[Dormant ability, 'The fourth wall' has stopped an attempt to see your fate.]
'What?'
This was baffling to Caster. The fourth wall can not only protect him from mental attacks, possbily soul attacks, increase his mental fortitude, decrease the intensity of pain, make him think of the world as if its fiction by creating a disconnect between the two... but it can also stop attempts at reading his fate?
That is absolutely ludicrous.
Caster removed the helmet, revealing his beautifully bloodied face, to let him feel fresh air.
'Wait, this should be about as long as when Cassie saw her first major vision no? But as far as I know, it shouldn't include Caster... or well... me.'
Walking away from the burning corspe of the centaur, Caster continues to think to himself.
'So it seems that her visions are equivalent to reading fate, or something along the lines. But if I wasn't supposed to be in the vision in the first place, what would it even stop? Since I am not the target of the vision, it shouldn't have been stopped in theory. But it did.'
Caster sighs in confusion.
But suddenly something clicked.
'Oh right, I made a lot changes to the original plot, didn't I? So this means that the vision she would have gotten had changed. But it was now stopped by the fourth wall... does this mean she got no vision? That's a possibility at least. Another possibility would be that she got a vision but it is not the correct one. Just one without my interference. Maybe it could be the vision she was originally supposed to get.'
Caster suddenly kneeled down and supported his body with his sword, taking in deep breaths. The fight had wore him down immensely.
'This means that none of Cassie's visions will be true around me... that's... that is both good and not good.'
With this in mind, he thought of how he can perhaps make this not happen. And for that he tried to turn his ability off. However the ability resisted that.
Still, Caster forced it to stop. However, he was barely able to turn the ability off for a second before the ability recovered.
'What a marvelous ability... ouch-'
Turning the fourth wall off took a massive burden on the already injured Caster which caused him to fall down. Not to mention, its effects diminished and disappeared for a bit, resurfacing the pain and weakness.
The pain persisted. Even though he turned the ability off for only about a second, the pain was still immensely high.
It was only a few seconds after, that the ability activated again, giving him peace again.
[Dormant ability, 'The fourth wall' is activated.]
'Phew, that hurt like hell. I shouldn't have turned it off right now.'
Getting up again, he walked towards the other corpses, to take out all the soul shards. Normally he would have taken about half of them and given the other half to his book of books, but this time, he needed to absorb it all, to heal even slightly more.
'It's not like absorbing soul shards heals... but it will give me more energy to work with and improve my physicality, so it can sort of play the role of healing. Especially in my case right now... I doubt i can even fight an awakened beast in my current state.'
Soon he went over to each and every corpse on the field and he mutilated them to get the soul shards.
Of the twelve nightmare creatures, Caster had killed ten. Two were killed by the devil centuar.
In the end, he got twenty eight shards, and he also had four from the devil that he absorbed. Five monsters gave him ten, six demons gave him another eighteen, raising the total to twenty eight plus four.
'Wait, it just hit me, am I sort of a... fateless being?'
After considering it for a few moments he shook his head to himself.
'No... that doesn't make sense. The fourth wall said it stopped an attempt to look at my fate. Which means I do have one, it's just that the fourth wall stopped Cassie's vision from seeing it. But this is insane. It means I can change the plot by breaking fate and causality itself... on a regular basis.'
Caster slapped himself slightly.
'Hold your horses. I can't think like that. Damn it, my flaw, makes me try to go above and beyond...'
"Haha..."
Afterwards, he had patiently absorbed all of them and he truly felt better than before.
He wasn't healed, perse, but he had much more energy. Which meant that if he could force himself through the pain, he'd be able to fight at least.
[Soul fragments: 110/1000]
'It has been barely over a month, and I already have over a hundred shards... but I can do better. I am not satisfied with just this progress.'
Now the problem was how he could take all these monster corpses to the outer settlement, especially since he was so injured.
'I should probably check the memory I got first. It's from an awakened devil after all.'
Memory: [Spark of Light]
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: IV.
Memory Type: Charm.
Memory Description: [It is a light not bound by flame or star, but something older, a hush of gold that pours itself across the world. It moves without haste, a patient tide of brilliance, turning ruin into garden, and silence into song. On skin it feels like forgiveness, in the heart it feels like home. It does not burn, it does not blind, it simply gathers all that is broken, and teaches it how to be whole again.]
Memory Enchantments: [Healing light].
Enchantment Description: [The charm exudes a spark of light, where it touches, wounds soften into right, stone remembers how to be river, and sorrow exhales like mist at dawn.]
'A charm! And an healing charm at that! What a blessing!! I was in dire need of that right now.'
Dismissing his other charm, Caster summoned this immediately. The charm made Caster exude a bright aura, which made him look warm to others.
But at the moment the conntrast of a bloodied face and a pitch black armor with the warm light was... uncanny to say the least.
The light seemed to heal him, which made Caster groan in relief. The healing was slow, but it was much better than no healing. His intense injuries could be healed in around two to three hours accourding to his own estimate.
'That's if I rest completely for that time. It will take longer if I move around. Which I have to... I can't stay here.'
Caster looked around at the scene around him.
It was still raining.
Ground shattered and split apart at multiple places.
Dirt and mud spread across everything.
Rivers of blood from the nightmare creatures were flowing.
Corpses all around.
Trees blasted apart.
Fire raging even through the storm.
Smoke rising even through the rain.
The scene was horrific.
And the cause of it was Caster himself.
Rain fell on his face, washing off the blood, sweat and dirt off him.
He felt lonely.
He was no longer in his world.
He was put in a horrifying place where he had to kill or be killed.
He couldn't meet his mom, his dad, his sister, his friends in the real world anymore.
"Was that world even real?"
He wanted to cry, but he couldn't.
[Dormant ability, 'The fourth wall' is strongly activated.]
His only purpose was surviving.
"What's even the point of doing anything?"
His tone felt flat, but what hid behind that flat tone was the immense sorrow of a lonely person who lost everyone he cared about. Or well, everyone who cared for him, lost him.
He no longer exists in that world.