The villainess shall be mine

Under the gloomy sky, Adam began to gather his thoughts once again, beginning with a recollection of the event that led him to do what he did.

The rain started pouring down as if masking the massacre that was occurring within the Empire.

The aggressors never doubted anything, enjoying their hunt, and the victims played their roles and run around like rabbits. The spectators were thrilled by what they were seeing, also not doubting anything.

All of that had little importance to Adam, as he continued to contemplate the nothingness in front of him and wondered if this was the right choice. However, he quickly discarded this so human-like way of thinking.

Instead, he focused on the facts and their unavoidable consequences as well as what he needed to do to change his fate. Adam had clearly a goal, and he had also devised a plan to achieve it, but somewhere along the line, he had realized something.

One of the biggest keys to Adam's change of mind was none other than Cristal. But there was also Joshua, a certain scientist that came to Adam's home planet. Then Rudeus, the one who he had warned him. Was there some kind of connection between these three?

Adam was depending on Cristal a little bit too much, and he was aware of it. However, he always thought about the possibility that Cristal would be gone someday, or that Cristal might be corrupted by the enemy. Of course, he never wanted all of those assumptions to become a reality but that was the kind of person he was. Always thinking…

Joshua, on the other hand, appeared to be working on a project and he was also interested in Adam. At first, Adam didn't give that much thought to their connection nor did he see through Joshua's actions.

However, Adam was warned by Rudeus, his enemy. He wasn't stupid as to just ignore what Rudeus said, but his thoughts led him to one conclusion. He was being observed. The question was what kind of method did the enemy use?

Then there were also Pride's words about the villainess. What If he referred to Cristal? Was there a possibility? At the least, Adam couldn't ignore this theory even if he trusted Cristal.

In addition to this, Adam became more anxious when he looked back at his interaction with Cristal. He noticed that on multiple occasions, Cristal had purposely decided to not tell him various information even if he asked. It was indeed something strange, but he tried to not think too much about it until he heard what Rudeus said.

Was the form of mutual trust that Adam thought he formed with Cristal an illusion? No, that was wrong of thinking, to begin with, because Cristal was an Artificial Intelligence.No matter how much he wanted to deny it if someone wanted to observe him, using Cristal would be the best way to do it.

However, Adam also needed to determine the reason why an enemy would do so. What was their identity? And a realistic way to corrupt Cristal. Otherwise, he would be just too paranoid.

That was when he thought about the project that Joshua had. He was working on something like a device that could send and receive some sort of signal. At that time, he thought it was something to an antenna but what if it was something different?

Adam wracked his brain to resolve this puzzle. The chance that he was just being delusional was high but despite what he accomplished li, if Cristal backstabbed him, everything would be for naught.

However, no matter how hard he thought about it, he could never reach a convincing answer.

At the same time, seeing his father's condition made Adam think that it was a miracle that he and his family were still alive. However, that wouldn't last and the worse was unavoidable.

Adam never showed his anxiety because he was now powerful and dependable. He couldn't show any weakness when his family looked at him with such respect, something that never happened before. He had struggled internally like any other human, and even worse, the more he expected something from himself, the more he agonized other the fact that maybe it wasn't enough.

What did he wish for? A quiet and peaceful life? Yes. However, no he could not also lie to himself. He wanted more… He was greedy, he always was.

The fact that he could lose everything anytime and that he couldn't do anything about it made Adam feel a sort of agony that he never felt before when he didn't have the things he now had.

Adam's habit to overthink was not always a bad thing, but looking so far ahead was not always a good thing. But Adam continued to think about how to face the unavoidable. This might also be the reason why that mysterious being chose him in the first place…

Anyway, Adam concluded that unless he did something to prevent those who observed him to know the conclusion that he would reach when he solved all of the puzzles, he didn't have a chance.

It was not like everything was doomed, but that also didn't mean that Adam could save everyone. No, he couldn't save anyone. Thus, he had to make a choice.

After all, he couldn't have everything he wanted. He was not yet a being that could decide such a thing.

The solution that Adam found was to make a replica of him while the real version of him would become an astral form and stay inside the universe within him. This was the only way he could avoid being observed so no one would know the conclusion he would reach.

There was no guarantee, however, that he would find the best answer just by thinking, and how could he create a replica of himself that could use his body, to begin with? A being that was him, but also a version of him who hadn't reached this conclusion yet. In other words, he would fail to protect the people important to him if his prediction were to be true.

Adam finally found a way to split his consciousness into two. What he did was pretty complicated. First, he needed to lose consciousness, and when he woke up, his memory would stay inside the silver sand within his astral body, and another version of him with an incomplete memory will remain inside his real body.

Adam didn't know how exactly he did, but for some reason, he felt like something made the process easier. Almost as if everything went well without him having a total understanding of what he was doing. There were still things that he couldn't understand.

Adam was conscious when he was inside the place of silver sand and time seemed to flow differently. Now, what he needed to do was to wake his body up, but instead of him regaining control, he will let another version of himself take control. The one that he rejected… For a while, he would be able to spend time the way he wanted with his family.

Adam made a decision, a painful one… In the end, his fears turned into reality, and after spending almost fifty years wandering around the silver sea, doing nothing but thinking, he had finally reached a point when he could be considered insane or enlightened. If he decided to continue to act like he always did, and ignored all of his doubts, he would have not reached this conclusion and would have died fighting the guardians.

Now that Adam made it back, he also knew that he was still not strong enough to turn things around or to save everyone, but at least he found a way to create a weapon capable of destroying this who claimed to be gods and also helping him find all of the tree fragments.

However, looking at the nothingness, Adam muttered, "I failed." Nothing was happening, he couldn't do anything about the nothingness.

What was missing? Did I miss something? Adam thought. However, he was already in a very bad position.

"Just this once, I will give you a hint… Why does your gift activate when you wish to activate it?" The voice said. Adam thought he was hallucinating and he looked around.

Nonetheless, Adam didn't know what the voice meant, so he only had one option for the time being. Run.

*****

"Let's do this!" Kaya shouted and rushed at Adam. Her gift was something similar to psychokinesis. However, it was more about her having control over the totality of the space enveloped by her aura.

"Ya!"

"Support us, Nuiia!"

The guardians saw Adam attempt to run and began to chase after him. However, even though Adam couldn't do anything about the nothingness he could still control the dark matter and made a simple sword out of it, which he held with his right arm.

His next destination was already set. He had to see her… He knew that he had let her down, but he hoped that he wasn't late. Just like a typical human, Adam's last human-like thought was that Liu and would go on this journey together… Something that was now, a mere dream.