Chapter 204

Arc 17 - Shadowy World - Part 14

Years ago, during Annihilator’s siege:

“Solace, what in the name of everything that is right and holy are you doing?”

Solace, his closest ally, and a lifelong companion smiled wearily.

She is an android, she is not a human, but the face she was making right now was no different than a tired human.

“N-nothing.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s the case at all, Solace,” Nazar was worried to death about Solace. He had seen her hurt before, but this time, it was different. “The sparks coming out of you… Did you try to end your life?”

“If I do, you can always create a new me.”

Nazar did not find her snarky comment funny, in fact, he ground his teeth loudly in anger.

“Oh, come on now,” Solace rolled her eyes. “You kill yourself on daily basis, and I can’t do something like this?”

Nazar clicked his tongue.

He placed his hands on her face as they lit up with bluish-white energy.

“Don’t ever do something like this again,” he said angrily. “In any case, what were you doing?”

“Finding a way to depower you. Albeit it won’t work,” Solace sighed. “Now I have to wait for like a day before I can slowly regain my power--”

Before Nazar could finish, a beam of energy ripped through the outer walls of his spaceship. The large beam entered from the right side and left from the side, ripping the ship apart in two different halves.

“...Huh?”

Solace was standing near the very edge of the spaceship, so she fell out of the spaceship and into the dark space full of cosmic radiation.

He tried to hold onto her, he extended his hand as quickly as he could, but he was too slow.

In front of her eyes, he saw her body flicker out as someone teleported her out.

“...”

His mind went blank, his thoughts vanished out of his head, and everything was replaced by anger.

...Huh...

And then, in the next instant, he shot himself towards the high heavens like a rocket.

He did not know where she was taken, so he let his body lead the way. After all, if his mind fails, his body will do the job.

Traversing through the higher phases of this plane, he finally found the source of the teleportation beam.

At the peak of reality, he found a spherical spaceship, and without thinking about it, he flew through its outer walls and entered its halls.

He knew that was the source, but even if he didn’t, he would have done the same.

Like an angry beast, he came through the wall reinforced and burnt everything down to cinders with his eyes without hesitation.

“Ahh, my lifelong collection...” an old man howled. “Who dares commit such a crime against my being?!”

Nazar did not say anything, instead, he just kicked the old man, throwing him out of the spaceship and this phase of reality.

A few alien monsters rushed towards him, but all he had to do was blink and they ceased existing.

There…

He sensed her energy and kicked through a nearby wall, destroying it into small pieces.

Within the walls, he found his companion, confined within a reality prison designed as wires.

Seeing her tied up powerlessly, the anger in his heart burned hotter than the hottest star in the universe.

“That was quick…” she said with a soft smile.

Hearing her kind voice, his anger vanished, and reason returned to him.

“Are you okay?”

“Eh, if you had given more time, I probably would have escaped myself,” Solace joked.

“Shut up,” he said slowly.

“...” she rolled her eyes and grunted softly. “Yes, I am okay.”

“Good,” he sucked in a deep breath as he walked closer to her.

He studied the shackles that were holding her, powerful shackles which he had never seen before.

Ah, damn it. I don’t have a clue what they can do yet, and I would rather not waste any more time here. I need to get her out RIGHT NOW!

Nazar tried to remove her shackles, but...

“Ahhhh??” Solace screamed in pain.

With wide eyes, Nazar blurted out, “What?! A core mechanism?!”

“I think you might need to recreate a new body for me. I am as good as dead,” with her index finger and middle finger, she created a finger gun and pointed it to her head as a comedic gesture.

That was quick… Unless!

“Right,” he realised where they were right now.

This is one of the highest phase of this plane, so of course, time doesn’t exist here. Then…

He swallowed his saliva as he looked up and down at Solace.

How long was she here for? How late have I--

He bit his lip, stopping his train of thought.

“Did...” Nazar’s eyes slightly welled up as he asked her a question in a broken voice, “Did they hurt you?”

“Nope,” Solace shook her head.

He did not believe her.

“Really. The only pain I felt was when you tried to remove the shackles.”

“I see…” He sighed a loud sigh of relief, “Oh good, then.”

“HUH?!” Solace widened her eyes, wondering what he meant by that. “How is me being restrained by these things good, huh?”

“No, I mean…” Nazar spoke stiffly. “I mean, you know… I-in any case, let’s get you out of these shackles. If I create an event horizon destruction of a--”

“Unless you want to create a new body for me, then I wouldn’t recommend that.”

Nazar frowned and Solace shrugged with a snide smile.

If he used his mind right, he could have removed the shackles without harming her, but it seems that’s what his enemy wanted.

And from behind him, a voice said, “A soul for a soul.”

Nazar turned around slowly, only to immediately looked away with a disgusted (muffled) scream as he covered his eyes with his arm.

“...?” his enemy was confused at his reaction, they did not attack to begin with, so why?

“Put on some clothes first, you moron!”

His enemy looked down and noticed she was not wearing anything, so she looked at Nazar’s back and smiled a soft victorious smile.

“Oh...”

So that’s your weakness… she thought as her soft smile turned into an evil one. Does he like what he sees?

“Who are you?” Nazar asked without looking back.

“The Collector.”

“The Collector…?” Nazar titled his head in a confused manner. “I thought you were an old man.”

“Not anymore, but that is irrelevant,” the icy princess spoke. She walked towards them and continued, “Give me your soul and I will set her free.”

“Deal.”

“...”

The Collector found herself at a loss for words.

Her mind blanked out.

She could not comprehend what she just heard.

“Ahem,” she cleared her throat. “Give me your soul and I will set her free.”

“Deal.”

“...”

It did not make sense to her. At all.

What she heard was inhumane, so inhumane she lost the icy aspect of her personality.

“Wuh--”

Nazar plucked his soul out of his body and gave it to her without turning around.

With distant, blank, and confused eyes, she took the soul of Nazar and freed Solace. The two of them left her alone and the only thing she could utter in the coming weeks was, “Huh? Why? How? That’s disgusting.”

Once she regained her senses, she tortured the soul every day and across the stars, yet Nazar did nothing.

Nothing changed, and so, she began to find herself interested in this Godly entity.

She knew of his power, but not the person.

Therefore, she watched him from a close distance, studying him, yet with everything she learned, she found herself even more confused.

This man was simply inhumane, impossible to understand, and even more to tolerate.

Only one word came to her mind after observing him for so long; “Disgusting.”

လလလ

And now, many years later, or perhaps many millennia later, the Collector found herself flying through a wall as she remembered a memory from a long time ago with closed eyes.

A memory that she both hated and cherished.

Nazar was not a person she liked, but she also didn’t hate him. He was a being of unlimited power, he was a mystery of the universe, and everyone wanted to uncover it.

She believed his body can solve the mysteries of the cosmos, and that is what she wanted to do.

She stole his soul, but it was useless.

It didn’t give her any answers.

In fact, it brought nothing but trouble to her doorsteps.

However, at the same time, she did not want to give up his soul.

It was a rare item, and it is her job to collect the rarest of the items.

Lucifer and Nazar’s brother - Aeron - had come for the body of this God, and they will take it from her.

And to make matters worse, she had collected a superhuman with unlimited potential, but even that toy might get stolen.

Why…

She bit her tongue, making it bleed.

I am an elder, one of the oldest beings in the cosmos, is it not my right to take everything I want? I am a God, after all, and I shouldn’t be questioned, so why…

Like a raging lion, she opened her flaring green eyes.

If it was anything like him, she would be thrown out of this phase, and likely die in the process of hitting an outer wall, and she cannot have that.

So, she clenched her teeth as she narrowed her eyes.

While still flying backwards, she clenched her tender arms and legs and flexxed her body muscles.

WHY ARE YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME?!

Expanding the space between her molecules, she was able to control her destiny and forced herself to stop in her place. However, it did not work as well as she thought.

So, she further increased her density and increased the gravity under herself, causing her to fall on her back.

In a state of anger, she did not reduce the pull of gravity in time, so she felt intense pain as her back was slammed into the ground.

The Collector, perhaps for the first time in countless years, grunted loudly.

“I am an elder of the universe,” she muttered to herself as she looked at the silver ceiling. “So, why…”

I am an elder of the universe, I was born from the ashes of the first ones, I was born… This universe is mine, the cosmos belongs to me, so why…

She stabbed her fingers into the soft silver floor of the spaceship and used that to force herself to stand.

With a gurgling sound of pain, the Collector stood up with her head hanging low.

From where she was standing, she could see both of the intruders clearly, and neither was paying attention to her.

In front of them, she was so small, they wouldn't even look at her.

And that angered her.

I am an elder of the universe, born from the ashes of the first ones, the cosmos belongs to me…

She fought against the unimaginable pain as she forced her head to stand tall and mighty.

“JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!” like a pained lion, she roared.

From two different cells, two different people turned around and looked at her.

Lucifer… That cannot be right. It doesn’t make sense. Why would the first angel come after his soul? I don’t understand. He was nothing, a worthless heap of trash.

“Hm,” Lucifer turned his head away from her and continued to study the soul of Nazar.

But the other one did not.

He was angry, so angry as if he were containing the fury of a big bang.

“And who was he?”

“Long ago, there were two powerful entities who fought, two beings of unimaginable power,” Lucifer recited the history from the lost times. “One who shaped the cosmos, and the other who invented the idea of heroism.”

To the Collector, that story was repetitive.

“Two ideas clashed, destroying each other, but their energies merged, intertwined together, and birthed an elder…” Lucifer glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “You.”

“I know my history well, imposter.”

“Perhaps, but to think from such monstrous parents, someone like you, someone normal was born... It's rather funny, do you not think so?”

The Collector was confused, she tried to understand its relevance to her question, she couldn’t.

“Recently, you have been focusing on collecting the rarest of toys, so you missed his hearing.”

“Hm?”

“What you see before you…” Lucifer looked at Nazar’s soul. “It is the soul of the God of Destruction.”

As if her reality was shattered in an instant, something broke inside of her head.

“Huh…” confused, she kicked the floor and connected to the ship’s mainframe.

The entire data stream of the universe floated in front of her as she sorted through them out in her mind.

And it took her just a second to find a hidden video about Nazar, and in that video, she saw the supreme creator of this Ultraverse appear to protect just a man.

What… This cannot be…

All this time, she thought he was just a powerful individual, but she was wrong.

Back then… Why was I so drawn to taking his soul? Did I sense his higher dimensional energies and assume it will give me everything…

“Tch,” she clicked her tongue as she left the data steam behind and resumed looking at the world in front of her normally.

“He is more than the God of Destruction, far more than you can possibly imagine.”

“And him?” she pointed to Aeron.

“He is the Dreamer. Cosmic entities, Nazar called his kind.”

"His kind…?"

In anger, her eyes and cheek twitched.

"I have never heard of them."

"But of course, they exist in phases above yours."

She laughed mockingly.

"This is the final phase."

"If that is what you think, then, by all means, do so."

Lucifer arched his right hand, facing upwards. In his palm, he produced a blue orb that sucked in the soul of God.

Holding the orb in his hand, he walked towards the Collector.

"Collector, I will take this soul with me, and she..." Lucifer pointed to Aeron with the corner of his eyes. "She is not a toy for you to collect, she is related to the God of Destruction, and I am sure you would rather not face the fury of someone like him."

"I…" she scoffed. "It is true, he killed me once, but I cannot die. Even if I do get killed, I can't die. I will resurrect in the body of someone close-by."

"I am well aware of your abilities. You not only collect their bodies and make them yours, but their entire personality too. And that is a weakness on its own, is it not? What if I force you into the body of a kinder person, hm?"

"Tch."

"He was a man who had fought with Gods and monsters, with angels and demons, and entities beyond your comprehension, yet that day, he kicked you. Just a kick. He showed you mercy, that was his kindness."

"But why?" she was curious, why would he do that? Why would he show her mercy when Solace was hurt by the hands of the Collector?

"Perhaps because your counteroffer was amazing, or because he didn't want to keep Solace in this phase any longer than she had to be, or because you looked like a child or another reason. But it's rather irrelevant, don't you think?"

"..."

She didn't like anything she heard, but she didn't want to think about that.

She inhaled sharply through her nose.

"What are you going to do with that soul?"

"Hmm," Lucifer glanced at the blue orb. "He could never die, no matter how much he tried, but he was killed. He was killed at every level possible, but despite that, he should have returned soon after. After all, if there are those who believe in him as the God he was, prayed to him, he would never truly be dead. Because in some sense, he is an idea. But it did not happen, which means someone tampered with the belief of the cosmos. Reigniting that would be hard, but… I am going to try and resurrect him through this soul, but if not possible, then I will use the great power within it to reignite his idea within the cosmos, and he would have no choice but to return."

The Collector did not pretend she understood anything Lucifer said, so she frowned.

"In any case, I will need them returned to me within thirty days. Earth time. Both."

Aeron clenched his fist as his eyes lit up with black energies.

"Sure," Lucifer agreed to her terms. "But in that time, either everything dies, or he returns. Either way, unimaginable pain awaits you."

Lucifer smiled faintly as the three of them vanished from her spaceship.

"Soul…" she muttered under her breath. "I want to know how it feels."

Unlike most entities, she lacks a soul. Her core is protected by nothing but her body.

"Tch, I knew I always hated you," she cursed Nazar.

လလလ

In the back of their home, Aeron and Aria popped out of thin air alongside Lucifer.

"If you ever travel to upper phases, be careful of your size when returning. If not adjusted well, you could crush the multiverse."

"...Ah?" a confused yet surprised cry escaped Aeron's lips.

Lucifer did not explain further and vanished into thin air, leaving the two cousins behind.

The confused and worried Aria, without wasting a moment, asked, "Has the demon taken control of you again?"

"..."

Aeron turned around and looked her in the eyes.

He chuckled and said, "What demon?"

"You know, like in the original world, there was a demon? That's how you got your powers?"

"No, not at all. But no, he isn't here anymore. I think Nazar killed him, not sure though."

"Ah," her shoulders relaxed for a moment, before she realised something else.

With a tense look in her eyes, she asked him, "What… happened to him?"

A bitter look danced on Aeron's face.

"He died."

"But… how?"

She knows how powerful he is, and how he cannot die, so she wasn't surprised. But at the same time, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"No one knows, just one day, he died. But leaving that aside, are you okay? Did the Collector do anything to you?"

"No," Aria said softly as she shook her head. "I am fine, but… what about my mom? She was left all alone in that house…"

"Doesn't she have a caretaker?"

"She does," Aria replied in a relieved manner.

"I have been so busy trying to bring mom and Emma to their senses, I completely forgot about the others… Shit."

In front of them, a portal of dark energies opened up.

"Let's take you home."

"Wait, what do you mean? What happened to Emma?"

Aeron sighed.

"Long story short…"

He quickly explained to her the death of Nazar and what happened afterwards, so she was caught up with everything that has transpired since then.

Aeron had assumed that Aria was taken away before June, so some of it was repetitive to her.

"And I since then everything I tried, has been useless. That damned barrier is keeping them in this state."

"I see…"

"Now then, let's get you home, your mother will be worried."

And so, the two left through a portal and went to her home.

လလလ

Present:

"So yeah, you are on your own now that I have powers, it just won't feel the same otherwise."

Angela sighed heavily.

"Why did you have to leave?"

Aeron shrugged.

"Not that I have any choice in this…"

I guess, all this time, he was right. Power is also a curse.

"In any case, we can't just let it end here. What about our dream?" she spoke in an excited tone. "Just… power down or something, and we can return to normal."

"On that day…" Aeron paused for a moment before continuing. "The day when Lucifer, his brother, and Aarin appeared in our house, I asked him to remove it, but he said he won't. It seems I am an important aspect of the cosmos, and I cannot power down. At least not now."

"What a bummer…"

She let out a long exasperated sigh and added, "We will figure something out."

"Yeah…" he nodded with a complex look pasted on his face. "We will."

❢◥ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◆ ▬▬▬▬▬▬ ◤❢

??? - ????:

How does one measure the worth of a man?

Is it the memories he has or the memories others have of him?

Is it how he perceives himself or how others perceive him?

How much am I worth? According to myself, I am worth more than an entire world.

How much am I worth in the eyes of others? Perhaps less than a blood-sucking mosquito.

Why a mosquito, you ask?

Well, the story is short and boring, but it has got me thinking a lot.

I work at the largest firm in this lousy empire, and I love my job as a performance manager. And according to the laws of our empire, I have full control over who stays and who doesn't.

You have probably already figured out, but in case you haven't, I fire people often. I need results and not excuses.

And that's why everyone hates me.

Everyone has a grudge against me.

Everyone wishes I was dear.

And…

Well, one of them tried to get their wish to become reality.

And I am afraid, they succeeded.

Right now, I was pushed in front of an oncoming train, a train that has the ability to move faster than the speed of sound itself.

So…

Yes, that's right.

I am falling to my death.

But…

The world froze.

I cannot look around, my body is frozen, but my eyes move. And ahead of me, I saw it.

A human-looking entity, full of power and radiance.

But…

It is evil.

That much I can tell.

“『Say it.』”

The entity speaks to me.

Death speaks to me.

“『I will be kind today and give you a chance, a special chance.』”

Death smiles at me as it takes away my soul and takes me to another world.

But…

Oh, this is terrible.

I have been forced to reincarnate into the body of a human-like child in the middle of a war, and I am holding something that resembles a gun, but not the type which can be found in my world.

I try to analyse my surroundings, but before I can, I am shot through the head with a bullet.

And so, the world froze again.

“『That was… fast.』”

The angel seems surprised. Or disappointed. I cannot tell.

But it wastes no time to take me to another world, and this time, I find myself reborn as a cow that is going to be cut in half and eaten.

And so, he takes me elsewhere, and I am reborn as a green alien, an alien who is about to...

Yep, I just got blown to pieces.

And so, he takes me elsewhere, and I am reborn as a man in the world of these blue aliens. And I am in a suit.

Ahh, much better.

I close my eyes and suck in the fresh air--

...

Damn it.

I accidentally fell on the stairs and died.

... Did I hear a snicker?

Hm?

Maybe not.

And so, the angel takes me elsewhere, and I am reborn as a rock. An object with no mind.

But, for some reason, I can think and recall my life.

But cannot do anything else.

Stuck inside this rock, I live an eternity, and the angel laughs at me.

I endure this suffering for eternities, but nothing changed, and perhaps nothing ever will.

And the angel’s laughter… Well, it is starting to get on my nerves and making me wish I would just die.

Yet… It won’t kill me.

Is being a rock that amusing?

I do not know.

And I might never will.

But...

What does this angel really want?

What is his goal?

And that, too, I might never know.