CHAPTER 73: A PITIFUL DEATH

Hermes and Merlin were hiding behind a large pillar, trying to avoid the barrage of gunfire aimed their way. The Inquisition Knights let loose, bombarding them with a relentless storm of armor-piercing rounds.

With his hand holding his fedora, Hermes glanced over at Merlin, who was channeling her Ethyria.

"Merlin, my [Sensory-Boost] is telling me that more reinforcements are on their way... From what I can hear, a few of them are metallic in nature... What do you think that is?"

She opened her eyes as a large flame began to coalesce above her palms. The embers grew as the heat began to be felt even through his trench coat. She swiftly chanted in Solari: "Flame Missiles."

Suddenly, the large flame in her palm split into numerous smaller ones that rapidly shot forth. With purposeful movement, each smaller flame swam in the air toward the enemy. Hermes watched in horror as each one exploded, creating a massive flame pillar. Wretched screams drowned out the sounds of gunfire.

'I have never seen that spell before...'

She noticed his glances and smiled. "Those are probably Gear Mechs. I am surprised they took this long to send them over."

Hermes furrowed his brows. "Gear Mechs?"

She nodded. "Yes. You can think of them as autonomous Stellar Artifacts. Well, some operate under the Technology domain, so they would be classified as Quantum Gearworks instead. And they aren't fully autonomous either, just remotely controlled."

Pondering over her words, Hermes nodded. "Alright, so how do we fight them? I doubt my gunblade can cut through them normally. I'd probably need to use up my precious gun shells."

Noticing the volley of gunfire had stopped, she stood up and adjusted her hat. "Don't worry about them. I can probably destroy them fairly easily. I think at this point, they have realized who they are facing. The chances that their commander will show his face are fairly high."

Reloading his Hand Cannon, Hermes glanced over at the carnage Merlin had cast. Piles upon piles of burned corpses were stacked atop each other. It was obvious to him that the poor wretches who were first to get hit by the flames had accidentally spread the carnage onto their entire platoon. With parched lips, he glanced over at Merlin, who was patiently waiting for the next wave of enemies to arrive.

"Say, I think I have a better plan."

She crossed her arms, "Oh?" With gleaming eyes, she awaited Hermes' response.

Hermes cleared his throat, "Think about it. This ambush probably serves as a way for them to stall for time. I wouldn't be surprised if they have already attacked the Valencourt family house."

She rubbed her chin. "Yes, I already thought of that. But what about it?"

He smiled, "It's been about 10 minutes since the first platoon from our forces have entered into Librarium Celestium. Their role serves as a distraction so that our second platoon can commence the rescue operations. So what if... We use everyone here as additional distractions?"

She furrowed her brows. "Additional distractions?..."

He nodded, "Yes. From what I have seen, your 'Blink' spell is really special. So what do you think will happen if you teleported everyone here, including the Inquisition Knights, inside Librarium Celestium? Our forces will be disguised with Inquisition Knight armor, so if you teleported everyone here, the forces of the church inside the holy artifact will mistake them as our reinforcements. Friendly fire will ensue and it will take a while before they can clear up the misunderstanding."

A naughty grin took over her face. "This... This could definitely work... Hehe..."

...

Mason's cosmic force condensed. Shockwaves began to pulse from his weapons as cracks began to form beneath his feet. He took a deep breath before eyeing the thing standing before him.

Brandon, on the other hand was laughing maniacally. It had been a while since the last time he had to go all out. The prospect of inflicting pain and receiving pain left him in a euphoric state. Observing the disgust on Mason's face, he smiled, "Say, I already disclosed to you that my invisibility works due to this ring I got. I thought you said you will answer my question in response?"

"..." Mason stood there silently, plotting his next move.

Brandon pouted, "No fair... This was supposed to be an equal exchange!"

Mason didn't even acknowledge his words. He immediately shifted his right foot, stomping hard and propelling himself forward. Brandon watched as Mason instantly closed the gap between them, leaving an afterimage in his wake.

In response, he immediately liquified his body into a mass of flesh, splitting himself into two halves. Mason's swing of his newly conjured halberd sliced through only air. However, he already knew this would happen. He immediately let go of his weapon and jumped backwards. Using [Gadget-Morph]. The halberd swiftly split into pieces, each transforming into a grenade. Brandon noticed this and immediately tried to dodge, but it was too late.

-Boom, Boom, Boom!

Like a round of firecrackers, a volley of explosions rung out at the center of the warehouse, destroying all the furniture. Pieces of flesh and guts rained down from the sky; the scent of iron was heavy in the air. Mason quickly conjured a new halberd, waiting for Brandon to merge back together, but nothing changed. He swiftly scanned the warehouse, but found no obvious signs of movement until he felt something crawling on his back. Gritting his teeth, Mason turned his neck. He immediately noticed a small piece of flesh clinging to his windbreaker.

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Without hesitating, he immediately took off the coat and swung it in the air. In less than a second, the small piece of flesh rapidly grew in size before exploding. Brandon had planted a flesh bomb on him!

Gritting his teeth, Mason used [Gadget-Morph] to transform his halberd into a flamethrower. He was no longer going to take any chances. An arc of flames rapidly shot forth, eviscerating all the bits of flesh spread across the warehouse floor. Mason tried his best to not miss a single spot; he was going to cleanse the wor- no, his warehouse - from filth.

After torching everything to cinders, Mason stood silently in the chaos, observing everything. He could no longer hear Brandon at all. 'Did he run away?' He thought.

But just as he was about to go search for Lance and the others, flesh began to seep out of the floor tiles, bloating with obvious signs of cancerous biohazards. The tumors began to explode, releasing a swarm of spores. Mason's eyes widened. He conjured a gas mask and placed it over his face, but it proved to be of no use. The spores clung to the skin, and like leeches, began to spread like mold.

Panicked, Mason started blasting the flame thrower some distance away from his body. Although the burns were not severe, it still hurt like hell, but he had no other choice. The spores were spreading much too quickly for him to use a different solution.

'I can't continue on like this...' He swiftly dashed to the window and jumped out, rolling across the messy cobblestone sidewalk. Readjusting himself, Mason sprung back up on his feet. He looked back at the window and observed a coagulated mass of flesh slowly crawling out from it.

The flesh transformed back into a human, as Brandon's blonde hair and other blurry features became apparent. However, it was obvious to Mason that he had suffered greatly from his attacks. His skin was slightly paler than before and a few injuries were still showing across his chest and back. With a wide grin, he looked down at the weapon he was holding in his hand.

"You almost got me there, not going to lie... By the way, those spores are poisonous. You will die if you don't get a cure."

Mason silently looked over his now slightly burned arms. The fleshy moss like growth which was spreading across his body was gone, but he could tell that the damage was still present.

'This guy is too tricky to face with direct methods... But my [Program-Design] is almost finished... I just need to stall a little more...'

Brandon placed his weapon over his shoulder and smiled creepily. "Ah... This is so fun! You know, I was actually planning on retiring from the Inquisition... Torturing heretics is enjoyable for the first few years, but you eventually get sick of it if you do it long enough. No one ever fights back! All they do is scream, wail and shit themselves. Ever since King Linarias changed the laws, retaliation against the church has dropped significantly... I remember last week, I tortured this man in his 40s who allegedly stole food from one of the church's food banks... The scoundrel didn't even scream! He knew his family would be next if he resisted... I miss the times where they actually tried to at least argue that they were innocent..."

"..."

He looked back up at Mason. "Huh? Why are you making that face? You don't care about my plight?!" He stomped his foot and shot forth toward Mason, who greeted his attack with a parry. "Why are you still not saying anything?! Do you know how fun this fight is?! Stop making it so boring!"

Mason swung his halberd, sending him flying. He then shot a few volleys of plasma beams in his direction, which Brandon quickly dodged by liquifying his body and morphing it out of the way. He furrowed his brows, "Are you ignoring me on purpose because of what I did to your comrade? Sigh, I wouldn't have told you if I knew you were going to act like this..."

Mason lowered his halberd and planted it on the ground. "I truly pity you."

Brandon twisted his neck to the side. "Pity me? Why? I am a perfectly sane human being. I don't need any pity."

Mason's eyes softened as he spoke. "It's because your obsession with pain and suffering had made you numb to danger. How is it that you have still not realized your fate?"

Brandon furrowed his brows. "What the hell are you talking about?.." Anger was swelling through his body. "Alright, it seems you're hell bent on making this fight boring. I'm going to finish you now. Maybe that Lance fellow will entertain me better..." He swiftly primed his leg muscles, readying himself to pounce. However, the movement never came. Frowning, he looked down at his body.

"What the hell? Why can't I move..."

Mason sighed. "The fact that it still blinds you is very astonishing. You are a Longevity-domain user. Why aren't you examining your body more closely?"

He squinted his eyes as he looked down at his own chest. And that's when he realized it. With his eyes still widening, he peered back up at Mason, who was simply standing there, stoically.

"You! What the hell did you plant in my body?!"

Mason conjured another syringe and injected himself with it. "Those grenades I used were loaded with small metallic shrapnel that I had conjured. When the explosion happened, a fair bit of them entered your body. Using [Program-Design], I provided instructions to my Atomniums to construct more of themselves inside of you. Large amount of my metal is coursing through your blood as we speak."

Brandon continued to glare at him silently.

"You body has been so used to feeling pain that you never even noticed." Mason pointed his palm at him and began to channel his cosmic force. He swiftly used [Magnetism-Control] to compress the metals in his body, effectively crushing him from the inside.

Brandon grit his teeth, "I won't let you!" He tried to liquify his body in hopes of discarding the portions tainted with Mason's metals, but it was no use. The pieces were so small, it was hard for him to detect them. And with [Program-Control] continuously regenerating them, nothing he did mattered. His body turned back into slime form, but he could do nothing to control it. It was now at the mercy of Mason's absolute control.

Immediately, Mason levitated the ball of flesh and mass off the ground. He then used his abilities to isolate the weapon and ring of invisibility he had on him from his body. Mason approached the items and picked them up. The ring was made up entirely from see-through glass, but Mason could tell that large amounts of cosmic force resided inside. He then shifted his attention to the weapon. It was a large scalpel meant to cut incisions in flesh. What made it strange was that it was entirely constructed from bone.

Mason's eyes narrowed, "This sick bastard pulled out his own bone and carved it into a weapon for him to use..." He then looked back up at the now floating flesh slime. Mason slowly approached it and placed his hand close to its surface.

"Good bye."

Without any hesitation, he cast [Plasma-Control], injecting electrical currents through the flesh slime, burning it from the inside out. He could see Brandon's fleshy body jerking acutely within his control, trying its best to escape its doom. But because of his Druid transformation, Brandon was not even given the opportunity to say his last words. He tried his best to resist before finally submitting to the effects of being microwaved to death. Mason closed his eyes and pursed his lips.

"I offer this tribute to the Monarch of Wisdom. May he grant John and all those affected tranquility and peace."

End of Chapter