There Ater was.
Still alive. Still holding on.
’H-hold on... Ater was there too?!’ At that point, Rey realized his mories had been misleading all along.
He thought it was just him back then.
But to think Ater had remained with him until the very end.
He truly ant those words back then.
He was loyal.
Back to the scene unfolding...
"Such suffering," Zagan mused as he stepped forward, hands behind his back. "It is beautiful, in a way. How tightly your soul clings to the corpses of the dead. I must say, I’m impressed... worm."
Rey did not respond.
His body trembled. His lips bled from biting them shut. His eyes—once bright and burning—now dulled, stared with a madness only known to the broken.
"You look confused," Zagan continued. "You prepared so diligently. I don’t know how you managed to study Ancient MajiK, but you even did that too. You ascended to new understanding, trained day and night... and yet, this is how it ends."
’I... learned Ancient MajiK? Back in H’Trae, I didn’t even know such a thing existed!’ As he observed the scene, Rey had this thought.
But the mont he did so, he realized just how unreliable such mories were.
If he operated on the assumption that he knew about Ancient MajiK from H’Trae, then it made sense why he was so proficient in it despite his lack of talent.
It would also explain his reincarnation.
Or would it?
’As for how I could have gotten that information... it must be Ater. He is originally from the True Realm, so he could have taught .’ Rey reasoned silently as he focused on the scene before him once more.
Bal’aam let out a clicking sound—perhaps laughter—as he dragged Ater forward.
The once-glorious being, now no more than a shadow of his forr self, turned his head slightly to Rey.
"...Don’t look," Ater rasped. "Rey... don’t—"
A sound like thunder cracked through the air. The blade of blacklight pierced Ater through the chest and erged out his back.
His body convulsed once, twice... then fell limp.
The defeated Rey let out a silent cry—his throat unable to make sound. His scream was one that shattered inside his own soul.
It was evident just how much Ater ant tk him. They weren’t just Master and Servant.
They were friends.
Zagan raised a brow. "There. Now, there is nothing left to protect."
"You..." Rey’s voice cracked, a whisper of hate beyond words.
"Speak up," Zagan said. "You’ve earned a final word."
Rey lifted his gaze. There were no tears. Only wrath.
"I will kill you. I swear on all that remains. I will kill you."
Zagan smiled, then stepped close.
"In the brief mont we’ve been together, you’ve been nothing short of amusing. But it’s ti to put down the drear."
Without another word, Zagan raised his hand.
Black flas ignited around Rey’s form as the chains that bound him fused into him, eating away at what remained of his spirit.
A final whisper reached his ears.
"You’ve lost."
Then ca the strike.
The scene ended once again.
Rey knew the rest.
He died at that mont and suddenly found himself in the True Realm, the Land of Nether to be exact.
’So many things I didn’t expect...’
Falling into solemn silence, Rey deeply contemplated the many things he had seen.
What did it all an?
Right as he was doing so, he observed sothing else.
A shocking sight!
Amidst the seemingly infinite darkness, there was sothing looking at him—a pair of cat-like eyes!
’T-that—!’
The eyes were enormous.
As large as the sun while he was a re ant.
The more he looked into the eyes, the more he felt overwheld by a strange sensation of both power and helplessness.
—Chaos!
"Haaa... haaa...!!"
Rey suddenly gasped for air as he sat up from his lying state.
"W-what? What was that? What just happened?" He murmured, feeling slightly disoriented as his most recent mories returned.
He looked at his hands in confusion.
They were unmistakably real.
"But I died. How am I still alive?"
It was confounding, to say the least. He could feel his pulse, his heart beating, and his shaky breathing.
He was truly alive!
’Is this an effect from my Transmigration? I get one additional life? Or... is it due to those eyes I saw back then?’
rely thinking about the lair of eyes caused Rey’s brain to scream in pain.
It almost felt like his head was being violently stirred, turning inside out.
He had to stop imagining it quickly.
"Haaa... haaa...!"
Rey kept breathing heavily, even as he stood up. He glanced around him and noticed he was all alone in the room.
The Tier 7 Chaos Dweller had left.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know how long had passed since his supposed death.
’Thank goodness. Hmm...?’
Right as he was heaving a sigh of relief, he noticed sothing rather peculiar about himself.
It wasn’t an external change, but an internal one.
And there weren’t just one but two changes.
’My Ether Core... when did it grow this big? And the quality of this Ether... This is at least a hundred tis bigger than before!’ Rey felt his body overflowing with imnse power, and it ca from this sudden pool of universal energy.
He felt invincible with this power.
If his Ether Core appeared like a small world before, now it looked like a massive planet with nurous stars around it.
There were at least a hundred of them dancing around his massive core.
The pure white energy also seed to have unparalleled purity, radiating with such beauty that he couldn’t properly describe.
He felt srized rely sensing it.
It nearly distracted him from his second observation.
’Based on my Ether Detection... why is my Curse Imprint so low?’ Rey nearly gasped in realization.
Ether Detection.
This was sothing he had grown to sense ever since he began training with Amara, and it allowed him to detect fluctuations of energies in his body.
It let him properly control the flow of Ether in his body, and was the first step in perfectly manipulating Ether like Amara could.
Detecting Ether Flow also allowed him to accurately observe the flow of other Ether signatures on his body, especially Imprints from various Arts.
A big example of this was the Curse Art that made him a slave.
’It has drastically reduced. How strange...’
The Imprint represented just how much of a hold the foreign Ether had on him. Before, the Imprint was very noticeable and covered his entire body.
Now it had a weak aura and continued to fester, like a cancer.
’I did die, so that could explain why the Imprint has grown this weak. But why didn’t it just get removed entirely?’ Rey sighed deeply.
This simply showed how problematic Curse Art really was.
Rey felt so ease regarding his Slave status, but he wasn’t out of the woods just yet. The most problematic aspect would be his Master realizing this happening.
He had to keep it to himself sohow.
’Three good things have happened to just now. Not only did I revive, but I got a huge boost when it ca to my Ether quantity and quality. The Curse Imprint has also reduced greatly, which ans becoming free should be easier.’
Rey was grinning at this point.
He went to pick up his sword and tightly gripped it before casting his gaze on the exit on the floor.
Right as he was about to leave, he noticed sothing.
’E-eh...?’
The Tier 7 Chaos Dweller ca out from the exit and returned to the room, its eerie gaze fixated on him
’What in the world?’
Reviews
All reviews (0)