Chapter 72

I took a few steps back from the windows before turning over toward the desk that Anthony was sitting at just moments ago. I opened the largest drawer and began to shuffle through, and I felt something interesting and pulled it out.

The object was thin and light, something resembling a coin. I looked at the coin in the fleeting sunlight before putting it in my pocket for later.

Before leaving the room I closed my eye and envisioned the 4 armed statue, before I felt my surroundings change and I ended up in the afterlife.

"Back already?"

The Umbridge asked, looking past me to see the dead body of Anthony behind me, lifeless with opened yet empty eyes. I nodded, before approaching the body and rolling it over, getting a good view of his vest and all of its pockets.

"You're robbing the man I see, I'm an entity not bound by many moral codes, so I see nothing wrong with it."

I started to rummage through the man's pockets and vest, unfortunately feeling little to no overall contents. I then turned back to look at the tall figure and sighed softly. 

"Would you mind resurrecting this man, but erasing his memories of my encounter with him." 

The Umbridge paused for a moment, in a deep state of contemplation on if he should go through with this minorly questionable act.

"I suppose, but if there are any repercussions, I won't be there to help you. I'm only here to guide you along the divine path to your prophecy, and the act you just committed only signed more power within your body."

They then extended their bony fingers and pointed at the corpse, shortly after the crimson moon formed above the man's body, and it began to seep the strange liquid used in creating the potion. The liquid started to cover the man's entire form.

I could see Anthony's body start to twitch and spasm randomly, before he gagged heavily and leaned up, spitting the liquid out of his mouth.

"Where am I?"

He asked frantically, looking toward me and the Umbridge in confusion and anger.

"You little brat!"

Anthony suddenly stood up and charged towards me, reaching for his gun that he didn't have, and he instantly paused in his tracks and felt his vest frantically.

"What did you do? Where am I?"

The questions started to pour out of his mouth, but I remained silent and didn't answer him. Suddenly Anthony's pupils turned dark, like deep pools of black water. He turns to look at the crimson moon floating where he just laid down.

"What the..."

His mouth was left slightly agape as all his attention was gravitated towards the floating moon, which now seemed to emanate a strange aura, one that seems to subjugate everything it encountered, except me and The Umbridge.

Suddenly, all the attention in Anthony's mind shrank back, and the moon stopped glowing brightly. Anthony looked around frantically, his face contorted into an expression of puzzlement and fear.

"Where am I, who are you guys?"

Anthony suddenly fell to the ground and scooted backwards, his eyes now locked on us. The Umbridge and me gazed towards Anthony, "our" expressions unmoving.

"You're dead, child."

Anthony's eyes winged in fear as he started to grip his chest, his frantic demeanor now completely overpowered by even more dread and confusion.

"I-I'm dead?"

"Yes, you've left the realm of the living."

"I-I remember falling out of my window, and then everything went black."

Upon hearing Anthony's self proclaimed cause of death, my suspicions were immediately confirmed, that The Umbridge had erased and converted his memories into a new form, a new reality entirely.

"W-where will I go?"

He asked, his red eyes darting across the surroundings, The Umbridge approached Anthony slowly, and they laid their hand onto Anthony's forehead, before his entire body started to flow an illusory blue hue, and his form starts to dissipate and turn more transparent.

"Back to the realm of the living, it's not time for your death yet."

Anthony's eyes widened, but before he could say anything his form completely disappeared, and it was just me and The Umbridge left in the realm. 

The Umbridge turned to me and nodded his head slowly, before conjuring up the 4 armed statue in his palm, handing it to me slowly.

"Summon Crodio to your mindscape, he has many things that he'd like to tell you."

I felt a little uncertainty as I took the object from their hands, before gripping it tightly to my chest and visualized the ancient temple from which I first found the angel lying dead.

I saw my surroundings change before my eyes, and saw everything melt into the illusory state of the temple. I was already in the room where I could see Crodio's body, with multiple spears lodged in his back.

I approached him and touched him on the forehead with the artifact, before closing my eyes and summoning the both of us to the mindscape.

"I see you're now an Order 8, I congratulate you."

I heard Crodio before my surroundings completely materialized before my eyes, and we both ended up inside the crimson and black throne room. Crodio stood there in front of me, wearing an indescribable expression, but something told me it was a warm one deep down.

"Thanks, I guess."

I looked down at the ground, thinking about what I just did with Anthony, how strangely it felt, how good I seemed to feel while committing such an evil act.

"Why did I feel that way, why did I enjoy killing Anthony, it feels awful."

I asked him bluntly, looking up at the long haired angel with eyes that filled with a sudden burst of dread and sadness. The angel gazed back down at me with a sympathetic gaze, and he suddenly put his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't you remember when the chief said?"

He asked, his voice now a lot more gentle and caring. I nodded and remarked in a shaky voice.

"Personal growth and experience aren't defined by any outside forces, but it's defined by the inside..."

"It's defined by what you do to grow, you could practice fishing more, you could practice less, you could dance in the wind, whatever it takes for you to grow, you must grow, growth is essential for us."

Crodio nodded, now smiling at me brightly.

"What do you think that means within the context?"

I was taken aback by the sudden question, but I felt like I had to answer it or else something bad would happen to me.

"I don't know."

Crodio nodded with understanding, taking a few steps back, before a large sphere of red energy materialized in his palm. He expanded the sphere into one 10 times the size of his body, before the sphere exploded.

When the explosion resided, I found illusory red trees and bushes, animals, plants, and even clouds materialized from the red energy.

"Where do you think we are?"

He then asked, placing his hands against one of the red trees, causing it to ripple slightly. The tree shed a few leaves, as they fell to the carpeted floor.

"No."

Crodio just chuckled after learning my reply, before he pointed a little in the distance, where we both saw a young boy, and a taller man made of red energy.

The people materialized from the energy were actually the people I saw in my dream, the chief and the young boy.

"Why can't I catch any fish?"

I heard the boy ask, this time his voice seemed

to echo and reverberate across all of existence. The illusory chief looked down at the boy.

"I don't know, you explain."

Judging by how much I remember from my dream, the chief didn't reply with those words. Maybe Crodio is altering the scene to convey the message in a coherent way.

The boy was left paused for a moment, before he spoke up.

"Maybe it's not the right season, maybe they're scared, maybe the waters are too cold." 

The chief laughed heartily at the boy's guesses, before running a hand through his mop of brown, unkempt hair.

"Those guesses are good, but they aren't necessarily correct."

The chief then took a few steps back before talking over to a small stream, running his wrinkly hands through the soft current of water.

"It's you."

He didn't say anything else, he continued to look down into the stream and feel the water brush against his hands, his eyes closed as the sounds of nature reverberated throughout the throne room.

"Me? What do you mean?"

After a few moments, the chief picked up a small object from the stream and held it to the boy, it was a flat skipping tone.

"What's this I'm holding?"

The boy didn't take long to answer, as it was almost common knowledge.

"A rock."

He nodded, before tossing the rock back into the steam, the rock got whisked away by the current quickly and down the stream.

"What do you think the rock symbolizes?"

The boy squinted his eyes as he watched the rock vanish from his view, before he furrowed his brows and began to ponder the question.

"A solid object?"

The chief turned around and heartily chuckled, a flicker of amusement crossing his aged expression. The man trotted over the boy before kneeling, a smile now on his face.

"You're correct in a way. The rock is solid, an object that's fixed in nature. But when you throw it, what changes?"

"It moves away, it goes down the stream."

The boy answered, and the chief nodded in gentle approval. 

"Correct, it does go down the stream. Now, does that give you a tiny idea on what it symbolizes?"

The boy paused again as he shuffled his feet in the dirt, before glancing up at the chief with careful eyes.

"Me?"

The chief's eyes widened, impressed by the boy's quick thinking. He then grabbed his small hands and looked at him with a gentle expression.

"Correct, child. The rock symbolizes you, and the river...well, it symbolizes existence."

The words seemed to hang in the air as the chief then took a step back, before leaning against a tree and grinning.

"Now tell me, why can't you catch any fish?"

The boy then responded in a tone with a lot more certainty than before.

"Because the flow is different, it changes and moves in different ways."

The chief nodded his head, and the boy smiled back, his smile brighter than the man's. 

"Amazing, the fish won't come to you, you'll have to find a way to alter the current and find the fish yourself, child."

The illusory scene before my eyes began to disappear, and before I knew it we were back in the throne room, and Crodio looked down at me with a gentle and calculating expression.

"Now tell me, what did you learn?"

I paused for a moment, thinking about how the steam and the rock symbolized a person and existence, but the connections of emotion were pretty hard to decipher.

"Maybe the stream correlates to emotions, and I'm the rock?"

It was a simple answer that I gave him, and Crodio nodded gently. His black eyes that looked like deep pools of water softened slightly, and he smiled down at me.

"You're pretty smart, you were able to somewhat get a false murder charge off your back, when through unconventional methods."

Crodio then took a few steps back and continued to look at me, before he spoke in a solemn and deep voice.

"Your emotions, your thoughts and even the sense of rationality inside your body are the stream, and you are the rock. Think of the water that carries you as salt water, and the salt molecules that deteriorate the rock is the path you chose, Apocalypse."

Crodio then turned around and looked outside the window that reflected the panoramic view of the cosmos, laying his hand onto the thick glass.

"Your emotions, actions and choices will be impacted by the feeling of power, the urge to grow stronger, the pull and push of mortality. It's a deep burden all of us hold. But I want you to promise me..."

Crodio then looked back at me, his expression started to grow more vulnerable and more conflicted. His black eyes flickered with different emotions as he approached me and laid his left hand on my shoulder.

"Never choose the side that would make you do wrong things. Just because you're destined to destroy everything doesn't mean you'll find pleasure in it."

Crodio suddenly unfolded his hands and revealed a rose, one with large red petals and thorns sticking out of its stem. He gazed down at the rose, clenching it again in his fist. The petals started to turn black and charred, before the whole flower erupted into flames.

"I've always found a small amount of beauty in destruction, it's amazing in a way."

He said as he smiled gently, before dropping the ashes into my hands. I looked at the ashes for a few moments before stuffing them into my vest pocket.

"Morality isn't much in the faces of those who can create and destroy as they please. But every once in a while someone similar to you would stumble upon and attempt to break the inevitable cycle."

Crodio continued, his eyes slowly losing their feeling of sadness.

"Humans are amazing like that, they can care and be compassionate, thrive and share as they please. But once they get even a semblance of power, they'll stab each other in the back, and do whatever it takes to climb higher and higher, until they're so high up they can't breathe the same way."

Suddenly Crodio's body started to crumble and crack like stone. Upon noticing this he looked at me and smiled.

"We meet again, Apocalypse."

His body then disappeared, leaving me alone in the throne room with my own thoughts and ponderings.

I then clutched the statue in my hand and teleported back to the afterlife, where The Umbridge silently took back the artifact and waved his hand.