Chapter Seven: The Dark Lord of Tyranny’s Reincarnation

    “Susize. Beccy. Reina. Murag. Yaekira.” I spoke the names of the five ghostly phantoms fearfully staring at the Dark Lord’s scorched state of being. It was slightly, but I saw a little bit of movement within those deep, dark flames engulfing her being. Murag started to speak, but his words were unknown for a few seconds until I learned the language.

    New Skill: [Arezzian Language]

    Arezzian? That’s an odd name.

    “This room... It was where that abominable monster killed Susize. The seeds she carried were doused by her blood. Over time this desolate, dark, despicable place was transformed into the utopia you see before you,” whispered Murag.

    I understood him perfectly. Internally, I marveled at how powerful [Scholar’s Tongue] could be in the right situation.

    He huffed, meeting my eyes while shaking his head. “Did you intend on this being your grave? You’ve read the tablets, so why did you continue to go through with breaking the seals that required our very lives?”

    “Yeah, I’ve read them, so what? I need the power the Dark Lord holds if I’m to accomplish my goals.”

    “But why?!” Yaekira whined. Her brown ears wiggled while her tail snapped in fury. Her eyes darted down to my legs. The disgust on her face was plainly visible. She crossed her arms over her exposed stomach, hiding it from my gaze even though I wasn’t staring at it.

    “You should know how dangerous the Dark Lord of Tyranny can be! She forced mothers to kill sons, fathers to suffocate daughters, and brothers to butcher sisters. She destroyed their bodies and spirits, then tightened her grip around their souls to feed them into the awful machine called war!!” shouted Reina. “She almost destroyed the world!”

    Disgusting gurgling came from Susize’s neck stump. Was it possible they forced her into the ritual seal after her death?

    “Does it look like I care? Hey, just how long does it take? She’s been burning for a few minutes. Besides, there’s nothing you can say to me that’ll make me regret my actions.”

    “WHY?!?!?! Don’t you know that freeing the Dark Lord would mean everything we had worked for—all of the years of planning, hoping, praying, and training—you''re really just going to throw our hard work away?! And for you to do that while being a disgusting chimera? No... Just no!!!” Yaekira ranted, throwing a tantrum. My nonchalant tone irritated her.

    “Again... I don’t really care. If it pisses you off even more, I’ll gladly do it while looking like this. The five Soul Warriors of Lord Amos... Those who gave their lives to keep the Dark Lord sealed away... How ironic that the one to free her will do it while looking like you. Haha! It’s almost like it was fate, right?” My chuckles and laughs seemed to set them off, but I didn’t care.

    “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!!! YOU’VE DOOMED THE WORLD!!!! Everyone will die... They’ll all die... And you’ll be responsible... It’ll be as if you went around and personally slit the throats of every innocent child. The five of us left behind loved ones! What about our descendants? They’re innocent! They don’t deserve to have that innocence tainted by the ravages of war!! Everyone deserves to live in peace, right? What about your loved ones? You have family, right? And friends? What would they think about this? Listen to their voices that reside in your heart? You can still stop this! You can still reverse your mistake!!!!” Reina was trying to appeal to a sense of righteousness or filial piety that she assumed I had, but her fierce glare gave away how empty her platitudes were.

    “Are you trying to guilt trip me by appealing to my affection for my loved ones? Hahaha!! You have no idea how hilariously misplaced that ridiculous bullshit sounds to me. If I listened to my ‘family’ I’d have committed suicide years ago. They never stopped telling me how worthless I was and egging me on to just off myself and do them and the world a favor.

    “Do you know how many times my parents tried abandoning me? Do you know how many times they actually succeeded in doing so? How it took weeks to get back home, and my reward was my so-called father’s fist to my face the second the police officers were out of sight? How many times has my ‘mother’ forced me to drink water from the toilet because she said the faucet water was too good for me? How my ‘sister’ took great joy in stealing what little I managed to collect and keep from my parents? How many times have I literally had to scrounge for scraps in the garbage because my ‘family’ refused to actually give me any food? Or how about the ‘family bonding sessions,’ where they got together and beat me for being a failure in a meritocracy that demands excellence because one of them was stressed? Or how about how it was a mercy when they finally decided to just ignore my existence and pretend I wasn’t around, since at least then they weren’t actively making my life a living hell? They broke me.

    “There isn’t anyone out there who would miss me if I died, and a large number who would actively cheer for it. In fact, I’ve already died once. That bitch Meruria tossed me into the void, so death is something I’m already well acquainted with.

    “Basically, I have nothing to lose. Either I free this Dark Lord and she kills me, freeing me from this miserable existence and she’ll go on to destroy the world, or she joins me and we work together to destroy Cridia. I don’t give a fuck about your descendants. If they try to stop me, I’ll send them your way with a hole in their stomach, but they aren’t worth slaughtering if they stay out of it.”

    Suddenly, the magical energy the Dark Lord was crucified on was instantly swallowed by flames of the darkest night.

    And then it exploded, sending cascades of tiny fragments of white and black down to the ground, where they sizzled instantly in the soft green grass, but that wasn’t all.

    There was a woman—a youthful woman around the age of 25-30, that slowly descended amongst the falling debris. Her skin was light gray. Her hair, which came to her shoulder blades, lion-like tail, and lion-like ears were the same obsidian black as those powerful flames that seemingly threatened all of reality. The fur on her forearms and lower legs shared the same color as her hair. She turned towards me, staring with those deep silver eyes as her feet finally touched the warm grass.

    The tablets detailed a Lionfolk with blue and red fur, but that wasn’t what I saw.

    Susize glared at me with those big eyes. Water was already leaking down the sides as she begged me. “Please, don’t do this. You can’t do this! You can’t let her leave this place!” The Dark Lord, who was covered in blood from the brawl, walked and stood by me.

    “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. We’re going to leave here, and I’m going to kill Meruria and her shitty warriors. I won’t stop until I have her head on a fucking pike.”

    “That’s it! Chimera, you are recently born, so you’re weak and cannot assimilate our corpses. And by the time you do have enough strength to do so, we will have decomposed and returned as one to the great Mother Nature!” Reina exclaimed, finding her voice after being trounced.

    Remaining silent, I ignored her.

    “Agree to the following geas. You will do your natural duties and reseal the Dark Lord, and you will only kill Meruria and her Soul Warriors. Pledge your soul, and we will grant you the rest of our mana. We’ll willingly pass into the afterlife, content to not come back into the world of the living for the rest of eternity. That is how serious we are in preventing her from breaking free. Please, it is for the best! With our power combined, even Lord Amos will be unable to defeat you.”

    “Wait, so let me get this right. You’ll allow me to get my revenge, with your power, mind you, and you’re willing to just completely die for the rest of eternity, so the Dark Lord doesn’t escape?” All five nodded, then begged me that it was the correct choice.

    So, I thought it over for a few seconds.

    “You know what? I’m starting to feel like I won’t stop at Meruria. Maybe this world needs to go. Maybe it needs to burn to a crisp and cease to exist. So yeah, you just convinced me. Fuck the world and all that’s in it.” I summoned Reina’s gun, pressed it to her head after cocking it, and pulled the trigger.

    Bang!

    I killed a humanoid in cold blood. I could argue that the goblin was also a humanoid, but it wasn’t capable of proper communication.

    I used to think the weight of the trigger would be extremely heavy, but it was as light as a feather. Did a life weight that much? Why did it take so little effort to completely kill someone?

    I didn’t feel anything of it as her spirit slumped against the bloody ground.

    “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU’RE GOING TO FUCKING DIE!!!!!!!!!!” Murag screamed. He raged against his broken legs, doing his best to even try to inch towards me, but I just adjusted my aim. I intended to kill him, but Beccy was the next to go. The back of her head exploded, and ghostly brain matter and thick crimson splashed the emerald grass around this slice of paradise.

    Yaekira’s crying was then silenced, and by then, I was feeling weak and lethargic. It seemed that only three bullets were enough to drain my mana by 60%, but the Dark Lord stabilized me by grabbing my shoulders. I hated being touched, but it was different this time... I turned my aim to Susize, who started to pray to Amos for safety and protection. Murag was desperately crawling towards me, even managing to reach my leg, yet even though I had his mana running through me, his semi-astral body was on the bare cusp of disappearing.

    There was literally nothing he could do to stop me from pulling the trigger, sending a bullet straight down through Susize’s head until it landed safely in her chest. Her prayer was silenced with a loud gunshot. Her lifeless spiritual body fell to the ground with a harsh thud, and there was just one more left.

    I felt even weaker than before with only 1/5th of my mana remaining. My breath became audible and hastened as sweat doused my brow. If the bar was filling it, it was as fast as a snail walked.

    The two Murags I saw within my hazy vision must’ve felt a whirlwind of emotions. “Please... Don’t do this... Do not let her out... She cannot be free to roam around the world because it’s in her very nature to bring devastation... Susize, Reina, Beccy, Yaekira, and I sacrificed so much... Please, find it in your heart—”

    His final pathetic wishes would go ignored as the sound of gunfire cut him off, erasing him from this world. His spirit dematerialized at the same time as the others, transforming into energy that simply vanished away. The blood covering the Dark Lord and the grass disappeared as well, removing any traces that they were even here.

    Well, their corpses remained. I guess they were telling the truth that their bodies would eventually decay into nothingness.

    “Shit...” I said, stumbling forward as the pistol fell from my hand. The Dark Lord appeared in front of me, catching my body and wrapping her hands around my back as she gently brought me to the ground.

    The fur on her arms... It’s so soft...and warm...

    “{Mana Link} is powerful for a reason, and it comes with a great cost. I’m surprised you were even able to fire five shots. Sleep well, Master, and recover your strength. I will watch over you,” she whispered, kneeling down beside me.

    Nearby, an explosion of light carved a rotating white circle into the ground. Obviously, that was how I was going to get out of here, but I couldn’t focus on it because sleepiness saw fit to snatch me away for a few hours.