Red Leaf Winery, the tallest and the grandest building in Maple Leaf City.
In one of the VIP chamber, reserved for people with status and abundant wealth. A young man possessing an otherworldly features sat on the window frame, with a young girl with an exquisite beauty stood near him. In his hand, a cup of red wine reside, emitting aroma that could sooth ones mind, it was really living it name to be called the best beverage in Red Leaf Winery.
"So you think that I unleash the beast horde?" a sip of his delicious wine later, the young man asked. Gazing at the young girl by his side, many chaotic thought flashed in his mind. But unaware to the prideful girl, she nodded her head.
"Of all people living in Maple Leaf City and it vicinity, you're the most suspicious. Possessing only strength at the peak of Body Builder, yet aura far surpassed what you ought to have, it was unfathomable. To say the least of your strength, the treasure you possessed defy all that I know, and even if I do know, with mere strength at the peak of Body Builder, just how can your primal qi sustain the uses of your treasure when the latter could consume the seawater in a blink of an eyes? A Body Builder's primal qi reserve was only amount to a grain of salt, and this was normal you know that right?
"If only for these two reason, I have all the right to suspect you," the girl said, eyes narrowed into a slit, if only for a second.
"Truth be told, the city fate didn't matter much to me," Zed nodded in understanding, but didn't say a thing as she will continue soon- she did, "In this world where strength was everything, occasion where people lost their life to the strongest was absolutely normal. It was the norm, if I were to be blunt.
"Without the strength to resist, they only have their own to blame. Heaven granted them a way to strive harder, to be stronger and to survive in this world where rules of the jungle was implied to all denizen of Tiny World. To be weak, that was their choice, and to become strong, that was their fate. To defy the strong, that was their spirit, and to resist the strong, that was their sin.
"So for the fate of such little city, it didn't matter much to me. But if only to repay my savior, to save the place they called home, I have to at least do something." the girl said, eyes glimmered in determination, and aura burst to break free from Zed's grasps. But barely did her aura turn rampage, Zed snapped his finger and turn his head around.
The spiritual strength locking on the young girl disperse with Zed single snap, alerted, she cooled herself down but eyed the young man before her eyes in suspicious. Many thought, possibilities that run wild in her imagination forcing her guard up against the mysterious young man, however, as if didn't notice them, Zed left off a light sigh in the air.
The sigh was simple, casual to say the least. But for reason or another, it flooded the young girl with many emotion, unexplainable and uncomprehended by her proud-self.
"You're too naive, Hel... or more like, you're just like how you describe yourself to be," he mumbled under his breath, as memories flooded in his mind once more.
For a while now, he had his suspicious about her identity. About the reason why she resembled the lady in red, and never to his surprise, he found out that they were the same person.
Hel Risingsun, the Pride Monarch of the underworld. That was her former status, the current and the last. Granted, Zed spent a dozens or so years in his life travelling and journeying with the lady in red, a friendly bond between them formed conveniently.
While he never been able to know her entirely, better than most of her 'friend', he know a lot of her secret, things that only a close friend as well as her partner would know. So, after his prolonged time spent with the young girl, aside from the old memories resurfaced into his mind, the old stories told by the lady in red about her regret and sorrow, similarly resurface.
Thing about how she lost one of her precious eyes; how she was betrayed by her closest adjutant; how she was overthrow off her throne: the Pride Throne; and how she become who she was, echoed in his mind. And along with it, his expression sank.
Not the first time to sense his own crisis, never once to forget his current uncertainty. Even when he make love with his women, Zed's thought was constantly occupied by myriad of probability, possibility, worries and whatnot.
When he first return to Tiny World, the first thought that flashed in his mind was of course, "the calling". An ordeal or a task that someone or something that stood far beyond his current understanding gave to him. A task that he had to succeed, to understand and to finished them. And as he met his precious Yui, "the calling" seem to be the only choice, but as he learned the truth with his Mystic Omniscient Eyes, he set them aside and find a different reason.
Second after he had such thought, the probability of him returning to correct his past-self's mistake resounded in his mind. Granted, Zed possessed his nemesis wisdom, someone who had lived for eons and had constantly reincarnated into a toddler to further perfecting his craft, thing like these become a norm to him. Well, to his knowledge at the very least.
And as if trying to prove his guess about correcting his past-self's mistake, to 'congratulate' his achievement in helping and reconcile Daisy back to his side, the blood-curdling pain appeared out of nowhere like gift that he must accept. When the pain disappear, Zed found something dormant within his body awaken, ringing in his mind and speaking things like a broken record thrice. Of course, they were a surprise to Zed.
Never in his entire life, he ever seen such mind-boggling event, after all.
To his defense, being the one who temper with many techniques as well as integrating them to his own body, he never seen or know 'that' dormant thing inside his body. As if they just appeared out of nowhere, it suddenly popped out and say 'heiya my lord, long time no see,' and believe it or not, that was the thing that written on the translucent panel before his eyes.
With such suspicious catchphrase, how can Zed not ignored them? Even if he didn't loose control of his own desire, wheres Daisy and Yui too didn't fall into their own womanly instinct, he would still do just that even if it was only to ignore the damn thing that suddenly appear in his body.
[Hey, that cold my lord... you're the one that created me to begin with!] again, the robotic sound appeared in his mind, and a little text bar appeared, obstructing his view. To which, the sound or text, was completely ignored by Zed.
"How troublesome," he sighed, leaving the second reason on hold, because it seem even more tricky that he thought. And speaking of tricky, the third reason was nothing sort of tricky, but instead, mind blowing.
Time was constant. Moving forward in a straight line and will never wonder behind. It was like a river stream, always flowing toward the ocean and never return, to climb the mountain.
This was a fact, and also a widely known fact about time.
And naturally, Zed know about it himself. In fact, knowing that he had been asleep for so long, upon his return, the first question that he wanted to be answered was how long had passed, what had happen and what big event was triggered while he was sound asleep.
While indeed he hadn't learn a single thing as of yet, he was sure that he was in his future timeline, the one after his eternal slumber. The one where he was Zed, and that he was the reincarnation of Daisy's prince, who's death in the underworld still remain a mystery to all. So, with all this connected points, he should be 100% sure that he was in the future right? Right?
"The future," Zed shook his head and mumbled silently. Truth be told, if he didn't meet Hel, he would definitely think that he was in the future. Weird it might be, but reincarnation wasn't really something odd in this world. To found a few person with the same appearance, personality and whatnot was fairly easy, but of all features that they had and carried resemblance with, their past memories was erased completely.
To reincarnate into this world, the bridge of samsara had to be cross. And to do so, ones had to drink the Forgotten Soup and forgot everything that they did before their death. Presumably reborn anew as someone else, with different fate and different tales.
Both things that Zed didn't found in the young girl's life story.
As if reliving the lady in red's past grief, sorrow and hell, the young Hel before him do just that. Still as naive as she claim to be, the fool that could easily be tricked as long as her pride was in question. The ignorant brat that couldn't control her own pride, easily trusting herself and think that the world was her own plaything. And worst, thinking that everything was working according to her own plan which was obviously not to her plan!
Just from all these thought, Zed didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Or maybe, he should be smiling gleefully now... After all, back then he...
"Hey, are you alright?" her prideful tone erupted beside his ears, forcing Zed out of his thought. Her beautiful face appeared closely to his face, looking at him with her usual proud glare, but if Zed were to point thing that had gone missing from them, it had to be the cold light that stirred his soul when they first met.
Or to be more precise, now knowing that the young girl before him was indeed his old friend, Hel. The current her was lacking in many department as long as Zed knowledge of the lady in red stood.
Maybe it was because she hadn't gone through all the sorrow, grief and regret that the lady in red did, which is why her current character was nothing but pure pride. Innocent to a certain extend. Or maybe this was the true Hel that their fate wished him to see, for him to correct her and reform her to the lady in red that he know far too well. For him to set her free from all the regret that she open up with him, and for her to fulfilled, a promise that they 'absentmindedly' made.
Thinking up to this point, before the young girl could react, Zed had leaned forward and sealed their lips together. It was sudden, but the comfort brought upon by the kiss make her dazed in shock. As if losing all her ability to defend herself, even by far forgetting the fact that she could easily kill Zed with her hand, the girl let Zed dominated her with his tongue, things that she surprisingly enjoy.
For a while, their tongue entangled with one another, their hands on each other waist and their body against their partner. And as it did, memories of the heavenly debauchery that she witnessed upon being a peeping tom emerge in her mind, turning them chaotic whiles her body heated seductively.
But before thing turn even more sweeter and passionate, Zed broke the kiss and leave a trail of silver thread between their lips, forcing blush if not an embarrassed look off her beautiful face.
"Bas..tard..." the girl said in between her breath, her chest pumped up and down as she seek for air. But to her surprise, she didn't think his action was worthy of her anger, she couldn't for some reason, but her pride didn't allowed her say them out.
Not that it matter, because at this moment, the Bloody Ape in the distant roared in commanding tone. Forcing all to march their way into the city, to seek for thing, only Zed know it detail.
"That was your punishment for accusing me on thing that doesn't have anything to do with me," Zed calm voice resounded in her ears and it forced a frown upon herself, but giving her no chance to refute, he pointed his finger toward the Bloody Ape, who were eyeing at them with greed no longer hidden from anyone.
"The magical beast was after you, Hel."