Volume 9: Rapture

Arc 82 - Rapture (Part 1)

Friday, 6th of September 2019:

Nazar woke up. He scratched his eyes.

“Solace?”

- Yes, Master. -

“Time?”

- 10 AM. -

“Date?”

- 6th of September. -

“So, I just slept for 12 hours? Interesting.”

- 11 hours and 45 minutes. You woke up 15 minutes but you were still a little sleepy. -

Nazar got off his bed.

He got out of the room.

“Nazar, breakfast is ready,” Mary shouted from the ground floor.

“Okay?”

Nazar looked confused.

- She asked me to let her know when you wake up. -

“I see.”

(Accessing Nazar 3.0.)

Nazar washed his face.

(Can’t change between them without my powers, huh?)

He then went downstairs.

“Good morning,” Mary said.

“Good morning.”

Every time Nazar talks to someone close to him, he sounds super awkward.

“Emma told me that you lost your powers.”

“Not really lost it, but it just went to zero. It will take a few days and I will be back to normal.”

“I see.”

She picked up her bag and started to leave.

“Going somewhere?”

“Yes, work,” she replied immediately as she started to leave.

(What was her job again?)

“I am a teacher.”

“What?”

“You looked confused for a second. Plus, it seems like you didn’t know.”

“Ah. And what is dad’s job?”

Nazar started calling them ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ some time ago. He still feels a little awkward when he says it out loud.

“He is also a teacher.”

Nazar gave her a blank look.

“We met each other because we work at the same school.”

“Oookay.”

“And I left some clothes for you there. Make sure to change your clothes because you have been wearing these clothes for years.”

“It’s--”

“I know what is it. But it will be a good thing to wear something else once in a while.”

“I will see.”

She left the dining room.

“Why are you going late?”

“Because I wanted to make sure you were okay. And to eat your breakfast. Eating chicken always is not good.” She said as she laughed.

“I see...”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

She left and Nazar was left alone.

He ate the breakfast that was prepared for him.

Once he finished his breakfast, he washed the cup and plate.

“Solace, how is Norse God? Has he gone berserker recently?”

- No. I have been monitoring his condition and he is doing okay. -

“That’s good to hear.”

Nazar went to the living room and there were some clothes there. There were dark blue jeans and a white shirt, with black dots here and there.

He stared at it for a few minutes and then picked it up.

He then took a shower and wore the new clothes.

“This is weird.”

- What is? -

“Wearing clothes that are not black?”

- Sigh. -

Nazar wanted to say something but then he dropped it.

- You should go take a walk outside. -

“That’s not happening.”

- Come on, it will be fun. -

“What if someone shoots me?”

- I will protect you. -

Nazar thought about it for a minute.

- I think you need to take a break. After those many deaths, go outside and eat something and… just look around. -

“Okay.”

- Maybe you want to hang around with Laura? -

Nazar’s shoulders jerked.

“N-Nah, That’s not going to happen.”

- I see. -

Nazar turned around and saw his reflection in the mirror. In their living room, there was a massive mirror.

He looked into the mirror and he started trembling.

- Master, your heart rate is increasing. Are you okay? -

“Is… Is this my life now?” Nazar spoke with trembling lips.

- Master? -

“Scared of my own face? My own shadow?”

The reflection on the mirror smiled, but Nazar was not smiling.

The reflection changed a little. It was reflecting the Nameless One instead of the Nazar.

His heart rate jumped once more.

“Hello, my sweet, sweet abomination,” the reflection said.

Nazar’s eyes were wide open. He could not close it. And his trembling increased.

“You put on a brave face in that other dimension but we both know you are a small child who is still crying over that.”

“...”

“You know what? Let’s just get this over with.”

The reflection was talking but only Nazar could hear it.

“You will one day become what I wanted you to become. You will be the destroyer you are meant to be.”

“...”

The reflection shook its head.

“You thought you were a god? You thought you could do anything because you had a little more power than others? Well, let me tell you something. You are not a god. You are just a creation. A tool to be used. Like how your parents did, Zerathos did, and everyone else around you.”

- Master, your heart rate is increasing even faster. Are you okay? -

“One day you will meet your destiny. My abomination, you will become a destroyer that ends everything. This is your destiny. There is no escape from it. Whether it is now or billions of years later.”

The refelection’s face was ripped in half.

“So, I think it will be better if you do it now.”

The reflection laughed and laughed.

Nazar punched the mirror.

When the mirror shattered, the Nameless One’s face appeared on every shattered piece. And his voice came out of every shattered piece.

“Hahaha. You put on a brave face there and I thought I couldn’t break you… but I did, didn’t I?”

Nazar kept on punching the mirror.

“You are a broken little boy. But I like how you put on a brave face in front of your family.”

He punched the wall over and over again. The good thing was, no one was in the next house at the moment.

After a few minutes, a massive hole appeared in the wall. And his hand also started to bleed.

However, Solace repaired his hand, the wall and the mirror.

Nazar fell to his knees.

“Is… is this what I did to my every victim?” Nazar muttered.

- Master? -

“Is this what they felt like?”

Nazar wrapped his arms around his knees.

“The ones that I left alive?”

He buried his face in his knees.

“Fearing everything?”

- Master? Your heart rate is increasing uncontrollably. -

“I thought he could not hurt me.”

- What should I do…? Ah. -

Nazar closed his eyes.

He could no longer hear Solace, either.

Someone called his name. However, he could not hear it.

(It’s dark and cold.)

They called his name again but he couldn’t hear it.

They called his name again and he heard like a distant sound.

They called his name again and he heard like a whisper.

They called his name again and he heard it properly this time.

(Laura…?)

“Nazar?”

This time he heard it properly.

He slowly raised his head. He was sitting in front of the mirror, so he saw Laura behind him.

“Nazar? Are you okay?”

He looked at her blankly in the mirror.

Nazar’s eyes were not blinking.

He saw his reflection change into the Nameless One once again.

Laura waved her hand in front of Nazar’s face.

“Hello? Are you there?”

“Laura…?”

“Yes, it's me. Are you okay?”

Nazar’s eyes started blinking.

“Laura?”

“Yes?”

Laura looked confused.

“When did you get here?”

“I have been here for about a minute?”

“Ah. I see.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Then why are you still trembling?”

Nazar looked at his arms and saw that he was still trembling.

She wrapped her arms around him.

“Are you not scared of me?”

“I…” Laura thought for a while. “Do you remember when we first met?”

“Yes.”

“That was the day, I stopped fearing you. I understood that you are not so different from us. You might have powers, but you are not so different. When you healed my brother and told me that I could rely on you if I ever needed anything. When you first drank that coffee.” She paused before continuing. “That was the day I stopped fearing you. You killed and got killed, but I knew you were not the same as we thought you were. Sure, at that time I thought you could kill me any second, but I don’t why I just never feared you.”

“I see,” Nazar said as he stopped trembling.

Laura smiled.

“Anyway, how did you like my coffee that day?”

“It is was the first time I ever drank coffee, but I gotta say, it was not so bad.”

“Maybe because I made it?”

Nazar laughed.

Nazar turned around and Laura unwrapped her arms around him.

She then kissed him.

“Why do you look surprised?” She asked.

“I… I thought you only kissed me because I was dying?”

She kissed him again.

“I was serious.”

She stopped smiling.

“Oh, I am sorry. I… I thought you liked me so I just kissed you without thinking about it.” She scratched her head. “I am sorry. If its okay with you, you can just forget about it.”

This time Nazar kissed her.

“What I said that day, I was being serious, too.” Nazar looked down. “But I want to know… are you just around because you actually want to or because you want to help me?”

“Both. I want to help you but at the same time, I kind of feel safe and… happy when I around you.”

Nazar looked at her and then smiled.

“Thanks for coming here today.”

Nazar moved a little and pressed his back against the wall. Laura did the same.

“So, can you tell me what happened to you there?”

“The Nameless One died, or at least I hope so.”

“No, I mean what happened to you?”

Nazar took a deep breath.

“I was killed over and over again. After meeting you, he killed me more than 500 times. And I ended up losing almost all of my energies. So, now I have to wait for a few weeks to get it back.”

“And?”

“And every time I look in the mirror, I see his face. Smiling at me. And when I am alone, I imagine every single death. It was… it was cruel. I have died thousands of different ways. My head was torn off, a massive hole appeared in my chest, my organs were turned in cockroaches, my heart was taken out of my body, my body was chopped to pieces, my brain was taken out of my head, my… my… my...”

Nazar started trembling again.

Laura placed her hand on his mouth.

“I am sorry for asking.”

After a few minutes, Nazar calmed down.

“So, why did you come here today?”

Laura gave him a blank look.

“Your AI teleported me in.”

“Solace?”

- You were trembling and your heart rate went sky-high. Whenever she is around, you get relaxed. So, I teleported her here. -

“You can’t just teleport her here. She was probably doing something.”

- Sorry. -

“Yes, I was doing something.”

“Sorry. And thanks.”

“What will you do without me?”

“Nothing?”

Nazar stood up.

“What… Your brother? What happened to him? Is he okay?”

Laura went silent for a little while.

“He… left.”

Nazar looked at her.

“What?”

“Once you left, he tried to kill me again, but your N-Sphere (?) was there.”

“All my tech was left behind that day.”

“I see. So, he then left and told me to never even look for him again. I tried to look for him but could not really find him anywhere.”

Laura stood up.

“He told me about he was thrown 20 years into the past or another universe. He got raised there and had a wife and a child. However, that bastard sent him to kill me. And the only way he will return his family to him, once he kills me.”

“Sorry.”

“...”

“Solace? Search him out.”

- On it. -

“What is she doing?”

“She is looking at the data and then pinpointing his location. Mainly looking at his unique physiology and DNA map.”

“I see. But… I am not sure he will meet you… or meet me.”

“I can’t find his family for him like this. I want to ask him about them, so Solace can find it for him.”

- Found him. -

“So, do you want to go?”

“I… Yes. I have not met him in a while. So, yes.”

They both vanished into thin air.

The other side of the planet:

The Goddess of Knowledge, from Omega, has now been on Earth for about 10 hours now.

She was currently in an internet cafe, in China.

She was looking for information on Nazar, However, she was not using normal methods. She was connected to the mainframe and from there she was collecting everything digital about Nazar.

However, to everyone else, it looked like she was just like everyone else.

“There is not much in here?”

She looked confused.

“It’s like… it’s like all the data has been deleted. I should have been able to find any data possible, even if it was deleted.”

She then smiled.

“He has covered his tracks well.”

She got out of the cafe and started walking in a random direction.

“I guess, I will have to use the old methods.”