NOVEL WEB 401. End of a World
Ike opened his eyes. Brightbriar stood before him, on the other side of the strange fluid and the broken glass. He saw him in a new light now, with the last fragment's memories still fresh in his mind. Betrayer. Brightbriar had no right to pursue him to this extent, when Brightbriar was the reason he was in this state, fragmented and ruined.
He didn't know how he'd fallen to pieces, but he could guess. The System needed something to power it, and that something was inside him—the raw power a Pillar of the World could call on. The spell he'd cast, the final technique, had called forth the System, and the System had destroyed him as it took form. It was a price he'd been willing to pay… no, a price he'd deliberately called forth, because he realized he deserved this coup, as much as he rejected it.
Ike was right. In the greater being's memories, he could feel it. Not the events, not the actions, but the acknowledgement of what Ike himself had realized, piecing the fragments back together. The greater being wasn't a good person. He wasn't, and he realized that. He'd… not regretted, that wasn't the right word, but known that to replace himself with another person, only invited someone who also lacked in values, in morals, in uprightness, a selfish and savage person, to take the reins. So he'd handed everything over to the System and let himself fall into pieces, while the System handled the punishment for the coup and took over his role as the Pillar of the World.
This was the realization the System had been barring from him: the realization that the System itself was manufactured, was a created thing, and a young thing, on the world's scale. It was younger than Mont, perhaps even younger than Shawn, a thing that mages like the ants, the fog woman, even Brightbriar could live long enough to have seen it take form. Even now, he could feel it fighting the knowledge, trying to erase it from within Ike, but he fought back. He'd—the greater being—had created the System. He wasn't going to let it control him. He'd broken free of its control over his powers and skills, so he could break free of its control over his mind. Ike drew on his aether, whipping it around himself, and prepared to stab it into the System, but before he could, the System retreated on its own. The knowledge remained in his mind, undisturbed.
Ike raised his brows. It was that simple? All he had to do was threaten to attack, and the System left him alone? No… that's not it. Before, I couldn't even realize the System was erasing my memories before it already stole them away from me. Now, not only did I realize it was happening, but I also counterattacked. That's a wild departure from the old me.
The fragment of the greater being had vanished, absorbed into him. Brightbriar must have expected it, because the man's expression didn't flicker.
Brightbriar charged through the glass, grabbing for his neck. Ike watched him come, then laughed, blowing bubbles in the weird liquid. Lightning crackled around him, and he vanished. As long as it had taken to describe his thoughts, they all flashed by in the blink of an eye. He reappeared behind Brightbriar and kicked the man into the fluid, though Brightbriar's body rang empty under his boot. "Damn puppet. That's what you get, for killing the greater being in the first place."
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Brightbriar growled. He lunged out of the fluid, drawing his sword. Ike blocked, but the blow held so much power that it threw him back anyways. He was getting used to getting thrown around by Brightbriar, so as he fell backward, he whipped around and proactively beat his way through the wall with the Hungry Sword. Tucking his legs, he rolled through the hole he'd beaten and landed, whipping around to face Brightbriar again.
"I didn't. I didn't do it," Brightbriar snarled.
"You don't remember, do you?" Ike asked.
"I remember everything!" Brightbriar shouted.
At his shout, the lights came on all around Ike, illuminating that strange warehouse full of puppets in liquid tanks. The puppets twitched, then unfolded. They'd been curled up, like infants in the womb, but now they came to life. One after another, they beat on the glass that contained them. Cracks snapped through the thick tubes, but they held. They wouldn't hold for long, but for long enough.
Ike activated the King's skill. The King's mantle and crown appeared around him, and the King's scepter began greedily sucking in mana, aether, all sorts of energy. He faced Brightbriar, who advanced toward the broken wall, but steadily backed away. This was a bad place for him, surrounded by puppets. He needed some space, needed to stall for time.
"You got your wish. I've absorbed all the fragments. So why are you still attacking me?" Ike asked.
"You aren't him. You'll never be him," Brightbriar said, suddenly calm again. "It's okay, though. I'll break you down and start over. I can always start over. Always. Always."
Ike laughed. "You can't. First off, you won't beat me, but second off, haven't you already realized the futility of this, Brightbriar?"
"What do you mean?" Brightbriar asked, a dangerous note in his voice.
"Even if I became the greater being, you wouldn't know that I was the greater being. He took all your memories of him. It isn't possible for you to create what you never met. You can't recreate what you never knew. Besides," Ike paused, shaking his head at Brightbriar, "you're the one who killed him."
"I'm not!" Brightbriar screamed, instantly enraged again. The puppets beat harder on the glass, their fists a dull rhythm to the argument, like the beating of a heart that only got faster and faster the more Ike said.
"You are. You are, and it doesn't matter what you say, because you can't take it back. You killed him. No matter what you do, you can't un-kill him. No matter how much you regret… no, you can't even regret, can you? Because you don't remember him. You don't know why you killed him. If you were right or wrong to do it. If you ruined everything, or saved everyone."
Brightbriar stilled. He stared at Ike. The entire room fell silent as the puppets froze, all their empty, blank faces turning to Ike.
Ike shook his head. "That's it, isn't it? From the start, you aren't the kind of person to do anything for anyone but yourself. You don't care about the greater being. You never have. All of this, it wasn't for him. It was for you. So you can know if you were guilty or not. If you saved the world or condemned it."
"And?" Brightbriar asked.
Ike laughed in his face. "You think I'd tell you? Get fucked, motherfucker. Go fuck yourself."
Brightbriar screamed and charged. Glass shattered all around them as the puppets broke out of their vials. Ike laughed, laughed like a madman, and the two of them clashed.