novelraw Chapter 1603 - 1602 - Gamble of Ages
Chapter 1603 - 1602 - Gamble of Ages
"I take it my future, or rather alternate, selves did not like that?" She nodded.
"Your earliest versions called me a liar as well as an enemy. You killed me a few times before I found a way to convince you." Lind nodded but did not ask too many more details. It seemed touching on his former Divine Path had dangerous implications for his current self.
"So, while avoiding that Dao, how did I come up with using your ability again?" Karu paused as she considered how to answer it but instead sighed.
"I am not sure I can answer that. Not just avoiding the Dao but because you stopped explaining things to me. You said something about light being an enemy in disguise or was it something about the secrets light can reveal." Lind scrunched up his face. What the blazes was that?!
Light held secrets? He pondered for a moment before a very random memory surfaced. It was a late night at George's after one of his favorite series had been revived. He had been dragged against his will to "catch up" on nearly 50 years of television history so he could properly enjoy the return.
He had not planned to watch it at all but the very first few seasons had some real science mixed in that fascinated him.
One had been about how, theoretically, anything that ever existed could be seen again if a proper medium could decode the light beams it was flying through space on. Instead of a recording, someone could actually see events as they truly happened.
His eyes went wide as he quickly turned on his own Talents! Sure enough, now that he knew what to look for, a very subtle set of organized waves of Qi, Laws, and Daos were gently flowing along light beams!
They were not obstructed by any barrier at all!
His first instinct was to wipe them out but that would be like sending up a flare. A break in the network would tell the controller exactly where he was!
The sheer volume of data, on the other hand, would take time to parse and find them.
Something must have triggered that memory in him and now he knew to be damned careful about what he said or did. Even if not for the now impossible attempt to alter the past, recent events could be scoured in time to trace his path and lay traps for the future.
He pondered what to do and then smiled. The air around the pair distorted suddenly with a thin sheen of water and light. Rather than break the formation, he simply broke the medium!
"Wha–?!" Karu was shocked at what he had done but Lind dared not explain. It was not fool proof and likely could be overcome given time.
"Nevermind. So, why did I think I could pull off the trick he could not?" Karu became solemn before nodding.
"At the end, we were often together at the final battle where he killed us all. He went after me in particular but you always made me send my memory back before he could take it. He hated you a lot for that." Lind smiled wide.
Assuming there was a small window before time was erased, he would get the satisfaction of seeing all the Bastard's efforts go in vain before death.
"You then hijacked my message because we already knew we were going to die." Lind frowned because then it meant the last time he met that future version, he was going to see Karu or had already seen her.
They were not memories but encounters he had. Why was his experience so different?
He pondered it for quite a while before a thought occurred to him.
His encounters came at pivotal points but sometimes his actions in his life came from massive leaps of logic and instinct. What if they were time saving measures he laced into his own existence to aid himself along the way.
The method of tempering his Soul Cores came from the Ruin he chose at random, but was it totally random or the result of trial and error? The Primordial Immortals that came together had almost been tailor made for him though too.
Could it have been simpler and more vague than what he thought? A general twist to the enter mortal realm to make it get closer and closer to solving the 6 elemental problem so he did not struggle so much?
He clearly did it once all on his own but the price sounded heavy. A thought suddenly occurred to him.
"How many wives did I have that first time?" Karu became uncomfortable but she answered.
"None, they were all killed or consumed by the Fiends." He did not ask about friends or allies.
"So, when did I first tamper with my own timeline?" Karu paused again as she likely had to be careful at that point.
"I think it was about the 50th time we met. Before that, the results were mostly identical to the first time. It was only when I led you to a different Inheritance or special realm that we found new opportunities that helped but were not enough that you seemed to become obsessed." She shivered but Lind did not need elaboration.
Suffering all that loss and finding a possible way to stop it, he would go at it without any reservation.
"Still, it took you 2 or 3 timelines before something occurred to you and became secretive. It was also when you hid us away sometimes before you ordered me to send back direct messages to get you on the track earlier." Lind began to see the web but he was confused on one point.
"Why did you help me?" Karu looked at him before weeping openly.
"I died in so many horrible ways but when you found me, I died fighting! I died doing something! I knew how it would end but the adventures in between were everything to me!" The passion in her voice made him realize she was not just off kilter because of the death of her elder but also because of her suffering.
Had there been times she wanted to just accept the end? He shivered at that. How much could someone endure before just giving up was an unknowable answer until it happened.
She calmed herself and resumed.
"Eventually, the Great One seemed to figure out you were up to something and he changed tactics. You have no idea how terrifying he can be if he wants to. He is focused on his own advancement, always trying to beat us sending back my memory. That is when my 2nd ability triggers." Lind perked up.
She then took a knife from her storage ring and before he could stop her she struck at her dantian!
Right before it happened, the knife dissolved into dust! He had felt something far more profound than anything he had ever experienced for a brief moment. He stared at her but noticed she did not seem happy.
"The Dreaming does more than erase timelines, it locks my time of death. I can only die now with you facing the Great One. It makes a new skill that you named Fated Death. No one can change how I die unless they are like you or him. You have to do it in person too." Lind was confused.
If that was true, how did she die in various ways before? His face gave him away as she laughed darkly.
"It is a capricious skill. So long as enough terms are met, I will die no matter who is there at the moment. It is only avoiding that sealed fate that resets it. Thus, the Great One cannot kill me unless he finds me now, or you kill me as you have before." Lind's head shot up but she was not glaring at him.
A sad flash passed over his face. Those had to have been very dark timelines.
She smiled at him.
"I chose to die and you helped me. Since both of us are together, my death is now possible by you alone." Lind grasped it then. Her fate was more tightly bound by the Dreaming. The conditions had to be sufficient to match the most recent Dreaming to allow her to die before it was completed.
"Fated Death, that was what you called it." Lind hated the name but that was likely the point.
To know the future as a Divine Realm was to be trapped by it. It was why his last meeting emphasised that all the changes had to come before. Immortals and below could shift their fate even if they saw glimpses of the future.
He was living proof of it.
"I took a massive gamble, didn't I?" Lind began to see. Karu's Talent locked her on a path with small variations until someone came along that fate dictated enough power to change others' path.
He was far too perfect a counter to the Bastard not to be that kind of being. His actions, then tied her to 2 incredibly fate heavy existences and made her death nearly impossible until those conditions were met once she became a Divine Realm.
"Why is it the last time?" He asked again. She became forlorn but did not hide it from him.
"It took time to notice but each time we reach a certain point, my health begins to decline. It is like something is being robbed from me and it was only when you used your Dao to send yourself back that it got worse. Your gamble, as you put it, was killing me as I advanced. After the last time, I know I am going to die as soon as we reach the Great One with no chance to send my memory back." Yet, Lind kept doing it.
Certain oblivion or a chance at life. He knew which he would take. Karu nodded at him too.
"The Dao of Defiance. That is my current Dao." Shock flooded her face. She clearly did not know about it. He then began to talk about everything. He knew he had to and the Bastard knew it all already.
The more he spoke the more shocked she became. The life he was talking about was totally alien to her save some names and faces. Then, as he reached his time in the Endless Peaks, a smile broke out as tears began to fall.
She understood what he had done. He was no longer bound by the fate woven by Heaven and Earth. He stood beyond it.
The Bastard and he would finally meet not on the terms of Heaven and Earth but on whatever terms Lind deemed best.
Hope had been dead in her so long but it bloomed again. Lind had succeeded! He had broken the endless cycle of dying and erasing the future. She broke down and wept hard but she was smiling.
The future was no longer written at all!