No Chance For Atonement

"You don't need to die."

"No, YOU need to die," Cathy replied. She was furious. She was tensing up, her muscles were strained. The imaginary dimension she casted was with a handsign, she's using her physical body to take on the overall weight, it's normally just the mind. When colliding with another dimension, the stronger mind wins. My mind, currently, is fractured. And she's not using her mind to control the dimension. So now, we're stuck. If I dispell, I'll die. If she dispells, she'll die.

A battle of endurance, this will last forever. She'll survive this, and it's a gamble, but I have to do it.

"Are you familiar with Destruction Spells?"

"You wouldn't dare..."

"Dimension Technique: Collapse", I uttered. The world around us, our dimensions started cracking. Shattering to bits. I released my dimension and let it shatter, she did too. In that instance, I dashed as fast as I could toward her. Our dimensions caved in and the of us were buried under it.

The dimensions disappeared and I stepped away. Cathy got up, she's alive. She lost her left arm. Now she can't cast her dimension again, I know she can cast it multiple times.

"That was a nice trick. I think I get it now. You married my ancestor, and she died. Now you're here. After a journey to the Tinkerer, you lived a life to settle as a husband. So, I can't say you were all that bad."

"Now, it's different."

"Yeah, you definitely changed. You're not going to get out of this alive," I notice that the circle of water on her back is still there.

My mind is clear. As clear as a still and quiet ocean that would perfectly reflect the sky. Inverted Light was a spell that I inherit after obtaining this mask, so I needn't use it anymore.

"True Manifestation, it's truly a hard feat to achieve. A journey to know oneself and a deep understanding of mana really sounds simple."

"I don't need a lecture."

"I wonder how you did it."

"Did what?"

"Obtain your True Manifestation. What made you true to yourself?"

"I became a parent. He showed me that nothing truly matters in life besides a bond between people."

"For you, it was a kid, for me it was my wife. This kid, what's their name?"

"Derrick?" The kid told me.

"Yeah," the kid replied in a quiet and somber tone.

"Do you have a home?"

"No."

"Come stay with me then," and just like that, I have a kid living with me. For an entire week, he was like a normal boy. Until he caught me training, but I confirmed it when I told him to help me out with unloading some cargo, which was filled with money, he was like a normal boy until he was able to lift a fifteen-kilogram crate easily. I realized he was a Core-User, I guess his presence was duller than Ava's. Our relationship truly started when I told him that he wasn't a sorcerer.

Ever since that day, he trained to be the best Core-User alive. So, I did. I made him better, better than Ava.

On his eighteenth birthday, I gave him the Solar Blade. Then he left me a letter in my room,

"Dear Cate,

For eight years, you've been taking care of me. I want to say thanks. You're the closest thing I have to a mother figure. Truly, I'm glad. You made me accept who I am and made me what I am. You should really ask for a Supreme-Rank promotion. You deserve it.

Love, Derrick"

It was such a short and straightforward letter. But it was genuine, and thanks to you too I can become what I am. I can somewhat atone for the mountain of crimes I've committed.

Being true to myself? Thanks to you I can use my True Manifestation. But, in the end, I lost to Shujin. He broke the Holy Water Wheel, and I'm out of mana. A blade struck through my chest, my heart stopped completely. My blood flowed out of my body in huge volumes.

I rest on the ground, looking up at the ceiling with a giant hole Shujin burst out off.