Chapter 7: Reminiscing Past Memories and Natas' Unknown Identity
As soon as Kayn and Natas exited from the gate of the park, they were immediately greeted by numerous lines of huge buildings, each reaching different heights.
"Even after seeing it numerous times already, I still can't help myself but be astonished at the architecture designs of your planet," Natas expressed his amazement while they continued walking along the sidewalks.
"Why so?" Kayn felt curious as he followed the direction where Natas was looking at. To his surprise, the latter was simply looking at all the buildings they passed along the way. "After traveling to millions of planets for countless millennia, shouldn't Natas have seen everything that one could discover already?"
Natas cleared his throat and replied, "Actually, in most of the worlds I have visited in the past, they either stick with temple-like designs, designs resembling your pagodas, or just simply use the natural environment without destroying it, albeit only improving on some certain areas to solve the increase in population,"
"While in other worlds, problem-related to population almost doesn't exist as the size of their planet is thousands or even millions of times bigger than yours, so they have more than enough space to the point that even if all of their population creates hundreds of houses each, it still would barely cover their planets' surface,"
"Of course, there were also civilizations living on planets much smaller than yours. To solve the increase in their population, they decided to explore the universe to search for inhabitable planets, which some succeeded, while others failed and could only decide to build ships in outer space to inhabit the rest of their people or build underground while continuing their search,"
Natas stared at the buildings with numerous floors and spoke his admiration, "It is only in the case of your planet where the people have decided to make the houses taller to save up space, thus housing dozens or even hundreds of floors that can be used by tens of thousands of people while exhibiting a wall-like structural design,"
"That's interesting…" Kayn felt intrigued. He really thought that the designs of the buildings that he had seen from the moment he was born in this world looked basic and common, and can almost be used as a synonym for the word 'Normal'. But to his surprise, it's actually one of a kind.
"It has always been this way on every planet we have visited in the past. Each of them would have one unique aspect about them that separates them from the other civilizations," Natas added.
"It's really unfortunate though…" Natas sighed in regret. "No matter how amazing these structures are, all of them will still crumble and fall a decade from now. No one is excepted from this fate as long as the 'Tower' continues to exist,"
"…" Kayn silently agreed.
In the future, as the years continue to go by, the destruction caused by the 'Tower' on Earth would slowly become more apparent for everyone not only to see but to also feel the difficulty of continuing to live every single day.
This was one of the main reasons why he was in such a hurry to clear the floors to reach the top of the 'Tower' and end everything for good. Otherwise, even if they could indeed stop the 'Tower' yet there's no longer a planet to live on, then it would have been much better for him to just let the 'Tower' stay and everyone would transfer their residence inside.
As Kayn continued walking past buildings after buildings, memories of the previous future would occasionally pop up in his head to replace his surroundings.
He still remembered vividly how the sky around this place would always be dark regardless of the time and gloomy as if a heavy rainstorm was going to fall any second.
Below the gloomy dark sky were the damaged roads and collapsed buildings all over the place, which are covered by moss, and overgrowing weeds and trees because of how long it has been abandoned by mankind.
Traffic lights, different street signs, and light posts have fallen to the collapsed ground or are buried underneath piles of debris.
Dozens of sinkholes and craters were everywhere as the result of numerous fights that happened in this location before they finally decided to give up fighting to reclaim this city.
Lastly and the most horrifying truth, different monsters from the 'Tower' are roaming freely and unhindered on the streets.
Just reminiscing the scenes of the future was already enough to send shivers down Kayn's spine.
Although he was the number one Hero already at that time and was even the guild leader of the most powerful guild with dozens of powerful allies in his beck and call, he was still helpless to change everything.
As a matter of fact, he wouldn't even dare claim that he'd be able to clear all the monsters that had escaped and roam free in their home world. The number of monsters roaming on Earth was just too innumerable and impossible to count.
That's how scary it was in the future.
Of course, it wasn't solely the fault of the 'Tower' that numerous monsters were able to inhabit their planet freely.
In the first place, there only exist two reasons why monsters from the 'Tower' could enter Earth. One of that is that they are brought from the 'Tower' after being captured by the Heroes, and the other reason is a dungeon that appeared on Earth broke out after it wasn't cleared on time by the Heroes either because no one bothered clearing it or that it will give more profit to them if the monsters are allowed to break free. For both of those reasons, the one to be blamed is obviously not the 'Tower', but instead, it's them, including Kayn himself.
As such, now that he is given another chance in life, he'd make sure that the same event wouldn't happen again, or if that is impossible, he will try to minimize the damage to as little as he possibly could.
Seeing Kayn's solemn expression, Natas decided not to interrupt him from his deep thoughts and just continue trailing closely after him towards the location of his home.
After tens of minutes had passed, Kayn suddenly asked, "By the way, if I am now back to my 18 years old self, then what are you?"
It's already a known fact to everyone that Gods cannot escape from the 'Tower'. So, if he is reincarnated back to his younger self, then shouldn't Natas also reincarnate back to his body during this time? Instead, what happened is Natas had broken the rule of the 'Tower' and appeared right beside him.
"Sorry for asking all of a sudden, I am just confused," Kayn clarified.
"Honestly," Natas slightly hesitated before eventually continuing to talk, "I also don't know for sure…"
After all, this was the first time they have done this. So, it's only natural for even the knowledgeable and almost all-knowing Natas not to know the answer to Kayn's question.
"Even I am confused as well,"
Although he was feeling that way, Natas still pondered hard on how he should describe his current identity through words.
"For the first time ever, a God had successfully escaped the 'Tower', but the 'Tower' itself seems to not notice such an important incident or to be more precise, it doesn't seem to notice your very existence…" Kayn stares at Natas from top to bottom, and only then did he finally notice that the latter was actually still wearing the same attire he wore during their fight before he was sent into reincarnation.
As if to confirm Kayn's suspicion, Natas said, "In your dictionary, you can call my current identity, or you could also say the current state of my entire being, as nothing more than a soul or a wandering spirit,"
"A wandering spirit…" Kayn repeated while pondering something inside his head.
"Well, at least that's how I view myself at this very moment. I would have to further study my new identity in order for me to know more about it and give you an accurate description of what exactly I am right now," Natas expressed his helplessness.
"Wait…"
A thought suddenly came into Kayn's head.
"So, does this mean that another Natas also exist inside the 'Tower' right now?" Kayn felt eager to know the answer. If that is actually the case, then things would become much more advantageous for them, especially considering the fact that the 'Natas' inside the 'Tower' can easily confirm the truth.
"I know what you are thinking, but that 'Natas' won't be able to help you that much because once he does, there's going to be a huge chance that the 'Tower' would learn of my existence and our plan," Natas made sure to warn Kayn about the risk. He solemnly reminded, "Time will eventually intertwine both your fates together, so until then, I suggest you don't do anything that will endanger ourselves,"
"In other words, I can still ask for help from the other you, but we both have to make sure that the existence of another 'Natas' from the future would not accidentally get compromised," Kayn nodded his head repeatedly to express that he understood clearly well what Natas meant.
"Now you're getting it," Natas made an ok sign with his fingers as if to confirm Kayn's assumption.
"Another improvement," Kayn felt slightly elated.
In the next moment, both Kayn and Natas started chuckling.
"If only we had met each other under different circumstances, then for sure we would have hit it off right off the bat and become the best of friends," Kayn can't help imagining the thought of him and Natas being classmates in school instead of being a God and a Hero with the same intention of bringing down an evil 'Tower' that had caused so many lives to suffer and destroyed millions of planets.
"Yeah," Natas could only let out a half-smile since he knows for certain just how impossible that was. Well, there's nothing wrong with just imagining it.
"Anyways, we have finally arrived in my humble abode," Kayn stopped as he proudly presented his house to Natas.
Turning his attention in front, Natas finally saw with his own eyes what Kayn described as his house. Rather than calling it a house, it's more accurate to call it a room, a really small one on top of that.
Although Natas already knew beforehand that Kayn is an orphan, it is still beyond of his expectations that the future number one Hero on Earth actually started from such a humble and modest beginning. No wonder Kayn never expresses any arrogance despite possessing almost everything in life, because even if life itself takes everything away from him and leaves him with nothing, barely anything would change since that is where he started from.
"Come on in," Kayn didn't hesitate to invite Natas inside his room after he opened the door using the key that he took from the top of his door frame. "I hope you don't mind how small and untidy it currently is,"
"I am totally fine with that," Natas willingly entered Kayn's room without showing any disgust or hesitation.