Anna woke up in a coffin. The last memory she had was of getting stabbed, so being a coffin would’ve made sense if the nano-chatte didn’t exist. She kicked the coffin open and rose to see that she was in an seemingly endless ocean. Every little droplet of nothingness that collided with the infinitely big ocean sent ripples out that only dissipated when a boat came into view. A strange woman wearing nothing but a simple white clothes stained with a multitude of colours known and unknown. She turned away from the painting that floated on thin air, not even needing a canvas, and looked at Anna.
“Let’s see. Poison? I hope it was a fast one. Poisons are such agonising ways to die.” The painter turned back to her painting to finish it. The golden butterfly she was drawing turned real, and then separated into a seemingly endless amount of more butterflies that filled the dimension.
“Is this the afterlife?” Said Anna, which got a laugh out of the painter.
“Sort of. It’s the afterlife for people too stubborn to die, or for people who are certainly going to be revived. It’s also my playground. I’m the Painter, and the seventh strongest being employed by God.” Anna pinched herself to check if she was dreaming or having a trip from the possibly expired poison. She wasn’t.
“Wait… which one am I?” Said Anna. The Painter just smiled as she started drawing something else in the air.
“I don’t know.” The Painter said playfully, intending to get to know Anna better based on how she responded. Anna didn’t even know what option she preferred, but she didn’t believe she was determined enough to will herself to not die. The nano-chatte would have to revive her, and she would have to let it do it. She had to rely on it just so she could live. “You can tell me about your worries. It’s not like I could tell anyone, and you shouldn’t care about my judgement.” Said the Painter after realising Anna didn’t have a response for her.
“I don’t have any worries.” Said Anna.
“Ha! You do, trust me. Everyone has them until they learn to swim through life.” Said the Painter as she drew a paddle and began slowly paddling away from Anna.
“What’s that even supposed to mean?” The Painter slowly disappeared past a mist that looked exactly like the sky. Anna hesitated to touch the water to paddle after the Painter. Why would she need to go after her? Anna didn’t need whatever therapy the Painter offered. Anna just stood in her coffin, waiting to be revived.
The demon struck the warlock in the face as she flew back, but his immense size and weight held him up. The warlock recovered surprisingly quickly, preparing to slash her again before I pepper him with machine gun fire. The occasional explosions stopped as I heard metal clash against metal repeatedly. The nano-chatte observed the warlock closely and realised he started slicing the bullets.
“A ranged paladin!? What a disgrace!” Said the warlock before the demoness slid behind him and tried striking him only for two pipes to open up and spray steam in her face. The steam boosted the Warlock forward as he kept slicing the bullets in half perfectly and kept getting closer. I turned my arms back to normal and applied un-change to myself before grabbing his sword as he slashed at me. “Demonic energy? Are you a warlock too?”
“I’m no warlock or demon.” I said.
“Really? I could make a pact with you if you want.” Said the demoness before punching the warlock. He actually moved, and not only moved, but flipped over me and through the wall. The demoness shook her hand as it swelled from the damage. “What the fuck is he made of?! Ow.” I could hear the warlock’s machinery clank as he pulled himself up and jumped at me. I pushed the demoness away and tanked the hit again. I could feel my vision go blurry even though I wasn’t taking damage.
“Turn the aura off! Your body is refusing to pump blood and breathe air.” Said the nano-chatte before I turned un-change off only to turn my aura of change on. I felt the boost of magical power, and thus a boost of speed thanks to one of my skills giving me extra speed based on my armour lightness. I ran laps around the warlock while peppering him with volleys of shotgun fire until he used his sword to build up rotational speed. I had to back off as he caught up to me in speed. He lifted one of his legs up and made sure as little of his armour was touching the ground and then boosted himself with steam every time his body looked at me. His body glided across the ground and towards me until I ran into the attack while briefly activating my aura of un-change. I tanked the attack, feeling a massive gash in my body as I stopped him. He stumbled backwards only to be launched into the forest by the demoness who was throwing trees at him from a distance.
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“Nano-chatte. How is my body fairing?” I deactivated the aura of un-change, letting the nano-chatte start healing me.
“You’ve lost half of your body weight. It’ll take me half a minute to heal you fully.” I backed up as the demoness rushed ahead. She could take him on until I healed. The warlock tried grabbing the demoness as she approached, but she just punched his arm away before kicking the ground hard enough to make it fly upwards and thus destabilise the warlock.
“Here’s what a normal demon won’t teach you.” She punched the warlock with both of her arms at full strength while he was in the air, making him collapse on his back. Her arms bled, but still moved according to her will. “Pain is the only pathway to victory. Your armour is making you too comfortable to fight properly!” She headbutted his chest with her sharp horns, actually piercing his armour. All the steam stored inside pushed her into the sky as the nano-chatte finished healing me.
“H-How?! You dare pierce my dwarven armour while scolding my fighting style? I am pure power garnered from nothing! My body is weak, yet I fight on your level. Don’t ever dare correct me again.” He tried jumping up to reach her in anger, but the machinery couldn’t quite do it. She kicked him back to the ground with both her legs, and I was right down there with several new arms, all fully loaded up with fist sized chunks of bullets. I thunder clapped his foot with all of them, and the explosion instantly flattened me.
“Robot!” She descended down, punching the warlock away as she tried to grab my flattened self. I quickly reform, and felt her hug me. “Thank god. Don’t do that again.” I saw the warlock charge at us and quickly used the aura of un-change just before I moved in between her and the warlock as he swung at us. She finally broke off the hug and jumped at his head, putting her hands into the armour’s mouth and pulling it apart. The nano-chatte had spared me from the rotten smell of the steam, and only made a mental note in both of our minds about it, but now it was evident where it came from. He was a rotten corpse held together by the armour. The broken leg I gave him was right back, only this time it was made out of solid purple light.
“Eek! How many demons have you made a pact with?!” Said the demoness after jumping back.
“Five.” He said in his raspy voice. His armour wasn’t there to support his mouth, so his breaths were slow and deliberate. He ran at us again, but was working on borrowed time. All the steam that leaked out of his torso was the thing keeping his machinery running and cooled down. He would overheat without it given enough time. I reformed my hands into flamethrowers and shot white hot flames at him. He ran through it, but both me and the demoness felt the heat sticking to his armour. “Shoot me all you want, your party members are still dead.” I paused and jumped away. The nano-chatte refocused itself and directed one of the drones to go to the proto-pillar.
“Demon! Keep fighting him. He’ll melt away eventually.” I flew right through the forest and gate. The whole city was emptied of orcs, but I couldn’t care less. I flew through the walls of the mall, through the many winding pathways and caught Chrisitan right as his half burnt frame hit me.
“I’m sorry Ian, I couldn’t–” I put my hand over his mouth to shut him up.
“No. You did fine. It’s my fault. Rest well.” I let him down and rose up to look at the two men dressed in authentically steampunk suits of armour. I felt the electricity that came off of Chrisitan, so quickly ordered the nano-chatte to add a superconductor to my armour again.
“Ohoho! It’s the angel. Is Elliot weak enough to let the angel go? Hmph.” Said the french man in brass armour. The other man put his hand on the first man’s shoulder and teleported the both of them behind me. The man in brass punched me but I didn’t feel the electricity. The superconductor was a perfect insulator, and didn’t even turn that electricity into heat that could burn me. I slowly turned to face them, and quickly shot him with a newly formed gun in my stomach. Both of their armours were weak and light, and the bullets pierced through them.
“S-Shit… That was unexpected. Your friends are still rotting in hell though!” The man in brass keeled over first while the other teleported away. The only thing either of them had was a gimmick, and gimmicks fail against adaptation. I let the nano-chatte rip away from me and crawl over to everyone else, slowly starting to heal them. I moved to the pillar, and quickly punched it after gaining some momentum. It toppled over and destroyed half the mall as it collapsed.
I suddenly got surprised by the window appearing in my face. I levelled up again. I just picked the fifty percent chance for my bullets to split into three more when fired and swiped the window away. We had destroyed the pillar, but if the rest of Korea was this tough, then we didn’t stand a chance.