Guild Wars-Chapter 1333: Love Or Obligation? 1

"Feels nice, doesn't it?" Draco said casually as he walked out of the portal leading out from Gaia's meadow.

"Does what feel nice?" Shuangtian asked with a raised brow, still glaring at Eva slightly.

"The feeling of being able to do whatever you want, when you want. Not having to suppress your actions because of the status quo. That kinda stuff." Draco elaborated, noting that they were back to the lounge within the Purgatory Group building.

"A little, but also not really. I'm more worried that there might be hidden consequences from this that we cannot predict." Eva answered honestly, coming to stand on the other side of Draco and hiding from Shuangtian.

"Of course you do, you're still caught up in the system of gains and losses, thinking about maintaining a status quo. Even though I led you to fulfill your own desires, I already know that it's gonna be difficult to change this ingrained mentality." Draco responded, wondering what the two were squirming about playing hide and seek around him for.

Shuangtian snorted. "What ingrained mentality? Do you mean common sense? Wow, how terrible we are for actually thinking before acting, unlike someone who erupts at the slightest provocation and misconception."

Eva paused and glanced at Shuangtian with amazement. "You really like pressing his buttons, don't you?"

Shuangtian folded her arms with a slight smirk. "I can't help it. Even though I do love you, Draco, I am not bound up in the complicated situation between you and Eva. I viewed those memories from both of your perspectives, but even so, you still look like a total idiot." freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Surprisingly, edgelord Draco did not flare up this time, simply leaning against the wall and glancing at Shuangtian askance. "I don't mind it much anymore. Anyway, your presence is welcome and much needed, even though you're a glorified add-on. You're the perfect glue to weld myself and Eva together, because just the two of us alone would not be able to reach the apex."

Eva covered her mouth with wide eyes and stepped back, glancing at Shuangtian with a snap of her head. For that matter, the smug Shuangtian who was having fun provoking Draco suddenly lost her smile as her eye twitched.

Draco smiled slightly. "Not so fun having your biggest sore spot poked, huh? You try very hard, but it's clear that you don't feel you fit in with Eva and me."

Draco lazily gestured to the room. "It's clear Eva and I have a long history that spans two timelines, while you only came in a year or two ago. Even if we count the ten years in the game world, that only made things worse as we had only each other's presence and no conflicts to cover up the awkwardness."

Eva raised a hand to stop him, but Draco brushed it off and pushed off the wall, walking up to Shuangtian.

"Ao Shuangtian, to be honest, you and I don't match much. Our personalities are completely different and so too are our fundamental values and way of life. In a new world removed of our bloodline connection and memories, we likely wouldn't mesh well as a couple."

Shuangtian clenched her fists with an ugly expression, but did not say anything as Draco continued. "It's not the same with Eva. Removed of our memories and bloodline, we would still find each other and mesh perfectly because we are perfect opposites."

Draco forked a finger over to the silent Eva. "She has everything I lack and I have everything she lacks. On the surface, we fit perfectly, like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle."

Draco then pointed to Shuangtian. "You think like this, Lucifer thought like this, and even you, Eva, think like this."

Draco let the silence hang for a few seconds before shrugging.

"However, I have a different perspective. My experience across two timelines is quite unique because I have experienced the two extremes: the extreme end of love and affection and the extreme end of hate and dislike."

Draco raised two fingers and wagged them. "Also, I spent a lot of time locked in the cage within the soul, so I had plenty of time to think and reflect on things. Me discovering Lucifer was also incidental to that, but that's for later."

Draco began pacing about with a strange smile. "I asked myself, if Eva and I are so fated, why did a simple misconception manage to separate us for so long? Why could I not put the pieces together or listen to reason? Why couldn't Eva reconstruct the situation or reason with me?"

"It was like a typical hentai plot, where the ugly bastard threatens the anime girl to leak her nudes and ruin her life if he doesn't, well… ruin her life. Instead of many simple options like calling the police, using social media, or even threatening the fellow back, her brain seems to malfunction and choose the worst outcome."

Draco rubbed his chin. "Our situation was similar. Putting aside the obvious outside interference, a lot of the reason why we couldn't end 8 years of conflict lay within us specifically, in our connection."

"Everyone believes the most optimal connection lies in duos. Computer code is binary, with zeroes and ones, and many other fundamental rules of the universe are in duos. Gender is in twos for all reproduction-capable species, the time of day is dual — day and night — and all forms of temperature are split into hot or cold."

"This is because all of these duos are diametric opposites, so in as much as they clash, they also connect. However, it is precisely because of this casual relationship that these rules, despite seeming to be mirror images of each other, cannot ever truly connect."

Draco sneered. "The slightest anomaly and these rules that are opposites clash heavily then cause terrible reactions. My relationship with Eva seems idyllic and perfect on the surface, but throw the slightest wrench within and it causes cataclysmic problems."

Eva heard this and felt dismay, but she couldn't refute it. In fact, there were obviously problems in their relationship because she and Draco were equals in terms of power, potential, and status, but in terms of the relationship, she was more like a simp.

She always acquiesced to any requests or demands he had at any time and always took a step back whenever anything that could cause a problem came up. Draco himself often did not take advantage of her in that regard in a negative way, but her allowance of it showed that she too subconsciously realized this problem.

It was like the 10/10 class belle dating the 4/10 nerd guy with freckles. The two were equal human beings and in the same age group, but the nerd knew that his desirability was lower compared to his girlfriend, so he let her walk all over him — even if she did not mean to — in order to keep the relationship alive.

The relationship between Draco and Eva since reincarnation and reconciliation had been propped up by three things. The first was their bloodline connection, the second was their shared reincarnation, and the third was Eva's forbearance.

This was why Eva and Amaterasu couldn't mesh well, because they were two vastly different people. Amaterasu was like a typical modern feminist girlboss, not willing to be one step lower than her male partner in anything and even refused to give him face in public, but still had basic loyalty.

Eva was quite literally soft yandere, willing to allow anything in the name of love and connection, acting even lower than the worst Twitch hot tub subscribers who donated $100,000 monthly to see a woman in a bikini through a screen.

This was so bad that Eva's bloodline almost literally rejected her, forcing Amaterasu to come out and merge her remnant consciousness with Eva to form a suitable balance to get things working. Even though she was less forbearing and more assertive now — even more so with Shuangtian backing her up — she still lapsed into old habits.

Now, Draco popped this can of worms wide open.

Draco glanced at Eva then at Shuangtian, his expression calm but not mocking or negative at all.

"Duos are not the way of the universe; they simply represent two extremes. For anything to achieve basic stability and workability in this universe, it comes in threes — with two extremes and one stabilizing/binding factor."

Draco listed them one by one. "Matter is split into three: solid, liquid, and gas. Existence is split into body, spirit, and soul. Divinity is split into three, i.e., the Holy Trinity of Christianity or the Three Pure Ones of Taoism."

Draco smiled strangely. "Is that all? There's more. The Laws of Motion are three. The Laws of Robotics are three. The Laws of Thermodynamics are three. The Fundamental Forces are three. The principles of Quantum Mechanics are also three."

Draco raised his palm. "Even mathematics is based in the triad. You can't have a basic mathematical equation without three inputs — two numbers and one operation."

"As good as it seems, if I am the number 1 and Eva is also the number 1, then without the addition symbol we are just two numbers. It is only with an addition symbol that we can join and become 2."

"Likewise, alone, we are two parallel lines — straight and on the same wavelength, but destined to never connect. But if someone were to draw a line between both parallel lines from top to bottom, it almost resembles a DNA helix."

Draco raised a hand and placed it on Shuangtian's shoulder gently. "My point, Ao Shuangtian, is that you don't feel you fit in, and in some ways, you don't. The chaotic chemistry I have with Eva, I don't have with you."

"However, you don't need to have the same chemistry with me or with us at all. Your differences are precisely that crucial binding factor needed to make everything work. You are the linchpin, the foundation of everything going into the future."

Draco looked Shuangtian in the eye. "Lucifer and Pangu deeply understood this — even able to reconcile their eons of hatred due to this fact, even willing to rewrite the script by reincarnating themselves into us."

"Stay true to yourself, do what you want to do. You talk about how much you will accept me because you love me — what makes you think I won't do the same for you?" Draco said from his heart, pulling Shuangtian into a soft hug.

By this point, the tough young lady's eyes were red, because Draco had pierced right into the core of her problems and insecurities.

To others, it might be a long time since she appeared, enough that she seemed to be a part of the crew, but for Shuangtian, it was only a really short while. Both Eva and Draco had a long history and especially built connections with everyone.

The lineages, the world council, Darkrow, Hellscape, Umbra, the core members, War Maniac Pavilion, The Dragon Slaying event, the First Guild War, the Abyss Event, the Flora and Fauna quest, The Treasury, Local Lord…

She simply was not there for any of these things, only having the memories of them imported by Draco and Eva. Rather than make her feel involved, the detached third-person view rather made it all the more clear that she was a late passenger in the story of Draco and Eva — almost like an unwanted child that should have been a blowjob instead.

This was something she was always cognizant of, which became much better when her son was born and when her parents were revived and rescued, but it also became worse because they spent ten years without doing anything but interacting with each other.

It was during this time that Shuangtian understood just how much she lacked compared to Eva when it came to understanding and relating to Draco. That was why it was she, Shuangtian, who made the most noise about Draco cutting off their mental connection previously.

She felt that without it, she would not be able to understand a single bit of his thoughts and intentions, and that terrified her more than anything.