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Chapter 295: Siva and Gabriel (2)
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Scion thought for a moment, closing her eyes, as she used these seconds to dig deep in her mind regarding Janus and Gabriel.
“Ah!” she exclaimed, “Right. You are that Gabriel.”
“That Gabriel?”
“Old Janus said that your face was really epic when you first tasted that blend.”
“….” Gabriel blushed and closed his eyes.
Tears rolled down his face as he nodded and then chuckled ironically before giving Scion a slightly warm smile.
“Thank you, Lady Scion. I really did begin to like that blend as well.” after he said this, he lowered his head in the next moment, inhaling deep and exhaling loud before turning to Eleanor.
“Lady Envoy, I have been told by my Teacher of The Oracle’s hardship and her imminent goal in this era. But unfortunately, I cannot help her on her ascension because I need to guard and make sure that the people chasing after the whereabouts of the eternal ethereal chains are not going to take it away instead of resealing its prisoner. On that regard, I have to stay in this continent and keep guard on the last spire*.”
[A/N: There are five Great Spires that have been mentioned in Volume 3, Volume 4, and most notably and recently in Volume 5… where it became the reason why The Legion attacked Alexandria. On the ones mentions, the large ‘ancient cannon’ in Dragona is one, another is in Peneme, and the third one is in Alexandria]
Eleanor displayed a look of helplessness and she didn’t say a word on the next moment, so Gabriel spoke and went on: “But you can go back to The Oracle not empty-handed. If you tell her that I am not available, she will understand. The Prisoner of the Ethereal Chains that I am tasked to watch over had been roused by the presence of the Devils in this piece of land so I have to keep the people away from entering that island.”
Fuma, Thorn, Volt, and Kathleen took note of this.
Especially Thorn and Volt… because from the bit of information that they had ‘hoarded’ from Zaza and Redeye, there was a small mention of a very mysterious island that has a connection to their Providence Quest.
After he spoke, Gabriel gestured an open palm at her and an item —a medallion— appeared on his hand that he gave to her.
“Use this when she is ascending. It will isolate her resonance fluctuations to the bare minimum while the trial takes place. This will give her time to fight the temptation of corruption, and as well as give her the opportunity to ascend while not being hindered by the Devils. I assume that Siva agreed to your request so with him, your defensive force against the LAGRAM should be enough.”
Eleanor accepted the item and bowed at him. “I thank the Great Immortal for your benevolence.”
Gabriel waved a hand as Eleanor retreated. He faced Siva, his expression twisting into hostility, before inhaling deep to control his emotions and faced the people Siva brought along.
“I will need to talk to your leader in private. Since you are here, you can relax and take look around the temple. Aside from the items on the altar, you can check which items you can get in the temple. I only request that you only take what you can and leave the rest that you can’t for the future generations of visitors and worshipers to this temple’s owner. What items you can get here will depend on your fortune so I bid you good luck.”
WHOOSH!!
After a flash of light, Siva and Gabriel vanished.
The remaining people exchanged looks at each other, trying to tell each other to maintain at least the bare minimum of decorum.
Yes, they have been granted free access to all the items in the temple, aside from the ones in the altar, but to what items they can take away is left to their fates and abilities.
…………and so, they began moving….. slowly…
*****
In a secret chamber, Siva and Gabriel appeared in a flash of light.
Siva’s soul was stirred and there was the raging [will] screaming in his mind right now, demanding for the head of this ‘existence’ in front of him.
Gabriel could feel the restrained hostility radiating from Siva’s shoulders and he knew that it wasn’t this Siva who’s releasing that burning hostile intent, but the [Siva] that was sleeping in the deep darkness of his consciousness, the one that had the forgotten memories of Rex Kingsley.[1]
“I presume you could at least recall a few things.”
Siva was silent for a moment, his gaze behind his black mask locked at Gabriel’s eyes.
“Not many.” Siva shook his head, calmly. He was even confused as to how and why he could make himself calm at this moment. There are just too many questions he wanted to be answered. “In fact, it wasn’t even significant at all. Just a few visions of a battlefield in the stars, a few bright blue and green colored planets being destroyed, unfamiliar faces talking to me like we were family or even enemies, names of places I know but has no memory of visiting, items radiating a power that could destroy legions and armies, some blurred events I don’t remember ever physically seeing, and a few other confusing unfamiliar things which I have no choice but to trust were part of what the owner of these [memories]… me… have in a life I don’t remember living. In fact, I won’t lie to you; everything right now is confusing me. I don’t even know how all this is possible and I don’t even know why I hate you subconsciously.”
“…”
Gabriel only listened and he did not interrupt him.
After Siva’s mutterings, he then asked, “Just who am I to this world….. really?”
Gabriel stared at him for a few long moments and then said placidly, “The Destroyer.”
“That’s my made up title!” Siva argued.
“No.” Gabriel said resolutely, shaking his head to deny him, “That’s the [Authority] that you possess and the ability that your divinity created when you had activated the pro…….”
Gabriel paused at this moment as he tried his best not to divulge any more profound secrets. But Siva was already agitated and he felt that the words Gabriel refused to tell him were the very things he needed to know.
“Cut the bullcrap and just tell me!”
“….”
“Tell me!”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why?!! Why won’t you tell me? I need to know who I am and what I am! What are these [memories] in my head and why do I have them? Why do I have fragmented memories of Terra in a battlefield here in Terroa? Why is Janus…. Why am I confused of all the things happening to me right now? What is Mefisto and what is the LAGRAM? Why do I hate them? Why do I hate you?!! Why........... why is this happening to me?”
Gabriel opened his mouth but he closed them. He gazed and watched Siva’s agitated self-chasing state as he waited for answers.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
He thought for a moment before calmly saying, “I don’t know what happened before my birth but my knowledge of you and your origins… and the secrets that I know, the things Teacher told and showed me, the very things I saw in my years in the outside world… may perhaps not lead you in anything helpful. All I know is that this world is the last living planet in this universe and this planet in itself is Terra’s hopes and dreams. As the last of the Trinity Gods, your role is to protect this world and not destroy it…..”
Siva listened and felt that he had heard the same words spoken to him before, back in the Cellar Dungeons of Apus Epirus.
Gabriel’s chest started to heave as his emotions were also agitated as he neared the latter part of his speech.
When he saw Siva looking at him and his breaths also seemingly becoming agitated, Gabriel could not help but let the pain and hate he was feeling in his chest burst out at this moment.
“Do you know how much my Teacher had lost just so he could create that little moment to let Terra’s ghost meet you? To get even a small moment of time to talk to your little girlfriend and pass on his legacy to keep this world alive? Do you know just how fucking important you are to this world, and yet here you are, instead of consolidating all your strength to fight the Devils, you waste time going here just so you could get answers to the questions which answers you should have known from the very beginning?!!”
Gabriel sounded accusing, sounded like a man who had lost his father, his Teacher, to the man in front of him and yet couldn’t do anything to vent this anger because the world wouldn’t allow it.
He could feel that it was all unfair for Janus from the very beginning.
Because while he even went so far as to split his [core] into two just to give this world a chance at living, to experience mortality and the episodes of life for eternity, to die time and time again and still remember all the lives he had lived for thousands of millions of years……. to sacrifice that much and still chose to die just so he could make sure that the target enemy of all of his preparation wouldn’t be able to get out of this world, and yet that action was still not enough…
And in return, all Janus would get is this selfish bastard who was acting clueless?
How fucking unfair was that?!!
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Siva’s little reply ignited his fuse.
“You don’t know? YOU. DON’T. KNOW?!!”
Gabriel released his Mana and a suppressing air descended on Siva right there and then. He felt his lungs contracted and his vision suddenly turn a bit dark but instead of losing his senses, the [will] that was screaming on his heart all this time let out a bellowing cry of rage and hatred.
“AAAAAAAAHHH!!!”
Siva’s roar seemed to have cancelled half of the pressure in his body but he still looked haggard as his left shoulder fell lower than the right.
Killing Zone activated and the Mjolnir flashed in his right hand while the Black Ender appeared on his left.
He won’t let himself die in this place.
Gabriel remained glaring at him. Calmly.
THIS was supposed to be just a talk but from the very start, they have already stood at the wrong side of each other’s lawns.
“Tell me. Who. AM…… I….?”
Siva gnashed his teeth and he poised to attack the magus that he sought for answers, but Gabriel only looked at him with a calm countenance and even seemed to be conflicted about something.
But Gabriel’s fists were still clenched and though he managed to calm his breathing and display a calm exterior, his gaze directed at Siva was still that of a man who was ready to pounce.
After a while, Gabriel raised his right hand and flicked his fingers.
With a flash of light, three large pillars measuring 4 meters each appeared bundled up and muddy not too far on his right side.
“What are those?” Siva asked.
“The items that restricts the teleportation effects of a city… this is the very things that The Legion used to seal Alexandria. Take it. It’s yours now.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“I told you already, I don’t wanna answer all and any of your questions. After seeing you and even confirming some things, I came to the conclusion that what my Teacher had been doing until now is the right thing. There are matters that are better sought by yourself than be told to you by other people. Don’t you want to know how to lift that curse up on your skin?”
“….”
“I know the locations of the other two items of The Keeper, but I am not obliged to tell you those locations because as you are now, you are not even worthy to be an opponent of the people who are after the same things as you. If you meet them as you are now, you will only meet your end and that would only complicate things.”
“You talking about The Legion?”
Gabriel remained silent and only eyed Siva from the side. He then turned his body sideways and let Siva face his left side. He raised his head then heaved a long sigh before continuing.
“You know that all Immortals are given tasks that they had to accomplish as part of the ascension. In that regard, I am not yet a complete Immortal as my test is yet to be done. Do you understand this meaning?”
Siva’s [memories] were trickled and information regarding this matter resurfaced in his mind as if he had experienced and seen this very event in itself in the past.
He remained silent.
Gabriel went on, “Each Final Test differs on every individual. Some are easy, some are difficult, and majority even finds their Final Tests impossible to complete. In my case, sigh, the task given to me is the same task that I have taken charge of from the moment I have met my Teacher. Master Merlin back then believed in me, and now, Master Janus had given me his trust as well before he said his goodbyes. Only because Master Janus specifically told me to NOT fight it out with you that you remain standing there on your feet right now. But trust me, I have my eyes on you so the moment you betray Master Janus’s expectations is the moment I will personally struck you down with my sword. Do you believe my words?”
From the middle part to the latter parts of his words, Gabriel’s tone stiffened and growled, and transformed from being calm into gratingly furious that he wasn’t even hiding his veil of his wrath.
Janus died for Siva and Scion.
From Gabriel’s perspective; it was an unnecessary action that Janus took just so he could accomplish a wish that Terra had given him.
Terra’s wish to save Siva from drowning on his own hate had pushed Gabriel’s Teacher to his demise so how could Gabriel not hate Siva?
Of course, as the embodiment of kindness and benevolence, Terra’s aim can be spoken off as natural, but Siva, all these time, his actions and his own words, time and time again, had always been one disappointing feat after another.
Siva was living for himself.
He was before, he was until now.
—no, wait.
In fact, even before all of that… Sivas existence in itself was unnecessary and yet why does Janus give him too much importance, enough that he had to sacrifice himself for his safety? Or to be even more exact, for the mission he embodied…
Such conditions were truly unfair.
“Teacher had blamed himself for letting Mefisto develop and he also blamed himself for what happened to Terra who was always in the verge of being eaten by Mefisto’s greed.” Gabriel went on and glanced sideways to check Siva’s reaction.
Janus had to sacrifice: to let Mefisto consume his implied ‘mortality’ for a future plan he concocted.
He sacrificed his life just so the enemy wouldn’t have to be a threat for the world that Siva’s other self is residing in.
It was unfair.
And that’s why Gabriel hated Siva.
Why does he have to sacrifice himself?
Why does he have to die?
Why shouldn’t Siva die instead?
And yet, as much as Gabriel wanted to find the answer somewhere else, he knew it himself that Janus had already given him the answer.
“Everything that has a beginning has an end. Heh, how ironic.”
“What?”
“….”
Gabriel was only murmuring but since the space of the room was limited and that there are only the two of them here, his mutterings sounded like low echoing murmurs.
He couldn’t help glaring sideways at Siva.
Siva doesn’t even care about this world and yet why do people had to die for him?
Gabriel understood this and that’s why he hated Siva down to his bones.
Siva wasn’t someone born from this world and yet he had to put the fate of his home world into the hands of someone who doesn’t care.
It was unfair.
It was too unfair.
“Janus…… just who is he?” Siva suddenly asked.
Gabriel almost broke into a bitter laughter as soon as he heard this question. Although he managed to stop himself, the short laugh that escaped from him sounded sarcastic to Siva’s ears.
Siva said he recalled a few things and yet why did he ask him this inanely imbecilic question?
“Do I have to spell everything for you?”
Siva felt insulted when he was regarded like an idiot when he asked the question out of honest and pure curiosity. He really doesn’t know.
To him, Janus was a [player] and the things in his [memories] also said little about Janus. Although, a small fragment was telling him that the two of them were like brothers; or like two parts of a unit; or like a junior and a senior officemate.
So when he asked the question, he really meant that he doesn’t know. He was confused.
There are things he came here to ask but instead, he received hostility and so he had to ‘no choice’ but to show hostility as well.
And yet, he was treated like an idiot.
Isn’t this just purely insulting?
But he held in his boiling temper and clenched his fists on his weapons. He can even be considered to have matured a little for being able to hold in his temper……. or whatever it meant.
“Yes.” He hissed, respectfully, “Please spell it out for me, old Great Immortal Sir.”
“Kuhk…”
Gabriel’s brows twitched. He was lipping curses.
He opened his mouth to show his gnashing teeth but managed to hold in his temper and flexed his neck, looking at angles above him to try to avert his attention and cool down his nerves.
Old?
OLD?!!
He visually looked like someone who was in his middle twenties and he dared to call him OLD? It was even slanted, emphasizing diction and intent on that one single word.
Whether it is the fate of the universe or his own personal preferences, Gabriel really hate this guy.
……down to every pore and marrow of his bones.
.
.
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Temper against temper = EXPLOOOOSION!!!
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