Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

Zack was calmly sitting on top of the mansion while looking all around. The only ones present in the entirety of Doogle mansions was him and Mia while the others were inside Hikari.

It was a surprise how people were ready to leave despite everything Zack and the group had done to make sure that they lived.

[ Humans were, are, and will be like this unless they get wiped out. You know it better than anyone else Zack. ] Lance muttered as Zack sighed while standing up.

He felt a new sort of tiredness wash over his body as he jumped to the ground from the top of the mansion. For some reason, he felt as though something big was about to happen soon.

He had had the same feeling numerous times in the past few weeks and all of them had been correct. If Zack went ahead by the same theory then things wouldn't be that great.

[ Well, what's the worst that can happen. You have many of us with you so there is no reason to be terrified of the future. If I speak in Sun Wukong's style, then we can always  YOLO this. ]

'I guess its true except the fact that we have lived multiple times. No one just realizes it.' He sighed while remembering about the theory he had come up with.

Zack was sure that there was more to his past then he knew and when the truth would come out, it would shake the world.

'Well, I have fought too many wars till now so I guess I can still keep doing it.' He thought before sighing again and decided to check the rankings.

However, the leaderboard screen didn't appear in front of him. Zack felt surprised as he then went to the forums only to find out that no such thing existed anymore.

Zack tried to access it manually by opening his status and going to the forums column from there. However, a golden sun symbol had replaced the forums button which made him frown.

[ Looks like they bought the forums. Ha… don't tell me that the Golden Dusk organization is behind the creation of Hikari… ]

'Lance, please don't fill my head with your conspiracy theories. I am already having trouble believing things as they are and I don't need conspiracies running inside my mind.' Zack announced as he pressed the sun symbol and a new window opened up.

"To access the forums, you must be a member of the Golden Dusk guild. No information would be provided to you otherwise." Zack muttered in disbelief as Lance's theory started making more sense.

He shook his head once to clear up his thoughts and decided to ask about this from Mia.

"Huh? I can open the forums easily." She suddenly spoke as she popped right beside Zack.

The latter didn't pay any attention to that as Mia had opened the forums right in front of him. As expected, the entire thing had been changed by GD guild.

Starting from the top, the name of the forums was now changed to Golden Dusk forums while all the topics posted on the forums were from members of the guild.

Almost half the topics were related to Zack and the Red dawn guild. Zack was about to scroll right through them when he paused and suddenly found two names that he had forgotten about.

"Jack and Marcus…" he muttered in a dazed tone as he saw the names of the two alchemists appear in the list of captains posted by the official account of the guild.

[ Wait, are those THE Jack and Marcus from our time? ] Lance asked in disbelief but Zack had no idea what the Phoenix was talking.

Lance decided to share some of his thoughts with Zack. The latter fell into a valley of shock as he realized the truth about Marcus and Jack.

'Lance, couldn't you have told me that beforehand?' Zack asked in a neutral tone as the Phoenix faked a cough.

[ I didn't remember that until you read their names. ] He replied before going radio silent as Zack pushed his hair back while taking a deep breath.

'Then does that mean that they were keeping an eye on me in my last life too?' Zack didn't have an answer to his own question as he suddenly said his goodbye to Mia and  flew away.

He decided to take a trip towards the ocean as his thoughts were running wild.

'It was a long planned betrayal…'

Jack and Marcus were actually two individuals who had been alive  at the time of Zack's first life and they were still alive. They had moved through the timelines like many others and had been keeping an eye on him.

But the biggest surprise of all time was the fact that the two of them were Mystlofiaco and worked with GD. This meant that they had never really been Zack's friends.

[ Zack, calm down. The world is not ending, at least not yet. ]

'Lance, what if the others are spies too? How can we trust any of our teammates now without knowing that they are really on our side or not?' Zack asked back and Lance had no reply.

Since he believed in conspiracy theories, Lance couldn't decline what Zack had said. After all, Jack and Marcus had been alive this entire time and they had easily managed to fool Zack into believing that they were his friends.

Suddenly, a new theory entered Lance's mind as he remembered about Ezio and Akuma.

[ Zack, what if they are being controlled the same way Ezio and Akuma were being controlled? ]

Hearing Lance's words, Zack suddenly stopped flying as he stared down at the ocean. He realized that his words could be true or that it could be a betrayal and nothing could be confirmed unless and until he personally met the two of them.

Zack slowly moved down towards the water as he looked at his reflection staring back at him. Perhaps it was an illusion, a trick of his mind or something else but the reflection in the water suddenly looked exactly like Zack's past version.

The color of his past self's hair and eyes continued to change alongside his expressions. It was as though the reflection didn't know what was the best for it and it kept on shifting.

"You wonder what you are and which version of you is the true self. You have been through multiple roles, changing yourself with time and situations but you never had the peace and time to discover who you really are. Isn't that right, Zack?"

A gentle voice echoed inside Zack's mind before he suddenly realized who it belonged to.

"The woman in the green dress…" He mumbled while remembering about the time he had summoned Chastiefol in his current life.

The same voice had entered his ears and he remembered seeing the vanishing image of a woman in a beautiful green dress.

Moments later, he was reminded of the woman named Majana who he had met while going to the border of the kingdom in search of Ezio.

The entire incident entered his mind at once as he hastily looked around but saw no one.

"I am not here Zack but the jewel is still with you. Though its not in your inventory, it still lives on with you. Three gods are about to descend into the world of Hikari and they need your help to fight them."

The voice said again as Zack's eyes widened. He immediately turned back and flew towards the mansion. His speed was extremely quick as he managed to cover the distance easily.

He reached it within a few seconds as the voice chuckled.

"You still worry about others more than yourself even with half of your emotions sealed. I guess that's why you are known as the cursed protector." The voice then paused before saying one last line. "May you regain what you lost."

Zack felt the presence of the voice vanishing again but he didn't care about that. The appearance of three gods was no joke especially considering that they were coming for Zack and his team.

The thoughts of Jack and Marcus had long since left his mind as he instead focused on the unsealed memories that had entered his mind due to the voice.

'One after the other, my life never runs out of things to worry me with.' He thought while clenching his teeth as he settled down in the gaming pod and told Mia about his departure.

Lance also separated from Zack without saying anything since he didn't know what he should say anyways. He too logged in beside Zack as the two of them appeared inside the room in the palace again.

Zack immediately contacted Sun Wukong and dashed out of the room before combining together with Lance.

He also summoned Chastiefol and his other weapons as he moved out of the palace and appeared at the edge of the capital.

Zack was barely a flicker and no one present at the palace had even sensed his presence. Zack also had to play around with the settings of the guild a bit so that none of his guild members could sense him.

At the same time, he realized that Marcus and Jack had left the guild long ago and he didn't even realize. Zack gritted his teeth at this before he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

It was pretty clear who the hand belonged to as Zack turned around to see Sun Wukong standing behind him with a grim expression.

"What you told me is the truth?" He asked while looking around as to see whether anyone else was listening or not.

"I don't know if its true or not but one thing is for sure. Three gods are more than what either of us can handle…"