The Wanderer - 267 (Patreon)

Chapter 267 – Bloody Ruins

[2009 – October – Saturday]

The air seemed saturated with a humid yet metallic smell, dripping sounds echoing ever so faintly in the surroundings while the broken lights flickered ominously.

If any other living creature were to be present, it might very well suffer a serious mental breakdown and irreversible trauma but at this point, there was not a living soul in the secret base besides Arya and me.

Blood painted the damaged grey concrete red while broken limbs were strewn all around.

A faint bloody mist revolved around my figure slowly integrating with the Darkforce that hid within my every cell. My clothes and hair were caked with blood as were my hands and parts of my face.

The almost maddening killing intent in my eyes only seemed to clear up ever so slightly when I noticed that it was almost time for the sun to rise again after this night of slaughter.

Roiling Darkforce pulsed through my veins, its innate hunger for destruction having been fully awakened after I had just spent the large few hours bringing calamity to the largest HYDRA bases that I had sensed around the world.

Over forty bases had fallen at my hands while thousands upon thousands had died to calm my wrath. The scenes that I had left behind were akin to hell on Earth but I didn't care.

HYDRA thought that they could covertly capture Laura and use her for their experiments, thinking that their covertness, resources, and military strength were enough to shoulder the consequences of their actions.

In response, I had laid waste to almost a third of their bases to remind them of how delusional they were. I didn't even conceal myself nor did I bother to erase the possible surveillance recordings.

I showed them the true consequences of provoking a higher being, made them understand that when facing the likes of myself resistance was as meaningless as pleading for mercy.

Naturally, this was not the full extent of my revenge. The bloodbath that I had caused merely served to vent some of my anger as the full extent of the retribution that HYDRA had suffered was far beyond that.

With a single thought, I had spread an ethereal barrier around Earth and had found the monolith in a secret NASA research base, which was without a doubt the single most important object of this paramilitary organization.

Their oldest and most important goal had always been to allow Hive to return from his banishment, so I had simply taken the spatial coordinates from the monolith before destroying it and going to Maveth myself by tearing open a spatial passage with my own strength.

Killing Hive not only served to prevent future trouble but also to crush the most fundamental beliefs of his followers. They had wanted to harm my lover, so I had killed their 'god' in retaliation and bathed in the blood of their comrades.

Hive's demise had been a necessity, though it wasn't really personal given that he had been stranded on Maveth for millennia. He was undoubtedly the root cause for HYDRA's existence but he had no direct influence on their actions.

As an ancient being, he also sparked a glimmer of curiosity in my heart, so I had been relatively lenient with him and showed him a measure of respect before erasing him from existence.

None of the other members of HYDRA had deserved leniency though, for they had taken a direct part in accomplishing this organization's goals.

On the other hand, the leaders of HYDRA weren't yet aware of Hive's fate but I was sure that Gideon Malick would soon understand what had happened after he received news of the 'gift' that I had delivered to his mansion in Los Angeles.

Taking another breath of the saturated air, the moist bloody smell stinging my nose, I swept my glance over the bloody ruins around me indifferently while gaining a deeper understanding of my own malevolence and ruthlessness.

There might have been a reason behind my action but there was no excuse for what I had done, the countless lives that I reaped that night vividly displaying that I was not made out to be anyone's hero.

'A quiet person's anger, huh … ', I thought to myself, knowing that I wasn't a particularly wrathful or petty person.

I wasn't too surprised at how destructive my actions had been as I had known for some time now that I had great potential for malice. But seeing with my own eyes the massacre that had followed my anger, I was able to gain a deeper comprehension of my darker instincts.

Looking down at my bloodied hands, I felt no rejection or repulsion towards what I had done, even though I understood how inhuman my actions had been.

I still saw life and its endless transformations and permutations as something precious, the beauty of inexplicable change and enduring growth a wholly unique quality that was fascinating to observe.

But like a true demon, I could turn into a harbinger of disaster without flinching, extinguishing life and hope at whim.

I wasn't sure what that said about me as a person, a higher being that tried to preserve its humanity.

Could I ever be considered 'human' by any sense of the word when it was so easy for me to slaughter thousands of people with my bare hands while ignoring their cries for mercy and pleas for forgiveness? Was this something a human should be capable of doing?

My instinctual response to such a question was 'No' and part of me believed this to be the case. But another part of me couldn't help but ponder about what it really meant 'to be human'.

Even with my life experiences and the near-limitless power that I held in my hands, I didn't know the definite answer to this question as it was such a vague concept. I felt as if there should be an answer but at the same time, I couldn't grasp it.

Clenching my fists, I exhaled quietly and vanished from the ruined blood-bathed base and reappeared somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, tens of meters high waves crashing around me angrily.

I anchored myself to a position in the air just above the sea surface, facing the horrific storm calmly as the malice and coldness slowly vanished from my eyes. The crashing waves and heavy rain washed away the blood while Arya called out in naive defiance of nature as I protected her from the devastating natural forces.

Slowly, as if cleansing my very soul, the violent and untamed storm helped me regain my calm and clarity, my dark wet locks whipping around my face as a somewhat weary but serene look appeared in my eyes.

Human, demon, or god – none of it mattered, not in an absolute sense anyway.

I was walking my own path and as such I could only strive to be the best and freest version of myself. I wasn't sure what I would turn out to become but as long as I was still myself, it didn't matter if the world saw a demon in me or a god.

None of it would stop me from wandering the stars, seeing with my own eyes as the 'cycle' continued to revolve, destruction and creation forming an eternal equilibrium, strings of fate intertwining with each other.

Hidden in the depths of my eyes beneath the serene yet weary light, reflections of the untamable storm appeared as my thoughts sublimated and my presence became untraceable again as if fusing with the raging waves and icy wind around me.

From a murderous demon, I turned back into Elijah Frost again, and in the next moment, I vanished, returning home.