Despite her victory, Luxinna was anything but fine.
The elf convulsed and fell to the ground. Her head was a hemorrhaging storm of migraine, while her body protested with cramp from the burden she put them through.
Biological limiter existed for a reason, forcing it open was a perfect ground for painful consequence. It was the price the elf paid willingly, although she wished it hurt a lot less. The totality of cramp, ache, and anguish Luxinna felt in that ten seconds was comparable to the sum she ate during her slugfest with Illma Road.
Luxinna tried to move, but her muscle denied the request. Unknown to the elf, overclocking muscles tended to leave the tissue unusable. Her bone also took so much beating that normal movement became impossible for her.
It would take Luxinna a few years to overcome the weakness of her [Overdrive], but today her salvation came in the shape of a sword.
It was the light licking her vision that made her lookup.
The pain laden log of an elf saw a shining ornate sword arrived before her. The sword was calling, speaking to her soul and begging her forward. Instinctively, Luxinna crawled toward the sword and grabbed it by the hilt.
It was a mistake.
The sword chained itself on Luxinna's wrist in a flick of the golden chain emerging from its hilt. Before the elf could even scream, the sword flew into the sky with a terrified passenger in tow.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of Millian, an octopus was guiding a young girl toward her destiny.
Melody found herself in front of the town prison, questioning how did her life take her here.
The prison was made out of stone reinforce with metal pillars and bars. Its gate was a thick, imposing behemoth of black iron. Melody Solarmaria did not doubt that an overwhelming number of Illma-selected guards was waiting inside the building. It was the place Illma locked up individual who opposed her after all. Security and torture in this place spiked ever since Taku Emma moved in.
And it was where she found him.
Remus Breaker stood, loading his revolver. At his feet were two very familiar people. One was the quivering Taku, who looked at her as if she was his savior. Next to him was a man she barely recognized as Port. Melody stared. It appeared Rem didn't skip his leg day.
Port looked like he suffered through ten-years of purgatory, which was impossible. The only explanation Melody could come up was Rem was way better at interrogation than she expected. Port's left arm hung dislocated at the shoulder and bent out of shape at several nasty angles that send a shiver down Melody's spine. Rem must dislocate the limb and broke the femur in three separate places. Then she saw what Rem did to his hand. All the nails on Port's left hand were missing. All the fingers twisted mercilessly. Meanwhile, his crooked left leg bled from a bullet wound. Rem, being a smart man, also went at Port's face, leaving behind a swollen right eye, and seven missing teeth from the mouth that was hemorrhaging blood.
“Oh my god,” Melody gulped as the Port's horrid condition sunk in. “Don't tell me this is your handiwork?”
Taku turned to his savior. He scampered toward the demoness, ignoring the pain from his broken leg.
“Save me!” Taku wailed, clinging on to Melody's leg. “I will give you whatever you want! But get me away from him!”
“Re-“
“It’s Dream,” Rem interrupted her. “Refrain from using names in front of a loose end, Ms. Empress.”
Melody looked at the two psychologically destroyed people. Port voicelessly sobbed like a baby. The man was in too much pain to form a coherent sentence, and too afraid to make a noise. Meanwhile, Taku cowered from Rem like he was a demon. The beast-man completely threw away all his arrogance as a superior species. Right now, he only wanted to do nothing more than getting away from one boy. Taku changed his mind. Humanity was, without a doubt, the most terrible race ever appeared on Earth, and the first thing he wanted to do after surviving this was finding a place to hide.
“Dream?” Melody said. “What did you do to them?”
“Not a lot,” Rem replied stoically. “Only a few interrogations. I ran across these two fleeings, so I decided to have a little chat. Taku over there thought I am a pushover, so I have to preserve my cred a bit. Of course, I need him to apologies properly, so I decide to use Port as an example. I dislocated his shoulder first, not that I expected its to work, then I started pulling off his nails. He begged me to stop, but that isn’t useful, so I broke his arm to get the message across. Personally, I prefer something more bloodless like electrocuting the genital or waterboarding. But I only have blades, so I compromised. It took two more broken femurs for Port to start making promises. I expected it, but it still left me sick in the inside my mouth. In my modest opinion, 2D women slam 3D one hand down, and we already have enough money. So I decide to make myself clear.”
“Oh god,” Melody looked at Rem in a new light.
“Princess, the gods are assholes,” Rem replied, missing the point with levity. “Well, let say I decided to go with dentistry. And that is how I know pulling teeth tumps broken fingers.” Rem sighed. “You know, going with that method first would have saved me a lot of time and energy.”
Taku shivered. The description was accurate. The beastman knew this because he witnessed the whole ordeal, but this summary didn’t capture what truly happened. His torturer barely shifted his voice or acted threatening in that hellish half an hour. No, the monster didn’t bluff. Everything he did was emotionlessly logical. An order got issued, non-compliance led to vague warnings, further transgression went straight to punishment. There were no arguments, no hesitation, no listening to pleas or bargains. It was like haggling against a hurricane.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Taku thought back to Illma. The Untouchable was a textbook sadist; she tortured for the sake of seeing pain. People would die rather than get captured by Illma Zoldia Road. But this guy was a sociopath. He did nothing more than he had too, and he did so without a hint of hesitation. Taku used to think the sadist was deadlier, but he changed his mind. Sadist was unstable, undisciplined, and self-center. A sociopath was logical and merciless. One of them would throw the mission away the moment she felt like it, while another would get the job done one way or another.
The boy offered two consequences. Taku decided to pick the one that saw him away alive.
Melody didn’t know what to feel about Rem’s newly identify skillset, so she ignored it to ask the obvious.
“What’s the plan?”
Rem raised his hand.
“First thing first,” the boys gestured at the cowering Taku. “You can go now. Run as fast as you can.” Rem spun his revolver. “If you fight, I will shoot you and pull out all your teeth. If I see you again, I will-“
“Shoot me and pull my teeth out,” Taku shivered.
“You are learning,” Rem turned away from him. “Start running.”
Taku bolted instantly, crawling away from Rem as fast as he could on a half-broken leg filled with bullet holes.
“Now the plan,” Rem showed her the document. “This is a gift I extorted from Port and Taku.”
Melody read it. It was an appointment notice with botches of bloodstain dotted across the paper. The handwriting was trash, but the signature and seal was legitimate.
“Your handwriting is terrible,” Melody was unimpressed. “What is this miracle paper?”
“This is a re-appointment order issued by Mayor Port and approved by Emma Taku,” Rem stated.
“Issue under duress,” Melody added.
“Mel, the devil is in the detail, and tonight Satan is on vacation,” Rem said. “With this neat little paper, I have a right to re-appoint Aion as a Guildmaster.” Rem shrugged. “Technically, Illma can file an injunction on this order, but I doubt she can do that from a cell. Now, we only have to free Aion and get him to stop those morons from blowing our operation.”
“Hey, are you sure we are doing the right thing?” Melody asked. “I don’t know about this Rem. I don’t think I know the difference between good and evil anymore. My father's compromises, you torturing Port, this entire mess; nobody is the good guy here.”
It was a combination of fatigue and her new-found knowledge that pushed Melody into blurting that out. For a second, she thought Rem would laugh at her and reply with his usual blend of sarcasm. Instead, the boy’s response could almost be called gentle.
“The fact that you no longer see black and white is a good sigh,” Rem replied in a rarely seen compassion.“People agree that evil should burn, but we can't agree on what is evil. Is a man evil for refusing to pay his tax because he knows it will fund a tyrannical government? Does the woman advocate for universal healthcare good, when the program is unfeasible and will result in an economic disaster? Good and evil are intertwined. An inability to accept that truth will lead to an unmitigated disaster. Hence, why it is always good intentions that pave the road to the end of the world."
“Is that why you oppose my dream so badly?”
“Yes,” Rem answered. “When I ignore all your claims and focus on what you want, I didn't see a girl wanting a better world or asking for a way to make it better. I see an entitled brat who wants power, and maybe payback. That speech about being a better monarch? They are the decoration to make you feel more justified. You are like a Modern Artist quacking on about how bold and unique the art you made is despite it being a lazy splash of literal shit-filled paint on cheap canvas you try to sell to me for money. Only an idiot would believe you will keep that beautiful promises about being a better queen after you step from the stair of corpses to put your fat ass on that throne."
“Wow, what did modern art do to make you hate it so much?”
“Correction, I hate everything,” Rem continued. “I’m not a good person, Melody." Rem glanced melancholically at the sky. "I failed when it counted the most, and I try not to be led by altruism. All of this is done partly to repay the entity who believe in me when even I don’t, partly because I won’t live in a world where the ideal of Superman isn’t real. It is personal and selfish, but I will lead from the ditch into the gate of hell to be that Superman. That is why I wear a mask."
"A mask?" Melody said. "You know. That is one of the things I don't understand about your group. Most of the people who wear mask try to avoid the spotlight. But you guys participate in this battle in a mask for the world to see. Don't you want the credit for your work?"
Rem instinctively touched his mask.
“Leave the street cred to those insecure enough to need it,” Rem said. “When I put on this mask, I embody a symbol. I don't need recognition or fame. Those things will only call my enemy down on my neck anyway." The boy gathered his breath before continuing. "With this mask, even if Rem Breaker die, the symbol of Horizon Dawn will remain as hope for the powerless. Anyone can put this mask on and become the bearer of hope for the people. Maybe one man couldn’t create world peace alone, but one symbol might. It is a bet I am putting all my chip in."
Melody barely understood Rem's speech, but the golden octopus by her leg got its timing perfectly. With the activation of its skill, the black cloak and masked appeared on the floor.
“There is the uniform, if you want to follow me to save Aion,” Rem marched toward the prison. “Even the symbol of justice need to master how to make a good impression."
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, a goddess watched the crowd assembling in terror.
“My god they are here,” Cytortia eyed the gathering adventurer nervously. “How the hell did the situation get this bad?”
“Why do you ask?” Scathach couldn’t help but feel annoyed at her cowardly charge. “It’s your fault that thing went this bad. That poison supposes to finish the dragon for good.”
That finally snapped the goddess's fragile mental cohesion.
“Poison? Do you know how hard I work on that toxin? I need to research the Sicilian Ghost blood-cell under a hell of an assumption. We are lucky I manage to find those record. I didn't even get to sleep this last three nights. Do you know how hard it is to modified the black despair and rigged the solution up with a high-speed catalyst I invented on the fly? Who the hell would know that the dragon can undergo Litchification? F-U4 only work on a living cell for heaven sake!”
“Yeah, I know you work hard,” Scathach noted the adventurer getting in position. “But if they start attacking the dragon, it might go critical and blow the entire Millian up in flame.”
Suddenly, a gold, flying comet slashed across the sky and slammed itself in front of the duo. The two women turned toward the glowing meteor, or in this situation, a gleaming sword and debilitated elf.
Cytortia looked at her friend. Luxinna looked terrible. Her coat was in scraps, and she was bleeding down both her arms and forehead. The elf also sported a burning welt across her skin. Her sky blue eye, shown through the broken mask, was worn and tired. The elf limped forward. But Cytortia barely cared about her friend beaten-up state. She was too happy that Luxinna made it out alive.
“Oh, thank god,” the goddess tackled the elf with a tight hug. “We afraid you might not make it?”
“I can’t breath,” Luxina wheezed.
The goddess released her exhausted friend in a hurry before shaking her down for injury.
“What happened to you? Did Illma do anything to you? How did you get away from her?”
“Illma?” Luxinna managed. “It is a close match. But luckily, I managed to snatch the win.”
“You win?” Scathach could barely believe it. Although Illma Zodia Road wasn’t a combat-oriented individual, the Untouchable’s record was solid. A no-name new-comer like Luxinna should get smashed before the like of her. Instead, a miracle happened, and her student emerged triumph. Scathach couldn’t help but felt the warm glow of pride in her chest.
“Yeah,” Luxinna lifted the sword. “And I think I got F-U5 right here.”