98 Strange Homecoming

"The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return."

-Milan Kundera

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"Hey, Young Human Overlord."

"Please do stop the random emblazonments, Patriarch Sir... You can just call me Jaiden... What is it?"

"Ahahahaha, right Jaiden. One question... Why are you humans, the said most special creations, sent to that sudden decree? The warfare of Fates was it? That gamble that will decide if your entities will either continue striving or will be obliterated from the face of the second realm. It has always been a mystery for me, ever since the deities announced your coming. " Asked the Patriarch, choosing to ignore the mess in the background and the dragonish glare of the summoned infamous avian, for a minute.

"Are you planning on making this a Q and A portion? Because that right there is indeed one question, but a type that requires a very distinct and yet, lengthy answer."

"Oy oy... Certainly no. I just find it rather intriguing."

"Hmmm. To the summary... As much as I know, the Deities themselves can't afford to waste another time with indecisive creations such as us. And, to spell the progress of this tragic story and the amaranth looping of our stupidity, emerged this unscrupulous killing game."

"Misanthrope now aren't we?" Hearkening Jaiden calling his own race by a bold language, the Patriarch sarcastically smiles.

"No." Answered the Herrscher, not taking heed the pain of being in that state, with, of course, the little help from Azazel's music.

"Now, I'm quite curious about the anatomy of your world's system, which made all of you that much of a burden to carry... But, there's no time for severing curiosity... at least not this time. " Assedthe Patriarch, while looking once again at the dragon Gomorrah above him whose monstrous head is poking out from the magical circle, summoned by the very Seven Ancient Necromancers...

"Come to think of, I can't dodge any attack from this angle, right?"

"I'm glad you realized... Now, Gomorrah,"

The young Herrscher, raised his hand, claiming full control over the Legendary Gomorrah, from the hands of the seven ancient necromancers themselves...

And in Jaiden's charisma, and this strong and visible dark pressure emanating from him, the creature begets his main source of power converting it to become his, for the time being, to fulfill a request from his Emperor.

"GWAAAAAAAAAARHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" The dragon roared shaking the entire place up, while the coliseum begins to fall apart, bit by bit... And then in its mouth, sharp teeth of about a few hundred and a slithery tongue which looks like a worm with another disgusting-looking mouth grotesquely presented itself. And from it, a slowly expanding blood-colored compressed energy from Jaiden's charisma, alone... is slowly being catalyzed, to amass destruction.

"There's no way, I'm dying in this little spar. NOW, TO HELL WITH IT!" The patriarch exclaimed rather looking ecstatic that he gets a rare opportunity to fend off an attack from such a beast. He then placed the cube-shaped memoir, his only assurance to victory, in one of his tight pockets and starts to extend his arm and legs, getting ready for a full-time and point-blank impact, planning to face it head-on without vain plans to evade.

"Release..." Proclaimed Jaiden calmly, instructing the same dragon to unleash all of the gathered dark energy...

The Seven Ancient Necromancers, encircling the dragon themselves begins to blow their held bone trumpets even more, while Gomorrah was a hundred-percent ready to follow the given instruction of letting it all out.

"GWAAAAAAARRHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" it roared, which preceded a clamorous inferno of black flames, which fastly begins to ooze out from the mouth of the very summon... And the patriarch, looking like a masochistic Nimrod who's willing to take it all, took a step back and extended his palms right in front of him, as if he's gonna single-handedly defend himself with antediluvian Karate, which is, of course, seemingly-absurd.

And then, the impact... A huge and sable explosion, whose form is almost comparable to that of the largest explosion ever simulated on earth, broke the whole personal realm like it was a castle made of glass, making apparent the skies of the outside world... But this time, it was not made of TNT, and the explosion was actually unlike any other nuclear chain reactions... It was unexplainably from Jaiden's uncontained dark pressure alone, of which is the same persona, that the seven necromancers and the feared Dragon themselves consider as their 'current emperor'.

The explosion continued for almost 5 minutes, and the moment the explosion ceased together with an abominable amount of smoke clearance, the realm was made desolate, as it was unable to attain the explosion. The Herrscher, as though emerging victorious is sent back to the third realm, but in a valley of nothing but treeless mountainous terrain, with rocks obliterated by the explosion whose impact even reached as far as outside of that broken personal realm.

Some of the surroundings are still engulfed by black flames, but what was rather worthy of commendation was the permanent destruction that Gomorrah catalyzed. At that same point impact... A very huge crater with pulverized stones and ashes, as wide as the sealed-off International Clark City... while the Patriarch was nowhere to be found.

Seeing their work done, and the instruction of their emperor fulfilled, both the seven Necromancers and Gomorrah, vanished into thin air, together with the wide magical circle.

But Jaiden was unwilling to take his triumph early, and neither does he want to relinquish his current form after only testing that one skill set. After all, NÆthervalians, same to whom that he fought before, likes to resort to a fake defeat, often leading to guards being left down... And he learned that lesson previously very well.

"Whew... Glad I-I survived that... But, whoo, it really did hurt." Suddenly, a familiar voice, shaky and trembling which seemed to be in great pain, start to bombard the whole background, but, no one was seen... Jaiden can't even feel even the slightest and the most minuscule trace of presence.

"So, I guess, it's my turn now!"

Right in front of Jaiden, with him noticing its slow fall, the cubicle memoir which was extracted earlier from himself fell into the ground, like a little contaminated dewdrop from the sky. And then, as it made contact to the surface, the whole terrain suddenly became so bright with blinding flares, which made Jaiden close his eyes voluntarily.. and little did he know, that now, he's just made it official... that he's under Illusory Valhalla's Area of Effect.

Along with the blinding brightness, glitches then started to bombard the whole view of the valley, as if its only a virtual place slowly being eaten by a potent virus...

"Now, shall you escort me to the deepest clandestine memories you have within you, young Jaiden... Let us go have some exploration in the pavilion of your past..."

And the moment the light cleared, Jaiden was sent back... no... is in his most clandestine memory that he failed to erase, even in the few years that have already gone by.

He opened his eyes, only to see that he's in a very familiar pavilion. He found himself facing a mansion atop a hill, maidservants, and butlers walking to and fro greeting him like he's a Master and a very nostalgic Garden of scarlet orchids and red roses... He's back home, standing in front of that household which he incinerated through Lacrimosa's prowess, dates back.

And a familiar figure, which is the root cause of all of the derangement in his life, slowly approaches with an innocent face and unblemished noble apparel with the family crest on his collar. without Jaiden noticing it, as he was rather busy in his fantastic sight-seeing...

"Beautiful isn't it?" The figure, which positioned himself at the back of the young lad, asked...

"Yes... and somehow it is-..." Slowly turning around, he saw... that long-deceased and foul animal, stopping him mid-way from completing his statement.

"Yow, brother!" Says the figure... It was that same man, the supposed heir of the now-missing dead aristocratic family, looking as though the current time frame is before his unprecedented monstrous manifestation as a memory that would hunt Jaiden, in his sleep and merely every time he remembers him.

He assumed that this was but another trick of the Patriarch that sends him into a dream, alike to that nostalgic nightmare he recently had, of which every single person who appears within that sphere is like a thick concentration of dust, that if you touch them, your hand will go through as if they're the very depiction of ghosts ...

"It's named 'Illusory Valhalla' after all." he thought, even highlighting the name of the Patriarch's Paradigm Shift... but it's actually very different.

"What are you doing standing out here, it's time for our piano lesson! Come on, now! The teacher is waiting for us! And what's with that dark and filthy outfit?"

His brother then pushed him at the back, urging him to go somewhere... and then he felt it... the sensation that will prove him wrong.

He felt the touch, along with the warmth of a living person...