VIP Chapter 507: Father VS Son (5)
Twenty years ago.
Arriving at a “memory” that everyone knew, a memory that had spread throughout the streets and alleys, a memory that seemed to have spread to speculate about something about Carver—
“It’s fine. I came back just to see her one last time.”
Carver, standing before the crib, spoke in a chilling tone. He seemingly felt no sorrow for Mits’s death, nor any joy for the birth of his flesh and blood.
“As for him—let’s call him Will. After all, she wished for this child to live by his own determination and will.”
Mits gave birth to Will but died due to childbirth complications. From that moment on, Carver became a sentimental man, mournful of his deceased wife. Like how he had severed all ties with Mits before, he severed all ties related to “love” with other women.
Meanwhile…
His gaze never left the child born from the woman he truly loved. While there was no overt “care,” he stood silently at a distance beyond Will’s awareness, watching him grow bit by bit, as if looking at Mits’s shadow within him—
Fifteen years ago.
Will inherited Hysterm Family’s nearsightedness, unable to see his surroundings clearly like ordinary people at a young age, thus receiving his first pair of glasses.
…
Ten years ago.
The dog Will had raised died that winter. He and Iaar buried it under the tree behind the garden.
…
Five years ago.
Will received his results from the magic exam, but the report card showed a “Fail.”
…
Finally, in a “memory” from just a few months before the present…
Will challenged the first layer of the Dust Bone Corridor and was smashed to death by a Slime from the Dust Bone Corridor…
…
The moment the Slime landed, Carver once again saw Will’s “flame explosion.” Only this time… it was indeed much, much faster than what he had seen before!
Even so…
He fiercely broke through that magic with the axe in his hand. And then, both of them could hear the sounds of the environment on this layer—
They could hear the whistling wind blowing across the vast desert…
“Failed… again… Haa… Father, your… your warrior’s agility really… really didn’t need to be so high…”
Will looked at this place. He never imagined that the final memory would… would be stuck at the point of his “death.” Was this not Carver’s memory? According to his experience, Carver wasn’t around when he died. Why would he have this memory?
“You have finished watching the memories. The timeline has reached ‘now.’ So? Do you still have a second trump card?”
“Finished… finished watching…?”
Will supported his still bleeding eyes, catching the falling droplets of blood one by one. How could this be? Was this all the memory? Was this the “Carver” he wanted to know? Impossible, absolutely impossible. Something must have gone wrong. He had not obtained any of the “information” he desired—
Neither the reason why Carver separated from his birth mother.
Nor what intelligence Carver obtained on the day he became the patriarch.
Or why Carver chose to cooperate with Daisianwei, the Empress of Death Hall.
And… why Carver became the one who wanted to kill him…
None of these received any “answers.” Just like when Will first encountered this person who could be considered the “final BOSS” from birth, he had never understood what he was thinking… Now, he still… knew nothing.
“It seems your condition isn’t good.”
“!”
Carver’s axe scraped across the sand-covered ground and then swung towards him. But… Will noticed that his movements were noticeably slower than before. To the extent that Will could create distance from him using his own magic. He didn’t even need to use the protection Iaar had given him at the end.
“Tsk…”
In a battle that had entered the memories three times, only this time did Carver slightly slip while using that axe.
“Wait… does this mean…”
Seeing Carver’s movement, Will understood… This move of pulling Carver into his memory didn’t just allow him to see memories. It had another effect… He had indeed interfered with Carver’s physical functions. Otherwise, with Carver’s relentless pressure from the beginning, he wouldn’t have needed to exchange his own blood for droplets of water mixed with rain to weaken Will on the second phase in the capital! Carver was indeed Carver. He had played along last time in such a way that Will couldn’t see his weakness. Since stripping memories from him was effective, it meant he should continue.
“The one in poor condition should be you, right?”
The sandy battle was very unfamiliar to Carver, but particularly familiar to Will. After all, his death battle had taken place on such sandy ground.
“That’s why I hate fighting with perceptive people the most… Never mind, speaking of which, neither of us is good at fighting ‘humans,’ but rather Adventurers who kill monsters, right?”
Carver didn’t deny Will’s statement.
“Cough, cough, that’s you… As for me, the number of humans I’ve fought… should be quite a few.”
He found an opportunity in these memories, but Will felt somewhat stifled. What method had Carver used to make his memories not fully visible? Or had he misunderstood, and Carver was just such a… common NPC? Did he truly have no secrets related to the life and death of this entire world? Nor a key to unlocking the underlying secrets of the world? Nor any secret manual for self-evolution? Was he just an important NPC who possessed “the ceiling strength of a certain faction” and simultaneously “maintained the operation of an important organization”? After all, just looking at the current memories… his life was too “ordinary.” He was like a “supporting character template” that wasn’t too common, with a less-than-impressive beginning, a beloved woman, but ultimately strayed from it all on the path to his ambitions… even losing his only son… It was as if all the experiences that could be blended into such a supporting character had been pieced together into him.
Whoosh—
The axe stirred up a fierce wind on the desert, whipping up a cloud of sand. Using the sand to obscure vision, Will’s every magic blast was aimed at Carver, but unfortunately, with Carver’s exquisite combat skills, Will’s attacks could only add a bit more heat to this scorching desert. The massive axe had completely become a negative weapon on the desert terrain. Meanwhile, the skill Carver had used before, mixing blood with rainwater to stop Will, was now useless due to the combat arena being a desert.
“As expected, you’re more familiar with this place, having died here once.”
“No, no, how could I compare to you? You were planning to kill me here…”
Will’s words trailed off as he suddenly paused. Right… Right. Even if he died here, he should have been killed by the bug from “Death Hall” brought by Carver, but… why in his memories was he… still killed by a Slime… in his plot? Did he imagine this memory?
…?!
No, no, no, no. There was a problem with the memories he saw! Especially, the memories related to himself were completely wrong! In the instant he froze, the axe grazed his hair.
“You can’t get distracted during a fight.”
Carver’s movements suddenly became faster. It seemed that after discovering Will’s distraction and realizing something, his killing intent surged even more.
“No, I… why would I die here being smashed by a Slime?! Why was my magic exam result a fail, and I clearly already buried the dog I raised…”
Will kept talking, and he suddenly realized a problem… a very important problem.
“…Heh.”
Carver didn’t answer him directly. Instead, he preyed on his poor mental state, attacking Will again and again. With the intent to kill him. Of course, Carver had been in this posture since Will pulled him into this battle.
“Wait, no… no…”
Will gasped for breath. His heartbeat quickened. His attacks stopped. But this wasn’t because he was rendered unable to fight back by Carver. It was because… Because he felt that after discovering that the “self” in Carver’s memory didn’t match his current self at all, he was getting closer and closer to the end. Were Carver’s memories fake? No, not like that. Carver’s memories absolutely couldn’t be fake. The ability to recall memories seemed to be exclusive to demons, and they couldn’t even manipulate their own memories.
“That wasn’t me at all. The person who flashed by at that speed in your memory was… was not me at all…”
Carver’s attack paused for a second. Then… with a more forceful downward chop than usual, he swung towards Will—! Although Will dodged with floating magic, Carver’s forceful strike this time directly split the sand dune he was standing on, causing Will to roll a few times on the sand before stabilizing.
“So… I hate perceptive people the most.”
“You… aren’t you a perceptive person too? I understand… This… this isn’t me at all. That means… the previous memories… were not of the ‘current world’ either?”
He began to recall what Carver’s previous “memories” were like. First was the memory of Carver and Mits in the old Hysterm Family mansion’s garden.
“The current Hysterm Family mansion is not ‘by the sea’—it has never been by the sea at all.”
Will dodged Carver’s skills while constantly summarizing aloud.
“The second memory of your falling out. Under the current development, the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters would never be in the capital. Only now has the Adventurer’s Guild built a skyscraper. In the capital twenty-five years ago, the Adventurer’s Guild was hidden in alleys!”
“Heh…”
Will felt that the more he said, the faster Carver’s movements became, despite his smile. His killing intent grew stronger. This meant… This meant he was getting closer to the “truth.” If that was the case, there was a possibility. Or rather… the only possibility.
Bang—
The moment Carver’s axe came down, Will didn’t dodge. The third layer of protection, the ultimate Ice Array (Attack) from Iaar, was a brief “fixation” on the enemy—not stopping time, but merely stopping their movements for one second.
“You… you haven’t, by any chance… actually lived through your life, the changes of this world, or even… the destruction of the world… many, many times… have you?”
Only… Only this way could it explain why there were so many chronologically continuous, yet subtly different memories existing simultaneously in Carver’s mind!
“Yes, to be precise…”
With the contact of the halt, Carver’s massive axe descended.
“It’s the thirteenth time.”
