Chapter 475 (1/2)

Chapter 475

Chapter 473: Beckoning Fates

My infant years passed by unattended,on a kind of autopilot ascompanions

In this alternative reality presented by the keystone, even ses seemed to sobll into an entirely new life that I had to live But as the siot further frorew into inside the keystone became further from who I really was or had been—the part of my mind that was conscious of events outside of the keystone seeetout a fake, si up in Taegrin Caelu; I remembered it clearly, but the person I had become under those circumstances seemed so far from who I actually was that it was almost like I’d had someone else’s dream But where, I wondered, had that scenario co responses to my actions, or is Fate somehow involved? Could the keystone knohat really would have happened—or ill happen in the future? I considered aether and Fate, and knew I couldn’t completely discount this fact

Elder Rinia could search through possible tiic Certainly the djinn could do the sa the branch of aevum Still, in comparison to the mechanis worlds and tiht into Fate require seeing how all these realities played out in response to each se?

I felt my stomach sink as I wondered just how many tiain this insight, and this nerve-wracking thought broughthave I already been here?

If the keystone world moved at the same scale of time as I lived it, then I’d already been inside for decades I had to assume that time spent in the keystone wasn’t one-to-one with the outside world Time didn’t seem to move at a constant pace in the keystone, it flies past at incredible speed when I didn’t focus on the world it was presenting If nothing else, that suggested that tihly subjective, perhaps even an illusion entirely

What if that’s it? I jolted into a scene of h the Encyclopedia of Mana Manipulation Staring around in confusion—it felt like I was born only o—I tried to draw myself back out of the life and allow it to simply play out before my eyes

My excitement seemed to tetheron disconnecting fro athook e on it My eyes flashed open, and I stared around, wondering what the sensation could have been, but I saw and felt nothing obvious

Realizing I was letting et too anxious and excitable, I forced my small body to take several deep breaths Myaway aboutat those books and how cute it was, and tian to spill away fro, then ere already heading up the mountain path that would lead us to the ambush It played out as it had in life, and suddenly I ith Sylvia Although I had ideas about how my tiing anything, even the smallest detail, in order to test my current theory

My time with her ran out, and thenpast Before I knew it, I was seeing ether in the Beast Glades My ti to the Widow’s Crypt, the attack on Xyrus Acade in Elenoir The war itself was already over, culainst Nico

It was as an to fail fro sacrifice loo on the moment, I attempted to step back intowhat I wanted to change

Only, I couldn’t

Ti by even more quickly noith Sylvie’s death, my first unintended ascent into the Relicto by in the sa lied to her about where I would be while accessing the fourth keystone, and Sylvie, Regis, and I were activating and stepping into the keystone again

I waited in darkness, breathless and confused about what had just happened Again, the light in the distance Again, the words, “Congratulations, sir and madam, he’s a healthy boy”

My mind was blank for quite a while Tiain, but I could feel the shock seizing control ofit, I siht, perhaps, that the lesson of this place was so trite, like that my life had played out just the way it was supposed to or that I couldn’t change the past I certainly hadn’t expected to lose control and get dragged along as my life repeated exactly as it had, unable to enforce ht in a rushi+ng river, I thought in wonder after the shock began to settle But what is the point of that? How does it lead to insight into Fate?

I struggled to see how this new data point fit in with my previous theories Obviously, it shattered the idea of siested the opposite: that I had to explore the ain insight into the aspect of Fate

I rolled this idea around for quite soht Finally, I turned away fro a h life As I had approached Sylvie’s sacrifice, a wild thought had occurred to me How can I exist in this life if Sylvie doesn’t sacrifice herself forher essence to be drawn across the cosmos where she then watches my life as Grey unfold? Because, if she doesn’t do that, how can she then pull rona’s effort to reincarnate me and instead placefor the ghostly apparition of Sylvie that I knewme After Sylvie had experienced h the cosrona At the last ht me to the Leywins And that is where this sih the keystone lives always began atbefore that, with htly to that fact The presence of a potential paradox was a data point, a flaw in the system, one I could identify and potentially extrapolate information from

‘I suppose, in this place,I did before your birth—is like a fixed point,’ a distorted voice said I turned e head on the neck that still didn’t support it, staring off the side of a straw-filled er version of Sylvie that I’d encountered before ‘You can’t change so that was already set in stone before your arrival’

I was looking for you, I said, olden eyes

‘I know,’ she answered

I have an idea, I thought, instinctively stuffing a chubby fist into ?

‘In the context of this life as it is currently playing out, I have just watched Grey grow froshi+p I then crossed an unknowable expanse across ti you,’ she thought backfor you, Arthur, and I will do so again And again As many times as is necessary So yes Of course I will help you Just tell hts before projecting them to her You are a part of Sylvie Before, you called yourself a projection of Sylvie as I understood her to exist in this ht?

‘That’s correct,’ she confir me curiously

But there is another part of Sylvie here as well, I continued Her real conscious , her and Regis

‘That’s true’

My infant face scrunched up in concentration Her mind hasn’t woken yet I think, maybe, that’s because it hasn’t had a time and place to do so inside the keystone Even in the lives where I’ve bonded with her, that version of Sylvie has her own personality intact, consistent ho Sylvie was in that timeframe, without the memories of our life outside this place That leaves no roohostly face watched me expectantly

But you’re already only a piece of her And in a few years, you’re going to be drawn back into your own egg and reborn as that version of Sylvie

‘That’s also true’

If you…attached yourself, somehow, to Sylvie’s mind—the real Sylvie—then h you, and then be born back into herself

There was a long pause, and I had to concentrate very hard to keep my mind and infant body awake and focused on the moment

‘How?’ she asked eventually

I didn’t really kno, but I was convinced that waking Sylvie and Regis was essential to ress within the keystone They represented different aspects of aether that, together with ht of spacium, vivum, and aevum as a whole It was my hope that, as outside consciousnesses, they wouldn’t suffer the saular life and could souesswork at this point, but I can feel Sylvie’s mind inside my own Can you…enter e between you

The ghostly i through the bed and into hpresence floating just beneath the surface

Wiggling ot more comfortable on the straw mattress and closed my eyes

Her mind is inside me sohost’s war to follow her within myself as she searched for the real her Such an internal, meditative practice would have been easy in e or later, once I had an aether core I’d practiced searching inside of myself with mana and aether for more hours than I could hope to count

But now, in the body of a tiny baby with no mana core of my own, I realized that I lacked the facilities I would normally rely on

Do you feel any sense of her? A resonance, or a pull, or anything?

‘No, but don’t despair,’ she assured ing a connection between the two partial versions of her—one real, the other manifested by the keystone—I lost my sense of the outside world Even when my infant body slept, my adult mind remained intent on the connection between Sylvie’s apparition and her sleeping mind Ti to rush by while onlytoconcrete withininside my sternum, where ,’ ghost-Sylvie thought, her voice cutting through the fog of my hyper-concentration ‘We need to do e of this process’

I took several deep breaths, struggling to think through the building tension In a couple of years, your spirit naturally rejoins your unborn body, held in stasis by your h a natural process I don’t fully understand, a coical reaction to your sacrifice and a tre

‘Both rebirths then required an egg…’ she mused, her mentally projected voice quiet inof ic tying back to the sacrifice of my body to rebuild yours We need a catalyst to awaken the real me and bond me with this simulation of myself’

But what kind of catalyst would suffice?

The ghostly sione

I let ti about ain saw her But the battle exploded, and I followed along with the necessary sequence of events that would lead me to Sylvia I looked for a tihost, but no such opportunity presented itself, and then, once again, I was tu from the cliffside

By the ti next to the broken corpse of the bandit I had dragged doith one

I considered si again in order to continuean entire life si it fly by chafed atthe real Sylvie into the ghostly manifestation of her spirit would be a work of more than one lifetime, but there was still a lot I didn’t understand about the keystone trial, and I didn’t want to waste an opportunity to learn more, either

I continued on until Sylvie was reborn, but she was not born with any memories, either of her life outside the keystone or our discussions before her birth She was an infant asura, growing quickly in both intellect and power, but she was Sylvie as she had been then, not my companion as she now slept

My time in Elenoir and then as an adventurer and student unfolded without significant change, but I re decision to avoid the vortex effect pulling ain It was difficult, as I lived through the sa the many decisions of my life Where could I have chosen differently? What other power could I have gained or what piece of knowledge htly different path?

Years passed before thefor ca fully present in the unfolding events

Virion was nodding tointo the inside pocket of his robe “There’s one last thing you need to think about”

I already knehat he was going to pull out when he opened his hand in front of li s etched all over it

“This is one of the artifacts that were handed down to ned froave this one back toI should choose the next Lance”

I stood there silently for athe oval coin that seemed to pulse in Virion’s hand “This is the artifact Alea had”

“Yes Bonding it with your blood andyou the boost that allowed all the other Lances to break into the white stage I know you’re not an elf, but I’d be honored if you’d serve as a Lance under ht for you even without this bond, but I can’t accept it I ht for et there on my own”

These words echoed back to o It was true, I had reached the white core stage on …and when I finally ca castle, it still wasn’t enough

And soon after, I lost everything I’d worked so hard for when my core was broken

“It would beinto a bow before Virion