[175] That Now Our Dreams, They’ve Finally Come True

Chapter 175: That Now Our Dreams, They've Finally Come True

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Piano keys rang in my ears as my eyes fluttered open. A grand ceiling carved by the finest of Imperium's architects expanded before my eyes, holding a touch of Greek and modern buildings.

I let out a sigh as the scent of divine relaxation filled my nostrils. The chandelier on the ceiling lit up the room, but not from its light, but rather the light from the candle on its top. The room was dimly lit up because of that, although the moonlight and the clear sky's stars illuminated it enough already.

I slowly pushed myself up, finding it easy with my huge arms that were as large as my 11th life's body. Sitting up, my hair cascaded in front of me, and I noticed patches of blonde in places of black.

"Hah," I gently ran a hand through my hair, my voice booming like a drum even as I spoke gently. "I would expect my mental appearance to fully be that of the Emperor's when I'm in the bed of my royal chambers at least."

My body was indeed that of the 14-foot-tall Emperor's, but my hair was blonde along with black. It goes to show that I've truly moved on from this. It has been a long time since I've dreamt about this place, more so a lucid dream. Ai treating me with her Empress powers might have brought me here.

I looked ahead, at the balcony behind two large open doors. They showed a grand dark blue sky expanding to the horizon, filled with billions of dots of stars, and the image of galaxies spinning toward us. My current earth doesn't have such a beautiful sky. The expansive city below, filled with the finest buildings, none of them being a stupid skyscraper that ruined the sky's beauty, could seduce anybody.

However, all of that paled when I looked at the figure standing on the balcony, head gaze stuck at the twin moons in the sky.

Piano played from one gramophone, while the other sang our favorite song.

-「City of stars… Are you shining just for me…?」

I stared at her back, my Empress' luscious black hair that was darker than the night sky. She hummed along with the song, while my legs wondered what to do.

Should I go and embrace her? Even though this is a temporary dream? I've done that before in my other dreams, but they were not lucid. How would she behave in a lucid dream? There's also a chance that it's actually Ai right there, and I wouldn't want to replace one of them with the other.

To my surprise, she turned to me first. Golden eyes brighter than the stars above in the sky locked with mine, and in there I saw the reflection of my own golden eyes. She looked as gorgeous as the first day I saw her. 

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She was adorned in a different outfit than the drawing I showed Ai, one more suited for her home. 

"You're awake, my Emperor," she said, her ethereal voice filled with regal dignity and nobility that I had lost a long time ago. She called me her Emperor, but I had long since parted ways with that life, instead having chosen to walk the depraved path of the Heavenly Demon.

Her soft smile didn't shake even for a moment as I failed to answer back, "I see…" she said, turning back to the skies although she continued speaking. "Have you still not forgiven me for choosing to stay behind, my Emperor?"

"...." Is that why she thought I didn't reply?

I was indeed a little mad at her when she first refused to reincarnate with me, but it didn't last. I couldn't be mad at her for long, just like how she couldn't be mad at me for long. She and I weren't like that. I missed her like crazy in my 8th life, depression, and other lifely crises were caused by her absence. How can I be angry at her when I'm finally seeing her, even if it's just a dream?

No, about that, this clearly wasn't Ai. In that case… she must be a mere dream.

I sighed.

She continued speaking, "I shall take the sigh as a 'yes' and I understand. For all the trust you placed upon me, for all the time you thought you found someone who truly understood you, I chose to abandon you by letting you go alone. I can't imagine the sense of betrayal."

The Empress, Eve, was my clone. In the 20th millennium of my life as the Emperor, I was kidnapped and then cloned. A secret organization named Cabal, whose operatives were drawn from more than a thousand different intelligent xenos races, cloned me. 

They claimed to have battled the forces of the Primordial Annihilator, aka Chaos, for a time longer than the existence of Mankind as a thinking species. Although I fought against the Chaos Gods too, the Cabal didn't trust me at all. So they made her, a living weapon created to replace the Emperor, to replace me.

The clone wasn't a complete success, but it was enough that it counted. No, the only thing that didn't succeed was the gender. So was it truly a failure?

No, she even had access to the same Icons I did, the cloning was that successful.

The two of us were enemies, as designed, for thousands of years to come. Yet, in the end, she was my clone, she couldn't be controlled by the Cabals. She destroyed them and became a free spirit. After a million and a half incidents between us, the two of us managed to mend our past and embrace each other. For we only had ourselves.

They say there can't be two Tigers in a forest, but what if one Tiger was a Tigress? We were tailored to be together, we were tailored to love, and love we made.

Yet, still, both of us knew on an instinctual level that she didn't have the same power I had that allowed me to reincarnate. If she dies, it's her end. So together, we worked to find a way so that other people could piggyback my power and reincarnate with me. In the end, the closest solution to that we found was familiars; pets connect to me by our souls. Thankfully, although Eve wasn't a pet, she and my DNA and soul were so similar that the same technique could be used for her.

We had a solution on our hands, made by ourselves, to use in case of emergency.

The rush of fear and frustration I felt when she was dying and I couldn't reach her to use the technique on her was intense. I felt extreme relief when I finally reached her, finding her in her last moments…

Only for her to reject my offer.

She chose to die along with humanity.

Leaving me alone, to fight to my death, and start another cycle of life. On my own.

If that wasn't the biggest betrayal in the cosmic totality, then what was? Depression was the bare minimum after that. My 8th life's pain is all because of this incident. An entire world ended because of my emotional state, and all of that blood wasn't just on my hand, but on hers too. 

In a sense, she shared everything with me till the end. Even right now.

Honestly, now that I thought about it, I felt a little angry at her. I looked at her with a deep frown. She dared to mention it after she did it? Why's she like this?

"...How real are you?" Before I could lash out at some doll of my own imagination, which would be embarrassing if anything, I asked, speaking in a deep voice that I hadn't heard in a long time. "I realize that Ai is using your template to treat me, does that mean you're just her imagination? Or mine?"

The Empress turned around this time. She observed me for a long minute, and for a moment I thought I might have overridden her capacity by telling her that she was just my dream. However, her next words caught me off guard instead. 

"My Emperor," she said, her tone uncertain, "I am as real as the Nyxandra you met a few months ago. I…" she hesitated, "too, have been reincarnated here."

I stood up.

My towering figure cast a shadow in the room. I stayed standing still briefly before I walked over to her, our eyes a perfect match as I stared into her eyes. Wind blew our hair, as blonde danced with black, and the twin moons in the sky shone down at us.

"Would you like to hit me, my Emperor?" she asked as she put her arms down to the side, not willing to block or defend. "I realize how shameless it sounds… after I did reject your offer… but trust me, it's not my power that brought me here. I truly do not have the capability to reincarnate. Please hit me if you wan-"

My fist flew to her face, and she was sent flying out of the city at the speed of sound. Wind barriers shattered as she shot to the distant horizon, shining like a star.

A moment later, she flew back with a trail of blood and a wider smile on her lips as she landed back on her feet. "I'm glad," she said, stopping in front of me as her eyes looked deep into mine. "...Embrace me?"

I pulled her into a hug, embracing her as my arms wrapped around her. She put her head on my shoulder, hugging me back. I let out a deep sigh, feeling my heart pound in my chest like a drum.

****

We sat on the railing of the balcony, her legs dangling in the sky as I rested my head on her lap, feeling her hand run through my hair. How long did we stay like that? With the wind hitting us gently, ruffling our hair?

-「That now, our dreams… They've finally come true~」

We haven't spoken a single word since then, we didn't need to. Our hearts and minds were connected in a realm that didn't need conversation. There have been days that we spent not talking to each other, yet we communicated fine. Our feelings were true as we rested in each other's embrace right now.

Amid this, I could already guess the incident that happened earlier. When Ai used the Wardrobe, she passed out, and the real Empress appeared in her vessel body. Just like what happened with Nyxondra.

"But," I had to speak for this, "In whose body are you? Tsubasa is the vessel body of Nyxondra – I'm pretty sure it's her after you confirmed – but who are you?"

She ran her hand through my hair silently instead of answering, although she slowed down a lot. "Firstly, it's not in 'whose body I am', I am not some separate spirit locked inside my vessel body. I am my vessel body, just with my memories locked. As in, I have reincarnated as a girl, and I don't have my Empress' set of memories most of the time, other than some exceptions like right now. Don't ask me why it is locked, I am unaware."

"I see," I tilted my head, "Then what about Tsubasa? I theorized before that the mix of her and her mother's soul Nyxandra was born. How could she be a reincarnation if that's the case? Tsubasa's mother's soul wasn't in Tsubasa's body for 18 years…"

"I do not know, my Emperor," she said, "Perhaps her reincarnation is different from mine. Who knows? After all, I am unsure how I even reincarnated."

"I see…" I frowned. "You and I discovered the familiar loophole together in my 7th life, but Nyxondra is from my 6th life. How could she have come with me? Ah, and, the Tiger Cubs said that Nyx last showed herself to the public about 18 years ago, so the chance that she's dead is also low-...."

I paused.

My Empress tilted her head, "Eighteen."

"Same as Tsubasa's age…" I muttered slowly.

"Perhaps her mother's soul has nothing to do with this," she said, "Tsubasa's soul is Nyxondra, while her mother's soul is just a separate entity. Perhaps the reason why her mother was sleeping for a few months after Nyx's appearance is that Nyx used that woman's energy instead of her own since that woman had more energy to spare."

"Could be…" I said, staring into the horizon with clear eyes. Then, I looked up at the bounds that blocked the sky above me, till my Empress moved back a little to show her face, smiling down at me. "Dropping Tsubasa's subject, who are you then?"

"You'll find out when the time comes," she said and I scowled.

"Don't play with me, woman," I said. "I'll kill to find out."

"I don't want you to give me all your attention, my Emperor," she said, "And I'm…. guilty still about everything I did. Isn't it stupid that I refused to come with you, only for destiny to pull us together? In that sense, didn't I just make you go through torture for no reason? I saw your 'Venerable Persona', he is disgusting, and it is I who ended up creating him, directly or indirectly."

"That doesn't mean you can't tell me who you are, that's stupid!" I lifted my head from her lap, standing in the air in front of her. "If you're so guilty, make up for it by revealing yourself."

"I'm not ready, that's the second reason," she said, "My vessel is unable to awaken her memories anytime soon, what you see right now is a special occurrence. Knowing that your top priority will be to awaken my memories. I don't want that. I do enjoy my current, memory-suppressed life with you as well. My entire purpose is to make your life not a destination, but a journey. Please forgive me, and focus on Nyxorandra and Galaxara instead."

"You're so spiteful," I sighed as I pulled her into a hug. "Fine, I shall try not to figure out who you are. I shall find a way to awaken Nyx… no, Tsubasa's memories," I did not want to forget that Tsubasa was her own person as well, that's one reason Eve was unwilling to tell me her current identity because I'll see that girl as Eve instead of who she is at the moment. "And the moment I succeed, I'll find you, and awaken you. You better not reject me for the third time, you hateful woman."

"I love you," she hugged my waist, while her face rested against my chest, as she was sitting and I was standing. "I always will, my Emperor."

"I love you more than the world can imagine, my Empress," I kissed her forehead as I found my lips drawing a smile.

Another man might be disappointed at this development since she didn't tell me who she was, but I was not. How could I be when the day was filled with good news? I had my Goddess rescued, and I also confirmed that Tsubasa was indeed my wifey… and now this, this prank of destiny.

My Empress was alive and with me, sharing a rooftop.

What better news could there ever be in my stupid and long life?

-「City of stars… Are you shining just for me? City of stars… You never shined so brightly~」

….

In the back of my head, I knew one name that would have been an equally delightful name to hear, if not indeed better. 

But I wasn't delusional enough to imagine that; I didn't want to, as that'd only leave me heartbroken when I saw reality.

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Author Note: I hope you enjoyed the chapter 🙏🏻 more coming tomorrow, it's Sunday tomorrow so save your stones 😫

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