LIGHTNOVELONLINE 15. Multiversal Schemes and Old Wounds
Chapter 15 – Multiversal Schemes and Old Wounds
Aenon stood in silence as he assessed his situation. His soul sense was working overtime trying to find a way out of the room but found none. Worse still, each of the hobgoblins was at least level 20 and there were ten of them on each side, including the one from the throne, who was standing meekly next to the kid. But the thing that bothered him the most was, there were no wisps in this room at all. Not even air or gravity ones. Before he could plan further, the kid spoke up.
“Ah, where are my manners. Let me introduce myself. I am prince Gareomos Lightseeker VI”, the boy declared proudly before waiting expectantly.
Aenon raised an eyebrow while staring back with indifference. This seemed to anger the kid dressed in obscenely rich clothes with enough gold jewelry to weigh down a horse.
“This is the part where you kneel to your superiors, peasant”, the obnoxious kid said in a raised voice.
“My identify skill says you are a level zero, just like me. So, how exactly are you my superior? Unless you consider dressing up like a flashy drag queen to be something to be proud of. In which case I am sorry, I don’t swing that way”, Aenon countered.
“What? I am a prince. Why would I dress up like a queen?”, the boy retorted with some heat and embarrassment.
“On my planet, there are men who dress up in woman’s clothing and jewelry. We call them drag queens. I thought that’s what you were”, Aenon responded with a smile.
The kid’s nostrils flared in anger as he raised his hands to cast something. But he lowered it after some consideration. Aenon was disappointed, he was really hoping to see if his shield would work against this idiot. The guy’s nameplate labeled him as a human and was green in color. Which meant he was not a System designated monster.
“Enough with your insolence. Surrender quietly and hand over my construct. Unless you wish to find out what we do to thieves on my planet”, the kid declared while leaning back on the throne.
“Thief? I didn’t steal anything. What are you talking about?”
“The seeding node. I can detect it on your person but am unable to summon it to me. It’s probably stored in your inventory, but I want my property handed back to me right now”, the boy said while showing his ring to which the thread was connected.
“So, you are the moron who corrupted the seeding node of my planet?”, Aenon asked incredulously.
For the first time the boy left the throne as he charged at Aenon with a drawn sword. He stopped mere millimeters away from his shield, his swing directed at Aenon’s throat.
“Know your place, peasant. You know too much and so your death is all but guaranteed. If I did not want my things back, you would already be dead. Hand me the seeding node and I will at least grant you a quick death”, the boy’s words were dripping with venom.
The prince was probably expecting him to flinch and retreat, because the surprise on his face was evident when Aenon started stepping forward instead. He started marching forward leisurely, making the disbelieving prince lower his sword and start stepping back. Before he could recover from his initial shock, Aenon backhanded the jerk’s face with all his strength, hurtling him back a dozen feet. The prince was clutching his now swollen face, aghast.
“How dare you lay a hand… Aaaaaaaargh”
The guy’s complaints turned to screams and sobs as Aenon deftly severed all the tendons in his arms and legs, making him flop to the floor like a dead fish. As if on cue, all the hobgoblins charged him at once. Since magic was out of the equation, he grabbed the prince by the back of his neck and started using him like a meat shield.
He blocked all the hobgoblin’s attacks using his impromptu shield while he danced around them, leaving small cuts using his main dagger, Goblin’s Anguish. It became a battle of attrition to see who gave out first, the hobgoblins from his stacking bleed debuff or his makeshift shield from all the slashing and bludgeoning blows. To his credit, the equipment the moron was wearing was sturdy and he took very little damage. But the damage kept piling on, until eventually everyone in the room was riddled with wounds except Aenon.
After roughly 45 minutes of this, all the hobgoblins collapsed, never to rise again. The prince was barely breathing but was alive. Aenon unceremoniously cut off both his hands and tossed him to the floor. He removed the ring linked to Harley from the severed hand and sat next to the unconscious man. The guy was healing quite fast, so Aenon went about observing the ring with his mana sense and cast identify. All he got in the identify window was garbled up text that made no sense.
Just touching the ring felt like he was dunked in a barrel of oil and his mana sense showed deep red tendrils flailing about on the ring’s inner surface. A closer inspection of the severed hand revealed tiny puncture wounds on the finger it was on. Aenon gingerly placed the ring on the ground, not wanting to contract whatever infection or curse it had on it.
He patted down the unconscious prince and found a fancy dagger that gave off the same oily feeling. Its edge glowed the same shade of red as the tendrils. On a hunch, he tried cutting the thread linking the ring to Harley’s enclosure and succeeded. Harley burst out of his soul space and slammed into this chest. She was sobbing uncontrollably.
Aenon let her cry it out as he gently stroked her. She was saying something but was so distressed that he had trouble understanding. Eventually she calmed down enough for him to make out some of her words.
Sob … was so painful…sob… kept trying to reach you… sob… it hurt so much.
“It’s alright Harl. It’s over now. The guy responsible is over there, beaten. I will end his life for putting you through that, but we need answers first”, she looked over at the sorry piece of pulverized meat for the first time.
Wait, that’s a human? What did you do to him?
“Used him as a shield to block hobgoblin clubs”, Aenon replied with a smirk. Harley giggled weakly at that.
Serves him right. Take him with you for the next dungeon dive too. Use him as a shield till every bone in his body is tenderized.
Aenon frowned at her second sentence. He decided he had delayed this conversation long enough. It was time to confront what he was dreading. But before he could, he detected two presences from the trinket on his arm. It slithered off his hand and transformed into Allie.
She looked around the room in shock before looking at the hobgoblin corpses and the battered body of the prince. Her gaze eventually settled on the dagger in his hand. Her eyes went wide in anger before she charged at him.
“HOW DARE YOU USE SOMETHING SO VILE.”
Before she could reach him, a barrier erected between them before the Overseer materialized to the side. His gaze was stern and for the first time he got a glimpse of the monster the Overseer truly was. He felt like his entire soul was laid bare in front of that gaze. Every secret, everything within his soul felt exposed.
“Calm down, apprentice. Let him explain. He has earned at least that much”, the Overseer looked at the stunned Arbiter before turning back to him.
“But master, he used… that. That is unforgivable. Maybe that’s how he has been hiding things from you. He is corrupt…”, Allie tried to argue.
“I believe I asked you to stay quiet”, the last word was like a command to reality itself. All sounds were sapped away, ceasing like they never existed. For a second Aenon thought he had lost his hearing, before the Overseer turned to him and spoke sternly.
“Explain.”
So Aenon started explaining everything, no, he felt compelled to explain everything. He couldn’t have held back any detail even if he wanted. Details which he had no memory of, that he must have realized subconsciously, were also recounted in detail.
After he was done, he collapsed to the ground, sweating profusely. He had never felt that vulnerable in his life. The Overseer’s gaze softened a bit before he flung a vial towards him. Almost reflexively, Aenon caught it. It contained a clear liquid within it, too viscous to be water. With a casual swish of his hand, the Overseer made the ring, the dagger, and the broken body of the prince disappear.
“I suggest taking that potion once you are back in your house. That is your reward for what you have accomplished here. This is a significant threat that you have stumbled across. But it would be foolish to give you more details about it unless you get significantly stronger”, the Overseer said softly. His stern disposition was gone, replaced by the earlier grandfatherly care he had shown during their earlier encounters.
“Having said that, I will allow you to ask two questions. Depending on how you phrase them, you may gain significant knowledge of what is to come. Use them wisely”, the Overseer added. His pristine beard was back and the kind smile on his face was really disarming.
Aenon deposited the vial in his inventory and closed his eyes. There were a million questions running through his head. But there was one that was more significant than all the others. He opened his eyes and looked at the overseer with resolve.
“Harley. Are my assumptions about her true?”
The elderly man smiled as he considered Aenon before giving a nod of appreciation.
“I was right about you. You are a fascinating child. Tell me, of all the questions you could have asked, why ask this? You could have directly asked what I think about her, rather than trying to confirm what you know.”
Aenon looked at the shard, clinging to his chest, and then at Allie. The Arbiter was meekly standing to the side, thoroughly chastised from earlier. He turned back to the Overseer and returned his smile.
“Where’s the fun in getting all the answers? I’d rather figure it out myself than have it spelt out. Harley told me that is what my soul is like. It’s the same reason I did not take any advice before choosing my skills. And neither will I take help when choosing my classes or builds.”
“Ho ho. Is that so? Would you still feel the same if your path led to certain death?”, the Overseer chuckled while his eyes hinted amusement at his response.
“Absolutely”, Aenon responded with conviction.
“Good answer. Now to answer your question, you first need to tell me what your assumptions about her are, and how did you reach said assumptions”, the Overseer stroked his beard while regarding him.
“My first clue was your statement that she may have absorbed something from me while being integrated into my soul space. Her behavior and personality were next. My suspicion grew when I found that she used my mana pool to heal me. And finally, when Allie informed me that entities require their own soul space”, Aenon looked down at the shard on his chest.
When he did not elaborate for a while the Overseer pushed him a bit, “So, what is she?”
“An echo, a memory, a ghost”, he responded softly before adding in a barely audible whisper, “A hope.”
After a long period of silence, during which Allie looked between him and the Overseer with confusion, the Overseer spoke sadly.
“Then you know what must be done. You must have already sensed it using your soul sense.”
Aenon stayed silent, his eyes hurting with the effort to hold back tears. When he looked up, he saw the confusion on Allie’s face and the genuine sadness on the Overseer’s.
You are really planning to make me cry right before the end, aren’t you?
The shard flew away from his chest and started to glow so brightly, it hurt his eyes. But he refused to look away. He observed as the shard started growing arms and legs, until eventually she transformed into a 5-foot-tall girl with dark hair like his. He gave her a tiny smile while choking down his sobs.
“Let me introduce you to everyone. Overseer, Allie, please meet Harlequin Fenrast. My little sister.”
Harley jumped into his arms, giving him a long-awaited hug. He held her tight, without caring about the tears that freely flowed down his cheeks. He had wanted to do this for so long that it hurt his chest. He finally let go of her after 5 minutes, still weeping silently.
“You should look at your face right, Arbiter. It is hilarious”, Harley joked mischievously before continuing. “As he was saying, yes, I am his younger sister. But that is partially correct. Even though he may refuse to admit it, he doesn’t know the full story so let me explain.”
The Overseer waved his hand, conjuring a table with 4 chairs around it. They all took a seat after Harley dragged her chair closer to Aenon’s.
“I am a unique life form who is not truly alive. I was a System seeding node that was corrupted to raise a planet full of humans and force them to remain weak during integration so that they could be harvested for XP. And before you say anything, Overseer, I have been granted permission by the System to divulge that little detail”, she turned to the Overseer who merely nodded.
“When I was integrating into his soul space, which is a nice way of saying he was pulverizing me with his bare hands, I developed cracks. And through those cracks something embedded itself in me. Soul fragments. There was a much weaker soul that was hovering around his.”
“Wait, you mean…”, Allie started saying something before Harley cut her off.
“When a person dies, their soul dissipates. Unless a certain condition is met, having unresolved feelings or grudges. A soul with unresolved issues will sometimes linger beyond death. And if that reason is strong enough, they will latch onto their target and feed off their host’s life energy to survive for much longer.”
Aenon closed his eyes as he tried hard not to think of the memory he always kept buried deep within. He decided it was time to dig up the old wounds to get some closure.
“I…”, he tried speaking but felt his mouth go dry. He pulled out the water skin and took a large gulp of water. “Back on earth, I come from a very prominent family on my father’s side. My father didn’t like his family and always rebelled against them any chance he got. That included canceling his arranged engagement and marrying the woman he loved, my mother. He got disowned for that, but he made a life for himself and our family. We had a small house, and my father worked in construction as a handyman. Nothing grand, but we were happy and content.”
He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing, “My paternal grandfather contacted my father after almost a decade. Apparently, his wife, my grandmother, had died a few days prior and her last wish was to meet her son and grandchildren. In his stubbornness, he hadn’t contacted my father thinking that she would recover. When she died, he fell ill from the loss and guilt of not fulfilling his wife’s last wish. Me and my sister had never met our grandfather, so we didn’t really know the man. But my father did, and when he found that he had kept us away from his dying mother, he refused to meet. My mother eventually convinced him to let the past be the past and make amends before it was too late. When we finally went over to this huge mansion, we were greeted with cold stares from my extended family. My aunts and uncles, and my cousins, all dressed up in fancy clothes looked down on me and my family. We weren’t poor, but to their eyes we might as well be a couple of homeless bums dirtying their marble flooring.”
Harley started stroking his back as he took a deep breath and continued, “My father had rarely mentioned my grandfather, but whenever he did, he had described this big and proud man. Not the empty husk I saw on that bed that day. Suffice to say the scene finally broke my dad, who cried while both men apologized to each other. When he finally looked at me and my sister, I saw the regret in his lifeless eyes. He put his hands on our heads and while trying to say something, passed away. But that is where our nightmare started.”
“What do you mean?”, Allie asked.
“My grandfather had changed his will before death. Giving my father an equal share in the inheritance. But my father didn’t want it, which irked my relatives since there was a clause in the will which stated that if my father refuses to accept his share, then the entire estate goes to charity.”
Realization dawned on everyone’s faces as they realized where this was heading but Aenon continued calmly.
“Instead of informing my father of the clause, they decided to eliminate the root of all their troubles. They had him and my mother killed. My father would probably have accepted the share before donating it to charity if he knew of the clause. But they did not want a significant share leaving their hands. However, my grandfather was a smart man. He had another hidden clause which was to be revealed only if my parents were no more. Because of their actions, they made me and my sister heirs to that share instead.”
Aenon closed his eyes and relived those dark days. He had decided to face his past, so he refused to just give up and cry. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Allie had a complicated expression on her face. She was looking at him as though she was seeing him for the very first time.
“Anyway, long story short, they had to keep us around to secure their property. So, they passed us around like cattle, till we turned 18 and they could force us to hand over the property rights. They couldn’t inflict any physical harm as that would be detected by the lawyer, voiding their property claims, so they got creative”, Aenon stated with no emotion. Looking at his state Harley took over.
“He protected me. His only condition for silence and cooperation was that I be left alone. Despite how he was treated, he never cried or protested. But monsters like them are never content. They kept pushing him further and further, till I…”, Harley choked up.
“Pain I could take. Humiliation I could live with. But what I failed to realize was that it affected Harley as much as it did me. Seeing me suffer, hurt her in ways I never realized was possible. And so, she ended her life”, Aenon finished Harley’s unspoken words.
Allie gasped at that while the Overseer observed stoically in silence. Aenon took Harley’s hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I know that you are not Harley, at least not fully. But whatever part of her you have in you, I wanted to apologize to her. For failing to realize that you too were in pain because of my weakness. And for failing to protect you like I promised.”
Harley smiled back at him, the same smile he remembered from their years before they met their grandfather. Before the nightmare began. She rested her head on his shoulder and spoke quietly.
“I only have fragments of our memories together, so I do not remember everything that happened before. But I can tell you with certainty that I have never blamed you for anything Aenon. You did a phenomenal job of protecting me. It was I who was weak and left you all alone”, she sobbed.
“Do you remember the last words you told me?”, Aenon asked softly to which Harley nodded. “I did achieve it back on earth and you can rest assured I will achieve it again. So, you can rest now. You did not leave me all alone, for you were always with me. And from now on, you will always live on. In my memories, where you belong.”
Harley started fading as she rested her head on his shoulders with her eyes closed. “Hehe. You never did get me back for the head bashing prank. So, I guess that means I win”, she chuckled weakly.
“I guess so”, Aenon smiled in response with tears rolling down his cheeks as he felt her fading away.
“I am so glad that I had a brother like you. Live well and live free, big brother”, she said cheerfully before fading away completely.
Aenon collapsed on the ground before crying out in despair till his voice echoed all over the hall.