Chereads / Fleeing From Fate / Chapter 21 - The Chosen One?

Chapter 21 - The Chosen One?

Seth could see that time was stopped. He couldn't move his body, but he could still think and sense what was going on. The bright light shocked Seth for a moment, he could see it even with his blindness. Seth watched as his master appeared in the light. His master slowly walked toward the source of the light and picked up a small shard of a ball, it was glowing fervently and the brightness moved along with it, it was the source of the light. Seth's master calmly put the shard in his mouth and ate it. The glowing stopped, but Seth could still clearly see the shard moving around in his master's body.

Another bright, glowing shard appeared from the depths of his master's body. It was much bigger and more complete, seeming to be a combination of many smaller shards. This large amalgamation of shards and the shard from earlier stuck together like puzzle pieces, the shards all becoming one. Seth felt his scalp tingle as he watched the scene in front of him, he felt as if he had seen a secret of a god. Once the glowing shards merged, his master's shard retreated back into the recesses of his body. His master swept his sleeve and disappeared, time began once more.

Seth heard a sonorous ding, but he ignored it. He looked at Augie, his brother was fully healed from his attack, but the carapace was still nowhere to be seen. Amazed, Seth Inspected his brother to see what was going on.

---

Augustus Berner

Peak Mortal

(protagonist)

(heaven swallowing physique (weakened))

(blessed)

(light's apostle)

(lucky aura)

Intelligence [102,193]

Body Strength [100,283]

Vitality [101,228]

Soul Strength [108,403]

Luck [6,927]

Magic [100,119]

Magic Regeneration [100,017]

[skills]

---

Seeing the changes, Seth knew what had happened. His brother had become a protagonist. Beelzebub, who had been cursed, stole his body and changed it, giving him the Heaven Swallowing Physique. Beelzebub's soul was taken out of Augie's body by his master and Augie swallowed a part of his soul. Augie had refined just a tiny fraction of Beelzebub's soul and become a Peak Mortal!

Seth was a little jealous of Augie, but he knew that Augie's powers and luck were all because of him being a protagonist. Seth knew that protagonists were created by and completely at the mercy of their writers. He felt disgusted that he would be affected by someone who didn't even think they were real, that they were just words on a page. Created with the sole purpose to entertain the masses.

Seth thought about it for a moment before he realized, if he was just words on a page or the imagination of a great being, then he had no control whatsoever. If he was imaginary, then he was completely at the mercy of his creator. But if he was at the mercy of the dreamer or writer, then why did he have such freedom of thought? Why was he able to think that he wanted to rid himself of his imaginary world and become real? Seth had to be real. His world had to be, everything had to be real. But then why was there a protagonist? Was a protagonist a natural thing? Seth had no idea, he probably wouldn't find the answers to his questions for years.

A large number of guards stepped through the hole in Augie's wall, their weapons held at ready. When the guards saw that nobody was injured they all heaved a sigh of relief and a few of them left to inform their superiors. Seth picked Augie up and handed him to one of the leading guards. He told the guards that he had seen a man attack Augie and he had protected him. The guards were a little suspicious but seeing as Augie was unharmed they believed him.

Luckily for Seth, as everyone was scared of him and as nobody was harmed in the incident, everything blew over in just a few days. Augie slept for almost a full day before waking up a new boy. Augie was now a Peak Mortal, one of the strongest beings in the world. Amazed by his newfound power, he lifted boulders and did magic to show off. Word around the castle spread about his feats and rumors began to take root.

When Arthur heard the news of his eldest son picking up a massive boulder, he was surprised. He had long known that Augie had little talent and strength, he was destined to be weak. Arthur wasn't surprised that Seth had gotten much stronger though, even he couldn't see through his youngest son. Seth's strength had originally come as a surprise to him, but he had gotten used to it quite fast. There were many reincarnated beings in this world, and many of them were as strong as Seth was.

...

The divinities that were watching the show were afraid now. Seth had easily overwhelmed the possessed Augie and had seemingly destroyed the soul of Beelzebub, who they had only heard stories about, with a single kick. They all knew that there would be no winning this war, they could only hope to escape, just like last time. The ability to destroy souls is what made Seth so dangerous in the past. Seeing him able to do it again, especially so easily, showed that he was still able to kill them with a snap of his fingers. The divinities looked at each other in silence, before disappearing from the divine kingdom.

...

Seth looked at his master, he was currently waiting for him to decide on his rewards. His master looked him over, he muttered a few things under his breath before disappearing from the dark space. When he came back, he was holding a small leather bag, the bag was a little weird and Seth could see space elementals floating around in it. It must be a dimensional treasure, it should be a legendary bag of holding. The bag seemed to be full, of what, Seth did not know.

"Take this, use the treasures inside to increase your Growth Speed. You can keep the bag of holding to store your necessities." Seth's master handed him the bag and sent him out of the dimension with just two sentences.

Seth took all of the treasures out of the bag of holding and put the bag in his inventory. He immediately consumed all of the treasures, like always, and fell into a deep sleep. Seth dreamed of a war, thousands of spells clashing against each other. There were shouts and screams, all coming from one side. Even though all the activity was coming from one side, the battle wasn't going in their favor. The war was against one man, on against many, and the many were losing. Seth looked at the single warrior battling against the tide, the warrior looked directly into his eyes, a wide grin appearing on his bloodstained face.

When Seth woke up, he finally checked his status.

---

Seth Berner

Peak Mortal

(ascended strength soul)

total: 903,807,288

Units [1,000]

Intelligence [112]

Body Strength [1,148]

Vitality [168]

Soul Strength [772,452]

Luck [7]

Magic [113]

Magic Regeneration [112]

[skills]

[shop]

note: as you have proven your strength against another Peak Mortal, you are now considered a fully-fledged Peak Mortal. As such, your stats and Growth Speeds will now be shown in the thousands to make everything easier.

--

Units [1,000]

Intelligence Growth [50]

Body Strength Growth [50]

Vitality Growth [50]

Soul Strength Growth [50]

Magic Growth [50]

Magic Regeneration Growth [50]

---

Seth was surprised by the change in the system, but reading the note he could see why the system would do that. If Seth was something higher than a Divinity and had stats in the trillions then he wouldn't need or want to see his stats in full. Seth closed his status and walked out of his room. He went to the dining room to get breakfast, his stomach felt completely empty. He grabbed a lot of food from the table and wolfed it down in a heartbeat.

Once Seth was full, he left the castle to take a walk. He had been stuck doing the same exact thing over and over again for who knows how long so he wanted to have a nice, relaxing stroll around the premises. On the stroll, Seth didn't want to be bogged down by thoughts about his future and other things, so he just decided to forget about everything that had happened. He just lackadaisically paced in circles, admiring the scenery. For once, in quite a long time, Seth was happy.

This happiness did not last long, however, as Seth heard a low shout from the woods behind the castle. Seth sighed as he wandered into the forest without a second thought. He knew that something bad was going to happen in the forest, but he didn't really care as he knew he would somehow end up getting involved in it anyways.

After a few minutes of sauntering through the trees, Seth found a small clearing in the forest. The grass there was stained red with fresh blood, and there was a handful of dead bodies scattered on the ground, their broken weapons stabbed into the dirt, he recognized their uniforms as those of the castle's guards. Seth heard a muted gurgling coming from one of the bodies, at the noise he ran over to see what had happened. Seth healed a man that was sputtering blood like a fountain, the source of the gurgling. When the man was healed, Seth tentatively Inspected him.

---

Roy Richards

Higher Mortal

Intelligence [19,483]

Body Strength [12,101]

Vitality [23,168]

Soul Strength [10,452]

Luck [777]

Magic [11,340]

Magic Regeneration [11,239]

[skills]

---

Seth was a little surprised that a Higher Mortal had nearly died so easily, without even a single word. Seth closed the window and looked back down at Roy, he was a young man. Seth looked him in the eyes, Roy looked back at him with fear.

"Who are you? What are you doing here, boy?" Roy didn't stutter. His voice was still strong as if he hadn't almost died and was instead in his home, telling a child off for doing something wrong.

"Roy, what happened here?" Seth didn't bother with Roy's questions, he just wanted to get to the bottom of this nuisance. Hearing his name, Roy's face calmed a little and he got to his feet. He looked at the baby that had somehow healed all of his injuries. A thought flashed in his mind but he quickly shook it away. Roy wasn't going to question anything, he wasn't in a position to.

"We were attacked by men in oni masks. They were yelling about this "Chosen One" that they needed. When they found out that we didn't have it they just left." Seth nodded at Roy's story, he had nothing to say. Seth still didn't know much about what had happened, and apparently, Roy didn't either.

"What did the men look like? What were they wearing? What were the masks of?" Seth asked a few more questions to gauge who the attackers were and how he would recognize them.

"They were wearing all black and they had thick accents, I don't know where they were from." Roy sighed as he recollected the happenings from before. Seth looked around at the remains of Roy's comrades. He felt nothing but pity, pity that they were attacked for no reason. Pity that they were killed because of a stupid mistake by people that were looking for something that had nothing to do with them. When he looked away from the scene, he only felt empty. No pain, no sadness, no grief, nothing at all.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you on your way. Stay safe out there." Seth didn't know what to say to comfort Roy, so he didn't try. He just waved at the man and left the forest, humming a song he had no memory of ever hearing.