For perhaps a year or so, we kept walking in silence.
It was clear that Dantalian hesitated, she seemed to be thinking we were going in the wrong direction.
But there was no direction. No path existed.
It was after a few more months of walking in silence did she finally speak up.
"Why are you so calm? Are you not facing a lot of trouble? Are you not in pain?"
"I am."
"Then… why… why do you just walk? Won't you fall, like this?"
I was still weak.
Each step was still as heavy as the last. It had been so for as long as I had been here.
But…
"What is there to be afraid of?"
No ups nor downs existed. Even if I tried, I wouldn't fall.
"Are you not afraid of everything that's on its way?"
I shook my head at her words.
"Look around. This place is mine. Everything here is what could be in my way."
Dantalian hummed.
"And there's nothing here?"
"No. You and I both exist in this place. How could it be nothing if we're still here?"
What came in a persons way.
Was none other than themselves.
We continued walking.
Step.
Step.
I was deeply pained.
Step.
But I kept on.
Step.
Perhaps out of pity, or out of fear.
Step.
Dantalian too slowed her pace.
Step.
She too, walked with me.
Step.
Step.
"Why?" She asked. "Why am I here then?"
I stopped.
For the first time.
In all these years.
I stopped.
My feet quaked as I turned and faced her.
"Look. Look at yourself."
"How…?" she asked.
"Look in my eyes and then look at yourself."
Dantalian stared.
She kept her eyes peeled on mine.
And then slowly, her wings fell. Her tail shrunk. Her hair turned a deeper, crimson red as her body became much more masculine.
"I can't…" the voice of the person in front of me spoke. "See you anymore."
I slowly raised my hand and patted Yujin Han's back.
"I see…" he said. "I get in your way… Your past gets in your way…"
"No," I shook my head. "You get in yours."
Yujin Han didn't say a word anymore.
My past only stared at itself.
"Let's go. We have to meet one more."
And we continued walking once more.
For years on end, we were silent.
Eventually, he tried to help me, but I refused it.
Yujin Han being himself would work out with every step. But just walking took everything out of me.
I wasn't sure how long it took.
Maybe five more years after meeting with Yujin, or maybe seven… About that much.
The walk had to come to an end, though.
In the distance, with white hair reaching down his shoulders stood a man. Though I couldn't him either, I could tell of the smile on his face, the almost calm, serene grin.
His eyes must have been a shade of purple. Must have.
And on his head.
Was a pair of horns stretching out just a bit.
"Took you a while."
"Sorry about that…" I muttered, taking more tumultuous steps ahead.
The man in front watched me and Yujin walk closer.
His smile must have been mellow. Must have.
"Do you wish to become something else?" He asked.
"What makes me something else? Just a change in how I look?"
He chuckled.
"Do you know what decides your authority?"
I had been told this by Bathym.
Other's negatives emotions towards you. Fear someone else holds.
"It's pointless. Bathym was born a Demon Lord. He didn't become one like me."
But Bathym had told me of his experience.
"That was his birth."
Or so he said.
In that case.
"I do not know."
"It's your own fear."
I froze.
"An authority takes your fear, and makes sure you experience it. Always, always."
But…
"But it gives you the ability to overcome that fear."
An authority that made you live your fears…
Then what Bathym feared was also what he excelled in.
No.
My then already knew it.
"The disease was, in fact, created by his mentor."
He continued.
"Bathym feared mistakes. Dantalian feared identity."
His gaze turned.
Not toward me.
"What do you fear?"
But to our past.
We both turned and looked at him. At Yujin Han.
The poor boy was put on a spot.
He didn't know what to answer.
Perhaps he would have never imagined that we would end up like this.
But he answered…
He answered anyway.
"Weakness."
He.
I.
We.
Were afraid of weakness.
"Do you still want to become something else?"
HAH!
I laughed.
The future me laughed too and placed a hand on my back.
"This place is going to be empty again."
I was about to leave.
"I may come help you some day."
The future said.
"Till then, all the best."
"Demon Lord of Cataclysm."
***
"Alfheim!? Alfheim!"
Titania's screams echoed as the shield around her partner began breaking.
"Too much… spirit…"
The skies had turned a mess of colors. Moons had doubled, no, tripled.
The world was slowly going out of place.
All of it, was trying to capture him.
The spirits wanted his soul.
"Damn it!" Titania screamed. The barrier broke apart.
"Sorry…"
The voice in her ears echoed and faded, but she didn't have time to bother.
The spirits all charged in.
Her sight was lost, all of it overtaken by the spirits.
"My liege!"
"Eugene!"
The spirits laughed and charged.
"Seal."
A single voice spread.
The spirits stopped.
They were all forced to stop.
No matter how they tried, they couldn't take that soul anymore.
Sitting in the middle of them all, a young man with eyes a shade of purple and hair white reaching down to his back smiled.
Two horns stuck out of his head.
He raised his right hand, all five fingers spread wide.
There was neither a scar on his neck nor any other on his once wound riddled body.
"Disappear. Or you'll never be able to capture a soul."
The spirits growled and hummed.
And in the next moment. The world returned to normal.
Bathym and Titania both fell on the ground, their eyes on the man in front of them.
A calm, serene smile spread on his lips.
"D-demon…" Bathym spoke. "Demon Lord…"
A demon lord.
"Has been born."
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