Bab 12: Memory
Chapter 12: Memory
The voice keep reminiscing his past. He understands the most the feeling of loneliness. He was born without care from others. All he remembered as a child was his struggles to survive. When he learned about the rule of the world where the strong lives, he took the initiatives to become the strongest. Fighting and killing become his daily routine as he reached for the top and finally becoming an Emperor. By then he should achieve everything. Then he realized he didn't even feel the satisfaction he thought he would feel. He was alone on top of the world looking down on others. Even if he tried to go down everything will stay away from him.
As time goes by, his heart becomes cold, void with emotions. There was no feeling of compassion, regrets, hesitation or even satisfaction. He lived his life as an emperor that could trample on anything in his way. Others saw him as an object of fear as he would kill anything who courageous enough to stand against him. It was also one of the reasons why he was being followed. His subordinates were celebrating his strength and made it as their pride and glory for having an emperor such as him. Enable them to be able to go against all living being with no fear. Although he felt like he was being used at least he wasn't alone anymore.
Until that time when they reached a certain dormant world. He was flying around the night sky to observe the world he was in. The sea was vast and the land was flourished with nature growing on top. It may be due to the large storage of mana that was residing in the world which makes the nature to grow exquisitely. Then he sensed a living being within the vicinity he was flying.
It was a woman holding her child. She was carrying the child at her back while cooking. Times and times again the child would cry of hunger and she would carefully caress the child to calm the child down. She would sway left to right while humming to make the child feel comfortable. Finally, after she has done, she would feed the child with the food she made. She would then embraced her child to sleep.
He went to the place again and again and saw the same routine almost every single night. Until a week has past and he decided to get closer due to curiosity. What happened next caused his heart to quiver. When the woman saw his appearances instead of running, she stands gallantly in front of a being such as him. Her body was clearly trembling but her eyes didn't even waver for a second. Her face show full determination to protect her child.
It was a foreign feeling for him who has been living in the world of survival of the fittest. The child supposed to be dead long before could even open see the world, but somehow the child still lives because of the woman who took care of him. His once frozen heart was slowly melted by the warmness of compassion that suddenly lit up within his heart. He then left the place and went back to his throne.
From then on, he told every single one of his follower to finally lay down and reside within the world they were currently occupying. He commanded them to live their life without interfering others. Of course, a revolt happened and they tried to massacre another world behind him due to their desire for strength. In the end, he was alone once more fighting against what was once his loyal subordinates. He was the strongest; a being which was in another league when compared to others. He managed to kill more than half of the opposing sides on his own.
However, at the decisive moment, he hesitated to kill his closest companions and fell into a trap they set to seal him down for eternity. The seal was highly effective because it was done in a dormant world. A larger external force of mana is needed to break the seal. Since it's a dormant world, they were sure their emperor would not be able to manipulate mana to break the seal from the outside. Fearing that the dormant mana would get activated if they get involved more with the world, they leave it unattended.
Again he spends his time alone for an endless time in a world called Earth. His sense was blocked so he could not see, hear, taste, smell or feel anything. When finally, he was able to sense mana again. The moment he woke up from his slumber and relive his thought he saw a kid who was earnestly fighting an Alpha Cerberus.
At first, he didn't care much but somehow he couldn't stop looking. After seeing how tenacious the kid was he thought of helping a bit even though the kid would eventually die. To his shock, the kid manages to destroy an Alpha Cerberus with a single punch the first time the kid felt mana. He became interested to see the kid future potential. Unfortunately, a King Hydra suddenly appeared, making his excitement went to the drain since he sure now the kid was going to die.
To his amazement, at the moment of what he thought was inevitable death, the two boys were laughing and joking around as if nothing had happened. What was more astonishing was that they didn't have any intention of leaving each other behind. Although the chance of survival for one of them increase if one person left his friend behind, they still stayed together.
Then one of them pushes another one to protect the other kid throwing himself into his deathbed.
'A self-sacrifice?'
Again, his heart quiver as his heart melted.
The boy who, he knew as Kim, was still on the ground as if waiting for his death. He thought that it was the end as the acid devoured Kim as a whole. Amazingly Kim was able to reconstruct his own body in an instant. He has seen others reconstructing another body, but doing so to your own body is a hopeless effort since you won't have enough mana to heal yourself and stay alive at the same time. Kim then went fighting head to head with King Hydra without wearing anything. Since he was curious about the being called human he was seeing now, he made sure to help as much as he can for Kim to survive.
Sadly, after two impossible wins, the boy didn't feel happy at all. Instead, he was still in despair and was thinking of a way to kill himself. He knew that the kid would try every means possible to kill himself, but he blocked Kim's mana and even added some protective layer to make sure he was safe. He regretted himself afterwards since he was paid back by having to watch an ungrateful bastard having a delicious feast by himself.
'Gulp. This is not fair. This is how he repays my kindness!'
Then, Kim went to his house. He felt anxious because he knew Kim's parent was already dead. He knew it won't turn out good. His instinct was right on point. Kim fell into silent without moving an inch. When he saw how much Kim cried after he saw his parent's dead body, he was reminded of how the woman took care of and protected her child.
The feeling of compassion of a human is not something that can be copied by any other living being. Especially when it is from a parent to their child. Their unwavering love would even make them throw themselves to pits of fire just to save their children. Almost every parent out there would squeeze all their resources and strength to make sure their child could live comfortably.
Seeing how people desperately protecting each other with no care of themselves was unimaginable to him during his time as an emperor. To him, it was beautiful. His heart melted completely and a sudden warm feeling started to grow within him. It was a feeling that could not be obtained anywhere and can only be found residing in one heart. He still didn't understand the feeling, but he knew it wasn't a bad feeling.
'I must protect this kid. I will make sure he would live on and live his life!'
Tears suddenly fell from Kim's eyes as he saw the scene unfolded in front of him. It was not just a scene that was projected into him but also the feeling mixed into it. The feeling of loneliness since birth, a sudden change of heart that could melt a frozen heart, the betrayal that comes after and the feeling of love. He experienced every single scene as if he was reliving it as the person himself.
"Are you enjoying yourself kid?"
He saw a giant silhouette that was several times larger than Alpha Cerberus and King Hydra combined. He hesitated to reply at first. And then he asked
"What was that?"
"Memory. Once I transferred all my mana memory our mind are now linked and we could sense each other. That's why you could see me. You could say you and me are one in mind but in a different body."
"Gross, I don't want to share my mind with an old geezer. You might be a pervert."
"Shush kid, I'm doing this to train you. By the way, can you feel it?"
Kim stayed silent to observe his surrounding. He was not inside the forest he was now, but instead, he was within an infinite space. It was dark and there was nothing that could be seen within kilometres radius. The ground was flat and he was the only living being inside it.
"Where am I?"
"This is a skill that I created which made me stand above others. It was also created due to my trait of always... being alone"
"In other words, it's a sad skill for sad people"
"..., You will be amazed by this skill"
"Then what is it?"
"It's called mental domain. You are in the world of your mind now. After finish receiving all my mana memory, you intuitively execute this skill to save yourself. Which made me certain that you are a conjurer as well"
"Mental domain? Can I cancel it now? I don't want to be alone with an old geezer it's scary."
"Well, cancel it now and you would regret it your entire life as you could only use this once"
After much thought, Kim asked again
"How does it work?"
"Here's a question, are you in the forest now?"
"No"
"Wrong, you are still in the forest, and yes you are in a different place. At least your mind is."
Kim stayed silent to listen more to the voice coming from the silhouette.
"Mental domain is a world created by your mind. Do you remember how everything becomes slow when you focus solely on your mind while fighting those monsters from before? This domain has the same mechanism. Except that, everything is moving infinitely slow that it feels like they stop moving. Including lights. So time is almost endless here"
"How can training in my mind help me in real life?"
"Hahahaha! It's the best training place for all mana user"
Pro athletes would often do mental image training just before they compete. They would replay the same scene of them competing again and again until they perfected their winning image. For example, a sprinter would do an image training of him starting the race so that he would not do any mistake during the real race. Those who play basketball would imagine themselves throwing a 3-point for thousands of times.
Within the mental domain, the training is similar. Kim already accepted every mana memory that was transferred into his mind. The only thing he needs to do is to reanimate everything he learned again and again until the point he masters it. As time is infinite inside the domain, it would easily serve its purpose to enable Kim to master all the thousand years worth of mana memory.
As wondrous as it may sound the downside of it is the torturous amount of strain to one's mind while maintaining the domain. If an ordinary person entered the domain it would be instant death.
"Since you were able to accept all my mana memory in a short time, I guess the stress to your mind would be nothing for you."
"So how long?"
"As long as it takes. I'm going to make sure you master all my thousands of years of memory. So around that? or maybe more!"
Although it wasn't clear, Kim felt like a vile grin could be seen at the black silhouette. He felt a shivering chill piercing his spine.
"Didn't you enjoy relive my memory just now? Why not relive the whole thousands of years? You must finish a book with an interesting summary at the back, right? Don't worry it's going to be fun! Bwahahahaha!"
A cold sweat broke, when Kim heard the sinister laugh.
"Don't think of cancelling this domain. Forcefully breaking out would cause your mind to explode. I will make sure to teach you how to get out. Only after I teach you everything else first. Bwahahahahah!"
Again, Kim felt like he wanted to kill himself.
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