Chapter 150

Arc 15 - Dead Men Rising - Part 3

Tuesday, 6th of July, Chias:

Nazar held his head between his palms of his hands as he listened to the universe.

Around every corner of this universe, people talked about him and it was not all good.

"Murderer…"

"Salver…"

"Coward…"

"How could he do that?"

"His poor subjects…"

"What if…"

"What if…"

"What if he was an accomplice of Annihilator?"

On his beautiful throne, the dully sitting Nazar let out a groan.

"Why…?"

New memories were added into the minds of people, changing the view of people towards Nazar.

These new memories told them that Nazar forcefully took over the Chochica Empire and enslaved them all.

"Why would you do this?"

In front of him, an old man supported by a cane stood with a thin smile on his face.

"The universe knows of your crimes. You, an outsider who enslaved our kind. You kept us under your iron fist. Even days ago, you created a sun to keep us down and in line. My, how terrible of a person you turned out to be."

Nazar raised his head slowly.

The defeated look on his face made the old man smile even thinner, a victorious smile.

"Krum…"

Krum, the leader of a political, social group and a magic cabal - Church of Michael - drummed his fingers on his cane as he waited for Nazar to speak.

The man did not need to wonder what he was about to say, he already knew.

"Please, shut the fuck up."

Nazar's cold voice reached Krum yet he stood tall and smiled victoriously.

"Whether you like it or not, this empire of ours has rules which allow an ordinary citizen to stand before the king, and that is what I am doing now. You cannot shut up the common voice."

Nazar leaned back in his chair.

"Let's cut the bullshit and tell me, why are you here?"

Krum spread his right arm outwards.

"I have come to take back what is rightfully ours."

Nazar rolled his eyes.

"That one annoying political figure you find anywhere…" he muttered to himself under his breath.

"This empire was built by the greatest angel in the history of this universe and it has been tainted by a non-believer and someone who stands against our lord."

"When did Aarin create an empire?"

His aloof words and expression caused Krum's face to twist in anger.

"You are a twisted man who does not fall in line with our ideals, you scum. You subjugated our kind to toture--"

"What torture?"

Nazar stood up from his throne abruptly.

"What torture? Can you name any? Name one bad thing I have done to this empire. And I mean, directly."

Nazar walked closer to the old man, and he subconsciously took a step back.

"Have I ever killed an innocent person? Have I ever hurt anyone? NAME ONE BAD THING I HAVE DONE TO ANYONE IN THIS EMPIRE!"

Nazar stood in front of the old man like a looming evil tower as he shouted down at him.

“Come on, tell me what I have done wrong.”

Krum gulped as he took another step back.

“You can’t, right?”

“But you cannot prove that.”

“...”

Nazar scoffed as he turned away and walked towards his throne.

“Take your whining elsewhere because no matter what happens to this empire, you, yes you, Krum, will never be needed. It can survive quite well without your help.”

“Idle thre--”

Nazar stopped walking, turned his head ever so slightly as he raised his hand abruptly, gesturing to him to stop talking.

“You see, on the outside, I might seem like an idiot, but trust me, I am far from one,” his tone gradually grew colder and colder. “So, yes, I had a contingency plan in place for something like this happening.”

“Oh?”

Nazar lowered his arm and turned around to face the old man.

“Indeed, I can fix this problem the same way I usually do… But do not worry, nothing bad will come to this empire, because at the end of the day, an outsider like me cares more about it than you, an insider.”

The veins popped on the old man’s wrinkly face in anger.

“You dare--”

“Yes, of course. I dare because I am right. What have you done for this empire? I progressed it more in three years than you did in decades when you ruled it from the shadows. So, who are you to question me, huh? On what ground do you stand against me?”

Nazar clicked his tongue.

“You are a failure as a ruler, old man. But me? I stood victorious. I may be an outsider, but I have done wonderful things for this empire that I am proud of, even if no one else is.”

“...”

Krum relieved his stiff and angry expressions and smiled.

“You might have done wonders, but the public sees it differently. To put it simply, you are the child of a destroyer, you can never be anything else. Do you think the common person will ever stoop so low to serve a destroyer?”

“Perhaps not, but they won’t serve you either.”

“Oh?” the old man narrowed his eyes, very interested to hear his reasons.

Nazar smiled thinly in return.

“Not telling.”

“Ngh,” the old man grunted.

The old man walked away as he muttered angrily to himself.

He went and left Nazar alone.

“Tch, I hate this guy.”

Nazar sat on his throne and snapped his finger.

In front of him, a man in a dark armour ascended.

“Afshahan,” Nazar said with a nod.

“You called for me?”

“Yes, I wanted to ask about...”

“It’s perfect,” Afshahan cut off his words as he removed his mask, revealing a dark bony and muscular face with big black eyes - without sclera - and a diagonal scratch across his face.

“Oh...” Nazar’s mouth was half opened as he stared at Afshahan. It was as if he was surprised at how he looked.

“What? Don’t like me because I am black?”

“Where the fuck did that come from?” he asked with a confused expression.

Afshahan shrugged.

“But no, I thought you were me-- a Nazar from another world.”

Afshahan stared at him with narrowed suspicious eyes.

“Something tells me you already knew how I looked.”

“I remove my memories often, so… possibly,” Nazar chuckled.

“I see… Anyway, you are right. My world’s Nazar gave me these powers so he could be free from it. Then I destroyed the world and him with it.”

“Why?”

“Well, he wanted to die, and I hated that world, so… Poof, got rid of it.”

“Fair enough,” Nazar furrowed his brow.

“Yeah man.”

“Anyway, please make sure to keep the empire safe. The money should cover your service until September. Or in this calendar, until Aris.”

“Of course, I and my organisation have five-star ratings on every single site and newspaper.”

“That is true,” he relieved his shoulders as he leaned on his throne. “Good then.”

“I know about the shield you placed around this empire… I wonder why you even need us. But hey, I ain’t complaining man, I need the money.”

Nazar chuckled.

“Well, it’s more like I want to keep this place safe. Safer than safe.”

“Ha, I see. In any case, I am not complaining.”

“Good.”

Afshahan looked around as he pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes.

“Are you… sure about this?”

“...”

Nazar hesitated to answer.

“From the way you acted last time, I could tell you were going for this, but did not expect you to actually do it. Colour me surprised.”

Nazar puffed out air from his mouth loudly.

“What a mess...”

“It’s not my place to say this, but don’t you want to prove yourself innocent?”

“I don’t know, honestly,” Nazar placed his right elbow on the arm of the throne as rested his hand on the back of his palm. “But I don’t know if I can deal with it at the moment. For some reasons, everything seems so tiring and heavy.”

Afshahan nodded, understanding what he said.

“I suppose that works.”

“I… have prepared plans of succession and other contingencies to help with the empire in the near future,” Nazar’s voice carried an apparent sadness in it and Afshahan noticed that.

“That’s quite thoughtful of you.”

Nazar laughed, although very bitterly.

“I thought if worse came to worse, I would announce to the universe I was a slaver of these people, but someone else did it for me. So, that’s why I already had this plan in motion, but man, do I hate it.”

He restlessly tapped his foot on the ground as the muscles on his face stiffened.

“I never thought I would ever get angry over something so… So…”

He trailed off as he lowered his hand and his head hung low lifelessly.

Afshahan could not see his face but he could tell Nazar had a pale face.

“Damn you, X… Damn you.”

လလလ

On this day, Nazar left the throne and within a few minutes, Baros was already announced as the new but emergency king of the Chochica Empire. The empire fell under his control.

Baros was not happy to take over the empire, and no one else was.

Most were confused, so they did not think much about what happened.

Everyone was quiet, perhaps they wanted to keep their hatred for this situation locked down.

Baros sat on the throne and Krum grunted angrily in his faraway citadel.

His first order as the new king was to gather every holder of authority in the empire to discuss its future.

But… the universe had different ideas.

❢◥ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◆ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◤❢

While Nazar was flying through the dark space, he thought about the events that had transpired so far. From the creation of the Seven Deadly Sins to the return of the Angel Killer, Alice, from the God Eater to the God Killer sword, and more.

He thought there was a reason behind them, especially the return of Alice.so he contacted Lucifer to discuss the details of her return and to make sure if his sister - although not by blood - Aarin was okay.

Lucifer assured him everything was fine, but he had no time to feel relaxed because he and Lucifer came to the same conclusion as to why Alice had returned.

Albeit both of them were extremely late.

Across the entire Ultraverse, everyone felt a ripple as a primal force of this creation was killed.

Azazel, the Angel of Death, was killed just moments earlier by the Angel Killer.

Which can only mean one thing...

❢◥ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◆ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◤❢

Across the multiverse, everything started to tremble as black energy flew to every corner of it.

The ground shook in cemeteries as hands stabbed out of it.

The hands slowly crawled over the dark mud, trying to clutch onto it. It tried to clutch them, but failed, so they tried again, then failed once more.

It finally managed to stab its fingers into the ground. The hand stopped moving as if they were relieved to finally accomplish their goal.

After a few moments, they used the strength in their hand to force themselves out of the grave with great struggle.

“Guuauu...” with wailing like a hurt beast, the skeletons stood up from the graves.

Their eye sockets glowed dark, quite impossible to notice at first glance, but their eyes flared like a black sun on a world full of light.

“Guuu...” the skeletons slowly started to walk as muscles and tissues spread across their bones like a parasite devouring its host.

The skin around them quickly grew, but it had bad spots here and there, which made them look terrifying to the naked eye.

“Grawr!”

And like that, the zombies marched forward.

လလလ

Death was no more, and life stood triumphant.

All around the multiverse, every dead person rose from their grave.

However.

They had no control over their bodies as their souls were long gone.

The empty bodies without a soul run amok through the multiverse without control or will.

လလလ

“*”

“”

While the zombies ran around without control, at the edge of the universe, many people looked at each other in a confused manner.

For eons, they lived in infinite darkness but suddenly, light pulled them out from the eternal prison that was the Void.

While some resisted the pull of the white light, others gave into it voluntarily. But either way, everyone one who died, was back in the land of the living.

“”

At the edge of the universe, thousands of people stood still as they looked at the universe. They had nothing in common, not their looks nor their physical characteristics.

However, they shared one emotion; confusion.

“”

“” one of the men, tall and slim as a skyscraper - including the thin tip at the top - stared at a white blob of energy. “”

“” a plastic light creature flailed his body like a balloon.

“” a hulking human-like blue person with a long white beard and white hair said.

“” a mermaid man spoke.

In the distant past, in hell, there was a man who revolted against the demons. Even the terrible power of these crimson creatures could not stop his rampage. The man advanced forward against the crimson creatures and stepped on their near dead bodies until he reached the inner circle of Hell.

He defeated the twelve leaders of the twelve clans, with but ease. And in no time, he stood as the ruler of the many hells.

However, the God above did not like that, so he sent his white soldiers down at the crimson world.

The angels struggled too. They could not defeat this single man.

He was simply too powerful.

Until…

Until the mightiest soldier of the God above opened his red flaring eyes, the man existed no more.

Up above the clouds of heaven, the God who created this Ultraverse had a thought; what if the system was changed?

Michael and Lucifer began working on building a system which would send those who are deemed too powerful shall be sent straight to the Void, a place of pitch-black darkness that stretches infinitely.

The system as a success and every powerful individual migrated to an endless life without light or sound. Living in this dark place for an infinity, they live for as long as the universe is brightly lit.

Did they deserve to suffer for an eternity? Perhaps not, but this is the price they are paying for trying to achieve ultimate power.

Everyone wants ultimate power, but like most things, it has a price. And this is the price they are paying for that power. Or at least wanting that power.

“” a tall and muscular humanoid man with pale white skin - like a chalk, blonde hair, and blue eyes, spoke. His voice was kind, and his face even kinder. The man had a soft hopeful smile on his beautiful face.

The very muscular man was wearing a skin-tight jet-black costume, with a red belt that split up his suit and a ‘V’ on his chest that spread broadly to his arms. Above the area separated by the large golden ‘V’, the costume changed colours and became dark red and it went up to his collar and covered his shoulders. “”

While he knows it has changed, he cannot tell if it was for the better or worse.

But he tried not to think about the latter option.

He just wanted to hope it was for the better.

“” as the dark red cape flattered behind him, the man squinted his eyes, “”

Like usual, he did not want to think bad thoughts, so with a hopeful smile, he flew towards the colorful universe, leaving the dark edge of the universe. **

❢◥ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◆ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◤❢

The Sixth Dimensional Plane of Existence:

In the dimension of the Gods, in Esme’s world of an infinite orange field, she bit her lip as she thought.

Esme was sitting at the porch near the house in the middle of nowhere, she had her elbows placed on her thighs, her palms on top of one another as she rested her chin on it.

“Arael...” she spoke with a hint of anger, “where are you?”

Just a few days ago, Arael, the God of Power, faced the dreaded X in a short battle and vanished, not to be seen or sensed by anyone in the multiverse.

Since she sensed him vanishing, she has been searching for him but cannot find him anywhere.

Unlike most Gods and angels, her reach is far greater, but even then, Arael is missing.

Deep down, there was a lingering thought which she did not want to think about.

He isn’t dead, she assured herself for the last time.

It makes sense for him not to die, it would be illogical for Arael to die and not leave the multiverse in shambles. So, he cannot be dead.

“But where is he? Why would he leave like this?” she was talking to herself like a madman, but she did not care. “And who...”

Esme is the Goddess of Life; she can control all life in this Ultraverse and she can sense any form of life in it.

“Who was that person?” these dolorous feelings lingering deep down within her haunted her.

While it is not new for an unknown entity to come to this Ultraverse from the beyond, but this was different. This life she was sensing was different, so different, she could not comprehend it.

However, she could feel the evil in it. It reeked of evil and death.

“Is this the first time he entered the multiverse…?”

While X had come to this multiverse before, she could not sense him before, but she could this time.

So, she wondered how Arael would have known this person before if that person has never been to this multiverse before and Arael has never left her range.

“Why was Arael involved with him, in the first place?”

Esme closed her eyes as she searched for him once more.

“I hope it’s not that...” she heaved a heavy sigh.

Arael, the God of Power, has been known to search the cosmos for something fun, usually to battle strong opponents or create new and interesting powers. So, she thought that his search for power led to the meeting with this man and he was destroyed.

“Damn it, Arael!”

She stood up as she frowned with a grunt.

“Why must you always do something so stup--”

Her words were cut cold as her body shuddered.

Her eyes widened and widened, as if they would jump out of their sockets.

Her body froze in one place while her heart started to beat faster and faster.

“Azazel...”

Azazel, the Angel of Death has died.

“Ngh.”

Suddenly, Esme felt an intense pain in her body, so she crouched down, holding her stomach.

Streams of blood came out of her beautiful eyes and dyed her face red.

Nobody was attacking her, yet she could feel the bones in her body breaking apart into smaller pieces. The crunching sound of the bones reached her ears, but she could not focus on that at all.

The pain she was feeling at her very core was greater.

“??”

A person is made from three different components. Existence, also known as their Core, is the main component. It’s a blob of energy which is then kept safe by the soul. The soul gives the Core the ability to think, feel, talk, and more. The body, or as some call it, the mortal shell, keeps the soul intact and gives it a tangible form.

Whatever was happening to her, was affecting her very core.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!” with a painful cry, the humanoid shell which contained her soul burst open like a nuclear explosion, leaving nothing but energy behind.

The death of her mortal shell unleashed a white energy across her world in this dimension and washing everything white and only leaving the house unscathed.

Her world is infinite inside, far greater than the conventional three-dimensional multiverse, but it could not contain the energy unleashed from her, so it slowly started to break through the barriers of her world.

No…

While she had no body nor soul at the moment, she could still think. Unlike most, she has complete control over her existence.

I mustn’t let this happen.

She sucked in a breath, at least mentally, and steadied herself.

Not again.

The energy was flowing in every direction and if she did not stop it, she would end up doing the very thing she never wanted to do again, killing someone or something.

Need to...

Thousands of years ago, she died for a split second and killed everything there ever was, but now, the same happened to her brother, her opposite, Death.

With death gone, life stood triumphant as everyone became alive and nothing could die anymore, meaning her energies were extended by a millionfold. Her body could not contain it, and neither can her world.

So, she narrowed her eyes, at least mentally, and sucked the energies back into her.

The streams of energies flowing in every direction started to crawl back to one single point.

The white energy revered back and formed a humanoid shape. A being made of white energy had the shape of eyes and face apparent, but it could not be recognised.

“『My real form...』”

She glanced down at her body made of energy and let out a defeated sigh.

“『I wonder, if I can go back to my old form.』”

Esme stood in the middle of this empty white dimension. Inside this world which had nothing, there was an old house still standing.

She made sure that house survived, no matter what.

Just the sight of this old useless house made her heart flutter happily.

She waved her hand across the air and the dimension changed ever so slightly.

Instead of it being nothing but white light, it now looked like a foggy world.

“『Better--』”

However, before she could relax her shoulders, she heard a voice, a voice she did not expect to hear any time soon.

Her heart stopped beating and her eyes went wide in surprise, even more so than before.

“Esme~”

In the middle of nowhere, in a world which had nothing but fog, she heard a small and cheerful voice calling out to her.

“『!?』”

Esme did not want to believe it, but she knew that voice.

“『It… can’t be...』”

From the fog, a small creature with flickering light like fireflies coming out of them, waved their small hand.

“Esme~”

They called out the Goddess of Life once again. And again. And again.

“『...』”

Esme did not want to believe that.

She did not want to believe it was that person.

It was impossible for that person to be here.

“Esme~”

The cheery small voice called out again as their form became increasingly clear.

“『...』”

Esme inhaled sharply as she finally saw the figure.

“Esme~”

The cheerful small creatures flapped its wings as it flew closer to Esme with a wide and happy smile.

“ESME!” the creature flew in, trying to hug her but its hands went through the energy, so it caused them to feel worried. “Wh-what happened to you?” it asked frantically.

“『...』”

Esme stared at it in disbelief.

“Hey,” the small creature waved its hand in front of her. “Are you okay?”

The cheerful voice caused Esme to shake her head and throw away her dazed expression.

“『You...』”

“Oh, you are back,” the small creature squealed excitedly as it flew around Esme with the same cheerful smile as earlier.

“『Impossible.』”

Although Esme tried to throw away her dazed feelings, she could not do it.

She could do nothing but stare at this creature questioningly for a long time.