Chaos II

“My… bed… My books… My desk… This… is… my bedroom. But why? Am I back, or am I trapped again in memories…?

Iwao wandered around his room, scrutinizing everything without being able to touch anything despite his attempts. Tears streamed down his face – not tears of sadness, but of nostalgia – as his expression held a sad yet gentle smile while he looked at a photo of himself with his mother on his desk.

“It’s memories… again. Everything here is not truly real… I can’t even read the books I once enjoyed.”

A little snore came from the bed as the sheets rustled with distinct noises. Iwao turned and saw a child lying there.

“So… that’s me… I must have been twelve, maybe thirteen? I don’t remember… It’s already been more than two years… I’ve started to lose feelings, memories, and the warmth of a home. I forgot what I looked like… haha… that’s ridiculous. I go through so many emotions at once that I don’t know how to react sometimes… And even now… I’m crying… I’m weak…”

Iwao wiped his tears, left only with the sound of his own sobbing.

“Look at you, Iwao! You’re a monster! Look what you’ve become! Look what you once were! You were a kid who could sleep peacefully in a bed without worrying about nightmares! You can never go back to this, Iwao!” He shouted as hard as he could, with no one to hear his despair.

He looked into the mirror in the bedroom. He couldn’t see himself in it. Still, he tried to break it with his fists.

“You’re here, invisible, unable to appear in this mirror! I can sense your presence! Get out of this place! Get these feelings and memories out! Let me die… let me… be free from all my sorrow…” Iwao said, collapsing to his knees.

A flash of white light filled the room. Iwao turned and saw a large white sphere of light before him. He stopped crying and stood, trembling all over, freezing as a voice spoke from it.

“This kid seems perfect. I’ll need to prepare his mind before doing everything else. HAHAHA. Take this, Polmo king! This boy will avenge me and kill all your descendants.”

“The creature… again… and again… and again! These aren’t even my memories! They’re this monster’s! So the spell it cast made it travel between worlds to be here now…? I don’t know how it did it, but now I know how it found me...” Iwao thought, before being interrupted as the sphere of light entered the body of his child self.

The younger Iwao trembled, his body tensing as the light entered him, yet he did not wake.

The child slept peacefully.

But then he opened his mouth, and from it… the creature’s laugh echoed, along with its words.

“Until next time!”

Iwao stood there, frozen, unable to move or think. Seeing how the creature had entered his mind left him speechless.

“You! Iwao! I never thought you’d be here one day, seeing this! You’re not allowed… not anymore!” The creature’s voice shouted behind him.

Iwao turned and saw the terrifying creature standing before him, more terrifying than ever, rage twisting its face.

“WHAT YOU SAW DOESN’T REPRESENT EVEN A FRACTION OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED! IT WON’T HELP YOU DO ANYTHING! DON’T DELUDE YOURSELF!” The creature bellowed as the space around them shifted into ruins.

It seized Iwao’s shoulders and shook him violently.

“IT’S NOT EVEN A TINY PART OF THE TRUTH! YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SEE THIS YET! GET OUT OF HERE!”

Iwao remained speechless. At his lack of reaction, the creature released his shoulders and roared furiously.

“If I was hiding here for now, it wasn’t for you to come find me and see this! I wasn’t supposed to show myself yet! You ruined everything I had prepared! Are you happy?” It said, calmer but with fury still burning in its voice.

“So it can be anxious and disturbed...” Iwao thought, trying to gather his thoughts.

“You’ll have all the explanations you want someday. For now, I’m not in the mood to fool you, nor to be serious with you. I shouldn’t even be speaking to you. Another mistake of mine.”

It clutched its head, thinking hard.

“A plan that took years to prepare, shattered in an instant… Those sect member’s trap was devastating for me. They must pay the price for this, even if they didn’t know it would happen!” It roared to itself.

It turned to Iwao, who was too astonished to speak or act.

“Iwao! You will have to do two things for me! Time hasn’t come yet, and you’re not allowed to know everything. First, gain some confidence and stop crying or being afraid! Do you enjoy being weak while your friends suffer and nearly die by this puppeteer? Do you prefer to rely on others instead of yourself? How am I supposed to execute any plan with someone as weak-minded as you? I should have chosen someone else.”

“Urui… he harmed them? He’s killing them… This can’t be…” Iwao thought, eyes wide, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists in rage.

“Now that’s the spirit! You see, you do have that side within you! This confidence, this rage – they’ve always been there for a reason. Use them! Your second mission… well, it’s already been accomplished by your other friend! Look – you’re starting to disappear from this world!” The creature shouted, pointing at Iwao’s body as it dissolved into energy.

“Wait! What plan are you talking about? What do you want from me? Why did you persecute me? Why? Why? Why do I have to suffer like this – being like you?” He yelled, as his head was the last part left before dissolving completely.

The creature smiled wickedly and laughed at Iwao.

“You’re not allowed to know that. Keep living this life with what I’ve given you, and with what you’ll gain. This is just the beginning.”

Iwao vanished from the ruins and from the creature’s sight.

Its laughter echoed through the void.

******************************

Iwao opened his eyes and glanced around to gather information. He was sitting, leaning against the cross he was tied to earlier.

In front of him stood Lo, covered in blood, looking everywhere under the pouring rain.

“Lo…” Iwao said in a painful voice.

Lo turned quickly at the sound of his voice and rushed to him, helping him to stand.

“I’m a little dizzy… What happened? Where are the sect members?” Iwao asked weakly.

“I killed them.” Lo replied instantly.

“All of them?”

“Yes. Every last one. They weren’t strong enough to stop me. Their death resulted in your liberation. The incantation they had cast lost its effect once they were all dead.”

Iwao laughed softly, leaning on Lo’s shoulder to walk. They advanced a few meters forward until they saw them: the corpses of all the sect members, scattered across the ground. Some were missing one or several limbs, others had been completely blown apart. As for the guru, Iwao looked toward the tree where he had been bound by a rock spell, his chest pierced. He hung in the same position Iwao had once taken on the cross.

“I thought the best option was to make the most powerful one suffer even more. It’s because of him that you were bound and that this incantation was cast. He deserved the same treatment.” Lo explained.

Iwao chuckled faintly, looking intently at Lo.

“I’ll say it again – you’ll always impress me, Lo. You’re incredibly powerful, and you must never doubt that strength.” He said with a gentle voice.

He clenched his fists, letting go of Lo’s shoulder now that he was able to walk by himself.

“We have to hurry! We need to help Saya and Celi! They’re in danger! I will kill Urui for what he’s done. I won’t let this pass.” Iwao roared, his voice filled with anger.

“You’ve changed, Iwao. What happened while you were tied to that cross?”

“Nothing important for now. I just have to pull myself together. I've let myself go for too long. I won't change suddenly with the snap of a finger – I have to initiate the change myself. I hate having to follow that monster’s advice.” He replied, a tinge of fury and regret in his voice.

They ran in the direction Saya and Celi had been sent, where Urui had gone earlier. They ran fast – so fast it only took seconds to reach them.

The place was filled with craters from explosions. Flames burned everywhere, and the stench of charred wood filled the air.

An armless Urui stood beside Celi’s and Saya’s bodies, laughing harshly. But Celi and Saya were not dead. They kept trying to stand, though the effort was too much, and each time they collapsed to the ground. Urui watched them try again and again.

“URUI!” Iwao screamed.

“Oh, Nightmare Eater! You’re here to witness the final showdown? Well, that sect was weak if you made it through... but that’s not important. Let me finish this, and I’ll be with yo-”

“Iwao… He’s bluffing! Don’t listen to him! He can’t have much Firia left in his reserve… He used it all for the explosions and to stop the bleeding from his arms. Don’t worry about us – get rid of this bomber!” Celi shouted, her voice filled with agony as she tried to raise herself high enough to be heard by Iwao.

As Celi spoke, Iwao looked at her and noticed something strange.

“Her hand… where is it…?”

He clenched his fists, his breath quickening, a black aura dripping from them. The ground shook violently beneath them – the shockwave radiating from Iwao’s body. Lo anchored itself to the ground while Urui struggled to keep his balance without his arms.

“And then what, Nightmare Eater? You think you can save them? It’s already too late. There’s only one way I know to stop the sheep sculptures I prepared from exploding, and even if you kill me, they’ll still go off and kill them too. Think carefully.”

Iwao lowered his gaze, thinking. Urui opened his dimensional reserve and pulled out a single arm prosthesis. He attached it to himself, channeled Firia through the new arm, and a massive sphere of rock erupted from the ground. With a powerful roar, he hurled it at Iwao and Lo with all his might.

Lo dodged, but Iwao didn’t move an inch. The sphere slammed into him at full speed, raising a cloud of dust. Urui turned back to Celi and Saya, pulling another sheep from his reserve.

“You shouldn’t have resisted, Nightmare Eater. It was easy to neutrali-”

“Your heart…”

Urui spun around so fast he staggered and fell.

“Wait! How did you survive that?!” He shouted.

“Your spell was weak. Just a simple barrier was enough to break it. You really don’t have any energy left! I will not let you kill them. They must survive. They deserve long and happy lives.” Iwao said firmly, his anger rising, while the dust dissipated, revealing him standing tall, his hand aimed at Urui.

Iwao’s fist was covered with a black aura thicker than earlier. Urui, scared, tried to open his dimensional reserve but nothing happened. It seemed he didn’t have enough Firia left to do it.

“You said there was only one way to prevent the sheep sculptures buried underground from exploding – you thought I wouldn’t notice? Thanks to Celi, I learned to analyze and perceive the Firia flow. After that, it became clear that your explosions were connected to your heart – that you had stored a massive amount of Firia in it to power your wooden sculptures even after your death. But if your heart is destroyed…” Iwao explained.

“He… He figured it all out… I’m dead… I’m completely dead!” Urui thought, panicking as he crawled weakly across the ground.

As he dragged himself toward Celi and Saya, he used the last of his strength to activate the purple energy that connected him to his bombs.

“This will only be the second time I use this ability. And the second time I’ll kill with it. I swore never to use it again after that incident… but it seems I must break many of the promises I made.”

A shockwave erupted from Iwao’s body, the aura around his fists blasting into Urui’s chest. His arm dropped lifelessly to the ground as the purple aura vanished. The bombs would never detonate. Urui was dead.

Without looking at it, Iwao crushed the strange thing that had appeared in his hand – the very thing that could have triggered the bombs even after Urui’s death.

He let the rain wash the blood from his hand, then rushed to Celi and Saya. With Lo’s help, he healed them just enough so they could stand and walk.

Iwao looked at Celi’s missing hand with grief and guilt, then tore a piece from Lo's shirt to bandage it.

They all began recounting what had happened from their perspectives, though Iwao said nothing about the time he had spent under the incantation’s power.

Then Saya and Celi did something that stunned both Iwao and Lo. They hugged them. It was the first time it had ever happened.

“Wait… what are you doing?” Iwao asked, confused.

“We were afraid you’d die – both you and Lo! We thought we were going to die too. He caught us off guard when we thought it was over! A hug is more than deserved. And your fur is so soft – it's pleasant and comforting.” Saya said with a bright, relieved smile, Celi nodding in agreement.

Lo didn’t understand this sign of affection and simply stood still in the embrace.

“Now that this is over, we need to hurry. We must deal with the king quickly. Without his assassins, he’ll try something else. We have to act first. We have to strike before him. We nearly died today! And what I’ve seen, what I’ve learned... it makes me so angry I just want to see this threat erased. I will not tolerate it any longer.” Iwao said.

He stepped back from the group hug and sighed deeply, gazing at the sky as the rain calmed.

“We have to kill him...” He whispered, his voice deadly serious.

ARC 4: You Never Knew my Mind | Finished