Ever since Kai had lost 10% of his Selfless Breathing, which represented his raw, physical experience and capabilities, he had also lost his ability to reach the Total Concentration Constant.
Then, Death had told Kai that he could easily gain the 10% back in the next hundred years; a timespan that had felt just too short after spending 1300 years on Island X.
However, after Black's creation, they believed that they would gain the Total Concentration Constant back before the Main Mission in Harry Potter World was over. With Black focusing on the physical aspect by using Martial Arts granted by Jin Taejin himself, it didn't seem impossible.
Today, all those plans toppled on themselves.
Not only did Black regain the Selfless Breathing Constant, but the Advance Ability also became a Master Ability in one go; a feat the Ad Infinitum, even after considering Kai and Black's growth, had projected to happen after a few centuries.
One must not forget that Kai's Selfless Breathing advanced with each Transformation.
And those Transformations depended on epiphanies.
For it to become a Master Ability in one go…
… was a miracle beyond miracles!
"Open your eyes!" Alan thundered. "Let me look at them!"
CRACKKKKKKKKKKKK!
Black opened his eyes, bolts of lightning coursing through his dark pupils.
Alan Stormborn grinned. "Yes," he nodded in pride. "Now it burns inside you, too…"
Black couldn't see his father's grin, though. The notification flashing in front of him had already turned over his entire world.
…
[
Contestant have consumed an Item
…
Item: The Last Sake (Consumable)
Grade: Legendary
Sub-Grade: Top
Specification: The last drink shared between Roger and Whitebeard
…
Checking Requirements…
The Will of the Supreme confirmed
…
Chaos congratulates you for obtaining Roger's Inheritance…
]
…
A phantom joined Black and Alan, sitting between them.
The King of Pirates smiled at Alan Stormborn, who smiled back. Then he looked at Black and his smile widened. "Is this the son you always kept roaring about, Alan?" he asked. "Hahaha!"
"Hahaha!" Alan roared out with a laugh of his own. "Not bad, huh?"
Roger looked at the stunned Black and nodded. "Not bad at all," he replied, beaming. "The young… always surpasses the old."
Alan nodded in return. "Indeed."
The King of Pirates took a deep breath as if it was his last. "My Will…" Gol D. Roger said, narrowing his eyes at Black, "… is not easy to carry."
He put a hand on Black's shoulder and sighed. "Let it burn inside you… Let it burn, as it had burned inside all those who carry the… Will of D…"
And Black finished reading the notification, his Source vibrating with mysteries.
…
[… Contestant Kai D. Stormborn]
…
Black saw Gol D. Roger vanishing and his heart quivered.
The phantoms of all the pain he had gone through just now failed to prevent him from widening his eyes, raising his brows, and gaping his mouth.
What had just happened? How could it even be possible?
He felt Chaos' words in his bones, even though he hadn't seen them.
Roger's Inheritance… The Will of D.
He looked at his father and failed to come up with anything to say.
Black felt utterly complicated. After all that had happened, after all that he and his mother had gone through, now his father just appeared and did… something like that.
What to say? What to feel? What to do with these emotions?
"Stop thinking too much!" Alan rebuked, frowning. "I am your father."
Black sat back down, the world burning around him. It felt like nothing could and would cheer him up. Unless he got some answers.
"Alan Stormborn," the huge man said his name, stroking his beard. He sucked on the cigar and let out a ring of smoke. Over his head, the Sorting Hat coughed, cursing his master. "Not the man. Not the myth. Not the legend. What I was, though, was the to-be father of the Messiah."
Black's pupils shook, the Calm lingering around him like a cloak.
"Our research had stagnated, son," Alan said, his eyes losing focus. "We couldn't see any future. Not for us. Not for the world. What kind of parents would want to bring a child into a hopeless world? What if you didn't turn out to be the Messiah that I and Edith had thought?
"What if, despite all the selective breeding, you turned out to be a normal kid? Your mother wanted that, you know. Let's say you had become the Messiah, possessing the greatest intellect as planned. But what if you couldn't redeem the world of the doomed fate?"
Alan, of course, left something unsaid.
What if instead of Messiah, you had turned out to be a Demon?
Ironically, it was the unsaid that had come true, but that wasn't the point.
"So, your mother and I decided that one of us must smoothen the path for you, just in case," Alan said, smiling wryly. "That's why I took off, searching for any hint to progress with the research in the great wilderness."
Black's hand fell on his legs, his fingers tightening and digging into his knees.
Suddenly, Alan's dreamy tone took a mysterious turn.
"It was out there I met them," Alan said, itching some scars. "I came to know about the Primordial Tower through them."
"What?!" Black snapped his neck up. "There were Contestants in our world?!!"
Alan Stormborn shook his head. "I wouldn't call them Contestants," he told Black. "In fact, it's better if you don't know about them at all. Anyway, after a proper conversation, I realized that the only way to turn our world's fate and give you a better future was to go to the Primordial Tower and search for some ridiculous panacea of some sort."
Black looked at his father. Stunned. Stunned beyond words, thoughts, and computing powers.
"You…" he stuttered. "You… Just what did you do, Dad?"
The answer, though, was too obvious.
"What do you mean?" Alan frowned, scratching his thick, white beard. "I killed myself and resurrected in the Primordial Tower as a Contestant."
Black gaped at his father the second time.
No. No… No. There was something truly, incomprehensibly ridiculous about Alan's words. "But…"
"I already knew the process, of course," Alan said, grinning, puffing out smoke. "About only the Worthy having a chance to get resurrected…"
Black's shout cut off Alan's sentence. "BUT HOW DID YOU KNOW?!" he asked, slamming his palms on the ground. "HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE WORTHY?!!"
This time, it was Alan's turn to gape at his son.
As if offended, he shouted back at Black, "What do you mean?! Of course, I was Worthy! You think less of your father or what?!! I oughta smack your ass, you shameless son!"
This…
This….
This….. Black didn't know what to think of it. Just what kind of confidence was this?! To commit suicide without even a solid confirmation…
Black gulped. "You are mad!" he cursed. "You left behind me and Mom alone among those roaches just because you had a hunch?!"
Alan's bronze skin became red in anger. "I thought I would be done with it in a month or so!" he roared, veins pulsing under his skin like turbulent rivers. "I miscalculated OK!"
Miscalculated…
Miscalculated?
"You miscalculated?!" Something snapped within Black. "You overconfident bastard!!!!"
Cr-ac-kk!
Boom!
Banggg!!
Bad-000000-mmmmmmmmmm!!!
**************
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