Supreme Magus

3155 Unsettling Answers (Part 1)

"Okay, and what's an Elysia?" Heartache and longing were the only replies Derek received.

Even with the life forces wounded and split, the Void could still feel Elysia's presence in the distance.

He turned around until he could feel something calling unto him.

"Dya! Dya!" Back at the Verhen Mansion, the baby girl felt his call too, but no one understood why she started crying and flaying her small limbs in the direction her father was.

Back on Mount Malana, Derek had now even more questions and one answer he didn't like one bit.

"Okay, I want to make another experiment." He tried to take the Voidwalker armor off but before he could look for latches, the artifact turned into a silvery liquid and slipped off him.

"Fucksideways, is the armor a living symbiote?"

"No." Ragnarök answered. "Just metal."

"What about you?" Derek asked.

"No." Ragnarök repeated, this twith a hint of sadness in the sound produced by its straps. "Just metal."

The Void took his tstudying the armor and its design, finding it familiar.

Derek recognized many details that matched exactly how a long tago he had imaged his custom armor in Dungeons & Looting. There were even a few etchings that cfrom other franchises he was a huge fan of.

"By the Emperor, only someone from Earth can have crafted something like this. Does it mean I'm not the only one? Have I possessed the body of another human or what?"

As he passed his hand over the breastplate, a silvery and sweet laughter echoed through his mind. He saw long flowing hair of a brown so light that it looked golden, a warm smile that never left him, and the playful banter between friendly rivals.

"Solus." The word cto his mouth by itself, followed by another pang that he managed to repress. "What's a Solus and how do I know this name?"

More longing, more emptiness. Derek had no way to know Solus' position, but he felt her absence deeply. He felt that something was missing and he needed to take it back.

"This confirms my suspicions." He said once he managed to stand up again. "I know what's happening. I know how I got here."

'About time!' The Voidfeather clenched his fists in triumph. 'That jackass of George did it. He followed the trail of breadcrumbs I left him and understood that he has amnesia! Now he only has to go out and ask for help to-'

"A powerful being, probably the Lith Verhen of the completion bar, died and is now usingas a life vessel for his essence." The Void said, following the reasoning conjured by his wild paranoia and the too many fantasy s he had read back on Earth.

'The fuck?' The Voidfeather thought.

"The memories I'm experiencing since I woke up here belong to him. This is why I'm able to master so many unknown skills so quickly. I'm not actually learning so much as remembering Verhen's skills.

"The moment the completion bar is filled, my mind will disappear and he'll take over my body."

'Yes, but no!' The Dragon beat himself in exasperation. 'I mean, yes, he got most of it right since he's remembering, not learning. Yet once our human life force heals, George won't disappear.

'He'll simply regain his memory and we'll be back to being Lith Verhen. How can he be so stupid? Use Occam's razor, dammit. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

'What's more likely? Amnesia, or being summoned to another world by an evil overlord?'

"It explains everything." The Void said. "I've been summoned to this world by an evil overlord!"

'No, no, no! How can you only manage to listen to the wrong side of my thoughts?' The Voidfeather wanted to cry, but in the Mindspace he had no tears.

"It's not great but at least it beats reincarnating in the body of a deadbeat or profligate noble." The Void shrugged. "I mean, it's not like I risk anything. The moment I feel my mind slipping away, I can always kill myself as a fuck you to the bastard.

"He'll have to start all over again while I get to spin the wheel of fate again." Derek laughed, thinking his imaginary enemy already beaten. "Now, let's see what I can do."

He donned the Voidwalker armor again, using its claws to field-dress the deer. The Void managed to bleed, skin, and remove the entrails with ease. He fed the blood to Ragnarök which gratefully accepted it to mend the scabbard.

As he emptied the carcass' guts, more memories flashed in front of his eyes. He saw a cute woman with sharp eyes and a mocking smile teaching a young kid how to butcher a bunny and a squirrel.

"Selia." He muttered as he followed her instructions to the letter.

Derek consumed the organs with Abomination Touch right after removing them and once he was done, he cooked the deer with a mix of fire and air magic.

"I knew it. These memories don't belong to me. The bastard is lullingwith the promise of easy power. He wantsto willingly accept his essence and take over. Yet there's something I don't understand.

'Because there is no external will, you dimwit!' The Voidfeather Dragon cursed himself for having never prepared a contingency plan for such an eventuality. 'How could I have been so stupid? I knew I was suicidal.

'I should have left a note, a hologram, any kind of message to myself in case of amnesia.' Then, he realized how unlikely the eventuality was.

For an Awakened, losing their memory was nigh impossible since Invigoration would restore their body and brain. For someone like Lith, with Solus ready to treat any wound he suffered or perform a mind fusion to share her eidetic memory with him, leaving a note made no sense.

'Of course I didn't. I have Solus. Or rather, I had Solus. She was my contingency plan to my contingency plans.' The Voidfeather Dragon sighed, wishing to see her again.

To see her smile and hear her laugh.

'No tto brood like a George.' He snapped himself out of his stupor. 'I have to find a way to communicate with him without compromising the life support system of my human life force.'

In the real world, the Void ripped a huge chunk of meat and brought it to his mouth. He felt no taste due to his fangs draining the nutrients from the flesh and sucking what vitality was left, making it rot.

Before he could dig his fangs into the meat, it spoiled and turned into disgusting ashes that covered his tongue, making him cough.

"Seriously?" He would have puked his guts out if they weren't always empty. "How does this guy expect anyone to take his bait if this is the reward? I'm always hungry, eating givesno pleasure, and I bet I can't even have sex.

"This isn't a dream life. This is a nightmare." He tried a couple more times, but after eating ashes, the Void just drained the carcass and decided to move on.