Chapter 15
Before Landon could go into any further details, Professor Saltzman raised his hands in a gesture to keep silent. "I don't know what you saw, but this seems like a conversation that should take place in a much less public location. Besides we've got company and before we reveal any secrets to strangers, we should probably get a more detailed background information on them, don't you think?" Alaric said in a tone that made it clear that it was not up for debate.
"Ok, this can wait until we get back to the school and get some more answers." Landon replied chaffing at being told what to do. Ever since he had unlocked his incubus bloodline, he found himself feeling increasingly aggravated by others attempting to assert authority over him. So far, he had managed to keep himself restrained but every attempt grated at his patience.
"Alright, everyone in the car. Now." The headmaster said, pointedly looking at Hope and Clarke. Hope climbed into the vehicle somewhat sheepishly, while Clarke looked at his brother with an eyebrow raised questioningly.
Landon responded with a slight nod, after which Clarke followed Hope in climbing into the backseat.
"You too Landon." Alaric said, seemingly unaware that every time he phrased something as an order Landon was forced to subsequently exert greater levels of willpower to keep his teeth from involuntarily grinding.
"Thanks, but I have my own way back." Landon responded while simultaneously summoning his motorcycle.
"Be that as it may, until I have a better idea of what that thing on your arm is I'm not comfortable letting you out of my sight." Alaric replied, his eyes narrowing at the apparently unexpected defiance.
Josie chose this moment to hold his hand, her fingers interlacing with his bringing the entirety of his focus to her. "For me?" She asked, her face displaying hints of her concern.
Her worry cut through the tension building within him and served to calm him.
"For you." He responded with a nod, after which they both made their way towards the car. He made his way to the front seat. He did not trust himself to be able to sit next to someone who proclaimed themselves to be both his girlfriend and his father's murderer.
The ride back was a quiet affair for the most part. Landon spent his time looking at the back seat through the rearview mirror, occasionally catching glimpses of Hope looking at him through the same mirror and Josie giving Hope massive amounts of side-eye.
At this point Landon remembered that he hadn't told anyone that Hope had claimed to be his girlfriend, nor had he specified that Josie was his current…. Paramour?
This is going to be annoying. He thought to himself exasperatedly.
The quiet car ride provided an opportunity where he didn't have to interact with anyone, and he decided to make use of this chance to read the message from the system and rid himself of the annoying blinking light in the corner of his vision.
My son,
If you are reading this message, then I am dead. I'm sorry I did no manage to free myself in time to meet you before my end. I wish so many things had been different but sadly the world does not often conform to our desires. I have little time left and must therefore be succinct. I have been poisoned by a creature that is a mix of the vampire, witch, and werewolf union that first created me. Her existence is anathema to our own and despite my natural adaptability I could not generate an immunity to her before my end came. You should currently have with you a doorway to my personal dimension where innumerable creatures are held, once all your attributes have reached one hundred you should be able to attune to it.
Even without attunement the gate will serve several purposes, the greatest of which is that it will transfer all the progress I've made towards a "tribrid" immunity to you. This small fragment of protection is sadly all I can grant you. Once you have the foundation for the immunity, partial exposure should serve to incrementally raise it. Be wary of consistent prolonged exposure, too much too soon may overwhelm you as it did me. It will also grant you the ability to return the memories of those that have entered my dimension to yourself and others. Hopefully this will alleviate any conflict you may have with your brother due to your missing memories.
Once you have met the prerequisites the gate will grant you control over the dimension itself, allowing you to traverse it at will along with imprisoning or releasing any creature you desire. Unfortunately, the presence of the tribrid within my demesne made the creation of the gate unstable. If you are reading this letter, then the gate has managed to successfully communicate with your system. This will allow your system to track the amount of time left until my remaining will can no longer maintain the dimension.
Once that occurs the gate should act as a funnel for the creatures to escape from. This is necessary to both limit the number of monsters that can escape at once and to ensure that the dimension doesn't entirely collapse and release the creatures in random locations throughout the world all at once.
Without my will there is a chance that the gate can shatter before you can attune to it, this will not destroy the gate itself, but it will result in the mass release of all the inhabitants at once. I'm sorry, my son, but should this occur, I must task with recapturing the escapees. Humanity is vast but they are ill prepared to handle themselves in conflict with the supernatural legions I protect them from.
I can not apologize enough for laying my responsibilities on your shoulders. Know that if there was any other way to protect humanity without burdening you, I would take it in an instant. This in not the life I wanted for you, and I will never be able to apologize enough.
I wish there was more that I could do to assist you. I attempted to keep the tribrid imprisoned in the hopes that she would be unable to harm you but, in the end, I could not finish fashioning the gate with her still inside. I tried to release your brother to find you, but she was always present, and I had to prematurely close the portals before they could take him to prevent her escape. Please apologize to him for me, another task I must burden you with, to my everlasting shame.
My time comes to an end, my son. My only regret is that I could never tell you how proud I am of you in person. Look out for your brother, he's more vulnerable that he lets on and if I've learned anything in my long life, it's that family needs to protect each other.
With pride and love,
Your Father
Immediately after reading his father's final letter Landon checked his system menu. He could try and process his dad's death later when he had time, for now he needed to distract himself and he had found that the best way to do that was by exploring his system for changes.
Four things immediately stood out, firstly he had a new skill named Mounted Combat at Apprentice 6, and secondly, he had an ability titled Tribrid Immunity with 22.7% next to it. He also saw a message asking him if he wanted to attempt to attune the gate, which he immediately closed. But perhaps the most important of all, under his perks he now saw Memory Restoration. Before he could begin to think about this too deeply, they had reached the school.
Upon arriving, they made their way to the headmaster's office. Before Landon would share any information about the Malivore Gate he insisted on the newbies explain their situation in greater detail.
The following two hours consisted of Hope explaining her history how she was a student in the school and her final phone call to Professor Saltzman leading up to her records being destroyed after which Clarke elaborated on his history along with his father's, which coincided with the information Landon had been provided in the message he received when he activated the system for the first time.
He decided to keep the contents of his father's letter to himself until everyone else finished talking.
Josie's side-eye turned into a full-on glare when Hope revealed that she was Landon's girlfriend, and she spent the rest of the discussion staring daggers at her. Landon for his part found himself completely focused on two points in her story. Firstly, the third person who had been erased from his memories was his mother, a person he was unaware of having ever met, and secondly….
"So Raf has been stuck in wolf form for months because of you?" Landon stated coldly, having done his best to wait patiently until both had finished speaking before asking this question had pushed his restraint to the limit.
"When I left Raf to come find you, he was still human. I had no idea he had even shifted. But now that I'm back I can fix him." She responded. She looked unsure, like she was not used to him questioning her and didn't know how to react.
His own face shifted to glare at her as she made continued to make excuses. "I'm gonna go find Raf, I need to do something other than be in this room right now or I'm going to explode, and I'm not sure whether I'm being literal or not." Landon stood up and rushed out of the room before anyone could stop him.
Listening to Hope's story, or rather her self-serving justifications had been aggravating. Her impetuousness in her decisions, and the way she acted with seemingly no consideration for possible consequences all at his expense was infuriating.
If she could be believed she was responsible for Raf being stuck in wolf form, the death of his father, his inability to remember anything about his mother twice over, and a possible supernatural apocalypse!
He took a moment to calm down and activate his Mystic Awareness hoping it would allow him to quickly find Raf. It took a bit of time to locate him and a bit more to convince him to come with him to the school, but once he did it only took Hope a handful of seconds to return him to human form.
The ease with which she casually broke the spell he had spent months trying to overcome only served to increase his ire. Had she not attempted to murder his father she would have been able to help Raf immediately. Who knows what kind of damage spending the entire summer as a nearly feral animal would do to him?
He spent a while ensuring that Raf was ok and comfortable, leading him back to their room so he could rest before he made his way back to the headmaster's office.
As he stepped into the office, he noticed that everyone was being exceptionally quiet and still, as if they were afraid any slight movement might set him off. It was understandable, they were right. Ever since this girl had walked out the ether the peaceful, happy life he'd managed to build for himself over the summer felt like it was being torn down and ripped asunder over and over again.
Each new revelation brought with it another example of how his life had been her plaything. That had to end. He raised the arm on which he wore the gate and used his other hand to point to it.
"This is a gift from my father, amongst other things it will let me restore erased memories. It's time to see how much of what you said was the truth." Landon said immediately before activating the memory restoration, targeting Hope, Clarke, and his mother as the focus for the restoration.
The memories of his brother returned first, there weren't many of them. He expected as much based on what he had revealed about himself in the office. Then came the memories of his mother, the days he spent watching her in the coffee shop before he approached her and everything that came after.
Then… then came Hope. One moment she was just an idea and the next she was an indelible part of who he was. She was seared into his mind like he had taken a branding iron straight to the brain, except he was certain that the iron would have proven far less painful.
It wasn't just the memories that were restored, it was their corresponding emotions as well. Landon had loved her with all his heart, and now the part of him that resented her and had begun to hate her raged against the notion that he could have ever loved her.
He didn't even realize he was screaming until his knees hit the ground. He cradled his head in his hands hoping to ease the pain. He could vaguely hear Josie calling out his name in the background, but the pain made it difficult to focus. Such was his pain that it took him a moment to realize that he his system was trying to get his attention again. He immediately opened the message hoping it would bring some respite from the pain.
Gemini Bloodline Unlock Initiated – Complete unlocking process to access bloodline abilities
The message confused him, but only momentarily. Not only did the pain refuse to subside, it actually doubled in intensity and then doubled again. It felt like he was being torn asunder until finally, blissfully unconsciousness claimed him.
Landon managed to come to his senses a few moments later, thankfully free of pain. Pain was not the only sensation he was free of. The rage and hate he had such difficulty reconciling earlier were gone, he remembered feeling those things, but it felt more like he was watching a movie or reading a book, as if it weren't him feeling those emotions. He managed to get to his feet and stood up. As he lifted his head, he caught Hope's eyes and smiled.
"Hope." He said, unable to keep the relief and sheer joy out of his voice.
"Landon." She replied with what might be the first true smile he'd seen on her face tonight. At least the first one since he'd made it clear he had no memories of her.
God, I'm such an idiot. He thought to himself. I'm going to need to figure out how to make it up to her.
He began to walk towards Hope when he noticed her eyes shift to look at something off to the side. It was at this point that he heard a disturbingly familiar voice roar "Hope!"
Already knowing what he was going to see, Landon turned to look anyway. Afterall if he was truly, ridiculously lucky it might not actually be what he was afraid of.
That hope lasted all of two second, when upon the completion of his turn he found himself face to face with…. himself, and Other-Him did not look happy at all.
Fuck me! He exclaimed privately.
Landon managed to come to his senses a few moments later, thankfully free of pain. Pain was not the only sensation he was free of. The love and desire he had such difficulty reconciling earlier were gone, he remembered feeling those things, but it felt more like he was watching a movie or reading a book, as if it weren't him feeling those emotions. He managed to get to his feet and stood up. As he lifted his head, he caught Hope's eyes and growled.
"Hope!" He roared, unable to keep the rage and malice out of his voice.
"Landon?!" She replied with a confused grimace plastered all over her face.
He knew what he had to do. She had been responsible for the near destruction of her own family and were it not for his father's attempts to protect Clarke she would have been responsible for the complete destruction of his own.
She had done nothing but take, and take, and take from him. She completely refused to so much as discuss any alternatives for dealing with Malivore. No, it was more convenient to snap his neck and be done and not have to deal with anything as inconvenient as a conversation.
But he wasn't the same Landon anymore and killing him for the sake of expediency would prove a much more difficult task.
I am the Son of Malivore and I'm going to make you pay for what you've done. He silently swore to himself.
The moment his oath completed the system beacon flashed anew, thankfully bereft of mind shattering agony this time. He opened it rationalizing that even if it knocked him out, he'd need all the power he could get in the coming days.
Enenra Bloodline Unlocked – You can now utilize the following abilities
Smoke Form | Smoke Manipulation
The unlocking of this bloodline didn't so much as tickle.
Huh, it must be because there are no drastic physiological changes to my base form. He deduced.
In the few moments it took him to do all this he noticed motion to his left. Growing tired of all the massive revelations of the day he decided to just get it over with and turned to look only to find an exact duplicate of himself staring back at him.
Fuck me! He exclaimed privately.
They all stood there in shocked silence staring at each other. Besides the Landons only Josie and Professor Saltzman had any idea what had just occurred but knowing something conceptually was fundamentally different from having empirical evidence slammed down right in front of you.
Hope was the one to break the silence.
"What the hell is going on?!" She half-asked half-yelled at the headmaster.
Alaric took a moment to observe the scene taking place in his office before he addressed the Landons.
"That answers that question. Is there any particular reason why you didn't tell Hope about the system?" asked the professor.
Both Landons answered at the same time.
"I was waiting for the right time."
"Kinda hard to talk with a snapped neck."
Once they'd finished talking the Landons continued to glare at one another, before the began to converse between themselves.
"This is going to become confusing quickly."
"Agreed, do you have any idea for a solution?"
"Differentiate by surname?"
"Makes about as much sense as anything else in this crazy school."
The others in the room looked more than slightly disconcerted by the scenario before them. The fact that the Landons were quickly oscillating between giving each other death glares and speaking to each other with complete understanding of each other only added to the confusing atmosphere.
The Landon that was blatantly in love with Hope looked and everyone and began to speak.
"Until we can figure all of this out it will probably be better if you all refer to me as Kirby." He said with a sheepish grin and a shrug.
Josie focused her attention on the other Landon and asked, "What about you?"
Landon took a moment to breath in and savored this moment. One of his lifelong dreams was about to be achieved and despite how shocking and painful the rest of the day had been, he wanted to commit this moment to perfect memory.
"Me?" He said before continuing. "I'm a Malivore like my father before me."
