“So, you’re the original Sam.” The demoness said as she cracked her knuckles. Jae Il-Seong had crashed into the crowd and was lucky enough to be caught by a magician. The crowd had already started fleeing, and the magician shortly walked away.
“Fuck… Alright, come on, breathe.” Jae told himself as he got up. The barrier keeping the crowd safe was entirely shattered, but he was alive. His first part of the plan had worked, but now it was time to see if all that preparation was enough to save him from humiliation. “Demon! Your kind is–” Jae Il-Seong tried to continue, but was cut off by the demoness.
“Shut the fuck up! Spare me the racism. You’re a human, the lowliest life-form that has enough determination to still be respectable. You’re talking to a demon, and not just a demon, but THE demoness of pain. If anybody here is lesser, it’s you.” Said the demoness as Jae Il-Seong pulled out one last card. He had used most of his spells for Ian, and was currently using fifteen spells that made him practically immortal for half an hour. Their cost was his lifetime, but who cared about that? His motto was ‘Live fast, die glorious’. His skin brightened like Ian’s when he transformed, but then launched itself off to reveal a humanoid angel. Rows of eyes upon eyes decorated his new body while rings of gold separated into cubes moved around like the cubes on a rubix cube. His halo wasn’t solid. It was entirely made of a dim, mostly transparent light. His new wings were made of cotton shaped like feathers. His rapier synchronised with his body, as the holy weapon shined with new found power that it absorbed from Jae Il-Seong.
“Witness thy end! Demons and their collaborators will never rule over humanity.” Said Jae before flying right at the demoness.
“Pretender.” She said before rotating her fist as she punched him right before he headbutted her. It would tear up his skin if the rotation was strong enough. She aimed it at one of his many eyes that weren’t exactly defensible unless he already knew she was aiming there. Jae already knew where she would aim, and extended his fist out out to block the corkscrew punch with his knuckles, which had extremely flexible skin, and were slippery thanks to the smooth bone just under the skin. “A real angel wouldn’t keep their humanoid form. You’re just a simple regressor.” Jae wasn’t surprised to see that the demoness had figured out he was a regressor. He was extremely prepared for Ian, who was a threat, and not prepared for Christian, who the demoness was sure wouldn’t be perceived as a true threat by Jae Il-Seong, which would mean he fought them before.
“A pretender is still better than a rejecter.” Jae started his assault by surrounding the demoness with portals. Only one of them would be connected to the portal he would stab in, but she couldn’t know which one after he blacked them all out.
“Ohoho! Really now? Sucking up to the Revifier is worth it? Not even I like that type of pain.” Said the demoness before jumping through a portal. Most of them led to another portal inside the portal-array. It wouldn’t get her out, but it would give her a much better view of her environment. When the rapier came out, she grabbed onto it and yanked it inside. Jae came along with it, and was elbowed into a portal that led to another one directly next to it. The demoness punched him over and over as the portals kept him stuck before Jae Il-Seong tried stabbing her to make her back away, which worked, and let him come out of a portal before closing it. A portal wouldn’t close when someone was inside it, and Jae wouldn’t want it to anyway. He preferred getting punched over getting sliced in two.
He focused all his power into creating a portal that led into space. The vacuum of space started sucking all the air in, and thus dragging the demoness along before she took a breath. She used her entire power to breathe in all the air that was going into space. She was overpowering the vacuum’s pull without breaking a sweat. When her lungs couldn’t store any more air, she pushed it all out, and boosted herself up and over the portal only to barely swerve around another stab. She grabbed onto his face and tried slamming it down into the ground. What she thought would happen is that he would create a portal, she would stop herself before he went through it, grab the back of his head with her other arm, and smash his face into her fist. Unfortunately, she miscalculated. He hadn’t regressed once, but twice. He already knew her new attacks that were meant to catch him off guard.
He used his final spell card, which was another one minute aeromancy card. The sand beneath him gave out and the demoness sank in with him. Jae Il-Seong grabbed her with his legs and used his new wings to fly into a portal that led to the lower atmosphere. He flipped the both of them over and punched her with enough force to push all the air away, creating a vacuum. The force upped her momentum to the point where she fell into the ground. She endured the pain before rolling away from the portal that opened up beneath her as a rapier came out of it.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“How long does this false angel form last for?” She asked as Jae Il-Seong climbed out of the portal.
“As long as I need it to.” He lied, and they both knew it. Jae instantly regretted saying it. It would’ve been better to give her a reasonably long timer that would make her hopeless instead of giving her something vague that she could trick herself into thinking is just around the corner. Jae Il-Seong continued zipping around the demoness using his portals. He’d try to stab the demoness, but always get parried or dodged. The demoness was just waiting for him to tire himself out with his reckless use of magic.
He finally backed off and used all his energy to create an array of portals inside an array of portals inside an array of portals twenty times over. The demoness instantly realised that not even she could keep track of all of the connections, but Jae summoned a smaller, complete array around her that led into the main array before she could back off. She didn’t even have a floor this time, and was forced to fall in. She tried thinking of a way out of the situation while stuck in between four different portals, but was too late. Jae got one stab in, and the demoness’s stomach was blown off. The arrays of portals disappeared as she clutched onto the hole in her stomach.
“Ha… Haha… HAHAHAHA! Yes! Take that! I did it! I fucking did it! No stupid robot person to stop me, no fat British person, no demon. I’m free–” Said Jae Il-Seong before a chain of light grabbed him.
“You forgot someone, you failure.” Sam said as he yanked Jae Il-Seong to him. His level ten ability was entirely passive, as it fed off of life force. Life force was a sister force of mana. Instead of making someone tired after they run out, and actually having a limited use, life force was unlimited, at the cost of being so immensely painful to use that it would kill most people after a while. Sam wasn’t like most people. He had a sugar mommy to help him deal with the pain.
“Failure? What’re you talking about?” Jae had entirely forgotten about Sam. He was sure that Sam couldn’t be that strong.
“You fucking dare serve the Revifier and waste your five lives all in one year?! You utter moron! You idiot! I have never seen a more incompetent person than you.” Sam’s voice was doubling up. One of the two was slowly turning more and more feminine sounding, and Jae’s eyes widened as he swore that he heard the Revifier.
“Are you blind? I had to fight the strongest people–” Jae tried saying before getting cut off by an ever brightening Sam. Chains appeared out of nowhere to lift Sam up as several wings of pure light grew out of his back.
“You insolent, useless, utter waste of time. That’s your excuse?! Oh no. You couldn’t have given up because of your oh so precious ‘reputation’. You know what people would think of you if you respectfully fought them valiantly and lost after a decent bout? They’d think better of you! But no. You don’t want to be great, you want to be perfect. Here’s a lesson, roach. You will never be perfect without my help, and it’s still debatable if you’re perfect with it.” Sam said. His words were a mix of the Revifier’s and his own. Sam, who was greatly empowered by the Revifier’s influence, surrounded Jae Il-Seong in a ball of solid light that couldn’t fit into any portal Jae could summon. Sam summoned a chain which connected to the ball, and grabbed it with his hand. He tossed the ball around at unimaginable speeds, to the point where the stadium entirely crumbled. He then summoned a bunch of spikes inside the ball, and shook the ball around until he was sure Jae Il-Seong’s timers ran out.
“F-F-Fuck you… Stupid god…” Were the first words of the newly free Jae Il-Seong. He had entirely run out of cards, and had to yield.
“Be grateful I’m sparing you for doing all that to my associates.” Said Sam, fully back in control.
“I’ve been gone for five fucking minutes. How did you four destroy an entire stadium?” Said Ian as he slithered out of the rubble.