Chapter 76

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Episode 16 - Fragment from Gate of Memory [3]

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〖■■■■ sent a message〗

〖Do you wish to open the message?〗

〖Yes/No〗

I didn’t know how to react to the notifications that appeared in my mind.

However, I slowly focused on them, and before I realized it, my mind responded with "yes."

The screen changed instantly.

〖You have accepted the message from ■■■■〗

〖The Fragment of ■■■■’s Memory Gate resonates with the player’s memories〗

〖Story of ■■■■, Chapter ■■■■〗

〖Scene: "Ambush"〗

〖Sending the player’s consciousness to another space〗

In an instant, the world around me ceased to exist.

My senses shut down, my perception of the world vanished, and the white lines that outlined the world faded away.

***

"Ugh... what the hell!"

I muttered as I raised a hand to my head, rubbing it after feeling a sharp pain.

"..."

’Wait a moment... pain, and also... my voice.’

I suddenly opened my eyes. The dizziness hit me immediately, and I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my head.

As if hundreds of burning needles were piercing it.

I frowned, unable to understand what was happening. When I fully opened my eyes, I looked around and finally examined my body.

"...."

At that moment, I froze, unable to believe what I was seeing.

My body was completely different. It wasn’t Adel’s trained body.

No, this body was fairly well-trained, but not like that of a swordsman.

It looked more like the body of someone who trained for self-defense rather than to become strong.

But putting that aside, I lowered my gaze toward my chest and frowned, though my expression froze instantly.

’These are... breasts... female breasts, wait a second.’

I looked at my body once more—I mean, the body of whoever I was possessing right now.

’I’m inside... a woman’s body. Well, my voice alone already says it all, but still, this is...’

I couldn’t find the words to describe my situation, but then I remembered the system messages.

’That Fragment resonated with my memories, and then my consciousness was sent somewhere else.’

This was definitely a Memory Gate or, in this case, a fragment of one.

And I knew whose fragment it was.

My eyes widened, and a thought crossed my mind.

’Don’t tell me... I’m... inside the body of the Lady of the Beasts, right?’

Either that, or I was inside someone else’s body.

Inside Memory Gates, there were two ways to experience the story of the person who left behind their experiences.

One of them, the most common, was to let your consciousness enter without possessing any body or anything similar.

You simply entered with your consciousness and materialized as your usual self. That was all.

As if it were some kind of avatar.

The second was body possession, which was what was happening right now.

Body possession depended heavily on the situation. At best, it was random.

’But if you’re a descendant of the person whose story you’re experiencing, body possession usually places you inside someone close to the protagonist of that story.’

’Does that mean I’m inside the body of someone close to the Lady of the Beasts? But that shouldn’t be possible.’

Unless I was inside the body of some Progenitor, but... was that really the case?

At that very moment, my mouth opened against my will.

"What the hell was that... a fucking ambush."

My head turned toward a specific place.

And now that I thought about it, everything around me was dark.

The sky held an endless darkness, and the lands around me were devastated.

It was as if the place had been destroyed by some colossal force.

I didn’t know what was happening right now, but I stopped thinking about it anyway and focused on what was happening.

By the way, it seems I have no control over the body I’m in. I’m simply a third-person observer.

Which was strange.

Soon, my eyes locked onto a figure floating in the sky.

It radiated an intense white light, held a spear made of light, and wore shining golden armor.

And its face...

Well, that was the strangest part.

It was like looking at corrupted data or static on the screen of a damaged PC.

A distorted veil filled with interference covered the face of the floating figure.

Then, suddenly, my lips moved as I shouted.

"You damned firefly, you can’t defeat us alone or even with those other bastards, so you resort to ambushes, huh, you son of a bitch?"

The figure floating in the sky turned and looked in my direction.

Because of the interference, I could barely make out their mouth opening as they said:

"Sealing them is the most important thing. This world belongs to us now."

Just as I opened my mouth to respond, footsteps suddenly echoed behind me.

I turned my head, and my eyes locked onto a figure walking forward with a sword in hand.

He wore silver scale armor. His slightly long hair fell to his shoulders, and just like the figure in the sky, this person’s face was also distorted.

"Seal us? First, you’re the reason all of this happened, the destruction of my home. Then you come here and casually say this world belongs to you. After that, you tried to kill us, but we were stronger, so now you resort to ambushes. Ha, how ridiculous."

The man stopped in front of me, then extended his hand, and my body moved its own hand to take his.

He helped me stand up, and my lips parted as I said:

"Evan, it’s better if we escape. Those bastards managed to seal most of my Summoning powers, and the others were probably ambushed as well by now. We should regroup with the others and..."

The man in front of me placed his hand on my head, and the person who was most likely the Lady of the Beasts, the one whose perspective I was seeing everything through, fell silent and looked at the man named Evan.

’Could he be... the creator of the Swordsman Specialty?’

His sword alone said everything. Standing before me was one of the Progenitors.

Honestly, I didn’t understand at all what was happening.

I was confused, but even so, I focused on everything they were saying.

"We’ll meet up with the others. Besides, I can handle this guy."

Evan raised his sword and pointed it at the figure floating in the sky.

"We’ve never fought each other before. How about we see which is better, the sword or the spear?"

The figure floating in the sky laughed.

"Ha, that’s interesting. I am the origin of all weapons and of light. Just look around you, nothing remains, and I am the salvation of this world. You are nothing but impostors."

Evan clicked his tongue and said, shaking his head:

"No, no, my good friend. You don’t belong here and, no matter the cost, you will die sooner or later. Even if you seal us in the Abyss, we’ll crawl our way back out no matter what."

The figure in the sky did not respond. It simply stared at Evan in silence, and then...

"It’s not time yet."

A pillar of light that split the heavens descended upon where the Lady of the Beasts and Evan stood.

Without even raising his sword, Evan simply looked at the pillar of light that had torn through the darkness of the sky, leaving behind a massive hole.

And then, without warning...

A thin line appeared and sliced through the pillar of light as if it were butter.

That enormous thing, capable of tearing a hole through the sky, was cut apart with nothing more than a glance.

The next second, the pillar of light shattered into pieces, and the figure that had once been floating there had disappeared.

"He always runs away whenever I appear. He’s really afraid of me, huh."

Evan muttered as he turned toward the Lady of the Beasts and said:

"Are you alright? Right now, you only have the pitiful strength of a 10-Star."

The Lady of the Beasts waved her hand.

"Yes, I’m fine. Besides, you were here the whole time, right? Right?"

"..."

"Yeah, well... I was worried something might happen, and in the end, something really did happen. Anyway, let’s go meet up with the others. They were probably ambushed too, just like you said."

The Lady of the Beasts nodded, and then Evan suddenly stopped halfway and looked directly into her eyes.

"Is something wrong, Evan?"

Evan said nothing and simply stared straight into her eyes, into my own eyes.

For a brief moment, my breath caught in my throat, thinking he was looking at me.

But that was impossible... or maybe not, but still...

"Nothing. It’s just that I think the humans of the future will make good use of the Memory Gates, and probably my plan..."

He suddenly stopped and shook his head.

"Never mind."

The Lady of the Beasts puffed out her cheeks and said:

"Come on, what were you going to say, older brother?"

"Tsk, don’t call me that. You only do it when you want to mess with me."

"Alright, alright. Anyway, let’s head back."

As I watched this, a screen suddenly appeared in front of me without warning.

〖Time has run out〗

〖Because the Memory Gate is incomplete, it is not possible to maintain the player’s consciousness any longer〗

〖Expelling the player from the story of ■■■■〗

In an instant, everything before me disappeared. Darkness struck me, and the world around me faded away.

Everything I had been seeing just moments ago was replaced, and my senses and vision returned.

And once again, I could see nothing but darkness and white lines.

No color, no scenery, nothing else. I had returned to my original body, with a lingering thought remaining in my mind.

’What was all that?’