Lord Shadow

SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN

The thunder no longer roars, the winds on the sky slowly dissipating and the heaven seems to be defeated. But that person still looks at the Heavens like it still had one last thing to do.

His eyes show he is not yet done.

‘Not yet’ he whispers, his eyes are sharp and severe.

‘It is not enough’ It is not yet enough for that person. His black robe seems to have given the illusion of the people that is watching, like that black robe could cover the whole world.

Great auras of powers emanated from him, an energy of seven different energies that influence all the energy around him.

This man decided that today is the day. He needs to resolve something in his heart. Only then could he confidently tread his Grand Path

‘Today, I have something I need to confirm’ he said as he clenches his fist and a look of determination appears in his eyes.

There is only one person in the world that could look at the Heaven this defiantly and without an ounce of fear. He is the legend of the world and the strongest man in the world Death Monarch Azief

His heart is blazing with a willpower to defy the Heavens

And then something happened. Something that he willed to happen. Because right now, what he needed is time.

Right now, he needed time to think and contemplate because the next step is important and he needs to prepare his mind.

Because he could feel it.

That thin barrier between mortal and God…. he is almost grasping it. He is grasping at empty air right now…. but he knows it is there.

Somewhere…. that barrier is there. And when he found it…then and only then he could break that barrier apart and surpass his limit.

Right now, everything else is tuned out of his mind. It is strange and weird. He out of all the heroes of this era is plagued by problems of the emotional kind.

It should have slowed him down in his journey to strength or at least halted his ascend to the peak of power.

Yet it did not and it never has.

One could even say that the problem of his heart become a fuel for him to understand more. When he wanted to run away from his matters, he went cultivating.

Just like right now. As he decided to confirm something and as he gazes upon the clouds and the sky above it, everything faded away.

All of his distracting thoughts flew away like he is waving his hand and the clouds all moved away and all he is thinking about is none of those things.

His eyes seem to be shining with some kind of ancient wisdom and the aura in his body emanated that feeling of an ancient being like it is etched in his bones

And something seems to be formed dep inside him.

It is a kind of willpower that trumps everything. It is desire, a want, a need…yet it surpasses all that and none of that.

It is difficult to explain and even harder to understand.

Nothing could erase it or wore it down once it is formed.

A pure desire of wanting to know…of what binds him and what chains him in this vast Universe, that desire turns into a flame that could not be extinguished

A Will.

In his mind, he asks these questions. Is there truly no free person in this world? Is being a true free person is a curse instead of a blessing?

What is true and false? Azief only wanted to know this question. But the more answers he got, the more question he had to ask.

He didn’t want to be the frog that think the sky he saw from the bottom of the well to be his Heavens.

He wanted to know more and see more, feel more and understand more. He wanted to soar on the sky and see what is out there.

He wanted to be…more…more than what he is right now.

He is still looking at the sky, his eyes clear and full of determination. However, this is not the same sky that everybody is seeing right now.

And in their eyes…. Thing are a little bit different than the way Azief sees the world.

Because right now, in Azief mind everything is slowed down and as such his eyes are looking at winds slowly disappears in slow motion, a distant thunder stretched out in almost a snail crawling time span.

To be more accurate his perception is speeded up and everything seems slow. As he looks at the heaven he is thinking of many things.

Today he is about to confirm something. And if he does, then this path that he had taken is correct.

Azief think of all the things that happened since the Fall. There are many things that have happened and there are some things that have passed him by.

He was the same person back then. At least some of that part of him still exists. There is regret a bit in that, and some longing for that past version of him.

But, he embraces it. All of it. The regret and the longing

He is remembering each and every single one of those memories. It is the reason why he becomes whatever he is right now.

As things appears slow in his eyes, Azief could even see some wind that is slowly forming under the perception of his eyes.

He could saw the particle around his body is being pushed away by the emanation of energy coming out from his body

He wanted to sigh and wanted to complain

In this world, no one seems to understand him. Or the things he did. When what he did and what he thoughts of is extremely simple.

There are many opinions regarding him. Some say that he is a Devil not caring about all the lives in the world.

And it is not hard to understand why he got such a reputation. Each time he battles someone, the people that was caught on the crossfire was numerous.

Some of them survive, while others become collateral damage.

If one looks at his battle against the World Government almost a million has died when he attacked that Island of Peace with his Seven Battlestars.

And of course because of his disregard for people when he is in a battle unless that people is the people he knows or have relations with who he saved, other would usually become his unintentional victim and that disregard for lives gained him many enemies.

When he killed so many people in the Island of Peace, those soldiers he fought…did they not have fathers, sons, daughters or wives?

Didn’t he fear those people would seek him to avenge their family?

But did he care? He didn’t. Because no one could harm him. A person couldn’t, and a hundred people couldn’t and even a thousand people couldn’t.

Those that try such things have already turns to ashes beneath the roads of ashes and dust beneath the Death Monarch boots.

A Devil. That is what some people believe.

However, the people of Pandemonium believe him to be the guardian angel of their lives. Azief did not even have to do anything to gain such reputation among the citizen of Pandemonium.

As long as he sits on that throne is the Centre Palace of Pandemonium, the safety of Pandemonium is guaranteed.

His existence alone is deterrence to those who have ill will.

Everyone who lives under the grace of Pandemonium pray to the Death Monarch and love him even if he doesn’t love them

Because Death Monarch did not need their love and nothing would change even if those people didn’t love him.

Nonetheless, temples are erected for him to show their love for him. Some even believes the more they love him, the more they would receive the care of the Death Monarch.

He did not discourage it…but he did not encourage it. He did not want to know if people are building a temple for him and he does not care enough to discourage them.

After all, the tragic affair that happens since the Fall could break a person mind. Not everybody is sane these days.

Even Azief sometimes question his own sanity sometimes

The things he did and the things he had try doing and the question is his mind all shows him that he had become a different person.

He did not shy away from killing and when he had an objective he would not mind risking his life to make sure he would accomplish it.

This is nothing like him before the Fall. He is not a cowardly but he is not that brave either.

And probably that is the reason why those insane people built those temples for him.

In a chaotic world, to live as safely as they did in Pandemonium, to prospers and thrive in a world full of dark forces and monsters in the forms of beast and people, is because of the large shadow that the Death Monarch cast all over the world.

It is a large shadow that chills the heart of any criminal and thunder in the hearts of other forces.

His name alone is enough to make sure criminal think ten times before doing something and make large organization and warlord to halt their moves confirming many things before doing anything.

Then there are also some people who believe him to be ambivalent in action and behavior. And this is also hard to dispute. He could be like that sometimes.

And there are people that believe him to be just an eccentric person like those experts that seclude themselves in mountains or secret islands and don’t want to enter the world stage.

While some other people believe he is just like other power hungry people that wanted to rule and conquer the world like the World government and the Republic using his brute strength as his weapon to slowly conquer the whole world.

Azief smirk a bit thinking of this.

***

This is a bit short because if I continue I had to stop a little bit further and it will increase the SS count to much. I try to strike a balance between long chapter and amount of SS so that it will not drive away readers too much.

If I posted the whole chapter then in one sitting one had to use fifty SS and that would only made me lose reader. in the end, I am like Azief. greedy and selfish. As a writer, i want my work to be read by other people.

Anyway, I hope you like the chapter and please vote for it. Thank you all for staying until here amidst the horrible grammar in the beginning. I have improved a bit but I am not perfect.

I don’t know how to hire a PR and what should I offer them. After all while I am a contracted author I am not on the high tier author like the others so there is not much that I could offer. But I also don’t want to offer too little.

After all, there is a lot of chapter one had to PR if they work on my book.

Hmmm. Anyway just ranting a bit. I should have not rant so much. Now, you just waste one SS to hear my ranting. Sorry.

Mwahahaha ( PS: Only this one time I am going to be this cheeky. Next chapter afterword will be pretty dry)