Chapter 114: Incomplete worlds

Sil lets out a sad smile, "Maybe this is also a good thing."

"About what? Who are you?"

Sil walks away without answering Kyrie's question, leaving Kyrie with more questions than answers as to why Sil does not plan to tell him. Clearly, Kyrie is aware that Sil knows him. However, he does not think too much and turns around to leave. He still needs to get to where Laurel should be waiting for him. 

Once he walks for a few minutes, he encounters the carriage. The driver opens the carriage door to him.

"Hey!" Laurel waves at Kyrie, "You had it bad, huh."

Laurel looks at Kyrie's messy appearance compared to how he entered the building.

"Tell me about it! Not being able to use mana is a hassle."

"Here… Clothes."

"Thanks," Kyrie takes the clothes and goes out to change.

Kyrie comes back after a few minutes. 

"How long have you guys been here?" Kyrie asks as he closes the carriage door.

When the marquis is about to respond, the city brightens up as if it is daytime before the light dims. A blast sweeps through, lifting the carriage that they are in, and clashing to the side. The horses that pulled the carriage are so frightened that they started to pull the fallen carriage. 

"Dad!" Kyrie takes hold of the Marquis leaning against the side that is scraping on concrete, generating sparks from the friction between metal and ground. 

The horses then leave the carriage once they get freed as if they are fleeing away for survival. Laurel lifts the door open and pushes her body up with her arms. She steps up on the other side of the flipped carriage, reaching out her arm to take the marquis's hand and lifting him out of the carriage.

Kyrie gets out last. The place where the warehouses are located is on a sea of fire. 

[Something must have gone wrong.]

Laurel catches Kyrie's arm, stopping him from advancing toward the warehouses.

"I will not let you go there!" 

"They might run into something unexpected! We have to see what happened!"

Laurel's eyes wander as she thinks of what she should do. Imogen has told her not to let Kyrie go to the warehouses even when something seems to have happened. Since Kyrie has no mana and his soul is recuperating, he should not be walking into danger like that.

Then, a high-frequency cry reaches their ears. The sound hits them so intensely mentally that Kyrie stumbles down as his vision starts to swirl. He places his hands on his ears as he tries to stand up, but he cannot find his balance. All the windows from surrounding buildings shatter, bursting as if they have been timed together to explode. 

Even after the sound stopped, Kyrie could not get his vision to stop spiraling. He squints his eyes to focus his vision. He turns to Laurel with hands over her ears kneeled to the ground. She leans back up with tears running from her eyes, and she opens her mouth widely to pop the pressure in her ears. 

She returns her gaze and sees that Kyrie's ear is bleeding.

"Laurel, we need to see what happened to Ian and Imogen… We are some distance away, and we are affected like this."

Kyrie stands up while wobbling. He goes to check on his dad, who is leaning against the fallen carriage. 

"Dad, go back home first."

Kyrie turns to the servant and helps him up, "I will leave my father in your care. Please take him back to the mansion safely."

"Yes, young master."

"Thank you," Kyrie pats on the servant's shoulder and starts walking towards the warehouse.

Laurel follows him, "Imogen is really strong. I think they will be okay, Kyrie."

"Hmm?" Kyrie frowns, trying to process the words that Laurel said, but he couldn't hear from his right ear.

Laurel walks to the other side, "I said that Imogen is strong… I don't think we need to go there. I don't feel like we will be much help."

"Laurel, why do you think we will not be much help?" 

Laurel pauses, meeting Kyrie's eyes. 

"I feel like baggage when I am with them," Laurel finally confesses honestly, "I am not particularly strong, and the dangers that they are facing, I am of no help. Imogen doesn't need me."

"Laurel, I believe that everyone has a role in life. Life is like a play. Not everyone can be actors and shine under the spotlight, but it does not mean that those who have contributed in the shadows are not important. In fact, the play without them will not even happen. You might be chasing after a wrong role, Laurel." 

Kyrie gives a smile at Laurel, "I don't think Imogen will think of you that way. She needs you more than you can fathom. That woman does not show her emotions that easily, and you might wonder what type of evil she is planning in her mind. Of all people, I think you are someone she will not let go of."

[Imogen might look cold, but she is more emotional than anyone.]

"What? What do you mean? There is no way. I am always the puppy who follows her everywhere. How could the role be reversed? Plus, she shows emotions towards you, Kyrie."

"Me? Oh please! She just likes to laugh at me and call me a cockroach."

Laurel chuckles, "Why cockroach?"

"Our first meeting, she beats me to a pulp… I would have died, but I didn't. That is why she calls me a cockroach… Indestructible."

Laurel laughs for a good minute before wiping her tears.

"Kyrie, do you think I will be able to find my role?" Laurel looks over the sea of fire that grows taller the closer they get.

"I am sure you will be able to, but I do have one thing to ask of you."

"What is it, Kyrie?"

"Never lose yourself, Laurel. No matter what happens, fight to conquer the darkness inside you."

Laurel remains quiet for a while, trying to understand what Kyrie means by those words. Darkness? What darkness?

"I don't think I completely get your words."

"Maybe one day you will, Laurel. You will find yourself plunged into a sea where you feel like you are drowning and sinking. Make sure to fight against that, and never give up," Kyrie remarks.

Laurel takes in words even though she has no idea what they mean yet, "Is this about the gates that Imogen and Ian talked about?"

"They told you about the gates?"

"Yeah, but not in detail. Imogen told Ian to stay behind to live a normal life with you."

Kyrie suddenly stops, and Laurel also when she notices.

"Imogen said that?"

"Yeah… Is something wrong?"

Kyrie has not thought about it too much, even though he is aware of what will come in the future. Kyrie looks towards the fire while thinking of Ian.

"Laurel, my soul is injured, so I will not be able to pass through the gates. Only complete souls are able to enter, or else, I will die from my inability to process the essence that my body gathers."

"Didn't Imogen say something about you already having essence in you?"

"It's different, Laurel. When you enter those gates, you will be able to strengthen yourself enough to even become a demigod."

"Aren't demigods born? How can a mortal turn into a demigod?" Laurel becomes shocked at the information.

[Guess Imogen has not told her anything yet…]

"It's different, Laurel. There is a huge difference between a born and a made demigod. Demigods that are born can ascend to godhood. I haven't heard one made demigod who has been able to. Their type of essence is different too. Demigods that were once mortals absorb essence that has been processed, meaning that the essence was originally used to create something - a world, a human, a tree… Demigods born from other gods have the purest type of essence."

"So, you guys want to become demigods?" Laurel questions.

"No, Laurel. The gates that we talked about are connected to another world, and we will need to defend ourselves from the attacks coming at us!"

"We will face invaders from another world?"

Kyrie nods, "Our world has been absorbing their world, so they want to reverse the flow. They want our world to perish instead."

"Why is that happ-"

A blast happens again, and one of the warehouses crumbles down. Kyrie and Laurel escape from the debris. 

"Because the god that was supposed to finish these two worlds perished before he completed them. Since the two worlds are incomplete, the superior world began to absorb the inferior world to keep its existence."

"Can't all the inhabitants from the inferior world just come into the superior world?"

"That is the problem, Laurel. Everyone who came into existence in one world will be linked permanently to the existence of that world. If that world ceases to exist, everything linked with it will too."