Thorns along the way

Seth kept teleporting north, chasing after Iris with the system’s help.

Luckily for him, she eventually stopped, and he was able to catch up to her, but even so, he was already too far from Endora to feel comfortable. His lust and perception sources had to continuously use the energy inside to keep his link to Leora active.

After finally catching up to Iris, Seth looked straight at her and said: “Let’s go back and speak. I can’t stay too far from Endora’s capital for too long.”

“What do you want to speak, you ani - “

Seth’s face turned dark, and his eyes flashed dark red as he interrupted her. “Iris, all of our lives are at stake, so I’m returning to Endora’s capital. If you don’t go back, you better not show your face again, or I’ll finish what I started the last time. The reason you are still alive is because of Maya, and she’s also why I even risked coming after you. Keep that in mind before running off and doing something stupid.”

Without another word, Seth started teleporting back toward Endora. His words were not lies but were also not the complete truth. If Maya hadn’t shared seventh shell knowledge with her, Seth didn’t know if he would have even bothered chasing after her.

As he was teleporting back, he whispered into the air. “Raven.”

Not long after his words, a draft of wind passed by his ears. “I hear you, seat of destruction. We know what you want, and Augur has agreed. The new divinity has to be kept hidden at all costs. I’ve also started burning my life force to deliver your message as soon as possible.”

“Good, but the sight of the old man is too weak. I need a different request from you all. I need to send a message to Sun since I’m stuck in Endora for the moment.”

Raven remained silent for quite some time before asking: “I can send him a whisper. What do you want? You also owe me one again.”

“Fine. Tell him I have two treasures, and he must secure the remaining one before Thanatos does something stupid. I wanted to go myself, but… yeah.”

“I’ll tell him, but Sun will never leave that place even if we asked.”

“He will if I give him what he wants.” Replied Seth with a smile.

Raven fell silent for a long time, and Seth had almost reached Endora’s capital when his voice returned. “He has agreed to protect the last treasure for 200 years. I already agreed in your stead.”

“It is. Thanks, Raven. You want that favor now, or are you saving it for later?” asked Seth with a chuckle.

A snort resounded through the air, and Seth shook his head to himself while asking the system. ‘What is that idiot doing? Is she coming back?’

<Affirmative.>

With his connection to Leora becoming stable again, Seth stopped at the edge of Endora’s capital, right in the middle of a wheat field, and waited patiently. It didn’t take long, and Iris appeared from the north, flying high above the ground.

“Quite a familiar sight, isn’t it?” asked Seth, looking up at her with a smile.

Iris didn’t entertain him with a reply as she flew down from the sky and asked with a look of pure disgust: “What did you want to speak about? Or am I your prisoner now and can’t leave without your say-so?”

Seth shrugged and said: “I know you’ve gained quite a lot with Maya’s help towards breaking the sixth shell, so as much as both of us hate it, I can’t let you run wild like that. You’ll break through in ten, maybe twenty years, and dealing with you will become a pain.”

Iris frowned and said: “I won’t do anything against you. I just can’t stand watching you making a fool out of all those girls like that….”

Seth shook his head and said with a sigh: “How am I making a fool out of anyone?... Never mind, that’s not the point here. Even if you claim that you won’t do anything against me, your thoughts of now won’t necessarily be the same once you break through.”

“And what do you want to do? Keep me locked here like a dog? Suppress me from breaking through? What? Haven’t you already done enough to me? Are you not happy until I’m already dead?”

Seth ignored her tragic expression and asked: “See? That deep anger and resentment you carry inside you. Even if you don’t want to, you’ll still turn against me after breaking through. You should have been hearing it for a while. Don’t tell me you didn’t even realize it?”

Iris frowned and asked in confusion: “What are you talking about? Of course, I hate you. Why wouldn’t I? But my word is…”

Iris’s words stopped as she remembered she had broken the most important promise she had ever made in her life not that long ago.

Seeing her expression, Seth knew what she was thinking about, and his tone also softened. “There is so much you don’t know, Iris. About me, about ascended, and the great price of the power we’re all wielding. Do you think there are no consequences in becoming an ascended? In having the power to change the world to our liking?”

Seeing Iris looking at him skeptically, Seth sighed and continued. “Let’s go back and meet with Maya. I know you won’t trust my word alone, and that’s understandable, but she can tell you the truth herself. She kept it for you only because she didn’t want to reveal any of my secrets.”

After Iris nodded hesitantly, Seth covered them both in area teleportation and returned to the Imperial Palace, where Maya was doing his job for him as usual.

Seeing their expressions, Maya didn’t hesitate to dismiss everyone in the throne room and looked at the two. “What happened?”

Seth explained the incident that started it all, earning a weird look from Maya before she turned toward Iris. “Seth is Seth, but what’s with you? Rushing away like that? What are you? Five?”

Iris lowered her head, and Seth answered in his stead. “Its influence is growing, Maya, and it’s starting to become sentient. At the same time, it’s trying to push her away from me, from us.”

“So soon?” asked Maya in surprise, taking a good look at Iris. “But I didn’t notice anything unusual.”

“Hasn’t she been pressing you for the breakthrough knowledge even after I returned? And there’s also what just happened. Iris would have normally attacked me when she stumbled upon that scene, not run off like that. There are small things, but the signs are there.”

Iris looked between the two in confusion, a feeling of uneasiness growing inside her. Even as Maya and Seth spoke, her legs were subconsciously drawing backward.

Being made aware of the possibility of Iris’s will waking up by Seth just now, Maya quickly noticed her small movements, like a thief that had been caught in the act.

“Where are you going?”

Iris stopped and said: “I’m having a bad feeling about this. Maya, we’re friends, aren’t we? You wouldn’t just keep me as a prisoner here, would you? Can’t I go back to Oath now that Seth is back? I promise not to share what I learned with anyone else or try to do anything to any of you.”

Maya was looking at Iris in disbelief, and spotting Seth’s wry smile from the side, she sighed and said: “Iris, did you start fusing your soul with your source?”

Iris remained silent, but that told Maya everything she wanted to know.

“When?” asked Maya.

“A year and two months ago…” replied Iris after a while, causing Maya’s look to mist over slightly. “Over a year, and you didn’t say a word? Even as you knew I was desperately searching for Seth? And you - “

“That’s enough, Maya...” Surprisingly, it was Seth who interrupted her. “It’s not her fault since she didn’t know the truth about energy wills and was never on guard against it. Tell her.”

Maya appeared equally surprised as she asked: “Are you sure?”

Seth nodded and said: “Yes. She’s not leaving this place anyway.”

After his words, Seth teleported everyone straight inside the garden.

He and Maya sat down around the table, but Iris remained standing on the side, her eyes fixed on Maya. With a sigh, Maya began telling Iris everything Seth had thoughts her about energy wills.

How they grow stronger along with the ascended, how they start dominating their hosts’ souls once they step into the later shells, and how, but the ninth shell, the host’s behavior would have changed almost completely.

Iris’s expression kept changing throughout Maya’s explanation, from doubt to uncertainty, from uncertainty to confusion, and eventually, a trace of fear appeared in her clear eyes.

“Are you sure? How can you be sure that’s what’s going to happen?” asked Iris, looking down at her own hands with incredulity.

Maya opened her mouth to speak but eventually stopped and turned to look toward Seth.

“Because it already happened to me.” Said Seth, attracting Iris’s attention towards him. “That strange ability that terrified you so many times. That’s the will of my destruction energy. A divine greater will of destruction.”

“But… you’re only at the fourth shell… Didn’t you say it starts happening at the seventh shell?”

“Its influence is always there, but my case is special. I am a fourth shell ascended now, but in the past, or more exactly, the future, I was a god. I have broken through to the ninth shell and claimed a divinity, becoming what is recognized in this world as the God of Destruction.”

Iris’s face twitched, and she was about to rebuke him when she noticed Maya was not saying anything to discredit him. Looking between the two, she asked: “Have you both gone mad? To think I almost believed your stupid ramblings. God? What do you take me for?”

Neither Seth nor Maya seemed to mind her denial, her reaction being quite normal, and Seth said: “Is is the truth. Think about it carefully. A child you already know has been living in that small village for his entire life suddenly becomes an ascended  with six energies, and his knowledge is way past the level of the whole continent.”

“You already know about time energy from the time you have spent here, so the possibility of someone from the future moving through time to return to the past is that big of a deal to you?”

Feeling his words had logic, Iris’s face started turning pale as she continued staring back at him.

The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. How Seth was able to play around with her and everyone else, how he knew so much more than anyone else did, his energies, his achievements, his strength. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that any other explanation was less rational than him being a god.

“But, if you’ve reached the peak... why did you come back here?” asked Iris in disbelief, her feet starting to tremble.

“There are many reasons for it, but one of them was to break away from the influence of my power and find a way to control it instead of it controlling me.”

Maya stood up from the side as Seth spoke, slowly approaching Iris. Once Seth was done, she caught Iris’s pale hands into her own and said with a sigh.

“Iris, you might have had your problems with Seth, but I can promise he’s genuinely trying to help you... Please put everything behind you and give him a chance. I don’t want to lose my oldest friend like that.”

Iris looked into Maya’s big and clear eyes before biting her lower lip and saying: “I don’t know... everything is so confusing.”

Maya sighed again and squeezed Iris’s hands before dropping a small bomb to stun everyone there.

“If you want further proof, sleep with Seth. That will answer all of your questions.”