9 9: Futurama! Today we present The first trip in the multiverse.
After a brief flash of light, Ciri and Samus appeared next to what appeared to be a path created by the constant traffic of vehicles and people. Although the area itself was deserted, the presence of trees, bushes, and general nature provided a unique sense of peace.
Samus pulled out several items of clothing from her personal space, eventually landing on an orange blouse and jeans, but the technology-looking gloves never left her hands. In front of her, the T-Path hovered, the machine seemed to be sending some unidentifiable impulses into the environment, and after a few minutes, a mechanical voice emerged from it.
"No satellite or radio signals detected. There is no discernible signal on the entire planet, but abnormal levels of 'magical energy' signatures are detected, although further verification is required," these words indicated that this world was not only backward but also possessed magical elements.
The weather was getting really bad, storm clouds were gathering and it looked like it would rain soon, so the two girls decided to run down the road, trying to get to a village or town before the water hit them. And well, it looked like they were lucky because shortly after the rain started, they met a strange person on the road.
He was not strange because he was wearing a hooded trench coat, nor because of the sword hilt sticking out of his back, no, what was strange was that he seemed to be altering the energy around him as if he was sending out signals to attract something. The man, showing off his heightened senses and alertness, turned to see the woman standing 10 meters away.
"What do you want?" the man asked in a hoarse voice as he brought his arm, which seemed to be the only one he had, to the hilt of his sword, his eyes looking alertly at Samus and Ciri, two strangely dressed women.
"You..." Samus recognized the person standing in front of her, how could she not? It was the protagonist of one of her favorite manga, and knowing what world they were in, she drew her staff without hesitation.
Samus' staff was a metal rod engraved with two intertwined snakes. Part of the staff's body was carved with lines and symbols, giving it an exotic appearance. Seeing Samus draw her weapon, Ciri almost unsheathed her blades, but a gesture from her companion stopped her.
"Are you the black swordsman?" asked Samus knowingly, but she had to break the ice some way.
"Who's asking?" the man replied with another question, but that already served as a positive answer for both women.
"You attract strange things, don't you?" asked Samus, causing the man's brow to furrow in obvious anger, but also in weariness.
"GO A WIZARD!" a high voice broke the tense atmosphere, a small humanoid creature with wings on its back and a curious look on its face flew towards Ciri and hovered around her.
"I've never seen anyone so in tune with spiritual power, though in you it's a rare thing, it's very wild and different in nature, but I couldn't mistake a wizard when I saw one!" the small creature said, attracting the attention of the three humans present.
"A wizard, you say? Nonsense," the man growled, looking at Ciri strangely.
"Little friend, what are you?" asked Ciri, holding out her open palm for the creature to land on.
"I'M PUCK, AN ELF!" the little thing shouted, full of energy, causing Ciri to raise an eyebrow.
"You're not like the elves I know," she replied, causing Puck to bow his head in sadness.
"Do you know any other elves? SURELY THEY ARE NOT AS COOL AS ME," the little thing said tearfully, as if Ciri's comment had offended him, when in fact he was the sad one, misunderstanding the girl's words and making up his ideas.
"You are much cuter and cooler than them," Ciri said, she had no good feelings towards the elven race, especially those who had chased her across several worlds to turn her into a breeding mare.
"There is no cooler elf than me, the great Puck," the little elf said without the tears he had shed, now proudly displaying his bare chest, then looked up at the man, feeling that he was turning his murderous intent on him.
"Don't look at me like that, Guts! They are harmless, they have a very pure presence and peaceful emotions," Puck said to the man who was called Guts, but you already knew that, didn't you?
"They may be harmless to you, but the girl carrying you has two swords on her back that have surely seen blood, and the blonde next to her has the posture of an experienced and powerful warrior," Guts spoke from experience, though there might have been more to his observations.
Samus noticed the strangeness in Guts, who was not like other humans the man before her felt like... a beast, a beast that pushed the limits of humanity. Her sixth sense told her that a huge one-eyed creature was staring at her with bloodlust, and her pupils dilated when she saw it.
She saw the Beast of Darkness.
This strange creature was born from Guts's psyche, fueled by his negative emotions and Guts's apparent talent for the supernatural, even before he was marked.
Samus saw the Beast of Darkness savoring his weapon and exuding a strong desire for her body, not only did he want to tear her apart, but he also wanted to vent his baser instincts on her body while brutalizing her, and that didn't please our blonde at all. So her eyes narrowed and a terrifying aura came out of her that made the monster take one last look at her before he disappeared.
"Samus, what's wrong?" asked Ciri, a bit worried by the sudden action of Samus, who had released her 'aura', a concept she had learned in the last five years. It wasn't something supernatural, everyone has an aura, something that arises according to your thoughts, strength, occupation, and actions.
A mother has a warm aura that can soothe her children, a wolf has a predatory aura that scares rabbits, and a fighter has an aura that can intimidate the weakest. What Samus unleashed was her aura, one filled with debauchery, weirdness, and ferocity, all because of the lifestyle she led.
"Nothing, I just scared an annoying dog," Samus said dismissively as she waved her alchemical wand, directly affecting the world's energy.
Samus directed the surrounding energy, carving some symbols into the ground, and then a strange energy began to surround her and the others in a rain-forbidding hood, which had begun to grow much stronger as time went on.
"YOU'RE A WIZARD TOO!" shouted Puck, who flew excitedly around Samus' body.
"No, I'm just an alchemist, that was an energy manipulation to separate the water into its basic components so it wouldn't fall on us," the strange words made Puck's head hurt, so he flew towards Ciri again.
Samus then focused on Guts again, who was still alert, nothing that happened pleased him, but even though it seemed that these women were not harmful to him, he had suffered at the hands of a person who did not seem dangerous at first, and ended up ruining his life completely.
Remembering the man's glowing face, Guts clenched his teeth tightly as anger and hatred consumed his heart. Samus noticed this change in Guts and didn't know why it happened, but with her keen senses, she knew that the swordsman was injured, so she took a test tube from her personal space.
"Here, a health potion I made, it will heal your wounds," Samus told him before throwing the test tube at him, not worrying about it breaking, even if it fell to the ground nothing would happen to it.
Guts caught the object and found it strange, he knew about glass, an expensive material, he didn't think that a strange woman found on the street would have such a valuable object with her, besides he was doing that strange thing of pulling objects out of thin air again, something that interested him.
"I guess I'll try it, if I die from the poison, it will be my fate, I guess..." Guts uncapped the potion and drank it in one gulp, feeling that its taste was quite different from those nasty medicinal soups, it tasted sweet.
"It tastes like strawberries," Samus said, noticing that Guts seemed to be immersed in the aftertaste of his potion, something he was proud of.
He didn't know what the hell strawberries were, but he guessed it was some rare and expensive medicinal ingredient. Soon he felt a gentle warmth spreading from his stomach to all parts of his body. The wounds he had were healing and even the fever he had started to get had subsided.
"I think... thank you," Guts was a little embarrassed, so he tossed the vial back to Samus, then felt he needed to say something else.
"Be careful pulling things out of the air, especially if it's something as valuable as crystal, people might try to hurt you..." he also had a good sixth sense, so he could sense the aura Samus had released earlier, he also had his own.
He'd only ever felt the same thing with powerful warriors and those damn monsters, and if Puck didn't feel anything, he guessed they were strong people or mages, whatever they were. He looked at the raindrops falling and melting into nothingness, then at the symbols Samus had placed on the ground, feeling a slight interest in them.
He didn't know why, but after a long time, he felt relaxed and tense, something rare for him, not knowing that the potion he drank was a special edition made by Samus that contained natural and non-addictive relaxants to ease the body's recovery.
"We should find a shelter, one where I can place my talismans properly so that we can be properly protected," Samus said with a bit of urgency, she didn't want to be here when the canon happened, she didn't want some poor girl to die because of Guts, even if it would change the causality the Skull Knight talked so much about.
"That's a good idea," Ciri noted the urgency in the tone, she had lived with the blonde long enough to understand the nuances in her voice.
The idea was accepted by Guts and Puck, so they turned off the road and into the trees. Minutes later, a wagon passed, carrying a man and his daughter, who continued on their way, unaware that they had escaped certain death. This small change in events started a small snowball that would soon change the course of known history.
Among a group of trees, Samus began to place small pieces of metal with lines and symbols scrawled on them, or so Guts saw when he went over to look curiously, and felt that seeing these things gave him a headache, so he averted his gaze.
"Oh, looks like someone else suffered from curiosity," Ciri said mockingly, knowing that anyone curious enough to see the weird things Samus wrote on her talismans would end up with a migraine, including her.
"I only see symbols that invoke protection against the evils of nature, monsters, ghosts, and... what's a robot ghost?" Puck, displaying the classic elven affinity for the supernatural, explained what he was seeing, even if he didn't understand what race a robot was and why his ghosts were different.
"Y... will that be enough?" whispered Guts, worried, he hadn't warned these women about their situation because at least the blonde seemed to understand, but now he was thinking about the danger of being with him at night.
"Oh, I'm using the best I have, we'll be fine unless..." Samus didn't finish what she wanted to say, but Ciri did it for her.
"Unless it's a supernatural being of considerable strength," her words quieted the atmosphere, and Guts breathed a little more freely, those powerful monsters won't come near him so easily, only mobs will.
"Now, how about we introduce ourselves properly?" asked Samus, making everyone look at her.
"Fine, I'll go first," the blonde said with some annoyance, but she liked the attention she was getting, especially from Ciri's green eyes, so she didn't mind, she just had to pretend.
Pretending to be nonchalant is getting harder and harder," Samus complained to herself, feeling as if the soap operas had lied to her.
