Ch35: Ren Akari P4

                                    

                                          
Chapter 35: Ren Akari P4
~35.4~
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The first half of the idea I had was to weave a story where Ren went through Kaylie's time magic treatment. That would explain her adult appearance. The second half of the idea was to detail the story so that it happened in December, and she went to the past with us. That would explain how she got so powerful.
The girl is actually strong enough to compete with us, excluding things like Radiant Burst.
When we discussed the idea with Ranna, we decided to check to see if Kenji was conscious in his soul. But he was not.
Ren was from her birthdate.
That led me to wonder how many others were like that, but I shelved the thought. I had a different train of thought to discuss with the two.
"We can use this story and you two can act as mother and daughter in public," Kye said. "I'll talk with the others that were present in the past and fill them in."
"Thank you, Kye," Ranna said. "It really means a lot that you're going so far to accommodate this." She paused and looked at Ren. "To think you were her mother in a past life."
Ren smiled. She was happy with both the outcome and idea that her aunt was her mother in the past.
Kye smiled, but the other two could tell it was melancholic. "I've had many children in my time."
Ranna smiled apologetically. "The number of lives seems unimaginable to me. If I recall the article correctly, it was one hundred million? That's so many lifetimes that I can't wrap my head around it."
Kye shook her head. "Billion."
"What?"
"Billion."
"A billion?"
"No. 'One hundred' was correct, but 'billion'. I've lived just over one hundred billion lives."
"Oh." The look in Ranna's eyes changed from shock to acceptance. She went from struggling to understand to accepting that she couldn't understand.
"Anyway. Kenji is not conscious, so there's no point in considering the time-skip magic for him." Kye looked at Ren. "Are you okay with being a big sister to your twin brother?"
She nodded with a smile. "I would love that."
Kye smiled, but didn't pause. She went right into the next topic. "Now. I have a question for you, Ren. And also for Ranna, though Ren's response must hold more weight, considering it's her own life."
"You're making it sound serious."
"It is. Very serious." Kye hesitated to even offer it, but she wanted what was best for Ren. "Listen. Listen carefully, Ren. The last two hundred and seventy years you experienced... I can erase it. I can prevent it."
Her eyes widened, and she looked at her mother, then back at Kye.
The black-haired pair exchanged glances and shrugged. Ren asked, "What do you mean? Like, erase my memories?"
"That's one possibility, but no. I don't think that's what should happen." Kye took a sip of her tea before continuing. She looked up from her teacup without lowering it. "Time travel."
Ren's eyes widened. "But... what about the mana cost for that? What about changing the timeline? I know a meme is just a meme, but I saw one just earlier that was captioned 'time traveler moves chair two inches' and the image was of a backwards cheeseburger. It was labeled 'beesechurger'."
"Pfft."
"I know that's just a meme, but something like that could happen, no?"
Kye nodded. "Yes. That very thing could happen. Worse could happen. Every place you've ever been would progress differently." She put her cup down on the saucer and began. "Mana-wise... The ten million year hopscotch through time took an unfathomable amount of mana. But a hopscotch through a few days is not nearly as costly. I can go back a few days with minimal effort, before you fell into Phantom's clutches. I can stop that from happening. That would technically be changing the past, like you mentioned. Generally, that cannot be done. Not that it shouldn't be done, but it can't be done. I technically can make that happen."
"Are you saying..."
"I am saying, if it's what you desire, I can change your past. You could be the baby you were supposed to be. You could grow up with your brother and mother."
"What about my memories?" The idea was attractive to her, but Ren was also skeptical. She did not doubt that Kye could do what she was saying she could do, but she didn't know if it was something she even wanted.
"You choose that as well. I can erase them from even your soul, or leave them for you to remember when you grow up."
"I..." Ren looked down at her hands. She had balled them into a fist at some point.
"To alleviate any of your worries, let me iterate. The mana cost is minimal. Your memories are your choice. The only problem is the timeline changes. Two people in existence can do what I am offering to you. Two. Three if you count Sanae and I separately, but we are both The Creator, so in this case I am referring to us as one. The Primordial can change the timeline, but not without creating a new worldline. And that is out of the question. The Creator and The Almighty can force a timeline to change."
"What makes you different from The Primordial?"
"The Primordial is a position held by a member of Alexandrian Royalty. Currently my mother, Xera Alexandria, holds the position, her title being Eve the Primordial. However, The Creator and The Almighty are not simply positions, they are not offices that can be held. They are existences that transcend reality." Kye formed a ball of white-covered-in-black mana. "This is Origin Mana. This is how I can change the timeline. With this, I can warp the very laws of physics, I can order the world to do whatever I want... because the world itself is our creation. So, if you decide that is what you want, I can order the timeline to adapt, and it will happen."
Ren was stunned speechless, and while Ranna was shocked as well, she was more accepting, having seen Kye do things that challenge common sense. "It never really set in before, but now it feels real." Ranna said that while gazing into the ball of origin mana. "It makes so much more sense now... why you've been called a god, why you can do things that other people can't. When you say 'The Creator', you don't mean simply the creator of the system. That's just one part of it. You created the world itself."
Kye nodded. "I suppose I can't really say 'I'm no god' anymore." A light smile formed across her mouth briefly. "But yes. I can make it happen. If you want to reverse your life and return to being a baby... to never grow up without... your mother, at least... my brother is another story. I won't change time for that, it's too significant for me to be willing to accept unknown changes. I can help him without changing time. You, on the other hand, were robbed of your entire life." She reached out and took Ren's hand. "So tell me. Do you want this? If you need time to consider it, please take all the time you need. Even if it's a year or more, I will still do it."
Having her hand held shook her out of her state of shock. "I don't need time to decide."
"You don't?"
Ren shook her head and looked Kye directly in the eyes while gripping her hand. "Don't change anything. Even though I lost out on much of my life... I never lost hope that I would be able to come back here." Tears began to run down her face. "Don't change anything! I am happy now, and... everything that already happened? None of that matters now. I have what I want, and I don't want to change what I have now. Leave me as an adult. Leave me with my memories. The bad memories I carry make the good memories I'm making that much more significant. Even in only the few days I've been back here. I'm happy with how things are now."
Kye smiled. "I'm glad you're happy." She felt a tear roll down her own face. "I was planning to go out for ice cream with two of my daughters after this. Would the two of you perhaps like to join us? Rei and Joey will be going."
Smiling, Ren and Ranna exchanged glances and answered together, ""Yes!""
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Revision: 2024-12-2