Chapter 20: How True are these Fairy Tales?
~Soul POV~
After having some time to think I decided to go towards the Northern Mountain Pass for the time being. Better to have a Stand well equipped with transporting objects the better for me in the long run of things.
And [Mr. President] is just the stand for the job I have in mind.
The real question though is what is the exact history of Remnant is according to what the mission has provided me. Was there something of great importance for me to go there?
And it mentions the words of magic being involved as well. So the concept of magic is something this world has to offer but has never once been mentioned again in this world's history other than parlor magic tricks.
Otherwise, there are no mentions of it in the Scroll using the internet of the CCS towers. I can safely conclude that at least at one point magic did exist at some point or another but now such a thing is lost to the tales of time.
Yet the artifacts that the mission stated do exist meaning that some or a minority of magic is gone but the artifacts that have had magic are still intact enough to be used. Does that only raise more questions than answers?
Where is there no more magic in this world… no wait I should be thinking how did we lose that right to use magic would sound more like it. Because the way how my mission says it means that humanity once had magic but somehow lost it?
Was it perhaps given to us by some God of sorts?
I mean that is possible since there have been stories telling how the Faunus were created although the stories of the two are completely different from two distinct authors some stories usually have a reason to be created.
The God of Animals is a shapeshifting Faunus deity appearing in the stories of The Shallow Sea and The Judgement of Faunus, two Faunus creation myths in Remnant.
In The Shallow Sea, the God of Animals is shown to recluse themselves in Menagerie, where they bring a small group of people into the island and transform them into the Faunus. Some people claim that while being based on a myth, it holds some truth to it.
However, this story has fallen out of favor after the Great War as the concept of a magical island is somewhat insulting to modern Faunus.
In The Judgement of Faunus, a conflicting Faunus creation myth, the God of Animals stops a war between mankind and the animal kingdom by transforming them into the Faunus, making them equals and without a reason to fight. But some of the Faunus claims it contains no less truth than The Shallow Sea.
The god's powers include shapeshifting and transforming others into all kinds of forms, at one point taking the form of even mythological creatures such as a roc.
The Faunus cast their god as a wise and noble figure, while mankind's stories portray them as a trickster who is not to be trusted, which is telling of a discriminatory foundation against the Faunus. Notably, the Faunus fairy tales are open-ended and as a result tend to be either bittersweet or depressing, as they have a belief that their story is still unfolding in the present day and they have yet to uncover their true purpose.
The god's existence is questionable as to whether it is true or not. But for me someone who has seen anime and other mythological beings existing like Highschool DxD I would say it's true.
After all, I'm a living example of how real fiction can be so who's to say that the Faunus God is true. Then there is another story that may hold some truth to it… the Story of the Two Brothers I think it was called?
No wait I think it was properly called The Tale of the Two Brothers.
The Tale of the Two Brothers is a creation myth first told in the very beginnings of the stories or the VERY first story to be told in history if one looks very careful enough to the past that is.
According to this 'Fairy Tale', there were once two gods who were also brothers. The elder was a god of light, life, and creation, while the younger was a god of darkness, death, and destruction.
During the day, the elder brother filled Remnant with life in the form of water, plants, and wildlife; at night the younger brother would discover his brother's creations and become disgusted, so he created drought, fire, and famine to rid Remnant of life, but life would always come back in the end.
To completely wipe all life off the planet, the younger brother created nightmarish, soulless versions of his brother's creations whose sole purpose was to destroy anything and everything, these would be known as the Creatures of Grimm.
Finally, the elder brother decided that they shouldn't fight anymore and make peace by creating something together. The younger brother agreed by using the four gifts of knowledge, creation, destruction, and choice to create Humanity who could choose to use their gifts for either light or darkness.
…
Hmm…
It makes one believe that some of these stories were at least once real at one point where they existed or merely that of fantasy but despite that, there is actually another story of a Fairy Tale that could be true…
*Squish*
That was when I saw F.F. pop up as he began to question my line of thoughts as he spoke in a squishy but watery voice, "Then you think this Infinite Man in the story of The Infinite Man to be alive in this day and age?"
Nodding my head at this I began to reason with my stand where my idea originated from this and it was thanks to the mission that cleared up a few things, "Correct F.F. If the mission told us that Magic Artifacts exist then I have a good reason to believe that this person exists. After all the way the Story talked about… sounds more like a biography don't you think?"
F.F. began to think from the looks of things even making a hand to its chin as it spoke out what was the point in the story, "Hmm… The Fairy Tale itself clearly says that everyone is fallible, and good intentions often lead to bad results. Still, it leaves it up to the reader whether the Infinite Man versions should be forgiven as the truth is not absolute and everyone should be left to make their own choices."
Bingo.
That was why I thought it sounded more like a biography to me because the story takes on multiple points of view of each person differently but also the same guy. Fucking hell even the story itself screams of past glories being reread to me.
Long ago, a magical man known as "The Infinite Man" traveled a lonely journey, going from town to town saving people from the creatures of Grimm. During one of his fights, the Infinite Man passed out from exhaustion after slaughtering the Grimm, being given a chance to recover by the townsfolk.
When he awoke, a young girl pointed out that he seemed to be magic, as no Dust was as powerful as the Infinite Man had shown to be. Reluctantly, he admitted to being immortal and a being with magical powers, and to his dismay gathered a small following as he tried to sneak out of the town.
As the group began to rescue those in peril, word traveled fast about its existence, with more and more people wishing to join. The collective began to call themselves The Circle, to the man's dismay, as they readied for threats greater than the Grimm by mastering Aura and Semblances.
At one point, The Circle was betrayed by one of their members, who poisoned the Infinite Man and escaped to discover if he was truly immortal. On his deathbed, the man told the young girl who inspired The Circle to follow the Infinite Man to let him die, as he was "just a man and not even a very good one."
The Circle mourned the Infinite Man for four days and four nights. Later, the Infinite Man returned in a new body, finding that the young girl was now a middle-aged woman and that The Circle had expanded even further, having settled and formed a town known as Circle, where they were now sending people to help others and bring back new followers, to create gods amongst men by training their abilities. The Infinite Man was convinced to stay by the woman, which would later be a mistake.
For a time, there was peace in Circle, and more people flocked to the group as they heard the stories of the immortal man. Eventually, Circle was invaded by a group of warriors who attacked the settlement. A warrior stepped forward to face the immortal man, brandishing a pair of swords with Lightning and Gravity Dust, wishing to finally face a god.
The Infinite Man told her that gods are much more fallible than she realized, but the warrior insisted that he had no choice in fighting her. During their clash, the man asked her if somebody had sent her to kill him, which she doesn't answer. He realizes that the fight could continue for a long time and lead to collateral damage, and makes the mistake of choosing to die.
Years later, the man, reincarnated once more, found that The Circle had all been killed except for the girl who followed him, who was now missing an arm and an eye. Everyone else was slaughtered. When he asked her why, she told the person she didn't recognize that it was to show the world the folly of placing all their hopes on one man, not even a very good man.
The man knew that if she asked who he was, he would not be able to lie to her, as painful as the truth would be. But she didn't ask, and that hurt him even more. She turned to walk away, and he let her go.
People would often point to the Infinite Man as a cautionary tale about putting too much faith or power into one person. However, it takes on various morals: the risks of putting others before yourself, the risk of poor leadership, unrealistic ideals, it ultimately is a very personal story to everyone due to how vague it is.
F.F. then asked me a very serious line of questioning as it made a very uncertain tone of its voice as my stand spoke, "If everything of the story of the Infinite Man is true… then… what about the Fairy tale of The Girl in the Tower or perhaps The White Witch in the Woods? What explanation do you have for them?"
That is certainly a good question one I don't seem to have an answer for at least not one I know for certain. I read the fairy tales but…
Shaking my head, a bit I began to see the path ahead becoming more clear as I began to end the conversation with F.F. in a quick tone, "Sorry F.F. will talk about this another time. How about after we get to these so-called Artifacts and discovery we can talk more about what's real and fiction."
F.F. snorted at my answer but then laughed lightly as he began to disappear into the skin of my body he left another thing to think inside my head, "Very well then Master. However, I'm very curious if the story of The Story of the Seasons. I wonder if they really existed…"
*Squish*
The Story of the Seasons huh?
I do recall that maybe there are some versions of the Fairy Tale having the hermit depicted as a wizard and maybe have truth to its words. Maybe another time to investigate for now though about the time I get to other business at hand.
But still, I can't help but wonder how true are these Fairy Tales?
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A/N: This chapter shows how much time the MC thinks of how much of the fairy tales could be true to him as he doubts some of it happened in history from the system confirming that magic is real using his brain to connect the dots.