"By the way, how many Runes have you collected so far....?"
Hearing that question, Ash felt as if a bomb had exploded inside his mind.
The atmosphere became chilly, and his heartbeat started to accelerate without him even noticing, while countless thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant as he tried to understand how much Henry truly knew about him and how can he know so much in so little time.
Coldness flashed within Ash’s eyes, but Henry was not weak at all, and he immediately noticed the subtle change in Ash’s behavior.
A faint smile appeared on Henry’s face.
"Don’t worry, I do not plan on killing you. In reality, I did think about getting rid of you and taking the Runes, but I changed my mind after I learned what you have become."
Henry spoke casually, as though he was discussing something completely ordinary rather than casually admitting that he had once considered taking Ash’s life.
Ash kept his mind cool, even with death seemingly sitting right before him, as he calmly analyzed every word coming out of Henry’s mouth while trying to understand the hidden meaning behind them.
The fact that Henry knew about the Runes was already troublesome enough.
The fact that he knew Ash possessed them was even worse.
Yet what truly caught Ash’s attention was the latter half of his sentence.
What I have become...?
"What do you mean by ’what I have become’? Is this related to me being an Anomaly?"
"Bingo!! You are right. Before getting onto that topic, let me ask you something. What do you know about Runes?"
Hearing that question, Ash fell into deep thought for a few moments before replying.
After all, despite possessing multiple Runes and spending countless hours studying them, he knew surprisingly little about their true origin.
"I know that they are very powerful Natural Treasures, and that an Ancient Civilization called the Celestial Circle were the first ones to possess the Runes, but they were wiped out overnight. Other than that, I know nothing. Though, I do have many theories and speculations regarding their origin."
Henry raised an eyebrow hearing that reply.
"Oh!! Theories you say? Let’s hear them. I want to see how wild your imagination is."
Ash looked at Henry’s anticipation-filled face, which strangely resembled that of a child waiting to hear a bedtime story.
For someone who had introduced himself as a Dimensional Traveller, Henry had a very easy going personality.
"At first, I believed that Runes were some kind of Laws, and that the powers I gain are manifestations of the Laws of the Universe themselves, but somewhere along the way I dropped that theory."
As he spoke, Ash gazed deeply at Henry, carefully watching for even the slightest change in expression.
"Interesting. What made you drop that kind of thinking..?"
To Henry’s question, Ash replied vaguely.
"Just this and that."
Like hell I will tell you that I talked with the Will of Runes. You already know too much about me. Right now, I just want to know how much you know.
Henry merely smiled without pressing further.
"As for the second theory, I thought they might be parts of some Ancient Cosmic Entity roaming the Outer Universe, and after its death, its power got separated into different Runes. But now you told me about the Dimensions, and you, a Dimensional Traveller, are also looking for Runes, so I think that entity may be from the Outer Dimensions?"
After speaking, Ash carefully observed Henry’s face.
This time, Henry remained silent.
But for Ash...
That itself was an answer.
"There is also a new theory in my mind right now, that the Runes might be manifestations of the Dimensional Laws themselves. Of course, I only thought about it on the spot."
Ash leaned forward slightly as curiosity filled his eyes.
After all, the person sitting before him might be one of the very few existences capable of answering questions that had troubled him for a very long time.
"So... which one is true?"
"I don’t really know."
"What?"
Ash almost lunged at Henry in anger.
-BAMM!!!!!!
His palm slammed heavily onto the table before them.
The poor table broke into splinters .
"Do you have a screw loose? If you don’t know about them, why are you pretending that you know?"
After everything Henry had said so far, this was the last answer Ash had expected to hear.
Henry, however, remained completely unfazed.
"Just like you, I also don’t really know their exact origin. After all, this is not my Dimension. How can you expect me to know everything about an unknown Dimension?"
"Before you ask how I even know about the Runes, I can’t tell you. All I can tell you is that I read about them somewhere. I also read about you being the main character, I mean the bearer of the Runes. Naturally, I don’t know the whole history."
Ash’s expression twitched slightly.
Ash knew Henry was telling truth, because the passive effect of the Rune of Truth was very good at detecting Lie from Truth.
"To be honest, I learned all there was to learn about the Runes in a multitude of Dimensions, but those Runes and the Runes you possess are fundamentally different. I have no idea why, that’s why I originally wanted them so I could learn more about them."
Henry paused briefly before continuing.
"But my mind changed after I learned about you being an Anomaly."
Silence settled over the room.
Ash did not interrupt this time and instead focused more carefully on Henry’s words, because every answer seemed to reveal something far more important than the question itself.
"As I observed you these past few days, I learned that you are not an Anomaly only for this Dimension, but for all Infinite Dimensions as well. Typically, no one can escape the hold of the Natural Laws of Reality. Every existence is bound by countless Laws from the moment they come into existence, whether they realize it or not."
As Henry spoke, Ash’s expression gradually became more serious.
"But you have almost no Laws binding you. You are the most free being to ever exist."
Ash frowned slightly but remained silent, allowing Henry to continue.
"Naturally, when you venture out of this fake Dimension into the real one, those Laws binding you will also vanish, and I believe even the Dimensional Laws you spoke of will not bind you."
Ash expression remain neutral even after hearing those outrageous terms one after another.
"So, I thought befriending an Anomaly like you would do me more good than becoming an enemy. After all, opportunities to meet someone like you do not come often."
A faint smile appeared on Henry’s face as he looked directly at Ash.
"And who knows, you might also be the key to going even beyond the Infinite Dimensions."
As those words left Henry’s mouth, a strange silence settled between them once more while Ash quietly stared at him, trying to determine whether the man before him was being serious or simply making things up as he went.
After a few moments, Ash finally spoke.
"What do you mean by Fake Dimension?"
"Hmm?"
Henry blinked once before realization appeared on his face.
"Oh! I guess you don’t know."
He leaned back into the couch and crossed his arms behind his head.
"Actually, that makes sense. Nobody inside would know."
Ash’s brows furrowed.
"Know what?"
"That this Universe you live in, or rather this Realm, isn’t a Natural Reality."
The moment those words left Henry’s mouth, Ash’s eyes narrowed.
"What does that even mean?"
"It means exactly what I said."
Henry shrugged.
"Think of yourself as living inside a smaller Dimension artificially created by someone. It has its own Rules, its own Laws, its own restrictions, and while it looks complete from the inside, it is fundamentally different from the Dimensions outside."
"And before you ask, no, I don’t know who created it."
Henry added before Ash could even open his mouth.
Ash’s expression twitched.
The more he heard Henry’s words, the stranger they sounded.
"But without this Fake Dimension, you becoming an Anomaly would have been impossible."
Seeing Ash remain silent, Henry continued without pause.
"I learned a lot of information by hacking into the Universal System of the Realm of Eden. I even saw glimpses of your life as Ash Burn in the World of Akumia, though only I know about you because the Universal System presumes you to be dead. Since I already knew about you, I naturally focused more on information related to your existence."
Ash’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The fact that someone could casually hack into the Universal System was shocking enough, yet Henry spoke about it as though it were something completely ordinary.
"And during the past few days, I observed the laws governing this Fake Dimension and I learned very interesting this, this dimension has fundamentally different Laws compared to the Dimensions outside. To be honest, even I found it fascinating because the differences are significant enough to alter what should and should not be possible."
Henry leaned back slightly before continuing.
"Normally, every existence is born with chains."
"Chains?"
"Laws."
Henry corrected.
"Restrictions. Boundaries. Limits. Call them whatever you want."
His gaze settled upon Ash.
"But you slipped through them with the Help of the Runes or whatever makes you special."
"All of this is impossible to execute, but it became easier because of this Fake Dimension. Then I presume you also went some sort of Evolution."
Ash did not deny it.
There was little point doing so when Henry clearly already knew.
"Your whole existence changed at that moment. What evolved was not merely your body, soul, or abilities. The very foundation of your existence transformed into something entirely different."
For the first time since the conversation began, Henry’s expression became noticeably more serious.
"You became free from the chains that bind every existence."
Ash remained silent as those words echoed within his mind.
"Naturally, I believe your journey will be very hard going forward, because the more freedom you possess, the fewer paths others can walk before you. Most of the things you will face from now on will likely have no examples, no guidance, and no one who can truly teach you what comes next."
Henry shrugged lightly.
"But if you can overcome those challenges, then you might as well become the strongest existence to ever exist in the Infinite Dimensions."
Unlike before, Henry did not smile after saying those words.
He simply looked at Ash calmly, as though he genuinely believed what he had just said.
****