Hero Regresses with Villain System-Chapter 31: Gentle Dark

My child...

You live quite the pained life.

It...

saddens me.

To see you hurt, pained and confused. I wish that I could reach through the darkness and caress you. But alas, that is not my design.

I am the mother who never consoles.

I am the mother who eats as she pleases.

I am the mother who knows not her children...

Until after I’ve eaten them.

’And I really don’t give a shit.’ Adam thought as he continued to glare at her.

Once again, it seemed as though the creature in front of him enjoyed this. As if it thrived off of anger.

Yes... I see that, child.

I feel your pain and your anger.

I wish I could make it pure, that I could make you powerful.

But alas, that is not my design.

I am merely a reflection. I am merely the mirror of mortality, a representation of life’s greatest failures.

As the eyes stared back at him, 8 white dots in an otherwise pure dark, Adam felt an unimaginable horror envelope his being.

This creature in front of him... it was transforming. It grew hands first, then a torso and legs. Finally, a smiling face completed the nude silhouette of a girl.

Darkness covered her for a second, and when it dissipated Cynthia was standing right in front of him. Not the innocent one he had gotten back after he regressed or the one hardened by the apocalypse.

The Cynthia standing in front of him right now had a giant hole in her chest, where Enjiro had stepped through her. And behind her, another shadow formed as it placed its hand on her shoulder.

’Faye...’

Adam looked at this transformation as the horror took on the shape of those who died right in front of him. Cynthia died because he was weak, and Faye died because he was inexperienced.

And now, looking at them, he felt a new anger rising from within. This one wasn’t directed to the horror in front of him, but rather a far worse place—within.

If he had just been a little stronger...

Neither of them would have ever died.

Yes, you see it my child?

Faye said as she walked forward and caressed his cheek. She stared intently into his eyes, those usual bright twinkle replaced with an insidious pure white.

Feel the anger. Let it burn you so that you may come out stronger on the other side.

Focus on it.

Focus on your complete failure.

The Faye in front of him offered a small smile before whispering, "You killed me, too."

As the accusation fell on Adam, his chest constricted. Breathing became harder and harder and he dug his nails into the palm of his hand as he tightened his fists.

Was the thing wrong?

Wasn’t it some bullshit ineptitude that got them killed before?

Yes.

’But things are different now.’ Adam thought as he turned his arm into a sword, focusing all of his anger into striking the thing impersonating his best friend.

Schwing!

The sword rang true, embedding itself halfway through her chest.

Adam took a step back, wondering what would happen next. The second he had struck the fake Faye, Cynthia had disappeared. Faye still stood there, staring in shock. However, as far as he could tell he had killed the beast.

The pure white in her eyes had gone, turning into a muted gray. Her head hung limp, as if whatever force that had held her up was gone.

Looking around, Adam saw that he was alone with it. Wherever Henry and Natalie were taken, he would have to find them.

’Whatever this place is, it must not have been tied to her then.’ Adam mused, looking around at the vast, expansive and monotonous black.

Now that he had killed his nightmare and his crew was nowhere in sight, Adam was alone. Alone with a dead Faye.

Adam closed his eyes as the deafening hammer of bullets tore through his mind. The sickening squelch of a body obliterated by them, and the desperate fight for life that ensued.

He wished that he never had to live through that in the first place. He wished he had never failed her that badly.

Sighing, Adam returned his gaze to the dead Faye.

Maybe it was the brief but eternal loneliness in this Gentle Dark that pushed him toward her. Or maybe it was the simple, unavoidable call of some greater force in the universe.

Either way, when Adam looked at Faye, he felt his entire being become compelled to move. As if he’d die if he didn’t know.

When he did, when he reached her and began caressing her cheeks, he noticed something awful.

Warmth.

Child... you pained me.

Faye raised her head under Adam’s guidance, revealing that her Grey eyes had now become red. A low, tantalizing red that was irresistible for any man.

Adam lost himself in those eyes that revealed everything. Death, life, love and fear. He saw the worst events in his life right after the best. As if it was showing him everything he had lost.

And he had lost a lot. In fact, there was a time he had lost everything. There was a time the apocalypse had taken away everything from him.

As he stared into those eyes, his entire body had begun trembling. The apocalypse... that damned tragedy... it had taken away everything from him.

It needed squashed, beaten, exterminated. The Kaiju who caused it needed exterminated. Every last one that was still breathing needed to die.

The people who turned worse to worst, they needed to die.

Adam’s whole body trembled at the very idea of the apocalypse happening again. His body filled with murderous rage as his arm subconsciously turned into an array of different weapons.

Knives, axes, swords... whatever would help him cut through everything.

Yes... the apocalypse pains me too...

Faye smiled at him as she took note of his rage, drawing him in deeper and deeper. She took his head and held it down so that their foreheads touched.

Yes... he felt it.

When he touched her, he felt the endless pain Faye felt. The endless grief and suffering the apocalypse had caused.

Endless screams of anguish and torture ravaged his mind. The cries as a mother mourned for her child, a brother for his sister, a lover for his partner.

He felt the mutual connection, the shared hatred for this tragedy. The more he trembled in rage and pain, the more Faye held him tighter.

As if she refused to let him go, refused to let him experience that pain again.

Even though he needed to, if he ever wanted to stop it entirely.

Because the being in front of him wasn’t Faye, because it wasn’t compassionate.

It didn’t want the apocalypse to end because it wanted people to be saved. It wanted more people to eat.

’Because it thrives off of anger...’ Adam thought. Faye’s instant squirming confirmed as such for him.

He had assumed so from the beginning, when it had deliberately created those painful visions that enraged him to the point of insanity. However, when he had redirected his rage to it, he noticed something strange.

For a second, he had actually damaged it.

It wasn’t offering comfort. It was using the apocalypse to entice the most amount of rage from Adam as it could.

And if he wasn’t so resolved to fixing everything, that would’ve worked.

"Out of all the parts you fucked up, Mother, taking the place of Faye was easily the worst." Adam muttered with pure malice as he changed his arm into a sword yet again.

Faye jumped back from her self imposed embrace, dissolving into some thick, black goo as she did so.

Adam paid no mind to this, as he simply walked forward with his sword drawn and anger rising. Who the fuck did this being think it was, to use Faye against him?

Even though the being was reduced to a pile of goo, it’s fear was more than obvious. As Adam walked to it, the goo moved away as quickly as it could.

Adam didn’t care, because after he had ’killed’ it the first time he had noticed something else—why he couldn’t see the others.

Each of them were in a sort of room, locked from each other by this cowering being. It was in a prison of its own design.

Therefore, as the goo pressed against the wall and continued to try and flee, Adam only continued walking.

For a second, he wondered why a horror such as it would feel this much fear. Wasn’t that unbecoming of a near godlike entity?

But then he realized. It had been freely eating on others anger for millenia. Of course, it was only used to food. It was only used to hunting.

But now, it had become prey. Now, the creature of the Gentle Dark was caught by Adam’s shadow.

And then, it was no more.