The agony of death reached all the way to fourteen-year-old Iker at the House of Usher. What should have been hollow profusions of dark blood were empty grasps at his black hoodie and dusty air. Cherishing each breath that came from his fully intact lungs he almost fell onto the carpeted ground until Spiderland caught him. Ve laid him back gently on the circular couch.
"Remembering certain memories... comes with its psychological costs," Spiderland explained.
"Was it you... that... made me... remember... that?" Iker asked in between pants.
"No," Spiderland replied. "In fact, I am slowing down your memories. As much as I can anyway."
The robust morning relished with the magical library within the gothic mansion, however it was all in total opposition of Iker's devastating demeanor.
"The other advantage of this place is that we have all the time we need," Spiderland said, speaking at a much lower volume with vis androgynous and electronic voice. "However, once you make your decision on what you want to do, we'll be engaged in a time war. No seconds can be wasted."
"I never chose to just run away right?" Iker asked. "Please tell me I didn't just go away to heaven or something."
Spiderland chuckled. "No. You did want to forget certain things, but you were never a coward."
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"I want to remember everything," Iker declared with tears in his eyes. "Every past life. Every reset. Every loop. Everything that has happened up to this point. I don't care what my past self wanted. I want to know everything... especially now that I know the truth... about why I exist."
Spiderland was attentive the whole time to Iker's condition, but for the first time in a while ve created some distance from the teenage boy. The netrunning trench coat swayed over the embossed crimson carpets until ve was closer to the library's archway than Iker, a heavenly sunbeam hitting ver. "If I let you remember everything, you will go back to no longer being Iker. Your memories as Iker will appear more of some kind of weird past life that was told to you by a fortune teller. There are abilities beyond flux that will let you cast flesh avatars of yourself, but it will no longer be you. You will no longer know what it feels like to be human, you'll simply be a god imitating man. Do you understand, that because of how these realities work, the choice to remember absolutely everything across time and space is to obliterate who you are now?"
Drama was poured into every word, especially with the most ancient of pillars and tomes adding gravity to Spiderland's warning as impromptu backstage props, however Iker made an awkward pause before opening his mouth. "When we stop the Ember Conglomerate... can I go back to being Iker if I want?"
Spiderland was not offended at all at the levity Iker brought, one might even say there was relief as vis pink and baby blue eye returned to a happy glare. "Of course."
The media abound in the massive bookshelves surrounding the pair remained, but the world around the teenaged boy and the god ceased to be, disintegrating into code and sand-like plasma. It all then transfigured to elegant text, and for a moment in time Iker saw who he was at the reality where the science was the hardest of all.
Iker was ultimately a four letter name on a page.
