Universe #777

In a brightly lit hall, a man in full-body white, pristine, armor, kneeled on the ground facing an empty throne.

For the mundane eye, it appeared that the armored man was alone in the hall, but for someone who had the required strength, he could peer through the veil of reality and see what was hidden within.

In the eyes of the armored man, a very old man, with a long white beard and wearing just a white immaculate robe made of some kind of light element sat on the throne.

On the sides of the throne stood two…entities. Their armor had some resemblance with the kneeling man, but it seemed that their presence was completely on another level.

The old man, however, felt like a complete mortal. No fluctuations of power as intense as the ones of his servants could be felt.

If it wasn’t for his eyes that looked like a starry sky in addition to his elemental white robe, you’d really take him for a simple old man with one foot in the grave.

The old man sighed then said in a voice that only the kneeling man could hear reverberating in his head, “You have great ambition, Dion. But there’s nothing I can do for you…you failed the trial.”

The kneeling man bent his back as he pleaded, “Please, Lord God, give me another chance…”

The old man seemed to close his eyes in contemplation, then said, “You were destined to fail the ‘faith test’ from the moment you were born. Do you know why?”

Hearing that his most cherished dream was destined to never see the light of day, the kneeling man almost stopped his own heart from shock, “No…No…Why..Lord God, why are you abandoning me?”

It seemed the kneeling man was crying rivers and had snot coming out of his nose which couldn’t be seen through his helmet.

The old man then said, “In these last centuries, you were the first worthy believer to ever reach the ‘Paladin of God’ level. Just because you had a tremendous amount of faith in me, my power flowed through you and you used it and did your best to eliminate the demons and their followers who plague your little planet. But no matter how many demons you killed, more appeared and you were tired of wasting your strength and time in a pointless fight. Do you remember that thought you had that day at the summit of mount Idras? You thought, Íf only I was God myself, I could cleanse this world of all its filth and make it a paradise for the good-hearted and pious ones.’ That’s why you just failed. While your faith was boundless, you were disappointed in me for not giving you more power to do as you wish. It led to your faith being corrupted. If I didn’t ask you to ascend, to give you the false expectation of becoming a ‘Saint Paladin’, you would’ve become corrupted like those demons you so desperately tried to eradicate. My faith power would’ve fueled your corruption and you had the chance to become an ‘Apostle of Sin’. All I am telling you, I saw in the future.”

Hearing that the kneeling man, Dion, felt something inside of him shatter. For the first time in his life, he had never been more sure of something as deeply as he felt right now.

‘Am I just a plaything for him to do as he wishes? What of the faith I had in him? Is it wrong for me to want to create a paradise for the oppressed? Is it wrong for me to want more power?...and now I must die to avoid a future that may or may not happen. So what if I become an ‘’Apostle of Sin’, I’d still kill the demons all the same. There’s no way I’d join them…they killed my entire clan…my hatred for them will never fade…’

“No..no..you’re…YOU’RE LYING!” The kneeling man then stood up and then unsheathed his claymore gathering his power onto the shining blade, “You’re just a lazy bum who sits on his throne and watches as we suffer from oppression again and again. You give us this measly faith power but it will never be enough and you know it.”

“I am not your plaything, and if I must die, I will at least try to bring you down with me.”

Dion’s white aura started showing black spots here and there.

He was turning into a demon just like his God had predicted.

As his faith became corrupted, because of his intense anger, the reason being: suffering from an unjust death when he was the most devoted follower of God. His dreams were shattered like it meant nothing…

The old man, the God sitting on the high throne, sighed and said, “Demons have no God. Their power is fueled by their turbulent and chaotic minds. The crazier they are and the more they fall into depravity, the stronger they are. All of this makes them extremely dangerous. You can’t force someone to be good all the time and the demon seed is more prevalent in the pious ones as they are the first to fall the hardest, thus becoming even more dangerous than ordinary people who generally live between light and darkness, being prone to neither. That’s why my Saints are carefully chosen and becoming an Apostle is even more stringent.”

“There’s really nothing I could have done for you, so you can die in peace.”

As Dion aura had turned completely black along with his armor and sword, he made a fighting pose, bending his body slightly towards the front and wielding the claymore towards the back to the right side.

Dion screamed, “GO FUCK YOURSELF.” it was said with all his heart to show how he felt.

His right leg made a step and that step had him look like a black meteor moving at the speed of light to hack at the god.

It was his strongest move, formerly called the [Meteor Cleave].

In a normal setting, he would only be able to use it once, but now that his corruption had made him jump two whole levels, going from the ‘Paladin Of God’ to the demon equivalent of a ‘Saint’, the ‘Fallen’ level and then the demon equivalent of an ‘Apostle of God’, the ‘Apostle of Sin’ level, he could use that move as many times as he needed with the abundant pool of corrupted faith energy he wielded.

As the black sword cleaved down on the God, the two entities who had been motionless all the time finally made a move. Both materialized swords made of light in front of them with the slightest movement and then sent them to impale the incoming Dion.

Before Dion’s sword could even touch the God who was now looking at him with a derisive smile, the former was impaled by more than a hundred swords.

It seemed that the light element the swords were made of was the bane for the black element surrounding Dion.

Initially, the black aura around Dion acted as a shield at the same time as it powered him up, but it was cut through like butter by the light swords.

But it wasn’t enough to actually kill him.

Dion screamed with a voice that seemed to be coming from the deepest hell and the swords made of light were expelled from his body which healed instantly.

Dion then said, “I know that move too.”

He said : [One Thousand Deity Slaying Swords.]

One thousand black swords appeared in front of him, He waved his hand forward and at the speed of light, the black swords engulfed his three enemies.

“ENOUGH!” The God said.

As he said that, a white transparent light escaped his body and radiated outside at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Everywhere that transparent light passed, a cleansing effect took place. The black swords simply evaporated into nothingness.

The transparent light made it to Dion, who saw his protective shield being corroded and then being turned into nothingness as well.

Next was his body which started to also be corroded and turned into motes of light that also turned to nothingness.

Dion only understood that he was dead but not how.

In the next moment the hall was empty and no one seemed to even be present.

The hall had been in a temple dedicated to the God of Light, Alucard…and the god, and two entities were just projections sent down from the divine Kingdom.

Back in the divine Kingdom, the God in all his glory was standing in front of a lake… or gigantic mirror.

On the surface, you could see the previous hall and everything that had just happened.

“It’s finally over.”

“Let’s see if my future changed.”

The images in the gigantic mirror started moving and now the Old God could see himself being impaled by a black sword, his Divinity being extracted from his body.

The man who impaled him had a striking resemblance to Dion.

“No…Nothing changed.”

“Impossible…how?”

“I erased him from existence…His soul is no more …I made sure of it.”

“How could he survive?”

***

[System Initializing….]

[Searching for a deceased Host…]

[System Host Found…]

{

Name: Dion Frazier

Demon seed detected…[Darkness Element.]

Angel seed detected… [Light Element]

Faith Power detected…[Type : Light element] [State : Corrupted]

}

[Preparing for transmigration.]

[Searching target Universe…Universe #696 found…Name: Magus World]

[Issuing {Magic System}...Issuing {Sub System : Faith/aura}...Issuing {Sub System : Bloodline}...Issuing {Sub System : Pet Contractor}]

[Downloading {Systems Into Host Soul}...]

[1%...17%...45%...69%...73%...96%....100%...System download complete…]

[Choosing the Host's new body with the name {Dion}…]

[Host found…name : {Dion Frazier} {Bluestar Continent / Furious Dragon Empire / Drake City / Frazier Clan}]

***

Universe #696

On a busy street, the ‘Frazier Herbalist’ store appeared very conspicuous with its shiny signboard with the same name.

Inside the store, on the counter, you could see a youth dozing off.

An old man then entered the store.

The youth didn’t even hear the bell ringing as he continued to doze off.

“Little Dion. If your father saw you right now, he’d give you a good spanking.” the old man said in a loud voice.

The youth seemed to move a little. Then his eyes opened and he appeared drowsy.

The youth looked around him and seemed to not recognize his surroundings.

Finally, the eyes of the youth stopped on the old man who was smiling at him saying, “Get me two vials of Jade mountain dew and some heavenly licorice,”

The youth then fell on the ground screaming and holding his head.

New memories appeared in the youth’s mind.

Dion Frazier was reliving the life of the body he just woke up in.

‘What in God’s name is this? Shouldn’t I have died? What is the meaning of this?’

‘It seemed I took over a body and from the looks of it, its owner had just died from poison. I have all his memories so I can assume his identity. Is this the doing of that lazy God? It seems unlikely…he wanted me deader than a ghost.’

“Little Dion, are you alright? What’s going on?” The old man helped Dion to the chair and went to a shelf, fished out a few vials, and then had Dion drink them one by one.

Dion seemed to regain his colors and the old man heaved a sigh of relief.

“Stay there. Don’t even think of moving. I am going to find your father.” The old man then ran out the back door and disappeared.

Dion Frazier stayed there as he further digested the previous Dion Frazier’s memories.

His father Donald Frazier had married a woman from the forgotten tribes south of the Scarlet Mountain range. It happened during the time he was lost in the Forgotten lands and she had saved him from certain death. One thing led to another and Dion came into being later…but because Dion’s mother’s clan had never consented to their union, they sentenced her to death because she had given birth to a bastard and also to appease her arranged fiance who came from a bigger, more powerful clan.

Donald fled with Dion who was just a baby back then. They both survived by the teeth of their skin. If it wasn’t for the dying strange creature they stumbled upon as they fled, Donald would have never managed to become strong enough to bring them out of the Forgotten Lands and the Scarlet Mountain Range.

The old man finally came back with a middle-aged man who was completely bald and had tattoos on all his visible body going from the head to his feet.

The old man came before Dion and then looked at him calmly.

“I smell poison…a slow-acting one…You should be dead by now…why are you still alive?” Donald said with a slow voice…his eyes seemed uncertain of his assumption. He only looked at Dion waiting for the latter to answer.

Dion just shook his head and then said, “Maybe it’s because Grandpa Leonard here gave me the medicine in time.”

Donald was just as calm as ever. He didn’t accept that answer. He knew that such poison could kill even an Archmagus and he would never see it coming until it was too late…just like him, who boasted of the best sense of smell could have been in the dark until the last moment.

Besides, there is no such thing as an antidote to this kind of poison in his store, much less in the entire world, only a god of the wood element could cure it and a god of the light element could cleanse it.

But who were Gods?

They never appeared in the mortal world and preferred to stay in their Divine Kingdoms. Even if Donald himself went on his knees and prayed like the most pious man who had ever existed, they would never deign to cure his son…they only cared about their faith power, and nothing else.

So with that said, what had saved his son?

As scared of losing Dion as he was, he would never show it on the outside. Right now he was thinking of the many of his enemies who had a bone to pick with him. Maybe it was time he stopped being passive and acted on his anger for once.

Blood was going to flow in Drake city that night and the old man, Leonard, shuddered at the thought of it.