Cloud - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

POINT OF VIEW OF AXEL
Axel! Come back here! Let me out!
The little Luffy was shouting. I could hear his voice perfectly. I could see him running around like crazy but I chose to ignore him. Poor thing. He was trying desperately to find a way out of this prison. He was full of rage and hatred but sadly for him, there was no way out of here, at least not without getting any help. I knew from experience that getting out of this darkness on your own was impossible to do.
I spent centuries there, lost in the dark. There was nothing to entertain me. There was no one that I could talk to. I just remained there, unmoved and without any purpose. My own thoughts became my prison and I was my own companion. That was pure torture really. If I could, I would have already killed myself but death was too sweet for me. I was forced to stay alive in a body that I could not even control.
At times, I could feel the world around me, I could hear everything, people looked in my direction but they were not seeing me. Freedom was right in front of my eyes but there was no way for me to reach for it. So I remained here. I did not really have any other choice. My hatred and rage only grew stronger and my desire for revenge was what I held on to all this time.
I was going to make them paid for what they did to me.
"Father," Vance said, looking at me with teary eyes, "You-you're here. Finally!"
Unexpectedly, he hugged me, burying his face against my chest and I asked myself if he was actually crying. I sure hoped that it was not the case as a real master should never cry in front of his subjects. It would make him appear weak. Should I hug him back? It would seem only natural for a father to hug his son, specially since the latter freed him from a prison that he spent centuries in.
Yeah, that would be the right thing to do.
Though, before I could even react, Vance pulled away and looked at me with sparkling eyes and I could only stare at him, not knowing what to say or do. He had my eyes, it was pretty much obvious. That was the only thing that he got from me though. Everything else, he got them from his mom.
Claudia.
I did not know her at all. I never took the time to get to know her. She was beautiful woman for sure, she immediately got my attention the first time I saw her. She was dancing in the dark night near the fire camp. Every man in her village was hypnotized by the way she would move her hips while her long smooth hair were flying in the air. She happened to be the youngest daughter of the chef of the village and for everyone, she was the definition of kindness.
Though, I saw the darkness of her heart. I saw what she did in secret and that was the reason why I approached her. She did not know what she was at that time but her true nature was not a secret for me. She was an oracle, one of the darkest oracles that I ever met. She was supposed to be a creature of light but her heart was dark.
Her kind was rare.
I took her the very same night that I met her. No romance was involved, it was purely sexual. I quickly forgot about her after that night and it was only a few months after, when I was passing by her village that I discovered that she was pregnant. Was it an incredible news to me? Not at all. I did not plan on being a dad, I did not want to be a dad. I immediately guessed the problems that this child would cause me and a lot of great powers above were scared of what would happen.
Because Vance was not like any other supernatural creatures, he was half oracle and half reaper.
Of course, when he was born, it was decided that he would be killed as no one wanted to see what he would become. I did not have any objection but Claudia, she refused to let him die. I found it funny. She was herself evil, then how would she raise such an abomination without him turning evil too? Well, she made a deal with heaven, she promised to not cause any harm to anyone if her child could live.
She really changed after that and Vance became her only reason to live. As he grew up, I watched him closely while hiding in the dark. Strangely, he could not use his oracle powers. I could not explain it but his reaper side somehow prevented him from awakening his oracle side. I was uncertain if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
In both cases, I did not want Vance to know about my existence and even if I wanted to, I could not really let my presence be known to him. The other reapers did not think that it was a good idea for him to know about me and I was forced to abide by their rules.
I had the want to vomit each time I thought of those damn reapers.
They were the ones to imprison me. I was supposed to be one of them but they did not hesitate to eliminate me from the equation. Okay, I kind of understood why they did what they did. I was evil. I was a threat to the whole world, I was dangerous and they decided to stop me when they saw that I was growing more powerful.
I killed one of my brothers, I killed another reaper. As I already told Luffy, I absorbed all of his powers and made them mine...I did not have any other choice to be honest. Many did not know about it but I never planned to kill him. It was a simple experiment that went wrong. I was just trying to absorb his powers, his death was not predicted in advance. Why would I even want his death? He never did anything to me.
My true plan was far more significant than simply killing a reaper for my own good.
"I'm happy to finally see you, dad," Vance told me. "You, the strongest of all reapers. How do you feel?"
"Like if I have woken up from a never ending nightmare," I replied and I took in a deep breath. My eyes traveled around. Vance's people were still on theirs knees. I took a step forward and I loved the feeling that I received. That was freedom. That was called having control. I looked at Vance and said, "You freed me. I will be forever grateful for that."
"Oh, that's only natural," he brushed the subject off, "You are my dad. I had to save you."
I did not like the way he said this sentence but I did not comment anything about it. He did not have to save me. I abandoned him after all. Even now, I still could not believe that he searched for me all this time. Not many people would have done that for me, at least not if I was someone they barely knew, someone who had never done anything good for them.
I looked down at my bare hands and clenched them tightly into a fist. I smirked. I could feel the powers flowing into me. How long had it been since I last felt like this? I missed this. I felt like I could do everything, I really could, but something was missing, something really important.
The most important part of my powers was missing.
I moved my hand to the side and some of the servants of Vance went flying in the air. They all looked at me in amazement as I raised one of the guys in the air and decapitated each member of his body. That was simply too easy for me to do. I needed to try out more. In a matter of seconds, I appeared in front of one of the guards and grabbed him by his throat. He did not even try to resist me.
"Let's see," I said and I took both of us somewhere else, a place where only death ruled.
The world of the dead.
As a reaper, I was familiar to this world. Seeing the dead was something that I was used to. It was my job to take care of souls after all. When the guard and I appeared to this world, his eyes opened wide and I let go of him. He fell to the ground and looked around himself with what I concluded was fear in the eyes.
"Beautiful place, isn't it?" I asked him and his eyes came on me. He nodded quickly. I laughed.
This wasn't a beautiful place. It was dark here. Lifeless. You could hear the screams of people. You could feel the pain, the torture they were living through. That place was suffocating and cruel in a way that I never appreciated. I was maybe a reaper but I hated coming here. Some of my brothers and sisters liked it though.
The guard got off the ground and continued to look at his surrounding. He must surely be asking himself why I took him here. I walked to him and not giving him time to react, I buried my hand through his chest. His eyes widened and before he could make any sound, I removed his heart out and crushed it into my hand.
His body fell to the ground and I saw it; I saw his soul leaving his body. My eyes could definitely see everything. I was not like Luffy. That boy succeeded to control his acquired powers a little bit but he could not do what I could do. He could not control them like I learnt to.
Why? I heard him say at that instant. Why kill him? What do you want?!
Once again, I ignored him and simply went back to Vance who seemed to have been waiting for my return.
"I see that you are testing your powers," he stated when he saw me. "I'm sure that you must feel powerful."
"Not at all," I corrected him and I huffed, "All of this is actually meaningless. The important part of my powers is missing. Right now, I'm not as powerful as I used to be."
There was a particular power inside of all reapers that made them true reapers. Those shadows that were considered our children did not have it in them. The power to contain a soul, the power to go through the world of the living and the dead with ease, the power to wield our weapons and to bring death and destruction everywhere around us.
I thought that the power was hidden inside of one of the replicas but of course, the reapers had to hide it somewhere else. It was too strong for a simple vessel to contain. Where was it now? It must surely be somewhere not within my reach. They were too careful and too paranoia to let such power fall in bad hands again.
My hands to be more precise.
Vance suddenly smiled at me, "You want the last piece of power that the reapers hide. I know where it is."
My eyes immediately widened and I gave him a look of disbelief. I asked him, "Where? How is it possible that you know about it?"
Vance simply laughed and he walked to one of his servants. If I remembered correctly, the servant's name was Nike, the twin brother of the guardian Nicolas, Luffy's guardian and somehow my guardian too. Nike had my weapon in hands once again and Vance took it from him before walking back to me.
"This," he said, referring to the weapon, "This is the weapon that all reapers wield but it's also the only weapon that can kill them."
Where was he telling me this? I already knew about that. There was no point. Though, I was curious to know where he found my weapon. I thought that it got destroyed when the reapers attacked me. They actually tried to kill me with it but in me resided the powers of two reapers and the weapon broke in front of so much power.
"Where did you find it?" I asked Vance as I took the weapon from him. True enough, part of the blade at the end was broken and that would remind me forever of what had happened. I was guessing that Vance used it to open a door for me to free myself from my prison. Now, the only way for me to restore my scythe would be to regain all of my powers once and for all.
"One of the replicas helped me find it," Vance told me, "Cedric helped me a lot in the advance of my plan and his powers were what brought me to the weapon. I thought that you would like to have it back when you would regain all of your powers."
"You were right," I agreed with him, "Now tell me, where are my powers?"
Vance smirked and made a signal to his guards.
It was then that I remembered the presence of Luffy's friends. I nearly forgot about them. I was really sorry for what happened to his cousin but there wasn't really a lot of ways to trigger the power within him. Besides, Frederick was an oracle who should have already died. He got the chance to live a few more years, Luffy should be happy about that.
Cloud and Rain were brought to us and I couldn't help but stared at both of them. It was crazy how much those two looked like their dad. There were only slight differences but thanks to Luffy, I got the chance to see that their personalities were nothing like Eldon. Their father had something that they would never have.
"To be honest with you, dad, I did not know about this hidden power until a few weeks ago," Vance started, "It's my little spy who informed me about them when he heard the conversation going on between Luffy and the demon Eloise. Well, to make it short, I captured her and tortured her until she spilled out everything that she knew. It was not an easy task. She did not know where the powers were hidden exactly but after reading your journals, I put the pieces together and I found out where they were."
My journals.
Now how the hell did he get his hands on them?
Like any other scientists, each time I would make a new experiment, I would write about it in a journal but how did Vance find them? That boy really came fully prepared. That proved to me that he did not decide just like that to free me. He waited until he had everything that he needed before doing something risky and stupid.
Vance walked to the brothers and touched Rain's cheek. The latter gave him a murderous look before spitting on him.
"Rude," Vance said before backhanding the boy in the face. Cloud was still partially knocked out and he did not seem to be strong enough to do anything right now. I was really wondering what happened to him for him to be like this. Rain seemed to be in perfect health though and just looking at him, I knew that his head was full of murderous thoughts. After all, the love of his life died in front of his very eyes.
On the point, I understood his pain.
"What's the meaning of this, Vance?" I asked him as he was not telling me what I wanted to hear.
"Well, I'm bringing the powers to you," he replied and I frowned in confusion. He returned his attention back to Rain, "I want you to summon the reaper Eldon for me."
My frown deepened at the mention of Eldon's name and my body tensed. What was Vance planning?
"How the fuck do you want me to summon him?" Rain snapped at Vance angrily and the latter sighed.
"Well, he is your father. I'm sure that you must have a way to contact him," Vance said and Rain laughed.
"The reapers don't keep in contact with theirs children. I don't know where the hell that man is," he stated.
"I don't care," Vance informed him, "You will summon your dad or else, I will kill your brother."
"Don't you dare!" Rain immediately reacted to Vance's threat and I watched Vance closely as he approached Cloud.
I had a feeling that I would have to intervene if things were to get bloody here.
"I asked my men to drug your brother," Vance explained as he looked down at Cloud, "I thought that as you were the oldest, you would be more able to summon Eldon when it would be needed but if you can't do what I want, I will have to kill your little brother."
"I swear to god if you touch him, I'm going to kill every single one of you!" Rain shouted and in response to this, Nike made his guardian blade appear. This was a weapon of light and it could hurt a reaper, not to the point of death but it could do some damage. Though, if it was used against someone like Cloud or Rain, things could get really deathly.
When Nike pointed the blade at Cloud, I decided that it was time for me to react but before I could do anything at all, the air suddenly changed. I could not believe it at first but it was really happening. I felt his powers, I felt his presence and it took only seconds for him to appear in front of all of us.
He was there in his black cloak. He was in his human form and his face was hidden but I knew that it was him.
"Dad," Rain whispered at the sight of his father and he seemed to not believe it either.
"Don't touch them," Eldon spoke, "I'm here to surrender."
His voice hadn't changed at all. It was still so soft to the ears.
Vance's men did not waste a second when the reaper appeared and they immediately neutralized Eldon. Those witches chanted a spell once again and soon chains came out of the ground. They wrapped themselves around his wrists and pulled him down. He was forced to his knees and a circle of fire appeared around him.
It seemed like he was trapped.
They were already prepared to capture a reaper.
"Vance-"
"Here they are, dad," Vance interrupted me, "There is no better place to hide a reaper power than within another reaper." His words felt like a punch in the face. "It was only logical to me. It was impossible for a simple replica to hold this type of powers, only a reaper can. Now all you have to do is to kill him and the powers will come back to you."
It was just like when I killed Aelfric. I was forced to bring his powers within me to be able to contain them. I did not succeed to find a strong enough vessel and I never got the chance to find one. Though, why him? Why did he have to be the one to hold them? I clenched my fists. I had a little idea of whose idea it was to transfer my powers to Eldon.
"Reaper," Vance said, looking at Eldon who had his head down, "Give us your weapon if you don't want your sons to perish in front of your eyes."
Eldon did not reply anything. He did not do anything at all but when Nike made a move, it happened; the scythe of Eldon appeared on the ground. Vance smirked. Damn it, Eldon would never let his sons die to save himself. He was obviously a better dad than me.  He was a better being than anyone else here.
Vance went to take the scythe and he let out a hysterical laugh, "That was easier than a thought." He walked to me and handed me the weapon. "Do it, dad. Kill the one that betrayed you and regain your powers. Become a reaper once again. Together we will take our revenge on those who were wrong to us. We will kill those reapers one by one and make this world ours."
Vance was right. Eldon betrayed me. He participated in my imprisonment. All the reapers deserved to die. He deserved to pay for what he did to me. Making up my mind, I made my own weapon disappear into smoke before taking Eldon's scythe. Slowly, I advanced towards him as Rain shouted at me to stop but he quickly got quiet when he was knocked off.
My hands clenched tightly around the weapon as I got closer to Eldon. My heart was beating fast. Once I reached him, the flames surrounding him burned out and I was able to come closer. Vance continued to encourage me to kill him and really, he seemed to be more impatient than me. Eldon kept his head down as I stood in front of him and he did not even try to look at me.
I knew what I needed to do. I knew how to kill him. My anger for him was there. I remembered the pain that he made me live through and how much he hurt me with his betrayal. The pain was still present in my heart. He needed to pay but deep down, I knew what I really wanted.
So I let go of the weapon.
The scythe hit the ground and it shocked many.
"What the hell are you doing?" Vance exclaimed at me in disbelief but I ignored him. I let myself fall to my knees and with trembling hands, I removed Eldon's hood, revealing his face.
My god, he was still as beautiful as ever. I raised his head by his chin and deep blue eyes pierced right through me. They were just as I remembered. He was still the same. I felt the tears form in my eyes and I grabbed his face, leaning my forehead against his.
"You're here, love," I told him, my voice cracking due to the emotion, "God, I missed you so much. No matter what you made me live through, I can't kill you. I love you way too much."
My words seemed to take him by surprise and that hurt me to be honest. He should already know that I would never be able to hurt him. That was something that I told him times and again to never doubt. I was considered a monster by all because I could kill anyone without any regret but him, I promised myself never to touch him in a way that would hurt him.
"I won't kill you," I told Eldon as I stood up on my feet and Vance let out a groan.
"But he has your powers!" he exclaimed, "You have to kill him to get them back."
"I won't kill the one I love for more powers," I informed him, "Get it in your head. You could have brought any other reaper here and I would have gladly killed him and her without hesitation but Eldon, I am not going to touch him. No one is going to hurt him as well as his sons."
"But he betrayed you!" he shouted, his voice full of rage, "He did not hesitate to side with the ones who planned to eliminate you and now you are telling me that you are going to let him live because of a dumb feeling such as love!"
"Yes," I told him, "And that's final. You can't change my mind. I don't want the powers if it means killing him."
He was angry, so angry but I did not care. I was not going to kill Eldon, no one was going to touch him and Vance needed to accept that. I appreciated the fact that he planned all of this for me but I did not want this.
I was about to say something else but I stopped when I saw the sudden change in Vance's eyes and what happened next was completely unexpected.
"You left me no choice, Axel," he said in a deep voice and soon after he told his men, "Get him."
Just then, everything became a mess. Vance's men turned towards me and attacked but I was not going to give up without a fight. Letting out a certain amount of energy, everyone who tried to come closer to me went flying in the air. Quickly, I concentrated on some of the bodies and made them explode in blood.
I made my weapon appear back in my hand and then decided to chop some heads off. My broken scythe was still imprinted with the power of taking souls so anyone who would come in contact with it would find death within seconds. I succeeded to kill a lot of my attackers but when the ancient witches approached me, things became a lot more complicated.
They all removed theirs bandannas which were hiding theirs eyes and began chanting. I tried to not look at them and to most importantly to not listen to what they were saying. Their chant was known to weaken any enemies. Trying to resist them, I took some of theirs hearts out but they were too many and I could not kill them all quickly enough. I tried vainly to block their powers but eventually, I fell to my knees and grabbed my head.
"Stop chanting!" I shouted angrily and my enemies took that as an opportunity to jump on me. The chains which once prevented Luffy from using his powers were used against me and I was left completely defenseless. Roughly, I was thrown at Vance's feet and he gave me a kick right in the face.
"You are really annoying, you know," he spat at me and he pulled on my hair. I hissed, glaring at him. He said, "After everything that I did for you, this is how you repaid me? You can't even kill the man that betrayed you. You're pathetic. Now you are forcing me to skip a few steps of my plan." He let go of me and ordered his men, "Take him back to the house and lock him. In a few hours, him and his precious love will both be dead."