Chapter 140 - Empathy
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Why would a being of such power and might be helping weaklings like this?
Why would a being of such power… even bother with trash?
Why would a being of incredible knowledge like him would try to socialize with others and bring himself into all these bothersome troubles to make happy these people he had never seen before?
Within his own mind, he couldn't help but harbor a certain thought about this, why was he doing this?
But it was a thought, not a doubt.
Chaos had no regrets on his actions. He was a being who didn't went accordingly to anyone's expectations and did as he pleased.
His father didn't left a legacy for him to follow, he didn't told him "be evil!" nor was he created for the purpose of bringing suffering to innocents so he can grow a tiny bit stronger over the genocide thousands of victims of great abuse.
Although Chaos knew deep down that he could wipe out this entire place by concentrating his magical power and clean the shores of his island in a few minutes, he held back and decided to be considerate.
Maybe it was just his new selfishness? He wanted to see others happy..
Or maybe, unlike other monsters, he was one that had a life before, and because of this life of suffering, he began to feel empathy after developing his emotions towards those that undergone similar treatment?
If you are tortured and used as an experiment your whole life, only to die miserably… Wouldn't it make sense to feel empathy for those that went for the same treatment, perhaps not as terrible, but that they were held against their wills and used as "products"?
Despite being seen as a being that was the world's evil, Chaos couldn't help but end up acting heroically as he rescued these people.
But what was a hero but a flawed concept? In this world, there are never true heroes.
For those that own these slaves and are earning their daily money and sustenance through selling them, he's not a hero but a villain.
And for those slaves who were taken away from their lives, from their simple but peaceful lives and thrown into containers, treated like trash, and sold as products, he was the hero, the miracle they had been waiting for so long.
Although many had already lost hope long ago… some young souls held a bit of hope within their hearts.
Anyone that were to see Chaos objectively would believe he was doing something wrong.
Why should he bother himself with this trash when he can begin growing stronger instead? Elsewhere? Why is he bothering?! Shouldn't he go away and do other things such as mindless slaughtering monsters and people to grow stronger?
Indeed, Chaos already had such plans too, but he wanted more of life than just become a slaughter machine.
Due to how easy it was for him to take away the life of others, he began to consider what was the point of life? Why was he so strong compared to others? And why should he consider important to kill and eat?
If everything was so fragile… wasn't everything pointless?
If everything was pointless, then what was the point of anything?
Shouldn't be just ditch himself into a hole or something and die? Or sleep forever and never care about anything else?
But that wasn't the case, there were stronger beings ahead of his path, even as strong as he was that many life forms were so fragile before him, he was still weaker compared to these entities.
And through a journey to become stronger, he had to do something more than just killing. He felt like life would feel dull, that the meanings behind this were flawed.
As a man who always dreamed of having the normal life of a person, being forced into becoming a drone that endlessly kills depressed him.
And as his emotions inevitably developed more and more… he couldn't help but believe that there should be something more.
He looked at what his father did. He was a researcher of the unknown, a powerful alchemist, an amazing necromancer, a strong summoner, and he investigated the universe and its mysteries.
Chaos wanted to be a bit like his father.
And what about his mother? She was an artist. She loved to pain and express her emotions through it. She was an avid librarian and investigated the truth behind the ancient scripts. She was knowledgeable and also a good magician…
He also wanted to be a bit like his mother.
She fell in love with Chaos' father due to this connection, both were obsessed with the mysteries that surrounded them.
But both died because they dived too further from the point of no return.
They became Undead so they could not have lifespan and investigate endlessly, but as they dived deeper, forces above them suppressed them.
Were his parents truly evil because of this?
No.
Or that is what Chaos wanted to believe, that was what Chaos wanted to hold within his heart.
He wasn't a good person. He was definitely rather malicious, vicious, and evil.
But he wasn't a bad person either, or wanted to prove himself that he could feel something by aiding others.
And this feeling blossomed into him as he rescued the slaves.
He saw their faces of hope, their smiles, their cries of happiness. Seeing them come back to their families, children crying as they hugged their parents…
He thought he wouldn't feel anything.
He was insane after all; shouldn't he lack empathy?
But why…
Why did he had such a strong empathy with this?
He saw himself as these children, and the parents they found were like his own.
He smiled a bit as he imagined this scenario.
And comprehended a bit about the meaning behind his own actions, about what he had done, and about the happiness he had brought.
He wasn't a hero or anything of the sort, nor he strived to have any such title, but he still felt rather happy.
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