Delton opened his eyes and saw himself back in the village. Most of the rubble and ruins had been moved. He looked down and saw that his body was completely destroyed, forcing him to take on an ephemeral form, that looked like a wisp. Ignoring the pain from his body and head, he looked around to see the young Caelus touching the wall, as if in a daze.

Lucius called out to him from behind, “Oy, kid! You alright?”

Delton jolted and looked back, “Yeah, sort of. But why does my head hurt so much?”

“That’s good. It looks like your mind synced up with Caelus’ and just couldn’t handle it. Your mind looked like it activated some sort of failsafe mechanism and placed you into a coma.”

Delton’s eyes widened and waved the remains of his hands in the air, “Hold on! Hold on! I’m in a coma?! What the hell happened?!”

“You’re fine. You’re in a hospital now. So you don’t remember waking up?” Lucius looked at Delton quizzically.

Squinting his eyes for a couple of seconds, Delton then spoke out, “I woke up?”

Thinking back a bit more, Delton’s head started to hurt again, so he clutched it. He then said, “What the fuck happened to me? It was like I thought I was you during the attack. Then, I thought I was Caelus for that time. What did you say again? Sync?”

Lucius waved his hand to alleviate some of the pressure on Delton’s mind, “Your mind couldn’t handle the asymmetric syncing with Caelus. His mind was much stronger than yours, and it influenced your mind. That combined with the shock of seeing the attack and Marcus dying almost destroyed your mind; it had to force you into a coma.”

“Huh? No wonder I kind of feel relaxed right now,” Delton shook his head. He looked up to the sky and continued speaking, “You know? I even heard your child version’s thoughts for a moment, too. Fuck! I got too invested in your memories. I should have only been a spectator, but all this just felt too real for me, like I was actually a part of your village these past months. I was really trying to escape.”

“Do you want to stop escaping then? Face reality?” Lucius asked with a glimmer of anticipation in his tone.

Delton sighed, “Damn it! I’ll think about it more when I wake up. How long am I even gonna be in this damn coma for?”

Lucius looked sullen and also sighed, responding, “I don’t know. But I’m going to decrease the ratio between the time in the dreams and reality. Your body and mind won’t be able to acclimate to too much of the memories if you stay in it for such an extended period of time.”

“That sounds good. Is there a way to mitigate this in the future? I don’t really want to pass out every time something traumatic happens,” Delton chuckled.

“No. You should be fine, now. I know what you’re thinking. However, I would advise against you distancing yourself from the events from my memories. The less you sync up with my younger version, the more strain will be placed your mind and soul.”

Delton cursed, “Damn. So I’m fucked either way?”

“Did you not hear what I said? You’ll be fine in the future. Your body, mind, and soul would continue to improve,” Lucius admonished.

“But not at the rate of you and that monster Caelus. This is some fucked up shit I got myself into. I guess I just have to keep reminding myself that I’m not you, but that will fuck up with the syncing. But if I don’t and I sync extremely well with you, well damn it all!” Delton talked to himself while floating back and forth.

Screaming out a string of curses, Delton managed to calm himself down, then look directly at Lucius, “As long as you keep your end of the deal. We’ll be fine.”

“I’ve made a decree. That’s as strong of a deal as you can get.”

Delton exhaled loudly through his nose, “I’m sorry about your brother, by the way.”

“It’s fine. I’ve relived this moment of my life too many times, and looking back…nothing I could’ve done would’ve changed anything.”

“It’s the maniac’s fault. If he didn’t get all revenge-happy with it, he would’ve been in the village and absolutely destroyed that draconian army. Don’t you blame him?”

“No. There’s no point. It’s all in the past now. The amount of blame he placed on himself, is unimaginably much more than the one I can place on him.”

Delton turned to the weeping Caelus then shrugged his shoulders, “Whatever. How much time has passed, since I woke up?”

“Only a couple of hours. Soon, there’s gonna be a mass funeral. Let’s go.”

“Uh, old man. Can you do something about my body?”

Lucius did not turn around, but he snapped his fingers, releasing an aura that wrapped itself around Delton’s destroyed body and transformed it back to regular form. Delton clutched his reformed fists and nodded.

After some time, they arrived to a funeral pyre, which had around a hundred bodies, covered with a large tarp, on it, being set up by some of the able-bodied hunters. Sounds of wailing and weeping could be heard.

Delton looked on with shock, at first. He calmed himself down quickly by slapping himself, muttering, “This isn’t reality.”

Once the funeral pyre was finished, the remaining villagers gathered once more. Fortissimus stood right next to it, holding a torch. Lighting the pyre, he started to make a speech, however, Delton ignored it. He floated around the villagers, seeing that most of them are in tears.

He asked Lucius, “Old man. Where’s your younger self?”

“He’s at the back in the medical tent,” Lucius answered quickly, then went back to focusing on Fortissimus’ speech.

Delton floated towards where almost all of the scraps and rubble have been placed. There was a large tent set up next to it, with various injured people lying inside. Most of the others present were wives and children, mourning and taking care of the injured close to them.

Delton caught sight of the child Lucius, weeping next to the his sleeping parents. His father’s cut limbs have stopped bleeding and were wrapped heavily. His mother still has not woken up. Lucius held his mother’s hands while crying silently.

Delton squatted next to the child Lucius. After letting out a sigh and muttering, “Delton you’re a sucker for a sob story”, Delton entered the child Lucius’ mind.

As soon as he entered the mind, he heard Lucius’ thoughts, ‘Brother why did you have to leave us? Father can’t support us anymore. Mother only got weaker from this. I’m too weak. I can’t do this alone.’

Delton grew teary-eyed, as his emotions became influenced from Lucius’ thoughts, as if they were his own. Feeling this, he immediately stopped his possession and shook his head fervently.

He took one last look at the child Lucius and his parents, then went back to the current Lucius and saw that the funeral precession had just ended. The sky had turned dark, and the villagers all made way to the medical tent.

Lucius and Delton, having nothing better to do, sat on top of the heap of rubble. They stared up at the stars for quite some time. Lucius broke the silence, by asking Delton, “You’re not gonna sleep this time?”

“Hehe. I honestly can’t sleep. I’ve never felt so powerless. I have an older brother, too. If anything happens to him or any of my family, I probably wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”

“That’s why you need more power. Are you finally seeing it my way now?” Lucius asked while looking towards Delton.

“I know where you’re coming from, but the corporations and companies. I believe in them to protect us,” Delton weakly said, not willing to look directly at the expectant Lucius.

“Do you really?! Are you willfully ignorant or are you just stupid? Remember that one news article you read back then? Wasn’t there some murder by a corporate back then?” Lucius pulled out his phone, then showed an article to Delton titled, Dessicated body found, right outside Star Manufacturing Town.

He continued his interrogation, “You don’t honestly think that this was caused by those corporates from back then? You don’t need to be a genius to piece the two. You know there was no follow-up investigation to it. That person had a clean background, not even any connection the insurgencies. And even then, he was targeted and killed.”

Delton grimaced at the news, touching his cheek. “That could’ve been anyone, then huh.”

“Now do you get it?”

Heaving a heavy sigh, Delton responded, “I get it. But, like many others, I’ll turn a blind eye. As long as it hasn’t affected me or my family, that kind of news doesn’t bother me.”

Lucius angrily admonished Delton, “Are you fucking serious?! You’re hopeless! Even if I tell you that hundreds of First disappear from the Mom Sol Corporation each year, you’re not even gonna bat an eye! What if I tell you some Firsts work like slaves in other corporations? Nothing? You really are a fucking coward!”

“You come from a different world from me! I live in a real civilized society, not some hellhole world full of savages like yours. Piss off!” Delton angrily retorted.

Immediately, Lucius’ eyes then emanated a blinding light and stared directly at Delton, forcing him to close his eyes in pain, and shouted, “Don’t forget who you are talking to!”

At those word, Delton’ couldn’t breathe, suffocating under such intense pressure. He opened tiny slits of his eyes to look at Lucius, but felt like looking at a sacred and divine giant, taller than any building he has ever seen.

Under some type of influence, his body started to bend down and kneel. Delton quickly averted his gaze, as if one look from Lucius can end his life.

Before he could kneel, in an instant, the pressure disappeared and Lucius took again the appearance of a regular man. He let out an obviously fake cough, “My apologies. I should’ve been more patient with you. Don’t worry. You’ll see it my way sooner or later, or else you’ll regret it.”

Delton gritted his teeth, but put up a facade of respectfulness. He took this time to retort under his breath, “I’ve already regretted making that deal with you.”

Lucius did not bother to look at Delton anymore, and simply said, “You know what? Instead of trying to convince you that my view is correct, I’ll just make you experience it. From here on out, you’re going to possess my younger self, until I tell you otherwise.”

Afraid of answering back, Delton simply nodded. Lucius continued to speak, “I decreed to give you a normal life in reality, but in my dreams, you need to understand something. Power is absolute. If you were powerful enough, you’d be able to go up against me, and not even have to deal with this crap. I’ll give you a taste of that power and even more powerlessness within my dreams. This way your mind and soul can at least be trained well enough.”

Delton again nodded, but he sneered and said, “Even if I was as powerful as Fifths, I don’t think I’d be able to defeat you.”

Lucius hunched over and guffawed, slapping his knees. “Hahaha! Even after all that, you still have the gall to talk back at me. One thing never changes! You’re dumb as shit! Even if I lowered my level to a Regular Mortal, something weaker than what you call a First, you would never defeat me.”

Scowling, Delton asked, “How about we make a bet, then?”

Piquing his interest, Lucius stared at Delton, causing Delton to look away quickly, “Hmph, what the fuck do I even have to gain from a bet with you?”

Delton confidently said, “If you beat me—“

“When I beat you,” Lucius interjected.

Delton spoke in a humbler tone, “If you beat me, I'll train however you want me to, in reality, as long as it doesn't affect my normal life, and in the dreams since I know your goal is to have me sync up with your memories, and I won’t complain about training ever again.”

Lucius cupped his chin and said, “Well, I do hate the sound of your voice. Alright you got my attention. What’s the other part of the wager?”

With lines forming on Delton’s forehead, Delton said, “If I beat you, I’ll still continue to train like before. I really enjoyed the lax past couple of months. However, I don’t want you preaching ‘your way’ to me about power and stuff ever again.”

Lucius grinned and laughed maniacally, “Hahahaha! The balls on you, kid! If only we had met at a different time, I might’ve shared a drink with you. You really think you’re that strong after experiencing Caelus’ battles and training for only two years. You’re barely stronger than a ten year old. But to make a bet against someone like me, it’s a bet for life.”

Lucius paused and drank from a glass of water that appeared from nowhere, then continued, “You might think you’re shrewd by saying the words ‘complaining about training,’ but you’re talking to the shrewdest man you’ll ever meet. I’ll let it pass because I don’t want you die tomorrow, since I know you’ll find some other stupid think to complain to me. However, you're smarter than I thought you were. You realized early on that I'm gonna make you train my way. Either way, you got a deal kid, as Existence as our witness, let’s battle.”