Anna and Noel arrived inside the laboratory, partially tired and drained, but still brimming with the will to fight. The two surveyed the area, staring at all the weird gizmos, magical pieces of technology, scattered mugs full of coffee and tea, lab gowns torn into pieces and drawn full of dicks, and…
“Human bodies,” Anna hissed, taking a step back from the eerie gaze of the bodiless head ahead of her.
“Wait!” Noel stretched out his hand and grabbed Anna by the collar. He dragged her back into his embrace and erected a swift barrier around them. Immediately in the next moment, a glowing red blade shot out of the ground which was just a hair’s breadth away from hitting Anna on the face.
Her eyes dilated in disbelief as her heart skipped a beat.
But even though that happened, his gaze never lingered away from the unmoving head on the table. “That head is strange.”
“Strange?” Anna mumbled after she got over her initial shock.
Just in case something like that happened again, she reinforced the near-invisible shield around her body and moved her gaze toward the head Noel was looking.
When she opened her mouth and was about to task, a small ice spike suddenly formed and shot towards the head, which nearly impaled its chin. Instead, the spike hit the table and froze the area around the head’s neck, freezing it in place.
Out of nowhere, the lifeless eyes of the bodiless head opened wide in surprise and exclaimed, “Ah, darn, you got me!” he spoke in a deep, gravelly voice, while it shook its neck around in a vain struggle to escape its frozen clutches.
“Speak, who are you?” Noel said coldly. With a snap, a hand made out of mana appeared right in front of the living head and grabbed it by the scalp, dragging it from the table and towards him, which left some nicks and wounds on the bottom of his cleanly cut neck.
The head clicked his tongue and winced from the pain, but remained calm for the most part.
Upon hearing Noel’s authoritative questions, he laughed jovially and snickered. “Me? I’m the almighty supreme god of all things stealing, Your Mother!”
Noel’s face remained frosty as he tightened his grip over the head’s scalp and asked once again, “Who are you?:
“Ouch, damn bitch, can’t you be a bit more gentle. Hey, you know, I’m basically a portable gawk gawk machine. Why don’t we make a deal, you let me live, and I pleasure you?” the head ignored Noel’s question and went on to lick his lips lecherously like a big pervert.
“I’ll ask one last time,” interrupted Noel. “Who are you?”
His eyes radiated a cold white glow as his gradually recovered aura erupted as a form of intimidation.
In response to Noel’s attempt at intimidating, the head chortled without a care in the world and groaned. “You’re such a lame guy. You should act more like a hotheaded, blood-boiling main character already!”
Noel harrumphed and didn’t wait for the head to speak. A small spark burst on the open air and a small flame formed on the head’s hair.
Instantly, the head gasped in surprise and lets out a pained shout, “WHAT THE FUCK?!”
“You bastard, you’re such a… an unoriginal piece of shit!” the head practically leaped off Noel’s grasp and landed on the ground with a thud. It rolled around in worry, and luckily, the fire was put off and only his hair was charred, leaving the rest of his head-only body safe and sound.
Anna winced at the ghastly sight and tried to look away, but in the next moment, the head began to speak with a deep resentment in his bitter tone.
“Fuck you, you goddamn Archmage of Miracles reborn after centuries bullshit crappy bitch!” the head cursed loudly as he glared at Noel.
Their eyes met in the next moment as a clear look of surprise, shock, confusion, worry, and cruelty flashed within his rainbow-colored gaze.
A formless force soon grabbed the head on the floor and lifted it up into the air, placing it at eye-level with Noel’s above-average frame.
“What do you-“
“How do I know? What do you mean? Bla bla bla? I don’t fucking care man, I was just tasked to hype up the original and here you are, burning me because you cannot fucking wait for a minute more!” the head spat out a spit of saliva but it was met with an invisible wall and slid off to the ground. “Ugh, what a waste of my limited lifespan.”
“So you know who I am, right? It’s wise to spill all you know before you face a fate worse than-“
“Death? Don’t care, didn’t ask. Go suck my nonexistent nuts you soon-to-be pawn of a galaxy brain chess game between a rookie and a supreme god. Ugh, I fucking hate being alive as a head.” the head groaned and shut close its eyes.
“And how stupid are you? You didn’t even deny my outrageous claim and just basically proved my outlandish statement! Is this world just that dumb that its supposedly smartest individual is this subpar, or am I in a subpar version of this universe itself? Hopefully not.” The head then moved its gaze towards the two. “Go, ask some questions, especially you, you girl quivering in fear and shock.”
Anna’s heart practically stopped beating when her stare interlocked with Noel’s, and her mind stopped thinking clearly for a moment. Only after a split-second passed did she hurriedly form an excuse, with a burst of inspiration from this crisis between life and death.
“Archmage of Miracles? You mean-“
“That archmage of miracles? Oh fuck you, you little bitch who can’t act for shit. Sigh, and you’ll soon ignore this ever happened once Tyr starts messing with your mind and Noel would begin to act like a stupid dumb bastard who can’t understand the obvious clues in front of him,” the head sighed in anguish and clicked his tongue. “Don’t even bother to try and hide it, you mysterious gal. In fact, don’t even ask questions anymore.”
“Huh-“
“BLA BLA BLA! SHUT UP! SHUT UP YOU HEROES, YOU ARCHMAGE DRAGON COCK RIDER AND SPIRIT DICK SUCKER!” the head shouted and began to glow brightly with an orange shade. “IN STEALING WE TRUST! RAAAAA!”
Boom, the head exploded in a brilliant burst of blood and flesh. His brain matter splattered everywhere while blood and gore littered the silent lab.
Anna gazed at the epicenter of the explosion, with her mind still lingering on the strange words left behind by the head.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
What did he mean by that? What did he mean I’ll… no, it seems me and Noel will ignore “this”? But why?
Fuck, that’s not the case to worry about. I now know he’s the Archmage of Miracles and the fact he was reborn! If the game is to be followed… then the chances of me dying today are incredibly high!
At this moment, when her eyes landed on Noel’s back, she subconsciously stepped back and her breathing stopped.
Noel silently turned to look at her, his piercing eyes gazing straight into her soul. He opened his mouth, as a chilling intent rose to the sky. “We’ll talk about this… later. For now, we’ll have to focus on the problem at hand.”
Anna’s head almost fell off at how fast she nodded and she silently breathed a sigh of relief. It seems like her death would have to be postponed for later, if they were still alive that is.
…
“How annoying,” Noel mumbled. He looked around the empty and lifeless laboratory while trying to look for any clues, but minutes had already passed and progress was barely producing results.
Anna silently followed along as her mind raced through what the future has in store.
Now that she knew of Noel’s little secret, an invisible tight grip had began to clutch her heart and restrict her breath, but even more so was the mysterious organization and people behind this entire thing.
The two continued to examine the entirety of the laboratory, while Anna secretly processed what she had just learned. Noel wasn’t the one to keep quiet though, and he spoke in a cold yet calm voice, “So, they know a lot more about us than what I first thought.”
“It seemed like it was the wrong choice for me to ignore them back then, because the moment we first arrived at Barem was our fate intertwined with theirs.” Noel rubbed his chin and leaned on a nearby wall. “They know a lot about us, gathering so much intelligence that some no one knows other than themselves, that it seems inconceivable.”
“What do we do then?” Anna asked. Even though she had the major urge to just back away and run away from this perilous war, a voice at the back of her head continuously urged her to keep moving forward and finding out the truth.
These two opposing ideals are starting to clash within his fractured mind.
“Hopefully, we can kill the person behind all of this,” Noel said, with killing intent leaking out of his voice.
“For once, I agree with your plans to kill,” Anna sighed. How the fuck do they even know about Noel’s true identity? In the game, very few managed to figure out the truth, and people only began to theorize when he started to use the power of miracles.
This… whoever they are, they’re definitely an anomaly not part of the original game! Anna thought, both scared and anxious. The more variables like this crop up, the more uncertain the future would be, the future that she knew.
Just as her mind wandered to the clouds above, Noel launched an earthen spear to a nearby wall, which then crumbled to reveal to a long, dark passageway leading to who knows where.
And, if the running theme of maniacal, whimsical villainy continued, then Anna expected that this tunnel would lead to the villain’s chambers, the big bad boss behind this entire mystery.
Anna silently placed more layers of protection around her body, while Noel entered the dark tunnel with glowing eyes. She followed behind, her heart beating loudly like war drums, booming inside her ears as her heart churned in anxiety.
Noel was as cool as a cucumber and walked with a straight back that didn’t reveal any fear. He walked in large strides, all while silently preparing his spells.
Soon, the two found themselves arriving right in front of a large, plain, simple metallic gate. Even Anna could tell that the gate was as normal as it could be, with no magic, nor any traps hidden around it.
Noel seemed to have the same thought, because he opened the gate rather than blasting it open with a spell, and very quickly, the tunnel was illuminated by a burst of bright white light, illuminating everything around the duo to allow them to finally see it - the mysterious boss of this nameless organization.
“Good job for finally arriving here, Annabeth Auburn, Noel Crowley… or should I say, the Archmage of Miracles?!” the man laughed, their eyeglasses gleaming menacingly, but instead of any surprised reactions, the duo remained silent. “Oh, those bastards had already spilled the beans, huh?”
“Who are you?” Anna asked once again, not expecting much from this question of hers. She had been rejected so many times already that she would expect they’d begin to taunt her again as if she was a stupid little boar that has shit for brains.
“Me?” the thing hummed, their glasses squinting like makeshift eyes. The shadowy humanoid entity then snapped his fingers, and spoke loudly, “Very well, since you asked so kindly!”
“My name is…”
Your Mother, Anna silently thought, and already expected the tasteless taunt to land.
“Mammon Heist,” they said blandly.
“Wow, haha, how funny- Huh?!” Anna paused, taking a step back at the sudden reveal.
“What, you thought I was gonna go Your Mother or something?” Mammon shook their - well, they have a pretty masculine frame so his head. “I’m not my clones, deary. I’m much more mature than them.”
“Just another fake name,” Noel snorted.
“Of course, it’s gonna be a fake name, but I suppose you already know who I am, right?” Mammon laughed.
“Why wouldn’t I? I know a thief when I see one,” Noel said. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, with the numerous spells floating all around him invisible to the naked spy, trembled and shook with potent aura.
“Sigh, I guess that’s another ploy down the drain. I planned on acting as if Mammon Heist is simply an innocent bystander and swindling the fool who owned that mana node later, but alas, they’re actually a slightly larger ant in this little world,” Mammon hummed. “I suppose Tyr is a lot weaker than I first thought. Perhaps I had overestimated its control over its inhabitants.”
“It seems you’re not the type to reveal their plans,” said Noel.
“Nope! Being mysterious is a power, you know? Knowing more than your enemy while they remain in the dark, that’s simply a quality one needs to be a great thief that can pull off…,” Mammon paused as a strange grin formed over his featureless face. “A heist.”
“So you’re nothing but a thief, eh?” Anna taunted. “I expected much more from a mysterious villain.”
“What a shoddy excuse of a verbal taunt,” Mammon snorted. “Enough talking, we’re not here for that anyways, right?”
“You’re right,” Noel said coldly. “We’re here to kill the pesky bug that stole my belongings.”
“Finders keepers, you suck and you’re trash,” Mammon chuckled. “And, you’re nothing but a little ant ignorant of the grand scheme of the vast reality you live in.”
“Mere words, let’s see how strong you really are!” Noel shouted, waving his hand forward as a torrent of spells flew at blistering speeds. Fireballs, glacial spears, beams of light, blades of wind, they all targeted the tall shadowy man wearing a lab coat and glasses with murderous intent.
“Oh, how fancy,” Mammon laughed, then with weird squirming sounds akin to slimy flesh sloppily rubbing with one another, tendrils sprouted out of the dark void known as his skin to form a large, two-meter tall armor with glowing red eyes and supporting a draconic helmet.
Rearing back his hand, Mammon roared as a draconic visage began to form beside him, releasing an incredibly strong aura that solidified into a strange beetle covered in dark red lines.
In the next moment, just as a beam of light was about to hit him, he released a devastating punch, a punch that pushed an incredibly strong wind pressure that destroyed all of the spells flying towards him, punching through the ceiling and showing the vast open sky.
“Quasi-Archknight strength…,” mumbled Noel with bewildered eyes.
“Whew, fucking hell, I should have put more practice into my martial arts before this!” Mammon groaned while shaking his right arm. “Oh well, my base strength is more than enough to beat you two to a pulp!”
‘Monster… He’s a monster!’ Anna could feel the spirits around her screaming at her, telling her to run away, telling her that she had no chance to win this. I’m just a mage… and you expect me to fight against this guy who can launch quasi-Archknight level attacks?!
“Snap out of it!” grumbled Noel. “The only way out of here is to fight. Running away is nothing but a dream for us right now.”
“But he’s so goddamn-“
“Strong, yes, I know!” Mammon laughed as he descended down the stairs of his elevated throne. His body radiated an immensely strong aura, with the layer of living armor giving him a more terrifying presence.
Anna had thought that this person would be at least of a manageable level, perhaps someone who’s a Royal Knight. She’s as strong as a Grand Mage already with her spirit magic, it’s just that her mana reserves were lacking so she couldn’t do many showy spells and attacks. Along with Noel who’s practically a quasi-Royal Mage, then they had a pretty high chance of winning!
But now? She finally realized just how fucked they are. This guy in front of her acted so whimsical and coyly that she had almost forgotten how evil this bastard is, and when he finally struck, it was with his fangs barred at full force.
“So, shall we start our fight, dear heroes?” Mammon chuckled, his eyes gleaming with a dangerous scarlet light.