Heroes V.S. Villain

“You…”

“...”

“Why is it you ruin everything you touch?”

“...”

Hiiro and Absalon face each other down.

“Tch!” Hiiro charges forward, raising the ornamental blade into the air.

“Your form needs work, brat!”

“Kiru!” Hiiro yells a step away from Absalon.

“Lączyć!” Absalon says before stepping backwards.

“Hack!” Hiiro attempts to step forward, but is unable to lift his left leg.

“Tsk, Kiru!” Swinging the double-edged blade back the way it came, Hiiro attempts to hit Absalon.

“It’s useless, you fool…” Absalon says, kicking Hiiro back.

Hiiro lands just before the blue and gold dragon, which had been knocked unconscious after smashing into the wall.

“Now tell me… How are your friends using magic?” Absalon steps forward, walking past one of Hiiro’s shoes that seems to have fused with the earth.

“Huh?”

“It’s most likely that thing the dragon ate! It’s constantly releasing mana!” The sword explains.

“So the dragon is constantly releasing mana…”

“Eh? Can he hear you?!”

“No, ya brat! Look at his glasses, they seem to be an intelligent artifact too!”

“Oh!?”

The glasses adorned on Absalon’s face are incredibly fancy, being made from an unknown metal that shines a rainbow hue.

“You're right…” Absalon seems to agree with an unknown voice.

“I get it now, Parasyte! Walter's death, the dragon swallowing the Crystal, it was all your doing… And that sword, where did you find it?”

“I have no idea what you're talking about! And I ain't tellin'!” Hiiro refuted.

“Fine then, I’ll just mix you with the ground.”

The two clash once more, with Hiiro swinging over a dozen times, yet never hitting once.

“Can’t you see you're outmatched?”

“Shut up!” Hiiro says, now missing his other shoes and his tattered cloak.

“Enough of this,” Absalon says before suddenly appearing before Hiiro. “Lączyć!”

“Shi-!”

ZZZT!

A purple flash appears, kicking Absalom backwards.

“Hey there, trouble-making hero!”

“W-who?”

“Miss Astolat Anael! Your future teacher!” The woman announces.

“Amethyst hero!”

“Ah! You’re Absalon Ramorski, right?”

“The very same.”

“I loved your essay on human transmu- okay, sorry, I'm not here for the teacher conference.”

“Good, neither am I.”

The two look at each other silently, and the silence becomes so tense that you could cut it with a knife.

“...Or a sword…”

“Be quiet, ya brat! That woman is much stronger than you realize!”

“Eh?”

“Honestly, I didn’t think you would make it out of that fight alive… I was hoping he’d use me after he killed ya.”

“Wha?!”

“I'm joking… But now I’d be shocked if that man makes it out of here! I wonder… Have I ever seen anyone as strong as her… Only my last partner could compare…”

“Your last partner..?”

“So? Why are you hurting my students?” The pressure from her voice causes the surrounding area to shake.

“They aren’t your students, just yet, are they?” Absalon replies, not backing down.

“Oh?” A colorless energy resonates from Astolat. “Kid!”

“Y-yes?”

“Stand up and give me a hand, this guy's really pissing me off!”

“E-eh!?”

“Enough of this, come to me or I shall come to you!”

ZZZT!

Just as Hiiro begins to stand, Astolat disappears from his vision.

“Guh!” Absalon lets out a grunt, using his arm to block Astolat’s kick.

She immediately spins her waist around and brings the other leg down on him.

“Damn it!” Absalon was sent flying backwards, catching himself on the floor.

“Be careful, kid! His ability allows him to combine two things!” Astolat explains, before disappearing once again.

“Damn Hero!”

Astolat and Absalon trade blows, each one blocking the other's attacks. However, it's quite clear that Astolat has the upper hand.

“Damn it all! Fine, I’ll go after your precious students!” Absalon says, kicking Astolat away and charging at Hiiro.

“Hk, Kiru!” Hiiro attempts to slash the man, but fails as he slaps Hiiro’s hand.

“I’ll fuse your face to your ass!”
“Gah!” In a final attempt to save himself, Hiiro grabs the item in his pocket. A soaked and destroyed notebook, with a bare cover.

“AH!” Absalon's hand makes contact with the book, just as a light smashes into him.

“Wha?” The note is dragged along with Absalon, leaving Hiiro looking like he was asking for a high five.

“Good job, kid! You were a good distraction!”

“Eh!?!”

“Brat… That was pure magic…”

“Pure magic?”

“Eh? You noticed? You may be better than I thought… Pure magic is magic that does not have a ‘school’ or, rather, an element. It's nearly impossible to create, but it's incredibly effective against both people and monsters.”

“People…”

“DAMN YOU!”

Absalon stands up and leans on the dragon's unconscious body. His body is covered in lacerations, and several bones seem to be bent weirdly.

“THIS WAS MEANT FOR YOU, PARASYTE! BUT I SHALL TAKE THE PLUNGE, FOR THE SAKE OF LUNIA!”

Absalon's arm begins to fade into the dragon as if it were Jell-O.

“Eh?!?”

“He’s attempting to fuse with the dragon… Don’t worry, he doesn't have enough mana to”

“No!” Hiiro looks to his future teacher with worry in his eyes. “That dragon ate the glowing crystal thing!”

“Crystal thing..? Ah! Don’t tell me it ate the”

“GRAAAAAAAA!”

Absalon completely disappears into the dragon, causing a blinding light to shoot out.

🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮

A familiar beach spreads out before his eyes.

The warm sun fades under the horizon, and the waves rise up and down.

“Where?”

“Don’t you remember, Big bro?”

The heart-renching voice reaches his ears, and he immediately looks towards the source.

In the sand, a small girl with light brown hair is playing with sand.

Around her are a castle, a carriage, a dragon, and several others.

“Lunia…”

“Hm? So you remember my name, big bro?”

“Of course…”

“And you're sure I'm the Lunia you know?” The girl says with an ominous tone.

“Y-yes! You were always good with sand castles!”

“Hehe! I guess you're right!” The girl looked down at her creations.

“Lunia… Where are we?”

“Hm? I don’t know, ask them!”

“Them?” Absalon followed Lunias finger to the sea, only to find a gigantic serpent swimming at the water's surface. “..!”

“Isn’t he so cool!” Lunia says beside him. “Hey, big bro… Can I ask you a question?”

“Huh? O-of course!”

“Don’t you think you’ve gone too far?”

“Ah?!”

“I mean, let's look at it! You lived in a small fishing village with your family, which was then flooded in a hostile takeover by the Mermen. You and your sister traveled and survived, witnessing the horrors of war. It’s no surprise you’d want revenge. Especially after your sister passed after you finally escaped, due to a disease the Mermen brought with them. No one could blame you there!”

The lunia before him continued, paying no expense to his feelings.

“After that, you sought a way to revive her. This led you to become an educator, giving you access to a ton of information! You even found a living artifact, something so rare, even fairytails don’t speak of them! It was there you ran into your old friend, Walter. So far so good, hm..? So, when did you go off the deep end?”

“I.. Gulp…”

“Come on, big bro! It's after Walter nearly became the pope and ran, telling you of his experience! After that, everything went downhill! You were indicted to the Deviants, you quit at the school because they started to accept Mermen, and you started reading that book! After that, you changed. Cruelty seemed to seep in; the Deviants trained you to become that way. But even still, when you found out what they planned, you betrayed them. Now you're on the run! They’ve sent their best killer after you!”

Lunia explained his life succinctly.

“What did they have planned, which scared you so much, Big bro?”

“T-they… They want to end the world!”

“Yup, end the world…” Lunia looked up from her sand shapes and looked into his eyes. “Both you and I know that doesn’t justify what you’ve done.”

“Y-you're not Lunia!” Absalon realizes, stepping backwards.

“Hehe, of course not! Lunia is dead, and she has been for a long time.” Lunia stands and looks at Absalon. “You wrote in that notebook so that you could keep Lunia alive, perhaps by sharing all of her and your experiences, and by sharing your own, you could make a soul so similar that it became Lunia…”

The girl's familiar sweet smile took on a sinister mood with her words.

“But you actually created me, a copy of Lunia who’s tainted by violence and greed.”

“W-what is this?!”

“Hm? You're the one who did this, merging You, the dragon, myself, and ‘Them’ together!”

“‘T-them’?”

“Hehe, look!” Her finger once again pointed to the sea.

Absalon traced that finger, following it past the sea dragon and to the sun. The warm sun. But ot was not a sun, but a figure. An indecipherable figure.

“GAAAAH!” His mind shakes, squeezes, and pulses at the sight.

“Hehe, since you wanted to, why don’t we have some fun!”

🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮🕮

“GAHAHA! FINALLY, I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE!”

A grotesque amalgamation of human and dragon whirled in front of the two heroes.