Aoyama found himself in an eerily familiar place, he hadn’t been here before. But he could still recognize it as if he had been living here for millenniums. Lava seemed to flow between the cracks, at the farthest end a man was sitting at the foot of a throne.

It was the same man who had captured Aoyama at the Noble Estate and had put him up for display, in a blink of an eye they both were facing each other.

Aoyama now could recognize the place, it was the place that had come in his dream.

Zachary leaned closer to Aoyama, “So you are here, I had been waiting for you.”

Aoyama was surprised by Zachary’s sudden change of sentiments towards him.

Zachary stood up, and looked inside Aoyama’s eyes, “Ahh, your eyes have the look of my eyes.”

“What look?” Aoyama asked.

“The look of a destroyed man, the look of a man who instead of seeking the power of creation to create himself anew, had decided to destroy the world around him, to equate the balance. That look.”

Aoyama sought his reflection in Zachary’s eyes to see what the world saw, alas he saw nothing.

Zachary inspected Aoyama, “I can’t believe I have died at your hands.” His expressions were grim and his posture calm, as if he didn’t care if he had died.

Aoyama took a few steps back and furrowed his brows, he didn’t remember killing Zachary, yes that man was quite infuriating but he wouldn’t dare kill anyone.

He was even unsure about killing the King, the man he swore vengeance against.

Zachary caught Aoyama’s bafflement, “You didn’t directly kill me, no one could directly kill me.

However, I can’t find myself to return to the True Realm, which means my body has rejected my soul.”

He seated himself back on the bottommost stair, “Aoyama Aoki, these are my final words not towards you, but to my son- Aizong…” He seemed to be carried away by the very words he was supposed to tell his son, and tears began to flow from Zachary’s eyes.

“I don’t think I can say something, I want to say so much man, I wanted to do so much.”

His voice cracked and stuttered as words came from his mouth.

Aoyama bent towards Zachary, Aoyama was wordless too.

“What would’ve you said to her Aoyama?”

“What? To whom?”

“To your wife Aoyama.”

“How do you…”

“Just answer my question, Aoyama, I don’t think I have long.”

Aoyama was confused, he didn’t know what was happening around him, more than confused he was afraid, afraid of himself. He was afraid to confront the very question.

Zachary chuckled, “Shouldn’t have asked you this, you are just too young.”

Zachary sighed, “I don’t know how long before my soul is gone, but I know it won’t be enough.

I don’t want to talk about dying, I don’t. But’s it all too sudden.”

Zachary turned towards Aoyama, “I know I am boring you, but I don’t want to die in silence, I have lived a life with so many things left to do, and I don’t want my thoughts to go unheard too.

The path you have sought is the same as mine, it’s that of vengeance. Heed my words, the path to vengeance is riddled with many corpses including your own. What is left in the end is just flesh and blood, either living or dead.”

Zachary again was lost in his thoughts, his gaze unfocused. Aoyama just observed, he didn’t want to disturb Zachary’s final moments, Zachary retained his focus and began to speak again, “I feel death’s hands, Aoyama, they are warm.”

Zachary’s soul began to fade, Aoyama in a rushed attempt tried to hold him, “What should I say to your son? Zachary? ZACHARY?” Aoyama shouted.

He was all alone.

There were remnants of Zachary’s presence, but they were just remnants.

Zachary was gone, and it was because of Aoyama, that a son would dine without his father that night.

Aoyama heard someone’s laughter, an ancient, rusted sort of laughter.

It came from the throne, however there wasn’t a throne anymore, but a man bound by shackles.

It was the same man who had appeared in his dreams, but this time he was seeing him up close.

No, he wasn’t seeing that shackled man, but himself at the bottom of it.

Aoyama couldn’t even recognize himself, his soul didn’t resemble him at all. It was a tumultuous of elements. The contours were Aoyama’s body, but the soul itself wasn’t.

“Are you confused?” Aoyama asked, ‘What the hell?’ he thought ‘Who am I talking to?’.

The voice though shared an uncanny resemblance to Aoyama’s own, the words weren’t of his, “Your Mind and Soul have separated, what is in front of you isn’t your soul.”

Aoyama found himself back to his old position, surrounded by darkness.

***

A motionless body suddenly sprung to life, a body which should have been dead was alive. Its eyes were all red, and it looked for food to consume which happened to be a hundred-year-old tree in the backyard.

The tree which had seen many of its caretakers on their deathbeds now was on its own.

It had lost centuries of lives in a matter of seconds, nothing but dry wood was left in the backyard, yet the body’s hunger hadn’t been satiated.

It wanted more.

The more came in the form of a young boy just returning to their home after a tiresome evening.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The body pounced upon the young boy, and if it weren’t for years of harsh training, the boy would’ve seen a similar fate as the tree.

The boy had a huge grin on his face, “You can move again!” He laughed, but soon the laughter disappeared when he saw the body for what it truly is.

It bore a resemblance to the old owner only on a superficial level, the eyes and soul were worlds apart.

It wasn’t even human. The creature emulated the boy’s grin and pounced upon him again, the boy barely dodged it with a scratch on his right arm.

The boy Spirit Gazed again, the Spirit Realm was being repelled by the creature’s presence. The creature cannot exist, the creature must not exist.

Yet, here it was about to consume the boy.

The boy looked at the creature’s waist for a potential weapon, but there was none, it must be inside then, he thought.

Unfortunately, the creature was between the boy and the house, between life and death.

The creature was slow, it didn’t move.

No, the boy thought, it is deliberating, it is making itself accustomed to this world, I must kill it before it’s too late.

The creature was studying the boy’s face, the meaning behind every change happening, be it inside or outside.

The boy was thinking bad about the creature, and the creature didn’t like it.

It dashed upon the boy trying to strangle the boy, and the boy failed to dodge this time.

He was in its choke-hold and his back was pressed on a wall. The boy tried to gasp for air, but it was all for naught.

The hands didn’t budge, life began to abandon the boy.

The boy kicked the creature in the shin, the creature didn’t react at all.

“Perfect Harmony.” The boy muttered, his muscles relaxed and his breathing was calm.

Strength poured into the boy’s body, he began to twist the creature’s body.

The creature’s blood-red eyes widened, it hadn’t been bested in over a millennium.

The creature’s nose connected with a fist, it didn’t feel pain, but humiliation it did.

The creature was seething with fury, all its muscles tensed.

The boy had a smirk, the audacity, the creature’s mind screamed.

The creature pounced again and the boy dodged again, however instead of anticipating for the creature’s next move, the boy kicked the creature in the back slamming its face into the wall.

The boy grabbed the creature by the neck and slammed its face into the wall again, and again, and again, and again, he did till the creature couldn’t breathe.

“Where is my father?” The boy screamed.

The creature turned its complete 180 degrees, the body followed suit.

The creature giggled, it was enjoying the fight, it was a good exercise after a millennium of being trapped in a space rock.

It smashed its head on the boy, and the boy groaned as blood flowed from his nose.

The creature tackled the boy throwing him inside the house and breaking the window.

The boy looked for the sword, his eyes were chaotic, before the creature attacked again he must grab it.

It was lying above the temple.

The boy quickly grabbed the katana and unsheathed it.

“Blood. Blood. Blood.” Said the sword in a sharp voice.

The boy smiled, “Let’s give you some blood Red Shock”

The creature had entered inside the house, and it back-stepped when it saw Red Shock.

Then it pounced again, instead of sidestepping the boy prepared a stance and hacked the creature into pieces, the creature released a terrible shriek, almost deafening even.

But the boy had cut the creature into multiple pieces, which were once of his father.

Tears left the boy’s eyes, but he didn’t regret his actions at all, whatever the creature was more dangerous than anything on the island, even more than what Greg and his team had once unearthed.

Zachary is gone, the boy thought, he couldn’t even talk to him in his final moments.

The boy felt this budding rage inside him, killing the creature had only fueled it.

The boy pocketed a piece of flesh, for he felt this creature was only the first.

He had to find out more about the creature but couldn’t do it alone.

The boy looked around him, the house was a mess, this place didn’t seem good for research, as if the Creature had sucked all the life from the house too.

The boy took a final look at the house and began to leave, the sword buzzed in protest, but it’s new owner didn’t obey to swords.

He continued on his path, he hadn’t yet thought of where he would go, but he would see.

It just didn’t feel right to him, to continue living at the place where he killed his father.

The creature seemed to have violated the presence of the house, making it inhabitable.

The flesh and bones began to reconnect, wounds began to mend. The hacked body was no longer hacked, but a complete and living whole.

The body opened its eyes, they were no longer of the color of blood. Yet they weren’t of Zachary too.

They were of a third living person, who had just found an abode in the body of late Zachary.

That man in Zachary’s body was Aoyama Aoki.