Kai sat in the middle of the room in a meditative position.
A silvery mist came slithering out of his closed left eye, took the form of a white serpent, and yawned, adjusting her fangs. A light trail of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, suggesting she must have had her lunch just now.
Hisss!
-Sleep- she said.
Kai opened his eyes, and two narrow reptilian slits greeted his surroundings coldly. His body was red hot, emanating pulses of boiling steam that blurred his body.
He parted his lips, the muscles in his throat contracting like twisted wires.
Hisss!
-Go- Kai said, almost turning his hissing into a word.
The mist slithered to the part below his navel and coiled into a tiny ball of condensed coldness.
Selene is eating a lot these days, as I had expected, Kai thought. The Contestants below the 2nd Set are just a stronger version of common people. From the 4th floor onwards, though, they truly enter the path of magical bodies. Though not of good quality, 4th-floor Contestants can serve as a cheap substitute for magical flesh.
Kai had thought of this before cutting apart Heavy Block and turning him into meatballs.
He wanted Selene to grow up as soon as she could by letting her eat better food. Neither Selene nor Kai knew what was the condition for her growth. But remembering that she was but a child, Kai figured out that she needed what all children need as a part of their growth process. A good diet.
Does she have any restriction on eating Pokemon and benefiting from it? Kai wondered, a devious beam of light shining out of his slitted pupils.
4 hours had passed since Meg left.
Kai and Petyr had scoured the movie many times over by now. Meg had dissected it, but these two had ripped the plot's soul apart, putting forward schemes more vicious than each other. Kai turned his head to look at Petyr, who was still watching the movie for the umpteenth time.
He is right, Kai sighed. I should focus on my own problems for now, and not on leveling up my Traitor Title Status.
Unlike Meg, who was just here to complete her mission, Kai had many things to do within this Side Mission.
Killing 4th-floor Contestants, leveling up his Proficiencies, Titles, and Dementor's Blood Essence, watching over Selene, and now, becoming a Pokemon Trainer. The movie came as the most obvious god's blessing to him, and that too, at the right time.
With the help of the movie, Kai could find out the data on Artifacts available in the city.
He had already found out the easiest Milestones he could complete by paying a price of 150 Mission Credits. It had all the stuff Kai had expected, and much more, always taking a darker turn at the end.
"Your plan might work, my lord," Petyr said. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Kai had made a preliminary plan the moment he had seen the movie for the first time. After watching it many times over, he hadn't changed it, instead its roots had only gone deeper into him.
"Heh!" Kai sniggered. "Why wouldn't I?"
Though they didn't mention what this plan was, Petyr and Kai exchanged a glance before breaking it for good. "I think I have found the solution for the trouble of Emotions Manipulation," Kai mumbled. "Mother always used to say that if you are having issues figuring out something from outside, then look within. I will do just that."
"What? I hope you are not planning to become a hermit, my lord," Petyr jested.
Kai didn't deign to reply. "From tomorrow, I will go to the Pokemon Center's hall during the daytime," he declared. "There, I will use my bond with Selene as an anchor to keep my urges to devour happiness from flaring up. Keeping myself in the company of so many Pokemon will also smother the will of my Glitch to just devour them by exhaustion. Hmm, it's the hardest, but the quickest, way to be done with it."
"And what will you do in the nighttime?" Petyr asked, but he had already put his head into the movie by the end of the sentence.
The corners of Kai's mouth arched up. My nights are already booked, he thought. But before making any further plans, I must do two things.
"Disappear when you are done going through the last part. I need Cersei," Kai told Petyr. To Chaos, he said, "Create a Side Mission to Kill the nearest 4th-floor Contestant of Order. Adjust Mission Summary accordingly."
…
[
Analyzing the Contestant's Stats…
Analyzation Complete
Creating Side Mission…
…
Congratulations Contestant Kai Stormborn
You have triggered a Side Mission
…
Main Mission: Three heads of the Targaryen Dragon
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Side Mission: Kill the Spinning Duos
Side Mission Summary: The Spinning Duos are tasked to get a batch of Pokeballs handmade by Pokeball expert, Kurt of Azalea Town of the Johto Region. Their mission includes kidnapping Kurt's granddaughter Maizie and ransoming her for the Pokeballs.
Side Mission Objective: Kill the Spinning Duos
Side Mission Time Limit: before 15th June
…
Do you accept the side-mission?
]
…
15th June, Kai eyed the date. Today is 1st June. So, I have only 13 days left. I don't even know where this Azalea Town is. Not to mention, the Duos suggest that there are two of them. Two 4th-floor Contestants?
But the question that puzzled Kai the most was why there weren't any 4th-floor Contestants in this town?
Kai took out the book and a box of meatballs in case of emergency.
"Primordial Theater!" he called out, opening the book to the Lioness of Casterly Rock. When the smoky veil parted and she came out, Kai found her wreathing in anger and disgust.
Now what? Kai scowled. "What happened?" he asked, sending the book to Inventory.
Cersei glared at him. She was wearing a lovely turquoise gown, and her hair was down like a golden waterfall. But on her face was fury, and that somehow made her look lovelier. "I wanted to see the Diagon Alley," she complained. "Do you think I can't do what Petyr can do for you?"
Where is this coming from? Kai felt annoyed. "All characters have their acts to play, Cersei," he said, trying to placate her. "You did a great job with Heavy Block, didn't you? I couldn't have called you in the Diagon Alley, anyway. You are too beautiful and too remarkable than two simple men walking down an alley."
Cersei blushed. "But I want to do more. I can…"
"Enough! I don't have time for bullshit," Kai snapped. "Blood Prophecy!"
…
When the Act took effect, the Blood Ocean greeted Kai like a lucid dream.
There was an awareness about him, letting him sense his surroundings. Kai waited. He waited for the waves, the shooting pillars, and the twisted whirls to turn into structures and shapes that would give some meaning to this world.
The wait paid off.
A blood figure rose out of the depths of this ocean, taking a humanoid shape. It walked and walked, holding something in its hand with over 3 ft long and slippery creature slithering behind it, following its footsteps.
Kai followed this figure like an unseen phantom.
It was him.
The realization came suddenly. Kai tried to peek at what he from the future had in his hand, ignoring Selene’s length for now. But every action other than just watching stupidly brought with it an impassable resistance. The moment he tried to do more than just follow the figure, his awareness dwindled, on the brink of disappearing..
Suddenly, the blood ocean shook like the static noise of a TV on losing the signal.
The scene changed, and when Kai could perceive his surroundings, he found the blood figure kneeling, lighting what seemed like a candle. There were other things placed beside the candle, which he couldn't make sense of.
Then the blood figure spoke, chanting some words. The slithering shape behind it burst into many blood drops, melting into the humanoid figure.
The future Selene just entered my body. The thought passed by Kai's awareness. He couldn't hear the words. Nor could he see where he was, and what he was doing. But he could tell there was a deep mystery about the words his future self was chanting.
And then it happened.
The Blood Ocean shook again.
But this time, it was truly the ocean which was shaking. Dense yellow turbulent clouds took over the world which had materialized because of the Act, Blood Prophecy. Yellow lightning thundered, hitting the blood underneath. Tens of thousands of tornadoes rumbled along with the storm, throwing off enormous pillars of blood.
Even the wind had a color, Kai's awareness noticed. Yellow.
Everything was yellow. And this yellow was taking over the red of this blood world.
Only then did he notice the door.
When did it appear? How did it appear? Of these questions, Kai's awareness had no answer.
Was it still a dream? A Prophecy? He dared not ask these questions. The only reality was the door. A monstrously gigantic door, reaching from the ocean's floor and going beyond the ceiling of the sky.
A disgust rose from the very depths of his soul.
There were patterns on the door that repulsed Kai at the sight.
Those patterns seemed to be of a geometry he had seen nowhere. Lines were circles, and circles seemed to be shapeless cubes. Concaves looked convex with every tilt of the head, and in the next moment, they looked like spherical holes. Dimensions were folding onto each other, ruining the meaning of existence.
Everything was wrong.
Only the door's color made sense to him. Yellow.
The door tilted from one side then. Which side? Was it opening outward or inward? He couldn't know. The only thing Kai was sure of was when he saw a deep yellow mist churning behind that door, he gasped. In fear, terror, and genuine horror.
Kai's awareness shivered as he saw a long strip of tattered yellow cloth forcing its way in through that opening.
It was then the Blood Ocean shattered, like a billion shards of a black mirror.
When Kai's awareness returned to his actual body, the world was black.
He was lying on the floor, with jet black blood oozing out of his eyes. There was a tear on his chest, and thousands of thin tendrils flailed out of it, trying to grasp at just anything. All over his body were yellow spots, multiplying and disappearing like an uncontrolled mutation.
The notification of HP drop was flashing so red that it almost looked black.
Gritting his teeth, Kai wriggled for the only thing he cared about. The meatballs. The only time he had felt so much pain was when the official wizard had used that Cruciatus Curse on him.
Following his survival instinct, Kai pushed himself to his right. Nothing.
The food seemed to have been kicked away by him.
-Need… food…- Kai hissed out through his teeth. All the HP capsules he had were gone.
Suddenly, when all hope seemed to be lost, and the world was getting darker, a burst of bone-chilling cold wrapped around his body.
His blood, flesh, bones, and even his soul were being frozen.
Hisss!
This hiss rang in Kai's ears like a sonorous play of divine flutes.
A layer of white-blue frost appeared on him, but it was concentrated around his chest.
The black tendrils that were flailing in madness and hunger calmed down and instantly went for the yellow patches that were still overtaking his skin. Selene slithered out of him and rushed off. To where? He didn't know. The cold had numbed him, making the pain more bearable.
Something pried open his mouth, and Kai felt the hardness of scales touching his teeth, tongue, and gums.
Selene opened her jaw and passed on the meatballs directly down his throat.
Through the gap of his eyelids, he saw the little serpent slithering in panic, going for the meatballs that had rolled away from him, putting one in her mouth, and then coming back to dump it down his throat.
Kai found himself unable to think.
Only a string of words repeated themselves in his mind as if someone had planted them there, in his consciousness.
Kai latched himself on those words, fearing that he would forget them in the next second. When the last meatball went down to his stomach, he spoke them out using sheer willpower to give them a reality before passing out.
"The… The King in Yellow…"