Chapter 550: Wheel of Reincarnation
"The name of this weapon is... Narayanastra," Ashyothama revealed, his tone calm. "Once invoked, it will keep releasing weapons on the opponent until they completely surrender. As long as Narayanastra senses opposition from the opponent, it will keep unleashing the weapons."
"Th-that’s an incredible skill," Taranis gasped, obviously shocked as he moved out from the waterfall where he was meditating. "Thank you for trusting me with such a weapon."
"This weapon is also your last hope to change your fate," Ashyothama continued as he moved towards Taranis in slow steps. He tapped Taranis’s chest with his cane and declared, "Now I will teach you the second skill. Use it in case the pisache survives the Narayanastra. It will seal the monster for the same number of years as your lifespan."
"Oh, that sounds interesting," Taranis replied. "You should have taught me this one earlier. With my cultivation base, I can easily live for more than five hundred years. It will also change my dest—"
"The skill requires the sacrifice of your heart," Ashyothama’s words left Taranis completely stunned, his hands flinching beside him.
Seeing him unable to respond, Ashyothama slowly sat on the rock in a lotus position and said, "You may take your time to decide if you wish to learn this method."
When Taranis went back home in the night and met his wives, the decision became clearer to him. Although he was doing his best to live for them, he also wanted to make the world a safer place for them as long as they were here.
He remembered once asking Aruma what truly happened after death and how he was still able to maintain his soul even after so many years of dying.
"After death, according to the karma one has accumulated just before their death, the soul is given three choices by the heavens: to become one with the heavens, to suffer in hell for the sins they have committed, or to enter the Wheel of Reincarnation and be born again in the same world into which they were first born. I was a Life and Death Divine Fox. With my authority, I placed my and Hana’s souls into Ume’s Inner World. When you helped us reach her in her inner world, I used most of my death authority to devour the death that was consuming her, while leaving the last of my remnants in your soul. Once you leave this world, Hana and I will truly ascend to the Heavens."
This was what Aruma had told him. It was also the reason why he kept his meeting with Ume’s parents a secret from her. If they were to vanish once Taranis left this small world, it would only hurt her that she could never meet them.
Taking Aruma’s words as a matter of fact, Taranis used the final slot of Truth-Teller.
[A method that will allow me to keep my memories after passing through the Wheel of Reincarnation.]
[Searching for the answer...]
[Answer Found!]
[After death, those with sufficient positive karma may take a Heavenly Oath during the cycle of reincarnation. The weight of the oath determines how many years of memories they may carry into their next life. The greater the sacrifice or commitment embodied by the oath, the more memories Heaven permits them to retain.
Note: After passing through the Wheel of Reincarnation, a soul may be reborn at any point in the flow of time. It may be born thousands or even millions of years after its death, the same number of years into the past, or even in the very era from which it died.]
[One memory slot has been permanently consumed. No known condition exists that can free this slot based on the information requested by the host.]
"Taranis, are you having trouble sleeping?" Ume asked, gently placing her hand on his cheek as she saw him staring blankly at the ceiling for several minutes now.
He was lying on the bed with Nymeria and Ume hugging him from either side. Nymeria was sleeping soundly, her face resting on his chest. He kissed Ume’s hand and whispered, "I was thinking about something. Come here, my cutie." He pulled her closer, feeling her warmth and sweet fragrance. He didn’t remember when he fell asleep while holding his world in both of his arms.
---
As Taranis lay with a hole in his chest, his whole body screaming in pain, every breath a desperate struggle to spend a few more seconds with Ume and Nymeria, the warmth of his wives slowly began fading. Their sweet fragrance vanished, the sound of their breath growing distant, and he could no longer feel their touch. What remained was an utterly terrifying, complete emptiness.
He could not even feel his body, as he no longer possessed one, having turned formless.
The emptiness began eating at him, but it lasted only a moment before the discomfort faded, replaced by a warmth so gentle and comforting that it felt as though he were melting into it. It was not the embrace of a lover, but the tender embrace of a caring parent. The darkness disappeared, swallowed by the ethereal radiance of the heavens. Soft white clouds danced around him, their mere touch blessing him with a profound sense of serenity and belonging. Taranis felt as though the heavens themselves were welcoming their child home.
"You never showed me kindness when I lived," Taranis muttered with a mouth he no longer possessed. "Now that I’m dead, you are showering me with love?"
The clouds continued swaying around him, forming limbs that gently embraced his formless body.
"The funniest part is that I still cannot bring myself to hate you," Taranis sighed, accepting their embrace.
Even though he could not hear them, he could understand each of their minor gestures and what they wanted to convey to him.
"Why are you asking when you already know?" Taranis scoffed. "Of course I will enter the Wheel of Reincarnation. Huh... stay with you in the heavens? Absolutely not! I don’t hate you, but that doesn’t mean I forgive you for the hell you made me suffer!"
The heavenly clouds fluttered slightly, their limbs around Taranis falling away. Slowly, they parted, revealing a gigantic wheel rotating in the clouds. It was golden in color, radiating divine brilliance, with countless fine white threads entering from one side and vanishing into the other.
"Before I go, I have a request to make," Taranis revealed, gathering the attention of the heavenly clouds. "I wish to keep my memories after reincarnation. I will also take the heavenly oa—"
Before he could finish, the soft limbs of clouds gently patted him.
"I don’t need to take the heavenly oath? You want to reward me for the positive karma I accumulated after saving countless lives on earth by sealing the Doom."
The soft limbs of clouds nodded.
Taranis’s nonexistent voice turned teasing as he continued, "You sure you’re not feeling guilty for the suffering you caused, and now trying to finally play the role of parent."
The clouds suddenly moved back, their limbs turning away.
"Alright, alright. I won’t tease you anymore," he chuckled as he moved towards the Wheel of Reincarnation. "What was that? My memories will only return when I become an adult. I knew there must be a catch in your generosity."
He released a sigh as he reached one side of the Wheel of Reincarnation. His soul began stretching, slowly turning into fine golden thread, the only colored thread among the countless white ones.
Before his whole soul could turn into a thread, the heavenly clouds around him materialized into the face of a divine woman who looked at Taranis with eyes filled with intense warmth.
The woman leaned closer to Taranis’s soul and gently kissed him.
"Alright, I will take care of myself," Taranis whispered, slightly embarrassed as his soul completely transformed into a long golden thread, weaving into the Wheel of Reincarnation.
---
KRAKABOOM!
Deafening thunder roared from the ominous black clouds covering the entire sky, each thunderclap trembling the earth beneath as if something ominous was about to descend upon Vyoman.
On the land below, a majestic castle stood, its towers piercing the heavens as though they had been raised by the hands of the gods themselves. Every spire shimmered with ethereal radiance, making the fortress seem less like a mortal creation and more like a divine sanctuary descended from the celestial realm.
Even the thousands of smaller buildings surrounding the front of the castle were works of art fit for gods, each one made of gold and silver, glowing with the brilliance of divinity.
Inside the castle, an old man wearing a loose plain white robe entered a grand room, nervousness etched into his every movement. The wrinkles on his face seemed more pronounced than usual due to the worry he carried as he glanced, with his vertical slit eyes, at something held in his arms. At the center of his forehead, the elderly man bore a diamond-shaped vertical mark.
"Is it a prince or a princess?" a hoarse voice, broken with age, asked from the bed, hidden behind the curtains.
"The heavens have blessed us with a prince, Almighty Sovereign," the elderly man revealed, his tone hesitant.
The lightning continued to thunder outside the castle, flashing the inside of the room white at irregular intervals.
"It is an occasion for grand celebration... so why do you seem worried, Frederick Neige Valcyrion?" the person behind the curtains asked.
Frederick flinched at the question, the hands holding something wrapped in silken cloth trembling slightly.
The lightning outside crackled, casting dark shadows across Frederick’s face as he revealed, "The prince is born under extremely inauspicious omens. He is destined to be the bane of our entire bloodline. M-many sa-sages have requested... th-that the prince must be sacrificed to appease the heavens."
Another loud thunderclap echoed as Frederick spoke those words.
"O-oh, is that so..." the voice behind the curtains said. "Then I shall be the one to end him. This is my duty as his father."
"Y-yes, Almighty Sovereign," Frederick said, moving closer to the bed. He extended his arms inside the curtains. Two hands with long, sharp claws took the child from Frederick’s arms.
The Almighty Sovereign, father of the newborn, was an elderly man who appeared to be on his deathbed, his skin pale and wrinkled. The wings on his back bore numerous small and large holes, each carrying a story of its own. His barely open golden eyes fell upon the child in his arms, who slept peacefully. Just like his mother, the child had been born with raven-black hair.
Even though the Sovereign had already decided to end the child’s life, as was his duty as the Supreme Ruler of the upper and lower realms of Vyoman, his claw-like hand trembled slightly as it moved toward the child’s throat.
His fingers pressed against the child’s neck, and as he slightly increased the pressure, the child’s face contorted in pain before he began to cry, his sharp voice filling the room.
With a bit more pressure, the cries were suppressed as the child struggled to breathe. The Sovereign took a deep breath, preparing himself to increase the pressure further, but then—
KRAKABOOM!
The heavens roared in fury, the sound alone trembling both realms, obliterating the highest tower of the castle with a descending bolt of lightning.
"I... I cannot do it, Frederick," the Sovereign muttered, his voice broken with agony, his moist eyes fixed on the child’s face.
The child held onto his father’s finger with pure warmth, his golden eyes, just like his father’s, looking up at him as if asking what crime he had committed to deserve this punishment.
"He is my son! He is the future ruler of the two realms!" the Sovereign roared, his voice echoing through the entire golden city, reaching the ears of every citizen. "He shall be known as Maximilian Éclair Valcyrion Bane!"
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Volume 5: The Forgotten Era and the Rise of Banes!