"Oh, that idiot died too easily..." Wasp thought to herself. She wasn't aware of how Sebastian had revived, but that didn't matter to her. The death of her convenient escape tool also didn't matter at all.

Since she was going to wreck him anyway.

Wasp lifted her handed and tied her hair into a ponytail. They didn't stop to let her do it. This meaningless gesture was done leisurely while watching them attack. She wasn't in a rush.

In her sharp eyes, the world was slowed down.

Her adrenaline was pumping, but she was calm.

Sebastian took out an amethyst Spirit Stone and focused the electrical output exuding from him. He was doing exactly what she had predicted after having done his autopsy. The way she expected.

"Let the heavenly tribulations converge... Lightning Judgement!" Sebastian invoked powers with his chant. The moment a truly inconceivable amount of electricity focused in her direction, she'd made her decision. Her eyes rested on the hostages she had.

The ever-so-loyal kunoichi handed the least important hostage they took right on over to her with a powerful throw. His body shot through the air forcefully. Landing in the grasp of the assassin.

"Agh-!" Adam didn't even have the time to scream properly before was directly grabbed at the neck by Wasp. His hands tightly tied behind his back, and having no way to resist being used against Sebastian.

It was a situation that was traumatising him.

"Why...? Why is this happening?" Adam thought to himself. Despair written all over his face. He could not accept reality. Struggling meaninglessly despite being in enemy hands. Not wanting to give in.

His kidnapper did not appreciate his rebelliousness.

"Catch." Purple Wasp spoke fast. Her actions even faster than that one word. Using everything at her disposal, the eastern assassin threw her target directly into Sebastian's projection of energy.

Concentration was important to a Magician, so the sudden change in circumstances threw him off. He had no choice but to adjust his output. Trying to not turn their new landlord into ashes on the ground.

It was an unavoidable mistake...

A body slammed onto his shoulders. Sebastian didn't have time to disperse or alter his spell, causing it to misfire. He did not scream, but the interrupted magical spell was causing harm to him internally.

Sparks erupted and sizzled through his body. 

"Ssss..." Sebastian hissed in pain.

The only fortune was that Kang Hyuk managed to sneak away before that happened. His eyes glanced at his friend's worsened condition. Residual sparks of electricity had surrounded Sebastian's body.

Things weren't looking good.

While Purple Wasp approached to finish the job, a shadow headed towards the ninja girl stood behind her. The battle afterwards was truly a mess. It didn't take long for the intruders to overpower them again. 

After all, nothing about them had changed.

Sebastian somehow managed to heal from the deadly wound on his forehead, but that was it. Now he was in a position no better than before. Kang Hyuk was unbound and able, but he wasn't to be compared to a real fighter who ascended via battle.

Hyuk still managed to distract the ninja girl.

His battle tactics all dirty and underhanded.

On the other hand, Wasp used her 'Poison Qi' to knock out the opponents she was up against. She picked up Adam's slightly electrocuted body and pushed him down onto Sebastian's figure, then slammed both of them down to the ground.

Finishing things up with singular stabs from her daggers. An efficient way of taking these future test subjects down. It was so brutal yet graceful that... a person had to think of how experienced she was.

This all seen by Simon's disturbed consciousness.

The old man couldn't quite make out what was happening beyond that. Not even what came first and after. His mind was getting sober, and that feeling of clarity finally made him become unstable.

Simon somehow managed to stand on his two feet.

With a single step, he swayed towards Hyuk and the kunoichi while they were having their battle. It was as if he had just woken up from a dream. Yet the ninja girl fighting two targets couldn't touch him.

"...H-hey, don't come here yet. I'm still fighting here." Hyuk's words were treated like air. He was initially worried, but the masterful 'drunken dodges' created by his sways made him slowly go mute. 

Simon's consciousness faded away again...

Time passed...

An amount of time he was unaware of...

How long was he blacked out...?

He managed to regain control, but the next scene he saw was his bloodied fists among two bodies. Both his friend and foe were on the ground. His fists hurt as if he had been beating someone up since earlier.

What was this sudden shift...? 

Simon couldn't understand what happened, but he felt this situation was very familiar in his eyes. As if it had happened once before. His head felt some pain, and he had his first clear thought in a whole:

"My toxicity intake is ruined..." Simon thought in an unnatural, mechanical way. The only thing he could figure out was that he was a bit hungover. Though this meant something different to him than what it meant for normal people. It was not a hobby.

The alcohol acted like medicine for his condition.

Naturally, too much had negative effects on them. 

A normal person would experience symptoms similar but not limited to: Fatigue, weakness, thirst, headache, muscle aches, nausea, stomach pain, vertigo, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiety, irritability, sweating, and increased blood pressure.

It was different from that feeling of intoxication.

That feeling from having 'just enough' alcohol.

Being hungover meant suffering the serious after-effects of drinking. However, how did that hit Simon differently? Why did that even matter? And how did that relate to his current situation in the present?

Only the old man himself knew the answer.

The 'answer' was complicated, but the short version was that his fighting experience was brought forth into reality. It put him in a state known as 'Drunken Chaos'. A rarer state than the 'Inner Harmony' state that martial artists of all worlds strived to achieve.

The requirements to reach this combat state of mind needed two things: Talent and intoxication. Simon had the former, but the latter never seemed to apply to him until his mind was completely wasted.

"This is her fault...!" Simon thought irritably towards the nearest target for his wrath. He turned to see the now horrified face of the assassin sent to capture them. That femme fatale that nearly caught him.

Wasp couldn't believe it.

It hadn't been long since she took her attention away from the kunoichi to put down her targets. She was fully focused on every move they made. After all, she needed to check whether her teammates really died in that explosion earlier. If this mage killed them.

She had to decide whether to abandon them or not.

Regardless if they were dead or alive.

After all, escaping through the front door was suicide thanks to the guards sent by the nation's royalty here to protect Adam's territory. Entering was easier than leaving, and deadweights will only slow her down.

Taking all of them out of here wasn't possible now.

Especially without the magic of her teammate.

After incapacitating the Magician and landowner with swift precision, Wasp looked inside the room they initially entered to see charred figures. Two of them sprawled out onto the ground weakly.

While not being unharmed, they also weren't dead. 

This made her think through her choices.

"Go blame me in Hell." Wasp murmured, throwing lethal poison darts to finish the job on her former teammates. Being captured by the enemy wasn't an option for assassins. They were disposable items.

Leaving the girl alive would only complicate things for her true master, so she destroyed what was left of the things that could identify her on hand. The only thing left to do now was to bury the witnesses.

Wasp wasn't sure how Sebastian managed to revive himself, but she was sure he'd die for real if she chained him in a pool. Even if he had regeneration capabilities, if she tied him to the bottom of this mansion's pool, he'd die every time he revived. 

These were her leisurely thoughts after attacking.

Thinking deeply for a moment.

Using magic would also be impossible while being drowned. It was a little disappointing that she wouldn't be able to accomplish the task given, but that was it. Dying for the sake of being a tool was her purpose. Her reason for living was why she'd die.

"Now, the only thing left to do is take care of the loose end." Wasp really didn't think of Hyuk as that end. Rather, the person she wanted to erase was the kunoichi who could possibly reveal their affiliation.

Although she was sure Gaia Humans only lived by their instincts, it wasn't as if they had no brains at all. Torture would definitely make that woman say something she shouldn't be telling other people.

Wasp grasped her dagger and walked down the stairs with the intention of finishing the mission herself. However, the sight she saw stunned her silent. There was no better way to explain that look.

Her last teammate lay defeated on the ground.

Seemingly lifeless.

Standing above both the bloodied kunoichi and martial artist... was the same old man she beaten silly earlier. He gave off a remarkably dangerous feeling. His entire personality seemingly changed.

"They must have been caught off-guard." Wasp was in thought. That was the only explanation that worked with this scene. How could she believe that guy who had no Mana nor health was able to beat the two of them alone? That was a delusion.

No matter how creative... everything had a limit.

How could that frail old man possibly hurt anyone?

How...?

The answer was given to her when he turned around. 

She knew it the moment their eyes met.

"Insanity...! What is this insanity?!" Wasp agonised internal over this. She'd lived longer than many of her profession, but not long enough to have seen someone with such a terrifying gaze- No, someone with inhuman eyes. As if they did not know emotion.

They weren't that of a beast or filthy creature. She had seen many psychopaths and mentally unstable killers in her era, so she could understand it easily that the geezer before her couldn't 'see' anyone.

The reality in his eyes were simply delusions.

The world in the old man's hollow eyes no longer abided by the common sense that dictated the laws of reality. If this was all, she might have only been somewhat surprised... but that wasn't everything.

The old man now wasn't an animal nor an emotionless machine. Those eyes looked at her like an eerie creature that only knew death. Different from the casual look Jone had when killing people.

Such creepy eyes were directed towards Wasp, but she didn't cause any accidents from being annoyed like that. Her motives hadn't changed, and she had a job. She knew anything she said was worthless in front of someone who could make such strange eyes.

Her only option was to use dirty tactics to win.

After binding Sebastian and Adam (who she poisoned earlier), she strapped a lethal venom bomb to Adam's waist... then shamelessly threw the duo over the same way she did to disturb Sebastian.

Their two figures were flung through the air after she used her Internal Qi to enhance the explosive power of her arms. Heading straight towards her final target. The only one who was left standing.

The exact same tactic that took Sebastian down earlier was used again. She had no qualms about doing this. Neither virtue nor chivalry existed for an assassin. Only success or failure proved her worth.

"Just try to dodge." Wasp thought and predicted his next actions in her head. She followed after them at a certain speed, and was ready to intercept him immediately. The only thing she hadn't planned for was Simon's reaction to comrades thrown at him. 

That horrifying gaze of his...

...and unexpectedly swift movement.

"...Huh?" Wasp was caught off-guard by an unexpected action. Her brain stopped momentarily when Simon's foot came crashing towards the land owner's face. Adam was in danger of certain death.

It landed on him cleanly...

Several sounds of bone breaking and flesh tearing could be heard, as well as a suppressed scream of someone in pain. Before the poison powder pouch could land in front of him, it was dragged by the hostages in midair. Thrown about like ragdolls.

They turned into a cannonball that hit a nearby wall. 

The powder spreading in the wrong area.

Wasp's eyes turned from the purple smoke of Poison Qi to the foot still lifted in the air, and how broken it seemed. Simon's leg was bending in an angle beyond possible. The joint rotation limit of his kneecap was exceeded, causing his foot to circle behind him.

However, Simon didn't seem bothered by his leg...

...nor fact that he just caved in Adam's skull.

Simon's eyes focused on the foe in front of him. Fear beyond that of death started to sink into Wasp's heart from that point. She could no longer hold her composure in front of such a display of insanity.

"S-stop! I said to stop!! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?!!!"

Wasp screamed like a maniac. 

Simon stumbled towards her with his broken leg like a zombie. He was seemingly unaware of his critical injuries. His movements were still chaotic and disorderly... Just trying to understand his rhythm was like listening cries from a creature from beyond.

It didn't take long. Wasp felt a sickly feeling overcoming her. This was despite not having been affected by a Mana inflicted ailment and despite true sickness in this world being nonexistent on Gaia...

She could only watch in a state of paralysis.

Simon was slowly approaching.

Each uncomfortable step was grating her ears.

One.

Two.

Three.

By the fourth step, he started to bend his back..

Barely using the broken leg of his to walk.

Purple Wasp just stood there.

Unable to stop the inevitable. 

Finally, he was in front of her sickly figure.

His eyes looking down on her. Weakened, but with an overwhelming presence of a predator that could make prey like her frozen. Unable to stop him even though she had all the means to struggle fiercely.

All had ended after that.

The sound of a neck snapping filled the silence... 

Time passed, but this time Simon was not alone.

It was a good time later that Adam awoke. 

His head was free of injuries, but blood still covered his face. All of that being his own. His broken skull fragments that scattered around were nowhere to be seen. Adam had reverted back to his previous look.

He woke up to find himself being laid down next to both Sebastian and Hyuk, their conditions much worse than his own. However, they looked like they would survive thanks to a certain someone.

"Hey, is that really you?" Adam asked the old geezer that was using cups and bottles from the kitchen as a makeshift chemistry set. The thick stab mark of a syringe being taken out of his arm was obvious.

Especially when Adam held that same makeshift syringe to his face. The smell of blood permeated the mansion. However, his actions wasn't why he asked this. Adam saw an expression on Simon's face he'd never knew the old drunkard could ever make.

It was an expression filled with emptiness...

Eyes that seemed both mature and intelligent, but also depressed to an extent he'd never be able to understand. Was this how the old man looked when sober? How was there such a big contract here?

"You're more talented than I gave you credit for." A voice both distant yet physically close resounded in his ear. Simon spoke mechanically and without a single emotion. Neither looking happy or sad.

"What... happened?" Adam just had to ask.

"We were attacked earlier." Simon said it plainly.

"By who?" Adam surveyed his surroundings more.

"Unsure. The only good thing is that everyone survived thanks to your 'donation' of blood." Simon didn't look like he was trying to explain himself out of guilt. It seemed more like he was just responding.

"My... blood...?" Adam raised an eyebrow.

Was that all it took?

"You're immortality doesn't only end in taking your ability to die. Physical alterations are common." It was only at this point, when Simon brought it up himself, did Adam remember he was immortal.

...However, when did this old man find out?

"..." Adam became silent when he heard such an indifferent voice speak like such a thing was so obvious. He wasn't sure how he'd found out, and he was scared to know more about THIS Simon.

He couldn't get a read on the geezer's intentions.

"Are you still reluctant to being taught by me? Is a little bit of physical exercise worth avoiding at this point?" Despite how badly they lost, Simon was still willing to stay here and teach Adam self-defence.

In fact, this seemed to only gave him another reason to do so. More than just to kill some time. The next time they were attacked, the old man wanted to have his disciple completely ready to fight back.

"...I'll accept your training. I'm sorry about what happened." Adam made his decision. However, the latter half made Simon look at him deeply. Looking like he had no idea what the young man was saying.

"There's nothing to apologise for." Simon waved.

"No... You probably already guessed that they came here for me." Adam had his thoughts and spoke like he was totally sure about the reasons. This large claim wasn't denied. The old geezer stayed silent.

"They could have been here to kill the three of us instead. Didn't they come just after we arrived here?" Simon seemed to not want to shift the blame like this. His rational thought devoid of an agenda.

"Whoever these people were, they didn't intend to harm me... but they still caught me." Adam looked at the two charred corpses placed nearby. Their actions were enough to indicate their motive coming here.

"Must be hard to accept." Simon shook his head.

"It is... Anyway, aren't you surpass by my skill?"

"Not really. You're the one who should be surprised by how I healed everyone only using your blood alone." Simon did not treat him any differently. The fact he was immortal changed nothing in his eyes.

"Yeah..." Adam felt his head. It like some parts of his memory were missing. Some sort of trauma was stopping him from remembering why his head was bleeding. Blocking any danger from his memories.

What did he forget?

His head started to hurt after remembering what happened to a certain point in the incident. He had a headache. Regardless, there was someone he needed to call. Needing to sort this situation beforehand.

"You take care of them, I'll try fixing our lack of security and wealth." Adam got up and had walked away. He narrowed his eyes... Just as the unsavoury capitalist had turned around, he heard someone popping open a can of beer can from his fridge.

The sudden slurping sounds followed a voice:

"Weren't you going to get stronger yourself?" Simon did not understand his intentions. The most straightforward way to deal with a problem was by using force, and cultivating that force was necessary.

"I will... but in the safety of my own bodyguard team protecting me 24/7 and security details."

He responded with an opportunistic outlook.