{The curse of the witness, is the ability to endure madness and corruption far more than any regular human would be able to. The consequence of this, is that he is doomed to endure the terror of insanity far more than any human would have to. It is his gift, and his curse}.
As his mind was torn to shreds, Nero felt something cold envelope a specific point in his mind.
It was uncomfortable and frigid.
But it was the only thing that let him cling to his sanity.
Nero immediately realized his lips were moving without him willing them to be so.
Something was forcing him to sing this strange song. When he tried to listen to it, his mind was assaulted with waves of pain and dread.
'I absolutely cannot listen to those words!'
Something told him that it would be over for him if he did.
He slowly opened his eyes.
The surrounding area was similar to that empty void in his subconscious where the Oracle spoke to him.
However, the Oracle was not here this time.
Instead, there was only him.
He pursed his lips and called out.
"Oracle..."
There was nothing.
He thought for a moment, then asked,
"Where am I?"
{The Heretic is trapped within his own mind}.
Nero heaved a sigh of relief and fell to his knees,
"Y-you are still here!"
He quickly stood up and yelled,
"What is happening to me?!"
{The Heretic has fallen victim to a spiritual attack from a being with a relatively powerful spiritual presence. It would like to be referred to as The Wretched Maiden of Despair}.
Nero trembled,
"W-what kind of name is that?!"
{It is an evil spirit strengthened by the abundant despair within the Earth. It is very dangerous. In a few minutes, once the Heretic has completed reciting its Song of Wretches, his soul will be completely devoured.
Nero gritted his teeth.
He looked up,
"Oracle, what do I do?"
{To acquire that answer, the Herrtic is permitted to use his requests for an Inquest. But since the Heretic has run out of requests, he can only wait until he has acquired a thousand Seals of Sin and the Seal of Divinity has ascended to the next Tier}.
Nero yelled in frustration,
"What the hell do you mean?! Can't you see I am about to die?!"
There was silence.
"Ignoring me now, huh?! Then how the hell am I supposed to fulfill this damned destiny if you won't help me!"
There was nothing against.
Nero roared in fury and frustration.
Truly, what was he supposed to do?
From the looks of it, the solution to his current predicament would not be provided by the Oracle because the answers he sought were above what was currently permitted to him. Perhaps if he had more requests, he could survive.
The words of the song rushing forth from his lips became darker and darker.
Yet he could not understand them at all.
Nero clawed at his hair.
Suddenly, that cold sensation returned.
Something appeared in his mind.
His name.
Not Nero.
His true name.
Angel of Judgement, Armageddon.
It represented who he was to be.
His destiny.
It was an anchor of the future. Cold and seemingly terrible.
But it was there.
Closing his eyes, Nero muttered his true name.
The moment he did, his eyes seemed to open for the first time in forever.
The golden runes in their depths shone with such glorious light, it was almost blinding.
The eyes of the Heretic. Of the Final Witness. Of the Angel of Judgement.
He who would see the end of days.
How could he die here, his soul crushed and devoured by some jealous wandering spirit?!
This inner space in his mind began to crumble.
The world around him trembled, but he continued to speak his name.
The world around him became dark again.
Nero looked down.
In his hand, was the Silver Blade. However, its entire body was enveloped in light, making it look like a completely different weapon.
Etched into its hilt and on its blade, was his name;
Armageddon.
The end of days.
The Eyes that saw nothing and everything.
The fear he felt ebbed away, and the terror striking at his heart folded like a scroll.
His eardrums ruptured as a loud shriek cut through the darkness.
Right before him, a twisted thing appeared, filling his vision.
Its flesh was a deep dark blue and its hairs were like a thousand arms stretched out in all directions, holding it up in the dark void.
It has a singular eye in the center of its face and a large mouth with sharp, jagged teeth, and continued to sing that wonderful, damning song in a voice he could only describe as deceivingly beautiful and divine.
'So that's what you are....'
Nero recognized that his mind had yet to return to his body.
He was still within his mind in this dark space.
And the... entity before him was his mind's representation of what was attacking his soul.
A burst of rage enveloped him and he rushed forward.
The creature let out another shriek.
Another mouth burst out from the side of its face and began to sing as well.
The thousands of hair strands shot at him.
The golden glow in the depths of his eyes as he dodged and weaved past the dark barrage, slashing through those that got too close with his glowing Silver Blade.
The light surrounding the blade scorched the hairs it cut, burning them with a silver flame until there was nothing left.
The thing shrieked again and the barrage became stronger.
Gritting his teeth, Nero continued to slash and cut. The blade in his hand turned into a blue and soon, the dark void became lit with the silver fire.
He had cut down hundreds of the black hairs in his bid to reach closer to the entity.
But his body had also been run through by hundreds more.
Black veins covered his body as he crawled forward.
'J-just one m-more step.'
His vision swam and trembled.
All he needed was one more step.
Black blood pouring out of his lips, with eyes that were now mostly filled with blackened blood, Nero took one more step forward.
With a deep roar that came right from the ends of his soul, the Silver Blade in his hand stabbed forward.
His hand embracing it, he growled and plunged the glowing sword deeper into the thing's throat.
Then the blade exploded with a flash of silver light.