The Villain's Story

Chapter 838: Alan Peccator: Origin.

The memory he assumed to be his first was strange, it popped up in his dreams when he was back on Earth, and it was one of the few dreams he had a hard time remembering.

Because it was so strange. It wasn’t the usual type of his dreams where he was witnessing Aranus battling a Supreme, or even a vision of James. It wasn’t the first of his strange dreams either, and neither was it the last, but it was definitely the most... impactful, so to say.

Furthermore, it came during a period where Alan was troubled with his nightmares, unable to get any proper sleep and mentally stressed. It was like a breath of fresh air, a moment of respite for his mental peace.

In that dream, he was nothing but a small blue ball, a small blue ball barely flickering in and out of existence, in an unknown space, in an unknown state. For a brief moment, despite his difficulty in breathing, despite his lack of awareness of the surroundings, his subtle vision...

He felt happy in that dream, It was calm, peaceful... and nice. It was a kind of dream that, despite the fact that he couldn’t recall it as clearly as the others... it was always there. If he tried, he would remember it, although it would still be hard to distinguish it.

He had two kinds of dreams, mostly. The first and foremost was the memories of Aranus, most of these were of fights or either the visions of the Abyssal conscience. These types of dreams were the most common. In some of these, Aranus would even converse with him. It was this kind of dream that had given him his most powerful skill as well.

[Possession], the ability to manifest Aranus himself for a few moments. It was a power that could let him fight against any odds, literally. Although, the cooldown was ridiculously long. It was the most powerful skill in his arsenal.

The other type of dreams was about James, either of his life back in his own universe, of how he became who he was, and later on how he lived in this world in Aranus’s body, much like he was doing now, or he was controlling ’Alan’s’ soul. Where he was nothing but a puppet being maneuvered by strings.

These kinds of dreams were always vague and difficult to understand. They were... scarce, special even.

However, That dream was something else. That was what he had been led to believe. In the dream where he thought was the first occurrence of his birth... he was silent but happy.

It was a place where he was nothing but a ball of blue light, and where he struggled to open his eyes. And even when he did, he mostly never saw anything but faint darkness. Nevertheless, it was a calm and special dream.

Now that he knew of his Unique Skill, he was certain he was right in some aspects. That was his birth. That was when [Dominatus] had been born, and in turn, he was as well.

It was the moment his unique skill introduced itself in the universe, and how it gave shape to him as well... But this dream wasn’t sunshine and rainbows all the time.

His state as a blue ball of light suddenly changed in the latter half of this dream, however. The scenery suddenly to changed to a blinding red light, where ’he’ was sent flying away by a powerful force. He could vaguely see vegetation below his feet, and in the end, his burned body landed on a beach.

That was when the pain had kicked in, the body, which was but a puppet being maneuvered by someone, didn’t feel pain... But Alan Peccator did, for it was the very moment of his birth, he felt pain.

The first feeling in his life wasn’t happiness, nor sorrow, nor the sensation of another. Only the pain of burning flesh. That was the origin of Alan Peccator.

The only solace at that moment was the sea beyond the beach. It was the first sight he saw, and the only thing that helped him remember that dream.

That was where the dream had originally ended, but it was the last time he would see that dream. He would see it once more, but that instance would give him more clues.

More clues of the origin of his birth.

The second time he had encountered that dream, he had realized what happened fully.

That dream belonged to the second type of dreams, those showing the story of James Smith, that dream happened during the time when James soul collapsed and Aranus had manufactured another soul to be puppeteered by him.

A total of five hundred and forty-four iterations had occurred. The Sacred Treasure of the Dragons, The Chalice which could manipulate time, had been used to rewind the universe a total of five hundred and forty-four times.

Out of these, Aranus had personally undergone through three hundred iterations. For three hundred times, he had fallen to the Abyssal Conscience. It was a losing battle anyway, the Abyss had Aranus under a contract of the soul. All he could do was delay the inevitable. He would always fall in the end, and the Abyss would resume his plans.

In these iterations, due to the special contract, death was not the end to the chaos, merely the beginning of it. You could kill Aranus when he was young and inexperienced, but doing so would only allow the Abyss to take control of his soul and hide until ’Aranus’ could gain enough power.

It was simply how it would go, the moment Aranus had signed the contract... He lost all chances of winning. That was why he went to the drastic measures of calling another soul to reside in his body. Something that had never been done before.

And that was James Smith. That was the first time James Smith had been called to the universe. His own story of reincarnation.