Night came quickly and Adolf found himself eating goblin meat again for dinner, from a distance the burned knights watched him as if it were a freak, Adolf naturally noticed the little prying glances he was receiving but did not give them importance, since at this moment his mind was elsewhere.
'While I have almost absolute confidence in my pseudo-immortality I don't think I can beat the War Sovereign in my current state, no, even if I were ten or a hundred times stronger I don't think I could beat him no matter what I do. defeat is carved in stone'.
But why would Adolf care so much about defeating the War Sovereign? Is it because of pride? Compassion? Or maybe to finally give him an eternal rest?
None of the above was the correct answer, Adolf couldn't care less about the War Sovereign, yes, he was very curious about everything that surrounded this city lost in time but up to that point, he didn't care about anything else, so Why is he so determined to defeat the Sovereign of War?
Well, when Adolf started to learn about the city of Rhyfel and the War Sovereign, he received a message from the system that made him stumped.
[A hidden mission has been triggered]
[The mission "End of the War" has been started]
- - - - - - -
[End of the war]
-Mission range: ?
-Objective: Give rest to the Sovereign of War.
-Conditions: Win a one-on-one combat with the War Sovereign.
-Failure Conditions: Receive help from a third party during combat with the War Sovereign.
-Time limit: 5 years.
-Rewards: Unknown.
-Sanction: Unknown.
- - - - - - -
Thanks to this mission given by the system, Adolf became interested in the War Sovereign, otherwise his top and only priority would be to escape from Rhyfel at all costs.
Adolf suddenly glanced sideways at the burned knights not far from him, a certain hidden gratitude in his gaze.
'If it weren't for them it would have taken me an unimaginable amount of effort to obtain bits of information about the War Sovereign, but thanks to them I not only obtained bits of information but highly detailed information.'
Looking at the night sky, Adolf realized that he had already passed midnight, without further ado he fell to the ground before closing his eyes to sleep.
At a distance not far from Adolf, the burnt knights watched as he simply slept, but upon a closer look they noticed that even though his sleeping posture seemed strange it allowed him to react to any attack from any direction.
In the end, they kept their comments to themselves while they discussed what they should do from now on, they also didn't know if it was because they had just woken up from their "sleep" after a long time or because they were Undead now but didn't feel sleepy or fatigued, they they also didn't know if that should be considered a blessing or a curse.
- - - - - - -
Adolf woke up from his dream a few hours later, he woke up a bit early since he noticed that the sun had not completely risen yet, while his eyes cleared he managed to see that the five burned knights were a couple of meters from him, his eyes they stopped at them for a few seconds before looking around again.
He quickly stood up and started walking in a seemingly random direction, the burned knights looked at him quickly leaving but no one asked why, they exchanged glances before following him.
Adolf continued walking until he noticed that he had moved far enough away, one of the things that he had to learn as quickly as possible in Rhyfel was never to be in the same place for too long, if that happened it could be considered dead meat.
After noticing that he was only taking a piece out of a red bag full of water, Adolf drank the water and felt that his body wanted to vomit the liquid he was ingesting, but Adolf forced himself to swallow it all, after finishing drinking it all. the water Adolf smelled the bag and could smell an unpleasant odor.
"It is already starting to rot...".
After saying that Adolf just threw it to the ground and started walking without looking back, the sack was actually the stomach of a goblin that Adolf used to store water, but it started to rot thanks to not handling it correctly.
The burnt knights for their part only followed Adolf for a while before each going their own way, they had the idea to meet again in a couple of hours after each one verified Rhyfe's situation and then exchange their information obtained. .
Adolf for his part was just walking aimlessly, the snow under his bare feet didn't feel as cold as he should, though as time went by he was getting uncomfortable.
As he walked a voice echoed from behind him.
"You look so pitiful, I ask…should I feel sorry for you or maybe I should feel compassion for you?"
Adolf didn't respond to the voice and continued walking without looking back, his voice didn't care that Adolf ignored him and instead he continued talking calmly.
"You feel nostalgic watching the snow fall, don't you?"
"..."
"Even if you don't answer me, I know the answer perfectly, since I know you better than you know yourself anyway, I know your fears, worries, joys and joys... and even your traumas, there is nothing about you that I don't know."
"What do you want?".
Adolf finally answered but his tone didn't contain the same indifference as always and instead he was tinged with tiredness and resignation.
"Me? I don't want anything you don't want."
The speed of Adolf's steps gradually decreased until he came to a complete stop, slowly turning his body in the direction of the voice.
His hair was shorter, his eyes were a different color, he was also much younger but he was definitely Adolf, rather a younger version of Adolf.
The young version of Adolf was dressed in a white shirt, black pants, and dress shoes.
Adolf immediately recognized that outfit, the look in his eyes became complex but he just looked at the younger version of him without saying a word, instead the younger version of him looked at Adolf smiling before speaking.
"It seems you haven't forgotten, that makes me happy."
"..."
"You look horrible, Adolf."
"..."
"Isn't that the name you currently use?"
"What do you want?".
The younger version of Adolf gently shook his head at Adolf's question.
"Didn't I already answer that question? But since it seems you didn't listen, I'll tell you again, I don't want anything that you don't want."
Adolf didn't answer anything and stood there looking at the young version of him, on the other hand his version began to walk towards him until he was next to him.
"No matter how much you change or hate yourself remember this, it wasn't your fault, you were just a child, so let those regrets consume you, Arthur."
Adolf closed his eyes for a few moments, when that happened several fragments of memories played like a movie, that only lasted a few dozen seconds but for Adolf they felt like hours, when he opened his eyes again he no longer showed any emotion.
"Who are you?".
The younger version of Adolf laughed as if he had heard the best joke ever.
"Who am I? I think you know that better than anyone, you're just denying it."
"..."
"Do you know "schizophrenia"?".
"Yes, it is a mental illness, according to what I know the people who suffer from it seem to be disconnected from reality."
"Right, even though a superficial explanation is enough, they see hallucinations but they think they are real, quite creepy isn't it?"
"Are you saying you're a hallucination?"
Young Adolf strongly shook his head.
"No, I'm not a hallucination. You have an idea of what caused this, don't you?"
"The fragmentation rate?".
Young Adolf nodded in satisfaction as he looked back into Adolf's eyes.
"Your body may be pseudo-immortal but your consciousness is still that of a human, suffering multiple deaths caused your consciousness to shatter just like a broken mirror, the higher your fragmentation rate the more your consciousness will split."
Adolf did not say anything since he had also thought about the same thing, the young Adolf looked at his older counterpart and began to walk in front of him, seeing that Adolf did not follow him, he signaled for him to follow him, Adolf without saying anything he followed a few steps behind.
"Why did you leave Arthur's name?"
After being silent for some time, the young Adolf asked that.
"I think you know the reason behind it as well as I do, so there's no reason to ask such a thing."
"Too bad, but since you don't want to use it, I'll keep it myself."
Adolf said nothing and nodded silently.
For a long time neither of them said anything, they simply walked one after the other aimlessly, the sun that once was at the highest point in the sky began to disappear behind the great walls that surrounded the city.
"It is time for us to part."
Arthur said as he watched the sun disappear behind the walls, Adolf looked at him out of the corner of his eye but remained silent.
"If you believe that the day has come, you know where to look for me. Only by accepting the past can you walk towards the future, I hope you don't forget it."
"I understand, but I hope that day never comes."
With that said he began to walk in a seemingly random direction leaving Arthur behind.
"....I also hope that day never comes."
Arthur said in a soft tone that only he could hear, Adolf looked out of the corner of his eye in the direction where Arthur was, but he was nowhere to be found, but he couldn't focus his attention on that for long since the gods were at him sending many messages.
[The Gods doubt your sanity]
[The Gods think it will be more fun now that you have lost your sanity]
[The [Ruler of the Underworld] says that he warned you about it]
[The [Light of Eternal Glory] takes pity on your pitiful existence]
Adolf read everything tiredly, it was already tiring having to worry about trying to get out of Rhyfel but now he had to add to the equation both his fragmentation rate and the fact that he couldn't escape the watchful eye of the Gods, Adolf already felt a pain. head over heels just thinking about it.
- - - - - - -
Adolf was now sitting a few meters from the group of the five Rhyfel knights, at this moment he was exchanging information among them while they decided what to do in the future, Adolf looked at them for a few moments before dropping into the cold snow.
The snowflakes danced as they fell, subsequently landing on Adolf's body, the weather tonight was brutal, it was not only snowing but also strong winds, a human would die of hypothermia if found naked in such weather just as Adolf was doing right now.
'It's not so cold'.
Since Adolf began to raise his stats he began to feel less sleepy, hot and cold tired, even the poison from the water well no longer felt as potent as the first time he ingested it, with his body in its current state Adolf only felt inconvenience and no longer received the debuffs that he originally received.
'I wonder which of my stats I can attribute to this?'
While Adolf rambled on he could hear someone approaching, his eyes moved and just as he thought a burned Rhyfel knight had approached him, the knight waved for him to come with him and Adolf accepted the proposal.
When they were all seated in a circle they began to exchange information, Adolf was not far behind and told everything he knew since he knew perfectly well that keeping information with the situation in which he found himself was not favorable at all.
"Then young man, how do you plan to give our lord the end he deserves?"
"The first thing would be to get to him, I guess he's in the deepest part of the city, right?"
"That's correct, but how do you plan to get there?"
"There are two options, the first is to go full stealth dodging and outwitting Rhyfel's knights residing in the two remaining rings of the city."
"That's impossible".
A gentleman from Rhyfel responded as he explained the why behind it.
"The city of Rhyfel was the most secure impenetrable city of its time, though it no longer possesses that ancient glow it is still an impossible task to sneak into where my lord resides."
"Because?".
"Rhyfel's knights rank our strength from 1 to 10, with 10 being the weakest and 1 being the strongest, in the outer ring you only find knights with strength ranging from 10 to 8, in the middle ring their strength ranges from rank 7 to rank 4, it can also be said that Rhyfel's knights with strength of rank 2 and 3 are positioned on top of the walls.
"I see, so that only leaves the second option open, clearing all the way to the War Sovereign."
"That could be more feasible but it would also be difficult to reach my lord, since the four gates are the only access to where my lord resides, but those four gates are guarded by four knights my lord trusts the most."
"Four?".
"Yes, these are the only four Rhyfel knights that have rank 1, they are only weaker than my lord, if you were to face one with your current strength you will die 100% of the time, you will have no chance of survival" .
"Why are you telling me all this?"
Finally Adolf could no longer contain his curiosity, he wondered why they told him everything, because they helped him on his way to finish off his lord.
"We do it because….because we can no longer exist knowing that my lord could find himself in such a deplorable and undignified state. My lord was the most proud, arrogant and confident, those qualities were what made us follow him in the first place , we would never want him to live in such a state, so even though we are branded as traitors and we cannot accompany our lord to the afterlife, we want to end his agony."
Adolf was amazed by his loyalty, usually Adolf would make fun of things like loyalty and pride but for the first time he felt that if he tried to make fun of that loyalty that Rhyfel's knights were showing, he wouldn't be able to keep holding his head up.