Sacrificial army

“The whole world might forget its existence, but a few will not.” Said Seth.

“You mean the singularities… Will I still keep my memories?”

Seth nodded and turned around, gently caressing Elise’s cold and pale cheek while staring into her blood-red eyes.

“As long as it is not destroyed, a singularity will always keep its time and memories. They are similar to time anchors. The only being able to change their time is the Tower, but it also can’t change their memories.”

“In Lisa’s case, her mother should remember everything in this world, but there’s a small issue: the treasure owner in the other timeline is not her, but Henrietta, one of my wives.”

“With Henrietta now pulled out of existence, there is no problem at all, but once the singularity is broken between two individuals, it stops being a singularity. It is just another paradox.”

“You want to kill Julie in the other world…” muttered Elise, finally understanding where Seth was coming from.

“I don’t want to, but I might have to. I can’t save this world only to allow it to crumble right after. That’s why you must survive and share everything with me. With you having a treasure of your own right now, you’ll be able to keep your memories of this world.”

“So you’ll have the poor girl trade a parent for another? This brings a bad taste to my mouth…” muttered Elise.

“It really does… I’ll try to think of another way, but if I find none, I will eventually have to do it.”

Elise nodded in understanding, moving her hand to massage Seth’s chest. “I understand, but let me do it instead. We’re already monsters, and if what you say is true, I will have to remember it anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Elise, I know how much you wanted to forget everything…” muttered Seth.

Elise smiled weekly. “Thank you for your words, but let us just hope having brought everyone back is enough to ease this pain, at least ever so slightly.”

‘It isn’t…’ Seth wanted to say, having first-hand experience, but he didn’t.

“When the war reaches its peak, and Thanatos finally joins, I’ll go to recover Caitlin. I want you to take my place for as long as you can, but I need you to use your blood arts to return to Loss once Thanatos gets too hard to handle. The Blood Sun must survive.”

“I will. Do you have a way of finding Kronos once you rescue Caitlin?”

“Not yet, but I should by that time. Anyway, I won’t leave immediately and return to see you once more to leave something with you before heading to find Kronos.”

Elise nodded and separated from Seth. “Alright. I’ll put everything in order for our march toward Life. The ascended need to be organized properly.”

“Thank you.”

With Elise flying out the window, Seth sat on a nearby chair and heaved a long sigh.

‘System, how long do we have?’

<Not long. The destruction energy inside your source is rejecting the lesser will controlling it.>

‘And I cannot recover my divinity unless I turn back time….’

<Affirmative. If you succeed, time will still continue passing and will adapt to the changes brought by the mending of the timeline, but your divinity will still be broken…>

The rest of the day, Seth spent the entire time stuck to that same chair, walking through different simulations with the system, looking for a way to save Julie and his source.

In the end, both he and the system came out empty, and with the morning sun rising, Elise also returned to the room, accompanied by Pearl, Lisa, and Meg.

“It’s time.”

Clarity returned to Seth’s eyes, and he stood up from his chair, walking up to Meg and rubbing her head with a smile. “You’re staying here, Meg.”

Meg was surprised by his words but understood why she had to remain there. She had no power to fight like the rest. She was just a simple girl.

Lowering her head, she held back the tears threatening to leave her eyes and took a step back.

“I understand. Thank you for taking me out of that place, big brother.”

Seth watched her turn around and rush out of the room but didn’t move to stop her, nor did any of the other girls in the room.

“What will happen to her?” asked Pearl with a foggy look.

“She will be erased from history. Just like everyone else.” Muttered Seth as he turned around to look at Elise. “Let’s go.”

———

An army of 30 000 ascended was flying above the lands of the Kingdom of Loss, heading westward at great speed.

They were all wearing the robes of the Asteria academy and practicing using their energy, looking nothing like an army that was going to war but more like children playing around.

The air ascended were responsible for working in shifts to transport everyone towards the lands of the Kingdom of Life, but everyone else had nothing to do other than getting used to their newfound powers.

Due to their cultivation being run on autopilot by Elise’s possession for the last 30-something years, none of them were used to the energy they possessed at the moment, but since the journey was supposed to take at least two months, they had enough time to do so.

“Can’t believe you’ve learned the theory necessary to cultivate all these energies up to the sixth shell.” Exclaimed Seth, watching the colorful practice in the back.

“I had no choice. It was the fastest way for everyone to progress…” said Elise with a wry smile. “I had them all learn the knowledge they needed to use the power and took care of the gathering of energy myself. It was probably the most boring adventure of my life.”

“I can imagine. The Elise I knew would have thrown a tantrum at the thought of learning energy theory.” Said Seth with a laugh.

When the armies of Endora reached the territory of Hope, a great commotion ensued in Ronald’s kingdom, all the troops of Hope retreating to protect their major cities.

Seth had not bothered hiding his army, nor did he bother informing Hope of anything. For almost two months, time in which Endora’s armies were in the territory of Hope, Ronald had barely managed to sleep a few hours per day.

Eventually, the long journey ended, and the armies of Endora reached The White Stream, a long and wide river separating the borders of Hope and Life.

Just as Seth had expected, on the opposite shore of the river, a large army could be seen, filling the river bank and extending backward for as far as his eyes could see.

With the armies of Life appearing in his sight, Seth had Elise stop the ascended from proceeding forward, asking the air ascended to keep everyone afloat above the river.

“There are at least a few million people ahead of us. They can’t be all ascended, can they?” asked Lisa in worry, looking at the mass of people filling the river’s flank.

Seth shook his head and stared far into the horizon. “They are not. In fact, I’m quite sure there are only normal humans in this mass we can see right now….”

“They are all sacrifices?” asked Lisa.

“They are.” Said Seth with a nod. “Soren plans to drain as much of our power as he can before sending his ascended into battle. If I’m not wrong, there should be billions of people between us and Life’s capital, all brought here so that they can sap as much of our energy as possible.”

“Shouldn’t we fly above them then? What are they going to do? Shoot arrows at us? Throw pebbles?” asked Pearl from the side.

“We could, but I’m sure he’ll have a plan for that. Our forces are stronger, but he might target the air ascended specifically. He might have a few ascended hidden here and there that might launch attacks at us.”

“It’s a long way to the capital of Life, and if we lose our way of travel and fall down in the middle of their armies, we might truly get overwhelmed.”

“Then what do we do? Do we kill all these people here?” asked Lisa with a frown.

“Since Soren was so kind to send us this little gift, it’ll be rude of us not to accept it. Elise, tell the water ascended to freeze the surface water below; we’re taking a break here.”

Even Elise looked confused by Seth’s orders but still relayed them to their armies. Water energy soon fell on the White Stream from above, completely freezing the whole river.

When the entire army of Endora landed on the frozen waters of the White Stream, Seth asked Elise to deliver his voice to the army behind.

“Armies of Endora.” Said Seth in a commanding tone, making every ascended behind stand straight, their energies already beginning to resolve around their bodies.

“Good.” Continued Seth with a slight chuckle. “Continue standing there menacingly. We’ll be right back.”

His words caught everyone by surprise, but before they could react, Seth, Elise, and Lisa had already disappeared from the front of the armies, leaving behind a wry-smiling Pearl.

While everyone was getting restless, with Seth already having been gone for almost half an hour, a portal appeared next to Pearl, and Seth walked back out, alone this time.

Pearl gave him a curious look, but Seth didn’t answer her, instead extending a hand and saying: “Make me a megaphone. I left mine somewhere.”

Pearl did as she was told, creating a megaphone for him, and Seth brought it to his mouth, facing the restless armies behind him.

“Alright, I’m back. I need a new air ascended to relay my orders.”

It didn’t take long after his announcement, and a timid short boy walked out of the crowd of ascended, coming in front of him and falling on one knee. “Your Majesty.”

“Good. You know what to do.”

The ascended used his energy to once more direct Seth’s voice to the rest of the armies.

“Air ascended. Prepare to carry everyone back up. We’re resuming the march, flying right above the people here. Don’t worry; as you might have already guessed, they are just simple humans.”

“At the same time, continue paying attention to any energy flux amongst the enemy armies since there might be ascended hidden between their ranks. Everyone is allowed to attack at will if you feel any energy activity.”

“Air ascended that are not busy carrying everyone or recovering, it is your job to listen to the enemy armies and relay anything of importance to me. I don’t expect any slip-ups from the enemy, but it’s never a bad thing to be careful.”

“That’s all for now.”

“Raise us back to the skies. We’re marching on the capital of Life.”