Silence enveloped the area, everyone was too stunned to say anything.
Arianne looked perplexed, she had just tried to resolve things peacefully, and she believed to have succeeded. Yes, Joshua started complaining, but changing his mind wouldn't be that difficult. She was aware of her own influence and the reason behind all this conflict, she thought that she could properly convince him with some stern words that would softly convey that he had painted a bad impression of him and that he should stop before said impression became even worse.
She never could predict Ray's sudden action. She looked at the red-eyed boy, he looked oddly cold, a serious and ruthless expression in his face.
As for Ray's thoughts, they were quite weird as well.
Right at that moment, when Joshua was complaining, the image of the barbarians that he had fought surged on his mind.
'Why did I spare them?'
The answer might seem easy to reach. He had changed, after all, he wasn't Rex Draco the Demonic Dragon anymore, was he?
'I'm still me! I'm still Rex Draco!'
A sudden voice broke through his thoughts.
"Ray! What was that for? There was no need to react that way."
Arianne said with wide eyes, a frown on her face.
Ray frowned as well. Several thoughts were running around his head, and he didn't want to dwell in drama at the moment.
"I did what I wanted. If you have a problem, come at me, if you don't, let's not run into each other for the rest of the test."
His eyes were narrowed, killing intent behind his gaze, trying to break out. That didn't escape Arianne's gaze.
'He is really steadfast on fighting?'
She wondered if she should engage, however, she examined the shot that had "killed" Joshua. It had been really fast, if she used divine power to increase her strength and reflexes, she could easily dodge, however, someone that could shape flames in such a way with such efficiency, could not be easy to deal with.
Not only that, she sensed that Ray wanted to get out of this situation.
She waved her hand, divine power surged forth and wrapped around the archer, who was staring dumbly at the "corpse" of Joshua.
"We are leaving."
For the whole interaction, she didn't dodge Ray's piercing gaze and instead looked directly at it.
Ray was left alone.
Sigh
He let himself drop to the ground.
"What is wrong with me?"
He was not regretful about "killing" the guy, rather it was his own intentions. Why did he kill the guy? After thinking for a few seconds, he reached an answer. Its was a childish reaction, a way to try and prove that he was still the ruthless and malevolent Rex Draco.
But why did he want to prove such a thing?
After the lifetime he had spent with ******, he felt that he could do good, it wasn't a complete change, but he felt that he didn't need to cause unnecessary violence. So why?
He reached a conclusion. He was no longer corrupt, the demonic power would no longer cloud his mind, and thanks to this new body, he would no longer become corrupt.
However, there was something just as powerful as mind-altering effects, and that was actually psychology. Ray had lived for five hundred years as Rex Draco, a being that lived for malice and suffering.
He was still the flames of war.
He was the devastating gravity of malevolence.
He was still the dominant violence.
How could the lifestyle of a five hundred years old be changed by an interaction of less than two decades?
Of course, the life that his soul had lived was not meaningless, it gave him a view of what he could become after being released of corruption.
Five hundred unforgettable years of malevolence and violence.
The potential of a life with love and without loneliness.
Those two factors clashed heavily on Ray's mind.
Perhaps if his corruption had never been cleaned or if he had never met ******, perhaps he wouldn't feel this way.
A constant need for sticking to his prior beliefs.
A need to keep being Rex Draco.
A longing to become something more.
A longing for change.
With this came a lot of things.
When performing acts of violence, he would unconsciously hold back, restraining his monstrous killing intent.
When in time that needed peace and cooperation, he felt the need to prove himself a violent individual, the need to act in a tyrannic way.
It almost felt like there was more than one version of him fighting inside of him. Although he was pretty sure that was not the case, his mind was considerably strong.
He didn't remember ever feeling like this or having such a crisis.
He felt spent.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Ray wanted an answer. He wanted to know how to proceed forward.
"Smash any consideration to smithereens and move forward. Do whatever you have to, eliminating everyone and everything that stands in your way."
A low and rumbling voice seemed to be coming to his left, as if whispering in his ear with a growl.
"Forget the violence and the past. Your future must be built on a different ideal in this new life."
A sweet voice sounded at his right, awfully resembling ******'s voice.
But how could he reach an answer when the mind that was supposed to reach it was divided.
However, there was something that both minds seemed to be in agreement about.
"Move forward . . . My future . . ."
To keep moving towards the future, at very least, at the end of the journey he should reach a conclusion, right?
What should he become?
A New Self? Marked by change and compassion?
Or stay in his Old Self? Marked by violence and distance?
Ray breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that this brief moment of thought had relaxed his mind a little.
This crisis would surely reemerge, someday.
In the future, he would still regret using violence and long for it.
In the future, he would still refuse to express kindness but unconsciously show it.
But for now, this was enough.
Ray stood up and started walking in the direction that he had been previously going .
A lot of questions still plagued his mind, but a new resolve had been imprinted on his mind.
***************************************************************************************
Somewhere above the clouds, surveying the distant city from a high place, was Astra, also known as The Witch in the Era of Monsters and known as The Sage in the current era.
The place she was on was a floating island that belonged to her apprentice, Joan, commonly known as The Mistress.
"Would you look at that? Master, how rare of you to visit your dear student. Last time, I had just completed 18."
"That was twenty years ago, and you are 70."
"Still 18 at heart, which is what it matters."
The one who talked was a voluptuous, mature woman with bright red hair and blue eyes like jewels. She was Joan Flamma, the first and only student of The Sage.
She was most commonly known as The Mistress and was highly respected in every country that she visited, her floating island was her most noticeable feature. Seeing the island in the distance was a way for a country's administration to prepare to properly receive her.
Astra was still confused about how her student turned out that way. Around sixty years ago, Astra was roaming around the world without any type of goal or motivation. Ever since the death of Gideon, her only goal was to find out more about the prophecy they had learned about.
However, after a hundred years after his death, she was incapable of finding any information whatsoever, so she just decided to wander around the world without any clear destination. She spent her life that way for a total of ninety years.
That was until she found a young girl. She was a bastard child of the famous Flamma family, she was the daughter of a whore who had served the head of the family for a while. Not wanting his own blood walking around in the slums, he took Joan from her mother and took her to a place where she would live alone until she was ten.
It was on her tenth anniversary that Joan met Astra. The Witch was, like always, wandering around, and she stumbled across the child.
Memories of her own past overlapped with the child's, softening Astra's heart.
Astra took her in and treated her as her own child.
When Joan reached 14, she requested Astra to teach her magic. Astra agreed and taught her earnestly.
Joan studied under Astra for a total of twenty years, it was when she was thirty-four that she suddenly decided to confront the head of the Flamma family in battle.
She emerged victorious and seized plenty of the family's possessions and wealth. Wealth that she used to build the floating island. Ever since then, Astra has mostly cut off contact.
Not only because her student seemed to have finally reached her full potential, but also because she had felt the seal around Ray, weakening.
She believed the time was near, and she once again started looking for the prophesized new hero.