Chapter 886 - It is complicated (Patreon)

My further questions are met with clear annoyance from the Great Elder.

I try to ask a few times. Once by trying to fish him into continuing, the second by asking another question, and the last time by asking something easy and with no true value in hopes of getting him into a mood to talk again.

None of this works, and as I look at him, I feel the tips of my fingers tingle as I want to lift my finger gun at him.

My back, chest, and lungs also tingle, but I guess they’re just still healing after my use of Ignition Heart. All this healing is getting messier and messier. My blood, trait, the lacking rarity of my healing passive, and the damage caused by the Champion-grade heart that seems to be starting to get a hint of anti healing properties.

Well, either all that, or my body is getting lazy.

I will test it later.

Until then, I think of what Lissandra would do if I actually pointed a finger at the Great Elder. Would the Orbital LissBeam come down to strike the beast? Something inside me tells me it would. She would not give a fuck at all.

This excites me as much as it makes sweat run down my forehead. If I did that, the fight would start, and I bet Sandra would win, but there is a high chance the Great Elder is one of the wolves keeping their patriarch in slumber, and that would cause the planet devouring beast to awaken.

Just how simple it would be to cause that, and add that to the list of evil achievements of the Ruler of Diligence. I mean, he reportedly used to pick fights with young dragon, and lately, he has been provoking a dragon that moved into the Domus neighborhood.

It is not so much out of character for Diligence to start picking a fight with the Ancient Wolf too. Likely in hopes for the wolf to devour Xyphos or something. That would greatly reduce the amount of talnium able to be gathered in our universe. Such a thing would cascade to the prices of Spatial Caches going even higher. And who is one of the main suppliers of Spatial Caches?

Yes. Exactly.

I cannot believe the Ruler of Diligence would have done that.

The giant wolf growls, and I shake my head. When I notice Biscuit is also looking at me with a question, I smile at him and press my face against his. Just how much I have missed this silly little creature, and knowing we will be split again soon, I savor every moment.

“I know you might not care much, and to you it is all fate if Biscuit lives and regains his primordial energy or not, but I am still thankful,” I say these words towards the Great Elder, but still keep my eyes on Biscuit, “And I know you have me for a system slave and all that, so you might not believe me, but I will make sure to pay that debt back.”

(Friend!)

“And Biscuit apparently as well.”

“As if you ever could do something to help someone as powerful as the Great Elder!” It is Biscuit’s disciple who talks in a haughty tone, “Stinky human, just let go of my master and leave already. Your stink is filling this place too much to the point I will have to go and wash in the river to get rid of it otherwise, someone will think it is me who stinks, and that is not a-”

His words sound off as he stops talking because of the Great Elder leaning closer. I can feel that breath like a wind in a powerful storm, and just a single golden eye fills the entirety of my vision.

And he just looks at me without saying anything. That huge eye blinks once as he, without any further words, moves and puts his head back to rest on his paws. All three eyes then close in unison as he goes back to sleeping.

Not bothering him further, I boost myself through the air and move to the edge of the highest step, where I sit with my legs dangling over the edge. The Great Elder is sleeping behind me while I have an open view of enormous statues, fang like mountains protruding, the gigantic tree, and the environment around teeming with monsters.

I tap the place next to me a few times and then lift Biscuit up to look at him. Wolfy grumbles but shrinks in size and moves there to also watch Biscuit, whom I swing from side to side.

“You know, I would not mind even if you do not get your primordial energy back.”

(Stupid.)

“I guess,” I smile, “But I wanted you to know that. Okay?”

(Okay.) He mimics, (Worry.)

“Stupid,” I say this time.

(Stupid Friend. Stupid… Biscuit.) He says, his tongue lolling out.

“Stupid me, stupid you. Stinky disciple,” I add seriously.

His tail begins to wag happily, and Wolfy, seeing it, does not even fight back and, with a breath out, just rests there.

I also reach towards him and gently pet his head, “And thank you too. Truly.”

“Stupid stinky human,” he mutters.

“Stupid stinky human,” I confirm.

When I let go of Biscuit, he levitates in the air in front of me with the backdrop of this gorgeous but dangerous world. The same as me, he also has plenty of things to do, and being separated from him again hurts a bit, but that is normal.

Maybe this is a true experience of having a friend that you see every day, and then both of you finish school, and he moves to another city. Or maybe it is just a silly comparison. I do not know; it is not like I have much experience with it.

It is also possible I am overreacting. After all, it will be just a few months, maybe only years, but I am greedy to keep that bond between us, to have him by my side.

Biscuit floats closer and lands on my lap. For a while, we just sit there that way, and both of us take in the view from the pyramid while he nibbles on my fingers with his tiny, sharp teeth.

Then I disappear without any warning. As if someone pulled on a rope tied to my waist, I am shot back to the orbit of the planet that is now deep below me.

That one winged, gray wyvern with scales with a purple tint floats there, and Lissandra is nowhere to be seen. So no goodbyes, I guess.

There seems to still be a charged or open path we used to get there. My mind begins to think of how we actually got there with no mana being present in that solar system. Maybe some ancient road that does not require it. Did the wyverns open it together, and my time here was limited by one winged being being able to keep it open?

And many other questions I use to keep myself busy.

I try to observe our process of returning, but there is barely anything I can see until I am in the orbit of Xyphos and the wyvern disappears quickly. Also no goodbyes.

Slightly annoyed, slightly amused, I float there like debris left behind and watch the planet below me. I do it until a micro-asteroid pierces through my leg, burrowing a nice hole into it, so I raise up the shield around me.

In the distance, I see some enormous ships floating, though some of them seem to be leaving already. It makes me wonder what was happening here. Aurate Consortium, The Slayer, The Magi, some other Corporations, Rulers gathered. It must have been a really fun situation and likely ended with some strongarming to deal with this all. Just enough to not make everyone too happy or unhappy.

With the wyvern’s domain and Liss gone, I can only guess Xyphos will be returned where it was, and I am not sure if the 11th floor will be restarted, continued, or straight up cancelled.

If it were me, it would be the last option.

I wait for a while longer before someone else yanks me out of the orbit, and I find myself crashing against the marble like floor of Ruby’s usual space.

Calmly, I stand up and dust off my clothes to then meet her gaze as she lazily sits in the armchair next to a table with plenty of bottles on it. Some of them are even empty. With the entire situation taking just a few hours, that means she must have either hurried or not helped the other rulers to deal with the consequences at all.

I move my eyes from the bottles back to her and freeze, noticing her smiling at me as she takes another sip from the glass.

“Nathaniel, tell me, what do we have all these powers for? Why have I spent all these millennia training? Why did I go through so much just to get where I am? I fought so hard to escape that time-dilated hellhole Timeless Void trapped me in, and for what? Why,” she pauses and raises her voice then, “Why can I destroy entire planets if I wish to do so, yet I feel like this?”

“Like a human?” I ask curiously as I slowly walk towards her.

“Like a fucking human.” She smashes the glass against the floor, and the shards of it spread wide.

Then she waves her hand in a show of telekinesis, and all the shards move up, even the ones as small as sand, and snap back into their previous place. When she pours in a drink, not a single droplet passes through, though there are clear cracks and pieces of shattered glass visible.

“How rude,” I say, “I kind of like being human. Well, minus being born with nothing, unlike some other cheating races.”

She watches me walking close and snorts, and then erratically rubs her eyes quickly and takes another sip, “Oh, how much would my enemies laugh at me to see me in this state.” Her voice then turns lower, quieter as she almost whispers, “But I cannot help it. I really cannot. It is part of me.”

I stop by her, sit on the armrest of the chair she sits on, and look at her.

“Is it because of my subclass, my Greed? Is it an error in the function, as the system failed to mimic what gods are by that much? Or were gods also always like this, so tied to their nature and unable to change?”

“Or maybe, it is because you are, as you said, just a human,” I say, and then take the bottle from her hand. I take a sip straight from it and stop in surprise that it does not affect me at all. “That does not seem too strong,” I note.

Ruby takes it back from my hand and pours herself again, “Just how lame it would be if I could not control my stats however I wish.”

“Reduced constitution?”

"It’s a complicated process, you asshole. And wipe that look off your face," she snorts, her expression hardening. "Yes, for now, I’m no different than a pre system human." Ruby pauses, as if realising something, and her smile turns sad and fragile as she looks up at me. "The method I used… all my power is anchored elsewhere, returning in a few hours. If you had the spine for it, you could kill a Ruler right here and now."

She does not take another sip, and an almost painful silence spreads through this place as we face each other.

Ruby reaches out, caresses the back of my hand, and looks at it for a while.

Then she grabs it gently and puts it on her throat as she leans closer and looks at me with those big eyes. “Just imagine that achievement. What a ridiculous Primary Class would have been offered for killing a Ruler like me, it would be like nothing seen before. The level-ups alone would take you close to level 600. Just how easily would you deal with Adrian then? Were you not angry at me because of what I did? Look,” she puts her hand over mine that is on her throat and presses, “Just a little bit, it would be so easy.”

“But I do not want to,” I say simply.

“Why?” she asks almost desperately. “I would rather die by your hand than by-” her words choke off, “I do not..." she shakes her head, "Why, why do you not want to do it?”

I gently slip my hand from beneath hers, reaching instead to take the glass. But the moment my fingers touch the rim, it breaks. The glass shatters back into the jagged shards that formed it, and the drink spills out.

Reflexively, I halt the kinetic movement of it all and cause it to float in the air there. For a second, I stare at it, surprised at how easily I went for that move. My body did not even think of moving away from the liquid or try to catch it in my hands. I went straight for the skill.

Ruby ignores it all and stares at me. “Why,” she asks again in that weak voice that I am not used to hearing from her.

“What do you mean why? I said because I do not want to. You helped Vega, and you helped me many times.”

“But I let Adrian on your planet to threaten all these people. I even still somewhere hope he will surprise me and become powerful enough to fight that man.”

“I am a bit angry because of that, but it is complicated,” I shrug.

“So why-”

“I do not know!” I shout at her. “That is why! Look, I can solve it all, I have a plan. And if I fail, I will likely be dead, so there will be no one to hate you. It was a dick move what you did, but damn, I did my own dose of things previously. Tess on Earth, the twins on the 1st floor, Hadwin on the 2nd, and more. I did my own dose of shit. And hell, maybe I do not want to do it only because I had a nice day, so I do not feel like murdering someone.”

“You will not get this chance in the future.”

“I do not need it.”

“You will regret it.”

And to that, I halt my answer. I find her eyes and make sure she is looking at me.

As of late, it is getting easier for me to smile, and one of those climbs onto my lips as I look at her. “I might bitch, I might complain, but I will not regret it. It is my and only my decision, and I will bear its consequences.”

After that answer, she looks away from me, and she stumbles to reach for another bottle, but I lean over her and fling it from her hand, causing it to shatter and spill on the ground.

Ruby freezes and looks back at me, blinking.

She then reaches for another one, and I do the same. Even as she mutters about their value, I entirely ignore it. There is just no way for these drinks to cost that much.

Once all of them are gone, shattered, Ruby just sits there looking at her hands, and I mutter, “You cannot send me away because you got rid of your powers for a few hours.”

Without looking up at me, she hesitates, but then she awkwardly nods as her red hair covers her face.

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