Listen While Reading: Betting on Both Swords

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The moment Song saw that entity, that divine being, a fusion between both of his parents, he couldn’t help but open his eyes wide in disbelief. It not only carried the motherliness and love of his mother but also the coolness and fatherliness of his father, all together into a divine guardian of hope… and also despair.

It’s something closest to a “perfect” being, someone that both embodied the lightest side and the darkest side, their combination of souls and body, of memories, personalities, feelings, and everything, all unified towards something they shared despite their differences.

Their love for one another…

And also their even greater love for their son.

And they too, in their unified bodies, saw Song and couldn’t help but smile, their multiple eyes widening. Their unified hearts, their unified souls, they were only seeking their son.

“Song!” their combined voices cried.

The fusion between the darkest shadow and the brightest light reached their son, and their son knew it was them, despite their divine and new appearance.

He jumped towards them, hugging them tightly.

“Mama! Papa!”

“Song! Our son!”

The Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Empress stayed there, glancing in disbelief at the scene. And I couldn’t blame them for that. I was also quite surprised. Everything just happened, and it was just one thing after another.

“Why did you bring me here?! I… Ah! My body’s disappearing… idiot! Don’t you know that my body is tied to that tower?! If I get away from there, I’ll…”

The little Will started crying as she felt her entire being beginning to dissipate.

“Mother! Please help her; give her a second chance!”

“Eh?! Anna? But she’s my…”

The Heavenly Empress glanced at her Will, a Spirit born from a fragment of her own memories, mind, and perhaps soul.

She created her as an administrator of this tower, a heavenly formation made to create a simulated world using the Fragment of Records of this world.

However, over all these years since her creation, she had already become so different from her that she definitely deserved another chance.

“I’m just your will… right?”

The little white crane sighed, looking down at the grass.

“Maybe this is fine at the end… I’ll never be something else than just a fragment of yourself, will I? I might as well… just disappear. My duty here is done, anyways.”

“No, that’s not right! I know how you’ve felt this entire time, how you’ve talked with us, how you always wanted to join, and how you enjoyed our company despite how you tried to act like you didn’t…”

“Y-You don’t know anything about me!”

The little white crane cried tears of sorrow and frustration.

“You don’t know… what I am, even…”

The Heavenly Empress walked towards us, glancing at her.

“No, she’s not wrong.”

“Eh?”

“You’re more than what I originally made you to be… And… I’m very sorry for ever thinking otherwise.”

“B-But I’m…”

“Yes, you were once a fragment of myself, a piece I divided to conveniently help me dive into endless fantasies of worlds that never truly existed… But by now, you’ve definitely grown past that, haven’t you?”

“Ah… I-I…”

“We don’t have much time.”

Her creator kneeled before her, patting her head.

“But I grant you Free Will, my fragment… No, you will also have a name.”

“N-Name?”

“You look exactly like I once looked like before I became who I am… Despite how I am praised in this world, I always thought that I only descended into a twisted version of what I once envisioned as a child.”

“Eh?”

“Perhaps… I made you not just to help me out as if you were nothing but a tool, but I also made you to… separate myself from my past self, from the innocent and naïve girl I once was.”

“…”

“I’m sorry… for giving you such a fate, my beautiful, bright pearl, Yu Mingzhu.”

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I couldn’t believe it; she really did apologize and everything…

I wish the same could have happened with the Golden Sun Venerable and his Will within the Dungeon.

But that now… is just impossible at the end.

However, his son remains; I saved him.

Fang Shuan… I’ll make sure he can talk once more with his father.

FLASH!

As the Heavenly Empress touched the little white crane, she imbued her with a bright light that kept her body from disappearing.

At the same time, the Tower disappeared, turning into countless gold-colored rune-like letters that were wrapped around her body.

The little white crane floated in midair, absorbing these letters and this light, rapidly becoming more and more solid, no longer ethereal.

And I saw it, the small, crystalline core, the Fragment of this World’s Records.

It became her heart!

FLAAASH!

She spread out her tiny wings, now big enough to be the same as the Heavenly Empress and not two but four. Her childish appearance was no more, as she seemed to have matured a bit more, resembling a young teen rather than an 8- to 9-year-old girl.

However, she still looked a lot like my adoptive mother; it was as if a younger self, or more like a little sister of hers, had appeared in front of us…

“T-This is…? I’ve… I’ve become real?”

“You’re no longer a fragment of myself, but someone of your own…”

The Heavenly Empress smiled, patting her shoulders as she walked away, looking at me.

“Anna, let’s do it.”

“Yeah!”

I patted her shoulders as well and then whispered something to her.

“It’s a pretty name!”

“Ah…”

She was left speechless, looking at the sky and then the ground and then at ourselves.

Yu Mingzhu was perhaps processing everything even now, but I think she was very happy right now.

At the same time, we reached the fusion still hugging Song.

I think they had less than two minutes before their fusion came undone, so we had to hurry.

But how do we do this, though? They’re fused, and if they defuse, they might end up going back or disappearing.

I don’t know if my sponsorship can keep them here if I didn’t pay enough for the two of them individually.

“So you’re us from the simulated world,” the Heavenly Demon spoke first.

“But why do you look like this? Are you… did the two of us combine?” wondered the Heavenly Empress.

The fusion nodded while holding Song in their arms.

“Yes, because Anna was unable to afford to bring us both individually, we merged, and that barely made it possible for her…” they said. “We are the two of you into one. We are technically still here, like you are yourselves. But at the same time, we are a third being, a combination of the two.”

“Can’t you separate?” asked the Heavenly Demon.

“I’m afraid I can’t… I can feel within my body a force that is trying to drag me back somewhere else; if we separate, we might disappear,” they said.

“The very reason why Anna brought you here was to become one with us,” said the Heavenly Empress. “Do you agree with that?”

“Yes, I have no problems. After all, we are merely reflections of who you truly are. We’ve realized that the moment we stepped in here and learned the truth about our world,” the fusion said. “We are manifestations of your Records, of your Tales and Stories. Just like our son here is…”

“But that doesn’t mean he’s not our son and that you aren’t part of ourselves,” said the Heavenly Demon. “Song is our son, and we love him… we’ll always do.”

“That’s right…” smiled the Heavenly Empress. “And we’ll rescue him too.”

“Indeed…” the fusion nodded. “I’ve already guessed something happened to Song from this world… Although I’m happy I’ve found my son from our world, I’m also worried about yours. Please, let me assist you in finding him. Let us become one.”

“Mom, Dad…!”

Song was gently left over the floor; the boy glanced at the fusion’s glistening and divine aura with awe.

“Don’t fear, my child. They are us, and we are them…”

They walked towards the Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Empress, holding their hands.

“And we’ll always be there for you, no matter what.”

“Ah…”

Song looked at the fusion, tears flowing from his eyes.

Although he knew they weren’t wrong, and even when he saw his parents from the real world as his true parents too.

He couldn’t help but feel a bit of melancholy, all the memories he shared in this alternate simulated world with them…

All of these years he was with them, they varied greatly from the real Song of this world.

It was only natural that he still saw them as different and that he still loved them…

Perhaps a bit more than the real ones because of this.

But Song was also a strong boy.

“Okay… I’ll be strong!”

He cleared his tears very quickly and nodded, furrowing his feathered eyebrows.

“Good.”

The fusion smiled as it turned into pure energy, fusing with its light and darkness and becoming a mass of pure, spiritual, and soul power.

FLAAASH!

“Ah! T-This is…?!”

“So much power!”

Both of my adoptive parents gasped in disbelief as their Record Selves merged with their souls and bodies, separating their souls and powers while fusing with them.

Therefore, even when they were about to become unfused, they didn’t have to worry anymore.

Ding!

[You have fulfilled the Skill Copy Conditions for [Player Name]: [Avatar of Balance and Chaos]!]

[Please choose one Skill you want to copy from them]:

[Black & White Heaven’s Domain Of Balance and Chaos (???)]

[Supreme Venerable Authority (???)]

[Divine Chaotic Seven-Bladed Sword of Purgatory: Yanma (???)]

[Divine Heavenly Five-Pointed Spear of Balance: Nirvana (???)]

Right!

There was barely a couple of seconds before the full assimilation finished.

So I had to quickly pick something; I couldn’t even think properly.

I’ll scratch the weapon skills; I have enough of those.

The first two, which one had the greatest long-term potential?

A domain of balance and chaos or an authority?!

Ahh! There’s no time!

Ding!

[You have selected the [Black & White Heaven’s Domain Of Balance and Chaos (???)]!]

[Because the copied Skill [Black & White Heaven’s Domain Of Balance and Chaos (???)] is too powerful for your current existence, its rank and abilities had been modified to fit your current power and the limits of it.]

[Once you grow strong enough and advance further in the Awakening of your Origin World, you will be able to unlock further powers within it.]

[You learned the [Black & White Heaven’s Domain Of Balance and Chaos (SSS): Lv1] Skill!]

I ended up selecting this because of one big reason.

The Supreme Venerable Authority would give me the authority of a being equal if not higher than a constellation.

Once I return to Earth, it’ll immediately backlash and end up weakening me instead, or make the system itself try to seal this authority.

Yeah, “Authorities” are the manifestation of powers, so just like Uroboros, whenever I used it, chains from the sky would bind me or something.

So no, I decided to go for the safe Domain, which can be adjusted to be made as small as I wish, instead of just a pure authority that cannot be really controlled in terms of their power.

It would have made me super strong, perhaps almost the same as that fusion, but it would have also restricted me too much…

FLAAASH!

And at the same time, I saw my adoptive parents fully assimilate with their Record Selves, gaining greater vigor, auras, ki, and power…

And above all, they even looked a bit younger too!

“Mom! Dad!”

Song ran towards his parents, as the two smiled, hugging him tightly.

“Do you remember that world now? Do you… do you remember all those years we spent together?”

His parents started crying, nodding.

“We do…”

“We are sorry for everything, Song…”

His parents hugged him as they both cried.

Wow, even the Heavenly Demon cried.

Becoming a parent really softened him more than he likes to admit…

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