"Imagine for just one second, that your life, from the moment you were born, was determined by the hand of others."

Raoul's words were born from a misery he had been carrying his entire life. It took the form of a hideous greatsword with lightning-etched patterns running across its length.

The blade dwarfed him not by size, but by its presence alone. It embodied all that he was: a tool driven by hands that weren't his.

Raoul Skoll

< Unassigned Repenter >

Soul Rank: Green | Atelier: Oboros Infinitas

LEVEL : 10 ORIGIN : Original

HP : 450

ATT : 30 MAG ATT : 45 ATT DEF : 30 MAG DEF : 30

MP : 300

RESIST : 5 (+400) AGI : 18

"The world has you believe that the choices you make are what makes you who you are. It's bullshit. The world doesn't bend for individuals. One person's happiness is another's misery. I have no excuse. Forget being absolved. I know what I've done. I don't regret the lives I've taken. I still believe it is the only way that people can remain as they are."

Raoul openly admitted.

His voice lacked regret. It was detached, like he was but an observer, and everything he had done was all for naught.

Their train passed by the wreckage of a Leviathan.

It laid slump against ruined shanties by the edge of a cliff.

Miraculously, it managed to remain in the same place undisturbed for the last five years.

It was not the same Leviathan that had kept Orth and Thras captive but was one of many that had been dumped into the City of Spades. Syndicates who excavated crashed passenger trains along train graveyards refused to touch the Leviathans out of fear of divine retribution.

The origin of that fear was of course, the City of Spades Massacre.

The ticking of the Traumatic Clock played. Fragments of his memories cracked into existence. Each golden shard revealed aspects of his mind as he openly recounted his past to Frost who stood by his side, and the twins who stood from far behind.

The first memory depicted dark imprints of those who were atomized by his shadowy wolf, and dark lightning smeared the paths, the walls, and the streets like cave paintings – The City of Spades Massacre.

They were a reminder of his day of reckoning, and the day that a once respected Star of the Nexus fell into the role of a Wandering Healer's Wayfarer.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Mishaps and mistakes, and not even the Strings of Act X were able to avoid having the twins be taken. If Rivers and tales, and the books of the Eternal Library and the Librarians have taught me anything- it's that we can't change inevitability."

"Why do you think that?"

Frost asks impartially.

She neither judged nor condemned him. She simply wished to understand where his mind was at.

Frost wasn't seeking to change his opinion. She merely wished to know more about what caused him to see the world the way he did.

Why he betrayed the Nexus, and believed that Corruption was the path forward… To the point where he allowed his own mother and sisters to suffer. Part of it had already been revealed.

He wished that people could remain the way they were.

"Raoul, why is it that you believe that you can't change anything?"

Frost asked again.

Raoul's ears twitched lightly. He hadn't answered immediately, because the voice that spoke to him was eerily familiar. It took him by surprise. He still did not see Frost as the Head of the Nexus.

To him, Frost was still the same little lost human who left the Nexus whilst woefully unprepared for the world. But the light in her eyes, and halo that still hovered above her head said otherwise.

And that voice confirmed something in his heart after seconds of rumination.

"You were the one who spoke to me. With the morning birds, and the other voice. You asked me the same question."

A second fragment filled. It depicted a dark cave where a fire flickered from behind a rock. Multiple kneeling children stared at the shadows cast along the cave walls.

But of them all, only a childish version of Raoul stared at the flames and the rock.

Finally, as the scenery changed from the City of Spades to a dark tunnel, Raoul reminisced on his past.

* * *

Raoul was an only child for the first twelve years of his life.

He was born like every normal Demi-Human with one exception.

Another fragment of his memory emerged above him. It was viewed from the eyes of an invisible observer.

The freshly born child of the Blue Dahliah was cradled in her arms at the edge of a whimsical cavern. Crimson auroras replaced the ceilings, and various curved knives hung from the dangling chains above.

The waves glided like blade along the river that cut through the length of the cavern.

Children were dipped into its river. Thousands of wails caused the bladed chains to sway. When a child screamed too loudly, the blade would fall and claim the life of their mother. If they were unlucky, they would be swept away.

"Your Majesty Typhon. Your son… He does not weep!"

A gasp broke out. Various faceless servants robbed the silent Raoul from his mother's hands, and presented him to a faceless, massive Beastkin with a fiery mane.

"As expected. A child born from a Child of Adam and a Seer of Evelyn becomes more receptive to the Rivers. Phlegethon blesses this one."

Though his face was darkened, he clearly didn't smile, let alone acknowledge Raoul as a father would to their newborn. He spoke as though assessing a product, and with a nod, he turned his back to leave, noting:

"But it is not flawless. A dip into Cocytus will render this one frozen forever. Return him."

"Typhon…" The Blue Dahlia softly spoke as she weakly reached out to him. "Won't you hold your son?"

"I have many sons I must evaluate. Let her rest and have her child. You are not the only one who takes space in my heart."

"Typhon was interested in the Rivers. His children were his greatest experiment along the backwaters far beyond the shores of Elyia."

Raoul spoke introspectively.

"My mother didn't fall in love with that man. But he was still the man she loved. Change… happens unexpectedly."

The scene changed to his mother running through dense marshlands with a young Raoul towed in hand.

"Why… are we running?" Raoul asked.

"He's not Typhon anymore… Your father… He's not himself anymore!"

"How come…?"

"Raoul. Listen to me. Please. He went there. Far away, past the shores, out into the seas, past the oceans of blood. He found land."

"But he came back!"

"That's not him anymore. Your father saw something no one must ever see with their own eyes!"

"… like what?"

His mother stopped, fell to her knees and hugged him like it was her last.

"You must never know. They came here, from where Rivers flow, and where tales propagate."

"My father likely met with a Star."

"He voyaged across the seas and anchored into the Expanse. He returned a changed man."

"And my mother…"

"Typhon must never find you. Or your sisters. Lethe… I must find Lethe again. Raoul, no matter what you do, you must never follow the light of a Star."

"I never knew what a 'Star' was."

"There are billions of stars."

"So what if one is wrong?"

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