Chapter 117: Chapter. 102: Revelation

I, the copy of me left the canopy of darkness, standing wide open amidst the void, the forest sounds faded into obscurity to an uncomfortable silence. My surroundings were blanketed under the mantle of the abyss, as I found myself in the middle of the void staring at⁠— a dark elf that I assumed to be me.

She smiled as her ears fluttered, at that moment her expression was alien to me. She looked exactly like me, but there was no way I would do such things.

“Well done, Blair, you’ve consumed the fruit exactly where the tree wanted.” She congratulated me happily.

I frowned, she sounded almost like me as well. “Who are you?”

She laughed heartily, curving as if she couldn’t contain it. “I’m you, of course. Well just a different version,” she said, wiping a tear off her eye.

“Different version?” What did that even mean?

She pondered. “Hm, you could say I am a reflection of you with knowledge on things you don’t know. Well for example, I’m sure you’d love to ask our parents whether there was any love or not in our upbringing.”

I frowned instantly. “You’re not me.”

She chuckled as her figure shifted and became two⁠— one was a tall woman with sharp features and a stone-hard face, she had long draping hair and piercing golden eyes, the side of her head was shaved. The other was a tall muscular man with a squared jaw and white hairs running through the sides of his head⁠— my parents. My mother opened her mouth.

“So⁠—”

“I don’t care, the both of you are just fake,” I interrupted with annoyance. “Besides. That expression, it lacks…” I pondered for a second sorting through my memories. “Disdain.”

They both frowned and turned into nothing but an illusory shadow of darkness. It seemed immaterial and almost transparent. Its face distorted as it spoke.

“Interesting. Interesting.” It spoke with a weird emotion. “I thought you’d give in to a lot of thoughts, though I did do a bad job, your head is such a mess.” It smiled as pearly white teeth stared at me. “Am I an elf? What am I? Why did they never treat me normally? Should I proceed with my revenge? Is it safe for me to consider Elasia part of my family?”

I let out a snort as I didn’t bother to reply. All of those questions were in my mind at different times, just at the very back of it since it wasn’t worth it to ponder.

“And yet, you also don’t wonder who the first seed is. You don’t think about how to achieve sentience⁠—”

The shadow disappeared and I felt wind next to my ear, making me flinch only to see myself staring at myself.

“But you’ve always known, haven’t you?” I whispered with a smile before turning and pacing around. “Mana has always come naturally easy to me. The more I rely on instinct the easier it seems to come. If only I could just wish for plants to move on their own… Animated and cheery, plants have always been plants and not animals⁠— and yet. I refused to use the tincture to gaze at the starts and simply ask:”

The fake me stared at the void as stars began to show themselves.

“Can plants be treated as animals⁠— no.” Fake me paused before turning to me. “You, I, think that there is no way sentience is as simple as simply intending to give sentience. There is no way there isn’t some type of secret to it⁠—”

She turned into nothing but a shadow once more, one that loomed over me as if threatening to swallow me whole, slowly encroaching and taking more space in the void.

“There is a secret to it,” it whispered before I saw its white smile once more. “Your soul. A piece of it. A piece of your soul must be shared, a piece of your essence, of who you are…”

The shadow became normal, the same as my height as it simply stared at me.

“That is the secret to the next tier, Blair… A piece of your soul…” It spoke as if lost. “It can always be reclaimed, but should the plant die with it. It’s going to hurt. It’s not as if you’re going to forget your memories, but you will be weakened for a while.”

I frowned, I didn’t follow how we got to this point. “Why did you try to scare me into all of that?”

The shadow paused as if pondering before finally shaking its head. “You’re too weak, too pure. You weren’t ready to be guided that path just yet, unfortunately.” The sounds of the forest returned as I saw grass beneath my feet. “You may go, you’ve already understood something very important, now you must figure out how to apply it.”

“I’m not going.” I scoffed. “What happened to the unceasing revelations?”

“You’re not ready for it, take it from me, who is part of you.” Part of its face distorted revealing my own eye staring at me.

I simply grew more annoyed. I had eaten a very rare fruit and now I had a shadow claiming to be me, then acting all high and mighty, trying to pry on my own thoughts only to then teach me things and then dismiss me. Where was my say in things?

“I still don’t know who you are but this is just unfair to me.”

The shadow smiled. “These aren't system assisted revelations. All I can do is tell you things and have you try to arrive at something. I’m akin to your little ball of light Glim, just with some of your memories, memories from others and enough of a personality to make a fool of you. And yet you want to proceed? I might just be wrong.”

I frowned as my guesses of the shadow being part of Elasia or somehow related to Lumina were dashed. The shadow continued speaking.

“I suppose it’s not that you aren’t ready, but it’s something that you probably do not want help with. It’s something that you probably would’ve found out sooner or later. Something that should be done without assistance of The System or the help of other Integrators.”

Naturally I became lost. “What do you mean?”

“Is it not strange how your parents were insane? Or how among all of the dark elves you were the only one that seemed to be a friend of the dark plants? Or how about the fact that the elves accused all of the dark elves of being traitors against nature?”

The void returned and the sounds of the forest went away.

“Did you ever consider that it was your fault?”

My heart skipped a beat. “What’s that even supposed to mean? How can it be my fault that I was treated like dirt? You're not making sense.”

The shadow smiled widely, I could see the perfect rows of white teeth and the edges of its lips. It was wicked and full of evil.

“How can it not be your fault to be born?”

My mind stopped as a ton of thoughts suddenly poured, but there was a single one present. Anger. My knuckles cracked as I tightened my fists and my teeth gnashed as I felt nothing but hatred surge forward, a desire to kill the shadow manifested with nothing but primal bloodlust.

“There isn’t any fault in being born. I cannot control who my parents are. I cannot control whether the plants or not like me.” I walked forward to the shadow with nothing but anger as I faced it. “But if there is something I can control is my fate. Those who hate me, will perish.” I reached for my spear.

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The shadow shook its head.

“You cannot kill me⁠—” My spear passed through its throat. “Mutations exist. They herald the start of a new evolutionary step among the species. But not everyone welcomes change. Your parents feared what you could become.”

I pushed forward with another thrust. “Now you’re just saying bullshit. It’s clear to me that even among E rank I wasn’t close to the top or even the middle. Glim would’ve mentioned something.”

“That is correct.” The shadow faded and reappeared behind me. “Races fade and come. Old goes away and the new comes. But sometimes the same paths are retreaded over and over again, sometimes things are rediscovered. Maybe not too long ago you were a Deep Dark elf just like your parents, but now⁠—”

I slammed my spear against the air, as the shadow materialized back with a smile in front of me.

“You are no longer a Deep Dark elf, Blair.”

I stopped myself from attacking, though I still felt some anger. “If that is your big ass revelation, then you didn’t need to be an asshole about it.”

The shadow shook its head and turned around. “But you are also close to rediscovering an old race. The original rulers of the dark plants. One that was wiped a long time ago. Just a bit more and you’ll achieve unimaginable power. You will be cut above anybody else in your grade. The ancient rulers of all. All plants will bow to you, whether dark or not. You will become a god of nature.”

As the shadow faced the environment, the void around us shifted as I saw large scary plants, I saw forests of nothing but death. I saw planets consumed whole under the power of them.

“You’re infinitely close. You just have to wish it. You just have to ask me how and you will be able to reach C grade in no time. You will be untouchable in the New World. You will rule and eventually the whole universe will be yours.” The shadow turned around and extended its hand with a smile. “What do you say?”

For some reason its smile just reminded me of the mockery and lies it had just said. My annoyance went over the edge. “Do you expect me to believe you? Especially with the amount of unnecessary shit you say? I don’t need to rediscover anything. I’m not a mutant, either.” I closed my eyes. “I’m just Blair.”

I heard very slow methodical clapping. Only to see the shadow smiling once more.

“A trial of will, or a trial of spitefulness? Unattainable power at your fingertips and just because you’re hung up on things you decide to forfeit it.”

I snorted. “I don’t need you.”

“Regardless. You’ve passed this small step even if it's just by accident. Though perhaps I failed at my job. Ah⁠—” The shadow paused and pondered. “I suppose I should tell you. You are currently undergoing the trial in a C grade planet.”

I paused, suddenly becoming curious. “Is this just not… memories?”

“The only artificial part of this place is the Sangir tree. By extension, me.” The shadow distorted. “The forest is very much real, and can very much kill you. There are Guardians, and a few Heralds lurking the planet. This whole planet can also be called The Crimson Stretch. Well, time is coming to an end.” With a very familiar finger snap I felt something appear within my hands.

I checked what it was only to find a robust seed.

“Sprout it and make it sentient. Don’t worry, I’ll help. That will be your revelation.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

Pushing my mana into the seed I felt some doubt as I simply commanded it. To be sentient? That wasn’t some type of will or command. I wanted freedom. I want my mana to be free. Free to make its choices and decide. It didn’t have to listen to me. It would do its own thing.

A piece of my soul? Of my spirit? I smiled as I threw the seed down. I wanted to be free.

The seed sprouted into what I identified to be a Sangir tree. The wood twirled with ferocity as a myriad of branches went in and out of each other, weaving to sprout red leaves. The tree seemed familiar but I had no control over my mana in it. It was just there doing whatever it liked.

“Are you really fine?” I heard an annoyed voice behind me. It wasn’t mine but it was familiar. I turned expecting my parents⁠ and couldn’t help but pause as I saw Lumina. “After I told you all of that and bla bla bla about the soul you still failed at it? I mean.” She looked behind me. “You got half part right. You gave it a will of sorts, but you also detached your mana. If the tree dies you go unaffected which is fine I suppose, but now the tree is its own thing.”

“You mean?” I was unsure if the shadow was Lumina or just decided to take Lumina’s form. I was leaning towards the latter, but decided to be more patient.

“You’re closer to being the tree’s parent than anything else. So, good job, you have a kid.” She sighed. “Look, I am still very much temporary, and very much the thing you called asshole, but I am also heavily influenced by the Lumina in your mind who wants to rip your hairs out but can’t do anything about it. So listen for a bit: you want your mana to make its own decisions, you want your mana to achieve freedom for you.”

I thought for a moment. “So it’s closer to wanting mana to fulfill my dreams and desires?”

Fake Lumina paused. “I suppose you could see it that way.” She snapped and I found another seed. Before I knew it, the previous tree was gone. “Now try again.”

There was a brief confusion before I shook my head. I was honestly unsure about the shadow, especially with how messy the entire thing was, but at least it seemed to be leading somewhere now. I could only blindly trust the fact that the fruit did its job and was leading me to having a Revelation or two.

With that in mind, I pushed my mana into the seed once more, but this time it was different. It felt like loading all my aspirations and goals into it, simply just throwing the emotions into the mana as if it was going to do something⁠— and for some reason eventually it began to feel warm, familiar almost. It took me a minute or two, but eventually I felt some bond with the seed, and finally, I tossed it.

It sprouted once more into the same kind of Sangir tree, but this time my mana churned and I felt a fire ignite on its insides. I felt connected to the plant but at the same time, I could feel the mana act on its own and move the tree to look at me.

Huh. A notification went off.

[Affinity Advancement: Dark Plants ⁠— Duo (II) ➟ Tri (III) ⁠— Your will extends to the plants and brings them life.]

“Good job.” Fake Lumina praised. “Looks like we are done here.”

“Done? What about more revelations?”

She blinked before smiling. “You’ll get them soon.”

The void disappeared and I found myself standing in the forest once more. However, to my surprise the Sangir tree was still there looking at me. I found it a bit odd considering the other one disappeared in the void. Did that imply that my first kid died within five minutes? Not like I cared, but considering how it was described by the fake Lumina it was a bit off putting.

I sighed and just as I was about to return back, a new notification appeared.

[Started Tier up: A Great Beginning (C Grade Prophecy) ⁠— Reach the third level on the relevant affinity⁠—]

I paused in surprise. Was this the supposed Revelation?