The Villain's Story

Chapter 810: James Smith. (1).

Every Supreme being present had the skill engraved in their minds; they saw it with their own eyes, how a single skill erased beings from existence itself. However, as special beings standing at the top... and the ones who had personally witnessed the skill in action.

A memory of it was engraved, whether they wanted to or not. However, Lapsus was absolute, and thus they forgot.

They forgot their friends, they forgot their equals, they struggled to hold onto their memories, but once again, Lapsus was Absolute.

Slowly, the only thing they remembered about the events of that fateful day was a few less Supreme’s and Divine’s fighting a single man and losing, and what happened after that?

As more iterations went by without Aranus waking up, the Abyss had full control, and so it used the skill restlessly, on anything that came by. Existences that had left their mark on history were gone, every obstacle, major or minor, gone.

No one remembered them, not a single one, not a divine, not a supreme, not a primordial... all but one.

Kulak did; it was his job, after all. From the first to the last, Kulak had a memory of them engraved in his mind. It was his pledge, his sole duty in the universe. To remember every death, to remember every being that had ’died’, so they would not suffer from nothingness.

But even he couldn’t do it; seconds went by, and their existences were gone from within his mind as well. His mind fell apart with each one that faded; his soul broke apart with each one left, and slowly, the Warden of the Forgotten forgot.

Who perished?

’I don’t know.’

Who died?

’I don’t know.’

They could remember the skill, what it could do, but they could never know if it had been used or not... if not for one person.

As the existences continued to fade in his mind, Kulak found himself remembering one, one sole existence that somehow managed to save itself from being rended by the weave of fate and the sole survivor of Lapsus.

Her name was Alearia, the daughter of the King, and the Celestial Dragon of Golden Empathy.

She was the only one he could remember, and he didn’t know. Every thought of her was accompanied by maddening headaches... But he did remember.

A moment of joy came, as the thought of the skill not being absolute presented a chance to overcome it, and so he wondered...

’Why? Why do I remember her but no one else?’

Was it because of a crush he had from when he was young? An unrequited love? It could be... but at the same time, he didn’t think it was.

He asked everyone about it, but nobody remembered except him. He searched everywhere, the shadow of every living being told him so, so many tales, it gave him everything but the one thing he needed.

Why do I remember her, but not everyone else?

And worse, he couldn’t tell anyone about it, only to hold it in his own mind. Everyone remembered Lapsus, but not the ones consumed by it.

He searched for the answer for so long, but he never found it, and then, he found her corpse, lying in the same spot where she had died. He could see her corpse, hold her, but no one else could.

Nobody at home had noticed it, not even the shadows. He had come upon it by pure chance. He brought that corpse everywhere, of the sleeping lady... But no one could see it.

Not even her own father.

The king of Dragons, the Chief of the God beasts, the Primordials, the other supremes, not a single person could see the lady he held within his arms. No one but him, and so he wondered.

’... Is this a trick?’

All this time, had the Abyss simply been playing with him? For if it had, he would have gone there to give it a beating. He could, he really could, because the one they feared was asleep, and although his body was under the control of the Abyss.

It couldn’t even be half as strong as Aranus with it; all it had within its grasp was the skill Lapsus. So, Kulak wondered.

Was he just being fooled? Was all this just a trick to get at him and disrupt the cycle of death in some way? It kept coming back to his mind; it was something that was eating him from the inside.

Was the reason that he was the only one who remembered her a plot? Something to weaken his mind, because if it was. It was working.

For so long, he had wanted to go right at the heart of the Abyss, face the Abyssal conscience and teach him a lesson... all because he could. If he wasn’t facing Aranus, he could.

He could beat the fake using his body, but then again, something else appeared in his mind.

”Or are you scared?”

Kulak took a deep breath, knocked out his memories by the cold chill of frost, and his blade pushed deeper and deeper into the gauntlet of ice James had conjured. With every second, the man with the mask was pushed back, and with every second, a single word kept appearing in the mind of the Supreme.

’Scared?’

He?

’Scared?’

Beads of sweat rolled down his brow as he glanced at the black star above. Kulak took a deep breath as James spoke once more.

”Scared?”

Kulak’s gaze shifted from the black star to the emerald pair multiple times, and he jumped back, allowing James a moment of respite.

”...”

He didn’t speak, merely taking a moment to calm his beating heart and restless mind. Kulak stared at James with a gaze of apprehension.

The man fell on his knee, clutching the hand that had blocked the blade of the shade king, and cursed.

”Damn, why does every single one of you always resort to violence? So much for being Supreme.”

James stood up as Kulak regained his composure. The Supreme came to one single conclusion.

’James is right in front of me, in the form of a fragile soul.’

So what must he do?

Kill.

The supreme being rushed over once more, having made up his mind to end the serpent in one, clean strike, but before his blade could sever the neck, the tail of a scorpion, made of obsidian and rock, flew out from the darkness and struck the supreme, sending him flying.

Kulak landed on his feet, raising his head to look at whom, or what, had attacked him without him even sensing it.

His eyes widened, for he recognized the thing that had attacked him.

”Took them long enough. Hey, King of the Shade, Warden of the Forgotten, and whatever else title you have, mind telling me what these things are?”