He must have been really worried, I smiled. A few moments later Irmeia made her way back to us as well. She’d realized her route was not leading her anywhere and had decided to find us.
“It’s impressive that you found your way here to us exactly,” I said. “That’s pretty accurate.”
“It was nothing,” she chuckled. “I simply followed the scent of blood.”
“She what?” Nyx said, his tone deadpan.
I looked around. Just how much blood did I spill?
The Volcanic Bears suddenly glanced into the forest, not in any one direction, but in directions all around.
Another Imp attack? I wondered, and gripped Dawnbreaker tight.
Suddenly, a loud howl rang through the forest, and strong gale burst through, like a twister getting ready to form. The sky darkened, as though the very moon and stars had turned away in fright. Silhouettes of darkness emerged around us, forming humanoid shadows that trapped us within their circular ranks.
“Hmmm.” A voice spoke from behind me. “You know, I know someone just like you.”
I turned, and in front of me, staring into my eyes, was the helmeted head of a man I knew far too well.
"Holy hell," Nyx said, echoing my thoughts.
"The name’s Diablo," the man chuckled. "Have we met before?"
***
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
You know how you have those moments when you wonder what you used to be, when you find yourself curious about a time you no longer remember, wondering who you used to be, what you used to do.
I felt no such thing anymore.
For as long as I could remember — which was only a few months of this new life — I had always been curious about what I was like before I had been sealed away. And yet, in the face of an opportunity to satiate my curiosity, my desires had vanished.
Am I afraid of finding out? I frowned.
This Phantom Lord looked at me, amusement in his gaze. Darkness seemed to grasp the space around us, as if it was reacting to our presences. The men of shadows stood still around us, no attacking intent in their demeanor.
I sighed, and a wry smile curled onto my lips as I looked up at the man. “I am Zoran.”
“How odd,” he tapped the inner-side of his helmet. A hissing sound came through and the lower section expanded a few inches. He pulled it off, and locks of grey flowed down his head. He flicked the strands from his eyes and looked at me, the flecks in his silver eyes glistening under the dull moonlight.
“We have quite the resemblance,” he chuckled, and walked around, studying me as though I were a specimen.
“Indeed, we do,” I said, following his movements with my gaze. I caught the glances of everyone else from the corner of my vision. I could tell that they were completely astounded at the moment. And I did not blame them. There was no normal way to react to such a development. In fact, I myself was not quite sure how I was staying calm in this situation.
The past me snapped his fingers, and the ground rumbled. I tensed. An attack? I blinked. Could I actually take myself on if that were the case?
In the end, two circular pillars of rock simply rose from the ground, with dust and mud falling of their circular sides as they did. The pillars lifted to just below our waists, and stopped there, with the tremors freezing up as well.
“Sit,” past me said, leaning back and taking his seat against the pillar. He looked behind me, toward everyone else. “Come.” He snapped his fingers, summoning more pillars of stone beside me, arranged in a semicircle with the inner side facing him.
They all hesitated for a second, but I gestured at them to join me and they slowly made their way toward us.
“Ah, I am sorry, Acnologia,” past me said. “But I do not have a seat for you.”
The dragon chuckled. “I need no such thing.”
“That is good,” he replied.
I froze, and I could tell that the Dragon felt the same way as well. I hadn’t even opened my mouth to become his muse and yet the past me was already conversing with him.
“Did this guy just hear what Acnologia said?” Nyx asked. “That’s never happened before.”
“You’ve also never met another man with a Spirit King Ability.” A new voice entered my mind, only this was a voice that I recognized.
The past me grinned, with an amused expression in his eyes. He was messing around here, and we both knew it.
“Okay everything is just going to hell now.” Nyx sounded very confused.
“Using such words is never a good thing, Nyx,” he chuckled. “Especially when considering the circumstances around us, such a thing can literally happen.”
“He can hear Nyx?” Freya’s voice whispered softly. I couldn’t tell if she was asking me or just voicing out her astonishment, but I nodded anyway.
“So,” past me said, and sat with one leg atop the other. “From what I gather, you are me — not just some attempt at a shoddy remake like I had presumed. Now given we are immortal, I cannot tell how old you are. I will say however, I do not recall a time when I was so weak in strength. So you are from the future then, I presume.”
I blinked. “Y-yeah,” I nodded. He hit the nail right on the head.
“Time traveling was never my thing,” past me sighed. “Why are you beings here then? Especially with a Dragon as well.”
“We have no idea,” I said. “We found her unconscious.” I glanced at Irmeia. “And when we were attending to her, she suddenly started glowing with a bright light. Moments later we found ourselves here.”
“Or more precisely, in a cave far off,” Freya added.
“So you, Eternal,” past me looked at Irmeia. “You are the one they are talking about, correct?”
“She nodded. “I have no recollection of what happened. I was only told of what I did by Diablo himself shortly after I awoke.”
“Interesting,” past me grinned and turned back to me. “So all you saw was light, and you were here.”
“Pretty much,” I said.
“Very well, I’m intrigued enough to help.”
“Diablo.” Freya frowned. “Though we do require help, and though you are willing to provide us with some, I must voice my concern. We are already meddling much with the threads of time.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I will not go fight your battles for you. Doing so might cause some effects on your present. But as is I will be simply guide you given what I know. Such a development will not mess with anything.”
The elf bowed her head. “Very well,”
“Now that we have that settled,” the Eternal looked at me. “Since you are me, I’m assuming you have already made many attempts to find a way back home.”
“We tried to find someone who might be able to help us understand what was going on.”
“Ah, so you’re the ones that went to Polaris.”
I blinked. “Yeah,” I said. “How did you know?”
“I felt the portal in these forests activate,” past me said. “No one goes to see Polaris much. And given your need for knowledge of time travel, it follows you would pursue one of the only beings who might know of such a thing.”
“Oh,” I said. This guy is smart, I thought.
“Maybe you just got dumber as you got older,” Nyx said.
“I sure hope not,” past me spoke directly into my mind.
“So,” Irmeia spoke. “Do you know of anything that might help us?”
“First,” he held up his hand. “What did Polaris tell you? Much depends on what his opinion was.”
“He said there was a man here who mentioned something about ‘Warriors from the Future’,” I said. “Polaris said he only caught the man’s words and nothing else.”
“Quite a substantial event.” past me fiddled with his fingers. “And this man. Are you trying to seek him out?”
I nodded. “That is the only lead we’ve had so far,” I said. “I’m positive he has a connection with all this, given the timing everything happened within.”
<
br /> “I believe so. Did Polaris perhaps see this man somewhere close to the river?”
I blinked. “Yeah. How do you know all this?”
“Because I also saw that man.”
My eyes widened. “When did you see him?”
“The first time I saw him was when Polaris was teleporting to this forest,” past me said. “I found this man odd, but he disappeared before I could pay proper attention to him. The first time I actually observed him was much, much later than that.”
“Next to the river?”
“Close enough,” he said. “I had been scouting the Alpinian forest when I sensed an odd presence around me. I went to look into it, and saw this shadowy figure a mile or so away. Try as I did to gaze at him, I could make out absolutely nothing other than a fuzzy humanoid shadow. It was as though something were blocking my very vision.”
I leaned forward, and my eyebrows furrowed. “And you’re sure this is the man Polaris met.”
“I am certain,” he said. “I know it is him since I tried to track him down after that.”
“You did?” My heart thumped.
“Indeed,” past me said. “However, I did not venture too close since I still do not know anything about this being. But I know of his residence.”
“Wait, you know where this guy lives?” Freya blinked.
“It’s funny,” he chuckled. “I had not expected this information I’d collected to be useful to anyone. Especially not this soon. Fate certainly works in mysterious ways.”
“Fate,” I sighed. “Why not.”
“Where exactly is this man located?” Irmeia asked. “I am assuming it is not too far from the river given he is always been seen close to it.”
“The distance is questionable depending on who you ask,” past me chuckled.
Freya frowned. “What do you mean?”
“It depends on whether you can walk, or whether you can fly.”
“We can teleport,” I said. I still haven’t used my Shadow Travel skill since I got here, so using it now was still an option for us.
Past me shook his head. “Shadow Travel needs a vivid imagery of the land,” he said. “I can provide no such thing for this place.”
“Oh. So where is it exactly?”
He pointed up into the air, and I followed his finger, my gaze coming to a stop at the dense collections of leaves ahead.
“The Itamori Mountains,” he said.
“Ah,” I said. So that’s what he meant by walking or flying.
“As far as flying goes,” he said. “I would not recommend it. The mountain top has severe storms quite often, and it is dangerous to fly around at such times.”
Acnologia grunted.
“Even if one is a dragon,” past me shot back, looking at the Dragon as he spoke.
“Do we have to climb all the way then?” Freya asked, and her shoulders were already drooping.
He shook his head. “There is a tunnel hidden within the mountains that you can take,” he said. “It leads straight through the range. There is no climbing you will have to do.”
“Wait, straight through?” Irmeia asked. “How long is this route?”
“I am not entirely certain. I can tell you however, that it is quite long.”
“Ah,” I said. It seemed a good solution. Although, walking through a small tunnel under a tall mountain was probably not the safest thing to do.
“That is all that I have to tell you,” past me said.
DING!
Congratulations! You have completed the quest:
Back to the Future II!
You have ascertained that there is enough mystery clouding this man to warrant paying him a visit. Your past self has also given you adequate directions to find this man. Reward: Back to the Future III.
DING!
Congratulations! You have obtained a new quest:
Back to the Future III!
Use your past self’s directions and head to the mystery man’s residence. You are close to unlocking the secrets of your time travel. Rewards: Unknown.
I’m close? I chuckled. Sure.
“I’m curious about one thing, Diablo.” Irmeia looked at my past self. “Why did you think about investigating this man in the first place?”
“It is as I said before,” past me said. “There was something odd about his presence, and that alone pricked my curiosity enough to get me to do such a thing.”
“I see.”
“Anyways,” he said, getting up from his seat. “I believe that is all that I have to offer to you.”
He snapped his fingers and the stones sunk back to the ground in a flash, dropping us suddenly to the floor. He chuckled. “Funnier every time.”
“Well it’s good to know you were always this immature,” Nyx said, speaking after what seemed like a long time. I figured he and Acnologia didn’t want to say much during the conversation, since everyone else would hear nothing off it.
Also, I was sure Freya would kill us if she saw four people having a mental conversation just by themselves.
“Zoran.” Past me lent me a hand and pulled me up. “Walk with me for a bit, will you?”
I turned around, and noticed that everyone else had bunched up together. “I’ll be back in a bit,” I said.
Freya nodded. “Take your time.”
I strode alongside the Eternal as we walked deeper into the forest. “Where are we going?” I asked.
“Nowhere specific,” he said. “I just want to have a normal conversation with you, away from prying ears.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I see.”
“I am curious, future self, why exactly are you so much weaker?”
I froze. There’s no way I can answer that. Telling my past self about the Seal of the Eternal was not a good thing. There was no saying how such a change would affect the events in the future.
“So it something you cannot mention,” my past self said, realizing it from just my silence.
“I’m sorry,” I sighed.
“It is troubling to be in such a situation,” past me chuckled. “However, it is good to see that even though I did not keep all my powers, I still kept Dawnbreaker.”
“It’s a good blade,” I smiled.
“It better be. The lengths that we had to go to obtain this blade…” He sighed. “Even so, I would do it once more without a flinch.”
I stood with a frozen smile. I have no clue what he’s saying.
“Say, Diablo,” past me turned to me. “There is one thing about you that does not add up to me.”
I blinked. “Doesn’t add up.”
“Maybe I am not apt in the ways of time, but if I already know something now, must you also not know the thing? Even if you are from the future? I would imagine that my knowledge of this mysterious man would be something that you already possess.”
“Oh.” My shoulders tightened. This conversation is definitely not going the way I want. In fact, it was going the way I specifically didn’t want it to go. We were getting onto the topic of my lost memories, and I definitely did not want to discuss that topic. That had a lot of things that past me should not know.
But somehow, I found a way around it.
“Time adds up quickly,” I said. “There are a lot of things you’ll learn in the future. And with more knowledge, the parts of what you learned before are lost. This case of the mysterious man is such a thing.”
“Ah,” he said. “I’m sorry. I should not press you on things that are delicate in the realms of time.”
“It’s fine.”
“Wait, I just realized.” Nyx interrupted the conversation. “Past Diablo, is MY past self not within your mind right now?”
“I am,” a voice responded, much to my surprise. “This idiot just decided to keep me on a stranglehold so I wouldn’t make any snarky comments during the meeting.”
Great, a second Nyx, I chuckled.
“This IS great, excuse you,” Nyx said.
“Well then,” my past self-
chuckled. “I believe it is time for me to leave, Diablo. I wish I could stay and be a part of this, but I am well aware of the implications that will have on the future you are from. I do not wish to cause a disturbance in the timelines.”
“Thank you.” I bowed.
“Remember, Diablo.” He looked at me. “A villain is formed not because of his actions, but because of what people think of him." He smiled, and his eyes of silver-gray glistened as he faded into the darkness. “Never forget that.”
***
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Why did he say that?
I asked myself over and over again, right from when my past-self disappeared into the darkness, up until everyone asked me if I was okay because I’d been silent for too long.
“So what do we do with this kid?” Raffyr asked, as the five of us surrounded Oris. The knight looked at us all, but said absolutely nothing, which I found a change in character for the usually forward knight.
“Keep him,” I said.
“So binds?” Freya asked.
I shook my head. “Unbound.”
“Eh?” They all looked to me at once, including Oris.
“He protected Viola from the imps when she’d fallen unconscious, when none of us had managed to find them,” I said. “And he did this while he was still bound up.”
It was now Oris’ turn to get gazed at, and he turned away uncomfortably. “I did no such thing,” he muttered. “It is harder for me to return home if the person who put me here in the first place, dies.”
Viola blinked, and everyone else sighed. “Are you still going on about that?” she asked, but he provided no rebuttal. It was a waste of time, we all knew.
“Either way,” I said, and brought back the conversation. “Keep him unbound. Let him ride the extra Volcanic Forest Bear.”
Irmeia frowned. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Keeping him with us while he was bound was a questionable thing, and now we must keep him unbound?”
Oris sighed. “Could you please stop talking about me like I’m not even here?”
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 64
