Chapter 233: Terra

Terra’s words felt like a death farewell, as well as a telling and a reminder, admonishment, and/or perhaps just the love of a parent to her child.

Whether it was by form or remotely just emotions, Siva never distinguished between the two and just purely followed his instincts and his will to feel this love as something to be real.

While the people in the cellar dungeon was in an utter shock by this point, Siva’s voice trailed off a pain in his tone that never seem to match his identity as well as his said [divinity].

Siva sniffed and sobbed, he cried, and seeing this made Terra bent down to raise Siva’s head from his chin and kissed him on the forehead.

“Mother… Mother… you died to protect me. And in the real world, you and dad are dead as well… Baron, is in a coma and trapped in here… a God Knight is trampling arrogantly in the streets where he might be hiding from the brutal battle… these conceited immortals are part of his ploys and now… just now… I felt old Janus vanish as well… WHY??!!! Why do you all have to leave me like this? Why must I be alone? Why is this happening only to me?”

Anyone who would hear these words would feel that Siva was being wronged here. And yet, with his powers, they felt that it was somewhat wrong.

Wrong because he’s so powerful and that no one else in this space could come up with anything in Terroa that could had the same strength as him.

Perhaps not even a Lapis Lazuli could be compared to him given his current strength.

“Oh Child, you must endure. Everything that has a beginning must have an end as well. Everything has its purpose in your life. Your fate is in your hands. That’s the reason for your existence as well as the task we have created for you to accomplish… but all the more, it is the purpose of life itself to test you and to make you strong and to prepare you for the challenges in your life that is yet to come.”

Terra wiped his forehead, “Remember, when you wake up, you have to make that choice… once again… to either remain mortal… or satiate your thirst for their destruction and become alone in the end… but before you do make that choice, I hope you will remember what I felt before everything… before all of this… even began…”

Siva’s eyes widened in surprise, realization, and the sheer bitterness of it.

Terra… had been alone back then.

Even during the heightened speed of the initial beginning phases, the years passed by like a slow moving snail… she watched and observed, never to be able to do anything but to endure as she saw Pegasus plant that tumor within.

She had her sentience but she had her job. She has her consciousness but she can’t do anything but to see it all happen.

Even when the created beings and living souls and the [system of time] she was tasked to preserve for the Terran Universe were corrupted by Mefisto… she could only endure and watch because she was powerless to remove the bind to her consciousness herself.

Even until the point that the poor souls of those that had been corrupted managed to reach her with the [system authority] Pegasus gave Mefisto and threatened to slaughter her, the [love] and sadness she endured for countless years had prevented her from actually hurting a single soul, even to point of not retaliating even once.

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—even during the War of the Braves.

“Mom…”

To only realize now just how much boundlessly large Terra’s love for all creations is… Siva’s sobs grew louder and deeper, his shoulders was even trembling as he cried and held her hand and just allowed himself to be hugged like a sobbing baby by Terra’s everlasting and eternally gentle love.

She kissed his hair, fixed it even, she allowed him to vent all that pent up sadness that she sealed herself in order to save Siva of the pain of it all.

Terra knew, her love knew, that Siva, no, Rex Kingsley, is just a pitiful child who was the biggest victim of Pegasus’ schemes.

Rex allowed himself to collapse into an eyesore of a grown man crying rivers of tears like a child in that embrace… because he felt, he knew, that this would be the last time he’d ever feel this motherly embrace.

“Sshh… Shh… Hush, child, it’s okay. Everything will be alright…”

“Mom… mom…”

Rex Kingsley saw his mother’s corpse, holding his father’s hand in that car accident back then.

He knew deep in his heart that ‘Ellie’, his real mother in the real world, is dead, and that ‘Terra’ is but an avatar of her during the creation of this game universe. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

And yet, the love and gentleness, and the real touch of a mother was there and Siva was both happy and broken to realize that this would be the last time he’d ever hug his mother.

Perhaps… the Janus of the two worlds… had been considerate enough to [plan] a last farewell for him… to give him this chance to say goodbye.

Who knows how long he cried?

Because for the people on the cellar dungeon, whether they understood or not the happenings in between the words these two had spoken, they could feel that Siva’s tears, no Rex’s tears… were not something that they can laugh at no matter how ugly for a man with his image and reputation he might look right now.

They could feel his anguish, his agony, and his pain on each of his howling cry and resounding sobbing sounds…

They could feel the permeating warmth of Terra’s motherly love as she hugged him and tried her best to ease her son’s desolated loneliness…

They could feel her soothing tender care as she patted his head and listened to him cry…

They could feel the mortality of a human who was pushed to the edges, abandoned, alone, and stripped off of his only source of strength and is being forced to do the bidding of others for the sake of their greed…

Every person in this sealed space could tell that the ‘gravity magic’ that had fallen on their shoulders have been lifted but they dared not to make a muscle in their bodies move, nor even make the sound of their breathing stain this once in a lifetime scene of a serenity of a mother’s love to its fullest shining splendor!

In fact, Coralline even felt like logging out asap so that she could hug her mom back home…

Deb and Ren even felt like logging out right now to hug their wives and children…

Every person near Siva felt his pain and could feel the severity of the tragedy he experienced.

No one dared to raise their head or to feel that Siva was being an ugly grown up right now.

No.

In fact, they felt that he was more human than anyone else they knew right at this moment.

They recalled the videos of his fights and how he looked cool as he struggled with a strong enemy.

Against that dragon…

Against the gladiator…

Against Hagrid…

And now, against himself…

In all of that, they recalled how he always seemed to scream his lungs out, cry to the sky, roar to his heart’s contents, and always seemed to be in a desperate struggle and yet always find that miniscule amount of an additional strength to win every fight and turn things around.

Listening to the details of their conversation earlier, they may not know the exact details of Siva’s tragedy, but given that he had spoken of his parents dying in the real world and Baron, being in a coma and mind’s avatar somehow in this city and was being threatened to be trampled upon by that giant golem knight, they could at least come to the conclusion of the how and the why this triggered a change on his mental stability… giving birth to this heart-wrenching scene of his mother’s avatar trying to sooth and ease his agitated heart.

The underlying details behind how this scene is possible right now are not important.

What they all could feel and tell is that Siva has a deeper connection, not just by virtue of a Grand Quest or something else, to this world’s creation or at least on how RPG: Terroa came to be.

It was this thought alone that compels these unique individuals to decide in their hearts that to follow Siva… will be the greatest glory of their lives —despite the threat those people holding the leash on his neck possesses to their real world identities.

Siva’s reputation in their minds right now, his howling image in their memories of him based on what they saw in the videos….. were all because of this pain and suffering he was continuously enduring.

They could only ask to themselves: if they were the ones on his shoes, would they still have the ability to retain their mental faculties and squirm, and struggle, and remain breathing to save a life?

Maybe not.

Maybe they can, for a while, but considering the origins of Siva… where and when he was rumored to have started…

The trip, alone, was something awe-inspiringly big that it was hard to imagine what struggles he had endured that wasn’t caught on camera.

It was this reason that they could somehow put their selves on his situation and feel that he was a strong person not because was lucky to have those circumstances but because his fists carried not only his life but the life that he was trying to protect.

His fists carried a world different from their own.

When time seemed to have eased his pain somewhat, who knows how long he had cried or if he had merely gone tired of it, Siva’s sobs lessened and his howling cries stopped as Terra stood and stared in the distance… her gaze locking on to that golem knight.

“Will you do this favor for me?”

*****

The golem knight who had been on guard and was now holding his sword despite being in an incomplete state… looked at her direction and could only sigh, kneel, bow his head, and resign all his desire to do battle.

“I shall follow the will of the Trinity.” His booming huge man’s voice echoed but there was no hint of the former arrogance and mighty presence, only a hint of reverence and awe that sprouted from his respect towards the identity that stood on the same realm of holiness as his teacher, Janus.

The golem knight remained in that position, the people who had recovered from bowing on all fours hearing his voice like a booming thunder.

All of their cameras continued to take the videos but their minds were reeling to the bewildering events of how all these had been caused.

The Golem Knight did not disperse but stopped the absorption of the buildings so as to give in on the request of the gentle Terra.

*****

Terra looked back to Siva and just as so, the light that surrounded her image began to become hazy as if she was about to disperse into the void.

“Child… I may not linger any longer…”

Siva’s tear-laden face looked up and his expression became of an ugly grown making a face like a child.

Terra giggled, “You do know that you are a grown up, right? Stop sulking. Do your mother a favor and give me that happy handsome smile.”

Siva chuckled and used his sleeves to wipe his face then looked up to Terra wearing a beaming silly grin that showed his teeth.

“Now that’s my son.” Terra bent down and kissed his forehead and she began stepped back while still wearing that warm smile on her lips. “Janus has placed the key to the lock but it will not open unless you allow them to by fully releasing your power. Hear me, okay? Mother will not be around when you marry and have children but always remember that I love you both and that no matter which world it is… we will always be there somewhere in your heart… watching over you and Baron… so be strong for the both of you. Endure. And no matter what happens, never allow yourself to drown in your hate… because Baron will be sad if you’re not around.”

Despite the tears, Siva never dared to show a sad face as he treasured these fleeting last moments of seeing his mother’s ever loving smile and also for giving his mother one last look of his happy face.

“For you, mother, I will do my best.”

Terra’s eyes and lips arched into an expression of warmth, looking like the once cheerfully free and unrestrained by worries teenage girl in this world’s memories.

The light that surrounded her body began to flicker, vanishing into countless motes of lights from his feet up, slowly floating towards the ceiling, vanishing into the void.

Scion appeared, eyes closed, and fell forward as Siva caught her and fixed her hair as he looked up and said his goodbye.

As soon as he looked up, he seemed to see an illusion where there were nine carefree people waiting there for her.

In that vision, he saw Terra as the teenage girl and not the mature woman earlier, walking beside someone that, when Siva saw this person’s face, sent shivers to his entire being.

“Dad?”

But that image was a lot younger, seemingly the same age as a younger Terra.

In that image, there was a guy with eye glasses, a girl with a stiff and astutely firm expression, a long-haired smiling blonde guy, a large bald man with dark skin with an indifferent air, an auntie wearing a red armor with a gentle expression, a pouting girl with brown hair, a lion-hair styled tall and gruff-bodied grinning middle-aged man, and then finally a silver haired female knight that stood beside the person that looked like his father.

Not only him, in fact, but everyone else in the cellar dungeon seems to have been attracted to the floating motes of light that drifted upwards and seeing this same scene as Siva.

“The Braves…” Debra, beside City Lord Rentaw, whispered in a low voice but the silence of the dungeon enabled everyone to hear him.

A name that was a legend in Terroa and only a very select few could actually have the luck as to get the smallest bit of clue about their rare and treasured information.

It’s because the current society of Terrans treated them as their eternal heroes so they protected any kind of information regarding them.

These nine… were the ones who led the resistance against the invasion of the LAGRAM Armada back then, 56 years ago.

When Terra reached the man with a gentle and warm smile, she turned around and waved a hand to Siva and anchored her arm to the man’s and began to walk.

“Dad!” Siva wanted to call out to him but it only came out as a shout on his mind and an “Ah” sound on his lips.

Still, it was enough to make the man turn to him and cock his head, escorting Terra towards the distance, leading the group to eternally bid their last goodbye.

*****

When the final mote of light vanished in the dark cellar dungeon halls, far to the west, inside the escaping Cyclone, in a soft seat where Baron lay with his eyes closed but still had his stiff and blank expression…

…despite the noise of Jack giving orders and commands, a single green speck of light fell out of nowhere and landed on the cheek of the kid.

The seemingly pale face of the child became pink and lush with the vigor of childhood, as an adorable smile beamed on his lips, parting in that moment to whisper a word.

“Mama…”

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Terra bids her farewell and the friends who shared pains and happiness with her came to greet her and finally complete the crew…

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A/N: I really worked hard to make this chapter as warm, as… touchy… and as close to explaining, or hinting, the importance of this part in the future Volume of our [Siva] story. I admit that I am not very good in touchy scenes like these. But I still did try my best in order to deliver the right emotion(s) for you guys in this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it… and so will spread the word.

XP

Terms and whatnot:

1) [Shiva]: The Divinity (Immortal***)

2) ‘Siva’: The Player Avatar (Mortal)

3) [Siva]: The personification of the two above, combined (God)

***in regards to the talk about immortality, in some articles I’ve (painstakingly) read regarding Hindu/ Buddhist/ and even, yes, The Bible, there were some contexts I’ve noticed hinting that an [immortal] in “itself” is a separate talk when compared to a [God]. Some details even say that a [God] is even beneath an [Immortal] –at which, the most commonly understood “a God is higher than an Immortal” distinction is the one I’ve stuck on to avoid confusion… which brings us back to the echelon levels of Immortality in our story:

(highest to lowest)

-Trinity Gods (Trimurti)

-Primordial Gods

-Elder Gods

-Chaos Gods

-Immortals (ex: Alexander and the [players])

FACT: We’re closing to the end of the volume. Right after volume 5 ends, Volume 6 will begin and there will be more adjustment to our tempo and tone… making our story more fast-paced and concretely adventure-action centered!!!