As Serena snapped out of her trance, remembering where she was in an instant, she came to understand.
This wasn't the past, she was still suffering from the memories.
As she saw the Adrenaline Junkie, in the current day, in her new reality, she let out a sigh of discomfort.
She wanted to kill him, but she couldn't. She didn't know if it would cause Libertas to revive.
"Now! Let's kill the adrena... Freedom Junkie, whatever he is, and get it over with", one of the Celestial Angels from the army screamed.
The entire army, as well as a ton of other people, all wanted to kill the unconscious Chaotic Demon in front of them.
"Nah. Let's have him live."
Suddenly, a dissenting voice came from the crowd. It was sharp and authoritative, yet incredibly relaxed and peaceful.
It was Luc.
"And why should we listen to you? You only joined the army because you were bored."
It was a surprising voice to hear - GoldenWing.
She'd woken up earlier, barely retaining consciousness.
"Damn. That bitch. She really beat my ass!" GoldenWing muttered under her breath.
"If he's allowed to live, then he could put all of our lives at risk. What's your argument for keeping him alive?"
Luc only laughed, and simply stated a completely irrelevant viewpoint.
"He looks funny."
GoldenWing, furious, grimaced in annoyance.
"This isn't a fucking joke, Luc! This boy killed millions! Families & homes were in New America, and he just wiped them out. We need to kill him!"
"Fine," Luc replied, "If you want him dead, than do it yourself. He's right there."
GoldenWing, to that, immediately stretched out her wings, ready to send a giant tornado through to wreck the Freedom Junkie, but hesitated.
She stopped.
"I can't do it."
Sure enough, she was afraid of killing someone. She could do it in self defense, but to murder someone in cold blood when they couldn't possibly defend themselves...
A Celestial Angel like her couldn't bear to do it.
Luc smiled.
"The truth is, I saw the battle of New America. He did kill a lot of people. But he is still a child."
Firstly, Luc didn't care if the Freedom Junkie was a kid or not, he just wanted him to live for his own enjoyment.
Secondly, the Freedom Junkie wasn't a child. He was a grown man in a kids body.
Either way, this started to slowly convince GoldenWing.
"No. He must die."
General Krieg, from the side, knew what a threat that Jesse was. He wanted to eliminate him at any cost.
Lake, still in her hiding spot, quietly listened to this interaction.
As he tried to rally more & more people to kill Jesse, even more people came to his defense.
"No! We won't let you kill him! He saved our lives."
It was many of the citizens of the War-Torn Nation.
"You... morons! Do you know what this little shit is capable of! Tell them!"
General Krieg pointed to Ice, an unexpected person.
Unfortunately, Ice simply stated what she knew.
"He's ruthless. But he hasn't done anything to wrong me."
She had completely forgotten all the horrific garbage that the Freedom Junkie pulled up until now.
Any time there was a traumatic moment, it would instantly be purged from her mind, meaning that her time with this monster amounted to nothing.
No new knowledge was extracted.
Meanwhile, the Dimension God spoke up.
"I don't think he should die, either. He did save us."
It hurt her heart to say that, because deep down, she wanted nothing more than to strangle the fiend right there.
She held back tears of rage, trying to convince everyone not to kill the Freedom Junkie.
Krieg shouted in their faces.
"You... idiots! A day will come when that boy will ruin everything. Your lives. Your hopes. Dreams. They'll all be gone, shattered in an instant! You heartless pieces of shit may not care if he kills a million people, but what if it were your son or daughter who had to die at his hands?"
He truly didn't understand how they were even debating this. He was a sociopath who killed hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even more.
"Well, if it were my child who was killed by that punk, so what?"
Luc laughed lightly.
"I don't care about any of what you have to say. Let me put this discussion to rest. I wish for him to live, so i'll kill anyone who tries to stop me."
He gave up trying to convince anyone rationally. Instead, he just decided to throw out the fact that he was willing to use violence to get what he wanted.
This made Krieg go mad.
"You... have no soul. I should've known. All of you Chaotic Demons are monsterous and reckless. Pure evil, sadistic creeps!"
He stopped trying to do anything with peace, and instantly attacked with his troops.
While the people of the War-Torn Nation were willing to defend this criminal, it seemed like there was going to be another war spread out...
But Luc did something incredible.
From outside of his body, a great flame burst.
Pure blackness. Blacker than black.
It held a darkness so vast that one couldn't see color through it if they tried for a million years!
As the giant flame rose, he laughed.
"A... Chaotic Demon!?" GoldenWing was severely shocked.
"No. Just demon." The Perfect Human corrected her as the Holy Flame of Retribution burned half the remaining army to a crisp.
As GoldenWing desperately tried to remove the flames with her tornadoes, she quickly concluded that she was only fanning the flames.
The entire flame spread throughout the War-Torn Nation, rapidly killing many.
All of the citizens stood proud, defending the Adrenaline Junkie, safe from the flames.
It seems he didn't want to kill anyone who was defending Jesse.
As the flame burned, like a thousand suns, it killed even more.
"It's hungry."
At that point, GoldenWing was nearly consumed by the flames of death, and gave up hope.
"I won't kill him!"
In an instant, the perfect human forced the entire nation to bend to his will.
They answered to power.
And nobody had more of it than the Perfect Human.
"Too bad. I didn't want to reveal my powers to ths world just this yet. If anyone tells the Freedom Junkie, i'll kill you. He's my perfect test subject."
General Krieg succumbed to anger, and then, despair. He had given up entirely.
"Fine. You win."
He wasted no time at all, finally realizing that he wasn't going to be able to kill the Freedom Junkie.
Looking at the black fire covering his eyes, General Krieg knew just how hopeless the situation was.
If he continued to push, and tried to kill the Adrenaline Junkie anyway, he would have been instantly killed by the man standing in front of him.
Along with Luc, the citizens of the War-Torn Nation stood behind him.
"Leave him alone!"
"Yeah! He's innocent!"
These people didn't realize just how psychopathic this kid was.
General Krieg feared that their stupidity would ruin everything he had worked for, and he was right.
"Fine. I'll let the boy live. I don't have a choice, anyway. But let me tell you this...", he said.
"One day, when this boy becomes a threat to you all, the entire world will fear. When he continues to walk by, unpunished by consequences, you will learn. You will come to gravely regret this day."
As General Krieg led the army away, those words lingered in everyone's hearts.
The army, shuffling away in a giant group, completely left the War-Torn Nation. The only soldier to stay was GoldenWing.
"What are you looking at? You really wish to fight to kill that kid?" Luc sneered.
"No. I just feel like staying. Is that okay?"
Their conversation was brief, and clearly, they seemed to contain no ill will towards each other.
Luc trusted her enough to not kill the Freedom Junkie.
Of course, she didn't wish to face Luc. She could clearly tell he was far stronger than her.
"Is it... true? You're really a..."
"A demon? Yes."
She was shocked. Until today, she didn't know that demons even existed. She began to bomboard Luc with questions.
"So... are angels real, too? Also, I thought you were the son of the King & Queen of New America?"
"I'm not. That's just a rumor. However, they do have a son. But he's just a toddler, maybe 4 years of age."
She was shocked. Than what about the rumors of him surviving poison and the like? Was all that false, too?
As if reading her mind, Luc responded. "And if you're wondering, yes, I am immune to poison, as well as having a superhuman body that is immune to all sicknesses. But that's something that all the top demons have."
The fact was that lesser demons only had the ability to control black flames, but demons that were very powerful, at the upper echelons, ones like Beelzebub, Lilith, Asteroth, and Asmodeus. Those demons had superhuman bodies as well.
"Alright, enough questions, GoldenWing. I'm boring myself just speaking to you."
He cut her off instantly.
As they all began to relax, something unexpected began to happen!
From a distance, thousands of weapons fired off, and the massive army had clearly returned.
GoldenWing smiled.
"Oops. Looks like my army has returned."
Leading the helm, General Krieg pursuited in full force!
"You... morons!" Luc coughed up, trying to stay calm.
As his black fire surrounded the nation, the citizens who were protecting the Adrenaline Junkie gathered their weapons!
On top of that, GoldenWing shrugged.
"I had a feeling he'd come back. That guy is relentless."
Instantlty, Luc gathered what had happened. GoldenWing was distracting him!
She waited for the perfect time for him to let his guard down.
The Dimension God stood on their side, fighting the army, and struggled heavily.
While this occurred, a Celestial Angel in the group, created a giant tsunami.
She laughed in annoyance. "It's over. I'm killing this asshole!"
As she said that, a giant lightning bolt struck through the sky, Road standing there, menacingly.
"Look, guys. I don't know anything about the Adrenaline Junkie, but personally, I can't just let you kill a child."
In reality, he owed it to the Adrenaline Junkie to help. The Adrenaline Junkie saved the nation!
As he turned into a giant lightning bolt, he noticed something.
"Hey, it seems like my lightning isn't red anymore. It's just the normal color now, that's kinda neat."
He didn't know why, but frankly, he didn't care.
As this massive battle went on, General Krieg got scarily close to the Adrenaline Junkie.
"Die-" He shouted, before being cut off.
Giant waves of black flames blocked his view, and Luc stood in front of him.
"If you don't die from these flames, you'll wish you did."
The many citizens of the War-Torn Nation bustled through, pushing past the massive army!
The war was not over just yet!
Krieg screamed!
"I WILL KILL THE BOY, AT ALL COSTS! EVEN IF IT MEANS ENDING THE WORLD!!"
He was willing to do whatever it took. He would become the most evil existence in the whole world, if it meant that the man who killed his daughter would suffer a moticom of pain.
He was not going to give up!
"The Freedom Junkie dies TONIGHT!!!"
As GoldenWing desperately tried to fan the flames, they only grew bigger, and the citizens eventually started overwhelming the army.
It was at that moment, that she noticed.
The citizens of this nation, they were warriors, too!
The sheer gravity of soldiers, it was overwhelming, and as the war reached its height, someone...
Appeared in the sky.
It was him!
THE FREEDOM JUNKIE!!!
As he continued strangely teleporting into the night sky, simulating flight, he simply looked up.
"Goodbye, this is my last gift to you, i'll truly enjoy this life!"
As he said that, he tried to utilize the red energy, but failed once again.
He assumed that it was gone forever. He could no longer use it.
In a smiling laugh, the black flames all disappeared, and Luc jumped out.
"Freedom Junkie! Let's establish an interactional partnership in the future! Meet me... 8 years exactly, to this very day! I want to see... what you become!"
As he said that, Jesse took note.
And at that moment, General Krieg screamed. "NOOOOOO!"
He could only think of one thought.
Somebody needs to kill the Freedom Junkie!
The night sky ignited in a kaleidoscope of fire and fury as the colossal War-Torn Nation erupted into a bloom of violent light.
The land cracked, brimstone surrounding it, and yet—amid the chaos—a single figure soared above it all.
The newly christened Freedom Junkie, cloaked in the impossible shimmer of Quantum Flight, hovered at the edge of the nation, watching history fracture beneath him.
Explosions blossomed like twisted flowers in the dark, and from his vantage, the devastation below looked almost beautiful.
He wasn't running away. He was taking his leave.
Becoming what the world wanted him to be! A paragon of ultimate hope, and equally, of undending despair.
And then he saw them—not hundreds of thousands, but millions. An unending ocean of people surged forward like a living tide, pouring past the now nonexistant barrier, no longer restrained by chains, flags, or fear.
Their cheers were a deafening hymn that shook the very bones of the planet.
Faces blurred into a mosaic of hope, rage, and unshackled joy.
He searched for Lake, but she was lost in the storm of exhilaration.
Still, their voices rose together, their roar defiant and full of expression.
Dust trailed behind them like stardust, streaking across the battlefield like the beginning of a new constellation.
The earth trembled in both fear & celebration, and from the heart of the citizens came a cry—Divided, yet paradoxically, unified:
"Goodbye, Freedom Junkie!"
*END OF VOLUME 2*