As the timelines before him continued to expand outwards into infinity, Parasimon was left with his thoughts.
After a while, the visions and sensations bombarding him ceased to bother him; the conclusion he’d come to stuck with him, numbing him and trapping him deeper in his own thoughts than Moon=Millenniummon ever could have by itself.
This was it, then. Either death or an absolute failure that would condemn countless lives in his place; emotion escaped him, and he found himself fading out into oblivion as the infinite futures before him finally seemed to give way-
“Rho Aias!”
But then something cut through. He felt warmth surround him. And, as he came to from his mental stupour, he realized why.
Before him, he saw the events of the previous day; his almost-final stand against BanchoLeomon, the clash of Apocalypse and Brahmastra Kundala that had almost turned the grounds of the Knight’s castle into a gigantic salted wound in the earth.
Once again, he felt incomprehensible levels of pain as his eyes bubbled from their sockets and his vile black flesh began to burn up in the infernally hot air around him. But above all else, what he felt were the feelings that had been going through his head at that moment.
Accepting his fate; not resignation, but resolution.
---
Amidst the frozen figures assembled around Moon=Millenniummon, one joined several others in beginning to stir.
It was only slight at first; Parasimon’s many eyes, at first as clouded as any of the others still trapped, began to shake violently in their sockets. Even as the screaming, debris-filled winds around him viciously blasted over them, they continued to move about furiously-
And with a single pained blink of all those eyes at once, Parasimon let loose a scream of rage that seemed to cut right over the infernal sounds around him.
---
For a moment, Parasimon found himself returned to control of his body; and even as he was returned to the alien sensation of the timelines laid out before him, he felt the world begin to shake around him.
The epiphany hit him hard, his mind once again sparking off into a sudden wildfire that ravaged his temporal prison. So, it was him or the world? There was no other way that this could have ended! It hadn’t taken long after he’d been returned to lucidity from the screaming chaos of the Spirits bound to his body for him to realize the monster he’d become; even his violent mutation into his current form had only reinforced his resolve to serve Yggdrasil rather than cloud that realization. With a master to fight for, he had no choice other to fight on and live for his sake; but with Yggdrasil gone, what master could be greater than the salvation of the universe itself?
Him or the world? Even if he’d only achieve his own destruction, he’d gladly offer it up if it stalled Moon=Millenniummon for even a moment! He’d accepted his death already, but that didn’t mean he would go gentle into the night!
The world continued to shake. The visions of the future at first froze, and then began to crumble into static, burning away before him. Visions of the past came rushing in to replace them; the awful life he’d lead would haunt him to his final moments, but now they could do nothing to beat back his burning resolve.
Rather, it was the few spots of light in them that gave him the final push he needed.
He saw himself find his very first Spirit; and whilst it bode for terrible things to come, he remembered his joy as he shifted from his pathetic, parasitic form to the glorious body of Ardhamon, Warrior of the Sun.
He remembered the oath he’d sworn to Yggdrasil, to take up the duty of protecting the Digital World; and even as he realized what it had led to, he remembered his elation at having risen to join the ranks of the Knights themselves.
And finally, as gigantic cracks blasted through the static, he saw himself amongst new company. The people he’d struggled against with all of his might, regardless of their feelings towards him, accepted his help for this final task. He stood not only with the few remaining loyal Knights and the child of his that had stayed the course until the end, but with the foes that he had forged a mutual respect with.
With a triumphant, resolved battle-cry, Parasimon broke his prison wide-open. His eyes opened wide once more, full of fire as his vision cleared of the crumbling timelines that fell away in defeat, static shattering into pitch black and fading into silence as if he was finally awakening from a long dream.
---
Catapulted back into control of his body, sensation returned to Parasimon all at once as his mind reeled from its return to reality.
He found himself ready to fall, stopping his descent by grasping his spear and driving it into the ground. The sensation of control over his body almost overwhelmed him after what felt like an eternity trapped in his own mind; almost, as a moment later, he found his strength as surely as he’d found his answer, and rose to stand tall and defiant once more.
The screaming winds from before still raged, and his surroundings were smothered by red and black fog. But his mind was clear, and his eyes pierced through the thick veil to look around him. He could see no other shapes moving, only dark silhouettes lying or standing prone as they remained trapped. There was no time to wake them, no time to waste. All he could do was protect them the best that he could whilst they remained trapped; and so he turned to glare at the shape floating over the water in the distance. His resolve bidding him onwards for the final time, he returned to the world full of strength and with a single thought in his head.
If he was going to hell, he was going to do his best to drag Moon=Millenniummon down there with him.
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