Kapitel 158: Clarity #158
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"Stop...!" a loud exclamation resounded in the area, and Gray seemed to recognize the speaker's voice as he froze, a glint of clarity flashing in his red eyes.
"Teacher..." Gray raspily remarked as he slowly turned to face Richard, accompanied by Benjamin. He also spotted Batman and immediately realized what was happening.
"Why...?" Richard calmly asked as he alternated his gaze between the red ring on Gray's index finger and his face. His tone did not sound upset or judgmental.
"They... killed my... friend..." Gray replied, his expression and tone rapidly shifting to the worst at the mention of the late Mark. "I... have to... make them... pay... all of them..." he added, his fingers spasming as the red constructed sword in his hand began changing size.
"Look closely. Is that the man who killed your friend...?" Richard said, gesturing towards the gob-smacked Flash (still bound by the constructed rope) after nodding his head.
"No... but... he got... in the... way..." Gray slowly replied after a second glance at The Flash before shaking his head as the latter finally gathered his bearings and phased out of the binding.
"I won't tell you to forgive and forget... but look around you, son..." Richard said, sighing as he shook his head and scanned the area, prompting Gray to do the same.
"Would your friend want you to go this far to avenge him...?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as he stopped looking around, his gaze settling into Gray's as he stared into his eyes.
"I don't... care what... he wants..." Gray instantly replied, dismissively shaking his head. "He... he's dead... everything he ever wanted... everything he would ever want... it's all gone..." he added, pain flashing in his expression as he spoke.
"Thinking... about what... he wants... is meaningless now..." he went on in apparent anguish, his tone growing colder and more hateful with every word he spoke.
"And... and it's all... their fault... that's why..." Gray continued as the pain and anguish turned to his anger, and his expression betrayed the scolding, bitter hatred boiling within his veins.
"I... have to... make them... pay..." he concluded, firmly shaking his head as he took a deep breath to calm himself.
"That's where you're wrong, son. The dead are a selfish lot," Richard replied as he regarded Gray with a bitter smile that clearly had a story or even several behind it.
"Once they close their eyes... all their problems stop being theirs and become ours instead..." he added with a sigh, sentimentality written all over his face.
"Was your friend such a carefree person?" Richard asked, shaking his sentimental expression as he looked at Gray. "No one dies without regrets, son. No one dies without leaving unfinished business," he went on as he dismissively gestured to the side.
"As his friend, it's your duty to pick up the luggage he left behind," Richard continued as he began approaching Gray. "That takes precedence over everything else..." he concluded as he extended his hand towards his student without halting his slow, deliberate steps.
"I... will... but--" Gray said, his expression uncertain for a second as he gained some clarity before rage took over his mind again, only for Richard to interject, cutting him off mid-sentence.
"Look around you and think... would you be able to pick up his luggage if you make these people your enemies...?" Richard asked without stopping his stride.
"Do you even need that thing to avenge your friend...?" he asked as he gestured towards the red ring, and his words seemed to reach Gray as his expression began shifting again.
Gray suddenly fell to his knees, clutching his head as The Butcher began whispering in his mind in a hurry to reinfect his mind that was slowly recovering thanks to Richard's words.
"Stop..." Gray said as he struggled to raise his head and look at Richard with a frantic expression. "Don't... don't come... any closer..." he added, as he lifted a hand, making a stop sign while still clutching his in pain with the other.
Richard did not seem to care much for Gray's warning as he continued approaching, even as the latter's body radiated a malicious red aura accompanied by a shockwave, akin to a warning shot.
"It's ok, son... someone's gotta give you a kick to the ass..." Richard said with a smile as he stopped before Gray and kneeled to get on the same eye level.
"It might as well be me..." Richard said, still smiling as he reached for Gray's shoulder with his left. Even as Gray continuously screamed at him to stop, to keep his distance, he smiled.
Even as a red shockwave shot out of Gray's body, engulfing the area around them in a deep, dark, red abyss, Richard's kind smile remained visible until the very last microsecond.
The red energy lingered for a moment before dissipating to reveal Gray and Richard, who seemed intact at first glance. The shock was visible on everyone's faces when they saw his left arm, all the way to his shoulder, had been severed, disappearing and leaving no trace behind.
"Now... you know how dangerous that thing is..." Richard said, his kind smile intact as he reached for his stump with his good hand and closed the wound with his chi.
"Hurry up... and get rid of it..." he concluded, grunting as he closed the wound, and his words seemed to snap Gray out of his shock as the latter stared at the teacher's missing arm with a blank gaze.
In the aftermath of shock, Gray's expression turned beset as he regained his senses, a mixture of guilt, pain, realization, and clarity coloring his face.
He raised his ring hand in front of his face as it shook, intensely. Gritting his teeth as his eyes kept changing, flashing red in a second and reverting in another, Gray slowly reached for the ring with his other hand, clearly struggling to move it.
Gray grunted as he gripped the ring, attempting to pry it off, only to fail as it would not budge. Growing desperate to get rid of the red ring, Gray clutched his wrist and brought it closer to his face.
His resolve was evident in his expression as he opened his mouth and forcefully bit on the digit, causing blood to fly everywhere as he jerked his head back, prying the finger alongside the ring off his hand.
He immediately spat out the digit and watched as the power ring dissipated into specks of red light, but not before taking his finger alongside it, which wasn't the end.
Gray heard an angry growl in his mind. "If rage can not take you, then none other can..." The Butcher bellowed as Gray's chest burst open, the constructed heart turning into a miniature bull that flew away and disappeared into the darkening sky.
"I... I'm sorry..." Gray said through violent coughs that sent jets of blood flying in the air, trying and failing to sit straight in an attempt to reach for his teacher, Richard.
"I..." Gray intoned, unable to continue his sentence as his breaths grew faint and his vision blurred before he closed his eyes, his body going limp.
...
Apokolips
"Your life is forfeit after such a failure, child..." Darkseid, the god of tyranny and the king of Apokolips, muttered as he stood on the platform of a high-rise building overlooking a fiery, metallic cityscape.
"However, you've served me well..." the new god calmly said as he looked down at his extended hand and opened his palm, causing a red stone pulsating in an occasional dark hue to appear in his hand.
"And you still have your uses..." he concluded, closing his palm, to which the stone turned into light particles that rapidly multiplied, slowly merging together as they formed a giant, flaming humanoid figure.
"I only wish to serve you, father..." the figure said as he finally took shape, kneeling before Darkseid. "You will is my command..." he reverently added in a booming voice.
"Begone now..." Darkseid remarked, showing little interest in the figure, who slowly rose to his feet and backed away until he was beyond the new god's line of sight before turning around and leaving.
"Earth..." the god of tyranny faintly muttered, his eyes flashing as he replayed the battle that recently occurred on the small blue planet in his mind.
"Such a peculiar little planet..." he remarked to no one, amused by what he saw. "First, it was the equation... now this..." he added, almost smiling as the image of a naked young human standing before a collapsed flaming giant appeared in his mind.
"Interesting..."
...
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