He had no idea how long it has been since his heart stopped beating, all he heard was a crazed voice,

“There you fucking are! Replacer!”

A figure was screaming at Mathias Calypses.

His eyes were blurry beyond recognition, he couldn’t see who was yelling at him.

If he had enough blood in his brain to think, Mathias would have discerned that this was the voice of the golden ascetic, but he didn’t. So because of this he didn’t recognize that angry voice.

“It seems that you are done, you’ve finally realized the futility of your actions.”

Futile, useless, incompetent, inept, ineffectual, unavailing, foolhardy, fruitless, meaningless, hopeless, naive, pointless, all of those words seem pretty accurate. Here’s the thing about me though, I’ve been doing futile things all my life. It’s no different to me, whether my dreams can come true or not. It doesn't change the fact that I will still try to accomplish them. It is said that our ancestors looked to the stars, despite not knowing a thing about them. I like to think that I’m like them.

“I-” A voice faded off into obscurity.

Oh, I can barely hear you now. I guess this means that this is the end for me. Maybe the end for all of the iterations. Maybe even the end for the legend of Mathias Calypses. Normally someone might say, ‘I’ve had a good run’ but I don’t think I did, personally I think ever since meeting Julien, my life has been shit. But, enough about me, how have you been, me?

‘Oh I’ve been great Mathias, or we’ve been great. Or at least the iterations that are currently alive anyway, as for the fallen ones I think you should give your condolences, after all they died so you could die slightly later.’

‘I think they’d smile.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘The ones that died horrible, gruesome deaths. I’d think they’d smile.’

‘Because we’d smile?’

‘We would.’

‘If we could.’

‘But we can't, can we? We’re dead, Mathias. It’s over, Mathias.’

‘Shut up, Mathias.’

‘Why, Mathias?’

‘...’

‘I should be able to cry, Mathias.’

‘...’

‘After everything, at least that much should be awarded to me. After Ashcrofts’ tragedy, no even before that, during Lengard’s funeral-

‘Felix’s death was our fault. We don’t get to blame The Alchemist for that one.’

‘You’re acting like I killed him.’

‘I know you didn’t, but we are responsible, it could have been prevented.’

‘Really! How would you have done that! We didn’t know what we were going up against!’

‘Being me, I believe you are already fully aware, Mathias Calypses.’

‘I was too conceited. Too arrogant, I forgot to account for a reality different from the one I saw, but none of that matters since no one blamed us!’

‘But I blame you. You blame you. It is your fault. Everything is your fault by not any fault of your own.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean!’

‘You know perfectly well what that means!’

‘It means that Mathias Calypses is responsible because he is alive, because he survived?’

‘No, it means that Mathias Calypses cannot change the past, but he can shape the future. A future he can look at without feeling guilty, it is not something he owes to anyone, but something he owes to himself.’

‘...’

‘Nobody technically owes the dead anything but we give gifts on their passing for closure, we want to remember them, those gifts and celebrations are not for them, they’re for us. We require closure, the dead don’t.’

‘I know what you’re trying to do. Cheer me up so I won’t die along a treetrunk but here’s the thing: I’M NOT SUICIDAL, IF I COULD WALK AWAY FROM THIS I WOULD!

Haha, you're right. The situation is looking pretty grim, any iteration we pull from stasis would immediately enter cardiac arrest. We have three iterations in stasis we can still use and 5 iterations on the field. In order to still be at the five-minute mark, 5 iterations must be absorbing aether from the core we split into fifths. This means at most we can replace 3 iterations with the ones in stasis. This leaves 2 iterations that have to completely survive the full 5 minutes, something we already delegated as impossible. So I’ve been thinking that we don’t replace any iterations and all 5 of them survive to the last second.’

‘You’re retarded.’

‘Indeed you are, Mathias Calypses, indeed you are. Yet I like to think of our special mindset as pure madness instead, in fact I already completed most of the preparations.’

‘...’

“Who needs a heart anyways, are you your brain or are you your soul?’

‘You’re your soul. The brain is just a relay center for your soul. It is a conclusion based on the fact that consciousness is housed in the soul and not the brain.’

‘So why do you need blood?’

‘To nourish cells with materials, regardless of how proficient a sorcerer you are, you still need a base body made of matter and matter must supply matter.’

‘Why does a soul need a base body?’

‘It’s necessary for performing mediums, the material core around a soul is constructed by the body, without a body a soul can’t actually affect the real world. When I grabbed the Ascetic’s soul core, I didn’t grab the soul itself, but the casing the body made for it. This was the only reason I was even able to touch it. Without a body, a soul is completely incorporeal.’

‘So the only purpose of the body is the grounding qualities of a soul core casing?’

‘No, you still need hands, arms and fingers for performing certain mediums.’

‘What if the sorcery you wished to cast didn’t require exterior mediums of any kind?’

‘Any sorcery like that couldn’t do much, but if such a thing was a case, the only technically necessary augment would be the soul core casing… That’s ridiculous.’

‘Exactly!’

‘How are you so certain I can accomplish such a feat? Using your logic, it is theoretically possible to keep absorbing the aether from the fallen Ascetic’s core as just a soul core but I don’t know how.’

‘What do you mean you don’t know how, you just explained it at an efficient enough level.’

‘Yeah but that’s only one part. What does it feel like, how does it move? What is it like to not have a body?’

‘Do you really think you wouldn’t have thought of the mental blocks you could encounter when performing such an action?’

‘No. I know I would have, but I suppose that’s why you’re here, me.’

‘Why I’m here?’

‘Yes. You are not some hallucination or figment of my imagination, you are a sorcery embedded into me by me.’

‘Indeed I am. Originally when devising this plan you came to the conclusion that if you were just told to do this while in a state of pain and panic you would have a higher likelihood of failure. The reason you opted to remove the memories of this plan from your iterations was because-’

‘I feared the mind-reading sorceries wielded the Ascetic chasing me.’

‘Precisely.’

‘I thought of this plan under the circumstances of my body being rendered non-functional, does this mean I suspected an eternal heart attack?’

‘No, actually. From the knowledge I have inscribed in my consciousness, we did not believe an Adept’s ascension to an Ascetic came with such an indefensible danger. The original goal and purpose desired was that with the problem of the number of iterations we had left, we couldn’t possibly win if we kept doing things the way we had before.’

‘I see.’

‘Understanding that I am not a figment of your imagination was the signalling key that your soul possesses enough rationale and sanity to initiate this plan.’

‘Now that I realize your realness and properly understand the situation to a certain extent you will permit me to do what I was already doing? That doesn’t make any sense.’

‘No, you misunderstand. You are not in real time but a fabricated space-time area that constrains time.’

‘Bullshit. That would be violating the absolute principles. The only reason you would even suggest that is to probe me further, seeing if I’m really of sound mind.’

‘Correct again. You are a really careful individual, Mathias Calypses. Going to extremes that others’ would consider pointless and unnecessary.’

‘My paranoia is justified.’

At that moment the voice talking to Mathias in that dark space without sensation ceased. The phrase, ‘My paranoia is justified’ was the final key phrase Mathias Calypses had to utter for his sorcery to leave him. It signified that he no longer needed any consolation.

The fact that Mathias would say this phrase was proof that he still thought like Mathias Calypses. This was because he could reach a phrase that Mathias Calypses was predicted to say.

Mathias had created 1,000 simulations with his consciousness and every single one of them, when exposed to the same starting dialogue, said this phrase within 15 minutes. Through this, Mathias discerned that any iteration which said this line was rational enough to successfully absorb the aether without a body.

In the middle of the Hua forest a headless Mathias Calypses laid against a tree, blood seeping down in his neck and pooling in his small hands.

In front of him was a Acetic wrapped in a golden robe, who was smiling with a hint of frustration. The golden Ascetic was happy that he found another Mathias iteration but was unhappy because he was unsure if this was the real one or not.

The problem with the Ascetic’s thought process was that he’d never be able to discern the real Mathias Calypses because they're wasn’t one. He had taken the first Mathias Calypses he had encountered as the baseline for a clone and was looking for something different in the other Mathiases he would stumble across.

It was for this reason that he would never find what he was looking for.