Chapter 9: <Angel> [2]

I wonder if some of you have ask yourselves what is the purpose of the dreams that you have from time to time. Why does dreams exist?

I can't help but ask.

Why?

For I, Rei Ainsworth, have a dream.

I have been dreaming about something for the past few days. Ever since I came to this world, I only seldomly get the chance to sleep properly.

It's not like I can't sleep nor don't require sleep you know? Spirits who has a stronger constitution compared to humans don't require sleep. Well, if they want to, they can.

It's just that I don't really have the need to do so with this new body of mine.

Well, let me tell you what I have been dreaming about all this time. Over and over and over.

...

Once upon a time, there was a child.

The child had lost everything in result of a war.

Amidst the ruins of the child's destroyed village, he was found to be the only survivor which put him into a different fate.

When the child thought that he could start and live right back once more, he was reluctantly caught and nearly became a slave.

To the child's luck, he barely managed to escape to those who were trying to capture him.

He ran and ran. Without rest and nonstop.

But while on the run, he was shot. Though it wasn't that dangerous, it affected his speed and remaining stamina.

And in exhaustion, he tripped on an edge for a ravine and fell down on a cliff.

Did he die? No, he miraculously lived.

The boy then opened his eyes, how did the boy even survive that fall?

He found himself in the deepest parts of the ravine. Realizing that he was still kicking alive, the boy roamed the place trying to find an exit.

And so, he found something.

It was a gigantic twin doors engraved with ancient scriptures.

The boy then muttered, "Ancient Ruin".

As the boy opened the door, a blinding light engulfed all over the surroundings. It was a pure white light that illuminated everything.

...

That was my dream. And to add, it happened not only once nor twice, it happened often as long as I put myself to sleep.

It was just a short dream and easy to understand. And that is concerning. That dream would continue over and over until I open my eyes relieving myself from my sleep.

It wasn't like I have a problem with it at first, yes at first, but lately, it's bothering since I am somehow getting more immersed in the dream to the point that I don't want to wake up from it anymore.

This matter...

It's really....starting to get interesting as time passes.

——

[3rd POV]

After having those story appear on his dream once more, Rei opened his eyes only to be found locked in a pitch black dimension where light had ceased to exist.

"...is this a continuation part of that dream?" Rei mumbled as he observed his surroundings.

'Maybe or maybe not', is Rei's answer to his question as time passed as his eye's vision swam all over the place.

Rei then decided to roam the place. 'There wasn't anything wrong and to worry about dangers', he thought since this place is just probably a dream.

And so, he roamed and explored the pitch black void nonstop. There wasn't any change on his surroundings as his exploration continued.

At some point, he thought that he was stuck just roaming around the same place over and over. But thankfully, something changed in the place.

Rei then suddenly felt his pulsation deep inside him. It was thumping so loud that as if it was trying so signify something. There were subtle changes with his pulse each time he took a step.

It was as if it was leading him to something.

He didn't think too much and decided to trust his instincts. Step by step, his steps were echoing throughout the endless pitch black plain.

And it was then, he felt his pulse had strongly resonated with something. To be exact, his reiryoku had spread all around and was making a pathway to him leading to his destination.

So without care, he continued to strode forward.

A few moments later, he found himself standing before a peculiar gigantic chunk of crystal.

If he were to describe it's features then Rei concluded that the crystal has no definite shape, it was constantly changing. Sometimes it became a shape of a cube, sometimes a diamond, and many other more.

The crystal's color was a mix of dark violet, gold, and crimson red. Dark violet being the base color in entirety meanwhile gold and crimson red representing as the serving boundaries between each other which made the crystal seemed divided by two parts.

"....."

Rei then stretched out his hands and came in contact with the crystal. Right at this very moment, he realized that there was something inside it which was very difficult to see without any keen observations.

There were items crystallized or sealed within it.

First, a elegant purple longsword that looked holy and fierce. It has a golden sword guard with a gem embedded right at its center and it has a dark black handle.

This was located at the left side of the crystal, in the golden tinted section.

Second were five lances with has same designs as the others. It was colored coated in regal purple color and has golden trimmings right at its edges.

As the same as earlier, this was located at the left side of the crystal, in the golden tinted section.

Third, a ominous looking dark longsword with crimson red and purple lines imbued on its blade. The sword guard was colored pitch black with a dark purple gen embedded right at its center and it has a black handle which has red imbued lines spreading from it as well.

To define any further, this sword was rather exuding animosity, dominance, ominousness, and overwhelming power.

This was located at the right side of the crystal, in the crimson tinted section.

Fourth and lastly, was four gigantic shard-pillars, or rather, blasters. It was colored almost completely black as it was has several violet and crimson colored lines that spread all over its entirety. It's overall appearance looks fear inducing and a representation of ruin and chaos.

As the same as the third, this was located at the right side of the crystal, in the crimson tinted section.

"This is...."

Rei was familiar with the things sealed inside it. To be exact, two from the four from it.

The first one, which was the elegant purple longsword and the fourth one, the shard-pillar blasters though it's design or theme could be defined as "dark" compared to the purple one that he is using.

And all of a sudden, two of them glowed brightly.

Rei widened his eyes. The bright glow was somehow affecting him. It was as if it was urging himself to get it.

"Just like a moth attracted to fire, they say..." Rei uttered with a slightly perplexed expression.

It was not like he wanted to reach out those glowing "treasures". It was just that he doesn't have control of his body right now, it was as if it doesn't care about my will and would do anything to reach out those treasures.

Obviously, he felt cautioned at first and tried to resist but upon the realization that it is futile, he complied.

And so as each step he made, the space trembled. Cracks within this pitch black world began to appear all around him. What peeked from those cracks were iridescent blinding light. The whole place was getting slowly engulfed with tremor and....ruin.

It was as if this "world" was collapsing.

But Rei didn't care as long as he reaches out those within that crystal. And so he continued, without any care of anything besides that.

And so he reached "it". The crystal also began to make visible signs of breaking.

When it broke, his hands landed to those "treasures" that he wanted to reach. Those treasures then glowed brightly in purple colored and emanated light that started to spread all over his surroundings offsetting the cracks appearing all over this world.

As if he had gotten something so precious, he showed a pleasant smile and spoke while looking at it joyfully.

"Now I get it. So that's your <name>"

After his utter, everything then became blank as the blinding purple light engulfed the world.

——

On the outskirts of Tengu City, a massive spacequake was forming. All the people in town had already been alerted by the spacequake alarm, <Fraxinus> is already dealing with some left evacuations and doing spirit wave readings to determine its point zero, and lastly, other third parties only seemed to observe as they waited what would happen next.

And then, it happened.

A gigantic massive spacequake occured and engulfed hundreds of meters located at the northwestern side of the outskirts in Tengu City.

——

ZNNNNNNGGGG!!!

A vibrating echo resounded in his ears as he slowly opened his eyes.

'The dream that he had was....real,' Rei thought to himself.

He could feel it, deep inside him. The "treasure" that he acquired there was now with him.

But the feeling of joy only seemed to last for a moment.

Moving his gaze to his surroundings, bullets of cold sweat somehow started to appear on his forehead. Because looking at where he is, he couldn't help but gasp in shock.

Rei was floating in the air. As in literally. And right beneath him was a gigantic and deep crater that expands over a hundred meters.

As he tried to asses the damage delt, he couldn't help but sigh in relief.

'Thank goodness that the city wasn't caught in it...' Rei thought to himself as he gave out a relieved sigh.

Even so, the destruction he made had somehow changed a part in the outskirts of Tengu City. The terrain had changed as if some bomb has been dropped on it. The northwestern side of Tengu city.

The location and geography of the city is already very strange, the city is in the middle of a large impact that has dragged on for kilometers. And if you add the newly gigantic crater that had swallowed a small portion of its northwestern side, it makes it even look stranger.

He knew. He felt that he knew for sure that this massive destruction was definitely caused by himself. Why? Isn't it obvious? For he is the only Spirit currently existing here at the moment. Also, wasn't he just sleeping a while ago?

What could've gone wrong??

It was then.

Numerous missiles and bullets were shot at him. And what's more is that everything was shot at different directions at the same time.

As if it was natural, Rei waved his hands slightly as [Barriers] began to appear all over around him.

He did it as swiftly as he could so that it could intercept the missiles coming right at him.

And as soon as the missiles and projectiles began to get in contact—

BOOOMM!!

It made explosions all over the place.

Rei then took a glance of who the assailants are, and in response, he sighed as he scratched his head summoning his "partial" Astral Dress.

"Ah. So it's you guys again? Don't you get tired facing me over and over again?"

"Spirit Confirmed. Commencing Elimination"

Of course, the ones who tried to blast him off was none other than the AST.

But right now, as he looked at them closely, it seemed that they did something interesting.

Normally, wizards were the ones assigned to do jobs such as combatting Spirits yet at this moment, he is fighting something... different.

It was a group of robots of flying drones to be exact with functions and armaments of [Realizers] or CR-Units which are the main equipment of wizards when fighting Spirits.

In short, they took a different approach from fighting him.

"...what a surprise huh. To think you guys would have a change of style this late"

'Still, this aren't the <Bandersnatch>, are they?' Rei internally wondered.

He then expanded his reiryoku for several hundred meters and tried to feel if there was any other being besides these AST drones who started to shoot projectiles right at him.

And there were.

Though they were quite far from here, he felt that these people was controlling as for how this drones move.

In short, if he directly eliminated them, the battle would be won easily since a master-less puppet would be the same as playing and winning the game easily.

But what's the fun with that?

It would be too boring just like the usual if he tried to do that.

"Also, this would be a great time to test and introduce myself properly as a Spirit, right?"

Rei uttered with his lips curling upwards to a smile.

After that, his next words marked the beginning of its descent.

"Manifest,"

And so it came. A dark violet armor with silver mixed in it. It was a sleeveless latex astral armor that emphasizes his body's figure.

And a five pointed golden purple themed crown then appeared and attached itself on his head.

Next was the appearance of unfolded metallic wings which manifested out of nothingness as it attached itself floating in the air right at his back.

"Judge,"

And so it happened. Ripples of space began to contort and then summoned five pillars...or rather, lances, coated in regal purple color with gold trimmings on the edges as it crackled with flames and electricity surrounding it.

In addition, the "sword" appeared right before him and he held it tightly on his hands.

"Incinerate,"

And so it spread. Crackles of purple flames soon erupted from his surroundings. The intensity of the heat was so high that it began to melt the ground as soon as he got closer to it.

"Spread your wings,"

And so, it did. Three pairs of majestic wings showed its full glory. Its feathers radiated in an iridescent glow just like those aurora's from the northern skies. Showing beauty and elegance from the outside yet fierce and dangerous powers from within.

And at the very end, he commanded.

"Come—<Raguel>"

And so, the <Angel> descended.