Emlyn stared blankly at the sandy region before a soft sigh escaped him.
“Zero, why did the target kill me?” Dina questioned softly, her tone holding more calmness than astonishment.
“Perhaps he hates witches?” Zero expressed.
“I doubt.”
She could still remember the last thing she saw before her death, it wasn't hate or any other fiery emotion. It was glacier and terrible. A cold indifference reminiscent of one crushing an ant.
A thorough disregard for life, treating it as something to be snuffed out without care. Such emotion was even more terrible than killing manically, for at least the latter acknowledged life and found a twisted joy in snuffing it out while the latter treated life with a nonchalant attitude.
Such a careless attitude to life was something Dina never wanted to emphasize. Sure, due to the last world, her morality had become a bit tweaked, and now killing came easier for her; however, to treat life as something so insignificant was something she'd never accept!
A murderous bastard was better than such a treacherous bastard! If she ever did become like that, she'd wholeheartedly accept formatting if it meant that. It wasn't about losing her humanity—it was about losing all respect for life, and this was something she'd never tolerate.
“I already hate him before we even start and I thought the heavens had finally s—” Dina was suddenly cut off by a devastating pain in her head.
Emlyn reeled over with a pained yet inaudible gasp as the feeling of his brain being grated against metal overwhelmed him, nearly driving him to insanity.
“A-ah…” he muttered helplessly as he held onto his neck trembling like a leaf under the assault of a heavy winter wind.
After a full minute of that drastic pain, when he finally opened his dim eyes, the golden brown color slightly faded as an emptiness filled them. His body was soaked in sweat, his face was paler than paper, and accompanied by his quivering, he looked very pitiful.
“Ugh….” he groaned before going limp, and if not for the soft breaths that came from him, his slumped figure would easily be mistaken for a corpse.
Minutes later, the pain abated, and Emlyn’s eyes opened with a calm light flashing through it. His memories were finally complete, and the marks on his hands were gone.
Dina finally understood everything including the sorcerer's existence. Everything was traced back to a terrible mistake in the past, a mistake that cost all magical beings and led to this situation that, if not stopped, would lead to the eventual demise of this world.
***
At a very distant time in the past, witches and humans lived side by side, with witches being the only magical creatures to exist. Peace was preserved due to their indifference towards the human race, regarding them as creatures beneath them without the need to bother.
Although this was great for the human race who, despite all their intelligence could not hold against even a fraction of the witchs' might, they still couldn't help feeling threatened. After all, they were so weak; what if the witches decided to snuff them out one day? They'd be unable to do anything.
Despite it being a clear taboo by the gods to wipe out an entire species, whether it be humans, witches, or animals, they still couldn't overcome their paranoia and fear.
They soothe after magic from the witches but why would the witches do that? After all, there was nothing the humans could offer in exchange for their audacious wishes, so they dismissed them coldly.
But then something happened.
A child of the gods had been born to the humans! She had no powers but could communicate with the gods and the humans hid it so well until they got that child to plead their case to the gods.
The witches were beyond infuriated when the gods ordered them to bless the bloodline of a selected few from the human race to solve this impartiality.
The thing with the gods was that they were leisurely, and had it not been for humans being lucky enough to get a mouthpiece who presented their case before them and had them notice that it was indeed too impartial, the status quo would have remained.
Sure, the god's favoritism for the witches remained, but even they had to agree that it was indeed too impartial to the humans, and thus came the order to the witches.
Obviously, despite following orders and giving a certain selected few the five laws: form, energy, time, space, and consciousness, the witches' dislike for the humans grew into hate, and they made sure to use every opportunity they could to oppress them.
Not in a drastically evil way but with a pettiness that still disturbed the humans. This time despite their cries to the gods, they were merely told the gods did not participate in such trivial matters. It was more than obvious who the best child was.
Time passed and the imbalance between the witches and humans remained. That was when a new king of that era, now known as the forgotten era, decided to play tango with the devil.
Dark magic was an art that disturbed the fabric of reality, disregarding all rules and putting all lives at risk from the consequences of breaking the laws. All laws were created for the sustenance of life, and any disregard for them caused a great dissonance to reality that threatened all life.
This was why dark magic was banned, but now, in their greed, the kings were ready to take the risk, without care for the consequences. Simply bridging the imbalance wasn't enough, they wanted to utterly dominate the witches.
The ritual involved the sacrifice of the gods’ beloved to forcefully enhance the abilities of the targets, and a crucial part of the ritual was innocence; everyone involved had to be pure in heart and then tormented most horrifically.
An infliction of pain to not only the innocent but the gods’ beloved as well; any sane person could see through the inane sadism that shrouded the ritual.
But perhaps the consuming desire for power had eroded the kings’ sanity, for they couldn't care less about this. Even the deadly consequences that followed the rituals or the warnings about the devil being the father of lairs had fallen on deaf ears, and the kings went on to engage in this sorcery.
They used tricks to capture the most innocent and gullible of the witches—the incubus race. These witches were known for their naivety and longing for love, a trait made all the more apparent by the cruelty of their species, who saw them as weak.
Since the witches valued power and despised weakness it was no wonder they were scorned. The incubus were not only weaker due to their innate disposition towards attraction magic but were also soft-hearted, their innocence making them the target of ridicule.
Had the incubus been more cunning, using their abilities to rise the social ladder, they might have earned the witches' respect. But they weren’t like that. They were like puppies—easily deceived, always trusting, and nearly all of them fell into the traps laid by their kind. They lived beneath their fellow witches, either by choice or by force.
So weak, so easily deceived, and yet so charming! No witch wanted to admit it, but these frail creatures had them hooked despite their open derision. There was a bitter taste left in one's mouth to know that someone so powerless held them in the palm of their hands despite their disdain.
Indeed, the witches would rather have the incubus race capsize their strength and rise to the top because then the idea of being controlled wouldn't be so bad. They would have welcomed a queen ruling them—but a worthless servant? That was another matter entirely.
Having fallen for the promise of being loved, some of the incubus race willingly went to the human kingdom only to be betrayed and tortured to death in a horrific ritual.
Unsurprisingly, the devil did lie and the ritual wasn't a way to drastically increase the abilities of the magical children but to use them as vessels and a passage to summon hell into earth.
The witches on finally sensing the disturbance came to see the terror the kings had caused and knew the only way around this was to seal off the castle where the ritual had taken place into a space and time vortex, the land of the deep where all creatures abandoned by God where forsaken, all creatures cursed to never see civilization and to forever wander in time and space.
A place where time was in a constant state of past, present, and future, effectively canceling itself out into oblivion.
But even then all it'd do was delay the eventual descent of hell into earth.
They not only had to find a way to destroy the passage they also had to find it fast before the gods caught a whiff of the happenings and bestowed a terrible punishment onto all species involved.
That was when the seer found out about a certain white-haired male. One of the pioneers blessed with magic long ago. This was shocking because humans, even magicians, weren't supposed to live that long, and even more hid their existence from the witches for so long!
Who was this person? As they looked into it more, their shock heightened to drastic degrees; this person was now the strongest in the world! A human! So powerful that he had learned the last two laws of the world, which no mortal ever could, and was now on the levels of the gods—an immortal!
That was when the witches realized their pride and inattentiveness to the human race had caused them to miss so much. From their fellow kind being stolen to the ritual which might as well bring the world to its end and now a human who had transcended the levels of mortality into a realm no witch had ever reached… Their arrogance had cost them.
With no choice left, they approached the immortal but were devastated to find him gone. He had moved away from their reality into another space, and all they could do when all attempts to message him failed they captured a trace of his existence, locking it into a picture for the distant future when he finally opened the portal to his space.
To increase the chances of the future generation succeeding, a space-time artifact that gave three chances to the user was created. They left a message to the future generation before both species went to report their crimes to the gods.
As a punishment, the space and time law was overruled for the mortal realm and all magical creatures or human directly or indirectly involved with the ritual was cursed.
The magical creatures would be erased in the memories of all on the revelation of their existence to any sentient nonmagical creature, and the cursed humans would eventually have their bloodline wiped off the face of the earth.
The kings were tortured to death for their sins, along with those in collusion with them and the witches, after terrorizing the humans for years to pay for their crime, eventually cutting off all contact with them, choosing to live separately and away from the pests.
Years later, witches existed but were not known of even by the average magician. Only a few powerful magicians knew of their existence, and those who knew also knew about the terrible history of the forgotten era as well as the forgotten castle.
Perhaps because of that incident, the terrible treatment of the incubus waned, but the disdain remained until the present century, when the witches had advanced enough to let go of all prejudice against the incubus race, especially after the prophecy that an incubus would be the savior of the ruined world.
***
Emlyn got up, patting off the sand on his butt before activating his magical senses, and found himself on the farm once more.
Dina felt like looking up to the sky to plead her case. No wonder he didn't give jack shit about saving the world! The bastard, just like the unreliable gods, was more than capable of living rather comfortably even with the destruction of the world, and even hell wouldn't have the guts to threaten them!
This kind of asshole, why would he care for a world that might as well be considered damned? Ah ah ah, she finally understood why it was regarded as a side mission.
Without capturing the target and getting his goodwill, there was no way someone as nonchalant as him would even bother with her, even if saving the world only required him to show up.
“Okay but why the fuck didn't the gods just help them throughout the whole thing?” weren't they meant to protect mortals?
“They're not obligated to do anything, especially with how mortals were the ones to screw themselves up; they could watch it all unfold and wouldn't be held responsible since mortals brought their doom,” Zero replied.
“So what you're saying is, they don't care if mortals get screwed over? Haha, I guess I should have known, especially with how they blatantly ignored the magical creatures even when they pleaded for mercy from the sorcerers,” Dina stated. “The gods are heartless and slumber before the woes of their children, may their child thrust them into a deep slumber where they shall never wake when they fall.”
“... Are you cursing them out?”
“Fuck yeah.”
After all, had it not been for their indifference to the mortal's affairs and favoritism, then the world probably wouldn't have been destroyed.
Don't blame the disturbed kids, blame the trashy parents.
‘But that had nothing to do with my death,’ Dina pondered as she wandered deeper into the farm, ‘Did he notice my soul perhaps?’
Dina quickly shook the thoughts off; if he had noticed it, then the bureau was as useful as a glass hammer.
Zero:..... True.
She wasn't sure, but heckling it with Zero here definitely wouldn't help her find the reason, so she simply proceeded onward once more.
This time, Emlyn arrived earlier, perhaps due to having traversed the farmland before. It took him only a day and a half to do it this time, and once more, an indifferent figure loomed over him.
Before he could say a word he was knocked out.
***
It was the same room and the same confrontation, except no one spoke a word this time; Emlyn simply stared at the male for a long time before a mischievous smile bloomed on his lips.
Eh, what the heck? Dina thought that If she was going to die either way, then she'd make sure to annoy the heck out of the target before her time came.
“Teach, can I call you that sir?” Emlyn questioned boldly.
Riven stared at the audacious male blankly before asking, “Why?”
“Because from now on, I want to devote myself to Teach and serve wholeheartedly as his assistant, and then perhaps I'll capture his heart and have him save the world,” Emlyn spoke with unbridled confidence as his eyes shone brightly.
Riven was but a man of few words, and after glancing at the male with a look that screamed ‘delusional', he decisively left.
Emlyn sighed softly as he glanced at the table where five loaves of bread, butter, and a large cup of milk lay quietly.
After eating, he went to sleep once more, and just as before, he awoke to the three books he had once learned.
Dina wasn't sure if Riven wanted to pretend the former timeline didn't happen since she was more than sure someone as powerful as him wouldn't know of it.
However, since the man made no mention of it, she decided to play along.
Thus, despite not needing to, Emlyn reread the whole book but at least gained a deeper understanding of them. After cleaning up and feeling pleased with himself he was suddenly teleported away into a certain fiend’s laboratory.
When Emlyn arrived at the library, a book with inked words was pushed to him: Rule 1 stated to always keep the distance between him and the target about three feet wide; Rule 2 stated to avoid touching anything without permission; and Rule 3 stated he'd learn magic while assisting Riven.
Emlyn silently agreed before taking the pile of books Riven had motioned to him; sitting at one corner of the lab obediently to study them.
Although no words were exchanged between the duo, Dina was relieved that Riven didn't go for the kill like last time.
Emlyn spent the rest of the day studying the books until he was suddenly teleported to his room without a second word. He concluded Riven must have called it a day for them, and after studying a bit more, he ate his already-served dinner before falling asleep.
The next day, after cleaning up he diligently went back to reading until he was eventually teleported to the lab like before.
Dina was, in fact, very hooked on the books and had nearly forgotten about her original goal until Zero, who feared his spicy chicken host would forget her mission, had to remind her.
And thus Riven's lovely silence was disrupted by the male requesting a quill and a jotter. The next day, unlike he had usually done, Emlyn approached Riven this time with a smile, making sure to maintain the ideal distance before submitting to him a book.
There was no exchange of words between them; Riven merely paused his work and, after scouring the book, which contained the questions the male had, answered them swiftly before continuing his work.
“Thanks, Teach,” Emlyn greeted with a cheeky smile before moving on to continue his study.
Zero:....
***
Just like that, a week passed; during that week, Emlyn had familiarized himself with every nook and cranny of the castle. Being able to now arrive at Riven's lab without having him help him.
He had also learned a variety of spells and the mechanisms of how Riven ran his household. All meals were strictly vegetarian, but they still got animal-based products, which he got from altering the structure of the vegetables on his farm with magic.
This was because not only were the restrictions on creating life very annoying, but Riven also found the idea of raising animals distracting.
Another interesting fact Dina noticed was that Emlyn’s body's excretory need seemed to have been erased, making the male capable of functioning without the need for excretion.
If there was one spell Dina wanted to learn, then it was that, but even she knew just how complex such a spell was, branching into various foundational laws, not that it demoralized her. Little by little she'd learn it until she eventually did!
One day, Emlyn suggested helping out a bit more in the household by cleaning the dishes and taking care of the farm.
That was when he finally heard Riven speak after his single ‘why?’ since there first meeting.
“Concentrate on studying.”
“Teach it's magic, I'll be done before you know it and will make sure it doesn't distract me from my studies.”
Riven was silent for a while before swiftly scribbling out a bunch of words and then handing it over to Emlyn who briefly studied it.
He now had three extra jobs to do in the morning, including tending the plants, cleansing the dishes, and cleaning some designated rooms in the castle.
Emlyn grinned toothily with a naughty glint in his eyes as he calmly spoke, “Teach do you know there's something I can give you that even magic can't?”
Surprisingly, Riven faced the grinning male with an indifferent look, which, instead of unnerving him, caused his confidence to wax stronger as he continued.
“Love Teach, I'm going to make you fall for me.”
He stared at the fearless child who boldly declared his desire without regard for the possible consequences.
Golden brown orbs as piercing as a ray of sunlight and a toothy smile possessing an innocent charm capable of trapping one's heart—no wonder the male was so sure of himself.
Indeed his charms were enough to capture any person that wasn't him. He looked away, completely unbothered by the promise, but the male was far from done as he carelessly declared.
“And when I do Teach will finally listen to me and save the world!”
He chuckled softly within him, ah, children, as long as he didn't become annoying then this would be a bit interesting to watch.
However, if he dared to cross that line… hesitation would be a fantasy the male would wish for.