"…."
"…."
Arnold was sitting across Lyra in the reception room. The merchant was also present but he was reading through something, not bothering to address the other two.
"You took your time, didn't you…." Lyra's cold eyes were directed at Arnold who was sitting with his head down, "…What are you wearing?"
He was currently wearing a pair of denim shorts, ankle-high boots, a white shirt that exposed his midriff and a big brown coat.
Arnold glared hatefully at the merchant.
He had asked the merchant if he had some clothes to spare since he couldn't just leave wearing just a simple black dress with no underwear or shoes. His old clothes were much too big for him and he definitely didn't want to wear what the angels always wear. Partly due to the fact that he would never fit in those g-string panties that they wear with their skimpy outfits (even when soft). That perverted Sky God must have had quite a chuckle when he ordered all angels to put these clothes on. No wonder there aren't any male angels under the disciples' command.
While the denim shorts had more cloth to hide his bits, it still felt cramp on his nether regions so he had to tug quite a lot. His supple milky legs could clearly be seen up to about half his upper thigh since the denim shorts were so, well, short. The sleeveless white shirt didn't cover up much besides the front part of his upper body, exposing his breasts from the side if he lifts his arms just a little too high. The underwear that he was given was digging into his hips and kept slipping off so he had to pull it all the way over his pelvis bones. This naturally let to the underwear becoming tight around his—
When he gets the chance, he'll definitely buy other clothes.
"That was all I had," the merchant shrugged innocently, "You have no idea how hot it is in the region where all us merchants gather. I need to sell clothes that have flexibility and comfort in mind."
"…Aren't there any dresses in your inventory?"
"Yes, but they're all the same type of clothing. Would you like to see the rest despite knowing this?"
"Ugh… Nevermind. Why are you still here, anyway? Don't you have some other place to be?"
"You do not need supplies? Or even my advice? That saddens me, dear customer."
"…Just call me Arnold, alright?"
"I understand, Lady Arnold, kukuku."
"…."
Lyra clapped to get their attention, "If you want my help to leave this place then you better tell me where you're going."
"He needs access to go to the martial world. It's one of the shadow worlds within this dungeon that aren't connected to the dungeon itself."
"One of the ghost worlds that could not connect to the dungeon completely, hmm…" Lyra went silent for a second as if she was collecting her thoughts, "…Calling it a martial world must mean a Martial God once resided there in this century."
"Indeed. The last Martial God left soon after he discovered humanity's greed for power and the suffering they'll bring unto others to obtain that power. The two most powerful—and last remaining—sects are in the middle of a bloody war that has killed most of their own people. The masters of said clans have been fighting each other every full moon, each battle ending in a draw. Ku Johun and Funiji Kaijin, two powerhouses that can face demon lords single-handedly if at full power. You know what this means, yes?"
He looked at Arnold who nodded silently.
They were the pinnacle of martial arts and one step away from being true martial gods. Even at the prime of his life, the retired leader of Serz could never hope to defeat those two. His brother would also not be a match for them.
"You want to go into the middle of a warzone…" Lyra looked at Arnold as if he were a crazy person, "Your body is riddled with scars, signs of many battles and I'm not just talking about the wound responsible for your death. Why do you not just go home and live a normal life?"
"Hahaha…" Arnold couldn't help himself from chuckling which sounded somewhat hollow, devoid of energy and warmth, "Our realms are nearing the end of peaceful times. Arsnoria is plotting to take over my world and enslave everyone, if not destroy them. Offspring are appearing out of nowhere with no explanation whatsoever of how they appear, making my efforts to stop humans from exploring this dungeon meaningless. My body is a year away from becoming a rotting corpse if I don't remove that skill from Oriel's soul. My potential is wasting away in a corpse and I am unable to obtain true equilibrium, whether because I'm incompetent or just clueless. So…"
He closed his eyes with a deep breath before he…
"How do you expect me to live a normal life… knowing all of this is happening!? How!?" he pointed at Lyra, "All you have to worry about is your little experimentations. You can coexist without fusing all your bodies into one. You can live forever that way and never die of old age. Your power is split up in fragments but that doesn't seem like a problem for someone who could be considered the Archmage's equal in arcane arts. Even in this form you're way more powerful than any other mage that was born throughout history. You have no idea what burdens other people have to carry on their shoulders so shut your fucking mouth and don't tell others to live a normal life so casually!"
"…Are you looking for strength to fill up a hole inside your heart?" Lyra asked calmly, her expression still unchanging, but a faint dark shadow hanging over her face.
"I'm looking for strength so I can kill people." He said without hesitation, "What else can you do with it?"
"Save lives." The merchant said from the side.
"Save ungrateful ants who will turn on you the second you let your guard down?" the scenes that Oriel showed him suddenly flashed by his mind. The scene of him being mocked and cursed at by the same people he tried to save.
"Humans are weak. When their fear of you surpasses all other emotions, they will band together to bring you down, no matter how divided they once were. Fear, after all, is a powerful force—it binds people together as much as it blinds them to the truth. It's the same fear that drives starving and beaten slaves to unite against their masters, even when all hope seems lost. But why this comparison? Because fear, in its most potent form, is a master of delusion. It twists the mind, warps perception, and creates enemies where none exist. Even when their bellies are full and their lovemaking is consensual, they will see themselves as oppressed, serving under a tyrant who exists only in their nightmares. Fear makes them forget the comforts they enjoy because of your deeds, makes them blind to the peace they live in that you created. It convinces them that they are slaves, shackled not by chains, but by their own minds. They become obsessed with the idea of liberation, even if it means destroying the very things that sustain them. And so, they will come for you, not out of hatred, but out of the desperate need to escape a prison of their own making."
"You're blaming human nature for the way humans act… Stupidity is the reason all of them act that way, not fear."
"Why do people rape? Why do they kill? Why do they steal? Lie? Manipulate others? Use people? All of this comes down to human nature, no? Fear is not the only thing that overpowers your will. One-sided love or obsession leads to rape. Money or other materialistic benefits lead to murder. A starving little sibling is what drives you to muster up your strength to steal from the local market. You could lie to others to protect them or deceive them—"
"What's your point?"
"If the thing that overpowers a human's will cannot be overcome by them themselves then someone else ought to do it for them, no?"
"What are you suggesting, Undead?" Lyra probably understood where this was going which is why she asked.
"The only thing that can triumph over human nature is a necessary evil. The fear in the hearts of the people must be from fear from the consequences of wrongdoing, not simple survival instincts. In order to do this, this evil must show them that they are a reasonable evil, magnanimous even. That evil will save them with any means at its disposal, even when sacrifices need to be made. Who do you think they'll side with if a challenge presents itself that even the Hero cannot overcome? United under a tyrant that will kill you for the simplest slander on his household name but will do his utmost to save you—this is what it means to have the whole world fear you but admire you for your actions."
It was the complete opposite in the vision he saw. Taking into account how people saw him later on in the story, he had no reason to believe Oriel was lying to him. Oriel probably had access to the memories that his "future self" attempted to hide back when Arnold received his memories.
Arnold did nothing heroic or admirable in the game, even before leaving the academy. Every country wanted his head. The only person he trusted was Victoria, who expressed no particular emotion whether he killed innocent people or just let them live. His subordinates were just tools and holes so he didn't care about their opinions at all.
Now onto the question: could he become this necessary evil that everyone fears but will admire from a distance?
"You are still young," Lyra's words snapped him out of his daze, "You have many more years to decide what and who you want to become."
"How would you feel if I followed this guy's advice? You were once the commander of the Demon Armies but you're serving the gods for whatever reason. Did your faith change as well?"
Lyra leaned back and closed her eyes, "My opinion and faith in whoever I serve doesn't matter. We are strangers to each other and have no other association than the anomalies surrounding our bodies. I'm helping you and you're helping me."
Right, both of them are in the same boat but will part ways once they've fixed their problems. That's what she thinks, though. Arnold had other plans for her.
"Just give me your honest opinion."
"…Very well." She said after a pause, "Humans are inherently sheep who need to follow a shepherd. Why do they cave in to their human nature? It is because they do not have a shepherd to prevent that from happening. If an evil looms with a knife at their throat, ready to slit their throats if they even think of giving in to their human nature, they'll be obedient. That is how crime is prevented in human countries—they fear the consequences. I believe that going down that path is for the good of humanity—no, every other race as well. This might be what drove me—a queen—to side with the demons."
"That's how all demon societies work so it's not exactly a rare thing for them but it's different for humans."
They had lived in peace but knew threats exist that could destroy them all. Despite this, the throne they were sitting in did not have a sword dangling above.
Lyra nodded at his words, "People will gradually accept the rule because they know the evil threatening to slit their throats will protect their lives. This evil will have a lot on the line but will be willing to sacrifice everything to survive. If others join this evil then it's possible for them to survive as well."
'I've always told myself that I will not make Whitage city a place I rule with fear', Arnold looked down, '…but what she says is the truth.'
He recalled the demon lord Arnold. Was this a future of his from another alternate timeline or was he still a merciless killer like the endgame Arnold?
Say he did become this fearful ruler, would people still come to his city? Would they seek to live under his wing because he promises that he'll protect them, punish any and all extreme crimes with death and sacrifice a few if it meant the survival of many and the next generation?
How would people feel if they heard "I will never abandon you or this city and will protect you with everything I have but if something happens that requires drastic measures, I will sacrifice some of you to ensure the next generation survives"?
"Remember that even if you don't want to walk down such a path, people will still gather around that strength of yours even if your wrongdoings are revealed later, whether by your own mouth or through investigation by others."
"Why would anyone reveal their actions to others?"
"Guilt."
"…." Arnold looked up at her.
He was told before that guilt will consume him, pushing him to admit his wrongdoings.
"I understand that a normal life is just an illusion and the dreams of an insignificant being in the grand scheme of things. Only those who control their own destiny can truly have normal lives." Lyra made a small smile.
"Yeah." Arnold nodded slowly.
"I can take you to the martial world using one of my shadow dimension gates but the one I want to take you to is on the final world of this dungeon. It's been twenty years since I've last used it so I don't know its current condition. We'll need to go there in order for me to activate it."
"You said you had more than one—so can't I use the others?"
"I have three in total, two of which are connected to their own individual worlds. I can't change the magic formula—keeping them connected—to include more worlds."
"Huh, why is that? You should be more than capable of doing such a thing even in your current state."
"Well…" Lyra waved her hand gently in the air, which caused blue particles to fall all over her body.
Her once blue-skinned arms that had no impurities or imperfections vanished, now replaced by puppet arms that was kept together by threads and metal screws. One of her eyes was now a simple hole on the verge of cracking even further. The once shining golden rune was way dimmer in radiance than before.
Lyra couldn't keep herself standing anymore and fell down, the sound of hollow bamboo reaching Arnold's ears.
"My magic…" her voice sounded way different than before, "…is what's keeping me alive. If I don't have the necessary spells active then I will turn into this."
"Is this your true body…?"
She mechanically nodded her head, "I'm puppeteering a corpse with my magic. I've made some adjustments using methods one would normally use to fix androids in order for my body to not fall apart. Given the fact that I'm from a magic race, it's remarkably easier to maintain the spells moving my body around."
One might ask why she isn't using magic to revive herself? The answer to this is simple: a body needs lifeforce to survive, which a magic race has even in death. In the case of humans, their bodies would simply squeeze out all their lifeforce before decomposing. By this point your soul should be gone already.
The point of this information is that there is simply no reason for her to revive her body if her life-force and magic remains intact. Her body falling apart shouldn't be a worry at all since she was going to unite her fragmented soul together and retain her true body.
"Ever since the fragmentation incident, my mana recovery has been extremely slow, taking me up to six months just to fully recover my mana. I can't afford to stop all my experiments simply because of waiting for my mana to recover. Alchemy needs my mana, after all. Controlling my body through puppeteering is far easier and more mana efficient than casting reanimation magic. I think my odd condition is a side-effect of the holy sword's skill."
"So, until you succeed in fusing your bodies together, you'll continue being a walking corpse?" he asked, confirming his own thoughts.
"Indeed…" she cast a spell and returned to her former self.
"Do you want to revive your body?" that was clearly a stupid question for anyone, even to Arnold but Lyra nodded her head.
"It's just a little wish of mine but it isn't strong enough for me to abandon my work. Of course, if there's a chance I could be revived without any problems afterwards then I'll take it," She looked at Mr. Merchant, "I've asked this guy if he could revive me, given the powerful magic that he already wields."
"…" Arnold looked at him. In response, he shook his head.
"I do not know what the consequences could be to revive a piece of a soul. The spell might just interfere with the astral link the fragments share and kill another fragment in exchange for bringing her back to life."
"It is as he said. There is currently no incentive to reviving myself. I could be endangering my other selves out there and have no clue what the repercussions could be once I reunite all the fragments completely."
"Right… Knowing all of this, I can't expect you to expend so much mana just for me…"
'To think I said she didn't have anything to worry about earlier…' he noticed that—similar to how his reflection always looked—her eyes had long lost its light.
'Maybe we're more alike other than just being victims of the holy sword, after all…'