New Game+

Nogard felt the changes and looked in shock.

"Well? Did I prove myself?"

"Two souls… Interesting. You really are from the future! I could sense the changes when you appeared. Are you the one from the future? You have… quite a bit of power."

"Well, my younger self has yet to grow. Although he has my advantage, his battle experiences are very limited. When he awoke the Overcomer\'s Will I also got stronger."

"So that accident where you dove into the black hole that they created… it did not only send your memories but it actually sent your soul?"

"I don\'t know what you mean. Kid Seeker said that he could sense a bit of your soul? Is that the manifestation of a person in the other unseen dimensions? Is that why you could see me?"

"It is indeed. It\'s a miraculous feat you pulled there. How could one\'s soul be transferred? From what my son told me, the vessel that was used to transfer your memories was something that could transmit thought? Does it mean that a human only has dichotomy instead of the traditional view of a tri-part human?"

"Tri-part? You mean the trichotomy of man? Body, soul, and spirit? You\'re suggesting that since my memories made up my soul that there is only a dichotomy? Frankly, I don\'t know. Unlike the Kid now who has been influenced by Eagle and allowed Eagle\'s influence to change him willingly, I am different."

"I\'m sorry. Your existence just made me curious. Sorry for those random babblings. But what you said earlier also proves you\'re from the future. Not many know of my son\'s real name. And not many could understand the meaning of me asking someone to call him by that name." Nogard laughed and glanced at the confused expression of Greydon.

"You hate that name, but your mom loved it."

Greydon was stunned.

"She did?"

"As much as I care for this little emotional talk of yours, I need to know about the-"

"Seriously? Old Man, let me take over." The Young Seeker interrupted mentally.

"Fine." Seeker relented.

"Sorry. My Adult self is sometimes senile." Seeker laughed.

"You really are insane." Greydon managed to contain his anger at the Adult\'s rude comments.

"Two souls. Even I don\'t get it. I think that the Thought Transmitter brought more than just memories. This was something that was developed based on the Path of another Unlock. Sadly, I don\'t know who this person is. I had no authority to learn about the history of that man." Seeker sighed.

"Then that is possible. I thought it was a technology that was made. I didn\'t know it would be some sort of Path. Then that explains how you were sent here. But your vessel could not contain that other you. Only now it could."

"I\'m curious about what happened after the Third World War. If what you said is true, and that the WGP could be our allies, I want to know what happened at that time."

"Of course. The tale of the Third World War was complicated. People were being manipulated left and right. Looking back, and now that I know who are enemies are, Progenitor\'s plans made sense."

"What exactly is the WGP? Why weren\'t you part of it?"

"I was chosen by Progenitor to follow this destiny. I was perhaps the strongest among my generation, and thus, I was asked to be a secret force that will watch over the World Governing Powers. You see at that time, we thought the enemy was a group of syndicates that held a powerful force in the world. The problem was that they were very coordinated even if they had no means to communicate with each other. But if they were aliens then it made sense."

"Yes. They have means of communication that surpassed our technologies then. They must have had constant communication with each other."

"You will have to tell things you knew of in the future. What do you know about the Third World War?"

"What we know was that the Pioneers had long been sent and infiltrated earth. They created devices, gadgets, and technology that surpassed the common market and that made their empires powerful. Some Pioneers were politicians, others were business moguls, some became artists and actors or models that would influence the movement of the world. But what we have are all general descriptions of that time. I\'m sure you know why no Pioneer could give us the detailed events of World War Three."

Nogard smiled brightly. It was as if he was relieved and thankful.

"It means, Progenitors plans succeeded. We were able to kill all to the Pioneers sent to Earth."

"Right. It was you guys. This has been a mystery on our part. All the Pioneers on Earth were killed. The Presiders didn\'t join in because they believed the deaths might have been the result of the war. People were betraying each other at that time and so many rose to power at the deaths of these leaders who might have been Pioneers."

"Yes. It was us. We didn\'t know who they were. But Progenitor gave us a simple way of identifying who the Pioneers were."

"Oh? Did he tell you to check their biology and note how they\'re biology is the mirroring inverse of our body?"

"No. Nothing so complicated. Progenitor told us to kill those who are rich and powerful before World War 3."

Rosa was stunned. Greydon smiled and Seeker chuckled.

"I\'m beginning to like our Progenitor. Very blunt. If you guys knew about the whole mirroring thing, you would have suspected aliens as this secret enemy. Progenitor did his best to hide that fact. That way, if the Aragarians managed to infiltrate your ranks, this information would not alert them."

"Yes. If the Aragarians knew that this Lost Primordial is on Earth, then perhaps we wouldn\'t have had a chance in your future timeline."

"Yes. They would send the Presiders and Principals immediately killing us all. They\'re pride in not wanting to dirty their hands to kill us allowed us to survive."

"We did our best to hide our powers and even ourselves. That is why, even to this day, aside from the WGP which was a joint effort among all of us who received the Progenitors orders, we don\'t know who and haven\'t contacted each other."

"Aragarian reports in the future stated that there was a rumor that one Pioneer claiming to have found hidden technology. It seems he discovered the one your- er- our Progenitor contacted in Pangea. The technology must have ended up in Harker."

"Why did the Aragarians stopped their invasion of Earth?" Rosa asked Seeker.

"It doesn\'t make sense. Earth was weak after the Third World War. Why would they stop the invasion?"

"It wasn\'t time. What do you think the Earth would do, if an alien invasion suddenly happened? And this is considering that more than half of the world was devastated and had radiations, uninhabitable lands and places that still contained remnants of destructive technology from the various weapons created?"

"Surrender?" Rosa guessed.

Nogard smiled but he shook his head.

"Those who survived the Third World War shouldn\'t be compared to the weak generation of today. They were battle-hardened and with everything that was going on, they would not give up. They would rather die. The Aragarians probably knew this. It would have led to a nuclear war where the humans would go all out. And this would make Earth uninhabitable."

"Nogard\'s right. Also, I know that Nuclear technology is the one science the Aragarians avoided. From our information, their planet is smaller than ours and probably some war before made this tech a taboo tech to practice. They probably had some fears in pursuing anything that creates radiation. So even after the warm they didn\'t want to interfere but waited for us to clean it up."

"This gap became our advantage. It was there, that the seeds that Progenitor planted started to sprout. Almost everywhere, nations started to recover through technologies that they developed. Even the smaller and weaker ones had technologies that could aid in their protection and growth. Of course, we made it look like we gave all of the technology over to the WGP." Nogard continued.

"Then this was all a cover?" Seeker asked.

"Correct. At that time, the leader of the WGP was one of those planted seeds of the Progenitor. And so, she knew that the technologies that the nations around the world were developing were also seeds planted by the Progenitor. And because of that, Earth recovered very quickly."

"Earth recovered too quickly that the Presiders didn\'t attack?"

"The WGP was strong. They controlled all weapons of mass destruction at that time. The nations of the world could also go to war and had diverse techs of their own. Do you understand?"

Seeker nodded. 

"This was all arranged by the Progenitor." Seeker answered.

"Yes. The instructions that the Progenitor gave us after the Third World War was specific, although, at that time, it was odd. Not just odd, it was a mystery then, but now we understand. He was giving Earth a fighting chance. He wanted to make Earth complicated with a new system of governance that everyone applied."

"Countries having technologies of various kind… The weakest nations suddenly becoming strong enough to be a threat. A powerful organization that ruled the world. It was all to make the Aragarians rethink their solutions." Seeker understood.

"Yes. The world had changed so much. The reforms that were applied made it hard for the Aragarians to infiltrate once more. The new world that the aliens returned too forced them to study. They had no choice but to rewrite history again. All of their peers were dead. They lost control of the war at the latter part of it. When we were secretly controlling the tides of battle, we made it that every country would not be afraid of using weapons of mass destruction and it got so chaotic that people would want to kill the other side even if it meant there was no future left for them."

"He really is our Progenitor. His plans caused the deaths of billions." Rosa could not help but comment as he glanced at Seeker and Greydon.

"The Progenitor must be one of those Aragarians which are far stronger than a Presider. It understood the mentality of the Aragarians. He knew that even then they would not dirty their hands. I\'m guessing that an average Presider lives around one to two hundred years?" Nogard continued.

"Yes. They could easily go to three hundred. It\'s because of this that they aren\'t in a hurry to take over Earth. This world has nothing for them. From what I understand, their system allows the higher leveled one in bestowing gifts towards them. We know that Presiders were the primary enemies in my future. But this entire mission is only something that they accepted because of the possibility of earning rewards from a Principal. And I know that they weren\'t optimistic based on how they acted in that war. They lacked the motivation to attack us. The fact that only a few Presiders were agitated enough to challenge us proved that many were just there for their own possible gains."

"As expected. Progenitor knew all this. And so he was betting that his technology would have time to flourish during the interim that would inevitably come after the Third World War."

"The technology of the Unlocking." Seeker was in deep contemplation.

"Sadly, it seemed it wasn\'t enough. For his preparations, all failed in your timeline. Which brings me to this question… Did Progenitor make preparations or knew that you would be sent here?" Nogard asked.

Seeker shook his head.

"No. My appearance in this timeline is really what Greydon told you. I hid nothing. No one sent me and I got sent here myself."

Nogard laughed.

He laughed and he laughed.

Seeker was patiently waiting but his expressions indicated that he was starting to look worried at Nogard.

He was laughing so hard that Greydon looked worried.

"I\'m sorry. It\'s just that I was one who complained or argued with Progenitor a lot. He would laugh and simply brush it off, encouraging me that whatever happens will happen. I thought that he was just being flippant or uncaring. But I guess he was just positive. Who would think that his positivity worked? I\'ve lived my entire life regretting, being frustrated and helpless at everything. And he was actually right. I just had to chill." Nogard recollected as he laughed.

"He was vague and frankly, lax. Even to his death, I did not sense any seriousness in his action of helping us. But now… it makes sense. Perhaps he saw something in the dimensions beyond what even I can see or sense. Maybe he somehow knew you\'d come."

"And now that I\'m here… there\'s a lot to be done. It looks like we\'d have a lot of changes in our initial plan, Greydon.

"Indeed. We need to find others that the Progenitor approached. These so-called, seeds of his."

"The Dalisay\'s should be one. Also, Lowengren reported a powerful group of enhanced soldiers that could teleport. It seems that they belong to some secret organization that was hidden in history. Not even the WGP or the Aragarians know of them."

"That\'s great. But how do you plan on contacting them?"

"The same way I did with Meng. That\'s our only choice. Progenitor made it that your groups would act with extreme caution. If our team goes, defeats them and puts them in utter despair and spare them, then we can talk."

"You have Lowengren and Eagle. Even that Harker might have a shot in convincing them. Why go through the violent route?" Greydon asked.

Seeker gave Greydon a strange stare.

"I thought you\'d be excited about this."

"I do want to fight them. But such chaos would alert the Aragarians."

"It isn\'t that I\'m being a battle-freak, Greydon. Although it is a factor, honestly." Seeker laughed.

"But we must pursue this route because this is necessary. We do not have any opportunities to fight each other. You\'ve seen the effects of what happens when two or more Overcomer\'s clash. All of us have grown tremendously in that battle. In fact, I daresay, that the future you would probably be two or three times more powerful than the you in my future."

"Then what of the chaos?"

"Simple solution. We create more chaos. Don\'t forget, Lowengren\'s acting all crazy. With everything that has now happened, I believe that this is the right path to follow. At first, I cursed at the thought of Lowengren and that Alean working together to get back at someone who dared blackmail them. But now��� it seems that things will work out just fine." Seeker laughed.

Greydon and Rosa looked at each other. Both had fallen for Lowengren\'s deception and knew that in this regard, they were not his match.

"Chaos in the Middle East will not be enough. The Aragarians have connections all over the world."

"I will be headed to Australia. The battle there will be extremely chaotic. I sent several Unlocked agents to attack a military base in China and later they will attack Russia. Don\'t think that Arthur hasn\'t been doing nothing. Once he learns all this, he can easily cause a Continental War. Not to mention, my plans with Lynd… Don\'t worry. The world will be chaotic soon." Seeker comforted.

Rosa raised her eyebrows at the ironic act of Seeker comforting her husband with the chaos this world will fall into.

"It seems that the reconciliation between your two souls has changed you." Greydon gave Seeker a sharp stare.

Seeker looked back and laughed.

"Don\'t worry. We came to an agreement. I have changed and I am insane... But my plans are the best. My adult self wanted our survival, the kid in me wanted to win and save the world. Now I want to save the world. But I know I can\'t save all of it. So I\'ll save what I can. This will be the bloodiest and difficult path for us. Do you understand?"

"Yes. You\'re taking a huge gamble here. This path will attract Principals or those beyond them. If they are too strong, all of Earth will die."

"Isn\'t it better this way? This is, after all, a New Game+."