Anton raised his query, “You’re losing us again, Nicolas; how did that boy become your cousin? The royal family was—” He met Nicolas eye to eye until he realized something: “Prince Emmanuel, the deranged prince.”
“Bingo, he gave up his quest and lived his life, but let’s set that aside; it’s not very important now. Anyway, all our past lives had one thing in common: we’re hunted down, and if luck’s extremely not on our side, we’re immediately killed the moment we’re born.”
“How would that be possible? Guides should also be tasked of cleansing the soul before passing them to the next plane of reality; moreover, they are forbidden to join the flow of life themselves”, Donnor said, feeling even more confused than before.
“That’s the point; we never go through any purgatory. Each time we die, we get sent directly to a new plane as if we just woke up from a dream, memories intact," Nicolas added.
“Even if what you’re saying is true, why did you only remember it now despite bearing the memories the moment you started a new life?” Alvor again asked, enjoying every bit of the discussion.
“That’s because our memories are sealed when we were born apart, in order to make sure that ‘he’ won’t find us before we can find each other. As I said, from all of the lives we died together, we’re drowned, smashed, burned, shot, or got stabbed together. But the last time I tried looking for help to save Matthew, I got pulped by a train, half a kilometer away from him.”
“I see”, Alvor nodded, fidgeting with his mustache. “What’s a train though?”
“I would also like to know”, Hunter raised his hand.
“Seriously?”, Nicolas felt disappointed at them for some reason. “Forget the train; let’s just say I got hit by a cart running a hundred miles an hour." He felt like a teacher having no choice but to answer kindergarten’s questions.
“I too would like to know”, Alisa also raised her hand.
Nicolas looked at her and sighed, “You too?” He sighed, “Fine, it’s a, how would I put it, a vehicle. A long metal vehicle running along a metal track, it is used for fast transportation from one location to another for a shorter number of time than riding a horse. Considering the state of technology this world has right now, it would at least take three decades or four to reach steam engine technology.”.
“I did not get it”, Anton blurted.
“For goodness sake, I’m sure you have seen it before, but you can’t remember it because of the soul cleansing thing. Let’s just go back to our current problem, okay?” Nicolas cried, finally deciding to cut the crap while regretting his decision to even bring that train up. “Now let me know, have you examined the engravings at the temple?” he added.
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“Yes, none of it deviates from the legend”, Donnor reported. “But it’s still a mystery why those soulless would try understanding those scriptures.”
“They must have been looking for a way to make Duncuel’s resurrection faster”, Alvor answered.
“It’s not that”, Nicolas debated.
“What do you mean? I’m pretty sure that Duncuel must have ordered them to look for a way to make sure that the almighty Anwar would never be able to take any action.”
“Anwar will not be taking any action. Remember why I have a brother with an identical soul?”, Nicolas again bringing that part of conversation up.
“Yeah”, all of them replied.
“The fact that I and Matthew exist is the proof that Anwar is no longer sentient.”
“What do you mean”, Anton queried upon catching up to the conversation.
“The Blue Moon’s Tale that you know is a fabricated story. A story meant to cover up a distant past and history of this world”, Nicolas elaborated while planning his vision from Anton to Donnor. “I don’t mean to hurt your feelings as children of light, but what your ancestors were was never valiant heroes. They, together with the ancient civilization, can’t defeat the demon spawns of this land. The monsters in the Adventures of Sasha, they’re real, and Sasha is the name of one of the heroes that we’re summoned in this world together with Liam, but I guess you know him as Duncuel.”
“Here you go again with an even deeper topic”, Donnor scratched his head.
“Liam was the only survivor of the group, after—” he hesitated to spell his thoughts, for he knows they won’t like it, “After your ancestors betrayed them.”
“What do you mean!”, Donnor roared.
“Your ancestors were greedy fools that got blinded with power and so on,” he narrated the confrontation he saw from at the end of his venture through his memories. Telling them every bit of detail he could remember and painting their faces with anger. He kept reminding them to calm down, it must have been an insult for Donnor but he had no choice, it’s for the sake of stopping Liam.
“With that said, Liam’s consciousness is what currently resides within that man, Matthew’s biological father, Marco Terradin. He could only possess other beings since now; he’s merely a lowly wandering soul. Matthew and I existed from the mended soul fragments of Anwar and Liam.”.
“This is bad”, Alvor muttered. “If your brother really is Matthew and he’s already in Dun—Liam’s hands, we might be in for the worst.”
“Yeah, but we are still lucky. As far as what Matthew told me, he was still compact except from the growing dark space on his soul. It seemed like when Liam tried to corrupt him, he failed to sense that Matthew is one of his fragments. At least, Anwar’s plan worked, for now. If he already knew, then he should have already forced a synthesis.”
“Then what for does Meriane need to massacre our homeland!” Anton exclaimed in anger. “If they just need you, why would they need to kill thousands?”
Alvor held him by the shoulder and sat him back down. “Mending ones soul back together needs sacrifices, and it is a God’s soul we are talking about. They would need lots of souls.”
“I know what you are feeling, Anton," Nicolas assured him, projecting a shape of the soul no human can procure—a scythe. “I also think my death or simply handing me over are the best options, but I beg you. This might be the last chance we can face Liam and end this cycle”, he lowered his head.
“Wait, if you have God’s soul, can’t you contact angels to help us?” Hunter asked out of the blue.