SSS-Ranked Summoner: Only I Summon All Heroes And Heroines Of Legend Chapter 3: Two Souls At a Crossroad

The void between life and death felt, strange, empty, yet filled with so much.

Satoshi Ono opened his eyes to find himself standing in it, a crossroads carved from starlight and shadow, where four paths stretched into impossible distances. His hand moved instinctively to his abdon, searching for the wound that should have been there. Nothing, just the phantom mory of steel blade cutting through his flesh.

He wasn’t alone.

A young man stood nearby, maybe eighteen, with black hair and eyes that held the peculiar emptiness like he’d given up long before dying. The stranger’s clothes were foreign, high-collared, buttoned to the throat in a style Satoshi had never seen.

"Where am I?" the young man began, but a movent cut him short.

From the center of the crossroads, sothing shifted.

A figure materialized on an ornate throne. He looked... ordinary. Almost disappointingly so. dium height, simple looking, with an expression that showed pure boredom. He wore a multicolored robe that dyed different colors depending on the angle of view, his fingers drumd an impatient rhythm against the armrest.

"Gentlen!" The figure spread his arms wide, grinning like he’d just won a particularly satisfying bet. "Welco to the crossroads. I’m the guy who runs this joint. The na’s not important, but you can call the Lord of the Crossroads if it makes you feel better."

Satoshi’s hand instinctively moved to his wakizashi strap. But he clenched empty air.

The Lord noticed. "Yeah, weapons don’t really transfer here. Kind of a ’no outside food or drink’ policy, if you catch my drift." He snapped his fingers, and two chairs appeared behind them.

"Sit."

Imdiately both figures found themselves sitting before the Lord.

"Now." The Lord turned his attention to Satoshi. "You look like you need a mont to catch your breath . All that running, and the whole seppuku thing really takes it out of you, doesn’t it?"

The word hit like a blade between the ribs. Satoshi’s expression changed to a frown. "You have no right to speak of..."

"Of your honorable death? Your ritual suicide to preserve what’s left of your dignity?" The Lord leaned forward, placing both elbows on his knees. "Newsflash, samurai boy, you’re standing in my domain now. I have every right." He gestured casually toward the paths. "Besides, if we’re being technical, you can’t actually proceed down any of these roads."

"What?" Satoshi rose to his feet. "My death was honorable."

"Yeah, yeah, I know the whole speech." The Lord waved a dismissive hand. "Restore honor, preserve your legacy, all that jazz. Impressive, really. I’d rate you five star for all that showcase. But here’s the thing..." He leaned back, smacking his lips for a mont, before continuing. "You’ve got unfinished business. Both of you, actually."

The young man, Altair, finally spoke. "What business?"

"Now there’s a good question." The Lord snapped his fingers. The air rippled, and suddenly Satoshi could hear it, a sound like distant sobbing, layered over the echo of soone calling a na. His na, it was Inoue’s voice, broken and desperate.

Satoshi gasped.

"That," the Lord said, pointing at nothing in particular, "is what’s keeping you here, Satoshi. Your beloved Inoue? She’s not crossing over either. She’s stuck. A yurei, wandering the mortal plane, calling for you, for justice and vengeance." He tilted his head. "Romantic, in a deeply tragic sort of way."

Satoshi’s hands clenched into fists. "Then send back."

"Can’t." The Lord examined his fingernails. "That’s not how death works. Very inconvenient, I know. Really puts a damper on the whole ’avenging your lost love’ thing."

He turned to Altair. "And you, kid. Altair Elfender, pride of the noble Elfender family." Each word was delivered with casual cruelty. "You slit your own wrist in your room so monts ago. Your mother’s standing outside your door right now, about to knock."

Altair’s expression changed a bit. A slight concern evident in his eyes.

"She’s going to find you," the Lord continued, voice softening just slightly. "And that discovery? That image? It’s going to break her. Completely."

Silence settled over the crossroads like fresh snow.

Satoshi glanced at the young man beside him. Still perfectly calm. Either he had ice in his veins, or he’d been living with this pain so long he had gotten used to it.

"However," the Lord said, and suddenly his whole deanor shifted. The casual arrogance dropped away, replaced by a more serious approach. "I’m in a generous mood today. Call it a cosmic intervention if you may, to it’s just professional boredom." He stood, and the throne vanished behind him. "I’m offering you both... a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Satoshi asked.

The Lord waved his hand. The air parted, and a translucent screen appeared, hovering mid air, it showed two scenes side by side. On the left, a room where a body rested on a table. On the right, a forest where a figure kneeled in his own blood.

"Ti," the Lord said, "is not linear. Not from where I’m standing, and your deaths?" He gestured at the screens. "They occurred at the exact sa mont. Different years, different worlds, but the sa cosmic tistamp. And that gives interesting options."

He snapped his fingers and both scenes froze.

"Nows since the both of you think you have it worse, and that the only way out is death, I propose a fusion."

"A fusion?" They both asked.

"Yes," He affird.

"Satoshi, you wake up in Altair’s tiline, in his body, with his life. Now this is where it gets interesting, I will be granting a system to the body, and that system would carry Altair’s soul."

The Lord’s eyes glead. "You both live out the sa life, and If you can change your ordeal, I’ll bring you back here. And then I’ll grant you whichever option you want. Pass on to the afterlife, return to your original life with it being perfect, or..." He grinned. "make the integration, permanent."

Satoshi’s mind raced. "And I’m supposed to believe all of this?" He said with a look of skepticism. "This is madness."

"Is it?" The Lord’s jovial deanor evaporated entirely. His hand moved again, and the screen shifted.

Satoshi saw himself, his body, lying in the courtyard. He saw Inoue’s spirit weeping, hovering over the scene. He saw a glimpse of the future and how it would all turn out.

And on the other screen, he saw a woman with black hair standing outside a door, her hand raised to knock, unaware of the horror waiting inside.

"Altair," the Lord said, his voice was cold now. "Outside your room, your mother knocks. The scene of your death will likely kill her as well. In your despair, you’ve condemned your loving mother to the sa fate, she will die, and she will join you here."

Altair’s breath hitched, his composure had faltered.

The Lord turned to Satoshi. "And you. This is the end for you. But Inoue’s spirit will wander the earth forever. And you?" He stepped closer. "You’ll be stuck here. With . For eternity. If you wish to see her again, and to give her peace, you must avenge her." He paused. "From a different body."

The screens continued to play. Satoshi watched as Inoue’s spirit began to fade, becoming sothing else. Sothing twisted.

"I suggest," the Lord said, turning away to reclaim his throne, "you make your decisions rather quickly, I have other matters to attend"

---

The silence stretched.

Satoshi stared at the screen showing Inoue. His instincts told him that this was impossible, that he should reject the offer. But the sound of her crying, and everything around him, that was real.

"If I agree," Satoshi said slowly, "I wake up as this boy? And how do I fit in?"

"Knowledge is transferable," the Lord confird. "It’ll be as though you were always there. You’ll have his mories, his skills, his relationships. Sa for you Altair, you’ll beco his system, and it will feel completely natural."

"And the task is simply... To fix what went wrong?"

"In a manner of speaking." The Lord examined his fingernails again. "You two failed individually in your lives, so I’d want to see you succeed together in one life. Simple enough, right?"

Nothing about this was simple.

Satoshi looked at Altair. The young man was staring at the screen showing his mother, and for the first ti, there was sothing in his eyes.

"He would live my life," Altair said quietly. "Face what I faced, and I’d just watch from the sidelines?."

"Not actually, as his system you’d have specific influences and crucial contributions to his life" He looked Altair dead in the eye. "You already failed yourself once Altair, This ti help him succeed"

They stood there, two souls balanced on the edge of eternity, weighing impossible choices.

Finally, Altair spoke. "I accept."

Satoshi exhaled. The thought of Inoue wandering forever, and the unfinished business that bound him here. This was a second chance he didn’t want but desperately needed.

"I accept as well."

"Marvelous!" The Lord’s grin returned, bright and sharp as a knife. He stood, spreading his arms wide. "I do love it when people make the right choices. Now then..."

He crossed his hands, interlacing his fingers in a complex pattern. "I shall send you forth into your new tilines. Worry not about the details. You’ll wake up right at the right mont, in perfect sync, and with all the knowledge you require."

His fingers snapped.

And in a mont they both vanished.

---

The crossroads fell silent.

The Lord settled back onto his throne, utterly alone now, and snapped his fingers again. The screen reappeared, split once more. On the left, Satoshi’s life as Altair, and on the right, Altair’s life as Satoshi.

"This," the Lord murmured, a smile playing at his lips, "is the most fun I’ve had in eternities."

He relaxed into his throne, preparing to watch.

Footsteps echoed from one of the paths. A servant materialized, hunched, skeletal, wearing robes that had definitely seen better centuries. It carried a broom that looked older than ti itself.

"My lord," the creature rasped, "must I remind visitors to dust their feet before entering? They’ve already tracked star dust all over the..."

"They’re gone, Grimwick."

"Ah." The creature looked around, disappointed. "A pity. The mats could use a good cleaning."

Another servant appeared, this one carrying a tray of sothing that might have been tea yet glittered like liquid moonlight. "Shall I fuse Altair’s soul into the system, my lord?"

"Not yet." The Lord waved at the servant. "I know the perfect mont for that. This is going to be fun."

The servants exchanged glances but said nothing. They’d learned long ago not to question the Lord’s entertainnt choices.

The Lord leaned forward, his eyes bright with anticipation.