Path to the Apocalypse

The next few weeks passed in much the same way as that first day. The mornings were dedicated to exercises and drills, both slowly growing more complicated as their capabilities improved, while the afternoons were dedicated to skill training. The hour after lunch was dedicated to a different weapon every day of the week. Monday was for hand to hand, Tuesday was for daggers, Wednesday was for swords, Thursday was for pistols, then Friday and Saturday were for extra training or picking up a different weapon. Chris chose to pick up the bow, since it meshed well with his portals and wouldn't draw the attention of every creature in the maze like a gun would. Plus, guns always broke his portals when he tried to shoot through them. Beth doubled down on daggers and hand to hand, while Derek picked up a sword and shield combo, learning how to channel his ability through both. Carmen learned how to use a spear so she could support Beth and Derek from behind, while Nadia learned how to use little razor sharp disks with her telekinesis. As for Zack, he just got extra practice with his wind blades.

As for Chris's training with Jacobs, he'd learned that his barriers were solidly mid-tier, while the projectiles varied based on mass. The portal didn't seem to care how much was going through, but instead it cared about the speed of whatever was going through. Objects could get a little over six seconds of acceleration before they would break the portal, so since gravity accelerated everything at the same rate, more mass meant more power. However, more mass also took more effort from Chris, so there was a trade off to it. Trying to accelerate something as heavy as a bolder would probably wipe him out for the rest of the day.

As for the actual training, most of it was spent getting better at using his portals, primarily focused on getting better at managing the pressure. Over and over he'd send rocks falling through his portals, trying to get as close to his limits as he could before sending the rock shooting towards a target as accurately as possible. This was best done with two sets of portals, one to get the rock up to a decent speed, then another to catch the rock and send it at the target. Unfortunately, this meant that when he messed up and the rock broke the portals, he ended up with twice the headache. They also worked on his barriers, but Jacobs said he really needed defender training if he wanted to make the best use of them, and since he was already working on three different roles, he didn't have time for that.

Sundays were for practical exercises. The recruits were assigned tasks to complete as either a squad or a platoon and given varying amounts of prep time to devise a plan before being sent into an obstacle course designed to simulate the Maze to complete it. Afterwards they'd go over what they did with the Drill Sergeants, picking everything apart to find any flaws. Since the practical exercises didn't take the full day, usually only a few hours, Sundays doubled as a rest day, letting the recruits relax a little after a long week. It was also the only time Chris and Beth had any real opportunity to be alone together, Beth practically dragging Chris into the private section of his space for some quality time together every time. Going a full week without any time with just them was hard for her, especially after they finally said they loved each other.

A few weeks into the training, Chris arrived for his meeting with Jacobs to find a row of cages sitting along the wall. “Ah, Chris, there you are! Look, your new minions have finally arrived!” Jacobs exclaimed excitedly, waving him over. Chris walked over, checking out the cages. There were four, each with a different creature inside, all restrained so they couldn't make use of their abilities. “They managed to get you a cave wyrm with a mid-tier physique, a goblin with a mid-tier shadow ability, and a kobold with a mid-tier thread ability. They should help round out your ability nicely, if you can manage them.”

“What about the slime?” Chris pointed to the fourth cage.

Jacobs sighed. “That is a previous experiment I've never been able to get to work. You know slimes are capable of mutation, yes?”

Chris blinked. “They are?” Everything he'd ever learned about slimes just said they were useless and annoying creatures you were better off ignoring. You couldn't eat them and they were difficult to kill, but there wasn't much they could do to you either, so the best response to meeting a slime was to just walk away.

Jacobs frowned. “What are they teaching kids these days?” He muttered, shaking his head in disappointment. “Yes, slimes can mutate, improving their physique and their ability! If I could analyze what happens when a slime mutates, it could help us learn how to improve our own abilities and physiques! Unfortunately, no matter what I do, I can't get the damn thing to mutate! I've fed it every material I have, exposed it to a multitude of stimuli, and nothing! If nothing else, I figure your ability might be able to force the creature to mutate, but I also want to test whether your space can allow you to create connections for others, such as giving me control over the slime!”

Chris nodded. “Gotcha. So you want to start with that?”

“If we could, yes.” Jacobs agreed. “Help me get the cage into your space?” Chris opened a portal and the two of them moved the cage inside. Jacobs looked around as they set the cage down, this being the first time he'd actually entered the space. “Interesting… is that goblin playing cards with a slime?”

“Oh, yeah, but it's just war.” Chris waved dismissively. “Beth taught them and now they can't get enough of it.”

Jacobs blinked. “Your slime… enjoys playing cards?”

“Yeah?” Chris confirmed tentatively. “I mean, they just hold the cards and spit them out at random, then Dyrdek sees who wins, but it seems to make them happy. Is that weird?”

“Incredibly.” Jacobs smiled. “And it gives us new things to test! But first, this slime. See if you can connect it to me.”

“Alright…” Chris focused on his awareness of the two, considering what to do with them. He tried visualizing a connection between the two, mentally pushing them together, and just thinking really hard about connecting the two, but nothing happened. Finally, he tentatively reached towards his awareness of the slime and- “Ah, hell.” Chris sighed as the slime immediately connected to him, just like every other slime he'd tried to form a connection with. Why did they seem to like him so much? He paused as another thought occurred to him. “Wait…” He tried to shift the connection he had with the slime from him to Jacobs, but it didn't work. “Nope. Damn.” Chris clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“No luck?” Jacobs asked.

“Nope.” Chris shook his head. “It may be possible, but slimes kind of jump to connect with me, so I didn't have a chance to do anything with it.”

Jacobs blinked. “They do?”

“Yeah. The moment I touch them with my awareness, they just latch on.” Chris shrugged. “No idea why.”

“That's strange…” Jacobs muttered thoughtfully, before shaking his head. “No matter. We'll have to arrange a time for you to come by my facility so I can study the slime's mutation. Let's move on to the others.” Chris nodded, and the two of them moved the rest of the cages into his space. “Alright, let's start with the cave wyrm.”

Chris focused on the cave wyrm, taking in the creature for a moment. Cave wyrms were some kind of snake, lizard mix with long, serpentine bodies, two powerful forelimbs, and a head that was essentially just a giant mouth with a powerful set of jaws that could open almost one hundred and eighty degrees to reveal a maw full of grinding teeth, allowing it to tunnel through walls. They could grow to fill entire tunnels with their bulk, but thankfully this was a young one and it would take decades to get to that size. Still, the thing stood as tall as a dog, but thicker and almost two meters long, with a bite that could take someone's leg off without even trying. He shook his head, focusing his will on the cave wyrm and exerting some pressure to force the connection. “Got it. What now?”

“Do you feel any strain?” Jacobs asked.

“I felt a little getting it connected but now it's fine.” Chris replied.

“Hm.” Jacobs hummed. “Okay, let's let it out and see if anything changes.” He opened the cage, letting the cave wyrm out. “Give it some orders.”

Chris shrugged, sending the cave wyrm wandering around his space, doing a few loops before getting it to curl up in the corner as he turned to Jacobs. “Nothing.”

“Interesting.” Jacobs muttered. The cave wyrm was the strongest out of the creatures he'd received and Chris could handle it like it was nothing! Of course, it wasn't that powerful, just about the middle of mid-tier, since that was as strong as he could get, but still, an impressive feat. Even high-tier dominators couldn't control mid-tiers without any effort! “Okay, now the kobold.”

Chris shrugged, turning his focus to the kobold, concentrating on it for a moment, grimacing slightly as the pressure built, taking even more than the cave wyrm to force the connection. “Fuck.” Chris groaned as the connection finally snapped into place. “The hell is your problem?”

[You kidnapped me from my tribe!] The kobold growled back.

“I mean, not personally but yeah, no, fair.” Chris muttered. “Is that going to be a problem or are you good now?”

The kobold glared at him for a moment. [I will serve. But I won't be happy about it.]

Chris shrugged. “Good enough.”

“Care to explain what's happening?” Jacobs asked.

“Oh, she was a bit harder to connect with than I would have expected, apparently because she's still resentful over being kidnapped from her tribe. It won't be an issue though. She still has to listen, she just won't be happy about it. Which sucks for her, but there isn't much I can really do about it, you know?” Chris explained.

“And you know this because you asked?” Jacobs raised an eyebrow. “Are you certain she's telling the truth?”

“Yeah, I can tell.” Chris replied. “Something about the connection.”

“I see… fascinating.” Jacobs muttered, studying the kobold for a moment. “Let's test that then.” He opened the cage and undid the kobolds restraints, letting her out. “Give her a spin.”

Chris shrugged, sending the kobold walking around the space, feeling the displeasure practically radiate from her as she did as she was commanded. “Well… it isn't difficult, but she's clearly hating it, which I suppose makes things harder? Not a big fan of forcing people to do things they don't want to do.”

Jacobs blinked incredulously. “You- may want to get used to it. That's what your ability does.”

Chris sighed. “True… but still though.”

Jacobs shook his head. “You're a strange young man. Let's move on to the goblin.”

“Alright.” Chris agreed, focusing on the goblin for a moment as he forced the connection. Weirdly, it was even easier than the cave wyrm. “Huh… what's up with you?”

The goblin looked around nervously. [P-please don't hurt me!]

“I won't?” Chris replied.

The goblin looked almost dumbfounded. [You- won't?]

“Nope. You're good.” Chris assured her, grimacing slightly as she literally began to tear up over it. “It's okay? Can you just- not please?” Watching people cry made him uncomfortable. The goblin struggled to contain herself, failing as the tears turned to sobs. “Ah, shit, can someone-”

[Move!] The kobold growled, pushing him out of the way to get to the cage, pulling it open and crawling in to hold the goblin as she cried, making comforting sounds to soothe her.

Chris let out a sigh of relief as he turned to Jacobs. “Okay, what's next? I don't think I'm making her do anything for a while.”

“No, I suppose not.” Jacobs muttered. “Alright, next I want you to try and form a connection with this.” He announced, pulling out a rock.

Chris raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Jacobs replied. “You can open portals to things you're connected with, which means all you need to do is leave this rock somewhere, and you'll have permanent access to that place! Much better than leaving a creature that needs to be taken care of, wouldn't you say?”

“Huh… good point.” Chris muttered. He hadn't really thought about it, since there wasn't really any place he wanted permanent access to, especially since he'd furnished his space, but once he started working in the Maze, he was going to need to keep something in the City so he could make portals back. “Alright, hand it over.” Chris held out his hand for the rock. He probably didn't need to hold it, but he'd never formed a connection with an object before, and holding it would help him focus. He concentrated on the rock, trying to get an awareness for it like he did with the creatures before he connected with them, slowly feeling not only the rock, but everything else in his space come into focus, like he'd had his eyes closed and suddenly opened them. He reached out towards the rock with his awareness, pushing for the connection like he did with the creatures, and- nothing. He frowned, pushing harder, but the rock remained unresponsive, like there was nothing there for him to connect to.

Chris paused for a moment, considering what exactly he connected to with his minions. It had to be their mind, right? The rock had no mind, so no connection was formed. An idea occurred to him as he considered that. Whenever he died, the space brought him inside to heal. What if the reason that didn't happen for his minions was because he'd only connected their minds and not their bodies? The question then became how did he actually do that?

He refocused on the rock, trying to get some other sense of it, wondering what needed to happen. What else did the connection need… He blinked as it clicked. He needed the connection to be with the space, not with him! So how did he do that? He frowned at the rock for a moment, before sort of pushing it at the space, and it- disappeared? “Uh… huh.” Chris paused for a moment, looking around. Where the hell had it gone? He hadn't sent it out of the space, had he? “One moment.” He muttered as he opened a portal to look outside and yup, there was the rock. “Probably should have called that one.” He sighed as he picked the rock up. Pushing was for out, pulling was for in. He focused on the rock again, focusing on pulling it into the space this time and- it disappeared again! “The hell?” He checked outside again, but this time the rock wasn't there. “Where-?” He turned his focus back to the space, trying to find where the rock might have gone. As he searched, he felt another awareness open up, one full of information. Information on how to make a rock, his own body, and for some reason, several rats? Then he found the information on how much material he had to work with, which surprise, surprise, was just enough to make one rock, as well as- “Oh, shit!” Chris exclaimed, his eyes widening as he yoinked one of the cages into his space for material, and suddenly four rats appeared in front of him. “Holy shit, they are alive.” Chris muttered to himself, eyes wide. These were the same rats he'd killed in the Maze back at the beginning of the Trial!

Jacobs coughed, reminding Chris of his existence. “Care to explain what's going on?”

Chris shook his head. “Sorry, yes, uh… okay, so basically the connection I share with my minions is mental, right? So since the rock doesn't have a mind, I can't connect to it. But then I realized that it didn't need to be connected to me, it needed to be connected to the space, which I figured was possible since the space can automatically retrieve my body when I die. I tried pushing the rock into my space, but that just sent it outside, so instead I tried pulling, which… Well, the material was connected to the space, so I guess it worked? But then I found a… Well, I guess I have to call it a database, though that doesn't exactly feel right, of everything I could make with the material, which included the rock, myself, and these rats. I then found that I had a rock's worth of material and four rat… minds? Spirits? Whatever makes up a rat that isn't material. So I got more material, and the moment I did, they just kind of… popped out? So now they're alive again. Hence, holy shit.”

Jacobs blinked. “That's- you- anything connected to you is- immortal?”

Chris scratched his head. “I guess?”

Jacobs mouth worked wordlessly for a moment, his hands reaching back to look for a chair as his knees felt weak. Chris quickly yoinked one of the chairs into the space and remade it behind him, just in time for him to collapse into it. “Holy shit!” Jacobs muttered in disbelief.

“See? Not much else you can say to something like that.” Chris shrugged, opening a portal to the rats in the Maze so the revived ones could join them, making the portal to the training room smaller as he did, but not closing it so he wouldn't lose access to it. The rats scurried towards the portal and promptly bounced off of it, like it was a wall. Chris blinked down at them, then back at the portal, making sure he hadn't accidentally made a barrier. “Try again?” The rats did and he clearly saw them bounce off of empty space. “Okay, that might be an issue.”

“Huh?” Jacobs asked in a daze, clearly still overwhelmed by the idea of immortality, even if it came at the cost of serving Chris.

“They can't leave.” Chris explained, gesturing to the rats and the portal. “Hold on.” He made a few rocks out of the material he had available and tossed them at the portal, and just like the rats, they bounced off like it was a wall. He even tried pushing one through, and it was like he was trying to push through one of his barriers, pressure building as he strained against it. “Okay, now I'm lost.” Chris muttered with a frown. Clearly he was connected to the space and could leave just fine, so why couldn't anything else? He turned his awareness to his own body, wondering what was different. He paused as he realized his body wasn't made of material from his space. But then why was he pulled into it when he died? “I am so confused.” Chris sighed, shaking his head.

“What's going on?” Jacobs asked, still confused.

“Basically, things connected to me are immortal, but after they die, they're stuck in my space.” Chris explained with a shrug. “Not sure it's worth it.”

“Markedly less so, yes.” Jacobs released a relieved sigh as his internal conflict abated. Forced to obey Chris and stuck in this tiny space? Definitely not a legitimate option. “Still, a startling ability to be sure. I've never heard of any ability offering even limited immortality! Such a thing is unprecedented, even among the most powerful healing abilities! Though I suppose it would be limited by your age as well… still, an incredibly impressive ability.” He paused, considering the rats for a moment. “I wonder what purpose it could hold… reviving them just to keep them trapped inside… does having things inside your space benefit you in some way?”

“Not that I'm aware of.” Chris replied. “Dyrdek and Jello are in my space all the time, and I've never noticed anything different.”

Jacobs hummed thoughtfully. “Something to consider. It's rare that an ability does something for no reason. Later though… This session has left my brain a bit fried, I'm afraid. Let's pick it back up tomorrow, alright?”

“Sure.” Chris agreed. “Do you need the cages back?”

Jacobs shook his head. “No, they're yours. Do with them as you will.”

Chris nodded, pulling them into his space, along with all the restraints, and the rats, since he didn't see any use in keeping around four extra mouths that wouldn't even do anything for him, but they just popped back out again, so he guessed he was stuck with them. He closed the portal to the Maze and widened the portal to the training room so they could leave, pausing for a moment after Jacobs left to look back at his minions, specifically the three intelligent ones. “Can you guys understand each other?”

[We can.] The kobold confirmed.

“Cool, Dydek, teach them some games and show them the food they can eat.” Chris ordered. “Have fun, and I'll check on you in a bit, alright?” He gave them a wave, before stepping outside and closing the portal behind him.

The two new subordinates shared a look, wondering just what they'd gotten themselves into as Dyrdek walked over. [Welcome to the tribe!] He greeted them cheerfully. [Let's get you something to eat. Say what you will about them, human food is the best.]