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[POV - Yuuki Rito] [Timeless Dimension]
I shouldn't be here.
That's the most honest truth I can think of while watching the white-haired boy convulse in the center of this room that doesn't exist. Boy. What a joke. Vali Lucifer has more blood on his hands than I have years of life, and yet, now... now he seems so fragile.
HUMMMMM...
The space around us vibrates with a frequency that shouldn't be audible. But it is. Everything here both is and isn't at the same time.
I brought him here... how long ago? Hours? Days? In this dimension, time is just a suggestion, a courtesy I maintain because I still need to remember I was once human.
Am human.
I need to keep repeating this to myself.
But watching him... it's making me question again.
[First Hour - Or Would It Be First Day?]
Vali is sitting in lotus position, perfectly still. From the outside, it looks like just deep meditation. But I see beyond. It's a curse of this power — I always see beyond.
CRACK... CRACK... CRACK...
His soul is being torn apart.
No. That's not it. It's being... deconstructed? Every layer of ego, every memory he uses to define "Vali Lucifer," is being questioned by something that isn't me. It's the universe itself. It's as if reality had asked:
"Who do you think you are?"
And he has no answer.
This is fascinating and terrifying at the same time.
I could end this. One thought from me, a fraction of the Presence I carry, and he'd be free. But... no. He chose this. When I felt his accidental touch with something that shouldn't exist in this multiverse — an echo of Me that crossed dimensions — I saw what happened to him.
His ego didn't just break.
It was atomized.
And in the void left behind, something began to germinate. Something he always had but never let grow.
The possibility of being more than power.
[Second Day - Estimate]
DRIP... DRIP... DRIP...
Blood.
Vali is bleeding. Not from physical wounds — this body is just a vessel now. The blood comes from within. From a place that shouldn't be able to bleed.
Karma, I recognize. Every drop that falls on the non-existent floor of this room carries a memory, a regret, a pain caused. I see faces forming in the crimson liquid before evaporating:
Kuroka crying.
Bikou laughing alone, with no response.
Arthur silently asking: "Why?"
And Vali? He doesn't resist. That's what surprises me. The Vali Lucifer I knew — arrogant, hungry for power, always running to the next battle — that Vali would have fought. Would have rejected. Would have burned everything around him rather than admit weakness.
But this one?
HISSS...
He's accepting.
Every invisible cut that tears his soul, he embraces. Every accusation karma throws, he confirms:
— Yes. I did that. Yes. I caused pain.
There are no justifications. No "but I had my reasons." Just pure and devastating recognition.
When was the last time I saw someone face their own darkness with such honesty?
Even I, carrying this absurd power, still have dark corners where I don't look. But Vali is being forced to illuminate every shadow, and he's not running.
Respect begins to grow in me.
Genuine respect.
[Fourth Day - Maybe]
WHOOOMP.
Something changed.
The room became... dense. As if reality itself had held its breath. I can feel it because, technically, I am reality here. This space is an extension of the power I carry.
And yet...
Yet, something greater is manifesting.
Vali stopped moving completely. If I were an ordinary observer, I'd think he died. But I see the threads. I see the tapestry of existence, and the threads connected to him are... vibrating. No, singing. At frequencies that shouldn't exist.
SHIMMER...
He's being offered a choice.
I can feel temptation materializing around him like golden mist. It's everything he always wanted: absolute power, strength to crush any opponent, ability to rewrite his own tragic history.
It's real. The offer is genuine. The universe is saying:
"You can have all of this. Just take it."
For a moment — a fraction of a second that stretches for an eternity in this place — I see Vali's hand move. I see the old desire, that core of "I need to be stronger" that defined him since childhood, shining like a dying star.
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.
My own heart accelerates.
Which choice will he make?
And then...
HAHAHA...
Then he laughs.
It's not the arrogant laugh I expected. It's something broken, but also... free? It's the laugh of someone who finally understood the joke.
— I don't want this anymore — his voice echoes in the room, weak but crystalline.
And something inside me, something I inherited from the Presence, recognizes this truth. It's not renunciation from despair. It's not giving up from defeat.
It's conscious choice.
He's letting go of what he desired most his entire life because he finally understood: seeking power was just a way to run from the void.
And he's no longer running.
FWOOOOSH...
The golden mist dissolves. Temptation accepts the answer.
He passed.
And I realize I'm smiling. A genuine smile, perhaps the first since this power found me.
[Sixth Day]
...Silence...
Void.
Vali disappeared. Not physically — the body is still there. But the presence, the essence that made him "Vali," is completely gone.
For hours, I observe an empty shell of flesh and bones. There's no aura. No ki. Nothing.
Did he truly die?
For the first time since this began, I feel fear. Not for myself — what a joke that would be, the bearer of the Presence's power being afraid. But for him.
What if I miscalculated? What if exposing him to that cosmic fragment was a fatal error? What if, instead of enlightenment, I delivered a talented young man to existential annihilation?
I consider intervening. The power within me whispers that I can bring him back. I can rewrite this choice. I can...
No.
If I do that, I invalidate everything he's achieved so far. I invalidate his choice.
So I wait.
And wait.
And wait.
[Eighth Day - The Return]
GASP!
He returns.
But God, he's not the same.
Vali's body inhales — the first breath in days — and when his eyes open...
WHOOOOOOSH...
I feel it.
Even I, carrying power that shouldn't exist, feel the change. It's not power in the conventional sense. There's no energy explosion, no terrifying aura expanding.
Actually, it's almost the opposite.
It's absence.
But absence in the most complete way possible. Like a black hole that doesn't devour, but rather... balances. Like silence after a symphony — not empty, but full.
SWISH...
Vali stands, and his movements...
Holy shit, his movements.
Before, every gesture was efficient but tense. There was urgency, there was hunger, there was always this underlying need to prove something. Now? Now he moves like water. No, like the concept of movement itself.
He looks at me.
And for the first time since I inherited this absurd power, someone truly sees me.
Doesn't see Yuuki Rito, the clumsy boy from Sainan. Doesn't see the bearer of the Presence, the being with cosmic power. He sees... everything. The complete set. The contradictions, the fears, the hopes, the loneliness of carrying something too large.
He sees me, and doesn't judge.
There's compassion in that look. Genuine compassion.
And it breaks me a little.
[The Conversation]
— You came back — I say, and my voice sounds strange even to me. When was the last time I spoke with someone real?
— I never left — Vali responds, and his voice... changed. It's still his, but there are layers now. Echoes of something ancient and something newborn at the same time. — I just stopped clinging to the illusion of separation.
Step... step... step...
He walks toward me — no, he flows. Every step is in the exact place it should be, as if the universe had arranged itself to accommodate him.
— You carry an impossible burden — he says, and it's not a question.
I laugh, but it sounds bitter.
— Funny. I should be the one consoling you. After all, I just watched you be torn apart and reassembled nine consecutive times.
— And in each tearing apart — Vali says calmly — I realized something. The burden you carry isn't the power itself. It's the loneliness of understanding what that power means. Of seeing beyond the veil and not being able to share that vision.
How does he...?
— Because now I see too — he continues, answering my unspoken question. — Not at the same level, not in the same way. You are the ocean; I am a drop that understood it was always water. But this drop understands the ocean's loneliness.
CRACK.
Something inside me, something I've kept locked since this power found me, breaks.
I don't realize I'm crying until I feel the tear slide down my cheek.
— I didn't ask for this — I whisper, and it's both confession and accusation. — I just wanted... to be normal. Have a normal life. But now I see EVERYTHING. Every possibility, every universe, every choice that leads to other infinite choices. How do I go back to being just Rito after this?
TOUCH.
Vali places his hand on my shoulder, and the touch is... an anchor. Real. Present.
— You don't go back — he says with brutal but gentle honesty. — But you also don't have to lose yourself. Rito and Presence aren't opposites — they're layers of the same existence. You can be both.
— How? — The word comes out broken.
— By accepting that being human isn't about limitation — he smiles, and it's genuine, without a trace of the old arrogance. — It's about choosing the human experience even when you can transcend. Every moment you choose to be Rito, the clumsy one who trips over girls, is an act of will more powerful than creating universes.
Why do these words hurt so much and heal at the same time?
[The Change I Observe]
As Vali speaks, I truly see what changed:
The arrogance disappeared. It wasn't replaced by false humility — simply... there's no longer a need to prove anything.
He's still confident, but it's the confidence of a mountain: it doesn't need to declare it's solid.
There's humor now. Real humor, not defensive sarcasm.
Compassion permeates every word, but it's not sticky or childish — it's recognition of shared unity.
HUMMM...
His aura doesn't "press" anymore. Before, being near Vali was like being near a compressed storm. Now it's like being near a deep lake — calm on the surface, but you FEEL the depth.
When he moves, reality subtly adjusts around him. Not violently, but as if he's always in the "right place."
His eyes see through masks. When he looks at me, I see that he perceives every layer of defense I've built.
Paradoxically, I feel he became MORE powerful by stopping the pursuit of power.
Divine Dividing is... different. Before it was a tool he wielded. Now it's a natural extension, like his own arm.
There's an inevitable quality to him now. As if what he decides to do simply... will happen, because it's aligned with the natural flow of things.
[The Most Terrifying Part]
He's no longer "separate" from reality. It's as if he became a thread in the tapestry of existence, instead of someone pulling the threads.
And because I see the entire tapestry, I recognize:
He's right.
It's not illusion or trick.
Vali Lucifer genuinely transcended.
[Farewell]
— What will you do now? — I ask, finally regaining composure.
Vali looks at his own hands, opens and closes his fists experimentally, as if testing a new body.
— Go back — he says simply. — There are people waiting. There are challenges I still need to face. There's a stupid rival with a red dragon who's probably worried, even if he'll never admit it.
— But you've changed. They'll notice.
— Yes — he agrees. — And it will be... interesting. Issei will probably think I'm sick. Kuroka will be suspicious. Azazel will be too intrigued for his own sanity.
He smiles, and there's genuine affection there. When was the last time I saw Vali smile like that?
— But it's okay. Changing doesn't mean abandoning. It means growing. And for the first time in my life... — he pauses, searching for words — I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next. Not because I want power. But because I want to live.
SHIMMER...
— Rito — Vali says, pulling me from my thoughts — thank you.
— For what? I only provided the space. You did all the work.
— Exactly. You could have interfered. Could have "saved" me in dozens of ways. But you respected my choice to go through this — he bows, small but sincere. — That's a greater gift than any power.
I don't know what to say. So I just return the bow.
— When you go back — I say as I begin opening the dimensional portal — things will be different. People will react. Some will understand, others will fear. Are you ready?
CRACKLE... CRACKLE...
The portal forms, tearing through space like a curtain being opened.
Vali looks at the portal, then back at me. And in that look, I see unshakeable certainty.
— Fear and understanding are just perspectives. I can't control how others see me. I can only be authentic in what I've become — he smiles. — Besides, after facing existential void and the weight of a lifetime's karma... dealing with Rias Gremory having a fit when I refuse to battle the old way will be... refreshing.
I laugh.
Genuinely.
And I realize: this encounter changed us both. He found enlightenment. I found... hope? No. Something more subtle.
Memory.
Memory that, even carrying infinite power, I can still just be Rito.
I can still choose to be human.
[Return]
FWOOOOSH!
We cross the portal together.
POP.
And materialize back in the living room.
Time hadn't passed. Of course not — it was my dimension, after all.
Lala was still talking about robots. Mikan was still pouting. Asia was still cutting fruit. Haruna was drinking coffee. Irina and Xenovia were complaining about the seller who scammed them.
And the guests — Bikou, Kuroka, Arthur, Le Fay, Fenrir, Gogmagog, Sha Wujing, Zhu Bajie, and Ophis — all frozen at the exact moment we had left.
SNAP.
I reactivated time.
— ...cookies! — Lala finished her sentence, noticing nothing.
But the guests...
GASP.
All of them felt it. Especially Kuroka and Ophis.
Kuroka looked at Vali, cat ears bristling, eyes widening.
— Vali...? — she whispered, voice trembling. — What... what happened to you, nya?
Ophis just stared, cookie forgotten in her hand.
And for the first time since I'd known her, I saw real emotion in those empty eyes.
Admiration.
Vali smiled — that new, genuine smile — and said simply:
— I came home.
And somehow, everyone understood.
He had left.
And returned as something more.