Oh fuck, oh fuck, Anna thought as she subconsciously stiffened her back while the earthen titan came to a complete halt.
Mammon saw this opening, and he immediately took hold of it. He had given them enough advantages, so it was time to take the kiddy gloves off and get a bit more serious. In the blink of an eye, his fist had connected with the earthen titan’s face and punched a hole through it, splattering out huge chunks of dirt and toppling the giant down in one blow onto the ground.
Anna hurriedly manipulated the dirt beneath her to support the back of the dirt mecha, while her left fist extended out and expanded, crashing right against Mammon’s chest and causing him to fly back with a loud bang.
“Oh yeah!” Mammon exclaimed. He flipped in midair and landed on the ground like a graceful swan. The earth rumbled as hills were flattened, and even his laboratory in the distance crumbled into chunks of white stone, but he was far livelier than before.
There was a sort of novelty for Mammon, no matter how many times he had experienced it, regarding piloting giant robots. Perhaps its remnants of his humanity, or perhaps it was more complex than that, but giant robots were just fucking fun to mess around with.
The giant titan seemingly made out of both metal and flesh wore a crooked, toothy grin. Its eyes glowed brightly as it clasped both of its hands together before stretching them out from side to side, forming a long dark blade in the middle.
Mammon grabbed the blade and swung it to the sky. Heat began to surge as his endless stamina fueled his alchemy. From the tip of the sword down to its guard, a dark red light hummed into existence as terrifying levels of heat emanated out of the light.
What the fuck?! Anna’s eyes bulged out. A fucking laser sword?!
She gritted her teeth as her earthen body was reconstructed back to full health. Her mind was churning at full throttle to create some sort of plan to keep Mammon at bay while Noel continued with his formation.
Time. All she needed was time.
The earthen titan waved its hands, instructing the wind spirits to form large vortexes of winds that launched toward the armored giant. Light rays warped to form arrows of light, while the land beneath the distant metallic titan sunk downwards, binding its legs in liquid dirt.
Mammon raised his left hand and created a barrier of light around him in a split second. The vortexes of winds and arrows of light collided against the dark red barrier, producing loud explosions with each collision. Then, from the ground below, long pillars of solid dirt sprouted out, pointing out into the far distance where the earthen titan stood.
“What a pitiful display of spirit magic, Annabeth Auburn!” Mammon laughed as he grabbed one of those pillars of dirt.
Anna remained silent and instead observed the entire dungeon for anything that she could possibly use to attack the armored giant. She didn’t know how Mammon was able to do the things he had done, but the way he did it left a familiar impression on her, an impression that slowly began to take root in her mind.
She willed the fire spirits to take control of the burst of concentrated flames erupting out of his sword, but the armored giant shook its blade for a moment and the control the spirits exerted… disappeared.
“W-What?” she was unable to hold back her shock and mumbled out loud. The earthen titan was visibly shaken by this unexpected result. Not once had this happened, much less with such ease, and with the previous familiarity she had with his methods, Anna started to feel a sense of greater fear.
“You’re curious, aren’t you?” teased Mammon. The rod of dirt in his left hand then shrunk down into a small metallic rod, and the other rods around him followed which then fused with the rod in his hand. Soon, a giant metallic rod of black metal rested in his grip for purposes only known to him.
Anna would soon find out what it was for though, because as she formed a long staff of dirt and swung it around with decent skill, the rod morphed into a pair of two black orbs, floating and hovering around the armored giant.
With the two wielding close-combat weapons, it was inevitable for the two to rush against one another to fight up close. Anna found his barrier was able to regenerate as fast as she could deal damage to it from a distance, so she’d rather fight closer to him to use her spirit magic - her advantage - at maximum capacity.
The farther the thing she was controlling was, the harder it became to use spirit magic. Hence, the closer she was, the stronger she became in general, with higher control and power.
Mammon rushed forward, his figure running along the ground at surprising speeds for something so big, but since the body he was controlling was a lot lighter than it looked and he could give the occasional nudge using alchemy magic, he was able to move with such ease and control.
Anna, on the other hand, simply drifted along the ground like the dirt beneath her feet was water. She swung her staff in a wide arc, catapulting out a wave of solid rocks along with her weapon to attack Mammon from all sides.
He didn’t bother to dodge though, and instead ordered one of the dark orbs of floating metal to transform into a giant, spread-out ball of oozy metal around him while the other launched forward towards Anna.
The earthen titan hastily transformed into a large square while Anna shifted her position nearer to the ground, but the orb seemed to have a mind of its own as it swerved downwards and smashed through layer after layer of the dirt surrounding her feeble body of flesh and blood.
Inside the gargantuan square of dirt, Anna’s body trembled under the intense stress she was feeling both physically and mentally. Her mind spread out like a piece of clay flattened down to a vaguely see-through sheet, and because of that, a trickle of blood dripped down her nose. This was the first time she was manipulating so many spirits that it felt like her mind is about to crumble and dissipate into vapor, but she held on.
The orb inside the dirt square suddenly stopped its raging push and paused completely. Anna cried out and took control of the incredibly heavy orb, and fused it along with her staff to form a large hammer.
With a metallic head and an earthen handle, a big hammer floated right beside the giant dirt cube on the ground.
When the thin sheet of metal surrounding Mammon’s body returned to its decently large orb form, the hammer swung down at breakneck speeds while Anna rushed forward alongside it, transforming the large square into a familiar pair of hands. Anything more non-human would cause her hand to burst under the extreme mental exertion.
Mammon grinned. It was great. Anna was growing and growing, showing more and more refined control over her spirit magic and displaying great strength. In fact, she was already displaying quasi-Archmage strength, but since her control is so trash and her mind is literally dying, she was only able to use a fraction of her raw power.
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On the other hand, Mammon was different. His vitality continued to rise at terrifying levels as his Alchemist’s Body provided seemingly endless fuel to power his alchemy magic. The only limit was his soul, which had limited range, strength, and control - but control isn’t really a problem in a fight of such a large scale.
Playtime is over. If they want to succeed, they’ll have to show something much more than this!
His body immediately morphed like liquid metal, and the hammer simply slipped right past him and down to the ground. Then, he took control of the large hammer with a metallic head and an earthen handle, which then transformed and fused back with the large black orb hovering around the metallic titan.
Anna widened her eyes over the sudden display of greater skill, and she immediately realized this guy - Mammon, was going on easy her.
As she backed away in quick haste, the orb shot forward at breakneck speeds, appearing right in front of the earthen titan in the blink of an eye, bridging the gap of tens of meters in less than a second.
She erected layer upon layer of earthen walls, but the orb simply punched through them and expanded into gooey strands like a living tentacle goo monster thing. It split into different globs, wrapping around different parts of the giant earthen human-like construct, all wobbly and shaky and distorted with her decreasing mental stability.
Mammon inwardly smiled at her growth. While yes, he merely displayed a pitiful fraction of his alchemy magic and he could have simply gone “Womp womp, disintegrate beam, you dead,” at the speed of light, yes, light, since light is light, he had instead played around with her and witnessed what he considers - terrifying growth.
It was subtle. It was barely perceptible at their grand scale of a fight, but it was clear as day to him. He grinned as the plan inside his head changed and shifted, accommodating all of these new possibilities and variables that he had placed upon this chaotic board between him and all the different players that could play this grand game of chess.
Well, currently, there are only two, but who knows? Maybe later on, the reality would pull a fast one on him and send a Divine God King Dimensional Overseer and deal with this big fat pest before it gets any bigger.
But, in the end, she wasn’t strong enough, imaginative enough, or desperate enough. The giant earth construct around her rapidly disappeared and torn down into smaller and smaller chunks. The living goo thingy absorbed the dirt around her, spitting it out into a cloud of dust, while Mammon waved his arm and lifted the earthen titan up into the air using his magic.
The last layer of dirt then finally disappeared, revealing Anna’s sorry figure full of bruises and bleeding from the nose. She appeared pitiful, but to Mammon, it didn’t matter. The chest of the armored titan opened and Mammon walked out in all of his weird shadow-guy body, flaunting his flapping lab coat and gleaming glasses.
“Great job, you little might be maybe potentially protagonist,” said Mammon. He laughed jovially and clapped his hands, walking through the air on invisible platforms until he arrived right in front of her, grinning.
Anna remained silent, staring at Mammon with deep anger and resentment in her cloudy eyes. This was the bastard that had started this all. Even if it wasn’t her responsibility to avenge the dead villagers, there was a sort of voice inside her mind and soul that pushed her forward, pushing her forward to learn of the truth and stop this budding great evil.
She knew that if this got out of control, the future she knew would slowly disappear, and burst out into disarray. Her plans would be destroyed, the protagonist of this world would lose her path, and chaos and disorder would run rampant.
“How pitiful, you little swindled lass,” Mammon sighed. “You don’t even have an inkling that you’re merely a pawn in this one big game between man and heaven.”
“You can’t fool me, you bastard,” Anna spat out.
“See? Even inside this dungeon, your mind and free will are already corrupted by Tyr. How sad, really, but that’s kind of the price you chosen ones have to pay for your astronomical luck,” Mammon paused. “Alas, you’ll dismiss all of this soon enough, once you get out of this dungeon.”
“Pfft, you’ll kill us soon enough, so what’s there to even talk about outside,” Anna retorted, coughing midway through.
“Who said I’m going to kill you two?” Mammon grinned, and he was about to talk more, when all of a sudden, a gargantuan magic circle appeared above and below him, on the ground and in the sky. Anna magically disappeared with a flash of light, while Mammon found his body constricted under great pressure from all possible sides.
Noel clenched his fist tightly in the distance while passing a potion to Anna. She gave her thanks and quickly drank it, but she looked to the far distance with an increasing sense of unease in her mind.
“What did he mean by that? What did he mean that he wouldn’t kill us?” Anna mumbled, but it was too late to stop Noel or ask questions. Either their plan succeeds, or whatever sick plans Mammon had would succeed.
The two magic circles in the sky and ground released a flash of bright white light, and in the next moment, space fractured into two as Mammon’s body was squashed into a thick pancake of shadowy meat.
Anna looked at the pancaked Mammon with a bewildered gaze, but her attention was soon placed on the warping blue-purple portal that opened in the middle of the air, at the midpoint between them and Mammon.
The two hurriedly flew forward as Noel lacked enough mana to do a teleport, but even with Mammon seemingly dead, they kept their guards up. Who knows, maybe he was still alive-
“Speak of the devil… or the devil spoke?” Mammon mumbled while his pancaked body suddenly appeared in front of the two. “You know, having control over your literal cells is kind of convenient if you want to attain any form of immortality.”
Anna didn’t even take a single second to think as she immediately tried to launch an attack, but a strange force constricted her body in place, and the same seemed to be true for Noel as the two found themselves unable to move even a single muscle. The pancaked shadow then restructured itself into a humanoid form, and Mammon fixed his shredded clothes and broken glasses with the snap of a finger.
He didn’t seem to find them any threatening whatsoever and approached the two wearing an amicable grin. He hung his arms around their necks like they were best buds, and continued to go on a tangent, “Like, you just need to stop your telomeres from degrading and you’d effectively stop aging. Or you can simply alter them completely beyond human recognition and grant yourself something close to self-sustenance. You know, I don’t even have to poop these days or even eat since I can just photosynthesis like a plant.”
“Sigh, Oscar was kind of stupid with his plan of creating an Elixir of Life to grant himself an immortal body and had focused more on the arcane than something much simpler to execute… Well, I do have kind of a big fucking brain and I had to sacrifice over a thousand humans and much more animals, but alas… science,” Mammon sighed.
“Anywho, why am I explaining all of these to you two?” Mammon smiled. “It’s because you two are gonna be my big rivals from now on, okay? I’ll act as the big baddy, while you two are the heroes sent out by the world to stop me.”
Noel and Anna would become the main pawns used by Tyr to deal with the anomaly known as Mammon, a strange entity that clearly has evil plans in mind, and with Mammon acting in tandem with Rob to drive away Holly - a World’s Chosen candidate - from participating in this game of chess, I’ll be able to keep my enemies as close as glue.
Mammon would grab the world’s attention, while Rob would act in the shadows as part of Tyr’s side. Sigh, I fucking love this tactic.
“Anywho, you two ready to survive?” Mammon asked, and since they were basically immobile, he slapped them on the face and knocked them unconscious. He was already quite exhausted mentally speaking and he wanted to end this long charade soon.
His long schemes are finally going to pay off. Mammon is born, Noel and Anna are now the biggest pawns Tyr has to pit against Mammon, while Rob Fortune would be squeaky clean for the most part. And, while he was a bit stupid when he first arrived in this world and Tyr should know Rob can use alchemy magic since he used it outside of a dungeon which it could then use as a clue to connect Rob to Mammon… he still has Fortune Stealer.
He had already stolen that little tidbit of knowledge from Tyr, effectively erasing the world’s memories of the past and leaving it blank. Now, his past is clean, his pieces are set, and it’s time to rip open the bandaid and find out the truth of this world.
His eyes shone brightly in a dim golden light as he placed his hands on Anna’s and Noel’s forehead before activating Fortune Stealer. Memories surged through his mind as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
It was a fascinating experience. He lived through both of their lives, knowing all that they knew, learning all there was to learn about them, and finding out what this world really was.
“Otome Game, male leads, Holly Lavestine, the Holy Guardian, Grim Hallow, the Demon Lord’s descent… Three years… three years…,” Mammon murmured as soon as he regained his clarity. He stood there, unmoving like a stone statue. Three years. That was all the time he had before the big bad guy Demon Lord aka Satan was about to descend.
“Oh damn!” Mammon raised his arm to the sky and beamed an ecstatic smile. “This is a lot easier than I thought! Tsk, this does mean I have a time limit now and I won’t be able to live that carefree life I wanted, but oh well.”
“Gah, it seems like I’ll have to plot out another big heist soon!” Mammon grumbled. “And this time, it’s gonna be on an otome game? How comedic.”