Chapter 247 - Little Kitten (Patreon)

After a few hours of sleep, I wake up and stretch my body. Jumping from the bed, I take a few steps and enter the balcony, looking outside at the city. Virelia is unusually quiet, and the walls that used to surround it are gone, as well as dozens of buildings destroyed and a few towers tilted or just straight up toppled.

Further in the distance, I can see the trunk of the Living Tree. Colossal, grayish bark, and branches without any leaves.

Defeated, destroyed, killed, just like that. All the preparations and planning gone and useless, the Calamity defeated by Eris at the cost of her life.

I can't understand it fully; it's so dumb. So fucking dumb. She could have run away, she could have held it back and waited for me and others to join the fight, she could have just kept us in the city and not sent us after... but, that would mean sacrificing Sophie, Aaron, and Dennis, wouldn't it?

Looking down I clench and unclench my fist. If I were stronger, I would solve it all. I would be the one deciding the result, and no one would have to die. I wasn't strong enough, and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth, even though I know they are fake.

I wonder, could I have pushed myself more? Could I do it differently and focus more on leveling instead of improving my handling of my power? Could I just not go against the tree and stop the ants from kidnapping three members of the group and then fight against the Calamity together with Eris? I wonder.

Taking a few steps, I jump back on the bed that is inside the room of Storm Brigade's tower, an offer she gave us before we look for another house.

“Status,” I say.

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn
Difficulty: Hell
Floor: 4 - Waning Realm
Time left until forced return: 4y 81d 13h 15m 7s
Traits (1/3): Mana Circuit

Lvl 189
Strength: 87
Dexterity: 89
Constitution: 224
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 707 + 707

Primary Class: Focused Channeler (Epic)
Sub-class: [Initiate of Pride]

Active skills:
Focus (Dual Focus Consolidation) - Lvl 41
Mana Manipulation (Advanced Mana Manipulation) - Lvl 41
Perception - Lvl 39
Redistribution (Symbiotic Transference) - Lvl 39
Resonance - Lvl 34
Mana Domain - Lvl 21
Tether - Lvl 11
Regalia - Lvl 10
Infusion - Lvl 16

Constructs:
Reinforcement (Construct)
Kinetic Mana Heart (Construct)
Mana Regulator (Construct)
Mana Sovereignty Mantle (Construct)

Passive skills:
Cerebral Harmony (rare)
Mana-Fortified Resilience (rare)
Pyrokinetic Resurgence (rare)
Mana Reservoir (epic)
Arcane Resilience (epic)

Tokens: Beyond Difficulty entrance token

Shards: 3032

While examining my stats, I feel a touch and an attempt to connect to my mind.

I allow it to happen, and Sophie's voice sounds in my head. (Can we talk?)

(Yes, I will land on your balcony in a few minutes.)

(Thank you.)

I put on some clothes and look at the mirror nearby. The guy that looks back at me on the surface seems as usual, yet I know him well.

“Asshole,” I say, and his mouth mouths the same word.

Getting on the balcony, I locate Sophie and, generating just enough kinetic energy, fly higher and to the side, landing on the balcony similar to mine.

Sophie is wearing simple clothes that are a bit too big for her, and the doors to the room are closed. Behind the glass, I see Isabella sleeping on the bed. Noodle on one side and Biscuit on the other.

Tracking my gaze, Sophie looks there as well and smiles gently. “She got surprised and scared by a small spider just a few days ago. I watched her scream and jump backward, hitting her head against the wall,” she turns to me. “I wouldn't have been able to see that without removing my [Geas] from her mind.”

“You messed with your own memories,” I do not beat around the bush.

Sophie is acting way too casual for what happened to her and the twins deep in the heart of the Colony.

“You are quick to catch on to some things,” she sits in one of the chairs on the balcony while I lean against the railing.

After looking for words for a bit, she continues, “I wanted to remove them, I really did, but something stopped me,” she looks at her hands, “Would I be the same person if I did that? And if I did that, would that make every next memory deletion easier to the point where I would remove every unhappy memory I have?”

Sophie looks at me, “Nathaniel, maybe we humans aren’t supposed to have this kind of power. Saving someone after their head is cut off?” She touches her neck where a thin, white scar stretches across its entire length, most likely something left intentionally by Lily.

She continue to talk, “Or manipulating people and removing their free will?” her eyes are piercing as she looks into mine, “Being strong enough to wipe an smaller city off the surface just a few months after gaining these powers?”

I answer her, “You can think about it as much as you want, but it doesn't change the fact that there are other people with such powers. Other people that won't care about that and will also end the tutorial and get back to Earth,” I easily return her gaze, “Unlike you, I don’t mind it. I like my powers and the things they allow me to do.”

She smiles and nods as if expecting such an answer, then looks to the side, at the Living Tree outside the city, “You know, I tried multiple things with my [Manipulation]. I tried to manipulate fire, manipulate mana, earth, and a few others, yet I always found myself progressing the most with controlling monsters or people.”

Sophie breathes in and closes her eyes, “I wanted to remove my memories, but decided against it. In the end, I did the same thing I helped others with after the tunnel under the old capital. I made those memories feel as if they happened years ago, making them a faint memory.” She touches her neck, “I can feel the blade cutting off my neck, I remember the ants trying to steal my skill. It’s all in here.”

“That much is reasonable,” I tell her.

“Do you really think so? I know that you have the skill that allows you to do something similar,” she opens her eyes, her hand still on her neck, “But I think we will pay for that in the future, Nat. Both you and me for trying to cheat ourselves.”

“Probably, but that's for future Nathaniel to deal with,” I pass by her and quietly open the door.

Noodle, now awoken, slithers outside, a bit bigger than before. His tongue flickers towards me as I radiate a bit of my mana to feed him. When I reach my hand to him, he hesitates for a moment, but then coils around it in a similar way he does with Isabella.

“Current me will do the best he can,” I continue and carefully touch Noodle’s head and pet him gently.

The snake closes its eyes, and only his tongue continues to flicker. His body is somewhat cold to the touch, but it doesn’t feel bad, and his scales have a nice texture to them.

“I guess, consequences be damned,” Sophie says while observing Noodle, “Or maybe we are the dumb ones, and all these abilities are to help us deal with this all, something normal, it's just we still think like a human and worry about useless stuff.”

I think about it for a while, “It might be just as you said.”

From inside the room, soft cries sound, Isabella having a nightmare and twitching on the bed.

Sophie stands up and opens the door. Her legs are already restored by Lily, partially after sacrificing my arm and the rest a few hours afterwards.

When I hand her Noodle, she looks at me one more time, “The matriarch is dead. You know what that means, right?”

I nod, “The Colony will be coming.”

“Yes. I tried to kill as many of them as possible, especially the ones capable of creating arrays, and I even left some traps in their links. But it won’t slow them down for too long. A few days maybe.”

Isabella twitches again, and Sophie just waves and closes the door, immediately getting on the bed and hugging her sleeping sister, who calms down quickly.

Not wanting to interrupt their moment, I jump from the balcony and hover back to my room. There, I open the balcony and pass through my room, opening the door outside.

The hallway is empty and simple, mostly made of stone and wood with a thick carpet on the polished floor. It has a nice cozy feeling to it. Taking a short walk, I reach the door to the room where Tess is together with Lily, the two of them together so she can help our silly healer. I knock and then wait.

Tess opens a few seconds later, “Come in, Nat.” She just lets me enter immediately.

The moment I do so, Lily sees me too, and a big smile appears on her face. I notice that one of her arms is already nearly back, the left one that is once again pale, and I would bet if she restores my left arm too, it will be pale as well.

The speed with which she is regenerating her arms is much faster than before. “Guess who can enter Beyond now?” she asks me, her smile becoming even bigger.

I can hear Tess next to me sigh, and I sit on the edge of the bed where Lily is laying.

This is serious; I can see it in her eyes. The moment she heals, she will enter Beyond. As always, her reason is simple: to reach me. To become closer to me, strong similar to me. To become more useful to me. That's how she is thinking.

Ever since the floor started, I didn't hear her talk about her family, and Tess, who knew Lily just a little bit from school, told me that the black-haired girl was someone you would call a loner.

I wonder how her life was before for her to become so possessive towards me, to cling to me and some others so much, to have such fear in her eyes that we will throw her away the moment we become much stronger or she becomes less useful. It doesn't matter how much Tess worked on it, it doesn’t matter that I did try to help too. Lily is still someone who lives in constant fear of being left behind.

“Don't enter Beyond for now,” I tell her.

She continues to smile for a moment, thinking that I'm joking, but I just look at her and slowly her expression changes from that of happiness to hurt with a hint of anger.

I move closer and put my hand on her nearly restored one, “I will train with you. I will help you prepare.”

Lily might have the strongest damage skill out of all of us, and she is extremely hard to kill, but she is lacking when it comes to reading the flow of combat and over-relies on her damage or healing.

I squeeze her arm, “I will make sure you will become strong, very strong.”

The expression in her eyes changes a bit, hurt sadness replaced by plea and hope.

“I want you to live, Lily, so we will prepare, okay?”

Her eyes shake and she stares at me, taking in every detail of my face.

I continue, “And when you are ready, you will crush the trial and join me and Tess.”

Lily nods, “Yes, yes. I will do it.”

***

Flashback - Lily Chen - 8 years old

In a dark, small room, a little girl sat on a thin blanket. The little girl with black hair and bangs that were long enough to fall into her face.

“Are you angry, Grumpy?” the little girl asked, pulling a cat in her arms closer to her chest, “And don’t meow, it makes you look even more like a grumpy,” she said, smiling.

Meow. The little kitten tried to escape for a bit, but being still weak, was unable to do so and just gave up. That made the little girl laugh for a bit longer as she snuggled the kitten with two differently colored eyes, yellow and blue, and with black fur.

Then silence filled the small room and the entire apartment. It was around nine o'clock, and the girl was there entirely alone, the floors cold, the power cut off, and tap water rarely flowing.

Something normal for the girl, too young to realize that it shouldn't be like that.

“Tonight we will be alone again,” she mumbled, tightly holding the kitten.

Slowly she stood up from the floor, her feet bare and her pajamas old, even with some holes in them. The little girl took the thin blanket and moved away from the door where she had been waiting for someone to return, excited to talk with them about her day with the little kitten.

“It’s fine, I have you, Grumpy,” the little girl said, and after jumping on the bed, she put the blanket around the two of them.

With a smile, she continued to watch as the kitten fell asleep. Then, even though there was no other blanket on her bed, she took the blanket off herself and only put it all around Grumpy.

Feeling the cold, she continued to shake a bit, but the big smile didn't leave her face as she continued to watch the little kitten sleep.

***

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