A Monster (II)

I might have sprinted for around five minutes before I heard the first explosion. Figuring that I should probably save what little magic I had left, I opted to run to the marble building on foot rather than something like a Tier 3 flight spell. Racing alongside the speeding cars, I was halfway down the street parallel to the marble building when a muffled bang echoed from a distance, causing the pavement under my legs to tremble. A few seconds later, the rumble of the aftershock rolled over the shorter buildings, and I stopped in my tracks.

At the moment, the initial sound only caused a few stray passersby to pause stand still for a few seconds, while others gave one or two nervous whispers to their companions. But they stayed calm for the most part, and returned to going about their day as usual. That was when the second explosion hit. Maybe two or three times louder than the first, this explosion’s deafening crash was enough to make the people on the streets cover their ears, while a gust of wind issued from roughly the same direction. The effects of the explosion were now also visible, as a pillar of black smoke began rising from the side of a building suspiciously close to the marble skyscraper.

This time people actually began worrying, and though it was a subtle change, I could feel the panic start to set in around me. One or two of the cars on the street came to a halt, and their concerned drivers stepped outside, trying to gauge the situation. This caused a small buildup to occur in the middle of the street, and soon enough the street was filled with a cacophony of disorganized car honks. And the panic wasn’t limited to the streets, either. More and more people were spilling out onto the sidewalks, while other pedestrians began to take cover inside nearby shops in a rush of sudden fear.

Conspicuous, huh? There’s no doubt about it; those explosions were meant to draw me out. Renewed energy filled my body, and I began sprinting towards the marble building even faster than before. As I ran, there was a nagging feeling that kept biting into the back of my mind, like I was playing right into that guy’s hands. That was what I thought, but… What other choice do I have? Even if this is a blatant trap, if I don’t show up, who knows how many more explosions he’s going to fire off at innocent people?

As I kept on advancing, the massive rumbles of several additional explosions rang out in the distance, and though I flinched with each one, there was nothing I could do but keep on running ahead. By this point most of the people in the streets had already abandoned their cars, and were pushing and shoving to escape in the opposite direction. The roads were beginning to be blocked with hordes of yelling people, and surging forward became more difficult. Waiting for a chance to slip past, I threw my body over the hood of a car, before weaving my way through the blockade of stopped cars to the other side of the road. Seeing as people were fleeing from that direction, it was mostly cleared out already, and there were less people to hinder me. Picking up the pace, I turned the corner, and finally made it out to the main road facing the enormous marble building.

Moving past the shorter buildings, the full view of the road came into sight at last, and I had to take a moment to process the information that I saw in front of me. The road itself was twice as wide as the normal streets, where a large grassy open area stood at the end of it. The grassy patch was in front of the marble building, like it was some kind of plaza only constructed there for decoration. But the layout wasn’t what shocked me, but the condition the road and its surroundings were in. Lining the street were two or three scattered police cars, but some were overturned and one was even on fire, like the car itself had exploded from the inside. The shops lining either side of the road were likewise in a sorry state, some in flames and others with their glass doors and windows shattered.

Slowly advancing through the low flames, the street looked to be empty at first, but as my feet stepped onto the scarred asphalt, something bumped against my shoe. Glancing my eyes downwards, I drew in a sharp breath. And though I averted my gaze quickly, the sight remained burned into my memory: a bloody limb sticking out from underneath the upturned police car, crushed to death by its sheer weight.

A bitter anger burned inside me, and I continued to walk forward, my shoe crushing tiny pieces of shattered glass that were strewn across the marred road. Just ahead of me, the vibrantly cheerful colors of the beautifully trimmed plaza jarred against the destruction behind me in an almost satirical manner. And there, in the middle of that untouched sanctuary, sat nothing more than the relaxed figure of a man in waiting.

Reaching the end of the central road, I stopped right where the street split into left and right, directly in front of the plaza and its red plastic benches. As I came into his line of sight, the man casually pushed himself up from the comically bright plastic bench, calmly standing by until I came closer.

The man’s features were truly dignified, with a sharp nose and thin eyes, as purple robes flowed over his thin body. It may have just been a side effect of my prolonged stay on this planet, but the juxtaposition of the man’s silky traditional robes and the artificially perfected setting around him was so jarring it was almost hard to look at. In a way the man reminded me of Aberon, in the confidence that they both stood carried, like they had nothing at all to fear from me. Justified confidence, backed with tremendous strength.

The man opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to begin some grand speech, but I cut him off before he even had a chance to begin.

“Where is Martha?” It was all I could to do suppress the roiling sense of anger inside of me, as I compressed all my restrained emotions into this single quiet question.

With his mouth open, the man looked just a little annoyed, but then closed it again patiently. “Of course. You want to know the whereabouts of the woman, correct? Worry not, I am anything but a liar.” Raising an arm, the robed man gestured to the space behind him. “Illusory Mist!”

At his command, the air behind him began to shimmer, before revealing what was previously rendered invisible. With a flash, the illusion was lifted, exposing a familiar face. In spite of everything that was going on, the moment I saw her, I couldn’t help but let out a relieved breath of air. Martha… you’re still alive.

Initially, I had felt nothing but relief when I saw that she hadn’t been killed. But as the sudden surge of assuaged euphoria wore off, I began to see the full picture, and I realized that she was not in fact unharmed. And the more I saw, the larger the feeling of dread grew inside me. Martha was hanging with her head lowered on some kind of swirling translucent crucifix, which was levitating around one or two feet off the ground. Her shoes had been stripped off, and both her arms and legs were pinned to the cross with luminous nails, blood dripping down from where the pins pierced her tender skin. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her breathing was ragged, most likely due to the excruciating pain. Blinking her strained eyes, Martha looked like a wild animal that had been thrust into an unfamiliar environment, probably since the man had used Illusory Mist to darken her surroundings so that she couldn’t see outside. But now that the spell had been lifted, her eyes were starting to refocus on the sights around her, though she probably still couldn’t see much without her little round glasses.

“W-What… where –” Her dazed eyes drifted over to where I was standing, before they snapped wide open. “Don! Don!”

As she cried out to me, Martha viciously struggled against the glowing crucifix she was affixed to, trying to pull herself away using all her strength. But with every intense jerk of her body, a wave of fresh blood spurted from her wounds, which made her gasp and fall back onto the cross.

“Y-You idiot! Stop thrashing around!” It felt like a jagged knife was being driven into my stomach at the sight of this, and I desperately thrust a hand out towards her. “It’s a magic cross, so you’ll never be able to break it! You’re only going to get yourself hurt!”

It was then that a mocking bout of laughter spread from where the robed man was standing, and I turned my head over to him, glaring at him so hard I felt I could burn a hole straight through him. To this, the man simply raised a hand. “What a frightening expression, Conqaide! To think that you’ve changed so much after just two months, to the point where the life of a mere commoner can evoke such an emotional response from you!”

“Screw you! Let Martha go!” I growled, jabbing a finger at him. “Haven’t you heard the goddamn news? I’ve turned myself in already, so the hunt is off! You won’t receive any bounty for my head, so just… leave her out of this!”

“You seem to be just a little mistaken,” the man said, tapping his chin. “I’m not after the bounty at all, so it doesn’t matter if you surrendered to anyone or not. The only thing I’m after is you, Conqaide, and the woman was necessary bait in order to draw you out.”

“Don!” Martha’s labored voice cried out from behind him again. “You can’t… don’t make him angry! If it comes down to a fight, there’s no way…”

Her shouts were replaced with a fit of coughs, and I grit my teeth. “What are you talking about? I’ll beat this guy down without a problem and get you out of there, so just hang in there!”

“No… I know how strong you are, but… I’ve seen policemen try to fight him when he brought me here, and you don’t know… he won’t…” Martha’s frantic words began to overlap, starting new thoughts before ending any, before she finally caved in. “It’s… it’s not worth it. Just leave me here and escape on your own. Please!”

“Leave you –” With a growl, I fiercely glared up at her. “Martha, I won’t let you say that again!”

“No, you don’t understand!” She thrust her body forward, and blood began dripping down onto the perfectly cut grass under her once again. “You don’t know what he does to people! I’ve seen how he –”

“This is starting to get awfully noisy; wouldn’t you say?” Clicking his tongue in irritation, the man closed his fist, and the air around Martha began to shimmer once more. Her voice abruptly cut off, leaving me to stare at Martha’s pained face, as her lips moved without making a sound. It sickeningly reminded me of how you could instantly mute a television with a remote, just like how Martha used to do when the corny shows we watched at night interrupted her sleep.

Now that the air around Martha was silenced, I could only hear the soft crackling of fire behind me, and the blaring sirens in the distance. Letting out a satisfied exhale, the man gave a nod. “There we go. Much better.”

My anger was so vivid that it felt like red-hot spikes were about to erupt from every pore of my body, but I bit down hard on my lip and without making a sound. Not yet. Not until I figure out a way to beat this bastard.

As things stood, the odds were vastly in his favor. First off, in spite of the fact I had activated Abyssal Well in advance for a little extra magic usage, after using the Tier 1 spell Second Eyes I was down to my usual 30 magic points. Next, I could tell even without using Detect that this man was not bluffing his strength, which meant that he was probably a high-leveled magic caster as well. If I had to estimate, given that he was holding on to some amount of Manalite, him having access to up to Tier 7 spells wasn’t out of the question. And though I wasn’t sure if he had already activated an automatic Magic Shield around him, even with my extra work energy magic buff, I didn’t have nearly enough magic to safely test out that theory. There’s no choice but to assume the worst-case scenario that he does. And if he really has a Magic Shield up, it’ll render all my long-distance attacks worthless. The automatic variant of Magic Shield is a Tier 6 spell, after all. Which means… I can only reliably use a restricted number of melee attacks on him, while he has unlimited access to all magic? Dammit, there couldn’t be a worse situation!

But no matter how my mind raced, I couldn’t come up with a single plan that had even a tiny chance of being successful, as my mind drifted back to the mangled shells of the overturned police cars. How am I supposed to do anything against power like that? He released enough magic to do that without breaking a sweat, without even considering the various explosions that he set off! With that much magic, he could… A confusing detail suddenly appeared in the back of my mind, which I tried to ignore at first but kept returning to me, enough that I couldn’t concentrate on forming a plan. With that much magic… that much…

It just didn’t add up. Those Elkardian troops had shown up in droves when I had done nothing more than break a simple Spirit Compass. They had reacted to such a small magical emission, but… I turned my head to the thick black smoke rising from the side of multiple buildings, before opening my mouth hesitantly. “Why… isn’t anyone showing up?”

“Oh, so you noticed at last.” The man’s eyes lit up in amusement. “I wonder, what did happen?”

I narrowed my eyes. “What the hell did you do?”

Upon hearing this, the man’s lips parted into a thin smile. “Zero Radar.”

The anger in my eyes was clouded with a hint of confusion. “Zero…?”

“Apparently, there are spells that even the great Donnelius Conqaide hasn’t heard of. To put it concisely, Zero Radar is a high-tier spell that acts as a permanent one-way Area Lock, erasing a set location off the radar of any teleportation spells. Back in our world it only worked on very concentrated locations, and was solely useful for tasks like preventing stray assassins from teleporting into the kingdom castles, but due to the extremely low level of Manalite in this world’s atmosphere…” The man’s smile spread into a wicked grin. “Expanding Zero Radar’s effect to cover the entire planet wasn’t that difficult for me to do.”

“An… Area Lock? Over the whole planet?” The significance of this fact finally registered in my mind, and I felt a deep sinking feeling in my gut. “You can’t mean…”

“This planet of Earth has been rendered completely inaccessible from the other side, and will never be reached again via any form of teleportation magic! I waited for those arrogant Elkardians to take their leave, before permanently cutting off their interplanetary portal.” The man extended his arm out to me triumphantly. “In essence, it is now only possible to leave this planet, and not to arrive. You are stuck here with me, and nobody will be able to come to your aid.”

“But, what about the other bounty hunters that remained on this world?” I asked fiercely. “Surely those Elkardian troops weren’t the only ones that stayed here. Aren’t they trapped here as well?”

“Indeed, you are correct. There were maybe three or four groups of them still wandering about, sloppily letting out magical energy signatures. But I already told you, Conqaide.” The man narrowed his eyes, and I could see a sharp glint in his gaze. “There won’t be anyone to obstruct this fight between me and you. The riffraff has already been dealt with accordingly.”

“You little… how many people did you kill?” A new surge of animosity swelled up inside my chest. “And before, with those blasts into the civilian buildings! Who the hell do you think you –”

“Freeze!” A deep voice sounded from behind me, cutting my sentence off.

Turning my head back, I saw that several additional police cars had arrived at the scene, forming a sort of barricade with the cars that blocked the street. The man was holding one of those modern-looking handguns, as did many of his companions, who were filing out from their cars one by one. I was a little bothered by the fact that they were pointing theirs weapons at me as well, but I suppose they had no choice but to be wary, judging from the level of destruction behind them. As the rotating red-and-blue lights atop their cars caused their grim faces to be washed with color, the same policeman spoke again amidst the blaring of the sirens. “Put your hands in the air, both of you!”

I didn’t particularly want to put myself into a vulnerable state in front of the robed man, but being riddled with holes from behind wasn’t exactly a favorable situation either. As a half-compromise, I slowly began raising my arms, though my eyes were still trained intently on the robed man standing in front of me, fully ready to react at any time.

As the policemen had more time to observe the situation, from the corner of my eye, I could see expressions of shock or bewilderment to various degrees start to appear on their faces. As his eyes drifted over to the spot where Martha hung suspended in the air, one of the younger members of the police force drew in a breath, grasping his weapon so tightly that the knuckles on his bony hands began to turn white. “What the hell…”

“Must you powerless nuisances insist on being a hindrance?” The robed man spoke in a low, irritated tone. “Scum like you should know your place.”

Abruptly, I felt a tremendous surge of bloodlust spike from where the robed man was standing. Without even a second to think, my body instinctively curled up tightly, rigidly bracing my arms together in an X shape in front of my body. “Minor Crystalline –”

The man’s eyes gleamed with a malicious light. “Gale Scythe!”

Faster than what my eye could see, an overwhelming force slammed into me with the force of a hundred sledgehammers. It took every fiber of my being just to stay conscious from the impact, and I planted my legs into the ground, a pained scream unconsciously leaking from the corner of my lips as I struggled to stay in place against the blistering strength of the attack. In spite of my efforts, the multifaceted shield of air in front of me began to slowly fracture with a dreadful snapping sound, its thin cracks spiderwebbing outwards from the initial breaking point, before shattering altogether. My body was immediately thrown backwards from the incredible gust of wind, and I cried out as I felt a sharp pain cut through my left arm. Fortunately, it looked like the Crystalline Barrier spell had taken on the brunt of the damage, and the only wound that had been inflicted on me at the moment was the deep gash through the top of my arm. Luckily enough, something like that wasn’t enough to be a mortal injury for me.

But as I was tossed through the air, it may have been a side effect of the activated work energy, but time once again seemed to be flowing in slow motion, just as it had when Aberon had attacked the Oasis. As the pressure from the wind suddenly turned my body around, for nothing more but a fraction of a second, I was given a startlingly clear view of the damage behind me.

It was as if a massive blade had cleaved through everything in its path with a lateral slash, save for the tiny section that I had blocked with my magic spell. Deep gouges had been sliced into the buildings on the opposite sides of the central street, but that wasn’t what caused the profound feeling of horror to come seeping into my chest, like cool molten lead had been poured directly into my lungs. No, it was the view of the policemen and cars held in midair, flesh and metal alike cleanly split in two. The attack had happened so fast that the blood hadn’t even began to pour from their detached bodies, as though time truly had stopped. The last thing I saw in that window of slowed time was the sight of the young police boy’s severed upper torso, and how he still gripped his weapon oh so tightly, as that same terrified expression remained plastered all over his face.

Then there was a flash of blinding light, and the bisected police cars gave way to an enormous explosion, flinging my body forward like a helpless ragdoll. I slammed the ground hard, my body rolling and turning to an extent that I was completely disoriented, thick plumes of dirt and dust clouding up what little I could see. My limbs quivered as I attempted to prop myself back up, the skin of my arms stinging with the pain of a dozen tiny cuts. Gasping for breath, I inhaled a deep lungful of gritty smoke, and I launched into a fit of violent coughs, tears forming in the corner of my eyes. I batted at the air in front of me in wide movements, trying to swipe away the dirt that cluttered my surroundings, and pulled part of my undershirt over my mouth when my swatting produced no results.

As my stinging eyes tried to make sense of what had happened, I felt a sudden warmth at my chest. Looking down, I was made aware of the sticky blood running down my left arm onto my body, and the pain that I had neglected came rushing back to me. Biting down on my lip, I tried to endure the raw agony the best I could.

It’s a deep gash, but I don’t think it reached bone. Could I afford to use a healing spell? Grabbing my arm tightly with my good hand, I scowled. No, I can’t use up any more magic. Casting Crystalline Barrier like that was necessary, but it’s already an unexpected loss. Now I’m down to 20 magic points.

My undershirt was already ripped in a few places, probably due to my impact with the jagged asphalt on the ground. Tearing off a sliver of fabric, I bound my arm as tightly as I could manage, fresh blood already staining the fabric a bright red. But as I struggled to my feet, a sudden gust of wind swept through the plaza, almost knocking me to the ground once again. The swirling smoke and dust was blown away in an instant, revealing the robed man with a look of distaste on his face. The man lowered his arm, and the gust of wind vanished as abruptly as it had appeared.

“I didn’t imagine those magic-deficient pests would try to interfere with our little chat,” the man sighed, the look in his eyes similar to that of a child looking down upon a line of bugs. “I like to keep things fair and square, so I want this to be a battle on an equal playing field, determined only by skill. I guess I’ll have to take measures to prevent obstructions like that from happening again.”

Lowering his eyelids, the man raised both of his hands into the air. Since his eyes were closed, I debated if I should use this chance to attack him in this vulnerable state. But upon closer inspection, I was able to detect a faint yellow circle encircling the ground where he stood, most likely some kind of magical field that would sense changes in the air. Because of this, I decided against a surprise attack. He’s probably as aware of his surroundings as if his eyes were open.

“O High Powers, grant me your strength. Convert the simple breeze into an unyielding barricade, the ultimate shield.” A tiny ball of swirling red appeared above his open palms, growing larger and larger as the chant went on. Then, the man thrust his right arm upwards, and the ball rocketed into the air like a reversed bolt of lightning. “Come forth! Tempest Field!”

The bolt of red streaked into the air, gradually getting slower as it rose higher and higher. It was a completely irrelevant thought, but I couldn’t help thinking that it looked similar to those man-made ‘fireworks’ that I had watched together with Martha and the others back during the Christmas festival. But instead of exploding into a flash of beautiful color, the bolt burst into a thick red light which bent and covered much of the plaza in a colossal red semicircle, slamming down into the ground before I even had the chance to react. The swirling barrier was opaque enough that I couldn’t see anything past it except for a milky crimson haze, while the bleak afternoon sun caused a bloody red tint to be cast upon everything inside the half-sphere. Darting my eyes left and right, I pressed my right hand against the back of the murky barrier, and instinctively knew that whatever magic I could muster would not be nearly enough to break it down. Turning my head, I realized with a jolt that the sphere was just large enough near its edge to encompass the mutilated remains of the police force that had tried to stop us, and I quickly looked away from the grisly display.

“Good. That should take care of it.” Patting down his robes in satisfaction, the thin yellow circle around him dissipated with a dull flash. Then, as the man stared down at the blood dripping from my barely-standing form, he gave a wide grin. “But I have to say, you really do live up to your name. Blocking a Tier 5 spell with Minor Crystalline Barrier, a spell as low as a Tier 2, and getting away with it with nothing more than a single flesh wound? I must say, it is a little easier now for me to believe that you really defeated the Aberon in your magic-restricted state.”

“Aberon? Did you know that guy?” Panting hard in order to get my breathing under control, I blurrily recalled something that Aberon had mentioned to me. “That’s right… he was working with someone, wasn’t he? Was that you?”

“Oh, I never did properly introduce myself. I apologize for being so rude.” The man placed a hand lightly on his chest, allowing his purple-and-gold cloak to flutter behind him in the most obnoxiously grandiose manner. This revealed the just-as-opulent robes underneath, as well as a number of glittering Manalite crystals strapped around his waist. “My name is Nobelys Radia, commander of the Onimus armed forces. I have come here today to exact my vengeance on you, Donnelius Conqaide.”

As he spoke, his excruciatingly elegant tone of voice finally sparked a vague recollection in my mind, and I glanced up in surprise. “You’re… that guy from back then, aren’t you? The guy who lead the Royal Infantry, to try and execute me! What are you trying to do?”

“I believe I already told you.” The robed man, Nobelys, nodded his head. “Revenge, retribution, call it as you please. That and nothing more.”

“Revenge? What, because I bashed Aberon’s aggravating mug in?” I laughed without humor. “Well, I’m sorry, but I thought it was common sense not to make friends in the bounty hunting world. Things like that can’t be helped.”

“Vengeance for Aberon’s sake? You couldn’t be farther from the truth.” Nobelys gave a mocking laugh in return, crossing his arms. “I despised everything about that man; his arrogance, his egocentric personality, his apathetic, drawling attitude. He would act so high and mighty, when he didn’t do a damn thing to earn that power of his in the first place. I only cooperated with that clown, only for a second, just to get closer to finding you.”

“I was already aware that you bounty hunters were making attempts to track me, but you putting it like that just sounds flat-out creepy.” I was beginning to regain some of my strength, evident from the fact that my legs had stopped shaking, but I still didn’t have any plan of attack. Like with Aberon, I had no choice but to stall with my words. “So, I take it that the two of you weren’t actually working together.”

“Not at all. But you did prove to be a bit of a problem, Conqaide. You threw my original plan off track,” Nobelys said, shaking his head. “My plan was to have Aberon defeat you, and then bring you back. Whatever amount of money the kingdoms were offering that man for your head, I was willing to pay double for him to hand you over to me alive, so that I could end you with my own hands. While he went in completely underestimating you, I did assume that you would put up at least a bit of a fight, but I never expected you to actually kill that man. It was a stroke of luck that you voluntarily surrendered yourself to the Elkardian troops, or else I may never have been able to find you again.”

“Wait. What did you just say?” Just now, there was something Nobelys said that sounded like it couldn’t have been true, but I had to make sure. “You already knew that I had been captured to the Elkardian base?”
“Why, but of course. Since I had to work with Karsis to obtain his Spirit Compass, I was naturally also acquainted with the Elkardian troops that he cooperated with. In fact, I was notified of your capture almost immediately.”

“What? No, no, that can’t be right. If you knew who had captured me and to where, you could easily have just teleported to the base. If you were just trying to kill me, you would have had hundreds of chances to do so while I was unconscious in that anti-magic cage. If that were the case, then, why…” With a snarl, I furiously swept a hand out towards where he was standing, Martha’s muted form still bound to the glowing crucifix behind him. “Why the hell did you get her involved in all this?”

“Well, just think about it for a second. If I were to have just shot you dead in that gloomy cage, wouldn’t that have just been anticlimactic?” Nobelys shook his head, chuckling lightly to himself. “Honestly, you ought to be thanking me. You get to die a heroic death, attempting to rescue your captured companion from a tragically overwhelming crisis. Is that not a more fitting death for the mighty ex-mage, Donnelius Conqaide?”

“So, what are you trying to say?” The inside of my body seethed with such anger that I could barely spit out full sentences. “Are you suggesting that you captured Martha, burned down her apartment, wiped out those bounty hunters and massacred those innocent policemen, just for the sake of spectacle?”

“Now, don’t make such a scary face, Conqaide. I’ve been waiting so long to execute you with my own hands, it’s only natural that I should want it to be perfect.” As Nobelys leered at me with those sadistic eyes, I got the feeling that he was enjoying this experience much more than he let on. “Besides, I am a high-level magic caster. Likewise, before coming to this world and being corrupted by its pathetic ways, so were you. So, you should understand me when I say that we’re on a completely different level compared to those powerless commoners. And even if it’s merely for the sake of our personal enjoyment, sacrificing one or two of those insects isn’t really a big deal.”

“You’re sick.” It made my stomach churn to think that in the past, I acted in almost the same way. If my growth of power hadn’t been interrupted, would I have gotten so drunk with power that I’d treat people with limited access to magic as no more than playthings, just toys to be tossed around? Is that what I would have become? “You’re nothing but a heartless, twisted monster.”

“My, a monster? Haven’t I heard that somewhere before?” Nobelys’ chuckle turned to full-on laughter, and he spread out both his arms. “That’s fine by me. A monster, a psychopath, a villain. I’ll readily accept whatever anyone wants to call me; that’s just the kind of person I am. But that won’t ever be enough to stop me from living my life freely, doing whatever I wish. No one can tell me what or what not to do, simply because I am powerful.”

“Why are you even doing this? I’ve committed countless sins that I’d gladly lay down my own life to atone for, but my life and my life alone!” I thrust my right arm out, fiercely gesturing at the smoking remains behind me. “But what reason could you possibly have for going through so much, just to make my death a more satisfying revenge for you?”

“Why, you ask? That’s easy.” Nobelys narrowed his eyes. “I’m doing this simply because I hate you, Donnelius Conqaide.”

As he noticed my bewildered expression, his hardened expression broke into a warm smile. “Yes, I realize I should probably clarify that point. Just like why I hated Aberon, I hate you because you were born powerful. Without putting in an ounce of effort, you were blessed with astronomical magic potential along with that blue hair of yours, and your incredible magical potential meant you could master magic far quicker than any other person. And as you can clearly see, I am not one of those chosen few.”

In a wide movement, Nobelys pulled away the string binding his hair, sending his silky silver locks cascading down his shoulders. “I was born as a filthy commoner with no special potentials or talents, and as a result of this, hated you blue-haired mages from the start. But at a young age I worked harder than any student at the mages’ academy, harder than any simple adult or even magical professor, and fought my way up from the bottom. They called me a prodigy, a genius, but I knew they were wrong. No, the real prodigies were those mages with blue hair, who could accomplish what it took me years upon years to master in a matter of weeks.”

While Nobelys spitefully continued his discourse, I tried with every cell in my body to calm my raging anger down, as work energy would be a useful asset in the inevitable battle between us. Since the current situation gave me more time to prepare, I saw Nobelys’ ramblings as a blessing, and allowed him to keep on speaking to his heart’s content.

“As I mastered the ways of basic magic ten times faster than the rest of my classmates, I was transferred to a school for training elite mages, deciding to grow even stronger as a wind magic Adamant. By then most of my classmates were those dreaded blue-hairs, but seeing those students laze around because of their natural talents made me angrier than anything else. They were born with such potential and yet they squandered it, complacent with merely breezing through the magic examinations and living life easy as a member of the kingdom’s royal troops. Seeing such blatant incompetence only fueled me to surpass them, and soon I was performing at a level higher than even that of the average blue-hair, emerging as one of the academy’s top students and officially earning the title of a high-leveled magic caster.” Nobelys’ delirious smile told me that that he was barely even talking to me anymore, and just ranting off into the air to please himself. “I was worlds higher than the filthy commoner masses, and yet I had earned my strength with my own blood and sweat, unlike any of those blue-hairs. I had become an ascended person, something higher than both.”

Reaching this point in his retelling, Nobelys breathed deeply for a few seconds, regaining his breath. And when he spoke again, his voice was inundated in a sense of unbridled fury. “So, imagine what I felt when I was utterly obliterated by one of those very same blue-hairs, and a goddamned child at that! A boy with no formal training, who put in no effort to push himself to the absolute limits, flicked me aside like some kind of insect! I couldn’t –” Losing any sense of composure that he once had, he flung his arm out, screaming out insanely to the air. “I couldn’t take it! I hated it! Hated it! Hated it!”

The ground inside the crimson semicircle was racked with blow after blow after blow, shaking and cracking and sending more plumes of dust flying into the air. When the shaking stopped at last, the dust was once again swept away by a gust of strong wind, leaving Nobelys standing there with his arms out, panting. The ground to his right and left were gouged with broad scars, crisscrossing so viciously it looked like it had been raked by the claws of a feral beast.

“I-I’m a little insulted that you think of me as a mere child, but you seem to be mistaken.” I was still a little dazed by Nobelys’ sudden outburst, likely because any given one of his random attacks would have killed me instantly. “Because if you’re looking for someone to vent your inferiority complex on, it shouldn’t be me. I wasn’t born with a special amount of magic potential either, and a lot of the time I honestly wish that I didn’t have this strength and hair of mine.”

“No, I’m fully aware of your circumstances, Conqaide. And you’re the worst offender of them all, the exact opposite of me. You were born of the same filth as I, and yet you gained your current status not through hard work, but as an artificial gift from an outside source. And despite this gift being granted to you like a godly blessing, you even dare to wish that you ‘didn’t have this strength’? With that mindset, you truly don’t deserve anything.” Taking a few more breaths, Nobelys turned and looked me right in the eye, his voice still a little bit hoarse from all his shouting. “Isn’t that right, human weapon of the Blue Phoenix Project, Code Number 84?”

My heart ceased its beating for a moment, and I felt my blood run cold in the most horrible sensation. “How the hell… do you know that name?”

“I did a lot of research into you after our fight that day, you know. The truth about your exponentially growing strength, your previous acquaintances and companions, I gathered information on all of them so that I could find you again. Shagrane, Medallo ‘Silver’ Oakis, Sophie ‘Strongarm’, Rasp, Gears, Unox, I tracked down these renegades one after the other, trying to get a grasp on where you could have fled. My strength and experience grew with every battle, though I must admit some of them actually managed to put up a bit of a fight. Despite this, I came up victorious each time, but I was never able to catch wind of you. That is, until you appeared in front of me yourself, without warning.” Lowering his arm ever so slowly, he stared at me with a pair of defeated eyes. “After everything I went through, you’d think that something would have changed. But no, I couldn’t even manage to hold a candle up to the strength that you had acquired. I lost, completely and utterly, for the second time. And that was when I knew, no matter how hard I worked, I would never be able to surpass you.”

“No, what are you talking about?” I shook my head, trying to make sense of his words. “I’ve only ever fought against you once.”

“Conqaide. Before I met you, I had lived a simple life. Whenever there was something I wanted, I worked hard to get it. Whenever I saw a gifted person wasting their potential, I worked hard to improve myself, to prove to the world that even though I was born with nothing I could still do better. But that all changed when after I was beaten by you. You defied all logic, defied the truth that I had built my life around, and that was crippling to my mental state. After countless sleepless nights, this was the conclusion that I reached: as long as you continued to live, in this world or otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to rest easy. Because the fact of the matter is, though my mind knows it is impossible for me to ever remotely reach your level of strength, my heart still cannot accept that fact. Even now it refuses to recognize the truth, that someone like you, who was gifted their power and never even worked towards it, will always be a step ahead of me.” The man talking to me now seemed like a completely different person than the person who was madly crying out at the sky just a few moments earlier, as if all his strength had been sapped away from him.

“And because of that, I devoted myself entirely to getting rid of you. So, feel free to laugh at my idiotic reasoning, to mock my insanity, to call me a monster. As I said before, I fully and readily accept all this. I’ll happily become a wicked villain, one who’s only goal is defeating the invincible hero, because I no longer know how to be anything but that. At some point in my obsessive chase after you, my mind had already realized that I had gone much too far, but my heart would not allow me to stop. It told me that if I stopped now, all the lives I had taken as stepping stones to reach you would go to waste. I had to keep going, keep on paradoxically killing those innocents until I eventually killed you, or those deaths would become meaningless in the end.

So, do you understand? Everything has to be perfect, and I have to take your life with my own hands in the most honorable way, or else my heart will not be able to accept the reality of what I have done. As it stands, I cannot even take my own life to atone for my sins unless I accomplish my goal of taking yours. Yes, I must be the sinful villain to the very end and completely destroy you, or else my mind will crumble under the weight of my actions without that justification.”

In that moment, I genuinely did not know what to think or say. I didn’t know what kind of emotion I was supposed to feel at his words, and Nobelys seemed to sense that, as he stepped closer to me.

“I need you fully intent on destroying me as well, in order for this battle to truly be fair. You said that we had only fought once, but that isn’t true. There was another time, much longer ago. Right, it was maybe nine, ten years ago.” Sucking in a breath, Nobelys pulled the lip of his robe down to reveal his chest, and the huge, jagged scar that ran diagonally down it. “Or did that earth-using Adamant woman mean so little to you that you would forget the face of her killer?”