Kaela had already vanished, returning to the mountain camp. Millus remained seated at the edge of the cliff, his legs dangling as the vast horizon of the ancient forest stretched endlessly before him, accompanied by cool wind that brushed his hair.
"Twenty years ago… that's a long time, their battle might've ended by now," he murmured to himself, brushing a strand of hair from his eyes.
A furrow formed on his brow. "But I forgot to ask her… how long has it really been since those people wiped everything away? But I doubt she knows the history"
He rested his chin on his hand. "From what I can understand is that they want to control the masses so they can monopolize their beliefs and bind fate to themselves… They keep the people ignorant and hinder progress, in turn cutting off innovation by nipping in the bud, to keep this world frozen in worship."
He sighed and leaned back, he stretched his arms across the solid ground, as his eyes traced the constellations above.
"...I can't even remember what the stars used to look like from my past life, so, why should I involve myself in some dangerous activity, fighting those extremely strong people, I knew the brutality that swept me a while back in the forest, it was… Sigh" That thought ached quietly. Then a flash caught at the corner of his eye, a shooting star streaked across, it was brief and burning.
He lifted a hand toward it with a faint smile.
"Then, If there is any god listening to me… I'd do anything just to go back to my old world again."
He waited for something to happen, and after a while he eventually dropped his arm behind his head as a pillow. "Heh. I knew it, Kaela was exaggerating," he said with a chuckle.
But then, the world changed.
There was no sound, no shattering of sorts, it was just a subtle shift. The ground vanished, and the sky bled into the void. Millus blinked repeatedly, then he sat up, and found out that there was no ground beneath him. Yet something held him in place, an invisible plane beneath his polished black shoes.
But the most surprising thing was standing before him, a figure loomed, it's towering, formless, not flesh, nor bone, just an endless folds of aurora-colored fabric, draped around a silhouette filled with stars. It looked like the night sky had taken a body just to speak to him.
His breath was caught, but he didn't panic. He stood slowly, adjusting his long sleeves, his crimson brooch faintly gleaming.
"This… isn't the mountain, the space here feels artificial." His gaze shifted around, scanning the surroundings and trying to make sense of his situation. "Am I inside of a gate?"
Then he tried calling out to Veda in his mind. 'Veda, can you analyze this space?'
But there was no answer, then he tried again.
'Veda?'
But there was still nothing. That unsettled him more than the being before him.
Then it spoke, its voice was like a thousand whispers woven together. "Be not afraid, child. I am but a messenger of a great being. Your wish has been heard."
Millus took a step back. "My… wish?" His voice was quiet, as doubt clouded his mind and his expression. "How do you know about that?"
The being tilted slightly, its motions like bending light. "You long for lost memories. For warmth that has vanished. My master can return them all to you."
Millus narrowed his eyes. "And what does your master want in return? Surely this not out of pity, there is no such thing as free in this world."
"You are correct, but it is simple, Worship and Devotion. Pledge yourself, your allegiance, your loyalty, your everything to the Great Being… and the curse clouding your mind shall be undone."
Silence fell as soon as the being called messenger finished speaking. Millus's eyes searched the figure, its surreal body, its soft glow, the way it spoke in familiarity, he laughed at it in his mind.
'Heh, that sounds too convenient… it appeared the moment I wished for something. And too precise at that, it's as if you've been keeping watch over me.'
He crossed his arms. "If you can remove the curse, tell me what that curse is, can you name it?"
The messenger paused for a moment, then it replied, "You are shackled by the mark of another, an older force that watches over you, my master offers freedom of your true potential."
Millus's unease grew. "So I'm being watched and you conveniently arrive to help me? It's either you're lying… or I've been forcefully thrown into a situation that I don't understand."
Then he sighed while brushing the dust from his sleeve. "You speak as if I should be honored by this offer. But let me ask, if your master is so great, why does he need followers? Why not just take what he wants? Or better yet, why did he send you, why not come himself?"
The messenger's aura flickered, its tone became colder. "You speak as if you are worthy of my master's presence, do not question something that you cannot comprehend, mortal."
Millus in turn, sharpened his tone. "And you demand faith without trust. Sorry, but I don't kneel to things that hide behind riddles, especially someone that hides from the shadows."
The being remained silent for a moment, then it spoke again, but now, its tone was deeper, and more commanding.
"Gratitude was all that was asked for you, yet, you mock the divine when given mercy, you should be honored."
Millus shook his head. "No, You asked for my soul and be your slave."
The air shifted, as pressure creeped in like a tide of falling stars.
"You have chosen defiance. And for that, you shall be punished."
Millus's jaw tensed, but he didn't flinch. His stance was noble, and composed, but beneath the surface, his heart pounded.
"If this is divine… then I was never meant to worship it, it was meant to worship Me!."
The messenger's light pulsed violently, and the pressure around Millus intensified.
"You dare to claim divinity as your own?, a mortal? You who cannot even recall your past? Your arrogance is as boundless as your ignorance."
The aurora-like fabric of the being lifted in the air, forming a limb. Then a single finger pointed directly at him. The stars within its folds gathered into burning points of light.
A wave of searing pain lanced through Millus's entire body, it's the kind of attack that was impossible to evade.
Without hesitation, he summoned his equipment from his void pocket.
In a flash, the Eternal Dreadplate enveloped him, a black armor veined with glowing crimson, pulsing to the rhythm of his true blood and shadows cascaded from the torn mantle that draped behind him. Then, his hand reached to his side where another void pocket opened, and Crimson Dusk emerged, the Abyssal Rapier, humming with restrained fury. The gem at its hilt pulsed like a heartbeat as Millus instinctively injected it with his blood, temporarily awakening it.
"You think those trinkets will save you?" the messenger spat out, its voice was now booming with rage. "You will know what it means to be unmade."
The void around them cracked and reality fissured like shattered glass, darkness pouring from the fractures. The pressure bore down upon him with crushing intensity, threatening to pulverize his entire body.
But then, a surge of power erupted from within Millus.
The Eternal Dreadplate flared with crimson light as it resisted the attacks coming from every direction, Crimson Dusk glowed with abyssal energy.
He activated a skill tied to his very body, the soulbound ability of the body he now inhabited. A power from the character he once played for nineteen years as a human behind a screen, he was now personally doing it in reality.
Duelist Ultimate Skill: EX-Class-Dimensional Divider.
A ripple of force exploded outward from Millus, channeling through his blade. He slashed clean, unhesitating, and the swing split the fabric of space itself. The dimensional slash crossed all boundaries, striking the messenger's true form beyond reality.
Infused with aura and mana, nearly half of his stamina was consumed in this attack, this was not just any kind of offensive blow, it was judgment.
Dimensional Divider, an attack that ignored defense and distance of the target it had locked in a duel, it was meant to devastate weakened enemies. But even without triggering its full lethality, the damage was monumental.
The messenger screamed in agony for the first time, it was a sound of fraying stars and rupturing silence. Its form staggered as a massive rift tore across its glowing chest.
This was no illusion. This pain reached its real body somewhere in the distant void of the unknown, the being reeled.
"Im…possible…" its voice fraying like torn silk. "Such power… from a mortal…?"
Millus panted, yet he stood tall. His passive regeneration dulled the worst of the pain and exhaustion. Slowly, clarity returned to his eyes.
Then he realized the invisible platform below wasn't holding him up. He was holding himself aloft the void.
"You wanted to show me insignificance?" he shouted, his voice reverberating across the fading void.
"Then LOOK AT ME!"
"I defy your master. I defy your offer. I defy your threats!"
"I will carve my own existence and create my own memories, and find the truth of my past, with or without your help!"
Millus activated another one of his ultimate skill.
Duelist Ultimate Skill: Arena of Life and Death-Crimson Celestial.
The surroundings shifted once more. Above them, suspended in a blood-red sky, a crimson moon loomed, silent and foreboding, its gaze fixed upon the battlefield as the witness to their duel.
This ultimate skill drastically empowered the caster, amplifying their strength tenfold, and extended its buff to those the caster acknowledged as allies.
However, it came at a steep cost. It consumes a massive amount of mana to maintain, for it can briefly alter reality itself, shaping the environment to become a stage for absolute combat.
The messenger faltered after seeing the scene unfolding infront of him. Its form flickered erratically, like a flame on the brink of extinguishing. The rift in its chest still glowed, showing his unstable status.
Then, with a blinding flash of aurora-colored light and no further words, the messenger fired a beam of light which Millus evaded, but before he could counter the avatar vanished.
The void ceased cracking and the pressure lifted then silence returned.
And just like that, he stood once more upon the edge of the mountain cliff, no one was there to witness his duel of life and death.
Wind lashed his hair as the stars shimmered peacefully above. His breaths came fast and shallow, the Eternal Dreadplate steamed faintly, damaged but still intact. While Crimson Dusk still pulsed with life, its awakening was not yet finished.
Then, a familiar voice echoed inside his head.
'Millus… What's going on? You suddenly stood up and equipped your items. And earlier I detected a rapid drop in both your mana and aura levels.'
Millus, who was still panting lightly and keeping his equipment on just in case, replied, "…How long have… I've been standing here?"
'One minute and twenty seconds,' Veda answered promptly, back to her usual tone. 'But that doesn't add up. You didn't use any skill classified under high consumption. No Ultimate Skill, no Exclusive Ultimate skills were deployed. And yet… your armor is damaged, your vitals spiked, and your aura signature was briefly distorted.'
There was a pause, just long enough to let her next words carry weight.
'Millus, what happened? This isn't normal.'
Millus sighed, brushing back his hair as he finally steadied his breathing.
"So… even you don't know," he muttered.
Millus sat down on the grass-covered stone, the weight of what had just occurred was pressing on his shoulders like a mountain. He tried to relax his mind and body for an hour before speaking.
He then unequipped his gloves, letting the cool wind brush against his fingers as he stared at his hands. He set beside him Crimson Dusk, which was still humming faintly.
"…It felt like hours," he said aloud, then he closed his eyes.
'Hours?' Veda echoed, confused. 'Millus, can you explain? it hasn't even been two minutes, that is logically impossible.'
"I know how it sounds," he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow. "But I was taken… somewhere else. It was a void, there was no ground, no sky, just emptiness. Then a being appeared before me, it was cloaked in aurora light… it claimed to be a messenger of a Great Being. It said it heard my wish and came to offer me a deal."
He paused for a moment, letting the words settle, before continuing his explanation.
"It offered to return what I lost. My old world. My memories. Everything." The sound was bitter as he scoffed faintly. "All it wanted in return… was for me to worship its master, show my devotion, and submit without question."
Veda was silent, processing what he said.
"I refused," His voice hardened as he went on. "Then It threatened me, when it realized that he couldn't make me agree, it tried to crush me. I don't know how, but… I fought back. I summoned my gear instinctively, I even used Dimensional Divider-"
'You activated that skill?! Without input through the command sequence of the system? That shouldn't even be possible-'
"It happened on its own," he said firmly. "It wasn't just instinct, it was survival, I felt that if I didn't fight back, it would've killed me, that thing tried to erase me, Veda. And somehow… my skill reached beyond the void. I don't think I hit its avatar, I think I wounded the real thing."
Silence followed his story, it was thick and heavy.
Then Veda spoke her voice, but this time it was lower. 'Millus… I have no record of such beings in the system's data. For you to be forcefully displaced, stripped of connection from the system, and attacked by a foreign entity… this isn't just a system anomaly. This is something else entirely.'
Millus looked up at the sky. The stars had returned to their quiet watch.
"I know," he whispered. "And I think… something's watching us now. But what strikes me more is what it said, that the system itself is the curse holding me down. And there's something else…"
He narrowed his eyes, his voice was now colder. "Why did it have to erase my memories in the first place? That part doesn't add up, can you explain to me?."
But Veda did not answer. Millus was at the end of his string of patience, and now that Veda remained silent, it snapped.
"…I've had enough of this, I want to know the truth!" he said, his voice was low but firm, the effects of his recent battle was still hanging heavy on him. After encountering an enemy so powerful that he had to wager his life, he couldn't bear being left in the dark any longer.
He immediately set up a barrier around himself, etched with layered formations and a spell that hid his presence from the outside world. He then equipped his gear, not out of fear, but out of caution, this time, he wasn't taking any chances.
He sat down in a lotus position, his breaths shallow, his limbs aching, but his mind unwavering, he stabilized his breathing and relaxed his muscles.
Veda's voice resounded throughout his mind, trying to convince him to stop what he was doing, urging him to reconsider. But Millus had already made up his mind.
He focused everything, his will, his attention, his very being, despite the exhaustion. His ethereal body dove deep into his consciousness and descended through the depths, reaching the core of his soul.
And there it was.
A blend of crimson red, pulsing like blood and fire, that was him right now. Intertwined with it was a soft, pure white light, what was left of who he used to be.
He walked forward as he tried to approach it, it was protected by a barrier. But when he touched the barrier surrounding it, a surge of force instantly deflected him.
"…So this is it…" he muttered. "I just have to destroy this then."
He grinned faintly, a tired but determined expression showed on his face. "Those talks about causality, limitations and the necessary erasure of my memories... They were all lies! If I destroy this, then I'll get my memories back."
He raised his hand, condensing his mental energy into a sword of ethereal light. The blade shimmered with intent, it was shaped solely from his resolve.
He aimed it at the core of the system, he was ready to strike, to end the illusion and reclaim what the system took, what truly belonged to him.
But then, he saw something. A figure on the other side, he faltered, his grip loosened slightly.
'There is someone there, standing just beyond the barrier, a person? No, a girl.''
She looked exactly like the one in his image memories. Her silhouette, her expression, even the gentle gaze that lingered like a distant warmth.
He stared at her, his mind went blank, and the sword in his hand flickered.
And he could only watch, standing frozen, as everything he thought he understood suddenly became more complicated.
He stood still, frozen in place as the realization struck him like a thunderclap.
Then he roared, his voice cracking through the silence of his soul.
"What the hell are you doing!? VEDA!!!"
The figure beyond the barrier didn't flinch, but stepped forward, her presence was calm as her voice was soft and steady.
"I am not the person in your memories," she said. "I told you this before, I was born the moment you appeared in that realm… formed from your regret and shaped by your grief."
Millus clenched his fists, the ethereal sword in his hand was trembling.
"Don't lie to me again, I saw her, I remembered her."
Veda's voice remained composed, yet carried the weight of something ancient. "Yes, because the last image seared into your dying mind… was her. The one you failed to protect, your soul clung to that memory as it shattered, that's why I look like her, not because I am her, but because you needed me to be."
Millus took a step back, as he was uncertain and conflicted.
"Then why erase everything?" he asked her bitterly. "Why take it all from me if I needed it so much? My name… my past… the truth! You kept me chained! You kept it from me at the time where I needed it the most!"
"I didn't erase anything," Veda replied, her voice finally quivering with emotion. "You did, your subconscious sealed your memories. A wall you built, not me, I only followed the command written into your soul, to protect you."
"Protect me?" Millus laughed bitterly. "From what? Myself? From pain? From the truth? You call this protection?"
"You were broken, Millus, you even forgot your original name, the system was initially going to transfer you to this world, since you're destined to perish peacefully in your old world," she said gently. "But you had just died, prematurely, painfully, you lost everything, which is why your soul was unstable. If you had remembered everything and carried all that agony with you into this world, you wouldn't be who you are right now, you would've shattered. You wouldn't have made it."
"And yet here I am, standing before you," he snapped. "I deserve the truth."
Veda's form flickered slightly behind the barrier, as if his words struck something deep within her.
"And you shall have it," she said. "But not like this, If you destroy that core, your only anchor, you might never return. You'll awaken the memories, yes, but you may risk drowning who you are now, are you willing to trade one self for another?"
Millus stood there, staring at the flickering figure, his hand was still raised, and the blade was still glowing.
"I don't care who I become," he said coldly. "As long as I'm not blind."
Silence fell between them.
Then, in a softer voice, she whispered, "Then let me stay with you when it happens. If you're going to fall into the abyss… I'll fall with you."
He didn't answer.
The sword in his hand pulsed, at first he was uncertain and wavering, but his resolve no longer faltered.
With a deep breath, Millus steadied himself and the blade as an extension of his will, it flared brighter as his intent solidified.
Veda remained and watched silently, then, without a word, her form shimmered and vanished from sight.
She understood that he had made his choice.
Millus turned back to the barrier before him, the wall of the system itself, the seal that had shackled his memories and caged his truth. He raised the ethereal sword high and brought it down with all the force of his spirit combined into one single intent.
It struck, the impact echoed through his soul, but the barrier held firm, there wasn't even a crack nor a flicker.
It was far stronger than he expected, there were layers upon layers of binding, reinforced by something old and ancient and buried deep within. Every time he struck, it pushed him back, resisting his will. Soon the strain began to build, his mental energy drained rapidly, his focus blurring at the edges.
But he did not stop.
It took him two entire days within his own mind just to chip away the first layer. It was a relentless struggle against something intangible and unmoving, as if the system itself was alive and clinging to his soul.
By the fourth day, his will was frayed, and his thoughts began to bleed into one another, but then, finally, he breached the core.
The moment it shattered, a torrent of memories surged into him. The emotions he had long forgotten crashed over him, faces, voices, laughter, agony. Forty eight years of bond forged by friends and family. The weight of his past self returned in full, not as a small wave, but as a flood.
Everything was his again, the system was gone, it was Destroyed. Yet, there was no triumph in his expression, only exhaustion.
This all happened inside his consciousness, a battle invisible to the outside world, but it had cost him greatly. Mentally, he was drained to the point of collapse. His physical body remained still, and unmoving, but within him, he was on the edge of unraveling.
He couldn't even find the strength to celebrate the return of his identity, nor the immense arsenal he reclaimed, items, relics, and power earned across almost two decades of playing.
What surprised him most, however, was the lingering presence.
Floating gently in the now-liberated void of his mind, it was Veda.
Her consciousness had not vanished with the system's collapse, probably because she was originally part of his consciousness.
There she remained, unbound and silent, Millus looked at her quietly. He could've erased her, let her drift into nothingness.
But instead, he reached out to her.
"I'll keep you with me," he whispered. "as a witness to what I will do, starting now."
And in that still, hollow space, the remnants of his soul began to mend again.
Six days had passed within Millus's consciousness, but to the outside world, only three days had gone by.
Lina arrived alongside Kaela, her steps were hurried and her heart was pounding with worry. They found him exactly where Kaela had left him, sitting motionless near the edge of the cliff, his eyes closed, utterly still. The wind tugged at his mantle, but he remained untouched by it, as if frozen in time.
The barrier he had set to protect himself had shattered on the very first day.
A blinding pillar of crimson light had torn through the sky like a spear, piercing the ward and breaking it apart with ease. Alarmed by the display, Kaela had returned to investigate. And what she found was not a battlefield, but it was Millus, locked in a deep meditative trance, he was unmoving and unreachable.
So she didn't disturb him.
Instead, Kaela stood watch, her instincts telling her that whatever battle he was facing now wasn't one fought with weapons, but within himself.
Lina, upon her arrival, panicked at the sight of him. His pale face, the faint tremble in his fingers, the unhealed cracks along his armor, it was enough to make her heart race.
She rushed to him, trying to reach out, but Kaela caught her by the shoulder.
"Don't disturbed him," she said gently. "He's still inside… he's fighting something."
"But he looks, he looks like he's dying!" Lina's voice trembled, and she was on the verge of tears.
Kaela knelt beside her. "He's not dying you know, don't make a fuss about this, from what I can see, he's enduring it well, so all we can do now… is wait."
Having listened to Kaela, Lina nodded. She went back to the camp and set it up nearby, never straying too far from him. Day turned to night, and Millus sat still in silence, cloaked in stillness and starlight, but on the third day.
Kaela descended the mountain to hunt monsters or wild game for their breakfast, so Lina was left behind at camp, she started to tend a small fire, but her mind was troubled by Millus's prolonged silence.
Just then, a soft voice broke the silence behind her.
"Need some help?"
Lina stopped in her tracks, then slowly, she turned around. And there he was, Millus, stepping forward, his eyes were no longer closed in meditation but awake with a hard-earned clarity.
End of chapter