Chapter 45: A Saga of Heroes [2]

The hateful vision still wasn't over.

The world around me continued to collapse as the ground continued to quake from the shockwaves. Different from the last vision I just had, this one was more similar to the first time i had Meta show me a 'glimpse' of the future.

That meant...

'I'm back in the future again...' I rose to my one barely good feet and used the support of the walls around me to shuffle forward.

Surrounding me was a scene ripped right out of the page of an apocalyptic novel. There was not a single living soul but myself in sight. Even the sky was collapsing, as chunk sof asteroids were raining from above.

I could feel the vast tremors of battle with my perception, but it was at a scale I couldn't fathom. So instead of heading towards it, I went further and further away from the battle.

Then a scene presented itself before me.

It was a mountain of corpses. A grotesque edifice reaching as high as the skies like a spire of the dead. The corpses were those of humans, who's last moments had left their final expressions in ghastly horrors.

My emotions were numb from over sensitivity and stimuli, I glanced at the mound of the dead without a single ripple in my heart and raised my gaze to the top.

There was a throne of black bones. One with a tall and expansive back crowned with the black obsidian skulls. It was large, as if made for a giant, and exuded such an immense pressure that made my one good knee feel weak.

It reminded me of the throne from the Laplace dungeon...

But it was empty.

-Cracka!

A powerful bolt of thunder rumbled, and a splendid fissure ran through the red sky, tearing it open, and elongating into a myriad of cracks.

I raised my head in reaction to the sudden sound, and just as I did, I saw from the corner of my eyes, a distant spec of bright light moving splendidly through the sky at a terrifying speed.

Isn't that...?

I recognized the light.

As it entered the air space above my head, it became bolder, more brighter, more clearer. Embraced in the shimmering light like a blinding shroud, there was the vague figure of a person inside of it.

It was the person from my very first vision years ago with Meta. The person in the light!

-BOOM!

As Thier figure streaked, the world of Aethoria rumbled and shook. The figure of light powerfully crashed into the ground, only mere distance away from where I was. I instantly felt the shockwave rock through my body as more of my organs ruptured, and I was thrown backwards.

It hurt but I didn't cry out.

I was growing used to the pain.

I coughed out a thick puddle of blood, and just as quietly, I raised my body up to stare ahead of me.

But.

I couldn't.

'I can't raise my head.' I realised in horror.

In the moment I had been flung away, a second and different figure had vaguely appeared above. I couldn't see them, no..I didn't see them.

But I felt it. Deep within the marrows of my bone, I felt the despicable presence that made my very core shook.

I was resolved to see the vision through, but the presence made me freeze on the very spot. Sweat began beading in droves down my face and down my back, mixing in with the blood on my body.

I didn't dare raise my head to stare upward. Knowing my place, I remained my gaze forward, feverishly, hauntingly.

My heart raced and pounded painfully in my chest like never before. I felt my finger tremble, and my arms quaked underneath me.

'He's here!' Internally I screamed.

'The owner of the throne is here!'

The one who would sit in the throne of black bones was here, instinctively I knew it, and I hadn't even seen them yet!

Ahead of me, the rubbles shook and a figure stepped into my vision. Like a contrasting wave, this person spread a warm and resplendent radiance that challenged the dark twisted and oppressive feeling and aura that permeated the surrounding from above.

It was the figure in light.

But as they approached in my vision, the trembling in my body substantially ceased, but my heart raced for a completely different reason.

They were stunning.

The person matched forward, burning in resplendent pale white and ghostly flames. The flames looked so fickle and ethereal, like it was impossible.

And the closer they came for me to see, it was like the flame was what made a human figure, and not a human figure shrouded in flames instead.

The person was the radiance itself, with two wide and expansive burning wings spreading apart behind them. In this dark and broken world, they were like an ever burning star, who's light would never cease for eternity.

The figure made of pale white burning flames was tall, in one of their hands was a exquisite blade that looked as illusionary and blinding as the flames.

I couldn't see their features. In the end the radiance was too blinding for my Mortal eyes to gaze directly at. It was almost like gazing straight at the sun, the beauty of their radiance was burned and etched deeply into my mind and eyes.

Their presence dissipated the darkness...

But it wasn't enough to make me forget about 'the one' above.

I still couldn't move to look up. I knew my place and lowered my head to the ground.

I was but a pebble.

"Why do you fight, Brave Hero?"

I heard a deep and heavy voice, one that rocked my organs and core, from above sweep through the surrounding.

It was speaking. The one above was speaking!

It made my head buzz and dizzy, but my ears still perked .

Did he...say Hero?

"You should give up. it is already over, you have lost this war. This planet, it's inhabitants, all of it, it's all dead! Do you not get it?! Do you not see? I won!" A powerful wave of pressure billowed from above and ruptured the ground.

The voice of the one above was filled with twisted anger, impatience and power. His voice alone brought down the sky and shook the world of Aethoria. But his words made my very heart race.

'What is he talking about? Dead? The whole world is dead?'

That couldn't be..the entire notion was inconceivable on its own. I didn't want to believe it, I couldn't believe it.

Was this the Calamity?

Suddenly I felt the temperature rise substantially. A qualitative change happened in the atmosphere as a blinding halo of brilliant light surge and spread through the surrounding.

The one in the flames..the Hero was furious.

A spiralling tower of illusionary fire tore through the sky as an expansion of heat spread throughout the battlefield. I felt my skin sizzle and my hair burn. instinctively I shut my eyes, but still felt them slowly sting and burn from inside.

The Hero was clearly taunted by the words of the one above; they surged their bloodlust and hate unraveling through the surrounding. This further went to solidify in my heart that maybe the world truly was dead...

Then the Hero bellowed in wrathful voice that was like an exploding sun.

"#!@&!! As long as my flames still burn, I will kill you!!" Each word were spat out deeply, and resonated heavily with the world. For some reason I couldn't comprehend the first word of the statement, but that matter easily went over my head as the next second the one above chuckled.

His laughter was deep, dark and ominous. I felt the air vibrate as it went on. Confused, the Hero suddenly went quiet.

The one above continued.

"As long as your radiance burns? There's only darkness to be found here!" The one above equally erupted with their aura and power.

As the two powers clashed, I felt my existence slowly shave off.

It got me asking myself, what I was doing here at such a place.

At that moment, I raised my head and saw the battle that was to take place.

Blinding weapons of light weaved into existence around the Hero, hovering in the skies above, like distant stars. Just like before, their sizes were humongous.

All the various weapons were barred and pointed upward to the sky. I still didn't have it in me to look, but they're was only ever one possible target.

The one above made their intention to finish this clear. A bundle wave of bloodlust and twisted energy surged forth into the damaged world. I felt the air trembling, and the ground tear open just from the pressure of the impeding clash.

Shit! I have to get out of here!

I had to get out, if I remained in the are of impact between these two monsters, I really might die for real!

But my body wouldn't move. The pressure between the two was oppressive enough to suppress all of my wills. Indeed, I truly was just a pebble.

As the pressure only continued to mount, the seconds drew forward quickly and I felt a transient weight slowly crush my being.

But before the first blows could be traded, something suddenly happened.

-Cracka!

I heard the familiar sound of cracking lightning and somehow managed to raise my head. Then I remembered...

The fissure in the sky from before. It had grown and expanded.

The atmosphere froze.

Immediately, the bloodlust and tension ceased. I noticed the hero had turned their attention to the irregularity in the sky, and the one above had probably done so too.

Then I heard one of their voices utter deeply.

"He's here."

'What? Who is?"

As I thought that, I heard the sound of shattering glass from above. Once again I raised my head up towards the sky and stared.

It was far far away, but a portion of the fractured sky shattered open like glass. The glass like peices fluttered and fell, but vanished part way. Behind the massive and spreading fissure, was a boundless black and dark world, with distant spinning stars and twisting galaxies..

From the new fissure that appeared over it, a figure draped in the black of the universe, as if dressed by the deepest cosmos descended calmly through it.

A third figure.. another powerhouse!

They stood aloofly in the sky above the Hero and the other one, staring down indifferently. or at least I assumed he stared.

I couldn't clearly see their feature, as they were shrouded by undulating and shifting darkness. And even when I struggle to focus on their face, something black and iffy masked it.

But that was far as it went. His face was obscured, but his swept back white hair fluttered around lightly.

Compared to the Hero and the one above, the third figure didn't exchange any word.

He simply raised his hand...and then the sky fell.