Dawn of the Devil

Long ago before the Western powers came to colonize the Malay Archipelago, there was a powerful bomoh or shaman known by those familiar with him as "Abang Aku" which means "my elder brother" in Malay, who brought many of his followers to their deaths in many suicide rituals. He dabbled in many powerful spirits and indulged in child sacrifice, virgin sacrifice, and other evil rituals. One day he staged a major suicide ritual where he sacrificed himself, announcing that the angels have come for him to join their ranks as the "Malaikat Keemasan" or "Golden Angel", where he will become the leader of a spiritual army. And yes, after his death, he became an invisible menace, leading his army of unseen soldiers to torment his unsuspecting victims, driving people mad at random. There was a group of Malay bomohs and Indian spiritual masters who came together to devise ways to capture him. After capturing him and his legion of demons in a special jar, the Indian spiritual masters brought him back to India and imprisoned him in Vijay Stambha (Tower of Victory) at Chittorgarh Fort in India. The voices of his spirit army kept chanting "Abang Aku" as they marched, so much so that the Indian spiritual masters who didn't understand Malay thought it was his name and called him "A Bao A Qu", since they did not recognize the Malay words. And he has been referred to as such ever since.

Some time during World War I, the Vijay Stambha was raided and the jar was lost. Following that came World War II, then the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge, and the beginning of the rule of the junta in Myanmar. Some say there was a "spiritual war" waged by the spiritual masters in the Indochina countries to drive out their colonial masters and foreign invaders, and they summoned A Bao A Qu, the general of the most powerful invisible army. Indeed, A Bao A Qu existed. He was released by the True Knights of Asia from Vijay Stambha to stage a revolution in South East Asia. No one has ever seen the "A Bao A Qu" or "Golden Angel". A Bao A Qu then summoned "Ruby Dragon", the King of Demons, who waged war on humanity. Novagel Akira defeated the Golden Angel and returned him to his prison at Vijay Stambha before defeating the King of Demons with the help of the Silver Wyvern. Don Juan then reincarnated. The Vietnam War and Khmer Rouge ended shortly after, and A Bao A Qu remained in captivity at the top of Vijay Stambha for another few decades. However, damage has been the done and the countries affected by A Bao A Qu's evil influence (Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos) took another few decades to recover.

To prevent invisible demons similar to A Bao A Qu from creating mass havoc in Indochina again, special forcefield generators were installed in key religious building structures throughout the Indochina countries, such as the Preah Vihear temple (Cambodia), Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Shwedagon Pagoda (Myanmar), Uppatasanti Pagoda (Myanmar), Pha Tat Luang (Laos), That Dam (Laos), Po Nagar (Vietnam), and Po Klong Garai (Vietnam), Wat Arun (Thailand). The forcefield generators generated forcefields pillars that were the pillar of support for the region's "spiritual stability". This did not totally terminate the influence of evil spirits in the region, but kept their influence to a bare minimum. The forcefield formation formed the structural pillar of support to protect the region from adverse evil spirit influence.

However, as intelligence personnel working for the Novamos detected a drastic weakening of the forcefields, all the nine novagel couples were dispatched to these nine sites, while Akira and Yumeko were sent to investigate some abnormal energy readings coming from the Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam. However, when the novagels were at the nine sites, the forcefields disappeared and the novagels themselves went missing.

A few weeks ago before the mission to investigate the nine sites in Indochina, the novagels were in Hanoi for a photoshoot at Hoan Kiem Lake for the promotional materials for a Vietnamese online game featuring Emperor Le Loi, the historical hero of Vietnam. Yumeko was beautifully dressed in an Ao Dai, the traditional Vietnamese attire for ladies, and Akira was dressed in the battle attire of the Vietnamese Emperor Le Loi before he became the emperor of the Le Dynasty. A day before the photoshoot, as they were standing in front of the statue of Le Loi in front of the Municipal Hall of Thanh Hoa Province, Yumeko and Akira had the following conversation.

"Hey, Akira, do you know about the legend of Thuan Thien?"

"Hmm, what's that?"

"In Vietnam there is a legend that this hero (referring to the statue in front of them), Le Loi was entrusted with the sword Thuan Thien from heaven, and he used it to defeat the Ming China army to reclaim the independence of Vietnam from Ming China and set up the Le Dynasty of Vietnam where he ruled as Emperor Le Loi. One day, after he emerged victorious, when he was riding a boat on Luc Thuy Lake, a turtle by the name of Kim Qui appeared and took the Thuan Thien sword from him, and disappeared into the lake."

"Why? Can't it let him use the sword to rule his country?"

"There were no further details, but Le Loi came to the conclusion that Thuan Thien could have been so powerful that it could corrupt any human who wields it, so it was only allowed to use it for war. Thuan Thien was a sword that he found by chance when trying to devise strategies against their Ming rulers. Therefore, he had to return the sword after the war."

"Well, I guess you could say "easy come easy go"."

"Well, God may want man to build their countries with their own hands. Come to think of it, if Emperor Le Loi continued to wield the sword, he would have become so powerful that he may attack other countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Siam, Malaya, and China. God may not have wanted Vietnam to become such a country."

"However, in Vietnam's recent history, wasn't it occupied by France? And didn't Vietnam fight the Americans in the Vietnam War too? But why didn't Thuan Thien appear then?"

"Well, like I said just now, God may have wanted them to build their country with their own hands."

"Well, you're probably right Yumeko. But Vietnam has a long way to go to become a strong country."

Yumeko decided to change the subject since talking about history was making the atmosphere tense. "For tomorrow's photoshoot, you will dress up as Le Loi."

"Really? Wow! I thought it was just an Ao Dai shoot. The girls dressed in Ao Dai here are really pretty."

"Well, there is a girl right next to you dressed in an Ao Dai. How do you find her?" Yumeko asked, obviously referring to herself.

"Very lovely! You look like a Princess of Vietnam."

"Well, I AM the Princess of Vietnam, technically speaking. I'm the descendant of the Vietnamese royal family. But I hate being a princess. I prefer to enjoy my freedom rather than be tied down by rules."

"Well, our roles now are to protect the happiness of mankind, am I right? I won't call it total freedom though."

"Why can't you call it total freedom?"

"We have our MISSIONS right? But now…" he reached out his hand for Yumeko's waist, which caused her to gasp in shock and smile contentedly.

"…with my desire satisfied constantly, I can't say I have no motivation to fight."

"Ha! All guys are like that!"

"What about girls? Don't they love to be with the guy they love?"

"Well, for a bright future, let's fight, and continue to fall in love."

And the next day they organized the photoshoot at Hoan Kiem Lake. That was a few days ago.

Now they were back here again, but for a different reason, which was to investigate the abnormal energy readings coming from the lake.

And our couple was beheld the most astonishing sight above Hoan Kiem Lake: An aurora. But what was an aurora, otherwise known as the "northern lights", doing above Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi when it should be found near the North Pole.

"Hahahahahahaha!" Akira and Yumeko were greeted by the most annoying, yet familiar mocking laughter.

It was that voice. It was the voice that stirred up deep rooted resentment and hatred when they heard it. It was the voice of a sworn enemy whom they thought was long gone. It was the voice of Hero Kim Anh Hung (or just "Hero Kim", written as "金英雄" in Han Tu), an old enemy whom they had fought during the days of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge in their past incarnations. Hero Kim was A Bao A Qu, the formless demon who has adopted a human form, and was the mastermind (demon incarnate) behind the scenes of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge, who was plotting on behalf of the True Knights of Asia to control the Indochina region. Akira recalled how his human friends died at the hands of Hero Kim's plots. However, Hero Kim was too powerful for the True Knights of Asia to control, so they joined forces with the novagels to defeat Kim.

They turned around and saw him. Looking just like he did in his human form before they defeated him and imprisoned him back in Chittogarh Fort where he belonged.

"How did you come back?" asked an Akira who was seething in anger. Even Yumeko wasn't pleased with his entrance, and shot him daggers with her eyes.

"The True Knights of Asia needed me again, as much as I need them now. My grudge is with you self righteous heroes of justice!" Hero barked.

"We'll seal you back into that jar where you belong!" Yumeko declared, pointing an angry finger at him.

"We'll see about that! Seal this!" Hero retorted. With that, Hero tossed two blue colored glowing translucent cards at Akira and Yumeko. Upon hitting them, Akira and Yumeko disappeared into thin air, and images of them appeared on the palm sized transparent poker cards made of glass. In other words, they were miniaturized and trapped inside. Those two cards flew into Hero's hand at his command. However, Akira managed to break free and revert to his normal size.

"Curses…how did you…" Hero cursed.

"Yumeko!" Akira cried out.

"Akira-kun!" He could hear Yumeko's quaint voice shouting for help from inside the card.

"Hahahahahahahah! Now I have them hostage! Surrender or I will tear up these cards and they will die in the process!"

"You bastard!" Akira cursed. "What sorcery is this?"

"This spell is called 'Plate Glass Prison Deck'. Once you're trapped inside one of these glass cards, you will die when the glass cards are shattered. Your death will be the perfect revenge for vanquishing my invisible army. That's why I worked behind the scenes to start the Vietnam War and Khmer Rouge to weaken the region and secure my power. But you! YOU and your WRETCHED NOVAGELS had to DESTROY EVERYTHING!"

"You have no conscience!" scolded Akira. "You create misery for your own pleasure, turned the region into hellish warzone and claimed human lives to absorb their souls for your soul collection! You had to be stopped! Those who build their happiness on the misery of others are NOT ENTITLED to it!"

"You impertinent fool!" rebutted Hero. "Retract that or I'll terminate your friends at once!"

"If you're so powerful, why are you so unconfident in defeating me to the extent that you must blackmail me to surrender? Are you so pathetic? Are you so weak? Is it because you fear your defeat by my hand?" taunted Akira.

"Me? Weak? I'll show you!"

"Then do it! Fight me fair and square! Touch my friends and you'll be branded as a coward who resorted to trickery to win, and you will never restore your reputation and pride."

"FINE!" grunted a provoked Hero Kim, who started transforming into a knight in golden armour and helmet exposing only his face with rough brown skin, sharp teeth, and red bloodshot eyes.

This was the true form of Malaikat Keemasan, the Golden Angel.

The Golden A Bao A Qu continued, "I will not touch your friends. You fight me fair and square. If you win, they will be free, and you may slay me. If I win, you go into the glass card, and you'll die with the rest of them." Yumeko's card was slotted into a box, and the Golden A Bao A Qu made it vanish into thin air.

"Challenge accepted!" Akira responded. "Get ready to die!"

"Piece d'etoile!" Akira fired a few fireballs at the Golden A Bao A Qu, creating mild explosions around him. Unfazed by the attack, the Golden A Bao A Qu charged forward protracting his golden claws from his golden gloves, getting ready to scratch Akira. Akira disappeared almost instantly and appeared behind him, and delivered a flying kick to his back, sending him face down onto the ground. However, the Golden A Bao A Qu instantly got up, and delivered a kick into Akira's face with his armoured leg. It was metal in face: a nasty combination. That filled Akira with rage as his mouth throbbed and blood flowed from his lips. Akira then angrily spat out a broken tooth into the Golden A Bao A Qu's left eye, partially blinding him, causing him to growl and put his hand round his bleeding eye in pain.

However, when the Golden A Bao A Qu got up, his left eye was back to normal, thanks to his automatic regenerative powers. Similarly Akira had automatic regenerative powers too, whereby his teeth grew back in no time. The Golden A Bao A Qu donned a suit of golden armour, but that doesn't mean he was impervious to punches and kicks. The two of them started exchanging punches and kicks at an accelerated rate, in an attempt to damage each other as much as possible before their regenerative powers kick in. However, the Golden A Bao A Qu was in the lead and Akira was getting weaker, getting more pummeled then he was doing the pummeling. Eventually he succumbed to an uppercut that sent him flying into the air and into the water of Hoan Kiem Lake.

While sinking into the water, he heard a booming voice call out to him. He was hearing it in his mind, but it felt so real, as if he was hearing it with his ears.

"Dear foreign visitor! Listen very carefully! I am the Dragon King from the East Sea (東海龍宮の竜王). The moment you hear this message, I would have been long gone from the world. Listen carefully. The sword you're holding in your hand, Thuan Thien (順天), was originally a sword entrusted to me by heaven for safekeeping in the Dragon Palace (東海龍宮). This sword was originally given as a gift to people who are worthy of it in time of need. Till now, the only person worthy to possess it was Emperor Le Loi (黎利王), the man who fought for Vietnam's independence from China during the Ming Dynasty."

Akira clenched his right hand and felt the handle of a sword. It mysteriously appeared in his hand for no reason.

"However, once his mission was over, the sword had to be returned to us. Imagine if Kim Qui (金亀), the turtle emissary of the Dragon Palace who took the sword back from him, did not take back the sword from him, the power of the sword may have corrupted him badly enough to conquer the whole of Indochina, just like how China, India, and Siam drowned in their ambitions in a similar manner. However, this happened in the Dragon Palace and that led to our destruction. But it is now time to entrust this sword to the right person. This sword had no master for many years, since such a person did not appear. The sword needed to have the right master, otherwise humanity will perish if it fell into the wrong hands."

Akira mentally responded to the mental message. "But how can you trust us? Just like humans, we are susceptible to greed and are full of sinful desires. The world refers to us as "demons". We can be easily corrupted by our desires. We are as impact as humans. Why do you still trust us?"

The voice responded. "We are only following the will of heaven. Heaven has decided that you are the most worthy to possess the sword. So it was decided, and so it shall be done."

Back at the edge of the lake, the Golden A Bao A Qu was dipping his golden sword, the Kris Garuda, into the lake to use its power of fire to increase its temperature to boiling point, in an attempt to cook Akira and the Hoan Kiem turtles of the lake alive. However, it didn't take long for the water the bubble, not because the water in the lake was boiling, but because…

Something was about to surface…

Akira did. He leapt from the water high into the air, holding a shining silver-coloured sword.

"Thuan Thien! No! Impossible!" cried the Golden A Bao A Qu. The Golden A Bao A Qu in his past life was once the Golden General who fought Le Loi's revolutionary army in the name of the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and was defeated by that sword.

Akira then landed back on the shore of the lake, and continued his fight with the Golden A Bao A Qu. Man to man. Sword to sword.

Swords clashed, and blood was spilt. But neither of them died. They kept regenerating their wounds with whatever energy they had. Once the Golden A Bao A Qu was at a certain distance, his Kris Garuda was magically lit with fire. With a mighty wave of the Kris Garuda, he released the ball of fire from his sword towards Akira. Akira blocked it with his Thuan Thien, and then used it to generate electricity which he used to fire bolts of lightning at the Golden A Bao A Qu to give him an electric shock. The surrounding trees were set on fire as a result of the battle. Following that, the subsequent attacks comprised electric blasts and fireball projectiles.

However, as fatigue slowly overtook Akira, the Golden A Bao A Qu became more aggressive in his slashes and Akira was largely in defense and dodging mode. The Golden A Bao A Qu eventually managed to knock Thuan Thien out of Akira's hand, deliver a diagonal slash to Akira's chest, and send him down into the water of Hoan Kiem Lake, this time colouring the water very red.

The Golden A Bao A Qu was elated and gloating. He finally knocked Thuan Thien out of Akira's hands. Now the all powerful sword was going to become his. He touched the sword, but was severely electrocuted by it. It was so severe that some parts of his armour melted, and he was growling in pain.

Suddenly, Akira appeared out of no where and kicked the Golden A Bao A Qu in his face.

Apparently what the Golden A Bao A Qu slashed with his Kris Garuda was a dummy. A decoy.

In no time, Akira held the blade of Thuan Thien to the Golden A Bao A Qu's neck. In response, Golden A Bao A Qu taunted Akira. "Go ahead! Kill me! If you do so, your friends will d...arrrrgh..."

Akira slit the throat of the Golden A Bao A Qu, not with Thuan Thien, but with Grand Retour. The Golden A Bao A Qu disintegrated, turned into a cloud of smoke, and disappeared.

But what happened to that box of cards?

However, Akira suddenly found himself trapped in a forcefield that electrocuted him.

When Akira woke up, he found himself in a greenish chamber full of mist on the ground. "Where I am" he asked.

"You're in a prison chamber on Fastitocalon Island!"

It was him. The Golden A Bao A Qu. But how? Why? "I thought I destroyed you…" asked Akira.

"You will never destroy A Bao A Qu!" taunted the Golden A Bao A Qu.

"You want to try?" Akira challenged, and got ready to fire a Piece de Resistance.

"I think NOT!" Golden A Bao A Qu snapped his metallic finger. KLANG!

A few coils of metallic chains suddenly appeared round Akira, binding him tight, and becoming heavy enough to make him fall hard to the floor.

"For your information your novagel friends are already dead. I have destroyed the cards and them with it. I have absorb their souls and their powers, and you will be next! Behold!"

Golden A Bao A Qu magically produced a tall candle. A green one. It was a green-coloured candle. His eyes glowed with fire, firing a small fiery beam from his eyes to light the candle. Once the candle lit up, Golden A Bao A Qu said, "this candle is now magically tied to your lifespan with a curse. You have six hours left to live." On hearing that, Akira struggled in his chains, cursing and swearing. But Golden A Bao A Qu said, "I wish I could make the duration shorter, but the effect will be more complete if the whole candle was melted away."

"What's your motivation for doing this?" asked Akira. "Knowing you, you're too vicious and too full of yourself to be working for the True Knights of Asia. You must be after something else!"

"I'm looking for something that's inside you…something inside you…"

"Something inside you?"

"Let me take you down memory lane. Not this lifetime, but maybe a few decades ago..." Golden A Bao A Qu's eyes glowed sinisterly.

Akira's mind started to drift away, into a deep sleep...

******************************************************************

It was somewhere in the 1920s in Shanghai, in his past life, when his name was Huangfu Zhuobiao, the foster son of Huangfu Xiong, a high ranking socialite in Shanghai's corporate world. He had strong business links not only with businesses owned by the western powers stationed there, but also the Japanese businessmen who were extending their influence there. Brought up to wear the finest, enjoy the best education, and receive admiration from the best girls, there was nothing he could not get, especially the best women. There were many women whom he loved on a regular basis, but there was one whom he was strongly attached to become he turned Casanova. Her name was Yu Jingqi (玉净琪), a childhood friend whom he had a strong chemistry with (also Yumeko's past life self). But one day, she grew sick with tuberculosis and died at the age of 16, while he was 17. Coincidentally, his foster father Huangfu Xiong came back from India with a gift for him. Unknowingly, he opened it and released a curse onto himself.

After her death, he became filled with grief. As a defense mechanism to forget his grief, he turned into an irresistible yet lustful playboy who slept around with many of Shanghai's beauties, including the eight beauties of Shanghai at that time. The eight beauties were namely Zhao Xiyuan (赵希愿, who was Hina's past life self), Situ Jingying (司徒静颖, who was Naomi's past life self), Zhao Xiaoxin (赵晓欣, who was Kazumi's past life self), Liu Meiting (刘美婷, who was Chiaki's past life self), Huang Xiaoting (黄晓婷, who was Chiya's past life self), Chen Meixue (陈美学, who was Mika's past life self), Feng Yirong (冯艺蓉, who was Kana's past life self), and Cai Yuqian (蔡雨倩, who was Senna's past life self). Most of them were desirable women whom he mostly felt lust for, but there was one whom he developed affections towards, which was Situ Jingying. It was to the extent that he decided to stop philandering and even decide to marry her. However, all that changed when his foster father got engaged to his new mistress, whom he felt strong desire, called Hong Xiuyan (洪秀琰). One thing led to another and Biao's affair with Xiuyan happened on a regular basis. Jingying discovered his affair and had a big fight with him. Jingying later planned to fake her pregnancy to get him back, but the worse had happened: Huangfu Zhuobiao's foster father Huangfu Xiong engaged each other in a shoot out, and Huangfu Zhuobiao was killed by a bullet to his brain from Huangfu Xiong's gun, right in front of Jingying and Xiuyan.

The bullet was not just an ordinary bullet. It was both a charm and a curse. All of this was caused by A Bao A Qu, a spirit that was released from an urn brought back by Huangfu Xiong from India (actually, he stole it from there). A Bao A Qu, the invisible spirit, had first taken the life and soul of Yu Jingqi, and then fused with Biao to turn him into a playboy. The bullet actually separated A Bao A Qu's spirit from Biao's body, but unintentionally sealed A Bao A Qu's dark powers inside Biao's soul. At the same time, nine souls that were fused with Biao were also separated from him. Those were the souls of nine young martyrs who were comrades of Huangfu Xiong (they were also the past life selves of Getsuga, Rekka, Mizuchi, Ikazuchi, Hayate, Domon, Hideaki, Gen, and Saiko), who was back then known as Takeshi Arisugawa (有栖川 雄), commander of the Takeshi's Anti-demon Army (抗魔雄軍 or Kouma Yugun) who was fighting a cloud of demonic energy terrorizing the Sakhalin Islands north of Hokkaido. The demonic energy took possession of a sickly Ainu child, and used the child's body as a host to fight his nine comrades, all of whom had fallen. Eventually, Takeshi defeated the evil formless demon by absorbing all of it into his body, freeing the boy. The boy was dying. In order to save him, he summoned the souls of his nine comrades to fuse them with the boy, so that all of them could gain new life through the boy's body. Takeshi adopted the boy. Not long after, owing to some complicated incidents back in his hometown in Japan, Takeshi brought the boy out of Japan to Shanghai to start a new life, and gave themselves new names. He named himself Huangfu Xiong, and the boy Huangfu Zhuobiao. Using his newfound dark powers, he worked his way up ranks of the underworld in Shanghai, and became the most powerful gang lord and businessman in Shanghai.

The bullet finally separated him from the nine souls, and the soul of his beloved Yu Jingqi. He was born as a sickly Ainu boy, and he died as the same sickly Ainu boy. His soul was however, infused with a curse coming from a fragment of the soul of the Ruby Dragon, a powerful demon from the demon world. Furthermore he also had a large fragment of A Bao A Qu's power sealed within him. The power of the Ruby Dragon curse was meant to seal A Bao A Qu's power away, so that A Bao A Qu's soul will not have access to it, rendering A Bao A Qu powerless as a formless soul.

A Bao A Qu eventually drifted around in the sea and attached himself to a golden armour called the "Golden Garuda", which used to be one of the heavy items discarded by Prince Sang Nila Utama into the sea when escaping from Palembang (Indonesia) to Temasek (olden name of Singapore) to decrease the likelihood of his boat sinking. The "Golden Garuda" was a priceless battle armour that made the wearer invincible, causing surrounding countries to fight over it. A Bao A Qu eventually returned to stage a rebellion by working behind the scenes to create the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge.

Not long after Huangfu Zhuobiao's death, Zhuobiao was revived by Grand Master Garaya as one of the novagels, along with the nine martyred souls, and Liu Jingqi. The eight beauties of Shanghai and Xiuyan the seductress also transformed into novagels to prepare them to fight a war against a powerful demonic dragon called War Dragon. This would be the dragon that would emit powerful waves that would plunge the whole world into World War II. This was why they were unable to stop people from fighting on Earth, resulting in the death of millions.

After the defeat of War Dragon, they encountered A Bao A Qu again in the Indochina region, this time plotting to plunge the region into war. A Bao A Qu was more powerful than ever, now that he has the Golden Garuda armour. After a long tragic battle, they managed to seal him in an urn similar to what Biao got from his foster father who got it from India. The Vietnam War ended and the Khmer Rouge fell.

Shortly after, another crisis befell the Earth. The Ruby Dragon attacked and decimated all life on Earth. The novagels had to go to the Loch Ness in Scotland to fight the Loch Ness monster, otherwise known as the Silver Wyvern. By doing so, they obtained the power to bring the human race back to the life and restore everything that was destroyed, as long as the soul responsible for the killing and destruction were sacrificed to the Grand Retour, the accessory and weapon that summons the power of the Silver Wyvern.

Eventually they defeated the Ruby Dragon, Akira and Yumeko collapsed, forcing Grand Master Garaya to send them for reincarnation.

Everything was staged. The whole story about his birth was fabricated. His whole family background was staged. His father, his mother, the girls whom he admired and desired, his cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, teachers etc.: All of them were marionettes generated from his cells and power tasked with the mission of protecting him and guiding him out of harm. They were originally a part of him and were supposed to remerge with him: transformed back from flesh into energy to supplement his powers. It was the same for Yumeko too. Her parents were originally a part of her and were supposed to remerge with her. The instructions to protect him were from the Grand Master, since he and Yumeko were too weak to take control of them. They were too weak to become visible to the radar of the True Knights of Asia.

However, their (Akira's and Yumeko's) strong desire to become heroes spawned spin-offs of themselves in other parts of the world. While Akira existed in Singapore as Zoner and Yumeko existed in China (and later Singapore) as Annabelle, a young man by the name of Douglas and a young lady by the name of Catherine came into existence at an orphanage in Ireland, and became heroes to fight against Dr Bellfigure, a terrorist from the United Kingdom who had connections with the New World Order and True Knights of Asia.

Even though Douglas and Catherine were destroyed, they were reborn as Don Juan and Cait Sith (Nut + Case = Nutcase) in Märchenland, the enchanted land of fairies, elves, and legendary creatures.

It turned out that when Akira and Yumeko reincarnated after their war with Ruby Dragon, their minds were actually split into different parts. Akira was reborn as Zoner in Singapore and Yumeko was reborn as Annabelle in China. However, another part of Zoner was born as Douglas in Ireland, and likewise, another part of Annabelle was also reborn as Catherine in Ireland, and the both of them ended up in the same orphanage.

Garaya sent the eighteen novagels to Märchenland to look for Don Juan and Cait Sith, only to have them lose their memories in a dimensional storm and end up forgetting who they are and what their mission was. Though Garaya was concerned about them, he had enemies to fight on Earth and was unable to help them. When Garaya managed to find them in Märchenland, a series of events have occurred causing the novagels to be united by fate and eventually regain their memories, just in time to fight a demonic enemy called "Jeblis" who was launching a full scale attack to conquer Märchenland. The novagels fought him and defeated him, but that caused Nut and Case (shortened names of Don Juan and Cait Sith) to be severely injured and they disintegrated and returned back to their host bodies on Earth. In turned out that Nut and Case separated from their Earthly bodies through a "Dreamcast Demerger" and existed in Märchenland in incomplete and temporary physical bodies called "novageists" or "dreamcasts", and remerged with their original selves back on Earth right after their PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination). During that period, although Zoner and Annabelle were oblivious to all that was happening in Märchenland during their waking hours, they were updated in their sleep on what their "clones" experienced. Those were exciting dreams, but in the definition of Zoner and Annabelle, they were simply dreams. After their exams, Nut was back to being Zoner and Case was back to being Annabelle (though she used the identity 'Alice' when in school with them). Eventually the both of them met in secondary school, and they became good friends. Zoner's unrequited crushes were actually marionettes of the female novagels who were entrusted to watch over him and protect him. However, some unknown force caused them to forget their mission and live their lives as ordinary human beings. Eventually, the demon Woldaemal impersonated one of his schoolmates and used his schoolmate's identity to run down and emotionally break down Zoner's spirit, so as to make Zoner's soul vulnerable enough to be stolen. Eventually Woldaemal succeeded and turned Zoner's body into a host for the revival of the demon Jeblis. It was Yumeko who came to save him. Yumeko 'dreamcast demerged' from Alice to protect him. However, in her attempt to save him, she was captured by Woldaemal. Eventually Yumeko managed to break free and bring Zoner back to his senses, and cause Jeblis to be separated from Zoner's body into a different entity. Eventually, Yumeko and Zoner defeated Jeblis. After that, Yumeko made love with Zoner to cast a charm to ensure he gets adequately protected before he is ready to be fully awakened as the "seed provider". Later on, Yumeko went back to China and was awakened as the "seed receiver".

The role of the seed provider was to provide the seed to the seed receiver to create "eggs" where both the seed provider and seed receiver could be reborn after their bodies were destroyed in battle, provided their souls were not in captivity by the enemy. Other novagels who were not seed providers (males) or receivers (females) could merge their bodies with the seed provider and receiver to engage in sexual activity so that they could get their own eggs to be reborn. The female novagel who is not technically a seed receiver would also be able to create the egg for herself and her counterpart.

After awakening, Yumeko worked with Garaya and the Novamos novagels during that couple of years before Zoner's awakening as Akira. During that couple of years, Yumeko proved herself by singlehandedly saving the world on many occasions when the rest of the novagels were either killed or had their souls in captivity (though brought back to life later using the Grand Retour).

During those two years, Zoner had been in contact with an email pen pal named Takako (貴子) who introduced herself as a friend of Yumeko (he had seen Takako before when she visited his school in Singapore along with Yuko Maeda). In one of his holidays to Bangkok to visit his relatives, he met up with her when she came to Bangkok from Japan as an exchange student. Takako helped fill the gap in Zoner's heart during that difficult period of coping without Alice in his life. Instead of him taking her around, it was she who took him to places around Bangkok and they had a great time. It wasn't anything naughty and wild, but just visiting amusement parks, taking photos of tourist attractions, appreciating Thai shadow plays and dances, watching outdoor concerts, etc. But after that he didn't see her, even though they kept in touch by email. What Zoner didn't know was that Takako was also a marionette of Yumeko, working undercover in Bangkok.

It was not too long ago when Zoner met Annabelle (whom he once knew as Alice) again as Yumeko in Bangkok at Lumpini Park for an outdoor photoshoot, where she was one of the models, and Senna (Anathai) was the other model.

And that was when he finally got laid, not only with Yumeko, but all of his other crushes (the remaining female novagels), while also merging with the other male novagels who are the lovers of the respective female novagels. And that was when Zoner awakened as Akira, the seed provider.

However, according to a fortune teller that Takako took him to see at a temple in Bangkok, the reason why he was struggling with his schoolwork, part time job, and having poor luck with people around him especially girls, was because of bad karma from his past life. Back then he didn't believe it, but now it made perfect sense. He gave off a certain vibe that caused people to distance him, more because of the bad karma that had yet to be repaid. He was supposed to experience loneliness and frustration as a punishment for his past life sins. He was supposed to be broken hearted from unrequited love and lust, experience learning difficulties at school or at work, frustrate those who try to teach him, disappoint the people around him again and again, struggle to earn money, tortured by unpleasant thoughts for no reason, become sick from incurable illnesses that handicap his life, and get bullied often.

He was supposed to feel the full brunt of his karmic retribution before awakening. However, he awakened as Akira, the seed provider, and experienced the pleasures he craved from the girls he desired, had his physical, mental, and character-based shortcomings fixed allowing him to have a natural talent at almost everything especially the subjects/tasks he was weak in. He became a novagel whose body and mind was sharper than the average human by a thousand times, and had supernatural powers enabling him to fly, teleport, and perform many other wonders. He fought powerful demons with supernatural powers and was a hero just like his beautiful and handsome teammates.

Still, he wasn't free from his karma. He was still due for some more suffering which he was due to face, and one of them was the dark power of A Bao A Qu trapped inside him, which has the power to make him feel unworthy and shameful of the pleasures and adventures he was enjoying. The guilt was something he occasionally felt but have been cleverly shaking away. Sometimes after a good sexual session with one of his female novagels, he would start to feel giddy and short of breath. Some irrational thoughts continued to harass him, telling him that what he experienced was just a fantasy conjured by his longing for something that he yearned for but was not worthy of.

Before his awakening at Lumpini Park, one female classmate from his Polytechnic rebutted him during a quarrel by saying "respect is earned, not given". He didn't do anything to earn all this. This feeling was very strong especially before the mission to the nine religious structures in the Indochina countries that caused all the novagels to be killed by A Bao A Qu. This was his retribution. He was to experience the pain of losing his friends, and even losing his life now. He was currently observing all that has happened throughout his life, but is unable to break free from this state of mind and wake up.

This was the power of A Bao A Qu's green candle.

"It will be soon!" A Bao A Qu declared triumphantly. "Soon, the seed provider will die, and I will get back the powers that were trapped in his soul using the power of the Ruby Dragon. All in eight hours! By 12 midnight! Hahahahahaha!!!"

A Bao A Qu could not be any further from the truth than now, and Yumeko was sure of that. She was now walking into Fastitocalon Island as a tourist. The resort island was full of tourists from all nationalities, and the varieties of attractions were a combination of many other attractions of the world, such as Disneyland and Universal Studios. Some of the attractions were based on video games, and some were on movies.

However, Yumeko made a shocking discovery. The tourists who left all had their souls extracted from them, and were controlled by magic so that they could deceive everyone whom they knew by making them think that they were still alive, and promote the island by word of mouth to attract more tourists. It was a scam to collect human souls. Yumeko found it most unforgivable, just like anyone else would.

Every attraction had a soul trapping device. All she had to do was to enter the Treasure Island ride, and straightaway they detected that she was different. This was because she had a soul they could not absorb. She had a soul A Bao A Qu could not absorb. A Bao A Qu thought he absorbed her soul but actually he only absorbed a sentient ball of energy that would deceive him into thinking it was her soul. Her original body was absorbed by him but she had a spare body, and she's back, recharged and stronger than ever.

The ride was on water. She was riding with a few other tourists. During the excitement of the event, the souls of the tourists were sucked out. Suddenly, all the tourists on the ride with her grabbed her, drooling deliriously like zombies. She broke free and jumped onto the pirate ship. That was when all the other "pirates" and "Captain Hook" rushed forward to attack her. She jumped about, kicked pirates' asses, dodged sword blades, and threw them about despite her petite build. She fought Capital Hook face to face, shooting fireballs at him when he fired energy waves by serving his sword. Eventually, she pushed him into the water where he was eaten by the crocodile. She was Peter Pan, and she has won and brought safety to Never Land again.

When she got out of the tunnel where the ride was, she got a shock when she saw Chiaki and Mizuchi waiting for her outside. When she rushed forward to greet them, they fired swarms of ice needles at her. Yumeko had to generate a green coloured protective shield to protect her. Yumeko teleported and appeared right behind them, grab them by their necks and them into the water. Following that, Yumeko froze the water to freeze them inside, so that the cold could wake them up. However, it didn't work. Chiaki and Mizuchi were immune to cold. It only made them stronger. Yumeko got desperate. She didn't want to fight her friends. She said to them, "Fight it! Fight A Bao A Qu!" But all she got was an uppercut from Mizuchi. Chiaki then froze her solid and threw her high up in the air, so that when she hits the ground, she will shatter to pieces. However, in her frozen state, she felt a sense of warmth in her heart when the image of Akira appeared in her head, as if he was connecting to her. Her frozen body cells warmed up, melting and breaking the ice before she hit the floor, and she fired a "Piece de Resistance" at them. The explosion was quite great, destroying the mountain that housed the indoor cave pirate ship.

Chiaki and Mizuchi got up, this time finally remembering who they are. "Yumeko?" Mizuchi asked. Chiaki then exclaimed, "Oh no!" She remembered that their souls were absorbed and their bodies manipulated to become A Bao A Qu's slaves. "I'm sorry Yumeko! Did we hurt you too much?"

Yumeko walked to them to help them up, saying, "I should be the one asking you the same thing." The she continued, "Where can I find the rest? We only have seven hours left before Akira dies because of the green candle!"

"Tamiki and Rekka are guarding the Volcano Valley ride. We have to free them!" mentioned Mizuchi, recalling what they were instructed to do when under A Bao A Qu's control.

"Vamos, Novamos!" the three of them cheered and marched to the Volcano Valley ride.

*****************************************************

"Akira!" Yumeko rushed forward to Akira where he lay unconscious. The other novagels have merged with her, with the merged entity taking the form of Yumeko with Yumeko's mind as the dominating consciousness.

However, she ran straight into a green forcefield guarding the unconscious prisoner. "Arrrrrrrgh!!!" she yelped, and was thrown backwards onto the floor.

"Nice of you to drop by, Princess," came a voice. It was A Bao A Qu, their old enemy from the Vietnam War. "I see that you have already freed your other friends, and absorbed them into you. How nice, now you have the strength of 9 men and 10 women, or rather 19 novagels combined. However, I have the strength of a thousand demons!" Having said that, he summoned familiars and commanded them to attack her. With her sword "Excalibur", she fended them off easily. Some of the familiars summoned were souls of soldiers who perished in the Vietnam war, both American and Vietnamese. "One novagel is already a match for a few hundreds of you! Just a thousand demons is nothing! We are nineteen! And we will defeat you!"

"Oh, defeating me is nothing, but you only have thirty minutes left! Can you defeat me by then? Once the green candle goes out, his life will be gone, and I will get back my powers from his body. By then, I will be unstoppable! Hahahahaha!!!"

"You wish!" Yumeko taunted, then charge forward to slash A Bao A Qu!

************************************************

"A…a!"

"A…k…ra!"

"Akira!"

"Garaya-sama!" Akira exclaimed.

"Fight the green candle! Don't give in to the guilt! Fight the evil!"

"It's no use…it's a miracle I had this power! I've not supposed to have them, after all I've done!"

"It doesn't matter! What matters is you know what you did in your past life is wrong, and you don't repeat it in the present life. You have the power! I planted it into you! The seven Bridestones!"

"Bridestones?"

Yes, Akira remembered the Bridestones that Garaya had embedded into him.

"The Bridestones were created from sin! From desire! It is supposed to be evil in the eyes of heaven, since it has the power to grant any wish to its possessor. We have the responsibility to guard it. Now it's time for you to push the Bridestones from your body into the Rainbow Infinity."

"The Rainbow Infinity?"

"Yes, the Rainbow Infinity! It is the dimension that only all of the novagels will be able to access to recharge their powers, since it is an endless vortex of power. But the Bridestones can do so much more than that. Just imagine if the power of the Bridestones and the Rainbow Infinity were combined?"

"You mean…"

"We need that to have sufficient power to defeat A Bao A Qu! He's more powerful than any demon working for the True Knights of Asia, even Woldaemal himself!"

"What is that?" Akira asked, looking at a gigantic grey sphere in the sky wrapped round with a web of red veins.

"They grey portion is A Bao A Qu's body, destroyed and turned into a lump of energy by Huangfu Xiong's Ruby Dragon Soul Binder. That is the reason why your current life is so messed up, and the reason why you could not awaken as a novagel naturally. This was the reason why you need the Bridestones to sustain your present state. That's why the Bridestones are right here with you, in your world, in your body, and in your soul." Garaya chanted a spell, and Akira's body glowed. Akira screamed at the top of his voice as he felt strong pain in his chest. "Push! Push! Push!" was all he heard from Garaya, and he mentally pushed out whatever that was stuck in his chest, like a pregnant woman giving birth. After enduring a sharp pain that seemed to have lasted forever, it finally came out. No there was no sound of a crying baby, but the sound of seven gems falling to the ground.

Akira panted. Suddenly there was a sinister echo-like laughter coming from the grey sphere.

Garaya explained, "Without the seven gems inside you, you are no longer protected from the demonic influence of A Bao A Qu's essence on your mind. With the Green Candle taking effect, A Bao A Qu's essence in your body is getting stronger! You have to rush to the Rainbow Infinity Vortex!"

"Where is the Rainbow Infinity Vortex?"

"I don't know. You've have to find it yourself."

"Thanks a lot man! Now that's very helpful!"

"I'm sorry but there is no other way to the vortex except through following your heart. Your heart will lead you to the vortex."

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the ground a certain distance from Akira, throwing him a certain distance away.

A voice was heard from the grey sphere. "I will not let you get to the Rainbow Infinity vortex."

"To hell with you, A Bao A Qu! How many years did you have to make me miserable? How many lifetimes? You not only destroyed me my past life. You're trying to destroy me in my present life! I will get rid of you, once and for all, you pest!"

"Die!" cursed A Bao A Qu, and the grey sphere fired another bolt of lightning at Akira. Akira dodged, but was thrown a certain distance in front. Akira quickly got up, carrying the gems, and started running.

The gems started glowing, creating a forcefield to protect him. "Thanks guys", Akira thanked, and dashed forward. The grey sphere, which was an extension of A Bao A Qu, kept firing bolts of lightning at him. When that didn't work, he fired a bolt of lightning onto some rocks, bringing them to life by turning them into golems. To go forward, Akira had to fight the golems that continuously tried to harass him. Akira muttered to himself, "now I know how a celebrity model feels when stalked by paparazzi". Akira then jumped, and he saw a curtain of aurora borealis above a mountain.

"An aurora! That means I'm near!"

Akira dashed to the mountain, and made multiple leaps, dodging multiple hostile shots of energy from the grey sphere that seemed to be following him. Just when he was about to reach the top of the mountain, Akira was hit by a beam from the grey sphere, causing him to lose his grip on the seven Bridestones scattering them all over, and causing him to roll down the rocky slope by a few feet. To make matters worse, new golems were being born from rocks and were trying to steal the seven Bridestones. That was what A Bao A Qu was after. They were the seven Bridestones that protected Akira.

Akira struggled. He could barely move. He watched the golems walk towards the gems that escaped his grasp, while he struggled to move. It was unbearable. His insides felt like rising magma ready to erupt from the top of the volcano.

His willpower. It was all he had. A desire to stand up while he couldn't. But he had to. It's either he stands up, or he's finished. If that's not enough, the grey sphere was continuously firing blast of energy at him to prevent him from getting up.

He was shot again and again, but the fire in his heart did not die. "Don't..."

"…touch…"

"…my…"

"BRIDESTONES!!!"

All of a sudden, a forcefield automatically surrounded him, and the Bridestones, and all the golems suddenly collapsed and disintegrated. The grey sphere suddenly scowled and cursed. Akira then effortlessly floated up to the top of the mountain where an altar was located. The altar had seven slots, one for each Bridestone. Suddenly, Akira heard Garaya's voice.

"Well done! Now put the Bridestones in the respective slots on the altar."

Akira did so, and asked. "Now what?"

"It's time to open a portal to the Rainbow Infinity Vortex."

"How do I do that?

"Recite after me!"

"Okay…"

"Bridestones! Crystals of the love of Merlin and Vivianne! Seven Magic Gems of Miracles! From the abyss you came, to the abyss you shall return!"

Akira recited accordingly, and the aurora borealis above him started to shine more brightly, and eventually become a portal.

The seven gems floated from their positions on the alter, and slowly rose up into the rainbow-like portal. Akira also floated upwards together with them, and...

******************************************************************

Akira opened his eyes, and the forcefield that imprisoned him shattered.

He was back in the physical world.

The light on the Green Candle was immediately put out, and the candle itself turned into grey stone and cracked to pieces.

"Akira!" Yumeko called out in joy.

"What!" A Bao A Qu gasped in shock.

"The gems are no longer with me. They're now floating in Rainbow Infinity!"

"Really?"

"All of us can access its power now!"

"Alright! But what about you?"

"A Bao A Qu has been greatly weakened. He won't be able to hurt me for the time being."

"Damn it!!!" A Bao A Qu cursed.

"In the next twenty years the curse will totally wear off!"

"Really?" Yumeko gasped in delight, and rushed over to Akira. Then she said to him, "I'm going to transfer the souls of the other guys (the male novagels) to you." After saying that, she kissed him, long and hard, facilitating a thirty second transfer of souls.

On seeing this, A Bao A Qu tried to disrupt the process. However, the couple was shielded away from his attacks by a powerful forcefield, both energized by the energy coming from the Bridestones in the Rainbow Infinity Vortex.

Within half a minute, the process was complete. Akira was now charged up and ready to kick A Bao A Qu's ass, alongside Yumeko.

Akira and Yumeko both chanted. "Nova Henshin (新星変身)" and started transforming. Their looks changed. Akira became more handsome and Yumeko became more pretty. They were fully merging with the souls of the other novagels inside them to evolve into Novas, combining the strengths of all the male novagels into one Nova, which is Liondor, and combining the strengths of all the female novagels into one Nova, which is Monaphrodiva. It was the power of the Bridestones that allowed this. Legend has it that when the Bridestones are returned to the Rainbow Infinity Vortex by the Seed Provider, the Nova's true power shall awaken.

A Bao A Qu trembled. He fired shots of fiery energy from his golden sword, called Kris Garuda, but they just marched forward as if it were nothing.

Liondor and Monaphrodiva dashed forward and started pummelling A Bao A Qu non-stop. They pummelled, and pummelled, and pummelled, until the golden armour he was wearing cracked into pieces. After that, the fired a very large Piece de Resistance and eventually vaporized him, as if he were nothing, and then finally used a Grand Retour to return his soul to hell, reversing all the damage he has done.

All of a sudden, Fastitocalon Island disappeared, and they found themselves hovering midair over the ocean near Batam.

That bad news was that Liondor and Monaphrodiva were so badly exhausted that they had to stop going for future missions and the whole Novagel tea had to be disbanded after that for the team members to recuperate.

Akira was back to being Zoner, a nobody with memories of all the events sealed away again.

Eventually Zoner left the army after his two-year service obligation was over, but his inflamed skin did not see significant improvement. The patches on his skin that spread to his face were so red that it made him appear that he was burned by the flames of hell. Sometimes, combined with the constant rejections he faces, the conflicts he has with others, and the negative comments he gets from female friends, he gradually believed that he could be a devil's incarnate. Although he appeared amiable, patient, and considerate on the outside, he knew he had ugly desires, yearnings, thoughts, and anger. He was very angry with the world for its unfairness. Why did some people who were high handed, arrogant, and does not show respect to others, still enjoy love from a beautiful significant other, and why did he often have conflicts with female friends when he is so nice, or is unable to win the heart of someone he likes? He often saw this in his ex-colleagues in the army, his ex-colleagues in his previous company where he worked during his polytechnic industrial attachment. It was disgusting. Most of the girls whom he liked gave him the cold shoulder despite him being nice, and yet people who treated others badly were gainfully in a relationship. Sigh, life isn't fair. Why would he not be angry?

Friends and family gave him all kinds of reasons, which didn't really help. It was because of his skin. It was because of his poor communication skills. His poor understanding and awareness of how people feel or think. However, it didn't make sense to him. He was sure it was more than that. All these were excuses made based on hindsight wisdom. Reasons were given, and some solutions were offered, but eventually the problem was not solved.

His same life pattern repeated itself in the subsequent jobs he worked in, and the schools he studied in after that. It did not change. He continued to be the underdog. He had a manager who would yell at him, embarrassing him in public and in front of his colleagues, just because he was slow to understand his instructions. However, this man still had a lovely looking fiancé and they were about to get married. In addition, the young female staff Zoner was attracted to accepted this manager's friend request but rejected Zoner's friend request altogether. Why, what did he do wrong? This manager did more wrong! Zoner should deserve their company. Eventually Zoner left to further his studies, but also experienced similar issues. As long as it concerned attractive female friends who he was attracted to, he would have issues with them. They would be irritated with his presence even though he meant no harm, but easily accept his other classmates who were more arrogant and critical of Zoner himself.

As time progressed, he noticed a constant pattern. Those female friends who accepted his company as normal friends were mainly those whom already had boyfriends or were already married. They would seem him as a nice, helpful, and kind person, but the single ladies would see him as a threat. It's not as if he was already married already. He was single, so it meant that he was already available and getting together with him would mean that the girl would not have to worry about becoming a third party in the relationship. Though he didn't think it was attributable to his inflamed skin, the issues he had with his inflamed skin didn't help him.

To cure his skin, his parents and relatives recommend different kinds of treatment from him, ranging from herbal medicine, acid-based medicine, immune system boosting supplements, and even banning steroid medicine. He even went for UV radiation treatment. Every form of treatment has claimed to have worked wonders for many other people, except him.

Along the way, after battling in frustration with the issue of attracting only ladies who were attached or married and repelling those who are single and available, his parents actually advised him to remain single. They actually gave up on the idea of him having a girlfriend while he saw his ex-classmates get hitched and married one by one. He decided to actually give up and just remain single. He also went around telling others the wonders of being single, and the issues with overpopulation that marriage and having children was bringing to the world. An old acquaintance by the name of Wheeler Foo (who was in a relationship at that time) actually criticized him for supporting singlehood and actually said that being in a relationship has made him a better person and "recommends" Zoner to enter a relationship with a girl so as to become a better person, and also said that single people are useless people who don't have the capacity to care for other people because they don't have love in their lives. The conversation eventually turned hostile and they stopped contacting each other, with Wheeler actually ending off with the message "If you want to continue with life as a weak and useless single, as an incomplete man without love and is unable to care for others, go ahead. Don't say your friend did not advice you. You're just digging your own grave".

Zoner was very angry, and ended off by telling Wheeler that he is a hypocrite who claims he is a gentleman and a saint when he is actually a soft-spoken ungentlemanly jerk who imagines himself to be someone great with a heart of gold. Worst of all, Wheeler was already inferior in many areas such as language skills, grammar, logical thinking, and social skills, and yet had the cheek to regard Zoner and "many other people who are better than him" as inferior. Zoner was also nice enough not to even say this to Wheeler. Eventually Zoner deleted Wheeler and Wheeler blocked Zoner on social media. Zoner eventually felt relieved that he finally got rid of a pest who kept littering his SMS inbox with depressing comments about girls, employers, and the bad things about Singapore, and managed to tell Wheeler that he is a hypocrite who thinks he knows everything even though he could not type proper English, Chinese, or Japanese for that matter. Furthermore, Zoner also found it unfair that such as bastard actually had someone who liked him, even though he preferred the freedom of not being tied down to someone. In fact, being a free single is so much better than being tied down to the wrong person. Despite that, Wheeler's words still left Zoner feeling empty.

However the stigma of being single remained, which meant that he didn't have a value on the dating market place, which was not something to be proud of at all.

Even though he has been struggling to remain positive in all these tough times amidst well-meaning useless and irritating advice from friends, colleagues, relatives, and family members, deep down was a volcano waiting to erupt.

He works, tolerating everything, waiting for an opportunity for revenge against all those who had hurt him. Deep down, he was looking for an opportunity to create one, though he couldn't do much at the moment except to make the most of his situation to enjoy himself.

But above all that, he realized that it was much better to make full use of his freedom to enjoy what people who are "tied-down" cannot do.

Since he had an interest in the photos of pretty models, he often went down to product promotional events or car show events to take photos of attractive models or racequeens. When he meets some of the more approachable ones, he'll also exchange self-introductions with them and slowly turn them into acquaintances.

Despite adopting a positive attitude and having the determination to turn his life around, deep inside, the energy of evil within him was getting stronger.

The cause of his skin problem was not something that could be cured even by any Chinese medicine, machines that generate energized water with exaggerated abilities, or just mere prayer. It was the result of the curse magic cast by his enemies in his previous past lives. Red scales were appearing on his skin, slowly attempting to devour him from within. However, the effect was slowed due to his constant intake of immune system boosting TCM. Perhaps Zoner's positive spirit was too strong, which kept the influence of the demonic magic at bay.

Due to his skin condition and his poor ability to handle human relationships, and his poor ability to handle jobs that require a certain level of analysis that most people were capable of, eventually he was back to being unemployed for a long period of time and had to live on freelance work, which was not stable. To make things worse, the cost of living in Singapore was getting higher. Costs of buying a home or a car skyrocketed in the past few years, and he saw his friends enjoying high-paying jobs, get married and having babies one after another. He also saw his attractive female friends whom he had a crush on get married and starting to have children. Whereas he was just a loser whose dreams, dream girls, and dream lifestyle are out of his reach? Still, he was comfortable at where he was, looking at the world through the computer screen and collecting a harem of photos of attractive ladies downloaded from the web to substitute for his lack of a female companion. He was fast being overtaken and becoming irrelevant when compared to his peers. What could be worse?

One day, he started to dream. He dreamt of everything that happened when he was Akira. He dreamt of his past battles and romantic adventures when he was called Akira on Earth.

And he started to write about those dreams in a book. The book was to be called, "Daybreak Dreamer". The name was dedicated, to the female confidant of his fantasy, and his imagination, who didn't exist. Or rather, he thought that she didn't exist. 'Dreamer' was referring to her, and 'Daybreak' was his alter ego as her hero.

Zoner continued to live on as an ordinary writer with no idea about the invisible battles with demons happening around us, in which Aawoot and Baifin continue to battle as they travel throughout the world and back in time to assist their past-life selves.