Paenitet te mortuus est

"Zero zero zero", I heard distant whispers calling me before fading away. Crackle...crackle crackle..., crackling noises filled the area around me , but I saw darkness, my eyes are closed, I'm still breathing...I think. A warm heat touches the skin of my left side, I'm lying on my back it seems, I opened my eyes and saw a black abyss like sky. "The passing realm..." I said in my currently soft and weak voice. I turned to my left and saw a campfire making crackling noises, and on the other side of the campfire...Elliot was sitting comfortably on a stool staring down into the campfire.

"And here I thought I was lucky enough to have died and found out that there was nothing but oblivion and a campfire after death" I sarcastically said with a chuckle followed by heavy coughing as I turned to stare into the black sky again.
Elliot remained silent staring into the fire.

The only sound that filled the air for a few moments were the crackling sounds coming from the fire.
"What did you do to me?" Elliot then said, shattering the silence in a serious tone.
I turned my head to look at him, and saw him staring at me with glowing yellow eyes.
"Why did you hold back" I asked him.

"Ha, how'd you find out" he said as he closed his eyes and chuckled for a bit.
"I could sense your yen output being restricted , even when you put your spear to my throat , you could have easily grown the size of the spear and crushed me by out matching my yen's output intensity. Further more , you only started using your most favored application of yen when you were already in the dance of the black moon , and you yourself already knew that it was pointless at that point." I said staring at his seemingly pleasantly surprised smiling face. I sat upwards and crossed my legs , facing him.

"Zero zero zero, in the period of only just over a decade you managed to create the dance of the black moon, something far beyond what even most creatures can do, turning yourself into a place and a thing at the same time, it's the abyss , you're the abyss." He said with a smile while staring at me.

"You're not answering my question" I said to him in a serious tone , as I stared at him.

"and neither are you mine, but I am the adult here, even though by age alone we're both adults . Zero zero zero , I'll be honest I've done it all from commiting mass genocides on scales that were partially the reason why God himself forsook and abandoned our entire multiverse , to being partially the reason why countless children , men and women die for no reason at all today. Needless to say I don't want more unneeded blood on my hands." He said as he stared into the fire with a frown, and what I can only describe as genuine sadness. I was not expecting that, my eyes opened wide. I sat upright facing him.

"I read through the library for what felt like forever back when you trapped me in there with no way out, for all those years. The rain fell, Myosotis flowers bloomed on shelves and floors , I slept on them.
I realised , the coffee shop that would randomly appear gave me food , though they never asked me to pay, which was different given I read that they would always seek remuneration for their services, was actually the only thing that kept me sane." I said .
Elliot remained silent as he stared at me with an emotionless face glowing in the firelight.
" I began training there , one day I released a blast of yen and it blew up a bookshelf , but to my surprise when I opened my eyes...the bookshelf was remaking itself , the books too. The library is not only infinite , but also self-regenerates. I trained for many hours , many many hours. Eventually I learnt about Ikari." I said before looking at the ground.

"What did you do?" Elliot asked me in a serious tone.

"What did you all do, you mean" I corrected him by saying.

"What do you mean!?" Elliot said, baffled.

"An Ikari is a curse forced upon a living host , the curse is divine wrath incarnate , it is completely against both its bearer and against all those around the bearer. At first the ideals seemed foreign, then it began clicking , my misfortune , my hardships-" I said before Elliot interrupted me.
"For your Ikari to be at the level its at..." he said with wide open eyes.
"Yeah, oh yeah you asked me what I did to you, your powers were being restricted and syphoned off by the mark your father forced upon you. I removed the mark, not all of your decisions were entirely all you, the mark somehow seemed to have been feeling you with malicious thoughts, but you still chose." I explained to him.

"Why would you do such a thing for me of all people , after everything I have done to you and everyone." He asked me with dead eyes.
"You're unforgivable, but...I can't take on father, not against an entire army of task masters and 717" I explained to him.

"With my power back to full capacity...Tagashi, of course it'll end with you and I."

he said to himself while staring into the fire.
"What do you mean by end with us" I asked him.

"No matter how high a bird flies up to escape the ground , eventually it will meat the ground once again." He said to me.
I remained silent .
"Where's Vladimir?" I asked him
"Who knows." he said .
"Wait aren't you and Vladimir partners?" I curiously asked,
"Ha no, Vladimir acts on his own his own , I'm neither above him and neither is he above me , heck he didn't even heal either one of us. If we weren't as skilled with yen regeneration as we were, we would most likely both be dead right now." He explained as a drop of sweat fell down my right cheek.

"But don't worry, we're alive aren't we!" Elliot shouted as he burst into laughter , I chuckled with him.
"Yeah , at least we're still alive" I said to him as we laughed.
"Have you heard about 545" Elliot asked me.
"I heard they came back from a mission in the original world , only twelve of them came back out of the sent army of ten thousand and ten. I heard 545 isn't taking it too well, they say he's suffering from post traumatic stress disaster, at least 236 is there to keep him sane." I said

"It's no mission, Tagashi is sending them to their deaths to prolong the lifespan of the already collapsing womb, the original world can handle anything, more souls wouldn't do anything to it, and therefore sends them there to die in order to alleviate the strain the womb is under. Buying himself more time...with human lives." Elliot asked .

"Also , 236? Who's that" Elliot asked.
"Wait, you don't know her?" I asked
"I know everyone in the womb because I was the head taskmaster , and to this day I still monitor from here through the reminescents of my yen scattered across the womb, but no, I don't know her." Elliot said as a cold chill rushed down my spine.
"I know 263 though, she's odd sometimes I sense her in more than one at a time." Elliot said.

"Time is relative you know , sometimes we meet people , and sometimes we think that we met people , when in reality..." Elliot said as he gazed into the black sky.
"Zero zero zero, 717 is strong. 545 has been radicalized , there's an army of capable task masters and radicalized subjects...Tagashi is there and not to mention they have a human organ donor farm. Are you sure that this is what you choose?" Elliot asked me with concern in his eyes.

"I wish I could say I take it all back, but this is my fate" I said to him.
"That man you once called your friend is purposefully indirectly killing countless people all in an attempt to save the womb , even though he knows full well that the amount of souls already trapped within the womb are slowly destroying it...and there is no reverse to this. I've heard them crying out in my sleep. They know that when the womb falls they will all burn..." I said.

"If you can hear the souls of the dead crying out from another universe , then clearly we need to move." Elliot said.

"True, but where too?" I asked him.

"First thing's first , we need soldiers , the three of us on our own won't be able to take on the entire womb by ourselves, not in our current state, and that's being generous enough to hope that Vladimir will even involve himself." Elliot went on to explain.

"...what about the shadows of demons?" I asked him.

"What does that black substance do?" asked Elliot.

"Many things , one of them being completely and permanently taking away for my own permanent use the experience, and abilities of whoever or whatever touches it and drowns within it, once you touch the water, you drown." I explained as I saw sweat drip down his face.

"Demons of shadows have no free will of their own and live off the reminescents of the wills of whatever they demons or devils they came from , however if you can over power those wills...who knows what you could do with their nearly invincible bodies." Elliot immediately said with a smile , I could tell this was less of him and more of the corruption speaking , nonetheless he was onto something.
But if I can't overpower their wills , their wills will overpower me and inturn I will become their puppet, it's a scary gamble, but I have no choice but to go astray.
I decided to go to the original world , Elliot decided to stay behind and redefine his power.

It was midnight when I emerged from a black shadow that appeared on the grass upon the surface of the womb. I was outside the medical building. My presence was hidden within the dance of the black moon , far away in another reality, or is it fantasy, I can never tell nor recall.
I gazed up into the dome , the sky is fake , the stars are just balls of souls burning in the distance of where the real stats would have been, but somehow, it's still beautiful. I don't know whether I find the fake stars beautiful, or if I only find them beautiful because I find the idea of the real ones beautiful.

I began walking through the field , I'm not going into the medical building, I don't need to see children being amputated for no reason other than that some adult needs a new heart or lung. I walked for hours , if I teleported, flew or bent space , what would be the point , other than alerting Tagashi of my presence. I eventually reached Mother. Just as Elliot's info had stated , there was an underground series of compounds. There was no need to go through the door , I simply just fell through the ground , phasing through everything until I had reached the first compound. I turned invisible the moment I saw where I was , fortunately no one saw me as they were all busy working on what seemed to be vehicles.

I continued my freefall through the underground compounds , but then at one point at what was about my eighty-seventh underground level , I heard his voice , 545.
I frantically looked around until I found him walking with a woman, 545 dyed his hair black, they were directly below me. I hovered closer , then the woman locked eyes with me , my eyes opened wide.

"Go on along 545 there's something I need to do" she said to 545 as he walked onwards . The moment he took the right turn out of our line of vision, she turned back to me and with her index finger gestured at me to follow her. I began walking behind her, we walked in silence , walking through the white passages , brought back memories...of happier times when 236 , 440 , 545 and I would just play and run through hallways just like this , but those days were dead.

Eventually we reached a passage filled with doors on both sides. We walked through the passage for a bit, before she turned to her right and opened a door.
She walked in and I followed her inside , immediately the room expanded into a giant bedroom with a beach where the wall opposite the door should have been.
She turned around , walked through me and closed and locked the door behind us.

"What are you?" She asked me with a curious look on her face as she grabbed thin air and it became a glass of what looked like orange juice.

"I could be asking you the same thing" I said to her as I stepped forward closer to her while physically manifesting myself.

"I'm 263, pleasure to meet ya" she said with a bright smile on her face.
I could sense tiny bits of 236 hidden in her.

"What did you do to 236" I asked her with white glowing eyes.
"How do you..-" she said before I interrupted her.
"Answer me" I said to her as the lights began flickering.
"I heard you the first time , also...boy you're strong , if it weren't for your yen reinforcement constantly up , I would have turned you into stone." She said with a smug look on her face.
"I'll drown you in an endless ocean of darkness" I said, staring into her eyes.
"Answer me!" I shouted.
" I heard you the first time , but consider this , was 236 ever real to begin with?"