菠萝蜜播放

Chapter 2: I am you

The stranger wore an ornate set of light armor, which looked as weathered as the man himself. On the second glance, the stranger\'s hair was different—not curly, but straight, like Mother\'s. His eyes, too, were green like hers… Or like Cael\'s. And they bore the weight of ages.

Cael froze, stricken by an impossible realization.

"Cael Oliveira, listen closely. I don\'t have much time," the stranger chuckled bitterly, and then winced, grabbing his chest. His legs buckled, and he fell to one knee. "Cael, I am you from the future. Dark, terrible future."

"What?!" Cael shook his head and took a step back. "That\'s impossible. Only ninth rank mages of legends could travel in time, and they don\'t exist anymore! And I can\'t use magic at all!"

"*I* am a ninth rank mage," the stranger, who *did* look terribly alike Cael, if Cael aged ten years, slapped his chest and winced again. "This had started eons ago, but also didn\'t happen yet. In the original timeline, we were twenty-five years old when we met Dante Amato. This mage took pity on us and healed our mana blockade. Four years later, our wife died in a fight with a Starspawn scout, and we began to seek ways to reverse time. Twelve years later, the Starspawn army had invaded our world. Four years later, they have won."

Cael listened to this outlandish story in stunned silence. There was just too much to begin with. Except…

"Are you wounded? I can call a healer!.."

"It\'s pointless. My exhaustion could be cured—but my timeline, and myself, would soon be erased. This is the price of our hopes," the stranger closed his eyes. "Just listen. You will believe it all when I finish."

Cael pinched his lips, but stayed quiet. He almost believed the future self already—it was just hard to accept his words yet. His alternative future and all that came with it…

The stranger\'s voice was grave as he spoke. Grave and almost void of life, like a battlefield strewn with bodies and vultures.

"We from that timeline learned how to travel in time by then, and what price it took. But the world has been destroyed—we had no other choice. We have gone as far in the past as we could, found another version of self, cured their condition and warned them of the future catastrophe. But it still came, and humanity still lost, no matter what this Cael did. But he also learned how to travel in time, and so continued the cycle. And the next one, and the one after him. I don\'t know how many there were. But I have failed, too."

The Future Cael winced, and his entire being rippled for a moment, like flowing water. "I\'ve finished gathering mana for what I need to do. Come here, Cael. I need to touch you for this."

"To cure me?" Cael walked up to the Future Cael and dropped to his knees near him. "What about the Starspawn? Who are they?"

"What I will give you shall explain everything I don\'t have time for." The Future Cael lifted his hand and put it on the center of Cael\'s chest. "Goodbye. I hope you will be the last."

A muffled cry left Cael\'s mouth. He fell to the ground, curling into a fetal position. Tears stung his eyes and flowed freely down his face. More and more flashes of pain stabbed him, each worse than the other, until he couldn\'t bear it anymore. His mind gave up, and so did his body.

Darkness swallowed him.

***

*Blood Mage System activated. Greetings, user. I am your Blood Mage System. Consume the blood of powerful creatures to gain Blood Points. Use Blood Points to purchase new abilities and stat increases.*

*What a strange dream,* Cael thought.

*If you have questions, user, you can access me at any time through your thoughts. Please confirm that you have received this message.*

Cael closed his ear with an elbow and closed his eyes tighter. This voice was annoyingly insistent on waking him up and sounded right in his head. His bed was also strangely hard and cold. And something tickled his cheek.

*User, please, confirm that you have received this message.*

"Yes, yes… Shut up."

Cael groaned, scratched his nose, and opened his eyes. For a moment he stared at the grass under his nose, and then, with a gasp, shot upright.

He was still at his secret spot, but the Future Cael was never to be found. Judging by the sun, Cael was out for an entire day and night, which explained why he was so cold and sore.

Only the pressed down grass where he stood showed that he was real and not Cael\'s dream. That, a voice in Cael\'s head, and that he could feel his mana pool!

Cael put a hand on his chest and closed his eyes. So tiny, just a dozen sparks, no more—but it was there! Full of mana that asked, pleaded to be released!

Joyous laughter bubbled in Cael\'s stomach like champagne. He jumped to his feet and danced wildly through the clearing, unable to contain his euphoria. Only several minutes later, breathing heavily and flinching at his sore muscles, could Cael stand still.

He still grinned from ear to ear. The next step, of course, was to use a spell! Cael raised the hand, his fingers pinched together…

"*Spark*!" he exclaimed in Arcani, the language of magic, and snapped his fingers. Cael laughed when a tiny spark of fire lit on his finger, dissipating in a moment. "*Spark, spark, spark, spark*!"

Cael created new sparks until he had no mana left, and only then did he pay attention to the voice that had woken him up.

*This was not a dream, right? There was a voice?* he thought, frowning. *A Blood Mage System…*

*Correct, user. I am the Blood Mage System, and I am completely real. In your terms, I am a ninth circle magical construct, created to assist, empower and inform you, user.*

Cael gasped. "Ninth circle? Did the Future Me make you?"

*Correct. Since he made me from the mana of this timeline, the timeline erasure had not affected me. But I don\'t have my own power reserves to help you. You need to consume the blood of powerful creatures to fuel me and my capabilities.*

"This is so weird," Cael rubbed his forehead. It was so strange to talk to himself… "Couldn\'t he have just made me powerful? And why Blood Points? Blood Magic?"

*It was my creator\'s favorite school of magic, which he learned from vampires. As for my structure, it was based on Starspawn magic and allows you to improve in natural order.*

"Starspawn magic… What are those Starspawn, actually?"

*Starspawn are creatures of unknown origin who have arrived in our world from the farthest reaches of the sky, where the stars are. They possess unique magic, are sentient, and plan to enslave or destroy humankind.*

"Still so weird," Cael shook his head. "Alright! So you will strengthen me to fight them, right?"

*I will do everything in my capabilities to help. My capabilities are limited.*

"That\'s better than nothing," Cael smiled. Oh, how his father would be shocked to see him casting spells!

The next moment, he remembered about the current time. He disappeared from the tower for a day! Would his father decide to lock him down again? He needed to get home soon!