Chapter 489: Sys Is Troubled
Though the speed at which the information flooded in was unbelievable, I was able to grasp two realities:
A woman looking exactly like Master was chained in a dark arena, begging to be set free.
Her face was his, her form was his, but there was something broken in her eyes, something that had been crushed and ground to dust.
She was surrounded by three shadows, by figures that loomed and jeered, and her voice was hoarse from screaming.
The second was master hovering over a hill of dead people, the sky was red, black, and shattered with blood flowing like a sea all over the world.
The bodies stretched endlessly in every direction, a horizon of corpses that seemed to go on forever, their faces frozen in expressions of terror and agony.
The world seemed empty, but two other people who looked exactly like Master but with different eye colors and some features were hovering as well, clearly hostile against master as if attempting to kill him.
Their faces were twisted with hatred, their hands raised to strike, their power radiating waves of malevolent energy.
The rest of the long lines of memories were too immense for me to process all at once.
They cascaded past me like a waterfall, fragmented images and sensations that I could not fully grasp or understand.
War and peace, love and loss, triumph and defeat, all of it swirled together in a chaotic storm of future possibility.
"Hm? Where am I? What am I doing here...?" Master woke up staring at the environment with droopy eyes, his voice groggy and thick with confusion.
He blinked slowly, his blue eyes struggling to focus as he pushed himself up onto his elbows, his gaze sweeping across the transformed landscape before him.
I had released the barriers when his magic stabilized as well, the shimmering walls of energy dissolving into the air like morning mist.
The danger had passed, and there was no longer any need for such drastic containment measures.
"HUH?! Why is everything so sheeny and dark?! And it feels like my magic too, but was it this capable of warping reality?!" Master was darting his eyes everywhere, snapping his neck back and forth as he tried to make sense of the scene before him.
The ground beneath him was a vast expanse of darkness, shimmering with pinpricks of light like a starry sky reflected in still water.
The grasses that had once been green were now ethereal and luminous, each blade containing what looked like tiny galaxies swirling within its structure.
The trees had become silhouettes of obsidian, their branches reaching toward the sky like frozen dark lightning.
The entire area looked like standing on a night sky, or that a galaxy was being reflected on the ground.
Every step Master took sent ripples across the surface, waves of light spreading outward like stones dropped into a cosmic pond.
The air itself seemed thicker, heavier, charged with a power that hummed and pulsed in rhythm with some unseen heartbeat.
Thankfully, he had truly forgotten everything that had happened, giving me the power to twist the narrative.
His mind was a blank slate where the past few hours were concerned, a convenient emptiness that I could fill with whatever explanation served best.
{Being silly as always, master attempted to use an ability, but it backfired and master fell unconscious and lost his memories of a few hours ago.} My voice was calm, measured, carefully constructed to sound matter-of-fact and unremarkable.
"Eh?! R... Really?! What ability was it?" Master asked as he moved away from the glistening dark area, his steps carrying him toward the contrasting morning sunlight that filtered through the trees.
The light caught his features, illuminating the confusion written plainly across his face.
{...Master and I share a deep connection, so as it left Master’s memory, so did it mine. All I know is it is the cause of the wonder you see around you, and the reason you lost your memories.}
I crafted the lie with care, weaving it into the fabric of his understanding precisely.
"Ah... it’s bad when you lose memories like that," Master folded his arms and stewed in thoughts, his brow furrowed with concern. "I truly don’t remember more than fucking the brain out of Lei, and it was pretty dark that time. Now it’s morning. Okay, I’ll just pretend like I didn’t lose my memories!"
And due to Master’s lack of hyper attention to details, I was saved from scrutiny.
He accepted my explanation without question, filing it away in the back of his mind and moving on to other concerns.
His focus was already shifting to the day ahead, to the journey that awaited him.
But as Master walked back to the village, observing the native creatures of this area, I felt something he no longer felt: an unbelievable sadness.
Sadness at the idea that I was unable to... protect Master from hurt in some future parallel.
The images I had seen, the woman who looked like him chained in that dark arena, the version of him hovering over that hill of corpses, they haunted me in ways I could not fully express.
Is it a given?
Must Master feel anymore pain than he already did on earth?
He had suffered so much already in his previous life, had endured loss, betrayal, and heartbreak beyond what most could imagine.
Was there truly no respite for him?
Is there a reason for him to be undone once again? What purpose could such suffering serve? What cosmic plan required his torment?
If it is solely the careless consequences of fate and destiny, I will do everything in my power to oppose such a life for my master.
I will fight against the currents of inevitability, and stand against the forces that seek to break him. No matter what it costs me, I will protect him from the futures I have glimpsed.
...However, I fear it might be a necessity at play, a cosmic orchestration that must occur.
Some events are unavoidable, and some pains are required for growth. Perhaps the suffering I saw was not a punishment but a forging, a crucible that would make him stronger...?
I am troubld.
Nevertheless, my Master’s pain is my pain.
And pain, even if it is meant to forge, is uncomfortable. It aches, burns and leaves scars that never fully heal.
I cannot bear the idea of watching him endure such torment alone.
***
Benjamin and Heka had finished getting ready to leave the Khairkhan tribe, and the chief and his elders were ready to escort them.
Their belongings had been packed, Maximus had been fed and watered, and the morning sun was climbing higher into the sky, promising a warm day ahead.
Reaching the outskirts, they stopped to exchange thanks for their help and stay, with Benjamin being introduced to some of Khüch’s wives.
The women were beautiful and gracious, their eyes shining with gratitude as they expressed their appreciation for him coming to grace their village.
They also thanked Benjamin for his divine gift, the cliff he had turned into a source of luxury for the village to become a nation in a few years.
The transformed land was already being discussed in hushed, excited tones, plans being made for how best to utilize the incredible resource that had been so unexpectedly bestowed upon them.