Chapter 6: The Meaninglessness of Existence
Sword striking against sword produced a loud clacking sound which normally can be ignored. But when two high leveled adventurers collide, their superhuman abilities left the soil cracked and the surroundings scarred.
"Your strikes are unfocused."
CLACK!
"Your footwork needs more fluidity."
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
"Focus."
CLACK! CLACK! CRUNCH!
"That's enough. Calm yourself and get Lion to heal your bruises."
Kaguya looked at the retreating figure of her captain, a shadow of her former self, after days of investigation producing no new information.
After the bloody explosion of the magic stone factory, every adventurer in Orario has been on the edge of another attack from Evilus. The civilians are the most affected in this predicament, as their powerlessness in the inevitable confrontation between adventurers and evil-blessed criminals, guarantees their despair and perhaps even death.
The cold wind's gentle whisper sways her long black hair, telling her of a dark premonition, a fate of which even the most powerful people in the world could say to survive with a solid promise. Her purple eyes looked at the setting sun, reflecting the grim and fading hope that her familia could come out of this era unscathed.
"Kaguya, let's continue."
The red-haired captain of the Astraea familia took a sword stance in front of her. Her friend, who has seen better times, is working herself to the bone as she swore to the people of the entire city to bring back peace and deliver all evil to justice.
"No." She steeled her eyes on her friend, "You are too distracted and tired, you must rest your body as well as your mind. True swordplay can only be achieved if you have peace within yourself."
Alice was about to retort but with a harsh glare left her words to herself and promptly nodded.
Sighing at her friend's state, Kaguya could not help but feel to step up and help in another way besides the way of the sword. And so, she smiles softly, trying to deliver warmth and inspire her friend.
"Let's sit down, Alice."
"What's with that scary smile? Please, it wasn't me! It was Lion!"
Her friend's panicked voice turned her warm smile into something else as she tried to keep her eyes from twitching. "What did they do now?" She thought with exasperation.
---
His back numbed as his awareness suddenly returned in an instant. An infinite number of stimuli bombarded his brain, stretching a moment into eternity as he floats in the void, slowly falling into a being of black sun. The influence of its presence erupts into his body that crawled into his back.
His suffering stopped as he could now see where and what he is looking at. Time did not exist in this location. Or did it not matter? The only thing that can be felt is a black sun that consumes everything yet also radiating a sense of meaninglessness. He could feel a connection with the sun, it was like it is the source of power of his falna.
"A god?"
Perhaps not in the sense of 'gods' in Genkai, but a being of godhood proportions. A being that inhibits a universal domain. Shouri does not know how he knows this, but his very soul tells him that he is correct. His blessing tells him he is correct. But the being did not communicate to him, only slowly consuming him and everything around him, which is nothing but also everything.
"It doesn't make sense."
His power grew in proportion. He wanted it to stop, and he doesn't know why. He wanted to give in to the influence of the being, but the very idea of rejection cannot cross his mind, only feeling it unmoving in his soul. After all, the meaningless world of Genkai took everything from him. His parents, his memories, his freedom… all were taken and disregarded.
The suffering he has partaken, the atrocities her committed, and even his desire to become a shining become of justice, does not carry any weight in his heart.
"But why does accepting feels wrong?"
But he cannot let go of it. His new friends are still there, fighting for the people of Orario, keeping the monsters of the dungeon at bay. Alice and her familia are now currently fighting against the monsters that seek to destroy the world, that seek to harm every life on the surface. He cannot let them be, he cannot make them feel alone.
"I need to get back. I need answers from the Gods."
Questions about the radiating influence of darkness that used to leak from his blessing, his vision of the black sun god, and the danger that he could pose in the world because of his blessing connected to this being.
Shouri needs to return, yet he does not know how.
His power is still growing every moment he spends in this space. The falna in his back turned to absorb the emanating influence coming from the black sun. A supposed tug-of-war between him and the being, yet it didn't resist.
Thus, a perpetual growth of his power results in his own mind growing clearer and clearer, as opposed to his previous experience of meaninglessness.
"Does negative emotions affect my power?"
Shouri surmised his blessing, as he floats and becoming nearer into the black sun. He remembers the falna connected to this god-like being grown a negative influence in his mind as soon as he became overwhelmed with grief and despair.
"I cannot let it consume me again, not anymore."
Although the grief in his heart could never be forgotten, it is of no use to become mindless because of it. His power comes from a being whose domain could be of meaninglessness and depression, thus, he could not let himself be converted into nothing.
He drew from his memory once again, but instead of taking it all at once, he shifted his focus on the beautiful moments. The most precious people of his life.
"Mother's smile after handing me to Father the moment he came home."
"My parents celebrating after I first uttered the word 'Dada'."
"My mother cradling me to sleep, as she knitted on the rocking chair."
"Father chasing me in the garden after I threw mud on his face."
"Mother's friends talking to me in baby voices, and getting surprised as I spoke well beyond my age."
"The proud, loving stares of mother and father after I drew our family on the ground."
And many more.
Though Genkai might be dangerous and extremely far away from being a paradise, it is still his home. The place where his parents gave him life, nurtured him with care and love, and the world where his friends are.
He must return. His parents may be gone, but Alice, Miss Kaguya, Miss Lion, the Astraea familia, Miss Sophie, Lord Miach, and many more in the future, hopes for his return. He knew he is not death, for the gods will take his soul for reincarnation. His death has yet to come.
"I will return and live." To live in the mortal world is to treasure the precious moments that had happened and will happen. Because the life of a mortal is to endure.
Thus, Shouri focused his mind, willing his soul to return to his body. The memories he regained, the meaninglessness he endured, and the power he received, will be carried by his own into the destiny he will carve for himself.
Through sheer will and desire, he felt that he could do what he wishes for. To bridge his soul and consciousness back into his physical form.
Just in before he falls in the black sun to the point of no return, he heard a loud laughter, and in a split moment, he was showered in a bright and blinding light.
---
"Enough about the depressing stuff, Alice. What about the condition of that boy you rescued?"
After a rather lengthy discussion about the state of the city as well as their familia, Kaguya inquired about the boy her captain has become attached with.
"Oh! Shouri, huh? He's in perfect physical health now, but he still hasn't wakened up. Goddess Astraea believes that his falna might be interfering with his recovery, and there was nothing she knows could help."
Alice's last sentence raised her eyebrows in confusion. Her goddess' powers might be sealed but she, like other gods, have abilities that can be used freely in the mortal world.
"I'm curious, he said that people claims that his falna was already in his back the moment he was born and, in the past, multiple gods already confirmed that claim by looking for lies on those people."
"Yeah? What about it?" Alice tilted her head, not knowing where she is going for.
"Well, we are connected to our gods via the blessing and the gods are connected to us. Then, what do you think is the goal of the patron god of the boy's blessing?"
After hearing about the tragedies in life of the boy, Kaguya could not help but think that it also acted as a form of a curse to him and perhaps, even to those around him. This is all just pure speculation on her part, of course, yet she could not deny the fact that misfortune seems to always follow wherever he goes.
"After all, forgetting his past and parents, being enslaved by multiple people and families over almost a decade, and when he eventually has gotten free, he becomes a victim of an evil organization's schemes."
Alice seems to ponder on her question heavily and Kaguya held a small guilt on bringing such a heavy topic. Her captain already has a lot of thoughts of various importance, she should not bring more burden to her plate than she already has.
"Forget about it, Alice. Even he doesn't know about the god behind his blessing, wracking our brains about it will not yield anything useful."
Patting her friend's shoulder, Kaguya stopped her thinking process to the best of her abilities, "Come on, let's go inside the mansion. The air is getting colder."
Nodding at her suggestion, she and Alice went up inside their familia's mansion. Kaguya now has the moon to look up to after spending the majority of the afternoon on the sparring field with Alice. Her thoughts about the whole situation on Orario are becoming more tumultuous by the days, and the boy held a personal debt from herself that she has to repay no matter what.
"I will apologize when the time comes that he wakes up. For all the things my family has done to him."
With one last look at the celestial body in the sky that brightens the dark night, Kaguya vowed to never look away from injustice, anymore than she already has in her life. Closing the door of her familia's home, she lets herself relax, even just for a brief moment, before the dungeon city sinks further into the chaos sowed by evil.
---
As the moon rises, so does someone with the mark of the black sun on his back spring back up to the living world.
His eyelids slowly open up and his irises focusing on the surrounding he found himself at. The ceiling is not of his apartment, nor the mattress of the bed as firm. His only has the dull pain due to being inactive as well as the stiffness of his muscles.
"A different house."
A meaningless thought, one that he already concluded after a brief inspection of the place. But the one that he unknowingly felt to be necessary, just to test if his mind is still his own.
"No immediate influence from that being."
He could feel deep within his soul that the darkness within him, his blessing, cannot be ever removed. The influence is already so deeply ingrained within himself that no one, not even the most powerful of gods, could remove it.
"But I have to try still. If I stop trying, then it is the same as letting myself fall into THEIR grasp."
More and more of the same thoughts revolve in his mind as he continues to gain a deeper understanding of the situation of his connection with an unknown entity. What is the goal of his existence in this world if the being itself does not wish to interact with anything? How could he free himself of the influence of meaninglessness? And how could he keep the people around him safe from the danger he poses?
Questions are being made from his thoughts and no answers came up. But before he could further go deeper into over contemplating his nature, and maybe fall into despair as a result, three knocks rang in the door of the room he is currently into.
Before he could answer, the door opened with a shade of green hair that he is familiar with along with a healthy white skin. The person's eyes blue eyes widens as she laid her gaze upon him in his awoken state. He could almost see the tension leaving her body as she approached him on his bedside.
"You're awake."
He smiled softly at her with gratitude filling his eyes, he replied,
"I'm back."