Omega Wars Chronicles

Chapter 99: True Feelings

*In the act of Obaru pummeling Ziron, feminine arms of a Ripar locked the left arm of Obaru in order to restrain him, but with no time wasted, Obaru turned to punch the female only to pause and stare in shock with his irises glowing.
   "Idjra?" Obaru said as Idjra gawked at him with a horrified demeanor.*
  Currently in the grey-leafed forest,  Obaru and Idjra locked eyes with each other; Obaru being shaken in confusion, stared at Idjra for a while, filling the atmosphere with silence.
  "I-Idjra? H-how?" Obaru asked, "You were dead? I saw your body... I held your..."
  "Corpse..." Obaru said in a tearful tone as he struggled to control his emotions.
    Idjra being unable to look Obaru in the eyes, turned her face away. Ziron who had been beaten to the point his face was completely messed up, leaving him with one eye open, took notice of Idjra's presence and became shocked as well.
  "Huh?" Ziron said within.
  "This is a trick. This has got to be a trick." Obaru said.
   "It is no trick." Idjra replied.
   "She is correct." A masculine voice sounded.
  Obaru and Ziron caught sight of the person that spoke to be Izaiya who was accompanied with the 35 students that performed the unison technique.
    "The real trick was what you saw." Izaiya said.
   "Izaiya?" Obaru said in puzzlement.
   "What is the meaning of this?" Ziron weakly asked.
  "Wait, what do you mean by what i saw?" Obaru asked.
  "Obaru... Everything you saw the moment you awoke... From the bodies you saw to the moment you held Idjra's body... Was all an illusion." Izaiya answered reluctantly.
  At that moment, Obaru's eyes widened in shock.
  "What...?" Obaru said.
  Idjra tightly clutched her right arm while still having her face  turned away.
  "It was all an illusion? But... But it felt so real." Obaru said, "Her cold body... Her lifeless... No... It felt so real..."
  "Before Idjra came, i had a theory you could beat Ziron only if you were pushed enough." Izaiya said.
  "Pushed enough?" Obaru asked.
     Izaiya brought out a lilac stone and it illuminated on his palm.
  "The Usudo han stone. Once activated,  it is capable of creating an illusion so strong, so powerful you cannot differentiate between real and fake." Izaiya explained, "Both of us were able to keep up with Ziron though he wasn't serious, but i felt you could do better than me. When Idjra was losing to Ziron, i knew it was time to test my theory, so i split the stone into several pieces and made some touch you while you were unconscious."
   Hearing the explanation of Izaiya, Obaru was left short of words.
  "Emotional stimulation is one of the ways to increase power but to do that, the emotion has to be extremely deep, so i wondered what was enough to push someone like you  to defeat Ziron...." Izaiya said.
  "Then it hit me." Izaiya said as he glanced at Idjra, "The bond between you and Idjra is quite strong, so i put  it to the test to see how strong it truly is. If you were to see Idjra's corpse... To see her body laying dead on the ground, will your rage will be enough to beat Ziron?"
   "Izaiya, you..." Obaru said.
  "I'm sorry." Izaiya said, "I truly am."
  Obaru glanced at Idjra who was still facing the ground.
  "Did you...?" Obaru asked.
  "If you are wondering if she was with me on my plan, she wasn't." Izaiya said to Obaru, "She didn't know about it until she was healed."
  The other students stared at Izaiya with a scowl on their faces while some with the expression of disgust.
   A weak laughter sounded, leading Obaru and the others to look at the person which happened to be Ziron.
   "So everything i did... Everything i saw and touched was an illusion, huh?" Ziron asked with a weak smile, "I'm supposed to be angry but i can't help laughing at how you toyed and experimented with the emotions of your comrade."
   Ziron lets out a weak cough and continued smiling at Izaiya.
  "You really are the Grey blood of the Ripar tribe. You would do anything and cross any line to achieve your goals regardless of who you harm." Ziron said, " You've done this before... Crossed a line you shouldn't have; you did it again and you will most likely do it again.
   You said you placed Obaru under the illusion of  Idjra's death, but I'm curious, when was i placed under the illusion of killing everyone? I'm pretty sure it must have been after i destroyed the barrier."
    Izaiya, however, stayed silent at the question of Ziron which made Ziron weakly grin at him.
  "We have to heal her! Hurry!" A masculine voice sounded.
   Izaiya took notice of two male Tenplars healing the blonde female Tenplar Obaru left in a coma.
   "This is bad. She is not breathing at all!" One of the male Tenplars said.
  "My, my. Let me guess... She must have learnt of your plan and out of disgust, she decided to get in Obaru's way and talk sense into him?" Ziron asked Izaiya while smiling weakly, "To make him understand what he saw wasn't real, but she ended up paying the price for it."
   "Congratulations, Izaiya. You have succeeded in making this oaf useful." Ziron said as Obaru was gazing at the ground with goggled eyes.
  "You're right, i did cross a line. I owe Obaru more than an apology for that but if i were to choose between the illusion and everyone dying, i would pick the illusion without a second thought." Izaiya replied.
   "Without a second thought, huh? I guess we are both on the same boat." Ziron said with a weak smile, "Doing what is necessary. Just like you, i did what was necessary and i don't regret a single one of them."
   "Don't lump me in with you." Izaiya said, "The major difference between you and i is that you are a hypocrite who can't and refused to see you are exactly what you hate."
   "Heh. What is there not to hate?" Ziron asked, "Tell me, what is there not to hate about humans? I have seen fathers sell their daughters to whoredom just to make a few coins. I have seen mothers kill their baby sons for pleasure, superstition and other kinds of crap. I have seen all sort of rotten behaviors from humans.
    You haven't seen any because you have stayed in your little bubble, allowing them to fill your head with their honor and dignity crap when they themselves lack a lot. Humanity is a disease and a lost cause."
   "You're right. Humans do seem to be a lost cause. I myself aren't fond of people." Izaiya replied, "There are a lot of things i dislike and few things i care about, and just like Dam said in the tournament: people are nothing but two-faced gutter trash.
    However, there is one person that amazed me. I at first thought she was a fake until i learnt of her past and took my time to study her, then i understood she was no fake, and that person is Killer bee. From what I learnt, her father Sagar was executed as a traitor without a fair trial. No one dared to stand up for him; understandable since the chief before Tenya was extremely ruthless and no one was strong enough to challenge him, but the part the Tenplar tribe treated Bee like crap after the unjust execution disgusted me. I was so irritated at the people of the Tenplar tribe and my dislike for people grew more, yet... She didn't hate them.
   She didn't harbor an ounce of grudge or hatred for them. How is that possible? How can someone go through all that and still not have hate? Still have a heart? And not just a heart but a heart of gold.
   She may be naive and silly at times, but for her to still see the good in people after all that, she has my respect."
    "She hasn't seen enough. She hasn't seen enough darkness; she hasn't seen the darker side of humanity, that's why she still has that heart." Ziron replied.
   "I think I see it now... Your actual problem." Izaiya said, "You've seen so much darkness in humans that you've shut your eyes to the light in them, and in your rage and hate, you became the exact thing."
   "Exact what? That's funny coming from someone like you." Ziron replied, "I am exact thing because what? I killed a couple of trash deserving? That makes me a monster, huh?!"
  "And what about Enida. Was she deserving?" Izaiya asked
   "Ziron scowled at Izaiya for a while and smiled.
  "She is a human. Of course she was deserving." Ziron answered.
  For a moment, Izaiya locked eyes with Ziron and took  notice of Ziron's lower body slowly turning into stone.
   "Oh? What's this?" Izaiya asked, "This isn't part of the poison's effect. Could it be from the consequences of using your full strength? You know, from your last words before Obaru tried punching you to death?  When you mentioned something about your power killing you to Obaru, it occurred to me why you never used your full strength. It wasn't really because you were arrogant, it was because your energy wasn't fully stable.
   Midborns don't usually make it up to five years but you managed to defy that, however there was a catch to your survival and it was your full strength; you could never go all out without risking your life.  Right now it seems that your power will kill you before the poison does, but that's by the way."
  Ziron coughed out again and groaned a little.
  "You said Enida was deserving because she was human. I think you should know that the person that warned us about you in this madness was Enida herself." Izaiya said.
   "What?" Ziron said in disbelief.
A flashback takes place as Izaiya stood face to face with Endia who happened to be levitating with her entire body  glowing.
   "What...?! This... This cannot be true." Izaiya said to Enida.
  "Unfortunately it is. Ziron is an insider and he is the one that killed me." Enida replied, "When he made a hole in my heart... Before i gave up the ghost, i quickly used the technique of astral projection to appear before you. "
    "The technique that allows the users to create a ghost- like replica of their own body and send it to distant places. " Izaiya said, "It takes a lot of skill for a kan user to even perform it."
   "Yes. Only a few can use it, but it is more of a distraction and spy type of technique." Enida replied, "With my living body i could last longer but right now, i can feel myself fading. I don't have much time.
   Izaiya, you have to stop Ziron. For the sake of others and his own sake."
   "Own sake?" Izaiya asked, " If Ziron is indeed a traitor then i have no intention sparing him. You know well i have low tolerance for traitors."
   "I know how you operate. I know how you do things. You're considered by many to be one of the smartest if not the smartest in the academy, that's why i chose to come to you before i died." Enida said.
   "Ziron... He is lost. He has seen so much that changed him." Enida said as she gazed at the ground, "I'm not saying everyone should pity him. I'm not saying none should be angry with him or hate him; you have every right to do so, but if you can in anyway reach out to him...."
    "Reach out to him ? Izaiya asked.
   "I know how it sounds but-"
   "Enida, you are talking about someone who blew a hole in your chest and killed you." Izaiya cuts in, "A traitor who murdered his friends and comrades in cold blood. If this is indeed the true nature of him, then the Ziron we thought we knew never existed."
   "Maybe. But if you still can, then I'd appreciate it." Enida replied.
  "And if i can't? If he has proven to be unreachable?" Izaiya asked.
   For a while Enida remained silent and stared at Izaiya.
   "Then you do what you have to do." Enida answered.
   After the recollection, some of the students gazed at the ground in sadness while some stared at Izaiya and Ziron with an apathetic expression.
    "Even in her death, she still tried to stand for you." Izaiya said to Ziron, "Well Enida is the kind of person that would feel sympathy for an enemy she killed."
  Another flashback takes place as dying male orc laid on the ground quivering while Enida walked towards him.
  "I didn't want to...! I didn't want to do it...!" The orc said, "They threatened to kill my family if i didn't attack....! If i didn't..."
   "It's ok. You can rest now." Enida said to the orc as she squats.
  "M-my family... I wish i could see them one last...."
    The orc gave up the ghost and Enida gently closed his eyes.
   "Humph. How troublesome." Izaiya said after the remembrance, "If she were here, she would have scolded you. Talked about how you could have been better."
   "But i am not Enida." Izaiya said as his irises glowed, "I gave you your chance and you blew it. Obaru must have given you several chances and you blew them all. So foolish; you brought this upon yourself and you deserve everything you got.
   Have fun rotting in hell... Friend."
   As Izaiya had finished speaking, Obaru slumped to the ground unconscious, catching the attention of others.
  "Obaru!" Idjra said as she checked up on him.
   "Exhaustion due to the immense increase of power? Emotional stimulations are usually temporary, though there are rare cases where they aren't. Or could it be he collapsed because he was still unable to process the illusion of Idjra's death?" Izaiya asked within.
   While Obaru's head was resting on Idjra's thighs, Idjra gently placed her hand on Obaru's forehead.
   "You know, i was unable to look him in the eye." Idjra said to Izaiya while staring at Obaru, "When i woke up and you told me what you did..."
   " How Ziron was under the illusion the moment he stepped foot into the trap after the barriers destruction..." Idjra said during the flashback of Ziron crossing a thin long lilac line.
   "And how you placed Obaru under the illusion of my death." Idjra said to Izaiya, "What i saw during his fight was the opposite of Obaru. That cheerful, warm-hearted Obaru had disappeared."
   "What i saw was a terrifying monster." Idjra said as she recalled the cold stare of Obaru, "That was the first time ever i was afraid of him."
   "You said you were sorry for what you did, but you're not; you'd do it again if you were given the second chance." Idjra said after the recollection, "And even if Obaru wasn't your friend, he was still a fellow comrade and you had no problem turning him into a monster just to defeat a foe. You've done a lot of questionable things but to go that far... To be that cruel... Even with Ziron under the illusion, there were several ways to take him out at that moment, but you chose to screw with someone else's bloody emotions and in the end..."
    "Not just Ziron got hurt." Idjra said during the time the two male Tenplars were still healing the blonde female Tenplar Obaru left in a coma.
   "You really are a grey blood." Idjra said as she glanced at Izaiya with a scowl, "I am so angry with you right now, but it is not in my place to forgive.... Friend."
   Idjra placed Obaru on her shoulders and began to walk away.
   Just as Idjra left, Izaiya stared at the ground for a short while and silently walked away. Minutes later, Ziron laid alone. Most parts of his body had been turned to stone, leaving just his head. During that time, Ziron remembered earlier when he told Izaiya Enida was deserving. Ziron also remembered the time Enida was wrapping a bandage round his left hand.
   "You need to be more careful, Ziron.  You can't just go around and carelessly throw your life away." Enida said, "We cannot afford to lose a comrade in this task."
   "I'm sorry i couldn't help it. It's just when i see a friend in danger, i just can't help but throw myself in there to help." Ziron replied.
   "I understand that. All i ask is to be more careful. We cannot afford to lose you... I cannot afford to lose you." Enida said.
   "Huh?" Ziron said in puzzlement.
  Enida recognized what she just said and quickly turns her face away while blushing.
  "Uh... Forget i said anything!" Enida said.
  Another flashback takes place at the time Ziron and Enida were walking and talking together.
  "Today's training was so intense.  I can't believe we managed to pass it." Enida said.
  "Yeah. But still that training showed me how weak i am; i could have done something to help.... Anything at all." Ziron said as he stared at his palm.
  "I need to get stronger. I have to get stronger." Ziron said as he closed his palm.
  "As usual you are always too hard on yourself but don't worry, I'll help you improve " Enida said.
  "What?" Ziron said as he glanced at Enida with a raised brow.
  "I'll help you improve. But i must warn you, I'm very strict in my teachings." Enida replied.
  "Why... Why are you doing this?" Ziron asked.
  "I have seen your spirit. Your heart of fire; you are so full of duty and always ready to place others above yourself. Such nobility... It brings tears to my eyes." Enida replied as she glanced at Ziron, "Among all the students in the academy, you are the one i respect the most."
   Shortly dumbfounded, Ziron stared at Enida and resumes facing forward.
  "I wish you hadn't said that." Ziron said.
  Another flashback takes place as Ziron laid asleep on the thighs of Enida while Enida was reading and stroking his hair. Later at night, Rizel and Ziron stood beside each other with their backs laid against a huge tree in Xenob forest.
  "So i have watched your progress with the others. You managed to blend in so perfectly." Rizel said.
  "Yeah, i did. I never believed i would be able to do it." Ziron replied.
  "The same here. They don't seem to suspect a thing." Rizel said, "Playing the cheerful and friendly girl that loves making jests was the perfect role for me. However i noticed you are starting to go astray."
  "Hm?" Ziron said as he looks at Rizel with a raised eyebrow.
  "Your relationship with Enida... You are starting to bond with her, aren't you?" Rizel asked.
  "Wha-?"
  "Ziron, listen to me. Our duty is to blend in, gather information and eliminate when the time is ripe." Rizel cuts in on Ziron, "If there is any extra thing to do in this mission, then we will do it but creating a strong bond isn't one of them. What you are doing has a high chance of putting the entire mission in jeopardy and we cannot afford for that to happen... Or have you forgotten who our enemies are?"
   For a while, Ziron remained silent and glared at Rizel .
  "No, i haven't. I still know who my enemies are." Ziron replied, "I live to see Agaroth burn, and as for Enida, she is a human and that makes her my enemy..."
  "And i hate humans ." Ziron said as his irises glowed.
   "Very good." Rizel said with a sadistic smile as her irises glowed.
  "But i 'never' for once thought of any of you as my friends." Ziron's voice replayed in current Ziron's head.
    Ziron quickly remembered the moment he crushed Enida's skull with a stomp (chapter 70) and as soon as he remembered that incident, Ziron caught sight of Enida staring at him from afar. The Enida stared at Ziron for a while and vanished which led Ziron to have another memory of Enida lending a helping hand to him; Ziron had a final memory of Enida glancing at him with a warm smile while closing her eyes.
   Current Ziron bursts out in laughter to the point tears flowed out of his eyes and after Ziron had finished laughing, Ziron gazed at the skies and smiled.
  "How silly." Ziron said within.
  Ziron's head finally turned into stone. Later as the statue of Ziron laid on the ground, the redhead Tenplar girl with bobcut (from chapter 94) and the Tenplar girl with wavy long red hair (from chapter 96) stood in front of Ziron and stared down.
   "So he is dead, huh?" The Tenplar girl with wavy long red hair asked, "Thank Rora it has finally happened."
  "Indeed. The human was starting to get on my nerves." The redhead Tenplar girl with bobcut replied, "The bargain between us was that we would kill humans together, but he killed both hivelings and humans."
   "Still, sister, why did you agree to help with the unison technique?" The Tenplar girl with wavy long red hair asked, "I thought we were supposed to be undercover with the bodies we took and strike when it is time."
    "Yes, but unfortunately, this body i took from the human i killed is quite strong. At times i find myself acting against my own will." The redhead Tenplar girl with bobcut replied, "This body is a nuisance. I was even scared when i performed the unison with other humans because i thought they would have noticed something, but for some reasons, they didn't."
   "You know i had to assist you because you are my sister, right?" The Tenplar girl with wavy long red hair asked.
   "The moment Ziron destroyed those barriers, if  Izaiya hadn't placed him under the illusion, we would have had no choice but to reveal ourselves." The redhead Tenplar girl with bobcut said, "I admit, his power was impressive. Those barriers Izaiya created, it takes a stronger means to break each one but Ziron was able to destroy them all just by sending Idjra towards our direction with a punch."
   "Ziron is indeed a monster, but we managed to see more dangerous monsters than him while we were undercover." The Tenplar girl with wavy long red hair said.
  "Isn't it funny, though? The thing he hated more than anything was the cause of his death." The redhead Tenplar girl with bobcut said, "In the end he died as he lived... A fool."
  The redhead Tenplar girl with bobcut destroyed his face with a stomp.
  "Pathetic."  The redhead Tenplar girl said as her eyes turned into a hiveling's eyes.