"I take it my future, or rather alternate, selves did not like that?" She nodded.
"Your earliest versions called
a liar as well as an enemy. You killed
a few tis before I found a way to convince you." Lind nodded but did not ask too many more details. It seed touching on his forr Divine Path had dangerous implications for his current self.
"So, while avoiding that Dao, how did I co up with using your ability again?" Karu paused as she considered how to answer it but instead sighed.
"I am not sure I can answer that. Not just avoiding the Dao but because you stopped explaining things to . You said sothing about light being an enemy in disguise or was it sothing about the secrets light can reveal." Lind scrunched up his face. What the blazes was that?!
Light held secrets? He pondered for a mont before a very random mory surfaced. It was a late night at George's after one of his favorite series had been revived. He had been dragged against his will to "catch up" on nearly 50 years of television history so he could properly enjoy the return.
He had not planned to watch it at all but the very first few seasons had so real science mixed in that fascinated him.
One had been about how, theoretically, anything that ever existed could be seen again if a proper dium could decode the light beams it was flying through space on. Instead of a recording, soone could actually see events as they truly happened.
His eyes went wide as he quickly turned on his own Talents! Sure enough, now that he knew what to look for, a very subtle set of organized waves of Qi, Laws, and Daos were gently flowing along light beams!
They were not obstructed by any barrier at all!
His first instinct was to wipe them out but that would be like sending up a flare. A break in the network would tell the controller exactly where he was!
The sheer volu of data, on the other hand, would take ti to parse and find them.
Sothing must have triggered that mory in him and now he knew to be damned careful about what he said or did. Even if not for the now impossible attempt to alter the past, recent events could be scoured in ti to trace his path and lay traps for the future.
He pondered what to do and then smiled. The air around the pair distorted suddenly with a thin sheen of water and light. Rather than break the formation, he simply broke the dium!
"Wha–?!" Karu was shocked at what he had done but Lind dared not explain. It was not fool proof and likely could be overco given ti.
"Nevermind. So, why did I think I could pull off the trick he could not?" Karu beca solemn before nodding.
"At the end, we were often together at the final battle where he killed us all. He went after
in particular but you always made
send my mory back before he could take it. He hated you a lot for that." Lind smiled wide.
Assuming there was a small window before ti was erased, he would get the satisfaction of seeing all the Bastard's efforts go in vain before death.
"You then hijacked my ssage because we already knew we were going to die." Lind frowned because then it ant the last ti he t that future version, he was going to see Karu or had already seen her.
They were not mories but encounters he had. Why was his experience so different?
He pondered it for quite a while before a thought occurred to him.
His encounters ca at pivotal points but sotis his actions in his life ca from massive leaps of logic and instinct. What if they were ti saving asures he laced into his own existence to aid himself along the way.
The thod of tempering his Soul Cores ca from the Ruin he chose at random, but was it totally random or the result of trial and error? The Primordial Immortals that ca together had almost been tailor made for him though too.
Could it have been simpler and more vague than what he thought? A general twist to the enter mortal realm to make it get closer and closer to solving the 6 elental problem so he did not struggle so much?
He clearly did it once all on his own but the price sounded heavy. A thought suddenly occurred to him.
"How many wives did I have that first ti?" Karu beca uncomfortable but she answered.
"None, they were all killed or consud by the Fiends." He did not ask about friends or allies.
"So, when did I first tamper with my own tiline?" Karu paused again as she likely had to be careful at that point.
"I think it was about the 50th ti we t. Before that, the results were mostly identical to the first ti. It was only when I led you to a different Inheritance or special realm that we found new opportunities that helped but were not enough that you seed to beco obsessed." She shivered but Lind did not need elaboration.
Suffering all that loss and finding a possible way to stop it, he would go at it without any reservation.
"Still, it took you 2 or 3 tilines before sothing occurred to you and beca secretive. It was also when you hid us away sotis before you ordered
to send back direct ssages to get you on the track earlier." Lind began to see the web but he was confused on one point.
"Why did you help ?" Karu looked at him before weeping openly.
"I died in so many horrible ways but when you found , I died fighting! I died doing sothing! I knew how it would end but the adventures in between were everything to !" The passion in her voice made him realize she was not just off kilter because of the death of her elder but also because of her suffering.
Had there been tis she wanted to just accept the end? He shivered at that. How much could soone endure before just giving up was an unknowable answer until it happened.
She cald herself and resud.
"Eventually, the Great One seed to figure out you were up to sothing and he changed tactics. You have no idea how terrifying he can be if he wants to. He is focused on his own advancent, always trying to beat us sending back my mory. That is when my 2nd ability triggers." Lind perked up.
She then took a knife from her storage ring and before he could stop her she struck at her dantian!
Right before it happened, the knife dissolved into dust! He had felt sothing far more profound than anything he had ever experienced for a brief mont. He stared at her but noticed she did not seem happy.
"The Dreaming does more than erase tilines, it locks my ti of death. I can only die now with you facing the Great One. It makes a new skill that you nad Fated Death. No one can change how I die unless they are like you or him. You have to do it in person too." Lind was confused.
If that was true, how did she die in various ways before? His face gave him away as she laughed darkly.
"It is a capricious skill. So long as enough terms are t, I will die no matter who is there at the mont. It is only avoiding that sealed fate that resets it. Thus, the Great One cannot kill
unless he finds
now, or you kill
as you have before." Lind's head shot up but she was not glaring at him.
A sad flash passed over his face. Those had to have been very dark tilines.
She smiled at him.
"I chose to die and you helped . Since both of us are together, my death is now possible by you alone." Lind grasped it then. Her fate was more tightly bound by the Dreaming. The conditions had to be sufficient to match the most recent Dreaming to allow her to die before it was completed.
"Fated Death, that was what you called it." Lind hated the na but that was likely the point.
To know the future as a Divine Realm was to be trapped by it. It was why his last eting emphasised that all the changes had to co before. Immortals and below could shift their fate even if they saw glimpses of the future.
He was living proof of it.
"I took a massive gamble, didn't I?" Lind began to see. Karu's Talent locked her on a path with small variations until soone ca along that fate dictated enough power to change others' path.
He was far too perfect a counter to the Bastard not to be that kind of being. His actions, then tied her to 2 incredibly fate heavy existences and made her death nearly impossible until those conditions were t once she beca a Divine Realm.
"Why is it the last ti?" He asked again. She beca forlorn but did not hide it from him.
"It took ti to notice but each ti we reach a certain point, my health begins to decline. It is like sothing is being robbed from
and it was only when you used your Dao to send yourself back that it got worse. Your gamble, as you put it, was killing
as I advanced. After the last ti, I know I am going to die as soon as we reach the Great One with no chance to send my mory back." Yet, Lind kept doing it.
Certain oblivion or a chance at life. He knew which he would take. Karu nodded at him too.
"The Dao of Defiance. That is my current Dao." Shock flooded her face. She clearly did not know about it. He then began to talk about everything. He knew he had to and the Bastard knew it all already.
The more he spoke the more shocked she beca. The life he was talking about was totally alien to her save so nas and faces. Then, as he reached his ti in the Endless Peaks, a smile broke out as tears began to fall.
She understood what he had done. He was no longer bound by the fate woven by Heaven and Earth. He stood beyond it.
The Bastard and he would finally et not on the terms of Heaven and Earth but on whatever terms Lind deed best.
Hope had been dead in her so long but it blood again. Lind had succeeded! He had broken the endless cycle of dying and erasing the future. She broke down and wept hard but she was smiling.
The future was no longer written at all!
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