Limitless The Strongest Revenant

"Before I begin, I would like to summarize what has already been said. It would give you a complete picture, as you now know the pieces that make up this complex topic."

I looked at my girls, and they all stopped the lewd conversations over our links. Instead, their eyes were glued to the two women beside Zanele. I sighed as I waved my hand to signal the matriarch to continue.

"Okay. First, let's start with the basics. The Successors are a special breed of Reaper. They lack the usual restrictions on Kindreds and Vassals. Also, they gain much more soul per death around them. Second, we only found out about them as the world keeps birthing them.

"By this I mean that, unlike the reapers that awaken but have no goal, the Successors do. They are chosen through an extraneous process and exist on every battlefront. And should all the Successors from a cycle die, new ones are born after a period of 60 years.

"Third, they are all cut from the same mold. They all follow the same pattern of living and die in exactly the same manner. Put simply, they are all men of similar upbringing who grew up with the same values. And fourth, they are all those with righteous personalities."

I wanted to say I wasn't righteous at all, but I kept quiet. Labels were extremely subjective. A soldier who defends his homeland is a hero. His country would see him as such. But, to anyone he kills, he's a demon. His actions caused many to lose their loved ones.

It was not really up to you how the world saw you. Thus, you hardly could do much about it. Changing yourself to create a persona the world sees is an option. It seldom works out. Movie stars do that, and they all end up becoming fake people.

'Still, the only thing you can control is what you do with the time you're given.'

Zanele stopped and paused. When no one asked any questions, she continued.

"They gain their orders or directives via a group of seven women. The Sins. These groups each carry a legacy and are cursed to dream and look for their designated successor. The Successor is also cursed to love and adore the Sins assigned to him.

"Once he unites with them in flesh and spirit, the curse lifts and he receives the legacies. None of the Successors actually shared what their order is. But we have confirmed that they all receive the same lesson. We do this by interviewing the ones with them."

Zanele then gestured to the two women by her side.

"Nandi and Zinhle are not Sins. So, they were not cursed. They chose to follow their Successors under my commands. I will let them speak later, but their account will help when we put everything together. Is everyone still with me?"

Again, my girls didn't say anything and only glared menacingly. For what it was worth, the two Africans were holding up pretty well under the hostile gazes of my harem. Two of them were Specters. So there was more than enough reason to be worried.

The Analyst took our silence as confirmation and continued. "Now, we already spoke about the Sins. As mentioned, they are a select group tasked with bringing the legacy to their Successor. They all search for the men as if cursed, and all die after spending the night."

Zanele used {Connect} to create virtual slides that she showed to everyone present. For anyone with the {Code} family and Exa, we could present data like this even without computers.

"Like the Successors, the Sins are special. Each has a life that follows a script. While they all have differences, the only ones that we should focus on are the Sins of Lust and the Sin of Gluttony."

As her words, Aki and Jas flinched. I reached out to them to calm them down.

"I will get to why the two are different, but I will now get into the real meat of the issue. There are two questions everyone must have been wondering. What are the Successors supposed to do, and why haven't any of them succeeded?"

I nodded my head. It was true those were the things I wondered about. I already knew that each continent had its own Successors, and they all brawled at the end. But what happened to the one who won? Were they all gone due to simultaneous knockouts or something?

Zanele then raised her hand and opened what looked like an MP3 file floating in my vision. I grew surprised as I wasn't expecting her to have even had something like that ready.

"This is an audio file we recovered from a battle between two Successors. We know they always fought each other. But what we do not know is why. I had Exa pull it from my memories, as I had it memorized down to the last detail.

"You would too if you spent years listening to it. The battle is between a Successor from Europe and Asia. It seems IRIS tried to bug the Successors they found to know where they went. But, of course, most recordings did not survive, except for this one."

[I will be playing it now.]

At Exa's words, the file began to play, and a pair of voices began to echo in my head. Funnily enough, Nandi and Zinhle both were wearing Bluetooth earpieces. It seems Zanele was already using her newfound abilities to work.

___

[Give it up. You are not my match. Why didn't you follow lust or gluttony? That would make this so much easier to do. As a fellow Successor, you should know the burden we have been given.]

[Blegh! Haha, I was half tempted to join them. But you know as well as I do that I can't. It was why we were chosen. I refuse to trample over the wills of the many for selfish reasons. Until we fulfill them, the world itself hangs in the balance.]

[Sigh. I really cannot bring myself to hate any of you. Your integrity and valor are worthy of praise. And I am honored to have met you.]

[Hahaha! Such sweet words! Yet I completely understand. I feel the same way. It is ironic. I would not have met you if not for the bouts. But I feel that if we had met under different circumstances, we would have been best friends. Won't you tell me your name, brother?]

[Hiro. And yours?]

[Abel. It was nice meeting you. If we ever get reborn, I hope we are friends in that life.]

[Yeah. That sounds good. I look forward to the hell we will raise. Mind if I ask a question, Hiro?]

[No. Go ahead.]

[Your Sins… Are any of them still alive?]

[… No. Yours?]

[… they all chose to die.]

[…] x 2

Sounds of heavy footsteps echoed. Then the bold whoosh of a piece of metal being swung along. A deep sigh. A rumble of thunder, then heavy rainfall began to pour down. A few moments later, I heard what I thought was Abel dragging himself to his feet.

[Time to end this, Abel. Are you ready?]

[Yeah.]

Fierce clashes of metal and explosions followed. Then all that remained was the sound of rain. One of the voices turned hoarse and grew faint like a whisper; even with my hearing, it was barely audible.

[Have you made your choice yet?]

[Yes. And I choose the first option.]

[I see… I'm glad, my journey finally ends. I didn't have it in me to choose that path. I am glad you are the last one standing, Hiro. May your fate end the darkness. See you later.]

[Thank you. Farewell, my friend. Rest in peace, I'll take care of everything else.]