NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1452: The Battle Is Over... For Now
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Blake quickly transformed back to normal, resting over the floor, exhausted… He didn't think he would have so many difficulties winning, but it seemed that he had underestimated Lucifer.
"Blake!"
Elizabeth and Erika ran to his side, followed by Eleanora appearing right next to him through her ability to summon herself by her master's side, all three girls hugged him, followed by kissing him and then healing him with their own techniques.
"You idiot! Did you had to go so far?!" Erika complained.
"It was amazing… but it was indeed too much, you were too reckless…!" Elizabeth said.
"Oh master, that was amazing…! But you're too wounded!" Eleanora said.
"I'm sorry… I underestimated him," he sighed. "It's my own fault… thank you for being there for me. I won't make the same mistake twice."
With that said, the girls and Blake noticed something in the distance, glowing brightly beneath the ashes of their battle, it was a large, gold, green, and red colored Spirit Orb, slightly cracked, but still nearly intact.
"A Spirit Orb?" Erika asked. "Wait, is that…?!"
"Dylan's Spirit Orb!" Elizabeth said.
"…"
Blake slowly stood up after he was completely healed, walking towards the Spirit Orb and glancing at it with eyes filled with pity.
"Master, what are you planning to do with it?" Eleanora asked.
"I can feel within it the soul of Dylan, or a part of it… his Spirits, even after his death, maintained a piece of him within this cracked Spirit Orb," Blake sighed. "I think that even until the last moment, they loved him…"
"Hmm…" Erika sighed. "Wait, Blake, don't tell me you're planning to…?"
Blake smiled back at Erika, his power of Creation activating, as the Spirit Orb was fully repaired to perfect condition, shining brightly, the Spirits within and whatever remained of Dylan's soul resonated with his powers.
His grimoire was summoned, as he held the Spirit Orb tightly with his hand, closing his eyes, and infusing his own Spiritual and Divine Aura into the Spirit Orb.
FLASH!
For a moment, Blake was able to enter the Spirit Orb, and the Spiritual Realm within, there, he saw several broken spirits, in shapes he couldn't recognize, except the divine heroic blade, which was broken into tiny pieces… it seemed they were unable to recover, remaining shattered.
However, they weren't greeting him, instead, they were surrounding a small figure, it wasn't as tall as Blake remembered Dylan to be, and it was crying.
Blake silently walked towards the figure, finding a boy with long green hair and blue eyes crying, wearing the clothes of a serf boy, just like the poor clothes he once wore when he was younger.
"Dylan?"
Blake tried to talk to him, but the boy continued crying, he didn't hear him… his spirits tried to comfort him, even as they were broken and shattered.
"I know what you've gone through… I understand the weight of responsibility, the expectations of people of what you have to do… you were given the power of a Hero, against your own will, right?"
"…"
The boy slowly looked at Blake, he recognized him, but he didn't say anything anyway.
"At first you believed it was incredible, you could rise to protect your family and stop being a serf, to become a commoner or perhaps even a noble, to save your family from poverty…"
"But as you grew up and you were pushed more and more, you started to realize that there was no time for yourself, you had become a figure of hope for people, but nobody really cared about who you truly were."
"They hoped you could solve all their issues, they pushed you into one mission after another, you were slowly losing your own autonomy, to the Continental Alliance, you were nothing but their tool, a weapon."
"And as you saw your friends and comrades die constantly through war against the demons, a never-ending war not even you with your gifted powers could overcome… you started to realize the hopelessness of the entire situation."
The boy gripped his fists tightly, hugging his own legs as his feet touched the cold dirt on the ground, he looked malnourished and nasty, covered by dirt and miserable.
"At one point… you started to wear a mask, the Hero Dylan everyone admired, a cheerful man that brought hope to people's hearts… but that wasn't the real you, for years, you suppressed yourself, until the point your own despair and resentment festered, and you could not keep with this anymore."
"You stopped caring… and you ended accepting the offer of the Demonic Cultists, who offered you power that could surpass your own, that could finally give you the strength to do whatever you wanted… and to be yourself."
"Even though you betrayed your humanity in the process… you had fallen so low you didn't care anymore, thinking you could die any day from now whenever an Archdemon finally showed up to confront you."
Blake sighed, as he sat down next to the child, and offered him a red apple, which he created on the spot.
"And you did the unthinkable… you lost yourself, you forgot about your family and everyone that cared about you and abandoned your humanity."
"…"
The boy looked back at Blake, with anger clear on his face, it seemed he was still furious, resentful for what had happened.
"I am dead now… and even now you still come to whatever is left of me to torment me? How much do you hate me, Blake?"
"I don't hate you… If anything, I might be the only person that understands how you feel."
"…You do?"
"I wouldn't have been able to say all of that if I didn't, right? I get how you felt… and I know that despite most of what you did still being your fault… you were pushed by others to do it, you were a victim to those that tried to use you."
"I… I am?"
"You are… but at the same time, I don't think that what you did could be easily forgiven…"
"I am dead now… what else can I do? This Spirit Realm, and my broken Spirits… I… I might slowly disappear over time… I am tired."
"But don't you want a second chance, if someone could give it to you?"
"What?"
"Would you accept the chance to better yourself and fight back… not alone this time, but at my side, and the rest of my friends?"
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