Chapter 172
172 What a Joke!
Dyon worked hard. Lost days of sleep. And constantly pondered over things every minute of everyday. His brain was never off. People may look at his achievements and roll their eyes because he was lucky enough to have an Innate Aurora, but…
Where were those people when a five-year-old Dyon's eyes shone looking at a computer screen filled with code? Where were those people when an eight-year-old Dyon played his piano and plucked his guitar strings until his fingers bled… needing to vent his feelings about his lost mother without bothering his hard-working father? Where were those people when Dyon sat alone at ten years old… when his parents were gone, and the only thing left was a room filled with inventions and computers?
Dyon's arrogance wasn't born of thin air. It was his hard work. It was his shield. And he wasn't willing to give it up.
Arios continued, "with the accumulation of his enemies, a plan was hatched to deal with the sage…
"Many years ago, the opening of the Timeless Library was becoming more and more of a possibility, with the leading runner being the sage. Because of his vast resources and untold success, there were very few who would be able to rival the sage in this special legacy world opening."
"Special legacy world?" Dyon raised a brow, listening intently.
"Ai. Legacy worlds come with various rankings of their own. Most of the time, it's simply by the cultivation of the expert who left it behind… but, the Timeless Library is a special case.
"Remember the watershed I spoke of before? The Timeless Library is a legacy suspended in space, where all time it stopped. It is the culmination of all the legacies and knowledge of past experts who surpassed this watershed."
Dyon's eyes shone. A culmination of experts who all surpassed the sage? What kind of ridiculous concept was that?
Arios sighed. "The sage was intent of opening this world, not because he wanted to follow and learn from others, but because he felt that something was off with the world. I'm sure by now you at least know about campaigns and the reason they're fought, right?"
Dyon nodded.
"Well, the sage was intent on finding a solution to this, and he had a feeling that the answer was within the Timeless Library. With him being one of the only few with the qualifications to even enter such a legacy world, many of his enemies inexplicably stopped competing for it.
"The sage was intelligent, so he was fully aware that this only happened because they were intent on destroying his hard work in his absence…"
Dyon's arched an eyebrow, "didn't you say this world was suspended in time? Wouldn't it technically be but an instant from when he went in to when he came out?"
Arios shook his head. "Suspended in time, yes. But suspended in which time is the key here."
Dyon's eyes widened with a sudden realization.
"Because of the legacy world's abnormality. The sage could reappear in the same instance he entered… or he could be transported millions of years into the past… or, millions of years into the future. It was impossible to tell. The only thing that was certain was that you couldn't be transported to a time before the first expert who experienced a watershed began the Timeless Library, and that there was an equal chance of being transported to any time other than that."
"Which means there's a vastly higher chance of being sent into the future as opposed to the past…"
Arios inwardly praised Dyon's intelligence. He grasped the crux of the matter almost immediately.
Whereas the moment the Timeless Library was created is finite, the future was obviously infinite. Well… as infinite as heat death would allow. This meant that if those who entered had an equal chance of being transported to any given time according to those rules… there was a vastly higher likelihood of being sent into the future simply because there was more time in the future.
Dyon spoke again. "So the sage risked it anyway because he knew the solution was much more important…"
Arios nodded solemnly. "You know… the Demon Sage didn't always have such a name… he only insisted on being called as such… even creating that horrible song… because he was laughing at his own uselessness."
Dyon looked up from his thoughts, suddenly remembering when he asked himself how you could be a demon and a sage at the same time.
"Before he entered the world, he laughed a sad laugh… he knew he was leaving us to what would probably be our deaths… but he had no choice. And we supported him," Arios' voice had grown hoarse.
Arios clenched his fists. "But… he tried his best to fight fate.
"He poured all of his resources and even created the energy accumulating Blood Sacrifice Technique… all to barricade and constrain the Timeless Library to a finite window. After years of planning and struggle, he finally managed to not only find the entrance, but to also time-lock the special legacy world into a two-thousand-year span. Hoping with everything in him that he would be teleported 1000 years into the past instead of a thousand years into the future…
"But, as fate would have it, he didn't have his way…." Arios paused, taking a deep breath. "The sage was teleported hundreds of years into the future. His kingdoms were destroyed… his people were enslaved… and the worst part was… he didn't find the answer he was looking for…"
Dyon's jaw hardene., 'What a story…'
"A bet that should have been 50/50 was lost and with it went one of the greatest dynasties ever…
"Once the sage came back… he was enraged beyond belief, and the loss of his wives and children sent him into a crazed like state. Demonic will is a double-edged sword… it gives you power beyond almost anything… but should you lose control… the consequences are drastic…
"By the time the sage finally gained his sanity, he was a depleted man… he was no longer young… and his enemies had only multiplied.
"He began to travel using his inner world as a haven. Fleeting in and out of Gates and in and out of time… soon he realized that he had long since lost his moment to surpass the watershed."
'So that's what it was… that world wasn't his legacy world… but it was instead his inner world… no wonder there was no time distortion… what does that mean?' Dyon thought.
"In his last moments, he finally told us remaining generals what happened in the Timeless Library… I still remember his words…"
…
'What a joke my life has been… my arrogance reached the skies and I disdained everything… and yet, in the end, fate still played with me to death…
'You want to know what happened in the Timeless Library? The place I gave up everything for?...' The sage laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face endlessly. 'Those bastards told me I wasn't good enough. That I wasn't fated. And most sadistically of all… that my successor would be the one to end my life. What a joke!'