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Volume 4

Chapter 29: That Lost Memory

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After flying for about fifteen minutes and looking back now and then to check if they were being followed, Siva landed on a part of a dense forest and into a large tree.

Samantha's breathing was short and she was sweating.

She had removed the staff by herself while in the air but after that, she collapsed like a dead deer into her current state. The blood on her clothes was like the ones you'll see form someone stabbed. Siva had already given her a dozen of red potions but no matter how much she drank, her condition never improved.

"Agggghh!"

Siva panicked at her painful moan.

He grabbed her hand and lightly tapped her cheeks to see if she had gained consciousness.

"Why is this happening? What's wrong with you? Why are the Red Potions not working?"

Red Potions were made to heal wounds. As far as he'd experienced it, a dozen of those Red Potions are enough to make someone good as new.

He had never once heard any player to not be affected by this potion until now so he was in a panic as to what to do in this situation. He could feel that there was this unique situation on Samantha and no matter what it is, it was affecting her real bad.

Siva felt a hand grab his arm. Her pale expression was enough to put Siva in a lot of worry, all the more the face she has that said she was getting weak.

"Rex..." She whispered weakly. "It's so painful, Rex... why do you have to forget me?" This time, the message struck Rex as reality.

"Don't talk. Conserve your strength and don't waste any more energy."

But the hand that grabbed his arm tightened. "Listen to me Rex, there's no time."

"...what are you saying?"

Siva wanted to stop her but she had an expression that said she will be as stubborn as hell if he ever tries to stop her again. She wanted to tell him something, that's the message Siva felt in those eyes.

And upon realizing it, he remembered he was wearing a mask and became thankful for that because it lessens the frightening impression his skin had.

"Rex... I... I'm not... alive anymore."

"Huh? What do you...?"

"I am just a copy of my real self. My real body is already dead many years ago. I've been in this world for the past 56 years, Rex."

Siva held his breath as he listened to it.

"Rex, don't let Mefisto get you. You are The Destroyer and having your in-game name wasn't just a product of chance. You are The Destroyer. You mean a lot to my father and to the world. You must never go back to this place again. And in the real world, please... don't let my father find you."

"What are you talking about...?"

Siva slightly shook his head.

He remembered the reason why he chose that name and he also remembered the circumstances that became the reason why he named himself Siva.

The Destroyer was just his imagination. He wanted to do something to hide his real in-game character and that's the real reason how The Destroyer persona was formed.

Also, he had a goal associated with the name Siva.

With that name being a product of circumstances, there was no more reason for Siva to think otherwise.

"I don't..." Blood flowed out of her mouth as she struggled to breathe. Being choked by the rising liquid from her stomach made her cry in pain. The tears flowed non-stop on her cheeks as Siva felt somewhat unfamiliar with the pain he was feeling in his chest.

He doesn't understand why is this all happening and all the words she's saying doesn't make sense.

But seeing her in this situation, eyes filled with fear and pain, her hand that desperately hugged his arm even did so as tighten, Siva's own pain was palpable and he had no choice but to secretly ask why.

"R-Rex... I'm scared..." she cried and struggled.

"Samantha..."

"I'm sorry it... took me a long time to find you. Sorry I wasn't able to... Kaghh... to be a better girlfriend. I'm sorry I broke up with you. I'm sorry that my dad tried to kill you... I'm... I'm..."

Siva hugged her tight at that moment. Not knowing the reason why he did so, he just hugged her. He can't tell her that he had no idea what she's talking about but more than his own confused mind, there was the feeling of truth in the things that she said.

Her arms tightened on his back, grabbing his clothes.

"Why are you here?" She asked. "You shouldn't be here. What made you come here?"

"My brother's here. I have to go and find him. He's in DNI Therapy... and..."

There was a pause between them and she pushed him off to look at his face. She put her hand to his mask and removed it, revealing the black skinned visage.

Although it seemed that it was a little awkward, her eyes spoke of a message that she doesn't care. It was Siva's first time to feel that his current skin problem was not a problem at all but just some normal pimple.

"You had a brother? DNI therapy? Is he in a coma?"

"Yes." Siva replied with a weak nod.

"I see. It complicates things, then."

"Samantha..."

Feeling that she was drawing her last breath, she moved her free hand and summoned a window and on Siva's vision came a prompt.

[You Received Items!]

"This..." he felt surprised.

Then she put her hand on his face, the blood flowing off her mouth. The pain evident on her face made Siva's own heart feel the pinch and the fear could be seen emanating from the tears on her cheeks.

"Rex... I'm scared. I'm afraid to die again..."

"Samantha..."

"Rex... Rex... hug me. Don't let me go. Please..."

Rex did what was told and he hugged her. He pressed her face into his cheek and Siva felt her short breathing on his ear. When he felt her hands on her back tighten,

"Rex, will you come find me?"

"Find you?"

Siva wanted to pull out but her embrace pressed his head to her neck.

"The War of... the Braves. We... we were there."

"We... you mean us?"

The hand that embraced him lost its strength. Rex felt a long sigh on his ear as her arms fell beside her. Siva embraced her tight as he felt the pangs of hatred to the people who was messing up with his life.

He slowly pulled away and looked at her.

An unexplainable pain pinched his chest. He felt angry at the feeling of loss he couldn't explain in words.

-But this... why?

Siva looked at her lifeless expression; the still wet tears that left a trail on her dusty complexion bade a feeling of great pain. But her face... she somewhat died in peace.

"Why does it feel so painful seeing you like this?"

-Are you really dead?

He couldn't say it out loud. The idea was still too fresh and too absurd on him. Siva's words escaped from his lips and he wiped the tears that started to fall.

"Why does this whole thing look so real? Are you just an illusion or do we really know each other?"

The tears fell like a river, the unfamiliar sense of loss is as clear as day. The reason for his tears was for that same loss that he was feeling. He doesn't know her but he knew that everything she said was real.

He forgot something. He forgot everything.

A large piece of his life was erased on his mind and it all goes back to that event, four years ago. The beginning of all his problems. The event that made him special, the event that connects everything that had ever happened, from the past to the present, and to the future, as well as the people, including that Mefisto or whatever he is, his parents, that Alfred Pegasus, and, as doubtful and impossible as it may seem, perhaps even that man who always had a smug smile on his face had one or two fingers in this mess.

"Why? Why me?"

He cried while looking up to the sky beyond the tree's leaves. Knowing this scenery, the lush greenery and this healthy forest, the blue sky and the sound of chirping birds and the echoing water from a distance, this location was in no doubt somewhere warmer.

Perhaps he was already somewhere in the southern most area of the entire continent where it's warmer.

Then he looked down to study the face of Samantha.

Now that he looked at it, she's kind of really familiar to him. And by that, he felt like he was betraying her. He felt like he was stabbing her death by not remembering who she really was.

"I wish to remember you." He whispered.

Siva spent a few minutes making her a grave, under that tree, in this unknown forest, in the Northern Lands. Then he stabbed her giant sword as a marker on the grave and then uttered a silent prayer before walking off. But as he made the first ten steps away, he looked backed at the grave made of rocks.

"I will find you, someday, I promise." He whispered

Like a warning, or just by chance, through the small gaps in the tree tops that swayed calmly in the gentle wind, a small black dot that took a shape of a warship came into his vision. It was hovering steadily in the sky.

Its shape was like that of a dragon, with wings and legs and the cannons looking like scales. It was so small on his vision but considering the distance and the fact that he can still make out its shape, there was no reason to doubt that that warship was enormous.

Checking the compass, Siva knew that it was from the direction of the village and there was only one fact that associated that warship with his escape.

With fists clenched hard and teeth gritted, he jumped off towards the horizon and made another promise.

-Someday... you all will pay.