Chapter 147.13

Arc 14.5 - God of Stories - Part 13

Plymouth, UK:

In the kitchen of their house, Aya - Nazar’s mother - was standing in front of a cooker and humming.

These last few weeks have been really complicated for her, so after a long time, she finally got used to these annoying issues around her - or ignored them. But that does not matter, she was starting to feel a little better.

While she was humming, a nostalgic smile formed on her face as she remembered her children grew before her and her late husband. Remembering her late husband and her second child, that nostalgic smile turned into something sad.

She could see images of her second child, a beautiful child with unusual human features such as natural white hair and red crimson eyes, her head lowered in a gloomy manner.

The wonderful memories she had with her child were far from genuine.

Her child stayed away, scared because in an older world, he was hurt by them.

That silly child of hers knew that it was not his mother’s fault that he was hurt, but a demon, but he was too scared to think otherwise.

Aya could not help but feel like a failure as a parent.

If only I could reassure him…

A few months ago, Nazar finally told them the truth about his powers and how the person who lived with them wasn’t always him. Ever since then, she can’t keep her head up and feels like a failure.

No matter how much she grows closer to her son, the feeling of failure is not going away from her. She wishes it would go away and start fresh all over again, but every time she sees him, those feelings return.

And… I am scared of him.

Aya bit her lip as she looked down.

He reeks of evil and death…

Whenever she looks at him, she has to avert her eyes so little, so he doesn’t notice it. She cannot look her own child in the eyes because of how evil he is.

Moments before Nazar enters the house, she feels a chill run through her spine, feeling fear. She does not want that, but she cannot help it.

Is her child evil? Yes, indeed he is. A terrible evil who has destroyed planets and universes before.

But even then… Even then…

What would a parent do if their child were evil? Would they stay by their side? Or push them away?

Or..

I should put him on the right path.

She clenched her fist in determination as she looked up.

I am sure he will at least try… He did promise, after all.

She smiled softly.

Yeah, that will do.

“Hi, mom,” the world had glitched as a man with white hair and red eyes suddenly teleported in, he cheerily greeted his mother with a wide smile while waving his hand.

“Gah!” hearing his voice from behind her, Aya’s body jerked a little.

She turned around nimbly as she moved back slightly, but her back was pressed against the kitchen table soon after and could not move back anymore.

However, she did not need to be scared anymore once she saw who it was, so she relaxed her shoulders and took a few deep breaths.

“Jeez, you scared me,” Aya let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, sorry,” Nazar scratched the back of his head apologetically.

Aya relaxed her shoulders and stood straight.

"Don't do that again, please."

"Okay. Sorry again."

Aya dismissed it with a wave of her hand.

“Anyway, what are you cooking?”

“Oh, Aeron’s favourite.”

“And what’s that?”

“Seriously? You don’t know that?”

Nazar darted his eyes away, avoiding her gaze.

“...No?”

“It’s lasagna,” she said with an exasperated face.

“Oh… He likes that thing,” a slight expression of disgust appeared on Nazar’s face. “What a fucking moron.”

“Nazar!” she shouted at him with a serious look on her face. “Language!”

He stared blankly at Aya.

“...Really?”

“Yes, show respect. You don’t swear in front of your parents.”

“Well… I suppose that makes sense. Sorry.”

“It’s okay now,” she waved her hand dismissively. “Anyway, what’s wrong with lasagna? It’s amazing.”

“It’s Italian and it has cheese in it.”

“...What?”

“Nothing, it’s just an inside joke between Laura and I… As for cheese, it’s my least favourite thing ever. Well, alongside mayonnaise.”

Aya shook her head.

“Anyway, where is Emma?”

“Oh, in the pool,” Aya pointed with her index finger to her right side.

“Great. There was something I wanted to tell her.”

He went close to Aya and kissed her on the cheek.

“Well, someone is in a good mood.”

“Thanks, mom.”

She was surprised at first but then smiled softly.

“Welcome, sweetie. Ah, before you go, here is a new rule for this house.”

He stared at her with a confused smile.

“...Okay?”

“No more using these powers at home,” she said in a very serious tone. “Unless it’s an emergency, don’t teleport into the house. Do it in the front or back of the house and then walk in but never ever teleport right in, understand?”

“But that’s a lot of work,” he frowned.

“I said, do you understand?” her eyes narrowed, even more serious than before.

“...”

He smiled stiffly.

“Alright, alright. I will not do that anymore. I will turn off my powers at home.”

“Good.”

He was about to teleport out and go to the back of the house, but then he remembered and rolled his eyes.

“Right,” his eyes lit up for a brief second as he turned off his powers, now he was no different than a normal human. Wel… A normal human who can become the most powerful human ever with just but a thought.

He walked away through the dining room and at the end, there was another door which led straight to the back of the house. He opened the door and left, leaving Aya alone.

She watched him leave and smiled softly.

So, glad he feels bett...er...

“...Huh?”

Once she was left alone, she realised something.

Her movement and eyes froze as she realised something.

I did not feel fear before he came in… What could that mean?

She looked down as she thought.

And I did not notice anything bad from him today… Odd.

She felt troubled about the sudden change, but at the same time, she felt a little happy deep down.

လလလ

Nazar went to the back of the house and found Emma swimming in the pool

He went close and crouched next to the pool.

“Sorry.”

Emma stopped swimming and stared at him in a confused manner.

“For what?”

“... Anyway, there was something I wanted to discuss with you.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a long story but to make it short… I took your advice, and I am changing the world.”

“!!”

Emma’s eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me you are going to--”

“No, no, no,” he shook her head, “nothing like that.”

“Hm?”

“For the better. Not evil, of course. But I am fixing the world this time just as you wished.”

Emma narrowed her eyes.

“Let me hear it.”

He explained what he did to Emma and listened carefully.

“And that’s-- Woah!”

As he neared the ending of his explanation, suddenly, someone kicked him into the pool.

“Bah.”

He quickly got up and wiped the water off his face with his hand.

“Dude!”

Aeron scoffed as he sat at the table.

Nazar shook his head as he got out of the pool.

The wet nanite based clothing and his hair were annoying, so his powers returned for a moment and dried him up.

“So, what have you done now? Did you fuck over the world again?”

“Actually, I did,” Nazar’s eyes lit up brightly as a sinister smile spread across his face. “In two weeks' time, this world will blow up to pieces.”

“Neat,” Aeron did not buy anything Nazar said, which caused Nazar to roll his eyes.

“Fine, nothing bad.”

“Well, that’s just disappointing. Almost as disappointing as you.”

Nazar groaned, “Ugh, not something I wanted to hear from you.”

“Anyway, what did you do to the world? The time zones are a mess,” Aeron asked as he looked at his watch.

“Oh, I made four sun which this planet orbits.”

“...”

“...”

Both Aeron and Emma looked at each other in a confused manner.

“Reality is fragile, whisper a few sweet words into her ear and she opens herself up to you like a blooming flower. Beautiful blooming flower.”

“...”

“...”

The two of them stared at him blankly.

Emma got out of the pool and smacked him on the back of the head.

“God, that was awful.”

“Which part?”

“All of it,” she said as if she was stating the most obvious thing ever.

Nazar shook his head and looked up to the orange sky. The sun was about to vanish into the darkness that would overtake the world into the night.

“Twilight,” he said with a soft smile. “Did you know, on planet Ins, they believe at this time of the day, time and space become one and anyone can “look” through it.”

Aeron looked up at Nazar and questioned, “Well, is it true?”

“Yes, actually. But it’s a lot more complicated than they say. You would need to find a portal or a connection to the past in order to glance through it.”

“I am surprised you haven’t experimented on it.”

“Meh, not much for silly things like this.”

They watched as the sun sat and the sky was painted dark blue and dark purple with beautiful stars that spread for an infinity.

“Ah.”

He clasped the back of his hands together and stabbed into the thin air in front of him.

“Alright, let me try something.”

“Try what?”

“Since this house is inside a subspace of its own, I thought it would be cool if I try to do a little more with it visually.”

Moving away his palms from each other, the space ripped open, revealing a white-blue dimension of energy. Once the doorway was opened, a stream of blue-white energies were unleashed into the world.

“What’s that?”

“I am creating a quantum reality for this subspace, different from its original. It should be a lot easier for you and Emma and mom and Angela to control. You can manipulate the space above you to look whatever you want it to be.”

“Anything I envision?”

“Yep. From a green sky to white sky. Or a sky with no stars if you prefer. Or anything like that.”

“Sweet!” a soft impressed smile formed in the corner of Emma’s lips.

“Well, you do pull something decent once in a while, it seems,” Aeron nodded his head with a complex look on his face.

“For once, can’t you be happy?”

“Nah, fuck yourself.”

“Alright then.”

The space changed around this house.

“Woah.”

Both Aeron and Emma stared at the sky with wide eyes and an impressed smile.

The infinite black sky became a mix of blue and purple with cosmic dust. There were a few blue lines of energy and a dying orange sun, lighting up the skies ever so slightly.

“What are those lines?”

“Meaningless lines, but it looks awesome, does it not?”

Aeron nodded in an impressed manner, “Definitely.”

“OOOH!” Emma shouted excitedly as she clenched her hands in front of her chest. “CAN I?”

Seeing the starry eyes of Emma, Nazar averted his gaze a little.

“S-sure but tone down your excitement.”

“So, how do I do it?!”

“Just envision.”

“But what if I envision something else and there is conflict?” Aeron asked as he glanced at Nazar from the corner of his eyes.

“Actually… Good point.”

Nazar’s hands lit up with white energies.

“Should I give it a password? Or it changes daily, for example, you can do it today and then Emma tomorrow? That sort of thing.”

“Passwords would be more interesting,” Aeron suggested.

“Alright. Set your passwords.”

“Uhh… I don’t know, Emma 2021?”

Both Aeron and Nazar stared at her blankly.

“Th-that’s totally not my password for everything,” Emma chuckled nervously as she looked away.

Wearily, Nazar shook his head.

“Aeron?”

“Right, I should set my password as QREX02D5.”

“I hope you remember that in the future...” Nazar said slowly as he looked at Emma. “And you?”

”Uhh…” Emma looked around as she thought “NinjaJesus.”

“...”

“...”

Both Nazar and Aeron stared at Emma as they blinked a few times.

“Don’t question it,” Emma sighed.

“Whatever, Aeron call the rest of them so they can set their passwords now. Just to get over them right now.”

“Can I go now?” the excited Emma asked Nazar.

“Yes.”

“Alright, alright,” she took a few deep breaths. “How about a colourful sky with dozens of suns?”

The moment she said that the skies changed. Dozens and dozens of colours spread across the infinite sky as hundreds of suns of many distinct colours glowed brightly.

“That’s sooo coooooooooooooooool!” Emma’s mouth was half open as she stared at this sky.

After a short while, Aya noticed the weird light around the house and came out with a worried look on her face.

She gasped loudly as she looked around her.

“What’s… this?”

“Oh, nothing too complicated, just having fun with a subspace.”

To Nazar’s reply, she stared confusingly at him.

“...What?”

“Well… Actually, let the others come and be surprised so I can explain it all at once.”

“O-okay.”

Aya stared at the sky as she looked at the sky.

A few minutes later, Angel and Laura came in. Although the two of them were not surprised. In fact, they were extremely impressed by what they saw.

Although at the same time, they wondered why the sky was so bright.

“So?” Aya asked.

“This house is inside a different subspace, thought I should do something fun with it,” Nazar shrugged. “So, I created a quantum reality which means you can change the universe outside the house - inside this subspace, of course - to whatever you want it to be. But you have to say your password before it.” he pointed at the sky with his chin. “And this is what Emma wants it to be, I guess.”

“But why?”

She asked a good and valid question.

“A better question is, why not? Is this not fun? I could return it back to its original state if you want.”

“No,” she shook her head, “it’s fine. As long as it’s nothing too bad.”

“Of course not. Nothing bad here.”

Aya was still unsure of it but she nodded.

“You can set your password to whatever you want, and you can change it whenever you want.”

Aya chuckled, “I will stick this one out, thank you.”

“Your loss.”

He looked at Angela.

“And you?”

“Uh… I don’t know-- Ah! QREX02D5.”

Nazar looked at Aeron, who shrugged.

“Wait, he already took it?”

“Yeah,” Aeron replied stiffly.

“Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?” Angela shouted at the sky with her fists clenched, although jokingly.

“You guys share the same password?” Nazar asked confusingly.

“Yeah, it’s the computer password,” Angela spoke with a weary face. “We have one computer in the room so it has the same password.”

“Right, now choose something else,” Nazar gestured to her to hurry up.

“Double O Seven.”

“Eh, works,” Nazar said after a shrug. “And you?” he looked at Laura.

“Me?” Laura squinted her eyes and curled up a corner of her lips in a confused manner. “You sure?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Alright then, Black Flower.”

“Black flower… That sounds familiar,” Nazar spaced out as he tried to recall something. “Ahh! Right. On the planet Omnicrine at the edge of SV 13590 galaxy, there exists black flowers. I should bring some.”

“Nice,” Laura was not sure how to react to it.

“And that’s done,” the energy around Nazar’s hand vanished, “now you can change it whenever you want.”

He looked at each one of them, with an expression that was perhaps expecting some praise in return, but no one said anything, and they looked at the sky.

“Right.”

Nazar snapped his fingers and the skies changed once again.

A colourful sunless sky replaced the old. This beautiful sky full of stars made everyone gape their mouths open in awe.

“You can’t always have this in real world without consequences,” he added but it's a mystery if anyone heard him. “Anyway, I will be back in a minute.”

Laura saw him vanish into a thin air and wondered where he went.

However, she did not have to wonder for long. A brief moment later, he appeared behind her and said, “Here.”

Hearing a voice behind her, her shoulders jumped, “Gah?!” Although it was not very loud, the others did not hear it.

“Oops, my bad.”

Laura took a few deep breaths and shook her head.

“I thought you would be used to it.”

“I am, but…” she turned around and tilted her head as her words trailed off. “What’s that?”

“Black flowers,” Nazar handed her a handful of black flowers. “They look like roses but are jet black. It’s cool, right?”

Laura took the flowers and smelled it.

“It smells like…” a faint nostalgic smile spread across her red lips. “I smelled it a long time ago back home. It’s really familiar… I think it starts with ‘a’ or was it...”

“Azaleas?”

“Yes!” her smile widened. “Yes, that’s the one. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And thanks for these flowers.”

“You’re welcome times two.”

Laura laughed.

"Oi, Nazar, what's that?"

Emma, with a scared look on her face called out to Nazar.

"Wanna see the biggest fireworks show?"

"No?" Emma and Angela replied without hesitation.

Nazar let out a soft groan.

"Fine, how about this then…?"

Nazar raised his left hand and slowly moved it down through the empty air, as if operating on a lever.

"Don't look at me with blank looks, look to the sky."

And so they did. Everyone faced the sky and gasped in unison.

"Three shooting stars. But it's not going to harm anything, so don't worry about it."

From the colourful night sky, three large stars - covered in light pink and cyan colours - flew right down at the planet in a distance.

The stars entered the planet's orbit like meteors and broke the sound barrier. While it was thousands of miles away, they still heard the deafening sound.

"Now you can wish for anything."

"You believe in that sort of fairy tale?" Laura asked slowly with an interested smile. She never expected him to be one of those people.

"What? No, of course not. But I can grant them wishes."

"Ahh, I see."

"Yep. I might not use my real power but doesn't mean I can't use a weaker version of it."

Laura did not understand too well but decided to ignore it and ask another question.

"But what brought this on?"

Nazar's smile vanished from his face like it was never there before.

"Tomorrow could be bad, the next day worse, and the day after, even worse, so I thought I should use these few uneventful moments and do something fun."

"Quite thoughtful of you, surpassingly."

"Haha, why?"

"Well, I don't know, I thought you would rather waste that time getting hurt by someone."

"Oh, come on, now, I am not a masochist," he frowned.

She raised an eyebrow and smiled thinly.

"Oh? You sure about that?"

Nazar rolled his eyes with a slight shake of his head and looked at the falling stars.

"What are you gonna wish for?"

"Oh, I don't know," Laura sighed, "the usual, I suppose."

"The usual?"

"To be successful, be happy, get married, live a long life, that sort of things, you know?"

"Hm, I see, I see."

"What about you?"

"Me…?"

"Yes, what is the one thing you want in life?"

He froze in his place as he thought about his wish.

If he could wish for one thing - and only one thing - what would he wish for?

The fall of his enemies?

His death?

Loss of his powers?

What would he wish for?

လလလ

Everything dies.

Except for me.

Everything died.

Except for me.

There is nothing.

Except for me.

In the place which had nothing, I created darkness.

Because even in the darkness…

Even in the darkness, there is beauty.

လလလ

Nazar sucked in his breath as an old memory came to him.

He stood in one place and watched the star fall.

The glowing light of the falling stars in the sky had vanished yet he did not move.

He stood and stood still.

He did not see the others going into the house.

He just stood and stared at the night sky.

"So?"

"What would I wish for?"

He finally turned around and looked at Laura who was standing near him.

"I already have everything I want or need."

Laura, not sure how to react, looked away from him and watched the sky.

Nazar, too, turned forward and looked at the colourful sky.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, and she let out a surprise gasp.

“But if I ever wanted anything in this immortal life - death won't work - so, I supposed, a happy and easy life wouldn’t hurt.”

Laura nodded a little.

"Anyway, leaving that aside,” he changed the topic, “want to see it again?"

“Hm?”

“The shooting stars, I mean.”

"Sure," she smiled happily as she watched three new stars fell and illuminated the skies with colourful lights.

"Do you have to move your hand like that?"

"No, but it looks cool, no?"

"I don't think so," Laura replied with a stiff smile on her face.

"Oh..."

His shoulders drooped low.

"I will find something else then."