《The Akashic Record Entry 1: Ascension》Chapter 38: Going Back
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On the left, an endless battlefield, old dilapidated buildings crumbling all around, at its center a disintegrating woman smiling at him, her bright red hair covering most of her face.
Averting his eyes, he looked right. An imposing man stood there, facing an endless void. He could only see his winged tattooed back. As the man began crumbling away, he tried to reach out to him, and that's when he noticed his bloodied hand. Feeling something strange around his left arm, he turned his head.
In front of him, a golden-haired woman, her fear-stricken green eyes staring through him as his hand penetrated her gut. Shocked, he hastily retreated. When he tried to step back, he felt something wrap itself around his feet.
"Where are you going, mister?" Looking down, he met the eyes of a familiar child grabbing his leg. He'd seen it before, it was the Blackcoda bait, but something felt wrong. Its body was dark and its eyes pitch black.
"Vich, don't go!" His other leg was grabbed by two people wearing exosuits. They were dismembered, the bottom half of their body gone. "It's not our fault, we were just following orders!" They cried out in unison, black oily tears flowing from their eyes.
Wanting to escape this nightmare, he looked up. The scenery had completely changed, there was no battlefield, void, or woman. Instead extending towards the horizon was a sea of corpses, at its center, a mountain. It was enormous, made up of countless corpses. Some dismembered, some burned, some corroded. All of them were different, but for some reason, he could recognize them. And at the top of this mountain stood a figure, looking down at him.
As their gazes crossed, her purple eyes flared up. Purple flames spread from her back overtaking her entire body. He knew her, the entity inside the scythe, Sasha's other half…
"Look at you…" her echoing voice resonated through their surroundings. "Being burdened by those you've killed." He couldn't look away. The numerous corpses were holding him in place, preventing him from averting his gaze.
"Is this how you plan to protect those you cherish?" Hearing this, his gaze turned cold. "Oh? Did I hit a nerve? I'm just a voice in your head. There is no reason to hate me, we’re on the same side," she said, spreading her arms. "Have you not experienced enough loss? Or do you want Anissa, Despira, Loyd, or Sasha to end up like them?" She pointed at the ground in front of him and two corpses rose. Their bodies were twisted beyond recognition, but he knew who they were. Akasha… Kolya… Their corpses were deformed cracked and mangled. As he saw this, his anger rose. Glaring at the glowing figure, his eyes turned white.
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"That's it! Get angry!" White lightning emerged from his back turning the corpses around him to dust. Without any hesitation, he dashed toward the mountain of corpses. "That anger…" As he got closer the world around him began turning white. "Use it!" He was inches away from her face when the whiteness enveloped his entire vision.
Waking up, Slava burst to his feet. Grasping onto his domain, his suit began to slither onto his body. "Calm down! It's over!" Noticing a familiar face, he took a deep breath.
"Where's Sasha?" He asked a visibly exhausted Angel. Sitting back down, he took the time to take in his surroundings. He looked to be sitting on an operating table, a large light shining above his head. His suit seemed to be working now which was a relief. The familiar indicators were slowly overtaking his vision.
"You really won't give me a break huh?" She sighed. "Alright don't move, I'll go get her, I'll be right back. You're still confused, take it slow." When she left, Slava closed his eyes, dragging his hands across his face.
Where was he? Right, he asked for Sasha because he wanted to get more information on her "alter ego". But wait, something felt wrong. Why was he on an operating table? What were these white gowns? What was he being operated for? All of these questions flooded his mind accompanied by a massive headache and soon enough the images of the previous fight flashed in his head.
No… no! It's impossible! It can't be! He opened his eyes wide, looking dazedly through his hands at the ground. Soon enough, a message appeared in his vision
[Connected to Henosis Network]
Following the message, a familiar scene unfurled before his eyes, a voice accompanying it.
"The state of the capital is almost unrecognizable. Vegetation has completely taken over. After the attack, nothing is certain. The government has yet to issue a statement and no one has…" Slava didn't have to listen to all of it, he knew what it meant. Looking back down, the scene disappeared and that's when a familiar twisting object appeared in front of him.
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That's right, he still had this! What he'd been working on for so long. He couldn't test his theories before, but now… now he had…
Suddenly, in a swift movement, his chains sprung up from his back. Moving his hands, the figure moved to take the space in between them.
Finally, he could finally go back. Tears began flowing down his cheeks. At the same time, the world around him started to twist. His back flared up. With the help of his chains, he twisted and pulled to bend the space to match the object he'd been working on. It was really odd, his arms and chains seemed to work at different speeds, some extremely slow, others unbelievably fast.
It was truly amazing, a smile crept onto Slava's face. He could see it! The whole range of the electromagnetic spectrum. There were no words to describe it, it was beyond what he'd ever seen, beyond the colors he knew. A whole new light and through it, he saw the different shapes interacting with one another, creating a web of interconnected waves that clashed and mingled.
Right now, he was using them to create his own shape, a shape that he drew and redrew countless times before. A shape that would help him go back home.
"Sister… I'm coming," he murmured, closing his eyes. He didn't need to see he knew it by heart at this point.
"Slava!" He heard Sasha scream as she burst into the room. To her words, he slowly looked back, smiling as familiar cracks spread across his skin.
"Sasha, I figured it out," he managed to say. A massive storm surrounded him, stopping her from getting closer. His back was glowing brighter than it ever did before.
Seeing her efforts go to waste, Sasha didn't waste any time. With purple lightning flashing across her bandaged eyes she disappeared, reappearing a few feet closer to him. She was visibly sweating, but she persisted, getting closer every time.
When she finally reached his side, she unhesitatingly dug her hand into the bright sphere that was forming between Slava's hands. Confused, Slava watched on as she destroyed everything he'd worked on. The space unfurled in front of his eye and in the next moment, the masterpiece was no more. There were no signs of it like it had never existed in the first place. The bright light dimmed and his vision returned to normal.
"Why… I was so close…" he said gazing at his now empty hands. "I could've gone back… I could've saved everyone…" Sasha interrupted his monologue, pushing him onto the table. His eyes landed on her bandana and that's when an unknown force moved his face to the side. Feeling the sting on his cheek he slowly moved his head just in time to receive another slap.
"You son of a bitch!" She yelled, slapping him continuously. "What are you doing? Do you want to die that badly?" She asked as her tears dropped onto his face. "First Kolya now you? You can't be serious! There's this bitch inside my head fucking with me all the time. And now you…" She suddenly stopped. "I can't do this alone," she said, burying her head into his chest. “...please don’t leave me…”
Ah, he had forgotten the reason why he'd fought, the reason why Kolya lost his life… it was all to protect those precious to them. To protect his family, to protect Sasha…
Letting his chains retreat into his back, Slava slowly embraced his friend. Feeling the bandana covering her eyes brush against his skin, he swore to himself:
"I'll help her to the end, that's the least I can do."
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Leveling with the Gods
He became stronger, faster than anyone else… but he lost. In the end, there was only despair for Kim YuWon.In his last moments, he was given another chance… Through the sacrifice of his comrade, his fate had not been sealed yet.Returning back to the past, he attempts to climb the Tower again with his unmatched talent.To fight the ancient evils that threatens to destroy the Tower.
8 360The Badger Dungeon
[Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] Dungeons. Everyone's heard of them. Sprawling maze-like places where you can find special objects that can't be found anywhere else in the world, train to become a great warrior or wizard, and slay dozens of monsters. Drops! Loot! Glory! What more could you want? Dungeons are places of danger and adventure, full of thrills and maybe even romance, where people enter as your normal and everyday person but leave as a hero. Even a child knows what a dungeon is! A dungeon is controlled and ruled over by its Dungeon Core, a mana crystal that's gained sentience, and with it a mind just as twisted as the home that it makes for itself. Dungeon Cores all have very simple wants and needs: to expand and to devour, and to that end, they'll do absolutely everything and anything within their power. Everyone knows that. Sometimes, though? Sometimes the Dungeon Core doesn't know that. Sometimes they wake up all alone, confused and with no clue what they should do, and find themselves quickly becoming the home to a family of badgers and other creatures. The Dungeon Core can be left struggling to figure out their role in the world and how exactly they're supposed to achieve it. They're really doing their best, and you shouldn't judge them for it! The badger thing was a complete mistake but there's just no way they can turn back and fix it so they're just trying to make do, okay?! What would you do in their situation?! Cover art was made with pixel assets from Szadi art and 0x72.
8 262A Girl's, Unusual Existence
From a similar but parallel Earth, Ame, a former scientist suddenly finds herself reborn in the world of Sen. Much to her dismay she is thrust into an illogical world full of "Energy" or better known as "Qi." A world full of flying warriors and powerful Clans/Sects or legendary monsters and immortal beings only being the tip of the iceberg. Who will triumph in the end? [Please support author, Me, by buying the 1st draft novel on Amazon or donating to my patron. https://www.patreon.com/posts/8642910 ] (Art belongs to original creator.)
8 395Khiral (A LitRPG Dungeon Adventure)
A slave wishing for freedom in a dungeon made to keep her oppressed. Verity Stonefist is a half-monster hybrid who will find herself escaping the only life she has ever known for one filled with danger and adventure. Her goal is to find any members of her tribe that may have survived the attack that caused her family to be sentenced to a life of slavery serving the human kingdom located in the depths of the Khiral dungeon system. She will have to fight her way up through dungeon after dungeon in the hopes of meeting one of her people. Alone she is just a girl, but together her people might be able to shake the very foundations of their world.
8 203Existara
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The Rebirth is only months away and a victory is a must. At all cost. To stop the reoccurring nightmare that has tormented the land of Existara for centuries… For the first time in the History of the Concord – there is a chance for the impossible to happen. The question is – can they make it in time? Or will one man’s ambition be the executor that condemns the world into eternal chaos…
8 153Silver Sky
Yuha princess of the avian fiends is forced to flee when an unknown force attacks her people. Forced by her sister to use their ancestor's contingency plan, she is sent to another world to escape the horrifying foe that was assaulting her people. She finds herself in the land of silver sky where the sky is sealed in metal the suns are godlike beasts and a massive wall of light that reaches to the sky that none know what is beyond. Yuha must uncover the secrets of the land and herself to reunite with her people.
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