And so here is the last chapter of second arc.

And this is it. I'm going on a hiatus for about a month. sorry for the inconvenience for those who wait for my story (if there are some, it would be nice though hahaha)

I will certainly continue my story, but I'm a slow writer so don't expect too much from me.

* * * *

It’s dark.

Ah I see, it is another . Once again I stepped into this nothingness. A place where there is nothing except and me.

I get into the portal with Mao and now I found myself here again.

I stepped forward, moving my legs, moving my whole body.

Once again, sits there like usual.

“Yo, how rare for us to meet so quickly.”

He greets me like usual, ah no it was a bit different as we usually didn’t meet each other so quickly.

“Twice in a day... What’s more, yesterday, uh no, almost 2 days ago we also meet here right?”

I said as I shrugged. smirked with a mocking face just like the usual. He seems to enjoying himself more than usual, as he borrowed my body and moves around.

“So now, what do you want?”

“Haah, once in a while I came with something to ask to you.”

Yes, now I have something I need from him.

“… I need you to train me more.”

fell into silence for a while probably he didn’t expect me to ask this from him, and then he smirked and laughed again.

“Hahaha, oh my who would even thought about this? Shou, I will ask only once, are you sure?”

His facial expression changed. It changed into a serious expression that he never shown before. From what I heard from Mao, even when fighting Hannibal, he didn’t let go of his annoying mocking smirk.

Ugh… now that I think about it, back then he is using my body so he smirked when using my face. I must be seen like a maniac back then.

Oh let’s forget about that for now.

I answered him with a firm “Yes”. Whoa I really was determined when I answered it. I could see surprised once again when he saw me.

“Haa oh well, you still remember what our deal was long ago right?”

“Yeah, I still remember it.”

Long ago…

There was a time where I fell unconscious. When I got back up my friends, family, and even the teacher was worried.

Apparently while I was blacked out, I was talking differently and doing something weird. That’s what sparked their worries.

And to make it worse it happened not just once. Sometimes I would black out and changed my behavior. And when I fell asleep it also would happened 8 out of 10 times.

Later I found out I was possessed by . Yeah it’s him, this .

Then I found myself in for the first time and we talked. After a few times we talked, we make a deal.

“If you teach me how to fight, and I have reached your level or at least I’ve reached the age of 21, we will fight here and settle who the owner of this body is. Until then, you will not possessed my without my consent and leave my body to me.”

That was the deal. That’s why we sometimes spar and he trained me.

When you heard about the deal, you would expect to be swindled and he won’t teach me until I reached the age of 21 without any means to fight.

Surprisingly, really did teach me properly in a pace that will let me reach his level around 20 years old. Oh and by the way it was around 2 years later. I’ve learnt from him when I was 17 years old.

Because of this I’m pretty good at martial arts. If a black belted karate practitioner asks for me to fight him unarmed, I’m confident I can win easily.

But as for reaching ’s level… well you saw what he did when fighting Hannibal. He even can use some kind of magic back then. Mao said that he casted healing magic or something. Seems like he triggered it using Myste. Sometimes I wonder why he knows about everything.

Good thing that we decide that the match is pure physical combat. And he said I can use any weapon I want later.

For now my most advanced technique is dagger. But, before I can’t even win against Blaze’s Zombie. Well if it was Blaze himself maybe we would be evenly matched, but a zombie has around 5 times human’s strength as they’ve lost their limiter.

Well for I could say… he is the master of any weapon. Even he can use my body to its near limit without any enhancement. He is some sort of monster.

Of course I can’t win. I’m just a human with strength even below of the average. What do you expect?

Oh well anyway, asking him to train me more means my time to face him will be sooner, but I don’t care.

“For now, all I want is to protect myself better. I can’t be the one who get helped all the time you know.”

“Haa, whatever. I hope you won’t regret your choice.” slowly stands up “Create your weapon now.”

He created every kind of weapon out of nowhere around him. Even some which I don’t know what kind of weapon is it. Either they are lying around and stabbed into the ground or floating in the air. It is all just like a certain someone skill that I saw in anime where he produce many swords. Except this one is not just swords and he didn’t do any incantation. Whoa I need to admit that’s somehow cool.

And while as for me, I just created one dagger. This place sure is convenient. I can create all what I wanted to.

“Lesson… start.”

* * * *

-Phantom’s perspective-

This kid really surprised me.

Who would have thought that he himself would ask me to train him better?

If being stronger means probably your own ends will come closer, I doubt many people would want it.

He knows that when he fell into danger I would certainly help him.

But this kid really asks to become stronger by his own will. He wishes to, no he wanted to become stronger to not become a dead weight for anyone.

By the time I finished training him, it could be said that in just a few months he might comes to my level.

At first we would meet about once a month, but of course there are times where we meet unexpectedly or didn’t meet by the time we expect so I assumed the training time to let he grows to my level by around 3 or 4 years. But to my surprise he learn it quiet fast.

When I first got awakened inside his body, I sure was delighted to be able to live once more. Rather than delighted I guess I was getting carried off. I make a mess using his body.

After a while I regretted it and come to terms with him. I make a bet with him, that whoever wins will become the master and the other won’t interfere unless with the master’s consent. But as he is rightful master, I give the body to him until the time we settle it. And for another surprise when I ask him to lend me his body, he usually agrees.

And for this too nice guy of an idiot I will stay true to my own promise. And that’s the origin of our deal.

Even though I say he is kind, he is also selfish. He is kind, but that’s it. It wasn’t at the level of a hero who would save the world. He is kind but he is more of selfish than kind.

I got to knew later that he is also known as an apathetic guy. But I won’t say he is apathetic, I would say he is a realist to some extent but not pessimist.

Some times later, I know more about him and he also learn about me to some extent. I learnt that he was once betrayed… no I didn’t just learnt, I witnessed it.

He knew he is betrayed, he accepted it, and he still remain kind. He faced reality heads on yet still unfazed. He remains the same.

People who I had seen to be betrayed and got hit by cruelty like him were all broken, but he remained the same. I would say that because he was a realist in the first place. I found myself admitted that this kid… Shou is admirably powerful.

And from that moment I swore. Even if I lose to him I will do my all to protect this idiot.

But this time he faced me. He seems more powerful than before. I really think that I might lose to this kid… it seems like it will draw near.

Don’t worry Shou… I know you are strong. And I’m sure you will be stronger from now on.

Thus I will hope--

May you receive what I’ve lost before.

May you accomplish what I’ve failed before.

May you be different from me.

May you… not become like me…

* * * *

-Mao's Perspective-

I always hate .

Even though is also a demon race.

Actually we aren’t even from the same race. is what called us. In reality we are not from a same race. There is race which is one of those who resembles humans, and races which possess height just like human children, race which face more of a pig, and some others. We are forced into becoming the same race. As for the reason why, it’s because humans are afraid of us.

Some of us never showed hostility towards humans. But nevertheless, humans declared war towards us even though we were at our edge even between demon races. We were shown prejudice towards even to the one who didn’t get involved.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

That’s where I came out, .

I was chosen as the strongest demon who rules over them.

In reality I’m not really that strong worthy to become a demon lord.

I was chosen because of my potential and people who “entrust” this title to me. They said I have the potential to become the strongest demon, thus they forced me into this position. Even though I was forced, I really hope for the demons to live in peace as we are being ostracized by humans.

Somehow, I managed to bring truce between the demons. I’m sure some of my subordinates work really hard for this.

To brag about myself a bit more, I will also proudly say, that I managed to calm some to not attack humans.

But it was too late. Humans and Demons relation can’t be fixed anymore. It was already beyond repair.

What’s more they had already sent assassin known as to us.

Under such crisis one of my subordinates which wish for war between Demons and Humans took the opportunities to launch his plan.

I never knew…

’s goal was to unite every to attack humans.

If only I knew beforehand. I was such a fool. That’s why I come to hate .

I never wished for war. Me, the rest of my subordinates, and of course most of the demons didn’t wish for conflict.

I was known as the . Thus it was natural for humans to send to kill me. Even though I never command the demon to ignite war between us… whenever I commanded a battle it was to defend the weak demon race. Besides that, I tried to persuade the demons to stop their attack.

But it was no good. 9 out of 10 they wouldn’t heed to my pledge. There was also some war done behind my back without me knowing.

“What … I was just a useless powerless little girl…”

I sighed.

The war… I wonder how it goes now. Ah I really am worried. Not that it make any difference whether I’m presence or not.

But even so… I want to try it again. I want to try to persuade them to stop once again.

This time, I will at least make sure of their safety even if I have to sacrifice my life…

But for now… I need to track .

I must find !

* * * *

-???-

“Hmm, I see. So they managed to defeat that lizard. I’ll praise you people for your efforts. And to think that even Mao is one step closer to awaken, this is going smoother than I expected... Now shall I find another catalyst?”

At that moment I saw something-- or rather someone I could use. He was running away from some monsters. Fearlessly, I approached him.

I positioned myself between the monster and my new “pawn”. He was looking at me with a surprised eye. I turned towards him.

“Now, now, there’s no need to be surprised like that. I’m here to help you.”

With just a flick towards the monster, I killed it. Such a frail being. Sorry that you have to die but you’ll have my gratitude to smoothen my plan. You’re not dying a wasted life.

“Are you okay?”

Damn, making a sickening smile like this really make me want to puke. But I’ll play the good guy for a while.

“Y-yeah. Thanks for saving me, um… mister.”

Good, I can see his eyes sparkled in awe. Now then, he will make the perfect pawn.

“I was just passing by when I saw you in danger. No need to thank me. But hey, if you are journeying alone it would be dangerous right? Want me to teach you how to defend yourself from that monster?”

“Eh?! For real? You will teach me?”

“Or are you maybe dissatisfied to have me as your teacher..?”

“N-no! On the contrary, I don’t think I’m good enough to learn from you! That’s why please teach me!”

Good, now I gained another “pawn”. Khuhuhuhu, Ahahahaha! This one will be very interesting!

“What are you doing?”

A guy wearing glasses just suddenly interrupted me. Damn this four-eyed bastard.

“What do you want from me you bastard?”

“I just asked what you are going to do to that person.”

This bastard must be suspecting me to scheming something.

“It’s nothing, just want to train him.”

“Ha? You must be kidding me. Kid, nothing good will come if you interact with this wicked mastermind, screw off.”

The person who I just saved ran away immediately. Tch, such an ungrateful bastard…

“Ah, now my pawn-to-be is gone. What do you want, Mr. Backstabber?”

“Hah, to think that I got called a backstabber by such a wicked mastermind like you.”

This bastard sure is a conceited one.

“Anyway, no need to send off your pawns anymore. Your Blaze’s Zombie and Hannibal are proved to be useless. This time I’ll go confront him myself.”

“What was that? A backstabber wants to confront his enemy face to face? Such a funny joke.”

“Humph. Whatever, I’ll confront him alone myself this time. Don’t you dare to interrupt me.”

That four-eye just went inside to a portal. To think that I teamed up with such a guy… well whatever, both of us are the same kind of person after all. We both betrayed someone for our own merit.

I still can’t fully trust that guy, but whatever. Even if he betrays me, I still have something in reserve.

Khuhuhuhu. Now then, where should I go next? I need to prepare for my next plan. Ah~ to think that I found such interesting worlds. I just want to make each one of them to be mine.

* * * *

-Takeharu’s Perspective-

Ha~ah, this is not good.

After trying to follow after Shou, maybe Selia and I were thrown into a different world than him. We just can't find even a speck of any info about him.

Well, in another meaning we might found ‘him’ though. Now, I’m sitting in a pub with young adventurer, ShowTime, who is a wizard in Grand Eden Land. Why did I say that he is Shou? The truth is… this Grand Eden Land is a MMORPG which Shou and I played.

ShowTime is his character. Well, I thought he was Shou at first, but it seems like he doesn’t have any memories of the other ‘world’, so I concluded that this guy is just his character and not Shou himself. And to my surprise, I also meet TakeDa, which is my own character.

“Well then, sorry young lad, I need to go quickly. Sorry for the wait, TakeDa.”

“Oh right, sorry to stall your time Mr. Show.”

“Don’t worry.” As he said that, he sat down in a table near the request board with TakeDa and discussing something.

“Ha~ah…” I sighed because of the predicament I’m in right now.

“Takeharu-sama, are you okay?”

Selia asked me out of concern. Oh right, now she regards me with this ‘sama’, so I dare say our relation is better than before and she regards me with respect.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just a bit tired.”

“Seriously, what happened with this place? It seems to be hectic these past few days.”

Yes, this world also has been in turmoil. As far as I know, there’s no such a thing such as these Aliens roaming around near the dungeon and field. To be straight, don’t these Aliens come from the world Shou was before? Seriously? What happened here? They attacked adventurer and monster alike. And it seems the strong aliens are now taking residence in beginner field that makes rookie adventurer hard to do their job.

“Right, Selia didn’t know huh? That thing we fight before wasn’t supposed to be in this world. I guess the appearance of such unknown monster would make adventurer surprised, right?”

“I see, so that’s why. Takeharu-sama sure is knowledgeable! And I could say that I’m proud to teach Takeharu-sama. Takeharu-sama is a quick learner, to think that you become strong so quickly in just a few days!”

“Well, that is--”

“Show!!”

TakeDa suddenly shouted. Everyone who was busy now focused their attention to TakeDa and ShowTime. ShowTime’s body slowly turns invisible and disappears, creating a lot of havoc.

“!”

“Takeharu-sama, what is happening now? Why is the wizard we talked with before is disappearing slowly?!”

As ShowTime became a lump of light, it flew away in high speed towards the forest.

“Selia! Let’s go and try to follow it!”

*Few moments later*

"That's!!"

After we follow the light, I met the one I've been searching for. My friend, Yoshitaka Shou, not the wizard ShowTime, but the real Yoshitaka Shou!

"Takeharu-sama, your friend seems like in trouble!"

He is surrounded by tons of monster. Shou... he's strong. He quickly deal with the monster who spawned at unbeliavable speed. But it's not good, he killed them barely match the pace of the monster spawn time. Me must help him!

"You're right! We must be quick!"

* * * *

End of 2nd Arc

To be Continued in 3rd Arc

* * * *

Thus I declare my hiatus for a month.

See you again my dear reader, follower, and brethren (LOLZ, don't mind me. I'm just a bit stressed out and somehow become a bit weird recently)

Oh right, I forgot to mention it. feel free to correct me again in grammar and others ^^