Chapter 133: Who is Tyler Rask?

Nyxara waited until the morning before talking to her dad. She explained the entire situation and they went and talked to the Dean, who was nervously pacing in front of the board of directors.

"Tyler has to forfeit. We can’t show blatant favoritism. If he’s not at his match on Monday in time, we have no choice. I hope you understand Nyxara..." The Dean said in front of a pleased board of directors.

It wasn’t an easy call to make but the Dean knew if he started showing any signs of potential favoritism for his school, his promotion would go flying out the window. Nyxara gave a curt nod before walking away. She hadn’t made her mind up if she was going to continue with the matches. That was before Sophie and Kass appeared that Saturday morning and told her they were still going to compete.

Amanda stayed with Tyler in the Land of Summoned Monsters and the girls visited him throughout the weekend. Monday came and Nyx, Kass and Sophie all won their matches. Tyler forfeited his and Kass lost. That left Sophie vs Armitage Academy’s team 2 captain and Nyxara vs Armitage’s team 1 captain from the forest event for the final four.

Kass’ fight was close but her head wasn’t in it. None of her charms would land, which caused her to get frustrated and the Armitage captain was much stronger with Qi than she was. He wore her down until she eventually couldn’t transform into her larger state anymore. It was a long, boring match. It took around 30 minutes of them playing cat and mouse. As Kass’ power started to drain away, she decided to take a more demonic approach, using some of her Qi with her charms but he thwarted every attempt.

Everyone around the academy cheered her up quickly and everyone was wondering where Tyler was. The official word from school was he was in the Land of Summoned Monsters on Eidolon business but Armitage started a rumor he was hurt and it spread like wildfire. Tommy V’s stream questioned why Ability Academy would hide an injury and how it happened, but didn’t rule out that possibility.

EmieStreamz took a more rational approach.

"If the Dean and his future wives, who happen to be the Vampiric princess and future nobles are telling us he’s in the Land of Summoned Monsters, who are we to not believe that? After everything that happened with the forest event, it makes sense that Ability Academy would disqualify their student. If something was wrong with him, the girls certainly wouldn’t still be competing."

Meanwhile, Tyler laid unconscious with all of his familiars inside of him doing everything they could to ensure he had a speedy and healthy recovery.

******

’Where the hell am I?’ Tyler thought as he looked around a black void.

"This looks exactly like where I was when I died..." Tyler muttered.

He looked around and could see his arms, legs and the rest of his body were covered in a white cloak.

"So you are awake." A voice said to him.

"Hello? Yes, I am. This isn’t like when I died? Where am I?"

The voice had a soft giggle that reminded him of Amanda or one of his future wives.

"I’m so proud of you. It took me a long time to get over your death. I turned it into a positive memory. I never stopped loving you. Treat those women like you treated me and stop rushing to power up so fast!"

Tyler immediately teared up as the ghost of his former girlfriend looked exactly like he remembered her.

"Nina, how is this possible?!" He said while sprinting to her. When he hugged her, she dissipated into thin air.

"Not again!" Tyler screamed.

"You’re doing very well son. You’ve come all this way, make sure you take care of those women of yours. They care about you so much." His dad said with a kind smile.

"Dad!" Tyler said but it was too late, he was now looking at his mom.

"Sweetie, we love you and miss you. Don’t push yourself too hard and try to enjoy your wedding." She said with tears coming from her eyes.

"Mom... please don’t go..." Tyler pleaded, but she evaporated right in front of his eyes.

"What cruel, sick joke is this?!" Tyler screamed into the abyss.

"It’s no joke Tyler. These were the messages your loved ones wished you to hear." A goddess said, appearing into the darkness with grace and elegance.

"Oh... I’m sorry." Tyler said, noticing his tear drops were evaporating before hitting the ground, or whatever it was he was standing on.

"Had Bahamut not chosen you, we would have gone with someone else. If you truly wish to free Seraphim from his curse, you must be able to summon the King and Queen of the Eidolons." The goddess said matter-of-factly, expressionless, like she didn’t care she was there.

"How can I do that if I almost die when I power up?" Tyler asked, confused.

"You don’t need to rush. You’ve been on Vexarra for 5 months and you’ve already reached SSS with 9 familiars. Maybe take a step back and maybe not sign so many contracts." The goddess said while staring directly into Tyler’s eyes.

"How can I protect the people I’m supposed to marry if I’m not stronger than them?"

"Life is a balance Tyler. They don’t care how strong you are. Sophie, Amanda, Kass and Nyxara love you because of the way you treat them, not how powerful you are. Same with your familiars. They love you for your character, not your strength." The goddess finally smiled.

Tyler frowned. "Yet I cannot tell them the truth about who I truly am. You tell me I must power up to set my best friend free by being powerful enough to summon Bahamut and Asura then tell me not to power up. I don’t understand. I’m living a lie and I don’t even know who I am anymore."

"You are Tyler Rask, the same person, reincarnated into a new host body that has the power to go beyond human. What is so difficult to comprehend about finding balance?"

"Can I at least know who I have the pleasure of speaking with?" Tyler asked politely, bowing in his astral form.

"Athena, son of Zeus. Pleasure to meet you Mr. Rask." She said cordially.

"Well Athena, can you please explain what you mean by the power to go beyond human? I’m already immortal, my eyes are changing, do you mean Eidolon, god, vampire, demon or something entirely different?"

Athena laughed. "Tyler, find balance and everything will work out just fine. As for being honest with the women in your life, when the time is right, you will know when and what to tell them."

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked, but Athena faded away.

He could hear talking but he couldn’t make out many of the words, so he tried listening closer.

"He should be up any minute. Sucks about the forfeit, but at least Sophie and Nyx are fighting in the finals!"

"Wait, I think I feel him!"

Tyler’s eyes opened. "What was that?!"