Ragnarok:
"Caera, do you believe in retribution?"
"Excuse me?" She asked, as serious as always, despite the most recent incident.
"You know, retribution or punishment, do you think the day will come when I will have to pay for my doings?"
I asked, lost in thought to be honest. Killing people, closers or strangers is not alienating to me. I do it on a daily basis almost, so then what's bothering me about this situation? Is it the thought of questioning my power, is it ulterior motives?
Do Angels take me for a fool? Do they take me for a powerless idiot? ... No, I'm sure they don't, they are not that stupid. This plan must be a bait, something I rolled with, but now I have second thoughts about their agenda... why did they do it?
... This is an excuse to get rid of a shameless part in their public history.
In this world there's no right or wrong, or good and bad, or evil and good, not in this world, not in this universe. The only thing that exists are egoistic choices, choices done for our own survival in the midst of chaos. We didn't choose this life... this path... but it's a requirement to walk it in order to survive.
Choices we have to make to look good... or to appeal to someone, or perhaps to seem humble and to enter someone's graces, all of that just for us to follow the motives we're set beforehand and our own selfish desires.
Everything has a purpose in this world, every minuscule movement is with intent, with a story behind it... and because of that we're here.
"Caera, stop, and seem surprised in about 20 seconds."
"What?" She asked, as serious as always.
And as I envisioned, 20 seconds later it happened.
A beam of light shot down from the sky, right behind us, as we were walking. From its radiance a silhouette made its way towards us, holding a headless corpse in his hands.
I don't know who he is but I sure know what his alliance is. And I started smiling even if he didn't see it.
"Identify yourself young boy, so at least I know who I'm about to decimate." I stopped and started talking.
What I said was full of intent, keeping my back at the guy and not intending to look back. Holding my bloodlust in check just for now.
"My name is Perceval, I come here under direct orders from my lord, Adam. I came to retrieve the body of one of our own and punish the one who did such a horrendous thing to her and her closest."
The man, relatively young, white hair, black armored, blue eyes, carrying a sword by his side. His hair is a bit weird to describe, but let's put it as "rebellious". Definitely not angelic of essence, he's an elite. Truth to be told, I don't need to look at him to perceive him, the colors of his soul tells me everything from his hair down to what he's wearing right now. Even if he wants to, he can't hide it from me.
"What race are you part of?" I don't feel the angelic essence in your soul and I don't want to turn around... cause if I do I fear that they will have to send another one to retrieve two bodies."
I said as a matter of fact. I have no reason to keep this boy alive, but killing him and making them send someone like Michael or Kerubiel to deal with it would be a total pain in the ass. Especially while I still have a show to run.
"I heard about you, Ragnarok, one of the three from The End, cocky, madman, a lot of ways to describe you."
"Why but thank you." I interrupted him. "I hear nothing but compliments."
He sneered at my words.
"Why prolong this charade hum? Tell me, what if I kill you here and I just put an end to my lord worries about you?"
But you can't, I thought. If he could he would've done so already. It is true that inside him there's no sign of fear towards me. Perceval is just an arrogant brat.
"But why fight when we can just hang around and have fun?" I said, my grin grew bigger by the moment at the thought of not killing but playing with my victim.
He took an audible step back when I said that. Still not afraid.
"Why did you kill her?" He asked. "She was a traitor but you could've let her go, she didn't provide anything useful, only locations to us, you could've let her live. And why go the extra mile, family, friends, do you get joy out of this?"
Funny is it not? Trying to pin the blame on me when they might as well have sent her to her own demise.
"Don't you act all high and mighty, you did it on purpose, not you as in yourself, but the race of annoyances called Angels. Always playing the good guy, but all of this was so that you can hide a part of your shameful past. Whatever is public from it at least."
With a snap of my fingers and a menacing laugh I kept going.
"You didn't send her here to spy and collect info, you sent her knowing full well that I'll kill her and on top of that you'll be able to come after me in the future. Giving you a reason, well another one on the list at least. So don't give me this bullshit you two faced goody two shoes hypocrites."
I took a brief pause so that the reality of the situation could sink into this young soul.
"So do it! Come after me, I don't care, but before you do tell me, why not get a little more info on the enemy... want to come and visit my Underworld Palace?"
"Ragnarok, stop!" Caera said as a matter of fact.
She likes to stop me in the middle of the fun, before I do anything extreme. What a good second in command I have picked.
"Your subordinate tried to stop you? That's pathetic, a true lord's authority should be supreme and unquestioned!" The arrogant foul said, not knowing the gravity of his own words.
Annoyed by the statement made without too much thought I retorted.
"You don't know anything about this world, no, no. You're just a blessed infant and you don't know about true LOYALTY." I started dancing. "You don't know about DRAMA, TRAGEDY or ADVENTURE! You just don't know anything at all."
And I ended my dance with a bow to the same side of the road, not looking back at the individual behind me even now.
Caera seemed taken aback a bit by my statement but not overly surprised. She knows me well.
"My comrades are not brainless followers. I might be a madman or whatever, but I treat people as people if they deserve it. Each and everyone of them has shown me their worth and they even entrust me with their lives. They would follow whatever order I give, knowing it's all for OUR PURPOSE and they will stop me when I'm about to go too far. That's just who my comrades are, this is THE BLACK PARADE!"
I took a moment before continuing the idea.
"Don't misunderstand Caera, she didn't stop me for my sake, but for your sake. I could kill you right here, right now, and even your superior if I put my mind to it. But I don't want to... because... the show must go on!"
"You're insane! If you could kill them right now why don't you put the final straw in this war?
Because I can't kill everyone. My words are purposefully misleading, there are some beings I can take on but there's no guarantee I would win... and even then, where would be the fun in that? If only the strong were to fight all the time then this war would have no purpose to begin with.
"Because... I sold my soul to the stage... now my life is a... circus..."
I said, letting my aura overtake the scene, and its force made Perceval kneel before me.
As a response he drew his blade and started emanating an aura of his own... but my burdened one weighs much more than the feeble dreams he's carrying.
"Don't make it hard on yourself, you are already kneeling before me. Like you did before your own God, which means only one thing..."
"You hypocrite, calling yourself a God!" He cursed, trying to resist my presence.
Caera turned to me and put a hand on my shoulder, signaling me to stop this from going on. There's no reason to keep going... Now there's fear.
"You can't stand my aura while my subordinate has no issue moving in it. Don't you think you're overestimating yourself?" I said and I started laughing at myself. "Humility is the Seventh Law of God, recognize the limits of your power and knowledge and remain humble before God... but the only god you kneel to right now is ME! So leave since I still allow you to."
So I said as I let the earth crumble beneath my feet, not leaking any mana, the earth is crumbling because my intent and my aura is just too strong for it to take. This is the extent of my own arrogance.
*Tsk*
That was the only thing he "said" before taking his leave with the same beam that he came here, taking the corpse with him.
"I hope the story of her ends with this incident. Don't you hope the same, Ringmaster?"
Caera asked me, knowing full well what I was about to say next... she's trying to please me.
"Where would be the fun in that? But maybe for the sake of it... I hope so."
We left the scene and I laughed, both of us going to our next parade.