ALL NOVEL B4 | Intermission 1
Somewhere within the Quantum Realm
Loud screeches echo out from one corner of the quantum realm as glitchy and formless purple creatures run through an army of equally glitchy creatures. But unlike the purple glitchy creatures, these creatures all have forms, and their colors are a deep crimson hue instead of purple.
Meanwhile a single man floats high above it all, a stern look on his face as he looks down on the corruption below.
The Quantum Vanguard stays unmoving with his arms crossed, just watching his vanguard forces slaughter the corruption for him.
After all of the corruption near this particular rift is taken care of, the Quantum Vanguard simply teleports over to the rift and grabs it on both sides. Then he slams it shut with his hands.
Another rift dealt with.
With his current job finished, he begins to open another rift on his own. One leading to his home.
But he barely even cracks the rift open before he pauses, sensing something new in the quantum realm. A new power.
A new role.
The Vanguard hasn’t paid much attention to the mortal realm, so he finds this new role curious.
It gives him a feeling the end. Which leads him to believe that the new role may have something to do with killing.
One similar in a way to his own role.
His eyes narrow a little before he begins to open a rift leading towards the new role’s holder. Only to be interrupted when a different rift appears next to him, and he feels the rift he was opening closing just as quickly.
The Vanguard turns to look at the new rift before finding an unexpected visitor passing through it.
He bows his head slightly and says, “Greetings, Quantum Architect.” And raises his head again to look at the man who is staring at him with an expressionless look on his face. One that glitches ever so slightly along with his high-tech looking purple armor.
“Do not bother my daughter,” the Architect states, surprising the Vanguard for a moment. Because the Architect has never cared about others. Not in the entire time the Vanguard has known the Architect.
He doesn’t even care about his own father, much less other people.
The Architect’s words simply grow the Vanguard’s interest in the new role. But as the seventh in the hierarchy, and far beneath the Quantum Architect who is second in the hierarchy, the Vanguard is required to follow his orders.
He has no way around it.
It’s enforced by the universe itself and he’ll be punished if he breaks the law.
So the Vanguard goes ahead and closes the rift. But he doesn’t give up on learning about the new quantum being and the new role they have taken on.
Or rather, she has taken on. When he thinks back to the fact that the Architect called them his daughter.
Which also implies that the new quantum being was the Architect’s successor.
The Vanguard raises a brow at that, simply because of the fact that she was his successor.
If she has her own new role now, she isn’t his successor anymore.
The Architect narrows his eyes ever so slightly at the Vanguard before manifesting a strange array of consoles in front of him. One screen after another with several holographic keyboards and a wave of quantum energy that is let out from them all.
His symbol of power, just like the Vanguard’s vanguard forces.
And as soon as the Vanguard sees it, he tenses up. Only for large, holographic walls to box all around the Vanguard. Sealing him in a room before they vanish again.
“Now you will be unable to teleport anywhere near my daughter,” the Architect declares, staring at the Vanguard with that same emotionless gaze. Only for his form to begin glitching out until he vanishes without another word.
Leaving the Vanguard glaring at the place where the Architect was standing.
Several seconds pass in silence before the Vanguard turns around and opens up a rift near the new role. But he doesn’t enter the rift.
All he does is look through it.
Not only because entering it would be breaking the law, but he realizes immediately upon opening it that entering it would be impossible. Even if he opened it himself.
Because the moment he opened it, a holographic set of prison bars appear over the portal before vanishing again in an instant.
His eyes narrow a little, but his irritation fades when he sees the woman on the other side of the rift. One looking directly at him with more than a little curiosity in her otherwise apathetic gaze.
A gaze that reminds him of both his own and the Architect’s.
She has a stubbornness that reminds him of himself, along with the apathy the Architect has.
And the second he sees her, he finds himself feeling interested.
But he’s not the only one, because seconds later, he senses more than one other quantum being looking in on what’s happening from various different locations. None of which make any sorts of moves.
On the new quantum being.
He feels a faint shiver run down his spine when he senses her role. A role that echoes in his head when their eyes meet.
The sole Quantum Reaper and female quantum being with a role in existence.
After a few seconds, the Quantum Reaper merely turns around and begins walking away, clearly recognizing that no one can pass through the rift he opened. And seemingly without any sort of interest in the Vanguard herself.
But the Vanguard watches her go with curiosity in his gaze.
A curiosity mixed with a faint amount of irritation at the fact that another quantum being is above him in the hierarchy.
He watches her for a bit longer before closing the rift and opening another one.
Heading back to his fortress to rest until his next job.
A Quantum Reaper… one whose role is equal to the Quantum Ruler…
As he walks, the corners of his lips quirk upwards ever so slightly.
Interesting.