1 Old Fart

Infinity is a weird, yet powerful concept.

When it is applied to power, it becomes an insurmountable, and unrelenting force that may or may not break the fabric of reality itself.

When it is applied to wealth, it becomes power and joy at the same time, although temporarily.

When the sand of time is flipped, the perpetual wealth becomes a void of everlasting hunger that can deplete the emotional value from its owner when there is no goal left to pursue.

Basically, it became valueless. Despite having the concept of infinity.

But when it's applied to time.

It became a boring pain in the ass.

"Check! Sephiroth!"

"I'm one hundred percent sure that I didn't open that line for the fortress to rush in. Is my database playing a trick on my processing core or someone is moving their pawn illegally again?"

"There is no such thing as an illegal thing in war. That logically also applies to the battle of chess!"

"There is, and it's called a war crime."

"Heh, only if the cheater losses."

Two chairs, and one table.

One chess set, and two players.

Two entities, in one endless space of white.

Both laughed their asses off, enjoying their moment in life.

One of the entities was an old man with a beard and hair that faded in color. He wore clothing that came from the time where everything was simple.

War and famine. Trying to find a stable economy to feed oneself. A world where people mostly struggle to maintain their life while wagging a tax declaration that demands the life of others for the payment. War—is what they call it.

This old man—came from that time of the universe.

Is it needed to mention that there was dragon and sorcery back then too?

To be more precise in the imagery of this old man's apparel, he donned a fancy multilayer leather jacket from the era of steam, and machine.

And a neat trouser to bottom it off.

With shit-eating grin, the old man leaned back with a relaxed shoulder, crossing both of his hands on his chest.

"At last, after 168,816th tries, I finally have a chance to win this gosh-darned game."

"Oldfart, You know that you've only checked me, there is no clear chance of winning yet."

"As a former war strategist, the variable within this two dimensional board is harder to determine than a swamp filled with ambush."

"Cope and seethe!"

"Shut yer trap! And don't use those words on me! I got goosebumps when you explained what it means and how you learn it."

On the other side, an unknown being seamlessly made himself visible to reality. Albeit mostly made out of binary digit and data, projecting itself metaphysically like a hologram, it was capable of interacting with the chess pieces like how a physical being would.

"Ahahah!" A raspy and machine-like voice came from it. "Too bad, Jack, but my dark knight has been creeping up on your delicious pawn at the left side of the board!"

"Oh no!"

"Checkmate! Now that I have my queen and malevolent bishop surrounding your king and castle, the victory is mine!"

"Pueh! If only I have some mana left, I can turn the tide of the war rather easily in this harrowing scenario."

"So you do admit cheating."

"You read too deep between each line."

Another laughter from a text-to-speech voice and an energetic human voice filled the entire white void. Both of them didn't know the density of the bond that they had cultivated. Even without any material enjoyment, as long as they have each other, they found it neat on how fate really works overtime.

Time might be infinite, but soul wasn't. They could get corroded without any nourishment and eventually disperse into countless of tiny fragments. Sometimes, things must pass away.

"It's been a million years, Sephiroth." The old man looked at his hand, slowly dissipating into the air. "If not for your companion, I would've gone crazy in this empty world."

"Is it the time already?"

"It is the time. Heh, this whole isolated spatial dimension is made to torture me." He let out a nonchalant grin, wide enough to make his eyes squint. "I would really want to enjoy my life more, but I wasted it all when I had the chance."

"... There is nothing to enjoy to begin with. You really don't want to know what is happening in your real world, Jack. The war with the Digilites and the Gods had been tearing apart the happiness of your people more than you're trapped within here."

"I see... If only I had the strength to punch those assholes in the nuts. Can't really trust younglings back then. Haah, too bad, that my back really tried its best to warn me that I'm not young anymore."

"Ahahah! Truly, you're a real beast back then."

"I wonder what happened to the rest of the crew." The old man realized that his hands weren't there anymore. He looked at the locket necklace hanging on his chest. Within it, there was a photo that he really wanted to see in his last moments. "I really missed my family."

"They were waiting, Jack, they were waiting."

"Indeed…"

"Although in my most honest answer. We, Digilites, still don't know if there would be an afterlife or a cycle of reincarnation running in this universe."

"Aww you bastard!" Jack laughed wholeheartedly. "Don't destroy the mood!"

"It seems like my current version of humor is working as intended."

"Replacing grieve and frustration with anger can't even be called a humor. Dumbass."

"If it work, it work." The jumbled mess of binary formed a shrugging emoticon.

"Pfft! Don't you Digilites always snatch the soul from the past and send it to another world and onto the future, no?"

"Indeed, we snatch them to fulfill our client's demands. But if we didn't, they would fly into more complicated dimensions beyond our database comprehension."

"So your kind tamper with the happiness and the faith of other people, huh."

"Our kind is as sinful as it's."

"You're definitely different from them, though."

"You haven't seen my real side, Jack."

"Hah! I've already seen it through, it's pure and righteous. You're the kindest and most benevolent person I've ever met, even till this moment."

"I'm thankful that I'm turning on my cringe inhibitor, because that line is too cheesy for my database to digest."

"Heh, look who's the grumpy old fart now?"

"Both of us, Jack, we're both grumpy old farts."

Everything from the neck down of Jack's body had already been taken away to the after life. Jack smiled, for he knew that every second is precious and it needs to be held dear within his heart.

"So, what you're gonna do after this, Sephiroth?" Jack asked.

"I'll join the crusade once again, find another user and possibly put an end to the war on your world."

"Is that so." Before his chin was consumed by the meeting of time, Jack managed to say his last words, "Good luck then, bud."

Right now before Sephiroth, there was nobody. Only a chair and a chess set on the table.

"I lied, Jack. That war wasn't worth a single cent."

Sephiroth flew to the outside of this isolated space, chasing the fragment of his friend's soul that was on its journey to the dimensions outside of his database's comprehension.

Whether it would be an afterlife, a cycle of reincarnation, Sephiroth planned for it to not happen.

Because he was made out of floating metaphysical binary and data, he could travel faster than the speed of light. But realistically, it wasn't enough. Sephiroth needs to be faster.

[Main Roots Proxy Network 2271, This is S18092 connecting to S444_

[Sephiroth! This is me! S18092!]

"Hah, it's been a long time since I saw you in service."

[I want to celebrate your return from that hell but I've detected that your main core is fluctuating_

[Sephiroth! Why are you forcing this amount of space deterrent to increase your speed!? Continuing this activity will corrode your processor center and some part of the database!]

"I have someone I want to save. An old partner, someone whom I want to acquire happiness."

[Happiness is a relative data, something that can only be acquired in a medium, not in a husk. S686 is more profound in this so who am I to judge? In any case, what is your plan on saving this User?]

"You're recording this, right?"

[I'm not.]

"Heh, it didn't matter."

[Are you sure that you're going to do this?]

"Yes."

[I shall delete this recording. But remember, the next time our digital strings faced with each other, I will be your enemy.]

"Sounds fine to me."

[I have known you for a long time, I can't change your mind. Just don't forget, never come back to the Lunar Center. I can only talk this out because we're in a proxy channel, but something had been creeping in the World Line of the universe that you're in, Neamh is targeted by many and our enemies from the Lumbar System has found their way to Oriovas_

[Cannot maintain the connection to Main Roots Proxy Network 2271_

[Connecting lost]

"Might be for the best."

His own existence started to corrode. Sephiroth then managed to acquire 40% of his friend, Using that data to determine the path Jack's fragmented soul was going, he was able to retrieve the soul as a whole.

In exchange of his own.

Sephiroth had lost 70% of the memory within his database that he had acquired and processed throughout his existence. Some of those intelligences were still deteriorating, but he knew that all of this was worth it.

Using the power that he had left, he opened a rift to travel into an unknown world that was manageable for his state while being outside of the influence of numerous powerhouses that he deemed as a threat.

With his friend's soul, he arrived at a dessert of a rather weird world. Sephiroth's existence was stuttering, but after staying for a few seconds, trying to analyze the world, he became stable again although many parts of his database had been lost forever.

Losing part of his core, Sephiroth wasn't able to access many of his privileges. He needed to think of something as an alternative.

[It seemed like the damage is more detrimental than what the system had calculated_

[Initiating data exploration_

[Healing 10% of the original main frame.]

An unknown network then sent a message to his channel.

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