One Last System

The further back Daniel's memories reached, the less cohesive they would be.

When his thoughts reached his childhood during the first era of true humanity, Daniel could barely see what was a true part of the memory and what was the effect of his brain filling in the missing details.

The speed at which the visions changed from one to another accelerated as well, making it hard for Daniel to actually keep his awareness of what his true self was.

One moment he would be back to being the innocent teenager in the times of the greatest prosperity he ever witnessed. The next moment he would be struggling to keep himself together, unsure of what to expect once his memories would go back just a few years more.

But time didn't wait for anyone. And for someone who ran out of time in a way only an immortal like Daniel could, this argument held on even more.

He feared the moment his memories would cross the barrier of no return, going beyond the time when he could actually create them. Yet it happened… and nothing changed.

Nothing changed besides how Daniel's vision stopped making any sense at all.

The images no longer adhered to the same logic that Daniel developed across all of the lives he lived in his several thousand years old voyages through life.

Two added to two no longer summed up to four. And striking a mountain with a bare fist no longer would only results in snapping one's wrist.

In the memories Daniel could see right now, the most obvious result of smashing a mountain with one's fist… was the mountain exploding.

'What the hell?!' Daniel freaked out, unsure what to make from the images that kept on appearing in his mind.

He couldn't connect all the experiences that he gathered for a few thousand years that he lived with the kind of memories he could observe right now.

Sure, whenever a vision would play out, Daniel would feel perfectly fine with every last detail in it. He would feel as if everything was in perfect order, an order than shouldn't even be questioned, to begin with.

But in those rare moments when Daniel would regain his senses, he would grow increasingly aware of just how different the reality that he knew and the reality of those new visions was.

It was like… a whole different world!

And then, just like that, it happened.

"If you are watching this memory it means you've died." Caspian looked at the sea from the cliff the two of them were at. He had his hands crossed over his chest and a thoughtful look on his face.

"What do you mean, master?" young Daniel asked.

This time, there was no doubt. Daniel could somehow sense the real self while he witnessed this vision.

"Listen, kid," Caspian sighed. "There are only three rules I give you."

Young Daniel was focused, ready to receive a lesson from his teacher.

He was still wet behind his ears but he already grew to value his teacher's lessons dearly.

"Under no circumstances, you are allowed to die. Don't you ever try to be a god. Be a guide to the selected few so that they can guide all the others."

The three rules left Caspian's mouth and fluttered on the wind, dancingly heading for Daniel's ears.

"But the meaning of those rules is a bit deeper than just that," Caspian added. His lips curved in a faint yet gentle smile.

"Under no circumstances, you are allowed to truly die. Because you will become a sole anchor that will root the world in its limits."

Caspian's words turned into melody, a symphony perfectly synchronized with the sounds of the world itself.

"Don't you ever try to be a god, because it's this desire that brought this bleeding world to its inevitable collapse."

Caspian's words etched themself deep into Daniel's soul.

"Be a guide to the selected few, to stop humanity from letting its instincts devour it," Caspian finalized his strange technique, filling each of his words with the most intense mana Daniel felt in his entire life.

"But once again, seeing how you finally unlocked this memory means that you reached… well, the end,"

"Master, I don't understand," young Daniel protested.

He couldn't possibly fathom the lofty meaning behind his master's words. And he was humble enough to accept that reality.

'Even if it takes me years, no, hundreds of years, I will understand what Master means!' Young Daniel swore, blissfully unaware of how off the mark he was.

"I'm willing to bet that you were about to save the world too," Caspian no longer even pretended to talk to young Daniel.

He didn't turn his eyes toward Daniel's true self.

'He can't peer through me?' Daniel thought, surprised.

"Listen. This power that we all take for granted is what brought about the collapse that we are about to witness any time now. So I have no other choice, but to seal this power away…" Caspian whispered, his eyes turning dreamy.

Daniel's one and true master looked down on his young disciple.

His expression softened, and a look of pity appeared in his eyes.

"To be frank, I'm excatic," Caspian muttered, his face suddenly turning white. "And I'm sorry to put this burden on you."

Daniel's master turned his eyes and face away, ashamed to show the sense of extreme excitement bottled at the very bottom of his eyes.

"Still, I served my time. More than just well enough."

The dreamy expression returned to Caspian's face.

"So now, I pass this burden to you," Caspian said in the softest of voices to his young disciple.

"Master, I don't understand…" Young Daniel protested.

His eagerness to learn showed all over his face.

"Don't worry," Caspian smiled. "One day you will."

For a moment, a peaceful silence filled the area of open wilderness that they were in the middle of.

The sea breeze caressed their hair. The sound of the waves soothed their souls.

"Oh, and before I forget," Caspian jerked up, "one more thing."

Daniel twitched.

He wasn't prepared for something so sudden! But at the same time, it only felt natural when performed by his master!

'Dang, just how much have I forgotten?' Daniel then asked himself, clenching his jaws in a desperate attempt to forcefully uncover his memories.

"Once this spell activates, it will bring you back to life."

Daniel's vision ended. His master disappeared along with all the words of wisdom he could still offer.

But his voice somehow prevailed.

"But it will do so at the cost of the spell that I'm about to cast soon," Caspian explained lightheartedly, staring off into the distance where dark clouds were beginning to gather.

The rupture of the planet caused all sorts of freaky effects.

"The barrier will slowly erode, crumbling without the anchor and allowing the mana to return to this world."

Caspian's explanations continued to play out in Daniel's mind as his soul rejoiced. The fragments of his being that very well defined Daniel's entire self were now returning home, filling the gaping hole left in Daniel's soul.

"And within a few million years, the two dimensions will crumble upon each other." Caspian's voice started to fade.

"With the resurgence of mana, it will be only a matter of time before someone reaches my level," Daniel muttered once his consciousness returned to the abyss. "But with my limits now off, I should still have about a thousand or two thousand years before my flesh rots away without the spell," Daniel muttered.

He could feel his body regenerating.

The lethal wounds that should've ended him healing at an astonishing rate.

The small cave in between his eyes filled up with a strange, bubbly liquid.

Bit by bit, all of the harm upon Daniel's body was removed and then replaced. Then, something sucked his soul back, completing the execution of the spell.

Daniel's head was exploding with pain. He was covered by thousands upon thousands of tonnes of radioactive sand of the nuked desert above. He could even feel the cap of radioactive glass burned out directly into a desert's surface.

This kind of effect would be extremely limited in size, proving that a nuke went off right above Daniel's dead body!

'Erasing all the traces, aren't they?' Daniel thought, gathering his breath as he prepared himself for the next step of the plan.

Right now, he was squeezed under a mountain of sandstone and sand. A situation impossible to recover from for a normal human.

Daniel took another breath.

The magic circuits buried deeply into his flesh activated when the first hint of mana returned to the earth.

The first sign of the barrier's degradation; the first step towards the two realms collapsing upon each other.

'It's still not too late,' Daniel thought as he gathered all his breath before squeezing every drop of his mana into his magic circuits.

It would be impossible to remove all the sand that trapped Daniel under the desert. There wasn't enough mana in the entire's planet atmosphere for a feat such as this.

So, Daniel squeezed everything that he could before teleporting away from the desert to the safety of one of the hideouts absolutely no one in the world knew about.

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