Chapter 8 - O death,give me wings

"In the end I failed, all the offering i did for him, my whole life ...."The man received no answer. Every night he would tell the story of his life to the person in the cell next to him and every night he received no answer."Please...." He had long lost his eyes to cry,yet when he reached the end of his stories,he felt lost."Was it all a lie? What did I do wrong?..... I gave him my own child,ahhh my sweet daughter." Emotions in his heart felt too intense to let him speak."Do you even exist?" "Do you even exist?""DO YOU EVEN EXIST?"Hours passed and silence filled the whole area. The man was too tired to talk anymore."How much longer can you endure it?"The voice seemed to belong to a young man, he moved to the door of his cell to hear better."Not much longer." "I don't think so,you are reaching the point of hallucinating, A tree that can grant you the blessing of death? How many peoples have you killed for such a thing? Their souls are waiting for you. A believer of death who sticks to his life,don't make me laugh."Screams filled the cell,he heard something hitting the iron,all night. As the night passed the sound of impacr got lower and lower.Smell of blood reached his nose as the wind came to his cell. "A believer of death? Hahaaa...."A voice ringed his mind:"What if you reach the end of your journey and it was all a lie too?""It was not a lie,he said his eyes were destroyed by the tree,if it was a normal injury they would fix it with healing souls." His eyes were on the ceiling of his cell while talking to himself."Oh why not than try it for yourself than? Like you can get out of here.."He didn't talk anymore,and the voice in his mind chose to be silent too.Days passed.Weaks passed.And now after two years distance between Ray and a Naraka tree was less than thirty steps.At last the red tree was in his sight. Under the moonlight, its red branches shined like crimson spears. With a black trunk the size of a house, it showed how much it had once been scarred.His hair along with his robe moved with the wind,The full moon in the sky and the red branches moving in the air made it like a painting. In the age that humans had destroyed the soul of nature on their planet, scenes like this were very few and far between.He closed his eyes and drowned in his own mind; fragments of his past showed themselves in his unconsciousness; however, his destination was elsewhere.In a church, Ray faced his other self; a girl chained to a cross with vermilion eyes stared at him."Why are you ...?"She couldn't finish her words when the rods in her body, one by one, started to disappear. With the last one in her throat disappearing, she fell to the ground in front of Ray.Her voice sounded like Ray's: "Cough cough." She coughed some blood on the ground; her wounds had already healed. "Why?""If I'm going to die anyway, I have nothing to lose; why not make a gmable?" Ray's face lacked any emotion.The world he was twisted on itself, the sea around him shook like it was in the middle of a hurricane, the church had already disappeared, and the water around them wanted to destroy one of them.A human's unconsciousness couldn't hold two people's consciousness. Over the years, Unforgiven had grown as her own person; when she became free, this outcome was unavoidable."Submit to me, and we both can survive." Ray said with a calm tone.His head wanted to explode from the pain."Hahaaaa...Then let's die together!"Ray was not surprised; just like himself, she had a wild nature.He returned to his body; his face was warmer than before. Touching his face, he saw his fingers red with blood; around his eyes were red too.His body was already reacting to the changes in his mind. "I thought I would have around a month, but it seems it's much shorter than my expectations."Looking at the sky, he saw rays of sunlight shining in the sky; hours had passed since he freed Unforgiven."Young man, please restain yourself from moving forward!" Ray turned back,people were gathered behind him,all looking at him and the tree. No one dared to go closer,many cases were out there of a naraka tree causing destruction for no reason,even they put guards on it,their lifespan would grow shorter with each passing day.He ignored them while returning to his own path."I can do this!" He took a few more steps and than facing a invisible wall,he know he had reached it.In this world,the were many scripts for prayers,some asked for guidness,some for blessings but long they had lost their essence. Ray remembered the prayer that the man in the prison always sang,yet he didn't want to do the same. The teachings of Bella had given him a new light. The domains were mostly based on the nature of anyone that got them,so blessings most also favor those who align with the nature of a domain. That man had sacrificed thousands of lifes just to get a answer and at last he was punished.His hypocrisy still was in Ray's mind. Sacrificing others while you are not ready be die? Such a crap.Ray opened his hands toward the tree and started his prayer:"O death, give me wings to fly towards you, like a moth around a fire,grant me the power to burn like a sun in your void."The landscape changed itself completely,the branched shaked violently while the ground turned into an black fluid with hands moving slowly moving in it. "Is this the smell of death?" Ray was shocked,with every cell in his body he could sense something different,a divine halo surrounded him,the smell in the air was different too from what he had expected. It was not like a rotten corpse,unlike his expectations it smelled like a new born child.The void infront of him changed its shape into solid stones,a narrow path was created for Ray to reach the tree. Ray took his few steps,nothing happened untill his distance was only ten steps.Taking another step, he felt all the bones in his body break at the same time; a scream filled the whole area. "An illusion! How can I stand up from such injury If I'm destroyed?"He took a deep breath and took another step, he fell to the ground; his blood was boiling. Facing the ground, he saw parts of his body and his face were melting into the ground."Remember, this is an illusion." The problem was that it was too real. Taking a deep breath a few more times, Ray bit his own tongue, focusing on the pain. The illusions slowly faded away, and not wasting any seconds, he took another step.The pain intensified with each step, yet Ray was able to take another three steps. All he wanted was to kill himself; that was the only way that pain might go away. With another scream, he took another step; he was halfway there.As the aura of the tree intensified around him,his suicidal thoughts grow more and more wild. Despite all that his mind was still sharp:"So it's true,its not about slaughtering others!"Bam.His left eye exploded. Ray touched the place his eye was before; there was nothing! Fear filled his whole existence. No matter how badly he had been injured, they were all by the hands of men, so healing souls were able to cure it. Unlike those, this was the will of a god! No matter what, it couldn't be fixed.He sensed that the will of the unforgiven was already one with his unconsciousness, yet he had to continue; if he ran now, he would live the rest of his life as a mindless creature.The pain was too much, and he barely took another step.Bam!His right hand was gone too! At first he didn't feel pain. A scream! This one was not from pain but out of an imaginable horror.Ray couldn't turn around, but there were many who gathered around the tree. At first it was due to Ray being around the tree, and now that the aura of Death had come out, many even from the capital had teleported there.Part of the sky turned dark, and a door appeared there. A figure came out of the door; he was covered in darkness, and very few were able to recognize him."General Deathbringer!" Only two people on the whole planet were aware of his actual name: himself and the man he served, the dark emperor.No one dared to tell him anything about coming to their county; he hadn't earned the title Deathbringer for nothing.He looked at Ray with excitement; very few people dared to enter the trial of the naraka tree. He had already passed the point where many would fall. His plan was simple: if Ray succeeded, he would get a prize, and the Naraka tree would be lose its powers for some time. He just had to kill Ray afterwards and get the prize.Ray was afraid to take another step. What would he lose next time? "I already have no way back; at least die by the hands of a god!" With his last remaining resolve, he moved his legs.Only two steps were left!"Is it raining?" Ray looked up and saw drops of blood falling from the branches of the tree. A drop fell to his shoulder; when he touched his robe, it melted and pierced his flesh! Another drop fell on his hand; it made a hole in the palm of his hand.Too scared of any drops falling on his head, Ray moved forward again.All the pain and suffering were gone. A sweet hand touched his cheek. "Son, let's go. The others are waiting for us."He could hear some kids playing behind his back; he knew they were his family! All he had to do was turn around and go to them. Even if it's an illusion, so what? Maybe that was what he always wanted. A family and a place far from anything.Ray didn't know why, but his eye was wet; a single tear fell to the ground. He could have something like this, being loved by someone. How would that feel? Would it fill the void in his heart?More tears fell to the ground, the white world around him started to crack like glass, the number of cracks increased, and Ray had to choose: a real world full of pain or an illusion full of happiness.Ray turned around and faced the voice of the woman,"She has no face!" The woman had a human figure,yet her face was completely hollow."Hahaaahaaaaaaaaaa..." More tears came out of his eyes as he laughed. "Even in my illusions I don't deserve a family."Flames of anger rose in his heart,world was an unfair place after all."Such a weakling." Ray whispered to himself as the world changed once more,all the pain came back to him,he had already lost a hand and an eye with many injuries."From today onwards,I shall forget the past and only move towards the hands of fate untill I can tear them apart. O death,bare testimont to my promise."Ray took the final step.Blood loss had already made his body numb, and he had long lost most of his consciousness. Putting his left hand on the black trunk of the tree, he understood he didn't know what to do!He fell to his knees. He looked to his right and left. Dark hands had come out from the ground, slowly moving towards him."So is this how it ends?"In the face of disappointment, Ray could only do one thing: he laughed, and he laughed.He could feel the hands reaching his waist; they didn't touch his skin. What they wanted was his soul. They continued moving through his soul toward his head.General Deathbringer didn't know what was going on anymore; no one had seen a naraka tree act this way! He saw the hands reaching for Ray, and then he sensed the aura of something else too.A golden moon was above their head too, shining with brilliance."There are still many hours left to the summon! What is going on?"General looked at the golden moon with excitement."The theory of the emperor is right?" This information was worth more than any equipment. Beneath him, golden light like a halo surrounded those with their first mark, sending them to their realms.Ray saw a golden light in front of him too. He was on the verge of death, and this new light saved him, deflecting the hands. He didn't know what was going on; the golden light seemed to embrace him, like a mother embracing her child.A sweet voice echoed in his mind before he lost consciousness:"Become the promised champion."