Part 1.
“Come in.”
The voice on the other side of the door said. Muffled by the door, it wasn’t a voice he recognized. According to Lili, this was Platz’s office. She had said that he would be waiting here, looking in some mirror that showed him what he wanted to see.
“It’s possible that he was what happened to Diogo, and he decided to run. It would be my luck if that were the case. I just want to end this now so Lili can be at peace.” Alex thought as he turned the knob.
Upon walking inside, he saw a young man's mangled, half-eaten corpse in the middle of the office. While he was stunned by the sight, he neglected to show it, instead keeping a calm exterior. [Inspect] told him that the body was named Peter… and it was still alive, albeit just barely. The health was incredibly low and slowly going up. Alex’s eyes left the nearly departed and trailed slowly up. [Inspect]. The name he saw in his mind caused him to give away only the slightest amount of surprise.
Platz, a man that once made Alex remember the small folk in the fantasy books he read as a child, now stood head and shoulder above him. Where he was once a statistically weak man, was now a hulking mass of flesh and muscle. His horrid grotesque appearance was now more akin to that of a troll rather than of a human. His face was dripping with fresh crimson blood, and his smile revealed his greedy nature. Frankly, he was too massive for this room, too wide and too tall, and now that both Alex and Lili had entered, the overly decorated office felt incredibly cramped and stuffy.
Moving past the appearance, a few other things stuck out to Alex. First was the appearance of skills, something that hadn’t been the case the first time. It was surprising, but Alex had confirmed that there were bound to be people in the world born without them, so he didn’t think too much of it at the time. The ability that concerned him most was the ability called [Gluttony]. It took positions in both his active and passive columns, he concluded that it was an ability with dual effects. The presence of one of the deadly sins from his world caused him to hesitate and question how he should fight this battle.
Then there were his titles. Unsurprised, Gluttony appeared here too. It was the list that followed it that enraged him. The list read, Patricide, Matricide, Fratricide, and Filicide. Indicating he had killed nearly every family member he had. Alex could feel his blood boiling. He was clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. His face showed visible rage for the first time since his attack on the castle had begun. As far as he was concerned, he was no longer dealing with the trash that had been in his way. Before him now was someone who deserved his rage, his hate, his vehemence, and he had every intention to give him but a taste of all the emotion he had quietly bottled away back to his first day with Vathsvala. He quietly took a step forward.
“I will destroy you! Now that I have taken in this power, you are nothing!” bellowed the hulking mass that was Platz. He was confident that his transformation would be the deciding factor and that he wouldn’t need to resort to his failsafe. His vicious blood smile curled even wider as he spoke.
“うるせえ！“ he screamed in Japanese, in a deep growling voice. His rage had taken the front seat, while his logic took a step back proctoring the who ordeal.
Platz was taken back at first by Alex’s outburst. Not knowing the language, he was speaking he chose to take it as some kind of insult or curse, and sent a heavy punch with his right hand, in a long swinging hook. Alex had been a seasoned fighter back in his world, so a move like this was like a national broadcast, coupled with the fact that he stupidly screamed, “ARGH,” as he attacked.
“SHUT UP!” Alex screamed, this time in English in the same harsh tone as before.
Platz’s wide right hook came in and had it been a regular man, or even Diogo, it would have crushed bones and sent his opponent flying into the wall. Alex was no regular man though, he was strong, the strongest human in the world, he had obtained control of mana that no one thought possible, and he could manipulate the very fabric of all things physical or metaphysical. What was a punch from an overpowered simpleton to him? Nothing.
While he was not someone who normally took needless hits in a fight, as that would just be silly. A single could mean the difference between you winning and losing. This time though, Alex wanted to advertise the difference in their power. When Platz’s devastating right hook came in, Alex simply tilted his head to the right, exposing a larger portion of his left jaw. When the blow finally struck, wind ripped through the room causing papers to fly and even Lili’s dress on the other side of the room to flutter.
Alex on the other hand stood there motionless. His left jaw pointed up; a large fist seemingly attached to it. Platz could barely see his enemy’s eyes on the other side of his fist, but a small glimpse was all he needed to understand. Platz had powered up to a point that was beyond human, he was monstrous, and with raw stats, he was stronger than Alex. But raw stats didn’t matter right now, Platz had smashed into a wall of mana, the size of a quarter, floating just a few centimeters over Alex’s skin, and that single second of eye contact that they had made was enough for Platz to realize how foolish he had been.
At a speed that defied logic, Alex ducked under his opponent’s outstretched arm and launched an assault of his own. First was a hit to the groin which caused them to pop, then he reached higher, with a left hook to his enemy’s right side, then a right hook, followed by another left. Then with his right arm cocked, he pushed off the ground, accelerating up, lifting his right arm with all his might to drive an uppercut to Platz’s lower jaw. While up in the air, he caught his opponent’s neck with his left foot, keeping him from traveling too far out, with his right foot, he crashed down on the back of his opponent’s skull, one, two, three, four times until he could feel the mass of muscle beginning to fall forward. Riding him down to the floor. For Alex, it felt like a full minute had passed, but for everyone else in the room, it was near instantaneous.
Platz couldn’t understand, at one moment he had a fist pressed against his enemy’s face, the next he was face-first on the floor, with Alex on his back, his skull felt like it had been smacked with a hammer multiple times, his lower jaw and both sides of his abdomen were aching, and he could feel his testicles had begun to swell abnormally. It didn’t make sense, how could something like this happen to him? He was one of “the 7”! He was by no means the strongest, but he wasn’t the weakest. He had also followed through with the plan that Sloth, the smartest among them all, had devised. If it was his plan, it would surely mean success, so why was he now in so much pain?
Platz looked at his left hand. In it was a vial of crimson-colored liquid. He had made sure to do everything in his power to protect it from any kind of pressure that would rupture it. He realized that this may be his only hope. He wasn’t sure what exactly would happen, but he understood that if he did nothing, even with the regeneration ability he had acquired from his son’s flesh, he would likely die to this man. He mustered the strength he had in him, and with his left elbow and right hand, he pushed himself up as fast as he could, shaking his back when he reached the apex. Forcing Alex to jump off of Platz’s unbalanced back. He landed just on the other side of Peter’s body, which had partially regenerated at this point. Nearly 10% of his health had returned, and the oozing mass of bloody flesh was starting to slowly move.
Alex looked past that and stared down at his opponent trying to figure out the best way to deal with him. He had noticed that his attacks hadn’t done any significant damage, even if they were just basic physical hits with little to no mana being used to support them. His biggest worry however was the skill [Gluttony]. From what he could tell, it was a skill that allowed Platz to gain the power of the things that he ate, but it was still one of the seven deadly sins of Alex’s world. What other effects would accompany it? He was in a world where demons actually existed, where a demon lord had ravaged the land on more than one occasion. If he took on a skill that was related to the evils of man, would it connect him to the demon lord? The fact that it had proliferated along multiple parts of his status window, combined with the existence of “The Court of 7” sitting under a blank spot under the affiliation portion of the stats window, caused Alex to feel hesitant about this fight and how to end it.
“If I kill this guy… will Gluttony transfer to me?” Was the thought that was keeping him from ending this fight, as he had done so with the others today. “That means there are going to be six more like him?” He shook his head in an attempt to brush away any unneeded thoughts.
While Alex was standing on the other side of the room, contemplating all the aspects that made what should have been a simple fight into something that was far more complex. Platz deftly as he could, or as deftly as one would expect an over-inflated bodybuilder to, Platz pierced his flesh with the syringe in his lower abdomen, pushing the plunger so hard and fast that it snapped. The red liquid poured into his body, mixing in with his blood, revitalizing and invigorating him. He could feel the damaged areas healing faster than before, but more so he could feel his power increasing as new mana seemed to be coursing through his body.
What he had injected was Lili’s blood, being that she was a Beastmen, it meant that her blood could be used as an artificial enhancement for other species. This had been a closely kept secret among the higher echelons of the underworld and Beastmen government. As the latter had sold its political prisoners from the old regime off to special slave traders for a generous sum. More specifically, however, this was Lili’s blood, the blood of a Moon Fox. The number of people, still alive, who knew what this blood could do was only two, and neither of those two individuals was in the room right now to explain it to the combatants. All Alex, Lili, Platz, and a mostly dead Peter could do was wait and see the effects.
Alex paid close attention to his enemy with his [Inspect] ability. It wasn’t in his nature to allow his opponent time to ready themselves, as he wasn’t some battle junkie always looking to fight the new most powerful opponent, but this was real life. He couldn’t blindly charge in without knowing the strength of his enemy, if something happened to him, it would leave Lili practically defenseless. So, he felt he had no choice but to stand back and find out what exactly he would be dealing with, quickly concoct some plan and act on it. Much to his surprise though, as Platz was going through with his power-up routine, none of his stats seemed to have changed at all, however, the air that he was giving off eked death.
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Part 2.
What was happening inside of Platz’s body was similar to taking steroids, but instead of it inflating the muscles, it was reinforcing his mana cycle. Allowing his body to move mana throughout his body at an increased rate, unnaturally so. He knew that if his body kept up the pace it was going for too long, it could prove to be fatal, even with his stolen regenerative ability. While he didn’t know how to end it, his primary focus at the moment needed to be on his enemy. Feeling the urge to end this as quickly as possible, he, and his hulking mass, lunged forward at Alex. His arms were stretched out, like a professional NFL player going for a sack. This would have been dangerous had he gone up against a regular human, even if that human had been someone as strong as Holdebark, but again, Alex was far from being a regular human.
But Alex, who had given his opponent sufficient time to power up, was more than ready for such a simplistic attack. When the mass of muscle came at him, Alex had long decided that the first thing he needed to do was to change the location. While the office that they were in was grander than most, it was still not enough space for him to tangle with a creature of this size. Continuing to do so would put Lili in harm’s way.
With Platz coming in for the embrace of the century, Alex prepared his rebuttal. He stepped forward with his right foot, opening his stance wide, and when his opponent was close enough, swung as hard as he could with his left leg. He could feel his muscles straining, it felt like his leg would tear off from the force of his swing, and that was before his kick landed. When his leg, from just above the kneecap and down to his toes connected with Platz’s massive form, he felt parts of his leg break under the pressure, but he channeled mana in those areas, reinforcing them, and use [Manipulate] to mend the broken bones all while exerting more force into his kick.
The kick itself moved at a nearly super-sonic speed, when the hit landed, the force of the wind that created outdid Platz’s punch from before. It roared through the room causing the stationary and paperweights on the desk to go flying, cabinets to fly open only to then shut back forcefully, the door they had entered rattled, and the walls of the room shook violently. This was a kick that had been refined during the fight against the Shadow Lord, the infusion of mana had caused his leg to be as hard as titanium, the hardest metal back home, making his leg nearly unbreakable under the pressure.
His kick rocked his opponent, causing Platz to black out for just a short moment before he was involuntarily awakened by his ability. The force of the kick caused Platz’s entire body to begin shifting toward his left, eventually sending him hurtling toward the windows at the far end of the room. The windows, two large and tall multi-paneled sheets of glass, were nowhere near strong enough to hold back the immense weight of Platz’s new body. The thin column that stood between their frames buckled under the pressure and in the end, Platz was falling through the air outside the castle into the first layer of forests below.
He fell and fell more than 150 meters, through the canopy of the trees below and finally slamming against the floor of the man-made forest that encircled the castle proper. The wind had been knocked out of him by the force of the crash. Meaning he had to calm himself and focus on his breathing in an attempt to return to normal. He looked up, expecting his opponent to follow him down below, finishing him off while he had the upper hand, but Alex was nowhere to be seen. Seeing this as a blessing, he focused on his mana channeling in an attempt to power himself up more.
Far above, standing at the new window he had made, he looked down at his opponent, barely visible through the treetops. Platz appeared to be stationary and taking in heavy deep breaths. Alex on the other hand felt he still needed more intelligence before he could act, and the best source of that right now would be…
“Vathsvala.”
“Oh, Alex! You seem to be in a bit of a pickle!?” replied a gentle voice in her head.
“A bit of a… never mind. Have you been paying attention to what is going on?”
“Indeed. You have been giving me a lot of work to do today.” The voice was calm, but there seemed to be an air of annoyance to it.
“Well… you know how it is. Anyway, in your big book of skills, do you remember anything about a skill called Gluttony?”
There was silence after his question. He couldn’t decide if it was because of a reluctance to answer, or if it was because she was just looking it up, or…
“There is no skill of that name.” was her response. He didn’t bother asking if she was sure, her tone said it all. She had probably double-checked the book already. After all, with the time difference between the worlds, these conversations were probably tedious and dragged out.
“In your wisdom,” he realized just how difficult it was to try to think and have a mental conversation at the same time. “In your wisdom how should I go about this then?”
Again, there was a pause, giving herself plenty of time to think things through. Being able to do this was essentially another cheat that acted like a thought acceleration skill. Since one minute in this world was the same as six days in the god realm, meaning even if Vathsvala procrastinated she still had plenty of time to get back to him with an answer.
“Alex. The skill worries me. This book was created by all six of us, each and every skill that was deemed possible is written within it.”
“I figured as…”
“That being said”, she interrupted him. “You have already made abilities, or should I say altered abilities, which are not within the book. This means that if you are able to do so, undoubtedly someone else would be able to.”
The warning was heard loud and clear. Alex had spent time attempting to grow powerful enough to defeat any enemy he came across; he had never even considered the possibility of having to fight an enemy that he shouldn’t defeat. His [Skill Steal] ability had become a liability to him this time.
“Be careful Alex. If you happen to acquire that ability, I am not sure what would happen to you.”
“Well for one, I would be able to acquire a tone of more power, I have sorta seen this kind of skill in action. Though, he didn’t have any adverse effects like possibly being controlled by a demonic force.”
“Please don’t make light of this…” her tone was one of extreme worry.
“Hey now, didn’t I tell you, if I do anything stupid, I will make sure to not be killed?” His tone was playful, doing the exact opposite of what she asked of him. “Plus, if something does happen and I die, wouldn’t I just come to see you?”
“That is… not how it works.” Her tone was somber.
“Reincarnation?”
“…”
“I see. Probably because I am an outsider. Don’t feel bad, I’m used to it. You should try visiting historic Kyoto.” He was forcing himself to stay positive in the face of reality.
“Please be careful. The whole world is relying on you, and…”
“I know. We will talk about it later. Thanks, Vah.”
He finished his conversation with the goddess of Life and looked back toward Lili.
“The whole world is relying on me. No pressure.” He smiled at her, a big genuine toothy smile.
It was the same smile that adults always gave kids, the one that said, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be all right.” The same smile that kids always managed to see through, letting them know that nothing was all right and that the adult was simply winging everything in the hopes that everything would turn out, all right.
While Lili may have looked like a small child, and due to her lack of real-life experience, had a timid personality to match. She was not a small child and had the wisdom to know that Alex, for some reason or another, was doubting his next step. She could feel her heart beating in her hands and feet, she could hear it pounding in her chest. She realized that if there was ever a moment to prove herself, prove her worth to Alex, her hero, the object of all her affections, this was the moment. She stood up, leaving the side of the half-healed Peter, and walked to Alex’s side and grabbing his hand asked him.
“How can I help?”
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Part 3.
Of all the things that happened today, this was the first time he had failed to hold back his surprised expression. “Doesn’t she understand what kind of monster we are up against? She wants to help. I can’t… if she got involved…. But she could…No…” He fumbled around with the idea in his head, but he couldn’t bring himself to come to a conclusive decision.
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“You shouldn’t coddle her.” Said a voice in the back of his head. It was a voice he hadn’t heard in a long time now.
“Even here, huh…” The voice in his head was somber, and he looked down at Lili with gentle eyes.
“All right, little one. Let’s do this together.” He told her.
After having caught his breath, Platz got to his feet. He didn’t understand why Alex hadn’t come after him yet, but he was grateful for the hold-up. He looked around him and then up, attempting to get an idea of where he was in relation to the city. Once he had a solid idea, he gave a devilish grin.
“I just need a bit more strength.” He then turned behind him, heading in a southern direction towards the city market, which would be seeing the heaviest amount of traffic around this time. He had gone just a few steps when before him his opponent appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. He clicked his tongue behind his teeth, put off by the fact he had been blocked from reaching his current goal. “What took you so long?” He said, doing his best to hide his dissatisfaction.
“Sorry, I was having a strategy meeting,” Alex responded in a cocky manner. “Now that is all done, I think I will focus on fishing you.”
He didn’t even wait for his opponent to respond. [Quick Acceleration + Jump] had him leap forward faster than his opponent could see, [Intimidation] reduced his ability to guard himself, and with [Kick] he sent his foot soaring as high as he could from right below, sending him soaring into the sky. [Jump] allowed him to launch himself up to meet his foe, latching on to his opponent and anchoring himself with his left hand. With his right hand he began to pound on his opponent, but not with his bare fists, [Create + Manipulate] allowed him to make a gauntlet of leather fastened neatly by a belt around his wrist, on the knuckles were blades of mithril, spanning around 5 centimeters long. All of that was further wrapped in destructive mana, and his body also had mana, enhancing his arms and legs. It was an incredibly expensive way to fight his opponent, but he wasn’t looking to make this a long fight. There was only one goal he had, to weaken his opponent as much as possible, as quickly as possible.
With the two of them up in the air, and Platz unable to anchor himself to anything, all that size and strength meant nothing. On the other hand, Alex could simply use his opponent’s body as the base he needed and get busy dealing as much damage as inhumanly possible to him. In all honesty, at this point, he had completely forgotten about any and all training he had ever done, he simply attacked, allowing his natural form to show. There is a saying within the martial arts community of earth, “Fear not the man who knows ten thousand kicks, fear the man who has done one kick ten thousand times.” Meaning that, even though he had allowed his natural form to show, it was still nearly perfect, a clear indication that even after years of neglecting his daily practice, he was still just as lethal as before.
This was something that Platz was finding out the hard way. He had regenerative capabilities, but he still felt pain with each hit. He had mana running through his body at an accelerated rate, empowering him like never before, but each hit from Alex’s glove hand seemed to feel heavier and heavier and hurt more and more. Platz was trying to reach out, hoping to latch onto his nemesis, to grab him and squash him, anything to stop the pain he was feeling. Alex was proving to be far too nimble to him though, and by joining their mana together, thanks to his ability to [Manipulate] pure unattuned mana, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
As the fight continued eventually the pair began to fall from the sky, Alex’s punch had sent them high in the sky, nearly to the opening in the castle. But now they were hurting back down towards the earth. It became a tug-of-war match between the two with each of them fighting for who was going to be on top. Platz would try to roll, but Alex would respond by pulling in the opposite direction, keeping his superior position. The tree branches bent and broke under their weight, with the more flexible ones flinging back up and smacking Alex across the face once they were released from the weight of Platz’s large body. The war between the two was won, and Platz became intimate with Ternora’s domain first. A loud splat sound could be heard echoing through the trees, had he been normal it would have no doubt killed him, but he took the damage and started regenerating while in a slight daze.
Alex could feel the force of the impact, even in his position atop Platz. The force had greatly strained his limbs, even with them being reinforced, though nothing was broken. He hid any pain he may have been feeling under the grin he was wearing on his face. He was dangerously low on his mana at the moment, but that was fine. He should have Platz right where he needed him. He looked up at the opening in the side of the castle where he could see a shining light, as ominous as it was beautiful.
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Before Alex had jumped down to resume the fight, he had come up with a game plan for the fight.
“I can’t kill him. You have to.” Alex told her flatly.
Lili did her best to retain the determination she had just a second ago, but internally she was questioning if that much was even feasible.
“O-okay.” She gave her best go at a decisive answer.
“You aren’t doing this alone. I’ll fight him, wear him down, bring him to a point where it should be a simple matter for your magic.” He looked off toward the monsters getting up on his feet. “Remember what Evona told us, aim for the core.”
She showed a confused expression on her face. Some monsters, usually those in the service of the demon lord, had cores, humans didn’t. Platz, even if he changed forms, couldn’t have become a demonic monster.
Noticing the confusion on her face, “I am not certain. Consider it as a form of insurance. If you ask me though, he is more monster than man now.” He looked back down, and a look of disgust crossed his face. “No, he was always a monster, he was just wearing the skin of a human.” He said, looking at the remains of Peter, now mostly put back together.
“I’ll do it,” she said, reaffirming her determination to be of use to Alex.
“Gotcha! Go all out, don’t hold back!”
She responded with a solid nod of her head.
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When she saw the two of them start falling back down, Lili began preparing her spell. Lili’s most powerful ability was [Dominion], at higher levels, she could bend the very fabric of reality, allowing her to alter the world around her as she wished. In her current form, and at its current level, she could make slight alterations, at the cost of a massive amount of her mana. So, the simplest method would be to alter her form.
Alex had always internally questioned why she looked like a small child at her age, but never outwardly questioned it, especially after the incident in the library with her name. He had taken the stance that whenever she was ready to share something she would. While was still apprehensive about certain things, she realized that if she wanted to continue to stay by his side, she would need to open up about more things and put in the effort to be helpful, even if Alex never would have asked it from her.
When she had escaped from her home under the protection of her two companions, she was told never to use her real name. There would no doubt be someone on the lookout for her, and her real name could lead them right to her. That wasn’t the only thing though, that night, under the guise of protection, by the will of her mother, Empress Fujiwara-no-Suiko, her powers were sealed away. The key to their restoration was left with Tamamo. That night of the raid on the small village, her powers had been returned to her, but out of fear, she had kept them sealed away. Deeming that maintaining her form as a small child would be the safest, but now things were different. Someone, somewhere out there, knew her current form, and remaining a weak helpless child would only be a hindrance to Alex, and leave her vulnerable.
Bowing down on the floor, she clasped her hands together in prayer. Focusing on the mana seal placed within her body, she used the power that Tamamo had imparted to her on her death. The image of her face, the final smile, the final tear, her last wish for her to survive, to live, confirmed that what she was doing was the right decision. Kenzō’s image flashed in her mind. The ever-proud and powerful warrior among her people. He had served her family well over the years, ranking up from a simple soldier to one the honor guard, their duty to protect the imperial family at the cost of their life, if necessary. The fact that she was still alive was a testament to that loyalty.
“Never again.” The words echoed in the air around her, and the sound of two voices hung in the air. Light shined all around her, a large engram appeared on the floor below her. A red field, with yellow linework that looked like flower petals, stretched out as far as they could, creating a two-dimensional top-down view of a kind of flower to be seen. In the center, where the pistil would be, sat a small Lili, her skin shining to a point of translucency. Little by little, her figure grew larger and larger. Her small frail legs, getting longer, muscle and fat filling them out to a healthy figure. Her arms stretched and expanded, becoming three times their previous size. Her hair, keeping its beautiful silver sheen, extended along with her body, maintaining its position of reaching as far down as her butt, the latter itself growing wider with her hips, filling out to a supple rounded appearance. With her torso growing, her chest grew along with it, becoming that of a more mature woman, a treat for the eyes of any man within view.
Lastly, she had two major additions to her form. As with her mother, and every empress that had reigned before her, a long, beautiful fur tail came out from her lower back, just above her buttocks. It was silver, the color of her hair, not a single strand of fur was even a single shade off. On her head, two large horns of fur appeared, each of them concave on one side, leading to a canal designed to capture even the quietest of sounds. The fur, much like the rest, was of a pristine silver color like the moon visible on a clear night.
Sitting on the floor in the middle of the office was a naked adult Lili. She climbed to her feet with a slight wobble, she was still unused to her current form, and the new height of the world was throwing off her balance. After allowing herself just a second to adjust, she ran to the end of the wall, looking down for a glimpse of her prey. Extending her hand out, she focused on the location where the two of them were, light filling the air all around her, bright enough to blind any poor onlooker that just happened to look up.
“I will end you. For Tamamo and Kenzō.” In her hand, a bright amethyst color shined, like a jewel refracting the light of the sun. When she opened it, resting in her palm was a purple cylinder, with black markings running up and down its sides. Where she was looking, a large purple diagram appeared below Alex and Platz, walls extending up from the ground, trapping them inside a cage where all things were under her desire.
Down below, the air around Alex had a purple hue to it. On the ground, a large diagram, and from its edges rose translucent purple walls, shooting high into the sky beyond the treetops. He smiled, impressed with the caliber of little Lili’s magic. This was by far the most powerful spell he had seen her cast. After taking a second to admire the display, he looked back toward his opponent.
“This is it, the beginning of the end for you,” Alex spoke with his arms wide open, purposefully leaving himself vulnerable to any attack. “You are still recovering aren’t ya? How are your insides?”
With each attack from Alex’s gloves, the tips pierced Platz’s flesh, leaving his insides open for attacks from Alex’s mana. Alex made sure not to kill his opponent, for fear of the unwanted skill he possessed, but there was still plenty of non-fatal damage he could do to him on the inside, slowing down his recovery. Using [Inspect] he could see Platz was sitting at 14% health left, with it slowly rising back up. He only hoped that Lili’s magic would be powerful enough to finish the job.
“What are you?” asked Platz with ragged breath.
“Huh?”
“You don’t fight like a hero. You are too cruel to be a hero. How can you kill so easily?”
“Big talk coming from you. You killed your entire family, for what? What could possibly be worth your family’s lives? Power? If that is it, you got robbed.”
Platz had nothing to say. He had traded away everyone that should have mattered to him in the pursuit of power. He wanted to say that he was coaxed into by another force, a dark being that whispered sweet nothings in his ear, but that would just be a convenient excuse. He wanted the power; he wanted as much of it as he could grasp with his own hands. He would have done it all over again if he had to. All the lives he took, all the people that went missing and were never found, their tasty flesh filling his stomach. Yes, he took great joy in it. Still though, after all that time, all the sacrifices, it hadn’t been enough. The man across from him had taken it all away from him within an afternoon, and the scariest part, he wasn’t even exerting himself. There wasn’t a drop of sweat on him, his face was full of hatred, but behind that he was relaxed as could be.
“If anyone is really a monster here, it is you!” Platz thought.
The walls around them had now solidified and were beginning to close in. With that the realization kicked in, Platz was going to die here, and there was no one or nothing that could stop it from happening. A smile crossed his face, it wasn’t one of happiness or relief, it was the thought of vengeance that brought it to his face. The thought of his allies getting together to kill this hero, and avenge him in the process, and if they couldn’t do it, their leader no doubt could. So, with that, the grin widened into a big bloody toothy smile, and eventually into a maniacal laugh as he threw his head back.
The hammer dropped on him mid-laugh, not even Alex saw it coming. One moment his enemy was doing the classical bad-guy laugh, the next an invisible force was plummeting on top of him, smashing him into the ground so forcefully it left a giant-sized imprint where he lay. Then it stopped, and the reverse happened, he was quickly roughly lifted into the sky. This caused his body to twist and turn like a ragdoll, forcefully smacking against the walls made of hardened mana, multiple times. While dangling lifelessly he began to feel parts of himself involuntarily move. Twisting pulling motions, there were cracking and breaking sounds as all four of his appendages were twisted in the opposite direction slowly, then snapped when they had become tight enough. After the damage had been done, and his limbs were left to hang lifelessly by his side, he began to feel his spinal column twitch.
Every single vertebra along his spine was popping out of place, dislocating from each other. Then with what little feeling he had left; he could feel his back bending in the opposite direction. He was folded over, like a suitcase closing, his hanging limbs lifted and tied above him. With him neatly wrapped up, he was lifted to the level where the broken wall was. There stood a beautiful young silver-haired woman, in her outstretched hand a purple light, on it, markings moved around at a rapid speed. She wore a defiant look, an angry look, which was more animalistic than the other man’s.
It took him a second, but eventually, the recognition set in, and he realized who she was. His eyes grew wide, and a pained look flashed across his face. Noticing this, her angry look became a smile, she twisted her finger, and with-it Platz’s neck began to turn. There was no stopping it, he had no choice but to let it happen and endure. Even now, his ability was attempting to repair parts of his body, but it simply could not keep up with the damage that was being done to him. What would have killed a regular person would at most cause him to feint, but then his ability would resuscitate him, waking him back up to the horror that was being done. In his mind, he thought over and over how by now they could have just simply killed him, but instead, they were piling on the damage, little by little. This was a revenge killing and a message, a warning to all others out there, that there were no limits to what they would do to their enemies.
With a final snap, his head was in place, upside down. There was no rest for him, when that had finished, next there was a pressure building up around him. He couldn’t feel it, of course, his entire spine and nervous system were in disarray, and anything below his ears was completely broken and paralyzed, but it was the sound that got to him. The sound of his flesh being pressed together, the sloshing sound of the blood in the folds and crevasses of his skin. Then continued snapping sounds of what bones he had left as the pressure slowly turned them into dust. Even the top of his head was now starting to feel the pressure, being pushed down into the rest of his body. Eventually, his entire form was tucked neatly into a cube of mana the size of a paperweight. Died a crimson color on the inside.
Once done, the walls and engram on the ground below vanished, the cube had floated over and was now resting in Lili’s palm.
“Vanish from existence.”
With those words, the red cube disappeared in a flash of purple. Platz’s entire existence is victim to the void of a completely different reality. To survive, stuck as a cube of flesh for all time.
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Part 4.
Using mana barriers at platforms, Alex jumped his way back up toward the gaping hole in the castle wall. During the brutal but speedy torture of Platz, Alex had been tucked away inside a corner of Lili’s Domain. A dividing barrier had been erected around him, keeping him out of harm from the forces that had taken hold of his enemy. He was incredibly impressed with the sudden improvement in her magic, and a little concerned about how she chose to go about it. The thought of such a small child being so unforgiving made him question if he had been setting the right example for her.
When he did reach his destination he saw inside the room, which was covered in rubble, stones, and glass from the broken wall and windows, paper from the shattered desk that only half remained, and baubles and knickknacks from inside cabinets that had been blown open. In the center of the room was Peter, he had apparently recovered enough to sit up, but was still in shock from his father’s betrayal. Alex scanned the room, looking for Lili, the thought that she had gone missing again had already formed in the back of his head.
Eventually, in the corner of his eye, he noticed some movement from a curtain that was still hanging, albeit barely. He walked over to the ruffling curtain and placed a hand on it.
“Wait!” screamed a feminine voice from within it.
Alex narrowed his eyes, contemplating his next step. It was undoubtedly a female voice, but it was a more mature voice than the one he had hoped for. He clenched his hand on the cloth tightly, threatening to open it and reveal whoever was hiding behind it.
“Wait… Give me a moment to prepare myself.” This time the voice was calmer. It still had a nervous shake to it, but it didn’t sound as startled as it had before. After a few seconds, the figure stood up. He was surprised by her height; she was nearly as tall as he was. A soft hand gently reached out, placing it over his. While he was still on guard, he felt no hostility from it, and without paying attention he had relaxed his hand from the edge of the curtain.
When he had pulled back his hand, the other hand tightly grabbed onto the curtain, and with a forceful yank, pulled it down from what remaining support it still had. It was like a scene out of a movie, the curtain slowly fell, and with it, the anticipation in his heart grew. The seconds felt like minutes, they were agonizing and slow. Eventually, the top of the curtain came down, behind it revealing a beautiful face.
Her long white hair slowly fluttered with the wind coming through the opening, her eyes were wet like she had been crying. She tried looking away, but for whatever reason, she kept turning, making obvious glances in his direction. Her skin seemed even paler than before, yet still, retain a healthy glow underneath. A long fluffy tail kept moving slowly from side to side, the fur perfectly matched her hair and ears. Before him was a stunningly beautiful, full-grown woman. Out of habit he almost used [Inspect] on her, but he didn’t need it, looking at her, even in her changed form, he knew exactly who she was.
“Lili!” He smiled at her, his eyes were soft and gentle as always when he looked in her direction. He placed a hand on her cheek before closing what little distance was between them and wrapped his arms around her in a warm and loving embrace. “It’s finally over little one.” He whispered into her ear.
They stood there embracing each other for a long while. For him, he was beyond joyful to have her back, she was the light in his world after all. For her on the other hand, it was a mixed bag of emotions. She was happy to be back in his arms. They were the safest place she could be, but at the same time, she was conscious of her current lack of proper attire, and had she not been so embarrassed by it, she may have noticed just how cold it currently was with the wind blowing through the opening in the castle wall. But she wanted to enjoy this moment for just a little longer, it was a special moment for her. Her hero had come and attacked the government for her and even fought his way through the local army, all for her.
“Master,” her voice was silky and alluring, a voice that would easily swallow in any man that heard it. “We should finish up here.” She gave a shallow curtsey when she finished. She was holding the curtain against her body, making her feminine form obvious to any onlookers.
“I’m tempted to just leave and let them sort it out.” He looked toward the mumbling Peter in the center of the room, before looking back toward Lili. “But first, we should take care of this. It may be a bit cliché, but eh…” He said to her, pointing a finger at the cloth surrounding her body. Immediately it all seemed to morph into a simple red yukata, loosely fit around her. He even created a pair of geta that appeared on her feet.
“That should be more comfortable than the curtain.” He said, before looking back at Peter.
This entire time Peter had been at a loss. He hadn’t been conscious of the entire altercation, but ever since his father had been blown out the window, he had some kind of idea of what was going on. Once he had healed completely, he had been paralyzed by fear and indecision, so he ended up simply laying there in the room, hoping his father’s enemies would simply forget about him. Yet now, he was faced to face with the man who had defeated his father, and the fear within him grew.
“Pewees don her me!” he cried. His jaw had apparently not finished setting in its proper place. “I dint do anyding wang!” he put his hands up, shielding his face in submission.
“Matricide?” Alex questioned him. He had used [Inspect], finding the crime a young Peter had accidentally committed all those years ago, unknowingly. Not every crime would show up with [Inspect], but the truly heinous ones would. Alex understood this because even after all the killings he had managed today, he still didn’t have a title like “Mass Murderer” or “Slayer”, so crimes such as killing one’s own kin seemed to hold some level of significance.
“Waz assiden!” he begged. Alex had no way to confirm or deny it, and while it was true, Peter was still a man far from being considered innocent. He had been his father’s unique torturer, the only thing was instead of it being for information, it was simply a tool to keep people in line. While Peter may not have known why he was being given these “toys” to play with, he didn’t question it, because he did enjoy it when they would break. All it took was a simple cry, and a replacement “toy” was quickly provided. But Alex had no way of knowing all that, nor did it truly matter to him in the slightest.
“Hanz.” Alex barked. A man crept from the shadow in the far corner of the room. “I am leaving this to you and the cripple. I am taking Lili and we are going back. I kept up my side of the deal.” Hanz, even if he wanted to, didn’t have a moment to interject. Alex had turned around and placed an arm around Lili. Then the pair disappeared into thin air without a word. Leaving Hanz and Peter alone in the room speechless.
By the time Lili realized what was happening the pair were standing outside the door to Evona’s house. The smell of the forest mixed with whatever was being cooked for dinner filled the air. The wood door in front of them brought to her mind a sense of security that she had lost when she ran away that night. It had only been a few days, but to her, it had felt like years had passed. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she turned to Alex one more time.
“I’m sorry.” She said.
“It’s okay little one. As I said, you’re safe now.”
Alex placed a hand on the doorknob, turned, and pushed the door open revealing the warm inviting interior. The warmth, the safety, the love that filled the sight in front of her; in her mind all she could think was, “I’m home.”