Chapter 258.

PART 1.

Hatori wakes up in this unfamiliar place. Judging by what he can hear, it appears to be a room. He is lying on a comfortable surface. He opens his eyes to see where exactly he is. As soon as he opens his eyes, he finds that Samay is looking at him with a grin. She is sitting on a chair near the bed where she has put him. There is a book she has in her lap, which she dismisses after marking the page she has finished reading.

"Ah, what a wonderful romance novel." She said to Hatori. "Granted, the characters are all absolute idiots. But what else can you expect from Albion? I mean come on."

When Hatori failed to answer, Samay continued. "Then, of course, there is a matter of ghost. Though I think it was the madness more than anything else. Seriously, rich people need therapy."

"You are also rich." Replied Hatori, having sat up while Samay provided commentary on the book. However Hatori has a suspicion that the book she is talking about is the one she has finished reading. Not the one she was reading just now.

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Asked Samay. If only these mortals knew the troubles of an immortal sorcerer.

"Tell me. Did you have a good sleep?" She asked Hatori after Hatori failed to say anything for several moments. It did not occur to her that he was busy drinking some water.

"As well as a man could get after getting a thorough beating." Answered Hatori after he was done gulping all the water from the large glass. "Of course, dreaming to beat and murder a woman also helped. I couldn't even begin to guess why I had such a dream which persisted during the entirety of my sleep."

The sorcerer laughed. Any other man would find that laugh attractive. If that man happened to be a writer (or worse a poet), he would call this laughter gentle, musical, and other such terms to indicate the beauty of this action. Of course, Hatori is not a writer (unless it is runes or programming), nor he is a poet (he wants to murder those bastards by wounding them and dunking them in salt water).

Hatori is also aware of the danger lurking behind the carefree personality of this sorcerer. So he is not tricked by her actions.

"Not many people have the balls to threaten me like that nowadays." She said, after recovering from her bout of amusement. "Points for creativity though. You did well trying to threaten me indirectly. Though clearly, you need more practice."

The entire room had a light atmosphere when Samay was amused. But it turned into a dark and broody one when she turned serious. She looked at Hatori and asked him. "How far are you into your time runes?"

"What time runes are you talking about?" Asked Hatori instantly. "There is no such thing as time runes."

Samay gave Hatori a look that screamed, "Really?"

"Dammit, there are no such runes!" Said Hatori, and yet the look persisted.

Hatori doesn't want to share his modifications. Mages often keep such secrets to themselves. This is to ensure their safety. If someone has the understanding of how exactly your body modifications work, they can disrupt the entire system which can result in their death. Asking someone as paranoid as Hatori to reveal his secrets of his body modification is to basically tell him to undress, bind his arms and legs, plug his ears, cover his eyes, seal his magic, and submit to an intrusive search.

The problem is further compounded by the fact that Samay is a sorcerer. Not just any sorcerer, but one who specializes in time magic. Sharing his secrets with her is even more dangerous because she won't need to do any intrusive searching. Merely knowing what he has done to himself is enough for her to take him apart.

Not that she can't do it already, as that brawl in the castle proved.

"You should not forget that I was the one who sent you in the past to retrieve those time fragments. There is no way you didn't analyze them and make something out of them. Now, tell me already." Said Samay. "Or else I'll beat it out of you."

For a moment, Hatori entertains the possibility of telling the sorcerer to do her worse. But he decides that he has picked his fight with her once already. He'll wait for a while before he challenges her again.

"I have begun to develop a template of a runic system to give me restorative properties. This should let me recover in the battle, even if I suffer fatal wounds. The runes are supposed to store my ideal condition, and restore me to that state when I am injured." Explained Hatori. "Unfortunately, it takes too much energy. I can't fight after it is triggered."

"See? Was it so hard?" She asked with a smile. "I knew that you did some modifications to yourself. You can't hide that from me, given my expertise in time. I also wanted you to explain in your own words to know how clear are your concepts."

Samay is impressed with how much Hatori has managed to gleam by just having studied those time fragments. By her estimation, he did not possess those fragments for too long. Still, he managed to learn a lot. That is something to be applauded where he cannot hear. No need to give him a large ego.

"That is good and all, but you need to do better." She said to Hatori, her thoughts not reflecting on her face or her body language. "You need to come up with a modification that would let you regenerate in real time."

"I would love to." Said Hatori. "But you know, there is something which I lack. The time. I just don't have enough time."

Apart from the time issue, Hatori is also worried about the reason why a sorcerer like her is in such a hurry. 'Why does this matter to her so much? Shouldn't she be unconcerned by whatever happens to the mortal flies? Isn't that how immortals are supposed to react? Or maybe I have read too many stories.' Hatori thought.

Samay laughed after hearing that. "Don't you know who you are talking to boy? In fact, do you even know where you are exactly?" She spreads her arms as if to encompass the entire place where she has kept Hatori. "You have all the time in the world. This is an improved version of the Room of Frozen Time. You can work here without worrying about what is going on outside."

"Fine!" He said to her with a crackle of lightning in his voice. "There's another thing I need to do the work. Quiet."

"Fine. I see where I'm not wanted. Just ring the bell when you are done, you ungrateful cur." Samay leaves in a huff after pointing to the bell which was previously ignored by Hatori.

He shook his head. 'In my defense, I just woke up, and she dumped this task on me right after.'

Deciding that he has nothing better to do, Hatori starts to work on the task. Immediately after his decision, the runes start to float around him. Hatori tries to reason out the task, and the runes change accordingly. He wants to bring his body to the ideal condition upon taking damage. He wants to do that in real-time so he can take advantage of it in a battle.

The problem is in the energy usage. It takes too much energy to restore his body to its perfect state. When he is unable to reason it out by thinking in terms of magic, Hatori starts to think like a programmer.

'Suppose I am dealing with a file and the text present within it. If I want to do some processing on that text, it would be best to read everything into the memory. But that would take a lot more memory. But if I try to do the same processing line-by-line, it would require a lot more processing and energy in terms of electricity.' Hatori shook his head. He never thought about how his programs needed to be efficient in terms of electricity usage.

'What if I could keep the state of my body in the memory? But do I have that much memory? I know I am not dealing with a computer here. Theoretically, I should have enough space.'

Hatori winced at the glow of the runes. When he started to think about the memory within his body, the runes started to glow and change.

"This is..." Hatori smiled. "This should work perfectly well. The only thing is to deal with the pain!" He roared, as his entire body started to feel like it was on fire while the glowing runes disappeared one by one.

He is unable to tolerate the pain when the runes reach his head. A deep and complicated script spreads throughout his body while Hatori rolls on the floor, howling in pain so loudly that his screams reach Samay.

"Looks like things are going well." Said the sorcerer. She listened to the screams for a moment before returning to her book once again with a smile. After all, she wants to read what exactly happens to the young boy Oliver.

After feeling the burning pain which felt like days (probably was that long given the time shenanigans going on this house), the pain disappears. Hatori gets up from the floor and conjures a mirror. He observed his body from various angles. Previously, his entire body had several thin lines, indicating his modifications he has done to himself over the years. But now, there are no such lines on Hatori's body.

However, he can still feel those runes, even if there is no visual indication of their presence. With a mere thought, the symbols appear around him once again. These floating runes are essentially the source code of the operating system known as Hatori Eagle. The system had a long and painful update recently, and now it is asking for a status report.

Hatori watched the test suite running. With the spreading green marks, his smile grew. "Success! Total success! Grand success!" He then deflated. "If only Master Zeko was here, he would be delighted in this achievement of mine. If not him, then Kalicharan and Master Munshi, if those two were here, they would understand what exactly I have done. They would be so furious with me right now..."

Then Samay returns. "I heard your screams." She told Hatori. "I came here once you stopped screaming. What happened?"

"Well, don't you have any manners? Don't you know what to do when a man has been screaming for days?" Asked Hatori, not answering her question.

Samay just laughed, and with a motion conjured a table laden with food and drinks. "Is that safe to eat?"

"What do you take me for brat? You should realize by now that conjuring eatable food for a sorcerer is a child's play."

Hatori shrugged. "Guess if it disappears or returns to its original state if it is transmuted food, we'll know what a bad sorcerer you are. I'll die happy."

Samay watched Hatori as he started to drink the juice on the table. He puts down the glass and takes the plate of banana chips. "I have done it. I have regeneration in real-time." He explained after eating a chip or two.

"How so?" Asked Samay.

"Earlier, I was using an inefficient method of restoring myself. It took too much time and energy to perform. I needed a place where I could store the information which makes me... Me. I chose my soul for that."

"What?" Samay blanched.

Hatori is amused to see the reaction. "It is the only place where I could place the anchor. You know that for a field or a ward, there is a need for a strong anchor? It is the same here. Besides, I needed another place to store the data, different than my brain for this operation. My soul was the best place for it."

"What about the anchor though? What if it is displaced or tampered with? You have training in necromancy. You know how dangerous it could be." Asked Samay.

'How does she know that?' Hatori thought. 'I didn't tell her.'

He answered her question. "I know. Which is why I sealed my soul. It cannot go out of the container that is my body. Not unless the seal is broken. To do that, you have to subdue me. After that, you need to get used to the complex and nonstandard system I use and then pry its secrets. Then you will have to break that seal while it is fighting against you. The smallest mistake would result in an explosion which would destroy everything within ten kilometers. I would regenerate from that explosion, the system would reset, and even if you managed to subdue me again, you would have to start from the beginning."

"That is fine and all, but why were you screaming so much?" Asked Samay.

"Do you have any idea how painful it is when these new and old runes alike sink into your body and are literally carved onto your very being? Good thing everything worked out. I could have gone insane from the pain otherwise." Said Hatori.

"Alright. Now we need to test it." Said Samay.

"No need for that. I have an extensive suite of tests. Those tests informed me that everything is running well." Said Hatori.

"That is fine. But we need to know how well you will perform in the real conditions, as opposed to a simulation." Said Samay.

Hatori does not like where this is going. "And how are we going to do that?" He asked her.

Samay dismissed the table of snacks. And then she cut off Hatori's head. The bed where Hatori was sitting was covered with the spraying blood from his neck, and his head fell and bounced on the bed.

A moment later, Hatori's head on the bed returns to his neck. With a wet pop, it was attached to his torso once again. "What the hell, woman! That hurt! What is wrong with you!"

"Hmm. I was expecting you to grow a new head." Said Samay, noting that Hatori's neck does not have any scar or indication of his recent beheading.

"Well, if the part is undamaged, it takes less effort to reattach it compared to growing a new one." Explained Hatori.

"How about I turn your head to ashes this time?" Asked Samay.

Hatori moves to defend himself, but he still loses his head. Once more, the blood spread from his neck. This time, it all fell on the floor due to Hatori's sudden movement before his head got cut off. Ashes of Hatori's head fall on the floor, as the sorcerer burns it before it can reach the floor. Within the same amount of time as before, a new head grew on Hatori's neck. Once that happens, Hatori gives her an impressive glair which would terrify anyone else due to his artificial-looking eyes.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Stop doing that!" Roared Hatori, lunging at her.

The sorcerer avoids his lunge at her, taking advantage of her small size. She wonders whether she could cause him more trouble if they were in some kind of public place. After all, a giant man lunging at a small woman like that is a cause of concern, even if that woman is a sorcerer and is capable of defending herself.

'Something to try later.' she thought, while cutting Hatori's head once again, and avoiding the blood. She turned the torso to ashes this time. She notes how quickly a new one is reformed on the floor with the head that she just removed.

'It appears his system is adjusting itself to this onslaught. His rate of regeneration is improving.' Samay thought to herself. "What would happen if there is no body part left of you at all?"

"What?" As soon as Hatori says that, his entire body is atomized by the sorcerer. There is no head or torso anymore. There was no spray of blood either. One moment, Hatori was standing there, but in the very next moment, he was gone as if he was never there.

With a crackle of thunder, his body appears again, restored to its previous state. He turned to her. "I swear. I will be taking revenge for this, just wait."

"Is that so?" Samay laughed charmingly. She then teleported him to a volcano and dropped him in the lava.

"Gah! What the hell is wrong with you, you mad woman!" Screamed Hatori. His body was repairing the damage, but it was fruitless. The lava is burning through the repairs quickly. No normal person would have survived this, mage or not. But Hatori is still alive, even though he is in a lot of pain.

"Just adjust your modifications so the lava doesn't hurt you." Said Samay lecturing Hatori as if he is a simple child, not familiar with the ways of the world.

Hatori screamed and focused to do as she said. He did the same thing while he was doing his modifications. He found his system of runes is more responsive now, but he has no mental capacity to understand or test why it is that way. The runes cover his body quickly and disappear under his skin once again. A moment later, his body stopped burning. He swims through lava as if it was water, not molten stone while the suite of test runs in the background of his mind. Once everything was green, he flew from the lava and stood before the sorcerer. A moment later, a new set of clothes appeared on his body, the previous ones were destroyed in the lava.

"Now, now, you should know that I am no prude like the women of Earth. I don't mind looking when a man offers himself up like that." Said Samay to Hatori with a wink.

"Whatever. Was dropping me in lava necessary?" He asked her while thinking about modifying Ravina and Daphne so they could go after Samay and tear her to shreds. It is unlikely that they will succeed. But there is no reason why he cannot imagine that happening.

"Strictly speaking, no. But it brought me a lot of amusement." Said Samay.

"You bitch!" Hatori bombarded the place where Samay was standing with fire, but nothing happened to her.

She extends her index finger and Hatori is beaten to the ground by her own fire assault. "You need to prepare a blueprint for your other friends." She said to him once he stopped struggling. She noted how her fire failed to burn him as much as she was expecting. 'Looks like that change he made in lava is quite something.'

"Are you going to do the same with them?" Asked Hatori.

"I will. Unlike you, they will snap. Their wills are not strong enough like you, except for the king. But they must endure if you wish to survive what is coming next. Don't worry. I have a way to fix their sanity." Said Samay with a smile, thinking this would also enrage Hatori.

"Good. They are getting lazy nowadays. They need something to give them some motivation. I will need some time to prepare a general blueprint though." Said Hatori. From the look of his face, Samay knows that he already has some idea of how to do it.

"Don't worry," She teleports both of them to the house where she brought Hatori after his first beating by her hands. "You can work here."

The room where she tortured Hatori is now clean. It has no sign that nothing short of multiple murders have taken place within its walls.

"You will also receive some extra training from me." Said Samay. "I won't be training you how to combat. You are good at that. But you need to learn enough so you can deal with immortals on your own."

"You mean other sorcerers?" Asked Hatori, while sketching something on the diary he retrieved from the storage runes on his wrist... 'They are not there anymore. Hmm. Maybe I should think of preparing a proper pocket dimension for storing my things.'

"Yes. Currently, despite what you have done to yourself, you are no match for an immortal. You are a strong punching bag, nothing more." Said Samay.

"Well then. Teach me how to punch back then." Said Hatori, dismissing his diary which disappeared again. "It is not like I have any lack of time here. Am I right?"

"Correct." Then Samay attacked Hatori again.

While she points out how he needs to pick up the weaknesses of immortals, the patterns she has observed, how incapacitation is better than outright killing because killing an immortal mage is very difficult, and crippling them long enough so you can do your task is better, Hatori sketched out a blueprint for his friends. He absorbed her lessons, and all the while she tried to understand:

Why is he so cheerful about leaving his friends to her tender mercies?

Ah, silly woman. She has been immortal for so long that she has forgotten that humans are vindictive creatures. 'Why should I suffer alone?' Is motivation enough for Hatori. Besides, he was not lying that they had gotten complacent.

They will need to pick themselves up and work hard. Whatever problem has landed on their lap this time is a serious one, if a sorcerer is taking so much personal interest in preparing them.

PART 2.

It has been a day since Hatori got kidnapped right in front of Avinash and others. There have been more sightings of similar-looking people, but due to the early action of the king, the situation is mostly under control.

It does not last long. Soon, the sightings start to happen in India. At this point, the government requested their aid to control this threat, since there have been some violent incidents taking place on their side.

His agreement was the only thing necessary from the magical side. Once he agreed, the officials on both sides started to work together to ensure that no more violent incidents took place.

While the court was running, Samay appears with Hatori in the middle. After the security as well as the paranoid members of the court realized who they were, they quickly calmed down. Hatori took note of the people ready to attack him barring the security. These people have a well-honed sense of paranoia. He approves of their way of thinking: kill first, ask later. He also considers them the real threat. Which is why he is taking note of them.

"Are there any further urgent issues?" Asked the king once everyone calmed down.

"None in particular." Said a senior member of the court.

"Very well. I dismissed the court early today. We will reconvene tomorrow." Once everyone leaves, Avinash goes to his office, while Samay and Hatori follow him. Once the door of his office was closed, he asked Hatori.

"So, how are you doing?" He noticed how relaxed Hatori was acting, compared to his jittery behavior and constant attempts to run away.

"Doing just fine." Said Hatori. For a moment, he considers telling Avinash about how he died multiple times. But he then decided that someone like Josh would find out and then would likely escape the same fate. So he keeps that to himself.

The door opened, and Josh, Raven, James, Shin, and Suresh all walked in. "Hey man, are you well?" Asked Josh.

"Yep. Nothing like fighting a sorcerer to put your head right, let me tell you." Said Hatori.

"He's back to normal." Concluded Raven. Only Hatori would think that fighting a sorcerer is a good therapy.

"But why did she take you?" Asked Shin.

"She is here, you know." While others are startled by her voice, Shin knows that Samay is present with them in the room.

"I know. But given that you beat up my friend, I am not inclined to acknowledge you." Shin said in reply.

"To answer your question, she wanted to train me in something." Said Hatori.

"I hope that the training went well." Said Josh. "And it was not painful." He added later.

"Not at all." Said Hatori, lying through his teeth.

Raven and Avinash are concerned. Normally, Hatori is quite bad at lying. They can pick it up when he tries to lie to them. But this time, they are unable to make a clear decision whether he is telling them a lie or a truth.

"I also prepared a blueprint." Said Hatori. "Here, take a look at this."

Hatori brings out the template he had prepared earlier, and puts it on the table for everyone to see. "What... What is this?" Asked Suresh.

"Don't worry. Just some ways to make sure that whatever damage you take in the battle is healed and your body regenerates in real-time." Said Hatori. "Having said that, before you think of ordering something like that for your soldiers, you might want to look at the power requirements, as well as the pre-existing conditions necessary to implement something like this. Not every mage can put these modifications on themselves and get those advantages. Most of them will die."

"Is it safe for us though?" Asked Shin.

"Absolutely. Having said that, this is just a blueprint. You have to adapt it for your own modifications." Explained Hatori.

Hatori looked at James. 'He should have no trouble at all. Rest will take a little bit longer.' Thinks Hatori.

"You also need to go through the same training." Said Samay. "Otherwise, you won't be able to take full advantage of these modifications to yourselves. Now, who would like to volunteer?"

A minute of silence later, Samay speaks once more. "Really? Looks like I have to beat another one to take with me."

"I volunteer." Said Avinash with a sigh.

"No!" Said Suresh and Raven together. "We are dealing with a crisis situation. We can't risk you!"

"Well, you should have spoken sooner then." Said Avinash with a tone of chastisement. "I am ready to go when you are."

While this drama between the king and his loyal general is taking place, Hatori is cursing in his head. Avinash will be able to take this training. He won't be able to have any fun at his expense when he returns. 'This won't do. This won't do at all!'

Watching Josh who is going through the blueprint, Hatori gets an idea. Josh feels as if he is the prey, and a dangerous predator is watching him. He turns around, but he is not quick enough. Hatori grabbed him by his collar, and despite Josh being taller and heavier than him, easily lifted him from his chair.

"Why don't you take him with you?" Asked Hatori. "He needs some remedial training anyway. He is losing his instincts."

"Dammit, let go of me!" Josh is unable to do anything, besides waving his arms and legs in the air which has no impact on Hatori.

"Here. Catch!" Hatori then tossed Josh to Samay.

"No!" He protested. The sorcerer grabbed him and disappeared, and silence descended in the office of the king once again.

While others are still in shock, Hatori turns to Avinash. "Be ready to go with her." Said Hatori seriously. "Whatever is happening is likely dangerous. A sorcerer wouldn't be taking such a direct interest otherwise."

"Trust me, the seriousness of the situation is not lost on me." Said Avinash. "Let Josh return. I will be ready to go next time."

PART 3.

The city of salt was a chaotic mess fifty years ago. Some mage calling himself Avatar decided to take over with his cult. King Porus sent his general to quell this uprising, and General Sundar killed the leader of the cult in a duel. The city also experienced some chaos during the last war. It is not surprising: it is one of the financial centers of the Subcontinent.

But since the end of the last war, the city has remained peaceful, minus the assassinations and cutthroat competition of the businesses.

This changed suddenly. A portal opens right in the middle of the square, halting the traffic immediately. A man with a crown on the top of his head walks out of this portal. People are shocked to see him. The police arrived there immediately.

"Halt! Surrender yourself, immediately!" Ordered the officer.

"Oh?" Said the man, looking at the officer.

"You have to identify yourself." Explained the officer.

"Fools!" With that one word, he blew everyone away. "Don't you recognize me? How can you forget me so? Haven't I ruled you all for more than 100 years?"

"No." Said another officer. This one is in charge of this city, and he has the power to back it up. He demonstrates that by countering the magical pressure of this hostile man.

"Porus died more than twenty years ago. He wasn't ruling when he died, just to be clear. You are not him." Said the officer in charge.

"Very well. No matter. I will establish my dominance once again, and will show you who is the real boss." While the city is wracked with the battle, an urgent report is sent to the castle. This is the kind of threat that the police force present in the city is not equipped to handle.

They need some heavy hitters to fight this guy.