by Pegaz
“Your master is what’s called a waste. He couldn’t transcend completely and can’t use any of the elements or Primordial Chaos, which means he can’t get any stronger.”
“Let’s say I believe you,” John spoke. “Why would you save my master and me?”
“Because I need your help,” the man replied.
John laughed before shouting, “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard this decade! Even if you did save us, why would I help you? You forced me to join the war and threatened that if I didn’t win, then all of humanity would hunt me and my wife down.”
“Oh, you would want to help me after I tell you what I want.”
John waited for a few seconds for the man to continue.
With a sinister cackle, the man replied, “I want you to kill me.”
Chapter 31: Explanation
“Didn’t you just say Transcendents can’t die?” John asked. “How do you expect me to change that?”
“Because of past experiences. First, let’s go sit down and I’ll explain everything.”
John felt a little reluctant to sit down with his enemy, but he nodded and walked to the armchairs that surrounded the round table. He made sure to sit opposite the man to keep him in sight while keeping a bit of a distance, too.
Jamie sat down between the two of them and only listened. He hadn’t learned much since becoming a Transcendent, so this was a great opportunity for him, too.
“Where to start...” The man interlocked his fingers on top of his stomach and tapped his thumbs against his chest, clearly deep in thought. “I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Shane O’Malley, but everyone just calls me O’Malley.
“Just like you, I’m from Earth. I was a con artist and I was really damn good at it, too. I’ve conned people from all walks of life, even other con artists. That’s how good I was. When I came to this universe after dying, I could manipulate people to get stronger.”
O’Malley then went on to describe the whole ordeal with Jeremy May and how his manipulation skill got out.
“As for the question you asked earlier,” O’Malley continued, “the first and second Siders were born almost at the same time. Back then, there were no methods of cultivation at all. Humanity had just evolved. Think of it like the time when cavemen were around on Earth.
“The first two Siders created the cultivation path and eventually found the way to transcend. After I was reborn here, I followed the path they forged and transcended.
“It was only because I found out how they became Demonic Siders and watched them fighting to the death when they disagreed on something that I managed to figure a few things out.
“I figured out that you need to become a Demonic Sider to kill a Transcendent and that there are three things needed to become one. However, to even get a chance of getting a Sider to fulfil these requirements, they needed to live.
“For that reason, I spread two pieces of information across the universe billions of years ago and made sure the people in charge of kingdoms across the universe knew these pieces of information.
“The first piece of information was that Siders are immortal until the universe was done with them. This was to give me time to assess if the Sider had the potential to become a Demon by using the second piece of information.
“The mind is a funny thing because the second piece of information was about Siders becoming either a Saint or Demon. When the Sider hears this, one of three things will happen.
“They either start saving more people to become a Saint, nothing changes and they stay the same, or they go on a killing spree to get stronger.
“I was watching you when you first heard this information from a guild master in the town closest to where you first woke up. What happened after that? You went on a killing spree for the next six years with both animals and humans as targets. That’s when I knew you could become a Demon.
“For the three requirements to become a Demon, the first is the purified Life Power which you called the Silver Grade. I had a few plans in motion to help you discover how to get this done, but you went ahead and did it on your own before my plans could even start.
“The second is you couldn’t have a nourished body. When the first two Siders became Demons, it was because they hadn’t figured out how to nourish the body yet. After they completed the cultivation path for everybody, no other Demonic Siders were born.
“For this to work, I had to manipulate two other Transcendents from watching a sun into creating a battlefield for the two races to fight. I made sure the proper cultivation method was lost to humanity, just so I could find a Sider to fulfil the second requirement.
“The last requirement is probably the hardest to achieve. The Sider had to have experienced such regret that it tore the mind apart. It didn’t matter if the regret came before or after the other two requirements as long as the mind splits apart.
“When the mind splits apart, a second personality is born which would become the Demon. I’m not sure what happens after that because I’ve never experienced it, only the star pattern around the right eye is an indicator.
“The first thing is just the pattern which means you’ve gained the Demon title. Next comes the black eye and yellow iris which means you’ve lost most, if not all, of your morals and had impulses to kill anything as long as it benefited you.
“The last stage is when the black star around your eye fills up which means the Demon personality took over the mind and is fully awake. Those impulses become stronger and you’d use everything you could to kill whoever you wanted.
“To make you feel this regret, I did a few things. The first was to clone your master and manipulate Jeremy into killing the clone in front of you. That failed as you only became angry during the fight and afterwards you went on a hunt for the rest of the Rogue Sect members.
“When you met your future wife, I looked into where she was from since you were helping her. After I saw that you two were dating, I made sure that the father and son pair knew she was alive and where to find her.”
John clenched his fist and was about to rush up and punch O’Malley again but managed to calm down and remain seated.
O’Malley smiled at John’s actions and continued, “That plan worked because I watched the star pattern form when you got your revenge. From that moment on, I concentrated on nourishing the Demon inside you.
“I was the person who went to the Adventurers’ Guild’s prison after you broke out and told them all that you escaped. I then used that to send you into the battlefield and get the proper cultivation technique and gain control of the elements to become stronger and eventually transcend.
“The map—which showed you the origin planet and was sold in the Adventurers’ Guild’s auction house—was given by me, and I manipulated the other people at that auction to let you win it, just in case.
“I was also the person who got the origin planet’s maps added into the pile inside the warehouse when you bought all the world and area maps from the Adventurers’ Guild.
“It was a funny coincidence because I bribed someone to do it for me by giving them the designs on the Lady of Justice statue. I was watching you when you went to trial and offered the same statue to them, which caused the leak about a Sider inside the Adventurers’ Guild.
“I think that explains a few things, but I’m sure you’ve got some questions you’d like to ask, so ask them.”
John thought of a few, but he started with an easy one. “Where are we?”
“We’re in space,” O’Malley replied. “I’m sure you’ve heard that Transcendents use nano metal for armour and weapons, right? Well, that’s not because it’s the hardest metal, but because nano metal is so resilient that it doesn’t get affected by our absorbing powers when we’re not sealed.
“I was watching when you killed those people at the auction house with some kind of rope. It absorbed everything besides the skin, right? Well, nano metal is like the skin and will get left behind any planet that
we destroy from our unsealed powers.
“This entire castle is made out of nano metal so we can have our powers unsealed and not affect any planets. There are runes on the outside walls of the castle that can stop Chaos Power from entering here, though, so you can’t cultivate here.”
“Were you the one who did the divination about me killing billions of people for the Anti-assassin Sect?” John asked.
O’Malley began to laugh. “No. I don’t know who did that, but divination doesn’t exist. If ever there is divination, then it’s either someone trying to make a living by saying random things, or a Transcendent like us that could manipulate time who did it. We would go back in time to say or do something that makes what happens, really happen.
“I’ll explain the rules of time travel. First, you can’t travel into the future because it hasn’t happened yet. The best you can do is travel back in time and come back to the point in time you travelled back.
“Second, you can’t change the past without a price, you only help it along. If you go into the past and do something to help your past self, then it was supposed to happen anyway and you helped it along.
“If you want to change what happened, like harming instead of helping your past self, then you’ve got to pay a price. That price is normally the universe placing a powerful seal on your powers for a long time, making you a mortal that can’t die.
“When you’re a mortal and can’t die, if anything happens like someone decapitates you, you will live as a human head until the punishment is over. You’ll be unable to move or speak but have your conscious intact.
“If you’re at this castle when you return to the present, then you’ll suffocate without being able to die until someone helps you get on a planet with air because you’ve technically become a mortal again.
“The last person I know that paid that price was decapitated by bandits, and his head was buried for over a billion years before he regained his powers and body. He explained that it’s worse than hell and he’ll never pay that price again.
“Also, keep in mind that if you ever pay the price to alter the past, then you can’t undo what you did. You would think that you could go further back into the past to stop yourself from paying the price to alter the past, but it doesn’t work that way. Once a Transcendent alters the past and pays the price, it stays that way forever.
“The last rule is that no matter what happens to the past, you—as a Transcendent—aren’t affected. That means that if I paid the price and killed your past self, you as a Transcendent in this point of time will still live.
“If you weren’t a Transcendent and I paid the price, then you would die in that timeline and wouldn’t be here now.”
John’s eyebrows arched up. “I didn’t think time travel worked like that.”
“Back on Earth, maybe. I remember I read scientific journals which explained the theory of time travel and how it could work if technology advances enough to do it. But as Transcendents, we’re not simply travelling through time like they theorised, we’re manipulating time itself.”
It’s a bit confusing, but I think I get the gist of it.
John nodded his head as he made sure to remember those rules.
“How does transcending really work?” John asked.
“Well,”—O’Malley crossed his arms in front of his chest—“you’ve experienced it yourself. The only thing that you might not know is after your old body is destroyed, the transformation starts in your soul and then reforms a new body.
“Jamie got lucky because when he transformed his Life Power into Silver Grade, he was already at the pinnacle of immortality and it used up all his Life Power and Soul Power which began the transcending transformation. I already explained what happened next.”
“Can you teach me how the origin language is spoken?” John asked. “I found a book that translates a common language into the origin language so I can read and write—but not speak it. I think a lot of Transcendents will probably use the origin language and it might become useful.”
O’Malley nodded his head. “Yes, a lot of Transcendents use it, but they’re all asleep right now. I’ll teach you anyway, for when they wake up.”
“What do you mean asleep?” John asked.
“Most of the Transcendents here have been alive for more than a trillion years,” O’Malley explained. “During that time, they’ve experienced everything possible and simply don’t want to repeat things over and over again.
“So, they go to sleep for thousands and sometimes millions of years to wake up and experience something new. They’ll explore the universe to see what’s changed and when they’ve done it all again, they’ll go back to sleep.
“Before I continue with the explanation, I’ll fulfil your request since it’s the least I can do.” O’Malley then taught John how to speak the language. It only took an hour since John already knew how to read and write the language.
Chapter 32: Explanation 2
After teaching John how to speak the origin language, O’Malley continued by speaking in the origin language for more practice. “Now, I’ll tell you a few things which you might not know.
“As you know, Siders are born with gifts, but what you might not have realised is those gifts come at a price.”
John knitted his brows. He couldn’t think of any kind of price he had paid by using the system.
“When a Sider reaches Rank 9, that’s when the price starts. It has something to do with their past lives and everybody is different. I was watching you when you told your past life to the woman who later became your wife.”
John thought about when that was.
It was just after he won the tournament and met Sarah on the balcony at the king’s feast. He had changed a few things in the story like the names of people and places, but he did tell the truth of what happened.
“The past feelings and memories follow you here through your soul,” O’Malley explained. “When you reach Rank 9, those past memories, feelings, and most importantly, your fears start to amplify how you act and behave because of them. I can take a few guesses at what happened to you since I know your past story.
“My first guess is that your fear of losing the woman you love a second time caused you to become overprotective of your wife. Am I right? What did you do?” O’Malley asked.
John nodded his head as he sat there thinking.
He’s right. When I left the planet, I made sure she couldn’t get out and people couldn’t get in. In my mind, it was the safest way to protect both Sarah and Kelly.
Even before that, Sarah complained I was being overprotective of her and Kelly.
I didn’t understand what she was on about, but now I know my subconscious was telling me to protect them more, becoming overprotective without me even realising it.
Wait, if it affects Rank 9 Siders, then it should affect Sarah, too. I know her past life, and now that O’Malley has mentioned it, she’s become more aggressive when it comes to saving people.
When that princess and her knights were dying inside their tent, she wanted to go save them even if it meant Kelly finding out the truth ahead of time. She also wanted to save the knight I hit with the lightning in front of Kelly. It was only because I stopped her on both occasions that she waited until Kelly wouldn’t find out.
There’s been a few other cases of her wanting to save people no matter the cost, too.
She used to be scared of knives due to the way she died on Earth. She got over that fear, but will her system bring that fear back?
John looked at O’Malley and sighed before he answered, “I created a sealed space so nobody could get on the planet and threaten her, even though I know she’s the strongest person on the planet and I have nothing to worry about as long as no other immortal or Transcendent arrives.”
O’Malley began laughing. “So, you’re basically the same as those kings that lock their daughters up in a castle guarded by a dragon in those fairy tales.”
John i
gnored his statement and asked, “After transcending, does that price still exist?”
O’Malley shook his head.
So, not only did I have the Demon personality attacking my mind and trying to take over my body, I’ve had the system altering how I think behind the scenes, too?
Am I still me at this point? If ever I have an idea in the future, will it have come from me, the Demon, or the system? How am I supposed to know?
John only came out of his thoughts after he calmed down. He continued to ask another question. “You’ve explained that only Demonic Siders can kill Transcendents, but you didn’t explain why that is.”
O’Malley cleared his throat before speaking again. “When you transcend, you literally become part of the universe. You can use Primordial Chaos which is what the universe is made from. When something happens to you as a Transcendent, it’s the universe that restores you back to how you were before that thing happened.
“Saints and Demons are outside that law. They can use Primordial Chaos to defy the universe. Saints can heal a person back to full health even if the universe was the one that harmed that person, while the Demon can kill a person even if the universe is protecting them.”
“What’s the difference between Life Power and Chaos Power, then?” John asked. “I’ve tried absorbing Life Power from Life Stones and transforming it into Chaos Power, but the ratio is too much.”
O’Malley laughed. “So you’re calling Primordial Chaos, Chaos Power? That’s fine. I’ll do the same when talking to you, then. Anyway, Life Power is like the very diluted version of Chaos Power. To get a decent amount of Chaos Power, you’ve got to absorb it while in outer space.
“The planets that we made have Chaos Power in the centre, but that gets transformed into Life Power when it goes into the planet.”
“What do you mean the planets you made?” John caught that bit of information.
“Oh, I forgot you don’t know the history of the universe. Well, originally, there was only the origin planet that you transcended on.