Chapter 77

"So you tried to break its statue, then you not only got away with everything, but also tricked the priest into sponsoring you."

"Not much tricking done."

"Still doesn't change what it is."

"Maybe, but the world is more than just two colors." Alex said as he tried to calm his head.

"Your words don't make sense half of the time." Said Taeral.

"Nothing makes sense half of the time, and what did at one point, may not make sense tomorrow."

'I should have known, all it takes is multiple realities to exist, or for different timelines to exist, and everything written in that book is null and void. One and only god, right. What other theories are real then? Maybe we are all living in a simulation, maybe I don't even exist.' He chuckled to himself.

'I shouldn't have let myself fall into that rift, I feel like I'm going crazy.'

"I think I'm done, are you all ready to go?" Alex said as he rose from his seat.

"Hello, it's good to see that you are back. How was your meal?" The priest asked as Alex approached.

Alex handed him the token as he walked up the steps. "It was delicious, thank you for your kindness."

His heart felt heavy as he walked up the steps, he felt like he was constantly falling and that once he landed his heart would fall back into place.

He didn't even notice that the scenery had changed as he walked across flat ground.

"Alex…"

"Alex."

"'My last name is ?????."'

Alex looked down to his hand as he understood what the feeling was.

The wooden ring on his hand had shattered the pieces falling to the ground.

'Doom.'

'I'm dying now faster than ever.'

His attention turned to the hair on his arms which was standing straight up.

He turned around. As he felt someone else appear behind him.

"Ecknat."

"'Sorry Alex, but my families name has already been tainted, I can't afford any further distractions for my granddaughters."'

Alex's eyes widened as lightning arced from her fingers.

A numbness spread across his body as his vision blurred. It was only as the dust settled, that he realized that he had been thrown far away. From the lack of sensations he knew that he wouldn't last much longer.

Somehow a grin appeared on his face as a familiar face appeared in his vision.

'I didn't expect to see you all the way out here Damien. Following me all the way out here just to see me die huh?"

He tried to laugh out of pity, but couldn't tell if he succeeded as even his ears were completely messed up.

A rumbling sensation shook Alex's vision as he laid where he was.

'I don't know what else I should have expected.'

His eyes slowly closed as the sun above his eyes was clouded by something.

"Alex, Alex!"

"Huh? What, I wasn't sleeping again I swear." Alex coughed as he wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth.

"You spend too much time on your research, it's not healthy." Tori said as she sat down across from him.

"I can't just let you do all the work, can I?"

She laughed lightly. "I can assure you that my wages as a healer are more than enough for both of us to live comfortably."

"What is that that you are hiding?"

"Huh, oh this? This is just something new I made, it's like a super coffee. No more sleeping on the job for me." Alex said while holding up a glass vial.

"Give me, let me see." She said as she pried the vial from his hands.

"This again, don't tell me it's that dream again."

"No, it's just that, I… it goes through my head every moment of every day, and when I go to bed, it makes it even more vivid."

'Every night I see you die, and I'm powerless to help you. I don't want that dream to seep into reality.'

"I'll be fine Alex, I'm stronger than I look. Just promise me you'll try to stick to rune writing, and leave the dangerous concoctions alone."

"I'll try."

"Thank you. I'll pick up some mana cartridges on my way home from work." She told Alex before leaning closer towards him and kissing his lips.

"Goodbye, I love you." Her figure faded as Alex muttered out, "I love you too."

His vision blurred as he flew forward.

"Do you hear me!?"

"Yeah I can hear you." Alex answered as he wiped the captains spit off of his face.

"Well then come on magic man raise me some dead. At lease your kind will be of more use if you did that much."

"Sir, dark magic cannot raise the dead."

"Then what the hell do we keep you around here for! One stray bullet and your gone, and you had the balls to sign up for the military. You hear that, one damn bullet! Not one light mage can heal you if you get a flesh wound!" A man in full armor growled as he stared into Alex's eyes.

"I know that sir."

"And you still want to join us in this mission?"

"Yes."

"Are the rest of you listening? This man, has no insurance policy, he has no lifeline, he is giving his all,"

"And in my opinion, he has the biggest balls out of all of you here!" The man in full armor said while turned to the rest of the men and women around.

His voice softened as he spoke again. "So treat him nicely, he'll be helping you out there on the battlefield. You are both fighting for the same cause."

The man turned back to Alex. "How old are you kid?"

"Nineteen."

"Right out of school, huh? I was the same as you, ya know."

After digging around in a box next to him the man turned to Alex.

"Who's that?" The man asked as he saw Alex looking down at a photo.

"My brothers and sisters."

"Your parents photo shy or something."

"We never got along."

"Got any more? From what your papers say, you could've gotten any girl… or guy."

Alex chuckled. "Nah, I never had anytime for any of that."

He held out his hand as the armored man dropped something in it.

"Top grade stuff."

"Even though most people don't like dark mages, not all of them think the same. This is your second life. Keep it safe."

Alex blinked his eyes for a moment.

'Doom.'

He watched as the armored man appeared above him.

"Dumb sun of a… I told you to keep safe, and you went and lost half of your body. Hey, hey listen to me, we got them back for you. Just stay with us, we will bring you back and get you the best…"

Alex's vision blurred once again.

As it settled he found himself in a hospital bed, a familiar environment.

"Just tell me one thing Alex." Taylor said as he looked down at him.

"Sure."

"Why didn't you tell anyone? About your dark affinity?"

Alex chuckled before coughing and wheezing. "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Your a man on deaths bed, what reason would I have to doubt you?"

"I guess you have a point."

"It wasn't enough."

"What wasn't, your affinity."

"Yup, I've always had this feeling that… even if I tried harder and harder, it wouldn't have been enough. I needed something. Time, more strength, more intelligence, so I gave up, I gave up everything. Family, love, and the undying fire that burned in my eyes, hope."

'And everything changed from that point on.' Alex thought as he watched from above. The scene from above now.

He watched as he turned to the candles next to him.

"All for this." He said as the flame went out.

"You have a fire affinity too?!"

Alex placed a finger on his lips shushing Taylor. "Just watch the candles."

As he spoke a thud was heard and several parts of the candle fell all over the floor.

"Maybe next time I will make it, until then..."

"What are you talking about next time, have you seen what you just did, this i

Fire raged as his mind went into turmoil. Hundreds of thousands of his lives replayed in his mind.

'No! I did everything right! I gave everything, there was nothing else for me to give! It shouldn't have ended there!"

"It was, it was too fast."

'So is this the abyss, is this hell? I've already remembered my past lives. Is this where you tell me all of my sins and send me away? Or is this where I lie and wait forever?" Alex waited for a response but all he heard was silence.

He had no clue how long he had been just existing there but eventually he tried to make sense of everything.

"So many lives, I suppose I can cross time manipulation off the list. The godly being said that this was the first time life was like this."

"The first time he took extreme measures."

"So from what these memories tell me, somebody is forcing a restart. Maybe it's me, in my next life beyond being Alex, or it could be another person altogether, who can go through this pseudo reincarnation."

A warm feeling flooded over Alex as he was lost in his thoughts.

"If anything this would be your fault. You could've just taken over your statue, if you thought that my avatar was too damn slow, it was your town after all."

"That old thing, that was made in times of war, he would've been crushed into a paste."

Alex coughed as he tried to sit up. "You aren't god."

"I'm not a what?" A librarian looking man said as he turned to Alex.

"I am a genius, the best wizard of all, quick get another fruit."

"You think you can boss me around Oz?"

'Is that a shadow person?' Alex thought as he watched as a dark figure argued with the Oz the librarian wizard.

"Shut up and go grab it, we avoided a catastrophe today." Oz said before walking up to Alex.

"How are you feeling?"

"How should I feel?" Alex said as he tried to move his head.

"Still no connection from your brain to your spine. Spinal column, ooh, I have to say, this language of yours is so amazing. I mean what is it, a hundred, maybe more different languages mixed together. Must've been one of your supercomputers, or maybe quantum computers that made it."

"A quantum what?"

"Enough chit chat, let me see. Yes, you are definitely still human. Still, you couldn't have been closer to death than you just were." He continued to poke and prod Alex before pausing.

"That can't be right, the book very clearly said everyone looked at you and called you a beast, a monster, evil incarnate. The anti, well, good."

"Close to death? I am alive!? What book, are you a seer?"

"Yes close to death, you were absorbing so much dark mana that you nearly died of natural causes. The charred body was a simple fix, but fighting the effects of time should've been impossible. And no, I am not a seer, although I wish I had the abilities of a seer, they do sound pretty cool, hip, spectacular."

"That fruit you were talking about." Alex spoke up cutting off Oz's word tangent.

"Fruit, what fruit?" Oz asked as he pushed Alex up into a sitting position.

"The one you sent the shadow man to get."

"Oh that one, don't worry about that. I can assure you it's nothing special."

A blur flashed across Alex's vision as the shadow man appeared with an armful of fruits.

"I said another, not another hundred, why did you bring a handful of them."

"You said that they helped, I just got extra to be sure."

"Each one of these contains a fragment of divinity."

"Yeah so what?"

"So if someone that isn't a god takes to many, they will grow weaker rather than stronger."

"You are right, I am a genius. We will feed him all of them so he can't harm us." The shadow said as he moved towards Alex.

"Physically weaker, physically! Stop."

"It's the same, just smaller." Alex muttered.

"Same, same as what?" Oz asked after snatching a fruit from the shadow. And kicking him away.

"The same as the fruit from the tree."

"From the garden of eden. You said it makes people weaker?"

"Garden of, hmm I haven't heard of it, and yes I did say that. Although the side effects of over nourishment could be infinite, although I would advise you not to eat any more from this garden, a normal human with the amount of divinity within them that you have, would have fallen over before the age of ten."

"Genetic mutations, lower life spans, and just in general life getting harder." Alex said as his mind whirred.

'Stories of people living well past a few hundred years, are scattered within the book that the secret society has hidden.'

Oz's eyes lit up as he heard about genetic mutations.

"You even have words for things that small? Yes, but you wouldn't have to worry about those side effects I know the perfect dosage to avoid that. Human life is a short fragile thing."

Alex recalled what the godly being had shown him. How Adam had easily ripped the scaled serpents arms off.

'That type of strength, it shouldn't be possible if there was no mana available.'

'I'm beginning to think we aren't exactly who we think we are.'