CHAPTER 15: MAGNIFICENT
Zack, placing his real body in the baby carrier he was using, left the private box.
He was in the babysitter’s body and thus did not have as much mental strength as when he was using the boy’s body and could not connect to the Astral Realm to use the energy of that realm.
However, the babysitter’s natural ability was no joke and the mental strength was enough to challenge the barbaric woman and even hurt her.
It was going to be enough to take care of an annoying child.
—It looks like something is going on outside. —the babysitter said through the mental connection.
The babysitter was not suppressed and the connection rather than a complete possession was a possession where both minds shared body and senses.
“Is it the boy? He seems to be putting what he learned to use. Leave it and focus,” Zack responded by looking toward the outside area.
He could see through the wall and noticed in the distance the Donovan boy’s mental powers in full capacity.
From the mental waves the boy was releasing, he was controlling the situation and was employing the nightmares, so it wasn’t worrisome and less so when the opponents had so little mental strength.
Zack turned his gaze to the other corner of the mansion beyond the bathrooms and guest rooms, in a cleaning room at the far end of the mansion.
Where the minions’ vigilance was less, five minds were present that glowed and one of them had a greater glow than the others.
The spatial connection and the mental connection that created the illusions came from that area, and Zack moved immediately.
Walking at a brisk pace between the elegant corridors as he concentrated on those mental glows he could notice through the walls.
He could sense that whoever was performing was a child, and he liked children.
Sometimes children would get lost and arrive at his palace in the Astral Realm and he would educate some of them, teaching them a trick or two that might help them transcend, while other times he would guide them home.
Hoping that someday they would reach his height.
However, he never liked troublesome or cunning children who thought they could trick him, betray him, or those were annoying.
And this time, it was obvious that someone was overstepping his boundaries.
Who in their right mind dared to steal what was his?
Turning around a corner in the hallway, he peered through the end wall of the hallway where the five mental forces were present.
“The brotherhood will be proud of us... Stealing illegal items and preventing more supers from showing up.”
“We’re geniuses.”
“Keep quiet and steal some grimoires. Or a wand. Better everything.”
Unlike the outer walls of the mansion that were reinforced, the inner walls were less sturdy and weaker.
The babysitter’s keen senses allowed him to hear through the wall, and among all those glowing figures Zack observed through his vision, one stood out.
The mental vision represented the beings that had minds as glowing figures, and this vision allowed him to observe further than some walls or security artifacts.
So he could see the individuals on the other side and also noticed how the figure that had a greater mental strength looked back at him.
The mind glow quivered in surprise, but it was too late.
“What the...”
Zack ripped off the wall at the end of the hallway and, with his telekinesis, caught one of the several figures as he brought it towards him, shutting down the mental vision in the process.
The one he caught was a humanoid figure that was wearing a white-colored latex suit that practically covered its entire body.
Zack found the whole thing distasteful.
To his surprise, he could not catch the figure, as it dissolved into air, totally including the clothing, and then the air gathered again at the destroyed entrance.
Then the figure in a full latex body suit reappeared.
“What ugly clothes,” Zack muttered as he frowned.
“It’s my costume,” the male figure replied in a grumpy tone.
Zack, instead of paying attention to that lousy styled male figure, he observed those around him.
On the pervert’s back was a man with two heads... Each head was a mind, and both shared the same body.
The two-headed man was wearing a costume with two different designs divided vertically and on the left side represented with a white color and the right side with red color.
The white color represented the heavenly side of the left head whose hair was silver and the red color represented the right head, which was demonic part.
Neither of the two heads wore a mask.
At the back of them was a short female figure in a light blue and white robe with a pointed sorcerer’s hat, and next to her was another female figure.
The latter was the child who was stealing.
It was a girl who was covering her face with a bear mask while she was wearing full-body bear pajamas and in her hands she was holding a color-changing tall top hat through which she was pulling out the items she had stolen.
“A pervert in latex, a two-headed ogre, a witch and a little girl who just stole what’s mine,” Zack muttered as he surveyed those present.
—They appear to be members of the Brotherhood of Heroes. —The babysitter reported, thinking he would understand.
Zack didn’t care where they were from or who they were or their poor taste in clothing. All he cared about was that they had just stolen something that was his.
“Run...”
“Who are you calling a pervert?” the pervert in latex shouted and, lunging towards him, exclaimed. “This is not latex!”
Halfway through, that man became air and Zack raised his hand, forming a force field that contained the air from the entire hallway and then closed his fist, concentrating everything into a purple square barrier.
“What if I spread the air for several miles? Will you be able to maintain your consciousness?” Zack asked aloud.
He revealed a smile full of curiosity worthy of a transcendental.
Zack usually wasn’t cruel unless it was necessary, and this time, it was necessary... The bastards were stealing from him!
Did they think they could steal from a transcendental and walk away as if nothing happened?!
That pervert had become air, and Zack could sense the man’s mental strength and consciousness.
If he spread the air for several miles and not all together, the figure probably cannot recover again.
Zack smiled as the group of thieves realized what kind of opponent he was.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It was the witch who moved first, opening a portal that the two headed man used and Zack sensed the presence at his back.
“Let go of my friend!”
The demonic head screamed, spewing fire from his mouth that threatened to swallow his back and Zack grinned, moving his other hand, twisting the space and opening a portal in the two headed man’s back.
He also twisted the demonic fire so that it could burn the body of that two-headed man, but unlike what he expected, the second head created a halo that generated a shield.
The shield defended itself from the fire until the demonic head stopped.
Zack, not bothered that his attack didn’t work, caught the body of that two-headed man with his telekinesis and threw it towards where the air that made up the body of that latex pervert was.
The latex pervert’s mind was agitated, and he manipulated it to manifest just in time when the two-headed man hit him.
They both flew back to the entrance where the sorcerer and the girl who had stopped stealing the items were.
“Run away!” the girl shouted as their gazes met.
The girl was covering her face with a bear mask and it was hard to see her expression completely, but the voice let youth and also fear show through.
She realized what kind of being she was facing, and unfortunately for her, it was too late.
Zack strode confidently in a slow walk down the middle of the hallway.
“Go! Now!” the girl shouted, taking the tall top hat and pointing it at him as she held it up.
From inside the hat, rabbits hopped out one after another, and then in an instant they filled the hallway in his direction.
The hallway was wide and tall enough for several people to walk side by side and even though the rabbits were small; the number was so overwhelming that they practically flooded the hallway.
And they all headed for him!
“We can both play that game,” Zack muttered, barely straining the babysitter’s mental power.
As the rabbits approached, they turned into butterflies that flew to his back and dissolved.
Even though the girl’s illusions were realistic and those rabbits could hurt inferior beings, it wasn’t enough for someone like him.
“An infantile attack...”
Amidst the rabbits that turned into butterflies, Zack could see that they left the girl alone while at her back was the portal that the sorcerer had opened to escape.
The girl had closed her eyes and was pointing her hat at him while using the connection to the Astral Realm.
Then, in the black bottom of that tall top hat, a purple eye appeared, releasing a mental attack no longer from a girl, but from a woman.
—Young master!
The mental attack was so quick and unexpected that the last thing Zack heard was the babysitter’s mental scream, and then he returned to his own body.
Zack opened his eyes, feeling a slight headache, and although his mental strength was a little drained, it was not enough to knock him unconscious.
At that moment, he felt the shaking while in the baby carrier.
The shaking was coming from the babysitter who had been affected by the mental attack and Zack tried to get back into the babysitter’s mind, wanting not only to take control, but to help him against the mental attack.
As soon as he tried, the tremor grew and Zack opening his eyes in surprise, employed telekinesis to escape from the babysitter’s carrier and move his body to get out.
“HAA!”
Halfway out, a shockwave coming from the babysitter ejected him into the air, and although he reduced the force with telekinesis, his body hit the wall and fell to the ground.
There wasn’t as much pain as he expected and even though the wall where his body had hit had a hole in it, he didn’t feel too much.
Was it because of all the torture he had suffered before that gave him resistance? Or was he already used to the pain of so much torture?
Zack didn’t have time to answer and focused on the babysitter, who was in a critical condition.
It wasn’t that the attack of the girl who had suddenly used a woman’s strength had hurt the babysitter, but as a mental attack seeped into the babysitter’s mind and unleashed the darkness, he was hiding.
“...”
Shockwaves pulsed, pushing everything in their path as the babysitter’s fingers changed into sharp claws, as if he was losing all form.
The eerie presence so subtle and violent surged with momentum, while in the back of mind the babysitter struggled with his own darkness.
Fearful and frightened, struggling for control and unable to achieve it... Being swallowed by it.
“Shit...”
The girl’s voice made him react, and he noticed that the girl was getting up, grabbing her tall top hat, trying to escape through the portal like her fellow thieves.
Zack moved immediately, standing up and pointing his hand at the portal.
His mental strength in this body was low and more so since the male jailer had injected him with medicine.
However, it also allowed him a stable connection to the Astral Realm and gave him enough physical strength to hold his head up while standing.
Now, as he stood up, he took advantage of the connection to the Astral Realm.
“Fuck...”
He first noticed the girl heading for the portal and Zack, realizing he couldn't destroy the portal with his meager mental strength, collapsed the roof over the portal, dropping all the furniture and practically destabilizing the portal before the girl escaped.
The instability produced a shockwave that pushed the girl to the side that Zack couldn’t see as she lost her hat, and then the wave pushed him too.
One advantage of being short in stature was that the shockwave passed overhead without affecting him and the little push was lost because his head weighed so much that it kept him upright.
Unlike him, the babysitter had no such advantages and this time stature was the most influential, as the babysitter was hit by the shockwave.
“...”
The shockwave had lost strength and was not as powerful.
The babysitter was simply pushed back a step and because his mental state was so unstable, his body went into an unconscious defensive mode.
The babysitter’s hands and arms changed gaining muscles, and the skin became scaly, while the fingers became sharp claws.
Although the babysitter always looked exhausted and tired with a certain pallor and somehow went unnoticed with no one noticing, this time he attracted attention as his body changed.
He was losing his form as he changed into some sort of dangerous creature.
The babysitter exuded a sinister feeling of darkness and madness, along with a wild and overbearing bloodlust, very different from when the babysitter was in complete control.
And Zack didn’t like it... That darkness was not the babysitter.
So he stood up again, drawing on the strength of his body, and pointed a finger at the babysitter’s head.
“That’s enough, babysitter,” He ordered.
“Awawa.”
A clear and powerful order when combined with most of his mental strength.
Zack was overcome with exhaustion as he gathered most of his mental strength and, remaining firm, he pointed his finger at the babysitter’s head.
Then a translucent needle formed on his finger and shot out toward the babysitter’s head, going all the way in.
Carrying his mental command deep into the babysitter's mind so he would listen.
If the girl's earlier attack was like a butcher's cut using brute force, Zack's mental needling was akin to the precision of an acupuncturist.
The creepy, sinister presence that released the babysitter stopped, and the transformations receded.
Zack could not free him from the mental attack affecting the babysitter, as the man had his dark past that haunted him and was difficult to fight.
His attack was to prevent the babysitter from losing his way, giving him a chance to escape and free himself from whatever was confronting him inside his mind.
The attack left Zack tired as he spent most of his mental strength.
However, he turned to the inside of the room, where he could feel the girl and noticed the destruction of the portal.
Furniture was destroyed and parts of the wood and ceiling were embedded in the walls, while cleaning supplies were scattered throughout the hallway.
“Where are you, girl?”
“Wewe... Wawa...”
The drain on his mental strength was so high that he couldn’t even try to make sense of a word.
The discordance of his mind and body grew the weaker he became, even though his body was still strong and painless.
Walking staggeringly with each step he took, he gained more balance as he moved, trying to steady his head.
It helped a little that the female jailer forced him to crawl like a worm and sometimes forced him to stand up to take a few steps.
Those jailers celebrated when he took a few steps, practically mocking him for such an accomplishment.
And now he was walking toward where the portal had been.
“I want my freedom!”
“Wawha... WA!”
Approaching the destroyed hallway, climbing up the rubble, trying not to hurt himself or fall unsightly, he peered inside the clean room.
Then he saw her.
Halfway across the room, in the part he couldn’t see before, the girl was crawling with medicine in a bottle in her hand.
The girl’s bear mask had fallen off and so had that which held back the black hair it once concealed, revealing a round face and thin lips.
The eyes were big compared to those of other inferior beings and the blackish color shone with surprise at the sight of him.
Perhaps for the first time, paying attention to him that had been in the baby carrier, something that tended to happen as he distorted his face and diminished his presence.
The girl blinked as she opened the bottle.
“Don’t!”
“Awawa!”
Despite Zack threatening her by raising his hand and glaring angrily at her, the girl barely heard his shout, she took the liquid completely.
“HAAaa!”
Letting out a roar of fury and madness, Zack ran towards the woman at a faster speed than he had imagined he could.
His mental strength was almost completely depleted and there was just enough left for one last attack, but he didn’t expend it to propel himself and ran with his little legs preparing the best physical weapon he had available to him at the moment... His head.
“Ugh...”
Zack struck the woman’s chest with his head like a battering ram struck the door of a castle.
The woman’s bag of meat and drugs reduced part of the impact, but Zack sat up as he saw the woman lying down from the blow and when their eyes met...
“Gotcha.” He muttered occupying the woman’s body.
From the pain he felt in the woman’s chest, it was obvious that his head was the most dangerous weapon of all.
No matter how much some would scoff, Zack knew that his giant head was magnificent.
His thoughts ceased as his senses felt what was happening in the girl's body.
Zack felt the liquid spreading through the girl’s body as a mental force coming from the liquid was released, moving throughout the body.
Then, when it reached the brain, the vision became blurry and the girl’s consciousness tried to leave this body.
Zack connected his mind to hers by controlling it and holding on, then everything around him disappeared and they both left the body.
Entering an infinite purple world where nothing made sense, Zack couldn’t help but feel at home.
This was not the Astral Realm he had come from, but something smaller in magnitude... It was the tiny Astral Plane of this universe, but the energy was so familiar and pleasant that it managed to calm him.
Then he realized that something else was drawing the girl’s consciousness.
The medicine that the girl had stolen and drank had given the girl enough strength to increase the connection with the Astral Realm and, to a greater extent, with this Astral Plane.
Now the same medicine that was a remnant of someone else’s mental energy was guiding her, pushing the girl’s consciousness, and he went with her.
Zack, before letting go, left a mark that connected him with his physical body so he could return, and then he let go.
They both began their journey in this purple world, where space had no meaning.