Arc of the Souls Chapter 17: Intermission - Nanasu: Darwin - Act 1

Read chapter 17 of Arc of the Souls by Noyr on NovelPedia.

"6 years ago, you told me that you would lead a capture unit and catch who you thought was the most dangerous Hyperkiller in Dark Intrinium. At first I thought that you were being stupid, thinking such a Hyperkiller incapable of fighting didn't need to be captured. Let alone even thinking about catching her. But then you came to a realization that the same Hyperkiller brought Giselle Althrius to their base and kept her alive. They kept her alive for days in the most gruesome ways possible. She came back to us a machine, unable to talk, unable to move on her own, just... braindead. That's why you led a capture unit. You knew full well that the Hyperkiller took one of your squadmates and turned her into a brainless machine. Then, right after that... you left the base and went back to Ambrecia to try and find her in one of the only standing Dark Intrinium occupied military bases. What you found was... worse than anything I could have imagined. I still can't imagine it. I can't imagine it. It's... worse, than death... It's worse... I can't put it to words. You weren't dead, but you were dead to us all. You knew you weren't dead, but we knew you were dead to us... You weren't the same when you came back. You, alongside everyone else that survived whatever attack Enama Zagashida launched on you, and your squadmates. You... You didn't come back as Darwin. You came back as a nobody. You couldn't call yourself Darwin, or you couldn't bear my surname. You... you were no longer my brother. My brother was dead to me. He died on that day. He was replaced by a lifeless machine that simply took on his face. Do you understand how painful that is? Do you even have the slightest bit of emotion to understand what it felt like to see my brother die right before my eyes and be replaced by some lifeless husk wearing his skin? His voice changing, his personality changing, his body changing, to someone else I don't even fucking know. Do you understand anything I'm even saying? Does my voice even reach your ears? Do you understand what I'm talking about? Do you even understand what we are? Do you understand what we do? Do you understand who we are? Do you understand what I am... Do you understand who I am... Do you understand who you are... Who do you think you are? You're not a lifeless husk, you do have a beating heart. You do have a working brain. You do have limbs. You do have blood inside you, you do have veins, you do have organs, you do have eyes, and you do have hands, arms, legs, feet. And you do have a Soul. Your body functions just as any normal human's does, but there is something that is missing from you. Your personality, your memories, your experiences. You don't have them, they're not yours. The memories that are in your mind, that you so desperately try to remember, aren't yours. You're not who you think you are. The 'Darwin Valadne' you think is not the same 'Darwin Valadne' that I know. This 'Darwin Valadne' that you keep projecting inside your head, a person worthy of being called a hero, someone that could help even the darkest Souls and help them see the light, that is not the Darwin that I know. You are not that person. You are not that person, because that person is not you. The 'Darwin Valadne' I knew fought for a simple reason, and that was not to be a hero. He fought for legacy. My legacy, my family's legacy, our legacy, my mother and father's legacy, our children's legacy, our grandchildren's legacy, and our great-grandchildren's legacy. That is why he fought, to create a legacy for us to look at, one that would give us strength when we needed it most, one that would give us hope when we had none, one that would give us pride when we thought we had no more. He fought to protect us, his family, his friends, his comrades, his soldiers, his people. He was never a hero, a villain, a person worthy of respect, or a person unworthy of respect. He was just a man. A simple man with a simple goal. He was my brother. He was Darwin Val