Surprise chapter! So soon after the last update?! NANI! I know I'm trying to make up for lost time. Also I already got a new job after less than one week of being unemployed. So I'm happy to be back in the economy working 10 minutes away from home. In my previous Job I was dedicating 12 hours of my life a day to that job, nope, not in this case. I will be saving 3 hours which will leave me more time to dedicate to you guys. I'm so thrilled.
Anywho, time to read the messages.
To Rollingfire: I'm glad you liked my interactions between Ghislaine and Rudeus. There is another funny moment between the two in this chapter dedicated to you.
With that being said enjoy the chapter.
"I will reach you! No matter how many years it takes!" I shouted as Rudeus began to fade away from his dreams snapping back to reality. If only he knew that his was no dream.
I continued to walk, my feet brushed against the cosmic clouds as I felt myself pass from one universe to the next. This was the plains of eternity, the plains I had explored for a large portion of my never-ending life after I had left my previous world behind. If someone was able to expand beyond the universe and see their grain of sand and many others like them, they could see to their surprise a giant footprint, like a footprint that was composed of wet sand from a beach, my footprint. I had chosen the path of absolute freedom instead of absolute control, normally if a person with a huge amount of mana like Laplace reached absolute freedom then he would be able to travel from one world to the next at random, to him he would see something like an infinite corridor as one world passes while another appears, however the more mana a person had the more they were able to explore the plains at a greater level, in other words all I had to do was choose which grain of sand to visit.
Mana, the very word was a limitation on what the power actually was. The purest meaning wasn't mana but energy manipulation, the ability and capacity to form a direct connection with the potential energy of the universe and warp it to ones will. The more mana a person had the more energy they were able to pull from and change into their desires.
Now my desire focused on the point at which Rudeus disappeared. The world he went to didn't feel right, it was a timeline I had looked over several times but found no evidence of Rudeus or anyone of his mana capacity before to give me cause for hope and yet there he was. Still it would take me awhile before I could reach him but I had established an Ansible connection with his world and Rudeus himself, so no matter how many branches in that timeline formed I had a lock on him now. I chuckled, my capacity and signal was allot stronger than Hitogami's so his insight from his little void world would be fucked up for a while until I managed to plant my feet in the world. Now it was only a matter of time before I would reach Rudeus without that little man gods interference.
If I ran and Rudeus appeared again then I was worried that he would try to flee from me or worse fight me before I managed to reach him. What was more noticeable was that his mana capacity had multiplied excessively compared to the first time I saw him, within the next three years if he continued to multiply it he would probably reach the same mana capacity as me. I smiled at that moment, beforehand I was so desperate to find him I had almost given up all hope.
There was a sneaking suspicion that Infinity was involved in this Rudeus's sudden appearance. Infinity was composed of the unconscious desires and wills of infinite people which also included apart of myself, if this was Infinities doing then there was a reason for it. Still I was pissed off at that cosmic god for being so secretive about who I actually was, it called me a "Paradoxical being and that it was my purpose to find meaning." Annoying bastard. I spent a good part of the beginning of my life down in the sixth sided world and after hundreds of years of exploring the multiverse I was going back to that world which was a completely different timeline, one where Paul and Zenith fell in love and had Rudeus. I just prayed Rudeus didn't know who he was and was just like me.
Depending on which timezone and how much Rudeus had managed to change the world he occupied it would be nice to meet Orsted and apologize to him, or to meet Eris and try to give her some of the memories I have of her, maybe say hello to Roxy yeah that would be nice. But regardless it is still a different world, a different timeline, it's not the same Eris, not the same Roxy, and not the same Orsted, I shouldn't try to repent for the sins I committed by trying to redeem myself.
I sighed as I continued to walk thinking about redemption while I took one step after another to the focus point, my one true objective. Still it filled with me allot of hope and joy that all this bloodshed, pain, and searching I had gone through might be worth something even if it was for a completely selfish purpose to complete one part of myself, once I was done with Rudeus I would go back to this plain of existence and continue my search.
"Why are you still searching?" A female voice said right next to me.
I jumped a little bit at the sudden appearance of the young woman walking beside me. I knew who she was but I was more surprised at the fact that she had even bothered to find me. She had taken the appearance from when I first found her, if not a little more tidy and she didn't have a huge bleeding crater in her head so that was nice… well I saw to that and fixed her up, saving her from the point of death, hell she was two thirds into the light at the end of the tunnel until I managed to pull her back.
"Hello Anna how are you doing exploring the stars? Coming to pester me I assume?" I sighed.
"Anna was my birth name, my name is…" She began to state annoyed at me, her brow twitched even more when I interrupted her knowing what she was going to say.
"You like to go by Elizabeth yes yes I know but I find it odd that you would insist on going by that name since it's what your warden named you, that or he just called you the Lamb to his brainwashed followers." I didn't have time to talk to her much I was devoting my time to going to Rudeus.
"We will go in circles if we keep talking like this." Elizabeth said stopping herself from arguing with me. "I came to walk beside you a little bit because I was worried about you."
"No need to be worried about me." I retorted.
"You fucking idiot! How many more years will you spend on this! We are cosmological beings with access to every point in the multiverse and yet you choose to go back to where you started! Why!" She had a large intellect, it was one of the things I liked about her but other times in situations like this I didn't like her asking me the really important questions… maybe I was just stubborn.
"Because it will make everything I have gone through worth it!" I yelled back at her.
"You already tried that on me! And guess what? I wasn't a version of you! I was a dud! I'm sorry for wasting a few years of your immortal life."
"You gave me hope and you took it away from me, that's enough to make any man dangerous, god knows what that will do to a man like me. And we both know there is no such thing as immortals Elizabeth. Someday I will lay down in the dirt but only until my life is complete, only until I know who I am."
"It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life." Elizabeth whispered holding my hand in a moment of desperation.
"If you want a simple life go to Paris! You've wanted to for so long." I snapped shaking her hand off mine.
"But if I do it alone then I will be living a fantasy." She cried out, she stood in front of me at those words grasping my shoulders and preventing me from taking another step forward until I addressed her, but I was too furious.
"Ignorance is bliss, I above all others should know what that means. So if you want to I can wipe your memories and turn that fantasy into a reality, I can wipe any memory of me from your soul and put you on a nice cotton bed in Paris, and then when you wake up I will only be a fading, long forgotten memory."
"That would be cruel. I won't forsake the memory of the second person in my life who saved me. Who actually gave a damn about me!" She punched my shoulder at my remark, it wasn't hard but it still hurt me, only a woman like her had that power. It was clear she was almost at the brink of tears. I stopped walking for a second and looked at her sadly.
"Elizabeth I have to do this, please respect that. But I will do you this one favor. If you don't want to forsake me you can continue to visit me, but please don't be clingy, enjoy going on your own adventures saving little girls from bad Irish accented men or something like that, hell give those men a trans orbital lobotomy for all I care…. I'm…. I'm sorry for yelling at you Elizabeth."
She sniffed a little and wiped the place she had hit me in an attempt to apologize for her previous punch. "I forgive you, but anytime you need me, you know I'm everywhere."
"Yes I know." I smiled back at her.
"With that being said mind if I have a hammer and a very large needle? I need to perform some minor brain surgery on a certain person's frontal lobe." She smiled sadistically.
I chuckled and formed a medical hammer and needle for her, handing them over. Without saying another word she outstretched her hand and a portal into another world formed where she leaped into it, hammer raised above her head.
She was broken just like me, more than broken she was shattered but yet her soul was filled with kindness. I was jealous of the strength she had. If Rudeus turned out to be a dud most likely she would interfere and try to prevent me from unleashing my rage on the world, that was who she was even though I was stronger than her. One could say she is true definition of bravery, to stand in the presence of a stronger opponent with a smile on their face. Shaking those thoughts aside I continued to press forward.
Looking at the destination I continued to walk through the plains of eternity, getting closer and closer to my goal.
"I will reach you Rudeus, no matter how many years it takes." I whispered.
A knock at the carriage door woke Rudeus up and Ghislaine peaked her head into the enclosed space.
"Good morning Rudeus, we are back."
Rudeus yawned outstretching both of his arms, after that good stretch he twisted his back to get off the annoying pain of a bumpy hard carriage ride. Once a few pops in the spine was heard he got up and stepped outside into the bright light.
They had parked the carriage ride outside of the city limits next to the cities barn where the horses would be taken care of and the carriages would be unloaded.
'I can't wait to see how much Eris has grown.' Rudeus smiled thinking happily to himself. With that in mind he grabbed his bag filled with clothes and various other pieces of camping gear and walked hurriedly to the main castle.
Before the cities gates even opened up a little bit a punch to his gut sent him flying. He barely had any time to catch the attack.
'Yep I know that punch anywhere.' Rudeus smiled as Eris exited out of the city gates, her arms folded but she was smirking at him while she stood above him.
"Hello Eris." Rudeus got up clutching his now sore stomach.
Eris continued to smirk up at him.
"What took you so long Rudeus haha."
'Oh she sure seems full of herself.' He thought. He got up patting the dirt off of his clothes.
"How was the capital?" Eris asked. Rudeus noted that she was being a bit respectful towards him where she would first show interest in another persons story, at least that was his case. He would have to give thanks to her teachers for managing to teach her that level of manners. But Rudeus knew Eris too well, once he was done with his side of the story she would jump into sharing her story.
"Busy, we had a few setbacks but Darius has lost allot of credibility and trust because of his actions. Not only that we have a plan for the next few years to take him down for good. More importantly Notos and the Boreas branch will now work with each other instead of being at odds."
Eris pouted at this. "I don't see why you couldn't have just killed Darius."
At that point Rudeus thanked the world itself that Eris was not queen. Still he agreed with her desire to see that pig obliterated off the face of the earth.
"So do you have something to show me Eris?" Rudeus asked getting to the point as to why she really wanted to talk to him.
"Oh? You seem to know me so well Rudeus haha yes I have something huge to show you." At those last words she outstretched her hands and two balls of fire formed in her palms.
"You… you can do silent spellcasting!" Rudeus jumped up and hugged the girl not minding that his clothes would soon catch fire if he kept holding her, instead of her returning the hug she instead chose to punch him as she dissipated the spell in her right hand and hit him in the ribs.
"I'm so proud of you Eris." Rudeus wheezed out clutching his sides, once again he laid on the ground cradling himself.
"Eris you shouldn't be so mean to Rudeus, he cares allot for your growth and in return you hit him." Ghislaine said standing up for the boy, she looked down at him and winked.
'Oh Ghislaine you are such an angel.' Rudeus softly smiled in a sigh of relief. He then looked over to Philip and he just grinned softly, eyes squinted. It would appear that he was enjoying the scene in front of him quite allot. 'Maybe I was too harsh on Philip, he might even view me with distain…. Hmm, how should I reward him for listening to me so far? Thought's for later.'
Eris pouted but she outstretched her hand to Rudeus which he humbly accepted, getting up off of the dirt. As they walked through the city they continued to talk about what they did and their time apart.
"No one seems to be able to teach as good as you Rudeus, I'm glad you are back. Oh yeah, while you were gone a box arrived from you." Eris said.
"Oh yeah?" Rudeus asked. He knew what it was, it was his treasured response from Roxy which contained her letter and box on her transcript, guide, and interpretation of the demon language. Rudeus was already fluent in it but he had committed to the same actions as he had in his first reincarnation under the assumption that Hitogami was watching him and the slightest hint that Rudeus gave about having knowledge that he didn't learn could tip the man god off that he was dealing with someone who had the ability of reincarnation instead of just someone that came from another world.
Now that Rudeus knew Hitogami's vision was being interfered with he could breath a little and not study the Demon Language, instead he would pretend learn the third language, the Beast Language under Ghislaine to not arouse suspicion from Philip or anyone else.
"Yeah the box is in your room when we get back but can we practice with our wooden swords? I feel I have gotten a bit rusty just sparring with the castle guards. You and Ghislaine are way stronger." Eris said swinging her arm around pretending to hold a sword with which she cut down multiple.
"Speaking of swords and Darius I never got to ask how you felt about taking your first life, you know, back when we were kidnapped, the bald thug that beat you." Rudeus said. He was worried about his inquisition into the question but it was something that needed to be addressed. Eris took her first kill back during Rudeus's first reincarnation around the age of 13 or 14 if he remembered correctly, she had saved the Memory Miko from an assassination attempt back when they were in Millis. Since she was younger in this time she was far more impressionable and could easily develop a lack of understanding for human life if things went too far.
At Rudeus's words she looked at her own hands contemplating her response for a second. "It felt, it felt like a pain came off of my chest when I killed him. I felt happy, not in the fact that I killed him but in the fact that he couldn't hurt me or anyone else anymore." Rudeus smiled at her, that was the response he was looking for in her. She was a good person, Ruijerd would be proud of her when they met.
Speaking of that kidnapping, now that the rumor was about to be spread that Hollow was in fact a Superd Rudeus could use his creation to remove allot of the fearful reputation that the Superds had along with reforming Dead End in this reality. This course of action would happen if the teleportation event occurred and Hollow saved children and villagers where he would claim to be a Superd helping out the people that were caught up in the event.
When Rudeus and Eris, along with Ghislaine and Philip reached their home at the center of the city Eris immediately ran to the shack and pulled out two wooden practice swords tossing one to Rudeus as her eyes gleamed with anticipation.
'Reminds me of whenever she had a moment to spare when we were done with putting Ariel on the throne. Anytime she and I had some breathing room during or after one of Orsteds missions she would use me for a workout… I was so drained through our sessions.' Rudeus smiled remembering the good times with her.
Eris snapped Rudeus out of his thoughts when she charged with a yell, Rudeus assumed the water god style stance as he deflected her blows. He knew her moves by heart even if she didn't know it and water god style was the best way to counteract her strikes. Parry and then attack was the meaning behind the style. More importantly he had read in his summoned books on the style the Samurai of ancient Japan used.
She raised her wooden sword above her head once again and Rudeus kept his sword loose in his grip as the wooden blade faced her. When the strike came he rose his sword up to meet hers but the moment the wood touched at the end he used his wrists to twist the blade to the point it was at a 45 degree angle with the hilt above his head. Like a child going down a steep slide her sword was carried down by the momentum she put behind it as Rudeus deflected the strike. The reason why this move was so effective was because Rudeus was now at an advantage to do a strike from above while Eris's sword was down near the ground from the recent deflection. He swung to tap the top of her head with his blade which would give him a victory, it being a fatal blow to the head if it was a real sword, but he wasn't fast enough as her instincts kicked in, she didn't have the option to take a step back because she would still be in the path of Rudeus's strike so instead she continued with the momentum from her strike.
She kicked the ground and went low while she twisted her torso swinging her sword to hit Rudeus's back. Rudy saw this attack and bent down, his right leg bent while his left remained straight, Eris's desperate strike completely missed him. At that moment Eris realized the mistake of her desperate attack.
Rudeus noticed it too and took a step back as he used his back to bump her. She wasn't properly planted into the ground yet and in an unstable stance, because of Rudeus's push she fell on her rear and she wasn't quick enough to get up as she saw Rudeus's sword pointed at her chin. He won the match.
Before she could get up or yield Rudeus outstretched his hand in an attempt to shake her hand as if to say "Good game."
She slapped it away trying to contain her tears at her loss. She always was a sore loser. As she got up she received a surprise hug from the young boy. Since it was a surprise she didn't know what to do, at first she thought she should hit him but it was nice being embraced by him, like he knew what she was feeling. Eris dropped her blade and just stood still for a moment. When Rudeus was done hugging her he released his embrace but still held onto her shoulders with his hands looking up at her.
"That was an amazing attack Eris, it was really fast I could barely keep up with it. I'm sure if you keep practicing and training with people like Ghislaine I won't be able to stand a chance."
She patted the dirt off herself similar to how Rudeus did a few minutes ago and then followed with a sucker punch to Rudeus's gut. Huffing she strode away with her arms folded.
'Since when did I grow to both expect and enjoy this kind of treatment?!' Rudeus thought while he crashed down onto the ground with Ghislaine walking over and softly patting his back in congratulations.
"That was a good fight." The beast woman said.
Almost a year had passed by since Rudeus had begun teaching Eris, granted a few months were dedicated to causing disruption in the Asuran capital with Philip and Philemon but other than that her education had progressed quite well. Her magic was nearing it's peak though in terms of her educational understanding, advanced was the most that Rudeus was able to get her to understand but she still hadn't mastered it yet only reaching intermediate level in terms of practice, still… it was allot better and stronger than in his first reincarnation.
She could combine spells like how she used earth magic and fire magic to create fireworks, even going to far as to use wind magic to fuel the flames, creating a bigger explosion as a result. She couldn't fly like Sylphy could but that was fine.
On other matters Rudeus had not had a dream of the mysterious stranger that was walking towards him on that cloudy plain. If he recalled that dream it looked to him like the clouds were composed of tiny stars that drifted away from the man or were compacted underneath his feet. It was a foreboding image and no matter how much Rudeus tried to shake it he felt like he was being watched.
Hitogami hadn't given any other commands either and it seemed like his vision was still constricted, Darius gave a huge indication to that because his course of actions didn't suddenly change, his objective was still the same by hiring mages along with scholars to seek out magical anomalies or for that matter delve into dungeons along with an adventuring party to clear it out and find magical items. So far nothing came up.
Ghislaine continued to help Rudeus with Eris's main weakness such as reading, writing, and math. Anytime Eris lost her vigor while studying Rudeus signaled to Ghislaine that she should start talking about her adventuring days and when she was in a pinch because she didn't have these skills that Rudeus was trying to teach the young lady.
Eris was like a small flame when it came to her drive for education, you had to constantly keep putting fuel on it otherwise the flame would go out and never be rekindled. Rudeus on the other hand was enjoying his time of freedom over the weekends in which he spent either on the big teleportation incident prevention which was due in almost two years, or working on electronics. Making things like Radios, Tesla coils, or large electronic magnets made him giggle with glee whenever something went successfully.
One time he accidently put too much juice into a tesla coil using his mana. A huge coil of plasma hit him which made it feel like his heart short circuited for a brief minute. Fortunately Rudeus had immediately cut off the supply of mana and the coil stopped working. That however didn't stop the concern of Ghislaine who heard a high pitched zap sound and barged into Rudeus's room to see if he was alright, only to find that Rudeus had his hair fizzling in a large circle as the remnants of static electricity remained, keeping the strands of his hair floating towards anything that was metal such as nails in the wall, the copper in the tesla coil, or Ghislaine's sword. She tried to contain herself but couldn't hold it in laughed at the ridiculous sight before her, seeing the boy with a huge afro and a burnt smell wafting throughout the room.
Rudeus got up from his seat not saying a word and walked over to her while she was still howling with laugher not understanding the danger that slowly approaching towards her. He reached up and poked her nose. The electricity transferred instantly as a tiny bolt went from his fingertip to her nose. She leapt back clutching her nose and now it was Rudeus's turn to laugh.
In other news the mansion will be open soon to guests from Ars and various other cities hosting nobles and their children to dance with Eris in an effort of courtship.
'No mistakes this time.' Rudeus said repeating his oath to himself that he took on when being reborn in his second reincarnation. He would faithfully teach Eris to dance, she would be like a professional ballerina so that no boy could touch her. She would seem like an unreachable mountainous goal for the rest of the boys.
Thusly the sword and magical schedules were put on hold by both Rudeus and Ghislaine so she can focus on her preparations for the dance. The only thing that wasn't put on hold were her morning sword routines, that she and Ghislaine insisted would remain so her skills would not wither.
After a few days Rudeus saw Eris looking irritable. 'The more I see her the more I want to tease her, knowing I will get punched, am I some sort of masochist?' Rudeus thought to himself.
Edona, the etiquette and dance teacher for Eris came into Rudeus's line of view when he was sneaking in a late night snack, nothing too big but it was a nice ham and cheese sandwich. He had gotten the freshly cut ham from the kitchen storeroom along with the cheese but the bread was something he had summoned. Perfectly made, soft, and fluffy French bread which was more than a footlong and would help satiate Rudeus's apatite. She stopped him in the hallway on Rudeus's way back to his room. He had the sandwich halfway into his mouth with the remaining part dangling from his mouth but despite the cringeworthy scene before the etiquette teacher which looked like a snake that had unhinged it's mouth to eat a huge morsel Rudeus still gave the nobleman's bow and she returned the gesture with a curtsy.
'I am a boy, I can act like a child now and again for crying out loud.' Rudeus chuckled within his inner thoughts.
"Pardon me for asking, do you know how to dance Lord Rudeus." Edona inquired.
Rudeus held up his finger asking her to wait while he sunk his teeth down which divided the sandwich like a sharp knife. After chewing for a few seconds he swallowed and responded to her question.
"I have researched the moves that most of Asuran nobles use but I haven't practiced so I feel I should learn that before I go making claims. And please madam Edona call me Rudeus, I am not a noble by any stretch of the imagination." The boy said beaming up at the older woman.
"I see. Then if you don't mind I would like you to help with Eris's dancing lessons, you can also learn a few things yourself along the way and I'm sure it would benefit you both. The reason why is because it seems difficult for Eris to master the steps I'm trying to teach her and you seem to be the only boy she respects enough for her to actually allow a chance with. Furthermore since you are also her teacher I'm sure you might have some insight to add to her lessons despite you being so young."
'Oh feeling a little bit jealous that one so young can have an easier time at taming the mad dog Eris hmmm?' Rudeus grinned coyly.
"Very well I shall be happy to be her dance partner." Rudeus outstretched his hand and vigorously shook the teacher happily. She smiled back down at him.
"Then it is official, tomorrow we shall begin the lessons with you and Eris. I hope you will be patient with me." The lady bowed again dismissing herself afterwards.
Before Rudeus could head back to his room he once again saw someone that was up late after hours. Rudeus's room was in the path of the library and he saw a flicking light that was overcast on the bookshelves. He peaked inside to see Lady Greyrat.
Rudeus reminisced about how bountiful and well-endowed Eris had been because of this woman's genetics. He silently thanked her but by no means would say something as perverted as "Thank you for giving your daughter a damn fine rack." Or something along those lines, that would surely be a death sentence from Eris if she ever caught wind that Rudeus said something like that to her mother.
The lady Hilda looked to be shuffling through some letters, looking down sadly at them. Rudeus would have to do some snooping later to see if he could earn favor with Eris's mother and see if he could ease whatever she was troubled over, for now though he didn't want to intrude on the woman's grieving. He could take a guess though that it was about her two sons that were banished by the Notos branch.
If that was the case Rudeus was sure he could strongarm Philemon into releasing her children and allow them to visit their mother if only cordially and not in a move to attain political power.
Rudeus got to his room, but before he collapsed he pulled out his large diary, at this point the pages were filled with logs of experiments for mana destabilization and absorption. Along the side were several binders full of incantation circles that were a god tier in complexity. To the average observer the pages looked black but if one looked closer then they would see millions of drawn magical circles over layers of paper so thin that a human hair would be considered slightly bigger.
All of these circles worked in conjunction with each other after hundreds of trials and errors to transfer all the energy Rudeus could muster into the bigger contraption that would be the key element in stopping the teleportation calamity. No matter how much mana was pored into the binders the circles would not break and neither would the grand project, because of this Rudeus no longer needed to gradually work his way up to forming larger and more complex things to use his mana on in order to deplete it and cause his mana to multiply the next day.
The batteries no longer needed to be in use either, to Rudeus it felt like he broke through some type of barrier or limiter when it came to containing his mana. He no longer contained it within his own body but outstretched it far beyond the world. Whenever Rudeus needed some mana it was there for him and him alone to access. At the very least he was happy he no longer needed to fear exploding from his mana capacity.
After Rudeus was done situating himself on the bed he pored all of his mana into the binder containing the hundreds of black pages wherein the magical circles were inscribed. Once the spell was finally used the binder would be destroyed, but that was fine. The project only needed to work once, and Rudeus would be ready. With that thought in mind he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Hope I didn't spoil too much as to who this new character is. And leave your thought into who and what you think this Elizabeth character is, I gave some pretty big hints. Until we meet again next week I wish you all the best. Leave comments and I promise to respond in the next chapter, or requests and I will be happy to see if I can fit it into the story.