“How long are you gonna stay in the same place?”

A voice addressing me could be heard within my mind.

The voice seemed so familiar. I mean, that was my own voice.

I opened my eyes and looked around.

Currently, I am in a somewhat strange place.

Well, actually, this place wasn't so strange to me, since I had been here before a lot of times in the past.

There are only huge chunks of rocks wherever my eyes could see.

Many of them has been destroyed or had huge holes, as if there was a great battle taking places in here in the past.

And then, there was him, a man– no, a little boy, standing in mid air.

“Umm, long time no see...?”

I tried to greet him, but he just sighed and rolled his eyes.

After I ignored him for so long, I guess it was understandable if he felt angry towards me.

The boy then approached me from afar.

When he get so close to me, I could see his appearance clearly. He seemed so different from the past.

Basically, he looked the same as my current appearance, but with slight difference in some places.

His face was an exact copy of mine, except that his eyes color was red and had a vertical pupil.

Unlike my golden hair, he has long black hair, reaching to his waist.

There were a pair of horns near his ears, and I obviously doesn't have one.

His fangs and nails were sharp and pointy, just like a predator that was ready to claim it's prey's soul.

In his back, there were 3 pairs of ominous black feathered wings.

There was a three pronged tail sprouting out from his butt, and a familiar round crystal was embedded in his chest.

It was the same crystal which appeared when I was just born in my new world.

His name was... Raven.

Or rather, Raven was our name.

“I say, Raven, have you forgotten about your purpose for coming in this world?”

He asked me that.

I shook my head and answered him.

“Of course not, I was–“

“Then, tell me, what exactly are you doing?”

Before I could gave my answer completely, he interrupted me.

Clearly, his tone were full of anger and helplessness.

He then gritted his teeth and shouted angrily,

“Since you were born in this world, you had been doing nothing! Day and night, you just played the role of a kid!”

“No, I—“

“You what!? You didn't even seriously tried to search for our mother!”

“I tried, damnit! It's just that, I can't use any of my power!”

I shouted back at him. Then I saw he raised his hand and tried to punch me in the face.

Boom!

His fist landed perfectly, and my body were thrown miserably to the ground, destroying some of the huge chunk of rocks in the process.

I desperately tried to stood back, and glared at him.

This time, his expression made me startled.

He smiled bitterly and glanced sideways while clenching both of his fists.

“Do you really can't use it, or is it because you DON'T want to use it?”

I fell silent when he said that.

Then once again, he asked me:

“Do you really hate me that much?”

Again, I couldn't answer his question.

“I know that you can't use your divine energy, since it has been sealed. But, you didn't even tried to contact me once... no, you tried to seal me too, isn't it? That Heavenly Seal was a strong one, I know it. However, it could only temporarily halt our connection. You were just afraid, that you will becoming closer and closer like Zol, if you're using too much of my power, right?”

I could only hung my head down and muttered, “Sorry...”

He then sighed and waved his hand, “That's okay, as long as you understand. Remember, you are not the only one who had wished to protect mother. I didn't forbade you to live your life like this, however, I just wanted to remind you about your wish. Our wish.”

“This power, our power, isn't as simple as you think it is. In your previous life, you had barely touched the surface of it all. Part of it were because you hate me, but the other reason was, your talent wasn't as good as it is now. This round crystal inside of our chest had opened a new path for you to thread on. Don't let it get wasted.”

I nodded and walked towards him.

He also, flies down and approached me.

When we were facing each other, he smiled at me. Though the smile seemed like a sad one, but it doesn't seems to be forced.

I smiled back at him.

That's right, it wasn't his fault.

He too, was created together with me, as a part of  me.

He has always helped me in the past, and even though I tried to pushed him back, he would still willingly tried to help me.

Even though in the past, I only came here just to forcefully borrow his power to fight.

Not even once I had tried to openly speaks with him.

Yeah, I won't be running anymore.

I will face him, and accepted him for what he was.

When I thought of that, his body suddenly emitted countless lines of dark rays.

Wide eyed, he stared at me with his mouth hanging open.

I, who also doesn't know what was actually happening right now, felt really confused.

I tried to reach out my hand towards him, but... it actually passed through his body.

“What happened?”

My question seemed to woke him up from his daze, and then he smiled at me.

Only this time, his smile seemed like a happy one.

His body was gradually fading out, starting from his legs, to his head.

When there are only his upper body left, he whispered softly to me: “Thank you.”

And then, his body vanished completely.

After that, I woke up.

***

Raven opened his eyes and looked at his surrounding. The morning sun could be seen outside of his window. Currently, he was sleeping in his own room. He then immediately sat up, and just like every other day, he would always tried to feel his energies.

“My power... is back,” though faintly, he could felt that his demonic energy had been reawakened.

Raven fell silent for a moment, and then he smiled and raised his head, and muttered, “Thank you...”

—You're welcome— someone answered him.

“Huh?” Raven felt greatly startled, and he immediately looked at his surrounding. And then he found out that there was no one else beside him in his room. When he began to ponder whether that voice was his hallucination or not...

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

—Say, what are you searching for?— once again, the voice could be heard within his mind. Then Raven, as if he understood something, widen his eyes and dropped his jaw, “Yo–you? How...?”

Suddenly, black mist could be seen seeped out from Raven's chest. The black mist keeps increasing, until it actually covered the whole room. And then, all of the black mist gathered into one point and formed a small pitch black ball. After that, a thin curved line appeared n the middle of the black ball. The curved line opened and revealed... a mouth, complete with it's own tongue, teeth, and gum.

Then, another thin line appeared directly above the mouth, which was then revealed to be an eyeball when it opened up.

“A... ah... test, ah, it seems like my first attempt at materializing directly is a success,” said the black ball while grinning.

Raven, still hasn't recovered from his daze, could only stared blankly at the black ball. After what it seemed like minutes has passed, he regained his bearing and asked with hushed tone, “What are you doing here? How do you do that? Were you the one who reawakened our energy? What's with that appearance? Also, what—“

“Whoa, whoa, slow down! I would like to answer your questions, but slow down, okay?” exclaimed the black ball.

Raven reached out his hands and grabbed the black ball, then he covered it's mouth and said, “Sssh, don't speak too loud, there are other people here. I wouldn't want them to think that I was going crazy for talking to myself! Especially, since your voice sounded exactly the same like mine.”

The black ball nodded and began it's explanation, “For your first question, the answer is... I just wanted to see, how the outside world feels like. Can't I?”

It seemed as if Raven saw the black ball tilted it's whole body in a cute manner and looked at him with upturned eye, so Raven just sighed and nodded, “Fine, it's not like you being there would've created an utter catastrophe.”

The black ball smiled and continued, “About how I do this, it was actually simple. It works using the same method as when you tried to transform, but instead of applying the demonic energy into your whole body like you usually did, I tried to materialized it into the outside world. And here I am!”

Raven pondered for a while, then he asked, “If you could do this, then why is this the first time you— oh...”

“I think you already know the answer for that question, and also for your question about who's the person reawakening our energy,” the black ball chuckled.

Raven sighed and hung his head down, “I'm sorry.”

“Haha, don't worry, I don't mind it anymore. And about my appearance, this is the best I can do for now. Currently, our energy were too weak. When you're getting stronger, I could take on a bigger and stronger appearance, and even actively helping you in a battle wouldn't be something impossible. As I had said before, this power isn't so simple as you think it is.”

“Say, could you tell me about what actually are you and this power?” asked Raven.

The black ball seemed to think for a while, then answered with, “I don't know.”

“Hey, that kind of answer doesn't help me at all.”

“I mean, even I don't know about what exactly am I,” the black ball sighed, “Just think about it, what kind of power that could be brought even after you were dead and reincarnated in a new body? Heck, even when you're in your soul form, you could still use it. For sure, it wasn't something as weak as a power that came from Zol's blood.”

Raven felt greatly startled when he heard that, “Wait, so you mean, all this time, I was just misunderstanding about you? Now that you mention it, I didn't have any demonic blood running through my veins anymore...”

“Basically, yes...”

“.... I need time to think about all of this,” Raven put his hand on his head and let out frustrated sigh. “Are there any other things that I should've known?”

“Maybe it's enough for now. I also didn't know much about myself. However, I am sure that you and I could get much stronger than before. Maybe Gabriel also knew, or had a hunch about that. I felt something weird about him,” said the black ball. “And you should hurry greets your family, I know they are waiting for you. Today is your birthday, isn't it?”

“No,” Raven shook his head.

“No?” the black ball seemed confused. Then Raven smiled and said, “It isn't just my birthday. Today is our birthday.”

The black ball stared at him in astonishment, then laughed. Raven also laughed and said, “One last question. What should I call you from now on? It doesn't seems right if I keeps calling you with 'Raven' or 'you'.”

After thinking for a moment, the black ball answered, “You may call me Dios.”

“Very well then, Dios. Let's go,” Raven reached out his hand and grabbed Dios. In response, Dios merged his body with Raven's hand and formed a snake like tattoo, coiled around in both of his arm.

“Don't you think the others would've noticed if I suddenly had a new tattoo?” Raven's face twitched when he saw his arms.

—Don't worry, no one other than you could see it.— Dios' voice could be heard within his mind.

“Fair enough.”

Then, together with his old companion, Raven walked out of his room.

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A/N : This time, I tried to do something different. First person view! And I'd like to introduce a new character, i hope that you will like it. This chapter, and the next, and the next after that, and the... i don't know, is a building up chapter. I will try to explain about Raven's power and the world in a more detailed, er, explanation.

Dios character profile : was created together with Raven in his previous life, acting as a source for his demonic power. Since it changed Raven's body into that of a demonic creature, Raven hated it, thinking that it had something to do with Zol. Apparently, that wasn't the case, and Raven was just misunderstood about Dios in his whole life...

Had the same thought process like Raven, also wished to protect those whom it deemed important, including Raven himself.

If you had a suggestion or critics about my character, development, or pacing, please do tell me. If you found any mistakes in grammar, please tell me too.