Another round completed, he came back and sat upon the chair that he had placed on the roof of a house next to the tower. It was the six-day since he had been waiting here for them to come out.

Taking a bite of bread, he started his practice. Flames appeared but there was a change. It appeared mid-air in front of his chest instead of his palm. Then the second appeared, the third, fourth, and on and on. They all simultaneously burst into a swarm of sparks but their movement froze, then they moved back setting into the shapes of the flames.

Suddenly, the sparks all started moving, all joining into a massive wave that moved according to his will.

Another day passed as he waited there but nobody came out. Multiple times he had the thought of just leaving this matter to a later date, he wanted to go and see his wife and even cure her with this elixir but he bore it in.

‘But he will go into hiding once he finds all others dead.’

With nothing else to do, he became more and more engrossed in the skills, practicing constantly to enhance them. The time passed and suddenly he heard a light laughter pass through the wind. His head snapped towards the direction. 

This place was devoid of any sound, nearly pin drop silence so even this small sound caused a lot of disturbance in the silent atmosphere that had been covering the place.

He quietly circled the tower, coming upon a group of five standing with their backs to the tower. All of them were young and scared. 

His palms both merged and a torrent of fire rushed out, bursting towards the group that had just come out. They were engulfed in fire. Then one of his hands broke off, and the power in the fire halved but with the now free hand he took out the wooden bombs throwing them all around the area. He stopped the ongoing torrent of fire.

Twin swords appeared in his hands and he jumped, landing against the tower, then he jump, landing against the wall and then towards the group. Barrier shimmered around him as he rushed into the fire that was still going strong. As he moved within the hot fire, there stood a bubble. The spherical bubble was a dark blue, almost black in color.

His sword cut at the bubble, but as it entered it, he felt an extremely strong force. He let go immediately, the sword was quickly mutilated, crushed, and then snapped. The outer half fell with a metallic clank.

His eyes narrowed as he watched the spherical barrier. It reminded him much of his own as he circled around it. His mind turned as he considered what he should do. Inferno just now had not accomplished anything despite its power. An idea appeared-

Eyes widening, he jumped back. The shot he had barely dodged only letting it slightly graze by but even that was dangerous. Just the slight graze had taken a chunk of meat off that area. His own barrier shimmered into existence, from red to oranger to bright orange. It quickly changed its color. He slowly closed in on the barrier but it too suddenly moved. He ran, quickly catching up, and then the barrier collided. Instantly he could feel his own weakening but he pumped in more energy. 

The color slowly changed while the barriers clashed with each other. From orange, it slowly converted into white, and the moment the new color snapped into place the effect became apparent. Suddenly the pull at his reservoir sped up even more and then with a popping sound the barrier collapsed. And then he could hear sound and see too.

“Hurry up!”

And then a barrier appeared. A familiar flaming barrier appeared but this time he could not see within. Still, just like before the barrier collided and this time it quickly broke down. The attacks kept coming, the sparks helplessly fizzled out when they exploded upon the white barrier while the high-pressure shots of water evaporated the instant they touched the barrier.

He slowly closed in on them, observing. All of them looked young, and a few scars spread all over their visible skin. But still, they looked okay. Only one among them he could somewhat recognize. The old man had become young, looking like he was in his twenties.

He felt a pleasant feeling spreading all through his body as he watched them all panic, especially Kamran.

The bygone memories repeated within his mind. The time when he was in court trail, helpless, and each and every time this man had been there as though to mock.

During all this time he had been in conflict on whether he should actually go for revenge. He could do so much better, after all, save so many. But now that he was here, standing, looking, he found his answer.

He had saved many before, just at the start of this disaster he had saved hundreds if not thousands and he had felt a satisfaction that he could not describe but it was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. Now at this moment that he knew that they could do nothing but struggle, they could do nothing but cry and scream in despair, just like he had been in despair back then. The sweetest feeling blossomed within his heart.

“Hahahahahihihhihahaha! Yes!”

His fists clenched and he stopped forwards while they stepped away. He slowly moved them towards one of the nearby wooden blocks. They kept retreating while keeping attacking. Only two of them did so. The remaining three, weapons out and pointed toward him.

He kept advancing. He could not feel any pressure. None that he had felt from any of his boss encounters within the dungeon despite facing off against five superpowered people. He discord the thought and pulled the trigger.

Suddenly one of the three transformed, mud replacing the flesh and skin and it covered the other four as the shrapnels pierced into the mud body. The fire from the explosion itself had never been that dangerous and with the shrapnels blocked they did not get damaged instead the remaining too also transformed. One replaced with a watery being while the last one he could not describe. Just the air swirled around it-

‘Maybe air related’

He did not think it mattered much. If they were at the level of Furkan he did not have any worries. A fist-sized spark appeared in front of him, light orange. It quickly left the barrier, exploding into a swarm and heading towards all five while he stopped.

They still had not recovered from the explosion and thus desperately tried to gather themselves. The sparks landed upon four of them, the fire and water mage, and the two with water and air transformations.

Screams. The swarm of sparks exploded with orange light upon their bodies. They tried to run, dodge. The barrier appeared while the other two ran, the person with water transformation effortlessly rolling on the ground at high speed while the one with air swirling around him, flying.

It was all for naught and the swarm caught up to them and exploded. The blue-colored barrier too exploded helplessly, as did the fire barrier, fizzling out. Their casters unprotected quickly met their demise. The water covering the body evaporated and what was left behind was a grotesque monstrosity with all of its muscles visible, and no skin at all. 

The one with air transformation too fell to the ground. The body was charred. The air had only helped him as the sparks exploded but though the fire itself was unable to do anything, with each spark exploding the temperature of the air kept increasing until the air itself had become fiery, burning the body.

There remained only the Kamran.

The spherical barrier became rectangular, protecting only his front.

“Old friend, how are you? I really missed you, you know. Hihi”

“Wwwhooo arrree youuu.”

A rumbling voice came out. It was unhuman in vocals but he understood it.

“Look at you all, forgetting about your best friend. You are just like Furkan.”

“Furrrkaannn?  Whhaat ddii yoooouu ddoo?”

“Nothing much. Just made them meet some acquaintances. They were pumped up. You should have seen.”

“Whhoo arrre you?”

The arm was inhuman now that it was covered in mud.

The barrier shrunk downwards allowing his face to be visible as he took out the cloth.

“Byyy Goddd!”

“Ha! So you too believe in God? Didn't take you that type.”

“So remember me? Your old pal that you put in jail”

He grinned as the mud rippled where there should have been a face.

“Surprise fucker, hahaha. Prepare yourself, it is not going to be pretty.”

Sparks bloomed and burst in front of him, the sparks talking the shape of a blade according to his will. With each step he took more and more sparks were added to the blade until it was because of the length of a real blade.

 The red blade moved as he willed, consuming the energy but he could maintain it for a long while due to the massive size of his reservoir.

The sparks exploded upon touching the mud. Nothing much happened other than the surface hardening.

“I don’t know who you are but you are not getting away with this.”

“Really? You don’t? Well, it matters not if you don’t I will help your memory.”

He did not seem to be feeling any pain so he pushed all the sparks at the same point on his arm. The area kept getting hotter and hotter until it started turning red and then the solid started turning viscous and then liquid.

“Ahhhh!!!”

“Hihi, there is more to come, don’t worry”

He had promised to make them feel the pain he had felt and though most of them had died he would make sure he would be fully able to sympathize with him but for that, he needed to take care of the mud armor covering his body.

Multiple sparks, all orange, bloomed around him, exploding into sparks as he willed them. Now much higher in temperature, melting the mud took much less time.

“Release this transformation. You are going to die otherwise.”

Even if he did not take it off, the screams that he was hearing now, he could feel himself being healed. Tears came out of his narrowed eyes as he silently kept burning the armor. Within a few minutes, all over the body, was covered in melted mud. Now the sound that did come out of Kamran’s mouth was raw. Each coming out with much difficulty.

It had been half an hour when the change occurred. The transformation was released and his body was not covered with burn marks where ever the mud had melted.

“You see this-”

He showed his arms, both were burnt and filled with marks. He sat down next to him.

“I had vowed to inflect this same pain upon you guys. I hope you like it.”

Kamran's eyes were wide, mouth opening and closing,

He took out a thick block of wood and lit it upon the fire. Creating a tether with it, he controlled the fire, willing it to move onto the arm. Instantly the screams ran out again.

His face had gone blank a while back as he mechanically performed these tasks.

First, it was the left arm, then the right, then the legs, then the back, then the chest. He would have died already if not for the elixirs that he had.

By the time he ended, Kamran’s body was covered in burns. He had gone quiet since a while ago. He pushed the elixir down his throat and instantly the body was completely okay again as though all that had occurred had been a dream.

He felt a little satisfaction in what he was doing but he felt lighter, as though the pain that he inflicted resolved the madness he had gotten from the tower. 

Each time he burned, the memories only came back in his mind, refreshing what he had gone through. Still, he did not stop, he had vowed he would have them taste his pain and despair and that he would.