Chapter 64 - 64 – Ether Essences
Kyle's eyes widened in horror.
"You turned me into a schizo?!" he asked in shock.
"What? No! You're my inheritor! What's a schizo? I've never heard of such a word," Theodor answered from inside of Kyle.
"A schizo is..." Kyle started but then stopped. "You're not going to remember my explanation, right?"
"I have limited space for acquiring new knowledge. You see, creating a Golem akin to humans is-"
"Yes, yes, you explained that already," Kyle said.
"How dare you interrupt me?! As my inheritor..."
Kyle's right eyelid twitched in rage and frustration as the voice inside his head kept narrating things he already knew.
'What the fuck,' Kyle thought. 'Am I crazy now? If I'm not, I swear this fucking voice inside my head is going to make me crazy!'
"Why are you inside my head anyway?! Can't you just write books or whatever and teach me that way?!" Kyle asked in frustration after Theodor was done explaining.
"Insurance," Theodor answered. "How else will I make sure that you won't betray my last wishes and just run away with all of my knowledge?"
"And what's to stop me now?" Kyle asked.
Then, Theodor started laughing maniacally.
"Ahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
As Kyle listened to the maniacal laughter, he grew nervous.
'This guy is actually nuts.'
Silence.
"Yes?" Kyle asked.
"What? Ask a proper question!" Theodor demanded.
"What's to stop me from not fulfilling your last wishes?" Kyle asked.
Yet, as Theodor started to laugh again, he knew that he had fucked up.
But that was nothing new to him.
'I should rephrase, or he will start laughing again.'
"What are you going to do to me if I won't fulfill your last wishes?" Kyle asked.
"I will blow up," Theodor said, and Kyle could swear he heard the evil smirk in that sentence.
"Okay, and how would that affect me?" Kyle asked.
"Let me put it so that a foolish mortal like you can understand the situation you are in," Theodor said with an arrogant tone. "I am a stone inside your brain. If I blow up, your brain blows up."
Kyle took a deep breath.
'That's bad, right?'
"Wait, you put a stone in my brain?" he asked.
"How dare you refer to the mighty work of art that is the Inheritance Crystal as a mere stone?!" Theodor shouted.
"You literally just called it a stone yourself," Kyle answered.
"I did not! I would never refer to the Inheritance Crystal as a stone!" Theodor answered.
'Holy fucking shit,' Kyle thought. 'This guy is gaslighting me... but not really? I mean, he genuinely doesn't remember what he said.'
Kyle was still reeling from the shock of realizing that there was a talking stone inside his brain now.
"Will you fuck off if I fulfill your dying wishes?!" Kyle asked with frustration.
"Yes," Theodor answered.
Kyle sighed with annoyance. "Fine! What's your last wish or whatever?"
"I want you to kill Hieronimus Skysand and wipe out his lineage!" Theodor said.
'Skysand?' Kyle thought. 'Isn't that the name of the kingdom I'm residing in, Skysand Kingdom?'
"What's Hieronimus Skysand's job?" Kyle asked.
"He is the King of the Skysand Kingdom," Theodor answered.
Kyle took a deep breath.
"Eh, how strong is he?" he asked.
"He is one of the eight Transcendents of this world and has two other Transcendents working under him. He is one of the four strongest beings in the entire world."
Kyle just looked forward aimlessly.
"You want me, a foolish mortal, to assassinate one of the strongest people in the entire world," Kyle repeated.
"And eradicate his lineage, correct," Theodor added.
"Why?" Kyle asked.
"Hieronymus betrayed me!" Theodor shouted with hatred. "I served him for all my life, but when I needed him most, he refused to come to my aid!"
"What happened?" Kyle asked.
"I was once the most powerful Golemancer in the entire world. I commanded thousands of people, and everyone was willing to gift all their belongings to me just so that they may benefit from my wisdom."
"Alas, a mistake in my past shut the door to my future."
"You see, the rituals for the different paths allow people to become powerful, but they will stop you from ever becoming a Transcendent."
"I won't go into details since your mortal mind won't be able to comprehend the vast complexities of the path to true power. You must only know that partaking in one of the rituals makes it essentially impossible to become a Transcendent."
Kyle was reminded of the ritual he had undergone during the fourth trial.
"Eh, didn't you make me undertake one of these rituals?" he asked.
"Foolish mortal!" Theodor shouted. "Do you believe the great Lord Theodor would ruin his inheritor's chances? Of course not!"
"I can feel what ritual you have undertaken, and that ritual is not like the other ones. In fact, you have received the very thing that I was denied by that accursed Hieronymus!"
"I undertook the ritual to become an Artificer! My mind and Soul were enhanced, but in exchange, my body and Center were crippled."
"Yet, to become a Transcendent, you need all four of your Aspects of Power. I was powerful! I was a Peak Master Artificer! I was the best Golemancer in the world!"
"But after decades of research, I managed to create a method to fix my Aspects of power. Yet, when I asked Hieronymus for the resources, he denied me, dooming me to forever remain a mere Peak Artificer!"
"Why?" Kyle asked.
"He said it was too expensive. He said that it would cripple the kingdom!" Theodor shouted with hatred.
"But I could see through his lies! All the presents he gave me. All the support. All the people he sacrificed for me. All the times he listened to my problems and helped me. I knew all along that it was just an act!"
"He was out to get me from the start!"
"He always only wanted to keep me below him!"
"He promised that he would find a way to make me into a Transcendent, but when I finally found a way myself, he refused!"
"He refused to provide me the resources and doomed me!"
"I knew he was out to get me ever since I met him for the first time!"
"I knew it all along!"
"I could tell that he was secretly crazy!"
"But I turned a blind eye to my own wisdom and foolishly believed him!"
"I made him an army of golems, and he refused to hand over three Ether Essences! He said he could only do one and that three were too much!"
Kyle raised his brow.
"What's an Ether Essence?"
"It's the very foundation and source of all Ether minerals. Ether minerals are used as currency and to grow stronger. It is the very backbone of the path to power."
"Every Ether Essence creates an Ether Mine, and the kingdoms and duchies rely on them for survival."
'Sounds important,' Kyle thought.
"You wanted three, right? How many does the Skysand Kingdom own?" he asked.
"There are twelve Ether Essences in the entire world, creating twelve Ether Mines."
"The Twilight Duchy owns one. The Holy Sea owns one. The Winterfire Kingdom owns four. The Skysand Kingdom also owns four. The remaining two are being fought over by the two kingdoms."
"Wait," Kyle said. "You wanted three of the four Ether Mines? So, you're saying you essentially wanted 75% of the Skysand Kingdom's wealth?"
"So?" Theodor asked. "We would have had another Transcendent! When one Ether Essence vanishes, another one is being born in the world somewhere anyway. With my power, we could have simply conquered those new ones or taken control over the ones everyone is fighting over!"
"But he kept claiming that this would throw the kingdom into ruin! He claimed that everyone would suffer! The economy would stop, and many villages and cities relying on trade would die!"
"Did he lie?" Kyle asked.
"No, that would definitely have happened," Theodor answered. "But so what?! We are the most powerful people in the world! Who's to stop us from taking what is rightfully ours?!"
Kyle had a concerned expression on my face.
"And he was willing to give you one, which was 25% of the Kingdom's wealth essentially, right?"
"Yes," Theodor answered. "One! One measly Ether Essence!"
Kyle took a deep breath. "And he has two other Transcendents under him, correct? That means he has two servants who were more powerful than you, right?"
"Yes," Theodor answered.
"And he was willing to give you 25% of the Kingdom's wealth," Kyle repeated.
"That cheapskate! I knew his friendship was fake from the very beginning! He always had it out for me! He always tried to find an opportunity to crawl up to me and enter into my good graces by helping me with all my problems!"
"He's a traitor!"
"He's a snake!"
Kyle's face fell.
'Holy Jesus,' he thought.
'I am a schizo with a schizo in my head.'