Chapter 49 - 47

Estimating that he could go out now. Zero went out from the system space to see his masterpiece. He just tested it if he could hide within the system space while throwing that bomb away and his hunch was right. But even he was wrong, the more risks, the more success. He betted his life for his plan to proceed and the outcome satisfied him.

Zero witnessed the massive crater that was caused by the mini bombs. In order to be ȧssured, he attached two mini bombs on his sword to ascertain his success. That's Zero was, he thought ahead to attain his goal.

Before he could examine the scene, the system notified.

[Ting! Side task completed. Reward: +5 stat points, Mystery manual. Claim the reward? Yes or No.]

Zero selected yes.

He had now another additional 5 stat points and the other 5 stat points that he received days ago wasn't allocated yet as he forgot about it due to his frustration to the system.

["Open display screen.]

[Performer: 0

Title: ?????? (Locked), Beaten Junkie

Task completed: 1 side task

Intelligence: 10

Stamina: 10

Agility: 10

(+10 stat points)

Skills:

Charmer: 10

(No further skills) ]

He left the stat points as he decided to plan it out later where he could allocate each points. He was more curious to the mystery manual that he received, though.

[Mystery manual - obtain from killing the Sphinx. Do you want to open the manual? Yes or No?]

Zero clicked the yes and suddenly a book appeared infront of him, floating there quietly as it waited for the youth to open it. The young man neared it and opened the manual, human figures, steps and words showed on his mind.

'Phoenix Bloodline manual? What is that?'

Zero decided to study it later as he needed first to see the current situation. While looking around using his qi perception, he saw something odd.

Strangely, the 'wooden' sword wasn't affected by the explosion as it laid there unscathed. The young man frowned and asked the system.

["Are you sure about this sword being wooden?"]

[Host, the sword is part of the Wooden class type. Wooden class weapons are identified to be more sturdy and effective than common metal.]

Zero sighed helplessly as he stated.

["System, are you really playing me?"]

[Player mode was already activated.]

The youth did not entertain more of the defected system's usual stupidness as he stashed away the wooden sword on his spatial storage as he deemed it useful. While examining the splashes of blood and pieces of flesh on the ground, Zero discovered a black crystal substance was left untouched.

'It might came from the monster?'

He picked the black crystal.

[System Detection: Sphinx formula.]

Without thinking twice, he burned it using his fire magic but it did not get incinerated. Knowing that his fire spell wasn't enough, Zero thought about the manual.

'Phoenix Bloodline? Should he try it now?'

He was about to take the manual out the storage when suddenly he heard a voice.

(Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me?)

It's an unfamiliar feminine voice. Zero turned around and observed his surroundings in order to find where it came from. But he saw nothing, just the wrecked and rubbled place. The youth took the black crystal into his storage as he went to find the voice.

(Are you the Great Conqueror?)

Zero quirked his brows as he heard this.

"Great Conqueror?" The youth shouted as his voice echoed inside the enclosed tunnel.

The feminine voice chuckled. Like it was mocking him. Zero frowned as the voice stopped its play.

(I am inside you.)

"How is that possible?" The youth was originally smart but right now his brain was not working as he tried to examine himself.

Chun who was talking to the youth, put her hands on her face as she sighed helplessly. Chun was observing the youth through the looking-water of Titus as the deity smiled in entertainment while looking to the supposed Great Conqueror.

(Okay, stop. We were somehow connected so I could speak through your thoughts.)

Zero ceased his movement as he asked.

"Who are you?"

(I am Chun and you're the only one who could help me.)

"What do you mean by it?"

"How can I trust you?"

Chun on the other side talked to the deity.

"Did you say about the Great Conqueror has a blood of Asura?"

Titus nodded as he had this mirth on his eyes while observing the interaction of the two.

The deity told him that Asura and Pandora were connected through their bloodline as they belong to the same clan. But as Chun prompted the deity to speak more about her past, Titus tightly held his tongue as he did not want to reveal anything. He said that it's good for Chun to find it herself than him telling it.

With no other choice, the young woman did not yet settle her score to the sly deity as she knew Titus very well because of her accumulated memory. Titus as a deity of Prevalent Tragedy wasn't just for decoration or a title to make him look cool but he was truly dangerous. He could cause tragedy all he want. Chun somewhat understand the Creator for locking up this deity in the silver box. Even her fragmented memories pointed out that Titus was a perilous signal.

Even though they were 'friends' from her first fragment of memory, her instincts was telling her otherwise.

She shook her head as she hidden her thoughts, she needed first to regain her power to go out and have full control of the silver box as the sly deity wasn't divulging anything useful about the silver box.

(Do you perhaps see visions about demons? Killings? A demon who had horns as it slaughtered a young man?)

Zero heard the description of the voice and realization hit him. He almost forgot about those dreams. He thought first that it was part of his memories but something was off about it so he just ignored it but as the voice brought it, he became aware of the sudden disappearance of those visions. After activating the system, it did not appear again during his sleep as it usually would emerged on his dreams.

"Do you know something about those strange dreams?"

Chun was right on her guess about it because they were bonded by the same bloodline and she could easily talk to him with no obstruction through his mind so she tested that if he could see her pieces of memories. Even though Chun had no strong basis about her conjecture, she still tried to test it and trust her instincts.

Her instincts was usually on-point so it was not weird to trust it and she survived because of it, too.

(What you saw on your dreams were part of my memories. It happened in Harconia Institute when the demons attacked the school. We were not only bonded by that but we have the same bloodline flowing through our veins. Asura's Clan.)

"Then are you a deity?" Zero was surprised at the revelation of the voice so he asked about the most obvious thing.

Supposedly, having the same bloodline of Asura indicated that you're a deity. But his case was not the same as he remembered that he had a deal with a deity in order to obtain the bloodline, though he was not sure about the reason behind it.

(I could not answer that at this moment.)

Chun was confused as well about her sudden exposure as a deity.

"Can you tell me about this Asura dude, then?" As if he got comfortable with his spot, he sat on the ground while conversing on his head. He forgot his current situation at this moment as he was more interested in knowing this strange bloodline because it was coveted by his past self.

(Currently, I can only tell you about the name of the clan. Our clan is Fura.)

Chun was crafting her plans, too. The deity wasn't going to divulge anything to her so she must fully-utilized her connection to this mortal.

"Fura Clan," the young man repeated the name and he got to the point, "What do you need help on?"

(Can you go to the Sereign continent and help me retrieve an item?)

Because Chun had now the power of Pandora which was her deity self. She could feel the silver box was on her home continent. As she was not able to get out because she was still in the process of evolving and adjusting to her deity form so she needed the help of Zero.

A bond that unexpectedly linked them.

This is the start of their unpredicted bond. A bond that would form a reversal of fate.