Nobody said anything for a while.
Jerald put the letter to the side, and Shang summoned it back into his inner world.
"Are you telling the truth?" Jerald asked. "Will you do your best to stop the Abominations?"
Shang nodded. "The reason why Lucius failed is the God. The two of them have battled each other, and the God won."
"I don't plan to lose against the God."
"Lucius didn't know what he was up against, but I do."
Then, Shang looked towards the ceiling. "And maybe that is one of the reasons why the God has sent me here."
"There hasn't been another God in a long while, and the God probably wants someone he can fight with. He certainly didn't try to dissuade me from hating him."
"I don't know the origins of the Abominations, but I'm sure that the God knows of their origins. Yet, he didn't tell anybody, and he didn't do anything to stop them."
"In fact, he even gave me this Affinity, knowing fully well that the Abominations will become more powerful."
"Nevertheless, I want to kill the God and get rid of the Abominations. That's my goal."
Jerald didn't answer for a while.
"What if stopping the Abominations requires sacrificing your life?" Jerald asked.
"I don't know," Shang said after a couple of seconds. "When I have killed the God, I would have already reached the peak of power. By that point, there would be no more way to grow more powerful."
"I don't know what I would do then. Would my life be empty? Would I feel fulfilled?"
"One thing is clear. I am not someone that survives just because I want to survive. If there is nothing but emptiness and aimlessness in my life, I might be okay with sacrificing my life for the world."
"But first, I want to achieve my goals, and I won't entertain any thoughts for after I have reached my goals."
Jerald remained quiet for several seconds as he struggled with himself.
"How can I trust your words?" he asked.
"Jerald," Shang started, "you said that I am cold, selfish, and apathetic."
Jerald didn't answer.
"Then, tell me…"
"Why did I not flee towards the outside world during the civil war?"
"You wanted to kill the Council no matter what. You wanted revenge for Mattheo and George."
"Yet, you know very well that I view my own goals with the highest priority. Staying in the Skythunder Kingdom to fight the Council was an unnecessary risk."
"I could have simply gone towards the south, past the Storm Eagle Zone, jump down the Abyss, and enter the outside world."
"But I didn't."
"Why?" Shang asked.
Jerald looked at Shang.
By now, most of his hostility had vanished, replaced by concern and worry.
"Because of me," Jerald answered after a while.
"Because of you," Shang repeated. "I didn't want to see my only friend in the world die. I didn't want to see you lose your life while I had the power to help."
"I have never gone against you, Jerald. I have always helped you."
"You can never be completely sure of the intentions of other people, but you can see their actions, and my actions have said that I am by your side and that I will help you."
"Does knowing my secret change the impact of these actions?"
"Does it change the fact that I risked my life for you and that you risked your life for me?"
Silence.
Jerald only looked to the ground with a worried expression.
He didn't answer for a long time.
"I wanted to hear your side of the story first," Jerald said quietly.
"Agon told me of the Child of Calamity. For several days, I couldn't think straight. The one friend that had been by my side the longest is the enemy of everything that is alive, which includes me."
"For a long time, I couldn't understand how you can value your own power over the existence of the entire world."
"What is the point of having power when the entire world is dead and empty? You might as well be the weakest human at that point, and it wouldn't even matter."
"Power is a tool, not a goal. It is a tool that we use to achieve goals."
"For the longest time, I couldn't fathom what kind of person you had to be to make this choice."
"I knew that if I simply called Relon, you would be dead within minutes, and I would have saved maybe billions of lives."
"Yet, even though I couldn't come up with an answer as to why you were choosing yourself over the world, I still trusted you."
"Before I did anything, I wanted to hear your side of the story."
"I wanted to hear your justification before doing anything."
"But I was afraid of the answer."
"I couldn't think of a good justification, and I was afraid of hearing a bad one."
"If that happened, I would need to kill you."
Jerald looked at the ground with eyes filled with regret and guilt.
"And I didn't want to do that."
"So, I simply waited."
"As soon as you came out of training, I would confront you."
"But you just kept training."
"Yet, I didn't want to contact you. For, if I contacted you, I would need to make this horrible choice."
"Years passed, and eventually, I even blocked out your existence."
"I hoped that you would never return."
"I continued on with life."
"I remarried."
"I had children."
"I led a Kingdom."
"The dark days of dreading another encounter with you passed, and I was happy with life."
"And then, my Communication Crystal activated today."
"My nightmares have become a reality."
"The day I dreaded ultimately arrived, and I couldn't run from it anymore."
"The day where I would kill you arrived."
Shang didn't react.
Jerald sighed.
CRACK!
Then, a previously invisible Mana Shield around Jerald appeared, and it broke into pieces.
"I was never intending to die to you today."
"I made myself appear weak to see your genuine reaction."
Then Jerald looked into Shang's eye, a relieved smile on his face.
"But my trust in you was not misplaced."
"You actually have a justification I can accept."
"I'm sorry for doubting you, Shang," Jerald said after releasing another sigh.
They both looked into each other's eyes.
"The horrible choice never became reality for you, Jerald," Shang said.
For some reason, when Jerald heard Shang's voice, he felt dread.
Shang's voice sounded like a terrified man trying desperately to sound calm.
"But the choice I was terrified of has only arrived," Shang said.
"Jerald, I have never gone against you."
"I never tried to hurt you."
"I never wanted to hurt you."
Shang took a deep breath.
"But, today, you were planning on killing me."
Jerald's pulse sped up.
"You asked how you could trust anything that I say," Shang said. "I told you that you can trust my actions."
"Yet, how can I trust you when your actions and intentions were to kill me today?" Shang said.
"Shang!" Jerald shouted. "I was trying to get to the bottom of this! I wanted to hear your side of the story first!"
"You were uncertain," Shang said. "For the longest time, you were uncertain about your actions. Every moment, there was a danger that you would go through with either decision."
"You didn't know what you wanted, Jerald," Shang said as his voice shook a bit. "You were too weak to be decisive."
"How can I be sure that you will not go back on your words in the future?"
"When I become so powerful that every Abomination that appears is more powerful than you, and you live in perpetual fear for your own life and your family's lives, how can I be sure that your decision won't suddenly swing to the other side?"
The two of them only looked at each other.
Jerald looked worried, concerned, and a bit panicked.
Shang looked cold but hurt.
"I can't trust you, Jerald," Shang said.
A tear.
A tear ran down Shang's right cheek.
Jerald's mind froze.
"I can't trust you," Shang repeated in a quietly shaking voice.
Black fire appeared where Shang's right eye had been just seconds ago.
