[Vol.2] Quest 150- “New Justice”
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From all of Orario, one could see the second sun; not even from Melen could you not see it and even feel the air a bit warmer.

A pillar of thunder pierced the sky, followed by a deafening boom that shattered every window within a 10-mile (16 km) distance, and at ground zero, the buildings inside the barrier were devastated. Rebuilding would take weeks of labor.

The clouds parted ways for the pillar as it struck the moon, leaving it with permanent cracks on its white surface.

It would have been a sight to behold if not for what transpired later, which would herald this as the end of Orario. The city is now illuminated by an ominous, red, cracked moon.

More pillars of light fired off into the sky. Gods returning to heaven.

"Huff! Huff! Huff! You insane child," said Alfia, extremely exhausted.

"Huff! Huff! Never did I think I would ever meet a brat like you to send shivers down my back... Huff! Huff! If only you were born earlier, you would have brought the city to new heights." Zald said, having taken most of the damage away from Alfia by blocking what he could of the attack. "But this is still not enough," Zald said under his breath. "You need more strength to kill that one-eyed beast."

He approaches Cirrus, who is in tatters as if he burned all of his life to stop and overcome Alfia’s magic.

"Huff! Huff! Huff!"

Most of his body was singed, his hair was burnt, and he was on his last legs. In his current state, if one were to poke him, he would fall over. The only things that remained were bits and pieces of his Cerebus, Stymphalian, and his base armor's headpiece, barely clinging on.

'My head is... fuzzy?' thought Cirrus, as he was on the brink of falling from exhaustion. 'I want to sleep, I—Thump! Thump!'

The Cerebus armor pulsates even more intently, catching Zald’s eye. Cirrus' heart beat faster.

"Huff! Huff!" Cirrus clenches his fists and gets into a fighting stance. "Huff! Huff! Maybe Huff! Huff! You guys Huff! Huff! should’ve been stronger! Huff! Huff!" He shouted as best as he could to say those words laced with anger.

Cirrus looked like a cornered animal. Zald could see how exhausted and weak Cirrus had gotten.

‘That armor… Is it forcing him to keep fighting?’

This star is nearly going to explode. He can’t let a star so bright darken this city engulfed in it.

"Huff! Huff! As your Familia uncle, I will put you to rest."

His words could have been said better, but even Zald was tired and wanted to sit down after this night.

"!?" Cirrus, hearing his words, grew angrier. The armor helped, pushed what strength Cirrus had left, and gathered it.

Zald walks up to him with his fist curled, ready to knock him out.

"Sleep we—BAM!!"

With his singed fists, Cirrus punched Zald’s face.

"Hrrr!?!?"

The force Cirrus was using was day and night from before. The force behind it was ripping Zald’s consciousness from him.

Whoosh~!

Skiiiiirt-Rumble!

"Come on!!!" Cirrus shouted, his throat coarse and strained, his eyes flickering between dullness and anger.

"Grr!!" Zald’s head was aching and throbbing in pain. "That armor of yours is killing you! This is not your strength!!" He took out a high potion, poured it on his head, and drank some.

"No more hesitation, no more mercy. Close my heart." He muttered to himself with his hands out, and some high potions and magic potions shot out from his shadow and into his hand. He immediately drank it. "Ahhh~~" The dulling of the pain and exhaustion was a liberating feeling. "Well?" He tilts his head, glaring at Zald, as cold anger brings vitality to him. "Come Zald!! Alfia!!!" The tone of his voice was a bit more emotionally charged. The Cerebus armor pulsates even faster. "Let me see the failures who let my mother die!!" They were laced with sadness. "Who was too fucking weak to let my mom have faith in your abilities?" With hatred. "So she fucking abandoned me!" Loss. "Fuck you!!!" Pain. "Come and end the child of the woman you all so hate!"

These emotions were first brought out by his first encounter with Freya; some buried feelings were unearthed, and since then, when he met with Loki, they wanted to come out, but Cirrus kept them bottled.

Over time, on the island, it merely got more bottled up and buried. With the other baggage Cirrus repressed, he may be mentally older, but his physical mind is still that of a growing boy. It finally leaked out. It was like an old, leaky, abandoned dam. One could only wait and see when it'd finally break. Sadly, one person couldn't wait.

Clap!

Clap!

Clap!

A god comes out of the darkness.

"—Hear me, Orario."

Cirrus turns to see a familiar face clapping.

"—Hear me, Ouranos. In the name of darkness, named by the era. I expel the hopes of this world. There’s no promise. There’s no oath to keep. I will crush the era of gods promised in this land. It is all to lead the world to the unknown, undiscovered by the gods—the true chaos. Am I arrogant? Fine. Am I evil? — I was. I will willingly accept all of your hatred and grudges. That’s what we of evil feed on. Rage, grieve, and accept the tragedy I bring. My name is Erebus! The origin of darkness and the god of the underworld!"

"So that’s your name... Erebus, the god of darkness." He said it with utter disdain.

"Yes, you were the only one to know my name was a lie, Cirrus." He looked at the beaten boy before him with a slight grin, happy to see him still standing. "But to be honest, I didn't think you'd be able to stand up to Alfia's magic without your spirit, nor did I expect you to be so emotional."

"Go fuck yourself, you sick fuck." Cirrus was not having him speak. He does not have the patience or time to hear his annoying voice. "You’re lucky you’re a god. If not, I would have fucking strangled and snapped your little sick head off." Cirrus glared at him with a biting edge.

The god of darkness simply continues to smile. He knows when a mortal is on the brink of falling into darkness; Cirrus is on that ledge, and he is more than willing to do it.

"Even a hero can be this foul-mouthed? Well, what did I expect from the murderous Golden-Horned Demon? Evilus may well be 'Evil' but the stuff you did, even these two here, shocked me that someone was capable of such brutality. Huh? Murderer?"

Cirrus did not like to be called that; he loathed that nomenclature for its accuracy about himself.

"Grrrr!!!" Cirrus gritted his teeth. He couldn't hurt or kill a god. "Fucking bullshit." He muttered under his heavy breath. Instead, he tried to at least gain back some semblance of a rational mind not clouded by rage, but—

"Come on, murderer~♪" Erebus said in a taunting manner with a horrible, gleeful, punch-able expression. "Show me your true colors as a hero."

Erebus could see him turning as much of his anger as he could into a cold fury. Erebus really knows how to make someone loathe him. His Cerebus armor pulsates once more, dealing the last blow to that bottle.

C..... crack!!!

Cirrus had enough of his talking.

 

That last piece of the bottle finally broke, and the cornered deer finally bore its long, repressed fangs.

A black flame that once turned into nothing but ash reignited, slowly building itself into a strong and fierce flame.

"You know…" Cirrus's eyes went into a swirl, embracing his anger and just letting loose.

'I don't fucking care anymore.'

"I found the term 'monster' used a bit too loosely." Cirrus gradually gets into a more stable stance.

'I'm tired. Emotionally drained. I am done with this.’

"The so-called monsters of the dungeon are, from what I have seen and judged to be, nothing more than strong animals. A true monster..." That cold fury was overrun by the immolation of black flames of wrath. The Cerebus armor pieces began to glow and pulsate with a red glow, happy that their wearer was finally embracing the anger it promotes. "Is it something that kills people of their own volition?"

'This day needs to fucking end. This is a grating annoyance. Why couldn't they just fuck off to the countryside?'

He gritted his teeth to hold back his anger, which was bursting at the seams.

"They don’t care who it fucking is, so long as they can kill!" A big smile formed on his face.

'Israfan. Get rid of these cockroaches. Shit has better qualities than Evilus. Back then, it was easy. I knew what I had to do. Kill and fear. Yes. The medicine to sub-humans like Evilus.'

A child's voice rang in his ear.

"!?" It stopped his anger, but only for a brief second.

‘I am already this far in. Keep going; carry them to the end. That is what I can pitifully do for them.’

Instinctively, Cirrus wanted to feel good about himself, but the only way to do so in his current situation was to indulge in violence. That is what the Cerebus armor did.

"Golden-Horned Demon…yes…" This shuddering feeling inside him gnawed at him. The armor did what it could to relieve its wearer of such pain and kept boosting his anger. "I’LL FUCKING SHOW YOU WHAT A TRUE MONSTER IS LIKE!" Under the red night sky, Cirrus became all too similar to the one who abandoned him. "I WILL NEVER BE A FUCKING HERO! I LONG THREW THAT BURDEN TO THE POOLS OF YELLOW FAT!! AND PILES OF WHITE BONES!!!!" The armor then quickly covered his body, covering him as if it were alive.

Many could see the scars on the child who had lived through the Dark Era.

The pressure of it all weighed on his mind, as did the death he had to witness and commit. The sins that finally reached more than what he could handle all came together to create this weapon and pointed at the ones who propagated this era.

Cirrus was reincarnated from the modern day, and he held onto those values as long as he could. But those died when he was 7. He then still believed he was above murder and death and that he could handle them—a grave mistake. His knowledge of war was nothing compared to truly experiencing and committing to war.

‘I should have known better! I am not better than anyone! Yet I kept thinking, that I am with my stupid fucking high mortality schtick!'

War is never something to belittle, and it took any semblance of the modern man to be reincarnated into a world of gods. When he finally left that war, he stupidly walked through. A boy was born from a man's weakness.

‘He deserved to die a pitiful death.’ He thinks to himself, aiming his hatred at the only one responsible, ■■■■ ■■■.

'Nox, Circe, do not interfere. I will end them.' He cuts off his connection with his body, so they can't feel his intense emotions rising.

He had made the mistake of not doing it that night with Ai, and this was an emotion he didn't want them to feel, he told himself. Pride and his ego of being a level 7, his mother being the Empress, and the subconscious wanting to use Zald and Alfia to level up were the underlying motives for this foolish mistake of wanting to be close to his mother.

His stance goes lower, and they could see his muscles tensing up to crush rocks. His heart was pumping faster than before. Steam began to slowly come off him as his skin turned red. His eyes were no longer hollow; they were full of vigor of the worst kind.

"I AM A DEMON!!! A MONSTER YOU CREATED!!!!!"

‘Cirrus!! Stop!!’ shouted Nox up above, anxious. ‘You aren’t what they say!! You need to calm—'

He cuts off his mental connection with her and Circe.

"I AM THE GOLDEN-HORNED DEMON OF SHALZARD WHO SLAUGHTERS ALL MY FOES WHO STOOD BEFORE ME!!!!" The armor fades, but it archives its intended effect of pushing up its wearer's anger and magnifying it. Now it's simply snowballing. "(Exousía, Adorn: Ceryneian)!!! (Sword of Damocles, sing your vespers.)!!! [Dia Dikastí̱s]!!!"

The armor dons on him with a mantle of electricity covering him, and the antlers of the mask become sharper. That black flame has consumed him and burned ever so brilliantly.

Feeling this surge of negative emotions, Nox went to get the one who could stop this side of him.

‘Circe!! If he goes after anyone that isn’t Evilus, stop him at all costs! We can’t take any chances, so I’m going to get Ai!’

‘I got it; just hurry and go!! I don’t want him to go down this path!’

As Nox quickly flew as fast as she could, she glanced back, and she could see him.

"URRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Much like in Bukhara, he bellowed out like a beast again. She didn’t want him to go through the results again.

‘Just you wait!!’

 

Terror sank into Evilus and even his allies as Cirrus' bloodlust and fury flooded the streets. His emerald eyes gain a red tinge under the red moon.

"T-t-the tyrant’s blood has infected him!" shouted an Evilus member.

"R-run!! He'll kill us all!" said another.

"!?" Alfia, Zald, and even Erebus were shocked that they would even say that with suicide jackets on. They can't blame them; they had provoked a beast that had just reached its limit and broken out of it, spewing all the things he held down.

"COME HERE!!!!!" Cirrus kicked off, running up to them. He leaped into combat with a twisted smile.

He wanted to sow violence, fear, and blood. He wanted all eyes on him to know he was the apex predator, the Monster Rex of Orario.

"N-NOOOO—"

He first went to the bottom of the list of threats.

Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!!

Spurt!! Clang!! Clang!! Clang!! Spurt!! Clang!! Spurt!! Clang!! Spurt!!Clang!! Spurt!!

It was a bloody massacre; he was more beast than man. He moved like a man possessed, using everything at his disposal.

Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!!

Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!! Bam!! Spurt!!

He would impale their bodies, rip them in half, throw their torn bodies at them, grab an arm, rip it from the socket, and use it to bash one to death; bite their throats out while gouging the eyes of two others; crush their bones and skulls, puncturing them with his fists.

Spurt!! Clang!! Clang!! Clang!! Spurt!! Clang!! Spurt!! Clang!! Spurt!! Clang!! Spurt!!

Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!! Swish!! Spurt!!

Using their spines to stab and impale more. There was no end to his creativity. It was a cornucopia of violence and blood, and he loved it. He loved this abuse of power.

"Huff!! Huff!! Huff!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" He howled once more before he impaled one of them with his horns and held them high in the air, the blood baptizing Cirrus fully.

He was a blood-starved beast, caked in the blood and viscera of his foes. This was the Golden-Horned Demon that made Israfan petrified—a human who tapped into the most primal parts of his nature.

For those watching from the side, they saw how truly violent Cirrus could be. He even had the same visage as his mother. They would have stopped him, but this was not the time to stop him from going after Evilus.

"Shoot the bombs!" shouted one of the Evilus members as they shot a fireball at their fallen members' corpses.

Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!

Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU FUCKERS COME HERE!!!!!" Cirrus shouted as he went through the explosions. He no longer cared for defense, just slaughter.

Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!

Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!

"HieeeeEEEEEE!!! NO!!!! STAY AWA—AHHHHHHHHH!!! SPURT!!! " Cirrus reached the man and squeezed his neck, popping it like a berry.

"WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING SCARED!!!!" He tossed the man's body into a wall, turning it into a bloody Jackson Pollock painting. "DO YOU NOT LIKE YOUR OWN MEDICINE!!! YOUR OWN FUCKING CRUELTY!!!! IS IT NOT FUN NOW!?!?!? HOW FUCKING IRONIC!!!!"

Watching from a bit away, Zald, Alfia, and Erebus were speechless.

For Alfia and Zald, they could see Nephele. He was her spitting image, but far crueler and more bloody. The way he fights says it all; he wants to win and crush his foes beneath his feet in the most brutal and fastest way possible, all the while relishing and getting drunk off of their power.

Erebus noticed they had both gotten their wind back.

"Alfia, Zald, are you ready to go?" said Erebus. "You two need to settle this quickly. He needs to be stopped, or else he will very well consume all the nutrients for the others."

"Yeah, we got it," said Zald, with several empty potions around him. "He can still be saved."

"But he needs to be brought down for that." Said Alfia, with several higher magic potions around her feet. "(Gospel)!!"

Booom!!!

She attacked indiscriminately, trying to hit Cirrus, and the result was that everyone within the vicinity was struck.

"Guh!!" Ottar was sent flying back, but for Cirrus—

Whoosh!!

—Cirrus ran through it. His armor broke apart, but he ran ahead.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! ALFIA!!!!!" Cirrus ran covered in blood and wounds like a ravenous junkyard dog.

Members of Evilus were subjected to the fear of this demon.

"ZALD!!!! ALFIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"!?" Seeing his bloodied and anger-riddled face with those swirling, emerald, and red-tinged eyes, Alfia felt Nephele and Hera were before her, bearing down their anger at her. "Damn it, why are you just like them? (Gospel)!!!"

Booom!!!

"GAH!!!!!" Cirrus was hit with the full brunt of it, but he plunged his hands into the earth to remain in place. "GRRR!!! ALFIA!!! ZALD!!!" He resumed his charge.

"Do it again!" Zald shouted. "I’ll go and deal with him!"

"(Gospel)!!!" Alfia shouted, with even more magic pumped into it.

The attack was sent out, and Zald followed it.

"ZALD!!!" charged through the attack, getting even more beaten and battered.

"Go down already!" Zald swung his great sword horizontally.

Cirrus, with his clenched blood and singed fist, threw a punch at the attack.

Clan-Kirk!!!

"!?!?" Zald was horrified. Cirrus’ attack did not meet his, but another fist came from under his arm. "W-what the hell is—KIRK-THUD!!!"

With Cirrus’ other arm, he got in close and punched Zald through his armor and into his chest.

"GAH!?"

Cirrus punched his breath out, giving him a collapsed chest.

"You heard you, uncle!" Alfia shouted from the side. "(Gospel)!"

Pow!!

The attack was very much more refined and pinpoint.

Crash!! Crash!! Crash!! 

Crash!! Crash!! Crash!! Crash!!

We struck him through several buildings far west of Orario.

"…Ugh…" His injuries and exhaustion had finally caught up to him. He could barely keep his eyes open.

Even for first-class adventures, they would be knocked out by her magic. For Ottar, it was his strength of will that let him persevere, and for Cirrus, his anger, and baggage fueled it all by coming to a breaking point.

Alfia could see the look on Zald’s face. He was struggling to breathe, and his face was even turning another color.

She got out another potion and quickly splashed it right on his injury.

"Uhhh!!!" Zald was catching his breath.

"Zald, are you fine?" Alfia said, a bit shaken seeing the visages of her former captain and goddess. "This had gotten far too noisy and bloody for too long. He needs to get out of our way.

Zald noticed and kept his words to himself.

"Yeah." He gets back on his feet, drawing his other greatsword to help him stand.

"No, you do not!" shouted Ottar.

"I will keep them preoccupied, go!" Alfia shouted, going to meet Ottar.

He walks in Cirrus’ direction, slowly building up speed. Drinking potion after potion as he goes.

 

He walked through the buildings to find Cirrus embedded in a wall, bloody, and covered in a stupid number of injuries.

"You sure are a thing to marvel at," Zald said, drenched in sweat and exhaustion.

"___" Cirrus was out cold. He has reached his limit for today.

"I don’t know what that other arm was, but you will certainly—!?" Zald felt a cut in the wind. "Hm!!" He leaped back when a white flash entered the home through the window, cutting where Zald was before.

Swish!!

"Stay away from him!" Ai said, also sweating and exhausted from today’s events.

"Ah." Zald smiles. "As a favor from an uncle, Familia wise, take him and go."

"Huh?" Ai said, confused by his past intentions. "I thought you wanted to kill us."

"I have my reasons. But if you want to stay, then I am more than willing to get a cut from before." He holds his greatsword up, ready to swing.

"… Tch!" Ai jumps back and picks up Cirrus.

Ai quickly ran off with Cirrus in her grasp. She did not look back. She knew Nox and Circe were covering for her.

 

Watching them leave, Zald lets out a long breath.

"Fuuuu~~" He impaled his greatsword into the ground. "Zeus, have mercy on the poor soul who is at the end of Cirrus’ wrath. I hope that fox can temper him."

He turns and walks away.

‘Nephele, your boy certainly didn't fall far from the tree.’

He held respect for Cirrus’ strength but was disappointed that he inherited more of Nephele than he would have liked.

 

When Zald returns, he finds Erebus monologuing.

‘Maybe I should have walked slower.’

"A greater power has overthrown the strongest adventures!" proclaimed Erebus. "Several gods have left Gekai! If you are a follower of chaos who fought against justice, come together, and we shall destroy the world order with GREAT EVIL!!! Now let me give you some last words that you all deserve right now—for those of you who call yourselves justice... You have failed, and Orario will vanish today! For we are a new justice!"

"UOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" Many of Evilus' followers shouted in a victorious howl.

Coming up to Alfia, she whispers to him.

"Is he down?" she asked. "The amount of magic I used sped up my poor health."

"His girl got him and escaped. The next time we see him will be—"

"That is good. This is the first time I firmly believe in that old hag's words. A good woman tempers an unruly man."

"Rich coming from her. But we should avoid him getting angry; the next time it happens, everything goes down the drain."

"Hm." Alfia nods. "I do not want the world to have another tyrant."

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