Chapter XLI: From the Frying Pan and into the Flame (4)

"Tell me how long are you going to continue staring into empty air," a voice eerily similar to his own but with a malicious undertone resonated within William's ear.

He continued to ignore it as he continued to lie with his bare body on one of the many wooden church pews. Yes, church pews.

His echo had, by some stroke of luck, found an abandoned church and had put him inside. Well, he didn't really know whether it was a church, or a temple, or a fucking especially religously decorated mansion but he knew that it was a place dedicated to someone or something.

If he hadn't known to whom it had been dedicated, the giant bronze statue at the end of the room he was in erased his doubts. It was a statue of a woman whose only article of clothing was some sort of pelt tied around her hip leaving the rest of her body bare. She had wild, long hair that stretched behind her back and an expression that was as beautiful as it was fierce. One of her hands was raised and in it was what seemed to be the depiction of a beating heart while her other hand held a spear that was quite taller that her.

The statue was an exact replica of the engraving on the [Icon of War] memory - it was the statue of the Goddess of War.

He already knew that the Followers of War had a strong presence in Leonia based on what he learned during his time there, so it was no wonder that he found himself in one of her places of worship.

'Maybe that's also why the corruption doesn't have a presence here.'

"Is that why you are just lying here naked? 'Cuz you're afraid of the dark? You're an embarrassment! I can't believe I was created from the mind of such a pussy," the yellow-eyed version of William, Faker, continued to yap on as he marched from one side of the room to the other.

William turned a deaf ear to the verbous diarrhea that escaped the inner voice of his broken mind.

He had to find a way to busy himself from the pain coming from the wounds on his face and abdomen that stubbornly refused to heal due to the black energy that coated them.

Moreover, with his prosthetic arm that had been formed from the material of his [Osseous Exoarmor], which he had unsummoned along with the rest of his memories for repairs, gone, his stubby left arm had started itching and he began experiencing episodes of phantom pains.

Thus, the young Sleeper thought back on the event that led to the shitshow he barely survived from. With the [Icon of War] gone, his fear was no longer suppressed anymore by the [Fearless] enchantment. It made him realize what an absolute fool he had been in wantonly breaking into the homes of nobles that he knew nothing about. Sure, they had been gone for a long time but who knew what traps or other mystical bullshit they had installed to protect their properties from thieves like him.

Also, he had began to blindly trust his newest ability, which he didn't even know the limitations of or what it could do besides popping up limited information windows.

'Truly, only fools and crazy people are fearless,' he thought as he mentally nodded to himself.

"Oh? So which one are you? Or maybe you're a crazy fool?" Faker added his two cents.

William felt a vein bulge on his forehead before letting out a deep sigh, which he soon regretted, since the action made him move his abdomen that resulted in a wave of pain wash over his body.

"God fucking damnit!" he uttered though gritted teeth.

The fucking injury was hurting way more that it should. The youth was used to pain of different kinds courtesy of his first nightmare and a long campaign of fighting nightmare creatures. Yet, these... contaminated wounds hurt on magnitudes more than he had ever felt before.

'Regardless,' the cerulean-eyed male soldiered through the pain, 'reserving the usage of the Icon of War for only combat scenarios seems to be for the best.'

His eyes looked around him where four soulless echoes stood at guard each at a cardinal direction, one was the Darkspawn Soldier that brought him where he was and the other three were newly summoned Warped Caprigors. They may be dumb as a boulder but they hit just as one to the face.

Summoning the four echoes had cost a shit ton of essence even when including the fact that he was a Demon with three times as much essence as an average Dormant human.

However, with him being in his current state and his only means of relative protection out of order, he didn't mind the consumption. With that thought in mind, he closed his eyes and entered into his soul sea.

When William opened his eyes, he was met with a frozen tundra that stetched as far as the his eyes could see. In the center of the iced field were three big blue crystals that acted as his soul cores.

'It is a bit ironic,' he chuckled mirthlessly, 'soul cores are usually depicted as suns that give light and warmth to the soul sea. Yet, mine is nothing by a cold crystal floating in a sea of snow and ice. Wonder what that says about me as a person?'

Looking behind the crystals, his eyes came upon the statues of two females made entirely out of ice. One of them depicted an innocent-looking young girl who looked old enough to be a middle school student while the other depicted a full grown woman who simply stared aimlessly before her with a motherly smile on her frozen, sculpted lips. They were the statues of his mother and sister: Cassandra and Sarah, respectively. A reminder of the family he lost even before getting into this Gods forsaken world.

Ripping away his eyes from two of his life's greatest regrets, the white-haired youth stared at the entity that stood all on its lonesome right next to his soul cores. It was a door, one that seemed to be made of some sort of white, polished wood with various decorative carvings accentuated by a royal blue color.

Cautiously moving towards the strange door, he was able to discern a golden plaque with black letters spelling out the word 'Library' on it.

'Is this related to what Jaina did?' he thought while warily staring at the silver colored nob of the door. Currently he had two choices, he could either open the door and see what happens or he could just leave it alone and ignore the fact that he has an unknown variable sitting right next to his soul cores.

He looked up at the dark sky where countless motes of light circled around his three soul cores in a protective formation, it reminded him of the images he saw of hurricanes when he was younger.

If the defensive mechanism of his soul didn't activate, then it probably wasn't a threat but that didn't mean that he could just let it lie here without knowing its nature.

Coming to a decision, William gripped the door knob and entered through the door. What met him was a stark difference to the outside environment. As the name suggested on the door's plaque, it was a library. However, it was unlike any library he had ever seen. 

He saw massive wooden shelves that stretched as wide and high as he could see, each filled to the brim with books of various sizes and colors. It felt weird how everything was so bright without there being a lamp or any other source of illumination around.

Looking upwards, William's eyes widened at the constellations and planets that moved about the skies above and shed starlight downwards and lit up the library. He couldn't workout how or why such a bizzare scene was possible and he doubted that he even had the mental capacity to comprehend it.

(Image)

"Welcome," William nearly jumped out of his skin from hearing the sudden monotone voice. Looking towards the source, his shock grew even more upon seeing the familiar figure.

It was Jaina or at least a younger version of her. From his conservative estimate, the one before her seemed to be in her late teenage years.

"J-Jaina?" he exclaimed in shock at seeing her just after she had given him her farewell.

The younger version of Jaina before him shook her head at the name, "I am not Jaina. I am but a spell construct made by her."

"Spell... construct?" the strange term threw him for a loop.

"Affirmative," she replied before continuing in the same neutral, emotionless tone, "I was created by Jaina Proudmoore and passed along to you alongside her knowledge and the theory and practice of magic as a part of Mind's Library spell."

William suddenly felt apprehensive. Why did Jaina smuggle in a foreign entity into his mind without telling him? A distrusting part of his mind told him that this was all some sort of elaborate plot for an elusive end goal. Incidently, the sound of lightning and thunder resounded in the starry skies above and the library began to darken slightly.

The construct of Jaina for her part seemed unpertubed by what was happening around her. The look she gave him was very similar to the ones echoes had.

'Let's not be hasty now,' William thought to himself as he took a deep breath and calmed down a little causing the library to return to its former state. 'Weird.'

"So, what is this Mind Library spell? Is it connected to you being a spell contruct?" he asked. 'Might as well fully understand the situation before pointing fingers. Jaina and I didn't have any grudges against each other so I find it slightly unlikely that she would want to harm me.'

"Affirmative," the construct answered neutrally, "the Mind's Library was an original permanent effect spell created by Jaina Proudmoore during her younger years while learning magic to help her memorize information. It's goal is to catalogue the information in the mind by storing it in books much like a library. Like that, the information wouldn't be forgotten or lost as long as the book containing it remained in the library.

My essence is intrinsically tied to the library and it is my purpose to maintain the structure of the library in case of damages. I know where every book of every subject you may want is located; however, I can't open and read the books in the library and I can't exit the library's bounds. Those are my abilities and restrictions.

If you don't desire my presence, you may simply erase me by simply willing it as my existence solely depends on your wishes. However, I must inform you that the library won't be able to recover itself in the case of an attack if I am erased."

All of that was said in a single breath by her.

William had to think hard about the pros and cons of the situation at hand. On one hand, he got the ability to have full access to his memories and information. Also, it provided a better way of learning all of the magic theory that Jaina unceremoniously jammed into his brain. However, he had to live with the fact that he let an unknown variable dwell in his soul sea, the most essential part of an awakened. Sure, she explain that he could just erase her existence on a whim and that she had restrictions placed on her but he would be a fool to take her words at face value.

It always ended in these decisions for him. Well, he had a method to determine whether this whole thing was worth the hassle to keep or not.

"Are the memories of my life also stored here?" he asked the construct that looked like teenage Jaina.

"Affirmative," she answered without a second of delay, "I can take you to where you can check for yourself if you so wish or I can bring the books you desire."

"No," he said with a bit of thought, he needed to see it for himself, "take me there."

"Affirmative, please follow me." With that, the spell construct turned her back to him and moved in a particular direction expecting him to follow.

William walked only a few steps behind her. For an unknown amount of time, the two moved through a veritable maze of shelves, books, and ladders that made his head hurt just trying to recall the route they had taken.

Then, the spell construct stopped in front of a particular series of shelves that held many books of the same size and color but with different titles.

"We have reached our destination," she said in monotone like a GPS voice assist; no, the GPS had a more emotional voice than her, "the books are organized in the shelves based on the age of the memory."

She pointed at the top of a particular shelf that had the words " Seven Years Old' engraved on it, "All the books stored here are of the memories you made when you were five years old in human years."

William moved towards the shelf and randomly chose a book that looked like all the other books except for the title, which read '7th Birthday'.

Opening the book, a bright flash emanated from it, and he found himself standing in a dark hallway. It took him a moment to realize that it was the hallway of their old house that had burned down thanks to the few pictures of his family nailed to the cracked, old wall.

The lights had been turned off, but he could see a source of illumination coming from the direction of where the kitchen was.

Unknown emotions stired in his heart as he made his way towards it; all the while, no creaking sounds emerged from the old wooden floor.

When he reached the kitchen's open door, his breath hitched, and his eyes watered.

Inside the kitchen were all the members of his family: his mother, his sister, and himself. Except, they were all younger; his mother looked like she was in her mid-twenties, his sister looked like her five year old self, and he of course based on the date of the memory he chose was seven years old.

They all sat around a small table that had a small chocolate cake with seven lit candles on top of it.

"Alright, William, you're seven years old now. Blow on the candles and make a wish!" His mother, Cassandra, said in an attempt to bring joy to the occasion.

"Will! Will! Will! Will! Can I make the wish? Can I? Can I? Pretty pleeeeeaaaaasseeee! With cherry on top!" His sister's hyperactive childish voice stopped whatever his younger said wanted to say.

"Sarah!" Cassandra admonished her daughter. "Today is William's birthday. You can't make a wish on other people's birthdays, that's rude."

Sarah seemed to shrink on herself due to what her mother had said.

"It's okay, mom," he heard his younger self say while smiling at towards his younger sister, who was feeling down, "she can make the wish. I already did mine on my last birthday."

"William," his mother was at a loss before sighing in resignation and smiling at her daughter, "It's alright, sweetie, make your wish."

"Yay! I will make the bestest wish ever!" she jumped from joy and blew on the candles, causing the room to descend into darkness. Then, the old lightbulb handing from the top of the kitchen roof flickered to light as his mother flicked its switch on which was beside the door.

William's heart felt like it was being ripped to shreds as he saw his mother's face as she stared directly at him. No, she was staring through him at the dark hallway.

"Mom?" he chocked as he attempted to reach out to her. Yet, as soon as his hands came into contact with her body, it passed right through it.

Cassandra seemed unpertubed by what William did and turned back back towards her two children, "Let's eat the cake! Who wants the first slice?"

Even though he was standing right there, it was as if she couldn't see him at all. Like, he was a ghost in his own memories.

Unable to withstand the heartache of seeing the scene before him anymore, he wished to exit the memory. The next moment, William heard the Thump! of a book closing, he was again at the library holding onto the book he had taken from the shelf.

He could feel tears flowing down his cheeks. The spell construct simply stared at him with her soulless eyes with no emotion showing on her features.

Looking at the shelves that contained his memories, he asked the construct with a hoarse voice while drying his eyes with his palms, "What happens if something makes me forget any of my memories."

"The Mind's Library spell acts as a means of cataloging and making all of your available memories accessible. Your memories are protected from being forgotten by the simple passage of time, but they are still vulnerable to being erased by other means. If a memory gets erased, the book associated with that memory simply disppears from the library; however, their designated place will still be left empty on the shelf."

She pointed towards a certain shelf that held the words 'Birth' on it. In particular, she pointed at the eerily empty book spot that made a cavity in the already crowded shelf.

'Must be from the first time I died,' he assumed while staring intently at the empty spot on the shelf, 'hopefully, it was nothing important.'

Satisfied, William turned toward the spell construct, "I decided to leave you in charge of the library for the time being. Now, I want to go out of here."

The construct's expression didn't even twitch as her fate got decided, "If that is your wish. Please follow me."

With that, the two of them returned back to where the white-haired youth had entered the library from.

He moved towards the door and was half-way through it before he half-turned towards the teenage form of Jaina Proudmoore behind him, "Until next time, I guess."

The last thing he saw was the construct blinking at him before the white, decorated door closed.

William slumped against the door and fell onto the snow underneath him. He held his face in his hands as an exhausted sigh escaped his body. The recent events took a major toll on him both emotionally and mentally.

William silently stared with tired eyes at the dark, cloudy sky of his soul sea. He watched as white flakes of snow fell continously over the desolate land until his mind and heart got calm again.

Then, he exited his soul sea after checking his armor's repair progress. Regardless, of how he was feeling, he had a clear goal to achieve: Find a way to leave this dead kingdom.

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A.N: Hello everyone, John here. I know that the addition of the library came out of left field for some of you. However, I believe that it is an important thing to add to the MC because it will at least give him an idea of just how much memories he is losing.

Of course, it ain't all unicorns and rainbows as even if the MC knows that he lost a memory from his birth, he wouldn't know what memory it was as its existence is entirely erased. 

Also, I plan to have the library play a major part of a few plot points in the future, especially in regards to our MC's past and development as a magician/wizard/sorcerer. There will other be other plot points in the future but they are on a need to know basis right now.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Until next time, have a good one!