Simple man with his overpowered army Chapter 35: Ode to Wrath: There shall be no mercy

As if waking from a weird dream, Lud rose up from the bed. It felt like he was lost sohow, but still present.

"A deer"

"A stone"

"A cabin"

"Why do those linger in my mind?" Lud pondered to himself.

"Why do I feel like sothing just happened, and yet not? What is this feeling of..." Lud hears a woman’s laughter. An unfamiliar woman.

"Is it... soone I know?" Lud couldn’t figure it out. It felt so familiar, yet so distant. It kind of brought back the mory of when he rembered his past. The real past. Yet this sohow felt different. Familiar, yet different.

Zenith cos to Lud’s bedroom and says "Morning sire. I’ve co to wake you up, but it seems that you are already awake."

Lud says "Zenith... Did... did sothing happen last night?"

Zenith says "Let’s see... We did have a report of a couple of drunkards causing a ruckus. So spies were caught by the 9th battalion. Apparently Sisu had a nightmare and woke up early. Was there anything else?"

Lud says "I... I see."

Zenith cos closer, looks at Lud and says "You look tired, sire. Did you not sleep well last night? Should I call Liz?"

Lud says "No" as he holds his hand on his head in confusion. "No, I don’t think that is necessary. I’ll just... take it easy today... Nothing too rough."

Zenith says "I’ll tell the chef to make a suitable breakfast to soothe you if that’s okay."

Lud says "Yes. Thanks. He knows what to make."

The morning goes a little more sluggish than usual, but other than that, everything seems fine at first.

Unfortunately, no one has noticed the unrest that has risen in other countries. People seem to have gotten more aggressive as of this morning, but no one has made the connection. Eventually people who deal with problems notice the abundance of troublemakers today, but as it is just the morning, no one has figured out yet that sothing was terribly wrong.

Sarah, who was just waking up, saw a familiar looking man, though sothing was off. Sarah asked "What are you doing here Li?"

"Li" answered "I’m here to tell you the truth."

Sarah replied "The truth? What are you on about?"

"Li" says "I’m not your Li. I’m Li from a distant tiline and I go by the na of Ill at the mont."

This makes Sarah sharpen up as she jumps from the bed and shouts "So you are one of Nesis’ goons, huh?! Well, you saved the trouble by coming here yourself!"

While wearing barely any clothing, Sarah attacks Ill with a powerful strike that would send anyone flying through the wall. However, Ill has seen so shit and he wasn’t much fazed by this attack. He says while holding Sarah’s fist "You seem to misunderstand sothing. I’m not a goon of anyone. The reason I bear the sin mark of wrath is because it allows to push my vengeance to other tilines without colliding with other s."

Sarah tries to back down and ready for another attack, but Ill holds Sarah’s fist firmly on his grasp, not letting Sarah get away.

Then Sarah decides to kick Ill, but Ill just uses his other hand to block that one as well, making him hold Sarah in a quite awkward position. Sarah squirms as she tries to attack with anything she has. Sarah says "Well if punching and kicking doesn’t work, then perhaps this will." After she said it, there was a big explosion in the castle.

Sarah, finally free mutters to herself "I know that won’t be enough to take uncle down, so why don’t you co and have another taste. I might even turn to a different form for you."

Ill, walking through the ruble, says to Sarah "Oh you will soon, don’t you worry about that. After all, people around you have been lying to you all this ti."

Sarah shoots a few magic shots at Ill which Ill just redirects towards Sarah herself. Sarah dodges, causing more damage to the castle. The room is already as good as gone.

Sarah says "I don’t care for your lies old man. You and your group have caused enough trouble for us, so I’ll just end this."

Sarah is about to use death door’s call, but Ill says "Your Li has told you that Argus is dead, but he is not." This gets Sarah’s attention.

Sarah asks "What do you an? Li is the only surviving rell and he told that..."

Ill interrupts and says "That he was ’friends’ with Argus? If this tiline’s Li hasn’t lost his mind, that was a blatant lie."

Sarah says "So what you are implying is... that Li... is... Argus... my... dad..."

Ill says "Congratulations, you are one of the few of yous who have figured it out without needing to blurt it out loud. Perhaps what sire says is true after all. This might be THE tiline."

Sarah is losing focus as she mutters to herself "But... but why would he lie to ? Why wouldn’t he tell the truth from the get go? Why all those lies? Why?"

Ill feeds into Sarah’s doubts by saying "Because he thinks he isn’t deserving of being called that. That’s how it was for anyways. The quilt of the purpose of your birth haunts him like the death of your mother."

Sarah asks "Quilt? What quilt is there to give a child life? I know I’ve had it miserable until Faust ca to , but... what is he hiding from ? Tell . Tell !"

Ill says "That is... to end the world you were born to. Nothing more. A simple vengeful wish to see it all burn to ashes. All this caring for you, it is all just trying to soothe his original song that also sings inside you. The song that yearns destruction. You, abomination, are nothing more than a ans to an end for every Li that exists."

Sarah is having trouble breathing as she hears all those from the mouth of soone who sounds like Li. The thought of all the loneliness and manipulation that her caregivers once gave her ca crashing back into her psyche. All she can utter is a simple "No".

Soon after, people co to see what the ruckus was all about. The first to arrive is Tear and she imdiately takes action by restraining Ill with "web of imprisonnt" skill. As soon as she does that, she goes to Sarah and asks "What is the situation?"

Sarah keeps muttering nonsense, which confuses Tear for a mont. She doesn’t have much ti to act before Ill breaks free and charges towards Tear.

Tear doesn’t can’t react much other than pushing dazed Sarah away as Tear takes the hit from Ill. Tear goes flying through several walls and this gives Ill more ti to poison Sarah’s mind.

Ill says "You see, that is the first person who ca when your room had so problems. They know that you are nothing more than a weapon to threaten others. Well since this is another world, your title as ’most troubleso raid boss’ ans very little, so now you are just a troubleso child to be looked after."

Sarah is in daze as she tries to handle the information, but Ill continues by saying "Nuke they call you. A weapon of mass destruction. And to make sure a living nuke doesn’t go berserk on her own accord is to have soone who can erase anything from your mory that makes you act that way."

Sarah just mutters "No no no" but she can’t think straight. She doesn’t know what to do. All that Ill seem to say seems like the truth to her. Truth that no one else has said to her before. As if...

"No one cares for ."

Sarah is surprised by the words she just uttered.

The next person who ca to investigate happened to be Li, and when he saw Ill and the state Sarah was in, he knew that things were looking bad. He shouted "Don’t listen to him! His goal is to destroy all that we hold dear! He doesn’t..."

Sarah stops Li as she asks "So... are you my dad?"

Li stays silent for a mont, but as there didn’t seem to be a way to hide it any longer he admits it by saying "There is so truth to that, but that isn’t important right. Help ..."

And Ill continues for Li by saying "Destroy ? Like how you wish for her to always do it? Nothing more than a tool, hmm?"

Li shouts "Don’t spout nonsense! I don’t know what you’ve been through to make you join Nesis, but I won’t let you have your way! Get away from her!"

Li charges at Ill, but Ill grabs the fist similar to how he did with Sarah. Li doesn’t hesitate though and casts magic projectiles towards Ill. Ill just countered them with his own magic and the two stood still as magic continued to erupt from the clashes of two rell from the sa coin.

Then Ill kicked Li’s stomach hard, which made him fall. Ill took that opportunity to throw Li towards Sarah, but Tear’s webs appeared to catch Li before he hit Sarah.

Tear tried to restrain Ill with little luck, and Ill just says "See abomination? None of them seem to care for you in the slightest. Your ’dad’ even called lying to you as sothing that wasn’t important. Truly... what worth are you but a weapon? Why don’t you... start acting like it?"

Sarah rises up and Li says "Don’t listen to him. I had my reason not to tell you, but that doesn’t an that you are..."

Before Li could finish, Sarah ran away. There was one person she must see at this mont. The one person who gave her light at the end of the tunnel. A man who she loved. At least, used to.

Ill and the others continue to fight as Sarah charges towards where she can sense Lud to be.

When she sees him in a hallway, Lud says to her with a worried look "Sarah! I heard that a sin carrier attacked. Are you alright? Are you..."

Sarah asked "What am I to you?"

Lud is a bit taken back from that question and replies "What?"

Sarah asks ""What am I to you? A pawn? A weapon? A joke?"

Lud says "None of those things. You are my..."

Sarah stops Lud and asks "Did you also know?"

Lud asks "Know about what?"

Sarah says "That other Li told that Li was actually my dad. He told that my sole purpose is to destroy. The whole reason for my birth was to destroy Odysseium. Did you also know? Did you also lie to ?"

Lud says "No... No, I didn’t know any of that. My brother might have, but he never told the specifics. In any case, you can’t trust what those guys say. They are after destruction and nothing else. They will..."

Sarah says "But you rejected my advances."

Lud asks "What?"

Sarah continues "That ti when you were sad, I tried to connect with you, but you flat out rejected . You only see as a weapon, don’t you? Sothing that is just useful to you."

Lud says "No no no, that is not true! The reason why I didn’t take up your offer back then was because it felt wrong at the mont. It felt like... you were taking advantage of , or sothing... I don’t know, this whole thing is a confusing ss and I have a hard ti keeping up with all of it."

Sarah says in desperation "So would you take my offer now?"

Lud looks away and mutters "That’s a bit..."

Sarah looks saddened by this. She says "So... Even you... So I’m worth nothing more than... a weapon."

Lud then grabs Sarah by the shoulders and shouts "No! You are not just a weapon! You are a living breathing being who got dealt bad cards at the beginning! You are... You are one of the most dearest people to ! You are... you..."

Sarah is stunned and looks at Lud who gets flustered a little by whatever he was about to say.

Then Lud gathers the courage and shouts "You were... No... you ARE a person that I had a huge crush on ever since we ca to this world!"

Sarah is surprised by this as she mutters "Wha-What?!"

Lud continues "Ever since we ca to this world, you all seem more like people now, so I had a lot to get used to back then, but you especially were the kind of person I wanted to protect! I can’t do shit compared to you when it cos to fighting, but I made sure that the issues back then in the Rucksta capital were pointed at the whole of Elysium and not solely on you! So... So when you ca to my room that day, I wanted to take the offer, but since I am your superior, it felt super wrong to even without the whole existential crisis I was having at the ti! So... So..."

Sarah pushes Lud away and shouts "You are lying! You are just saying all that so I could fall back in line again, right?! You are the wor...!"

Then suddenly, Tifa appeared and says "He is telling the truth, you know."

Sarah stops and looks at Tifa. Tifa continues "As much as I hate to admit it, he has had crushes on all kinds of people when he ca to Lutah. I can confirm as I read his mories when I took him to the abyss. And trust , his contemplation of whether or not he should jerk off to one of his subordinates wasn’t a fun mory to look at as his fiance."

Lud is even more embarrassed now and says "You didn’t have to tell her that last part!"

Tifa says "I think it is necessary to prove a point."

Then Tifa looks at Sarah and says "Sarah. At no point has Lud tried to take advantage of you. Back when this was all a ga, he just followed what his brother told him, but he tried to push any of you npcs to do anything that was too much for you all."

Sarah has a mont of contemplation and she soon says "Kiss ."

This surprises both Lud and Tifa, who say "What?" at the sa ti.

Sarah says "I want you to kiss and tell you love Fau... no, Lud. I want you to do so, so that... that I can fight that bastard with all my might. Maybe... maybe even make up with my old man."

Tifa says "You are asking way too much young girl. You should know that I got dibs."

Sarah says "I don’t know what dibs an, but please Lud. I... I need you to..."

Lud just steps in and does what Sarah asked. This stuns Tifa a bit and she even clicks her tongue.

Lud says to Sarah "I love you Sarah. Please continue to support as I support you."

Sarah says happily "Yes" and runs to where the conflict is happening.

Now that Tifa and Lud are alone, Tifa says "You know that I’m your fiance right?"

Lud responds "Self proclaid, but yes, I do know that you think that."

Tifa says "I won’t settle down for seconds, so you better keep your libido at check."

Lud responds with "Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind, but didn’t we do the deed back on earth?"

Tifa says "That is a separate matter. We live as new us here in Lutah, so I want to have the new you’s firsts."

Lud says "But... wasn’t my first kiss in Lutah just now?"

Tifa sighs and says "You know, sotis you should know when to not open your mouth. Where has the Lud who could hide his suicidal mindset gone, hmm?"

Lud says nervously "I told you that I’m sorry, didn’t I?"

Tifa starts to walk away as she says "Again, to open one’s mouth..."

When Sarah got back to the action, she saw that there was so much damage across the city. People have begun to riot for so reason and the best that Elysium has are occupied by Ill right now. Luckily, the fingers are doing their best with the P.S.E.

The fight with Ill is currently at the mythril tower. Even Xu is up there fighting Ill together with Li, Tear, Lili, Marco and Lych. Lych is not on the island and is making distant shots at Ill to even out the battle, but so far, the battle seems to be in Ill’s favor.

Sarah goes as fast as she can to the tower and by the ti she gets there, several bodies of Li have been scattered around the place with Xu being heavily damaged.

Sarah shouts "You can leave Xu! I’ve got this!"

Xu says "It is not in the way of the gentleman to let a lady take a heavy burden."

Sarah shouts "I’ve got this. I’ve got a boost from our king."

Xu says "Boost you say? My my, the love can bloom even in the harshest of monts. However, I just hope Lady Tifa isn’t too taken back by this."

Then suddenly, Li’s body flies between Xu and Sarah into the buildings. Ill just says while casually blocking Marco’s and Tear’s attacks "So you have co from your little escapade? Tell abomination, what is your decision?"

Sarah says "I’m no abomination. I will fight for this kingdom if it is the last thing I do!"

Ill sighs and says "So you are part of the few who manage to overco their crisis. No matter, a plan B should do the trick."

Then Ill runs towards the mythril tower and punches it, hard. By so miracle, the tower shows signs of being damaged by that punch. Marco and Tear hurry to stop whatever Ill is doing with supportive fire from Lych, but everything is pushed away by the sheer energy of the tower.

Ill says "If the newly connected organ is removed, then the whole world will collapse. Well tiline, but I’ll take what I can get for now."

Sarah tries to push through, but the ana from the tower is causing her severe pain and physically pushing her back.

Then Li appears and touches Sarah’s back in support. He says "I’ve got no more secrets left to hold from you, so here, resonate with my original song, as you are more than ready to carry the full weight of Argus."

Suddenly, a sudden burst of energy cos through Sarah’s body. The mories of life long past that once were held by Argus and Kalpa. In those mories, Sarah finally sees her mother’s face as clear as day. And when she looks a little closer, she sees all three, Argus, Kalpa and Sarah together in front of the tower. A future that could have been.

Sarah sheds a tear and with the boost from both Lud and Li, she breaks through the flow of ana while green flas surround her. She doesn’t notice those flas until she touches Ill’s shoulder.

Ill asks "How did you...?" But Sarah stops him and says "Who is the abomination now, you screw up of a dad?"

Ill asks "What are you..." and suddenly he bursts in that light green fla. There are hues of silver and iridescent colors coming out of that fla that burns Ill.

Ill shouts "What... What have you done to ?!"

Sarah says "I don’t know, but I do know that the fla will burn all that makes you away. Courtesy of mom I think, but bon voyage douchebag."

Ill shouts at the top of his taphorical lungs, "NOOoooOOOoooOO!!!"

And with that, Ill burns away. The scar on the tower is still overflowing the ana to the outside, so Li hurries to it and "heals" the scar with his remaining strength. Once the scar is healed, Li says "It was a hunch, but I guess you did learn to control that unique fla of yours."

Sarah stays silent as she doesn’t know what to say. Li says instead "We can talk so other ti. Now, I think you need so ti to think things through. Take a few days to rest, I’ll..."

Sarah then asks "Was mom always that pretty?"

Li doesn’t know what to say, so he says "I... I think the gods of Odysseium ca to be that way, so that is a strong maybe."

Sarah says "I see. Well, I certainly didn’t get much of either of your looks."

Li says "I... I suppose so."

There is a long pause and the rest of the people there know not to disturb, so they just leave them be.

Eventually Li says "Sarah, I..."

Sarah stops Li by saying "I’ll take that offer. Few days thinking things over... I think I could use so of that."

Li says "Of course."

anwhile in the abyss, Nesis shouts in pain "Argh! What the fuck was that sting just now?! I feel like sothing happened sowhere. Let’s see... so Ill got beaten up huh... Let’s save his ass as it is a pain to replace hi..."

As Nesis tries to intervene, he feels a sudden feeling of pain in his whole body. He shouts "What! The! Fuck! Why... Why does it hurt so bad?! Why does... Wait... The sin mark of Wrath... it’s... gone? But that..."

Nesis looks closer to the events that transpired in the tiline that Ill went in and notices sothing.

"That fla... did... did she just... destroy an aspect of sin? How?... How?!... HOW?!!! Did she sohow gain sothing that no other tiline version of her has ever gotten?! Has she sohow beco one of the singular beings?! No... no that is not possible! I don’t sense anything like that from her, so why should..."

Then an idea pops into Nesis’ head. He smiles and says "So this is what HE is planning. This is his end goal, huh? Of course... that useless king has it’s use after all. The abyssal aspect of giving. Of course, since I can do it, there is no reason that another person couldn’t have the potential to get it. My goal is destruction, so I’ll give many things to further advance that destruction. But he... he still has no idea what he has done. He just gave a power... wait... A power that, if used correctly, could even kill... ?"

This makes Nesis contemplate a little. He says "That kid in Elysium has gotten a power that might kill . I better keep my ass in the abyss, or I’m finished."