Mark of the Fool
Chapter 531: Heroes Across Time and Space

Blue light flashed along the object’s side, startling Alex, it glowed almost the same shade of blue as Isolde’s lightning bolts. He fumbled the metal and glass rectangle, almost dropping it—relieved when it didn’t hit the ground.

He held on tighter, “That was clo–” Suddenly, an odd buzzing from the device, and a strong tremor shook his hand, startling him again, but this time, the artefact went into free fall, landing in his lap and not on the parched ground. “Thank the Traveller,” he whispered. Would it have broken? He wasn’t sure, but it was made of glass and felt fragile, so he wasn’t taking any chances. Besides, it might be something that exploded on impact, he wasn’t sure about that either, so better safe than dead in the afterworld blown to tiny pieces.

He picked up the object, this time holding it closer to his lap, if it fell again, it wouldn’t have far to fall. Alex glanced around the dead-end passage, checking for unwanted company. He was alone.

His attention went back to the blue light.

…except, it was no longer a blue light.

The side of the artefact had transformed into what looked like a small painting in the likeness of a young woman who was hugging another young woman around the shoulders. Both were smiling: one was dark haired, with a round face and chubby cheeks. Her smile was broad and she looked like her ancestry could be traced back to Tarim-Lung or one of the other countries in that part of the world.

The other woman had sharp facial features, she was holding a staff inscribed with glyphs. Green hair fell down her shoulders.

But Alex’s eyes lingered on the first woman.

Something about her…seemed familiar.

He called on the Mark, focusing it on recalling certain human facial features: especially, bone-structure. Vivid memories of the Traveller’s desiccated body came back to him.

The bone structures of the two women were almost identical.

Alex’s breath caught. “This must be of Hannar-Cim when she was young—”

As soon as those words left his mouth, the image vanished, replaced by a lock. Panic struck.

What just happened?

Had he activated some sort of defence?

He examined the image of the lock…

…and inhaled.

There was a tinyactivation button inside the artefact—he could feel it—like on a device that worked by mana manipulation. Except, this had one key difference. Mana wouldn’t activate it.

The lock called for the strange power within him…and by now, he’d learned enough to recognise what was inside him for what it actually was: the Traveller’s power. He no longer doubted that.

Alex stretched his hand out, placing a finger against the symbol of the lock, then he reached out. Inside, the energy shifted, and the lock flew open with an audible click.

Without warning, the image of the two young women appeared…three symbols floated before them. The first showed a device that—unsurprisingly—he’d never seen before: it was shaped like a rectangle, but it had a telescope’s lens in the centre, pointing directly at him.

The second was a map of an unknown region of some world.

But the third was the one Alex found most interesting: it was a square containing a series of symbolsfloating inside, and it was constantly moving. Out of all of the characters, he recognized just three.

One looked like a character from one of the tongues of demons he’d studied. Another was from a language of the elemental plane of earth.

The last?

Alex turned to the Traveller’s book, excitedly opening it to the first page. “There it is… there it is! I think they’re the same symbols as in the book!”

He was almost giddy.

This could be it. He could finally get some of the answers he’d been looking for!

He pressed the symbols in the square. Instantly, the image was replaced by a series of glyphs floating over a painting of a swirling sea.

Alex frowned, examining each letter carefully. Some were clearly from the same language that was in the Traveller’s book, but others were new. He called on the Mark, focusing it on every tongue he’d learned or studied in the past two years.

It gave him nothing useful.

There was no language that he’d come across so far that was even remotely similar to the characters in front of him.

“Hmmm…” he murmured. “What does this mean? Okay, let’s see…look for any characters…any that might be helpful…hold on a minute now.” He was getting excited as he examined the bottom of the screen: there, hidden in the bottom right corner were symbols from the elemental tongue of earth, a celestial language, and a lot more.

Holding his breath, Alex gently pressed the symbol for the elemental tongue.

Most of the unfamiliar symbols vanished, leaving only the Traveller’s symbols on the right…and on the left…

He stifled a gasp as he read:

Welcome to Hannah’s Translation Book, powered by Hannah-OS! What would you like to translate, Hannah?

His hands shook, he scanned the rest of the text: To Translate to Private Language, please enter—

To switch languages, check the symbols below—

To program a new language, please—

‘This is getting overwhelming,’ he thought, then his eyes stopped on a line of text: To Translate Text by Sight, please press ‘Camera-Translation’ and point the optical lens.

“What’s this now? What the hell’s a camera?” Alex focused on the words ‘Camera-Translation.’ With the utmost care, he pressed them.

The painting disappeared.

“Wait, no, no, no! What’d I do? Go back! Turn back!” he cried.

But the words didn’t return, instead, theglass displayed an image of flat stones.

“Oh no, don’t tell me I broke it! I broke it, didn’t I?” He rotated the device, his eyes wide. The image of the stones shifted as he turned it. He raised it, aiming the back at a brightly burning maze wall.

The flaming wall appeared across the artefact’s surface.

“Wait…” He waved a hand behind it.

His hand waved back and forth in the painting. Turning the artefact around, he examined the back bit by bit…noticing a tiny lens hidden in the upper right corner, like the lens of a picoscope or miniature spyglass.

Alex remembered the symbol of the rectangle from earlier, the one with a lens in its centre. Maybe that’s what a ‘camera’ is...

“Translate using the camera, eh? Maybe…”

He turned the artefact toward the Traveller’s book…

…and his joy soared. ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ The young wizard screamed inside.

The book was displayed, but—in place of that unfamiliar language—the characters across the book changed, transforming into the elemental tongue of earth.

Success, at long last, he could finally read the Traveller’s book.

Alex looked up to the burning skies. “Thank you,” he prayed quietly. “Thank you for leading me to this…please lead me to more answers.”

As he closed the book, he felt a sensation like he was being watched, if only for a moment. Another look around assured him that he was still alone.

He stood up and peered down the pathway, finding nothing.

Settling back down, Alex aimed the ‘camera’ at the symbols on the front cover of the Traveller’s book:

The Secret Portal Journal of Hannah Kim the Traveller.

Do Not Read if you are not Hannah Kim.

He promptly ignored the warning: he had come too far, so he turned to the first page, wondering what “secret portal journal” meant.

Though, he was starting to develop a theory.

The camera faced the first page, the symbols transformed into words he could understand.

Alex began to read:

Well, Toto, I guess I’m not in Kansas anymore.

I’ve been in Kalatonia for about Three Months now, and I decided it’s time to start writing things down. You know, just in case I go crazy and this is my only link back home.

At least this journal can help me organise my thoughts. Dad would be so ‘proud’ to see me finally journaling. If I ever see him again, that is.

Alright, Hannah.

There’s no way around it.

You’ve been Isekai’d before you’re even sixteen.

And that is bullshit.

“What the hell does isekai mean?” Alex murmured, reading along.

March 23rd was when I went to sleep, I think. And I was in my bed in Toronto. The only medieval building I saw irl before was like that church three blocks away. That’s medieval, right?

Well, right now? I’m in a castle.

Finally.

That stupid dumbass summoner nearly got me killed.

Alex read on as Hannah wrote about a strange journey, piecing it together from her entries, which varied wildly in detail.

As far as he could tell, she was from a place she called Earth—a strange name—from a city called Toronto. This ‘Earth’ had beings that seemed normal to him, but who Hannah seemed to find special.

The name of these people caught his attention.

It’s weird, Hannah had written. I’m picking up the language here way too fast, thanks to the court magician’s spells but certain things don’t seem to translate. Back home we had superheroes around the world since

A pause.

I should have paid more attention in history. But we’re called ‘Heroes’, here. That word translates. But the word ‘superhero’ doesn’t. That’s really weird. Well, I always did want superpowers so…this is kind of a W?

She didn’t explain what these superheroes were directly, and—unfortunately—she was not around for Alex to ask her any questions.

As he read on, he pieced together more of her story.

“So…it seems this really confirms it…the Many-Spheres Theory is right.” Alex shook his head, his mind reeling from the sheer amount of information being dumped into his brain. “So she gets summoned from Earth by this kingdom to fight one of their enemies, but the summoner messed up his divine miracle and she ended up appearing in a random forest instead. She fought hard to survive for about a month before they found her…at fifteen? That’s only a little older than Selina.”

He shook his head. “Poor kid…”

He read on, but a question was growing in his mind.

Hannah recorded battles against demons and a demon king. She talked about her training in magic and about still having a trace of that power that summoned her across worlds.

She spoke of nurturing it, mastering it in a way the others summoned from ‘Earth’ hadn’t been able to do.

But the strange thing was…he found no mention of Thameland, Alric, or the Ravener…or any other place he’d ever heard of.

Though he did find one very interesting entry:

Close call.

Royal guards nearly found my journal. Don’t trust them. Starting to think we’re prisoners here. Some of the other Heroes keep trying to look over my shoulder too. Can’t trust them either. Will only trust Val and Chris. They seem solid. Going to have to translate this book into code, even if I have to invent my own language to do it.

Hey, it worked for Tolkien, and he didn’t have access to actual magic.

Will stop writing here until the language is finished.

“Tolkien…” Alex murmured. “Another strange name…”

His eyes moved to the next entry.

Done! Language invention: success. Thank Ikanale and Tabitun-Abu for magic—

“Who’re they?” Alex whispered, reading along.

It took awhile, but I transcribed my old book just fine then I burned it. Now no one in the universe can read my journal, except me. But…I have to say, that language magic was very handy. I wonder if I can do something with my old phone?

It’s basically just been a piece of junk since the battery ran out, but with Val’s crafting power and some of my knowledge…we might be able to make something.

An entry later:

Success! Got the phone running on my power. Val couldn’t believe it: she can’t even feel a trace of the energy that brought us here anymore. But mine’s growing stronger every day.

No one else knows.

Demon king? Regular king? Let them try and put me in a cage.

I’m going to be able to teleport!

Alex paused, impressed with her ingenuity. “Mastering a power no one expected you to do anything with…she and I probably would have gotten along real well. But where the hell is Thameland?”

In a few more pages, he got closer to his answer.

Her entries grew darker as she described an apocalyptic war against this ‘demon king’ and his conjured armies from the hells. As battles went on, the kingdom started pushing their young Heroes harder.

Battles got more deadly.

And then:

Lost my translator to that summoned bull-headed freak!

All my pictures were in there! The ones of Val and Chris and me! The ones from home! Real home! My maps! Val says I should be happy I got away alive, but I want it back!

That was my life! That was home!

Give it back!

Alex continued reading as the entries turned angrier. Shorter. More clipped. The battles got worse, and Hannah grew more ruthless. She’d put all her rage into her training, growing more dangerous with her inner power and the strange magics she’d learned in thekingdom she was in.

It wasn’t long before the other Heroes began to follow her as she led them from crushing victory to crushing victory.

Until, finally:

Victory. We won. The Demon King’s dead. Kingdom’s celebrating. Val’s dead. Chris is dead. Only the assholes are alive.

This kingdom and this planet can go straight to hell.

I’m gone.

I am gone.

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