The brightness slowly disappeared from his view, revealing the great city of the Absolute Spirit, the holy city that belongs to the retainers and their leader, The Absolute Spirit. After witnessing the castles from a closer view, the entire city and the castles appeared much better and more glowing. On the top of a mountain inside the city, a huge castle looked down upon the minor castles surrounding it. It was the castle belonging to Arfanez himself, The Absolute Spirit.
"It seems like my magic has been weakened due to the ascension. But it's not much for me; I can still shine well." Marco thought to himself, lifting his right hand into his view.
He was the only stranger there with a completely different outfit. Simply, everyone around him kept their gaze upon him with a bit of surprise appearing on their faces. Though he was a stranger, they couldn't bother themselves to approach him due to his massive magic power, which kept him in a different class of presence.
While the retainers were identifying him as an effective stranger, Marco was careless toward them and kept his focus on the largest castle of the city. Following the long golden road upward to the castle, Marco put his step ahead and slowly, casually reached the castle and stood in front of the gate, smiling toward the guardians.
Sensing Marco's effective appearance, the guardians respectfully left their own positions and bowed themselves toward Marco.
Marco nodded as a reply and stepped forward inside the castle. There was a strange silence crying all around inside the castle, as if some mysterious ghosts were lurking around and asking Marco to go back. The bone-chilling presence of the Absolute Spirit was changing the momentum of the castle, changing the flow of wind, changing anyone inside the castle and making them sweat unstoppably.
For a moment, Marco felt like it wasn't the Arfanez he knew; it wasn't the thin presence he witnessed in the 6th layer. It was a completely different entity whose presence was countless times thinner than the Absolute Spirit from the 6th layer.
"Something brought the faceless here. I wonder what could be the very reason behind your ascension here." A bone-chilling voice said.
The sudden appearance of the voice surprised Marco a little. Breaking his frozen gaze, Marco looked behind himself, narrowly smiling toward Arfanez, who was standing several meters away from Marco. Wearing a long coat and a jacket over it, Arfanez was smiling at Marco.
"That title doesn't belong to me; it's for him." Marco replied with his narrow smile lurking on his face.
"Yet, the title shall be upon you from my side. I will be accepting you as 'The Faceless'." Arfanez replied, keeping his smile intact.
"Whatever you want. I will be glad to accept such a title from my new comrade." Marco said, gently smiling afterward.
"Welcome. I'm glad to have you here with me, Marco." Arfanez said, offering a handshake to Marco.
Marco closed his eyes and smiled, accepting his handshake.
"As I thought, he was witnessing everything that happened earlier." Marco thought to himself.
The castle was extremely huge, as it seemed from the outside. A huge pillar reached the highest floor of the castle, with spiral stairs surrounding the pillar to climb up to the upper floors.
"Come with me; I've found someone to keep to my standard." Arfanez spoke to Marco.
Marco nodded and began to follow him as he was climbing up to the rooftop of the castle, following the stairs.
While climbing up, Arfanez lifted his right hand and pointed it at Marco. A magic spark came out from his index finger and reached Marco's chest, instantly changing his costume. Marco's costume changed to a set of dress with a long coat, a jacket above the coat, and a pair of shoes covering his legs. His handsome figure simply matched his costume well.
After climbing the stairs, both of them set their foot on the top of the castle. A huge bell appeared in front of Marco's view.
After giving a squinty stare to Arfanez, Marco rang the bell casually. In a matter of seconds, every single retainer from the city appeared in front of the large castle. The retainers kept their gaze upward at Marco, who was the only visible person for them. Behind him, it was Arfanez who stepped forward to Marco and put his right hand on his shoulder.
Looking upon the confused retainers, Arfanez spoke loudly, "My fellow warriors of redemption, I'm glad to have every single one of you here."
"Today, I'm here to introduce a new comrade for you guys. It's the person with absolute strength, a person with the picture of redemption in his eyes, a person who carries the meaning of a true warrior. I would love to introduce the warrior of chaos, Marco, to all of you." He added, calm yet loud. His voice was clear; a trace of hesitation was absent and nonexistent there.
He grabbed Marco's right hand and lifted it upward ahead to the retainers and shouted once again, "Hereby, I shall grant the honor of being the Supreme Comrade of the retainers to none other than Marco."
He closed his eyes and looked at Marco with a smile. Marco kept staring at Arfanez with a surprising expression, then he smiled back at Arfanez.
Marco stepped a bit ahead and smiled at the retainers standing down there. Then he spoke loudly, "My title is nothing to me. It's the belief coming from you guys that really matters to me. I'm not a commander, but a warrior who will keep fighting alongside you guys, until we meet the face of salvation."
One of the retainers with dark-blue hair shouted very loudly, "All hail Marco!"
Following him, every single retainer there shouted as well, "All hail Marco!"
Arfanez built an army of retainers that follow him with everything they have; they do anything they're ordered to do. Thus, it was obvious for them to follow Marco. It appeared to be a statement to follow Marco as a commander till the end of their soul, but was it really a part of their loyalty, their ultimate commitment?
Night falls. After becoming the chief commander of the retainers, Marco began his living inside the large castle, keeping himself alongside Arfanez like a true comrade.
The moon slowly appeared with the finest look, as a full moon without any sort of crack lurking around.
Marco ascended to the highest floor of the castle. As soon as he reached the floor, something caught his eyes and shocked him. On the floor, something was resounding over and over without a pause. It was the sound of brutal stabbing. Someone with a golden katana was continuously stabbing himself in his chest. His face was covered with a mask that was blocking his voice.
Once he stopped himself, he healed himself up right then, then repeated that again and again. After countless stabs, he finally paused himself and took a long breath.
"I will never stop myself, even if I have to endure this every single day. I want redemption, but if I harm them, if I keep hurting them, then I deserve to be punished as well. So, I will never stop; I will pay myself back the pain, the amount of pain they'll endure." Arfanez spoke on his own, taking breaths consistently while speaking.
He cried; tears came out from his eyes like a storm of water. While letting tears run away from his eyes, he spoke, "Why don't you mortals understand your mistakes? Why don't you change? Why are you selfish as always? Why?"
Arfanez covered his face tightly and began to tremble out of his frustration.
While witnessing the scenario there, Marco came out with a thought, "So he was doing this to pay himself back for the pain his victims received. What a strange person he is; I just can't believe that."
"Come to think of it, he is doing this for countless years, just to redeem the mortals. All his love is for the mortals; he doesn't care about himself, but the mortals. He is the true definition of selfless, a person who exists just for others." Marco added to his thoughts; a piece of tear came out from his eyes out of his consciousness as he removed it instantly, shifting his gaze back to the stairs in order to return to his certain floor.