Chapter 6 : Hero-dude meets Nacchan. It's depressing.
*Crash*
"Ah, that was the sixth plate." I commented somehow whimsically to my unlikely and extremely circumstantial partner while reading
"I can't believe our world's fate will be decided by those two..." The brunette besides me almost whined. I would commiserate with you, hadn't you been a coward and abandoned me to my fate! I think their tug-o-war pulled my arm out of its socket, my body's fragile!
* Crack* and there went the door. Through the splintered mess that used to separate the entrance and the kitchen, I could see an half squirrel Himeko held by the scruff of her neck by eagle-man, who had his usual bored expression, not a hair out of its supposed place.
"Squirrel. I seem to remember telling you not to get inside any building until you were house trained."
Himeko growled lowly and glared at him as if she could set him on fire with a thought. Or at least, I suppose she dearly wished she had the ability.
Long story short, after I came back with an extra, Himeko dragged eagle-man upstairs and proceeded to argue with him. Too bad the floor is thin, we heard everything. Then objects started to fly. I don't really know the bird, but I'd say he enjoys riling Himeko up. They are old enemies after all.
"I still say it's stupid." Tasuku looked at them warily while putting two plates filled with food on the table in front of both of us. I raised an eyebrow at the contents, some katsudon with gyoza on the side. The young man looked a bit put upon by my skepticism. "Yes, I made those, no, they're not poisoned."
"I was about to comment on the fact that it's Japanese food, I heard European food was the latest fad among teenagers."
I huff. It's hard to reconcile the guy from the game and the guy I have in front of me. If anything, his story ought to be interesting. Sadly enough, my answer earned me a startled look.
"You're talking as if you aren't one yourself."
He put some pork in his mouth and chewed carefully for a while waiting for my answer. It was a bit ridiculous to see his chin bob up and down exaggeratedly. Looks like someone took the 'chew your food 30 times' campaign seriously... I look away, slightly embarrassed.
"Ah, well, my situation's complicated."
"I think I have time, R's strangling that guy with his own tie."
Goddamnit Himeko... I blush, rolling a lock of hair between my fingers.
"Ah, well, you know about Y's story?"
Tasuku shook his head. Man, talk about being kept out of the loop... I kinda have a bad feeling about it. After all, even if he was a brain dead idiot, somebody should have made their move earlier, I mean, he can control time, and considering he got the food done in less than 10 minutes, he's more skilled with it than he let on at the academy.
"Okay then, before we start, you must understand something, each of them have a special ability that let them know who uses their name, so we use initials to speak of them. Under no circumstances you are to say their names out loud, save for her." I point at the furry fury who was trying to claw eagle-man's eyes out. " And even in her case, you should be careful. She might be more favorable to humans than the rest, but she's not doing it out of charity."
He looked pensive now, eyes darting from me, to the squirrel, to the fire, his eyebrows scrunched up and he frowned. Whatever he understood didn't please him. Enough brooding for now, story time.
"Ah-hem. After the big bang, stars and planets were formed. The thing is, Earth had something special, something that allowed life to appear. Scientists would tell you that there was a slew of parameters that were the cause of its emergence, but that's not fully correct. While it helped, the initial spark of life in the ocean was caused by something else. That would be the [Forge of souls]." I lifted my hand before he interrupted me and continued. "The [Forge of souls] is a flaming orb coming from another dimension and whose arrival caused the Big Bang in the first place. For hundreds of billions of years it lay dormant, the passive emissions of energy coming from it causing the apparition of life, not only on Earth, though it was its primary receptacle, but also on more remote worlds." I paused to let him digest the information for a bit.
"Not to sound stupid, but what energy?"
"Soul energy, the origin of magic."
He looked at me, completely lost, and I sighed.
"You know that the soul is something of an abstract concept, the closest of an answer that I've got about it would be that the soul is the imprint on the world of your thoughts and feelings, that lingers even after your death. The older you live, the more you see, the more you experience, the 'heavier' your soul becomes, for lack of a better term. When you die, that energy is released, some of it gets dispersed around, but at least half of it remains condensed in the form of a 'soul core'. Unless the 'soul core' gets taken care of, it tends to do what its owner did during his life. Those are the traditional haunting and spirit cases."
His face was scrunched up in concentration.
"So, you say that when we die, our soul gets expelled with some weird energy that's called soul energy?"
"That's a crude explanation, but it works. The energy expelled is a mix of soul energy and life force. After a while, those mix naturally, becoming mana, which is more commonly recognized as magical energy, which allows supernatural events to occur. The [Forge of souls] is an item allowing soul cores to inhabit other bodies, essentially, it is in charge of reincarnation." I almost thought he'd interrupt me there, but he didn't, so I continued. " As said earlier, soul cores are made of pure soul energy, as such, the Forge can use it to create more cores, to adapt to the rise of population. The problem is that energy isn't unlimited, so the more people exist, the less soul energy is available..."
"And what would happen when there isn't any energy anymore?"
I sigh. Preventing that one was one of the few things I was proud of, even if it ended up being useful to that woman.
"Should the ambient soul energy drop under 5 percent, a program, hidden deep inside the core would cause the apparition of empty cores, which would be stuck inside newborns. Those children would grow up to become empty vessels whose only objectives would be to fill themselves with soul energy. Of course, to do that, they'd have to prey on other people. As I understand it, the ratio to bring back the equilibrium would be 10 souls to 1 soulless, the problem is that it would probably wipe out mankind."
Apparently, I lost him. I was about to repeat myself when he put his hands up.
"Okay, no more energy means end of mankind, got it. So, life appeared on the worlds, what next ?"
I blink. He actually followed what I said ? Color me impressed.
"As I said, life appeared, sentient lifeforms eventually developed and, a few millennia later, one of them discovered the forge. I'll spare you the technical details but they learned to tap into the orb's powers and became gods. After a while, they got tired of living among mortals, because they would, and needed to die, so they created themselves another world. The thing is, they needed something to keep the worlds from becoming fully separated, so they created a bridge, in the form of a tree, which would be Y. Why a tree ? So that they could add other worlds as they wished. Then came the problem of communication and information storage, then came R, V and eagle-man. Kingdoms rose, pantheons were formed, and Hell appeared, and so the warden, N, was created. Sadly, soon enough, a war broke out, affecting all of the worlds. The entities between the worlds gained consciousness and were forced to end the conflict with their own hands. That deeply scarred them, none of them are what you would call sane nowadays."
I rub the bridge of my nose while Tasuku made the connections and looked horrified. He probably researched the Norse mythology for the game and as such linked the initials to the proper names. I can't say if it's a good or bad thing.
"As they were about to turn against the last remaining world, Earth, or Midgard, R stopped them by sending all of them, including himself, into a deep sleep. As they had souls, the Forge eventually assigned them to bodies holding weakened souls. Not strong enough to become fully fledged souls, but not weak enough to be soulless. Sadly, the souls not being strong enough to hold their ground is what allowed the entities to awaken. The entities dealt with the souls in different ways. Some simply usurped the control and left the other soul dormant, some fused, and some flat out destroyed them to power themselves up out of sleep."
I wasn't able to keep the bitterness out of my voice it seems, because Tasuku put his chopsticks slowly on the plate while looking at me warily. I laugh softly before showing myself with a hand.
"Yup, you're looking at what remains from Y's host. Long story short, she tried destroying and absorbing me when I was about 6, but she's a self hating hypocrite, so I was able to reform by hijacking one of her 'processus', the entity known as Yuri, or reason. I managed then to use her self hatred to put her to sleep and sealing her memories, but our little trip to the other world awoke her, and she finally remembered what I made her forget. I was about to be fully deleted and sent back to the Forge when R intervened, got me out and stuffed me in Sorano Lily's original body. Then, since Y essentially took over the world, my species was changed and I shrunk."
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Ah, it looks like the information influx fried his brain. I put my own chopsticks down before looking around. The night sky was very visible, the lack of pollution and presence of the full moon making it a very clear night. Besides the fireplace, the sofa and the table, the room was pretty bare and dusty, that place was old. I enjoyed the silence for a while, closing my eyes and feeling the night time wind cool down my head.
Then I notice that indeed, there was silence around, which meant either Himeko stopped her rampage, or more likely, took it somewhere else. Strange, she usually didn't care about collateral damage...
"Is our fight meaningless then?"
Hmmm, so that's what bothered him? I open an eye and look at him. His broodiness levels increased again. Muuuu, I think I preferred the idiot, he was happier that way. That, and he was harassing Y, which is always a plus in my book.
"This world is doomed at this point, but that doesn't mean Y cannot be vanquished."
"Cut the cryptic bullshit out please, I got enough of it with R."
I pout, that's not cute at all!
"Ah, what I mean is that the project you failed to protect" Twitch " from your girlfriend " twitch" caused the spread of a virus that will either kill people or turn them into super zombies."
Tasuku got to his feet and looked at me in disbelief.
"How can you say that and stay calm!?"
"Because I have a plan, because R has another plan, because you're more skilled that you let on. I admit, our chances aren't good, but to keep mankind from being either enslaved or wiped out, time is of the essence, and for one, I'm glad I gave you Kronos' key instead of letting Y use it."
I look at him seriously. In hindsight, much of my behavior before I recovered my memories makes sense now.
"What?"
Of course, he doesn't get it. Time to stop beating around the bush.
"Don't you find it strange that we got our in game affinities in that world? That somehow, Y's influence was so much stronger? That elements of the world were much too convenient for us? Didn't something strange happen to you when we were sent in and back?"
"How..."
I nod.
"I admit, it was strange at first. The councilors asked for brave, but gullible heroes, and no offense, you were almost the perfect stereotype for it, so why would you remain unconscious for so long? The women at the medical bay spoke of magical exhaustion and you weren't able to use your powers for a while, right? The legendary artifact I was after also had troubling similarities with one ring I owned, the culture was almost exactly similar to my field of studies, save for the names, I almost didn't learn anything at all, not to mention, somebody else from our world was summoned, but never went back, the demon king possession was eerily similar to divine possession, and the beast described in the old forbidden books looked like the super powered undead project Fenrir is currently spewing off. Knowing that I was, at the moment Y's vessel, Agito was V's, Seiryuu was N's and Himeko was R's and they all became active at that moment, what does that tell you?"
His face was white and he collapsed ton the sofa.
"Y won?"
"In that future, Y won. That's what we're trying to prevent." I scan our surroundings to make sure nobody listens in, before continuing. "R has his reasons and I have mine. I think I know his, but without proof, I can't tell anything. The fact remains, Y, V and N are currently too strong for us to vanquish, we can't breach the realm of the gods, and that's not counting their followers, or the fact the laws of the world are being rewritten as we speak."
I breathe in, spewing my observations and theories took out more than I thought it would. R, despite all of the affection that is between us, is probably not as trustworthy as I think he is. After all, his relation with Y was much closer. Eagle-man is only there because I can give him access to the blueprints of the new world, the moment he gets a better deal, he'll go away. As ironic as it may be, Tasu-guy is probably the only ally I can have.
Breathe in, out, keep the panic away, my hands feel clammy.
"Then what can we do?"
I look at him, keeping myself from snorting at his simple mindedness. Something has to be done, so he'll do it. I envy him in his ignorance. Or perhaps not, as he's currently losing everything he holds dear to Y's machinations. Is the world already that far gone that even ignorance can no longer bring bliss?
"Y will be the last to fall, she ensured that, so we need to chip her support away, that would be N and V. But even that is irrealisable in a regular, human lifetime. Fortunately, Y's hubris will be her loss, the 'processus' Lily is obsessed with King Arthur and the celtic legends. If, and it's a big If, we can make it so incarnation is a good prospect, I'll be able to use my ring to imprison the soul of whoever she sends down. Sadly, that can only happen after the world's reformation, and R keeps the ring jealously."
"That's suspicious."
At least he got enough common sense to notice that part. I hum in agreement, before continuing our little heart to heart.
"hmm... Nowadays, people you can trust are only a handful."
"Your motivations are shady too."
"Oh?" I didn't expect him to point that particular omission of mine.
"Yeah, whatever can you gain from it ? You finally got a way to escape from all of it, yet you're jumping back in it."
I often asked myself that, and in the end, it all comes back to that particular point, my existence is unnatural, and I can feel it in the deepest part of what I have instead of a soul. Then I realize the boy wants an answer.
"Because, Tasu-guy, I want this to end, one way or another, I'm tired of waiting, hiding and running away. Yet, I refuse to let myself become like them, that would mean they win. Nothing is eternal, and despite all of their efforts, I'll make sure they aren't an exception."
"Even for R?"
I snort, is it point the obvious day ?
"You've probably noticed, he doesn't intend to survive this."
"Neither do you." He remarks, probably trying to rile me up or something, I simply nod.
"Neither do I."
"This is wrong." He scowls, displeased by my answer. Geez, you're making me feel bad now... That kind of morals and idealism will go away soon, contact with those entities has that effect of ruining people like that. Speaking of ruined, how's Nagito doing?
"I know, but that's the only thing keeping me going."
He pursed his lips and glared at the fire, not saying anything else while I look up at the moon, my arms around my knees.
***
"Heeeeeey! Nacchan! I thought you'd never sleep with another man!"
I open an eye blearily to see Himeko, pouting and much too close. I look around, Tasu-guy was currently asleep on the other side of the couch, a full meter away from me. Seriously, talk about overreacting. I stretch and throw a pillow at him. If I don't get to sleep in, neither does he!
Seriously, it's not because I let him into my plan that we're friends or anything!
"Murglwhut!"
He fell on the ground, rolling for a bit before sitting up, glaring a bit at Himeko, it was pretty obvious he thought her the culprit behind his abrupt awakening.
Himeko just grinned at him while agitating a thermos from which emanated the unmistakable scent of coffee before stiffening , her eyes narrowing. That, of course, got us on high alert.
"Camp superpowers was breached, be ready to intervene in five minutes."
Wait what?
"I'm not combat ready!" I squeak pitifully.
"If it comes to that, it's been a week, you can use 'that' if you use the enemy lock."
"Uuuuuu..."
Tasuku looked confused until Himeko threw a bag at him, containing an obviously real, very sharp, and enchanted looking sword before glaring at him.
"If Yumeko or Irina are there, I fully expect you to kick some psychotic bitch ass, lives are at stake, mister hero."
Well before the five minutes are gone, we suddenly appear in front of some sort of fort, rocked by explosions, with misshapen abominations running around and chasing obviously frightened teenagers.
Before I can say anything, I find myself hoisted up on the air, over a feathered carpet, which revealed itself to be the eagle.
Right, take to the air, and smite them from afar, got it.
I gulp and clench my book, trying to forget about the screams.
I think I'm going to be ill.
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3,2k They get longeeeeeeer D:
Well, considering I spend some time cramming for my exams, I think it's fair.
Funnily enough, If I was following my 1,5k per chapter and 10 chapter per arc guideline, the arc would already be complete. That explanation/description stuff sure fluffs up the chapters huh.
Finally ! Answers ! Explanations! Thank Tasuku for needing them, he was the perfect excuse!
More information dumping! (anticipates Neiden and Truth's theories while giggling like mad)