Chapter 51 - Goodbye (Patreon)

Christopher watched helplessly as Synborn Elaine bashed her pointed, powerful hand directly at Yen with the intent to kill. He’d watched her murder five powerful people in only a few minutes. Now, those dirtied, destructive hands were turned on the one he loved, who was trapped helplessly, motionlessly, in a beam of light before everyone.

“Noooo!” Christopher reached forward, screaming, his eyes stained with fear. 

Atticus had to hold him back from charging forward. “S-Stop!” He spun in front of Christopher, grabbed his waist, and frantically tried pushing him forward. “You need to run!” Before Christopher could fight back, Atticus screamed, “You’re the only hope we have left! You can’t die, too!”

It made the prince shudder. He was at a loss for words. 

But he let Atticus pull him away.

Even so, his eyes never left Yen as the Synborn slammed its hand into the beam of light—

—and it bounced off instantly.

Christopher’s breath caught in his throat. 

The Synborn roared. It reared back its blackened, clawed hands and slammed into the beam of light again. Each act was futile. Its hands hit uselessly against the light and repelled. Each attempt ended and failure, and there was no sign of the light yielding. 

It granted Christopher brief relief.

Similar surges of light suddenly burst into the sky all around the world. They were visible to everyone, cutting across the sky like celestial warnings.

The Synborn continued to thrash against Yen’s light, screaming.

Suddenly, everyone felt something inside them blossom and drain. A sense of loss. Like something had changed. 

Around the world, billions of people watched as the marks on their wrists and hands vanished instantly. 

The Devils lost the features that made them different as they all became humans at once. 

Runes of all kinds—enslavement, practical, advanced spells, and mechanical—ceased to exist. 

Arcworks no longer functioned. 

Millions of Synborn disappeared in puffs of darkened mana. Those who came from corpses died while those who’d changed while alive woke up in a new world naked, as if coming out of comas. 

And the beams of light which were so prominent seconds bright, surged, burst, then disappeared. Yen’s included.

Christopher stared.

She and the Synborn were gone.

*•*•*

I blinked, and suddenly, I was back in Sandy Branch. 

A black, elongated figure with dark skin all over its body, a jagged mouth like a torn bag, and monstrous horns surged its hands at me, intent to kill. 

But it was slow. Painfully so.

Proxy’s words beeped in my mind.

I dodged and, channeling residual mana bursting within me, I punched forward with a tackle out of instinct. 

The air around me cracked in my ears. The world blurred with a single step. When I planted my feet, I was far enough away that I couldn’t tell which direction Sandy Branch was in anymore.

Then, the feeling of mana I was so used to became foreign. The bands around my fingers and wrists went away, revealing pale, bare skin. 

“Ahhhh,” a voice screamed before me. “Ahhhh! It hurts!”

The monster I’d attacked had a large puncture wound on both its sides from my hands gripping and moving it at high speeds. The black marks on its body were receding, dripping off like a coat of paint. Underneath, Elaine's face filled with horror, she scrambled her hands to her guts as the black marks left her. They were the only thing holding them together. Without them, she bore only wounds. Her blood and intestines fell out of her and plopped to the ground.

“It hurts,” she muttered, falling forward. Her face smashed into the ground. “Edwin…”

Her eye went glassy as she died. Her horns fell from her head, and her ears receded even in death. The last remnants of her essence filled me with bliss as it rushed into and empowered me. 

Watching Elaine die felt good. I couldn’t lie to myself. I wished I could kill her again and again. Even in her final moment, weeping, begging for life, no longer a devil, I yearned for her suffering.

“Feel better now that you got revenge?” said a voice just behind my shoulder, as if peeking over it. I felt two hands on my shoulders and a chin resting on my arm. “You’ll need to be like this if you want to live.”

I recoiled and pushed forward. In a flash, I turned and saw a stunning girl with black hair and irises in a tight white dress with no shoes and black cloth tied at her neck and waist. Her skin was very pale, and her lips had a supple, inviting pink color. She stared at me with a wry smile, like my actions amused her. 

“Cute,” she said, validating my assessment. “Don’t you recognize me?” The words dripped with sarcasm. She touched her face. “My looks changed a little, huh? Not a big scary talking black mannequin.”

I blinked, her words catching up in my head. “Eve?”

“Remi.” She snapped her fingers, then crossed her arms over her chest. “Eve was a…spur of the moment thing. I’m more comfortable with Remi.”

“How are you here?”

“Remember when we kissed?” She touched her lips seductively. “I returned a piece of your memories to you, ones I’d laced with traces of my soul. That way, when I died, I’d have a place to return to.”

“My memories,” I muttered.

“Inconsequential stuff. I’m still honoring your request to keep them away. Couldn’t return the rest now even if I wanted to. And besides, we’re going to be together forever now, and I can’t have you missing any of my references.”

“…references?”

“We’re in an isekai.”

The word was familiar. A genre of books I’d read in high school. Or, I think I did. I knew the words.

My nose crinkled as the thoughts ran through me. I know I didn’t know them minutes prior, yet now, it’s hard to imagine I’d never had them. They felt so ingrained. 

“Stuff like that. We both came from the same world, so it’ll make it easier to chat,” said Remi with a smile as she grabbed her hands behind her back, leaned forward, and grinned. “Sadly, I died, so I lost most of my powers. Everything’s up to you now. You’re welcome!”

“What do you mean you died? And that you gave me memories? And you gave me a part of your soul?” I ran my fingers through my hair and jabbed my temples with my fingers. Long strands of white fluttered at the corners of my eyes. “Oh?”

“You can admire yourself in a second,” said Remi, noticing my attention shift. “Look at me? Now, picture me with white hair and eyes the color of a million different stars exploding with color. That’s you.”

“Are you implying we look the same?”

“Absolutely,” she replied without hesitation. “This isn’t what I used to look like at all.” She was silent for a moment. Then she shook her head. “Technically, I don’t exist. I siphoned the mana from your change to materialize myself, so our energies are independent, but still—if you go, I go. Our lives are intertwined. I look like you because I am you, yet I’m not. Best to think of us as twins.”

I stared at Remi for a moment in silence, turned, and walked away. “I need a sec.”

“Of course!” She bounded after me. “Take your time!”

“…okay.” I found a tree, slid down it, sat on the ground, and stared up at the sky. “Just be quiet for a second. I need to think about what’s happened.”

“Can do!”

Remi plopped beside me silently. She put her head on my shoulder, which I ignored. After a moment, collecting my thoughts and putting everything together firmly, I spoke once more.

“Did you kill all the Chosen?”

“Indireclty, but yes,” Remi responded immediately. “A plan hundreds of years in the making.”

“How did you survive to do that?” I asked calmly. “They seemed to have thought they killed you before.”

“Its kind of hard to explain. To put it simply, a piece of myself was already in that Purgatory space when I became Shepard, so I was able to materialize within that small slive of life when I died. Don’t really know how, if I’m being honest.” Remi lifted her head off my shoulder. Her eyes were looking sadly into the faraway past. “When my presence became too obvious, that bitch of a God tried to kill me. You saw how that worked with that giant hand. But in the end, I used that to my advantage.”

As Remi spoke, I realized it was the first time we’d ever had a genuine conversation. Granted, we’d only met two others times prior to today. But she’d brought me into this world, gave me power, and gave me life. It was odd to chat like this. Like normal people.

“We don’t need to talk about my life.” Stood up and brushed off grass from her butt. “Doesn’t matter anymore. I did my part. Everything’s up to you now. But I’ll help you as much as I can.” She shrugged and gestured at herself. “We’re basically sisters now.”

I barked out laughter.

“What?” she asked.

“So much shit is getting dropped on me, I’m starting to lose it,” I admitted while wiping tears from my eyes. “Ahhhh, but at least I can think again now that I’m not a devil.”

“Feel good?”

“Amazing. I don’t have a bunch of competing voices in my head, overanalyzing things and fighting for control. Just one voice. Me.”

“And me.”

“Yeah, but I can ignore you.”

This time, Remi laughed. 

I cleared my throat. “What does being a Shepherd mean? What’s going to happen?”

“Other Fields will start invading this one while you invade others,” said Remi. “It’s a game of defense and conquest until one person controls all the Fields.” She frowned, her eyes lacing with anger. “There’s a bitch of a God that’s bored, trying prolong eternity for entertainment. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ll tell you in time,” avoided Remi. “For now, we need to focus on getting you strong again without the system you had before.” She tapped my heart with her hand. “Mana runs through the heart. I’ll train you. In about a year, it’ll become second nature. Then we can work on getting you stronger.” She paused. “If we have the luxury of time to do so.”:

“Great.” I sighed and stood up, standing eye level with Remi. “Last question.” My heart thumped loudly, impatient. “How many people died from what you did?”

“We,” she corrected. Then paused. “Millions?” Paused again. “Yeah, millions.” She started thumbing through the consequences. “Broken infrastructure, no more arcworks, no runes. Every sea devil in the ocean turned into a human and drowned or was crushed by ocean pressure. Sky devils flying hit the ground. Slave revolts. Floating islands are unconnected from the lands that grow food. Top leaders of the world’s major religions all died at once, as did the devil’s factions. Not to mention that no one knows how to use mana anymore, so physical strength will rule this Field for the next few months and years.”

I took a step back, shaking. “Holy shit.”

“Well, they’ll all die anyway if you don’t fulfill your role. But that’ll be a while from now. Plenty of time for you to train while the world eats itself until it’s tired.”

“Why would I—”

Suddenly, my codex materialized. The pages spat out, warped around me, then formed a sort of floating, frameless board. Text started to draw across it, along with a detailed, color version of my face.

Remi stood beside me and stared at it. “Shit. Never seen this before. Exciting!” She patted my shoulder. “Sorry.”

Suddenly, a disembodied voice began reading off the worlds in my head.

“Fair people of Field 27. My name is Oracle, speaker for your God in your realm,” it said. “As of today, your world has entered the Games of the Gods. The person you see before you is your representative in the battles to come. Her authority is that of your God, so heed her, as she controls your fate from hence forward.”

An image of me as I was now appeared in the screen in perfect, accurate detail.

“Shit,” Remi and I said in unison.

“We name her Eden, Keeper of Field 27.”

“Fantasy?” I muttered. “Keeper? Not Chosen or Shepard?”

“The prior Chosen of your world are dead,” Oracle echoed in my head. “With them, the rules that hindered your world no longer exist. It will take time for you all to adjust, but know this: mana still resides within you. As such, your codexes will be deconstructed and upgraded to accommodate your new reality. This change will also be necessary for unity in the challenges between the Fields.”

“Such a nerd,” Remi groaned. “Get to the point.”

“When the time comes, God will speak to you all,” Oracle said. “Rejoice when it comes and prepare for the inevitability of her words to follow.” Her voice paused. “May you all survive.”

The pages of my codex separated, swirled, and slammed back into my codex. Remi and I just started at it as it flopped on the ground and disintegrated into a pile or ash.

The message was done, but—

“Uhhhh.” I pointed at it. “All my stuff was in there. My money. My weapons. Maps.”

“Give it a sec,” assured Remi.

Suddenly, what was basically a computer screen appeared before me. 

I took a step back.

“Interesting.” Remi stepped forward. “Just like how I remembered.” She turned to me while pointing at it. “Unified system between all the Fields. Still called the Codex, technically. Does the same stuff, is only visible to the user, and provides broader stats, quests, and item management. More convenient than a book.”

“I-I see.”

“No need to take it all in at once. We can do this later. Just think about it disappearing, and it’ll go away.”

I did, and it did.

“Good.”

“How can you see my codex then?”

“We share the same soul, remember? Anyway, we need to talk about what to do next, and what that entails.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning leaving Sandy Branch.”

•

Remi and I sat on a tree branch overlooking the town. Christopher was in the middle of the square, surrounded by a crowd of frightened people who cried and screamed before him. Even so, he looked calm and tried to keep himself steady.

“His Mark of Kings is gone, too,” mentioned Remi as we watched them. “Yet he still holds their authority. Really shows the kind of man he is.”

I stared sadly at him.

“We could go grab him and those other two later tonight, if you wish,” mentioned Remi. “Having him, Gai, and Lex around might prove useful in this fallen world.”

“But they’ll be safer here than with me,” I concluded.

“Yeah.”

“Then there’s nothing to really think about.” I dropped from the branch to the ground. “Let’s go.”

“But of course!” Remi dropped down behind me and ran until she was by my side. “Ready, Eden? Let’s head North. I’ve got the perfect place in mind.”