Venezuela sat calmly in a chair facing a round table that was occupied by two other people, who were seated in their respective areas. Those two people were the King of Mardana and the King of Ashtra and they were attending a meeting of the Three Kings to discuss what to do in the aftermath of the war. The Queen of Floria Kingdom, Venezuela, remained silent as the other two kings bickered and argued about what should be done.
“I say we execute him! He well and deserves it for all that he’s done!” The King of Mardana kingdom shouted angrily, slamming his fist down on the table, hard.
“I understand your feelings, but we shouldn’t forget that he called for the retreat of his soldiers and is returning them back to the Demon World!” The King of Ashtra argued, a frustrated look on his face.
“Why are you defending him when his actions killed so many lives and almost destroyed us?! Remember that thousands of our soldiers died valiantly in their struggle against the Demon Kings! I say we torture them and execute them! The people demand it!”
“If we do that, then we’re no different than the murders that brought us to this current predicament! Can’t you see that?!”
Venezuela listened to both sides arguing one point after next before quietly letting out a sigh. With the black hole closed and victory at hand, the people were joyous and even more thrilled to that most of the damage done and the number of people, who died in the war, were magically restored due to the massive effort by the Death Titan’s magic spell, Real Fiction. Even so, there was sadness and grief from many more, who had lost their loved ones before the time of his spell’s activation.
That was when the voice of the Calamity Titan echoed throughout the world, ordering his troops to retreat.
“The war is lost! All forces! Retreat to base and returned to the Demon World! Now! Demon Kings! Prepare for our return to the Demon World. If you dare to challenge me, you will die where you stand!”
This stunned many of his soldiers and shocked more of the warriors that were fighting against his army. With the order given, the fighting ceased and the Demon Army slowly began to returned back to the newly restored Demon Continent through the Demon Bridge magic spell. The defending warriors were greatly angered by them so suddenly leaving and wanted to fight back, but their respective leaders ordered them to stand down.
“Attacking a retreating army will put us even lower than them!” The King of High Elves shouted to his army, which immediately made them stop in their tracks and let their enemies leave.
While that was happening, the Calamity Titan stopped the familiar and the two familiars of the Phoenix Titan, who were fighting to a stalemate. Both Phylex and Draga were surprised to learn that their side had won the war, and were shocked upon knowing that their master, the Phoenix Titan, was not present in that world anymore. As such, they spoke regretfully about not winning their battle proceeding to return back to their realms. The Calamity Titan, then proceeded to order his own familiar to return back to his realm before flying off towards the Floria Kingdom.
Tracking the people, he had intended to meet, he soon arrived at the castle inside a powerful barrier placed there by his brother. Even so, it did not stop him from entry as he descended to land gently on the ground and straighten up to face the wives of the Phoenix Titan.
The soldiers, who had seen him land, were thoroughly alarmed and took up their defensive positions in front of their queen and the rest of the women, aiming their weapons at this enemy. The Calamity Titan saw this and merely smiled before beginning to walk towards them as causally as if he was strolling across the street.
“Stay back!”
“Don’t come near us!”
The soldiers yelled and charged towards him in an effort to stop his advance, but they were startled when every single one of them missed him. Not only did he dodge all of them, but he continued to walk towards the women with a soft smile on his face. Realising their mistake, the soldiers turned around and attempted to charge towards him when the Calamity Titan came to a stop and spoke to Venezuela in a soft voice.
“It has been a really long time, sister-in-law.”
Venezuela looked up at him, due to him being tall, and said in a sad voice, “It sure has been.”
Apart from the wives of the Phoenix Titan, everyone else frozen with blank expressions on their faces. None of them could comprehend what they were witnessing their mortal enemy talking softly to their queen. It was inconceivable and, to make matters even more confusing, the rest of Phoenix Titan’s wives did not seem to show any hostility to him, but instead are showing sorrowful expressions on their faces.
The Calamity Titan lowered both his body to the Floria Kingdom’s Queen and said, “I don’t know if this will please you, but I am truly sorry for what I’ve done. It’s all my fault. I deeply regret it.”
Time seemed to freeze when he said those words and, in the next moment, it all broke with the soldiers and the other occupants of the castle shouting insults at him. The soldiers attempted to attack him again, but he vanished from the spot to appear standing a few meters from them. Unable to contain their anger, some of the other occupants, who were unable to attack like the soldiers with weapons, picked up whatever they could find and threw them as hard as they could at the Calamity Titan.
Rocks, pebbles and stones flew through the air and slammed into the Calamity Titan’s head, face, chest and arms. Several caused him to bleed from the wounds, lose his balance and even close one of his eyes. Despite this, he ignored the blood, the pain and the suffering as he accepted this punishment as the people vented their feelings on him.
While this was happening, Cantia. Sonia and Serabella landed nearby, and his wife rushed over to defend him with cries of, “Please, stop! It isn’t his fault! Don’t hurt him!”
She got in front of him with her arms spread out, but Chandra merely teleported in front of her to continue receiving the punishment while placing an immovable spell on his wife. With that, she was unable to help and even was unable to say anything despite the struggle in her eyes, which were filled with grief at the pain her husband was enduring.
“Enough!” Venezuela said in a firm commanding voice, which instantly made the people to falter in their actions. When they began to argue with her, she glanced around at them and said, “Stop attacking him! That is all! I don’t want to hear any of your complaints!”
Unable to go against her words, they dropped their small objects but continued to glare menacingly at him because their feelings of hatred could not be quenched by simply throwing rocks at him. They wanted him to suffer, to see him experience the same pain that they endured during their time of peril, where they were at risk of losing their lives.
Making sure no more attacks would follow, Venezuela turned back to Chandra and said, “Yes. It is your fault. Even the lives we lost before the activation of Real Fiction is your fault as they were committed only because you ordered it.”
The Calamity Titan looked momentarily surprised but for different reasons as he asked, “Real Fuction? So, that’s the spell that restored much of the destroyed land, returned most of the dead back to life and restored my power.”
When he snickered, Emilia asked in a sad voice, “It’s not funny, Chandra. It’s sad that the other large number of people couldn’t be restored to life.”
The Calamity Titan shook his head and said, “I know that, and I deeply regret it. That’s why, as my punishment. I have permanently lost my eyesight.”
“What?!” Venezuela exclaimed, looking alarmed.
“You lost your eyesight?!” Erza asked in a voice with her eyes wide open in shock.
“B-But your… your eyes are there…” Ondine asked, looking confused.
He chuckled lightly and replied, “They are there, but what good is it when I can’t see through them?”
“No way…” Sumara said slowly and decided to find the truth by herself, which made her say the spell name out loud, “Zooming Force.” This increased her eyesight, and her view closed in on his eyes to see that there was no pupil; they were dead black with no light reflecting in them. Seeing the proof, she deactivated the spell and slowly said, “He’s right… They’re dead.”
“How’s that possible?!” Ondine exclaimed, looking concerned. “You had Demon Eyes: Controller! What happened?”
That question made the Calamity Titan hesitate for a moment before he said. “Well… Certain things happened and… my god chose to take back the gift he placed on me. As such, Real Fiction worked like it should because even that powerful spell can’t restore what isn’t there to begin with, even if they were gifts given by gods.”
There was a stunned silence before the castle occupants and the soldiers began to berate him with insults when Venezuela said, “That’s enough,” before they became calm once more.
Their queen looked at him and, although pity filled her, she knew her duties and said, “While it is paining me to see you in this state, I cannot defend your punishment because of all that you’ve done. Whether you did them by your will or forced to by someone else, it doesn’t matter; your actions caused lives to be lost, leaving their families to cry their loss.”
He nodded his head in understanding and asked, “What would you have me do?”
While Venezuela thought about it, several people shouted different opinions with gleeful looks on their faces.
“Detain him!”
“Imprison him!”
“Beat him up!”
“Crush him!”
“Break his fingers!”
“Break his arms!”
“Cut of his fingers!”
“Cut of his arms!”
The opinions slowly pilled up with increasingly drastic words when, to their surprise, the Calamity Titan began to laugh. It was cold and mirthless and, with it, a strange pressure started to hamper down on everyone in his surrounding vicinity. This caused them to stop speaking and gulp nervously with his laughter being frightening. When he calmed down, he wore a cold smile on his face and spoke in a voice that seemed to challenge them.
“Detain me? Attack me? Imprison me? What else? Oh! Beat me? Crush me? Break me? Heh! You can actually do all of them?”
Not only did he sound casual, but almost to the point that he did not seem to care about what he said because of the confidence in himself. He was blinded and his power had greatly decreased, but he was still the strongest warrior in the world, next to the Dragon Titan since the Phoenix Titan was not there.
“Nyaa…” said Cantia slowly, seeing the fearful looks on everyone’s faes and sighed and thought, “Honestly-nyaa, do these people ever learn-nyaa not to crush the already beaten snake?”
Venezuela did not mind his attitude and instead said, “Much of the warriors were heads of their families, or children of old parents. Now, those families are without their man and, while we will do our best to provide them with support, financial support of that scale is difficult.”
“Finance,” said Chandra slowly, nodding his head in understanding before saying, “Will Fifty Million Gold do?”
“What?!” The surrounding people exclaimed, their eyebrows shooting upward and eyes becoming round with shock and disbelief.
Their reaction would be like that because the amount of money he stated was unbelievable, especially to gather it was near impossible. The reasons they felt that it was impossible was due to the time it takes to gather that amount and the other reason, that troubled them the most, was to raid multiple Labyrinths and Dungeons to acquire the gold at the final level.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“You can do that?” Erza asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
Chandra sensed the doubt in her voice and spread his arms out while saying, “I am guilty, and I have a name to keep here, so I will return with what I promise. However, it’ll take me two days considering I need adjusting to being blind.”
“Isn’t it better for you to restore your eyes using Restoration?” Ondine asked, speaking out for the first time in a worried voice.
He shook his head and sadly smiled at her before saying, “Restoration restores someone’s health and other factors within the one year, so it’s like turning back time on them. I can use the spell with little difficulty, if you’re worried about that. Besides, when Real Fiction didn’t work on me, what makes you think Restoration would?”
To that Ondine became silent and this surrounded their vicinity, in which the surrounding people watched in fear. They were far too afraid of the Calamity Titan now to say anything against him, fearing he would slaughter them without a second thought.
Venezuela and Chandra looked into each other, both remembering their last encounter being a tragic one. He deeply regrated what he had done and the memory of his action, on that day, would haunt him forever. That is why he was determined to do whatever good he can do while he was there before leaving for good because he has no intentions of staying in their world anymore than he wants to.
“Well then, I’ll be back in two days. I promise on my life, and the life of my brother,” he said, saying the last four words in a quiet voice so that only Venezuela, Erza and Emilia could hear him.
“Please be careful,” said Emilia with a small smile on her face.
Chandra, turned around and said, “I will.” He walked towards his wife, who was frozen in place due to his spell and deactivated it before saying. “Let’s go, Sera.”
Freed from the spell, she breathed a sigh and waved cheerfully at them, saying, “See you soon!”
With that, the two soared into the air and flew off into the distance. Venezuela saw them go and quietly gave the order to the Phintex Rajas to follow the couple to keep an eye on their actions. It was because she did not fully trust Chandra despite the good nature he was showing in his behaviour, which still contained a bit of the arrogance he had as the Calamity Titan.
“I guess it’ll be a part of him,” she thought sadly.
Two-days-later, the kings from the other two kingdoms called for a meeting, and she found herself in her present predicament. They wanted to, not just punish the criminal that waged war on them all and caused countless deaths, but they wanted to set an example for the future so that no person would dare to commit evil after witnessing this example.
“I just don’t think it’s fair on our part to commit such a severe action considering he appears to have changed!” The King of Ashtra Kingdom said, looking greatly troubled as he was unwilling to get swayed by his feelings.
“What do you mean ‘unfair’ by the punishment he should receive?!” The King of Mardana Kingdom shouted, flaring up angrily at the annoyance his neighbouring king was causing him. “His direct command brought many of our men to their demise! He is responsible for all this and should take be punished for it! It’s as simple as that!”
The King of Ashtra Kingdom could not refute that because that is true, however, he knew the Calamity Titan is a powerful enemy and would not bend his head to them. He was informed of their enemy’s encounter with the Floria Kingdom’s Queen and came to a quick decision to not punish him since he did not know what kind of behaviour the enemy would take if they suddenly become offensive on him when he is clearly showing his defeat.
“I’m not disagreeing with you, Athurus, but I believe we are forgetting the promise he made to Venezuela!” The King of Ashtra Kingdom said, using a strong emphasis on the wo0rd ‘promise.’
“I know that, Steve!” Athurus snapped, getting irritated by the sudden diversion tactic the other person used. “He said he’d be here in two days with Fifty Million Gold! Now, that’s a very large number to count, let alone gather them all in two days! What is it going to do? Raid all the Labyrinths and Dungeons scattered around the world and cause them to collapse? Does he plan on causing the daily lives of the adventurers to suffer because of his thoughtless action?”
Venezuela knew the king was speaking words to support his case, so she smiled and said, “Athurus, you are taking this way too seriously. Aren’t you forgetting that new Labyrinths and Dungeons are made for each one that collapse in different places? The Phintex Rajas are daily monitoring the locations of the Labyrinths and Dungeons all over the world.”
“That is all well and good,” said Athurus, clenching his fists in anger at the realisation that his argument was thrown aside, “but I still wonder where he is. After all, you said he’d be here in two days.”
“I sent several of my Phintex Rajas to track him and they sent me a message that he will be here soon,” said Venezuela with a confident smile on her face.
“Soon… or now,” said a familiar voice, which caused everyone in the room to turn in the direction voice.
There stood the Calamity Titan with a smile on his face and beside him, stood his wife, who turned leaned sideways to wave brightly at Venezuela.
There was a moment of stunned silence in the room before it was broken by Athurus, who exclaimed, “W-What the?! H-How did you get in here?!”
The King of Mardana had specifically queried the magic used to conceal the room and understood that it was very difficult, even for a member of the Nine Pillars of Power, except for Lakshman, Lagron and Sevedant. As such, it totally baffled him to suddenly see the Calamity Titan in the room that he believed was impenetrable.
Chandra smiled and said, “It’s not how I got here, it’s whether I’m here or not, right?”
Athurus felt he was greatly insulted by the tone that the Calamity Titan spoke in, which made him say, “Bastard!”
“Mmm. Name calling. That’s scary and all, but why don’t we move onto the main topic?” Chandra said, clearly disregarding the Kind of Mardana Kingdom without a care. While the king looked enraged, Chandra spoke to Venezuela by saying, “Here’s the amount that I promised,” and he conjured several sacks out of thin air.
The sacks touched the ground lightly and fell sideways, making sounds of numerous coins being inside the bag. Everyone in the room, heard the sounds and could only stare at them in shock with the room filled with utter silence.
“Just how do you expect us to count all these?” Steve, the King of Ashtra Kingdom, asked in a nervous voice.
Chandra turned to face him in bemusement and said, “That is a good point and that’s why, don’t bother. I’ve counted because I have a face to keep and, besides, it wouldn’t be much of a promise if I were to lie to you.”
“Mm. That is a good point,” replied Steve, and nodded his head in understanding.
As soon as his exchange was done, Athurus jumped in and asked, “Are you really blind? Venezuela said you are, but I don’t believe you. You’re probably trying to trick us to think you are, otherwise, how else would you turn your head and face us as if you see us? I mean, any normal blind person would remain stationary since they can’t see whom they are speaking to.”
This time, Chandra slowly turned to wear a look of amazement on his face before saying, “Wow. I ever thought I’d meet a dumb idiot here. This is classic.”
“What?!” Athurus exclaimed, widening his eyes in anger. “I’m dumb?!”
“What else are you then for asking me such a really ridiculous question. Even a baby knows the answer to that question,” replied the Calamity Titan, smiling widely as he sensed the tension rising from anger in his opponent. “I may be blind, but I’m not deaf. Even without hearing your voice, I can sense your location, so why bother to pretend I don’t know where you are when I know where you are. Get it, or do you want me to simplify it since stupid people are stupid.”
Athurus was becoming greatly agitated as his rage was starting to show on his face, but Chandra did not care. It is true that he could not see his people’s faces, but like the Magic Titan, he sensed his surroundings and, with that, he was able to get a picture of whom he was conversing with. He was also purposefully aggravating the king was because he greatly disliked the man from the beginning for speaking rudely to Venezuela, which he heard moments before teleporting silently into the room.
“A-Attack! Detain that man!” Athurus ordered his men, who were standing behind him.
In an instant, all of them launched themselves off the ground and soared straight towards the Calamity Titan with their weapons drawn. To their surprise, however, they found out that their target had vanished and it was obvious why because, in the next moment, the Calamity Titan stood behind the desk, facing the angry man on the other side with a calm expression on his face.
“You—!” Athurus began by rising to his feet.
In an instant, the Calamity Titan extended his hand and placed his forefinger on the angry man’s forehead. Then, applying strong force, he pushed the man down back onto his chair, which jerked a little from impact. Everyone stared at him in shock at how quickly he evaded all of his attackers to come and forcefully seat the King of Mardana Kingdom.
“Keep your mouth shout, or you’ll lose it,” said Chandra lightly, with a deadly glint in his eyes, making Athurus gulp automatically in nervousness. “You are in a world without a hero, so what’s going to stop me from crushing your head right here, right now? Your lackeys? Don’t dream about it. Right now, I am the strongest warrior in the world, apart from the Nine Pillars of Power, of course.”
Athurus felt the finger pressure on his forehead get stronger, but he did not hesitate and said, “T-T-The Nine Pillars of Power won’t… they won’t let you get away with it.”
For a second, Chandra looked amused before he casually smiled and said, “You’re probably right, but I honestly believe even they won’t mind me taking care of a trouble maker like you. You say you’re speaking in defence of your people, but you’re only behaving this way to get popularity among your people by overshadowing the others.” When Athurus widened his eyes in shock at the discovery of his plan, the Calamity Titan chuckled and asked, “I may be blind, but I’m not dumb like you.”
With that, the Calamity Titan removed his finger from his enemy’s forehead and stepped back, continuing to smile as casually as ever. Just then, the previously attacking warriors rushed at him, but he vanished from sight at the very last second, causing them to fly through where he was before smashing, head long, into their king. There was the sound of breaking wood as the chair broke from their impact as they all came crashing down.
“This is why humanity will never advance, with greed being the centre of their driving force,” said the Calamity Titan, a hint of sadness in his voice. “This is why demons will always be stronger than humans.”
“Not everyone here is greedy like that man!” One of the warriors from the Ashtra Kingdom shouted, deeply hurt by those words that the Calamity Titan said. “We know how valiant the Phoenix Titan’s principle of life is and, although we are not as strong as him, we all strive to do good to the people so that everyone gets stronger.”
“While we may not be able to do everything good, we are a kingdom that are trying to accomplish great things so that we can further develop ourselves as a Human Race,” added Steve, the King of Ashtra Kingdom in an effort to appeal to the Calamity Titan to not harm them.
Chandra came to a halt and turned slightly to look at them before he said, “Actions speak louder than words. Your people should be saying that about you, not you telling that about yourselves.”
He turned back and resumed to walk back towards the side of the Floria Kingdom, with his wife smiling softly at him. While Steve’s men cliched his tongue, the man himself felt a strange aura coming from the Calamity Titan that almost made him mistake him for someone else.
“It’s as if I conversed with a very arrogant version of the Phoenix Titan,” thought Steve, looking puzzled as he watched the back of their enemy walking away.
Upon reaching the desk, Chandra hosted himself across it with relative ease and landed firmly on his feet with a smile on his face. Then, he turned towards Venezuela and Erza, saying apologetically, “Sorry for causing trouble here, but I couldn’t ignore an eyesore, so I kind of punished hm. If he does anything stupider, it’s up to you people to fix him up.”
Venezuela did not say anything, remaining silent while wearing a sad smile on her face. It was Erza who spoke, saying, “Though, I shouldn’t be thanking you, you did something good for us and, although it isn’t going to overlap all your atrocities, it will help us take care of the people in the long run. For that, we thank you, Chandra.”
Chandra raised an eyebrow and said, “You didn’t need to thank me. I only did it to do what I could to help those that I hurt. That is all.” He heaved a deep sigh in tiredness and said, “Now then, I will leave for the Demon World and will never show my face to you again. I will govern my race in the Demon World and make sure no attack from us will ever happen again. I promise on my blood, my life and my soul!”
To this, Erza’s eyes widened with shock as that was the phrase that her husband had used once before when making an unbreakable promise with her. Thinking about it now, she felt sad at the thought of her husband not being with her, but she also knew where he had gone to considering the timing of the situation.
Venezuela, who was feeling sad for another reason, rose to her feet hurriedly and said, “No, Chandra. Please. Your brother didn’t fight so hard desperately to see you leave for a faraway place again!”
He smiled sadly at her and said, “I… I wish I could stay, sister-in-law, but… I cannot, unfortunately. Even if I may have reverted back to my old self, my actions are still fresh in everyone’s memories. If I remain here any longer, I’ll become a problem for you, that is something I don’t want to do. That’s why, it is better that I leave, now.”
With that, he raised his hand to his forehead and said, “The last time we met, I did terrible things, so I hope my little contribution will help the people I hurt, even if a little, I would be happy about it.”
Smiling sadly, he turned around and said, “Come on, Sera. We’re leaving.”
“Goodbye, sisters!” Serabella said, waving goodbye to both Venezuela and Erza, then walking beside her husband while being escorted by several Phintex Rajas that appeared out of nowhere.
Erza and Venezuela watched them go before the Floria Kingdom’s Queen sank into her chair before heaving a deep sigh. The reunion of the brothers never happened with Lakshman being absent and the only other family member they knew just left them again. It pained her, along with the rest of Lakshman’s wives, to see this turn of events even though they knew it was the right decision for Chandra to leave.
“Broken bonds are very difficult to put back together,” she thought, sighing inwardly in sadness. Glancing up at the ceiling, she thought, “Please, come back soon, Lucky. You’re the only one left for us.”
***
In a place far away from their world, exists a place with tall buildings and pavement made of stone. At that place, lightning suddenly came down from the sky and struck the ground, causing a wild wind to blow in all directions. This caused the floating paper and rubbish on the ground to rise into the air and fly in all directions.
A moment later, something formed above the ground and it took form of a large black hole, which expanded to a large degree to allow a man through. Several seconds later, a man burst out of the hole and crashed hard on the pavement, making low painful sounds while the portal closed behind him. Once it closed, everything returned to normal and the flying debris fell back to the ground.
The man, with his face pressed against the ground, pushed himself around to face the sky, revealing him to be Asura. The collapsed warrior was breathing slowly as his multiple wounds bled, draining a lot of his stamina in the process. Even so, he mustered what little strength he possessed to glance around at his surroundings, which were very different to what he expected.
From the pavement to the buildings, everything seemed looked different to what he was used to see. Looking up at the sky, he saw the sun shining brightly down on him but it occasionally got blinded by things getting in its way, as if the flying objects were flying across it.
Realising he was not in a place he could recognise, Asura slowly muttered, “Where… am I…?” before slowly closing his eyes and tilting his head sideways as he fell into a deep sleep from the loss of blood and exhaustion. He did not know it yet, but the world he arrived in was far from the normality that he was accustomed to in his origin world.