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Volume 4

Chapter 15 The Day's End

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...Baron's condition is dropping. DNI Therapy is the last option I think we had left.

These words were ringing on his mind all the way until he came back to Terroa. He was at the balcony, in the night sky of Loire, accompanied by his favorite java, watching the twinkling of the lights far and wide.

With the winds blowing like a whisper to his skin, Siva stared at the landscape and separated the black and the yellow, the red, the blue, and the blinking little lights of the busy city streets of Loire.

His body's shaking but not due to cold but due to the fact that he can't relax his muscles. At least, before his real body suffered any kind of problems, the NL-D had already separated the abnormal brain signals just before it was triggered in the Medulla Oblongata, stopping the process of palpitation and therefore stopping his body from doing excessive oxygen intake.

Actually, he already planned to sleep a little while ago after his conversation with Faust, but after he received the news and learned of his one month sleep, he can't find a reason to relax and so to save time, he waited for his drowsiness to come inside the game.

And yet after two hours of nothing, instead of feeling drowsy, he was feeling wide awake. He can't relax his muscles, he can't even close his eyes.

Because every time he close his eyes, all he could see is that image of his parents in the car accident, and the one little treasure he had left in this world bleeding on his arms.

His consciousness awoken, he snapped open his eyes and felt himself gasping for air.

Surprise drew over him as he didn't even realized that he was actually closing his eyes. It was as if there was some part of him who ordered his body, or his mental rendering of his body, to fall asleep even if his mind is totally active.

"What the fuck...!!"

It's that feeling again. Like he was grasping every inch and detail of everything around him, like his mind is stretching far wider than the time of the world.

All kinds of sounds vanished, there was just plain and deep silence, so loud, a silence so eerily deafening that he immediately panicked and felt for his surroundings.

The trembling of his muscles stopped and he saw his hand trying to stop the other.

"What in the world is happening?"

It was in that moment that he felt another person's presence in the room. He turned around, guns on both his hands and he saw a shadow looking at him.

He raised the barrel and tried to fire a shot but with the first bullet flying away towards the man in the corner, his arms flew up, his guns disarmed, and the bullet hit the vase at the top of the shelf, shattering it.

"Missed me." said the male voice. "But even if you had hit me, I would only feel a slight knock back but there will be no damage dealt on me."

The last part came like a hiss.

Siva could sense killing intent from the man as he took small steps forward towards where Siva was.

And yet, if there was no damage taken in a safe zone, then why does his hand hurt from the parry? Siva glanced over to his hand and he saw a red mark as if it was slapped by something like a hard cloth.

Something wasn't right here.

"Oh, you realized?"

GASP!

"H-How did you..."

"It's easy, really. All I did was to look at you and I know exactly what's going on in your head."

The man's silhouette outlined in the shadows came closer to Siva and from his feet to his legs, he saw a few similarities to their clothes. His feet stopped as the trace of the intruder's right sleeve reflected the dim moonlight.

Golden details of the design he had been fond of ever since he can remember. It was a design that he had in his head ever since his time in high school.

Like a flame that doesn't have a body, consuming all of the things in the air, moving freely, expanding, burning all that can be burned... the details on the sleeve was the same one he had designed on his sleeve for fashion purposes. But the way it was imprinted on the man's right sleeve, he couldn't help thinking that it was like a background to the flames on his left sleeve.

His is the foreground and the man's is the background.

Siva held his breath as the right sleeve was just as he had feared it was.

The man's hand raised with a finger pointed at him and as he made an effort to step back, the next few words shocked him more that his feet stopped.

"We are the same, you and I."

Fear crept over his chest, Siva's lips trembled and he tried to say something. But despite his intelligence, the sight and the thoughts he had took away his freedom.

When he found the courage to look into the man's face, a smile so dark and sinister beamed out from him.

The man's right eye glowed red, his teeth was white in the darkness of the shadows, the other half of his face was blocked by the mask. It was a mask that Siva was so familiar with. The mask that he's been using all this time.

"No, it can't be."

"Oh, yes it can be."

The finger pointed at Siva turned into an invitation, an open palm offered like an invitation.

To his shock, his left hand move, the two sleeves with the mirror designs looked identical there was no actual difference. As Siva's hand was on top, the man's is right below.

His cold smile turned wider, happiness was all over his menacing expression.

"Just who... Wha-What are you?"

"I think you already know it." Just then, as the man took another step forward, his face was finally seen.

In Siva's horror, he tried to pull his hand but it was held tightly and he can't let go. Siva's eyes were fixed on that distorted visage of a face, burned by fire until it was practically bones and flesh, and yet he's still alive.

"Wh-Who are you?!!" Siva struggled to free himself.

"You know me." the words came as a hiss and the right sleeve of the man with the same mask as Siva began to liquefy and absorb him. "The One created me but he had no use of me when you came. So I became you, as with the purpose I was created. From the moment you had stepped forth in this world, I began to be alive."

The voice changed and became hollow, as Siva's arm was being dragged, the last note of the sentence came to his ears like a dreaded whisper of a ghost.

Different kinds of negative feelings swirled up in him, awakening all hidden desires and the wrath Siva had kept inside. He felt fear for the man, especially to his strength. It was a strength that no other, a strength he knew that he cannot fight no matter how he tried.

He can't do anything. He struggled hard! He tried to kick him away but from the right arm to his left hand, the sleeve continued to absorb him, or maybe, as it was now, he was absorbing the man.

"Let go of me!"

Now, the liquefied sleeve had reached the shoulders.

"You have a mission. Fulfill your purpose." His smile never ceasing, the zombie version of himself continued to be absorbed to himself.

"No!! Siva cried and tried to summon a weapon but all his player controls were locked as if it was deliberately made so. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Free me." The tone was rising, like a plea but using a delighted, joyous quality its impression was a mix.

"I don't know you!" Siva kept punching and kicking.

"Free me!!"

Now the voice seemed commanding. The zombie man screamed like a dictator, anger painted his voice.

"Let go! Aaaaargh!!"

With a last call, the liquid absorption began to take a final burst. The whole right side of the man's body had been turned to a gas-like state, merging with Siva's left side like water.

Panic stricken, Siva yelled and kept his struggle but not an inch did the man budged, and he just kept smiling at his futile effort.

"It is your destiny!"

Murderous intent layered the words spoken to Siva.

And just as his distorted face was closed in, all stopped as the man smiled to Siva, "Who are you...?"

"I am... you. I am The Destroyer. You are a vessel that made me possible. You have a purpose in this world. I am merely here to deliver you that message."

With that, the face melted into Siva's face and he jarred upright from his chair, gasping, hand going all over his heart and body.

Siva checked himself as he ran towards the mirror, the memory of the dream fresh from his mind.

The sensation of the cold metallic hot burning liquid traveling through skin, to his veins, inside his ears, his nose, his eyes, and his mouth lingered on his senses and it made him shiver with a sense of dread.

He was momentarily confused as to where he was.

Looking around, he didn't remember logging out so the wind, the high location, the feeling on his skin, the clothes he was wearing, everything that registered on his eyes and ears was still inside Terroa. Sound came back and everything is alive.

The familiar feeling of the hot dry wind registered on his mind and Siva felt that the sound of the city was in a completely, utterly, louder than usual tone.

When he gazed down and far, he saw that it was the scene he last remembered seeing just before he had that weird dream.

"It's as if it only lasted for seconds."

Confused, he glanced over the time. He did not recall ever knowing and checking the time before he lost his consciousness but he knew that these sounds were the last he heard before he drifted away.

He sat down on the chair, holding his head. He was in a confused situation where his mind was betraying him.

After what seemed to be endless seconds thinking over and cooling things down, he received an email prompt from Cassiopeia detailing the report he had requested.

His interest piqued, Siva read the contents of the email, completely forcing himself to forgetting the horrifying nightmare he had just experienced.

In the message, there was the heading [I couldn't find any information about the place but I found something about Zeta] that he read.

From there alone, Siva's mood beamed out with a smile.