“The fallen are those that are beyond saving. Ones that have my power deeply rooted into their existence. The reason for seeking out my power became a barrier and those that lose this barrier upon achieving their goal will be consumed by my destructive nature.” Anima explained as Shiro sighed.
“So that’s why Syradil’s adaptation was to become something that was on the boundary of becoming Fallen. It wasn’t the opposite of divinity but rather an adaptation to prevent my original divinity from harming her. By becoming something that was close to the threshold, she was able to shield herself since there was now an outlet for this destructive energy.” Shiro muttered.
“Indeed. Her adaptation granted her the boon of never becoming fallen. Even if she was to fall to the lowest point of her life, this adaptation would prevent her from being tainted by our influence. But where was I… ah yes. About how my confinement started to break. Little by little, more cracks started to form and those that became Fallen were stripped of their sentience, becoming nothing but beings that embraced my power, the power of destruction. And once that barrier broke, can you guess what happened?” Anima asked as Shiro sighed heavily.
“Yes. The first age of Demons and Gods. The demons were never meant for those that we called ‘Demons’ but rather the fallen that were lost to our influence.”
“Indeed. The first battle was something to behold. My minions of destruction razed everything to the ground leaving no sign of life in their wake. Every spell they hurled now contained the power of primordial destruction, one that consumed everything. Soon, some of the gods started to fight destruction with destruction. By consuming one fruit, they would receive a boost in power to stand against the Fallen. But those that are desperate prayed to my name and consumed more than one in order to hold the line against the Fallen. They would ensure that their goals were something far reaching so that they can maintain their sanity for as long as possible. But that is only a temporary measure.” Anima smiled as she continued to walk.
“With so much destruction in the world, how did it come to an end?” Shiro asked as Anima glanced back.
“It never did. Why else do you think the Age of Demons and Gods continue to this day?”
“. . .”
“So as for what we are, we are the bane of all life. We are the never-ending destruction that haunt the end of their life and we are what drives the fury and wrath in the hearts of people. When the barrier was finally broken, my influence was at its highest. The war escalated in scale and more gods consumed the fruits in an act of desperation. It was also during this time that I started to roam the universe that I was so curious about.
“This was also when I first found Aria. She was a small Demi God whose parents were lost to my power. During my journey, I had accepted her as my first student after saving her from the Fallen. Back then, I still didn’t know everything was my doing, only that their destructive energy was strangely powerful. While I say that she was my student, there wasn’t much to teach her as I was never a teacher. She merely followed me around to explore the world while I killed everything that tried to stop me. Later, I reunited with Lil’ Ro and he journeyed with me and Aria. The three of us explored the world while cultivating our strength, saving others where we could despite me just wanting to explore. But I was content since it allowed me to explore the connections between two people. And then I cut a piece of myself off and handed it to Rokarn in hopes that my thoughts were wrong but alas, they were right. Aria most likely discovered what my powers were and that I was the source of everything. There was something off about her but ‘I’ never got around to finding out what it was. Which brings us to this moment.” Anima smiled and turned around.
“As for your question of what I feared, I would say fear isn’t the right word but rather concern as to why Aria was acting differently. I gave a shard of myself to Rokarn for two reasons. One is to keep him safe as my powers will help him. The other is to act as a fail safe in case anything was to happen to me. I had planned to place more precautions since the world was a dangerous place. Despite being ‘immortal’ there is always a way for something to die. There’s no such thing as true immortality in the world despite what it may seem like. All things will come to an end and that includes us. Even the souls that we destroy are eventually reassembled into something else completely. The end of one is the beginning of another. For me, this was just me trying to make sure that my knowledge will transfer to the next beginning. And so far it’s proved to be right considering I am here now, talking to you. As for why I’m Aria’s deepest fear, I can only image that it was fear of my power of what happened after I cut this shard of me off.” Anima shrugged as the visions of what happened finally stopped and they were back at the table.
“So what happens now then?”
“Well when you wake up, you’ll get a portion of my power and the knowledge this shard contains. I’ll disappear since I was never meant to stay. Otherwise lil’ Ro would have been able to converse with me.”
“Before you go, can I ask one last question?” Shiro asked as Anima nodded her head.
“What is the system and how did it integrate itself to the world?”
“That’s something you’ll find out in the future. Even if I say it it’ll get censored because to know the truth, you must have the authority granted by the system.” Anima chuckled before her smile faded away.
“But enjoy it while you can. Soon the system will need to go and when the time comes, YOU need to be the one that destroys it. It is only with the primordial power of destruction can you truly remove this parasite.” Anima said as she suddenly leaned forward and tapped Shiro on the head.
“Huh?” Blinking her eyes in surprise Shiro furrowed her brows.
“What did you just do?” Shiro asked as Anima chuckled.
“Just another precaution I suppose. Nothing bad don’t worry.” Anima reassured.
“But I must say, I didn’t think it’ll take this long. Shouldn’t your body be adapting rather well?” She wondered as Shiro paused for a moment.
“Hm, let me check. Since ‘I’ve’ been returned to you I got my knowledge on what’s happening from your perspective. Which means I can also check your body.” Anima muttered while activating a few spells.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m sure it’ll end soon enough.” Shiro coughed but Anima didn’t listen and projected the state of her body in front of the two of them.
“. . . .” Looking at this state Anima’s eye started to twitch.
As for Shiro she was facing away from Anima.
“And here I was wondering why it was taking so long. Of course your body can’t adapt because it’s too busy trying to crawl itself away from death.” Anima muttered. She hadn’t had the time to see what happened in the fight for her body to become like this. Instead, she figured that Rokarn had just handed over the shard.
Massaging her eyes, she zoomed in on certain parts of Shiro’s body that was under heavy repair.
“I’m checking what skills you have now from your memories. You know that even if your physique has improved it doesn’t mean it’s completely invulnerable right? If you strain it to this extent your body will break before your health reaches 0. There are still certain aspects that the system doesn’t cover.” Anima lectured as Shiro could only sit and nod.
“But considering the extend of this injury and how your body is strangely used to it, it must have happened before.” Anima narrowed her eyes as she started to look back at the previous fights.
Looking back, crossed her legs and watched silently. Every time that Shiro stacked her berserk skills, every time she ripped an arm off to test a healing skill, every time she strained her mana links and every time she casually harmed her body without caring since she couldn’t feel the pain.
Closing her eyes, Anima teleported behind Shiro and chopped down on her head with her hand.
“GAH!” Crying out in surprise, Shiro didn’t expect Anima to hit her on the head and since this was technically Anima’s domain, she felt every bit of the pain.
Holding her head, Shiro looked back at Anima.
“Despite our sadistic nature are you sure you’re not a deviant from all the other us’? If I didn’t know better I figured that you were a masochist.” Anima clicked her tongue.
“Since it’s going to take a while for your body to heal, I’m taking this chance to teach you how not to ruin your body. And since you like hurting yourself so much, let me make sure the pain is turned up.” Anima cracked her knuckles as Shiro felt her instincts warn her of danger.
