Chapter Six: New Beginnings

About a week after Cory and Νεκρα made a name for themselves online they started to make enough money just live streaming every now and again to pay rent. They almost had enough money to move out, but before that Cory was ready to expand her little circle in the park to the rest of the forest. When she did, she happened to spot another meteorite streaking red across the sky. “who could that be?”

“Probably another one of your senior officers coming to check on us”

“fair enough” Cory and Νεκρα stood eyes fixed on the park in their casual clothes. She decided to use her magic on the forest as it happened and though the magic started out thin as the meteorite crashed into the original circle of mana infused earth an explosion of flora and fauna foreign to the earth filled the park and fantasy creatures the humans in this world had never seen before began appearing. “figures he’d be the next to show up”

“That man has no self-control” Πόλεμος had just arrived. The girls went out to meet with him as it seemed he’d need help adjusting. The two stood dressed fairly casually over the still-smoking crater in the now extremely extraterrestrial looking park. While there it almost looked like Cory got a slight bit taller. As the smoke cleared they saw the man who’d just arrived already kneeling in the crater as if he’d landed like that and as his knees began noticeably trebling he began to address them, “Sire, how many years did you think had passed since you left?”

“considering when Νεκρα got here one day had passed and she called it half a year I’d say about 15 or so”

“wait… it’s been a month here?”

“yes?” this man was the first to retain his clothes though his clothes were a full suit of plate armour and it seems to be currently still red from entering the earth’s atmosphere. As his crater too like the first two before them began filling up with water you could hear the sounds of his armour being quenched as if it had gone through a second unnecessary heat treatment. “are the joints of your armour OK?”

“I think they’ve either rusted or welded themselves together… or both”

“Are you sure your armour hasn’t just gotten too heavy for you?”

“My mana is almost gone”

“Perhaps if you had a bit more self-control you wouldn’t lose what precious little you gain the moment you get it.” As they spoke the news vans began parking outside the park and the girls had to drag the 7 ft. tall heavily armoured man out of the water-filled pit he’d become stuck in as he’d either drown or get discovered by the news who were currently too afraid to step into the park at the moment. All the regular plants were still there but it seemed that the new plants had either grown over the old plants or grown off of them.

The two both knew why it had taken so long for him to arrive. He’d probably threatened lesser magicians to learn and cast the spell to travel between worlds for him as he could never gather the mana necessary for that feat on his own, and as it was a very high-level spell it probably took him a while to find and train the necessary amount of casters to send himself after the two. “how much money do we have in total right now?”

“about enough to buy a small plot of land with nothing on it”

“How small?”

“We could probably build a toolshed on it”

“… what if we bought a plot of land in a state that wasn’t extremely expensive to live in?”

“We could probably get a small forest”

“how much mana do you have left?”

“I could probably carry us all to it”

“just taking Πόλεμος should be fine for now”

“Is there any reason you’re not addressing me by my full title?” the armoured and immobile man interjected “do to the culture of this world we’ve found it best to shorten our names until such time as we can move about more freely”

“It might also due to just call him Paul”

“good idea” the man in question frowned. “if that’s the case I’d rather not interact with these creatures until such time as it’s absolutely necessary”

“well unless you want me to waste a spell manifesting clothes for you that aren’t rusted and or welded together we may need to borrow regular clothes from one of these ‘creatures’ as you so eloquently put it.”

“my apologies then, please address me as thou wilt whilst I’m around them then”

“also simplify your speech no one talks like that here anymore”

“this world proves more difficult by the minute. I’ve no idea how you can bear it”

“we’re only here because Νεκρα predicted we’d find the man I seek here. Once we find him we can leave”

“as you wish my king” Cory felt a bit awkward being addressed as a king in her current world, but she couldn’t be bothered to try to explain why so she just left it as it was.

The two carried Paul back to the house where they had been staying and hidden him in their room while Νεκρα sought remote land in New Mexico they could buy for cheap… preferably on or near a forest, lest someone sees Paul and thinks He’s some kind of living statue. After which Cory took a moment to tell her dedicated fanbase over her favourite social media app that she and Νεκρα were moving to New Mexico… because it’s cheaper than New York by a large margin. “you want us to peel that armour off or do you think you’ll be able to fix it with what little mana you have left?”

“I can at least fix the joints so I can move somewhat… but it’d be embarrassing if you took my armour off for me”

“Why, did you forget to wear proper clothes under your armour again?”

“of course not! But… it seems my clothes turned to ash entering the world.”

“again? That’s happened to everyone who’s come so far.”

“Should we send a message back home to let everyone know we’re ok?”

“Why bother? If we send a spoken message it’ll be too slow for them to understand it and if we try to send it physically not only will it take too much mana it’ll just burn up when it gets there anyway.” Paul bowed his head and began using the last of his magic to help himself move about more easily though when he was finished, he walked about with the elegance of an 80s robot. “Should we go now or should we stick around a bit longer?”

“If one of your fans lives in New Mexico we may just be able to move somewhere for free”

“And if they try anything we can incinerate them and take their land”

“That’s the spirit!” and so the three decided to stick around in New York for a while to continue building up their mana for their trip now with greater ease than before as they had a place that was currently being surrounded by caution tape to build up their strength in. there are currently a few alien conspiracy theorists who have decided to ignore the police tape so if they're ever caught they’d just need to act a bit crazy to get out of the situation and no one would question it. The three had their plan and now they just needed to carry it out.