Chapter 493: 494. Caretaker of Memories

Gleam’s destructive power wasn’t in the least diminished when in her natural form. If anything, the shardfly appeared to be a lot more terrifying, making even void creatures hesitate. And if that wasn’t enough, July had also joined in adding his music skills to the mix.

Dallion had no idea why or even how the young echo had joined in the fight. According to Ariel, all other echoes had been sealed off safely. Clearly, that wasn’t the case. The only conclusion he could reach was that July had to have been with Nox and not in the ring library, as the white-haired echo claimed.

Just don’t get killed, okay? Dallion thought.

“Where to? Where to?” Lux asked.

Dallion was about to tell the firebird to head to the nearest exit, when Nox gave the instruction, instead.

“There,” the crackling pointed with his paw.

The gateway in question was a considerable distance away. With Lux still being in his exhausted state, it was going to take at least a minute to reach.

“Are you sure?”

“That’s the one,” Nox replied. “The others are just small fries.”

“Go there, Lux.”

It had been a while since Nox had assisted with directions, but he had a knack for finding crackling nests. In this case, Dallion had no idea exactly what they’d find, but he decided to trust in his familiar.

As he flew, Dallion tried to summon his Nox dagger, just out of principle. Sadly, nothing happened. No matter what awaited on the other side, Dallion would have to defeat it with the weakest of weapons. In theory, he could manage one last point attack, though that was to be a last resort. The only thing he had to rely on was Nox.

A small cluster of bladeroaches flew in Dallion’s direction. There were no more than a dozen, all too eager to slice him up. Unfortunately for them, Dallion had gotten to know their tricks. Splitting into a dozen instances, Dallion spun around in the air like a corkscrew. Several of the roaches slashed at him with their blade appendages. A one even managed to strike an instance. Their action, however, had gotten them close enough so he could perform a perfect strike. Three of the creatures poofed one after the other, reduced to smoke at each hit. At this point, Dallion took the initiative, directing Lux towards the rest. Surprised by his sudden aggressiveness, the roaches attempted to coordinate a common defense. Sadly, their numbers proved to be too few. An arial sequence of attacks was all it took for Dallion to dispatch eight more of them, after which he threw the blade, piercing the last.

“Wow! That’s great!” Lux chirp.

Dallion didn’t respond. It was his fault that the invasion had taken place and killing a few bugs wasn’t going to fix that.

“Go a bit faster, Lux,” he said.

In the distance, as if sensing him, a new swarm of roaches emerged from the archway. These were no longer the small groups, but a real torrent aimed specifically at stopping him. With luck these were the final reserves the pocketknife had. If not…

There was a simple choice to be made: either use what strength he had to do a point attack, and hope he wouldn’t faint, or use his shield to thrust through the swarm and into the invading realm. Both seemed like bad choices. Dallion, though, chose the second.

“Blast through them!” He said, splitting into a dozen instances.

Despite also being on the verge of collapsing, the firebird propelled Dallion forward at an even greater speed.

Blades struck the wooden shield, slicing off whole fragments.

AGGRAVATED WOUND

Your health has been reduced by 15%

Red rectangle sacked up, despite Dallion’s combat splitting. At his current stage, Lux was able to restore his health almost at the speed that it was being decreased, but that didn’t last for long. The further they went, the more the insect blades managed to reach him. Dallion’s health fluctuated, moving towards danger levels.

Each second felt like hours. The buckler was all but gone, forcing Dallion to use his sword to parry as many of the attacks as he could. Then, finally, he broke through.

All of his surroundings suddenly changed, as if he had stepped through a dimension portal. In a way, he possibly had; the archway represented the connection between realms, or as Nil like to call it the quintessence that transformed a realm into a domain. Normally, it was the main realm that maintained control, but as it had become apparent, some realms had become Trojan horses.

The pocketknife was not at all what Dallion had expected it to be, on many levels. When he had taken the Swiss army knife from the armory, he had deliberately not entered inside out of fear that something of the sort might happen. Apparently, touching it was all it took for the invasion to be set in motion.

Large metal lines covered the ground. Like railroad tracks, they disappeared into the distance to what seemed to be a city of blades of various sizes. A cold eeriness filled the air, making Dallion feel as if he found himself in an abandoned graveyard. Most surprising of all, there wasn’t a single creature to be seen.

“Nox? Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Dallion asked, still splitting into instances every second.

The moment he did, the stone archway behind him tilted to the side, disappearing into the ground like a pocket-knife blade.

I guess we are, Dallion thought.

“You,” a female voice echoed throughout the realm. “You’re from Earth.”

There was surprise in the voice’s words. Dallion tried to use his music skill to determine the location of the person talking, but to no avail. Whoever was here was hidden pretty well.

Nox, can you sense anything? Dallion asked.

Yes, the crackling replied with a hiss. She’s close.

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“If you know that you should know that it’s customary on Earth to show yourself to the person you’re talking to,” Dallion imbued his words with a sense of overconfidence.

It was a long shot, but to his surprise, it actually worked. A multitude of metal lines flipped to the side, in the fashion of falling domino tiles played in reverse. Each segment was a perfect slice of a building. Once the last one fell into place, all the layers merged into one with a loud click, forming a typical urban building. There were no doors or windows. Instead, a girl in her early twenties, wearing black clothes and heavy mascara, stood there, looking at him.

“That’s better,” Dallion said.

In truth, it wasn’t better at all. He could see several full finger length rings on the girl’s left hand, and his forging skills told him that there were several metal daggers hidden on her body.

“Why are you here?” the girl asked.

The normal thing to do was shout at her for invading Dallion’s realm. Since he had a disadvantage at present, he preferred to take a different response.

“You know I came through your portal,” he replied.

“No one has visited this realm since the Star left,” she continued. “Even of those who come from Earth.”

“Aren’t you from Earth?” Dallion asked.

“You know I’m not,” a faint smile appeared on her pale face. “Just as you know, I’m nothing but an echo.”

The facade of the house folded back into the ground, revealing the rooms inside the building. Among them was a rather messy living room. Looking at it, it was of note that the messiness was fake, as if someone had gone to great lengths to recreate a standard teenager’s room based on nothing but a picture.

At least you get A for effort, Dallion thought.

“Please,” the girl invited him.

Careful, Nox said. She’s strong.

Dallion knew that already, but even so, he walked forward, making his way to the couch.

“What’s your name?” he asked as the first of his instances passed by her.

“I’m Goth,” she replied. “Caretaker of the Star’s memories.”

“That sounds like an important job.” Dallion sat down. The couch seemed soft from a distance, but it was made of metal. All the bends and wrinkles had been added there by design, even the texture of cloth. “And you’re doing a good job, from what I can tell.” Dallion reached for the remote control on the table. As expected, it too was made entirely of metal.

“I do what I can,” Goth sat on the other side of the couch.

“Is that why you tried to invade my realm?”

“I do as I’m told. The Star instructed that I attack any realm that links the memory knife, and so I did. You don’t need to worry, though. The invasion is over. I stopped it the moment you came here.”

“Any reason for that?”

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen someone from Earth. I know you’re not the Star, but you’re someone from that world. Even If I’m punished as a result, I wanted to see someone from there, someone that would help me remember.”

That was harsh. The Star must have abandoned her along with the realm at some point. Or rather, maybe the person who the Star was did so, in order to become what he was today. Dallion still wasn’t clear how the Star had come into being; he suspected that no one in this world knew. Piecing together the various historical poems, and other pieces of information he had gathered, he could surmise that the Star had appeared tens of thousands of years ago. It was somewhere around that point that the races started falling—first the copyettes, followed by the nymphs, and then the dryads. All had been deceived by the Star in their attempts to conquer the world. However, it was never specified what exactly had he tempted them with? The only mentions were vague references to “power,” but what if it wasn’t a skill, or even something material? What if the gift he had given them was Earth technology? Suddenly, that made a whole lot of sense.

I’ll be… Dallion thought.

A story was forming in his mind. What if the Star had been a person, just like him, who had managed to level up to a point at which his awakened powers were close to those of the Moons themselves? Or better yet, maybe that was the way he had leveled up so fast. The Moons would have been unaware of the technological advances of Earth. Maybe they observed the planet from the side, without knowing the principles that made human society function. The Star could have offered that and more, earning their favor, and becoming a rising star—one of the strongest awakened of all. Through this combination of knowledge and awakened powers, it was conceivable that he was elevated to the point of becoming the Eighth Moon… and apparently that hadn’t proven enough.

You wanted it all, didn’t you? Dallion clenched his fists.

What he couldn’t achieve, the Star had asked others to achieve it for him. First, he had tried to conquer the world through technological advances. When that had failed—his kingdom pushed down into the ground, his followers marked and scattered throughout the lands—he had tried to have others conquer it for him. That was why the races had been banished—for their greed and desire to use technology that had no place in this world. And now, the Star was planning to try again.

Dallion looked at the echo. There was no proof that the Star had done all that, but it made perfect sense. One thing was for certain, though, if she had been created by a being capable of so much misery, there was no way she was going to let Dallion go just like that.

“You’re going to fight me, aren’t you?” Dallion asked.

“Isn’t that the duty of a caretaker?” Goth didn’t deny it. “You’re free to summon any weapons you have. I owe you that much?”

Uncertain whether she was telling the truth, Dallion summoned his dartbow. The weapon appeared in his hand, aimed directly at the girl’s temple.

“Any chance I can rest a bit before we start?”

“Sure. Why not?” Goth turned her head towards him, eyes staring emotionlessly at the dartbow. “The Star would want you to be at your best.”

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