Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 110: Burning wings

The Fake had grown significantly taller, so tall that the current Adrian—who was only a ten-year-old boy—barely reached his chest. Hearing Adrian’s greeting, he turned and glanced at him before turning back to look at the road.

Adrian spoke again.

"This will be the last time you will meet me. Do you not have any parting words for me?"

Saying something like that sounded very strange to Adrian, but he couldn’t think of anything better to say. The Fake turned to him again and sighed.

"You are still as small as you were when I first saw you. I had thought that you were a child back then, but to think you were suffering from dwarfism... Sorry if you were offended when I called you a child."

Adrian frowned.

’That’s...’

He seemed to have somehow made sense of the situation, but hearing it ‌felt very strange.

After a while, The Fake looked at the sky and started speaking.

"After Grandmother passed away, I knew that there was no one in that family who would really care about me. The moment her funeral ended, they all began fighting over who would inherit her property like cats and dogs. I can’t live there anymore after seeing all that. It just felt... too disrespectful to her."

Adrian glanced at the suitcase he was holding.

"But living on your own is not going to be easy. You will suffer from a lot of things and will realize the harshness of this world. Will you not regret your actions?"

Still looking at the sky, The Fake firmly shook his head.

"Maybe I will indeed regret it. But I have made my peace with such a future."

Adrian paused as he heard that. Those words evoked a strange emotion in him, something he couldn’t quite describe.

’To think we would both end up becoming so similar.’

The experiences that had shaped The Fake were quite different from the ones that had shaped him. After all, he had intervened and changed The Fake’s future significantly. But even with that, they both turned out so similar.

’Maybe this is what they call fate or destiny.’

Or maybe this ’Earth’ was destined to follow the same path as Adrian’s memories regardless of what Adrian tried to change.

In the end, Adrian didn’t know.

And with that, the world around him changed.

The Fake disappeared, the bus stop disappeared, and even the tall buildings of Earth’s infrastructure disappeared. He was once again sitting at the edge of the elevated platform of the empty arena, being hugged from behind by his younger brother Elias, who was still sobbing.

Adrian briefly looked around.

’It doesn’t look like much time has passed.’

He had spent almost a year on the ’Earth,’ but it looked as though nothing had changed in this world.

Adrian knew that the time of that ’Earth’ was accelerated; he had experienced it during the previous ’teleportations.’ It was somehow similar to what he could do in the mindscape using that analog wristwatch.

But he didn’t think it was possible to compress almost a year into a few seconds.

Maybe that was another thing he would have to investigate.

But for now, Adrian moved all those thoughts to the back of his mind.

’I still have something I need to do.’

He grabbed both arms that were hugging him and broke Elias’s hug. That sudden action seemed to have startled the young boy.

"B-brother?"

Adrian turned around, now facing him, and looked straight into Elias’s eyes.

He finally knew what he needed to say.

"Elias, let me tell you a story. In a frozen world covered in white snow, wolves devoured everything. The only beings they could not devour were white doves. With their white color working as camouflage in the snow, as well as their being capable of flight, it was extremely hard for the wolves to hunt them. So when the end came, the wolves and the doves were the only beings left in the world."

Elias stopped sobbing, and his rough breathing slowly stabilized.

"The wolves couldn’t hunt the doves, and the doves had no grain to eat since all the plants had died from cold, covered in snow. The cold was slowly consuming the world, and the end was near. The wolves and the doves were going to freeze to death or die from hunger. The doves had accepted their demise, but one day, wolves came and spoke to them. They said that they knew of a way to stop the end and banish the frost so that both the doves and the wolves could survive. And the doves... they believed them."

Adrian paused for a bit.

"The wolves told the doves that if a dove were to touch the sun and burn itself in the sun’s flames, it would be reborn as a phoenix. That Phoenix will have the blessing of the sun and will be able to banish this frigid cold. Hearing the words of the wolves, the eyes of the doves began burning with determination. And thus, all the doves took to the skies and flew towards the sun. But the sun’s immolating heat was so intense that their wings caught fire before they could reach it. And as their wings burned, they fell down from the sky. The wolves waited below, devouring the now wingless doves that constantly fell from above."

By now, Elias seemed completely focused on the story.

"The doves were terrified after seeing their kind fall from the sky helplessly with their wings burned. They thought that it was all hopeless and impossible. But then the wolves came again. They said that it was for the survival of their species and that it was for the greater good. They said that their efforts will bear fruit. Now motivated, all the doves took to the sky once again. Most of them still had their wings burned. But then it happened. One dove, who was flying beneath the shadows cast by others, was able to save himself from the immolating rays of the sun and somehow touch it. And thus, the phoenix was born. It banished the frigid cold with its heat and brought salvation. And so, whenever the end came, and the world was covered in ice, the wolves would use the first Phoenix as an example, motivating the doves to take to the skies and fly towards the sun."

As Adrian finished speaking, he looked at Elias. The young boy was looking blankly into the air, as though his mind were still lost in the story.

Adrian spoke the final thing he wanted to say to him.

"Elias, you have to remember: never do something because someone’s words or actions motivated you. The motivation shouldn’t come from others but from within yourself."

His words brought the young boy out of his thoughts. For a moment, he seemed lost, but then he tilted his head in confusion and asked.

"Why, Brother? Is it because the motivation that comes from within is stronger and more real?"

Adrian shook his head.

"No, it is so that when your wings burn and you fall to the ground, you will have no one to blame but yourself."