"You're frightening."

"F-Frightening? I see..."

Jong stood in a boxer-like pose, with both hands at his chin. Opposite from him was a stunning woman with citrine eyes and purple hair. She was the kind of woman who was anyone's type except, of course, Jong. He was more into loudmouthed, two-faced, cute girls with short black hair.

"Are we ready to get this started? I'm tired of standing here, and this empty street is giving me the creeps."

A spreading warmth covered her face, which only confused Jong. He had been told how weird she would be but as they say, seeing is believing. She grasped her cheeks and looked around nervously. "Get started? We just met... it's too sudden."

A heavy sigh filled with nervousness escaped him. Once this fight started, he would either die instantly or be unaffected. The tension he felt from this made his heart beat louder than it had in a week, not since the tree where he confessed had it been so booming. He was getting impatient with the woman in front of him, so he decided to make the first move. "I'm going to hit you now."

Declaring his actions clear as day, he pulled back for a wide swing that carried all of his weight. Lust just looked at him, confused as if she didn't understand what he had just said or what he was preparing to do. Jong was hesitant to hit her directly, but the fewer portals he had to make, the better. With a sickening crack, he pounded her straight in the jaw. Her face flung back as spits of blood flew into the air. He could see teeth fly about in chunks, and in his hand, he could still feel her flesh.

"PFFFT!" Lust stumbled backward, attempting to straighten herself as she spat up blood. The look in her eyes was anything but scornful. She radiated affection. The broken smile she gave him was proof of that affection. "Do you love me that much?"

He sighed yet again before planting a very similar punch to her abdomen. Once again, she stumbled back with crimson leaking from her mouth. Again she smiled at him like one would their husband. "Your love for me is so great! I wish I could bask in this forever. That's all I want."

For the third time, he punched her, this time in the sternum. He felt a nasty break where he had targeted and knew from experience that she was about to have some major internal problems. He also knew that hitting her like this accomplished nothing. She would just come up with another body from the shadows, but if he had to pick between listening to her shit or killing her, he would choose the latter.

"Your love... is so powerful." She looked into his eyes as if she knew him. All he could feel was disgust. "I think it's time to take our love to the next level." She fidgetted while looking at him with soft eyes that often flicked to the ground as if it was too intimate for her to look at him. "I'll test your love, then we can be together!"

His feet wouldn't move. His heart felt heavy as the oppressive atmosphere crushed him. This was the moment he had been waiting for. The moment that would decide whether he lived or died. With a big gulp, he held his breath. After a few minutes, the woman had noticed the look on his face.

"Why do you look so frightened? Do you need a hug?" She stumbled toward him with a broken face that held no ill intentions. He was convinced that all she wanted was to hug him, which only made him even more distressed. Human contact was not something he craved, and getting a hug from some psycho was far from okay.

"I'm good." He backed away, still retaining his boxer-like pose. His heart had not burst. Inside his head, he was mentally jumping for joy at this favorable coincidence.

With a jolt, she stopped moving. Her eyes expanded until they couldn't anymore. Jong could hear her breathing hitch as she started to hyperventilate. Danger signals were flaring off in his mind as the woman in front of him seemingly broke down. That's when he noticed it. The world grew darker and darker. Shadows cast from lanterns and posts grew in size, spreading their tendrils. The path behind him was blocked off by a wall of black. He had no way out.

"For so long..." Her voice no longer carried the tone of some highschool romance show. Now her voice had the air of pain. It sounded like each word she spoke was grinding needles into her throat as she attempted to get them out. But even still, her words didn't waver; they were firm and resolute. "For so so very long, I have searched for you. I have waited years upon years upon decades upon centuries for this moment!" Her volume grew as she swayed closer to him. "I have believed in nothing but the promise of love for so very long and now... and now I can receive it!"

From the shadows, he sensed the presence of others. Then one by one, floating eyes gazed into him. An unknown number of ivory orbs stabbed into him with their oppressive perception. He felt like throwing up. A thought of teleporting out of the hell hole he had walked into popped into his mind. He quickly rejected the idea. If he was to defeat her as the plan called for, then running away wouldn't solve anything, and with how easily he got caught by it the first time, it was likely that the hex she was using wasn't one you could avoid.

"I think you have something mixed up here, lady."

"My name is Peitho, my love."

He breathed deep and slow to steady himself. Jong understood that what he was about to do would spell trouble for him. But he was tired of the uncomfortable situation he was in. If he had to choose between a bloody brawl and whatever this was, he would choose the former. "I don't love you at all."

He swore he could hear an audible crash at the end of his sentence. The woman in front of him stood very still like a deer in headlights. Then slowly, she came to her senses. "I see..." Her shoulders went limp, and she stared at the ground for quite some time. "Well, that's fine!" Without any warning, she shot her head back up and put on a smile. "I can wait." Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were not. They looked at him with untold rage. "I can just capture you here and then make you love me!"

"Yeah, that's not happening."

"Don't be like that! Just let me take care of you. I'll take you far away from here and give you all of my love." Thousands of eyes glared at him from the abyss surrounding him. Then gently, hands poured out of the darkness just enough to see their wrists.

He took a deep breath before steeling himself. He had gotten what he wanted. Now he just needed to somehow win. With his left foot leading him in, he took a big swing yet again. The flow of mana inside him coalesced into an invisible force surrounding his hand. "Impact."

Her face caved in. Her movement stopped. Lust fell onto her side, face drowning in a pool of blood. Without hesitation, another one stepped out of the black background. Her looks were an exact match with the one dead on the ground.

"You have to calm down."

"No can do." His fist launched again, but this time the woman seemed ready for it. With grace, she dodged to the side, countering with an endarkened kick. A portal opened, taking her kick and leg to a place that didn't matter.

"...?"

While she was confused, he targeted her temple with another impact. Her eyes glazed over, and she soon stopped moving altogether.

He collected his thoughts while he had time to do so. 'Her defense is sorely lacking, and her offense is much the same but,' More copies strolled through the black veil, each one wearing a smile that screamed contempt. 'The problem is how this fight is never going to end. How can she even make flesh and blood copies anyway? This sort of magic is the kind that takes years to use just once.' He remembered back to what she said earlier. 'But if she's been living for centuries, then I guess that could explain it.'

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"I'm going to get rough if you don't calm down, honey!"

"Please don't call me that."

Three bodies rushed him down on three different sides. Each one carried black energy that swirled around them and a look that could only be described as terrifying. They each attacked him at the same time. A void-covered kick, fist, and elbow sped towards him. With as little effort as he could manage, he dropped to the ground spinning like a top, and with three calculated and infused kicks, he took them down.

He had no time to celebrate as even more rushed out. Surrounding him were somewhere around thirty identical people. Each one carried a not so silent rage.

"Come on!" Jong was as ready as he'd ever be. They converged on him, all sprinting with hexes loaded. He took a stance you might see in a karate movie. His hands were clenched, down to his sides, and his arms pulled behind him. "Raining Fists." With a sharp breath, he unleashed a flurry of fists that passed through portal after portal. Each one, landing on the mark he had ordained, each one causing the body it struck to cease movement.

He tried to not focus on the eyes that still watched from the abyss and instead found solace in the current situation. He hadn't died and was singlehandedly keeping his own against a sin. It wasn't something just any adventurer or ranker could say. Even veterans and legends would steer clear of the threat he was facing. Inside himself, he found a small piece of self-confidence growing. A rarity, to say the least, for the stoic Jong.

"How many times must we go through this before you give it up? I really wish you would just let me love you." Her voice trailed off and sounded hurt. He couldn't tell where in the shadows she was talking but replied all the same.

"I really wish you would just find someone else to obsess over." He looked around at the picturesque horror scene. 'How does she have enough mana to control all of them? Or does each one come with its own mana core? But if that was the case, why doesn't she just rush me down all at once? There must be a limit.'

"This is your last chance."

Her tone was flat, and he imagined her face was much the same.

"If I don't?"

He got no response. The eyes shifted, and the hands retreated. The darkness and silence were overbearing. All he could hear in that closed space was his own heart and breathing.

"Black Flash!"

From behind, her hands dug into his back, propelled by a dark energy that threatened to tear his very being apart. With sheer determination, he pivoted his back and created a portal. He went through, and it closed. He was met by the smell of fresh air mixed with something burning. The open sky was above once more. He turned around on the street he had stepped onto to look at the cocoon of darkness. Slowly it unraveled and dissolved, leaving the girl standing in its center frantically looking around for him.

Her eyes settled when she saw him; a faint smile formed. "There you are! Is your back okay?"

His back was definitely not okay. His shirt was now more an accessory than anything, thanks to the giant hole Lust put in it. A bruise was already forming. "I'm just fine, you crazy bitch."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" She clasped her hands together and smiled brightly at him. As she did, a shockwave swept through the area. Jong raised his hands to protect his eyes from the debris and dust sifting through the air.

He looked into the distance to see a barely visible smoke cloud rise into the sky. Jong only had one thought on his mind as he inspected the horizon. "Commander..."

Lust had a similar look. "Pride..." After looking towards the aftermath, she turned her stone-cold gaze on him. "Change of plans, my love. If Pride gets too rowdy, she'll end up killing you, and I don't want that, so now I'll get serious. I'm sorry if you end up getting hurt. If it's serious, I can just string you together with a hex, so everything will be fine!"

Shadows once again stretched out from every place imaginable, and from them, Lust's poured out. Jong couldn't count how many there were, but he knew it well over five-hundred. "Dark Convergence." The shadows that playfully lapped at her clones suddenly went rigged. They covered all of them in another black cocoon.

For a few seconds, Jong stood there staring at the massive mass of energy. Then without warning, it collapsed in on itself. Within the center of the swirling black force was a single person. Shadows ebbed off of every inch of her. He could no longer see her skin and could only barely make out her eyes. An existential horror was about to be upon him.

'This is bad.'

"Dark Lotus!" A tangible force of darkness shaped like a flower flashed toward him. With a flick of his hand, a portal appeared just wide enough to make it disappear before it could reach him. "Ebony Hammer!" She appeared at his side out of a shadow, her hand encased in vast nothingness. He attempted to dodge out of the way and make a portal, but she was just too fast.

He clenched his jaw as the world around him warped. He was no longer in the street but was now in the confines of someone's home. Around him were everyday items like pots and pans along with someone's still lit lantern.

"Damn." While attempting to get off the floor, a burning pain came from his side. His legs trembled as he tried his best to ignore the pain and stand up. The wall he came through showed just how far he was flung. "What?" His limbs weren't responding the way they were supposed to. "The damage I took shouldn't be this bad!" Nothing moved as he wanted, or rather, everything he did was slower than it should have been. Upon further inspection, he could see tiny black tendrils poking out of him. "Her hex is slowing me down!?" His ears perked up as a disturbing noise grew louder.

It was screaming, frustrated screaming. From the hole in the wall made by Jong's entry, he could make out a black something rushing his way.

"Give me a break!" He stepped through a portal leading to the outside, hoping to gain some ground.

"F-o-u-n-d you! Sable Salvo."

Pain racked his entire body as the hexed coils gushed forth. Their momentum collided with his stomach. Again he found himself bounding through buildings and whatever else was in his way. His body wouldn't hold up to this abuse any longer. If he took another hit like that, he was done. After a tumble through a roof, he found himself inside what appeared to be a storage house.

"It stinks!" The entire building was filled with a stench that was unknown to him the smell of gasoline.

The metal doors of the building flung into the back, crashing into barrels filled with semi-clear liquid. "You know, I'd do anything for you, but I'm starting to feel like I'm the only one that's done anything in this relationship."

He looked down at his feet; a liquid that carried malodor was starting to pool around him. "This sucks so bad. I just want to hunker down and cry." Jong began voicing his inner concerns as if the girl in front of him was some kind of therapist. "You're really scary, not to mention I've just about had it. I take another hex, and it's over."

"Then why don't you just sit back and accept my love?"

"But you know what?" His voice gained traction. "If a certain girl was here, she would tell me all about how pathetic I was being." His voice rose as the feelings that radiated when he thought of her spread over him like a gentle fire. "She would ask how the man she loved turned out to be a powerless coward! I won't stand for it! I'm bringing you down." He entered his boxer pose once more.

He could no longer see her face clearly, but he imagined that she was quite annoyed. "Hey... don't you think it's a little cruel to talk about another girl when I'm here in front of you!?"

"My hand to hand techniques never developed past apprentice but, that doesn't matter if it's a guaranteed hit! Port-"

A hand pushed its way into his gut with such force that he couldn't help but choke on his words. His body wavered as more tendrils dug their way into his body, weakening him from the inside.

"Why won't you just accept my love?" Another fist whipped his head to the side. "Why won't anyone accept my love...?" A kick collapsed his legs. "Just love me and only me! Is that so much to ask?" Tears dripped down from the veil of shadows, but Jong couldn't really focus on anything at the moment.

He made a move to rise but was swiftly kicked back down. His head smacked against the concrete of the warehouse. A foul odor entered his nose as his head got soaked by the liquid. Jong stared off into the distance, thinking of nothing in particular when he saw it. A symbol on all the barrels, one he knew well. A wicked smile spread across his face as he opened a portal and shoved his hand through.

"Stop trying to get away!" Her foot slammed down on his arm, shattering it. With a knee-jerk reaction, his hand came out of the portal holding a lit lantern. "Are you quite done?"

"Hey... do you know what those barrels say?" He could barely get his words out, but the monster seemed to have understood him.

"The barrels?" Her face turned toward the items in question. "They just have a red triangle... what are you trying to get at, honey?"

He laughed faintly; his lungs were starting to seize up on him. "That means they're flammable..." Without waiting, he chucked the lantern onto the ground shattering it. A single flame licked the soaked ground. The last thing he saw was light. His vision turned off, and his hearing left him.

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The explosion and fire could be seen from anywhere in the city. From a distance, a certain scythe-toting girl looked at the scene and whispered into the rowdy night, "Jong."