Chapter 2182: Who

Had Rui known how to leave the fiery landscape he found himself in, he would have.

Yet, he didn't.

It was a rather odd phenomenon that he didn't quite understand.

Yet, from before he could remember, he found himself surrounded by flames in a world of infernos.

"Weird..." Rui muttered as he gazed at his own incinerating body.

He looked like a force of nature in human form, clad in white-hot flames.

Yet, it didn't hurt.

He burned, yet he couldn't feel even a bit of pain.

It was as though the flames embraced him.

"It suits you."

A familiar voice called out to him.

Rui's attention shifted to a figure a short distance away.

A woman set ablaze.

She gazed at him with reverence and devotion.

Yet, he didn't recognize her for some reason.

"Who are you?" He raised an eyebrow.

"..." She simply gazed at him silently for several beats. "I am hurt that you don't remember me. However..."

A smile lit up on her burning face.

"...The fact that I am even here means that I have succeeded in my objective."

Rui frowned at her strange words. "Objective?"

She shook her head, refusing to elaborate. "Where the hell are we anyway?" Rui grumbled. "I've been in this world for as long as I can recall."

The burning woman smiled. "Do you not recognize this place? This place is Muspelheim. A realm of fire."

"Muspelheim..." Rui whispered. "Hm, that feels familiar, strangely enough."

"It should." The woman nodded. "After all, you were the one who created this realm."

Rui's head jerked back in confusion. "What?!"

She smiled with an expression of amusement. "Do you not recall? This is Muspelheim of the Yggdrasil System. Although..."

She smiled with an expression of amusement. "Do you not recall? This is Muspelheim of the Yggdrasil System. Although..."

Her gaze swept across the entire firescape. "...Perhaps you will reach this level of power when you ascend to becoming the Antithesis."

Rui frowned with confusion. "The what?"

"Mmm..." She regarded him with intrigue. "Perhaps you do not remember because this isn't real. Perhaps you do not remember because your mind is immersed in the dream that your soul created. But..."

Her expression grew more reverent. "But this is a world that you created with your magnificent power, O Lord Virodhabhasa."

Rui frowned with skepticism. "I think you have me confused with someone else."

"No."

Her voice was steely and unyielding as her burning eyes sharpened.

"You are the Antithesis, no matter what anyone says."

Rui frowned with uncertainty.

He felt like he knew who she was and what she was talking about.

It was at the tip of his tongue.

Yet, he didn't know.

"Who are you?" he asked as his gaze fixated on her.

"...it is not I who needs to answer that question. After all, I'm dead," she replied with a hint of melancholy. "If anyone needs to answer that question, Your Divinity, it would be you."

Rui tilted his head. "...Who am I?"

Suddenly, chills ran across his skin as he realized he didn't even know who he was.

He couldn't even recall his name.

"Wait, who am I?" He frowned.

"Well, that's the question, isn't it?" She smiled at him with reverence. " That's the question you need to answer in order to reach a higher Realm of power.

"...That sounds like a difficult path," Rui murmured. "I will help you traverse it," she promised with eyes filled with devotion. "Now go."

Rui tilted his head. "Go where?"

She closed her eyes. "It's time to wake up."

Suddenly, the fires began dousing as the fabric of reality cracked, consumed by an infinite void.

Rui's eyes flew open as he woke up with a jolt.

His breathing calmed down as his vision adjusted, growing less blurry.

He found himself staring at a white ceiling.

"Tsk..." He tutted with displeasure. "...What a shitty dream."

For some reason, he wasn't able to remember anything when inside his dream.

However, now that he was awake, he instantly remembered who the woman was. Her voice and appearance, he wouldn't fail to recognize her in any other circumstances.

He was deeply displeased that he dreamt of her, of all people.

He wished he had recognized her in the dream; he would have gladly taken up the duty of beating her up once more in the depths of his mind.

"Still... who am I, eh?" His eyes narrowed. "To think that old man was right."

He hadn't forgotten his conversation with the old Master, Master Gern.

He had advised Rui to fall asleep and think about the question, 'Who am I?' It allegedly helped one gain insights into oneself by priming the soul to form dreams surrounding the question, which could contain important clues on the topic.

In Rui's case, he had not fallen asleep to the question, no, but he did fall unconscious to it. Right before his second execution of Yin-Yang-Muspelheim knocked him out, he had gained insight into who he was and taken one more step in what was shaping up to be a long journey. Thus, it seemed to have fulfilled the conditions of the dream technique that Master Gern had told him about, allowing him to have a dream once more.

"Still, to think I dreamed about her..." he grumbled.

Unfortunately, he couldn't be surprised, even if he was displeased.

After all, she had become a source of trauma to him when he had been a Squire, so much so that his subconscious mind had suppressed his memories of her such that he hadn't thought about her for a very long time, forgetting to even resume the Beggar's Sect information blackout he had commissioned on her.

Yet, simultaneously, her influence had embedded itself in him very firmly.

He couldn't pretend that he didn't remember every detail of his encounters with her, especially when he even derived an entire technique from her: the Phantomind Void technique. One of the reasons that the technique was so powerful was because it was based on his traumatic memories of her, making the misdirection power of the technique that much more potent.