Reincarnated with a lucky draw system

Chapter 586: CHOICE

"Fine. Just don’t kill anyone," Alice pleaded, her voice trembling as she looked at the man who held their lives in his hands.

"Well, I will," he replied, his tone chillingly casual. "But just one person. And it’s only to send a message."

He gestured toward the group with a flick of his wrist.

"Now, come with me. And you too. You are needed." As he spoke, he exerted a terrifying pressure over the sanctuary, weaving its energy together to reconstruct Retribution’s shattered skull, mending bone and flesh as if they were mere clay.

With a sharp snap of his fingers, the world blurred.

The coordinates of their reality shifted instantly, depositing them on the scorched earth outside the castle walls.

Nearby, Michael, Leo, and Isobel stood restrained, their faces pale as they realized the danger they were in.

"Now for the final task before I depart," the attacker instructed, pointing a long, steady finger at the three captives.

He looked at Retribution with a cruel glint in his eyes. "Choose who dies among them."

"What kind of sick nonsense are you talking about?" Retribution demanded.

He stared at the attacker as if looking at a madman, his jaw tight with suppressed rage.

"Aaron won’t work without the proper motivation," the man explained, his voice devoid of empathy.

"So, either you choose, or I choose for you—and I will kill all three."

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Rose roared, her fury erupting. "We agreed to leave with you! This wasn’t part of the deal!"

"I know," he said, turning his gaze toward the restrained trio.

"That is precisely why I am only killing one."

He paused, a heavy silence falling over the courtyard. With a mere thought, he stripped away their defenses, unraveling the very fabric of their protection.

"Their immortality has been undone. You have ten seconds to pick, or I end them all right now."

Retribution fell silent.

Seconds ticked away like hammer blows against his heart.

He remained motionless for eight long seconds, his mind racing through every impossible outcome.

He knew Aegon was a man of his word; if he didn’t act, the blood of all three would be on his hands.

The weight of the choice gnawed at his very soul.

"Time is up," the attacker prompted, his voice like a ticking clock. "Who are you picking?"

Retribution’s voice was a low, hollow rasp. "Leo."

"What? How could you pick?!" Isobel cried out, her eyes wide with shock and betrayal.

Beside her, Leo said nothing.

His head remained downcast, his shoulders slumped in a heavy, tragic understanding of the logic used against them.

"Actually, that is the best choice," the attacker mused, nodding in mock approval.

"As expected from the only clone of Aaron with rational thought.

If you had killed your sister, the guilt would be too much to bear.

Plus, Michael and Leo would never have forgiven you."

He paced slowly, laying out the cold mathematics of the murder.

"If you had picked Michael, your own sister would have turned against you.

But Leo? You are the reason he is even here.

No one can truly hate you for his death except for yourself.

It is an excellent choice.

Well, I’m sorry, Leo. But you have to die."

The attacker didn’t move a muscle.

He simply blinked.

In that instant, Leo’s body was violently shredded apart, his physical form disintegrating into a cloud of ash and nothingness.

"Nooo!" Alice’s scream pierced the air, raw and heartbroken.

"Well, that’s that," the attacker informed them, his expression one of bored satisfaction.

"Let’s leave now. And make sure you tell Aaron the story yourself, champ.

Tell him how you were the one who chose to kill his friend.

That will be all."

Before another word could be uttered, the attacker vanished into the ether, taking Aaron’s wives with him.

The courtyard remained silent for only a minute before a surge of power rippled through the air.

----

Present time...

"So, Leo is dead?" Aaron asked later. He looked downcast, his posture broken by a wave of self-loathing.

"It’s all my fault," he muttered, defeated by the weight of the loss.

"It’s not," Retribution said, attempting to console him.

"You couldn’t have known it would come to this."

Aaron looked up, his gaze sharpening. He noticed the slight, well-hidden hesitation flickering in Retribution’s eyes—a tell-tale sign that something was being withheld.

"What aren’t you telling me?" Aaron asked.

"Aaron. Stop using your mystic eyes," Retribution’s voice echoed sharply within Aaron’s mind.

"What?" Aaron asked aloud, confused by the sudden telepathic command.

"Just do it"

"Alright," Aaron muttered. He took a steadying breath and forcefully shut down his mystic eyes, let the glowing energy fade into darkness.

"So? What is it?" Aaron asked again. With a snap of his hands, he released a burst of restorative magic, fixing the crumbled masonry of the castle in an instant.

Retribution was the first to take a seat, his movements deliberate.

"Leo is alive," he informed them calmly.

"How?" Isobel asked bluntly, her voice thick with lingering grief.

"We saw him being torn to shreds with our own eyes," Michael added, his face a mask of disbelief.

"His body was destroyed, yes," Retribution explained.

"But not his soul.

I managed to intercept and save his soul before it could be annihilated."

Isobel shook her head, her confusion deepening.

"But how?"

"The Samsara cycle," Aaron answered for him, a sudden realization hitting him like a physical blow.

"But how did you deceive Aegon?" Aaron asked, the logic of it bothering him.

"He’s too powerful.

He would have known the moment you used the cycle."

"He would have known," Retribution agreed, "because we knew."

Aaron frowned.

"You aren’t making any sense."

"Our eyes," Retribution enlightened him, his voice grim.

"That is how he was always one step ahead of us.

Even if the attacker was just a puppet being controlled by Aegon, that puppet shouldn’t have been able to detect the subtle activation of my Samsara cycle.

Aegon is good at simulation, but even that doesn’t explain how easily he anticipates our every move."

"So, at the moment I had to make that choice, I hit a sudden realization," Retribution explained, leaning forward as his voice took on a sharper, more analytical edge.

"Aegon possesses the Mystic Brain. We know that the Mystic Organs are all components of a single, unified being.

No matter how powerful or divine an eye might be, its only function is to relay raw data to the brain.

It is the brain that processes that information, interprets the world, and dictates the response."

Aaron narrowed his eyes, the gears in his mind beginning to turn as the horrifying implications took root.

"So, you are saying that everything I see... everything these eyes record..."

"Aegon sees it too," Retribution confirmed with a grim nod.

"We were essentially broadcasting our every move directly into his mind.

So, I simply stopped using my Mystic Eyes.

The moment I cut the feed, Aegon’s vision went dark.

He was blinded to my true intent.

His claim of being omnipotent is nothing more than a well-constructed bluff.

He has absolute control over what he can perceive, but he lacks your true omniscience.

He didn’t know what I was doing because he couldn’t see through my mind.

So, yes—Leo is safe."

[Damn. He is remarkably sharp. I almost find it hard to believe he is merely a clone of yours].

"Shut up," Aaron snapped internally, though a wave of immense relief washed over him.

"Then we can bring him back," Aaron said, his voice regaining the steady strength of a leader.

"I will reconstruct his body from nothingness.

Thank you, Retribution.

Truly.

Because of your quick thinking, I believe we actually have a standing chance at defeating Aegon."

The spark of his lost will began to rekindle, burning brighter than it had in hours.

"It’s what I do best," Retribution replied, a faint, confident smirk playing on his lips.

"Now, let’s—"

Before Aaron could finish his sentence or even take a step, the world around him fractured.

His perception of the castle courtyard dissolved like smoke in a gale, and his entire worldview shifted violently.

Aaron suddenly found himself standing alone in a void of infinite, sterile white.

The vastness was broken only by the presence of two simple sofas facing one another in the center of the nothingness.

"Aaron. I think it is time we had another chat," a familiar voice vibrated through the space.

"System?" Aaron muttered, his heart hammering against his ribs.

For the second time in what felt like an eternity, Aaron was standing face-to-face with his System in a personal, one-on-one manifestation.

The being was a perfect mirror image of himself, matching his height, his build, and every nuance of his physical form.