In the total silence of a room at its center. Sat the leader on a padded cushion on a straw mat. Who was in deep meditation as his consciousness drifted outside of Heaven’s talent apparatus and floated across the gaps between innumerable set of recursive worlds. The sheer scale of which can’t be measured by something as minuscule and primitive as Humanity’s set theory. But as he heard the sound of a sliding door, his consciousness flew back to his body as he slowly opened his eyes and stared at the entrance, noticing that Annike had arrived with the forms. He uncrossed his legs before he got up slowly and walked up to her.
“That took a while. Was there any trouble with the handling of the forms?’ Asked the Leader.
“The department from Heaven wanted to be sure that you weren’t making a mistake.” Annike responded.
“Ah, of course they did.” He spoke, unsurprised before he took the forms and placed them on his desk located on the right side of the room next to his closet.
“Leader, why did you personally halt the Recovery Regiment’s operation to retrieve Ikori from the world he currently is stranded in?” Annike asked out of curiosity.
“It’s for a very simple reason.” He responded.
“What kind of reason would obligate you to do that?”
“I have foreseen the effects from the cause of his fall into that world. He made a vow. A vow that Heaven has recorded. A vow that has entrenched itself deep into the very identity of that universe’s natural concept and information. 39 digits worth of fates have been rebounded and restructured according to the vow. The effects weren’t confined to just that world. It spread across many others potentially reaching even here. That would of course affect innumerable fates.” The Leader spoke with a more serious tone.
“How so? A vow done in a singular world would not change the fate of others across other realities.” Said Annike.
“That’s where your understanding falls short. In some cases, a vow can affect more than one world depending on what are the contents of the vow. For example, if a mortal man were to vow to only consume a vegetarian diet without the presence of any of the five pungent spices for his entire life, his fate would be altered, and his life would improve along with his state of mind. But if someone vowed to shoulder a portion of the suffering of every single sentient being across all of creation. Something like that would achieve a greater effect than what Ikori vowed to do.”
“Well then, what was his vow?” Annike asked.
“I can’t say for.” The leader said.
“Why not?”
“Heaven’s secrets are to be neatly tucked away and that includes the boy’s current location. I will not intervene nor shift the fates by accident from a mere slip of the tongue.” The Leader calmly spoke.
“I understand but, why by speaking of his location the fates of others will be shifted? You might be a good guesser but even your guessing has limits right?” She questioned.
“Better be safe than sorry. Since you’ve already done what you’ve been told, you may be off now. I have something to attend to.”
Annike nodded before bowing her head, leaving his room before sliding the door back in place. The Leader then sighed deeply as he stared at his closet behind him silently for a few moments before he spoke out.
“Whoever is inside there, I recommend you to exit the box or face the severe consequence of your actions, intruder.”
Soon the closet door swung open as a male humanoid figure wearing an all-black attire came out, carrying a series of katanas along his sides and back, his eyes have irises the shape of which are that of a snake’s along with a silvery grey color and he had a youthful appearance with tidied brown hair.
“Another demon sent by the fallen god to coerce me into handing Ikori over to him or are you, not a full demon?” The leader asked the intruder.
“Tell me Ikori’s location” The intruder demanded. The Leader wasn’t all that surprised by what was demanded before he flatly said “No.”
The man merely stood silently staring at the Leader with a face without expression after what was said before his right hand went a blur, a film of moisture formed on his five fingers as he proceeded to swipe his right arm from left to right causing the film of moisture to depart at the leader as the film broke off into minuscule nano-sized projectiles at various speeds, ricocheting off of every surface it had touched in less than a blink of an eye. By then the projectiles had bounced off of every surface aside from the Leader that stood his ground, frankly unimpressed by the display.
Soon the projectiles had all ricocheted off of their respective surfaces at the same exact moment, all of which lunged at the Leader’s spot. The projectiles that had traveled in the air at their targets had covered a large area around the leader in a shape of a hemisphere, it was at that point that there were about thousands of projectiles covering a single nanometer cube of space, practically impossible to dodge or circumvent the situation under mortal circumstances. But the Leader was no mortal as a single strand of his pale white hair overcame its own boundary and captured every single speck of moisture before they could arrive at their destination, forming a single drop of water onto the end of his hair as it harmlessly dropped onto the floor.
“You have got to try harder than that to even brush a part of me.” The Leader noted as he clasped his palms, the entire space expanded beyond human comprehension as all that was left was a white solid floor and empty space.
The man looked around himself before staring at the leader, gritting his teeth as he unsheathed a black-bladed katana that was on his left side with his right hand, gripping the blade with both hands as he proceeded to impart a flurry of slashes at him as the Leader countered easily with slamming his long sleeves against the sharp blade, transferring far greater force than what the assassin could physically dish out eventually leading to a fatal slap of the sleeve to his solar plexus causing him to depart with a grunt. When his feet found ground, he slid back due to imparted force previously eventually stopping as he stabbed the ground with his katana, using it as a support with his right hand as his left hand clutched at the area where he was damaged, coughing out dark red blood as it ran down his chin.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The leader sighed as his guess turned out to be true, signified by the presence of red blood and not black ichor which prior assassins had.
“You’re merely a mortal. Why were you sent to kill me instead of another demon?” The leader asked curiously.
The man simply shouted in a disgruntled tone as his response. “Shut up! I must kill you for the sake of my master at any cost!”
He immediately got over the pain as he unsheathed a yellow katana from his right side with his left hand and dashed at the Leader as the black blade was encapsulated by water currents while the yellow blade emitted bright thunderous yellow lightning.
The Leader summoned his wooden iron whip as their blades clashed with one another, it momentarily looked like the assassin had held the upper hand as his attacks had started to hit closer to home.
He soon took a huge leap back and channeled the strength of the black blade and immediately swung the blade upwards as a massive torrent of water flew up at high velocity, the sheer volume covered a mile and the depth of it is akin to a nimbostratus, followed by a downward swing that caused it all to rush down at his target, the Leader.
The Leader cleared his mind as he peered into the background of creation itself. A line of dialogue came into his mind.
“Those that are obsessed with form that are in the manner of past or future, relationships, fame, mundane or rare objects as well as the many other abstractions, ideals or sights, will continue to suffer…but when one remains in the present, is aware of the present, observes the present with care and allows the mind to remain in the present and only the present…can one be at peace of mind, and capable of understanding the impermanence and the formless. What seems to be countless could still be finite yet one that seems finite may actually be boundless. The form and the formless are indifferent from one another. So if all forms are formless…”
In the heat of the moment, the Leader clasped his palms as the massive attack had vanished into nothingness.
The assassin was dumbfounded by what had occurred as he immediately amplified himself with the energy that is present within the yellow blade as he slashed the air in front of him, an arc of electricity in the shape of a dragon was formed as it charged at its target. The Leader was prepared as he delivered a palm strike at the moment the wave of electricity had come close enough to him before he retracted his entire arm back, dragging the electricity along the way, causing the chaotic energy to be swallowed whole by an unknown force.
“W-What the…” The assassin stammered.
“Just surrender and accept your fate, so your sins may be reduced when you are sent to purgatorial hell.” The leader ordered.
“N-Never. I can’t back down now. Not when there’s something I must ensure. I must-.“ Before he had a chance to finish his sentence, the Leader spoke.
“Ensure the safety of your sister is that right, Tamado?”
He stood there, shocked by how the Leader had known what he was about to say. “How did you know of my name and what was I about to say?”
The leader dismissed his questions and started listing Tamado’s details. “Your thoughts are burdened by your duty to ensure her safety, the number of blades you carry corresponds to the number of people that utilized the weapons and by which are considered close to you who had died tragically at the hands of your enemy, you once had a cheerful personality that has now been washed away by the sea of suffering, the enemy that had caused you and your loved ones’ downfall now holds your sister hostage to ensure you serve him until your death, you and your sister alike are humans but you are now in the process of metamorphosizing into a full demon. Is that right?”
Tamado reluctantly nodded looking at him with a face of dismay. “What you said is all true. The people I know of had died, and the last one who remains is the sister for whom I had always cared for. I hate my employer who had forced me into this position, I hate what he had forced me to do.”
“I can guarantee her safety if you surrender yourself to me. Let me handle your dilemma.” The leader said.
Tamado teared up from the offer and was about to speak, but, he felt a chilling pang running down his spine. A shadow loomed over his eyes as he shook his head and stared at the Leader. ”I’m sorry…I can’t accept the offer. It’s too dangerous of a leap to make.”
His body started to alter itself as a demonic blue aura enveloped him. The space surrounding Tamado started becoming corrupt and chaotic as cracks in reality, are observed and by that point, he dashed at full throttle.
His dash appeared instantaneous as he had breached through time itself and the innumerable dimensions and directions that were below it as he closed the distance between him and his opponent. “Right there!” He exclaimed in his mind as he lunged at his target’s neck. But as his blade finally struck the neck, however, the assassin simply phased through him without as he eventually stopped a meager distance away from the Leader after he had halted, puzzled on what had happened, sweating profusely.
“You must be wondering why I wasn’t struck down when that blade made contact with me. I suppose you did not understand.”
The leader commented as he turned around to face his attacker, his iron whip dematerialized from his hand as he cleared his throat while stroking his chin as his attacker stood his ground cautiously.
“I will not yield nor will I allow my knowledge to be siphoned by your employer. Just surrender and allow me to help you.” The leader insisted.
Tamado stood silently but nearly snarled a moment later before performing a horizontal slash with the black blade that sent an arc of raging current at the Leader that was easily dealt with, with a simple horizontal swipe of the right hand that dispersed the attack but at that moment, Tamado had escaped by plunging himself out of heaven’s talent apparatus with his powers.
The Leader sighed sympathetically as he clasped his palms, reverting the boundless space back into his normal room, as he quietly sat at the center of the room once more. A single thought was present at that moment. “I wonder how’s the boy doing.”
Tamado who had just escaped arrived in another world, the sun in the world had already set and what seemed to be an acidic smell, permeated the air. Surrounding him was the forest that harbored abundant wildlife. A feeling of dread overcame his senses as he instinctively stared at his left side, noticing the gaping mouth of the cave that contained within it a darkness as dark as the abyss. A voice rang out followed by a foul current of wind that blew from the cave and over the forests.
“Have you gotten the intel needed or at least, his head?” The voice asked with authority.
“N-Not yet master…” Tamado replied solemnly
“How disappointing, I was hoping I could finally get my hands on the brat and tear at his being piece by piece. Although I have no sympathy for a degraded piece of filth such as Elleon, he’s still my son nonetheless. I want you to, aid, the son of Sirk that would be instilled as the ruler of his kingdom that is a part of the alliance in this world who offers me a hefty tribute of slaves and pretty virgins. Understand that if you fail your task. I’ll make sure your sister loses her sanity and would thereby fully submit to my will. Got that?”
“Yes, master. I won’t disappoint you.” Tamado assured desperately as he broke out into a cold sweat from the latter part of his talk.
The intimidating presence soon dispersed along with the foul wind as a new day is signified by the rising of the sun from the east onto the planet of the realm.