Chapter 59: inner callings

….at an undisclosed place, Kar-el p.o.v

"Now then, what is your deal?" When Ben and the others left the hideout to deal with their teenage lives, Kar-el conjured a gateway to the mirror dimension, from which Charmcaster and the couple emerged. They were trapped until now in the mirror dimension.

"Your Excellency!" Hex got on his knees as quickly as possible and forcefully glanced at Charmcaster; she hesitated for a second and nevertheless bowed down beside him. There is no need to question that Darkstar followed suit, if only because he likes to bully the weak, but in front of someone truly beyond him, he tries groveling. 

"Your grace, it is an honor for a magic scholar like me to witness the very being that governs the law of nature itself," Hex exclaimed in a dreamy tone. Kar-el only nodded and urged him to get to the point.

"Since my childhood days, I have only seen my family and my people enslaved by the ruler of the magic dimension of this universe. Ledgerdomian has been the home of my people ever since we learned to use magic, and Addwaitya-its ruler has been very cruel to us. Due to him possessing the alpha rune, it is almost impossible for us to defeat him inside Ledgerdomian and he does not leave his realm." Charmcaster spoke with a heavy tone.

"Since the death of my father, I have tried everything in my power to fulfill his last wish, to see our people freed from the shackles of slavery. I almost gave up hope of seeing it realized in this decade, but your arrival brought new possibilities." She put her head on the floor.

"One of your titles is the final judge; I beg your mercy, my lord. Please give justice to my father's soul." Her eyes were full of tears and her voice came out filled with emotions that she had been holding on to for so many years.

"The context of that title may not be what you think it is. The judge does not always deliver justice to the good; sometimes apocalypses are regarded as the judges of a civilization. Not because they are giving justice, but because they are ending that civilization." Kar-el calmly replied.

"In the grand scheme of things, your plight is nothing. Your perspective of what is good and what is bad might suffice from a humanoid perspective, but it is flawed from my standpoint. I cannot interfere in many situations at a time and place on the merit of it being morally wrong." Kar-el looked at all three of them.

"If you had the option of saving the life of a child, would you?" He asked.

"Yes." All three replied easily.

"What if it will cost you your own life and she is not related to you in any way?" He added

They looked among themselves, and only Charmcaster ended up replying, as both men chose to remain silent with their heads down.

"Still yes."

"Good, but what if you have two options? Either that child or your father and your people, who have been enslaved? Whom will you save? Or let's say that I can bring your father back to life, but you have to give up on freeing your people from slavery. What would you do?" Kar-el gently smiled.

"I-" She could not speak further.

"Morals were and will remain a choice, a luxury that only those that are in good situations can afford to choose. There is always a point after which you have to sacrifice them. At my level, with so much power at my call, it is not my morals that dictate me. It is what you can offer me in return that will justify my response to your request." Kar-el sincerely and seriously replied.

Darkstar smirked in mockery, "And I used to think that God was our savior."

"I am no God. It is more of a concept that only grows broader depending on when you stand on a universal scale." Kar-el did not explain any further.

Meanwhile, Charmcaster had made her decision, "My servitude to you in exchange for the freedom of my people." She announced this, much to the surprise of everyone present.

"Charmcaster!" Hex tried to convince her otherwise, but a look from her convinced him that she would not back down.

"Such resolve. Do you even wonder if your people will understand what you have sacrificed for them? Will they remember you after 100, 200 years?" Kar-el asked to check her will.

"It does not matter." She replied.

"Well done, your will is resolute. So be it. I accept the terms. I will provide you with what you want, and in return, you agree to servitude under me until I desire so." Kar-el remarked, finally standing up from the couch.

"Lead me." He approached them.

Charmcaster nodded and tried to open a portal to Ledgerdomian, but it met with interruptions as Addwaitya set up countermeasures after her last visit to his realm when she freed her uncle.

Kar-el intervened as Charmcaster struggled, empowering her magic to the point where she could face Addwaitya head-on even when he used an alpha rune.

The portal finally opened up, and Kar-el took the lead in passing through it. Hex and Charmcaster followed suit, while Darkstar chose to remain on Earth.

He had realized that staying with Kar-el would only be a liability since he did not need followers, unlike your average supernatural being.

In particular, the proximity of Gwen makes it clear to him that he will, very well be punished, for his past deeds if Gwen makes Kar-el aware of them. 

…. In Ledgerdomian

Addwaitya was already waiting for them to show up on the other side.

"How is this possible? How can you produce magic equal to me?" he questioned Charmcaster in a baffled tone since he was using the Alpha rune during the confrontation.

"Go and prove to me that I made the right decision." Kar-el instructed Charmcaster as he looked at the floating turtle with a flaming skull.

Charmcaster nodded and stepped forward. Her magic was ever more powerful. She knew that the well of power from which she was now gaining power would never be over. If she were to lose now, it would only be due to her own deficiency in talent compared to Addwaitya.

Today she will not fight as she usually does. She used to carefully utilize every strand of mana because of her limited mana pool, unlike her archenemy, Gwen.

Today she will fight like Gwen, who as an Anodite has an almost unlimited amount of raw mana available to her. She rose into the air to meet Addwaitya, the realm of Ledgerdomian, humming to two different frequencies of magic.

The realm felt in itself that its master might change as a result of this duel.

"How dare you question my authority?" Addwaitya was not an incompetent man. He, in his prime, was considered the greatest magus in the universe. It was only after he got his hands on the alpha rune that he became lazy. Absolute power and no clear challenge, in his view, corrupted him.

He fired blast after blast of life-ending magical rays at Charmcaster. Some of them, Charmcaster skillfully dodged, and those that she could not dodge were deflected back to him.

"What happened? Is that all you've got? can't handle such vast power?" While attempting to use a large imprisoning spell, Addwaitya mocked her.

 "It took me months to master using the entire strength of the alpha rune. I do not know how you are matching its strength, but you will not be able to handle such strength at a moment's notice." He added, only to find that she hijacked his spell.

It was now aiming to trap him. In his anger, he broke the spell by empowering it with absolute strength.

"Playing these little tricks will only delay your demise." Addwaitya gritted his teeth.

Charmcaster chose not to reply and instead raised two large hands made up of rocks floating in Ledgerdomian to attack him. This assault continued for a few minutes, with Addwaitya always having the lead in battle.

 "It is now time to end this farce." Addwaitya remarked, finally ready to deliver the ultimate spell he has been preparing for a while now. Only this time, his spell disappeared into light particles, leaving him in shock.

"How?" He loudly exclaimed, perplexed.

Charmcaster finally revealed her cards. All this time, she was secretly fighting to gain control over Ledgerdomian itself, declaring it her personal domain that allowed her to restrict the use of magic from beings equal to her and below her. Since right now she matched her opponent in prowess due to the help of Kar-el, it was impossible for him to win this fight now. The battle quickly ended after that, with Addwaitya becoming a stone puppet that Charmcaster threw into an endless void, hoping that he would suffer for eternity to come.

….A few days later

"You have a few days to spend; I will be coming to fetch you," Kar-el remarked to Charmcaster, who nodded without any protest. He then turned to address Ben and the group.

"This trip might be unplanned, but it does fulfill its purpose. It is now time that I fulfill my duty as asked of me. I expect you to make it worth giving you kryptonian genes." Ben nodded and Kevin made a serious face, acknowledging the responsibility that comes with it.

Meanwhile, Gwen hesitated to say something that had been on her mind, but knowing the fate of Charmcaster, she refrained. To leave not only everyone she knows, but to travel to another universe with the possibility of never returning seems like a price she cannot afford.

She also understood that Ben's gaining his new aliens must have had some price that they are not aware of now. Maybe only the future will reveal what deal they made with this abstract being.

…Inside the land between places

Everything was dark, with no source of light. Not just that, even his other sensory organs failed Kar-el. It was impossible to tell where he was.

"Hehe... look at you. So pathetic, struggling to even find me. You should not have returned here. You think you can defeat me? Maybe a million years too soon." An emotionless voice reached Kar-el from all sides.

 "We shall see about that." Kar-el replied, believing in his heart that running would not solve anything.

"*Smirk* where are you getting this confidence from?" the voice asked, clearly perplexed.

"Do you not know?" It paused. "You merely adapted to the dark, but I was born in it, molded by it. Your inexperience in the dark sets us worlds apart. I will swallow you before you even realize it and feast on your primordial essence."

"You are right; this is all very new to me. This is your battleground and you know how to take advantage of it." Kar-el accepted as the life equation started to churn inside him, ready to spill out and shallow everything in its path.

"I have decided. There is no need for me to fight you on your terms; it will be me that will decide the terms." The equation by then erupted out of him and spread like a plague to every corner of this realm.

"What... what are you doing?" It latched on to Entropy's abstract form and started to bind him to a physical form, something that he was not used to.

Kar-el smirked and did not waste any time closing the gap and punching Entropy right across his face. Entropy flew into the void from the force of the punch, and Kar-el followed close enough.

Edited by AzuraD