Asmodeus took a look at his surroundings before taking a puff of air into his system. “So, the poison. That’s a problem,” Asmodeus said as he shattered his arm and then used it to cover Scepticus’ body. The shattered pieces of his arms acted like a coating around Scepticus' body so that Asmodeus could sense what was going on internally with Scepticus. “It’s already spread… Well I could give him the fragment of healing. That should work,” Asmodeus said as he tried pulling out one of the fragments from his body. “But it’s always overly difficult,” he said whilst struggling to pull out that Specific shard from his body. Eventually he pulled out the fragment but Scepticus was becoming more and more pale by the second whilst occasionally twitching. “Ok. You’re not gonna like it. But it’s for your own good,” Asmodeus said as he dropped the shard into Scepticus’ mouth.

Scepticus almost immediately got up. Not from the fragment itself but due to the horrible flavour it offered, of bitter and more bitter. Scepticus then coughed as he woke up his skin slowly returning back to a normal colour. Scepticus took a look around and then saw Asmodeus? Or was it Celaine? He couldn’t tell although he had a rough idea. “So you’re back, Asmodeus?” Scepticus asked. “Well for the time being. For whatever reason this girl has an overpowering will-power. AND IT’S. BREAKING. MY. MIND,” he said, “SHE’S PROBABLY GOING TO TAKE.. CONTROL AGAIN,”. As soon as he uttered those words black and red aura was dispelled everywhere before Celaine’s body, which had been floating off the ground for a while, finally fell. Although she was still asleep on the ground. Scepticus leaned her against a tree.

“It’s time I finish up what I started right?” he said before crashing through the fence which surrounded the tents which supposedly held the bandits. It was a slaughter for the most part. Until he met a knight in shining armour and a person who looked like they had their skin ripped off and reattached due to all the stitches on their body. The man with stitches on his body began to laugh maniacally as well as saying, “SO YOU'RE TELLING ME… A KID DID ALL THIS? HAHAHAHAHA… HOW FAR THE MORTUUS FLUMEN HAS FALLEN. I MIGHT RESIGN AFTER THIS,”. The knight in shining armour piped up, “Don’t talk absolute rubbish Sir Vindsall. It is in your best interest that you stay here,”. “OH WELL… LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED,” he said before almost seemingly teleporting around Scepticus.

Scepticus then felt something in the air. Small thin objects were heading towards him, coming from multiple different directions. Suddenly he heard a slit as he fell like a bunch of butchered up pork bits. “What?” Scepticus thought to himself. “HEH… KIDS THESE DAYS, all bark… no bite. It’s getting kind of boring for an S-Class like me,” the man with stitches said whilst licking his hand which was covered in Scepticus blood. Then he heard something rise from the ground. “Hmm… INTERESTING, VERY INTERESTING,” he said before realising Scepticus was back on his two feet again although his eyes were slightly red. “THIS LOOKS LIKE FUN,” he said before teleporting around Scepticus again. Scepticus used ‘Breath of the Wind’ and managed to dodge that attack this time. “FINALLY. AFTER ALL THIS TIME. I’VE FOUND SOMEONE BETTER THAN THIS DUMB KNIGHT TO FIGHT,”. After hearing this comment the knight just remained silent. “Well,” he said whilst flicking his wrist, “I think you can handle him yourself. Don’t go and die on me, Vindsall”. “Yeah, yeah for sure,”.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Scepticus, who had been slightly annoyed by the lack of respect towards him then started charging towards the man before swinging his sword in front of him, to which the man with stitches just held his hand up and completely stopped the blow. He then flicked his index finger and shoved Scepticus quite a far distance back. “What the hell,” Scepticus thought to himself. “Oi oi oi… Why are you daydreaming in a fight with me? It makes me a LITTLE DISAPPOINTED HAHA,” the man with stitches said before another thin object began flying at Scepticus again. It was bound to hit him this time as it was just across his face. Scepticus had to pick now. To tank or to not tank? Scepticus then said, “Ah screw this how about I just burn it?” he said before the string got set ablaze, still cutting him in half. The man with stitches then let go of the thin object before throwing it into the river. “Ah I see what it is,” Scepticus muttered to himself before getting up again. “STRINGS,” he said.

The man with stitches looked back at him again slightly taken aback, whilst noticing that Scepticus’ eyes were getting more and more red. “I thought this was some stupid artif-” he said before realising that Scepticus was behind him. He quickly ducked, just narrowly dodging his blade before back-flipping away from him. He then noticed his chin was cut. “I’ll give you credit, kid. YOU’RE THE MOST FUN I’VE HAD SINCE THE BOSS,” he said before Scepticus noticed that strings were surrounding him in a circle and slowly getting closer. The man then backflipped again. Before putting his hand up and resting his finger against something, “Any last words kid?”. “Actually I do have some,” he said before showing the middle finger to the man. The man just tugged on the string and it almost instantly cut Scepticus into chunks.

Scepticus laid on the floor in pieces. “Oh well. It’s probably going to start,” he said as his eyes turned even more red and he instantly regenerated. “You had your chance,” Scepticus said, a demon horn sprouting out above his left eyes and his pupils turning blue and getting a black slit in them. The man in stitches turned around after hearing some shuffling behind him to see Scepticus awake again.