Tyler came out of the school, waited for Sophia, but she wasn’t coming, so he checked his phone; she had sent a message 10 minutes earlier that she had gone ahead. Her father told her to reach home early. He frowned and messaged her.
She did not answer even after a few minutes of waiting, and he frowned. No, her father definitely did not simply tell her to go early; if they really needed her, they would have sent a car to pick her up. Which she would have mentioned in the message, but she did not.
With an angry look, he began searching around everywhere. There had been a few times that she had gotten into fights with other girls, primarily due to their jealousy; every girl in her class collectively hated her. So, it’s possible something like that happened again.
Just like the boys, there are also some narrow gathering spaces for the girls. Searching through all of those places, it’s been 20-30 minutes since the classes ended, so the places were all mostly empty, but he heard something.
A muffled scream of someone, his mind went blank in urgency and panic, he knew if Sophia were hurt by someone, even in the slightest, he wouldn’t be able to control himself. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself from killing the person responsible in the worst way possible, right then and there.
For Tyler, touching Sophia was like pressing the big red nuke button. But he halted in his tracks abruptly as the scene unfolded in his vision. He watched it with wide-open eyes, unable to believe what he was seeing.
He hid himself behind the walls and covered his mouth. His childhood friend, the pure, kind, and soft-hearted Sophia, was punching and disfiguring the face of the very girl who had given him the love letter. The girl couldn’t even scream for help; she looked utterly horrified.
While Sophia’s slender hands were dripping with blood, there was blood splattered on her face as well, her red eyes glowed like a vile predator ready to eat human flesh. For a moment, concern flashed through Tyler’s eyes; he should perhaps stop her, what if she kills the girl?
"You damn whore." "HOW DARE YOU GIVE HIM A LOVE LETTER?"
"HOW DARE YOU, HOW DARE YOU."
"DON’T YOU KNOW HE’S MINE?"
As the words reached his ears, his attention immediately turned to Sophia. he couldn’t care less about the girl being beaten to death; he covered his mouth, realizing that he was grinning like a madman. She was the same, secretly the same as him, her bloody and furious face filled with jealousy.
He could not help but utter in a dark whisper, "So cute...."
His face flushed red with excitement, and his heartbeat grew louder and louder with each passing second.
The dark and obsessive love he had always felt for her deepened and darkened. He thought, ’We’re the same, she and I both, the same kind of monster.’
Axel’s eyes shot wide open as he inhaled loudly, as if his body had forgotten to breathe. His entire body was covered in sweat, and he clenched the bed sheets without controlling his strength, tearing them apart in the process. He lay, breathing in and out for a minute. To calm himself.
The memories didn’t make sense; he never remembered himself as such a cruel person. What was going on, and for some events, there were two different memories. At the same time, the same people and the same place, but it unfolded differently on two occasions. As if there were two lives, an Intense amount of confusion permeated through his entire being, mixed with fear and panic.
And that cruel and calculated demeanor, was that truly him? The fury he felt in that memory when Sophia cried in front of him, that someone else had touched even her hands, the rage was far beyond what he felt when seeing this body’s original mother being almost raped. The intensity of his rage at that scene was concerning. Just the thought made his bloodlust leak out for a moment in full force.
The conversation with Sophia’s father, he remembered none of it. It almost did not feel real. All those unnatural events. His being able to hack through the networks and security of rich companies so effortlessly. He remembered none of it. He shuddered for a moment. Now that he thought about it, there were noticeable gaps in his memories.
The few jumbled memories of his first life he saw just now made him question himself. Perhaps after reincarnation, he was more of ’Axel Nomrad’ than ’Tyler Cross’. The original him was far, far more cruel, cunning, and calculating.
And especially after coming out of the trial, his sense of true self was perhaps even more diluted. Mixing with the life of ’Ashborn’. Yes, he knew that the mission of the trial world was to find ’A trace of their true self’, but the term itself was too vague.
One might figure out what things they like or dislike, but it doesn’t mean they will completely embrace those qualities into their lives. From the moment they found out about it. He gritted his teeth as he entered his 2nd aspect chamber.
He ran through the countless dead bodies and reached the demon, who was always gazing towards the scarlet radiance in the sky with an obsessive look. He slowed his steps and asked aloud immediately, "Is... that how it is? Is what I am thinking the truth?"
The demon answered in its monstrously metallic voice, "Yes, it’s true. The current you is less of Tyler Cross and more of ’Axel Nomrad’ and somewhat of ’Ashborn’ as well. You’re previous lustful nature, genius of runes, and kinship with humanity come mostly from Axel Nomrad, a fragment of his soul had mixed with yours."
"Your compassion for the weak and the desire to do good for them comes from Ashborn. These qualities are something that the original you never had."
Axel took in the formation with a grim look on his face. He asked again after a minute of silence, "And the demon phantoms in this chamber each..."
"Yes, all the phantoms, the previous one and I, all have the fragments of the original Tyler Cross within us. It’s a safety mechanism of the soul to slowly and surely regain your true sense of self. It can only be gained by purging the foreign sensations and emotions gradually."
"And what are the qualities of your true self that you learned in the trial?" asked the demon phantom, smiling maliciously.
Axel lingered for a bit and eventually answered, "Obsession and Slaughter."
The scarlet radiance grew brighter for a moment, and the river of blood flowing through the side of the unending battlefield churned with violent waves for a moment. The mind encroaching influence of the scarlet light diminished on him ever so slightly.
The phantom nodded, "Yes, but when you came back from the trial, that part of your nature was not accepted by the remnant of Axel Nomrad. For their conflicting natures, but the kindness and compassion from Ashborn was somewhat accepted."
The phantom paused for a moment and advised him one last time, "Confront and embrace your Sins. That is the only way."
Axel’s eyes opened softly, staring at the ceiling as he lay on the bed; many things about himself that had not made sense before started to make sense now. When the valkyrie said to him at that time that he was the same as hers. A murderer, she wasn’t lying.
The landscape of his 2nd aspect chamber, at least, made some sense if that conveyed the original nature of himself—the original nature of Tyler.