"...You shouldn't have killed him, what if somebody investigates?" Ddraig Wen asked, sighing.
"It's fine, you know that little gang that's been growing? They hang out here, the villagers won't dare to dig too deep."
Lancelot smirked, trying to clean the blood off his shoe by scraping it against the stone wall.
"Hehe, what a pathetic end. Such a person deserves a death as painful as this. A coward like him is too weak, and the weak bend to the whims of the strong."
"If Sarah died, you'd do anything for revenge." Ddraig snorted.
"...That's different." Lancelot narrowed his eyes.
"How so?"
Lancelot held the other necklace, Sarah's, in his hand, twirling it around his finger.
"Because I'm not like other people." Lancelot's lips twitched in amusement.
"Right, you're a psychopath." Ddraig sighed.
"Psychopath?" Lancelot chuckled. "I simply do what I want, whenever I want. I desire power, and enjoy using it. Humans strive for freedom and power, subconsciously and consciously. Am I evil for my nature? The nature that everyone else possesses themselves? To criticise me would make them a hypocrite."
He suddenly stopped walking, a smirk on his face.
"Then again, you're not really human, are you?"
Ddraig couldn't help but smirk back.
"You're right. I'm not one of you frail humans, I'm a dragon- The Heavenly Dragon Of The End. Though, we fear death all the same, no? That's also the reason behind this 'deal' we made."
The voice in his head turned nostalgic, almost reminiscent.
"I remember your first Incarnation. The first 'you' was called Abel, and was nearly as crazy as you. After a fight with that cheating bastard, Ddraig Goch, I was wounded and hid in the core of the earth. I was dying, and it was inevitable, so when your weak little self found me, I made a deal. In exchange for helping you in your absurd dream to 'become the strongest' and 'overthrow the heavens', you'd work to help me regain my strength and body."
Ddraig suddenly sneered,
"But you failed! That revival Emblem you originally had luckily still worked, and with a bit of tweaking, I managed to make the Incarnation system.."
Lancelot sighed, musing.
"I'm not officially an Incarnation yet, though. I haven't even remembered my past lives, and that 'inheritance' that you were talking about hasn't been given to me yet." Lancelot sneezed, rubbing his nose, "Though, I keep dreaming of these weird scenes- ones that remain vivid and feel familiar."
"..."
Ddraig Wen barely held his laughter in.
"What? Why aren't you saying anything?"
Drip, drip, drip.
Blood gushed out from Lancelot's nose, who promptly held onto the alleyway wall for support.
"Ddraig! What the.."
His vision turned blurry, and the world spun. It was like his surroundings were the pieces of a puzzle, though it was being dismantled slowly but surely, pieces being removed as his vision neared a state of total darkness.
"Ddraig.." Lancelot muttered, blacking out.
"Again!"
Bam!
The boy, under the watchful eyes of the other boy, struck the tree. Surprisingly, the tree shook slightly, but ultimately remained standing. The two boys were in the middle of a forest, the lush greenery and vegetation creating a serene and calming environment.
"Harder!"
Bam!
The boy panted, his silver hair falling onto his forehead. Even so, he wound his fist back and delivered a blow. The result was the same as before, though the tree shook a tiny bit more.
"Cain, I'm tired!" The boy wined, his knuckles red and sore from hitting the tree.
"...Fine, Abel." Cain sighed, "If you keep slacking, there's no way in hell you'll be able to fight the monsters. Dad's getting old, he can't keep taking them all by himself, y'know?"
"I'm not slacking! It's just.. your training is too harsh. How am I supposed to take down the entire tree by only punching it? You obviously need an axe for that, dummy." Abel huffed, crossing his arms.
"What did you call me?! You're just too weak, you shrimp!" Cain growled.
"I know what you are, but what am I?"
"Stupid monkey!"
"I know what you are, but what am I?"
"Why you-!"
Just as Cain was about to pounce on Abel, a chuckle resounded throughout the forest.
Immediately, both boys snapped their heads to see the source of the voice, their eyes lighting up.
Abel quickly tackled the figure in a hug, looking upwards at him with a big smile.
"You're back! We were just training, D-"
"-ad!" Lancelot gasped, panting as he sat up.
"That was.. the First Incarnation. That was.. me." His eyes were bloodshot as he ran a hand through his hair. "The memories, they're coming back.."
He looked around, finding himself in a very familiar place.
The white void, or, Ddraig's dreamscape.
"He really was a big shot if he could make an entire dimension for himself to chill in.." Lancelot thought to himself, standing up.
He had already been here many times, to either learn menial things like ancient language and exercise routines, or special lessons that taught him about Emblems and Magecraft.
"Who was it?" His voice whispered, though he did not speak, the sound coming from behind him.
Lancelot closed his eyes.
"The original." He laid onto the floor again, getting comfortable.
Usually, whenever Ddraig decided to pull him into here, he would be here for hours on end. Though, time here is 10x slower than the outside world, so it wasn't an inconvenience. Additionally, his body would also be pulled into here, so Ddraig could, and has, physically harmed him.
"I don't blame him, though.." Lancelot grinned to himself internally.
"He's not 'The Original'. You're the same person." Ddraig snorted, walking towards Lancelot and poking his forehead. "Keep thinking like that and you'll disassociate, or become suicidal like Incarnation Sixty Seven and Twenty One."
Ddraig couldn't be bothered to remember their names; they had been failures, being meek and quiet, whilst only reaching Stage 3.
Though, he still remembered that scene..
"What the hell are you doing?!" Ddraig exclaimed, shocked.
The man in the room panted, his spiky green hair ungroomed and oily.
"I'm not .. I'm not anyone else! I don't want to lose myself..."
The green haired boy had a maniacal smile, his eyes wide as he pressed a knife to his throat.
"Ddraig, my name isn't Abel, or Sigmund, or anything else! These memories, they aren't mine!" Tears fell from his eyes, yet he maintained his smile.
"I'm not myself anymore, I'm not.. me, anymore."
The knife cut through his jugular.
Ddraig sighed, repressing that memory.
He didn't want Lancelot to end up the same. He reminded him too much of Vortigern, Abel and.. Him.
Dispelling the emotions bubbling inside him, Ddraig Wen smiled. Though, it was hard to see. His body, after all, was a silhouette of Lancelot.
"That little snippet isn't the only part. There's many, many more to come. At minimum, ninety-nine more."
"..I can't decide whether to be happy or sad." Lancelot groaned from his position on the floor.
"Well, you should be happy. I have good news, one a power-crazy brat like you will love."
Lancelot quickly sat up, his eyes wide and a smile on his face.
"My soul's finally healed? I can finally awaken?" He excitedly said, eyes shining bright like two stars.
He could finally awaken and attain supernatural powers, such as Emblems, and become known as a Magus- A practitioner of magecraft!
This was worthy of celebration.
"I could've done it long ago, but apparently the last me damaged mine- no, our soul in his final fight.." Lancelot thought poignantly, though he did not feel any hate or resentment.
The ninety-ninth Incarnation was, according to Ddraig, someone who, like him, prioritised power over everything else.
Lancelot was someone with complete confidence in himself, to doubt the 99th Incarnation would be to doubt himself! Surely, there was a completely justified and complex reason as to why the damage was taken.
"Got it in one." Ddraig Wen clapped, "Now, let's see if you remember anything from your lessons!"
In Ddraig's hand appeared a blue cube, it was translucent and the size of his palm in width and height. Across its surface were many cracks, of which most were nearly healed and some half-mended.
Lancelot could hear the grin in his tone, and shuddered.
There were too few times where Ddraig was that happy, and almost all of those times were because of Lancelot's own downfalls.
"...I don't like that look in your pitch-black eyes, what the hell are you planning, you overgrown liza-"
He didn't even have the chance to scream as he was sucked into the blue cube, leaving only a smiling Ddraig.
"Better get to work, you blue baboon.."