Reiki tried his best to ignore the voice that comes and goes whenever it pleased he sat down on one of the tree's larger branches he started to take deep breaths as he tried to ready himself to relocate his joints. As the voice kept ongoing. [Well what I saw wasn't really that great, to be honest, I've seen better. Now let me see if I got this right. Before you were even able to pick up the knife the butler was already on his guard. The only reason why you were able to lightly slash at him was the cause of your sudden vanishing when you used flash.]

[The second was the slight window of when you still had the knife in your left hand. You position the knife behind your head at eye level. With a quick slash behind you were able to hit the butler's throat with the tip of the knife. But you knew if you tried to force what your body can handle it would expose you to being unable to control your strength. On the contrary, if you used too little force the threat would have lost all its meaning.]

[So instead of using the strength you used speed which you knew would end up straining your joints but luckily for you your body was able to withstand it but only barely. You lost the ability to control your left hand due to the joints being dislocated but you knew what would happen so using the gleam of the knife as an indicator and then catching it or more correctly passing the knife to your right hand. Now here's my question for you... Why didn't you just throw the knife and aim to shatter the plate in front of her instead?]

Reiki ignored the voice and pulled up his left sleeve all the way up to see that his left arm has three bruises located on his shoulder, elbow, and wrist with faint signs of swelling the bruises were a mix of colors of red in the center and slowly from the center out turned purple with the edges of the bruise having a faint color of yellow. After one more deep breath, he lightly gritted his teeth and placed his right hand onto his left shoulder with one quick motion an audible cracking sound was made for a split second.

[System: User's left shoulder has been relocated.]

Reiki didn't scream and he still kept a calm face but now he gritted his teeth harder and now his hollow eyes small red veins were starting to become more prominent from the intense pain he felt from relocating one of the joints. With another deep breath and with gritted teeth Reiki placed his right hand to ontop of his left elbow and another auditable cracking sound was made.

[System: User's left elbow has been relocated.]

After the second one, Reiki started to lightly sweat from the pain and his breathing was starting to become more haggard and erratic with his right hand on his left wrist and one last quick motion another audible cracking sound was heard in the trees.

[System: User's left wrist has been relocated.]

With the last joint was finally relocated Reiki took a large breath and started to sweat profusely with his eyes returned back to normal but with red veins were now visible to the naked eye if you didn't know what he just did a few seconds ago he looked like he cried from being his left arm being beaten the crap out of it. As Reiki stood up from the tree branch. Alright... It wasn't the result I wanted but I'll have to make do with it. In the meantime, I need to go back. He mused to himself. Hmm... Roughly 100 feet I wonder... Well, no time like the present. With his decision made Reiki closed his eyes and then started to slowly lean forward and soon he fell off the branch as he was facing the ground.

90 Feet...

80 Feet...

70 Feet...

As Reiki fell his clothes and hair were fluttering in the wind as he descended from the branch. The ground quickly became closer yet he still has the same expression ,he looked completely carefree as his descent became faster. With a slight twist from his upper body, it caused him to spin a full 180 degrees which made his back face the ground as the ground came closer and closer.

60 Feet...

50 Feet...

As he fell roughly fifty feet Reiki suddenly opened his eyes and cast. Flash.

『 Flash has been activated. Mana Cost: 500. 』

After casting flash Reiki was lying down air a few inches away from the ground after a split second he hit the ground and created a soft thud. Reiki stood up as he dusted the dirt on his clothes as he looked at the tree he fell a few seconds ago and thought. So it does stop momentum for a split second. But then the voice was still talking to him. [Kid you still haven't answered my question.]

Reiki kept quiet for a second or two and replied. "They don't have the same level of intimidation... Some people might be scared of the possibility of being killed from afar without the chance of seeing who killed them. But I'm not dumb enough to put my money that rich bitchoujo with her status won't have to worry about it. But having the high possibility of being killed despite the fact you have all those protections. Well, that's a different story."

Reiki said as he coldly chuckled. The voice kept silent and decided to not reply. Reiki wasn't surprised and thought. Yeah, this is what I pretty much expected. As he continued to think to himself. What do you even do for me since you can't even have a proper conversation? But then all of a sudden the voice replied. [Ha. Ha. Ha. Oh you poor little boy if you really thought that those gods are actually helping you. I need to wake you up.] After saying that the voice suddenly turned cold and cruel. [Have fun controlling your gifts.]

『 Author's Note:

Bishoujo = Term for a beautiful young girl that's usually below the young adult age.

Bitch = ............ (You get the idea.)

Combination of both words = Bitchoujo. 』

All of a sudden Reiki's five senses were enhanced beyond what a human could handle. Reiki's pupils slightly trembled and widened a few millimeters and his vision changed from him seeing 20 feet in front of his way his vision suddenly blurred and widened to its extreme and his entire vision became distorted and uneven.

Parts of his vision were crystal clear to the point he can count the number of ants crawling on the ground and bits and pieces of his vision looked like it was cracked and some parts of it were outright blurred which he couldn't see anything in any of those parts and due to the change in his vision he was coincidentally looking at a direction a river was in but he discovered that he was able to see the fish swimming in the moonlight as clear as day.

With a pain-filled grunt, Reiki closed his eyes and used his hands to gently rub them. But before he was able to relax he was suddenly hearing multiple noises at the same time. On his left he could hear leave's rustling due to the wind and the wind itself, he could also hear some breathing of more than a few dozen of some pack of animals somewhere hiding in the forest it might have been soft but to Reiki, it was the same as all of them breathing right into his ear all at the same time, but the loudest sound he heard was coming from himself Reiki was hearing his very own heartbeat with each thump it made it was similar to being in the center of an explosion of TNT.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Reiki tried to put one of his fingers in his ears to try and minimize the sound when he suddenly tasted something in his mouth. It tasted completely metallic but it was in liquid form after a few seconds Reiki started vomiting every time he stopped the metallic taste would take over it was just so potent that he just couldn't ignore it. As he clutched his fist as hard as he could, Reiki felt his nails slowly digging into his skin, he felt like there were four sharp scalpels slowly being stabbed into his hands. But as a few seconds that felt like an eternity the pain slowly passed by as his senses returned to normal.

As the voice started to say. [We need to make a few things cleared up here.] As it continued.

[Did you really think that you're special?

Did you really think that you were able to 'accidentally' acquire flash?

Did you really think the world revolved around you and your life would be filled with adventure and be surrounded by beautiful women and would never be killed?

If it wasn't for me when you attempted to teleport back at when you rescued that spoiled princess you would have exploded without a corpse.

If it wasn't for me the moment you got one of your gifts it would have made you incapacitated for the rest of your miserable life.

If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be able to do half the shit you do. If you actually think that you're special well looks like I need you a wake-up call to show you how 'unique' you really are.]

『 Author's Note: There's actually a hint of mercury in our own saliva that we spit and swallow on a daily basis here's some science behind it and. NO, I AM NOT TELLING YOU OR ANYONE TO TRY AND TASTE MERCURY DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT TASTE MERCURY OR TOUCH MERCURY IT IS POISONOUS TO HUMANS.』

The voice continued saying. [Let's make a few things clear, hell let me point out the elephant in the room. No matter how high your stats are you can be killed as easily. Those "Gods" might not be able to take their "blessings" back but that doesn't mean it can't be taken via other measures. Even the weakest God's apostle can kill you at a single spell even if they were lower level as you. And the moment you finally get out of this godforsaken realm in the next one you'd be lucky to be taken in as a death soldier. Don't forget those gods didn't "help" you become stronger. They "helped" you because they needed someone to solve their problems. So you're "strong" but not strong enough to escape their control.]

Reiki was breathing heavily and gasping and struggled to reply and only ended up nodding as a sign of acknowledgment. The voice continued. [Believe it or not, I'm actually here to help you. Those "gods" are more selfish than you could ever imagine... Ohh yeah, start walking back kid. It'll look suspicious if you keep standing like that for too long.] Reiki tactically kept silent and just started walking.

As Reiki is walking back to meet up with Arashi the voice continued. [Alright now where were we? Ahh yes, gods are selfish. Aren't you curious to know why your stats are so... "High" why someone like "you" was picked? You should already know the answer to the second question. But for the first one well let's just say those 250 before you met the same criteria but didn't produce the result they wanted. But lucky for you, you're their final chip. They either win or lose with you, and you know what? They'll lose regardless and they don't even know it.]

The voice fell silent as Reiki kept on walking for a few moments before the voice started again. [Anyway you're probably wondering why you can hear me right? It's simple, I'm dead and you are my successor whether you like it or not. And believe me, you'll like it. Right now I can only do three things and you don't get to pick what those three things are.]

Reiki tried to get a say. "Then wh-." But was cut off by the voice again. [Kid be quiet for now it's not easy trying to talk to you as a dead guy with those self-proclaimed "gods" watching. The last thing I need is accidentally killing you by messing up the subtle surrounding mana vibration. These realm rules of magic are so crap how do your kind even ascend from here? Where were we? Ahh right I can "hear" you but I can't "hear" you, get it? So anyways be quiet and listen for now. I know you have questions and I'm not exactly sure I can answer all of them without accidentally killing you. Just follow the old man's directions and you'll start from there.] The voice talked non-stop as Reiki was walking back to Akihabara to find Arashi.

The voice continued to ramble on. [I'll be honest with you kid. Getting my inheritance is not winning the lottery. In fact, you could even say lost in some way with you being "my" successor. Let me give you a small piece of the picture. You'll be standing on planet high corpses at the beginning of the journey. And to be nice I'll even answer three of your questions. And trust me three is all your getting. The more you know the more likely a god would try to pry into your memories and get you killed on the spot.] Reiki was still silent and decided to inquire. "Who are you?"

The voice answered. [Really this one? You could have asked what's the meaning of life? Or do you have any treasures?.. ] Reiki kept silent as he continued to walk as he heard a light breeze in the dead of night. [Fine. Fine. Well, it's simple, I am a King.] Reiki retorted. "Lemme guess you're blonde and have blue eyes and accept a certain number of absolute commands from your master?" The voice coldly responded. [Don't you dare compare my status to some drawings. And let me make this clear I am not the king of gods. Nor anything I am the "only" one worthy of being called King all others are a disgrace to themselves as they drown in their own ambitions, greed, and prestige. But not me kid. The moment Gods knew I gave myself the title King when I was unknown they laughed and disdained it. After a few... I'll say cleanses those Gods don't dare to laugh at me or behind me. And for those who did, I'm afraid their title went from Gods to Forgotten Gods.]

The voice said in an unhurried manner. Even though Reiki only heard the voice from when it comes and goes, this sentence was a bit different. Reiki was able to sense anger with those words and most of all Reiki was able to sense a small mixture of mocking and loathing. But before Reiki was able to think further the voice demanded. [Next question.]

Reiki contemplated and asked. "What are you?" The voice replied. [Now I'm just a part of my former self... If only that newly born god didn't meddle in I would have taken them all with me... But that doesn't exactly answer your question. Well in a sense I'm one of The End.] Reiki stopped walking and said. "You're one of The End?" He smirked and continued. "Once upon a time The End." Reiki let out a healthy laugh and said. "You can't expect me to believe that now do you... I'll just call you Ender for now."

The voice answered back. [Kid aren't you ever curious how many civilizations are there beside you humans? And who's responsible for creating other species? Because I'll tell you right now It certainly is not the work of Christ. He only had a hand in making your kind... He does have a nice beard though. If only he didn't have to join their side.] Reiki fell silent as he started to walk again. The voice goes on saying. [For convenience I'll call all of them Makers.]

Reiki thought. Still a better name than The End. The voice proceeds to say. [This... Makers are more irresponsible than some gods. They don't care about the consequences of their creations, they only care about what to make next. That's where we... Enders as you say. Come into the equation. As you know not all species are created equal. Now here's a question, ever wondered what happens if a certain species becomes too powerful? Simple we Enders "manipulate" their population.] Reiki said. "So you Enders just control the population of species that gets too strong that the balance starts to tip."

The voice responded. [Well to be fair we hardly do balance the scales often. It only happens after a few planets start to die. We usually "end" something from teaching races how to use magic or even advancing they're genetic structure. We even occasionally teach them how to cook meat. Hence the name The End.

The end of an era.

The end of a civilization.

Or in some drastic cases...

The end of everything.

I'll give you this as a bonus, not all Enders are identical. But it does raise one question, doesn't it? How is an Ender born? Well, that's for another time. Next question.]

Reiki stayed silent as he continued walking as he thought to himself. Gods... Christ... Kronos... Christianity and Greek mythology is telling me indirectly that different religions' gods are... Real? And this voice is telling me he fought against them... Is that what he meant it was too bad christ joined their side when they killed him?

He claims to be a "True" King.

He says his species is called The End. Or what I call Ender

He claims gods killed him in some sort of conflict... Reiki's thoughts came to an immediate halt and asked his final question. "What are gods?"

The voice is quiet but Reiki could feel a subtle drop of temperature around him go down by a few degrees. He may not be able to see the voice but he could already picture its face slowly making a wicked smile. [Well as your kind says, third times the charm. I'll answer your question but let me ask you a couple first. When you think of the word god what is another word you would use to describe it?] Reiki started thinking of a few definitions and said. "Almighty."

The voice replies. [Correct alright final question. And I'll answer your question. Which god is almighty?]

Reiki was stunned for a few seconds and said. "I guess gods like Odin and Zeus then." The voice practically shouted. [WRONG! There is no almighty god.] Reiki retorted. "But you just sai-" The voice interrupted. [QUIET!... Let me finish. You see gods "think" they're almighty.]

The voice continued to speak but the more it spoke the colder it gets. [Think of it this way. The god of fire can only roast meat. The god of blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. They may be powerful but they bleed, they have emotions, and the most important fact is they can also be killed. And let me tell you this apart from a handful of people they feared me the most. Enders, Makers, and even Gods they either bend to my authority or I break them in front of their friends. The two gods I know who I consider to be at least half almighty are one of the many incarnations of the goddess of life and the god of death.]

Reiki said. "One of their many incarnations?" The voice said. [...Anyway, I'll try my best to give you only the meat of the bone.] The voice trails off for a few seconds before proceeding. [Gods are…]