The portal brought us to a city but the area we were in was completely empty. I looked around and saw in the distance that the road was blocked by some police cars but there was no trace of them.
“Did something tragic happen here? And most importantly, where are we?” I asked Arismis while still looking around.
“We are in Germany and there was a massacre a few hours ago. You’ll have to find the culprit…” He looked at me “Simple enough no?”
I looked back at him confused “...Is being a detective seriously part of my training?”
“You’ll have to kill him, I thought that was obvious. And since the culprit is a Zonniki, you can eat his flesh and there will be some sweet powers for you. Pretty good no?”
“Good.” she calmly said, completely unfazed by what she had to do.
Arismis stayed silent for a second, then coughed a bit
“I think I have to repeat what you have to do to obtain his powers-”
“No need to. I have to eat his flesh!”
“Are you ok?”
“Nope. Anyway, can I at least know what his powers are?” I asked and he shook his head.
“And when will you unlock my powers completely?”
“If I do that you would be playing easy and it wouldn’t be fun for you…” By saying that he tried to discourage me
But I wanted to go right into the action so I insisted “....Just unlock the damn power.”
“Don’t you like the idea of giving your all without counting on someone else-”
He was starting to get on my nerves “Do it if you still want those useless pair of balls you have.”
“It would be useless since I can regenerate-”
“Then I’m gonna crush them until you give me what I want.” I was damn serious.
“You-” Arismis sighed “Whatever.” He paused for a second “I unlocked them.”
“Really?” I said surprised, both because it was too easy and because it was fast
“I don’t feel that much different..”
“That’s absolutely normal. Usually, once you obtain a new power and you don’t try to absorb it properly through meditation you start going insane slowly, it all starts just with a sense of hunger. But, I’m holding that feeling back so it doesn’t create any problem for you.”
“And how are you doing that? Is it because I have your powers?”
“Correct. Now stop with useless questions and before the practice, let’s start with the theory about medita-”
Arismis could not finish his phrase I immediately ran away while saying “Just do your job and keep off that sense of hunger or whatever it is!”
He remained there in silence, I didn’t turn around to see his face but he must have been hilarious to look at.
———
Arismis was looking at Sarah running but he wasn’t disappointed by her reaction; the left corner of his mouth slowly raised forming a little smile and in his left hand a piece of fresh meat, still infused with a dark red aura, appeared and took a bite out of it before disappearing out of thin air.
———
I started walking after turning around a corner, I was already aware of the culprit’s position because I could sense his aura and he didn’t seem to be stronger than me, so I decided to take it easy.
‘It’s a blue aura with red accents on the borders. I wonder what that means…’
While walking I started seeing a lot of smashed cars, some of them had crushed against some buildings, some just had the windows broken and others exploded. There were corpses on the streets and the sidewalk, all of them were killed with a single blow to the heart.
‘He isn’t the kind of psychopath who likes the hit same person over and over again…’
I continued to walk and stopped in front of an alley, where a crying young guy was, curled up with his back against the wall, he must have sensed my presence because he quickly looked up at me. Probably around 18 years old, with blonde hair and blue eyes, the stereotypical German guy basically and I wouldn’t have been surprised if Arismis ideated all this situation. There is seriously something off about him.
The guy was mumbling while crying
“I-I’m sorry…I didn’t want to d-do all of this…”
I got closer to him “What happened?” I asked coldly.
“I-I-I was getting bullied b-by those g-guys” he pointed at some corpses behind himself, killed in the same way as the others “and it wasn’t th-the first time…I was mad, lost control of myself and…and this h-happened..” he was trembling like a leaf.
I looked at him harshly and when he noticed that, he started shaking even more.
“W-W-Why you are looking at me like that..?”
I sighed. “Look, your story is really sad and your motivation is valid but if you really lost control of yourself, you wouldn’t have killed the people in the same exact way, especially the people you call bullies. I think you just did all of this for fun.”
He tried to defend his version of the story “T-that’s not true! I would never do this! You have to belie-”
I hit him with a roadhouse kick and made him crush against the wall. He started lamenting because of the pain and tried to say something but with another kick, I broke off his jaw and at that point, he was screaming in pain while laying on the ground.
“You are so pathetic…You can’t even lie decently!” first smoke and then flames started coming out from my hand. ‘Huh? And this? I didn’t eat the previous guy’s flesh…Whatever.’
A wicked smile grew on my face while I looked back at that pathetic guy
“I wonder if your burned flesh will give me powers.”
Hearing this, the boy’s eyes widened in fear and tried to run away but I grabbed him by the ankle and he screamed more because of the added burns.
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“Man, you truly are pathetic. Can you show them to me at least? I want to see if it’s worth it.” I looked him in the eyes but it seemed he didn’t even understand what I said.
I sighed “You made me lose interest.” the fire quickly spread around his body and I calmly got away while he was screaming in an inhumane way.
“Ehy Arismis! I finished the job here!” I said out loud but I didn’t receive any response.
“Where the hell is he-”
I suddenly started feeling some heavy pressure coming from the alley and I quickly turned around while saying “It can’t be-”
A ray of light invested my body and it was like being cut by hundreds of thousands of knives; it lasted just some seconds but it was enough to leave me heavily wounded in every part of my body.
‘Shit! I wasn’t able to react in time.’
The boy slowly started walking towards me while mumbling
“I-I-I didn’t w-w-want t-t-to do it…” his body was almost totally burned and his face was unrecognizable, only those blue eyes remained. His aura was also different, it was now completely black.
‘A black aura? What doe that even mean? Fuck, I should have listened to Arismis explanation.’ I panicked for a few seconds and then quickly shook my head ‘One successful hit on me and I quickly got panicked..how pathetic I can be too.’
Red, blue and yellow lines appeared on my body, going from the eyes all the way down to the ankles (just like Arismis’ ones) meanwhile, all the cuts healed. I looked at the boy and crack my knuckles “It seems your power will be useful. Don’t die too rapidly!”
The boy started screaming inhumanely like he was still on fire and brought his hands together while pointing them at me. Some light started coming out of them and when he opened them, a large ray was shot towards me.
I quickly moved aside and the ray hit the houses behind me, demolishing them. After that, I ran at him thinking with confidence ‘That shit seems too powerful, he surely needs time to recharge!’
When I was in front of him to attack him, he put one of his hands on my face and a bright light started coming out. ‘Again?!’
Another ray of light was shoot, this was different from the first one and it was powerful enough to make me fly away but I managed to slow the fall by shooting fire from my feet towards the ground.
When I touched the ground I looked around, this time I was in an area full of people and they were visibly scared.
I didn’t have time to relax that I started feeling that pressure again but it was coming from the sky and when I raised my head, I noticed multiple rays of light coming down.
“Shit! All of you get out of here!” I screamed to the other people but it was too late, when the rays hit the ground, they created little explosions of light that pulverised any living thing in their area. I managed to save a few people but the victims were still too many; those fully caught by the explosions were completely erased, not even ashes were left.
I looked at the people I saved, a mother who was trying to comfort his child, who was actually dead, a man all alone who was on the brink of death, two kids who were hugging each other...I was counting all of them ‘I saved 15 people…more than 30 must have died’
I clenched my fist ‘You’ll pay for this!’
I said to the people to stay where they were and I started running where the boy still was, while both my arms transformed into sharp blades. I didn’t have a clear plan, my only option was to simply be as aggressive as I could and beat the shit out of him. In just some seconds I reached him and he was still mumbling “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to…”
I didn’t think twice and run towards him, he tried the same attack as before with his right hand but I slashed it in half with one blade and with the other, I stabbed him in the heart. Even with that immense pain, he tried to attack me using his left hand and with I quickly moved the blade, the one still through his heart, and slashed both his chest and left arm in half. His body fell onto the ground but he was still alive. As a last attempt to kill me, his mouth started releasing a bright light, but I transformed my arms back to normal and closed his mouth with both hands.
He was looking at me in tears and after a second his head exploded releasing a bright light and when it went off, nothing remained of his head.
I took one of the hands and gave it a few bites before tossing it on the ground. The taste wasn’t great especially because it was burned to a crisp and I wasn’t even feeling any stronger. Was that because of Arismis?
“Well, that was underwhelming. I was expecting a more exciting fight…” I turned around and saw Arismis(talking about the devil), he was standing on top of a light pole.
“You surely know how to find crazy people..” I said while looking at what remained of the boy’s corpse.
“Yeah…and you are one of the worst.” he said and I slightly smiled, knowing he was right after all.
“Anyway…” I said, “I’ll go drink something, I’m really thirsty.”
———
I decided to go to a near pub, where there were some corpses but that didn’t stop me from grabbing a beer and starting drinking like there wasn’t a tomorrow.
Arismis followed me and sat at a table “Drinking in the middle of a mass murder after eating human flesh. It’s just the first day but it feels like I already know a lot about you.”
I stayed silent and continued drinking, quickly finishing one bottle after another but I couldn’t become drunk for some reason.
Arismis had both his feet on the table and was looking at me “It’s useless, your body has changed already and one of the side effects is the high tolerance to alcohol. I must say, I’m surprised your body is changing so fast, as usual, it would take months or even years, but for the next month you’ll probably be ready to absorb even more powerful powers.”
“Good.” I simply said while finishing my tenth bottle of beer. After that, I took a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from a corpse and started smoking.
We both remained in silence for some minutes, I was deep in my thoughts, thinking of what happened in the first half of the day, especially the boy I just killed, this was the first time I thought of someone I killed.
‘His aura, before becoming, black was different from the first person I killed this morning…maybe there was still hope for him…?’ I shook my head when I remembered the few people I saved
‘No, I did the right thing. He killed a lot of people and he deserved to be punished…and his light-type powers will be useful.’
I inhaled and exhaled the smoke of the cigarette one last time, then tossed it on the ground and stomped on it.
I asked, “You didn’t tell me anything about the colour of the aura.”
He faked looking surprised “You didn’t ask.” he grinned mockingly “Now you want to listen to what I have to say uh?”
I scratched my head “Ok you are right, I should have listened to you. Look, I’m not in the mood right now so can you just answer my question?”
He nodded and explained to me the difference between red and blue auras; plus he added something else
“You also saw a black aura right? Those are the essence of pure evil. Your aura becomes black once you abandon your humanity, you basically would become what humans call “demons”.” he took a sip of whisky from a glass that was already on the table.
I looked at him and asked suspiciously “I can’t see your aura, is it black?”
He shook his head and answered “It’s red, but I can hide my aura. With time, you’ll be able to hide it too.”
“...and do white auras exist?”
At that question, he stopped drinking and asked without looking at me “Why this question?”
“Well, if there is something evil, there must be something good to fight against it, no?”
He stayed silent for a moment “There were white auras, but they don’t exist anymore. Nowadays, evil beings can walk without any problem and someone truly good that can stop them doesn’t exist...” he looked at me and added, “...for now.”
We both stayed silent again. I felt like it wasn’t the case to continue that conversation and change to something else.
“Don’t believe him.”
Another whisper, this time to my right…but there was no one. I tried to not act weird this time, just to not make Arismis suspicious.
‘I’m probably just really tired…’ I looked down while thinking and noticed my clothes were ruined already
“Hey, Arismis. Give me some new clothes.”
“At your orders.” he said sarcastically, then he snapped his fingers, some clothes appeared on the counter and I changed on the spot.
“Are there other targets for today?” I asked.
Arismis smiled “You know better than me that the world is full of criminals, so the answer is yes.”
“And the main guy I have to kill is stronger than me and is a great menace right?” I looked at him and he could see how serious I was.
“For what I know yes, he’s probably stronger than you but not a menace for now. With how fast you can use newly acquired powers, you’ll be far stronger than him in a month or two.” Arismis said
I nodded satisfied with that answer “Let’s not waste any more time then.”
“But didn’t you say you were tired?”
“I am. But I can take another target for today.”
He kept his smile “Very well. Let’s go then.” With another snap of fingers, a portal appeared.