Chapter 181: Denial(7)

Aether took Voidpiercer out, noble blood flowing down slowly from the pure black steel onto the guards, falling through the cracks, and onto his hand.

This is what he hated about his blade. The guard may block slashes and such, but never blood. Every time, he got painted by those he killed. His hands had to endure the take the sin of those who had lost their light because of him.

Yet it was different this time, since… he hadn’t ended the life of a stranger, but his own. It was weird. He was alive, yet at the same time, he could see a dead body exactly like his in front of him.

From where did it appear, to whom did it belong?

Was it him?

He never understood alternative realities, and never did he think he would find himself in one. If he killed himself from another timeline, was it still him, had he killed himself, or another person?

They were nothing alike; they hadn’t shared the same childhood, the same powers, the same hardship, but they had the same blood. The same appearance and such?

So were they the same person?

Well, biologically, yes. But aren’t twins just the same story? Well, twins are originally identical, then they slowly get their own genetic path.

Really, it was complicated, really complicated.

At birth, a pair of twins share the same DNA, and it’s not like by doing completely opposite things they change their core DNA, but what they can change are epigenetics.

So if you took a pair of twins lets say, at adulthood, while they have the same genes from birth, their brains wire differently, their hormone systems diverge, their immune responses aren’t the same, and even obvious things like physical traits.

So really, they’re genetically the same, the same code, but biologically, they execute it differently.

There are many cases where twins can even have different disease risks, different stress responses, different cognitive patterns, and many other things.

’The same coin, different side…’

But the dead body in front of him wasn’t his twin’s. But rather it belonged to him, just in another world.

They share the same name, and while a name doesn’t mean anything, it does have a meaning in what a person is.

When you think of someone, you think of their name.

They share the same birthday, to the second. Heck to the nanosecond. And the same birthplace. Maybe even childhood, but to a point, and that point, if he had to guess, is the moment he had gone on that mission as a child to the neighboring kingdom.

Which led to him never learning what the Withered was, and probably him awakening as the Vessel of Praise. Ironic that in the real world, he was the Vessel of the Abyss, knowing the relationship of the two.

Their origin was the same, and most of their life’s were also the same. But beyond that, they had gone on completely different paths, and they began to become different people.

Really, after all this talk, it’s what you see a human as.

Biologically, they were the same person.

But if you think outside of genetics, they weren’t the same person. Personality is important; decisions are important.

If that were the case, if you made a perfect clone of yourself, with all your genetics, would you be looking at a clone or yourself? If you both are the same person, who says that it’s a clone?

The only way you could differ is through acts.

So… in his heart, he hadn’t killed himself, but rather another person he could have been.

…

…

“Really, a bold move to choose Frozen Crown. But, I do wonder why you chose this memory.”

Was he trying to mock him? He had his memories; if he didnt he wouldn’t have the ability to create these worlds and get people from his past inside them, just different personalities. So then why was Frozen Crown so special?

Since it had to have a reason.

Denial, that was the name of the being, or at least that was what he figured out. It made sense for the last floor to hold the living embodiment of denial when the whole of The Tides revolved around it.

Denial was smart; it figured out that he was getting his memory back slowly, so he couldn’t keep the illusion up, so he switched tactics; he had to. So then what was his new plan…

“And what does Frozen Crown have to do with it. It’s so annoying that i cant figure it out.”

…

…

He chuckled.

Really, Denial wasn’t here to hurt him, but rather to make him lose his mind, which was working; he couldn’t say he was really right in the mind at the moment.

… But because of this madness, he could think faster.

“Thats what you expect me to say, to question. Don’t you, Denial?”

He laughed.

In reality, he knew well why he had picked Frozen Crown.

Denial had picked this memory specifically because it knew that he hated the ending he had created, and so he thought that with the opportunity right in front of him. He couldn’t resist denying the original ending he had created and went and made a new one.

…

“And… you’re right, i cant resist it…”

…

He looked at the sky and smiled.

“But I won’t save the world… I’ll destroy it even further than I did originally. Until you come yourself.”

…

…

But what he figured out was that this Frozen Crown had time going faster than normal, rather than it being it being Frozen completly, as it had been in the original story. But while he would normally be frightened of this, of spending too much time and growing old in this wicked place, this was an illusion. So it didnt effect him in reality, even if that is what it seems like.

So he could use his time, since if he died in the illusion, it wouldn’t do any good to Denial.

…But what now, what was he going to do… to destroy the world further than he had done in the original ending of Frozen Crown.

He had some ideas, but first, he needed revenge…

…

’It should be here…’

After walking for quite a while, it led him to a very familiar place, the same place where Avrie and Elpis were raising their sun. The same sun that took Avrie’s life, and not only hers, but the life of many others, after it had become a God… all because of him.

He entered the building, surprised to see its color. It wasn’t white like theirs has been, but he should have realized that the him from this timeline wouldn’t sacrifice human lives for this. So by his guess, and what he remembers from Avrie’s teachings, they probably used monsters to fuel it.

In his own timeline, he had failed to do this, to destroy the Sun, but this time, he won’t. He wasnt the same boy he was that day.

He was almost a seeker.

Plus, that day, he was trying to destroy a much stronger Sun, and he had been stopped by the Queen, but she wasn’t here to stop him anymore.

He sighed, slowly walking closer to Voidpiercer, standing loyally in his hand, by his side.

“Your wish to become a God will sadly not be reached…, but at least you would die like one, or rather you will be killed by something that had killed a Demi-God.” He was, of course, referring to the Queen, who was a Breaker.

Without hesitation, he buried Voidpiercer straight in the belly of the Sun. He felt it, how it tried to absorb it, trying to absorb him like it had done to the many monsters and humans in his original timeline.

But while it may have devoured way bigger beasts, Voidpiercer wasn’t going to let itself be eaten easily. Plus… not even the Gods could survive its soul poison.

He could feel its powers getting weaker, signaling that the poison was working.

…

[You have-]

“Don’t want to hear it.”

Really, he didn’t care that he had done it… he didn’t care to hear the Codex announce its death, since his hunger hadn’t been fulfilled, really, for what did destroying a false sun help him with?

It wasnt the one that he had created. It wasn’t the one he so wished to destroy.

But he did want to see something, since he hadn’t checked in a while.

…

…

[Character Codex: Sync Stable]

Name: Aether Moirai

Age: 14

Race: Human

Affiliation: Royal Family

[Path]: —Vessel of the Abyss—

> You were never meant to hold this power. And yet… the Abyss has chosen you.

Knowledge Rank — [Echo]

>576/2000- knowledge shard

Codex Class — [Reader]

> Sync Rate: 100%

…

’What? I’m sorry, but when? When did I get so many shard.’

He had killed many people with the rebellion, plus some powerful enemies like Belobog, but it wasn’t enough to get this far. So then… how many did he get from this Sun?

…

There were two possibilites really, either this Sun had a very high class and rank… or it gave him the shards of every monster it had absorbed.

…

And if he had to guess, it was the second. Since it wasnt the first time it had happened.

Back at the beginning of Frozen Crown, he had gotten more shards than he should have for killing a monster called Chaos. And now, he understood why.

…

’Still… this is insane… a quarter done already?’

…

He didn’t even know if he should be proud… after all, if he somehow became a Beast, while he was Reader…

…

Wouldn’t that just show how much of a killer he is?

Wouldn’t that just prove that he was just a murderer…

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