Devoured Eccentric

___

What the people thought of Nero was a complete lie, a facade, in reality. Only one person knew of an inkling of Nero's real personality.

The respected One, or as Nova called him, Big Boy Chief.

When meeting with Chief, Nero couldn't help but show his excitement when learning geography or history. Nero's consciousness was quite new to working with emotions, so even with so many memories, Nero fit the act of a child quite well.

Nova had already found symptoms of emotional jumps, a sudden impulse in Nero's thoughts being carried out physically, though this was at a very slight level and only at night, things like twitching for example.

The chief never actually noticed how Nero was out of character when teaching him about the world because he felt on top of the world to have a paragon beyond paragon as his disciple. This was especially true as he could finally prove wrong those from the 'higher place', the nobles.

He taught Nero about them quite clearly, even questioning his origins as his talent was even greater compared to a Noble.

Nobles.

A superior race of humans, or as they called themselves, that lived beyond the ocean, a 'higher place' as they called it. These people were overwhelmingly talented in terms of magic and even the weakest of them was a slayer level mage, that, at around the age of 50!

No one, according to the chief, had achieved that realm of manipulation at such a young age in the Village.

Nero understood that it must be because of some external factor that they advanced so quickly on the path of magic to reach proficient control so quick when a slayer, to the people of Pinnacle, symbolized god.

To Nero, it was a simple objective he could achieve easily with his intellect.

___

In the ancient temple, in the bare land outside the ruins.

"Aye... Goodey Son, How's ye fairin' today?" Said the abnormally tall giant while in a meditative position slightly different to normal, with his neck snapped back, almost looking like he died with his neck snapped.

"Ello Ello, I'm good, old man, how are ya?" came a cheerful reply.

"Oh, I'm quite alright, I 'ad som' Prawn'lla today, it was a delicacy, thas fer sure" Chief delightedly said, taking his tongue out to taste the air.

"Ah rightey! I ain't told ye about the comin' events 'ave I? So-"

'Nova, translate him for me will you?'

.Funtion Performed.

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"-the yearly noble visit is soon, I really want to show you off, is that okay?" heard Nero, still in a gruff voice.

"Uhh, Yeah sure, just don't get me in trouble, I'd rather not get killed because I offended some guy with an inferiority complex with my skill, Oh, and I forgot to tell you last week, I condensed mana to basic amateur level."

"Alright, will not get you in trouble, just- wait, WHAT? ALREADY!?" and a face that perfectly described the word 'flabbergasted' quickly followed.

Like before, awe and joy followed, but Nero felt quite bored and slightly alone.

'I clearly can't talk to someone honestly without blowing their brain, it feels... quite lonely.'

.New function can be output.

.Nova can now become pseudo-sentient.

...

'What?'

'Already?'

'Meh, sure, might as well, it's not like I really want someone to talk to or anything.'

.To output function, Nova needs to look through all its stored data to create a semi-consciousness, time-taken: ~15 hours.

'do it do it do it DO IT.'

.Proceeding.

.For the next 15 hours, the user can only rely on recalling information by themselves, without Nova, please be advised. All current functions that are being used right now such as Mapping and translation will stay as they are, Nova hopes for the user to have a net gain in the end. Goodbye.

By the time this happened Nero was already in the air, being swung around in the air by the big boy, no emotion was on his face, he had no access to any of his commands for the next few hours and, he needed some space.

"Old man, can you let me go? I don't feel so good" said Nero trying as much as he could to hide his emotions.

"Huh, really? That's okay but don't be sick for too long, I want to definitely see your progress next week" chief said with an excited tone, before lowering Nero onto the ground and speedily dashing away. Under his feet, the gas condensed, an orange hue covering it to stop its escape.

Smoothly, without even looking back, he sped down and away from the Temple ruins, without even glancing back, to make sure of his disciple's health. This wasn't because he didn't care but only because Nero used that phrase a lot, most of the time because he wanted to try something out, or just because he felt a bit tired from a long hour of manipulation at high intensity.

Still surrounded by bare arid temple lands, Nero just sat back, laying back on the ruins of a thick ancient Pillar.

"Where do I really wanna go? What do I really desire? Am I really a genius? Even if I am, what's the point if I feel like a cheater...

"Oh man, it's quite troublesome to have emotions, I mean, really? Mood swings are quite a nuisance, aren't they? And I just realized... I've been talking to myself the entire time... Haha that's amusing...

"I wonder how Nova will turn out..."

Thoughts ran wild in Nero's head. He felt like he was stuck in an ever-shrinking capsule, slowly collapsing in on itself until there was nothing left.

He felt disconnected from reality as if no one was trustworthy, he felt he was beyond humanity like he had no purpose, no goal, simply put, no reason to live.

He wondered about things considered inhumane, were they really inhumane? If a human could perform it, how could it be called something, unlike a human? Wasn't cruelty and suffering a part of life? To live, doesn't everyone try their hardest?

Was there a right or wrong? Could there actually be consequences for his previous actions, suppose, something like karma... And if it did, what did the future have in store for him?

Why did his previous self, his old self, actually want emotions in the first place? He was smart enough to know of the issues it brought into life and even the amount of effort it took for such a feat to seamlessly occur, still, he placed his goal and he achieved it.

"What am I really here for?"