17 Two Sides Of The Same Coin

I stood there frozen with fear.

This was not like the monsters depicted in fiction.

They were huge, slimy, and dangerously disgusting.

Its heartbeat was loud and close enough for me to hear, but it stretched out its body upwards as I could only watch it do so.

"..."

Like a beating drum, its heartbeat resounds to mine. There were text and numbers that were slowly fading in and out as I faced the worm.

A subtle indication.

[Mirage Worm: 479/500]

"G...!"

The second phase begins, my eyes were being forced to roll back but I stood. I wonder why do I still stand. I'm beginning to see things.

"Grantt!"

I heard their voices, shouting from behind, with an explosion happening right above me, stopping the worm from proceeding any closer.

Everything felt soft and slow, and even the ground was wobbly.

I was just then suddenly swept away by my feet, carried by someone.

My eyes wouldn't properly, they couldn't make out the face of this person that held me but I could tell that it was Lilith from the way she held me.

This is tiring.

"What are you doing?!"

She asked me with a loud voice. It rang to my ears, tinnitus that pierced my eardrums.

It repeated loudly in my head, yet I could somehow think clearer, and my thoughts were slowly becoming more united than clouded.

"H-Huh?"

I rubbed my eyes and shook my head. The wobbly feeling was gone and the thought that I had earlier was something that had shouldn't be there.

"You can't get close to the Mirage Worms! They can shroud minds and make their prey lower their guards!"

Lilith banters as I was brought back to the back of the small forces we had.

Some adventurers had joined the fray as well, only in for the materials they can get from it.

It seems like it was the other servant's doing, giving them a chance at gathering achievements here.

I didn't know much about monsters but to think that I was afraid of them is now a fact.

It was true that I was afraid, and even now, I struggle to force myself to fight on the frontlines. Moreover...

"You can just stay here! Just use magic if you will, we'll hold them back!"

She said while running back to join the others.

I will only become a hindrance to them if I force myself to fight with them.

I'll just do whatever I can do for now!

"I've never been in combat in the last year because I didn't have to but now this is very stressing for me to do!"

I extended both of my arms aiming at the worm that I had once faced earlier.

Lilith and the others were attacking it with blasts and piercing attacks as the worm digs down and reappears on the surface to attack.

I was here but I haven't done anything yet.

I can't bear being a Lord without achievements. I had to force myself to combat!

"Now, visualize water, Grantt!"

I shouted to myself as I began to think.

From a trickle of water, they shall become huge icicles.

The process was simple, manipulate the molecules of the combined hydrogen and oxygen and make them slow down until they become a still and solid state of the matter!

Just as I open my eyes once again, seven icicles appeared right behind me.

I was successful in summoning them without using mana but there was one problem.

I tried to imagine ten, and only seven icicles were able to materialize.

"What?!"

Did they fail to materialize? Is it my visualization? Was it lacking?

In any case, I need to help them, now!

"Shoot through!"

I threw my hand out as I could only use a bit of mana to launch them out as fast to the worm but it would only be left on its skin, spurting out green blood.

It's not enough to stop a horde of monsters!

"Grantt! It would be great if you do the flashy ones now!"

Lilith was struggling to keep the monster on the other side of the trench I had made, slowly being flattened as the battle ensues.

I couldn't cast a large area of magic except for the storm but it would be too dangerous as there were too many people.

I can't design the spell to only target monsters without the verbal incantations of the real spell.

I had never belonged on the battlefield.

I was just a businessman.

I was...

"Grant Maximilian. You fail to exert strength. Why do you fail to fight?"

Before I could even realize it. I was trapped in a world of nothing.

The floor was water, yet I didn't sink. I could see my reflection from it, yet it was different from what I was supposed to look like.

"Ah. That's me. That's how I looked in the old world."

With short black hair, and brown eyes.

A 25-year-old man that had the world in the palm of his hands. He had it all, yet all he did was sit and wait.

"Will you remain to where you are? Or will you move?"

Again, that same voice. It spoke out to me.

"Right now, you might be as intelligent as me but you lack the resolve to fight."

It was me—No, it was the Grantt Maximilian of this world. The respectful owner of the body I assumed to control.

"You are no different from a parasite, feeding on the fate that I chose myself."

A parasite? That might be true, but I had no choice but to accept this fate you put upon yourself.

"A fate that could have led to death if it wasn't for me!"

How dare he belittle the hardships I've overcome.

The effort that I and the others had done for the sake of this town he left to rot after him.

"You are just as responsible and a parasite to fate! Leaving for the chances to go merry on your way!"

I will not let him say what he wants. I am the current owner of this body, and I shall do what I want.

"You can just vanish into the depths of our minds."

I had no time to cower and scramble with the previous soul that inhabited this body.

"You're going back there and then what? Cower in fear just like you had then?"

A mocking voice that keeps buggering me. He's stubborn and entitled nature that annoys me is the worst of all.

I've finally known him truly for who he is. Just an idiot with brawns and no brains.

But just as much as I hated hearing it, he was right.

I cowered in fear before the monsters.

They were large creatures that had never existed on Earth and the fiction back there had been holding back on projecting their appearances.

They were nightmares that will haunt you forever.

"You carry a blade, but you don't use it. You can freely use magic and has specific knowledge of it, yet you fail."

He said as he pulled out a blade that was aimed at my throat. Its tip was an inch away and one wrong move would make me drown in my own blood.

It was not real, however, his words were.

I have everything I need, yet I still fail.

Why so? If I must ask. I failed to see the reason why.

Is it fear?

Doubt?

Anxiety?

Indecisiveness?

If not, then what was it?

"You never experienced great loss, have you?"

"..."

"You only gained, and gained, and gained."

"I—"

"If you ever had lost something, it was something you expected and deem something unimportant... You fail to see the value in protecting something without reason."

He took a step closer, stabbing me through the chest with the blade he had.

"—!"

To my surprise, there was resistance. I could feel the cold blade and the hot blood that dripped to the crevises of my clothes.

It hurt so much.

"You never felt extreme pain. You never felt what it means to be broken."

I never had to. All I had back then was anxiety. Worrying about myself, thinking about the profit of my actions.

Even every kind of action I took was waiting for a result that will greatly benefit me.

A sociopath of the society I once lived in.

A man full of lies.

I was full of it.

The blood that was dripping away had let that man's life waste away, nearing its end.

"However, you began to change with the influence of my memories. So, I will offer you one thing."

The blade was still lodged in my side as he lets go of it.

It was hot and cold at the same time, yet the pain vanished as he extends his fist into my chest.

"Use my strength and I'll use your intellect. We'll merge and become one, so none of us will have to vanish!"

The knife that was lodged in my side was gone. It was on my chest already.

The wound had moved along with the knife.

More blood had dripped down, yet there was no pain.

"If we become one, you shall no longer be afraid nor weak. You will have the motivation I have."

"If we become one, you shall no longer be reckless and naive. You will have the ideas I have."

If there is truly no other way to escape out of this deadlock, then I shall take upon his offer.

It was just a matter of time as I decided, shortly followed by a surge of wind that came.

In unison, our thoughts were beginning to align.

I, the Grantt Maximilian of Earth accepts.

"And I, the Grant Maximilian of Arte accepts."

Without knowing of who will be the dominant persona, we both played our luck.

With that, a slow stir to my overwritten mind had been evoked.