158 Another World

I died screaming.

Amelia and I were crushed together, bone grinding against bone, our ribs snapping like twigs, and our skulls buckling under impossible pressure. Her claws dug into my arm, desperate and instinctive. Neither of us could breathe. The room of flesh and eyes roared with mouths that weren’t mouths, whispering that we belonged to them.

Her final scream tore through me, and I jolted awake.

Pain exploded across my body the moment consciousness returned.

“Ugh… what is this…?”

The ceiling above me was made of rough wooden beams. The walls were patched together with clay and uneven planks. A single small window let in pale daylight. Outside, I saw children running past in loose linen shirts and ragged shorts, their laughter thin and hungry.

Everything felt wrong. Primitive. Medieval. Far too quiet.

“H-Hello?” I rasped.

A burning sting shot down my side. I looked down and finally noticed the thick white bandages wrapping nearly every inch of me. The pain wasn’t normal. It pulsed through my bones, like the crushing hadn’t fully stopped. I felt as if my entire skeleton had been shattered and reassembled incorrectly.

“Oh! You’re awake,” an unfamiliar voice said.

The door creaked open.

An old man shuffled in, wearing what used to be a lab coat, now torn, stained, and patched so many times it barely resembled clothing at all. His shock of white hair stood in wild directions.

“I thought you were dead,” he said cheerfully. “But lo and behold, you’re alive!”

My heart stopped.

I recognized him instantly from documentaries, conspiracy forums, and SRC classified files. It was Dr. Time. Self-proclaimed time traveler. Scientific madman. Walking is impossible. My first reaction was fury and panic swelling into anger that hit me so fast it scared even me.

“Where’s the other?” I demanded. “Amelia?”

The old man stepped back, startled. “Hey now, you’re scaring me.”

I closed my eyes and pulled inward with Empathy. I felt a tidal wave of my own emotions.

I was furious and far more than I should’ve been. It seeped through my Enhancer ratings. I felt unstable.

The door opened again.

A woman entered, brown hair braided simply, wearing a rough village dress, sleeves rolled to her elbows. Mud on her skirt. Dirt on her cheeks. It was none other than… Amelia. She looked shocked, and then relieved. I exhaled shakily and tried to sit up. My ribs screamed. My spine felt like it was made of glass shards.

“Nick,” Amelia said quickly, hurrying to my side. “Don’t move. You’re hurt. Badly.”

“How are you doing?” I asked, my voice rasping like something dragged across gravel.

“I healed easily thanks to the doctor,” Amelia said.

“H–How?” I frowned, confused. She looked completely fine, her skin clear, and her eyes steady, not a bandage in sight.

Dr. Time answered before she could. “Let me explain.”

The old man stepped closer, his ruined lab coat brushing against the uneven wooden wall. “Your power of intangibility interfered with the anomaly the most. That’s why you’re the one who nearly died. Amelia survived by absorbing the maximum damage her physiology could tolerate before death became… permanent.” He tapped his forehead like a lecturer. “Analogy time: the anomaly entered a black-hole state. You two were being drawn into it. Because you can partially ‘fall out’ of reality, you slipped through enough cracks to survive. Amelia surviving is the real miracle.”

I remembered it vividly, the walls crushing inward, bones shattering, and Amelia screaming into my chest as I pulled her into my intangibility. The sensation of dying together. Then nothing.

I swallowed. “How do you know all of this?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He spread his arms wide. “I’m Dr. Time! I know a lot.”

“The anomaly…” I pressed, forcing myself upright even as the pain stabbed through every rib. “What was it? What caused it? You’re referring to Continuity, right? What happened? Where is this place?”

“So many questions.” He sighed dramatically and picked up a battered satchel leaning on the doorframe. “How about I let the two of you catch up first? I have business to attend to. Very important, very time-sensitive. Don’t die.”

He shuffled out of the small house, muttering to himself.

Silence settled between Amelia and me. It was awkward and heavy, but real. She stood near the window, sunlight brushing over her like she belonged here.

I forced myself to speak. “How long was I out?”

“Six months,” she said quietly. “At least according to the doctor.”

Six months. Half a year lost to an anomaly that should’ve killed us both.

I looked around the small room again, rough planks for walls, a crude bedframe, and bandages piled beside a clay basin. Through the window, I saw people wearing simple linen tunics and sandals. No electricity. No tech. No capes.

“Where… is this place?” I asked.

Amelia drew a slow breath. “A world in a medieval period,” she answered. “It’s on the fringes of the multiverse. That’s what the doctor told me, anyway.”

A sharp pain stabbed behind my eyes. It was sudden and blinding, enough to make me grab my temples.

“Nick?” Amelia leaned forward immediately. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

“It’s nothing,” I lied through clenched teeth. “We should go. We can’t stay here. It’s—”

I didn’t finish the sentence. The room tilted sideways, my vision fractured like broken glass, and then everything went dark.

When I woke again, the sky outside the window had already turned indigo. A candle burned by the bedside, its flickering light making the shadows dance.

“You shouldn’t force yourself,” Amelia murmured as she lifted my head and pressed a wooden cup to my lips. The liquid burned, bitter and earthy. Medicine. “We’ll return home. Dr. Time is a specialist in… whatever he’s a specialist in. And time?” She exhaled. “We have plenty. He said time moves differently here compared to our world. Six months may have passed here, but far less will have passed back home.”

“Do you trust Dr. Time?” I asked.

“Of course not.” She snorted. “But he’s the best chance we have. I’ve done my research on this world, and it’s bad. Everywhere, there’s war, raiding bands, and feudal skirmishes. This town is safe only because of the local capes—”

“They have capes here?”

“Yes. Though I don’t think the word fits.” She crossed her arms. “This world is like a distorted copy of the Dark Ages, filled with chaos, fractured kingdoms, and superstition. According to Dr. Time, ‘powers’ here are… diluted. There are no SRC-style ratings. No modern understanding. Just ‘blessings’ and ‘curses.’ And,” she added softly, “he only helped us because he needs something. That’s the impression I got. Six months ago, villagers found us floating downstream. Barely breathing. He healed us. But we’ll need to give him something if we want his help getting home.”

I pushed myself up on my elbows. “I could possess him—”

“No.” Amelia’s voice cracked with an intensity that made me freeze. “Don’t antagonize him. He’s beyond our level. And besides…” She hesitated. “Don’t you feel it?”

“What?”

“Your powers. They’re weaker here.”

I tried to test them, slowly at first.

Intangibility sparked around my skin, then flickered like a dying lightbulb.

My Enhancer boosts came reluctantly, sluggish, as if pushing my body through molasses.

Empathy barely extended past the walls of the room. Telepathy was a faint whisper where once it had been a roaring tide. Researcher, my analytical augmentation, stuttered and misfired.

I attempted electrokinesis and managed nothing more than a few thin threads of static that sputtered between my fingers. The attempt left me panting, chest tight, lungs burning.

“It feels like I’ll get tired faster…” I muttered.

“That’s consistent,” Amelia said. “Based on my observations, cape ratings here are capped at roughly a four. No matter how strong we were back home, this world… drags us down. Like gravity, but for powers.”

A sharp pain shot through my ribs, making me hiss and clutch my side. Amelia immediately pushed me back onto the mattress.

“Stop. Lie down.” Her expression softened, but the firmness didn’t waver. “Your body’s still healing from something that should’ve killed you. Don’t make me knock you out myself.”

I sank into the rough bedding, breath shallow, mind racing.

Eventually, I fell asleep.

Dr. Time returned the next morning.

The door creaked open, and he stepped inside, brushing straw off his tattered lab coat as though he had simply risen from a nap in a haystack. But the man beside him drew my attention far more.

He was tall, wrapped in rough linen and wool, bearded like a hermit. His hair fell in tangled curls to his shoulders, his posture straight despite the road-weary clothing. A wooden charm of some ancient symbol dangled from his wrist.

“Good news!” Dr. Time declared, raising both arms theatrically. “I caught him.”

The hermit blinked slowly. “…You didn’t catch me. I walked here.”

“Details,” Dr. Time dismissed, then gestured grandly. “Nick, Amelia, meet David. Locals call him ‘the Paladin.’ Wandering healer, legendary figure, possibly immortal, and possibly just really stubborn. Either way, the man can heal things that shouldn’t be healable.”

I stared. “Paladin? Never heard of him.”

“You wouldn’t,” Dr. Time replied. “Most Dark Ages documentation is garbage. Lost, burned, rewritten, or romanticized. But I tracked him down. Rumor said he was tending a sick village near the river. Lucky us!”

David stepped forward, kneeling beside my bed. His eyes were unsettlingly gentle, too calm and knowing. He placed a hand on my chest.

Warmth surged through me. My ribs tightened, and then loosened. Pain sank, melted, and dissolved. I could breathe again. I exhaled shakily. “Thank you. Really. I… didn’t think I’d feel normal again.”

David nodded once. “Payment?”

I froze.

“Ah,” I managed. “I thought… you know… humanitarian…”

His expression didn’t change. “Payment.”

I glanced helplessly at Amelia. She grimaced sympathetically. I didn’t even know what currency existed in this world, much less possess any.

Dr. Time sighed, pulled out a leather pouch, and dropped a heavy jingle of coins into David’s hand.

“There. Covered,” he muttered. “If you want receipts, tough luck.”

David nodded, tucked the pouch into his robe, and left without ceremony.

Silence settled in the room after he departed.

“He’s an odd bastard, mostly patient with my antics, but all he cares for is money,” Dr. Time clapped his hands once. “Now that you’re healed, I’d like to get to the important part.”

I exchanged a glance with Amelia. She nodded. We both faced him.

“Alright,” she said. “We’ll hear your request. We’ll do what we can.”

Dr. Time smiled a sad smile, oddly heavy for him.

“I need you two,” he said slowly, “to kill someone.”

My breath caught.

“A royal,” he continued. “A mundane royal of this world. Someone who has not 'Pulled' yet.”