It was nightfall, and Axel was in peaceful time. Adventurers got rowdy in inn, drinking their hearts out. Some adventurers straight away go to bed, calling it a day.
Outside Axel, at the silence of night skies, a huge meteor fell right to the earth, attracting certain wolves to the scene. Circling a newly-created crater, the wolves' tongues flicked with their saliva dribbled. Their growls filled the whole place. An adventurer bringing axe, who was about to get pelts from one of those immediately called it a day and gone away.
From the crater, came a man with usual office attire. On his right hand, there was a huge book. His awakening from the hole attracted every wolves that swarmed him. Their howl filled the whole forest, and those howls alone made him shiver. Not only he shiver straight to bones; everything within him trembled, and without him realizing it, his pants started to get wet.
One of the wolves had it enough to wait its pack, immediately leaped off onto him. A huge dog got him, pouncing him helplessly.
Soon, every other wolves came to compete over a single food. His clothes torn up, and wounds appeared. In his eyes, blood dripped off his head, and some stained his sight with red.
His utter scream for help is drowned with howl and barks coming from these beasts. But if it wasn't for a passing adventurer, he would not be in Axel and became the greatest alchemist of all.
An adventurer revealed himself from the woods, his spear readied and hand axe sharp and deadly. When some wolves tried their lucks over this stranger, they failed and felled. Their packs thinned no sooner than later by the axe and spear.
The adventurer reached to the man, whose tattered clothes and deep bites across his limbs was laid on. He has removed the threats. Surviving packs routed, licking their own wounds halfway.
His pitiful eyes set on this man, and he decided to help him out.
A week later, the man walked out of certain house, clenching his fist. A certain clarity has been revealed to him, reminding him of his true purpose for coming into this world.
Yes, I am going to defeat the Demon King with this Tome of Alchemy.
He stepped into the Guild Hall, given hostile glares from all sorts of people lackeying in this antiquities. He decided to ignore these, and proceeded to meet the quest giver. He walked out of this guild hall, officially an adventurer with skills that no normal adventurers in this place would possess.
For the tome has a lot of things he could learn. From healing potions that revitalized him in midst of tense combat, to explosive that could obliterate a tower.
In one of the quest involving eradication of a manticore, the alchemist walked to the scene and threw a small potion that made these manticores turned to one another. While those beasts slaughtered against themselves, he reached an adventurer, whose armor banged up and sword snapped to two by these creatures.
Thanks to this guy, the adventurer returned safely to Axel. But before they depart, the swordsman decided to know his savior that arrived just in time.
"My name?" the man asked with pause. "I… I don't remember," he answered while he confusingly scratching his head.
Assuming his savior was jesting, the swordsman laughed. "I'll just call you X then," next, he turned around and they never met again.
As for the alchemist, that simple alphabet stroke the chord in his head. He nodded his head and smiled. "Maybe I should just use that name," he declared to himself. Since then, the alchemist, with no recollection of most of the events back in his world, has chosen this simple word, X, to be his name.
X the alchemist humbly accepted any jobs posted in guild hall. He worked alone, refusing to be siding with anyone.
In the midst of his rising career, he caught attention of yet another adventurer coming to town, accompanied by a blue-haired lady. The adventurer is believed to have stats lower than most of adventurers he knew, but for some reasons, every time he returned to Axel, news spread across town of this adventurer's sudden burst of fame.
The man, believed to be referred by populace as Kazuma Satou, has defeated wide range of Demon Kings' Generals. His party was of four members including himself. Words gone around about how dysfunctional and odd his party members are, but neither would deny the fact that despite their odds, Kazuma has even gone to Capital and obliterated great evils nobody would dare to risk their lives for.
X sat alone on his usual dinner, looking at a poster he plucked from the board. It's a quest concerning a group of dragons terrorizing nearby Capital. After finishing his dinner, X prepared himself to steal Kazuma Satou's spotlight.
His knowledge of alchemy is vast, and so as combat skills. Armed with only interchangeable metals, he slashed through beasts along his way, and created discord among hordes of those who oppose him, or block his way from fortune. Three dragons flew in the skies as he trudged his way to Capital for a rest.
He knew a thing or two about fighting beasts, but dragons are another. In his travels, he fought wolves, small creatures, goblins, kobolds, practically everything with size not as large as the inn he always stayed. Dragons, on the other hands, were big enough to dive toward him unsuspected, smashing the earths, and worked their way over a small dinner.
X knew this would be the end, hence changing his metals into jamadar. He braced himself for a fight to be remembered. But a dragon spat out fire to his belt full of explosives.
At night, amidst incinerated grasses, X laid in a pool of his own blood. He was in utter end, cannot breathing properly. Two of his opponents have dispersed to winds, leaving another beheaded by mere metals. But the battle itself cost him his arms.
If it wasn't for a certain arch priest who coincidentally walking her way with the rest of her party back Axel, he would have gone by now. But no, it seems that the divine had plans for him.
That one particular time, X had a bit of travel into a ruin, requested by certain quest giver, to eliminate a goblin. He entered the ruin all alone, light-armored and whole lot stock of lethal chemicals.
He had no idea that the quest was open for anyone. The quest giver forgot to tell him about it. And so, as he reached the entrance of this ruin, his eyes caught on someone struggling to keep his head from bitten off by a wolf.
It was Kazuma Satou, and he's fighting his life with a Japanese sword on his grip, shaking while resisting the coming fangs.
And of course, X wasted no time flung acid that corrode the wolf into bones. He made the acid only potent to a target that its spillover won't affect other target.
The man squealed in terror, but at least he's saved. X reached his hand for him, in which Kazuma Satou obliged to.
"You're in for the goblin lord too?" Kazuma Satou exclaimed when X informed him his intention.
"Where are you party members, Kazuma Satou?"
"We're having… umm… a bit of falling out one another. So, I decided to leave the town for some time and at the meantime, having an adventure of myself."
Kazuma Satou had his eyes inspecting his inventory. "You really come in fully prepared. Oh, are those chemicals? Wow, I never seen an alchemist before!" Kazuma continuously expressed his surprise observation to X.
"Let's tag along, ummm…"
"X. Call me X."
Kazuma Satou stood there and looked at him cringingly. "Right then," he cleared his throat after having frozen for short time.
"Come on, let's find that goblin lord, slay him, and divide this reward."
"Sounds like a good plan. I'm surprised to see you around, Kazuma Satou. I believe luck is in our side this time. May we escaped this ruin safe and sound."
"X… Don't trigger the flag."
X turned around and stared at Kazuma confusingly. "What flag?"
"N… Nothing. Come on," Kazuma Satou walked away from X, heading into this ruin.
X braced himself for a walk together with one of the most celebrated adventurer in Axel. Maybe he could learn a thing or two of how to defeat bigger tier beasts in dungeon terrain.
Their synergies couldn't have gotten any better.
A handful of goblins spotted two intruders and immediately charged towards them.
Kazuma waved his hand, and from it, earthly dust stopped them.
Seeing these creatures temporarily blinded, X picked up the flame potion, but Kazuma stopped him before throwing it off.
"You could have killed us both, this is dungeon!" Kazuma advised him, having known a thing or two about what should not be done when in cramped, claustrophobic dungeon.
After advising this man, Kazuma pulled off his bow, unleashing several arrows that hit every target immediately. The goblins were all dropped dead, but it's not the end yet.
More goblins coming from the south, and this time, they brought with them a chained troll that stampeded all those goblins' remains.
X laced his bracer with liquid metal and stabbed all of them at once. He swung his jamadar in circle. The goblins didn't stand a chance to avoid his quick move and savageries. With all those goblins taken down, Kazuma fired more arrows to the troll.
The two of them smacked their hands in the middle of carnage they have wrought before going further into bowel.
"You are really good, I salute you!" Kazuma complimented him during their time off for provision nearby an underground waterfall. X came in prepared with provisions, even with extras in case if he's going to stay inside this place longer than usual. "And you're a good cook too!"
X chirped happily with his compliment. "Ah, there's nothing. I was just umm… doing what's best. If there's anyone to celebrate after this, it should be you."
"Why is that?" Kazuma asked.
"Well, you basically taught me a thing or two about adventuring dungeon. We've been fighting five times since we entered this dungeon, and you already taught me something about using the right tool on enemies instead of simply flinging explosives or poisonous gas on enemies. This will greatly benefit me in my future endeavor."
But Kazuma didn't looked as if he felt being complimented. Rather, he suddenly looked uneasy. X noticed it immediately. "Kazuma Satou, is something wrong?"
"My enemy detection skills have gone haywire."
He got up his seat and pulled out his sword.
"Something's not right here."
The two of them were at underground waterfall, where there were only two ways were available – A way into dungeon's depth and another the exit. None made any sound – Only the continuous heavy bombardment of waterfall filled the whole scene.
And that's when small darts flying by, but not small enough to make Kazuma falls for it. His blade swung swiftly and cut some of incoming darts.
X, at the same time, also knew things a bit suspicious all these times, and so he flung off a few tubes with purple smoke.
Purple smokescreen filled the atmosphere, but the two of them could see whatever hides among those chunks of rock.
As they found out their ambush attempt failed, together they leapt out from their hideout with cutlass.
Kazuma strikes first, unleashing his 'create water' skill to these incoming goblins. As for X, he slashed over those goblins, evading every attempts to stab him off. A few more goblins lunged in to assist, from a crevice that suddenly appeared, and so X threw a tube to the hole.
Green metals foamed off and hardened as fluid spilled over the broken glass tube. With that access sealed, X moved on to assist Kazuma Satou.
However, Kazuma Satou was greatly overwhelmed. The goblins surrounded him, yet he didn't backed out. Rather, he's not having any troubles dealing with these small beasts.
His mana depleted with all those 'freeze water' and 'create water', but then he landed his hand over his victim's head, releasing another form of magic known as 'drain touch'.
The goblin shrank into nothingness, and once Kazuma Satou dominated the scene. X was happy to help him throwing more of those green metal liquid to every newly broke open crevice access for goblins' reinforcement.
But neither of them would expect what else the goblins brought in for their displeasure.
As the two adventurers had their hands kept busy with more goblins, a figure dressed in black appeared in the scene.
His sudden appearance attracted both of them.
"Be gone, before I…"
"Create water!" Kazuma offered no compromise and immediately gave him a whack.
But this figure had seen this coming, seeing his army slaughtered and sprinkled with all sorts of water. With a single waving from his hand, big chunk of rocks fell of the ceiling and crashed onto floor.
X would have tossed over a frag potion, but even he didn't see this coming.
Another knock over his head woke him up. There he was, bound and hung upside down like piñata. Torches lit up at his left and right. Blood dripped off his nose, and it was continuous. He felt dizzy, but constant slaps on his face kept him awake.
The goblins congregated around him, fully armed from head to toe. But there was something else in mind. Where is Kazuma Satou?
"Ah, the hero wannabe has finally woke from a long slumber!"
The voice came from the same figure that brought those chunks of rock to him and Kazuma. He walked his way toward him, carrying with him a goblet.
When he's a few inches closer to X, he gobbled up whatever inside his goblet and tossed it to X's face.
"First of all, I congratulate you to walk into my property, slaughtered my minions, and most importantly, representing a despicable group of people you called as 'adventurer'."
"Where is Kazuma Satou?"
'Kazuma? Oh, do you mean this?"
The figure swayed the path of yet another figure, looking strikingly familiar.
It was Kazuma Satou, and like X, he too had blood stain all over his face. The man had been looking down to floor all these times while walking his way towards the pedestal X currently hung upside down.
"I am Marcurio, right hand of Goblin Lord Zapaka. Your compatriot has been smothered to death and I have resurrected it to do my bidding."
"Impossible! Kazuma Satou wouldn't die that easily!"
"Say that whatever you want, mortal. What you've seeing before you is nothing more than bitter truth. Believe it – Whoever you refer to, he is no longer a man with mind of his own but mine."
"I am going to kill you, you god damn…" his growling has proven to be ineffective, for Kazuma Satou before him unleashed freezing magic that made him hypthormically weakened. He's getting all those shakes, and that's not all.
The famous Kazuma Satou ended up landing a few stabs over him. Howls of pain echoed in this place. The unknown person, however, offered nothing but sadistic smile for his torture.
A hand signal stopped Kazuma from harming him further. Marcurio, the right hand of Goblin Lord, appeared to look more like human rather than anything else. Regardless, he reached X's bloodied chin and said "I saw your Tome. I believe you could help me a little for something."
X could not give any replies. Aside his continuous gasps over those unbearable pains, gravity made him feel like his head going to fall off any moment.
"I've seen this one thing – Heaven Devil from your tome. If what's it said was true, then I'll be more than gracious to let you live and have you doing it to me."
Truthfully, X never even read the whole tome all these times. It's all about offensive alchemy, and never in his mind crossed to make such atrocious potion had he heard 'could subdue even the greatest amazon without effort'.
"No…" X muttered amidst his immense pain.
His refusal to help him doing vile deeds made Marcurio cackled.
"Are you trying to get away from those bindings? I think you're trying to, considering how rebellious you are to defy my wish."
"Never… will… I…"
A hand signal made Kazuma Satou punched him even harder. His screams filled the scene, but Kazuma stayed relentless, giving him a very good beating. Only with another hand signal from Marcurio that Kazuma Satou ceased his torture over a hapless victim.
"Let's hear it," Marcurio squatted down before him, smiling deviously and expecting a better answer than a 'no' and 'never'.
All those things made him even more miserable, and eventually, with tears falling off him, he shook his head.
"I will… yes, I will… please, don't…" X begged miserably.
Kazuma Satou proceeded cutting down the binding that turned him into piñata. Like piñata too, he hit the ground head first.
Marcurio reached to his bloodied head and said "I'll try to make sure you will get the greatest boon after you've done what I told you to do. Don't worry, I might be in other side of good, but at least, you will not get away with this without a single Eris on your pocket. Rest assured," he lifted off his bloodstained hand over X's messy hair and wiped it off. "You will be rewarded handsomely."
X was no more given bad treatment by Marcurio. Life was a bit bliss since then. X willingly entered a hidden conglomerate of goblins and whatever evil lurked behind the usual dungeons adventurers always encounter.
But creating the Heaven Devil would not be as easy as concocting a simple incendiary explosive to bypass a group of enemies. He needed materials, and he knew whatever written inside the tome can be trusted. He's been feeding his life with those knowledge, after all.
Marcurio believed the man will not do anything stupid, but as precaution, he sent out Kazuma Satou to watch over him as X decided to go on expedition to retrieve the main ingredient of Heaven Devil – The Blood Chrysanthemum.
Fortunately, those flowers flourished in certain black market, yet still the black market won't be accessible for anyone. And it's not even in Kingdom of Belzerg.
And so X walked off the kingdom with Kazuma's lifeless, enslaved body for an adventure.
They passed through some parts of Axel, and something astounding came to him.
Another Kazuma Satou is seen strolling happily with his party members, consisting of three females, and they were seen giggling happily with him as they traveled to places he would never care to know.
X looked to the body of Kazuma Satou that had been following him since his defection to dark side.
And so, Marcurio tricked me.
A sly smile went over him, for he knew what he will do to Marcurio and the rest of the evil lords he had been congregating with unwillingly once he got his hands over the Blood Chrysanthemum. But that's the other story to tell.
Flashes of stories came over X while smokes filling up his newly-formed hideout, and with him confronting the woman he had been putting on euphoria since many times ago.
And now she's pregnant with his child. Worse still, the girl knew his modus operandi, and she's not in same line as his thought.
Yunyun had with her the only thing that made him into what he is now. Something he'd die for a few times. Something that made him stand out among all other adventurers that deem him unworthy.
"Can't you see what you have done, X-san?! I cannot let you do this to my friends! I wouldn't!"
For all these times, I have trodden this path of the damned just to be like Kazuma Satou.
The man with full of idiosyncrasies, yet still can be lauded by people of Axel as their hero, while I, for one who has defeated a hidden evil beneath unknown side of darkness, was left to rot behind his silhouette.
And the man left me to those goblins and their masters intentionally and proceeded his life as if my life is worthless to be even written in epitaphs of heroes.
He should be taught a lesson. The spirit of adventurism died on this pathetic weed. He took adventuring life way too cowardly, no honor, nothing, just for his own amusement.
Giving him hell in heaven was indeed a right thing to do.
But…
What the hell?
I was given the tome full of alchemical knowledge no mortals in this world would ever attain of. The power is so great, yet I misused them for my own gain.
While some are truly righteous, the part of me using Heaven Devil to enslave people, angels and demons are beyond redemption. What's more, Heaven Devil has no counter alchemy recipe to undo whatever effects that potion has wrought to afflicted.
I have used machination of my virginity, my loneliness, and my grudge for Kazuma Satou, for my own gain. But should everyone him deserve to get the same fate as his?
I am responsible for defiling two goddesses, a crusader, two Crimson Magic clanswomen, and to top it all, I even enslaved a whole conclave of seraphim and cherubim from a hidden part of Heaven. Now, for sure, the Demon King, and any other factions will be looking for me to would go far just to skin me alive.
But it's not partly my fault. It's all Kazuma's fault. No, it's all Heaven's fault for recruiting me into this mess. My whole life was a complete failure to even begin with.
Having plopped into wolves in my first day here. That is truly an epic fail for a beginner. Just what kind of adventurer am I? Or rather, am I even deserve to be called a hero for everything I have done before I got involved into this Heaven Devil thing?
Now I have seraphim and cherubim in my disposal. They would die for my service. Thanks to me, some of them died by this clumsy girl Yunyun.
Yunyun. Oh, I am so atrocious. I am so evil. I didn't expect to impregnate her in first place. And now, it's my baby inside her, thanks to my endless lust. And she is underage, for god's sake!
And I done the same to that hapless, explosion maniac Megumin. Just how maniac I am right now?
"X, when we first met, I always believe you as a good man. I never forgotten our journey together, taking down all those manticores and gaining a lot of levels. And how could I ever forget our times together, sleeping under the night skies while making all those potions?"
X stood in silence watching the Crimson-eyed girl blazing with red and sincerest smile he ever seen since the day he got plopped into this good-for-nothing world.
"I try to get to know you more, and even though you put in those Heaven Devils into my drink and I lost myself, I won't mind if I could cuddle with you. All those times we spent together, how couldn't I will get to forget all those things?"
"I know you have gone into madness with all these things, and maybe even worse. But you could just stop here and make a new life… with me…" Yunyun averted his gaze and looked down to her protruding belly. "Together… with our child… we make a new episode in which you are a better man, maybe together, we could be the best adventurer Axel could offer."
X looked to her in disbelief. Whatever nonsense spouting out from her mouth, some words of her actually did made him rethink.
Maybe I have gone too far enough. Maybe if I stop now, there may be less retribution than later. Less regret than later.
Perhaps I should stop here.
Anyone under influence of Heaven Devil will soon be deprived from the effect, but their lust will remain the same for the one they are hooked up with.
But at least, Aqua, Darkness, Megumin and Eris won't be mindless slaves anymore. Rather, maybe we could interact together like bunch of ordinary people instead of becoming chained slaves and perhaps make the best harem of it. A dream for every man, he thought.
X exhaled out the best of him, and walked slowly toward the smiling Yunyun who had been caressing her pot belly stomach.
"X?" she wondered. X remained quiet as he came closer to her. Beside Yunyun was his remaining stash of Blood Chrysanthemum.
He still had an alcohol bottle on his belt. He took it out, bringing it closer to the raging flame nearby and lit the flowers up.
As the flower set ablaze, the man ripped off his sleeve and gave it to Yunyun. "Take your breath, we'll getting out of this mess!" X told her.
The burning Blood Chrysanthemum still packs a lot of strong qualities from it. X knew the consequences to fire it up, but thanks to Yunyun's persuasion, he now knew the vapors emanating from this burning flowers shouldn't be going off to Axel above it.
"Seraphim and cherubim! I command you, contain the vapor and keep them from reaching any shafts to Axel!"
And of course the angels will follow his command, even to death.
A thought came to him what would happen if these angels are deprived from Blood Chrysanthemum. It's a fight he will not win, because coalition between Heaven and Demon King as the last thing everyone would ever contend to.
And so he decided to hatch out a final solution to keep him out of this angel and demon business.
He managed to grab ahold some sort of a bit harmless chloroform and put it to Yunyun before she could even see it. Lucky for her, the smoke was too thick that she didn't even see it coming.
She will not remember the moment she's escaping from this place, and better yet, she'll be fine. But she will still remember what atrocities he have done and what plans he once try to conceived for humanity.
Seraphim Garel swiftly flew over just in time to prevent a falling wooden plank over Yunyun. "Are you alright, master?!" Garel asked anxiously.
"I need all of you to contain all those smokes. Somebody has intruded and sabotaged our hideout, and if any of those burning smokes crawl into ventilation, this human city will be in danger."
X hesitantly and blatantly convinced these angels to their death. He knew that's a wrong thing to do, considering that he has finally commited to after being convinced by a 14 year old girl from Crimson Magic village.
"Don't worry, Master. The seraphim, cherubim and I will die protecting the people of Axel. Please, exit the tunnel, and may luck finds you in your future endeavor."
The seraphim grasped his hand firmly. "Farewell, Master X," the seraphim said without even knowing his intention.
And then all seraphim flew over to the depths of hideout, trying to close all shafts around them, and used their magic to neutralize everything, including the Blood Chrysanthemum.
X had Yunyun with him, and sooner later, he has reached the main entrance to this burning hideout of his.
Now for the final plan to cover up his wrongdoings and one step closer to redemption.
On his hand was a very powerful crystal he had been keeping from his encounter with Marcurio and his band of evil goblin lords. It was his memento from them, a reminder of terrors he wrought to these people after creating the first ever Heaven Devil before leaving for adventurers' life.
The impact wrought by this crystal was so powerful, because it's not from this earth, not even Heaven and Hell. It's from space.
Antimatter properties concealed into quartz structure that upon impact, will suck everything around its radius, and render them into nothingness. This includes every matters, including all those chrysanthemum vapors.
Upon the drop, he quickly closed the shaft door, and carried Yunyun as far as he can.
A very strong explosion, as equal to nuclear explosion, shook the whole Axel as if there was an earthquake. But it only lasted a few seconds.
Soon, everything seemed to be fine, and Yunyun opened her eyes, becoming confused of where she's at.
"X?" Yunyun blurted as she found out she had been laying above his lap.
There were so many stars filling out the night sky, and there were just the two of them above a random building.
"It's all done, Yunyun," he caressed her hair.
"I won't do it again," he said with utmost regret over liabilities he has incurred just to cover up his crazy plan.
But at least it's becoming an urban legend. Nobody will know about it.
As Yunyun cried it aloud while embracing X, a little tears flowed from his eyes.
My journey to redeem myself has not over. But with the tome of alchemy with me… wait…
Where is it?
"Ah, whatever," he said it finally.
"It's moving!" Yunyun suddenly became excited and informed X about it. She placed his hand over belly. "There, can you feel it?"
Yes, there were a little stroke coming from that belly of hers.
"This child will be alright," X assured her.
Their faces were really close. Without any words to utter, the two lips met, and they kissed passionately under the guise of beautiful night sky.
But then.
"Hey, you guys!" came an unsuspecting voice coming from a thief-disguised goddess of luck.
Eris/Chris was seen squatting atop a pillar, and she was pouting unhappily because X had his hands unearthing whatever stored beneath Yunyun's dress.
"That's not fair!" Chris sputtered.
"Ah, sorry about that, Chris! I'll… umm… be catching up with you later. So, for now, do you mind?"
The thief leapt off and landed on them. "No, I'm joining in too!" she resisted.
"Aww!" Yunyun groaned. "This is supposed to be just the two of us!"
"What gives? There's more fun to it if there's the three of us!"
X couldn't helped but smile to this sudden development.
At least Yunyun's wish to mingle with anyone has come to fruition. At least she is not alone now.
**I'm sorry for this sudden burst of development. Truth to be told, I am a bit busy with my Master Degree, got some research to complete within these few months. Nevertheless, I will still update this misadventure of X occasionally, probably once a week.
**As the alphabet on this chapter implies, there are a lot of hidden things awaiting to tell on other alphabet, same number of chapter.
**Thank you for reading, and have a blasting weekend.