CHAPTER 149: CRYSTAL

Images of everything to come was all I could see over and over again, until finally it felt like I was there myself. Standing within a field of dead flowers, looking at the distant broken tower.

No one else seems to be around anymore, what happened?

It seems I am living within this image of what’s to come now. I don’t really know what the purpose is of having me here like this but I guess I’ll see how it all unfolds.

I wonder if this is what Rika feels like being in my head all the time and seeing through my eyes. Kind of weird to be seeing things through the eyes of my future self.

"Never would I have expected to see you within your own head" Rika says with a bit of shock to her voice.

"It’s kind of a new experience to me as well." I reply with a genuine tone.

I thought I would’ve heard Rika in my head but it seems that it doesn’t apply during this for some reason. This is the first time that it has been this quiet in awhile.

"Seems you won’t be here very long then. There isn’t much happening here so I’d just take it in for the time being." Rika suggests while crossing her arms.

I didn’t say anything back to her about it and just decided to see what was going on.

Just walking through the field of dead flowers, feeling this strange feeling of sadness coursing through me. There was a lot that didn’t make a lot of sense to me here.

The tower in the distance is a lot smaller than any of the towers that I climbed before.

No one else was present here either, what happened in this place? Is this a tower floor or did we just go to some random field in the middle of nowhere.

Ahead I could finally see something standing tall, almost like a statue of some sort. It didn’t look like me which was a good sign but the statue could be of the monarch.

"What is this place Rika?" I ask with a curious tone.

"The second to the last floor of the tower. You are almost done climbing and it wasn’t an easy climb by any means. We’ve been alone in this for awhile now, I don’t know why Akina took the girls away." Rika answered with a bit of sadness in her voice.

I made it through the tower on my own without the help of the girls... Wow. I didn’t expect to keep going until I figured out what happened with them.

It kind of baffles me that I wouldn’t try to find them or make sure they are okay at the very least.

An even stranger sensation washes over me as I notice that we reach the front of the statue.

"Are you ready to face the final boss of the tower?" The Statue asked.

I could hear the future Rokuro say yes before everything finally disappeared around me once again. I found myself back in front of the crystal.

"I-I... I don’t understand what any of that was." I speak with a bit of confusion in my voice.

"The future. I’m not sure what you saw but it is your future, or part of your future." The Woman responds with a calm tone.

I’ll be by myself for the remainder of the climb in this tower with no reassurance that the girls are okay. All of this for what though?

I’m going to get stronger from this power which is great, but why do I have to travel all by myself now...? We’ve been traveling together as a group for awhile now, just switching one or two of them out.

Giving everyone a fair chance to see what journeys await us.

"I don’t understand why I’m suddenly having to endure this alone." I say with even more confusion in my voice.

"It is your fate for the remainder of the tower. I couldn’t explain it to you, just know that it happens for a reason." She responds with the same calm tone.

Rokuro, what did you see? It couldn’t have been anything bad.

It was just lonely, that’s all. There wasn’t any sort of death or despair... Just loneliness. I would understand if there was more to what it showed me but there wasn’t anything else.

What am I supposed to do with this information? I know I make it to the final floor but there’s no clues about what the second to last floor was.

A floor filled with dead flowers and a broken tower, what the hell is that supposed to tell me?

I’m not too sure. That actually surprised me a bit as well, let me think on it for a little while.

Also, you aren’t alone at all. I’ll be with you through the whole climb so you aren’t going to be by yourself. Just remember that I’m always here.

I get that. Physically I’m alone though but it is fine, I dealt with it my whole life until the awakening anyway. There’s got to be more to the message though.

"Anyway. I think it is about time to give you a bit of this power." She says with a more serious tone.

I was waiting to get this new power from the crystal anyway. It could make a big difference in my upcoming fights and help me work towards my fight with any of the Monarchs.

There’s a lot of them and the main one isn’t going to be the first one I go against.

It still pisses me off that he first came here in the form of some strange star before bringing chaos into my world. That anger just builds up within me every single time I think about it.

"I’m ready whenever." I respond with a serious tone.

Suddenly I could feel a surge of energy go through me, it felt as if my body was going to be torn apart in seconds. It didn’t last very long though, after about a minute I could feel everything die down.

The power was definitely a different feeling than I was used to. It was mixing with the power of a dragon that I also had inside of me.

Ba-thump. Ba-thump. My heartbeat felt like it was getting louder and louder all of a sudden.

Until finally I felt my legs give out and I fell to the ground. The pain returned 100x stronger than before and I couldn’t understand what was happening.

Just hang in there Rokuro! They are both kind of colliding harshly with one another. It’ll be fine momentarily.

I don’t know a damn thing about this new power, but the dragon power I have is definitely not liking it. This shit feels incredibly painful.

I knew that I was probably letting out screams of pain as I fell to the floor. It was one of the worst experiences I ever felt in my life.

No one should ever have to experience the feeling of their whole body being torn apart and rebuilt over and over again. While this was happening I could see the girl watching me with a weird grin on her face.

"Pain is good. This means you are definitely going to be worthy of the power I gave you." She speaks with a bit of joy in her voice.

I don’t have any strength to respond to her since I’m being overwhelmed by this damn pain. Sooner or later I’ll probably end up blacking out if it doesn’t die down soon.

Going through all of this will be worth it if I can get strong enough to fight the people I need to fight. The Monarch’s are way stronger than me in so many ways and this might be a chance to start catching up.

Eventually I did blackout, falling into the same abyss that I was used to. Except this time I couldn’t hear Rika’s voice or even feel her presence.

It was something a lot more unfamiliar to me. Something that had more hatred than even I have for the people who wronged me.

"You’ve finally given me an opportunity to get a body. We’ve got so much to discuss and so much to see together Rokuro." An unfamiliar voice begins to speak loudly.

His voice was echoing around me with a bit of a sinister tone to it. It reminds me of the me that showed up during the intense stages of bloodlust that I dealt with in the past.

Did this power finally give him an opportunity to have a body like Rika inside my mind?

I try to look around to see if I can find this version of me that wants to just kill everything and everyone... But it doesn’t seem possible after a few glances around.

I’m floating and can’t see a damn thing in this abyss. It is always so dark.