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.”
“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 u
p 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?”
“Oris is an expendable resource to us,” I said once again. “We will keep him for as long as we can. Or rather, as long as we need to.”
Everyone looked at me, and I could see nervousness in their eyes, just like before. They still didn’t seem comfortable with talking about the ‘expendability’ about a person, but I didn’t really have any issues with it, especially when it was about a man from the Dark Alliance. Whether it was Dark Alliance or the Alliance of Light, I had killed enough people to fill multiple cities. For me to suddenly start treating the enemy as human was not psychologically possible.
If I felt compassion and pity for this one man, I would have to do so for every single one that I had murdered and cut up over the last few months.
I don’t have time to go through trauma right now, I thought.
Either way, everyone seemed to be fine with my plan, and so we set out, with Viola and Raffyr on one bear, and with everyone else on their own ones. I made Oris ride in the middle of us all, with the four other bears forming a square around him. Acnologia walked quietly behind the formation, acting as a silent guardian of sorts.
Freya rode alongside me at the front as we headed down the forest routes. The morning warmth was seeping into this forest, stifling the strong breezes. I heard a lone insect buzz and then quickly cut off. That was the sole sound I had heard from the forest life in a while.
“So, what did the two Diablos both talk about?” Freya asked.
“It wasn’t anything either you or I had questioned,” I said. “In fact, it was basically just him asking me questions. All of which I couldn’t answer.”
“Ah,” she said. “So you found nothing about your powers?’
“Nope. Nothing about what kind of a person I was either.”
“I would argue against that,” she smiled. “From what I saw, I could tell there was a huge contradiction between who your past self is and what the scriptures of old times said you were like.”
“That’s true,” I nodded. “They said I was a person killed everyone on sight.”
“Yeah,” she said. “From what I saw, your old self seems nothing like that.”
“Then again, he did summon a cohort of shadow men before he even figured out who we were.”
“I doubt that justifies the image of him being an Evil Overlord.”
A Villain is formed not because of his actions but because of what people think of him, I thought, recalling his words.
“Maybe this is what he meant,” Nyx said. “He knows people call him an Evil Overlord, but he wasn’t really a man who wanted to be that way.”
I’m too confused to actually think this through, I thought.
“How are you doing though?” Freya asked. “It must not be easy to see your past self like this and not get any answers from him.”
“It definitely is disappointing,” I chuckled. “But I’ll live.”
She smiled. “We have time. We’ll find something about your past soon.”
“I could always just stay here and see what goes on.”
“You wouldn’t last a week in the war,” she laughed. “There’d be mere minions stronger than you were.”
“Hey, that’s just being mean,” I pouted.
“You know, I haven’t seen you this relaxed in a while.”
“Well, it’s just that kind of situation.”
“It’s always that kind of situation.”
“True.”
I looked up at the trees and saw a dull patch of red make its way into the sky. Rays of light flowed between the leaves, carrying the shade with them.
Dawn had come.
Usually, dawn in a forest like this would imply that the danger time had passed, but I doubted whether that was actually the case here. In fact, it was precisely in the middle of daylight that we’d faced off against the horde of Volcanic Forest Bears, so statistically speaking, daytime was the more dangerous period.
What a wonderful thought, I sighed.
A quick burst of stray wind blew past us. Freya's long dark hair flowed behind her, and the streak of silver in it glistened in the forest’s dull light. I stared at her, mesmerized by her presence.
She suddenly turned to me, and her moon-silver eyes caught my gaze. “How long is the mountain from here?” she asked.
“A day and a half by walk I think,” I quickly replied. “However, these beasts are faster. We should get there a little past nightfall.”
“It’s funny,” the elf said. �
��While we were up on the cliff we were hesitant to move through the forest at night, and now we’ve already walked through the place from dusk to dawn.”
“Circumstances change,” I smiled.
A lone flower of white slowly descended the air. I hastened my steed a bit, and made it take an extra step as I reached out for the object.
DING!
A screen popped up.
Name
Pixie Petalia
Rarity
Very Rare
Condition
Damaged
Special effect
Temporarily increases Mana Regeneration rate by 30%.
Damaged? I tilted the flower and noticed the bruises on the petals. Nevertheless, the mana regeneration rate boost was always a good thing to have. Especially with the kind of mana-draining equipment I have.
“Do you want me to place this within your item inventory?” Nyx asked.
Yeah, I said. The flower immediately glowed a dull white and dissolved into a stream of lights, disappearing as they moved through the air.
DING!
You have continuously used your Night Vision skill for more than 6 hours. Due to this, you have been granted a two-level increase in said skill.
DING!
Congratulations! Your skill ‘Night Vision’ has increased to level 15! Your skill range has now been increased to 60 yards. You can now detect more colors with greater ease.
“That’s pretty neat,” Nyx said.
I nodded. It’s about time too, I grinned. I was beginning to wonder how much longer I’d have to use the skill in order to level it up.
“The boost is pretty useful too.”
Yeah, I said. It certainly is a lot more helpful to have extended range for my Night Vision. Although an extra 10 yards isn’t much.
“Do you think this man is going to be a formidable foe?” Freya opened the topic out of nowhere.
She’s probably nervous about this, I realized. She’d done this with me once or twice before — talk about a villain so she could get rid of her own anxiety.
The Eternal: Transcend - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 3) Page 16
