“Touche,” she muttered with a grin.

In the next moment, the light in her eyes dimmed, and she fell limp in his arms.

Just like that, she was dead.

It happened way too quickly that Christopher didn’t even have a chance to react to her sudden death. The time elapsed from her being alive to suddenly being dead was less than a nanosecond, a timeframe that a human brain could barely react to.

Damn it! He cursed in his mind and tried to revert the passage of time within the small bubble he had previously set up, but in the next moment, a spectral white arrow came piercing in from nowhere, breaking the space-time barrier around him.

From a nearby rooftop, a young man grinned and tugged the string of his spectral white bow.

“You’ve actually matured by this much? I’m truly surprised!” the young man shouted. “It’s like watching my own kid grow up into a fine adult!”

“However!”

Birds wildly surged from the trees within the school, flapping their wings and covering the sky with a dark shade.

“I bet you haven’t even drunk your first pint of alcohol yet!”

Tens of students came rushing in from all around the school, their eyes shining green.

They activated a myriad of abilities, launching attacks in Christopher’s general direction.

He gritted his teeth and slammed his foot to the ground, bending space to the extreme. An outburst of energy pulsated out like waves with his body as the center, pushing back all of their projectiles towards them.

The fight has officially begun, and an all-out war started between a peak Level 4 Demigod and tens of Level 3 Avatars.

…

As soft rays of light illuminated Laura’s store in a comfy warmth, the birds lazing around, perched on tables or eating some grains, saw the entrance of the shop opening on its own and a young boy wearing a school uniform walked in curiously.

He was surprised by the birds suddenly flying in the air as they approached a couch in the corner of the room where a youthful woman lazily slept.

They tweeted out a high-pitch coo, waking the woman from her slumber.

“Huh?” she groggily mumbled as she slowly woke up. Her hair was a mess as she pushed herself off from the couch, disturbing the sleeping furry white cat and golden-furred dog pair lying beside her.

When she moved her gaze to the entrance of the shop, she saw a young man curiously watching her, causing all of her drowsiness to disappear.

“Oh, it looks like I finally have myself a new customer!” she muttered with a bright smile and quickly fixed her messy clothes and hair to appear more professional.

She then stood behind the counter and flashed the customer with a professional grin.

“Welcome to Laura’s Flower Shop, sir. What can I help you with?” as she said so, she quickly the observed the young high school boy in front of her with a keen eye.

“Uh, well I…” the young boy was shaken away from his dazed state by her question, stuttering his words in the process.

Laura chuckled and leaned forward.

“What? Never seen a flower shop have bees before? Don’t worry, they’re docile and won’t sting you if you don’t disturb them with their bee work,” she said to sooth the boy’s nerve.

The boy wryly smiled as he nodded his head, but inwardly, he couldn’t help but take more glances at the strange decorum of the shop.

There were weird vibrant sunflowers, variations that he had never seen before in his life. There were bees buzzing around, flapping their tiny wings to mingle with other bees or to suck nectar from flowers. There were birds loftily walking around munching on grains. There was a pair of a cat and a dog sleeping in the corner, bringing the place a sense of calmness and harmony.

It was a store unlike anything he had seen before, one full of vibrancy and life.

It’s like I’m in an entirely different world with all of these fantasy-like plants.

As the boy remained silent, Laura decided to break the ice a little bit and help him open up by talking about herself some more.

“If you’re wondering, this shop just opened today, so you’re not insane wondering why Laura’s Flower Shop just seemingly popped into existence out of nowhere.”

“Oh, haha…” the boy chuckled and cleared his throat. “I didn’t expect a flower shop to open here all of a sudden.”

“I know, right? Flower shops are a scarcity nowadays,” said Laura. “And if you’re in a flower shop, I assume you’re here to buy flowers? Perhaps for a loved one? Or to court a girl… or a boy?”

Laura wore a teasing grin.

The boy blushed and looked down at the ground. “Well, yeah…”

“Hot damn!” Laura gasped. “My first customer is also a loverboy, just my luck!”

“Hahaha! Since you’re my first customer, why don’t I give you a special 50% discount, eh? And if you want to court someone, I just have the right sunflower for you!” Laura quickly approached the pots of flowers laid bare around the room.

The young boy subconsciously followed behind her, and saw more of the flowers scattered around the room, gawking inwardly at their unusual vibrancy and colors that appeared both fantastical yet bizarre at the same time.

They soon arrived in front of a row of alternating red-pink flowers, with vague heart-like patterns on its petals. The petals shifted from vibrant red to light pink, going on a spectrum of vivid colors.

“This bad boy right here is a Frankenstein crossbreed between sunflowers and roses. It’s pretty as heck and is easy to maintain, with it needing just a pot and a bit of water every other day to maintain. The best part is, it’s easy to let it spread around. Plant a few of these in your garden and you’ll find these beautiful kids turning your whole house red!”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I see…” The young boy crossed his arms and looked at the flower closely. Because of the long list of details Laura listed out, he didn’t quite catch the strangest part regarding the flower—that it’s a crossbreed between a sunflower and a rose.

Let’s see how effective Level 1 Charm would be in my small little business. Laura’s smile widened as she activated her power.

The moment the young boy looked up at her, he felt his heart skipped a beat and his mind froze for a second.

Did she become more beautiful all of a sudden? The boy wondered.

Although Laura was a beautiful woman in her own right, she wasn’t some kingdom-toppling beauty that would have entire nations fighting over her, but right now, there was this strange magnetic quality about her that made his eyes unable to look away.

He felt that he was looking at a woman who embodied the charm of vibrant youth, one surrounded by animals and plants. She appeared kind and warm, a presence akin to those of figures beloved by all; by nature, by animals, and by people.

The young boy gulped as he forced himself to look away unless he was to be ensnared by her beauty.

“I recommend you buy at least five of them, give two to your crush, and plant the rest of them in some pots or in your home’s backyard. I’m telling you, in a week or two, your house will be teeming with my flowers and you won’t have to buy from me again whenever you have to woo your crush,” she suggested with a genuinely caring smile.

“I-I see.” He pondered over her words contemplatively and found it reasonable. In fact, if he were to think about it, she was basically losing business by encouraging him to plant his own flowers.

“Wouldn’t you lose business this way?” he couldn’t help but ask; his eyes remained staring at the flowers as he didn’t dare to look back at her.

“Aww, I’m touched that you care about my monetary gain,” she said with a joking tone. “Don’t worry about that, I’m actually kind of rich so I’m only doing this to see my dream come to life.”

“Your dream?” the boy curiously inquired.

“Well, let’s just say I have a real knack for plants and love them to death. I’ve been doing gardening as a hobby since I was like four and gushed over forests and stuff like that. I basically super duper like nature.”

“Like, just imagine going on a walk back home and you’d find colorful leaves falling from vibrant trees, and shrubs and flowers lined across the road. Isn’t that aesthetic as hell? I want a ton of floral life to coexist with the infrastructure of the city, combining the modern world with the pleasantness of nature.”

“So, I might as well sell these flowers and complete a partial part of my dream. Spreading trees would take too long and I’d be dead by then, but it’s kind of possible to have my flowers spread across an entire city.”

“Don’t you think that scenery would be amazing? Maybe it’d even inspire other cities to do the same, and eventually, all of Dela would be a flower nation!”

Her words struck a chord in his heart as he envisioned a vivid scene of what she dreamed, and smiled.

“That’s a really beautiful dream you have there, Miss Laura,” he muttered.

“Heh, I’ll buy ten of your rose-sunflowers then!”

Laura chuckled and ruffled the boy’s hair, “You made a fine deal young man.”

“That’d usually be ten dollars, but with your fifty percent discount, it’s only down to five!” she quickly prepared the plants for the boy and returned to the counter.

Handing them to the boy, she grinned and said, “Hope you succeed in your romantic endeavors.”

The boy beamed her a grateful smile.

“I also hope you fulfill not just a partial part of your dream, but to fulfill it completely, Miss Laura!”

“You little rascal, I’d be dead by then,” she quipped. “But I’ll finish that dream one way or another, maybe make my own child bear the same vision I have or something like that.”

The boy laughed at her words and soon bid his farewell, leaving the shop with an extra sense of harmony and joy.

Laura, having finished her first order, retracted her gin and soon plopped back to her couch, losing all of her otherworldly demeanor.

“Don’t worry, kid…” she softly muttered. “I’ll be covering this whole city in my flowers in a month, that’s a promise.”

…

An hour had passed and the fight soon came to an end.

Christopher, all bloody and bruised, with an arm even chopped off, approached the last remaining Avatar.

The area around them had been reduced to ruins, with plenty of dead students scattered around.

Strangely enough, even though plenty of Level 3 supers and even a Level 4 Demigod acted, no one from Aegis came to help, as if they didn’t notice this whole war.

Christopher glared daggers at the last avatar as he said coldly, “This is Concealed Domain…”

“Oh, I’m surprised you know the name of this ability,” they said with a grin. They then coughed out blood and continued, “It was quite a boon to have found that guy. His ability’s pretty nifty to keep my tracks hidden.”

Christopher remained silent and didn’t fall to Braun’s taunt. Instead, he questioned, “Why is it on par with Demigod-level abilities?”

“Woah, you even noticed that?” they laughed softly. “You really have a keen eye on things.”

“And to answer that question…” their grin deepened as they abruptly pulled out a wooden blade from their pocket space. “It’s quite simple—I’m a filthy cheater whose abilities defy the very heavens!”

“Super Cool Sword Style!”

Green flames surged from their palms, covering the wooden sword.

“Horizon Cutter!”

They swung their blade in a horizontal arc, and as a boundless level of energy erupted from their swing, a terrifying air pressure swept across the school, causing the buildings to shatter and transform into ruins.

Braun’s swordsmanship had already reached an unprecedented level beyond the reaches of humankind, and given a terrifying weapon that matches his skill, a power beyond the realms of Level 3 was formed.

How do you like it, my Level 4 wooden blade?

The avatar’s body quickly collapsed into a bloody mess, with their arms turning into mangled flesh. After forcefully augmenting their peak Level 3 sword to the boundaries of Level 4, exhausting all of their strength, they died and became a soulless husk.

Christopher coughed amidst the cloud of smoke as he waved his arm, dispersing the dust around him.

What was unveiled to him was a bloody ruin. Buildings became rubble and students became splattered blood.

This sight made his very blood boil, and he screamed angrily, “BRAUN!”

…

Braun lazily cooped himself inside his pocket dimension and played around with his spider babies as he mastered the art of puppetry, deepening his control over his threads and soul.

The spiders also acted as an extension of his will, allowing him to multitask even without clones.

Each spider only needed a single thread to be controlled, and with his thread ability having long reached the peak of Level 3, going from just thousands to approximately a hundred thousand, he could potentially control tens of thousands of spiders.

As of right now, he was already controlling a thousand of them, which showcased his terrifying computational abilities.

While munching on some chips, he grabbed his latest peak Level 3 lighter and surged his zenithral power into it.

A month ago, his zenithral flame was considerably large and could accumulate to a size many times larger than his physical body, but now?

A burning ball of flame illuminated the vast darkness around him, occupying tens of meters in size. This bright flame of evolution coalesced into the evolved lighter, infusing its properties of transcendence into it, and causing it to undergo a qualitative leap.

With a flick, a spark lit up a stream of gas and a terrifying flame erupted into the sky, towering over a hundred meters tall, with temperatures reaching hundreds of degrees high.

All of the spiders around him burned to death as his skin even charred from its intensity, yet his zenithral power forcefully made his body adapt to the extreme heat. His charred flesh quickly returned to normal and all of his burns disappeared in a couple of minutes as the lighter finally burnt out.

Just like the wooden sword from before, it disintegrated into dust as the sheer gap between Level 3 and Level 4 was simply too large for a normal, crystal-less object to bear.

At least I finally have a dependable way of creating Level 4 attacks. All I need is a peak Level 3 object and augment it with my zenithral power. I could even create Level 4 objects, but it does take a while to create one.

Maybe when I’m level 6, I can mass-produce Level 4 objects and avatars, but that’s for later. I still have to ascend to Level 4 with my destiny-related superpower and ensure the path I envision would be mine.

Braun grinned at his rapid progress and murmured to himself, “I fucking love having Avatars. All of their progress basically translates as my progress, allowing my connection to the zenithral force to grow passively even if I do nothing.”

“Having tens of Level 3 supers running around had even allowed my zenithral power to reach Level 4! Once I ascend to Level 4, all of my abilities can quickly catch up and reach Demigod level, giving me much more freedom.”

“It wouldn’t be impossible to even create Level 4 Avatars, albeit they are resource-intensive. However, Level 4 objects would be far easier to produce, increasing my overall manpower to new heights.”

“Heh, only by increasing my own numbers can I hope to contend with the likes of Aegis!”

Braun grinned and finished the last of his chips in his bowl.

“I cannot wait to fucking kill all of those bozos.”