The Three Kings

“What is that?!” a teenage looking girl freaks out.

Many of those around us continue to freak out about Chen’s revelation, unable to fathom the reason as to why she now looks the way she does. Her magnificent form shines brightly with a deep purple light, illuminating the scene to a greater extent, along with help of the bones that make up the white desert surrounding us all. I stand up properly, and crack my neck back into a comfortable position. My muscles across my left leg feel tight, and my lungs are still finding it hard to breathe in the surrounding air; but by focusing on fixing the head and not the tail, I manage to regain some of the control that I had easily lost.

“So you were hiding in the crowd after all…I always knew following my nose would lead to my utmost desires…” I speak softly.

“And you almost found me out plenty of times. It seems I need to break that nose of yours once this is settled.” Chen replies softly.

I crack a smile, “You’re certainly welcome to try. I have something I need to break from you as well,”

“That something won’t break out of me. You will have to break me instead.”

“Then I now know what I must do. When this is settled, of course,” I finish cheekily.

Chen grins, before turning her head to glare at me with what can only be described as a bloodthirsty expression, “Then do what you must…but if you can talk so easily about taking someone else’s life, you better be prepared to have it happen to you as well.”

“What is this supposed to be? A lover’s spat?” Bruno calls out.

Chen returns her gaze to Bruno, “Apologies for the wait. We’ll be on our way to kill you shortly.”

“We?” Bruno begins to laugh, “As in you and that man standing beside you? Didn’t you just see what happened to him? You, yourself, actually stand a chance now…with that mark of yours. But you’re going to subject the poor man to even more punishment?”

Bruno’s eyes glow a faint light once more, as he rubs the new scar on his neck softly. His pupils begin to constrict, opposite to that of Chen’s pupils that have expanded to swallow up her irises.

“How cruel of you, Chen. I thought I raised you to be better than this,”

In that moment, I feel a surge of heat erupting from my right side, as I turn to see Chen’s deity catch fire. Her face looks flushed, and her eyes seem completely fixated on her enemy ahead. The matte black claws with golden anklets resting atop each of her shoulders begins to sink deeper into her flesh, but she still manages to hold out her favored weapon towards Bruno’s head.

“Where…is your mark?” the deity speaks out on Chen’s behalf.

Suddenly, Bruno’s appearance changes, as his skin begins to peel off bit by bit, until it eventually sheds off from him completely. In the midst of his shedding, the tips of his short black hair begin to glow a bright and distinct red, along with the edges of his eyebrows and his scruffy beard. Pearl white wings resembling that of a cherubim spread across his back, although they also start to shed feathers quickly in order to grow out new ones. His hind legs appear to show his red muscular skin, behind that of the skin wrapped around the rest of his body.

Yet, even with his form’s revelation taking shape, no creature lies atop his head in the same way Chen does, and supposedly I as well.

“I said…where is your mark?!” Chen spits out aggressively.

Bruno grins cheekily, and taps his forehead three times, “What? Can’t you see it?”

I continue to stare forward at Bruno’s form, unable to make out what his mark is. I then take notice of the enthusiastic reactions coming from Bruno’s party, realizing that they have seen him like this before many times, and must worship the idea of the strength that comes from it.

Wait.

Why did they seem so surprised with Chen’s form?

Right. If he doesn’t have a creature atop his head in the same way Chen does, then of course, they will be surprised. It’s the creature itself they fear, not the form.

Hmmm.

Signum Bestia. Signum Malefica. If I can find out what his mark reads as, I can have a better understanding of how to fight it…and take it for myself.

“Fine then. Just die.”

In the blink of an eye, Chen’s weapon flies towards the area between Bruno’s eyebrows, and hits its mark. However, the weapon then slowly moves out from Bruno’s head, and drops onto the floor, while the area that the weapon that struck now returns to normal, with only a scar to show for its effort.

No gasps. No call outs for his name. As if they already know he's untouchable.

Interesting.

Chen lowers her arm down, but her aggression only seems to rise, signalled by the increased flame coming from the deity atop her head. Chen then whips out the two small chains that she had strapped to her side, and pulls them up until revealing the sharp four sided blades that make up for the chains’ running ends. Chen begins to swing the chains around, clearly attempting to foster a system of attack and defense with every motion, forcing me to jump back to safety.

“Unleash…self.” the deity atop her head speaks out.

Chen moves forward, with a crazed bloodthirsty expression, and begins to strike Bruno in tandem with her chains and the blades attached to their ends. Unfortunately for her, Bruno continues to evade most of the attacks, with every inevitable hit that lands only resulting in a quick miracle from his body. However, Chen begins to move faster and faster, forcing Bruno to perform quicker miracles at a more consistent rate. It then gets to the point that even Bruno’s insane reaction timing proves useless, as he becomes unable to move out of the way of Chen’s quick attacks that cover his entire perimeter.

“Hahahahaha!!!” Chen begins to squeal in laughter, putting off many of those surrounding the area. However, all I can seem to do is smile.

Eventually, Chen begins to bully Bruno to the point that Bruno falls onto the bone floor and is forced to take a barrage of lashings coming from Chen, with her senile and sadistic smile directly on top of him.

…she really didn’t need me, after all…

Now then…which should I go after first?...

“Marked one!” Chen screams out.

“...yes?” I reply, carefully.

“Get in here! I need your power! This won’t be enough!”

“Uh, it looks like it's more than enough to me. He looks like a pile of mashed potatoes at this point.”

“Get in here!”

“Too late,” a strange voice calls out.

Suddenly, Chen flies back towards me after being pushed by what seems like a force field of skin, bone, blood and muscle. After a few seconds, the force field begins to converge within Bruno’s location, until Bruno is able to return to his feet once again. Chen readies herself for combat directly in front of me, with her deity catching even more fire than it already has.

My right eye begins to twitch.

I…need it.

Bruno cackles loudly, “No matter what you try, you can’t defeat me. You can be as fast as you want, or as strong as you want. It won’t make a difference.”

“This is why I told you to get in there with me!” Chen screams out, as she turns to look towards me, “You need to-”

Chen freezes. My left hand now holds her chin, as soon as she has turned towards me. My right hand moves to stroke her hair, and then moves to stroke her pale skin.

“...what’s the matter with you?” Chen asks me, with a frightened expression.

“You guys going to do it? Right here and now?” Bruno says as he laughs.

My face nears closer to Chen’s. Close enough that our lips are only inches away from reconnecting, but still far enough that I can make out her entire face. My eyes begin to pulsate even harder as they make the connections between the lines flowing across her face, leading up towards a collective light formed at the crown of her head. A deafening scream erupts from the deity situated atop Chen’s head, akin to that of the small bird that I had eaten within my first hour here.

Bingo.

Even with the ongoing flames, my right hand grips the head of Chen’s deity statue, and rips it from the rest of its body, cracking Chen’s deity into pieces as its scream begins to slowly fade away. Chen’s expression turns from that of fear into sadness, as a tear trickles out from her eye, but her eyes refuse to blink.

“...why…” Chen begins to moan quietly, “...why…can’t I move?”

A soft smile escapes me, “I told you…I now know what I must do. I’m grateful for your hint.”

“Apologies…but I’ll be taking that.” I end with a deeper tone than normal.

An egg emanating the same strange light that I had seen from the small bird and the guardian’s book now appears in my right hand as I lower it from the crown of Chen’s head. As Chen faints and falls quickly to the floor, I inspect the glowing egg, taking notice of its extremely small size.

It’s no bigger than a pearl.

Shortly after, I swallow the egg whole, resulting in my brain beginning to fluctuate and expand for a brief moment. However, unlike with the first result, I end up perfectly fine after a few seconds, and face Bruno properly.

Bruno’s face appears dumbfounded, unsure of what just happened, but not out of fear. Rather, he seems both impressed by my merciless ambition resulting in success, and also curious as to the process of how I managed to pull it off.

“So marks can actually be taken…” Bruno says while stroking the red tips of his beard, “...noted.”

“No need. You won’t be able to take anything of mine.”

Bruno holds out my quartz longsword and dangles it in front of me, “Are you so sure about that?”

“That was a loan.”

A confused smile spreads across Bruno’s face, “A loan?”

“I allowed you to take something of mine for a brief moment, like I, as a father, would allow my son to borrow my gold watch.”

Bruno continues to laugh, clearly amused by my response, “I didn’t think I knocked your head back so much that you would lose brain cells in the process,” Bruno then resumes his arrogant grin and throws the sword back towards me, “Here you go then, pops. Be sure not to give out your things so easily next time. There’s a lot of scary people out there, you know.”

Bruno’s entire party begins to laugh, mocking my response to Bruno’s quip. In the midst of the situation, I look around to realize that I stand alone as the only outsider still standing in the center of the man-made ring of lap dogs.

“Sure thing. I’m grateful to have it back,” I respond as I walk to pick up my sword, “But you should also be very careful not to give things out so easily.”

A sinister grin escapes me.

“Especially your mark.”

Bruno immediately stops laughing, prompting the wave of laughter to slowly fade away as well.

“What did you just say?” Bruno asks aggressively.

I lift my sword, and point the edge of my blade towards the woman atop the largest pyramid of male slaves. However, my eyes remain focused on Bruno, who now seems a bit concerned. I decided to take a page out of Christoph’s book.

“Bruno…I’m sorry, I didn’t get your last name?”

“...Bruno Perreira. And you?”

“Ho. The name’s Nehman Ho.”

“An Asian fella.”

“Says the Brazilian fella.”

“That I am.”

My sinister grin widens, “Bruno Perreira…”

“Where…is your mark?”

Bruno remains as is, considering his form has not been erased or hidden. However, as my sword remains pointed towards the woman that had seemingly feared me from the very beginning, a faint light begins to emanate from her eyes, and then eventually towards her forehead, in the same motion that had happened when I asked Chen the same question. At the same time, the faint light splits and heads towards her chest area, which was luckily exposed enough for me to be able to read out.

SIGNUM AMANTIS.

“The Mark…of the Lover.” I spell out loud for everyone to hear. My attention then returns to Bruno’s confident but weak smile, “Now isn’t that something…”

“...how do you figure?” Bruno replies, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Well, this woman has been obsessed with me since I arrived. Painting me a villain, only for wanting to know who you are. As if fearing for something that she has to hide. Then I thought about it. Everyone of these things seems to fear me in one way or another. Although I’m not sure why. They all have the same look of dismay. Some want to kill me outright, like your lovely lady over there. While others wish to avoid any conflict with me whatsoever.”

My mind continues to piece together everything that Christoph had mentioned concerning the Tori fleeing the lower floors, the reactions of passiveness that the normally aggressive Chen has had ever since I first revealed my form, and the consistent looks of fear from monsters and humans that I have seen since arriving in this hellish world.

A monster in human flesh.

I place my sword back in its sheath, and close my eyes while smiling.

Stop overthinking it.

“The mark of the witch,” I continue, “Now that I finally have it, it seems that I can understand a lot more. Especially when it comes to your mark,”

“Don’t bother-”

“Oh, but I will,” I interrupt, “The mark of the lover. You have the ability to take zero damage to your body, making you practically immortal. It even halts your aging process at the temperament age of your prime, which I assume to be the age you fought as a professional MMA fighter.”

Bruno begins to sweat.

“But as you have probably realized, you are only impervious to anything aside from raw skin on skin contact. If someone were to land a punch, you would take damage. But if someone were to cut you with a weapon, you would survive. And quite easily, at that.”

Murmuring begins to ensue rapidly amidst Bruno’s party.

“That’s why no matter how many times Chen cut you down, she knew it wouldn’t be enough. She would have rather risked me jumping in to pound in the flesh she had cut up, halting your recovery process before it could begin to take effect.”

“And look how that turned out-”

“Ah, ah. I’m not finished.” I say cheekily to stop him from continuing, “ You see, no matter how strong you may appear to be with your power, the real reason no one can beat you is because even when it comes to hand to hand, or skin to skin, there’s no one here better at combat than you. You’re practically invincible, aren’t you?”

“Praises to you!” I say to mock the guardians of the floors, “You are certainly one in one! No wonder you could amass such a large party! Allow me to make a guess…using your immortality as a showcase allows you to bring together the people you bully into becoming your lap dogs, and eventually you promise all of them the ability to climb the ranks of your party to higher positions…as long as they survive, of course. Those who cannot survive are then subject to lower positions. Perhaps even some of the captured over there were formerly members of your party, but tried to escape from you after their deaths, only to be brought back and reintegrated into the system.”

I look towards my fingers and begin to count one by one, “Start as a slave, offering favors of labor and pleasure against their own will. Advance to a lap dog, no longer subject to acts of slavery, but still under your beck and call. Then comes the commander positions, each having some higher than the others. And finally…there’s you…”

I glare towards the woman, who now seems frightened rather than irritated at my presence, “...and there’s her…the idiots surrounding you never took notice of the reason why she always seemed to stay at the top, and never seemed to age after all the time you’ve had her at your side. I’m sure they just assumed that the insane level of protection you have given her is due to her being your main woman, or perhaps your sugar momma that allows you to go off and sleep with whoever you want. No repercussions.”

Bruno grits his teeth.

“But in reality…she’s your vital flaw. The only thing capable of killing you…is killing her…isn’t it?”

“Get out of here!” Bruno screams out aggressively towards the frightened woman, as she rushes off from her pyramid of slaves, “The rest of you, guard her with your life!…if you know what’s good for you!”

Laughter ensues, as the situation starts to amuse me greatly.

From mocking me to outright fearing me to this extent.

Perhaps being a monster in human flesh…is the correct assessment after all.

Bruno sticks out his fist, before lifting his index finger to point towards me. His expression seems both concerned and frustrated, clearly at the thought of having his secret exposed to his party, and the consequences that may result hereafter.

“Where…is your mark?!” Bruno bellows out with a deeper voice than usual.

The golden orange aura across my body begins to disperse outwards once again, and my eyes begin to water in excitement. The feeling of total power rushes through me from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, causing me to close my eyes and wave my hands into the air, as if praying to the gods for even more.

I understand it now. The question is only asked because they wish to see the mark’s power, rather than have it hidden from their eyes. By allowing them to see it, they can make out what the mark represents, while the power of the mark remains with its holder, regardless of whether it is seen or unseen.

Ahh…this newfound power is such an amazing thing.

Thank you for your patronage…Chen.

In a flash, and even faster than Chen had previously been, I find myself now in front of the fleeing woman, with the heads of her guardsmen now flying from their heads.

Before she can scream, I grab hold of the woman’s head, and my hands begin to extend out into that of a large cat’s paws. I rip her head from her body, which turns into a small stick, while her body immediately warps into a large stick.

Like a branch…from a tree…

The small piece of the stick I had broken off continues to glow, prompting me to stare forward towards Bruno, who couldn’t seem to believe what he was seeing. A small stick falls out from his mouth, resembling the shape of the stick that the woman’s head had turned into, but in a much smaller size.

I rush over towards Bruno and grab hold of the other stick before it can touch the ground, and then pierce through Bruno’s heart with my sharpened and hardened left claw. With what seems like slow motion to me, Bruno eventually looks down to see the hole in his chest, before his eyes slowly trail over to look at me with a dumbfounded expression.

“Don’t lose your mind, just yet…” I iterate towards Bruno, “I’m sure there’s plenty of people that look forward to playing with you the way you did them,”

Bruno slowly falls to the ground, and blood splatters all over the hard white desert floor. After tons of gasps fill the air, and screams alike, I eventually make my way back towards Chen, and grab hold of her head. In opening her mouth wide, I place one of the sticks inside, and swallow the smaller one myself.

“Rise and shine,” I speak out, in hopes of Chen’s awakening. But she continues to remain unconscious. I move my head closer to hers, “...show me your mark,” and see a faint light eventually start to fluctuate across her chest after opening it up slightly.

Well. At least now you won’t die.

I wanted your mark. Not your life.

“Signum Bestia…Signum Malefica…”

I turn my neck to my right, only to see Christoph finally sitting upright, as he looks towards me with a tired expression.

“However…I don’t think that’s what they’re supposed to look like…”

“…what do you mean?”

“The mark of the witch should have a humanistic deity that represents one’s innermost being. While the mark of the beast should have three heads…a head of a tiger, a head of a leopard…and a head of a bear…”

…that can’t be right.

“Yet, it seems to have swallowed them all whole…the dragon's head…the symbol of man’s greatest sins evolved from a serpent to a beast…”

Christoph sighs, as he looks down towards the ground. Shortly after, Christoph lifts his head back up, giving me a soft smile.

“I really wish you had told me sooner…Mr. Nehman.”

Suddenly, Christoph’s body implodes from the inside out, causing blood to fly out everywhere. No flesh remains from where it had been, nor did it fly out in the same instance as the blood, causing the realization that it has disappeared entirely from sight. In the same instance that Christoph’s body implodes, the bodies of Kedaz and Zadek implode as well, causing my eyes to shake uncontrollably as it happens.

…wha…

The rest of those in the vicinity end up with the same phenomenon, having only liters of blood to signal that they were once there. Bruno, now without his mark, ends up suffering the same fate, leaving only Chen and myself now stuck in the pool of the hot red blood.

“提出しない者(Teishutsu shinai mono)…苦しむ(Kurushimu).” a calm voice bellows out.

I turn to my right, with Chen still in my hands. The entire vicinity has now become completely illuminated, with no traits of darkness left anywhere in sight. The sounds of heels walking up towards me, mixing with the pool of blood and knocking against the bone-like floor, eventually stops directly behind me. As I turn my head back to look at the culprit, I am left shocked to see a group of four hunters in white apparel, all harboring a deep stench of blood and violence.

An insufferable and nauseating scent. Even worse than what I encountered in the first trial; but rather than puke and disgust…only fear spills out from my eyes.

Tears?...Me?....Crying?....

“My child…”

At the head of the group, a tall man with smooth dark hair leans down, stretching out his hand towards me like a hero would a civilian. His white suit is blinding. His facial structure seems almost too perfect to be real. His presence itself is…

Divine.

“Come...and follow me.”