ALL NOVEL Loop 254 - Part 114
Cal collapsed forward as he stepped through into the voidhouse, his feet no longer able to hold him upright. He tried to catch himself as he fell, but his arms weren’t working right either. He felt himself crash into someone’s arms instead of the ground and tried to speak his thanks, but nothing came out.
“What’s going on?” He heard his father ask. He sounded far away.
What was going on? That was the last thought he could remember before his eyes opened up again, and he found himself lying in his room in the voidhouse. He was in his bed. He tested his arms; they moved normally again. His legs did as well.
“Hey Cal, welcome back to the world of being awake. Also, I really like the place. I’m glad we bonded,” Sleek’s cheery voice hit his ears.
“What happened?” Cal asked, still confused about the trip home. He had been briefly trapped between worlds, and then he was so weak, but why?
“Oh, apparently, some immensely powerful creature hijacked your trip home. Fulginanis isn’t sure how they did it or what it even was, but they are pretty sure it won’t be able to find us in here,” she explained.
It wasn’t the question he most wanted answered, though. “What happened after I escaped? Why was I so weak?” That was pressing question on his mind.
“Oh, yeah, that foreign mana in your core. Ethel volunteered the root network mana to get you back home, and whatever it was Fulginanis did to break through and grab you overloaded you with her mana source, but hey, at least you’re awake. Ethel is still unconscious,” Sleek continued, her tone not changing at all despite Ethel’s apparent predicament.
“Is she going to be okay?” Cal asked. Fleet may not be concerned, but he was.
“Yep, she just has to rest awhile longer. She siphoned a ton of her realm's energy directly through her core and then left it nearly empty to get you back. That’s hard on you humans,” the mana spirit bobbed up and down as she continued her answers.
“You can do that?” The idea of pulling extra mana from his realm was tempting, it would be a good way around his core exhaustion problem when he went all out.
“Sure, well, maybe not you, but Ethel can!” Sleek’s answer wasn’t remotely what Cal was looking for.
“Yeah I’ll talk to Fulginanis about it, just as soon as I can get out of here,” Cal said, debating internally if he was ready to test his legs.
“Good idea, he knows a lot more than I do about how this place works. Oh, that reminds me, I’ve gotta start working on my own realm so we can eventually merge it in here. If you really wanna get a ton of different mana spirits it’s going to be best if we work in harmony,” She said before zooming out of the room. Cal was sure Bug was going to love her.
After releasing himself from his blankets, Cal stood up from his bed and stretched. His body seemed to be working entirely normally again. His mind flashed back to his most recent insane experience to add to the collection that had become his life. Something, probably a very powerful Gryalth had taken notice of him. It had referenced Pluto and hadn’t seemed to know everything about him, so he doubted it was capable of spying on him entirely or even reading his mind. After all, it had somewhat bought the Merlin claim.
Did it have something to do with the shadow Gryalth? No, he pushed that fear aside. It would have been aware of the time loops then. Another thought came to him, though, the strange mirror in the base. Before Frank had smashed it, he had seen Gryalth on the other side. If that had been a portal to their home universe, then perhaps it had only become aware of him due to its destruction. If that were true, he could avoid that easily enough in future loops, at least until he couldn’t anymore. There was likely no way to avoid fighting it in the final loop, but that was a problem for another time.
He pushed the door open from his room and walked into a buzz of action in the hallway outside. Animals were moving past him in both directions, carrying building materials, clipboards, and some even wearing hard hats.
“Caaaal, you arrreeee awaaake! Thaat is greeeeat newssss,” a giant spider said as she walked past him on the ceiling. She was carrying a load of lumber.
Cal suppressed a shudder as an early memory bubbled up from his first few time loops. “Nice to see you as well, Many Eyes. What are you working on?” He asked.
“Sooorrryy can’t taaalk, gotttaaa build roooms for neeeeewwwww friends!” She replied before disappearing down the hallway, turning out of sight.
“She’s working on getting new additions built for the animals from Ethel’s realm. There were some repercussions for it when she drained the mana from it,” Cal looked around for the voice that had answered him, he finally spotted Trashcat flattening herself against the wall to avoid all the foot traffic.
“Yeah, Sleek kind of explained that just how bad is it?” He asked Bug’s adoptee into the family.
“It's not good. Mr. Oakbert has been missing since she did it. I’m pretty sure Fulginanis is more worried than they are letting on. Cats pick up on those things,” She answered.
“Damn, okay, I’m going to go find them, and then I’ll pay Ethel a visit. There has to be something I can do,” Cal replied, now worried. The mana-infused food supplies that Ethel’s realm had been providing were invaluable, not to mention how devastated she would be if anything had happened to Oakbert.
“Good luck, I’ve gotta get back to Mother Scrump. She needs help getting the kittens to their new home,” Trashcat said, bowing her head to Cal before dashing off in the same direction Many Eyes had gone.
“Fulginanis, I’m awake and heading to the situation. Can you grab everyone that you think I need to talk to,” Cal thought to his mana spirit, who controlled this realm.
“Yes, we are already working on it. Please hurry. We are not sure how much longer Ethel’s realm can be supported before it completely collapses,” Fulginanis answered.