Chapter Twenty-three: The Museum of National History

Ethan stood inside the weapons shop admiring all the different types of swords and knives there were. He hardly needed a new weapon now, but he decided maybe it couldn’t hurt to have something better. Part of him wanted to buy the coolest looking sword in the shop, but he was too proficient with knives so he instead bought another twin pair of them. They cost him twenty million ghost points which was all he had saved up in the past year but to him they were worth it.

The knives were double-edged and straight, and were made of adamantite; a silver and blue colored metal. They were sharp enough to cut through iron and sturdy as all can be. Ethan sheathed his knives at his belt on both sides of him then teleported to floor 99 to meet Marry and Picario.

On floor 99 the portal to the grand tournament was already opened and Ethan had to rush inside it. Once more he was on the beautiful grass plains; there he stood alone waiting for the other contenders to appear. The plan was for him to rush over to the portal past the trees and meet up with Marry and Picario at the city based dimension in there, but he decided to stick around for just a minute and pick off a couple power house contenders to give everyone else a better shot.

When the time was almost up for everyone to start appearing Ethan went invisible and pulled out his knives. The first thing Ethan saw was an enormous bald man wielding a large double edged axe. Everyone was running away from the man as he roared at them.

Ethan wasted no time; he conjured a mental illusion of a gigantic snake coming at the bald man. In a second the man fell to his knees his eyes blank. Everyone around stopped running and starred as Ethan turned visible again and stabbed the man through his chest; killing him.

Ethan waited until the man had fully disappeared before moving on. But just as he turned around another man, average size and build, swung a sword at him. Ethan barely had enough time to block with his knife. The two wrestled for control as Ethan glared at the man.

“Sorry about this mate, but there’s no way I’m letting the likes of you get away.”

“You know I was actually just getting rid of him to help you guys.”

The man scoffed and said, “Why, so you could torture us later? No, I know who you are and I experienced first hand your twisted illusions.”

Ethan was about to say more when he saw the man’s eyes look past Ethan briefly. Out of instinct Ethan pushed the man’s sword back as much as he could and dived to the side. His sword clipped Ethan’s shin but he managed to dodge another sword swing from behind him.

Ethan stood up but the pain from his wound forced him to fall down to one knee. He wouldn’t be able to do much when they came at him again, so before they got the chance, he paralyzed them with a mental illusion. Then he limped over to where they stood frozen in fear and stabbed them in the chest.

Before they disappeared Ethan ripped off part of one of their shirts and tied it around his shin where his wound was. He soon noticed that a lot of other phantoms in the field were now starring at him, deciding if they should attack him as well or run from him.

Ethan looked around and said to no one in particular, “If any of you even so much as think of attacking me you will join them back in the mansion within seconds.” Then Ethan started walking towards the forest. And when no one attacked him he went invisible and continued on to the portal.

He had a small limp but it was nothing serious and could be healed soon enough. He felt a little bad about killing those other guys though. He knew what they were saying was true about him. In his practice of mind magic he had created some nasty nightmares for people, but he never went over the top with them. Besides if they couldn’t handle something that small they shouldn’t even be participating in things like this.

When Ethan got through the portal to the city Marry and Picario were waiting for him. “Sorry I’m late,” Ethan said. “I ran into some small trouble back at the plains.”

Marry noticed Ethan’s limp and asked, “How bad is your leg?”

“A small cut, it should start repairing itself in time, but I won’t be able to run or do any hand to hand combat for a while.”

“Do you need help walking?” Picario asked.

“No, let’s get going.” Ethan said.

Ethan limped while he walked but otherwise was able to keep the same pace with Marry and Picario. It also helped they were shorter than him and took smaller strides. They didn’t get too far though until Picario said, “We have company.”

They turned around to see the shadow twins facing them with evil grins on their faces. “We have been waiting when you three would show up again.” One of the twins said. “It’s been so long since our match in the caves we were beginning to wonder if we would ever get the chance to repay you.”

Picario got into a defensive position and was preparing a spell when Ethan put his hand in front of him to stop. “You know I think it's time someone gave you two a taste of your own medicine,” Ethan said. “Don’t worry though, I’m not as cruel as either of you, but I still have some good ideas for what to do with you two.”

Before the twins could respond to what Ethan said, they suddenly grabbed their heads and fell to their knees; shrieking briefly. Picario and Marry looked to Ethan and saw he was absolutely focused on the twins, using his mental magic against them. Marry shook Ethan on his shoulder and he snapped out of his trance-like state but was still focused on the twins.

The twins soon fell to their sides and Ethan rubbed his temple a little then said, “Alright lets go, they won’t be a threat to anyone for a while.”

“What did you do?” Marry asked.

“Don’t worry about it, they’re in a catatonic state, someone will stumble upon them eventually and slit their throats.”

Ethan continued on his own and Marry and Picario glanced at each other worryingly. The two then caught up to him so they could continue their hunt for other phantoms.

The dimension they were in resembled a modern city on earth, filled with buildings, skyscrapers and streets. The only real difference was that there was nobody around. To Ethan it felt like he just stepped into a horror movie where there’s an abandoned city and only a small group of survivors.

Picario was able to quickly sense other people and they kept going in their direction. When they finally found the small group of five people Picario was sensing, they made quick work of them. Ethan paralyzed them with his magic and Picario and Marry took them out with lightning or fire.

“Wow this is crazy easy,” Ethan said, sounding a little bored.

“Well you know if you want more of a challenge you can avoid using that new magic of yours and let us handle things, we are plenty strong as it is,” Marry said.

Ethan thought it over in silence while they kept walking. His leg started hurting worse and he decided he would need a break off his leg. “Alright, yeah this leg needs a break anyways so I’ll sit out for a while.”

Ethan took a seat on some steps leading up to what looked like a museum.

“I think I’m actually going to gather you some herbs for that leg, Picario can hunt on his own while I’m gone,” Marry said. “It shouldn’t take too long for me to return so just hang on.” Then Marry was off running at the speed of the wind.

“You’re going to be alright on your own?” Picario asked.

Ethan smirked and said, “Heh I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Well I’ve been fighting on my own for years before you came along and I think I can do it again just for a little while. Be careful, I’ll make sure to stay in this dimension so if you run into too much trouble just send a beacon and I’ll come for you.”

Ethan gave a playful push to Picario and said, “Get out of here will you, go have some fun.”

“Well this isn’t exactly fun but it’s not boring either,” Picario said before hovering in the air and flying off at great speeds.

When Picario was gone Ethan checked his wound, the cloth he wrapped it with was soaked in his blood but otherwise it wasn’t doing too badly. He put the cloth back over the wound then covered it up again with his pants. Ethan debated on changing clothes for a while but then decided this outfit could be ruined anyways so why ruin another one unnecessarily.

After a while Ethan grew extremely bored of just sitting around doing nothing. There was nothing to see and he wasn’t supposed to go anywhere either. To him it could have only been ten minutes or it could have been four hours, he couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

Ethan looked behind him at the building to help distract himself. He couldn’t see it very well from his point of view, but something about it looked familiar. Ethan decided to stand up and take a few steps back and get a better look. Ethan studied the building for several minutes; it was a museum. Eventually Ethan finally recognized why the museum was so familiar to him. He had been to it before, many years ago.

When Marry and Picario returned they found Ethan starring blankly at the museum building in front of him. They approached him slowly and asked, “Ethan, you alright?”

“I know what this building is,” Ethan said without turning away from the building.

“Alright and?” Marry asked.

“This is the museum of National history; it’s where the declaration of independence is located. I remember it from my trip to Washington when I was younger. This whole town… it's Washington D.C. from Earth, it hasn’t changed one bit since I came here when I was seven.”

“So what are you saying, this dimension is modern earth?” Picario asked.

“Or a replica of it, maybe, I don’t know.” Ethan said. “Marry did you know that there were dimensions that took us to earth in these tournaments?”

“No, this is news to me I’m afraid.” Marry said. “It’s possible this is just a replica of Washington you know?”

“Yeah maybe, there’s something I have to check inside though.” Ethan then limped up the steps and walked right through the doors into the building. When he didn’t come out right away Marry and Picario followed him inside.

It was pitch black and they couldn’t see a thing. Marry and Picario both summoned orbs of light to illuminate the museum. They saw Ethan further ahead. As they walked towards him Marry asked, “How the hell can he even see where he’s going?”

“Right you don’t know, Ethan seems to have some sort of night vision. He said it’s gotten stronger since when he first developed it and since then he has been able to see perfectly even in pitch black places.”

“That must be extremely handy.”

Ethan walked deep into the museum until he came to a small bench in a long empty hall. Ethan was starring at the bench when he said, “You know I had this pal who I was real close with while still in school together. He moved away when I was nine but that’s not the point. Me and him got in trouble during this trip and were forced to sit here at this bench for the remainder of it.

“With no one to supervise us we decided to pull a small prank and etch a message into the bottom of the bench here. Think you two could flip it around?”

Picario and Marry didn’t question Ethan but just did as he asked. The bench was wooden and fortunately not bolted into the ground. They used their magic to flip it easily and on the bottom they saw something crudely etched into it. It read: “Future property of Ethan Alaster, and Greg Connors.”