Endless Journey Infinite Cosmos

by Stayrr

After all the things that he had done in his life, Alex realized that it was already his time to die. But a sudden encounter with a weird person will turn his whole life around. And his life just became weirder after that. "You are an Esper? Then come and taste my saber!" "You are a Daoist? Then come and taste my fist!" "You are a Genie? Well, can you grant me infinite wishes?" Eve

2. 33

Endless Journey: Infinite Realms #Chapter 33 Slow, Ticking Time - Read Endless Journey: Infinite Realms Chapter 33 Slow, Ticking Time Online - All Page -

Chapter 33 Slow, Ticking Time

Alex knew that he cannot use any extremely powerful moves right now, as he had limited Mental Power.

If he uses one powerful move and Lord Gallius manages to dodge it, then Alex will be a goner.

As such, Alex's only choice was to use less powerful but still lethal ways to win.

Lord Gallius seems to be thinking the same thing too, as all the skills that he used to attack Alex earlier were all still at the normal level of abilities.

"This means my fight with Lord Gallius right now all depends on perseverance, tenacity and creativity." Alex thought to himself as he looked at all the ice creeping towards him.

"..." Even if he will not use much of his analytic prowess, Alex knew the reason for why Lord Gallius decided to freeze his surroundings.

"Since I can dodge his attacks, then the only thing that he needed to do is to slow me down." Alex muttered grimly to himself as he started to feel the effects of the cold settling down on him.

Alex could feel his body's reaction rate slowing down, as his muscles started to get hampered by the cold. His body also started to slightly tremble, as his internals started to recompensate for all the body heat that he is losing right now.

"Now, let's see if you can still move like you used to before." Lord Gallius said as he jumped towards Alex's direction.

For some reason, it seems like Lord Gallius was not affected by the cold trick that he just did.

Of course, Alex knew that Lord Gallius can make himself immune from the cold by increasing the vibration of the particles around him.

By doing that, they will generate heat that will counteract the cold around Lord Gallius.

"..."

However, Alex knew that he should not dwell deep into thinking of these things as he had more important things to do.

And that was to stay alive from his incoming opponent.

"Swoosh~" Alex leaned back, letting the longsword pass just right above him.

Lord Gallius seemed to be not perturbed by this dodge as his longsword changed directions, as it now snapped down towards Alex.

But before Lord Gallius could see a bisected Alex in front of him, he suddenly felt pain inside his chest, which forced him to falter.

"Gah!" Lord Gallius staggered a little as he clutched his chest as he wondered what happened to him.

As for Alex, he was able to place himself at a farther distance than Lord Gallius' longsword.

"That took longer than I thought." Alex muttered to himself as he straightened his body. "Good thing it happened at this moment..."

"What the hell did you do?" Although he was not sure if Alex will answer him, Lord Gallius still forced some air out of his lungs as he uttered his question.

"Just like what I told you earlier, I used my special move." Alex said while shrugging his shoulders. "Now, the only thing that I need to do is to watch."

"..."

When he started this virtual match, Lord Gallius was sure that it will be his victory.

According to the info that he got from his 'special sources', Alex only awakened his Esper Ability around 9 days ago.

Even if Alex was a Battle Esper and that he presumably had training with both the Jackal and Alina, Lord Gallius was sure that Alex's combat abilities will still be paltry.

However, that thinking of his got wiped away when he talked to Alex.

The start of their conversation was okay, but that all changed when Alex called him 'Vibrator'.

That namesake was something that Lord Gallius could not accept in his life.

Even though his Esper Ability was Vibration, Lord Gallius was extremely uncomfortable from being named similarly to a phallus-shaped object used for sexual satisfaction.

Alex's nonchalance as he said his accursed namesake just managed to piss Lord Gallius off. It was at that moment that Lord Gallius decided to make Alex suffer.

With his limited Mental Power, Lord Gallius cannot use moves like vibrating the whole area, or vibrating Alex from a distance.

These kinds of moves require high amounts of Mental Power, which Lord Gallius cannot afford now.

Thus, he resorted to using his classic vibration air armor and vibrating longsword.

Both of these moves reach their peak lethality and effectivity when Lord Gallius was at the Star Esper level, but they are also as dangerous right now, even when they are only supported by Tier 100 Mental Power.

The UV Beam that Alex shot to him was a little dangerous, but it was effectively neutralized by his vibrating air armor. Unfortunately for him, Lord Gallius was temporarily blinded by the weakened UV Beam.

But Lord Gallius was not worried by that, as he relies more on sensing Alex's bodily vibrations to attack him.

His eyes being disabled will be not enough to stop him.

But even with that, Lord Gallius found Alex to be an extremely difficult opponent.

Alex's movements as he dodged Lord Gallius' longsword was efficient and calculated, as if what he was doing was just simple.

"This f*ker..." Lord Gallius was mad as he saw what Alex was doing. "He must have an extreme and strenuous training on martial arts. That is the only way that he can move nimbly under my assault!"

Since Alex can move this well, Lord Gallius decided to slow Alex down by lowering the temperature of their surroundings.

Lord Gallius was able to easily do this, as he started to siphon off the vibration of the particles around him.

The effect was immediate, as Lord Gallius saw ice and mist forming quickly.

Alex was able to see through what was happening, but that was not enough for him to escape.

Before Alex could know it, Lord Gallius started his one-two longsword attack.

With Alex's state at that time, even if he could dodge Lord Gallius' horizontal sweep, there is no way Alex can dodge Lord Gallius' second vertical slash.

But before Lord Gallius could hear the satisfying slosh of Alex's body, he suddenly felt an intense pain inside his chest.

That pain was enough to halt his actions, allowing Alex to distance himself away from him.

"Ugh... I need to find the source of this pain!" Lord Gallius thought quickly as he knew if he will not do anything now, then it will be him who will most probably lose.

With his Vibration Ability, Lord Gallius could also sense the vibration of his organs, allowing him to see if they were fine.

If his organs were 'vibrating' at the 'right way', then he is fine.

But right now, Lord Gallius could sense that the majority of his chest cavity were vibrating erratically, as if there was something harming them greatly.

"What is it?" Lord Gallius thought urgently as he tried his best to understand his situation.

"Alex's Epser Ability is EM Wave Manipulation... that just means whatever he is doing to me right now is related to the EM Spectrum. But what did he exactly do?"

Instead of just blindly guessing, Lord Gallius tried to remember what Alex did earlier in their fight, hoping that will give him some clues.

"That Alex... the only thing that he did was to throw UV Rays at me... And all of those EM Waves were weakened by my vibration air armor..."

It was at that time that Lord Gallius got the answer.

"So it was that huh..."

Lord Gallius now realized why Alex still threw UV Rays at him even with his vibration air armor.

Those last UV Rays were not an attempt to penetrate Lord Gallius' defense.

Those UV Rays were there to divert Lord Gallius' attention.

"And to think that he timed those diversions so well... I really should not underestimate this guy." Lord Gallius thought to himself as he took some deep breaths to stabilize himself.

After a few more seconds of observing his insides, Lord Gallius was able to determine what exactly damaged him.

"Small doses of gamma rays huh." Lord Gallius muttered as he felt the burning sensation inside his chest cavity getting stronger. "You were lucky you were able to trigger it."

Gamma rays are products of the disintegration of radioactive atomic nuclei and the decay of certain subatomic particles.

Compared to alpha and beta particles, gamma rays have lasting and fatal effects to the human body.

Radiation poisoning, DNA mutation, and cellular destruction are just few of these lethal effects.

And right now, Lord Gallius is feeling these effects.

"Well, I actually did not trigger it quickly." Alex replied as he watched Lord Gallius from a distance. "I had the change of frequencies to slowly happen... around 1 minute, I guess?"

Alex then let out a sigh of relief as he saw Lord Gallius starting to weaken. "Mind you, that slow change was really difficult... I was lucky to pull it off right now. After all, there is a high chance that I could fail."

"..."

"..."

"Did you trigger the change at the start of the fight?" Lord Gallius queried as he started to slump over.

"Well yes, I discreetly shot some miniscule amounts of light inside your chest while you were busy summoning that longsword of yours." Alex replied nonchalantly.

Alex then continued talking as Lord Gallius felt himself weakening faster.

"I guessed that there is a way that you can somehow sense your internal body condition, so I decided to not attack your internals quickly. If I did that, I reckon that you will detect my attack coming, which will allow you to neutralize it."

"Yes, I would have done that." Lord Gallius thought to himself as he willed himself to stand up.

"I will just use my vibration to shake off the gamma rays that you put inside me... But since you set them to change slowly, I was not able to notice their change."

Lord Gallius' effort to stand seemed futile as his legs started to give up on him. By that point, Lord Gallius saw the damage of the gamma rays spreading at the organs inside his abdomen.

By this point, Lord Gallius already knew the results of the match.

"Alex, let me tell you something first..." Lord Gallius breathed out as he felt his insides starting to melt.

Blood was already dripping out of Lord Gallius' mouth as he talked. "You cannot just rely on placing EM Waves inside a person's body in order to win... There will come a point that this move of yours will be obsolete... especially if you fight against really strong Star Espers..."

"I understand..." Alex was not bluffing this time, as he realized the sincerity of Lord Gallius. He understood that relying on Internal EM Wave attacks will not work on stronger opponents.

Hell, Alex knew that he was just lucky it worked against Lord Gallius.

But no matter how Alex appreciated what Lord Gallius said, Lord Gallius' sincerity had Alex confused.

"Why are you telling me this anyway?" Alex said as he tilted his head. "You hate me, right? Are you okay giving me info like this?"

"Hmph, I just did it because I want to." Lord Gallius replied, as he obviously showed that he will not answer Alex's question truthfully. "Just be grateful to me!"

"Ok, thanks a lot." Alex said as his mocking smile returned. "In return for your good advice, I will stop from referring to you as Vibrator."

"You bastar-" Lord Gallius' attempt to curse back failed as his virtual body suffered multiple organ failure, effectively killing his virtual body.

Alex laid down on the floor exhausted as he saw Lord Gallius' 'corpse' dissipating back into motes of light particles.

"I won." Alex muttered to no one in particular. "I won."

"You won indeed." Asteria replied as she let out a sigh. "Its too bad I did not see any severed limbs from you. That will make your win more epic and bloody."

"..."

Chapter 34 Bad Hoomans

There was a flash of light, and Alex found himself back to the real world.

"..." Alex could only hear stunned silence around him, as if everyone decided to not make a sound.

"They must be in shock right now, since I defeated someone like Lord Gallius." Alex thought as he looked around him.

Just like what he thought, everyone in the room who watched the virtual match were all wearing surprised expressions on their faces, as if they could not believe what was happening.

The only exception was Lord Gallius, who looked unexpectedly calm, and Alina, who seemed to be pouting

"Hmph, you're lucky you won." Alina said as she tried to not look angry, although her slightly tensed body and clenched fists told Alex otherwise.

"Oh... it seems like you were really that worried for me..." Alex said as he adopted a 'touched' tone.

"Wha- what? I am not worried about you!" Alina said as her voice rose by some octaves. "I just don't want to see the person I brought here to be beaten up. My reputation is at stake, you know!"

"If you say so..." Alex said as he shook his head wryly.

"Hmph!" Alina could only stomp her foot in annoyance as she let out a sigh.

"Hehehe, this Alina is kinda cute..." Asteria muttered out of nowhere as she stared at Alina with an intense look.

Alex, who saw what was happening, narrowed his eyes as he felt that something was amiss.

"..."

Since he was still at the vicinity of many people, Alex decided to excuse himself to the comfort room first.

From what Alex knew, the comfort room in this compound was safe from any kind of bugging, which should be done, since the comfort room was a place for private affairs.

It was only when he reached that place that he started talking.

"Hey Asteria..." Alex said as he glared at Asteria. "What is the matter between you and Alina?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Even though Asteria sounded innocent, Alex could still hear a slight tremble in Asteria's voice.

Couple that with the slight twitch in Asteria's eyebrows, and Alex knew that Asteria was hiding something from him.

"..." Asteria could only stare at Alex as she waited for what Alex was about to say next.

"Do you like girls?" Alex muttered to himself as he gave Asteria a curious look.

"Hey! Where did that come from?" Asteria replied with a fluster as she looked at Alex with panic. "How could you think of that?"

"Well..." Alex tilted his head as he remembered Asteria's gaze at Alina earlier. "I have noticed that you have been looking at Alina intently since the first time that we met her."

"And you immediately assumed that I like girls just by that? I thought you are an intellectual person!" Asteria shouted as she bopped Alex's chest with her tiny fists.

Alex did not wince after what Asteria said, Instead, he raised his voice a little as he said,

"I also noticed that when Alina goes to the bathroom to either take a bath or for some private affairs, you always follow her towards the bathroom!"

"Wha-wha-wa..." What Alex said was the truth.

Everytime Alina goes to the bathroom, Asteria usually follows her.

But Asteria was doing that since the bathroom was the only place that she and Alina can talk without Alex overhearing them.

It was there at the bathroom that Alina and Asteria talk about Alex and other 'girl' stuff. It was also at the bathroom that Alina can pet the cute and beautiful Asteria.

But no matter how conclusive the real reason was, it seems like Alex has misinterpreted the entire situation.

"Since Alina could not see you, then you are free to ogle at her body everytime time she's in the bathroom!" Alex said as his gaze at Asteria turned wary. "You must have been enjoying every moment there, right?"

"Wuwuwu... I hate you! You hooman bully!" Asteria started to cry as she flew away from the comfort room. It seems like Alex's teasings have been too much for her.

Alex could still hear Asteria's bawls as she flew farther away from him.

"Hehehe..." Even though Alex felt slightly bad after making Asteria cry, he could not help but feel a strange sense of satisfaction after seeing Asteria's teary face.

"Hey Alex, you are not a sadist." Alex chided himself as he shook his head. "You just managed to one-up that fairy..."

Even though Alex sounded angry at Asteria earlier, the truth was that Alex was fine even if Asteria was interested in Alina.

After all, Alex is a proponent of girl-to-girl love.

Don't ask Alex why he feels this way, he is just fine and supportive of girl-to-girl love.

Even Alex's friends before, when they inquired about Alex's support of girl-to-girl love, Alex's only reply to them was,

[Well, seeing two beauties loving each other is a fine sight, right?]

Nobody tried to question Alex's beliefs after that time.

After 1 minute of stay in the comfort room.

"It's too bad that Alina could not see Asteria. If it were, then it will be really interesting." Alex muttered as he let out a sigh.

Since he had already taken a long time inside the comfort room, Alex decided to leave. He still has to look for Asteria and apologize to her.

But before Alex could leave, the door to the comfort room swung open, and in came a person that Alex did not expect to come in.

The newcomer was Lord Gallius, and he was looking at Alex with a calm gaze.

"..."

"..."

Alex noticed that right now, Lord Gallius was not looking at him with animosity or anger.

In fact, Lord Gallius was looking at Alex as if he was a potential friend.

This weirded Alex out, as he remembered Lord Gallius' hostile attitude to him before.

"Excuse me, but are you the twin brother of Lord Gallius?" Since he found it hard to believe that an attitude change can happen, Alex just decided to create a more believable conclusion. "I did not know that you existed..."

"I am Lord Gallius, da*it!" Lord Gallius shouted as he glared at Alex. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Oh okay... Now I am really weirded out..." Alex muttered as he slowly backed away.

"Why are you looking so scared? I just want to talk to you right now." Lord Gallius said as he closed the door.

"Thud."

Alex jumped a little from the sound, as he started to feel more and more suspicious of the situation.

"What?" Lord Gallius seems to sound a little impatient as he saw Alex's wound-up body. "I am really just here to talk to you!"

"..."

After seeing a possible girl-to-girl love earlier, Alex's creative mind cranked up as he tried to interpret Lord Gallius' attempt to talk to him.

"Are you interested in me as a potential partner?" Alex said as he shook his head quickly. "Sorry, but I am only into girls."

"You bastard!"

"Wuwuwu..." While Alina was waiting for Alex to come back, she suddenly heard crying noises which were growing louder and louder.

"Wuwuwu..." Before Alina could prepare herself, the source of these crying noises entered the room.

At the corner of her eyes, Alina could see a teary-eyed Asteria flying towards her.

With Asteria's invisibility state, Alina could not act like she can see her right now.

Because of that, Alina was unable to shoo Asteria, who decided to land on her right shoulder.

"..."

Alina has no choice but to stay quiet as she could only look on Asteria sitting on her right shoulder.

The current appearance of Asteria was so adorable and pitiful that Alina could barely stop herself from petting and comforting her.

"That Alex really is a big bully!" Asteria sniveled as she struggled to talk. "He had been always like this!"

"..." Everytime Alina and Asteria had the time to talk together, most of their conversation were usually Asteria complaining about Alex.

Alina of course wanted to talk about better things, but she knew that Asteria had some steam to let out, so she just let the fairy do her rant.

"And just earlier, that Alex asked me if I like you, in a romantic way!" Asteria bawled as she wiped her eyes angrily. "That dumb guy! He doesn't even know the feelings of other people for him, and yet he proceeds to ship me with you!"

"That's a low blow indeed." Alina thought to herself as she gave Asteria a sympathetic look.

"Hmph, even if that dumb guy apologizes to me right now, I will make it hard for him!" Just by looking at her face, Alina knew that Asteria was serious on what she was saying.

"Well, that's all up to you..." Alina thought to herself as she stayed quiet.

The pair stayed quiet for a minute before Asteria broke the silence.

"Hey hooman! Why are you not petting me!" Asteria said, with the tears on her face already gone. "I want you to comfort me!"

"Sigh." Alina knew that if she will not follow Asteria's demand, the small fairy will continue talking for hours until Alina was forced to do her bidding.

It had already happened before to her, and Alina was not willing for it to happen again.

At the corner of her eyes, Alina saw Lord Gallius leaving the room, with a sense of urgency that she had never seen before.

"Whatever, I need to calm Asteria first." Alina said, as she decided to head to the female comfort room.

But before she could leave, someone blocked her path.

The person's bushy afro blocked most of Alina's vision, prompting Alina to take a pause.

"Hey Miss Alina, I need to talk to you about something." The person blocking her path was the afro guy.

He still looked just as crazy as he was before, but Alina knew that this afro guy is the President of the WEO.

There is not much known about him, except for the fact that he rose to become the President of the WEO in just a single week.

Such kind of ascension should have been rocky, yet even until now, the afro guy still retained his position.

"Um, President, what is it that you want to talk about to me?" Alina said as she ignored Asteria's exasperated sigh.

"Oh, I am here to tell you about the secret of our world. The real reason for the appearance of Esper Abilities." The afro guy said as he deftly led Alina out of the room.

"!!!" Both Alina and Asteria perked up, as they knew what the afro guy will say next will be juicy.

"Wait, why are you telling it to me right now?" Alina forcefully stopped in her tracks as she glared at the afro guy.

"Forgive me if I am rude, but from what I know, only Star Espers are authorized to know about the truth of the Esper Abilities." With Alina's connection to her sister before, Alina knew that once an Esper became a Star Esper, they will be entitled to know the truth about the creation of Esper Abilities.

Not only that, but those Star Espers will also know the real purpose of the World Diagram.

With Alina still not reaching the Star Esper level, she was still not allowed to know anything.

Yet right now, the afro guy is offering to tell her the truth!

"Well, you are close to becoming a Star Esper already, so I figure that its fine if I tell you about the truth already." The afro guy said as he resumed on walking. Alina has no choice but to follow him.

"That is not the only reason, right?" Alina said, not bothering to make her voice weak.

"Well, you can say that I am still suspicious of you and Alex." The afro guy said as his voice suddenly turned deep. "If I tell you the truth, I am sure that your plan with Alex, whatever that plan is, will be scrapped by you."

"Hmph, I do not have any ulterior motives right now, and so do is Alex." Asteria replied as she made her voice as stable as possible.

But inwardly, Alina was feeling nervous, as she tried to imagine what kind of truth could stop her and Alex from what they were about to do.

"Hehehe, we shall see..." The afro guy said as he tried to not laugh. He then took a deep, shuddering breath as he said,

"Do you know what happened to your sister when I told her the truth? She became extremely despondent and depressed for a month, and it was only because of you that she was able to recover. If someone like her was affected that deeply, what do you think would happen to you?"

"..."

Chapter 35 Beginning of the End

30 minutes later.

"No way... you gotta be kidding me..." That was the only thing that Alex could say after hearing what Lord Gallius told him for 30 minutes. "There's no way that can be true..."

"It is the truth." Lord Gallius firmly said as he let out a sigh. "And now that you know it, it is now up to you on what you should do next."

"Suck your truth!" Alex shouted as he resisted the urge to grab and strangle Lord Gallius. "If that was really the truth, then why are you telling that to me? Shouldn't you, a Star Esper, be more responsible about keeping the truth as a secret? Why bother telling it to me? Besides, you hate me as a romantic rival, right? That just makes your current actions more incomprehensible!"

"..."

"..."

Alex and Lord Gallius stared at each other for 5 seconds, as Alex waited for Lord Gallius' reply.

Lord Gallius on the other hand, looked quite stoic as he gave his reply.

"Its because I do not like the current state of this world." Lord Gallius replied, averting his gaze away from Alex.

"You can say that I am one of the few Star Espers... that also hates the truth. But unlike the majority of the Star Espers that were contented with their life as it is right now, what I want is to be free! I also want this whole world to be free from its shackles!"

"Dude, your dream is almost impossible to accomplish." Alex drily commented as he remembered everything that Lord Gallius just told him. "There is no way that everyone can leave."

"We have plans." Lord Gallius said as he levelled his gaze at Alex. "And now that I told you the truth, you are now part of our plans."

"Oh great..." By this point, Alex was not sure if he should feel happy or sad from hearing the truth. After all, the truth that he just heard was a really bitter pill to swallow.

"See you later then, I guess?" Alex stretched his body as he attempted to leave the comfort room, but before he could do so, he suddenly paused, as if he realized something profound now.

"If what you told me really is the truth..." Alex started mumbling to himself, ignoring the despondent Lord Gallius beside him. "Then that just means..."

"That just means that the afro guy and that Lord Ergo will not really grant Alina's wish!" Alex's face turned pale from panic as he realized his current situation.

"That afro guy and Lord Ergo are not serious on combining the pieces of the World Diagram... the reason Lord Ergo will be coming here is because he and that afro guy plans to kill me, and possibly even Alina!"

Lord Gallius chose to interject at that point as he saw Alex's face of realization.

"Alex, in case that you forgot it, Lord Ergo and the WEO President are the people that is running everything in this world. They are the reason for this world's current situation. "

Lord Gallius then continued talking, with his following words much more venomous than the last.

"Even if the World Diagram deemed you and Alina as non-threats, those two will still not take their chances... Lord Ergo and the WEO President will still kill you later. As for Alina, she will surely experience the same fate as her sister..."

"S*t!" By this point, Alex no longer bothered listening to Lord Gallius.

He opened the door of the comfort room with a bang, and he rushed towards Alina's location in order to warn her of the danger.

"Hmph, knowing Asteria, she's surely near Alina too." Alex thought as his footsteps echoed loudly in the hallway. "I just hope those two are not up to anything bad right now..."

Even though he wished that the two were behaving, the shaky sound from his footsteps somehow showed that Alex was not that optimistic with his assumption.

"..." Alina was quiet as she digested everything that the afro guy told him. As for Asteria, she was also quiet too, but it looks like this silence came from reasons different from Alina's.

"I know that the truth is hard to accept, but what I told you is the truth." The afro guy said as he tried to appease Alina. "That was also the truth that affected your sister."

"I believe you." Alina said as she let out a sigh.

With Alina's All-Seeing Eyes, she can determine that what the afro guy said was the truth.

However, that still was not enough to prepare Alina from being shocked.

"Honestly, I do not know which one is more shocking... the fact that other universes exists where Asteria and Alex came from, or the things that the WEO President just told me right now..." Alina thought to herself as she tried to calm herself down.

"After hearing what you just said, I am now starting to feel unsure about everything..." Alina said to the afro guy as she sat on a nearby chair.

"Well, at least you know about everything now." The afro guy said as she gave Alina a wide smile. "The gains are better compared to the losses, right?"

But before Alina could give her reply, she heard the sounds of a person running towards their location.

It only took Alina a few seconds to recognize who this person was.

"Hey!" The door of Alina's current room opened, and in came Alex, who stared at Alina with relief and worry.

Alina's chest tightened, as she felt uneasy after seeing Alex's facial expression.

"Hey Alina, we need to talk about something..." Alex said as he composed his expression. "It's very important that we talk right now."

"Hmm, is it really that important?" The afro guy asked, much to Alex's annoyance. "Maybe you will just announce your hot, steamy feelings for Miss Alina?"

"Um, It's not close to that." Alex replied, as he felt himself liking the afro guy less.

"Well in that case, I think your presence is not required here." The afro guy said dismissively. "I still have more important things to discuss with Miss Alina."

"...Not good. This afro guy does not want me to talk to Alina!" Alex thought as he saw the afro guy's slight smile.

"But wait, why should I be worried? There's still 5 hours left before Lord Ergo could arrive..." When Alex reached this conclusion, he instinctively relaxed.

Since there is still a lot of time left, Alex knew that he still had more time to create countermeasures for later.

Hastily pulling Alina out now might just make the afro guy suspicious.

It's better to just acquiesce to him rather than alert him.

Alina however, seems to be thinking differently.

"I think we are done talking now, Mr. President." Alina said with an edge in her tone. "You clearly told me a lot of 'educational things' already, and I think I need some time to ruminate about them. So if you will excuse me..."

With a jolt, Alex realized that what Lord Gallius told Alex earlier was the same thing that the afro guy said to Alina.

"So that's why Alina looks a little pale right now..." Alex thought as he looked at Asteria, who was perched at Alina's shoulder.

Asteria looked extremely calm, as if what the afro guy said earlier did not affect her.

After seeing the calm look on Asteria's face, Alex gritted his teeth as he thought,

"This dumb fairy Asteria... she clearly knew about the truth all along! She just did not bother to tell it to me! What a s*y Guide!"

At this point, Alex now knew that what he did against Asteria earlier was not enough. She needs more punishment later...

"Well, have it your way then." The afro guy seems to be not offended by what Alina said. He even moved out of his way to let her pass by him.

"???" Both Alex and Alina were mystified with what they saw. With the enormity of the current situation, both of them thought that the afro guy will give more effort to separate Alex and Alina. The afro guy's current attitude however was contradicting this.

"What's the matter?" The afro guy saw the expressions on Alex and Alina's face, which left him looking confused. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing at all." Alina hastily replied, as she dragged Alex away from the room.

She continued dragging Alex away until they reached the comfort room where Alex came from earlier.

Lord Gallius coincidentally came out of the comfort room at the same moment that Alex and Alina tried to open the door.

"..."

"..."

The opposite parties stared at each other with awkwardness that was enough to even make someone as shameless as Asteria to cringe instantly.

"Go on with what you two intend to do. I accept my full loss..." Lord Gallius barely hid the displeasure in his face as he walked away from the two.

Well, 'walked away' was not the right term, as it was quite obvious that Lord Gallius was about to run at any moment.

"...Let him be." Alina muttered as she entered the comfort room with Alex.

The door closed with a resounding bang, eliciting a slight flinch from Alex.

"What? This is the best place where we can talk." Alina said as she crossed her arms. "Or are your perhaps embarrassed by the fact that I am sharing your place inside the men's bathroom?"

"That is indeed what I am feeling now." Alex replied honestly as he tried to remove the slight blush on his face. "Are you not embarrassed too?"

"I am also embarrassed, but I know that discussing about our current situation is more important than our moral dilemmas." Alina said as her current body language and voice did not show any signs of embarrassment from her.

"So you should clear up your mind Alex. We have a lot to talk about, starting from the truth about this world." Alina said as she removed her mask. Her beautiful face was revealed once more to Alex, and Alex tried to do his best to not gawk at her face. He barely succeeded on doing so.

"Aww... Too bad you two are so uptight." Asteria whimpered in the background, with her sounding extremely disappointed. "I thought I will see some steamy bathroom action here... Turns out its another one of those boring exposition meetings again..."

"..."

Chapter 36 Is this the Real Life?

Both Alina and Alex found it hard to look at each other, with everything that they had seen today.

The encounter that they had with Lord Gallius earlier was something that made the two still awkward right now.

Asteria's infuriating comments did not help matters either.

"Sigh."

"..."

Even though both of them were being held back by their emotions, Alex knew that he had to ignore these minor inconveniences for the more important matters.

"You seem to be taking it well." Alex commented drily as he tried not to stare too much at Alina's face.

"Well, what can I do? I know that the afro guy is 100% not lying to me, so I have no choice but to accept that as the truth..." Alina replied with a downcast expression on her face.

Alex was about to nod when he suddenly paused, as he felt something wrong with what he heard.

"Wait..." Alex felt that something was weird when he heard Alina's reply. "How are you sure that the afro guy is not lying to you? I heard that the afro guy is the WEO President. For him to reach that position, he has to be an extremely good liar. I doubt that even you can detect him lying to you. So how are you 100% sure that he was not lying?"

"Eh?" This time, it was Alina's turn to be flustered as her face showed some semblance of panic. "I just know that he is not lying, that is it."

"Oh really." Although Alex was fairly young, he already had a good mentor that taught him about cold reading, which basically allows Alex to glean information about a person just by looking at that person's facial expressions and their body language.

Using this cold reading, Alex was sure that he can, 40% of the time, somehow determine that someone is lying.

This kind of cold-reading was at the amateur level, so Alex was not relying on it all the time.

Heck, Alex's cold reading was not even working at all against Asteria!

But all the telltale signs on Alina's face made is obvious to Alex that Alina was hiding something from him right now.

"You should have kept your face hidden." Alex said as she gave Alina a withering look. "Now that I saw your face, I am sure that you are lying right now."

"..."

"..." Asteria sighed, knowing that she had placed herself in a corner right now.

She did not expect that someone like Alex can actually force her to talk just because she slipped with some of her words.

Alina also noticed that Alex has some knowledge in cold reading, which just made her situation worse.

"I should have not removed the mask earlier..." Alina thought wryly as she gave Alex a weary smile.

"Should I tell him that I can see Asteria? Won't that just complicate the situation?" Alina tsked, realizing that she was in a dilemma right now.

Alina cannot just not answer, as it will just make Alex more suspicious.

As such, the only way Alina can get out of this was by handling the matter smoothly.

Before Alex could obtain the answer that he wanted to get, Alina decided to sharpen her gaze as she put her mask back on her face.

"Why are you even interested on asking about my lie-detection techniques?" Alina hissed back, as she was obviously steering the conversation away. "Shouldn't we discuss about more important things?"

"Hmmm..." Alex might be sometimes pushy, but he knew when he should retreat, and this time is one of those times.

"Okay, okay, I will not inquire further about that." Alex replied, raising his arms in a surrender. "Let's just talk about 'more important stuff'."

Alina frowned, not liking that somewhat sarcastic tone that Alex had, but since he promised to not pester Alina anymore, she decided to not pester him too.

"So what do you think should we do now?" Alex asked Alina, as both of them talked in subdued voices. Even if there are no bugs in their current place, they would not want their voice to be heard by anyone walking nearby.

"In my opinion, I think we should leave, right now." Alina replied, with tension apparent on her body. "I do not like to say this, but now that I know the truth, I realized that the afro guy and Lord Ergo are just playing with me. They will not honor my request. They will come to kill you."

"That's the conclusion that I reached earlier too." Alex replied wistfully as he gave Alina an apologetic look. "But I think they are only after me. After all, I am the anomaly here."

"You of course will be their priority." Alina replied as she stared at the window of the comfort room with a vacant look on her face.

"After all, you have plans that will mess up the whole Simulated Esper World."

"..."

30 minutes earlier.

When Alex and Lord Gallius started to talk, Lord Gallius gave Alex the 'truth' that he was talking about.

According to the him, their world, the Esper World, is actually just a Simulation, a virtual world.

Everything in this world, all the plants, the animals, the people, and the objects, they are all simulations, all created from virtual reality.

The soil, the weather, the air, and the water, all of them were created from virtual reality.

Even the laws and Esper Abilities in this world all came from the whims of the virtual reality.

There is nothing that is not virtual in this world, as all of them were created by highly advanced technology.

When Alex heard Lord Gallius saying these things, his first instinct it to not believe him.

"Do you think just because you are kind to me right now that I will believe you?" Alex grumbled at that time as he gave Lord Gallius a wary look. "I may be slow sometimes, but that does not mean that you can fool me."

"Well, how do you think you should believe me?" Lord Gallius replied as he raised his arms smugly.

"Show me something right now that can prove what you just said." Alex replied as he tensed his body, ready for any signs of attacks.

Alex was more inclined to believe that what Lord Gallius was doing right now was just a way to distract Alex, to make him more vulnerable to sneak attacks.

Lord Gallius saw the vigilance in Alex's face, and he realized what he was worried about.

"Oh do not worry about me distracting you. I have not stooped to that level yet. " Lord Gallius said as he gave a smug smile to Alex.

Alex's eyes then widened as he saw something unbelievable.

One second earlier, and Lord Gallius was looking all real. But the next moment, he started to change. Lord Gallius' body started to break down, with him disintegrrating into strings of codes and letters.

Alex was no computer programmer, but he knew computer codes when he can see one.

Since Alex was sure that Lord Gallius cannot do what he did with just his Esper Ability, then for Lord Gallius to be someone created from data is highly plausible.

At that point, Alex chose to partially believe Lord Gallius. Only partially believe, as Alex knew that he still has to talk with Lord Gallius more to believe him.

Alex's mind flashed, as he tried to think of the appropriate action right now.

After a minute of intense silence, Alex let out a sigh as he relaxed his body.

"Ok, I will partially believe you for now. Only partially." Alex mumbled as Lord Gallius reformed his body back. "I will only believe you more later. As for now, I have two questions for you."

"Ask away." Lord Gallius replied with the confident look back on his face. From the way that Lord Gallius looked right now, he seems to be fairly confident that Alex will believe him later.

Alex chose not the be irritated by that fact as he said,

"If this world really is a virtual world, then why does this world also have another virtual world?" Alex asked this question, as he remembered having a virtual match with Lord Gallius earlier.

If this world really is a virtual world, then how is it possible for Alex to have a virtual match with Lord Gallius earlier?

Is the concept of a virtual reality inside a virtual reality even possible?

When Alex raised this question, Lord Gallius only laughed, as he answered his question jubilantly.

"Even if we are in a virtual world, our current technology is enough for us to create our own virtual reality too. But just like what you see, because we are in a virtual world, the virtual reality that we can create was also limited too."

"... That's all that you will say right?" Alex replied as Lord Gallius did not follow up his answer.

"Of course, that is the only answer that I can give you." Lord Gallius smugly replied as he crossed his arms. "Ask you second question then."

"..."

By this point, Alex knew that if he continued on delving more questions on the topic of virtual world within a virtual world, he and Lord Gallius will waste time.

Its time for Alex to ask the more important question.

That question was obviously about the people living in this world, of course.

"Are you real? I mean, are all of you real?" Alex muttered, remembering the codes that made up Lord Gallius' body earlier. "Or are you all just something that could be treated as objects?"

Lord Gallius looked slightly uncomfortable as he heard Alex's question, but he was able to answer it with clarity.

"Initially all of us here in this world are just coded programs." Lord Gallius replied quickly.

"Initially?" With Alex's hearing, there is no way that he can miss the emphasis that Lord Gallius placed on the first word on his sentence.

"As long as the people in this world train their power, there will come a point that we will become a comparable to a real person." Lord Gallius said as he pressed his fingers on his temple. "Of course, there are few people in this world that has reached that point though."

"!!!"

Alex's eyes widened as he realized what Lord Gallius meant.

"You are talking about being a Star Esper, right?" Alex mumbled ignoring Lord Gallius' triumphant smile.

"It all fits..." Alex cupped his chin as he paced around the room.

"All the people in this world were all simulations too, but some of them has Esper Abilities. They can train these abilities, and those who reach the Star Esper Level will somehow transcend their status as just simulations."

"Exactly." Lord Gallius replied clapping his hands while looking at Alex with satisfaction.

"Once someone becomes a Star Esper, they will gain access of this world's codes, and they will also gain control of their own body's code, just like what I did earlier." Lord Gallius once more broke his body down at that time to prove his point. "That, from what I know, is the meaning of the transcendence that you are talking about earlier."

By this point, Alex forgot the suspicions that he had against Lord Gallius.

Alex's mind whirled as he tried to understand the consequences of what Lord Gallius said.

"If you and the other Star Espers can take control of your own codes, then shouldn't it be possible for you to leave this virtual world?" Alex said as he looked above him. More specifically at the sky. "I think you and the other Star Espers can do that."

"That is the purpose of this world." Lord Gallius said as he let out a sigh. "From what I know, this world's goal is to produce numerous Star Espers, who will then leave this world towards the Real World. There at the Real World, these Star Espers will be used to advance the Real World's technology and power."

"Then why aren't you leaving?" Alex asked as he tilted his head. Seconds later, and Alex gritted his teeth as he got the answer. "Don't tell me..."

"We cannot leave because of that bastard." Lord Gallius bellowed with anger apparent in his features. "That f*king World Diagram is preventing us from leaving! It even restricted our freedom in this world! This place should be the place where I shine! Instead it became my cage!"

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 37 An early bird always gets the thick, juicy worms

At this point, Alex was able to faintly realize why his Main Mission was the destruction of the World Diagram.

It seems like Alex was actually here in the Simulated Esper World to help the residents, and not to harm them.

But Alex has to make sure that Lord Gallius was not lying to him at all.

Hence his next question.

"How?" Alex mouthed this word out of his mouth, and Lord Gallius perked up after hearing this. "How was the World Diagram able to restrict you guys from 'transcending'?

"Sigh, for me to answer that, I have to give you the full explanation..." Lord Gallius run his fingers through his hair, visibly showing his frustration.

"First, you need to understand that this world is considered to be a risk by the ones who created it..." Lord Gallius started to pace around the room too as he began to lay out his words.

"However, within that risk also lies the payoff of gaining Star Espers like us... So, they used a variety of factors to stimulate and regulate this world."

"Do you still remember that lizard that you fought a week ago?" Lord Gallius mimed some slashing motions, probably to demonstrate the lizard's grisly death. "That lizard is an Intruder, and Intruders are not exactly the same as the one portrayed by everyone."

"Oh..." As usual, Alex managed to catch on what Lord Gallius was talking about. "So you are telling me that Intruders are sent into this Simulated Esper World in order to create conflict?"

"Exactly." Lord Gallius replied, looking not surprised at Alex's sharpness anymore. "Without conflict, the rate that the Espers got stronger was slow. Only when there is trouble and conflict that the Esper's potential will be forced out."

"..." These words made Alex remember about what happened during the World War 1.

That war did not only have an impact in terms of military, but also in technology.

There are lots of things discovered and created during this war, and some of it helped usher the improvement of the world.

There is the Cold War too, which pushed the creation of new technology to the limits.

"Conflict is always the best way to push everything to its limits." Alex said while nodding in agreement. "However, there cannot be too much conflict, or else everything will go apes*t."

"I do not like your choice of words, but I understand your sentiment." Lord Gallius said as he closed his eyes on concentration.

"So I get it that the Intruders are the 'stimulation'." Alex said as he adjusted his neck. "As for the World Diagram... it is the 'regulator' of this world, right?"

"I already gave you clues for that earlier, so for you to realize it is not a surprise too." Lord Gallius mumbled to himself as he let out a sigh.

Lord Gallius then looked at Alex's eyes as he slowly said,

"Contrary to the prevalent belief, the World Diagram was not something that was created recently. It was a powerful program that had been here since the start of the Simulated Esper World."

"Its task must have been fairly simple then." Alex wistfully said as he looked above him.

Lord Gallius nodded as he continued on talking.

"The main task of the World Diagram is to monitor any abnormalities in the Simulated Esper World and fix it, except for the Intruders of course. It was also tasked with making sure that everything works perfectly fine in this world. The World Diagram also has the task to help any Star Espers that will appear, guiding them towards the Real World."

"Now that is weird..." Alex replied as he cupped his chin. "If those things are the tasks of the World Diagram, and that it is supposed to be hidden, then what the hell is happening to it now?" Alex restricted the urge to raise his hands in exasperation. "The World Diagram that I see right now is way different from my expectations."

"Well... everything is fine with the World Diagram, until the first Star Esper appeared." Lord Gallius replied, with anger apparent on his features.

"The first Star Esper? Can you care to elaborate?" Of course Alex knew that there is no need for him to say these words, as Lord Gallius started to continue talking.

"From what I know, when the first Star Esper managed to access the real nature of this world, the first thing that this Esper did was to seize control of the World Diagram. I do not know how this Star Esper managed to do it, but the World Diagram easily fell under this Star Esper's control."

"And once that happened, everything proceeded as what everyone knew." Alex replied as a helpless smile formed on his face.

"The appearance of the 1,024 Esper Cities, the 'quantum computer network', all of these things were made to fabricate the lie that the World Diagram was a man-made thing, when it actually wasn't." Lord Gallius was back to angry mode at this point, and Alex felt that he will just continue on getting angrier.

"But do you know what was worse?"

"Well, tell it to me then." Alex weakly replied, bracing his ears for the worst.

Even though Alex had prepared for it, he was still rattled by Lord Gallius' angry shouts.

"That first Esper used the World Diagram to tie down everyone!" Lord Gallius shouted as he almost banged the walls behind him.

Lord Gallius certainly did not look happy as he controlled his breathing. "After the first Star Esper took control of the World Diagram, he used its control over the whole world to prevent other Star Espers from leaving this world. Not only that, but the power of the World Diagram was also used to restrict any new Star Espers!"

"That... is really one selfish move." Alex replied as he realized why Clint was so helpless against the restrictions of the World Diagram.

"Wait... aren't you a Star Esper too?" Alex noted as he pointed his finger at Lord Gallius. "Are you allowed to talk to me about the World Diagram even when you are restricted?"

"The restriction of the World Diagram on us varies on different levels." Lord Gallius replied with a wince in his face. "For Star Espers like me, the restrictions only prevent me on participating on small-scale battles. As for Espers like your current teacher, their restrictions will be much harsher."

"Well well well, so my appearance in this world is actually a way to help this world huh." Alex thought to himself as he began to feel relieved. "It was a good thing that there will be no negative repercussions if I destroy the World Diagram."

"However..." Alex frowned as his thoughts began to detect a problem.

"If the World Diagram is actually a program controlling the whole world, then how am I supposed to destroy it? And since the World Diagram is under the control of the first Star Esper, then there is no doubt that I have to face the first Star Esper before I can destroy the World Diagram..."

Alex realized by this point that the truth about this world had made his plans go awry.

"Well, I still have 8 days left before my lifespan runs out... so I can still change my current plans..." Since he was at this point already, Alex decided to ask another question to Lord Gallius.

The question was painfully obvious.

"Lord Gallius, do you know who the first Star Esper was?"

Since the first Star Esper is the one controlling the current World Diagram, then Alex should know who this person was if he wanted to complete his mission.

But to Alex's dismay, what he only got from Lord Gallius was a slow shake of his head.

"I have no idea on who the first Star Esper was." Lord Gallius replied with lamentation in his features. "The first Star Esper used the World Diagram to hide his identity perfectly. Because of that, nobody in this world knows who the first Star Esper was, well maybe except for Lord Ergo and the WEO President."

"Oh, so those two guys are the pawns of the first Star Esper then?" Alex replied as he tilted his head.

"Obviously those two are pawns." Lord Gallius replied with a snort. "For Lord Ergo and the WEO President to acquire the parts of the World Diagram, they must have some sort of connections with the first Star Esper."

"That is not a good sign for us right now." Alex hesitantly said as he looked around him warily .

"It's not a good sign indeed."

With their moods heavy, Alex and Lord Gallius spent the remaining time talking about more miscellaneous effects of their current dilemma.

Back to the present time.

"So, did that afro guy tell you about the first Star Esper hijacking the World Diagram?" Alex asked Alina as Alina stretched her lithe body.

"He actually did." Alina replied honestly. "He even told me that it was the first Star Esper who gave the afro guy the access to a part of the World Diagram."

"Huh, I did not expect him to be that honest." Alex replied as he looked confused. "I thought he would want to hide the fact that he is close to the first Star Esper..."

"Well according to him, he was just forced to accept 50% the World Diagram." Alina replied humorlessly. "I am sure that he had some dark plans for many people, but I can say that he was telling the truth about him being forced to accept 50% of the World Diagram."

"Again with that lie-detection technique of yours."

"..."

"Well in that case, we should only worry about Lord Ergo." Alex replied with a sigh as he sagged his head forward. "From what I heard from you and others, it seems like this Lord Ergo is an extremely unstable and toxic person."

"You might be surprised to find out that the description you gave right now is just a tame one." Alina replied with a snort as her eyes seemed to have narrowed greatly. Well, her mask was back, so there is no way to know. "Lord Ergo... is not a person that you should get close to, unless you absolutely need to. If it were not for my sister, then I will stay as for away as possible from him."

"Now that is a great way to introduce a villain." Alex noted as Alina shook her head helplessly. "You just managed to make him as a compelling but also an entertaining villain. Just like that certain clown-faced villain."

"I have no idea what you were talking about." Alina said as she crossed her arms. "What we should discuss now is whether we should leave or stay."

"Of course we will leave." Alex replied quickly. "There is no way that I will want to stay here after everything that I heard."

"I see." This time, Alina looked calm as she looked at Alex with a serene disposition. "Well in that case, I shall gladly help you to find a way for us to leave. There is no way that I can stay here too, as I know that they will not help m regarding my sister."

"You will help me? Now that makes me happy." Even though Alex was not sure on why Alina was so intent on helping him out, Alex felt that Alina was being honest to him right now. "Well in that case, I will bring you out to another date once we get through all of this."

"... I hope you will fulfill that promise." Alina replied, with her voice much weaker compared to before.

"Hehe." Alex grinned for a full 5 seconds before he started to let out a deep breath. "Now that we have decided on what to do, let us lay out our first ste-"

But before Alex could elaborate on his plan, both him and Alina stiffened as they felt a powerful presence quickly approaching their location.

No, not their location, but the whole compound that they are in.

"How could this be happening!" Alina suddenly shrieked as she jumped up angrily. "There is no way this is happening!"

This was the first time that Alex saw Alina being this angry, so he knew something bad was coming up. "Do you know who or what that incoming powerful presence was?"

"Of course I know! After all, that powerful presence is the person that we are talking about earlier." Alex's heart sank as he heard this sentence uttered by Alina.

"Don't tell me..."

"Lord Ergo, my current master, is here already." Alina said as her hands started to tremble. "Th-th-this should not be happening, since the afro guy told us that Lord Ergo should arrive here in 6 hours, and I know for a fact that the afro guy was telling the truth!"

Alex's only reply to that was a light sigh, as he also found it hard to accept what happened.

"We are so f*ked!" Asteria shouted out of nowhere, as she waved her hands in exaggeration. "No wonder that afro guy looked so smug earlier, he had had you two playing in his palms all this time!"

"..."

Chapter 38 Companion

"This is not good. Not good at all." Alex muttered to himself as he and Alina felt the powerful presence getting nearer at their location.

"What should we do?" This was the first time that Alex saw Alina being this unsure, and Alex could understand why.

"I think we just have to wing it." Alex replied quickly as he glared at Asteria with the corner of his eyes.

"Boo..." Asteria pouted as she knew what Alex's look meant. "Ok, I will help you, since I will die if you die!" Asteria then flew from Alina's shoulder towards Alex's, somewhat reluctantly.

"Its too late for us to leave now." Alina suddenly said with clenched fists. "Lord Ergo has arrived already."

"I can see that perfectly well too." With his danger sense, Alex felt that the whole building was now extremely dangerous. This was not like this earlier, so Alex knew that this danger came from Lord Ergo himself.

"..." As he realized that he was in dire straits right now, Alex knew that he must do desperate measures if he wanted to survive.

And if Alex had to expose Asteria's existence to Alina, then he will gladly do so.

"Oi Asteria, Alex whispered as he stared at Asteria. "Is it possible for you to show yourself to Alina? I think we will have a better chance of succeeding if she sees you."

"What?" Asteria looked surprised as she stared at Alex warily. "Why do you want to do that?"

"Well..." Alex tried to lower his voice a little more as he replied,

"Maybe Alina can be our ally you know..."

"Oh, well you do not need to worry about that." Asteria then looked at Alina's direction as she shouted,

"Oi Alina, it seems like Alex wants to officially partner up with you. We can end this farce already."

"Oh really?" To Alex's surprise, Alina actually replied to Asteria! "Now I can talk to you freely without Alex suspecting a thing."

"Wait, what?" Alex's mind was drawing blanks as he saw the entire situation. "How, how could this be happening?"

"Alina could see me since the first time that I appeared in front of her." Asteria said as she plopped on Alina's lap. Alina then proceeded to pat Asteria's head as Asteria continued on talking.

"When I realized that Alina could see me, I realized that I can make her my secret ally or something like that. Remember when you accused me on peeping when Alina goes to the bathroom? I only go there because that's the only place that we can really talk freely."

"Are you sure about that? Because I can feel that you are sometimes checking me out in the bathroom, especially when I am taking a bath." Alina interjected out of nowhere. "Since I like you as my pet, I tried to not get bothered with it. But it seems like you are not happy getting called out on it."

"Huh. I did not see that coming." That was the only thing that Alex could say before he saw Asteria trembling out of embarrassment and shame.

Seeing the chemistry between the two women, Alex realized that they were telling the truth.

With little time left for them, Alex just accepted what he heard as there is no choice for him right now but to just believe them.

"Wait, why are we talking about this!" Asteria said as she shook her head angrily. "We are here to discuss about a way to save both of your asses! And mind you, Alina has one fine a-"

"I'd rather not listen more to more of your perverted talks." Alex winced, realizing that Asteria actually had something like this on her personality. "So, you said there is a way for you to help us?"

"Yesh, there ish." Asteria mumbled out in reply, as her cheeks were being pinched by Alina, who looked quite unhappy with the small blonde. "However, I am not shure if Alina will agree to thish."

"Why not?" Alina said as she freed Asteria from her cheek pinch. "Is it something that will be dangerous for me?"

"Hell yes, it will be dangerous for you." Asteria said as she rubbed her swollen cheeks. "But I am sure that if you agree, you will have your problems solved."

"..." At this point, Alina suddenly turned solemn as she seemed to be thinking deeply.

After 10 seconds of silence, Alina let out a sigh as she said,

"If I agree to whatever you are planning, will I be able to save my sister?"

"There is a 100% chance that you will save her if you will agree to my request." Asteria replied smugly as she puffed out her chest. "You can see that I am telling the truth, right?"

"... Yes, you are not lying at all." Alina replied, sounding somewhat displeased with Asteria's attitude. "But there is a catch, right?"

"Yes, there is a catch." Asteria replied as she tilted her head. It looked cute, but the words that she said in this pose certainly was not cute.

"Once you agree to my request, you will have a high chance of saving your sister. But once your sister is saved, you will be forced to leave your sister for a very, very, long time. As for when you can return, it will be only up to luck and your skills."

"Hold on..." From the words that Asteria said, Alex was able to faintly deduce what Asteria was leading on. "Are you telling me that we should turn Alina into a Traveler?"

"Of course not! Do you think I am an idiot?" Asteria seems to be offended by what Alex said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "If we do that, Alina will be forced to leave this place right now, which just beats the purpose of our goal. Besides, you do not even have enough lifespan to do it, so even if you want to turn Alina into a Traveler, it will be pretty impossible for you."

"Then what is your plan?" Alex replied as he crossed his arms too. "Be sure that it will be good!"

"Of course it will be!" Asteria giggled as she sent Alex and Alina one dazzling smile.

Asteria then floated in the air as she asked Alex a question.

"Alex, let me ask you something. What do you call a person who accompanies another person?"

Alex was not sure where Asteria was going on with this, but he decided to play along with her.

"That person will be called a companion, right?"

"Exactly." Asteria's white teeh glinted as she looked at Alex smugly. "A C\tompanion."

Alex did not miss Asteria's word emphasis, which she made pretty obvious. So, that means..."

"A Traveler cannot just always travel alone." Asteria said, interrupting the words that Alex was about to say. "Sure, a Traveler will have a Guide with him, but the role of the Guide is to guide the traveler. A Traveler will also need someone joining him on his journey. And this someone will be called..."

"A Companion." Alex finished Asteria's words for him, and he was surprised that the word felt somewhat pleasant to his tongue. "So, you are going to turn Alina as my Companion? Care to explain more about that?"

"Gladly." Asteria replied with another smug grin.

"..."

"Now, it might sound like the Companion is a fairy loose concept, but let me explain it to you quickly."

Alex, Asteria, and Alina all knew that they are under limited time now so Asteria decided to use one of her unique Fairy Magic to impart information to Alex and Alina.

Asteria's magic skills might be lacking in the offensive and defensive aspects, but it is efficient on stealth and information gathering.

"!!!" Both Alex and Alina felt slight throbbing on their heads as they felt information flowing inside their minds.

With both of their brain capacities improved by becoming Espers, both Alina and Alex were able to withstand the flow of new information.

"So that is how it is huh." Alex muttered as he mused on the information given to him. "It is actually really simple."

According to Asteria, a real Traveler cannot just travel alone. A Traveler must have a group with him to travel, and this group will be real Travel Group.

According to Asteria, a Travel Group will be composed on 3 types of people.

The Traveler, who will serve as the one travelling between worlds and performing missions there.

The Guide, whose goal is to guide the Traveler and purchase items and abilities from the Endless Monarch.

And finally the Companion, whose goal was to join and assist the Traveler personally on the missions.

In terms of the benefits received, the Traveler and the Companion were just the same.

The Companion's body will also be rebuilt to accommodate all types of techniques and abilities. The Companion can also buy items and abilities from the Endlesss Monarch too.

But that is only here where the similarity lies.

In terms of lifespan, the lifespan of a Companion is safe from the Endless Monarch, as it will not be manipulated or tampered by the Endless Monarch in any means.

And unlike the Traveler, whose lifespan was used to purchase items and abilities, a Companion uses a different currency for purchase.

This currency is referred to as the Contribution Points.

Contribution Points will only be obtained by the Companion if he/she contributes or helps the Traveler in any way that will be beneficial for the Traveler.

The more that the Companion assists the Traveler, the more Contribution Points the Companion will get.

This Contributions Points can then be used by the Companion to purchase Items and Abilities, and if needed, extra lifespan too.

When Alex reached this point, he felt somewhat jealous of the companions, as he thought that they had it easy.

But when Alex continued on going through the information given to him, he realized that he was mistaken.

Excluding natural and man-made reasons, there are 2 ways that a Companion can die.

First is by not helping the Traveler at all.

A Companion's goal is to assist and help the Traveler. IF the Companion does not do any of this at the duration of the mission, then this Companion will be instantly killed.

Second is when the Traveler dies.

Once a Companion decides to accompany the Traveler, it will be a lifetime choice. If the Traveler dies, then the Companion will also accompany the Traveler until death.

"Wait, now that I see it, it seems like this Traveler-Companion thingy is only meant for couples." Alex thought to himself as he realized that large amounts of trust must exist between the Traveler and his/her Companion if they want to co-exist harmoniously.

Of course Alex did not say his thought out loud, as it will just make the whole situation more awkward.

After scouring more information, Alex also saw the way to become a Companion.

It was actually just simple.

If a Traveler and a Guide sees someone with a good potential to be a Companion, then they will offer it a chance to become a Companion. If that person disagrees, then the deal will be off. Of course, this person's memory will be wiped away by the Endless Monarch to prevent complications.

"So, what do you two think? Being a Companion is the best choice for Alina now, right?" Asteria said as she looked at the two triumphantly.

"Well..." Both Alina and Alex looked indecisive, as they struggled to say something.

"Oh come on Alex..." Asteria pouted as she saw Alex's hesitation. "If Alina becomes your Companion, you will receive some bonus gifts that you will surely like! The same thing goes to Alina too! If you become Alex's Companion, you will also receive some bonus gifts that you will like!"

'Maybe its just me, but you sound like those people that sell stuff in midnight shows." Alex said as he winced from some of his memories. "You just sound the same as them. Cringy, pushy and relentless. No wonder you became my Guide."

"..."

Chapter 39 The Wheel of Journey

"You know, it seems like you have been planning to make me Alex's Companion for a very long time." Alina commented as her face mask slightly trembled.

"Out of all the times that you can offer me the chance to become Alex's Companion, you actually used this time right now." Alina drily said as she seemed to be glaring at Asteria. "You know that with the stress of the current situation, I will be highly tempted to accept your offer."

"Well, are you tempted?" Asteria said in a sweet tone that Alex found extremely unlikable. "My offer for you will not be waiting for forever, you know..."

"..." Alex waited in tense silence, as he knew that the following seconds will be the most crucial part of his life.

Alex knew that looking unsure and weak right now would not help him that much, so Alex tried to make himself look composed, but deep inside his heart, he could not help but curse Asteria.

"If you want to recruit Alina that badly, you should have done it at a time where Alina has her free will to choose... Forcing her to choose right now just makes us two look like bad guys!" Alex thought angrily himself as he specifically gave Asteria the best glare that he can give her.

"I really do not like the position that I am in right now..." Alina suddenly said, which made Alex's heart skip a beat. "However, I can detect that you are both telling the truth to me, so I guess it will be fine if I join you two."

"Really?" Alex was not sure why, but he felt extremely happy after he heard what Alina said. "You will really join us?"

"Hmph, do not be so happy." Alina replied testily, although Alex swore that he saw that Alina's neck were shaded red. "It's not like I did this for you."

"Ok, ok." Both Asteria and Alex replied while looking like they were just playing along. "We get it."

"You two!"

Both Alex and Alina tried not to laugh as they saw Alina trying her best to not look embarrassed. It was a always great sight to see which Alex will not get tired of.

"Well, putting all the pleasantries aside..." Alex's tone suddenly changed from cheerful to grave as he slowly said,

"Are you really sure that you will join me as my Companion? By this point, you should already know about the dangers that I face. Do you really want to face these dangers too? Then there is your sister too. Are you willing to leave her just to join me?"

"Slap!" Even with Alex's instincts, he was unable to dodge the slap that came from Alina.

Alex felt hurt both physically and emotionally as he felt the sting on his cheek and his heart. "What?"

"Alex, even if you are usually perceptive, you are also sometimes dense." Alina said as she rubbed her palm which she used to slap Alex.

"Do you think that the reason that I wanted to be your Companion is only because of you? You are so naïve and self-centered!" Alina started to give her angry rant, lacing it with words that effectively shut Alex up.

"Yes, I like being with you. I do not know why, but I feel happy staying with you. But don't think that I want to be your Companion just because of you. I am willing to be your Companion because this is all for my sister!"

By this point, Alina was already taking some deep breaths to stabilize her trembling body.

"I love my sister more than my life... So, if all that it takes to save her is by putting my life in risk, then I will gladly risk my life many times over until she is safe."

"You..." Alex was at loss for words after hearing Alina's passionate speech.

On one hand he was giddy and pleased after hearing Alina saying that she liked being with him.

On the other hand however, Alex was feeling worried as he heard Alina's self-destructive ideals.

These two warring feelings made Alex extremely hesitant on accepting Alina's decision.

Alex tried to muster a serious expression on his face, but he failed to do so as his sadness for Alina overwhelmed his other emotions.

Since they had already progressed at this state, Alex decided to make his actions clearer to Alina.

"!!!"

Even though Alex knew that he and Alina are in danger right now, he knew that he should comfort Alina right now.

So, Alex did not hesitate on hugging Alina once more, but this time, his hug was much tighter, and it was filled with more emotions from him.

Just like before, Alina stiffened when she was hugged by Alex. A few seconds passed by however, and Alina started to reciprocate his hug.

"..."

"..."

Both of them stayed in their positions for more than a minute before Asteria's coughing sound could be heard by the both of them.

"I know that mutual affection knows no bounds, but do you really have to flaunt your affection for each other here in this place and this time? Tsk, tsk, youngsters these days!" Asteria mumbled as she bopped her tiny fists on top of Alex's head.

"..." Both Alex and Alina chose to not comment as they knew that Asteria will just beat them in an oral argument if ever they try to retort back.

"Ok!" Alex tried to break the awkward atmosphere between them as he said,

"Since Alina already agreed to be my Companion, then shouldn't we start turning her into my Companion right now? Lord Ergo will be looking for us any moment now. We cannot afford to waste time."

"Sure, sure, here we go." Asteria mumbled as she looked at Alina seriously.

Alex and Alina slightly gulped as they felt that the Asteria in front of her seems to be more imposing somehow.

[Do you pledge to accompany Traveler Alex wherever he goes? In sickness and in health? In comfort and in challenges? In the ups and lows? Do you pledge to always join him no matter what happens to him?]

Unlike the words that Asteria said earlier, the sentences that she just uttered right now obviously has more power stuck inside them. Even Alex, who had a strong mental fortitude, was also slightly dazed after hearing what Asteria said.

Half of the reason for his daze was the fact that it was the effect of Asteria's voice.

Second was the words that Asteria said.

"No matter which way I listened... what Asteria just said sounds similar to the ones given at a marriage..." Of course Alex did not call out on this fact to everyone.

"I pledge that I will accompany Alex no matter what happens." Alina's voice was crisp and serious as she gave her reply.

[Since you have made your pledge to us, then you are now officially Alex's Companion. Treasure everything that you will see from now on, ok?] Asteria said as she gave a wink at Alina's direction.

"What a free-spirited woman." Alex mumbled to himself as he felt a slight searing pain on his forehead.

The same symbol appeared on his forehead again, and this time, it spat out a golden glow which covered Alina's whole body.

Right now, there are no body parts of Alina present as it was covered by the golden glow.

Alex narrowed his eyes, as it was hard for him to tell if she was still alive under all the golden glow.

"!!!" Alex rushed forward as he looked worried, but he was stopped on is tracks by Asteria, motioning to Alex that everything is fine.

Alex believed in what Asteria said, so he waited for another minute before he could relax.

Once a minute has passed by, and the golden glow covering Alina's entire body slowly weakened before it entirely disappeared.

"Ok, all done." Asteria said as she looked Alina. "You got what you wanted... you are now Alex's Companion from now on. Be sure to keep him entertained if he needs to!

Alex ignored Asteria's salacious words as he stared at Alina's forehead, which was still covered by her mask.

There, Alex could see a golden symbol appearing on her forehead.

The symbol was unlike the symbol on Alex's forehead, as the symbol on Alina's forehead looked more like a wheel with 12 spokes.

This symbol was also rotating, creating a sight that was really unique, even for Alex.

"So that's it?" Alex retorted to Asteria as he saw everything that happened. "Alina was just covered by that golden glow for a minute, and now she's already ready to be my Companion? Are you sure that you are not lying? I am not sure if her body really can be changed that quickly in just a minute."

"Hey, that's all the process that is needed to create a Companion." Asteria replied dismissively as she waved her hands in boredom. Asteria then looked at Alex with a smirk on her face as she said,

"Instead of just looking at Alina worriedly, why don't you try to feel your connection with her? You can feel something right?"

"You are indeed right." Alex said as he felt that something was now connecting him and Alina together.

With his experience, Alex was sure that this connection was no illusion. There was something connecting him and Alina right now, and they were both lucky to survive to experience this connection.

Specifically speaking, the connection was coming between the symbols on Alina's and Alex's forehead.

"Hmm... this connection must be the connection between a Traveler and his/her Companion." Alex cupped his chin as he tried to helping Alina to stand up Alex "Since we both have this connection, then that just confirms that indeed, Alina is already my Companion."

At the instant that Alex confirmed this, he started hopping around him excitedly.

"Hahaha, Asteria said that there are bonus gifts for me and Alina after she became my Companion. Hahaha, I can't wait to see it! Surely there is something there that can help me win, right Asteria?"

"I have no comment for that." Asteria replied as she closed her eyes, ignoring everyone around her. "I am only here to distribute the good's, not to test it."

"..."

Chapter 40 Dear Traveler,

Warmth.

This is what Alina felt as the golden glow covered her body.

It reminded her of the warm hug of her mother and lukewarm tea that she and sister used to drink.

These memories brought out some melancholy inside Alina, but she just shook this off as she focused on her body.

With her Esper Ability, Alina could sense that something was being changed inside her body, although she could not pinpoint exactly what this change is.

Thinking that what was happening to her right now was a delicate process, Alina decided to stay still in order to ensure that there will be no mishaps happening to her.

After exactly a minute, Alina felt the golden glow leaving her body.

Actually, the golden glow did not leave her body at all. The golden glow just converged towards her forehead, creating a golden symbol.

Surprisingly, Alina could see in the mirror that the glow on her forehead can be seen even when she was wearing her mask.

The symbol was a wheel with 12 spokes, which was continuously rotating on her forehead.

As she tried to inspect her body, Alina heard Alex questioning Asteria on the authenticity of the process.

Asteria, being the smug person that she is, shamelessly boasted that Alina is already Alex's Companion.

"..." Even though she felt grim at her current state, Alina could feel the blood rushing on her cheeks as she realized that she's going to stay with Alex wherever he goes.

"That might not be a bad way for me to live." Alina thought to herself as she stood up from the floor.

"Are you ok, Alina?" Alina could not help but smile as she heard the concern in Alex's voice. Of course because of her mask, Alex could not see her current expression.

"I am fine." Alina replied quickly. She could not help but wince as she felt that she sounded a little cold with her reply. "I do not feel anything wrong with my body, nor that I feel that someone is attempting to manipulate me."

"That's good." That was what Alex said to Alina as Alina proceeded to grab Asteria from the air.

The little fairy tried to go away, but Alina just used her silky smooth fingers to take down Asteria.

"..." Asteria had no choice but to curl in Alina's lap as she enjoyed the petting given to her.

"Um, you know that we are in danger now, right?" Alina heard Alex saying hesitantly as he watched what he and Asteria was doing. "I think we need to take a look at that bonus gifts that Asteria was talking about."

"Oh, right." Upon hearing what Alex said, Alina had no choice but to release the currently relaxed Asteria.

"Hmph, always a spoilsport!" This is what Asteria said as she flew towards Alex with a pouting expression. "Maybe you are just jealous that your head is not being petted by Alina!"

"What? Of course not!" Asteria tried to not laugh as she saw that what Alex said was a lie.

"Tsk." Alex's face looked a little pale as she saw that the two women were against him right now. "Let's... just get this over with, ok?"

Alex stabilized his breath as she saw Asteria approaching his forehead.

Alex was extremely curious on what his bonus gifts were, and he wanted to see them already.

Of course if Alex can choose his gifts, one of them will surely be additional lifespan.

Of course Alex was not sure if lifespan can even be gifted to others. But sometimes, a guy can just wish for the best right?

"Here we go!" Asteria, the irritating fairy declared as she started to withdraw something from the symbol on Alex's forehead.

Alex could not help but feel incredulous as he saw an envelope coming out of his forehead.

As for Alina, she just sat in her place, watching what was happening with Alex intently.

"Here, read the letter inside this." Asteria said as she passed the envelope to Alex. "You will understand the reason for the bonus gifts that you have right now."

"To whom did this letter come from?" Alex inquired as he tore the envelope apart, revealing the letter inside. "Did it come from someone that I knew?"

"Yes, you knew the writer of this letter." Asteria said as she assisted Alex on opening the letter.

"After all, this letter was written by the old man who turned you to a Traveler."

"!!!" Alex almost dropped the letter on the floor as he found himself surprised by what Asteria said.

"This letter came from that old man? Seriously?"

Everytime that old man was being mentioned in front of him, Alex could not help but feel awed and also apprehensive as he knew that this old man was the reason for his current state.

Alex was not sure why that old man turned him to a Traveler, so Alex swore to himself to demand the answer to his question once he meets the old man again.

Now that the old man actually left a letter for him, Alex knew that he must read the letter well.

Alex then gingerly opened the paper containing the letter. After seeing the paper filled with words, Alex took a deep breath as he started reading it.

[If you are reading this letter, then that means that you managed to get a Companion in your First World. If not, then you are already dead.]

"What, this intro sounds a little dark." Alex muttered to himself. He then continued reading the letter.

[Let me apologize to you already. Since I am a high-ranking Traveler, any Traveler that I create will be forced to have a very difficult first mission. You are the same too. Since I created your Traveler Status, your first mission will be extremely hard too. From what I know, it seems like you will be sent to that Simulation World, where you will destroy its rogue guardian program.]

"This guy..." Alex was not sure if he should be angry or thankful to this old man.

[But do not worry! Since you are in an unfair state, I decided that I should assist you a little in your first mission.]

"Oh, this must be good." Alex thought to himself as he continued on reading. "Let's see what he was talking about."

[However, you must remember that this assist that I will give you will only be available in your first mission. You will be entirely on your own already at the following missions. So, try to maximize my bonus gifts to you ok?"

"..."

[By this point, you should already realize that my assist to you will be the Bonus Gifts. Of course since I still want you to be a holistic Traveler, you will only be able to get these Bonus Gifts if you managed to get a Companion. If not, then just like what I said at the intro, you are already dead. Ok, that is all that I can say to you right now! If you want to know why I made you a Traveler, then you should come and fine me first!]

Alex was not sure if he should criticize the old man's writing skills, as the letter felt extremely rushed for him. Well, different people has different writing styles, right?

"... So that is why Alina is so interested on me having a companion." Alex muttered to himself as he saw that there was only one last line left in the letter.

[P.S. If your Companion is a hot chick, make sure that you treat her well! She will be your prime wife material! Oh, and from what I know, your Guide is pretty hot too. Hehehe, you can start your Harem with them!]

"..." Because Alex read the letter out loud, both Asteria and Alina heard everything, especially the letter's parting words.

"Ummm... it's the old man who said that, not me." Alex replied as he endured the wilting stares that came from Alina and Asteria. "I swear, I am not ruminating his advice.

"You better not." Alina replied monotonously as she watched what Asteria was doing.

With Alex done reading the letter, Asteria continued on withdrawing objects from the symbol on Alex's forehead.

In the end, Asteria found 3 objects inside the symbol on Alex's forehead.

One was a sword, the second was a card and the last one is a marble-sized ball.

"Don't try to touch them. I can identify these things by myself." Asteria declared as she flitted towards the sword first.

"This one right here is a Sword Type Growth Weapon." Asteria said as she lifted the sword with her small body.

Asteria slightly wobbled in the air, as if she found it hard to stay afloat. "Just like what its name says, this sword can get stronger along with its owner. Not only that, but the sword will also adapt to the abilities that its owner has."

"Oh, so if the owner has fire-related abilities, then this sword will have fire-related abilities too?" Alex inquired as he listened to what Asteria said. "That is the gist of it, right?"

"Exactly." Asteria said as she tossed the sword to Alina. "That sword is for you, Alina."

"Um, thanks..." Alina mumbled in reply as she stroked her new sword. "But I do not really need this..."

Even though Alina sounded somewhat unsure of taking the weapon, her hands were visibly excited on holding the sword.

From the way Alina looked right now, Alina looked like a young kid who received a new toy. In Alina's case however, her new toy was a deadly sword.

"Cute." Alex thought to himself as he looked at the next object, the card.

"This card contains 1,000 Contribution Points inside it." Asteria said as she tossed the card to Alina. "Go, you should use that to buy some stuff."

"Ok." After being held by Alina for one second, the card dissipated into small light particles which were absorbed by the symbol on Alina's forehead.

"Ok, seems like you got it already." Asteria declared as she approached the last object. "Now then-"

"Wait, a second." Alex said as he looked at Asteria with narrowed eyes. "Will I still get a Bonus Gift? Because somehow, I can feel that I am not getting one."

"Oh cheer up, big guy, this last object is for you." Asteria said as she tossed the small ball towards Alex. "Take care of that ball. That is much more valuable than your balls."

"I will try to ignore that crude joke of yours." Alex mumbled as he looked at the ball that he held. "So, what does this ball do?"

"Oh, the function of that ball is just simple." Asteria replied as she prodded the ball with her finger. "Inside that ball is a powerful computer virus, which can destroy any computer-related software. Simple, right?"

"Oh, wow. This is... great." Alex said as he began to held the ball more gingerly. "This ball is my chance to survive!"

If this ball really had a powerful computer virus inside it, then Alex will most obviously use it on the World Diagram itself!

"Before you could feel happy, you should remember that the computer virus inside this ball will only work if you place the ball in contact with the World Diagram." Asteria said, which rudely shattered Alex's fantasy. "That just means that you still have to get past through that afro guy and Lord Ergo if you want to succeed."

"..."

Chapter 41 Hi, my name is Alex

After Asteria gave out the Bonus Gifts, she immediately proceeded to buy the items requested by Alina.

Alex watched with incredulity as he saw Alina purchasing a box. According to Asteria, everything that Alina bought was inside this box.

"What." Alex could not help but feel jealous as he saw the difference between him and Alina. Obviously, Alex did not voice this out, as it will just make both Alina and Asteria angry at him.

So instead of complaining, Alex decided to just continue their conversation earlier.

"Oi Asteria." Alex slurred as he looked at the mischievous fairy. "Is it possible to use the symbols on our forehead as storage for out items? After all, it seems like these items can be used to store things..."

"Oh, so you just noticed it now? Good grief." Asteria replied as she shook her head in disappointment. "I thought that I will still have to tell it to you later... good thing you caught up with it now."

"Well, thank you for telling it to us." Alex replied sarcastically as he pointed at his ball and at the box of objects that Alina bought. "So, we will just lift these things and placed it in contact with the symbols in our forehead?"

"That's the gist of it." Asteria replied as she saw the computer virus ball that Alex held slowly sinking on his forehead. "Okay, it seems like you already get it. Just continue with what you are doing."

As for Alina, she had a little difficulty fitting the box and her sword on the symbol on her forehead, but in the end she succeeded with the guide of Asteria.

"If you want to take the objects that you just stored, you can just will for it to come out." Asteria said as she laid her body down on Alex's shoulder. "Its just like peeing, but in this case what you want to come out is the object that you want."

"..."

"I am very grateful for your impeccable analogy, Asteria." Alex replied with a sigh as he relaxed his body.

His relaxed state however only lasted for a second as his whole demeanor turned serious.

With just one look at his face, Alina already realized what Alex was planning to do.

"Its time to say hello to them, I guess." Alex muttered with a malcontented expression on his face, as he clearly remembered the fact that he still had to pass through two powerful enemies if he wanted to use his ball filled with computer virus.

He then stood up and was about to approach the door of the comfort room, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Alex looked back and he saw a sulky Alina glowering at him.

Well, that was what Alex imagined Alina was looking right now, as he could not see her face through the mask.

"After all your complaints earlier, you still decided to stay here?" Alina sounded like she was not playing around anymore. Her voice had a certain steel in it that managed to shut Alex up.

"Well, with this ball with me, I have the chance to finish the mission right now." Alex said as he sheepishly played with his ball. "If I leave right now, I will be letting go of a really good opportunity!"

"Ugh, I do not know if I should be commending you or not for your behavior." Alina replied as she let out a sigh.

Alex braced himself for more scolding, but instead what he got from Alina was,

"Fine, since I am your Companion now, then I supposed I will just help you out now. After you are right in saying that this is our chance to succeed."

"Hehehe, now we're talking." Alex replied as he looked at Asteria. "See this little fairy? We can win!"

"Yay..." Surprisingly, Asteria was looking extremely tired, as if she was forced to do something extraneous.

Her wings were drooping down and her face was pale, while her blonde hair seems to have been bleached white.

Asteria's overall appearance seems to be indicating that something was wrong with her.

Seeing Asteria's current form, both Alex and Alina became worried for her.

"Oi Asteria, what's the matter with you?" Alex said as he saw Asteria's condition. "Did you eat too much honey perhaps?"

"No!" Asteiria angrily replied as she flopped above Alex's palm. "I just got hit by the backlash of losing too much Fairy Dust right now."

"Backlash? Wait, this is the first time that I heard about it." Alex exclaimed as he picked up the floppy Asteria. "You did not tell me anything about that!"

"Well, you did not ask me..." Asteria replied as she let out a yawn. "Since I used too much Fairy Dust earlier, I experienced a gradual backlash, and it just reached its peak right now... Ugh... sorry guys, but I have to sleep now... I will only wake up later..." Asteria's next words were then replaced by her snores as she went to her dreamland.

Alex tried poking Asteria to wake her up, but no matter what he did, Asteria won't just wake up. He tried hanging her just above the sink, but not even that woke her up.

"..."

"..."

This just meant that Asteria will only wake up if she wants to. Other than that is no good.

"... We two are on our own now." Alex muttered as he gave a grave look at Alina. "Are you ready now?"

"I am and I will always be." Alina said as she and Alex strode towards the door at the same time.

Both of their hands gripped the handle tightly, making sure that it will open for them.

Both of them tried to ignore the feeling of their hands with each other as they opened the door fully.

The creaking sounds that came from the door somehow increased Alex and Alina's tension, which made them slightly unhappy.

"Can you tell me what kind of person your master was?" Alex asked Alina before they left the comfort room. " You can just do it with one sentence only."

"..."

"..."

"He is... a very possessive person." Alina replied after a momentary pause. "He loves taking care of his properties, and he makes sure that they are safe..."

"I see..." Alex might have looked enlightened, but he suddenly casted a hesitant look at Alina as he said,

"Aren't you technically his/her property too?"

"I prefer that you do not point out something like that." Alina replied while she gritted her teeth. "I just put up with him/her because of my sister... I never enjoyed being with him/her at any single moment."

"That... was a rather harsh statement." Alex commented, as he tried to imagine what kind of person Lord Ergo could be that even Alina seriously hated him/her.

"But how about your sister?" Alex inquired as he stood behind Alina. Alina's fragrant perfume wafted towards Alex, filling him with a wonderful scent that he always liked. "No matter what we do, she will still be in danger."

"Remember those things that I bought earlier? Those are for assisting you and for rescuing my sister." Alina replied as she tapped her forehead. "I just need the right time and place to use them..."

"So I take it that you have a plan right now?" Alex queried as he began to look at Alina with interest. "If you have one, please say it now, because I do not have anything in my mind right now."

"... So you really are aiming to just improvise." At this point, Alina was not shocked anymore with Alex's attitude. She knew that this is the kind of person Alex was, and she had no choice but to accept it.

"Fine, I have a plan. Here it is." Alina discreetly passed a piece of paper towards Alex, with Alex received stealthily in a way that nobody spying nearby will notice it.

"..." Alex glanced at what was written at the paper with the corner of his eyes, and what he saw made him nod his head in appreciation.

"A well thought-out plan." Alex commended as he used his Esper Ability to burn the paper into ashes. "It seems like you used your previous proximity with Lord Ergo to make this plan."

"I am your Companion right now, so I have no choice but to help you out. Planning to take down an enemy is included in this help." Alina replied as she left the comfort room.

Alex followed just behind her, with their footsteps echoing all along the corridor.

"Are you ready?" Alina asked Alex as she flexed her fingers. "Its now or never for us."

"I am ready whenever I need to be ready." Alex replied confidently as he intertwined his right hands with Alina's left hand. "With you beside me, I think I am confident on anything I do."

"... That is so cheesy and cringy." Alina replied as she let out a sigh. "If Asteria heard that, she could be rolling on the floor laughing right now."

Alina might sound disapproving as she said these words, but she tightened her hold on Alex's hand as she continued on walking.

"Well, at least I tried." Alex replied instantly, as if he had already prepared that answer. "After all, this might be my last day, so I want to spout out all the nonsense that I want before my end arrives."

"..."

Lord Gallius was not happy today.

From the realization that Alina was already smitten with someone else, to the fact that this someone else just defeated him earlier, Lord Gallius knew that today was not just his day.

What was worse was the fact that this someone who defeated him could be a possible ally.

"If not for that effing program, then I should have been enjoying the Real World already..." Lord Gallius thought sourly as he stared at the two persons in front of him.

The one on the left was the afro guy earlier, and he was talking to the person on the right.

When Lord Gallius looked at the person on the right, his blood could he help but run cold as he saw who it was.

Robes as white as the clouds, and a mask as confusing as a puzzle. These objects were worn by the person considered to be the strongest Esper in the world.

With that kind of distinction, it was obvious that this person was no other than Lord Ergo.

"..." Lord Gallius was not only nervous around Lord Ergo because of his creepy attitude. There was also the fact that Lord Ergo was subconsciously letting out the ripples of his power, and these ripples were enough to make Lord Gallius wary.

"This guy... if not for his strength, then he will not be given a half of the World Diagram." Lord Gallius thought angrily as he bit his tongue. "After all, if the choice was based on mental soundness, Lord Ergo will most likely take the bottom spot."

Lord Ergo and the afro guy seemed to be merrily chatting with each other, ignoring Lord Gallius standing nearby them.

Lord Gallius did not look offended by this, as he knew this is just typical attitude from the very rich and powerful.

What got Lord Gallius' attention however, was the woman beside Lord Ergo.

"What a beauty..."

Long, silky black hair that reached her hips, perfect hourglass body that any female will kill for, and a face that is so enchanting and beautiful, anyone nearby, whether males or female will immediately be affected by it.

This woman had all these descriptions with her, creating a goddess-like person inside the room.

But instead of acting awed or reverent, Lord Gallius could only look at this woman with pity as he knew that this woman was suffering under Lord Ergo's cruel hands.

"This is the first time that I saw Alina's sister. She still looks fine, but that could be just pretending." Lord Gallius thought idly as he watched the woman just staying quiet.

Including Lord Gallius, there are only four people in the room, and from the looks of it, there were still waiting for two more people.

"Please don't come here..." Lord Gallius thought to himself as he wished that Alina and that Alex made the best decision to escape and run away from the place.

As long as those two are safe, Lord Gallius knew that he and his allies will still have the chance to seize control of the World Diagram on another time.

But just like the cruel hands of fate, Lord Gallius' wish was ignored once more.

The door to their current room opened, and in came Alex and Alina.

Both of them were holding each other's hand, making their closeness look quite mesmerizing. They were both wearing grins on their faces, as if they do not know that situation that they are in.

"Oh, so this is your current master huh." Lord Gallius heard Alex saying these words as he and Alina approached Lord Ergo, with their hands still intertwined. "I'm Alex, nice to meet you!"

Lord Gallius could not help but close his eyes as he did not want to see Alex's death.

"Alex, out of all the things that you could do, you chose to offend the most volatile person here? Are you really out of it already?"

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 42 Bold claims and plans

The only thing that Lord Gallius could do was to stare at Alex with disbelief as Alex and Alina looked at Lord Ergo intently.

Lord Ergo, who was under their stares, could only tilt his/her head as he/she said,

"What the hell is going on here?"

Lord Ergo's voice sounded the same as usual, although someone like Lord Gallius could detect a hint of murderous intent lingering in his/her voice.

"..."

Alex, who was the focus of this simple question, only let out a smile as he said,

"Oh, I am just here to say hello. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Nothing is wrong with that, young one." Lord Ergo replied, with him/her slowly approaching Alex.

Alex tried not to walk backward, but it was quite obvious that he was a little peachy as Lord Ergo approached him.

"However, I do not like your attitude." Lord Ergo breathed out as literal mist came out of his/her mask. "I think you should die already."

Lord Gallius, the girl beside Lord Ergo, the afro guy, and Alina all jumped out of the way as they tried to avoid the mist.

As for Alex, he was a step too late as the mist had a little contact with his skin.

"Ugh!" Alex exclaimed as the part of his skin that was hit by the mist began to turn red and full of blisters.

Lord Gallius winced when he saw what was happening. Lord Gallius had no idea on what Lord Ergo's power was, but he knew that this mist was one of Lord Ergo's method of executing anyone who annoys him.

Seeing it used on Alex will not be a pretty sight for him.

"Tsk, if you could have just closed your mouth, then we could have been friends." Lord Gallius thought to himself as he imagined Alex dying in front of him. "Well, at least with your death now, I will still have a chance to woo Alina."

As Lord Gallius thought of this, he casted a discreet glance in Alina's direction, as he tried to gauge how sad Alina was looking right now.

But to Lord Gallius' surprise, he saw that in terms of body language, Alina seemed to be unfazed with what was happening to Alex.

"How could this be?" Lord Gallius thought to himself as he looked at Alina intently. "Even I could see that Alina and Alex has some feelings for each other... But then why is Alina not worried for Alex at all? Does she actually have no feelings for him? Or maybe..."

Lord Gallius perked up as an unbelievable notion crossed on his mind.

"Maybe they are planning something right now!"

The more that Lord Gallius thought about it, the more sure he became.

However, instead of being happy and impressed, Lord Gallius became irritated and angry as he realized what they were doing.

"Hmph, you two are risking everything right now!" Lord Gallius thought sourly as he decided to sink himself further into the background. "Well, if you two fail, I will make sure that I will not be implicated with it!"

At that point, Lord Gallius decided to leave the room, as he knew that the next set of events would not be pretty.

"Tell me, why should I not be killing you right now?" Lord Ergo said as more mist came out of his mask. "I heard good things about you, so I do not want to just see you dead. Although technically speaking, you will still end up dead on my hands."

"Hahaha..." Even though Alex look pained because of the mist, he still managed to wear a cocky smile on his face as he sent a grin towards Lord Ergo.

"Even if you want to kill me, you actually dare not to, since you need my help." Alex replied as he shook off the mist clinging to him.

"You have a big problem right now, and I think that your only hope is me, right?"

"..."

"..."

"Don't try to test my patience, young one." Lord Ergo replied as his/her cloak billowed around him. "You are rambling the words of an insane person. Perhaps I should end you now to relieve your mind from your agony."

"Oh really?" Even at the face of a threat, Alex seemed to not be perturbed as he continued smiling at Lord Ergo.

"If you really want me dead, then with your power, you should have done so by now." Alex replied as stood up more confidently than before.

"When you arrived 15 minutes earlier, you have all the time available to kill me... But instead of doing that, you did not use your ability to attack me... Hell, you even allowed me to stay here!"

"And in case you could not see it, I am particularly close with Alina, who is your so-called 'property'." Alex said with his voice sounding out like he is mocking Lord Ergo.

"I heard that you do not like others playing with your properties... If that was really the case, I really should have been dead by now. But just like what I said earlier, here I am still alive and kicking."

"..."

Everyone in the room went still as they heard what Alex said.

Lord Gallius, who was about to leave the room at that time, froze on his position as he held the door handle.

The silence in the room was painful and full, as if something was about to overflow from it.

"You think that me, Lord Ergo, would want a help from someone like you?" The whole room, no, the whole building started to tremble greatly as Lord Ergo seemed to grow larger.

"Well, there is a first in everything." Alex replied coolly as he let out a relaxed sigh. "Well, if you really do not need my help, then you are free to kill me now. If you want, I can even assist you!"

"F*k!" This was the first time that they heard Lord Ergo cursing, and it certainly was fitting in their current situation.

"Boom!" Before everyone could react, Lord Ergo made a move as he suddenly grabbed both Alina and Alex.

With a sound comparable to an explosion, Lord Ergo flew out of the room, bringing the hapless Alex and Alina with him. As for the fragment of the World Diagram and the girl beside him/her, Lord Ergo did not forget to bring them too.

"..."

A car-sized hole was formed in the roof, which ed to generous amounts of earth and soil pouring down into the room.

"Sigh, and there Lord Ergo goes again." The afro guy said as he waved his hand.

The downpour of the soil stopped, as if there was something blocking the hole.

"This place is situated underground, and the first thing that Lord Ergo did was to fly out?" The afro guy seemed to be more amused that angry as he shook his head wryly. "Really, this is the first time that I see someone leaving this place by flying through the soil..."

The afro guy let out a sigh as he clicked his hands, and seconds later, his secretary entered the room.

The secretary did not even blink when she saw the devastation that the room was in. She only looked at the afro guy's direction as she waited for his command.

"Bring me the fastest airship there is. I need to follow Lord Ergo." The afro guy sullenly said as he opened the door which Lord Gallius failed to do so.

The afro guy's secretary just followed him calmly as he left the room.

As for Lord Gallius, who still looked stunned from what just happened, he decided to follow the afro guy too.

"Mr. President..." Lord Gallius hesitantly said as he saw the afro guy's confident demeanor. "Are you really following Lord Ergo? Wouldn't it be better if we just..."

"It seems like you do not understand the underlying danger right now, Lord Gallius." The afro guy snapped as he wheeled around to face Lord Gallius.

"You just heard what that Alex said earlier. Lord Ergo is in dire need of help, and that he needs Alex's help to do it." The afro guy said as his hair started to frizzle out.

"If someone like Lord Ergo needs help, then I think his problem will certainly a big one." At this point, Lord Gallius could swear the he saw the light of ambition flashing on the afro guy's eyes.

"Surely Mr. President, you are not planning to..." Lord Gallius let his question trail as he hesitated on what he was about to say.

"You can see the desperation in Lord Ergo's actions earlier." The afro guy said as he tired to stifle his laugh.

"Not only that, but you can see how Lord Ergo hastily brought Alex away from this place. That just means that Lord Ergo's problem is much bigger than what we could imagine." The afro guy's body trembled only for a second before he concluded his words.

"That just means that if we can time it well, then we can use Lord Ergo's problem to our advantage!"

"But-" Lord Gallius reply was cut off as the afro guy glared at him.

"You will not say anything that can deter me!" The afro guy said as he grabbed Lord Gallius' arm tightly. Waaay too tightly.

The afro guy then leaned his face towards the cowering Lord Gallius as he slowly said, "Lord Gallius, let me give you two choices right now. You will either join me, or you will die running away from me."

"Gulp." Even with his power, Lord Gallius felt weak in front of the afro guy. It was as if the afro guy was a wall of indomitable power that nobody can topple.

"So, will you join me or not?" The afro guy said as he gave Lord Gallius a smile that was also not a smile. "This could be our chance for a new world! A world free from control! Isn't that what you and some of your allies wanted from the beginning?"

After hearing what the afro guy said, Lord Gallius realized that he was once again, back in a losing situation.

"I don't have any choice, do I?" Lord Gallius said as he slouched his body forward.

"From the very start, you don't have any choice already." The afro guy's face shone as the light of the arriving airship silhouetted his face.

It looked both terrifying and enchanting, something that Lord Gallius would never want to see again.

"All of us never had a choice to begin with."

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 43 Thank You

Both Alex and Alina stayed still as they flew across the air.

Of course it was not them doing the flying, but Lord Ergo who was bringing them with him/her.

The winds that should have blown off Alex and Alina away were all blocked personally by Lord Ergo.

As for Lord Ergo, he/she did not say anything as they flew across the sky.

"..." Alex looked at his surroundings in vigilance, as if he was expecting something that will jump out at him.

Seeing that they seem to be safe, Alex tried to see if he can speak.

As it turns out, the area of 1 meter around Lord Ergo seems to be normal. It was unaffected even if Lord Ergo was currently flying at speeds faster than the speed of sound.

This just means that Alex was free to speak, which Alex decided to do.

"So, are you going to tell me your real problems already?" Alex inquired as he looked at Alina.

"When you gave me the plan earlier, I could not believe that Lord Ergo will need my help. But from the looks of it, he really needed my help..."

"Well, you really can help Lord Ergo..." Alina replied as she let out a sigh. She looked somewhat sullen, as if her confession made her remember some bad memories.

"Well, first things first..." Alex replied as he looked at the woman beside Lord Ergo. "This woman beside Lord Ergo, she's not really your sister, right?"

"No, she is not." Alina replied quickly as she looked at the woman who looked like her sister. "Brother, you can undo your transformation now."

"Ugh, at least I can undo this form now!" The woman exclaimed as her skin started to warp in front of Alex.

After just 5 seconds of waiting, the woman changed appearance, as she became a man of hulking proportions.

The sheer contrast between their imagery managed to throw Alex of the loop.

"Thank you for always transforming in my sister's image..." Alina said as she sent the hulking guy a grateful look. "I always appreciate what you did."

"Well, I am your sister's husband, so I guess I should do my job to protect her too." The hulking guy said as he rubbed the back of his head. "We all have it hard, right?"

"Exactly..."

Before Alina could say something more, the hulking guy that she was talking with suddenly looked at Alex's direction.

"Oh, so you are the guy that captured my sister-in-law's heart huh." The hulking guy seemed to be not hostile as he shook Alex's hand. "I'm Ricardo. It's nice to meet you."

"... What did I just see?" Alex mumbled to himself as he gave Ricardo an unbelieving look.

The woman, who looked like Alina's sister, suddenly changed appearance to become this muscular guy named Ricardo.

Even if Alex had suspected that the woman earlier was not the real version of Alina's sister, Alex certainly did not expect that this woman was actually a man!

"Let me introduce you to him." Alina said as she pointed her fingers at Ricardo's direction.

"This guy right here is Ricardo, who is my sister's husband. He also has the Esper Ability to perfectly manipulate his whole body all the way to the quantum level. That was what allowed him to change his appearance, just like what you saw earlier."

"Ok..." Alex's words trailed as he tried to understand what was happening. "So this guy, who is your sister's husband, has been using his ability to pretend that he was your sister. But... why is he doing it?"

After hearing Alex's question, Alina let out a sigh as she slowly said,

"It is because my sister is not really captured by Lord Ergo. Rather, the truth was that Lord Ergo was someone created by my sister's actions, and now, both Lord Ergo and my sister occupy the same body."

"...Wow, that is something that I find hard to fathom." Alex said after a few minutes of silence. He glanced at the direction of Lord Ergo, who was surprisingly still quiet.

"Pardon me, but I need more explanation." Alex apologetically said as he tilted his head. "What you said earlier just lacks the right context."

"Fine." Alina replied as she removed her mask.

Her beautiful and enchanting face were once revealed to Alex, and Alex tried to not get dazed as he listened to what Alina was about to say.

"My sister was once the Strongest Esper in the world." Alina said as she let out a sigh. "Her Strong Space Manipulation was already enough to defeat any of her opponent. One can even say that she is unstoppable in this world already."

"Except for the fact that the World Diagram is restricting every Star Esper that there is." Alex interjected as he stared above him.

"Yes, the World Diagram." Alina's face started to seethe as she clenched her fists tightly. "Because of my feeble strength before, I had no idea about the truth of the World Diagram. But even if I am ignorant of the truth, there is something that my sister did that made me realize that the World Diagram is not the saint that it was purported to be."

"This thing that your sister did with the World Diagram... was it the reason that your sister accidentally created Lord Ergo?" Alex asked as he started to feel that Alina's story was reaching its climax. "Did your sister try to destroy it?"

"No." Alina's voice was cold as she gave a grim reply. "What she did was worse than that."

"..."

"Alex, do you know what happened to the first Star Esper after he took control of the World Diagram?" Alina said after a few seconds of silence.

"I know, Lord Gallius told it to me." Alex replied quickly.

"After taking control of the World Diagram, the first Star Esper transcended to the Real World, leaving the World Diagram here on auto-pilot mode." Alex said as he felt some bitter taste in his mouth.

"The World Diagram was left here in order to prevent anyone else from transcending. Not only that, but the World Diagram was also split into two for some reason that is unknown. These two halves were then traditionally passed down to the current WEO President and the current strongest Esper."

Alina nodded as she heard what Alex said. She then stayed silent, as if she was trying to gauge what to say next.

"..."

Alex had to wait for a few more minutes before Alina started to talk again.

However, when Alina started to talk, Alex realized that maybe Alina should have not spoken at all.

"My sister... she tried to fuse with half of the World Diagram..." Alina slowly said as she unclenched her fists.

"!!!!" Alex was not sure was to say, as he found himself speechless from what he heard. Can a person even do something like that?

"Since my sister was the strongest Esper at her time, she naturally had the right to hold half of the World Diagram." Alina monotonously said as she gripped her mask tightly. "Nobody at her time had the strength to stop her."

"Ok, so your sister had half of the World Diagram with her before." Alex said as he rubbed his forehead. "Then she tried to fuse with it?"

"Yeah, that is what she did." Alina replied as she took a deep breath. "If you remember what Lord Gallius told you earlier, the World Diagram is basically a program that manages the whole Esper World. Not only that, but it also had been maliciously manipulated to prevent anyone from transcending."

"I remember that." Alex replied as his blood began to turn cold. "So, when your sister got her portion of the World Diagram, she must have been angered by its power?"

"That is my theory, yes." Alina replied sullenly.

"..."

"My sister... she was someone who loves to get stronger..." Alina said as she let out a slight smile. That smile however disappeared when she continued talking. "She must have been devastated when she discovered that there is no way for her to transcend because of the World Diagram."

"And when my sister saw the control that the World Diagram had over the whole world, she must have thought that she can get stronger if she fuses with the World Diagram..." Alina could only shake her head at that time as she bit her lips tightly.

"So as an act of desperation, my sister used her Strong Space Manipulation to forcefully combine the space of her mind with the space where the codes of the World Diagram reside." Alina breathed out as her eyes narrowed in hurt, anger and resignation.

"And just like what a normal person could expect, my sister's attempt failed miserably." Alina said as Ricardo looked down sadly at his feet.

"My sister was able to combine her mind with the codes of the half of the World Diagram... but in doing so, her attempt did something to the portion of the World Diagram that she fused with."

"Let me guess... It gained sentience right?" Alex muttered as he stared at the quiet Lord Ergo. "And this sentience gave birth to Lord Ergo, right?"

"...You are right. Impressive as always." Alina replied although she did not sound that interested.

"I do not know how, but my sister's power was able to give consciousness and personality to the portion of the World Diagram that she fused with. This new consciousness eventually grew to become Lord Ergo..."

At this point, Alex already understood Alina's situation.

Since Alina's sister fused her mind with the codes of the World Diagram, the World Diagram can have access and control of her mind, and essentially, her body.

If the World Diagram has no sentience, and this should be the case, then there is no problem at all for Alina's sister.

However, the codes of the World Diagram did gain sentience, which spelled danger for Alina's sister.

The sentient program, who named itself Lord Ergo, must have occupied the mind of Alina's sister in an attempt to take control of her body.

Naturally, Alina's sister will fight back, and this led to an excruciating situation where one body was occupied by two extremely conflicting minds.

If Alex was right, Alina's sister was a female, and Lord Ergo must be mentally a male.

With them occupying one body, both of their genders will manifest in that one body too.

This led to the other people getting confused regarding Lord Ergo's gender.

Not only that, but the back and forth battle between two sets of consciousness naturally resulted into Alina's sister degrading into a cycle of insanity.

There could have been moments that it was Alina's sister with the control of her body, and there's also moments where it was Lord Ergo with the control of her body.

And from the looks of it, it was Lord Ergo that was taking control of the body most of the times.

"So, because of your sister's difficult situation, you have decided to just introduce Lord Ergo as an entirely new person?" Alex inquired as he shook his head.

"I have to do it." Alina replied firmly. "I cannot allow anyone to know about what my sister did, especially the afro guy."

"So, you spun a lie that your sister was defeated by Lord Ergo and that she was captured by him. You then made your brother-in-law to disguise as your sister in order to perfect the lie. As for you, you allowed yourself to be enslaved by Lord Ergo so that you can stay close to him to monitor your sister." Alex summarized his thoughts as he was able to unravel the scheme that Alina made.

"That exactly is the con that I pulled off..." Alina said as she gave Alex a hard look.

"Alina..."

"I did all those things to buy my sister time... I want to find a way to heal her. I want to remove her current affliction." Alina said with agony in her features. "At first, I thought that we had to keep on this con forever... But your arrival here gave me the ray of hope that I have been waiting for."

"I..." Alex paused as he saw the look of hope and desperation in Alina's eyes. Alex knew that if he said the wrong words here, Alina will have her heart shattered into pieces.

Even if Alex was the most heartless person in the world, there is no way that he can allow Alina to be hurt that badly.

"Of course I can help your sister!" Alex boasted as he puffed out his chest. "As long as we arrive at our destination, then we can start the operation!"

"..."

Alex could only clench his fists tightly as he hid the guilt on his features. This seemed to be a success, as Alina gave Alex a dazzling smile that lit up her face.

"Thank you, Alex."

Chapter 44 It"s all Character Descriptions

[Alex]

--Traveler--

--Tier 150 Esper--

--The one who dodged death--

--The guy that can decapitate you while your eyes are burning from heat--

A young male that should have died of hypothermia. Was able to avert death by being converted into a Traveler.

Much was not known about his past life, although it is easy to infer from his statements that he had a pretty colorful and rough childhood, which was exemplified by his somewhat abnormal set of skills that nobody with a normal life should have.

His alignment appears to be on the neutral side, although it was shown that his alignment will change depending on the situation around him.

He currently has a playful interaction with his Guide Asteria, and budding feelings for his newly instated Companion Alina.

He currently has the ability to freely manipulate Electromagnetic Waves.

Only has 7 days of lifespan left.

[Asteria]

--Guide--

--Fairy Queen--

--Honey Addict--

--Useless Little Bugger--

--Alina's Unofficial Pet--

Her past life is unknown, though one of her statements stated that she was a descendant of a Traveler named Solomon.

She was Alex's Guide, and she was doing her job on guiding Alex rather well, although her interactions with him are of a different matter.

Her rash and sometimes explosive behavior caused minor inconveniences to Alex, which she seems to be taking pleasure on doing so.

High possibility of a hidden mental trauma which she projects through her loose attitude and uncouth language.

Showed signs of attraction on both Alex and Alina, indicating the possibility of a bisexual orientation.

She treats Alex as the Traveler, and she treats Alina as her 'hooman'.

Full extent of power is unknown, but she was shown to have the skills on deceiving others with the use of her Fairy Dust.

Her weaknesses are unknown and its hard to know if she can even be killed.

[Alina]

--Companion--

--Tier 999 Esper--

--Brooding Swordswoman--

--Nom nom nom--

Initially appeared as a masked swordswoman with the intent to kill Alex.

Later interactions showed that Alina was just a victim of large problems that she had not control on.

Reasons for wearing for mask was unknown, although the possibility of using it to shield her emotions from showing is the most viable reason.

Has some budding feelings for Alex which she tries to hide.

Likes to pet Asteria, and she considers Asteria as her pet cat.

Has the ability to weakly manipulate space, which allows her to create minor distortions in space which she uses as her weapons.

[Elizabeth/Lord Ergo]

--Strongest Esper--

--The obligatory damsel in distress-- (Although it was her fault that she got in trouble...)

Alina's sister, and is the strongest Esper in her time.

Her pursuit for power made her desperate to transcend, and the fact that the World Diagram is restricting them did not help matters.

She forced herself to fuse with half of the World Diagram, which resulted to the birth of Lord Ergo.

Currently experiencing extreme case of mental interferences from her own self.

Has no possible way to recover, and Alina reckons only Alex can truly help Elizabeth out.

Has the power to manipulate space on her whim, resulting in some powerful and interesting effects.

[Lord Gallius]

--Star Esper--

--The obligatory rival guy-- (Although the rivalry was only short lived)

A Star Esper with obvious affection towards Alina.

This affection resulted in a feud between him and Alex, which led to his defeat.

It was revealed that he was involved in resisting against a major conspiracy against the Star Espers.

Has the ability to manipulate vibrations of anything in his Range.

[Clint]

--Star Esper--

--Mad Jackal--

--He's the kind uncle, that's it--

Alex's mentor in the Esper World, and he was also Alina's foster uncle.

He has a lovely but sadistic wife, a lovely but possibly sadistic daughter, and a quiet and withdrawn son.

Currently leader of a gang in the Dragon Esper City.

Has the ability to manipulate all the Four Fundamental Forces of the Universe: Gravitational Force, Electromagnetic Force, Weak Nuclear Force, and Strong Nuclear Force.

[WEO President]

--Unknown Esper Level--

--Extremely ambitious guy--

--He is the Afro Guy--

Holder of the other half of the World Diagram.

Current abilities were unknown, although some glimpses of it has been seen already.

Cleary wary of Lord Ergo, and will do his very best to eliminate him if it is possible.

[Ricardo]

--Tier Esper--

--The poor guy that was abandoned by his wife to fuse with a computer program-- (Man, that's got to suck. It's like a cyber cuckoldery.)

He has the ability to manipulate his body down to the quantum level.

Used this ability to pretend that he was his wife to prevent the truth from spilling out.

[Old Man]

--Obligatory grandpa-- (But he only became a grandpa for like one chapter, so maybe he really is not a grandpa? Ugh whatever, this is confusing me)

He is the one who turned Alex into a Traveler.

Basing on the small snippets told by Asteria, the Old Man seems to be an extremely powerful Traveler.

Current abilities were unknown, although he was able to stop things from moving at his first meeting with Alex.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 45 A Reunion should always be this Fun

"Umm... so where are we going anyway?" Alex asked with a nervous tinge on his voice.

His conversation with Alina had them feeling slightly embarrassed, and the fact that Ricardo heard all of it just made it worse.

"I actually do not know..." Alina said as she glared at Ricardo. "After all, my plan depended on waking my sister up. What happens after that depends on her already."

"I see. So does that mean that the one fetching us now is your sister Elizabeth and not Lord Ergo?" Alex asked as he gave a trepidated look at Lord Ergo. "Because I would not want to meet Lord Ergo this time around."

"I am sure that right now, we are talking to my sister." Alina said as she gave a sad look at Lord Ergo. "After all, its only my sister who wants to get healed and not Lord Ergo. If the one in front of us is really Lord Ergo, then we should have been dead by now. But we are still alive, so I am sure that it is my sister in front of me."

"..." Alex chose not to say anything as he saw Elizabeth's condition. Even if what Alina said was the truth, Alex could still see that Alina's sister was still suffering even if she currently has the control of Lord Ergo's body.

However, Alex knew that that should be the least of his worries.

"How long can your sister take control of her body?" Alex asked, immediately disliking the way his question had sounded. "Will it be... enough before the crazy Lord Ergo resurfaces?"

"I... actually do not know." Alina replied as her face looked slightly pale. "I can only hope that my sister will bring us to a safe place already, and it will be there that you can start helping her..."

"Wait a minute..." Alex narrowed his eyes as he realized that there was something peculiar about their situation. "If your sister wants to get healed, then why would she spare the effort to bring us to a secluded place? Couldn't she just, you know, bring us to a nearby house? At least that will save us time..."

"Even if my sister wanted to get healed, there is no way that she will make it happen on an unsecured place." Alina snapped in reply. "After all, there is someone that will take surely attack us once my sister gets her treatment."

"Someone will attack us?" Alex's mouth set itself on a thin line as he realized that they are still in dangerous waters.

"Is it Lord Gallius? I never really liked that guy. If he is aiming for you, then maybe he is aiming for you sister too-" Alex's musings were cut off as Alina said,

"No, the one who will surely attack us is the afro guy, more commonly known as the WEO President." Alina said as she clenched her fists tightly.

"Are you sure about that?" Alex inquired as he remembered his interaction with the afro guy. "Sure, that guy looks like a creep, but I feel like he will not do something as brazen as this."

"That is because you cannot detect his lies." Alina angrily replied as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Whenever I talk to him, I always ask him if he has some nefarious plans against Lord Ergo. His answer is always the same, that he is a friend and an ally of Lord Ergo. But I know for a fact that those are just pure lies! And from the looks of it, my sister and Lord Ergo are both aware of this animosity too. That most probably is the reason that she hastily brought us away from the afro guy."

"That... is greatly worrying indeed." Alex replied as rubbed the temples of his head. "So you think the afro guy is chasing us right now?"

"That is most likely the case." Ricardo said as he touched Lord Ergo's shoulder. "I saw the glint in the afro guy's eyes when we were dragged away by Elizabeth. That glint only appears on someone concocting a plan."

"In my opinion, the afro guy will most likely be riding in an extremely fast airship in order to tail us." Alina interjected as she looked behind them. "It may not be near us now, but I am sure that sooner it will be hot on our trails already."

"So... are we just going to do nothing but stay here?" Alex inquired as he saw the grim looks on Alina and Ricardo. "Are we just going to let ourselves get followed?"

"Oh, do not worry about that Alex. I can stop that afro guy for you." Alex jumped up as he heard someone taking behind him.

Alex looked back, and he saw a tattooed person giving him a large grin.

"Master!" Alex exclaimed as he saw Clint in front of him. "How and why are you here?"

"Well, Ricardo contacted me earlier, just after Elizabeth brought you away." Clint replied as he used a toothpick to pick of some scraps of food in his teeth. "He told me the possibility of the afro guy chasing you two, so I decided to help you out."

"As for how I came here..." Clint let out another savage grin as he said,

"You can say I catapulted my self by redistributing the gravity around me. It's a pretty handy way to travel. Of course my wife is not happy about me doing it..."

"Oh thank goodness." Alex thought to himself as he started to feel relieved. Alex knew how powerful his master was, and with Alina's statement earlier, his master was most probably the second strongest Esper in the world!

With that kind of power, Alex was confident that his master can stop that afro guy from following them.

"Don't feel that complacent Alex." Clint said as he saw the relieved look on Alex's face. "Even though the afro guy is not in the top 10 ranks of strongest Espers, I am sure that he will be a difficult foe to face."

"How can that be?" Alex asked as he tilted his head. "If the afro guy is not in the top 10 rankings, then how could he be dangerous to you?"

"We suspect that just like my sister, the afro guy must have attempted to fuse himself with the other half of the World Diagram too." Alina said with a grimace on her face. "And it our suspicions were right, then that just means that the afro guy chasing us now has the power of half of the World Diagram."

"But that's... impossible." Alex said as he gave a hasty glance at Lord Ergo. "If your sister, who is the strongest Esper, tried to fuse with the World Diagram and failed, how could someone like the afro guy even succeed?"

"I don't know too." Alina replied as she let out a sigh. "But I have a feeling that the afro guy really succeeded on where my sister failed. And mind you, all my feelings are always spot on."

"Just like your romantic feelings for Alex, hmm?" Of course this will be the time that Asteria will wake up, and the first sentence that she said were always typical of her. "It seems like your love for Alex trumps over your obligation as my hooman."

Asteria then flew towards Alina's lap, curling herself like a cat there as she said,

"Come hooman, pet me now."

"..." Of course Alina did not do anything, as Ricardo and Clint were nearby. They cannot just see Alina petting some invisible fairy.

"Hmph!" Asteria sourly said as she saw Alina not budging at all. "Later then!"

"..."

"You two just left hours earlier, and yet you already got yourself in this situation? You two really are meant for each other." Clint said as he looked at the blushing Alina and Alex. "Hehehe, when can I see your little kids?"

"Uncle!"

"Master!"

"Ok, ok, I am just joking in here." Clint said as he raised his arms in surrender. His words might sound apologetic, but his expression certainly did not.

"If you are done joking in here, then maybe we should start on preparing for the afro guy." Ricardo said as he looked behind them. "With my advanced hearing, I could hear a noisy vehicle approaching us. Judging from the frequency of the sound waves. I can say that a very fast airship is following us."

"So he really did come huh." Clint said as he licked his lips. "Now its time for me to teach him a lesson."

Out of all the people that he met, Clint greatly hated two people.

One was Lord Ergo, since he was the one who tormented Elizabeth, who Clint considered as his best friend and a rival.

The second one was the afro guy, since he was indirectly related towards the death of his first disciple.

"Uncle..." Alina went pale as she saw the burning look in Clint's eyes. "Don't tell me that your real reason to be here is because of revenge?"

"Revenge? Yes, that is one of my reasons." Clint said as their surroundings began to shift and seethe. "I did not seek to get that afro guy's head before as he could possibly help your sister. But after the appearance of Alex, I realized that there is no way I can let him live."

"But how about the restriction?" Alex interjected as Clint saw a worried look in his disciple's eyes. "Won't you violate it if you attacked the afro guy?"

"My restriction only prevents me from transcending and from dealing with minor matters." Clint said as he glared at the approaching airship behind them. "As for our current situation right now, there is no way that this is just a minor matter. This a matter concerning the whole world, so I don't think I will be restricted from joining in."

"Well said, Clint" Ricardo said as he shifted his appearance back to his wife. "Be sure to kick his ass!"

"That I will do." Clint declared as he accelerated towards the following airship. With his speed, it only took Clint some seconds to approach the airship.

"Oi, you can come out and face me now." Clint taunted as he blocked the airship's path. "It's time for us to settle our scores!"

"..."

"..."

It did not take that long before a voice could be heard coming from the airship.

"So you really did come huh. You must have been itching for this moment for a very long time..."

Clint bit his lips as he tried not to curse the afro guy inside the ship. He found this hard to do, as all he could do was to imagine the afro guy's head blasted to pieces with his power.

"You are the same as always, Aleksei." Clint said as he uttered the real name of the afro guy. "Always hiding in that ship of yours eh? No wonder your cousin left you to marry me. You are just that boring."

"That was a low blow, but I can accept it." Aleksei replied as the door of the airship opened.

Aleksei came out of it, with his afro hair swaying merrily across the air. His mouth was set into a thin line as he glared at Clint.

"You want a fight? Then I shall give you a fight!" Aleksei declared as his arms dangled at his sides freely. "I could not wait to make you feel the pain that I felt when my only remaining family left me for your broke ass tattooed skin!"

"Oh? It seems like you forgot what you did to my disciple." Clint said as his knuckles started to crack. "Maybe a few hits to your bludgeoned face later will make you remember."

"Well, that depends if you can hit me." Aleksei then looked at the airship beside him as he said,

"Lord Gallius, leave me here. There is no way that we can follow Lord Ergo, not with the Mad Jackal blocking us. So, you will be the one to follow them. As for me, I will follow you later. I still have some beef to deal with right now."

"Yes, Mr. President!" Lord Gallius' voice could be heard from inside the ship, which started to speed up.

"Oh, no you don't!" Clint shouted as he pointed his finger towards the leaving airship.

"Boom!"

Clint warped the gravitational well at the tip of his fingers, producing a horrifying suction force which proceeded to pull the airship towards Clint.

"Oh, I cannot allow that to happen..." A flash of light swept by Clint, and before he could know it, his gravity well broke apart.

The airship, that was supposed to be destroyed by Clint's attack, found a moment of freedom which Lord Gallius did not waste.

"Schum!"

The airship burst into speed, hastily leaving Clint and a smirking Aleksei.

Clint could only watch with narrowed eyes as the airship continued on following Lord Ergo's entourage.

"So, you were really hiding your abilities huh." Clint said as he cricked his neck. "This should be fun then."

"Oh, you think if will be fun?" Aleksei smirked as he stretched his limbs. "Yes, it will be fun. Not for you, but certainly for me."

"Bring it then." Clint said as an axe appeared in his hands. "I will have all the fun smashing your headless body later..."

"We shall see about that." Aleksei shot back as a set of needles appeared in his hands. The needles were short, but Clint could see that they have unworldly levels of sharpness.

"Have you experienced acupuncture before? If not, then prepare to experience one! Of course my acupuncture will not make you feel heaven, it will send you straight there!"

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 46 630 Trillion

"You know that even if you try to stop me now, I will still have enough time to reach your friends..." Aleksei said as his afro hair started to sway freely in the air. "I can just defeat you right now, and then I will just proceed to follow them."

"You could have the strength to defeat me..." Clint started to smile as he spread both of his arms to his side. "But do you have the TIME to catch up to them?"

"Time? What do you mean by that?" Aleksei frowned as he suddenly felt that something was wrong around him.

A few seconds passed by, and the frown on Aleksei's face turned into a snarl as he realized what was happening.

"You bastard! Are you dilating the time in our area right now?" Aleksei rarely looked angry, but this time, his rage was quite apparent. "Are you out of your mind? You really dared to dilate the time here just to let Lord Ergo get away?"

"What if I did?" Clint looked a little pale, but he still stood upright as he gave Aleksei a sleazy grin. "I just did what I think is for the best!"

"You bastard!"

Aleksei had the every right to be angry as what Clint did was really irritating.

Using his control over gravitational force, Clint increased the local gravity in the area around him and Aleksei.

By doing this, the spacetime in their area became so bent that the time inside that area started to slow down compared to the time that Alex and Alina experiences.

This phenomenon is called Gravitational Time Dilation, one of the consequences of the General Theory of Relativity.

In order to understand this phenomenon well, one must understand a consequence of the General Theory of Relativity.

And that is that the speed of light is always be constant to any observers, no matter what happens to the environment around light.

Let's say there are two points in space, point A and point B.

If light travels from point A to point B in normal conditions, the light will travel in a straight path, ensuring no problems with time.

However, in an area with strong gravity, spacetime will be curved.

Light passing through this curved spacetime will have to move a longer distance in order to travel from point A to point B.

But since the speed of light is the same, the time traveled by the light must also be longer in order to match the longer distance traveled by the light.

This compensation naturally results in the slowing down of time in that area.

"I thought that you are just a musclehead... I never expected you to form an idea like this." Aleksei said as he rotated his limbs.

"You are impressive too." Clint replied as he gazed at Aleksei intently.

"This gravity field that I created, not only is this meant to slow down our time inside this field, this is also meant to crush you into a paste. However..." Clint narrowed his eyes as he glared at Aleksei. "It seems like you are unaffected even by the strong gravity in here."

"Oh, so you noticed that huh." Aleksei seems to be unperturbed by Clint's revelation as his eyes turned scarlet. "It seems like I cannot hide my real power from you anymore."

"You... you really did fuse with the World Diagram!" Clint declared as he observed Aleksei's body. Aleksei's body looked extremely fit, as if it had been imbued by the essence of the world.

Aleksei also looked like he had a subtle control of things around him, something that had Clint feeling wary.

Now, Clint could feel power welling out from Aleksei, which started to interfere with his own gravity field.

From the looks of it, Aleksei's body became so powerful that it was able to resist the strong gravity that should have been crushing him already.

"How... could you have survived fusing your mind with the World Diagram?" Clint asked as he saw Aleksei slowly approaching him. "That should have been extremely difficult to do!"

"Fuse my mind with the World Diagram? Are you kidding? I am not that idiotic!!" Aleksei said as he clothes slowly disintegrated slowly, showing his perfectly lean muscular body.

"Even a mind of a Star Esper would be not able to handle the strain of fusing the mind with the World Diagram. Even I would not attempt to do that."

"But then how did you fuse with the World Diagram? Clint inquired as he saw Aleksei's rippling body.

It took Clint only a second to realize the answer.

"You did not fuse the World Diagram with your mind... you fused it with your body!"

"You are right!" Aleksei declared as he showed off his powerful body "Since a mind fusion is dangerous for obvious reasons, I decided to just use my body as the fusion material with World Diagram."

"..." Clint was silent and horrified as he tried to imagine how desperate Aleksei could be that he was forced to do something like this.

"It was... painful at first." Aleksei wistfully said as he seemed to remember some memories. "It took me some tries to fit it all inside me, but in the end, I managed to fit them all inside my body. Good times indeed."

"Good times huh." Clint tried to ignore the way that Aleksei's statement had sounded as he knew that his fight will be much harder than before.

Clint was not sure on how Aleksei was able to fuse his body with the half of the World Diagram, but he can basically see that it was the truth.

"This will be really bad..." Clint muttered to himself as he prepared himself for a large fight.

Aside from locally strengthening the gravity around them, Clint also started to generate trillions of volts of electricity as he pocketed out some hollow metal spheres that he always carried with him.

Clint weakly applied his ability on the hollow metal spheres, causing them to glow, indicating that they are seconds away from actually activating.

Clint allowed Aleksei to see his set-up before freely taunting him.

"If you really want to be free, then you need my permission to leave... But since I would never allow that to happen, then you should do your best to defeat me!"

"Defeat you? Heh, I will do more than that!" This is Aleksei's reply to Clint as his body began to glow white.

Clint started to tense as he knew that the fight starts now.

"Boom!" Aleksei accelerated towards Clint as his body started to reach speeds that should not be reached by any kind of bodies before.

Clint could barely believe it as he saw Aleksei's glowing body almost in front of him already.

Aleksei's fist shot towards Clint, and the only thing that Clint could do was to use on of his metal sphers to block it.

"Kaboom!"

The hollow metal sphere that he used contained concentrated amounts of hydrogen inside it, and all that Clint did was to use weak and strong nuclear force to activate it.

By using the Strong Nuclear Force, Clint was able to force the hydrogen atoms to smash together with each other, producing large amounts of unstable Helium atoms.

As this process created an overabundance of protons, Clint then was able to use the Weak Nuclear Force to initiate beta decay on these unstable Helium atoms.

With this beta decay, the unstable Helium atoms became stabilized.

And in the process of doing this, massive amounts of energy and heat were produced, creating an explosion of energy that blasted in front of Aleksei.

This process was basically a simplified version of the thermonuclear fusion, a process which powered the stars in space.

Clint used its miniaturized version, as he knew that using the full version will be enough to destroy this world.

There is a kilogram of hydrogen inside Clint's metal sphere, which meant that the conversion from hydrogen to helium will produce around 630 trillion joules of energy, which Clint all purposely concentrated to explode on Aleksei.

"Let's see if you can survive that." Clint thought to himself as he saw Aleksei being covered with pure heat from the explosion.

"Bzzt!" Clint then bombarded the area in front of him with countless lightning bolts just to make sure that Aleksei will be down.

After seeing that he had bombarded the possibly dead Aleksei with enough lightning bolts to power the entire world for a month, Clint stopped as he waited to see Aleksei's dead body.

Clint's attacks covered the whole area with smoke, something that Clint usually hated to see.

With Clint's scans covering the whole area, he could detect that there are no living beings near him, which could indicate that Alelksei was dead.

But Clint knew how slimy Aleksei could be, so he thought that maybe Aleksei was just faking it.

So, Clint had no choice but to use his vision in order to see where Aleksei was.

However, the smoke that he created were interfering with his ability to look around him.

"Damn smoke..." As such, Clint has no choice but to wait for the smoke to clear out before he can freely look around him.

But Clint did not have to wait that long as a glowing hand suddenly reached out from the smoke, plunging itself on Clint's left lung.

"Pfft!" Clint let out a strangled cry as he felt his left lung deflating as a large hole appeared on it.

Clint jumped backwards, allowing the glowing hand to slide off his chest.

"Hah, hah, hah." Clint let out a wheeze as his left lung fully collapsed, only leaving his right lung functional.

"Tsk, I tried to aim for the heart, but it seems like your damage to my body jarred my aim off." Clint heard these words as the owner of the glowing hand walked out of the smoke.

The speaker was no other than Aleksei, and he looked very much alive.

There are countless injuries on Aleksei's body, with numerous gouges and deep wounds on his body, courtesy of the attacks that Clint placed on him.

But even with these injuries, Aleksei seemed to be fine, evidenced by the way his body moved.

This realization just served to make Clint more dismayed as he realized that he must use greater firepower in order to win against Aleksei.

"You must be wondering on how I survived that attack, right?" Aleksei mused as he let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but I won't tell it to you. However, if you managed to damage me more later, then you will probably find it out for yourself."

"In that case, I will just damage you more!"

Clint then let out a shout as he used his power to gather all the hydrogen in that the could muster inside his Range.

Clint was a 25 Star Esper, meaning that his Range covers the area 25 kilometers around him. That area was already enough for Alex to gather enough hydrogen to initiate a much powerful thermonuclear fusion.

Aleksei seems to have sensed what Clint was doing, as all that he did was to spread his arms while saying,

"Hahahaha! Come hit me more with your blasts! Let us see which one is stronger! My body or your attacks! Hahahaha! This really is fun!"

"If you can learn to shut your mouth for a minute, then maybe you will have some friends." Clint then reached deep into his power, and after confirming that he had everything under control, he activated the fusion.

"Booom!" The resulting explosion covered the sky with a glow so bright, anyone who saw it from below were temporarily blinded.

Clint felt the superheated winds buffeting all around him as he watched for any signs of a sneak attack approaching him.

"If you are still alive, then I dare you to come and approach me."

While Clint was having his fated match with Aleksei, Alex and Alina were having their own dilemma.

Lord Ergo already arrived on his/her destination, with him/her setting down Alina and Alex on top of a small island located at the middle of the ocean.

Lord Ergo then laid down on the ground as he/she looked at Alex quietly, as if he/she was saying,

"Here, come heal me now before the crazy Lord Ergo comes out. If you don't he will surely kill you."

Of course Alex would gladly attempt to use the computer virus ball on Lord Ergo right now, but there was one thing that was bothering him.

And that was the airship that was still following them earlier.

With his scans, Alex knew that there is only one person inside the ship, and that person was Lord Gallius.

"Tsk, and I thought this guy is on our side."

Even though Alex was not sure what prompted Lord Gallius to ally with the afro guy, he knew that Lord Gallius must not be allowed to get near them as the process starts.

Nothing must go wrong in the process, and someone following them with ill intentions was obviously one of the objects that must stay far away.

"..."

It did not take Alex that long to come to a decision, and frankly speaking, this decision is something that Alex was perfectly fine on doing.

"Sorry Lord Gallius, but it seems like we have to chase a nuisance away." Alex said as he and Alina stood up, with their sights concentrated on the incoming airship. "Of course if the nuisance tries to fight back, then we will have no choice but to erase it."

"After all, the usual solution to a problem is to make the problem disappear."

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 47 How painful can a bite be?

Looking at the current situation, it might look like Alina and Alex have the advantage, since they have Lord Ergo with them.

But that is not the case, since Lord Ergo would not be able to fight for them.

Because of what Alina did earlier, Lord Ergo has no way to fight right now.

According to Alina, because of the awakening of her sister, Lord Ergo was currently in stalemate situation.

Both the minds of Lord Ergo and Elizabeth were struggling to take control of her body, which led to Lord Ergo currently unable to fight properly.

Lord Ergo was only able to fly earlier because at that time, Elizabeth was still the dominant personality.

But right now, both Elizabeth and Lord Ergo has equal control of her body, which led to the struggle that made her currently powerless.

And from what Alex could understand from Alina's words, it will still take around an hour before Lord Ergo can fight properly.

But at that point, it was highly likely that it will be Lord Ergo that will have the control of the body.

And of course Alex knew that once that happens, the first thing that Lord Ergo will do was to murder them all.

Since that was the case, Alex was left with no choice but to administer the computer virus ball towards Lord Ergo right now.

"Alina..." Alex muttered as he showed the virus ball that he was holding on earlier. "I will use the virus inside this ball to erase Lord Ergo inside your sister... However, I am not sure on what will happen to your sister. Since her mind has fused with Lord Ergo already... There is a chance that she will die."

Alex was supposed to say 'high chance', but he found it hard to say these words, so he tried to make his words as gentle as possible. "Even if your sister can possibly die here, do you still want to go on with this?"

To the surprise of Alex, what Alina first did was to cup Alex's face with her soft hands.

Alina then brought her face closer to Alex, with her fragrant breath dancing all over his face.

Alex could only stare at Alina's mesmerizing eyes as his whole body froze on the spot.

"I detected a little lie in your words, Alex." Alina said as Alex could see her luscious lips moving on their own. "But I understand that you were lying to make me feel better..."

"Um.. um.." Alex stuttered as he found it extremely hard to focus right now. "So should I continue on treating your sister or not?"

"Do it." Alina replied with her gaze were concentrated on Alex. "My sister... she had already gone through far too much. Besides, I was able to converse with my sister earlier... And she gave me the permission to allow you to treat her. So, you should have no qualms on what you were about to do."

"Wait, you were able to talk to your sister?" Alex mused as he momentarily ignored the proximity between him and Alina. "How were you able to do that earlier?"

To Alex's surprise, Alina actually giggled a little. "That's a little secret that you are not allowed to know..." Alina replied as her gaze at Alex softened.

"Okay, I'll do it then..." Alex took a deep breath as a determined expression appeared in his face.

Since Alina and Elizabeth allowed him to do the treatment, Alex will still try his best to make sure that the treatment will be a success.

Even if that meant facing Lord Gallius without any aid from Lord Ergo himself.

"Thank you." Tears started to flow from Alina's eyes, dripping down to her chin in generous quantities.

Alex was again dazed as he found it hard to believe that something this beautiful could exist in front of him.

Alina then brought her face closer to Alex, and before Alex could know it, he was already closing his eyes as he somewhat knew what will happen next.

But before Alex could feel what he was expecting to feel, he suddenly felt pain in his nose which violently jolted him from his daze.

"Ow!" Alex shouted in pain as he opened his eyes.

With his eyes open, he saw Alina biting his nose with her perfect teeth.

Even though Alex appreciated the view that he can see, he was obviously confused with what he saw.

"..."

"..."

After 5 seconds of her biting Alex's nose, Alina withdrew her head back, leaving Alex with a painfully throbbing nose.

"What is that?" Alex inquired as he cupped his pained nose. "Why... did you do that?"

"Because I want to." Alina replied as she wiped the tears on her face.

Alina also looked like she was slightly blushing, but she deftly covered it up by averting her gaze away from Alex.

"Ok... People have fetishes, so maybe nose biting is your fetish. Nom nom nom." Alex muttered as he massaged his nose with a smile in his face. "But frankly speaking, I actually liked what you did. Just don't... overdo it next time."

"Ugh, did you two forget that I am here?" Ricardo, currently disguised as Elizabeth, mumbled in complaint as he leaned back against a tree nearby. "Tsk, youngsters these days..."

"Alex, I thought my hooman will give you a kiss... But it seems like your nose is more desirable than your lips." Asteria declared as she looked at Alex's nose with curiosity. "Maybe she did not kiss you since your breath smells bad."

"..."

With the presence of Ricardo and Lord Ergo nearby, all that Alex and Alina could do was both blush red as they both swore to themselves to punish Asteria's loud mouth later.

"So, um... can you administer it now?" Alina replied as she put her mask back on. "Time is running out, and the earlier we finish this the better it will be for all of us."

"Oh right, here we go then." Alex hastily replied as he held the computer virus ball tightly.

After a few seconds of waiting, a small hole suddenly appeared on top of the ball, which prompted Alex to make his action.

He plunged the holed part of the ball on Lord Ergo's forehead, making sure that no part of the hole was exposed to the outside air.

"Grya!!!"

An inhuman growl came out of Lord Ergo's throat, promptly terrifying every living thing that lived 50 kilometers around them.

Even Alex and Alina felt the same fear, and all that they could do was to gather strength in their legs as they tried to resist the fear.

"Quick! Place the restraints!" Alex shouted towards Ricardo as Lord Ergo started to thrash all around the ground.

"On it." Both Alina and Ricardo moved deftly as they produced thick steels of reinforced ropes which Alina brought earlier before they met up with Lord Ergo.

Right now, Lord Ergo is unable to use any abilities, so Alex was perfectly fine on using ropes on Lord Ergo.

Once the restraints were placed on the right spots, Alex, Alina and Ricardo all scooted backwards in order to see how Lord Ergo fared.

"!!!" Aside from the still thrashing body, Lord Ergo's eyes were also wide open, as if Lord Ergo was currently experiencing great pain.

Alina, who saw what was happening, could only tremble in nervousness as she obviously wished for her sister to prevail.

"It will be only up to your sister to survive this..." Alex mumbled as he tried patting Alina's head to comfort her.

This seems to be effective, as the tremblings on Alina's body had reduced greatly.

Alex was not sure how long the virus attack will last, but he knew for a fact that it will be at most 30 minutes.

That means that Alex and Alina should protect Lord Ergo for a maximum of 30 minutes if they want Elizabeth to be treated properly.

"But can we last 30 minutes against Lord Gallius?" Alex thought as he saw the airship that was not moving in its place anymore.

Alex found out that even when he was administering the virus ball at Lord Ergo earlier, Lord Gallius did not make any move to stop them.

Lord Gallius only stayed in the airship to watch the whole process from happening.

This made Alex somewhat suspicious, as naturally Lord Gallius should have been attacking them already.

Lord Gallius' current actions makes it look like he was waiting for something to happen.

"So the afro guy is actually right..." Alex's body jolted as he heard Lord Gallius' voice coming out of the airship. "Lord Ergo really did have a major problem... and from the looks of it, he is being treated at this very moment..."

"... So that is why Lord Gallius did not attack immediately." Alex said as he let out a small laugh. "He wanted to see and confirm what the fuss was all about. And now that he saw it, there is nothing that can stop him now from attacking."

Both Alex and Alina let out simultaneous sighs as they flew up towards the airship. Just one look at their faces makes it extremely clear that they are ready to fight.

"So, you two dare to fight me huh." Lord Gallius' said as he stepped out of the airship. "It's about time I face the mettle of you two!"

Lord Gallius's body was strapped with armor and weapons that even Alex had no idea on what they were.

His current demeanor was calm and composed, as if he already had a grasp of the situation.

"Alex, you should know that this time, it is not a virtual match anymore." Lord Gallius said as he brought out a longsword, which looked way more dangerous than the longsword that Alex saw before. "If I cut you to pieces right now, you will stay that way forever."

"Of course I know that." Alex replied as he cracked his knuckles. "But did you forget the fact that Alina is with me? There is no way that you can easily defeat us! So you just better leave right now!"

"It a barely passable threat, something that I can just ignore." Lord Gallius nonchalantly said as he pointed his longsword towards Alex.

"I do not know what Lord Ergo's problem was, but I came here with the intent of cutting him down. Form what I can see, Lord Ergo has no way to fight back right now. That just means that I can kill him easily. And even if your reasons for helping Lord Ergo are compelling, I still cannot allow someone as crazy as him to live, especially when I have the chance to kill him right now."

"I figured that you will say that." Alex replied as he and Alina held hands together. "If you are that serious, then I and Alina will be also serious on stopping you."

"Heh, bring it on then." Lord Gallius replied as he purposefully ignored the PDA being displayed in front of him.

"Don't worry, we will give our best here." Alex said as he and Alina prepared their battle stances.

Lord Gallius did the same too, with all three of them staring at each other, waiting for the first one to make a move.

Their silent confrontation was mixed by Lord Ergo's screams in the background, resulting in a somewhat tense and awkward face-off.

"Boom!" It was Alina who made the first move, as she unleashed 25 Space Slashes towards Lord Gallius, who watched with wide eyes as the numerous Space Slashes arrived in front of him way too quickly.

"I told you..." Alex muttered as the Space Slashes collided with Lord Ergo. "We will give our best here."

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 48 The Synthesizer

Even though Lord Gallius was surprised by the speed of Alina's attack, it seemed like he was not worried at all for himself.

The air, no, the space all around Lord Gallius started to tremble, as if Lord Gallius was forcing the very fabric of space itself to vibrate.

"As expected, he really can vibrate space itself." Alex thought to himself as he saw what Lord Gallius did. "Now that is just freaky."

"This guy is not vibrating the space around him." Asteria suddenly interjected as she watched Lord Gallius casually brushing off the attacks on him.

"This guy is vibrating the strings of the Universe itself." Asteria said with solemnity. "Heh, he must have some knowledge of string theory then."

"!!!"

In Alex's world, there is a prevalent theory about the whole universe itself which is quite confusing, even for the modern scholars in Alex's time.

This theory is the String Theory.

According to this theory, the whole universe is not made up of fundamental particles, but rather excitations of one-dimensional strings.

The vibrations within these strings will determine what kind of particles will be present, which will also set the properties of a certain part of the universe.

If Asteria said was right, then it seems like Lord Gallius has the ability to detect these dimensional strings and forcefully vibrate them on his whim!

Of course Alex found it to be unbelievable, since String Theory is a controversial theory in his world and that much debate had already been done for it.

There was also the fact that the string theory, quantum theory and the Theory of Relativity are not yet fully integrated with each other.

For some abilities related to quantum theory and Theory of Relativity to exist is acceptable for Alex since some aspects for these two theories have already been proven.

As for String Theory, most of its important aspects were still unproven up to this day. In fact, there are still no practical evidence that can prove its existence, although scientists were sure that the current experimental methods were only lacking the right materials to find the right evidences.

Alex thought that since this theory is not yet proven, then there might be no Esper Ability in this world that can manipulate it.

But from the looks of it, Lord Gallius actually had a way to access it for himself.

"Oh this really is not good..." Alex thought to himself as he watched Lord Gallius giving them a wide smirk. "He can do a lot of bad stuff with that strings..."

By following Einstein's famous equation E = mc2, it is easy to assume that there will be a relationship between the frequency of the string's vibration and the mass of the particle produced by the vibration.

Lord Gallius must have been using these relationships for to his advantage, as he can just easily create countless fundamental particles with vibration alone, and he uses these particles as a way to defend himself and attack his enemies.

"What Lord Gallius did earlier was to produce gravitons from the string vibrations." Asteria said as she watched Lord Gallius' movements with great interest.

"These particles are said to carry gravitational force, and once they accumulate in massive numbers, they will be enough to create a gravitational force that can force any space-related attacks to get deflected." Asteria commented as she pointed above Lord Gallius' head. "Honestly, this guy's ingenuity is up to the peak of creativity."

"I see." Alex thought to himself as he remembered that instead of hitting Lord Gallius, all the space slashes that Alina made all got deflected upwards, as if they were attracted to something in that location.

From the looks of it, Lord Gallius had conjured gravitons above him to forcefully deflect Alina's space slashes.

Alex knew the difficulty of producing gravitons, as from what he knew, the very existence of gravitons themselves contradicts with the Theory of General Relativity, which states that gravity is a consequence of curved spacetime, and not by some kind of particle.

For Lord Gallius to create something that contradicts a familiar conception of spacetime just proves on the power of his Esper Ability.

"From the looks of it, it seems like you have already realized what I just did." Lord Gallius said as he looked at Alex and Alina with a calm look.

"With my control of the string's vibrations all around me, there is no way that your attacks can reach me. And as for my offense, I can just vibrate both your bodies right in front of me! Hehehehe, this is already my win!"

"So instead of wasting your lives fighting me right now, you can just surrender so that you two can survive." Lord Gallius concluded as he seemed to be not in a rush. "Just take your time..."

"..." Alex slowly narrowed his eyes, as he suddenly realized that something was weird with Lord Gallius right now.

Even though Lord Gallius can just attack Alex and Alina already, he did not do it.

Instead, he started to talk and taunt them like the usual villain on television shows.

This is a very inefficient way to fight, as this will just allow Alex and Alina to find a way to win.

"Tsk, so what if it is weird?" Alex thought to himself as he ignored the weirdness of the situation at the back of his mind. "What we should do now is to defeat Lord Gallius, and since Lord Gallius is giving us the chance to talk, then we shall gladly power ourselves up!"

"Alina, let's do it." Alex suddenly said as he tightened his hold on Alina's hand. "This may be the first time that we do it, but I promise that I will be gentle."

"But if we get too rough, our bodies might get broken!" Alina replied hastily as she shook her head quickly. "We still have not practiced doing this stuff, so I think we should take it slow."

"Don't worry, I trust you, and I know that you trust me." Alex said as he gazed at Alina with a soft look. "We... can reach the peak together!"

"Ok..." Alina replied as she took a deep breath. "Let's do it here then!"

"Hey, you two, what are you planning to do!" Lord Gallius shouted out after he heard what Alex and Alina just said. "I already gave you two the chance to surrender, and yet you still have the gall to copulate in this place? Tsk, how barbaric and shameless of you two!"

"I did not say anything about copulation." Alex replied as his body began to glow red. "You are just misinterpreting our words."

"Alex is right." Alina said as she began to glow blue. "It's just your dirty mind that is a work here."

"You two!" Aside from anger and exasperation, Lord Gallius also felt trepidation on what Alex and Alina was about to do.

Right now, his danger sense was telling him that what Alex and Alina will do next must be stopped at all costs.

But Lord Gallius was already too late, as Alex and Alina both shouted,

"Power Synthesis, start!"

"Boom!" Lord Gallius had to close his eyes as the glow covering Alex and Alina's body intensified to extremely strong levels.

Lord Gallius tried to attack them, but to his horror, he found out that even his vibration cannot penetrate through the glow.

Because of that, Lord Gallius was left with no choice but to just wait until what Alex and Alina were doing was done.

Aside from the bright glare, Lord Gallius could also hear shouts of pain coming from both Alina and Alex, as if they were experiencing an extremely gruesome thing right now.

"..."

It was at that moment that Lord Gallius saw Lord Ergo's very vulnerable state.

Seeing that Lord Ergo was currently defenseless right now, Lord Gallius started to have the thought of attacking him already.

But before he could do so, the glow covering Alex and Alina shattered, showing Lord Gallius something that he had never seen before.

Lord Gallius could see that both Alex and Alina looked just like before, with nothing changed in their external appearances.

In terms of mental power and Esper Ability however, Lord Gallius felt that both Alex and Alina experience massive changes in these categories.

With him being a Star Esper, Lord Gallius was able to see the flow of Mental Power in every Esper that he sees.

He can still see both of Alex's and Alina's Mental Power right now, but what Lord Gallius saw made him greatly shocked.

Instead of just existing strictly on their bodies, the Mental Power of Alex and Alina were currently fused together as one.

Lord Gallius saw the combined Mental Power hovering on both Alina and Alex, as if this mental power came from just one individual.

Not only that, but Lord Gallius also have the feeling that Alex and Alina's Esper Abilities has changed after what they did.

"What the hell... did you two just do?" Lord Gallius mumbled out as he stared at Alex and Alina with wariness. "You two seem so different now."

"You want an answer, then I shall give you one right now!" Alex let out a laugh as he threw a light beam towards Lord Gallius.

"Hmph, petty tricks again. I won't fall for that anymore!" Lord Gallius once more created countless gravitons instantly in order to deflect the light beam.

But the light beam ignored the pulling force from the gravitons as it struck Lord Gallius' shoulder.

"Ack!" Lord Gallius let out a shout of pain as he saw a massive wound forming in his shoulder.

Lord Gallius looked at the blood leaking out of his wound as he muttered to himself,

"This is extremely weird!"

Lord Gallius knew that there is no way a light beam can just ignore the gravitational force placed on it.

Not only that, but it was also pretty impossible for that light beam to create such a massive wound on his shoulder.

Lord Gallius knew that using conventional explanation to explain what just happened will be hard.

Because of that, Lord Gallius knew that there is only one reason that can explain what happened.

And that is that Alex's Esper Ability has somewhat changed.

Not only that, but it seems like even Alina's Esper Ability had changed too.

"S*t, just what kind of change could have happened that allowed Alex's paltry light beam to penetrate my defense?" Lord Gallius complained as he glared at Alex, who was giving him a smug smile right now.

Blood was continuing to drip from Lord Gallius' wounded shoulder as he looked at both Alex and Alina intently.

"Ah, I get it now." Lord Gallius said after a minute of intense staredown.

"This should be impossible, but it seems like you two have done it! Hahahaha!" Lord Gallius said as he started to laugh hard.

Lord Gallius seemed to be full of mirth as he looked like he was going crazy from laughter.

Alex and Alina only watched in silence as they waited for Lord Gallius to calm down.

After a minute of nonstop laughing, Lord Gallius then started to wipe some tears away from his eyes as he said,

"You two managed to fuse your Mental Power and your Esper Abilities, right?"

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 49 More Scientific Mumbo-Jumbo

"Hmph!" Lord Gallius retreated backwards as he began to treat Alex and Alina with more caution. "If you aimed for my head earlier, I should have been dead already. Tell me, are you two holding back because you think that you two combined are already more powerful than me?"

"That's up for you to imagine." Alex replied as he tightened his hold on Alina's hand. Alina responded in kind, as her fingers caressed the back of Alex's hand.

Alex suppressed a shiver as he tried to not show a delighted expression on his face.

This seems to have succeeded, as Alina and Asteria did not see any hints of Alex being physically delighted right now.

But aside from being delighted with Alina being touchy with him, Alex was also delighted from the fact that his first Power Synthesis with Alina succeeded.

Attempting a Power Synthesis was an extremely rare and hard thing to do, since only a Traveler and his Companion can perform it.

During a Power Synthesis, the Traveler and his Companion can, in a sense, 'fuse their power'.

Of course it will not be just as simple as that.

First of all, only one power from the Traveler and one power from the Companion can be fused at a time.

This means that it is impossible to fuse two abilities from the Traveler with two abilities from its Companion.

Second, the powers that will be fused must have at least the same origin.

In Alex and Alina's case, both of their powers were Esper Abilities, so there are no problems in fusing them.

And this is what Alex and Alina did.

They fused Alex's EM Wave Manipulation and Alina's Weak Space Manipulation in order to manifest a mutation in their Esper Abilities.

But even if it looks like the Power Synthesis is a very powerful technique, there are some limiters that made Alex hesitant on using it today.

One of this was its usage limit and the other one was the time limit.

According to Asteria, Alex and Alina can only use the Power Synthesis once per mission.

This means that if Alex uses the Power Synthesis today, he will be unable to use it in the Esper World anymore.

Alex will have to wait until he is on a new world in order to use Power Synthesis again.

As for the time limit, a Power Synthesis will only last for 10 minutes, which is considerably short.

Another thing that must be noted was that any new ability gained during Power Synthesis will be temporary and will disappear once the Power Synthesis has finished.

All of these conditions above shows that using a Power Synthesis is a big risk, since there's no way to know what the combination of two different abilities will be.

But Alex and Alina ignored these risks as they knew that with their current strength, their only way to win is to use Power Synthesis.

What Alex and Alina got after using Power Synthesis was an entirely new ability which stemmed from the combination of the wave-particle duality of EM Waves and the alteration ability of Weak Space Manipulation.

This new ability is called Quantum Property Manipulation, and just like what its name says, this ability grants its user the power of manipulate the quantum properties of certain objects.

Alex's attack which wounded Lord Gallius' shoulder earlier was the result of this ability.

Alex was able to have an attack this effective as he manipulated his attack to exhibit a phenomenon called Quantum Tunneling.

In Quantum Tunneling, electrons will have the ability to pass through obstacles blocking its path, as if the electron was 'tunneling' through the obstacles.

This happens due to the dual nature of an electron as a particle and a wave.

In Alex's world, some experiments have already concluded that this phenomenon indeed exists, which led to some applications of this phenomenon in the scientific community.

With Alex knowing the math and principles behind Quantum Tunneling, he vicariously applied this phenomenon on his light attack earlier.

He adjusted the 'tunneling ability' of his light attack in such a way that his light attack was able to pass through Lord Gallius' defense.

And once his light attack was inside Lord Gallius' shoulder, Alex undid the quantum tunneling, which essentially materialized the light attack inside Lord Gallius' shoulder.

Naturally, this kind of move was able to greatly damage Lord Gallius' shoulder.

"Hehehe, seems like I really should just aim for the head." Alex muttered as he wiped the sweat away on his face.

Forcing an electron to undergo quantum tunneling was easy, but forcing the same thing on a light beam was extremely taxing, which was made evident by the fact that Alex was feeling a little tired after doing what he did earlier.

With a jolt, Alex realized that just like any other powerful techniques, he cannot just spam his Quantum Tunneling for a long time.

But even with that limitation, Alex was sure that he had enough Mental Power left to make more attacks.

After all, his Mental Power has changed too.

"Hmph, I do not know what you did to your attack earlier, but I am sure that you cannot just do that many times." Lord Gallius said as he was able to slow the blood flow from his injured shoulder. "You only have a Mental Power of 150, so sooner or later, your attacks will also stop. When that time comes, I will only have to watch for Miss Alina to protect myself."

"That is a good analysis..." Alex muttered as Alina looked at the two of them with mirth. But, that will only apply if my Mental Power really is just 150 right now. However, that is where you are wrong!"

Alex then unleashed 10 more light attacks from his palms, which managed to elicit strangled shouts from Lord Gallius himself.

"Right now, my Mental Power is just the same as Alina's." Alex muttered as he monitored Lord Gallius' situation with an intense gaze. "Because of that, there is no way that I will just run out of Mental Power that quickly."

"You bastard!"

The reason for why Alex had the same Mental Power as Alina was because of the phenomenon called Quantum Entanglement.

In this phenomenon, two separate particles will have the same exact properties, so much so that they are extremely identical with each other.

Even when the two particles were far away from each other, both of them will still have the same properties.

Not only that, but whatever the first particle experiences will also be experienced by the other particle at the same time.

In short, particles under quantum entanglement will practically have a doppleganger.

Alex and Alina applied this phenomenon on themselves, as Alex began to have some of the properties that Alina had, most notably her Mental Power.

This allowed Alex to have a Mental Power of Tier 999, which made it easier for him to spam attacks.

Alex tried to not laugh as he realized that for the next 10 minutes, Lord Gallius will face 2 Tier 999 Espers at the same time, who both have an ability that will let their attacks penetrate Lord Gallius' defense.

"I have heard stories about some Tier Espers defeating Star Espers." Alex muttered as he and Alina slowly approached Lord Gallius.

"From what I can see, today will be the day that these stories will have a new addition. So, if you don't want to get humiliated this badly, do your best to survive, ok?"

"..."

"Ha!" Of course Lord Gallius will be unhappy after hearing everything that Alex just said.

"Just die already!" Lord Gallius said as he closed his right fist tightly.

At the instant that Lord Gallius did this, massive waves rippled away from him, scattering around all directions.

Every object that these waves collided with all disintegrated, as if there was something in these waves that can easily destroy objects.

Right now, both Alex and Alina were in the path of these waves' trajectory, which meant they will get hit by the waves too!

"So this time, what you are vibrating is the space itself, which produces these waves in space." Alex mumbled as he saw the waves approaching him.

"However, these waves that you produced are different from the gravity waves, since gravity waves only have enough energy in them to nodge particles by few nanometers. These waves that you just produced contains large amounts of energy, courtesy of your vibrations. These energies allowed your waves to be extremely lethal, as they will easily destroy anything that these waves get contact with. And right now, you plan to do the same thing to us, right?"

To Lord Gallius' surprise and dismay, Alex and Alina did not look that worried from the waves, which were obviously one of Lord Gallius' trump cards.

"Woosh..."

The waves passed through both Alex and Alina's body, as if they did not exist there at all.

Lord Gallius had to rub his eyes as he saw that both Alex and Alina's body were flickering in and out of existence.

They seem to disappear everytime a wave hits them, and they only reappear when there are no waves in their position.

"No way..." Lord Gallius muttered as he saw what happened. "This can't be..."

"Have you heard about the Schrodinger's Cat?" Alex said as the last of the waves had vanished. "Ah of course, you do not know about that. Nobody like him existed in this place after all."

"..."

This time, what Alex used to survive was one of the most famous concept of quantum physics that was practically a paradox in real life.

This concept is Superposition, which deals with the fact that an object can be both something at the same time.

This means that at the right conditions, a living object can be both dead and alive at the same time.

However, Superposition has only been observed in atomic particles, as it was basically impossible for Superposition to happen on large objects.

But with Alex and Alina's new ability, they were able to apply Superposition on themselves!

Before the waves could hit them earlier, Alex and Alina used Superposition so that they can both be 'present' and 'not present' at their current position.

This allowed them to dodge the destructive waves that Lord Gallius just unleashed.

"This is bulls*t!" Lord Gallius attempted to make an attack again, but before he could do so, countless slashes perforated his body, rendering him heavily injured.

Alina lowered her sword at that moment, appreciating her Space Slashes, which all underwent Quantum Tunneling too.

"Argh!"

Upon seeing what happened to him, Lord Gallius found himself unable to say anything.

The pain that he was feeling right now made it hard to speak, and the shock of seeing his own body like this was enough to make him silent too.

But Lord Gallius still managed to say some words before his body gave up.

"Ugh... it seems like I failed..." Lord Gallius' body then fell towards the ground as he lost his consciousness.

Alex deftly caught Lord Gallius, and he deposited him back to his own airship.

"Should we have just killed him?" Alina muttered as she saw what Alex was doing. "Won't it be better that way?"

"Of course not." Alex replied as he closed the door of the airship. "From what I can see, Lord Gallius did not come here out of his own volition. From the looks of it, he has been brainwashed to attack us."

"Brainwashed?" Alina's sharp intake of breath was enough to show that she was surprised. "Was he..."

"I have a suspicion that it was the afro guy who did it." Alex said as he kicked the airship away from him.

"There is no way that Lord Gallius will just follow us like this. From my conversations with him, Lord Gallius is a man of honor. There is no way that he can just do something as shameless as this!"

"So you suspect that the afro guy did something to Lord Gallius, which in turn made him like this." Alina concluded as she looked at the airship with narrowed eyes. "I may not like what you are saying, but your theory... is highly possible."

"That is why I did not kill Lord Gallius." Alex said as he let out a sigh. "He was also just a victim here."

"You are right." Alina said as she vigorously nodded. "Lord Gallius is not the real enemy here, the real enemy is..."

"The afro guy." Alex replied as he clenched his fists tightly. "There is no doubt about that!"

Alex then looked around him vigilantly, as if he was expecting something jumping out to scare him. "I am sure that he will not let go of a chance like this. He will arrive, even with master blocking him earlier."

"Are you saying that Uncle will lose to him?" Alina inquired with incredulity as she gave Alex a withering look. "Do you even trust your master?"

"I know that my master is strong, but I feel that the afro guy is an extremely durable person." Alex replied as he showed an object that he was holding in his left hand.

Alina looked at it and she saw that Alex was holding the Star-Crusted Dagger, glinting in its full glory.

"But do not worry, I think that even if my master loses, he will not be killed by the afro guy." Alex said as he placed the dagger near his arm. "The afro guy surely still have some use for Espers like my master, so he will not kill him."

Alina was about to say something to Alex when someone interrupted their conversation.

"Mr. Alex, I am really impressed with your intellect. Would you mind being my secretary after I sort all of this mess?"

Both Alex and Alina jumped in surprise as they heard this nonchalant voice behind them.

They looked back, and they saw a man clad covered in white glow, carrying an unconscious man on his shoulders.

Upon closer look, Alex realized that the unconscious man was his master, while the glowing man was the afro guy that they were worried about earlier!

"What do you think about my offer, Mr. Alex?" The afro guy said as his hair looked curlier than before. "You will love working under me..."

"Thanks, but no thanks!" Alex fearlessly replied as he slit his skin with the Star-Crusted Dagger. Blood spilled out of the wound as Alex felt the effects of the dagger taking in place.

Alex felt the familiar rush inside his body as his Mental Power increased drastically. He felt more powerful right now, and he had the notion that he could take on anything already.

This made Alex more confident, even if he could feel extreme danger coming from the afro guy.

"You see Mr. President, we are extremely busy right now, so we cannot accept any visitors... So I will have to ask you to leave our location quietly and peacefully. But if you intend to stay in our premises for a longer time, then I will treat it as trespassing, and I will be left with no choice but to eject you by force!"

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 50 mOtIvaTIonaL sPEakeR

Aleksei had a hard time fighting Clint, given the fact that Clint was able to manipulate numerous amount of attacks which he just threw all towards Aleksei.

But in the end, the partial invincibility provided by the fusion of his body and the World Diagram allowed Aleksei to tank his attacks and win.

After he knocked out Clint with a well-placed punch, Aleksei immediately rushed towards the location of Lord Ergo, hoping that he was not still too late.

Along the way, he felt the vital signs of Lord Gallius dropping to extreme lows, indicating that he suffered heavy injuries.

"Tsk, what a useless guy. But at least he bought me some time..." Aleksei muttered to himself as he saw himself nearing the location of Lord Ergo.

"Hmm... Now this is interesting." Aleksei muttered to himself as he saw what was happening to Lord Ergo.

He saw that Lord Ergo was bound by countless ropes, and that he seemed to be in extreme pain.

Aleksei also did not forget to take note of the ball attached on Lord Ergo's forehead.

Whatever was happening Lord Ergo, Aleksei was sure that the ball was highly related to that.

And if Aleksei was not wrong, this ball most likely came from Alex.

Speaking of Alex, he and Alina were floating together in the air, staring at Aleksei in such a way that they seemed to want to chase him away.

"Oh, now I get it." Aleksei thought to himself as he somehow pieced what was happening.

"That ball was doing something beneficial to Lord Ergo, and it seems like nobody must interrupt the process. Alex and Alina must have been the ones to stop anyone from approaching... But too bad for these two, there is no way that they can stop me!"

The codes of the World Diagram have two Properties interwoven on itself.

One was control and the other one was durability.

Control Property allows the World Diagram to manipulate the properties of the Esper World.

Durability Property on the other hand allows the World Diagram to withstand the numerous types of Esper Abilities, especially those designed to break things.

When the World Diagram was divided into two, each respective half got their own respective property.

The portion that Lord Ergo had contained most of the Control Property, and a little of the Durability Property.

As for Aleksei, the portion that he got contained most of the Durability Property and a little of the Control Property.

Aleksei's extremely tough body was obtained when he fused himself with the Durability Property of the World Diagram. This is what allowed him to tank most of the attacks that Clint poured on him earlier.

Of course Aleksei was still human, so the durability that he had was not perfect.

Some of his organs were still bleeding from the attacks that came from Clint, and even now Aleksei felt extreme pain everytime he moves.

Aleksei ignored this pain as he knew that defeating Alex and Alina will be his number 1 priority right now.

No matter how much these two struggled, Aleksei knew that it will be easy for Aleksei to defeat them.

After all, abilities that can kill him right now are extremely rare.

Even if Alex and Alina can trap him, Aleksei was fine with that.

It was quite obvious to Aleksei that the power-up that Alex and Alina used had a time limit, maybe around 5-10 minutes.

Aleksei can just let Alex and Alina do their stuff on him within that time, and once the time limit was up, Aleksei will take his sweet time on killing them.

Aleksei then began to pant as he imagined his supreme victory later.

Aleksei's goal this time was to obtain the World Diagram fragment from Lord Ergo, and the only thing blocking him from his goal was Alex and Alina.

"Once you two are gone from my sight, I will be assured of my win." Aleksei thought to himself as he looked at the human-shaped capsule inside his airship.

His sharp look turned soft as he gazed at the capsule with longing.

Aleksei did not care if Alex and Alina saw what he was doing.

In Aleksei's eyes, this capsule is much more important than his own life.

"Just wait for me Victoria, once I get it from Lord Ergo, we can be together again!" Aleksei thought to himself as he felt himself growing nervous.

Aleksei swore to himself that he should not fail this time. All of his dreams relied on him winning right now.

Failure is not an option.

"Are you sure about using the dagger right now?" Alina inquired as she saw what Alex did. "You know that its effect will only last for 5 minutes, and once the time limit is up, we will be practically toast."

"Well, this is our best bet right now. Ugh!" Alex grunted as he felt his Mental Power overflowing inside his body. "Sigh, taking a lot of Mental Power like this seems to be a little difficult for me now..."

"That's because you should not be having this much Mental Power inside you!" Alina snapped as she watched the afro guy's every action vigilantly. "You are not supposed to be at the Star Esper level yet!"

"Well, two temporary Star Espers are better than just one, right?" Alex said as he tried to stabilize his trembling body. "As long as we used our strongest moves, victory will be within our grasp!"

"..."

When Alex used the Star-Crusted Dagger on himself, he was able to reach the temporary Star Esper level, as he had the Mental Power of Tier 999 due to the effects of Quantum Entanglement with Alina.

Not only that., but because of this Quantum Entanglement, Alina was also affected by the Star-Crusted Dagger, which allowed her to step on the temporary Star Esper for the second time.

Unlike Alex who had to stabilize himself, Alina smoothly entered the temporary Star Esper state, probably due to her experience in entering this state before already.

"With the two of us working together, there is a chance that we can win!" Alex said as he saw Alina's current state.

"Win? You two must be delusional." The afro guy seemed to be not surprised with what Alex and Alina did. He however had an interested gaze on the Star-Crusted Dagger.

"It took me only a few seconds to defeat Clint, but due to the time dilation that he did, it took me some minutes to come here." The afro guy said as he slowly approached Alex and Alina.

The afro guy's confident demeanor showed that he was feeling that he was just here to take something that he wanted, and not to fight for his life. This of course pissed Alex off, as he felt that this gesture was extremely insulting.

"I presume that you are done with your power-ups then." The afro guy said as he tore his gaze away from the dagger.

The afro guy started to stretch his body as he looked at Alex and Alina intently. "Now that you are done strengthening yourselves, it will be the perfect time for me to demolish you two down. After all, seeing someone fall from their peak is a very satisfying sight to see. And you two shall be included in my this list..."

"Hmph, let us see if you can do that." With Alex stepping on the temporary Star Esper Stage, he realized all the things that he can do with his EM Wave Manipulation Ability.

Not only that but combining his ability with Quantum Property Manipulation, and Alex felt that he and Alina might have the chance to win!

"First strike goes to me!" Alex declared as he pointed his fingers as the afro guy.

By taking advantage of his Quantum Property Manipulation and EM Wave Manipulation, Alex was able to force the creation of positrons.

Positrons, from what Alex knew, are basically the antimatter version of electrons.

Both positron and the electron has the same mass and spin, but they have opposite charges.

With Alex's abundant knowledge in physics, he knew for a fact that antimatter annihilates matter when they were in contact with each other, producing large amounts of energy in the process.

With this knowledge in mind, Alex gleefully created a kilogram of positrons within his range. Of course he made sure that these positrons will not collide against any nearby electrons at all.

Once he was sure that he had the right amount, Alex used his power to converge all these positrons towards the afro guy.

This time, Alex did not care even if the afro guy was covered with numerous amounts of electrons, and Alex made sure that the afro guy was surrounded with around a kilogram of electrons.

"Schoom!"

Alex's ears almost popped as a flash of light covered him and Alina. Alex was sure that this light was part of the explosion, produced when 1 kilogram of positrons collided with 1 kilogram of electrons.

Alex and Alina were able to survive the blast as they used Superposition to dodge the blast.

Also, Alex made sure that the explosion will be mostly directed above, away from the direction of Lord Ergo and Ricardo.

"D*n, this is one strong explosion." Alex muttered to himself as he remembered the equations of showing the strength of this blast.

By following the equation E = mc2, the energy released by Alex's antimatter bomb was approximately around 1.8 x 1018 Joules or 4.3 x 105 Kilotons.

That was approximately around 17,200 regular nuclear bombs.

"Even if that guy was tough as hell, there is no way that he can survive that." Alex muttered to himselfas Alina started to make her move too.

Alex was not sure what Alina did, but he was pretty sure that Alina manipulated space in terms of quantum mechanics.

Alex could see the space around the explosion folding on itself, as if it was being slowly turned inside out, then forced to be compressed.

Alex could only look with wide eyes as he saw the space collapsing inwards, bringing the explosion and everything inside it towards the center.

It took Alina a few seconds to do it, but in the end, she managed to compress the portion of space in front of her to the size of a large ball

"F*k! The afro guy is still alive after all that we did to him?" Alex exclaimed in surprise as he saw that the afro guy was inside the space ball in front of him.

The afro guy was littered with numerous injuries, but Alex could feel that the afro guy was still alive and kicking.

Alex shook his head in mild disbelief as he gave a pleading look at Alina. "Alina, if you want to kill him, then maybe you should just make that space smaller and smaller until he gets crushed..."

"I can't compress it anymore." Alina replied as she shook her head. Sweat beaded her face, showing how strenuous the task that she did. "I can feel the afro guy resisting the space compression, and no matter what I do right now, I cannot force the space to compress anymore."

"Tsk, this guy is one tough cookie." Alex muttered as he looked at the compressed space with trepidation. "So, we are just going to trap the afro guy here?"

"We can do that, but with our current state, we can only trap him at most 3 minutes." Alina replied with a grimace. "We have a time limit, right?"

"Oh f*kity, f*kity, f*k, f*k!" Alex's eyes widened with panic as he realized that they are still doomed.

With them using the Star-Crusted Dagger, Alex and Alina will be paralyzed once the 5-minute time limit is up.

Right now, there are only 3 minutes left before the time limit runs up.

Sure, both Alex and Alina were able to trap the afro guy with their current powerup.

However, once the 3-minute time limit was up, they will be unable to trap the afro guy anymore. What's worse was that they will also be unable to defend themselves at that time.

The afro guy will surely rip Alex and Alina apart 3 minutes from now.

"What do we do?" Alina asked with panic as she did her best to contain the afro guy. "We should kill the afro guy before our last 3 minutes gets used up!"

"...Don't worry, I have a plan." Alex serenely replied as he ignored the words coming out of Asteria's filthy mouth, which sounded like she was blaming Alex and Alina for being too 'eager to win'.

Asteria's current demeanor reminded Alex of some sports fans who will curse their favorite team just because they were about to lose.

People like those were extremely hypocritical, and Alex had no time to deal with one right now.

"Woosh~" Alex did not say anything as he suddenly flew towards Lord Ergo, who was still writhing on the ground in pain.

The disguised Ricardo was beside him, saying words of comfort, probably to ease some pain.

Ricardo sensed Alex's arrival, but before he can say anything, Ricardo's face changed as he saw Alex doing something that enraged him.

"Pyak!" Alex did not act with any respect as he started to kick Lord Ergo's body. He continued kicking him for a few more times, eliciting shocked reactions from both Alina and Ricardo,

Asteria of course enjoyed what she saw, and she even cheered as each of Alex's kick landed.

Alex ignored all of these reactions as he gave the writhing Lord Ergo a level glare while saying,

"If you don't wake up now, you will lose the chance to make up with your family. Do you want to see all your loved ones gone? If you don't... then stop being an effing coward and fight it out! Don't use your current condition to stay there! Fight for your freedom! Our lives depend on it, you dumbass!"

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 51 The Trolley Problem

"What are you doing?" Alina mouthed as she watched what Alex did with disbelief.

Ricardo seems to be thinking of the same thing too, as his glare seemed to bore holes upon Alex's body.

"I am waking your sister up." Alex replied as he stopped kicking Lord Ergo. "Frankly speaking, there is no way that we can kill the afro guy with our current power. Only your sister can do it."

"What do you mean by tha- oh." Alina's eyes narrowed as she realized what Alex was hinting about. "You mean the virus, right?"

"Yes, the virus." Alex replied confidently as he resumed on kicking Lord Ergo. "As long as your sister wakes up within 3 minutes, it might be possible for her to throw the remaining of the virus towards the afro guy. Once that happens, the afro guy will be sure as dead."

"Are you sure that's your only plan?" Alina asked as she stabilized her hold of the space ball. "I could not help but feel like there is something missing here..."

"I have thought of that too." Ricardo said as he did not stop his glare at Alex. "Are you sure that what you said earlier was your only plan?"

"I am sure." Alex replied to the both of them, who were still looking at him suspiciously.

"Eh, whatever, wait for me until 3 minutes. Elizabeth is our only hope to survive, so you all should wish that she will wake up."

To Alina and Ricardo's irritation, they saw Alex setting a field around him which prevented noise from coming out.

Because of that, they were unable to hear the words that Alex said to Lord Ergo inside the silence field.

"Yo, I know that you are awake already." Alex said as he apathetically watched the writhing Lord Ergo. "Don't worry, I have already prevented the noise from coming out, so you can speak freely to me already."

At first, Alex heard nothing from Lord Ergo but the same strangled gasps and grunts.

This somewhat made Alex disappointed, as he started to suspect whether his analyses earlier were all right.

That thinking of his changed however when he heard something new.

"Ok, I am speaking to you now." Alex jolted as he heard a voice inside ringing inside his head. The voice inside his head sounded feminine and somewhat sultry.

As Alex tried to analyze this voice, he realized that this voice sounded similar to Alina's voice, albeit a little mature.

Alex's imagination wandered at this point, as he imagined a mature version of Alina talking to him with that sexy, sultry voice...

"Ow." A pinch from an infuriated Asteria was enough to snap Alex out of his daydream.

He once more looked back at Lord Ergo, who was still rolling on the floor in pain.

Alex smiled as little as he knew that the person speaking through Alex's mind was Alina's sister, Elizabeth.

"Are you talking through telepathy?" Alex muttered as he touched his forehead. "Miss Elizabeth, I thought your power is a powerful type of space manipulation. How come telepathy is included? Oh, nice acting by the way."

"I can talk to you this way as I allowed my brainwaves to propagate through space easily." Alex 'heard' Elizabeth's reply as Lord Ergo still looked like in great pain. "What you hear right now are my thoughts reaching your mind."

"As for why I am still rolling on the floor in pain, I have to act that way so that I can fool that Aleksei." Elizabeth suddenly said as her gaze towards the afro guy showed that this Aleksei and the afro guy were the same person.

But Alex did not care about this tidbit of information for now, as he had something more important to deal with.

"You mean your brainwaves are entering my feeble brain, right?" Alex said with a deadpan expression on his face. "That's... reassuring, I guess?"

Of course there is no way that Alex is feeling reassured by that.

Alex did not like the idea of someone's brainwaves just casually entering his brain. It just felt... wrong and unnatural for him.

Alex felt exposed and vulnerable as he imagined these brainwaves looking and probing for the thoughts that he stored in his mind.

Of course this is just an irrational fear, but Alex has no way to stop himself from feeling creeped out.

Given the nature of their situation, Alex decided to hide his complaints and discomforts as he sought to obtain what he wanted.

Right now, Alex only had two minutes left to convince Elizabeth on his plan.

With the contents of his plan being extremely sensitive, Alex realized that no one nearby must hear his words to Elizabeth.

"Can you just let me get straight to the point here?" Alex said with a trace of irritation in his voice, as he was vaguely aware of the ticking time. "We only have two minutes left to live, and we need your help to survive."

"Oh, so you think that I can do something to help within that two minutes?" Elizabeth's voice sounded somewhat amused and also carefree, as if she was not worried about their situation. "So what is your plan then?"

"I want you to die along with the afro guy." Alex said, thanking himself that Alina was unable to hear what he was saying. "That's what I want you to do."

Even Elizabeth was placed into stunned silence as she heard what Alex said. It took her 5 seconds to recover, and her voice naturally turned hostile.

"Are you listening to yourself?" Elizabeth replied angrily as Lord Ergo started to convulse faster. "Are you in your right mind? Did you just tell me to commit suicide so that you and my sister can save themselves? You are just delusional!"

"I am of sane mind." Alex said as he gripped his fists tightly. "But you know that you will also die later because of the virus, so there is no difference if you take the afro guy along with you..."

"..."

This is the information that Alex withheld from Alina.

Alex knew that even if the fused part of Elizabeth gets destroyed, Elizabeth will still die as she was already a part of the World Diagram.

If the World Diagram gets destroyed, then Elizabeth will get destroyed too.

Because of this outcome, Alex decided that maybe Elizabeth will be amicable to help him and Alina out.

Alex knew that what he was saying to Elizabeth was wrong, but with their current situation, this is the best thing that he can do to let him and Alina survive.

It hurt him greatly that he has to use Alina's sister so that Alina can survive, but what can Alex do about it?

Given the choice between the woman that he has feelings for, and the woman who will also die anyway, and Alex will lean more towards Alina.

"Cut your c*p!" Elizabeth cursed as she continued to throw more bad words at Alex. "Even if I will also die later, why should I hasten the process then? I can still do more things later, and I definitely would not want to include 'dying with my enemy' as part of these activities."

Alex, who was still feeling guilty of what he was doing, let out a sigh as realized that what he was saying was not enough.

If he wanted to convince Elizabeth more, then he has to say more words to her.

But Alex knew that his next words must be sharp and convincing enough to make her follow his bidding.

"Sorry Alina..." Alex thought to himself with sorrow as he tried not to look at Alina's direction. "This is the only way that we can survive, so I have no choice but to do this..."

"So you will not help your sister then?" Alex replied to Elizabeth as the look in his eyes changed. "That is what you are saying, right?"

"Oh, and now you are telling me that I will become a useless prick if I do not sacrifice myself?" Elizabeth sounded extremely offended, and she somehow had a point. "I am not a selfless person who can just sacrifice herself whenever she wanted to."

[90 seconds left]

"Yes, you are not a selfless person." Alex said as he realized that even with his guilt, he was starting to get angry and irritated with Elizabeth. "You are just a very selfish person!"

"!!!" Alex ignored Elizabeth's stunned silence as he started to pour out his rant towards her actions.

"You decisively abandoned your sister and your devoted husband, just to fuse with the World Diagram! Do you even know that what you just did is sheer abandonment? "

Alex did not like what he was saying, since these words were just too personal, but if he need to convince Elizabeth, he had to hit her where it hurts.

"And when you failed the fusion, Alina and Ricardo has to take care of you, even though their life was placed in grave danger after that. You made them suffer, you made them miserable, you... effectively destroyed their futures!"

Alex tried to make himself look as smug as possible, but deep inside, he was so angry with himself as he just wanted to knock himself unconscious.

He knew that even if his words were right, the way he used it against Elizabeth was wrong and unjust.

But what can Alex do? It's either this, or all of them dies together.

If Alex has to bear the sin of letting Elizabeth die, then he will solemnly bear it on his shoulders, if it meant that Alina will survive.

"If you really want to do what is right, then you should know what to do next." Alex said as blood dripped from his lips as he bit it too tightly.

[1 minute left]

"Elizabeth, you are about to die anyway, so can you just at least try to make your last moments useful?" Alex spat these lines calmly as he tried to not show the distress in his features.

"..."

"Ugh, I really hate doing this!" Alex thought to himself as he knew that this moment will haunt him for the rest of his life.

But if that will be the consequence of his sin, then Alex will gladly accept it.

Elizabeth went silent for another 20 seconds, which just increased Alex's tension and panic. But he kept up his confident façade as he waited for her answer.

"You might be good at pretending to be a villain, but deep down, you do not want to this, right?" Elizabeth replied, but this time her voice sounded exhausted... and resigned.

Alex averted his gaze away as he tried not to show the tears starting to pour from his face. "Why are we talking about me? It's all about you!"

"Yes, it's all about me..." Elizabeth said as she seemed to be amused by what Alex said. "The person who abandoned her family, all for the pursuit of her strength. I am really a bad person, right?"

"No, I am the bad person here!" Alex said as he could not stop himself from saying these words. "I forced you to be guilty so that you will have the motivation to sacrifice yourself... What I just did was plain wrong..."

"Yes, you are a bad person, just like me." Elizabeth replied, with a tone that Alex could not really identify. "However, you are a bad person that can stay alive and take care of my sister. As for me, I am a bad person that is about to die."

[30 seconds left]

After hearing these words, Alex let out a sigh of relief as he knew what Elizabeth's decision was.

"It was nice... meeting you. I hope that you can forgive me from the words that I just said."

"Sorry, but I will not forgive you." Elizabeth quickly replied with an angry snort "After all, you just forced me to die along with your enemy. No amount of your goodwill can change that."

"..."

"But I know that you are sincere about my sister, so I guess maybe my impression of you is a little good." Elizabeth suddenly said as Lord Ergo stopped convulsing. "Take care of my sister, ok? And as for Ricardo, tell him that I am sorry for all that I did to him."

Alex only nodded his head numbly as he tried not to look at Lord Ergo, who was slowly standing up right now.

"Oh, and you can also tell Ricardo that I know that he is gay, and that he is already free to find a boyfriend after this." Elizabeth slyly said as her voice started to fade away. "Just tell him to keep it down a notch, ok?"

"Ok." Alex said, not bothering to be shocked by what Alina just said. He was more focused on stabilizing his emotions, as he tried to not show the distress on his face.

"Wow, I thought that you are a goody two-shoes." Asteria as she managed to overhear the mental conversation between Alex and Elizabeth. "I never realized that you can actually do something like this..."

Alex had no reply to that, as he knew that Asteria was right.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 52 The First Supper

"I had this coming for years..." Elizabeth thought to herself as she approached Alina, who was still doing her best to contain Aleksei.

Elizabeth could not help but feel proud as she saw what her sister had accomplished.

But she also felt shame as she remembered that is was her own fault that Alina became like this.

"I took a risk, and I failed big time. I really am an idiot." Elizabeth thought to herself as she looked back at Alex, who still looked uncomfortable. Elizabeth tried to not frown as she did her best to not glare at Alex.

Even though Elizabeth had already come to terms with her death, she still could not help but feel angry towards Alex.

After all, this guy is the one who bluntly told her to kill herself along with Aleksei.

"Sis!"

"Wifey!"

Elizabeth's reverie was broken when she heard Alina and Ricardo calling out to her, with both of their faces looking extremely happy.

"Ugh..." Elizabeth felt more pain and guilt as she saw their expressions. It was hard for her to face them right now, after all the pain that she had caused them.

Even just the mere act of looking at Alina was already enough to make Elizabeth choke in grief. As for Ricardo, Elizabeth still had some mixed feelings for him, but she still felt guilty for making him miserable for a long time.

"..."

With her death approaching her quickly, Elizabeth knew that she had no way to ask for Alina and Ricardo's forgiveness right now.

Talking to them for a longer time will just make things worse, especially with a time limit ticking down on them.

The best that Elizabeth can do is to say her goodbyes to them.

"I'm back, Alina." Elizabeth said as she felt more of her mind being slowly corroded by the virus. "Have you been well all this time?"

"Muuu... Sis... Waahh!!!" Alina's face started to turn red as tears started to fall down to her chin.

"My, my. You are still as adorable as always." Elizabeth said, not looking surprised to see Alina crying in front of her.

To Elizabeth, Alina was always her adorable little sister who will come crying to her when she needs her help.

"Hush, hush. Don't cry now. Big sister is already healed, ok?" Elizabeth said as she slowly hugged Alina. "Everything will be fine now."

"Weally?" Alina replied blearily as she wiped away the tears on her face. "You have a way to defeat the afwo guy?"

"I have a way to defeat him." Elizabeth replied firmly as she tried to hide the sadness on her face. "Leave everything to big sister, ok?'

"Ok, sis." That was the last thing that Alina could say as the paralysis took over her body, rendering her unable to move at all.

Alina already reached the time limit for her power-up, thus her paralysis.

But even though Alina was paralyzed, her mind can still work, which allowed her to talk to Elizabeth through their brainwaves.

This led to a private, telepathic conversation between the two sisters.

"Sis, can you tell me what you are about to do?" Alina mentally inquired as she and Elizabeth saw the space ball slowly decompressing in front of them.

Even with Alina's powerup gone, some traces of her power were still placed one the space ball, meaning that there are still some seconds left before Aleksei can get out.

From the looks of it, there are still 30 seconds before the whole ball disappears, which meant that there are still 30 seconds before Aleksei could come out.

Elizabeth ignored the thumping sounds coming out from the space ball as she replied to her mental conversation with Alina.

"I cannot tell you the answer to that. Just trust me, ok?" Elizabeth said as she brushed off some of Alina's stray hair. "Hmmm... you really have grown to be quite a beauty. I am sure Alex enjoys your 'company' way too much."

Even when she was paralyzed, Alina's blush was still enough to make Elizabeth delighted.

However, that blush disappeared, as Alina's face suddenly turned pale, as if she suddenly realized something horrendous.

Elizabeth felt her blood running cold as she saw the pale look on Alina's face. Alina will only look like this if she discovered something horrifying to her.

In their current situation, the only horrifying thing that Alina could discover is..."

"Sis, ar-ar-are you sacrificing yourself?" Alina stutteringly asked in their mental conversation, with Elizabeth feeling the fear and disbelief in Alina's words. "Sis, tell me that you are not doing that!"

"..."

"Sis!" This time, Alina's words were laced with panic, as she seemed to have realized that her guess was right. "Sis, no!"

"I'm sorry Alina, but this is the best that I can do..." Elizabeth said as tears poured out of her eyes.

It obstructed her vision, but Elizabeth did not care.

She's here to say her farewell to Alina, and she will not botch it up.

"I am doomed to die already." Elizabeth hurriedly said as she saw Alina's face turning more and more pale. "There is no way for me to live through this."

"My mind... it has fused so tightly with the World Diagram, so tight that any damage done to the World Diagram will also damage me too." Elizabeth said as she wiped her own tears away. "Once the virus eats up all parts of the World Diagram that was fused with me, I will immediately die."

"No..." Alina sounded so lost and so grief-stricken right now. Elizabeth tried her best to be not rattled by her emotions as she continued talking.

"Alina, there is nothing that you can do right now to let me survive... I only have 5 minutes left to live... If I do nothing, I will die and you will die too. But if I make a move right now, I will be the only one dead. You and your boyfie will survive. That... is the most logical way to win."

"F*k logic! I want you to stay, Sis!" Alina replied with fear and anger present in her words. "We can still do something to help you! We can-"

"Shush..." Elizabeth said as she shook her head while wearing a serene expression on her face. "I have made up my mind already. There is no way for you to stop me now. Just lay down on your bed, and let me do my job, ok?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"I hate you Sis!" Alina finally said as her body trembled involuntarily. Alina did not waste her time as she decisively cut off her mental connection with Elizabeth. "I hate you Sis!"

Even though Alina explicitly said showed her 'anger' to her sister, Elizabeth could see that Alina was still lying to herself.

Alina will still love Elizabeth, no matter what happens. That fact is just an undisputable as the Physics Laws.

But Elizabeth chose to not point that out, as she realized that this is better than Alina pleading her to not leave.

"Yes, you should hate me. After all, I have been a bad sister to you." Elizabeth muttered to herself as she endured the extreme sadness and grief that is tearing her apart right now.

"Ricardo, I am sorry, but this is the last time that we will see each other." Elizabeth said as she gave an apologetic smile to her husband. "Find a good boyfriend, ok?"

Elizabeth did not wait for Ricardo's reply as she snapped her fingers, triggering her Strong Space Manipulation.

Using her space manipulation, she teleported Alex, Alina, Ricardo, Lord Gallius, and Clint away from her location.

All of these people were teleported right inside Clint's house, where his wife and children were all waiting.

Elizabeth did not pry on what happened to them next as she focused her gaze on the space ball.

Elizabeth could sense Aleksei slowly coming out of the space ball, with his glowing body shining everywhere.

"Here we go, viva amiga." Elizabeth muttered to herself as she flew towards the shocked Aleksei, whose half of his body was still trapped in the space ball.

"Boop."

Their collision, which signified the future of the Esper World, did not produce anything significant at all, not even a tiny explosion.

"Release me, you b*ch!" This is the third time that Elizabeth heard Aleksei cursing out to her in a span of just a second. "You don't know what you are doing!"

"You think I do not know what I am doing?" Eliabeth scoffed as she stared at livid Aleksei. "I am saving the world!"

"Saving the world my ass!" Alesksei replied angrily as he glared at Elizabeth murderously. "Get out of my mind!"

"Sorry, but I cannot do that." Elizabeth replied as she shook her head. "We are now both infected by the virus, so even if I left, you will still die."

"!!!"

Because both Elizabeth and Aleksei were able to fuse with the World Diagram, Elizabeth was able to use this connection to infiltrate Aleksei's mind.

With her fearless attitude, Elizabeth decided to spend the last moments of her life here, inside the mind of her fated enemy.

Once inside his mind, Elizabeth immediately deployed some of the virus eating her body towards Aleksei.

Even if Aleksei fused with the Durability Property of the World Diagram, in the end, it is still a program, something that Alex's computer virus can destroy.

"Nooo!!!" Aleksei seemed to have realized what happened to him, as he started to clutch his head in agony. His eyes went wide with anger and defeat as he knew that it was also the end for him too.

"I can't die here!" Aleksei roared as he glared at Elizabeth. "I still have to revive Victoria!"

"Hmm?" After hearing this, Elizabeth tilted her head as she scoured Aleksei's mind for anything related about Victoria.

With Elizabeth inside Aleksei's mind, Elizabeth was able to literally see all of Aleksei's memories about Victoria.

After seeing these memories, Elizabeth naturally did what a rule-breaker like her will do.

She did some unconsented memory viewing.

Elizabeth watched with fascination as she saw a thin, wiry man walking across a park with a beautiful woman.

Both of them looked happy, with the wiry man's afro hair swaying happily in the air. The woman wore a dazzling smile on her face as she playfully tugged the wiry man's sleeves.

"This guy is Aleksei from the past..." Elizabeth muttered to herself as she continued on watching the memories.

Aleksei saw what Elizabeth was doing, but he made no effort to stop her.

"..."

Elizabeth saw Aleksei and the woman falling in love with each other, every time they were together.

"..."

Elizabeth could see every hug, touch, kiss and smile that decorated the face of the two lovers.

"..."

Elizabeth's face soured as she saw that these romantic memories seemed to be nonstop.

"When will all these fluffy stuff stop?" Elizabeth thought as she felt her head starting to ache. "Don't tell me that all the memories will be like this?"

Fortunately for her she was wrong, as the tone of what she was watching drastically changed.

The scene where Aleksei and his lover were sharing a picnic suddenly shifted, as it now showed the bloodstained body of Aleksei's lover.

The woman's body looked extremely mutilated, and it looked like she had no hope of surviving.

"My love Victoria... She tried to experiment on making a portal that will allow Star Espers like us to transcend... but it backfired horribly, bringing Victoria to that state." Aleksei muttered as he watched alongside Elizabeth. His voice was hollow, showing how fragile he is right now.

Elizabeth then watched as the past Aleksei placed the dying Victoria inside a human-shaped capsule that kept her condition stable. But even with these actions, Victoria seemed to be inching closer and closer to death.

"Even with the advanced technology that we have, my love is still dying." Aleksei said as he let out a deprecating smile. "So, left without any options, I decided to fuse my wife with a little portion of the World Diagram Fragment that is with me, just the part that is enough to keep her alive. As for me, I fused with the remaining portion of the World Diagram Fragment."

At that point, Elizabeth decided to stop watching the memories anymore as she knew what exactly happened next.

Elizabeth did not hold back the venom in her words as she said, "After you did those things, you must have thought that gaining the World Diagram Fragment from me will be enough to heal your wife. But because of my power, you have no way to snatch the fragment from me. It was only earlier that you had the first real chance to take it. But unfortunately for you, you still failed."

"Yes, I failed..." Aleksie replied as he let out a shuddering cough.

By this point, Elizabeth realized that most of her and Aleksei's body were already infected by the virus. Just a little more wait and they will be gone.

Elizabeth can just stand there and wait for her demise, but after seeing the extremely forlorn look on Aleksei's face, Elizabeth decided to give this man a little leeway.

"You fused with the World Diagram to save your love, while I abandoned my love to fuse with the World Diagram. Clearly, it shows that you are a better person than me." Elizabeth said as she tried to salvage the remains of the World Diagram fused with her. "Even if you committed countless sins, I think that you still deserve to see your love one more time."

"What are you-" Aleksei's words were cut off as Elizabeth let out a yell, collecting most of the remains of the World Diagram inside her. She then threw these fragments towards the human capsule containing the body of Veronica.

"~~~"

Elizabeth crossed her fingers, as she wished that her gamble succeeded. If not, then she had to endure leaving this world with a mopey guy.

Fortunately, Elizabeth and Aleksei did no have to wait that long as another figure appeared inside Aleksei's mind.

This time, the figure who arrived did not look as fierce as Elizabeth or as forlorn as Aleksei. The new arrival looked calm and serene, as if nothing can faze it.

"My love!" Aleksei looked stunned as he saw that the new arrival was Victoria, the same woman that he has pledged to save. "How-"

"I collected some of the remaining parts of the World Diagram inside me, and then I fused it with Victoria." Elizabeth said as she guessed Aleksei's question. "This allowed your love to regain her consciousness, and it also allowed her to access your mind. However, her time is limited too, just like us. So right now, you two can- oh come on, we don't have much time left!"

Elizabeth's complaints went unheard as Aleksei and Victoria hugged each other tightly, with Aleksei crying in relief and happiness. Good thing this happened inside his mind, or things would have been messy.

"Even here you are still a crybaby? Really Lexy, when will you man up?" Victoria teasingly said as she stroked Aleksei's back.

"For you my love, I will always be the same." Aleksei replied as he sniffed Victoria's hair. "Hm, you are still as fragrant as before, my love."

"Oh just keep on sniffing, or I will give you a good beating later." Victoria said as she bopped Aleksei's head. It was then that she saw Elizabeth staring awkwardly at them.

"You are the one who woke me up, right? I thank you for what you did." Victoria said as she gave a slight bow towards Elizabeth. "You should know that this means a lot to my husband."

"Yeah, yeah, you're welcome." Elizabeth nonchalantly said as she looked all around her.

Because of the extensive damage of the virus, everything inside Aleksei's mind was starting to break down.

All the panels and structures around Elizabeth started to crumble, representing the destruction of Aleksei's mind.

Not only that, but Elizabeth can also see her projection starting to disintegrate, just like Aleksei's and Victoria's.

Aleksei seems to have not noticed what was happening to him as his gaze was only centered on his lover.

"My love, I am sure that you are hungry already." Aleksei said as his legs started to disappear. "I have been saving up this recipe that you will surely like. Hell, I can cook it for you now!"

"Oh, now that makes me hungry." Victoria replied as her legs disappeared too. "Maybe we can let Elizabeth join us?"

"Oh, are you inviting me for dinner? I would love that?" By this point, half of Elizabeth's body was already gone, with them consumed by the virus already.

"Hmph, I don't really like you at all, but since Victoria invited you, then I will allow you to eat with us." Aleksei said with most of his body gone. At this point it was only his head that remained. "You better behave!"

"Don't worry Aleksei, Elizabeth is a civilized person, so I think that she will do fine." Victoria replied as she placed her forehead near Aleksei's. This is the only thing that she could do, as it was only her head that was also left.

"It's all settled then!" Elizabeth declared as she let out a sad smile. "Let's attend our first supper together!"

"Hear hear!"

"Aleksei, stop saying things like that! It's embarassi-"

Their conversation stopped at that point as all three of them disappeared into nothingness. With all their traces gone, what was only left was a sad sigh which echoed upon the empty landscape.

[Main Mission Accomplished]

[Bonus Mission Accomplished]

[Grade: S]

--END OF VOLUME 1 --

Chapter 53 Volume 1 Epilogue

"Sigh." This is not the first time that Clint sighed today, and it definitely will not be the last one either.

"These past days have been hectic..." Clint muttered to himself as he wiped off some sweat off his forehead.

His clothes were unkempt, his hair disheveled, and his eyes were drooping, showing the exhaustion that he is feeling right now.

"Sigh, I want to rest now..."

Five days have already passed by since the confrontation between Alex and Aleksei.

Nobody in the Esper World knew that a fight between the two had happened, but everyone felt its repercussions.

The literal sky above the Esper World shattered, as it was replaced by a mesh of nets covering the whole world.

This is the real sky of the Esper World, finally revealed after being concealed by the World Diagram for a long time.

Everyone who saw the new sky panicked, as they realized that something massive happened in the Esper World.

To make matters worse, everything managed by the World Diagram here in the Esper World all collapsed, as if their strings were all cut.

It took Clint and his colleagues several days to fix all of the troubles caused by this collapse.

"That damn brat!" That is what all Clint could think of as he toiled away on fixing all the troubles around him. "I know that Alex wanted to help us, but does he really need to make it this hard?"

Being the former second strongest Esper, Clint naturally knew about the truth of the World Diagram, but he did not dare to make a move against it because of his personal life and the fact that a part of the World Diagram was held by his friend and rival Elizabeth.

He only had the courage to rebel 5 days ago as he had been spurned by Alex to make an action.

Clint did not regret his actions one bit, but he still felt angry from the fact that he did not manage to beat up Aleksei, and that he has to fix all the fall-out caused by the disappearance of the World Diagram.

But what's done is done, and all that Clint can do right now is to go with the flow.

"Rest in Peace, Elizabeth." Clint muttered to himself as he finished his work for today.

Even if Clint did not see what happened 5 days ago, he was sure that both Elizabeth and Aleksei died at the same time, as that was the only explanation of the sudden disappearance of the World Diagram.

Of course Clint could have just asked Alex, but he and Alina were already gone before he could ask them.

"Where could those two have gone to?" Clint thought with irritation as he massaged his knuckles. "Alex, make sure that I won't catch you in the future! If I see you even just one time, expect me to beat you up!"

According to his wife Natalia, 2 minutes just after Alex and the others were teleported right to their house, Alex and Alina were suddenly covered by a golden glow and before his wife could do anything, both Alex and Alina disappeared entirely.

Even when Clint used his senses to look for them, he did not find those two.

"Could they have transcended already?"

This theory could be viable, as with the disappearance of the World Diagram, every Star Esper here in the Esper World felt their restrictions disappearing, which meant that they can all now transcend to the Real World.

Of course Clint could have transcended too, but he had too much to do here in the Esper World, as he had to still deal with numerous problems caused by the disappearance of the World Diagram.

"Tsk, but those two are not Star Espers yet, so it is pretty impossible for them to transcend." Clint muttered to himself as he fixed his things. "But knowing Alex, I am sure that he has some bulls*t stuff that can allow him and Alina to transcend..."

Clint then went silent for a few seconds, as if he was trying to comprehend a universal truth.

His eye then flashed as an excited smile appeared on his face.

"Then I guess it's decided then!" Clint eyes narrowed with determination as he decided his next course of actions.

"Once I dealt with all of the problems here in the Esper World, I will use my power to transcend to the Real World along with my family. Once I reach that place, I will use my power to establish a new gang! And once I become a powerhouse in the Real World, I will look for you, Alex! Hehehe, prepare yourself Alex, we will have a lot to talk about once we see each other..."

Clint then proceeded to laugh like a creep as he left his workroom. He fixed his attire as he walked towards his house with a skip in his step.

He could not wait to taste the dinner that his wife cooked for him, although Clint was sure that electric eel will still be a part of their meal.

"Sigh, when can my wife learn to cook a normal meal?" Even though Clint sounded he was complaining, the smile on his face showed his contentment.

"Eh whatever, I'll just tell Natalia that her dish tastes good."

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 54 Volume 2 Prologue

"She is our Beginning, and She is our End. Our life came from Her, and we shall claim life for Her. She is the sole heir to this world, and we shall give it to Her. Everything is for the Queen Mother... All hail Queen Mother!"

The shadowy figure, partially hidden amongst the trees, muttered these words like a prayer as its eyes scanned a clearing in front of it.

Although the shadowy figure was tired of saying these words already, it knew that these words were something essential that it must say.

After all, what it was about to do right now was an important mission that every children of the Queen Mother must do.

In front of the shadowy figure was an assortment of tents, all set and constructed inside the clearing.

The shadowy figure has to rely on its senses to see, as it was currently nighttime. This condition did not disadvantage the shadowy figure at all, as it was during nighttime that it becomes the most dangerous.

With its enhanced senses, the shadowy figure was able to identify presence of humans inside the tents.

30 Adult Males, 15 Adult Females, 10 Elderly and 40 Children.

The shadowy figure resisted the urge to just rush in and kill all of these people in an instant, as it was not allowed to do so for now. It was very tempting though, as the shadowy figure found it hard to forget the feeling of a person being dissected by its sharp shadow blades.

Right now, the shadowy figure will not kill. Killing is only reserved for the blasphemers who dare to fight back against the Queen Mother.

Tonight, the shadowy figure will welcome its new siblings.

"Slosh." The shadowy figure gingerly held a glass vial in its distorted hands, as it took care to not let it fall to the ground.

This vial was incredibly precious, so precious that the shadowy figure heard some rumors from its siblings that it cost the life of a Great Elderitch to create the contents of the vial.

That was enough to make the shadowy figure vigilant, as anything that requires the life of a Great Elderitch were surely valuable.

With its talent for stealth, the shadowy figure was able to slowly approach the clearing without alerting any of the guards, who looked extremely sleepy to even guard at all.

The shadowy figure then paused in its tracks as it psyched itself up for its next actions

.

The shadowy figure knew that once it makes its actions, all hell will break loose. Many unexpected things might happen, and the shadowy figure knew that it must be prepared to take these things on.

The shadowy figure swore to itself that it will do its best to stop any human that will interfere with the birth of its new siblings.

And even if the shadowy figure has to sacrifice its own life to stop these pesky humans, then it will gladly do so.

After all, the life of the shadowy figure is insignificant compared to its possible new siblings, who might be of better use for the Queen Mother.

"Mama, I want some cookies!" Even if it was already night, the shadowy figure could still hear a rowdy child raising her voice towards her mother.

The shadowy figure scoffed after hearing this as its view of the humans just went lower.

Unlike the pesky, irritating human children who do not respect their parents, all the children of the Queen Mother adore her. There are no way that they will rebel towards Queen Mother as She is their reason to live.

Even the shadow figure, already in its adult stage, was still loyal to the Queen Mother.

"Woosh~" The shadowy figure, after a second of waiting, decided to not prolong its wait any longer.

Its body transformed into shadows, which trailed across the ground.

This form gave the shadowy figure its maximum speed, as it allowed the shadowy figure to reach the middle of the clearing in an instant.

Before any of the sleep-deprived guards could react, the shadowy figure had already shattered the vial that it held in its hands.

"Crash!"

A noxious-looking gas came out of the shattered vial, which started to spread throughout the whole clearing. Every human in the clearing were all covered by this gas.

By the time that the whole clearing was full of the gas, the shadowy figure was already outside the clearing, waiting for any possible intruders.

To the shadowy figure's relief, nobody approached the clearing even after it waited for 10 minutes.

It seems like the shadowy figure's decision to choose a secluded nomadic village in the mountains as the breeding ground was right.

Now that 10 minutes have already passed by, the shadowy figure reckoned that its already time for the birth of its new siblings.

"..."

"Argh!!!!"

The screams of pain that the shadowy figure heard from the village heralded the start of the birthing process.

It was a well-known fact among its siblings that the Queen Mother has no way to naturally produce Her own children.

All of Queen Mother's current children were all born artificially.

"..."

The shadowy figure resisted the urge to enter the clearing as it knew that the effects of the vial were not yet done.

From what the shadowy figure knew, the gas inside the vial has a low chance to turn any human into Queen Mother's new children.

In human terms, the gas in the vial has a low chance to turn humans into 'MONSTERS'.

The shadowy figure hated this term, as in its opinion, humans were worse monsters than itself and its siblings.

Humans were all greedy and selfish, while all the children of the Queen Mother were all cooperative and sharing.

Just one look at that was enough to show the superior group.

The screams of pain continued to last for another half an hour before it died out.

Once the shadowy figure confirmed that there are no more traces of gas left, it entered the clearing to look for its new siblings.

To the irritation of the shadowy figure, only five humans survived the transformation.

Because of the potency of the gas, most humans die before they could even transform. Only a select few gets to survive to witness their new form.

The shadowy figure finds this to be quite a pity, as it knew that it will be better if all the humans will be the children of Queen Mother.

"Waaa!!!!"

The shadowy figure's reverie was broken as it heard a cry echoing throughout the whole clearing.

The shadowy figure vaguely recognized that the one crying was one of its newest siblings, who turns out to be the irritating human child that asked for some cookies earlier.

As for the remaining 4 humans, the shadowy figure realized that they were all human kids too.

"Useless." The shadowy figure muttered to itself as it decided to just leave the transformed human kids in the clearing.

In the shadowy figure's opinion, transformed human kids were all weak and useless, and they do not deserve to get treated as children of the Queen Mother.

If it was adults or even elderly that transformed, then it will be fine.

But children? There is no way the shadowy figure will bring their kind with it.

Not bringing the transformed human kids might be a waste considering the value of the gas vial, but the shadowy figure knew that this is better compared to actually allowing some weaklings to be Queen Mother's newest children.

"Waaa!!!"

The shadowy figure ignored the cries of its newest siblings as it left the clearing, melding back into the darkness of the night.

The shadowy figure never once looked back.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 55 That"s a lot of Fores

"I'm still alive but barely moving." Alex thought idly to himself as his mouth refused to open for him. "Scratch that, I can't move at all."

Right now, Alex found himself back at the post-paralysis state which followed the aftermath of his use of the Star-Crusted Dagger.

Just like what happened before, Alex's body was once again paralyzed, and he was sure that even Alina was also paralyzed too.

Not only that, but he could also barely use his Esper Power too, which should be the same case for Alina.

Maybe this was the effect of using the Star-Crusted Dagger while having a Power Synthesis with Alina.

Speaking of Alina...

"Oh s*t, Alina just witnessed her sister sacrificing herself earlier! Instead of lying down here like a lazy kid watching YourTube, I should be comforting her now!"

But to Alex's chagrin, he had no way to comfort Alina, as he was unable to move at all.

And this state of his will stay this way for 12 more hours.

"..."

Since he knew that moving won't do any good, Alex decided to scout his surroundings with his limited vision.

Alex used his eyeballs to look around him, and he realized that he and Alina were inside a forest.

Alex could somewhat see numerous amount of trees around him and Alina, with the trees towering so high that sunlight could barely trickle in.

Alex could also smell the decayed leaves, musky trunks, and moldy air, indicating that he and Alina were really inside a forest.

Seeing himself in a place like this should make Alex happy right now, but he was not, since his current state was not that good.

"... I really hate the Endless Monarch." Alex thought to himself as he remembered what happened earlier.

3 minutes earlier.

After Elizabeth has explained to Alina her plan to die, she teleported Alina, Alex, Ricardo, Lord Gallius, and his master Clint away from their location.

The next thing that Alex knew was that he's back at Clint's house with the others.

At this point, Alex was already paralyzed along with Alina, so they were unable to voice out any words that they wanted to say.

"Oh no! What the hell happened here! Clive, get the medicine kit! Your father and this smug-looking guy needs some first aid!"

"Roger mom!"

Alex could clearly hear countless worried voices, which obviously came from Clint's family. They sounded a little shaken with what they saw, but Alex could feel that they were strong enough to

stomach the current scenario.

At the corner of his eyes, Alex could see Natasha, Natalia, and Clive doing their best to attend to Clint and Lord Gallius. Ricardo, who still looked slightly dazed from what happened, stood beside Natalia as he helped them.

As for Alex and Alina, they seemed to have been ignored first as they looked fine.

"..."

At that time, Alex thought that he and Alina will have to spend 12 hours inside Clint's house before he and Alina sets out to the new world.

But after just 3 minutes of waiting, Alex suddenly saw that his own body was covered by a glow which looked suspicious to him.

"Don't tell me..."

Alex strained the rotation of his eyeballs in order to look at Alina beside him.

"No f*king way." To his utter surprise, Alex saw that Alina was also covered by the same glow as him.

Aside from Alex, every other conscious occupant in the room saw what was happening, and their shouts of panic confirmed that they were also worried about the glow covering Alex and Alina.

"..."

It did not take Alex that long to realize what was about to happen next.

"What the hell? Why are both of us leaving now?" Alex thought to himself furiously as he managed to glare at Asteria, who was floating just right above him. "Isn't this too fast?"

Because Alex was paralyzed, he was not able to voice out any of his resentments to Asteria.

However, Asteria seems to have realized what Alex was thinking of, as she looked at Alex and Alina while saying,

"Main Mission Completed. Bonus Mission Completed. Mission Grade: S." Asteria's cheeky grin did not leave her face as she continued on talking.

"With the Traveler Alex and his Companion Alina completing the mission in this world, the Endless Monarch had deemed that Traveler Alex and his Companion Alina will now be heading to their next world." The glow intensified after the small fairy said these words.

"Hehehe, isn't this fun?" Asteria said as she saw the hidden distress on Alex's and Alina's faces. "We will be on our trip now to the next world! It's time to see new sights and find new babes! Oops, forget the last line, making a harem will only depend on the Traveler's desires..."

Alex tried to ignore Asteria's raucous laughter as he felt his body being brought away by the same power that brought him into this world.

At the corner of his eyes, Alex could see Alina being brought away too.

As for Asteria, she still looked the same, although Alex could feel that Asteria will just ride along with them.

"Let's go now!" Asteria shamelessly said as she rode Alex like a broom.

"To eternity and beyond!"

Alex tried not to cringe after hearing this.

Fortunately for him, his paralyzed body was able to hide his cringe.

Back to the present time.

While Alex was busy on cursing the Endless Monarch, he could see Asteria playing with Alina's body.

Of course, not that kind of 'play'.

What Alex could see was Asteria using Alina's body as a sort of mini-playground.

There's nothing dirty with this, as Asteria mainly focused on Alina's arms and legs.

Alex could see Asteria jumping up and down on Alina's arms and legs like a silky and fragrant trampoline. Aside from this, Asteria also occasionally tickled the paralyzed Alina.

Well, Alex was slightly incensed that Asteria was out there touching Alina's leg, but Alex could take it, as he saw that what Asteria was doing seems to be helping Alina out.

In Alex's opinion, Asteria was doing her best to act like a cute pet comforting her owner Alina.

It seems to be working as the sad pallor on Alina's face was slowly disappearing, with it being replaced by a healthy glow.

Hell, if Alina could move right now, she will be surely smiling.

"But even if Asteria managed to cheer Alina up a little, it will still be inevitable for Alina to be extremely lonely." Alex thought to himself as guilt stabbed his heart once more.

"F*k, I cannot just let Alina stay this sad!" Alex angrily thought to himself as he tried to think of ways to cheer Alina up.

"Well, I can cook her some good food later once we are able to move..." Alex inwardly nodded in this idea, as he knew that Alina loves eating delicious foods. This could be enough to cheer her up more.

"But since I am paralyzed, I still have to wait for half a day before I can cook something." Alex thought to himself as he imagined the dishes that he can cook later.

"Awoo!!!"

Alex's musings however were broken as he heard this ghastly howl echoing around him.

"Oh no, how could I have forgotten about this?" Alex's pupils narrowed in fear as he just remembered something important.

Because of his paralysis, Alex will be unable to defend himself from anything that will attack him within 12 hours! Alina will be also defenseless because of her paralysis.

This means that Alex and Alina will be easily killed right now by anything that will try to kill them!

As for Asteria, Alex already knew that this fairy won't be able to do s*t in close combat. She's better for infiltration and information gathering.

"Oh no, will we be just another food chow here in this new world?" Alex thought with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Come on, we just arrived here in the new world, and we are already in danger?"

Alex tried his best to move, but the best that he can do was nothing. Only slight groans came out of his mouth, signifying his futile effort to move.

"F*k!!!" Alex was about to hyperventilate in fear when suddenly, Asteria's soothing voice washed over him.

"Don't worry Alex, this place where all three of us landed in is entirely safe. "Asteria said as Alex and even Alina felt their eyelids starting to close.

"Nobody will be able to attack you two in this place, so you two should not be worried. So, instead of being like this, I guess you two should take a sleep first. After all, you two need some rest too, with all the crazy stuff that you did."

"Ngrh..." Alex tried his best to say something, which also failed miserably.

"Tsk, I don't understand what you are saying, but I can see what you want to do." Asteria muttered as she flitted towards Alex's left hand.

Asteria placed her hands under Alex's left hand as if she was holding a weight, and after a few seconds of waiting, Asteria flew up, lifting Alex's hand high up in the air.

"Ugh, why is your hand so heavy!" Asteria complained as she started to pant. "F*k Alex, you owe me 10 jars of honey after this!"

Alex was not sure what Asteria did to his left hand, but 10 seconds later, he felt his left hand slowly descending until it touched something warm.

Alex started to feel an electric tingle crossing his body, as if what he just touched greatly stimulated him.

"Yosh, 'Operation Holding Hands' is a success!" Asteria said as she flew back above Alex's face. "Hehehe Alex, how do you like that? You and Alina are holding hands now! Aren't I a good wingman?"

"Wingman your ass!" Alex thought to himself as he failed to hide his blush.

He could feel Alina's silky fingers intertwined with his, and Alex could not help but feel excited with this minimum skin contact.

"Aww..." Asteria let out a satisfied mewl as if she saw something that satisfied her. "Both of you are blushing like tomatoes right now! Are you two this innocent? Tsk, and I thought Alex will be a lady-killer..."

"Shut your mouth, old hag." Alex thought sourly to himself as he felt his drowsiness overcoming him.

"Asteria, I swear that I will make you pay for all of this later..." Alex swore to himself as his vision was covered by darkness.

"So sleepy..."

But before Alex could sink to his sleepyland, he tried to reaffirm the sensation of his hands touching with Alina's.

It felt warm and good, something that Alex looked forward to feel later once he wakes up.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 56 Law-Ability Interaction

"You told my sister to sacrifice herself, right?" This is the first sentence that Alina said as she and Alex woke up free from their paralysis. "Don't try lying to me... I can detect if you falsify your answer."

"..." Alex, who was about to open his mouth to answer back, closed it as he realized excuses won't work against Alina anymore.

Seeing the cold look on Alina's face, Alex realized that he had no way out now.

"I do not know if you can forgive me, but I have no choice at that time." Alex said as he kowtowed in front of Alina. "I know that what I did at that time will hurt you, but that is the best choice that I can make at that time..."

Alex kept his head bowed, as he did not dare to say anything after that.

What Alina will do to Alex now will all depend on her.

"I can forgive you, because I know that what you did is the best thing to do at that time." Alina said after a minute of silence. "However, I am still angry at you, and you kowtowing in front of me will not remove my anger."

"I understand if you are still angry at me." Alex replied as he kowtowed his head lower. "After all, what I did is something that is morally gray and ambiguous."

"Hmph, don't think that you are lucky right now." Alina said as she removed the mask from her face. "You still have to pay for making me cry earlier."

"Of course, of course." Alex hastily replied as he kept his head down. "I'll do anything to satisfy you, Alina."

"..."

"I am lucky that she is with me..." Alex thought to himself with bliss as he thanked his lucky stars that Alina was a kind and gentle person.

However, that thinking of his was gone at the next moment as Alina said,

"Since I am angry at you, then you should be punished, a lot."

"Punished?" Alex started to unknowingly tremble as he looked at Alina with panic.

"What?" Alina's face was replaced with a cold look, as if she was looking at dirt.

"Hehehehe, Alex will be punished by his hooman girl!"

Perched at Alina's shoulders was Asteria, who was laughing at Alex with glee.

It did not take Alex that long to realize what happened.

"You set me up!" Alex shouted as he pointed his fingers at Asteria. "You dumb fairy, what corrupting words did you say to Alina huh?"

"Corrupting words? I think enlightening words is the better term." Alina interjected as she petted Asteria's head. "Asteria just told me that sometimes, naughty boys must be punished to make them behave. You, you are one of them now."

Alex shuddered as he envisioned Alina and Asteria wearing skimpy clothes while holding a whip in their hands.

That vision was both terrifying and enchanting, that Alex was not sure if being punished was really that bad.

"Hey, it's not that kind of punishment!" Asteria's face suddenly turned red, as if she was able to read what Alex had imagined. "You... you actually are a pervert!"

"He's always a pervert." Asterias said as she flopped down on Asteria's shoulder. "You just managed to notice it now."

"Oh great..."

Alex's first punishment was just simple.

He has to gather food for Alina and honey for Asteria inside the forest around them.

When Alex heard that this was his punishment, he scoffed a little as he realized that it will be just easy for him to find food.

After all, he was not paralyzed anymore, and he can use his Esper Ability to hunt food.

But when Alex tried testing out his Esper Ability, he found out something that made him go livid.

"What the hell?" Alex tried manipulating the light waves around him, but to his chagrin, he found out that his pull against them was weak!

Before, Alex can gather 1,000 streams of light waves around him in just a second.

But right now, Alex can only gather 1 stream of light wave in the same amount of time!

Alex tried to do the same manipulation with other EM Waves, and he found out that they were all weakened too!

At that point Alex started to panic, so he tried to see if his Mental Power was damaged too.

To Alex's relief and confusion, he saw that his Range was still 150 meters.

"What is happening here?" Alex muttered to himself as he realized something is wrong with his Esper Ability.

He looked at Alina as he told her what happened to him.

"Interesting." Alina said as she flicked her swords around. "I still have Mental Power of Tier 999, but the effects of my Esper Ability have been reduced by 1,000 times, just like what happened to you..."

"..." Alex's eyes narrowed as he realized that both him and Alina were affected by something that weakened their Esper Abilities.

By their own, Alex and Alina would not easily find out the reason on that mystery, but there is someone nearby who can help them out.

"Oi dumb fairy." Alex said as he glared at Asteria, who was laying down on Alina's lap. "Care to explain to us what happened with our Esper Abilities?"

"Oh, that?" Asteria let out a yawn, as if she was saying that Alina's lap was a comfortable place to sleep in. "Your Esper Abilities are weakened here because the Laws in this World somewhat weakens your abilities."

"Weaken?" Alex did not like this word one bit. "Elaborate, and I will add 2 more jars of honey for you later."

Now this made the sleepy Asteria excited. Her small body perked as she floated in the air, with the usual cheeky grin on her face.

"Listen here, you two hoomans." Asteria said as she started to sound like a teacher. "Different Worlds have different Laws that dictate how these Worlds will operate. These Laws also regulate the Abilities that can be used in these Worlds."

Alex nodded his head, as he understood what Asteria was pertaining to. Each World must have something that will let them operate, and these Laws seems to be the one doing these operations. For these Laws to govern even the power used in different Worlds seems to be a good explanation too.

Alina had her eyes narrowed in concentration, as she was obviously contemplating what Asteria was talking about.

"Now, what do you think will happen if someone from a different World comes to a new World?" Asteria said as she tilted her head. "Well obviously, that person will be affected by the Laws of the new world, and that person's abilities will be affected too."

Alex's eyes flashed as he got what Asteria was pertaining to.

"Perhaps, you are saying that there are some Worlds that reject or weaken Abilities that do not conform with their Laws." Alex slowly said as he stared at the paltry amount of light waves that he gathered. "That... is actually logical."

"You are right!" Asteria replied as she nodded her head in acknowledgement. "There is a chance that an Ability will either get stronger, get weaker, stay as it is, or just entirely disappear depending on the Laws that it will interact with."

"I think you should explain that too." Alex said as his confusion was back again. "You are making it sound complicated now."

"Geez, ok, I get it." Asteria mumbled as she rubbed her tiny forehead.

"Let me give you an example." Asteria said as she did not care on what Alex and Alina were thinking right now. "Let's say that there are 4 Worlds that exist all beside each other. These worlds are the Fire World, Wind World, Earth World, and Water World."

"Fire World has Laws that dictate that only Fire Abilities can be used in that world. Wind World on the other hand, has Laws saying that only Wind Abilities can be used there. As for Earth World, its laws only allow Earth Abilities in there. And then there is Water World, with its Laws only allowing Water Abilities to exist." Asteria numerated these worlds quickly, making sure that Alex and Alina got what she was talking about.

"Let's say that a person from Fire World was called Fire Person, while the one from Wind World was Wind Person, then Earth Person is for the Earth World, and Water Person for the Water World." Asteria raised her fingers slowly as she recited these names. "Now, we will make them Travel!"

"..."

"If the Fire Person goes to the Earth World, the Fire Abilities of the Fire Person will get weaker, as the Laws of the Earth World are not that accommodating to Fire Abilities." Asteria said as she let out some pew pew pew sounds.

Alex felt that this makes sense, as fire can be weakened as long as some soil were poured on it.

"But if the Fire Person goes to the Wind World, the Fire Person's Fire Abilities will get stronger, as the Laws of the Wind World can support and strengthen Fire Abilities." Asteria said as she let out some blowing sounds. "Woooooooosh."

Again, this makes sense, as Alex knew that the right amount of wind can make a flame grow stronger.

"But if this Fire Person goes to the Water World, it's obvious what will happen next." Asteria said as she raised her hands. "The Fire Person's Fire Abilities will not work in the Water World, since the Laws of the Water World will firmly reject Fire Abilities."

This point is already obvious, as anyone can see that water extinguishes fire.

"Well, that is the simple view point of the interaction between the Abilities and Laws of different Worlds." Asteria said as she let out a smirk. "However, this interaction in reality is much more complicated than that. There are other factors that must be considered when pairing Abilities and Laws, so you cannot just expect formulaic results."

"Ok..." Alex slowly nodded his head as he somewhat got Asteria's point. "So, the effects of our Esper Abilities are weak right now since the Laws of this World are not that accommodating for Esper Abilities?"

"Exactly." Asteria replied as she plopped back on Alina's shoulder. "In this World, your Esper Abilities are weakened by 1,000 times, which you could have observed already."

"..."

This admission by Asteria doused a cold water on Alex's ambitions.

At first, Alex thought that with his and Alina's Esper Abilities, they can easily succeed on completing the Missions in this World.

But from the looks of it, they were once again back to square one.

"Is there a chance that we can use our Esper Abilities in full power in this World?" Alina asked before Alex could give this question. "I am not really comfortable... in being like this."

"Oh, don't worry about that. As long as you spend enough time in this World, your Esper Abilities will slowly adapt to the Laws of this World." Asteria replied nonchalantly. "So just spend some time in this World, and you Esper Abilities will be back in full power."

"Ok, that makes me relieved." Alex said as he let out a relieved sigh. "But, how long should we stay here to regain the full power of our Esper Abilities?"

"Well, I am not sure myself." Asteria replied as she averted her gaze away from Alex. "It all depends on the individual itself."

"Then how are we going to survive in this world?" Alex complained as he glared at Asteria. "Don't tell me that we have to buy another 'Cultivation Body' that will work well in this World?"

"That is exactly what you should do." Asteria replied quickly, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "If you don't do that, then you will just fail this World's Main Mission."

"..."

Chapter 57 The Queen and the Weird Censorhip

"Ok, so should I go looking for food first, or should we buy our new cultivation bodies first?" Alex inquired as he avoided Asteria's crafty gaze.

"Huh?" Asteria gave Alex a wilting gaze as she said,

"Of course you have to buy from the Endless Monarch first! If you don't, then you will just die if you go out hunting!"

"You make it sound like there are monsters living in this forest." Alex said, clearly remembering the ghastly howl that he heard yesterday. "That will be something that I would not like to see."

"Well, you are right." Asteria replied as she nodded her head sagely. "There are literally monsters in this forest, as we are right now in the territory of Monsters. Capital M for Monsters."

"Oh. Oh. Oh." Alex went silent for a few seconds as she processed what Asteria said. "So I presume that this World is full of monsters then?"

"Well not really." Asteria replied as she swung her legs in the air cheerfully. "In this World, there are two factions that hold power. The Human Faction, and the Monster Faction. The place that we are in right now is the Raju Forest, one of the areas were the Monsters reside."

Asteria made it sound like what she said made sense, although there is one thing that is confusing the hell out of Alex right now.

"Hold on for a minute." Alex raised his hand as he processed what Asteria said. "Why did you drop us here in the Monster Territory? Couldn't you just like drop us near the Humans? I think that it will be a better place than this."

"Why are you worried about that Alex?" Asteria replied as she pointed her fingers around her.

Alex's eyes follower Asteria's fingers, and he saw countless statues gathered in a circle around him and Alina.

Each of the statues depicted shapes of unrecognizable beings that even Alex with his knowledge of fictional beings could not identify them that easily.

"These statues prevent Monsters from getting near us." Asteria said as she pointed at the statues proudly. "So, you two should not fear any assault for now."

"You are still not answering my question." Alex said as he continued glaring at Asteria. "Why drop us here instead of dropping us in a Human Territory? Answer that please."

"Well..." Asteria continued averting her gaze away from Alex, as she started to twiddle her fingers. "You see..."

"No, don't tell me that it will be like that!" Alex sputtered out as he seemed to have reached to the answer already.

With his vibrant imaginatio, and the countless fantasy books that he read, Alex somewhat had a guess on the real reason that he and Alina appeared in this place.

"ASTERIA." Alex tried to keep his voice calm as he gave Asteria a steady gaze.

"Hehehe..." Asteria kept her mouth shut as she gave Alex a shaky grin.

"???" Alina could only tilt her head as she tried to understand what was going on.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Alina and I will be turned to Monsters, am I right?" Alex slowly said as he felt his heart turning heavy. "That is the most likely reason for us to appear in this place. After all, the best creature that can mingle with a Monster is another Monster, right?"

"Tsk, you got me again." Asteria replied grumpily as she glared at Alex sulkily. "You really a smarta*..."

"..."

All of them stayed quite for a few seconds, as Alex and Alina tried to accept what Asteria just said.

Asteria then continued talking, and what she said next just made Alex's heart feel heavier.

"If you are wondering on how you two will become Monsters, the answer to that is just simple. The cultivation body that you two will buy will turn you and Alina into Monsters that will blend well in this World."

To say that what Asteria said was a bombshell will be an understatement.

"No." Alina muttered in the background, as she felt that she did not like what she was hearing. "Now I do not want to buy that cultivation body..."

"Hehehe..."

Alex let out a sigh as he resisted the urge to just smack Asteria to wipe away that s*tty grin on her face.

Asteria's admission did not sound that good to Alex at all.

After all, it seemed like he and Alina will have to look inhumane in this World in order to succeed on their Mission.

Even if Alex was thrilled to have a new power, he was still unhappy to become something different.

"If we do not buy these new cultivation bodies, what is our chance on succeeding on our Main Mission?" Alex inquired as he and Alina gave hopeful looks at Asteria.

If there is at least 30-40% chance of them succeeding without turning into Monsters, then Alex will not buy the additional cultivation body.

Asteria's answer however once again derailed his plans.

"Zero. Percent." Asteria said as she relished on the disappointed looks on Alex and Alina's faces. "After all, you need to be Monsters first to do the Main Mission. If you don't, then you two will die from the Penalty."

"..."

It took Alex some seconds to compose himself from the hopeless revelation. As for Alina, Alex was not sure if Alina was fine with what was about to happen to them. But even if Alina looks pale and scared, she seems to be not backing out of buying the cultivation body.

"Fine. We shall buy the additional cultivation bodies first." Alex said as he grabbed Alina's hands to comfort her. Alina reciprocated in kind as she tightened her hold on Alex's hands too.

Asteria seems to be somewhat pissed by the sweet scene that she saw as she literally growled at Alex.

"Traveler Alex, why don't you and Alina start purchasing it now?"

"Oh right..." Alex replied as he slowly removed his hands away from Alina, which just served to piss Asteria more. "But before I buy, can you tell me about my remaining lifespan first?"

Aside from his impending cultivation body, Alex was also curious about his new lifespan.

After all, he and Alina just completed a mission that seems to be set at a difficult level. For him to gain some amount of lifespan is already a given.

Now, Alex just needed to know how much he got.

"You only have 20 Years and 21 Days of Lifespan left." Asteria said nonchalantly. "Originally, your lifespan should be 100 Years and 21 Days, but 80 Years of your Lifespan had been used to transport you here in this World."

"I am not sure if that sounds good or bad..." Alex said as he ruminated on what Asteria just said.

Originally, Alex only had 7 days of Lifespan left.

Alex's Bonus Mission will reward him with 15 days of lifespan, and technically speaking, Alex saved Elizabeth, so Alex was able to get these 15 days. 1 Day was subtracted after Alex and Alina slept for almost a day to remove their injuries.

As for the Main Mission, Alex was sure that it granted him 100 Years of Lifespan, which seems to be acceptable, given the difficulty of the mission.

The deduction of 80 Years just to transport Alex to a new World seems to be excessive, but what can Alex do about it? It already happened.

Alex just shook his head as he accepted the fact that he had now 20 Years and 21 Days left to live.

"Well, that is not actually bad." Alex thought to himself, as he knew that 20 Years is much better than just 30 days.

But Alex's relieved feeling disappeared as he remembered that he did not buy the new Cultivation Body yet.

"Asteria..." Alex felt his lips turning dry as he asked the fairy queen,

"How much will the new cultivation body cost anyway?"

Asteria's quick and concise reply reached Alex's ears faster than he could give his disappointed sigh.

"Buying the Monster Cultivation Body will cost you 18 Years of Lifespan. So if you buy it now, you will only have 2 Years and 21 Days of Lifespan left."

"As expected, the Endless Monarch really is a stingy guy." Alex muttered darkly to himself as he decided that 2 Years of Lifespan is better than nothing. "So, Alina will also have to buy the same thing too, only with her Contribution Points?"

"Yes, and do not worry, Alina has enough points to scrape by." Asteria replied as she patted Alina's shoulders in consolation.

This seemed to not do anything good, as Alina still looks scared on what was about to happen next.

Asteria noticed the scared look on Alina's face which prompted her to let out a sigh.

"Listen here hooman." Asteria said as she approached Alina's ear. "I am going to say something to you, and I am sure you will not be scared anymore after this."

Asteria then said some words beside Alina's ear, with Asteria making sure that what she said will not be heard by Alex.

Basically, Asteria was whispering something to Alina.

Asteria's whispers only lasted for 10 seconds, but Alex could see that Alina lost the scared look on her face, and it was now replaced with calmness, and even excitement?

"Oi Asteria, what did you say to Alina?" Alex inquired as he saw Alina and Asteria giggling at the same time. "Is that a secret cheer-up charm?"

"Well..." Asteria cupped her chin as he gave Alex a vague smile. "I just told Alina the appearances that you two will have once you two became Monsters. And as you can see, Alina definitely liked what she heard."

"Oh, then I guess I won't have to be worried about anything then." Alex replied as he began to feel hopeful.

If what Asteria told to Alina was enough to cheer Alina up, then maybe Alex's Monster form will be a good one.

"Ok, just buy the goods already Asteria." Alex said as he could not wait anymore to buy the Monster Cultivation Body. "I want to see my cool form now!"

Asteria seems to look like she was trying not to laugh as she gave a shaky nod to Alex. "I am buying both of yours and Alina's Monster Cultivation Body at the same time so that there will be no hassle... Are you two ready? Here we go. 1, 2, 3!!!"

"Urgh!" Alex felt the same pain assaulting his body, but this time he found it to be bearable.

Some slight feminine grunts beside him tells Alex that Alina was also experiencing the same pain too.

Alex tried to not make his imagination wander from these grunts as he focused on enduring the pain.

It was exactly after 30 minutes have passed by that the pain disappeared, and that Alex could feel his body able to move again.

After regaining his mobility, the first thing that Alex did was to look at Alina. After all, she was the one that was more scared for their transformation.

"Alina are you oka-" Alex's query was cut off as what he saw took his breath away.

In front of Alex was a tall, statuesque woman standing around 6 feet tall.

She looked to be around 28 years old, and her appearance had reached the peak of feminine beauty.

Her body was extremely shapely, with it adapting a perfect hourglass curve.

The woman's chest and butt were extremely perky, and her willowy waist just exemplifies her appeal.

The woman's pale white skin and ebony black hair perfectly frames her luscious lips and her extremely beautiful face.

Everyone, even Alex, were sure that many countries will wage war just because of this woman's beauty.

"Alina?" Even though the woman looked somewhat foreign to Alex, he can still identify that this mature and smoking hot woman in front of him was his Companion Alina.

"Good thing you still recognized me, Alex." Alina replied with a sultry voice. "I thought that with me becoming a Vampire Queen, you will fail to recognize me."

"You are Alina, so I will not fail to recognize you." Alex retorted as he ruminated on what Alina said.

"So you are a Vampire Queen now huh. Well, that pale skin of yours shows that you are a vampire." Alex commented as he tried to touch Alina's skin with his tentacles. "Up close, your skin really looks nice..."

Wait, tentacles?

Alex froze in his spot as he realized that there was something wrong with him right now.

"Slither..."

Alex tried to not shout as he realized that the slithering tentacle in front of him was under his control.

Before Alex could try to rationalize the presence of that tentacle, he saw more and more tentacles waving all around him.

"Slither..."

"Slither..."

"Slither..."

All these tentacles were waving in a jerky fashion, clearly representing Alex's chaotic feelings right now.

"Wh-what the hell is happening here!" Alex shouted out as he tried to understand the presence of the tentacles around him. "Di- di- did I turn into a tentacle monster?"

"Oh, it seems like you got the correct answer, Captain Obvious." Asteria replied,as she played with one of the tentacles.

Asteria seems to be not scared of the tentacles as she continued on talking.

"But actually, Tentacle Monster is not the right term. Technically speaking, your Monster Form is of a Great Elderitch Monster with Tentacle Mutation."

Suffice to say, Alex did not sound any happier with that answer.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 58 5 Little Monsters

To Alex's indignation, he found out that his new body looked different from what he could have wanted.

He still had a humanoid body, but Alex found out that every part of him was covered with green, slimy tentacles that were all serrated with sharp teeth.

Needless to say, Alex knew that he just reached the scale of 'creepy and scary monsters that will eat you while you sleep' level.

This fact alone made Alex extremely angry, especially to the dumb fairy.

"Oi Asteria, why do I get to be a tentacle monster and Alina gets to be a hot Vampire Queen?" This the first question that Alex said as he finished acclimating to his new body. "This is just unfair!"

"Well, you need to have that body if you want to succeed on the Main Mission." Asteria replied as she idly played with Alina's new hair. "Being human won't cut it out here."

"No!!!" Alex tried to facepalm, but the best that he could do was to 'facetentacle' himself(Is that even a word?) as he realized that he really got the short end of the stick here.

"Does that mean that I will stay in this appearance for the rest of the mission?" Alex muttered to himself as he found himself disappointed with his luck. "This is just unfair!"

To Alex's surprise, Asteria had a reply to his latest question.

"Huh? Of course it will not be like that." Asteria said, as she gave an incredulous gaze at Alex. "You can still transform back to your Human Forms, as long as you willed it. However, I recommend you to stay in your Monter Form when you are under the presence of other Monsters, or else you two will be attacked."

"Wait, we can do that?" Alex suddenly found hope as he heard what Asteria said. "Is that true? We really can shift forms form Monster to Human?"

"Hey hooman, show Alex what I mean." Asteria said to Alina, who just gave a nod in reply.

"..."

Alex watched with fascination as he saw the Vampire Queen Alina turning back into the Human Alina.

The change was seamless, it was as if it was just natural.

The Human Alina then shifted her appearance back to Vampire Queen Alina, as Asteria chided her to turn back to that appearance.

"Do you believe me now?" Asteria said as she gave a smug grin at Alex. "Well, you can try it by yourself too."

"In that case, here I go." Alex declared as he willed himself to transform back to his Human Form.

At the first second, he was not sure on what to do, which made him slightly panicked.

But after focusing his desire to be Human again, Alex felt a warm sensation that covered his whole body.

The warm sensation only lasted for a second, and when Alex opened his eyes, he found himself staring down at his two hands.

"Hahaha! I am back!" Even if Alex will be crying right now, he would not be ashamed of it, as he was really terrified of his appearance earlier.

Alina did not seem to mind Alex's outburst, although Asteria wrinkled her nose in disgust as she muttered some rather crass words to herself.

"Are you done celebrating?" Asteria said after waiting for Alex to calm down. "If you are done, shift back to your Monster Form already."

"Hai, hai." This time around, Alex did not feel any hard feelings as he shifted back to his Monster Form. After all, he already had the assurance that he can still get back to his normal form, so there is no problem for him now to look like a tentacle man.

"Hey Alex..." Alina, who was in her Vampire Queen Form, averted her gaze from Alex as she asked him in a low voice,

"Which appearance do you prefer? My Human appearance or my Vampire Queen appearance?"

"..."

Alex did not reply quickly, as he knew that this was a test. If he gives the wrong answer, then he will surely be punished greatly.

Even though Alex was not an expert on what women think, Alex knows one thing that any woman loves.

Women loves to be praised.

If a girl asks you on which of her two dresses fits her better, do not just choose one dress. Tell that girl that she is beautiful no matter what dress she wears. That will be the best answer for that.

Alex nodded his head as he decided to apply this principle in his answer to Alina.

"It doesn't matter which appearance you wear Alina." Alex said, trying to make himself sound as nonchalant as possible. "As long as it is you, I will not get tired of looking at you."

Suffice to say, it sounded very cheesy and cringy.

Just as expected of Alex.

"Ew, that is so cheesy!" Asteria actually recoiled as if she could not contain what she was feeling right now. "And what made it worse is that you said it while you are in your tentacle form! It's just... ew..."

"Ew indeed." Alina nodded in agreement as she gave Alex a sly smile. "However I will give you points for being honest. But... can you please choose the right words to say next time? Your choice of words really makes me unsure whether you are serious or just joking."

"..." Alex was not sure whether to feel happy or sad by that.

"Anyway." Asteria managed to compose herself as she shook her head, presumably to remove everything that Alex just said earlier. "Now that you got your new body, it is time that I tell your Main Mission in this World."

"We're listening." Alex and Alina leaned forward as they focused on what Asteria was about to say next.

Asteria smiled, seemingly loving the attention given to her. She tossed her hair to the side as she said,

[SAVE THE CHILDREN]

"..." Both Alex and Alina waited for Asteria to say something more, but to their dismay, Asteria did not say anything after that.

"Wait, that's it?" Alex commented as Asteria went back to Alina's shoulders. "Save The Children? That is our Main Mission?"

"Yes, that is your mission." Asteria replied sagely, as if what she said was the universal truth. "So just do what the Main Mission told you to do."

"But how the hell will I do that?" Alex replied with exasperation as he wrapped Asteria with one of his tentacles. "Save the children? What children will I save? How many of them should I save? Why should I even save them? I should know about these specific things!"

"Hey!" Asteria let out some shouts of complaint as the tentacle wrapped all over her, with her failing to dodge the oozing slime that came from the tentacle. "Get this thing off me!"

"Not until you explain on how we should finish our Main Mission." Alex said as he willed more and more tentacles to cover Asteria. "So, please do your best to answer, ok?"

"Help me, hooman!" Asteria pleaded for help to Alina, but to Asteria's disappointment, Alina did not do anything. She just watched as Asteira was covered with more and more tentacles...

"Fine! I will try to help you out!" Asteria said before the last tentacle could cover her. "I have a tip for you for the Main Mission!"

"Now we're talking." Alex said as he freed Asteria from his tentacle assault. "Now talk."

"Hmph!" Asteria certainly did not look good right now, with all the slime covering her body, making her look like a kitten that was drenched in rain.

"Just go hunting in the forest, okay?" Asteria said as Alina did her best to comfort the shaken fairy. "Do it, and you will see the meaning of your Main Mission."

"Hmm... Ok, I think that explanation is already suffice." Alex muttered as he decided on what to do next. "In that case, I guess I should get going now." Alex started to amble out of the clearing as he decided to start his hunt.

But before he could go, he paused as he looked back at Asteria.

"Hey." Alex said as he played with his tentacles. "What are my new abilities in this body anyway? I think I should know about them so that I can use them later."

"And you are just asking it now? Really, when will you learn to be alert?" Asteria cheekily replied, as she was seemingly back to her arrogant and vibrant persona.

"Do you want another tentacle treatment again?" Alex said as he waved some of his tentacles in Asteria's direction. "Because if you want to, then I will give it to you for free."

"Ah Alex I am just joking you know, hehehe..."

"..."

1 hour later.

Alex walked freely through the woods, looking like he does not give a care about anything in the world.

His steps look confident, as if he was not afraid of any danger around him.

The truth however, was that Alex was deep on contemplating on what Alina told him earlier.

According to Asteria, Alex's Great Elderitch Form granted him with two abilities.

The first ability was Abyss Magic, and from the sound of it, it does not sound like your good old-fashioned magic.

According to Asteria, Abyss Magic was a magic that was concerned with channeling a kind of Energy from the Abyss Dimension, the dimension where Elderitch monsters came from.

This Energy, which Asteria termed as the 'Abyss Energy', will allow Alex to do incredible and scary things, as long as the grade of his Abyss Magic allows it.

Asteria said that there are 12 Grades of Abyss Magic, with the First Tier as the 'petting some kittens' type, and the Twelfth Tier as the 'everyone in the whole wide world gets f*ked-up' type.

Right now, Alex was said to be at the First Grade of Abyss Magic, although he still had not experimented enough to know what he can do at this level.

Asteria did not elaborate on how Alex will be able to raise his Grade, but Alex did not care for that now, as he was more focused on finding the crux of his Main Mission.

The second ability that Alex got was in loose terms, can be called 'Feeling, Emotions, and Desire Manipulation'.

For convenience sake, Alex decided to just call it FED Manipulation.

This ability allows Alex to control the feelings, emotions, and desires of anything nearby him.

He can make a person be extremely frightened of him, extremely loyal to him or even extremely disgused to him.

He can also make the same person feel hunger or lust, depending on what Alex wanted.

At first, FED might sound extremely BS and OP, but according to Asteria, this ability will only be highly effective on beings that are much weaker than Alex.

This means that Alex can fully use this power on normal animals and children.

But against powerful Monsters and Humans, Alex's FED Manipulation will be only enough to faze them for a second.

"Well, I can just make myself grow stronger to make both of my abilities stronger." Alex muttered to himself as he walked confidently across the forest. "Once I become so strong, I will have an easy time defeating anyone that I need to defeat."

Alex's trail was filled with small animals and Monsters, who were all frothing in their mouths, with some of them shivering and trembling in fear.

In order to not meet any nuisances, Alex decided to blast his FED Manipulation at its peak level, making anyone near Alex to feel great fear.

This tactic worked, as every weak Monster that approached Alex all collapsed on the forest floor, shivering in fear.

"Sigh, where are the powerful monsters here?" Alex muttered to himself as he started to get bored with just walking around the forest. "There is some Monster that should be powerful around here, right?"

"Squee!"

Right on cue, Alex heard a powuerful roar, coming from his left side.

"There it is!" Alex thought excitedly as he rushed toward the source of the sound with excitement.

What he saw however, made him stop on his tracks.

He could see a massive boar-like monster, standing around three storeys tall, with its 5-meter long tusk gleaming menacingly.

"Squee!"

This boar seemed to be screaming at something that was obviously not Alex.

Alex tried to see on what had pissed this boar a lot, and that's when he saw them.

He saw five little monsters all cowering under the murderous gaze of the boar.

Alex idly numbered them from 1 to 5, taking note of their appearances.

Little Monster No.1 looks like a literal dog, who was standing up even though its legs were trembling.

Little Monster No. 2 looks like a collection of numerous pebbles, while Little Monster No. 3 suspiciously looks like a shadow creature or something.

Little Monster No.4 looks like a collection of millions of insects, and finally, Little Monster No. 5 looks like a literal skeleton.

Alex was not sure why, but he could somehow feel that these 5 Little Monsters were important to him.

Not only that, but the fact that these 5 Little Monsters were all wearing Human Clothes made Alex think that they could be his clue for his Main Mission.

With these thoughts in his mind, Alex decided to save them.

"Hehehe, this is exicting." Alex thought to himself as he realized that he was about to fight his first battle here in the Monster World.

"I hope you won't disappoint me, little boar."

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 59 The Real and the Fake

Even though Asteria repeatedly told him earlier that he was a powerful Monster right now, Alex still had to make sure that he will be safe in this fight.

He looked at the giant boar, who looked like it was about to squash the little monsters in front of it.

This irritated Alex, which prompted him to taunt the giant boar.

"Oi, you fat stinkin' pig." Alex said as he waved his tentacles around him in a provocative way. "Do you really have no hobbies right now except ganging up on little monsters? Come on man!"

Alex's words seem to have taken some effect, as the giant boar's sight was now focused entirely on Alex.

"Squee!!" The giant boar started to charge towards Alex, as if it intended to skewer him alive, but it stopped after just a second, with it suddenly dropping down, and then with it kneeling in front of Alex.

Alex did not try to find out how was the boar able to kneel. Rather, he was curious on why the giant boar was kneeling in front of him.

Was it the effect of his FED Manipulation? After thinking of that, Alex started to feel disappointment at the giant boar, as he could not believe that his bear was actually just a weakling.

But to Alex's surprise, the giant boar did something that he did not expect.

"Forgive me for not seeing your majestic arrival, oh Great One!" The giant boar started to speak, with its whole body cowering in fear.

"..." Alex was sure that this fear did not come from his power, but rather from the authority that he supposedly possesses.

"Ok, this complicates things." Alex muttered to himself as he realized that his Monster Form was more special than what he could have intended.

It seems like not only his Monster Form has some special abilities to boot. It seems like it also holds an influence over the Monsters!

"Ugh, what should I do?" Alex thought to himself as he realized that he is an awkward situation right now.

He came in wanting a fight, but what he got instead were a bunch of crying monster kids and one oversized boot-licking boar.

"..." This dilemma rendered Alex silent for a few seconds.

The giant boar, who still stayed kneeling in front of him, seems to have noticed Alex's silence.

The giant boar slowly raised its head as it hesitantly said,

"Great One, are you a new arrival in our world?"

"And what if I am then?" Alex replied as he adapted a tough persona in front of the boar. "You got any problems with that?"

"Of course none, Great One!" The giant boar hastily said as it kept its head down. "It's just that powerful Monsters like you who came from other Monster Worlds are extremely rare..."

"Oh, is that a bad thing then?" Alex did not deny or confirm what the giant boar said. Right now, Alex wanted to fish for more information before he can make his next move.

"There is nothing bad about that, Great One!" The boar shook its head quickly, as if it was afraid of Alex's wrath. "In fact, I am overjoyed by your sheer presence, oh Great One!"

Alex could have believed the last sentence that the boar uttered, if not for the fact that the boar was starting to piss itself already.

"Tsk." This time, Alex did not act as he actually felt irritated by the boar's attitude.

"If you are really happy to see me, then why are you acting that scared?"

"It's because your sheer power is enough to make me feel like this, oh Great One!" The boar shouted as its tremblings started to increase.

"Oh really?" Alex inquired as his tentacles stared to slither all around the boar. "Does that mean that my power level is something that you are unable to fight back, hm?"

The giant boar seemed to not care if Alex was ignorant of the power system in the Monster World as it quickly replied,

"Great One, just by looking at you, I can feel that you are as strong as the Generals of Queen Mother!" The boar seems to have a worshipping look in its face as it said this name. "It was only them that were able to make me feel this helpless and weak!"

"F*k Asteria, you expected that something like this will happen, right?" Alex muttered to himself as he resisted the urge to facetentacle.

From the looks of it, Alex did not just acquire some kind of weak-ass Monster Form.

It seems like what Alex got was a really powerful one.

But instead of being happy, the fact that what he got was a powerful monster body rang some warning bells on Alex.

After all, having a strong cultivation body means that the Main Mission will be something of high difficulty.

Naturally, Alex did not want to do a difficult mission, as his goal was to just breeze through everything.

The giant boar, taking Alex's silence as the permission to speak more, decided to continue talking.

"The Generals of Queen Mother are all extremely strong! They can shatter mountains with their fists, and they can kill a lot of Generals from the Human Faction!"

"I see." Alex nodded, as he noted that he must make more research about this Queen Mother later, especially about these Generals.

After saying these words, the giant boar stayed silent, as it seemed to be waiting patiently for Alex to say something.

Alex resisted the urge to sigh as he realized that question time will be temporarily over for now.

"So then, what should I do with you now?" Alex said as he looked at the boar with his slimy eyes.

Since this boar treats Alex like a bigshot, then Alex will act like one.

"I can forgive you for not noticing my presence earlier. However, I will still have to punish you for that."

"I shall accept any of your punishments, Great One." Instead of sounding angry, the giant boar seems to be actually more relieved that it was being punished by Alex.

"Ok..." Alex closed his eyes as he tried to remember everything that Alina and Asteria told him to hunt.

"Basically speaking, you need to get all of these..."

Minutes later, and the giant boar scampered away from Alex, probably starting its one-hour search for all the food and honey that Alina and Asteria asked Alex to get.

"Hehehe, having a minion sure feels nice." Alex muttered to himself as he watched the running giant boar. "Wait, maybe I can make all the monsters here in the forest as my minions..."

"Do-do-don't kill us please!" Alex's trains of thought were broken as he heard a scared and determined voice talking to him.

Alex looked at where the voice came from, and he realized that it came from Little Monster No. 1, the dog-looking monster.

"Oh right, I forgot that you five were there." Alex replied honestly, as he really forgot about these five little monsters nearby.

Alex was so engrossed with talking with the giant boar, so much so that he forgot the presence of these little monsters. It was only when Little Monster No. 1 talked to him that he remembered that they existed.

Alex then tilted his head as he realized that calling the dog-like monster as Little Monster No. 1 will be a hassle for him.

Because of that, Alex decided to just refer to it as No. 1. The same thing will also go for the other monsters.

"Hmm, it seems like you were not that scared of me, compared to that boar earlier." Alex commented as he saw the little monsters looking at him with a less hostile look compared to the boar before. "Aren't you scared of me too?"

"Of course we are!" No. 1 said as it covered the other four monsters protectively. "You look... scarier than that ugly boar, but you seem kinder than it."

"Hohoho, are you really sure about that?" Alex grinned as he used his FED Manipulation, slightly increasing the fear felt by the little monsters in front of him. "Are you still not scared?"

"Muu..." All the little monsters started to tremble, as they could feel the effects of what Alex just did.

But to Alex's surprise, all of them seemed to endure their increased fears, although they all looked like they could be crying.

At this point, Alex started to feel guilty, as he realized that he seems to have been a little excessive at the little monsters.

"Fine, fine, I am the good guy already." Alex said as he withdrew his FED Manipulation. "See, I am not scary anymore, right?"

"Alex, what the hell are you doing!" Alex felt a hand smacking his head, forcing his head to plant to the ground.

"What the hell?" Needless to say, Alex was pissed to whomever did this to him. He looked at the perpetrator as he wore the most murderous expression on his face that he can wear. "Do you want to get beate-"

"..."

Alex's words got stuck in his throat as he realized that he was in checkmate right now.

"What, beaten up?" Alina, who was in her Vampire Queen Form, gave Alex a cold look as she crossed her arms in front of her. "Or maybe it should be you that must be beaten up."

"Well..."

"Don't use that word in front of me." Alina huffed as she glared at Alex angrily. "Do you realize that you were scaring a bunch of children earlier? Look at them! They were about to piss themselves!"

"Wait, why are you here anyway?" Alex asked as he endured Alina's angry stare. "Shouldn't you be waiting for me at the clearing?"

"That is what I am supposed to do, but Asteria told me that I should follow you, since she said that I will see something interesting." Alina snorted as she took a deep breath. "And it seems like she was right."

What happened after that were just a little surreal.

Alex saw Alina approaching the little monsters, with her face wearing a very kind expression. "Are you all scared? Don't worry, Big Sister is here to help you!"

Alina's current angelic appearance, combined with Alex's horrifying features, were already enough to show to the little monsters that Alina was a figure that they can trust.

"Waaa!!!" No. 4, the little monster that was made up of insects, was the first one to jump and hug Alina. "Big Sis, I am so scared!"

"There, there, there." Alina soothingly said as she patted No. 4's back. "You are safe with Big Sis here."

The other four little monsters did not hug Alina, but they all scurried behind her, using her as a shield against Alex.

"See? You scared them a lot." Alina snorted as she shook her head in dismay. "It's a good thing that you did not extend your fear manipulation for a longer time, or else these kids would have been traumatized."

"You call them kids? I think you should call them little monsters, since they are literally little monsters." Alex said as he gave an apologetic grin at Alina. "But I think I really went too far on scaring them earlier."

"!!!" To Alex's surprise, he saw all five of the little monsters flinching when he said that they were not kids.

Alina also flinched too, but this time, her angry look changed into a pitying one.

"Umm, can you tell me what is wrong?" Alex said as he felt the sudden shift in the atmosphere. "Did I do something wrong again?"

"Well, you actually did not do something wrong, as it will be really hard for you to see it." Alina muttered as she hugged No. 4 more tightly.

"See what?" Alex asked as he saw the little monsters looking more... despondent?

"You know about my eyes, right?" Alina said as she let out a deep breath.

Alex nodded in reply, remembering everything that Alina said about her All-Seeing Eyes.

"Well..." Alina gritted her teeth for a second before she continued talking.

"I can see their real appearances, but I can assure you that their real appearances are not the monstrous forms that you see right now."

"Don't tell me..." Alex's breath hitched as he looked at the human clothes that the little monsters wore. "That they are..."

"Their real appearances are those of human children!" Alina said as her eyes started to burn with anger. "I do not know what happened to them, but somewhere along the way, they were forced to become monsters!"

"!!!"

Chapter 60 Monster Birth Program

"That is..." Alex could not find the right words to say as he felt horrified from what Alina said. "So messed up."

These little monsters in front of him were humans before? If Alina did not say that, Alex probably would not have believed it.

Upon hearing what Alex just said, some of the little monsters near her started to cry, as if what Alex said directly affected them.

"Don't cry, don't cry, ok?" Alina had to use both of her hands to calm the little monsters down as she gave another glare at Alex.

"When can you watch your words?"

"Ah sorry!" Alex said as he profusely apologized at Alina and the little monsters.

It took a minute to calm the little monsters down, and even then they still looked pretty shaken.

Alina did not stop glaring Alex during this time, just to make sure that he felt guilty on what he did.

"I don't think we should ask these kids on what had happened to them." Alex commented as he watched the wary and scared expression of the little monsters. "I think it would not be good to personally ask them that."

"That is my opinion too." Alina said as she continued hugging No. 4.

"Um Big Sis... are you here to help us?" Even though No. 4 was made up of insects, she was still able to speak by layering countless humming sounds from her insects. "We are so hungry and scared..."

The way No. 4 spoke was creepy to Alex, but he did not point that out, as he had the feeling that No. 4 was a little human girl before. And with Alina leveling him with her constant glare, Alex naturally had no courage to say anything.

"Of course Big Sis will help you." Alina soothingly said as he patted the heads of the little monsters. "So, just trust in me, okay?"

"Ok!!" All of the little monsters looked happy with what Alina said, except for No. 1. He still looked somewhat wary and suspicious of Ailna, although he still treated her with less hostility compared to Alex.

"Ugh... why do I get to wear this scary-ass tentacle face?" Alex lamented as he saw the difference of the treatment between him and Alina. "Now I can't get to know these kids better..."

Alina and Alex stayed in their place for another 30 minutes with Alex explaining to Alina his encounter with the giant boar and the information that it gave to him.

Alina also used this time to talk more and more to the little monsters, with the poor Alex was ignored in the sidelines.

During this time, Alina and the little monsters were able to grow closer, as the little monsters began to treat Alina like a family.

Naturally, this had Alex jealous.

Fortunately for Alex, he already had someone that he can channel his anger to.

"Great One, I am back!" The giant boar enthusiastically greeted Alex, with its back full of the food and honey that Alex asked it to get.

The face of the boar looked extremely submissive as it gave Alex a worshipping look that Alex did not like at all.

"About d*n time that you came back." Alex snapped, as he decided to pour his frustrations on the boar. "Were you always this slow? F*k, even my grandma can outrun you!"

"Apologies!" The boar supplicated, as it bowed down in front of Alex. "If I displeased you Great One, then you are free to punish me!"

Alex, who found this as a chance to let off some steam, had to pause as he saw Alina giving the boar a curious look.

"Alex, is this the giant boar that you are talking about?"

"Oh." Before Alex could say anything, the boar heard what Alina said.

"Eeeek..." The giant boar let out a squeal of fear as it saw Alina looking at it.

From the looks of it, the giant boar must have already realized what Alina was.

"Oh, Fair One, forgive me for not noticing you!" The giant boar said as it began to bow in front of Alina.

"I forgive your transgressions, puny one." Shockingly, Alina seemed to have changed her character as she talked to the giant boar. "My concubine must have greatly tired you out."

"Concubine?" The boar tilted its head as it tried to analyze what Alina said. After a second, the boar's eyes widened as it realized what Alina meant. "Fine One, do you mean that you and the Great One are..."

"Yes, this tentacled monstrosity is my lovely concubine." Alina said as she licked her red lips.

"D*n, that's sexy." Alex thought to himself as he and the other little monsters did not try to point out Alina's current behavior.

"Uh, congratulations?" The giant boar was also confused on what Alina was doing, as it found hard to imagine how could someone like Alina could pair with a hideous creature like Alex.

"You seem to be doubting my words, puny one." Alina commented drily as she saw the doubt on the boar's face. "Do you know that anyone who doubts the words of this Queen all gets skewered in the grill?"

"Eek!!!" Needless to say, the boar was scared silly of what Alina said, as it saw Alina's slightly hungry gaze towards it.

"What do you think puny one?"

"Oh, she is so hungry..." Alex thought to himself as he saw Alina drooling like crazy.

Even if she had been transformed into a Vampire Queen, Alina did not get the innate need to drink blood, as from what Asteria said, a Vampire Queen was a high-ranked vampire that does not need to drink blood.

Because of that, Alina retained or even increased her already gluttonous appetite.

At that point, Alex decided to step in as he realized that the boar must not be killed, for now.

Alex let out a cough, which sounded slimy because of his current body.

"My Queen, I think you should not kill this cute little boar first." Alex said as he decided to roleplay with Alina. "I still have some questions for this boar, and I wanted it answered right now."

"Ara ara, I know that look on your face, my lowly concubine." Alina said as she immediately realized what Alex was planning to do. "You really look out for me!"

"Of course, everything is for you, My Queen." At this point, Alex and Alina were already able to establish their alibi for what Alex was about to ask next.

Now, Alex only needed to execute it well in order to not arouse any suspicion.

Alex looked at the boar intently, with his tentacles swaying slowly.

"My Queen and I... wanted to have some kids already." Alex said as he made his FED Manipulation radiate sadness.

It hit the giant boar at full force, which made it started to feel sad and sympathetic for Alex.

"But as you can see, the laws of our very nature are not allowing us to procreate!" Alex exclaimed as he shook his tentacles to show his anger.

Alex's acting was so convincing that it managed to move the giant boar's feelings.

"I can understand your pain, Great One." The boar commented as he watched Alex's anger. "I had a human woman with me before, but no matter what I do with her, she just won't give me a child. Its such a waste that I have to kill her after she tried to escape from me."

"!!!" Alex had to gulp as he looked at Alina, who began to look at the boar with the most intense killing intent that he had seen in his life.

There is no way that Alina will not be angry.

After all, this boar just casually talked about it kidnapping a woman and forcing it to procreate with it!

And the way that the boar said this made it sound like it was just out looking for food or something!

"You are so dead right now..." Alex thought to himself as he looked at the boar with derision.

At first, Alex thought that he could keep the boar as his pet or mount. After all, he found that the boar was a little pleasing to look at.

But after hearing what the boar said about its past exploits with women, Alex knew that there is no way that he and Alina will let the boar survive.

Because they were currently interrogating the boar, Alex knew that Alina will not attack the boar immediately.

But Alex was sure that once the boar had given him what they wanted, Alina will surely swoop in to kill the boar.

"I do not care what you do in your past. What I want to know is your opinion on something that we want." Alex said as he and Alina tried to not show their desire to just kill the boar in front of them.

The poor oblivious boar did not see its doomed fate as it enthusiastically said,

"I will do my best to answer your query, Great One."

"Where can I get little monsters like them?" Alex said as he pointed his fingers at the little monsters gathered around Alina. "My Queen liked them, so she will adopt them as her children. However, my Queen wanted to get more little monsters like them, so I want to know where we can get more of them."

"This..." The boar hesitated as it looked at the little monsters with trepidation and jealousy. "Are you sure that you want to get these weaklings, Great One? You can just adopt stronger monsters compared to them!"

"What we get is obviously not of your opinion." Alex said as he gave the boar a dark look. "If you do not want to anger me, then you should know how to answer my question correctly."

"Eeek!!!" At this point, Alina and Alex showed a little of their killing intent, just to make the boar behave.

"It's the Monster Birth Program!" The boar said as it started to spill out its beans.

Both Alex and Alina listened carefully as they knew that they already got what they wanted.

"The Queen Mother wanted to get more monsters to strengthen her forces." The boar said as it made itself look as submissive as possible. "But because the reproductive rate of us monsters are much lower compared to humans, our Queen Mother decided to just create monsters out of the existing humans."

"!!!" Alex and Alina tried to not show the horror in their faces as they continued on listening.

"One of Queen Mother's Generals was able to create a rare and expensive formula that facilitates this transformation from human to monster. This formula was regularly used to force some humans to turn into monsters. Of course the targeted humans are those at the edge of human territory, as they are the least guarded ones."

"What happens next after these humans became monsters?" Alex asked as Alina tried to calm down the scared little monsters.

"If they are strong, they will be taken by the Generals to bolster our forces." The boar replied quickly. "If they are weak, then they will be left behind."

The boar then looked at the little monsters huddled around Alina with a sneer on its face. "That five little monsters with us? They were the latest humans that were turned into monsters, just 5 days ago. They were left behind because they were deemed weak by the Shadow General!"

"..."

Alex took a deep breath to calm himself down as he gave the little monsters a pitying look.

Even if Alex was a neutral person, he can understand the suffering that these little monsters have gone through. What happened to them was just unfair and unjust.

While thinking of that, Alex suddenly paused as he remembered what his Main Mission was.

[SAVE THE CHILDREN]

"Does that mean that I have to save these kids? But how?" Alex thought to himself as he looked at the little monsters with trepidation.

"Is there a way to reverse what happened to these little monsters? It was Alina who asked this question, but she made it sound more like a death sentence rather than a question.

The boar seemed to have not noticed this as it cheerfully replied,

"I do not know, Fair One. Information like that are extremely classified!"

"Is that so... Then that means we have no use for you anymore." This time, Alina did not hold her killing intent back as she and Alex and ambled towards the boar. "It's time for you to die!"

"Squee!!!" The giant boar was unable to say anything more as a tentacle and a sword entered its eyes, effectively destroying its brain.

"Tsk, f*king scum." Alina rarely cursed, but when she did, she made sure that it was worth it.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 61 Golden Knigh

"So this boar is still no much for us..." Alex commented as he saw the boar's corpse sliding down in front of him. "Well, that just means that we won't have to worry about any opponent's in this forest anymore, as this boar was clearly the strongest of in this forest."

By relying on what the giant boar said earlier, it seems like the only ones that can defeat Alex and Alina were the high-ranked monsters that the boar was talking about earlier.

"The Generals and their Queen Mother..." Alex tried to wipe his bloodstained tentacle clean as he picked up the foodstuff at the back of the boar with his tentacles. "It seems like they are the real powerhouses of the Monster Faction. I need to do more research about them..."

While thinking of these things, Alex glanced at the little monsters, as he wanted to see their reaction to the boar's death.

Alex expected them to look shocked and scared, but that was not what he saw.

Instead, what he saw were the little monsters flocking around Alina with them exclaiming how cool she was.

"Big Sis, you all went 'kupwa' then the big baddie became 'kebab'!" No. 4 exclaimed as she glanced at Alina's sword with worship. "Big Sis, you are very cool!"

"Very cool!" The other little monsters echoed out, with their eyes twinkling with a scary glint. "Very cool!"

"Wait, are you not scared of what I did?" Alina commented as she looked bewildered by the idolizing expressions of the little monsters. "I just killed the giant boar!"

"That big boar was about to kill and eat us earlier." No. 1 replied with a hardened expression on his face. "There is no way that we will be sad with what happened to him now."

"Ho-how could you think of that!" Alina exclaimed as she and Alex felt more horrified with what they suddenly discovered.

From the looks of it, not only were the bodies of the children were changed, it seems like even their behavior were changed too!

If these little monsters had the behavior of a normal human child, then it was sure that they could have cried upon seeing the murder of the boar.

But instead, these little monsters did not look scared at all. They even looked happy, as if what happened to the boar was a way of convenience for them.

Alex was no expert in psychology, but he was pretty sure that the current behaviors of the little monsters were already deviating from how a normal human kid should behave.

"Do you think that our Main Mission is to save these kids?" Alex whispered to Alina as he approached her, with Alex making sure that the little monsters will not hear what he was saying. "I could not help but feel like us meeting them is the start of the path to our goal."

"I am not sure Alex, but whether they are our Main Mission or not, I will not abandon these kids." Alina replied back as she gave the kids a gentle look. "It's just not in me to abandon them."

"So you really want to turn them back to their human form?" Alex said as he saw the eager look in Alina's eyes. "Well, maybe we can try it out... After all, if they were changed by a chemical formula, then we will just have to get this formula, and then reverse-engineer it to get the antidote. Of course to do that, we fist have to-"

"Thank you." Alina cut off Alex's words, as she awkwardly hugged Alex's tentacled body.

Alex froze, as he made sure that none of his tentacles will be naughty enough to prod Alina in her danger zones.

Alex's self-control seems to have worked, as he did not receive any elbow jabs from Alina.

"Well, now that we have finished everything that we should do here, I guess we should get back to the clearing already." Alina loudly announced as she gave the little monsters her dazzling smile.

"Little kids, do you want to join your Big Sis and her concubine to their house? We will cook some good food there, and you can also play happily there!"

"We will go Big Sis!" Alex was not sure whether he should be happy that the kids were already this close to Alina, or if he should be sad with the little monsters still acting wary against him.

"Meh whatever, with my charisma, they will eventually warm up in no time." Alex thought to himself as he and Alina headed back towards their starting point. "Just all of you wait..."

Golden Knights Training Hall, Golden Knight Academy, Pelham Kingdom.

"Ha!" A bunch of people were gathered inside the training hall, with their necks strained and their bodies stretched, as they were all busy watching something.

All of them wore golden armor over their bodies, which filled the hall with a golden glow.

Their bodies were all lean and muscular, showing the years of training that was put on them.

The combination of the armor and the body should have made them look intimidating, but their handsome and beautiful faces managed to just make them approachable and likable.

Some of these golden armored people were murmuring with each other, as they seemed to be discussing something.

The focus of their discussion was one person, which they are all watching right now.

This person was an extremely beautiful woman, with a long, blonde hair tied up in a bun.

She's currently wearing an armor, but even this armor failed to hide her shapely and enticing curves.

Needless to say, watching this woman's perfect body was just as fun as watching her fight.

"Ha!" This woman was currently displaying her spear skills to everyone inside the training hall, with her aura making everyone feel her seriousness.

The woman's bright blue eyes were focused as she brandished her spear around, releasing golden slashes of light that pierced the dummy targets in front of her.

"Skrit!" All the dummy targets were sliced in half, as they could not contain the might of the woman's attacks.

The woman continued doing this routine for a few more minutes until all 144 dummy targets were destroyed.

"Clap clap clap..." A smothering round of applause was given by the crowd as the woman left the training hall, presumably to clean herself up.

Multitude of stares followed the woman as she left the hall, with some looking at her with amazement, and with some busy looking at her assets.

Among the onlookers, there were two prominent guys who watched the leaving woman with guarded and awed expression on their faces.

Both of these guys wore golden armors too, and they seemed to be close friends with each other.

"I heard from the rumors that Teresa was good, but I could not believe that she was this good!" Golden Guy 1 said as his face wore an amazed expression on it. "I mean, she's only 19, and yet she's already a Grade 3 Knight!"

"That's because of her talent." Golden Guy 2 snorted, as he looked more pissed than amazed. "What do you expect? She was born with that talent, so it is inevitable for her to rise through the ranks easily."

"Why are you making it sound like she had been taking it easy?" Golden Guy 1 retorted as he slapped the back of the Golden Guy 2. "Did you forget all the training that she did?"

"Yeah, but that is all training only!" Golden Guy 2 smugly replied back as he shook his head, seemingly in disappointment. "I mean, when have you ever seen Teresa fight a real Captain-Class Monster? All that she ever fought with as a Lieutenant-Class Monster, and even that Monster was weakened already!"

"Quit yapping your mouth!" Golden Guy 1 hotly replied as he shoved Golden Guy 2. "How could you even complain when you are always defeated by Teresa? You can't complain on what she fights with when you can't even defeat her!"

"Hmph, you will see that she will fail!" Golden Guy 2 replied as he started to sneer. "Didn't you hear? Because Teresa was now a Grade 3 Knight, she has to do a Kill Mission on one of the Monster Territories near the edge of our Kingdom. And from what I heard, she has to kill one Captain-Class Monster to pass the Kill Mission!"

"Well, I think with her talent and abilities, Teresa will easily breeze through the Kill Mission." Golden Guy 1 replied, although some uncertainties could he heard from his voice.

"See? Even you are doubting her now." Golden Guy 2 smugly said, evidently liking what he was seeing.

"Oh just shut up. Instead of just speculating here, why don't we just train too?" Golden Guy 2 said, obviously trying to deflect the topic. "It will be better for us to train our power rather than gossip about her.

"True that." Golden Guy 2 said as he and Golden Guy 1 headed towards the sparring corner. "Oh this time, the one who loses in our match will have to pay for the winner's lunch."

"Hoho, it's time for me to get free food again."

"Heh, we shall see about that."

Teresa let out a moan of delight as she felt the hot water flowing all over her body.

The hot water managed to relax her muscles, giving Teresa a delightful feeling that she could not explain.

"A hot shower after a good training really is the best." Teresa muttered to herself as she lathered her body with a fragrant soap.

Teresa made sure that every nook and crook of her perfect body was covered in soap, as she wanted to get rid of the sweat covering her body.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm..." Teresa hummed lightly as she continued her warm bath.

It was quite obvious to anyone that can hear Teresa that her mood was extremely good today.

"I am already a Grade 3 Knight! I am sure Father will be proud of me!" Teresa mumbled to herself as excitement appeared in her eyes. "I have long waited for this day!"

Even with her talent, Teresa always knew that her demanding Father always wanted to see Teresa to be the best out of the rest.

And that is what exactly Teresa did.

She aced the academics even here in the Golden Knight Academy, and she made sure to stay as the strongest in her batch.

All her efforts seemed to have paid off, as Teresa recently just became a Grade 3 Knight at 19 Years old, which is the fastest in the history of the Human Faction!

She even has beaten her Father's record by a year!

"Hmph, I am sure my Father is very excited to see me now!" Teresa said as she started to wash off the soap from her body. "But our meeting will not happen for now, as I still have to accomplish my Kill Mission!"

It had been a tradition already for all Knights to have their first Kill Mission once they become a Grade 3 Knight.

No Knight will be exempt from this.

This is an initiation, a way to determine if a Knight was really suitable to take the mantle as humanity's protection against the Monsters.

If a Knight dies in the Kill Mission, then that just means that he/she is not fit to be a Knight.

But if the Knight survives, then he/she will be accepted formally as a real Knight by the Human Faction.

"Hmph, with my talent, there is no way that I will fail my Kill Mission!" Teresa declared as she started to dry her body with her towel.

As she wiped off the water that clung to her skin, Teresa recalled the details of her Kill Mission that was just given to her earlier this morning.

Her Kill Mission was just simple.

Teresa just had to go to the Monster Territory at the outskirts of the Pelham Kingdom, and look for the Monster that was lording over this territory.

According to the intel, this monster was a Giant Boar, with the power comparable to a Captain-Class Monster.

Teresa's task was to kill this Giant Boar and take back its head as proof of her kill.

The time limit of her Kill Mission was 1 day.

If Teresa fails to kill the Giant Boar within that time limit, then it will be marked as a fail. Teresa will have to take another Kill Mission again if she wanted to pass.

"Hmph, I just have to kill a Giant Boar. There is nothing hard with that!" Teresa boasted as she donned on her travelling clothes.

She then left the shower room, heading towards the gates of the Golden Knight Academy.

"There it is!"

Teresa beamed as she saw her trusty horse, along with the items that Teresa will bring to her Kill Mission.

The Kill Mission will only last for a day, so Teresa only brought few things with her:

Food enough to last for a week should an accident should happen, some medicine, some books, and some important hygienic products.

"Yosh!" With everything packed up nice and well, Teresa smiled as she rode her horse.

She spurned it to move as she tried to not show the excitement on her face.

"You will see Father, I shall bring the honor of our family back!"

Teresa's horse then let out a neigh as it started to bring Teresa to her destination.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 62 Something Warm

While riding her horse, Teresa took a deep breath as she conditioned her mind and body.

Being a Golden Knight does not only require a powerful body, but also a flexible mind capable of making sound decisions, especially during battles.

Not only a Golden Knight's life was at risk when he/she fights a Monster. Civilian lives are also accounted for, and a Golden Knight must do his/her best to protect them from harm.

Luckily for Teresa, there are no human settlements inside the Monster Territory that she was about to go to. That means that she can focus more on eliminating her target.

"~~~" Teresa's body then started to glow as golden particles started to converge upon her body.

Teresa felt euphoria as she felt her power rising as the golden particles entered her body. She continued of absorbing these golden particles until she felt full.

"It's really refreshing as always." Teresa commented as she flexed her lithe body. "If I can do this every time, then I could beat up my teacher..."

In the Human Faction, there are two ways that a human can gain power and fight against the members of the Monster Faction.

First is the Mage Path and second is the Knight Path.

Both Paths allow humans to manipulate the Essences around them to give them powerful combat abilities.

These Essences are quite numerous, giving the Mages and the Knights different Essences that they can access.

They can use Fire Essence, Earth Essence, Void Essence and others more, depending on their affinity.

However, the way the Mages and Knights use these Essences are vastly different from each other.

For the Mages, they rely more on controlling and guiding the Essences around them to create powerful spells.

As for the Knights, they absorb and integrate the Essences inside their bodies, making their bodies stronger, and also allowing them to perform feats that are impossible with just a normal body.

Teresa is a Knight, which meant that she had to absorb the Essence inside her body to make herself stronger.

But unlike the normal kind of Essence, the Essence that Teresa has was a fairly special one.

Her Essence, the Golden Essence, is not just one type of Essence. It was a combination of several Essences, which were mixed together to produce the Golden Essence.

The Essences that were combined were the Light Essence, Life Essence, and Divine Essence.

Each of these Essences were already damaging against Monsters, as their properties were already against the Monsters.

Combine these three Essences together, and their product that is the Golden Essence can be considered to the most powerful Essence that can be used against opposing Monsters.

"Hmph, with my Golden Essence, I can easily finish this mission!" Teresa muttered to herself confidently, as if it was already a forgone conclusion.

Teresa's thinkings can be said to be right, as Golden Knights like her can easily fight Monsters that are of higher rank than her, due to the powerful properties of her Golden Essence.

With these confident thoughts inside her head, Teresa let out a cheerful hum as her horse continued on carrying her.

After 4 hours of travelling, Teresa was able to reach her destination.

"..." Even though she had been trained by her father to fight, Teresa still could not help but feel nervous, as this is her first time to actually hunt a Monster inside a hostile territory.

"Don't be nervous! You already have your Golden Core, so you do not have to worry about losing energy when you fight!" Teresa whispered to herself as she surveyed something inside her body. "Just follow the battle plan, and you will win!"

The Knight Path and the Mage Path has 10 Grades of power, witch each Grade stronger than the former one.

Naturally, Grade 1 Knight/Mage is the weakest, while the Grade 10 Knight/Mage is the strongest.

These Grades allow the distinction of strength within the Human Faction, and it also shows the people that should be given more attention.

Each Grade has distinct classifications on them, allowing easier segregation of possible tasks.

Grade 1 Knights are the Knights that have started to slowly integrate their chosen Essence with every part of their body.

It was only when the Grade 1 Knights have fully integrated the essence with their body that they can try to reach Grade 2.

A Knight is considered to be a Grade 2 Knight when they can manifest their Essence on their weapons and attacks, allowing more flexibility on their power.

As for being a Grade 3 Knight, which was Teresa's current state, it can only be reached when a Knight successfully creates a dense ball of their Essence inside their body, which is called the Essence Core.

This Essence Core will provide a Grade 3 Knight with an explosive power and powerful abilities, which are very useful against battle with Monsters.

Only those who become a Grade 3 Knight are allowed to exterminate Monsters for the better of the Human Faction.

"Take calm breaths Teresa, you can do this. You will not fail..." Teresa took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself down.

It seems to have worked, as she always did this whenever she was scared.

Teresa approached a nearby tree as she tied her horse near it.

The grasses around the tree will be enough to keep the horse well-fed until Teresa arrives the next day.

Well that is, if Teresa can still come back.

Teresa shook these negative thoughts out of her head as she said,

"Of course I will come back! I am just going to fight a big boar! Heck, I am going to cook that one too!"

With these powerful acknowledgements, Teresa started to enter the Monster Territory, which turns out to be a large forest.

Teresa held her spear in a tense manner, making sure that the spear was in the right position so that she can easily use it if a monster was out there to ambush her.

"Huh?"

At this part of the forest, Teresa was sure that some Monster should have already tried attacking her.

Naturally, since she was still at the edge of the forest, the monster that will attack her are the weak ones. This is already a fact that was preached on their monster combat classes.

But right now, Teresa was not seeing anything that resembled an attack to her.

"Puch."

Teresa suddenly felt that she stepped on something soft, prompting her to look down.

"!!!" Teresa brandished her spear, as she saw that what she stepped on was a Rabid Rabbit, a Peon-Class Monster that were only good for being a pest.

But Teresa knew that their sharp teeth were already enough to tear a normal person in half.

There is no way that Teresa will allow this Rabid Rabbit to make its first move.

"Wuwuwu..." But to Teresa's incredulity, the Rabid Rabbit that she stepped on did not attack her at all. Heck, the Rabid Rabbit was not interested in attacking her at all!

The Rabid Rabbit just lay on the floor, sniveling and crying, as if it saw something that had spooked it greatly.

"What the hell..." Teresa muttered as she saw the state of the Rabid Rabbit. "Did I do something to spook it?"

"..."

"This really is weird..." Teresa muttered to herself as she decided to look more at the ground around her.

"..."

And that was when she saw a very weird and disconcerting sight.

Countless Monsters of all shapes and sizes were hiding inside bushes and behind trees, with their bodies expressing fear and terror.

Some were even scratching their faces and bodies, as if they want to just rip themselves to pieces.

"What?" Teresa was extremely confused with what she saw right now.

At first, she thought that maybe it was her fault that these weak monsters were this scared.

But then she realized that it should not be the case, as her observation suggested that these monsters were already like this even before she arrived.

"Does that mean that it was something else that scared them?" At that point, Teresa started to smile, as she started to form a hypothesis.

"Aha! It must be the Giant Boar that caused these weak monsters to be this fearful!" Teresa thought with excitement as her fear and trepidation began to disappear.

It was then that Teresa saw a trail of flattened grass that went past by all the terrified monsters.

Teresa followed this trail of flattened grass with her eyes, and she saw that this trail extended all the way towards the center of the forest.

Using her impressive deductive skills, Teresa was able to reach one simple conclusion.

"This trail of flattened grass must have been caused by the Giant Boar's body passing through here." Teresa muttered to herself as she slowly followed the trail of flattened grass. "That just means that as long as I follow this trail, I can easily reach where my target is!"

Teresa resisted the urge to cheer as she realized that she can finish her mission much earlier than she could have anticipated.

Now, Teresa only has to follow the trail, and she will have the chance to kill her target efficiently.

With her current state, Teresa can choose to just assassinate the Giant Boar, as she had the advantage on positioning.

Of course, Teresa can just fight the boar head-on, but why would Teresa do that?

Teresa was here for the results, and if that meant that she would have to be sneaky, then she will gladly do it.

"Calm and quiet. That is how a hunter should act." Teresa muttered to herself as she started to walk on the trail. She wore an excited smile on her face as she started to caress her spear fondly.

Teresa was surprised to see that it only took her 30 minutes to see where the trail had ended. At that point, Tereasa realized that she had already reached the place where her target was currently in.

Now, it is Teresa's time to fight.

But before Teresa could make her move, her eyes suddenly widened as she heard some voices talking near her target location.

She craned her neck and there Teresa saw that there are 7 more monsters talking with her target!

Luckily for Teresa, she was 20 meters away from the end of the trail, which allowed her to hide amongst the nearby trees.

Once the saw sure that she was hidden well, Teresa squinted as she used her advanced eyesight and hearing to observe her target's actions with the 7 other monsters.

"!!!" Teresa could hardly believe it, but from what she can see, her target seems to be acting subservient to the other monsters.

No, more specifically, her target was acting respectful towards the Tentacled Monster and the extremely beautiful black-haired woman, who obviously looked like a vampire.

The other 5 monsters were all weak monsters that were huddled behind the vampire.

Teresa tried to suppress her envy of the vampire's beauty as she tried to listen in to their conversation.

Teresa watched in horror as her target was skewered by a tentacle and a sword through its eyes.

Teresa had to stop herself from vomiting as she saw blood and some kind of organic matter gushing out of her target's eyes.

Teresa heard the vampire woman muttering these words, showing that the vampire woman was pissed at her target.

"I must run away!" At that moment, Teresa realized that she must run away immediately. There is no way that she can fight against those two Monsters who just easily killed her target!

Teresa heard some more murmurs coming from the Tentacled Monster, but she did not care to hear it as she started to slowly back away.

Teresa tried her best to make her escape as soundless as possible as she knew that one wrong sound will spell her doom.

But before she could distance herself away, Teresa's eyes widened as she saw the Tentacled Monster walking on the trail of the flattened grass!

That was when Teresa realized that the Monster who elicited fear from the weak monsters earlier was this Tentacled Monster.

"Why am I this unlucky!" Teresa complained inwardly as she tried to make herself as soundless as possible.

"..." Teresa kept her mouth shut and her breathing steady as she watched the Tentacled Monster and the other 6 monsters going past by her.

Only when these monsters were gone from her line of vision that she was able to sigh in relief.

But before she could compose herself, she suddenly felt something slimy wrapping around her legs.

"Kyaa!" Teresa let out a scream as she felt herself hoisted in the air.

Teresa felt a few seconds of disorientation before she found her vision back to normal.

But this did not make Teresa feel better as she realized that she was staring face to face with the Tentacled Monster!

Teresa's left ankle was currently tied up with one of the tentacles from the Tentacled Monster, effectively hanging her upside down.

"You think you can hide from me?" The Tentacled Monster's voice sounded wet and slimy, something that evoked sense of disgust from Teresa. "You are practically oozing with fear... there is no way that I cannot sense that."

"!!!" It was at that moment that Teresa suddenly felt intense fear, as if the monster in front her was the most fearsome thing in her life.

Teresa found herself paralyzed and speechless from fear. Her heart started to brat erratically as her mind frantically told her to escape from the monstrosity in front of her.

"Noo!!!" Teresa trembled for a second, before she felt something warm flowing down from between her legs.

"Alina, I think I made this girl piss herself." These were the last words that Teresa heard from the Tentacled Monster before her world faded to black.

Report chapter Comments

Chapter 63 An exposed wound will always hurt, no matter wha

Alex had already detected Teresa's presence earlier as he talked with the giant boar.

He was able to do it as his FED Manipulation allows him to detect emotions of sentient beings nearby.

But he did not call her out at that time, as he was busy talking with the giant boar.

It was only after he killed the giant boar that he decided to confront Teresa.

He caught Teresa's left ankle deftly with one of his tentacles, hoisting her upside-down in the air so that he can see her face.

"..."

Irritation. That was the first thing that Alex felt when he saw Teresa's actual appearance.

"The heck, she's also blonde like that dumb fairy..."

Teresa's beautiful face, perfect body, and her golden blonde hair managed to remind Alex about that irritating Guide of his.

"Tsk, I just feel pissed when I looked at this woman. She just reminds me of a large version of Asteria..." Alex thought to himself as he tried to erase Asteria's smug laughter out of his mind.

"Tsk." With this newfound irritation forming inside him, Alex decided to scare Teresa a little, just to reduce some of his frustrations.

"You think you can hide from me?" Alex tried to make his voice as creepy as possible, making sure that he sounded very scary. "You are practically oozing with fear... there is no way that I cannot sense that."

Alex then used his FED Manipulation to blast the poor woman with a large dose of fear.

"No!!!" Alex however, did not expect that the woman would actually piss herself as she dangled upside-down.

"Alina, I think I made this girl piss herself." Alex said to Alina as he watched Teresa lose her consciousness.

"Why did you even have to scare her that much?" Alina sighed as she gave Teresa a wary look.

"Well, seeing her face reminds me of Asteria's irritating laughter." Alex replied as he continued on dangling the unconscious Teresa with his tentacles.

"You and your antics..." Alina only shook her head in exasperation as she glanced once more at Teresa. "Well, since she was here already, then we better bring her along with us."

"That's what I am thinking too." Alex replied as he continued on walking. "Maybe we can ask this woman about some important information about the Human Faction..."

"Just make sure that she won't faint later." Alina teasingly said as she kept up with Alex.

"..."

"Big Sis, who is Asteria?" No. 4, who was still hugging Alina, tilted her head as she heard what Alex and Alina were talking about. "Is also a pretty Big Sis like you?"

"Well, she is pretty, but she is usually unreliable and always likes to benefit out of the miseries of other people." It was Alex who replied back, much to Alina's amusement and irritation. "So, don't make that Asteria your Big Sis."

"Ok..." No. 4 lost the cheerfulness in her voice as she averted her gaze away from Alex. Clearly, she was still scared of him.

"Well, you just made a woman piss herself. The kids will naturally get scared of you more." Alina said as she saw the forlorn look on Alex's face. "That's what you get for being naughty!"

"Hurry, where is my honey!" Of course, the first thing that Asteria will ask for is the jars of honey that she is craving to eat already.

She did not ask for Alex's and Alina's safety first.

She did not even comment on the appearance of the little monsters, or Teresa who was still dangling upside down.

No, Asteria just went straight to ask for her food.

"You did not even say a thank you." Alex snarled as she deposited 20 jars of honey in front of Asteria. "There, have your fill, freeloader."

"Yum yum!" Asteria seems to be unperturbed with what Alex said she went straight on gorging on her honey.

Alina, who saw what Asteria was doing, could not help but smile as she imagined how Alex was pissed off right now.

But if Alina was happy and Alex was pissed, the little monsters with them were slightly panicking.

"Sis, why can't we enter the clearing?" No. 1 asked as he and the other little monsters found themselves unable to enter the clearing with Alex and Alina.

More specifically, they could not get past the statues surrounding the clearing.

Upon seeing what was happening, Alina gave the little monsters an apologetic smile as she said,

"Well you see, these statues around us prevents weak monsters from entering. Only strong monsters like us or humans can enter."

"Is that so..." The little monsters all looked down, as they all looked like they have been kicked away.

Alina started to panic as she realized what the little monsters were thinking about.

"Hey, don't cry everyone, ok?" Alina said as she started to soothe the teary-eyed little monsters. "We just want to test that power of the statues. Now that we have tested it, it will be our time to leave this place and find a new dwelling."

"Really Sis? You will not leave us?" Even if some of the little monsters had no eyes at all, it was quite obvious that they were giving pleading looks at Alina.

"I promise. I will always bring you all along with me." Alina declared as she glanced at Alex, who was still busy glaring at the feasting Asteria. "You promise that too, right Alex?"

"Yes, I promise too." Alex replied truthfully, as he really had the plans to already leave their starting point.

"Well, before we leave, I think we should cook some good dishes first." Alex declared as he lowered the food luggage that he was carrying earlier.

"With all this food with us, we can have a feast before we leave!" Alex said with a glint in his eyes as he unceremoniously dumped Teresa on a nearby tree. "Now everyone, watch my cooking prowess!"

"Nom nom nom." The most prominent sound was the sound of Alina chomping on her food at blazing speeds.

It was hard to believe that someone as slim as her was able to eat this much food in just a short amount of time. Truly a miracle.

"Yummy!" The little monsters shouted in glee as they also ravenously consumed the banquet in front of them.

It's quite obvious on their body language that they enjoyed Alex's cooking.

"I could not believe that my cooking skills actually improved after I gained tentacles..." This is the thought that was inside Alex's head as he watched his companions enjoy his creations. "What a way to start this mission..."

Even Asteria, who usually enjoyed honey, could not help but drool as she inhaled the enticing scent of Alex' s dishes.

"Wuwuwu, if I am not only on an all-honey die right now, then I would have already eaten them all!" Asteria complained as she gave Alex a blaming look. "It's all your fault!"

"Sigh..." At this point, Alex just ignored Asteria again.

His focus was more concentrated on Teresa, who was still out cold, even after Alex's cooking period.

Alex continued staring at Teresa for a second before his gaze went towards No. 1, who was busy separating the naughty No.3 and No. 5

Alex knew that No. 1 was the defacto leader of the little monsters before their meeting.

As such, Alex knew that No. 1 already had advanced knowledge about the important things.

After all, it was usually knowledge that grants a person the confidence to lead.

Alex took advantage of this knowledge as he started to ask No. 1,

"Yo, No. 1, do you know what kind of person this woman was?" Alex said as he prodded Teresa's limp body. "I can feel a certain type of power welling inside her, although I still could not understand it that well."

"Oh." Even if No.1 was also scared of Alex, he was somewhat brave enough to reply to him.

"If you observe the woman's dress..." No. 1 slowly said, as if he was trying to emphasize these words. "You can see that there is a symbol on her dress that looks like an Emblem of the Golden Knight Academy, which means that she is a student there."

"Golden Knight Academy huh." Alex muttered as these words rolled off his mouth quite well. "Care to explain what is that place?"

"Alex, why don't you just KINDLY ask that question to your captive later when she wakes up?" Alina forcefully said before No. 1 could give his answer. "Can't you see that these kids are so tired and hungry? Look! They all look like they need rest! So, please do not bother these kids for now..."

"Yeah, don't bother me too, since I am also tired!" Asteria cheekily said as she plopped on top of Alina's head. "Really Alex, when can you learn to be sensitive?"

"This little..." Alex suppressed the urge to smack Asteria's smug face away as he and his tentacles slowly relaxed themselves.

"This is going to be a long day..." Alex thought to himself as he started to cook the other dishes.

"Wait, why am I the one who volunteered to cook all these dishes?"

The only reply that Alex got were the satisfied sighs of his companions.

"Ungh..." Teresa let out a light groan as she opened her eyes slowly.

Her memory was slightly foggy, which is normal to anyone who just woke up.

She blinked her bleary eyes as her mind began to work properly again.

It took Teresa 5 seconds to recall everything that happened to her before she lost her consciousness.

"!!!!" Teresa tried to jump up, as she began to remember the crippling fear that she felt earlier.

But she was unable to jump, as she found herself bound tightly to a tree.

More specifically, Teresa found herself tied to a tree with a bunch of ropes.

"!!!" Teresa, who started to panic as she saw her current state, decided to cut the ropes to free herself.

But to her chagrin, any attacks used with her Golden Essence were unable to affect the ropes.

"Noo..." Before Teresa could panic more, she suddenly heard a set of footsteps slowly approaching her.

Teresa looked at the source of the sound, and there she saw the Vampire Woman from earlier.

Even if Teresa was a woman, she found herself slightly dazed from the appearance of the Vampire Woman.

The Vampire Woman just smiled as she noticed Teresa's look, as if she was already used to this kind of reaction.

"So, how do you feel?" The Vampire Woman sweetly said, making Teresa feel extremely comfortable.

"Um, I feel scared." Teresa was not sure why, but she found the presence of the Vampire Woman soothing, even though it was quite obvious that this woman was allies with the Tentacled Monster. "Your companion really scared me a lot earlier."

"Well, do forgive Alex for what he did." The Vampire Woman replied as she gave Teresa another dazzling smile. "He just thought that you were a hostile one."

"Well I-" Before Teresa could give her answer, her eyes suddenly widened as she felt that something was wrong.

There is no way that Teresa will just talk casually with a Monster, since they were all enemies.

For Teresa to talk to one right now just meant that something is wrong.

"Kghk!" Teresa decisively bit her lips, until blood started to flow from it.

The pain of this bite managed to remove Teresa out of whatever state she was in earlier.

"You, what did you do to me?" Teresa snarled angrily at the Vampire Woman, as she realized that the Vampire Woman did something to her.

"Ara ara, you snapped out of it rather quickly." The Vampire Woman said, although she did not look disappointed at all. "I just used a little bit of Dark Magic on you. You know, a little sprinkle of Dark Energy."

"..." Teresa tried to not panic as she started to circulate her Golden Essence around her body.

According to what Teresa knew, if the Human Faction relies on Essence to bolster their power, the Monster Faction relies on Energy that comes from other Dimensions.

In the Vampire Woman's case, she channels the Dark Energy which comes from the Dark Dimension.

This Dark Energy in turn allows the Vampire Woman to use Dark Magic, which she just used on Teresa earlier.

"I will never befriend monsters like you!" Teresa spat out as she glared at the Vampire Woman with hate. "Monsters like you should not be allowed to live!"

"Can you say the same thing to the Humans that are forced to turn into Monsters?" The Vampire Woman said, before Teresa could say more. "Will you also kill them, even if they were former Humans?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Teresa was extremely confused after hearing what the Vampire Woman just said.

"Humans turning into Monsters? That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard!" Teresa snarled as she tried to kick the Vampire Woman. Of course this attempted failed too.

"Don't tell me... that you do not know?" The Vampire Woman gave Teresa one incredulous look, before she began to giggle. "Hehehe, so this horrific thing is actually a secret even amongst the Humans huh."

"What the hell are you talking about?" At this point, Teresa started to feel that something was wrong again.

But this time, this feeling was not related to any kind of magic used on her.

It was more related to the foreboding feeling inside her, as if it was warning her that she was about to see something that will change her view of life.

"I think it is better for you to see it by yourself." The Vampire Woman said as she clicked her fingers. "Kids, come on in."

"..." Teresa heard more footsteps, but this time, there were more than a pair of them.

Teresa tried to not look at the source of the sound, but then she found the Vampire Woman looking at her intently as she said,

"Why are you so scared to look at them? Are perhaps feeling that you must not look?"

"I will not fall for your Illusions again, woman!" Teresa shouted as she desperately hid the panicked feeling inside her. "There is no way that what you said was the truth! It is impossible for a Human to become a Monster!"

"Oh, if that was the case, then its fine if you looked at the kids that I called, right?" The Vampire Woman said as she used her steel-like grip to forcefully turn Teresa's head. "Come on, just a little look..."

"Ugh..." Teresa was unable to fight back as she was forced to look at the newcomers.

"See, isn't that just easy?" The Vampire Woman said as she watched Teresa's varying reactions upon seeing the little monsters. "Now, why don't we start talking to them? I am sure that you will understand their situation more once they open up to you."

"!!!"

Chapter 64 The Knight is Coming

Divine Knight Sylvester Glaivewood had been through some bad days already, but he was sure that today was one of his worst ones yet.

"Can you say it again? But this time a little more slowly?" The Divine Knight said as he tried to massage his temples. "I want to make sure that what you said was just like what I heard."

"Ok, Sir Glaivewood." The one who was talking to Sylvester was a black-haired woman, who was wearing thin-rimmed eyeglasses that made her look like an extremely efficient person.

And this woman really is efficient, as she is Sylvester's official partner on information gathering and dissemination.

The bespectacled woman let out a light sigh as she slowly said,

"6 Hours ago, some of our mages have detected the sudden appearance of monstrous amounts of concentrated energies in the Ursa Sector. After spending some time to measure the amount of the energies that appeared, our mages have concluded that these energies signify the appearance of 2 new Monsters that has potential to reach General Class."

"Oh f*k me sideways..." Being a Knight, and the Divine Knight to boot, Sylvester knew that it should not be right for him to curse.

But what he just heard warrants him the right to speak foul.

"Are you really sure about this, Mia?" Sylvester asked as he let out a deep breath. "And how come there were 2?"

"We are highly sure about this, Sir Glaivewood." Mia replied stiffly. "According to our Mages, the two types of energies that appeared in the Ursa Sector were Abyss Energy and Dark Energy. And by measuring the amounts of these energies that appeared, they were able to conclude the appearance of these new monsters."

"Not only that, but from the way they appeared, they were not Monsters that came from the Monster Birth Program." Mia said as she closely watched her boss' facial reactions. "These new monsters most likely came from different Planes of Existence. As for why they came here, we do not have any inkling why."

"..." The only thing that Sylvester could do was to close his eyes as he regulated his breath. "The presence of Abyss Energy means that one of them was a Great Elderitch, while the Dark Energy could mean any Monsters with alignment to Dark Magic... Tsk, just when I thought that things can't get worse anymore, something like this suddenly happens!"

"Well, if you want to be relieved, I have something that can reduce your stress." Mia said as she saw her boss starting to get stressed up.

"Fire away, I want to hear something good too."

"Well..." Mia trailed as she started to read the file paper that she held. "Our mages said that the 2 new Monsters that have appeared does not have the strength comparable to General-Class yet. But if they were given time, they will most likely reach General Class."

"That's good news indeed." Sylvester said as his body visibly sagged in relief. "That just means that we can send someone to kill these 2, and our problems will be solved. To make sure that they will be really dead, we should send out a Divine Knight. But who should we send?"

"Um right now, we can only send Divine Knight Barrios." Mia said, with traces of embarrassment present in her voice. "The other Divine Knights are current busy with their own matters, and only Divine Knight Barrios is currently free."

"Really, him only?" Sylvester let out a frustrated sigh as if he shared the same sentiments with Mia. "Sure, Barrios is a powerful Knight, but his sense of responsibilities is a little skewed..."

"Please Sir Glaivewood, I perfectly know how 'carefree' my younger brother is." Mia grimaced as she shook her head in annoyance. "Really, when will he learn to grow up?"

"Well, we just have to trust that your brother will be in his right head for now." Sylvester ruefully said as he and Mia both let out a sigh.

"..."

"Ok, I will go now to inform my brother about this." Mia said as she started to leave the room.

But before she could do so, she suddenly felt a pair of arms hugging her from behind.

Mia tried to not let out a moan as she felt an extremely masculine body in close contact with her back. The masculine body's musky scent which tickled her nose was enough to make her feel hot and excited.

Mia tried to hide her excitement as she said,

"Sir Glaivewood, I think this is not the right time to..."

"There is no right or wrong time for us, Mia." Sylvester hurriedly said as his face started to turn red. "We have been in this relationship for 3 years already, and both of us have already made love on many special places. Doing it here in my office is no big deal."

"But-" Mia's words were cut off as Sylvester kissed her deeply, with this tongue intertwining with hers.

"Mmnnn..." At that point, Mia's mind went blank as she decided to reciprocate the kiss.

Both of their hands then freely roamed with each other bodies, with Mia squeezing Sylvester's tightly packed muscles and Sylvester copping a feel on Mia's extremely round rear.

They continued kissing for 5 more minutes, and by this point, both of them were already panting.

"Let's do this." Sylvester said as he and Mia started to remove their clothes.

But before they could even start removing their clothes, they suddenly heard a knock on the door, which interrupted them from their hot and steamy exchange.

"What the hell?" Mia felt irritation as she heard the knock, having the same feeling as Sylvester himself. "Who would dare knock at this time?"

"Tsk, I don't know, but if this person interrupted us for just a small reason, then I am not sure on what to feel." Sylvester said as he and Mia fixed their appearances, just to make sure that they did not look like they were exchanging their body heat earlier.

"Come in." Sylvester gruffly said as he removed the lock on his door.

What Sylvester saw when the door opened was a thin, scrawny man.

Judging from the clothes that he wore, the thin man looked like a new addition to the Knight Division.

"So you are a new Knight huh. Must be hard for you." Sylvester said as he did not show disdain on his expression.

He knew that new additions like this thin man were the ones that are usually being pushed around by the older Knights in the Knight Division. This is inevitable as the whole Knight Division is just another place to show off power.

Frankly speaking, Sylvester does not like this kind of attitude, but this kind of behavior in the Knight Division had been somewhat helpful to produce Knights that can fight off against powerful Monsters.

Sylvester can attest to this fact.

"It's hard, but I think I can manage." The thin man said as he gave a confident smile to Sylvester.

"Your attitude is impressive. I like that." Sylvester commented as he saw that the thin man was seemingly unfazed even if he was talking with a Divine Knight.

"I appreciate your praise, Sir Glaivewood." The thin man quickly replied as a pleased expression appeared in his face. Clearly, this man is a fan.

"Well, I think the time for the idle talk must end for now." Sylvester said as his displeasure from being blue-balled started to dissipate.

"Initiate Knight... Lecter." Sylvester said as he looked at the nameplate on the thin man's uniform. "State your intentions."

"Salutations, Divine Knight Glaivewood." The Initiate Knight said as he gave Sylvester a piece of envelope. "The Golden Knight Academy instructed me to pass you this letter."

"..." Sylvester did not say anything as he accepted the envelope, which was covered by a golden glow. He stayed silent for ten seconds before he gave a curt look at the thin man.

"You may leave now, Initiate Knight." Sylvester said as he sat back on his chair.

"Affirmative, Sir Glaivewood." If the Initiate Knight was confused, he did not show it as he hurriedly left the room.

"So, you received another letter from her." Mia commented as she saw Sylvester's nervous look. "Really, even now you are still this nervous?"

"How could I not be? This letter is personally made by my daughter!" Sylvester said as he held the envelope gingerly. "There is no way that I could not be nervous!"

"Sigh, you really are cute when you act like that." Mia said with amusement as she started to heat up a tea kettle nearby. "Hurry up and read it. I also want to hear what Teresa has to say."

"Hmph, I am sure that Teressa will be writing again on about how she wants to be like me." Sylvester snorted as he started to open the envelope.

What came out of the envelope was a piece of paper, with some sentences written in it.

Sylvester frowned when he saw the paper, as if there was something wrong with it.

"Hmm, it seems like my daughter just wrote a very short letter this time." Sylvester noted as he started to read the letter.

His deep voice reverberated across the room as he read the letter with enthusiasm.

[Father, I am too busy on training right now so I cannot write a long letter. What I can only say is that my Kill Mission will start on the day that you receive this letter.]

[Do not worry Father, I will succeed on my Kill Mission here in the Ursa Sector, and I will come back with the head of my Target.]

[That's all that I can say for now, so wish me luck!]

[P.S. Tell Mia that I said hi. Tell her that I also want to get a little brother too.]

"Pfft..." Mia snorted a little as she tried to not laugh. It was quite obvious that the last line in Teresa's letter sounded amusing to her.

"Well, your daughter really has a good sense of humor like you, Sir Glaivewood." Mia said as she wiped the tears that formed in her eyes. "I really want to see her-"

Mia was unable continue talking as she saw the expression on Sylvester's face.

Instead of looking amused, Sylvester looked extremely horrified and angry.

"What's the matter, Sir Glaivewood?" Mia hesitantly asked as she saw the unnatural look on Sylvester's face. Is there something wrong with the letter?"

"Teresa said in this letter that her Kill Mission will be inside the Ursa Sector today." Sylvester slowly said as his face turned more and more pale. "You realize what that means, right?"

"!!!" At that point, Mia realized why Sylvester looked so worried. "In that case..."

"You told me that 2 new powerful Monsters appeared in the Ursa Sector earlier." Sylvester said as he stood up from his chair. "That happened just 6 hours earlier..."

A murderous aura then began to leak out of Sylvester, and even Mia could not help but step back in fear.

"If what my daughter said in this letter was true, then it means that right now, Teresa is inside the Ursa Sector." Sylvester snarled as he took deep breaths to compose himself. "This is not good."

Mia's pale face could only nod numbly as she said,

"Currently, the Ursa Sector houses 2 new Monsters that can possibly kill any Knights that are around 3rd to 5th Class. Teresa only became a 3rd Class Knight recently. That just means that she... will be easily killed in the Ursa Sector by these 2 monsters..."

"F*k!" Sylvester's face showed his anger and even Mia has no trouble understanding his feelings right now.

Mia touched Slyvester's arms in an attempt to placate him as she said, "Sir Glaivewood, I think I need to go to my brother righ-"

"There is no need for you to call your brother anymore." Sylvester interrupted Mia as he headed towards the door.

As he walked, Sylvester's body glowed so bright that Mia was forced to avert her eyes.

A second passed by, and Sylvester's appearance changed.

He was now wearing a golden armor which covered his whole body perfectly.

There was also an extremely large halberd that was sheathed in his back. The size and impressive bulk of the halberd was enough to intimidate Mia, who had already seen this halberd for many times.

"I do not want to leave my daughter's life in the hands of your brother." Sylvester said as he opened the door. "I shall be the one to rescue her, and nobody, not even the King can stop me from doing so."

"... In that case, I wish you luck, Sylvester." Mia whispered as she gave him an encouraging smile. "You might need it."

"You know that I am a Divine Knight." Sylvester said as he closed the door behind him. "People like us are hard to kill."

"... Just come back with Teresa, ok?"

"That is what I plan to do."

Report chapter Comments