Shards of Old

I would never imagine it would’ve been so hard.

Having to fight for the remains of her was given, but for all pieces to take that much effort? After the actual core, I thought the hardest part was over.

And yet, the last piece was the most feisty.

Probably took after its host.

Mor was always an enigma to me. And after seeing some of his memories through the core, I realized that he hid more from me than I realized… They both did.

To think that my own wife had… all this going on behind my back… It hurt. It hurt a lot.

I think I understood why they did it, but it never made it better.

It didn’t matter anyway. It was all behind me.

I would have a lot of time to digest it. Having memories of them all with me…

To be honest, I kind of was hoping that having that many people with me would at least drown the painful parts… but that had to wait. Them being the freshest one didn’t help.

Neither did traveling with Mor, of all people.

How did he even survive all this?

I thought he’d die multiple times already, but seeing him still aware, with his soul intact… I had to know more.

Was his body that special?

Did he inherit some kind of ability? Like me?

I needed to investigate him, and by extension I needed him in the best shape possible.

In hindsight, I probably should’ve not been so careless. The mana I gave him made the fight so much harder…

And yet, he was unremarkable.

None of his abilities were different.

He was just using magic, nothing besides that. He didn’t even understand how to heal his own body consciously. He only managed to do it just at the end there.

While he learned fast and adapted even quickly, I ended up victorious.

But, I had to waste a bit too much of my mana.

Bleh. Doesn’t matter. He is gone. I didn’t have to act any more. There were no people that knew me, at least not on this continent.

Having the whole ILMA with me, I finally could step up and move towards leaving this place.

It was now only a matter of time before I gathered enough mana for breaking the barrier completely.

If not for that fight, I would already be able to leave.

Now I need to find a good source of mana…

Maybe his parts…?

No. Too risky.

I have to admit, he was powerful. And right now, with my mana weakened, it would’ve been possible for him to… slip out. Or even take over. I was not going to risk that.

Yes. The safest bet was to just leave his pieces alone. Without the core, he’d just slowly vanish from existence, turn into a harmless puff of mana.

Mana, mana…

Where’s the nearest leyline…?

I guess that would be the fastest…

Ah right, of course. Right there, where it began of course.

It already was sealed, but that doesn’t matter. I still can open it without issue. I swear, nature works fast…

Was it even fast…? How much time did I even waste on this chase?

Weeks? Months?

Doesn’t matter. It was worth it.

Having that whole memory bank to myself was worth everything.

And having her back.

Mh. I probably should fly there… It’s going to be painful, though…

Or should I just teleport? Do I want to waste more time…

Fuck, that’s a double question… Do I waste time getting there slower literally or I risk the stupid time dilation again… Considering that he’s in me I probably should avoid that.

I guess if I fly I can get rid of him sooner…

Ah, yeah, that hurts.

Just not to drop the spell…

To think that it’d end where it was starting… for me at least. I guess others too, but they had met their end in a bit of a different place…

Did they even meet their end? Being a part of me is kind of like killing them, but also not so far from living as well…

They say you live until the last memory about you is forgotten…

I guess all of them have a lot of life left to them, then.

Whatever.

I am close. Now to just find the leyline… Should be right next to the place…

Where even is that stupid ruin? How long has it been, did it really overgrow so much?

I’ve been flying and flying and can’t see shit… It is supposed to be near the center…? The epicenter, right?

I guess it really has been overtaken by the trees. I need to get down…

Or should I just absorb those trees? It would’ve been faster…

Yeah, let’s go with that. And I will kickstart the regeneration. I mean, still not enough to even make a difference in the long run, but whatever. It’ll be easier to search.

There, a spot as good as any.

Oh? River?

That means I am close.

Let’s just check…

Ah, that way. Hm. I thought I flew over that part…

Whatever.

Let’s just clear some of this bullshit…

There we go. It really is overgrown. Well, time to prune some weeds.

Really? Only that much of the ruin left? It’s more like just a few bricks.

Doesn’t matter.

Why is there a lake here now? Did we really have that much water?

I guess at least the ruined walls are good for something: I have a dry spot to sit. Well, not completely dry. At least it’s not flooded.

As expected. The leyline is sealed.

Did he do that? Or was it nature…

No, I can’t see him doing it. He manipulated it some, but nothing to explain that much of a change.

Well, I just have to open it a bit…

Yh, it’s harder than expected…

Fuck…

Did it reinforce itself?

It is breakable… but I need more time…

Damn. And here I thought I was done wasting time…

It’s not like it matters. There’s no one left. All of them are quiet.

Is there even some of them left…?

I kind of wasted a bit too much flying…

Eh. Just a few moments more.

Maybe more than a few moments.

And I will finally be back home.

But… What is home?

Can I even call it home without her… without them…?

No. Can’t think like that. They are all with me.

Besides, what even changed? She was already like this after the accident. Both of them were…

I just am going to have to find the organization again… This time, I’ll be a lot more careful.

And not like I need that much time again. I just need to access the data from before… If they have it.

What am I talking about, of course they have it.

No one would be that stupid to just get rid of a cure for… well, everything!

Making new bodies is something revolutional!

Sure, I can use it on myself. I probably would be able to modify someone else… but I need a living subject.

Or, well, at least something similar to a body.

I am not going to give her just a piece of wood again! That was a bad idea…

It even got her killed. More than once. I think.

Those memories are a bit blurry…

Or was it Mor…?

Fuck, his memories are still here. I thought I already burned them…

Well, at least I have some reserves.

Pfeh, why am I even thinking about this? I need to focus.

Focus and forget.

I hope this is the end.

But it won’t be that easy, will it?

Think and remember.

What’s going on? Where am I…?

Or more importantly, who am I?

I wanted to pat myself over, just by sheer instinct, but I couldn’t move.

Or, to be more precise, there wasn’t anything to move.

Was my body broken…?

I was immediately reminded of the time when my body was destroyed and scattered into many pieces.

Did that happen again?

That was the most likely scenario.

I couldn’t feel any of my body.

What about my magic…?

Yeah, it was still there.

I mean, obviously. If I was conscious it meant I still had some of mana left to at least function.

I wanted to feel my surroundings. Where was I?

Did that sudden turn of events scatter me or something? Did that attack turn me into dust again?

If that was the case, I was going to spend a lot of time in one spot. I was going to need a lot of time to just turn myself into decent enough shape to move…

It was going to be probably faster than before, I had some experience already, but still.

I focused on mana near me…

And felt something.

Hell, not even something. Someone.

I was definitely still somewhere… lively, so to speak. I could feel mana all around me. Were those trees? Plants of some kind?

Most likely.

Judging by what I’ve seen of this land so far, I knew that there was hardly any place that was dead…

At least I knew it wasn’t that desert again.

And about people…

There was just one.

It was strange. It felt right next to me and at the same time so far away I was barely able to sense them…

Wait… could that mean that they were also wounded…?

Nah, can’t be. If I was to judge by the mana, I would have to say that they were dying. Hell, my own signature wasn’t that much more pronounced, but I was just a piece of crystal, supposedly. I could handle it and even come back. If someone with a regular body was emitting that kind of aura, they were definitely dying.

Or in a coma. Or both.

Kind of doubted about the second one. In that case, it would’ve meant that they were abandoned to death.

While I was telling myself that it was unlikely, I still had that sinking feeling that it could be true…

But, just as I was dealing with that issue, I felt another presence appear nearby.

How the hell did I just notice that now?! It seemed like they were just a step away from them!

And then another one. And another! And more!

Four people? Five?!

Where were they coming from?!

Were they able to hide their mana signature…?

Doubtful…

I mean, you could do that, but I felt like the answer was a bit more mundane…

I was just weak.

I couldn’t sense them, because they were out of my range.

It’s not like I was in top shape. The lack of other senses was a great indicator of exactly that.

Well, whoever they are, I wonder if they notice me?

I couldn’t tell what shape I was in right now, but it had to be at least adjacent to a piece of crystal.

Did I look humanoid? Or at least was a body part left somewhere?

Unlikely.

It didn’t seem like they noticed me, though.

Kind of strange. Whoever they were, I knew they had to be powerful. That mana was strong. And yet, they were oblivious to my presence…

Were those people unable to see auras…? Doubtful…

Why then? Was I that weak that I wasn’t even registering as a threat?

Sure, I wasn’t in the best shape… But to mistake me for a piece of landscaping? I felt slightly offended. I mean sure, I was most likely reduced to being a piece of stone right now, but come on!

Complaining was pointless, though. And anyway, them missing me was working in my favor. I needed time to recover and understand what’s going on. Someone having a bit too much curiosity would be problematic…

I speak from experience.

I just had to wait for them to leave me alone…

But they were not.

For some reason they kept hovering around, goin back and forth from my range.

Were they… arguing…? Strange.

Well, I had more pressing matters at hand to focus on.

I had to pour my everything into trying to regenerate.

Whatever was going on in front of me wasn’t really a problem if I had my own body back. The crystal body, I mean, that’s sort of what I was defaulting to recently.

After fully turning into the crystal, I started slowly enjoying it. The strangeness was kind of intriguing for me, and refreshing.

And of course, it was more powerful than any of my other “variations” so to speak. Which would be doubly helpful if I was to try and “clean up”.

Speaking of, I wondered what actually happened back there.

However much I tried, I could not remember the last moments before I awakened here again.

The last thing I remember was having a discussion… about something important… WITH someone important…

But for the life of me I couldn’t remember with who or about what. It felt like it was on the tip of my tongue, and yet it was not coming out.

And no, that’s not a problem of not having a tongue.

I only could hope the memory was going to come back along with my mana recovering.

But, it was going to take a while.

I was making some progress, though.

Despite me wanting to just recover my magic first, I realized that I was just burning it at almost the same rate as I was regaining it.

At first I wanted to limit that, but soon I realized that I couldn’t.

And good that I couldn’t because I wasn’t wasting it. Or, well, my body was not wasting it. Or, rather not intending to.

I could tell that it was trying to regenerate itself, but for some reason it could not. So instead of physical form, it was fortifying my soul.

Yeah, soul.

You’re probably going to ask, what’s the difference? If your mana is your soul, isn’t it the same as just recovering your magic? What are you even talking about?

Yeah, I also thought it was like that before.

And yet, right in front of my non-existing eyes, I could tell that it was not the case.

I could tell how much mana I had.

And I also could clearly feel my own soul.

And those two were completely different entities.

How and why? Fuck if I know. I just know that energy from one was feeding into the other.

And I couldn’t stop it.

Honestly, it was worrying.

I had a hunch that it was not just my body… soul… or whatever, working on autopilot. That it was something making me do it. That I was being manipulated.

Truth was, I was both right and wrong at the same time.

The understanding came a lot later.