*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
Shots were fired from the [Ranger's Sequoia], only to ricochet from the corpse's armor.
Apoc made a "tch", seeing that his shots somehow only damage a little to the so-called 'Hansel' weapon. Specifically its a corpse-weapon made specifically for the redhead human. Rayleigh.
"Cant you aim his head!?" Rayleigh shouted in annoyance, blocking Hansel's attack with his flames.
"Little shit- I dare you to try even headshot this sonofabtch moving at high speeds!" Apoc retorted. "Plus, the punk is annoying, cant you finish it off at once!?"
The human simply grunted in annoyance but gave a quick nod before unleashing his whole power against the corpse.
The whole room flashed bright as day, then the explosion happened.
*BOOOOMMM*
Stunning Hansel, Rayleigh threw out his strongest punch at the corpse's face. Crushing the corpse almost into the floor, the room smoked, burnt from the sudden flash of firelight.
"What, that's it? Or is your chatterbox broken?" Rayleigh clapped his hands from the dust. Not noticing that Jim didn't take any noticeable damage from the explosion.
"Thats- Your- Real- Strenght-?" The corpse's radio spoke distortedly. And somehow, it suddenly released a surge of Dark Energy.
"Oh fuck..."
"Then- I'll- Show- You- Hansel's- True- Power-!" Flashes of black were covering the whole room, almost by an instant.
Lessa mode: ON
'What did it say...?' Apoc widen his eyes.
Without warning, the whole room suddenly turned black.
'The hell, are we some kind of a damn plane...?' Jim said, almost in an annoyance. Thankfully he disabled his anti-sorcery protection, and unfortunately, it also caused him to become more vulnerable.
But not against these kinds of weaklings...
"What the... Did he say Lessa?" The human said, surprised by its statement.
"I can tell you that once's its syncronized," The radio somehow got itself fixed. "Even though it's just a very small part of Dark Lessa's power... I can use this power."
Hansel held his palms together, forming ice from nothing.
"And its time to turn off all the boundless lights."
Almost by an instant, the temperature around them suddenly turned cold. Ice was forming around Rayleigh's body, breathless from the cold. Apoc was mostly unaffected by this due to his high resistance and puny ice debuff compared to the frozen hells of Niflheim, but he could feel the cold. Only barely.
"Absolute Ze-"
Taking no chances, Jim cast a spell that would remove the cold debuff for the one-eyed flamey boy.
"{Magnetic Flare}!" A ball of fire appeared, floating beside above his head.
Rayleigh suddenly breathes in greedily, as if he wasn't able to take any air in. "Wha-what...?" He said through his now-warmed breaths.
"What is this!? Impossible!" The voice from the distorted voicebox from Hansel shouted almost in disbelief. "WHAT IS THIS!?"
"Heheheh," Jim cackled with a smile on his face. Even though his face is covered by a mask. He slowly aimed his pistol at Hansel, lining his shot at its head. "You almost had it there good sirs, but I doubt you would able to finish us like that so easily. And Dark Cold? Not bad... But also not good enough-"
He was unexpectedly kicked from the side by Lessa, who had a stoic expression.
*WRAKABOOMM*
Jim crashed at the wall, making him stuck in a weird pose.
"...You could have asked me instead of kicking me from the side you stoic fool." Jim said through pain. He had to act in front of his audience for now.
"Lessa! What the, how the hell are you here!?"
"I sensed the power of sun flickering, I went here to stop you from using Ra's power. But it seemed that I was not needed to stop you..." He looked at Jim, who was slowly getting down from the wall.
"And you really need to kick me that hard?" They would have seen him raise an amused brow at that point if he wasn't wearing a mask.
"...Sorry."
"Bah, forget it." He waved dismissively. "Anyways, what made you stop me from shooting at that thing?" He motioned at the weaken Hansel, who was now simply staying on the ground. Looking at them...
"Because of this... Oh, and Lexter is safe as well."
"You guys are done fighting?" Lexter popped his head behind the wall, his expression seemed bruised and wounded. "I just barely survived between all those Demans and almost died thanks to you!"
"Lexter!" Rayleigh smiled gladly, relief to see that his safe.
"Anyways, here we go." The engineer rolled out a cart with something covered in cloth. Without his undead passive, he wouldn't have noticed a faint heartbeat from the covered cloth. "We are not too late are we?" Lexter said in concern.
"Why is someone there?"
"Hang in there," Lessa said, gently carrying the person in the cloth. "We have arrived."
Lessa's expression went dark from there, carrying the person as he gently lay them down to Hansel's lap.
"Those two are siblings..." Lexter said, speaking an unanswered question for Rayleigh and Jim.
"Siblings...?" Rayleigh whispered...
"A year ago, the Demans slaughtered thousands of people, many children were brought here for some kind of experiments. Like those two."
Rage suddenly emerge from Apoc's deep heart when he heard that.
...Demans need to die. Those sick, wicked fucks...
They could only watch as the two siblings cuddled, with the brother moving while the sister (he had just noticed) remained dead still.
'...' He would have felt pity for those two, if not the raging fire still burning in his spirit.
"...I'm sorry." Hansel spoke. Not the voicebox, but his own true voice.
'So he's an undead...' Apoc thought surprisingly. 'I would have thought to be one of those dead dolls.'
Hansel opened up his chest, putting his hand inside, revealing a dark heart. He slowly held it up high, giving it to Lessa.
Lessa grabbed it. "Thank you." He said.
Hansel gave a nod before his body fell. Both Hansel and Gretel have died and earned their peace...
"He's... dead."
"Probably..."
"No," Jim said, surprising them with his voice. "He's dead for sure."
"Lessa." A voice appeared, almost smooth like silk. It was a familiar voice...
'The angel...'
"Since it doesn't look like you're going to call me, you won't give that force to me right?" The angel slowly walked with his hands crossed behind his back.
"Helmet head!"
"Oh~ The angel dude from last time!"
An irritated vein appeared on the forehead of the angel. The angel swiftly grabbed Rayleigh's collar and shook him. "You imbecile! How dare you go that far!? Did you forget the promise you made!?"
"No, but I would have died otherwise..."
"If you didn't follow your orders you'll become an official like us!" Somehow the angel ignored his mumbles.
"What the hell are you blabbering about you stupid helmet head...!"
"If you don't want that then don't waste your power!"
"Ummm... I will not give this power to you, but keep it with me for now." Lessa said, getting their attention. "Will that is alright?"
The angel let go of Rayleigh's collar, something the human kept on muttering quietly about "helmet head" and "stupid".
"Do you have a rough idea... To what kind of power that is? It fills something empty... It was inside your dreams and maybe it filled also your heart." He said ominously, but with a tone of deep concern. "But Lessa, we were able to seal Dark Lessa inside you. Because of your soul was deathly to that woman's darkness. Right now your not sacred anymore. If her fragments are gathered inside you, then you will get dyed darker yourself... You know what that means right?"
"..."
The angel sighed lightly. "Please take care of your body..."
"And to you..." The angel then turned his attention to Jim. "Your presence... I cannot sense it... Unnaturally."
"Curious are you good sir?" The player in disguise smirked, despite his mask covered his expression from showing it.
"...I'd be lying if I wasn't. You are quite suspicious."
"Not to this kind of case, no." He said casually. "And besides, how is it an angel is serving the Egyptian God of Fire at hand?"
The angel raised a brow. "You know who I serve?" Almost a hint of surprise in his tone. "I take it, did they inform you about-"
"No, they didn't." He waved the question away. "And besides, you have something to take care of." He gestured at the two bodies lying still...
The angel glanced at the bodies, true to his word, he does have to take care of things back at the Purgatory.
"Indeed... I'll take these two with me then."
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
'Getting attention from an unknown higher power would seem stupid and careless...' He narrowed his eyes cautiously at the angel. 'But they acknowledged my existence now, but not prioritizing it... Looks like laying low would last long for now...'
----------------------------------------
It was a very... very unpleasant sight.
After a tantrum fight between Lucy and Mindy-Mindy, they got together and decided to fight against Belle. The Trappers also managed to get rid of the dolls who held them back, but also not attacking to those who decide to attack them.
Reluctantly, but they admit to it. Since those were the divine orders from their master.
The two powerhouses of the 3rd generation confronted Belle, with the Trappers acting as rear support for the fight.
They would have thought that this would end Belle's cruel rule.
But it seems to be the opposite from easy.
The deman ruler, Lord of Zone 3, fought the fight with almost no effort at all.
Mindy-Mindy was unconscious, her transformation with her penta-horns turned her back to a normal deman, the Trappers were on the ground. Lying still mangled and bloodied.
'How... How could this happen!?' Lucy thought, wounded. Still, in her penta-horn transformation, her strength was diminished. 'Even though she hadn't brought her horns out yet, we can't win...'
'Is this the difference between the two generations...?'
Belle turned her attention away from the unconscious Mindy-Mindy, to the weakened Lucy.
"Hmmm? Are you still planning on coming at me?" She slowly walked towards her. "Even if your hundreds or thousands, your generation cant kill a single of my kind. And do you know why?" She smirked.
"Because the vapor you received came from me. I am the source of your power." She smiled. "Pentahorn? Ha! Stop that- no matter how hard you try, I won't bring out even one more horn."
'Is that really true...?' Her hopes were burning out...
"But how come you're so pretty like a sparkling star?"
Belle suddenly grabbed her hair, pulling her up from the floor. Lucy tried to get away, but she couldn't lift her hand to even try and remove her hand holding her hair.
"Why are you so useless and yet so special? I want to cut you open, but I won't because its a waste! And even Ares said I should get rid of you, I said I'd be depressed for at least a hundred years.
And yet you wenches want to kill me?" She spat.
Unknown to her, Mindy-Mindy was conscious and slowly getting up. She fueled herself with rage and leaped towards Belle for a punch.
"Belle! I'm not dead yet!"
Not able to react fast, Mindy-Mindy stabbed her hand into Belle's heart from behind.
"How's this...?" She grinned. "You just ignored me?"
"..." Belle slowly turned her head to look behind her, with pupils shrank almost like a dot.
Black tentacles burst out from the Lord of the Zone's back. Instantly almost at the blink of an eye, cut Mindy-Mindy's hand.
"KUUAKKKK! WHAT IS THIS!?"
"STOP THAT!" Lucy shouted as she punched Belle in the face, almost to no effect.
"You monster!" She cut Belle's face, black blood slowly oozing out from her cheek.
'Mon...ster...?'
'Monster...?'
'Monster?'
'Monster!?'
'MONSTER!?'
Belle suddenly exploded with an immense aura of dark red and black. The dark energy seeping out from her, almost crackling like thunder.
"I changed my mind." She said with no emotion but hatred in her voice. "I'm going to tear you apart."
'What... isssss thissss?' The injured Ichozuc trembled from the heaviness of such corrupted energy. With potions wasted a while ago, he has nothing but only to rest in order to heal his wounds. He would join even if he is beyond injured than normal, but he felt no strength to even stand up.
'Ssss-sssuch power... Corrupted...'
"W-What the hell is with this energy!?"
"Luckily she hasn't transformed yet...!"
"Transform...? That's what you're expecting? How rude~ You're just an idiot who doesn't know the meaning of the horns." She said mockingly. "When you receive the Dark Power, you also receive a part of god himself. And you can at most use this power in a fight like this."
"...!"
She outwardly shoots her arm towards Lucy, and thus 7 dark circles surrounded Lucy. Almost the moment it was summoned, black tendrils shoot at the pentahorn deman. Slashing at Lucy, striking at her almost as fast as a bullet.
"KWAAAA!"
"That's how you strike someone." She said calmly, yet her tone induces venom.
'Thissss isssss hopelesssss... We cannot win againsssst thissss monssster.' Ichozuc thought as he twitched in pain from his arm before grabbing it, trying to reduce the pain. 'Ssssshould I report thissss to... No, I cannot interrupt my lord'ssss plan. If I may ruin it if I requessssst...'
Ichozuc suddenly thought of something, before casting in a {Message} to the forces waiting outside of the building. Ordering almost all of them, leaving several to guard the humans that were withdrawn from the operation.
'Hold on a little longer little human...' He thought lastly, continuing to watch the one-sided battle... No. Slaughter.
----------------------------------------
"Anyone know what time it is?" Lexter asked.
The humans, with Jim behind them, were running through a very large corridor, turning corners and corners.
"I don't have a clock, why?" Rayleigh said.
"Ah crap! That's a problem!" The engineer said in worry.
"We could go outside and count the stars to figure what time it is." Lessa deadpanned.
"Stop it idiot." Rayleigh said almost immediately, annoyed by Lessa's wording. Turning back to Lexter. "Why do you need one?"
"Well, you know when we were separated I was brought to the incarceration room... But of course, I escaped as soon as possible. And therefore I thought something had gone wrong and everyone was dead, so I had to prepare for the worst case. That's why I had a time bomb installed. Of course, I set a lot of time but...
Quite a time's been passed now..." Lexter deadpanned at the end...
"YOU CRAZY BASTARD!"
"Can we just set our minds on saving the people who are on the verge of death right now?" Jim said painlessly. "Or can I just go ahead of you?"
"What the hell are you talking about-!"
"Is that possible?" Lessa cut him off.
Jim chuckled. "Anything is possible for me~." He said before silently casting at least several 5th tier magic on himself and sped through the halls, leaving only but a breeze of a strong wind behind.
"Holy damn, is he deman?" Lexter said in awe, but also with a tone of suspicion.
"No... He doesn't feel like any other deman, but I don't sense similarities to a human." Lessa said as he eyed to where Jim went off.
"He could be like those... two." Rayleigh said making Lexter flinch on remembering such a horrible sight.
"No... He feels different."
----------------------------------------
The whole situation was going array.
Belle had unleashed her power, but despite that, she was on a disadvantage. Angels, despite being also creatures of the corrupted darkness, are dangerous to Demans.
The Angels seek the darkness of the Demans.
The Deman Lordess stood guard in the midst of the 'Angel' that Mindy-Mindy had somehow turned... But the question is...
'Why are there so many of them?' She thought.
"You, what on earth...?"
The beast took a small step forward, and Belle took a small step backward.
The beast growled briefly before its face cracked, revealing another... face.
"Kisha...!?" Belle said surprised.
This continued as the other beasts' heads cracked, revealing faces of her dolls collection.
"Helen, Elope, Rosa, why are you here...?" She said, shocked.
A doll face flashed over the darkness and it spoke; "Why did you do that to me?"
"What did you say...!?" She snapped angrily, although there was a hint of fear within her voice. "Go away! GO AWAY!"
"GO-!"
A familiar face flashed behind the dolls, and it was a face she hadn't seen for a long time. And it reminded her of a dark, painful, cruel past...
"...Veronica..." Tears broke out from her eyes. Too shocked, sadden, in disbelief that she couldn't react to the explosions that just happened to appear in the nick of time.
While this was happening, Rayleigh got to her sister and while the others helped out the wounded summoned insect warriors. Escaping out of the burning, dying home of the zone's Lord. Jim couldn't help but feel something beneath that deman Lord Belle, she had been suffering for the longest time...
'Regret... Why do I feel sympathy to such a cruel person...?' He thought quietly as he helped supervised his wounded summons. He managed to give them small healing, no critical forms of injury staying permanently.
. . .
They have found a safe, temporary place for them to take a rest and resupply themselves. The insect warriors have been healed to the fullest, but aside from them, one of the humans; Mienna, was still unwell.
The other humans found Jim to be tad well suspicious by how respected he was given by the insects but nonetheless were grateful of what they heard of his actions. But are still cautious around him.
She had been rescued while being found unconscious and out of her mind.
Jim had checked for any unusual things that were placed upon her, like curses, spells, enchantments and etc. With the {Appraise: Status} enchanted within his mask's optics, he was able to detect something like a curse, but at the same time, not a curse.
Of course, he didn't tell this to anyone but only kept it to himself, since he sensed that none of the inhabitants of this world, or rather this island, barely used any form of magic.
Like I said, BARELY ANY USE OF MAGIC!
Anyways, the condition of Mienna, it was something similar to a Race Change status, but it doesn't seem to act the same as the ones in YGGDRASIL, of course there are some exceptions to the status of able to race change, but not something like this he is seeing.
"So, you find anything?" Jin Young (The doctor) said concerned.
Jim nodded slowly. "She's been affected by something that is going to change her. I can't really tell exactly what, but it almost seems like a-"
"Damn, she took Vapour..." Jin cursed. "Shit..."
"Mind if I ask what that is?" Jim said curious, propounded by what this 'Vapour' meant to them.
"What!?" The doctor and the midget looked at him in disbelief. "You never heard of Vapour!? What the hell have you been, under a rock?" He exclaimed.
"Hey! Mind you that I was in a coma for the longest time and I couldn't remember how much time has been passed!" He growled angrily and also annoyed by the fact that he had to keep up his cover for his alibi.
"I find that hard to believe..." Jin said suspiciously.
"Put that topic aside," He said in a tone that spoke no arguments within the room. "inform me what is this 'Vapour' you mentioned."
"...Its a substance that the Demans use to convert humans to demans. I've heard from Lessa that its something like corruption that embedded into one's soul. And turning Demans back to humans? In my opinion, those chances are low..." He muttered at the last part, filled with sorrow and regret.
"..." Jim glanced back to the sleeping form of Mienna, then turned towards the two people in the room. "Would you like me to turn her back to a human?"
The two turned their wide eyes at him. "W-What...!? You cant be joking-!"
"I'm not." He said firmly. "I can turn her back before this 'Vapour' would take in full effect that she'd be converted into a Deman."
Jin and Yuzuru looked at each other, and with silent contempt, they reluctantly let him do it. "...Please save her."
"Those are my intentions anyway." He said nonchalantly, putting his hands above Mienna and pouring his mana onto them.
'{Silent Cast: Cure Status}, {Silent Cast: Absolute Zero}'. Mienna's body glowed brightly than the light within the room had projected. The two humans covered their eyes from the sudden brightness that Jim had conducted. Jim didn't cover his eyes, but he narrowed them to an extent that he would have looked like a Chinese man.
(SORRY FOR THE JOKE!)
After a moment of the sun filling in the room, the bright light died down.
The two humans looked at Jim, who was still holding his hand out above Mienna's sleeping form. Almost after a second, they looked at him, he took his hand away and sat at a nearby chair, panting heavily.
"H-Hey, are you ok?" Jin said, regaining his bearings.
Jim simply nodded before greedily taking in several gulps of air. "Yes... The girl... She should be fine now... I removed the Vapour out of her..."
"...*sighhhhh~*" The man didn't know he had been withholding from breathing. Both he and Yuzuru were filled with relief and joy that Mienna is still a human, and she hasn't turned into a deman.
"Just... give her time to sleep... She, no... All of you deserve it." Jim stood up before slowly limping out the room, but Jin quickly stopped him.
"No, I can't have you go out with that condition of yours, whatever you did to Mienna... Thank you for not letting her turn into a deman." The doctor bowed. "Now, you take a rest. Using that kind of power of yours looks like it drained you too much."
The player in disguise chuckled. "Thank you for the concern, but I'd rather sit on a chair comfortable rather than lying down on a flatbed." He replied before taking in a slow step forward. "Hahaha," He chuckled weakly. "Reminds me of being an old man now..."
Jin didn't understand what he meant by that, but he couldn't let Jim accidentally get injured walking outside. If he couldn't get him to a bed, the least he could do is just assist him in walking him out.
"At least let me help you, I don't want you accidentally tripping on something while being so... drained."
Jim stared at him on which Jin felt like for the longest time that he could feel a cold sweat slowly coming down from his neck. He sighs in relief when Jim simply nodded his head in confirmation.
With the doctor 'helping' him on walking, the insect player contemplated on what to do regarding his act on all of this? Should he resort to find this Ares and kill the motherfucker with all problems gone? No, too risky and too little information conceded to the leader of the demans.
But the deeper they went into the zones, the harder it seems it becomes... For the humans at least. For him? Barely an effort to just steamroll on everything.
And besides, he had encountered those cyborg demi-humans it seems. And unexpected to find that they are able to use powers comparable to 8-Tier spells. Although not enough to kill him, but still lethal enough to harm him.
'Looks like Im going to have to go for a slow walk on this one.' As much as he wants to finish this problem, he couldn't help but nod at the feeling of disagreement from the air. Almost like something is peeling his mind to do this slow. . .
'Nah, it cant be. I got stacks of anti-divination, anti-observation, anti-curse, and magic items around. If that shit should happen, I'd at least notice something. . .'
----------------------------------------
|Dimension Jumper's Plane|, |The Hub|
.
"Should we deploy standard protocol?" Mira Alexander stated that leaves no room for amateurs, and only the work of a professional.
"...No, it's not needed." Gman stated. "But rather put Prioritization Watch protocol to a Low 2-C. If interference is required, report the situation to me at first hand. Then you can initiate H.T.S.P (High Tier Standard Protocol).
Mira tapped several times on her plasma tablet before bowing, leaving the room when Gman had dismissed her.
Once she left his office, Gman let out a loose humming sound.
"The man cant skip ahead to the object yet, there are still much more things to do yet." Glancing to another monitor ball, which reveals to have ghostly individual fighting against a crowd.
Said individual is a ghost in look, brandishing a rusty, deadly yet weird looking weapon at hand. And against all odds, the person had managed to beat almost a crowd which seems to outnumber the individual 50:1.
He would have put it 40:1 if it weren't for that weird-ass looking macho Nomu. A proto-human; subconsciously lethal against most average enemies, but an annoyance when compared to his lowest Dimension Hoppers.
Aside from that, he couldn't help but get the feeling that this is going to be a great help in the future... Despite that these kinds of situations of YGGDRASIL players popping around the multiverse at random.
"...Leon Z. Markemch, huh?" He muttered as he watched the said person cut several villains, although wounding them, but seemingly not killing them outright. "Why couldn't you pick another name other than 'Dubstep42', that's just lazy naming sequence."