My Fate System

"I know you think I'm annoying. I can hear you!" Younger Nikolai protested. "Also, call me Niko."

"I never liked being called Niko," Nikolai scowled.

"Hehe, I know," Niko smiled as he jumped and began running away. "Make sure to protect me!"

"What the hell?" Nikolai blinked before running after the kid and dragging him back. "Where are you going?"

"I want to play," Niko said. "And you need to protect me as I do," he grinned.

"If we are truly the same, then why make things difficult for me?" Nikolai sighed as he held the kid by the shoulder lest he runs away. "You should want me to obtain the skill as much as I do," he said sadly.

"You are already looking for a way to cheat your way through?" Niko smiled. "I am not getting fooled by your act. Furthermore, I hate you."

Nikolai had the urge to beat his younger version up. There was no way that he was this childish and this much different from now. He was always quiet, and it made the orphanage servants beat him up less.

As he thought of those times, he felt the kid tremble in his hand. Nikolai stared at him silently as the kid closed his eyes. It made Nikolai let go, and the kid didn't disappear this time.

"Can you know what I'm thinking about?" Nikolai asked, and the kid nodded. "I see," Nikolai nodded as he looked at the scared younger self.

Chaos Orphanage wasn't a lot different from the rest. Raising many kids without installing fear in them was quite the task, so none achieve it. If any of them misbehaved or got out of line, they would be beaten up.

Nikolai and his mute friend, Shon, often snuck away from the orphanage to avoid being beaten up. First, however, they had to beg for money to appease the orphanage's priest. Otherwise, even whipping wasn't out of the question.

'Ironically, we would get beaten up by angry adults for asking for money,' Nikolai tried to dispel the thoughts when his younger self began trembling. But then, he thought about the incident.

"No!" Niko suddenly shouted as he glared at Nikolai. "He isn't going to die!"

Then, the kid ran away. Nikolai didn't chase after him this time and simply stared at the infinite darkness as if trying to remember the face of his first friend.

That memory was gone.

***

The scimitar slashed across the desert before flying back into Nikolai's hand. The scorpion fell to the ground in front of Niko, who was trembling in fear.

"You acted quite arrogantly earlier, but now you are just shaking," Nikolai walked to stand beside the child. "What are you going to do next? Find another monster?"

"Anything other than staying close to you," Niko said with a hateful expression. "I grew up to be a liar!"

"I didn't say anything. You already know what happened in the past," Nikolai sighed. "He will..."

"Aaaa! I'm not listening!"

"What are you, a kid?"

Nikolai was annoyed before he noticed that the scorpion dropped another talisman piece. He took out the one he had from before, and the two fused, forming a larger piece but in no way complete.

It seems that he had to kill monsters while protecting his younger self to obtain the talisman. But then, he didn't know what to do. Furthermore, his younger self didn't seem stable enough for him to question.

"Is it true?" Niko asked as he lowered his hands from his head. Nikolai turned to him and nodded. Then, the kid sniffed as if he was about to cry. "But why?"

"There isn't always a reason. Sometimes things happen because the world is cruel," Nikolai said as he looked into the distance to see monsters popping out from beneath the sand.

"I..."

"Shut up. I got over it a long time ago. So, you don't matter," Nikolai took out his Darkmoon Longbow as the sand gathered to form a giant black serpent. "What the hell is wrong with this place?"

The bow was the ideal choice here because he couldn't leave 'Niko' alone. However, he didn't expect a reaction between his Darkmoon Longbow and the black lotus in his hand.

Suddenly, the petals exploded and began covering the bow. Then, as if they were growing the weapon a new skin, the petals started merging with it.

[You have evolved the Darkmoon Longbow to Tier 2!]

[Darkmoon Long (Tier 2): A sealed weapon created by an ancient being for his son. The materials used were the sealed Darkmoon Tree, and the existence of this bow made the heavens wrathful.]

[Magical Properties: this item has a 30% of giving the arrows random magical property. If the arrow is infused with an effect, there is a 50% chance that the result is offensive.]

'Then, there's a 15% chance for an offensive effect,' Nikolai was surprised by the unexpected harmony between his bow and the Abyssal Art. It might be because both were meant to go against the heavens.

An enemy of your enemy is your friend, it seems. This change was timely, and Nikolai nocked his arrow and aimed at the giant serpent. It gave a hiss that either resembled san or a serpent's, but Nikolai had no way of knowing.

The arrow was released, and there was a glow of light as it struck the serpent. Then, light covered the serpent's body as the effect took place.

"Why is it," Nikolai was confused, "growing bigger?"

The serpent gathered more sand around it as the light seemed to make it stronger. The realization that he has just buffed his enemy made Nikolai almost spit out blood.

Grabbing the child, Nikolai ran away. The wise choice would be waiting until the effect wears off before he could fight this monster. Niko tried resisting, but Nikolai didn't care and took the child and fled.

"Ah, let me go!"

"If you don't shut up, I'll kick your ass myself," Nikolai threatened. "Fuck this skill if it means putting up with someone like you!"

"I am you!"

"I guess I'm fucking annoying then!"

The two bickered as they ran away, and the serpent came crashing down like a wave. It opened its jaws wide to swallow them, but Nikolai jumped to roll down the dune as it dived in the sand as if it was water.

There was a moment of quietness as the two rolled down, and Nikolai jumped to stand up the moment they stopped. However, there was no monster.

"It can dive into the sand?" Nikolai looked down as he felt a weak vibration coming from below him. Then, the sand began to shift, which was his signal to get away from there.

As he grabbed Niko and ran away, the serpent's jaws appeared in the spot he was standing at earlier. The monster jumped out of the sand until it was dozens of meters tall before throwing itself after them.

Nikolai launched the kid into the sky as if he was hurling a ball, sending him rolling on top of the sand. He then turned to face the giant serpent as his black scimitars appeared instead of his bow.

Since this monster focused on him, Nikolai would return the favor and use everything he had to face it. But, of course, it was an E-rank monster that was a realm above him, but can a creature of sand stand against his Bringer of Chaos?

He grabbed the blades in reverse as he sent two upward slashes of black petals at the monster. The twin slashes merged into a giant (X) sign that amplified one another.

The Abyssal Strings he used struck the world and brought chaos to its order. Whatever elemental particles that met the chaos scattered, and it was what he needed to slash open this monster of sand.

The serpent gave a screech as it suffered the attack, but it tried to strike Nikolai nonetheless. Then, as the giant wave of sand came crashing down with the power of several hundreds of tons behind it, Nikolai disappeared.

Niko stood up and looked at the impact of the fearsome battle, expecting itself to dissipate after his older self was killed. Instead, however, a crack suddenly appeared in space, and Nikolai emerged, huffing.

"Damn this skill and damn this annoying child," Nikolai grumbled as he grabbed the three pieces of talisman that appeared in front of him. "At least give me some stats instead of these papers!"

It seems the wave of light that washed over the island not only created a replica of himself but replaced the stats crystals of monsters with these pieces.

Nikolai won't be mad as long as there was a reward from this, and it was the skill to stand firm against a thousand attacks. As he imagined himself laughing at an army that failed to take him down, a smirk appeared on his face.

"You are full of delusions!" Niko cut away his reverie short as he ran away again. Nikolai suddenly felt like killing someone.