Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 124 - Explanation

Renatta was staring at the shattered pieces of ice too. She walked over, reaching out to touch one of the ice needles. "It’s cold."

Randy copied her. "It’s cold! It’s ice!" He turned to Renan, his expression wild. "How did you do that? What kind of trick is that!?"

"It’s not a trick, Randy." Renatta said. "It’s magic."

"Magic." Randy repeated the word. "Magic. Mom, please. I don’t know what Renan did, but you can’t tell me he’s a magician."

She nodded with strange calmness. "Yes."

"That’s impossible!"

She sighed, looking at Randy more directly. "He already proved it to me. This was more for you."

Randy ran his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth. "No. No, there has to be an explanation. Some kind of... I don’t know, hidden ice launcher? Pellets that you fired and they just looked like ice?"

Renan passed the wand to him. "Check the wand."

Randy took it in his hands. The wand was dry and warm. He inspected every inch, finding only a cleanly crafted item. It had no hidden notches at all. Randy stared, his face going through a complicated series of expressions. Disbelief. Confusion. Wonder. Fear. Finally, he looked back at Renan. "What kind of prank... you mean this is actually real? You can do magic?"

"I can do magic." Renan confirmed.

Randy was baffled. "How? Why? When did this happen? Have you always been able to do this?"

"I didn’t believe him at first either." Renatta said. She got closer to Randy, and explained. "At the hospital, he showed me. He bent a coin with two fingers, cast a spell, and lifted me over his head with one hand. Then he pushed his finger into solid wood. I didn’t want to believe it. Yet clearly, it happened."

She gestured weakly at the ice melting on the floor.

"There’s no rational explanation for this. It can only be magic. I don’t know how or why, but it’s magic."

Both of them were staring straight at Renan. Randy slowly whispered to himself. "My brother is a wizard."

Renan took a breath. This was the moment everything has been building to. He clapped his hands. "I have something very important to say."

That caught their attention, though he already had their attention before. "Now that I’ve given you proof of my powers, I have something very important to say."

"Masteria Online isn’t a game."

"..." A silence rang out at the statement. Both Randy and Renatta froze. They didn’t explode, they didn’t yell, they simply stood there, stunned. The sentence was too egregious to even be processed quickly.

Slowly, Randy whispered. "...what?"

"Masteria." Renan repeated. "Is not a game."

Once again, they were left speechless. Renan stared into both their eyes, but it was obvious that both had no idea what to say.

"What... is it, then?" Renatta finally asked.

Renan kept his expression as serious as possible. "Masteria is the name of another dimension. Much as we call our planet Earth, they call their realm Masteria."

Before they could process or respond to that, he continued. "The Game Pod is not a game at all. It’s a device used to transfer your soul to a body created for you in Masteria."

"But." Randy spoke, but didn’t continue his own statement. He was too stunned to speak. Was he supposed to believe Renan?

It didn’t sound believable.

But neither did magic, and Renan used magic in front of his face. Therefore, he had to believe the words of the literal magician, right?

Renatta’s focus was elsewhere. "It transfers your... soul?"

Renan nodded.

Renatta rushed forward and clasped his hands. "Please, please, please! Never use that thing again. he soul is nothing to mess with! It’s everything! What if it messes with the afterlife?! Never play around with your soul!"

Renan blinked. That wasn’t the reaction he expected. "Ma..."

"Promise me!" She desperately pleaded.

"..." Renan sighed, then shook his head. "I can’t."

"Yo-" But before Renatta could continue, Renan interrupted. "Let me explain."

"Fine."

Renan took a deep breath, and in front of their disbelieving eyes, began narrating. "There is a being that was given the title of the Dark One. He is an evil god from Masteria. He plans to destroy the world."

He took a small pause, making sure they processed his words. He continued. "He already tried long, long ago. He failed. He was sealed away by six heroes. Unfortunately, his seal is now failing, and he has a massive organization supporting him. To cultivate a personal army, he brought the realms of Earth and Masteria closer together."

"He influenced billionaires and experts from Earth to build the Game Pods, advertising Masteria as a game. He even gamified it, adding a system to present it as a video game. His purpose in doing so is to use the players from earth to train up a legion of bodies until they are strong. Then he will reclaim control over them."

Reaching this part of the explanation, Randy and Renatta exchanged worried glances. Assuming everything was true, wasn’t the game objectively a bad thing? A disaster for another realm? Then no one should play it, right?

They looked at Renan with a confused gaze. He continued his story. "And as time went on, the clueless players strengthened the avatars. The Dark One then reclaimed his control over the avatars, launched a massive attack on Masteria, and Earth was invaded as well with billions slaughtered. The war continued until the Dark One won. I participated in the final battle, and was killed."

To his family, his statements made no sense. None of that had happened. And so he finished his tale...

"And then I woke up. Back in the past, before any of it happened."

The room went deathly silent. Once more, they did not explode in outrage, rebuttals, nor worry. They froze in sheer confusion as they struggled to process the words. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

After a solid dozen seconds, they began to regain their senses. Randy finally took in a deep breath, and Renatta’s hand began to fidget.

She finally spoke, whispering. "You... you came back in time?"