Kyrion had been brought to the surface only to ride in a car for thirty minutes. The sun was nearly up, and he was exhausted. He and Cecil’s dad approached a new-looking house with a square, modular look. Many similar houses sat next to it, leaving little room between them.

“Huh, I haven’t lived outside of a dormitory in a while. But this is odd. Where are they supposed to grow their food?”

“People don’t often grow their food out here.”

“Why?”

“Many prefer to spend their time buying said food from stores.”

“I see. What a waste…Wait I sense vegetables two houses over. Ah many must not know how to grow food.”

“Something like that.” Cecil’s dad rang the doorbell.

Ding!

Kyrion jumped back in surprise, looking left and suitable for a sudden ambush. His expression was viscous.

The door was opened by a tired individual with gray hair, gray eyes, and abnormally pale skin.

“Huh? Who are you, and why are you here so early on a Sunday?”

“I’m looking for Gram, he’s supposed to be my guardian. Are you Ju–”

The young man squinted and added, “So you know, God is dead. Hail the tentacled overlords from the sky.”

“How do you know about the sky tentacles?” Kyrion asked in surprise, as he had briefly seen them in the place between worlds.

“We aren’t with any religion Julian. I’m a friend of your father’s.”

“Dad’s been in his workshop all night, I wouldn’t disturb him. Also, My name is Kilo, don’t get it mixed up again. Julian is our vacuum cleaner.”

“Tell him it’s important.” Kyrion stated.

Kilo looked up at the giant as his eyes opened. “Oh? What do you have to eat to get that big?”

“Everything. Now, can you tell him that we’re here?”

“He already knows.” Kilo looked to the side at a camera.

“Eh?”

Kilo pointed at the camera to prove his point. “He just doesn’t think you’re more important than his research.

Kyrion looked at Cecil’s dad. “Is he your brother?”

“In a way, but not biologically.”

Just then, a voice spoke from a box on the ceiling. “So, what do you need, Cedric? Your popping up is like my allergies—unnecessary, annoying events I must tolerate.”

“Sounds like an older brother.”

“He’s about forty years my senior and the father of modern day magitech, and the owner of various scrapyards.”

“If you want to learn about crafting or push the envelope when you go back home he’s who you need to learn from.”

“Didn’t you tell me you’d bring Cecil here on his birthday? Why bring some random brat?”

“You know, Cecill died, actually you may not have read that letter seeing as you didn’t visit the memorial.”

“I was first to visit the scene, some deity used an unknown type of magic to whisk them off to another world.”

“I didn’t believe you.”

“I’m well aware…wait.”

“This boy comes from the same world Cecil does. I believe it’s the same universe that you originate from as well.”

“The War of Eight Moons. What is he doing here?”

“I’m good friends with Cecil and have a vested interest in helping him succeed with his dreams. Mostly… Actually I’m more concerned about this world’s culinary pursuits. I’ve been told meat lovers pizza is like the best food in this world.”

“You remind me of a glutton I used to know. Only his hair was red with skin much lighter.”

“Oh.great… I’m sure I have no relation to them in any way.” Kyrion said sarcastically.

“If you were, it’s possible I may have had to eliminate you. You know, oaths and all. Then again, that would be because you would have been related to the demon lord.

“Uhhh…” Kyrion’s eyes went blank as he scowled.

“But what are the chances that the son of my most hated enemy would come to ask for my help.”

“I heard that his son died while at sea and he no longer has any male descendants. Well… he does, but that’s due to body snatcher mischief. “

“You sure know a lot.”

“It’s a well known history back home.”

“Is that right?”

“Umm…O.k…Mr.CeCe. Do you know anyone else I could stay with? I don’t think this is going to be safe.”

The speaker came back on. “So you know, I was mostly joking. I did know your uncle, a version of him was like a younger brother. Their union was willing, but I was informed that he was known as the Demon Lord of Imala. He got that title when he eliminated over a hundred experts from his own world when he discovered that they were committing atrocities to mine. But I suspect you are a scion of the Death Tyrant.”

“That would mean that… Dwen.”

“I’ve been aware. My only question is this. Why did you come to this world?”

“I wasn’t planning on coming here yet, as I am unable to travel freely between the various worlds? Multiverse?”.

“We like the term planes. Each plane branches out from the original. Our earth is in the second branch, your plane branches off from the third although that branch is incomplete. The others after are fixed but backsliding slowly due to a lack of stability.”

“Right. I can’t travel through planes on my own as of yet. I also came here to take my sister back home. If she’s willing, I have no intention of causing you trouble. That was a lie, if I didn’t want to cause trouble I wouldn’t be me.” Kyrion sighed.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Kilo, bring the kid to my workshop.”

Kilo rolled his eyes and motioned for only Kyrion to come in.

“What about me?” Cedric asked.

“You can drop the information pack on the welcome sign.”

Cedric did so, watching in fascination as a shute opened up and the packet slid down.

“Guess we aren’t on meeting terms.”

“No we are not. You can see him next Saturday for an interview. We have important work to do.” The door closed behind Kyrion, and Kilo led them forward.

As Kyrion walked through the larger-than-necessary house, he stopped suddenly as a circular beast rolled across the carpet, eating up dust.

“Kilo? You have a monster on your floor.”

“You mean Grover? He’s our AI floor cleaner. Sometimes he makes messes just to clean them up when he gets bored.”

“So Grover is a housekeeper.” Kyrion walked around the vacuum cleaner.

“Right now, but you see that over there.” Kilo pointed to a metallic body resting. The only part missing was its head.

“Oh, so the head goes back on and it can walk around.”

“Yeah…Dad made some alterations to the original design.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“I imagine that something like this is amazing to someone like you.”

“No, not really. I would just set up a cleansing field using a few plants and an array. Your way juse seems wasteful.”

“That’s setting up three things to do one. This is a multipurpose machine that can clean a house and even fight off intruders. Not that it’s needed since we moved her. But it could!”

“Fine, it’s cool. I just don’t trust it. Monsters like that look like they’re trying to eat me.”

“Grover only eats trash. Unless he’s in lawnmower mode.”

“How can you tell that Grover is a he?” Kyrion looked at the circular robot.

Kilo slowly blinked before dodging the question. “Anyhow, let’s see fathers workshop.”

Leading Kyrion down the hall with surprising ease. Kyrion considered dragging his feet, only to briefly lose balance. This Kilo was quite strong for someone of his height and build. But his hands felt off.

“Your hand is cold.”

“Hmmm?”

“Your hand is cold, and it doesn’t have a heartbeat.”

“I am, it’s complicated.”

“Will it be explained on arrival?”

“I hope so.” Kilo placed a hand on an unmarked portion of a wall and watched as a doorway magically appeared. No, it didn’t feel like magic; the phenomenon was purely technological.

A stairway going down was visible, and within moments, the duo made their way into a large laboratory full of various vats and machinery. The sounds of gears rotating and fans blowing created an odd ambiance. The smell was of disinfectant. The entire area smelled clean, but not through natural means.

Kyrion opened his senses to detect life, but only for two pings to go off. Kilo didn’t ping, nor did the man with gray hair and glasses. As he turned around, Kyrion took a step back.

The man looked like an olive-skinned version of his father in terms of bone structure and facial features. His gray hair fell to the side of his face, and his sickly-looking red eyes looked him over.”

“What’s going on?” Kyrion asked.

“Technically, I’m your mother’s husband.”

“But you aren’t my dad. Though you look kind of like him.”

“Kind of. Which one are you? The homunculus or natural born?”

“Natural born.” Kyrion didn’t hesitate.

“Then yes, by some technicalities I am partially your father. And yet there are no blood ties.”

“So you’re one of my dad’s shards. Is that why he isn’t an expert?”

“No, that has more to do with our personalities. He could go to the world above, but he’d prefer to stay with family, then repeat the process of gaining power again. For example, I came to this plane, mostly willingly.”

“So dad is the sentimental type. Wait… Why did you come here?”

“This isn’t the first time you came to this world. Well it is but…How to say it. Forty years ago, we met and you told us of a plan to sacrifice yourself for the sake of your family’s survival. Twenty five years ago, I met the homunculus who I gave some directions to, along with information. He was fighting an entity powerful enough to shift through planes at will, and tried to buy themselves some time. Now here you are, third in line, much younger than the two before and yet wiser in so many ways.”

“If I’m wise then the other two were fools. Which is both concerning and surprising.”

“You aren’t surprised that I’m in a machine instead of my own body.”

“To be fair, I can do that with my own mind and shards. Although doing that without something to keep my body alive is suicide. Which is why your bodies are in those vats behind you.”

“Got it on your first try, wiser indeed.”

“No you just aren’t all that clever. Or I can see his tells in you, although you are much better at hiding them.”

“I was a professional back home. So then, what can you do with the ingredients on the table and your mana.”

Kyrion eyed the various tools and implements, sighing as he separated the metal bits into categories. Sharp, smooth, round, solid, and catalyst, there were lots of useful parts, but Kyrion was a beginner at best when it came to making gadgets on his own. Still, he did enjoy making things that looked like other things.

Within the hour, he’d made a large metal coconut tree capable of turning excess energy in the atmosphere into diamonds. This was an annoyance, as he wanted it to grow fruit.

“Ugh…” Kyrion looked over his runework and scowled, unsure where he messed up. If only he could have used actual plants. That would have worked better.

“Did you just find a way to end global warming while increasing wealth?”

“Wealth? It just makes diamonds. It works by compressing excess mana in the atmosphere and converts it into a fruit capable of restoring mana. But all diamonds are good for holding excess toxic energy, you need someone to draw it out for it to be of any use or place it in a magitech device as a power source.”

“You made a device capable of producing multiple filled catalysts out of an energy that is slowly causing harm to the planet.”

“I wanted it to grow fruit.” Kyrion crossed his arms.

“Do you know how much a filled catalyst sells for in this world?”

“No.”

“Five hundred thousand dollars. Each. They are a green energy source capable of powering mega cities for ten years. Which is actually cheap, considering how much most cities spend on energy. Other sources would cost them around sixty one billion, for an entire year.”

“So… We’re getting chump change for something stronger than any other source?”

“Yeah. But we also currently have to be careful who we tell. The underground cities also tend to need these more, with smaller budgets. But if you could reproduce this, we’d be able to replace every nonrenewable energy source with one of these.

“Until it runs out of carbon and you’re stuck out. Not that it would matter. By the time they do that you won’t be worrying about energy.”

“Why is that?”

“Your world is in danger of being destroyed sooner rather than later. Threats are coming and I don’t know if your world is ready to stop it.”

“Huh. What do you plan to do in your free time after school?”

“I really have to attend a school?”

“Yeah. At least for a month, and regularly.”

“Fine. Well I wanted to enjoy my vacation.”

“Do you mind getting involved in the inhuman experimentation being done on kids and teenagers to create espers?”

“To help or end?”

“Up to you? Their goal is to awaken parts of the mind previously unreachable via technology, and experimental drugs.”

“So it wants to turn people into mages?”

“There’s a difference between Espers and Mages.”

“Doesn’t sound like there is.”

“Espers manipulate natural phenomena. Their power is limited by their mental focus. Magic creates and controls unnatural phenomena via mana.”

“So Espers are weaker.”

“On paper, kind of, if the experiments stopped there then it wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Ah, they’re looking for a way to put a source inside their bodies, to be manipulated.”

“Yes. Which is partly why we’re in these pods. They act as biomonitors and a defense against Esper assassins.”

“Sounds fun.” Kyrion sighed,

“Great. I’ll have dinner delivered shortly? How much can you eat?”

Kyrion’s sad expression faded as the food was brought up. “All the food.”