I Refused To Be Reincarnated-Chapter 925: Builders, Not Foundations

"You're inside of my mind, my territory, my fortress. Did you think you'd breach my walls with a flip of your hand and a couple of entertaining, but pathetic, visions of death recycled from Quintella's memories?" Adam spread his palms wide. "Now it is my turn to test your mind."

The cave ground blasted behind him. Rubble, on which gray magic symbols dimmed to silence, poured upwards. Walls, chains, and yellowed parchments followed them in a brutal eruption that reached for the starry sky.

Not a piece struck the imposter, but his constricted pupils locked on what was emerging to replace the memory.

Towers jutted out like spiralling horns from a building pulled from the depths of Adam's psyche. Walls as crystalline as those that had once towered at the gates of the mountain city of Orrivandrel pulsed with millions of magic symbols. Their hum pierced his ears, forcing him to cover them and snap his left eye shut as much from surprise as pain.

But his right eye never blinked. It couldn't. Not when two cannons as broad as the Common Hall buzzed down to aim at him. Hell danced in the depths of their brightening muzzles, waiting to unleash its infernos on the intruder—on him. Not just these two. They were the most visible part above the water.

Hundreds, thousands of smaller cannons dominated the walls or poked through openings in their structure. No safe angle, no blind spot. Only the promise of total annihilation. A sky-blue barrier rose to wrap the citadel, isolating the sound from the walls... replacing it with a heresy of vibration that distorted the air.

He stepped back, but his footstep sounded off. His gaze snapped down. The ground had disappeared with the memory, replaced by a disk wrapped around the barrier.

The little he had seen in Adam's mind... had just been the very edge of his defensive system. Inconsequential drops in his ocean of secrets, memories he had been allowed to see. But how? How could a human unmarked by the horrors of the demonic war develop such powerful mind defenses?

"Now, isn't your trial about breaking my walls?" Adam's mocking sneer crashed on his thoughts. He hovered before him, his palms spread in an invitation to strike him down. "Go on. But I think they want to avenge themselves for your attempt to stain my memories of them as much as I do. I'm sure they'll have fun playing around with the cannons."

From his shadow, a mental image of Alina formed. No heart-deep knife strike and stiff limbs like the imposter had created to enrage him, but the dark skirt and white shirt she wore the last time he saw her. She smiled at him, the corners of her hazel eyes crumpled with motherly care.

Theodor appeared next, unburned, as he had truly been. His old eyes sparkled with infinite curiosity for magic as he shared a mischievous smirk with Adam.

Then, people the imposter had never seen appeared. Arun snorted with unbound arrogance as blue flames snaked around his fingers. Every couple of seconds, he threw Adam a glance, as if waiting to be praised for his mana control. Holding his right arm, Asha's lips curved with her devilish merchant smile. Louise wrung her blade high before the two teenagers, and soul mana danced around Morgane's petite frame. Even though Nova was no fighter, she stood tall, her cat perched on her shoulder, beside the children like their protector. Behind them all, Shepard glared at the imposter as if he were a terrible student who needed severe punishment.

Desmond, Elliot, and Sarah formed beside them, clenching their fists in fury as if they had hated the fake memory of them the imposter had tried to force in Adam's mind.

Misha and Xie Lian appeared. Misha's hand found Adam's shoulder. She smiled at him like a friend, a sister, a lover. Xie Lian passed her arms around both their shoulders. She chuckled at them with the sincerity of a true friend.

Quintella materialised in front of Adam. She smirked without a word. The smirk meant everything already. You messed with my memories? Now, let me see how you'll fare against my big brother!

Finally, Julius appeared between Adam and Alina.

Adam watched the fifteen-year-old boy grin at him in a brotherly, competitive manner. He should be sixteen already, almost seventeen... Arun and the others, too. He wanted... to see them. Four more years, he hoped, but that hope squeezed his heart. It was now that he wanted to reunite with them.

He closed his eyes. Now was not the time for grief.

When he reopened them, he sneered at the imposter. "No one can alter the memories of my family. Even worlds apart, I trust they'll walk their paths as I walk mine until the day we reunite."

Twisting his lips, the imposter barked. "Friendship? Family? Trust? Ah! These bonds are as frail as a spider's thread. All it takes is a tug to break them. Your mind's not powerful. I was wrong. You're just a delusional, foolish brat who believes that friendship is a strength. Let me tell you something, boy. Your world will one day collapse under its own bloated weight. Some will betray you, others will truly die, and in the end, you'll be on your own, as we all are, especially in our minds."

"And once again, you're mistaken." Adam turned toward Theodor, Julius, and Alina. "They were the first I could talk to. Theodor dispelled my loneliness for seven long years with his shenanigans about magic. Alina always considered me family, and Julius never gave up on helping me... he had it rough."

A soft smile curved his lips.

"Misha, Morgane, and Shepard brought me back from madness, and Orion untangled my mind. Arun, Asha, and Louise accepted me when I was a ghost, and the others broadened my vision of the world. I haven't seen the horrors of the war, but I've gone through my own. I stumbled, I failed, I almost died. All these experiences became my foundation. You think my family is the core of my mind. Wrong! From a shaky hut, they're the builders who carried those stones back each time they scattered until it grew into something rough, but something that was me and only me. I'm alone in this bastion, not lonely. Experience, adaptability, discipline. It is what I used to polish their work on my own."

He flew on the walls with all his friends. They each spread to man a cannon, while Adam guided Theodor and Alina to the two largest.

"I'm not debating with you. If you want to believe my mind's strength comes from something as ridiculous as love and friendship, fine by me." His voice rumbled like the raspy growl of a vengeful beast. "In the meantime, I really, and I mean, really hated seeing Alina and Theodore die. I hope you're ready for their retribution."

He pointed at the imposter. "FIRE!"