Ophieus looked at the first line for a moment longer than the second.
Synchronization.
'But with what?' He had heard of mysterious relics attaching itself onto others before. But this one still has not introduced itself, explained its purpose, or clarified what it was measuring.
The longer this went on the more suspicious and concerning this became.
He moved to the second line.
Memory Fragment.
His eyes sharpened. "Now that is interesting."
The world bent slightly before then he found a rush of images flashing past him. He was someone else that was younger and weaker, the original owner who had died in this body.
The memories show him crashing into the cold stone and pain rushing through his body a second later. He tried to pull back, to separate from this and just observe without feeling this.
But the memory wouldn't let him as it was connected to him.
And then he began hearing voices around him, mocking and laughing at him. The original owner's emotion spiked up, the feeling of anger, fear, and despair appeared.
"You failed again?" A man said in disgust. "How many times is that now? Five? Six?"
Ophieus wanted to speak but couldn't as he felt something gripping his throat tight.
"Did you really think you could awaken?" Another voice, this time it was a woman. "Someone like you? With no talent, no family, and potential? What made you think you were special?"
"I-I will awaken! I-" He felt his mouth move but words that he would never say rushed out.
A foot lashed out and then he felt pain.
"Quiet. Just give up and learn your place." Another man said with a sigh. "I can't believe you went out with this man, Sidney."
"Ugh. Don't remind me, Marcus. I was just taking care of him because we grew up together but I didn't expect he would be such a leech." Sidney said with a hint of frustration. "Like really, Ophieus? Why would you follow me into the Dark Wardens!?"
'I wanted to help you… I didn't want you to cry anymore or take on everything!' The boy screamed in his thoughts.
"S-Sidney, please-"
"Shut up."
He felt his body flinch before the voice continued. "I can't keep this up anymore, Ophieus. You are useless and a burden on me…"
The words didn't hurt because they were loud.
They hurt because he didn't argue.
Because some part of him… agreed.
Sidney sighed before muttering. "I don't know why the captain allowed you on this mission but I can't continue dealing with a worthless burden like you."
Ophieus felt it instantly after she said those last few words. The original owner's pain, humiliation, and despair washed over him from being called worthless by the person he loved and cared about the most.
'Just because you are Awakened and became a Pathfinder… Does it really erase all the years we had each other back?'
Then the memory paused and then Ophieus found himself back in the graveyard.
His hand tightened.
Not his decision.
…But he didn't release it immediately.
[Next Threshold at 10%]
Silence returned hard.
He glanced down to see his hand gripping Dark Animas and his knuckles had gone slightly white. But he didn't release his grip because Dark Animas felt more familiar and easier to hold in his hand as if he wielded it for months instead of just today.
"So that's the original owner," Ophieus muttered.
This answered a question he had not consciously asked. The simple fact the body retains more than he expected, and it seemed especially tied to synchronization.
"Then I'll make better use of it."
The body was weak but that was a solvable problem. He had worked with worse starting conditions. He stood as his goals in order flashed through his mind. Heading towards Ruina for his legion, find his original body, the Voice and the gray fog.
Then he headed to the fog and the moment his hand touched it, everything changed.
The world went still.
And something spoke.
"Remember."
"The path you walk... is one of a destroyer." He stood with his hand in the fog and let the word sit.
'Destroyer.'
He had known a few.
Warriors who left places worse than they found them because that was the mission. They were considered calamities that people avoided or tried to kill. But he noticed that the word did not trouble him the way it probably should have.
"If that path means I can return to my legion even a bit faster." His golden eyes open. "I wouldn't mind seeing that path through."
He clenched his fist before fully stepping into the fog and continued moving. But then something appeared at the edge of his vision after four steps. It was silver and bright with a couple of words flashing by before then vanishing.
Ophieus paused before narrowing his eyes as he glanced around and then waited. But that flash from before didn't appear again. He knew it wasn't a memory appearing or him seeing things, he would have noticed the difference or the pain.
This one he didn't make him wonder, is something watching him? He didn't stop walking forward and as he fully left the graveyard.
Nothing else happened.
Which in his experience, usually the more concerning condition.
The tombstones began to change, letters began appearing on each of them as if something was carving into them.
One by one, words began appearing on each tombstone.
One name.
That kept on repeating over and over.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Ophieus.
He couldn't see it but something else did.
From deep within the fog ahead, something that had been watching patiently since before he arrived focused all its attention directly on him.
And for the first time since he'd arrived here, it moved toward him. The fog had kept it out but now it was closing the distance with the particular calm of something that had never once needed to hurry.
And when the light caught it, crimson eyes shined as it followed. The fog itself parted the way as if guiding them towards its next target.