108 It's Okay, I'm Fine

Black and blue, beaten and bruised. For the past two years, I realized that nothing has really changed. Even when I got more and more powerful, I was still struggling to fight my enemies. I hate this feeling. But even then, it didn't bother me like how I felt right now.

The familiar face in front of me reminded me a lot of my past. How I crawled my way to where I stood now. How the things I lost outweighed the thing I gained. Truth to be told, I also felt a slight nostalgia.

Pang!

I slapped my face, awakening my face of the illusion that was getting into my head.

The creature of the Dark Dimension spawned by Alessa could be separated into two kinds. The first kind was born from the people's negative emotions such as trauma, guilt, sadness, fear, etc. It was simply a manifestation of people's delusions.

The second kind was more straightforward in nature. They were directly born from the soul whom Alessa cursed. That was why they mostly retained their humanoid form, in a repulsive way.

But not all humanoid monsters were born this way. Just like Pyramid Head and the one before me, they were born through the first category, through my guilt and scar.

"How did Alessa know of my past?" I asked Regina, feeling out of place while inspecting the copy of me or rather Dark Michael.

The answer came immediately, "She didn't, Sir. It was just the law of her ability. Anything that came into Silent Hill would be exposed to Alessa's power, materializing people's negative emotions. While she couldn't see your past, it didn't rule out the possibility of the shell of your negative emotion to surface by itself."

To put it simply, Regina was telling me that Alessa didn't need to read through me to manifest my trauma, all she needed to do was just pulling it, like gravity. Gravity didn't need to identify the matter that came in contact with it. All it needed to do was pull, and voila, he appeared.

My eyes were glued at the mute Dark Michael in front of me. It made me nervous. In the past, he just existed inside my head, now he existed in the real world for everyone to see. My guilt from not being able to help him, for letting a lot of people dying in that city, surfaced again. My hands started shaking and my heartbeat accelerated. Just as I was about to despair, a notification resounded inside my head.

An invisible warm current flowed inside me, consoling me, as if saying, "It's fine."

For the first time, ever since I got it, the Harvest Goddess's blessing activated. I even forgot I had it because it never did anything ever since I got it. I rubbed my forehead, remembering the spot her lips touched.

'Thank you.' I mumbled inside my head. Although I was concerned by the last sentence, I couldn't do so as a voice interrupted my thought.

[I suggest you move, Sir.] warned Regina.

Just as she finished her words, I heard the sound of gunfire. I tilted my head in a split second and evade the incoming bullet. Even though it still scraped my cheek, I managed to avoid the worst. I rubbed the blood oozing from my cheek and returned fire.

Both of us were wielding the same type of handguns in both hands. It felt like I was fighting a mirror. The bullets we fired were hitting each other right in the middle. It either stopped immediately, losing momentum, or ricocheted in a random direction, opposite to each other. Just like that, an invisible wall was made from the sparks caused by the bullets.

While shooting, we were closing our distance one step at a time. It was the battle between two people with the exact same skill, the exact same style, and the exact thinking process. When we were about 5 meters apart, we switched the left handgun with a knife.

Clank! Clank!

Bang! Bang!

Our knives dances as the barrel of our handguns remained a finger apart like two orbiting satellites. If I slashed from left to right, Dark Michael would do the same. If I pulled the trigger, Dark Michael would also do the same. It was frustrating as neither of us gained even a slight advantage in this battle. Yet, I was smiling throughout our battle. Why? The answer came right afterward.

Breaking the stand-still of our battle, Dark Michael did something that I hadn't manage to do yet. The Gem Regalia on his A/T bloomed as a wave of vibration was sent around him. It was a force that stopped everything around him from moving.

It was the original owner of the Regalia from the manga, Kilik's personal trick, Infinite Tremor: Ensnaring Suffocation. By sending a heavy vibration to the ground, it formed a magnetic area that forced everything to stand still, stopping all kinds of motions while the owner could freely moving unrestricted.

"Finally," I muttered.

This fight. It was not a punishment, but another blessing in disguise. If I really want to, I could've ended the fight the moment the fight started. Even though he was the perfect replica of mine, there was one thing that Dark Michael couldn't copy, and it was God's bestowed power. To be exact, my Reinforcement.

[Remember, don't use it even if the burden on your body kept increasing. If you want to improve further, now is your only chance.] reminded Regina. From the start, it was all of her ideas. Provoking Alessa, letting her summon the Dark Dimension, and purposely leaking the firewall that has been protecting my mind.

I was busy absorbing his tricks using my Photographic Reflexes, making it mine, making it better. Funny isn't it? The copy was copied all again. Yet, the image getting clearer and clearer as time passed.

With the help of Regina diminishing the tremor that should've affected my movement, I activated my own Gem Regalia, making it bloom as I sent my version of Infinite Tremor: Ensnaring Suffocation. It was a tremendous success.

With the knowledge that I kept absorbing from Dark Michael, my skill that had been stuck for a while finally improved at a rate that was so fast I couldn't even believe myself.

'Isn't this the perfect training course?' I muttered inside my head.

But I know that it couldn't go much longer than this. The more I waste time, the stronger Dark Alessa would become. If she got a whiff of what was going on, she would change her approach into something much worse. I wouldn't dare to bet on that. Who knows what she would do.

However, talking is easy. Even when I have Reinforcement in my arsenal, something that couldn't be replicated by Dark Michael, what use it was for me when I was afraid to relive what happened in the past? In the end, I couldn't muster my strength to kill, even the shadow of the friend I missed.

[Do you need some help, Sir?] offered Regina.

I was tempted, but I shook my head. It wasn't right for me to do so.

I replied, "No, I'll do it myself. I know something like this will happen someday, and it won't be the last."

Regina didn't say anything. I wonder what she was thinking about me. I wonder how I looked from other's points of view right now. Do I still look cool?

I raised my gun and muttered, "Full Reinforcement," effectively increasing my speed, power, and momentum.

As if knowing it was the final clash of our battle, Dark Michael threw the gun on his hand and dashed toward me. Polar opposite to him, I threw the knife instead and welcomed him.

"My friend..." I muttered with a warm smile as Dark Michael appeared like a flash in front of me, swinging the knife downward, but instead of evading it or dodge the attack, I moved a step closer to him and did the unthinkable. The knife couldn't hit me and his arm just hit my shoulder. Opening my arms, I embraced him and closed my eyes. Then...

Bang!

My face crumpled as I heard the shot. I tried to support his limping body but somehow I couldn't hold the weight. I did the thing that I couldn't do before and as his body started to scatter, I continued to say, "...I'm sorry for letting you pull that heavy trigger."

Along with the last strand of his hair disappearing, the darkness that had been shrouding the silent hill was lifted. The first ash landed on my empty hand, melting, as a drop of tears fell on it.

It came as a bit of surprise as I didn't expect that I already cried. I guess my heart wasn't as strong as my muscle.

But then, before I could finish my mourning, an explosion, from the building I was on before, distracted me. I turned my head over to see. My curiosity changed immediately into one with horror.

"Eve!" I exclaimed at the horror, knowing something I didn't know happened on the third floor. I tried to use my Radar Sense, but the fog kept messing with it.

The explosion was caused by a huge bird-like creature coming out of the falling dust and debris. Although the Dark Dimension was lifted, it wasn't uncommon for one or two Dark creatures still lurking here and there.

I took out Blackbeard and aimed it at the mighty bird that was diving toward me. It was blue in color with a tint of dark grey on some of its feathers and beak. However, a voice prevented me from pulling the trigger.

"Mr. Butterfly!"

Although I could barely hear it, I knew whom the voice belonged to. It was none other than Eve. She was holding on to the bird's neck as she commanded it to land next to me. But the obese-looking bird couldn't properly control its flight path, hitting me head-on.

Bam!

"Kuaahk!" I yelped.

Although the fluffy feather took most of the impact force, I was still pushed down onto the cold ground. The dumb bird just tilted its head, questioning what I was doing, thinking that I was being stupid. If only I could hear its thought, I wouldn't hesitate and just spam Blackbeard, erasing it from existence.

"Ah! Mr. Butterfly where are you?"

Eve was looking here and there, but she could only hear a muffled voice somewhere. The chicken lifted one of its wings, revealing my head and allowing me to breathe. The rest of my body was buried under the thick feathers.

"There you are!" yelled Eve, merrily. She started bombarding me with all kinds of questions. Where had I been?, what I was doing?, did I got hurt somewhere? etc.

After lifting the KFC-to-be bird that had decided to nestle on top of my body away, I pat her herd and assured her, "You don't have to worry about me, don't you know how strong am I?"

Unexpectedly, this time, she didn't buy it like before. She innocently asked, "Then... why did your eyes turn red?"

I crouched in front of her, cleaning some baby feathers that were sticking on her clothes.

"Is it that obvious?", I asked.

Eve nodded and replied, "my eyes would turn red whenever I sleep very late, or when I was dozing off. Do you want to take a nap? That scary aunty has a bed in her room, I can ask Pon to fetch it for you?"

"Pon? Sleepy?", I couldn't help but smile when I heard her answer. I kinda envied her for the first time.

Eve started to explain that Pon was the name of the huge bird accompanying us. Now that I think about it, the bird felt a bit familiar. After hearing more of Eve's story, I finally understood what was going on. The bird was the result of Eve's accidental power burst when she got depressed about my sudden disappearance.

The bird was the one that was in the cage which the group of dead people from before brought. The bird awakens as a new Neo-Mitochondria Creature, something that I was hoping to never fight again. However, I was assured after observing how docile the bird actually was, after transformation.

"So... Are you feeling sleepy?" asked Eve, feeling concerned.

I shook my head and said, "I did feel a bit sleepy for these past two years, but not anymore."

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm." I nodded while patting her head. I stared at my palm. Both the ash and the tears were already gone. I clenched my fist and said, "It's okay, I'm fine."

From afar, two shadows appeared through the thin fog. It was Mrs. Rose and her daughter, Sharon.

"Edward, are you okay?" asked Mrs. Rose, while holding her daughter's hand. She knew how scary the Dark Dimension was, so when she found me still alive and kicking, she felt relieved.

"As you can see, just slight scratch here and there. Nothing that time wouldn't heal." I replied while showing the wound on the surface of my skin. Most of the bruise and cut wound I got from fighting Pyramid Head was already healed, and I used Reinforce to fix my clothes. There was nothing to worry about.

"But still..." insisted Mrs. Rose.

"Rather than worrying about me, we need to look for a way out," I suggested.

We were trapped once again inside this world. No, in the first place, we didn't escape yet, so saying once again was incorrect.

My eyes moved toward her daughter. She truly resembled Dark Alessa. If she didn't wear a 'normal' outfit, I wouldn't have known if it was her or the darkness Alessa spawned.

"You're right, as long as we're here. How could we be okay? I think I know where we should go. Ever since stepping to this place, I kept seeing things. I saw my daughter, but in a different place and different settings." said Mrs. Rose.

'It seems the real Alessa has placed her interest on Mrs. Rose if she showed her some visions of the past.' I thought inside my head.

"Good, tell the butterfly about what you were looking for and follow it, I'll keep us safe for the time being," I warned the pair of daughter and parent while calling out the Limbo butterfly to show the correct path.

The black butterfly started leading the way. Unexpectedly, it was going toward the hospital where the real Alessa was admitted at. Coincidentally, it was the place where I was intending to go to.

'Whitebeard, it might be the only key to getting out of this hellhole.' I mumbled quietly.

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