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Chapter 271: Elizabeth Éclair Kingsley

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The memories realigned themselves in his mind and then rearranged themselves according to what had happened first.

People, places, events, names, items, and even the War of the Gods that he invented when he was pretending to be Donar… in fact, even the face of Donar… became imprinted in his mind. He could recall them all with clarity.

In fact, even the dreadfulness of his name, Siva, and the aspect of this game world that he represents…

…..were all in his mind…

……..and was sealed by a certain gentle hand.

“Mother?”

In the midst of remembering all these memories, the chaotic scene of visions and images replaying in his mind was pushed at the back of a world of whiteness… where Terra, seated in a table and having a cup of tea, could be seen looking at him.

“Come sit.” She invited with a gesture on the seat in front of her, on the opposite side of the table.

“Mother…” Siva hesitated.

The sight of his mother living again, in front of him, whether it was just an illusion or not, was still enough to bring down all of his emotional and mental defenses.

He didn’t stop himself from crying and listened as he wore a smile before sitting down in the chair that was laid in front of her in the small table.

“Mom, you…”

“I am… in this world, I control the Terra Protocol, your dad control the Etheron Protocol… what a silly way to name a computer program after his own name, right?” Terra cheerfully said and winked at him, drinking her tea.

This is his mother, the always cheerful and the person whose smiles and frowns always brought colors to the house.

She looked up and Siva followed her gaze, seeing the ceiling that had his memories in it.

Siva couldn’t help but feel amaze as he saw his own memories replaying in the ceiling as if he was watching a movie.

“It’s you… no, should I say it’s Rex, my son’s memories inside this world…”

When these words were spoken, Siva lowered his gaze to meet Terra’s. He saw the tears that flowed like rivers in her face and she gesture for Siva to come to her.

He didn’t dally and came to her embrace like a spoiled little child.

He worried because those tears somewhat meant something very heartbreaking. He didn’t ask nor he probed why she was crying and only let himself be hugged tightly by Terra…. no, by Ellie.

“Ah, my son… I’m sorry. I know you wouldn’t even remember everything that had happened in this space after you wake up but just let me hug you one last time… before I truly vanish.”

Siva raised his head in alarm, “Mom, what are you talking about?”

She caressed his hair and his face and lifted them up with her hands as she kissed his forehead.

At that moment, a blinking prompt appeared in his vision:

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[Recover Options: 1]

[Recover Memory?]

(YES?) – (NO?)

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“Mom, what is this?”

“That’s Terra’s gift, the Protocol I am able to use only once during the development of Terroa. Just don’t use it for now. It’s not the right time. At the present, I am just using this chance to embrace you since I don’t know if I can even do this in the future. Just know that my avatar, Terra, had lived a life with Neth, with you, and had a son, Baron.”

“Mom, I don’t understand…”

“I know you won’t. Because it was a matter between me and her…. that’s the only thing I can do to repay her for all the things she had done for you.” Ellie, the mature version of Terra, chuckled and lifted her son up to stand in front of her, looking at him endearingly, “Look at you, I haven’t seen you in many years and you’ve all grown up.”

Many years?

Isn’t that a bit confusing…?

But Siva didn’t have time to think about it and only wanted to burn her image in his mind.

At this point, a bitter expression surfaced on his face as he recalled about Baron.

“Mom, Baron is…”

“I know. He’s safe. He’s your brother and he is also technically my son. At least, I’ll let you remember this detail once you wake up to lessen the things you have to worry about…”

Siva relaxed and in the middle of it, he knelt and let himself be embraced by his mom as he felt like sleeping on her lap.

But then, she asked a bewildering question, “Siva, is it true that… I… have died in the real world?”

Siva didn’t raise his head to look at her. He was afraid that he was going to hurt her but he also wondered how this is all happening. It’s as if this “mother” is a separate, or perhaps, an isolated entity than ‘Terra’ who he saw in the Cellar Dungeons.

Terra knew that she died in the real world but this ‘mother’ of his, Ellie, wasn’t. Just what is going on here?

And yet, as much as it was a confusing thought, Siva really don’t want to think about it and only gave her a light nod and braced for any reaction.

“Is that so…” there was a deep melancholy in her tone and it hurt Siva to ‘know’ and ‘feel’ it clearly.

“Mom I…”

Siva wanted to tell her many things but Ellie raised his head with both hands and wiped his face clean.

In this space, he was the Apollo ‘Siva’ who had no black skin curse and only the handsome face as Ellie’s son.

“Son, I want you to promise me one thing.”

“Anything…! I will do anything, mom!”

“Good. Good. Then I want you to promise me, that when the time comes that you have to awaken all your memories, promise me that you will never let anything happen to Terroa.”

“I promise!”

“Rex… Siva… it is easier said than done. Terroa is too valuable both in the real world and the worlds outside of it. Even if you awaken your memories, know that just like Terra and Janus, the [Siva Destruction Protocol] is meant to be used only once. This space is called the [Genesis Chamber] and this space holds all the secrets of the world that Janus is trying to protect. Supposedly, it was Terra who should be here but because of the deal I made to her in order to save you, I agreed for her to have a life on the other side.”

When she spoke of the other side, her gaze was placed on a direction of the white space and there Siva saw a white door.

“That’s the door to the other side?” Siva asked and recalled Sefirah’s words in Alexandria. That white door was the door to the [other world] that Sefirah said the goal of the First Born, Mefisto.

“Yes.” Ellie said, “Janus, in order to save Terra back then, had to split his [Divinity Code] into two and forever be trapped as a mortal in Terroa, to experience the cycle himself until the day he was to be killed by either you or Mefisto. That sacrifice is great enough that while the other is living like a mortal and is forever bound to the life and death’s cycles, the other will forever be an observer of a world he is not familiar with, and will be unable to go back to his own home world… do you understand how that feels?”

Siva was speechless. He could only imagine how sad and lonely that sacrifice must have been.

When she saw him thus, Ellie smiled and drew her gaze to another direction where Siva saw a black door directly at the opposite side of the white one.

“I assume that you already know what is on the other side of that black door.”

“The [Cage].” Siva said, feeling a creeping sense of fear for Ellie’s safety.

The [Cage] was supposed to be the last line of defense that protects the real world from Terroa.

But now that he knew what was on the other of the door, there was an increased reason for Siva to actually eradiate all the corrupted Chaos Gods and Immortals that was inside the [Cage].

“Only someone with the status like you and me can enter this chamber, Siva, do you understand what that means?”

Siva, having stared enough on that black door, faced her with a deep frown.

“Me… Mefisto will… always chase after me.”

“That’s right. I saw in your memories that he had somewhat consumed Janus’ mortality but that is only serving to be his weakness. It was all part of Janus’ plans. Your task… is to retrieve all of your memories and erase Mefisto for good.” At this point, she looked up and sighed, then looked at Siva again. “Everything should have ended 56 years ago during that war… but Samantha’s death had reversed the result Pegasus had waned and you, Rex, as my son, assimilated with Siva and gave this world another chance to fight for its deserved freedom.”

“Mom, I don’t understand. If this world is just a game world, then why does it deserve its own freedom?”

Ellie gasped a painful expression on her face. A gentle hand grabbed Siva’s hand and she placed another hand on top of it.

“Son, do you know why RPG: Terroa boasts of a feature saying that this game never lags?”

“…!!”

Yes, now that he thinks about it, one of the largest enemies of online gamers was the ‘lagging’ tendencies of their online games.

The more detailed the graphics, the more complex and elaborate the game’s designs are, the physics of the world, the laws that works on it, adding the extreme amount of memory intended to control all of the personality AIs of the millions of NPCs of this world, and then adding to that the extreme amounts of network traffic when the gamers all go online at the same time… why indeed has RPG: Terroa never experienced a lag even once?

It was this question that Panorama Corp. had never even given a definite answer even once.

They only said that they had invented a system that could cancel this tendency, and that that system is maintained and controlled free of any kind of human errors.

So… just what kind of technology is it?

And now that Siva thought about it, if there was a NanoTech in the house he was staying at, then it is a fact that the World Government is involved.

“Mom, I saw a NanoTech in the house where I am staying at… could it be that…”

A pained conflicted expression drew on her face as she grabbed tightly on that hand.

“Project Salvation… is the original name of the Mefisto Extraction Experiment. But Pegasus had a crazy dream that was only accidentally found by his own daughter and was the reason why she barged in and caused that accident back then. But she never expected that you will also be on that place and an accident occurred, giving you a critical injury in the head. We did all we could but you were in a shocked-coma and your neural waves were decreasing by the day. Your dad and I had to compromise and we requested that you undergo the DNI-Therapy. Pegasus never assented to it but because we threatened to stop the experiment that the World Government and Panorama Corp. agreed to let us have you undergo the DNI-Therapy.”

“Four days under therapy, I got worried so I told Neth I am going to dive down but he insisted that he use his Etheron Protocol to lock and guard a particular place to where you could undergo your therapy peacefully so we used our own consoles in our rooms to establish the link… but… never did we expect that when we logged in, our link would be terminated and even our personal memories will be sealed, and what we’d see inside is the end of the world that we wished to create to be filed with happiness.”

At this point, the hands that gripped Siva’s trembled and tears flowed on her eye again.

“We didn’t know that Pegasus had been planning on destroying this world in the very beginning and that the Mefisto Program he told us that should have let this world develop more worlds was actually the complete opposite of the truth and that Mefisto devoured and consumed everything in his wake, making him stronger. We didn’t know it until we saw it with our own eyes….”

Trembling as she spoke, Ellie wiped the tears that formed in her face and Siva’s heart broke as he could only let her finish the things she wanted to say to him.

He could tell that recalling those memories were bringing her pain and yet, as much as he wanted her to stop, he could also tell that these were the things that she really wanted to tell him.

This clearly solidified more the doubts he had of Ellie being trapped in this world for ‘many’ years.

“…but by then, Neth and I awakened our memories a little too late and he was already injured… trying to… trying to stop you from destroying everything…”

“…!! Mom… what are you…”

“Please understand that your dad and I created this world for you to enjoy an adventure. We only wanted to make it as wonderful and as large as your imaginations could go. We wanted to bring you to a world where you can go on an adventure and live a life different from what you will see in the real world. I don’t know what happened to you on those four days but it was so painful to see you back then… consumed by hate and empty of all emotions. Yes, you may have stopped Mefisto back then but he was still able to corrupt your mind and implant his rage to this world on you… in order to stop you and save you…. I… Terra and I had to do what we had to back then…”

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The incident four years ago, unraveled…

What will be Siva’s reaction?

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