Chapter 52: Old

Zack frowned in disgust and annoyance. He hadn’t imagined that when he invited Hope on his trip, the situation would turn so nasty.

“You’re pretty as a doll.” The barbaric jailer said as she cupped Hope’s cheeks.

Specifically, from the body that the Architect and Hope had created and that the latter was now occupying.

The unpleasantness was not the journey, the company of the most brilliant transcendental or those who invited him. He hadn’t even gotten to that part. What was unpleasant was that the babysitter arranged for him to travel and the excuse they used was that he was going to spend his time with his friend and thus his ‘friend’ had to come along.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Hope replied, bowing subtly.

The Brightest Transcendental was wearing a light blue dress with lace and she had not changed into a woman, but rather had decreased the age of her body and taken on the appearance of a girl a year or two older than him.

“You are lovely. I am very surprised that Zack has such a lovely and respectful friend,” said the jailer, looking sideways at him.

Golden eyes sparkled and the worst part was the smirk the woman wore, as if she thought it was impossible for him to have a friend.

Was she questioning his social skills? Zack disliked such a look and frowned, but Hope smiled and revealed a kind smile.

“Your son is more wonderful than you can imagine,” Hope said calmly.

Zack became even angrier at hearing the words of the brightest transcendental and the only reason he didn’t reveal his anger was because she seemed to want to defend him.

The jailer realized that Hope was not joking and looked at him and Zack. This time returned her gaze without backing down.

Did that barbaric woman think he would not face her? The tower would be insufficient to take her on, but he would not back down anymore.

“Yes, I’m sure she would,” replied the jailer in a low voice, and then looking down the street where the car driven by the babysitter was coming from, she revealed. “I hope you have a good trip. I already talked to Jonathan, so if you need anything, you can call me.”

Zack ignored her and as soon as the car parked, he opened the door and, ignoring the male jailer who came accompanying the babysitter, flew inside.

“I apologize. He’s not a bad person.”

“Don’t worry. Go on upstairs. I’ll talk to Jonathan and my husband.”

Zack heard Hope’s voice from outside and the jailer’s response, and he frowned as he saw the brighter transcendental come up beside him.

She was a child, just like him. Her hair was light blue and her skin extremely white like a porcelain doll and her bright light blue eyes revealed a calmness that could not be mimicked by anyone.

“Is something wrong?” Hope asked curiously.

The way she sat beside him so elegantly gave the impression that she was trying to imitate lesser beings, but she was like that. She treated the jailer well and was respectful, because she was that kind of transcendental.

Zack waited until the babysitter finished talking to the barbaric woman and the male jailer, and after he went inside to drive, he turned to Hope.

“You shouldn’t have spoken to her,” Zack said in a cold tone.

“Why not?” Hope asked and tilting her head, she pointed. “She doesn’t seem like a naïve woman and not simple enough for me to hide from her, either. Besides, they’re both not normal. You must have sensed it at this point, right?”

Of course, the jailers weren’t normal. If they were, he would have escaped on his first attempt and Zack still remembered that day it all went wrong.

However, Hope wasn’t done talking yet.

“And they’re not stupid either, Zack. You belittle lesser beings too much.” Hope said with a slight seriousness.

Zack, hearing her, let out a snort and ignored her.

******

A hover car drifted across the surface of the sea and those inside could feel the uncomfortable atmosphere.

In front was the babysitter and the boy who were accompanying him and who was driving the flying car, while in the back seat was Zack and next to him, Hope who looked at him from time to time, uncomfortable that he was not speaking to her for most of the trip.

They were already traveling to the location the messengers mentioned to him and, according to the babysitter, it was some kind of island in the middle of the sea somewhere on this insignificant planet.

“Did it really bother you that I talked to her? I had figured you wouldn’t mind,” Hope said after deciding.

The way she looked at him in a mixture of apology and doubt at not understanding made Zack sigh.

“It doesn’t bother me. I simply dislike jailers. Especially that barbaric woman,” Zack said and unable to help himself, muttered. “I kept my cool before, but now maybe I should show that petty inferior being who I truly am.”

His mutter came out grumpy as he remembered his ‘tie’.

So what if the jailers were special? It didn’t matter if he couldn’t mentally manipulate them, erase their existences from this universe by altering reality or if they seemed to have a physical endurance that surpassed many enemies he had faced... Still, he was willing to try to beat them up, especially that barbaric woman.

“She looks strong...” Hope muttered and when he looked at her, narrowing his eyes, she smiled at him and pointed. “I don’t understand your way of classifying inferior beings. She, to me, would not fall into the category of inferior being. She surpasses the City Sun and the Architect by far.”

Hope was trying to figure out his way of thinking still without fully understanding it, but she was doing it from her perspective... One that favored inferior beings.

That she got a body was proof that she was attracted to the lower beings, their way of life and also their way of thinking, but he was different.

Still...

“These are differences in thinking. Each transcendental has its own way of looking at lower beings. For me, first are children, adolescents and adults. Practically, those with potential,” Zack said, and shrugging his shoulders, he stated. “And the others depend on my mood.”

Those who had the potential to transcend and become transcendental were not treated as inferior beings, even if they were. The most inexperienced were ‘children’ and then there were the adolescents and, finally, the adults.

As for other rules for categorizing inferior beings? Strength was a condition, but more important than anything else was their mood and whether or not they liked those beings.

Hope blinked, looking at him strangely.

“Although they are your parents... Well, jailers.” Hope said, correcting herself and seeing him frown. She muttered. “You’re pretty grumpy, you know that?”

She saw the jailers as his parents and saw it that way because her way of thinking was closer to inferior beings than transcendental ones like him, and Zack simply ignored her.

Silence returned and as there was a mirror between the front seat where the child and the babysitter were, both were silent again.

Zack watched as Hope grabbed a juiced box and helped herself to enjoy the worldly pleasures and after a while, she returned to looking at him steadily and slightly nervously.

“How do you see me?” Hope asked, and her hands twisted, shaking subtly.

A trace of nervousness she couldn’t control and couldn’t even hide. Hope was getting a sense of her body and, as a result, she was not in control of how her body reacted to her emotions.

For them, who were beings of the mind that perfectly controlled their real bodies, a mortal body was complex. The bodies of human beings had too much complexity and sometimes emotions could affect the body and sometimes physiological reactions affected the emotions.

Still, it was clear that Hope liked to enjoy a human’s body as well as the emotions she could not control, the reactions, the tastes and pleasures of drinking and eating.

And now she was nervously waiting for his answer. How did he see her? It wasn’t about being an inferior being or not. She was referring to maturity.

“A young woman,” Zack replied calmly.

“Please, I’m not that young,” She said, letting out a snort, looking annoyed.

“Right. I had forgotten you’ve lived 1051 years.” Zack replied with a smirk.

Hope turned extremely red from her neck to the tips of her ears and she touched her face as if she didn’t understand how her body reacted to her own sense of shame.

For Zack to have her use years to count her age was proof that she was young, but now that he knew her, it was clear that she was someone who was overly inclined to the values of inferior beings.

How many years had she been observing the inferior beings? Hope didn’t seem to have been involved with lower beings. At least not compared to some more eccentric transcendentals who even went so far as to enter into romantic relationships with lower beings.

“You’re a boring old guy.” Hope muttered as she tried to control herself.

Zack, who was lying back using his hand to support his head, noticed how she was trying to calm herself and found it amusing the way she was trying to control her body.

Unlike him, who saw a body of flesh as a confining prison, she enjoyed it.

After a few minutes, Hope returned to look at him again with curiosity.

“How old are you?” she asked with calm and sincere curiosity.

This time, the curiosity was deeper than just the idea of meeting him, and she was probably curious about what she saw when he wanted to escape. She had refrained from asking about the pillar, his duties and responsibilities, but the curiosity was there.

How old was he? Could he answer that question when, in the Astral Realm, there was no sense of time? Was he to count his years that he was involved in mortal planes? If so, it made no sense, as the time difference in some universes was abysmal.

A year in one universe could be two, ten, a hundred or even thousands of years in another and there was no point in counting years and even less so when they would not die of something like ‘age’.

“I am old. Very old. Before the Astral Realm became what it is today,” Zack replied, and looking out the window at the boundless sea, he murmured. “But I am not a being from the beginning of time.”

As beings of the mind, his memory was perfect, and he remembered what had happened long ago when he was young and when the Astral Realm was a disorganized realm where nothing made sense.

It was transcendentals like him who brought order by using themselves and thanks to them, the Astral Realm became a plane where those with potential could transcend and where natural transcendentals could be born without fear of being corrupted by the knowledge of that realm nor devoured by nightmares.

However, even if he was old, he was not one who had been born at the origin of existence. He was not a Primordial being who was born at the beginning of time... Though he was not so far from them.

“Existing doesn’t mean living,” Hope muttered under her breath and dodged his gaze as she realized she said it without thinking.

Was she bothering him? She, by her muttering, implied that the ‘time’ he had existed had not lived, but the life she had in mind was the ‘life’ the lower beings had.

They, as transcendentals, did not have to be bound by those concepts and....

“Ceasing to exist does not mean dying,” Zack replied calmly.

When he ceased to exist the energy that formed his being would dissipate through the Astral Realm and if he did not regain consciousness, then at some point he would give form to a new being... To a new transcendental or many of them that would be born from him.

In a way, he would live on in the children who would use the energy that was once part of him and also in those natural transcendentals that would be born from him.

Hope looked back at him and realizing his expression was serious, she clenched her fist, biting her lips in helplessness and guilt and Zack, seeing her, sighed and reaching over patted her on the shoulder.

She could tell he was thinking back to the possible outcome of her escape.

“I’m not upset about what happened that day,” Zack said calmly.

He had been, but now he wasn’t. She believed she could find a way to free him, and Zack respected that desire and intent, as much as it seemed a futile attempt to him.

Hope met his gaze and closing her eyes, she calmed again, then opened them, revealing as radiant a glow as ever.

Perhaps they had different ways of thinking, but Zack would not deny that the way she showed her determination was pleasing.

The front window separating the back seats from the front rattled, and the boy pointed forward.

They both approached the side window and in the distance, they saw a giant skull in the middle of a large island.

They had arrived.