Chapter 7 - 6: A Hero Is One Who Protects

"Huff!! Huff!"

Leo jolted up as he regained his consciousness. He remembered being consumed by the Three Headed Reaper Hound. He ran his hands all over his body. There was not a single wound much less any hole. There was no way he could have come out without any scratch after being eaten by the terrifying Reaper like that.

"What's going on? Was that a dream?" Leo mumbled as he felt the cold sweat running down his neck. He couldn't help but gulp at the thought of it. It was too real for a dream.

"Hmmn?" Leo suddenly noticed that his surroundings had changed. He was no longer under an open sky but a roof. It was filled with lights which were giving a slight blue colored gleam. He scanned his surroundings and found himself inside a room.

"Is this a spaceship? Was I rescued?" Leo muttered under his confused breath as he got up from the sleeping capsule and began to take a look around.

The room seemed to be filled with weird devices that Leo had never seen before. He couldn't help but be in awe. Humanity was pretty well known for its advanced technology in the Universe. Even though every race had something special, humans were well known for their brains. Even after being one of the later races to enter the Interstellar age, the speed at which they had developed was no less than frightening. They had the greatest number of patents in the Galactic Science and Technology Union. It clearly showed how technology-driven humanity was. There was no way for Leo to have not seen any of this especially when he ran a recycle shop. After all, he needed the capability to identify normal trash and gold class trash.

He gently picked up one of the round metallic balls which was the size of his fist. There was a light in the very center of it and Leo could feel a tiny amount of heat-generating from it. It looked like a core for household purpose robots and Mechas. But the amount of heat being leaked out of it was clearly far from enough to power them up.

"What are you doing?" A voice sounded right next to Leo's ears frightening him to the extent where he was close to having a heart attack. The metallic ball in his hands dropped and landed right onto his toe with a bang.

"Ouch! Ouch! It frickin hurts!!!" Leo rolled around the floor as he tightly grasped his toe with both of his hands. It continued for a while before he finally felt the pain calming down. Only then did he turned around to look at the source of the voice.

It was a hologram. Most likely the A.I. of the Ship. They were designed to perform the job of a co-pilot and were only available in Premium models of Spaceship. Now, Leo was even more curious.

The A.I. had a human-like figure but lacked any distinct details. You could tell at a glance that it was a human looking figure, but nothing more than that. Its voice sounded metallic like a robot.

"W-Who are you and Where am I? Where is the person who was with me?" Leo asked. He couldn't help but fumble a bit. It was his first time talking to an A.I. After all as a poor guy like him could only dream of it. Even this time, his trip to Andromeda was fully funded by Kyle.

"I am the Captain of this ship, Arthur."

The first sentence of the A.I. left Leo a bit dumbfounded. When did the technology advance so much? Weren't A.I. only capable of doing support tasks? After all, piloting a spaceship was no joke. Many complicated controls could only be performed by humans. Besides, there were always risks associated with the use of Artificial Intelligences. System failure and hacking could be devastating. This was the reason that living beings were not overly dependent on A.I. technology.

"This ship is the territory of the Nivera… " the hologram further replied.

"Nivera? Where is this?" Leo asked in confusion. He had never heard of this kingdom or planet. But it wasn't surprising. There were so many races and planets in the universe. It was obvious that he wouldn't have known about them. He only knew the name of the top 10 races and a few others in the top 100 which were known for a thing or other.

"It's in the Niverian Galaxy….."

Leo shook his head. He had never heard of them. They must be among the top 20 races if they were capable of making a fully A.I. controlled ship, they must be stronger than humans, that was for sure.

"Is there anyone on ship? I would like to thank them for rescuing me." Leo spoke with gratitude on his face, that was the least he could do.

"I was the one to save you," the hologram replied.

"Y-You?" Leo asked in surprise.

"Yes, you should have met my juniors. I had sent them to bring you two here," the hologram replied as it waved its hands and a screen appeared.

Leo looked at the screen his eyes turning wide and his mouth opened in a huge O-shape.

"Y-You!"

He stared back and forth at the screen and the hologram. He knew it. It wasn't a dream. The screen was showing the terrifying worm-like creature lying out in the wilderness. They were the Reaper.

"What is going on? Where is this place?!" Leo asked with a frown.

"This is the last ship of Nivera and I am its captain, Arthur, carrying the very last hope of my creators."

"Creator?" Leo asked with a frown. He was having a bad feeling about it.

"Yes, my creator..Sir Valen Longinus…"

Those words were like thunder to Leo. His entire being froze to its core.

He was very familiar with that name….no not only he but every single person had that name etched in their very mind.

Sweat trickled down Leo's forehead as he felt his throat getting dry. He knew it from the moment he saw that Cerberus looking Reaper. That thing was said to be that person's mount.

That person who had gone down as the most evil being in all of history and was given the title of the Demon King.

No one know, where this person came from but he brought utter destruction upon the world. Leading a whole group of strange creatures, he took over the souther planets and galaxies.

But, in the end, he was defeated by the combine efforts of the Interstellar Alliance and the raid team which slayed this Evil Lord. This member of the raid team were later called Heroes and admired all over the Universe.

The Southern Planets were finally freed, but even after 30 year, the place was said to be a living hell. One could only imagine how much worse it had been during the Evil Lord's era.

And Now, Leo couldn't help but become nervous thinking that he was standing int the ship which once belonged to the Demon King.

'What could this thing possibly want from him?' Leo muttered inwardly before finally asking, "What do you want from me?"

"I want you fulfill my Creator's last wish and be his successor.." The A.I.'s emotions less voice rang out.

Leo didn't reply.

He was being asked to become the next Demon King? Who in their right mind would want to be one?

"There are currently two people on this ship…and only one successo-"

"Bang!" The door was suddenly smashed open and red light began to flash as alerts sounded all over.

Leo looked towards the door and saw Aiden standing their with a blunt object in his hands. His expression was ugly and his voice sounded urgent, "We are getting out of here!!"

Leo didn't hesitate and rushed towards the door.

….

"Can't believe we ended up in such a place.." Leo said with grim looking face as he took the lead trying to find their way out. "Just who in their right mind would want to be the Demon King? It's not like power is everything…right?"

"No, I actually am tempted. If not for the fact that I had to kill you. I would have accepted it already. After all, I won't necessarily turn into a Demon King just because I have his power…"

"Stop scaring me," Leo slowed down and began to match his pace, afraid of leaving his back open to the guy because he couldn't tell if he was joking or serious.

"Careful.." Aiden suddenly warned and Leo immediately became alert.

As the two turned around the path way, a small eight legged reaper came into sight.

"BAM!"

Aiden smashed it with the blunt object in his without a second thought sending it flying into pieces.

They were just like the Reapers outside but way smaller in size and weak.

Aiden passed the blunt object to Leo and then grabbed onto another pipe above and broke it apart as some kind of gas began to leak out of it. But the two didn't care.

They immediately charged ahead and fought the small reapers while trying to breakthrough.

"If this is a ship, then there must be an evacuation shuttle in here as well.." Leo suddenly said wiping off his sweat.

"Yeah, we can leave as long as we find it.." Aiden nodded while panting. He was the one who was the main fighting force here. Even though these small reapers were terribly weak, they were surging in like a tide and he couldn't see an end to it.

The two hadn't realized that their entire movement was being monitored by A.I.

"The people in this Universe are really stubborn. But that is what my creator wished for and I will fulfill his wish. Open the outer gates…" Who could believe that this thing having conversation with himself like a human was am A.I. It behave more human than half of the human population.

….

"There! Its the sign of evacuation lobby…" Aiden said with a smile pointing at the smile while looking at Leo.

"Zmmn!"

Leo's eyes turned grim and he pushed Aiden aside as a bright red laser grazed past his hand burning his skin black at the point of contact and making him scream in pain.

"Aaahhh!!"

"Leo!!" Aiden's face turned ugly as he looked in the direction where the attack came from. He saw that the shutter had been lifted up and the outside world was visible again. The terrain outside didn't seem to be much different from earlier. They were still on the same planet.

But that wasn't Aiden's main concern. It was the Reaper that was guarding the exit.

It was a Three Headed Hound.

Legend said that Cerberus guarded the gates of hell and it indeed seemed to be guarding the exit of this hell here…

A metallic screech reverberated from its mouth sending chill down Aide and Leo's spine. They knew that even a thousand of them were not a match for this thing. They were really screwed this time…

The three mouths of hound suddenly began to shine with a dangerous light.

"Move toward the evacuation lobby!!" Leo screamed but suddenly, shutters came down blocking every path for them and only leaving the one to the Three Headed Reaper Hound open.

Aiden smashed the blunt object with all his might trying to break the shutter but only managed to put a light scratch on it.

At this moment, a hologram appeared above the Three Headed Reaper. It was the A.I. of the ship, Arthur.

"It's the time for you to decide, only one of you can be the successor and leave the ship…"

"You can't force us to do this…"Leo said with a frown.

"Yeah, if you kill any one of us, the other will commit suicide.." Aiden chimed in looking at Leo with a face that was saying, 'I got this…'

Leo immediately shot him glance, 'This suicidal guy…' But he still nodded and supported him. "Yeah, you won't get anything from us…"

"I see. Is this the so called unity? Interesting…how long has it been since I learned something new. I must add this new data to my directory…" The A.I. depicting very human like behavior seemed to be happy about it.

"What the heck is that thing mumbling about?" Leo frowned.

"No, idea. I can't hear him…" Aiden replied.

"So neither of you two would accept my creator's inheritance?" The A.I. spoke again. Its monotonous made it hard to understand how one should understand the sentence. But, Leo felt that it definitely was a threat and its next words confirmed his suspicion. "In that case, you both can die…."

"It will kill us?" Leo frowned as sweat slid down his cheeks before falling down his chin.

Their plan had failed.

It seemed they weren't as important as they thought themselves to be. Leo's breathing turned uneven as he looked at the Three Headed Reaper Hound opening its mouth ready to incinerate them to ashes and he couldn't help but shiver. Even after going through death defying experience so many times, he still couldn't say he was used to it, "Is this what staring at death feels like? We can't survive I guess…"

"No, one of us can.." Aiden said with determined eyes as he looked at Leo.

Several thoughts crossed through his head and he finally took a step forward. Leo had saved him in the ship at the beginning. Not to mention, he was the one who got him involved in all this mess. So, now that he had the chance to get him out alive. He wouldn't let it slip away.

"He is ready to accept the inheritance, but I definitely won't. The choice is yours!" Aiden said in a loud voice with a fierce look. How could someone like him become the Demon King's successor won't the entire universe look at him with scornful eyes.

The Three Headed Reaper Hound halted its attack at the A.I.'s command whose interest seemed to be piqued by Aiden's words while Leo's expression changed for the worse.

"Wait! You-"

"You didn't hear my story even once because you didn't want to get involved. So now just stay out of it or I will hold a grudge and haunt you…" Aiden interrupted Leo and looked at him with a smile on his face. "I wanted to die, you heard it all along and now I have the chance."

'Then why is your face saying something else..' Leo looked at him and muttered inwardly while clenching his fist. He didn't have the guts to say it out aloud. He didn't want him to die but it didn't mean he wanted to die as well. Unlike the previous times, there was no risking one's life to save the other.

It was a certain death for one of them.

The two of them only knew each other for a month and weren't even of the same race. He didn't need to feel guilty for prioritizing his life when he was dragged in this mess by someone else. Other people would have followed this line of thought but Leo couldn't accept it for some reason. But, he didn't want to die…fear of death wasn't something easy to come.

Even Aiden's back was drenched in sweat. His body trembled slightly. One could say that they want to die, but it honestly took a lot of courage to go through it. Obviously, those who committed suicides were not courageous but coward who ran away from life but those who gave their life to save another were the true courageous heroes.

They were being asked to become the Demon King but they had already shown the qualities of hero during this one month.

After all, the saying that, 'A hero is one who protects.' definitely could be depicted by their actions

"I see. You two have made your choices…" The A.I. said as the Reaper Hound opened its three mouth once again.

Leo looked down on the floor unable to raise his head due to shame. It was then that, Aiden's light voice entered his ears.

"After receiving the inheritance, ignore it. It will bring nothing but trouble for you. Live a life you want Leo. After all, simple things are what makes us happy."

Those were the exact same words that Leo had said to him.

"And, yeah…I might have been a disappointment my entire life, but I am now confident that in death, I am proud of myself…" His voice sounded happy and a bit sad as well.

"Whoosh!" The Reaper attacked sending a terrifying beam of light hurtling towards Aiden.

Aiden's brows quivered but he gritted his teeth.

"Thud!"

Yet, he suddenly felt a push from the side and his eyes widened as he saw the red beam of light engulfed Leo's body all the way below his chest incinerating them to ashes.

Leo's remaining part of the body above his chest fell lifelessly to the ground with a thud.

"Leo!!!"

Aiden raised his hand towards him as his body crashed into the shutter beside.

"Bang!"

But he didn't care about the pain in slightest and rushed towards him tumbling half the way in panic before crawling up and anyhow reaching him.

"Why?!!" He screamed as tears pour out of his eyes for a stranger of another whom he had barely known for.

Leo looked at him, for some reason he felt at peace, "Why? I…. wonder….too…."

With that his movements ceased and his eyes lost his glow.

"No!!!!"