Chapter 609: Ageless Insignia
What Gala felt was not love but affection. It was the same feeling one would have toward a friend or even family. Gala had never felt such a way toward anyone since her mother died, but her master was closest to being family than anyone after he found her in that forest.
That incident happened in one of Freda"s forests, at the peak of the witch-hunt at that time. The king placed a reward for every crystal retrieved from the witches, which pushed the race toward almost extinction.
Her mother had to give away her life for Gala to live, but as a child, she couldn"t get far before she was caught. It was at death"s doors that her master appeared to kill all of her pursuers. As a child who met her savior, Gala became attached to the man.
Witches were spiritual creatures, making them live for a thousand years on average. As a young witch, Gala thought she would outlive the human. However, the years pa.s.sed, and Seref Silvera never seemed to age. It was a sunny morning when she asked him whether he was human.
"I sadly am," answered the prophet with a hearty laugh. "However, my mission is a lengthy one given to me since the end of times. As a reward, my body has stopped aging. It is called the Ageless Insignia."
"I thought you were a prophet," she asked with surprise while licking her fingers for the remaining taste. "Does that insignia mean you are an immortal?"
"It does not, sadly," smiled Seref. "I can die, but I will never age of natural causes. This allows me to live countless lives as I make my way through the temporal fissures and achieve the best possible ending."
"The best ending?" Gala was confused, but Seref did not elaborate. The final goal of his mission was always a secret, despite living countless years together. However, Gala knew that she was growing less valuable to him as time carried on.
It was another hundred years of traveling and guiding people toward their paths that Seref finally stopped traveling. Instead, he sat alone inside a cabinet for a month to reconsider, as he called them, The Paths.
Gala waited outside while accompanying her spirits, awaiting her master"s emergence. After he finally did, her master seemed disoriented and confused, even falling to his knees.
"I don"t understand," her master muttered, his beard grown to cover half of his face. "How could they possibly change? I have worked my entire life for the pieces to fall in place, but someone changed them...!"
It was the first time Gala saw her master rageful, and it was also the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment. Otherworldly people began to appear with knowledge about the future, and each of them began to seek their fates.
As she understood from her master, these people were from the future Earth. However, they shouldn"t know the future of Alka as her master did. This threw all of their plans under the bus, and on one eventful night, her master drunkenly admitted that he would have left if not for this change.
Their mission was ongoing, and Gala was more than happy about remaining with her master. They guided the future, again and again, faced with the threat of epiphanies until they reached these icy mountains.
Gala received an epiphany too now, but it was too different from the real world. However, her knowledge of spirits and alchemy grew by mult.i.tudes as if she had lived for a lot longer if her master did not take her through time fissures to travel.
"But how can I be so ungrateful toward master, even if I shared my soul with his vengeful son?" muttered Gala with helplessness as she waited. "Master should be gone for a few weeks, so I should sort these feelings before he returns."
Seref has always been a secretive man, even with the countless years they shared. Gala was now an ancient monster compared to normal humans, but she was considered a fine young woman for a witch. However, Seref never moved on her, suggesting he saw her the same way she saw him: a pillar of support in this ruthless world.
As she learned that he had a son somewhere, or even more, Gala realized that these months he left her alone could be much more than if he used the temporal fissures. Seref Silver can hold other ident.i.ties and lives as he can never age and knows how to time travel.
"Master is more of a monster than I am," chills ran down her spine. "For someone to navigate the world"s fate, what is his exact mission, and what gives him this knowledge?"
Gala did not know, but she had to decide whether to trust the memories of what could have been and the memories of what had already happened. The question that her master gave her appeared in her mind.
"Should we punish the injustice yet to occur?" asked Gala as she closed her eyes. The memories were laid before her like the vast constipation of stars, waiting to be arranged.
***
"And I can see that you chose to believe the memories," said Oriole as he sat in front of the witch. "If not for the fact that Arthur used me as a medium to save Ellen, I would have never believed the memories that I received out of nowhere."
"I seem to have shared a fraction of his soul when he, as you told me, helped me reincarnate. But, then, the merge of timelines sent my soul with all of the memories and feelings I had."
"It was the same for Arthur," muttered Oriole. "He became a different person from the one I and everyone knew. However, even if you received a part of his powers or soul, it doesn"t explain how you received the future knowledge."
"You just answered that question," shrugged the witch. "You received guidance from Arthur to change the future of this timeline. If Arthur did the same with me, it would explain why I received them in the past. There is, however, another theory."
"Another theory?"
"I traveled through countless realms and time fissures. If my soul lost is the timestamp, then it would explain that I would receive the memories when my soul was powerful enough to handle a fusion."
"That does make a lot of sense, but it is less concrete than simply believing Arthur sent you one of the guidelines."
"There are two points that counter that theory. First, Arthur didn"t know about the reason these ruins were here. Second, my soul was not next to Arthur when the merge happened. So he shouldn"t have been able to find it across the void," Gala closed her fingers into a fist. "At least I learned why the end of my memories was at the Spirits Realm."
"You should have been able to retrieve the memories of your plan," said Oriole. Gala simply stared at him before shaking her head.
"There were many things I couldn"t understand because all of my life was different, including my emotions toward Seref Silvera," said Gala. "There were also some confusions because of the different timelines I traveled in both lives, so it was a mess for the past tens of years."
"I understand that much, but what brings you here?"
"This is merely a projection of my body," smiled Gala. "I am still in Alka, waiting for Arthur to return. But, unfortunately, the world needs me right now because of the war."
"...war?" frowned Oriole. "Has the war begun between Freda and Alva?"
"That is far from it," smiled Gala. "Many things happened, but the two of them are now united against the Verniz Empire, who has an alliance with the Yozia Empire."
"...I cannot fathom how things came to this," blinked Oriole. "I understand from your words that the epiphanies gave the Verniz enough power to rise, but what makes them at war with the rest of the world?"
"The resources and safety that Earth has," smiled Gala. "These people lived in your world for long enough to understand that Alka is just another barrier against the calamities. The moment the calamity break through the gates, Alka will turn to h.e.l.l."
"It is common sense that if such a thing happened, it should accelerate the undoing of the split," frowned Oriole. "Furthermore, Earth will not stand idle as a different world invades it. What are these people thinking?"
"I would not blame them as much because the calamities have grown more powerful than before," sighed Gala. "These two empires are the only ones who have not been invaded by either vessels or the guardians. They will either face monsters or humans and fortunately, the latter can talk."
"What a mess has this world turned into," frowned Oriole. "Is this because of the merge?"
"It is partially, but the main reason is Seref himself," sighed Gala. "I believe his motives are to restore the original timeline, but the means he employed are... inhuman."