**#237. Lake of Memories (2)**
—
*Ripple.*
Everywhere around the submerged boy was nothing but dark red currents.
*‘My vision is blurry, I can barely see anything.’*
It was dark—and damp.
Originally, it had been a transparent lake, infused with warmth from sunlight.
But now, chilled by the coldness exuded from the dark red mana, it had lost all warmth.
**[Thoom! Thud! Thoom!]**
He lifted his head.
Ripples of mana spread across the surface of the lake, forming concentric circles.
Countless needles of dark red mana were falling onto the lake.
…He instinctively understood.
These were the crimson needles fired from the sphere he’d seen upon arriving on the island.
*‘Has the island’s protection been disabled? Because Blue lost consciousness?’*
If rain was falling over the whole island, the spirits could be in danger.
They wouldn’t fall easily, since they had mana built up—but time was certainly not on their side.
*‘I need to quickly find the memory related to the core’s cure.’*
The boy’s entire body ignited in yellow flame, faintly illuminating his surroundings.
*Ripple.*
He swam toward a spot where colored mana—representing one of Blue’s memories—was flickering.
Due to the dark red mana clinging to it like a spider web, the shape was unreadable.
**[Fwoosh!]**
Burning away only the dark red mana with yellow flames, he focused entirely on reading Blue’s memory.
*‘Blue is creating an oasis for the beasts of the wasteland.’*
It seemed to be a relatively recent memory.
The boy moved to the next memory and repeated the process.
**[Fwoosh!]*
*‘Blue is looking down at the island’s spirits from high in the sky. For some reason, I can sense a sadness.’*
**[Fwoosh!]*
*‘Blue is pouring the mana of the blue jewel to repair the island’s damaged barrier. It seems the dark red sphere’s attacks weren’t new.’*
He could glimpse Blue’s past actions on the Sky Island or the surface world.
But there was no time to observe them all.
The number of Blue’s memories scattered across the lake was seemingly endless.
It was like an art museum with tens of thousands of paintings on display.
*‘It seems the deeper the memory, the older it is.’*
The core was the very essence of a spirit.
Considering that, the cure for a damaged core might have been passed down from long, long ago.
Having decided, the boy resolutely abandoned the memories near the surface and dove straight downward.
His field of vision grew darker.
The lower part of the lake was also infested with dark red mana.
Just as he was about to approach a faintly visible memory—
────!
Ray twisted his shoulder to dodge something that shot at him from somewhere.
When he turned his head, he saw a dark red needle disappearing into the murky currents.
He heightened his focus and readied himself.
He scanned his surroundings.
*‘That wasn’t the only one. More are coming.’*
Clumps of dark red mana dissolved in the water were converging, forming sharp needles.
Dozens, no—hundreds.
The intense malice and rage radiating from the mana pricked at his skin.
Ray thought of Vicious.
The grotesquely tangled dark red mana had changed forms freely, obeying its master’s will.
As a whip, armor, or sword—
In forms defying conventional magical laws.
The boy speculated that the power enabling this was imagination.
No—he was certain.
Because he himself had transcended magical boundaries using his own imagination.
**[Fwoosh!]*
The yellow flame, shining brightly even underwater, was proof of that.
The miraculous phenomenon created by the mana of the jewel and circle following the trajectory drawn by his imagination.
Yellow flames and dark red needles.
They shared the trait of element combinations that shouldn’t exist in reality—but there was one critical difference.
The elemental structure of the yellow flames was harmonious and orderly.
In contrast, the dark red needles were chaotic and unstable.
Just then, a fierce heat surged in the boy’s chest.
*Wooooooong──!*
*‘This is…’*
The two vibrating jewels weren’t resonating in response to the boy’s emotions.
They were enraged on their own.
At the dark red needles.
The murmurs of the jewels translated into thoughts using the boy’s stored human vocabulary.
—Imitation.
—Fake.
—Incomplete forms.
—A gathering of things whose light has faded.
What those phrases truly meant, he didn’t know.
But what he had to do right now—he knew clearly.
*You’ve always responded to my emotions—now it’s my turn to respond to yours.*
The boy’s body and mind became steeped in the emotions emitted by the jewels.
He imagined.
Lines formed in his mind, gradually becoming a distinct shape, and the mana of the jewel and circle followed obediently.
Hundreds of dark red needles launched at the unmoving boy in unison.
And in that moment—
**[Fwoosh.]**
The yellow flame expanded.
────────!
Exploding into massive vine-like forms, the yellow flames extended thousands of tendrils in every direction.
They devoured and shredded all surrounding darkness and dark red mana.
It was a midnight sun at night.
A radiant aurora tearing through the dark veil.
Then—silence.
Centered around the calm-faced boy, a vast space regained its original transparent blue hue.
The yellow flame flowed along the perimeter like a sentinel.
The outer dark red mana dared not intrude.
*Wooooong!*
The two jewels shuddered violently.
As if determined not to rest until all the dark red mana in the lake was erased.
But—
*‘I have to find the core’s cure first.’*
There were priorities.
So the boy calmed the jewels and approached a nearby memory, now clean and distinct.
*Gurgle.*
Midway through, the boy felt the limits of holding his breath.
He hesitated for a moment.
…Going back to the surface for air would take too much time.
And factoring in attacks from the dark red mana would double that time.
Just then, sensing a flow of mana, he looked up.
A massive air bubble was descending precariously, dodging the dark red mana’s attacks.
**[Fwoosh!]*
The yellow flame intercepted the attacking needles, and the air bubble safely reached right in front of him.
It was human-sized.
Had the spirits sent it?
The bubble welcomed him with rich oxygen, drawing him inside.
Inside the bubble, the boy followed the vine path of yellow flame downward.
He encountered countless memories, focusing on those with deep mana hues.
*‘…This isn’t the current Blue’s memory. It belongs to a previous generation.’*
In a way, Blue was not a singular entity.
Like other spirits, their accumulated power and memories had been passed down across generations.
From the aged Rockdeer of the past—
To the young Rockdeer of the future.
As he descended, the boy encountered countless moments of succession.
*…Just how many transitions have occurred?*
Dozens? Hundreds?
Considering the Rockdeer’s short lifespan compared to other animals, perhaps thousands.
*‘There is one thing I know for sure.’*
The young Rockdeer who inherited the power and memory felt immense responsibility.
So immense, it made him feel suffocated just witnessing it.
But the thing these many Blues tried hardest to protect—wasn’t power or memory.
It was the blue jewel.
While watching the endlessly passed-down jewel, the boy was struck by a thought.
*If I keep tracing back these memories… might I meet the very first Blue, the one who received the blue jewel?*
*Ripple.*
The descent continued.
Though he had left the safety of the yellow flame’s perimeter, strangely, the surrounding dark red mana no longer attacked.
They simply hovered like fish, steeped in malice and rage.
Then—something appeared at the bottom of the lake.
It was faint, but through the resonance of the two jewels, he knew instinctively.
A stone tablet.
*‘Just what could be written on it…’*
The resonance was far stronger than what he’d felt in the World Tree’s labyrinth.
And beside the tablet, there was a single memory—faded, worn, but distinctly radiant.
This had to be the lake’s deepest point.
And the location of Blue’s oldest memory.
Just as he was about to descend further, an anomaly occurred.
────!
The dark red mana that had been drifting nearby suddenly surged forward, gathering along the boy’s path and taking shape.
Slowly, a humanoid silhouette emerged.
Nearly two meters tall.
A massive build to match.
Though it had no eyes, nose, or mouth—just a dark red outline—Ray instantly recognized the figure.
*‘The Doctor.’*
The Doctor appeared uninterested in Ray, gazing instead at the stone tablet below.
**[Fwoosh!]*
A massive yellow flame engulfed the silhouette.
At first, the figure seemed to shrink and dissipate.
But then, drawing in all nearby dark red mana, it regained strength, extinguished the flame, and returned to its original form.
“……”
Eliminating the Doctor’s projection right now seemed impossible.
Unless every trace of dark red mana was purged from the lake, it would continue to regenerate endlessly.
Judging the attack meaningless, Ray opened his mouth.
“You’ve always spied on me through your subordinates. This is the first time you’ve appeared directly. Even if it’s just a projection.”
The Doctor looked at Ray in silence, then extended his finger to the side.
Dark red mana slithered out like a snake, forming sentences in ancient script.
**[Unclear.]**
“Unclear? What is?”
**[I don’t understand why you keep rampaging, ignoring my warnings.]**
“If you mean the letter—you’re too late. I burned it.”
It was meant as provocation, but the Doctor didn’t react.
He simply kept forming sentences with the dark red mana.
**[I should’ve noticed you when Walter died. If I had removed you then, none of this would have happened.]**
“That’s too bad.”
**[Even now, I’ll give you a chance. Leave this island. Return to the Sector. Live your life without stepping outside your place. Don’t seek knowledge. Don’t try to move forward. Do that, and I’ll guarantee your remaining life in this cycle.]**
“I refuse.”
Ray, who answered immediately, poured out the questions that had been building up inside him.
“Doctor, what are you? Where is your true body? What is the emotional curse you’ve imprinted on the executives? What are you trying to do by manipulating people’s emotions? Why are you interfering with my actions? What is it that you actually want?”
The doctor, who had remained silent, finally responded to Ray’s last question.
[What I want. What I imagine and envision.]
[It’s to return the world to its original form.]
[To make it a perfect world where conflict and strife do not exist.]
The ancient characters being inscribed at high speed carried a sense of madness and obsession.
And the doctor’s silhouette kept growing endlessly, absorbing the surrounding dark-red mana.
[I will not sit back and watch the world fail again.]
And when the final period was etched at the end of the sentence—
The doctor had taken the form of a giant, overshadowing the entire landscape.
Blazing light burst from where his eyes would be, and the dark-red mana forming his body churned ceaselessly, as if revealing pure malice and rage.
Ray felt the vibrations of the two gemstones in his chest intensify even further.
────!
It was a surge of intense fury directed at the dark-red mana—
And that fury was also the very emotion the boy now felt toward the doctor.
The emotion the boy felt.
The emotion the gemstones felt.
In the moment those two feelings aligned perfectly—
‘Ah.’
The boy realized that the power he had drawn from the gemstones up until now had been merely a drop in the ocean.
Quietly, he lifted his head and asked,
“You seem to know me quite well.”
[Of course. I know you very well. You are a homunculus. In the end, a manufactured being—nothing more than a puppet acting according to someone else’s design.]
As a massive fist came swinging toward him, the boy did not move from where he stood, keeping his gaze fixed forward.
He simply—
Stared calmly at the spot where a person’s core, their vessel, would be located.
───.
He detected a faint fluctuation in the mana.
As the dark-red fist reached just before his nose, the boy’s lips twisted into a smile.
“Liars must be punished.”
At that moment, the entire lake was bathed in light.
