Free Web NovelChapter 87: Loss Cycle
Priam had always wondered: why had he reincarnated without memories and lived more than a decade in the dark, only to suddenly awaken afterward?
That fight against the idiot who injured his head clearly made no sense as the cause of his awakening. He was not stupid enough to think that a physical trauma like that justified recovering memories from past lives.
The System had said before that it would remain sealed until he obtained celestial power again.
But... he obviously did not know how he had managed that.
In the end, faced with this chance to finally live, where there were countless things to learn and experience, he had simply pushed it aside.
Now, stopping to think deeply.
Everything in his past seemed out of place.
The sickly birth... the weakness...
’Did I... did I reincarnate with my Wheel of Destiny and Anima null again?’
That thought struck him like lightning. As the name itself implied, a person’s Wheel of Destiny directly influenced their luck. All living beings went through countless situations outside their control, situations that depended only on "destiny."
So, being born sick was clearly an influence of that.
’No, that’s not possible. I removed the curse of the deities... so...
...did I return to having my original Wheel of Destiny? Is that why I was born sick like on Earth? But those deities said I had these things at the Primordial level before...’
Doubts sparked through his mind like flying embers.
Then, the final piece of the puzzle appeared: the Nexus Seed and his System.
He had escaped the Sovereigns. They were immortals, beings with unimaginable power who controlled even reincarnation. How had they not found him? How had they not captured him the moment he was reborn?
The answer was obvious.
This mysterious System and power had its own consciousness. Everything indicated that this thing had reincarnated him and, to protect him, camouflaged his existence, nullifying his Wheel of Destiny and his Anima so he would be invisible to the eyes of the gods.
’I really reincarnated sick and insignificant just so I wouldn’t be hunted.’
He swallowed hard. The first part of the mystery was solved. But the price... the price had been paid by her.
’Mother... she healed me using her power, sacrificing most of her life. But my Wheel of Destiny and Anima were still at a pathetic level. So, when my father was far away, and the clan discovered my talent...’
A sharp pain pierced Priam’s chest.
His mother had used the "blessing" a second time in a desperate attempt to change her son’s destiny. She had almost nothing to give in exchange. It was an impossible bargain. But she offered what remained.
’She must have felt that something was missing in me, so she wished to change that... maybe that was enough for her blessing to give me celestial power? That can only be it... the power of her race is truly terrifying. The result was that the Nexus Seed got what it was missing, and that awakened me. The moment I was injured, she sacrificed the rest of her existence to return me to myself.’
She was very young, and even with only one-third of her life, she should still have had almost a century left to live. But after using that thing a second time, she did not even have 5 years left.
Priam’s breathing became irregular. His mind turned into a chaos of guilt and gratitude.
First, she gave him life.
Then, she healed him from the disease.
Finally, she destroyed herself so he could awaken his memories and finally be who he was.
Everything he was now belonged to her.
He turned toward the bed. Her face was deeply wrinkled, dry, and her skin was almost lifeless. She was a specter of what had once been a beautiful figure, one that looked like an Elf from Earth’s tales.
"She can’t die," he murmured, his voice choked by the tears that refused to fall.
The pain he had felt from his recent adventure had not even healed yet. Now, it was as if an even larger hole had been torn open in his chest, and then alcohol had been poured over it.
They had been about 3 incredible years.
He had thought he was finally truly living, that his future would be glorious.
But life had just beaten reality into him, showing him just how mediocre and powerless he was.
"..."
Priam turned sharply toward the man in the corner.
"Father, the pill... Leader Orlaith told me you had already obtained one great ingredient, and that all you were missing was a Pristine Core. I got what was missing."
The man’s eyes wavered for a brief second. Then he looked away, his shoulders sinking under an invisible weight.
"You got the Pristine Core... that is unbelievable. But..." He sighed, a broken sound. "The recipe for the only pill capable of extending her life requires seven extremely rare items in the Mortal Plane. The Pristine Core was the hardest one. I only asked Orlaith for two of them because they were the only ones she had any chance of finding."
Priam narrowed his eyes. "How many did you get?"
"Four..." he said in a painful murmur.
Priam’s expression sank.
Boey definitely was not in a better mental state. He lowered his head, his face twisted by the agony of self-blame.
"I spent years away..." he lamented, his voice barely above a whisper. "I made a deal with ’them.’ I would work day and night refining pills, and in exchange, they would use all their influence to find the ingredients. I truly believed that in five years... everything would be here. The Pristine Core was the final piece, but it was still an item that always appeared in secret auctions once or twice per decade. I thought it would be worth staying away... so I could live a long time with my wife and son afterward." frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Priam snorted, his eyes shining with an intense hatred rising within him.
Those Primordial Chaos Beasts... had they really searched?
How could they ignore the auction where one of the great mercantile demon clans had announced the Core? The answer burned in Priam’s chest like acid.
They had never taken the deal seriously.
To those creatures, Priam’s father was only a valuable tool, a talented slave they intended to keep chained forever. Why fulfill a deal with an insect?
Once again, the cruel reality of this world slapped him in the face: being weak was the greatest sin. Honor did not exist for the irrelevant. They were only fuel for the ambition of the powerful.
"Mother..." Priam stammered, turning back to her.
He stretched out his trembling hand and touched her forehead. Then he activated his perception, carefully sensing her condition.
"HOW?!"
The scream escaped his lips in pure shock.
Her three vital energies were there, intact!
Her body seemed biologically perfect, exactly as the doctor had said in the past. Everything seemed normal, but her life was clearly slipping through his fingers.
"How the hell is she dying if her body is internally intact?" he asked, his voice stained with panic.
He did not know what to do. Could that essence he had obtained heal her? But heal what, exactly? She did not seem to have anything wrong with her, and Priam instinctively felt it would be useless.
His power runes were even more useless.
His father clenched his fists so hard that blood began to drip between his fingers. He did not raise his gaze as his lips moved.
"This is the curse coming from the Laws of the World. She used the blessing twice, Priam... the price was charged directly from her existence. The most the pill would do was delay the inevitable, buy a little more time. But I wasn’t even able to give her that... forgive me... forgive me..." freewebnovel.cσ๓
Priam swallowed hard, feeling an unmatched despair. Now he was certain that nothing he possessed would help against this curse.
He shut his eyes tightly, feeling the weight of failure.
Again.
He had failed again.
Another important person would die before his eyes while he watched, paralyzed by his own mediocrity.
Why did his new life have to be a cycle of losses?
She had given him so much... done so much for him... but he could do nothing, not even repay her with the bare minimum.
Boey could not bear it. He blamed himself for everything, and now he saw his son absurdly shaken.
The silence in the room became heavy as lead, broken only by that man’s muffled sobs.
"!"
Suddenly, Priam remembered something.
[Manifestation of Heaven’s Will]
[Use?] [Yes / No]
