"What do you mean why? Isn't it because they were simply using me? After they got their work done, they left," Ryder responded.
"You're wrong. I think it's because they didn't want to put you at risk. You can see that for yourself. If they didn't care about your needs and only cared about themselves, Chaos wouldn't have let you live a separate life," the shadow answered.
" Instead, he would have merged with you since staying away was more dangerous for him," he added.
"Dangerous how? With your memories, I know that it would affect him a little to separate a fraction of the soul, but that doesn't mean anything. Any disadvantage would have been offset by the bracelet and his increased powers. So I see no disadvantage," Ryder responded.
"From a certain point of view, you're correct. It's not very damaging to separate a fraction of your soul on its own, but what you're not seeing is the risk in it."
Ryder looked at the man with a questioning gaze.
The shadow further continued, approaching the question from a different way. "Tell me one thing. If that small fraction of soul was destroyed, what would happen to the main soul?"
"That… You're right. That fraction of soul is a liability. Separating it isn't dangerous but what's dangerous is if that soul fraction was destroyed because that would injure the main soul massively! So that soul fraction would be a weakness of the main soul!" Ryder let out, finally guessing it.
"That's right. So now answer me this. Why would a God leave this kind of weakness free? Moreover, why would he create this weakness in the first place? If he thought about himself, why would he do something selfless like that?" The shadow asked.
"No matter what happens. A person must always look at the biggest picture if he wants to understand the entire situation. You can't understand something like that otherwise."
"I'm sure you understand why they left you alone?"
"I understand. They didn't want to bring harm to me, so I could live my life freely. Moreover, if I was living safely here, then not only would I have the life I wanted, but that liability would be safe too. So it helped everyone," Ryder replied.
"That's right. It was done so you could get what you wanted and, at the same time, keep you safe."
Ryder nodded, sighing. "I understand now. I guess I was short-sighted. But I'm strong now. I'm not a liability. Maybe I should contact them instead?"
"You need to do no such thing! You have enough problems of your own. Just stay on earth," the shadow replied.
Ryder walked over to the window, looking at the beautiful moon in the sky. "Maybe that would be the best course of action. In any case, Chaos won't need my help with that bracelet."
"That bracelet…" The Shadow muttered. "I must say, that thing appears to be really incredible. For a God to make something like that… It's not bad."
"Yeah. That bracelet was pretty good indeed. Allowing someone to use the powers of other gods, just with the fragments," Ryder nodded.
"No, it's not that. What's really amazing about it is that it's a single Artifact which can hold all gods' power."
" We couldn't even create one god similar to us who could possess all the powers, no matter how many times we tried, and here we have a mind who managed to create an Artifact to hold the powers? He is pretty amazing. He was able to think of something like this which even we couldn't."
The shadow appeared impressed about the achievement of Chaos.
"It is the highest tier of Artifacts which can probably make a God as strong as us when we were at our peak. At least that's my theory from what I saw of it in your memories, which isn't much since it didn't have all the fragments yet."
"That's why I can't say anything for sure. But if my assumption is correct, we're in for a big show. As soon as the bracelet is completed, it'll change the whole world. He might also come out to stop that from happening since he'll be alerted about it," he added.
"You mean your partner? That reminds me. Where is he? You said he'll come to the tomb to check? I don't see anything odd?" Ryder asked.
"Odd? Hahaha, don't tell me you expect him to come with a beam of light like they do in your superhero films?" The shadow asked, sounding amused.
"Huh? Have you seen 'Revengers: Beginning Games' too?" Ryder asked. "Ah, right. You know my memories now. I keep forgetting."
"I must say, you people used your brains to make some really magical things here, without having any magic. That makes me wonder if it's because you people have such a limited lifespan which forces you to make the best of it?" the shadow asked.
He hadn't expected for humanity to grow in this direction at the start.
"From stone age to the age of technology, we did come pretty far," Ryder nodded.
"Thanks to all the great minds. But then again, sometimes I wonder if we're going back to the stone age," he muttered, smiling wryly.
"Going back to the stone age?" The shadow asked.
"Don't you see the Return to Monkee meme in my head?" Ryder asked, rolling his eyes. "Sometimes, I worry for humanity's future. Every day it seems like things are changing for the worse. But then again, we do get some fun memes to offset the negatives."
"So you worry about the humans?" The shadow asked.
"Not only me. I suppose many people worry about it. It's just that some people become too extreme in their worries," Ryder answered.
"Then why don't you change the future?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you are a God now. In fact, you are the strongest god. You can do anything. You can even make humans develop teleportation Portals, spaceships, and many more," the shadow answered.
"Well, we already kinda have space ships," Ryder replied, smiling. "But yeah, that other thing sounds good. But won't it alert your partner?"
"I didn't mean right now. I meant after the problem regarding him is solved. After that, you can do anything. You can make this place a hell, or you can make it a living Utopia. You can also make it a ball you can play soccer with if you want," the Shadow let out, laughing.
"Ahh, that ball thing sounds like going too far. But I'll think about the other things. Oh right, that reminds me. Now I can see the future too.. Shall I try?" Ryder asked.
