being the top bun and the minor realms being the addons."

Lud says "You all created an entire galaxy's worth of stuff in each realm? Wait, does this mean that there are planets that contain more life than the initial places connected to the three realms?" To which Maumar says "It was quite simple for gods to do together when we put "the pedal to the metal" so to speak. But as for the second question, I'm contractually obliged to not speak anything about whether or not there exist other planets with life on them. This information has been obtained only by one race called star elves, or moon elves depending on your preference. Like dragons, they abandoned the middle realm when they got fed up with the antics of the middle realm, leaving only their constructs. One of which is the Babel 3 that you talked about."

Lud asks "Is there anything else you want to tell us about that?" To which Maumar answered "I have, but I'll leave it for you to discover. In the meantime, can you all look up for a second?" Maumar pointed up and everyone looked up.

Then Maumar said "Good, good. Now can you look at Li Last's direction?" To which Maumar pointed at Li and everyone looked at him. What they saw was a tiny girl with long silver colored hair and eyes of the same color. She was sitting on Li's lap with a blank face.

Everyone is surprised and Li asks "What… who is this and why is she on my lap?" To which Maumar responded "She, as of now, will be in the care of Elysium. She is the product of the intermingling of the Mythril Tower and aether, so she is kind of a new kid in town. She is only two days old, doesn't talk but understands words or meanings, seems to be able to control ana that came from your world as well as manipulate aether quite skillfully and loves fluffy and quiet stuff. You could argue that she is technically Li Last's child since she did materialize herself from the effect of that tower, though I leave the responsibility for you all to decide. She doesn't have a name, but seems to want Li Last to name her, so I will leave you all with this. Bye." And he disappears.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment, until the girl pulled Li's sleeve, which made him say "I suppose it can't be helped then. Now what do we call you?... Since you were born due to aether and ana colliding, that reminds me of the moment I first met Maumar. The serene lake that mirrored the sky above. Serene… Why don't we name you Serene and your nicknames could be Sere or Rene. Serene raised her hands in celebration, and this made Elisia say "I think she likes it."

Then Li says "Right. Let's get back to the topic. About us sending someone to Rusteror to investigate this space elevator." Lud says "Right. Do we have any volunteers?" To which Illi raised his hand immediately. Lud says "As expected of the fourth battalion commander. Does anyone else want to tag along? Lili, since it is a dark elf country, do you want to go and see what the dark elves of this world are like?"

Lili says "While I'm intrigued about the culture, since I heard that Rusteror is mostly desert and savanna, I don't think I'll enjoy going there." Lud says "If you say so, but we can't just send Illi by himself, can we? Anyone else interested? I would ask Li to go, but since he has someone to take care of for the time being, I don't think he can go."

Brutus says "Well I think I'm out of the picture, since I have to make sure that the air superiority is held during these times. Though I can spare some of my boys to give Illi a lift." Lud says "That is excellent. Tear, are any of your people willing to go?" To which Tear says "I can send Cassandra if need be. Molly has been dying to go investigate the Babel 3 ever since the report came, so I think she'll come whether you like it or not."

Lud says "Good. How about Elisia and Lych? Do you have any people you could spare?" To which Elisia says "Magnus will probably be up for it when he finds out that magic is involved. Quet maybe, but I'll have to see if she is up for it." Then Lych says "Since Tony is a dark elf, I think he'll be a good fit. He can't help much in the investigation part, but he is one of my best people who doesn't use rifles."

Lud says "Then it's settled. I leave the arrangements of transport to Brutus and the leading of Babel 3's exploration to Illi. This concludes our meeting. Dismissed."

All the people leave the room, but Lud asks Sarah to wait a moment as he has something to say to her. When the two were alone, Lud said "Look. I'm sorry about yesterday. Maybe… maybe someday we could…" To which Sarah says "It's fine. I don't care how things are between us, just as long as I can stay by your side, then that's enough." Lud is silent for a moment and Sarah says as she turns to leave "You know. That was my first kiss." Then she leaves. Lud comments afterwards "You sure seemed to have some experience thought."

Li, Sarah and Serene go to Li's island, where Sisu is waiting. When Sisu sees Li and Sarah, she greets them back individually.

Then Sisu sees Serene and asks Li "Who might this be?" To which Li says "Her name is Serene. Things happened and now I will take care of her. She doesn't speak, but she understands speech."

Sisu wonders "Doesn't speak." Then looks at Serene who has a blank expression on her face. Sisu waves her hand and suddenly Serene's face slightly lights up and she comes forward and waves right back at Sisu.

Both do a little signing, which both understand for some unknown reason. And once it is established that they are similar and that they are communicating in their unique way, both interlock hands and start to jump slightly like little animals. Li and Sarah can't help but smile at these two cute things interacting in silence.

Meanwhile the Babel 3 exploration team is gathering to leave. Illi insist that everyone introduces each other, so they do.

Cassandra is a lizardman, a humanoid with some scales, horns and a scaly tail. She says "My name is Cassandra. I work at the 9th battalion in espionage. I hope you all will not be too much of a bother."

Molly is a poppa, a tiny humanoid that looks like a child even as an adult, but has a crystal embedded in their foreheads. She says "Greetings! I'm Molly and I also work at the 9th battalion! But instead of making our enemies be destroyed from within, I specialize in dungeon exploration. And when I heard that Babel 3 was some ancient structure made by race that we haven't seen, I instantly got excited and joined in the fun!"

Magnus is a magical entity. A magic orb that has sentience and floats on the air with the help of his magic. He says "I'm the great Magnus and I come from the great 6th battalion. I have existed since the great conflict and I even aided the gods themselves in planning their attacks against the rell. Feel honored about my presence."

Quet is a dryad. A forest type entity that rarely leaves the forest they are born in. She says "My… My name is Quet and… I work with the gardener… the commander of the… sixth battalion. Please forgive me if I disappoint you in any shape or form."

Tony, a quite tall and muscular dark elf, says "I'm Tony. An archer of the 5th battalion." Then lastly the two dragons introduce themselves as Loyd and Urip.

Illi says "Good, now that that is out of the way, let us start our expedition." And they were off. The journey to the Babel 3 takes a day and a half even with dragons.

Eventually the group gets there and they see a giant structure that reaches the skies. The giant structure is mostly made out of white materials and has four separate pillars rising to the sky. Around those pillars are several rings floating around them by some unknown means and there are probably more of them until the very top. People have built many buildings around the wonder and the structures around the city are near an ocean that is on the west side of the continent. There is a huge jungle near the city that is as huge as Rucksta and the Hearth combined. There are two big islands away from the main continent that belong to Rusteror and a few smaller ones.

Once they entered the city in the same bold fashion they did the town of Lostwood, the head to the place where the 9th battalion informant named Owl was located. They went to the establishment and met Owl, who was a scrawny looking beastkin. He had few feathers coming out of his hair and he had feathers coming behind him. His outfit was full of his feathers that he uses as decoration.

Cassandra says to Owl "Long time no see Owl. How is the situation here?" To which Owl said in a scrawny voice "I've made some connections to the people who control the access to Babel 3 and I have gained a few entrance tickets."

Illi says "A few? I hope you gained at least four." To which Owl says "Three, to be exact." Magnus says "Are you meatbags so useless as to not do a simple thing as gaining access to your fellow Legion members? Pathetic. Well at least if we get me, commander Tipten and I suppose Molly to the place, I suppose things will work out."

Owl says "Look ball wonder, getting even one entrance ticket is a huge ask. Granted, it would have been a lot easier to gain illegal entry, but then our options would have been limited to only certain places. Trust me, I checked. I'm not asking you to be holding me on a pedestal, but at least appreciate the work I do to some extent."

Magnus scoffs and says "You lychantrophes are always asking for treats. Fine, congratulations bird. You have done a decent job." Owl sighs and says "I suppose that is the best I can ask for you. In any case, here." Owl hands over the entrance tickets to Illi and Illi then says to Quet "Quet, since you can't enter this time, I ask that you go investigate the local jungle and see if there is anything that the 9th battalion has missed." Quet says "I-I-I-I try my best to not d-d-d-disappoint."

Then Illi nods and says "Tony, since you can't enter either, you help Cassandra and Owl if they have anything you can do." Tony says "Understood."

Then Illi says "And as for Cassandra and Owl, since I don't know which has a higher rank, I'll leave you both to decide amongst yourselves who'll be watching the research team's back." Cassandra and Owl look at each other, Cassandra puts her right hand in the palm of her left hand and looks at Owl, Owl sighs and does the same and then both play rock, paper, scissors. Owl won, so Cassandra says "I'll be your guard dog for this trip then."

Illi says "Good. Now everyone, get going." So the team separates to three.

Owl says to Tony "I think you should find a good spot to look over the city and see if any suspicious people go around. Inform me via telepathy if you find something noteworthy and I'll tell you what to do next." Tony says "Understood." And leaves as well. Owl is scratching his head while saying "I don't get paid enough for all this crap, but I'd rather do this before I get on that woman's bad side. Scratch that, there are several people who I don't want to mess with and the bossman is a fine lad to be honest. *Sigh* If only I got paid more for this crap."

Illi, Magnus and Molly go to the entrance of Babel 3. When they get to the entrance, they get weird looks from people around them, most likely due to Magnus. Nevertheless, they get to enter.

There they spend the rest of the day making sense of the building. At one point when Illi was looking at a terminal, wondering how to get it operational, he heard Lili say "It seems like it would be easy if I gave my hand to it." Illi is surprised by this, but Lili says "Don't act like that. If the guards find out about me, then they will make things much harder for us."

Illi now just realizes that they were using telepathy, so he says "Since when did you get here? Didn't you say you hated the environment?" To which Lili says "I did say that, but I felt like none of you would be able to figure things out by yourselves, so I tagged along. Don't worry, Faust knows about this."

Illi says "If you were going to come, then why didn't you say so straight up?" To which Lili says "I have my reasons. But more importantly, let me dabble a little with the mechanisms. I think I can get it started." Illi says "Then get on with it."

Lili works while invisible. She goes to a tight place that didn't seem to be used in quite some time, tampers with it and sends Magnus a message "I need your help here lil ball. Come here for a sec." Magnus, while not pleased that he was just called like that, held his "tongue" since Lili was technically a higher rank. He went there and asked "What did you need?" To which Lili says "Can you try out different frequencies of magic in this device I'm holding." She points out a device that is connected to the parts of the building at Magnus. Magnus does what Lili asks, until Lili says "Okay, can you try going between 1101.0000pi and 1102.0000pi?" Magnus does so and Lili says again "Can you go between 1101.4500pi and 1101.6500pi now?" Magnus follows Lili's instructions.

Lili says "Okay, pause for a moment." And Magnus stops while Lili fidless a bit with the thing attached to the building. Then Lili says "Can you send an exact 1101.5238pi and keep it steady?" To which Magnus says "You are asking something ridiculous of me. The best of mages can only keep their magic in the second point range." To which Lili says "So that's a no then. A shame. I wanted to do this the easy way, but guess not." Lili takes one of her tools and plugs it into the device she handed Magnus just moments ago. She puts some numbers on it and then says "Here. Now it is enough if you go a little over the second range, so that'll be 1101.5240pi then. Just don't get over 1101.5260pi."

Magnus reluctantly pours magic into the device and seems to be struggling to hold it at that frequency. Lili notices this and says "Don't tell me you can't control the second range. I can mix the settings to let you go do just the third range." Magnus says angrily "Quiet elf! I need to focus!"

Magnus continues to pour mana into the device for an 1h 22min until There is a huge sound coming from the whole building. Lili says to Magnus "Good good. You can stop now." Magnus, while exhausted, says triumphantly "HAHAHA! As expected of my great self! Now do you see elf?! Don't ever question…" Lili has already left the tight space and Magnus gets mad because of this, so he also leaves.

What they saw next was something big coming from above the Babel 3. This is noticed by people around the Babel 3 and people start to gather near the station. Guards are telling people to back down until further investigation is done, but Lili says "Screw that" and brings the research team inside the platform by giving them stealth gear. Then Lili tinkers with something on the touchscreen and gets the elevator working. This of course surprises the people who are gathered around the building and the family about this.

Some time earlier, before the elevator came down, Tony saw a huge bird flying towards the city. He decided to call Owl about it, saying "I see a huge bird coming to the city. Should I deal with it?" Owl asks "How huge and does it have any man-made parts in it like cloth or flag?" To which Tony responded "It's about the size of three horses, maybe four. And no, I don't see any man-made things around it."

Then Owl says "Then it's probably either what the locals call Truthtotska bird or Lutrenesus bird, but that doesn't matter. They are a danger to the city and both need roughly around two B rank adventurer teams to deal with them. But no matter which it is, you are free to kill it if you so choose."

Tony then says "Understood" and readies his huge ass bow with a huge ass arrow. He aims at the bird and shoots the arrow like he was firing a ballista. The arrow pierces through the bird, killing it almost instantly.

Tony reports "I killed the bird." And Owl says "Good job." But Tony continues "Unfortunately the arrow continued flying with quite a speed past it." To which Owl says "Don't worry about it. What are the chances of it hitting anything living in a desert?"

Meanwhile in a desert, a caravan is being attacked by a huge sandworm. The people at the caravan are expecting the worst, until an arrow nails the worm in the head, killing it almost instantly. The caravan doesn't know what to say, so they decide that it was some gods' way of helping them.

Tony then says to Owl "I got a second kill from that arrow." Owl stays silent for a moment, but then asks "What are your luck stats?" To which Tony says "I'm not allowed to disclose it to anyone that hasn't been approved by commander Lych or king Faust. Also asking other units about their stats is considered rude behavior and can be taken as harassment, Mr. Owl." Owl just says "Fine, keep your secrets." Neither says anything for a while, until Owl states "Mine's quite low, by the way. Can't win any luck based games."

Then at the space elevator. The research team hits the top and doors open. They all go outside to the big dark hall in low gravity. Molly is excited about the gravity, Lili doesn't care, Illi is stumbling a bit and Magnus doesn't feel the difference.

After wandering a bit further in, they hear something turn on and floor lights light up. Molly eagerly goes forward, flying in a quite empty place, until suddenly the gravity kicks in and all smash to the ground. Except Magnus of course.

Then a man's voice comes out of the intercom, saying "Who are you and how did you get in here?" Magnus says "Interesting. So even this world's meat bags have learned communication of this level." And Illi says "We are people from Elysium and one of our people, who's still invisible by the way, tinkered with something to get that platform down and up."

The man says "I haven't… wait a moment…" And the man does something and after five minutes says "I heard about your circumstances. Since you aren't those kinds of people, you are free to enter Babel 3. This is an empty station now since everyone is up at the Babylon 5. Please follow the floor lights and I can start the… proceedings that come when… a visitor comes… Since you were accepted one of the council members, I leave the record of you using the Babel 3 without permission aside."

The group then decides to follow the lights and end up going to another elevator. While they were inside that elevator, they were sprayed and Illi asked "What is this supposed to be?" To which the man says "Decontamination. Just in case you have any unwanted germs from the surface. Never helps to be too careful."

Then after waiting in the elevator, they go through a hallway and eventually enter a room where a gray elf with glasses is standing with a notepad. He says "Greetings, visitors from another world. Welcome to Babel 3. My name is Mathias and I'm the overseer of Babel 3. Though I say overseer, I'm the only person that is assigned to this eyesore. Nevertheless, someone has to make sure that this place stays in shape if there is ever a need for it again." And then he mutters "For some reason."

Then he says "Please, follow me so that I can show you the way to Babylon 5." Illi asks "Why are you so eager to send us to another place when we haven't really seen this place yet?" To which Mathias says "Oh you won't find anything interesting here that people like you haven't seen yet. This place is basically a glorified elevator and this is just a rest stop. It used to be much more lively before Babylon 5 was built, but that's in the past."

Then Illi asks "Can you tell why you have four pointed stars on your eyes?" To which Mathias says "Oh this? It is a sign that I'm a star elf. There are star elves that have only three pointed stars on them, or even five to nine pointed stars. The amount of points signifies the bloodline of the star elf. Nine points being the closest to our patron god Ao, and the three pointed stars are the farthest."

Magnus says "So it is a class based system then." To which Mathias says "Oh it depends on how you look at it. A star elf can earn the amount of points in their stars by gaining the favor of Ao, though it is unknown how you can gain that favor."

Then Illi says "So it is meritocracy." To which Mathias says "On paper, that is the case, but it has been a while since anyone has been added to the council. That being, anyone gaining nine pointed stars."

Molly then asks "Can you lose any of those points?" To which Mathias says "Though it is quite rare, it does happen from time to time. While gaining a point in their star raises their legitimacy the closer you are to the nine points, if you manage to lose on point by any reason, it'll put you in a much lower social status than when you originally had those amount of points."

Then Molly asks "Then what if you lose points when you only have three pointed stars? What then?" This makes the air around Mathias quite gloomy as he says "Then you'll become starfallen. Once an individual has the label of starfallen, then they have one century to gain their stars back. If you fail on this however, then you will be banished from the star elf community. Though nowadays, the punishment is often dealt with by banishing the star elf to the middle realm. They can be only accepted back if they gain five pointed stars after the banishment."

After they were done talking and walking a while, they entered the room where Mathias says "This is the teleportation platform to Babylon 5. One of Ms. Altair's subordinates should be there to welcome you shortly. Please step into the platform and we can begin the teleportation."

The research group enters the platform and Mathias says "Thank you. Now if you see Ms. Altair herself, please tell her I'm doing well. Otherwise, take care." Then the group is teleported to another place that is quite lit up this time.

They can hear some hassle around the place, and soon, an officer with four underlings enter the room with their wands pointed at the group. The officer shouts "Who are you and how did you get here?!" To which Illi says "Calm down a little. We were sent here by Mathias who…" To which one of the officers underlings say "That Mathias again. Did he finally decide to go against the council's wishes? Was the stripping of his points not bad enough?" To which the main officer says to their underling "Quiet."

Then the officer is about to say something, until he receives a word to his earpiece. Whatever was said in it made the officer scoff a little and say "At least give us a proper warning next time." And then he ordered his underlings "Stand down. They are the quest of Ms. Altair." The underlings lower their wands and start to leave.

Then the officer says "Sorry about that. We never expected anyone else but Mathias to come out of that platform, so we got a little jumpy. My apologies." To which Illi says "No worries, long ears. I expected something like this when I heard there were more of you folks."

The officer takes his sunglasses off as he says "The name's Rudric Mayo. A security officer in charge of Mathias' security. Nice to meet you." After Rudric took off his sunglasses, it was revealed that he had five pointed stars. He extends his hand to Illi, who then says "Name's Illi Tipten. A builder of sorts from Elysium. The ball is Magnus, the shorty is Molly and the invisible one is Lili Ruitup."

Rudric says "An invisible one? I don't really believe you since we didn't sense any more than three people coming in." To which Lili then decides to appear behind Rudric and say "Heyo. Lili here." This surprised Rudric for a moment and he was about to pull his wand out, but he quickly analyzed the situation and refrained from doing so.

Then Rudric says "Impressive. For someone from the surface to escape the scanning equipments' eyes is not something I expected to see anytime soon." Then Rudric said to all of them "Please follow me. I'll guide you to the place where Robin will be waiting for you."

They walk through a hallway and get to an elevator. Rudric asks "So. What did you guys do to gain the interest of Ms. Altair?" To which Illi answers "I honestly don't know, though my guess is that because we come from a different world." To this, Rudric says "I see. Well, the surface is quite different from what we have here, so I don't blame her. Though she has visited plenty of places at the surface of the higher realm. Wait, wasn't she old enough to be alive around when the Babel 3 was built? I need to go and check on that later." Illi doesn't bother to tell Rudric that coming from another world wasn't a metaphor and just waits for the elevator to get where they are going.

When the elevator stops, they walk some hallways again and Rudric asks "So what kind of food do you guys eat at the surface?" To which Illi says "Meat, vegetables, that kind of crap." To which Rudric says "Fascinating. Maybe I should go to the surface of the higher realm someday."

Then they enter a lobby, in which a woman with six pointed stars comes to greet them. She says "You four must be the guests that Ms. Altair mentioned. Hi, my name is Robin. I'll take you to my lady's abode." Then Robin looks at Rudric and says "Thank you for your service, Rudric Mayo. You may return to your duties." Rudric stutters a bit as he says "Y-Yes mam." Then he bows slightly and returns whence he came.

Robin says "Follow me please." The research group leaves the building and the next scene is something that the four of them don't believe. Robin says "Since this is your first time, it must be quite shocking. But nevertheless, welcome to Babylon 5." The scene behind Robin was something you would see in futuristic movies. A metropolis where there are flying vehicles run by magic of some sort and floating buildings for some reason.

Robin asks the research group "Please enter the vehicle." The group enters a car-ish vehicle that has the power to fly. Once the group enters, they were shocked by the initial flying that took place. Magnus was the only one saying things like "At least meatbags of this world have achieved this much. If it were up to me, Elysium would have reached these heights ages ago."

Babylon 5 was much nearer the sun than the middle realm's home planet orbited. For that reason, the sun was much bigger during the daytime than it did on the "surface" of the middle realm. Robin explained "The day and night cycle is dictated by the council for each Babylon. They mostly follow the same 24 hour cycle, but there are some exceptions in some of them. At night, the dome is covered with a layer that covers the light of the sun, making only the stars far away visible."

Molly asks "What about food?" To which Robin explains "Yes, we have special methods when it comes to growing food and how it is processed. We also have magic to create and dispose of water as we see necessary, though the amount that can be produced is supervised by the council."

Then Magnus asks "While I do see the wonder in living in a place like this, what is the ultimate goal of all of this?" To which Robin says "I think Ms. Altair could put it better, but the general idea is that we want to honor our patron god Ao by exploring Lutah on a level other races dare not to."

Molly decides to ask "What kind of god is this Ao?" To which Robin says "Ao. God of space and stars. With the stomp of her cane, she can create a star just like that or expand the space around us. She now only has one eye as she placed one of her eyes to keep a constant watch on the abyss in the lower realm."

Magnus then asks "Does your kind suffer from monster attacks?" To which Robin says "Very rarely does the forces of the abyss attack us, but they do happen. Other monsters aren't able to do much to us in space. Though there are those oriathans and oripleaters."

Molly asks excitedly "Ooh, ooh! What are those?!" To which Robin says "To put it simply, oriathans are what happens to leviathans that ingest too much aether. They begin to be unable to bear the gravity of the surface and fly towards the sky, ending up in space. They are much larger than leviathans on the surface and some even theorize that oriathans are the final step in leviathan's evolution. Some oriathans grow big enough to swallow moons in one gulp. And then there are those oripleaters. They are nuisances who come from the abyss to tamper with the aether lines for their own amusement. This is fine as long as it doesn't happen close to sentient life, as the aether manipulation can do drastic changes to the memories of that place, sometimes even bleeding dreams into reality. But enough about that, we are getting close to Ms. Altair's place."

Soon after, they stop at a floating "island" that has a building on it saying "Aquila" and "Free as a bird" on it. Robin escorts the research team to the building and they see many people working around it. What exactly they are doing is unknown to most of them, but Lili guesses it is for the media.

They also see a bunch of guards wearing suits and sunglasses all around the place. They greet Robin as if she was someone important while the group is passing.

Then they get near the door and Robin says "Now, be respectful towards Ms. Altair. She may act quite childishly at times, but she is one of the council members." Illi thought "Thought so." and soon Robin opens the door to a room where there is first a walkaway and then stairs up to different platforms that contain tables. Illi just now notices that there has been bird type themes all around the building and the room that they were now in had holographic, magic and robot birds flying all around the office.

Robin says "Ms. Altair. I have brought the quests as you asked." To which there was no response. Robin sighs and then walks up the stairs and zaps Altair to get her awake, and Altair says "What was that for? Oh right, you, the guests, right right right."

Then Altair got to her chair, which only now made her visible. She had nine pointed stars on both of her eyes, with left eye being sapphire blue and right eye yellow-orange like the sun. She had grey skin and pointy ears like all other star elves, she had white sparkly hair that is in half-up pigtails and a mole under her left eye.

Altair says, starting playful, but getting increasingly serious as she talks "Let's see. Let's see. You are… the outworlders. If my memory serves me right, from the kingdom of Elysium led by a human in the Gloctus. Gloctus being the planet where the middle realm's gate is. And if my information is correct, you are the cause of the current conflict at Gloctus, or at least partially responsible." Then in a much less serious tone, she says "But I don't really care for such matters, how is lil Mathias doing, by the way?"

Illi says "He says he is doing well." To which Altair gives a sigh of relief as she says "Thank Ao. If his harassment would have gotten worse since the last report, I don't know what else I could do to him. Other council members suggested to just send him to the lower realm for peace and quiet, but Mathias is not the kind of guy who'd take it like that."

Magnus says "I assume that Mathias didn't tell us something quite important." To which Altair says "Frankly, it's none of your business. But I love gossip, so let's talk." She leans forward like teenagers talking about their crush "Did you know, Mathias used to be an eight pointed star? He even was expected to become the newest nine pointed star, but then that one incident happened where a lot of people died and Ao deemed that it was his failure and hence he lost five of his points in his stars."

Illi says "I have come to understand that losing even one is a huge deal, but losing four at the same time must be a historical achievement." To which Altair then lays back on her chair, making it hard to see her face as she says "No kidding. Almost losing an entire Babylon station is something historical. Now he is haunted by not only the loss of his points, but the grudges that others have for him. Though you can put them in the same bag, well it doesn't matter in the end. He is in a tough spot now, is what the truth is."

Illi asks "Why did you choose to help him?" To which Altair says "He reminded me of my dad. An idiot with lots of ideas but always falling short when it counts. He just managed to have huge ups in his life at one point and then the bad luck finally caught up to him and it all went crashing down."

There is silence for a while, until Altair decides to sit straight and says "So, leaving lil Mathias aside. How is it with you guys? Would you be up to some tests?" To which Illi says "Depends what kinds of tests."

Then Altair says "Well, I'm not sure what others in the council want with you exactly, but I think it has to do with how you exist in the first place. Like, something, just suddenly appearing one day, without any warning. Just… poof." She did a little hand gesture as she said poof."

Lili asks "Why did you let us enter here in the first place?" To which Altair says "To make a connection with Elysium without actually setting a foot into the middle realm."

Lili asks "What for?" To which Altair says uncaringly "To tell that your king should just give up and move to another realm as fast as possible. You are chasing a poisonous rat that will drag you down with it."

Magnus then says "You are talking about the fact that our lord wants to make the middle realm more accepting of humans. And I agree with what you are saying. If it were up to me, I would place the second judgment in a metaphorical heart beat. There is no hope for the middle realm." Altair says "At least someone agrees. Go tell that to your leader."

Lili says "He isn't just going to give up. He is going to do his best to try and change things in the middle realm." Altair says disapprovingly "Look, dragons have tried, angels have tried, we have tried and heck, even the gods have tried, but they just, won't, listen. I heard that you are trying to make a leader of one group sign a contract that has actual consequences and you have a facility where you are re-training some of the soldiers you captured, but that is not the underlying issue. You can't fix something that isn't there anymore."

Molly says "You are wrong! Just look at how Weiss is doing!" To which Altair thinks out loud "Weiss was that… sword saint that defected Rucksta if I recall." Then she says to others "While there will be cases where the people can learn to tolerate humans, that doesn't cut out the issue." Then Altair puts her hand on her forehead in a "how can I make them understand" tone. Then she says "I want to see the middle realm be more accepting towards humans. I really do. But if so many failures have proven otherwise, then…"

Altair notices something and asks "Who is that child next to you?" After which the research team looks around and sees that Serene is right there. Illi calls Li and asks "You were supposed to take care of the new kid, right?" To which Li answers "That is correct and I'm doing it now."

Then Illi asks "Then why the hell is she here right with us?" To which Li says "That can't be… you aren't joking are you?" To which Illi answers "No, I'm not. I'm dead serious."

Then Altair says "That child is an aether type being with a mix of something else that I'm not familiar with. And if I'm not familiar with it, then it must be something from another world. Her just appearing like this means that she can travel through aether lines, but why did she come here?"

Then Serene grabs hold of Lili's sleeve and stares at her. For some reason, Lili feels like they have proof of something thought impossible happening with sheer effort. Maumar and Zolotifa.

Then Lili says "Altair, you say that all the failures in the past are proof that we should give up on trying to change the middle realm. But there is one thing in this world that has been achieved through sheer stubbornness." Altair says "What, pray tell, are you talking about?"

Then Lili says "The sheer existence of Zolotifa is the proof that just because something is close to impossible, doesn't mean that there is not a sliver of chance if we have an infinite number of retries." Altair says "So you are saying we should let the machinations of the counter god be the proof that the middle realm can change?" To which Lili says "Yes. We will do our best to prove that it is possible."

There is hard silence where even the sound of the birds in the room doesn't make noise, until Altair starts to spurt out laughing for a while. While she was laughing, she said "You are something else, you know. Haha… Trying to succeed in something others have failed before, just for the smear of a chance that it might succeed in your case? What madness. Madness I say. And I love it! So then little ones, try your best to change the middle realm. Revel in that madness and show me something interesting. Show me that you can achieve something that even gods could not. Make mockery of the gods by succeeding. Show them that they aren't absolute. Show that to the whole world. Show that… in the end… we can all be birds flying freely throughout the skies with no limits! Show those motherfuckers! You have my full fledged support! Tell your king that I, Altair the flying one, will support you wholeheartedly!"

Then Altair jumps from her desk and lands in front of the research group, proving that she is a little small but has some chest in her. Then she says while having a smirk "For the first time in about 10 000 years, I'll set foot on the Gloctus." Robin says "Ms. Altair! You can't just…" To which Altair says "No worries lil Robin. I'm just marking this down as a business trip. But in case the others in the council miss me, tell them this "I'm going to have fun in Gloctus for a while. See you someday you cans of moonworms." And make sure you say it in that exact tone."

Then Altair tries to grab Lili by the shoulder, but fails a little, so she taps Lili on the back and says "Show me the way to that king of yours."

Li's little corner here.

Just a short one this time. For what I have gotten to know, moonworms are a type of snack in star elf culture that everyone insists tastes great, but is in fact terrible. It is a snack that dates to the point when star elves haven't even reached space yet and the recipe of making it has never changed, allegedly. Introducing the moonworms to other races has proven difficult and moonworms are now only sold in star elf populated areas.

And in case you are wondering, yes, the author did forget about Cassandra. Guess she was doing too good of a job.