Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

"You know, trusting voices is a fifty-fifty gamble since you never know what might happen." Sun Wukong muttered after Zack had finished telling him about the voice of the woman.

"I know that already but she had appeared the moment I had summoned Chastiefol in this life. She had also given me a jewel called the 'Jewel of Yggdrasil'."

"Wait, what did you say?" Wukong asked while slightly parting his eyes as Zack suddenly changed his words.

"She gave me a jewel called the 'Jewel of Gradsil'."

"I see. What does it do?" Wukong asked as his expression turned to normal.

[ Why did you do that? ] Lance asked in confusion as Zack shook his head.

'Don't ask any questions know. I am already beginning to question what is real and what is not so I can't take any risks or tell anyone anything unless and until I remember everything from the past.' Zack replied while sighing mentally.

"Wukong, why did you look so shocked when I first said the name of the jewel?" Zack asked aloud as Wukong smiled.

"I thought that you had said something else and if it had been that jewel then-" Wukong's voice was suddenly cut by a loud shriek.

Both of them exchanged a glance as they could tell that the shriek had belonged to a human. They immediately looked around but weren't able to see anything that was until someone came running out of the forest that surrounded the capital.

Zack and Wukong could see the figure running towards the capital from kilometers away. Their expressions suddenly turned grim when they realized that his right arm was missing.

The man shrieked once again as the duo flew forward while taking out their respective weapons. They were able to see the man's face after a few seconds and it was clear that he had just went through something traumatizing.

His face looked as though everything had crumbled right in front of him and he hadn't been able to do anything.

'Wait, why does he look familiar?' Zack squinted hard at the face of the man before he realized who the person actually was.

Though his hair had been disheveled, blood ran down the sides of his face and his right eye was swollen, Zack was sure that he was Aryan, an information broker he and Emma had met when they had been in search of information on the Henson family.

"So he really did help you. Sadly, that was a mistake on his part." A voice spoke happily before Wukong and Zack sensed the appearance of a new aura in the surroundings.

It had appeared so suddenly that it was almost as though it had appeared in the blink of an eye. It was similar to how a god would have appeared…

'Damn it…' Zack thought while clenching his hands into fists. Both he and Wukong realized that they had been lured into a trap by using Aryan as a bait.

They suddenly a god's domain opening around them as both them and Aryan were pulled into a new environment.

"Damn it… Its Uriel." Wukong muttered as he and Zack stood in the middle of a battlefield or rather, a village that had turned into a battlefield.

Houses burned with flames that continued to rage all around the place. The cries of children echoed around the entire place as their parents rushed around trying to take them to safety.

Men dressed in heavy battle armor clashed together before someone moved through the  party of one side at the speed of lightning.

The person's movement was barely a flicker as he managed to kill the entire squad in one second and vanished.

But as the bodies of the men fell down on the ground, the wail of a five year old was suddenly heard. In front of Zack's eyes, a child ran towards one of the bodies wildly as he sat down and hugged the body of a man.

Zack felt as though someone was piercing his heart with a needle as he realized that the man was the child's father who will never wake up to be with his child again.

His eyes then turned to the other side as he saw the men from the opposite army going around the village and killing the remaining survivors.

They didn't discriminate between anyone and killed all humans mercilessly.

Zack felt his heart contracting when he saw someone kill the same five year old and the body of the child crashing right beside his father's.

Blood flowed down the streets and made the entire place blood red as Zack's breathing started to increase.

[ Zack, this is not real! Its not happening! ] Lance suddenly shouted through their connection but Zack didn't seem to hear him or at least that's what Lance had thought.

"You remember it now, don't you?" The masculine voice from earlier asked sadly as someone placed a hand on Zack's shoulder.

He turned around to see a man with ice white hair cut short in soldier style. The man's eyes were pit black and seemed to be like a never ending blackhole, reminding Zack of someone he had met in the past.

The man was wearing casual trousers and a white shirt which outlined his slightly muscled body. He looked like one of the men you might meet on the street and think 'why am I not good looking like him?'.

"I…" Zack tried to refute but the man shut him up by lifting his index finger to his lips.

"Turn around and see the destruction you caused in the name of justice. The things you did just to satisfy a few bunch of gods and to ensure that you didn't have any enemies in the future. Innocent lives didn't matter to you." The man said before turning Zack's head.

The latter inhaled sharply as he saw dead bodies lining the ground, their eyes hauntingly staring at him.

[ Imma take over. ] Lance muttered as he tried to take control of Zack's body but failed in doing so.

The Phoenix suddenly felt as though someone had bound him in place using chains which was impossible considering the fact that Lance didn't have a physical form for the time being.

'Shut up, stupid Phoenix. My brother already killed you once and I will do the same thing myself.' The voice echoed as Lance recognized the owner of the voice.

It was none other than Uriel who was Lucifer's brother. However, the Phoenix felt like sighing as the angels were always one of the most hated of the gods.

He knew that including them in most things got repetitive and boring but keeping them out was difficult as well. Fortunately, Uriel and Lucifer were the only strong angels remaining.

The other strong gods had also decreased in number thanks to what happened in the past. Unfortunately, most of the remaining ones were enemies of Zack and the group and planned to kill them.

The example of such a god was right in front of them and Lance couldn't do anything about it.

"I… did all of this…" Zack mumbled in a dazed voice as his eyes were focused on the destruction he had caused.

The man, Uriel, grinned before turning his expression neutral and placing a hand on Zack's shoulders.

"Yes Zack, you did all of this. Its only fair if you pay the price for it, isn't it?" He asked in a soothing voice as Zack's eyes started getting misty.

Lance tried to scream but his voice was sealed off by Uriel, thus forcing Zack to fall deeper into Uriel's plan.

"So, what do you think the price or rather, your punishment should be?" Uriel asked with a grin as Zack's body started going numb. His brain was slowly loosing control and he could no longer think straight.

His thoughts were slowly vanishing along with his rationality as the fiery war scene was replaced by a mist filled land. Zack couldn't see more than two feet away but he no longer cared about that.

"I… don't know…" He replied to Uriel's question who faked a sad expression.

"I see. Then would you like me to guide you on the correct path so that you could pay for what happened?"

"I…" Zack had no words left to be spoken as he slowly began to nod. Uriel cackled inside as he used his powers to slowly make Zack fall further into his trap.

"Then I will proceed." Uriel's hand suddenly got ten times heavier as he started pressing it deeper into Zack's shoulder.

He placed his other hand on top of Zack's head and  started muttering a few words. Two white wings opened behind Uriel as his pit black eyes suddenly lit up with a spark.

But before he could finish his chanting, a sigh echoed around his domain.

"So I see that you still haven't change even after the killing of your brothers." Suddenly, Uriel's domain cracked as another domain invaded it.

Half of it was full of mist now while the other half suddenly changed into an open grassy field.

Uriel suddenly froze over as he recognized who the voice belonged to.

"Hephaestus…" His body froze over as Eva suddenly appeared right behind him and kicked his spine.

Uriel's body flew a few meters away before his wings managed to stabilize him. He smoothly landed on the ground and saw Eva's green eyes glowing with power.

A few strands of her hair were flying upwards as she had a blue metal spear in her hand. She threw it directly towards Uriel and as soon as the spear left her body, a man appeared in front of her and caught it.

The man had a chiseled tanned body alongside curly brown hair. His face was set in a serious expression as his green eyes were completely focusing on Uriel.

The man's body was buzzing with power as he muttered a few words under his breath and threw the spear again.

Symbols suddenly appeared all around the spear as it buzzed with power similar to what the man was oozing. Seconds later, the spear burst into orange flames as Uriel gritted his teeth.

The angel then summoned a longsword and while grabbing it, lurched towards the spear. He swung the sword forward and the blade directly clashed with the sword.

Though the spear seemed to be losing the battle, the flames climbed over Uriel's body as the angel gritted his teeth and dodged back. Unfortunately, the flames had already climbed over his body and had already started spreading around.

"Damn you!" Uriel shouted while trying to put out the fire raging around his body.

"As if. Try picking on someone your own size, dumb angel." The man said with a grin as he dashed forward with the thought of knocking the teeth out of Uriel's mouth.

Eva on the other hand was not paying any attention to either of them as she was trying to wake up Zack. She tried every possible way of screaming but nothing seemed to be working.

"Lance, please tell me that at least you can hear me." Eva pleaded but no response came back.

Lance was screaming with all his might yet no sound came out or traveled in the form of messages. He had no idea what Uriel did but it seemed to be lasting even when the angel was busy fighting someone else.

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, WAKE UP ZACK!" Eva shouted inside Zack's left ear yet it didn't have any effect.

The red head felt like sulking but she managed to pull herself up and took a deep breath. She turned in the direction of the man and Uriel to see the two of them fighting in close range.

The man kept on summoning pieces of metal one after the other in different forms as his weapons clashed with the single longsword Uriel had.

Eva knew that the stalemate was going to last much longer so she decided to use the last way she had left of waking up Zack.

Eva moved forward and…