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ArabicArknights: How Did I Actually Become the Doctor? — Chapter 19
Chapter 19: Amiya’s Journey of Ascension
The Black Snake seemed to be having her grand villainous moment, but in reality, she was completely out of options.
Half an hour ago, she realized there were no guards patrolling outside the massive Lungmen control room. Why? Because a certain Doctor had hacked the city’s mainframe. Now, the ancient manipulator had zero system permissions. She could not access the security grids, the communication arrays, or even the automated toilets. The only thing left was the manual mobile city steering joystick, which required a physical, independent key. The layers of heavy alloy bulletproof doors acted as both a shield against the outside and an inescapable cage locking her inside.
“I should have killed you from the very beginning.” Even trapped like a turtle in a jar, the Black Snake refused to sit and wait for death. The Draco’s blade ignited, churning up blistering waves of heat that distorted the air.
“What? Are you throwing a tantrum because the smart toilet refused to flush for you?” You shrugged, smoothly side-stepping the incoming heatwave to hide securely behind Logos. You poked the elite operator in the waist. “Go! Little Lo, make her taste your mysterious power!”
“Is it really necessary to shout that…” Logos tried to struggle, his usual calm demeanor cracking under the sheer absurdity of the situation.
“Of course it is necessary!” You clenched your fist with the exaggerated excitement of a hardcore gamer.
You went through all the trouble of dragging him all this way just to witness this exact moment. The Black Snake charged forward, her face twisted in a ferocious sneer, fully determined to drag everyone down into the ashes with her. Even if Logos felt a deep sense of embarrassment, he had no choice but to follow his commander’s orders.
“Now, say the line!”
The usually elegant Banshee almost dug a trench into the reinforced floorboards with his toes. Swallowing his pride, he struck the exact, highly specific pose you had demonstrated in the briefing room.
“Za Warudo!”
The Banshee’s elegy flowed from the bone pen he held high. The ancient incantation forcibly halted the surging flames. A wide-range necrosis field deployed instantly, colliding head-on with the Draco’s apocalyptic fire arts in a blinding shockwave.
Meanwhile, Amiya had entered a deeply peculiar state.
Under the absolute authority of the black crown, the tangled memories of Talulah and Kashchey were slowly being pulled apart. It was a strange, surreal scene, like Moses parting the Red Sea, an event that could only unfold within the abstract world of the soul.
The Originium crystals actively piercing into flesh.
The endless snowy plains, the isolated cabin, the dying campfire, and the burning village.
The struggling old man and Alina’s slowly cooling hand.
In a trance, Amiya felt invisible fingers gripping her throat, desperately questioning her from the void.
‘What should I do? What else can I choose?’
The Black Snake’s will projected directly onto her through the shared memories, dragging the young Cautus down, layer by suffocating layer, into the deep, freezing sea of the past.
“Talulah? Talulah!” Amiya opened her mouth, trying to project her voice to wake the other soul, but her words were instantly swallowed by the howling wind and snow of the memoryscape.
Compared to the ancient Black Snake, she was simply too young. She lacked the mental calluses to withstand the sheer erosion of such a long, agonizing passage of time.
Her consciousness became increasingly blurred. In a disorienting trance, she felt as though she had actually become Talulah. A gentle girl with antlers and fresh burn marks on her face stood before her, smiling sadly.
‘Stay, Talulah…”Stay. You do not actually know what the point of the resistance you have been doing is, do you?’The scene violently shifted. The flames spread from the burn on the girl’s face to consume the entire village. No one survived the inferno. Amiya looked down to find her own hands completely covered in blood.’Look, this is who you are. This is the true nature of Kashchey’s child, is it not?”You never escaped his control. You should have known long ago that you share the same sinful blood…’
“Talulah, Talu… cough, cough, cough!” Amiya tried to call out again, but her vocal cords refused to produce a sound. The increasingly heavy wind and snow choked her throat, spreading a freezing despair straight into her heart.
Within the black crown, the lingering hatred of the past Kings of Sarkaz seized the opportunity to infiltrate her vulnerable mind, whispering endless curses into her ears.
‘Revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge…”This land is beyond saving. Revenge is justice. Revenge is truth!’
Just as the crushing weight of despair and the endless demands for revenge were about to completely drown her, a hand with a warm, comforting palm broke through the barrier between the material and informational worlds. It pressed gently against her forehead.
“This is the Cyan Rage, Kjeragandr.” The familiar voice lacked its usual lazy, teasing levity. It was replaced by an indescribable sense of solemnity and a heavy, ancient relief. “I have indeed forgotten quite a few things, but having just been reminded by the scene, I recalled some interesting stories.”
In an instant, like a master administrator inputting a higher-level code to lock down a corrupted server, the entire data world froze. The howling wind, the biting snow, the roaring flames, and the ferocious phantom of the Black Snake all stopped abruptly in their tracks.
A familiar, hooded figure coalesced from the suspended snow, casually holding a steaming paper cup of coffee. Seeing Amiya standing there completely blankly, he handed the cup over. “Come, come, drink this while you listen. We have plenty of time.”
Your authority in the world of consciousness was simply off the charts.
“Eight thousand years ago, long before the great city of Kazdel was ever built, Bajisa and Kjeragandr saved Gudu, who was on the verge of being killed by the God-people. The three became friends at first sight, joined the same clan, and became inseparable best friends.”
With the clan leader’s consent, Gudu, Bajisa, and Kjeragandr led a massive exploration team eastward, eventually arriving at the current geographical location of Kazdel. That monumental journey was the first eastern migration of the Sarkaz race.
Gudu decided to revive the ancient tradition of the Children of Stone to build a permanent home for all Sarkaz. When he laid the very first foundation stone for Kazdel, the black crown materialized above his head. Gudu became the second King of Sarkaz, forever known as the City Builder.
Hundreds of scattered clans responded to Gudu’s call, flocking to Kazdel to build a new home together.
Seeing his friend succeed, Kjeragandr left Kazdel and began his own carefree life wandering the lands as a ranger.
Later, a bitter ideological conflict arose between Gudu and Bajisa. Gudu did not want to put the people who had just gained a peaceful home at risk, strictly refusing to wage war to retaliate against their former God-people overlords.
Bajisa, consumed by the need for vengeance, cut off Gudu’s arms and drowned him. The black crown then appeared above Bajisa’s head, crowning Bajisa as the third King of Sarkaz, the Sun Caller.
Kjeragandr received the tragic news and rushed back to Kazdel overnight. The city’s grand buildings collapsed with Gudu’s death, the Demon’s flames ignited the streets, and the Sarkaz lost their hard-won home once again. After slaying all the ambushing troops and saving countless Sarkaz civilians in the burning city, Kjeragandr began a bloody path of revenge for his murdered friend.
“Near the ruins of the original Kazdel, Kjeragandr caught up with Bajisa and cleanly ended his former friend’s life. Kjeragandr’s beloved sword was shattered in the duel, the black crown appeared above Kjeragandr’s head, and Kjeragandr became the fourth King of Sarkaz, the Cyan Rage.”
“Did you understand?” You finished speaking and turned around to find Amiya looking utterly shocked, her rabbit ears standing straight up in astonishment.
“I, I understand! Kjeragandr is very strong!”
‘The original Kazdel, huh? Doctor, have you really lost your memory? How do you know all this?’ Amiya’s internal thoughts raced, her expression perfectly matching a certain screaming donkey internet meme.
“Wrong!” You wanted to tap her head to correct her, but she looked far too cute holding the coffee cup, so you could not bring yourself to do it in the end.
“The point of me telling this historical epic is that Kjeragandr is very easy to fool!”
“This guy is so kind-hearted he could be a literal Buddha! You are his equal in status, or perhaps even more successful than him. Boldly explain your personal philosophy and your righteous anger to him, and his power will gladly become yours!”
“Did the Black Snake not just say that revenge is justice? Since he is using such blatant sophistry, if you do not like him, is killing him not also justice?”
“Truth is carved out from the edge of a blade, not gained by arguing here in the snow with an old snake demon!”
“You are only fourteen years old! Leave massive geopolitical issues like the Sarkaz race and the Infected to me. What you need to do right now is follow your simple, straightforward sense of justice and hack them to pieces!”
Amiya’s eyes grew brighter and brighter as you spoke. The heavy burden of thousands of years of hatred lifted from her shoulders. The next moment, a massive, pitch-black heavy sword materialized out of thin air, resting firmly in her small hands.
At this moment, Amiya never expected that the very first King of Sarkaz to truly acknowledge her authority would connect with her over a philosophy of only two simple words.
‘Hack him!’