Chapter Thirty-Two
REAWAKENED CORRUPTION
"What the hell, tch . . ."
Somewhere far, far away from the capital, a man awoke. He had been sleeping upon a mountain of gold, treasures, relics, and so on up until this point, in a location far above the clouds.
He had black hair, grey eyes, a vest, and some good looking black pants. At first glance, one might not notice he was any different from his other side, but once someone took a good look at the eyes, it would spell out everything.
This was, indeed, Dionysus, just another half of him.
"Finally awake?"
Sitting across from him, on another pile of treasures, was a man on top of a throne of chains. Dionysus had only just met this man very recently in his mind, and he did also remember just how terrified he was of him.
He had a glass of fine, fine red wine in his one and only hand, and with his only eye, was looking straight at the bloodied liquid within the cup that he held.
"Can you take a guess as to how long you were out?"
Dionysus quickly woke himself up and began to stretch, as if it was the normal thing to do after waking up on a mountain of gold.
"What's it matter how long I fell asleep? Screw off, jackass."
Acting just like the moody man that he always was, he promptly ignored the Chained King that sat across from him and began to descend his mountain of treasures.
"Six months."
". . . what?"
At these words, Dionysus came to a quick halt. He didn't turn around to look at the Chained King, but he most definitely acknowledged the words that he uttered.
"You've been out for six months, that's all. Also, where does a little man like you intend to go? Look at where we are, I can assure you that you don't have the faintest clue as to where you should go."
Although the words annoyed him, Dionysus was forced to acknowledge that he, absolutely, had no idea where he was.
"Tell me how to get the hell out of here and then scram."
For some reason, Dionysus felt none of the fear that he felt before when he was confronted by this man. It was almost as if that time had never come and gone, as if it was just a faint dream.
Unfortunately, it wasn't just a faint dream, and it was a memory that Dionysus would forever be forced to remember.
"I have no intention of telling you where to go, how to go, and why you should go. A king is loyal to his people, just as his people are loyal to him. If you're not one of mine, then scram. I've got no interest in something that doesn't belong to me."
Dionysus really did feel like he was just a fly to this man, considering that the king really was still eyeing the cup instead of him.
"Whatever, I'm out."
PSSSSS
Before Dionysus could continue to climb down the mountain of gold that he was on, he saw that there was a shadow that didn't belong to him.
No, it was as if it didn't belong to anybody.
". . . You."
There were many things that Dionysus needed to remember after the coma that he had been in, but the shadow in front of him wasn't one of them. In fact, it was one of his most recent memories, still as fresh as when he first gained it.
"That's right, you and a copy of me jumped me, didn't you?"
". . ."
Yet again, no response came out of the thing that Dionysus wanted to damn so badly.
"I'll let you off the hook, I'm not interested in you anymore. Get out of my way."
". . . Kayyyyy."
WHOO
Some wind blew by, and as if it was made up of dust and ashes, it got swept along by it. Dionysus was somewhat shocked, but since it got out of the way, he had nothing to complain about. He continued to descend the mountain of gold, all the way until he reached the clouds.
At that point, the mountain wasn't made out of gold anymore, but was now just a normal mountain. Although it was slightly interesting, it didn't stop Dionysus from continuing to climb down all the way until the very bottom, and once he got down, he began to walk.
'Where to think?'
He didn't want to admit it, but he had no idea where he was. He wasn't even sure if he was on the same continent, much less anything else.
After a brief moment of thinking, he came to a decision.
"Anywhere."
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
"I failed, didn't I?"
There was a first for everything, though this wasn't it for this man. His first ever failure was when he tried to go up against the two other realms all by himself. From that point on, his life only continued to get worse and worse.
Now, he was on a heap of gold that he couldn't care less about.
'That replica of the boy, it turned out to be a failure.'
He had gambled on making the ultimate being, all for the sake of leading all the mortals to victory. Now, as unpleasant as it was to be so, he was a witness to the results of his experiment, and they turned out terribly.
'He was born as the culmination of everything wrong with the mortal realm, which was as I planned.'
It was just like he said. Dionysus' first reaction to seeing a person getting executed was that it was a cool thing, and this was a result of the traits he was born with. That much had been an extreme success.
The issue, though, wasn't that, but what came afterwards.
'I failed to put a limit on how he can develop, and even now, he's become a much better person than he was before. What a waste of time.'
CHING
He stood up from his throne of chains, the disappointment visible in his eyes. He didn't even finish the cup of wine that he had in his hand before throwing it off the mountain, disappearing below the clouds.
"I've already played center stage long enough, I've had all the attention I could want."
He had no intention of interfering directly with the matters of the world anymore. He planned to slink into the background, as if he was nobody special.
'Perhaps it's time I go and see if I can find someone of value on the other continents?'
--- SEQUENCE 3 ---
'This is going much smoother than I could have ever hoped for.'
Dionysus was currently walking within a crowd, the mutual destination of all of them being the edge of town. However, while some of them probably wanted to go to some of the shadier parts of town, Dionysus just wanted to completely leave it.
As the crowd continued to walk along, Dionysus also pursued the backs of the people in front of him, and, after some time passed, he reached the gate of the city. He could, just like the first time he was here, see that the city was in a crater of sorts, and a very large one at that.
As the crowd continued to walk along, he, along with everyone else with the intentions of it, ended up leaving the city. He could see a large line of people waiting to enter the city, but none of that mattered anymore.
'Life'd probably be simple if I just went back to my old dungeon, huh?'
On the thought of his old dungeon, Dionysus quickly remembered the guy who he left in charge of it.
'I wonder if that guy's still alive?'
Back when he first decided to head out into the world, not knowing that he would fall into the situation that he was in today, Bruno was the one who let him do that. He didn't know his capabilities as a fighter, but considering that he beat the dungeon every single day to get a drink at the bar, he had some faith in Bruno's capabilities.
'Well, I'll just have to head out for now.'
Then, it happened.
SCREECH
Dionysus stopped himself so quickly that the ground, which was just the earth, got burnt and dug up.
"W-What the?!"
WHOOSH
Ignoring everyone's gaze, Dionysus summoned a curtain and hopped right through it. He found himself in his ever familiar dimension. He proceeded to look through the glass box that he was in, and he confirmed what he had seen before.
Right in front of where he was standing before he hopped through the curtain, there was a humanoid enshrouded in a holy light, with white wings and golden dress adorning it.
This, right here, was an angel.
'Why?! What'd I do?!'
Dionysus was confused concerning the circumstances. But then, right at that moment, he remembered that he had just come out of a fight that would most definitely attract some attention.
'Crap, what do I do?'
Dionysus then came to the decision that he would use his ability to get past it. He began to walk through his glass box, but the second he was about to cross the angel, it's head turned towards him to stare right into his eyes.
'It knows?!'
Dionysus decided to test just how bad the situation was. When he summoned this glass box, it's position was in correlation to where the curtain was summoned. Where the curtain was summoned would be the center of it. He decided to hold his finger out past the angel.
WHAM
As Dionysus thought was likely to happen, his finger got snapped. He whimpered slightly, but that was all that he would let come out of his mouth. He quickly picked up the goblet and drank it, immediately healing his fractured finger.
'Nobody else is even acknowledging its existence, so it's likely that only I can see it . . .'
The situation was exactly as Dionysus had just described it. Like he just said, absolutely nobody but him could see the angel, and it was as if the angel could see nobody but Dionysus. If he were to try and go past it, even in his alternate dimension, he would most likely find every part of his body broken.
". . . This has to be a joke."
Dionysus finally realized what was happening.
'Do you mean to tell me that the capital is my new jail cell?'
At this realization, Dionysus dropped onto his knees.
"No, no, this really can't be happening. You���re locking me in a city where someone's out for me . . .?"
His hope was quickly dwindling, none of it showing in his voice. His mind was about ready to go blank, and his knees were nowhere near ready to allow him to stand up.
At this new understanding of the situation, Dionysus was thrown into utter despair.