Chapter 489 Realization Long Overdue
Rey explained everything to Esme, who listened in amazement.
He told her about how he had to mimic her—or rather, the style she adopted as Lux—though it wasn't very difficult to do since she didn't have much of a personality.
As a result, juggling two duplicates and their functions didn't prove to be too difficult. He was mostly focusing his sensory connection on Jet, while Lux was on autopilot.
Rey went on to tell her about the appearance of the Skeletal Dragon Lord, and how he was initially worried about its emergence.
Even after seeing its Status Window, he was still quite anxious since he wasn't at full strength, and he also wasn't the one in the fight.
"I also had a couple of clones still running around, so I wasn't at full strength."
That was why he left the first half to Adonis and his duplicate, since he wanted to observe the battle from the sidelines.
After the chaos, though, he finally decided to take action by returning all his duplicates—with the exception of the Lux stand-in—to himself.
The result was him at 50 percent of his power.
With this newfound confidence, he took on the Skeletal Dragon Lord and managed to win.
'A lot of its abilities were tricky, but since I had seen a bunch of its Skills before our fight, I could pretty much interfere with them.'
Of course, he didn't tell Esme this side of things, since he was yet to tell her about his [Doppel] Abilities, but he went in great details about how he won through the help of [Divine Ray].
'That Skill is incredibly draining, though. I know I was only at 50 percent, but I had a lot of buffs activated.' He nearly shuddered, remembering how his Mana Level plummeted the moment he unleashed his strongest offensive move.
Once he was done telling his story, intentionally skipping his cringe farewell to the Adventurers, he was met with a moment of silence from Esme.
After waiting a while, she finally replied.
"Wow! That was… wow."
It was obvious that she probably wished she was present to see the whole thing, but Rey couldn't take any chances. Esme was strong, sure, but if Adonis went all-out on her, she wouldn't stand a chance.
To eliminate that risk, which could possible cause his own identity to be leaked, he decided to do the sensible thing and swap them out.
"Before that Dragon showed up, I actually just wanted Jet and Lux to die after facing Sebas or something…"
Of course, his initial plan was a lot grander than that, but after being messed up beyond the point of recovery, Rey had just about given up.
Thankfully, the Skeletal Dragon Lord showed up as the Final Boss, and his avatar didn't have to go out like a little bitch.
The experience of seeing the final moments of his character was cathartic.
"I really tied things up nicely, didn't I? I'm sure I inspired a lot of people with my death…" He said with a smile and nod.
Thanks to a bit of what he learned from Adonis and his acting back then, Rey was able to present a more visual representation of what he wanted to convey.
'I'm sure I nailed it.' He mused to himself, secretly proud of what he pulled off.
It still made him cringe a little, though.
"So yeah… all things considered, things went well." He said with a smile.
The events took a rather unexpected turn, and while there were a lot of times when he just felt like actively giving up or throwing a violent fit, he was relieved to see things tie up in such a way.
The Boss Fight was unprecedented, but epic nonetheless.
He got a bunch of new Skills too.
'I can see myself becoming very OP very soon. I wonder what Ater will think once he sees this new me.'
He was even able to Level Up quite a bit.
"You seem incredibly happy. Do you think it's over now? What about this Adrien guy that you've been suspecting all this time?"
Rey's smile slowly vanished upon hearing Esme's question. His face turned serious, and with a slight sigh, he let out his current thoughts.
"I don't think he's involved in this. There's a chance, but… I think I was reaching a little bit."
After seeing the Status Window of the Skeletal Dragon Lord, especially the Skills he had, he had to come to the conclusion that it was most likely the mastermind and not Adrien.
"Even now, though, there's still a part of me that seeks to blame Adrien for all of this. A creeping feeling somewhere tells me he's watching… or that maybe this conclusion is just what he wants me to come to."
It was scary to Rey; almost to the point where he began to second-guess every action he made.
"Well, I think you overcomplicate things." Esme said with a light smile.
"Well, is that really a bad thing?"
"It could be." As they walked side by side, she looked ahead of her and shared her thoughts on the matter.
"Not everything in this world has rhyme or reason. Sometimes, things happen that are mere coincidences; not necessarily planned by someone."
What were the chances that a Grand Calamity Class Dungeon would appear at the time it did; and that it would be one rife with Miasma.
The Mass Teleportation Incident. The countless deaths and suffering. The separation from one's friends and allies…
All of these, while seemingly specific, could have just been a random product of chance.
"There doesn't have to be some force controlling everything from the shadows… at least that's what I think."
"Yeah… maybe you're right." Rey responded with a smile.
He already recognized his mistake, which was being so entrapped in his narrative that Adrien had to be involved somehow, that he literally projected everything that happened in the Grand Calamity Class Dungeon as his work.
"It turned out to be a completely unrelated foe." He laughed, almost comical with his smile.
Of course, this smile was hidden underneath his mask, so it remained invisible to the world.
… Invisible to Esme.
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[A/N]
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