My Enchanting System

Chapter 488 Tears of Steel V

Cain looked behind him at Mary, she still had traces of steel on her arms and face. She now had a whole different aura around her, sharp and heavy.

He could clearly tell she is a dragon, a great wyrm, and an old one at that. Centuries? Millenniums? How long does a dragon need to live to have such a feeling?

"Forget Nemmoxon and Zaleria, even that Dakin dragon won't compare to you. Why is someone like you pretending to be a guild girl, trying to deceive a mage, and even willing to marry him to achieve that goal?" Cain asked, giving Mary a sharp glare.

"He's right…" Sofia was about to jump into the conversation but Alice dragged her away, "All of you, let's give them some time alone." Alice called everyone out of the room.

That face Cain was making, she never saw it before, it wasn't a sad face, neither it was happy, it wasn't anger or disappointment either. It was something more sinister.

"Fine." Farryn said walking away, "Don't kill yourself you two, I know that face." She walked away.

'The face of a man glaring at a broken tool, not knowing if it's fixable. Whatever she did or Cain thinks she did, it was enough to drop her from a wife to an object, a possible threat to the other wives' Farryn thought, that face, Sylph made it a lot when she got bored with her slaves or when one of them betrayed her.

…

As they were inside the maze, Cain used [Creation] to make a table and two chairs. He sat down and glared at Mary with a betrayed stare.

Mary sat on the ground.

"On the chair," Cain growled and she stood and sat on the chair. "I don't need tears or an apology, I need an explanation, a reason not to consider you a threat. A thread of hope that Mary we all knew and loved is still inside you." Cain said staring at her.

"Rationale as ever, will you ask questions or should I start talking?" she looked at him.

Cain glared at her, it was better he got some information first. A sign that she is a threat is hesitation, if she stalled on a single question, he will kill her or die trying.

"Who do you work for?" He asked the most important question, someone like her most likely isn't acting alone.

"AO." She replied with a straight face.

"The bastard." Probably I can use this opportunity to end it all. I can forget all of what you did if you delivered a single message from me to him." Cain said.

Mary said with a passive face, "To erase all magic and reclaim his place as the one and only true god. I'm here to prevent such an outcome."

Cain glared at her, his magic swelling. How did she know what he was going to say? "So you're an enemy, shame."

"An enemy of you now, and ally of you after that wish comes true." She said with a sad smile, "Tell me which is better, a dangerous life with everyone, or a lonely existence?"

"I'm asking questions here, what did you mean by ally after my wish came true?" Cain growled, her next words will determine his actions.

"You know, even I can't bear seeing my soul mate suicide alone from the afterlife. Asked AO if I could get back instead of acceding to his divine essence." She stared at Cain, "I don't want you to achieve a goal that you will eventually regret."

Cain thought about what she said for a moment, "Reincarnated?" He said.

"Sylph, Farryn, Eilistraee, even Mystra and Chauntea, they all couldn't keep up. You died to the mad dragon king, your soul ripped apart beyond repair, and then AO descended, ripped the dragon to shreds, and asked them. [Why are thy child dead?]" Mary stared at Cain.

"It isn't a fight you can win alone, here you must collect talents, and live your life. Rushing to the end will only result in your suffering." She said.

"Don't care about that, are you saying I won't be able to wing against that lizard, when did my wish ever come true?" Cain stood up ready to attack.

"Don't be arrogant, you know that better than me. Look around you, do you see Sofia? How strong she has become. She should have already died eaten by wolves in the forest had you not taken her in. Look at Selena, if you didn't drag her out of the cave, the bandits would have toyed with and killed her after starvation weakened her. Alice, she would have died slowly in agony had you not come."

"Stop, what are you talking about, say it straight." Cain grabbed her by the head, he was already at his limit.

"I lived this life hundreds of times, only aiming to keep you and those whom you love alive." She wanted to scream but didn't, keeping a leveled head is crucial when talking with Cain. From all she knows, in his mind, screaming in conversation instantly makes your argument dismissed.

Cain let her go and sat back, "Even if you had good intentions, manipulating me like this…to what extent did you do it?"

"Not as much as you, from whom do you think I learned doing this?" She said looking at him, "You always manipulate people. Dolrig, the dragon fang, William, Sylph, Zaleria, and even yourself. Want proof?"

"Later. Have you ever tried letting me do my own things? Fight and live freely without you pulling the strings behind my back? Have you even given me a chance?" He glared at her.

"I did, but I ended up getting abandoned after all the girls died by Hati's hand." She said with a smile.

Cain had to stop for a moment, what in the hell is she talking about?

Noticing his expression, she continued. "If you don't keep them, the dragons will. If kept pushing Hati away, eventually she will leave and go back to challenge the earth dragon alone. Less to her knowledge, the thing has been absorbing earth magic from the seal and the ground and became a great wyrm. She lost and got taken by him, and after being abused for years she finally broke and submitted. To her, you became the worst enemy."

"What are you talking about…"

"Absolute Zero is wanting to take revenge on the humans who abandoned him in hell. Bela is right about the great freeze brought by him. He planned on making Isbert, his descendant a vessel and then returning. If I hadn't manipulated things to get with you, that development would have taken place."

"You would have been kidnapped by Morena at the start had I not baited Zaleria to come by hiding her Hut. You should have died to the bandits in the cave had Selena wasn't there…there is a lot more, remember each time you survived, the girls survived, most likely I was doing something to make it possible."

"Couldn't you just told me, talked directly like people? If someone approached me saying they wanted to try punching me in the face and asked nicely, I would allow them. But if they sneaked up on me, they are dead. What you did is the latter." Cain glared at her, "You explained what you were doing, and your purpose. Now, I want to hear why I should keep you alive."

Mary sighed, "You still talking about that? Well, nothing I can do about it, just as always, I end up killed by your hands. It's another restart." She stood up, "Kill me if you want, that would just repeat the cycle."

Now that she was waiting for him to kill her, she had disabled most of her defenses. In her stats, a single important line drew his attention.

[Temporal Shard]

'It's stuck to her soul. I doubt she has a chance but try again. Could I remove it?' He looked at Mary.

"Tell me, in all of your tries. Have you ever regretted going down that path?" He asked.

"Tried several times, ignored your existence, and lived the life of a normal guild girl. But restart kept activating each time you died, over and over." She said with a sad face. "You must hate me, go and kill me already."

"When was the first time I died?"

"At the sewer cleaning quest, killed by rats over and over. To fix that I had to poison the rats beforehand. It was when I tried to keep my interference to a minimum." She said.

"I see, I made my decision." Cain said looking into the [Temporal Shard] "This will hurt, don't resist." He said.

"What…" Before she could finish talking, Cain plunged his fist into her chest. [Enchanting: Soul Slave] The same enchantment he used on Sylph.