Chapter 130.

(Zack)

I'm outside of existence again, and mentally curse. I forgot about Power Jump, and honestly, I wouldn't have expected sixty-nine Levels when already over three hundred collective to cause it.

As with before, I can sense those two unusual presences as I watch the giant crystal that represents all of existence. They know I'm here, but they can't sense my actual location, not unless I touch the crystal.

So either I can touch the crystal and hope what happened the first time happens again, or Big FD yanks me back into his realm.

For what feels like forever, I deal with listening to them attempting to locate me, before I suddenly find myself in a cave, in the presence of Big FD in his child form. It looks a little older than before, but then, I'm a little older. It's been a few months, and I've grown again.

"Hello, Zack," he smiles. "How are you?"

"Tired," I stretch. "I overworked my sight earlier."

"That can happen, sometimes," he says as I sit before him. A pack of cards appear in his hands as he sits, then he begins shuffling them. "But your Intellect and Wisdom are increasing as a result."

"Yeah," I nod. "Not much, though. And they're not the ones that matter, not to me."

"Indeed," he says. "What are your plans, Zack? Going forward?"

"To screw the ancient vision and kill Alexander myself," I growl. "He caused Luca to be hurt!"

Big FD starts dealing out the cards.

"The vision," he says. "Gives two ways for the war to end. You, a child of mine, cannot be fooled. You see what is and is not most likely. In this situation, you are seeing the two paths to the end."

"That's not possible," I shake my head. "Bryce is dead. It's definitely showing the wrong people, which means it's not showing the two paths to the end, only substitutes for them. We still need to figure out who the brothers are."

"Alexander," he says. "Can be killed by the blade, or by the realization. Those are the two paths, Zack. And the vision you had did not lie."

"Except that it would have to be one of us after I did the three things," I shake my head. "Yet only one of us is alive. I know you're the Big E and all that, but seriously? The vision was mistaken on the people. It's-"

"Zack," he says firmly. "The vision did not lie, and you were shown the two paths to killing him. He shall die by the blade or by realization."

I sigh. He's not referring to the people who will do it.

"Wait," I realize. "He will die by realization?"

"Yes," he answers. "Or no? What is death? Is it when your life ends, your soul leaving your body and moving on to the next life? Or is it when you become a new person, begin a new stage of your life?

"I will tell you this, though," he says. "You already have the answer for how to kill him, for how to end this war."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, and I realize that he only dealt cards to me. Five of them, in a line. "Big FD – the fuck are you talking about? If you're talking about the 'by the blade' thing, I'm going to do my damned hardest! And why did you only deal the cards to me?"

He flips them over, and from left to right, they represent the Sacred Crystals of Fire, Earth, Seal, Air, and Water. He sets down two more cards, one for light, and one for darkness, above them. Then, he places a fifth one above, which has the planet Earth on it.

"You already have the answer for what is needed," he tells me. "By realization or the blade, the war will end."

"But-"

"You already have the answer," he says, and the vision fades away.

I wake up and sit up and pound my fist into the wall out of frustration. Not hard enough to actually damage it, but I could have. This is infuriating! Big FD is infuriating!

And I know he can end this war himself! He can enter the Boundary, that means he has the power to end the war! Why is he letting things run its course? Is it because we're all already dead or not supposed to exist? Because it doesn't threaten reality? At least, not yet?

"RARGH!" I yell, doing my best not to actually punch a hole in the wall.

And then I realize I'm not alone, and my team was sleeping. Luca had probably awakened from my sudden movement when I sat up, while the others woke up with my scream. All four of them jumped.

"Sorry," I apologize to them. "I just had… a frustrating vision. I didn't realize my surroundings. Sorry for waking you guys."

Luca pokes me in the arm, an inquisitive look on his face.

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"I, uh, got Power Jump," I tell him. "It causes funky visions."

Or in my case, for me to speak with the infuriating Big FD who talks semi-cryptically and won't actually give answers. Yes, I know how to end the war! By running my sword right through Alexander's smug, arrogant face!

Luca wraps his arms around me, pinning mine against my sides. I do this whenever he gets too upset with his nightmares, so he probably thinks this helps in some way. With him, it keeps him from wiggling and kicking around. With me… I wasn't doing that in the first place.

My anger was building up, though. Rage's counter is nearly at the maximum multiplier it can grant, and Luca's attempt at calming me down helps me start to calm. I take a few deep breaths, then move my arms, causing him to realize that he can't actually pin them.

I rub Luca's head, then look at the others. Braden and Gavin are just looking at me from their bunks, while Max is hanging his head down to give me a curious and worried look.

"I'm sorry for waking you guys," I tell them. "The funky vision made me think about some things, and I'm just… angry. I'm going to head out. You guys get some sleep, okay? I'll be fine, I'm just going for a walk through town."

Luca's not happy with that, because he's scared of his bad dreams, but I assure him that he'll be fine as I climb off my bed and change out of my night clothes and into a regular outfit. I look at Max.

"He'll be okay with it if you put on pants," I tell him, and Max frowns. "Max, people wear clothes. It bothers them when you don't. It makes them uncomfortable. This is even more true if you're touching them."

"Oh!" He exclaims, then scrambles around on his bed, before climbing off of it, wearing a pair of pants. "Luca!"

He hops onto the bed beside Luca. Finally, Max understands why Luca always pushes him off when he tries to do the same thing I do.

"Max knows lots of stories we be use when have bad dreams," Max tells Luca. "I be telling you them until you sleep good!"

He nods his head a few times, and I chuckle as I leave.

I need something to punch. Hard. Something that I can punch again and again and again. There are two possibilities: Dark Knights, and the training golems at the Dark Temple. Either option leads me to the Dark Temple, so I head that way.

I'm nearly there when I suddenly find myself in the same cave where I'd conversed with Big FD during my Power Jump vision, only this time, I'm fully aware this is not a vision and I'm actually there… which is weird.

"I'm not in the Boundary anymore?" I ask.

"You are and you aren't," Big FD says.

He's in adult form this time, the form he had when he met my mom.

"This realm is complicated," he says. "It is everywhere and nowhere, all at once, Zack."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"You're quite angry," he says.

"Damn right I am!" I point at him. "Why are you not doing something about this? You could save everyone some trouble and deal with Alexander right now! Do you dislike Big S that much that you'd let him and the others suffer for-for-for however long they've been like this?"

"The splitting of reality and fantasy is the point modern existence knows as 'the Big Bang'," he tells me. "So since then. Billions of years."

He says that casually, matter-of-factly, and it pisses me off even more.

"You-"

"I could end things," he nods. "Right now. But where do I stop with interfering, Zack? I step in now, do I step in again the next time there's a major problem? If I stepped in, what about the aftermath? Do you know what happens if the Boundary ceases to exist? Its creation destroyed the old universe and birthed a new one."

It did what?

"I-" I hesitate. "I don't know."

"The Crystals," Big FD says. "Will merge fantasy back into reality, Zack. I would have to do that as well. I have a policy of interfering as little as possible when it comes to existence simply because I am existence.

"I can manipulate things," he tells me. "I can change things, and I can alter things. But I understand better than any ever could, Zack, that it's best to let things run their course. You and Bryce were sired for a purpose, a reason. Your very existence, Zack, was to eventually die and enter the Boundary."

"You're controlling me?" I feel my anger spiking even more.

"No," he shakes his head. "You were born with free will, Zack. But I knew that you would enter the Boundary when you died, and that Alexander would attempt to kill you, turning you into his enemy. All of this is because of free will, Zack. I predicted these events, but as with your own visions, I can be wrong sometimes."

"And Bryce?"

"That was one case where I made an incorrect calculation," he nods. "I hadn't expected him to die again so soon in the Boundary. I was expecting him to last out the war as well. As I said, I knew what your existence would cause, but I knew it would cause that because of free will. What our powers of prediction are, Zack, is taking the entire history of this existence and assessing it to determine what the most likely routes are for the future. That is why it can shift and change, why it can be wrong, and why it's more accurate closer to the now of when you're looking. Because every single moment that passes affects the calculations we perform, and every moment that passes after can change them yet again."

I stare at him, at a loss for words. I'm doing what every time I use my sight? How is that even possible?

"Yes," he chuckles. "The System limits your mana pool, Zack, but your divine gifts do not work on it. Or have you not noticed your Mana remaining unchanged? It draws on mana, but the System's allowed Mana isn't your true."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"The System," he says. "Grants access up to or adds Mana to those within it. Most people would never reach the amount of mana as they have in Mana as a stat, not as young as they are. But demigods? They are born with immense pools of them. Luca's natural pool of mana would equal around 100,000 Mana. Braden's would equal around 87,000 Mana, and Gavin's is around 72,000 Mana."

"And me?" I ask.

"That's where short notation comes in," he says, then snorts. "Or scientific, for the jerks who try to insist everyone uses it when playing games that offer short notation."

I snort. I remember those fuckers from reality, back before I died. Yeah, the game had scientific notation, but not everyone finds it easy to use. Some find short notation much more intuitive.

Wait. Does Big FD play those games?

"Wait," I realize something else. "How big is my true mana?"

"You have around as much mana as a god," he tells me, and I feel my eyes widen. "And the System prevents you from accessing that, except for when you use your divine abilities. You're actually quite low on it, you burned through nearly all of it yesterday to deal with that Greed Lord. That's why your body feels so sluggish. Your true regeneration isn't enough to bring it back up quickly enough, and you're used to having so much of it filling you, so your body has a form of fatigue as a result, even after all you've recovered.

"Now," he places a hand on my shoulder. "Zack, I could interfere, but I dislike interfering with free will too much, and all will work out in the end. Many have found new opportunities awaiting them after death because of the Boundaries, even. Remember what I told you before: you already have the answer to how the war ends. That is what is important."

"But what is the answer?" I ask.

The cave and Big FD fades from my vision as the streets of Maelnor fade back into it. Sending me back to the Boundary doesn't answer the question!