The Fourth Secret: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 4) A. Kay (best management books of all time .TXT) 📖

goals aligned at least partially with Blapy’s, enough that they supported each other now, anyway. He’d just discovered from Blapy that the fourth secret involved returning the Spirit taken from the Universe. Which made him wonder how the rest of the Universe fared with no Spirit. To justify Uru’s actions, it must not be good.

Before Ascending, finding out about the killings would have devastated Ruwen. But his view of the world, and of wrong and right, had become complicated. Something could be wrong, but still necessary. Which worried him, because people, good or evil, always believed their actions were necessary.

That old part of Ruwen wanted to yell and scream and act indignant. To make his parents feel guilty for the shame he felt by their actions. But his Ascension had happened over five years ago because of his time Step training with Rami in the Spirit Realm. So much had happened since his Ascension that he’d become a different person. He understood the old Ruwen, sympathized with him even, but he couldn’t indulge him.

Ruwen’s future remained cloudy, and the power he’d gained made him vulnerable to abusing it. Would he need to do terrible things to satisfying the fourth secret? If he did, he hoped he looked as miserable as his parents did right now.

Maybe that was the difference between necessity and abuse. Actions accompanied by regret and sorrow differed from those accompanied by indifference or pleasure.

“Right and wrong always seemed clear to me,” Ruwen said. “My life since Ascension has taught me how naïve that was. Even so, I need a little time to process this.”

Clarysa nodded. “We’re still doing that ourselves.”

Ruwen had focused on reuniting with his parents since they’d disappeared. And the happiness he felt at seeing them alive, tangled with the sadness, anger, and disbelief over the circumstances.

If Uru, Blapy, and Pen were right, then the best Ruwen could hope for was a life full of grief. Something his mom and dad already understood.

Right or wrong, justified or not, they were still his parents, and he’d missed them terribly for over a year. He had finally found them, and for now, that’s what mattered.

Ruwen leaned forward and hugged his parents.

Chapter 39

Ruwen sat back, still struggling to process all his emotions.

“You feel like you’re made of rock,” Clarysa said.

“Your head couldn’t hold any more?” Colyn asked.

“Very funny,” Ruwen said.

“Is it gear, an ability, or Fortification?” Clarysa asked.

Ruwen raised his eyebrows. “You know about Fortification?” He realized it was a dumb question immediately. Through the memories Rami had pulled from Io, Ruwen knew his parents had spent time in the Spirit Realm with Uru.

“My parents were Harvesters,” Clarysa said. “When the gods began offering Ascendancy, I jumped at the chance. With only two connected Meridians, I would’ve been a poor Harvester. So giving it up wasn’t hard, even though my parents disapproved. Ironically, I made it to the Spirit Realm anyway.”

Colyn looked from Clarysa to Ruwen. “You already knew Uru took us there. What your mom won’t tell you is that the first time we went, we were there for months. Uru performed surgery on you while you were still in the womb. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of times.”

Ruwen remembered the pain Sift had felt when Ruwen had operated on him on the lake shore. Ruwen had used the roots of a Dimensional Blue Bladed Iris to connect Sift’s center to his Air Meridian. It had been terribly painful for Sift. Ruwen’s mom must have felt something similar, only for months.

“That’s horrible,” Ruwen said.

Clarysa shivered. “Uru promised it would give you the power to protect yourself. She said it would make you untouchable. It was worth it.”

“You said that was the first time,” Ruwen said.

“The second trip was quicker,” Clarysa said with a smile. “That’s where you were born.”

“I was born there?” Ruwen asked in disbelief.

Clarysa nodded. “Uru was quite happy with herself. She said your birth would go undetected in the Spirit Realm and give her time to hide your center.”

Ruwen remembered standing next to Blapy on the destroyed city walls outside the Black Pyramid. She had discovered the internal tattoo that hid Ruwen’s center and marveled at Uru’s cleverness. It turned out Ruwen had gotten that tattoo on the day he’d been born, in the grey world of the Spirit Realm.

“Based on your reflexes, I’m guessing you found your center,” Colyn said. “Are you Silver?”

“Peak Gold,” Ruwen said, a little embarrassed.

“It’s only been a year. That’s impossible,” Clarysa said.

“That’s just the appah’s nose,” Ruwen said. “Since I’ve Ascended,” the highlights of the last two months came out in a rush. “I’m Uru’s Champion and can dual Class, a Dungeon Master, restored the temple here and became an Architect, spent almost five years in a compressed time frame learning Steps, battled two Diamond level opponents, leveled in a tier zero dungeon, started the Ink Lord quests, and met a girl.”

“You met a girl?” Colyn asked.

“All that, and you’re interested in the girl?” Ruwen asked.

Clarysa smiled. “We never thought you’d leave the library.” She grew serious. “Any one of those things is beyond belief. That you’ve accomplished so much in just months validates everything Uru said about you. It makes all our sacrifices worthwhile. I’ve always believed you were special, but you have shattered every expectation.” She leaned forward and hugged Ruwen again. “I can’t imagine the price you’ve paid for all this. You shouldn’t need to carry such burdens at your age.”

Ruwen hugged his mom tightly. Here in the privacy Shelly gave them, he could let his guard down. The stress of his life, the weight of everyone’s expectations, and the enormity of his challenges sometimes felt like more than he could endure. That his mother could see that made it all somehow a little easier to bear.

“But seriously, a girlfriend?” Colyn asked, the doubt clear in his voice.

They all laughed.

Ruwen hadn’t even brought up the Universe impacting fourth secret, or the gods Uru expected him to fight someday. The magnitude of it all