章 73: A New Vision
Akai stomped towards Miura with anger in his eyes and heart. His yellow eyes pierced through everything around him. He clutched his left hand trying to rid of the residual pain she inflicted.
"Tell me, again, witch. What have you done?" he demanded.
Miura laughed with a wry smile. Within an instant, her marks began to glow burning her neck. Her smile disappeared into a painful screech as her hands reached her neck, but Miura didn't give any response.
Akai repeated, "I order you to tell me what you are doing!"
"I am helping you," she said and the glow of her marks faded.
"Helping me? I had her in my grasp. All you did was let her esca-" he said, but was cut off in an instant. A quick vision appeared before him. The world suddenly turned dark. The stars above gave the only sense of comfort. The ground beneath him was covered in maggots the size of hippos as they squirmed over each other. But the vision vanished before his eyes.
"Oh, my. You weren't supposed to see that, yet," Miura said knowing what Akai witnessed.
"What - What did I just see? That was not the future that I saw before, but something... worse," Akai said as his legs began to quake in fear.
Miura itched the back of her head ignoring his words.
The Crimson Black Knight commanded the witch, "I order you to show me what the future holds."
"I suppose it can't be helped," she said as the world began to spin in front of Akai's eyes, "It's not like you can change it, now."
As Akai opened his eyes, he saw what the future held clearly as if he was there. He didn't know how long it has been or where he was. It seemed like a completely different world shrouded in a bleak, depressive atmosphere. The ground beneath him was covered in large maggots. The likes he has never seen. Whatever soil was left had been drained. To one corner of his eyes, he saw two men fighting over a puddle of muddy water. In the other, people killed each other for no apparent reason, while monsters wearing the faces of men around them gnawed at their legs.
Akai looked to his side and noticed a towering pylon made of bugs and flesh. The faces of men were strung up like decorations to the monument. Above the pylon held a giant cradle that touched the heavens. Inside of it was a half-developed fetus. It cried drowning any other sound around the universe.
And above all else, the ground beneath him shook as a dragon grew from underneath. It grew and grew until it could touch a star and when it did, the star turned black and burst. The dragon was shrouded in darkness, but it's form was unlike any other dragon. It's size and power was unrivaled to any man, dragon, or God.
As Akai looked closely, he noticed within the dark shroud, yellow eyes and black scales that pierced through it. It held a woman in it's palm as it stood on it's two tall on two feet. It was the corpse of Nera. She looked mutilated with stitches fixing any cuts around her. Her eyes forced open. Her insides replaced with small maggots. The dragon roared into the dark sky alongside the cries of the fetus.
Akai watched as the two sounds split the sky in two above the cradle. His ears began to bleed from the excruciating sound. When it was over, he saw a black shroud being created on top of the pylon coming out from the split. The shroud spread consuming every star and galaxy transforming the universe to an eternal night. And within seconds of everything turning to pitch black, eyes began to form from where the stars were destroyed. And each eye began to look directly at Akai who appeared to be floating amidst the vastness of an empty void. His tiny body was merely an ant to what he was seeing. His mind began to shatter trying to comprehend what he was seeing, but there was no explanation. He had no idea how changing the future could lead to this other.
One of the eyes spiraled downwards like a snake and stood in front of Akai's face.
"This isn't real. Just a vision. Nothing can see me within this. I am not actually here," Akai said as he stared deep into creature's bulbous eye.
"I see you."
It spoke all around Akai and when he looked at himself, his armor was turned to dust. He was naked and vulnerable against everything around him. The universe's entire being intertwined with itself. The absolute silence of everything was unbearable for any living thing. As he began to speak, nothing would come out. His ears began to rupture from nothing. Feeling in his body went cold. He closed his eyes and his ears trying to get out of this vision. He went into a fetal position trying to wake up. A hand touched him on his shoulder from within the emptiness. He turned around to see Miura with maggots sprouting out of her eyes. She opened her half-melted mouth.
"Isn't it beautiful?"
And upon a sudden screech, he opened his eyes back to his current world and time.
His entire body was shaking. Sweat poured out of his body. The pain he felt in his left arm rang within him. Everything about him still looked normal. For him, it felt like a lifetime, but in reality, it was at most a second. His armor was still there.
"So, what do you think?" Miura asked no longer needing to hide behind a pleasant smile. Instead, she faced Akai with a sinister one.
"What was that? That can't be the future," he said with fear in his heart. He couldn't believe it was real, but at the same time knew that it was. He just didn't want to believe it. The vision felt the same as before. He knew they were real, but it was far different than the world's life being destroyed by dragons. Far worse, as well.
"Au contraire, the future is saved. You no longer need to worry about killing any more," Miura said.
"Saved!? Did you see the same thing that I saw!? The world will be far worse than when we left it!," he yelled turning his fear into anger.
"You wanted to prevent the future from all life turning to dust. It won't happen. The future you saw will be a long time from now," the witch said brushing off his comments.
"I was there. So, was -" Akai said remembering Nera's corpse in his vision.
"What did you do to Nera?" he asked.
"I did what you asked. I did not hurt her in any physical way. You should choose your words more carefully as I do," she replied.
"What did you do?" he repeated with glowing yellow eyes. The slave markings on her neck began to glow.
Miura explained calmly, "I merely killed the other villagers. You didn't care for them, anyways. You gave no explicit orders to protect them. And as for Nera, she was not harmed by me. Nia - the green dragon - killed her."
"Why would that dragon do that? I could see it in her eyes. She believed that it was me."
"Accidental, but she still blames you for it, since, you know, you put them in a cage. Anyways, it doesn't really matter. There is nothing you can do, now. Whatever happens now won't change what will happen," she said casually.
"I was able to change the future, once. I can do it, again."
Then, Akai remembered the black dragon with yellow eyes among the shroud in his visions. He took a step back and said, "Wait. I was there."
"Yes. Whatever you do from now on, you will be used for a greater purpose. You dragons are so powerful, but you're like dogs. Easily manipulated by putting a snack in front of them. Even if you die, I'm sure they will use your corpse."
Akai held Miura with his right hand. His grip began to choke her with one hand. He stood towering over the witch.
"Who are they? How do I stop them?"
Miura shook her head and explained to the black dragon, "The only thing that prevented monsters from playing around in this world was the fact that dragons lived above them. They feared the existence of dragons and hid themselves within the shadows, but you removed the dragons. Or at the very least enough of them. I have been having strange itches behind my neck. Something I haven't felt since I traveled the Western Seas, but stronger. It didn't want to own over a universe reduced to ash, so I had to improvise a way to stop that. I was able to see visions, so I had to work with that. And you seemed like the best choice of a dragon to use at the time. But recently I felt like something was guiding me towards this future. As if I was directly told what I needed to do. There were some changes to the plan, but everything worked out well. The future is saved."
Akai repeated in anger, "How do I stop them!?"
"You can't. You always had a thick skull. Always believed that only you could save everybody. But you can't. You're nothing but a dog vying for a reason - a master - to live for. There was no way to stop them."
But Akai noticed her markings glowed as she vomited blood on his armor in pain after saying her last sentence. She was lying about not being able to stop them.
"You're lying. Tell me how to stop myself from turning into that monster."
"Damn it. Fine. It all has to do whether Nia goes or not."
"Nia? The green dragon, correct?" Akai asked to confirm. Her markings didn't glow.
Miura smirked, but it was quickly turned to pain as Akai's grip tightened around her glowing slave markings, but after a few moments, she began to laugh. She laughed as blood began to curl around her throat. A laugh that screeched within Akai's ears.
"Don't worry. I'll tell you where she is. It will show you how pointless your actions are at this stage. Nia is at an old temple in the middle of the desert."
A crow flew down and dropped an old map with directions.
"It's some old tomb or something. Nothing important except for the fact that I was given visions of an unstable rip in time there. I'll show you what will happen there," Miura finished and as she did, Akai gained another vision.
Within his mind, he could hear the witch. "These will be your possible courses of action if you go. If you don't go there, then you will definitely become what you saw."
Akai watched the visions play back to him. It was inside an old temple filled with sarcophagi. The room was dark purple. He saw himself standing in front of a tear in space and time. He could not see through it. Then, he saw the green dragon, Nia, charging at the Crimson Black Knight with the red blade. Nia was still an amateur and relied solely on power, as he also did, but his strength and form was far superior.
In one instance, he dodged the strike and hit her from behind her neck, but with far too much strength. Nia died instantly. And Akai left the temple.
In another instance, he stood still as Nia pierced through his neck. As he died, Nia went through the one portal closing it from behind leaving behind the body. While the body lingered, maggots and cockroaches grew out of the sarcophagi and used his body as a puppet.
In one last instance, Akai would hit Nia with just enough strength to knock her out cold after dodging her strike. Nia would live and Akai would drag her out of there. He would try to reconcile with her, but to no avail. She would escape and head back to the temple at a later date going through the portal closing it from behind.
Akai awoke from the visions and stared at Miura. His grip still tightened against her neck. She smiled with sinister intent.
"These are the three options that you will have to choose. Either way, I win"
Her eyes were at the edge of popping out and she laughed. She laughed and laughed at Akai's misfortune. It was true. Akai didn't know what to do, but he knew he had only a small period of time before Nia would reach the old temple.
The laughs rang in his ears as she continuously repeated, "I win. I win."
Akai has heard enough of Miura's words. Everything she has done was to bring forth a future far worse into the light. His yellow eyes pierced through Miura's soul which he once thought of as helpful, but now he realized that everything that he has done was for the benefit of rotten souls.
"Shut up. Shut up. Stop laughing," Akai ordered, but even with the markings causing significant damage, she wouldn't stop laughing.
Akai's eyes grew even brighter with rage. His yellow eyes never ceased. His red and black armor began to show steam coming from the openings.
"Stop laughing. Stop laughing!" he repeated over and over, but Miura continued to laugh in glee. To her, she had already won. Nothing Akai could do would change that.
In his rage, Akai breathed out a heavy stream of fire seeping out of his helmet. "Stop laughing!" he yelled once as heavy fire breathed down on Miura. He was unaffected by his own heat, but for the witch, it was the feeling of hell. Being burned alive. But she still laughed. She continued to laugh through it all even as her eyes melted like a popped egg yolk. Her pale skin turned to melted right off of her face. The flames went into her body and began to consume her brain matter. The stream of fire created a tower of fire where Akai stood. His black wing and tail whipped up dirt, but didn't do anything to the raging fire. A new wall of flames surrounded the two as Miura roasted, but something in her turned that pain into pleasure just like when she had to take pounds of her own flesh. Crows in every part of Shieldrake began to burst into flames. Their insides turned into piles of flesh while they fell to the ground. Around Akai, the cloudy skies disappeared as flocks of crows would splatter to the ground. The sun shined beneath the raging fire. The witch's deception was finished. She laughed once more before succumbing to the cold void.
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