Chapter 30 - Resolution of a Past Life's Hatred
Chapter 30 - Resolution of a Past Life's Hatred
Draco's mind managed to calm down eventually as his eyes fell onto Eva's current state with a disapproving glance.
By now, how could he not understand?
Eva's love for him was so potent that it crossed the boundary of what was normal to what wasn't, total obsession. The idea of the world plunging into chaos, death as well as destruction meant little to her as long as he was alive with or without her.
If Draco wasn't crippled and received proper upbringing, he'd be much more powerful than Local Lord. The two of them could abscond and leave the world to perish.
However, Draco had been crippled from birth in terms of his bloodline, leaving him just slightly better than a common floor member of the lineages. It certainly explained why he could unlock Control at such a young age too.
But this was definitely not enough to face a powerful descendant of Pangu who was famed for physical strength. He would've been snapped like a twig should Local Lord have laid his hands on him.
After all, look at him now! So weak and thin. If it wasn't for his skills accrued from the destroyed timeline, he'd be less than average!
Eva clearly wasn't strong enough to prevent that either, otherwise would she need to sit there and listen to the fellow's nonsense? She was an assassin, finding a way to end this Local Lord fellow silently would be a piece of cake for her.
Yet she didn't meaning that even with her sanity in question, she knew that the only end result of fighting back physically would lead to her death and the eventual death of Draco, a fact which would benefit the Pangu lineage greatly.
She had a choice to make. Her lineage existed in Japan while Pangu's was in China. Draco was located in the Central Country, which was the remains of America after World War 3.
It was probable that this coercion took place within Boundless, so it was down to whoever could log out first and rush to Draco's location.
Definitely before than, Local Lord would have done his research on Draco, otherwise he'd be courting death by threatening Eva. He would've sent some of his cronies to Draco's location silently, because China was further away from the former American than Japan.
Eva, who hadn't anticipated any of this, would've been caught with unawares and totally outplayed from the onset.
Draco could almost imagine the conversation that took place since he knew Local Lord well. He must've been smiling in that annoying manner, pushing his threat, as well as the evidence of it, onto an Eva whose mind was crumbling under the choice.
'Sleep with me once and I'll let him go. It wouldn't have to occur a second time ad besides, you can switch off your senses with Body of Godliness. You won't feel anything till i'm done.'
'If you don't, I'll just kill him. You don't want that do you? You'll be saving his life, Eva. You'll be his hero. He won't hate you for sacrificing your integrity for his life. We both know Draco very well.'
'What will your choice be?'
Draco could almost hear the voice of Local Lord, dripping with temptation and solicitation, as the woman standing opposite him was close to having a mental breakdown as her obsession warred with her logic.
In the end, obsession won.
What caused Draco the most pain right now, was that Local Lord was right. Upon knowing the truth, all he felt was self-blame.
'My woman had to sacrifice her modesty to save my pathetic life and all I did was blame, defame and destroy. I fought her for 7 years and hounded her at every turn, eventually coming out on top… for what?' Draco thought with shame.
Draco felt so ashamed and so stupid that he couldn't even think of himself as anything but a fool. Imagine how the people of the lineages, especially Local Lord, must've laughed and laughed at his foolishness.
The prodigy of the Lucifer lineage was at odds with the prodigy of the Amaterasu lineage.
What was called a perfect ending? This was!
If all the lineages knew of his disgrace, it was unsurprising that the Lucifer lineage never bothered to reach out after the event. It would be too much a shame to claim him as their prodigy.
'While she had to debase herself for my life, all I did was hate her without even trying to understand. All I did then was what I did now, ask her why and hope she gave me an answer. I never tried to trust that there was a good reason, never tried to dig deep on my own… the moment she refused to answer, I just assumed she was hateful and deserved disgrace and disdain.'
Draco's mind and emotions were slowly becoming more centered and focused. His chaotic mind began to calm down and became more collected as well as composed.
It was a strange thing, the human mind. When faced with extreme amounts of stress or stimuli, it would either shut down, or close off a part of it's focus in order to retain functionality. The latter was happening to Draco.
All this knowledge, of the lineages, the creation of the world, the fact that other beings existed in the galaxy and of the revelation of Eva's obsession an coercion, had taken a toll on him.
The edges of his vision started to blacken, cutting out the environment and everything in his sight except Eva who stood before him, still raving in madness. Her face was almost ruined by this point, making her previous ethereal beauty look like an undead which needed to be put down.
At this very moment in time, all that existed in Draco mind and vision was Eva. He had little else to lock onto in this trying period of his sanity.
'Eva… sigh'
That was all that went through his mind. Nothing else. How to breathe, how to stand, those things were being handled by his sub-conscious. His sudden fixation on her existence infected his sub-conscious, making him walk forward slowly but surely, eventually embracing the bloody and now stunned Eva.
When she felt his arms wrap around her as well as the warmth of him, she began to panic. She never thought that she'd ever get to feel this euphoric feeling of being in his arms once again.
Truthfully, she didn't think she deserved to either.
One should realize that at her core, Eva was a madly obsessed girl whose life revolved around Draco. This meant that her logic was a bit off, as could be seen by her earlier rant that her family could die, but Draco couldn't.
In the eyes of any rational person, she should rather hate him for the consequences afterward.
She had decided to sacrifice her integrity for him after all. If she had turned around and said 'I don't care' or resisted in anyway, Draco would be dead and she would be fine and chipper.
She wouldn't have had to have her progression in Boundless stunted due to continuous fighting. She wouldn't have had to carry the title of whore and a.d.u.l.terer everywhere she went. She wouldn't have lost so many friends at the hands of Draco in the real world.
In a way, she had genuine reason to hate Draco.
But she didn't. Such a thought never even crossed her ill mind.
To Eva, it was the opposite. In her eyes, sacrificing herself for Draco was perfectly rational and should be done.
However, what had her mad with guilt and shame was that she had, for a second, been sullied by the disgusting feeling of her assaulter, Local Lord. Casting the Body of Godliness made her closed off to any external stimuli, so she couldn't even tell if Local Lord was doing anything.
She had shut herself off from the world, existing on a small bubble within her mind. When he was done, she would wash her hands off the matter and delete all the memories of the act. For a master of Control, such an act would be doable.
Since it was just a digital body and not her real body being sullied by Local Lord, as long as she deleted the memory, then to her, the act never happened.
Local Lord could pat himself on the back as much as he wished, but logically speaking, it was no different than paying for a VR s.e.x session and styling the partner after Eva.
However, she forgot to keep it active at the precise second Draco entered, her panic causing her to feel that vomit-inducing feeling for a pico-second.
As she stood here, she couldn't even remember it, as the whole process of that event was deleted from her mind. All she could remember of that whole thing was the look in Draco's eyes, that haunting and betrayed look.
However, she still remembered that at one time in her life, there was an instance that she had been touched by someone other than her reason for existing, causing her to have nightmares and mental breakdowns for years after the act.
The reason why she had been quiet when Draco held the Orb of Worlds over her in their past life because she had been excited, ashamed and relieved.
Excited because she was so close to him. Ashamed because of that deleted memory. Relieved because he would have moved onto the path of healing after venting for so long.
But then, he died.
And her world crumbled.
She had exited her gaming pod that day and commenced an indiscriminate slaughter in his neighborhood. She had eventually been killed by the members of the Pangu Alliance, stating that she was a mass murderer and for the sake of righteousness, she needed to die.
Local Lord had laughed as he watched her bleed to death with only hate in her eyes. He had gotten to do what his ancestor never could, probably orchestrate the death of the prodigy of the Lucifer clan and push her to her own death.
He had won in every aspect.
Even Pangu himself would laugh and clap the fellow on the back, shouting 'Good! Good! Good!'
However, they were in a new timeline were they both were able to reincarnate. They had now met each other and she finally was able to share the truth without fear of consequence, because everyone else was unaware of what she knew.
She hadn't hoped for a resolution. She just wanted to let him know the truth of the situation and decide how they would go forward in their new lives. She had personally been praying to become friends, so she could at least have a reason to stand by his side.
Yet here she was, being hugged by Draco, whose face only showed acceptance. Her already troubled mind couldn't handle this and began to fracture further.
A fire began to rage in her mind that grew exponentially in force, razing everything down while laughing maniacally. It cleared out majority of her negative feelings, her doubts and all the remainder of those memories that had stuck around.
She was being cleansed from within.
Draco and Eva's reactions to each other right now were two extremities of the same thing.
Draco's was cool and calm. An obsession that placed her on an unreachable pedestal that no other woman would reach no matter who or how. His mind was wrapped around her existence and it focused purely on her.
Eva's was fiery and chaotic. Her obsession was a raging inferno that saw only Draco. Its foundation was Draco. Its existence was Draco. Its sustenance was Draco. The slightest thing about him would see her mind fracture and descend into a further madness than what she had displayed so far.
This connection where their minds rebuilt themselves around each other went on for exactly ten minutes on both sides. When Draco finally ended the embrace, the two realized that there was a tangible connection between each other.
Draco could feel Eva's existence and she could his, despite being in the world of Boundless currently. The two were stunned initially, but accepted it as it was. With this, they'd never lose each other again.
Perhaps it was a manifestation of their bloodline? This had never happened before though.
"Do you really forgive me?" Eva asked with uncertainty and fear.
"In a way, I should be asking for that instead. Let's make a deal, if you promise to forgive me first, then I'll forgive you as well," Draco said with a smile.
"Forgive, Forgive! I forgive!" Eva shouted out with so much enthusiasm that Draco chuckled.
"Then I forgive you too."
Eva was the same height as Draco, so he couldn't really pat her on the head that well, but she still did.
His words made her face redden so much that she looked comical. Draco gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek before taking her palm into his.
"Let's leave the area. I want to talk about my plans for the future."
His suggestion was met with her immediate approval, "En."
The two began to trek through the wilds of the Paradise Lands, talking about everything and anything. Eva had decided to forgo Darkrow and become the sole vice-guildmaster of Umbra.
Draco shared his daring plan to rise to power with Eva, to which she wholeheartedly agreed with.
"So when do you plan to attack the hamlet?" Riveting Night asked.
Her hood had been raised back up, because there was a chance that someone might see her visage. That was something she reserved for Draco alone, so she was uncompromising on that. Even Local Lord hadn't seen her face during the act, just that never-ending darkness in her hood.
"Right after I re-stock the store I set up in the Guild Outpost. It's been bringing in a good amount of cash, though nothing compared to what I got for doing 'game breaking' things."
Both of them chuckled at that. What was seen as slightly impressive during their time was now almost legendary. In a certain way, reincarnation was the ultimate cheat that one could only wish for in life.
"I have a blink ability that can get us to the Guild Outpost. Let me take us there directly."
Riveting Night assented to Draco's suggestion and they both disappeared almost immediately.
The moment they left, the area returned to silence as nothing occurred. However, there was a slight tremor in the air that went away almost instantly.
While no player, NPC or monster may have heard all that had been said so far, one entity did.
The AI of Boundless retreated quietly to digest the information it had just received.
......…..........
It didn't take the two long to fill the shop with the creations of Draco. He placed all the regular items he had made: bows, crossbows, swords, spears, stilettos, daggers, chest plates, leather armor, hide armor, knee guards, pauldrons, arm cops, bracers, greaves, pants, boots and even staves. He also stocked up on all the basic potions, even placing a few of the transformation types that only gave slight boosts.
Still, even this was enough to have the faces of the outpost members go red with excitement. With all this, they'd be better off jumping into a deep ditch if they couldn't turn around their situation.
However, Draco was no longer as enthused about this outpost as before. That was because he naturally planned to wipe out their competitor. Without someone breathing down their necks, why should they dump every coin they own down his throat?
However, the rewards for the death quest were more profitable than supporting this outpost for a thousand years. He only really placed these here out of consideration for Sasha, who left a good impression on him.
Surprisingly, Sasha managed to leave an even better impression on Riveting Night, who found her absolutely lovable. Still, Riveting Night didn't try to boost Sasha because she knew Draco well. Sasha simply wasn't his taste.
This was where the difference in their obsession showed itself. Riveting Night's obsession was an inferno of madness that didn't allow for anything other than Draco to exist.
Even if the Heavenly Emperor himself dropped down from the Heavens, he'd be unable to move this yandere.
However, the same didn't apply for Draco. His was a calm and collected fixation that placed Riveting Night's existence so high that his own worth was shit in his eyes.
It was theoretically possible for him to love another woman, but it would never reach the level Riveting Night obtained. Even if the second woman had gone through thick and thin with him, loving him to the death, he'd still abandon her assuming she and Riveting Night were in mortal danger, without hesitation.
The two were aware of the difference of extremity in their obsessions as well as the characteristics that developed because of it.
But one should understand that these romantic obsessions developed as a result of their base personalities and were unchangeable. Riveting Night was the type of woman to ignore the world for one man. She was also the type to unhesitantly allow herself to be s.e.x.u.a.lly abused just to keep him alive.
Her logic was horribly warped where Draco was concerned to the point that it was terrifying. She wouldn't obstruct Draco from building an emperor's harem as long as he was happy about it, but she also knew Draco wouldn't do so on his own accord, whether he wanted to or not.
After all, the fellow had destroyed their past life because he had seen Riveting Night being infidel. To go around capturing babes into a harem, wouldn't that make him the world's biggest fool… again?
But that was tangential.
Draco bid farewell to the outpost, knowing that it was more than likely his last time there. He had given a few tips to the Tony fellow to assist in winning over Sasha's favor.
Draco was assured his feelings for the little lass were genuine when the fellow broke down into snotty tears, calling him ancestor while clinging to his leg.
The Evil Couple appeared in a clearing near the village of the natives.
"Before we go, I'm curious to check the details of the equipment set I made for myself. Also, I want you to drink the potion I made."
Riveting Night didn't stand on ceremony, whatever belonged to Draco belonged to her and vice versa. She gulped down the semi-legendary potion immediately as a golden glow surrounded her.
Riveting Night immediately leveled up once due to her State of Being's improvement. She was now level 9, 34%.
She had already shared with Draco that she'd acquired a legendary potion that granted an ability point from another hidden power called the Shadow Queen.
She was the primogenitor of the hidden class Riveting Night was chasing after, which was the same class as the one she had back then. It was the Shadow Assassin class.
This class different from typical assassin class in the fact that Riveting Night could use magic. Sure, it was limited to the sub-magic class of shadow, which was under the magic class of darkness.
Still, it was a potent ability to have. It literally made her a terrifying combatant in their past life. Riveting Night had never possessed a semi-legendary weapon like Draco's mana sword, yet he had never been able to bring her down until he enlisted the help of a hidden power.
After clearing this outpost, she should able to acquire her class with the 'optimal' designation.
That also brought into question, what the hell was the use of the optimal designation? It didn't grant any cool skills, didn't give a hefty amount of ability points either.
Why then, would players from Draco's past life have slaved to research optimal designations for either their own classes or other classes? Not to mention that knowing was one thing, but getting it was another.
Not everyone knew where to get a legendary potion through a quest or even through a simple purchase all the way into the 15th year of Boundless. Only upper echelon like Draco would know, not including the Richmond method.
However, people still went above and beyond to find way to do so. Why? The reason was so astounding that it was scary.
A melee class was limited to the weapon of choice it was based on. The Avenger class was a variant of the Spellsword class, which was a sub-class of the Swordsman class. That meant, the class was based on and limited to the sword.
Riveting Night's class was the Shadow Assassin class. This class was a variant of the Assassin class, which was a sub-class of the Rogue class. That meant, she was limited to short blades like daggers, knives or stilettos.
However, once your body achieved optimal designation, they had no equipment limitation!
Wow!
That meant that Draco could use spears, bows, crossbows and more. F.u.c.k, the fellow could even whip out a hammer with a shield and tank like a king!
Now it was obvious why everyone and their mum l.u.s.ted for the optimal designation.
But this was what the common floor members knew. The real effect that had the true powerhouses mad with l.u.s.t yet scared at the same time was that the same 'no limitation' extended to class skills!
WOW!
This meant, Draco could learn magic! True magic! This fellow could cast spells as long as he acquired the skills books for them! He could cast any element or type of magic.
Even those fields of magic limited to extremely hidden classes like Shadow, Time, and Space were all available to him as long as he could acquire them. The same went for Riveting Night.
She could learn the highly coveted class skills of the Avenger class which provided passive boosts that rivaled epic equipment.
The powerhouses of his past life had unanimously decided to suppress this knowledge at all costs. Even presidents of the real world weren't privy to this info!
In this timeline, it could be said that only Draco and Riveting Night knew of this. As for Sublime Notion, Riveting Night was still thinking of ways to acquire another legendary potion for her.
After all, Draco had already used up the common method while she herself had managed to get one by exploiting her gender, beauty and class affiliation.
The Shadow Queen highly favored beautiful rogue women, since she was one herself! Riveting Night's beauty had moved her to the point that she had sworn to adopt her as her daughter no matter the cost.
At that point, Riveting Night had to flee timidly.
The Evil Duo eventually reached the outskirts of the Native Village that seemed to be calm on the surface. They observed all the youths living their lives as best as they could with neutral expressions.
Draco brought out the blue Dragorugio set that he saved for himself before equipping it. He grunted as raw and unbridled power coursed through his body over and over.
｢Dragorugio – One handed sword (Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Atk spd: 3n (Where n represents DEX)
Dmg: 5n (Where n represents STR x INT)
Effect: Fire mastery ꝏ, Damage boost +500%｣
｢Dragorugio – Chest Plate (Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Def: 500n (Where n is END)
Effect: Fire resistance ꝏ, Defense boost +500%｣
｢Dragorugio – Pauldrons (2)(Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Def: 300n
Effect: Fire resistance ꝏ, Defense boost +250%｣
｢Dragorugio – Pauldrons (2) (Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Def: 300n
Effect: Fire resistance ꝏ, Defense boost +250%｣
｢Dragorugio – Arm Guards (2) (Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Def: 300n
Effect: Fire resistance ꝏ, Defense boost +250%｣
｢Dragorugio – Knee Guards (2) (Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Def: 300n
Effect: Fire resistance ꝏ, Defense boost +250%｣
｢Dragorugio – Cloak (Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Def: 10n
Effect: Fire resistance ꝏ, Defense boost +50%｣
｢Dragorugio – Set Equipment (5 piece) (Optimal)
Rank: ??? (Evolvable)
Effect;
- With 2 pieces equipped: Grant the passive skill 'Dragon's Heritage'
- With 3 pieces equipped: +15000 HP
- With 4 pieces equipped: +1000 MP
- With 5 pieces equipped: Grant the active skill 'Dragon's Roar'｣
｢Dragon's Heritage – Passive skill
100% source energy of a high ranked Dragon｣
｢Dragon's Roar – Active skill
Effect: Send out a soundwave that deals 30n damage (Where n is total attack damage) over a distance of 1n (Where n is range of sight).
Cooldown: 2 hours｣
Draco felt the unlimited power coursing through him. He took out a glowing book from his inventory, learning it instantly. It was a rare skill book.
｢Armageddon – Large-scale active spell
Effect: A ball of fire containing the apocalyptic flames of the underworld is spawned. Damage is calculated as 20n + 20x (Where n is the total number of targets and x is INT).
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 72 hours｣
Draco smirked while raising his hand. In it birthed a small ball of pitch black flame. With a toothy grin, he cast it out.
"Let there be death."
Words from the author:
As one can see, the original content of this chapter was received very poorly. I've decided to alter a lot of things to make it more palatable without changing the core plotline.
If you're curious about what was there before, new readers, just check the comments.
If the current content is still too heavy, then there's nothing I can do except rewrite the whole story from the beginning, which is not going to happen.
You can make your opinion of the whole event and revelation known to me in the comments. No need to hold back, just vent your anger out on me. This Daddy can take it.