SHK CH 738 (Patreon)

The silence after Sol's words was absolute.

Echidna’s expression froze. For a moment, she didn’t move. Then her brows drew together in confusion, not disbelief. She was already trying to calculate what he meant, where it could lead.

Ambrosia was less restrained. “You’re serious?” None of them doubted Sol himself. They knew him enough to understand that he would never joke about something like this.

 But this knowledge was exactly what paralyzed their mind for an instant. Because the facts Sol brought completely changed their perception of the world. 

Sol nodded. “Completely.”

Anubis narrowed his eyes. “Let’s say that a creator God did exist. Are you not from Earth like me? How then are you suddenly the reincarnation of some Father God?”

Anubis tried to examine Sol’s soul, wondering if the body was not confused or being mind manipulated. 

“Souls don’t reincarnate only once. You should know that more than anyone else.” Sol clarified. “Just to be clear, I'm not a clone. Nor a vessel or the results of some kind of experiments here. I am more akin to a continuation than a reincarnation. We may share the same soul, but we have two distinct identities. I didn’t believe it at first, either.”

“How?” Echidna asked. The question was simple, but her voice was tight and her breath was short. Clearly, she was using every brake in her mind to force herself to stay calm and lucid. She was also clearly failing and looked like she was one trigger away from jumping at Sol.

“I’ve been having visions,” Sol said. “Not dreams. Memories. Fragments of a life that wasn’t mine—but now is. A place before this world existed. The creation of the laws, the structure of mana, and the shaping of time and soul. I didn’t understand at first. I am still mostly confused, sealing the memories so that they do not affect me.”

He looked at them all, one by one.

“I’m telling you this now because I need you. The information I have in my head tells how to use godly power, but now to reach it, and this is where you guys will be useful.”

Anubis pinched his brow and muttered under his breath, “I am too old for this shit.” He let out a sigh of frustration, then faced Sol again. 

“Very well, Sol. We are clearly working with an asymmetric level of information. Why not start from the very beginning and explain everything?”

“This is going to be a long story.”

Tea was refilled on the table, and a new cup appeared in front of Sol. 

“Go on,” Ambrosia said as she sipped her black tea with grace and elegance. “We have all day.”

Sol chuckled and looked down at his reflection in his tea. It was troubled, mirroring the ripples in his heart. 

This would be the first time he spilled everything. It was quite frightening if he had to be honest. 

But as they said, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“Well. Since it’s a story, let’s start with style.” Sol grinned, chasing away the mist covering his thoughts. This was the most logical action he could take. At this point, hiding more was just a waste of time and a risk hazard. 

“Once upon a time, there was a boy named Adam.” Since he needed to start from the beginning, he would do so. 

From the very Beginning. 

“For 20 years, that boy lived a normal life. Thinking that he was just a normal human. He had a simple goal in life and a sick mother to take care of.” 

Anubis and the other looked at him with attention. They did wonder what kind of story he was talking about. 

“As you may have already thought. This boy was not so normal, and he discovered the Truth about himself on his 21st Birthday in a very interesting manner.”

“How so?” Anubis couldn’t help but act.

“Simple. He died. Killed by a crazy serial murderer.”

Echidna chortled, but Sol ignored her. 

“This should have been the end. People die when they are killed after all.” This time, only Sol and Anubis snickered as they exchanged a knowing glance. “But well, this was clearly not the case for him. On that day, Adam revived, and he was forever changed.”

Sol started slowly at first. He introduced enough to explain who Adam was and how this mortal man, cursed with immortality, rose to the rank of godhood and created his own universe.

For this, many details were skipped. This was a Genesis that could not be covered in just a few words or a few hours of explanation. A past worthy of its own tale.

“Adam created this world. The Father God of all living creatures and also one who nearly brought this universe to an End.” Reaching there, he frowned and stopped himself. 

The Twilight of the Gods was an event that brought extreme anguish to Adam. It was also a period of time he barely remembered, and as such, there was not much Sol could say about that period. 

What he did know, though, was that Adam was not the only one who fought and killed during this period.

“Gods fought and killed each other. Sibling betraying and devouring each other to obtain and contain more concepts. To become more complete. It was a time when the term ally was nothing but a luxury and, funnily, in those times of war, Luxuria managed to lead her 13 sisters and stop them from succumbing to the madness of the times.”

He closed his eyes. “They may not have been the strongest. But in a world where everyone else fought alone, targeting a group of 14 that had their back to each other was simply not possible. For some reason, Adam also never truly targeted them. In the end, only a mere twenty or so goddesses survived, and even those who did were terribly wounded and soon succumbed. One such example was the Goddess of Death.” 

He looked at Anubis. “The Goddess may have died, and you may have obtained her Artefact. But she did not die by the Blade of the End, and as such, her soul survived and entered the circle of reincarnation. She is alive, somewhere, and as long as she exists, the seat of Death will be hard to acquire.”

He then looked at Ambrosia, “This goes for Time, Space, and Life. Obviously, there is no need to even talk about the seat of Destruction. Thankfully, we have a loophole here. If the Witches obtain divinity in my own Dimension, then we should be able to escape the limitations.”

He wetted his lips with the tea and continued, “After the Twilight of the Gods, Adam killed himself. But even he could not erase his own essence. So he planned to slowly destroy it. Each reincarnation would weaken the soul. Sometimes those reincarnations would awaken the Power of the End and bring destruction to their respective universe, but there was little Adam could do about this. This continued for a long time. Until Adam reached what should have been his last reincarnation. Nothing but ember remained. One more death, and it would truly be the end for him. But Fate had something else in reserve.”

“That reincarnation was you,” Anubis said. 

“Yes. I died. Even now, I still do not remember how I died. I do not even remember much of my life on Earth. Not even the face of your own parents? Fragments of memories that bring little to no emotions. Only indifference.” He shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t matter. What matters is —”

“Hold on a minute.” Anubis stopped and looked at Sol seriously. “It matters. It matters a lot in fact.” 

Sol frowned, “Anubis, I understand that you still have lingering attachments to our old world. But…”

“No, you don’t understand. Don’t you find it strange? You have always been a curious man, and you are telling me that your lack of memory doesn’t strike you as odd? You are a King for fuck sake, your computing abilities are beyond anything remotely human. In fact, the very moment you became a Duke, you should have been able to perfectly remember everything down to the smallest details, and now you are telling me you don’t even remember the face of your parents?”

Sol’s eye twitched. 

“I…”

“Okay. Let’s say that you indeed do not remember them. Let’ say that the memories of the past are blurry. Let me ask you only one question.”

By then, Sol was massaging his forehead. He felt a small headache and a true distaste for this discussion. He did not understand why Anubis was talking about this now. There was no need to focus on this when they had more important things to talk about. 

Anubis did not care about Sol's irritated expression as he posed his one and only question. 

“Sol, please tell me. What was your name in your last life?”

Sol shook his head. “What do you mean, what was my name? Of course, it was—Huh?”

A lost expression appeared in his eyes as he mumbled to himself.

“What was my name?” 

****

(AN: Hi! New chapter of SHK now available on Webtoon: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/son-of-the-hero-king/chapter-4-part-1/viewer?title_no=1037019&episode_no=7

Also, I have now created a Patreon for the Webtoon. While I would have liked it have it published on this Patreon. Sadly, it would make calculating the revenue for the Webtoon a true Nightmare and might affect my working relationship with the studio. I hope you liked the chapter, but I also hope I will see you soon on Patreon Comic.https://www.patreon.com/c/SonoftheHeroking )