Slowly, the pieces of the puzzle began to click into place.
Hugo stood with his head bowed, having arrived at the truth a step ahead of the rest. Noticing his realization, Adam pressed on with his explanation.
"Yes, you have it exactly right. When someone who wasn't meant to die gives their life for someone who was destined to die at that moment, their Life Force burns out while their Destiny Power remains intact."
"Are you saying that’s what happened to the Hugo from before he was reincarnated?"
"...I was trying to save a child from a random attacker," Hugo murmured. "I managed to stop him, and the kid was safe, but the man stabbed me. I died right there."
The conditions Adam described matched the circumstances of Yugo Kurei’s death perfectly.
As Hugo grappled with the realization that he had died while holding onto nothing but his lingering Destiny Power, Zenon’s eyes widened with a sudden epiphany.
"I—I get it now! I finally see it! Before being reincarnated, Yugo's Life Force was exhausted while only his Destiny Power remained! On the flip side, the Hugo of this world still had Life Force, but his Destiny Power was on the verge of hitting zero!"
"Wait... what?"
"In the original scenario for Luminous History, Hugo loses everything after his defeat at the protagonist's hands! He goes completely off the rails. Eventually, he even sacrifices his own brother, Fee, to summon a Demonic Sword, but even then, he’s no match for the player and meets a pathetic end... That’s the kind of character he was supposed to be!"
"M-My brother... was going to sacrifice me?" Fee stammered, his face turning ashen at the mention of the future that might have been.
However, as Eugene listened, his eyes widened. He connected Adam's theory with the current situation and nodded slowly.
"The original Hugo continued to cling to his former status even after losing the duel... In other words, he was entering a state where he was grinding away his very Destiny Power."
"By the time he lost that duel, Hugo’s Destiny Power had been shaved down to almost nothing," Adam confirmed. "He was on a path toward that miserable death Zenon spoke of, with no way to avoid it. However, because of that precarious state, I saw a single chance to save this world."
Hugo Clay had lost his duel; his body was unharmed, but his Destiny Power was functionally zero.
Yugo Kurei had taken on a destiny of death in place of a child; while his Destiny Power remained, his physical body had perished.
Adam began to explain the relationship between these two humans, who had both reached the end of their ropes in diametrically opposed ways.
"Hugo Clay and Yugo Kurei are Parallel Isotopes. To put it simply, they are the same individual from different worlds. Though their births and lives were vastly different, they are fundamentally the same person. Each possessed exactly what the other was losing."
"So, what did you do?" someone asked. "What on earth did you do to them?"
"...I discovered their existence just moments before the other Gods captured me. Having failed to stop the 32nd Reincarnation Game despite my best efforts, I saw the state of Hugo Clay in the world that would host the game, and his Parallel Isotope, Yugo Kurei. I took a gamble. Using my divine power, I transplanted Yugo Kurei’s Destiny Power into Hugo Clay."
To compensate for the Destiny Power Hugo had lost, Adam had moved the remaining power from the soul of the deceased Yugo Kurei.
Such a feat was only possible because they were the same person from different worlds. Adam exhaled slowly before continuing in a quiet voice.
"I couldn't have predicted what kind of situation this would trigger. However, if I had simply stood by and done nothing, the Reincarnators would have utterly destroyed this world. I had no choice but to gamble. And as a result... the current version of you was born."
"..."
"Now, to return to the first question. The answer to 'Where did the real Hugo Clay disappear to?' Let me state the conclusion clearly. He didn’t go anywhere. He is still here, right now."
"What...?"
Everyone was left speechless by Adam’s cryptic declaration.
In the heavy silence that followed, Adam continued to lay out the cold, hard facts.
"What I transplanted was only Yugo Kurei’s Destiny Power. I didn't touch the soul or the personality. However, as a result of this unprecedented procedure, Yugo Kurei’s memories flowed into Hugo Clay’s body along with the power, completely overwriting his original memories. It was an accident of fate, truly... but Hugo, you haven't told a single lie. You were suffering from genuine memory loss."
"Then, my brother is...?"
Adam gave a small, solemn nod.
He looked directly at Hugo, who was staring back at him in stunned silence. Adam finally delivered the answer to the long-standing mystery—the truth that defined Hugo's very existence.
"You are the real Hugo Clay. You simply believe yourself to be Yugo Kurei."