Bab 68: Confronting The Mirror
'The Sultan, Seneca, Misha, and now my brother whose name I don't know. I have so many enemies. I don't even know what I did to them. For now, Misha is an exception since I killed Seneca and ripped out his heart.
Did I do all this?
Or was it him?
I wish I could remember...
At least before the show starts...
I wish I could remember what the other Rui's went through.'
"Oh, I see you're starting to consider yourself like me," Alter Ru said.
"You might be wrong, I'm still unique," Ru replied. He was lying on his back on the tracks, arms under his head, watching the starry night.
Suddenly, he witnessed the night's veil tearing apart and something descending toward him. He didn't flinch or move. Instead, he blinked.
A shadowy figure, shaped by the silhouette of the gilded night, sat at his head.
"What happened," the silhouette asked.
"Let's just say I don't feel like turning into you, Alter Ru or Almighty Ru or Ru The Great. I'm fine like this, I'm just Ru."
"Not wanting to become a legendary being is, I don't know, kind of cowardly," Alter Ru said.
"A legendary being or a chaotic collage? Creature, hmm, that seems like a more accurate description," Ru said, tilting his head back and looking at him with questioning eyes.
"I'm a king," Alter Ru said, leaning over him.
"Oh yes, the king of little girls," Ru said grinning.
Alter Ru let out a crackling laugh, "Did you say little girls? Hahahah!"
"Not funny, not scary either," Ru grumbled.
Alter Ru's laughter abruptly stopped. "Did you think they were little girls? How naive," he said seriously.
"Maybe it's a naivety caused by your reflection in the golden palace," Ru said mockingly.
"Don't mock my reflection, please," Alter Ru said in a barely audible voice.
"Why? Does it upset you?" Ru asked.
Alter Ru leaned slightly towards Ru's ear and whispered, "Let's call it a strange sensitivity."
"Why is it kept in a golden cage?" Ru asked.
"The answer is simple so that it doesn't get caught," Alter Ru said, pulling back.
"I wonder if it's to keep it from falling into your hands?" Ru said, straightening up.
"No, to keep it from falling into the hands of others. After all, I am the one who tore my essence away from myself and kept it there," Alter Ru said, almost in a whisper.
"Why would you do something like that? That's ridiculous," Ru said, turning his back on him. He sat with his legs pulled up to his chest.
"I wanted to keep it pure," Alter Ru said, turning his back on Ru and assuming the same position. They were now sitting back-to-back on the tracks.
"Like you have any part of you left that's still pure," Ru said, glancing at the sky.
"There was a part of me that was still pure," Alter Ru said, glancing at the ground.
"Yeah, everyone says you're innocent," Ru said sarcastically, glancing over his shoulder.
"I was innocent," Alter Ru said, mirroring the movement.
"And then you became guilty?" Ru asked.
Alter Ru turned back to face forward and said, "I had to get stronger."
"For what?" Ru asked.
"To survive," Alter Ru said firmly.
"And I suppose you sacrificed your brother to survive," Ru said, shaking his head.
"I didn't sacrifice my brother; let's just say I couldn't save him," Alter Ru said, his voice crackling.
"If I asked what you couldn't save him from," Ru said, standing up. He took a look around while he was waiting for a reply. He found nothing, but rails and stars in that gray world covered with ashes.
Alter Ru's image exhibited a persistent tremor, akin to the intermittent fluctuations observed in the display of a malfunctioning television.
"You'd better answer my questions before you leave. Because every answer I get from you before entering the game is vital to me," Ru said, rubbing his foot in the ashes.
"When you enter the game, you'll forget everything so the answers won't matter to you," Alter Ru said, twinkling like a star.
"What about my powers?" Ru asked, turning to him in a panic.
"You'll likely gain more," Alter Ru said.
"That's good. Now answer my questions," Ru said, stepping in front of Alter Ru. He insisted, "What couldn't you save your brother from?"
"What do you think I couldn't save him from?" Alter Ru asked, narrowing his eyes made of light.
"You know, not me," Ru said, staring directly at him.
Alter Ru's image suddenly grew three times bigger than the original and spoke in a chilling voice, "And while I wither away in my crystal prison, you'll continue not knowing, my seed."
"Are you my father now?" Ru asked, trying not to show his fear.
"I think I'm more like your mother," Alter Ru said, chuckling and crackling.
"Look, you keep changing the subject. If this keeps up, forget about merging," Ru said, waving his hand.
"Are you threatening me, or am I imagining it?" Alter Ru asked, growing even bigger.
Ru took a few steps back and joked, "Are you a woman or something?"
"I don't care about genders, doctor," Alter Ru said with the same mockery.
"At least tell me what the doctor really is," Ru said wearily.
"Listen to up: I simply don't know," Alter Ru said firmly and took a few steps toward Ru.
Ru was afraid he would be crushed, but he closed his eyes and stayed where he was. As he felt a little chill he opened his eyes again. He found himself surrounded by crystal shards and an infinite space.
"Oh, the place where I found the genie."
As soon as he said it, a bundle of strings reached out to him. Ru tried to swim away, but they easily caught him. The strings wrapped around him completely. He couldn't even scream as he was dragged into the unknown, like a fish on a hook.
Then the strands left him rapidly, causing him to spin like a top in the air. Ru fell onto a transparent surface. It was a floor of crystal as thin as glass.
He felt dizzy and nauseous. At first, he had trouble realizing where he was. But then he realized; there were crystal railings in front of him, and beyond them, a magnificent view of space.
"Wow!" he said in admiration. "I'm on a space station."
Then, the light that fell on him was refracted. Ru immediately turned around. He saw a figure behind the crystal wall.
This figure was tall and thin. It had a crown and horns on its head. Its hair was very long, and instead of falling to the ground, it wove a web of light around it. It wore a black outfit made of dozens of leather straps. The outfit extended like a skirt. Its torso was partially bare. Its white skin was luminous. Although he couldn't see its face clearly, he somehow knew it resembled him.
Ru stood on the line between admiration and fear and asked, "What are you?"
Almighty Ru said in the most majestic tone of Ru's voice, "The question is wrong. The correct question is, 'What am I?'"
Hadiah
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