Parallels

After a few moments of Runa going down to the fields, a commotion was heard.

"Look look, one of the humans collapsed on the field. Help!" One Dwarf constructing fences shouted when he noticed someone lying down on the field.

Mutter. Whisper. Noise noise~

A lot of people from various races gathered around the field, even those inside the city ran outside to see.

Veil hurried when she heard that someone collapsed, everyone is supposed to be healthy and getting sufficient meals now that a year has passed since the massive war.

"…" Runa fell down on her knees on the mud when she saw Gordo was the one who collapsed.

Veil similarly arrived; it was not that long when Runa left so they arrived almost at the same time.

Vuishhhh!

Suddenly, a massive white gate appeared from the skies, hums ringing on everyone's ears.

["I am the Goddess of Creation, Tiaris. You, human, you must already be familiar with me and the rules of the other Gods. You should pay the price for your actions."] Tiaris flew down from the gate and pointed her finger to Veil.

"I am. But what price are you speaking of?" Veil flashed a confused face.

["The law of equivalent exchange. You bring this human back and another close to her must pay. Death is the part of the Supreme Being's creations."] Tiaris unhurriedly declared.

"…" Veil's emotions flood her heart. Anger, regret, frustration and sadness plunging her mind into the abyss.

Without a word from her mouth, she swiftly unsheathed Umbralia and slashed Tiaris.

Swing!

"!!!"

Everyone present was surprised; a human directly attacked a Goddess!

["What is the meaning of this, human?"] Tiaris asked in a calm tone after disappearing from her previous position and reappearing behind her attacker.

"I should just kill you for his life!" Veil's eyes became totally dead and she does not give a care anymore as she continued her frenzy.

Swing swing swing swing swing! Crumble!

Most people ran away from the fields into the city, Runa is still crying on the floor near her grandfather, while Veil is attacking Tiaris nonstop.

"Die die die die die!" Veil is now laughing like a maniac; she totally lost control of her emotions.

Mana Expansion: Eternity's Prismatic Awakening!

The ground hardened like a diamond, reflecting some of the light from the sun and rampant strands of mana assaulted the Goddess.

Veil did not stop there; she used every skill she knows without even controlling her mana, causing massive destruction.

DANG!

Suddenly, she was intercepted by Runa, who has reddened eyes, "Stop this! You are not helping by doing this!"

Veil could not move her sword further; otherwise, she would kill Runa instead.

The battlefield turned silent, the Mana Expansion was cancelled when Veil let go of her sword.

"Then I should just be the one who dies if it is for an equivalent exchange." Veil muttered.

Veil laughed madly once more, every mana inside her bursting forth; at this pace she will burn through her own life force to produce more mana.

Tiaris just watched silently while Runa attempted to stop Veil, but to no avail.

Veil's aura alone is acting like an adamantine wall, she cannot even step foot inside.

Vuish vuish vuish!

Sparks of berserk mana danced on the field, until strands of Veil's life force followed.

"STOP! YOU ARE KILLING YOURSELF!" Runa screamed loudly towards Veil's direction.

The mana and aura is now so dense that they cannot see Veil's physical body anymore, even sound and light becomes distorted.

After a dozen seconds, a crisp sound from a small shockwave absorbed all of Veil's mana and life force she leaked out.

A small golden orb appeared on her place and shot towards Gordo's forehead.

"!?" Gordo's eyes abruptly opened, he definitely thought it was the end for him, but now, he is alive and breathing.

"Grandpa!" Runa ran towards Gordo, not even checking on Veil's whereabouts anymore.

Tiaris turned around without speaking a single word from the developments, but she knew what Veil just did.

Veil destroyed herself in exchange for Gordo's life, she applied all the techniques she honed during all this time for a revival skill, but she destroyed her life this time so that it will follow the rules set by the Supreme Being.

[…]

Veil's consciousness stayed afloat the place of nothingness; she did not even go through Hell, Heaven or the purgatory.

'I have no regrets' Veil thought inwardly; this is surely for the better.

After seemingly an entire eternity, she remembered all the memories of both of her lives as Veil and Runa, especially the sacrifices she made to save everyone.

Veil always picks the option for the better, rather than prioritizing herself.

She always do things to help others and for the safety of the world against the darkness.

Now, even the darkness of her was taken away from her for unknown reasons: the very darkness she used against the dark.

It is surely ironic even for her that she wants to do goodwill but she herself wields the power of the darkness.

'How did the Noctuas come into existence?' Veil suddenly thought to herself, wondering the reason for these kinds of beings to coexist with others.

The Noctua is a race able to grow powerful through darkness, even without the concept of mana and magic circuits, they wield a massive potential.

There is nothing rewarding for such powers, if you grow through darkness, you will see yourself becoming devoured slowly.

That is what happened to Veil, eventually.

Due to her endless suffering and the choices set in front of her, her emotions got ahead of her and devoured her own mind.

As her last option to not be fully consumed by thoughts and cause more destruction, she just destroyed herself to bring back someone's life.

She caused Gordo to die due to Runa's revival, so it must only be natural that she dies for Gordo.

'But who rewards me for these choices and sacrifices?' Veil suddenly realized that there are no direct merits to her actions whatsoever.

Her choices are never for herself, truly selfless actions.

But now that she is once again disappearing and even dying because of her actions, she should at least feel rewarded for her last moments.

'Give me another chance.' Veil parted the last words she thought of after a long silence.

'…'

'…'

'…'

["If you could choose a point in time to change, which would it be?"] A mechanical voice suddenly spoke to her mind.

"Who are you? What are you? Where am I?" Veil asked a series of question with a confused voice.

["…"] There was no response.

"Fine! Bring me back to the ancient times, before those Dark Clowns could even exist in our world! But be sure that I still have all my memories!" Veil was forced to respond to the initial question seeing that there was no response to her questions.

["Very well. You have made your choice; there is no going back and rewriting history anymore."] The cold mechanical voice spoke again before light comes to Veil's mind again.

Vuishhhh!

When she opened her eyes, she found herself falling from the skies of Terra, but the landforms and terrains are still vastly different.

Surely, this should be the ancient era, way before the Ancient War could even happen.

She maintained on a freefall for a dozen minutes before slowing herself down with mana, she indeed retained all her techniques and memories she knows.

Now, this is Veil's third life and third opportunity to fix all the things that will later happen in the future.

Even if she causes diverse butterfly effects due to her actions in this timeline, she would still save millions or even billions of life across different worlds as long as she defeats all the Dark Clowns.

Without sparing even a single second, Veil immediately flew with a great amount of solar mana from her Umbralia.

She found out that she could summon her sword out of her mind alone, since the real sword was also devoured on her attempt to revive Gordo in exchange of her own life.

Even if her current Umbralia is only a manifestation of her memories, the sword still supplies infinite amounts of mana with 6 different types.

After stealthily going in and out of various territories and smaller cities, she found out that there are still 13 continents in total in the Ancient Terra.

Meaning, at least 3 entire continents were erased from existence when the Ancient War happened.

Veil researched greatly for half a decade, she still has time before the war, she must first find out where the Dark Clowns are going to strike.

For the continents she has not yet visited, she hypothesized that one belongs to the Noctuas, where Nightshade would still exist.

She travelled to the unexplored territory; she immediately encountered the Noctuan warriors hiding in the shadows.

Smiling to herself, Veil jumped inside the shadows as well and knocked out the warriors without killing them.

No one is a better fighter with the powers of the Noctua besides herself.

After fighting inside the shadows for a couple dozen minutes or so, she finally discovered Nightshade.

"I cannot reveal the entire details to you, but I assure you that the Noctuas will be the key to the biggest war in the history of existence, you must fight back against the Dark Clowns." Veil spoke in a grave tone when she met Nightshade's true body.

"…" Nightshade just watched the human before her; she could not understand the developments.

"I have no reason to lie, but I have my own reasons for stopping this war. We could save millions of lives!" Veil followed her words with more explanation seeing that Nightshade has no response.

"Very well, and what do we need to do exactly to stop this war? Fight back? We do not even know what the Dark Clowns are." Nightshade finally spoke.

"It is only natural that you do not know, but you are similar to a fragment of their beings, they are going to use all of you to wage wars against the other races and later plunge the world into the abyss." Veil unhurriedly explained the situation.

"Hmm, fragments. Then, should we lure them out into thinking that we are going to agree to their plans?" Nightshade smirked.

"Mhm, that would work, I will deal with them once they come out." Veil similarly smirked and secretly created a gate directly connected to Nightshade's throne.