Antihero In the Hero Academy: I Can Connect the Past Heroes -
Chapter 217: You All Are Me, I Am All Of You
Chapter 217: You All Are Me, I Am All Of You
"TALON, HAVE YOU FOUND A CURE?!"
These words alone were enough to tell everyone what was happening.
While the excitement was increasing inside the tent, something else was going on in the depths of Atlas’ mind.
As usual, the young man opened his eyes to his past...no, to his future that no longer existed. He saw himself again, or rather, the self that had existed for so many years.
He saw dozens of himself.
He couldn’t quite understand what was happening, but what he did know was that from the time he had joined the academy, as the years went by, he had seen a different version of himself, and each one of them looked at him with incredible anger.
It was like... his subconscious was trying to scold him.
Atlas looked around at his duplicates and waited for them to speak, yet it never happened. Truth be told, none of them said a word, just looking at them with an angry expression on their faces.
It was a strange sight. A reactionary sight would be more accurate.
When Atlas stood up from his seat, he scratched his head and then said, "Well, come on?"
As he uttered these words, the youngest version of himself, his fifteen-year-old self, walked up to him and asked, "What do you think you’re doing?"
Atlas hadn’t expected such a question, and that’s why he tilted his head a little and then asked, "What are you trying to say?"
At his question, the more mature twenty-year-old stepped forward and said, "We all know that no one is worth more than you."
Atlas was, to put it bluntly, angry at these words. However, he said nothing and continued to look at his copy with a strange expression.
"Dragging yourself to your death just for a woman..." a younger version said.
"Especially when that woman accomplished nothing," another copy added.
When Atlas couldn’t take it anymore and said, "You’re going a little too far," one of the more mature of the copies gave him a disparaging look and then replied, "We’re just saying what you think."
"She could have solved it all from the beginning."
"She could have wiped out the devil worshippers."
"She had two million years."
"She just tasted power and did nothing."
"Cordelia? Sage? None of it matters. In the end, she’s just a bitch who didn’t fulfil her duty and, unlike you, can’t see the bigger picture."
Atlas looked around after these words and then said, "The path we choose is ours, no one else’s. How our lives were shaped and how we died...it was all our choice."
"But these choices could have been easier. If we had help," came the reply from the copy.
"I realise that too, but you couldn’t expect anyone to prepare this world for the apocalypse in an instant. How long did it take? How long did it take me to tell Cordelia and the others everything? To trust them?" Atlas questioned.
"A shorter time than we expected...Still, you can’t escape the truth, main body," came the reply from one of the copies.
"What truth?" asked Atlas.
"No one helped you. They fled without a backwards glance when you died, yet you continue to fight for every one of them and more. Including the humanity you hate," came the reply from the duplicates, each of them, all at once.
"I still hate humanity, but... Is every devil evil? Is every angel good? Can you call every elf wise, every dwarf a great blacksmith? Can you call every ancient dragon a killer and every pixie a worshipper?" Atlas suddenly questioned.
"I was aware that not all of humanity was evil...yet I was blinded by my hatred and could no longer trust them. I was able to realise that forgiving them would be the greatest sin of all, and so I was able to gain the strength to protect those I cared about...and a chance to do so."
"Foolish."
"So foolish."
"You couldn’t have had a more stupid thought."
"You should have thrown everything you’ve worked for away for someone.
"No one is as important as you."
The words that came out one after the other made Atlas question for a second if he had ever been that person in the past. That wasn’t the truth, though. He wasn’t that kind of arsehole.
"Not even my sister?" Atlas suddenly questioned.
"Our sister is another matter," came the reply from the most mature copy.
"Come on...I am you and you are me. Do you think I don’t recognise myself? How much I’ve improved...Don’t I know? Do you think I’ve forgotten what we’ve been through? How many people have we lost? The betrayals and so much more? And Leon? Irene? Uncle Aether and Aunt Aelia? Luke and Aphelios? Arthur and Helena? Lester? Amber? What will you say to them? Those who always stood by our side and did not leave us alone until their deaths...What will you say to them?" Atlas said after these words.
Even these words were enough to upset the copies, to make them sad. Atlas knew he wasn’t lying. From his sister to all his friends, so many people died for him. When he managed to go back and live again, Atlas wanted to try to save them.
As he said in the goal he set at the beginning:
"The whole world may burn, but somewhere in the world I will create a place where everything is normal, where all my loved ones can live."
Maybe it was stupid, maybe it was overthinking. Nevertheless, this was his goal.
Now he was very close to realising it...in a world that never burned.
He couldn’t leave everything now. He wouldn’t dare.
That’s why he refused to die. If there was a way, which he hadn’t thought of before he absorbed the poison, he would live and return to the real world.
He was determined to tell these thoughts to each copy, but the only thing he noticed was that each copy suddenly started to smile, but still did not lose its seriousness.
"What’s going on?" he questioned.
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