(Sleep? What is sleep? Sleep deprivation is just a myth. Coffee go brrr. I snort em like coke. I don't drink.)
'Dream?'
'How could I possibly dream?' Leo thought.
As the Caretaker of the Hunter's Dream, dreaming is a foreign concept to him because whenever he fell asleep, he would enter the Hunter's dream.
Yet, this place does not feel like the Hunter's Dream at all. A land engulfed by fog and smoke. He can see the glow of fire piercing through the veil of the fog. He heard the faint sound of metal clashing and the blurred voices of people talking.
Leo slowly approached the noise and saw two people fighting. One looks very much like a Hunter and the other one looked oddly very similar to his old appearance except his hair and eyes were red.
The two fought devastatingly, each slash and strike level the ground and create a large crater from sheer force behind those attacks.
Leo tried to listen to what they were talking about but all he can hear is gibberish words and white noises.
Then suddenly someone appeared. A woman with beautiful blue hair dressed like a spell caster, holding a metal staff adorned with beautiful prismatic gemstones. The Hunter shouted something and his face filled with terror as he looked at the woman.
From the look of it, the Hunter is telling the woman not to approach them. But the woman's face is filled with unwillingness and determination as she ignored the Hunter's warning. She cast a spell, a very grand one considering a gigantic magic circle enveloping the sky before a majestic golden dragon filled with divine majesty appeared. The woman then ordered the dragon to attack the man fighting against the Hunter.
Instead of looking worried, the man smirked at his predicament and the Hunter immediately abandoned his fight and rushed toward the woman using the identical Arcane technique, Quickening.
The Hunter tried to save the woman but his opponent wore a sadistic glee on his face as a pitch black spear that radiates a horrific glow that sucks everything around it. Be it light, mana, soul, everything. What is left under the dark radiance is just a barren wasteland on a previously green landscape. He threw the spear and pierced the Hunter and also the woman.
Not even a moment to grief or say goodbye as her corpse instantly wither away and turn into dust that the Hunter painfully tries to catch but simply flows through his hands, carried away by the wind. He fell to the ground staring at his empty palm with immense grief, Leo assumed.
Suddenly, the deafening white noise disappeared and Leo can hear properly now. He quickly approaches the two to get a clear view of the scene.
"How does it feel, Raynard? Just like how you stole everything from me. Just like how you destroyed everything. I'll make you feel the same agony I felt. No! I will make it a hundred times worse." The man said as he stood behind the Hunter with a face of twisted joy, reveling from the pain of another.
"This world will be the start. One after another, I will destroy everything you ever held dear. Hahahahaha!"
"Hahahahahaha!" The man laughed like a broken madman.
"What have I ever done to you? I don't even know you!" The enraged Hunter ripped the spear out of his body and attacked the man like an enraged beast that lost all reasoning.
"Who am I?" The man suddenly paused and extended his hand to hold the Hunter like a chicken about to be slaughtered. "Hmn… no wonder. I thought it was odd you didn't recognise me at first. I thought you were acting a fool at first. Turns out you did that. Hahahaha!" He laughed but his face showed anger as he crushed the Hunter's neck with his powerful grip.
"You died." The man said before he kicked the Hunter on the ground and sent him crashing into a cliff side that exploded on impact. "How dare you die!"
"HOW DARE YOU DIED AND REINCARNATED! HOW DARE YOU DIE AND FORGET ALL THE PAIN YOU FORCED ON ME! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU!" After that he just repeated the same sentence like a broken radio as he is having a mental breakdown.
At the distance, Leo saw the Hunter crawl out from the pile of boulders as his body rapidly regenerated as a familiar empty syringe sticking onto his chest. He vomits out blood and coughs very hard as he tries to breathe. His lungs probably crushed from the kick just now.
From what Leo can gather, the Hunter was the enemy of that man. But somehow he got reincarnated and lost all his memories. He was living his new life when the man suddenly returned for revenge.
'Why does this feel so much like my situation… It can't be right…' Leo thought as he stared at the man who was crying literally blood from his eyes mumbling names he didn't recognise but all of them feel like female names because they all sound feminine.
The man suddenly stopped mumbling and picked himself up. "No, I cannot stop here. Their souls can never rest in peace if I don't offer yours to them. For eons I wander through the void chasing after your trails. I cannot let it end just like this."
He summoned the jet black spear again and pointed it at the Hunter. "Just because nothing can be judged for your karma doesn't mean I can't. For the countless atrocities you caused, thousands of worlds you destroyed for your selfish desire and the uncountable lives you condemned for the sake of power. I shall be the one to exact justice on you, Raynard! You will not escape your sins unpunished!"
"Hear the roar of my soul! Hear the cry of my vengeance! O' Demonic Spear of Vengeance, Nemesis!"
The jet black spear starts to emit a dark aura that starts small but turns into a fiery pillar of black flame that threatens to burn and devour everything leaving only empty wasteland in its wake.
The essence of vengeance. What is left in the end is just emptiness which is represented by the wasteland around thean right now.
Despite how cool it looks and sounds at the moment. Leo couldn't help but cringed. Too much edginess for his tolerance.
Then the man vanished and reappeared in front of the Hunter and plunged the spear into him.
Instead of flashy explosions or more destruction, the spear simply burns the Hunter. Not even physical burns but something else Leo cannot understand. The Hunter howled in pain, a pain stemmed far deeper than physical pain.
"Killing you is too much of a mercy. What I do instead is stripping you off everything you own. Your power, your relationship, your everything except your memories."
"Live as a feeble mortal in this destroyed world and repent for your sins." The man said to the passed out Hunter before he retrieved the spear and then committed suicide.
"Ah, I can hear their voices calling for me in the afterlife. They can finally rest in peace… I did it everyone… our vengeance…" Then the man's body disintegrated into dust and faded away.
Suddenly the world around Leo turns pitch black. He panicked a little until he remembered this was a dream.
"Is this the end of the dream?" Leo asked but he could feel the dream had yet to end.
Just like Leo expected, the darkness disappears and reappears to the same location again but this time from where the dream suddenly turns black.
The Hunter laid in the crater slowly opening his eyes. Multiple emotions emerged on his face but the final one is rage.
Leo can sympathize with that. If he really has no prior memories that the man speaked of then he truly is just a victim.
Imagine if someone came out of nowhere and declared you in the past have committed sin and you deserve to suffer. Then he proceeds to destroy everything you ever cared about. Leo would feel everything is unfair. It's not something he did, he was paying for the sin of a stranger he didn't even know of.
The Hunter cried out the injustice. His power was removed, his everything was robbed. All that is left is himself in this dead world that had turned into a wasteland from the battle of him and the man. There's nothing left.
Then he cried out to the world, the universe, to anyone. Anyone that can give him a chance for vengeance.
It's just an endless cycle of revenge.
But… Why is he shown this dream? No, this vision?
"Do you want power?" A voice echoed around the Hunter. Leo can hear it too very clearly.
"Yes. Anything, I will do anything. Just give me a chance." The Hunter grovels on the ground begging the mysterious voice.
"Hahaha. Sure." The voice found the scene amusing as he laughed. Like a child that found new toys.
"Thank you. Thank you." The Hunter thanked the mysterious voice.
"Hmn? Who dares spying on me?" The mysterious voice suddenly said and the world cracked like a glass and the vision turned black.
Leo can feel the dream or vision. Whatever it is has come to an end.
(Dun Dun Dun. More mystery appeared.)
———
"Did you have a pleasant sleep, Leo?" Pandora asked when she saw Leo open his eyes.
"I did. Thanks." Leo said after waking up on her lap feeling refreshed.
"Wrong! It's Thank you Mom. Say it again." Pandora pouting childishly at Leo.
'She isn't gonna dock my reward just because of that right…' Leo asks himself. But he has a feeling she definitely would.
"Thank you, Mom." Leo said with a resigned sigh.
"Yay! He called me mom again!" Pandora cheered jubilantly before she brought up the topic of his new authority.
"About your authority. Since Clytius only has one authority and doesn't need to choose. I already completed the Usurpation while you are sleeping." Pandora said with her chest puffed out proudly.
She looked childish indeed, Leo chuckled a little while looking at his supposed adoptive mother trying to make herself look hardworking.
"I see. Mom did well." Leo lifts his hand and pat her head like he is praising a child.
Pandora smiled when Leo called her mom again but quickly noticed something was wrong with the way he treated her. "Hey! Don't make fun of me." Pandora blushed and scolded Leo. But her cute face even when angry made Leo hardly able to take her scolding seriously as he chuckled more.
"Why? I just like mom's hair. They felt soft and silky." Leo feigns ignorance and continues to pat her head.
"Ehehe. Really?" Pandora said while holding her twintail hair. "Then, I will allow it."
'She is easily pleased too.' Leo sighed in his mind. Leo feels blessed having such an adorable mom even if she isn't his real one.
Then Leo suddenly feels a tugging on his body.
"The time is up…" Pandora said with a sad and reluctant look. "Remember to visit Mama often alright? I will be waiting for my beloved son here as always." She gave a kiss on Leo's forehead before he vanished.
"You must get much stronger. The King of the End that wields the Divine Sword of Salvation will soon be awakened." Pandora mutters blankly while staring at the white void. "Mama will cheer for you. So, do your best, Leo."
For Pandora, no matter who becomes her adoptive child. She will love them regardless. Leo being a unique one that can carry his memories from this void back to Earth and remember her. But nonetheless, she loved them all and she had been watching over them even when the King of the End mercilessly slaughtered them. It's part of the natural order. Something even a True God like her is helpless to change. However, Leo is irregular. She is aware Leo isn't a simple human or even a human at all because his body and soul is too different from a human.
But all that didn't matter. Human or not. It didn't change Leo is her child and Leo represents her hope. The hope to shatter the shackle of the ancient covenant. A selfish wish of her own. But is it selfish for a mother to wish her children to thrive?
—————
(Should we bag Mama Pandora?)
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