Grandmaster Nova’s Perspective

“Ahh! I finally found you”

My moth found an unknown individual, everyone that regularly works here smells a bit like ashen volcanoes. It’s what happens when you work here for quite some time, but new people. They smell like fresh trees, oceans, the city, smog, everything but that dense taste of ash that's so familiar to me.

“I’ve got you now” I grinned widely, “Afereo, secure all elevators from floor 3. I’ll be going there myself”

“Would you like me to evacuate all of the other workers there?”

“No. That’ll cause panic, I just want to talk”

“Would you want anyone else to come with you?”

I shook my head. “I’m able to deal with a child myself.”

“Understood Grandmaster, I’ll be waiting for you”

I nodded my head towards Afereo and then exited the room. I pushed the coal engraved doors and walked into the hallways. My head almost touched the top of the ceiling and my shoulders were touching the walls. I flexed, managing and shifting my castle to be a bit bigger for me. The walls shifted inside, the walls curved giving me enough space to walk around. The curve in the walls walked with me as I phased through the floors going to the 3rd floor hallways. The castle moved and bulged, space contorted to my will as I finally arrived.

The 3rd floor was scented with beautiful green grasses. Ashes and Coals were great fertilizers for vegetation, and some of my employees preferred to live within vegetation, even if it was raining soot from the top of the ceilings.I walked through the hallways which resembled more like a garden path and looked towards a little gazebo attached to the path.

Space conformed to my will here, so don’t expect your typical office space. I want to make sure that my workers are in their most comfortable environment, so I’ll make a garden if I have to. The space on the 3rd floor was a lot taller, tall enough for me to stand.

I walked around, the soft fall of ashen snowfall fell all around me, the petals of the leaves absorbed the ash like it was raindrops. It disappeared once it touched the grass giving it the illusion of real snow. I smiled, this was quite hard to do, plants which absorbed ash instead of water. I had to get my friends to bioengineer a plant which absorbed the ash and its ingredients before breaking it down for the 2nd floor. I was pretty proud of my creation, because it wasn’t only one plant, it was a process which could be done for any plant giving the biodiversity you see now on the 3rd floor.

I walked towards the Gazebo, my little moth was waiting for me there, I shrunk my body, the Gazebo was too small for someone my size, and then knocked on the door first.

I waited, but there was only the chit chatting of my fellow workers and the hum of the wind. “I’m coming in” I announced, twisted the knob and opened the door.

Inside was an empty table and a closed piece of paper. I squinted, what happened here. I sensed my moth, it said it was still here. I walked into the gazebo looking around, something felt wrong, they should be here why can’t I find them. I flexing, shooting ash powder all over the gazebo, still..nothing. They didn’t seem invisible, were they underneath the table, or were they above me?

I looked up, and saw nothing up there as well except for the artificial sunlight that came in through the ceiling, and my mouth, stuck to the side of a window. I whistled commanding my moth to come down, it flapped its wings before landing gently on my finger. It was the size of a small bird, the little legs were cleaning its feelers.

“Tell me what you saw” I whispered to the moth but I got nothing back but static.

I frowned and I caught my eyebrows scrunching up. “Here’s something amiss” I whispered to myself.

I walked forward, letting my footprints be marked by the soot, and stopped in front of the table. It was a glass table, people usually came here to ponder, have meetings, discuss business ideas, or chill out, and to have dates. I built this place because I wanted my workers to have life out of work, it was nice to see them happy.

I picked up the letter, activated my defenses, layering folds of space between me and the letter. It was like a transparent wall that would stop anything from touching me until it travelled a hundred kilometers through every single fold. I folded the letter open and inside contained a simple line, written in very beautiful handwriting.

“Sigflare Constantine Kaos”

I squinted my eyes. This was it. A single name, I don’t like where this is going. That was the real name of Afereo, he was a Krygis Demon Prince I captured on a mission, but I gave him a second chance. I got permission from the Goddess but I was supposed to keep this a secret, or else...well...it would make things complicated.

I turned the paper around to make sure nothing was written on the back only to find another line.

“To find what you seek, go back to the place you started from”

This was a small goose chase if you asked me. I frowned, I don’t like the feeling of this. I closed my eyes, to see the vision of my office. The volcanic palace appeared in front of me, but there was Afereo standing in wait next to me, and I saw me, in the chair.

I frowned even harder, what was going on.

I let the ground underneath me carry me to the top floor, the ceilings curved in and out, the world made way for me as I went through every single layer of my castle before I stood in front of my own office door.

I opened it in a fury as I saw myself sitting on the seat and Afereo looking at me with shock in his eyes.

“There he is, capture him Afereo” My impersonator said

“You don’t even know the face of the master who saved you” I responded

Afereo’s face looked puzzled and confused. He looked troubled and anguish was covering his face. He looked at me then at my impostor, his mouth stuttering struggling to open or respond.

“You’ve served me for eons” my impersonator yelled, “Can’t you tell the difference?”

“You’ve served ‘ME’! For Eons!” I shouted back “Remember the time when I came back injured from Aeriolous, only you saw that injury. I never told anybody else. That Impostor could have never known that”

“You liar! How did you know that!!” My impersonator dared to shout at me, “I can do you one better, remember the time when I was seduced by a succubus and I brought her back to my office, and you had to fight me to get rid of her? That impostor could have never known that”

My eyes were filled with shock. How did this impersonator know th-that was my greatest shame.

“How did you know that, you fiend. That was my greatest shame, how could you have known it”

“That’s what I want to ask you!” My impersonator shouted back at me, the lava boiling in the room.

“You dare share my greatest secret out in the open”

“It was my greatest secret” My impostor shouted back, in a furious yell smashing my table leaving deep cracks on my table.

“Get out of my seat you fool. Afereo, get out. I’m about to teach this mimic a lesson”

“You stole my line” The impostor hollered back at me. He climbed on top of my desk, cracking and breaking it. His muscles flexed harder and bigger, like a lion about to go for the killing.

“Lets see if you can copy my abilities as well”, I flexed as well, my ashen skin started to smoke, filling the room with vantablack light-swallowing gas. Afereo quickly flew out of the room, I eyed Afereo, seeing that he was finally out of the room, I closed the door and started to curve space around my claws. I saw that my mimic was covering boiling lava around his hand giving himself a magma armour.

“You’re outdated” I yelled at my impostor. I ferociously pounced at him, curving and cutting space wherever my claws touched. The space that my claws touched flickered like a mirage in the desert heat.