299: You and I Together

You and I Together

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Her consciousness had followed me here? How? The sword spirit should most likely be dead already. Did that mean her awareness had somehow managed to get through the barrier I set up earlier and survived inside me?0

"I should have known …" she continued. "I knew your spiritual power felt familiar, but I thought it was because you were using Twin Stars. I should have known it wasn't that simple … We are two of the same, sister. Why? Why are you the one to end my life?"

Her tone sounded anguished, as if she was hurt by the revelation that someone so close to her had harmed her. But I knew better. Unlike me, my twin sister was good at manipulating other people's thoughts, and she didn't care a thing about feelings. There was no way she was here just to tell me how hurt she felt. She was simply trying to distract me during the recollection of my memories.

So I paid her no heed, keeping my attention trained on the endless presence of darkness.

"Sister!" she called again, this time sounding more distressed by my lack of attention. "How can your conscience be at peace after what you just did to me! You're taking my soul … Do you know what that means? You are taking away not just my life, but all my chances of rebirth after this life as well! What have I done to deserve this?"

"You are quite aware of what you've done to deserve this," I replied this time. I did owe her an answer, I suppose, since the spell I just used was a heretic one after all, and she had the right to ask for an explanation. "But I'm not taking away your chances of rebirth. After this summoning is fully completed, your soul will merge with mine, and when I enter the cycle of rebirth one day, so will you as a part of me. You'll still have the chance to make up for what you've done wrong in this life, and I hope you won't waste it when the time comes."

"Make up for what?" she snapped, her anguished tone finally turning back to the sarcastic, bitter voice I was used to. "And for whom? You are mistaken if you think I've wronged anyone. It's not my fault that humans are too weak to fend for themselves! It's not my fault that I was too strong!"

"Preying on the innocent doesn't make you strong."

There was a moment of silence. The sword spirit seemed to be thinking about my words, but she also seemed to be … waiting for something. "You disappoint me, sister," she said at length. "I thought we'd be more alike. Out of everyone in this world, I thought you should understand best what it means to be the spirit of a sword. Have you forgotten what it's like to be betrayed and cast out by the narrow-minded humans who simply can't accept us for who we are?"

A sudden flash of brightness sliced through the dark space like lightning just as she finished those words. I looked up with a start. Was it my memories returning? Had the time come? Sparing no more attention for the sword spirit, I immediately turned my focus back onto the void around us, embracing that light.

Her words would not distract me, I told myself. I'd been preparing for this moment, and I was ready for it. Nothing would sway me again or lead me back onto the dark side of the path.

But as soon as the first scene of those memories fleeted in front of me, I realized something was off.

I saw myself surrounded by a crowd of people dressed like common villagers, axes and scythes in their hands. "Burn her!" they shouted. "She knows dark magic! She must be the one that cursed our land to become infertile!"

Then the scene changed, and I saw myself cornered by a group of cultivators, raising their swords. "Kill her!" they shouted. "She's the spirit of a demonic sword! She must be the one that killed her master! She'll come for all the rest of us if we let her live!"

The faces of those people were unfamiliar. The scenes were unfamiliar. But the emotions rising inside me were so familiar, so real. The grief of unjust, the hurt of betrayal … The despair, and the hate.

But wait. I had been preparing for this revelation … I had straightened up all the right and wrongs in my mind, and I shouldn't be affected by these misguided emotions anymore. So why? Why was I still feeling so much hatred and rage? And why did none of these scenes match what I saw in Bai Ye's memory?

From the depth of my mind, a frightening thought suddenly surfaced. This was not my memory … This was the memory of the other sword spirit! She was countering my spell by forcing her own memories and feelings onto me!

"… Impressive," I heard her voice drawl out in surprise. "You're able to tell my memories from yours?"

"Stop!" I hadn't expected her to be able to attack back this way. Letting my consciousness retreat, I immediately started reciting spells to clear my mind, trying to stop the visions in front of me. But it was too late. Scenes after scenes went by, unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time, flooding me with emotions. I knew they weren't mine, but they crashed onto me so potently, luring me with a sense of resonating nostalgia that made it hard to fully resist.

"You remember these feelings," the sword spirit hissed. "You're guarding your own memories well, but I still got a good glimpse of it. The pain, the hate, the despair … You've felt the same way before, haven't you? Being wronged by others and accused of doing something you never did?"

I ignored her, focusing on resisting her emotions with all my power. She was using a different spell from the one I was summoning. Instead of merging my soul into hers, she was trying to gain control over mine by amplifying the resonation between us. I couldn't back down. If I let her succeed in affecting me with her thoughts … the consequences might be even more dire than I imagined before.

Then I heard her laugh. "Why try so hard to resist? Why try so hard to deny how you truly feel?" Her voice turned into a tempting coax. "You know we share the same feelings … People are the same everywhere. They crave power, yet they are afraid of it when the one wielding the power isn't them. They speak of justice, yet they always save the convenient side of that so-called justice for themselves and turn the blame onto others. We don't deserve the way they treated us. So why not embrace your hatred? Why not admit how crooked this world is and how tired we are of it?"

The white light all around me intensified with her words, and the perimeters of the dark space started to shake. Like a sheet of thin ice cracking under a plunging weight, the vast expanse beneath me split open, and with a reverberating rumble, it shattered. I felt my consciousness begin to fall through an endless abyss … with nothing but the sword spirit's voice echoing beside me:

"You and I together, sister, we'll be capable of so much more. Let's join hands and make this world a better place."

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