After a few hours of sleep, I wake up and stretch my body. Jumping from the bed, I take a few steps and enter the balcony, looking outside at the city. Virelia is unusually quiet, and the walls that used to surround it are gone, as well as dozens of buildings destroyed and a few towers have tilted or just straight up toppled.
Further in the distance, I can see the trunk of the Living Tree. Colossal, grayish bark, and branches without any leaves.
Defeated, destroyed, killed, just like that. All the preparations and planning gone and useless, the Calamity was defeated by Eris at the cost of her life.
I can't understand it fully; it's so dumb. So fucking dumb. She could have run away, she could have held it back and waited for me and others to join the fight. She could have just kept us in the city and not sent us after... but, that would mean sacrificing Sophie, Aaron, and Dennis, wouldn't it?
Looking down I clench and unclench my fist. If I were stronger, I would solve it all. I would be the one deciding the result, and no one would have to die. I wasn't strong enough, and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth, even though I know they are fake.
I wonder, could I have pushed myself more? Could I do it differently and focus more on leveling instead of improving my handling of my power? Could I have just left the tree alone and stopped the ants from kidnapping three members of our group and fought against the Calamity with Eris?
Taking a few steps, I jump back into the bed in the room Storm Brigade has lent me, Obelia has offered to board us until we can find another house.
“Status,” I say.
Name: Nathaniel Gwyn
Difficulty: Hell
Floor: 4 - Waning Realm
Time left until forced return: 4y 81d 13h 15m 7s
Traits (1/3): Mana Circuit
Lvl 189
Strength: 87
Dexterity: 89
Constitution: 224
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 707 + 707
Primary Class: Focused Channeler (Epic)
Sub-class: [Initiate of Pride]
Active skills:
Focus (Dual Focus Consolidation) - Lvl 41
Mana Manipulation (Advanced Mana Manipulation) - Lvl 41
Perception - Lvl 39
Redistribution (Symbiotic Transference) - Lvl 39
Resonance - Lvl 34
Mana Domain - Lvl 21
Tether - Lvl 11
Regalia - Lvl 10
Infusion - Lvl 16
Constructs:
Reinforcement (Construct)
Kinetic Mana Heart (Construct)
Mana Regulator (Construct)
Mana Sovereignty Mantle (Construct)
Passive skills:
Cerebral Harmony (rare)
Mana-Fortified Resilience (rare)
Pyrokinetic Resurgence (rare)
Mana Reservoir (epic)
Arcane Resilience (epic)
Tokens: Beyond Difficulty entrance token
Shards: 3032
While examining my stats, I feel a touch and an attempt to connect to my mind.
I allow it to happen, and Sophie's voice sounds in my head. (Can we talk?)
(Yes, I will land on your balcony in a few minutes.)
(Thank you.)
I put on some clothes and look in the mirror nearby. The guy looking back at me seems the same on the surface , yet I know him well.
“Asshole,” I say, and his mouth mouths the same word.
Stepping onto the balcony, I locate Sophie and, generating just enough kinetic energy, fly higher and to the side, landing on the balcony not unlike my own.
Sophie is wearing simple clothes that are a bit too big for her, and the doors to the room are closed. Behind the glass, I see Isabella sleeping on the bed. Noodle on one side and Biscuit on the other.
Tracking my gaze, Sophie looks as well and smiles gently. “She got surprised and scared by a small spider just a few days ago. I watched her scream and jump backward, hitting her head against the wall,” she turns to me. “I wouldn't have been able to see that without removing the [Geas] from her mind.”
“You messed with your own memories,” I do not beat around the bush. Sophie is acting way too casual for what happened to her and the twins deep in the heart of the Colony.
“You are quick to catch on,” she sits in one of the chairs on the balcony while I lean against the railing.
After gathering her thoughts, she continues, “I wanted to remove them, I really did, but something stopped me,” she looks at her hands, “Would I be the same person if I did that? And if I did that, would that make each new edit easier until I simply remove every unhappy memory I have?”
Sophie looks at me, “Nathaniel, maybe we humans aren’t supposed to have this kind of power. Saving someone after their head’s been cut off?” She touches her neck where a thin, white scar stretches across its entire length, most likely something Lily left intentionally.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
She continues to speak, “Or manipulating people and removing their free will?” her eyes are piercing as she looks into mine, “Being strong enough to wipe a small city off the map just a few months after gaining these powers?”
“You can think about it as much as you want, but it doesn't change the fact that there are other people with these powers. People who won't care about that will complete the tutorial and return to Earth,” I easily return her gaze, “Unlike you, I don’t mind it. I like my powers and the things they allow me to do.” I reply.
She smiles and nods as if expecting this answer, then looks to the side, at the Living Tree outside the city, “You know, I tried multiple things with my [Manipulation]. I tried to manipulate fire, manipulate mana, earth, and a few others, yet I always found myself progressing the most with controlling monsters or people.”
Sophie breathes in and closes her eyes, “I wanted to remove my memories, but decided against it. In the end, I did the same thing I did for the others after we escaped the tunnel under the old capital. I made those memories feel as if they happened years ago, leaving them a faint memory.” She touches her neck, “I can still feel the blade slicing through my neck, I remember the ants trying to steal my skill. It’s all in here.”
“That much is reasonable,” I tell her.
“Do you really think so? I know that you have a skill that allows you to do something similar,” she opens her eyes, her hand still on her neck, “But I think we will pay for that in the future, Nat, both you and I for trying to cheat ourselves.”
“Probably, but that's for future Nathaniel to deal with,” I pass by her and quietly open the door.
Noodle, now awoken, slithers outside, a bit bigger than before. His tongue flickers towards me as I radiate a bit of mana to feed him. When I reach out my hand to him, he hesitates for a moment, but then coils around it in the same way he does with Isabella.
“Current me will do the best he can,” I continue, and carefully touch Noodle’s head petting him gently.
The snake closes its eyes, and only his tongue continues to flicker. His body is somewhat cold to the touch, but it doesn’t feel bad, and his scales have a nice texture to them.
“I guess, consequences be damned,” Sophie says while observing Noodle, “Or maybe we are the dumb ones, and all these abilities are to help us deal with this all, something normal. It's just we still think like humans worrying about useless things.”
I think about it for a while, “It might be just as you said.”
Isabella’s soft cries sound from inside the room, she seems to be having a nightmare as she twitches on the bed.
Sophie stands up and opens the door. Lilly finished restoring her legs a few hours after sacrificing my arm.
When I hand her Noodle, she looks at me one more time, “The matriarch is dead. You know what that means, right?”
I nod, “The Colony will be coming.”
“Yes. I tried to kill as many of them as possible, especially the ones capable of creating arrays, and I even left some traps in their links. But it won’t slow them down for too long. A few days maybe.”
Isabella twitches again, and Sophie just waves and closes the door, immediately lying on the bed and hugging her sleeping sister, who quickly calms down.
Not wanting to interrupt their moment, I jump from the balcony and glide back to my room. There, I open the balcony and pass through my room, opening the door outside.
The hallway is empty and simple, mostly made of stone and wood with a thick carpet on the polished floor. It has a nice cozy feeling to it. Taking a short walk, I reach the door to the room where Tess is staying with Lily, the two of them are together so she can help our silly healer. I knock and wait.
Tess opens a few seconds later, “Come in, Nat.” She just lets me enter immediately.
The moment I do so, Lily sees me too, and a big smile appears on her face. I notice that one of her arms is already nearly back. The left one that is once again pale, and I would bet if she restores my left arm too, it will be pale as well.
The speed with which she is regenerating her arms is much faster than before. “Guess who can enter Beyond now?” she asks me, her smile becoming even bigger.
I can hear Tess sigh next to me, and I sit on the edge of the bed next to Lily.
This is serious; I can see it in her eyes. The moment she heals, she will enter Beyond. As always, her reason is simple: to reach me. To become closer to me, to be strong like me. To become more useful to me. That's how she’s thinking.
Ever since the floor started, I haven’t heard her speak about her family, and Tess, who knew Lily just a little bit from school, told me that the black-haired girl was someone you might call a loner.
I wonder how her life was before for her to become so possessive of me, to cling to me and the others so much. To have such fear in her eyes that we will throw her away the moment we become much stronger or she becomes less useful. It doesn't matter how much Tess works on it, it doesn’t matter that I tried to help too. Lily still lives in constant fear of being left behind.
“Don't enter Beyond for now,” I tell her.
She continues to smile for a moment, thinking that I'm joking, but I just look at her and slowly her expression changes from that of happiness to hurt and anger.
I move closer and put my hand on hers, “I will train with you. I will help you prepare.”
Lily might have the strongest damage skill out of all of us, and she is extremely hard to kill, but she is lacking when it comes to reading the flow of combat and over-relies on her damage and healing.
I squeeze her arm, “I will make sure you become stronger.”
The expression in her eyes changes a bit, hurt and sadness replaced by pleading and hope.
“I want everyone to live, Lily, so we will prepare, okay?”
Her eyes shake and she stares at me, taking in every detail of my face.
I continue, “And when you are ready, you will crush the trial and join me and Tess.”
Lily nods, “Yes, yes. I will do it.”
----------------------------------------
Flashback - Lily Chen - 8 years old
In a dark, small room, a little girl sits on a thin blanket. A little girl with black hair and bangs long enough to fall into her face.
"Are you angry, Grumpy?" the little girl asks, pulling the cat in her arms closer to her chest, "And don't meow, it makes you look even more like a grumpy," she says, smiling.
Meow. The little kitten tries to escape for a bit, but still being weak, is unable to do so and gives up.
That makes the little girl laugh for a bit longer as she snuggles the kitten with two differently colored eyes, yellow and blue, and with black fur.
Then silence fills the small room and the entire apartment.
It is around nine o'clock, and the girl is entirely alone, the floors cold, the power cut off, and tap water rarely flows. Something normal for the girl, too young to realize that it shouldn't be like that.
"We will be alone again tonight," she mumbles, holding the kitten tight.
Slowly she stands up from the floor, her feet are bare and her pajamas are old, dotted with holes. The little girl takes the thin blanket and moves away from the door where she has been waiting for someone to return, excited to talk about her day with the little kitten.
"It’s fine, I have you, Grumpy," the little girl says, and after jumping on the bed, she wraps the blanket around them.
With a smile, she continues to watch as the kitten falls asleep. Then, even though there is no other blanket on her bed, she slips the blanket off of herself and wraps it all around Grumpy.
Feeling the cold, she continues to shake a bit, but the big smile doesn't leave her face as she continues to watch the little kitten sleep.