Arc 3: Mission – Zion Orb Retrieval
Part 4: Trust
So, trust? I asked, bringing it up again after asking about all the roles.
Yeah. You got a problem with that, you damn brat? Asura replied.
I was just surprised that was your answer after all of that, I said.
That's 'cause that's all you need.
What if it's not enough?
He raised a brow at that.
What if you still fail after everyone trusted you? What do you do then? I asked again. Now I really wanted to know.
He pondered for a while and then said, There's nothing to do, kid. They chose to trust you. If you're worth someone's trust, that's all there is to it.
***
When I saw Ryo's face, it was serene. His eyes were closed, and the snow was falling gently on his face. There was no rage, no disappointment, no sadness. Just peace.
I, however… was a different story.
There was no explanation for what I had become. My mind had become blank just like that time, yet I could still witness everything. I just wasn't in control… Once again in the backseat of this reality that I did not want to accept.
I burned a black flame from all over my body like nothing etching into existence—a missing space in this part of the world. A burning void in the silent snow.
My eyes were white and teeth jagged like a monster as black wings protruded from my ominous self.
"You're that kid… the one with no mana! But what the hell is this? What the fuck… are you?" Plague asked from a distance. His body had become fully reformed as he stood there with a ripped sleeve and his purple demonic arm out.
I turned my dreadful head over to him, my neck crackling as I looked over with those hollow eyes of mine, if white could also be a void like its sibling, black.
When he saw my eyes, he trembled in fear.
What is this feeling? Am I scared… of him? he thought. I heard…
There was no sound as he blinked, and I was no longer in his sight.
Even as my black claw of a hand appeared inches away from his face, not a sound was uttered until I had gently placed it on his black veil, and he flew at a horrifying speed miles away.
The ripple of air from his sending caused another gust of wind from where Leon and Slayer were fighting. Both seemed to get an eerie feeling at what had done it…
I had disappeared from where I had sent Plague flying.
As he flew through the white forest, I was already in his path, looking like I was some lost beast he happened to stumble upon. I flung my arm up and redirected him to the sky where he flailed about, grunting as he spat blood through his black veil.
He blinked again, and I was there, hovering, lurking over him with a quiet, menacing presence. I slowly held up two mangled arms and interlocked my fingers, dropping them in a downward motion as he arrived. And he was too stunned to even react.
He flew back down, making the sound an airship does when reducing drag. He crashed into the white forest, and his landing had turned the place into a dirt field banishing the snow.
He lay in the crater he made. His black Apostles cloak was heavily dirtied from all the strikes and impacts he had taken in just a few, short seconds.
His head staggered, struggling to lift. And then Plague witnessed my landing as I joined him within the massive crater feet away.
"Fucking hell… Why can't I do anything?" he said hoarsely.
As I took a dreadful, slow step in his direction, he shouted, "Get the fuck away from me!!" slamming his hand to the ground, forcing a spell.
Suddenly, the entire area of the crater turned into poison, and I was within it, sinking.
"Die, you fucking monster!" he shouted again as he summoned his poison hydras from out of the massive pool, and they rained over me, crashing upon impact.
The hydras intertwined their necks, turning into a dome as Plague whipped his arm across himself like he threw something, and following the motion, the poison dome shot out spikes from itself. Afterward, he formed a hand sign and chanted the only spell he's uttered since his appearance,
"Grand Venom Magic: Rotting Wyrm Meteor!"
As he cast this spell, the gray clouds began to swirl, creating a vortex with nothing but pitch black inside. From within it, a massive purple rock emerged, and hordes of poison hydras swam atop its surface, jumping out from the holes and into others like a falling poison sea with the presence of a planet.
"FUCKING… DIE!"
The gigantic meteor fell onto where I was within the poison-spiked dome.
Leon and Slayer still fought from where they were. And then Leon commented as the sky began to shift. "Your guy is getting out of hand…"
Slayer didn't say anything as he also witnessed it, only merely clicking his tongue.
Closer and closer down to the world, this anomaly of a meteor roared through the sky. Had this place been a Kingdom, this spell alone would have been enough to turn it into molten ash. Its impact would probably devastate more than half of Lys Anima.
It was a spell that only a monster could cast.
As I watched it fall over me, the sky blackened, shrouding me in endless shadow. The collide caused a wave of dust and debris that surged past Plague. And then he flipped his hand sign upside-down…
"There's another…" he said portentously as another meteor the same size fell over and on top of the other that had just landed.
When it crashed into the first, a pulse ruptured the air and the trees contorted and uprooted, sending many to fly, clearing acres.
The blast could be seen from almost anywhere in Lys Anima and its sounds echoed across this forgotten place.
But then a black beam shot out from both meteors, and a flicker of light glinted, followed by a multitude of explosions. It sent out massive pieces of debris, which turned into smaller meteors that rained over this once quite white forest.
Rocks whistled as they struck, becoming so inhabitable that even Slayer and Leon had to evacuate the area they were fighting
As Plague witnessed his powerful spells crumble, he trailed his eyes back to where I had been. Even with the poison laid field, the poison hydras, the spiked dome, and even one of his most powerful spells cast twice in a row, a dual cast that could fell a Kingdom and leave it in ruin—I still stood, watching him with the eyes of death.
He shook his head and began to back away from the sight of me, "Holy shit… I can't win this…" he said with utter fear in his breath as he turned around and ran.
He left me in the pool of poison as I began taking slow strides through it, dispersing it with each step. Rather than dispelling, it was as if the poison did not want to come anywhere near me… avoiding me—ironically—like the plague.
Plague darted as fast as he could through the snow-filled forest. He hopped through trees and stumbled even as he contacted the ground. His panting and sounds of his crunching footsteps were all he could hear.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Run away, run the fuck away from that… thing! he said as he found his way back to the entrance where Ryo and corpses of our friends had been, ironically tripping over Ryo and falling over.
He landed on the snow, turning around to see Ryo's peaceful, sleeping face lying there.
"Quit looking at me like that, Ryoku! Fuck off!" he said, kicking away his limp torso.
As Ryo rolled, he landed face up just as I had quietly arrived. Standing there, looking down at him.
My teeth ground, crackling like quiet fire as I stared emotionless at his deformed self.
It was then that the sounds of struggling entered my ears as Plague began to stand once again, running away from me.
An aura pulsed from the widening of my eyes, and he shot down to his knees violently. The ground shook and cratered from it.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Fuck! he thought as he had been forced to stare at the ground. His sweat filtered through his black veil and melted the snow below.
Again, without any sound—without notice—I was already before him. Standing over him like he was a mere peasant, and I was his king.
He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Only the stuttering of words and uneven breathing.
This power… It's the Presence of the King… He's… He's just like Pride… No… Worse… I'm gonna die here, I'm gonna fucking die! his thoughts uttered. And relished in his anguish.
Then, like a beast trying to speak its first words, I said to him, "Pathetic." Sounding like ethereal white noise.
It was then, and only then, that he understood who I was. "Y-Y-You're, him."
Plague trembled uncontrollably from where he knelt as the dreadful aura continued to thicken the air and gravity seemed to bend at my will. The trees around this clearing looked deformed. Bending. Kneeling as well in the presence of me.
He managed to muster out a cry for help, "Slayer! Help me! Help me, please!!"
In this moment, one of the most feared men in all the world had come across a being he could not best. To a being he was powerless against, he truly was just dust under one's boot. He was truly meaningless.
Suddenly, Plague flew back by some mysterious force. He sailed backward behind Slayer as if being pulled, and the gold wall emanated from his cross coffin. Somehow, the gold wall acted as a barrier even against the Presence of the King.
"We're leaving," Slayer said to him.
Too shaken to even speak, Plague merely nodded as he continued to breathe heavily through his veil.
"I have the Zion Orb. The mission is complete," he said with the bag over his shoulder as he scanned the place and looked at me.
I twitched my head at the sight of him.
"Forgive me," he said lastly.
Plague shook his head, thinking he was speaking to him…
And just like that, they disappeared.
I roared, still in a chaotic state. My aura had begun to shatter trees and rock. Even nearby Grade 3 monsters died at the mere feeling of my presence from afar.
I then heard the sound of fast-paced footsteps running my direction, and my eyes darted to where I thought it was coming from. Everywhere my eyes had met had decimated and shattered by my glance.
I had then begun to get confused with the noises as the footsteps drew nearer and nearer…
Annoying.
Where?
My echoing thoughts rang, sounding like a monster even in my thoughts. I couldn't tell if I was conscious or not. I just knew I was witnessing it all.
Sorry…
The word echoed.
Sorry… Sorry. Sorry. Sorry!
I couldn't get it out. It repeated over and over again in an endless loop. Sounding, even, forced like someone was haunting me with the word… shoving it down my throat…
The person was me.
A shadowy figure emerged near me. I was too lost in thought to notice he had arrived. All I felt next was a punch to the head. A familiar strike. Like I had received this just recently…
It was instantly followed by the sound of splatter, like a part of a body being blown to bits, but I had no idea what.
By that time, my mind was clear…
I took in a dreaded gasp of air like I had been submerged under water.
The black void flames and shadow that covered me began to settle, as did the aura I emitted and the bending and groaning of the trees.
With my eyes facing upward to the gray sky, I had finally calmed down. The black flames disappeared and I fell to my knees. Awake, aware, finally in control… But at what cost?
When I looked down, all I saw was Ryo's torso, and his head faced away.
When I looked around, I saw Rex, Snow, and Zeno all buried from the gentle, falling snow, having long left this world with serene looks on their corpses as well.
I was alone. The stillness was deafening.
Right now, I was just as lost as I had been… Like an utter fool.
I began hitting myself silently. My punches were weak, but got stronger with each hit to the face.
"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!" I said over and over to myself, striking myself to the point that the top of my bloody head limped and barely touched the snow before me.
Then I heard a soft chime followed by flow of rattle from my neck as it stilled and glinted upside-down in my face. The necklace Belle had given me.
I grabbed it slowly and shifted gently to my side in a fetal position. And all I did was stare at it with tired eyes.
For I had nothing in this moment except the lifeless bodies of my friends around me, the failure of the mission, tested values, and undecisive answers to questions I should have know the answer to.
Trust, huh?—Caressing the necklace I held so tightly—Where is that trust now?
I didn't know how long I had lain there, but the snow continued to fall, and that was the last that I remembered before my vision blurred.
***
**Some distance away**
A man with red hair and orange eyes rested, leaning against a tree. He remained there, quiet, still. Simply looking up at the sky as the gentle snow rested on his face.
Some may have thought he was dead by how still he looked. But then he took a breath and let out a slow, deep exhale.
"Was it true, Ari? Did you really look up to him?" he said, pausing before continuing the thought, "More than your big bro?"
He recalled the punch he threw moments ago, and from it, a surge of memories flooded his mind—mainly ones pertaining to his little sister and mother…
"I guess I can't blame you. I was never around to begin with... What right do I have to question... the end result?"
When he finally decided to get up, it was gradual and forced. As he walked away from the tree, a patch of heavily red-stained snow had occupied the spot where he sat. And the trail of footsteps he left behind in the snow was accompanied by profuse drops of blood on his right side.
As the man walked away, his entire right side, even past his right shoulder, was completely eradicated. It was like something had blown off his arm and some of his torso after immediate impact.
"Barely missed my heart…" he said to himself as he used Tantra to force his organs to remain in place as he trudged. His heart was just barely exposed in the open as he vanished into the dark of the white forest.
"Mission failed…"
***
After some time passed, a male figure emerged from where the five Valley mages lay. He picked up each one of them and loaded them onto a busted-up convertible vehicle he scavenged from Lys Anima—somehow making it functional…
When he picked up Greed, who had long since passed out, he buckled him in gently in the passenger and went over to the driver's seat.
"Don't worry. I'll get you guys out of here," he said. "I never thought I'd run into you here of all places… and definitely not like this… but even still. I respect you immensely, Savior from the Shadows. Your actions inspired me greatly then, and they inspire me even more today, after all you've gone through. I hope I can be worthy of being your subordinate one day…"
He drove off with the five of them. Wearing only tattered earthtone clothing, there was nothing about him that was significant, minus his hair… He didn't even belong to any Kingdom Guild. Just a random mercenary that happened to pass by. But on the hood of the vehicle was a carved, messy wolf logo, and on the back, where the license plate used to be, were the words 'Blvck Wolves' with the 'a' in the form of a 'v' signifying the next chapter in one's story. An old adage from this world's forgotten past, passed down to this man like an heirloom.
The wind blew over the windshield as his black and red mohawk fluttered with the breeze.
***
**The Desert Kingdom**
Belle sat at the balcony of her large room, facing outward to this Kingdom's pleasant, Valley Kingdom-like skies, and below a mechanical city surrounded by sand. Her platinum white hair fluttered gracefully high up from her quarters.
Her deep blue eyes looked eagerly out to the distance with only a single person in mind, and a hand to her tone, rosy stomach.
"I think I also like that name," she said, recalling a brief trivial conversation she had with Greed. Speaking to no one in particular.
***
**Tartarus**
In the deepest part of the world, and a prison meant for only the most heinous criminals, a male in white prison clothing sat. He had short gray hair and a thick band of heavy metal, like tungsten, covering his eyes.
He sat in silence as he said to himself, "What a spectacular show, brother… tragic end to this part of your story… But truly fitting for a Sin. The Lord will be most proud of this Trial! I think, now… It's finally time for me to come see you." He turned back from where he was sitting as if someone were watching him. "After I break out of here, of course." He bore a wicked smile belonging only to someone fitting of his name—Wrath.
"Riot is coming."