- True Self

"What the hell is taking him so long?" The gray-haired man was clenching his fists together supporting his head on the table.

Seconds later, a portal opened in front of him as a silhouette began to exit from it.

"About ti---" The man stopped his sentence midway and stood up on alert as he saw that the person who walked out from the portal was not Croa.

"D-Drago?" The man was shocked at what he was seeing. Ever since Drago returned to the kingdom, he was monitoring him and his condition. He also let Croa inquire about his recovery. Everything led to Drago being at his weakest.

However, as he looked at the dragon knight, an overwhelming pressure was washing over him.

What's worse was that the second person to come out of the portal was Edge!

"You! You are supposed to be dead!" The man exclaimed. The intelligence he and Croa gathered was betraying his situation right now.

"Where is Dhana?" Edge impatiently asked the man after not being able to see his daughter, releasing a very menacing aura.

"Haha... HAHAHAHA!" The gray-haired man surprisingly burst out in maniacal laughter. "This is a godsent gift! The operation was only supposed to rid this world of a self-righteous heretic. I never thought I would be given a second chance to kill you."

Zex wore a calm expression... Somewhat disappointed at what he was seeing with his [Evil Gaze]. However, he was sensing the rage and anxiety welling up in Edge.

"I'll look for Dhana, you can take him on, right?" He told Edge as he lost interest in their opponent. While he could not say the man was weak, he believed Edge had a card hidden in his sleeve.

"Yeah. Please." Edge said as he released his [Death Aura].

Hearing these words, Zex made his way to the dungeons and began his search.

"Fucker! Who told you that you could leave???" The man shouted as tendrils of death energy shot from his hands towards Zex who had turned his back on him.

*Shaaaaa*

Edge moved in to intercept the tendrils with his [Death Aura]. Upon contact, the tendrils assimilated with the [Death Aura] peacefully like they were coming home from work. Edge's expression turned even more ugly. To be able to use death energy, he would either be another agent or a necromancer... But with Croa's involvement in all of this, he had only one person in mind.

The gray-haired man frowned at the sight. "For a moment, I forgot how annoying that power of yours is."

"BARAZI!" There was no more denying it. However, he killed him with his own hands back then. He even had to go through years of imprisonment. Now, he shows himself, alive and well? Moreover, he kidnapped Dhana? At this point of thought, rage surged within him as he was reminded about the things he did to Amber. He had to force himself not to continue thinking about what this scum had done to his daughter, or else he would go crazy.

"GAHAHAHAHAHA! IN THE FLESH! The look on your face is priceless! Did I... Remind you of something 'pretty'?" Barazi mocked Edge.

Couldn't take it anymore, Edge no longer hesitated as he charged in and closed the distance between them in a split second, his [Death Aura] dagger inches away from the man's throat.

However, the impact did not feel like it was slicing through flesh.

It felt like his dagger met an impenetrable stone as his arm was grasped by Barazi, gripping it tightly, crushing bone.

"You seem to never learn. I'll let you in on a secret." He pulled Edge closer as he whispered through his ear. "You are not the only one who has gotten stronger from the last time we fought."

Edge suddenly released a burst of [Death Aura] mixed with something... else entirely, forcing Barazi to release him.

This time, he did manage to pierce through Barazi's skin.

However, he also had to consume a lot of energy.

Most people would panic in situations like this, Barazi was expecting to see despair befall the eyes of Edge.

On the contrary, Edge straightened his posture, closed his eyes, and steadied his breathing.

Barazi was curious as to the sudden change of temperament of his opponent.

What happened next was not within his expectations.

Edge's aura began to skyrocket as demonic energy was being released from his body, supercharging his cells and transforming him into a frightening hybrid between a human and a demon. The pressure was even forcing Barazi back, unable to move a single step forward.

His broken arm was repaired. His entire body was reinforced by thick black armor-like skin, ripping through most of his clothes. He grew fangs, horns, and claws, while his pupils turned into slits.

Right after his transformation was complete, [Death Aura] emanated from his body as it slowly turned into a cloak once more. A regal air covering his entire being.

If Zex was here, he would definitely be reminded of the Devil Triggers in the Devil May Cry series. [1]

...

After Zex left the two to have their duel, he spread his black flames throughout the dungeon. On the lowermost floor, he sensed three weak life signals from different cells among a huge number of thugs lying in wait for ambushes. He casually disabled the thugs he encountered and threw them into his pocket dimension while he was searching for the three captives he believed were Dhana and the two bodyguards.

He first saw Shea in a cell, naked, drugged, and had traces of being abused. She also lost all of her limbs, and bruises and blood were found all over her body.

One could only imagine what she had gone through. He could not say if it was fortunate that she was still alive or not. All he knew was that this experience would definitely result in a heavy trauma.

Zex cast the best healing spell in his arsenal on her, treating most of her injuries, closing all wounds, and relieving her of any further pain. Unfortunately, he could not use the spells of the holy element due to his alignment. Otherwise, he would have been able to restore her physical body completely.

Seeing that Shea was no longer in any danger of death, he opened a portal and sent her somewhere safe.

A couple of thugs and cells later, he found Sir Troy.

He was also naked, losing both his eyes, and broken fingers and toes from torture as his stump's wound was reopened.

Zex healed him as well and sent him to where Shea was. All this time, Zex was as calm as an unadulterated lake on the surface. However, an inner voice was reminding him how ugly humanity can be, and how the world continues to revolve as it allows such things to happen. These things did not only happen in this world, it happened on Earth as well. Unfortunately, he was one of the people who were exposed to the dark truth ever since he was a child. Whether he admits it or not, the plethora of stories he absorbed from games, literature, and films, paved his way into the discovery of those that the world tried so hard to hide under the rug.

As it was for everyone, he initially thought the ugly acts of humanity portrayed in those stories were not real. However, when he first encountered a dark secret and his innocence was shattered, he never looked at the world the same way.

Eventually, all of these led to the point where he began to actively research and study these dark secrets of history, human psychology, and the lies of morality and ethics, tainting his mind, his heart, and his soul, in the process.

'For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.'

This was a verse written by king Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes of the Holy Bible. This line was reinforced in his heart when he reached the end of the first Assassin's Creed game where Al Mualim stated a similar message and again in Assassin's Creed: Revelations where an excerpt of it was restated. [2]

In this world, these words resonated within him once again as he went through the [Blood Reincarnation] and seeing what these thugs did to Shea, Troy, and most likely, Dhana.

While these thoughts rushed into his mind, he did not notice the whites of his eyes turning black.

At the final area of the dungeon, where the life signal his black flames detected was located, several guards were waiting for him.

Behind them was the chamber where the blood pool from the war was originally held. There, he saw a woman, crucified and hung, bleeding out.

For some reason, his heartbeat was becoming louder and louder with each step he took towards the area. The noise overloaded his senses as even his dragon blood seemed to be cowering in fear. Black flames started leaking from his pores and his orifices as his eyes radiated them intensely.

At a certain distance and a certain decibel of his heartbeat, black flames began spewing out of the thugs' bodies pulsating along with it

He could not hear their wails but he could clearly see the extreme horror on their faces. In contrast, the look in his black fiery eyes was cold, filled with disgust and disdain.

They were flailing on the ground as their bodies were burning from the black flames...

No. What was burning wasn't their bodies.

It was their souls!

[1] Devil May Cry is a series primarily about a man named Dante, who was born from a demon father and a human mother. After having an encounter with someone, he awakened the Devil Trigger, a form where his features resemble that of a demon. This form enhances all of Dante's parameters but he could not maintain it for too long.

[2] Al Mualim is the mentor or the one with the highest position in the Assassin order in the game, Assassin's creed. He was the master of the main character, Altair.