"You're...me? So, you're telling me—"
"Yes, Lam Hoffman. We are your past lives. Damien, me, and everyone here are you, and you are us."
"…So… I've lived through hundreds of lives?"
Upon hearing my assumption, Julian nodded solemnly, dispelling any remaining doubt within me.
"Lam, you need to understand that you didn't end up here by chance," Damien continued.
"You've reached a critical juncture, and we know it's begun to sway you from who you truly are," Julian added.
"I know, but... it's just... I feel helpless, you know? I've tried..."
"Helpless? Helpless?! I can't believe such words came out of my mouth. I know myself—I'm the strongest, and I always will be. My magic is superb, everything else is inferior to mine!"
As Damien's howl echoed through the chamber, the figures around the table remained silent, their expressions unreadable beneath their hoods. Julian's gaze hardened, his spectral form shimmering faintly in response.
"Lam, you underestimate the power within you, and within all of us," Julian lectured.
"What power? I've tried, even with your strongest mag—"
"Strongest? You've barely cast a fraction of my spells, and you call it your strongest? Bwahahaha," Damien interjected.
"I've read the grimoire back to back, there's nothing else t—"
"You think that's all? I wrote the damn book while I was in a dying state. Besides, if I really wanted to write down everything, I'd need a thousand grimoires!"
"You think you know everything I know, but I know everything you've never known."
Damien's words hit me hard, it made me think, could everything I know be just the tip of the iceberg?
"I'm not blaming you, Lam. We've all faced hardships and challenging opponents in our lives too. Damien here wasn't any better than you the first time he came here."
"Hey, what the fuck? You know that's not true!"
Hearing Damien's rebuttal, Julian could only roll his eyes and then turn his gaze back to me.
"Lam, you need to understand that you possess a monstrous power, a power surpassing that of any deity, defying even the divine. And I don't mean cliché things like believing in yourself and all that nonsense. I mean literally, we are the strongest; you are the strongest and we're here to help you harness it."
"But how?" I finally managed to ask, my voice barely above a whisper.
"Close your eyes, Lam," Julian instructed gently. "Feel the connection between us."
I hesitated for a moment, uncertain of what to expect. Slowly, I closed my eyes and focused on Julian's words.
As Julian placed his hand on my forehead, a surge of energy coursed through me. Memories flooded my mind with vivid intensity—scenes from countless lifetimes, battles fought in distant realms, and the mastery of arcane knowledge beyond mortal understanding.
Images flashed before me like fragments of a dream. I saw myself wielding immense power, commanding elements with effortless precision, and facing adversaries whose names were whispered in fear across dimensions.
"What you've just seen is only a glimpse of the many fragments of us, of you. As time goes on, you'll gradually piece everything together, but for the moment, I believe it's sufficient."
"I got it now..." As I opened my eyes, a smirk naturally spread across my face. All my doubts, hesitations, and uncertainties—they now seemed like mere remnants of the past.
I stood up and stretched, feeling as if I had been sitting for such a long time that I couldn't help but groan a bit.
"Alright, thank you, both of me. I'd love to chat more, but I've got a god to slay and a damsel to rescue."
Just as I was preparing to leave, Julian's unexpected comment made me pause.
"Wait."
"Hmmm?" I turned to glance back at him.
"Fuck him up," he smirked.
"Hah, You don't have to tell twice!"
***
"MWAHAHAHAHAHA! A mere ant, trying to oppose the universe itself...such irony..."
Brian's laughter echoed through the cosmic expanse, reverberating against distant stars and swirling galaxies. He stood amidst the aftermath of their clash, the air still crackling with residual energy.
As he was drowning in his laughter, his smirk vanished as he peered through. In the middle of swirling celestial dust and drifting debris, his eyes widened as he glimpsed me standing unscathed.
Slowly regaining his composure, Brian's expression twisted into a snarl of disbelief.
"You....! How could you still stand? No mortal should withstand such power!"
"Haaaah... look at what you've done. It's going to be a hassle washing the dust off," I retorted nonchalantly, brushing some celestial debris from my uniform as I met his rage mockingly.
"Huh? What the—" As I brushed off the rest of the dirt from my clothes, my focus was momentarily distracted. I noticed that my surroundings were becoming brighter than before.
I turned my head left and right until I realized the light was coming from above. Staring upward, I was startled to find the source of the illumination.
Hovering high above my head were two golden rings resembling crowns, each adorned with intricate carvings that shimmered in the radiant glow. The rings were positioned one atop the other, with the larger one spinning slowly around the smaller one, creating a mesmerizing dance of light and shadow. The delicate filigree and detailed engravings caught and reflected the light in a way that made the rings appear almost alive.
I raised my hand as curiousity got the better of me, and flicked the larger ring with my finger. It made a soft, melodious "cling" sound, like the chime of a delicate bell. The ring tilted slightly from the impact, its intricate carvings catching the light and casting fleeting patterns around us. For a moment, it seemed to hesitate, wobbling gently, before gracefully returning to its original position.
"What the hell?"
Brian's eyes narrowed in disbelief and anger. He had expected his overwhelming might to crush me. Yet, here I stood, undeterred and seemingly untouched by the havoc he had unleashed.
"Impossible! How can you still stand after all that?!"
"Well, what do you expect? Those attacks of yours are weak as hell."
I shrugged nonchalantly before refocusing my gaze on him. The look on his face was priceless—disbelief, confusion, and anger all mixed together. If I could, I would capture that expression and replay it over and over again.
"You've been throwing your crap at me for a while; I guess it's my turn n-"
"Don't fuck with me!!!"
Before I could finish my sentence, Brian snapped and immediately launched another attack, this time more relentless and powerful than the previous.
From the abyss below and the heavens above, seven moons and five suns emerged, along with a million stars from galaxies far and wide. They showered upon me, their light and energy converging into a dazzling display of cosmic power. Each celestial body seemed to pulse with its own rhythm, harmonizing in a symphony of celestial forces.
The moons cast their silvery glow, weaving intricate patterns in the air around me. Their gentle light intertwined with the fiery radiance of the suns, creating a kaleidoscope of colors that danced across the battlefield. The stars, like shimmering diamonds, fell around me in a cascade of brilliance, illuminating the darkness with their glow.
Raising my hand to the cosmos above, I swept through the universe's expanse like a painter brushing through his canvas. In an instant, the suns, the moons, and the stars all disappeared as if they had never existed, leaving only a solitary lunar moon above and a scorching sun below, separated by the firmament of the void.
The celestial bodies vanished with a whisper, their light fading into the cosmic backdrop. The once vibrant hues of galaxies and nebulae dimmed, replaced by an eerie calm that pervaded the emptiness of space. The lunar moon hung suspended in the vast expanse, its silvery glow casting gentle ripples across the void. Below, the scorching sun blazed with an intensity that seemed to defy the darkness surrounding it.
"Don't get ahead of yourself human!!!" Brian's voice trembled with rage and disbelief.
"Uxdjiklw pyrviekwq, lophyddno. Dkubvurp sjomeo-"
"Ohoho, I don't think so. Magick Prohibitae(Forbidden Magic): Flamma Sordata(Tarnished Flame)!"
I managed to interrupt his chant halfway through. Instantly, his body was consumed by flames, even more intense and powerful than before.
Watching his figure engulfed by the dark flames, I expected him to take significant damage, and he did. However, I should have known it wouldn't stop him so easily.
The fire burned him ferociously, its flare blazing like a devil's tongue, yet he still stood on his two legs.
From afar, I could see not a face of gut-wrenching pain, nor the ugly sight of his usual wrath. Instead, it was a face of pure insanity, an expression no human could muster in such a situation.
It was a horrifying scene. Even with the flesh and muscle burned away from his upper body, exposing his scorched heart and lungs, his laughter echoed from his partially burned skull. His lone remaining eye twitched in its socket as he fixed his gaze on me, displaying no sign of weakness.
"Now you've done it... Be prepared for what's to come...
....Human."