Chapter 36: Mediterranean Blood
Paul stared at impossible circuitry where none should exist, his breath catching in his throat as reality shifted beneath his feet like sand disturbed by a tide that had no business reaching this far inland.
The assault had unfolded exactly as his precognition predicted—walls breached, defenders scattered, city taken in hours. Ragnar's war cry echoed from the plaza where Vikings claimed their victory with blood and silver. Yet here Paul stood in a chamber beneath the earth, watching his system interface flicker with ERROR messages that turned his certainty to ash.
[CRITICAL ALERT: TEMPORAL CONTAMINATION DETECTED]
[WARNING: SYSTEM INTERFERENCE - UNKNOWN SOURCE]
[CAUTION: ANOTHER SYSTEM USER DETECTED. DISTANCE: 47 METERS]
"This shouldn't exist. Not here. Not now."
The tablet-like device hummed against the stone pedestal, its surface alive with text that belonged centuries in the future. Paul's hands trembled as he reached for it, the Fate-Carved Seax at his hip growing warm against his thigh.
Footsteps echoed from the chamber's entrance—too confident, too purposeful for random discovery.
She emerged from shadows like smoke given form, mid-thirties with dark hair and clothes that belonged to this century but movements that screamed of different knowledge. Her eyes met his with recognition that froze Paul's blood.
"You're the other one."
Paul's hand found his seax handle. "Other what?"
"Don't play ignorant. I've been tracking your changes for months." She stepped into the electric light emanating from walls that should have been simple stone. "Precognition System, right? I have Technological Integration System."
His Premonition Sense screamed danger, but she made no aggressive moves. Instead, she gestured at the impossible chamber around them.
"We're both experiments."
"Experiments by whom?"
"If I knew that, I wouldn't be hiding in North African ruins." Her voice carried five years of exhaustion. "I'm Sophia. Been here since the system dropped me in Constantinople with nothing but advanced knowledge and the understanding that I'd gone completely insane."
Paul felt mental pressure building behind his eyes—his system fighting the interaction. "It doesn't want us meeting."
"Whatever sent us here doesn't want convergence. Your system's probably screaming warnings right now, trying to make you forget this conversation." Sophia's smile held no warmth. "Mine did the same thing when I first detected your timeline changes. Massive alterations starting three years ago—Paris siege outcome, political marriages that shouldn't exist, maritime expeditions to regions that remained untouched in original history."
The device pulsed brighter. Paul grabbed it despite his system's mental resistance.
"What is this?"
"Insurance. Proof we're not insane." She backed toward another exit. "Keep it. Study it. And be careful—there are more of us."
"How many?"
"At least three confirmed. You, me, and someone in the Far East whose changes are... aggressive."
Paul's vision blurred as system override protocols engaged. Through the mental fog, he used Success Rate Analysis with desperate focus.
"Should I remember this encounter?"
[RESULT: 94% YES - CRITICAL INFORMATION]
[WARNING: SYSTEM SUPPRESSION FAILING]
The percentage burned itself into his memory as Sophia vanished through passages that shouldn't exist. Paul clutched the device and ran, his system calming as distance increased but the damage already done—he knew the truth now.
Above ground, Lagertha waited by the city fountain where Vikings counted silver and prisoners.
"We're leaving. Now."
Her battle-hardened instincts caught his urgency. "What did you find?"
"Nothing that should exist. Which means everything I thought I knew was wrong."
[DEVICE STORED: TEMPORAL EVIDENCE - ANALYSIS PENDING]
[SYSTEM STATUS: PROTOCOL VIOLATION LOGGED]
[ACHIEVEMENT BLOCKED: UNAUTHORIZED CONTACT DETECTED]
The voyage back to their ships passed in a haze of forced normalcy. Paul smiled when expected, nodded at reports of successful raids, and maintained the facade of a seer whose visions had guided them to easy victory. But the device hidden in his system inventory felt heavier than any weapon he'd ever carried.
"Three of us. Maybe more. All playing the same game with different rules, and none of us know who's watching."
Three days north of the North African coast, Paul activated the device in the privacy of his cabin. Its surface lit with text in languages that shouldn't exist, showing a map with three distinct markers across the known world.
Britain: [PLAYER 1 - PRECOGNITION SYSTEM - STATUS: ACTIVE]
Byzantine Territory: [PLAYER 2 - TECHNOLOGICAL INTEGRATION - STATUS: ACTIVE]
Far East: [PLAYER 3 - CONQUEST SYSTEM - STATUS: AGGRESSIVE]
Below the map, a message appeared in pristine Latin:
Players: 3 confirmed. Objective: Unknown. Advice: Trust no one. Not even the system.
Paul stared at the words until they burned into his memory like brands. Somewhere across the world, two other people faced the same impossible situation with different tools and unknown motivations. And somewhere beyond all of them, something watched and waited and pulled strings that connected impossible technologies to impossible people in impossible times.
"Arc One was preparation. Arc Two is about learning I'm not alone."
He closed the device and lay back against ship timber that creaked with familiar rhythm. Tomorrow would bring new challenges, new raids, new opportunities to shape history through supernatural insight. But tonight, for the first time since his arrival, Paul felt the weight of questions larger than his own survival.
The Mediterranean stretched endlessly around their ships, hiding secrets beneath waters that reflected stars older than human civilization. And in the distance, Paul could swear he saw lights that belonged to no constellation he recognized—as if even the heavens were watching the game unfold.
[CONVERGENCE DETECTED: TIMELINE INSTABILITY INCREASING]
[WARNING: REALITY STRESS APPROACHING CRITICAL THRESHOLD]
[ADVICE: PREPARE FOR CONTACT]
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