Chapter 265: Clutched My Chest

[Day 1/1825 on The Godless Green Earth A.I World]

"I will get her to you, but for now I will act as a guiding voice until you two are back together. Head west from here to the coast. If you run, it should take you half a day to reach the settlement. I need to go check on Hyde, and the other two to see how Bhan and Kiada are doing."

"All of them made it fine?"

"They made it, K is doing a lot better than Bhan, but that was to be expected. Drania always rolls her eyes at the new random list of flavors the girl's blood is set at. That was a really good idea on your part! Who wouldn't want to bite into an ice cream-flavored neck? That is one that didn't get messed up by Reginold," Gripton said with a smile.

"I designed the quirks into our sparks, those things can never be changed or altered. That's why I was always able to come out on top, but Reginold did find a way to suppress the effects didn't he? That is why all the girls were taken from me slowly on my first run of this reset, forcing me into a downward spiral that just ended up getting everyone killed, but me."

The memory was old, but for me, it was like just yesterday, I could see now why none of the girls wanted to talk about it. It had torn me apart, broke me down to the ground until I gave up, but Tequila saved my spark and helped me...urgh!

I clutched my heart and dropped to my knees, gasping for air; I could hear Mikota scream as I fell over. Like a flood gate had been opened, she poured into my mind like rushing water, filling every corner of my being and existence with her. I wasn't in pain, I just couldn't breathe, so many years spent together before coming to Reborn from Second Life pushed down on my chest with the weight of a mountain.

"Is he okay?!" I could hear Mikota ask in a worried voice.

"He is fine for the most part, he finally dug deep enough to get her back. You know Tequila and Dave spent countless years watching over you all, now Dave is getting that all back. I would imagine receiving over a millennium of memory that you spent together with a woman you love might have this effect on a person," Gripton explained to Mikota. 

They were still pouring into my mind like an unending stream, but I was starting to be able to catch my breath again. I knew how many years were spent frame jacked, 1134 years inside the game. Not even Hyde knew that, I had asked the girls to keep it a secret from him and the others. I don't know if they would have given me shit, but Bhan might throw a jealous fit, but I had let the other girls live any lives they wanted and worked with Tequila to create realities for the girls to enjoy.

The entire time, I was with her, and we had shared many realities of our own creation, some of the memories were passing by right now, filling my empty memory card. I laughed out loud and then got back up when I thought about the jokes about all my massively huge empty space in what I knew. Now I knew that was because over a thousand years had been missing from my time her.

"Even if someone would have told me before, I wouldn't have believed them. I had to go back and confront what happened...still hard to think about it, but that is such a small part of the bigger picture. So, Tequila helped me reset, but then took her place as Mom, to the girls, subverting Reginold as much as she could to prevent the same thing from happening."

"Yes, I am sorry you had to dig through it like that, but that was her and your doing. You made the choice with her that it would be better to be wiped and let Reginold think you were coming in the same. Now, we are here! Finally! Alright, I will step out for now, but you know how to get a hold of me, but know that I will be coming in person each time. I have to use the brain phone with everyone else, so I will be getting my money's worth out of your visit!"

And just like that, he was gone. It was hard to explain, it wasn't like disappeared or teleported, he just wasn't there, like he never had been. It was a bit of a disconcerting feeling, like my mental grip on reality had just got a wack. 

"You and Mom?" Mikota asked curiously, with an eyebrow raised.

"Don't you even dare start that! You know that she is just another one of your friends and not your mother!"

"You're right, that would be way too weird, hehe, but I know one person that is going to have fun with this! I watched your third game with Grace, she is quite the lady, I never really spent much time with her, but I heard stories about some of the adventures she took you on!" Mikota said, laughing while walking up to me with her arms up and a cute smile.

She squealed as I scooped her up and took off running; she wasn't wrong about Grace. Knowing Gripton's wonderful sense of humor, she would be here just as surely as a bear shitting in the woods. Not that I didn't enjoy all the raunchy adventures we had, and there were many, but they were not the kind you talked about when anyone else was around. The woman had some pretty exotic sexual tastes, maybe after this was all done I might have to write a book about it, now that would be some hairy tales!