Lakshman was transfixed with a shocked expression on his face as he stared at the sword stabbed into his spiritual body. This included his wives, who were watched the scene from a safe distance with a look of disbelief covering their faces. None of them could believe what just happened or comprehend the fact that Silvera suddenly stabbed Lakshman with one of her swords.
“Silvera…?” Lakshman asked tentatively, but she did not respond and her head simply sagged.
At that moment, she extended her left arm out and grabbed onto the hilt of another sword that magical materialised, just like the one stabbing into him. He looked at in shock as she brought it forward in an attempt to stab him.
“Ah! Instancity!” he shouted quickly.
Silvera’s sword plunged through the empty air just as he disappeared and caused her to lift her head slightly. His wives gasped in shock, which also included Venezuela, who rarely showed such emotions above her calm and serious attitude.
“NYAA?!” Cantia exclaimed in a loud shocked voice full of despair at the thought of losing her loved one.
“No way… He’s… gone…!” she said while staring at the place he disappeared into tiny particles.
“It… can’t… be…!” Erza said slowly and she placed her hands over her face in despair.
“I don’t know… I sense that’s he around here… somewhere…” Tetra said slowly with a serious expression on her face.
Ondine, however, narrowed her eyes and concentrated on sensing him out, which she did a moment later. Looking in the direction that her senses told her, she smiled once more before informing the girls about his safety.
“He’s fine! See! He’s over there!” Ondine said quickly to the others while gesturing in the direction he was at.
All the girls turned their attention in the direction she pointed to and sure enough, there stood Lakshman. He was looking fine, but a panicked expression covered his face as he stared at his wife, Silvera. She now had moved her head upward and was now looking for him as she knew he was not dead.
“Phew! Instancity got me out of there at the last second,” said Lakshman and he wiped his forehead, even though there was no sweat or anything there. “Normally, I’m unconsciously using that technique regularly, so I never needed to use Voiceless Incantation like I did now, however, I couldn’t concentrate due to being stabbed like that.”
Suddenly sensing his presence, Silvera turned around and displayed bright red glowing eyes that shone brightly in the light streaming from high above. Lakshman narrowed his eyes as he stared at his wife acting strangely, making him realise that she was most likely possessed by something when he attempted to break through her memories to unravel their mysteries.
“It seems that my magic got cancelled because this whatever thing interfered!” Lakshman said and he stared at her with a serious expression on her face. “Fine! I’ll just have to go and free her from that mind control thing. Although, I better avoid her swords at all costs, not because I’ll bleed to death or anything possession a spiritual body, but it’ll most likely destroy my spirit if I constantly get stabbed by her.”
With that thought in mind, he kicked off the ground and charged directly at Sivlera, much to the surprise of his wives.
“Nyaa~?” He’s going after her-nyaa?” Cantia asked curiously
Venezuela turned to look at Silvera, who’s eyes appeared to be glowing brightly in red light before saying, “It’s obvious that she’s possessed just from looking at her. So, he’s most likely going in to do whatever he can free her from that control.”
“Again… He’s doing things without us…” Erza said while looking sad before wiping the tears off her face.
Ondine patted her gently on the shoulder and said, “Erza, how much help do you think we would be if we interfere? At least, this way, he won’t be getting distracted by worrying about our safety.”
Erza nodded in understanding, but while looking unconvinced, she said, “Yes, but still… I want to be useful to him.”
“You and the rest of us are already useful to him as his wives and I think he appreciates us very much for that! It’s only a wonder why he doesn’t want us getting involved in battles, but when we do, he becomes extremely worried about our safety,” said Venezuela in a reasonable voice.
“Even though we said that he shouldn’t worry about us during the time he and Silvera fought?” Erza asked with a sad expression on her face.
Tetra suddenly chuckled and surprised them before she said, “So sorry, but I think we’re getting this the wrong way. The fact that he constantly worries about us proves to everyone that he really does love us. Most men show their affection to the women they love differently and some don’t even show it due to their strong personalities. In Lucky’s case, he grew up with a very soft personality and can easily become agitated when his loved ones are in danger.”
“You’re right, Tetra,” said Ondine and she nodded at her in understanding. “The fact that he worries so much for our wellbeing is prove in itself that he truly cherishes us. I’m sure it can be annoying for us since we have our responsibilities to fulfil, but if we stop and think just for a second just how stressful it would be for him, we would come to appreciate everything he’s doing for us.”
“That’s why, he’s the head of the family-nyaa!” Cantia said cheerfully with a wide grin on her face.
With them coming to agreement with each other, they turned their attention back to the battle taking place between the possessed Silvera and Lakshman in his drive to set her free.
***
Lakshman rocketed towards her and as he did, he shouted, “Energy Swords!”
In an instant, swords, formed completely of energy, materialised beside him as he charged forward. He quickly grabbed their hilts and held them firmly as he reached the location Silvera was standing at. Once he did, he swung both of his swords at her, but she easily evaded them and attempted to cut him down. Reacting quickly, he instantly used disappeared and reappeared in an instant behind her.
Realising he had appeared behind her back, she attempted to cut him down around her back, but he just brought his swords forward to block her swords. Her flip caused her to sail away from him and land a few meters away, but Lakshman charged after her before she could recover, however, that was not possible due to her being in top form.
The two continued clashing their swords together moving at high speed that made it difficult to see their movement. The possessed Silvera was having difficulty keeping up with his speed due to possessing far greater power, strength and speed than her, even as a Sacred Spirit. However, to Lakshman, it felt a little more concentrate than before as he realised it was her forgotten memories making her act this way.
“This must be self-defensive mechanism that acted after I attempted to dive into her memories and find out what had happened in her past. Now, I’m dealing with that defensive thing as it controls my beloved wife and attempts to kill me! Geez…! Why can’t everything be as simple as training to become stronger?” thought Lakshman irritably as the battle continued.
Several times, Silvera would release dark slashes of energy at him in order to cut him up, but Lakshman is no onion to be cut down with such simple moves. It was almost easy for him as he dodged all of the attacked by merely stepping aside at the last second, which made it look like time was standing still for him to move so fast.
“Silvera! Stop this already!” he shouted at her when they backed away from each other after another explosion of forces.
The possessed Silvera appeared to not have listened as she prepared to fight him once more by taking a fighting stance.
Lakshman sighed and thought, “She ignored me… At least, she isn’t using any of her techniques, which is good because it was annoying enough to stop her from stubbornly doing self-destruction so many years ago! I better act quickly before she decides to start using them once again!”
He took a fighting stance and as he stared at his possessed wife, he came up with a plan.
“Okay. The only way to solve this mess is by using that one and only special spell, but I never used it before! Oh well… I tried many untested spells and they came out alright, so I’m sure this will be the same, but there is the chance that it might backfire on me, however, I doubt that since this technique is just that special. Now, I have to get as close to her as possible to do this and by doing that, I set her free and be able to unlock her memories for good.”
He nodded once and he began surging with power as he radiated in golden-red aura that surrounded Looking at his target, he kicked off the ground as hard as he could to fly towards her like a speeding bullet. His plan was to get close to her to activate a special spell he had in mind of using, however, the plan was suddenly met with trouble when Silvera stopped him. She had gathered a large quantity of her dark energy into her bladed and swung them as he brought his energy swords up for defence.
“Ah… Damn…!” he said in a startled voice.
He was forced to come to a full stop with his energy blades turning into particles of light. Quickly acting, he came up with an alternative method of acting out the plan now that she had blocked him. He had to act quickly because she suddenly moved faster than before and attempted to cut his head off, which would have happened if it weren’t for him being a spirit.
“Ouch! That hurts!” he exclaimed and he clutched his neck with both of his hands.
Silvera landed a few meters away from him and charged at him once more to attack him from behind. This time, he ducked down and swirled his body around to face her, which made him made a silly expression when he saw her red glowing eyes look down at him.
He brought his hands down behind him and brought his legs up to kick her in the stomach. After the kick, he quickly proceeded to push his arms forward and soared into the air after her as quickly as he could to not let her get away. Soaring high, he reached forward and grabbed onto her arms before setting them aside forcefully to make sure she does not attack him.
Using the force of his power, he brought himself and her down to lie on the ground. She began to struggle to set herself free, but it was no use against the might of his power and strength. Forced to look up at her, she made a surprised expression when she saw him smiling at her.
“Sorry about this, but it might be embarrassing for you later once you remember everything!” Lakshman said to her and for once, she made an expression of looking puzzled.
He momentarily paused and said, “Memory Line,” before bringing his face closer to hers and quietly said, “Faith of Love,” before kissing her.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, except for him kissing her and she automatically responding without meaning to. Then, a violent shock erupted within her as her eyes widened with shock and was filled with horror. The next moment, they were surrounded by a large amount of light that rose from shot high into the air while sending shockwaves in all directions, buffeting the girls in the process.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
***
Lakshman was diving through her memories, which were finally unlocked and he realised he was correct in thinking it was a defensive thing that took over her body and used her to attack him. The reason to this was simply due to Silvera’s memories being very horrible as it was filled with sadness, death, grief, loneliness and the fear of losing something important.
She was standing upon hills with the ground going up in flames, with dark sinister creatures roaming the land and the people crying out for mercy, only to be eaten up by them. She stood there and watched all the massacre, war and destruction for many, many years. These were conducted by her, but without her meaning to because she was used like a weapon by none other than the Calamity Titan.
Lakshman watched a scene with him standing beside her and compared to her look of deep sadness, he was smiling widely with sheer happiness. Lakshman became angry to see the man destroying the people and burning up the ground to create something new in its place, all because they refused to obey him due to their belief in the Phoenix Titan.
“Dammit…!” Lakshman thought unhappily.
Watching these memories made him realise that his past lives were no better than the Calamity Titan. Using their title, they convinced and did bad things to the land and people for self-preservation. It is the lowest thing a being, such as himself, could do and it saddened him greatly of how his past lives lived.
Shaking his head to clear away the negativity, he continued looking at her memories and thought, “It seems that she doesn’t possess any memories of the ancient time when she lived with the first Phoenix Titan, Asura Rangavardan. Which means, Tetra is the only one possessing those memories, but I can’t exactly break her memories since they are linked to my Four Seals of Darkness still intact. I believe, her powers and all related memories will be unlocked after I finally released the last seal.”
Thinking so, he returned to watching Silvera’s memories and as he watched for a certain amount of time, something made him feel strangely odd about it. In each of her memories, the Calamity Titan continued appearing as if he lived for many, many years, but it did not appear like he lived for that long. More like, it was the Calamity Titan, but different than the previous Calamity Titan. Lakshman did not exactly know what to make of it, but a single thought came to him and it amazed him.
“Perhaps… He’s also a reincarnation of my mortal enemy from the first Phoenix Titan?” he thought to himself with a perplexed expression on his face. “That would actually make sense since he seems to remember and know me a lot, which I believe has stretched further than the time that he currently lived. Sure, he’s lived for over 8000 years, but I doubt he’s immortal and always ends up dying and reincarnating like me.
Does that mean that he received the blessing of immortality from a god? How is that possible, unless… the god in question actually supports evil? No… That can’t be, but there is no better explanation than that. Damn…! I always thought that gods were beings that always sided with good at the very least, but it looks like even among them, some gods do side with evil. Why? To test us mortal beings with their infinite power? I don’t like it…!”
A few minutes later, Silvera’s memories came to an end and Lakshman found himself back in the Spirit Plane sitting on top of Silvera. He blinked in surprise and looked down at her to see Silvera covering her face with her hands as great tears escaped from her eyes. She was literally crying and it alarmed him as he thought that his weight was crushing her.
“Sorry, Silvera…! I didn’t mean to sit on you like that,” he said quickly and he got off her.
Still crying, she chocked, “I hurt you… I hurt you…”
Lakshman was stunned at seeing her crying like that and knowing the real reason behind it. He quickly sat next to her and lifted her into a sitting position with her not doing anything in protest. Instead, she fell into his arms and continued crying her heart out.
“Over and over, I keep destroying and destroying, endlessly till there is nothing left! Always being controlled and never giving me the chance to do something right…! I’m always being used to commit evil and never once have I cleansed myself of the guilt! I’m a failure… I’m truly a failure…!”
She was speaking wildly from her emotions going out of control as she cried into his shoulders. Lakshman was at a loss for words and he looked up at his wives, who had hurried over to see what was going on.
“Lucky… What did you do…?” Venezuela asked him through with a serious expression on her face.
“Seriously… Making a girl cry, have you no shame…?” Tetra asked him as she patted Silvera gingerly on the back.
Looking startled, he waved his hands at them and said, “Wait a second! I did not do anything to hurt her in any way! Actually, it’s to do with her memories, I think,” and he began explaining to them what he had seen in her memories.
After being told the main contents of her memories, all the girls looked at Silvera with sad expressions on their faces. They felt sorry for her because she had spent a painful life of watching the people and the land being destroyed by her powers, used carelessly by the Calamity Titan. It was the exact life of a slave, but the punishment is the consequences done to others while unable to fight her master.
It was the exact opposite of Emilia’s slavery, where she was insulted, beaten and tortured. For Silvera, the beating and torture she endured was watching the world that she wanted to help getting destroyed by the wrong use of her powers. She is known to be the Demon Slayer, but it seems she lost her memories of the reason why she felt so strongly about the destruction caused by the misuse of her powers.
All of a sudden, all of them staggered in shock without being affected anything from there.
“What the…?” Tetra asked while looking startled.
“What just happened?” Venezuela asked curiously as she looked around.
“I don’t think it’s possible for the Spirit Plane to have earthquakes,” said Ondine in a reasonable voice before turning to Lakshman and asking him, “What do you think, Lucky?”
All the girls, except Silvera who was crying into her hands, turned to look at him curiously. They were taken aback when they saw the utterly shocked expression on his face.
“Oh no…! Something’s not right…!” he said slowly as he thought about it. “We’re returning to the Physical Plane!”
They were not sure why he was looking so panicked, but they nodded at him in agreement. Nodding back at them, he clapped his hands together and closed his eyes before deactivating the spell keeping them in the Spirit Plane. There was another blinding flash of light and they suddenly found themselves back in their respective bodies.
Lakshman opened his eyes and realised that his barrier had been cancelled due to the sudden disruption in the air. His eyes widened suddenly in shock when he felt the numerous amount of negative force somewhere nearby.
“This can’t be…!” he said as he feared the worst.
“What’s going on, Lucky?” Venezuela asked him, but he only shook his head in response.
He quickly rose to his feet and exited the room before closing the door as he always did. There was a great negative force surrounding where the Eternal Turtle was and it made him fear what was going on. It was such a horrible feeling, it made him think something really bad was happening while he and his wives were in the Spirit Plane.
Walked out in to the sunlight shining brightly on the outside, he could feel the tension being very high in the air as he realised something was wrong.
“Damn… There is a lot of pressure in the air and it explains why the barrier had alerted us and forced our spiritual bodies to feel an earthquake occurred to alert us something terrible was happening in the Physical Plane.,” he thought as he looked around. “Anyway, I better go ask Amaranda what’s going on.”
With that, he quickly hurried away to find the Magic Titan standing with the rest the Manjuvad Demon Clan warriors with their weapons held at ready. The women were also equipped with wands that they could use to fight. Everyone was clearly set for battle, which made him fear that the Calamity Titan was attacking him recklessly.
Just then, he spotted Emilia and Sumara standing with the Magic Titan and he walked over to them while calling their names.
“Emilia! Sumara!”
“Ah! Lucky!” Emilia said and she suddenly looked relieved. “I’m glad you made it.”
He stopped in front of her and looked surprised as he asked, “Why? What’s going on? For that matter, why is everyone prepared for battle?”
Both Emilia and Sumara had their respective staffs in hand. Now that he looked, even the Magic Titan had her staff in hand, which was the Sacred Spirit transformed.
“Earlier, we felt a large power source heading our way from the direction of the Teleportation Zone. We thought it might just be the more of the enemies headed out way, but the power levels were increasing dramatically and reaching this height,” explained Sumara.
“Yeah… It’s quite powerful and I can feel the pressure in the air…” Lakshman said with a nod of his head.
At that moment, Amarada telepathically said, “It seems that a large force of demon warriors is headed this way and one of them appears to be the Demon Lord, Delon.”
Lakshman blinked at her in surprise before making an alarmed expression on his face as he slowly said, “Wait… You’re not saying…?”
She slowly turned to him and nodded once before telepathically saying, “Yes… This is war.”
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Author's Note
Thank for reading the chapter, everyone. I actually felt very sloppy this time around when I wrote the chapter because I had been missing proper sleep for a few days due to working overtime. I hope the chapter was not unpleasant to any of my wonderful readers.
Now, I have a question to everyone: How is the story so far? Are you liking it? Is it getting better? Just respond honestly and I do appreciate both positive and negative responses since it will help me write better.
Incidentelly, since no one has yet to request me to do anything on my 300th chapter, I thought I should just make that chapter an "Author Talk" only chapter. It's where I talk about my journey in reaching 300 chapters and my feelings taking place in this journey. How does that sound to everyone?