To Live

Marvin, the seemingly gentlemanly receptionist, was looking down at Luke.

"We're going to have a nice, long conversation now, young man."

Luke grit his teeth. He chuckled back when he saw who the person that did this was, but now, he was just getting sick and tired of situations such as these.

He glared at Marvin, and the latter was unfazed.

"What's wrong with you people? Why do you keep abducting me, killing me, crippling me, torturing me?!"

Luke couldn't even go to bed without thinking of where he may end up when he wakes up, and if he'd wake up at all.

He endured and endured, but it just kept happening over and over and over…

The mother Gleem that destroyed the roof of the house back in the forest and crushed him underfoot afterwards, Mark and Alissia who waited for him to wake up before questioning him and repeatedly hunting him down in the following loops, no matter how hard he tried to avoid them…

After escaping all of that, there was Joseph, and finally, even a supposed ally ends up doing something like this?

'I have had enough of this bullshit!'

Marvin confusedly raised an eyebrow at the enraged Luke.

"Someone killed you? How are you here then?"

"SHUT UP!!!!!!"

Luke shouted at the top of his lungs.

Marvin slapped Luke across the face.

Luke's limp head hung down as he sat still in the chair.

Marvin blinked in astonishment and looked at the hand he just slapped Luke with.

He grabbed Luke by the hair and raised his head up so that he could take a look at his face.

"Did that really knock him out? Shit… Did I overreact?"

While Luke really did lose his consciousness, it wasn't because of the slap.

He was now standing in an endless blue space.

Luke confusedly looked around.

'The last thing I remember is shouting out, and moments later, I was suddenly here.'

An old man smiled and waved at Luke, beckoning him to come on over.

Luke's shoulders dropped and a corner of his lips curled upwards.

'I swear, that old man…'

Regardless of his thoughts, Luke was already walking towards the old man.

"Hey, kid. Staying out of trouble?"

Luke chuckled.

"Hey geezer. Can't say that I am, considering I'm back here."

Old man Wilfred scratched the back of his head.

"Well, at least you didn't die before getting here this time around."

Luke raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"That's true! Previously, I could only come here after dying. What changed?"

Wilfred closed his eyes while crossing his arms and nodded.

"Huhu, what changed indeed. I'll be frank. I think you're about ready now."

Luke was questioningly looking down at Wilfred, who was sitting down in a lotus pose.

"Ready? Ready for what exactly?"

"To learn of the truth."

Luke's eyes widened.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After Lala said goodbye to Luke, she left the embassy detachment building.

She was heading to the specialized market district that was next to the north city gate.

'I wonder what I'll be able to find this time around.'

This wasn't the first time that Lala had visited Naiccos. Far from it, she had lived in this city for longer than half of her life.

That's why the people in the embassy detachment building were already very familiar with her, and also why she and Luke received a warm welcome, with basically no questions asked.

Lala used her water elemental to form little droplets of water that she could move across in mid-air.

A few other elementalists could be seen using similar means of transportation.

From people surfing on piles of dirt above the city, to people propelling themselves with wind.

A lot of elementalists had trouble using such techniques, either because they were lacking the mana for it to be faster than moving on-foot, or because they lacked the elemental control to do so.

Elemental control could be explained as the efficacy and the degree of control over a certain elemental type.

A master at controlling the wind elemental wouldn't necessarily be a master at controlling the metal elemental.

This wasn't a problem though, because most elementalists had two elementals at most, with their primary elemental being the one which was used for combat, while the second one was much weaker, and served as a backup or as a convenience, such as a water elemental for providing drinking water, a fire elemental for lighting dark places such as caves, a storage elemental for storing various things, and so on.

There were also elementalists who could complement their primary elemental with their secondary one, with the exception of not being able to use them at the same time, because of the repercussions that would come with such use.

Using the movement technique, Lala arrived at the market in no time.

'Okay, let's get into it!'

With a smile, Lala disappeared into the crowd.

She shopped around here and there, and after a few hours, she happily left the market, her storage elemental brimming with various gear.

'I hope that the robe fits him…'

She was sure to grab a robe for Luke, as the clothes he was currently wearing were getting pretty shabby and also looked very weird to her.

'Where did he even get clothing such as that in the first place?'

She shrugged her shoulders as she entered the embassy detachment building.

Lala nodded at Marvin to greet him, and in response, he wore a benign smile and closed his eyes, slowly nodding back at her.

She slowly made her way to the hallway where the guestrooms were in on the second floor.

Her room was next to Luke's.

Lala stood in front of the door of Luke's room.

She reached her hand out towards the door, but suddenly stopped.

'He's surely asleep by now, it's best that I do not disturb him.'

She nodded to herself, and continued down the hall before entering her room.

As they say, ignorance is bliss.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke was now sitting down in front of Wilfred.

"Well then, speak. What is this 'truth' that you've mentioned just now?"

"Patience, Luke, patience."

Luke was caught off guard by what Wilfred said.

"Geezer, why are you calling me by my name? Stop acting weird."

A vein on Wilfred's forehead popped.

He raised his clenched fist and relented with words.

"You brat! Can you not take even a conversation like this seriously?!"

Luke closed his eyes, wore a smug grin and nodded a few times.

"You are correct, Wilfred. This is no place to act like a child having a fit."

Wilfred was left wordless because of Luke's unexpected verbal counter-attack.

After a few moments of silence, Wilfred cleared his throat and continued.

"Ahem, well then. I wanted to discuss about the full extent of the time elemental's abilities."

Luke was now actually serious in his intent to listen to what the old man had to say.

'I knew that there was something that he wasn't telling me!'

Luke nodded and let Wilfred continue his explanation.

"Well, you see, the unique elementals are not unique in just their elemental property. Their abilities also vary from person to person."

Luke's mouth went slightly agape at this information.

"Old man, does that mean that-", and before Luke finished the sentence, Wilfred nodded.

"Yes, the ability of the time elemental that you possess differs from what I could do with it."

Wilfred raised his index finger.

"First of all, you being able to travel back in time on death. I could never do such a thing."

As he said that, Wilfred shook his head.

"My ability had to do with the future, not the past. Each day, I could see what would happen during a six hour period of my choosing. I could use those six hours whenever I wished during that 24-hour period. Additionally, I could also see how I would die on that day, if such a thing were to happen."

Luke scratched his head.

"So, basically, you had clairvoyance, and could also see how and when you'd die, so that you could avoid it?"

Wilfred nodded.

"But what about if you avoided that death, and were meant to die again? Would you be able to see the other death?"

Wilfred smiled in admiration.

"That is correct. I would see it again and again, until the moment when I had completely avoided the danger of death on that day."

Luke raised an eyebrow.

"Even though you've said that this is the time elemental, why did we both have an ability related to preventing our deaths?"

Wilfred sighed and closed his eyes.

"That, I do not know. I also found it interesting. But, there is also another ability that you exhibit that I've found very weird. You are able to directly absorb elementals into your soul. And as you know already, I obtained the time elemental through forceful means, so you having more abilities than I did shouldn't be that strange."

As he said that, Wilfred pointed at Luke.

"Look, kid. I am still not sure how I'm able to reside in your soul like this, even as a remnant of an ego. It is unheard of, same as your ability of elemental absorption that I've mentioned before."

Luke shrugged his shoulders.

"If you're expecting an aswer to these questions from me, then I'm sorry to dissappoint you, but I don't know. Ever since I started absorbing the tiny wind elementals from the Gleems, I thought that elemental absorption was a normal thing to do, and the preferred way of getting stronger. But after hearing of the capturing and transfusion artifacts repeatedly when talking about absorbing elementals, I figured that what I could do was unheard of."

Wilfred nodded.

"It is indeed unheard of. It's also unheard of for people to lack as much common sense as you. It's almost like you have lived somewhere else for the rest of your life, before coming to the forest of N'Gool."

Luke's eyes widened as he feigned a dry chuckle.

'So it's that easy to figure it out, huh?'

"Yes, old man. You're correct. I wasn't from around here."

Wilfred raised an eyebrow and stared at Luke for some time before sighing.

"We will talk about this some other time. It changes nothing, and I still have more important things that I should be discussing with you while you're still here. Our time in this space is limited."

Luke sighed in relief, and Wilfred continued talking.

"You asked me earlier about why you were able to enter this space without dying. It's simple. There are two ways to enter this space. Either consciously or unconsciously."

Luke was confusedly looking at Wilfred.

"I'm guessing that I've been coming here unconsciously then?"

Wilfred smiled at the answer and nodded.

"Correct. Each time you die, your emotional and mental state gets wrecked, and in response to that, your psyche wants to escape from that trauma. And so, your consciousness runs away into your soul so that it could hide. It couldn't do that without the proper amount of mana at first, but after a certain point, it became possible. You may have noticed that the blue color that makes up the space all around us is a little darker and less faint than before."

Luke proceeded to look around the space he was in.

'It's true. It's not that big of a difference, but it's still there…'

"Is this because of the increase in the strength of my wind elemental?"

Wilfred scratched his chin.

"That's only half-true. It's not only because of that, but also because of your increasing understanding of the elementals and mana. It's more of a subconscious realization rather than anything else."

Wilfred stared straight into Luke's eyes.

"This time around, it was slightly different. You snapped purely out of anger, and just wanted to get away from your current situation, so you escaped to here, even though you were still alive. As you keep coming here more and more often, you'll be able to enter and leave this place consciously, at your will."

Luke nodded.

"I think I understand how it works now. But how do you know about all of this?"

Wilfred shook his head slowly, smiling bitterly.

"I'm not sure myself. Even though I've heard of this phenomenon while I was still alive, I never knew about it in this much detail, nor have I ever experienced it first-hand… Maybe it has to do with me becoming a part of your soul?"

Luke shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, enough about that. What else do I need to know about the time elemental?"

Wilfred looked around at the infinite space of blue.

"What I'll tell you now is only hypothetical."

Wilfred then looked at Luke.

"Even with my limited knowledge of unique elementals, I have heard of cases where unique elementals were the cause of its caster's death."

Luke's eyes widened in confusion.

"Meaning?"

"What I am about to say now is my personal opinion, as well as my advice to you."

Luke nodded and waited for Wilfred to continue.

"You shouldn't exclusively rely on the time elemental to keep you alive. Use the time reversal ability only as a last resort. This power has probably never existed before now, and should be treated as such. There may be a time where you die and stay dead without the time elemental activating. Keep that in mind as you go about your adventures."

Luke nodded and scratched his head.

"I've always kept that in mind. I didn't want to die at all, but I had little choice in my previous deaths. I was powerless. This is why getting stronger is my number one priority right now. So that I can live without constantly looking over my shoulder in fear."

Luke brightly smiled.

He didn't want to die over and over again. No one would wish for such a cruel fate.

And so, he would continue to get stronger.

So that he could live.