Heaven's Greatest Professor

His world had crashed down on him, and Warden wasn't strong enough to keep standing.

Warden? That wasn't even his name. He had his suspicions about it for some time now... yet having the suspicion proven... It was too hard for him to bear.

He crumbled on the ground, palms hard-pressed against his face, as though trying to rip off his whole existence. Tears welled up from his eyes, but the small amount of salt water wasn't enough to indicate the sheer amount of turmoil he was feeling inside.

Void essence surged within him, answering his inner turmoil; however, it was unable to get out of him, under the pressure of the unbendable presence of the celestial woman. Unable to inflict damage or disperse outside, the void energy began to tear off his skin. A chilly burning sensation crawled up his skin, but he barely reacted.

"Death will not come easily to you," came the woman's voice. "No... for all your sins..."

He looked at her, resting his hands. He wasn't sure if he could do anything against her if she tried to kill him now. Hell, he wasn't sure if he wanted to stop her if she tried to kill him.

"You're quite right," a new feminine voice came in from behind. It sounded familiar, as her voice carried over the shifting wind. "Death will not come easily to him, but it was not because of his sins."

She came forward to stand on the other side of him, across from the older version of herself. Yes, it was exactly the girl he had met at the foot of the mountain, who had healed him once.

"You are?" the older one said, a frown creeping up on her celestine brows, as though she was unable to recognise the younger version.

"The name given to me at birth was Ariha," she said as she turned to him. "Ariha of the Dawn."

His heart pounded in his chest. He felt like he recognized the name, and yet... no matter how much he pricked his mind to remember, the only answer he received was an impaling pain.

"Over the years, I was given many more names," said the younger celestine girl and turned to the older Ariha. "I'm sure you share the same, is it not right, my poor, misguided, conceited self?"

Under the gaze of the older Ariha, the younger one crouched down next to him. She touched his face with her palm, her touch was slow and soft. A warm wash of light energy surged within him, from her to him, healing away all the damage his void energy had dealt to his body, reacting to his turmoil. Not only that, but it also calmed down his destructive, nihilistic emotions.

"Do you find the warm radiance familiar?" she asked.

He didn't have a voice to answer. He felt every wisp of the pure radiance energy restore him. "It's..." he tried to find his voice back. "It's so pure... Unblemished."

The younger Ariha smiled. "Do you know why you feel that way?"

He stared at her, wordless.

"It is because the source of our Radiance is the same," she turned to look at her older version. "You felt it too, right?"

The line in her celestine brows deepened to form a frown. "Impossible," she said, glaring at them.

"You deny," the younger one said. "But the evidence is before our eyes."

"Impossible!" She repeated the same word again, this time with more emotion.

"I understand," Young Ariha said. "You do not want to believe it, so you deny it." She shook her head in resignation. "I thought I'd remain pure and unblemished across the ages, but that definitely isn't the truth. The War, loss, and insanity saw to that. However, I do not think the insanity will consume me so much that I will become incapable of recognising the truth."

The older one glared at her, exerting more pressure over them. Yet, under the younger Ariha's presence, he barely felt any of it.

"Do not express yourself as someone you're not," the older Ariha said, a form of insanity in her expression and voice. "You're not. You. Are. Not."

"I guess it has been some time since I have been myself," said the younger celestine. "Even still, it's still not completely me. After all, I'm but a crumpled piece of what I used to be... very little of me remained in this..." She shook her head and met the older one's eyes. "Regardless, you recognise the situation, correct? Of what this place is..."

"Even if this is not the reality I believe it is," said the older celestine, "even if it is but a figment borne out of dark desires and hopelessness, I cannot forgive the sins—"

"But what if the sin is committed by yourself?" the younger Ariha said. "The future, or past version of yourself. My awareness isn't sharp enough to recognise how this works. But I can with absolute certainty say his Radiance core comes from us."

He stared at her with uncertainty. Yet he couldn't help but feel a string of hope blooming in his heart. He did not want to be someone who sacrificed pure celestial lives to gain their power... he did not want to be a product of a heinous experiment. He did not want... could not live if they all turned out to be the truth...

So he hoped...

"I do not think I will sacrifice so much of myself to make something heinous... something revolting like this," the older one said, gesturing to him.

"We used to be kinder," provided the younger one. "Perhaps we still are..."

"Perhaps we are dead," said the older one, still denying. "Perhaps he found our corpse and used it to make himself an ugly celestial-human hybrid."

The younger one shook her head. "We both know this level of transmutation is impossible without Primordial magic."

"I'm not nearly close to touching celestial magic."

"But our real self might be," provided the younger one, gaining more and more advantage in the argument.

"He has the touch of the Void Emperor," the older one was still not completely convinced. "Perhaps he—"

"The Void Emperor is dead," the younger Ariha said in an authoritative voice. "The traitors have feasted upon his corpse and proclaimed themselves as gods."

The older one showed an expression that suggested it wasn't news to her. Yet, she hesitated.

"Do you think any of those greedy bastards will let go of their chances of keeping the insanity at bay if they got our Radiance core?" the younger one questioned. "Do you think they would use it on an unremarkable human?"

The older celestial woman stared at them blankly, her expression significantly contemplative. As more of their debate unfolded, the string of hope had seeded deeply in his heart.

Even though he was not completely convinced, much like the older woman. Even though he might not know himself, nor his name, the destructive thoughts did not play in his mind. The warm radiance power Ariha had introduced into his system drove away most of the self-doubt and nihilistic thoughts.

"I've heard a lot out of you," said the older one, breaking his thought. She exchanged a look between them. "Now, I want to hear his part of the story..."

He sucked in a deep breath. The young girl avatar of the frightening celestial woman, with whom he could not help but feel a close kinship, traced her fingers over his chest. She nodded to him as though asking him to open up.

"I do not know anything," he husked. "I don't remember... Most of my memory is wiped out..."

Cold silver light blazed in the older Ariha's eyes. "That sounds unnervingly convenient, wouldn't you agree?" she asked her other version.

"Convenient, perhaps," she agreed. "But that doesn't make it false. We can easily bring out the truth."

She gestured towards him for her older version to check. The older white-haired woman came forward to him and placed her palm over his forehead.

White radiance power flowed out of her palm and entered his mind. He could do nothing to object to it. The radiance was as unblemished as the younger avatar's, though he couldn't say it was soft. The older avatar was far more tyrannical.

"Fascinating," she muttered after a couple of minutes. She turned her eyes towards the younger Ariha. "You're right, he has no significant memory past a few months, perhaps. What's more interesting is that even his soul records are barred from his physical self."

"Primordial magic," the younger avatar said, while he was completely amazed by them.

It took Elder Allen several examinations of his mind to come up with a similar hypothesis, however, she couldn't determine the real cause behind his situation. Primordial magic. He had no clue what that was. He suspected it was the deepest form of power.

How strong did they need to be to even make everything in such a short time? Not to mention, none of the two avatars were real. They were made from the records of Ariha's past self.

Just remembering the name, he felt deep-rooted emotions welling up inside of him. Ariha. Who was she to me?

Warden. . . No, that was not his name. He was almost convinced of that by now. r

June's face came to his mind. He imagined her admonishing him for giving in earlier instead of putting everything to text. Or for not giving himself a chance.

He would not make the same mistake again. Even if he did not recognise himself. Regardless of what his name might be, he was prepared to give himself a chance. . .

A chance to figure out the truth.

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