Chapter 393: 393. Crater of Memories (Part 11)

The sequence of memories changed yet again.

Jaune was beneath the aura of Choice, seated on the ground, upon the stone of the Pyramid where it was housed, while the Supreme Rune's presence pressed against his soul.

His father stood upon the corner of the Pyramid, watching him.

Nicholas had not moved for several seconds, body remaining still and expression unreadable, while the dens atmosphere of the area swirled around him.

Nicholas reached inwards and the Rune of Time responded. Reality loosened around him. The world had become a painting—a single moment held in the hands of Time.

The Pyramid, the sand, the distant darkness and the seated figure of his son all became separated from the ordinary flow of existence.

Nicholas walked away from the corner of the Pyramid and into the stillness. He did not go far. He simply moved to a place where he could sit upon the unmoving sand and look toward the future version of his son, even though he knew Foresight could not truly see him.

For a while, he said nothing, simply enjoying the silence. Then, moments later, he spoke.

"I suppose... by now, if you're seeing this, Jaune, it means that the plan went somewhat awry and... I'm already dead."

His voice sounded strangely small within the frozen world.

"Tyrian will kill me. Probably using the power of Destruction. I might not be able to see you in the time stream, but inferences can still be made, can't they? Can't exactly be called a master strategist otherwise right? It's a shame that the plan failed, but... sometimes, the best laid-out plans tend to end like that, don't they?"

Nicholas gave a faint, humorless smile.

"Well... perhaps it's what I deserve. An evil man like me."

He slowly rose and began walking through the frozen Pyramid. His footsteps made no sound against the sand. He passed through the motionless currents of air and looked upward, toward the blood-red moon hanging beyond the sky.

"I used to think death was frightening, you know?" he said. "When I was younger, I thought it was the worst thing that could happen to someone. The end of everything. The loss of every possibility. The moment when all the things you might have done became things you would never do."

He stopped beneath the frozen sky.

"But... I think what frightened me more was the fact that I would die without being able to protect any of you. Perhaps that was what kept me going."

Nicholas lowered his gaze.

"Family."

The word lingered.

"Such a stupid thing to die for, huh? But... it's also beautiful, you know? To love and be loved. To have people who matter so much that the thought of losing them becomes more painful than the thought of losing yourself."

He looked back towards the air, as if speaking to Jaune's future form, itself.

"You know, Jaune... since you've seen my memories, you already know that I've kept tabs on you this entire time. I know all about those girls who you're leading on."

Nicholas's expression softened.

A small chuckle escaped him, followed by another. Soon he was snickering to himself, shaking his head as though the thought had caught him completely off guard.

"We never really got to talk about mundane things like that, huh? Your crushes and relationships. Man... I mean, seriously, I thought I was a lady-killer when I was younger, but you... my goodness. Five girls, and all of them having feelings for you?"

He turned back and raised one hand as though his son might actually be able to see him.

"That's a crazy number, you know? Truly, what's that popular saying you kids use these days? Some guys die of thirst, while others drown? Pretty accurate, I suppose."

His smile widened.

"And... well... I suppose I'm a little curious myself who you're going to pick. I've seen pieces of it, of course. Little fragments. Conversations that might happen. Moments that could lead in one direction or another. But I never had the whole thing."

He paused, and the smile became gentler.

"It's just a shame that I can't spoil that future for myself anymore."

The amusement slowly faded from his face, though a trace of it remained.

"I suppose... if we were a normal family, and if there was no such thing as Runes, or gods, or Grimm, or all of this..." He glanced toward the sky. "Maybe this was what we could talk about. What we could be."

Nicholas looked down at his hands.

"Normal."

He said the word as though testing its weight.

"Hah. It's quite a funny word. The mundanity of it. Yet... there's a charm in it too, isn't there? Waking up, going to work, coming home, arguing over dinner, helping the children with their homework. Watching a stupid cartoon because your son insists that the villain is actually misunderstood."

He smiled faintly.

"Your mother would have complained about the noise. Your sisters would have argued over the remote. You would have defended the villain with your entire soul, even though the man had destroyed half the city in the previous episode."

Nicholas's eyes grew distant.

"And I would have sat there pretending not to care while secretly enjoying every second of it."

He let the silence settle before continuing.

"You know, Jaune... you might have seen all my memories at this point and understand my motivations in their entirety, but there is... a... particular quality to saying things out loud sometimes."

He tapped a finger lightly against his chest.

"Grounding, one might say."

Nicholas walked back toward the Pyramid, passing through the unmoving air.

"When I first saw the far future, I thought it was a gift, you know? After all, I could finally protect all of you. No surprises or accidents or unknown enemies. Not a single person in the world could take my family from me because I would see them coming."

He stopped beside the place where Jaune sat.

"Yet... this was all just an excuse."

Nicholas's voice lost its warmth.

"An excuse to shut my eyes and my ears to the horrors of the world. An excuse that I used simply because I was afraid."

He looked at Jaune for a long moment.

"Of course... I had every right to be afraid, considering the odds I was up against. Salem. Tyrian. The Sleeper. The Supreme Runes. The gods beyond the stars. The entire structure of reality itself conspiring toward an ending that I could not prevent."

He exhaled.

"But that's... how a weakling thinks."

Nicholas looked away.

"A weakling sees something impossible and decides that survival is the only virtue left. A weakling sees a future filled with suffering and tells himself that anything is acceptable if the people he loves are spared. A weakling mistakes fear for wisdom."

His fingers curled into a fist.

"And I was a weakling, Jaune."

He looked back toward his son.

"You were right about one thing. Doing the right thing... sometimes comes at a cost beyond that which you can offer."

Nicholas's expression tightened.

"I wasn't strong enough."

The admission was quiet.

"I wasn't strong enough to defeat Tyrian. I wasn't strong enough to save the world I saw burning in front of me. I wasn't strong enough to take the future into my own hands and force it to become something else."

He looked toward the frozen crimson moon.

"But... I was at least strong enough to pave that way for you."

Nicholas slowly walked back into the Pyramid, where Jaune remained seated beneath the aura of Choice.

"Your new Rune is the key," he said. "The ultimate power that gives you a chance against Salem."

He shook his head and fell silent.

For the first time since beginning the message, he seemed unable to find the words.

"This responsibility that I'm putting on you..." Nicholas began. "I'm sorry. If there was a different solution, I wouldn't have hesitated in a heartbeat. But... my own Runes are already set, and I can't change them. I would have taken this responsibility on myself if I could."

He stared at Jaune.

"Perhaps someone else from LUCID?"

A faint, bitter smile crossed his face.

"You'd think that would have been a smart decision. Find someone more virtuous. Someone less damaged. Someone who hadn't spent years building an organization designed to bring about the end of the world."

He slowly shook his head.

"But the answer is surprisingly no."

Nicholas's expression became solemn.

"There is no one else I'd trust with true godhood and godslaying if it isn't my one and only son."

He rubbed a hand over his face.

"Now that I'm saying all this, I just realized that I missed two of your birthdays."

His hand dropped.

"Eighteen... and already the strongest Rank 2 in the world."

He let out a soft laugh.

"Hah. Way to make your father proud."

Nicholas looked at Jaune's frozen form, and for a moment his expression held something almost ordinary.

"Though... I suppose I owe you two birthday gifts now, don't I?"

He crouched beside his son.

"Well then... consider my comprehensive understanding of Runes to be my first gift."

His eyes softened.

"And as for my second and final gift..."

Nicholas smiled.

Then he spoke the words only inside his mind.

The sound never touched the air and never became part of the frozen world. It was a thought placed carefully within the stillness of Time, concealed from anything that might have been listening.

Nicholas's smile remained for several seconds after he finished.

"It would be extremely problematic if those words touched the air," he said quietly. "So... considering that you have all my memories, you know exactly when and how to use this gift."

He looked at Jaune one final time.

"Good luck, Jaune."

The frozen world seemed to grow colder around him.

"I believe in you."

Nicholas's voice trembled.

"And..."

He swallowed.

"I'm proud of you."

The Rune of Time released him and the memory faded away.

.

.

Jaune watched as his father's body crumbled into ashes.

The monochrome light of Destruction consumed Nicholas piece by piece, stripping away flesh, bone, clothing and blood until there was nothing left. The light crawled across the remains of his body, reducing every fragment to pale dust before even that dust vanished into the dense crimson atmosphere.

Then, even the monochrome radiance faded.

Nothing remained.

Jaune could only stare at the empty space.

His expression was blank.

Someone looking at him might have thought him cold. Unfeeling. Perhaps even indifferent to the death of his one and only father.

But tears streamed continuously from his eyes.

They ran down his cheeks, gathered at his jaw and fell into the crimson dust. Jaune simply knelt there, and the tears were the only indication of how much control he was exerting.

He remained motionless for a long moment, processing the memories that had been Plundered into him. His father's childhood, his mother, sisters and the ordinary life that had existed before the Runes, before Sleepless, before the Dream Realm had swallowed their future.

He had seen Nicholas as a child, as a husband, a father.

As a monster.

And now he had watched him die.

Jaune slowly raised one hand and wiped the tears from his face, yet they continued to flow. He wiped them again, then sighed and pushed himself up from his kneeling position.

"To think that Mom and Sis were in Ansel all along," he whispered softly. "Safe place, my ass. You just hid them in the damned time realm."

His voice was quiet, almost conversational. He looked toward the place where Nicholas had once laid.

"I'll have to retrieve them later."

The words sounded fragile in the empty space but Jaune simply closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Then another.

He calmed his mind, forcing the emotions into a place where they would not interfere with what needed to happen next. His father was dead and the memories were now inside him. The truth had been revealed.

But the world had not stopped and the apocalypse was still unfolding.

Jaune opened his eyes, and at that moment, he felt it.

A domain.

It spread outward from the north of the barrier, immense and oppressive, its presence pressing against the crimson environment like a second sky descending over the first.

Jaune's expression hardened as he saw vast monochrome light in the north impact the barrier from the inside and drill a hole into the shield, creating a large opening.

Tyrian.

He had all four runes, and was now using Destruction to escape the System's barrier.

His next step would be to kill the Rank 3's, and absorb their runic energy to supplement his absorption of the Supreme Runes into himself, one after another, turning his body into a vessel capable of containing them. Once the process was complete, Salem would be able to transfer the entirety of her sleeping mind into him. Tyrian would then, reach the Realm of Rank 4 and become the full vessel of Salem.

Jaune stared toward the distant pressure and his face showed no fear.

Only resolve.

"It's time."

He closed his eyes and reached inward towards the three of his rune. Weakness, Plunder and Null answered.

All three Runes had reached Mastery. Not through ordinary growth or even through the natural progression of their concepts.

They had reached Mastery through a special state in which Knowledge had taught Jaune.

Inversion.

The understanding granted by Knowledge had allowed him to perceive the laws surrounding his Runes, and Null had given him the means to reject those laws. He could now invert the principles of Weakness, Plunder and Null themselves, creating powers that did not merely follow the original direction of each Rune but turned the surrounding rules against their own concepts.

It gave him a new variety of abilities.

A terrifying variety.

But now was not the time to explore them. Now, was the time to ascend. Jaune drew his three Runes together and the crimson air trembled.

He opened his eyes.

"Merge."