Chapter 102: Chapter 85: Rise of Wrath

 

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Pain. The ringing in my ears pierced my brain. After hearing that my kids were being used as hostages at the Arena I was unable to think. Only able to run I left Prince Arlen behind before I realized it, weaving through the armies trying to kill each other in front of the Arena. The rebels, distracted by the surrounding threat, mostly didn't notice that I was running under them and the few that did gave up as I got too far away for them to actually attack. After a few minutes of frantic running I’d made it, only for the entire Arena to blow up in my face.

[<kof kof> W-What was that?] - Moon

A scene of hell before me, fires raged everywhere and I could see mutilated bodies strewn about in the aftermath of the explosions. Hearing a woman cry for help I instinctively reacted and ran over to help only to freeze in horror, speechless. The woman desperately screaming for help was missing half her body, her hands instinctively trying to grab for the rest of it as she bled out. Of those around her, most of them running about in a panic, many others sat numbly in shock, slowly speckling with the woman's blood as she flailed about in desperation.

Sick. Vomiting the contents of my stomach in the face of such horror I panicked at the thought that my kids had been caught in the explosion. The woman, her feeble cries finally dying down, the backdrop to my flight as I ran through the enormous stands. The images around me nothing short of hell on Miscalis. Keeping my eyes open for someone, anyone familiar I saw scenes of children desperately shaking their deceased parents, and parents hugging what was left of their children.

Then, faintly in the distance, I heard a familiar voice echoing down from above.

[There!] - Moon

Immediately reacting to that familiarity I ran towards it as three voices became more and more clear, all three of them ones that I knew.

[Lake! Kris!] - Moon

[Big Sis?!? Is that Big Sis?!?] - Kris

[Help Big Sis! Bad Guy Big Sis is hurt!] - Lake

[Judy?!? How?!? When?!?] - Moon

Quickly approaching my two little ones I saw them crouched over a larger woman, blood pouring from multiple wounds and body scorched by the explosion. Getting closer the first thing I noticed was the distinct lack of injuries on the two kids, luckily whatever had happened hadn't effected them personally. The next thing I noticed was the strange device attached to the two of them, their bodies pressing against it as they tried to help the adult—bunny-kin— as I now realized she was.

Turning towards my voice the two of them immediately asked for help with the woman, the panic on their faces evident. And, turning towards the woman they were covering I was in for one more shock, it was Judy.

[<kof> Yeah sorry bout this but that explosion probably opened up my wounds again. I don't think I'll make it this time... <kof> damn...] - Judy

[Nooooo! Big Sis you have to save Bad Guy Big Sis!] - Kris

[Yeah she covered us when that loud sound came!] - Lake

[I-I don't, wait?!?] - Moon

 

Coughing as she attempted to smile while blood continued to pool around her my children begged me to save her. Looking at her body I couldn't think of anything I could do; it seemed she had protected my little ones with her own body during the explosion and it showed, her body was covered in charred skin and her wounds were beyond anything I could- wait!

Suddenly a memory of the Prince as we were preparing to leave this morning floated through my brain. My white knight as he pressed a pack of supplies into my hands and in them, a potion.

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A distant explosion rocked the forest. Much too distant to feel shockwaves but still incredibly loud it sent the local animals fleeing in panic. Richard and Daisy de la Amchier looked at the distant blast in shock, it was coming from the city!

The day had started off fairly normal. They'd eaten breakfast, checked on the 300 or so captured bandits, and taken baths in a nearby river. After capturing an assassin a few nights before they'd systematically captured every nearby group of allied bandits as well as a few that weren't specifically allied since they were out here anyway. Using the information forced out of the captured killer they'd even found a few sites that were previously unknown. These outside forces, too distant to provide expensive image stones for communication, were luckily easily taken care of without informing the greater forces inside the city.

It was as they were still shaking off the grogginess of sleep that the explosion woke them fully. Their sleepy noontime meal interrupted by the blast, deafening even at this distance.

 

[Beryl! Watch the captives! We're heading back early, promises be damned!] - Grampa Richard

[We appreciate all the help dear, could you handle the rest?] - Grandma Daisy

[U-Understood M-Miss Daisy! Have a safe trip!] - Beryl

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It was over, I wasn't able to save them. Explosions echoed around the Arena as I froze in shock, my brain unable to catch up with what was happening. I wasn't... familiar with such tragedies. I'd lived in a mostly peaceful country in a time where these kinds of acts were extremely rare and something that most people didn't have to witness. Sure I'd seen news about them before but seeing it personally, it broke me. It was difficult, I blamed myself for not reacting in time, it was my fault. It hurt to think, it hurt to feel, it hurt to hate, and then I stopped feeling at all.

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[RAAAAAAAAAAH!] - Rose

[Huh?!?] - Keitaro

I felt ecstatic, the despair, the excitement, all of it was caused by me! In the years since I'd been summoned I'd been treated like Royalty. My every whim fulfilled and my every desire granted. But it was boring. I craved something more substantial than an easy life. But they wouldn't let me loose, treated as a weapon I was held back in fear of not being powerful enough, my strength not up to par with what they were hoping for. Sure I was still more than enough to overwhelm the vast majority of my foes but the ones they wanted me to fight were well beyond my abilities. And then they summoned that brat!

Overflowing with potential and under their complete control because of some new technology they'd gotten ahold of they started focusing their attention on training her to replace me. I, of course, wouldn't have that, so when a call to use an asset I’d been working on came in I volunteered.

At first the assignment had been boring, meeting with the various nobles that they'd set up under the puppet state, bringing the different criminal factions under his thumb. All of it busy work.

Then came the interesting stuff, the Tournament. Replacing some mute in the Adventurers tasked with protecting the Tournament he'd done everything he could to force the situation towards a violent end. Originally the plan had been to quietly deal with the King and Prince as well as kidnapping the woman suspected of being the new Demon Lord but that sort of thing was boring!

And it had all worked out, he'd shown up right as the Prince was about to lose, eliminating him and the Demon Lord's Successor, Rose, was in front of him. He'd even improvised a little and planted explosives on some Demi hostages as a way to keep everything under control. It was perfect!

So why? Why was he feeling fear?!? He was stronger that this Demon Lord before him, he knew that. Yet after he had blown up some of those furry trash the feeling from Rose had changed considerably. It was like he was witnessing the descent of a god.

Steeling himself he faced the silent Lamia, her face gradually becoming slack. And then suddenly he felt a hard blow to his shoulder as his line of sight tumbled freely through the air. Flying backwards from whatever had hit him he stabbed his blade into the ground to right himself, finally coming to a stop nearly halfway across the Arena. What he saw, shocked him. Covered in a thick black flame Rose was staring at him, her face devoid of anything. And suddenly, the flame changing shape as she did so, she roared. Her scream, sounding more like one of those Dinosaurs from that American movie from his childhood rather than anything a humanoid could produce. The flames around her shifted until they formed something resembling wings, her face now filled with seething anger. And then she was gone.

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Comforted by a gentle warmth and silence I floated in an endless darkness without any concept of time. The unknowable abyss, rather than being terrifying, calmed me. Its inky blackness easing any thoughts away from my consciousness.

I don't know how long I'd been in this place, my sense of time, of cause and effect, scrambled with every passing moment floating in the endless sea of deafening black. But suddenly a voice broke through the silence, my own, as an image of a face with no mouth flashed through my mind and woke me from my stupor.

[W-Where am I?] - Rose

Not expecting a response I was surprised when, instead of answering me, the abyssal night surrounding me seemed to shrink quickly, light edging out the darkness. Within seconds I was back in a familiar place once more, my Mind Palace, the world inside my soul. And the place that I "stood" was even more familiar, it was...

[...!] - Her

[Ah, so you're finally awake?] - Rose

[...] - Her

[I'd hoped we would have more time to figure things out but it looks like that's not possible is it?] - Rose

[...] - Her

[What finally did it? I'm just cur- Ugh!] - Rose

Turning around I found exactly what I expected, a mirror image of myself, down to the smallest detail. The only difference is that the one before me looked to be only 5 or 6 years old, or 3 on our current world. It was Her, she'd woken up fully despite our efforts. Making herself known without speaking I could somehow understand what she wanted. Finally confronting her face to face I worked up the courage to ask what it was that had woken her only to be assaulted with images of the Arena, wreathed in flames, blood and death everywhere I looked.

[...?] - Her

[I-I'm fine, I just... Oh gods why? S-So much death!] - Rose

[...] - Her

[You want... to protect me? How?] - Rose

[...!] - Her

Somehow expressing concern over my wellbeing without any actual words I reassured her I was fine only to nearly vacate my stomach’s contents when another vivid image of what was happening outside flashed in my brain. Barely holding in my bile I felt, rather than heard, a promise of safety, a desire to take away the pain. Except...

[No! That's not protection, that's just running away! I couldn't do that again I can-] - Rose

[...] - Her

[You... you're not what we thought are you?] - Rose

[No... she's not, she's yet another piece of baggage from our previous life. I thought she might be Wrath and in a way that was correct but it's not that simple, she's...] - Logic

The images she sent, the darkness that I'd just escaped from. That wasn't safety, it was cowardice. I'd done that before, run away from my problems. The result had been my little sister trying to kill herself. And then it clicked.

She, Her, wasn't what Logic and I had expected her to be. We knew she had some kind of connection to an aspect of Wrath, it was quite obvious based on what she did when she woke and Logic was sure that other aspects would appear over time. However, the fact that this one had been second behind Logic probably said something.

Responding to her silent thought I vocalized own, only to have them confirmed a moment later as Logic spoke from behind me, his own thoughts mirroring my own. She's not just Wrath she is...

[Anger at Myself, isn't she?] - Rose

[...] - Her

[I think so yes, she's that part of you that blamed yourself for what your parents did and... for what the Hero Tanaka Keitaro did.] - Logic

[...!] - Her

[Ugh! H-Hero?!? He... He killed them? All my fault, it's all my fault! It should have been me, I should have stayed home and protected her! Mary was left alone with them all that time and I did nothing! I knew! I knew what they were like but I turned a blind eye! I saved myself! This time too! It's all my fault! So many people dead and it's all my fault! I-] - Rose

[...!] - Her

[You'll take my burden?] - Rose

[Rose no!] - Logic

[Then do it.] - Rose

[I will.] - Wrath

She was my inner anger, the blame I directed at myself. It made sense then that she would appear first after Logic. In fact it was a miracle that Logic had been the first rather than Her. Confirming my theory a second later Logic nodded as he brought up what had most likely formed this aspect and, what had woken her.

Images assaulted my mind, scenes of death and mayhem, episodes of tragedy in the play that was my life. My fault. It was my fault, it had always been my fault. My cowardice always being the one thing that brought everything crashing down. Back during my previous life too, I'd abandoned the one person that trusted me, the one person that I cared for. She must have been scared, she must have hated me for leaving her behind. It had been because I was too afraid to stand up to them that she had suffered. I always knew that, I always knew. But I had just turned a blind eye, ignored it in favor of the pretty lie. And Mary had tried to end it.

My mirror image, Her, gently touched my shoulder while sending images of comfort and an end to my indecisiveness. Images of a place without the horror that I spread wherever I went.

Logic, just now realizing what was about to happen tried to stop me as I submitted back to the darkness that I deserved. And everything ceased.

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