Seres and Uriel were currently sitting in the middle of the great hall under the statue of the goddess of storms.
"And how does this work?" asked Uriel, observing Princess Seres.
"It's a bit simple and complex. I will begin to organize the fragnts as if they were a puzzle of different parts. If two fit, others will follow."
Uriel didn't understand what Seres said, but he grasped the essential part: what Seres would do is make him rember things.
However, he felt that doing so would bring him great sorrow and guilt.
"Alright... let's begin," said Uriel.
Seres placed her hands on Uriel's head and said in a calm tone, "Set aside any thoughts you have and just sleep."
Uriel closed his eyes, feeling sothing initially enter his head with so resistance. Knowing it was Seres, he relaxed his ntal defenses, letting her into his mind.
Seres appeared in a space completely black, devoid of any color or aning. It was emptiness, pure and hungry.
Seres shuddered. However, sothing appeared before her, becoming visible. It was a young man, incredibly handso, about her age, with intense red eyes that seed to see through her, gazing into her soul. His skin was smooth, fair, and perfect, with black hair falling over his face. A smile, playful and full of imasurable madness, was drawn on his face.
"Well, I never thought that useless stone would let a cockroach like you into this place, Princess Seres of the Kingdom of Beasty. An oracle whose mission is to gather the seven fragnts of a divine weapon left behind by a re spirit," said the entity in a voice full of mockery.
"How do you know that?" asked Seres, looking at what she believed was the human.
The evil specter let out a contemptuous laugh and began to walk around the blonde girl.
"Foolish and deluded, you are dood upon entering this cursed city. Your companions will die before your eyes, and you will follow shortly after."
Seres looked at the specter.
"Silence."
"Am I not right? Why don't you tell your brave knight, your loyal companions, the truth? That it's a useless quest? How corruption consud their pathetic kingdom?"
"Shut up... You don't know what you're saying. You're just an illusion."
"Hahaha... poor wretched soul, you have deceived yourself so deeply that you mistake the truth for lies. But it's fine. Go ahead, try to reunite the useless stone's mind, and I will personally witness how you fail pathetically."
Seres watched as the evil specter disappeared as it had appeared. Before her floated hundreds and hundreds of scattered fragnts, like broken glass. So were larger pieces, others were smaller ones trying to unite into a coherent whole.
Seres looked at the first fragnt and touched it. Instantly, the darkness was replaced. She stood before a beautiful city with five enormous rivers descending to the city's center, where an imposing and beautiful castle shone under the sunlight.
Seres looked around, observing the stone saint gazing intently at the city.
Seres left the mory.
She touched another, larger fragnt. The world changed again. This ti, the city was in ruins, with countless people screaming in agony, making her tremble uncontrollably.
She saw sothing, sothing enormous heading toward the castle. The scene changed to inside the castle. What she saw made her shudder. It was a creature of great size, a mass of flesh and eyes without form, extending fleshy tentacles to consu other people. Its words were...
Seres scread. She couldn't hear it; she refused to listen to those words. She opened her eyes, seeing the stone saint charge at the creature, with two other people in armor and weapons by his side, facing the creature.
Seres returned to the darkness, taking deep breaths.
"That must be what guards the sixth fragnt," she said between gasps. Slowly, she observed how small pieces of fragnts began to unite perfectly.
Then she looked around. There were thousands and thousands of fragnts—large, small, and truly enormous.
Seres sighed and began to use her essence, touching the fragnts, but this ti she refused to enter them. Her soul wasn't powerful enough to witness the horrors hidden in the stone saint's mind.
Little by little, the fragnts began to join, one after another. As ti passed, her essence drained, and she wasn't even close to making progress.
"I need to enter," she murmured.
"I see you're struggling, cockroach." The specter appeared again with a mocking smile on its face.
Seres didn't respond to the apparition, focused on her work.
"If you really want to repair the useless stone's mind, why don't you enter and experience the hell he lived?"
"Tsk. Shut up. I'm concentrating." The specter smiled, approached a fragnt, looked at it for a mont, and then crushed it rcilessly, disintegrating it.
Seres opened her eyes.
"What did you do?" she asked.
"? Nothing. Simply, this place is crowded, and I need space, so I'll do so quick cleaning." The specter grabbed another fragnt, destroyed it, then another, and then another.
"Stop! If you destroy them, his mind will be completely destroyed."
"That's good to hear." The specter smiled widely, its body changing into a dark creature with six white eyes. It opened its mouth, devouring a piece of fragnts.
"So, cockroach, do you want to play a little ga?"
"A ga?"
"It's called Devourer. I'm going to destroy all the fragnts in this space. In exchange, if you enter them, look, and co out, I won't touch them. It's a simple ga, isn't it?"
"What happens if I'm in a mory?"
"Oh, who knows?" the specter smiled sinisterly.
"Well, let's begin." Opening its mouth, it eliminated a dozen fragnts. Seres imdiately jumped into one fragnt, a second later into another, and then another, in rapid succession, starting a race against ti against the hungry specter.
...
Outside the stone saint's mind, Lycor, Gaellum, and Gretel watched with tense faces as Seres began to tremble and the stone saint remained motionless like a statue.
"Do you think she's okay?" asked Lycor.
"The princess is strong," said Gaellum with absolute certainty.
"She will succeed. We just have to trust her."
...
Seres traversed countless fragnts of shattered mories, faster and faster, seeing the life of the stone saint. Because the mories were scattered, it was difficult for her to assemble a chronological tiline, but sohow she was managing.
She had seen the stone saint arrive in the city of Ydrat, confused and wounded, saved by Princess Isis of the Kingdom of Ydrat. She rembered that the Kingdom of Ydrat had been destroyed a century ago, and the stone saint had lived for 100 years alone in this cursed city.
The stone saint and the princess embarked on adventures, fighting corrupt creatures.
Fighting and interacting, Seres saw how their bond of friendship and camaraderie only grew. After almost a year, the two were relaxing, watching the sunset.
"If I ever beco corrupted, I hope you are the one who ends ." The stone saint didn't know how to respond at that mont, but he nodded.
"I don't know if I can do it, but I will. It's a promise," said the stone saint, and they continued watching the sunset.
Seres kept looking at the fragnted mories until she had another complete image.
A few days later, Princess Isis, after their talk, was chosen as the next priestess of the fragnt to honor the ancient promise. However, sothing happened, and the princess was corrupted, along with everyone with her, turning into terrifying creatures that spread the corruption.
The stone saint, who was outside on a mission, upon returning saw the chaos, heard the screams, and headed to the castle, seeing the mass of flesh.
Letting out a cry of pain and rage, he charged to face the condemned one. The battle was intense, the battle was hard, but in the end, the stone saint failed.
Wounded and shattered, he took out an enchantnt scroll created by a sacred being.
The stone saint stood up and said, "I'm sorry for not keeping the promise I made to you, but I can't kill you. Even now, I cannot bring rest to your corrupted being, so I can only make you sleep until I can die." True to his words, he used the enchantnt, and the beast fell asleep. In exchange, the stone saint regressed to the beginning, starting a new loop.
No matter what he did, it always ended the sa way, over and over.
The saint fought dozens, hundreds of tis to change destiny, trying everything in his power, but it didn't happen.
Eventually, his mind broke under the burden and his countless failures, shattering itself in an attempt to forget and die in ignorance.
Leaving another fragnt, she entered a larger one just as the specter was about to reach her. She entered the fragnt.
In a destroyed kingdom where the sun and moon never changed, a stone saint and a specter were talking.
"Will you really do it?"
"Yes, this is my will, Shade."
"But..." the specter tried to reply.
"I know it's dangerous, but it's the only thing we have left. We will let our future selves do what we couldn't."
"Kill Isis."
"Yes."
Seres then saw how the stone saint and the specter destroyed their minds, abandoning their identity for new, shattered ones that existed in the present.
Seres left the mory. The last thing she saw was a sea of sparks that illuminated and fused one after another until she was thrown out of the ntal space.
Seres opened her eyes back in the real world, looking at the stone saint.
"Princess, you're back already? So quickly?" asked Gaellum, surprised.
"H-how much ti passed?"
"Less than a minute," replied Gaellum.
Seres opened her eyes.
"It was only a minute, but I spent decades in there."
"Decades?" asked Gretel.
"Yes. Now I know everything. About this city and how we can obtain the fragnt," she expressed.
"Really?"
"Yes, but we have to wait for him to wake up. His shattered mind is beginning to heal. It might take a few hours."
The group lit the fireplace, gathering around the warmth of the fire.
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