- So... is that it?

  He really wants me to kill him, just like that.

  It's hard to believe, sidering that we've already had a few iions, but the versation has taken su absurd turn that I feel as if I've skipped several stages. Or maybe I haven't paid enough attention to realize that we've reached the end of someone's lihis doesn't sound like a bad joke, and I doubt that a dragon, especially a primordial one, would joke about something so serious.

  - If I may be so bold as to question you... Even in this situation, ae the suffering, are you sure that this is what you really want?

  *Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't allow myself to die so easily for any being, especially a human. But, as I don't have much choice, I'd rather die for a potential heroine of your race than for anyone else.

  - Heroine of humanity... Talking like that makes it sound like you really overestimate me...

  Now he's referring to me as a hero. It's funny. It sounds like what the newbies thought of me back at the pany, like I was capable of great deeds or something. Iy, I just did what I had to do, that's all.

  *Or maybe you're uimating yourself. That's to be expected, since you have no idea of your real potential. I've seen many like you, and for humans, honing talents takes at least a tenth of a tury.

  - Maybe you're right.

  In fact, he's right. For humans, disc one's potential takes a long time, much lohan one might think. Before I reached the position I had, I went through a long learning process, gradually w my to where I was.

  *In any case, I feel we're straying from the point. I admit, although you're a fool, yood at the human tongue.

  - Ehe~~ But, with all due respeow it's you who's being foolish. You didn't even attack or threaten me.

  *Would attag me ge your mind?

  - No offense, but now that I know your dition, I think you'd succumb in vain if you attacked me. If you really wao die, you would have do by now, wouldn't you?

  *Grr... You're right.

  He seems to realize his own vulnerability. Even though he tried to ridicule me ily, he reizes that he's weakened and partially defenseless. But I'm not foolish enough to uimate him. Being a dragon, he knows how to protect himself and, given his “abyssal” type, he certainly has his defenses. As he proved by leaving the cave pletely putrid.

  He really wants to get on with it... The idea of killing a dragon still seems surreal. But, like me, whes his mind to something, he goes all the way. In my case, it rarely involved another person.

  - Even so... Even if I accept the idea, how could someone like me kill him? Even unarmed, I doubt I could.

  *It won't be that difficult. As you see, I 't even move like I used to. I've been hibernating for over three turies in this pd, as you see, I barely move. But I still know a better way.

  - You know?

  *I have enough time to guide you once again. In your world, you may have heard something simir. In short, all bei on the basis of mana. Even if they 't ma it in simple magic due to a ck of uanding of their capacity, they all have their in in it. All beings have an in.

  - in?

  *As I mentioned, I'm the third in my line. Although I don't have a direct link with my predecessors, we share the same in, and as a result, I possess part of their memories. Eadividual i something of their in, even without fully knowing their aors.

  The cept is very simir to the idea of reination. In my world, there are religions and does that deal with this topic, which makes me find it iing that, here, they have a simir view, but in a more literal and less philosophical way. As has beeioned, he ended up iing some aspects from his aors due to his in, assimiting this with certain basicepts, in addition to the information that assed on to me earlier...

  - So, if you die, it still wouldn't be... a death?

  *Oh? It's iing that your mind has simplified this cept, even though it's more plex than it seems. The fact is that in is a retive thing for eadividual. However, as far as we primordials are ed, even if our in is destroyed, our souls are still preserved. Somehow, in a few turies, we would be reborn, but with only one piece of information: rimordial beings, nothing more. I believe that demon lords are the closest cept to primordials in this respect. However, unlike us, they remember their past.

  So, in fact, this fits more as a parallel cept to reination... It's not something pletely different!

  - But you know, I died in my world. How I still have memories from there when I'm reborn here?

  *Reinates from other worlds are different from reinates from this world. Because they have no ties to this pce, their memories remain intact because their souls preserve them. You may not notice it yet, but soon your in will be remade acc to our world, although all your past knowledge will be kept.

  - So, even if I die here, would I still have my memories in another life?

  *I 't ahat. I don't know of any other reinated person who has e back to life after turies, retaining their memories. That wasn't something that ied me...

  It othetical question, not that I want to be a guinea pig. After all, I've only just e back! I don't want to die again, dammit!

  But gradually, it all starts to make sense: people from other worlds retain their memories when they are reborn here, while those who are reborn in this world do not. However, their ins are preserved in their souls. Some mao keep the memories of their past lives, while others lose their essence, only remembering fragments. But at the end of the day, it's not about reination.

  It's more like starting a new save.

  Using a video game analogy: if I followed a sih to the end of my story and fihe game, it would be predictable. But if I decided to start all ain, in a different way, I would still know what I was doing, even if the path was new. It wouldn't be the same in some respects. Or perhaps everything would ge with a simple ge of sery. Or I could use past information to know what to do in a difficult situation on the new path. But either way, it wouldn't be the same.

  Vaku