Chapter 1141 - Passing on the Mantle
With everything done, Shiro returned back to Sil’s body inside the container. He easily pulled himself out, noticing his well developed muscles.
’Oh yeah, that’s right, this isn’t my body. I always thought he was more scrawny like me, but boy was I wrong.’ Shiro then tensed up Sil’s muscles and pressed on his hard abs, his finger was practically hitting a solid wall showing he was in top tip shape. ’It’s so much different than when I use the ability in my own body. I don’t even feel tired after having to search for Oscar. How can one person have so much power?’
After experiencing it for himself he was starting to understand how the Blade family had been able to secretly rule over the Big Four in the past. The things they could do with all those different abilities and the fact that their powers could multiply meant that they would be scary enemies.
’There is still that Hilston guy everyone is worried about out there. If Sil is already this strong, does that mean he is even stronger?’ Shiro gulped as the thought crossed his mind. The Blade family leader would not only have had decades more time to gather multiple powerful abilities but also that extra time to have experience with them.
When Shiro went down he was expecting for everyone to start yelling at him and to get told off, but it appeared that Sil had already made everyone aware of what they were attempting to do. When Quinn walked up and held out his hand, he squinted, almost flinching.
"Are you okay?" Was the first question that came out of Quinn’s mouth. It wasn’t a telling off like he had expected and Shiro nodded in response.
"Wow, that’s kinda cool that you can make people swap bodies, and they can use the ability in that body?" Fex questioned. "Does that mean I can see what it’s like to be a...a girl for one day?" Now his imagination was running wild.
"Does the ability work on Vampires, maybe it’s like Sil’s?" Logan theorised.
Despite everyone’s comments, Quinn was just happy that there weren’t any problems between the process. In all honesty he had been afraid that something might have happened to Shiro and Sil when trying to do something like this, which was why he had only made him run the tests on wild beasts, rather than humans.
However, it was inevitable that at some point Shiro would have had to attempt to do this, and for someone to do it with their own mind, Quinn couldn’t imagine how scary that would have been.
"You should have said something instead of running off." Quinn berated Shiro. "You were lucky that it worked out, but what would you have done if something went wrong? If something happened to you, then it would have been my fault for getting you dragged into this whole mess in the first place. Promise me that next time you try something like that you do it under supervision."
Shiro understood his concern, but didn’t really know what to say. He understood that just seeing Samantha in that state and wanting to help her wasn’t a good enough excuse. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be with the others either. In the end, Shiro just nodded weakly.
"What’s done is done, but we need to make sure we don’t have to take these huge types of risks in the future. So did you get any results?" Quinn asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.
The conversation between the others in the background died down after this as they were listening in carefully.
"I...I connected to him." Shiro answered, which sounded like good news, but Quinn could tell by the sound of Shiro’s heartbeat that something was up. If Shiro could have connected to him, then why was there still no active signs on the monitoring equipment.
"He said...he wanted to speak to you, Quinn. I think it might be for the best. Right now I can use my ability to touch both of you at the same time, and pass you on along with me, so you can have a conversation. It was his... he said that was his last request."
At first Quinn thought that it was quite a risky thing to do. Shiro hadn’t figured out everything about his ability yet, since he hadn’t been using it for too long, but he did have Sil’s powers at the moment granting him access to far more MC cells than he could imagine, but what confined him was the fact that Shiro had stated it was his last request.
’Why would he say that? Unless...’
It was because of this, Quinn nodded. His last request wasn’t to talk to his daughter, or anyone else, but to Quinn. The two of them hardly knew each other.
The others knew that once Quinn had made up his mind, he would go through with it, so they sat back and just waited. At this time, arriving into the room were Bonny and Void. From the sound of the alarm they had known that something would be up, but instead of an attack all they could see now was Quinn and ’Sil’ entering the glass container, with the younger boy floating in the middle of the container touching both of them.
While activating the ability on Quinn, something else could be felt by Shiro for a second, but choosing to ignore this he continued with his task. Having done it once, it was easier than before and with Sil’s power supply it really felt like it was no trouble at all bringing along Quinn as well.
In barely any time they reached the white space, and Oscar was seen smiling as he looked at Quinn. "Young boy, thank you for fulfilling my last request." Oscar said, before turning to Quinn.
"Last request? Do you really not plan to come back?" Quinn asked Oscar. "Even if we can save you? Even if the people out there need you after everything you have already done? Don’t you want to watch the end of this all? You could be there when we get over that last hurdle!"
The tone of Quinn’s voice was surprisingly aggressive. Shiro hadn’t expected him to be like this, so what was the reason?
"Quinn, I have done my duty ever since the first war. I’m not the first one to fall in battle nor do I have grand hopes that I will be the last one. You can’t even imagine how many of my friends, peers and subordinates I have outlived ever since. I have done everything I could to grow stronger to save even one more person. Every time I have fought I have done so with my life on the line knowing the risk and the consequences and I ended up like so. I’m just glad that my sacrifice at the end could save my daughter as well."
"For me, my time is over. My fight is finished, even if that means I don’t get to see the end of it. I hope that my will, and what has happened to me will encourage others just like you to pick up my mantle and continue the fight. I know why you’re upset, I looked into your past, Quinn."
"As a person who has grown up with no ability, your life must have been tough in the world we currently live in. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point you would have blamed me. As the Supreme Commander I must have appeared as the living embodiment of how the world had turned out, but the truth of the matter is that the people decided it to be this way."
"With the war against the Dalki upon us, the strong stood out, the weak relied on us and some people decided to take advantage of that. As a single person I was unable to change what everyone wanted and expected, so I did my best to contain the strong, so the war between ourselves wouldn’t break out when it mattered most, but we all know how that went when Truedream disappeared. "
"That was the moment I realised I needed to change things to make up for what I have failed to do beforehand, but then like a shooting star, I could already see the younger generation attempting to fix the problem I was responsible for creating. And I am glad you all did a far better job than I ever could." Oscar looked deep into Quinn’s eyes, as one of these new people he was referring to was him.
"This is my answer Quinn. I do not wish to be saved." Oscar explained.
Having been around many different types of people, Quinn could tell that at this moment, Oscar had steeled his resolve. Much like himself, he was stubborn and it looked like he had made this decision since long ago.
At the same time, Quinn now was struggling with what he was trying to fight. The person at the top wasn’t Oscar. Wasn’t he meant to be some type of evil controlling villain that was forcing the weak ability users to live through hell, only caring about the strong? Yet, it just didn’t feel that way. The end of his goal, was this...
"Quinn, I wanted to speak to you, because you are one of the people that everyone will have to rely on in the future. As such, I wanted to inform you of a few things. Given your special position, I have naturally looked into your past, trying to find out who you really were, but I have come to the conclusion... that even I was unable to unearth anything."
"For example, the apartment, school fees and your allowance you received when you were younger were all actually provided to you by an anonymous donor. I only later found that some of my people had been told to tell you that we were the ones providing you this service but that’s not the case at all."
"Ever since you were young, someone has been looking out for you. It is said that you have no living relatives, so why would someone go that far, but I recently learned that there is one."
"Richard Eno..." Quinn mumbled. Was it really him? Did that also mean that the military weren’t the ones that complied with his family wishes and had given him the system book. Did Richard actually have it all along? Had Richard been watching him since he was young, a child even, then what about his parents? If he was watching them, why didn;t he protect them and give the book to one of them during the first war?
Thinking about this, Quinn thought about the Quest he had received, to learn more about the Talen family.
"Do you have any more information?" Quinn asked.
"I tried to search for what was relevant, but as someone who didn’t really leave behind a strong impression until after military schools there was not much I could find. I am sure that Samantha must be struggling at the moment, but I know she will come out stronger from this. Take this as a selfish request of a father, but try to help her cope with this until she gets better. Perhaps you can ask her to help you retrace your past for you afterward."
"I also have to burden you to explain to her that my wish is to say goodbye to this place. The longer she tries to stay attached to this form of me, the harder it will be for her to pull away, which only delays my peace." Oscar requested.
Shiro now knew this was the real end of Oscar. Not even Quinn would be able to convince someone like that to come back to them all. These were the final words of the war hero, and Shiro was there to listen to them, even though he felt like he was unworthy of it all.
"Goodbye, Oscar. You can rest now, you did what you could, and I will try to do the same." Quinn said as he offered the man one last handshake. Both looked each other in the eye, Oscar with the kind smile of a senior and Quinn with the bitter smile of someone, who wasn’t ready to let go of the hand.
Alas, eventually Shiro reminded Quinn that using his ability took a toll on his body, even though they both knew that shouldn’t be the case since he was currently in Sil’s body. Still, Quinn let go and both of them left the white space.
When Shiro made the disconnect, they found themselves in the liquid again, and raised themselves out of it. Both of their faces were filled with thoughts, and even though the others were dying of curiosity to know what happened they let them be until they talked on their own.
However, Shiro was left wondering one more thing as he looked at his hand, and looked at Quinn’s back. ’I’m sure of it, after seeing inside of Sil. Why were there two consciousnesses inside of Quinn?’
*****
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