Rebellion Against Heaven - Part 5

Chapter 5: Fury of the Gods III

Darkness enveloped Ryuusei's mind. There was no light, there was no hope. Only the echo of his thoughts resounding in the void.

"Why go on?"

His body, or what was left of it, lay in a state of utter misery. His torso, his head, his identity... everything had been torn apart by Aurion. Only his legs remained, as a cruel reminder of his defeat. His regeneration, that curse that condemned him, tried to put him back together, but each cell that was rebuilt did so with unbearable pain. It was as if his body knew that he didn't want to go on anymore, but it still forced him to exist.

"Every wound ... every damn regeneration... it's just more suffering."

In his mind, his parents' faces appeared, cold, distant. There was no love in their eyes, only emptiness. His sisters... they didn't remember it either. He was but a specter in the story of their lives. A forgotten ghost.

"So what's the point? Why am I still here?"

The sound of battle came from a distance. Screams, explosions, the clash of steel. But none of that mattered. Ryussei was trapped in an abyss with no way out. His soul was crumbling, long before his body.

"Let me... disappear."

And so, in that abyss of despair, where death was presented as the only liberation, Ryuusei waited... but the curse of his existence would not give him that long-awaited rest.

The darkness that enveloped Ryuusei's mind began to fracture. Gradually, a scene materialized before him. It was not the battlefield, nor the abyss into which he was sinking. It was his home... or what he once called home.

In front of him, his mother stood with her back turned, washing dishes as she always did. His father, sitting at the table, read the newspaper with the same serious expression as always. Everything seemed normal, as if nothing had changed, as if they had never forgotten it.

"Son, why do you have that face?" "His mother's voice sounded soft, warm... but distant.

Ryuusei tried to answer, but the words stuck in his throat. His hands were shaking. Something inside him told him that this was not real, that he should not be trusted.

"Dad, Mom...

"Oh, so you keep calling us that," his father put down the newspaper, his expressionless face. Strange. I don't remember having a child.

Ryususei's heart stopped.

"What...?"

"Why do you call us that?" His mother smiled, but her eyes were empty. We don't have a child.

The room became colder. The food on the table rotted in seconds, the walls cracked, and the sky visible through the window turned black.

"No... It's not true. I am his son!

"Really?" His father folded his arms. If you were our son, don't you think we would remember your face?

Ryuusei backed away. His hands, his body... they trembled uncontrollably.

"No... No way...

"But don't worry," her mother approached, her voice full of fake sweetness. Even if we don't remember you... You can stay here.

He tried to touch her face tenderly, but her skin crumbled into dust. His mother and father vanished before his eyes as if they had never existed.

Ryuusei fell to his knees, his fingernails digging into the rotting ground.

"This is a lie... This is a damn lie...

But, deep down, he knew he wasn't. This was his truth. A son his parents never remembered. A brother that his sisters never recognized. A body that never died, but did not live either.

Trapped in a never-ending cycle of pain.

"Just... I want to disappear...

And at that moment, in the distance of his subconscious, a voice whispered his name.

A voice that belonged neither to his father nor to his mother... but someone else. Someone who still remembered him.

His thoughts were a swirl of despair, and before he could react, his surroundings changed again. Now she was in the hallway of her old house, the path she had traveled so many times to reach her sisters' room.

But something was wrong.

The air was heavy, laden with a metallic and sweet stench. The half-open door showed a faint glow, but what made his blood run cold the most was the sound. A constant, irregular drip, as if something viscous were seeping through the cracks in the wood.

With his heart pounding, he pushed open the door.

What he saw made him stumble backwards.

The room was shrouded in shadow, but the traces of blood glowed a sickly crimson hue. The floor was covered with dark puddles, and the walls were adorned with splashes of dried liquid. The stuffed animals and toys that once filled that room with life now lay mangled up, drenched in a deep red.

And in the center, two inert bodies.

But... they were not inert.

His sisters' eyes were staring at him. Pale. Empty.

"Ryuusei..." His dead lips moved in a broken voice, as if his throat was full of glass.

He backed away, feeling the air leave his lungs.

"No... no way...

"You left us alone..." Their bodies, without moving from the ground, seemed to be approaching. Their mouths, distorted into an unnatural grin, trembled as they spoke. You forgot us, didn't you?

"No!" I never...!

"You promised to protect us... but look at us now...

Ryuusei felt an unbearable pressure in his chest. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run away... but his legs were nailed to the ground.

Then, one of them raised a hand. Her blackened nails stretched toward him, as if to touch his face.

"Come with us, brother..."

"Go home..."

Their voices were sweet, melancholy, but full of something more. Somewhat twisted. Something broken.

Ryuusei's eyes trembled. His breathing was erratic. This could not be happening.

But when he looked down, he felt something wet in his hands.

They were covered in blood.

And on the ground, among the bodies of his sisters, some hammers stained with blood

He... had he done this?