Chapter 63: Do they remember the past?
Night spread his hand, conjuring a wisp of black fog on his palm and made it dance like a flickering flame.
Immediately, an idea struck him. He tried to summon his [Soul Fire] as well but the moment he did, the black fog dissipated, leaving only the soul fire behind.
He tried again. This time, he focused on summoning the black fog and the soul fire instantly vanished.
Clicking his tongue in disappointment, he realized he had foolishly hoped to develop something like Lily and Daisy’s green fire by merging his abilities.
Lilith asked in worry, "Master, what is happening? Are you not able to control your powers?"
Shaking his head, Night explained what he was trying to achieve.
Sara chimed in, "What those sisters have is a Spirit Flame, born naturally under heaven and earth. These are special flames that can bind with you and become a part of your power, much like your summons."
Night exclaimed, "Ah, things like that exist for real?"
"Yes," Sara nodded. "Though they are incredibly rare, and most of them are guarded by powerful Fire Aspect beasts who form a symbiotic relationship with them; meaning they cultivate and grow together."
Night asked with newfound hope, "Will a Spirit Flame be in conflict with my [Soul Fire]?"
"No. but many Spirit Flames possess different elemental or conceptual combinations," Sara warned. "If you don’t have the matching Aspects, bonding could be catastrophically risky."
"Many have died because they were too cocky and tried to absorb one anyway."
Eve said in a cheery, robotic voice, "Master, you will definitely find a good Spirit Flame."
Night’s lips twitched. "Yes, yes." He would have to be ridiculously lucky, considering he only possessed the [Nightmare] Aspect.
He guessed he was missing the most basic prerequisite: the Fire Aspect, which would be crucial if he ever encountered such a flame.
Sara added, "If you truly wish to tame such a flame, you need to somehow acquire a Fire Aspect first."
Night’s invisible ears drooped like a sad puppy. "I missed the chance to be a dual Aspect holder because I was in such a hurry during my Awakening."
Sage jumped onto his shoulder and patted his head gently.
Eek-eek! Ek-ek!
(There, there.)
@( ˘ ᵕ ˘ )ﾉ@"
Blade casually mentioned, "There is a way for you to get another Aspect. The easiest way is to acquire a summon with a Fire Aspect."
Hearing this, Night’s eyes shone like brilliant gems as he asked, "I can get my friends’ Aspects?"
Sara quickly shattered his hopes. "You won’t get it permanently. You will merely be able to use it through your bond - ’borrowing’ would be the more accurate word."
"But," she continued, "another way is to enter a Tutorial, like we first-generation Awakeners did, or survive a Special Dungeon like the one Lucy entered."
Night frowned. "A Tutorial? I am already Level 20. What Tutorial could I possibly enter now? Wasn’t the Tutorial just the System’s way of inducting you guys into the apocalypse?"
Sara burst out laughing. "I was already stronger than a Level 60 Awakener before my Tutorial even started! Why do you think those scaredy-cats in the World Council begged me to become a Headmaster?"
"If I had kept leveling up normally, there would be no World Council to speak of today. They were probably terrified I would come and usurp their power, destroying the delicate structure they had built so painstakingly."
Night’s mouth formed a perfect ’O’ shape. "Level 60?!"
His friends looked at her in utter surprise as well.
Sara scoffed, "You are one to talk..."
Night tilted his head, failing to understand what she meant.
Sara elaborated, "Did you really think you only had the strength of a mundane human when you escaped that facility?"
Night remembered how pathetically he had struggled through the dark forest in the beginning and looked at her questioningly.
Sara squinted her eyes and stated bluntly, "If you hadn’t used up all your energy to make Eve, Lilith, and Death your summons right at the start, you could have probably steamrolled your way directly to this city. You wouldn’t have even needed Lucy’s help."
"Eeeh?" Night voiced his doubt.
Night: (⊙_⊙)
But then he contemplated her words. He quickly realized that his black fog had effortlessly pierced the Level 62 Devil’s skull like a hot knife through butter.
Maybe if I had simply covered my entire body with the black fog and ran in one direction, no idiot monster would have been dumb enough to block my way.
Maybe if I had realized my true power earlier, I wouldn’t have even needed The Ghost to break into the facility. I could have simply blasted my way out and those chicken-headed scientists could have done absolutely nothing but watch.
But then he looked warmly at Eve, Lilith, and Death. Overcome with emotion, he thought: Maybe... all those risks and hardships were worth it... No, not ’maybe’. They were definitely worth it.
Death spoke softly, "Thank you, Master, for rescuing us. We will definitively prove our value to you."
Lilith and Eve’s robotic eyes flashed with an intense, unwavering devotion.
He nodded back at them with a wide, grateful smile.
Looking at them, Night couldn’t help but wonder for some reason: Do they remember their past?
He was terrified of asking this question out loud. He was scared he would hear that they remembered nothing - meaning all those shared memories only existed in his mind.
Back in the facility, despite him living in what most people would consider a bleak, colorless world... Eve, Lilith, and Death were the ones who had breathed any real life into it.
He had known them since he was a tiny baby who couldn’t even walk.
And unlike what most people assumed about infants, he possessed an exceptional, almost photographic memory, so he remembered every single moment they had spent together.
This flawless memory was the very reason he learned new concepts so unnervingly fast.
Maybe someday, when I finally gather enough courage, I will ask them, he thought. But not today...
....
Near the ruined underground facility...
Arthur stood silently before the apocalyptic ruins, focusing intensely on a very particular energy signature hidden within the chaotic mana field of the area.
Spreading his awareness, he clearly felt the lingering traces of the ’Wind of Desolation’ used by The Ghost.
In fact, it was actually quite hard for him to miss; after all, he was the only person in this world to possess the rumored Spirit Wind; a special elemental wind born naturally under Heaven and Earth, functionally identical to the much more common Spirit Flames.
But the thing that made him pause in confusion was that he could not sense The Ghost’s presence, nor any trace of the Desolate Wind’s energy, anywhere outside the facility’s blast radius.
The trail just abruptly ended right here in the center of the crater.
The only way for that to happen was if The Ghost had cleanly teleported out... or if something had killed him so completely that not even dust remained to escape.
Though the second guess sounded ridiculous Arthur didn’t count it as impossible, considering the absurd world they lived in.
Especially after personally meeting that abomination, [Zethe-thoth], so recently.
He grimly realized that dangerous things existed outside the Death Zones as well.
Beep!
He picked up his ringing communicator. "Chosen One," a voice greeted respectfully.
Arthur answered in annoyance, "What is it?" He was really trying to focus his senses here. He simply didn’t have the luxury to waste his precious time entertaining his lackeys...
Most importantly, Earth’s very survival practically hinged on his shoulders.
"Chosen One, were you able to retrieve the Nightmare World Seed from the ruins?"
"No, I am currently in the middle of tracking it down," Arthur grumbled. Seriously, he wanted to ask who the actual lackey was in this relationship. Why did he always have to clean up their messes after they screwed up every single time?
"Sir, we managed to briefly detect its unique energy signature inside the Desert City through the Planetary Array!"
"Really?!" Arthur barked in disbelief.
"Yes!" The subordinate’s excitement peaked upon hearing Arthur’s strong reaction, sounding happy that they could actually provide useful help.
Arthur looked up at the cloudy sky in sheer exasperation...
Seriously, what a spectacular bunch of idiots I have as my followers...
The Planetary Array was a massive, system-wide defense grid set up by bleeding his already incredibly thin pockets dry.
It was set-up solely to defend the planet from terrifying extraterrestrial lifeforms roaming the space outside Earth!
It was absolutely not meant to be used as a ******** global Google search engine!
He really wanted to grab whichever idiot had decided it was a brilliant idea to power up the Array for this and shake some sense into them.
Couldn’t they pause to think for just a single second about what they would use to defend themselves when they inevitably exhausted the Array’s energy reserves?!
Looking at his personal bank balance right now, he was so pathetically broke that he hadn’t even had enough SC to buy that cheap Divine Artifact recently sold in the System Shop; forget about refilling the goddamn Planetary Array...
Suddenly, his senses picked up a disturbance in the surrounding energy field. Standing right before him in broad daylight was a Devil.
It stood on two muscular legs, it possessed twelve arms. It had razor-filled mouths scattered grotesquely all over its torso and a single eye situated right on top of its forehead.
Looking around the ruins, all of its dozens of mouths performed a sucking motion, ravenously inhaling the ambient mana in the surroundings. It looked less like feeding and more like it was taking a deep breath.
After smacking its many lips a couple of times as if tasting the air, its single eye shot wide open. It instantly blazed with fury as its gaze locked onto Arthur.
It spoke, its voice overlapping as all of its mouths moved at the exact same time.
"Sooooo... YOU are the one who killed my incarnation!"
"You truly do not know how deep the Hell is!"
Kicking its heavy feet against the dirt, it launched itself at Arthur like a rocket, not giving him even a second to explain.
Arthur reeled backward, drawing his silver sword in bewilderment.
What the...?!
(￣ー￣;)
