Road to the Crown

Chapter 331: Epilogue (1)

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"Does it make it any less real?"

Repeating those words, I had to force myself to not pounce on the man. Just the picture of wrapping my fingers against his throat and tightening them brought me a bit of relief from the fury that his mischievous smile caused.

"Now, you need to make a choice. Would you prefer to go back to your real life, in this world? Even with all the money that you earned by taking part in the project, at some point, you will have to go back to work. Be it for earning your keep, or just to save yourself from going insane with all the thoughts that will keep plaguing your mind."

I can't say that I felt it. I can't say that I noticed it, smelled it or anything else that would require me possessing a tangible proof of my words. But when I hear Bart saying this last sentence, I somehow knew that he wasn't speaking like some kind of psychiatrist.

I just knew that he was asking this question because he went through something similar himself!

"And what's the other option?"

As soon as I asked, a huge smile appeared on the man's face. Standing up, he gestured at me to follow him without uttering even a single word. Only after we went to the park's exit opposite to the one I used to get here in the first place, Bart suddenly pulled a phone out of his pocket and passed it to me.

"Here. Call your parents, siblings, friends or whoever you want. This might be your last chance to do so."

The moment my fingers grabbed the cell-phone, Bart picked up his pace, leading me closer and closer to the edge of the island. During the few days that I spent here already I managed to get the general information about the outline of this piece of land lost in the great expanses of the ocean, allowing me to notice that in the direction that we were going, there was absolutely nothing.

"Nice beach, isn't it?"

Finally stopping himself at the edge of the sandy beach with the water already dirtying his clearly expensive shoes, Bart suddenly turned around with a strange glint in his eyes.

Hearing his words and seeing his expression, I quickly wished my parents all the health before saying the goodbyes and ending the call. The reason for appearing in this place would be clear in any other scenario, but given how our clothes were apparently rigged with electronics, it didn't matter whether we were at the beach, in the park or in the middle of a busy street.

"Let's go for a swim. The cold water should help you calm your nerves."

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Bart's smile remained exactly as sluggish and mischievous as it was ever since I asked for the other option. Following his example, I quickly stripped to my undies before following him into the water. But I still couldn't understand one thing. If all our clothes were rigged, then it would be idiotic to assume that our underwear was clear of the electronic equipment. Additionally, Bart used some kind of special specific to block it from working for a short amount of time, so I couldn't really believe that plain saltwater would be capable of doing the same!

Sadly, none of my worries was addressed, with Bart starting to move his arms and legs, quickly gaining a relatively huge distance for me. Curious about what the heck was going on, I could only follow him.

"We are going to dive here. After sleeping for so long, straining your lungs a bit might help you to force them into working properly again."

Not even waiting for my response, Bart graciously moved up, as if some strange force lifted him almost above the line of water, only to dive headfirst back under the surface of the ocean.

Strange. I didn't have any problems with my lungs or breathing at all!

Since I already went out of my way to follow this quirky and almost insane man, I could as well just keep following him to see what the heck he could want. Diving into the water, I was somehow able to see his body, already several meters below me. Following the trail of the disturbed water that Bart was leaving behind him, I continued to swim in his direction, quickly realising that we were actually going back to the shore!

Or at least, that's what I thought before I noticed a small source of light coming off from seemingly underground!

The mystery revealed itself when Bart suddenly touched the bottom of the ocean, grabbing some kind of line. With his head moving up to check on me, he quickly gestured at me to get a hold of the rope as well.

Feeling the first spasm that indicated that my body was starting to suffocate on the carbon dioxide in my lungs, I could only see how Bart sharply pulled on the line we were holding. The next moment, a sudden burst of momentum nearly caused me to lose my consciousness, as the water pushed my eyes deeper into my skull!

An insane headache instantly gnawed on my sanity, only to disappear at the same time as a sudden bout of coldness attacked my entire self.

"Wha"

Stupidly opening my mouth to voice out my protest, I realised that contrary to my instant reflection, the water didn't gush into my throat. Carefully opening my eyes, I slowly could make out just where the heck I was.

A cave.

Most likely connected by some sort of machinery or natural holes to the dry land, the entire cave was filled with unstable, electric light. And right in the middle of it, Bart was standing, with his back resting against the edge of exactly the same type of bed that I lied on while in the apparently virtual world!

"Before I get started, you need to understand one, very important thing. I'm not a God."

Spouting something obvious to any rational man, Bart smiled when seeing the look of scorn on my face. It seemed that getting angry at this kind of silly jokes was exactly what he expected.

"You better wash out that smug face of yours, as no matter what kind of religion you would take, I fulfil all the requirements of being the God."

Raising his hand, Bart sharply pulled it down. All at once, all the electric lighting in the cave disappeared, shrouding the cave in pitch-black darkness. At the same time, an electric current shook my pants, painfully reminding me of the presence of a certain body part that I held particularly close to my heart.

But as if nothing has happened, the light returned to the cave in the very next moment. The only difference laid in fact, that not only was its source nowhere to be seen, but there wasn't a single shadow in the entire place to speak off, as if the light was produced by the walls of the cave itself!

"You see, for you, this is the real world. This is the world that you were born in, that you grew in. But for me, this entire world is no different from what that virtual reality of yours was to you. Just an illusion? Or maybe a fake one?"

Completely ignoring the fact that he was levitating in a relaxed pose about a meter above this strange bed of his, Bart didn't even bother to check how I would react to this sight.

At this point, to say that I considered the option that I was actually going insane would be a gross understatement. If this was the real world, then there was no fucking way that magic allowing someone to levitate would exist!

"Don't worry, it's not a trick or anything. This is a real magic, that only I in this entire world can use. And the reason for that is simple. When creating the basic settings of this entire universe, I made sure that no magic would exist in it."

Spreading his arms in a gesture of helplessness, Bart made two barrel-rolls in the air before finally deciding to stop playing with my sanity and descending on the soft mattress of the bed. Putting his leg on the other, he rested on the hands that he outstretched to the back, picking up the topic right where he left it, as I was way too stunned to react to his actions or words in any way.

After all, how could a human react to someone not only claiming that he could use magic, proving it right away and then claiming that he was behind the creation of the entire world?! Just to save myself from just cancelling my mind out, I didn't dare to ask him to prove his last claim!

"You see, even with all the magic in the world"

Suddenly stopping, Bart looked at me with a sad smile before winking at me.

"And by all the magic in the world, I mean far more than this world's physics has discovered to exist, I meant that in a literal sense. But going back to the topic, even with all the power that allows me to eradicate this entire universe with just a snap of my fingers, I'm unable to solve one problem. That's why, I created this entire universe, dabbled my fingers in it to make sure that everything was going exactly as I remembered from the history and geography lessons back in the school of the world that I hail from I did everything that I could, to recreate the world that I was born in."

Sentence by sentence, Bart was breaking all the shreds of what I still considered to be a common sense. But from his words, an obvious question appeared in my head.

"Why?"

At this point, I couldn't decide whether to believe those incredible stories that this man was telling or not. I was simply too overwhelmed with everything that was happening to the point that seeing Bart play around with a ball of fire as if it was some kind of tennis-ball didn't seem to phase me at all.

"Isn't that obvious from what you saw already?"

Smiling dearly to me, Bart's ball of fire suddenly turned into the last image that I could remember from before I woke up. On it, Elia's teary face was leaning over my lifeless body, with the crown stuck in a position indicating that it fell off my head when I lost my consciousness there. An entire crowd of nobles surrounding the two of us, with all sort of expressions on their faces.

In one word, he was showing me an image, that all the technicians and workers of the institute commonly agreed was impossible to produce. After all, according to their words, the entire world that I saw, was nothing more than a projection of my mind framed in the virtual structure they created!

"It's because I hope that magicless technology, mixed with an honest dose of magic will enable me to solve my problem."