A rumble shook the hill as the giantess of silvery metal took a step, widening her stance to deliver a blow with the Sword of Damocles. The vast silver blade in her hand shifted in shadows, only seen by the moon’s ruby reflection on the sword. Death was in the air, and I didn’t have an answer for the attack.

 

My strength stood around 60 times that of a normal human, and so, too, was my speed and my physical health. Barriers weren’t the only defense my energy provided; enhancement made me tougher, and increased health from pills made me harder to damage. I could theoretically push myself far harder than I was at the cost of increasing the wear and tear on my body.

 

Going beyond my limits carried its own risks. Regeneration only went so far; it wasn’t natural, only a technique I originally learned. To fuel it, I needed a massive reserve of energy, something I didn’t have.

 

So, the question was, could I run. I was bloody and still mad as hell. A red haze clouded my vision, but that didn’t change the fact winning didn’t seem likely. Gambling with my life to kill this bastard was something my old demon friend Marie would do.

 

I felt something shifting in my forearms like an itch that ran to the bone. This was the kind of situation she lived for a bet with long odds. Looking at the massive Sword of Damocles as it swung, I felt the anticipation she loved. Gambles were never sure things. A part of me wanted to honor my friend even if I knew it was the darkness under my skin.

 

That’s what made the darkness so insidious to feed it; I could find infinite excuses. Overclocking myself still wasn’t an option, but with my current reserves, I had enough energy to make a single construct. In another life, I practiced the energy blade thousands of times; it appeared on command as a 4ft blade extended from my fingertips.

 

A deep red light spread around me as I dashed forward into an incoming attack. The blade swung down faster than the smaller version had, but it was much slower to my eyes. Training had given me the speed and strength to match the speed of the spell. Since I was already going all out, I risked using a movement technique. Aura flashed under my foot, eating away at the last of my reserves as a single step rocketed me forward.

 

My senses hadn’t lied. After I defeated the fake fallen Hero, I sensed the real one within Medy. As I ran, the blade came down, and I raised my own to defend. Sparks exploded, lighting the world around us ablaze as the spell battled my construct. Chains chased me with every step, and I sliced them apart until one wrapped around my leg. With a hard yank, I was thrown through molten metal and the bodies of numerous broken dolls.

 

When I sliced the chain off, I was sent sprawling nearly four football fields away. Spears of metal followed me, firing like rockets as I rolled and defended where I could. Then, a spear ripped through my leg. My momentum was stopped, and I screamed as the meat of my calf split apart to finally stop me. Blood gushed out of the wound as I struggled between dispelling my construct to put pressure on the wound or keeping my construct to defend. When I felt lightheaded, I knew my decision was made.

 

I pressed hard against my wound as my regeneration ate away at my reserves. The only reason my ride hadn’t come into range was the fallen Hero’s metal control. I wasn’t sure if my magnetism resistance seals would work.

 

The giantess Medy wasn’t coming closer, so I kept pressure on the wound until the bleeding finally stopped, and my leg was on the mend. Minutes after the last attack, the giantess began falling apart.

 

I stood up on my damaged leg and started making my way downhill, killing any mobs that stood in my way. A spear shot through my back not far down the mountain. It ripped its way out, and I turned to see the fallen Hero dressed fully in silver armor. On closer inspection, it was Medy taking the form of armor.

 

“Did I mention I had a third phase?” Walter asked.

 

I blasted Walter with a laser that deflected back and hit my shoulder, burning a hole to the muscle. My teeth clenched; there was no pain the nerves were burned away almost instantly. It was the smell the wound smelled like crackling bacon; it made me feel sick. Then my arm went limp.

 

It would take a long time to heal.

 

My knees buckled as my reserves fell over the edge into a downward spiral to keep me from bleeding out or going into shock from my wounds. I couldn’t let it end here; there had to be something I could do. The laser normally worked in the other world; no one controlled metal like Walter. Everyone had powerful barriers that took piercing attacks to cut through or wore Mythril armor that outright negated offensive magic. Precision had been the way to go. In this new world, I seemed to be behind the curb.

 

I raised my good hand and made a claw. Five points using my fingers to control my aura would be needed.

 

“Go ahead; you can’t have that much power left. I will let you waste the last of your magic; it will make it easier to slit your throat.” Walter said.

 

Even in his third phase, Walter was cautious. The fallen Hero’s knees were bent, and his stance was wide. The second I threw my attack, he would dodge and move in for the kill. 

 

It was smart; I had enough energy in reserve to detonate myself as a final retaliation. The attack wouldn’t be very controlled, but I knew I could manage it. Instead, I drained away at my reserves, bottoming out with a technique I’ve never practiced. There wasn’t anything complicated about it, unlike my energy blade or laser. This was merely a fireball.

 

Aura concentrated in the center of my palm and pushed in on itself as I drained away my reserves. The world lit up as a tiny star appeared in my hand, with its light bleeding from my fingers. I concentrated the aura down as tiny as I could, almost like I was creating a construct, but it was merely a bomb. From the light, I saw what had become of my arms. Black veins grew around my fingers from the curse inflicted by Walter.

 

“I’m unimpressed,” Walter said.

 

An unknown phase three wasn’t something I had confidence in defeating with my current power. I needed more pills and months of proper training. My latest defeat hurt more than I thought it would. Maybe there were more lessons to learn from this defeat than; my meta wouldn’t work here. Perhaps if I was going to survive, I needed to learn this world’s magic as well.

 

It hurt the thoughts themselves and felt like a betrayal of everything I stood for. Still, without making a change, survival was impossible here.

 

I smirked and flicked my hand. The condensed aura exploded in front of me, and I leaped with the explosion as it burned me while sending me flying off the hill. My ship’s doors opened, welcoming me inside. As the ship flew away, I felt it shake. A spear tip pierced one of the walls and stopped on the other wall just above my head. In my haste to build my ship, it seemed I forgot to add piercing resistance.

 

Energy filled the dried, cracked well of my reserves, allowing me to regenerate at a much faster rate. Instead of sending my ship home, I had it rise high in the air just in case.

 

…

 

“That went better than expected; our boy is great at escaping dangerous situations. We didn’t have to use a concession to force the yearling to spare him.” Helel said.

 

“The darkness had taken its toll on him. Powerful emotions will only hasten the process, leading to mutations and eventually a fall to the side of Diablos.” Satanos said.

 

Uriel looked uncomfortable. Helel could understand few heroes are able to wield fire to such an extent without knowing magic or purchasing tier-3 affinities. If Atom learned some fire magic, he would eventually be able to summon Uriel as a mentor at tier 5. That was one of their ultimate goals. To be summoned by a hero would allow them to make more overt moves and tip the balance in their favor. Just as Diablos had her monster queens, Helel had her arch angels like Uriel and Satanos. Satanos was the only one among them that had an apprentice, but it would soon come to a close.

 

“That darkness will allow him to purchase a book of darkness on the first tier. He could choose to learn it instead of fire and summon me as his mentor.” Satanos said.

 

“We should hope he calls us soon so we may inform him of all his options,” Michael said.

 

Her strongest angel looked over at the sight of their newest Hero slowly healing high in the air. In contrast, a fallen hero struggled to hang on to a line of silver hundreds of feet above the ground. By the speed of regeneration, the new Hero should be fully healed before the fallen Hero can make it to the ship. Walter’s misinformed belief that a higher tier could earn him a ride was perhaps the only reason Atom lived still.

 

“Will the fight be different if they go to Atom’s farm?” Michael asked.

 

Helel focused on everything she remembered from the boy. The farm Atom had set up transformed magical energy into usable energy for his culture. Even if the boy took magic pills, they would only increase his personal reserves. His biases and even the laws of his world didn’t apply here. His method to enhance his body was merely how his personal magic worked when this world’s laws were considered. Atom’s descendants would enjoy such a boon as well. She hoped there would be no dragons with such abilities, or they might as well give in.

 

“So what will we do if he chooses light?” Helel asked.

 

Bringing Helel back to Echidna would have devastating consequences. The balance would immediately tip. Instead, it was likely they would have to send a weaker angel to teach Atom the basics. Helel was simply too powerful to step on Echidna freely. The immediate response would be a battle between Diablos, her four generals, and Helel alone. In such a battle, the planet was unlikely to survive.

 

“Let's hope he doesn’t choose light,” Uriel said.

 

…

 

There was a hanger-on. I could feel the bastard climbing up the metal line leading to my ship. I didn’t know why he didn’t use his magnetism magic to fly through his armor; maybe it was a lack of control. The floor became see-through, revealing the fallen Hero.

 

I wasn’t at full strength, and I couldn’t raise my left arm. Time was needed to fully regenerate it, along with an energy bath. After all the exercise I had, my PL was sure to rise with enough energy to fuel it. The problem was Walter. If I sent my ship into erratic movements, then he would surely learn something was up.

 

My ship flew toward my farm, where the energy was plentiful and mine. Every drop of the stuff was made to be the most effective to fuel my body. That was something my original couldn’t do since he lived with his brother. Specializing the energy itself mostly bypassed the need to genetically engineer livestock to hold energy easily processed. At the same time, my energy would be harder than the raw magic in the air to process for Walter. It would be the exact opposite of the fight on the doll hill.

 

I felt the need to fight swell up in my chest again. For some added preparation, I purchased my first magic pill, leaving me with 70p.

 

After staring at the innocuous blue pill for a moment, I took it. In an instant, I felt my reserves of personal energy increase. There was no foreign mana forming in my body or a mana core like I feared. The energy reserves in my body increased by 20%. I closed my eyes and opened them before laughing at myself.

 

I thought this world would follow some of the same rules as my old one, but cultures don’t exist here. No, it was more like the free-flowing energy that changed with belief itself was gone. Yet still, my culture remained. I felt it in my blood and bones deeper than I’d ever experienced before.

 

The same energy that allowed my culture to come into existence was absent, meaning the culture that had been set like wet cement was drying. Perhaps eventually, it would dry completely and become entirely solid.

 

Books of magic might as well be technique books to me. Everything was making sense.

 

My ship hovered over my farm and started the descent. Through my cube, I altered the defenses, letting the fallen Hero within. Then, I flipped on the magnetism resistance. My entire farm suddenly made it more difficult to use magnetism of any kind. If Walter used magnetism to control metal, he was in for a hard time.

 

I opened the door and jumped out before my ship landed. My body landed in a hole filled with liquid energy. The liquid soaked into my reserves, filling me beyond my original level. I rose with a higher PL.

 

My cube gave me a readout.

 

PL 325

 

I turned my attention to Walter, who struggled to get up from the ground after my abrupt landing. Medy’s armor covered his body, protecting him from the worst of the damage. His third phase really was something else. The giant form had been fast and powerful, but it must have had an enormous energy cost. This phase 3 form had Medy conform to a suit of power armor. Small metal hands pushed off the ground, helping Walter Franklin to his feet.

 

“You didn’t think it would be that easy to get rid of me, did you?” Walter turned up his nose. “I’ll be generous and let you get some clothes on before I beat you to death. Or you can make it easy on yourself and give me your ride and the spell book you used to craft it.” Walter said.

 

My ship turned and rammed down on him. He raised his hand, and it stopped midair. There wasn’t even a flicker from my magnetism resistance seals, so it most likely had nothing to do with magnetism. He magically controlled metal using his magic energy. There had to be some rules and limitations, and he didn’t seem capable of holding my ship in place.

 

Walter tossed his hand in my direction, and the propulsors on my ship fired, keeping the vessel from hitting me. Really couldn’t wait to fight people who weren’t Walter unless metal magic was a staple of all fallen heroes. That would be a little nightmarish. It would also make sense. His phase 3 might be the natural evolution of such a path. Armor that’s living and under the user’s control would be incredibly useful, especially if it moved itself.

 

“That trick again. Don’t you have anything new?” I raised my formerly limp hand and stretched to get my feeling back into it. “You must have a book on healing magic as well. I will collect that as well.” Walter said.

 

I sucked in a breath and felt my aura gather. I dumped the former meta of instant kill lasers and an energy blade. While those were still useful against mobs, I needed to step into the meta of this world. Learning magic wasn’t an option on the spot, but I fully planned on it later. Here, energy wasn’t a problem, so I could go all out indefinitely.

 

Aura appeared under my feet. Grass wilted, dirt dried into sand, and the sand burned into glass. I moved and punched the barrier around Walter. “Razor Threads,” another blow sent Walter off his feet spinning. I deactivated the magnetism and raised my hands.

 

I had all the energy I needed to make full use of my seals. We were in a place where I was personally as powerful as I could ever expect to be. A wasteful construct appeared in the form of three spears covered in runes. I tossed one in Walter’s direction and watched the metal ripple before sliding off of him.

 

Energy in the air depleted as I formed more constructs and launched them. The air above me glinted for a moment in the moonlight before the constructs yanked them out of the way. I watched Walter get dragged off his feet as his armor sloughed away.

 

“You are a metal mage, not an electromagnetism mage,” I said.

 

Walter’s eyes were wide as saucers when I spoke. The metal left Walter as I moved my constructs away with Medy attached to them. With a flick of my wrist, the constructs I controlled moved away from the fallen Hero.

 

“You break the balance, something like you shouldn’t exist,” Walter said.

 

“No, you’re being a sore loser. I mean, you won twice; how could I possibly be broken.” He summoned his Sword of Damocles, and it ripped from his magical grip by a construct. I kneed him in the chest and propped him up before cutting his arms and legs off with an energy sword. “We’ll get out of this, and then you’ll pay. I’ll make you suffer, you bastard.”

 

“I’m guessing you attacked me without a planned means of escape. Normally, I would kill you painlessly, but this darkness in my blood won’t let you off easy. I feel compelled to do you a horrible wrong.” I said.

 

Having my reserves filled as soon as I used them was addicting. My dick was already half-mast from what I planned to do next.