Unlimited Power 03: The Sinful Ruler

"You really like to say stupid things in the weirdest times, Jake," The weird figure said. "My name is Leon, and I don\'t think I need to say anything else to introduce myself. You already heard and imagined plenty about me, right?"

"I suppose… you are one of the hunters that this asshole mentioned," Jake tried to get up, only to fall on his butt again. "You are also the guy who has revived us in this universe to stop that asshole. Your appearance doesn\'t match that, but you are a powerful mage."

"I get what you mean. My wife says that I should try to look more dignified in moments like this, but why would I dress up to meet guys like you?" Leon asked.

"My thoughts exactly," Jake said.

"Anyway, as you may have guessed, I am a human as well, from another universe, one where you and your friends don\'t exist," Leon explained. "The multiverse is a pain in the ass, and it has mostly different people in the places you were supposed to be since some events changed the order of things. Regardless, ask what you want to know."

"You revived us to deal with this guy in your place. The enemy said that you couldn\'t show your true power facing him under the current circumstances," Jake said. "Now that things have reached this point, what will happen to our souls?"

"It is hard to say. I don\'t like to intervene that much in other universes. Direct actions toward people like Throkoids Elaskas is something that I like to avoid at all costs," Leon explained. "People need to solve the problems of their own homes by themselves. Still, the people of your universe failed to do that, so I decided to save your memories before it could dissipate in the void and give you a chance to try again. Under normal circumstances, Throkoids Elaskas would be impossible to defeat in this universe, but thanks to you all, that was impossible."

​ "Now of all times, I hear his name…" Jake said and then sighed. "It seems that this is one of the only things we are going to agree… why did you make us relive our past?"

"Making you all wake up in this universe after falling in the previous one was possible, but then you all would be a massive anomaly. You would be hunted down," Leon explained. "So, I made others think that you were humans from Earth of this universe. Some people knew that the humans from there weren\'t supposed to have awakened to the system yet… but they were small in number. Besides, the way mana works are different from universe to universe, and that is one of the reasons I don\'t like to intervene. I made you all recover your powers using the laws of this universe while also using the remaining mana I found there. Still, recovering the mana wasn\'t enough to awaken to your traits. Your memories of your past had to be strong… that was the only way for you all to get strong enough to fight him."

"What a load of bullshit…" Jake said while furrowing his eyebrows.

"Would you prefer if I had appeared earlier, explained the whole situation, and made you all follow my commands in order to fight an enemy that could destroy planets in seconds?" Leon asked.

Jake didn\'t want to admit that, but it would be even harder to make humans cooperate in that scenario… they would feel threatened and forced to obey him in order not to die again… all in order to face the enemy that destroyed their home planet.

"That being said, I am not merciless. That is why I created dungeon masters online to make those who were more appropriate for combat to come to this universe instead of using everyone," Leon explained. "While it wasn\'t perfect, it was an elite army… unfortunately, some of you were fooled by Throkoids Elaskas\' minions, and you had to fight amongst yourselves. If such a thing hadn\'t happened, a lot more of you would have survived."

"Where is your self-critic there? You let that asshole discover of your plans…" Jake said.

"Not quite, Throkoids Elaskas was already aware of our plans, so he decided to use some humans when he realized that something was off in the previous universe. He noticed our eyes and made his move to stay hidden in this one while someone cultivates his strength for him," Leon explained. "The game was also one of the ways I thought of making him wary of us… thanks to that, he made some mistakes along the line, like using dungeon masters to fight for him. He also attacked the wrong people at the wrong time, and that made things change, like making you meet the people that you needed to meet to end up defeating him."

"You mean, my encounter with the others was supposed to be one of the factors that helped us win?" Jake asked.

"That is right, you made Arielene, someone of this universe, to help, and she has the potential to become one of the strongest summoners to join your cause," Leon explained. "The previous Julian was reckless and, despite his talent, died early on in the previous universe. The same thing happened to the others. While you weren\'t an example to be followed, you changed the way of your friends, and that helped them survive an even harsher environment."

"You say that… but you wanted to make me kill this guy and turn me into a monster worse than I already am," Jake said. "You even created this place where no magic or skills can be used..."

"I never said that I was perfect either, remember, my policy is not to interfere with the problems of other universes too much, and that means watching some people die," Leon said. "I am not in your current universe. I am only controlling some of the mana, so defeating him myself would be unnatural, it would make his powers dissipate instead of being assimilated, and while they truly could turn you into a monster, they can be useful as well."

"Very convenient for you to say that," Jake said.

"You managed to reverse the power of your envy, which means that you can control those traits the way you want," Leon said. "In their current shape, they are useless, and you don\'t have enough mana to make good use of them all. However, with some assistance, you can use them in other ways and give me a hand with my job. Now that I have bought you all here, I have to find a place for you all to live. Your current numbers are too small, so your chances of surviving were dim in the long run."

"As I said, I won\'t do your bidding," Jake said. "Besides, you might think that we deserve another chance, but I failed in protecting my home planet, and other humans are also partly guilty for that asshole doing that. We don\'t deserve any do-overs."

"True, your failure caused the deaths of many, but I still can\'t let things end like that," Leon said. "You guys have failed once, but I had failed Eleven times, and some people still didn\'t give up on me. That is why I can\'t give up on you all."

"Now that explains why you are so powerful. You had eleven do-overs… that is really pathetic," Jake said while laughing.

"Weren\'t you the one who said that we don\'t have to hide our lame sides because that is who we are?" Leon asked. "No, those are the words of someone else… That being said, were you betrayed by those you wanted to save? Why would I help those who tried to kill me because they didn\'t like my ways?"

"Because maybe there is something or someone out there that will benefit from that?" Leon asked. "Even if they are a few, you should find some meaning in giving them a second chance that you don\'t want."

Jake didn\'t hide that he felt a bit of responsibility toward those younger than him in his party, even a bit toward Lana and Louise, even though they were older than him. In the end, he couldn\'t help but think for a moment… his journey was over, and he finally could cut ties with his past, so he probably could let go of his hatred for his species. It was done…

"What are your plans, exactly?" Jake asked.

"There are species that live in different worlds, so I imagined that it wouldn\'t be weird if humans existed in two different places," Leon replied. "The only problem is that you all can\'t live on the Earth of this universe."

"Who is going to live in this new place? Everyone in the illusion that you created?" Jake asked.

"I only managed to save the memories of those that were alive when the system appeared on your planet. Only those and those that were born after that can be taken to the new location," Leon explained.

"That is a lot of people… but not enough reason for me if the soul of my mother can\'t go there as well," Jake said.

"Human souls can last longer in the void when they are able to wield mana… your mana never had any contact with mana, so her soul dissipated in the void alongside the others faster than the current ones I saved," Leon explained.

"There is no other way?" Jake asked.

"... Your mother\'s soul… the soul of the person that gave your birth is no longer, it is possible to recover the soul of the same person in another universe, but it won\'t be the same person," Leon explained. "I am sorry."

Jake raised his head with his eyes closed and then let out a long sigh… most people wouldn\'t have the chance to help so many people, but the person he wanted to help the most was beyond his reach.

"Her memories have been lost, but maybe her essence will be reborn somewhere…" Leon said. "In all the universes that I checked the void, the memories dissipate, but it is impossible to tell what happens with the cleansed consciousness of a person since they are impossible to track after that process."

"No need to console me," Jake said while showing a bored expression. "I am a bad person, and good things don\'t happen to bad people."

"The concept of good and evil are subjective. You can be good to some people and evil to others," Leon said.

"Whatevs, let\'s finish this," Jake said.