Once he was inside the fake projection, he was met with a floating yellow orb. It was projecting light all around the area like one of those cinema projectors, creating the false body he was fighting earlier.

"If I were to guess, this thing would be either the projection or camera Fester, or maybe the illusion Fester? Ugh Festers are so damn confusing..." Oliver said to himself.

He approached closer to the orb, causing it to turn red. An eye formed in the center of the orb, glaring down at Oliver. It looked confused, but rather annoyed at the same time.

"How did you figure out my illusion?" It asked.

"Pretty simple really. For some unknown reason, I can now see the flow of descent energy now. I'm not just saying that to gloat either. My huge discovery led me to uncover a smaller discovery in the grand scheme of things, but in the context of this battle, it couldn't have been more important. I found out your fish body… was a fake. Specifically, a projection” Oliver explained.

The fester was clearly enraged, exactly what Oliver was going for.

“... The nail in the coffin was the fact that the houses hadn't even been scratched despite your size and movements” Oliver continued shooting a finger gun at the Fester.

The eyes narrowed its gaze, as if to convey its annoyance or anger. It floated up high, trying to show the difference in power.

"Human beings are far too intelligent for their own good... You should've just stuck to your blissful ignorance, now you must die!" The Fester said, its eye now surrounded by veins.

It began projecting small orbs of light all around the space as it began to charge some sort of attack. Oliver wasn't impressed by the show, as it was clear that the Fester was holding on to the last bit of higher ground it had. So to mock the creature even more than he already had before, Oliver stood completely still. This sight infuriated the creature.

"You damn human!" It shouted before releasing its attack.

The orbs of light burst into beams, bombarding Oliver from all sides. In most situations, this attack would definitely kill him, but since Oliver had just gained a new spangled ability; he wanted to test it out. The moment the beams were inches away from him, Oliver coated his body with descent energy. If he had done so any earlier, the amount of energy each beam had would be too much for him to counter. However thanks to his ability to see the flow of descent energy, he was able to activate it just in the nick of time.

"So weak~! You should really give it your all next time!" Oliver said.

He ran towards the eye, causing it to panic. At that moment, it relinquished any pride it once had, and listened to Oliver's advice. It closed its eye then opened it, it's sclera now pitch black. Eyes begin surrounding the area, all with the

same pitch blackness.

"Shroud"

Oliver's surroundings turned pitch black, a new sight for him. It was as if Oliver was in a void, save for the overwhelmingly bright glow emitting from the Fester. It appeared that instead of filling the area with light, it absorbed all the light it had created then subsequently converted it into descent energy. It began spiraling into itself before forming into a cone shape. It was preparing for a large attack... Exactly as Oliver planned.

You see, descent energy has the same properties as most energies. It has both a positive and negative output. While both have their own different set of applications, the general consensus was that positive descent energy is used to create, whilst negative descent energy is used to destroy, which ironically went against the natural law of energy. This was a fact Oliver had already known. However after gaining this “eye of truth”, something he thought of on the fly, he had figured that his execution attack was actually filled with negative descent energy instead of positive energy.

He pulled the trigger on his belt, initiating an execution.

[ATTENTION: THIS EXECUTION WILL BE MUCH WEAKER THAN PREVIOUS ONES DUE TO INSUFFICIENT DESCENT ENERGY]

"I already knew that ya damn belt..." Oliver said to himself.

All the descent energy left up in the belt flowed into his right arm, the plates on his suit shifting to release any excess energy. He could feel the energy being much less potent than before, but he was sure of being able to kill it. Before the Fester could release the energy, Oliver hit it with a very calculated attack.

"Finisher; interrupting punch!"

Hitting the tip of the cone, the force of his punch crushed the shape inwards, giving the descent energy in his punch enough room to flow inside. Once the built up energy that didn't get to release met with Oliver's descent energy, a reaction began to occur. It was essentially multiplying by a negative. Once a positive number (the built up positive descent energy) tries to multiply the negative number (Oliver's negative descent energy), it turns into a negative. The built up energy, that was turned into negative descent energy, began destroying the Fester's body. It crumbled away, as did its illusion.

Feeling victorious, Oliver was just about to celebrate with a celebratory "wahoo!"... However he was interrupted once again by the belt.

[DESCENT ENERGY HAS COMPLETELY BEEN DEPLETED. PLEASE RECHARGE BEFORE NEXT USE]

His suit immediately faded away causing Oliver to grimace. his mood was completely killed by the robotic monotone voice that came out from the belt. He was about to scream profanities in response, however he stopped afterwards noticing a familiar teddy bear paw stick out from behind a corner. He sighed before making his way to its direction. As he expected, sitting behind the wall was the little girl from before. He grabbed the top of her head gently as he looked at her with a tinge of disappointment in his eyes.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"Hey brat, didn't I tell you to run away...?" Oliver said.

She looked a bit embarrassed, pulling up her jacket as if to hide her crimes.

"I got lost..." she said, an obvious lie.

Oliver sighed before covering his face with his hand.

"Shit shit shit! She must've seen me transform... Wait, maybe she didn't see! Yeah that's a possibility too! Obviously she wouldn't have seen, if she had seen she would've said something like-"

"But you looked really cool fighting in that suit, mister!" She said.

Oliver's confidence plummeted to the ground at that moment, as he had accepted his inevitable capture and death. He crouched down and began rocking himself as he began mumbling to himself.

"Ah this is the worst. I got found out. I shouldn't have gone out today. I should've stayed home. What was I thinking? I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have transformed. I should've just waited for someone more qualified. I'm going to get sent to jail. They're probably going to kill me hahaha. Yeah amazing. Maybe I should just off mys-" but before he could finish, the girl tapped his shoulder.

Mimicking what he had done earlier, the girl began puppeteering her bear.

"P-please stop being sad mister. Mr Tibles and Ella won't tell anyone! We promise" she said.

Seeing her try her best to cheer him up... Oliver couldn't help but smile. He began laughing before getting up.

"It's probably stupid to put my trust in a little kid... But..." He looked at her softly. "Well you didn't keep my promise from earlier.... So you better keep this one okay?" Oliver said, ruffling her hair.

She nodded her head before yawning a bit.

"Well I guess it's not just Mr Tibles who needs a nap huh?" Oliver said, trying to be snarky.

Ella became embarrassed but Oliver reassured her he was only joking.

"Well... I really don't know where your home is, so... Lead the way, captain!" Oliver said.

Ella became a bit more energetic after hearing that. She eagerly began guiding Oliver back to where her home was. Oliver made sure she didn't get hurt, but let her play around a bit. The two made a bit of small talk as well, but it mostly devolved into questions about if unicorns existed would you be able to buy one.

"Definitely not. If you were able to buy a magical horse, that would make crimes significantly easier to commit. I mean, the horse could just steal other people's stuff without them knowing" Oliver said.

Ella seemed to be confused by his statement, as all she wanted was just to buy a unicorn.

"R- right... Well I can't deny, buying a unicorn would probably be fun" Oliver said, remembering she's a kid.

It means she was happy to hear this response as she began humming afterwards.

After a while, the two finally made it to her home. The lights were still on even though it was incredibly late, so it was clear her parents were worried sick about her. Oliver rang the doorbell, then turned to the girl.

"Remember, you have to apologize for running away... But you don't have to apologize for feeling neglected okay?" Oliver said.

She nodded, then looked at the door. The sound of footsteps rushing towards the door could be heard before it swung wide open. There stood a middle-aged woman who had a distressed look on her face. She seemed disappointed when she saw Oliver's face, but once she realised he was holding Ella's hand,

"Ella!" Her mother said, hugging her tightly.

Ella paused for a moment, she looked to be in shock. However, after a while, she began to cry. Both of them actually began crying, which caused the father to come investigate. He looked distressed as well, but also a bit angry. Once he saw his daughter though, his facial expression softened as he went in for a hug.

"I- I'm sorry for running away... b- but... B-but I only ran away because you only care about Alex!" Ella said, still crying.

"W- we don't only care about him..." The father said, a bit taken aback.

"He's still a baby you know, that's why we give him more attention." The mother said, trying to explain it to her.

"But you never spend time with me! All this time... You haven't even said you loved me before bed... You always used to do that... But now you only care about Alex..." Ella said, wiping away her tears.

The two parents didn't know what to say in response. Of course they felt they were in the right, but as parents, they couldn't help but feel guilty.

"... Ella, we're... Sorry. But please understand, we never intended on making you feel this way" the father said.

"Yes. We only wanted to take care of your baby brother... But we didn't realise we hadn't made any time for you" the mother followed up.

"But running away was really bad, you know? You made us worried sick..." the father added.

Ella nodded and apologized once again. The three hugged each other, a sentimental sight for sure. Seeing it was heartwarming... However, Oliver felt a pang in his heart.

"You could never have this. So why even care? It's honestly pathetic"

Oliver clenched his fist, before turning around. He intended on leaving, but Ella grabbed his coat. Oliver turned around with a rather scornful look in his eyes. However his bitterness was quickly washed away by her kind words.

"Thank you for saving me. You're my hero!" Ella said with a bright and cheerful smile.

Oliver paused for a moment before chuckling.

"Thanks kid" Oliver said, ruffling her hair.

After receiving some thank yous and some snacks as a token of appreciation from Ella's parents, Oliver made his way back home. As he walked away, he began to recall Ella's words.

"A hero huh? That doesn't sound half bad..."

[An unknown base somewhere outside Nightingale City]

A mysterious group of individuals sit around in a rather cozy looking living room. Among the group seemed to be two out of the three assailants responsible for the recent attack on F.A.T.E headquarters. The two were playing a game of chess, which seemed to be in the favour of the deranged man. However, with one move, the hooded man completely ruined Pierro's board by eating his bishop.

"Ah! One of my characters just died! It took me so hard to get him too!" Pierro from before said, swiping at the chess board.

The hooded man sighed, picking up the pieces slowly.

"Don't throw tantrums, Pierro.." the hooded man said, replacing the pieces exactly where they were before.

"He's far too prone to violent outbursts, Capitano. I suggest we put him under medication? Or maybe euthanasia?" The smiley faced masked man remarked.

"Shut up! That Oliver guy killed two of my guys already! I shouldn't have given mister gyle my gacha fester...." Pierro said, crossing his arms.

"It's actually the treasure Fester you know?" Smiley face said, the pretentious smile he was giving was incredibly obvious even behind his mask.

"Why you!!" Pierro said, attempting to punch him.

Pulcinella stops his punch by grabbing his fist then breaking his arm.

"Hey! Don't interrupt me!" Pierro said, rubbing his arm.

"Stop fighting... if we fight amongst ourselves, we'll get nothing done. Now Pierro, who you should really be mad at is Oliver Rand." Pulcinella said, using a gentle and low tone.

"Yeah! It's his fault!" Pierro responded.

"Yes and you know what you should do?" She asked.

Pierro tilted his head.

"We should kill him. And you know what. Since I'm so generous. Why don't you take care of him next time. All. By. Your. Self? That way you can kill Oliver without sharing!" Pulcinella said, clapping a bit.

Pierro's eyes lit up.

"Got it mom!" Pierro said, saluting.

"I'm not your mom...." Pulcinella said, rather coldly and vindictively.

"Right!" Pierro said.

Pierro soon left, claiming that he was going to train for his upcoming battle. After he left, Pulcinella rolled her eyes then sat down in his chair.

"Too easy. The doctor tried to make me do it, but I can't be bothered. That dog is too easy to manipulate..." Pulcinella said, definitely enjoying herself.

"Wow you're a real bitch!" Smiley face said, clasping his hands together.

Pulcinella rolled her eyes in response.

"I've been called worse, Arlecchino. So can you all just get off my ass? I wanna relax..." She said, scrolling through her phone.

"But aren't you worried he'll mess up the raid?" Capitano asked.

Pulcinella shrugged as she kicked her feet up.

"Nah. He's actually pretty strong... And besides. Out of all of us... That bastard is the most expendable”