Delta felt his mind spinning as he floated powerlessly through the seemingly empty void. 

 

There was nothing around him as far as the eyes could see, but strangely, Delta found it calming rather than frightening. 

 

He shut his eyes and relaxed properly for the first time in many years. 

 

He felt entirely at peace, his mind escaping from the trauma he had experienced in his life, and finally returning to its innocent, unscarred state. 

 

The void around him thickened, and a snake seemed to manifest out of nowhere, coiling around him as it slowly wrapped around his arms and legs before coming up to face him.

“Calming, isn’t it?”

 

Delta didn’t respond, however, as he was looking deep into the eyes of Apophis. They looked similar to his. Lost. Hurt. Scarred. Abandoned. The eyes of a man who had opened himself up to the world, and been stabbed in the back in return.

 

“You know my pain, don’t you? Why don’t you join me? We can take revenge on this world together.”

“You don’t even know half of my pain.”

 

“Are you sure about that?”

 

Suddenly, the endless void distorted and disrupted and was replaced with all the moments Delta had avoided, starting from him finding himself alone as a child, to the elderly couple who had taken him in being murdered in cold blood. 

 

It continued to show Delta and his closest friend Brutus surviving the world at the age of 18.

 

The years of Brutus supporting him through his gambits in the world of politics

 

The fight in which Delta had been given the infamous scar down his left eye, and his later recruitment into the world of mercenaries. 

 

He had worked in Caligula’s line of companies for the next years of his life, rising through the ranks and moving out of the slums and into the city. 

 

After working hard, Delta also managed to get Brutus out of the slums with him, and together they had continued to rise up in the world, becoming figures well known to the rest of the city. 

 

This had all changed when he had joined Caligula’s ‘inner circle’. The pair were dragged down slowly, tempted with rewards as they were forced to cross lines they had never considered crossing. 

 

Under the instructions of Caligula, Delta offered his services to anyone who could pay, killing many rabble leaders, political leaders, rival company owners, CEOs, public enemies, public heroes and even random working-class people. 

 

He had grown numb to the pain quickly and worked the life of Caligula’s soldier until he was 27, rising to the Board of Directors and having billions in assets at his disposal.  

 

On his 30th birthday, he was approached by Caligula, who had offered to buy his services at a high price. 

 

At the time, Delta had thought it was a God-sent opportunity, but he later realised that it had been one of the greatest mistakes of his life. 

 

He had been forced to watch as Caligula, engulfed in his madness, murdered villages and cities to pillage their wealth and put up statues in his own name. 

 

He had set fires to cities, only for innocent leaders to be blamed and the area to be absorbed into Caligula’s territory. 

 

Delta was disgusted by the man but still chose to rise through the ranks, earning more money than he had ever thought he’d even see and becoming one of the richest men after Caligula himself. 

 

But it was a hollow victory. One Delta no longer wanted. He wallowed in his grief after spending 11 years under Caligula, turning 41 under the man’s care and power. 

 

The final straw had been when he had asked Delta to take a group of soldiers and destroy the slums as they had obstructed his view from his bedroom. 

 

Seeing the young children all hopeless and innocent had been the straw that broke the camel’s back, and not only did Delta inform some of his more trusted citizens of the slums to safety, but he decided there and then that Caligula had to go. 

 

He began hatching plots to take the man’s life, and one fateful day a few weeks later, he finally struck down the accursed man, his last actions as second in command being giving all his shares and ownerships to charities to distribute to the slums. 

 

Delta was then reminded of the betrayal he had felt when Brutus had stabbed him in the back for extra cash, and his final act of bringing them all down with him. 

 

A single tear trickled down Delta’s eye, falling slowly down his face before dropping from his chin and falling into the void, causing ripples in the image and shattering it into a million pieces that disappeared like shards of a crystal. 

 

“I know your pain, and I want to help you exact revenge. We shall strike back against the world, and make them know true pain.”(ED: Sorry, had to. XD)

 

Delta slowly felt his mind becoming clear, his intentions shifting from hope and peace to hatred and vengefulness. 

 

And yet, there seemed to be a tiny part of Delta’s mind, so small that he had barely noticed it, that still wanted peace. That wanted to settle down with loved ones and live out his days surrounded by friends and family. To leave this world finally at peace. 

 

“You cannot control me, snake. I will not be controlled like the puppet you think I am.”

 

Delta lashed out at the snake that had slowly been tightening around him, peering deeply into his eyes as if hypnotising him. 

 

Grabbing it by the tail, Delta ripped it off his body, throwing it as far as he could. 

 

Laughing in a deep, ancient tone, it said, “You will come around to understanding me one day, for I, Apophis, chaos incarnate, have never been wrong in my judgements. For now? I’ll comply with your wishes, boy. By the way, I kept them from destroying your core and even hit back a little. Take it as a freebie, I’ll be watching you.”

 

Thus Delta slowly felt his consciousness fade away again.

 

After Astutia activated the reset, for a moment, and just that tiny moment, Athena was sure that she had sensed a presence many times more powerful than she was. It was a force that seemed entirely hateful and murderous as if it were staring into and through her soul. 

 

“What a peculiar boy…”