"I'm the person standing against chaos; definitely it's not ideal to be the reason for chaos, and never will be." Raizel replied strongly, keeping his strong glare at Arfanez.
"Chaos isn't an incident; it's the reflection of the mortals' sin. Once, he told me, mortals need redemption; they have to be redeemed." Arfanez replied.
"He?" I thought to myself. His tone of speaking was rather respectful than his casual smiling face suggested. It was pretty clear that he was talking about some certain higher, respective entity, but it was yet to be clear to me exactly who that person was.
"Who are you talking about, who is 'he'?" I asked.
"Does it matter? It's time for you to bypass me for ascension; he's far away from you guys, the rarest piece of existence who can't be bothered by mortals such as yourself." Arfanez replied to me, his voice sounding respectful yet insulting toward us.
I smiled carelessly at his insult. My tongue couldn't hold back from challenging him right there, even after being aware of the outcome, "If we're such pathetic mortals, then why don't you show us our place by yourself? I refuse to believe your supremacy over the mortals."
Arfanez lowered his gaze a bit, then spoke a bit loudly while smiling narrowly, "Mortals will never learn their place. They're foolish and self-determined even when they are supposed to lower their gaze and serve as their superior's most sincere servant. I'm afraid their confidence will lead them to the worst possible demise, the way of demise that they never dreamed to meet, even with the endless storm of determination."
Arfanez kept himself silent for some moments afterward; he closed his eyes along with that. After that, he strongly opened his eyes and shouted, "I just don't understand why they're so hungry! Why do they always seek to dominate? I want to know, I want the answer. Just tell me, why can't we stand back and try smiling? Why do we always have to be the dominator out of all? Why?"
"Give me the answer, all of you."
At that moment, Arfanez realized it wasn't his scream. It was merely a reflection of a past event, some moment when he screamed loudly to find the answer to his questions. He wanted to scream but couldn't; his voice couldn't reveal it. Perhaps, it's no longer a question he wants someone to answer.
It wasn't something I could answer. Perhaps, it wasn't the right time for an answer. What could possibly be the reason behind that? Is it our fault or not?
Survival, domination, and salvation. Those who seek to ascend, those who want to be stronger and reach higher, they are running after these ideas. Perhaps, there has to be a story behind their running after a certain one of these ideas. It could be that they want to survive along with their loved ones, or maybe they were ordered to survive and keep the world intact, to keep surviving alongside the world. It could be that they want to dominate because they were dominated once a long time ago; they seek revenge over the world and want to make them feel the pain they felt in the past. It could be that they want salvation for the world. They want to change the world; they want to create a new world without a flaw; they want to ascend and recreate the chaotic world into a heaven alike.
The world runs on these ideas, and so does the story. So tell me, Arfanez, which one of the pathways do you belong to?
After keeping his gaze downward for a while, Arfanez took a long, refreshing breath and raised his gaze to us. His painful expression changed in no time; a bright smile appeared on his face. It was a fresh, flawless smile that could change the momentum, change the flow of the surroundings. Then he spoke with a smile, "I'm the missionary of redemption, like the way he is. And so, I shall be the one to remove the sinful worlds and create a redeemed story."
Raizel glared at him more intently, as he seemed pretty suspicious about Arfanez's causation. With his suspicious eyes, he asked, "What are you actually trying to do?"
Suddenly, Raizel thought of something and instantly shouted toward Arfanez, "Don't tell me, don't tell me you want to destroy Zeldia!"
All of us became active and careful toward Arfanez and began to prepare ourselves for an instant battle right there. Arfanez was unfazed, totally aware of the things that might happen and are going to happen. Without moving even a limb, he narrowed his eyes at us and spoke a bit loudly while glaring indifferently, "Unfortunately, you are regretfully late to realize that. But who cares. After all, none of you can ever stop me either way."
Before any of us could anticipate the way things could happen, Arfanez started his action without a second thought. He created a magic circle targeting Raizel and, without any hesitation, launched a dashing golden sword at Raizel, and the sword stabbed him down there without fail. Raizel grabbed the sword with his left hand and tried to pull it out from his body, but the poison implied in the sword slowly absorbed his active magic power and forced him to go unconscious.
Without standing there for even a single moment, Arfanez appeared in front of Elesia. Using his right hand claws, he left a deep scar in Elesia's chest as she began to bleed. Though it wasn't enough to cause her death, it yet made her lose consciousness in a matter of seconds.
Before I could react to his 2nd action, Arfanez disappeared from there and stabbed Aizis from behind, out of our consciousness. He slammed Aizis into the ground as Aizis coughed up blood and began to bleed unstoppably.
I drew a frozen sword with my magic power and prepared myself for a strike. As I was about to strike, a voice stopped me there. It was Aizis who was warning me, "Don't, don't do it." His voice appeared broken as he was barely speaking while trying to block his bleeding.
As my attention was focused on Aizis, Arfanez appeared behind Marco and slammed him into the ground while placing a deadly claw scar on his back. Marco lost his consciousness right there without a second of delay.
Arfanez lifted his gaze at me and then licked the blood from his right hand claw, then spoke, "You guys aren't prepared for me, even with all of that strength of yours." As he was speaking, his voice was continuously resounding in my ear and making me tremble over and over without a pause.
I kept shifting my gaze around there to all of them, witnessing their unconscious bodies and silent gazes. My entire body was trembling as I was wondering what to do. But I didn't know what that 'something' was that I should do. At that moment, a hand claw appeared in front of my gaze and penetrated through my chest and broke out from my back.
Arfanez instantly brought out his hand from my penetrated chest and kicked me toward the ground as I was slammed there. My entire body was covered with blood as the deadly wound in my chest couldn't stop itself from bleeding without a pause. Slowly, my eyes began to close themselves, or I should say they were forced to shut down.
Arfanez closed his clawed hand and took a fresh breath while lifting his gaze upward to the sky. Then he slowly spoke with an indifferent expression, "The saint from a thousand years ago has been changed. The world changed me, the world changed everyone, the world rejected the saints and became one with the concept of selfishness."
Arfanez smiled a little widely toward us and spoke again, "When the world itself will betray you, how could you protect it? How could you be the ones to be backstabbed? Do you believe the world will treat you like a hero forever? No, they'll treat you like a hero today and then, they'll kill you in the worst possible way tomorrow, just for their own sake. Because they're selfish; they do everything just for themselves and their loved ones; that's the law of the world."
Arfanez took a breath and kept himself silent for a few seconds, then spoke again, "And so I believe…"
"The world needs chaos, The world deserves chaos!" Arfanez shouted pretty strongly. His voice echoed throughout the entire world and kept resounding unstoppably all around.
Arfanez's figure slowly disappeared from there into pieces of golden mists. And so the castle was left silent, along with our unconscious figures.