THE VILLAIN'S POV Chapter 743: Beyond Redemption (2)
Previously on THE VILLAIN'S POV...
His determination shone through—he was set to bear it all.
This scene played out right in front of Nameless, who observed quietly, completely understanding the intensity of Frey's willpower.
For some time, he stayed silent... watching closely, examining the way Frey held up under the strain.
Then, after a span that wasn't overly drawn out or rushed, the man in the mask at last broke the quiet.
"Are you certain?" Nameless questioned, yanking Frey back into the gore-drenched reality again, gesturing below.
"Can you really handle this?"
"Examine them closely.
Gaze upon them... and speak those words right to their faces."
With that, Frey's fist tightened.
He held back from protesting... knowing full well the gravity of his impending choice.
Gradually, he dropped his gaze... and eyed them for one final moment.
A good number of those bodies were Ultras troops or demons... beasts guilty of endless horrors, creatures worthy of demise.
Yet plenty more...
They were just regular fighters... slain by Frey in moments amid the conflict.
Their sole fault lay in hailing from the opposing realm.
Simple folks... who had navigated existence much like anybody.
"You're prepared to shoulder this since they hold no value to you... right?"
Nameless murmured near Frey's ear.
"That's the essence of humanity.
You base your existence on bias."
"Provided they're not near me...
Provided they don't signify anything to me...
Even if they're blameless, it's acceptable to exploit them for my gains."
"That idea," Nameless uttered softly,
"flashed through your thoughts."
Frey kept quiet.
For Nameless spoke the truth.
"You weighed all these spirits on one pan of the balance...
And the existences of your cherished ones on the opposite."
"Abraham Starlight.
Ada Starlight."
"Versus myriads of the deceased—a ridiculous matchup.
Still, the balance swung to those who counted for you."
"Do Abraham and Ada Starlight merit existence more than these spirits merit redemption?"
"Naturally not."
"Yet you picked your father and sister regardless...
Driven by prejudice, not fairness or parity."
To the last, Frey Starlight found no reply.
Since all Nameless declared rang true.
He had flawlessly unraveled the core of human essence.
Frey was eager to withstand...
To torment myriad spirits...
To incinerate them...
Solely to rescue those dear to him.
"Yet..."
For an instant, it seemed like the world halted.
As though the very atmosphere turned icy.
In those brief ticks, Nameless's gaze flickered with shadowy gleam as he posed his query:
"Using these very hands of yours...
Precisely who did you slay?"
"Were they solely foes?"
"Confess to me...
What atrocities have your hands actually wrought?"
Nameless drew nearer while he and Frey fixed their sights on the contorted remains underneath.
"What are you getting at...?" Frey murmured lowly—incapable of lifting his tone.
His pulse quickened.
A chilling dread seeped into him.
A wicked, frightful chill.
His torso constricted.
Inhaling turned agonizing.
Frey sensed it...
He had missed something vital.
Something essential.
Something dreadfully key... that had slipped his mind.
"Examine them intently, Frey," Nameless urged, his tone bearing down more firmly.
"Declare what you perceive."
"Recall... the deeds your hands performed."
"Recall... whom did you eliminate?"
As each instant dragged on...
Each tick... each moment...
That foreboding chill intensified.
For a split second, it appeared the scene had iced over—progressing sluggishly.
The remains kept stacking atop each other, grasping frantically at Frey.
High above, he and Nameless lingered—beholding.
Then, bit by bit...
After gazing sufficiently... after plunging into that infernal void...
Frey at last recalled.
He recalled the single detail he had let fade.
Bit by bit, his eyes grew wide.
His mouth quivered.
His core fractured.
Within the heap of remains... far below...
One form stood out.
Only one.
And it sent shudders through every part of Frey's frame.
It appeared much like the rest.
A ravaged form.
Its torso ripped apart... impaled by an object that had driven clean through.
Crimson flowed ceaselessly from the gash, trickling nonstop under every dragging motion.
Its visage contorted... part mortal, part beastly and deformed.
Drenched in gore, grimy to the extreme.
And still...
Frey knew him.
And right then...
It was like a fragment within Frey broke apart.
His heart thrashed fiercely.
His thoughts emptied.
All his steadfastness...
All his drive to resist...
Vanished in a flash.
Nameless's inquiry had been apt.
Frey Starlight had felled numerous over his days.
His targets were invariably adversaries.
But those gore-covered hands weren't drenched solely in foe's lifeblood...
They bore the stains of kin's blood too.
The lifeblood of one he had dispatched personally...
And shoved far into his recollections.
And presently...
That individual dragged toward him, limb extended...
After enduring torment without end, denied any respite.
Frey Starlight hadn't forgotten.
As fresh as if it were last eve.
He hadn't forgotten that dusk—the dusk he slew his comrade.
The one akin to kin.
That dusk, his comrade had grinned at him...
Urging him to conclude it.
But now...
That grin had vanished.
Supplanted by a distorted countenance scarred by agony...
A countenance pleading its comrade for deliverance.
For a breath, it seemed the rest of the world faded away.
As if just the pair endured.
"...Danzo," Frey breathed... his tone soft, shaking.
The epiphany arrived far too tardily.
And Frey grasped the utter terror of his actions at last.
That bloodied form was his comrade's...
The one felled by his strike.
By ending him, Frey had convinced himself... buried in his depths... that he had halted his pain.
He had compelled that belief, merely to avoid madness beneath the burden.
But his comrade had never gained solace.
He had lingered here all along... in torment.
The instant that reality hit...
The full torrent flooded Frey's psyche.
He was harshly pulled into actuality... And crumpled to the earth as a blazing fire erupted within his torso.
"Blaaaargh—ugh—!"
Frey retched... his gut's contents erupted, nearly including his own blood.
His frame shook without control.
His torso seemed ready to explode.
Tears he believed spent surged anew in his eyes.
A rasping cry ripped from his gullet as he fought for air.
"All this... time... he was..."
That warped visage seared into his thoughts.
"What did I do...?
What have I wrought... I..."
Frey ground his teeth... then pounded his fist against the surface underfoot.
"What did I do?!!"
He bellowed at full force... weeping as he sprawled.
How could he not...
Upon seeing he hadn't just brought his comrade's end...
But had doomed him to perpetual agony thereafter.
It proved the ultimate strike...
The one that demolished his steadfastness entirely.
Nameless had witnessed the entirety.
He had foreseen this from the start.
The instant Danzo joined the opposing pan,
The notion of bias... the bedrock of mortal verdict... crumbled utterly.
No purpose lingered in it.
This marked the bane of sentiments.
A bane Nameless had never known.
But now...
Nameless gradually lifted his palm.
His form stayed composed—serene as ever.
But one palm...
That palm quivered.
Nameless regarded it.
Then the shattered Frey.
Then the ocean of remains... where Danzo rested.
And gradually...
Nameless balled his fist.
Allowing the shadows to engulf all.
"..."