Chapter 661 Aran 3
Daneel could never have expected that the most normal-seeming person in his retinue would be the one with the darkest past.
In all his memories of the man, he had always been smiling and jesting jovially.
Cassandra's past was similarly dark and sad, but for her, everything had happened in one grim stroke. Whereas, here, although it hadn't been confirmed, Daneel had a feeling that Aran was the kid who had been tortured for nine days straight.
It was just a feeling, initially, but in fact, when he thought about it, he realized that it was a logical conclusion that he had reached after remembering more details from what he had seen in the vision before.
Intending to confirm that, Daneel entered into the vision again, and paid more attention to everything around him.
The garb of the little kid looked like it had been singed in multiple places, and there were many holes which Daneel had ignored before as the scene was, after all, one where there were multiple burned bodies with similar clothes all around.
Yet, as he looked closer, he realized that there were also many scars which looked like they had recently appeared. This, of course, corroborated with the story that he was constantly being healed so that he could be kept alive for that prince's sick pleasure.
Looking up, Daneel took note of the man in the air who was crazily throwing fireballs all around him. Again, here was another clue - their features were similar, and an underlying sadness could be felt from both of them, which was definitely because of the death of their most loved one that had just occurred.
No more was required. Aran was the only one who had survived of those 12,000 people, and although Daneel did not know yet how he had done it, he could tell that it must have been something that wasn't easy at all.
What to do next?
Thinking for a bit, Daneel realised that he first had to verify something.
"System, is there anything I can do to influence his vision without causing any harmful side effects? Or can he somehow safely be extracted from this vision without causing any harm?"
This was the first solution that came to Daneel's mind. This seemed like a little bit too much for someone with the mentality of a child to go through. Even Cassandra had been quite a bit older than the child in front of him when she had had to go through her own traumatic experience.
If he could somehow remove his commander from this illusion formation, he knew that he could think of other ways to make the man break through later on. The most important thing right now was his safety, and as he once again looked at everything around him and tried not to gag from the smell of the burning flash, he knew that Aran must be pretty close to snapping and losing his sanity forever.
How could anyone overcome something like this?
In Cassandra's case, she had already gotten her revenge, and her problem had been that she hadn't been able to let go of the thirst for even more revenge that had still been present inside her, eating her away like and making her cling onto it as it represented the memories of her family.
She had simply had to let go.
But what could Aran do? Obviously, he had been powerless to change anything, so what solution was there? What could he do to overcome the situation and break through?
This completely baffled Daneel, and that was also why he hoped that he would get a positive answer for this question.
It was obvious that the creator of the Road through Hell had not been thinking of people like this when he had created this illusion formation. For normal people, traumatic experiences were usually those that they could overcome by doing something different. Yet, Aran was anything but normal.
[The target's mind has already completely entered the illusion. Even if the illusion formation is canceled at this stage, the illusion will continue in his own mind. Host can affect the target in these ways:
Host can suggest what route to be taken to overcome the situation, but if host's suggestions fail, the target will be doomed to a life of madness. In the Emperor's records, it is written that this is a very risky thing to do, as solutions have to come from oneself, and even if such solutions fail, it is possible that the mind would want to turn back and try to look for another one, as there always exists a need inside one to try again and succeed. However, if there is external disturbance or manipulation, this gets disturbed, and this 'looping back' that has been going on so far will not occur, resulting in permanent damage. The records advise that such a thing should not be undertaken unless there is no other option.
Host can choose a High-Tier technique suitable to target which fortifies target's mind and allows them to better handle the situation, and look for a solution.]
Looping back?
Daneel was pretty surprised that such a thing even existed, but it did make sense.
After all, Aran had been in the formation for days.
Anyone would want a second chance, and if it was possible that they could go back and try something different, then in a world where 'need' trumped all, it was definitely plausible that such a thing could be achieved.
After hearing the two options, Daneel breathed a sigh of relief as all hope hadn't been lost yet. He heavily leaned toward the second, which he had thought of, too, as he had read about techniques which accomplished that.
However, for both of them, he needed information about what had happened, so Daneel decided that he would first wait and watch.
Obviously, he was just a bystander - an outsider looking in, so the vision had not paused just because he had come and then left.
The last time he had been here, there were fewer bodies, and there had been people fleeing the scene.
Now, an eerie silence was present, with the maniacal laughter being the only thing that occasionally broke it.
The cowering of the little kid did not stop, though, and he started to flinch more and more violently with each sound of explosion that he heard.
Daneel waited patiently, not closing his eyes, as he felt for some reason that he had to be witness to all this that had been caused, ultimately, by the previous king being free with his children.
He branded each and every image into his mind, as even though he knew that he would never make any decisions that might result in something like this, there was no reason not to witness what had already happened, and use it as a guidepost or a warning so that he would always know what not to do.
The man never stopped laughing, almost as if he couldn't even if he wanted to. After he was done with killing all of those near him, he even started roaming in the town, which explained the 10,000 kill count. He burned all the houses, and set on fire each and every man, woman, and child he came across. He wasn't doing it consciously, and this was something Daneel knew for sure as he could see his eyes.
Those were the eyes of a mad, raging bull that would keep charging forward even if death was in its way, as its mind was no longer in its grasp.
It felt as if an eternity had passed before the man finally paused and looked up at the sun that had just begun to set.
He suddenly stopped laughing, and as Daneel watched, tears came from his eyes as if the sunset reminded him of something.
He said nothing, so Daneel didn't get any more clues, but he just floated there in the air, witnessing the blazing sun dip lower and lower into the horizon.
As it slowly began to disappear, his body also started to turn to ash.
As he died in the same manner as was told to Daneel by the previous Grand Court Mage, the 2000 or so people who were still remaining came out of their houses.
They had been hiding all this while, and it was actually only a brave few who ventured outside hearing the silence and wondering whether something had changed.
Even these brave few kept shaking in their boots and taking steps more cautiously than a deer drinking water in a lake infested with crocodiles, and as they finally looked all around and found no one, they went back to their families to tell the good news.
That was when shouts finally broke that silence, as all the families and those who had been lucky enough to escape the devastation walked out to a darkness that felt safer than any they had lived through.
That night, there were no fires, as almost all the around 2000 survivors were already deathly afraid of anything that represented that element.
They wondered what they should do, as they knew that they might be held responsible for the death of the prince, who was even supposed to be one who was beloved by the king because of his talent.
Finally, as morning came, the survivors of the town knew that they could not just sit there, as the truth would come out sooner or later anyway.
Daneel was free to roam around the vision, so he observed all these while still keeping a close eye on the kid who was Aran, waiting to see what he would do.
Only, for a day, the kid just stayed there, not even drinking water.
It was as if he was stuck- as if some memories were repeatedly playing again and again in his head. In his eyes was deep, deep pain- the kind that could make anyone wish that they were dead. Daneel assumed that he was revisiting the memories he had spent with his parents.
The survivors had decided that they would go contact the nearest town and began a search of their own town in order to see whether there might be anyone who might still be hiding in fear.
And that… Was when they found Aran.
Daneel braced himself, understanding that this might be the defining moment of the vision.
Only… Something weird happened.
The moment they saw him, the whole area blurred, making Daneel feel as if he had entered some kind of fever dream. Random sounds and blurry images assaulted him, and by the time all of these cleared out, the sight he saw was another one that he would remember forever.
Aran lay buried among a mountain of corpses, with only darkness all around him.
Of course, he was seeing everything from Aran's viewpoint, so he could only see the same bodies that he had seen before all around him, through which Aran frantically scrambled.
That was when Daneel realized that they were in some kind of pit, and from above, indistinct voices could be heard.
Aran got to the bottom of the pit, and because the bodies were weirdly stacked into a mountain, there was some flat ground in which he quickly dug a hole.
He seemed to have a bit of time, so he kept digging lower and lower while heaping on more and more earth above him.
Finally, it got to a point where Daneel doubted whether he could even dig himself out if he wanted to.
It seemed that Aran realized the same thing, as he stopped digging with those bleeding hands, and braced himself as if he knew that something was coming.
A few minutes after that, the sound of raging fire was heard, and Daneel, who was like a ghost hovering in the earth around Aran, saw the earth above him start to heat up and turn red-hot, causing the little bit of space in which Aran was there to also increase in temperature.
It soon got so hot that angry red boils started to appear on his skin, but what was strange was that Aran didn't even look like he was holding in a scream.
Oh, yes, he had already endured this a lot of times.
Remembering this, Daneel forced himself to keep watching, and soon, the fire stopped, and the temperature of the earth all around Aran also started to slowly decrease.
Outside, it had been night time, so that also helped. Soon, Aran checked and judged that the earth above him was cool enough for him to dig through again, so he began emerging, and when he finally reached the surface, there was nothing but ash left all around him along with an ever deeper stench of burning flesh.
"Quickly, Aran!"
An old man waited on top of the pit with a rope, and seeing him appear, he threw it down and allowed Aran to climb up.
Aran was taken to a cave in a small mountain nearby, where there were a few food supplies.
The man left the moment he showed Aran the cave, as if they had some understanding between them.
From here, there was a clear view of the town, so Daneel watched as Aran spent the time applying the healing salves that were also left behind, while eating the food.
More and more questions started to pop up in Daneel's mind, regarding everything that had happened.
Why had everything gone blurry? Who was that old man?
However, one thing did happen which Daneel understood.
A day after Aran escaped that pit, the sounds of screams were once again heard from the town, after which there was a dead silence which was even deeper than the one that had been present before after the death of his father.
Clearly… The king had gone ahead and killed off all the survivors.
With panic in his eyes, Aran hastily collected the basket in which the food had been kept, intending to run out.
Yet, that was when a letter fell out of it which was addressed to him.
Picking it up, Aran opened it, and that…was where the vision ended.
['Looping back' occurring. As this is a kind of reset, host is being forced out. Spell must be recast if host wishes to enter the vision again.]
Opening his eyes in the room, Daneel was more puzzled than ever before, as he realized that he had found more questions rather than the answers that he had gone in to look for.
As he had the system, he could at least find the answers to some of those.
[Those blurry images represent things that are kept deeply locked within the target's mind, so much so that the consciousness managed to obstruct the spell, preventing anyone from outside to look in.]
"Is there no way to find out what happened?", asked Daneel, knowing that the key was probably in what happened during those times.
[Only one way exists. Host's consciousness can begin to 'mimic' the consciousness of the target, which will allow host to experience everything that the target experienced during the vision. Host is warned that his own consciousness might be damaged because the experiences are clearly traumatic. Host is advised to proceed with caution.]
Daneel understood right away why the system was saying this. Anyone who had to go through everything that Aran had gone through would definitely not emerge the same person.
According to it, if he agreed to this, there was a pretty good chance that he might not come out of it unscathed.
Daneel knew that if he wished to know the true extent of Aran's strength, which was needed if he wanted to choose the second option, he had to do this. The first one was just a bit too risky, and he was not willing to choose it.
This man was someone who had sworn his life to him, and would definitely do something like this for him in a heartbeat. If so… Why should he hesitate?
Taking a deep breath, he said "Do it," and closed his eyes before being taken away.