A/N-
Readers can skip this chapter (both parts). Since it has only fight scenes and no protagonist time. But, the details of this chapter will play a pivotal role in the main storyline. This chapter is like a seed whose fruits can only be seen after hundreds of chapters.
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PREVIOUSLY~
"May I enter." A soft voice came forward.
The expressions of all the figures in the room softened. Their face smiling for the dozenth time.
"Yes, you can, Vincent."
A small boy came forward. His purple shirt neatly tucked inside his brown trousers.
"How are you, aunties?" He walked towards Amelia and Sophie with a warm smile.
---x---
Sophie grinned, hugging her nephew,
"I am fine! After all, my cinnamon roll is here!" She gently pulled Vincent's cheek.
"You are now a big-brother Vincent. Are you happy?"
Vincent's smile doubled,
"I am very happy!"
"But I am not," Amelia pouted playfully, "It seems Vincent only loves aunt Sophie."
Vincent ran to Amelia,
"How are you feeling, aunt Amelia."
Amelia smiled, ruffling his hair,
"I am alright, cupcake." Her eyes drifted to the newborns, "Go meet your brothers."
Vincent nodded, running towards and Thomas,
"Grandpa! I want to hold them!"
Vincent's small fingers wrapped around Thomas' pants, tugging them slightly.
Thomas smiled, "Of course, my dear." He turned his face towards the babies but they were gone.
"They really are cute."
A deep but ecstatic cut through the room. Heads turned to a young man casually sitting at the windowsill. His lips curled into a smile. His blue eyes looked up through frizzy white hair. The newborns cuddled in his arms.
"Henry!" Everyone sighed.
"Father!" Vincent ran to Henry, "Can I hold one of them?"
Henry squinted at Vincent,
"Hmm," He playfully mused, "No."
Vincent's face fell, "Please, father."
Henry opened one eye, "Well, if you insist—"
"Henry," A cold voice cut him off. Thomas.
"You crackhead!" He shouted, "Can't you see the severity of this day?!"
Thomas furiously walked towards Henry, "Why can't you remain serious for a moment?!"
Henry calmly stood up, walking towards Amelia and Sophie with a smirk,
"Oh please, father! These young boys must know whom to search when they want some pocket money."
Amelia gave a small laugh,
"Henry, are you sure you will give them pocket money? I think you would rather take it, justifying it as 'keeping the money safe'."
The room burst into laughter as the joy of birth spread through.
The group chatted a little longer, laughter and teasing filling the warm room.
"Alright, we'll come visit again in the morning." Olivia stood, smoothing her robe as she looked one last time at her daughters.
"Bye, Auntie!" Vincent waved at both Sophie and Amelia, grinning brightly.
They waved back, tired but smiling.
In the corridor, Olivia patted Vincent's head. "Vinnie, time for bed now. Grandma's got work."
"Okay." Vincent nodded sweetly.
But as their paths split, his steps slowed.
Once Olivia was out of sight, Vincent turned.
Silently, he crept down the hall and pushed open an old wooden door.
CREAK.
The hinges groaned. The room ahead was dark, cold, quiet.
Vincent stepped inside, and each footfall felt heavier—almost unnatural. His smile twisted ever so slightly, a glint in his amethyst eyes.
A glint that didn't belong to a five-year-old.
"Let's meet our reincarnators, shall we?"
CLAP! CLAP!
"Hello, brothers!" Vincent barged into the nursery like he owned the timeline.
He threw his arms wide like he was hosting a game show. "Congratulations! You guys finally reincarnated. Round of applause! No? Babies these days..."
The two infants stared at him, horrified. One had brown hair, the other black. Both looked like they had made some cosmic mistake.
Vincent grinned, flashing all his teeth like a guy who's been banned from three different dimensions for smiling like that. "Now, now—save the emotional tears for your next tragic backstory arc. I'm here on business."
"Aboo!" protested Brown Hair indignantly.
"GAAH-GAAH!" Black Hair added, furrowing his tiny brows like a tiny CEO who's just been told his nap time was cancelled.
Vincent placed a hand on his chest and staggered back, mock-wounded. "Oh, the betrayal. The attitude. My heart—weeps."
Then, suddenly—
SNAP.
The air changed.
His eyes, those ever-swirling purple spirals, gleamed with... something off. Not "I skipped breakfast" crazy. More like "I replaced the sun with a screaming clown" crazy.
The room dropped ten degrees. The babies instinctively tried to scoot away using the sheer power of fear and soft baby kicks.
"Don't make those faces. You'll get wrinkles." Vincent leaned close, voice dropping low. "Ugly ones."
HUSH.
He placed a single finger to their lips. His grin didn't move. His eyes didn't blink.
And then, of course—
"HAHAHAHA—"
—ha."
The laugh died midway like someone pressed pause on his vocal cords.
His head dipped. Shadows swallowed his face. Only his eyes remained, glowing like eldritch disco balls.
"I'm sealing your memories." he said, as casually as someone deciding what pizza topping to get. "For, hmm... let's say... five years? Yeah. Round number. Everyone likes five."
The babies looked at him, pure terror in their eyes. They tried to resist. They really did. Wiggling. Flailing. Expressing all the anguish their 10-pound bodies could muster.
Vincent simply nodded in approval.
"This is good. This is healthy. See, this is emotional range."
He tapped one of their foreheads gently.
"Shhhh. No more questions. Brother Vinnie is doing you a favor."
The other baby whimpered, pleading with watery eyes.
Vincent sighed, deeply, like the weight of the cosmos was just so exhausting.
"Look. I can't have two grown men reincarnated into baby bodies running around with adult-level trauma on my aunt's—uh—let's call them comfort pillows—on their minds. That's just—" he waved a hand vaguely in the air, searching for the right word, "—illegal, I think? And emotionally weird."
He crouched down, tapping their heads.
"When you wake up, you'll remember cookies. Rainbows. Maybe a goat. I dunno. I'm not picky."
The sigils began to form—black spirals, jagged edges, creepy little details that screamed 'yes, this is perfectly safe magic, definitely not forbidden in twelve heavens.'
And then they fell asleep.
Just like that.
Vincent stood up, dusted off his hands, and strolled toward the window like he hadn't just performed psychological lobotomies on infants.
WHOOSH!
A crow the size of a small nightmare swept past the window, dropping a letter like a dramatic postman from a gothic opera.
It landed on the sill. The wax seal glinted in the gloom.
A crescent moon.
A vertical eye.
Feathers.
Three crow heads.
"Ahh," Vincent sighed,
"It seems old man Nvyhar is still alive and kicking."
Vincent opened the letter.
Dear Mad God Vinnie,
It's me, old man Nvyhar. I'll croak in a few decades. Very poetic for a false god, no?
Since I dragged your crazy butt into the God Realm, you owe me a favour. Duel me. Kill me. Find a replacement. I'll take the blame. The other gods still think we're dead anyway. Very convenient.
If you're in, tear the letter.
Also, bring wine. Your stuff's better than the divine junk down here.
Yours in madness,
Nvyhar
Vincent exhaled. A sad smile flickered on his face for half a second.
"You old feathered bastard."
TEAR.
Reality agreed with the decision instantly.
WHOOSH!
The nursery dissolved. Vincent found himself in a tunnel lined with green-flame obelisks and enough bad vibes to qualify as a cursed amusement park.
At the end of the tunnel—
Perched on an altar of crumbling stone was Nvyhar, looking like a crow who'd read too much philosophy and seen too many apocalypses.
Long robes.
Translucent skin.
Eyes like secrets you regret asking about.
Floating iron-feather circlet. All very "final boss meets retired librarian."
Vincent stepped forward, cracked his neck, and crouched slightly—hands hiding his growing, deranged grin.
"How are you, old man?" He smiled, walking closer.
"Are you preparing for the coming war?"
Nvyhar only smiled,
"Vincent," He rose from his throne, feet stepping down the altar,
"Kill me."
Vincent stopped,
"Kill you?! Why? At this critical time!?"
Nvyhar grew closer, "It is because I am weak, I am dying and I can't transcend further."
Vincent's fists balled, his jaw clenched tighter.
"Then fight. You are going to die anyways, so fight with me! The Pantheons can't step foot here because of the 'barrier' we have a chance now!"
"Vincent" Nvyhar's voice cut through the air.
"The barrier has cracked, and they have connected themselves through the artifact in Cindralune."
An obsidian needle that spanned a little over a meter appeared in Nvyhar's grip.
"You don't have much power. Kill me, take my core and train the next generation."
Vincent slammed his fist into a nearby column, the stone crumbling to rubble.
"Why?!" Vincent shrieked,
"Why do all of you always dump your chores on me? Who am I? Why do you think I can take care of everything?"
His eyes turned red,
"You know what?" Vincent's lips curled into a crooked smile, "Let me just kill them all right here!"
He turned on his heels, walking towards the exit, "Where is Antares? I will find him. Let me just uproot those bastards right this moment!"
A hand gently landed on Vincent's shoulder, Nvyhar.
"You can't defeat them. You are too weak."
Vincent's nostrils flared,
"So, what if I am? I am still stronger than the Gods of the middle heavens!"
Nvyhar sighed, his shoulder turned as his elbow bent, his arm drew close to the body.
"You can't Vincent. Because they have a ■■■■■ with them."
Vincent's eyes widened in shock, his knuckles whitened.
"Wh-What did you say?" His lips trembled, "Do they have an A—!"
Nvyhar's wrist extended in one sharp line.
STAB!
The needle pierced air, where Vincent's shoulder should have been.
"Using Featherblade so early?" Vincent smiled, appearing behind Nvyhar, "Why don't we just talk quietly like good old buds?"
But the blade's tip was already in motion, aiming for Vincent's throat. The latter ducked, rolling towards Nvyhar before shooting out a kick from below.
"I don't have time for your theatrics, Vincent." Nvyhar gripped a metallic cube inside which, a ball of glass emanated blue rays of light.
"Let's use the system."
Suddenly, lights of all colours exploded in the area, enveloping every nook and cranny of it. Then the colours began to fade until only a blue screen shimmered in the air.
[God of Crows (A) requests the God of Madness (B) for a deathmatch]
"I REFUSE!" Vincent screamed, "Tell me Nvyhar, why? Just why?!"
Vincent's hands shook, tears streamed down his cheeks,
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"
However, Nvyhar only raised his Featherblade.
"Accept it, its all for the future," A dry smile ran through Nvyhar's wrinkled lips, "I will die anyway. Its good if my core can help nurture the next generation."
However, Vincent only gritted his teeth, copper exploded in his mouth.
"I-I can't… Find someone else for the prophecy… I can't, no, I won't do this." Words barely staggered out of his trembling lips.
"VINCENT!", Nvyhar shrieked, "YOU PROMISED ARCH-MOTHER! IS THIS HOW YOU REPAY HER?!"
Hundreds of crows began circling around Nvyhar, forming a tornado of black and feather.
"Remember Vincent," Nvyhar stepped forward, "you are the pathmaker ."
Then, for the tornado, dozens of crows flew towards Vincent, their beaks aiming for his flesh.
SPLURT!
Strands of Vincent's flesh sprayed in the air as drops of his blood kissed the ground.
"If that is really how you want to go," Vincent's smile returned, "then don't regret your choice later."
"I ACCEPT!" Vincent screamed at the top of his lungs.
Once again, light flashed before the entire arena. Once it faded, another screen light up to existence.
[ Deathmatch accepted.]
[3]
Nvyhar tightened his grip on Featherblade.
[2]
A silver ring with chains engraved on it materialized on Vincent's index finger.
[1]
Dust and rubble exploded everywhere as both Vincent and Nvyhar disappeared from their positions.
BOOM!
Featherblade met Vincent's fist as a shockwave vibrated through air.
"LACELUX!" Vincent smirked as the ring on his index finger transformed into a two-meter chain, pulsing faintly with violet hues.
WRAP!
Chains clinked as they slithered around Nvyhar's neck. Vincent pulled both the ends with his arms, tightening the grip.
"Stay in one place, old man."
But Nvyhar had already escaped,
SWISH!
Metal cut through air as Featherblade stabbed from behind. Vincent turned, chain's wrapping around the needle as Vincent twirled mid-air, jerking the blade's trajectory.
[CRESCENT KICK]
Vincent spun on his heel, using the rotation to leap from the ground. His body became a blur, a whipping coil of muscle as he tucked his knee and threw himself into the air.
His right leg shot out, an uncoiling line that swung in a sudden, devastating arc, smashing against Nvyhar's shoulder before Vincent dropped back to earth, ready for the next move.
A pillar of stone crumbled to rubble as Nvyhar's body collided with it.
"That hurts." Nvyhar rose from the ground, pain bloomed in his shoulder as his arm quivered.
'I can't drag this more,' Nvyhar bent his knees slightly ready for another lunge.
[EMBRAL STEP]
Nvyhar disappeared.
"Oh shit!" Vincent began spinning Lacelux, "Here we go again."
[STEEL TEMPEST]
Lacelux began spinning around Vincent until a cyclone of metal spun around Vincent, acting like a wall of defence.
Vincent cracked his wrists, a relaxed, predatory grin pulling at his lips. He tilted his head slightly as his eyes drifted to his right.
'Caught you.'