The Virtues' Magecraft

Page 14: Earth-Splitter

Traveling to Earth was a hassle. It always was.

Each of the passageways, each of the connections to the World Tree were closely regulated and controlled by the Magecraft Association.

For every instance of travel, one would have to register more than a week beforehand. 

Unlike the other realms, Earth only had a single branch of the World Tree. And it was in the capital of the Norteon Union. The only passageway from Midgard to Earth was in Pendragon.

And just forget about bringing weapons or magic items without proper certification.

Of course, for the Virtues and students of the global academies of Magecraft, these restrictions were a bit more lax. And yet, they were still closely watched. 

All of this was done for the continuation of the secrecy of magic. All done for Earth.

Even so, Alexander enjoyed it. The prospect of traveling to another realm always made him smile.

And so...

"Why are you smiling?" Anastasia asked as all the Virtues walked through a stone-bricked alleyway. 

"We're on Earth," Alexander responded.

"That doesn't make sense."

"Yeah, it does. It's nice here."

Gabriel interjected: "Wrong."

Alexander spat out a sigh. "What's wrong with saying that Earth's a nice place?"

"Just factually incorrect."

"Dude, you can't take an opinion and just say it's wrong."

"Oh, yeah? Watch this." Gabriel laughed at what he said. 

Again, Alexander sighed. 

The current situation wasn't exactly helping his case. After all, they had been trekking through a labyrinth of buildings, walking through alleyways for the past half hour.

Thing was, it wasn't a labyrinth. They were just lost. 

Ahead of Alexander and the others, Lumiel was reprimanding Liam for not bringing the map as she had told him to. 

"Okay, but what does Earth have that Midgard doesn't?" Anastasia asked. 

Alexander fell silent. 

He snapped his fingers. "The liberty statue thing. The Statue of Liberty. Midgard doesn't have that."

Gabriel smiled smugly. "I don't even know what that is."

"Dude, aren't you American?"

"Yeah, but that's not my point. My point is... Everything Earth has, Midgard has more. So it's automatically superior."

"Like what?"

"We still have most of those world wonders or whatever they're called. Like the Colossus of Rhodes, plus the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Lighthouse of Alexandria, stuff like that. Plus..." Gabriel said. "Plus, we still have seven of the great pyramids. Earth only has three. So infinite points for Midgard, zero for Earth."

Alexander mumbled, "Haven't seen any of those, though." He spat out a sigh. "Listen, it's not like I'm saying I'm gonna live here. I know Midgard is better than Earth. I'm just saying. Earth's cool."

"You only think Earth's cool because you don't live there. People don't typically think their hometown or country or realm is cool."

"Midgard's great, though."