And Arden’s eyes were far less experienced than his mouth. He belatedly realized that without going out and antagonizing the local gangsters, he had no way to prove the validity of the statement regarding the efficacy of his mouth.
And between the search for him by Miasma, other slum rats, and his doppelganger, he wouldn’t be going out anytime soon. And even if he was free, he still wouldn’t go out, as the storm that had been raging since the morning refused to let up.
Looking back on his training, he didn't know how many times it took for him to actually be seeing what he needed to. He lost count early on when every movement caused aches in his bones that had been mercifully absent until that point.
Sya on the other hand was not punished nearly as much as Arden, as her insight was already on another level. She had done a few workouts as well, but it was her brain that was more fatigued than anything else.
Their heads rested face first on the table, hoping that the plywood would help relieve the pressure from behind their eyes.
“I feel like my eyes are about to fall out,” Sya said, her voice slightly muffled by the table.
“I can say the same thing about my arms,” Arden replied.
Vera looked across the table proudly at her proteges. For it being the first time either of them had undergone real training, they had done much better than she thought they would. She now understood why teaching was as fulfilling as training.
‘Maybe they'll be ready for practical lessons by the end of the week,’ she thought.
“You both have done great today.”
“I wish doing great didn't make me feel like I was beaten with a steel rod,” Arden replied, and Sya grunted in affirmation.
“Yeah, it sucks in the beginning,” Vera said. “But the first step is always the hardest. Once you start to feel the improvement, it will be hard to stop.”
Sya shifted her head so that only a cheek was against the table.
“It's hard to even begin.”
“I was in your position once.”
Sya raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“You were a Blight Walker in the slums while your brother's evil clone was on the prowl?”
“Okay, maybe not your exact position,” she admitted. “But on my first day of training, I felt like everything would break. And when I did stop, my family made sure that a part of me was broken. A finger.”
Arden scowled.
“I take back what I said about your family being pricks. They're vindictive assholes instead.”
A small round of laughter rang through the empty house.
“Anyway,” Vera continued. “My family's training was spartan in nature. Only the strongest and most driven were able to succeed. And I had the drive. Over the course of my life, there was one thing they instilled in my mind; hatred is an excellent motivator. They made me hate them, but that hatred also made me incomparably stronger than my younger self.”
“I see where this is going,” Sya said with a groan. “You're going to make us hate you as well so that we get stronger faster right? You know that won't work, right?”
“Sya’s right,” Arden said. “If you want to make us hate you, then you’ve already fumbled it by saving us and keeping us alive.
“I know it won't work,” Vera said. “I wasn't planning to do it in the first place. Doing it that way would prove that my family's methods were the best, and frankly, fuck that. I want you to get as strong as you can be in your own way.”
Realization dawned on Arden as he remembered what she told him the night before.
“That’s why you asked us if we wanted to get stronger. That’s your method.”
Vera nodded.
“My family was right about motivation being a great catalyst. But I think it's a better motivator if the person wants to get stronger because they want to, not because they have to. They’ll put as much effort into the work as they would if desperation was their cause, but they’ll yield better results. That’s the hope, anyway.”
“I hope it all works out,” Arden said with a smile.
“Trust me, you two will be the first to know. You are the ones training with my method after all.”
All of a sudden, Arden realized he was alone at the table. The two girls didn’t slowly fade away like it was a dramatic moment. One second, he was looking at Vera, preparing to respond, and the next, both Vera and Sya were gone.
Arden stood up in a rush, knocking his chair backwards. Calling up all of the training he had, he looked around the room trying to either find where the girls had disappeared to, or find the one responsible.
Unfortunately for Arden, he found the latter.
Just like how the girls suddenly disappeared, the culprit suddenly appeared. He appeared on the fourth and final side of the table that thus far had been empty. There was no fourth chair, so he stood instead, facing Arden.
“Hey,” the uninvited guest said.
They stood at the same height, with both of them being slightly shorter than average. They had the same messy black hair that came from years of being unable to do something to tame the unruly mess. They even spoke with the same voice.
The only notable difference were the black cracks that ran up and down his entire body like there was a mistake when chiseling him from stone.
“I think it's time we had a talk,” Other-Arden said.
*****
Vera didn’t know what happened. It all happened so fast. She was in the middle of talking with her friends when her surroundings went through an alteration.
The space in front of her seemed to contort. Numerous lines from the ether came together to conjoin into a honeycomb-like formation. She was still able to look out for the space and see her house, as well as the startled Arden look around.
“He knows I disappeared.”
The fact that he was privy to the information was a massive comfort. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she had just been dimension snapped without any witnesses.
Unfortunately, she was still left with the question of what exactly happened to her, or what caused it.
Looking out through the manipulated space, she saw the reason. The doppelganger.
As soon as she saw Other-Arden, her eyes went wide. But not from fear. Seeing his black cracks, she fell to her knees. It felt like her heart was being ripped out. Tears cascaded down her face, but she had no idea why.
‘What's happening?’
There was a strange, soul-rending pain inside of her chest. It was like her heart was held by icy claws. She was unfamiliar with the feeling, as she had only recently met a few people with whom she’d be devastated by their loss.
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This was heartache, and it felt like it would consume her.
And it felt like Other-Arden was one of those people, right alongside her Arden.
*****
Arden didn't hesitate like he had before. He vaulted over the table and threw a punch towards his other self. When it connected with the doppelganger’s chin and knocked him to the ground, Arden couldn't believe it.
Literally. He didn't believe that he improved that much without any combat training. Not for a second.
“What are you doing?” Arden asked.
His other self sat up and rubbed his chin. From Arden’s perspective, it looked more like theatrics than anything else.
Other-Arden got to his feet with a pained expression on his face.
Arden scowled.
“What are you doing?” Arden repeated, this time with much more venom.
Again, Other-Arden didn't respond. His agonized face contorted even further.
“Are you trying to piss me off?” Arden asked. “If you're not going to do anything, then give me back Sya and Vera, and leave.”
There was another prolonged period of silence. Just before Arden was about to hit him again, Other-Arden spoke, no louder than a whisper.
“...I'm sorry.”
“Sorry doesn't cut it. You brought down our house. Me and Sya didn’t particularly like it, but we had fond memories of that abandoned building. You’re me, so you should know as well. And you still destroyed it! Worse than that, you almost got Sya killed!”
Other-Arden trembled.
“I know!” he yelled. “I know what I did!”
“Then why did you do it?” Arden asked coldly.
“Because I didn't know what else I could do! I’ve been unable to die for millennia at this point! I finally found my way to end it all, but you wouldn’t let me.”
“You won’t be getting any sympathy from me.”
“I’m not looking for that. I’m not looking for forgiveness either. We’re both the same person. If anything happens to Sya, we wouldn’t stop until the person responsible is dealt with. However that may play out.”
Other-Arden looked at the empty table and towards Vera’s empty chair.
“The same goes for Vera. I don’t know if you’re there yet, but there will come a time when you realize how important to you she is.”
“She already is important to me.”
“I know that it's true, but I don’t know how important to you she is. By the time I realized how important she was, it was too late.”
“If you care about them so much, then why did you make them disappear?”
“It’s because I love them that I did it! I don’t want to hurt them. They are still here, technically. They can see and hear us, but they aren’t here. They are in between realities.”
“What?”
“I’ll return them once I’m done here. That can be now if you'd prefer, but you’d be wise to listen to what I say.”
Arden didn’t say anything in response. He glared at his broken doppelganger who was sitting at the fourth seat. Other-Arden continued after a heavy breath.
“The other day I told you I couldn’t tell you my full story without attracting unwanted attention for the both of us.”
“That’s changed?”
“Yes. The longer I, a paradox, stays within the world, the more likely they are to catch on to me. The cracks in this reality are getting larger. I didn’t want you to get involved with this, but at this point, it's already too late. A full week has passed since I came here. That's enough time for a few anomalies to worm their way in, whether it's another husk like me, or something worse. It's my fault that I knocked you out until now, so I figured the best way to at least hopefully make things right is by letting you in on the secrets.”
Arden folded his arms and sat back down, glaring at his copy.
“It's dangerous to know about this, right?” Arden asked with suspicion. “Then why did you make it to where Vera and Sya could still hear you?”
“It’s not the knowledge itself that's dangerous. It’s spreading it that's the threat.”
“That doesn't make sense.”
“With them, it doesn’t have to.”
“Alright. Then why would you leave me out in the open then? If spreading knowledge is so much of a threat that you put the girls in a partial pocket dimension, why would you just give it to me without any precaution?”
“Because you already have knowledge of them, remember? Your Legacy Ability belongs to one of the Archons; Beyond, the Archon of Eternity. The namesake of your Legacy.”
“Archon?”
Other-Arden nodded with a grim expression.
“It’s best to think of them as gods. They are utterly untouchable. I don’t know much about them, even with my knowledge. Trying to find them or fight them is impossible. The only way to come into contact with them is for them to find you, and if they do, it's too late.”
“And my power belongs to one of these Archons?”
“Yes. I had it before, and I used it to try and save people, but I failed. Beyond wore me like a puppet.”
There was a moment of silence before Other-Arden continued.
“I watched the end of my world. Everyone and everything died. I alone survived because I had Beyond’s power. It kept me alive through the end of the world. When my universe died, I was left to float along the void. Unable to die. I don’t know how long it took, but I managed to escape to this reality.”
“How?”
Rage clouded Other-Arden’s face. He balled his hands into fists, and smashed them into the table, shattering the thin panel of plywood.
“Beyond, that fucker. He used an incredible amount of power, and managed to break into another reality. And he left me behind! As soon as the wormhole was open, he left my body, turning me into what I am now. And I know he could have brought me with him! Even after using all of that power, he wouldn’t have even been phased! In the empty universe, I tried to collect any remnant of his power so I could follow him. That brings me to where I am now.”
He turned his eyes to Arden.
“The Legacy used me. It is nothing but a parasite. As soon as it is done with you, it will turn you into a husk like me. The only way out of your cursed fate is by giving it to me. You get to live how you want to, free of being corrupted by Beyond’s Legacy, free of his control, and I become whole again, able to die.”
Other-Arden got to his knees and bowed with his forehead to the floor, ignoring the splinters that dug into him.
“Please, Arden. Please, give me the Legacy. I’m tired. Every waking moment, I’m tormented by the visions of those I couldn’t save. Sya, Vera, Cirai. You’ll still have them in this world. You will be able to live with them and make memories with them.”
“...”
Arden couldn't imagine what his doppelganger was feeling. Yes, he was pissed about losing his home, but if what Other-Arden said was the truth, then he wouldn't want to make him feel any more guilty.
He thought about what he would feel if he was the only person left in a dead universe. Alone, with a broken body, and with only memories of those he loved but wasn’t strong enough to save.
It didn’t feel good, to say the least.
But there was something that wasn’t adding up.
“You said the Legacy controlled you. It wore you like a puppet.”
Other-Arden looked up with bloodshot tearstained eyes. The belated realization dawned on him and he paled. He felt his cracks start to throb in pain. It felt like his soul was decaying. He didn’t know how he didn’t realize it from the beginning.
“No…It's impossible.”
Arden reached towards the ground and picked up a jagged shard of plywood and sliced it against his own hand. After a few seconds of bleeding, he commanded the Legacy Ability to get to work.
Pale white light shined from the bleeding gash in his hand like impurities were being cleaned. With his other hand, Arden grabbed his wrist with gnashed teeth to fight through the pain. A few seconds later, the light dimmed, and Arden stood with his healed hand in front of him.
“You’re in control…” Other-Arden whispered. “An Archon’s power is almost infinite, so how are you able to control it? It was just barely weakened into the hop between worlds, so how!?”
“I don’t think that it has its full power,” Arden said. “Take a look.”
Arden summoned up his Status, scrolled to the bottom, and showed it to his previous self.
Legacy Ability: Beyond (Sealed)
- Rank: ?
- Description: Hidden
‘Sealed!? It’s impossible to seal an Archon’s ability! That can only be done if it's grown incredibly weak!’
Other-Arden stood up. He stared into space with a look of true horror. A thought just as ghastly as the fall of his universe appeared in his brain.
‘Can I even be made whole again if Beyond is weak enough to be sealed?’
He stood in stunned silence for several minutes under Arden’s confused but watchful eye. Eventually he started to laugh. Then cackle. Then cry.
“No…It's over…”
Without another word, Other-Arden disappeared. Just like it had been when he appeared, he was there one moment and gone the next.
As soon as he disappeared, Arden’s presence was joined by Vera and Sya suddenly appearing.
“What just happened?” Sya asked.
“Did you hear all of that?” Arden asked. “He said that you would, but I want to make sure. He lost it a bit at the end.”
“I heard it.”
Arden was going to ask Vera the same question, but stopped upon seeing her face.
She was pale, with tired, pained eyes. Tears still rolled down her face, leaving her eyes bloodshot.
“Vera?” Sya asked. “Are you alright?”
Vera turned to the two of them. She wiped the tears from her face with confusion. A pensive expression crossed her face, and she spoke.
“I don't know.”