The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 180

Chapter 180: The Future
Reid’s eyes snapped open only to face a bloody red sky, but he remained unsurprised, as he had expected this when he went to bed.

Standing above Reid was his red-eyed self, offering him a hand up, which he took and pulled himself up.

He finally saw where they were, and his pupils immediately shrank. All around him was destruction.

But what really made his breath hitch was the rows of corpses that lay among the destruction.

“What the hell is this?” Reid asked with a frown on his face but his redd eyed self just walked forward before saying,

“Just follow me.”

With no reason to doubt red eyed Reid,he followed behind as the walked through the destroyed City.

The farther they walked, the larger the destruction and dead bodies.

It also seemed like they were approaching an ongoing fight as the sound of weapons clashing got louder.

Soon enough they were in an open field with an equally destroyed landscape. It had massive craters around it that previously housed mountains.

Though, that wasn’t what pulled Reid’s attention, instead he was focused on the skies ahead.

No, rather, he was focused on the floating figure above. The figure was a humanoid being with things that he assumed were scales.

The being’s form looked eerily similar to Reid’s monarch forms.

Falling to the ground with broken wings and bloody form was a being Reid would never forget.

Malrath!

He seemed to be dead, as indicated by the massive hole in his chest.

But even more terrifying was the being that was in the skies.

“That’s us,” Red eyed Reid pointed to the being in a similar form to Reid’s monarch form.

“Us?” Reid asked in confusion but it suddenly clicked.

His red eyes self had previously mentioned a future where everything was ruined, a future where everything was lost.. the future he came from.

“T-this is the future,” he asked, hoping to hear any answer that wasn’t yesterday but unfortunately, red eyed Reid nodded.

“This is my future,” He said, “and it’ll be yours too if weren’t not ready.”

Reid turned back to the his future self, the one in the skies before asking, “if that’s us, then what’s that?”

He asked, pointing to the terrifying being in the sky. The being was a a towering silhouette of absolute darkness, with dying stars running across it’s silhouette.

The entity had no face, only a void that devoured light.

It’s frame completely shadowed the planet they were on, but future Reid faced it without an ounce of fear or the slightest bit of trembling in his form.

He was ready for it.

“”Chaos”” both red eyed Reid and his future self spoke in unison as the entity brought it’s face closer.

“$@&&$#” the entity spoke, but Reid immediately fell to his knees, clutching his head as he screamed.

It felt like his entire existence was shattering when the being spoke but lucky for him, the dream shattered and his eyes snapped open in the real world.

[Reid!] Evo called out, [are you okay?]

She had no way of knowing what he saw in that dream but she was sure that whatever he saw was anything but good after all, he was suddenly in distress while sleeping.

“I…” Reid searched for an explanation but even he had no idea what he just saw, so he asked the only person that knew, “what the hell just happened?”

‘I’m sorry, I thought you were strong enough to withstand Chaos’s presence’ red eyed Reid said in apology.

“What happened?” Reid repeated, “and how the hell did the world turn out like that?”

Red-eyed Reid stayed silent for a moment, as if gathering his words to give an explanation.

“Chaos and his children successfully absorbed the world below this one,” he started “and they immediately set their sights on ours.”

“Just like the one below, we held our own for years,” red eyed Reid said, “but we were only able to delay the inevitable.”

“Although none of his six children that stood against us survived, we also lost everything fighting them.” Red eyed Reid paused for a short while.

“What we watched was our final stand against chaos, one final attempt to save our world from absolute destruction but even you fell during that battle.”

Reid clenched his fists, still shaking from the after effects of Chaos’s voice. “So what, that’s it? The world ends no matter what we do?”

‘No,’ his future self said firmly, stepping closer. ‘That’s why I came back. To warn and prepare you.’

Reid looked up, a fire starting to light behind his tired eyes. “Then tell me how to stop it.”

‘I can’t.’

“…What?”

‘I can’t tell you everything,’ red-eyed Reid said. ‘The future’s not fixed, and too much knowledge might shift it the wrong way. But I can guide you.’

‘Just before I fell,’ he continued, ‘I was able to send a shard back to the past, one that’ll prepare us for what was to come.’

‘I was supposed to merge with you when you were younger, but due to some complications, I went to sleep and only resurfaced when the watcher woke me up.’

“I see,” Reid nodded. According to his red eyes self, the future wasn’t set in stone and they could change it, “so what should I do to change the future.”

‘For now?’ Red eyed Reid paused before saying, ‘get as strong as possible.’

Reid clenched his fist as tightly as he muttered, “I will.”

“I’ll be strong enough to prevent a future that grim.”

Finally, after asking himself for so long, Reid finally found a goal. Although it was not something you’d consider inspiring, he was determined to get as strong as possible.

‘Right!’

_________________

At the edge of this universe, a place darker than black, only kept lit by galaxies that spun around.

Even with the glowing galaxies, their light didn’t stretch far as it was quickly absorbed by the darkness of this void.

A being opened its eyes for the second time since the beginning of its millinea long slumber.

“Prepare well young chosen,” the void around it trembled at the sound of the being’s voice, “the next chapter of your story begins soon.”

With that, it’s eyes closed again, continuing it’s slumber until the next time it was needed.