Garden of Life

Seth and the others could watch Seth’s splitting of his soul and his quick fight with Kronos with the help of Dream’s power.

A deafening silence fell in the cave as soon as the dream sequence stopped, and everything returned to normal. Everyone’s eyes were on Seth, waiting for his reaction to everything.

Even after seeing everything with his own eyes, Seth still had no idea why his past or future self had chosen the path of mutual destruction over going head-to-head with Kronos.

His chances were not good, and he might have lost all his sources in a hard fight, but Seth still believed he would have been able to take down Kronos. He was, after all, a crippled Time God, not an elemental one.

As he was about to ask the system for an idea on why he would decide that, the surroundings changed again, painting the scenery of Aleena’s abduction.

Seth didn’t ask Dream what he was doing and silently watched the new scenes he was being shown. He could see until Kronos had taken Aleena away with him.

Then the scene changed again, showing Seth how Leora was close to forming her own divinity.

Lastly, the scene changed to Katy’s weird pregnancy and his speculations with Hollie.

When Dream finished showing the last few scenes, he lowered his hand and rested his back on his chair. The space around also started turning blurry, a clear sign of the exhaustion he went through to show Seth everything he knew.

Now that he knew everything, Seth could only heave a long sigh. He now understood why he chose such a way to deal with Kronos. He couldn’t afford to get dragged into a prolonged fight and have Leora wake up.

“Thank you, Dream. I had no idea so much happened while I was away….”

“I’m not doing it for you, God of Destruction. None of us have any love for you.”

“I did it because I know of the disaster your fight with Kronos has left in the world. When time catches back with your deeds, the whole world will be destroyed. You need to kill Kronos and right everything before we all die.”

Seth looked into Dream’s eyes and asked: “Is it the paradox? How long do I have?”

“A few more years at best, but the more you delay, the more this world will be lost.”

Seth nodded and thought back at everything he had seen before asking: “Do you know where Caitlin is? If I want to do something, I need my sources back. Now that the anchor is gone, I cannot even find Kronos with the power I had left in this shard of divinity.”

Dream shook his head and said: “I don’t know, but that is also a clue. There are few places in this world where our sight won’t reach.”

“The Tower, the Council, and the Spirit Well link…” muttered Seth.

“Indeed, and she’s not at the Council, so you have to search the other two.”

‘What do you think, system? Would the Tower have kept her?’

<That is highly unlikely. It might have prevented her from leaving for a few more years, but going again the primary directive is impossible. The Tower is, at its core, a place of trial and guidance; not even the World Sovereign can change that without significant repercussions. Still, it might have been able to choose where to send her out once she had abandoned her trials.>

‘The spirit well link it is….’

Nodding towards Dream, Seth turned towards Sun and said: “Knight Sun, can I ask you to protect Dream for a while longer? It seems I must make my way north….”

Sun looked indifferent as he stood up from the table and started walking toward the edge of the dream space. “I would have even if you didn’t ask it of me. Protecting humanity is the only reason I still exist after all.”

His steps didn’t stop as Sun entered one of the cave walls and disappeared from the room under Pearl and Seth’s conflicted eyes.

Bending forward from her seat, Pearl cupped Seth’s hands and asked: “Will he ever be released from this curse?”

Seth nodded as he watched the space repair itself and reassured her: “I’ll release him myself once this is over. He has long paid for his sin.”

As Pearl nodded, Seth turned towards Lisa and said with a wry smile. “Lisa, I know a lot has happened, and there are many things that you must consider, but can I ask for your help? Now that my space source is gone, I need a way to move through the continent, and you’re one of the few people I could trust.”

Lisa lowered her head and didn’t answer his question, saying: “Ever since you came back, you’ve barely been able to look either me or mom in the eye. Also, this perception ability you spoke about… The current you never mentioned it to us. You sent father away, didn’t you?”

Julie grabbed Lisa’s hand and was about to say something when Seth interrupted her.

“You can’t hide it anymore, Julie. You must have known already since you also have memories of the other timeline. I can’t answer this question since it was not exactly me who was in control, but I’m almost completely sure that your Seth is responsible for Saif leaving you two.”

Julie sighed as Lisa lowered her head, tears starting to well in her eyes.

Pearl looked like she wanted to say something, but Seth stopped her with a squeeze of her hand and a slight shake of his head.

“God of Destruction, can we continue this in the real world? Your family drama is of no interest to me, and I’m already running on power I don’t have anymore.”

Seth smiled wryly at Dream’s words and said to Lisa: “I know nothing I could say will make up for everything that happened to you in either of the two timelines, but I am still going to ask for your help anyway. Not for me but for the world itself. Due to Kronos messing up with time so badly, the entire world will eventually get swallowed by a time paradox if nothing is done.”

“I’ll help. This way, I can bring father back.” Lisa sniffled once and raised her head, nodding once with her lips pursed and eyes slightly red, shaking in unwillingness. “ But this is not over between us.”

“Alright. We’ll settle our differences then. Once this dream ends, remember, my name is Meg, so try not to address me as Seth or speak about anything that happened here. We can’t fool the Tower that way, but it’s better to be careful and keep as much information to ourselves.”

With everyone in the room nodding, Seth turned towards Dream and said: “You can take us back now. Thank you again for everything.”

“One more thing you should be aware of before we leave. Razim is still waiting just outside the world. You can use that to your advantage.”

Seth frowned, but Dream canceled the Dream World before he could ask anything and everyone returned to the real world.

Everyone besides Dream, Seth, and Sun had to pick themselves up from the ground. Meg was sitting at the table, staring at Sun with a frown even before Seth returned. She had regained control as soon as Seth got pulled into the dream world.

There was also someone else in the room. A woman Seth had long ago seen in the Kingdom of Pain. The fate reader he met while walking around Pain’s capital.

Still, he left Meg in control and didn’t say anything to her.

‘Meg, once everyone is ready, tell Lisa, the redhead, to take us to the Life Kingdom in the north.’

As Meg nodded while finding Lisa in the crowd, the fate reader was also scanning the room.

“Dream, what had happened? Who is that girl, and why are you so weak?” she asked with obvious concern.

Dream shook his head and said weekly: “Don’t worry about it, Fortuna. She’s a friend, and I had to show her something. Leave everyone to their things and take me to rest.”

The woman, Fortuna, nodded and carried Dream in her arms. After nodding towards Meg once with an unfriendly look, she turned around and started walking deeper inside the cave. Sun silently followed them, leaving only Pearl, Lisa, Julie, and Meg inside the room.

With everyone’s eyes turning curiously towards Meg, she smiled and waved her hand awkwardly. “Aaa, hello again. How is everyone?”

Pearl’s eyes dimmed somewhat, knowing in an instant Seth was no longer in control, and Lisa asked directly: “Where shall we go?”

Meg’s smile froze at the lack of reception to her friendliness, and she returned Seth’s words with an awkward sigh: “The Kingdom of Life.”

Lisa nodded and turned towards Julie. “Mom, you wait here. We’ll come back as soon as everything is over.”

Julie looked at Meg instead of her daughter, and Meg said: “Y- you should indeed remain here.”

Meg’s face was turning more awkward by the moment, remembering that woman’s tongue was in her mouth just a few minutes earlier.

With a sigh, Julie nodded and sat down on a chair, looking straight into Meg’s eyes. “Alright. I’ll stay here, but I have something to say. Even with everything that had happened, I still love you and expect you to come back for me as well.”

Meg blushed as she felt her mouth getting dry, and she nodded politely back before avoiding the woman’s infatuated eyes.

“Can I come as well?” asked Pearl from the side, and Meg nodded again. “Yes. I need your help as well.”

Pearl’s eyes brightened, and she happily clung to Meg’s hand, making the redness extend from her cheeks to the tip of her ears.

‘Big brother!!!’

‘Haha.’

Lisa said goodbye to her mother and started approaching Meg and Pearl. “Where in Life are we going first?”

“The Royal Gardens. Right next to the capital.” replied Meg.

“I have no idea where that is...” said Lisa with a shake of her head, “I can take us to the general area of the capital at best.”

“That’s good enough.” Replied Meg as Lisa arrived in front of her and Pearl.

Lisa turned around and lifted her hand above her head as soon as she arrived. After channeling her space energy at the tip of her fingernails, she lowered her hand swiftly, creating a human-sized crack in space.

Without looking back even once, she walked inside, saying: “Protect yourselves with your energies and follow after me.”

At Seth’s words, Meg wrapped her shaking hand around Pearl’s waist, covering both of them in destruction energy, and followed after Lisa.

After stepping through the crack, Meg’s energy kept getting absorbed at a crazy speed, but Meg didn’t say anything and continued following after the casually walking Lisa.

After a few seconds inside the strange space crack, Meg’s energy was almost completely drained from the spatial storms. As she was about to voice her concerns, Lisa broke space again, and everyone walked out.

The three girls ended up inside a small and dark space.

While Meg was panting for breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead Pearl created a small light above the palm of her hand and looked around curiously.

“Lisa, where are we?”

“It looks like we ended up inside a mountain…” muttered Lisa, placing her hand on one of the side walls. The next moment, the entire ceiling above them disappeared, leaving them to sit on a flat rock under the bright sun above.

As Meg and Pearl were looking at Lisa in fear, Seth chuckled and asked the system: ‘How far are we?’

<Judging from the scenery, we should be able to reach it by walking for three days towards the southwest.>

Meg let out a gulp and repeated Seth’s words to Lisa.

“You overshot. Take us three days’ worth of walking straight southwest.”

Lisa nodded again and, this time, used area teleportation to follow Seth’s guidance.

After following Seth’s directions a few more times, a large palace appeared right before them.

The area around the palace painted quite a surreal scene. Blurred and colorful, filled with rows upon rows of tall and sturdy trees.

The trees’ foliage reached high above into the clouds, allowing the pure white palace to be seen through the trees’ trunks. Wisps of light kept floating around the forest, shining powerfully in the shadow of the trees’ foliage.

As everyone was staring at the mystical place in wonder, Seth also took in the sights through Meg’s eyes.

‘I’m finally back here. The Garden of Life.’