I lay on the cold floor of the council room of the gods. A weapon had pierced my heart, and blood flowed from the wound. Normally, an injury like this would have vanished the moment the blade left my body.
As I struggled to focus, eleven shadowy figures loomed over me, their faces twisted with malice. Their whispers cut through the air like daggers.
"Finally, we got rid of him."
"He threw the world's balance off."
"A monster like him doesn't deserve to exist."
Their words barely registered.
What overwhelmed me was the aura of the sword still buried in my chest. It was wielded by Lucifer, the God of Light—someone I had once called a friend. The blade's dark, pulsing force drained my strength with every passing moment.
My vision blurred. My mind reeled from the betrayal. Lucifer stood over me, a smirk twisting his face.
"Your sword will be put to good use," he whispered, his voice dripping with malice.
My eyes locked onto his, and in that moment, the truth became clear. The gods had conspired against me, seeking to claim my creation for themselves.
A storm of emotions rose inside me, but one stood above the rest: anger. My calm, collected demeanor shattered as rage boiled over.
With my last breath, I forced out a promise.
"You bastards… I'll make sure I kill each and every one of you, even if it takes me a thousand years. I swear I'll kill you all if it's the last thing I do."
A dark velvet shroud closed over me. The gods' smiling faces were the last thing I saw. As the shadow swallowed everything, only one word remained.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
Then the shadow began to crack. Light seeped through the fissures like a rising sun. My eyes snapped open, and a blinding brightness filled my vision. As they adjusted, I heard a girl's voice.
"Akiyoshi. Did you really fall asleep again?"
I rubbed my eyes and looked ahead. A television sat in front of me, and a controller rested in my hand.
"Sorry, but you take forever whenever you go to the bathroom. Seriously, what do you even do in there?"
The girl beside me had black hair. She was my best friend—my entire reason for existing. Without her, life itself felt meaningless.
"How dare you ask me that?"
Her face turned red as a tomato, and her calm, unnatural red eyes burned with fury.
"Oh?" I replied playfully. "Did I strike a nerve?"
She sat down and picked up the controller she had left on the floor before heading to the bathroom.
"If I win," she said with a grin, "then you have to do what I say for a week."
Despite how flustered she looked, she still wanted to prove she was on top, if only to hide her embarrassment.
Personally, I found it cute.
"You're on."
We kept playing until her dad came to pick her up. I won, of course, but she claimed I never said she had to listen to me if she lost.
She wasn't wrong. She just wasn't completely right either. Unfortunately, her dad took her home before I could argue.
I wish I had.
With every ounce of strength in me, with every fiber of my being, I wish I had argued with her. It might have been childish, but we were children. Only twelve years old. That sort of thing was normal to some extent.
"Bye, Akari!" I called as they left my front porch.
She turned around and waved back.
"Bye, Akiyoshi!"
I truly regret it. From the bottom of my heart.
Because if I had argued with her—for even two minutes, no, thirty seconds—she and her dad would not have died the moment they stepped onto the road.
---
I pushed myself up from the bed and pulled off the black mask I had accidentally worn to sleep.
The moment it came away, tears welled up and spilled down my face.
What was that? Who was she? Why does my heart ache this much?
The dream had been far too vivid to dismiss. In other words, it was a memory of some kind.
But they weren't my memories… were they?
I had dreamed of the day I was killed by the other gods. Everything matched what I remembered—the glowing eyes, the mysterious sword, the dark shadow closing over me. The only difference was what came after. Instead of Claudia, there had been another girl.
I couldn't remember her name, but I still understood the shape of what I had seen.
Maybe it was something that happened before you were a god.
"Oh. So you saw it too," I muttered. "Anyway, no. It couldn't be. I remember what I was before I became a god. That dream never happened. That much I'm sure of."
I stood up, mask in hand.
"Anyway, let's stop worrying about it. A dream is a dream. I'm thinking about it too much."
…If you say so.
"Besides, it's time we pick up the others, don't you think?"
It was a dream. Nothing more than a simple dream.
A dream that had been enough to make me cry.
I put the mask back on, opened a gate, and stepped through—intending to return to the academy.
Instead, my foot met cracked, lifeless earth.
A barren land stretched out in every direction. The sun hung high and merciless overhead, and there was almost nothing in sight.
Almost.
A figure stood in front of me.
Long white hair. Golden eyes. A handsome face. Black pants, a golden blazer over a black shirt, and pristine white shoes.
I knew him.
The student from the written exam.
…I don't think he's just that.
The white-haired boy looked at me and smiled faintly.
He didn't speak.
He didn't move.
He simply stood there under the burning sun and stared, as if he had been waiting for me the entire time.
I finally decided to break the silence by asking him who he was.
But before I could speak, he said something that made my entire body freeze.
"Abel MorningStar. It's been too long. How are you?"
No one knows I'm Abel MorningStar, so how in the world did this random stranger recognize me, especially with my mask on? Not to mention, he was talking as if we shared history together.
"It's one thing for you to know my name..."
I pulled my katana out from my concealed bag.
"...but it's a whole other thing when you act like we know each other."
The figure lowered his head for a few seconds, then looked back up at me. This time, his golden eyes seemed to glow as he released a dark and ominous golden aura.
Wait, this aura... I...
Then he released it at full blast.
The air grew thicker and denser as the bright sky darkened. The barren land began to crack under the weight of his aura.
To be frank, it made me tremble. This aura surpassed mine—not to mention the feeling I got from it.
It reminded me of...
"Onyx!"
The figure's face turned to one of shock.
"Oh. I don't remember ever giving you my name. But no matter, as long as you remember."
I didn't waste any time and immediately activated Trinity.
There was no way in hell I was going to fight him. I didn't even know how he was here—I should have killed him during the trial. In fact, how did he even exist? Wasn't he just an enemy the trial created for me to fight? Or was it all real? Too many questions flooded my mind, but I wasn't going to risk my life to find out.
As space warped around me, I felt a sudden force pull me back.
Onyx tilted his head slightly.
"Running already? That's disappointing."
My fingers tightened around the katana.
"…What did you do?"
"Nothing complicated," he said. "I simply decided you wouldn't leave until we finished talking."
The golden aura around him pulsed once, heavy enough that the cracked ground under my feet sank a little deeper.
"I'll make this simple," Onyx continued. "A test."
I didn't answer.
"If you can land a single strike on me that manages to scratch me, I'll let you go. No pursuit. No second trap. You walk away."
His golden eyes narrowed slightly.
"But if you can't…"
He smiled.
"Well, you're smart—you can guess what will happen."
My blood ran cold.
Images from the Trial flashed through my head without permission—dying, waking, dying again. Over and over. Hundreds of times.
Calm down, idiot.
I am calm.
Idiot. Do you really think we're going to lose here? You're much stronger than when you fought him. Not to mention, you have me.
...
Stop worrying so much. I'm your partner, Khaos. With both of our strengths, how the hell could we lose?
...You're right.
Despite his usual behavior, for once Khaos was on my side, and he made a good point. The me from the trial was weak against Onyx, but nonetheless, I still won. And I've grown stronger. While I wasn't sure we would win, I knew for a fact we wouldn't lose either.
"One attack? That's it?"
"Yes," he smirked. "One attack."
Khaos. You said that you talked to Akari, right?
Yes.
What exactly did you talk about?
That phone of hers. With her permission, I was able to access something called the internet and download everything within it.
Good. It seems that this gamble of mine might work after all. The reason why I won against Onyx the first time was through weaponizing a technique from another world. Akari's world. It wouldn't be wrong for me to try again once more.
Could you transfer everything on this internet to my brain directly?
Of course.
As soon as I gave the order, a torrent of information flooded my mind.
Thousands of images, concepts, languages, theories, formulas, techniques, stories, histories, and pieces of information rushed through my mind at an incomprehensible speed.
Then—
Nothing.
The flood stopped and my mind was sent back to reality.
Interesting. To think a world could be this advanced, and yet so underdeveloped. If they had magic, what couldn't they do?
Despite my amazement, I needed to focus on the task at hand, Onyx.
Thankfully, through the data transfer, I understood what they called, modern science. I also learned some pretty fun stuff like video games and myths. One thing in particular stood out to me though. Something called Yin and Yang.
I took off my mask and put it in my back.
"Onyx. Let me teach you something."
"Teach me? Hahaha haha! You're very funny. Very well then. Enlighten me, Abel MorningStar."
I closed my eyes, and began.
---
Teach me something? Me? I had allowed him the chance to strike me, and he dared to answer with a lesson? Abel MorningStar… I did not know how he possessed my lord's surname, but I would put him in his place. Beware, human. I would allow the strike, but nowhere did I say I would not defend myself. Drown in your false hope as your attack fails against my absolute defense.
He had not spent the last ten thousand years doing nothing. Ever since his defeat, he had trained until his body broke down and his mana ran dry, all for the sake of bringing Abel down.
Abel MorningStar had been the first human to defeat him. Once he eliminated him, no human would ever hold that claim again.
His lord, Lucifer, had not ordered this. This was something Onyx wanted to do himself. Besides, he was removing a threat. Surely his master could overlook it.
Then again, when had his master ever cared about humans? One less would make no difference. He would simply say there were trillions of them, and no one would care.
While his master's state of mind was questionable, it made the perfect alibi.
---
Abel closed his eyes and spread his hands outward.
On his left palm, an ink-black magic circle appeared, rotating clockwise. He had infused thirty percent of his aura into it. This was the Yin factor of the attack.
On his right, a silver-white magic circle formed, rotating counter-clockwise. This one was made with thirty percent of his mana. It was the Yang factor.
"Mana to the dark abyss. Aura to the roaring sun."
He opened his eyes. His normally golden irises were now slit and glowing with a mixture of blue and purple, forming a twilight hue.
"Two streams, divided. Thirty percent to bind the shadow, thirty percent to ignite the flame. Let the remnants fuse. Breathe the breath of the cosmos. Awaken, Primordial Chi!"
As he spoke, a cloak of blackish-blue Chi erupted from his body. A heavy low-frequency vibration ran through the earth as his Chi deteriorated the ground beneath him.
A howling wind rose as Abel brought his hands together. The magic circles slid into one another, acting like twin turbine lenses.
"Through the gates of opposite rotation… reach the zero point!"
The blackish-blue Chi humming over his body spread down his arms, covering the magic circles in a hyper-stable propellant.
Onyx simply watched and materialized a barrier constructed from his golden aura.
"Erase the horizon! YinYang Synthesis: VOID NOVA"
Then Abel released it.
Because the two circles were spinning in opposite directions, they acted like a high-speed particle accelerator. The blackish-blue Chi violently forced the mana and aura into a hyper-compressed, razor-thin beam of blue light, wrapped in a twisting double-helix of black and white spirals.
It shot forward at terrifying speed, tearing a straight line through the air.
The clockwise flow stripped away air resistance ahead of it, while the counter-clockwise flow pushed outward, breaking through the barrier without difficulty.
The beam punctured Onyx's shoulder.
---
While Abel was still in the middle of the technique, Onyx had watched carefully.
He watched Abel control mana and aura with unsettling precision. But another thought pressed into his mind.
Should he allow him to finish?
There was doubt now. The power being poured into the attack was immense. Had Abel truly grown this much in those ten thousand years? It did not make sense.
When Onyx had seen him at the capital and during the exam, he had admitted Abel's power had increased significantly—but not enough that Onyx believed he could not crush him.
Yet the force coming off him now was different.
Where was this extra energy coming from?
All of a sudden, a mysterious current began humming around Abel's body.
Just like before, Abel was using some unknown energy Onyx had never learned.
To protect himself, Onyx formed a barrier of golden aura. It should have resisted mystic attacks and blocked physical force completely.
Then the razor-thin blue beam, wrapped in black-and-white spirals, struck.
Against the barrier, an attack like that should have meant nothing.
But—
His eyes widened as his own arm appeared before him, no longer connected as it should have been.
The beam had punctured his shoulder. From that wound, the arm began to glow in a mixture of white, blue, and black. Then, like a broken mirror, it fractured into pieces and dissolved into light.
His barrier had failed.
No—it had been bypassed.
The strange energy surrounding Abel had interacted with his aura in a way he had never experienced before. The attack hadn't overpowered his defense.
It had simply gone through it.
Onyx slowly lowered his arm.
Then he laughed.
"Interesting. It seems I've lost yet again."
He looked at Abel then turned.
"Don't worry, we will fight again. When that time comes, I will kill you then."
Then he disappeared in a stream of golden light, blood dripping from his wound.
---
"What just happened?"
I don't know. But I'm pretty sure we're late.
"Late for what?"
To pick up the others.
"Oh, yeah. Right."
I still didn't understand how Onyx had been there, nor did I understand what had just happened. But he had retreated, and I would've been a fool to stay.
I had exhausted nearly everything with that attack, and the best I could do was detach his arm. Still, I suppose it was better than nothing.
I used Trinity to teleport myself back to the academy. When I arrived, I found Akari and Reinhardt waiting at the entrance.
"Sorry for the wait. I had an encounter with an old foe of mine."
"When you say it like that, you sound like an old man," Reinhardt said.
"Do I? By the way, where's Claudia?"
"She's gone back to her dorm room. She's already a student, remember?"
"Judging from your face, I assume you managed to come up with some excuse?"
Reinhardt gave me a thumbs-up.
"Of course."
"Well, that's good to hear."
"Yeah. Anyway, I'll be heading back to the Aether Ark. My soldiers are probably worried about me. That, or they're celebrating." He chuckled.
"Well then, it was an honor to meet you, Reinhardt."
I held out my fist, and he bumped it with his own.
"Likewise, Noir."
He then turned and began walking deeper into the capital, his blonde hair fluttering in the breeze.
I turned toward Akari, whose face seemed redder than usual.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"Your mask."
Huh? Oh, crap.
My mask.
I had forgotten to put it back on before returning.
At that point, though, it didn't matter. The day was already over.
I created a gate back to Infinity's Domain.
"Come on. Let's go home."