CHAPTER 100: THE BOARD OF FATE

“Julie!

“How? Why? What?!”

His face turned pale as he watched her run desperately away from the monster chasing after her. Its details were truly terrifying. A thousand jagged teeth revolved around its open maw, as its form was swallowed in darkness. Underneath the darkness, a sea of bones could be seen. At first, he assumed the creature was translucent and he was simply glancing at its skeleton, but no. What he was seeing was the trophies of its previous hunts.

Whatever this creature was, it was as smart as it was hungry.

“A spirit beast?” He had scoured many encyclopedias in the library, but none of them showcased such a terrifying monstrosity. Neither he nor Julie had any time to think any further though—it was closing in on her quickly.

“Think! Think!” His mind raced with answers and solutions, but only one seemed plausible.

He needed to return to Earth.

But then again, even if he did use the Anchor to return, what difference could he possibly make? He was still nowhere near a 1st Circle magus. And even if he was, he doubted any offensive magecraft could harm whatever that thing was…

“Is it hopeless?” His heart dropped, but then the voice replied:

“If you cannot go to her, how about she comes to you?”

His eyes widened. “Of course!” What the figment of his imagination had suggested was certainly plausible also… Rather than going to Julie, what if he brings her into the Faerie Court instead? Since she was marked as an Anchor, there had to be a way to make that possible.

But just as he was considering how to achieve just that, something else happened that shocked him. As Julie continued to run down the narrow corridor, a large cobweb fell from the roof onto the towering monstrosity. The threads were dark black and hard to see, but they seemed fairly powerful—at least, powerful enough to hold the creature in place temporarily.

Then, an even more shocking turn of events happened. The walls on either side of the now trapped monstrosity crumbled—emerging from behind them were two large soldiers wearing trench coats. Each one was holding some sort of long range weapon in their hand. Without further hesitation, both pulled the trigger, shooting powerful rounds at the towering mass of darkness indiscriminately.

The monster roared in agony as it thrashed its body to escape from its spiritual bindings, but it was too late.

The creature died.

Julie was laying on the cold marble floor some distance away—her face was pale and drenched with sweat as she hyperventilated, eyes focused on the dying monstrosity that wanted to eat her. It looked like she was on the verge of passing out—she couldn’t even move her limbs any more.

All her strength was drained. Whether that was from fear or simple exhaustion, Soren didn’t know.

Either way, Julie had survived. It was obvious to him now that she was luring the monster into a trap, and her plan had succeeded. A few seconds later, he watched a strange spider climbing down from the ceiling and landing on her shoulder. The strange insect moved on its own toward her arm and wrapped its limbs around her finger like a ring. He watched as Julie flinched in disgust while glancing at her hand.

“A Soul Weapon?..” It seems the number of times he was going to be shocked today were going to reach the double digits. No wait—does ‘today’ even exist? How long has he even been in the Faerie Court by now?

Shaking away the excess thoughts, Soren finally sighed in relief. If Julie had died there, he didn’t know what he would do… Even now, his heart was beating out of his chest.

Out of the eight billion something people on Earth, there was arguably only one person Soren somewhat cared for; that person was Julie.

It wasn’t always like that either… From what he could remember of his twisted childhood, there were many happy moments in the beginning that were overshadowed once his talents for chess unfolded. Yes, his father was a horrible person even back then, but his child mind hadn’t fully registered his actions yet.

And it was also around this time that he had met Julie. Despite his inclinations to being a complete loner, she had always tried and failed to befriend him. And this only became worse once his parents discovered his talents…

The talents she gifted him—or cursed him with.

Indeed, Soren only really learned chess from her… Back then, before smartphones were a thing, Julie had an obsession with board games and would force him to play with her—something he found extremely annoying back then.

Usually, these sessions would end once Soren got good enough to always beat her at the game. After that, she would then throw a tantrum and demand to play a new board game instead. This cycle would continue for a while, until one day, it didn’t.

It started out the same as usual—Julie brought with her a new game to play. But unlike the others, this one was truly challenging. Even though he was beating Julie every time, he himself was never satisfied. It felt like there were levels of depth to this game called chess that every other board game didn’t have… Levels that he couldn’t glimpse yet.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

For the first time in a while, he became excited. At the time, he rarely found anything meaningful or challenging, so the prospect of infinitely getting better at something not even adults could master was genuinely thrilling. Even after Julie grew bored of the game (and sick of losing to him each time), he couldn’t stop playing.

And that was also when his strings of misfortune grew longer.

He shook his head—a small smile crept up his face as he watched the mirror-like surface of the gateway shift away. He had invoked the Anchor for too long.

If he had to be honest, Soren despised Julie just as much as he cared for her. Her tenacity was second to none, and she always seemed to view the world from a more colorful perspective. He envied her. And at the same time, he hated her for introducing that cursed game to him. If Soren hadn’t learned chess, maybe his life wouldn’t have taken so many dark turns.

His father was an asshole, but a pragmatic one. He had no reason to mess with Soren, until a financial reason showed itself… After he discovered Soren’s talents, it was as if his eyes were lit ablaze with greed.

But at the same time, he knew that this was nothing more than delusion. If it wasn’t chess, it would have been something else. George would have come knocking on his door eventually.

Just a week or so after he received his first sponsor, Julie moved away. He would not see her again until college, but by that time, both of them had changed irreversibly. He was nothing more than a failed genius—a loser who gave up his success to pursue mundane pleasures in the eyes of others, while she was a low income student trying her hardest to build a brighter future for herself.

It was pretty much impossible to rekindle their friendship. Soren had always been a loner, but his previous experiences and traumas only made him harder to approach.

Still, they did try.

No, it was better to say she tried. Soren still tried to push her away just like he had always done before—only this time, it worked. She grew busy with her studies, and they stopped hanging out all together.

“How pathetic,” the voice said.

Soren stayed silent.

“What are you, a child? Reminiscing about something you yourself didn’t want. How illogical.”

He shook his head. “Emotions are fickle like that—they never follow logic. And honestly, what right do you have to even scold me? You are literally a figment of my imagination.”

“A figment that’s better than the original,” it retorted. “I can prove it to you if you’d like—just hand over your body to me.”

“Keep dreaming,” Soren chuckled with a smile.

Still, this did get him to think about the bizarreness of this situation as a whole. The Julie he remembered was a meek girl trying to get through her studies and have fun playing video games on the side… All their conversations that he could remember revolved around gacha game releases or Korean dramas.

How did this normal Brooklyn girl end up with a Soul Weapon? And she seemed to be a part of a shady group or organization fighting monsters… Or whatever that thing he saw was…

“What the hell happened to Earth after I transmigrated?!” Did his old world turn this exciting only after he left? For whatever reason, the thought of that annoyed him a bit.

“You know the exact reason why this is happening,” the voice replied—its tone hid layers of mockery. And Soren knew exactly what it was trying to hint at.

Fate.

There are no coincidences in this world—or any world for that matter. Julie somehow contracting herself with the signature of the Faerie Court and becoming his Anchor could not have been an accident.

Is Mr. Unknown involved? It seemed definitely plausible, but then again, that enigmatic being had no connection to [The Faerie Court] from the very beginning…

Soren grit his teeth and backed away from the gateway.

“Alright I am sick of this.”

“What are you planning?”

He replied, “Something that I have been planning on doing ever since I obtained that gift from Hurion.”

The fragment of The Records of Enigma. It was time to put it to use.

“Status,” he ordered his figment of his imagination and it responded. Up above, a single book from the countless ones scattered across the shelves broke apart into a swarm of golden butterflies. They all flew down in unison, morphing into a golden window pane that was created using [Fictionalization]. It hovered in front of his face, displaying the usual information he had grown familiar with.

He glanced at the flickering flame dubiously. “Aren’t you taking the video game representation too seriously?”

“Say that to yourself,” the voice retorted.

Soren blinked. “True…” His Soul Weapon was still a reflection of himself. The fact that it was representing the information in this way could only mean he himself wanted it that way.

“This is all Julie’s fault!” He shook his head dejectedly and glanced back at the status page. His eyes trailed all the way to the bottom—everything else hadn’t changed.

[Fairy Witness] (4 Insight) - ???

Soren couldn’t help but smile. The last time he had checked his status page, his Fairy Witness rune only had 1 insight fragment. It seems that his time in the Beyond had not gone to waste—all the influence he had spread had paid off. But the most important thing to him at the moment was the Event Log at the bottom.

His eyes scanned through the list until he found what he wanted to see:

New Change Recorded: [Conduit] (Mystery)

His smile widened. Because of the fragment he had absorbed from The Records of Enigma, Soren’s Soul Weapon had now partially transformed into a conduit… No, it might simply have a remote connection to the mysterious tablet itself. If a real transformation had happened, it would have been reflected on his status page directly.

Either way, Soren could finally do divinations and runological studies.

“All I need now is a medium…”

Fortunately or unfortunately, he knew one that was perfect for him. Since mediums needed to have a close relationship to the user, there was no better medium than his familiar old friend…

Chess.

He was going to use the ancient game of war to read the complexities of fate. His face twisted into a maddening smile.

“I guess I should call it The Board of Fate?”