After almost four hours, I finally understood what had happened.
I still couldn't believe it. But I understood.
"Are you telling me that creature once dominated the universe?"
Morgana was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, with the posture of someone who had set down a weight carried for too long and was still getting used to the lightness. Livina was lost in thought — which was rare enough to be unsettling, because Livina in genuine silence was Livina processing something she hadn't yet decided how to express.
"Yes," Morgana said, with the firmness of someone who had verified the memory before speaking and found it intact. "Zaridan was once considered unbeatable. In the stories, he was regarded as unique of his race for the simple reason that he came from outside our universe. I know that's confusing — and honestly even I can't explain how that works — but what I know is that the most intelligent races in the universe arrived at that conclusion. The fact is that nobody knew how to name him: he was the first, but also the only. There was no language to describe what he was, because there was no category that could contain him — everything that was created had as its parameter things that existed within the universe, and he was an anomaly to that condition."
She paused — not to organize her reasoning, but to let that settle before continuing.
"He managed to destroy countless races and more planets than can be counted. His desires were never fully understood and, as you must have noticed, speaking with him was always a thorny and fruitless path — in the end, many believed he wanted to become king of the known universe, but even that was never proven. Since nobody knew his intentions beyond destruction and chaos, the only possible solution was his elimination. So a great coalition formed: almost all the races of the universe united against him. His powers were always strange and unfathomable, from teleportation to the capacity to summon any weapon he desired. Thinking about it now, I don't even know how it was possible to stop such a creature. At that time, our race was still weak and of little relevance, so we weren't of much help. But it was the races he destroyed that opened the way for the survivors to become strong enough to become the most relevant ones. The races that participated in the fight and didn't die in the process are the ones that today occupy the highest ranks," she paused. "And even so, the victory didn't come with his death — after all, ironically, as strong as that son of a bitch was, he still had the advantage of being immortal. When I say immortal, I mean that not even a star consuming him completely was enough to kill him — somehow, he always managed to come out alive. In the end, a trap was set for Zaridan and, at the cost of thousands of lives, they managed to imprison him in the most inhospitable and inaccessible place that exists in our universe: the planet Khordazun."
"But couldn't he have simply escaped?" It didn't make sense to me to place him on a planet, since, however inhospitable it was, we were talking about a creature that not even a star could kill.
This time it was Livina who answered, emerging from her stupor with the voice of someone who had decided that question deserved a direct answer — not because it was simple, but because it was important.
"Khordazun is no ordinary planet, Lord. It is called the cage planet — it sits so close to the largest black hole in the universe that nothing that enters can leave. The planet itself is an anomaly: it is the only thing that exists within billions of kilometers around it. Anything that fell there would never leave, no matter what. The great races managed, somehow, to lure him to that planet — and for some reason, he went. There, nothing escapes — not even his teleportation abilities could overcome the gravitational pull of that black hole. It was a theory created and successfully tested — after all, Zaridan never managed to escape after arriving at that planet. Unfortunately, we were also never able to monitor him. Nothing escapes the event horizon. In the end, we believed he would be destroyed little by little for all eternity, along with that planet," she paused, and there was something in her tone that wasn't just information — it was the weight of someone who had reflected on that possibility and arrived at a conclusion about what it meant. "Apparently, we were wrong…"
"But why the king who never was?"
Morgana seemed to want to answer, but it was Livina who spoke.
"After his defeat, some races that desired only chaos and disorder believed that Zaridan was the only one capable of bringing balance to the universe — through force, massacring the weak," Livina paused, and there was in her tone a contained irritation that didn't need to be announced to be felt. "Those… madmen led the universe into a second war. In the end, those who wanted Zaridan as king lost — and had to abdicate many planets, retreating entire ages of advancement. The Zhur'kai were one of those races. The Infernals too. When they lost, they were forced to dethrone Zaridan as their king and to abdicate even the pronouncing of his name — even though he would never know that had happened. That is where the name comes from: the king who never was. It was a way of snubbing the defeated, but in the end it became a story told by my father, and by my father's father before him."
Finally, some things were beginning to fall into place. If Zaridan was immortal, Khordazun was the perfect punishment — impossible to escape, impossible to die, eternal in the worst sense that eternity could have. It was more than just a prison. It was the worst possible state within an infinite existence. But he had managed to escape somehow. The strongest, most relentless, most incomprehensible and cruel creature in the universe was a few meters from where I stood. Suddenly, that closed door didn't seem so secure — and in the end, another question persisted in my mind: why had he been summoned? After all, the Oasis only brought back heroes who had died within the Oasis itself. Moreover, he himself had seemed surprised upon arriving — and creatures that planned to escape shouldn't seem surprised when it happened. And what was that arm that had grabbed him with such ease? What kind of power did those hands have — and worse still, what kind of creature possessed them? The Oasis was beginning to seem something far more powerful and unrestricted than I had thought. It simply didn't seem to me to be something made to bring peace, but something deeper and unknown.
"None of this makes sense," I said, finally giving up on aligning the pieces that didn't fit.
"How did he manage not to submit to the Lord's control? I thought the Oasis had total control over summonings."
"Because perhaps he is too strong to submit — but I don't understand why, knowing that, the Oasis still brought him." Morgana sighed, and in that exhalation there was something that wasn't resignation, but the recognition that she had reached the limit of what she could understand. "I can't explain it, my Lord."
Mythic. I was probably the cause of that event. A summoning above all others — the Mythic summoning wasn't even supposed to exist, after all he wasn't even counted as a valid summoning percentage. Even the Unique, for many, was just nonsense or a way for the Oasis to play with other people's desires. But the logic was clear: a rare creature would fight ten common ones and win without effort. An epic would do the same with a rare. A legendary with an epic. Even Dragons — considered creatures that dropped supreme stones — were regarded as the only creatures with the power of a true Unique. Could it be that…
"Zeus, what is the summoning percentage?"
"Analyzing.
90% — Common8% — Rare1.9% — Epic0.99% — Legendary0.009999999999% — Unique0.0000000000001% — Mythic"
There it was — as though the Oasis were playing with me. Something that didn't exist was now appearing. My heart beat faster. Did it appear for everyone or only for me? And if it was for everyone, did it mean I had opened that door? How was it possible to imagine a creature for whom ten dragons would be nothing more than toys to throw away? And that creature being the one I had summoned — which led to another more urgent question crossing my mind.
"I keep thinking about what I could do with him."
"Destroy him," Morgana said, with the firmness of someone who had arrived at that conclusion before the question and had only waited for the opening to say it. "He cannot live. The evil he represents is eternal — even for the strongest races in the universe, he is the personification of chaos. He must be destroyed."
She seemed right. The logic was clean. And clean logic was exactly the kind of thing that made me look for what she was omitting.
Perhaps destroying him was truly the right thing to do and by logic it was the safest option not just for me but for the entire universe. But something was also beginning to grow in my mind, a possibility.
"Zeus. Is it possible to do a DNA merge with Zaridan?"
[ Analyzing probability and available powers… ]
[ ????? (Unique) ]
[ ????? (Unique) ]
[ ????? (Unique) ]
[ ????? (Unique) ]
[ ????? (Unique) ]
[ ????? (Mythic) ]
[ ????? (Mythic) ]
I was in shock. All of Zaridan's abilities were at minimum Unique. Every single one — not the most impressive, not the main ones, but all of them, without exception. Which made him not just powerful, but extraordinary in a way that I had found no reference to calculate. Reference presupposes comparison, and comparison presupposes that something else of the same kind exists. There wasn't.
My joy didn't last.
[ Powers of class superior to Unique are extremely dangerous. Probability of death: above 99%. ]
Ninety-nine percent. I would die in ninety-nine out of every hundred attempts if a Mythic ability came up — statistically, it was the kind of probability that made the action irrational by definition. After all, if I got any of the Mythic ones, I would die. Only a madman would do that calculation and arrive at the conclusion that it was worth it.
There I was doing the calculation.
"You can't be thinking about merging with that creature," Morgana reacted before I said anything — just from the exchange of information with Zeus she had understood where my mind was going, and in that moment, as in others, she had read it correctly. "He is evil."
Morgana and Livina seemed to carry the same concern — but I knew that was the opportunity to absorb the power of one of the strongest creatures that had ever existed in the universe. It was what I needed to become more. If I wanted to overcome the fatality of the Oasis, I would have to be not just a force to be respected, but the ultimate force. Besides, my greatest challenge was right there.
"I understand, but the purge is coming. And I need every bit of strength possible."
The purge was what separated those who returned from those who didn't. That was where the highest mortality rate concentrated among all who had entered the Oasis. I still didn't know exactly how it worked — but I knew it was coming, and I knew that if I passed, I would go home. If I didn't pass, I would simply die. And dying before finishing what I had started was the only outcome I had decided was unacceptable.
"You don't need to integrate with Zaridan for that."
Morgana had a point. But I didn't just want to pass the purge — I wanted much more. I wanted to protect my sister, even if it meant risking everything. It was my only opportunity and I wouldn't let it slip away. I would have five in seven chances of getting the Unique abilities of that creature — which gave me more than 70% chance of coming out alive. And even if a Mythic came up, I would still have something: one in a hundred. Besides, that probability must have been calculated for a common human — and I had stopped being a common human at some point I couldn't identify exactly. The difference between what I was and what a common human was made that probability different. Perhaps not by much — but even if it was just one more percent, more was more.
Not necessarily better. Just different.
"Exactly — you're already extremely strong. Honestly, I can't imagine how you would die. Even in your world, everyone would venerate you for the simple capability you've demonstrated in such a short time," Livina said, supporting Morgana's words.
"I'm not a noble in my world, Livina," I said with the calm of someone who had done that calculation many times and had always arrived at the same result. "And for that reason I would never be glorified. In fact, there I am a target. And I feel there is something deeper in the purge — something that tells me that power alone is not enough."
In all the years of the Oasis, the mortality rate of those who came from the colonies versus the nobles was overwhelmingly disproportionate. It didn't make sense — thousands of colonists entered every year, and it was impossible that so few had been strong enough or lucky enough to pass. Something else was happening. Something that made not strength or luck the greatest factor within the purge, but nobility. I still didn't understand what it was, or how they did it — but it was the factor that worried me. It was the variable I couldn't control through training.
"I trained with you and Zaetar every day for hours. But I feel I've reached a limit I can't surpass alone. Zaridan may be the only being capable of giving me what I need to cross what is waiting for me."
✦
Morgana and Livina's words lost their effect after a while. They knew they wouldn't stop me — they had arrived at that conclusion on their own, without me needing to say it, because they knew me well enough to know where the conversation would end. When they finally accepted, there was in their expressions not resignation, but something close to trust — the kind that doesn't need to be spoken.
I didn't delay further — if I had to die, it would be trying to become stronger. It was the only way to die I could accept.
I advanced to that place that only ever brought me pain — until I stood before that capsule that I had learned to recognize as the place where I stopped being what I was and began to be what I would become.
"Damn. I hope it hurts less this time."
Morgana helped me remove all the obsidian armor — it was all I had worn since entering the Oasis, I had never bought anything new. I was completely bare. I could have bought something more resistant, but had chosen to invest in the kingdom instead, and it had been the right decision at the time — after all, my kingdom was incredibly stronger and safer. Besides, armor, even the most expensive and best, protected the body from the outside in. What was about to happen would come from the inside out.
"Maybe I'll get a better one when I come back." — I said to no one in particular, with the specific lightness of someone using humor to occupy the space where fear could settle. — "If I'm still alive."
There was a lot in my head. My sister who was waiting for me. The purge approaching with the inevitability of something that didn't consult readiness. What would come after. But none of that would matter if I died — everything I had built would be in vain, every training session, every mission, every decision that had hurt in the moment but had made sense in the whole.
And even so I wanted that power.
"Are you sure about this, Lord?"
Livina had a strange look on her face. I laughed inwardly — if I came back, perhaps I should spend more time with these two girls who cared so much in ways that asked for nothing in return. But the time hadn't come yet.
"Livina." — I said with the calm of a made decision, which is different from all other calms. — "Everything will be fine. In the end if I don't come back, you'll be free. We all win."
"That's not what I want." — she said, quieter than usual, without the tone she normally used for distance. — "Not anymore."
"I know."
I closed the capsule door. Morgana simply watched from outside — with the expression of someone who believed in me in a way I hadn't asked for and couldn't return in the appropriate way, because the appropriate way hadn't appeared yet.
"Zeus… Should anything happen to me, I want you to eliminate Zaetar. He cannot come out alive. The moment my heart stops, destroy him."
"Understood."
I was finally calmer. Even if I didn't believe I would die, I wouldn't let a problem of mine interfere in anyone else's life — if I was going to die, I would take that creature with me.
[ Do you wish to activate the modification of the target? ] [ ##### of Bordlands — Male ]
"Yes."
Something filled my body.
Destroying.
The pain I felt was something I didn't know it was possible to endure. There was no reference for it — not in training, not in battles, not in previous integrations. It was the pain of something that wasn't just modifying but destroying.
I screamed. Nothing came out.
My vocal cord had ruptured before the sound could arrive.