Hou took a breath, "How long do you think we have? It should be some time since they've been trapped in the false world as long as it's existed "
The boy looked up, "The Devourers aren't predictable so anyway from a few years to a few more hundred."
"Come down, all of you..." Hou waved his hand and started to descend from the sky. He fell to a hilltop palace of the lone city within his new world, he would need to ask how to grow it.
He walked in, "Arm! I'll be back soon, just wait for me!" Then he looked back to the figures following him.
A child. An old man. And three blurry figures in suits, one visibly smaller than the others.
"We can...we can finally relax." He opened a door while sending Causality into the room, changing it to fit his purpose perfectly.
A roundtable formed in the centre and foods a d drinks created themselves. He came in and sat at the end, "Let's just discuss the game plan now."
***
"I've been meaning to ask, is there any other way to refer to you...people?" Hou was the one to speak up.
Though it was not the figures themselves to answer, it was the boy, "They are the Collective. A hive mind created from the Singular hence their unity. Though I've never seen such abberants before, I assume they can have some sort of name then."
"Never?"
"We can confirm that abberancy is...highly unusual. And likely to be destroyed, if found that is." The 'leader' abberant Collective answered.
The smallest abberant, presumably the one that used itself to heal Hamar was the next to speak, "We can assume identities for your ease, if you wish."
Hou nodded. When he looked at the smallest one he felt a pain in his heart; he's was indebted...at least he heard Hamar's last words, that was something he needed to thank them for.
"Thank you..." He said quietly.
"Huh? What?"
"It's nothing, so what should I call you?"
The small abberant rocked it's head side-to-side, then as it spoke it transformed. The blurry black mass vibrated and turned into a clear figure unobscured.
It took the form of a tanned child, like a farmer's boy. It spoke with a child-like voice, "I will be...Wadall. I took a look at some of the children in this World as inspiration for this form, is anything inadequate?"
Hou shook his head, "No that's fine," he looked to the other ones, "And you two?"
They closed their eyes and conjured within their mind image sof people they have seen. They took features and formed them onto themselves.
The blurry mass turned clear and they shed their inhumanity, looking indistinguishable to a normal man.
The first one grew a few inches, into a tall but fairly muscular boy. They were young and fair-skinned. They wore braided brown hair with their suits transforming into leather armour.
"My name shall be Beorn, It is nice to meet you all with this new form."
The other, instead grew shorter by a small amount, transforming into what looked like a middle-aged female warrior she wore a light white linen shirt with poofy sleeves and leather trousers, "I shall be named Lydia, I hope that we were right in abandoning our people."
Hou nodded with a smile, "You are already right. It does not matter whether we succeed, we have decided fighting is worth it...we must only hope we succeed in doing the right thing."
"I see, I apologise for my ignorance."
"No..." Hou smiled and recalled Hamar's last smile, "Just do our best…"
He slammed his palms onto the table, "So!" He looked around into the eyes of each member of the roundtable, "Let us first ask the boy, who are you really? And is there anyone you think nessacary at this table?"
The boy nodded and climbed into his seat, "My name is Xavier and I am, as Wadall, Beorn and Lydia know, a..." He waved his hands finding the word, "anomaly? I have this ability I have told you, being able to travel between worlds. But I do not understand how it works normally how I gained it. All I know–"
He fell through the chair he was handing on, it rippling in space. Then he appeared behind Hou, "Is that I can." He walked back over to his seat, "And yes, I do want to nominate someone to the table. And I believe you know who."
Hou nodded, "Araxis, the creator of the False World...perhaps the progenitor of all these problems," he tight ed his fist under the table, in some ways Araxis could be blamed for Hamar's death.
But that was too much, without Araxis creating the False World would Hamar even be 'Hamar'? He couldn't be blamed, "Nobody disagrees?" He looked at the roundtable for any opinions.
"The creator huh?" Zhou Tian tapped at the table's surface, "I haven't met the man responsible for me, this should be interesting."
"So...I assume that means we bring him in? If you would do the favours Xavier?" Hou proclaimed, injecting a small amount of Causality into his words, causing a chair to form at the roundtable, with perfect space for everyone else remaining.
Xavier nodded and fell down once more, then they waited. Hou took a cup of tea and started to sip it, taking in the flavours.
"It really is over, isn't it?"
Beorn took a piece of cake, "Not really...my liege? Is that what I should call you?"
"Do what you wish, but...it is really," Hou leaned back, "This world is safe, noone attempting anything...the False World's great war is...won, the True World is doing fine I assume..."
Hou smiled, "Of course we still have issues to solve, the big one being the Devourer of Worlds but...for now things can start to go back to normal. Especially for all my people."
Beorn stuffed the cake into his mouth, "I guess in that perspective, you're right."
Xavier popped back up from the rippling floor holding onto Araxis. A young boy with shagged brown hair holding onto a tall, old man with long white hair wearing a long white robe.
He held his staff and stabilised I to the new reality be set his foot upon. Hou smiled, "It is nice to see you again...thank you for your help with the Causality."
Araxis grumbled while stumbling to his seat, "It was no matter, anyway you're not really glad to see me exactly are you?"
He shared a knowing glance to Hou's almost-watering eyes. Hou has a special connection to Araxis, not to this reality of him but a memory he left behind...one memory which had become Hou's teacher.
"Still, thank you." Hou knocked on the table's hard wood surface, "So...what next?"
The roundtable was quiet for a while...
Beorn coughed, "We will leave and inform our people that we did what was needed, that should keep our plan safe from the Collective."