Chapter 38 - Status Progressing Revival (III)

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-SR_2027.

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--[Esdeath Mansion]--

A small carriage passed by the gates of the Mansion as it finally reached the entrance. As soon as the carriage reached the gates, three people flashed in front of the carriage and kneeled in front of it.

"Welcome back general Esdeath. Sir Syura is waiting in the guest room. We stayed within the Empire in case Night Raid or Shadow Garden tried to attack the capital. We will soon begin our mission to hunt the previous prime minister as soon as you order." 

As they continued kneeling, Esdeath slowly walked out of the compartment, her body was bloody. The blood covered her hair, bandages, and clothes, but even with all that blood over her body, her eyes remained sharp.

"Good work, Daidara, General Liver and Nyau. I will handle it from here on.", With a nonchalant voice, she waved her hands as the other people within the carriage walked out of it, as she began to walk toward the room Syura was in.

"...", Looking at Seryuu walking out of it, along with an unconscious Kurome, they narrowed their eyes. Each of them collectively had one single thought. 'The was might be unsuccessful. All of the Jaegers have died...'

Thinking so, their face hardened, realizing what could have happened if they had gone with Esdeath for the war. Although Liver had no problem dying an honorable death for the Empire, the other two people were not so happy with such a thought.

"...", Ignoring the three people who had now stood up from the ground, Seryuu, looked lost as she followed Esdeath.

*Thuk* *Thuk* *Thuk* *Thuk*

The sound of their boot clicking against the floor echoed within the empty mansion as Esdeath finally reached the door to the guest room.

"Hmm...?", Syura hearing the door open, looked over his shoulder toward the door in a nonchalant smile, but as soon as he saw Esdeath covered head to toe in blood, his smile faded away as he slowly stood up.

"General Esdeath...! To Think you would-Khuk!?", Before Syura could speak further, he felt his vision spin, as he saw a body without a head. 'What just happened...?", Before he could even understand what happened, his eyes began to cloud up as his consciousness vanished.

"Heh.", Esdeath scoffed as she looked over the now twitching body lying on the floor and lowered down and snatched away the hand-sized pendant with a special purple sign on one side of it from the body. "[Shambhala] will be a fine weapon against my enemies..."

Esdeath held the pendent tightly within her palm as her mind started to head an illusory whalings of unknown. It was faint, yet distinctive. 'It' was trying to consume her mind.

"Hmup!", Esdeath closed her eyes as she grunted for an instant as her mind focused again. This time with a bit of a strain. "It seems like my body needs more time to recover before I could use two Teigus at the same time..."

As her body got used to the power of two Teigus being used together, her gaze silently looked out from the window, looking directly inside the carriage that brought her here, looking directly at the young man tied in it through the opening of the cloth covering the rear end.

"...", Esdeath's eyes lost their glimmer for a second as she gained it back instantly. An emotionless face replaced her previous smile. The feeling of 'love' that she previously wanted to experience seems to have faded.

It seemed to be within her reach but, it felt like the excitement, the heart-throbbing feeling had disappeared from the experience.

Esdeath's hand clenched the Teigu pendant in her hand as her eyes became sharper, 'Maybe... Just maybe...'

'What if I am able to master this... and use this Teigu to explore another timeline? Since I am able to go back in the past, maybe I might be able to go back against, and capture 'Shadow'... Maybe then I can experience the 'love' again..'

As soon as she thought that, a small electric feeling flashed throughout her body, making her heart skip a bit as she unconsciously licked her lips. "Shadow... That might not be his real name... but it doesn't matter. For you will be mine.", She whispered so softly that only she could hear it.

Her eyes fluctuated with extreme emotions.

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--[Unknown Location in Northern Part of the Empire]--

A bald, elderly man with a large mustache and small beard looked at the map laid out on the wooden table. His eyes narrowed down as he looked at the marks on it, showing the moments of each force that his 'spy' knew of.

"This makes no sense. How can an organization come out of nowhere, and have a massive army, comparable to the Revolutionary Army?", His face showed signs of stress. One could even see dark under-eyes, but he stayed strong because he had a duty, a duty as a former prime minister of the Empire.

The old man was none other than Chouri, the former prime minister, who was removed from his position by the political moves of Honest.

"What should we do, Sir?", A middle-aged soldier wearing a thick undercoat asked back. The soldier sat across the table, on a wooden chair. What was distinguishable was the person had unnatural blue eyes.

Even with the thick weather, each of their breaths left behind smoke formed by their exhales, due to the extreme coldness within the cottage they were in, even with the fireplace ignited.

*Sigh*

Chouri sighed, his eyes wandering at the smoke he exhaled. For him, he was thankful for the coldness, that had helped him stay awake. His eyes then wandered off from the map as he looked back, toward his daughter who was leaning against the wooden cupboard while sitting on the chair, who looked back at him with a soft smile, giving him more energy.

His daughter was a young girl with long, blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a winter coat and a large hat, just like him.

'I wonder when I will find a suitable partner for her... No! I have to focus on my work first!', Shaking his head and removing the drifting thoughts and sleepiness, he looked back at the map.

Feeling a need to get a rest, he swallowed his spit and after racking his brain, he could only work up to a single solution, "We... We need to gather the people. This is not something we can participate in without...-!"

His words were cut short as his eyes widened and he took a step back from the table. His eyes sharply looked at the middle-aged man who slumped down, as his body lost control. This disturbance, caused Spear, Chouri's to stand up and rush in front. "Father! Get behind me."

Her voice sounded firm as she held her spear in front of her and looked around warily, ready to protect her father at any cost. 

Chouri's eyes also looked around and as he looked around and couldn't find anything, he looked at the middle-aged man in the room who seemed to have fainted, and whispered, "What... is going on?"

His voice echoed within the room, but the only reply he got was the whaling of snowy wind hitting the glass.

Then slowly they noticed. The surroundings were eerily quiet, with no sound of men talking, no vibration within the floor, and even the wailing sound of wind slowly quietened down. It felt as if they were separated from the reality itself.

Just when their mind were catching up with the information, the door to the cottage opened, and a figure slowly but confidently walked in, each step it took sent chills down their spine. Goosebumps started to pop up over their body as they watched the figure look at them as a smirk formed on its face.

A soft voice resounded within the room. 

"Bingo."

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*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*

The child, who had his fill, started to digest the body of Wave.

Waves of information started to pour into his brain. Slowly, he murmured, "Shadow...?", His voice carried confusion but he ignored it as his mind began to 'feel' something more important.

As he murmured, his body slowly started to change. His white hair slowly fell off, and dark green hair started to grow back, replacing the old ones, followed by his eye color, which changed from purple to dark green.

As his body, which had almost no nutrition got the energy, his mind was instinctively able to spread out some sort of 'wave' if he could call it. As they spread out, a sort of very rough 'map' began to form in his mind.

This 'map' slowly expanded.

A few meters, a few kilometers, a hundred kilometers; it just continued to expand in all directions. But as the map expanded, a few bright lights slowly began to glow in it. 

It was [Life].

All the living beings glowed with varied insanity, small creatures glowed like a small LED, while big creatures like wolves, or likes glowed like a huge bulb.

As the 'map' slowly expanded, a light source, with a blue color suddenly popped into it, making the child, who had now adored the name of Shadow, stop in his tracks. His instincts told him that he could 'control' the blue light.

Which he did. He called out to it, and 'it' returned his calling. The blue light rushed toward Shadow until it reached Shadow. 

 Within a short time of a few minutes, the blue bulb showed its silhouette. It was a small raptor-like beast with black armor coating its body. Between each gap within its armor, it had a blue pulsing glow, that moved in a wave motion over its body.

It was the size of an adult human.

As it reached Shadow, it let out a cute sound as it tilted its head and slowly walked up to Shadow, and lowered its head to the outstretched hand of Shadow.

"Danger Beasts?", A confused voice came out of Shadow's mouth. His eyes wandered off to the body of the beast in front of him as his instincts told him that 'it' was his companion and would not harm him in any way.

This confusion didn't last longer than a small instant as he slowly walked to the side of the beast, hopped over its back, and softly murmured, "Do you have any friends? Take me to them."

As if understanding him, the raptor let out a yelping sound and quickly rushed toward an unknown direction. As its legs flashed through the snow, Shadow slightly caressed its back neck and went deep into his thoughts.

'Maybe I can use this identity... Shadow... Maybe using this identity, I might be able to figure out who I am, what I am, and what my purpose is...', Shadow thought as he planned for what to come.

He didn't have enough information that he could use to his advantage.

Just as he thought so, his mind 'map' suddenly picked up multiple signatures of 'blue' lights. The numbers skyrocketed as the closer he got to the brightest light, that was in the centre...

Shadow's eyes suddenly went a bit wider as he looked at the sky his whole body was covered under a huge shadow that was cast by an otherworldly beast that was hundreds, if not thousands of meters long.

A feeling similar to his own flashed in his mind. It was oppressive and made his heart beat louder and louder as the creature flew closer.

Feeling fear, his instincts quickly flashed over as his panicked face quickly turned into a sharp expressionless expression. His expression became unreadable as his mind turned calm and his thoughts returned to emptiness.

With each flap of its wing, the huge dragon-like creature caused the snow to move away from its landing position. But even as the snow flew wildly in his direction, Shadow's eyes remained sharp. 

'I see... Maybe Shadow Garden had many more secrets than I thought. I am the same as them... This feeling cannot lie, 'Wave' had seen the black armored walls with blue pulsing through the edges of the wall. The base was a Danger Beast itself.'

With such thoughts, his gaze froze as the beast opened its mouth and suddenly rushed toward him and swallowed him.

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There once was a man who knew not of any emotions. He mimicked everything that he saw through his eyes, trying to blend in with society. 

His mind was confused as to why he did it, but he thought it was maybe for survival as he copied everything he saw; body language, expressions, emotions, and so much more. He sometimes understood a person more than the person himself might not know.

As time passed by, he gathered all these emotions as he was finally able to comprehend and express emotions, like a human itself. But just as he understood the humanity, he saw a...

[Dream]

That changed his perception of life. For the first time in his life, the person finally felt a feeling he thought he could never feel.

[Empathy].

His understanding of humanity had exceeded anyone who was ever-present. But... Because he understood humanity the most...

The less human he became.

-Because he had the highest humanity, he became the least 'human'.

It's just a part of life. He understood a truth that was ever present but no one seemed to want to face it...

-The more you know the truth about something, the more you become detached from it...

Like a lost soul who knows what's happening, but has no power to change it. People followed fate, going through various emotions, pain, sadness, grief, happiness, joy, and peace; ignoring everything that actually mattered.

-Even when you try to change it, it just delays the changes.

'As if it's temporary... At that moment, you will realize... There was no hope... And it just... doesn't matter.', The man thought so. This though made him crazy. He laughed so hard that day, understanding that because he had become 'sane-er', he had become someone who should have never existed.

-Like a dream that doesn't stay within the memories when one wakes up. Like an alien, who belongs to nowhere...

At that moment that person decided to become a saint. After understanding the truth about life, he decided to free people from suffering. Bring them true freedom, freeing them from worldly desires. Free from all the fate that was destined for them.

-Free from all pain.

He understood something about life that no one wanted to face, as people ignored it and headed toward it, even after knowing that it would make them free. Suffering during all that time.

-He decided to...

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[2500]

Don't forget to give me a comment, reply, or power stone! They give me motivation!

Thank you!

-SR_2027.

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