Paragon

Remnants of the Great War [31]

PARAGON

Remnants of the Great War Arc [31]

Chapter 40 : Sir Aaron vs AZ

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In spite of the war raging around them, just beyond the dark oaks that surrounded them, Sir Aaron and AZ both stood still, with naught but the wind and rustling leaves as accessories to their showdown. They both held a pokéball in their hand, but neither moved to release their companions. Instead, their eyes remained locked, unblinking, Aaron's blues on AZ's blacks.

"I'm surprised you can restrain yourself. The scene at the World Prison was a painting of rage and blood. Didn't you leave that masterpiece because you were on your way to kill me?" Aaron asked, his face as flat as his gaze. "To tear me apart with those same hands?"

Several seconds passed before AZ responded. "That is what you'd like, isn't it? If I come at you like a beast, I will confirm everything you've thought about me since the start of the war."

"I didn't think you cared about something like that. At the very least, it didn't stop you from enacting this violence today."

A laugh escaped AZ's lips. "Oh, this? This was nothing more than a provocation. Isn't that what you did too?"

Aaron's eye twitched, and his jaw tensed up.

"Nothing to say? So you know you're scum." AZ's face twisted into a malevolent grin. "Surely you were wondering why I waited so long to escape. I bet it's kept you up every night since the end of the war. One hundred years...five hundred years...a thousand years. You must have thought I'd forgotten about you. Perhaps you thought I'd forgiven you, when even after three thousand years, I had yet to resist my incarceration! So you decided to test me." He locked eyes with Aaron again, but the Guardian looked away, and he sneered. "You broke your promise."

Aaron shook his head ever so slightly and exhaled. "It had nothing to do with you," he said quietly. "And I didn't do it for my own sake either."

"You've had three thousand years to think of an excuse, and that's what you give me?" AZ said in disbelief. "You promised you would never show your face again. That you would divest yourself from this world. That you would abandon everything precious to you, just like I had to! But what did you do, hm? What did you do?!" AZ roared, his outburst blowing gales across the clearing.

Aaron didn't reply, but his spiky hair fluttered from AZ's shout.

"World Champion," AZ spat, in a mocking tone. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

AZ's breaths came in incensed heaves, but Aaron remained calm.

"Now that it's come to this, I wish you hadn't," Aaron finally said.

"So that's it, then? I pay for my crimes, but you get to be remembered as the spotless 'hero of Rota?'"

"Since you're standing before me once again, it seems my sins have finally caught up to me," Aaron said, speaking louder. "Out of everything I bear on my shoulders, all the things that I did and didn't do that I regret, my greatest sin will always be you, Azett."

"Damn you," AZ growled, his pokéball creaking in his hand. "I have atoned for three thousand years. It's time for someone else to pay the price!" Without warning, he launched his pokéball forward, and it curved through the air before snapping open.

Aaron took a step back, and then another, as AZ's partner coalesced into the world. The temperature flared, and the trees closest to it immediately caught fire, flames engulfing their leaves completely. The grass at its feet disintegrated, and a shadow fell over the entire clearing. Wild pokémon squawked and fled, taking to the skies and scurrying away as fast as their legs could carry them.