novelraw Chapter 265: Prophetic Guilt
Chapter 265: Prophetic Guilt
Chapter 265: Prophetic Guilt Staring at the luminous cloud beneath the hood, Soren couldn’t help but sigh. He scratched his hair in frustration.
“No wonder you seemed so different… The persona you used when conversing with me inside my mind—it wasn’t Silmar, was it?”
“Correct,” It said rather punctually. The dust-composed limb shifted, assembling a rough imitation of a thumbs-up. “I was actually just mirroring your personality.”
“.....”
Soren shook his head in annoyance. So the playfulness he displayed earlier was simply how others view me?..
He didn’t know how to feel about it.
A soft chuckle rolled out from the luminous mass, prompting Soren to click his tongue. “None of this makes any sense. How can you not be Silmar? How can the Saintess of Dreams not suspect anything wrong with Her brother?
“No—what I should really be asking is…
“If you aren’t Silmar, then who the hell are you?”
Soren understood something very fundamental at that moment. That the true identity behind this dream lingering entity couldn’t be that simple. If Silmar was nothing more than an ‘avatar’ that aids in enacting its goals, then how many more false identities do they possess? Who exactly was the original Whispering Dream—the one who has been haunting him all along…
In a way, he should have expected this. After the Crimson Massacre, Myrin and the others reported seeing Silmar present during the expedition of the Avalon Ruins. He and Luvin had both been sent on behalf of Yadria to excavate the relics found there. And yet, the very person who had kidnapped him after returning from his journey in the Beyond was none other than Silmar…
This begged the question: how could a person be in two different places at the same time? And if they were never the same person, then who exactly was the Silmar he confronted during the Greenfather Festival?
Seeing the doubt and suspicion in his eyes, the Whispering Dream couldn’t help but smile.
“Do you really want to know?”
Soren’s lips tightened. He hesitated for a moment but nodded anyway.
“Very well,” the hooded figure sighed as he spoke again. “Firstly, you should stop addressing me as Silmar entirely. For he is already deceased.”
“What…” He furrowed his brows. “He’s dead? How?!”
The Whispering Dream nodded. “One of your former guild members killed him. But only after I accomplished my goals in Darkshrine Castle, of course.”
In the Eclipse Moor?.... Wait— Soren’s eyes widened as he glanced at the mysterious figure seated before him. “Tyrel and Noctharn? They actually managed to defeat you?!”
He remembered hearing that the pair went on their own separate journey in order to find the enigmatic saint. After the events of the Crimson Ritual, the Union of Six Divines publicized a decree, promising gargantuan rewards to anyone who could find him. This prompted numerous hidden factions to scour the continent for clues, and Tyrel and Noctharn were no exception to that rule. After the guild disbanded, the two of them set out on an expedition in search of the enigmatic saint.
“Surprising, isn’t it? I suppose it’s to be expected, since your beloved Mistress never truly revealed who that shadowy giant hammering with his tools was.” He shook his head mockingly, “Truly, the art of guidance is a poison…”
Noctharn… As he stood there with a blank expression, images of the shrouded figure emerged in his mind. Indeed, out of all the members in Star Fate Guild, Soren knew the least about him. Aside from him being an Aretores and a hidden fugitive, everything else around his identity was shrouded in darkness. Perhaps, that was on purpose…
“Secondly,” his voice chimed, pulling Soren out of his thoughts, “as you might have guessed, I have held countless other identities in the past. Some spanning centuries, others millennia. Parts of these ‘Avatars’ remain within me, even if their bodies themselves decay. After enduring such a process, what was left of the original ‘me’ became more and more shallow, until what you see now is all that remains.
“So really, if I had to answer your question—who am I? It’s simple really.
“I am the Whispering Dream. A being who thrives by fulfilling the imaginations of others.”
Hearing this, Soren couldn’t help but scoff. “That’s a lie.”
“Oh?” The ancient robe shifted slightly, his luminous form full of intrigue and amusement.
Soren crossed his arms. “Even if you’ve dissociated from whatever you used to be—which I highly doubt—forgetting it entirely is utter nonsense. And what is this ‘fulfilling the imaginations of others’ bullshit? Do you seriously think I’m an idiot?”
He could almost picture the thing smiling beneath the veil, as if to insinuate a confirmation to his question. Soren clicked his tongue. “Either way, I have no way of verifying anything you say. It’s my fault for even trying to hold a conversation.” He corrected his cone hat in frustration.
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The Whispering Dream laughed. “But I really am telling the truth. My powers can only function through the fulfillment of their dreams. Have you already forgotten that my ‘puppets,’ as you like to call them, all proclaim my name on their own accord?
“It is because they are grateful to me.
“The whisper in my name doesn’t come from the dreams I invoke. It comes from the dreams they whisper into me… This form—this body… It is an amalgamation of their
imaginations.” He glanced up into the distance, where the silhouette of a little girl levitated freely. “Lets use your dear companion as an example.” Pointing his mist-like arm in her direction, Cassia swiftly descended, as if aware of his command.She stood beside him across the edge of the infinite chasm, her eyes hollow yet full of admiration for the person sitting before her. For a moment, rage flared within Soren’s chest, which he quickly suppressed.
Not yet… He reminded himself.
Ignoring his feelings on the matter, the Whispering Dream continued. “Cassia of the Nagashi. The last survivor of her tribe, and the bringer of their final untruth. She bears a weight so heavy, even torture in Staterra’s gallows seems simpler in comparison.
“And yet, as cursed as she is, Cassia holds a dream brighter than most: the revival of her deity, The Serpent of Untruths. The one being that she believes holds the key to her people’s salvation.”
As he glanced at her briefly, the luminous dust making up his form brightened under the light of the stars. “It is I who will fulfill this dream on her behalf. No one else can do it. And for this reason, she has willingly submitted to me, like all my other wonderful dreamers. Of course, this also means that I cannot order her to do things that go against her dream.”
Fulfill her dream?... His frown deepened. “How exactly are you going to revive a deceased deity? Don’t tell me you simply lied to her just so you could use your abilities…”
“Do you take me for scum?”
“Yes,” Soren answered back without hesitating.
“.....”
After a few seconds of silence, the dream lingering entity couldn’t help but laugh.
“Unfortunately, my abilities can only truly work if the dream is believed to be achievable. I am confident I can accomplish it.
“Ironically, the solution required has already long been devised. It has been that way ever since the choosing of the first Holy Shrine Maiden.”
“What… What do you mean…”
He smirked. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what occurred during the Mirror Game?”
The meaning eluded him for a brief moment. Then he realized it.
His eyes widened.
“The Hollowed Star Fragments?!”
“Correct,” the dust-forged being clapped.
“No, that’s not possible,” Soren shook his head. “Corrupting them is a solution, but they no longer exist anymore! They vanished at the end of the Third Age, after this world’s Celestial Fate was frozen!”
“Indeed, you are right,” the Whispering Dream nodded approvingly. “But what makes you think they have utterly vanished from the world?
“In fact, those mysterious relics are with us right now.”
Here? He glanced around in confusion, finding nothing but the endless cosmos above and the unfolding lands of fantasia below. That was until his eyes focused on a peculiar figure, suspended in midair above the abyssal chasm’s center. Her platinum colored hair flickered ever so softly from the graceful touch of descending cosmic stars.
A shiver ran down his spine.
Sienna Yvain… The Vessel of the Stars…
“It seems you’re finally beginning to realize.” The Whispering Dream chuckled while crossing his arms. “It all matches up doesn’t it?
“The disappearance of the Hollowed Star Fragments. The Divine Accord’s proclamation. The appearance of Yvain, the First Witch of Star Fate…
“Is that all truly a coincidence? I am sure you are already coming up with a sound conclusion—you’re a very intelligent person after all.”
Soren’s breathing felt labored as he glanced into the distant figure of beloved teacher. Sorrow and guilt building within his chest.
“Sienna’s Soul Weapon… It was strange when I observed it with my mystic eyes. It held no Abstract Runes, its Tier level was mysteriously missing and even its identity as a Soul Weapon came into question…”
The revelation was now beyond certain in his mind. Even if the Whispering Dream has proven himself to be a liar, the information he had already gathered was enough evidence to prove his conclusion.
“The Vessel of the Stars… It was forged from the nine Hollowed Star Fragments!”
The hooded figure smirked. “Correct.”
Soren couldn’t help but take a step back. His understanding of the world was once again being shaken.
Now that he was seeing the connection, a few other oddities he had once found strange slowly began to make sense. Things like the Vessel of the Star’s abilities being tied to only this world’s fate. Or the fact that Sienna and every other Star Fate Witch before her was tasked with ushering the next Age… This goal was practically synonymous with what the Hollowed Star Fragments were used for!
There was something else as well. While reading her status page, Soren noticed that the number of her abilities didn’t match the usual. According to his theory, Soul Weapons provide two skills by default for every Abstract Rune you’re merged with. This should mean that a Phantasm who possesses less than an Expression fragment’s worth of influence for all their runes will always hold an even number of abilities.
But in Sienna’s case, her Soul Weapon possessed nine abilities in total. This number completely breaks the logic he had theorized in regards to Soul Weapon abilities. Moreover, the abilities themselves were all strangely unique—there was no synergy between them. And yet, despite these differences, all of them were still somehow tied together under the umbrella of ‘fate.’
At one point, Soren even wondered whether they were all from the same Abstract Rune… Of course, this would be an impossibility—the total amount of fragments a rune could possess limits the acquisition of new skills to four in total. Sienna possessing nine abilities from the same source would be utterly absurd.
However, now that he had grasped the Soul Weapon’s connection to its original identity, the answer has become rather obvious. The nine abilities were simply mirroring the total number of Hollowed Star Fragments there were in this world!
As he stood amidst the silence, his frown deepened. The color had already drained from his skin. This revelation… It might have clarified everything, but it did little to wash away the anguish. No, it might be more accurate to say it only made things worse.
When he glanced down, his hands were already trembling—as to fight against the actions they were ordered to enact.
“Ah…” His lips curled up slightly. “So this is what true guilt feels like…”
The prophecy he had witnessed…
He finally understood it.
He finally understood why he killed Sienna Yvain, the Last Witch of Star Fate.