Chapter 39 - Rise of the Demon King - Part 9

Sixth Dimensional Plane of Existence:

A white-haired and red-eyed monster was fighting a brown-haired and brown-eyed muscular God.

As their fists clashed, the whole town was evaporated into nothingness.

But that was not all.

The faraway mountains were shattered into pieces.

“Oh? Are you holding back, Arael?”

A thin smile ripped the God of Power’s face in half.

“Of course, you weakling.”

From the ground, spikes appeared.

But the God of Power dodged them easily.

“I saw that coming, Nazar… Oof!”

While he was dodging, he jumped up a little.

But from thin air, a lance appeared and stabbed Arael, the God of Power in the back.

He slowly turned around to try and neutralise it.

But.

A massive boxing glove made of green energy light hit the God of Power in the head from above, and he started to fall.

“Thanks, Hal Jordan.”

Nazar tried to prepare his next trick.

He held out his palm as he moved towards Arael thousands of times faster than the speed of sound.

In his palm, a miniaturised sun appeared.

(This sun is powerful enough to easily wipe out a solar system. Even at this size.)

The sun was hotter than Earth's sun.

With the sun in his hand, he clenched his fist.

Crushing the sun in his palm, he contained all of its energies.

"I love this so much."

With the power of an exploding sun, he punched Arael in the face.

"Take that! You can't top this trick of mine-- Ah? Why is this idiot smiling?"

The waters behind Nazar transformed.

Soldiers made of water appeared.

Before Nazar could react, he was shot in the back with water-based arrows.

Of course, it did not hurt him but it was enough. Arael wanted to use them a distraction and it worked.

A hand made of this world surface came out of nowhere and pulled Nazar down to the ground.

He was then swallowed by the ground.

“Now on to my next trick...” the God of Power said as he slowly landed on the ground.

He held his palms close to each other.

Within it, a dark ball of energy appeared.

“[Heavenly Lights]!”

Flying out of the ground, Nazar was bombarded with Heavenly Lights.

Heavenly Lights are beams of energies which comes from Heaven.

Heaven is a place which holds the angels but it also gathers their excessive power. So, anyone who can use the Heavenly Lights to summon those excessive power into energy beams and use it against their opponents.

These Heaven Lights can be powerful enough to destroy galaxies.

Of course, Nazar was not bothered by the Heavenly Lights.

In fact, those vanished as soon as it came in contact with Nazar.

“Now my real trick...”

Nazar looked at the God of Power in a dazed manner.

“Come forth...”

He threw the dark energy ball towards Nazar.

Nazar’s eyes widened in horror.

For a split second, it thought it was the Dream Sphere.

“Living Black Hole!”

The dark energy ball started to get a human-like silhouette.

“Oh fuck!” Nazar said as he smiled.

He felt a little a relieved it wasn't the Dream Sphere.

“Hey, language now.”

The Living Black Hole which had a human-like silhouette started to walk towards Nazar.

Nazar jumped back and increased the distance.

But he had forgotten one thing about Black Holes; they pull everything towards itself.

Feeling the pressure of this black hole, he started to realise that he was being pulled into it.

“If you prevent yourself from being swallowed by my newest trick, the Living Black Hole...”

The God of Power spread his arms.

“Then it will be your win.”

He clenched his fist.

“Now, come… My first ever win.”

Nazar didn’t even pay the God of Power any attention.

He was too focused on the Living Black Hole.

(Calculating...) Nazar thought to himself. (The size of this is 2 meters tall and 90 centimetres wide. The gravity… This isn’t a normal black hole. It will grow and grow the more it consumes... Holy fuck! That’s powerful enough to devour a whole fucking universe. This fucker is not going easy, huh?)

A thin smile appeared on Nazar’s face.

(Haha… This should be fun.)

Everything in this dimension started to get consumed by it, including light.

However, it avoided the Gods.

(Accessing Nazar 6.0.)

His physiology changed but his looks stayed the same.

He was made from nothingness. There was nothing.

(“You can’t! That’s practically cheating.”)

He heard a telepathic message from Esme.

(“What? Seriously?”)

Nazar frowned.

(“You are allowed to do anything but use [Nothingness Physiology].”)

(“Ugh! Why?”)

(“Will you be okay with a cheap win like this?”)

Nazar thought about it.

He has never won from Arael either, so his first win should be special.

(Let’s revert back to normal form. I am going to defeat him in that form.)

His form reverted back to normal. In this form, he is just a normal human with enough power to stand above everyone else.

And once again, he was being pulled in towards the Living Black Hole.

“Ccccoooommmmmeeee ccccccllooooooooooooooserrrrrrrrrrrrrr….”

“It speaks?!” Nazar shrieked out.

Placing puffing his cheeks, Arael said, “Of course! It’s called a Living Black Hole for no reason.”

Nazar could hear him perfectly because of his enhanced hearing.

“I am so going to win this.”

Sighing, Nazar thought.

(Hmm… Black holes, huh? )

"Wait!"

Nazar smiled once more.

("Yo, flat chest.")

("Do you want to die?")

Nazar noticed how angry Esme sounded.

("Err… is [Antimatter Physiology] allowed?")

("Hmm... Ye... Wait, not. Don't use that either.")

(Fuck!)

Nazar jumped back again.

Of course, he was being consumed back into it.

("You can use it but you can't use your antimatter physiology.")

("Oh.")

Nazar started to look a little excited.

Creating an antimatter barrier around himself, he stopped moving.

He was no longer being sucked into the Living Black Hole.

“How is that, Arael? I am the winner.”

(“Since it looks like you are ready… Let’s begin the final five seconds.”)

Hearing Esme's voice in his head, Nazar spread his arm.

With pride, he said, (“Bring it on.”)

(“Okay, then. Four seconds left.”)

The barrier was protecting Nazar.

Arael should be frustrated now.

But.

“I was expecting that.”

“Hm?”

Nazar was not sure why Arael was smiling.

Before Nazar could figure out why Arael was smiling, he felt something from behind him.

Looking back, he noticed that there was another God of Power standing.

“A decoy!!”

Before he could react, he was punched in the face and thrown towards the Living Black Hole.

“Aaahhhhh!!”

(“Two seconds.”)

(I have to stop this… If I teleport…)

Being slowly sucked into the Living Black Hole, Nazar realised something.

(Huh, this will be better.)

A thin smile appeared on his face.

Holding his palm towards Arael, he became confused.

“I am taking you with me.”

(“1 second left.”)

Using telekinesis, he pulled Arael close and both of them got devoured by the Living Black Hole.

However, since it was created by Arael himself, it spat them back out a second later.

The Living Black Hole vanished as soon as it spat them back out.

Sitting on the ground, both of them laughed.

Bumping their knuckles with each other, Nazar said, "That Living Black Hole trick... Yep! Best one so far."

"That exploding sun trick is cool and all but I need to see a better one next time."

Suddenly they heard an angry voice from above.

“What shall your punishment be?”

Looking up in reflex, they saw all the Gods look down on them.

“Err...”

Nazar pointed at Arael besides him with his index finger.

“He started it.”

As soon as he said that, he vanished into thin air and left this dimension.

လလလ

Wednesday, 19th of May - London, UK:

It was the middle of the day, inside a small cafe near Tower Bridge in London, Emma and her friends were sitting down and drinking coffee.

They were enjoying their afternoon when something happened.

Everything froze except for her.

Her eyes widened in horror.

“Wh-what…?”

She stood up in reflex.

“Don’t worry, Emma. It’s nothing serious.”

Hearing a voice from behind her, she looked back.

“You...”

And she recognised her.

Looking at the person, a complex expression appeared on her face.

She was looking at a beautiful petite blonde woman with blue hair.

She was around 1.74 meters tall. So, they were of similar height.

She was looking at Emily Jones.

The petite woman had a wide but sad smile on her face.

“Emily?”

Emily walked towards Emma fast as her eyes watered up.

Hugging her tightly, Emma was confused.

“I… I missed you.”

Emma hugged her back.

“You remember too?”

Emily stopped hugging her and stepped back a little.

“I… I-I never forgot.”

Emma was a little surprised.

Emily wiped her tears with her hand.

“Sorry, if it was a little sudden but--”

“No, no. It’s okay.”

“Oh… Also, sorry about this… I, uh--”

“Did you do this?”

Emily nodded.

“Can you fix it?”

“Yes. Sorry about that.”

Emma was not sure how to feel at this moment.

She recently remembered Emily. In the original timeline, Emily and Nazar were close friends. But she also had close relationships with Emma. Since Nazar was never really interested in family, Emma looked at Emily as her older sister. And Emily saw her as her younger sister.

Now she found out that Emily never forgot.

But that was not all, she also found out that Emily has powers.

“Do it after I sit down, okay?”

Emma tilted her head a little in confusion.

“Oh?”

"So, no one can… you know, find it weird?"

“Ah. Y-yeah, sure.”

Emma sat down as the world around her resumed.

Her friends hadn’t noticed anything.

Emma looked back and saw Emily standing a little further away.

However, it didn’t seem as if anyone could see her.

“I, uh, need to do something. Will be back soon though.”

Without waiting for their reply, Emma took her stuff and left the cafe.

After leaving the cafe, Emma glanced a few times at Emily.

Emily noticed her gaze, so she smiled and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s… I was wondering, how did you know about me?”

“Oh...”

Emily sucked in a breath.

“I have been keeping an eye on you.”

“What?!” Emma blurted out.

With a stiff smile, Emily said, “Whenever Nazar is on Earth, I can’t see 150 miles of his surrounding with my nigh-omnipresence.”

“...?”

Emma tilted her head in confusion.

“And since he wasn’t on Earth most of the time, I wanted to keep a close eye on you just in case if something were to happen.”

“Uhhh… What?”

“Hm?”

Emma stopped walking.

“But he was always on Earth?”

“Aha. That was a decoy,” Emily said as she slowed down and looked back. “He was on Earth but not a lot. So, I didn’t want you to get dragged into some cosmic affairs again.”

“Again?”

Averting her gaze, Emily started to walk.

“Anyway, I wanted to apologise about what happened in the other timeline.”

Emma started to walk behind her fast.

“You were under someone else’s control, right?”

“You could say that.”

“I see...”

Emily turned around and looked at Emma.

“But just so you know, I would never hurt you. You were like a family to me. A sister I never had. I know what I did… or what my body did was unthinkable. But can you forgive me?”

Emma smiled.

“I never blamed you for whatever happened there. I mean, I just remembered it. Sooo... To be honest, I like this world more. I have a family now. Brothers. Parents. Cousins. Friends. More. And none of them is faking it.”

Emily smiled.

“Well, I think that’s one good thing that came out of it...”

“Maybe a lot got messed up… But this world is far better than the other. Everyone has their own free will. No one is being controlled by anyone… I think. So, in a way, thanks.”

Emily was still feeling troubled but she didn’t show it on her face.

"That world... It was an ugly place. You died. You brother never really had a life. My parents were... I think you know that, don't you?"

The mood became gloomy.

"My bothers... One of them was killed. And then came back. The other... You know what Nazar was like, don't you?"

Emily nodded.

"That world was full of bad things. Yes, there were good things... But the bad overshadowed the good."

Emma looked at Emily with a wide smile on her face.

"So, thank you."

"..."

Emily was not sure how to feel about this.

A lot of people died because of her but Emma was thanking her.

She had to live with the guilt of what was done by the Nameless One, using her face.

(I really didn't want that reminded...) Emily thought to herself. (But I guess I can't blame her.)

Looking around, Emily noticed an ice cream stand.

“Anyway, let me buy you an ice cream. For the same of old times.”

"Why?"

"Because it's tasty?"

"Yeah, I agree."

"Remember how much you used to love ice cream back in the day?"

"Well, who doesn't love ice cream?"

"But it was the only thing you pretty much ate back then. Do you still only eat ice cream?"

"What? No. I am not a child anymore. And even then, I used to eat other things too..."

"But you wished to only eat ice cream, no?"

".... A-anyway, I am not a child anymore," Emma said slowly. "So, I don't like ice cream as much."

“To me, you will always be a child.”

“Ouch! That kind of hurts," Emma said with a blank look on her face. "But free ice cream is always welcomed.”

“On that note, never take ice cream from strangers.”

“I am not a child, okay?” Emma blurted out.

Emma might have looked annoyed but she was happy deep down.

Walking towards the ice cream stand, they continued their conversation.

“Do you know how you always wanted your brother’s attention? But he never cared?”

“But then you came and I didn’t really want his attention after that…” Emma said as a sad smile appeared on her face. “But if we had been together more often, both of our lives would have been better. That idiot!”

“I knew how that felt like. I mean, my brother went missing too when I was very young.”

“Not gonna lie, a lot of weird shit happened around us in that world.”

“Yeah...”

They bought ice creams and continued walking.

“So, how is Nazar these days?”

“Uh… I have no idea, honestly.”

“Hm?”

“I mean, he was always alone most of the time and secretive… But recently he told us about his powers.”

Emily was not surprised.

If Emma had remembered, she knew that she would have found out about his powers.

“But other than that… I don’t think I know anything about the real Nazar from this timeline.”

“I see.”

With a troubled expression, Emily looked at Emma.

“Say...”

“Hm?”

“You know for a whole week, you were missing from my radar. And Nazar wasn’t here on Earth either. So… Are you okay?”

“Yeah?”

“No, I am serious. Are you sure nothing happened to you? I mean if something did… If he goes berserk… Then...”

“Well, something did happen...”

“What?!” Emily said out loud with a serious expression on her face.

However, Emma just replied with a smile.

“But that’s a story for another time.”

“Huh?”

“If you promise to meet me again, I will tell you.”

Emily sighed.

“Fine.”

“Yay!”