The gate behind me closed.
I didn't know what magic Hayato Kisaragi used, so I'd need to analyze him through VoidMind first.
VoidMind:"By his flow of mana, the calm he has, his aura... it's utterly impossible to see what his magic might be."
What? Even VoidMind can't see what magic he uses?
He slowly headed toward me, most likely enhanced himself with mana—and so did I.
He slowly took a step, then another.
I stood frozen in fear.
Just when he was ten steps from me, he vanished.
"Wha—" I said, and then he appeared right behind me, completely nonchalantly, without moving.
I turned back, attempting to punch him in the face.
He stood there—just stood—didn't move, didn't try to attack.
When my fist closed in, the atmosphere suddenly became suffocating with dread, and before it could land, my fist stopped from the sheer force of his pressure.
He stood, his hands in his pockets, his eyes staring death right into mine.
It wasn't his mana that was suffocating.
It was the lack of presence he had that was suffocating.
I know it doesn't make sense, but it felt like he could kill me at any point—even if he wouldn't.
He slowly took his left hand out of his pocket and reached toward my frozen fist.
And suddenly, I felt my head being beheaded.
It was back?
As he slowly raised his hand toward my fist, I felt my arm being cut off.
I was in terror. What was happening?
In one second I felt my head beheaded, the next second it was back—and then the same with my arm.
His presence was overwhelming me with sheer invisibility.
I'll have to say, this invisibility was worse than the presence of the Black Cloaked Manipulator.
"What is happening?" Misora wondered.
"Why did he stop his fist?" Daiki wondered to himself.
"That Hayato... he's really not going easy on a cadet. Psychologically defeating has always been his strong suit. If that doesn't work, he'll simply cut them off truly," Toshiro murmured.
"Daiki, don't you think we should stop this?" Riko whispered to Daiki, worried.
"I don't think... I believe Hayato wouldn't do anything permanently harmful to Kuroto. I think—maybe," Daiki whispered back to Riko, uncertain of the outcome but sure he wouldn't harm me.
When his hand touched my frozen fist, I felt a static electricity surge through my entire body. It was less of a harm and more of a warning—that if I attacked him, I'd end up dead.
At this point, the only difference between him and the Black Cloaked Manipulator was that his malice was fake—while the Black Cloaked Manipulator had real malice.
When his hand interacted with my frozen fist, I fell to my knees.
I threw up, badly.
"Kuroto…" Misora said, worried.
I was on my knees before him, throwing up from the invisibility of presence.
His invisibility now had a greater malice than even the Black Cloaked Manipulator's.
"Newbie, do you get it?" he said—his tone nonchalant, yet terrifying.
All the cadets were scared out of their minds, as if they were being attacked. But I had it the worst by far.
After throwing up on the ground, I replied to him.
"Get what?" I questioned, scared.
"Whatever path you follow, you'll have to go through the same terror— in fact, even worse than this—over and over. You may choose heroism or villainy... the path of terror never leaves you. It will never pause just because you've had enough. The path you're choosing," he said and pointed his fingers toward the cadets, "is the same as theirs." I looked toward the terrified cadets.
"They're scared out of their minds just like you. Even though this wasn't directed at them, it still affected them.
Take this fight of ours as a fight of a villain versus a hero—and them as ordinary civilians.
Even if it was our fight, these ordinary civilians were deeply affected by it. So even if you choose neither path and become a bystander, you'll still be affected by the fight between heroes and villains," he said to me, showing me the truth of war.
"So tell me—which path will you choose?" he questioned.
"None of the above," I said, my voice still messed up from throwing up. "I'll choose the path of righteousness. I'll follow it.
Righteousness doesn't include any of the three you mentioned. I'll do what's right." I looked up and stared back into his soul and said, "Even if righteousness means killing you—truly," I said boldly, almost intimidating him.
"There's no such thing as right or wrong. Everybody just lives in their own fantasy of beliefs," he said boldly.
"Exactly. The righteousness I follow is what I believe is right. The only difference between them and me is that I'm aware of what I'm doing—and I'm not calling it any type of act such as heroism or villainy," I said.
Before he could speak, I spoke again.
"They say if you stare deep into the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you," I gave him an even sharper look and said, "Well, I'll simply devour the abyss and become the abyss itself—if that's what it takes to follow righteousness in my dictionary," I declared.
Before he could speak I spoke once again.
"The path of heroes vs villains has never been truly what they say, both the heroes and the villains didn't fight each other. Instead they fought the abyss and lost, the one who died lost completely to the abyss, and the one who won became even closer.
In war there's no such thing as winning or losing, it's just a loss of a presence from the world.
It wasn't that you won… No, no, no. It was simply that you didn't die and you get to live longer than the other until you yourself are devoured by the abyss.
Throughout the history of existence, everyone has been the victim of the abyss.
The abyss that devours everything.
The abyss that ends it all.
The abyss that puts an end to everything when it so chooses.
There's no immortality in this world, even the immortal Gods fell when they lost to the abyss, that is because they rejected it.
Rejecting the abyss only gets you closer to it, and accepting the abyss gets you devoured.
There's no definite answer to deal with the abyss, the abyss is not something manifested physically but it's the final destination that no one can pass through.
So in order to pass through the abyss that even Gods couldn't, I'll simply have to devour the abyss and become it myself.
The abyss is undefeatable, truly. It's not possible to defeat the abyss by any means, so the one and only answer to defeating the abyss is becoming the abyss yourself," I said and everyone listened, sweat flowed down everyone's forehead, including the full members—Toshiro and Hayato as well. They were truly scared of my words now.
I released Fear in the atmosphere to make my presence more overwhelming and said, "I'll become the abyss, the final destination of everything, if it means finding true righteousness, I'll become true righteousness…" I said, the atmosphere thickened as everyone was scared of me.
"So, in short, to answer your question of what my righteousness is—'becoming the abyss' is the answer."
Silence.
Everybody became silent when my words left my mouth. They were stunned by my words.
But this was something I truly believed.
Becoming righteousness means defeating the abyss, and the only way to defeat the abyss is devouring it.
So it all leads up to devouring the abyss itself.
I left everyone speechless—they were shut down completely. Even Hayato couldn't speak after hearing my words.
"Did Hayato just actually lose the battle of both psychology and philosophy?" Saya whispered into Yuki's ear.
"That seems to be the case," she said, as the sweat flowing down her forehead froze before it hit the ground.
"That's not something you see every day. Never in my life would I have thought Hayato would lose this type of battle," Toshiro murmured to himself.
I stopped releasing Fear to calm down the place, and my throat was burning a little from the throw-up.
"I—I need water," I said as I coughed.
Saya instantly came toward me, leaned down, extended her hand, and from it, a fountain of water slowly flew toward my mouth for me to drink.
"Easy there," she said and turned her head toward Hayato. "Don't you think you went a bit overboard?" she questioned him.
Hayato stood frozen, lost in his own thoughts, shocked by my words.
After a second of silence, he zoned back in.
"Oh, uh..." He was confused—he couldn't believe what I had said and was still shocked.
"The newbie is something alright. So, we all agree it was his win, right?" Yuki questioned everyone.
They all nodded, still amazed.
Everyone except Ryota was completely fazed. He was mysterious—he wasn't shocked by my words, while Riko was lost in her own thoughts. Daiki and Haruka were amazed like the others.
"This is the first time I've ever seen Hayato lose a battle of words. What do you think, Toshiro?" Riku asked.
"I don't know. I knew the guy was something, but I never thought someone would turn the tables on Hayato like that," Toshiro replied, still amazed.
I drank some water, and my throat was back to normal.
"Thank you," I said, thanking Saya for the water.
"Don't mention it," she said and stood up. "I'm talking to you, Hayato. Don't you think you went too overboard?" she questioned him again.
Hayato had processed everything up till now and had realized he lost this battle.
"I don't think I did," Hayato chuckled, realizing he had lost.
"Huh?" Saya was confused.
Hayato walked past us, and everyone looked at him.
He took out the key and opened the gate. As the gate was forming, he looked back.
"Kuroto, first I was going to psychologically torment you, then I'd philosophically lecture you, and then physically teach you. But you turned the tables after the first one. I'll admit, I lost this fight of ours. I'm not going to lose to you again, mark my words as well," he said while smiling.
"Welcome—truly this time... to the Crimson Order," he smiled again, and I smiled back.
Riko, on the other hand, thought something entirely different to herself.
"Is that... really Death?" she wondered silently.
"When I was the Goddess of Creation, the God of Death—when we were told that five of us were going to be reincarnated—told me about what he wanted to do when he was reborn as a mortal on planet Earth. He told me he wanted to follow the path of his righteousness.
So you're here... Death, as Kuroto Kurogane.
Well, I'm happy to see him again—very happy, in fact.
Looks like he has already started his journey. I guess it has already begun.
'The dreams of the Gods reincarnated as humans have begun, and Kuroto has already started his goal.'"
She thought to herself, realizing I was the reincarnation of the God of Death.
As I slowly got up, Misora rushed toward me.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Never been better," I replied boldly.
She nodded, still both shocked and worried.
Toshiro approached us.
"That was like a phenomenon. I never would've thought Hayato would be defeated in such a battle—let alone against a cadet such as yourself," he said, praising me.
"Well, he's on another level when it comes to strength, so I guess it'll be a while until I'm considered a clear winner," I said to Toshiro.
"Well, by the looks of it, you've got yourself a rival, Kuroto," Toshiro said, stating what he believed.
"That does seem to be the case," I replied honestly.
Saya sighed, turned toward me as the gate opened and Hayato entered, and said, "I'm sorry for Hayato. I hope you forgive him."
"Don't worry, in fact, it was something I liked—and Hayato helped me a lot. It wasn't a bad thing for me at all," I replied.
"I'll still put some lectures into that guy's mind," she said.
"Well, you don't need to. In fact, I'd prefer for you not to," I said as a request.
"Okay, if you say so," she said and turned toward the gate.
"Now then, that's done—let's get to it," Toshiro said, looking at the two of us.
He looked behind. "Daiki and Ryota, come now," he called out to them.
The two approached—Daiki with his hands behind his head in a casual manner, while Ryota's walk was more mysterious than anything I'd ever seen. The guy himself was the definition of mystery. I didn't even know what abilities or powers he had.
"Daiki, you'll be Kuroto's teammate. Ryota, you'll be Misora's teammate," Toshiro said, which I had already suspected before.
The four of us nodded.
While Riko, Haruka, and Riku left, Yuki still remained standing there, doing nothing—just observing.
"You can get some rest. Since the Crimson Order doesn't get too many jobs because of other smaller Orders, we only raid dungeons that can't be raided otherwise, that's why we don't get many gates we could raid. Daiki, you take Kuroto to his room, and you too, Ryota," Toshiro said.
Ryota and Daiki nodded.
"Let's go," Daiki said, taking me to my room, while Ryota did the same.
Third Person POV:
Things had settled down at this point. The five full members, including Toshiro, were now having a meeting in the same meeting room.
"What are your thoughts on the newbie?" Toshiro questioned them.
The room's pressure wasn't immense—it was calm and relaxing. It felt like they had all cooled down.
"I don't think we should be talking only about the newbie, since we've seen everyone already—except for the Misora girl," said Hayato.
"Okay, so aside from that, let's hope these cadets can do it soon," Toshiro said with hope.
"What do you think—how long will it be until they're able to raid a Primordial Dungeon?" asked Hayato.
"I think it'll still be a while until they do. I hope they get there soon though," said Saya.
"Raiding a Primordial Dungeon mainly depends on luck, so I guess, Toshiro, you'll have to send the newbies to as many dungeons as possible," said Yuki.
"I agree. The more they raid, the higher their chances. Well, I can't especially wait for Kuroto to raid a Primordial Dungeon," said Riku, his tone not like the respective before but now casual.
"Okay, aside from that—do we have any information on the organization's movements yet?" Toshiro asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
"No one? The short meeting is dismissed," he said, ending the meeting.