Chapter 7

Foolish Immortality

"Can you tell me about this Zarestia person?" A pair of hazel irises widened ever so slightly as they hovered over Hector, the Warlock of Acedia. Looking bothered, the boy sighed and gaped at Pride's question, clearly annoyed.

"Whhhyyyyy do I haaaaave to botheeeer with such a stupid quesstiiiooooon?" Hector crossed his arms, then made a perverted circling motion, "Why caaaan't you just beee satissfiiiiied with the ideaaaaa of her bigg tiiitieeee-"

"Are you still talking about that? Sheesh. That's getting annoying. I don't know how old you really are, but you sure stay true to your appearance. Typical pubescent boy," He said, disapprovingly. "I want to know her story. Something I could work with apart from 'hurr durr big boobs'."

Drooping, Hector scratched his head, clearly exhausted. "She was once a very oooooold spirit, worshipped by manyyyyyyy. Zarestiiiiaaaa was capable of usssiiiiing all elementssss…And wipe out couunntriiiiies in an instant. It is rumored she is even oldeerrrr than Satellaaaaa herself."

"We're up against someone like that?!" Pride nearly shouted, but quickly covered his own mouth as the neighbors in the boat started to turn and look at him strangely. Whispering, he moved closer to Hector, "…why in the world do we have to go up against someone that strong?"

"Willlll you leeeeeet me fiiiiinish? She doesssnnn'tttt have that power anymoooooore. A while agooo, the very same worshipers tore her liiiiiiimbs apaaaaart, and thuuuuus her source of poooooower. Now she issss just a measly vengefuuuul spirit with a powwweeeeer she cannnooot tappppp into, with abnooormallyyy large, beautifuuuul, and bouuuuntifu-"

"Yeah I get it. Okay, so she's not that strong. At least, not as strong as before. But seriously…someone as old or possibly older than Satella, and she got backstabbed by her own worshipers. Serves her right, after all, her foolish immortality made her careless. That's the one true weakness of the strong."

The conversation ended, with neither of the two parties interested in continuing. They hated each other, even though they were agents of the Witch.

Throughout the entire boat ride, they kept silent. Not a single word was muttered. The calm sea waves rocked against the boat. Pride's black hoodie swayed against the wind.

The silence wasn't awkward. In fact, it was rather comforting. As dangerous as they were, even these two dangerous criminals had times of peace.

A massive cruise ship with 2 dangerous monsters and nothing happened throughout the entire trip. Ignorance is bliss.

As the cruise ship finally landed in Kararagi, Pride jumped off eagerly as he finally had a chance to stretch his legs. Hector quickly followed behind him, poking his back as he pointed at a hotel a block away. "That's ouuuuuuur laaaaaair."

"You've been reading too much manga."

"Mangaaa?"

"It's nothing."

Pride hunched over to grab the suitcases filled with what felt like rocks and dragged his feet heavily to the hotel titled Immediate Stay Resort. "Man…that does not look like a resort at all…" He commented, assessing the tattered state of the hotel.

"…The boat was a five-star cruise ship…the hell is wrong with the hotel…"

"Aaaaah….Pandoraaaa is horrriiiible at balancing the buuuudget," Hector said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well tell me these things sooner! Shit. Now we might have to sleep next to spiky spiders!"

Hector just sighed, surprised by Pride's outburst. He rushed to the hotel so he'd be spared from Pride's embarrassing outbursts like a little kid barely in puberty.

Who knows his real age though, Pride thought silently.

[]

"Sighh…." Pride breathed heavily, exhaustion draining his body all at once the moment he flapped on the rock-like bed. In the corner of his eye, he saw a roach jump from the side of his bed to a broken lamp on a dusty cabinet, violently. A look of disgust crossed his face. "Ugh…At least Bete-san's cave had maintenance…this place is just too…geh…"

"Whaaaat? Are yoouuuu eveeen a man?" Hector questioned Pride's gender, as he rolled over the lamp and squashed the cockroach with his bare hands. It was plain disgusting.

"You aren't very popular with the ladies are you?"

"Neeeither are you, you viiiiirgin."

"Well sure, hit me where it hurts."

Gathering his wits back after his own ego was shattered beyond repair, Pride shook his shoulders and slapped himself, "Okay. Let's do this. Let's do some investigation work."

"Aaaahhhh, befoooore you goooo, doooon't forgeeeeet this," Hector jumped up and handed him a strange vase, "Wheeeeen you fiiiiind her, trappp her in this vaaase. It should be eaaaaaasy."

Pride made a confused growl, "Huh?" He pointed at himself, "Me? Alone?" He asked stupidly. His partner just sighed and rolled back on his bed.

"Of cooourse. I ain't workiiiing. Too much hassleee."

Pride frowned.

[]

It's been weeks since Pride arrived to Kararagi. He was surprised by just how similar Kararagi's culture was to Japan. He probably wasn't the only other Japanese person in this alternate world. Well, apart from that other imposter. He donned an enchanted black hoodie to hide his identity. The Archbishop didn't know what kind of adversaries he'd face in this alternate world. I wonder if Elsa's alive and well…

Breathing the fresh air deep into his lungs, the Archbishop dragged his legs groggily through the clean streets, watching as the silence surrounded him.

The winter wind hit him harshly, but he quickly readjusted his hoodie. Pride didn't want to be stopped by the ton of people he 'befriended', so he donned an enchanted black hoodie that stopped anyone from recognizing him.

Cold air shivered through his bones as he looked up at the moonlight, smiling. If there's one thing he appreciated about this damned world was the ambience of the night. Unlike Japan, he could clearly see the stars. It was so beautiful.

Stretching his arms, a massive sigh escaped his lips, signaling his exhaustion. "All this investigation and I haven't been able to find this 'Zarestia' person, and all Hector tells me is that she's a woman with massive breasts…How much of a horny teenager can you be…" His shoulders drooped, depressed.

Something crackled. It was the sound of chains, dropping to the cement and suddenly raised up. It almost sounded like these chains were being used like a whip. "Where have I heard that sound before…" He muttered, before suddenly seeing a massive spiked ball hurl toward his physique. "Ah shit!" Narrowly dodging the bowling ball, the Archbishop dropped to the ground pathetically and without any sense of pride before pushing his short legs upward, trying to push distance between him and the attacker. "Dammit!" He cursed under his breath, "Not this shit again!"

He tried getting a good look at his attacker, but the dark night and the stupidly-fast moving ball of death made it hard for him to focus on his opponent. The sound of chains kept ringing in his ears.

Strange, He thought, Where the hell is everyone else? Even if it's nighttime, there should still be some people here…Have I been caught in a barrier?

He didn't want to die before getting a good look on his enemy's face, or at the very least if it was a man or a woman. This must've been a planned attack. Whoever his enemy is, they were ready to ambush him tonight.

Should I let myself get killed now? He shook his head vigorously, No no no no no. I haven't even taken a good look at the bastard's face! Why me?! What the hell did I do?! This is a brand new world, I should have a clean sla-

…Was my cover blown? No, that shouldn't be possible…Could it be…Did they follow my witch's scent?! Fuck!

He fiddled in his pocket impatiently, clumsily grabbing a golden metia shaped like a phone. Dialing strange numbers, he tried to contact Hector, but the signal was cut off by the barrier itself. "Kh-" He screeched.

The metia dropped to the cold cement, crushed by the spiked weapon. "He has nowhere else to go, I suppose." A child-like voice permeated through the thick haze of black. "Let's capture him and wring out any useful information he has." Stopping for a few seconds as if considering something, the voice continued, "Mind your killing intent. We can't afford to let him die. We need all the information we can get."

The attacker clicked its tongue. Pride couldn't hear well enough to determine its gender, only that the mage who set up the barrier must've been a child.

Or she must've at least been someone who helped plan the ambush.

They were planning to capture him. "Ah fuck this," He said as he pulled out a knife from his left pocket and stuffed it straight into his jugular.

The two attackers stared in shock as the Archbishop committed suicide. He had absolutely no hesitation in doing so, but he made sure to let his head fall on their direction, even if it's to get a tiny glimpse of his enemies.

He saw a girl no older than five with large blonde drills for hair who donned an incredibly well-designed reddish-pink dress, and another girl around his age with light blue hair and a strange horn sticking out of her forehead.

Blinking as blood drooled out of his throat, he muttered the words "I…will definitely…kill you…"

[]

CHAPTER END

Author Notes

Sorry for the wait. Been hunting for a second job so I could finance my real estate job. It's not going so well…Tried another sales company, and they don't have any sort of time malleability. It's always from 7 am to 7 pm. That is too much, and I only get paid for each sale. No can do, I got college to attend to as well.

Back to Federal Work Study Employment it seems. Sigh…

Next chapter I'm going to make it light-hearted. Kinda. I want Pride to get to know the people around him. Had that thought when I was practically done with this chapter, and I kinda wanted to redo the chapter but I'm certain you guy want to read this.

Besides…this series is all about time-looping.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.