Battle For Respect Finale Part Three

Seth's mind starts to drift to thirteen years ago, when he was four years old. Seth lived in a black ten-story mansion that had all of its edges painted gold. The entirety of the inside was painted gold, and the multiple rooms were kept extremely clean.

On this specific day, Seth was on the sixth floor bowling with his mom in the family's personal bowling alley. Seth, who is wearing a tiny, cute suit, throws a child-catered bowling ball into the fourth lane.

"Come on, get in there!" Seth yells.

The ball goes straight into the gutter.

"No! Stupid ball! You're supposed to go straight! Do you know who I am? I'll have you destroyed!"

Seth's mother starts laughing.

"Hey, that's not funny Mom!"

When Seth turns around, he sees his mother giggling. Seth's mother's name is Rena, a 5'6 white-skinned woman wearing purple sweatpants and a purple blouse. Her hair is blue, and she has a skinny physique. Rena has been married to Ronald for seven years prior to having Seth. She used to live on a poor island in the Snachro zone, but that all changed when Ronald, who was researching a sea cave, arrived. After the two of them spent months together, Ronald took Rena to Grava City, where they got married.

After Seth hears Rena giggling, he runs to her and jumps on her lap.

"Stop laughing Mom!"

Seth starts flailing as Rena continues to laugh.

"I'm sorry, Seth; it's just that you completely missed!"

Seth slumps down on Rena's lap.

"It's not funny, Mom," Seth says with a bummed-out expression.

Rena puts her soft hands on Seth's head, causing him to look up to her.

"It's ok, Seth; it was just a little slip-up. You're the best in the world, remember?"

"Oh yeah, you're right!"

Seth grabs another bowling ball and goes to roll it. Seth slips and accidentally rolls the ball into the gutter.

"No, not again!"

"Hehe, it's ok, Seth. Even the best in the world makes mistakes!"

"Oh yeah, you're right!"

"Come here, Seth."

Seth runs over to Rena and gives her a big, passionate hug with a smile on his face.

"My little Seth, you're just on top of the world. When you grow older, you'll be just like your father, the most important person on the planet."

"Really!"

"Yes, of course Mom wouldn't lie to you."

Seth's eyes start to sparkle as his mom gives him a boost of confidence.

"Yeah! I am the greatest!"

"Yes, you are my little Seth."

Both Rena and Seth hear a knock on the door. Ronald enters the room completely dressed up for what looks to be a special event.

"Are you ready, Rena? We have to get to that party."

"Oh, sorry, honey, I forgot. I'll go get ready right now!"

Rena gets up and starts walking past Ronald. Before she leaves the room, Ronald grabs her by the arm and starts whispering in her ears.

"Rena I told you before you should stop inflating his ego so much; you're going to shape his personality into something unbearable."

"Come on now, honey. Seth takes pride in being your son. You should be proud of that, plus he's such a kind soul he wouldn't hurt a fly."

"But—"

Rena kisses Ronald and continues walking so she can go change her clothes.

Ronald looks behind him and sees Seth still jumping around in excitement. Seeing this, Ronald smiles while seeing his younger self within Seth.

"Hey, Seth."

"Yeah, Dad!"

"Me and your mother will be going to a party, so behave for the babysitter; we shouldn't be that long."

"Ok!"

That night, on their way back home after the party, Ronald and Rena got the tires of their limo popped, and their security was killed by random bandits. Ronald got his skull cracked and his arm broken, but Rena got the worst of it. Rena got physically tortured in multiple ways, raped, and then shot in the head, causing her death. Ronald was left alive next to the blown-up limo. He was found three hours after Rena died, and after further looking into it by the police, they found out that the bandits were random people from the Mud Zone who hated Ronald. They were captured and executed three days later.

After this incident, a funeral for Rena was held two months later. It was a windy day in the Grava City graveyard. The grass was luscious as usual, and with them, at the top of a hill, there were many gravestones of important individuals in history.

With the families and friends of both Ronald and Rena at the funeral, everyone gave their condolences, and with the funeral coming to an end, Ronald wanted to say something.

Ronald, whose left arm is still in a cast, walks next to Rena's casket.

"Rena was my wife, and we had a beautiful child together. She was different from everyone else. She believed in the dreams of others, no matter what they were. If I hadn't met her on that island, I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now. She was my everything after my parents were killed by assassins."

Ronald falls to his knees and starts sobbing.

"Every time I heard her voice, my life improved for the better! She was like an angel sent down to guide me down a path of happiness! And now..."

Ronald put his head on the ground and whispered to himself.

"Now that she's gone, how will I even move on?"

After Ronald finished talking, the workers started burying Rena's body. Seth, who was holding the hand of his aunt on his mom's side, looks in shock.

"Why are they putting dirt on my mom? She doesn't like to be in small, closed spaces."

Seth runs over to the worker, who is currently putting dirt on the casket.

"Stop! Let my mom out!"

Seth grabs the worker's leg and bites it.

"Oww! Someone get this kid off of me!"

"I won't let you put dirt on my mom!"

Ronald, who is still on the ground, looks over to Seth and looks away. One of Seth's aunts on the father's side grabs Seth and pulls him off.

"Get off your damn high horse; you're just a shame to your last name. Stop embarrassing your father everywhere you go!"

"What!"

Seth looks at his aunt and sees nothing but animosity in her eyes. Seth's family on the father's side was completely against Ronald marrying Rena since she had no type of power. This is why they look at Seth as a disappointment since he wasn't born a prodigy.

Seth's aunt throws Seth to the ground and continues walking.

"They should have killed you too."

Seth, who is very confused, looks at his father, who hasn't moved from his spot.

"But I'm the greatest, right, Dad. Mom. I want you to see me be great."

Tears start to slide down Seth's face.

After this moment, Seth's life would change forever. Ronald would use a hundred percent of his free time to work on pushing technology to new heights, which meant he barely saw Seth. Seth became an OGI user at the age of twelve, but even when he begged, his family wouldn't get him a tutor so he could improve his OGI, which caused him to train on his own. Every time he would tell his father about any improvements he'd made, he would always say the same thing.

"Don't push yourself too much, Seth. I'm not expecting too much from you."

This went on for years, which finally led to the fateful Grava Acadamy entrance exam day, where Seth was made the number one of class six, but even with that not being bad, his family thought differently.

Seth, who was sixteen at the time, was returning home after the entrance exam. His family was gathered inside the mansion to celebrate his entrance into Grava Acadamy. Seth stands in front of the mansion door and exhales.

"It's ok; it was just a fluke. I just have to keep remembering what Mom always said. I am the greatest."

Seth walks into the mansion, and instantly all his family members look at him. Chatter ensues as Seth walks to his father at the end of the bottom floor.

"Is that really the son of the greatest inventor of all time? He's so pathetic. He only got into class six, while people like Alexander and Akira got way higher ranks."

"I heard his cousin, who is only fourteen, is showing great promise. Are we sure Seth is the real son?"

As he walks past his many family members, Seth grits his teeth. 

"Just watch; I'll prove you all wrong!"

Seth stops walking once he is in front of his father.

"I'm sorry, Father. I was only able to get into class six, but I promise I will make up for it as fast as possible."

Ronald looks Seth in the eyes with an empty expression.

"No, it's fine, Seth. I wasn't expecting much from you anyway."

After those words come out of Ronald's mouth, everyone in the room starts to laugh at Seth without any shame.

"Haha, what did he expect him to say, damn idiot?"

"What garbage! Just give up already; your so-called dad realized you're a waste of sperm!"

With everyone laughing at him, Seth turns around with nothing but anger on his face.

"You might be laughing now! But all of you keep watching because I will be the greatest, just like my mom said I would!"

After remembering these specific moments in his life, Seth's mind starts to clear up, and he looks up and sees Kage.

"Oh, so you're still up! Well, I hope you realize that you have lost this battle because I'm ending it!"

Kage creates a ball of energy in his hand and points it at Seth.

"You ready!"

As Kage gets ready to blast Seth with an energy beam, he hears Seth start to mutter to himself.

"Why am I even here? To earn respect?"

"What the hell are you even saying, dumbass?"

Seth slams his head on the ice so hard that the ice under him cracks.

"What the hell do you even care?"

"Huh?"

Seth starts to break into tears.

"All I want is to be the greatest! Why does everyone hate me for having such a goal? Why! Goddamn it, tell me why! Why, Father, please tell me why you hate me! Everybody gets to scream about their ambitions and goals, but why am I singled out?"

Seth starts pulling his hair in frustration.

"I just want to be great like Mom said I would be."

Seth starts to scream in anguish.

As Seth breaks down right in front of him, Kage starts to feel chills go down his body. In his mind, an image of a child crying pops into his mind.

"This is someone who's been pushed far over the edge for so long. A person who was pushed so far into loneliness that he doesn't even know how to process his own feelings." Kage says.

Kage looks at Seth with a saddened expression.

"So this is why I hate you so much, because you remind me too much of me."

While the battle is at a standstill, the crowd gets restless and starts chattering.

"What a spineless wimp! Is he really crying for his mom right now?"

"I didn't come to watch this shit! Tell that dumbass to get up and fight!"

"Ha, what do you expect from a loser like him? He's the son of the most powerful person on the planet, but he cries like a bitch when he doesn't get what he wants. Pathetic!"

"Get out the ring! Get out the ring! Get out the ring!"

As the crowd chants for Seth to quit, Nixion, who is in the announcer's room, goes to grab the mic.

"I told them to respect our students! Do I really have to do this again?"

Before Nixion can turn his mic on, Kage disrupts the crowd first.

"Shut the fuck up!"

Everyone goes silent after hearing Kage's scream.

"You damn idiots think you can say anything, don't you! Well, if you feel froggy, fucking leap and come down here! Make him get up if this bothers you so much!"

With the crowd completely silent, Kage walks up to Seth. When he's in front of him, he remembers words from someone in his past.

"Crying won't help you here; you know you gotta get up and keep pushing or you'll stay like this forever."

Kage grabs Seth by the collar and forces him to stand up.

"Listen here, dumbass! You think you got it tough? Well, there are a lot of people just like you living the worst life possible! But do you want to know why their life is like that?"

"Would you just knock me out already?"

"Their life is like that because they give up! They choose to stay where they are and hope someone will come help them. Well, let me tell you something: Nobody is coming to help you!"

Kage's voice starts to get weaker as he screams at his maximum. Seth's eyes, which were once full of tears, start to dry.

"Nobody wants to hear your damn sob story! They want to hear what you became after, and you for sure showed me what you've become! Don't forget all that training you did just to be able to fight me and prove I'm some fake!"

Kage gets into a strong fighting stance, and at the same time, Seth feels his heartbeat start to beat faster and faster.

"You have shown me time and time again that I need to keep training to keep you below me! Now you say you're the greatest by birth, right? How about you fucking show me!"

All the words Kage says echo in Seth's mind, rapidly implanting into his brain.

"What the hell am I doing." Seth says while getting up.

With the words of his mother continuously playing in his head as well, Seth smirks.

"Alright, I'll show you! You upperclass fake!"

"Haha, that's what I like to hear!"

Chapter 130 end