Chapter 1143 The Place He Started

"…and so, he appears, as foretold in the scriptures," said the Bookkeeper Spirit as it looked at him with interest that lacked the previous craziness when Arthur met him in the spirit realm. At that time, he just wanted to find Gaia, but the spirit did not help him. "You were right, Seref. He visited us."

"Leave," commanded Arthur without looking at the spirit, who got confused and offended. However, Seref gestured for him to follow that command without objection, and it did. As it rode its bicycle through the forest, it left the father and son alone. "Three more seconds and you would have lost your spirit."

"We are not contracted," said Seref with a smile as he picked a stick and dug through the dying embers, eviscerating the orange color within them. "I thought you wouldn"t visit me in this realm."

"Your spirit said otherwise."

"I talk like I know things, but I"m never sure how they would turn out," said Seref as his eyes reflected the last embers dying in their bonfire. "Thank you for visiting, son."

"I"m not your son," said Arthur without any emotions as he entered the campfire and stood beside the sitting Seref. "I came here for a single reason."

"I expected more than one reason," said Seref with a smile as he turned toward Arthur. The next moment, a foot struck his shoulder, throwing him to the ground. Seref fell from his chair and struck the bonfire with his foot.

"Tell me how to reverse the coma," asked Arthur as he advanced with a heartless gaze at his fallen father and pinned him down with his foot. "Otherwise, I will kill you right here and find the cure myself."

"Agh," groaned his father beneath his foot as he tried to resist but found himself unable to do so. "Is this how you greet your old man?"

"You are just old," said Arthur as he took out his dagger, letting it cry in threatening wrath. "We have no relationship with each other, and you are no man. A man would not attack his wife and children for his selfish reasons."

"Selfish?" asked Seref with a pained smile as he stopped resisting. "I have been anything but selfish, Arthur. I devoted my life to causes that yield me no benefit or pleasure."

"There is always the sick pleasure of things going according to your plan, isn"t there?" asked Arthur with a twisted smile as he raised his dagger and stabbed forward to the ground, striking Seref"s shoulder and impaling it to the ground.

"You cannot touch this blade, Seref. You are not the man Ragnar chose," said Arthur after taking a few steps back. "How does it feel to be hurt by your own family? Do you understand now how it feels?"

"I never attacked you!"

"But you made sure everything else did," scoffed Arthur at his answer. "If you give the gun to someone and ask them to shoot, would you also say that it wasn"t you who pulled the trigger?"

"Amelio was a necessity," said Seref with bloodshot eyes as he looked at Arthur. "Your girlfriend and the witch stole the Isotox from me and hid it beneath a layer of runes! I had to scare the world and you from what lies beyond the gates."

"Is that how you sleep at night? Convincing yourself that everything you did and the lost lives are justified? This is nothing but a delusion you created to consider yourself a good man."

"The best man!" shouted Seref as he tried to rise, but the dagger prevented him from doing so. "I am the sole one who"s brave enough to do the unspoken, the necessary evil! Do you think anyone else would be happy to fill this role? No one but me! I became cruel for a reason!"

"What reason?" roared Arthur as his aura exploded, shaking the forest. A shadow of wrath appeared around his body, as his expression turned menacing. "Tell me what reason justifies what you did! Tell me now!"

"Or that you would kill me?" asked Seref as he regained his calm after seeing the wrathful outburst. "Believe me, you cannot kill me. I am not someone that you can kill. For the sake of this story to end, I am a necessity."

"Watch me as I dispose of this necessity," muttered Arthur as he raised his hand, and the black dagger flew back to his hand. Before Seref could scream at the pain, Arthur was already aiming for his neck. His dagger slashed through his father"s neck, severing it without hesitation.

A momentary silence descended on the forest as Arthur appeared behind Seref, turning toward him with a glare. Seref was still sitting in his place, unharmed, as if nothing had happened before.

"As I said, you cannot kill me," said Seref with a smile as he rubbed his neck. "Artemis faced the same problem against me. I am not something that mortals can kill."

"Do you want to bet on that?" asked Arthur as he unleashed his wrath, letting his dagger scream. Seref showed signs of fl.u.s.ter as he jumped from the ground with a wounded shoulder and backed away. "If I can make you bleed, then I can kill you."

"I miss the na?ve child that you were, dear Arthur," said Seref as he stared at him with a startle, sweat rolling down his face. "How about we have a civil chat instead of this violence?"

"There is just one chat for you left, dear b.a.s.t.a.r.d of a father," said Arthur as he straightened his back with his dagger tightly gripped in his hand. "How to reverse the coma? I don"t give a care about your reasons or story; I just want to know the cure to undo what you have done."

"You should have already figured it out," said Seref as he wiped away his sweat while his bleeding stopped. "Seek the third artifact left behind by the scholar, and you will be able to wake her up. I trapped her consciousness within the crown."

Arthur was silent as he stared at his father, who looked like a mess. His hood came off when Arthur kicked him, and his face was pale from the earlier wound he inflicted. Even as he revealed what Arthur already knew, he looked pathetic. In a rare instance, Arthur revealed another emotion. It was disappointment.

"I would have asked for the reason you did that to us, but I don"t care. No reasons justify your failure as a father and husband. Therefore, I will not grant you the satisfaction of telling me anything."

"Has your curiosity died, Arthur?" asked his father with a smirk. "I know things that no other human knows. Things that could change the world. I know more about our bloodline than any other person. Did you think we are humans, like the rest? Are you not curious?"

"Anything I hear from you would be for the sole purpose of manipulating me," said Arthur with a smile as he sheathed his dagger. "I have four more words for you, Seref. I no longer care."

Arthur then walked away from his father, who stood there with shock. It might have been his biggest surprise to see his son walking away after luring him into another rabbit hole. Before Arthur could leave earshot, Seref began shouting.

"Are you not going to kill me even after all that talk?" shouted Seref from behind him, trying to lure his son again. Arthur stopped walking and turned toward him, looking at him with pity. In his eyes, Seref saw the truth.

Arthur no longer cared.

After that, Arthur walked away again, disappearing into the forest. Seref stood there, his wound bleeding again, as he realized that things had spiraled out of his control now. He was losing control of his son and, as a consequence, the world.

"Are you alright, Seref?" asked the Bookkeeper from behind him, returning after an unknown period of time. "I gave you s.p.a.ce like you demanded. Did the plan work out? Does he know the truth now?"

The bombardment of questions pushed Seref further into insanity. The fear that he had ever since he was a child made him tremble as he fell to the ground, clutching his shoulder. Then, he grabbed his head.

"No. No. No," repeated the man as he spiraled into an abyss. "I need to find a way. A way to fix things and ensure that I reach that ending."

"You are acting weird, Seref," said the Bookkeeper with confusion as it took out the book it had. "Your book is also changing. In the end, you will die in the same place you started."

"Don"t say a word!" shouted Seref as he slammed his head to the ground, but he knew what the spirit meant. The place which the spirit meant was not a location, but a state. The state of being alone and insignificant. As he pushed his forehead on the cold gra.s.s, the world seemed to be getting smaller.