I looked at Fenrir with disbelief. Although it was a pretty common turn of events, to be honest.
You've probably seen one just like it in the past.
The fact that the main antagonists's end goals contradict his previous actions.
But something was definitely off. His look when he said those words looked troubled. I didn't exactly see a lie in his eyes, but there was something wrong.
"And to achieve that goal you need to destroy all the worlds that already exist? Come on, do the give me that crap, you're better than that."
He looked at me with a questioning look in his eyes.
"It's not that simple, you know", he answered.
"Then why are you doing all this? Why are you causing pain and despair to everyone you meet?"
Saying it out loud felt weird, since I felt none of that. No pain, no despair. I'm repeating myself, but all of those emotions felt like they were locked away somewhere in my spirit.
"No. I'm not", he said. "You might be in pain and despair, just like Fafnir. But what do you think happened to your family?"
"You killed them, that's what fucking happened."
He stared me with worried look in his eyes. "Is that so? I guess you're right."
"What are you trying to tell me?"
He tilted his head slightly, as if he was seriously considering what to answer. Maybe he was a bit slow.
"And why did you ask of me to hate you? Why did you leave me alive?"
"I don't think you should know. Not yet."
"And why is that?"
The look on his face turned irritated.
"There is no need for you to know any of that. Anyway, you've been here long enough. I'll see you another time."
He snapped his fingers and my vision blurred in front of me. When it cleared again, I was no longer in that room, and the Ruler Of Dragons was nowhere to be seen.
I felt something strange within my body. Something was messing with my spiritual energy. It was like a voice trying to yell loud enough for me to hear, but muted by my spiritual energy.
I closed my eyes, tried to focus on the voice. However, it was to no avail. It seemed to have been muted. I opened my eyes again, looked around.
I was in a dark forest, huge trees surrounding me. The sky had a constant red glow. Like a never-ending sunset. I kept walking, studying my surroundings. There were no signs of life to be seen.
I felt my back twitching. Those weird back muscles I told you about the other day. I suddenly got an idea.
So. I was basically a dragon of sorts, right? And I had strange muscles on my back. So, it would make sense that if I used spiritual energy and concentrated it on those muscles, I would magically get wings, right? Or maybe I was just delusional.
I tried, and it turned out that I was, in fact, delusional. No such thing as wings appeared.
So, I settled for the second best option. I climbed up one of the trees. The sight that was bestowed upon me wasn't exactly pleasant.
All I saw around me was trees, as far as the eye could see. Unlucky, I guess. I wanted to get out of the forest though, so I started running and jumping through the treetops in a straight line, hoping to eventually reach the end of the forest.
I couldn't shake the bad feeling that I had the entire time in the forest. There was everything that life would need to evolve. The air was incredibly clean, there were flowing rivers and more than enough edible plants, yet no life existed in that forest.
It took me a while to finally reach the end of the forest. A while being three weeks of straight running without break.
The forest ended abruptly, bordering a sandy plain. In the distance I saw a settlement, a village. I didn't have a need for food and drink but I felt hungry and thirsty nevertheless.
I made my way to the village. Though it did look like it was far away at first, it didn't take me much over ten minutes to get there.
Arriving in the village, my presence was met by the surprised gazes of the inhabitants. They were tall, grey skin. Red eyes. Dark hair. I felt like I was looking at multiple versions of myself. They didn't talk. They just looked at me, a look of anticipation constantly etched on their faces.
The crimson ground seemed to envelop my feet as their looks pierced me. I felt an unknown sensation from somewhere inside me. I had an idea. A flash of a vision, crossing my mind, and fading away as quickly as it came.
"Bow."
They complied. Every single one of them. It felt awkward. They all got down on one knee, facing downwards. I let my spiritual energy fade out, surrounding the people around me. Every single one had the power to kill me without any effort whatsoever. Yet they bowed before me, like I was a King of theirs, for some reason. I looked around. I looked at the people. They looked like me, older, younger, scarred, unharmed. There were some female versions of myself.
I started getting the chills. Something felt seriously wrong. I closed my eyes for a second. Then I opened them.
Nothing had changed. I'm not the main character, so what do you expect.
"Rise."
I couldn't bear watching these people bow before me, especially since I had no idea who they were. I kept walking through the village. Nobody moved. All eyes were constantly on me. I started freaking out, panicking inside. This was wrong. It scared me. I was afraid to find out what this place was, who these people were. It scared me. But it also scared me to have another thing that I didn't know. I wasn't sure of what to do next, how to proceed in this situation.
So I did what I usually did. I ran. I kept running, but the village didn't end. No matter how long I seemed to run, houses and people kept spreading from the ground. I picked up my pace. I needed to get out. Then it clicked.
This was probably what Fafnir meant when he said that it needed to 'click'. I thought it had happened during Fafnir and the Ruler's battle, but it didn't. Right then and there, I felt some sort of enlightenment. Not the 'I ascended to an OP God and solo your favourite MC's verse', more like a feeling of power surging through my veins. I felt the spiritual energy anew, much stronger than before. My back ached, and I concentrated my spiritual energy on it. That second, wings spread from my back.
To my surprise, they weren't made of scales. Black feathers, like an envoy of death. Maybe I was overdoing it, but I felt like the Ruler of the underworld or something. I flew through the air, too fast for me to clearly see my environment, finally reaching the end of the village.
I was met with total nothingness, a dune of sand. I turned back around, only to find that the village had also disappeared. The only thing I could see on the horizon, coming towards me, was an all too familiar figure. It was Fafnir.