He was handsome, adorable, and gentle at the same time. His red hair and lonely expression always made others worried. Why isn't he smiling? Why does a trace of sadness always exist on his face? These questions always flowed through the minds of others, always making them wonder, always creating an interest, a question, and an eagerness to know the truth behind it—the reason for his emotionless face and his attempts to create a false expression in front of some people. It was not really possible to think of him as a murderer who had killed countless people in his life. His face was innocent, he was pacifist alike, a living beauty. So how? How could such a pure being killed an endless amount of living souls? It was a question for those who cared about Raizel. He was my only friend, my only comrade, the only person I had left to be worried about. The only soul that I thought of as a friend, as a comrade, as someone who would never betray me, never going to hurt me. He was the art drawn by the worlds, the mortals, and the cruelty of the story. His story would be perfect, his story would receive the conclusion I had been looking for for countless years.
But now, I was here to tell everyone a little part of his story, another chapter of his tale. I, Aizis Jasin, would be the storyteller of this chapter of his story, of our story.
I was wondering if my fellow readers of the story were waiting for something different to happen. A plot twist that would completely shatter the flow of the story and create a new tale from the broken pieces. Was it just a hope? Or was the root of the story going to change it? Can we really find out the true self of the root? Will we ever find the 2nd order that was given to Raizel? Is it possible for us to understand the meaning behind the order? Did we really understand him ever? Did we ever wonder about the true self of Raizel? Maybe we didn't, maybe we never got the chance to, never imagined witnessing it.
Let's see what kind of Raizel we were going to witness in the next part of the story, let's find out the true self of Raizel, the self he was trying to find out for countless years, ever since the moment when that one person ordered him, "As for my other order, find out your self, your true personality that will truly make you perfect, a self that will be the perfection of the story. Become the one who will fix the story, not only by force but with soul, with the deepest part of their heart."
Another morning appeared after the war between the two sacred entities of the 6th layer. A bright and refreshing morning appeared in Zeldia. After finishing his regular activities, Raizel came out of his home as the others were waiting for him outside. I was the first one to be there, and following me, Marco, Maria, and Elesia appeared.
We were preparing to visit the demon world, a totally different world that exists independently. The laws and authority of the supreme rulers and sacred spirits don't work there, as the demon worlds exist with their own laws and a demon king in each world. The number of demon worlds in the 6th layer was infinite, as they exist in bubbles parallel to one another. Considering the strength and authority of the supreme rulers and sacred spirits, the demons are considered lower-class beings that don't have the power or authority to be comparable with the supreme authorities. An infinite number of supreme realms exist alongside the sacred spirits in totally different and independent bubbles that exist at a higher level of existence than the demon worlds inside the 6th layer. As for the holy world, it exists at an even higher level of existence than the supreme realms and sacred spirit worlds. The demon worlds, the supreme realms/sacred spirit worlds, and the holy world exist stage by stage from lower to higher. Even though they exist on the same layer, the difference in their stage of existence made a huge difference in magic power and strength.
As Raizel was looking for a way to reach the 5th layer, a demon king from a demon world sent an invitation for us to visit his world, promising that he would provide some information that Raizel would need if he wanted to ascend to the 5th layer. I managed to intuit what he wanted to do and that's why i realized It wasn't really a bad idea for us to deal with. While being lower-class beings, they were still aware of the upcoming issues to be caused by the true spirits. The sacred spirits are nothing more than a fraction of the real disaster coming from the true spirits. And for that, they would definitely help someone like Raizel and my fellow comrades who are capable of stopping the disaster. They were well aware of the outcome they would have to face if they didn't help Raizel regarding the matter. However, why did Raizel want to ascend to the 5th layer when the true spirits exist in the 6th layer? This might be a question as well as a mystery, a quite deep mystery that was really hard to understand. Well, I believed we were going to find the answer soon.
As Raizel arrived and united with me and the others, he offered a smile toward us. I simply smiled back as a reply.
"Late as always, Raizel," Maria said with a bit of a long breath.
"You were expecting this and are already prepared for it; I still apologize for that," Raizel replied, smiling afterward while kneeling a bit toward us.
"How about we leave right now instead of running this daily friendly chattering, Mister Raizel and Miss Maria?" Marco spoke up from behind, sounding a bit sarcastic.
"Sure, Marco, let's go," Raizel replied, gently creating a magic portal in front of us right afterward.
The rotating magic portal appeared, and following Raizel, all of us got inside the portal. The portal instantly disappeared as we teleported away from there.
As we teleported away, we appeared in a different world. It was a lower-standard world but pretty much similar to the other 6th layer worlds. Demons are a pretty similar species to humans since their physical features and intelligence are pretty much the same. What made them different is their magic nature and the horns on the upper sides of their heads. The world we landed in wasn't really any different than a casual world with multiple realms, castles, residences, and a casual living nature similar to Zeldia. The flow of wind was casual, gentle, but pretty much loud, competing with the chattering among the demons.
Following the appearance of the magic portal, we landed in the demon world one by one. We landed in the middle of the main realm that belonged to the royal demons of the world. After putting my foot down there, I sensed something unusual. A demon knight with a royal dark coat, along with multiple soldiers, was beating some poor demons. The poor demons were barely wearing anything, as their entire bodies were filled with fresh blood coming out from their wounds. They were begging to the knight continuously. Judging by their appearance, they were the slaves of the royal demons who had possibly committed something that didn't please the royals.
It wasn't something that would let me throw my attention away from there, nor would it let any of us, as all of us noticed that. I stared toward the others narrowly, then instantly flew toward the royal knight and grabbed him by his collar. As I was pretty agile, that knight totally failed to react to me. I lifted him up and glared into his eyes intentionally as my magic power forced him to sweat.
"Why are you doing this? I don't remember giving the demons permission to use regular demons like a bully's tool," I asked.
"You bastard, how dare you grab my collar?" he replied while trying to get away from me.
"Shut up." I replied pretty rudely as a bit of anger appeared in my face.
I summoned a sword in my other hand and instantly stabbed the knight's neck. Fresh blood came out of his neck as he fell to the ground. While he was muttering and screaming, his soul left his body. The demons around us seemed to be scared as they fell back.
"We are not going to allow any sort of bullying in the 6th layer anymore. No matter who you are, I will kill you without a second thought, just like that," I announced loudly.
A strange voice appeared to be heard. It was loud but appeared to be gentle without any hostility.
It was coming from the side of a castle that was placed a bit away from me. A person with a young and effective appearance was speaking loudly.
I looked toward him and smiled; it wasn't really a strange face for me. It was the demon king of this world, Damien. With his dark hair, glowing eyes, long dark coat, gloves on his hands, and smiling face, it was really easy for me to recognize his presence. But his presence didn't really make me happy; I was expressionless. A bit of worry appeared in my mind. I didn't know what it was, but I felt like things wouldn't go the right way.
He slowly walked toward us and gently stood in front of us. The demons around us bowed their heads toward Damien.
"I was waiting. I was waiting for you guys, king of the 6th layer, Raizel, and your fellow sovereigns," Damien said.
"What is it you want from us? It seems like you're trying to offer something, Damien," Raizel said, glaring toward Damien deeply.
"I'm well aware of the goal you are pursuing at this moment. Ascending to the 5th layer isn't really something that is possible for a 6th layer being to do easily. In most cases, I've seen even the transcendentals losing their very souls while trying to ascend to the 5th layer," Damien replied.
"But for you, the upper beings want to be part of your journey by helping you out in your ascension. The great five true spirits are the highest possible existence in the 6th layer. They are even able to ascend to the 5th layer in some cases. They will be the ones to help you out," Damien added.
"And for that, they ordered me to make you guys aware of that. If you are interested, then don't hesitate to tell them; they'll help you," he concluded.
Raizel kept listening without saying a word. He stared toward me narrowly and then brought his gaze back to Damien.
I instantly created a non-physical barrier covering the entire world itself. I drew a layer above the barrier and began to stream something. It was a magic spell that created a fake layer of reality made out of the interest of the caster. Anyone who will try observing the world from outside will only witness the fake layer of reality.
As I created the barrier, Damien began to step back and tried to fly away, but right at that moment, someone with great agility flew toward him and grabbed his collar with their right hand. It was Maria, with her deep red hair. With her left hand, she stabbed Damien's chest and shattered his magic core in an instant. Fresh blood scattered around from his chest and mouth as he screamed a bit.
Maria glared toward him and slammed him into a wall that was placed right beside her.
"It's pretty much meaningless to ask further questions than this."
"What's their plan this time, after killing me last time?" Raizel asked from behind.
"I'm not someone that can be deceived so easily by some pathetic bastard's deception, definitely not some true spirit or a demon king like you can ever deceive me into trying to go into the Spirit World again and meet my death again. I'm just not that hilarious," Raizel added.
Raizel lifted his gaze toward Damien and glared deeply, his hostile magic power running toward Damien and making him tremble heavily.
"So tell me, what do they want to do this time?" Raizel asked again.
As Damien was losing his blood continuously, he was barely able to speak. Maria drew a magic circle covering him and healed his wounds within a second.
Damien was taking heavy breaths as he was continuously sweating, non-stop.
"They… they ordered me to… lure you to ascend to… the Spirit World. So that… they can kill you," Damien replied. He kept sweating as his voice was extremely broken and filled with fear.
"That's not a trick that they can use to deceive me," Raizel replied.
"What did they offer you for that?" Raizel added.
"They....offered me to....make me...the ruler of every supreme realm." Damien replied as he was continue sweating.
Raizel glared narrowly toward Damien and spoke, "It's nice that you told me everything without much time; that's nice of you. But…. it seems like Maria doesn't want you to survive; she wants destruction." Raizel added, smiling afterward while looking toward Maria narrowly.
Right at that moment, Maria grabbed the skin of his neck and shattered it along with his neck. She slammed his body into the ground. Damien continued screaming for some seconds, touching his broken neck out of extreme pain. Fresh blood came out of his body as his face began to turn red. The pain of the wound forced him to scream even louder. However, the screaming pain didn't last much longer; after seconds, his soul left his body, and Damien met his demise. His soulless body was left on the ground; the blood loss continued for some more time and concluded afterward.