18 Resolve

"Aries, be careful. The leader of Celestial Knights is strong."

The smile on his face widened when he heard those words from Pieffer.

"I can kill him, right?"

"It will never be that easy."

Aries beamed happily as he tapped Pieffer on the shoulder.

"I know he is a tough opponent," he walked away from Pieffer and tightened the grip on his dual blades. "But I will win this fight. Just stay there and watch. No matter what happens, I will not die."

Aries dashed towards Sunrei with his arms stretched at his sides like a bird in flight. As soon as he came close, he swung both blades at the armored chest of his opponent.

Sunrei took a step backward just before the dual blades hit his armor and waved his golden sword in retaliation. Aries swiftly leaned away from the sharp weapon, bent his knees, and countered with a double slash.

The golden sword deflected both blows and pierced its way towards the face of Aries who quickly somersaulted away from the blade. The instant his feet hit the ground, he charged back to Sunrei and relentlessly slashed his sword until he cut the latter in the cheek.

Sunrei parried the next strikes then jumped away from Aries.

"How did we end up like this?" Sunrei asked with confusing sorrow in his eyes.

Aries ignored it and kept on attacking. He was hoping for a challenging fight, but Sunrei annoyed him. The blonde was not changing his defensive stance.

Even when Aries managed to break through his defense and stabbed him on the shoulder, Sunrei did not try to counter.

"What are you doing?" Aries angrily pulled his blade and kicked Sunrei in the face.

The blow was powerful enough to send his blonde opponent rolling on the sandy ground.

"Stand up," Aries angrily commanded.

"Take my soul," Sunrei closed his eyes and the sword in his hand vanished. "You can easily devour the others if you consume my soul first."

"Fine," Aries stabbed one of his blades in the chest of Sunrei. "Even if you surrender your soul this easily, you will never be forgiven."

Sunrei smiled and said, "I know."

Aries watched as his blade absorbed the entire essence of Sunrei. He should be delighted but winning against an opponent that only lay down and surrendered without much of a fight did not bring him the slightest satisfaction. He was furious.

He felt… awful…

The weight of the soul he just absorbed felt heavier than the rest of the soul he had devoured.

It caused his knees to weaken. His vision had gotten hazy. Memories were flooding his mind once more, drowning his consciousness and drifting it away.

No… Not again…

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Aries jerked awake and fall from the branch of a tree. Fortunately for him, the branch was only a few feet from the ground. He did not obtain any injury.

"Clumsy as always," someone offered him a hand.

He looked up and was surprised to see Sunrei smiling. His right hand was reaching out towards him, offering support.

"What is this again?" Aries ignored Sunrei and stand on his own.

"Hey! The celebration is about to start!" Siorre appeared from behind Sunrei and placed an arm around the shoulders of the blonde knight. "We can't be late."

"I'm going crazy," Aries mumbled.

"Stop joking around," Siorre pulled him away from the tree where he had fallen and dragged him inside a castle.

Aries recognized that it was the castle in Serestral.

Siorre let go of his arm when they arrived at the throne room. It must be the throne room because there was only one chair in that spacious room. And it was an elegant chair. But as of that moment, it was empty.

Twenty-four people were standing in that room, including Aries, Siorre, and Sunrei.

Leon was also in the crowd and waved a hand at Aries.

Everyone greeted him as if they were close to him.

But aside from Siorre, Sunrei, and Leon, he could not recognize the rest of the people in that room.

He did not know them. But they... felt familiar to him.

Aries held his head that suddenly burst with pain.

He dropped to his knees then collapsed on the ground while writhing in pain but no one in the room seemed to have noticed what was happening to him. All of them continued talking excitedly with each other.

Aries… this is your life…

Aries closed his eyes and furiously yelled, "NO!!! THIS IS NOT ME!!!"

He blacked out and when he opened his eyes, the scenery had changed.

He had changed.

He kept on killing people whose face was covered in dark smoke. There were too many of those people that he could not stop killing. Even Pieffer became one of them and he had to kill her.

After taking her life, he abandoned her body in the middle of a forest. She was covered in mud and blood. Rain was pouring and he could not see anything but trees and dead bodies.

He had killed Pieffer.

Again.

Aries closed his eyes and shook his head.

No. This is not real.

Stop this… please…

"You are perfect for it," a deep yet gentle voice had spoken in front of Aries.

He opened his eyes but squinted as bright light dazzled his eyes.

He was no longer in that bloody forest. He was in an empty alley with lamplights lined on it. One of it was blazing blindingly that Aries could not properly see the man standing next to him.

"Do you want to kill bad people?"

The man reached out a hand to him.

Aries only stared at it, wide-eyed.

It was his memory.

That was how he had become an assassin.

Aries blacked out one more time and when he came around, he had returned at the lowest part of the dungeon. He was lying down on the four-poster bed. He rubbed his head that was still throbbing, but it was not as bad as before. Memories stopped flashing in his mind.

He felt… a little normal.

"Welcome back, Aries Del Luna," the Beast Tamer was back in his throne, and he was reading another book.

Aries sat up and asked, "What did you do? Where did you send me? Those memories…"

"They are yours," Kiel put down the book he was reading and gazed seriously at Aries.

"No," Aries refuted. "Most of those memories are not mine."

The Beast Tamer gracefully got up on his knees and approached Aries.

"Can you remember everything from when you were young? Before you became an assassin?"

Aries was silenced by that question.

"I can only help you remember," Kiel admitted. "But I cannot force you to accept everything and believe in it."

"I died," Aries stared helplessly at the Beast Master. "The dead should stay dead. I am as worst as the prisoners in this dungeon. Why am I given another chance to live? Why in this world? Why did I meet another Pieffer and Sunrei? This world… isn't this… my hell? But if this is hell… I should be suffering eternal torment. I should not be given a chance to become a hero. Because I am… an assassin… and I killed… the most important person in my life…"

"Yes. You are an assassin," Kiel agreed and lightly tapped Aries on the shoulder. "But you are more than that. You don't have to rush in believing that you are an important part of this world. Saving Serestral, on the other hand, cannot wait any longer. You have to do it now or more lives will be lost."

"You are strong. Why stay here and guard criminals instead of saving innocent lives?"

"Guarding criminals is one way of protecting innocent lives," Kiel smiled. "This is also a place where criminals can find a way to redeem themselves. You had been confined in this place for a few times."

"I… don't remember…"

"People die and always get a chance to be reborn," the Beast Tamer returned to his seat. "You think all the criminals in here are humans? Some of them are monsters. Others are only souls. When you get the chance to be reborn, your memories will be erased, and you are bound to start all over again. It is the same with you but with a little exception. We even reserved a part of this dungeon just for you."

"Why?"

"Because of all the souls that you have consumed. You, the rest of the Zodiac Knights, the Celestial Knights, and Pieffer have a complicated fate. You will always be reborn as yourselves. As for your memories, everything will eventually return to you as you age," Kiel raised the journal that Aries wanted to have. "This is not your memories. You don't have to read this."

"About that…"

"That Aries is from an alternate world," Kiel answered the unfinished question. "Our enemy desperately wants to get rid of you and they will try everything just to kick you out of this world. They did succeed on it when you nearly died ten years ago. Pieffer did everything to save you but, instead of you, she pulled another Aries from some alternate world."

"I still want to read that journal," Aries insisted. "I came here just for that."

"I will give you this journal once you remembered who you are," Kiel promised with a mischievous smile. "You can return here anytime but, of course, the journey will never be that easy."

"To leave here… we have to pass those floors again?"

"I know you are tired," Kiel beamed wider. "I will make an exception this one time only. Shall I transport all of you back to your house?"

"Master Kiel…" Aries hesitated but decided to ask away. "I cannot save the woman I love. I even killed her to walk away from a complicated life. Now you want me to save a kingdom. Can I… truly save Serestral?"

"No one can answer that. It all depends on you and your comrades. You are their leader. You are their strength. For as long as you remain strong, there will always be hope and maybe by saving this kingdom, you can appease the soul of the deceased."

Aries gained a bit of confidence in those words. It took him a while. But he was now ready to embrace that life and that world.

He would save Serestral.

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