Haruka suddenly remembered about Jonathan. He should know that the government isn't what they pretend to be. And having Jonathan as a valuable chess piece on his board would just be awesome.
The greed to win.
The glutton to take what wasn't his.
Took over him
Haruka walked towards the room where Jonathan lives. He knocks. It was open.
Turns out it was opened.
Haruka went in and found out it was empty.
He felt a hand over his shoulder. Grabbing him tightly.
He was caught off by guard and immediately took a fighting stance.
He looked back, his eyes glowing, one red the other blue.
It caused him trouble to see so he turned it off, seeing Jonathan.
Jonathan was sweating and panting as he stared at Haruka with pure anger. He was about to punch Haruka but Haruka barely dodged it.
Jonathan said out with anger.
"What's wrong with you kid?! WHY'D YOU LET THEM DIE! WHY WOULD YOU KILL! THAT'S NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE! A HERO ISN'T-"
Haruka stops him mid sentence as he yells out. His voice was filled with vengeance.
"BUT WHO SAID I'M HERE FOR BECOMING A HERO?! The only reason why I live is gone.... GONE! You got no fucking idea sir... No idea whom you are believing."
Jonathan was caught off by guard from Haruka's bold words.
"You know what kid? You are nuts... You are out of your mind..." his tone was mixed with annoyance and disgust.
Haruka talked without a single hint of remorse.
"Few days after I got in. I overheard the prime minister having a conversation with someone stating we are nothing but guinea pigs, the fights that every heroes fight are scripted, Alastor was never the bad Ferixo but just another form of it's. They keep earning everyone's trust by showing off their scripted heroes and villains fighting. And you know, many people died... Millions, for no fucking reason but because they wanted power. Yes you work for them, WE work for them alright? Don't count me cause I'll show y'all what it is."
At first glance Jonathan thought Haruka had went crazy but Haruka's eyes showed pure hatred and a strange feeling of overwhelming truth. His eyes got teary.
"Yume was killed by some motherfucker called Kafka... Yume died for no reason. I wanna see who killed her... A script or not. I'll find him. Mark my words. You are either with me or not, I don't care alright? I thought you should know it."
Jonathan didn't talk... He was definitely tired from the rescue session.
Jonathan broke the silence.
" But does that justify you killing the innocent children?"
Haruka replied instantly.
"If craving power can make people lose sanity and kill innocent people, why can't a bit of insanity for losing the loved ones can do the same?"
He had a point
Jonathan didn't say anything else. Jonathan stood their taking Haruka's word.
Maybe he was telling the truth, Jonathan thought to himself.
Haruka without extra words knew he had to find the guy that threatened him few days ago. About pissing on his grave.
Zero.
He surely can't forget that name.
Maybe he was Kafka. Who knows.
Haruka walked outside the J class venue which was a huge gigantic dome. Maybe Zero was nearby the other domes nearby.
Haruka spotted Zero without looking for him. Zero was waiting outside the door beside a tree.
Zero asks.
"So here you are... Haruka"
Haruka replied with sarcasm and anger.
"Nah I'm dead while you are pissing on my grave... Why did you murder Yume... What did Alastor do to you... What did SHE DO TO YOU?!"
Saying that Haruka aggressively ran towards Zero and punched his face.
Zero fell on the ground as he spits out the blood.
He looks at Haruka and stands up.
"I did nothing... Which in fact I know you are not from this universe. And you should know that I am not from this timeline."
Haruka heard that and was confused. He just fell from the sky as the information dropped. How'd he know that Haruka wasn't from this universe? That's what bugged him, what bugged him more was what does he mean by, "not this timeline."
Haruka didn't hit him again. He wanted to know what's up with Zero.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Zero spoke with pride now that he stood up.
"Allow me to introduce myself to you once again... I am Zero... Just Zero... It was a name given to me by your future self to me. I was here by the help of the wishing realm. Whatever you are experiencing now is what your future self wanted before he killed himself in the future. We... Were great friends. "
Haruka was confused but he read and watched enough anime to understand whatever the bullshit Zero was saying. And the name Zero indeed meant something deep to him. It's the name of his favorite anime character after all.
Haruka struggles to believe but he asks anyway.
"So... Why would my future self want Yume dead? And... What's the wishing realm? The only thing that made me trust you is the fact that you knew about the secret I hid from everyone. That I'm not of this verse."
Zero was happy as he heard those words. And he began explaining everything that was unknown to Haruka.
"I'll say it now... Let's have a seat"
They both sat under the tree in the green grass. The 3am morning really hits different.
Zero continued.
"The wishing realm is one of 7. One can enter it when they wish so badly to make it turn into reality that it surpasses their will to live or die. It's beyond live and death. You get me? In the wishing realm lives many angels. But the thing we want to know is, the Winged Angel. He is the one who grants. I made a wish to come back in this exact timeline. Well it's a long story about what made me go in such situation. THERE are many things which if I say then it won't happen. But I'll try to say as much as I can—"
Haruka didn't let him finish.
"Wait wait dude that's crazy. A huge lore. All this by my future self and you say losing Yume was part of it? Oh God... "
Zero says with a small dry smile.
"Well let me finish first... As I saying I'll try to explain as much as possible. Firstly the wishing realm's winged angel was a human. He had a great desire to saved his loved one. As much as I know, he wished so hard to get her that he ended up waking in the wishing realm, he sees an angel, the 97th winged angel. His desire for love was so strong that it exceeded the desire of life and death—in fact, the desire was beyond life and death as said. But the Winged angels suffer, a lot. 4 seconds of Human world is 1 year in the wishing realm. And the Winged Angel is nothing but a pair of wings, the wings need a vessel. And by now it had 98 vessels. You see the 97th Winged Angel begged the one before him to be the Winged Angel and free him. He manipulated him and then, the Winged Angel found the 98th. He went there for love but got nothing instead. The wings had their own consciousness, it flew towards him and the wings that was situation in the roots of the wing broke the bones and took control over the body, their consciousness merged and the whole body started to know everything and everyone's wish. Judging which one should be granted and which nor, but once one enters the realm, even if it's moral or immoral wish, it shall be granted except for few EXCEPTIONS you see. His body bleeds continuously. And he keeps doing his job. That's pretty much I know about the wishing realm after I entered it. To enter it again one has to wish twice harder than he did on the first time. And then we have the Void. You have ciphers I suspect, your future self did too. He went nuts over it. The king is the void itself. The void is nothing yet it can also grant something. The void knows a lot and sees a lot. The Great eye is it's artwork and it's possessed by the government to keep their eye on everything. I bet they are watching us talk. But remember it's the great eye and not the great hearing. The void needs a vessel and the vessel is of... Well... I can't tell for sure but... It's someone close to you. And to make sure the Void can inherit the vessel and become the king who will grant prosperity to the greedy government pigs, he has to make you weak by pain for some reason. Which he did. I bet he is here. And I don't know who he is. But he must be inheriting someone close... You better check out. And as for Alastor, I can't tell, restricted info."
Haruka blinked few times as he closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. He processed all those words one by one and understood what was going on.
"All the 7 sins and virtues have artworks too... So the Void is that powerful... Well... Zero... If that's what I wanted in future, if I free the world then..."
Haruka got up. Zero too, stood up. Haruka looked at Zero and placed his fist on his chest.
"Can you rule the world?"
Zero looks at him with loyalty and pride.
"Yes sir... As you command."
He ended it with a salute.
Haruka suddenly tried to catch a pattern.
"Well... You said that the Void take my closest as the vessel, what does it have to do anything with me?"
Haruka added.
"Wait... Saito is nearest and closest to me in a way... After Yume's death I wanted to protect him and my other friends including my sister and her family the most. Saito came first in mind..Right—"
He paused as he realized Saito wasn't with him.
He was terrified to realize it so he was running back at the J class venue. He went in.
But what he saw was some good for nothing guests who weren't invited... The S class and Z class heroes. Not even I-class heroes but S and Z class. The S and Z class heroes weren't spoken of much because they were considered just too powerful, which they are. But Haruka is the only one who knows the fact that it's all scripted like their mom scripted their adoption.
All the heroes present in the hall of j class thought it was yet another scripted fight. So they took it normally as their everyday job.
There was a Hero called Reyden. A light user. Rank: Z class
Stellarius was a Hero—a hero of cosmic user. Z class
Romanchikov was a dark user hero. Rank: Z class.
There were 3 more heroes of S class.
Tamura, a user of Earth.
Tentaro, a user of Flame.
Vermylion, a user of Wind.
They stood there staring at Haruka, some with bored expression and some with a smirk.
Tentaro spoke first.
"C'mon we are getting paid for this tiny kid? Like a 7 million yen over this? The government can be a good author based on the script."
Before anyone can chuckle Haruka replied, his tone filled with disgust.
"Don't confuse it. It's a real a battle... It ain't scripted like your fucking adoption letter that probably was a apology letter from the condom company."
The heroes began laughing.
Stellarius spoke with a calculated tone.
"So... Those were the lines they gave you?"
Stellarius pointed out his finger as a small white ball which was compressed was thrown at.
Haruka tried to dodge it by moving slightly sideways to his back but turns out a blackhole of his size with same qualities of his ones was summoned behind him.
The tiny ball hit Haruka's leg as it exploded.
Stellarius stared at the scene and spoke with boredom.
"Tch... Same as every other fight. Why send 6 of the strongest? I mean you got injured from my supernova and my blackhole caught him by off guard... What a pussy... All bark no bite."
Haruka raised his hand as the blackhole was now gone. He was a cosmic user too, beside being user of light and darkness.
Stellarius was surprised.
"Woah... You are the 3 element user? Are you even from this world? How does your body keep up with—"
Haruka didn't let him talk and shot a compressed blackhole at his mouth while in a blink of an eye his leg got regenerated but sadly the jeans in that side didn't.
Stellarius dodged it effortlessly.
"How did... Light magic doesn't heal so fast... What are you?"
Haruka didn't talk much, he used Chrono split while Erythal crimson was off, because he didn't need to se another timeline or universe now. The eye that had chrono split was now glowing blue.
By the next blink Haruka summoned his staff by using Wrath's artwork of summoning.
It looked different for some reason but the same staff with ferixo stone on top of it.
He immediately created a dark smoke around his left hand—leaving off trails.
The right hand had white smoke around it, also leaving trails in mid air.
Haruka didn't knew how it could help him but he landed a punch on Stellarius's stomach.
And almost immediately he tried to summon a supernova but it was so powerful it had blown the hand he hit with.
With his hand, there laid dead Stellarius.
Other 5 heroes stared at the scene processing what happened after just few splits of seconds. Their eyes wide.
Tamura and Romanchikov spoke.
"Yo broskie. Was it that serious? Why would you kill him? It wasn't in the script..."
"No way you were serious... You defeated the strongest one in fact... How—"
Tamura spoke not letting Romanchikov finish.
"No! VICTORY is ours... It always has been. 3 elements or not, scripted or not, we trained more... Together we can win against a j class villain!"
Hearing this the others straightened up and got ready.
Tentaro's flame surrounds him and his wand.
Tamura touched the ground as he was preparing it.
Reyden had light surrounding his fists and Romanchikov had darkness around his fists.
And the wind was around Vermylion.
Haruka couldn't make his move now.
The ground was holding his feet.
Tentaro jumped as his flames hit Haruka. Haruka was burning alive. Vermylion delivered wind causing the fire to increase.
But before they could make any further move.
Haruka broke the ground using immense gravitional pressure which was also a part of cosmic element.
He broke free but he was being burnt.
He was screaming in agony and pain as his skin got regenerated with wrath's artwork again.
His clothes were half burnt. Haruka coughs
Reyden's fist was about to hit Haruka but using Chrono split Haruka dodged it.
But Romanchikov managed to hit, causing Haruka's face to lose the skin from that part.
Haruka didn't know how to use wrath's artwork to summon any other weapon, he doesn't know how he did it before to summon his staff.
But he tried anyways.
He summoned a huge labrys.
He immediately made darkness and light surround it.
He grabbed the axe and hit Romanchikov's head.
Romanchikov stumbled backwards, the darkness and lightness only made it worse. Haruka pointed a small blackhole to his head, it hit. And by the new second Romanchikov was missing a head.
Vermylion used wind to lift Haruka on air.
Tentaro shot fire at Haruka but Haruka defended it with his axe.
Reyden shot countless tiny glowing particles hitting Haruka on his back.
The heroes thought he was down as Vermylion slams him hardly on the ground as the last blow.
Verlymion spoke.
"This should kill a small potato..."
Tentaro points his hand at Haruka ready to burn him.
Haruka stands up... Regenerated again.
He grabs the labrys which now got covered with darkness again. And half of it was now covered with light while the other half with darkness.
He threw the labrys at Tentaro to finish him off, because his flames were causing him real problem.
Tentaro dodges it, Haruka immediately creates a football sized supernova only to throw it at Tentaro with the motion of his staff.
Being too fast, Tentaro failed to dodge it this time.
He died as half of the venue now was destroyed and blown up.
Haruka said, "Should've told me sooner about this supernova.. I wonder if a hypernova compressed in tiny ball can kill the rest of you or nah."
Saying that he quickly grabs his labrys. Tamura uses Earth to trap Haruka's leg but Haruka broke free by using labrys.
Using the time that Vermylion had, he made air so thin that it passed through Haruka's side and began cutting his flesh.
Each hit hurts.
Hurts like hell.
Half of Haruka's face was blown... He couldn't take this much pain. Even thought he regenerates. He can't.
He was trying to regenerate but his face cut again. Haruka ran with his labrys held beside his face and with a swift swing he tore open Vermylion's chest.
Haruka was too tired to use wrath's artwork to regenerate again.
He kept walking towards Tamura.
Tamura created a wall of earth soil.
All it took was a tiny supernova to break through it... Haruka was bleeding.
He felt the pain. And at a point he was so conscious he found joy in it.
The more conscious a man is the more he drifts away from sanity.
He is drifting now.
His eyes glowing blue as he walked towards Tamura. He summoned multiple black holes around him so that Tamura can't run. He used immense gravitional push from above on Tamura so that he can't move even an inch
Haruka had him cornered.
Tamura knew he was done for.
One last try. He threw soil at Haruka's eyes.
It did nothing... Haruka summoned few tiny supernovas around his knuckles... And then he liked Tamura's face and sat on his stomach.
Haruka began punching him, each punch an explosive one breaking Tamura's skull and bursting the flesh on his face.
Tamura was begging for his life, he couldn't speaks now all he did was groan and cry.
Haruka didn't stop. He kept punching him to death as Tamura eventually died.
Haruka stood over his body with his right foot above Tamura and left one on ground.
Haruka began regenerating.
"Can't you see I'm still standing... Better than I ever did... Yume?"
He began walking, advancing towards room A-0174
Saito wasn't there.
Haruka ran towards the 4rth floor...
There he found Saito in the same corner of the where he found the ciphers. Sitting alone.