Well, that seemed bad. Vacinay and I strolled beside him. I was the first to speak, “So… we’re cool, right?”
He didn’t reply. Darn it.
Vacinay placed her hand on his shoulder. “You aren’t going to be mad at me, right? Right??”
He stopped and looked at her with bloodshot eyes.
She withdrew her arm from him and said, “Okay, what we did was wrong. No apology can change that. I am sorry.”
“Yeah, me too,” I added.
He clicked his tongue and shrugged. “Whatever, that’s all in the past, and another world too.”
“Y-yeah!” I stammered.
“Exactly! Dwelling on the past is for the weak! The present and future are the only things that matter!” Vacinay declared with a cocky expression.
His eyes twitched. “However… I haven’t forgotten that you two stole my kills…”
Vacinay hugged him. “Okay. Now… that surely—”
“If you think pressing your chest against me is going to suddenly make me forget what you did, you’re missing a screw in your brain.”
“That wasn’t my intention, you brute!”
“Don’t care.”
She stepped back and crossed her arms. “To be fair, I don’t have to do anything for you to forget. I give it 10 minutes max, you’ll be interacting with me like normal.”
He grabbed her shoulders with tense hands, wearing an exasperated expression. “You infuriate me so much it’s insane.”
“And make you happy, I do that a lot too.”
“Rarely.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I don’t lie.”
“Liar, liar.”
I ignored them and was about to go deeper into the tunnel, but I remembered we needed Vacinay’s nose and Ghomas’s clones. We also had to recharge our EP.
After about twenty minutes, I turned towards them and said, “Yo Ghomas, it’s clone time, pal.”
He was lying on the ground and glared at me. “Weren’t you encouraging Vacinay to kill me?”
Vacinay heard and sighed, slumping. “What’s with you guys and living in the past! That was… about 2 minutes ago.”
He bared his teeth like an angry dog. “When I rip your organs out, I hope you’ll be saying that!”
“If by some luck you are capable of that, then I would be dead.” She shrugged. “You can try though. It would be fun.”
Ghomas got up and grunted as he walked forth, creating a single clone, the fast one. “When I get the right power-up, I’m going to make you eat those words.”
“You can do it!” she cheered, doing a cheerleader dance or something like it. Hessien grabbed her hand, stopping her, and they walked forward.
“Alright, alright. Cat mode.” She transformed into a small cat, hopped on his shoulder, then hopped down and walked behind Ghomas’s clone.
As we walked, the soil and rocks became redder. It didn’t look like blood, though. Then I started to hear the sounds of metal hitting against the ground, so we stopped.
Ghomas’s clone returned to him.
Vacinay returned to normal and summoned her blue firefly. It buzzed but, unlike before, it didn’t emit a blue light. What was the point of it?
It flew high over them like a spy. Could it relay its senses to her?
After a minute, it returned to her and buzzed by her ears.
I asked, “You can communicate with them? Where did you get the skill points for that?”
“It’s the passive skill of it,” she replied.
Ah…
She continued, “Anyway, there are about 55 of them. And obviously, I can’t read their levels.”
That was a lot…
Time to use the full power of time freeze then.
I cracked my knuckles as I told them, “Get near to me. I will use time freeze, but make you all unfrozen in frozen time. With that, we would take them out one by one. Since I can’t change the state of things frozen in time except for positions, I would have to unfreeze them one by one too.”
Hessien asked, “Wouldn’t that be extra taxing on your EP? That amount of constant unfreeze in frozen time has to use EP.”
… Oh. I hadn’t thought about that.
I thought hard, then an idea came to me.
“Using time freeze and fire is a bit too difficult for me to use at the same time. I think I did it, kind of? But I did it after I used the skill. For example, if I drop a fireball, I no longer need to control it. Which means I can easily switch to time freeze.”
“Get to the point,” Hessien requested.
“I want to experiment with something,” I replied, turning towards Ghomas. “After I do it, I want you to take them out using your lightning bolts.”
“Wait, what’s the ‘it’—”
Before he could finish, I manifested over a dozen basketball-sized fireballs and dashed forth to get a clear view of the setting. The light immediately gave me away, but it didn’t matter much. I leaped high into the sky and directed the fireballs at the edges around them—front, back, right, left. That was four, but to lessen the distances, I used the remaining fireballs.
“What the hell!” they exclaimed.
They appeared to be levels 24-27, with only two at levels 26-27.
Anyway, they were now surrounded by fire. One of them rushed forth and grabbed the ground, building a massive cannon which locked onto me. I glared at it. I wanted to test something out…
The cannon fired like a bullet. With my hands stretched out, as soon as I felt the weight of something on them, I used isolated time freeze.
It hurt like hell, though!
The one that launched it was left stunned.
Now, now, now!
As I dropped down, I grabbed the time-frozen fireball. Of course, if I could move the positions of those stuck in time, why wouldn’t it apply to isolated frozen objects!?
And even, better, it wouldn't consume as much EP, compared if I froze the entire world.
I spun the cannonball in the air and locked it onto the same person. As soon as it left my hands, they held their breath and ran away from its trajectory.
But nothing happened. The cannon did not shoot forth; instead, it remained suspended in the air.
Vacinay’s mouth dropped in disappointment. “That’s all…?”
“Believe in me!” I said and then hit the ground.
As soon as I did, over 50 giant spider legs zoned in on me.
Ghomas moved fast.
“Time to push it to the boundary!” He raised his hand up, lightning crackling around them.
Then, with a flash, the lightning shot forward, not as a single bolt, but like normal lightning. It branched like roots and hit all the spider legs and those near it. Even better, it was stunning all those nearby!
I clasped my hands, commanding the flames to form a fireball in the center. They obeyed, becoming streams as they were directed to the center.
Then I had an even better idea, but first, I wanted to test this one out. The streams of flames roared over them all, and better yet, I was building the fireball up slowly.
“Kill the fire user!” a huge lizard one shouted as he generated a metal spear from thin air and threw it at me.
Vacinay moved quickly in front of me and swung her hand towards it, which quickly transformed into the rat’s claws, but a giant version of it. It hit the spear, and the claws cracked but deflected it.
Vacinay yelled in pain but transformed her other hand into another giant one, and constantly self-repaired the damage.
Sweating and groaning in pain, she shouted, “Hurry up! Self-repair is very taxing!”
“Got it, ma queen!” I replied as I accelerated my progress.
Even if I couldn’t see them because of Vacinay, I had a general idea of what was happening because I could ‘feel’ my flames. I made the flames gather to a fireball instantly, then hit the ground, causing an eruption.
But to manage the eruption to make it not spread to us, I quickly used fire-ball again, which caused the hungry flames to gather up again.
I was quite skilled with this ability. Hessien gasped for air. “I thought I was about to be burned for a second because of the flames…”
“Really now?!” One of them leaped from the flames, burnt, and pointed his finger at Vacinay.
It glowed black and shot forward in the form of a giant ant.
Get… hit!
I focused on creating a fireball right where his head was, directing the already existing flames there. But I wasn’t fast enough.
Vacinay kicked back and grabbed me, then turned into a tiger. She held me by my hair in her jaws, then jumped to the side as the darkness ant absolutely decimated where we were.
Fortunately, my focus wasn’t completely broken, so the flames did hit his head.
He was the level 27 guy. No matter, fire was still fire. There was no way—
The giant ant turned towards him and extended its mouth, biting his head off. Huh…
As his body dropped to the ground with a thud, darkness suddenly erupted from his head, and he manifested a darkness-cockroach head.
Vacinay nudged me as she turned back to human. “Did you see… that?”
“Yeah…”
Ghomas ran back, now low on EP.
Hessien activated his mist. “Okay, what’s the plan now?!”
Ghomas mentioned, “Because of Lumine fire, while I was shocking them, I got like… 8 kills, I think. Anyway, I am level 22 now.”
They were pretty strong. If I had to guess, his electricity also caused nervous system issues in them, which contributed to their death.
Something huge landed near us.
“What’s it?!” I asked Ghomas.
“Can you get a stronger skill?” I hurriedly asked.
“Yeah, but I am not going to. Since I gained about 10 skill points… despite it should be 8, I can level up strength and speed, which both cost 3.”
Above our head, a massive snake tail composed of darkness whipped around us.
“I am going to kill you all!” the half-man screamed.
If that didn’t make matters bad enough, the mist in front of Vacinay suddenly parted ways, and a sonic beam hit her, sending her into a wall with a resounding thud.
“'Tis… nothing but a scratch…” She muttered as her face contorted in pain.
“Ghomas, what’s the idea?!”
Time freeze was strong, but because those I wanted to affect needed to have the state of their bodies unfrozen, it wasn’t too OP for assault. For example, I faced the issue of their defense being too high for a casual neck slice—risking me getting hit faster than I could launch time freeze. That wasn’t a random fear either, Ghomas did that twice. The first time, I was being childish with it. The last time, I actually tried to use it quickly.
Ghomas faced his hand in front of him and began generating a clone far faster than I thought possible. Not just any one… It was the strong variation, but instead of looking like they were on steroids… they looked like white-skinned hulks…
Standing at 8 feet tall, and probably weighing over 600 pounds was a single strong clone of Ghomas.
He shouted, “I upgraded it twice, it’s now level 3! And that’s it without me trying to push its limits!”
Oh…
From behind me, drilling sounds came fast.
All my fiery trickery consumed a bunch of energy points, but I still had over 25.
I jumped to the side, dodging the half-man who looked like a regular man but with a hammer for a head. Although, half of his body was badly burnt.
Around his hand were drills made out of his energy. Quite the brutal skill.
“Come back here, ya bitch!” He shouted as he closed on me at ridiculous speeds!
Fire skin!
As the drill ripped through my head, the fire spread like wind blowing out a campfire. But to my surprise, I didn’t get killed from it.
Fire skin turned more than my skin to fi—
Ghomas shouted, “I upgraded it twice, it’s now level 3—”
Oh hell no! I died!
I shut him up. “Nice job! Now, make a bunch of them and use all your EP for it!”
“Got it!”
He did so, making over three 18-foot-tall hulks. The issue was… They were too big for the tunnel! They were on their knees, making them easy shots.
The drill guy launched at one, but they weren’t one-shotting them. I guess they made good defenses.
“Ghomas, make them form a wall!” I shouted.
He did so, acknowledging they couldn’t do much to fight here. With a swing of one of their hands, they batted away those that tried to get to us. Then the clones lay on their side, forming a barrier.
Ghomas, exhausted, regrouped with us. Vacinay had also healed up, but not all her damage.
Hessien asked, “What’s the plan? A real plan.”
The clones were getting brutally torn apart, but still remaining as a wall.
I suggested something. They looked at each other and nodded. After two seconds, we were ready. I ignited fire skin on my arm near Hessien, who touched it while touching the closest Ghomas’s giant clone. After that, he touched my arm again, but while touching his chest.
I asked, “You feel okay?”
He nodded with a smile. “Yeah, don’t worry.”
Vacinay was in a cat-like position as she locked her eyes on the Ghomas clone head from which a drilling sound was coming. Vacinay called me over, “Do me too. Give me the burning skin. Not the Hessien’s version.”
I went over and activated fire skin on her and she set ablaze. However, she wasn’t harmed from it… But began coughing harshly, which made me remove it. “Shit… it burns up all the air.”
Then, Ghomas’s clone head ruptured open and five individuals stood before us, with more burned skin. Thanks to Hessien’s trick. I didn’t want to set it ablaze with actual flames because it would make them know what’s happening and it would burn away the clone. It seemed everyone else was close to death since I didn’t get a level up. Which meant… I could probably try that trick.
Time freeze. With time frozen, all those affected by isolated time freeze were now in their proper domain. Which meant… they would most likely be in my reach when I do this.
Unfreeze.
With time now unfrozen, it didn’t take a second for a huge boom sound to come from in front of the clones, where I burnt a lot of them.
It worked… Against the giant half-men, I experienced not being able to use isolated time fre while having time frozen.
So… I made that failure useful!
The darkness animal summoner guy asked, confused and horrified, “What did you do?!”
I grinned as the pop-up came.
Level: 25.
“I froze a cannon with insane momentum in time, then unfroze it, killing the already half-dead comrades of yours with it. It seemed it exploded upon contact, nice.”
Wait. I didn’t simply gain four skill points… I gained 13?!
Ghomas did also mentioned getting an extra skill point than he should have. And there was the fact Vacinay had more skills than she should have had for her level before she fought the snake.
Sure, I knew her skills would be cheaper than mine, but it couldn’t be that cheap!
Simple maths, she was level 12 when she had self-repair and the monkey form. It cost a total of 7 points for both. If she gained each skill point normally, she used all the points gained from levels 5 to 12. When she killed the snake, she reached 17, gaining 3 levels from it. So... reduced 3 from 17; she was level 14.
Yet... she obtained 3 different skills which surely cost more than 2 skill points.
I knew there had to be a reason for it, but whatever it was, it didn’t matter now.
They came charging at us. Vacinay took on the maned spike tiger form. And me? Did I mess with fire? Now now. Don’t be silly… I control time.
There was a skill I didn’t plan on getting, but ah what the hell!
I spent the entire 13 points on my new skill.
They came charging in. Follow the same plan? Hell no. We improvise.
With a yell, I proclaimed, “Fear me, mortals!” From me, a weird cracking barrier was erected. And suddenly, everyone in it movement slowed down by half.
I could do better… I could push it even more…
I made a smaller barrier in it, around me, doubling my speed speed.
The barrier clashes were sending my head in hell, but I didn’t care. I took a step and noticed my movement was regular. The slow barrier must have been canceling out the fast one. Increase speed by 4…
“Now I win.” I dashed forward with the knife in hand, moving like a jet compared to them.
The world felt so weird from my perspective. They were now moving so slowly. It was as if I was running at full speed, while they were jogging.
“Why… is she so…” Before the drill guy could finish his words, his neck was slit open by me.
Holding onto his neck with my nails, I dashed to the other one.
The darkness cockroach guy was surprisingly fast.
His speed kicked up, keeping up with me on some level. He brought his foot down on me, but I caught it. With a grunt, I realized my momentum wasn’t buffed. Not too surprising. It was simply time modulation. Despite that, I lifted him up and sent him wailing into the walls.
He hit with a loud thud.
A shadow covered me. A half-man with green, liquid, acidic hands, tried to catch me.
Vacinay quickly wrapped an extremely long metallic spiked tiger’s tail around his arm and threw him to the sky. I dashed forward, taking Vacinay’s sword too. As soon as the man hit the ground, I impaled his throat.
My head was pounding…
Suddenly the barrier disappeared, and the man spat a barrel's worth of acidic juices at me. I leaped back, but the spit condensed into a fine line and hit me directly in the—
“Got you!” A rough hand moved me to the side, and got hit by the line of acid which instantly melted the right side of his body. Hessien groaned as he cussed out loud. “This… hurts like hell!”
How did he…
Damn it! I was careless with my energy points! I should have stuck to the plan! I had no time to be regretful as the creature tried to tear Hessien in half, but as soon as he made contact with him, they immediately exchanged spaces.
A new skill…?
Wait, but… I turned back to look at the drill guy I had thought I killed. There was another hole on the side of his neck.
I see, when he was near death, Hessien must have been fast to take the kill. I needed to do something!
But my mind felt incredibly sluggish; the curse of 0 EP.
Vacinay was lifted off the ground and body slammed. The impact cracked the ground like a spider web.
She screamed out in pain as blood erupted from her mouth. Ghomas, who was defenseless, got punched so hard that he immediately lost consciousness.
The force sent him into the wall. It didn't end with one punch, it was an onslaught.
The darkness animal user exhaled and turned to look at us.
Hessien tried to do something, but the acid guy upchucked all of its acid on him.
No way… If… I am out of EP… doesn’t that mean, I… can’t fix this?!
My heart hammered against my chest as regrets spiraled out of control in my head.
I fucked up. I fucked up.
What the fuck was I thinking…?
The darkness giant guy picked up Vacinay by the feet, dangling her. “This one, I like her power. I think she will be a great wife for my son. The child's skill card will be interesting."
He looked at me. “Space warping of some sort, I assume? Hm. It’s not really compatible with our skill cards. I guess she would be a good sacrifice?”
The acid guy looking at me angrily. “Ah, what about a torture doll? She would be good to be used to test new skills on.”
I had gained 1.75 energy points. That should be enough.
“Hello Hello.”
A recognizable voice spoke out from under the acid. The acids dripped from the black wings out before it was shaken off.
Tanya…
With a smug look and Hessien beneath her, she made her speech, “Even if you all are barely considered flowman’s, I will enjoy killing you all. For two reasons… harming Hessien, which harms me! You know, it’s one thing to feel head-bursting pain. I can try to suppress that. But melting off an entire arm?! Do you all know how much that hurts?!”
She ranted off, visibly frustrated. “Anyway! Second reason, prejudice.”
Hessien didn’t seem to be in pain or agony. Even the melted part of his arm seemed somewhat… repaired. It was replaced with something completely white—like her mouth beam.
With her hand on her waist, she floated up.
They all were baffled. “Wait… An evil manifestation? What is another one doing there!”
She raised an eyebrow. “Huh? Another one of my kind?! Where!”
They withdrew their steps. Even the big darkness animal user. “Um…”
Then she looked up and became gloomy. “That amount of chaotic negative energy. I am guessing they were turned into some device meant to disrupt skills.”
They ran, but instead of chasing after them, she pointed her finger, shooting forth a white beam at one's head, instantly killing the acid guy.
Then she opened her mouth towards the darkness guy, and within a matter of seconds, his body was vaporized from a white beam.
Any others that were alive, she killed with ease.
Right… She made Yamanda look like an amateur in a fight. Of course, she was that strong.
With a smug look, she turned towards us, “Now that wasn’t so depressing, now was it!”
I didn’t know what to say, really.
I just asked, “Can you heal Vacinay and Ghomas?”
“Nah. I couldn't even heal my dear dear bound partner!” she seemed frustrated as she swirled around Hessien who seemed relaxed.
He turned towards me and asked, “You okay, right?”
I wanted to say something, but I felt too ashamed.
Tears formed in my eyes as I said, “I… am sorry…” I tried to hold it back.
After all, I was the one who suffered the least. I didn’t have the right to cry.
“Ugh…” He got up.
As he walked towards me, he directed Tanya, “The others should be in your range. Please use your energy to keep them alive, especially Vacinay. Once she is recovered, she can heal Ghomas.”
“Commanding me around eh…” she flew towards them, before touching them.
Hessien threw himself near me, exhausted. I
gazed at his new ‘arm’.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It doesn’t even hurt. Tanya is crazy, but it’s a good thing she is on our side.”
“I should have stuck to the plan,” I said.
“Hm. I mean, I don’t think it would have turned out very differently. The acid guy had that long-range sharp acid spit which would have spoiled things.”
“Yeah… but…”
“It’s in the past. Perhaps tell us why you are going to do something completely different next time. That way, we can know how to act.”
“Yeah…” I tried to wipe the tears from my face.
Using his energy hand, he wiped my tears. “Damn, you really are a softie behind that mean demeanor.”
I glared at him and stood up with shaky legs. It seems the stress really did a number on me.
“I wasn’t even crying, really. It was just my brain doing what it wants. But you wouldn’t understand that.” I went on talking while averting my eyes from him, trying to damn the tears that still came. “Unsurprising that you can’t grasp the intricacies of the human brain. I’ve always been the smarter one. Far superior… I… I am sorry...”
He wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “Alright, let’s move.”
We approached Vacinay, who was wincing in pain. Ghomas was blankly staring at the ceiling.
“Just so you’re aware, I’m giving you a level-up loan,” she informed Hessien, who looked puzzled.
His eyes widened in surprise. “What? You’re giving me skill energy?”
“Being composed of pure negative skill energy, I need that energy to maintain my form. I simply transferred all the skill energy I absorbed from these guys to you via our binding chain. Don’t worry, it’s not pure negative skill energy, it’s a balanced mix of negative and positive, the usual stuff.”
If I had to guess, she could also absorb positive skill energy but had to expel it. Similar to how the human body eliminates toxins to maintain purity.
“Much appreciated!”
“I said it’s a loan,” she reminded him.
“Wait, you’re not suggesting I kill people, are you?”
“Sort of.” She glanced at the ceiling. “I want at least half of the skill energy, obviously the negative part, from that scum up there.”
Hessien grinned. “Deal. You’re going to help with the fight?”
“No. I’ll only assist when things are dire or when I feel like it. If I’m always bailing you out, you’ll stay weak and pathetic. That’s a no-go.”
Hessien sighed but accepted. “Fair enough.”
He then turned to Vacinay, who was deep in thought.
“Are you in a lot of pain?” I asked.
“Which one? My body or my pride?”
“Both, I’m guessing.”
“Then no. My shattered pride hurts far more than my body! It’s so painful, I can’t even feel my physical pain! That jerk beat me and I couldn’t even get my revenge! And after all that trash talk? I’m so furious right now, I wish I had time powers to reverse it and kill him. But oh well, I guess I can just find his son and kill him! He was talking about me being his son’s wife. What if I wait for his son to get married and have a child? Then I’ll wipe them all out! How about that, huh?!”
She pushed herself off the ground, grunting. “I’m so pissed…”
Then she met Hessien’s eyes and looked at his new arm.
She smiled weakly. “Damn… they took the hand you used to beat your dick off with. Time to learn to use your left hand, eh?”
He sighed. “You’re so irritating… but I’m glad you’re okay.”
She hugged him, then lifted him, causing him to panic, “Put me down! Are you crazy! I can’t be seen as a child, I’m a man, put me down!”
“Nope, I thought you were dead! I wasn’t too worried because we have Lumine, but it was still pretty scary.”
He clicked his tongue. “All this depressing stuff is going to drive me insane. I was too worried about you. If you weren’t in my life, it would be pretty… empty.”
Vacinay, who was holding him up, smiled deeply and tears formed in her eyes. “Aw! Just admit you’re in love with me!”
“Ha… Whatever, put me down.”
For a moment, I noticed her smile slowly faded.
“Fine.” She put him down.
Tanya seemed lost in thought. “Ah… intense emotions are shared too. No matter,” she floated up and tapped the ceiling. “We are going to meet the shit head right away.”
“By the way, my legs hurts, “Vacinay said as she bumped her head on his back.
“I am suspecting that you just really like the feeling of my shoulders.”
She rubbed her chin deep in thought. “Or maybe… I am lazy and want to take advantage of your simpness.”
He presented his back to her, which she used as a ladder to climb up and settle onto his shoulders. “I like it here."
Lazy ass.”
“Stop with the compliments, dude. But I am very beautiful young woman, I know you can’t help it— ”
“Sorry, allow me to correct my ways.” He pretended to put on shades and have a podcast microphone in his hand. “Ya a useless bitch! Now go make me— ”
She spawned claws from her fingers and she graced them against his neck. “What?”
He giggled. “Hphm! I am simply learning to value my worth as a sexy young high-value man.
“You turned full sexist!”
"Wait wait!”
He composed his features, struggling to suppress a smile. Then, he straightened his posture and declared, “How can I be sexist, I am the sexiest!"
“Where is the joke?”
“Yeah, it was funnier in my mind. I was going to go with, ‘How can I be sexist? I fucked your mom, which means I love women.' But that felt extra rude, you know?”
“I am tempted to bite your neck off just because of how lame your jokes are.”
“Do it, I bet you wouldn’t, pussy. Pusssssyyyyyyyy. ”
The moment she attempted something, he yanked her leg and bit into it. This elicited a scream from her and caused her to grow fangs, which she used to bite into his head, albeit not deeply.
It was a sight to behold.
Tanya pulled back her fist before punching the ceiling, unleashing an incredibly piercing wave of energy. The force shot upwards until light streamed through the massive hole that was created.
She pointed upwards. “Good luck surviving. At most, he seems to be level 40.”
I asked, “How… do we survive?”
“Because I lied and ended up helping. I hit him with a blast that should reduce his overall physical capabilities by about half.”
We all nodded in understanding. Vacinay was about to hop off Hessien, but he tightened his grip on her knees. “I thought your legs were hurting you?”
“Yeah, but can you climb up there with me on you?”
“Yup! The level up Yamanda gave me from those kills she took has brought me to level 25.”
I bet he had more skill points, not just from the level up, but also from that strange phenomenon where we get extra ones. Also, I think he had to upgrade his legendary card to keep it more advanced than his secondary, since they both were at two skills.
Vacinay grinned as Hessien created a very dense… cloud below our feet.
He jumped to land on the cloud, which supported his weight.
Everyone followed suit except Tanya. Once Hessien saw we were on, it began lifting quickly.
Vacinay sighed. “I was expecting something cooler. Like—”
She was cut off as Hessien dashed up, hopping from wall to wall in the new tunnel.
“Hahahaahaa This is fun!” she laughed.
They were alerting the enemies of our presence, but… the hole and beam probably already did that.
Tanya was near me, floating. Then suddenly she said, “Try to keep that fool safe. Ignoring the fact I need him alive to keep me alive, I find him interesting; very interesting.”
“Do you have some evil master plan going on?” I asked
“No. His ridiculous nature is entertaining. I suppose I enjoy how comforting he is to you all. It reminds me of certain stories about individuals that I read a long time ago.”
Then she flew up towards Hessien, “Wait for me! The damn chain tugs me roughly!”
Then after a minute, we exited the hole. And all around us were… different hues of fire with weird statues around them.
There were many bodies in the fire, but in a corner were a bunch of men and women, all tied up.
However, near us was a… normal man in agony. A man with white hair.
We all looked at him, getting ready.
Fire skin.
My armor burnt away as my entire body was set abalze.
Ghomas summoned two 8-foot-tall clones that were jacked. Vacinay got off Hessien’s back and summoned two giant two-headed dogs while transforming into a massive green tiger.
Hessien’s body shifted a little, becoming slightly mist-like.
The man looked at us with a maddening gaze. “You are trying to stop the great sacrifice? You fools! How will I stop the next mutant meteorite?!”
We moved around him.
I said as I gripped my knives, fire spreading to them too, “Don’t worry about that. That’s our job.”
He presented his back to her, which she used as a ladder to climb up and settle onto his shoulders. “I like it here."
Lazy ass.”
Missing "