Reset Life – Chapter 225

Chapter 225: Because of you, I was born! (3)

Even when only half-manifested, his power was enough to overwhelm everyone present. Somehow, by sheer luck, we were able to force him to retreat, but to think the real one would pop out……

“Well, truthfully, I probably made a contract with the Inquisitor Lord around the 1,500th life. He didn’t know I had this unique soul. Naturally. No one could have predicted such a heretic would emerge from a parallel dimension guaranteed by God’s infinite power. My soul transfers to the next body whenever I die, and each time, its durability adapts to the body. However, my soul never leans towards the devil. Since it’s escaped God’s hand, it also escapes the devil’s. Ah, have you ever heard of soul durability?”

“Ah, thanks to a good friend.”

“Is that so? Then I don’t really need to explain my soul transfer either. Your intelligent daughter probably told you. There won’t be much difference.”

“I see……”

Aila said Artshever was a Parallel Dimension Eruption Ability, or an error that occurred during the creation of a parallel dimension. I’m not as confident as Levidian when it comes to surreal things. I roughly understand what it means.

Then, suddenly, I became curious.

“Artshever, what were you like at the very beginning?”

“It’s a story you’ve probably heard many times somewhere.”

“What?”

He drew a deep smile. It’s amazing that he remembers it, but I listened to his words more than that. What did he just say?

“Just an average second son of an Imperial Duke. Struggling to be acknowledged by his father and older brother. A war that broke out absurdly. Being forced to participate, standing at the forefront of a foolish operation, and dying from a barrage of arrows from the Azot Kingdom Army. This was my first life. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”

“Th-That’s……!”

“Yes. That’s right. It’s your life. Someone said, didn’t they? There’s nothing completely different under the sky. The same applies to life. Ironically, you were in the same situation as me. The difference between you and me was that I always grew up wondering why my body hair had to be white. Now, there are no questions or anything. I actually lived with my biological mother in one of those countless lives. Now, we need to seriously think about this issue.”

I knew what issue he was trying to bring up. It wasn’t like it came from within me, but rather, the question he raised was imprinted directly into my mind as if he had written it there.

He must be sensing my thoughts, but he continued speaking regardless.

“Why are our first lives so similar? We can establish a simple hypothesis. The hypothesis that your soul and my soul differentiated from a nearly identical state. The possibility that divided you and me is whether or not to hide the color of body hair. However, the difference is that my side went to a parallel dimension where time flows faster. That’s why I was able to kill you after living 1,611 lives. Well, as the origin, it had to be the slowest. Absolute time was terribly slow.”

“What does that mean? The origin? I clearly died and came to this parallel dimension?”

“Do you really think so?”

He made a meaningful expression. At that moment, I had a premonition that my situation might be a little different from what I or others knew. Everything he said was true, and I had no choice but to believe it.

Artshever spread his arms passionately.

“Now! Let’s put the question aside for now, and I’ll answer the second question that hasn’t come up yet, but will inevitably arise. After all, a clown should hide the climax. Ahahaha!”

Another me laughed brightly with a clear voice. And I felt short of breath as my heart started to race wildly.

***

If you were to choose the person least affected by the ‘Reset’ that Arisein Pen Herduke speaks of, it would be Silvan Harcian.

His first life began and ended in the ‘Shadowless Desert’ in the southwestern part of the continent. He was a skilled Shadow Manipulation user then, and he still is now.

He traveled back a whopping 50 years, but his second life wasn’t that different from his first. It was just that he navigated the crises he experienced in his first life more easily with more developed Shadow Manipulation.

His purpose was only one: to obtain the ‘Fragment of Laufaione,’ one of Magnolia Beming’s legacies.

According to reliable secret records, Magnolia Beming is a transcendent being from a completely different universe than this one, and while she was here, all the gods offered her the chance to become a god in this dimension.

However, she spent a few decades traveling and then disappeared, leaving behind a few items. One of them was his Shadow Manipulation.

There is also magic that deals with shadows in the continent’s sorcery.

However, his Shadow Manipulation is different from the continent’s.

Sorcery is a technique that controls the attributes of all natural forces, but it has not reached the root of shadows.

Silvan Harcian’s Shadow Manipulation was a technique that started from the very root of shadows.

He was, in a sense, a true seeker and a truth-seeker.

His purpose was only one:

To obtain the ‘Fragment of Laufaione,’ which is said to allow contact with other universes among the legacies left by Magnolia, and to realize the ultimate potential of Shadow Manipulation.

The reason he dabbled in the dark arts in the southwestern part of the continent was based on the reasonable belief that clues to such a secret legacy existed within the dark arts.

When the time came for him to die after living a life dedicated to witnessing the ultimate form of Shadow Manipulation, his only regret was the quite substantial one of not seeing the end of Shadow Manipulation.

At that time, the offer from Artshever was the best offer in the world, and he accepted it.

The reason why he has the least sense of camaraderie among Artshever’s companions is also because he considers Artshever’s offer not as a favor, but as a slightly unusual form of transaction.

Therefore, the current fight didn’t hold much meaning for him. It was simply to fulfill his obligation to his business partner. His body was old now, and there was no guarantee that a third life would come.

At best, he had 10 years left.

Whether he could find the ‘Fragment of Laufaione’ within that time was also questionable.

He first heard about it when he was 30 years old in his first life, so he had been searching for it for almost 80 years. Then, finally, he realized his mistake.

There was just one place he hadn’t been.

The Gray Forest.

A place where people couldn’t live, and he thought they wouldn’t, but there were people living there.

He had thoroughly searched the continent, so it was the last place left. The most likely.

He had finally found a clue!

He suddenly felt that the very act of fighting here was futile.

“Come on, come on! Keep going!”

The left hand of the young Spatial Magic user, who adhered to a fighting style too unconventional to be called a mage. Silvan Harcian was fixated on the Magbranz held in that hand.

Although only a very small number of people know, Magnolia’s legacies serve as clues to finding other legacies. A key that allows access to other legacies, treasures that can be called legacies, while possessing strong power.

However, the young mage currently holding the Magbranz, Kersilla Creon, was using the Archmage’s legacy as a club to strike down the shadowy tentacles that Silvan had created.

It couldn’t be said that he was just swinging it randomly. With graceful movements like a person using a staff, the 2-meter-long silver-white staff struck down the wriggling shadowy tentacles.

Whack! Smack!

With a dull sound, the shadowy tentacles disappeared down to their base, and Silvan clicked his tongue as he pulled out the shadows.

The first floor hall of the main palace. There were many hiding places there, and many shadows. He maximized his attribute dominance over shadows and pulled out shadows from all directions.

The easiest way to attack a person with shadows is to weave tentacles and add physical force. It can be dispelled with the light of a lantern, but it’s a strong weapon that can’t be cut with any weapon.

As strong as its weakness is, its strength is also strong, but it’s a headache to face someone who knows that weakness.

In that sense, Silvan found Sermaila Hind, the woman nicknamed Aila, who was rushing straight at him with her ash-gray hair fluttering, more troublesome than Kersilla Creon, the mage nicknamed Lucy.

“Hyaaa―!”

In her hands were spheres of light created with her superpowers. When she struck the shadowy tentacles with them, the tentacles scattered like dew disappearing in the morning sunlight.

“Here I go―! Lightning Bolt!”

Lucy gathered a few tentacles and immediately cast a spell. Magbranz is a powerful magic support tool that creates magic when its owner desires it.

A cluster of white lightning bolts struck the Shadow Manipulation user in the black robe.

‘Tsk. It can’t be helped.’

Silvan clicked his tongue and, instead of dodging as he usually did, stretched out his hand towards the lightning bolts. In his hand was a clump of shadow, so to speak.

The shadow spread thinly like dough rolled out with a rolling pin and swallowed the incoming lightning bolts.

“Huh?”

“What, what is that?!”

Aila’s eyes widened, and Lucy was flustered. Even if magic could be blocked by sorcery due to the correlation of history, he didn’t expect magic to be blocked so cleanly.

Silvan clicked his tongue as he watched the two of them in surprise. No matter how many peculiarities he had, it would be difficult to recognize his Shadow Manipulation, the Shadow Manipulation from another universe passed down through generations.

However, there is a strange maiden here who does things that others consider difficult with ease.

“Oh my god! To completely embody the properties of shadows like that! Grandpa, you’re unexpectedly amazing!”

“The properties of shadows?”

“Yes! Shadows have the property of ‘devouring’. Shadows devour light. Since they devour the light, which is the origin of the world, they can devour anything. But current common Shadow Manipulation can’t do that. As expected! Someone related to Magnolia Beming is different after all!”

Aila spoke with a very delighted expression.

She was actually delighted. As she had mostly been assisting Risel, she hadn’t had an opponent she could fight against with all her might.

Although she wasn’t as competitive or combative as Lucy or Al, as someone with superpowers, she had a latent desire to use them.

However, superpowers didn’t exist in this parallel dimension, and there weren’t many opponents she could fight against. For someone who liked flashy things, this was torture.

After this incident is over, she has to return to the parallel dimension where she was born.

Before that, she thought it would be great if there was something exciting to fight. She was even thinking of asking Lucy for a duel when she saw Silvan Harcian’s Shadow Manipulation, which was the perfect opponent.

“As expected! I was right! Ah, why am I so good at this! Yahoo!”

“Hey, Aila, I think you’re cheering because that black old man is strong, right?”

“Yes! It’s the first time since I fought that red pervert lady at the beginning of the year! Hooray!”

“How did they raise that kid?”

Silvan felt himself agreeing with Lucy’s words. To be so happy knowing that the enemy is strong, it seemed like something in her head was broken.

He shook off his thoughts by clicking his tongue and pulled out tentacles from all the shadows around him. There were at least a hundred of them, and each one had the power to break a large oak tree.

“Enough playing around.”

He strengthened the properties of the shadow tentacles. One hundred tentacles that could devour even living beings headed towards the two.

However, there was no fear in Aila’s eyes.

Rather, she drew up her mental power from within her body with an expression full of anticipation.

“Psychic Armor!”

Superpowers manifest mental power into reality.

The next moment, she was clad in armor that shone brightly like the sun.

Lucy gaped and commented.

“Whoa! A childish name with a childish effect!”

“Shut up!”

Silvan momentarily thought they were fighting with their mouths.

***

“I treat Silvan as a business partner, keeping things professional. I feel more friendship towards Baius than him. Maybe it’s because of the significant age difference.”

Even while listening to the story about Silvan Harcian, I wanted to urge him to continue the story he was telling me earlier. He must have sensed my feelings, but he ignored them with a smile.

Finally, the story about Silvan was over. I gritted my teeth and said.

“Now tell me the story. What the hell did that old geezer Silvan say before?”

“Ah, that? Actually, it’s simple. You are the Originator of the parallel dimensions.”

“I know that too. This body is the Originator’s body. Your soul, which you killed, entered this body.”

“I apologize for asking the same question twice. Do you really think so?”

I was about to speak but closed my mouth. Just like before, I strongly felt that what he was trying to say was a completely different fact from what I knew.

After pondering for a moment, I lightly nodded my chin. Tell me.

“The divergence of parallel dimensions. It’s the creation of another space-time that contains the possibilities that can arise from the actions or situations of the Originator existing in the origin. But here, we need to consider one thing. Whether the qualification of that Originator, or should I say ability, is limited to the physical body.”

I was unknowingly drawn into his words. Come to think of it, that’s also a question. Can we really say that the ability resides in the physical body?

The answer came easily.

“No. That’s not it. The Parallel Dimension Eruption Ability is an ability engraved on the soul. It’s natural. Because the origin of a person lies in their soul. It’s called the origin of parallel dimensions, but the Originator isn’t in the origin. The place where the Originator exists is the origin! Why did this place become the origin of parallel dimensions? It’s because of your soul! Your soul, which obtained a new body even after experiencing death, possesses the ability of the Originator! In terms of absolute time, you died for the second time. But I killed you first in relative time! Why? To make this place the origin of parallel dimensions! That’s how I was able to open the Soul Passage! Do you understand now? What possesses that ability! Not your body, but the vessel optimized for the metaphysical concept that contains the thoughts, personality, and ideology that move that body! The soul!”

Artshever spread his arms passionately. He shouted like a prophet delivering the truth of God, like a maestro conducting a majestic orchestral concerto.

“Because it was the soul of the origin, it could be transferred even after death! And because the one who killed that body was a fragment of itself, the soul that restarted [Reset] while embracing even the errors of that fragment! It’s you!”

His finger pointed at me. It was just a gesture without any special power, but I felt as if my heart had been pierced.

Artshever told me.

“Because of you, I was born, my origin!”

At that moment, his thoughts, the thoughts of another me, surged into my mind like waves.