The Seeker | Volume 2

"You said…what was real?" Aizawa asked his variant.

The other Aizawa clad in alchemical wear ran a hand through his messy and tousled hair, a testament to his lack of sleep and tireless research. 

"Dimensional travel. I've been researching such a topic for years!" He suddenly reached into a drawer, shoving aside numerous bottles and papers before taking out a crumpled up piece of paper with a drawing on it.

The messy drawing depicted a wormhole being opened, and a figure walking through it. Around the sketched out depiction of the wormhole were numerous notes and formulas.

"Why would you research such a thing? Aren't you an alchemist or something?" Shinso asked, raising an eyebrow. 

The other Aizawa sighed softly at Shinso. "I've always felt the urge to go elsewhere. I've been in this kingdom for a while. The heavy downpour and constant thunder make me restless."

Aizawa's variant put his research back into the drawers and turned back to his numerous bottles.

"Why did you hug me?" Shinso asked.

The other Aizawa raised his goggles off of his head and smiled. "I haven't seen you in months!"

"I never left the kingdom, it's my first time coming here. What the hell are you talking about?" Shinso asked in confusion.

"The test, remember?" Aizawa's variant asked.

Shinso shook his head blatantly. "No, elaborate."

The other Aizawa suddenly left the room, hanging right and making his way down a long hallway, taking another left corner before approaching a large metal door. Shinso and Aizawa stood behind him confused.

"You really don't remember, huh." Aizawa questioned softly as he pushed the large door open. The inside of the room was round, with no light entering. The second Aizawa's variant stepped in, numerous candles ignited on their own.

Shinso and Aizawa took a hesitant step forward, following the variant into the room. The other Aizawa turned around to face the two, before kneeling down and putting his hands on the floor. He closed his eyes and mumbled something in a foreign language. 

Suddenly, all the candles in the room extinguished, shrouding the environment in an inscrutable darkness. In the darkness, a strange symbol began to glow on the floor. Neither Shinso or Aizawa recognized it, it resembled something used by an ancient cult in demonic rituals. 

"What is that?" Shinso asked.

The other Aizawa looked up at him. "It's the power source for the ritual we conducted, remember?" 

The other Aizawa stood up, waved his hand and whispered in an ancient language again. All the candles in the room reignited, this time they burned brighter; their flames more potent and hotter than previously. 

The ends of the other Aizawa's lips curled up as he reached into his pocket, before taking out a black card with a symbol on the back. 

"This is a Card of Replication." Aizawa said with a smile.

…

When Sabestian was about to leave for the morning after checking on Aaron's establishment, he heard a knock on the door. With a tired groan he stood up, rubbing his back as he opened it. His eyes widened when he saw a young woman with chestnut brown hair, matching brown eyes and freckles. 

"You're not Mr. Daniels." She said, her eyes narrowing slightly. When Sabestian caught sight of her face, his heart nearly dropped out of his chest.

"Your face…" He whispered.

Sylvie looked at her face and chuckled. "I simply caught a small bug, it's nothing to worry about." She laughed off the signs of depravity as she walked in and sat on the couch. 

Sylvie's face had small plants growing from it, a large vine grown from her eye and numerous colorful flowers blossomed from her brown hair.

"Now, do you know where Mr. Daniels is?" She asked, neatly folding her hands on her lap.

"You mean Isaac? The boy left god-knows-when."

"Left?" Sylvie questioned.

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, he disappeared onto a ship and I haven't heard about him since. His friend stopped by and left his kid with me."

Just then, Damien peeked his head into the room. Upon seeing Sylvie, some blush crept upon his cheeks.

"Who exactly are you, and what do you want from him?" Sebastian asked in curiosity. 

"My name is Sylvie Mulligan. I worked at the historical society for a little while until I left for another career."

"What career?" Sebastian asked, sipping some coffee. 

"I work at the morgue now."

"The…morgue?" Sebastian was put off by this answer. Why would such a beautiful and young woman have such a disgusting and horrifying occupation?

"I would suggest going back to your previous job, sounds a lot more classy if I do say so myself."

Sylvie suddenly perked up, parting her brown hair. "You work at the bar, don't you?" She asked.

Sebastian froze. "How did you know that?" He asked, puzzled.

"No reason. Sometimes my coworkers would go out for drinks, and on the way back they'd always be talking about someone who loves to, and I quote. "Rouse with the guests." Sylvie teased.

Sebastian blushed a little upon hearing Sylvie's claim. "I-I'm not sure that's me." He managed to say.

Sylvie suddenly stood up, meeting Sabestian's gaze. The man took a careful step back and invisibly raised his guard.

"Why do you need to talk with Isaac, you never answered my question."

Sylvie suddenly reached for the straps of her dress, slowly unbuckling them and allowing the top to fall flat, revealing herself to Sabestian. Sebastian's face flushed even more. He was dumbfounded on what Sylvie was doing.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Sylvie chuckled softly, her lips slightly parted as her eyes narrowed with an intimate sense of seduction. 

She suddenly uncurled her left hand, and a strange purple mist extruded from her palm, filling the entire environment. 

Sebastian suddenly felt like his body was on fire. Not in the painful way, but rather in a more intimate and pleasurable way.

Damien watched the scene with shock and fear, quickly running into the bathroom and locking the door.

Sylvie suddenly leapt forward, capturing Sabestian's lips into a fiery, wet kiss. Sebastian struggled in Sylvie's grip, attempting to break free from the woman's hold on him. 

Sylvie chuckled softly as she traced her fingernails along his neck, licking her lips. Sebastian's breath quickened upon feeling this foreign sensation. He'd never been touched by women, they'd often complain about the constant and potent stench of alcohol and sweat protruding from him after long days at the bar, so he was obviously overwhelmed, scared and confused simultaneously. 

Sylvie's eyes narrowed further as she leaned forward, forcing their bodies to fall onto the couch.

Sabestian, who felt completely violated, spoke up in concern. "W-wha…"

His face heated up more as Syvlie continued to seduce him with her intimate traces and touches. At that moment, Sylvie suddenly reached into her pocket, and pulled out a large dagger!

With a quick and effortless slice, she cut the man's throat horizontally. Blood began to seep out from Sabestian's throat and neck. He quickly covered his throat with his neck as his vision started to grow hazier.

Sylvie blinked slowly as Sabestian's vision went hazy, and his heart stopped beating.

…

"A Card of Replication?" Aizawa asked as his variant held up the black card with the symbol engraved on the back.

"This card has the Order 9 characteristics of the Singularity Routeway. Using one of the abilities granted at Order 9: Transport, I can teleport myself a few meters away at a time." The other Aizawa said with a smile.

"Then what's all this for?" Shinso asked, pointing at the scene around him.

"It's simple. Since you clearly don't remember the last time the ritual was conducted, I suppose I'll fill you in."

"Due to my fascination with dimensional travel, I've done research and became aware that they are indeed higher dimensions that people can visit. We are currently in the physical plane."

"Above the physical plane is the Spirit Realm, a place where the soul can leave the body. Above that is the World of Mind and Soul, where spiritual non-existence and existence coexist."

"Above that is the Astral Plane, the highest level of dimensional existence. It's an infinitely vast realm where the Lords of Angels and True Gods reside. We don't know much about this place because the True Gods haven't descended for thousands of years."

Following the other Aizawa's explanation, Aizawa was prompted with another question.

"You said you were an Order 6 of a Routeway, which one?"

The other Aizawa's lips curled up even more. "I'm on the Eclipse Routeway. At Order 6 I could be considered a mid-tier in power."

"Then why have the Card of a non-relating Routeway?" Shinso asked.

"It's simple." The other Aizawa said with a smile. 

"Did you see what I did to the Reversal Formula? That ability is called Regrate. With Regration one can reassemble and change anything. I simply rearranged the molecular composition of the potion. When it fell on the ground its atoms mixed and conjoined with the molecules of dust and particles. With a simple wave of my hand I rearranged the dust and particles, erasing them from existence."

"In that way, the formula became lighter and less dense, so in the end I did two actions simultaneously: rearranged molecular composition and reassembled for formulas molecular composition."

Shinso and Aizawa both stood confused by the latters explanation. "What does this have to do with the Card of Replication?"

"With Regration I could simply rearrange the rituals components and symbolism, conjoining it with the Order 9 Characteristic of the Singularity Routeway. I can simply use Regration to conjoin or retract the two's symbolism."

"I can slightly change the compositions of Teleportation used by an Order 9 of the Singularity Routeway by using Regration. That singular and seemingly indifferent change would render its travel distance a lot farther, maybe beyond what the eye can see."

"So you're proposing that access to higher layers of reality is possible with what you just said?" Aizawa asked, beginning to understand the concepts.

The other Aizawa nodded. "Yes, I've done it before. It's what I used to transport Shinso elsewhere. I transported him to one of many, if not infinite higher dimensions in the cosmos!"

"Did you make any preparations in case he got stuck? Infinite is a concept nobody can really wrap their heads around, what made you sure it was a safe action, or even one you should conduct to begin with?" Aizawa pressed further.

"I simply used Anchor, another ability of the Eclipse Routeway. I can implement Anchors across anything physical, and I surmise at Order 3 or 4 I can attach Anchors to concepts. Before I conducted the ritual I attached an anchor to Shinso, allowing me to find his location the second he leaves my sight." The other Aizawa explained.

"Then…why did you lose him to begin with? Now you've debunked the usability and overall chance of these Anchors being a viable way to track one's location. I can only surmise it stops working after the target has surpassed an instinctual distance." 

The other Aizawa nodded his head slowly, taking in the others' judgement as a possible claim. 

"We can always test that theory." He said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin. 

"I can always Regrate this coin and send it elsewhere. When I feel my spirituality begin to falter I'll attempt to bring it back to me."