LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 85 — In which we meet the thrones (2)
Chapter 85 — In which we meet the thrones (2)
Amara climbed the mountain just like he did 300 years ago.
The twisted track meandered, as if trying to lose the traveler, but Amara’s steps were confident.
He didn’t lose his way even when he had only a small lantern to guide him in the darkness.
The ever present guards and eyes didn’t follow him here.
In time of peace, no one but a throne ruler dared to enter this place.
Finally, he saw a very familiar sight.
A crystal clear lake was covered in a faint fog and moonlight.
Amara stood at the edge of it and softly called out:
“Pur.”
A shadow suddenly fell on the fog.
At first it was small, but it quickly grew until it covered the entire lake.
Only then did its form become visible.
A giant fox stretched out as if they just woke up from a nap and sat down in front of Amara on the water surface.
She lowered her head and laid down to face him.
Only then the fox spoke, his voice like raindrops.
“You finally came to your senses.”
“Yes.”
Amara stretched out his hand and stroked the enormous snout in front of him.
“Sorry that it took so long.”
“Spare me empty apologies. You cannot apologize for something you had no control over.”
“Still, if I thought it through, if I did better, if didn’t lose my concentration… perhaps that day could be different.”
“No. I don’t think so.”
The purple fox half closed their eyes.
“You knew that you would die there. But as long as there was at least one person there to save, you would still rush there. Your fate could only change if you didn’t go there, but because there was nothing in this world that could change your decision that day, all your ‘ifs’ are just useless excuses to blame yourself. So don’t apologize to me. Because we both know you would do it again if something like that happened.”
“…”
Amara also half-closed his eyes and put his head against his nose.
The cold sensation seemed to help him clear his thoughts.
After a moment of silence, he whispered a question:
“Did someone survive that day? Anyone?”
“… Through the years I saw some people I recognized… But upon closer inspection, they were all new ones.”
Amara closed his eyes completely and didn’t say anything for a long time.
Finally, he sighed and opened his fogged eyes.
“I have a lot of questions for you.”
“Please ask. I’ll do my best to answer.”
“Can you first please tell me what happened after our deaths?”
“Hm… The very next day, those traitorous bastards came to me and declared you as dead. As if I didn’t know, hmph.”
The fox snorted, then she resumed her explanation.
“They presented me with your finger and declared, as it has a piece of your soul and mind, it will be a new ruler. It was ridiculous, but I was in a bad mood, so I just agreed and told them to get out.”
“There is no way that you did it just because you were in a bad mood.”
“Well, if you want my specific reasoning behind it, it was either agree or lead our citizens to revolt. No one in their right mind believed that nonsense about you killing each other at that time, so the atmosphere was tense. But if I accepted that deal, it would signal to citizens to not make any rash moves. Most of them lived through or heard first-hand accounts about the events pre-Luminere. I believed they knew when to bark and when to dig under the fence and wait for an opportunity. Besides, I made a condition.”
“A condition?”
“Yes. I told them to put your body together and then leave it alone in ‘that place’. Otherwise, if even your nail was missing, they could say goodbye to saints of Purplus.”
“Yes, I heard that my body is sealed under the Universe Temple and no one has access to it. But I don’t know its state or if truly no one has access.”
“You seem to doubt it.”
“I don’t doubt your eyesight, or gods, who bestowed their protection to me and that place, but… Everything has a loophole.”
“Like?”
Amara frowned, as he fell into thoughts.
“It bothers me why my soul entered this body.”
“When you reincarnate, it’s natural to obtain a new body.”
“But if my soul was shattered and had to piece itself together again, it would be more natural to be drawn to the body where other pieces already are. You said that my finger had a piece of my soul, so there should be more… How exactly are you tracking that my body is whole?”
“By spiritual traces I left when you became the ruler.”
“… then all the body parts I had during my life… but if I had a new body part, you or the gods wouldn’t be able to track it, because they weren’t blessed.”
“A new body part?”
The fox blinked and looked at Amara intently.
“As I thought. Our Am must be an extraterrestrial being…”
“Please stop that fantasy nonsense. You don’t have to be an extraterrestrial being to do that. Ver once showed me an experiment he did. He cut off a plant stem and then stimulated its peak. After some time, the stem that should have been considered dead, sprouted a new leaf.”
“Isn’t it just proof that plants are extraterrestrial beings?”
“They better not be. I wouldn’t want to explain to some extraterrestrial civilization why we ate their kin.”
They fell silent for a second, as they considered the possibilities.
“So you suspect someone is tampering with your body?”
“…. I don’t know. I’m keeping that possibility open. Do you know what happened to the bodies of my siblings?”
“From what I know, Rubrun and Flavun didn’t have such an easy solution in keeping track of their body states as me, so they had to keep their ears and eyes open. At least Gemma and Sidus decided to help.”
“Ver kept a close relationship with Gemma and Saf did the same with Sidus… I’m glad they didn’t forget their friendship.”
“Both of those countries had a heavy debt to you, it’s only natural to pay it.”
“I’m no longer sure what is natural… What happened to Sidus though? I heard they didn’t make contact for the last 200 years.”
“Ah…”
The fox’s expression fell.
“I’m at fault here.”
“Why?”
“Do you remember what happened 200 years ago in Luminere?”
“The War of Last Divine Rain? When the last traitors gathered their power to fight for thrones and unite them, but were stopped by gods?”
“Yes. And… how should I say it… It might be a result of me having too much fun before that war.”
Amara just climbed the fox’s paw and laid down on it like on a big cushion.
He stared up, silent.
“I was making all kinds of ridiculous conditions to keep that finger of yours in power, so those bastards would wipe out each other. It was so easy you know? But I guess they got desperate at some point. They realized that if they united the thrones, there would be no need to listen to me and so the war started…”
“And then?”
“That pup you brought one day. He gathered a small army of divine creatures and beasts and let the gods descend through them… They succeeded in ending that conflict and preventing the unification of the thrones, but the price of it was their death.”
Amara just stared at the night sky without blinking.
“As you know, most of the divine creatures and beasts don’t have souls. They can’t reincarnate. But when they died, their bodies and minds were almost completely destroyed, so there wouldn’t be anything left of them… That’s when the Sidus stepped forward. Using their ‘Soul creation’ technique, they created them souls and helped them obtain a new life.”
“That’s against the rules of ‘Heaven’.”
“That’s right, therefore the entire Sidus was banished into the spiritual realm.”
Amara sighed and closed his eyes.
“Those fools. At least try to save yourself before saving someone else…”
He mumbled.
*~*~*