Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 56 Law-Ability Interaction

"You told my sister to sacrifice herself, right?" This is the first sentence that Alina said as she and Alex woke up free from their paralysis. "Don't try lying to me… I can detect if you falsify your answer."

"…." Alex, who was about to open his mouth to answer back, closed it as he realized excuses won't work against Alina anymore.

Seeing the cold look on Alina's face, Alex realized that he had no way out now.

"I do not know if you can forgive me, but I have no choice at that time." Alex said as he kowtowed in front of Alina. "I know that what I did at that time will hurt you, but that is the best choice that I can make at that time…."

Alex kept his head bowed, as he did not dare to say anything after that.

What Alina will do to Alex now will all depend on her.

"I can forgive you, because I know that what you did is the best thing to do at that time." Alina said after a minute of silence. "However, I am still angry at you, and you kowtowing in front of me will not remove my anger."

"I understand if you are still angry at me." Alex replied as he kowtowed his head lower. "After all, what I did is something that is morally gray and ambiguous."

"Hmph, don't think that you are lucky right now." Alina said as she removed the mask from her face. "You still have to pay for making me cry earlier."

"Of course, of course." Alex hastily replied as he kept his head down. "I'll do anything to satisfy you, Alina."

"...….."

"I am lucky that she is with me..." Alex thought to himself with bliss as he thanked his lucky stars that Alina was a kind and gentle person.

However, that thinking of his was gone at the next moment as Alina said,

"Since I am angry at you, then you should be punished, a lot."

"Punished?" Alex started to unknowingly tremble as he looked at Alina with panic.

"What?" Alina's face was replaced with a cold look, as if she was looking at dirt.

"Hehehehe, Alex will be punished by his hooman girl!"

Perched at Alina's shoulders was Asteria, who was laughing at Alex with glee.

It did not take Alex that long to realize what happened.

"You set me up!" Alex shouted as he pointed his fingers at Asteria. "You dumb fairy, what corrupting words did you say to Alina huh?"

"Corrupting words? I think enlightening words is the better term." Alina interjected as she petted Asteria's head. "Asteria just told me that sometimes, naughty boys must be punished to make them behave. You, you are one of them now."

Alex shuddered as he envisioned Alina and Asteria wearing skimpy clothes while holding a whip in their hands.

That vision was both terrifying and enchanting, that Alex was not sure if being punished was really that bad.

"Hey, it's not that kind of punishment!" Asteria's face suddenly turned red, as if she was able to read what Alex had imagined. "You… you actually are a pervert!"

"He's always a pervert." Asterias said as she flopped down on Asteria's shoulder. "You just managed to notice it now."

"Oh great….."

****************************

Alex's first punishment was just simple.

He has to gather food for Alina and honey for Asteria inside the forest around them.

When Alex heard that this was his punishment, he scoffed a little as he realized that it will be just easy for him to find food.

After all, he was not paralyzed anymore, and he can use his Esper Ability to hunt food.

But when Alex tried testing out his Esper Ability, he found out something that made him go livid.

"What the hell?" Alex tried manipulating the light waves around him, but to his chagrin, he found out that his pull against them was weak!

Before, Alex can gather 1,000 streams of light waves around him in just a second.

But right now, Alex can only gather 1 stream of light wave in the same amount of time!

Alex tried to do the same manipulation with other EM Waves, and he found out that they were all weakened too!

At that point Alex started to panic, so he tried to see if his Mental Power was damaged too.

To Alex's relief and confusion, he saw that his Range was still 150 meters.

"What is happening here?" Alex muttered to himself as he realized something is wrong with his Esper Ability.

He looked at Alina as he told her what happened to him.

"Interesting." Alina said as she flicked her swords around. "I still have Mental Power of Tier 999+, but the effects of my Esper Ability have been reduced by 1,000 times, just like what happened to you…"

"…." Alex's eyes narrowed as he realized that both him and Alina were affected by something that weakened their Esper Abilities.

By their own, Alex and Alina would not easily find out the reason on that mystery, but there is someone nearby who can help them out.

"Oi dumb fairy." Alex said as he glared at Asteria, who was laying down on Alina's lap. "Care to explain to us what happened with our Esper Abilities?"

"Oh, that?" Asteria let out a yawn, as if she was saying that Alina's lap was a comfortable place to sleep in. "Your Esper Abilities are weakened here because the Laws in this World somewhat weakens your abilities."

"Weaken?" Alex did not like this word one bit. "Elaborate, and I will add 2 more jars of honey for you later."

Now this made the sleepy Asteria excited. Her small body perked as she floated in the air, with the usual cheeky grin on her face.

"Listen here, you two hoomans." Asteria said as she started to sound like a teacher. "Different Worlds have different Laws that dictate how these Worlds will operate. These Laws also regulate the Abilities that can be used in these Worlds."

Alex nodded his head, as he understood what Asteria was pertaining to. Each World must have something that will let them operate, and these Laws seems to be the one doing these operations. For these Laws to govern even the power used in different Worlds seems to be a good explanation too.

Alina had her eyes narrowed in concentration, as she was obviously contemplating what Asteria was talking about.

"Now, what do you think will happen if someone from a different World comes to a new World?" Asteria said as she tilted her head. "Well obviously, that person will be affected by the Laws of the new world, and that person's abilities will be affected too."

Alex's eyes flashed as he got what Asteria was pertaining to.

"Perhaps, you are saying that there are some Worlds that reject or weaken Abilities that do not conform with their Laws." Alex slowly said as he stared at the paltry amount of light waves that he gathered. "That… is actually logical."

"You are right!" Asteria replied as she nodded her head in acknowledgement. "There is a chance that an Ability will either get stronger, get weaker, stay as it is, or just entirely disappear depending on the Laws that it will interact with."

"I think you should explain that too." Alex said as his confusion was back again. "You are making it sound complicated now."

"Geez, ok, I get it." Asteria mumbled as she rubbed her tiny forehead.

"Let me give you an example." Asteria said as she did not care on what Alex and Alina were thinking right now. "Let's say that there are 4 Worlds that exist all beside each other. These worlds are the Fire World, Wind World, Earth World, and Water World."

"Fire World has Laws that dictate that only Fire Abilities can be used in that world. Wind World on the other hand, has Laws saying that only Wind Abilities can be used there. As for Earth World, its laws only allow Earth Abilities in there. And then there is Water World, with its Laws only allowing Water Abilities to exist." Asteria numerated these worlds quickly, making sure that Alex and Alina got what she was talking about.

"Let's say that a person from Fire World was called Fire Person, while the one from Wind World was Wind Person, then Earth Person is for the Earth World, and Water Person for the Water World." Asteria raised her fingers slowly as she recited these names. "Now, we will make them Travel!"

"...….."

"If the Fire Person goes to the Earth World, the Fire Abilities of the Fire Person will get weaker, as the Laws of the Earth World are not that accommodating to Fire Abilities." Asteria said as she let out some pew pew pew sounds.

Alex felt that this makes sense, as fire can be weakened as long as some soil were poured on it.

"But if the Fire Person goes to the Wind World, the Fire Person's Fire Abilities will get stronger, as the Laws of the Wind World can support and strengthen Fire Abilities." Asteria said as she let out some blowing sounds. "Woooooooosh."

Again, this makes sense, as Alex knew that the right amount of wind can make a flame grow stronger.

"But if this Fire Person goes to the Water World, it's obvious what will happen next." Asteria said as she raised her hands. "The Fire Person's Fire Abilities will not work in the Water World, since the Laws of the Water World will firmly reject Fire Abilities."

This point is already obvious, as anyone can see that water extinguishes fire.

"Well, that is the simple view point of the interaction between the Abilities and Laws of different Worlds." Asteria said as she let out a smirk. "However, this interaction in reality is much more complicated than that. There are other factors that must be considered when pairing Abilities and Laws, so you cannot just expect formulaic results."

"Ok…" Alex slowly nodded his head as he somewhat got Asteria's point. "So, the effects of our Esper Abilities are weak right now since the Laws of this World are not that accommodating for Esper Abilities?"

"Exactly." Asteria replied as she plopped back on Alina's shoulder. "In this World, your Esper Abilities are weakened by 1,000 times, which you could have observed already."

"…"

This admission by Asteria doused a cold water on Alex's ambitions.

At first, Alex thought that with his and Alina's Esper Abilities, they can easily succeed on completing the Missions in this World.

But from the looks of it, they were once again back to square one.

"Is there a chance that we can use our Esper Abilities in full power in this World?" Alina asked before Alex could give this question. "I am not really comfortable… in being like this."

"Oh, don't worry about that. As long as you spend enough time in this World, your Esper Abilities will slowly adapt to the Laws of this World." Asteria replied nonchalantly. "So just spend some time in this World, and you Esper Abilities will be back in full power."

"Ok, that makes me relieved." Alex said as he let out a relieved sigh. "But, how long should we stay here to regain the full power of our Esper Abilities?"

"Well, I am not sure myself." Asteria replied as she averted her gaze away from Alex. "It all depends on the individual itself."

"Then how are we going to survive in this world?" Alex complained as he glared at Asteria. "Don't tell me that we have to buy another 'Cultivation Body' that will work well in this World?"

"That is exactly what you should do." Asteria replied quickly, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "If you don't do that, then you will just fail this World's Main Mission."

"...…."