My Dragon King System-Chapter 333: A Thief’s Evolution

Ambrose looked at him with growing concern. "What is it? What’s wrong with me?"

Aiden exhaled slowly, with his expression troubled. "The voices in your head... they’re part of the demon king’s residual consciousness."

Ambrose’s eyes went wide. "What? How did I not know any of this?"

But Aiden had just seen everything.

While using his authority over the Mind Sea to peer into Ambrose’s consciousness, he’d simultaneously channeled his power over time.

The combination allowed him to see not just the present state of Ambrose’s mind, but the entire history of how it had reached this condition.

Aiden’s red eyes glowed faintly as he continued examining Ambrose, and his expression grew more concerned with each passing second.

"The voices aren’t exactly coming from your mind," Aiden began. "They’re coming directly from something called a fragment of transcendence."

He sighed deeply and shook his head, with this genuine feeling of frustration. "Samael, you piece of shit. Even in total annihilation, you’re still causing trouble."

Ambrose remained visibly confused. "I don’t understand. What does that mean?"

"It’s not your fault you didn’t realize when this happened," Aiden said, his tone gentler now "I’m not even sure you’ll fully understand what I’m about to explain, but I’ll try anyway."

He paused for a moment.

"First of all, you’re not going insane. The reason you can remember two different conflicting sets of events is because they actually happened. Both of them."

"One experience happened in one timeline, and the other happened in another timeline," Aiden explained, and let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

"Everyone else only remembers the events from one timeline because they died in the other timeline. Their consciousness was carried over from the second timeline into the merged reality, so they only have those memories."

Aiden’s glowing eyes focused more intently on Ambrose. "But from everything I just saw in your past, you did not die in the original timeline."

"You were Samael’s resurrection plan.

Ambrose stared at him, unable to form words, and Aiden continued regardless.

"When the demon king attacked everyone in that original timeline, the others died. But not you. Samael deliberately kept you alive"

"The demon king had probably anticipated that something might go wrong with his plans. So he bestowed into you a portion of a transcendence fragment and hid your body in a dimension I wouldn’t immediately notice."

"This portion of transcendence carried with it a part of Samael’s consciousness. With the combined power of several gods at his disposal, he was able to grant a human body, your body, the capability to contain such a fragment along with the imprint of his consciousness."

Ambrose felt sick. The revelation that he’d been carrying a piece of the demon king inside him for three years made his skin crawl.

"When I merged the two timelines together to form a single reality," Aiden continued, "the you that was hidden in that dimension and the you from the second timeline were forced together into a single whole."

He pointed at Ambrose’s head.

"Which is why you carry memories from both timelines"

Ambrose looked dazed, struggling to process the magnitude of what he was hearing.

"There’s more," Aiden said, and somehow his tone grew even more serious. "It’s not just any portion of transcendence inside you. This particular fragment contains elements of Samael’s own grace, his ability to adapt and evolve."

"Naturally," Aiden explained, "a consciousness from such a small portion would never rise to become whole. It would remain incomplete. But with a transcendence fragment carrying the grace of adaptation and evolution embedded within it..."

"Even that little portion of Samael would eventually evolve to become whole, bringing back the demon king using your body as a vessel."

Ambrose couldn’t help the shock that flooded through him as his knees felt weak.

"The only reason Samael hasn’t awakened in your body is because right before I destroyed him, I rewrote the rules of the universe to make him the weakest existence possible."

"That rule applied to all parts of everything that could be defined as Samael. Which is why his consciousness inside you has been too weak to override your own will."

He paused, then added, "So even though that consciousness should theoretically be evolving according to the grace it carries, there’s a fundamental contradiction forcing it down."

"Realistically, you would never be taken over. The consciousness will never gather enough strength to suppress you. But those voices may continue to be a problem.

He let Ambrose process everything, giving him time to absorb the full picture.

Finally, Ambrose spoke. "I thought I was going crazy..."

He looked up at Aiden with desperate confusion.

"But why me? Why did Samael choose me as his vessel?"

Aiden’s mind flashed back to his final battle with Samael. He remembered the demon king mentioning something about being intrigued by Ambrose’s theft magic, fascinated by its unique properties and potential applications.

But Aiden said nothing of that to Ambrose. Instead, he offered a different perspective.

"On the bright side, you’ve evolved beyond what regular humans could ever achieve. It’s true that when I recreated this world, I elevated human potential. But you? You’ve gone even beyond that. I’m sure you must have noticed."

Ambrose nodded slowly. He had noticed.

Despite the voices plaguing him, his magic had grown exponentially over the past three years.

His theft magic felt nearly limitless in what it could accomplish.

"But if this is the price I have to pay," Ambrose said, his voice gaining strength, "then I don’t want any part of it. This has already taken three years of my life. Three years of isolation and fear and thinking I was losing my mind."

He looked directly into Aiden’s glowing red eyes, with a desperate expression.

"Please, I’m begging you. Take it away. That’s why I came here today. I want to be free."

Aiden said nothing for a moment. Then finally , he spoke. "I will relieve you of the fragments bearing Samael’s mental imprints. But your body. I cannot undo that."

From Ambrose’s understanding of everything Aiden had just explained, the mental imprint was the source of the voices.

If Aiden could remove that, even if the enhanced body remained, that would be more than enough.

Ambrose said again, his voice breaking slightly. "Just take the voices away. I can live with the rest. But please, make them stop."

Aiden nodded. "Very well."

He then snapped his fingers and said, It’s done."

Ambrose narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Wait, that’s all—"

But right then, his chest jerked upward as if something had been physically torn from his torso. He gasped, stumbling backward.

And then... relief.

Pure, overwhelming relief flooded through him.

The voices that had been his constant, torturous companions for three years simply... stopped.

A smile crossed Ambrose’s lips, the first genuine smile he’d worn in three years. Tears gathered in his eyes as the magnitude of his freedom hit him. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Thank you," he breathed. "Thank you, I—"

"There’s one more thing I want from you, Ambrose," Aiden interrupted.

Ambrose nodded immediately. "Anything. Whatever you need."

"I want you to stay here in Eden after this celebration ends. Make this your home. It’s much better than that little cottage out in the middle of nowhere where you’ve been living."

Ambrose looked puzzled. "But I’m not a god. This isn’t my place to be."

"My wives aren’t gods either," Aiden countered. "Aeris is human. Rin is part demon. Neither of them are gods, and yet they come and go from Eden as they please."

"But that’s different," Ambrose protested. "The gods allow that because of you."

Aiden’s expression became almost smug. "You’ve just made my point."

Understanding dawned on him and Ambrose smiled slightly, then nodded in agreement. "Alright. If you’re sure it won’t cause problems, I’ll stay."

"Good." Aiden gestured back toward the celebration. "Go on. Continue enjoying yourself. I’ll take care of the arrangements."

Ambrose thanked him once more, then turned and walked back toward the festivities with a lightness in his step.

As he left, Aiden remained where he was, with his expression becoming contemplative.

"Hmm..." he murmured to himself, his red eyes still glowing. "I may be wrong, but he could be on the level of an Archon now."

Aiden had lied about one thing. He’d told Ambrose that he couldn’t undo the body Samael had reconstructed.

That wasn’t true. Aiden was, after all, the King of the Forge. His authority over creation could easily give Ambrose a normal human body.

But just as he’d peered into Ambrose’s past and he also examined his future, and the weaver of fortune had seen something significant.

A particular future where Ambrose played a crucial role in events yet to come. So Aiden needed Ambrose to remain as he was.

There was, however, one other problem gnawing at the back of his mind.

If Samael had prepared a resurrection plan, he definitely wouldn’t have put all his eggs in one basket.

There had to be other contingencies. Other possible vessels.

And that made Aiden’s expression harden.

He spoke directly into his own thoughts, "You know what to do."

Somewhere in the darkness of space, an avatar of the Dragon God floated motionlessly among the stars.

It replied to the original quickly,

"It will be done."