Chapter 85: Ch124. A world reborn
"What?" Kurt asked, taken aback by the sudden statement.
"Well, I don’t mean it as if we’re not going to meet ever again. But it’s something like that. Now that you’re done with the trials, you’re more than capable of handling the ordeals that lie ahead of you on your journey." Orkas/Kurt said, looking gloomy. "Even more now that you seem to have accepted the burden that was entrusted to you..."
But Kurt immediately retorted.
"I didn’t."
"... What?"
"I didn’t." He smirked. "But it’s my world, right? I don’t want to die, and I don’t want any of my friends to die, also. So I guess I don’t have any other choice. So... This is goodbye, then?"
"Kind of." Okras/Kurt smiled. "Remember what I said about the Echoes of Reality?"
"Yeah. You said that the system is fighting to get them back to-" Kurt was taken aback by the realization that unfolded in front of his eyes. "You don’t say..."
"Yes." Orkas/Kurt answered, touching Kurt’s shoulder. "The last trial’s goal was to find out if the Kurt who got all the way here is the one in which our frequencies are going to start merging again... In order for us to stop being separate beings, to become whole again."
Orkas/Kurt moved closer, and when he got as close as if to hug Kurt, the entire [ARMORY-FORGE] inside the Shadow World, ignited in a blinding light.
[INITIATING SYNCHRONIZATION SEQUENCE]
[SYNCHRONIZATION RATE – 23.7%]
[25%]
[29.8%]
As the numbers grew higher on the screen in front of Kurt, Orkas/Kurt, who was almost vanishing in front of him, spoke, breaking the strange silence that emanated from the light.
"Subdue my will, and be the one living on, Kurt..."
The [MOON’S SHADOW] in Kurt’s hand began burning again.
He felt like his heart was going to explode, and like his brain was going to fry.
Kurt watched his whole life flash in front of his eyes.
But not just his own.
Orkas’ life, too.
And the other first Kurt’s life.
And many others.
But as he watched the circumstances of life and death of all Kurts, he didn’t feel compassion towards them.
Kurt didn’t want his life to end, just so that other Kurt could take his place and live on.
He wanted to find the remaining answers of his world.
Of all of his worlds.
He wanted to see Evellyn and Nikolai, at least one more time.
Then he remembered.
It flashed like a lightning bolt in his mind.
He had a home to go back to.
Kurt didn’t just needed to go home. He had to help his friends to fight the many threats that still hadn’t emerged in his world before he was sent to K’s world.
If they still didn’t manage to get their powers back, he had to help them, if they were still alive.
But they were.
Kurt knew it.
From the bottom of his heart.
The heat of his new weapon slowly subsided.
And when he opened his eyes...
They glowed with the bright green of the Essentium that burned with life within him.
[SYNCHRONIZATION RATE – 35.7%]
[55.9%]
[78.1%]
[99.9%]
[SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE]
’Goodbye, Original...’ Kurt heard the other self’s voice, vanishing in his head.
And when the system beeped the end of the synchronization, everything around him started to crash like glass.
And for the briefest of moments, he knew exactly what he needed to do.
In front of him, at the Massachusets General patio, Evellyn, K and Nikolai were waiting for him.
"How did you guys-"
"K felt it." Evellyn answered, her eyes wide. She couldn’t stop staring at Kurt. "You did it, right?"
"Did what?" Nikolai asked, lost.
"He synchronized with the original version of us. Which means..."
Kurt felt K’s killing intent rise ever so slowly, but he immediately raised his hands.
"Not now, if ever." Kurt said. "I don’t want to fight you, guys. It might be necessary somewhere in the future, but I’d rather not have it today." He panted ever so slightly. "I already had way too many information to take in for a whole year, or a lifetime..."
"What are you going to do, now?" K asked, lowering his guard.
"I have to go home... My friends are waiting for me, so I gotta go."
Evellyn’s eyes filled with tears. Nikolai nodded, and K looked at him, expressionlessly.
"I was thinking that you could stay a while longer, since you don’t want to get all killer on us." K chuckled.
"But that’s it? You finish your training, get a new weapon, and just like that, all of a sudden, you have to go?" Evellyn asked.
"I guess so... But I’ll come back, don’t worry."
"Or we should worry because you’ll come back." K laughed, wholeheartedly.
Everyone looked at him, like he was some kind of beast they never seen before.
"What? It’s hard to admit, but three years does make one grow fonder of certain people."
They all laughed, but even before the moment could lighten the mood up a bit, Evellyn looked at Kurt again and asked.
"Do you know how to go home, already?"
Kurt smirked.
"Yes. But before that, I gotta ask something, since you’re The Red Oracle and all."
"Shoot, shadow boy." She chuckled.
He smiled.
"Somehow, you already know what I’m going to ask, right?"
She chuckled again.
"It’s not hard to do it when I grew to know you so much." The Red Oracle answered.
To which K responded with a serious glare, and she rolled her eyes, hugging him.
"They haven’t found a way to reverse the process that the Calamite has imposed on them. But you can."
Kurt’s eyes lit up with that answer.
"How?"
Evellyn didn’t have time to answer.
Beep!
[DO YOU REMEMBER THE TIME WHEN YOU ASKED ME IF IT WAS THE LIGHT OR THE DARKNESS THAT MADE YOU STRONGER WHEN YOU USED – LIGHT ABSORPTION – AND I TOLD YOU THAT IT WAS NEITHER OF THEM?]
"So you can speak freely, now?" Kurt huffed, shaking his head.
Everyone looked at him, but all of them understood what his words meant, so they didn’t interrupt him.
[NOT ONLY CAN I SPEAK FREELY, NOW, BUT I CAN ALSO GIVE YOU A FEW MORE ANSWERS TO WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR]
"So, how do I reverse the Calamite’s effects on my friends?"
[THE LIGHT YOU ABSORBED IS STORED IN YOU, IN THE FORM OF A LATENT SKILL]
[YOU CAN USE IT, ALONG WITH A FRAGMENT OF THIS WORLD-LINE’S EVELLYN AND NIKOLAI’S ESSENCE, TO RESTORE YOUR FRIENDS’ POWERS]
Kurt told the group exactly what the system had told him, making K’s eyes grow wide in shock.
He gasped.
"I guess the system is truly on your side now, after all..." He chuckled. "But how are you going to take a fragment of Evellyn and Nikolai’s Essence?"
Evellyn didn’t even wait a second after K’s question.
She leaned against Kurt and kissed him, deeply.
K was left aback, speechless, his mouth fallen open.
But after Evellyn kissed Kurt, he glowed with a bright golden energy.
[RED ORACLE’S ESSENCE FRAGMENT SUCCESSFULLY STORED]
"Sorry, K. There was no other way." She apologized, squeezing his hand.
K just glared at her, but didn’t let go of her hand.
"Can’t say anything, he’s me and I’m him, after all, right...?" He grimaced.
Nikolai looked at Kurt, and they exchanged awkward glances.
"I’m not kissing you, man!" Nikolai stated, final, and everybody laughed. "But I can give you this. I hope it works."
Nikolai reached for his pocket, and took a penknife from it, opening a slit in his palm.
The blood flowed from the cut and immediately turned into vapor, that was, somehow, absorbed by Kurt.
[NIKOLAI SEMENOV’S ESSENCE FRAGMENT SUCCESSFULLY ABSORBED]
"Now, go save your friends." K said, turning around to leave. No, wait." He stopped, reaching for the inner side of his coat. "Here, take this."
"A... Mask?"
It wasn’t a cyberpunk oni mask, like K’s, but it had a pair of small horns.
The rest was all slick black, with only the two holes for the eyes.
"I don’t know why, but I think you might need it." K said, finally turning back to leave again.
"Wait, K! Aren’t you even going to say goodbye to him?" Nikolai chased him.
Evellyn winked at Kurt, and went after them.
"He doesn’t need to. They already said goodbye to each other in their minds. I don’t know how, but they did. Right K?"
"Shut up, I’m still mad at you."
"Kay...?"
But the laughter, while the trio grew smaller in the distance, didn’t denote anger.
No.
It denoted a world reborn.
Kurt smiled at the thought, but became serious after a while.
"Now... Let’s see if it works..."
He focused his senses in order to reach everything around him.
’Further.’ He thought, extending it slightly further. "Further..."
He went as far as he could get, when his senses finally gave him a glimpse of hope.
It was more feeling than seeing, but he could understand Evellyn and Nikolai’s faint, but existing, energy signature.
"Gotcha!"
Kurt was engulfed by a mantle of pure darkness.
And the next thing he saw, after the darkness dissipated, was his face all around.
In ’WANTED’ holoposters.
