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Chapter 270: Of Earth and Terroa

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Dragons

This race, when he started the game, on his first month, he was already confronted by a Dragon.

Volt and him already talked about it when they finished the mission that even if Missions and Quests are fundamentally different with the goals and rewards they provide after completion, the fact that a mere B-Rank Mission had a Dragon as the Final Boss was still a mystery they can’t answer.

GASP!

Even if the Forest Dragon that they defeated was just a fledgling, and Siva even defeated it only by sheer luck, it was still a Dragon.

When he sold it, he was even told that he wasn’t even able to graze off half of its health. The reason he defeated it was because on the lowest levels of its defenses, it was struck with a great blow that temporarily robbed its consciousness.

After all, it was just a fledgling so it was still weak and its foundations as a savage beast are still very shallow. If it was not tied down tightly, at the time of its delivery to the city, it would have ran off and escaped back then.

Siva felt lucky, yes, after all, he was just a B-Rank Hunter back then and defeating that Dragon was indeed a lucky strike paired with his Killing Zone.

They dismissed that notion that the encounter with that Dragon was just by pure chance and yet, now, he was finding it not by chance at all.

And the reason why he gasped just now is that he suddenly remembered that Dragon Kin in the snowy mountains. (A/N: it’s generally supposed to be just ‘descendant’ but I am generalizing them as a whole race only here to fix the message in the entire context)

He was told “you are not him” by that Dragon. And it also included something as having “the same scent but not the same aura” as someone else.

Siva had been confused by who that Ice Giant had referred to but now, he had a feeling that that Ice Giant was referring to [Siva] who was technically also him.

This, indeed, is a very surprising fact and he couldn’t help gasping when he was assaulted by all these coincidences.

“What else?! What else do you know about Clemente and the Dragons? What else? Are they connected to Mefisto? Me! What about me?! Do you know anything about me?”

Surprised by the questions, Akhenaton felt like raising his head to look at Siva but he resisted and did not dare, only hesitating and kept kneeling.

“My Lord, you are The Destroyer of the Sinners, Siva. When I was given my sentence, it was said that I have rejected the will of the Primordial Gods and even blasphemed against the wishes of the Trinity Gods! I knew you were one of the Trinity Gods but I never saw you nor even heard of you even once in my life! My first time encountering you is only when you have unleashed this moving prison to the world back in that so called Battle City!”

Siva’s thoughts were in chaos but just as he was about to plunge deeper on that chaos, he also noticed something on Akhenaton’s sentence.

“Wait, you said you only saw me in Battle City? As I recall it correctly, I got you as a capsuled item in Dragona… do you mean to say that you weren’t aware of what was happening to you back then?”

“No. Everything was silent for a very long time until…”

“Until?” Siva prompted with a curious gesture of his head tilting to the side.

In his mind, he was actually trying to string things together. It’s now a fact that Akhenaton was not aware of the things outside the capsule but even on that fact…

The [Capsule Technology] is a Human-Terran Alliance initiated research and this technology is not even a century old.

Meaning someone took him away from the place where Clemente Celestine had found and left him only in these recent years after the war.

In order to know this, Siva added with a question in a kinder tone: “So how did you end up being inside a capsule then?”

It should be understood that the “Capsule” is just one of the many technologies introduced by the Human-Terran Alliance in Jeremiah in this 56 years after the Great War.

Knowing this, something actually doesn’t add up.

“Were you aware that you were taken in and were put inside a capsule?”

“Yes. But…”

Akhenaton turned his head left and right as if to have difficulty recalling what just happened to him before he was released in Battle City.

Or perhaps it was because he was searching for the correct manner on how to tell him the story.

“Clemente Celestine found me in a battlefield’s ruin —according to the conversations of the people that dug me up and the sound of falling rocks around that time. Towards the person who found and made contact with me, my memory is perfectly clear about him. In fact, it hasn’t been that long even. His name should be Altair Astarte or something….”

When Akhenaton paused, Siva’s chest was rising and falling in anticipation.

Of course Siva wasn’t aware that the name Altair Astarte is a very grand name in Terroa. The reason why he was heaving heavily like this is because of the next set of words that Akhenaton said:

“….during that time, this Altair was accompanied by another person he called Teacher. Aside from their conversation, I remember Altair saying that he will be making a trip to an island in the North.”

“…”

Siva inhaled deep. His chest enlarged and then he exhaled a long sigh as he faced upward with eyes closed in contemplation.

“My Lord?”

Siva didn’t answer the pleading call.

Akhenaton is really afraid and Siva knows it. But he was just savouring this sense of warmth in his heart right now.

As confusing as it is, he really can’t deny the fact that he was both impressed and positively inclined with Janus’ level of preparation. In the end, he was still planning… endlessly planning… all for the sake of this world’s survival.

Janus was preparing against Mefisto’s invasion and as well as when [Siva]’s wrath awakens.

But Siva had yet to fully accept these things, most especially that statement where Janus had indeed planned things to prevent this world from suffering against his supposed “anger” towards the Gods and Immortals that sinned against Terra.

And yet, Terra told her to forgive them and Terra, in his new and original memories, embodied his mother so he also can’t bring himself to defy her wishes to forgive the world and let go of his old suffering.

Thus, Siva, no, Rex Kingsley, was really confused.

It was the reason why he was troubled and unable to focus to any priority to chase at this moment, as it was also the reason why he was battling himself whether to believe these foreign memories or not.

“Janus…”

But… was it really that easy to forgive them?

If he accepts these memories, he also accepts the fact that he had indeed lived another life in this artificial world of Terroa.

If he agrees to take these memories as true, then he also accepts this world as being a ‘real world’ as well. And by virtue of that action, he had to also abide by Terra’s and Janus’ dying wishes to protect this world against invaders.

Wouldn’t that mean that his responsibilities, aside from finding and keeping Baron safe, would have increased by a lot?

And what’s even more important is, if he were to accept that this world is indeed real, then Baron, who was in the middle of DNI-Therapy, is in a lot more-graver danger than he originally thought.

However…

If he denies the existence of these memories, if he denies this world as another reality, if he were to just treat everything as AG having thrown him in a hell hole with a game as RPG: Terroa set as a stage along with its unique set of rules… then wouldn’t that make everything he’s doing right now justified to be part of AG’s schemes?

He could just continue on his personal goal of finding and keeping Baron safe from everything, provide AG his H-Class Information and Clues, and then turn his back in everything…

But wouldn’t also be denying the things that had happened in the cellar dungeons, Janus’ efforts, and even deny the fact that in his mind right now exists memories of him in this world of Terroa, living a life different on his real one, wearing the name that he thought should have been just a product of his imagination…

…Siva…………?

Wouldn’t he be just denying everything on its face and just treat it all as just a bad dream?

“…..”

Perhaps he can deny it all, even his memories, but… he still won’t be able to crush that feeling of resentment that will burn his soul if he chooses to deny the dying wish of his mother in the cellar halls. To deny his mother would have been a sin that would haunt him for life.

“Who am I kidding?”

Siva took three steps back and leaned on a pillar that stood behind him in the stage.

He placed a hand on his face, tears falling on his cheeks like rivers. He cried bitterly then chuckled with the same sense of bitterness.

After quite a while, he heaved a broken sigh and sniffed the bitterness that these new sets of memories had brought when he heard Janus’ title.

“That ‘Teacher’… it’s Janus, no doubt…”

If the impressions of Janus in his mind were true, then there was no need to doubt the fact that him, meeting Akhenaton, wasn’t purely coincidence.

“Everything was planned by Janus.”

Whether it was enhanced memory or not, he does remember Gabriel calling him Teacher and that in his new memories as well, his students had always regarded Janus as “Teacher” wherever they are.

“So in the end, I had lived a life both in Earth and Terroa… I am Rex Kingsley of Earth and Siva ‘The Destroyer’ from Terroa….”

Right now, Siva… had finally made his choice.

“I can’t deny my mother.”

For Terra, no, for his mother… Ellie… Siva chose to embrace the unknown and accept the promise to forgive the sinners that sinned against Terra.

Siva… accepted his identity as having lived a life in this world sometime in the past, or perhaps, in that short week of confinement in that incident in Lausanne, Switzerland where the Mefisto Extraction Experiment was being held, for some reason, is able to speed up the flow of time in Terroa.

He heard from Uncle Faust that Samantha, no, Kris Pegasus barged in to stop the experiment and on her amuck, he was badly hurt.

Then, in accordance to accepting this fact as well, he also had to accept that one memory during the war that happened not too long ago in the past, in that war… 56 years ago… he did killed Samantha and the mysterious ‘Samantha’ he met when he first came in The North is also the Samantha in his memories…

So that means… there was something in this world that could bring back the time for someone.

If that is the case, then AG… wanting H-Class Info on Quests only meant that the incident during the Mefisto Extraction Experiment and the War of the Braves 56 years ago were connected.

“Hm? Wait a minute…” Having thought to this part, Siva had a sudden realization. “Wouldn’t that mean that the link between the two incidents… is me?”

During the Mefisto Extraction Experiment back then, in order to save the critically injured Rex, they had to undergo him to the DNI-Therapy which Pegasus strongly did not agree upon. But because Rex’s parents were the creators of the experiment, so in regards to them, the UNICORN and Panorama Corporation assented and he dived in into the world of Terroa to undergo DNI-Therapy.

But everyone knew the risks involved in the DNI-Therapy and so to increase their chances of succeeding to help Rex recover, Ellie also had to dive in and save him there.

That’s about all he had heard from Uncle Faust.

Regarding everything that had happened in Terroa at the time, perhaps… these memories are those ‘things’ that had happened…

“But they are clearly… too long… comprising of millions of years so just how was it possible?”

Siva was slowly trying to sink on his thoughts. He was trying to align his memories to his current since he had already chosen to embrace this fact.

It was all for Terra… all for his mother… he chose to accept this other ‘self’ because he chose to honor and accept the dying wish of Terra.

Whether she was just a unique computer program or actually his mother’s avatar, Terra had his mother’s face so she was still his mother to his heart no matter the reason. And now that she was dead, Siva, no, Rex Kingsley treated her words as important as saving Baron’s life.

“In the end, I am Siva…. of Earth and Terroa….”

Having thought of the link between the two events being himself, Siva felt a jolt of lightning crash down on his soul.

“If AG is aware of the incident in Lausanne four years ago, 3 years before the release of Terroa, and at that time is the middle of Mefisto Extraction Experiment; Pegasus trying to kill me after because the experiment failed… my parents dying in that accident, no, it wasn’t an accident. Perhaps it was planned by someone… perhaps it was planned by Pegasus or… or planned by AG…?”

The more he thought of it, resentment, rage, and loathing was building in his heart.

And whether he was aware of it, the moment he had accepted the existence of these memories, a change had actually occurred in his mind.

The memories aligned themselves; all the visions of events reorganized themselves according to their chronological order.

“Argh…”

Pain assaulted his head, like a drilling headache that manually rearranged things in his mind. This kind of pain was supposed to render almost just anyone unconscious because this entire process included not only the intangible aspect but also the physical aspect of what is called the mind.

In short, he was feeling the process physically in the real world and that pain was being rendered directly in his avatar in Terroa.

This was… synchronization….

The pain should have rendered him unconscious but Siva endured because for some reason, the rage in his heart did not allow him to sleep it all off so he watched.

Siva fell down face first, his eyes all white, that if Akhenaton wasn’t watching him all this time, he would have actually slammed his face to the floor.

“My Lord… this… this is…”

For some reason, Akhenaton became aware of what was happening to him as soon as he caught the falling Siva and ‘felt’ the chaos in his Mana.

“This… Synchronization! The process of merging something Mortal and Immortal, but he has always been an Immortal isn’t he?”

Whether the aspect of the game’s NPC ascending to immortality was the same as just accepting the memories on his mind, Siva is experiencing a [Synchronization] of his ‘missing’ self and the real world him that had lost everything.

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Accepting the truth is the hardest thing to do…

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