Misunderstandings in an crystal city.

Umi wa mitte iru,

Sekai no hajimari mo,

Umi wa shitte iru,

Sekai no owari mo.

               I still remember this song. I still remember it's meaning. After all these years, I remember a song from some damn anime.

               The song is beautiful, though.

                And oddly fitting.

                It has been three months since my defeat. Flying through the vacuum of space, I have had a chance to look back on my life's decisions(again) .It all started from that one selfish dream when I was 6 years old.

                To be the most powerful.

                 And I would suppress that dream for the next 70 years.

                 When I was 14, 3 years before the invasion, I was preparing for my  exam, 9th standard. The worst in the whole wide world. It was maths the next day, a difficult 90 marks papers in which we had to solve in 3 hours. It was not a big deal, as marks in 9th don't really matter, but I wanted them. By the time I was done, 80 above was guaranteed, giving me the well sought after A1 grade.

                 It was 3 in the afternoon when I finished, so I decided to rest just a little . As expected I dozed off.

                 Ever dozed off face first on the pillow? In a few minutes, you begin to get suffocated, but you are still asleep. So you have these weird dreams that end with something unusual before you wake up? I had one of those. Don't really remember what it was, but at the end I heard a somewhat demonic voice which said something I can't remember, except the last two words which woke me up.

"........my child."

               To this day, I have no idea what that was. Probably my imagination or the fact that I might have other mental conditions than the ones I already have.Did he just call us a mental condition? I am afraid that is correct. Why you asshole!!!! Suwar are Bacha ! .(1) 'Calm down, you are getting too worked up. And last time I checked, you are a mental condition. He is correct. What? Why are you agreeing with him??? Goddamn it, both of you can just go to hell.

          As I was saying, I had no idea what that voice was but it sounded like the Devil himself( the mythological one, not the real one. I already killed the real one.). It got me thinking.

             Thinking. It used to be my favorite past time in those days. I would think, come up with some weird theories, then find out someone already thought of that.. I had not yet decided whether a god exists or not, but  just for good measure I decided neither to deny or support it. And therein lay my first mistake.

           I decided that afternoon that it did not matter. After all, nothing really would change if...........

          Before I could continue with that thought, the full weight of the understanding hit me. And when it wore off, another understanding hit me. A worse understanding, and a truthful one at that. A knowledge that should not be known to any  mind at all. What I like to call 'The secret of the universe'.

          At once, I had tried to  deny it. Make it go away. But it wouldn't. Of course it wouldn't. It was the truth. And truth doesn't go away even if you want to.

         It was over as soon as it started, but I was no longer the same person after that experience. And then, I made history.

                  I got up and continued with my life. I became a Disillusioned

Hey man, uhh.... sorry interupt you, but the we are  LEAVIN THE U FUCKINing NIVERSE!!!!!!!

'What?!?!???

Our colleague is correct. I fear we have left the last star far away

WHY ARE WE LEAVING THE UNIVERSE??????? I DONNT WAAANT TO DIEEE!!!!!!!!

Shut up. I am sure we can trust Ed.

Hey, you're right!!! YES!! WE ARE SAV..........

         I locked him in an obscure corner of my mind.

         He did have a point though. While I didn't doubt Ed, I doubted whether he knew of my condition. It had been some time since I had lost count of how fast I was going. The time spell was taking a huge amount of energy now, and even though fresh energy was flowing in through the bonds, they had long stopped adding extra magic. Its like when you are buffering a youtube video, but the video is playing faster than it is buffering. Except that it is my life on the line here. I might have to use my life force just to keep the spell going.

        Why am I still thinking about youtube videos?

        Wait....... What are youtube videos again?

.

.

.

.

         I.....I don't remember what youtube videos are.

        I didn't have time to dwell on that thought as I suddenly felt something rip away. A portal to another dimension opened up right before me and in I went.

        Huh. Neat. Ed made the world in another dimension. It seemed like a walled dimension, too. I could already feel the time field bending, with the distinct feel of a planet's mass imprinting on it, creating gravity. It seemed very well made, this planet. So Ed's work was as good as his bragging.

        As that thought settled into my mind, I realised something that made me immediately doubt aforementioned thought. The fact that the gravity that was of only one planet. And that  would  have been okay. I didn't ask him to make the whole solar system,but..........

"WHERE THE HELL'S THE SUN??!!?!?!??!!!"(Of course, In space, no one can hear you scream)

       Did he seriously not include the sun? I mean,...... WHAT? Why is there no sun. I didn't ask for an ice world. What the hell!

       Perhaps I should ask for a refund.

You are being to hasty.Before you do something that you may forever regret, I plead with you to feel the warmth.

'What warmth are you talking about? There's no.....' Wait. ..... He's right. I can feel the light hitting me. Where hell did that come from?

       Once again, I didn't have time to dwell on the thought as I realised that I was going at god knows what speed, and the planet was just a few billion miles away. An impact would blow up the planet, and I had almost no time to slow down.

       Remember the life force I was talking about before? Its basically the energy that keeps your mind functioning. To those who can actually use it to cast spell or do magic in general, it is THE last last resort. It is extremely dangerous to use this force, because there is only a limited amount of it and it is the only thing keeping your mind from dissolving.

       This was a desperate situation though. So I tapped into my life force and used the power to grab the time field as if my life depended on it.

        Thankfully, it did the trick, though it almost killed me. The amulet stopped pulling as I slammed into the atmosphere, almost breaking my bones, and entered the world. I had managed to reduce my speed to the terminal velocity on that world, but it was still too fast. My bonds with the dark and the light were already strained, and I did not want to break them. So slowing down any more was out of the question.

         The first impact was on hard ice, which was smashed beneath me, cushioning the fall a little. Due to my momentum and the fact I did not land perpendicular to the ground, I bounced off much like a flat stone thrown at water, until I finally ground to a halt after plowing through ten meters of hard crystal.

         Where did the crystal come from?

         I didn't really care at that point though, because my body was this close to completely shutting down. I was going to die. I needed energy, anything at all, so I grabbed a crystal and ate it. Instantly I felt better, now just  hovering on the brink of death instead of falling down it. I slammed my elbow as hard as I could into the crystal pavement that I was lying on, once, twice, thrice before it cracked. I tore off a sizeable amount and I began to eat it.

         If you are  wondering how I can eat crystal, it is because I had gotten  most of the organs in my torso replaced  with magical constructs. Three then perfected the operation and changed my biological muscles while he was at it. My skeletal muscles can now store a huge amount of power and the construct in the place of my stomach ( A gift from Three, again) could digest and extract energy from most  anything, no longer dependent on breaking carbohydrate bonds. I still had my heart in place, though, and my sex organs for whatever reason. Three didn't want to remove those. Please dont' ask why.

                My heart abruptly started pumping again, which was both a relief and a concern. My heart usually does not beat at all, because my blood vessels can pump the blood themselves. It basically meant I had very little magic left( atleast for a few hours). It would take me nearly a week and a half to recover my full strength.

         That was an issue for another time. For now, I would have to stand up and explore the world that had been made. Perhaps I could get help?

          As soon as I finished eating, I used my left arm to push myself off the ground and stood up unsteadily on my feet . Instantly,  whispering voices that I hadn't noticed before died down as the subject of their discussions unsteadily got on it's feet, coughed out a fair amount of blood, and straightened. I had no magic, but could hear the natives constant breathing.

         And then I made my first mistake. I asked for help.

         That is to say, I made a flash of colour appear before me.  Pitch black, as black as grief itself, showing my helplessness. It was how everyone in the universe communicated.

          Of course, the natives ran away screaming at the top of their lungs about sombreos reappearing, or something like that.

Well done, genius.

'Not now.'

         In my defense, I was literally a few steps from the brink of death, and I had never used my voice for communication with anyone other than Ed, Rocky or my sons. So I didn't realise that this world should have hearing organs before it was too late.

         Sighing, I decided to feed on the fear they were emitting to get some magic, atleast. It was enough for me to sense the outlines of their soul. The natives were running all over the place, immense amounts of fear radiating from them. But there were also some creatures heading straight at me. Something landed right in front of me. and pointed a...... spear, yes a spear at me. It didn't say any thing, but he was silently signalling his comrades.

         I decided to make a move. I raised my arm up, slowly, and said" Stop. I come in peace."

         The creature didn't reply, so I carried on," Hey, sorry about destroying your footpath, but I can explain. You see...." I said, taking a step forward, before I realised, something was trying to whittle away at my bond with darkness. Without thinking, I tried to block it, only for it to suddenly attack with renewed effort, this time attacking me instead of my bonds. It was really powerful.

"Shit!....Okay , 1-2-3". First understand the power. Second, check if it is a cast or a stored spell. Third, if cast, attack the mind of the caster. If stored, find weaknesses,  a way around the conditions of the spell.

           The standard guide for resisting spells. I made it myself.

            Okay, first step. Understand the power. The spell was driven by an emotion, but .......the emotion seemed wrong for a spell that can kill . The emotion was ....

             Love?

What THE hell?[

Calm yourself, my friend, you donot need OOOOH FUCK THEM!! Who do they think they are? .....as I was saying, keep your anger under control. There is no reason for you too lose your temper for the likes of these....... He stopped talking as I raised a metaphorical hand. This insult was nothing. I have seen my world blown apart. I felt a familiar twinge of rage, burning my inhibitions and offering me power. I pushed it aside easily, but it was still there. I dare not draw power from it, or I might return to the same state I was in when I wiped out the demons.

           But still I  felt extremely insulted. Love is a powerful emotion and a powerful source of energy. It was one of the only forces to be present in the void periods (courtesy of the Wyrms). But for all its power, there is an unspoken rule that many beings agree upon . "Don't use love to destroy". There are allowances , but love energy is used mainly for healing, as a food source, or to create bonds between individuals. Not to kill a random person for no reason at all.

              Probably not worth trifling with.

             Damn it, whatever. I'm human now, I do what I want.

            I decided to complete the  SGRM procedure and checked for a mind behind the spell. The spell was exceptionally well composed, but it was rooted in an artifact. So probably no mind. I decided to head over there and crush it.

            Of course, I forgot about the warriors in front of me. As soon as I took a step, the spell resisted with a crackling sound, trying to burn me. Yeah, good luck with that. But their must have been some light, because some people decided to throw their spears at me. The first one hit me in the shoulder before glancing off, leaving a long bleeding scratch.

So we do have some blood  left in this body, I thought we'd run out.

I am sorry to disillusion you but we still have most .......

'Not now, guys', I thought as I dodged the other 6 spears and grabbed the 7th. I used its own momentum to throw it back, pinning the commander to a nearby building by his wings, making a distinct crackling noise.

             Wait. Wings?

              Over the course of my training which I started when I was a just hundred years old, I have kept my eyes tightly shut. All the time. I have sort of forgotten what vision is actually like, and if I open my eyes now, I will be too distracted to actually fight, but man, was I tempted to. Why did these creatures have wings? Weren't they human. Was Ed too caught up by visions of angels he saw from my mind and the internet that he decided to get creative? I have no way of knowing.

              The next time I meet him, I am going to bash his exoskeleton in.

              While I was thing about this, I beat up the troops that had appeared.

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5 minutes later, after beating a hundred guards

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            Yup. Their skin was like hard crystal. Some elasticity, but it cracked if hit hard enough.

             Most of them attacked from the ground, and I was certain that their  were feet were hard, judging from the clip-clopping sounds. Metal shoes? Who cares.

             The artifact feeding the spell was just before me, under a canopy of some kind. It was drawing power from from the natives, who for whatever reason had assembled around it, pouring love energy into the artifact. I began to have second thoughts when I this, because the creatures did seem desperate. Perhaps they had something to fear from creatures based on darkness.

             I began walking towards the artifact when a blast of energy hit me. I manged to deflect some of it, but it still pushed me off my feet. A new aura came into my field of view, as powerful as a minor god. It charged another  bolt of magic, once again firing raw magic at me. A very foolish thing to do. If I had even a hundredth of my power, I could have killed the god in so many ways. I could have absorbed it by a proxy spell, or turned it into a self destructing spell, destroying the user. This god was evidently just a new one. Perhaps, instead of killing him, I would just beat him up?

           I diverted the magic away from me as I was not skilled enough to directly absorb it yet. It flew off into the sky. And as she( it was a she, her voice seemed distinctly feminine) stood in confusion, probably wondering why I was not dead, I leapt  towards her and jabbed at her with my left fist. She seemed suprised, and raised up a unusually complicated barrier ( atleast for her level. She was literally throwing magic at me earlier).

                 It was not enough. A few hundred tons of force smashed through it and connected with her jaw, throwing her back quite a bit. She hit the ground, and didn't move. Dead?

Unconscious.

'Good.'

         I walked over to her and grabbed her neck. I could sense the bond between her and the artifact. It was much stronger than the others. She was the owner, and she was using the spell. I lifted her into the air and held her there. I could just ball my hand into a fist and end her. I wonder if her blood smells like iron, like a human's . Then again, I probably wouldn't do it. Many creatures have tried to hunt me down over the years. At first, I would just kill them, because I had won fights by underhanded trickery. But as I grew powerful, I began to just let those I defeated go. It just caused people to come after me more.

                 Rocky said I was soft. He killed most of his opponents. But what does he know?

A lot more than you do.

OMG!!!BUUURRRNNNNNN! Jalye Dilo

                 Before I could reply, however, I heard an angry roar.

"YOU BASTARD!!!!"

         A spear whizzed through it air and impaled me, the tip emerging on the other end through my right shoulder. The speed and strength behind the spear suprised me.

"Get away from my wife!!"

                I dropped the goddess, and jumped towards the new threat, punching him with a thousand tons of pure force . He raised up a shield just in time to block the hit.

My fist hit the shield hard.

                   And stopped. The shield didn't even waver.

         It was only when that I looked closely at it, did I know that I was probably screwed.

        The barrier was an Absolute Shield. A hypothetical spell. But there was no mistaking it.

        What was more perplexing was that he didn't die immediately after casting the spell. Unusual.

         This fight just got interesting .