Chapter 87

"Jacob are you alright?!" A young woman from the crowd of spectators asked as she tossed a fresh set of clothes to the man who had yanked several lightning strikes.

"I'm fine, just a bit dazed. How many more times do we have to do this?"

"You, have to do this four more times. Then however many more times they have to do it in the realm of the gods." The woman said teasingly as she poked the man.

"Right, then whatever comes after until we finally grasp… immortality?"

"Everyone has there own reason for following this path, immortality is one of the better ones. Nobody truly wants to die, and even when they do it's always the last resort. You're great grandfather even today reaches out for immortality. Besides if anyone could make it, it would be you. It's not easy to be the top student in the academy."

"Second highest ranking student, but still very talented. We need to get back before your great grandfather gets worried about you taking so long."

"Who-Alex, so you really decided to show up. I'm telling you man, just a few months and you won't be as calm as you are now."

"Sure, in a few months maybe you can help out when we enter the hidden world. I don't want to have to share all my profits with you again."

"The academy works together-"

"I know thank, you for allowing me the opportunity to enter the hidden world. Let's just hurry back. I just traveled a long way here and I'm ready to hit the sack."

——————

"What's this?" Jacob asked as a messenger from the academy handed him an envelope.

"Headmaster said it was important. told me to tell you to return without delay and start your next mission." The messenger answered.

"What is it?" The young woman from earlier asked as she attempted to peek at the letter.

"We are to guard the academy's vault for an undisclosed amount of time." Jacob answered with his attitude becoming completely serious.

"What why, I thought we graduated from guard duty long ago?"

"Everything."

"Everyone… I mean the nearby powers have been robbed. All of them at once."

"We are close enough let's head back immediately." I said as I ran towards the academy.

It didn't take long to get there, but rather than smoke or sounds of pillaging that the rest of the group had expected, the headmaster stood outside with a defeated expression.

"It's too late."

"What do you mean?"

"All of it was taken while the vault was under my protection. Forget the mission, even if you had been-"

Suddenly elements sparked from the headmaster as he locked his eyes on me.

Jacob noticed his gaze and stepped between us.

"Jacob! What are you doing?" The headmaster questioned as his silver hair threatened to defy gravity.

"What am I doing? What's with the murderous intent you are directing towards Alex?"

"Alex?" The headmaster was stunned as he almost immediately guessed what was going on.

"Step away from him."

"Why? What will you do?"

"Enough! Boy don't fall for his trickery. how blind do you have to be to not notice our families chain blades packed onto his back."

Jacob looked confused for a few moments. "You gave those to him as a reward a few months ago."

The old man stunned took a step back.

"Finally understanding things." I said as another part of me arrived.

"Teflan, headmaster of the immortal academy of cultivation on a space rock called Levan, be sure to spread news of what happened here."

Another arrived.

"I'll be meeting with your sons soon." Another me said as I arrived.

"I only have one son."

"No your disowned son ascended as well. He just went to a different place."

Another.

"The underworld."

"Not even death can prevent you from achieving what you want here."

"Here?"

I appeared in space not far from that planet. I felt the gazes of several more powerful beings, and could tell that I had achieved what was needed. Had I been in a game a line of text would have appeared saying, 'The gods watch you with mixed emotions.'

A small spark of lightning left my finger as this reality tried to force me into another next to it. After a few moments I opened the path to where it was pulling and stepped through.

The other side was a bit crowded.

"You have something that belongs to me." One voice called out from among the crowd.

"And you all have something that I need. Don't worry, you'll have the chance to earn it all back. If you can keep up that is."

"You think you can escape from us. Each second more and more of those whose descendants you robbed will show up. So go ahead and empty your spacial rings."

"I can escape, but can you?" A voice called out from behind the crowd.

Silence was all that was heard as everyone turned around. A seemingly infinite amount of me stood surrounding the gods.

A stream of golden flames broke the silence as the first of the stronger gods used their techniques against me.

A swing of an axe imbued with ice stopped the stream.

Invisible lightning, blue flames…

After a a few minutes the attackers stopped.

"Done?" They all stared back, too scared to even speak.

"Good, I'll just be leaving now that I have what I need."

The dark flame appeared and the reality once again tried to force it and me to another place.

The land of the celestial. Life, death, fortune, fame, and infamy, all of it could be traced back to here. Like a one way mirror, it was incredibly simple to look down below at the realms I had just stormed through.

"The glass ceiling." I said as I stepped into the edge.

"Perfect to view everything going on below while we slowly grow older up here." A voice responded.

"Alex right?"

"Right."

A man with flowing robes and a wise demeanor appeared.

"Those here have nothing you can take. So what is your next move?"

"Do you think those at the very bottom think the same?" I asked.

"Wh-"

The celestial couldn't even respond as the reality began to shake.

"You've been alone for too long to remember that even nothing can be taken away from you."

"A safe space with nothing in it, just a place to find respite in, can be torn down. Dreams can be invaded. Memories stolen. Wisdom dulled."

I looked back over the long path I took here for a long while before releasing the dark flame one last time. Hundreds of portals appeared as all of my separated selfs converged.

They disappeared as they all became one with me again. The portals however didn't disappear. Cracks grew out from them as several beings stepped through.

"Where did you go!"

All of these beings wanted something, but they were going to have to go find it.

All of them looked at me in shock as I clenched the dark flame which tried to lash out at them. A dark hue took over my hand as the flame happily ate its fill.

Their vision failed them as a new kind of portal opened up.

Where was I now? Moving. Moving back to earth. A straight path all the way back. A path that would never be closed, and that would be the only way in which those who pursued me would find what was taken.

The realities that I had briefly visited were suddenly littered with relics and valuables, that even though just taken were already beginning to be found. I don't know how they reacted to the endless realities, but I'm sure that a few of those immortals were happy to learn about the rest of all existence.

——————

"How are things going here?"

"Terrible. Many on earth are dead dying or hunting each other down." Joshua answered.

"What's your plan?"

"Your maker has disappeared?"

"Made themselves scarce right around the time that you did. You're destroying everything they've been building, so what is your plan."

"I'm building upon it, and preventing the past from repeating while I'm at it."

"By setting them free among everyone else!?" Samael said as he appeared from thin air.

"Yes, by doing just that." I said as he fell to his knees.

A portal of flames appeared as someone stepped through.

"Lucy? I didn't expect to see you again."

"Hades. Help get me out of this. This boy has gone insane."

"That's not quite possible, there is no limit of stress on my mind anymore. Besides the new arrivals can't intervene with this."

A portal opened up in front of the god and after a moment of shock he ran in.

"Too busy with a treasure hunt."

"Your hand."

Joshua stepped forward as he saw my hand.

"I have a gift for you. Something I know you'll need."

A small drop of darkness flew towards Joshua who reached out and caught it.

"Mass necromancy takes quite a bit of power."

"It's not necromancy, it's more delicate than that."

"Trying to distance yourself from the truth. Whatever we all have issues with our parents."

I appeared above the earth once again. A terrible smell filled the atmosphere as a feeling of dread filled all those that were living as the seemingly endless tide of dead souls were set free from the other plane.

The heat that should've incinerated the planet was absent, and it was only when a second identical version of myself showed that all the immortals who had followed understood what was going on.

After nearly all of my being was transformed into a certain element, everyone held their breath as they experienced a long moment where their sight failed them. All of hells flames had been emptied within a moment and the perfect fuel was ripe for an explosion.

A small 'thunk' of someone smacking a glass plane was the last thing everyone and everything heard as their vision returned.

Where was I now?

Nowhere, but it had to be somewhere because I was there.

I expected to be wiped from existence but as my body slowly burned away… they appeared.

Characters flashed in and out out of existence, and it didn't take long for one to repeat. They meant something, but it took me a while to understand what. It was only after they flashed constantly, that a memory came to mind.

"The flipping pages, endless books, this is where it comes from." I said to myself before looking back at the flashing characters that looked like they would fit a sci-fi film.

"Finally understanding?" A voice called out.

"The truth? Yeah."

These characters showed everything. Every breath I took, every input my brain received, every movement the cells in my body chose… even down to the atoms and beyond.

But did it dictate what I did? No, or at least I hoped so. Was I real? I thought so, but the ones who translated each of these characters and looked down into our realities, would they think so? Are we just a hyper-realistic NPC to them. Even with a perfect mind I could not fathom it all. Does it matter if this is the truth behind our existence? It doesn't change what I've experienced or have done.

"No, but it can and has."

The truth appeared in front of me once again, no longer in his endless realm of books.

"Long ago I arrived hear, and in the heat of the moment I asked for freedom. It obliged and created an infinitely expanding universe. Conflicting decisions or changes still resulted in entirely different versions that were parallel, but now everything that was already endless was even more so… endless."

"I had what I had asked for but I was also cursed in the process. This simulation has a limit. When it reaches it a complete reset occurs. All history, life, everything gets reset. With an all encompassing explosion. Endless reality isn't strong enough to hold endless mass where even a pebble has its own gravitational pull. Planet after planet, star after start, eventually they all collide becoming one big mass of corrupted data for this place."

I looked at the truth after a bit of thought. "Then we stop it."

"And how would we do that?"

"I don't know, everything for a while had just been instinct for me."

"The book, do you still have it?"

The book appeared and I opened it. Fire assaulted my mind as I tried to understand something I was missing. My mind finally went to my current life as Alex. I had thought that at some point I would learn to time travel, but as I got here I learned that even though I could it would be pointless. The hints though. Someone with my name had helped in creating a legend for me, or someone used my name.

"Impossible, but if I could turn it all back it would be possible. Reversing time itself, rather than going back in time would give me another chance…"

"But it would remove all of your progress, all of your memories, all of you in the process."

"You knew?"

"Knew what? The truth."

"Erased names. How many times have I been here, how many times have I done this?"

"Enough times. Now hurry, do what you need."

——————

I did.

Time was bought and I went back my instincts and powers only growing stronger as I went back and relived my life as one of the many accursed on earth.