章節 110: Illyana
Sweat started forming above Liam's eyebrows as he walked towards Illyana's room.
'I'm in deep trouble, aren't I?' Liam thought, remembering his last conversation with Illyana as he made his way through the corridors.
He had completely forgotten to visit her with all the testing and fighting he had been doing over the past few days, maybe even weeks.
'It feels weird,' Liam thought, smiling softly. 'Time passes by like a blur now whenever I train or fight. It never used to be like that.'
''I really must have changed, huh. Maybe I adapted to the harsher world around me, like Incursio,'' he mused as he arrived in front of Illyana's room.
Liam knocked on the door and waited. Not long after, he heard a click from the door as it opened.
Liam quickly stepped to the side as he saw a batch of dimensional energy shoot toward him.
Hearing a loud clang, Liam turned to see a round hole in the wall behind him. Flying through the hole from the other side was Lockheed, who had grown to twice its size in the time Liam hadn't seen him.
'Damn,' went through Liam's mind as he leaned back to see the hole in the wall behind Lockheed before looking over at Lockheed himself.
'These walls, even if they are just corridor walls, should be protected with a low amount of energy,' he thought, letting out a low whistle. 'Looks like Lockheed is going to catch a nice beating.'
Looking back into the room, Liam found Illyana sitting on her bed with her arms and legs crossed, staring at him.
''Heya,'' Liam said, waving his hand awkwardly.
''Looks like someone finally remembered where my room is, isn't that right, Lockheed?'' Illyana said in an angry tone with a perfect Russian accent.
Lockheed looked between Illyana and Liam, not knowing what to do, before quickly nodding.
Liam couldn't help but smile awkwardly while scratching the back of his head.
As he scratched his head, Illyana's eyes followed his hand, and her gaze fell on the top of Liam's head. Seeing his new appearance, she hopped off her bed and walked towards him in a fast pace.
''What are you doing?'' Liam asked as she closed the distance between them.
Ignoring Liam, she stood right in front of him. Reaching for the top of his head, her hands fell on his hair and slowly moved towards the horns as she mumbled something.
''What did you say?'' Liam asked, not at all feeling uncomfortable with what she was doing.
''Why did this happen?'' she asked in a lower tone than usual, pulling her hand away from his head.
''Can we go inside first? It's kind of a long story,'' Liam said, smiling.
He could hear the concern in her voice, making him feel genuine relief and happiness.
After walking in, they both sat down around her table on the right side of the room. Meanwhile, Lockheed closed its eyes, resting against Liam as it fell asleep.
Illyana looked at Liam with an expectant and concerned expression, wanting to know the answer to her earlier question. She had seen the news articles and knew he had been in Greece, but with so many fake news, she couldn't tell what exactly had happened.
''It's quite simple, actually,'' Liam mused, still smiling from ear to ear. ''I thought it would be an unfair advantage in appearance if you were the only one with such beautiful horns.''
Illyana's face went through many emotions in a split second—happiness, concern, sadness, gratitude, —but then she started frowning, anger beginning to show clearly on her face.
''Alright, alright,'' Liam quickly said before Illyana could say a word. ''It's a bit of a long story, but I'll start from the beginning.''
Having seen her quick changes in emotion, Liam decided to tell the full story immediately. If there was one thing his combined life experiences had taught him, it would be that a woman shouldn't be angered unnecessarily.
Liam started from the very beginning: his journey to Greece after learning of a large tear there, the encounter with the harpies, the dead town, the stone giant. He told his story exactly as it had happened. The only thing he barely spoke about was the pain he had felt, even leaving out entirely that he had lost an arm.
After he told his entire adventure to Illyana, silence fell over the room.
Illyana looked at him with relief that he was still alive, but also with deep concern. She was still worried about the horns he had grown, knowing what pain she had gone through when she grew her own. She understood the pain he must have endured, despite him not mentioning it.
It also didn't help that she had just read the books regarding corruption, given to her as some kind of homework by the Ancient One.
''But as you can see, I'm completely fine now,'' Liam said, trying to lighten the mood.
''Why?'' Illyana asked. ''Why do you go so far for these people?''
Many of the news reports she had read, cursed Liam for his actions and questioned his motives. She truly couldn't understand why he would go through so much pain to protect the cities around the mountain.
''Well…'' Liam said, contemplating for a moment. ''I am doing whatever I can to survive, but I think it's only right to protect people where and when I can.''
Liam paused for a moment, before continuing, ''I would've liked someone else to do the same if I were an ordinary person.''
Illyana looked at him in silence. After a short moment, she nodded, falling deep into her own thoughts.
She thought back to all her years in Limbo. Those years had taught her to always rely on herself. Since her time in Limbo, she had believed in herself alone, especially with the Dark Chylde side forcing her true emotions away. Only recently had she been able to open herself up to someone else.
Eventually, Illyana sighed softly, her expression shifting back to a happy one.
''So, what are you doing now?'' Liam asked.
''Just training my control over energy with the Ancient One,'' she said. ''Thanks to her, I can finally feel my own emotions again.''
''I no longer have the dark energy disrupting every emotion and causing my mood swings. I only rarely slip up and let it influence me now,'' she continued.
Illyana shared how the past couple of weeks had been for her, while Liam chatted along. Time passed quickly as the two of them kept talking for hours. Before Liam knew it, he realized he needed to end the conversation and continue with his next goal.
''So, what are you going to do now?'' Illyana asked as they both stood up.
''I'll be experimenting with my new powers, but after that, I will start my own organization,'' Liam said.
''Organization?'' Illyana asked, curious. ''What for?''
''Many things, mainly dealing with threats to this dimension. Like the Sanctum, but more known and widespread,'' Liam answered, while walking to the door.
''I'm in,'' Illyana immediately said from behind him.
''Are you sure?'' Liam asked, turning around. ''This will be dangerous, and this isn't even your own dimension.''
''Yes, I'm sure,'' Illyana said. ''I'm so sure, I even know that you will be taking me with you the next time you go to dimensional tears.''
Liam raised an eyebrow at that statement.
''I barely have any real attachments to my own dimension anyway,'' Illyana continued. ''And that is completely different in this one.''
章節 111: Alaric
Illyana had a warm smile on her face, waiting for Liam's answer.
"Alright," Liam said, truly happy that Illyana felt like she belonged here.
'It really feels like she is the only one who could truly understand me,' Liam thought. When he was around her, he really felt free and at ease.
Illyana was so similar to him in everything: their not-so-human appearances, magic, circumstances, etc. Both of them even had a higher mental age than their physical age—Illyana due to being trapped in the Limbo realm and Liam because of his previous life.
'It really makes me feel like I can tell her everything,' he thought. Always having to tiptoe around other people, careful about what he could and couldn't say, was extremely exhausting for him.
'Then there's also her personality and beauty,' he thought. Truth be told, he already knew he had fallen for her.
Liam wanted to wait before asking her for a while. First of all, he needed to focus on setting up the organization. Secondly, he knew Illyana herself wasn't ready. She didn't want to hurt anyone by accident because of the influence of her Dark Chylde persona and was extremely scared that she would.
'I'll wait until she is more confident in herself and has more control over her powers,' Liam decided. 'That'll give me some time to get myself ready as well.'
"I'll talk to you about it later once I'm a little further in planning," Liam said, opening the door.
Illyana nodded, smiling.
Liam turned around and started walking towards his own room. But before he could, arms wrapped tightly around him from behind.
"Thank you so much for everything," he heard her whisper in his ear. The arms quickly pulled away, and the door closed behind him.
Liam stood still for a few moments before walking away with a large smile on his face.
As he got back to his room, Liam decided to move onto the next task at hand.
'The previous users,' Liam thought. 'They managed to give me energy when I needed it.'
'But why now? How? And what are they even?' he questioned.
"I guess there's only one way to find out," Liam muttered, opening a white rift in front of him.
Jumping through, he reappeared in the massive dome-like structure. Compared to last time, some things had changed.
'What happened here?' Liam thought. Two of the stone statues were completely broken, stone shards scattered everywhere on the ground.
'I remember this statue,' Liam thought. 'It was the old man who prevented me from reaching for the crystal ball on top of the altar.'
Liam walked closer to the rubble on the ground and crouched down, brushing the rubble away from the pedestal. The teardrop-like structures had turned completely grey on the first statue he checked. Moving on to the second, Liam crouched down again and pushed the rubble away.
This statue had the exact same condition as the last one. Both statues had only two colored teardrops in them before, and now both had turned grey.
As Liam stood up again, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He spun around and found himself looking at a man in spirit form, seemingly around the age of 30.
"Hello," the man said, waving his hand.
"Hello?" Liam said in a questioning tone.
The man smiled. "I know it can be a little confusing, but please stay calm."
"No, it's alright," Liam said calmly,
'I've really gotten way too used to weird things happening to me.' He thought.
"Can you explain to me what you are and what exactly this place is?" Liam continued. He wanted to get as many answers to his questions as possible.
"I was going to get to that," the man said. "We have quite some time. I'll start with your first question."
"I am Alaric Draven, commander of the first rebellion within the great empire," Alaric introduced himself. "As for what I am now? I'm in my soul form. When my physical body died, this was what was sucked into Incursio."
"As for the great empire? You are standing inside the ruins of it right now—or rather, some kind of projection of it," he continued.
Liam paid close attention to what Alaric said, absorbing as much new information as possible.
'So this is him, the guy who started the first revolution 500 years before the anime happened,' Liam thought.
He had seen his statue before. It was the only one outside of Tatsumi that had four teardrops embedded in the pedestal.
"Where are the other old users?" he asked. Since one of them could talk, Liam assumed all of them could. That's why he wanted to know why they weren't here.
"I was chosen to welcome you, most of the others are resting and trying to regenerate all the energy they lost before," the man said.
Liam nodded, accepting the answer. He didn't want to stay on it for too long since he had more important questions he wanted to ask.
'I'll ask more about this toward the end,' Liam thought, opening his mouth to ask his next question.
"What about this dome? What is it?" Liam asked, wanting to get one of his main questions out of the way.
"Aha, this dome," Alaric started. "It's kind of like a center point of this dimension, and also the gathering place where all of our souls are being kept."
"Being kept?" Liam asked.
"Yeah, but don't worry about that yet," Alaric said, shrugging it off. "That's something for the far future."
"Are you sure?" Liam asked, in disbelief at how nonchalant this man was. "That sounded rather important to me."
"Yeah, it's fine for now," he said. "Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to tell you."
"Well... okay. Can I know what happened to these two statues then?" Liam asked.
"Yeah, sure. These people were previous users of Incursio. They were very satisfied with your behavior and your willingness to help ordinary people, so they decided to give you all their remaining energy," Alaric said, in a somber tone. "It really was a shame; they were nice people."
Liam grit his teeth, obviously understanding what Alaric was implying.
Although Alaric didn't exactly say what had happened to them, Liam could take that guess with ease.
'If all the energy leaves their soul, it will dissipate. Meaning permanent death,' he thought. 'And if all the theories from fellow mages are right, that means no chance of rebirth or reincarnation. Just permanently gone.'
Liam hated the feeling he had, knowing other people died for your cause was one painful feeling.
Calming himself, Liam decided to switch the topic, remembering something else he needed to ask about.
"Can you read the scriptures on the pedestals?" Liam asked.
"Yes, in fact, everyone here can," Alaric said. "You need to supply Incursio's energy to your eyes while having gone through the second evolution."
"I've already done that," Liam said. "But it doesn't do anything."
"It needs to be purely Incursio's energy," Alaric said. "It is a rather difficult process everyone has to go through. Controlling Incursio's energy and keeping the energy from your dimension separate is quite the task, after all."
Liam nodded, making a mental note. He had thought about this solution before but hadn't been able to accomplish it yet.
'Having reassurance that it's correct is always nice,' Liam thought.
"I have one final important question," Liam said. "It's about the dreams I've been getting."
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