Chapter 284: The youngest one battles
"Do you really want to see who you are?" The voice asked calmly. Aren turned around and looked at the voice that had spoken, and there he saw a version of him he couldn’t recognize, seated on a chair in the void.
The figure was a completely black shadowy figure. He had no eyes or distinct features, yet it was in a human figure.
"Are you the one before?" Aren asked.
"Indeed, that’s who I am, the one before, the original version of who you are," he replied in a calm way, slowly folding his arms. "Well, I used to be, now I float here watching you work."
Aren could feel an immense power coming from this figure that was sitting there. It felt oddly familiar, yet very, very far away, like something that he could not touch and reach.
"The true memories of who you are, Aren, are not light at all. They might break how you see the world and what you do after here. You might no longer be the person that you were once before. I want you to understand that." The one before said, his voice dripping heavy as he warned, the kind of words that told you death was coming and you would believe.
Aren balled his fist tight. He took a deep breath through his nose and expelled it from his mouth, keeping his eyes down and calm.
"Ever since Karmela told me that my memories have not been true, I have been unable to get it out of my head.
I’ve been living with the constant worry that what if every single thing I know is a lie, and the more I search, the more I discover I do not know at all." Aren said, his voice coming to a low mutter toward the end, his eyes looking down and his back arched slightly forward like a man at the brink of giving up.
The one before looked at him. He had no eyes, yet there was a shift in his energy that hinted at sadness as he looked at Aren.
He got up from his chair, drifting over to Aren and slowly placing one hand on the shoulder of Aren. Aren lifted his head to look at the one before.
"Aren, what you are is special and true now. If you choose to walk away now and carry the path that’s currently yours, none of us would have an issue with it.
Every version of yourself is happy for you." The one before said and then looked around as more versions of Aren appeared, each one nodding as they came, with eyes filled with compassion and happiness.
Aren looked around and he could tell that each one was happy for him. Each one was happy that he was here, and it showed in their faces.
"The only reason the youngest one has taken over in rage is because he doesn’t want you to suffer the way that he had suffered.
The suffering that he faced has changed him. He has the greatest access to the shadow mind, and that’s what makes him the strongest, but that strength came from a world of pain.
That’s why I say, if you choose to walk away, you’ll be forever free from the pain and you’ll be able to continue the way that you have been moving."
Aren listened to every word that was spoken, with his mind churning extremely fast to process it all. He bowed his head slowly and took another breath.
"I’m sorry, but this might be the only opportunity that I’ll have to see who I truly am and what happened to me.
Maybe I might not be the same after it, but I won’t be the same knowing that I have a past that I have completely thrown away and don’t want to see again." Aren explained what he was thinking.
The one before stared at him hard and then finally nodded, good. "Then so be it."
He stretched out his hands and placed them onto the head of Aren. "Let’s reveal the truth," he said, and calmly a light from his palm enveloped the face of Aren.
[.......]
Outside, the angel looked at Aren, who was standing and was about to shoot. The moment he blasted a blood red light from his finger, Aren moved so fast that everything else around him moved in slow motion.
The angel was stunned by what he saw, but before his reaction could fully set in, Aren shot out tendrils from his back that shot forward and latched onto the angel, pulling Aren forward very fast through the air, spinning around and delivering a kick right into the chest of the angel.
BAM
The angel was thrown back fast. It slammed into the ground, rolled, and finally stopped. It rose to its feet very fast and looked at Aren, his face twisted in rage and eyes burning red with anger.
"How dare you, filthy human, place your hands on me, I’ll have your head!" He rose from the ground and shot forward, his wings propelling him so fast that it looked like he vanished.
Aren looked at him coming. He said no words and simply pointed his finger forward, and Timer appeared, stronger than ever and filled with the same bloodlust that Aren was feeling.
Riker wasted not even a second before slashing down. The angel saw the attack and quickly moved to block the attack with his sword.
BOOM!
The collision shook the entire bridge as cracks spread across very quickly. The angel looked in shock, stunned by the power that was packed into that attack alone.
"What in the world are you?" He asked, looking up to find Aren, but Aren had moved already. Floating in the air, Aren wasted no time to summon the hammer and hurl it down at the angel.
WHOOSH
The angel reacted fast, flapping backward and evading as the hammer slammed into the ground.
BOOM!
A massive crater formed in the structure of the bridge. Aren landed down beside Riker and picked the hammer before looking up at the angel.
"You brat, you think you can defeat me? Tch, I’ll show you what true power is," the angel said and gripped its sword. Its aura exploded outward, a wave of sinister divine energy that would render a normal human dead.
The aura flowed like a raging ocean, rising like a volcano. It felt unbeatable. The insides of the statue trembled at the face of this power, and more cracks formed on the bridge.
Flapping his wings once, the angel shot forward. His speed alone shattered the sound barrier and more.
"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He roared in anger as he slashed down fast, the blade so powerful that it ripped up space, yet Aren was unfazed. The youngest one didn’t care about that. He dashed forward as if coming to meet the attack, and with the hammer in hand, he swung upwards.
BAM
Sword and hammer collided. The shockwave rippled hard and hit the walls, causing a large crack that immediately started spreading up the side of the wall. The cracks were an arm thick and bringing down the structure soon.
Aren and the angel were pushed back, but while getting pushed back, Aren hurled his hammer and then used shadows to latch onto it and pull himself forward. He caught the hammer right before it hit, spun around and swung down, slamming into the head of the angel. The angel bounced and was hurled to the side right beside Aiden’s body.
He walked over there, picked Aiden up, and without thought hurled Aiden aside without care before turning his eyes to the angel, only for the angel to shoot a wild slash. The blade cut right into Aren’s guts. It made it right through the armor, a testament to how sharp the blade was.
Blood gushed out, and the angel felt this would slow Aren down, only for shadow tendrils to latch into Aren and wrap the cut inside and stop the blood. Then he lunged at the angel again, but the angel moved out of the way and flew into the air in anger.
It raised his sword above its head and it glowed red, gathering all the soul energy that was around into that sword. The glow got stronger and stronger until he unleashed the slash, unleashing a powerful blast that ripped through the air. The reddish blast slammed into the bridge, Aren, and everything that was there.
The entire bridge was blown off and Aren fell down towards the bottom, and at the same time his friends plummeted, but Aren did not care. He shot tendrils up and shot at the angel who had caught Lucy and was about to fly away with her.
Flo saw that her master was not in the right mind, and being the only one that was currently safe, she appeared and flew downwards fast, passing the group in the air. She landed on the ground and then forcefully unleashed her reality power.