258 The Beast Incident.

The Beast Incident, otherwise known as the Beast's attack on Brakebills.

It was a culmination of years of planning on the Beast's part, slowly manipulating the very fabric of dreams, fate and time. And one incredibly stupid mistake by four magical adepts.

Alice Quinn. The Bookish Girl. Or as the Great Cock called her in the show, the Torture Artist, because of her tendency to torture herself over dos and don'ts, hesitating at every step.

Why did she do that?

Because of her childhood. Born to a simp father and a narcissistic mother, she was always talked down to and belittled. As she put it, she felt like a mute, helpless girl.

That aside though, she was a bona fide genius, with the capability of becoming one of the greatest magicians to ever live. Even before Brakebills she was already a multiple degree holder and had several PhD applications in Physics pending for evaluation.

But she dropped all of that and came here, to Brakebills for one thing and one thing alone. To find out what happened to her beloved brother, the only family member she actually loved.

Just like her, Charlie Quinn was a genius too. But he was more of a hero type and died trying to save someone's life. Something she learns later on, after years of believing he committed suicide.

And so, she steals the unstealable, a key to the Brakebills wards and enters the exams at Brakebills, uninvited and passes with flying colours.

All to find out what happened to her brother.

And thus she brings this calamity on herself.

The ritual she does along with three others, trying to communicate with her brother in the afterlife, accidentally opens the door to the Beast, allowing him to bypass the wards at Brakebills.

Which brings us to, the other three culprits.

Penny Adiyodi. The Traveler.

A bad boy type character.

A jerk with a heart of gold. He was one of the main protagonists of the series.

He was a guy of Indian descent, adopted into a foster family and always had a chip on his shoulder from that. He thought that his only worth in life was to prove that he mattered by helping others.

A wholly toxic mindset that combined with his gruff and aloof personality and I-don't-give-a-shit attitude isolated him from the very people he had come to care about. Because he wouldn't ask for help, until it was too late. Because he expected that it should be him helping other and not the other way around.

And this trait along with his psychic powers made him an ideal target for the Beast. For years the Beast posed as his friend, a voice in his head that guided him through thick and thin. All so he could manipulate Penny to do his bidding. And then, yesterday, he got what he wanted. And unwittingly, Penny opened up the door to the monster from another world.

Then there was his girlfriend, at least in timeline 40.

Kady Orloff Diaz. Miss Sultry-And-Damaged. A girl who had been sold by her own mother to Marina, as payment for cleaning up one of her messes.

Now she did hard drugs and stole from Brakebills for Marina. A crime she would later be expelled for.

It was her who stole the Emerson's Alloy in the original show.

But this time, I took it for myself, so I can leverage Quentin into a slavish word as bond contract.

And that brings us to....

Quentin Coldwater. The Fool.

I don't think he needs any introduction. Think Deku from My Hero Academia but more depressed. The Byronic Hero archetype in a Shinji bodysuit.

As for his magical capacity, well, he could magic. That's the best way to describe him. Thoroughly average. Maybe a bit better due to experience with the adventures he went on and the geniuses he interacted with on the daily.

He was the lynchpin that pulled this shit sandwich together.

And so, we come here.

To the aftermath of what was supposed to be a fireside chat with the afterlife.

.

"So you said you saw it in your surveillance program?" Fogg asked in a hushed tone, checking back to see Professor Sunderland interrogating Quentin.

"Yup." I said, pointing at the small camera hidden in the corner of the room.

It was a dummy camera I had planted for exactly this reason. The real cameras were microscopic ones scattered across the campus.

I saw his suspicious looks and cocked an eyebrow.

"What? I like to secure my homebase." I justified, "Besides aren't you glad, I did? It helped didn't it?"

He just shook his head.

"I want access to the system. ASAP." Fogg was not pleased.

"Are you sure we can trust him? What's to say he didn't cause this on purpose?" Lipson accused, interrupting our hushed whispers.

"What do you have against me, Lipson?" I asked, "Is it that I remind you of your beloved Mayakovsky?"

Lipson had a not-so-small crush on Professor Mayakovsky. Or should I say Dean Mayakovsky. She had been in a relationship with him, actually, when he cheated on her with a student and got banished to the South Pole and she never got over him. Henry Fogg actually took his place afterwards which makes me suspect something fishy.

But then again, the internal office politics of Brakebills is none of my business.

Teasing Lipson on the other hand?

Hehehehe.

"I do speak some Russian. If you want, there's a spell I kn-"

A scalpel clanged against my forcefield, shattering to pieces and fell to the floor.

"Don't speak on things you know nothing about." Lipson warned with a murderous edge to her tone.

"Exactly. Don't speak on things you know nothing about, Lipson." I turned her words against her, and got a dirty look from everyone, "We all like to be given the benefit of the doubt. And I'm sure, we all like to be accused when there's evidence." Lipson pursed her lips as Sunderland put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head.

I smiled and pressed on.

"So, do you have any? No? Thought so." I grinned, seeing her face twisting in doubt, "Well then, I'll take my leave."

"Wait!" Henry said, following after me, "We didn't finish our discussion."

"What's there to finish?" I asked, "Let Sunderland investigate it. Tell me if you find anything that requires my help."

Fogg leaned in closer and spoke softly.

"Why not show them the evidence?"

"Why don't you? Oh, right! Because of our contract." I teased earning a glare from him, "Sheesh. Fine. I have a reason I'm not revealing the evidence."

"And what's that?" He asked.

"Because it will lead to questions you don't want asked. Might even expose the machinations of our little watch bearing friend. And I think none of us want that now do we?"

He thought over it for a moment and nodded.

"Let's see how the investigation pans out and if Sunderland doesn't find anything, she can come to you for help. And you know what to do then."

"Of course." He agreed, "I will talk to Jane about her changes."

"And their consequences." I gestured at the room behind us.

"And the consequences."

"Good." I smiled.

"Now can we talk about where you have been? What part of our bargain were you fulfilling. I think I deserve to know."

"Investigating the Beast. In Fillory."

"And what did you find out?" He pressed.

"Nothing. Well, except that the sky is ashen, the land is dying, and the Beast is somehow still considered the rightful ruler of Fillory, vis a vis, no quests out for his head." He frowned and nodded, gesturing at me to go on, as we walked down the stairs.

"Also, as you might have noticed, the magic is dying. Well draining is more like it. The Beast has been taking generous gulps of the Wellspring. It's almost at a critical level now. You might soon start to notice the quantity of magic dropping. Even a few blackouts if nothing is done about him by the year's end."

"Anything else?" He asked.

"No. Nothing in particular."

"If you find anything."

"You'll be the last to know." I snarked.

"Can you take this seriously?" He scolded.

"I risked my life going to Fillory. I'd say I am taking this pretty seriously. And now, I need a well deserved break and my beauty sleep. So, buh-bye!" I said, waving him off, and sped off back to my room.

The Beast was crippled, Quentin is in deep shit and I am free from the influence of time magic and the library.

Now I just need to wait and watch as the prize falls right into my lap.

I smiled.

Could things go any better for me?

Well yes. They could.

If I could find Wanda and get her back here.

What's she even doing out there?

I turned to the portal gun that had been constantly shofting through dimensions looking for Wanda and checked the records.

No current locations of Wanda were on rceord but it did find some useful worlds out there.

Arifureta for example was one such world it coincidentally breezed through one time, as was some version of Dragonball Z if the capsule corp logo was to be believed.

I only recognised the two because the portal it opened in Arifureta was smack dab in the middle of Ehit's temple and Nointe, one of his many battle dolls encountered it.

She even tried coming through, only for her arm to be cut off by the portal.

I picked up the arm from the pile of debris on the floor and checked it out.

Th skin was marbled and smooth yet somehow soft and supple.

And the flesh was ripe woth magic. I could almost taste the magic coming off of it, my devouring instincts acting up.

I shook my head and opened a pprtal beneath the pile of debris on the floor and flushed it all into another dimension I had picked for temporary storage and waste disposal.

No signs of Wanda yet.

Maybe my equipment needs an upgrade?

Hmm... Maybe. Yes.

Just then, my phone buzzed with notifications.

I picked it up and saw a lot of desperate texts frm Julia, begging me to give her another chance and even some nudes.

Damn girl, have some shame!

Though, I'll still keep them.

Eye candy is eye candy.

There were also a couple of texts from John asking if I was back.

I had informed him of my plans for a trip to someplace and given him a generous helping of homework to do so he wasn't as desperate, but he was still worried.

Such a nice guy!

I'll call him back later. For now, let's get some sleep-

"Open up dickwad!" A voice came from outside.

Oh boy! They're here.

And I doubt they'll let me nap peacefully. I could always mute the sounds in the room but I'd rather not sour relations with the future piggy bank of magical shit, High King Eliot.

So....

I undid the wards and stepped outside.

Time to face the music.

____________________

And so we come to the end of episode 1 of the tv show.

Yup. All this happened in one episode.

There's 70 plus more to go.

Welcome to the Joyride.

Just kidding. It won't take that long. MC is going to get shit done fast. Not speedrunning fast but fast enough.

Next time, the consequences of Quentin's stupidity bring him into the MC's grasp and then, Arifureta.

Till then, see ya!

Sorry for the late chapter.

Thanks for reading.

Next extra chapter at 200 powerstones, but no hurry my dudes.

Am going to sleep now.

Bye~