Chapter 55 - Fate's enforcer (4)

That answer concerned Hati a bit; he frowned and asked, "What do you mean you will stop shielding me from fate?"

The enforcer shrugged, "Why do you think you haven't been attacked yet, even though you're a clear danger to the course of fate? I've been shielding you from fate, finding out you exist; after all, when fate finds out you exist, I will have no choice but to send my puppets after you.

Unfortunately, I cannot keep doing this forever. In fact, I cannot keep doing it for very much longer." At this point, golden blood was even flowing from her eyes, like golden tears. She still looked indifferent, but Hat could sense her tension rising; she continued, 

"I don't have much time left now. We will speak again after you have grown stronger, and you can start actively working on stopping this fate. For now, I simply wanted to explain some of the things happening to you and warn you of the danger you are in. Any last questions?"

Hati quickly nodded, "Who are these puppets? And why can you not just kill me directly when fate finds out? Also, if you cannot track me, then how will we talk in the future?"

The enforcer explained, "The Norns are my puppets." She grinned with pride at this point, which looked a little terrifying, considering she was still bleeding from various places, "The Norns are my pet project, and I use them as my proxies to solve problems.

I am actually a little proud of it; you see, the Norns think they are fighting against fate while actually doing my bidding. I give them fake prophetic visions, which they will then work hard to prevent, thereby creating the exact events that fate intended in the first place.

Most beings with a will of their own will desire to control their own fate; I believe you especially desire such a thing. By using that desire, I not only control them but also ensure they don't try to find other ways to fight against fate. Because they believe they are already doing so."

Hati grinned back at her, "That's devious; I like it." He also noted not to trust any prophetic visions he encountered in the future.

The golden woman chuckled a little, throwing away her usual indifference; clearly, she truly enjoyed what she did with the Norns. "Anyway, regarding your second question. I am restricted in the amount of power I can accumulate at once, and I can only affect your soul.

I needed multiple centuries to gather the power I needed to grab your soul from beyond the Six Worlds. Meanwhile, in order to kill you, a mere mortal, I still need at least ten years of accumulation. Although, with that essence protecting your soul core, I may actually need twenty years.

After fate finds out about you, I will start accumulating, giving you twenty years to reach the first revolution. But that should be easy for you; you might even already be at the second by that point, which would require me to accumulate even more power.

All you need to do is stay ahead of it. Think of it like extra motivation."

Hati's eyebrows obviously twitched as if they were having a seizure, 'As if the ending in two hundred years wasn't bad enough, now it's like an abyss is constantly chasing me, and I will fall into it if I don't run fast enough.'

He sighed heavily, 'Well, whatever. Twenty years is plenty of time to pass the first revolution, anyway. I get the feeling I really need to thank whoever gave me that essence.'

Seeing Hati was done processing, the enforcer answered his last question, "Lastly, you don't need to worry about that. Using an analogy from Earth, you can consider me as having the phone number to your soul. I can call you, but I don't know where you are exactly.

The only way for me to know where you are is to see you through the eyes of others."

Hati nodded at this, "Alright." He then released another sigh and continued, "So I guess we're done here? I think you should go tend to, you know." He gestured towards her face, which was still bleeding from various orifices.

The enforcer nodded and said, "Until we speak again, Hati."

Before Hati could say something similar, the black void disappeared, only to be replaced by another seemingly infinite space, except it was just dark instead of completely black. And instead of a void, a beautiful full moon was hanging overhead.

Hati looked at the beautiful moon in wonder, aware that it was the only light in this place and, therefore, likely the only reason this wasn't a black void like the other space.

Then he suddenly noticed something else. Three strange rock shards with runic markings were orbiting the moon at a slow pace, and when he looked directly under the moon, he could see three pedestals, one in the middle and two on its sides, slightly lower and behind the middle one.

This made him quickly realise where he was. He had no idea what a moon was doing inside his soul core, but he was pretty sure what those marked stone shards were.

He tried to get closer to the shards and inspect them, but before he could figure out whether or not he could fly to the moon in this space, it suddenly faded as his eyes fluttered open to the real world.

The first thing he noticed when he did so were his worried parents' faces. They seemed relieved when he opened his eyes but remained a little tense.

Sif asked, "How are you doing, Hati? Feel any different?"

Hati was about to say that he felt fine when he was suddenly hit with a mighty headache, followed by strong vertigo. He groaned in pain as his head felt like it was splitting in two, and his parents were panicking and trying to find out what was wrong. 

As soon as it began, it also ended. But it was followed by confusion as he suddenly felt like he had two integrally connected yet still separate minds.

If he had to find a way to describe it, then it was like Hati's sense of self had become a hive mind, with two worker drones connected to it.

He grabbed his head and groaned, "Ooooh, this is strange." He actually had to force himself to use only one of his minds to control his body while ordering his other mind to sit still and shut up for a while.

This worked for now, as his confusion over controlling two minds gradually settled down. He looked at his worried parents, who were about to start restraining him to inspect his soul, and said, holding up his hands, "I'm fine! Don't worry. Just… give me a second."

His parents didn't seem to take much stock in his words but still backed off for now, eyeing him carefully for any weird behaviour.

After spending a few minutes collecting himself and getting more used to the feeling of having two minds, he sighed and said, "Well, this is interesting." 

He then thought back to his conversation with that golden woman but quickly shook his head, putting it out of his mind for now. He would need to tell his parents, of course, but that could wait, at least until they were done with this year of training.

He then felt around inside himself, searching for the spirit core. 

When he found it, he grinned and said, "You're in luck, Father. I can only sense two elements in my spirit core, and I'm pretty sure they're ice and lightning. Although they do seem to have the same pale glow as my blood element."

Belphegor's eyebrows twitched as he almost yelled, "I don't care about your spirit core right now, boy! So, will you let us inspect your soul core for anything suspicious?"

Hati smiled at his Father's evident concern and said, "Is there really a point in asking? If I refuse, you'll force me to ensure I'm not being controlled."

Belphegor snorted and said, "Hmpf, it's called being polite; you should try it sometime. Now, sit still." He moved his finger closer to Hati's forehead while Sif watched anxiously from the side.

Hati didn't try to evade his father, as he instead tried to find out how to enter his own soul core again. 

At first, he didn't have much luck, but his father seemed to be guiding him with his energy, and soon enough, they both found themselves inside the dark void with a beautiful moon.

Belphegor looked at the moon in wonder as Hati stood beside him and said, "Beautiful, isn't it? I don't know if this moon has anything to do with that essence, but I think the moon is what has suppressed my sin shards all this time."

Belphegor stared at the moon for another moment before he nodded, "I think you're right. It definitely has something to do with the essence aswell, though; this moon gives me the same feeling that the essence does.

Unfortunately, we decided against me checking your soul before you created your soul core, so we'll never know if this moon was here before or if it only came here with the soul core. Then again, if not this moon, then what was suppressing the sin shards before?"