章節 3: The Distance Between The Heart

"Did you forget that you're a B-ranked Mage?" asked Z, sitting cross-legged across from Aiden. "Why aren't you using any magic?"

Shaking his head, Aiden explained, "The magic I use involves disrupting existing spells. I can do something like a force push and create a wave of flames, but complex magic is still beyond me."

"Well, why haven't you tried those...?" asked Z.

"Because I'm not an idiot...?" responded Aiden, staring at Z incredulously. "You face-tanked those explosive magic crystals as if they were nothing. A weak shockwave or a wall of flames isn't going to do jack shit."

"Yeah, I'm pretty awesome, aren't I~?" mused Z, flexing his biceps and popping his pecs. He was barely nineteen at the time of his death, but as the tribe he originated from developed quickly, he looked to be in his mid to late thirties and was built like a palace of muscles.

Rolling his eyes, Aiden changed topics, asking, "Did you manage to meet with any of the others...?"

Lowering his arms and relaxing his posture, Z nodded and replied, "Yeah. While looking around the capital and planning how to cause the most damage without harming too many innocents, I encountered Tom, Sarah, and Justin. They were originally hired to investigate and kill me, but when they realized who I was, they lent me a hand in secret."

"Think they'll awaken soon...?" asked Aiden.

"Who knows...?" asked Z, shrugging as he added, "You know how those three are. I'm all for immersing ourselves in the worlds we're sent to, but those three get carried away and develop too many attachments. For all we know, we're stuck in this cycle forever. Might as well make the most of each life..."

Though he furrowed his brows, Aiden didn't attempt to argue against Z's perspective. The latter was pushing two hundred, and he was the second youngest of their group. Everyone else was at least that old. So, while he used to be their de facto leader, Aiden now kept his personal views and opinions to himself. Instead, he deliberated for a moment before saying, "With the Karma you lent me, the circumstances of my next incarnation shouldn't be too bad. We should be able to meet up."

"And then what...?" asked Z, raising his brows.

"I mean...we're the Seven Sages, aren't we...?" asked Aiden, smiling wryly.

Closing his eyes and exhaling faintly through his nose, Z remained silent for several seconds before opening them, adopting a smile, and replying, "That's right..."

Seemingly finished with the conversation, Z rose to his feet, thumbed over his shoulder, and added, "I'm going to go find a nice place to nap. Wake me if someone else wakes up or you want to train."

Without waiting for Aiden's response, Z turned and departed, leaving behind a tense atmosphere.

'What was that about...?' Aiden wondered, frowning. He knew he was likely the only one in their group who still cared about the designation they had given themselves during their first lives. However, he believed they needed a broader purpose to guide their actions. Without one, it was only a matter of time before they lost themselves, succumbing to despair or becoming monsters...

...

"Please...have mercy...kill me..." begged an elderly man with grey hair and a long beard, strapped to a table with his arms, legs, and eyelids missing. "Sorry, but I can't do that~" hummed a woman with delicate features. Her petite frame, pine-green eyes, and short brown hair gave her a somewhat boyish appearance. However, her leather vest, white tube top, form-fitting shorts, black leggings, and leather boots made it fairly obvious she was a girl.

"We've been over this," said the girl, using an eye dropper to moisten the elderly man's eyes as she added, "You killed someone important to me and had someone important to him killed. What you're experiencing now is the penance for your actions and the consequence of your intolerance. Ask me to kill you again, and I'll delay your suffering even longer."

With the fluid from the pipette streaming down the sides of his face like tears, the elderly man's body and lips trembled, but he no longer begged. He would have argued and screamed that his actions were justified in the past. Now, his only desire was to die, to have the nightmare he had been forced to endure for nearly six months brought to an end...

"Now, what shall we remove today~?" asked the girl, smilingly cheerfully as she raised her right hand and materialized a shimmering pink scalpel out of thin air. When he saw it, the elderly man, once famous throughout the mainland as the Grand Archibishop of the Luminance Church, pissed himself. Instead of flowing freely and filling the air with a pungent aroma, however, the contents of his bladder flowed through a hose, running from where his member used to be.

"P-P-P-Please..." stammered the Grand Archbishop, but his words only made the girl's smile even more radiant as she began cutting into his side. The most frightening thing was that there was no pain or bleeding. Just a discomforting 'pressure' as she cut out a large slice of his right side and held it up like a slice of meaty cake, the edges glistening with a faint pink glow as she carried it over to a display where his limbs and several other pieces of his body were arranged.

*BOOM*

Interrupting the Grand Archbishop's protracted dissection, the reinforced door to the room abruptly exploded off its hinges. Immediately after, a group of men and women in magic-resistant armor came rushing into the room with weapons drawn, ready to cut down or apprehend anyone they found.

"Looks like our fun has come to an end...!" shouted the girl, smiling as she unhesitantly charged at the group with a pair of daggers formed from the same pink energy as her scalpel.

"Die, fiend...!" shouted the man leading the charge, a Captain of the Royal Knights. At the same time, he pushed his left hand forward, producing a powerful, concussive blast. Most opponents would have tried to evade or at least cover their ears, but the girl charged straight through it, her form briefly appearing ethereal as she slipped past the Knight in the blink of an eye.

"Huh...?"

As he had failed to see the girl's movements, the Knight was left confused until he heard his Lieutenant shout, "Don't even think of escaping...!" from behind him.

Twisting his body, the Captain prepared to attack the quarry from behind, but his confusion was compounded as he fell over despite the lack of an impact or a feeling of disorientation. He simply fell over, not from his feet, but from his waist...

As all hell broke loose throughout the cellar, the Captain stared wide-eyed in horror and realization as his feet were still firmly planted on the ground. He hadn't stumbled in the slightest. Rather, when the girl passed him in a flash, one of her daggers had bifurcated him at the waist, slicing through his flesh, bone, and armor without him noticing. Strangely, there was no pain, but that didn't make the Captain feel much better as he was forced to watch as his subordinates were cut down, their bodies sliced to pieces effortlessly. One particularly unfortunate Mage had their head cut off, but instead of perishing instantly, they cried out gutturally while their body continued to flail around without them...

...

Less than a day after Z's awakening, Aiden was once again sitting near the island's fringe, his legs dangling off the edge as a soft voice asked, "Is that you, Aiden...?"

Opening his eyes and rising with a start, Aiden half-turned to find a petite, slender girl wearing a subtly glowing white sundress behind him, standing a safe distance away.

Adopting a broad, affectionate smile, Aiden nodded and replied, "In the flesh. It's good to see you, Andrika."

Discarding her vigilance, Andrika approached Aiden with a smile as bright as the sun. Aiden rose to meet her, so she immediately wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly as she stated, "I missed you so much..." in a tone filled with deep sentiments.

"And I missed you..." replied Aiden, reciprocating Andrika's embrace with as much tenderness as he could muster. The two had dated in their first incarnation. They had since moved on from that part of their lives, but as he always lent her an ear when she needed it and cared for her after she suffered an existential crisis and meltdown, their relationship was closer than siblings but a few degrees of separation from being lovers.

Separating after nearly half a minute, Andrika eyed Aiden with a smile, remarking, "I see you lasted a lot longer this time. Think we'll be able to meet up in our next lives...?"

"I sure hope so," responded Aiden, releasing his hold on Andrika and taking a step back, placing him near the island's edge. Andrika's eyes narrowed slightly in response, but she stayed on topic, stating, "Well, I met up with Tom, Sarah, and Justin a few months back. They appeared reluctant, but they should keep to our agreement."

"Then, once again, the issue is Dave..." muttered Aiden, gazing at the nearby Yggdrasil. Dave's Innate, Download, permitted him to absorb knowledge and information from people and objects via touch. He had since become obsessed with learning everything there was to learn, so unless he was killed, he typically stayed alive as long as possible.

"Speaking of Dave..." muttered Andrika, furrowing her brows deeply as she commented, "I hope he did something to end up like that. It would probably make things easier, but I'd probably off myself if I were born a man..."

"I wouldn't go that far, but it would definitely be awkward..." conceded Aiden, his words trailing near the end as he felt Andrika's gaze burning a hole into him.

"What's wrong...?" asked Aiden, meeting Andrika's gaze with a wry smile. Her expression was a little scary, but only briefly, as she promptly shook her head and replied, "It's nothing..." before averting her eyes and staring at nothing in particular.

Trusting his instincts, Aiden decided not to press the matter. Instead, he gestured toward the island's edge, asking, "Want to sit and chat about our time in Temeria? I'm curious to know what you got up to."

"Oh, you know me..." replied Andrika, smiling somewhat nervously as she sat beside Aiden on the island's edge and stated, "I hate hurting people and don't have the heart to hunt animals. I found work pretty easily since I could do math, but I mainly stayed out of sight, out of mind..."

Though he knew Andrika wasn't telling the full truth, Aiden maintained a relaxed smile and nodded. She wasn't lying about her hatred of hurting people, but during the life preceding her breakdown, she had been born into a criminal syndicate. There, she was brainwashed and conditioned to serve as an assassin even before she knew the language of the world, so when she finally awoke beneath the canopy of Yggdrasil, she had a panic attack and tried to take her life more than once. She had since stabilized, but some wounds took more than just time to heal...

Leaning her shoulder against Aiden's, Andrika recounted everything she had experienced during her sixth incarnation, sans the final few months. Z eventually strolled over, but when he saw them sitting together, he shook his head, smiled, and departed without interrupting them. He and Andrika had never gotten along, but she was still one of his 'people.' She was also important to his best friend and blood brother, so even if he didn't like her, he, at the very least, tolerated her existence...

...