Chapter 9

Predecessor

Hazel eyes hovered over the silent Hector; the sleepy-eyed warlock looked back, confused. Scratching his chin, Hector's mouth moved gratingly, "Yoooooouuuu areeeee waaaaaay weeeeeiiirdeeer than the laaaaast Pride."

Hearing a strange piece of information, a bulb of curiosity popped in Pride's brain, "Previous Pride?" He couldn't help but ask as he was handling a strange miniature mountain of crimson sticks. To Hector, it looked like rubbish.

"Ahhhhhh, yeeeees. Baaaaack then, yooou haaaad a predecessorrr. Theeeee Archbiiiishoooop of Pride, Stride Vollachia. Verrry respectaaaaable and not weeeeird. Unlikkeeeee you. Heee'd alwaaaaays give me foooood. I liiiked him."

"A previous Pride, huh. That's new info," The twisted Natsuki scratched his ruffled hair, "I'm guessing he died? Considering I exist." Wait, since I come from another world…would that be correct? Could it be that other Pride, Vollachia-san, still exists? Well, I never encountered him back in my…or well, my iteration of the other parallel world. Dear God now I am confu-

Cutting into Subaru's confused, intermingled thoughts, Hector heaved heavily, "Heeee waaaas killllled bbyyyyyy thhaaaaaat idddiiiiioooot old geezer Wilhelm and a gaaaang of kniiiiights thirrrrty yeeeaaars ago. Theeeey raaaided his hideoutttt. Eevveeeen though he didn't do annyyyyything wroooong. Hiiiiis last momeeeents were….haaaaard to taaaake in."

"Huh…." Uninterested in Hector's emotional grief, the current Pride tried prickling the Warlock's brain, "Wait, but that means the old Pride's Witch Genes left his body, since he died. Do I…have them? Wait but that can't be right…I just came to this world about two years ago? Unless the witch gave-"

Pride bit his tongue, and Hector tilted his droopy-eyed head, confused as to Subaru's sudden silence. "Caaaaaat got yourrrr tongue?"

"Ah?" Heavily breathing, as though he had just ran an entire marathon in under a split-second, Pride struggled to form words, "Ah…..no, it's nothing. I just wanted to know, what happened to the old Pride's witch genes?"

"Coooooooonsiiiiideerrriiiiing you areeee the new Archbishooooop of Priiiiide, it'd be only naturaaaal to asssuuuuume you have the Priiiiide Geeene. But you dooon't. You have something eeellllsee.."

"Something else?"

"Byyyy theee waaay….whaaat in the wooooorld are you dooooing with those weird reeed sticks?" He pointed to the stash of odd-looking metal sticks next to Pride. Hector gazed at Pride and changed the subject.

"Oh? Ah," He held up one of the odd red sticks, "Are you talking about the dynamite?"

"Whaaaat's a dynamite?"

Subaru's face plastered a Are you that fucking stupid? expression, with his jaw dropped on the floor. "Right…you idiots don't know anything about my hometown's technology. It took me a while to make. Probably a fifty years' worth of studying in a single week-"

"Fifttyyy?"

"Ah….gah…fuck….Basically…I studied really hard to make some explosives."

"Explossiiives?" Hector parroted, curiously.

"Yep. Basically, my authority told me there are two enemies after us," Suddenly jumping up, Subaru pushed his finger up to the sky, with a wide twisted smile, "We just gotta make a small disaster, and we can buy some time! I rather not give our identities away. They clearly have some kind of tracking on us, so if we put the lives of a good hundred people in jeopardy, those 'heroes' will clearly try to save them all, and in all the confusion, we make a run for it. It's a great plan if I say so myself."

"You sure talk a lot…for an idiot."

"Eh? Did your accent just change?"

"Yoooouuurrr imaggiiiinattiiiiioooon."

As Pride prepared a small bag, his tone of voice lowered to that of a whisper, "Think you could help me plant these in the next hotel over?"

"Tsk. Fiiiiine."

[]

So I don't have the Witch Genes of Pride…I could've sworn I did. I mean, I called myself Pride in my timeline. Could it just have been a misunderstanding? And also, predecessor? That means there were previous Archbishops? So there could've been a previous Gluttony? Lust? Sloth?

Maybe I could sniff out some answers from the Witch? Geh, would she even tell me anything, rather than just fondle my heart all day like a pervert?

It was evening; the sun nearly set for sleep. Hector checked their surroundings; he wanted to make sure there were no one nearby.

"All clear?" Pride asked.

The Warlock nodded.

Using a heat stone, Subaru ignited the dynamite. "Alright, let's get out of here, Hector."

"Goooot ittttt." Wrapping his arms around the Archbishop, Hector flung himself into the air. With his power, gravity unaffected them, and they continued to fly upwards at high speed for a good ten seconds before landing like a feather next to their own hotel.

"In a few moments, the next hotel over should blow-"

The hotel a few blocks over suddenly busted into flames; a cloud shredded the interior, shattering the glass windows and doors that made up its infrastructure.

An ear-shattering hum blasted Subaru's hearing; he felt blood trickle down the orifices of his ears. "Yeouch…." Everything numbed around the Archbishop as the explosion drowned everything. Dozens of knights circled past him to the collapsed building.

There were people screaming, crying, and bleeding, but it was all drowned out by the flames. "We should go," Pride tugged at Hector's arm, "Hopefully that'll buy us some time to run from our pursuers."

"Weeee couuuld just slaughter them."

"You idiot. I don't want to reveal my identity just yet," Pride snarled, "Didn't I say that a few hours ago?"

Hector clicked his tongue in response.

[]

The two Witch Agents made way to a carriage with a sleeping dragon in it. "Since we made a mess in the capital, I guess no driver's available?" Pride scratched his hair, "This is a problem. I don't even know if we can domesticate an animal like that."

"Iiiiiit already is domesticateeeed," Hector unnecessarily added. Not appreciating the Warlock's wisecrack joke, a bulge of nerves popped out of Pride. Immediately changing his stance, though, Pride walked over the sleeping ground dragon.

"I mean in terms of it listening to us," Pride softly placed his hand over the sleeping, silver ground dragon with a kind smile on his face. A sudden chill ran through his spine; his whole body flinched at the feeling.

"Soooomeone's heeeree…." Hector whispered cautiously, "Theeeey slipppped undeeer my radaaaar."

"Shit! So the pursuers weren't distracted by the explosion?!" Pride clicked his tongue.

Shrugging, Hector snarled, "Ittt waaas a stupppiiid plan in the fiiiirst place." Forming a rather goofy fighting stance, Hector locked eyes with the pursuer. Subaru placed his hand near the dagger on his back, anticipating the enemy.

"Scum…." It was a lovely female voice; one wrapped in pure beauty and malice. "Scum scum scum scum die die die die die die die die die die die die die die die you rotten scum for taking my gem!"

"Who the hell?" Pride couldn't help but spurt out, "Great, another crazy bitch…"

In front of them was a very lovely woman wrapped solemnly in a kimono. Her body figure and curves were hugged quite nicely by the white kimono, giving her a sense of otherworldly beauty. She could easily be a model in Subaru's world, but the radiating malice that oozed out of her face said otherwise. Her eyes, colored in a deep blue, pierced the night. That lustful milky-white hair danced in the black night that was colored by unhindered stars.

"You stole stole stole stole my precious gem! Give it back you filth! Filth! Filthy! Just the sight of you makes me ill!"

"Ah! It issss the big boobed spirit!"

"For Christ's sake, Hector! Now's not the fucking time!"

"Die die die die you filth!"

Pride heard a strange buzzing sound in his ears, and before he knew it, the ground dragon behind him was torn to smithereens by some unknown force. "What?!" She charged headfirst to Subaru, surrounded by the same invisible force that seemed to cut the wind itself.

A black boot kicked the spirit off to the side. "Yes! You got her! Nice going, Hector!" Pride danced with joy, before realizing that his companion was strangely quiet. "….Hector?" Focusing on the Warlock, the Archbishop soon realized Hector's predicament.

Hector's foot was sliced off cleanly. "….Iiiiit…..huuuuurts….."

"Fuck!" Pride snarled, "So this is Zarestia?"

"Yeees….The Great Spirit of Murderrrr…." Gasping for air, Hector gritted his teeth in pain. "Focuuuus, Pride. Sheee's cooommiing."

Calming himself, Pride turned his attention to the murderous spirit. "Damn spirit. You deserve what's coming to you!"

The wind crackled and ripped around Zarestia, her madness surrounded by powerful wind magic that would tear anyone to shreds. The spirit's maddening expression was filled with bloodlust and rage beyond human understanding. "I am going going going to bury you! Turn you into worm food for stealing my light sphere! I will kill you!"

"You?" The Archbishop of Pride taunted as he unsheathed his dagger, "Kill me? Hah! Just try it!"

Without sparing Pride another word, the enraged bull of a spirit charged headfirst to the Archbishop. Dozens of wind strikes engulfed the Witch Agent, threatening to swallow him whole. "Die! You thief!"

"I'm looking forward to it!" With a twisted smile, Pride ran to his demise.

END

Author Notes

Really sorry for the long hiatus. I got everyone's messages, don't worry. It just took me a while to get back into the groove. That and real life. It looks like Real Estate didn't work out for me at all, so I'm going to keep that as my fall-back plan in case my next major doesn't work out.

Next chapter will be an extra chapter.