Chapter 139: The Truth [2]
A/N: 2 Chapters in one actually, and that’s why it will cost more than usual. Enjoy :]
════════
"...The war that caused the split of the one who was responsible for producing mana into Eldoria and protecting the order of everything in this world."
"You can call her... Fate."
At Isaac’s words, a surge of shock and disbelief hit me. My mind formed only one question: ’Fate is a person?’
Isaac nodded. "Not the type of person you usually think about, but yes, you can consider her a person. You can even call her Eldoria if you want — they are the same being."
Out of nowhere, multiple orange threads appeared, connected to our bodies.
"That’s how Fate actually looks like in her pure soul form, and that’s also how she is controlling everything. Fate exists within everything as multiple threads, but all those threads are actually parts of one big soul."
Then he added: "You know that Eldoria has a core, right? I think you can make a guess about that soul, can’t you?"
I understood immediately what that meant. I usually thought about that subject, but I couldn’t confirm any of my theories back then.
I had a core inside my body.
That core had my will, and that will was made by my soul.
So if Eldoria itself had a core, then wouldn’t that mean it also had a will? And if that core had a will, wouldn’t that mean it was made by a soul?
The only problem was knowing where that will came from and if that soul was still alive or not. Just like any core, it could stay without a soul or a body. That was why we could absorb them.
But if what Isaac said was true, then that soul was alive, and she was what we called Eldoria and Fate!
If I compared her to a person, then the planet was the body, the world’s core was the source of mana and worked like her heart, and all the fate threads formed her soul.
But there was something strange about that.
"Do you mean that now there is 2 Fate? Is it like one soul splitting into 2 and controlling the same body? But how did that happen to her? Isn’t she controlling everything?" I asked, and Isaac gave me a mysterious smile as he spoke
"Although I said everything in this world is controlled by Fate, she isn’t perfect. There are always anomalies in any system and ways to defy Fate."
Isaac raised three fingers. "There are only 3 ways I know for sure to defy fate. One of them is being born as an anomaly in this world."
Immediately, the pink mist gathered and formed 2 figures. They were a man and a woman. They both had orange eyes, but the man’s hair was completely orange, while half the woman’s hair was black. From their shared features, they seemed to be blood relatives.
Isaac pointed at them. "Meet Mike and Alice. They were what started the entire war, not intentionally, but only their existence was enough."
’Their existence started an entire war?’ I looked at them with confusion.
Isaac nodded. "What made these two siblings special was their affinity. It was Fate."
My confusion only increased. How could they have affinity for a person?
As if seeing my confusion, Isaac said: "Don’t we all know a person that can manipulate souls? And even though you don’t know her, there is a person that can manipulate bodies."
Immediately, my mind recalled Yami, he could technically manipulate people!
"Does that mean he can also manipulate the world?"
Isaac shook his head. "Fate is what makes all the souls in this world. You can consider her an evolution of soul, not a normal one. Fate can not be controlled by Yami, but I’m not sure about her will."
Isaac clapped and continued: "Anyway, just as how a person was born with an affinity for souls, it isn’t impossible to see someone with Fate affinity, isn’t it? As you know, there are many other worlds, and every world has its own Fate. Fate affinity can affect not only this world but all worlds in general."
Suddenly, a theory formed in my mind.
’Were the siblings used as tools?’
"Haha, you got it," Isaac sighed head, a bitter smile tugging at his face, "Someone with fire affinity can create fire and manipulate it. Someone with blood affinity can create blood and manipulate the blood even inside the others. With the same logic, someone with fate affinity can create their own fate and manipulate the existing Fate. She has consciousness and considers herself not just a person but even female! Unfortunately, having consciousness means nothing if someone can manipulate you."
Before I could say anything, Isaac pointed at the threads and said:
"Now imagine, in a world filled with greed, what would happen when the races know that there are 2 individuals with the potential to basically control the world?"
Isaac sighed. "The orcs wanted to kill them, believing that no one deserves to manipulate the fate that was given to them. Humans and elves wanted to enslave them and use their powers to control Fate for their own desires. Dwarves wanted to use them to destroy Fate without harming the world’s core, believing that Fate didn’t have the right to control their lives. The difference in their goals caused the Bloody Fate War."
All of a sudden the scene around us changed again, showing a horrifying scene that made my jaw fall.
It was a sea, an entire sea made of blood and floating corpses! I couldn’t even imagine the number of dead who were killed together to make this.
"That’s only one large scale fight of many others. Why do you think that the government and the kingdoms are willing to pay you just to have more children? The current population is far less than before that war."
"At that time, it was more common to be born as an Exalted. The only reason they are low now is that most of them died. The normal people — who didn’t have any mana or aura — were left in safety, leading them to become the majority these days."
I closed my eyes firmly. ’How didn’t I think about that.’
If 2 Exalted married, their children would have 90% chance to be exalted too. The chances were really too high, then why were they that rare?
It wasn’t like the Exalted appeared recently, so it wasn’t logical to not find many of them. But if they killed each other in a war, then it was just understandable that most normal people kept mating without many threats until they became the common instead of the exceptions.
They were probably slaves back then, and they weren’t even strong enough to be used as cannon fodder, but ironically, their weakness saved their lives.
"So what happened," I asked curiously, "Who won? And how did the dem— the knulls appear?"
Isaac shook his head. "No one won yet. You can say that the war is still ongoing actually."
The scene around us changed again, but this time, it was a live scene of the past.
My eyes widened. "They are probably in millions!"
We were floating in what seemed to be a cave that was probably the same size as a kingdom. It was lit up by the lights of millions of all types of magical attacks caused by the fight under us.
All the 4 main races — and some minor races — were fighting and killing each other brutally without a hint of mercy. I couldn’t even know who was fighting who, as even some people were fighting their races.
The one that hooked my attention among them was a faceless man wearing a cloak. He was attacking with some type of dark purple element. Those attacks would literally erase the targets from existence.
’...Void?’
Just then, I noticed a huge figure hanging in the middle of the cave. It was the only thing that the attacks weren’t landing on.
’Holy shit!’ My eyes widened even more as I scanned it.
It was a huge white heart, probably bigger than half the cave, with 10 white rings circling it. Every few seconds, the heart would make a beat that shook the entire cave.
’"You are looking at the world’s core — it’s Fate’s heart. As you can see, even with the intensity of the fight, no one dares to attack it. No one knows what would happen if it was even scratched, and no one wanted to witness or cause it. Oh, look what we have here."
Isaac pointed in 2 directions. Following them, I understood what was happening.
On one side, the elves were protecting Mike, the man with fate affinity, as he looked at the heart and moved his hands randomly in the air.
On another side, the humans were protecting Alice, the woman with fate affinity, as she did the same like her brother. But unlike him, she was struggling more than him and had a raven with some orange strands that seemed to be helping her.
"Are they fighting for who would control it? What about Fate herself? Why isn’t she doing anything?"
At my questions, Isaac shook his head and pointed at a spot above the heart.
There, a beautiful woman with long white hair and white eyes rolled in the ground, screamed in pain and cried in agony.
Despite this heartbreaking scene, the fight continued without a change.
Isaac sighed. "From what I have heard, she actually tried, but her power isn’t absolute. She wanted to kill the siblings at one point when they started testing their affinity boldly, but her only weapon was controlling the people’s lives. If she wants to kill someone, she will need to make them fated to die. But if she wants to kill 2 people who have the ability to control her, she could only try to make the normal people do it themselves."
"Unfortunately, her control isn’t absolute. She needs to change your thoughts to make you decide to kill them, but to do this, she has to do it in a logical way by controlling multiple fate threads."
My gaze landed on Fate with complex emotions. "And she failed to do that in time, right?"
Isaac nodded. "The more they lived, the harder it became for her. They were like a virus on her system, whatever they touch would get infected. Eventually, everything went out of her control, leading to this very moment."
All of a sudden, Isaac snapped his fingers and the orange threads appeared in the battlefield.
Alice and Mike were sometimes cutting and other times absorbing the threads, which were all leading to the woman on the world’s core.
*Crack!*
All of a sudden, a long line appeared in the middle of the heart, dividing it into 2 unequal halves as the woman let out her loudest scream until now.
The battlefield fell into silence, everyone looking at the heart and the siblings with wide eyes.
"What have you done!" A male human with golden hair and golden eyes asked, looking at Alice with intense anger.
"I-I didn’t mean..." Tears began to stream down Alice’s cheeks as she began to manipulate the threads with panic.
"What are you waiting for? Fix your mistake, now!" A male elf with white hair and crimson eyes ordered, his eyes twitched as he looked at Mike.
Mike gritted his teeth before biting his lower lip and continuing to manipulate the threads.
"You fools! I warned you. I WARNED YOU ALL!" In the back of the battlefield, the cloaked man shouted, falling on his knees as if accepting his end.
Hearing his words, I could feel the genuine emotions in his tone.
’Was he trying to stop all that?’
*CRACK!*
And the next moment, the heart was split into 2.
Before I could react, an intense white light erupted into the entire cave and covered my vision.
’What the hell!’
Just then, I heard Isaac’s voice behind my ear.
"They tried to use 2 innocent immature Exalted to control the world, and because of their mistake, the world’s core and Fate’s heart split into 2 unequal halves."
"And since that day, Fate has never been the same."