Birth of Dark — Chapter 6: The Regressor's Gambit

The Regressor's Gambit

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He was no longer smiling. The artifacts that were with him, except the flute, had disappeared.

"Why do you not have any memories after I killed your parents?" he asked. "What did you do in those 10 years?"

From his question, I could tell he saw only a bit of my memories, not everything. "You saw it, didn't you? The emptiness of the water." I replied.

Vortex remained silent for a while. "Ten years. You remained inside the sea." Then he laughed loudly. "Tell me, last time. You killed yourself after seeing your parents' corpse? So why not now? Why did you stop?"

'Why did I stop?' Hearing that question also made me think the same thing. I replied honestly. "It wasn't that I didn't want to; it's just that I've already experienced the same thing too many times. My heart shattered till it forgot what it means to be shattered."

"Don't tell me?... You kept killing yourself every time you revived?" Vortex's arms clenched. "Just how many times?"

"Countless." I looked at the clear sky. "I lost count after 30."

Hearing my words, I could see Vortex could barely hold himself back from going insane. "You... are. Insane," he continued to laugh manically. "I understimated the depth of emotion a little kid might have." After a while, he regained his composure. "Well, now the flute's useless. At least in this timeline." The flute faded from his arm.

"If I had killed myself inside the illusion, you would have gotten your powers back?" I asked. Considering his habit of speaking, I did not feel any discomfort in asking an important question.

" 'Fate of Regression' is not a joke or an item that can just be passed around," Vortex added. "Grace's Flute of Eternal Sleep is made from the remains of Goddess of Slumber. It manifests her final dying wish to be in a peaceful slumber forever. Under its effect, the person will live in a quiet dream forever. His body will become akin to immortal. He will never die, but be in a peaceful state of sleep. No one can escape its effect. But its activation conditions are troublesome. For it to take effect, one would need to experience both physical and spiritual death in the dream world it creates. Killing you physically was easy, but your spirit would only be dead if you killed yourself or broke mentally. So, the 2nd condition failed to meet."

'What a terrifying item.' My eyes lit up. So, he cannot take away my ability to regress in time. The only way to deal with me is to make me fall asleep eternally; this way, time won't reset. The 10 years I spent submerged in the sea saved me. I felt my bottled-up emotions in my heart could be used against me someday; that's why I chose the darkness to process my feelings. I didn't expect that day would come this soon.

"Don't be happy." Vortex curled up his lips. "Even without guidance or help, you figured out how to create an anchor. You have at least some natural talent. The flute may be useless now, but I am not worried. So long as you live, you will continue to gather experiences. Joy, hate, love, sorrow, pleasure, envy, for a Regressor, these emotions will only keep on piling. To have the ability to obtain everything one desires -- yet to lose it all in the end. That's the 'Fate of Regression.'" he stretched his arm. "I wish you a pleasant life ahead."

Thump!

I felt my heart stop beating.

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As always, I found myself at home, in front of my parents' house. I repeated the actions from my previous life. I buried my parents and headed inside the sea.

Vortex's words contained much valuable information. But now the question is, why would he reveal those things?

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Rays of light penetrated the darkness of the sea.

A loud voice echoed. "Did you think I wouldn't be able to find you if you hid in the depths of the ocean?"

'Had it been 10 years already?' I opened my eyes after a long sleep. I was waiting.

The ocean split open as a tall person, wearing a long black coat and dark sunglasses with slicked-back black hair, revealed himself. "Hello. Little One. Ew. Still wearing that ugly mask. Hm. It's blue and black this time. Does the color correspond in accordance with the ability used?"

I immediately created a bubble of water around me to float in midair and not fall. My eyes adjusted to the light.

"I was not hiding," I replied as our eyes met.

Vortex went silent. "How many times have we fought before?" his lips curled up as always.

"This is only the second time."

He summoned the flute; this time, his weapons of choice were different. It was a long, silver spear that floated in the air, along with a small ring. The ring created some form of isolated space around the sea.

I once again created an island of vines.

In the end, the result was the same as previous life. Vortex failed to pull me to eternal sleep, and I was unable to defeat him.

"Again? You idiotic idiot stayed underwater for 10 years? Did the trauma make you mentally ill? What's the point? Do you think that you will magically win one day?" Vortex sighed.

"If I were mentally ill, we would not be having this conversation right now, would we?" I retorted.

"That would be so much better," Vortex added. "At least try something. Redsphere is vast. Perhaps some things can help you be stronger. You will find out about many things. What's staying underwater going to do? You are not even getting stronger."

"Who knows," I replied. "By the way, how did you know this was not our first battle?"

"Ha.." Vortex sighed again. "It's the eyes. I can sense even the slightest change in another person's emotion. You hated me when I killed your parents. But now, your eyes seem a little bit more numb. That can only happen over a long period. Surprisingly, your eyes seem so numb to the point that I would think we fought over at least ten times before."

"Ha.." A question popped into my mind. "Before killing other 'Anamolies,' did you also do the same for them?'

"Of course." Vortex regained his usual smile. "In case I lost my ability, it's one of the only ways I could figure out how many times the Regression has happened. Additionally, trauma is necessary for the flute to function properly. "

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I died again. Revived Again. Fought Again. And within every battle our conversation continued.

"Argh, little boy! Leave the sea! Roam the world! Meet new people! Make friends! Maybe find a girl you love, and have some children! At least live properly!" Vortex appeared agitated.

"Why? So you can kill them after you revive?"

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Vortex laughed. "I am unaffected by the passage of time. I don't even remember our previous fights. To me, the time will only start to flow after I win. But every time you Regress, the time you spend on isolation only amplies. You, a human, how many years do you think you can stay inside the water for? A century? a millennium? In the end, I will win either way, so why bother?"

"Is that so?"

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"Why are your memories only of the darkness? Just why don't you go outside?"

"It's because of your stupid words. You reveal important information like it's nothing. Write stupid books like Record of Insanity. Reveal your plans like nothing. How am I to know whether it's a trap or not? What if revealing your plan is a plan within a grander plan, and by hearing the plan, I fall into another plan?"

"Oh, you stupid child. Props to you for finding out about my grand plan that I myself am unaware of."

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"Little boy, if you go to Redden City, I can recommend a therapist. I think you are in desperate need of one."

"Isn't your goal to make me mad?"

"I didn't say the therapist would be a good one."

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"You think the power of regress is a joke! I lived 13 lives, and in all 13 I gave it my all. Over the past thousand years or so, I have become akin to a God. My legends are spread everywhere. If only you left this stupid sea, you would hear of all my greatness. Yet, you, who at this point even lived longer than I? What did you accomplish? Relaxed under the sea for over a millennium. At the point, the only point of your existence is just existing!"

"I at least managed to piss you off."

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"I think this will be my last life in this place." I finally admitted.

Vortex stopped midair. The giant golden hammer in his arm disappeared. "What? Really? Finally? Good. Good. The world is a wonderful place. You come from a small city, so when you visit the inner cities, you will experience a whole new world. You will learn many new things. Gates, Leveling, Churches, the War, other species. Avoid vampires-they are too cunning. Join a school; you still have not experienced proper youth yet. With your abilities, you won't find anything difficult." Vortex finally sighed with relief. "But I am curious. What changed your mind?"

I smiled. "I recalled everything that has happened to me, and all of our conversations. Inside the water, I relived those memories over and over again. Every little action you made, every word you spoke. I recalled them so many times that I felt like I was going insane. But the water helped me. My anchor became stronger each time. Now, I have finally enough knowledge that will serve as my foundation."

I made a fist, then raised my index finger.

"First. You pretended not to know about how my power of 'Color' works. But I think you know about it all too well. You said there was one more survivor from Rainbow Island. You must have met him before in your previous lives. There is no chance you're ignorant."

I raised another finger.

"Second. You remember all of our battles. When I die and the timeline resets, I don't know how, but you retain your memories. You pretend to be ignorant, but that's just a facade. Every time fight, you use a different set of artifacts or techniques. There has not once been an overlap. I think this was intentional. You placed a clue so I could see it."

I raised another finger.

"Third. Your words are guided. They are mostly lies, but also contain some truth. You reveal just the right amount of information to make the other person take decisions that you want them to take. This was also one of the reasons I avoided contact with the outside world. I was afraid I would indirectly cause your revival. But after all this time, I know you would be revived regardless of my actions."

I raised another finger.

"Fourth. You always create a barrier around us, or form some illusion around us. I believe there are beings that even you are scared of, and you don't want them to notice this large-scale battle. More importantly, you don't want them to see your current state."

I raised another finger.

"Fifth. Your current revival is incomplete. I kept thinking again and again, why would you come here exactly after 10 years and kill me? If you knew I would be submerged underneath, why would you not just leave and do some other preparation? Why would you always kill me? And you never killed me instantly. I know you never showed your real power. You always only used artifacts. I feel you can kill me even without lifting a finger. Yet why would you pretend to be in a fight with me and converse? For fun? No, it was to feed me information. You wanted me to come up with these five conclusions, didn't you?"

Vortex laughed, pushing his black sunglasses up the bridge of his nose with a gloved finger. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Your first plan failed due to my anchor. However, you weren't worried because you had already made sufficient preparations for other contingencies. Your second plan probably was to subdue me using the flute after the fourth or fifth regression, after I had collected enough memories. You would probably use those memories to break my anchor. However, you realized your plan wouldn't work, as I always remained inside the sea, and since my new memories were only of isolation, you couldn't exploit them. So, you've changed your plan again. It's obvious that, in the end, I would have no choice but to leave the sea, so you continued to fight and converse while always providing me with information that would affect my actions after I left this place. However, the time I spent in isolation not only made my anchor unshakable but also taught me many valuable lessons. This cycle has to end now." I sighed. "Ultimately, I have decided to find ways to improve my strength. And I will meet people." I clenched my fists at my sides. "In fact, I will also create an organization dedicated solely to kill you."

"Well, I must say I am honored." Vortex's grin widened as he approached near me, hands behind his back. "Also, you need a therapist."

My lips curled up. "But here is the thing. I will make up the organization from the strong yet the worst kind of people. Those who are so despicable that I would have no attachment. So, even if time resets, I won't be affected at all. "

"Oh, little boy, started using his brain." Vortex laughed. "I am sure it will work out exactly as you think and plan. Do ask if you need advice."

"Hm." I thought for a while as I looked at the sky. "Which city should I visit first?"

"Go to Enver. The city of youth." Vortex pointed towards the north. "Many interesting things will happen there soon."

"Sure. Also..." My expression turned serious. "Can you lend me some money?"

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I died.