Chapter 8: History

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"Wait!" (Black Death)

I jolted awake, my hand reflexively reaching out towards the figure of Hades, except...

Someone else was in front of me?...

A human-sized figure wearing a dark robe sat cross-legged in a chair, casually leaning towards me who was now sitting on the ground. I could make out a dark red mask covering the figure's face, but the dim lighting made it very difficult to discern any other details. We were in a room with whitewashed walls and the familiar scent of chemicals lingered in the air. A rusty metal door sat at the far end of the room.

A solemn realization came to me,

"This place is..." (Black Death)

The figure nodded,

"Yeah, ironic that we're back at where we started huh?" (Figure)

"What do you mean by 'we'?" (Black Death)

Unable to control my anger, bloodlust leaked from my body.

"Pffft, that's cute...You don't even recognize your own voice?" (Figure)

"Stop playing around." (Black Death)

"Fine, fine...Tch, can't even take some time to offer me a proper greeting." (Figure)

A red mist drifted from the mask as the figure held their right hand to it, slowly dissolving the mask until it completely disappeared.

A familiar young man with dark, short hair and a well-defined face greeted me with a sly smile. He seemed to be in his mid to late teen years, but his looks were pretty average. He probably would have been approached by the vast majority if it weren't for his unsettling eyes. Cold, calculating and depthless...The eyes of a trained killer.

"...From the look on your face, I trust that you've come to an understanding?" (Young Man)

His appearance was the same as well...

Silence enveloped the room as we continued to stare at each other.

"..." (Black Death)

"..." (Young Man)

Grimacing, the young man spoke in an impatient voice,

"Oy! Is this really how you greet everyone? Since when did you started working as a mime?!" (Young Man)

Ignoring his remarks, I went straight to the point,

"What are you and where are we?..." (Black Death)

"Didn't know you were that dense either, can't you tell?" (Young Man)

I impatiently waited for his response as he continued to stare at me,

"Alright, alright, no need to give me such a scary look." (Young Man)

Shrugging, he gave up and stared at the ceiling, seemingly counting the flickering lights,

"We're currently in your subconsciousness. You've chosen quite a terrible place for us to meet you know? Surprised that you liked this place so much." (Young Man)

An absolute pest...

"Black Death, a nickname for the well-known Plague that mercilessly reaped millions of lives in olden times. A fitting name for the project that you took part in. The project itself delved into the tampering of souls, an impossible ambition, and yet here we are...Vella Stormheart, your mentor, was the predecessor of the project. The experimental medicine that she had taken successfully stimulated her soul, quickly burning it at the cost of her lifespan in exchange for an extreme increase in physical and mental prowess while also effectively curing her of her illness. You, however, are different in that case." (Young Man)

His vision turned towards me as he continued with an uninterested tone,

"Instead of using indirect methods to interact with your soul such as medicine, your soul was directly tampered with. The staff involved in the project were able to grant you the ability to collect and integrate souls into your own after a few years of experimentation, a virtually limitless resource that could be used to restore and enhance yourself, effectively giving you a permanent increase in physical and mental capabilities just like Vella. Of course, that didn't mean that you were immortal as you can already tell..." (Young Man)

In simpler terms, I'm an expandable, rechargeable battery that starts off at 0% juice while Vella was an extremely high powered, nuclear, one shot battery, but I've had no knowledge of this ability until now...If this is truly the case, doesn't that mean that she would have eventually died from the exhaustion of her soul instead?... Also, doesn't that mean that I involuntarily collected the souls of the other three?

A mischievous grin grew on his face as he spoke with a teasing tone, interrupting my thoughts,

"Don't worry about those three, nothing happened to them. Although that was the basis of the Black Death project...I think that there were a few additional side effects." (Young Man)

"What do you mean?" (Black Death)

He stared at his hands, a momentary pause was shared between us before he finally lifted his gaze towards me again, ignoring my question,

"The staff 'revised' the memories of your life as an orphan under the mentorship of Vella Stormheart, making sure that you were unable to recall your ability, the project and anyone that you've had strong ties to in an attempt to prevent you from going rogue." (Young Man)

A sudden snicker echoed throughout the room, disturbing the flow of the conversation,

"Pfft hahaha! But that obviously didn't stop you now did it? You jumped the gun and screwed them over anyways huh? Not only that, you were able to regain all of your memories!" (Young Man)

Recovering his composure, he continued,

"Anyways, after that was done, they implanted memories that would be used to help you fully utilize the project." (Young Man)

Oy...Can you stop ignoring me and answer the questions already?!?!...

"Heh, and here's the part that you were waiting for." (Young Man)

"...Get on with it." (Black Death)

A silence enveloped the room as he gave me a triumphant look, enjoying himself. Just when I thought that I've had enough, he continued,

"I was originally a part of your implanted memories, acting as your alter ego or, to be more precise, an automated system with the sole purpose of managing your ability. You would've suffered a severe backlash to your body and mental state without my assistance. I have not done anything against the people who you've had strong relations with. My appearance, however, is an unexpected anomaly...I'm not supposed to be able to meet face to face to converse with you like this. I assume that the weapon that was given to you by Hades has allowed me to take form. Inheriting the appearance of your younger self is also probably related to the time and date of your memory revision." (Young Man)

I still don't understand why I don't remember the details of the project itself or my abilities for that matter, especially if those implanted memories were supposed to become my own for its sake. Does that mean that I'm only able to remember the memories that I've personally made when I was alive? Also, if that's the case, wouldn't his existence have ceased due to the fact that those implanted memories were completely replaced by my former memories?

CRAACK!

"Hm...?" (Black Death)

I immediately heightened my senses, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound, but instead, noticed a strange smirk growing on the young man's face as he stood up.

Cracks started to form around the area, slowly growing in size and quantity until suddenly...

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The room shattered into pieces. We were suspended in an endlessly dark space. I couldn't see anything below or above me, there were no signs of life and I couldn't see any objects around the area.

"With that out of the way, I apologize in advance. I'm getting quite bored..." (Young Man)

I reflexively raised my guard as his figure disappeared, adrenaline starting to kick into my body.

A leg suddenly curved towards me from my left, aiming for my temple. At that moment, I understood that he was aiming to kill from the amount of speed and strength loaded into that single kick.

Powerfully twisting my upper body, I struck the leg downwards with my left arm, detracting it away from me. Continuing along with the rotational momentum, I firmly planted my hands on the ground and forcefully pushed myself, launching my lower body up to counter with a high kick. He managed to block with his arms before leaping away, creating distance between us.

"Hoh, so you can fight without needing me to hold your hands?" (Young Man)

"I don't need a faulty crutch to carry my own weight." (Black Death)

I stood up and got into a combative stance.

"Haha, is that so?" (Young Man)

A monstrous smile appeared on his face as he forcefully kicked the ground, instantly accelerating towards me.

I took a deep breath, sharpening my focus as I observed his movements, his blurred figure quickly closing the distance between us.

Three meters...

Two meters...

One meter...

There!

A barely distinctive movement closed in on my face as the distance closed to zero. I immediately shot my right fist forward towards the direction of the movement.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!

The sound of our colliding fists echoed throughout the area. From his slight hesitation, he seems to have been caught off guard by my response. The amount of force that I received from the impact sent numbing shockwaves throughout my right arm but I forcefully ignored it, quickly taking advantage of the slight lapse. Grappling his struck arm with both of my hands while turning my body, I quickly pulled him forward before landing a hard kick aimed at his left ankle joint. I purposefully let him go as he fell from his disrupted balance.

He immediately tried to take advantage of the falling momentum. Using his hands to support himself upon landing on the ground, he swiftly rotated to counter with a low sweeping kick, but I had already anticipated the movement. Jumping while strongly twisting my body, I curved my right leg down towards him.

SLAM!

Caught in his rotational momentum, he was unable to react as my leg forcefully connected with the back of his head, sending him straight to the ground.

Immediately after colliding with the ground, he forced himself to get back up, but it was clear that the impact to his head was drastically affecting his movement.

...Oy, that amount of force would've normally knocked a person out...How is he still moving?

Not giving him a chance to recover from his downed state, I quickly dropped onto his back and locked his arms and legs, making sure that he was completely unable to move,

"It's very impolite to play around with a guest." (Black Death)

"..." (Young Man)

Something's wrong...

"What are you after?" (Black Death)

"You really aren't the same person who I've come to known huh?..." (Young Man)

A bright red light suddenly exploded from his body, hiding him from my vision as it gradually continued to expand.