Chapter 169 — The Favorite
The battlefield moved.
Not the wind.
Not the fire.
The battlefield itself.
Brook's fingers pressed into the black stone.
His broken body remained on the ground.
His breathing was shallow.
Every part of him hurt.
But he had stopped fighting it.
Stopped trying to control every movement.
Michael watched him.
Lucifer's smile had disappeared.
Death stood silently beside them.
Brook opened his eyes.
Then disappeared.
Michael moved.
Too late.
Brook reappeared behind Lucifer.
His fist struck.
Lucifer turned with the impact.
Brook teleported again.
Death raised his hand.
Brook disappeared before the air could vanish around him.
Michael's sword came down.
Brook appeared beneath it.
His body moved.
Not faster.
Earlier.
His Devil's Instincts reacted before the attacks fully happened.
Lucifer laughed.
"There you are."
Brook appeared before him.
Lucifer's Hell Flame erupted.
Brook vanished.
The fire consumed nothing.
Michael moved.
Brook reappeared beside him.
Michael turned.
Brook's fist stopped inches from his face.
Michael's sword stopped against Brook's throat.
Neither moved.
Brook smiled.
Michael's eyes narrowed.
Brook teleported.
Lucifer attacked.
Brook moved.
Death looked at him.
Brook disappeared.
The three Sources watched him move through the battlefield.
For the first time—
Brook wasn't simply surviving.
He was fighting.
Lucifer's Hell Flame spread across the ruins.
Brook appeared inside it.
Lucifer smiled.
Brook punched him.
Lucifer's head snapped sideways.
Brook followed.
A knee.
An elbow.
A fist.
Lucifer blocked.
Brook disappeared.
He reappeared above him.
Lucifer looked up.
Brook's foot struck his face.
Lucifer crashed through the ground.
Brook landed.
Lucifer stood.
His injuries healed instantly.
Brook didn't wait.
He teleported toward the first crystal.
Lucifer's Hell Flame rose.
Brook changed direction.
Michael was waiting.
Brook twisted.
Michael's sword passed beside him.
Brook disappeared.
Death raised his hand.
Brook reappeared behind Death.
His fist reached forward.
Death turned.
Brook stopped.
Death was looking directly at him.
Brook teleported.
His heart remained untouched.
Brook landed.
His breathing was controlled.
Lucifer stood across from him.
Michael.
Death.
They had stopped fighting each other.
For the moment.
Lucifer smiled.
"So."
Brook stared back.
Lucifer continued.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
Brook looked toward the first crystal.
Then at them.
"I still only need to touch it."
Michael stepped forward.
"No."
Brook's eyes narrowed.
Michael pointed his sword toward the battlefield.
"You need to understand."
Brook laughed.
"Understand what?"
Michael didn't answer.
Lucifer looked toward him.
"Tell him."
Michael remained silent.
Brook's expression changed.
"Tell me what?"
Lucifer smiled.
"Your little question."
Brook stared.
"The one you've been asking since you received us."
Michael looked at Lucifer.
"Enough."
Lucifer laughed.
"No."
He looked at Brook.
"You want to know why you can move the way you do."
Brook's expression changed.
Lucifer continued.
"Why your body reacts before you think."
Brook looked down at his hands.
Lucifer smiled.
"Why you disappear from one place and appear in another."
Michael's expression hardened.
Lucifer continued anyway.
"Why you can use powers that don't belong to you."
Brook looked toward Michael.
"Is that true?"
Michael answered quietly.
"They belong to you now."
Brook's eyes narrowed.
"But they came from you."
Michael said nothing.
Lucifer smiled.
"You are not the Source."
Brook looked at him.
"You are the vessel."
The words stayed in the air.
Brook's jaw tightened.
Lucifer continued.
"A vessel can hold water."
He pointed toward Brook.
"But it will never become the ocean."
Brook looked at Michael.
"Then what am I?"
Michael raised his sword.
"You are becoming."
Brook stared.
"What does that mean?"
Michael moved.
Brook teleported.
Michael's sword followed.
Brook appeared behind him.
Michael turned.
Their fists collided.
Brook was thrown backward.
He landed.
Michael appeared.
Brook blocked the sword.
The impact cracked the ground beneath him.
Brook's arms shook.
Michael pushed harder.
Brook looked into his eyes.
"You've been holding back."
Michael's expression didn't change.
Brook gritted his teeth.
"How much?"
Michael pushed.
Brook dropped to one knee.
Michael's voice was quiet.
"You do not want to know."
Brook laughed through the pressure.
"That's never stopped me."
Michael stepped backward.
Brook fell.
The battlefield became still.
Lucifer smiled.
Death remained silent.
Michael slowly lifted his sword.
Then the darkness changed.
Brook looked around.
The ruins disappeared.
The battlefield became empty.
Lucifer's Hell Flame vanished.
Death's Scythe disappeared into the darkness.
Only Michael remained.
Brook slowly stood.
"What are you doing?"
Michael raised his sword.
"Showing you."
Lucifer's voice came from somewhere beyond the darkness.
"Oh."
Brook's eyes narrowed.
Michael's sword began glowing.
Brook immediately stepped backward.
"What is that?"
Michael looked at him.
"Your power."
Brook froze.
Michael continued.
"A fragment of it."
Brook's breathing changed.
"What?"
Michael lowered the sword.
Brook had used this before.
He had felt it.
The energy.
The force that gathered inside him before releasing outward.
Brook looked at his hands.
Then at Michael.
"You're using what I use."
Michael shook his head.
"No."
The battlefield trembled.
"I am using what you use."
Brook stared.
Michael raised the sword.
"And showing you where it came from."
Brook's instincts screamed.
Michael swung.
The world disappeared.
Brook didn't hear the attack.
He didn't see it move.
There was only—
light.
A blast tore through the battlefield.
Brook teleported.
The energy followed.
Brook appeared again.
The blast had already reached him.
Brook disappeared.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The blast consumed everything around him.
Brook's eyes widened.
He kept teleporting.
Michael's attack kept expanding.
Brook finally appeared behind broken stone.
The energy struck.
Brook raised both arms.
The blast hit him.
Pain exploded through his body.
Brook screamed.
His body was thrown across the battlefield.
He crashed.
Rolled.
Stopped.
For several seconds—
he couldn't move.
Michael stood in the distance.
His sword remained raised.
Brook slowly pushed himself upward.
Blood covered his face.
He stared at Michael.
"That was—"
Michael answered.
"Yours."
Brook laughed.
"No."
Michael walked forward.
Brook continued.
"No, I can't do that."
Michael stopped.
"Yes."
Brook stared.
Michael's voice remained calm.
"You can."
Brook looked toward his hands.
"But—"
"You cannot yet."
Lucifer laughed in the darkness.
Michael continued.
"What you have used until now is not even close to the full power available to you."
Brook looked back at him.
"How much?"
Michael didn't answer immediately.
Then:
"One percent."
Silence.
Brook stared.
Lucifer laughed louder.
Brook shook his head.
"No."
Michael nodded.
"One."
Brook's breathing changed.
"One percent?"
Michael looked at him.
"A fraction of what you carry."
Brook stared at his hands.
Everything.
The teleportation.
The blasts.
The strength.
The instincts.
Everything he had believed was power.
One percent.
Brook looked toward Michael.
"And you?"
Michael answered.
"I am the Source."
Brook's face changed.
Michael continued.
"What you have is a fragment."
He lifted his sword.
"What I have is the beginning."
The battlefield trembled again.
Brook slowly stood.
Michael's presence changed.
Lucifer stopped laughing.
Death raised his eyes.
Brook noticed.
Even Lucifer and Death were watching Michael now.
Brook's expression hardened.
"What?"
Lucifer spoke.
"You wanted answers."
Brook looked toward him.
Lucifer smiled.
"Now you're getting them."
Michael looked at Brook.
"Do you know why I was chosen?"
Brook stared.
"Chosen by who?"
Silence.
Michael's expression changed.
Not fear.
Something older.
Something almost distant.
Then he spoke.
"God."
Brook froze.
The word entered the battlefield differently from everything else.
Lucifer stopped smiling.
Death remained still.
Brook looked between them.
"God?"
Michael nodded.
Brook's voice lowered.
"You're talking about God."
"Yes."
Brook laughed once.
No one else did.
Brook stopped.
"You knew him."
Michael looked into the darkness.
"I served him."
The battlefield remained silent.
Brook stared.
For the first time—
God wasn't an idea.
Not a story.
Not a belief.
Someone had existed.
And Michael had known him.
Brook slowly asked:
"Is he real?"
Michael looked back at him.
The answer came immediately.
"He was."
Brook's face changed.
Lucifer looked away.
Death's Scythe returned to his hand.
Brook noticed.
"Was?"
Michael remained silent for several seconds.
Then:
"You ask questions you are not ready to hear."
Brook stepped forward.
"You brought him up."
Michael's sword moved slightly.
"I did."
Brook's eyes narrowed.
"Then answer me."
Lucifer laughed quietly.
Michael looked at Brook.
"You are still trying to survive us."
Brook stared.
"And you're asking about God."
Brook clenched his fists.
Michael continued.
"You want truth?"
Brook nodded.
Michael raised his sword.
"Then survive."
Michael disappeared.
Brook's instincts screamed.
He teleported.
Michael was there.
Brook appeared again.
Michael followed.
Brook teleported.
The sword struck.
Brook barely blocked.
The impact sent him backward.
Brook's body slammed into the ground.
Michael was already above him.
The sword came down.
Brook disappeared.
Michael turned.
Brook's blast erupted.
Michael raised his sword.
The energy struck him.
The battlefield shook.
Brook watched.
The smoke cleared.
Michael stood there.
Unharmed.
Brook's eyes widened.
Michael moved.
Brook teleported.
Michael appeared.
Brook blocked.
Michael struck.
Brook disappeared.
Michael followed.
The sword.
The fist.
The blast.
Brook kept moving.
But Michael was learning him.
Every teleport.
Every instinct.
Every reaction.
Michael knew.
Brook appeared above him.
His full strength came down.
Michael caught his arm.
Brook froze.
Michael looked at him.
"You rely on movement."
Brook's eyes narrowed.
Michael threw him.
Brook crashed.
Michael appeared.
"You rely on instinct."
Brook disappeared.
Michael turned.
"You rely on power."
Brook attacked.
Michael blocked.
Brook teleported.
Michael's sword struck the ground.
Brook reappeared.
Michael's blast came forward.
Brook's eyes widened.
The same power.
But bigger.
Brook raised his arms.
The blast swallowed him.
Brook screamed.
The battlefield exploded.
Outside—
Brook's body violently arched.
Henry grabbed him.
"BROOK!"
A deep cut appeared across Brook's stomach.
Shoyo's eyes widened.
She immediately cast healing magic.
Another cut appeared.
Then another.
Sera joined her.
Henry watched helplessly.
"Stop it."
Brook groaned.
Henry leaned closer.
"Whatever you're doing, stop."
The Ectoplasm moved around his arm.
Henry's head snapped toward it.
The black substance stretched farther than usual.
Slowly.
Almost cautiously.
It reached toward Brook.
Henry froze.
The Ectoplasm stopped above Brook's hand.
Brook groaned again.
Henry looked down at it.
For the first time—
the Ectoplasm did not feel like a weapon.
It felt—
worried.
Henry slowly placed his hand over it.
"Stay."
The Ectoplasm stopped.
But it didn't return.
Inside—
Brook lay beneath broken stone.
His body was healing.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Michael stood in the distance.
Lucifer's voice came from the darkness.
"So?"
Brook pushed the stone away.
Lucifer continued.
"Was that enough for you?"
Brook stood.
His body shook.
"No."
Lucifer laughed.
Michael looked at Brook.
"Why?"
Brook stared at him.
"You said you were his favorite."
The battlefield became silent.
Michael's expression changed.
Brook continued.
"God's favorite."
Lucifer stopped laughing.
Death looked toward Brook.
Michael slowly walked forward.
Brook didn't move.
"Why?"
Michael stopped.
For a moment—
Brook thought he wouldn't answer.
Then Michael spoke.
"Because I was willing."
Brook waited.
"To do what?"
Michael's eyes moved toward his sword.
"What was necessary."
Brook looked toward Lucifer.
Then Death.
Then Michael.
"And what was that?"
Michael raised his sword.
The answer came quietly.
"Everything."
The battlefield shook.
Brook looked toward the first crystal.
Then back at Michael.
He understood something.
Michael wasn't simply stronger.
Michael believed strength was responsibility.
Lucifer believed strength was freedom.
Death—
Brook looked at Death.
Death believed nothing.
He simply was.
Brook's expression hardened.
Three Sources.
Three philosophies.
Three powers inside him.
Brook looked toward the crystal.
Then smiled.
Michael's eyes narrowed.
Brook raised his hands.
"You know what?"
Lucifer laughed.
"What?"
Brook disappeared.
Michael turned.
Brook reappeared far across the battlefield.
Closer to the first crystal.
Michael moved.
Brook teleported.
Lucifer appeared.
Brook disappeared.
Death raised his hand.
Brook reappeared.
He ran.
The first crystal waited.
And behind him—
Michael's sword began glowing again.
Brook's eyes widened.
"Not again."
Michael swung.
End of Chapter 169