Chapter 7

Arc 2 - Zeta Spirals - Part 3

A few years ago:

"I am Cosmic Titan," a young man, full of enthusiasm and energy, spoke with his chest out proudly. "And I have been gifted with the weight of the world!"

A man wearing a full plate skin-tight black armour with a black cape and a white crescent halo above his head, murmured, “Hrm.”

He did not like the enthusiasm radiated by this man before him.

They were of the same age, but sadly he did not share the same energy as him.

“Get to the point,” he sounded somewhat annoyed.

Cosmic Titan chuckled.

“Please be at ease, Moon Halo. Today, I have a request for you. Let us form a new team and I need your help.”

“...”

The man in black armour, who was standing on top of a dark building in the middle of the night, stared at the floating man before him blankly.

“I… I cannot help you. My God has requirements from me, I must help his cause.”

Cosmic Titan’s big smile did not waver.

“I will help you with his cause. I am, after all, going to be the greatest superhero ever,” he spoke cheerfully while holding his thumb up. “With my support, which I shouldn’t be doing, but we can help your God’s cause.”

Moon Halo was at loss for words.

If this powerful hero helps him, he can help his God’s cause easily.

There is no reason for him to turn down Cosmic Titan.

But…

“Hmph,” he snorted, “you are quite interesting.”

“So, you are in?”

Moon Halo nodded.

“Yes, but I do not require your help. Thank you, but I would rather do the job given to me as a prophet.”

With yet another cheerful and happy smile, Cosmic Titan tilted his head a little to the right and said, “Thank you! We are going to help the world greatly.”

He clenched his fist.

“Let us battle against this silly villain… Uh, what was his name? Joker Face?” Cosmic Titan quizzically scratched his cheek. “That one from another state who wants to cause trouble here.”

Seeing the change of expression on his face, which for once wasn’t something very positive, Moon Halo couldn’t help but chuckle.

He is human, after all. He thought.

“His-- their name is Avir and Avid, and they are one troublesome duo from. I would appreciate your help.”

“They? Duo?”

“...You will know soon.”

“Fantastic!”

And so, the two heroes shook their hands, marking the beginning of a superhero team and friendship.

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

Present - Walgi City:

Like a spy from another nation, Cosmic Titan has disguised himself under a hood and walked the streets of his hometown with a bitter and disgusting look pasted on his face.

Drug addicts, thieves, thugs and more. The worst of the worst which did not exist a few weeks ago were roaming the bleak streets of this beautiful city.

Were these streets always this bleak? He wondered.

At every turn he glanced, at every person he glanced, nothing but hostility waved back.

This world was meant to be a utopia. So perfect, it held a high name in the cosmos.

But in less than two weeks, it has been reduced to a state so different, it's unidentifiable.

「Black Wing」.

The villain from nowhere possessed enough power suddenly that dwarfed everything else in the cosmos.

What is that sword he holds?

What exactly is the sword, which Black Wing named, 「Sword of Unreality」? Where did it come from?

If only that sword did not exist…

Indeed, if it did not, the hero society would have flourished greater and greater. And the world would have been much better.

“Damn you, Black Wing.”

As he walked through the streets, he finally reached a small, yet luxurious house, in the middle of the city.

He stood in front of it and stared at the door.

At the back of his head, he heard waves of laughter, distant laughter from long ago.

Giggles of children as they ran through it.

Snickers of two adults watching these children.

The memories were happy, but his face was the opposite.

It twisted in anger and horror.

His veins popped on his face, almost bursting out.

And the name that resounded in his head was nobody else’s but Black Wing’s.

It happens every time he comes to this house.

How many years has it been since then? How many years has it been since that man started his horrors?

Why did he not end Black Wing’s reign before it even began? Why did he not stop this menace?

Hero...

He is a good person, a hero who will never kill, so he always puts Black Wing in jail. But he would escape from everywhere.

He always escapes.

He always…

Heroes lose.

In the many years he has been dressing up in a Halloween costume to help people, he never realised one thing.

Heroes are capable of losing.

Heroes always lose.

What does it mean to win?

He thought back to the ages of heroes.

They won. They defeated the villains and put them behind bars.

But for how long? A day? A week? A month?

No matter how many times they were put aside, they came out and terrorised people, even if nobody got hurt.

And then at the end… The heroes were not remembered, yet the villains were. Their names were written in history and remembered by everyone, yet the heroes… What happened to them?

Most of them died in terrible ways. They watched as their families were killed at the hand of their old villains.

Many of these so-called heroes lived a life of poverty because they wasted their lives helping people, wasting their life. Squirming for food while they thought back to the days when they saved this world.

Heroism meant they were going to live forever in glory, because to them, saving lives was everything. But sadly, the reality was different.

And at the end, at the end of everything, every hero whimpered one sentence; “What a waste… A life wasted on saving everyone else, but myself.”

Was that the future for Cosmic Titan too?

A utopia this is...

Cosmic Titan chuckled bitterly.

This world was a utopia. There was peace. There was no peace or disease or war.

But it was far from perfect yet the everyday people did not see it.

These dark shadows could only be seen by certain people.

I should have cleansed this world.

He had the power to do that.

He should have changed the world for the better.

He thought he would live for a long time, he thought he had a long time to fix this nearly perfect world, but he was wrong. He was very wrong.

People are born equal, they say. They are not good nor evil.

But when they grow up, their ideas change and they take the path they desire. Most ideas, however, die out in their mind.

But power, yes, power, changes everything.

If one has power, their ideas won’t die out. It will come, blasting through the walls of the mind and reaching the real world.

Cosmic Titan took the “right” path, but he had to continue that path forward. He could change, but he did not want to because this was the right thing to do. Because this is what he wanted to do.

So, that’s why he didn’t forcefully change the world.

He wanted the world to change on its own.

He wanted the world to be perfected on its own.

That, however, takes too long and time… Time was not on his side, but on the side of Black Wing.

“Haaa,” he breathed out heavily.

There was a wall before him.

Although it was tall, he jumped up and stood on top of the wall.

The street was dim, so no one could see him. He was free to do what he wanted to.

He looked at the people in the house.

A beautiful woman with a child in her arms, who was crying.

“!!”

Cosmic Titan’s chest tightened as his eyes widened, almost as if it would jump out of his sockets.

That’s...

His eyes welled up.

He felt like he wanted to burst out crying, but he instead bit on his finger to stop himself.

He was born...

Last time he saw his wife, she was on the first day of the new year - two weeks earlier - and she was pregnant. His child was going to be born in a week.

He could not wait for that.

But everything went wrong.

He wanted to visit, but he couldn’t.

First, he was imprisoned somewhere until he agreed to side with Black Wing.

Then he did not have the face to meet them.

He was the greatest hero, but he was siding with someone so vile and evil.

DAMN YOU, BLACK WING!

He jumped back down from the wall and ran away at full speed.

He ran through the streets like a blur, leaving this city in a short time.

He could not face them, but that’s not what he hated the most.

He has no power to protect them anymore.

Perhaps it’s better to stay away, for their sake, he thought as he ran away from everything he held dear.

But he was not alone.

Someone watched him from above a tall building.

A tall and muscular man with grey hair crouched as his red eyes flared in the darkness.

“Oha!”

The man watched as Cosmic Titan ran through the streets, running away from everything.

“You are still plenty strong without those fancy powers of yours.”

He looked impressed.

“Perhaps this will be fun after all.”

A thin smile appeared on his face.

“Very fun.”

Onoroth, the Demon King’s eyes flared ever brightly in the dark night.

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ 〈 ⏣ 〉 ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

Sand Vanguard:

To the far south of the planet, there was a sand state known as Sand Vanguard. It’s Zeta Spiral, Avir, a small man with no black eyes sat like a child on the orange ground inside a cave.

“Why did the Gods come back?”

There was a story, a story about how the Gods died. Or perhaps left?

No, no the myth Gods, but real Gods. Gods of the universe.

Yet one day, a prophet rose with a white crescent halo glowing brightly above his head. He claimed to be the prophet of the God of Moon, Sailor Xetrix.

“Why did they return?”

Nobody asked why back then, but certain few took a great interest in it.

They had studied history and the myths, that was their very life, so they wanted to know. Why have the Gods returned?

“Hmm.”

The cave had ancient texts and drawings.

Whoever destroyed the Gods, they did not care enough about this world to remove the ancient texts and drawings.

Or perhaps are these men made? And perhaps Sailor Xetrix is an alien merely?

The Zeta Spiral, Avir, thought very deeply.

He has been stuck up in this cave for many months, trying to figure it out.

While he was continuing his usual work, a panting man ran into the cave and spoke.

“Can I… Can I speak to Avir?”

“I am Avir.”

“Right,” the man spoke apologetically, “I meant Avid.”

“Alright.”

The man turned into sand and fell to the ground.

Then sand on the ground slithered and came together, forming a man. A tall, gorgeous tall and muscular man with beautiful long brown hair and green eyes.

Phew.

The man came in and asked, “Have you seen the news, sir?”

“No, I have not,” his voice had changed. It was more masculine and carried evil within it.

“The heroes… The heroes are dead.”

“Hah! Funny. They--”

Avid trailed off.

The man before him was serious.

“Moon Halo?”

“He… He too is dead, sir.”

Avid’s eyes widened.

The green eyes lit up as the veins in his face popped up in anger.

“He… died?”

The sand slithered across the ground and formed around the panting man.

“Y-yeah--”

The sands slithered into the man’s body through his skin.

Avid arched his palm, facing upwards.

“That bastard,” he gritted his teeth. “How dare he die?”

“S-sir?” the man squirmed in pain.

“Who killed him?”

The panting man started to worry about the pain within him, so he was slow to answer.

“I SAID, WHO KILLED HIM?”

The whole cave shook as if it would crumble down.

“Yeep!” the man screamed in fear. “B-Black Wing, sir!”

Closing his fist slowly, the panting man withered in pain.

“Gu ahhhhhhha urk aaaarrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

Using the sand within the man, he turned the sand grains into spikes and killed the man.

In anger, he did not realise what he had done.

“Black Wing…”

But he knew one thing.

“I will...”

He needs to take revenge for his old friend and enemy.

“KILL YOU!”

His scream caused tremors in the cave.