Chapter 328
Roar of a King (IX)
Cain sat still on top of a boulder, his legs hanging over the edge while his hands held tightly onto a pear-shaped, silver-laden fruit that felt both soft and hard to his fingers. It was difficult to describe it, truly. It didnt appear edible, for starters. It looked like one of those fruit-shaped diamonds that the vain billionaires buy to sate so ego-driven desire of their souls.
Furthermore, it was barely plum-sized and was entirely transparent, snowing nothing of what Cain expected to see in a fruit--naly the soft tissue and juices and seeds. Its exterior was its interior, intruded.
The strangest of all were its soft-and-hard playwits. Upon a soft touch, it was hard like stone, yet if Cain tried to squeeze it between his fingers, it was... impossible. In fact, it seed the fruits hardness was proportional to how hard he squeezed. At one point, he even went all-out, emboldening his fingers with Mana and still... nothing.
He contemplated just swallowing the thing but held back. There was a voice in his soul that was telling him it wasnt ti. Furthermore, he felt it. Though others definitely couldnt--not just ordinary Conquerors, but he suspected most existences across dinsions alive at the mont--he could. It reminded him of sothing specific... the penultimate ring during the first trial he took in the Silver City.
That singular flash that the Divine helped him achieve... the fruit reminded him of that. The touch was the sa--it preceded primal. Sohow, so way, in so fashion, it was unlike everything else. Cain found it beyond difficult to put into words which was why he never discussed it with others.
Hed told Senna and Emma about the cyclic life he had to endure, the innurable years spent in serene infinity. However, he never told them of that singular flash he experienced... because he couldnt explain it. The closest comparison he had was just as equally mind-boggling: he suspected it felt akin to what peeking behind the Big Bang would feel. Except... it didnt make sense, at least not to a human mind.
Everything the human mind knew beca after the fact. The sa thing applied to the rings--everything prior to that final one, he could fathom. Put into words, however extravagant those words may have been, however outside ordinary human perception they were. The last one, however, couldnt be described even within that context.
He got the sa feeling from the fruit. Just looking at it, it seed like just an expensive-looking sculpture. However, just a slightly closer look showed sothing beyond description: the fruit... rejected Mana. Mana itself could not penetrated through its outmost exterior. Rather, it went even further than that. The fruit rejected the world. It seed to exist in the perpetual state of dinsional tear, wherewithin it was neither here nor there. It rested sowhere yet nowhere. On top of his palm, yet not.
It further confird to him that even if Danny was just trying to sell the fruit really hard... a good chunk of what he told him was probably true. The tiny piece of fruit he was holding was likely older than the universe itself as they knew it. It didnt just reject Mana and the world but all laws and energies that made up that world. It rejected gravity, for starters, as it would just stay hanging whenever Cain left it. It wouldnt move or roll or bend or abide by any logic.
Most notably, and most mind-bendingly, it defied... ti. It was another aspect that was difficult, if not outright impossible for Cain to put into words. He had keen perception of ti--not as a thing, not as a concept, but sothing both tangible and abstract that existed within that duality. And he could sense that it existed irrespective of ti--in fact, if the entire concept of it, as well as the matter itself, was to sohow simply disappear tomorrow, this little crystal-looking thing would just continue to hover about in place for all eternity.
He sighed and tucked it into a pocket. Naturally, it could not be placed into his inventory--rather, he didnt even try from fear of it obliterating the woefully more unstable sub-dinsion. Looking up at the dark sky, he wanted to roll into a blanket and hide for a while. He could feel it, the crushing pressure slowly falling. Like howork thats whole sumr away biting ever so closer with each passing day.
At so point in the relatively near future, hed likely beco a quasar--a pillar that will alight the world and invite many-an-eye onto himself.
According to Danny, the little gno would return ho and start preparing. What that ant, Cain couldnt say. All he knew was that eating the fruit will be a monuntal occurrence and that he should do it on Earth. By then, the gno would have put in place so chanisms that would disallow everyone else from figuring out where it ca from.
The whole thing reeked unilaterally yet Cain could only pull out a bitter laugh and yap in solace. He wanted to wrap his fingers around one of his past vices but knew it was pointless. It was his choice to step in and, as such, hed resigned himself to a future where hed have an equally matching stage for his fronting arrogance.
Though he imdiately wanted to actually return to Earth, it wasnt because he wanted to eat the fruit but spend as much ti with the group as possible before he ate it. It would change everything, he knew, and though he will claw desperately until his fingernails are bleeding to drag them with him, he wouldnt do so if it ant their deaths.
However, he elected to stay until he was ready for the third Awakening. He couldnt know what changes the fruit would cause within him and, as such, wanted to be as prepared for its consumption as possible, naly in strengthening his body as much as his class allowed him.
Youve been sulking around ever since we left the garden, Quinn said as he broke the silence and sat down next to him, handing him a bottle at the sa ti.
Whats this? he asked.
Youre always the one treating us, she replied with a faint smile. This is one of my local delicacies.
Youve been holding out on , eh?
Didnt think you were worthy.
Hoh? What changed your mind?
... that youve beco a friend of mine, she replied honestly.
Wasnt that hard, Cain said, uncapping the bottle. Youre pretty friendable. Wait, is that a word?
If you have to question it, it probably isnt, she said. But youre quite wrong. Becoming friends, especially in this world, is beyond difficult. Distrust is ripe and rampant and everyone would rather see others headless than befriend them. Then theres the matter of you being a man and being a woman.
... Cain took a sip and then another. It went down easily. Soft, cool, almost with the consistency of milk.
Whats it like?
Im gonna need more of this.
Its the last one I have, she chuckled. Its been a while... since I last went ho.
I dont care that youre a woman, Quinn.
I know.
I an, dont get wrong--youve got nice tits, and Id be a liar if I said I havent, yknow, stolen a look or a hundred, but, well, I really like tits, man. What can I say?
... your wifes a lucky woman.
Im the lucky one, he said. Youll see it when you et her. People look at and go damn, hes cool, I really wanna see how strong he is, and I wanna see him fight and shit.
And humble, clearly.
Im like a big, erect, cock-shaped missile, Cain continued. Everyone likes admiring it but from a distance, with its tip pointing away. She... shes like an umbrella. Like a massive, world-covering, air-conditioned umbrella. While I shine so brightly that I draw people in from everywhere, he glanced at her. Shes the fire that keeps em warm when they co.
... from the sound of it, Quinn said. Youre just too big, Cain. Even to . I look at you, and I nary see a man. More a figure, to be honest.
...
I can only imagine what its like for the barely once-Awakened, watching you. Even those who love you and hold your hand kindly likely see you more a God than a man, whether they say it or not. Your broken jokes and fuck-all attitude works desperately to sell your humanity to the world... but they can only go so far.
Maybe, Cain cracked a faint smile. But I know of at least three that dont. And thats enough.
She humanizes you to them. See, this bearded fuck isnt a god--his farts sll like shit!
If thats all it took to humanize a god, thered be no gods, the two laughed for a mont. Its gonna beco more and more difficult to sell my image of the joking, middle-aged-dad with a potential drinking problem from here on out. If I cant even get soone like you to hold an equal, what chance do I have with them?
... you can accept that youll never be an equal.
Thats depressing, he said. And really, really, really fucking close to galomania. Do you think when I look at you I see a Knight or a friend?
... a friend, she said, stealing the bottle from him. I think, at least.
And youd be right, Cain nodded. There are two n in , Quinn--theres the one that you see during a battle, that image that you have in your head. And then... theres, well, . I dont care how you see that crazed lad swinging his arms violently about. I only wish you saw as a friend, s all.
... well, friend, she said. What now?
Now? I gotta go and Awaken. So, friend, please, do show the way.
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