Chapter 43
Then the trio tells the City Ruler that they need to go, and while they make some small talk, Ark starts to feel that something is really wrong, the feeling growing stronger and stronger.
Ark looks above him in the void of space and sees the pocket dimension traveling at the same speed as before, nothing seems wrong.
But above him in the pocket dimension, the 'High One' is doing something else, something that will make Ark regret his decision to take it easy, with no care in the world, for the rest of his life.
The 'High One' says something in his language:
"htraE, yticfoepoh."
Then a portal opens in front of him, and he just walks through.
And he appears in front of the City of Hope, then he takes out the cube, and the black plasma ray flies toward the city.
But Melody felt when the 'High One' appeared, and she flew toward him because he didn't hold back his aura, like he wanted Melody to know that he had come.
Then the black ray changes direction from the city toward Melody, and before she can even process what is happening, the ray hits her and makes her stop. She is paused in time, but she can still see everything and hear everything, she just can't move or use her powers.
Then the 'High One' walks toward her and speaks:
"I knew that if I came and attacked the city, you would run to save it. But as you saw, it was a trap prepared just for you. Now I'm going to need you to scream."
But before he can do anything else, he sees that a little girl appears in front of Melody, with her arms wide open, and says:
"Don't hurt my big sister, because I will tell my big brother Ark, and he will be really angry at you."
The 'High One' just stops for a second, looks at the 6-year-old little girl, and starts to laugh:
"Ha ha ha! It seems that I have another method to call Ark."
Melody looks at Terra in front of her, with her small build as she tries to protect her, and her heart breaks for the little marshmallow. She wants to cry, but no tears appear. She wants to scream for her to run, but she can't.
For the first time in her life, Melody knows what it means to be really weak and powerless, to be at the mercy of others.
She hates this feeling. She hates her powerlessness. She wants to do something, but she is not allowed.
Then she sees how the 'High One' approaches Terra, and when he is next to her, he sends a wave of aura toward her. The little marshmallow starts to cry and scream that it hurts:
"Aahh, it hurts, please stop, AAAHHH."
She starts to scream even harder, and then with all her strength, she calls:
"BIG BROTHER ARK!"
All the way to the First Empire, Ark suddenly feels like his heart is held by something that squeezes it, like it's about to burst. He feels that something is really wrong. He starts to look around, but he doesn't see anything. The others look at him and see that something is wrong with Ark. They see him becoming frantic and agitated with each passing second.
They ask:
"What is wrong? What is happening? Ark, are you okay?"
But then they also start to feel something, like the very air around them is harder to breathe, like something is happening with the Earth, a feeling like the Earth is crying and screaming. They look around and see that everyone feels that.
Then, all of a sudden, they hear something in the air, in the sky, in the very Earth below them:
"BIG BROTHER ARK."
They hear the scream, they feel the pain, they feel the fear. They know that Terra is asking for help.
Then, all of a sudden, they feel something near them, and they instinctively look at Ark.
And what they see, they won't forget for the rest of their lives. They see Ark looking in the direction of the City of Hope, with an ugly face that would scare even the Devils. A black aura starts to rise in the sky from his body, and that aura makes them feel like they are in an ice age, like the warmth and goodness in the world no longer exist. The aura makes them feel terror and fear deep within their souls like never before. They feel like they are not able to look directly at him, like they should look down at the ground. The very reality starts to be filled with the feeling of 'Death, Terror, Darkness, Coldness,' and that is only for a short moment because Ark teleports the next second, and everything turns back to normal. If Ark had stayed there for a second more, the people would have had their souls crushed by the intensity of Ark's aura.
Then they take a breath of relief, and their souls start to recover.
Zmaug and Leah look at one another, and they know they need to hurry to the City of Hope, so they start flying with their greatest speed toward the gate.
After Terra screams with all her strength, she sees the bad guy retreat. And in the next second, a hand appears in front of her, and the pain stops.
She opens her eyes and looks in front of her, and then she starts to cry again and throws herself into her brother's arms. Ark has arrived. And he says:
"Everything will be alright, little one, I am here."
His aura is held back, so that he doesn't hurt the little mouse.
But inside him, an anger so great, like he has never felt before, rises. He looks around and sees Melody next to the 'High One,' paused in time by the cube and floating above the ground. He looks into her eyes and sees her pain. He sees how she blames herself for Terra. Her eyes turn red from the anger and the pain.
Then he looks toward the one who did all this and says:
"Ashan Era, I see you still are the same weasel as back then. You haven't changed at all. You still prefer these underhanded tactics, the ones that the weak use."
Then Ashan laughs and takes his cloak off. Then he asks:
"How did you know it was me? I made sure to work outside Fate and Destiny so that you couldn't have a chance to find out."
Ark looks at the 'High One,' and he's only a young boy, no older than twenty, but that would be a grave mistake to underestimate him. Because he is over one million years old. But in the Sage Celestial's time, he is only a little boy. He is still young at one million. And he has galaxy-like eyes that, instead of pupils, have a black hole that spins. His build is normal like a human from Earth, with black hair and maybe 1.80 cm tall. The only difference between him and a normal human being is his eyes.
Ark answers him:
"You left some of your aura inside the Earth's core when you left the corruption there. And i was able to put the clues together, that a Sage Celestial is behind all, and when i saw you just now i knew who you were."
Ashan looks at him and nods, he didn't expect that ark was able to find all that form a little bit of aura. But he doesn't care anymore.
Then he says
"I came here alone to avenge my sister Anora. Yeah, maybe you know her. She was a one-in-a-trillion genius, and you killed her. She was the one who held our family together. Now our family is breaking apart, and I only see it as fair, that yours also breaks apart."
He puts his hand over the cube, and a red aura starts to cover his body. As the aura travels all over his body, he says:
"This is the Dimension's Eater. It can even eat a Dimension core, and then you can use this energy however you want. Let's say you want to use your full power even if you are in the lower Dimensions. You could use the energy from the cube to fight the rejection of the dimension. Of course, I couldn't feed the cube a dimension core because I didn't find any, but I fed it a lot of life force—trillions and trillions of planets, most with life on them."
"And this red aura will allow me to fight for about ten minutes at full strength, while you will only be able to fight at negative power levels. I really want to see how you will manage to fight me in that state. And if you try to raise your power level, I wonder what will happen to that little girl in your arms. Will she just explode, or will she suffer slowly? And all because of you."
Ark looks at him and asks:
"So you knew that I would save the Earth, and that is what you counted on. You knew that this is where we would come to be at the end. But why do you have Melody trapped?"