Arcanum: Chaos Path

Chapter 248 The Past Changes the Future
"Mr. Azik, are you okay?"

Facing Klein's concern, even though Azik hadn't quite recovered from his past memories, he still smiled gently. He looked at Klein and said,
"I'm fine. Actually, although there were some setbacks in this memory fusion, it's not a big problem. Maybe if I can do it again, I can recover all my memories."

"That's good." Klein breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had completely accepted the existence of the Archon of Death and believed that Azik's nature had never changed, because he knew that Mr. Azik had once been seriously influenced by the God of Death, Old Deng, Klein still had some concerns about Azik's memory fusion.

Azik then looked at Luo Lin and said with a hint of emotion: "Your mask was a great help. I really don't know how to thank you, Lucifer."

This time, Azik's process of integrating his past memories and emotions was not very smooth. Although the Death Archon of the past was essentially the same as Azik, he was really too heavily influenced by the God of Death. These influences were not much reflected when the Death Archon was summoned as the Shadow of Time, but they were everywhere in the Death Archon's real past, almost engraved into his bones.

Because of this, in the torrent of memories just now, there was a moment when Azik almost lost his self-identity and completely became the original "Archon of Death".

The "Archon of Death" whose self is completely suppressed and is, to some extent, a puppet in the hands of the god of death.

But the mask worn in his soul pulled Azk back at the most critical moment. The love that definitely did not belong to the "Archon of Death" became Azk's anchor, allowing him to break free from the influence of the god of death, and then become completely sober, integrating that past with his self-awareness.

"If you really want to thank me, then keep trying to survive! Integrating past memories is not the most difficult challenge. The hardest part is the other half of your soul." Rowling said with a smile.

This is the truth. Even though fusing past memories is a huge challenge, the problem of Azik's other half fusing with his unique soul is obviously a bigger one. Otherwise, in the original novel, the Goddess of Night would not have said, "If Azik fuses that half of his soul, he will become the former Archon of Death."

If Luo Lin guessed correctly, that half of Azik's soul should be the divine part.

It can be said that even if the current Azik has completely integrated his past memories, if he loses in the battle against his divine self, then everything will be in vain.

"I know. I... will definitely defeat the divinity and survive." Azik naturally knew that what Lucifer said was true. He let out a breath, but there was no expression of frustration. Instead, he seemed to have thought of something and smiled gently. His eyes swept over Rowling and Klein, and finally fell on the Archon of Death.

Azik looked at the Archon of Death, who was holding a black piece in his hand. His gaze fell on the chessboard in front of him, and then returned to the Archon of Death's face. The face that was always calm now showed some real gentleness.

Azik was lost in thought. In the memories he had just merged, he had never seen himself, as the Archon of Death, display such an expression. The former Archon of Death was always cold and calm, meticulously carrying out the orders of the God of Death. That was all he could do.

But now something has quietly changed.

So Azik looked at the Archon of Death, and he suddenly smiled gently and said, "I also believe that I will no longer be the selfless puppet I once was, because puppets have grown hearts."

The Death Archon was stunned for a moment. After thinking for a few seconds, he said seriously, "You still need to be careful of Father." "I know. I will be extremely careful of him." Azik nodded, then smiled and said, "But I won't be afraid anymore. I used to be able to develop a little bit of my own self under the oppression of the God of Death, and now I will never let that self disappear completely."

Seeing this, Luo Lin raised his eyebrows, then suddenly curled up the corners of his mouth, smiled, and said softly:
"Interesting!"

The former Archon of Death gained a true self because of the help from the future given to the present Azik, and in turn, this self obviously helped the present Azik to some extent.

Luo Lin even had a premonition that perhaps in the future fusion of souls, this self belonging to the Archon of Death would become the key to preventing Azik's humanity from being swallowed up by divinity.

"Past, present, future, what has changed and what hasn't..." Luo Lin sighed inwardly, finding it amusing. "Azik's past hasn't truly changed. Even if he has a hint of emotion, it hasn't brought about any significant changes to his past. However, this may, in turn, change Azik's future."

"The past cannot be changed, but can the future be changed? Even if this change comes from the past..." Luo Lin suddenly thought of a lot of things and showed a thoughtful expression.

After intermittently summoning the ancient sun god, war angels and other beings, Luo Lin has almost confirmed that the difficulty of truly changing the past in this time and space is similar to that of his hometown. Small details can be changed casually, but changing key nodes is as difficult as ascending to the sky.

Otherwise, the people around Rowling, such as the real creator and Medici, should have changed due to changes in key historical nodes.

The fact is that, despite repeated attempts by beings like the Ancient Sun God, the past remains the same, perhaps with some changes in small details, but no change in the general direction.

All we can say is that history does have inertia.

Of course, Rowling sometimes wonders if everything would change if he were in those times and spaces and personally changed those key nodes.

After all, this is the fate of the current era. The fate that he personally changed will not change again. Without Rowling's intervention, many things will return to the original plot.

Unfortunately, Rowling does not have the ability to travel through time and space, so this guess can only be a guess and there is no way to experiment.

The current situation of the Archon of Death and Azik has given Rowling some new thoughts - it is impossible to directly ask others to change their past, so if he can make a change that can be achieved without affecting the past, like he did with the Archon of Death, and then use this change to change the future of the person involved, is it feasible?

Luo Lin felt that this was something he could observe to see whether the Death Archon's self could become the key to Azik's devouring of divinity as he guessed.

(End of this chapter)