Zixin let go of Denva.
Denva looked like he had seen this for the first time in his life, sobbing with his eyes turning red from the mixture of burning emotions that threatened to rip him apart.
The two looked at him for a while without saying a word, the voices from the memories that came from the sphere echoing in this peculiar space.
Denva suddenly shot up and pointed at Freidris accusingly.
"You rid the significance of this from me and made me integrate with a bunch of mortals?!" he yelled in a high voice.
"I did," Freidris said with his hazy face being as calm as the still wind.
"Why is it that you refuse to avenge what we have lost?! What kind of King are we if we don't rise and show those bastards who they messed with?!" Denva boomed.
"A noble one!" yelled Freidris. "A King who learns! Unlike you, I remember the entirety of my life, each and every action I've taken is the one that led to this! Enemies aren't born, they are created. Hundreds of thousands of years worth of slaughter and unruly led to this! This. Is. Our. Fault! Don't you two blame anyone else!"
Denva shrunk while Zixin remained unperturbed.
"Even so, we've never been ones to let things go now, have we? I won't let this memory die because you suddenly want to become a farmer in the countryside living with a bunch of crap about Nirvana. Bloodshed? Yes. That's who we were. That's who we are. That's who we will always be, no matter how pretty a girl walks into our lives. You let a few thousand years of peace delude you but I remember clearly who we are," said Zixin before he turned to Denva and extended his hand. "You choose who you want to follow. Me or him."
Denva looked at Zixin and then Freidris.
"Millennia of darkness have taught us that vengeance only leads one way. We will gain nothing from this. Just a dark pit of sorrow for eternity. Is that what you really want?" asked Freidris to the two.
"Of course. This isn't about feeling merry at the end of the journey. It's no longer about us. Even if darkness is what we will see at the end of it, I'd rather sleep in it for eternity than try to pretend I'm some f*cking jolly teddy bear in a world of candy," said Zixin with a stern look.
Freidris shook his head. He held onto Denva's shoulder and pointed at the patch of darkness tinged with red on the sphere.
"I did what I did to keep that darkness away. It's the amalgamation of all our rotten selves that would have been unleashed the day we fell onto Ginaia. If you chose Zixin, I won't be able to hold it any longer. It will grow with time and should you reach the stage of Immortal again it will become one of us. A living consciousness in your head that embodies what we have left behind. Please make the wise choice," he said.
The remains of the Immortal in Freidris had been split between the two consciousnesses. These remains being a form of power that did not necessarily translate to physical strength.
The remaining vestiges of power by the Freidris consciousness had been going to contain the dark patch.
"This will be the last meeting we can have. Zixin may be able to give you the will to get stronger at a faster rate but you won't be able to stop this. You can only choose one of us. You can still choose to grow stronger, but not for revenge. But for a different life. A different path," Freidris said as he stretched his hand just like Zixin was doing.
It was up to Denva.
He could choose Freidris and suppress the pain of loss to try a new path that embraced what his wife had made him into. Goodness, love, care.
Or he could choose Zixin.
Embracing the path of revenge where he would go towards slaughtering millions of experts in the Immortis boundary after thousands of years of cultivation riddled with hatred, evil and darkness.
Surprisingly, Denva did not take much time deliberating. He only pulled down his shirt revealing a mark that looked like conjoined circles on his neck.
"I already made my choice. This is my path regardless of what I choose now," he said.
It was the mark he received after he burnt his heart with Realm Essence at the shore that night.
The Oath of the Amandra Cycle!
Denva walked up to Zixin and held his hand, much to Freidris' disappointment.
"I see. I hope the Cycle will be kind to us," he said in a sorrow ridden voice.
As Denva held Freidris' hand he heard a sound akin to a blazing fire below!
The dark path blazed and covered a significant portion of the sphere in a few seconds.
Denva frowned as he saw this. If it was qualified as a percentage of the whole sphere, it would be...
31%.
"Don't worry. This has been a part of us since the beginning. Even if it devours us, we've been there. Trust me," said Zixin.
"Alright," said Denva as he looked at the figure of Freidris which vanished in the second.
Immediately afterwards, he felt a sharp pull that forced him downwards and in the next moment, he woke up on his bed.
Instead of the okayish feeling he experienced every morning, he felt a burning sensation in his soul that made him feel extremely heavy. His eyes turned cold as he felt his emotions shift. He knew what to prioritise. It was going to be heavy, but he would be okay. After avenging his wife, it would be okay.
Right.
He just had to do what he did best.
He just needed to get stronger.
"B..brother.." a small voice spoke from the door.
Denva turned and saw the figure of Charlie hiding behind the door. She looked at him with fright and behind her was Synthina and Benedan who wore worried faces.
"Son, are you okay?" asked Benedan as he walked into the room.
Denva was puzzled.
"Yes. Why?" he asked.
"We heard strange noises in here," said Synthina. "And...."
She pointed at Denva's bed.
Denva looked at where he had been sleeping and saw a patch of an inky black substance that stained his blankets!
Denva narrowed his eyes. He had changed indeed.
"Don't worry about it. It must be something with my World Essence. I'll check it out tomorrow," he said with a smile.
***
Morning arrived and while Denva had made up an excuse to wiggle out of the situation he had been in, his family was unconvinced. He wore the same cheery smile but they felt something different from him.
Denva had left early today, avoiding them as he headed to work where the last of the materials arrived. He worked with greater fervour, carrying twice the amount of bags he carried yesterday which shocked the other men at the site.
After the materials were brought, the digging of the foundation had begun.
While Denva had felt the pain from his body, he completely disregarded it, feeling the determination to get stronger regardless of the pain. This was the vestige of power from Zixin which he gladly accepted.
He worked for eight hours again today, getting off work and not going home but heading to another district.
District 8.
The overall layout of it was hardly different from District 9, but a few more cars could be seen driving across the patched tar road.
There were a few more commercial squares in this District which made it a frequented place by those that lived in Lower value Districts.
In total, there were 12 Integral Districts which were usually referred to as IDs.
Denva walked into one of the squares and saw a myriad of stores jam-packed with customers of different statures.
The squares were stores arranged in a box-like shape with the opposite end being an entrance where people would enter and exit. Like a box; rectangle or square, with one of its sides missing.
Naturally, the layout couldn't be a perfect square but the term made mentioning the place a lot more convenient.
With the information that he had researched the day when school ended, Denva found that this District was the most prominent when it came to weapons. Naturally, he wasn't hoping to find a store with a sign that said "Weapons Here" in the square but he knew there would definitely be clues.
What was he looking for?
He was looking for the only weapon that he could use in any lifetime without breaking a sweat.
A sword.
Denva had cultivated a philosophy towards the sword that made him who he was. Not only in terms of strength, but in terms of emotion.
As he walked, he saw one man leaning onto a wall as he smoked a cigarette. On the other side of the building that he was leaning onto, was another man who sat on a stool while reading a book.
Denva looked opposite the building that these two men leaned on and saw a small shop akin to a kiosk where a few customers were gleefully talking to someone within the store.
'Sneaky indeed,' he thought.
He recognised this trick from when he ran an underground society. Two men pretending to mind their own business as they kept a lookout for potential trouble.
The kiosk was definitely something from the Underground, these men having to make sure that they warned whoever ran the kiosk beforehand. It was probably a sort of reception for goods you couldn't find in the commercial square.
Denva walked up to the kiosk and looked inside from the opening used to serve the customers.
Within, the kiosk was an old woman with wrinkly skin, her eyes looking like bulbs under the eyelids. Her long, grey hair was made done into a Finnish plait and she donned a colourful dress that hugged her aging body in an unsettling way.
Denva was not really perturbed as he had seen weirder things in the underground from different worlds.
As he was about to speak, a hand grabbed his shoulder tightly. Denva turned warily and saw the man who had been smoking by the building opposite here glaring at him.
"You better not be here to cause trouble. Snooping around business that isn't yours will only get you killed," he said threateningly.
Denva was unfazed as the look in his eye mirrored the one in the man's eye.
"Oh don't worry about him, sonny. I'm sure he means no harm," said the old woman with a weird smile as she looked at Denva.
Denva brushed off the man's hand and gazed at the old woman.
"No need to be cautious. I won't bite. Now tell your Granny Orgy what you'd like to buy," she said in a hoarse voice.
'What?' Denva's mind tried to process what he had just heard.