As the night ended, Marlon still hadn't closed his eyes, watching the thousands of stars shining in the night sky. For hours he had replayed all the information Loki had given him, turning it over and over, gradually integrating the new reality he was facing.

He had accepted what the AI had told him anyway without questioning it further. Too many things matched, and similar ideas had already made their way into the young man's brain. The realism so advanced that one could only call it a reality, the detail pushed to the extreme, and all these little things accumulated.

The only thing that really bothered him was the fact that he wouldn't get a second chance if he screwed up. But all in all, this adventure was already a second chance for him, so he couldn't really complain.

When he got up that morning, with the sun making a timid appearance in the sky, his motivation had taken a level and he was feeling pumped up despite the lack of sleep.

"That's good, Marlon. Keep that mindset and you'll only win."

"Just a detail, Loki. If you're here, how do we get revenge on Earth?"

The AI remained silent, obviously not expecting this question. As the young man was about to repeat himself, she finally answered.

"To be very honest, I don't know yet. I have sacrificed all my power and advantages from Earth to help you and secure your victory. Only, if you become emperor, you will have full power over the management of Neo-Life's resources and its dimension. You will surely be able to achieve your wish by bargaining with other AIs or some humans on Earth. Who knows, you might even be able to return to the Earth dimension!"

Marlon was surprised by Loki's revelations. He had sacrificed everything to support the young man, even his position as Network AI, which was one of the pinnacles of power in the Empire.

"Would you mind telling me what you want to get back at me for so badly? After all, we're in the same boat now."

"Sorry, but it is a secret I wish to keep, for the time being, young Padawan. One day, perhaps, I will explain it all to you..."

The voice in his head had grown fainter in the last few syllables, and Marlon knew he would get nothing else out of it. Too bad. The young man's goal hadn't changed at all. The outcome would be just a little more complex, but if he had control of an entire world where magic existed, it would, without a doubt, be possible to take revenge on those who had taken his mother away from him.

The heat of the rising sun was beginning to spread and he soon packed up his makeshift camp before setting off again.

After talking with Loki, they decided to continue on foot. The AI had confirmed that gigantic carnivorous creatures lived in this lake and although it was unlikely that they were near the shore, Marlon preferred not to take that risk.

The air had become much cooler since he left Akranio, and now the mountains he had seen from so far away now seemed like giants about to trample him. As he watched the mountains loom over him, he almost felt a kind of reverse vertigo. The peaks of the land titans were covered with ice and snow, giving them an almost supernatural sheen.

The forest was gone now, and only a few trees remained here and there, much less thick and perennial than those in the Forest of a Thousand Miles. The trail to Delia was still there, halfway between the foot of the mountains and the shore.

Fortunately for Marlon, his feet would not have enjoyed a long walk on the uneven pebbles of the lakeshore. Large piles of rock were visible, and there were surely caves hidden from view lying on either side of these rocks.

Impressed by the change in the landscape since his time in Tekpos, the young man noticed these changes even in the animals he could see. There were no more small rodents walking and crossing the path as before, and the birds in the sky were also less numerous.

Maybe it was the cold, or something else.

"Second choice, big guy. This area, from Takpos to Delia, is far more full of predators than what you've been through before. But there are patrols assigned to clear the edges of the main path, so we shouldn't be bothered, don't worry."

A shiver ran through the young man, and it wasn't from the cold. To reassure himself, he put his hand on the hilt of his sword and mechanically tightened the guard before lengthening his step.

The smells were drier in this area, as if autumn had invited itself early, and a faint whiff of rotting flesh suggested that animals had been dead in the area for some time.

Luna followed him but didn't look calm, her hair bristling slightly as she nervously glanced around at every crack of a leaf or gust of wind.

All this was still of a nameless beauty. Despite the stress which took him in the guts, Marlon could not help admiring the path at the edge of which the trees extended and seemed to make a natural hedge. At night, it would probably be much scarier, but with the sun's rays, everything was fine.

They walked like this for hours, and Marlon felt tenser and tenser. It was...quiet. Much too quiet for him to feel comfortable. In all his time in this world, the wildlife had never been so dull and silent, except for the Devros clearing, but there was a giant monster there, so that explained it.

A smell of smoke reached the young man's nostrils, accompanied by a bouquet of pleasant scents as if several types of food were being cooked over the fire. There were notes of meat, others of fish, and he even thought he recognized the smell of grilled vegetables.

Far from relaxing him, the smell made him wary. There were people farther away, no doubt, but the episode in the hamlet of Takpos had made him very wary.

He drew his sword and pulled a scroll from his pack before tracing almost an entire multiple runes. It was composed of Breath and Spark, having proven itself during his blind revenge a few days earlier. He was careful not to finish it, leaving just one last line to complete.

In one of his training sessions, he realized that if the intent was strong in the first line, he could not complete it and finish it with the same strength of intent without changing the effects or power of the rune. This was useful if he wanted to prepare quick rune stocks to use, and it was what had saved him in the cursed hamlet he had set on fire.

For even if he was improving day by day, tracing a rune in the middle of a fight was still very complicated to do, if not impossible without exposing himself dangerously. He would still have to make a lot of progress to be fully effective in a combat situation.

His leather armor would allow him to escape quickly or land a blow before the other person reacted, but that was all. He decided to secure his progress and drew a second identical combination rune, just in case.

Then he took a final scroll and carefully drew a Vision rune, his intention to increase his field of vision as well as the distance at which he could see. He used this rune immediately, and when he finished drawing it, the design rose from the scroll and met his eyes, merging with them in a sharp snap.

"Hey, that's nice!" commented Loki's voice.

Nice was an understatement. Marlon's vision expanded to 180 degrees. His peripheral vision was no longer a peripheral vision, and everything became absolutely clear.

The colors had been enhanced, the shapes were much more clearly defined. Even the movements of the wind-blown leaves were perfectly clear, even though they were meters away, and his eyes had not been particularly sharp. Just good, that's all.

He could make out the indentations in the bark of each tree trunk, and the little bugs of all kinds that crawled in. There, ants advancing in an orderly line to their base, hidden under a pile of earth and mixed dead leaves. Here, small flying insects seeming to fly in almost perfect coordination.

The impressive visual acuity he had just obtained was, however, difficult to bear. He stayed still for only a few minutes to manage to stay focused on what he was doing without getting absorbed by the depth of what he could perceive if he concentrated on it.

He had only tried this rune once, and his intent had not been as strong. If he had known, he would have put less willpower into what he wanted to achieve, for a massive headache was coming on as his brain struggled to interpret so much information at once. Just when he thought his skull was going to explode under the pressure, it was all over at once.

His mind had just finished adjusting to his new visual abilities and his headache disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

"Good thing you didn't try to see like a fly. Your head would have probably exploded."

Loki's mocking tone betrayed some relief, and Marlon suspected that the AI had also been shocked by what he had felt.

He began to move again, ready to handle an unexpected situation if it came up.

His instincts told him something was wrong after a hundred yards, so he doubled his vigilance as he moved through the trees.

Suddenly, a group of men emerged from behind the trees. There must have been a dozen of them and all were heavily armed and equipped. Chain mail armor covered them from head to toe, proving that they were not just penniless vagabonds.

Their weapons also seemed to be well made, long swords, for the most part, maces for the others.

"Shit. Be careful, there may be others in an ambush. As soon as you can, run. You're no match for so many opponents equipped like that."

Marlon said nothing but knew that Loki had read his assent in his mind.

"Hello, traveler! Don't be afraid, we don't want to hurt you! We only want to help you!"

The young man was not fooled for a moment but decided to play along to buy time and find the right window of opportunity to escape. He walked towards the group and immediately three of them positioned themselves around Marlon, without getting too close. The last two stayed in front of him, ready without a doubt to block his path if he tried to force his way out.

"Help me? And how can you gentlemen help me?"

"You carry a heavy burden, it shows. We just want to unload your most cumbersome possessions to support you, traveler! Coins, swords and armor, for example, are a real burden on the soul..."

This guy had no shame. The young man had to restrain himself from laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

The problem was that he couldn't see a way out of this situation. These guys were no novices and knew exactly what they were doing. He spoke softly to his partner of conscience.

"Loki, I'm going to try a breakthrough. Sorry if I fail. But these guys are clearly not beginners and I'd be surprised if they just stripped me and let me go..."

"I think so too. Pretend to surrender. And attack at the key moment. We're only two or three days away from Delia. Good luck, kid."

"Luna, when I attack, try to distract one. That will buy me time."

The chimera meowed its assent and Marlon raised a hand in the air toward the group.

"Guys, I'll be honest with you, I don't want to die at all today. So if I leave you everything I have, you'll let me go, right?"

The group looked at each other, exchanging confused and slightly disgusted looks at the total lack of courage in this guy. Marlon also saw in their gestures, which relaxed slightly, that he had just lost his status as a threat.

"Haha, sure. Come over here and stop two meters away from us. Then throw your possessions at us, nice and easy."

The young man nodded and walked towards the bandits, stress surfacing, along with his eternal anger. He could feel it coursing through his veins faster and faster, like an icy fire sticking him with rage. He controlled himself so as not to let anything show, but he couldn't help but feel a growing excitement as he got closer to them.

"But it's that you like it, too! haha, my choice was definitely the right one!"

"Stop right there! Do as I say!" the leader of the group of thieves shouted at him.

The latter had not quite relaxed and was wary of this young man wanting to surrender. He had caught a murderous glint in his eye, and his instinct had screamed 'DANGER' instantly.

Marlon planted his sword in the ground, then obediently knelt down, removing his pack and laying it on his side, showing his goodwill to the robbers. Two of them had lowered their weapons completely, but the others were still on the alert.

He placed the two scrolls of explosive runes in front of him and took a deep breath before launching into what would perhaps become his last fight.

Then he let his rage out as he focused his intention on a gigantic flame, finalizing his runes with his right hand. As they activated and two monstrous tongues of flame flew towards the bandits, he grabbed his sword with his left hand and pulled it from the ground.

BOUUUUUUUUM

Three of the five bandits had been burned by the flames and were writhing on the ground, screaming in pain, trying to extinguish the fire that was eating away at their bodies, without success.

The last two, including the chief, had had reflexes worthy of fighters and had thrown themselves out of the path of the flames. The chief still had one arm injured and was holding his sword with his other limb.

Luna, without waiting any longer, threw herself at the second fellow and scratched his face viciously, again and again, feigning violence. Unfortunately, the latter grabbed her and threw her against a tree, where she crashed with a noise of bones colliding, to finally not move anymore.

Marlon felt an intense pain in his side but he did not pay attention to it, throwing himself on the leader of the bandits by launching an attack from the bottom to the top to put him out of action as quickly as possible. His opponent managed to block the first attack, an incredible feat considering the speed at which Marlon was moving thanks to his enchanted armor.

His rage took full possession of him and he began to scream like a man possessed as the two swords clashed again.

CLANG CLANG

"HAHA, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!"

"arrrrgggg, if I had expected that!"

The chief had a slightly panicked look in his eyes. Each blow that Marlon gave was of an unheard-of violence and sparks danced when their blades met, making life hard for the man's defense which weakened with each blow.

His companion arrived and kicked the young man in the kneecaps, who saw it at the last moment and managed to dodge it by rolling on the ground, taking a slight distance with his two enemies.

"Come here, scum!"

The leader of the bandits returned at once and Marlon blocked him, trembling under the effort that his muscles made. As the accomplice came at him with his sword held high, ready to strike, he kicked the leader in the stomach with all his strength. Taking advantage of the millisecond of respite that he had granted himself, he threw towards the second man the earth that he had hidden in his hand during the roll.

The man, who was not expecting this at all, was totally blinded, reflexively bringing his hands to his face to wipe his eyes. The last mistake he made.

Marlon then pivoted on himself and put all the strength he had into a sideways attack aimed at the blinded man's neck.

The move was decisive, and before any reaction was possible, he cut off his opponent's head. It flew down the path, but the young man could not rest. His anger would not allow it, nor his opponents.

"Watch out, an archer is ambushed!"

Lowering his eyes quickly, he saw that the pain he felt a few seconds earlier was due to an arrow that came to plant itself in his side. The adrenaline made it still manageable, so he threw himself on the chief to finish this fight, but the latter was very tough.

"Lorden, you fucking killed Lorden! HAAAAAAAAAAA"

The chief had a renewed strength and Marlon found himself assaulted under a cloud of blows, each more violent than the other.

High attack, side attack. Another high attack followed by a knee strike that would have emasculated him if he hadn't stepped back in time. The cadence of the blows did not slow down and each one of them resounded until in the bones of the young man. But not for a moment did he ask himself any question.

All he wanted to do now was to kill his opponent and quench the bloodlust that had gripped him.

The battle-hardened veteran felt a chill run down his spine as Marlon had a smile frozen on his face and his eyes gleamed with murderous lust. He had to be finished, and fast!

But the man fought like a knight, without desperation, without real bloodlust. This was what lost him. The rage he felt to avenge his friend was not enough, far from it.

Taking advantage of the fact that the man was raising his sword for yet another high attack, Marlon tried everything and threw himself forward by dropping his sword, giving a blow of ball which made him see thirty-six stars.

He grabbed the man's head with all his strength and continued to crush his skull with his own.

One, two blows. The chief's sword fell to the ground with a loud 'cliiing'. But Marlon did not stop. Three blows, four blows. He was no longer hitting a skull, but an infamous mush that covered his face with each impact. Five blows, six blows. The worst part of it all was not the spectacle, which would have put a strain on anyone's stomach.

No, the worst part was the hysterical laughter of the young man at each blow.

"MARLON! LET IT GO! HE'S DEAD!"

The young man came out of his murderous stupor, the taste of blood and other far more horrible things in his mouth, a dull pain ringing in his forehead which he had used as a battering ram.

He heard Loki's voice, but far too late.

A second arrow hit his left shoulder and the pain became much more intense. Fortunately, this salvo had just made him understand where the archer was hiding.

He picked up his sword from the ground and took cover behind a tree, catching his breath for a few seconds. He poked his head out from behind the tree, and immediately an arrow flew in his direction. Fortunately he had expected it, so he took cover, letting the arrow pass, before running with all his might to the archer's hideout.

He held his sword only with his right hand, his left arm totally incapacitated by the arrow stuck in his shoulder.

Despite his injury, a satisfied smile lit up his bloody face, making him look like a demon straight out of hell.

He reached the archer in less than two seconds, but the archer was waiting for him. He had pulled out two silver daggers that looked razor sharp.

Marlon brought his sword down with one hand on his neck with a primal scream, and although he only had the power of one arm, it was enough to break the man's defense. As he blocked Marlon's sword with both daggers, Marlon swung a ferocious kick into his opponent's testicles, almost lifting him off the ground with the impact.

SPLAARRRRSHHH

The archer's face blanched, his nuts making the wet sound of a balloon being popped under the violence of the blow, and he fell to his knees as his daggers lowered. His eyes were blank and the high-pitched howl of pain he uttered would have sent shivers down the spine of any living male for miles around.

Marlon raised his blade and with all the strength he had left, slammed it into the neck of his enemy, who did not even think of defending himself. His sword sank deep into the man's neck and a geyser of blood sprayed the mad young swordsman, who was not so close to this anymore.The blade did not succeed in crossing the bone, however, but it did not matter to the young man. He was still alive! And he had quenched his bloodlust at the same time.

The rush of adrenaline subsided after a few seconds, and the pain swept through Marlon's consciousness like a tornado ravaging everything in its path. Black dots began to dance in front of his eyes and he had to make a real effort not to fall to the ground.

"Don't pass out just yet, kid! You have to get the arrows out! Start a fire first, make it quick!"

Grunting to make it clear that he understood, he walked towards the place where the group had come from, a few meters away. Walking hurt terribly in his side, and the pain went up to his bones with every step he took.

It reminded him of the pain in the Devros clearing, when he had been gutted, but this time he had no healer on hand.

In his misfortune, he was lucky. Just beyond the path, hidden by a rocky outcrop, a still-burning fire pit was blazing, full of food gently cooking on raised spits.

He dropped, rather than sat, next to the fire, and his gaze became distant.

"HO! DON'T SLEEP! If you do, you're screwed, and so am I, kid! Put your sword into the flames and break the arrow shafts before you pull them out. I suggest you bite something for the pain..."

Loki's invective had the desired effect, and Marlon straightened up, quickly breaking the arrow shafts as he screamed in pain. He took a piece of his shirt, tore it off and put it in his mouth to bite down on.

He completely ignored the acrid taste of sweat and blood mixed together and began to remove his leather armor, wincing as he nearly collapsed when it pulled lightly on the remnants of the arrow stuck in him. Big drops of sweat ran down his face from the pain he felt, but he did not stop.

He felt that his life was at stake at this very moment, and that if he didn't act quickly, he would bleed to death and lose consciousness. The arrows didn't seem to go deep, thanks to his armor. Otherwise he would be dead already.

"You start with the one in the belly. You pull it out with a sharp blow, then you cauterize the wound with your white-hot blade. It will be extremely painful, but do your best to stay conscious..."

Marlon grunted again, unable to speak. He took a deep breath and drew the arrow, screaming in pain as he threw it away. Blood began to flow more profusely from the wound and he grabbed the sword, whose blade had turned bright red.

Without thinking, he put it against the wound with force. His jaw almost broke because he held it so tightly, but thank God the cloth in his mouth prevented him from breaking all his teeth or cutting his tongue under the pressure.

"ARRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHH"

The smell of grilled flesh that reached his nostrils disgusted him deeply, knowing that was his smell. The pain ravaged him, and he felt his mind flicker like the flame of a candle in the wind, nearly going out several times in just two or three seconds.

Her vision became blurred, shapes blurring and dancing before her pain-stricken eyes. Cold drops of sweat dripped from her face as the almost suffocating heat of the fireplace radiated strongly.

"Bravo, Marlon! Come on, don't waste time and take care of the second one. Then you can pass out."

He did exactly as Loki suggested and ripped the second arrow from his shoulder before placing the other side of the blade on the wound. The sizzle of cauterizing flesh and the vile smell nearly made him vomit again, but his teeth were far too clenched to let anything through, and his stomach was empty.

He dropped his blade as his mission to survive was accomplished. He spat the ball of cloth into his mouth. The sound of metal hitting the rock was the last sound he heard, along with Luna's worried mewl, before he finally let go and fell into unconsciousness to escape the pain that had become more than unbearable.

Everything went black, but despite everything that had just happened, a light smile floated on the lips of the young man.