Rage and Hello!

Max brought all the villagers together to give a speech. After a bit of joking to lighten-up the mood and bring everyone closer emotionally, he finally began the motivational part of his speech.

"You know, I was an orphan. No parents, no family, no relatives. No friends or otherwise. Nobody. Just me, alone, trying to survive, not very successfully, considering I had been kidnapped and from my home and brought to a completely unknown place. But alive."

"But an old man took me in. Giving me odd jobs to do in his shop, in exchange for a place to live and food, he essentially adopted me. Though I did not know him for too long, I knew he was a kind man. One with a strange past, that was long behind him."

"Unfortunately, that past soon caught up with him, resulting in his untimely demise… no, not on accident; he was murdered. But that is beside the point."

Max took a dramatic pause for added effect, before continuing, "Old man Uxas once told me about a poem his brother in arms had told him long ago. And I think it is only apt that I take this chance to tell you the same poem on this occasion where we are all in grief."

"I know it has only been a few days since the incident, but this poem is one of the few things that kept me going after the old man passed on. This and my faith in the Primordial Unity."

==========

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

==========

As Max had been orating the poem with as much emotion as he could, he did not notice that one by one, those who had lost someone to the monster stood up with solemn looks on their face.

Many of them had already chosen to follow Unity to be their spiritual support and were invigorated by this poem. Their sorrow had turned into anger. Anger against the monster. Anger against the world. And anger against their own powerlessness.

As Max continued, more and more people stood up. Not all of them had lost someone in the attack, but they too felt the raw emotions Max was portraying. They could feel something burning within their hearts as they each stood up.

As soon as Max finished, he drew the Unity symbol on his chest, above his heart, and everyone present followed him instinctively.

It was once said by a wise man, 'Everyone wants to be unique, yet nobody truly wants to stand out from the others. If enough people do something, as long as it does not go against the bottom lines of those involved, almost everyone else will follow as well.'

And just like that, Max had converted basically the entire town into his believers. It was now time to return to Earth. Perhaps even give little Klein a little scare along the way.

…

A few days later, in a corner of the Raphael Cemetery…

After finishing Dunn's funeral, the crowd gathered before a new tombstone. On it was Klein's photograph, in black and white. All his family and friends, at least what was left of them, all quietly stood around it as the priest gave the eulogy and prayers.

After giving their own thoughts on Klein, everyone left one by one.

Night time, at the Raphael Cemetery…

The copper-skinned Azik stood in front of Klein's grave holding a bouquet of white flowers. He didn't speak for the longest time until he finally sighed and muttered to himself, "I'm sorry, I was ten minutes late. But I think I know who it was..." He bent over and set the bouquet of flowers down before turning to leave the cemetery.

He also left Tingen, but he didn't retrieve the copper whistle. On the way out of Tingen, he brushed past a young man with silver hair, and rather evident red eyes under the blood-red moon.

Still, in but an instant, the memory of the person he just met vanished from his already unstable mind.

…

Max hid behind a corner with his heart beating incredibly fast. That was an extremely dangerous situation he had not expected to come across. Instinctively he had activated his [Fooled] Azik Eggar's Beyonder abilities, which somehow affected his memories and made him forget about Max.

In reality, this should not have been possible, however, Mr. Azik Eggars did not even know of his own true Sequence, and as a result, his spirituality did not subconsciously use the power and abilities belonging to a Sequence 2 Beyonder, and allowed Max's ability that was limited to Sequence 8 to work.

And in that very instant that Max [Fooled] such a small part of the Death Consul's Beyonder ability to resist all kinds of attacks, and make that ability resist the memories of Max. Everything had happened in but half a second, and then Max had run with all his might.

However, in the process, he also gained something incredible. He had gained an incredible amount of digestion. Just [Fooling] a Sequence 2 Beyonder once had made him digest the potion by 30% in an instant!

After taking a while to calm himself down, Max made his way to the Raphael Cemetery.

…

The place was quiet and serene under the illumination of the crimson moonlight.

Suddenly, the stone slab sealing the grave was flipped open. A pale hand extended out from the soil. A hand came out!

*Whoosh*

The gravestone was shoved aside. The lid of the coffin was pushed open.

Klein sat upright and looked around, lost. His memory was still frozen at the scene with the brand new leather boots, and the palm that grabbed onto the urn of Saint Selena's ashes.

Everything after that felt like a dreamless sleep. Klein instinctively lowered his head and unbuttoned his shirt. He looked at the left side of his chest, only to see that his ravaged injury and missing heart were squirming as they healed, similar to how he recovered from the bullet wound through his temple back when he looked into the mirror.

The only difference was that this time, the recovery was much slower and much more difficult.

"Hello there!" Max's jovial voice suddenly brought Klein out of his musings in great shock.