Still dazed by everything that had happened, I let Lena help me get back into bed. She held my hand tightly, her eyes shiny with tears.
"You have no idea how worried I've been... You've been asleep for two months, and you were getting weaker every day. Nobody understood what was wrong with you, but at least now you're awake… thank the gods. If I had lost you..."
She hugged me tightly, trying to hold back her sobs.
It was strange. It had been so long since I had felt her warmth. A familiar, nostalgic feeling, and surprisingly comforting.
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting myself be lulled by that calm. After a few deep breaths, I pushed away the doubts that crowded my mind and focused on what was happening.
"Lena… how old am I?"
I noticed her expression suddenly turn confused, then worried. She probably thought something was wrong, so I tried to reassure her immediately.
"You said I was in a coma for two months, but to me it felt much longer..."
I tried to look innocent, and it worked, since my sister's face relaxed and she answered me with a smile.
"Don't worry, Adel. It's been just a short time since your sixteenth birthday. Oh! By the way… we still have to celebrate it, together with your awakening!"
Seeing her so happy warmed my heart. But it was exactly that joy that made everything even more unsettling.
In the past… or rather, in the old timeline, Lena had fallen ill when I was twelve. And she died exactly four years later. It made no sense to see her so full of life.
On the contrary… I looked like the one about to die.
"I'm going to get some vegetables for the soup. You rest a bit, alright?"
I nodded. She stood up and, once she left, I let out a long sigh of relief. She didn't seem to have noticed anything, or maybe she was just too focused on the fact that I had woken up. I sincerely hoped it was the latter.
Now that I was finally alone, I needed to make sense of what was happening. So I dove into the information left by the Will of the World… and soon found the cause that almost made me curse out loud.
[Adel, this is what I couldn't tell you before we were separated.
The artifact I created is bound by the law of cause and effect linked to the individual who uses it, in one word: karma.
And here's the problem.
As I explained, your constitution allowed you to steal the fate of others. But everything must balance out. So, along with their fate, you also absorbed all their negative karma.
When you were transported, your body was saturated with it. This will affect what happens in the new timeline, and believe me, it won't be pleasant.
But that's not all.
With all that dark karma and your fate finally restored, your existence will be haunted by constant misfortune. A misfortune that will try in every way to claim your life as payment.
The only way to lessen its effects is to repay those from whom you unconsciously stole fate.
On your arm, I engraved a rune, called the Golden Rule. It will glow when you find someone you need to repay. It will shine black when the misfortune is active and with it, the danger to your life.]
I lowered my gaze to the back of my forearm, where I could see a rune glowing with an unsettling black light.
"…Great."
The situation was serious, but not enough to send me into a panic. I had faced many worse scenarios. What I needed now was a plan.
First of all, I had to find a way to heal. In my current condition, I doubted I'd survive more than a week. That was probably why the rune was marking my death.
Second point: get stronger and faster. The feeling of weakness was unbearable, especially considering that in the old timeline, I had reached Grade 7.
Finally, I had to reach the continent. Yes, reach it, because at the moment I was in the Gorgorath Archipelago, a group of islands east of the continent.
Everything else would come later.
For the first two goals, I already had an idea of how to proceed. The real problem was crossing the sea. The Pirates controlled all the ships, one of the dominant factions of the archipelago.
"I'm back! I'll make a nice hot soup; it'll help you regain your strength."
As soon as my sister crossed the threshold, I felt a strange vibration coming from the rune. Now it glowed gold.
I expected it… But facing it was harder than I thought.
I sighed bitterly.
Seeing my sister healthy while I was in such bad shape had already made me question things. But now, with the rune glowing like that, there was no doubt. In the old timeline, I had stolen Lena's life, forcing her to get sick instead of me…
I felt like a worm.
Only now was I truly starting to understand the weight of my existence. Who knows how many loved ones I had condemned to death… maybe even 'her'.
I tried to ignore the oppressive feeling for now, focusing on the present. Now my existence was no longer causing harm, and I just had to pay the price.
I say that, but what does it mean to repay them?
I doubted it was about money. Maybe it was something more personal, something they cared about. But for now, I had to let it go. I had a mission for that night.
We ate the vegetable soup together, talking about this and that. And I have to admit, I enjoyed every second spent with Lena.
Talking with her and seeing her alive brought back a bit of happiness I didn't think possible.
As night fell, we headed to bed. I patiently waited for my sister's breathing to become steady, a sign that she had fallen into a deep sleep. Only then did I start to move.
I lifted myself with difficulty, sitting on the edge of the bed. Every movement was torture. But I clenched my teeth and stood up. I reached the door, trying to open it as silently as possible, and slipped out.
Finally, I was outside.
The night was dark, lit by a few torches and the light of the full moon. I could see well enough. I was in the outer area of the citadel, on one of the main islands. Here resided the Explorers faction, the most powerful in the archipelago, led by a Grade 3 man.
My goal was the central area, protected by the bastion.
In Arcadia, there was only one way to become strong, and that was through the gods. By visiting one of the many pantheons or the temple of a particular god, you could receive a blessing called grace or a mark, called stigma.
The difference was significant: graces could be granted by multiple gods, but they couldn't evolve or gain new ones. The stigma, instead, came from a single god but allowed you to acquire new blessings over time and strengthen them.
Then there was the concept of Existence Grade. The experiences you lived, the pain you overcame, all the events that tested you were converted into power, allowing a person to surpass their limits… within a certain boundary.
Every individual had an unbreakable ceiling.
In the old timeline, I found the temple of Noctis, obtained his stigma, and managed to reach Grade 7. But beyond that… it was as if the world itself wouldn't let me go further.
Heavy breaths.
"What a… worthless body."
After just a few minutes, I was already exhausted, forced to stop and catch my breath. My legs were shaking from the effort, but I couldn't afford to give up.
I had to complete that task that night. Because I knew that if I had the same disease as my sister, my condition would only get worse.
I finally reached the bastion: imposing, massive, built to withstand attacks from the navy. Of course, I didn't have the money to pay for the main entrance, nor was I crazy enough to try to climb it. But I knew that if I followed the walls in that direction… bingo.
A tunnel, hidden and dug into the ground, often used by thieves. I remembered it because in the future, one of them managed to steal an important artifact. It ended in tragedy, and after that event, the passage was found and closed.
I entered it. It was narrow, but my thin body fit through without problems. When I came out the other side, I checked that no one was around. Then I slipped out quickly and hid behind a building.
I cautiously peeked from behind a ledge to observe the situation.
Several members of the Explorers faction patrolled the walls, watching both inside and outside. The area was well-lit, but my attention was focused on a group of people further ahead.
They were all partially armed, and the reason was that they were about to head into a dungeon.
Carefully protected, there was a portal that would send you into a separate dimension, and even if that portal was lower difficulty, it was still a mortal danger for all of them, myself included.
The reason was simple.
None of us had a grace or a stigma.
In the archipelago, the only existing pantheon was jointly managed by the various factions. Access to its benefits was strictly controlled: either you joined one of them and contributed significantly, or you paid an enormous sum. Otherwise, you were denied. That's how they kept the people under control.
For me, though, it wasn't an obstacle. Or at least, it wasn't anymore. In this new life, I wanted to choose a different path.
I had already understood that relying on the gods would never allow me to reach the level needed to face the champions of the alien races.
But there was another method. One created towards the end of the war by the great archmage, based on cursed magic. It was considered heretical and dangerous, but with enormous potential if used correctly. The only problem was that it cut off all connections with the gods, and I had to make sure no one found out. I didn't feel like being hunted by inquisitors as a pagan or a slave of evil gods.
During the assault on the Academy, the Hero asked me what trait I envied most about the alien races, and I answered the dragon heart of the draconians.
And that was exactly what I intended to create inside myself.