Chapter 217 - Stolen (4)

-It has been a while, Atein.

When Atein finished his speech, a half-transparent show-white ghost of a girl had appeared in front of him. She possessed white-blond hair, and her horns were gray like that of a boulder. She was a Dragon Demon girl possessing slate-gray colored eyes and Dragon Demon stone.

“You’re are correct, Kayalia.”

Atein wasn’t surprised at her sudden appearance. He spoke to her.

Almarick had flinched in surprise. After he had revived, this was the first time Kayalia had shown herself in front of Almarick.

Atein continued to speak.

“We occupy the same world, yet we cannot meet.”

-That’s right. I feel much when I am near you, yet I can never reach you.

Kayalia moved closer to Atein. As she spoke, she placed her hand on his face.

Atein’s true essence was also within the Great Darkness. Kayalia was able to experience reality through the Great Darkness, so she was technically always with him.

However, the two of them never met within the Great Darkness. Atein was always living in the current era through his reincarnated selves. Until he had revived, his consciousness had never been put to sleep. He had always been a step away from his reincarnated selves as he observed their lives.

Suddenly, Kayalia glanced towards Aincera. Aincera once again had a blank expression on her face. She was just observing the situation.

-Unni. No, Aincera…. You really lost all emotions that isn’t related to Atein.

Of course, Kayalia was here as a false image, but her gesture towards Atein had been something one did to a lover.

The past Aincera would have raged. However, she wasn’t showing any emotions.

-You did something you shouldn’t have done, Atein.

“I won’t deny that. I had no choice, but to rely on her.”

He could have chosen not to assign the custodianship of the Great Darkness to Aincera. However, his gamble would have turned into a bigger uncertainty if he had done so.

As her sense of self wilted away, Aincera continued to be the custodian. It allowed the system called the Great Darkness to remain intact even to this day. Atein truly felt thankful towards Aincera’s sacrifice.

“It is what I wanted to do. You majesty did nothing wrong.”

Aincera stepped forward in defense of Atein. Her attitude was resolute. Kayalia more sad as she watched Aincera.

-It is unfortunate, but the Aincera I knew is dead.

There had been no love lost between the two. However, the fact that Aincera was gone saddened Kayalia. It was a novel turn of event.

The Dragon Demon King’s first queen Aincera was dead. The only thing left behind was a ghost of herself. The only thing left within her was her love and obsession for Atein….

Of course, she would be freed from her role as custodian of the Great Darkness now. The humanity, which had been worn away, might slowly recover itself.

However, even if she recovers her sense of self, would it truly be Aincera?

-Atein, I know that you weren’t able to perfect my technique. You weren’t able to maintain

continuity between your lives. This is how it could all go wrong.

Kayalia let out a sigh of grief.

In the past, she had partnered with Atein through a deal.

Her human body had been dying, and Atein had provided her with a Dragon Demon body in exchange for her technique. In the process, Kayalia had become known as Atein’s pupil and third queen. She gained notoriety, and she had been feared by the humans.

Kayalia had been using her unstable reincarnation technique to live and die as a human. She had agreed with the ideals being pursued by Atein. However, there had been sacrifices in the pursuit to achieve this ideal. At one point, a human had saved her. He had spared her after he had intended to kill her. In the end, she had died with doubt in her heart.

Then she was made to live in the Great Darkness by Atein. She had been asleep for a very long time, and she had been awakened by Reygus, who had awakened as an Undead.

-You tried to fix the problem of my technique, and in the process, you wanted to make good use of the time it would take to pursue such an endeavor. That is why you kept reincarnating as a human?

“You guessed right.”

It was as Kayalia had surmised. When Yuren and Atein from the past had exchanged questions and answers, Yuren had held back a piece of information.

Atein had failed in fixing the problem within Kayalia’s secret technique.

In the process of dying and being reborn as a different existence, one’s sense of self deteriorated. The degeneration was inevitable. There had been no way for him to solve this problem.

There had been two main reasons why one’s sense of self deteriorated and changed in the reincarnation.

The first problem was the fact that the awakening happened after the basic personality traits had been developed. That meant the past personality mixed with the current personality.

The second problem was the fact that one’s body had changed. The mind was influenced much by the body. An easy example was the change of a male mind when placed in a female body.

In the end, Atein had given up being reincarnated as someone else.

‘I can’t choose to be reincarnated as someone else,. Therefore, I had no choice but to revive my original body.’

It took a very long time, but he used the technique of Reginor the last Alp. He had restored his dead body. He wasn’t reborn. He didn’t have to worry about the change and deterioration of his sense of self that came along with being reborn in a different body.

However, he felt it was waste of time to stay asleep inside the Great Darkness until his revival.

‘I want to know about the humans.’

A large experiment called the Dragon Demon war had failed. Atein had realized that he was woefully ignorant about humans and Dragon Demons. After his revival, he would need to start a new attempt, and he didn’t want to repeat his mistake. He needed to become more educated in that department.

That was why he had started his reincarnation cycle, while he placed his sense of self within the Great Darkness. He observed his reincarnations from a perspective that was a step removed from their lives. He continued to learn information that he hadn’t known before.

Kayalia queried him.

-You experienced living several human lives, yet your conclusion hasn’t changed?

“Kyalia, you already know what choice I’ve made..”

Atein knew this to be true through her tone of voice. Kayalia also didn’t deny the fact.

-Yes.

“I won't’ change my mind.”

-You experienced your reincarnated self disagree with you after finding out the whole truth. Doesn’t that affect your decision?

“You also know about Yuren Rizester? It seems you are much more than I had assumed. It seems you’ve become a transcendent existence.”

-It isn’t an uncommon occurrence.

“Yes. There are times when I labored to devise a plan, and it only resulted in trash results. On the other hand, there were those that exceeded expectation. Yuren’s life was like that for me.”

-What do you mean by that?

“His life was quite moving. He decided to throw away his own life for his comrades, and even after knowing the full truth, he was resolute in his beliefs…. I was moved by his will.”

Amongst all of his reincarnations, Atein had interfered the most with Yuren’s life.

The reason was simple. His revival was getting close, and Azell had awakened in this era. Azell had overcome Atein’s curse.

He had learned through Yuren that his descendants were living in a state of madness, so he had awakened Yuren’s consciousness. He pushed Yuren to betray the Plain of Darkness. He guided Yuren to become a member of Azell’s party. Azell was able to kill him, and Atein wanted to know Azell the human. He wanted a deeper understanding as to who Azell was.

He had made preparations long time ago. The fact that Yuren was Carlos’ descendant was part of Atein’s calculation.

“However, Yuren is an exception. He cannot shake my resolve. Even if his life was moving, it was merely one life.”

Yuren’s life as a human had exceeded Atein’s expectation. This didn’t mean Yuren’s life could be used as an absolute yardstick for judgement. After Atein died, he had experienced 14 reincarnations. Yuren had merely been one of them.

“I gained certainty through the Dragon Demon war and my reincarnations. Even if there is an event or a being that leaves a strong impression, one or two outliers cannot overturn the tide. What if one person does good, and there are ten thousand people doing small wrongs? Which way should I adjust in such a situation?”

Should he adjust to the excellent and prominent person?

It didn’t make any sense. If he was making a small organization, it might be possible. However, it was possible in a society where many had to be embraced.

“Kayalia, didn’t you despair at what you experienced as a human?”

-I did. But….

<Hmm. Wait a moment.>

Reygus had been listening to the two talk, but he butted in at that moment. When everyone’s gazes were on him, he spoke.

It was unlike Reygus. He spoke in a respectable manner. It was the same way he had spoken to Atein during the Dragon Demon war.

Atein queried him.

“What do you want to know?”

“No. I don’t plan on using the same method. We’ve already lost once before. We also saw the madness caused by the war. We saw how the war could change the participants of the war. That is why I’m going to choose another method.”

“Surveillance and restriction.”

<Mmm?>

When Reygus tilted his head in confusion, Atein smiled. From Reygus’ perspective, Atein’s smile somehow made him look like he wanted to cry.

“It doesn’t matter what era one is in. Humans do not trust each other’s good will.”

Atein thought about his memories from the distant past as he spoke.

“There might be trust between people that know each other very well, but as a race, humans do not believe in the goodness of people. At a basic level, the law of human society is based on self-interest and bad intentions. Humans assume that respect won’t be had if one’s opponent isn’t afraid. Everything is built upon the assumption of fear.”

<Hmm. You are suddenly talking about an academic subject. Will it take long?>

“I guess you are bored, but this story needs to be said. Reygus, you have already seen a part of my solution.”

“Guardian Shadows.”

<Mmm?>

“It’s a barrier capable of stopping our former comrades, who had been swept up by madness. We are enemies, but I can only express my respects towards Carlos Rizester’s ingenuity. We lost our precious friends Aunsaurs and Baldazark to him. Moreover, his machination made us lose Belrun and Iksseru. In fact, we should consider us to be fortunate that the damage had stopped there. I never expected him to bring about a part of my plan in such a fashion. Carlos didn’t know about my plan, but he came up with the idea of creating the Guardian Shadows by researching the potential possessed by the Great Darkness. While I saw the Guardian Shadows in action, I felt indignant by the fact that I was a step behind him.”

During the Dragon Demon war, Carlos had surprised Atein several times. Carlos was like Azell. He was a human chosen by his era. His accomplishments couldn’t be explained merely by his genius talent. In his 20s, he had reached the status of archmage, and he was able to change the fate of the world at such a young age.

“The most surprising part about the Guardian Shadow system is the fact that they are able to seek out those that are called the Dragon Demon king worshippers.”

The Guardian Shadows were an existence with a foothold in the Great Darkness. However, when it came down to finding the Dragon Demon king worshippers, they used other beings totally unrelated to the Great Darkness. All the humans of this continent became informants that provided information regarding the Dragon Demon King worshippers.

Carlos’ magic had allowed him to transcend the restriction of the Great Darkness. The Guardian Shadows were established upon the foundation of the Great Darkness, but it was self-sustaining now. It had left an indelible mark on this world.

“My plan is similar to the Guardian Shadows. I want to create a system that can monitor the intelligent beings of this continent. No one will be free from the surveillance, and no action will be concealed.”

He already had a surveillance net called the Dragon Demon King worshippers. If he wanted to, he could see anyone that was connected to the Great Darkness. He could even hear their thoughts.

“I’ll create laws that need to be upheld, and I’ll create peacekeepers that’ll carry out the judgement.”

The peacekeepers didn’t have to be alive. They wouldn’t’ be influenced by emotions or human ties. They would become a part of the system where a judgments would be made based on logic.

“Those that break the law will be punished, and they will become part of the system.”

Those that broke the law will be turned into beings that won’t be influence by emotions. They will become something akin to the Guardian Shadows. They will transcend the restriction of time and space. They’ll take on the role as peacekeepers.

“Beings that threatened the world will be ferreted out, and those that does something dangerous will be suppressed. We will no longer have to be dependent on the good wills of others. It will no longer be a gamble as permanent peace will come to this world.”

At its heart, this system didn't look too different from the system that made up the human nations. However, there was a fundamental difference.

Humans and Dragon Demons couldn’t interfere with the system.

The system would be governed by an absolute value system that was unaffected by greed and emotions. If the system was described in an extreme manner, the humans and Dragon Demons would be cattles living within a fence.

Reygus was struck dumb as he spoke.

<Atein, you no longer trust the humans and Dragon Demons? Are you planning on taking away their choice to do evil?>

Was he too surprised? Reygus’ way of speech had returned to normal. Instead of pointing that out, Atein answered with a blank expression on his face.

“That’s right. It saddens me, but the transition of generations will occur soon. It is the only way to protect everyone from the confusion caused by it.”