VERSATILE: ALTERNATE WORLD

I logged out of the Alternate World and returned to the real world after all of the things that happened. Yep, I no longer call it a game. I now accept that this is indeed an alternate world from our world that has just a more fantasy vibe than this world, though it doesn't change the fact that this world and that world are connected, and once one of these worlds falls, the other follows suit.

Considering that I knew there is something that Nobuhiko is planning, it would either influence this world a lot or perhaps even destroy the Alternate World. Until I knew what he is planning to do, I needed to gather pieces of evidence and also piece all of it to learn what his objective is.

I stood up from my bed and rub my head a little bit. It felt bad, to be honest, but I think this was the side effect of the losing sanity stuff earlier. If I haven't got walloped by Queen Tanya there, I might have gone really crazy. Next time, I needed to time how much I can use that ability in the future as well. So far, there are no skills that remove the drawbacks but I assume this will only be available once more of those necromancer pages are gathered. Until then, I must limit the usage of it, or just not use it at all.

Since the headache is a bit painful, I decided to go back to bed and lie down for now. It's just that much more painful compared to the headaches I experienced before. A little bit of rest won't hurt.

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I opened my eyes and once more, I returned to the land of the Yggdrasil. It's quite weird that I immediately remember all of the memories that I don't remember once I am here in this place. Quite a weird thing, right? But I still feel that this is somewhat connected to me for some reason now that I think about it. This dream has also been appearing since the time I regained my mana and returned to the past. Perhaps there is somewhat a connection of some sort?

My first instinct is to find the girl who resides in this place. She is commonly found at the base of the Yggdrasil and she stays there most of the time. I haven't seen her wander farther from the tree so there is a chance that she is just there, waiting for something or she just doesn't care about exploring the area. Either way, I have to check out where she is and ask her what is going on.

But to my surprise, she is nowhere to be found. It was like she vanished and she never was there in the first place. I circled around the big tree but she does not appear anywhere at all. This made me scratch my head as this rarely happens in these kinds of dreams. The only time I didn't see her was when the time I just got into this place and when I tried to explore the area beyond the Yggdrasil. Other than that, she should be around here somewhere.

"Looking for me?"

I was startled that I immediately went to a defensive stance and face the direction of the voice. Before me is the person I was looking for, sitting on the big rock near the tree, while still holding the box that is sealed.

"Wah, you startled me, why did you suddenly appear behind me all of a sudden?"

"Hehe, can't believe you would get startled by just that. I thought you have already had so much combat experience that you should be a veteran by now."

"It's different as I don't have a weapon here! If I do have a weapon here, then things would be much different!"

"Is that so? Well, let's leave it at just that."

"Anyways, why do I have returned here again? I usually don't enter this place multiple times but it seems to have been frequent lately."

"Heh, I just wanted to know whether you are currently fine at the moment. After all of the spells I used to counter the memory alteration that was used on you, I was wondering whether there are any side effects that seem to be prevalent in your body after that event"

"Nothing really. I felt fine overall and my mind is clear and still does not feel like I lost any memories except for the moments happening here which get returned whenever I returned here and then disappear once again once I am out of this place. It's a bit confusing," I answered while shaking my head for a bit.

"Then that is good. With how taxing the spells I used were, it was somewhat of a surprise you barely have any complications with them. You must have a very strong body or just that your body has a high resistance to those spells I used. Either way, that is good as I might be using it again in the future."

"Why would you use it again?"

"There is a chance that the same spell will be used against you again. You have no immunity or such a thing to that spell even though one of them has been used against you and the only way for you to counter that is for me to intervene. And the world hangs in a balance with your memories. Without them, the world is basically screwed over."

"I still don't understand what is my role. Am I really forced to do all of this? Am I supposed to be the one who will stop any bad thing that will happen to both worlds?"

"Depends on you. You can ignore it all you want and let the world be destroyed. It doesn't matter but based on your recent actions, you are clearly not in agreement with the destruction of the world so in short, you either take the role of being one or just watch the world break to pieces. It's all up to you."

I am definitely not in favor of world destruction. Why do you think I returned to the past in the first place if I will still die a tragic way after returning as well? My main goal is to live old enough and die of natural causes, not by dying due to the world's destruction and stuff. Obviously, I will do my best to save it.

"I can see the hesitation in your eyes. Yes, you might burden yourself with saving both worlds. However, saving the two worlds doesn't mean you are a hero. You are just not in favor of the destruction of the world so if you think you are not fit to be the savior, then perhaps ask for help from others. You don't need to bear all of the burdens alone. Share it and even it out."

"Is this why you are helping me? Because you cannot bear to see the world be destroyed?"

"Who knows? I am a sentient being exclusive on this plane. A being that watches the fate of the two worlds. I am merely an audience and I can't do anything drastic that would somehow drastically change the scenario of both worlds."

"So that was your role? To watch over anything?"

"I can't answer that. But that should be part of my role here. However, it is not yet time to reveal what is my role in this story of yours, Bladeheart. One thing is for sure, I am going to remain here and watch over humanity's progress."

There are still some questions I want to ask her but then, my vision starts to get hazy.

"Ah, it seems your time here is up. It's time to go back to the real world. The next time we meet might be for quite a while I guess but I can tell that something good will happen once you are back in your real world. Not that you can remember my words once you wake up."

"W-wait!"

eαglesn?νel But before I can even stop the inevitable, I lost consciousness and everything blacked out.

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I opened my eyes and I felt refreshed as my body is now fully energized after a good night's sleep. I think there is something that happened before I woke up but for some reason, I can't recall what it was. But I can only shake my head in confusion as I still don't know what happened. Perhaps there must be something I did before but I blanked out. Oh well, if I can't remember it, perhaps it was just my imagination or perhaps it was just part of my dreams.

Now that my body is back in great shape, I went out of the room and saw the elves hanging in the living room. They are currently still working out the spells but as soon as they saw me, Pixie flew over to me.

"Master Manato! It seems a great breakthrough has been achieved by everyone!"