A Talk with the Other side

Leon stared at the boy, a clear reflection of his. Leon face enfolded in solemnity. 

Leon could have hidden from the boy, but he intentionally didn't.

Of course, he wanted to know something.

Something that he has been wanting to know since the day of his birth.

He couldn't ask himself; no, he just didn't know how to. When he became a man with enormous power in hand.

He finally found a way to ask in a way someone could answer. Only to realize it was too late.

But what did the boy before him have to do with that?

Would Leon get the answer by asking his own self of a different timeline, who might be in his own predicament at that age?

The boy was young, far younger than Leon, with disheveled hair and a gaunt face. Probably because of the harsh reality of this world that was akin to his past world.

"You seem to be struggling with your thoughts," said the boy, gazing at him.

His eyes were like Leon's in color except Leon's aflame spirit had perished, but the boy still had it.

Leon kept staring like a blankness of paper. That was how the boy saw him.

Leon's face was vague and strange, more like a blank and clean surface with no eyes, nose, or even mouth attached.

The boy could have run away, but he knew it would be just a futile attempt. Beside, the aura emitted by the man behind the tree was as dark as the one belonging to the deepest sea.

But he also knew the man wouldn't attack him. He read the man thoroughly in the short interim.

Leon opened his mouth. "May I join you?"

The boy nodded. In the loneliness where he had to watch the vast view alone, a company wasn't so bad.

Both perched at the edge of the high land.

A prolonged silence descended; they dared not to say anything for a while. They were strangers, a first-time meeting.

When Leon thought of the pointless silence that couldn't help him in any case, he opened his mouth.

"What do you think of the good and holy of this world?"

Little Leon glanced and reverted his gaze away with a shake of his head. The boy was fast at thinking all because of who he was in the previous world.

So, the one to answer wouldn't be a young child but a teenager almost in his twenties. 

"A world which creates a system to separate people into ranks is no holy or good but bastards reaping everything using the glory of light."

Leon knew from the get-go that people he would work with are no different than devils disguised as peacemakers and pure.

The only thing he didn't know was that the devil doesn't fight directly but plays with the cards as a trickster, which he is.

When Leon realized he was in their palms, he had become their unwilling dog that couldn't disobey.

Because someone is at SSS level doesn't mean he's endlessly powerful; it's just a level at the bottom against those far higher than it.

The collar around his neck was a great example of it.

But the collar light was fading; every ounce of energy had vanished within it. It had lost its connection with its timeline to its owner.

Leon's lips vaguely bobbled up and down; he desperately wanted to ask a question that had been restrained in him.

His heart could no longer resist, and Leon indirectly asked, "Your father and mother must be worried; night will be coming soon, and the forest wouldn't be safe."

"My father told me it's safer than the kingdom."

"Judging from your appearance, your family is poor, isn't it? It must be tough."

"As long as my father is with me, I don't see myself as poor. He's a hard-working man."

Leon knew his own father well, an alcoholic man who all the time gets drunk and never cared about anything else but his wife.

She was his life, everything. But even she couldn't convince him to stop drinking because of the severe conditions they were in.

Drinking gave him a numb feeling; he would forget the world and its depressing environment he dwelled in.

While sinking in the ocean of alcohol, the man lost the sky and land. He lost his wife, his land and sky.

While giving birth to the moon of the night.

That day, a drunk man became a father and a husband who lost his wife. It was the day his sun truly shone.

The same drunk man was no longer a drunk man, but a shield and shelter to his son.

Inwardly, Leon smiled on hearing what the boy said. The light was faintly beaming in the darkness of the deepest night.

Leon wanted to stay a little longer, but he had made up his mind now.

He got up, whirled, and began to walk away.

His back was visible for little Leon to watch; he wanted to ask, 'Who the man was,' but he knew they would meet again in a circle of the vast world.

Little Leon hears the man saying, "If you get the chance to shine, do it alone or with those you want. But not with those who make the ranks to slave you."

With that, Leon entered the forest, only for him to get lost in the darkness cast by the trees and bushes.

'What a strange man; only a fool will shake a hand with evil.'

"Is this the castle?" said Leon, standing in front of an enormous structure.

His eyes were scanning the whole surroundings. The plain ground, without any green, was only afire in flames, but those flames had a shape.

Grass, trees, and birds---they were all on fire. They had skin layers that were dry but not affected by those flames in a reddish hue.

None had turned soot.

The castle felt like a haunted place. Leon gazed at it, unfazed.

'It hasn't changed a bit, just like back then it's the same. I wonder if he's here or I'm too early.'

The giant and rusted gates were pushed open, and the sound of creak reverberated everywhere.

What greeted Leon was a hallway so stretched, its other side was ceaseless. Doors were attached to the side walls.

There were many, countless, I believe.

Leon entered and started walking. He walked and walked. It felt like he was on a loop.

The end couldn't even be discerned; the unruffled Leon didn't flinch by the trick of the person behind it.

"The old tricks don't work all the time, Darlos."

The sword that didn't come with Leon manifested in his hand. It was becaus,e at the last brink of time, he called back the sword.

The sword returned to the pocket storage. Pocket storage with enough space to store three million things.

Leon's finger swathed the hilt and swung the sword around. The blade moved in a crescent. A single swing was enough to cut down the illusion.

Leon unearthed the hidden realm concealed within the castle. A voice harsh as a blizzard and fierce as a tiger asked.

"A man with strong guts, what business does a bold man like you have in the underground of the sinister realm?"

Leon stood straight; under him was a rough ground, and about him were pillars in black.

Leon stared for too long with no response.

"Is the stare the only thing you know of? Is it the last thing you want before demise?"

The man said his gleaming red eyes were the only thing that Leon saw.

Leon, with his solemn expressionm gave an offer that the man wouldn't refuse.

"Join me if you want to see an end to the holy kingdom."