Lucas, four years ago…
Today would mark the day when Marcus abandoned his place in the criminal underworld when he killed Stefan Romano.
Lucas had even provided over a dozen of his men as snipers all around the warehouse that Romano was working in to aid Marcus.
However, there was a problem.
He had set fire to the warehouse while he was still in it, burning himself and everyone else inside alive.
None of them knew how he managed to engulf the warehouse in flames so quickly, but it was impossible for them to try and rescue him.
It was over.
The entire operation, all their plans, everything was finished.
Marcus had only shared a small piece of the ideas he had in mind that could help fund their campaign as well as inventing advanced weaponry.
They all died with him, engulfed by the flames.
He was the most brilliant mind that Lucas had ever come across, and yet he decided to commit suicide?
Why?
What good would it do him to kill himself if it meant his sister would be alone for the rest of her life?
Yet just as he was about to turn around and order his men to flee the scene, one of them shouted, “I got a visual!”
Immediately, all of Lucas’s men that were with him turned around and pointed their weapons towards the warehouse only for them to drop their aim in astonishment at the man who walked out of the flames.
Lucas turned to look as well and he could hardly believe his eyes.
Standing within the still burning building, wreathed in flames and ash, was Marcus Wright.
His hands were slick with blood, his clothes had burned to ashes and clung to his skin in patches, yet flames covered his entire body.
Even after he left the building, the flames continued to stay lit on his skin without burning him.
In the eyes of Lucas’s men, it was as if watching a god appear before them. They were completely entranced by this display and dared not move an inch.
Marcus looked at all of them absentmindedly, as if wondering what to make of everything that was happening.
Lucas then walked over to him and asked, “Are you...okay? What’s happened to you?”
As if in a daze, Marcus’s head turned towards him slowly before raising his left hand and replied, “I…don’t know anymore.”
He then clenched his left hand into a fist and, as if on command, all the flames on his body were snuffed out in an instant.
When the flames disappeared, only then did Lucas realize that Marcus was completely naked and frantically took off his jacket to wrap around him.
“Come on. Its finally finished. We need to head back before the cops see us,” Lucas urged him, to which Marcus’s eyes lazily looked at him.
He then nodded and said, “Alright…lets go.”
Marcus, four years ago…
After Lucas and his men escorted him back to their main base of operations, he went to the bathroom to shower the soot and blood off of his body.
They made sure to hand him a set of clothes when he was finished cleaning himself off. However, after seeing him walk through fire unharmed, they now treated him as if he were a radioactive monster. They were on edge and scare of him, but could do nothing about it as they understood how valuable he was to their effort.
These thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind as he focused on the uncomfortable fact that he had just taken the last step that would force him into a blood soaked crusade.
The only thing that stood in the way of him choosing that path was Romano’s life. Now that he’s dead, there is no going back.
He scrubbed his hands in the sink vigorously as he struggled to get the blood off of them. With such a thick coat of blood clinging to them, it caused the stress and fear to well up within him as he started to hyperventilate.
He knew that Romano had to die. He had to pay for killing Marcus’s mother, and yet…
This man was the very same who picked him up off the streets, fed him, clothed him, paid him, and supported him for the last ten years of his life.
And yet, he had to die.
“To think…to think I would commit patricide a third time…I’m a monster…,” he said to himself as he struggled to pick out the bits of skin and brain matter stuck beneath his fingernails.
“You only did what you had to do,” said a voice within his head.
Panicking, Marcus turned around to look for the source of the voice but found that no one was there.
“Turn around and look into your own eyes,” the voice said.
Hesitantly, Marcus did as the voice asked as he looked at the mirror and saw only himself.
He then leaned forward and stared into his own eyes until something about him changed.
His shell shocked eyes turned more serious and cold, and rather than ash and soot covering his face, it was drenched in blood and gore.
Freaked out by the sudden change in appearance, he raised his hand to his face to feel for the blood but only felt the coarse ash on his skin, yet the blood remained in the image of himself within the mirror.
“Killing a man you considered your own kin for a third time must have taken its toll on your mind, hasn’t it? Its too much to bear,” the voice said, using Marcus’s mouth to speak the words, yet he knew he was not saying it himself. He could not feel his mouth moving to speak those words, yet he could hear them clearly in his head.
“What’s happening to me…?” Marcus asked his reflection.
“Your mind is fracturing under the weight of all the stress and pain of what you’ve had to do up until this point. Even more so, under the weight of what you will have to do beyond this point. There is no way you can stop now, when the rest of Romano’s family is still alive. You can’t really be satisfied now that he’s gone, can you?”
“The only ones I need to kill now are...are the other gangs. The ones that would try to replace Romano, and then-”
“And then what? Don’t you remember what Lucas told you? Things will never end with Romano’s death or just by wiping out the gangs. A vacuum has just been created, waiting to be filled, yet you are expecting that after everything you’ve been told, that it will magically solve itself?” the voice chastised him.
“I...no. No, I know that it won’t be solved on its own but…I don’t think I can take it for much longer,” Marcus stammered.
“Is that so…Well then, if you have such a problem with it, then why don’t you give me the reins? I can wipe the slate clean for you so you don’t have to force yourself to do it all on your own. You can be the co-pilot for once,” the voice offered.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that I can take over so that you don’t have to bear the thought of so many lives on your conscience. The blood will still be on your hands the moment you give me consent, but you’ll be able to sleep a little easier,” it said to him.
“What are you exactly?” Marcus asked.
“I’m you, just without any restraints. Without empathy for other people’s lives. Without feelings of remorse or mercy. I can take the wheel and steer it into the crowd so you don’t have to,” the voice said as he tried to sound helpful, only to sound more and more sinister with every moment.
“No! No, I can’t. I can’t let you.”
“If I don’t, then you will be reduced to a drooling mess from all the horrible memories piling up. Either you’ll end up in a padded cell and a straight jacket, or you’ll be put to death for everything you’ve done. None of those options are beneficial for Thalia’s or Yukino’s sake, but you knew that already.”
“I know that but-”
“You can’t be sure that their future remains bright if you aren’t the one to guide them to it. Which means that you’ll need me to wade through the mess of bodies so you can carve a path for them.”
“Who...what are you really? Are you like some kind of split personality?”
“I thought I told you already. I’m you, but if you want to add a name to what I am, then call me Ender.”
Ruvick, now…
He woke up from the strange dream as he had attempted to gain some more information on Marcus’s past to try and explain the uneasiness he feels about it, yet it only serves to give him more questions than answering them.
Who, or rather what is Ender?
There’s no way its existence could be boiled down to multiple personality disorder as that would be too convenient.
There has to be something more to it, especially given how Ruvick had sensed that overwhelming presence talking to Frosk before vanishing without a trace.
Could that unexplainable presence have been Ender the whole time?
Whatever the case, he needed to ask Marcus about it while he had the time.
Since the next fight was two days away, he could use this time to ask some questions under the guise of training him.
Gomori greeted him with his freshly cleaned clothes before bowing to him as he left.
Within moments, he had gotten dressed, appeared in front of Marcus’s home and knocked on the front door.
A minute passed until Thalia opened it and greeted Ruvick with a cheerful smile.
“Ruvick! Hi! What brings you here?” she asked.
“I’m here to see your elder brother. Is he here? I want to speak with him as soon as possible.”
“Oh, yeah. I’ll go and get him for you,” she said as she hopped away to fetch him.
Leaning his head through the doorway, he realized that Marcus’s home had grown in population as five more people were in the living room.
What’s the deal with all of this…?
Before he could come up with a reason that could explain the chaos ensuing in Marcus’s home, the man himself was led to the front door by his sister.
He waved to Ruvick and asked, “So what’s going on?”
Eyeing his guests, he said, “I’m curious to know the answer to that as well.”
Raising his eyebrows, Marcus said, “Oh them? I’ll explain some time later. What are you really here for?”
“Is Selene around? I want her to be present as well,” he asked.
“Not at the moment, but she is probably still in her apartment. If you want, we can go and get her right now,” he offered.
“Then let us do that,” he nodded and the two of them went on their way to see Selene.
As they were walking to her apartment, Marcus asked, “Is there something wrong?”
Surprised by the sudden question, he replied, “No? Why would you think so?”
Marcus frowned as he answered, “The urgency with which your walking, the expression on your face, and the fact that you’ve been shockingly silent the entire way there. You are usually far more talkative.”
“Your observance skills are shocking…but I guess you’re right. I have some unsettling questions that need answering, but for that I need both you and Selene. You to answer the questions and Selene to be a witness,” Ruvick explained.
“Why would you need Selene to be a witness?”
“You will understand once the questions are asked,” he said flatly.
“Alright, but why haven’t you simply willed us over there in an instant? Why are we walking?”
“I wanted some time to think and instantaneous travel doesn’t really allow for that,” he answered, slightly irritated by his own thoughts.
“Fair point.”
When they reached Selene’s apartment and knocked on the door, she was happy to see Marcus, but had a slightly unpleasant look on her face when seeing Ruvick.
“Hello there,” he greeted her.
Being polite, she answered back, “Hello Ruvick.”
He then sensed something different about her and came to a realization.
“Ah, did you finally reunite with your mother?” he asked her.
She blinked in surprise at the question before looking away as she answered, “I did, yes.”
With a delighted tone, he said, “That is good to hear.”
She then looked at Marcus and asked, “So why are the both of you here?”
He understood the unspoken message clearly as she meant to say, ‘why is he here?’
She must have been expecting to see Marcus, but not him? Is there something more to them now that he has yet to learn?
Interesting…
Marcus answered first as he said, “Apparently Ruvick has a few questions for me and wants to train me, but he wants you to come along to be a witness.”
She raised her eyebrows in confusion as she asked, “Why a witness? What for?”
Marcus shrugged.
She then looked over at Ruvick once again and sighed.
“Alright then, I’ll come with you.”
Marcus then looked to him and asked, “Are we going to walk there or-”
With a snap of his fingers, Ruvick transported them away from Erebus.
Confused, Marcus and Selene looked at their surroundings as they tried to make sense of things.
“Where are we?” Selene asked.
“On a different planet in a different galaxy millions of light years away from your own,” Ruvick answered.
Marcus’s eyes widened and his mouth hung open in shock while Selene struggled to speak.
“I...I don’t know what a galaxy is or what light years are but, we’re on a different planet?” she asked.
“Yes. The last time I trained with Marcus in combat, I had to take him to a different planet to avoid the possible scenario of him accidentally destroying Erebus in the process. Our fight ended with him splitting the planet in half, so it was the right call.”
“Yeah, but this is nuts! I’m not going to destroy a galaxy!” Marcus protested.
Ruvick gave him a side eyed look of doubt as he said, “Can you even begin to fathom just how much more powerful you’ve become? Before your fight with Malthael you already had world destroying power. If you so wanted, you could create a mass of stone the size of a city, send it crashing into the ground at the speed of lightning and it would wipe out all life on Erebus. Its mostly about how you used it. However, now that you’ve devoured Malthael’s soul and allowed him time to regain his former strength, you have power comparable to an archangel.”
Selene didn’t quite understand what that meant but based on the look in Marcus’s eyes, he understood, even if only slightly.
“Y-You can’t be serious…”
“I once watched Malthael fight Michael, The Seraphim bearing the aspect of Infinity, to a standstill. Now that you have Malthael’s soul within you, you have access to a well of power so great that you could potentially wipe out a galaxy by accident.”
The blood drained from Marcus’s face as he said, “I...I haven’t been tapping into Malthael’s soul because I thought that if I did then I might end up surrendering control of my body to him by accident. I’ve been relying on my power alone this whole time.”
Impressed, Ruvick said, “That was wise of you to do, especially since you don’t have any abyssal seals on you right now. You should work on getting some because the Arcanence in Malthael’s soul will eventually leak into your own and cause your soul to swell in power.”
“What’s Arcanence?” he asked.
“Its a form of spiritual energy. Think about it like this, the power that comes from our souls is innate spiritual energy. The power that we manifest from the gods however can take on many different forms. For example, that red lightning you use is the spiritual energy of the God of Wrath. The power that the Nøkkran use to manipulate fate is starlight of the Goddess of Fate, Nøkkra. The light that the angels command is the spiritual energy of God shared from his own being. Arcanence however, is the spiritual energy of Death. When used, its commonly referred to as Death Magic.”
He then had an idea and said, “Oh! We can also work on training you how to master Death Magic with Selene.”
Hearing her name, she blinked and pointed at herself, “What, me? What do I have to do with this?”
“For Marcus to master Death Magic, he’s going to have to learn to take Arcanence into his own body which could cause Death Root to form in his body. The only thing that seems to ward it away is extreme heat, and since he’s heat proof, you can keep blasting him with flames until the Death Root goes away and he can begin again.”
She had a satisfied smile on her face as she said, “At least now I can be more useful than just being a witness.”
“Right, but first there is something else I need to address,” Ruvick said as he sat on the ground and the other two followed suit.
“Do you have Light Taker with you right now?” he asked.
“Yeah, I have it right here,” Marcus answered as he snapped his fingers and the blade appeared in his hands before his switched his grip on the blade and drove the tip into the ground.
“Right, well I think its about time I asked you about that sword. How much do you know about it?”
Marcus frowned as he started to think deeply on it before he answered, “The most I know about it is that this sword isn’t made of matter. It seems more like a conceptual existence as it doesn’t follow normal laws of physics. I can swing it at the speed of lightning and yet its blade won’t warp or heat up from particles of matter slamming into it. By concentrating, I can change its physical form into whatever I need. It also serves as an excellent conduit for my magic and responds to my will.”
“Is that all you know about it?”
“Pretty much.”
Ruvick then went silent for a moment as he contemplated whether or not it would be the right thing to tell him the full truth of the sword’s existence.
He eventually made up his mind as he reached out his arm, pointed at the blade, and said, “That sword is Death.”
Marcus gave him a confused look before he laughed and said, “You’re kidding right? Do you mean it in a metaphorical sense?”
“No. I mean it in the most literal sense possible. That sword is the concept of Death itself and the physical embodiment of the Primordial God Thanatos.”
Hearing those words, Marcus freaked out and crawled away from it before standing up and staring down at the sword in horror.
“WHAT THE HELL?! Why didn’t you say anything about it before?” He asked in a panicked tone.
Selene however, seemed slightly more calm about it, but still terrified.
“Why would you let me carry such a weapon like that?” he asked again.
“Because the weapon is yours,” Ruvick answered simply.
Breathing heavily, Marcus struggled to make sense of it as he said, “I...I had a dream about Thanatos once. He and Styx spoke with Lucifer shortly before containing his entire being into his skull and giving it to Lucifer. He told him to create a weapon that would ‘Shrive clean the light from God’s corporeal form’. Is that what the name ‘Light Taker’ means? This sword is a weapon meant to kill God?”
Ruvick shook his head and said, “It has the capability to kill God, but whether it will is yet to be seen. My All Black sword also has the power to kill God, but I don’t know if its blade will be the one that delivers that final blow. Aside from that, everything else you said was correct. Lucifer used Thanatos’ very being to forge a weapon capable of killing God, and that weapon is the very same.”
“I…I don’t think I should handle something that dangerous. You take it!” Marcus shouted back as he rejected it.
Angered by his cowardice, he stood up, grabbed the blade and suddenly appeared in front of Marcus.
Surprised, he tried to take a step back but Ruvick grabbed his wrist and slammed the handle of the sword into his palm with enough force to make Marcus grit his teeth in pain.
“This sword is YOURS. It belongs to you. Stop being such a coward and claim it as your own,” he said, with venom dripping off every word as he stared angrily in Marcus’s eyes.
When he let go of Marcus’s wrist, he did not drop the sword. He only turned his head to stare at the blade before shakily putting it back in its sheathe.
Ruvick turned around and walked back to the spot that he had been sitting before before facing him once again and said, “Before we get started on your training, I have one more question I need to ask you. This one is more far more important and of the utmost priority for you to answer.”
Dread showed on both Marcus and Selene’s faces as they waited for him to finish what he was saying.
“I want you to answer me with the utmost honesty when I ask you this question.”
“A-Alright then, I will,” he replied.
Ruvick then stared him down as he asked, “Who, or what is Ender?”