Level Up Legacy

Arthur could hear the sniffs of the woman sitting beside him as the wagon cut through the forest. He didn’t know what Commander Barbora said to her, but she had been sobbing nonstop.

Ilios had cars, but most of their usage was inside the cities. If anyone used a car through the wild, he would be attracting all the monsters in the nearby area, possibly causing a monster horde. Therefore, Arthur had to use wagons.

“Take this,” said Arthur while giving her a napkin. This was his subtle way of telling her to stop crying, but Little Yin seemed to take the opposite message. She suddenly hugged him and brawled out crying, with her tears soaking his shirt.

“AAAAAAH!”

Arthur sat there with a dead expression as she cried on his shirt, not knowing what to do for her. In the end, he pushed his hand over her forehead, pushing her head away.

“Stop crying,” said Arthur with a sigh. “I know you were emotional, but you will see her again. The last time I was around, you seemed to hate her.”

“I know, but….” Little Yin sniffed with her face ruined by mascara. Arthur sighed as he stared at her and brought the napkin to wipe her face. Little Yin resisted, but Arthur made sure to clean her up before throwing the napkin out of the window.

“Feelings should be treasured, but crying will not solve anything. The struggle is a part of living. Don’t let it become an obstacle.”

“Yessir, so please let go of me now,” said Little Yin, and Arthur let go of her head. She rubbed her forehead while still sniffing. Then, all of a sudden, the wagon stopped. “Are we there yet?”

“There is no there. We just need a quiet place to practice,” said Arthur as he opened the wagon’s door and jumped out. “This will be our new residence.”

The two were inside a forest with bamboo trees. This place was called Shadow Meadow because of the monsters that inhabited this place. Tall bamboo trees filled the woods, making it impossible to see anything else.

“A bamboo forest?” asked Little Yin as she got off. “What are we going to do here?”

“Survive, among other things,” said Arthur as he touched the wagon, and it disappeared. “I will teach you how to become yourself.”

“I… did that for a long time,” objected Little Yin with confusion as she watched the wagon disappear. However, Arthur simply smiled and stared at her.

“Are you sure?”

Little Yin had no answer, and Arthur led the way by going into the woods. She followed after him while complaining about the countless bamboo. Finally, after fifteen minutes of walking, the two reached a stream.

“This stream circles around this forest, and this will be where we camp. Since the goal is to make you control the other side of you, meditation might be the best method to start.”

His words made sense to Little Yin, who found a proper place to sit beside the stream and close her eyes to meditate. However, Arthur was just fooling her. Meditation would yield snail progress if any. His real intentions were to get her to sleep naturally.

The process took a while, but Little Yin was asleep in half an hour with the stream and the quietness. After that, however, nothing changed, suggesting that Other Yin wouldn’t come out all the time.

“I know you can hear me. We need to talk,” said Arthur, and Little Yin was unresponsive for a minute before she opened her eyes. They were dark and cold as they turned to him, and Arthur watched her transformation.

“What doth thou desire, mortal?” asked Other Yin with a squint.

“You know that this vessel of yours is being pursued, so why not grant it strength?” asked Arthur while sitting on the ground opposite to her. “Otherwise, it will die.”

“No vessel can endure,” replied Other Yin while meeting her eyes. “I witness horrors that humans canst not live with and would shatter their minds. Strength aye comes with a price. Is that what thou desire?”

“Not in that manner, but she needs your strength,” said Arthur. “Is there a way to make her endure whatever you talk about?”

“Is she the one whom needs it, or thou?” asked Other Yin with a frown before it turned into a sly smile. “You hold the same motives as the puppeteer, seeking to use my strength for your ambitions.”

“I received this task from someone who cares about her,” denied Arthur, but he didn’t want to hide it. “However, I want to seek your strength, whatever it may be.”

“I witnessed the events of this orb from her eyes, and I wot what befell,” said Other Yin as she stared around before standing up and walking to the meadow. “Thou lost against the emperor of light.”

“A lose is what strikes you down forever,” objected Arthur as he watched the woman throw away her shoes and descend into the water. “That stream is cold; it comes from the mountains.”

“We share that,” replied Other Yin as she undid her clothes and threw them on the shore. Arthur coughed and turned around, not wanting to look at her naked back. “The mountains were mine home.”

“And when was that?”

“A time ere life existed,” replied Other Yin as she turned around with a smile. “I remember thou, sirrah of creation. A single man whom existed ere and after everyone else. Thou mourned the deaths of thy comrades, yet ne’r thought about me.”

“You are talking about someone else,” said Arthur with objection, but he turned around when he saw her descending into the waters. “Are you going to help her?”

“If that is what she desires, then I shall,” said Other Yin as her hair spread in the waters of the slow stream. “Alas, human.  Thy mortal mind canst not comprehend the extent of what begins and what ends.”

“And what is that?” asked Arthur as he walked toward the stream.

“The perpetual wink,” said Other Yin before an ominous aura exploded from her. It was raw and dark but unthreatening. Arthur could hear the forest move and the stream stop moving. Everything that didn’t move before was moving, and vice versa.

“What exactly are you?” Arthur asked as he stepped back from the stream, but Other Yin simply turned around and smiled at him.

“You shall figure that out, sirrah. But, for now, thou should’st save this corporal agent of mine,” said Other Yin before her eyes closed, and she dove into the waters. Arthur blinked for a second before realizing what she meant, and he jumped to pull her out.

The cold stream was freezing, but Arthur knew this was colder than before. Yin was diving straight into the water, like an anchor seeking the seabed. He reached out his arm and snatched her before swimming toward the edge.

“Cough, cough, cough,” Little Yin started coughing as Arthur threw her on the shore before climbing himself. He placed his hand on her back before drawing a rune.

“Take it easy. Take it easy,” said Arthur as he removed the water from her lungs, allowing her to breathe again. Little Yin gasped for air before she started to look around in confusion.

“What… where is this? I’m cold,” said Little Yin before looking down, and her eyes widened before she tried to cover her chest. “What happened to me?”

“Calm down, Yin,” reassured Arthur as he held her shoulder. “We managed to take the first step towards your powers, even if you don’t remember.”

“I don’t remember anything,” she shook her head before staring at him with doubt. “Am I supposed to trust you even if I don’t remember anything?”

Arthur paused and realized how this seemed to her. She was doing what he asked with her eyes closed, and suddenly she was naked and drowning. It would be obvious that she wouldn’t trust him blindly.

This might be what Other Yin wanted: to shake the trust that Yin had for him. So Arthur would need to find a way to build that while training her to endure those powers.

“Do you want to look into my mind?” asked Arthur, and she paused with confusion. “I will show you what happened here after you fell asleep, and you can choose to believe me or not.”

Arthur pressed his forehead against hers, and his telepathy rune showed her his memories of before. The two stood on the meadow as Little Yin watched herself act as someone else until it was over.

“This… is me?” asked Little Yin. “I act and sound different,” she staggered back with confusion. “Is this what you meant before?”

“It is. Let’s get you dressed before you catch a cold,” said Arthur before he took out a blanket from his subspace and wrapped it around her. “I know this is a lot to take, but one step at a time.”

Little Yin nodded as she allowed Arthur to get her seated before he lit a fire for the two of them. She was still shaken from what happened and what she saw, which was the first step toward acceptance.