But… he couldn't remember!
He couldn't figure it out.
He couldn't think of anything at all.
His mind was filled with confusion and that strange premonition from who knows where. There was no sadness, not even the faintest trace of it.
"What… exactly happened?"
He knew something must have happened. Otherwise, there would be no reason for things to be this way.
But where had it all started to go wrong?
What was it?
The Disassembler's upgrade?
The Ego Soul Crystal?
Or that unguided experience of Ego's life?
"I don't know anything..."
Arthur suddenly froze, his gaze snapping to the small, brain-like object not far away.
A flicker of complicated emotion flashed in his eyes: "Could the anomaly be coming from you? There's no reason for you to exist here. There's no reason for something like you to appear at this critical juncture, sitting right beside my soul. Even if the Disassembler upgraded, it shouldn't have allowed such an unstable factor to appear next to me...unless everything was wrong from the beginning! What did I forget? Ego, can you tell me?"
Arthur was answered only by silence.
But pure silence was already the beginning of terror.
Otherwise, Ego would not be so silent.
"So you've finally noticed..." Ego's voice entered his ears like thunder.
In an instant, the sound exploded beside him, nearly shaking Arthur's soul apart. His pupils shrank sharply. Then he saw the small sphere, once only palm-sized, start to grow wildly.
The fluctuations of the cosmos churned around them. In an instant, endless cosmic energy rippled outward. The energy waves were like windblades, piercing Arthur's body and soul.
In that moment, Arthur sustained unimaginable damage.
Yet his expression hardly changed. He merely furrowed his brows, examined himself, and sighed.
"So, it was all just appearances. Was it me who gave you the chance?"
Ego revealed his true form and stepped into the cosmos itself. Upon hearing Arthur's words, he was momentarily stunned. Then, he smiled lightly and said, "No wonder you've come this far. No wonder I ultimately fell into your hands. What you've shown is still far from your full potential."
Arthur sighed. "A soul already riddled with holes... What's left to show? From the moment I entered this so-called 'trial,' every step must have been designed by you."
"In fact, everything went very smoothly," Ego said. "My energy isn't so easily digested. Trying to use my soul as upgrade material for that strange item of yours was your greatest mistake. I must say, that period of time was truly agonizing. Endless grinding, consuming everything I had. I had to muster all my strength to resist that consumption. Even then, nearly everything of me was worn away by the end. Fortunately, I preserved a fragment within the Soul Crystal. When you used the Soul Crystal as an upgrade item, I was freed!"
"And then?" Arthur asked, his expression calm and his tone indifferent. "How did you do it?"
"It's simple. Because all of this belongs to me." Ego looked around at everything. "This is my memory. This is my power. This dream, woven from my power and soul, should naturally obey my command." Taking control took some time, but it wasn't difficult. When the original world collapsed, every fragment of cosmic energy you absorbed was actually me! I replaced you with myself. I didn't need to lift a hand to make the replacement perfect. Had I not been interrupted and had you not noticed something was off, perhaps even after I'd completely replaced you, you still wouldn't know what had happened.
"You blocked part of my perception?" Arthur asked.
Ego nodded calmly. "There's still part of my memory.
"As the victor, do you have anything left to say?" Arthur sighed. This situation was something he hadn't expected.
Just as Ego said, when Arthur chose to use the Soul Crystal to upgrade the Disassembler, he gave Ego the perfect chance to strike back.
The soul that hadn't been completely erased still existed within the fragments of the soul. Once they appeared in Ego's "world," everything was already arranged.
It was a simple plan, yet because Ego had seized the initiative from the beginning, Arthur stepped straight into the trap without hesitation or suspicion.
He had even been smug about it! Honestly, he should have realized it at the time. But a shadow had been cast over his mind, leaving him slow to react.
He, who should have been cautious and careful, had become careless and reckless. In hindsight, there were all kinds of inconsistencies from the start.
But was this really the end?
Arthur looked at Ego, a faint smile curling the corners of his lips. "Perhaps right now isn't the best moment, is it?"
Ego smiled lightly. "What are you trying to say?"
"At first, you roared at me," Arthur said. "Then you fell silent. That first roar represented your true power! It was immense. In that instant, I felt my soul tremble. But then you began to disappear, hiding your strength. You used the most obvious measure, size, to show the vast difference in our power. You let me believe that I had the advantage!"
"But...why?" Arthur continued. "At first, your power was no weaker than mine. Why didn't you attack me directly? Had you found a way to replace me? Or had you found a way to restore your own power? My body may be riddled with holes, but don't forget that they're nothing more than condensed energy. In this place, we have no bodies!"
"So, what's your conclusion?" Ego's expression didn't change at all. "My conclusion is simple. Everything you just said was a lie!"
Arthur said, "The truth is, you've been hiding yourself, constantly replenishing your strength. You deliberately created the illusion of 'replacement' to keep me from noticing. I have to admit… it's brilliant. But unfortunately, there's one massive flaw!"
"If everything in this world belongs to you…" Arthur stared at Ego. "Then why go to all this trouble?"
(End of Chapter)
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