Chapter 436: Chapter 437: Reincarnation
On a hillside in Cornwall, Myrddin was comforting the prisoners Murphy had brought with his lightning crows when Murphy himself reappeared through lightning teleportation, standing before Myrddin.
She looked identical to Sofia but was frail and emaciated from her long imprisonment.
Murphy watched her from a distance, struggling to distinguish her from Sofia, even harboring the absurd thought that the Empress, having vanished in the future, might have crossed a millennium to arrive at this time. Could this so-called Myrddin simply be another name she had taken for herself?
After Myrddin bandaged the wounds of two prisoners pierced by spears, she turned to see Murphy, her eyes suddenly brightening, "You've truly appeared again, Lord Murphy."
Murphy approached her, "You know me?"
"Although you don't remember now, you saved my life in the past. I've learned a lot about you from Sofia."
"Sofia?" Murphy frowned, "What's going on? What do you know?"
"It's a long story," Myrddin paused, "Let's go somewhere safe first. I have a cabin nearby."
Before that, Myrddin had Murphy send the prisoners to a nearby village, then directed him to the cabin beside a forest. There, Murphy applied a flight spell, and they arrived shortly after.
"This place was originally left by my grandfather," Myrddin explained. "He was a hunter, and I grew up with him. After he died, I left, and no one else knows about this place."
Myrddin opened the old wooden cabin door, which seemed long abandoned and was filled with a musty smell. She recited a long spell, sweeping away the dust and cobwebs with a gust of wind, even organizing various utensils to the side.
Murphy noted her spellcasting wasn't the familiar "Scourgify" spell but seemed to involve an ancient rune language, lengthy and complex, yet capable of harnessing the wizard's own magical power in a structured form.
"Who taught you this spell?" Murphy asked.
"Merlin, although he's an opportunist, he indeed has extraordinary magical talent," Myrddin said. "Such spells are said to originally come from the gods, who taught magic to wizards."
Murphy recalled Salazar's words about wizards being the children of gods and frowned, "Magic comes from gods?"
"At least, that's what the gods claim," Myrddin said.
Murphy pondered for a moment, shaking his head, "No, that's unlikely. If gods were the source of magic, then the return of the gods wouldn't rely on the elevation of magical levels. Magic is the cause, gods are the effect, not the other way around. They lied."
Myrddin listened quietly, nodding, "Sofia said the same. She mentioned you had proven that it was humans who created gods, not gods who created humans."
Murphy frowned, having never proven such a thing himself. Why would Sofia say that? More importantly, "What exactly is your relationship with Sofia?"
"Seems like we're out of firewood. Let's gather some," she said.
Murphy, noncommittal, followed Myrddin outside. They collected branches at the forest edge, and Murphy used magic to fell a few dead trees, transporting them to the cabin. Myrddin found an axe and started chopping wood, struggling with the task due to her weakness.
Murphy, seeing her struggle, took over. With a light lift, he removed the axe from the wood and easily split the log in half, the cut as neat as if sawn.
Without the constraint of the magical network, magic felt freer. Murphy sensed he could easily imbue magic into his body and the axe, enhancing strength and sharpness.
"Enchantment..." Murphy mused. Though not as precise or stable as rune or enchantment rituals and more costly in terms of magical power, its convenience far exceeded future enchantment methods.
Wizards of this era could manipulate magic more freely than those under the magical network, and for gods with far greater magical power, it was unsurprising they could perform magic akin to "wishing."
"Sofia comes from the distant future. She can enter my body and control it during her dreams, crossing a thousand years," Myrddin suddenly said.
Murphy recalled the Empress telling him it wasn't Myrddin occupying her but her occupying Myrddin.
Madam Yaga mentioned the Empress often dreamt of living another's life.
So that was it.
Myrddin sat on a fallen log, "She told me we are the same, she is me, and I am her. Her soul got lost in the spirit world and somehow returned to a thousand years ago, reincarnating as me. And I, one day in the future, will create her with my soul."
"The same soul?" Murphy was astonished. He had thought their connection was merely a strong blood relation, not the same soul undergoing reincarnation.
"The first time she inhabited my body was when I was about five," Myrddin recalled. "Back then, she foresaw—or rather, learned from our future interactions—of a danger I would face. So she wrote many words on the wall, warning me to leave home."
"Wait..." Murphy interrupted, "You mean Sofia's trips to your body aren't sequential?"
"Yes, the first time Sofia came to me, she had already seen me several times in the future. The future me told her of past dangers, making her seem like a seer who knew my future."
"Although I'm called a seer, my talent in prophecy isn't higher than true prophets. Those important prophecies I made were actually experiences from the future, conveyed to my past self through Sofia."
Murphy was silent, pondering the origins of a seer.
"You mentioned danger. What was it? What happened?"
"It's somewhat ironic. The danger stemmed from Sofia's time travel."
"Her warnings on the wall frightened my parents. I was only five and hadn't learned to write. Sofia, probably too eager, didn't realize this. My parents thought I was mad. They were Christians, not knowledgeable about magic, and those writings seemed like the work of a possessed. They called an exorcist."
"The priest used holy water and the cross, reciting prayers all day, but to no avail. Convinced the devil within me was deeply hidden, he believed inviting Christ to scare it away was necessary. The method was to nail my hands to a cross, giving me stigmata to receive the Holy Spirit."
Murphy frowned. The Christian god, real in this era, yet his followers acted thus.
Was it the god's inability or unwillingness to restrain them?
"I was terrified. As the nail was about to pierce my palm, I felt a power surge. I pushed the priest away, sending him flying into a tree, killing him."
"I later realized I had become a witch. But the Church saw me as possessed by the devil, who had killed a priest. Knights were sent to kill my parents for aiding the devil and even burned down the village to prevent the devil's plague."
"As they prepared to burn me at the stake, you appeared."
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