There was no response of any kind from Drexel. Every single trace of life had left him as his spirit entered the death phase in order to prepare for the next life, where Kaya hoped he would learn from his mistakes.
She knelt down, placing her hand upon his head, petting his jet black hair lovingly.
“Even after all you’ve done, I still love you.”
She buried her head into his bloody chest, wailing into the solitude, letting out all of the pain that she had kept inside over the last three years.
The holograms vanished, leaving a tragic end to the tale of three friends who once became stronger alongside one another—inspiring one another—loving one another.
Dusk wasn’t sure what to think of this. He felt a little betrayed that Tsuki had killed him in a past life, but he probably would’ve killed Drexel too in that situation. The worst part for him by far was the knowledge that he had killed hundreds of thousands of people, witnessing the act with his own two eyes.
“And that is the truth. That is the end of the story.” Raven spoke solemnly as he appeared in front of them in a flash.
“Kaya was revered as a hero, eventually being levitated to a goddess after her death, worshipped by all who dwelled on Mars... all because she killed you, stopping your murderous rampage. As for Noah, he acquired the second Martian Eon Blade which had been kept secret by the Zaxin government. When Drexel was committing his Martian genocide, the Zaxins feverishly looked for a second Eon Blade wielder who could oppose Drexel. Having risen to the rank of ainklan, which is the equivalent of a colonel in earth culture, Noah was chosen as one of many possible candidates. Noah was written into history as a martyr and saint for his sacrifice.”
Tsuki’s body was trembling with anger. This was the exact thing that she didn’t want Dusk to see. This is exactly what she was afraid of.
She threw her sword straight at Raven’s skull at lethal speeds. The snowy blade travelled right through the skull of his holographic image, wedging itself into the wall behind him.
She knew it wouldn’t kill him, which is exactly why she threw it. Right now, she wanted to show him the boundless depths of her anger.
“I have to say, I’m surprised, Karla. I expected Dusk to be the one lashing out at me in anger, and for you to be the calmer one.”
“I’m in complete control of my emotions. I just wanted to show you what will happen to you when we meet again in the flesh.”
“Hahaha, that rage is beautiful! Splendid!”
“Raven, what did you hope to gain by showing me all this? What are you trying to do here? Is it just to break my spirit?” Dusk inquired in a quiet voice, his consciousness disturbed.
Raven made an exaggerated sigh, making his disappointment known to all.
“I told you. I want you to see the truth. I want you to remember who you really are.”
“A cold hearted genocidal killer? Drexel didn’t become like that until after the Eon Blade possessed him. Before that he was a kind individual.”
Raven shook his head in dissent.
“That is incorrect. The Eon Blade does not possess the user. It only makes them see the truth. It is up to the user to decide what to do with those ultimate truths after they are learned. It is obvious what Drexel... no, what you chose.”
“Bullshit!” Dusk shouted. “I refuse to believe it. There’s nothing that could drive me to murder for pleasure, much less so many people indiscriminately!”
“And yet it happened. I want that Drexel back. Return to who you really are, Dusk!”
“If what you say is true, I would sooner die than let myself touch the Eon Blade. If the Eon Blade is what caused this, then I will simply stay away from it.”
Raven chuckled, finding his attempted rebellion amusing.
“It doesn’t work that way. Well anyways, there’s one more thing I have to tell you.”
“What now?”
Raven moved his arm forward, summoning the three holograms for another display. This time, the holograms were not moving, nothing was happening. Drexel and Kaya were placed beside Dusk and Tsuki, respectively. Dusk noticed they were now imitating their every mannerism.
“What the hell is this supposed to be?”
“You’ll see momentarily.” Raven laughed as Noah, who stood right next to him, laughed with him.
To say that Dusk’s mind was troubled would be an understatement. His once stable mind was now a house of mirrors, distorting everything. He tried to deny it, but he knew deep down the implications of this display.
It couldn’t be. It makes no sense!
Raven slowly pulled back his black hood, savoring every moment of bitter anxiety that he could draw out from Dusk and Tsuki, before he finally pulled his hood all the way back, revealing the face that had been hidden within all this time.
The veil of darkness had been lifted, revealing a man with spiky black hair that was in a crown like shape, as if he were a king. Behind his dark eyes lurked the spirit of boundless cruelty. The most striking feature was his face. It was a near exact replica of the holographic Noah, who was standing right beside him.
Tsuki too, was shocked at this sudden revelation. The rest of the events were within her calculations, but she would never have guessed that Raven would be Noah. They were nothing alike in personality. She wanted to dismiss the thought as a mere mind game that Raven was playing, as he so loved to do. Even so, there was something she could not explain. Something which told her deep down, that Raven was actually Noah. It would explain perfectly how he knew all of these past events.
“You’ve told me some pretty tall tales in the last two days, Raven, but this has to be the tallest. You expect me to believe a monster like you used to be a force of good in this world?”
“I admit it disgusts me whenever I think back to the fact that I used to be such a fool. I can hardly believe it myself. If not for discovering the truth, I might have still lived in that repulsive ignorance. Taking hold of the Eon Blade was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
“But if what you showed in that flashback was true, Noah was still good even after taking up the Eon Blade. You, however, can hardly be called a force of good,” Omni pointed out.
Raven scoffed in abhorrence, each word striking a nerve, as if sending multiple bursts of lightning through his body.
“A force of good you say? What is good exactly? A set of rules defined by the society that we live in? What’s good in one part of the world may not be considered good in another. It’s all dependent upon your perception. Even Drexel and Noah, whom had both been enlightened by the universe itself, had vastly different perceptions of what good was.”
“So then, how did you do a 180 on your beliefs? How did you become this way if you used to be a pure spirit?”
“No! Wrong!” Raven spoke powerfully, showing his first visible sign of irritation. “I’m a pure spirit now. Drexel became a pure spirit. It is you—you who are all living in complete ignorance, which are the impure, tainted souls! I eventually realized this simple fact during my long life... and here we are.”
Scarlet remembered when Omni had told her of the Eon Blade years ago.
The Eon Blade is a source of power and enlightenment. I never imagined it being used for this sort of evil. Don’t know why I’m surprised. Humans find a way to fuck everything up.
A light switch was flipped on in Lena’s head as she finally realized who this man was. She had seen his face before. He was a brilliant scientist who had uncovered the secret to prolonging human lives.
“By the way, I’m just making sure of this, but you are Nicholas Coil, aren’t you?” Lena asked, wishing to confirm the truth with her own ears.
“That is my earthly name in this lifetime, yes. I find it interesting that you know my name, but I am not surprised, as you are a fellow scientist.”
“Lena, you know him?” Emerald murmured quietly.
“I’ve heard of him, yes. Nicholas Coil, the prodigy scientist who is believed to have
the intelligence to rival Einstein. A man with an IQ of 240: the man responsible for the breakthrough which will prolong human life spans. By manipulating our genetic map, he has found a way for humans to live for up to half a millennium, though the public knows nothing about this life prolonging medicine yet. The elites of Earth have already had this medicine administered to them.”
The way Lena spoke, it was almost as if she was praising the genocidal maniac.
“All of that science pales in comparison to the Eon,” Raven trailed on. “IQ is meaningless. Science too, accomplished nothing for the Martians in the end.”
“You speak of the global freezing,” Omni affirmed, knowing where this was going.
“Precisely—the irony of it all is, for all of Kaya’s effort to stop Drexel from wiping out humanity, he still succeeded for the most part. Before Drexel’s death, he had destroyed several key devices and killed the most brilliant scientists. Because of this, humanity on Mars was dealt a crippling blow. Because of the carnage left in Drexel’s wake, combined with the efforts of Kaya, the Empire of Zaxin and the Republic of Plur had agreed to a ceasefire. Twenty years later, that ceasefire ended. The war between Zaxin and Plur became fiercer than ever. Despite her status as a peerless warrior, Kaya could not stop the war alone, for she was but a single person. Without the power of the Eons to aid her, she was powerless to stop the bloodshed.”
Raven took a deep breath, halting himself for a moment before continuing.
“The Zaxin and Plur remained entrenched in war until the final fifty years before the Great Freeze, the conditions becoming too harsh for them to continue. But by then, it was too late. They foolishly spent centuries fighting one another over resources and religion, not diverting any of their human resources to finding a way off the planet. Almost every human would die in those last fifty years, freezing to death. The rare exceptions to this rule were the royalty of the Zaxins and Plurs, who ironically were the reason for all of the death in the first place. They used the few remaining spacecraft which were still intact from centuries ago to escape this planet, making a haven on Earth. Only about one thousand humans would escape from their icy fate on Mars, encountering the evolving Earth human for the first time. The Martian bloodline became thinner and thinner on Earth over time, until it vanished with a whimper. But the spirits still existed, migrating into various hosts throughout the lifetimes.”
Raven looked deeply into the eyes of Tsuki and Dusk, piercing into his kindred spirits.
“That is how we came to be in the present. That is why I am here before you; right here, right now. Us three have been brought together again by fate to fulfill a purpose—the culling of humanity. We will fulfill that purpose without fail.”
“I will never help you fulfill that purpose, Raven. Not then, not now, not ever.” Tsuki’s confidence spilled out of her, filling the room and inspiring everyone beside her.
“I won’t kill another person as long as I live. I would rather die than turn into that again,” Dusk said, cementing his opposition to everything Raven stood for.
“Ha, you say that now.” Raven said, clearly not convinced.
“By the way, why did Mars freeze over anyway?” Lena inquired, seeking to fulfill her scientific curiosity.
“Ah, that was a natural occurrence. Simply put, the molten iron in Mars’s core stopped rising and falling as it should.”
“Convection.”
“Right. Without that process occurring, Mars began to lose its magnetic field. Without that, the solar wind chipped away at Mars’s atmosphere, making it colder and colder, until eventually everything froze. As for why the core stopped working properly, it was because of the Destroyer Comet that smashed into the core. That was the beginning of the global freezing which took hundreds of years. This is the true history of humanity that you won’t find recorded in any history book.”
Raven exhaled greatly, letting everything out.
“Phew, that was a long explanation. I’ve done enough talking for one day I think.”
“Finally, we agree on something,” Scarlet quipped. “You talk way too much.”
For the first time, they saw Raven’s cocky grin.
“It was all necessary. Now... Drexel, your destiny awaits you up ahead, go forth and embrace it with open arms.”
After Raven’s lengthy speech, he finally disappeared, leaving the group to discuss matters with one another.
“It would seem the next room is the end of our journey. Is everyone ready?” Omni asked, admittedly relieved that this venture was coming to an end, though he would not let this emotion leak through his calm appearance.
“I’ve been ready for this raid to end for nearly two days now,” Joan complained loudly.
“Let’s go, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the worst, I don’t know what could be worse anymore,” Dusk uttered cynically, the sights of the holographic history clearly having taken its toll on his psyche.
Indeed, I’m pretty sure that everything I remember from back then was either shown or explained. I don’t know what else could possibly be waiting in the final chamber. I hope it’s just a way out of here. We all need a rest, especially you Drake,
Tsuki reflected to herself quietly. She wondered what Dusk would think of her, knowing that she killed him back then. She wondered just what he was thinking right now. She could only sense his feelings, not his thoughts.
The ten virtual warriors had all climbed down the ladder, dropping down into the final room below. The room, which had a similar color and design scheme to every other room in the structure, looked to be empty—empty except for a single pedestal levitating in the center of the room, with a large black blade set inside it. The blade held crimson markings that shone repeatedly. The feeling of power emanating from the blade could not be denied. It was almost overwhelming in its intensity. This blade looked just like...
Everyone turned their head sharply to look at Dusk at that moment, all united in the same thought. To their collective dismay, the deep red light had surrounded the Phantom, his body moving forward ever so slowly and lifelessly, as if he were now the walking dead.
“Drake, what are you doing? Don’t touch that blade!” Tsuki moved in to stop him, but was repelled by a crimson barrier. Dusk did not acknowledge her in the slightest, his mind in a trance as if hypnotized. His body was moving of his own accord.
“J, stop him, please!” Tsuki cried out desperately, reliving the terrible memories of ages long past and fearing the worst.
Omni said not a word, but instead raised his arm up, channeling all of his creational power into his left hand. The entire barrier howled in protest, but remained steadfast against his telepathic assault.
“It’s... not working,” Omni uttered, somewhat surprised at his ability being ineffectual. This was the first time he had encountered a barrier that even he could not break.
“What?!” She craned her head towards her student once again.
No! This can’t be happening!
They could all only gaze on in a mixture of emotions as Dusk gradually stumbled forward clumsily, step by step, outstretching his arm towards the Eon Blade, as if seeking to satisfy a long unquenched thirst—a thirst for power. Finally, he reached his destination, taking hold of the blade. But as he grabbed the handle, his body recoiled backwards to the ground and shot into several spasms as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. This horrific process continued unabated for a few minutes until Dusk stopped moving, having blacked out.
Chapter 11
December 21, 2018
Kevlar had been sitting on this small island, with nothing but the sounds of the gentle waves and tropical wildlife to keep him company. Scents of the salty ocean washed in with the soothing melody of the tide. Kevlar stared up at the blanket of dull gray darkness above. It looked like it was about to rain. Again. Honestly, the skies always seemed to be crying in the Water Continent. He sighed to himself. Thinking about rain? How pointless. He hated having nothing to do. When he wasn’t bus
y, his mind wouldn’t stop thinking, about something... anything. He wished there was a switch in his brain that would turn his thought processes on and off. Thanks to his overactive brain, he hadn’t slept well in months. Any time he tried, all he could do was bask in his misery as he thought about how his very reason for living had been ripped out of his grasp.
There is a saying that decrees 'you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone'. That never proved truer than in Kevlar’s case. Before he met Karla, he was content. Not happy, but content. He prided himself on his peerless skill in all things. Then he had met her. She changed everything he thought was true in this world. She was the first person to challenge him on an intellectual level. He had found everyone else up to that point to be utterly incapable or simply stupid in comparison to him. What’s more, Karla’s love for videogames rivaled his. Though he loathed admitting it at first, he realized her skill for gaming surpassed his. It was a completely new sensation for him. One which he enjoyed greatly. They played every competitive game out there, winning them all. Together they were unstoppable. Together they could take on the world.
That capability and intelligence extended outside of the game, too. He found himself in many a deep discussion with her. Even before he met her in person, their connection was undeniable. After three months of speaking to this marvel of a woman, he had to know. He had to meet her in person.
Though she lived thousands of miles away, he would not let that stop him from achieving his happiness. When he met her, that connection grew exponentially stronger. Eventually, he felt as though they were one being. This level of bliss had been unparalleled in his life. He didn’t even think it was possible to be this happy.
The Virtual Realm (War Of The Elements Book 1) Page 47