INTERLUDE
Sometimes I think of the parable of the butterfly dream. Was it the man who dreamed of being a butterfly, or is it a butterfly dreaming of being a man?
I often have this dream where I wake up, realizing this toil that has lasted an eternity was all but a dream. I wake up under the branches of a tree spread out enough to shield my entire body from the piercing glare of the sun, with XXXX sleeping snugly atop my chest. I get XXXX off my chest and stretch out my arms, now sore from using them as a pillow. And before I can turn back, I hear the voice of Yura... Hmm, Yura. I wonder if she could ever bring herself to forgive me... I always believed I was doing the right thing, but just because I always chose what seemed like the best option doesn't mean it will always lead to the right outcome.
Waking up from the dream just makes the reality much harsher. It's just the shadow cast by the leaves which temporarily shields me from everything that's sad. In that dream, nothing ever goes wrong because nothing can ever go wrong when the world is that small—in a remote village, where I am ordinary, I only ever face ordinary problems, and when Yura still smiled brightly at me like she once did.
If I were to someday go to sleep and wake up in that dreamlike world, if I could just treat an eternity of mistakes as simply a long nightmare, wouldn't it be great?
Even as I think so, I could never be at ease even when I am in that dream. Because at some point I realize that it is all but a dream, one that exists for me to be happy. No matter how wonderful it may be, it will not erase the past there once was and the things I left behind. To live within that dream is to run away, to give up on everything that my life has amounted to till this point, all in exchange for an idyllic daydream which screams of being fake.
A dream is all but a respite. At one point, you will get up and face reality with renewed vigor.
THE DREAM WITHIN A DREAM
At the brink of dusk, two figures stand in the still-unkempt tavern. They know what they are about to do is meaningless, and they are willing to keep trying because Zeth can't ever just stay put when he has the strength to keep going ahead, and Eileen will never stop following Zeth till she is alive. It's simply who they are. They don't expect to achieve anything of value, neither do they have noble ideals to speak of. They simply want to live doing what feels right to who they are.
Zeth heads toward the descending dungeon, an endless abyss which gets you to the heart of this world. Once someone crosses the infinite and reaches the impossible realm where [MY XXXX] resides, once someone holds onto what's there, they will be able to... Well, you will find out soon.
While the sun peaks through the horizon, the pair arrive at their destination: a small fortified structure, about as big as a modest house with a single opening letting you in. It has been protected by several of the elite soldiers from the king's army, while a bulky man towers over the entrance with his eight-foot body. In his hand remains a giant sword plated in gold and silver, while its wielder dons similarly decorated armor. To the ignorant, all this will look like mere props with no real practicality, but when entering its vicinity, you feel its might in a primordial sense of yours which you didn't know existed.
The man stomps his sword into the ground as he notices two shadows approaching the abyss he is meant to protect from the likes of Zeth.
"Anything you do or say is futile. The only way you can pass is through walking over my corpse."
Zeth turns a sour face upon looking up at this man. His stubbornness is unlike anything Zeth has ever seen, and worst of all, every time he speaks, he screams right from the bottom of his throat as if he wants everyone within a mile radius of him to hear his words.
Zeth has tried all forms of negotiation, any way he could convince him, but he doesn't budge. At this point, he merely repeats what he has already said.
"You aren't going to be able to protect that place forever. Someday someone just as strong as me will come, and they will not try to negotiate, nor will they have any righteous reason for trying to find the XXXX."
"Preposterous! You speak as if you are doing me a favor, as if you do not have the same goal every otherworlder does."
"I am done trying to reason with you. This is the only language you are capable of understanding."
Zeth pulls out his blade and points it at him. The man has now given up on his name since [the cataclysm]; he now calls himself the Titan, an invincible being with the sole purpose of protecting what everyone else has discarded for being "fake."
The giant brings down his sword without a moment's hesitation, but it was never going to land on Zeth, for Zeth reigns on his ability to never let anyone land a blow on him.
He uses his exceptionally practiced footsteps to escape the blow, which embodies certain death for Zeth on impact.
As the unimaginably large sword crashes into the ground, the soldiers standing by beside him finally comprehend the situation that escalated within a matter of seconds.
Just as they were about to join in, a voice rings in their head as if it's trying to pierce through their eardrums: "STEP BACK." As these words ring in their heads, they realize it was a command from the Titan. He used instant transmission magic to convey these words to the whole troop, but this magic can deliver much more than simple words; it instilled the idea into their brains that they are only a burden in this fight and under no circumstances shall they act, no matter how bad the situation gets, for they are powerless in front of Zeth.
Within the single moment the giant had wasted in commanding his men, Zeth had moved onto his next move. He uses the sharp edge of the giant sword to create instantaneous footing by letting it cut part of his shoe as well as his feet. Within that moment, he pours all his strength onto his single foot—now bleeding from a shallow cut—to perform an impossible jump-climb onto his shoulder. The giant feels mocked by his actions; he knew he had power beyond this to perform what seems like petty tricks. Enraged, the towering man swings the sword onto his own shoulder with all his strength. Zeth jumps to the giant's rear, and as such, all the might of the sword comes crashing down on his own body.
Zeth looks over at Eileen, conveying the next set of actions as if they can read each other's minds. She uses silent chanting to perform a rudimentary paralysis spell on the giant.
The Titan is baffled by what passed within these three seconds. He had been incapacitated while Zeth didn't even use any of his skills special to him as an otherworlder; simply through his agility and wit, he had inflicted a deep wound onto his shoulder.
If he wanted, he could overcome the paralysis by sheer will and continue the fight, but while the man relied more on his brawn than his brains, he wasn't actually stupid—which is something he himself finds hard to proclaim now that he gave into Zeth's little tricks and committed what could be described as none other than stupidity. He knew better than to follow this act of folly with another. Zeth's only purpose for this fight was to belittle him, to show the difference between them, and he had been subdued by him without a doubt.
The giant clicks his tongue, picks up his sword from the depths of his flesh, and slams it into the ground. He overcomes the paralysis as if it were nothing. Even as his shoulder bleeds, he presents the same demeanor of an impenetrable fortress and looks at Zeth, who had now walked back over to Eileen's side.
"Do you really not seek to overturn this world? If so, what do you need the XXXX for?"
"I don't know." Zeth knew how absurd his reply sounded, but it was the only truth. He fully expected the Titan to lash out at him and was prepared for it.
But... "You have always been like this."
The Titan replies with a little grin, as if he already knew this and he believed these words without a doubt.
Then, the Titan suddenly lets go of his sword and swings at Zeth at a speed far exceeding what he displayed before. Zeth knew he couldn't dodge this, but that wasn't the end of things. As if Eileen was an extension of Zeth, she understood what she had to do, and from the ground around Zeth rouse up a wall of emerald green. But this wall, which had withstood incredible force before, was shattered in an instant as the giant's hand grabs hold of Zeth by his arm.
This man wasn't simply tall; his entire proportion was inhumanly shaped. Within the incredible force of his hand, Zeth is squeezed as if he wants Zeth to puke out his organs through his mouth.
But the giant stops. Zeth opens his eyes and sees the hand grabbing him is disfigured beyond belief, dripping blood until it creates a puddle beneath. It was the cost he had to pay for brute-forcing Eileen's emerald wall.
Yet, the giant doesn't seem to care. He simply looks at Zeth with pity and says, "Of course I knew your intentions were always pure, even when you don't know what you want to do, even when your actions led to greater disaster, or even when you let our world come to an end."
"I don't hold any of it against you, but don't you think it's about time to give up?"
Zeth simply stares, wordless. He knew that the giant's denseness was an act to some level, if he didn't already know this was what was going on in his mind.
"It's about time you let go of your responsibility... to let someone else shoulder it. Because none of us want to see you hurt any more than you already have, Zeth."
The sun had finally risen in full as Zeth's eyes are subjected to the harshness of the light. He thought he always hated the sun, but the giant's words—he hates them even more.
"When will I wake up from this?" Zeth speaks in a voice so faint that no one could hear.