(AN: so here we are back again in chapter 2 of Ophis: The Autarch of Helghast Shinobi. First, i want to say thank you to everyone who give their support for this story i really am grateful for the supports you give to me. Secondly, about the story I will... you know what? just read it i don't want to spill it for you)
Story start!
Two figures stand side by side watching the dusty colored sky. One figure stood 6'4" tall wearing black robe covering all of his body, a bandana that cover all of his head, and wearing a white mask with Kanji letters for 'Regret'
"Regret, did master always take this long to mourn her family" a feminine voice asked him
Regret look to his right side to see his partner. His partner is a young woman with 5'8" tall, wearing the same black robe like him but with her hood on and wearing a white mask with Kanji letter for 'Suffer'
"Suffer, I wouldn't complain about our master mourning her family I mean, didn't she tell you her background?" the man replied
"Of course I know, Regret, I'm not implying that I'm complaining about this I just want to know how long she usually does this."
The taller man reply with a sigh "depends on how much she pent up her frustration. But, she usually finished in 2 or 3 hours. Aren't you supposed to know this?" the taller man gruffly asked
"Regret, for your information, I'm only serve under her tutelage for 8 years and you said a day earlier this is her annual 10 year to pay respect to her family, so this is my first time accompanying our master to this place"
"hehe you said 'my first time' hehe"
Suffer turn her head at the taller man giving him a look before rolling her eyes incredulously "perverted bastard"
"Jokes aside, Suffer, I will say get use to it. You know how she suffer from the regret of how her family died and the 'source' of the destruction of her home world will always make her heart filled with guilt" the taller man explained "that being said don't try anything to ease of her pain"
"Huh? Why? It's not healthy to let one individual trap oneself in continuous negative feelings. It will affect her mental state" the Suffer asked with worry. She really worries her master condition
"Oh trust me, I tried once and she wrecked me up badly" the taller man shuddered at the memory "and for your information, I didn't asked her for one-night stand or any bullcrap like that to forget her pain. I have too many respect for her as much I respect my former leader of my former home land and I'm not that kind of bastard who stoop so low to get into her pant while using such reason to get laid despite my 'unique' remarks"
The hooded young woman look at her partner 'Could've fooled me' she thought "then what did you do?"
"What's the first thing crossed in your mind when I said 'wrecked me up badly'?"
Suffer look at her partner once again before widen realization "you were either brave or foolish to challenge her for a fight" Suffer shook her head "you know you could've just give a advices rather than challenge her"
"Hey, in my defense, I thought she need to wreck something to release her stress and I'm not good at comforting people so I uh… offered a spar with her" The taller man said sheepishly
"You know how destructive her power can get and you let yourself -voluntarily if I might add- be her punching bag. What are you a masochist?"
The taller man chuckled "well I always wanted to be chain up to bed and getting-"
"Nope! I'm not listening! I'm not listening! I'm NOT listening to your screwed up fantasies!" Suffer quickly cover her ears and started walking away from the taller man
Said man now laughing at his partner reaction but his expression change when he heard a tone from inside his robe. PDA was pulled from inside his robe before he look at the PDA
"Suffer, It's almost the time" Regret's voice change into one of professional
Suffer who was walking away from him stop and turn back to the taller man she too change her tone to one of professional "really? Wow times sure flies fast" she said
The man replied with a nod "let's go"
"On it" she replied
A second later both individual vanished from their position leaving an electrical crackling and purplish-black trails
~Ouroboros~
Immortality
To put it simply, the ability to live forever
To some people, such ability is a tempting gift. Imagine you can live for… well forever achieve anything human cannot accomplish in several decades, learn any knowledge existed in the world, master every martial arts existed in the world, become a billionaire, develop your own Half-life 3, you name it and you got an eternity to achieve such achievement without the need to worry about disease, poison, injury or any assassinate attempts on your life to hinder your goals
But to some people, it's a curse. You may have all eternity to achieve your ultimate goal but, did your precious people share the same ability? Said immortal may go crazy due to untold amount of time passing, boredom and forced to watch those who didn't share the same ability to die especially if the one who died is the immortal's precious person
Love
It's… complicated. some people it's a wonderful feeling when you romantically attracted to opposite sex, some say it's an art, some say it's Joyous feeling, Some say it's an ultimate weapon, some say it's an electrical disturbance when a boy and a girl shake their hands, and many more
One thing for sure, Love is one thing should be never experienced by any Immortal being -unless you're a god or a god representing love- should a… Inexperienced immortal –whether it's a god or human with nigh-immortality- being in contact with this emotion they tend to cling to this emotion as if their lives depend on it and when they lose their precious people said immortal's curse will eating them up and it will multiply several times worse when love is in the mix
As Ophis learned the hard way...
~Ouroboros~
It was a hellish view. That was the perfect word how to describe this scenery dark skies, ruined city covered in ashes, destroyed war machines burning to the ground, and dead bodies scatter all over the place. Wearing some sort of gothic Lolita outfit walk around limply while holding her bleeding stomach
"ISE! RIAS! KONEKO! GASPER! Where are you!?"
This is Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God searching for her family members who had been grown close for the last months. The last conflict with the Khaos Brigade's sub-faction, Hero Faction, has taken it's toll on Ophis as she was now severely weaken -but still not enough to kill her- dampening her ability to regenerate quickly
"ROSSWEISSE! KIBA! AKENO! ASIA! XENOVIA! IRINA! ANSWER ME PLEASE!" the dragon god raised her voice but received no responses
"MICHAEL! SIRZECH! AZAZEL! ANYONE!" but again she received no responses
Only silence
Ophis keep searching high and low for any survivors of this foolish war. A war started by the maniac named Rizevim Livan Lucifer the new leader of Khaos Brigade in order to conquer another dimension by unleashing the apocalyptic beast known as Trihexa
Well not anymore…
"KUROKA! VALI! BIKOU! AR-Oofff!" Ophis' word got cut off as she fall to the ground stumbled upon a dead body
"cough… cough… damn it how come I can't see a dead body in front of m-" her word died in her mouth as she turned around to see the face of the corpse of a familiar face those chestnut… pigtails... black combat suit
"IRINA!" Ophis quickly get up and rush toward Irina "Get up! Please get up! Don't you promise me to play card again after this is over!" Ophis now shaking Irina as she attempt to wake her "IRINA! Don't play dead with me! I know you're alive and you just want to mess with me" Ophis keep shaking Irina "COME ON WAKE UP!" but as she shout she notice something on Irina's body
A hole
A soccer ball size hole
On Irina's body… right where her heart located
"No…" Ophis said in realization. Irina's dead and there's nothing she can do about it
Ophis start to stand up and leave her friend behind, she need to find the others
Ophis search around again but this time she found the other quite fast 200 metres just north of Irina's position she notice another dead bodies with blue hair and green mesh prone beside a large blue blade with gold edges which is embed on the ground
"XENOVIA!" Ophis shouted as she quickly made another rush at Xenovia's position. Once she arrived she quickly turns Xenovia body around… and quickly regret her action
"NO! How could this happened! Why is this happening!" she was greeted by the sight of not only of dead Xenovia, but also the nasty wounds she had. Half of Xenovia's face was burnt leaving it unrecognisable and her right arm is missing
Ophis can only watch with her mouth agape as she tried to comprehend what happened in front of her "No… this can be happening… I-I don't…" Ophis can't speak to express this… horrible view so she rip some of clothes and covered Xenovia's face with it. When she's done, she stand back up again leaving Xenovia's body behind to search for the others with a heavy heart
2 hours later
"How could this happened!, How could this happened!, How could this happened!, How could this happened!, HOW COULD THIS HAPPENED!" Ophis thought furiously as her mind went back to recap her family situations and none of them were pleasant
"Kiba…" he was found lying dead with multiple stab wound and lacerations along with a sword embedded deep to his chest
"Akeno…" she was found dead with two pair of her Fallen Angel wing brutally ripped off
"Gasper" he was dead pierced with so many light spears from rogue Fallen Angels
"Koneko..." she along with Kuroka was found dead embracing each other
"Rossweisse…" so far she was the one looks experienced the worst death while her upper body still intact –albeit with multiple bruise and lacerations- her lower body… were burnt to ashes
"Asia" if Rossweisse experienced the worst Asia was the least from anybody. She was found dead while clutching her Bible
But most importantly
"Rias…" her mother-figure was also found dead lying on the floor with a pool from her own blood along with bruises, lacerations, and stab wounds.
Ophis now walking in auto pilot as her minds were having a breakdown keep replaying the scene of her death family members. She keep walking and walking and keep walking until she reaches a massive crater at the centre of the city
At the edge of the crater, she was greeted by the sight of two massive giants lying dead on the ground. One of them was a massive red dragon while the other was a beasts with a disfigured face along with the dead bodies of Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils alike
Ophis would've smiled victoriously knowing her rival was dead… but that if she didn't meet her family and still wanting to drive Great-Red out of her original home
Now?
"What have I done?" losing her strength Ophis fall to her knees "All I wanted to do was to kick that idiot red from dimensional gap…" she said with a depressive voice "but… In the end… I created monsters that unleashed death to everyone on earth"
Then something clicked in her head
She created the monsters
She created the blasted Khaos Brigade
She's the one who opened the Pandora box of this world
She's the one who created the monsters and let them do what they want and let them ravaged this world
And killed her family
That last statement caused Ophis to tear up and then cried when she realised she was the source of this apocalyptic event.
After she lost two-third of her power Hyoudou Issei, the current Sekiryuutei, offered her a place to call home. They didn't see her as a nuisance or the boss of Khaos Brigade instead, they see her as another member of their family and treat her just like that
And for the last few months she started to open up her feelings toward every member of Hyoudou household and much to Hyoudou household joy, they happily oblige to teach everything she need to know about being a family
It was all going alright
But everything changes when Khaos Brigade started their Campaign for multidimensional Invasion and shattered everything apart
And she let that happened because she didn't have an active role as their leader to keep those bastard on the line and caused the death of her family.
"Huh? What was that?" her pointy ears twitching as she heard some noises from afar her face quickly lighten up as the thought of another survivors come into her mind
She focused her remaining magic into her ears to heightened her hearing
"…"
Ophis sure she caught something but that was barely a whisper Ophis pump more magic into her ears
"s… a… ….o"
Again she can't barely heard the words. She put more again into her ears
"some… any…"
Now she can hear it even though it still partially heard. She put more magic again into her ears this time she double the amount
"Someone… Any one… Hell…o?" Ophis' eyes widened
She knew that voice. And she know where is it coming from.
Wasting no time, she jumps into the crater ignoring her injuries as she tumbling down to the bottom of the crater before she started running toward the centre of the crater
'Please be alright' she thought with concern. She didn't want to watch another members of her family dies
It hurt her
It hurt her so bad
She keep running and running until she reaches the source of the voice. When she arrive at the source she was greeted by the sight of a brown haired young man in a red colored draconic armour leaning his back on a sword embed to the ground behind him. He's missing an arm and there's a pool of blood on his stomach
"ISE!" Ophis exclaimed as she embraces him in a warm hug "you're alive"
"Ophis…" that's all Ise could say before returning the hug "you… okay?"
"I should be the one asking that question" Ophis retorted
"he he he... sorry…cough..." that's all Ise could say before blood starts pouring from his mouth
"Don't talk it'll only make it worse, let me heal you" she moves her hand over him but was stop by a bloody armored hand
"Don't… bother… Ophis...whether… you heal… me or not… I will… not survives this one…" Ise said weakly
"Don't say that! I WILL make sure you survive!" Ophis release her arm from Ise's hand and put hers above his stomach and concentrate her mana to form healing magic on her hand only to find out none of his wound healing
"Ophis… it's… no use…" he coughed some blood again "I will… not survive"
"No! you will Survive!, you survived against Cao Cao, you survived against the Evil Dragons, You survived against that bastard Rizevim and i will make sure you survives this Catastrophe!" she ranted
She concentrate more magic on her hands but to no avail his wounds not was healing
"Come on damnit! heal!"
"Ophis… Stop…"
"No, i won't stop!"
"Ophis… Listen… I-"
"No, you will live! I won't allow you to die!"
"Ophis… I will not surv-"
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT! I won't lose you like i lose everybody else!" tears start to rolled down her cheeks "everyboy dies Ise! Irina, Xenovia, Rossweisse, Gasper, Asia, Kiba, Koneko, Akeno, Rias, and more people I cared dies! you're the only one left Ise!" her voice start to waver "I don't want to lose you like I lose everybody else! so I WILL make damn sure you live!" she cried louder
Ise was shocked by the fates of his friends and lovers and stunted by Ophis reaction, for the first time in his life he saw Ophis cried and show compassion toward him. Maybe she started to opened herself but she still act like an emotionless drone with limited speech ability but now, she's like showing her true self
"...sob… Do you remember when… We shopping at the mall?"
That question made Ise smile, of course he remembered, it was one of the happiest moment he had with Rias and Ophis
"of course… I remembered… why?" his voice started to sound heavy
"when I… got lost… and the announcer made an embarassing announcement… I don't really mean it… sob… but when I told the announcer your as my father, Rias as my mother and the others as my sister...I-I really mean it." Ise was in a deep surprise.
She really mean it? Rias of course is a mother material but Ise?
'Am I really a good father? I'm a good for nothing pervert who had a massive fetish for breast and dreaming to become a Harem-King and she think I'm a father material?'
"So… please don't die... Ise tou-san..." She hug Ise in a gentle embrace and surprised Ise with the suffix she used "I don't want to lose you… sob... like I lose Rias Kaa-chan and my big sisters" she added as she starts to look up at Ise with teary red eyes
Ise look at her with a sad smile and then he proceed to kiss her forehead and return her hugs
"Thank you… for… seeing me as your father… despite… disgusting things… I've ever... done in… my life" he then turn his face to Ophis "but, I'm sorry Ophis-chan… looks like… this is my time… to go…" he said sadly
"No… please don't die tou-san… look, i can create another body from Great-Red flesh a-and i can transfer your soul to your new bo-" she desperately tried to convinced him
"That… won't work… Ophis-chan" he cut off "I used... all of my... life force on our last… attack against Trihexa…" Ophis shocked once more "my life force… has been… depleted you see… I'm still wondering… why am… I still… alive… when I'm supposed… to be... dead" Ise spoke as his breath is getting heavier and his eyes slowly lost all colours
Ophis eyes widened in horror at the revelation it looks like his father's fate has already set on the stone and there is no turning back
"No! No! No! No! No! No! NO!… Please tou-san… please… don't go… Don't leave me! PLEASE!" as if didn't want to let go, Ophis tightened her hug. Issei return her hug once more, this time Ophis can feel how cold his hand
"Ophis-chan?"
"Yes, Tou-san?"
"Do you... love... me?"
"...Sob… sniff… Y-yes… I do tou-san…"
"Then would you… listen to… my dying will?"
Ophis know her father's death is inevitable so, with that in mind, Ophis can only comply in sadness
"W-what is your will?"
"First… Never… ever… let our death… be a burden for you… secondly, don't… put… the blame… on yourself" Ophis quickly retort
"But I'm the one who let those… bastard caused this… this… madness! And… let… the other… di-" Issei quickly tightened his embrace on her preventing Ophis from finishing her sentences
"Don't…Ophis… don't… you didn't… mean this… to happen… you're just unfortunate… that there's… some madman… manipulated you… to achieve… their twisted goals" Issei said
Issei could barely hear the muffled voice of Ophis the can audibly heard as 'I'm sorry'
"And my… last will… live your life… to… the… fullest… My… lit...tle… dra...gon…" as the last word was said, Issei hand went limp to his side releasing his embrace from his daughter
"Tou-san?" Ophis asked but she got no response. She looked at Ise only to see a pair of lifeless eyes
"Tou-san?" Ophis repeated. She shook his body like she did with her dead mother and sisters hoping her father to wake up
"Tou-san? Please… wake up… don't leave me alone in here" She repeated once again only to receive the same response like the other dead bodies she found
Silence
At this point, Ophis can only hug her father once again and cried once more
Hyoudou Issei the Sekiryuutei, Pawn of Gremory's heiress, fiancee of Rias Gremory, Father of The Infinite Dragon God… just breathe his last breath
~oOO~
Ophis' eyes flutters waking up from the nightmare she just experienced 'again with those nightmares… the same nightmare that haunts me for years ' Ophis then stood up before looking back at her father picture once more
"i've tried fulfill your dying will like you asked, Tou-san, but even with my best shot i still can't stop blaming myself for your death" she said in depressive tone "As for living to the fullest... I have tried it tou-san, but somehow I feel incomplete… VERY incomplete, like quarterly completed jigsaw puzzles with the rest of the pieces are now gone… never meant to be found again" she look at the picture one last time before putting it back to her pocket
She went back staring at the dirtied sky once more as her mind replaying her happy memories with her family. That is until her pointy ears picked up some disturbance afar
As if on cue her sad face slowly morph into a cold one 'I told them not to bother me, is something going on?'
~Ouroboros~
"I specifically told you not to interrupt me Regret, Suffer." Ophis spoke in monotone her voice lack any emotions whatsoever "you better have a good reason interrupting me" her cold eyes lock at the tall figure
"Forgive our rudeness my master, but I believe I need to inform about our next schedule" Regret said as he and his companion kneel down in front of Ophis
"The next travel won't starts for another 2 hours so give me a damn good reason for interrupting my time" Ophis narrowed her eyes. She's really pissed off when someone interrupting her time alone
Deciding to take some of the brunt of their master anger Suffer speak up defending her partner "Master, if you hadn't notice, you've been gone for 5 hour and it's almost the time for our next travel"
Ophis blinked few times before she pulled a PDA from her pocket tapping several view times and notices that she really took her time too long to mourn
Ophis palm her face in exasperation 'I guess depression got me really hard this day' she thought as she put back her PDA back to her pocket, "Rise, my faithful servant, the fault is on me, I'm the one who lost track of the time"
Obeying their master order, Regret and Suffer rose from the ground
"So what are your order, Master?" Regret asked
"Go to dimensional gap and prepare the gateway for our next travel I'll join you in a few minutes" Ophis ordered
"Very well master, we'll prepare the gateway" as soon as he said that both Regret and Suffer surrounded by electricity and purplish black energy respectively before both of them vanished from Ophis sight
Ophis sigh she realised that she spent her time mourning too much. She didn't want that to happen because she still have much more things to do but sometimes she can't help it as that was the only thing she can do to reminisce her good old memories and reflect herself so she won't do anything stupid in the future
"Well I guess there's only one thing to do before I leave this place" Ophis turn around to prepare her last thing to do in this place
Flashback
"Sing?"
"Yes Ophis-chan we're going to sing at Karaoke bar at noon today do you want to come with us?" it was Irina asking the younger form of Ophis
"Why would you like to sing?" Ophis tilted her head
"Because we're going to fun together" Irina replied cheerfully
"No I, mean why would you like to sing? What is the purpose?"
Irina smile at the Dragon God "it's because to express ourselves Ophis-chan sometimes in order to express our desires, the perfect method to express ourselves by singing a song! And of course to have fun! Now do you want to come with us? Please? It will be fun you know with Ise-kun, Rias, Xenovia, and Asia"
Ophis seems to think about it but didn't take too long to give her answer
"I, would like to come"
Hearing Ophis' answer Irina jump in joy "Great! I'll inform the others! I will tell you this Ophis-chan, you will like it"
Flashback End
Ophis take a deep breath and exhale. She's going to sing a song to express her feeling she usually does this every time she finished her 10 year annual activity hoping to let out all of her frustration. For a simple activity it's quite effective to release stress
She take another deep breath and she starts singing with a slow pace
I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
'Cause your presence still lingers here
And it won't leave me alone
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me
Ophis close both of her eyes and the image of her family come into her mind as she sings the next verse of the song
You used to captivate me by your resonating light
Now I'm bound by the life you left behind
Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me
Now this is where the verse really express her heart she took another breath before she let it all out along with all of her heart contents
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me
I've been alone all along…
When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me
... ah, me... ah, me... ah...
As she finished, Ophis control her breath. She look at the dirtied sky once more but this time a small smile adorned her pale pretty face feeling some of her burden just leaving her body
"I will leave soon Tou-san, Kaa-chan, Nee-sans, Nii-sans… wherever you are… wish me up good luck for my next travel" Black energy starts to gather around Ophis few seconds later like her servants earlier, she vanish from where she stood leaving black trails behind
(AN: So, what do you think? is it good or bad? please leave me a review. Criticism is accepted, flame will be delete or i'm going to use it... for... my... excuse me for a moment *take tissues and start wiping my eyes* ingredient for my spiked propane tank. Rectha101 signing off)