CHAPTER 192: TUMULT OF THE TWO WEEKS: PART 4 - FAILURES

Just when they thought there was peace...

"Asahi, come here!" Primrose screamed, spotting a silhouette drifting overhead.

(SWISH)

A young woman with long purple hair and pink eyes licked her knife’s tip, gripping a purple canister. "Look, let’s be quick. One of you stole the Orb of Immortality. Give it back."

She spoke quickly, just like Yawman.

"Who are you?" Primrose asked.

"Introductions aren’t my style," the girl said. "I’m Kika, of The Ending and The Promise." Those factions rang a bell, familiar to Asahi.

(Another Member from the Promise?)

Asahi tried to retreat, but Primrose pinned him. He heard others fleeing. The Blacksmiths’ warmth faded. And...

"Asahi... stay put." She said, "Don’t move an inch."

Kika shot Primrose a look of disgust. "Look how awful you two are together. Don’t you know how destructive your partner can be?" She dropped her knife and produced five purple canisters. "It ends now."

Asahi hadn’t known the Orb had been absorbed or remembered the power of destruction he held. He thought it was in his Soul Storage, but it was now attached to his heart. Only Kika and Isa had recognized this destructive force. Much about Asahi’s identity was still a mystery.

"Stop running!" Kika gripped her two knives. "You destroyed my abode. I shall garner my vengeance."

"Asahi," Primrose said. "What is that girl talking about? What did you do?"

Thanks to the ’death’ of the Ruler of The Forgotten, everyone else’s memories unraveled instead of his.

But at that moment, Primrose had something important to share.

"I think the Orb has been absorbed by your... heart?"

Asahi’s eyes broadened."What? How?"

After their discovery, Asahi and Primrose rushed toward their Blacksmith, urgency growing as chaos unraveled behind them. Thirty minutes later...

"Commission granted. Take it and go." The blacksmith’s voice faltered. "I’m gone."

He dashed for the door.

(SHING)

Kika’s throwing knives killed the blacksmith. Asahi and Primrose froze in terror as corpses flew across the stone floor.

"Not you. Not YOU, and NOT YOU!" She sounded upset, angry, and moreover. But in just a nick of time, Asahi and Primro...

(SHING)

Suddenly, Asahi witnessed Primrose collapse on the street.

Kika threw the corpse, slamming and slitting Primrose’s throat as blood gushed. Asahi vomited in terror as she juggled corpses. A sick display, unlike anything Asahi had seen. Then he realized...

(One snap is all it takes.)

With Primrose gone, Asahi was alone. He could leave with Trid, but that would cause trouble. After just two days, this was the worst yet. He thought, ’The Blacksmith Haven journey... it failed. What do I do now?’

He glanced at his right hand. ’It’s either this or... something else,’ he considered, uncertainty pressing in on him.

(SNAP)

After he snapped his fingers, the gruesome present faded, and Asahi entered a fragment of the past...

"Wake the damn boy up!"

The same events played out—a miracle. Asahi woke with the Orb at hand. Unlike the third loop, he hurried to Primrose, grabbed Trid, and said:

"We don’t have much time. Get on the carriage and—

"Hold a damn minute," Grandpa said, teeth clicking. "Why the damn hurry?"

Asahi showed Grandpa the Orb. Grandpa fell silent and, after a moment...

"Just get in the damn wagon. We’ll take you far from Blacksmith Haven."

Asahi gathered spilled canisters of soil into the wagon. Trid hopped onto the backboard, and they sped off.

* * *

They sped through thick, restless snow. After struggling past several treacherous hills, urgency deepened as the landscape changed around them—

"We just came from Tower Valley," Asahi told Primrose as they studied the map. "It’s this, either we settle in Blacksmith Haven, or Erkunshnkdle City."

Primrose took a thought herself, pointing to Erkunshnkdle City. "I say we go here. I have my fair share of experience in Astait..."

Trid shook his head.

After a bump, the Orb of Immortality nearly fell from his grasp. Asahi caught it, but it clung to his chest and dissolved. Primrose stared, confused.

"W...Where did it go?"

"The thing just vanished. Damn it," Gramps said, driving the carriage.

Baffled but undeterred, the trio pressed on. Their journey became a gauntlet: hulking eight-armed polar bears and drifting ice slimes haunted their path, wind’s howls their bleak companions.

"About damn time they show up," Grandpa said as he clutched on to a hunting rifle. "You three, get your damn butts out of the gutter and help a poor old man help."

After being phased, Asahi and Primrose followed the directions as instructed. Although Primrose was left astonished at Asahi’s swift wits, Trid was skeptical. He quickly reached for Asahi and asked.

"Can you be so kind as to give me your map?"

Fortunately, Asahi gave Trid the map. Then, hastily, he threw a dagger at it, marking the location.

"We shall stop here." He cleared his throat. "The land of Astait is dangerous. I highly advise going to the city where it’s warm and safe."

Keeping Trid’s advice in mind, Asahi rolled up the map and braved the terrain. He took detours, evaded monsters, and as snowstorms worsened, Grandpa handed the reins over to him.

"Hope you know how to drive a damn carriage. Or we’re all stuck, damn it."

Asahi, having hesitated, turned over and asked.

"Are you positive you believe in me that much?"

"I know damn white haired fella’s like you appear in Astait ages ago like a cage of damn flies and lights," Grandpa said as he scruffed his beard. " I know damn well what I’m damn doing. Now get in the damn carriage and go! Follow and respect your damn elders."

Clenching tightly onto the reins, Asahi whipped the horses and flew off the road. Grandpa and Trid did nothing to stop him, but Primrose couldn’t hesitate to stop.

"Grandpa, are you serious? Why are you..."

"Don’t have faith in your partner?" Grandpa said as Primrose flushed a deep red.

After that, Primrose hid her smile and nodded her head. She closed her eyes and stepped back.

"O...Of course I have faith."

"Then respect his failures, damn it! Flurries burst through the wagon. Failures get your heart going. Success is easy, but failures bring change. Didn’t you learn this in the Academy of Destia?"

Primrose and Asahi fell silent. Indeed, Asahi’s failures ultimately led to his successes.

"Sometimes you got to embrace your damn failures, damn it."

He related to this. With the power of a snap, he could change a battle in a heartbeat. This power, plus immortality... could possibly be..

"We got a damn bear in the road."

Knowing his immortality and power, Asahi stepped out of the wagon, unsheathed his sword from Soul Storage, and materialized it in the air.

"If I’m immortal, then I can fight anyone I please without..." As he swung his fists, the moment that the bear touched...

(ZAP)

A shock unlike any other slammed into Asahi. Quickly, he fell to the floor, unable to...

(ZAP)

Asahi dropped his sword, seething from the zap’s pain. He tried to fight again, but was shocked with each attempt.

"Asahi!"

He couldn’t rely on his fists or sword. At that moment, he realized...

"I... can’t fight?"

Asahi, one last time, tried to hit the bear, but all it had...

(ZAP)

Trid and Primrose dashed to him, cleaving their swords straight through the monsters.

"Get Asahi in the wagon now!"

This was the moment he figured out... the trade-off of absorbing The Orb of Immortality. He could NOT fight. No matter what he does.

(So this is what balance feels like,) Asahi thought, surprised by how still his legs were. He felt a flicker of anxiety at not being able to rely on himself and forced himself to find another way to fight. He scanned the wagon for Primrose, trying to stay calm. Distant grunts from Trid filled the enclosed air. Asahi jumped in front of the bear, using his body as a shield. The bear could not hurt him.

"Asahi?" Trid said as he lowered his blade, preparing to strike the bear. "Just what person are you?"

"Dad, just fight the beast!" Primrose yelled.

It was at that moment that Asahi realized that if he couldn’t fight, he must defend.

This led him to recall something from back in Pladtioa with the instance of The Forbidden Book... Akwan...

"Like pawns in a chessboard."

He recollected how artifacts had affected characters from the other world and vice versa, ’reality’. It was with these recollections that familiarity with him grew, even when Aletha wasn’t present.

"So... all I can do is..."

After yet another slash, Trid slammed his sword straight through the fur skin of the bear and divided it into pieces. He glared at Asahi with his fierce cyan eyes, saying...

"Get in the wagon. We’re almost there!"

Grandpa and Primrose scurried back to the seat and, after whipping one more, saw five more polar bears approach. Trid shook his head and sheathed his blade in his Soul Storage. After doing all he could, he mounted into the wagon and drove further, into the distant hills that had encompassed an advanced city composed of steel and exhaust.

"Asahi," Primrose said as she rested in the back of the wagon. "You’re great at driving!"

"Really?" Asahi said as the wheels hit a pebble.

"Give the young man damn time, damn it! It’s easy to drive a wagon, but a carriage... now that’s some damn trouble."

As the opening of hope shimmered among the snowy horizon, Asahi, Primrose, Grandpa, and Trid all dashed through the villages surrounding the gargantuan metropolis.

Carriages and steam-powered vehicles flew left and right, people shuffling back and forth through the city. The smell of steel circulated. And the wagon, although torn, remained intact. As the gigantic gears surrounding the city clicked and ticked, Primrose sat up front and hollered.

"Welcome to Erkunshnkdle City!"