章 69: Chapter 58 - Cêpan/Guardian

The surrounding space distorted in a random Universe within the stream of the Multiverse. What bears a striking appearance to claws, begin gnawing away at the very fabric of reality.

Within, a faint light could be seen, warping back and forth between order and chaos.

The abyss within the depths of a wormhole was struggling to become stable.

This phenomenon continued for around five minutes before a sizable spatial fissure was created.

This spatial fissure sent massive amounts of unquantifiable energy propagating throughout the Universe in torrents of waves.

This energy, however, was only barely detectable by those truly in resonance with the planet itself, or keen on dimensional energies.

Every extraordinary being on Earth could feel the disturbance, though even the more sensitive of these beings had trouble pinpointing the epicenter of such a massive surge of energy.

Then as if in a dream, the energy disappeared; leaving those with more acute senses wondering if they had made a mistake.

Though not many of these beings would actively search for the origin of the signature since it would disrupt the already tender balance that had been in place for ages. It was a well-known fact in every Universe, that Earth housed many powerful experts.

Zeel was lucky that each had a territory to defend and lacked the necessary preparation to investigate the anomaly that had occurred.

Deep in the mountains of Kenya, two bodies were ejected from the spatial fissure. The ejection was quite forceful, not unlike the spit escaping from the mouth of Llama.

After the two bodies were ejected the wormhole quickly dissipated as if it was never there. The turbulent space no longer twisted and imploded, instead quietly dissipated.

After the surrounding space stabilized, groaning could be heard as two people stir awake; though, still tangled together like they were holding on for dear life.

Zeel woke up first as he checked the condition of Alice, but just as his hand was about to reach her. Alice grabbed his thumb and index finger-twisting it, but Zeel responded quickly swinging his body around to get out of Alice's partial grip.

All of a sudden, a massive weight impacts Zeel's chest, causing him to drift back a couple of feet.

Suddenly Alice jumped back, poised and ready to fight a brawl, glaring daggers at Zeel who was now laying down flat a couple of feet away.

"How could you?" Alice squealed with rage evident in her voice "How could you leave my home to die like that?"

Alice then walked forward, frustrated that Zeel would perform such an action just to survive. She had always thought that despite Zeel's wanting only to survive, how he survived also mattered. What is survival if you are not worthy to survive? Alice kicked Zeel once, and then twice, and a couple more times to satiate the burning rage in her heart.

"I did it..." Zeel managed to stutter out before Alice could deliver a more proper beat down.

Alice failed to notice the incongruity of their current situation. Since when could she beat Zeel so much without him being able to retaliate? But Alice could care less about that question right now.

"I completed the mission," Zeel emphasized once again with blue liquid dripping from the corner of his mouth. At this point his complexion had become sickly pail, looking as If he was not that far from death.

Alice noticed the peculiarity of the situation and paid closer attention to Zeel, what she noticed frightened her dearly "You ingested it and spat it out back?"

Alice began trembling slightly, not noticing the liquid from the corner of Zeel's lip vaporizing and spreading into the air; directly into her breathing range.

Her breathing became hurried as she staggered over to Zeel, not minding the slight aches appearing in her head. Alice was far too panicked to worry about Quarantine and the possible repercussions of her actions.

Not standing on decorum anymore, Alice embraced Zeel as if to meld their bodies together. Before either of them could work up the strength for a proper embrace; a nerve-wracking headache assaulted them both simultaneously.

It was as if the headache had waited for the perfect moment to interrupt their bonding.

"AAAAHAHHHHHH!" The screams of the two could be heard throughout the Kenya Mountains as Cosmic Dissonance was melding their vibrational frequencies to that of the current universe.

This was normally a painful but bearable experience for Zeel, but add to it the antivirus potency that was now attacking the Z-virus in his system, and the pain doubles by a large margin.

As for Alice, she was naturally experiencing the Cosmic Dissonance phenomena for the first time. Hence, her reaction was completely normal. Also given the Z-virus she inhaled, Alice and Zeel knew they were in for a very painful experience.

The two had come from a Universe with a much higher frequency threshold than the current one, so the Cosmic Dissonance was more severe than previously. This would also mean their abilities could increase somewhat, but for Zeel, the last thing he wanted was an increase in his body energy.

Ever since he received a seal from the Cosmic Being of his Universe, Zeel's soul had become akin to a couple of dozen nuclear reactors without proper outlets.

Zeel and Alice would enter a coma for an indefinite amount of time. Even if they had the Z-virus enhancing their abilities, it was still based on the t-virus hence they would still be affected by the anti-virus.

Zeel and Alice didn't have much time before they entered into a coma, leaving them at their most vulnerable.

Using the last bit of his energy, Zeel drifted along with the cosmic shadow enough to contact the Information Dimension and extract the name of their current Universe – 'Lorien Legacies' Universe.

As their screams began to die down, two figures slowly exited the forest and look at them cautiously. What are the intentions of these two people that live so deep in the Kenya Mountains?

In their joint mindscape, Alice and Zeel were exchanging information through their psychic connection with the aid of the nanites. The nanites had become a natural extension of their bodies, but it was still a mystery to both Alice and Zeel.

Zeel began to explain that Alice's Universe was safe and Alice began to apologize for overreacting a bit. Though, she was still displeased that he would take her away from her universe without her expressed permission first.

"Isn't here like a Kidnapping Law for Multiversal jumps?" Alice asked frustrated by the entire ordeal. She felt more like a kidnapped princess, than someone who was saved from a dragon.

"There is probably some Multiversal Police Force. After all, the Multiverse is infinite," Zeel replied with a shrug since he technically did kidnap Alice.

Now that their bickering was completed, the duo began to focus on the more pressing matters. Like where the hell are they?

"Where are we?" Alice asked.

"I am not sure. It should be a neighboring universe. It should be similar to your world before. We didn't manage to jump that far but I also felt we are meant to be here," Zeel replied as he caressed his aching chest.

The seal on his soul had been pretty active since they entered this particular universe. Zeel correctly surmised that they did not appear in this Universe by mere coincidence.

In his mindscape, the chains that bounded him were much clearer to see. It served as a reminder that he was not a free man but a prisoner on a mission for a Cosmic Being.

"You mean zombies and all?" Alice asked already exhausted just at the thought of fighting zombies again. At this time, she would rather fight anything except zombies. Maybe monsters? Gorillas? Hell, even other humans.

"No, I mean technologically speaking and era wise. We can't jump through time, or too far from our previous Universe due to our energy problem," Zeel explained, since he was actively looking for a solution to the issue.

Still, Zeel decided to focus on other matters for the near future. If he started research, he would be indulged for dozens of years.

Hence, Zeel preferred exploring the Multiverse a bit more until he developed a time capsule.

"Our body will remain in a coma for about 2 months if nothing unexpected occurs, so use that time to relocate any non-essential nanites to information gathering," Zeel said urging Alice to get her priorities in place.

"What do we do about these two guys helping us?" Alice asked planning to gauge his reply.

"Kill them if they become a threat, but grudges and gratitude must be repaid, so we'll make something up after we finish healing," Zeel replied as he was neither grateful nor ungrateful, they could have survived either way.

"Those two are still out huh?" asked Charles.

"Yeah, but every day it seems their bodies are recovering at an extraordinary rate. Their condition seems a bit peculiar though. I can feel their tissue becoming more refined and their bodies reverse aging to their teenage years," Hannu replied enthusiastically.

Hannu was excited at the prospect of making new friends near his home. Hannu had learned to accept the little victories.

"Still, be cautious! We don't know if, or when the Magadorians will show up. Since these two were the originators of that massive energy surge, we can be sure they recently came to Earth through some teleportation means, so more than likely they're not hostile towards us but always keep one eye open," Charles said as he is responsible for Hannu's safety at all times, such was the responsibility of a Cêpan/Guardian.

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for anything strange," Hannu replied as his gaze drifted to the two silhouettes recovering in the corner.

However, Charles was internally musing 'Yeah right, what could be more strange than two people appearing out of nowhere. Their bodies were broken beyond repair and yet they are healing faster than any human should?'