"Destiny?" I questioned. Heat boiling up from me. Something about that word made me… incensed. Being yanked around by countless people, that word was a cruel joke to me…

He gyrated his pale upper body, like a leaf or piece of cloth dancing in the wind. He laughed, then stretched a hand toward me, the other gripping his painting.

"We come to those with a grand fate such as the king of the NGL… now we assist two…. but you have no fate, child…" he pointed a spindly finger to Evira, "or… to say you can have any you wish. You can be destroyer or diviner. Creator or catastrophe. Love or death… Rage or restrain… destiny is truly yours!"

I glared at him, not quite understanding his insanity. Or more like, he didn't quite know how much shit I've gone through…

He curved his back as he stared up into the black void, his voice sorrowful. The Magi stretched his arms up to the sky, in a pleading display of despair.

"Do you not understand! We are all trapped by fate! You, oh Shepard, who has left destiny behind. Who leads destiny behind him?! Do you not see what you have done?! You have changed things… oh sweet, sweet change…"

He began convulsing and coughing, physically reacting to something. A hacking, guttural exhaling of air from putrid lungs. The killer turned his head down toward us and spoke voice was a wheeze.

He extended a crooked finger toward Evira.

"She wishes to stop catastrophe… she defies fate, yet her destiny is still wrapped to the world… to better the world… but this is a world designed to suffer and fail… She cannot avoid catastrophe…"

My eyes narrowed on their own. So tight and angry that I could barely see through my eyelashes...

"What, you want me to stop it?"

He laughed, "You have no destiny! The threads of fate cannot wrap around you! You can take advantage of the oncoming storm… become lord of a new kingdom… I have lost sight and see beyond it! I can see the fate of others! You…. You…"

He started to fucking cry. Hyperventilating as he sobbed. A maniac. Of course…

"You cannot see… you can destroy… you can become more."

My fear and worry was paved through by anger, my teeth clenche together as I spit back venom, "What the fuck is wrong with everyone? I don't want any of that shit! I don't want power, or pointless adventure!"

I jabbed a finger at the man above me, all senses of power between us shattered by my resolution that exploded inside me. If felt like something shattering inside me.

"My destiny is my own! If the reason why I have such shitty luck is that I don't have a fate then fuck it! But I'm going to do what I want to do!"

I grabbed my suit jacket with my right hand, "ME! No one controls my life but me! Not life, god, or person!"

The world started to rumble as my Ren exploded from my rage. I saw from the corner of my eyes MCP looking at me, wide eyed. Shock wiping the permanent scowl on his face. I pointed my left hand right at it.

"Not that!"

I pointed to the Magi, "NOT YOU!"

I stabbed my finger to Evira in the distance, "NOT EVEN FUCKING HER! YOU ALL UNDERSTAND ME?!"

"I'M NO LONGER ANYONE'S PLAY THING! NO ONE'S TOOL!"

Something echoed in my voice. A power. A permeance. My aura laced with something else…

The world shuttered. A wave of force exited from my body like a bomb going off...

My aura was out of control. A raging ball of green fury and fire. It stretched as high as a tree and as wide as a raging river. My rage was out of control. My indignation was too much.

I'm tired of this bullshit.

"HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU KILL IN THIS PLACE JUST TO GET TO HER?! TO GET TO ME?! HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL NEVER GET TO SAY GOODBYE TOTHEIR FRIEND AND LOVED ONE?!HOW MANY CHILDREN'S LAST MEMORY OF THEIR PARENTS WILL BE A FUCKING COFFIN?!"

My next words were soft… yet rumbled.

"What do you know about the pain of saying goodbye to someone for one final time?"

'James! Wait!', screamed MCP.

For the first time, I saw fear in MCP's face. A though this was not part of his plan.

A vicious smile spread on my face as I turned to MCP. In my peripherals, I saw the Magi move.

"You wanted this MCP? Let's go… someone's dying today…"

'WAIT!'

"END OF LINE!"

As a horde of creatures and a storm of painter's knives flew at me.

The world exploded into light and force.

The army of monsters were knocking back, knives flung away like butterflies in a storm.

The black void suddenly green and white.

Then bright red.


Mayer's eyes opened wide. He turned to the Dragon's Head. Even through the thick gas, he could sense the sheer amount of aura being released in the condo.

His face a mask of confusion and concern. A terrible fury. A rage that could only be one person.

What Aura…

At that moment, the Magi choose to strike.

In the shifting white gas, he moved as silent as a ghost. The brown clothings weaving in and out of the white, like a shark peaking from water. Appearing between the folding and twisting fog that was like canvas. A cloud. Dream-like he moved.

He struck from the front. As soft as silk. As quiet as an arrow. He came as swift as sleep at the end of a tiring day…

Ethereal and fast, with painter knives covered in aura, he struck. Two in each of his pale hands, covered and draped in dark brown linen like a reaper. A cloak that fluttered violently, clinging on desperately from the speed.

A quick slash to the back of Mayer's right leg where his hamstrings were.

Mayer buckled down to one knee. The world trembled from the man who weighed a quarter of a ton slamming into concrete. The ground cracking from the sudden force. He groaned as he place himself on the floor with one hand.

Mayer felt tired…

I was destined to die… my children to lie in the dirt… my wife taken from me…

To discover this was a piece of fiction… and my recognitions never to be shown…

Never destined to be anything. Not even as passing actors in another person's play…

The man passed Mayer once more, a specter of white as the gas swirled around him. The white keeping up with his movements. Smoke swirling around the killer.

The killer's knife passed over his right shoulder.

Another pass. This time his left shoulder.

Another. Just barely cut his neck.

Back and forth the man came. Red lines appearing all over Mayer's body, clothing ripped apart as his sleeveless red shirt and cloth grey pants gained cuts with fury. They bled deep crimson in the grey. Faster and faster as the Magi moved, the cover of the smoke concealing his movement and patterns.

Attacking from everywhere.

Mayer kneeled there; head bowed. Shaking with every impactful cut. Drops of blood hitting the pavement.

Right hand holding his titanic body up. Left-arm resting on his left knee. The mighty giant bent low.

He didn't even move. Blood pooling down his body.

All was still.

The soft approach of footstep signaled the game was over.

Victory had come.

The killer stood over the massive man as if a shade come from the other side of death. The killer pulled back his cloak to reveal a fully covered air mask, tightly sealed around his head. A large air tank on his back.

A young man. He had black hair that was a mess, as if he had just awoken. Short black hair with a white swirl on his head. The man was as pale as a ghost: pitch-black circles around his eyes and as tired looking as the dying and dead. If one could see through the mask's dark glass, that was. Black pajamas with the design of classical ghosts on them white circles and all.

He smiled, the sharpened painter's knife in his right hand edging closer towards Mayer's neck. Covered in Shu and pushing back the thick fog of sleep.

"feeling tired? i've noticed you haven't breathed in the gas, but my aura still forces people to sleep if they stay around me for too long…"

Mayer knew the man. He was a Hunter. The Hunter walked leisurely toward Mayer, pressing a pale finger onto his knife. Fiddling with it as he flipped it over. He was enjoying the moment.

"ya know, i just joined the magi a few years ago… the boss never got us all together in one place… not until i told him about your apprentice… i didn't like that red-headed guy during the test… too self-righteous. too much conviction… i tried my best to make him sleep…"

He walked right up to Mayer.

The giant didn't move.

"despite my damndest, he wouldn't sleep. no one's ever fought off my hatsu, doctor sleep, before…"

He shrugged.

"oh well. whatever the boss has in store for him, i hope its painful. dunno why he wanted him when he wanted you. at least i have the honor of killing the great mayer…"

He slowly lowered his knife to the man brought so low…


Briannaisa nearly tripped and fell from the sheer vibrations she felt from the first floors above. It sounded like two monsters fighting.

It felt like two monsters fighting.

Briannaisa turned around to see the rest of her group had also felt it. They too were staring up and wondering what was going on.

That's exactly the moment the roof ceiling in front of them collapsed and revealed the giant 'human' that was still chasing them. Dust flooded the hall as a shrieking roar shook the area.

Briannaisa cried out, flaring her Ren and spreading her arms quickly. The dust cleared and revealed the massive human turned monster. A large dripping mouth and tiny vestigial eyes that were useless. Lapping, slithering tongue in a round maw with dripping saliva.

Its right arm and shoulder completely healed…

Claudette shouted, "Uuuuh… crap! It's an Enhancer!"

It replied by ripping apart the floor with its taloned hands and flinging tiles directly at the group. The three cat knights reacted in an instant. Cutting down the Shu enhanced marble tiles and destroying them in less then a second.

They charged, moving faster than the eye. A blur on the wind. A rapier stabbed a windpipe. A scimitar sliced a bicep down to the bone. A broadsword cut deep into calf muscles.

They landed behind the creature with a flourish, blood flying off their sword as they flicked their blade with expert practice.

"Watch out!" cried Briannaisa!"

The creature roared and whipped itself backward, slamming its upper body towards the three cats with inhuman flexibility. As though its body held no body, moving like a viscous liquid. With tremendous force, the floor rattled and cracked.

Dust and tiles flew in every direction as the world shook from the strength of the creature. Briannaisa and the rest raised their arms to block the debris, their Ten stopping the violent projectiles from doing more than bruising.

She pulled back her arms and stared in anger. She could project the cats again, but even if they were in the category of Emission (her category) and Manipulation, the activation cost was immense… and she already used too much aura with Triple Etente…

But she didn't need to revive her fallen soldiers. Through the dust and fury, the cats leapt through the air and cut again, hitting the creature all over and before landing. They meowed in triumph.

That triumph disappeared and silence filled the hall with dread as they stared at a horrifying isght before them. The wounds glowed with Aura. As if on fast forward, the wound and damages healed on overdrive. Chunks of flesh came back by the hand full. Cuts healed cleanly and quickly. Stabs holes disappeared as if they never happened.

Briannaisa cursed. She turned to Claudette, sorrow and regret in her eyes,"Sorry sis. I need your help."

Claudette frowned with conviction, her eyes hold nothing against her sister, "No problem! This thing needs to die!"

As the three knights ran interference, Briannaisa turned around and commanded Acardi.

"I need you to go back and take the last staircase. I know its bobby trapped with those damn painting-"

Acardi held a hand up and nodded, "No need to continue. I will escort Mr. Hill to safety."

Pariston gave a wink and slick wave, "I hope you two do well, but your odds of survival are, frankly, not too good! I wish you two luck!" he lied. He truly didn't care if they lived or died.

He spun on his heels and chased after Acardi.

Briannaisa frowned. He hated that man, but he wasn't wrong. This Nen-user was truly a monster, in form and function.

She clasped her hands, then slammed it onto the floor. A pool of liquid materialized. This was her support Hatsu, Fantasy Island… used to heal and cleanse fatgiue… but in truth, she created for Claudette's Hatsu: Puppet Valkyrie.

Claudette nodded. Aura shrouded her body, her eyes turned dull and empty. Her body quickly loose, limp, and puppet-like; barely standing in place. With automatic movements, she reached into the pool of water and retrieved her weapon: .50 Caliburn. Inspired by her desire to be as great a knight as King Artur, more than a thousand years ago.

She pointed the massive half staff, half over-sized blade at the creature. With strength given by her weapon and state, she charged. Briannaisa followed suit.

The creature reacted instantly. It had gained the measure of the cat's coordinated movements. It stretched its tree thick arms and stabbed right through two of them with each arm, before they could even react. For the last, it opened its rubbery, disgusting mouth as wide as it could and swallowed it whole in a blink.

Briannaisa grimaced but continued. She deconjured her support Hatsu and focused her remaining Aura on the basics of Nen. With her last remaining aura, she summoned her knights again. Panting and sweating, eyes heavy, she stood as strong as she could. She would need them, along with her martial arts, to support her sister.

Even her vision going blurry. Even with her legs feeling like jelly. Even when her mind was foggy…

She would fight to her last breath.

With a furious scream and blinding speed, she moved invisibly to anyone, even to high-level Nen-user. The ground cracking underneath her from her strength. As if teleporting from, she flanked the creature's right side and smashed its rubbery hide with a cross. She followed it up by speeding up and axe kicking its leg, smashing the bone with every ounce of strength she had.

The creature roared and turned to the brunette in a rage. Tiny black beads for eyes staring hatefully.

Three cats appeared before the creature and stabbed their blades into the monster's neck, pushing it down and forcing it to heel…

The creature's roar was deafening.

Claudette, even in her puppet state, knew what to do. She appeared above the creature's head, swinging her massive blade above her head and sending it down to behead it in a single blow.

With preternatural senses and blinding speed, it pulled it's long head back and dodged the slice completely. Bucking the cats off its back as if they were children with the explosive force of a dragster. If it were possible, Claudette would have expressed shock as her blade smashed into the floor and cracked the floor. Vibrations forceful and impressive, but action attack for nought.

"BLOCK!" Briannaisa cried. Claudette obeyed, but the creature was so fast. She barely had any time, even with her physical abilities increased. The massive head hurtling at her within a blur…


…but the Magi's hands flew up in front of him front the force of James' aura exploding out. With so much power that the air around whipped and swirled from the energy unleashed deep inside the man. Green light mixed with red as he stood there, his strange red hair bleeding away into plain old black. The curls in his hair ever tighter than before.

His tan skin flushing red with blood, then bright, violent red from aura being pumped through it. White-yellow lines glowing on his skin like circuits on a computer chip. The lines ran up his face and connected to his eyes. Demonic yellows irises and grey pupils pinned against black sclera, peaking out of slights for eyes. Deep wrinkles like a dry river bed escaping his eyes. A vicious scowl so deep the corner of his mouths almost met his chin.

It never blinked. Eyes glaring.

Examining.

Analyzing.

Recording.

A deep, robotic, rumbling hum shook from the body of James as the air became electric. The red-skinned creature that stood in James' place hunched over. It tightened and clenched its fists as it gnashed its teeth in pain. It vibrated violently; the world crackling around it with power. Cracks formed on the red body as white lights poured from said cracks in its body.

It roared as bright lines escaped its body from the lines on its face and hands. Its hands grasping its face as a cybernetic scream echoed out. Hot steam escaping its mouth and cracks as its fury was at a fever's pitch.

In a bid to stop the pain, it dropped Stick and grabbed its collar. It tore the suit designed to take bullets as if it were a paper bag. Shredding it right down its body and tearing it in half. It revealed the countless scars on James' body, collected in less than a year from surviving on this world. They crisscrossed his statue-like body, like a sculptor who decided to ruin his ultimate work in spite. They glowed as brightly as the circuits that ran all over his body.

A testament to what happens when a normal human overcomes the impossible.

Robotic, automaton movements came over it. It explosively tore off the sleeves on its body as thrashed its red form. The white steam exiting its body slowly glowing bright green…

A shape formed above James's back. A glowing, translucent, ghostly screaming face that fell apart and resembled dozens upon dozens of times. A look of pain etched on its face. A violent, spectral shriek became choir partners with the robotic, physical scream.

A violent green light shot out of the mark of a tree on the back of James' right hand. A brilliant, blinding laser beam into the dark. It cut infinitely through the vast void…

The two spoke in unison

"Emotions interfering with integration!"
'Emotions interfering with integration!'

'Word of God'
'Word of God'

High above, the Magi stared at the light show with hands trying to cover his empty sockets. What he saw with Nen was far more blinding than what humans could ever see.

He was blessed with the ability to see fate. Without physical eyes to hinder him, he could see what the universe held for a person, and what destinies a person could achieve.

Robere, self-proclaimed King of Killers, saw the black threads that spread all around him. Coiled around him. Tight like thorny vines that dug into him. Ever destined to kill. Ever destined to be monstrous.

An echo of the past… one he could no longer see or encompass… he wished to be a great painter.

The universe made him a great killer.

Robere turned up to the sky and stared at the endless spinney threads trailing tirelessly toward the sky. He had searched endlessly to escape destiny. At first to defy his station. Now… it was not for any noble or tragic reason, but just to wreak even more havoc.

Fate had warped him too far to go back. So he wished to go forward. Surpass what he was supposed to kill. Kill what he couldn't. Kill whatever he wished…

He stared at the endless threads that controlled them…

The light from James' body burned his invisible shackles to ash.

Robere, King of Killers, began to laugh. Laugh. Laugh, laugh, laugh…

"Netero! Fate said I could never defeat you! Now I am free! HAHA-"

He sensed it before he could react to it. Felt it before he could fight it.

A wire wrapped around his neck. He felt the power coursing through it…

Robere, leader of the Magi, frowned deeply and felt dread at the thing below him.

The Magi turned down.

He 'saw' two James.

A floating green spectral floating next to… a red physical version of the same. Their auras all he could see…

They spoke in unison.

"We defy fate, and from today on we determine destiny!"
'We defy fate, and from today on we determine destiny!"

Robere snarled as he watched the youngster act cute. The red one pointing his left index finger at Robere, his right hand extended out in command of his wire. The green ghost of James grasping his ethereal left hand around the wire, his right index finger pointing at Robere as well.

With mimicked movements, they twisted their free hand into a thumbs down.

"And we have determined that your destiny is death!"
'And we have determined that your destiny is death!"

Robere snarled.


I floated next to my body, holding my thumbs down as I felt cool as shit.

Man, this is weird as fuck. I'm Casper as a motherfucker…

This was… MCP was like a Ghost in the Shell…

Enough. We must focus on the task in front of us. We have done what you wanted to do. Are you done with the theatrics?

We gotta' win with style, baby…

You are getting overconfident. We are at full power. We can defeat him. That does not mean his defeat is determined yet.

As if justifying MCP's remark, the Magi pulled hard on our wire. I felt MCP move aura his feet with masterful precision and skill. A line of Aura ran up my body's feet and to my right hand, anchoring me to the ground like a damn oak tree in a hurricane.

Robere struggled, his head jerking downward from MCP's use of Ryu.

Yes… this Hatsu… Ghost in the Shell… is quite powerful.

It was only temporary as Robere jerked his head back like a pissed-off bull, pulling my MCP possessed body forward a few steps.

James… you have the ability… to control your Nen now…

What do you mean?!

I looked on, my floating form watching helplessly as MCP grappled with Robere… while an army of monsters ran toward us. Encircling us and charging like the advancing army of death it was.

I have no time to explain… Therefore… it was a bad idea… to USE YOU'RE HATU UNDER PRESSURE!

My confidence quickly drained out of my green floating ghost body, my annoyance at MCP being eclipsed by the current situation. Damn it! I have control of my Nen? I can control the wire by touching it, but if we let go, Robere's gonna throw a bunch of fucking knives at us. Or leave…

But if we don't, we'll die by dogpile…

I watched as a small, goblin looking monster came streaming forward. It's small, spindly form faster than the other horrors approaching us. He leaped forward, jumping at MCP's face. It ate a picture-perfect jab that was so fast I actually didn't see it, just knew it happened somehow. The creature's head exploded into white, gassy aura.

The cloud of white aura wafted right into MCP's red face… then he began snorting it like it was cocaine in the air. A vicious smile on it's… my red face as it sucked in the aura through its nose.

I saw my ghostly grow brighter… felt it grow stronger! I had been a wispy, thin ghost that was like a spooky skeleton than Fatso from Casper. My form filled out… looking more solid, more human than stickman.

I can… appropriate aura and Nen abilities… aura is straight forward… Nen abilities are more complicated.

Ok, ok, ok. We just need to ki-

I watched as another goblin-like creature, this one not stupid enough jump toward MCP's left side. It grappled onto MCP's shirtless back, raking its clawed hands across my body's shoulders and head. It looked like a child having a tantrum as it tore, punched and scratched from behind.

MCP reached over and grabbed the top of the creature's head and wrenched it off him. With a titanic, lightning-quick slam to the floor, the creature exploded into aura. But before I could even think of celebrating, a skeletal-slug dog thing bit into MCP's right leg. It savaged MCP's thigh, whipping its jaws back and forth.

MCP screamed in pain as I watched in horror and confusion, not feeling any pain but helpless to do anything. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

As MCP reached over to punch the bad dog with his left, a large zombie grabbed on to his left and held it. I turned to see so many more creatures were now around us. The speed and anxiety of the situation making the world a blur.

"RELEASE THE WIRE!", MCP screamed as a crowd of monsters slammed into him like a wave of death.

I flew forward, my outstretched arm reaching out for the wire. Right as an undead ogre-like thing raised its arms above us…

The ghastly voice of Robere screaming above us…

"I inflict pain in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams. But to you, it shall be nightmares!"


The Sleep Hunter reached his painter's blade toward the left side of Mayer's neck. The blade touching softly against flesh. The white cloud obscuring everything around them…

A whisper of a voice came from the Magi…

"this is just proof that i to be part of the magi. say go- AAAAAAH!"

Was all the Magi screamed as his right forearm was crushed with a titanic snap, then crunch as his bone collapsed into pieces, followed by meaty pop from the muscle popping from sheer grip strength...

Mayer's massive hands gripped around the renegade Hunter like an adult's hand around a misbehaving child's wrist.

Mayer rose to his full height.

"Two. Two people can resist your Hatsu…"

The man felt more than he saw it. His white gas blocking the giant form in front of him.

The Bear spoke, his voice a pale whisper, "Your Hatsu had a weakness: not even you could see in this gas. Barely a few centimeters. You compensate by using it as En. It was obvious when you had yet to kill me…"

Mayer suddenly felt a massive flair of Aura. An overwhelming need to sleep came from just standing near the man. Immense exhaustion.

Mayer grunted in annoyance.

The Bear reached over with his left and slowly wrapped massive, sausage-sized fingers around the man's shoulder. Wide eyes stared through gas mask eyeholes as the man trembled.

Mayer's finger's slowly enclosing… the Magi's flesh putting up as much resistance as a hydraulic press against clay…

The assassin screamed.

"w-why aren't… you… sleeping! my aura! my gas!"

Mayer grunted again.

"I need little sleep… and my friend Morel taught me to hold my breath…"

He moved his right hand to the man's left shoulder, then lifted him up.

Mayer pressed his hands together as if his opponent were an accordion. The slight splash of blood and the sound of crunching the only things that disturbed Mayer's peaceful paradise.

Mayer let go of the resulting mess and frowned. The gas slowly faded away. He looked down at the shallow cuts on his body. All barely as deep as paper cuts. Had the man verified the damage was as severe as he thought, it would have been a different battle.

But not by much.

The man never had a chance of penetrating his skin.

Mayer closed his eyes and sighed.

It was not his fate to die here…

He turned up to the condo, frowned, and took a deep breath.

The entire building shook from top to bottom from the battles within…


Claudette pulled out her weapon in a blur and held the flat of her blade in front of the creature as it executed its massive headbutt. Conjured steal revibrated with inhuman strength. Inhuman strength surpassing even the most powerful of Enhancer.

Claudette blocked in time, but the attack hit with such force that it sent her flying back, anyway. The slipping and skidding of feet before being lifted completely off the ground.

Briannaisa gasped as Claudette bounced off the ceiling and flew past her with blinding speed. The brunette ran clear of the creature, jumped and reached out to grab her sister by her shirt, but her sister moved too fast. She missed by a hair's breadth.

A titanic roar as the Magi lurched forward at it its prey's back…

The three cats jumped in to stop the Magi from following up, stabbing and cutting the thing back. Round two as different as they kept the creature off balance to keep their master and her sister safe.

Briannaisa turned and watched her sister fly toward a bulletproof glass window that would do little to slow her down…

The stairwell door opened…

With a lazy, smooth motion, the blonde was caught into the arms of one man.

The fedora clad Mercutio spun around from the force of the throw, minimizing the energy, and smoothly spinning around like a dance dancer twirling his partner until all the power was dissipated. He clicked his tongue in annoyance as he gently put her down on the floor.

Claudette's mute, neutral appearance staring at him like an automaton bereft of emotion.

He stared down at her, irritated.

"Jeez, what a pain… so many annoying things… it's only the fourth floor too. I ran out of ammo for my Uzi too…" he said as he reached under his hat and scratched his head.

Briannaisa smiled in relief. She had never been happier to see this lethargic idiot before in her entire life.

He turned his head to see Briannaisa, eyes shining in relief. He frowned, his face flat, and pointed past her, "Seems you're a bit busy. Guess I'll come back later," he said, before moving back through the door.

He stopped when Briannaisa screamed. He peered back through the door to see a massive scowl on her face.

"Now's not the time for jokes! This thing's one of the Magi, and I think its job is to kill every Nen user that could be a witness!"

Mercutio scratched his head, sighed, and closed the door, "Who's joking?..." the man muttered under his breath. His eyes turning toward the ceiling, reluctance plain on his face.

Those eyes turned razor-sharp the moment the Magi shrieked. Three meows responded as they were knocked back toward Briannaisa. Briannaisa and Mercutio turned to the monster, who had smacked back the trio of cats with both arms.

It collapsed to all four with a crash and shake off the hallway.

With frighteningly fast gallop, it charged down the hall…

Inhuman speed. It cleared the distance between it and Briannaisa in (almost twelve meters) less than a second.

Five shots with pinpoint accuracy into the creatures' head. The last of his conjured bullets that came when summoning his weapon.

Right as it tried to bite Briannasia in half. Its teeth snapping harmlessly inches above her head.

She divided out of the way as the Magi fell to the floor with a crash. With a quick dive, then cartwheel to her feet, she jumped back several meters and sprinted to Mercutio and her sister.

A single look from the man told her what to do. She nodded.

"The sky is green! I'm not scared right now! This thing isn't any trouble at all! That thing can't regenerate! It isn't an Enhancer. I won't order Claudette to follow! I-"

Mercutio held his right hand up to stop her. His left hand glowed as his revolver transformed into an M79 grenade launcher with a belt of grenade rounds appearing in his left.

He grinned.

The monstrous Magi charged.

The creature's rubbery, muscular, and flexible body used the floor and ceiling as surfaces to run on. Its twisting, pale white form moving with the unpredictable ferocity of a wild animal. It tore through the hallway, picking up speed with every step forward. Ceiling tiles and marble floor tiles were torn away with every step…

The cracking sound of crushed stone and plaster walls. The rumble of the creature's roar…

With both sleeves rolled up and entire body fueled with Ren, Mercutio held his right hand forward and fired the first round. It sounded like artillery, the ground below him shattering. The air cracking as the round shattered the sound barrier.

It caught the creature on the right leg. The limb became a mist of blood and chunks of flesh as the round hit with armor-piercing force. It ripped through bone and superhumanly tough flesh with ease. Blood and gore splattering the gloomy white halls with a squishy splat.

Yet the creature continued on all threes, almost unimpeded. Raw instinct and animal fury having possessed the Magi long before the three of them were born. Even as it ran, its leg began to reform and heal as if played in fast forward.

With supernatural abilities of his own, Mercutio reloaded the weapon as if he moved in fast forward himself. With a rattling of the metal strap on his gun sounding like a ball barring being shaken in a tin can. With a thump and a click, the metal tube of a gun was reloaded.

He pointed the gun at the creature's left leg with one arm with supreme confidence.

The bestial Magi reacted, from preternatural fighting instincts, and lifted its leg. Mercutio smirked coldly, then whipped the gun to the creature's right arm. Right as the creature barred weight on it to lift its leg…

"Flincher."

A click, a thunderous boom.

The thing's arm exploded, sending it spinning, tumbling, and twisting on the floor. It stopped to a halt a few meters away. Its arms and legs flailing as it tried to regrow its limbs fast enough to get up.

Briannaisa pointed at the thing and snarled, "Claudette, end it!"

As if appearing from thin air, Claudette was upon the creature. Weapon drawn high in the sky. Eyes dead. She swung her weapon down. Blade penetrated into flesh like a guillotine cutting through a full-sized buffalo's neck. The thickness and density of the Magi's flesh and muscles catching the blade.

Claudette landed, the bladed halfway through the creature's neck. Still, it roared and writhed...

With no change in her face, she gripped the blade.

The magi started to get up. Flesh, bone, and muscle being converted from aura itself.

She felt something touch the hilt of her blade.

Briannaisa yelled, "Come on!"

Mercutio sighed as his hands grabbed the handle.

Three cats landed onto the handle, all of them meowing as they held on to the part of the weapon closest to the floor.

The Magi roared. They could feel the rage and malice in the assassin's aura. Tinged with blood red. They saw as the leg exploded in a splattering of blood. Grown back completely in a second.

Briannaisa yelled, "TOGETHER!"

Everyone roared, except for Claudette (who couldn't) and Mercutio (who grunted). With one last combined push, the demonic human's head was decapitated off its massive shoulders.

The giant head plopped on the floor, sliding to a stop. The rest of the assassin's body fell to the ground, twitching until it stopped as well. Half-formed flesh and bubbling meat stopped regenerating before sloughing off, any remaining aura dissipating with the Magi's death.

Briannaisa sighed with exhaustion. She turned to Mercutio and smiled.

"Just like old times."

"Yeah. Really reliving great times," Mercutio said with unrestrained sarcasm.

The building shook. Dust escaped the ceiling tiles above them, the windows and doors around them rattling. The two of them turned up above them, staring at confusion and horror at the amount of aura above them.

Light shined from a painting nearby. It was blinding...


We flew.

That was to say, I reeled us in like Spiderman pulling himself up a building.

The crowd of shambling monsters that dogpiled us scattering off us as we exploded from them. A handful of remaining creatures with tighter grips than the rest held on, but at the speed the wire pulled, they quickly fell off like water droplets falling off a car window shield.

The sound of my spool of wire squealing at high-speed screeched through the void. MCP stabilizing my human arm as the wire occasionally hitched and stuttered as it whipped around by the force of the Magi's tugging neck.

MCP was strangely emotionless. His face a grimace of rage and anger, but he actually wasn't. My squinting, glaring eyes and frowning face a terrifying sight when viewed from the third person, on top of looking like I was being possessed by a demon.

His left hand a tight fist as his right was outstretched toward the Magi. My wire pulled us toward our target.

I flew alongside my body, my ethereal body gliding through the dark. A trail of green light trailing behind my wispy, ghostly legs. My left hand holding onto my USB wire as I willed it to reel us in like a fisherman fighting a marlin. I rode alongside, flying with my arms extended.

Even in the middle of a fight to the death… the feeling of power… the wonder… I literally flew through the air as pure Nen…

My ghostly, intangible form like a green comet trailing through the sky.

A massive green on my face. My vision: the world shimmering.

The Magi snarled as he tried bracing himself against his painting, doing his damndest not to be pulled down from our extra weight. He decided that if he couldn't shake of us, he'd sink into his painting to lose us. The canvas moving around like a pool of water, defying all logic and reason…

Unfortunately for old eyeless and terrifying, our wire was still wrapped tightly around his neck, and so we sailed right through the painting as well. We quickly exited the other side to see the Magi floating through a brilliant, multi-colored tunnel that reminded me of a kaleidoscope of paint.

He 'stared' down at us, his body floating around in his tunnel of aura, whipping and trying to untie a wire that was alive. Roaring in rage, he summoned long portals that sent dozens upon dozens of knives that flowed through the tunnel of aura like swimming piranha…

Too bad we were zoning in on him too fast. The cloud of knives flying around, under us, and behind us as he missed. Though it was tight, the feeling of knives going through me was weird…

I doubt Robere would feel anything but pain…

MCP lifted our fist up we approached. It glowed with aura.

A snarl from MCP and our fist cracked the Magi across his cheek, his hands raised up in a vain attempt to stop us. The sound upon impact, that of a car hitting a damn tree as we moved as fast as a fucking race car. I couldn't feel my body, but from MCP's pissed-off face it must have hurt, even with Ko.

It definitely hurt the Magi, even with Ryu shifting his Aura to protect him. A couple teeth and a splatter of blood spraying out of his mouth.

That punch throughjeez… the force twisted the three of us toward a floating painting nearby. A sucking sound and we were now a towering height above the 'ground', as high as several stories. The floor…. a sea of horrors below us.

I watched as MCP fell faster toward Robere, the two of them punching and clobbering each other with the ferocity and personal vendetta of a bar fight. All while free falling.

My incorporeal form floating above in awe at the speed, reflexes, and ferocity MCP had… before quickly realizing I needed to fly down with them.

I rocketed toward them, my arms beside my body as I flew. I was basically falling, which was easy. The hard part was not landing.

On the other hand, MCP and the Magi landed onto a pile of shambling corpses that broke their fall. They did bounce though and skid…

The puff of white aura and flying bodies, along with the furious exchange between my red body and the skinny assassin, was something out of Dragon Ball Z. MCP's left arm a blur of movement as he assaulted the assassin with machine perfect jabs, hooks, and anything his left arm could deliver.

But our opponent was skilled, had two hands, and had over a hundred years of experience. He moved like a blur as well, blocking with both hands while attacking back with fingers that stabbed at MCP like daggers. But MCP offset his one-arm disadvantage by pulling the man like a fucking dog with the wire around his neck, his right-hand whipping and jerking the man around and putting him off balance when he attacked.

I watched, enraptured. MCP moved with perfect technique and ability. Every lesson I learned. Every technique I practiced. Every skill I had worked hard on. He did it exactly, perfectly. He was my physical potential realized, as opposed to my human fallibility.

No bad habits. No hesitations. No exhaustion.

He was truly a god damn machine.

Unfortunately, I watched too intently on my body fighting like the perfect fighting machine… and I collided into the ground. My 'body' collapsed into a cloud of green aura… the world shifting and turning as my field of view expanded and swirled. My vision twisting and twirling as my body reformed back to something. A humanoid form I was used to…

I was back to my ghostly self… and I wish I could have vomited. It was like I had seen through the point of view of gas. Somehow three hundred and sixty degrees… across a hundred perspectives…

So god damn disorienting…

I turned to see mobs of creatures try to attack me. Only for their attacks to harmlessly pass through me. I stared at my ghostly form as they thrashed impotently at me. I laughed.

Then frowned as I saw Evira surrounded by the creatures. The biggest one, an ogre thing, reached down and grabbed her by the arms. It raised her up and slowly pulled…

I turned to MCP, who was doing an impressive job of fighting and century-old assassin with one arm.

'MCP! Evira!'

He didn't turn. He couldn't. If he took his eyes away from his opponent for even a second, it was over. The scratches and light slices all over his body testified to that. Instead, he transmitted his thoughts to me. So fast that I almost didn't understand them.

'We cannot let him go! If we free him from his wire he may escape! Worse, he could possibly trap us in this realm', he thought...

Damn it!

I literally flew as fast as the wind, grabbing the wire and forcing the tip to dig into the Magi's body, right above his left clavicle. He roared.

I turned to MCP and thought, 'I'm going to unreel it. Grab my sword and stop them from killing Evira!'

MCP didn't even nod. One second he was there, the next he had disappeared. The true speed of my body unleashed. Wire trailing behind him, the sound of a spinning spool of wire. I held on to the wire connected to Robere, my ghostly form interacting with it like I was physically there.

I turned to the Magi and nodded, 'Ok, time to fuck you up…' my ethereal voice echoing out from me…

He snarled. That snarl disappeared the moment I tried to coil my wire around him. The speed I was doing it was shocking. I never had this much control with my USB Wire or Tool before, but it felt intuitive. An extension of me and my mind.

Supercharged.

But the Magi was good. Real fucking good.

He sprinted as fast as he could, as invisible-like as my own body, making the wire as taut as he could make it so I couldn't wrap him as easily.

"Let go of me! You child, you think you can stop me! I have fought Netero! I have fought the Zoldycks! I have fought the Zodiacs! I have killed kings, presidents, and lords! And now I can defeat Isaac! I can destroy the Zoldycks! I can become a god of killers! No longer am I destined for defeat!"

He gripped the wire tightly, "I am like you! I have no limits now!"

I gave him the most vicious grin I could give. I channeled Pariston into me, the best I could.

'If you can't even beat a 'child' like me, what makes you think you can beat Netero? Heh, now you have no excuse, not even bad luck. You are a coward, a weakling, and you don't even have the benefit to blame fate anymore. Second to Netero, second to the Zoldycks… without fate, your failures are now truly your own! A coward like you could never be a god! Running from me just proves you'll never beat them!"

He… his face became cold. Emotionless. Placid.

Somehow I could read his eyeless face… my words had hit him.

He was fucking pissed.

With a firm grip around my wire, he ripped it out of his body and threw it toward my ghostly form. My mouth gaped. My wire had been wrapped around his clavicle in his body…

"I was being kind to you for freeing me from my bonds. But now…"

Ah shit.

He pressed his right hand against his wound, spreading the blood across his naked form…

With a flourish, he slammed his right hand on the ground.

The paintings all around this universe began moving. Hundreds. Spinning, twisting over themselves, sliding across space…

Whelp, he ain't leaving now.

I channeled the wire to reel back into its spool, holding and flying faster than I could by my own power.

How I knew, I had no clue. I just did.

I moved past a sea of creatures, the wire occasionally smacking into a monster and causing it to explode into a cloud of aura, just adding to my strength. My wire squirming around in space with reckless abandon. After a few seconds of disorienting, zooming superspeed, I was suddenly and jolting at my body.

'We have a problem!' I said as I pointed to the hundreds of paintings coming close to us like whizzing saw blades… then I noticed the blood coming from dozens of cuts all over my body. It dripped onto the floor and… erased the black.

This while MCP was obliterating crowds of undead creatures at high speed. I saw a dozen human-sized creatures explode into white like waves crashing against rocks.

'Blood!' I said before realizing that doesn't explain shit. I elaborated, 'Blood erases this world and brings us back outside. Look!' I said as I trailed behind my glowing red body. The tables have turned as I was now Navi from Ocarina of Time.

'Hey, listen mother fucker!' I roared as MCP continued to tear into the crowd around Evira. All the while breathing in the Aura with wild madness on its disturbingly angry face.

'I'm going to unreel it. Grab my sword and stop them from killing Evira!'

He stopped after clearing a space, turned, and replied, ' I still don't agree with saving her.'

Before I could even talk, he zoomed toward Robere. Sword low, a speeding bullet of death.

What the fuck… wait…

'Hey!'

From sheer instincts, I snarled, turned to MCP and raised my right hand. The mark on my hand glowed brightly. I didn't even say a word as I willed my body to stop.

My glowing red body skidded to a stop, twitching muscles protesting as MCP tried to move forward and couldn't.

I had control of my body while in this form, while MCP had control of my Hatsus when he was a floating head… but I had more power in this form since this was my body…

This hunk of shit was and still is trying to manipulate me…

I sent my mental command to the creature I gave birth to.

Come back here and save her. Now!

MCP roared in a rage, a robotic, demonic thing that echoed through the void.

But he did as I willed it. He turned on the spot and tore through the sea of horrors…

Now though… hundreds of spinning and trailing paintings gave chase. MCP zigged, he zagged, he stopped, jumped, and used dead bodies as shields.

Why?

Because knife upon knife kept shooting out of them… by the dozens. From dozens of paintings… how many fucking painting knives does this asshole have?

I ignored it, for now, and sent a mental command that I should have asked from the very beginning…

What are the capabilities of my Hatsu?!

He growled, pained to give away information he could use to manipulate me… not like he could hold back right now. Two can play this game, hehehe…

MCP rattled it back to me as if reading me document while getting a prostate exam. All while avoiding the paintings like Hermes avoiding dangers and traps to deliver his mental message.

'End of Line activates Ghost in the Shell. It exchanges the user and his Guardian Nen Beast. The user is now a being of pure aura. Master Control Program is given control of the user's body.

Ghost in the Shell is an aura intensive Hatsu that can be used for only a few minutes. Three methods can be used to prevent aura exhaustion:

1. The user can limit of aura by limiting the use of Nen. This allows End of Line to extend indefinitely.

2. Users can order Master Control Program to appropriate aura. Nen constructs such as Guardian Nen Beasts, Conjured abilities, and Emission techniques are simplest. Though, there is no upper limit to what can be appropriated.

3. Master Control Program can appropriate a Nen user.'

I didn't like the sound of that last one…

'Ghost in the Shell can manipulate Master Control Program's Nen categories. This, along with the ability to recreate Hatsus, allows Master Control Program to effectively utilize a limitless amount of Hatsus. Take note, they will not be as powerful or efficient, and will need to be recreated unless stored into memory.'

What the fuck. That's a lot of fucking power…

'Warning: because the user's consciousness is bound to their aura, if the user expends all his aura, he will expire. It is recommended the user remain conscious while in Ghost in the Shell, as the use of End of Line without control may lead to unintended results from Master Control Program. If the user-'

Enough! How the fuck do I make Hatsus and manipulate Nen categories!

MCP snarled as a knife sliced through our shoulder, 'Just think it!'

Alright, well-

A screen formed right in front of me. As big as a laptop monitor and as thin as glass. I stared at it. It looked like the tablet screens I've been destroying to learn how to (and failing) to conjure.

It looked like a video game menu screen.

In the middle of the whole thing was the Nen category. It was exactly how it should be as a Specialist. With Specialist at one hundred percent and Enhancer forty percent. Everything around it increasing or decreasing by twenty percent increments…

Above it was a number that said, 'Remaining category percent left.'

Above that was how much aura I had in aura units: forty-five thousand. Hmm, not bad for someone training as much as me- wait, the number next to it was how much I currently had. I was clocking in at a hundred thousand.

It was increasing by a few hundred per second. I stared past the screen to MCP ripping apart zombies, dodging knives, and snorting aura like it was cocaine…

I mimed cracking my fingers. Ok. What if I lower my special-

Electricity hit me as Specialist dropped by twenty. I could feel my body fighting to keep it's ghostly self together. I watched as MCP screamed in pain. I quickly fucking fixed that…

Ok… never touch that. I decreased conjuration, transmutation, and manipulation by twenty percent… nothing happened.

Above the category hexagon, it said I had sixty percent. I gingerly dragged my left index finger across the screen, raising Enhancer to one hundred.

A geyser of aura exploded around my human body. It was as tall as a building as MCP laughed, suddenly feeling way more powerful. He stomped, wound up, and took a swing of Stick like a baseball player.

A small hall full of zombies exploded into white as dozens of bodies flew into the sky before landing and bursting into aura. The wind from the Enhancer infused sword swing was blowing monsters that weren't even hit away. The strength from an Enhancer's Ren was stupid…

Unfortunately, I frowned as the aura on my screen began to decrease, rapidly. By increments of a thousand per second. MCP was getting drunk on human emotions, sensations, and power. Dopamine, adrenaline, serotonin, and other chemicals ending in -ine were coursing through my human body like an injection of nitro and cocaine.

Thus, MCP was not being efficient with my aura like I was taught to be…

Fuck it! 'MCP, now! Send Evira through one of the paintings!'

He didn't even snarl or anything, too hyped up on being strong and fast as a superhero. And strong and fast he was. It was the first time I saw someone make afterimages from pure speed. He was tearing through super tough ogres that were as tough as steel like a fat man through lasagna. Literally chewing through 'em with super-strong teeth and jaw muscles.

Even the knives that had cut him were bouncing off his Ten… with my basics trained to a fine sheen… this was how strong an Enhancer could be?

Now I was getting excited seeing the potential of my Hatsu…

That excitement died when I saw my aura tick down. MCP, for lack of a more elegant term that escapes me in this dread, wasn't snorting enough aura. We had three minutes, at most.

I snapped my fingers and twirled my index finger like a DJ trying to hurry his roadies to set up shit, 'Hurry up!'

MCP snapped out of his Enhancer high and beelined it right to Evira. Bodies flying. Knives missing. The speed at which he went was mind blowing. This was the potential of an Enhancer?

He stopped at a dime, aura wafting off him like steam. Or was it steam from the speed he was traveling at? Regardless, he cradled her in her left arm and turned around. MCP spotted a particular painting that was spinning, yellow eyes squinting.

It must have been the right one because he was gone again. Pulling a roadrunner and burning a path of aura through the horde.

Nothing stopped him as he jumped something like twenty meters toward the spinning painting. A dozen knives escaped the painting in an attempt to stop him. Our right arm blurred as it knocked the knives away with contentious ease.

With a mechanical flourish, he rubbed his right arm against his body and sprinkled blood on the painting. The instant the droplets of blood hit the painting a bright light shined through white holes like water ruining a fresh painting. The sound of gasping and yelling echoed out of the portal. It sounded a lot like Briannaisa echoed out.

He tossed Evira through the painting with disgust, 'stood' against the edges of the frame for the second gravity had no hold on him, and pointed his left finger down through the painting.

"Protect her," he ordered at the, probably, very confused woman.

MCP leaned my body's head back as gravity took hold, Stick resting over his right hand with confidence. He freefalled. Twisting and corkscrewing through the air. At the moment of landing, he twisted and transitioned into Ren, absorbing the impact from the fall like it was nothing.

He turned his head toward me, glowering.

I frowned back. But mine was an impressed frown. I raised my right thumb up to my red form in the distance. I thought a single thing back.

Time to fuck this guy up.

For the first time, I saw Master Control Program smirk in joy.

That was weird seeing my body do that…

My excitement cut out when a dozen paintings surrounded my human body. No longer running and jumping around, the Magi could now cage him in.

Through the cracks in the painting, I saw MCP drop my sword.

A flash of a memory. Killua moving his arms in a blur, as though they were whips…

MCP mimicked the pose exactly as hundreds of knives exited several paintings…

An explosion of Ren.

All I saw were glimpses of my red body disappearing and reappearing. MCP controlling my body with the precision of a machine. It was as if the knives passed through him he dodged and moved so fast… as he did, knives tumbled to the ground. The glimpses of him I saw had him with knives in between his fingers, holding them up like a magician.

He dropped them as with elegant contempt, as if this attack was a waste of time.

The rain of knives slowly petered out as more and more knives fell to the ground. Caught and put out of play by Master Control Program.


When the last of the knives landed, another assault appeared. The Magi himself.

He rocketed out of the painting with his fingers like daggers, trying to stab my body with a knife blow. Coming from MCP's left, MCP leaned my body back like Muhammad Ali. Boredom in his eyes as he stared listlessly into space. The Magi flying past him and into another painting.

MCP's eyes stared forward, unblinking, as he extended his Ren into En. The sphere was four meters around and completely encompassed the cage of paintings. Robere had no idea what was about to happen.

The Magi appeared from behind, a victoriously smile on his face as he felt he had my body dead to rights. Both hands on the assassin pinned together with deadly, aura covered fingertips. Doing his best impression of a human dart.

A flash of memory as I remembered an Aikido move I saw from youtube, a long-ass time ago. When I was a teen

MCP raised his hands, to a step to his right, just as Robere was about to hit him. He wrapped his left hand around the killer's head, twisted, and redirected the man's force, and let go. The assassin continued on his merry way, spinning through the air like a rag doll, and crashing through the paintings. Liberating my body from his prison.

Robere tumbled on the ground. A flash of memory from Trick Tower, MCP soccer kicked the killer right in the ribs. The Magi was good, recovering in an instant and getting into a crouch as he stood. As he did – another memory from Clyde in the forest – MCP sent a blinding, Enhancer empowered uppercut that forced Robere to block with both hands and Ken.

The killer's face was of sheer shock as both hands were pinned to his chest, was lifted off the ground, and sent a dozen meters back. He landed, only to meet an assault from MCP that caused me to have a mini-seizure from images. MCP's superspeed combo drawing from my memories.

A left kick from Cropcop that made the killer roar in pain as his right forearm was pinned to his ribs.

A chopping cross down to the crumpling man that was directly from Thomas Hearns, cracking the top of the killer's guarded head.

A Tony Jaa left knee that audibly cracked Robere's right forearm, bending it in a painful direction.

Transitioning that left knee into a George Saint Pierre left Superman punch that crushed the fingers of his right hand that covered his skull from my assault.

The Magi was getting his ass beat by the combined sum knowledge of all the fighters I ever watched, as well as what I learned myself.

Perfectly executed by MCP.

The Magi had more than a century of experience, but I had the combined total knowledge of hundreds, if not thousands of people I ever watched, learned, or fought against.

All at MCP's fingertips. All performed perfectly by, what effectively was, a Nen A.I.

Robere landed like a rolling log. Coughing and gasping in pain from a bruised ribcage. He struggled to get up, arms and boy shaking like a leaf.

My smile slowly disappeared as I saw how much aura I had… sixty thousand. I had a minute left. I pulled my head up and ordered MCP to relax with Ren or at least fucking use it efficiently.

'Finish him!'

MCP sped forward. His right hand a blade of aura…

A painting spun right in the way, blocking MCP's way. He sliced through it, revealing Robere to be gone. It was barely a second! Fuck!

A roar above us as we saw him limply hanging out of a painting. His blood dripping from his hands and onto the ground like red rain.

On purpose…

The black void rumbled. MCP cut off his Ren and reverted to Ten. I looked down to see I had fifty-seven aura units left… whatever was about to happen wasn't good. But we had to stop him here, or else he'd be free to do anything he wants.

He had the ability to see fate somehow and was no longer bound by fate.

I don't want to even imagine what kind of nightmare he'd become…

I tore my gaze from my screen to the sea of monsters around. In the distance, to my right, MCP stared above at Robere with annoyance. Plainly pissed he couldn't finish him off right then.

All around the monsters started to twitch, engorge, and rip apart.

Every single creature in the area exploded into a plum of aura. Popping like organics balloons in a display best kept in a horror movie. The aura all around us swirled and coalesce toward the killer above us. A white, shimmering fog of power. As big and wide as a tall skyscraper

That was… too much aura… one hundred units…. One-hundred and fifty?... maybe two hundred thousand?

Dear god…

I heard a loud sucking sound. I turned to see… MCP breathing in the Aura. A vicious smile along with a vicious laugh on my red body. He vacuumed an enormous stream of aura right into his nostrils, as big as a small river. A swirling cloud of blazing white entering him as he stuck his chest out in a display of confidence and power.

His yellow eyes glowing. The white and yellow circuit board lights on his body shining, blinding.

My own form began to glow, filling out, and burning like a green inferno.

I turned down to my screen and saw my own aura units increasing like I won the lotto, the numbers just flying up past seventy thousand and increasing.

I heard a growl as I turned up to the Magi high above. His face filled with disgust, staring at us as if we were doing something perverse. He screamed a petulant reply, his confidence cracking as the blood leaked from the wounds all around his body and face.

"You parasites… you are truly cancer! Devouring all around you! Destroying without thought or reason! I would have mentored you! Taught you to your full power! You… waste!"

I snarled. His mind was somehow as alien as anyone I ever met. Somehow doing good because it was what I believed was right was illogical…

The world shifted. The black void twisted. A painted landscape. And endless horizon all around us. The ground exploded into paint.

A titanic mountain erupted from beneath us, the swirling paints splattering everything. Endless mountain peaks with blue skies and frigid white.

I heard a roar as the world began so much bigger. He was altering his dimension... turning it into a snowy white mountain range…

In the distance was a fucking dragon. A titanic, furry, green reptile that was as big as the top of the mountains and large wings that flapped tempests. Skyscraper-sized. From tip to tail I'd guess it was three hundred meters, about fucking thousand feet long… a hundred meters tall on its legs, about four hundred feet.

My ethereal eyes were wide as the wind howled. Then the creature did.

Even without a human body, I somehow could feel the world vibrate.

I felt hope drain out of me… I thought to run now…

If it weren't for MCP cracking its neck.

"A human body is quite annoying to a being of aura," he turned to me, having floated right next to him. My face probably looking at him as if he were insane, "do you not understand?" was all he said.

I saw the aura around us floating toward the dragon… the entire area… the creature.

Aura.

It wasn't hopeless.

MCP must have seen something on my transparent face, because he growled begrudgingly, "I see you understand now. I am… uncreative. I leave it to you to find a way to cut down the beast."

It barely took me a second.

I willed my USB Wire out of its spool and grab my sword… and found it far more difficult than before. A kind of resistance… the movements less responsive and more difficult to control finely…

I guess sixty percent is where things started getting wonky. Ah well.

My wire wrapped around the handle of Stick and pulled it back, the wire holding it like a tentacle. I floated next to MCP and pointed to the behemoth dragon.

'We're going down that thing's throat.'

"I wish to take back what I said before."

I laughed, feeling manic with so much power coursing through my body, "Trust me! Now, is creating Hatsus done just by thinking?..."

MCP nodded, "Take note: we will expend an inordinate amount of aura…" he turned to the dragon, "though, I believe that does not matter as much…"

I nodded.

With that, MCP ran forward. My glowing body trailing behind him as I flew through space. The speed that my human body was going at was insane, but my green ghost body could keep up. As long as I was next to him.

He dashed across the mountain at a tremendous speed. The mountain range growing bigger the higher we went, and so did the fuck huge dragon. It could see the fleshy, kinda flabby thing with thin fleshy, chicken-like claws and big drumstick legs.

We could see Robere standing on top of the giant reptiles' head. He spoke, his voice a mad, echoing scream of outrage that bounced across the mountain range.

"Zeno has his dragon, but this is a true dragon! DIE!"

A wave point of his hands and dragon roared, jumped off the mountain range, and dive-bombed right toward us. The sweeping, kilometers high mountain a mere diving board to this ridiculously gigantic monster of a creature. A massive maw opened like a dark tunnel of teeth and tongue came down on us.

I clenched my jaw, reduced Conjuration from eighty percent to zero, then increased Emission and Transmutation to eighty, respectively. I thought quickly, closing my eyes and trying to figure out how to create the Hatsu I needed to kill this thing. We'd need a tremendous amount of aura…

Wait… if Master Control Program can access memories…

I closed my eyes and thought back to the beginning of the year. Mayer's demonstration of his Hatsu… how he vacuumed sucked the surrounding air…

As I did, my mind analyzed and broke down what my Master did. Enhancer lungs to physically pull in the air, while transmutation and emission created a cone of solid air around his lungs to funnel more air than actually possible. I saw arrows, trajectories, diagrams, aura amounts, category balances…

Is this how MCP usually sees the world?

Darkness enclosed us as the jaws shut.

I knew what to do.

I transmitted my plan to MCP's thoughts.

My sword jumped to life as I manipulated the blade to be as thin, long, and sharp as possible. I saw my aura units burn away from the inefficiency my current category was. Ignore it.

I manipulated the wire out as far and as wide as I could, adding to the amount of aura I was burning quickly. MCP followed suit and transitioned to Ren, burning even more fucking Aura. My sword was now something Sephorath would use to kill buildings. Excellent.

It blazed to light as Shu encased it. A blazing green blade of destruction as long as a 747's wingspan. I was pushing as much aura as I could into the damn maneuver. I ignored the fact I was burning ten thousand aura units per second when I only had around ninety thousand.

I couldn't hesitate now. Nothing to it but to keep pushing… but holy hell…

Every second was agony as my aura began siphoning away from me. The moment stretching on as excruciating pain often does to things that should go quickly… if felt as if my body was being physically being burned and ground down into fine dust at the same time. All while trying to keep my ghostly form together by flexing every muscle in my body at once.

I screamed and keep pushed...

In the darkness, the shining blade gave us light by pure Transmutation of wind burning the air into fire from friction. I saw MCP open his mouth and widen his nostrils. Aura encircling a cone around his face. His arms and body becoming weak by the second…

Enhancer lungs breathed.

Twenty thousand per second…

I willed the blade forward with all my might. Pain my entire world as I drained away.

The blade bit deep… and trudged forward as painted blood erupted from the creature… and entered MCP's gullet. My human body's red glow disappearing, the yellow lines dying…

I was barely a head with a quickly dimming screen in front of me. The screen flashing red in warning… Lethargic… all I saw in front of me as the world dimmed….

100/45,000

1000/45,000

31231/45,000

75670/45,000

We exploded into light. Red and green generating a blinding light as our aura poured into us. My ghostly body brimming back to full form, while the red of MCP'S skin and the yellow circuits blazing to life.

I channeled more aura into the weapon. The blade of Shu surrounding Stick growing longer and thicker with every passing second. MCP sucking up more blood and, in turn, more aura.

The dragon roared in pain. The blade digging through flesh more and more. The creature shuddered and bucked. We didn't stop. We just roared back as the ground shifted and the world tilted.

The moment we pass through the damn thing's spine and we saw light from the outside. Then a wide crack. Flesh gave way and a giant opening was now in the thing's neck. The 'world' tilted and the ground came rushing up as the dragon's neck fell without bone to support it.

In the tumble, we saw him. Robere. Spinning through the air. Shock in his face.

I shook my head. Just a bad match up…

MCP reoriented himself in mid-air with my body. His face unperturbed, completely calm as we fell down a mountain. He stared straight at Robere and lifted my body's right arm.

I smiled and sent Stick right at the free-falling assassin…

My blade the size of a small building.

A cloud of white surrounded us as the creature dissipated. My blade passing through like a knife through steam…

It caught right through Robere. The monster of a man screaming in a rage. Screaming at the unfairness of it all.

I laughed as he turned to dust from the intensity of my sword's Shu…

I cut off Shu and stared at the amount of aura left.

A thousand. Great…

The world warped and changed. Fracturing now that this Hatsu's owner was dead…

MCP was on the ball again. As we fell, he 'fell' forward toward a painting. Without hesitation, he pulled the blood off his body and touched the painting. The dying Hatsu's effects still working as we exited right out of the portal and into the halls of the Dragon's Head.

MCP rolled across his left shoulder and landed onto his feet with robotic ease. He wiped himself down and stared at my ghostly form. A self-satisfied smirk on his face, with glaring eyes. He spoke, arrogance lacing his words.

"I suppose you want me to tell you how to exit?"

I smiled back. My ghostly forming bobbing up and down as I closed the window by closing my hands together.

"No. I'm guessing its 'Hello World'"

A bright light exploded from both of us as everything turned black…


Author's Notes:

Probably favorite chapter yet, haha. Unfortunately, James won't be that strong when facing the Phantom Troupe. Without a constant source of aura, he's got to be careful. Most importantly, he as disadvantages against manipulators and enhancers, since he can't directly eat the aura as easily. There's also other issues that we'll see.

As always, I hope you are all well and continue to do well!

See you next chapter!