Life didn't get easier, even in another world-Chương 424: The Reason and the result

"So, don't act like a fool."

The man's soft and delicate voice, which was akin to the gentle touch of rose petals on the skin, gradually faded as it reached the last words; like autumn leaves scattered by the winds.

Kairen was left flabbergasted at the spoken sentences. The cracks that were swirling all around him came to a halt as his wandering eyes moved back to the person holding him, to his brother who was tightly hugging him while withstanding shockwaves from the pillar of light and Kairen's power. Small and large wounds kept appearing on his brother's body as various powers clashed and hit them. What gave him the most injuries was the electric currents bouncing around Kairen.

"...."

As if a needle hitting a balloon, in an instant, all the emotions boiling in his chest vanished like a lie. He froze on his spot, unable to comprehend the situation or understand what was happening to him.

-You and I are basically strangers.

-Kairen.

-That's who you are.

Roy's words echoed in his ears. As he gazed at his brother's face, hot streams of tears flowed down his cheeks.

Kairen was... a total stranger to that man?

He was Kairen. Not Reynold, but Kairen. Unlike Reynold, Kairen had a family, he had friends, he had his brother, and had hopes for the future.

The person who knew Roy was someone from the past, from another life; someone who was already dead.

"...."

So does this mean that the emotions he felt didn't belong to him at all? That the desire he had to save that man was that of his past life's, not his? He was Kairen. Had Kairen put his, and his brother's lives in danger just to cling to someone of the past?

'No, does that even matter?'

He just wanted to stop whatever was happening. He could think about the unimportant matters later, for now, he just needed to-

WROMMMMMM

The instant hesitation was enough for Kairen to miss his chance to bring about any changes to the situation. With an earsplitting roar, the pillar of light quivered powerfully. It was as if the sky was falling down. The earth was splitting apart.

Kairen's body got forcefully yanked back into an embrace as layers of dirt and soil wrapped around them like a shield. He didn't have the energy left to struggle anyway. He couldn't even stop his tears from flowing down.

With his fixated gaze on the pillar of light, he followed how a hardly distinguishable figure gradually blended into the light, fading from sight and completely vanishing from view. As his vision got dimmer and dimmer, a blinding light shot out in all directions, dyeing to world colorless.

BOMMMMM

. . . . . . . . . . .

...What just happened?

Did the world come to an end? Did they all die? Where was he? In an endless weightless, submerged deep in confusion, unable to find his way back... back home.

"Mmmm...."

A faint groan echoed in his mind, in his ears. Whose voice was that?

"Mmn..."

Familiar. Probably his own voice. He struggled to get out of the warmth that enveloped him, reaching out a hand and forcing his eyelids up. The hazy scene that came into view was of a white blankness.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

'Huh... A hospital room...'

A much familiar place. Though this place was gradually becoming his home, it wasn't really what he wanted to see as soon as opening his eyes. He really wished he'd open his eyes in his bed, in his room, near his family.

"....."

Taking some deep breaths, he inspected his body. It ached all around and was wrapped up whole, but at least there weren't any missing parts. Everything was attached. That was good enough. As he shifted his gaze out the window, a clear sky came into the view. There was no pillar of light piercing the dome, no thunderbolts, and not even the gates that floated up in the air till a while ago. It was a normal, clear sky.

'....Did everything end?'

Just like that?

Did Roy succeed? What about Samuel? What happened to him?

Everything ended so abruptly...

Thinking a bit more, Kairen could more or less guess the flow of events. Combining his knowledge with Reynold's, he could understand the situation fully well.

Roy had spent his life moving through worlds and leaving his mark on them. Kairen didn't know the specifics, but he was sure he'd done anything he could to save more lives and shield various worlds. Even the fact that his previous world, the place where Aaron lived, was able to survive for such a long time after the cataclysm meant Roy had passed that place as well and prevented its complete annihilation.

Having his remnant traces on each world, and using Kairen and Kain to kick start the activation of the link, he created a connection throughout the universe, creating an artificial chain that deemed him, the one with the greatest contribution to its creation, as the new Reason.

Samuel probably wanted to do the same, but what he desired was the opposite result. In the case of them both using their soul as the key activation source... The one with the greatest influence would win.

'Did Samuel's soul get consumed by the new chain?'

You'd turn into the result if you couldn't be the reason.

'What about Roy then?'

"...."

First of all, he was originally a human being, a result of many reasons. Such an entity couldn't become the sole reason for the chain, its god, its everlasting benefactor. Second, knowing Roy, he wouldn't choose a fate for himself where he'd be forced to live an eternal life. This left Kairen with a sole guess.

'Did he feed his soul to the new chain? All of his power, all of his being?'

The new chain was like a stitch to the old one, something created using the extra dangerous energies that were created upon the original chain's break. It was akin to recycling, utilizing the waste to create something useful.

And Roy's soul was also contaminated by the power deemed as waste, with a great amount of it, at that. There was no way he could lose all that power while keeping his soul intact.

'Honestly, there was no need to think so hard. It was clear from the start...'

As he raised his body and sat down on the bed, Kairen pressed his lips on each other, lightly rubbing his throbbing eyes. He had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down. As he was told, that person was a stranger to him.

'And that soul will never be able to enter the cycle of life and death again...'

It was a part of The Chain now, in the form of universal powers. Only those souls that had a normal death could be born anew. Of course, Kairen was an exception.

'What about me then?'

Kairen could still sense the ominous power in his soul, but it was too weak and faint for him to bring it out or use it. It resembled only a remnant of what was used to be there.

'And this...'

A foreign bracelet rested on his wrist. Despite its metallic appearance, it gave out an odd warmth. Kairen reached out a hand, lightly grazing the patterns on the bracelet, but he was startled when the thing abruptly vibrated.

"Whoah!?"

A gray-colored thread emerged from thin air, whirling around the bracelet.

'A... Thread of Fate?'

The thread floated in front of him for a brief second before suddenly jumping on his face. Before Kairen could react, the glowing thing touched his skin. An unfamiliar male voice echoed in his ears.

-This is his last gift, keep it around if you don't want to die young in your last life. With this, his and my contract concludes.

Poof!

The thread faded in an instant.

'What the...'

Whose voice was that? What contract? His last gift?

Kairen looked back down at the bracelet. He faintly remembered Roy tossing this thing at him when he was in a dire situation.

'A contract with Roy, and a Thread of Fate... Was that Fate's voice?'

That was the only guess that made sense. Kairen looked around, but there was no one in the room. Fate obviously wouldn't barge into a hospital in a random world just to talk to him. It seemed the bracelet, Roy's gift, was also blessed by Fate.

'My last life...'

Does that mean that Kairen too, won't be able to enter the cycle of life and death after this life comes to an end?

'Well, that's only natural as this soul is barely even kept alive. That means that the last sparks of the dangerous universal powers are needed for my soul to keep functioning... With my death, that tiny amount too, will join the new chain. This must be the same for Alan. His curse of Time must've been removed with the changes, and he'll live like a normal man till he ages and dies...Hah! If not for Roy and Fate, I'd now be residing in The Void, probably.'

As he thought of The Void, a wrinkle slowly crept up to his forehead.

'What... What happened to The Void?'

It too, was a wasted part of The Chain. It couldn't have survived the new changes.

His muscles acted faster than his mind. Before he could reach a conclusion, Kairen threw his tattered body down the hospital bed. Using the walls for support, the boy held his body up while staggering out of the room.

'What about the souls inside The Void? What happened to them? They all joined the chain?'

The hospital hall was empty with no one in sight. Kairen's eyes quickly moved and landed on a specific door. He was very familiar with this hospital not only because he was hospitalized here often, but because he came here a lot to visit a patient.

'What about Kain?'

Fear crept up to his heart as various thoughts whirled in his mind, urging him to take faster and faster steps towards the room. His body staggered and fell down a few times, yet he dragged it up again and rushed forward. The short distance of a few meters took ages for him to cross.

He couldn't help but stop upon realizing that the door was half-open once he arrived behind it. Kairen's reached-out hand froze midway as his heart skipped a beat. He could hear voices coming from inside the room. He could hear the laughter of a young boy.

"...."

His legs didn't have the strength to keep him up anymore. His hand grabbing on the wall slipped up and his body weakly fell down to the ground. The door slid open from the impact, revealing the interiors of the hospital room. The chatter and laughter stopped upon the sudden interruption and all eyes moved towards him.

"...Ren?"

Almost instantly, a figure jumped towards him, crouched down, and grabbed both his shoulders. His brother, his dear older brother, this always over-worried older brother, was wrapped in bandages here and there, also wearing a hospital gown. Gazing down on Kairen, Aaron's eyes began scanning him up and down, repeatedly asking if he was alright.

"Ah! Uncle!"

From behind him ran out a young child while jumping up and down excitedly. Kairen's eyes landed on Ariyan for a brief second before moving to the third person present in the room, to the young man sitting on his bed, watching him with a hesitant expression.

"Uncle, uncle, dad is awake! Look he's, ah? W-why is uncle crying?"

The child's words trailed off. He looked in between his father and uncle before slowly retreating towards Claire who was standing at the other side of the room. A heavy silence engulfed the room.

"Ahem!" The brown-haired green-eyed man coughed awkwardly as he rubbed his eyes. "They kicked me out once I activated the machine, saying that my body was still alive thus I had no place in there."

And... so...

'He's awake...'

The person Kairen wanted to hear his voice so much, the man he couldn't save on that day. He was awake.

Whatever was whirling inside of him was much more than relief and happiness. The tears that kept drenching his clothes too, weren't of sorrow nor joy. He was overwhelmed with all kinds of thoughts at the same time.

"Ren!"

His eyes, fixated on the young man sitting atop the bed, shifted back to the person right in front of him. As he watched the man's pure concern, a wave of guilt hit Kairen hard, drowning all his pain and body ache in it.

He was reminded of the promises he'd made with this man not to get hurt, but failed to keep, of the gift box sent to him from their previous world, that Kairen had forgotten to give him, and of his last struggles to keep Kairen safe in the scene of destruction. Kairen was an utter disappointment.

-We are basically strangers.

Roy's last words echoed in his ears yet again. Strangers. Total strangers. Did Kairen put his brother's life in danger for someone he barely knew? Only because that person was someone from a past life?

That wasn't true. He couldn't accept it. He couldn't agree with that man. They weren't total strangers. Even if it was from another life, Kairen 'did' know him. Kairen or Reynold, he knew that man, he had spent a considerable amount of time with him, he'd held him in high regard in his life, he 'did' try to save him, and now, he'd lost him.

Despite his trying so hard to suppress the grief he felt by labeling him as something that didn't belong to him, he couldn't deny it any longer.

Kairen has indeed lost a family.

"Why are you crying? Ren? Are you in pain?"

What was with this ending? Kairen didn't like this at all. He couldn't accept it. That was too cruel. That man deserved better. He deserved a normal life.

But now he couldn't even reincarnate.

"Maybe he's just so happy to see me back..."

Yes. He was indeed happy. This was the best outcome he could've expected. He'd yearned for this day. He's dreamt of it countless times. He'd done anything he could to bring this man back to life. This was indeed the best outcome he could imagine.

"Arght, damn."

There was a bitter taste on his tongue yet a sweetness spreading in his mouth.

Things would've been different if Kairen was a bit smarter or stronger. If he wasn't such a useless person, he could've done way better. While the whole world was going through such a change, all he did was sit back and watch while being protected. When that stupid man was sacrificing himself, Kairen could only call his name from afar without being able to do anything. When Kain used his power to save the city, Kairen again, could do nothing but watch. For his brother too, he had done nothing. Absolutely nothing.

He has always been on the receiving end. Throughout his life, Kairen was always a worthless one, a useless one. Someone who was constantly guided, unable to complete a task without the others' help.

But did he really need to be a hero?

He was just an ordinary person. Even with a bizarre power and weird past life, Kairen was ultimately a normal human being. Could humans perform all tasks perfectly? Could they make no mistakes? Wasn't the outcome what was important? Aren't things fine now?

"...I...I-I don't know..."

He didn't know the answer to any of them. Kairen didn't even know if he was happy or sad. He was such a hopeless human being.

"...It's alright," At his brother's soft whisper, Kairen's body was pulled forward to his embrace. "Cry all you want."

A pair of hands gently tapped his back.

"We can talk about it once we go home."

"...."

Kairen repeated the last word in his head.

Home... back home.

That was indeed, what he needed the most right now.

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End.

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Ahem ahem. It's the author here, hi~ ＼(￣▽￣)／

So yeah... This is the end. With this final chapter, the book is concluded. Yaaaaayyy!

This was the first book I wrote and has a special place in my heart. I did my best to write something presentable and put in a lot of effort in making it a book that you'd like and enjoy reading. I made a lot of mistakes throughout the novel, and I know that I couldn't publish the best book possible, but I do hope at least for some of you, it was an enjoyable experience.

Ah, by the way, I'll most probably publish a few side stories later on. Just letting you know. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Also, I want to thank everyone who kept supporting me all this while. I read and enjoyed all of your comments and ideas, and I demand more! Some of you kept sending me power stones even during the period I was on a break, which meant a lot to me. You guys are the reason I kept writing this shi- this book. I can't thank you enough!

Oh oh also, if you are interested, I'm working on a new book named 'The Undying Star'. I'd be glad if you could give it a try as well. I'll do my best to give you a nice reading experience. ✧

Tell me more about your thoughts. Who was your favorite character? What did you like about the novel? How did you expect things to flow? Which part of the story did you like the most?

Finally, I hope you all enjoyed this story. This is the final chapter soooo don't forget to share your comments and thoughts. If you have any questions please ask me.