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Chapter 27: Side B, The Memory (4)
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[I could not think of anything else but the future that held our fates.
Learning about the Goddess of Time was enough to put me in a state of shock and positive agitation. Also, to actually learn that there’s a God of Death aiming to destroy our world, is just so surreal.
To know that these truths were actually available to me and I was just learning it now just proves that I chose the right dream for myself.
When I was a boy, I dreamed of a place where I can just be alone and read all I want, study all I want, and write my findings all I want.
I wanted to be a scholar who studies the science of the magical elements that makes the world go round.
I wanted to study about our origins, about the life we had before the Muans —the original Terrans, our original ancestors, migrated from their home planet to this monster infested world.
There were also the «Invaders» and their very small but very strong numbers.
Wielding weapons that which was only told as legends in the «Book of Legends», these invaders from another world does not cause much trouble when we don’t go to their territorial lands.
I wanted to study them and their origins. Where they came from and why are they here.
But to learn that there was actually a Goddess of Time named Terra, all these dreams of mine became a side note as to the grandness of such discovery.
Just imagining how the people would rejoice if they learn of her, I am pretty sure that a brand new sect of religion would certainly rise.
But then, what bothered me, above all, is the fact that this Goddess of Time is keeping the forces of Mefisto at bay. I don’t get it. No, it’s hard to comprehend.
“How do you know this?” I asked this question to Flynn and he told me that it was her that told him.
Rapunzel is the first messiah of the Goddess of Time, Terra, and her gift was one proof Terra exists. That’s because high ranking cleric of a certain sect can ask and be granted the powers of the God they represent.
But, unlike her, in the other gods that was currently known, or at least those that I know of, only Janus and Mefisto are those that was said to have little to ‘no’ influence at all.
Even if it was said that he was the God of Creation, he never actually answers the prayers of the farmers nor of those who supports his church, becoming the reason for his church’s followers to die out.
Mefisto, on the other hand, was considered a myth and his name was frequently used to scare children to sleep.
So this third unknown Goddess, Terra, the Keeper of Time, just how much important was she, really? No, more importantly, what does she really do except stop the forces of Mefisto from destroying our world?
In the first place, was it even true?
Days passed becoming weeks, I led the two ‘lovers’ in the nearest town, part of the Artemisia Empire’s Central Dominion. Although I told them that this place is peaceful, that does not mean it wasn’t dangerous.
That’s because Artemisia Empire, right now, is in the middle of turmoil. The Imperial Family was murdered and the Kingdoms under its wings wanted their own independence.
Before, me and my master joined the peace talks between the kingdoms as mediators. But we ended up being flagged as the Imperial Family’s supporters so we fled into that forest and found ourselves in the mouth of a certain place called “Anazon”.
I brought the two in this town to learn more information about the Northern Continent.
Alas, news here travel a little slower since it was of an international event. Still, we learned that King Arthur lives and that the Huron Empire is in the move to search for us, or at least for a treasure that would give him immense power, according to the news.
Unfortunately for them, even Master Merlin wouldn’t be able to guess which place I’d be since there were hundreds of places I designated as my territory.
There was also the reason why I chose this far away place to teleport us.
We were chased away here and this place left a bad taste in our mouth. Master Merlin, being famous as he was, would think twice before going back here.
But, like all meetings, there should also be partings.
One reason why I brought them to this place is to teach these two how to start a new life.
In here, being a swordsman as he is, Flynn can start a new life for the both of them.
Rapunzel on the other hand was planning to make contact with her ‘Circle of Magi’ and inform them that she was finally free. When I asked if getting married was in issue for them (referenced to other religions), she happily laughed it off and told me that it wasn’t.
The Goddess of Time welcomes marriage as a new beginning. To where life ends, a new life is born, thus the cycle of time that she protects.
I also learned that this very concept is what Mefisto is trying to destroy.
When I think of the images of repeated destruction that I saw from the small gem in my pocket, I can’t help but to believe the priestess on her word.
I bade my goodbye to them and left.
Back in Tiara, in Camelot, I was welcomed with open arms by my master. He had a large scar on his cheek while King Arthur had an injury on his flank.
Turns out, on the day that we escaped Alexandria, Huron’s Dragon Riders came and devastated the whole city. I suddenly thought that if that actually happened, then Flynn, abandoning his post as Commander of the Defense was just unthinkable.
But Master Merlin told me, Flynn was just a stand in and that the real Commander of the Defense was there when Gothel and the Duncans revealed their real faces.
That’s when they got their injuries.
Unfortunately, Gothel was a master of escape and she got away with only a lost arm.
I told my master what happened in the past few months that I was away and what I had discovered of the newest addition in the ranks of Gods.
When my master and King Arthur heard it, they were really surprised. Then I showed them the small gem that Flynn gave me, activated it the way I was taught, and they also believed the very same story that I learned to believe.
Weeks passed by and became months, our goals are now divided on defending Camelot from the full brunt of the Huron Empire’s attacks. During this time, I have experienced many things that I thought wouldn’t come in my time.
Master Merlin taught me the rest of the things he wanted to teach me while I continued to build the place where I wanted to conduct my dream.
Of course, secretly.
More months passed by, I also checked on the two married couple from time to time. Learning that Flynn became a famous adventurer and earned the title of «Captain Rider», the one who rides monsters, was enough to make my master and King Arthur laugh out loud.
Rapunzel, with her long golden hair, became a sensation and fashion model, all girls flocked to know how they could grow their own hairs that silky, smooth, and especially long.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Months passed by again, they had a baby girl. Flynn became the town’s mayor and officially announced the name of his town, Maria, the same name she gave his daughter.
Then, I became a proper Magus.
But the war of Camelot came to its climax, King Arthur’s forces were being pressed.
He advised us to go but my master refused to follow. A friend does not leave a friend alone —is what he said.
I also stayed for my ability was of big help but my master cast a “spell of obedience” on me that would last for a month.
He ordered me to escape and bring all his research and work with me. He said to never come back until the war was over.
The time passed and I woke up in my secret lair.
When I came back, Huron and Camelot was burned and there were no more traces of the two forces ever existing, or able to exist for that matter.
After both forces used everything they had in the last moments of the war, they also destroyed themselves and broke from within.
In the remains of the battlefield filled with the smell of rotten flesh, while smokes and fires burned what was left to be burned, I walked on the sea of dead searching for their figures, in the castle of Camelot, reduced to nothing but ruins.
My heart cried seeing a familiar ring. The ring that my master wore as a sign of his ‘being a Magus’, in a finger of a burned corpse.
Beside him, no, they were back to back, a Knight still in his golden armor, holding the sword that symbolized his power and authority.
I knelt down as I grieved their noble end. To fight until death was of the true warrior’s way.
To give their deaths the proper acknowledgement, I did not bring myself to wear my master’s ring.
I promised myself that I will become a great Wizard, one such that even in death, my master would be proud.
I brought King Arthur’s sword with me and my master’s ring, then I wrapped their bodies in «Cloth of Kings» and warped us in the now prosperous town of Maria.
It’s just been about two years since I was last here but Maria had improved so much that it was really unrecognizable from every angle.
Greeting me at the entrance was the now short haired Rapunzel and the smiling Flynn Rider who held her daughter in his arms.
I wanted to smile, I really do, but I just can’t.
When I told them what happened, they wanted to help me on my mission.
But that mission wasn’t a normal mission that even the great Flynn Rider can just smile and say it’s fine. He insisted that he’d go with me although I wanted to be alone when undergoing this task.
But his reason was to make sure that I come back alive and that’s actually what made me smile as I gave my consent.
And so we went on to our mission, accompanied by the best hunters in the town. Instead of traveling for days with the packages, I just used my ability to shift space and teleported us directly inside of Anazon Forest.
I had learned form my master that using manna stones or anything imbued by manna or a magic artifact that has a recorded cast magic, can save me of the feedback whenever transporting numbers and distances.
That said, with only a little manna and a small medium with which I recorded my cast, I transported us inside the forest to where me and my master traveled the furthest when we came.
I told the people with me that the place we’re going to is the most dangerous of the whole forest and I still gave them the last chance to fall back.
Only 7 people out of the 90 hunters with me actually raised their hands and so I sent them back to the town with their dignity intact.
This is supposed to be a personal mission, as I told them, but they just told me that the story how I sacrificed my life to save their mayor was enough to make them feel gratitude and respect towards me.
I could only send an eye to the grinning Flynn.
Thankfully, these hunters live up to their names. They really are indeed strong.
Then, after a few weeks of traveling deeper into the forest, we finally arrived to that fabled place. As the legend goes, the ‘evil’ that the Muan Guardians sealed in this place only wakes up and hunts in the week before the full moon.
An altar was built in the center of a dead pile of bones, and beside it was a king’s chair made up of bones. The mere sight of it frightened few of the hunters and when I told them their mission ends here, I sent them all home.
Only Flynn and me was left.
I flicked my fingers and the packages teleported in my feet. Using all my ability and the help of my friend, we built a mausoleum 50 metrons behind the throne of bones. When it was finished, I sealed their bodies inside.
On a separate chamber, leading on a garden behind the mausoleum, I put my master’s ring inside a chest of enchanted gold coins —the «Dead Man’s Chest».
After that, I summoned a slab of rock and stabbed the Excalibur beside the chest of treasure, then took the key with me where I put it on the throne of bones.
As I was done, we came back to Maria.
I told them about the great treasure I left there and where to look, but none of the townsfolk dared to ride my challenge and just laughed it off.
Upon the return of their mayor, a festival was initiated, and the story about Excalibur began to circulate.
There wasn’t much to tell about my master’s ring except that it has its benefits, but regarding the Excalibur and its deeds during the war of Camelot, its legend never died even during the years.
I lived in Maria for the next year, teaching magic and arts to the young bloods that wanted to learn. Then, the Priestess of Time approached me, with the Circle of Magi in tow.
They awarded me with the title of Arch Mage, the first of my class.
Now, with all the things me and my master had learned about the Goddess of Time, the Circle of Magi and its purpose was but a great honor to my being.
I bowed and accepted it gleefully and that’s also when I decided to continue my dream. When I told Flynn and Rapunzel about it, she gave me a gift that I cannot, in my entire life, fathom to ever have.
A medallion of time that which kept her young for hundreds of years was passed down to me, saying that she wanted to live a life as a normal Terran and die like a normal citizen with her husband.
Of course I received it gladly. I cannot say no to the kindness and request of such simplicity.
Since then, I secluded myself inside my small room, letting the flow of time passed by, forgetting the world outside.
When I remembered it, I forgot how many days had passed. I wasn’t eating, I never felt hungry. I did not sleep, I never felt tired.
I visited my friends and learned that they had died of age and that the old woman I was actually talking to was already Maria.
With regret, I hugged her, visited my friends’ graves, and said my goodbyes.
That’s when I started my adventures to unite my homeland. As my days walking the plains passed by, I also accumulated new knowledge, new things to add to my collection of things to be studied.
But my collection grew many and became almost random so I rebuilt my secluded room bigger, made it even more vast.
From a mere study, it became a vast library and that’s when I started to call it my Archive.
Years went by and I conquered the last defying city in the continent of Tiara. I didn’t care much to the title they gave me, all I care about is reuniting my homeland.
I used my magic ability to hide the Spires that caused my people to be greedy and only I knew where their locations were —I wrote about them in a certain book in the Archive.
More years passed, I was given the title of Immortal Emperor. As I wrote more books than I can remember, I began to feel bored of my throne.
When I asked my advisors to take charge while I’m gone, I said to them that I will be going to other continents to talk to other kingdoms and empires. But not even 10 years had passed, another war broke out in Tiara. In my anger, I freed them all of their lands and banned the forming of territories.
Even now, in Tiara, there were only the cities. There are no kingdoms nor dominions that separates lands.
The cities exists for themselves and they are of their own land. They do not wish for territorial expansion, just the simple fact that they had to expand the land to cater the increase in population.
They knew that I was their Immortal Emperor, that’s why they feared my return.
I wrote all these and accumulated more subjects.
The east continent of Espada, the central continent of Zenturo, the south continent of Heartilia, the west continent of Flowerion, I had traveled every corner of these lands and discovered their secrets so I wrote them all and stacked them inside my Archive.
In my travels, I was known by different names. The Silam people knew me by Allan. The Intsik called me Buddy. After a thousand year of traveling, I finally came to the idea that I must settle down.
I came back to my library and began to write again, and that’s where…]
“Whoa…”
“Wooooooooooooo…”
“Shiiiiieeeeee…”
“Whaaaa…”
“Weeeeeeeeee….”
Five voices, only the last one was enjoying the ride of the vacuum feeling as if being thrown down a huge bright hole.
When the five came back to their seats, they were all leaning back as if to fall.
They each pulled themselves and only Rocky fell on the floor. The open book with lighted pages folded with a thud and fell back to the table. Then a hand reached from behind them and Janus smiled while holding another book.
“Did you kids enjoy your adventure?” he asked them.
The five, with Rocky just barely getting back to his chair, exchanged glances, then they gave Janus a big warm smile and a nod.
“But old man,” and another man peeked out of another shelf of books with a raised brow, “now we know how you got your username.”
On the young Archer’s remark, Janus patted her pink head.
“Hehe. You certainly did.”
“But teacher, the book wasn’t finished yet when we came back. How did that happen?”
“Oh, is it? Hmm, perhaps one of you clicked a red icon on his panel while inside.”
On the leader’s question, Janus’ reply made one of them start. The other four saw this and the culprit stuck out his tongue as he scratched his head.
“Anyways,” Janus cut in smiling. “What part were you when Ricky clicked the icon?”
“We were about to know how he got that large book.”
“Oh, that. That’s actually the end. I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence but when I read this book, or watched it, it ended abruptly right after I entered the Archive.”
A look of understanding could be seen from the five members of the youth group, just in time for them to notice the book on Janus’ hand.
When prompted, “Ah, I actually wanted to see this book with you guys. It’s one of our esteemed host’s adventures in the west where he was chased by dragons and Atlas tribesmen.”
“Whoa!”
“Awesome!”
“Lemme see! Lemme see!”
The twins’ reactions were understandable, paired with the overly energetic cries of the pink haired archer.
Seeing their reactions, Janus sat down on the table with them and opened the book in the first page. But before he activated the magic that would suck them in, he said:
“Wait, did you know that during the time that the story in the book is being told, you can wander off away from him?”
Janus used his nose to point at the busy man in the shelf beside them.
“No, really?” answered The Mage.
“Yeah. And guess what, if you know where Gabriel hid his territories, then you can travel around the world as long as the book is being played.”
“No way!” The leader gasped.
“Oh yes way. But I know you didn’t know them all so I would just lead you there. We just have to pause the book’s narration and have our own adventures inside.”
With that, exclaims of rejoicing teens rang and Gabriel was puffing his cheeks looking at them.
—You sly old man...
—Heh. Humans and their technologies. Hmp.
And until the group of five youth and an old man was sucked up inside the book they opened, Gabriel just remained pouting as he arranged the books that the kids misplaced.
But there was so many that he just exploded when he realized it was made intentionally by the twins.
“Guh… Graaaaaaaaaaa….”