His father seemed weary and displeased, but it had little effect on Arthur. If this had been in the past, a mild change in the kind father’s temperament was enough to make Arthur full of fear. After all, his beloved parent might be disappointed.
“You call me father now,” said Seref as he turned toward the window. “I never raised a son so disrespecting. You had one job to do, Arthur, and you decided to do whatever the fuck you wanted.”
“I am the creator, after all.”
“I made you that!” roared his father as his fist slammed into the chair. “I am the source of your power, but you never took a moment to thank me for that!”
“You are the source of my suffering, father,” replied Arthur without emotions as he walked toward the man. “And do you think shouting will intimidate me, you pathetic fool?”
Arthur’s words made his father flinch and look at him with surprise. It had never occurred to him that his son could be so ruthless and unforgiving, but Arthur was not the same as before.
The things he learned and the sacrifices he made have changed him. His last meeting with his father impacted him the most, but at that time, he poured his heart into advancing his runic attainment. In the end, Arthur had to follow a new belief of destroying his feelings instead of his emotions.
“I am not the enemy, Arthur,” his father frowned while gritting his teeth, then he released a sigh. “I am trying to achieve the best ending possible.”
“You have no regard for the damage you inflict in the name of the future,” said Arthur as he pulled a chair to sit beside him. “Tell me, father, what have you done in this timeline? What other mess do I need to fix?”
“This arrogance will bring doom for us all,” his father rocked his chair back and forth. “I wanted to give you everything you needed, all the resources and reasons for your ascension. But, instead, you pursued the illusion of freedom.”
“Our reality but an illusion that we accept,” said Arthur as a small smile appeared on his face. “You live in the illusion of glory, of having a purpose. You knew that you can never be more than a vessel, which is the reason for all of this.”
“All of this?”
“This pursuit of glory is nothing but to give you purpose, and it is not even yours. It belongs to the guardian standing behind you and the gods’ will.”
His father was silent as his chair went back and forth, and his eyes were reminiscing the past. Arthur could tell that there was more to his father’s life than he knew, which might have contributed to his reasons.
“I was a nobody,” said his father. “But before that, I was the son of a powerful awakener, a deme-ranker who won everyone’s admiration. That was worse than being a nobody because there are no expectations when you are a nobody.”
“As much as I am interested in what made you like this, I have more urgent matters to attend to,” said Arthur with a frown. “Why did you plan on stealing my powers?”
“I have never told my story to anyone, so if you want answers, you have to listen, my sweet Art,” his father smiled. Arthur’s face was far from being entertained, but he did not interrupt him again as the middle-aged man began to tell his story.
***
“There is a difference,” his strict father used to tell Seref, “between a strong man and a weak one. The difference is who survives until the end. There is no meaning for strength if you don’t survive.”
His father was a man who worshiped none other than strength. It was the reason that he was a powerful awakener respected by all. However, his son turned out to be far from being strong, a weakling that breaks in the face of adversity.
Seref was a kind child, a trait he got from his mother, the second wife of his father. Unfortunately, however, his father and half-siblings translated this kindness into weakness, and it might have been right.
In his first dungeon dive, Seref ran away from the monster. It was not because he lost, but because he won and couldn’t bring himself to kill the monster. After learning of this incident, his father lost hope in his son, and life became a lot harder for Seref.
His father ran a guild that protected a part of the city, and on a day when Seref was strolling through the town, a dungeon break happened. The most frightening monsters appeared to kill everything in their path, but a single man held them back.
Wielding his Warhammer while wearing his heavy armor, his father looked like a god of ancient times. Seref was among the people his father saved, and he got to see the worship in their eyes.
From that day, his father was known as Savior, and the expectations on Seref became heavier. Finally, however, the expectations were not from his father but Seref himself.
“I want to be worshiped,” the teenager told his father, who glanced at him with disdain. “I want to be the savior.”
“That is a stupid reason to pursue strength and to do that. You have to kill monsters and humans alike.”
“I will do it.”
His resolve was unshakable, and maybe that was why his father saw him in a new light. After that day, his father trained him as much as he taught his other brothers, but Seref never managed to kill a monster or a human.
As the days went by, his father trained him less often, and Seref could see the disappointment in his eyes. However, Seref believed that everything would change once his heart hardened, and as he desired, that happened at a costly price.
“Your weakness has failed us for the last time,” his father said, surrounded by the armored corpses who attacked Seref and his mother. “Leave this land and never return, Arthur.”
His failure to protect his kind and loving mother cost Seref his father, and he was disowned from the family. After that, he changed his name to Seref and left the city, heading to a faraway nation known for its artifacts.
The loss he felt at that time can only be filled with a singular desire to be stronger. The guilt that tore his heart apart can only be numbed with the countless books of archaic knowledge about true strengths.
It was then that he came across vessels and legacies. Seref wanted to be worshiped, and he wanted absolute strength. His failure to save his mother made him desperate to save anything. This was why he sought to be a vessel, and he did everything to succeed.
After losing his youth to obsessions and dirt-digging, Seref finally met one of the gods. It was none other than the god of artifacts and knowledge, but he did not plan to make Seref any stronger.
However, the Scholar Guardian gave Seref a different path. His father failed to make him stronger, which was the only thing he desired. Therefore, when the guardian told him why he was chosen, Seref wept.
***
“I was chosen to be the father of the most powerful being,” said Seref with a sad smile. “I desired strength to survive, but I was given glory instead. I will forever be remembered as the reason behind this world’s survival.”
Arthur stared at his father, who seemed to finish his story with a final sentence of his genuine desire. It made him disgusted to listen. This was not a man but a ghost of the past who tried to fill his gaping holes with anything he found.
His father had his reasons to seek strength, but everything after that was done to satisfy his dreams of being worshiped and the nurturing environment that his father did not give him.
However, what made Arthur truly sick is a single detail. It was his name. His father had a previous name, and it was also Arthur. However, after being disowned, he abandoned it and gave it to his son.
“I have your name,” muttered Arthur with a frown, but his father did not answer. “You disgust me.”
His hate was insurmountable. Arthur felt that he wanted to tear his father apart for treating him like this. He was not given anything that belonged to him, and everything he had so far was for his father’s sake.
“I wish I had what you have,” said his father. “My father never gave me anything, not even a name. My mother named me. My father never encouraged me to train, not to mention devoted his life to making me powerful. I wasted years of my life for your sake, but all of that was not enough for you to listen.”
“I have but one life, and you want it to be yours.”
