I Refused To Be Reincarnated-Chapter 926: The Unbroken Mind

"FIRE!"

At Adam's vengeful command, the memories of Alina and Theodor slammed their palms on the two Common Hall-sized cannons. Two sky-blue whirlwinds churned before nightmarish maws of metal. They filled up the night sky, blazing and shrieking like birthing stars.

Thousands of smaller lights shimmered atop or from the recesses in the crystalline walls. They rumbled for a heartbeat, leaving the memories of Adam's close one just enough time to give the imposter a haunting smirk that carried the same meaning.

You can't pervert Adam's memory of us.

The cannons shot rays of scalding energy. But the two largest were something else. Two pillars burst out of their melting muzzles. They didn't as much as roar. Instead, the sound was as if the universe was tearing, as if celestial retribution descended upon mortal lands.

At the moment before the impact, the imposter's eyes widened. No safe angle, nowhere to dodge. Adam's mind was... powerful... far more than he had expected. Perhaps even more than what Servan had hoped for. And he understood what Adam meant. Love and friendship were hollow strengths; now he knew they both agreed with that. Each experience, trauma, and relationship shaped Adam's mind, much like parents, teachers, or neighbors influence any mind. These memories of his family were just that—unsubstantial memories gathered to humiliate him.

So, if the strikes about to crash on him were Adam's strength, on what horrible foundation did he build it? What horrors had he seen? How much did Adam mentally suffer to forge a mind bastion that made a drop of icy sweat run down his spine?

His spine? HIS? Would he lose a battle of minds? Never!

It was time to show Adam what true horror was.

Dark mana spiralled around his fingers and, a heartbeat before the beam crashed on him, he wrenched his hand down. Space tore open in its path. The rend devoured the smaller beams.

No, not the rend...

From the top of his bastion, Adam saw something inside, eyes that glared at him. Dozens, hundreds of them. Some glinted with disgusting, predatory green sheens. Others shone with domineering lights as if whatever lurked inside the darkness of the imposter's defense, Adam, his bastion, and the imposter himself were beneath them.

One of them made Adam shudder. He couldn't make it out, but he felt its gaze tear into him. Was it... evaluating him?

The question barely formed before the massive pillars collapsed on the imposter. His rend pulled in the bulk of the energy. Adam heard bestial roars that overpowered even the vibrations of his barrier. Old languages he didn't understand yet reverberated, too.

His eyes narrowed into slits, and his throat tightened. The imposter had to be powerful; he had known it before the trial started. But more than mana or qi, he was confident about his mind. The bear almost broke it, and he tethered the edges of madness until Ignatius made him embrace it. He overcame it with Misha and his friend's help, but the choice he had to make about Julius continued to press on his shoulders. He gave up his chance to reincarnate and walked the realm. He witnessed humanity's downfall and Lin Yao's last battle against the three archmages, who planned to enslave him.

With his own two hands, he forged his own body. The demonic cleaver couldn't make him bend with its promises of treasures and power, nor did the demonic puppet. Even the void emperor, a visionary of his time, didn't force his respect.

No, his mind would never fail him. Not against the over fifteen thousand years imposter. Not even against Serevan if he showed himself in person.

Whatever was inside the rend forcefully halted his two pillars. They began to dim and lose bulk. Yet, he clenched his trembling fist in front of him. "FULL POWER!"

Alina, Misha, Theodore, Julius, Quintella—everyone faded from the walls. Even Adam.

The half-melted cannons groaned, then were vaporised along with the roof of the bastion, revealing the true core hidden inside. His cheek resting on his fist with an air of certainty, Adam watched from a throne of mana and qi. The one outside? Just a part of the performance, a decoy against the worst.

He smirked, and the imposter barked urgently. "Out. All of you. Now!"

"I won't let them." Adam stretched his palm. With the soft sound, the crystalline ground erupted with fractal lights. The entire bastion followed, space throbbing around it like a beating heart. Each symbol engraved on its walls flared with accumulated power that rushed into his palm.

Then, silence. Deep, heavy, the kind people call the calm before the storm. But it wasn't the storm that was coming. It was a mental apocalypse.

The imposter was right. He was alone in his mind. But never in the past two decades had he felt lonely.

He gripped the golden sphere that formed in his palm. Before the imposter's wide eyes could process what he held, or for any of its creatures to burst free, he leapt to his feet. With a forward stomp, he hurled the sphere at him.

The sphere cleaved space faster than a meteor. Silent. Inescapable. It collapsed on the rend, scalding arc snaking across its circumference. Colors faded from the world of memories.

Pale-faced, the imposter roared a command that produced no sound as the sphere licked his vaporising skin. Instantly, something emerged from the rend.

Adam frowned at the giant maws that chomped on his sphere. He expected them to melt, for the creature to roar in agony. Yet, its bronze scales glistened as fresh as new. The rest of its head came out, a biological weapon of fangs and horns longer than castle towers. In its slitted eyes, Adam only read infinite boredom.

Behind it, a bear emerged, fur frost-forged white, glowing with frost, broad frost runs from which lightning crackled. An avian beast rushed out with a fiery shriek. Each flap of its blazing wings hurled burning gales across the space.

More creatures that froze Adam's soul emerged from the rend. Colossal demons vomiting putrefaction with their every breath, or riding nightmarish creatures, magical beasts that made the disk they stood on groan under their weights, and humans... Humans in their armor, with their familial blazon embroidered on the red, purple, white, or dark fabric woven across their cuirasses. On some, he recognised the black star with jagged edges of Orrivandrel. The others, he didn't know.

The others didn't matter. None of them did except the three beasts... They towered like impossible existences in front of his bastion, peering straight at his eyes. Somehow... Impossible... And yet... They were... as powerful as Leviathan...

"You think yourself the strongest-minded, that you can defeat me, brat? Ah!" The imposter snarled, a hand covering his face, his skin steaming from the sphere's near annihilation. "I've seen things you can't imagine, beings you couldn't picture even if I used ten thousand words to describe them and another one million words to explain their powers. I survived the war, the last of my species. If I want to destroy you, a snap of my fingers is enough."

As Adam had, he snapped his fingers in derision. The failed copy of Adam melted. Beneath it, something smaller, more refined emerged. Hair like the first leaves of spring framed a face that would have been delicate if not for its twisted lips. White silk finely rested on his green coat like the prototype of a necktie. Behind the coat, Adam saw four translucent wings unfurl.

He was as tall as Elliot and resembled... Lulu? Was the imposter a fairy?

"Come out, memories of Vaelthryn!" At the imposter's chant, a tree formed behind the disk he stood on.

The roots coiled on floating soil, while its branches stretched several kilometers across. Even the three beasts that made Adam bite his lip couldn't reach half its vibrant branches, on which hundreds of fairies were perched, silvery blades and spears hovering around them.

"Now," the imposter spat. "Show me how you'll defeat all of our realm's monarchs, a fragment of the demonic army who invaded us, and the full force of the fairies of Vaelthryn!"

Adam clenched his jaw. Monarchs? So not one, but three beasts as powerful as Leviathan... and the rest... If they could use even a tenth of their physical might... Shit...

"Attack!" the imposter roared, and the world of memory rumbled. Demonic energy and mana of all shapes and colors turned the invaders' lines brighter than the sky.

He... he couldn't win... Not because his mind was weaker, but because of knowledge. The memories of his friends were just mental images. They couldn't fight like those of the imposter. If only he knew how...

He slammed his hand against his thigh as the bear's charge carved frozen trenches of lightning on the disk and the dragon's throat swelled. But the rend stole his attention. There was something else emerging. The thing that seemed to assess him from the darkness.

----

AN: Hello, dear readers. First, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your company on this long journey. It's been almost two years, day for day, since I started writing "I refused to be reincarnated." The book had a rocky start, and I was a beginner author writing in a foreign language. Still, many joined and enjoyed the book. More left because they didn't like either the plot, the writing style, or my vision. I did my best to avoid cliché/villain stories and to write something that would inspire you. Even in a world of liars, Adam refused to lie. He slowly grew up by understanding his mistakes into someone I personally like. I love the story as well. It's my baby, my flawed masterpiece, something I wrote with my soul. But as much as I love it, last year was nothing short of a financial nightmare. I pushed myself beyond the limits of resilience, hoping that more readers would come to enjoy it. To do so, I rewrote a hundred chapters diligently and did my best to increase the quality of my writing. Sadly, it wasn't enough. December saw an average reader count of five per day, with an income under 40$. I hope you understand that the income doesn't justify the mental strain. Beyond that, I can't feed myself properly with so little. That's why the story will enter an indefinite hiatus.

In the meantime, I'll consider whether I have what it takes to be an author, considering my poor results, and continue to improve...

...

Of course, I won't give up on being an author! I'll keep writing and failing if that's what I have to until I become a supreme author.

Stay tuned for my future book. It'll definitely come out soon!

I'd like to take a bit of your time to warmly thank rodyaraskolnik. Without his support, I couldn't have continued writing the story I love so much this year at all.