Omniversal Travel

On an operating table in a laboratory a boy of about thirteen years of age was tied unconscious with his entire body strapped to the table.

Surrounding the boy were three men.

One was drawing blood from him with a syringe, the other was inspecting his body, and the third was writing down on a parchment what the other two men were saying.

Half an hour later, the boy woke with a start and tried to get up, only to find that he was tied up.

Trying to free himself, the boy seemed to have gone mad as he began to roar and scream.

"Roaaar! Aaaaaaaa! Horn! The horn! Roooooo!"

"Horn? What's he talking about?"

"Who knows, we'll have to ask him, but first we have to calm him down."

Chancellor Gerhart grabbed the boy's head tightly and chanted a spell, causing the boy to calm down.

The boy, now with unfocused eyes, stared at the ceiling in front of him without producing a sound.

"Okay, now let's begin."

Vice Chancellor Mardin grabbed a chair and sat across from Igor as he asked.

"Igor, since when are you a werewolf?"

"Two years ago, when i went with my father on a trip to visit another nobleman, we stayed in a tavern for a night.

My father left me alone in the room for the night.

He returned five minutes later with a pale face and full of sweat, he tried to close the door but it burst open, sending him flying.

I remember when the door was fully opened, a beautiful woman came into the room and started shouting something at my father as he backed away every time the woman approached.

When she finished screaming, the woman pulled out a dagger and slit her throat in front of us.

Black smoke came out of the woman's body and began to float towards my father.

My father grabbed me by the shoulders and put me in front of him, and the black smoke entered my body.

After that i fainted and when i regained consciousness i was already back in my family's carriage next to my father.

Since then i've worn this spider web-like mark on my wrist and every time there's a full moon i lose consciousness and wake up with corpses all around me."

"You were shouting something about a horn before, can you explain to me what it is?"

"The horn...i hid it under a tree in the garden but now i can't find it.

If i had that horn with me i wouldn't have turned into a werewolf, that's what he said."

"He who?"

"The one who sold me the horn told me that it was the horn of a unicorn, that I could prevent myself from transforming if I had it with me during the full moon."

"The horn of a unicorn? Are you sure?"

"Yes, i'm sure, because the night i brought the horn to the academy, all of us in the dorms downstairs had the same nightmare, a severed unicorn head, no eyes and a broken horn."

"Why did you hide the horn in the garden?"

"Because when everyone said they had the same nightmare i thought it was because of the horn, i thought that if i moved it away from the dormitories it would no longer influence our dreams and so no one would investigate the nightmare anymore.

If i had left the horn with me, we would most likely have the same nightmare again and that might get the attention of one of the professors."

"What was the name of the salesman who sold you the horn?"

"O'Dimm...Gaunter O'Dimm."

"Gaunter O'Dimm?"

"And do you remember what he looked like? His features or any special traits?"

"No...it's all fuzzy, i can't remember his face."

"Have you ever heard of this O'Dimm, chancellor?"

"I never heard of such a name but a being who can possess the horn of a unicorn and is willing to sell it must not be simple.

Speaking of selling it, what did he ask you for in return boy?"

"He told me he wanted me to accompany him on a journey to a world of wonder."

"What? What does that mean?"

"Sigh, looks like this kid sold his soul to that merchant, looks like he was some kind of demon in disguise."

"Demon?"

"Yeah, they're the ones who like to trade souls the most."

"Then he must be dangerous, we need to look for him to see if he's still in town."

"No need, it's been more than a month since Igor bought that horn from him, now the important thing is to find that horn."

"From what Igor has told us, it seems to be cursed or contaminated by something, if we find it, we can purify it and use it for medical and study purposes."

"But he said he's lost it."

"We just have to search the whole garden and that's it."

"Where did you say you hid that horn?"

"I hid it under a tree near the fish pond."

Mardin got up from his seat and spoke to Artorius next to him, "Fine, i'll go get the horn, you keep an eye on the boy."

"Right." Artorius nodded and sat down next to Igor, keeping an eye on him.

In the dormitory, Viltz, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, suddenly opened his eyes and smiled.

"Haha, interesting, so you decided to set your greedy eyes on the souls of the students huh, but it seems you don't dare to come in here to play your mind games."

Then he frowned with concern," I'd better not draw attention to that guy, he's hard to deal with.

But thanks to him i now have a perfect unicorn DNA sample, in the future it could be very useful.

Good thing i kept the horn somewhere else, otherwise the teachers would end up discovering it."

Smiling again, Viltz removed what appeared to be a headset made of metal.

Opening a small compartment on one side of the headphones, he pulled out a small black worm and smiled at it as he spoke to it.

"Because of you, little friend, i have delayed my studies and my main plans for seven months, but the effort has been worth it, as i now have a perfect spying device."

Stroking the chubby little worm, Viltz recalled the hard work he had to go through during the last few months.

First he collected a handful of common gray worms, then he researched for three months a way to turn them into sound communication devices by mixing his magical knowledge, the knowledge about different life forms that his grandfather had bequeathed to him and his knowledge about the basic workings of radio waves, then he spent another three months experimenting and modifying the worms until they became the magical, living version of radio wave transmitters, and finally he created a device that could turn those radio waves into sound.

He was inspired by the one-piece den-den mushi.

And making them so small made them perfect for going unnoticed.

In addition to having a small detonation spell built in, if Viltz wished he could activate the spell and the worm would self-destruct.

"Now, my friend, if i could upgrade you enough to make the detonation spell more powerful, you would become a lethal machine, don't you think?".

"It's a shame that your partner has to die, which means you have to die too, sorry but that's life, don't blame me."

Finished speaking, Viltz snapped his fingers and the worm in his hand exploded, leaving only small pieces of himself.

In the lab, Igor, who was staring dazedly at the ceiling, suddenly felt as if something small exploded in his mouth.

It reminded him of a grape when you bite into it and the juice explodes in your mouth.

When he tried to taste what was in his mouth, a bitter, unpleasant taste ran across his tongue, making him cough violently to get whatever was in his mouth out.

Artorius quickly gave him a glass of water to drink.

Two hours later, Mardin returned to the lab, with nothing.

Sighing, Artorius could only shake his head in disappointment, focusing his attention on the boy in front of him, who after the bug exploded in his mouth, regained consciousness and now looked fearfully at his former mentors, who looked at him as if he were a lab rat.