Khan Memory Pass

Item automatically activated.

You won't forget anything you lived in the Sentinel Tower.

It wouldn't be so bad if Asturian only had one lifetime of memories. Even his first run, one of the emotionally worst even after so many, would be okay to remember.

But he had gone through too much in ten thousand lives.

Those memories had been fundamental for him to reach victory, as each detail led him to uncover a secret or a new power, but now he wanted nothing more than to get rid of them.

All the betrayal, every dirty secret of other people, all the suffering. He couldn't deal with it. He just couldn't. It was too much for him.

With them, he would be unable to fit society again. Even in the tower, he already felt left out, and society had grown wild and violent there. In a civilized country like the good old USA, he would be way out of depth. He couldn't fit anymore, not after everything he had seen and done.

Finding help wasn't possible either. Which psychiatrist would believe him? Which wouldn't send him to a mental institution? Would he allow himself to be locked away, or would he fight to the death?

His fighting instincts were part of him. Would he leave a trail of blood before the authorities finally dealt with him?

As despair took hold of him, a miracle happened.

For the second time since he had entered the tower, a coincidence went his way.

Khan Elixir of Perfection

Item automatically activated.

Checking all items with you that hails from the Sentinel Tower... 1 found.

Analyzing the elixir's interaction with the Myriad Phoenix's Heart...

Eternal Phoenix's Heart has been created!

Asturian let out a mocking laugh. Of course one of the tower's rewards for winning with no items would have to do with all the items he had on himself. If it weren't for the Myriad Phoenix's Heart having literally replaced his human heart, he would have nothing with him and the elixir would have gone to waste.

As the Myriad Phoenix's Heart was refined into the Eternal Phoenix's Heart, he felt his chest heat up in waves. It was slightly painful, but not overly so. It even brought him some measure of pleasure.

And with that, came the good news.

Item Reaction

The Eternal Phoenix's Heart has reacted with the Khan Memory Pass.

Throughout the long ages of its existence, the Eternal Phoenix has learned the value of selective memory.

Nothing can stop it from forgetting what it chooses. Nothing can make it forget what it values.

The Myriad Phoenix's Heart let him remember everything he experienced but didn't protect his memories from external influence. That its upgrade would have a stronger hold over his memories made sense. He bet it would also give him perfect memory, but before he could check the item, he got a new system message.

WARNING! PROTOCOL BREACH IMMINENT!

<For Khan Eyes Only>

An item has removed the Sentinel Tower's hold over a Khan Citizen's memories.

Forcibly reestablishing control...

Suddenly, Asturian felt like his head was being split apart. Then like a drill was going through his brain. The feeling didn't last long, but it was enough to let him breathless.

It was replaced by a burning heat that felt marvelous. His head felt on fire but he had never felt better.

A system message quickly explained what had happened.

WARNING! FAILED TO REESTABLISH CONTROL OVER A KHAN CITIZEN'S MEMORIES

<For Khan Eyes Only>

Forcibly reestablishing control...

> Failure. Reason: Perfect items are beyond the Sentinel Tower's power.

Calculating workaround...

The elixir had been called Khan Elixir of Perfection. It seemed there was more to its supposed perfection than just an overbearing name; perfect items were beyond even the mysterious tower. And from the way the system was using "Khan Citizen," he guessed it was the name of a country he was now an honorary citizen of as a reward for winning.

A new system message quickly followed.

SENTINEL TOWER'S DEMAND

The Sentinel Tower demands you keep any memories related to it, as dictated by its victory protocols.

The Sentinel Tower recognizes your wishes to forget traumatic experiences and, as a winner, allows you to let go of any personal memory. As a Khan Citizen, you're also allowed to forget information about other people.

Failing to comply will result in your immediate execution.

Asturian didn't doubt for even an instant that the tower would kill him for disobeying its rules. It had done so a few times before, especially when he had been learning how to leave the Test Floor without completing it. Rather, he was ecstatic that it let him forget what mattered the most, his experiences in the tower.

He only had to focus on his heart for a moment and felt his brain on fire again. He didn't touch information about stats, items, achievements, milestones, traits, skills, titles, other system stuff, or even some organizations in the tower. He only forgot what he had lived there and the people he had to interact with, especially the bad ones.

That last part gave him pause. Should he forget about everyone? He knew secrets of people who were powerful on Earth before the Sentinel Tower. If he kept them...

He shook his head. No. He wanted no more intrigue and ploys in his life. His life back on Earth hadn't been great, but he wanted a clean cut from everything he could from the tower.

Well...

Maybe not everything.

He kept memories of a few people; his true friends and his lovers. The friends were exactly nine, most of them males, and the lovers were twelve women who had given him the best time of his many lives. And they had done so over and over again, unlike many others, independent of his situation. True good people who gave themselves for those they cared for. The few lights in the eternal darkness the tower had become in his heart, people who deserved to be remembered by him even when he forgot his own self.

Only two of them all were human, and Asturian sighed before deciding to also forget about them.

Now that he would be leaving the tower, they were the only ones he had the chance to get in contact with. His friendship with Carl could only develop in hardship, and that wasn't going to happen on Earth. Carl was a five years older, in prison, and there would be no chance for them to even meet, much less go through life and death battle together. It would be just weird for his younger self to have memories of a prisoner he had never met.

As for his lover...

Sakura deserved the very best, and he couldn't give it to her even in the tower, as he was definitely not worthy her. Back on Earth, it would be even worse. At sixteen, his personality had been so twisted by everything he had gone through that he would hold her back from accomplishing her dreams to take care of him—and she would help him if she fell in love, even if it cost her everything.

She was that awesome.

Worse still, getting into her life would only complicate things for her. She had been engaged to a guy from another powerful family from childhood. In the tower, he always died in the Test Floor, which made things so much easier.

Asturian greatest act of love for Sakura was to forget everything about her, just to make sure his damaged past self never looked for her and hurt her in any way whatsoever.

As tears fell from his eyes—something very strange; he couldn't remember why he was crying—he also felt the tower sending him... somewhere.

What tower?

Who was him again?

Other feelings came and disappeared while his memories were getting wiped. A sense of urgency. A feeling that something was going terribly wrong, that plans ancient and unknown were coming to fruition, getting stopped by forces beyond his comprehension, and becoming a new fight in a new battlefield.

The last thing he forgot was the foreboding that things were only starting.

When the heart and the portal through time were both done with him, he was once again sixteen-year-old Luke Kells, who was taking a beating from the high school's bullies.

And indeed when he opened his eyes, he barely saw a huge fist hit his jaw before he fell unconscious on the ground.