When Jaden was eight, his grandpa died.
Hold up!! That was hardly relevant! Jaden couldn't tell a random story from his past to distract him from the situation this time.
It wasn't an old man dying of old age on the ground. It was a young man, with his whole life ahead of him. A completely innocent bystander, who had looked at Jaden with stars in his eyes, waiting for him to be the hero to save the day.
Had no one told him? Jaden was no hero, no all-powerful God Emperor. All he was was a businessman from New York without the power to save anyone.
Jaden ran over to Azi, who was lying on the ground, a bullet wound in his chest. He was very pale, and hardly breathing. But not dead yet!
Why wasn't anyone coming to help!?
But there was no one there. No one but Jaden.
Azi looked up at Jaden. His eyes were getting dimmer. "Hey, Jaden, can you promise me…something?"
No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. This was a classic death scene, and Jaden wanted no part in it.
"Stop talking, just hold on one second. I'm going to get that doctor."
He'd find Dr. Vihaan. He would say: "There isn't much chance for him to survive.", and then of course Azi would pull through in the end. That was always how it worked.
But Azi wouldn't let him leave. "Don't go…just yet. Your fight was…super…epic."
Now was not the time to talk about that!! Azi's voice was getting fainter. Come on, system, didn't he have some sort of healing ability!?
[No Ability Found]
"Can you…promise me?"
What was the point of a system if it couldn't do the one thing he really wanted it to do!?
Azi smiled. "Your system is…even cooler than Crisanto's. I…always wanted to become a hero. But…hehe…I never got a system. So…can you become a hero instead of me?"
Azi closed his eyes.
This couldn't be happening. Jaden remembered just a few hours earlier, Azi had been jumping up and down and sharing fun facts about systems. Hadn't he been cheering him on just a few minutes ago!?
But an ordinary person can't save anyone.
Jaden threw his head back and cried, his tears streaming down his face.
When a god cries, the universe trembles. The servants of the emperor share in his sorrow.
The Cruz Construct crumbled apart like it was cut in two, directly through the middle so it was only half the height. The Skirmish Circle was exposed to the air.
Immediately, all the King Class monsters broke away from their fights. They began to circle around Jaden, their heads bowed in reverence. They circled around five times and then dispersed back into the sky. They left the city silently, ignoring the fighters they had been trying to kill just moments before. Crisanto, floating in the air, watched, his face unreadable.
Jaden didn't even care. If anyone should have died, it was him.
Crisanto floated down. He silently activated a shining golden lance and placed it against Jaden's neck. "I, Crisanto Cruz, place you under arrest for using a monster system…
…and for the murder of Azi Njoku."
…
Hold on! That wasn't right! Jaden hadn't killed anyone! He looked behind him, but to his horror, something wasn't right.
Giuseppe's body was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Sofia, for that matter.
There was not a witness in sight. There was only Jaden, holding a dead body.
He remembered what Emepror Zil had said: "You and them shall perpetually be at odds. It is in your nature."
Perhaps it really had been his fault. If he hadn't been there, he never would have activated God Mode. This whole thing never would have happened. If he was going to destroy the world, and cause thousands to die, maybe Giuseppe was right. He really was a monster.
God Emperor system?
At this moment, all Jaden had was a self-hating system.
(End of the Philippines Arc)