What I call "me" is the sum of every experience I have had in the past. I am the people I have met, the things I have touched, the emotions I have felt, the pain I have lost myself in. All of it has made me who I am now. Without any one part, I would not be me.
—Hesse, Siddhartha
"Where is this...?"
Barbatos raised his head.
The sky above where he stood was like a flawless mirror, reflecting a ground that looked like a blue sea.
"Some kind of telepathic link..."
Barbatos extended his claw. It was no longer the sharp, ferocious talon he had in reality, but a small, pitch-black claw resembling that of some juvenile creature.
But this was wrong. Barbatos had never had a childhood. From the moment he was created, he had been a living weapon of destruction.
Destruction and brutality were his nature. Even if he used reason to suppress them, he could never stop his instincts from reacting.
But this state was about to change.
Within this mental space, Barbatos discovered that he had become some kind of tiny black dragon, like a chibi pet. He was no longer that brutal monster.
When he took a step forward, even the hood he had worn for so many years vanished from the back of his head. He opened and closed his dragon mouth, swished his tail, and then...
He saw one tiny figure of light after another appear before him. Barbatos took two slight steps back as the little figures of light surrounded him and danced happily.
Was this right?
This wasn't right.
Even though he had already lost the courage to fight the World Forger or the other Sixth-Dimensional Gods, Barbatos's rationality returned at this moment.
He realized why