Tize awoke two days later in his bed at the Fiends For Hire compound. He got up, expecting to feel groggy, but his body felt amazing—like he was twenty years younger. The man almost didn’t recognize himself in the mirror. His eyes were now orange and his salt-and-peppered hair had turned fully slate-gray colored. Somehow, he really had turned into a Fiend.
He dwelled over the reasons and possibilities as he ate lunch at the restaurant, stuffing his face to make up for lost meals. Had someone he’d injured long ago suddenly succumbed to it? That would be far too coincidental and convenient. No, there had to be something else going on. Maybe the creation of Fiends wasn’t quite what everyone had theorized all this time.
But despite sitting in the cafeteria for quite a while, Tize didn’t get much time to let his mind wander. Dice had been helping out in the kitchen, and they spoke a little while he stacked Tize up with portions. The timid duo of Rezin and Laurim came by at some point to thank him as well. At some point during the meal, Ipucco swung by to give Tize an affirming pat on the back.
Just as he was about to leave, Bray and Mazie showed up back in their now-six-year-old child forms. They presented him with some homemade cookies and both gave him a hug. While Bray understood that this was such an astronomically uncommon occurrence, she’d still barred Mazie from going out on jobs any time in the near future. And for once, Mazie didn’t really vocalize any objections.
Strangely enough, Tize didn’t receive any visits from the higher-ups. The closest thing he got was Nachi stopping by briefly to pound a shot with him before she had to run off for something else. But then he got an explanatory text summoning him to Farian’s clinic to run some tests.
The examination was fairly standard, checking out his physical condition and a mental health screening. Farian also had him recite his version of what happened and took endless notes. When he left the clinic, he found all the generals sitting around in the waiting room.
Rusa wasn’t around, since she’d just been reborn, but everyone else was present. Tize was also immediately assaulted by Ahvra who began scanning him and running tests of her own. “I can’t believe you let that quack of a physician study him before I could,” she mumbled to herself.
Once Tize was able to shake Ahvra off for long enough, he was asked to sit down and once more recount his version of events. “So I guess the question we’re all left with then is how did you become a Fiend?” Xard spoke for everyone else when Tize was done.
“Think I have a theory on that!” Ahvra suddenly grew in her seat, excited by her own ideas. After she shrunk back down, she shared, “I think we may be looking at the sequence of events for creating a Fiend all wrong. Up until now, if you’ve killed a bad person, you become a Lesser, if you kill a bad person you love, you become a Fiend. Then, if you give the world a Gift, you become a Greater.”
“This is the series of progress as we know it, yes?” Ahvra got a bunch of nods around the room.
“But what if instead of a branching path, it’s actually a linear one. The first step is death—killing someone. Their soul becomes the Curse Mark on our bodies. Without this step, a Fiend can not be born regardless of the circumstances. It is the very basis of our origin. I propose that you can not become a Fiend without first becoming a Lesser.”
“The second step is killing a loved one, but what if love is not the catalyst? Given Fiend Conundrum’s explanation of events, it sounds more like a sacrifice needs to be made. Loss instead of love. Since he was willing to give up his life, it fulfilled the condition. This would still match what we’ve experienced, every Fiend has experienced great loss in some way.”
“Just until now, every Fiend we know has fulfilled the condition for both Lesser and Fiend at the same time, and skipped the Lesser stage entirely. The new path I propose is: Kill bad person and become cursed by them to become a Lesser, experience heavy loss to become a Fiend, give a gift to become Greater. Curse, Loss, Gift; these are the steps for Fiend evolution.”
“That makes a lot of sense, Ahvra. I think you’re correct,” Drim affirmed.
“Hmm, does that mean we could turn some of our Lesser members into Fiends without killing more people?” Phon speculated the possibilities.
“Pssh, I doubt it,” Kada rebutted. “Who would want to willingly be subjected to a situation similar to Tize’s?”
“And I have a feeling that if you purposely tried to manipulate the system, that would negate the feeling of sacrifice required. It probably needs to be genuinely selfless,” Xard added.
“Well, we don’t exactly want to make more Fiends anyways,” Drim admitted. “So we should table that for now unless there ends up being a concrete and safe way to do it. More importantly, we should help Tize further figure out his Curse and what he wants to do going forward.”
“I can’t say I want anything to change, really,” Tize was blunt. “Facing the Wowl was terrifying, but it was where I needed to be. Call it fate if you want, but I was able to save everyone, and that’s exactly what I want to do. Now with this power, I’ll be able to do even more and protect those I care about. That said, I do want to improve. I still don’t really understand what this Curse does.”
“For a start, would you always turn into those claws?” Xard inquired and then he held out his hand. “Here, try it on me.”
The two men clasped hands, and Tize dissolved into orange light. But the light then solidified into several slate-colored metal shards. The bits of metal clinged to Xard’s arms where they shifted color again to a mixture of crimson and dark-gray to match Xard’s combat outfit. 『Synchronization Rate: 21%』
What now adorned Xard’s previously bare arms were two metal cylinders. It fully encompassed his hands as well with a focus at the end that looked almost like a lightbulb. “Blaster cannons?!” Xard was able to quickly figure out what they were, looking straight out of a sci-fi movie he’d seen.
【It seems they will allow you to increase the spread and output of your Curse, as well as let you fire it continuously for longer.】 Tize shared his understanding. He also didn’t dwell on Xard’s body long, quickly unsyncing and returning his body to normal.
“Ooh, Ooh! Me next! Me Next!” Kada waved excitedly from her chair. Tize dissolved again, not actually needing to touch her. The light didn’t turn into metal pieces this time, instead it turned into a swarm of slate-colored scales that flew over to Kada and attached around her waist.
The scales lined up into rows and stitched themselves together until there was a long flowing skirt that went down past Kada’s feet. Once they were all in place, the color changed to the same ocean blue as her hair. 『Synchronization Rate: 47%』
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“Ohmygosh, it’s so pretty!” Kada grabbed the skirt and fluttered it around with pure joy on her face.
【That’s not all it can do. Try swimming around.】 Kada did as instructed and dove into the room’s floor. She splashed up a moment later, breaching like a dolphin. The skirt had swirled and tightened into a full mermaid’s tail with a fin on the end, flapping around. Kada did a few more laps and splish-splashes around the waiting room before she finally landed on her feet.
She squealed and began tiptapping around in delight since the scales had reverted back to a skirt. “Tize, we are now official best friends. We’re going to go on so many missions together!”
The man reverted back to normal, making sure to take a few steps away from the over-eager girl who was now looking at him differently. But then his eyes drifted to his own hands. “How odd, I could see more into Kada’s mind. Now I know all of her blueprints and plans for her resort.” He clutched his head for a moment in anguish. “That was a lot of information to receive at once.”
“Wonder if that has to do with the synchronization rate,” Xard surmised. “What exactly causes the rate to vary from person to person?”
Everyone’s eyes drifted over to Phon, who groaned, “Fine, I’ll look. Was happy letting you all experiment, but if you want to just skip ahead to the answer…” She bidded Phontext to look him up. “Wow, this Curse explanation is long, even the simplified version.” She then read it verbatim.
“Curse: Armatize. Allows the user to transform into armor to protect their allies. The armor will merge with the host to improve their physical abilities and boost their mental capacity. The amount improved varies based on the Synchronization Rate.”
“The Synchronization Rate is based on the compatibility between the Curse user and host body. Compatibility is measured as a comparison of the user and host’s principles, morals, ethics, and ideals. The more closely they match, the higher the Synchronization Rate. Additionally, with a higher rate, the consciousness of the user will gain increased access to the host’s psyche to further improve cooperation and symbiosis.”
“If the host body is a Fiend, the armor will morph further to best suit the host’s Curse for maximum benefit. Through this, the host’s Curse will be enhanced to lengths that would not be possible on their own. If the Curse can not be feasibly improved, the armor will take a shape that better suits the user’s normal physical needs.”
“Too many words!” Kada tossed her head back in annoyance. “Armor make me stronger! All I need to know!”
Xard’s eyes grew wide as a realization dawned on him. “Wait, does that mean that you have more in common with Kada than me?” The boy's gaze drifted from Tize to Kada, unsure who he should judge more. Or maybe he needed to look inwards.
“Want to try!” Ahvra trotted forward and leapt at Tize, headbutting him in the stomach until he turned into light. The man turned into a pillow that snuggled around her neck. 『Synchronization Rate: 11%』 “Hmm, pretty comfy. Can’t complain. Neck gets stiff after many hours and such heavy hair.”
“Guess I’ll have a go,” Nathym volunteered. He’d been sitting at his counter the entire time tinkering with something, so he’d just been listening up to this point. But he went out to the waiting room with the rest of them so everyone could get a better look. 『Synchronization Rate: 65%』
Nathym received a powered exoskeleton that covered quite a bit of his body. “I suppose this is to make up for my usual lack of strength.” He flexed around in the suit and gripped a few times before Tize departed.
“Ugh, that’s a lot of blueprints,” Tize gripped his head again. “And I can’t make heads or tails of any of them.”
“I guess 65% must be a lot then,” Nathym sported an unusual bit of pride. “Maybe we should hang out more, Tize, if we’re so compatible.”
“I wonder who will be the most compatible,” Kada mused. “Right now I’m in second place, so none of you better drop me to third!” She wiggled her finger over to Drim and Phon.
“Well, it won’t be me, so let’s get it over with,” Phon shrugged. A purple and white masquerade mask appeared on her face a moment later that also completely blocked her eyes. 『Synchronization Rate: 6%』
【Besides replacing your ribbon, it seems this mask also helps alleviate the fogginess of having too many people around】 the voice in her head explained.
“That would have been super useful a few months ago,” she huffed as Tize returned to normal.
He then turned to her with a look of disappointment on his face. “Do you ever think of anything besides your brother?” Kada also laughed at this and the fact that Phon’s sync rate was so low.
“Yes, cooking sometimes,” Phon’s face went serious. After that exchange everyone looked expectantly at Drim who looked less than thrilled at the prospect.
“I already have one person chatting in my head regularly. But sure, go for it,” Drim invited him.
“Hmm, my intuition is telling me that you probably want to stand up for this, or it might ruin the chair,” Tize suggested. This only led to everyone else’s eagerness increasing as Drim complied.
Their synchronization was a bit different. Instead of turning into pieces that flew and attached to Drim, the light swirled around him for quite a while. The armor was built meticulously, piece-by-piece, from various different points on Drim’s body. Because it did cover his entire body.
From head-to-toe, Drim was now adorned in pitch black armor. It was sleek and strong without being too bulky. Even though he wasn’t wearing his blades, two new black ones had manifested along his arms, a bit bigger, longer, and more intimidating than his usual fare.
Every inch of his skin was covered, and the only semblance of the boy still remaining was his burning green eyes, protruding through the hollow divots in the faceplate. On the very top of his helmet were black spikes pointing skyward like a crown, the tips of which were suddenly illuminated in green fire. Around his neck, a shroud of green light appeared, draping down into a full cloak that wafted behind him.
Drim looked like a dark knight straight out of fantasy—the villain waiting to crush the hero—the final boss at the end of the game—the demon much of the world had always seen him as. 『Synchronization Rate: 100%』
“Strange,” was all the fiendishly-evil looking man said as he moved his arms around, getting a good look at the armor. His voice was also a bit distorted, more gravely and powerful. But no one else said anything, just staring in awe. Tize also didn’t speak as he had most other times to give his perspective.
The Fiend removed himself from Drim’s body, but he didn’t clutch his head this time. Instead, his eyes were darting around wildly, his mind racing at a lage a minute—almost spooked like he’d seen a ghost.
“I saw it,” he mumbled for a second but then spoke more assertively. “I saw everything! Project Fiendless, your plans, even things you’ve kept from them. Your entire mind, your entire history, your lies, your secrets, the things you’ve done. What you’re going to do…”
Everyone leapt into action at those words. Kada unmelted her anchor, Xard pointed his fingers, Nathym grabbed two nearby pistols, Ahvra readied a scalpel, and Phon laced her yoyo’s ring around her finger. All ready to attack in an instant if needed.
But Tize didn’t notice any of it. He just kept staring directly into Drim’s eyes that were now burning just a bit more. And what he did next stunned everyone. “My king!” Tize suddenly dropped to the floor, kneeling on one knee.
“I can not think of a cause more noble than what I’ve just seen. Please, let me join in assisting you in your pursuit of that world. Now that I know, I can’t fathom any other future but the one you’ve laid. I beg of you, let me serve you until the end, until your dream is realized. Now my dream as well.”
Everyone lowered their guards at that, confusion sweeping across the room. All except for Drim who stared down at the man with an unbreakable glare of seriousness and aggression, bordering on contempt. “Congratulations, Tize,” he finally said something. “You’ve been promoted.”