A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

Chapter 691 - 610

The pain came first, before my eyes even opened.

I was no stranger to pain, but it was enough that I felt myself lock up involuntarily and shudder. My mind went blank, and even as my eyes opened, everything was distorted, and I couldn’t focus.

[Wilhelm, don’t move rashly.] I heard my Zanpakutō speak to me. [You’re not in a good state; take it slow.]

[Listen to him, brat.] Ddraig chimed in too. [You took a beating.]

I could barely register what they said as the light around me slowly began to normalize. The intense throbbing at various points in my body made it still hard to focus, but things slowly came into focus.

"You’re awake!"

I think that was Clint’s voice; his figure was blurry, but gradually he became clearer.

I wanted to say something, but I moved slightly, and all that came out was a pained groan.

"Do I look as bad as I feel?" I finally mustered the words.

He let out a snort. "You’re in pretty bad shape."

I was able to spare a few looks at him. I was lying down and tilted my head up to see that he wasn’t in great shape either. There was a nasty burn up along his arm, and parts of his body were wrapped up in...bandages?

They didn’t look like the bandages I was familiar with.

Actually, I think I’m wrapped up too.

"Can you help me sit up?" I asked.

"...sure."

It hurt, but with his help I managed to sit up properly even as my body screamed. But I heeded Musū Tengai’s advice; I did it slowly.

I managed to get a look around where we were and found myself frowning. "I take it we’re not back home."

He shook his head. "Yeah, we’re pretty far from home, I’d say."

I hesitantly touched the bandages, and then I felt something on my neck. Something small and round, about the size of a coin.

"Don’t." Clint grabbed my hand. "Don’t touch that."

[Listen to him; don’t touch that for now.] My Zanpakutō warned.

"...What is it?" I felt a feeling rising up in my heart that seemed to gradually overshadow the pain I was feeling.

Clint winced, showing that he had one on his neck too. Some kind of miniature device; I couldn’t glean anything just from the look at first.

"Some kind of electric collar." He sighed again. "Sorry, man, but we’re prisoners right now. Shitty thing to wake up to."

It was a collar.

I forced myself to calm down. "Can you explain everything that’s happened?"

"I’ll do my best, but I’m kind of confused about a few things too."

"Just do your best."

"After we left that place and you pulled me along, I blacked out a bit until, well, we were falling down onto this planet. We crashed in a big trash pile, lots of rubble and stuff. Thanks, by the way, you protected me the entire time, and you took the brunt of it."

I just nodded; he seemed like he wanted to say more, but he swallowed it down.

"Some people found us. Aliens, lots of different types of aliens. They immediately put these things on us—" He touched the collar. "— - I tried to do something, but it activated, and it completely knocked me on my ass and was one of the worst pains I’d ever felt in my life. And honestly, that is genuinely saying something considering my line of work."

"This is our cage?" I looked around, trying to stay composed. Being chained in any way was something that grated on my very existence. I furrowed my brow because it was technically only three walls with a big opening.

"Before you ask, there’s some kind of barrier there." He deadpanned, knowing exactly what I was going to ask. "And, we weren’t the only ones locked up here. There were a couple others, but they had been taken away. From what I’d been able to get, we’re supposed to be some kind of gladiators."

"Come again?"

"They weren’t very talkative, but apparently, it’s not uncommon for random people to show up on this planet; they get tagged, then thrown into an arena for entertainment."

My anger spiked.

If I wasn’t in serious pain right now, I would have already blown a hole through this building and gone off to kill everyone responsible for making me a slave.

[Wilhelm, keep your composure. Calm.]

I took a deep breath.

Be intelligent, Wilhelm, right now, not rash, Wilhelm.

"I presume there was a method to overcome language barriers." I glanced up at this ’collar.’ "That thing again."

He nodded.

"The guards here wrapped us up too. He even gave us some medical stuff. Said that it would be a waste if we didn’t even make it to the arena at least." His tone carried a hint of sarcasm.

I did notice his bow and arrows were missing.

And what kind of armor was he wearing before?

And that’s when realization dawned on me. "Clint, where’s my sword?"

"Ah... I think whoever took us grabbed it too."

Mirage was taken as well.

"That’s...unfortunate." I did my best to remain calm.

It seems that all my buttons are being pressed simultaneously.

"Give me a second; I need to look over myself and see the damage..." I forced myself to sit cross-legged even if my body fought me.

I probably looked silly to him, but he didn’t interrupt.

Can you fill in the blanks, Musū Tengai?

[When you fled from those entities, it disrupted your escape. Perhaps attempting to utilize your own portal. You closed it quickly enough, but you got thrown off and found yourself being flung into a wormhole. You bore the harshness with your Aura, but the turbulent space shredded it quickly, and you continuously used the Hogyoku to push your Aura out. Eventually, it spat you both out above this planet, and you used the last of your Aura to survive planetary reentry with your bare body.]

I processed his words.

My head was very jumbled right now, so I only had a vague recollection of what happened previously.

[You severely overexerted your aura, not to mention other things as well. You were keeping several spells up the entire time, mostly to protect Clint. Your circuits are damaged, and your soul, by extension of your aura being forcibly overexerted, also suffered substantial damage. I’ve been doing my best to piece everything back together, but you’re not in good shape.]

Right, that’s why everything hurt.

My soul was in pain.

How long have I been out?

[A little over a day.]

And I haven’t recovered enough in that time?

I was not normal by any means; I should have at least recovered a little. I couldn’t feel my aura at all, and I had a feeling if I tried to activate my circuits, I was going to keel over.

[That’s a little more complicated.] His tone sounded strange. [The thing on your neck. It’s not as simple as it looks.

Of course it’s not.

It’s the first time we’ve run advanced technology of such a level. From what I’ve been able to tell, it’s directly acting like a sieve to force out any metaphysical energies.

I need it explained to me simply right now.

[Imagine you’re a deflated balloon; your aura, magical energy, and demonic energy fill it up with water. You got drained by coming here; you became deflated. You would have eventually reinflated, but that thing is acting like a sieve that makes all of the ’water’ inside get drained out beyond a certain point. You can only hold the barest amount right now before it’s all forcibly dissipated.]

How.

That’s not something I could understand off the top of my head. How did someone have something that could specifically target me like that by chance?

[I don’t believe it’s targeting you. I believe it’s just a device meant to target people like you, or anyone that wields powers to keep them on the leash.]

I took another deep breath.

Okay, so it’s acting like a hole in my ’balloon.’ If the water rises up to a certain point, it’s emptied out via the hole.

How many different energies did I have in my body?

And the Hogyoku?

[Wilhelm, your soul is in bad shape. Trying to use anything overtly right now is a bad idea. It’s not that you’re unable to...break free, but at the moment you’re not capable. At least, if you did so, you would be suffering for it. If you were not hurt like you were, it wouldn’t have been such a delicate matter. You could have forcibly removed it.]

I found myself sighing.

I wanted to get angry, but I wasn’t in the position to do so right now.

You haven’t been sitting idle, have you?

[I Have not.] He replied. [I have been siphoning off bits here and there and storing them ’away’. It’s not much, but it’s been slightly accelerating your healing.]

I just nodded.

Is the technology really that advanced? I mean, we’ve all heard the saying, "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Granted, it came from an author, but it wasn’t wrong either.

It’s just..... I’ve never actually run into technology that could become a hindrance to me like this.

I suppose it’s humbling in a way.

[I am you and I am finding it very difficult to understand how it works. I’m basically only able to see what it’s doing, and it’s all but drilled down to your soul. Considering that, this little gadget is connecting to people’s souls, Wilhelm.]

I winced and understood.

He was baffled, upset, and annoyed, just as I was.

No wonder Clint called it the ’worst pain he’s ever felt’; it wasn’t just an electric shock. I suppose it was meant as a catch-all type of collar; anyone with anything could be figuratively collared under its effect.

I was a prisoner.

I was a slave.

[Getting pissed off won’t help you.] Ddraig had been quiet this entire time until now. You need to stay clear-headed. Recover first, and then you can take your revenge.

I let out a breath I was holding.

Ddraig would be the expert on that, wouldn’t he? How long had he been trapped inside the Boosted Gear? How long had he been a prisoner as well, a slave to every holder of the Boosted Gear?

I didn’t have a right to complain.

I was still confused about a lot of things, but I mostly had the picture now.

Whining and complaining wasn’t going to solve anything.

I wracked my brain thinking about what I should do next until I realized something that made me stop in my tracks. I reached up and felt my hair was loose. "Clint," I said, opening my eyes. "You wouldn’t happen to have seen the binding on my hair fall somewhere, would you?"

Strangely, my heart started to beat faster than when I found out that Mirage was missing.

"You mean this?" He pulled a familiar strip of fabric out of his pocket. "You would be holding onto it tight.... I didn’t know if it was important or not. Magical or something?"

Immediate relief.

"No." I gratefully took it and bound my hair back up properly. "It’s just very sentimental, thank you." It was a little singed, probably from falling down through the atmosphere? But it looks like it came undone because of that when I landed. Either way, it was still usable.

He gave me a firm nod.

"You good?....relatively speaking." He eyed me.

"I’m fine; the dragon in my soul gave me a pep talk."

He opened his mouth and then did a double take. "Is that some kind of wizard code?"

"No, I literally have a dragon in my soul, and he gives me life advice."

Clint blinked, and I found myself smiling just a tad.

"Don’t dwell on it. First thing’s first, please tell me you still have that talisman I gave you back at the warehouse for the demon incident."

"Yeah, they didn’t seem to care about taking it from me after they saw it was just a piece of paper. I didn’t know if it would be important, so I stuffed it in my boot after." He pulled it out, a little crumpled, but still working.

"Good man!" Okay, that’s lucky. "And...you wouldn’t happen to have something sharp on you?" I could work without something sharp, but something sharp would definitely help.

He reached his hand into his pants and unclenched his fist to show an arrow head, broken from one of his arrows. "Will this work?"

"This isn’t your first time, is it?" I happily took the arrowhead as well.

"It happens more often than you would think. Though, an alien planet is something new. I’m still trying to cope with that." He admitted it, but a slight smug smirk appeared on his face. "I snapped one of my arrows and hid it when they were stealing my gear."

"Alright, I’m only going to have one chance at this." I straighten out the talisman and place it on the hard ground, and very carefully, I use the bladed edge of the arrowhead to scrape at the ink on it, getting as much of it flaked up and into a pile as I can.

"Anything I can help with?" Clint offered.

"Hold the two edges of the talisman, please; I need it to be as straight as possible."

He obliged as I meticulously continued to scrape at it until I had a tiny little pile built up.

The ink on the talismans was more goopy than normal ink, so it managed to work out thankfully.

I took my ring off and placed it right on top of the small little pile of ink. Clint looked confused; I don’t think he noticed it until now, but that was for a reason. "It’s magical; it dissuades perception in cases like this, so it’s not stolen if I’m ever incapacitated. It’s a storage; connected to it is a space that holds all my stuff."

His eyes perked up. "You got something that can help us? Good."

"...in a manner of speaking. Sorry to say, but my ability to do any spellcasting right now is nonexistent." I traced some lines burned into my skin up my arms; between the bandages, they were visible. "This is from my internal magical organ burning itself out, almost causing irreparable damage. I need to be able to use my magic to access my ring, so we’re going to cheat ever so slightly."

Don’t think about what I can’t do right now; just focus on what I can do.

Without my normal abilities and weapons?

I’m still fucking Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg.

He nodded along at my explanation, and I think I finally got another.

Only one shot at this because there’s probably only enough ink left on the talisman to do this once.

"The ink of this was written with a drop of my blood. Blood is one of the most conductive magical materials in existence. I’m going to use a fresh drop of my blood to stimulate the speck of magical energy left in the ink from the remnants of my blood to draw it."

There was no point in keeping it hidden or mysterious.

We were in this together, and I would need his help.

I wasn’t the only one suffering either.

I held the arrowhead to my finger and used a lot of force to press it, penetrating my skin until a little drop of blood slowly ran down the edge of the arrowhead.

I held it over the ring and the material, watching it very carefully, and tilted it so the blood drop rolled downwards, gathering together before it fell.

Just as it touched the ink around the ring, I slammed my hand down on it, then swiped at it as fast as I could.

I let out an immediate cry. "Fuck fuck fuck!" I fell down as the pain shot through my body from how forcibly I had to do everything just then.

But I was now holding a bottle between my fingers as I groaned with my face pressed against the cold ground.

Rolling on the ground just made my body hurt even more. "God fucking dammit." I grit my teeth and find myself wrapping my arms around myself before letting out another groan and pushing myself up from the ground. "Here, drink this."

I managed to grab a health potion out of my ring.

"Some kind of magic potion?" He looked at it. At this point, it really did seem like he was trusting me a lot. He uncorked it and tilted it down to his lips.

His visage began to look better as the health potion took effect.

Even he noticed as well and probably felt it too.

"Hey..."

I crawled up against the edge of the cell and braced myself against the wall so I could sit up again.

"Hey." He got my attention. "What is this?" He held it up.

"Healing Potion."

His mouth hung open for a moment as he stared at me. "...shouldn’t you drink this then?"

"Won’t work on me; drink every drop of it." I waved it off, but my arm shook as I did so.

Goddammit.

"You didn’t have anything else you could have taken out?" He asked skeptically.

Maybe, maybe not.

What was the point in taking out one of my weapons when I wasn’t capable of wielding them properly? Someone could just have shot me with a gun or something, and I probably would lose it too.

As for other things...well, it was all the same.

But even so.

I tugged on the band in my hair. "This means more to me than you realize."

He stared at me for a long moment before downing the rest of the healing potion. "Which one was it, blue girl or pale girl?" He pointed at my hair binding.

"Neither." I chuckled. "It was given by my teacher, actually."

"Huh." He crawled over to the other side of the cell, leaning up against the wall there. "I thought you were with one of those two. The file was...vague."

"I am."

He blinked.

"I have a harem."

His mouth opened again. "You’re fucking with me."

"Nope."

"That’s bullshit; you’re definitely fucking with me."

"I’m being completely honest."

"I don’t believe you."

"You’ve met two of them. Jinn and Salem," I pointed out.

He went silent for several beats. "How does that even happen in real life?"

I shrugged. "It’s not really that uncommon on my side of the fence."

"So, wizards just have harems of women chasing after them?" He asked incredulously.

"What makes you think it’s only men that have harems?" I shot back.

His eyes widened, and then he considered that question. "Fair enough. But even so."

I shrugged again. "I don’t know what you want me to tell you. I have a harem of women I care about."

He seemed to flicker between wanting to ask me questions but also having trouble asking them. I’m sure this must have been rather uncommon for him.

"Oh my god, just ask me what you want to ask me." I rolled my eyes.

He held his hands up. "I didn’t want to say anything."

"You wanted to say something."

"Fine, I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to offend you."

"Just say it."

"I don’t know how to word it without it sounding offensive."

"Just spit it out," I sighed.

"Aren’t you just taking advantage of a bunch of girls?" He sort of winced as he said it. "See? I didn’t want it to sound mean, but that’s how it came out."

I snorted, then I chuckled.

"What’s funny?"

"I’m the youngest."

"What?" He asked again.

"I’m the youngest, by a long shot. Salem and Jinn, whom you met, are thousands of years old. My teacher is likewise thousands of years old. I’m like...in my mid-twenties."

He held up a hand, mouth open again. "Really?"

"Yeah."

He rested his head against the wall, furrowing his brow. "...so you like older women?"

I held a thumbs up. "Without an ounce of shame."

He snorted this time. "How does that even happen?"

"Well, I suppose it helps that I’m handsome. Charming too. All around just—"

"Yeah, okay." He cut me off, rolling his eyes. "It must be exhausting. It takes all my effort to be a husband and dad to just a wife and daughter."

"Mmm, yeah, it takes a lot of effort to make sure I do right by all of them. But at the end of the day, I think it’s worth it." I smiled.

"Having someone talk about their harem, I wouldn’t expect it to sound wholesome." Clint stated. "But also, as a man, I have to say it."

"Go ahead."

"Fuck you."

I nodded, as it was expected.

"You got a plan, I assume?" He finally asked. "Some way to get us home?"

"If I recover, I can get us home. It’s just going to take a bit. But...I’m going to need my sword back."

"Important sword. What’s important about it?"

"You can think of it as a magical supercomputer that helps with my calculations." Again, there was no point in hiding it. "Otherwise, it’ll probably take me longer to get my calculations going properly. I would need to start from scratch. A few days, a week—I don’t know how long it would take me otherwise. And that’s considering I’m not...."

Well, he understood.

He nodded.

Before anything else could be asked, the door near our cell was opened, the grinding of metal was distinct, and we both heard several people come in.

Clint was right; they were most definitely aliens.

Not just one kind either.

They were somewhat similar armor, with some minor differences. But they all had different builds and features.

One was gray-skinned, with more oblong ears from behind a face mask. The other was much bulkier, and his shoulders were spikier, and he had pinker skin.

Though they all seemed vaguely humanoidish.

"You two are up next. Get to your feet." One of the guards at the front pointed to us, and his companions went to a panel, and a barrier in front of us shimmered into existence before visibly dissipating, opening the cell.

"I’m having a bit of trouble standing—" I tried to look pathetic and maybe buy us some time, but the guard didn’t even bother responding.

One of them grabbed me, pulling me up, and I felt my body scream in protest, but I gritted my teeth and bore with it.

I would remember this.

One of the other guards grabbed Clint by the arm, pulling him up too.

Clint and I shared a look, and there was the silent agreement not to do anything and play along for now.

I clocked their weapons. Some kind of firearm at their sides, though the ’leader’ was holding a staff-like weapon.

It was all very advanced; I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Even the alloy of their armor wasn’t something I could figure out at a glance.

Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could glean from the surroundings either. We passed by other cells; other alien creatures looked up at us as we passed by. All of them also had the little devices on them, mostly on their necks.

We didn’t head outside; instead, the exit seemed to lead to a large tunnel that took us underground.

I could hear a lot of noise above, the vibrations through the ground. I think it was the supposed ’arena,’ and there must have been a few hundred people cheering and screaming above us.

The next door opened up and took Clint and me by surprise.

The guards pushed us inside and weren’t even batting an eye at all the weapons around the room we could grab.

Granted, they were basic weapons. Swords, spears, hammers, daggers, bows, and those sorts of things. Though they seemed to come in all shapes and sizes, all different culture variations, and many I had never seen before.

"Fighters!" The guard with the staff slammed it on the ground. "Fight hard, fight well. If you do well, you may even get to fight in the premier arena before the Grandmaster himself. Earn your fame and rewards, and you can discard your status as a slave!" He turned and walked away, the guards following him as the door closed tight, locking behind him.

We really were gladiators now, weren’t we?

We weren’t alone in here either.

There were two other people.

A woman, but instead of hair on her head, it looked like feathers instead. She had elongated features, almost bird-like, suggesting an avian heritage similar to how humans had a primate heritage.

And the other was a big guy, easily a few heads taller than me. Not quite Father Swole size, but not all that inferior in just stature.

He had fur up and down his arms, and his pupils were sideways, with a bald head that didn’t seem to be naturally producing hair, but baldness happened to be the default trait of his species.

Another look at him, and it seems like he was wider than his frame should have suggested. Not fat, but from shoulder to shoulder, his frame was a bit wider than a human’s.

The woman’s eyes widened upon seeing me. "You are like me!" She perked up and reached over to try to touch me.

It was Clint who got between us first; he already had a weapon in hand, a blade pointing at her, making her stop.

The big guy growled, stomping on the ground; his massive hammer was raised threateningly.

"Ku’mal, it’s okay." The woman held her hands up. "I overstepped. They are frightened; it is normal."

The big guy blew air out of his nose and lowered his hammer.

Clint also lowered his blade.

"Apologies. I was elated with joy upon finding fellow kin."

"Kin?" I questioned. "We hardly look alike."

"Kin here." She tapped her head. "My people speak thoughts and feelings through the air to each other, not through our mouths."

I tilted my head. "You people are psychic." I summarized what she meant.

She smiled and nodded.

It seems like the little collar was doing its job. Or maybe it was my Devil heritage also working.

Who knows?

"Even if the Obedience Collar prevents me, I can see the bright light of your mind."

So there’s a name for it, and it makes me even angrier, but I swallowed it for now. "Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not psychic." She probably never met someone like me before, so she was mistaken.

She furrowed her brow. "Not kin?"

Huh, was the collar stopping her from using psychic powers?

It really is a catch-all mechanism, isn’t it?

"Do you mind telling us what’s going on?" I asked politely.

She seemed saddened but still answered. "We fight or we die. Three victories, and we move to the big arena. We win three victories there, and they say we go free."

Well, it seemed simple.

"In this stage, we fight in groups. We fight beasts and monsters." She added.

I nodded, understanding what she meant.

We weren’t fighting other people at this point; they probably would find it wasteful. Using some kind of alien beasts or monsters would be more ’entertaining’ and make it so their slaves lasted longer.

Clint put a hand on my shoulder. "I’ll protect you."

"I’m swooning." I quirked a smile.

He playfully, if lightly, punched my shoulder. "Seriously. After what you did to save me, let me help you this time."

He went to grab a bow and quiver of arrows off the wall. He grabbed a couple of daggers and some throwing knives he could keep around his body.

I found some stuff as well.

I looked over my options, finding a few belts I could wrap around myself to hold what I needed.

After a few moments, I finally made a decision and grabbed a spear off the wall, spinning it once to get a feel for it.

My body didn’t like that, but that was the least of my concerns at the moment.

I grabbed a couple more spears and strapped them to my back as well.

The front gate trembled, and it slowly began to rise. The noise from above became much more clear: the cheering, the shouting, and the rumbling.

And daylight seemed to fill the room, eclipsing the artificial lighting on the ceiling.

The two others calmly walked towards the door, going out.

"Hey." Clint stopped me before we went through the gate as well. "I never really introduced myself properly. You know, it was just a formality before. But I’m Clint Barton, Agent of Shield."

He held his hand out, and I took it.

"Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg, I’m a Magus."

Well, here we go.

[Line Break]

A/N

Just want to say something because I know people are going to ask certain questions.

First question: people are probably going to be like, ’Why is that little thing working on Wilhelm?’. So, I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m using a mix of comics and MCU stuff to bring the MCU up to par. That being said, the Grandmaster in the comics is not a joke character. He’s one of the Elders of the Universe, and he’s rather scary. He’s quite literally millions of years old and one of the oldest beings in the universe. His Obedience Collar is ’strong enough’ that through various media it had shackled Thor, both the MCU and other versions of genuine godhood, Beta-Ray Bill, who is also godly, and even the Silver Surfer, who wielded Cosmic Power.

Of course this isn’t full comics. If Wilhelm were at full strength, he could have ripped it off or done something about it, but part of its function is to basically stop any metaphysical or special powers from working.

Essentially, the Grandmaster wants everyone fighting physically, so it stops things that don’t do that. Psychics, magic, and any soul-based shenanigans. It’s a catch-all essentially. The reasoning for which will obviously be explained later.

But that’s just a brief explanation of what’s happening. I’m sure people would look at that and question it, so I thought I would get ahead of it and answer straight away.

If it wasn’t clear, he’s on Sakaar, loosely based on Thor Ragnarok, but as I said, using comics elements and such.

If you want to read 10 Chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

I also have a boosty if you can’t use the above under the same name.