Ch 40: Show me your will.

Motionless, the liminal corridor of white walls and harsh fluorescent spotlights was frozen in time.

“Did you really think that Scourgenesis would be cured just like that?” Hiro’s crazed smile grew wider. “You don’t understand anything about this world, do you?”

The condescending words had no response. Oden, Mira, and Ace were like statues, their blood thickening to stone.

“You really thought that after making a cure, they’d let it out of a containment facility? They’d let the people who knew about it walk free? That you’d be able to come and kill someone for it?” Hiro burst into manic laughter; his eyes shedding tears of pure madness.

Oden was the first to break through the shock. “Why are you doing this? What do you want?”

In one dramatic motion, Hiro opened up his trench coat, unveiling a vest strapped to the brim with explosives and wiring.

“You…madman.” Oden was taken aback, his jaw dropping open. “Is there any sanity in that head of yours? Or were you pretending not to be a psycho from the start?”

Hiro’s crazed laughter echoed through the hall. “I’m gonna take over that machine, or I’ll die trying. And if I do, you best believe I’m taking it with me.”

Ace no longer recognised Hiro. He was erratic, delusional, with a devilish smile.

“No. You. Hiro you..I don’t believe it.” Ace stuttered, his face contorted from shock. “All that talk about reaching the Summit.”

You even saved my life in a timeline that was erased when I was cursed. You can’t tell me that was all a lie!

“You should turn back now. You’re of no use to me anymore.” The smile on Hiro’s face vanished, and the words he spoke from his mouth were cold and sharp.

“W-what happened to reaching it? The Summit? All those late-night talks about escaping this sh*t hole? Does none of that matter to you?”

The corner of Hiro’s mouth twitched as he ground his teeth.

“Hiro, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can work together. If we-“

“You can work with people all you want. But when the time comes, they’ll always put their own desires first.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to-“

“You don’t know anything. Nothing at all. NOTHING! This isn’t a matter of trust. You don’t understand a single thing about how the world works.”

Hiro’s voice rose to a shout, words carrying the weight of a deep, unbridled fury that had been left brewing for years.

“There are things, beings, demons in this world, curses, ancient prophecies, long-standing grudges between nations far outside the range of Scaria. You’d have to climb the great powers of every nation to ascend to the Summit.

These wars, the constant push and pull for power, wrath passed down in bloodlines.
They’ve been going on for centuries.

Stop thinking the world revolves around you. Because it doesn’t. You think you're the main character all of a sudden? You get one chance to be useful, and now you think you're hot sh*t?

The gears of fate have long been set into motion, LONG before you even stepped foot into this world.”

“This isn’t like you at all.” Ace replayed all the memories he had of Hiro in his head. Every moment, action, and gesture.

Hiro forcefully clenched his fists, blood dripping to the floor from his nails burrowing into his skin.

“You don’t know what I've been through. You don’t know how long, how hard I've worked to get here. You don’t know what I've had to do, the sacrifices I’ve had to make, the blood I’ve shed, the lies I’ve told, the lives I’ve taken, making deals with the devil. YOU HAVE NO IDEA how much I’ve sacrificed to get here. NO IDEA. You don’t know how much planning, over years and years, I've been preparing for this EXACT day.

You think you could get here that easily without me? Open your eyes, Ace. Think about everything that’s happened to you since you came to this world. You think it was all luck? Chance? Think again.

You’re only standing here because I stopped you from jumping off that building in the Barrens.

There are things that have been prophesied to happen. Destined to happen, brewing between the hidden forces in the shadows, and you think you can show up and do what you want?

You need a reality check. There are some things in this world that you can’t change.

You should’ve realised the truth in that dark chasm when you were helpless against the Moon Priest.

You’re powerless.

In the Cult of Worship, there are ten of them. Ten Priests. And do you know what will happen when the time comes to face them? You will bend to their will.

There could be thousands, millions of you, but against Hellia? She would be yawning on the piles of your burning ashes.

Do you not get it? To the great powers of this world, you’re nothing more than an ANT on the sidewalk.”

Ace stared into Hiro’s eyes.

It was in that moment, after recalling all the conversations they’d ever had, that Ace realised that Hiro was right all along.

You were right. We are one in the same.

Behind those frenzied eyes, Ace saw his own struggle. Fighting, defying the will of the cruel world. Ace realised that, after all his denial, he wasn’t different from Hiro at all.

Only now he could see it. Like Hiro, he was drowning, struggling to keep his head above water against the relentless tides of the cruel world, and the only difference was that they washed up on different shores. That was all.

Mira was always a person who voiced her thoughts and stood up for what she thought was right. But in this moment, she was speechless.

Struck by a new understanding, Ace clenched his fist, but he wasn’t thinking emotionally; he was thinking tactically.

“Akranos. It’s the most powerful AI, right?” Ace met Hiro’s crazed eyes with a daring glare. “What’s the chance it can help me find Cecilia?”

Hiro’s manic smile stretched to his ears. “Would you take that small chance I don’t fail and take us all down to hell?”

“Yeah.” Ace steeled his resolve. Was such reckless, audacious grit what he needed to move up in this world? He didn’t know, but he was done waiting for the answers. Right now, he was willing to risk it all to reach forward and grasp the things he wanted, even at the cost of his life.

“Is that how it is, huh?” Oden slammed his axe down, forming a blue veil that enveloped himself and Hiro, trapping them inside.

“You two stay there.”

The Executioner. A man the size of three men. He wasn’t a veteran of war; he was the embodiment of it, born into it.

He had the tempered spirit of a vessel of war. And now, the killing intent in Oden’s eyes had reawakened.

Hiro felt a shiver run through his bones.

A barrier spell? This b*stard could cast barrier spells? I get it. If he kills me, he can contain the explosions and save the lives of the other two. Old man's smarter than I thought. This might be trouble.

Hiro looked into Oden’s merciless, empty eyes.

Nothing was going to stop him.

Unsheathing his great axe, the runes along it lit up, panning from the blade all the way across his armour.

Lifting the enormous axe with one hand, he pointed it straight at Hiro.

“Show me your will.”