Chapter 401 - The Weakness I Already Possess

Zeel felt the hours brush past his body as the sky turned darker…

His eyes were closed as he laid on the branch of a tree, hands behind his head in a semi-relaxing, semi-cool manner…

This was his way to meditate…

Meditation was not something Zeel did often, but he found himself requiring focus more and more…

Anything to block the noise of his own emotions…

Besides, every other sense had to be shut off to focus on one…

Countless simulations ran amok in Zeel's mind, calculating new ways for him to utilize the slight differences in his abilities…

But the differences weren't as minor as he thought them to be…

From what Zeel could determine from the simulations in his mind, his abilities had evolved even further than he initially realized…

And, of course, he had to master these abilities before the next inevitable fight…

What fight exactly?

It didn't matter since Zeel knew there would always be the next fight…

Chaos was a unit of the Universe…

Even in his meditative state, Zeel was aware of the passing time…

Passing time felt like drifting on conceptualized clouds – not very real, but also close to the actual thing…

So close… but not exactly…

Of course, Zeel's mind made this distinction because of the way humans perceived time in the wrong way, so everything 'human' felt a bit wrong to his weakened senses…

Yes, as a Homo-Superior, albeit a severely weakened one, Zeel was beyond a 4th Dimensional Being, capable of perceiving the passing of time as something unique…

Hence, Zeel's eyes snapped open as the clock ticked to 6 pm…

And within his eyes was a spark of understanding he didn't previously possess – a spark that held the confidence of knowing the purpose of his new abilities…

And these abilities were…

[Omnidirectional Death] was a new ability that allowed him to perceive when someone near him was about to die…

That was why he could see the black mist lingering near Nara…

[Travelling Death Eyes], previously called [Traveler's Eyes], now had the unique ability to show him a single possibility of death for anyone he laid eyes on…

[Death-Zone Manipulation], previously called [Time-Zone Manipulation], was Zeel's most useful ability, but it was also the ability that was most affected by the Death Divinity balance…

Previously, Zeel only required intense amounts of Divine Energy and Stamina to perceive the world in slower Time-Zones, but now, to jump between different Time-Zones, he required the reaping of lives…

Hence, he could access [Shallow Time-Zone] off the bat, but to remain in [Shallow Time-Zone] for a prolonged period of time, Zeel had to take two lives…

Meaning, he had to kill at least two people…

To access [Early Time-Zone] from [Shallow Time-Zone] would require an exponential increase in the number of lives to be reaped…

Depending on the situation and how fast Zeel wanted to move, he could require as many as ten lives to jump from a [Shallow Time-Zone] to a [Early Time-Zone] …

And Zeel didn't even want to consider how many lives it would take to reach [Mid Time-Zone], or even [Deep Time-Zone] …

[Death Whisperer] was a new ability that allowed Zeel to perceive the secrets of those around him…

Of course, he could only perceive these secrets if the individual was recently diseased or had strong negative emotions lingering around the said secret…

Hence, secrets about death were easier to perceive than common secrets, and Zeel perceive the secrets were more like intuition than mindreading…

[Dimensional Shift] worked more or less the same, with a slight inclination to Death-Attuned Dimensions…

[Death Warping], previously known as [Warp], evolved to incorporate Death Energy, meaning Zeel would find it difficult to teleport long distances without an unusual concentration of Death Energy at the departed or final location…

[Semi-Dark Lightning], previously known as [Lightning Manipulation], now added a black tinge to Zeel's formerly transparent lightning, granting his lightning a hysteria effect and nothing more…

It was all the same in every way but appearance…

Zeel hopped from the branch of the tree, twirling twice in the air, and just as he was about to land on the ground, the air twisted and his body warped away…

Zeel had determined his orientation to be as accurate as he could get without the nanites, so he warped and appeared on another tree branch further up…

This branch was just next to Henry's window, and Zeel had landed almost perfectly if only a few inches further than he aimed for…

Nothing that could not be solved without a quick step to the right…

Of course, Zeel could have warped and appeared just inside the hospital room, but without knowing the extent of Henry's spatial abilities, Zeel wanted to be safe instead of sorry…

Zeel carefully tilted the glass window open, and entered the room…

The lack of security was somewhat appalling, but there wasn't much that could keep Zeel out of somewhere if he really wanted to be there…

Inside the room, Henry was still there, sleeping soundly, unhooked from all machines and drips, notifying Zeel that the girl was probably being kept overnight for observations…

By tomorrow, Henry would be discharged from the hospital…

Then, even though he was unwilling, Zeel turned his head to the bed adjacent to Henry's and found the rough breathing of a sleeping Nara…

But Zeel kept his silence and didn't bother waking the twelve-year-old for what was bound to be her final night…

It was best to go silently in a sleep…

Elizabeth went in a fiery blaze of Lorien's white flames…

Sometimes, a silent death was best…

"I know you're there…" Nara whispered, soft like the sound was not meant for human ears…

Anyone else would not have heard anything, but Zeel did, and still chose to remain silent out of respect…

"I know it's you, Mr. Croft…"

"And how can you know that?" Zeel replied, genuinely curious since such a young girl shouldn't have been able to detect him regardless of her state…

"The chill…" Nara whispered through rough breaths, struggling to speak "The chill in the air always comes back when you're around…"

Zeel shrugged and made his way to Nara's bedside "They say those truly sensitive can linger… apparently that's true even for humans…"

Nara hesitated for a couple of seconds before asking "Are you here for my soul?"

"And what would I be able to do with that?"

"Eat my soul if I've been a bad person?" She replied, and Zeel frowned, genuinely wondering who was teaching children all this bullshit…

"I am not here for your soul…" Zeel laughed, brushing his fingers through Nara's hair "But you had Chondrosarcoma – a very rare form of bone cancer… I would have been able to cure it with my nanites, but I don't have those anymore…"

"The doctors told me…" Nara whispered, smiling sadly "I knew I would end this way… I deserve it…"

"Why didn't you ask your family to stay the night?" Zeel questioned, tilting his head low enough for Nara to play with his braided hair…

It was a welcomed comfort for them both since Zeel knew what he had to do next was difficult…

"It hurts them to see me, so I guessed they wouldn't want to see me when everything came to an end…"

Zeel giggled a bit, brushing his hand through his head in semi-frustration "You're a good liar and I almost believed you… but what's your true reason?"

Nara pouted cutely "What does that mean?"

"I was drawn to you from the moment I saw you…" Zeel whispered, gently caressing Nara's illusory cheek "The things I am drawn to are never that great…"

"Perhaps you find me beautiful?" Nara questioned curiously "Am I as beautiful as you?"

"No… you're not as beautiful as me…" Zeel replied matter-of-factly before turning a bit more serious "But your soul is just as ugly as mine is… that's why we are drawn to each other…

"See there…" Zeel pointed behind Nara, where the shadow of a small boy stood in the darkness…

Zeel's eyes glistened with Divine Energy and the boy became a bit darker than the darkness that surrounded him…

"You were seven years old when your brother turned four, and your parents paid him more attention, so one day, you had the idea to push him down the stairs to win back your parents love… and it worked since they pampered you more as their only remaining child… that's where your story started…"

Nara's eyes opened wide and she seemed genuinely frightened…

This wasn't a secret she told anyone…

"Next to the small boy is a small girl…" Zeel pointed a bit to the left, sadness making its way into his voice "She was your best friend when you turned nine, but her parents bought her a pretty pink bike that you wanted… your parents could not afford one so you decided to take hers… So, you told the big men with tattoos that you guys were going to the deserted park to ride your bikes, but you never showed up, and your friend never came back…"

"I didn't know…" Nara whispered, shaking her head frantically "I didn't know what happened to her…"

Zeel shook his head "No… you knew…"

"I didn't do it out of spite…" Nara stated, ripping at her hair like it had done something wrong "I… I… I just couldn't feel the way normal people did, so I spent my life trying to understand it…"

"And that's why I didn't blame you…" Zeel sighed "I like you as a person, and that's fucked up… I would have helped you if I could…"

"So, you're going to save my life?" Nara asked hopefully, preferring to live since she sensed Zeel could somehow achieve that…

Zeel shook his head with a sad smile "You haven't been listening to what I say – I said 'would have liked' and that means I am speaking in the past tense…" Zeel brushed his hand through Nara's body to demonstrate what he meant "You're already dead…"

Nara's eyes opened wide, and she opened her mouth to speak "Help m—" but she couldn't finish the sentence before the shadowy figures of her younger brother and former best friend attacked her illusory form…

Zeel watched pensively as the pleading Nara was dragged away by the small shadowy figures of her sins…

And after they were all gone, dragged into the oblivion of eternal darkness, and Zeel watched as the shadows returned to normal…

Slowly, the lingering black mist in the air made its way towards Zeel, absorbed into his body, strengthening his Divinities further…

"I wish I could stop caring again but…" Zeel rose and walked to the seat at Henry's bedside, sitting down and caressing Henry's cheek "caring is a weakness I already possess…"