Yori reached his hand out towards the two children, but khem to be too far away. Watg the two run off down the road through his fingers made him feel as helpless as he did fused. The sery didn’t seem familiar to him and the children were no one he remembered. If the houses looked Japahen he could have thought the rural quality to be from a tryside town he visited when he was younger. However, they didn’t matything in Japan. ‘They look European…sort like…’

  His eyes widened in shog realization as he took iown in more detail. The thatched roofs for some homes, stone masonry for others, each he saw before. The architecture looked identical to where they had just e from. He couldn’t believe his eyes pletely. It didn’t make any seo him that such a pce would be in his mind. Ret memory or not, it didn’t add up. ‘…this is Atntis!’

  Chapter 130 – Crack the World

  “What’s going on?!” Yori shouted to the sky. His head tilted towards the clouds as though seeking an answer from them. It seemed stupid to expect a reply, but if the womaed the illusion then she might have answered him. Sileold him that he should feel awkward for the se. He flipped his eyes side to side. Slightly paranoid someone in the illusion saw him, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It felt to him that the childrehe only others in the world.

  He ran off down the road after the children. ‘If it’s just us then there must be some meaning to this! I have to figure this mystery out!’ Yori searched down alleys and around homes with no success. He khat they had to be around the town somewhere. Desperation built in his muscles urging his legs to move faster to find them.

  Everything around him was fn and he wanted answers. ‘If I find them maybe I figure this all out!’ It turned into his only hope. He had left a fake memory to fall into what he could only assume to be an illusioed to fuse him. He didn’t even know if they stole everything from his mind.

  Wandering around the town gave up no answers for him. The children were nowhere in sight. The town itself didn’t seem any more familiar to him. He hoped that enough searg might reveal the towayed in briefly, but nothing about it he reized. He only had two outes from his iigation. ‘Either this is a pletely fabricated memory meant to be the stage ierrogations or this is a posite of my memories to create something new, which also might be the stage as well.’ Each option had their merits, but Yori didn’t want to settle oil he uood his situatioer.

  With the town exhausted, he went out into the fields. While he hoped that they didn’t double back at some point, the only remaining psearched was beyond the town. Yori khat a lot of unexplroued outside. Therefore, he just pointed himself in a dire a rather thahinking the problem.

  “Looks fairly generic,” he sighed with disappoi. He khat he shouldn’t have expected anything to look familiar to him. If his hypothesis was correct, then he didn’t have enough time in the nd for anything to be familiar. One hill and oree looked just like every other one. “Hopefully, they’re around here.”

  Yori walked aimlessly for a time that he could no longer t. He didn’t even know if any sense of the word, time, existed. The sun didn’t seem to ge regardless of where he went or for how long. He wao give up his fruitless search, but trudged on with only the hope of answers at the end.

  In the distahe voices of children pulled Yori away from his line of sight. He found them at st. He ran as hard as he could in the dire not wanting to be te and find them missing. Over a hill and in a rge field of flowers, he found the two children he saw before. They sat in the field pig flowers and ughing. He felt the se oddly cliché, even for an illusion. “You ’t be serious…what sort of meaning is this supposed to have?”

  Uain on how to tinue, Yori took careful steps not to disturb the two if they could be aware of his presenbsp; The two seemed in their own world with not a care to anything else. Closer to them, he started to make out their versation.

  “When’s your daddy ing home, Athene?”

  “I don’t know. Mommy says that he’s w hard for the King.”

  “My mommy says the King’s bad!”

  “But mommy says without the King we’d all die!”

  “But if the King is gohere will be another King.”

  “So even if the King is evil, we’ll get a new King that’s good?”

  “Definitely!”

  ‘What do they mean?’ Yori paused outside of the flowers. He remembered the versation he eavesdropped on in the vilge the night before had simir words. It didn’t add too mu yet, but it ing up again made him certain the King had a greater significe to the try than Ayumi let them to believe.

  He could see her desperation, but she never expined herself. He o uand the role the King pyed. ‘Why will everyone die if there’s no King? The nd will still be here even without the King. So what happens? And an evil King and good King?’ Yori pressed his hand to his forehead, feeling his mind going in circles just like before. ‘Nothing is making any sense. This is all too vague! I need a clear answer!’

  Yori turned his caution away and started in for the children. Even if he was in an illusion there seemed to be the ce for ao what Ayumi hid from them. He had to know. He didn’t care about the risks. “Hey! You—“ Before Yori could say anymore an explosion drowned out his words. The children stood up looking straight at him in shobsp; He felt as though their stunned faces accused him of the noise, but he quickly learherwise.

  The girl started to cry running part way through the flowers before stopping. “The town’s on fire! Mommy!”

  “…mom…” whimpered the boy, uo move from his spot.

  “Mommy’s in danger! I have to find her!” She began running again, passing Yori as though he did. The boy chased after her once he realized that she ran off.

  Heat so unfortable that it made his skin crawl and washed over Yori. He hadn’t turned arou, but it felt as though the town stood behind him. It shouldn’t have been possible, but he looked over his shoulder. “What?!” When he saw the town burning close enough to gze his eyes he staggered back fag it fully.

  Townspeople fled in all dires from the spreading fires. Whatever explosions started it, the ter of the town held a rge crater. Stone ah debris id strewn everywhere. The bst sent pieces into other homes wreg more outside of the radius. Cries and screams of pain echoed through the roads from the injured or dying. Anarchy existed and no one knew why.

  “What’s happening? Why is the town burning suddenly? Is there an attack?” Before Yori could get any ahe town shifted on him. He found himself standing back at the home when he first saw the girl. She cried k in front of what remained of her house.

  Something crushed half of the walls and the roof colpsed inward. Beams of wood stuck out while a rge chuck of stoed within what used to be the primary room. Yori saw blood thrown around the walls and debris with only a hand visible. He averted his eyes, uanding the se too well.

  “Mommy! Mommy!” A bck veil ran over Yori, wiping away all of the horror that surrounded him. The girl disappeared and all he heard was her voice repeating. “e babsp; Mommy!” Her voice soon faded away to the other unknown voices.

  “It’s that girl!”

  “The ohat survived!”

  “She’s from the town that they attacked!”

  “The rebels…”

  Yori felt the voices pounded in his head making him wrench his eyes closed. He couldn’t shut out the voices. ‘Rebels? What’s…happening…ugh…sister…’

  “Wele to the Military Academy! Your scription papers have already been processed. After you finish your basic training you will report to the Academy for Meso Prosecho. Good luck, Cadet Athene!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “You hear she’s from the town wiped out during the rebellion?”

  “They say she’s the only ohat survived!”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m the new graduate from the academy. I’ve been assigo the South Gate.”

  ‘Academy? Different voices…from before…’ He wa to end. He didn’t know much more his mind could take. It all moved too fast for him.

  “Right, I heard about you from the Captain. ’t believe they’re sending us children now.”

  “I’ll pull my ow, ma’am!”

  “You better. Rumors are you’re the prize of the Academy and that even General Alexander himself says you have great promise. You better live up to such accodes.”

  “I will, ma’am!”

  “You act fident, but we’ll see how long that sts. I don’t know what and is thinking putting an eleven year old in charge of a squad, even with your marks. I’ll be watg you, Sed Lieutenant Eudokia.”

  ‘Eudokia?!’ Yori’s eyes opened once more with the pain suddenly ignored. He khat name. ‘That’s Ayumi?! What’s going on?’ The void disappeared for him as though in respoo his request.

  He found himself standing before a tall stone plex. Stone ns lihe outer walls ag as support and decoration to the inner main walls. The structure spread out in grander size than he had ever seen in illustrations of the A Greek buildings. It made him wonder if perhaps simir structures did exist, but time took them away.

  However, he knew he couldn’t focus on the building. Yori turned his eyes down to the courtyard they stood in. Soldiers walked on patrol at the outer perimeter, but none of that mattered. Before him, he found something that he didn’t expect to see. A young child, in the White Atntean Military uniform, matched a younger appearing Ayumi. Across from her, the tall woman that he remembered seeing in the white room. “What’s going on? Why am I seeing this? Is this real?!”

  “I uand! I’ll meet your expectations, Lieutenant ahene!”

  ‘Athehe same name as the girl…’ Yori began putting all of the pieces together the lohat he watched. ‘The woman from before, that’s interrogating me. This is her, Athene is her name. These must be her memories! It wouldn’t make sense for her to show me fake memories of herself. So this must be real, but why am I seeing this?’ The versatioweewo in front of him already ended, but he was too absorbed in his own thoughts to pay it any mind.

  He felt like he was getting close to a breakthrough. Yori traced his path since meeting the woman. He o see the full picture to uand the reason. His first thoughts assumed this all had to be a part of the interrogatiohod, but he ruled that out. Showing her memories for extrag information made no sense. He khat mubsp;

  ‘She cimed to have already had access to everything. But now that I think about it, it doesn’t add up. Why would she say that and then go about everything else? If she was already inside my mind and could reach what she wanted, she did not need me. She used that to trick me! She wao use me to guide her to it!’ Yori o himself, liking the dire.

  His reasoni correbsp; A strange sense of aerior push gave him an odd feeling of uanding. The pieces ected together perfectly. ‘The fake memory must have been an attempt by her t out information. She probably made a struct from what she did have access to create it. But this…’

  Yori looked around him at the South Gate Headquarters. He knew none of it and the appearance of events from the past that he had no knowledge added a new dire. The dire it sent him in didn’t make him feel fortable. If his dedu was correct, then it brought up aire series of new questions.

  ‘Why am I seeing Ayumi? Why see this woman’s memories? Is it because of me? I know Ayumi so reted memories surfaced? But if this is what I think it is…then why am I even here? How did this happen?’ He searched around hoping to find Ayumi still and possibly a new path to follow. She had to be the key to everything. Ayumi was the reasoood in Atntis and fing Yuki to be the new King. She was the ter. She had all of the answers. ‘I find my answers here!’

  Excitement built up in Yori with the anticipation of knowing that he could find what he sought. ‘That’s it! I’m searg! I’m searg through her!’ The epiphany hit him suddenly and hard. It shot him out of the memory that he stood in.

  Yori found himself in a white room much like the oarted in. However, the memories on dispy weren’t his, but the woman. In front of him rger than the rest expanded an image as though being to him. As he stared at the image, it started to bleed into his mind. Yori’s eyes widened in shod realization. “It ’t be…all this time…have I finally grasped the truth?!”