chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

"What?!" Ares yelled as he found everything mystifying.

~Earlier~

Ares and the dwarves were moving in an open grassland. After the hype from Ares' arrival had cooled down, the crowd had grown quiet and had lost their morale. They moved like they had no will to live and Ares couldn't be inconsiderate and ask why they were on the move while they felt low.

When they sat for a break, he tried to talk with YTA seeking answers.

"Hey, system… system! "

"…"

"Geez, in taunting me you are number one but when I come asking for help you are quiet." He said while taunting the now quiet YTA.

"What do you want?" asked the begrudging system. 

'We need to talk. How else can we meet?' Ares asked YTA who gave him an answer he wasn't expecting.

"Just quietly meditate and enter your subconscious state. You will find me there."

"…"

What is that supposed to mean? Meditate? Me? I have never done that.

Ares was furious. The system was constantly making him do things he didn't like at all in the name of quests! He couldn't have been any angrier!

'I have never done in this in my whole life! How am I supposed to try if I don't even know where to start?' he grumbled. 

Deciding to relax, Ares went under a tree and decided to take a nap but sleep deluded him. It seems he was disturbed by something.

"Why do you keep on staring at me like that?" Ares asked a curious little girl.

She had earthy brown hair and green eyes that shone with curiosity with cute little dimples adorning her face. But Ares knew better than to trust the physical appearance of a dwarf as they were known to grow not any taller than the average two-year-old human child.

"I was in a world of technology and evolution. Never thought I would end up in a fantasy world." He thought aloud as if informing the system of the blunder. YTA, on the other hand felt dumping everything and returning to Haven.

"Mister, are you here to save us?" asked the little girl and Ares didn't know what to say. 

He could simply say yes as he didn't know the implication of those words. What to do? Before he could think of something, the little girl got up, ready to leave.

"Never mind. Might as well rely on ourselves than an outsider." She said.

'Think, Ares, think!' he says to himself as he looks around.

Before he could save anyone, himself inclusive, he needed answers from the system. 

'How can I talk to YTA?' Ares thought. "I need to learn how to meditate!"

As he looked around, he spotted some of the more buff looking warriors separate themselves from the group and sit cross legged with their eyes closed.

'Could this be it?'

"Hey, little girl. What are those guys doing?" He asked.

"Oh, they are meditating. That's how most of us rest and grow our powers."

Meditation!

Ares had finally found his answer!

*

If any one were to see the current situation, they would think that Ares was bullying a little child yet in fact it was the opposite. 

"Why would you mess with me like that?!" Ares asked the little YTA. He felt like he could age even more with the way YTA was messing with him.

Apparently, YTA could speak to Ares easily through any means but he had told him to meditate instead.

"I had to test and see whether or not you were smart enough! I can't have dummies saving the multiverse! It's too much trouble cleaning up after them!" retorts YTA and Ares catches onto something. Ignoring the name dummy, multiverse catches his attention and he is dying to know what YTA means.

"What is the multiverse?' He asks with all the seriousness on planet earth and all he gets is trash talk.

"And I thought that you had gained some brains." Complained YTA while Ares wanted to go on a rage.

"What is your problem? One day, I was an ordinary teen with ordinary problems until one day you show up saying I have to go villain hunting! Now, all I am asking for is a simple explanation and yet you continue to undermine me!" 

Ares was furious! Everyone he ever knew was always calling him names and acting like he was the dumbest on earth yet he wasn't.

'I wish it could all end.' He thought as he slumped to the floor. 

YTA looked at him and thought that maybe he had gone too far in trying to push Ares. Hovering over to where he was, YTA wanted to reach out and give Ares a pat on the back but stopped his hand midair, deciding against it.

"For eons, the Maltimore bloodline has been tasked with protecting the multiverse." YTA started.

"Wait, eons? What kind of unit of measure is that?" Ares asked.

"It simply means, over a thousand, hundred thousand years."

"Whoa, that's a long time."

"Yes, yes. How do you think your great-grandfather is such an awesome person? Anyway, this world is not alone. There exist countless dimension and parallel universes and on each is a Maltimore family tasked with protecting their respective worlds. You have been tasked with protecting yours, hence my existence. I am to guide you on journey."

"This place, the region of sand, is a part of a pocket dimension that was created by an unknown entity and it is not with good intentions."

"Wait, wait, wait! Too much knowledge! Dimensions, systems, eons, dimensions, just what is going on?" Ares questioned, looking overwhelmed making YTA sigh. 

"Ok, fine. Let me explain slowly. This pocket dimension has thirteen realms; each being plagued with evil by villains. You should have met some by now. They are evil and all work for the person who created this pocket dimension. Your task is to stop all the villains, starting with Sand storm."

"Ok, let me recap that. So, basically I come from a long line of dimensional protectors and I have to protect ours currently as it is somehow under attack by defeating some villains…"

"Yes. That's pretty much it."

"What's it in for me?!"