Chapter 8 — Uncommon Misfortune_A Mystical Divergence: A Violent Fate

It's just one of those days, isn't it? When you finally thought that you have won, had made the perfect choice. But yet, it is overshadowed by something wicked that you need to perform. Is it just my bad luck at this point, or do the Gods of this world know what game I am playing and decided to just make it more dangerous and fun for themselves?

I think I finally understand now. This world is against me.

I am the divergence of which they envision.

But right now, at least, the world feels like an ugly place full of confusion, conflict and turmoil [https://img.wattpad.com/95ad63326c3815111e43dfa6cb47232f5160dad5/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f745939716d7778457667307059413d3d2d313333343031383639302e313735353866313964323834313836613337373737393132323931382e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

April 1, 2065

POV: Natsuha Inose

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It's pouring outside, and yet I stand here in the deep night as if was not even raining in the first place. The rain does not bother me at all, nor does the cold wind that blows through my hair as I walk along the streets alone. My steps are light and quick, like how I always run whenever I'm free. There's no one else in sight. I've been here for at least 5 minutes now, and the only thing I can hear is the pouring rain. But this is normal. The night is filled with sounds, yet the rain drowns them all out.

I want to stay here for a long time. I want the rain to continue pouring on my head, put me in a trance, let me know that there is one more thing in this world that I can like and live for. I want this to continue forever on. I don't want to kill, yet I have to, if I want to save my sister.

It's so much to take in, but it shouldn't even be this hard. I know I'm a murderer. I always have been, ever since the first Dark Infinite Project. I've been murdering clones, ferociously killing them, mutilating them, leaving no limb attached. Dismemberment, decapitation.

Yet now I have to kill real people, living human beings who can cry, scream, laugh and cry. It's ironic how they say that 'clones are lifeless bodies without any souls'. What bullshit. Clones are alive, yet they have no chance to live freely, unlike humans.

I can't say anything. I've already killed so what does it matter? Killing clones are no different than killing real people. There is no 'higher level' to murder. You're a murderer either way. So what am I afraid of? Why am I so afraid of killing Joan Elise? Why do I hesitate so much?

The rain started pouring even harder and my footsteps became gradually louder. It was around 10 PM in the heart of Ultima City, trying to locate Joan Elise. I am thinking about something else a lot, though...

If I kill Joan Elise, wouldn't that trigger Code 404? Wouldn't that destroy every plan that I have worked on? Would I be unable to save my sister from Ultia's hands? Those thoughts jump in my head like crazy, making me unable to think straight. I stop walking, holding my head tightly and kneel down, staring at the puddle formed under me. The rain continued to pour as I remained silent.

"No backing down anymore, Natsuha." I said to myself, continuing my walk.

"Joan Elise must die tonight."

After walking for 5 minutes, I arrive at my destination. The square of Ultima City. I know for sure that Joan would be there somewhere. She's the 'Sunshine' of Ultima City, after all. I know she likes a little bit of attention. But this is no joke. Joan Elise is the Fifth-Ranked Class 10 of Ultima City. Killing her would be no easy task.

With that in mind, I ready myself first, before approaching her. I see her in the distance, talking to her fans. I figured she would be here, because I saw her being interviewed a day ago. I think she is recording a documentary of herself. She's so full of herself.

I quietly hide myself from view and watch her closely. Joan Elise is blonde-haired with blue eyes. She is wearing a rather mystical outfit and she has a beret. I notice her followers surrounding her and cheering her on, asking her questions and praising her. Joan Elise laughs happily. She really loves this kind of attention.

15 minutes later, and my patience would run out. I stomp the ground, and energy waves surrounded me. I would hesitate a bit, knowing that the square was still fully packed with people. Joan Elise senses this, and looks around to find the source of the energy waves.

"Now." I charge towards her at high speed, using my powers to control gravity and velocity. I manipulate my kinetic energy to blast myself towards her and grab her throat, pinning her onto the ground.

People in the square thought that it was a terrorist attack, and quickly cleared the ground, running away and screaming for help. They're going to raise suspicion... Damnit, I have no time to think about them. All I have to do is force Joan Elise out of the city, into the forests, and kill her.

Joan Elise stares at me wide-eyed, gasping for air. "G-Get off!" She was struggling, but she shone light upon me and I was blinded temporarily. "Fuck!" I yelled as she kicked me back, giving herself time to recover.

"Who the hell are you!? Why did you attack me!?" the discombobulated Joan asked. She tried to recover as much as she could before attacking me back. I pull my hood further down so she doesn't know who's actually attacking her. Without a moment's thought, I side-step, sending a flurry of debris at her.

Joan intercepts this and used her blinding light to cook the debris and explode it. She has the power to manipulate light, so she can literally cook me if her light shone down on me. Joan then creates a beam of light to aim at me. She shot at me repeatedly, trying to burn me to death.

"I have come to kill you, Joan Elise!" I yelled with a low voice. I would replicate Nazuki's ability: Instapoint. I teleported to the left, and then to the right. I jumped up and discharged two energy beams at her.

"Kg-" She responded with an energy beam of her own, and we engaged in a beam clash. She looked at me with genuine confusion, wondering why she almost got assassinated. "Who are you!?" She yelled again.

"Shut up and die!" I charge towards her once more, teleporting multiple times before creating a gravitational vortex to drag her in. Joan was blown back with great force and landed onto the ground, trying to get up and shoot at me with her light again.

"Grah!" I kick off the ground, accelerating with a higher speed than before. I formed a small barrier and slapped her beam of light away. The beam would hit a building, exploding and causing the building to collapse on the square.

"You are putting innocent lives at risk, you moron!" She yelled as she braced herself. She used her power to propel herself upwards and blast at me from above. "Gravity manipulator!?" Joan yelled, firing light beams at me continuously.

"She's a nimble one." I mumbled, punching the ground forming a wall of dirt that stopped the light beams. As she stopped to regain her energy, I would jump onto a building to assassinate her. I launched myself with high velocity and teleported next to her. "Die!" I yelled... but.

I got punched in the gut, real hard. The recoil of the punch was strong enough to knock my hood off. Joan stared at me with widened eyes as she recognized who I was. "... Madam Inose!?" She said with absolute shock.

I tried to find my footing again, landing on the ground harshly, but not hard enough to knock me off balance again. I noticed that my hood was knocked back, and I was revealed to her. Joan looked at me with a mix of shock and anger.

I... I couldn't even look her in the eye. I was drowning in guilt, she knew that. She could see that. If only she knows that I'm being forced to do this as well. I don't even want to kill Joan. In fact, she's someone I look up to. The charisma that she has, fitting for a Class 10. The amount of fans she has, fitting for a Class 10.

"... I've been exposed, haha..." I rub the back of my neck, innocently chuckling at her. That's all I could do. I may look more innocent than her because I'm younger than her, more immature, more childish... But.

Only one of us is a cold-hearted murderer.

"Madam Inose... What are you doing. Why are you after me? Why have you put innocent lives at risk? This is unlike you!" She yelled. Joan Elise really looks pissed at me now. Her facial expression showed so much disappointment in me, making me feel ashamed of myself.

I remain silent for a moment, staring at her dead in the eye. "..." If she looked hard enough, she could notice that I had almost no light in my eyes. My eyes screamed death, agony, murder, despair, distress, depression... everything negative. "..."

Joan Elise notices it immediately. She backs off slowly. "What's gotten into you... What has happened to you!? Answer me, Madam Inose!" But the only thing I could do in return was stare at her blankly, being as silent as a mouse. My thoughts are mixing up like crazy, it's making me want to die. It's eating me up, like maggots devouring rotten flesh. My hands are shaking, like an earthquake of a severe magnitude, wreaking havoc. My headache is splitting and brain-rotting, like bugs are crawling inside and tugging on my neurons, making me lose all sense of myself.

I'm crazy. I'm a crazy person. What am I even doing? What GOOD am I DOING!? What am I benefiting from killing her!? Joan Elise is someone I admire, someone I look up to, someone I aspire to be like... Yet now she is terrified of me. Terrified of ME! What good have I done for Joan to even look at me like that?

What good will I do for my sister? Does my sister really want a murderer of a sister? How pathetic I am...

Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic,

pathetic, pathetic, pathetic,

pathetic, pathetic,

pathetic.

"Madam Inose...?" Joan asks once more, trying to break me out of my trance. But nothing came out of my mouth. "Don't tell me... Madam Inose...?" Joan walks towards me carefully, putting her hand on my shoulder. The touch would help me snap out of it. I looked at her with eyes that pierced through her.

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"I'm long gone." I said, as I fired up an orb between us and blasted her out of the square. She would scream in pain while she was suspended in the air, flying hundreds of meters away from me. Joan Elise fell onto the ground harshly, bloody and battered. I charged towards her once more, readying myself to kill her.

We were standing in what was once known as the suburbs. The place that I destroyed when I awakened. I killed my parents without my awareness, and 50,000 other people that lived here. Joan Elise stares at me wide-eyed again, unable to process what was happening. "Madam Inose... Stop! STOP IT! You're not yourself! This is very unlike you! If you just took the time and took a good look at yourself! You would notice that you're not okay!"

She's right... but I know what I've become. I don't need to look at myself, I know what I have become! And this is exactly who I am! I'm a murderer! I'm to be outcasted! I know Code 404 will be initiated as soon as you're dead, Joan Elise... But nothing in this world will stop me from reuniting with my sister. Nothing!

"Are you seriously..." Joan looked at me as I stepped forward. I started approaching her. "Are you seriously already too far gone...?" Joan whispered softly, closing her eyes. She looks defeated already. She gave up on me... It makes me feel happy somehow. It feels relieving that someone recognizes what I have become... "Madam Inose... It seems that you're no longer someone I can respect. I will take you down right here, right now. You will be stopped by the 'Sunshine' of Ultima City!"

She punched the ground, a rain of light particles surrounds her fists as she charged at me with high speed. "Light manipulation... That's your only profession. What more can you do besides making fireworks and lightshows!" I taunt her, retaliating with a step to the right and eliminating all of her momentum, her gut falling victim to my punch.

Joan Elise retched uncontrollably, but regained her composure quickly, going for an elbow punch that successfully landed. As I stumbled back, she races at me with everything she got.

She followed up with a light-infused punch, but I managed to counter it by copying the ability of Nobune Tsubaki, the Ninth-Ranked Class 10. I formed an energy barrier and closely resembled hers and cancelled the light that was infused in her punch, rendering it completely useless.

I went for a punch but she dodged, backflipping to create some distance. I started to get pissed off, Ultia will soon know that I've engaged in a lethal battle with Joan Elise, and she will surely trigger Code 404 soon... Joan Elise needs to die ASAP!

"RAAHH!!" I clap my hands and then form a big orb around them, I was willing to blast away the entire ground and turn the already-destroyed suburb into a glass floor. I launch it at her at full force. "DIE!"

Joan looked at the blast but then did the unthinkable. She used her traditional ability: Light Step. She started travelling through a light source, which were the light poles outside the suburb. She traversed through multiple light sources at high speed and escaped the blast entirely unscathed.

"..." The smoke would dissipate after a good minute, and I realized that Joan was nowhere to be seen. I looked around and then came to the only conclusion... "She used Light Step. That is clever." My hands were discharging electricity due to the sheer energy that I outputted earlier. Well.

I superjumped out of the excessively destroyed suburbs and made my way to where the light poles were most common. The road that led out of Ultima City. There I would see Joan Elise charging at me once more, light particles covering her fist and shining intensely. She punches me and it lands harshly on my jaw, making me fall back and stumble to regain my footing. "Ough-"

She's smart. She knows that I'm way more powerful than her, so she resorts to using evasive abilites. Does she know that she's going to die, is she buying time? Is she hoping that the Hi-Quad would come to help her? Joan Elise continues her barrage of punches at me and I couldn't retaliate properly due to her dodging abilities. "Fuck-"

I would adapt to her speed barrage however, returning punches at the same speed. The clash would send off several shockwaves around the place, damaging buildings around and severely damaging the road underneath. The pavement started cracking and eventually crumbling altogether, forcing us to create distance between each other.

Due to Ultima City's amazing infrastructure and technological capabilities, the destroyed buildings would be fixed by a thing they call Hologram Mapping within 5 minutes, rebuilding themselves completely new and refurbished. It would also fix the pavement too, fixing it perfectly new without leaving any cracks whatsoever.

Joan Elise charges at me once more and we engage in another light barrage clash. She looks at me with building anger and to an extend, hatred. "Why have you chosen this path of darkness!? Has Aoyami finally gotten under your skin!? Are you possessed!? Madam Inose!" She kept yelling questions at me that I don't know how to answer anymore. I keep attacking her relentlessly and she keeps evading, punching me occasionally when she finds an opening.

"Illuminating Blade!" She yelled out, forming a blade made out of pure light, and went for a lethal stab. "I'll show you that this is not the way to go, Madam Inose!"

"..." I closed my eyes for a second, and let my OCR run wild. I know that my Own Conscious Reality will calculate the right formulas to perform the best possible counter. She can't kill me. She's weaker than me. I'm the Second-Ranked while she's the Fifth. If she injured me, or even killed me...

I can't become a Magician.

I can't kill Ultia.

I can't save my sister.

I can't...

I CAN'T ALLOW THAT!

I would reopen my eyes and manifest the same blade that she has in her hands, perfectly replicating her ability. I would then proceed to blind her using her ability, making her miss.

"What!?" She was perplexed at what happened to her sight. In that small timeframe, I would cancel her blade and impale my replica through her guts.

"AAAAGHHHHHHH!"

She screams in pain as blood splurged out of her abdomen and gushed out of her mouth. Joan Elise lost all sense of strength. I just looked at her, not showing any reaction nor emotion. I already planned her death a few hours ago. While it may not have gone how I wanted it to be,

this is one step closer to becoming a Magician.

I blasted her all the way to the forest, removing ourselves from horrified spectators who watched our battle unfold. Joan Elise lands harshly on the ground once more, spitting out blood continuously as she held her guts with both hands. "... You... Inose..."

I walked over to her, without saying a word. I was as hollow on the outside as I was in the inside, but inside my hollowness, I had resolve. Joan lost all of her resolve when I stabbed her. Her will to fight disappeared completely when she realized that she can't beat me.

Knowing just how much of a guilt I would bear doing this, I would close my eyes, repeating the words:

"For a better future... For a better future... For a better future..."

"For a better future..."

I put my hand up, and opened it, forming an orb. Joan looked at with a shocked face and then...

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

She broke into a serious, uncontrollably, gurgled, hysterical laughter. "I SEE! YOU'VE REALLY LOST IT! YOU REALLY LET YOUR OWN STUPIDITY AND IDIOCY CONTROL YOU! THIS IS EXACTLY WHY YOU WILL NEVER SURPASS AOYAMI. HELL! EVEN AOYAMI HAS MORE CONTROL OVER HIMSELF THAN YOU!"

"YOU'RE A INSOLENT FREAK! LETTING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE DIE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T MANAGE YOUR OWN FEELINGS! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Joan yells out in insanity, mocking me endlessly. "AND TO THINK THAT YOU HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL TOO! HOW STUPID!"

I clenched my fist tighter as Joan laughs her lungs out, taunting me nonstop. "I hope... I hope whatever comes for you will be so gut-wrenching, unbearable, so painful... I hope that whatever you're trying to attain will never happen. YOU!" She said, pointing at me with all of her hatred.

"I HOPE THAT YOU DIE!"

Joan yells one last time, and then let herself go. She knew that she was going to die. I had to kill her now. In one swift motion, as I fully walked up to her, I slashed at her already open stab wound and sealed her death.

A puddle of blood started leaking out of her deep cut,

her gonads sagging out of it,

giving off a putrid stench that could make anyone vomit.

The sight was extremely horrifying,

even for someone as cold-hearted,

crazy, and

unthoughtful as me.

Joan Elise was no more.

Joan's body fell onto the ground, and the tree that she was leaning on was stained with blood. "For a better future..." I whisper softly.

There was no going back anymore. It was over. This was the turning point. Code 404 is going to be initiated, either sooner or later. With that clouding my mind, I fell onto my knees next to Joan's body, looking up as the rain poured on my face. I close my eyes as tears flowed down my cheeks, crying endlessly...

This isn't the end.

It's only the beginning,

I'm over here wondering how I'm going to save my sister if Code 404 is going to be initiated? Once that code is executed, I'm a dead man. They'll send every single Hi-Quad after me. And they'll continue to do so until I'm 6 feet under...

How will I escape that? How will I get my sister out of here? Where will we go? Who will we rely on? These are the questions that keeps coming in my mind constantly. Was my pact with Esthic a mistake? Was it really meant to be? Will everything go downhill from here? Will my sister be able to cope with what has happened? What has happened to me?

...

What has happened to me?

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"Chairwoman, we have some unfortunate news." The UCIS member standing in front of Ultia informed her with a worried tone. "Joan Elise was found dead in the heart of the forest. No one knows who has killed her yet."

Ultia remains silent for a moment as she heard this terrible news. "..." She would slowly tap her chair, letting it reverberate around the room. "Continue." She calmly responds to her subordinate.

"According to witnesses, Natsuha Inose has been seen battling Joan Elise not too long ago." Ultia remained silent again as she heard this grave news. She stood up and put her hands behind her back, walking at the amalgamation of screens that work like the only window of the building. She observes the outside scene that shows the destruction that Natsuha and Joan created. "Tell me what happened there."

"Joan Elise was last seen battling Natsuha Inose not too long ago in the square of Ultima City." Ultia listens closely to her subordinate's explanation as she stared at the destruction caused by Joan and Natsuha's battle. "After 30 minutes of no sightings of them, Joan Elise was found dead, with a deep cut on her lower abdomen."

"Hm." Ultia stared at her subordinate with eyes that struck fear into him. She then smirked. The subordinate continued talking. "It is proof that Natsuha Inose has finally gone insane, Chairwoman. Should Code 404 be initia-"

"Hold off on that, Councilmember." She turned towards her subordinate, giving him a penetrating sense of fear.

"... With all due respect... Are you sure you want to let a rogue Class 10 run loose in Ultima City?" Ultia's subordinate asked nervously. He knows how ruthless she can be sometimes. Ultia stares at him with eyes that screamed insanity, like an eldritch monster lurking in the depths of space itself. "..." He backs off in fear as she chuckled maniacally.

"Now where would be the fun in that? I would like to see how this plays out. Natsuha Inose's insanity may very well help me in my plan to shift her to Class 11. I have a general idea of how this will pan out, and it will be fun." Ultia sits back onto her chair as she continued smirking.

Ultia stares at the amalgamation of screens again as it showed Joan Elise's brutal death in detail. It was like she was a violent, devil of a Goddess, who enjoyed seeing mortals clash and kill each other. Once more she observed it with pure delight, knowing how much this will entertain her. "Code 404 shall be postponed until further notice." Ultia sits back on her chair again and dismisses her subordinate with a wave of her hand. "Dismissed."

Ultia watches as her subordinate leaves the room silently and closes the door behind him. She sighed contently as she smiled gleefully once more. "How entertaining indeed."

However, her smile later turned into a serious face. "So, you have deviated from my nature, Natsuha Inose?" She said, almost as if she knew that Natsuha made a pact with Esthic. "Very well then... Very well indeed."

Ultia stares at the screens again and observe Natsuha Inose grieving next to Joan Elise's dead body.

"Now it begins..."

"The event that will lead to..."

- [ Last Fall ] -

Chapter 8 — Uncommon Misfortune

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