Chapter 18: The Decision

Amihiha's view

We've been fighting for a while. The shark man sure is a tough man. I've fought the Rampaging Unicorn alone once, but this is like the wolf in Andras. The Kou Empire were known to be extremely ambitious, and they're willing to tame and train Dungeon monsters to fight for them. I gripped my blade with two hands and entered my fighting pose. I wasn't damaged too much, so I can still fight.

"Hehehe," the man cackled,"This isn't even my final form!"

He started to grow larger and two blade-like dorsal fins each grew on his forearms. His head started to turn more demonic looking. I'm not scared of him.

He took a deep breath and shot a powerful water jet at me, but I managed to roll away from it. The water jet was so strong that it tore the floor. I held my horn with one hand, backhanded style. I charged toward him as he was tired from producing that water jet. I lunged at his chest with my horn. His thick muscles held my horn in place. I tried pulling it out, but he smiled as he tightened his chest. With my left hand, I brandished my fang knife and did an uppercut on his exploited neck. It tore through his neck, but the cut was too shallow. I gritted my teeth in anger from the shallow cut. I lunged my knife into that wound, and he slightly winced in pain.

"Little bitch!" he cussed and threw a powerful punch at me. The force was so strong that it harshly knocked me into the wall.

"Amihiha!" Amelia shouted.

She slithered to me and held my damaged body. That punch was strong, but I still wasn't out. I slowly stood up and gently pushed her aside. In hunts like before, I was damaged like this once. I held my Unicorn horn tightly and entered in a fighting pose. I looked at Amelia. She initially had a worried face, now her face was serious and she reached out a hand.

"Let me join you, hand me your knives," she said. Her face was serious, as if she found a reason to fight,"The treasure can wait, your life is more important. Let me help."

I nodded with a smile on my face and gave her my fang knives. We heard the roar of the mighty shark man and we both faced him and entered in battle positions.

Franklin's View.

"Clang*

We both jousted each other in the air, and both of us were equally damaged from that exchange. Kougyoku, though not a zombie like me, shrugged it off as if it was merely a wound. I think becoming the Djinn itself grants you extreme durability too; durable enough to withstand a King Vessel's Djinn Weapon alone.

"You can't keep flying forever, Franklin," Kougyoku said in a sultry yet sadistic tone.

I was still on the top of the pod of the CN Tower replica, while my opponent was flying in the air. All she was doing was firing water bolts at me. I have to commend her for using her flight as an advantage. What can I do? My flight is less mobile than her flight, which is more controlled and free. If only I had something to pull her down.

"You too, Kougyoku," I pointed at her with one sword,"Once I defeat you, I'm going to marry the heck out of your crazy ass," I was joking.

"In your dreams, you dead peasant," she spat back.

She covered herself in water and lunged toward me with her weapon. I looked closely and noticed that her Metal Vessel is contiuously flowing with water to produce the veil. I fired a lightning bolt at her and she quickly did a barrel roll to dodge my lightning. She started laughing maniacly.

"I haven't even used all of my Magoi yet," she said.

She accelerated faster toward me with horrifying speed. I guarded her attack with my blades, but water around her was flowing like a rapid, grinding my blades. She reeled her sword back and with quick reflexes, she used her left hand to grab my neck. She realized my weakness to magic, so she endowed her left hand with water and brutally punched me in the face. The fusion of a super powered fist and a fire hose hit my face and caused both of us to go through the roof and into the room with the entrance to the Treasury. Damn, my face hurt. I can't beat her in normal swordplay, because I can't even get close to her while she zips around in the air.

All right then, time to use Magoi Manipulation.

I tossed her away from me. She floated in the air and stared at me with scary eyes, believing I gave up.

I started focused my Magoi into my weapon. Strange, it was as if this Metal Vessel was... living. As if it has tricks hiding in its sleeves.

"I see that you're being rather nosy, my King," a voice spoke.

"Orobas?"

"Using your Magoi to connect to the Metal Vessel has allowed you to connect with my Rukh, allowing me to speak to you,"

It had hidden segments. Are these swords not only swords, but whip blades?

"I can hear your thoughts well, my King, because you're connecting your body to my Rukh. After all, I'm the Djinn of Knowledge and Pursuit. If you want victory, know about my secrets and pursue them. I will help you fight your enemies,"

I stood up slowly, causing her to laugh sadistically. That laugh was kind of cute and scary.

"Well well, looks like I'm going to have to kill you,"

A giant circle formed behind her. Shit! Is this an Extreme Magic?!

"Spirits of Sorrow and Isolation..."

She closed her eyes while chanting. I have to interrupt her channel right now. I charged my two blades with black electricity. The blades revealed that they were segmented, linked together with black lightning. I think it's using Orobas's magnetic properties.

"thou who controls great se- Wahh!"

Her arms were held by two extended whip blades. I closed my eyes and allowed my Magoi to go to her. Orobas's black lightning also is "Magoi Conductive", meaning I can use Magoi Manipulation through it. I started to connect my Magoi with hers to absorb it. I wanted to end this, but it ended up receiving a glimpse of her past. I saw what looked like a prostitute and a royal king, and then I saw her doing a fashion show by herself. All of this flashed through my head while I was absorbing her life. Despite me sucking out her life, she swatted off my whips with her sword and leapt into the ocean. According to Ignatius, a Metal Vessel user can regain Magoi by absorbing the Djinn's respective Element.

"Crap, I might be screwed,"

The durability of a Djinn equipped Vessel can withstand just one who only uses the weapon. Also, according to some of her memories, she was raised as a warrior, and warriors were not only raised how to fight, but to also take punishment. Kougyoku has much more experience as a Metal Vessel than me, because she conquered Vinea years ago. She rose up from the water, refreshed and with an insane look on her face. The large circle from before started to form. She basically has unlimited Magoi thanks to this "ocean". No matter how much I'll try, she'll just fly to the water again.

"Dammit Orobas, this isn't enough! I need to fully equip you if I want to win against her,"

She rose up with a large wave of water at her wake as she rushed toward me.

"Die already, you degenerate peasant!" she screamed.

I looked to my left and saw Ramses and Emiline, hiding behind rubble. They nodded to me, and I responded with a nod. What were they going to do?

"Any last words, sweetheart?"she said in sadistic sultriness.

A confident grin crept up as I bent down on knee.

"Will you marry me?"

The mad princess laughed madly from my supposed last words.

"Like hell I will, you're not even on par with Sinbad or Brother En-huh?"

A small light orb hovered in front of her and exploded, emitting both a loud noise, and great light. I only heard a sharp noise and my eyes were blotted with white, but they instantly melted away through my Life Parasite regeneration. When my vision cleared, that large blue wave in Kougyoku's wake dropped, and she too fell down in a disoriented state.

My two friends walked up to me and helped me get up. With a grateful smile I patted both of their backs.

"Thanks guys, together, we can't lose," I said confidently.

"Yep, now let's get us to that treasure room,"

We walked up to the treasure room portal and entered. Hope you're okay, Amihiha.

Amelia's View

Of course I've seen enough villain scenes where everyone stacks on him and then he pushes them all the way, so Amihiha and I decided to attack separately. I slithered to his left and Amihiha to his right. I was from a rich family that had a history of thieving and my dad taught me how to wield a knife. Too bad when I got mutated, they took my balisongs. These knives will do. The shark man focused his sights on Amihiha and threw a fist at her, only for her to jump over it and swing that strange weapon on his arm. The fins clashed with it and both made a clanging noise as if two steel blades crashed into each other. I realized that on his belt was a pouch. I charged in toward him and prepared to cut his back, but he used his left hand to sweep behind him. I hopped into the air, forming a spring with my tail and did a dropping lunge with both knives on his arm. As if he was a dragon, many sharp scales protected his skin, thus causing my blades to bounce off.

"Gwehehehe! Not even Imuchakkan weapons can pierce through my sharkskin," the shark laughed.

He swung his large tailfin at me, pushing me away with incredible force. I still held on to the knives Amihiha lent me. Despite the strength of his tail, I could still stand up. I scanned the shark man. Everything on his body is covered in scales, but his eyes can prove to be a good weak point. If I remember clearly, sharks also had a soft underbelly. But it will be hard to approach him from the front. If his arms don't hit us, then he can use his teeth.

We both charged at him, taking turns to strike him, but his armor and his seemingly advanced reflexes proved our efforts useless. Every time I tried to attack his belly, his arms would immediately swat me.

Amihiha charged toward the giant beast with her weapon coated in some sort of yellow energy. The shark man used his left arm in an attempt to sweep her away, but she cleanly cut through his fin by that energy coated slash. Shark man was obviously angry and despite his dismembered forearm fin, he kicked her harshly into the wall.

"Grrrgh!" I heard Amihiha scream in pain as she bounced off the wall and into the floor. My eyes tensed from the damage she received.

She knelt to the ground with that strange weapon keeping her up. Her head oozed blood and she was breathing heavily. As soon as she stood on her feet, the beast grabbed her by her ponytail and pulled her up high and grabbed a familiar knife that I had.

"That's my knife!" I shouted.

He didn't look at me.

"This knife will kill your friend."

He raised Amihiha's exhausted body higher and sliced off her ponytail, causing her to drop to the ground. She started crying from failure, crying from the fear of death. He reeled his arm and prepared to stab her.

I was scared to see her die, but am I going to just watch her die?

Even if you're a Lamia, even if you were a mutant, you helped me and trusted me as I did too. I will protect you, even if my body perishes.

My mind replayed that quote from Franklin when he protected me from an army 10 ft octopuses. I quickly sprung toward the knife arm and stabbed his hand. I managed to get him to let go of the knife and I grabbed it before it even dropped. Even if I knew the skin of the shark was extremely strong, I just lunged it into his face and much to my surprise, it penetrated pretty deep. He screeched in pain as he flailed his head around. I pulled out my knife and landed on the ground. My balisong knife radiated with black and green energy. I looked in front of me and saw a yellow bird hovering in front of me.

"Who are you?" I said to the bird.

"I am the Familiar of the Dark Lightning produced from the Djinn, Orobas," a female voice said,"Your loyalty and connection to King Franklin has allowed me to be born and I shall grant you power shared from his King's power,"

The bird shifted into black lightning that surged through my knife. My arm is surrounded by black lightning and next thing I knew, my body had black lightning dance around me. They didn't harm me, but I was still kind of scared from this newfound power.

As if this spirit possessed me, I unfolded the knife, splitting the two handle parts. The other handle part and the knife stayed still when they had a 45 degree angle distance from each other and between them, a thin stream of electricity was formed, creating an energy sword. The sword was pitch black and had a lime green hue.

"Household Vessel: Kahraba Harba!" I pointed my black energy sword at the shark man and it shot a great spear of black lightning so fast that it already impaled him in mere seconds. The spear dragged him with it during its flight and when both the spear and the shark hit the wall, a rising beam of black lightning consumed him. The shouts of his agony were his last words as he was completely electrified by millions of bolts.

I suddenly felt exhausted. I wasn't in fighting condition, but I could still slither for a few meters. I decided I should rest and await my friends. The wait wasn't too long as I saw Franklin and his party come in. Franklin ran toward my downed body and held my torso up while looking at me with worry.

"Amelia, are you really my Household?" he said as he noticed the black lightning on the arm that held my balisong.

I laughed weakly and embraced his cold body. I started to tear up.

"Thank you, Franklin, and I'm...soorry..." I coughed out some blood,"I'm sorry... that you... never grew... to know,"

I coughed again and felt weaker. It was as if that attack drained me of my health. I felt like I was going to die. My eyes closed slowly and I passed out.

Emiline's View.

As I saw Franklin cradle the snake lady(much to my envy), I ran to Amihiha's tired body, laying on the floor. When I got closer, I noticed her dried tears and cut hair. I felt like she was nearly defiled, but was saved from a miracle. Amihiha opened her eyes and struggled to stand up, but she fell on her back and started to breath heavily. At this rate, she may pass out, and if she does, Judar and the others will find us and take our Djinn and kill us all. With no other option, I put my staff on her and for some reason, I said words I never knew.

"Ladheed Sihha!"

A series of golden vines sprout from my staff and started to tangle the various parts of Amihiha. The vines had a soothing gold aura, and that aura seemed to close her wounds and relieve Amihiha's stress. After a few seconds of the golden vines embracing her, they surrendered back into my staff, and the once damaged girl stood up as if she woke up from a good night's sleep.

"Wow Emiline, I've never seen you use that spell. Where did you learn it from?" she said with the same childish fervor she has.

I scratched my head, wondering how I learned it. Was it Rukh's guidance?

"Orobas, show me where Goap is!" Franklin said to his scissors.

The linchpin of his scissors radiated, which also made a rusted oil lamp in one of the heaps of rusty treasure glow. Amihiha ran to it and touched it. The oil lamp sprouted a blue mist like how it usually does in Aladdin(the movie). A radiant wave of light hit the rusted treasures around here, revealing their golden luster.

The mist materialized into a young lady. She had short hair with a golden tiara on her head, adorn with a sapphire. She seemed to be in her tweenages, looking around 13 years old. Her top started from the middle of her upper arm and ended by the end of her not-so-developed breasts. Despite being a Djinn, she showed her full body, revealing that she was a mermaid.

"Hehe, I'm the Djinn of Freedom and Youth, Goap. Who wants to be king?"

She stared at Amelia first. She shook her head, confirming she wasn't chosen.

"You're already Franklin's Household member, so you're a no," she said to Amelia, much to her confusion.

She then looked at Ramses. A sparkle appeared in her eyes and went close to the teen.

"You're cute, and you've attained Djinn Equip easily, but I'm guessing Andras will be jealous,"

Blue smoke fumed from Ramses's sheathed curved sword and Andras was produced.

"I don't really mind company, but I'm afraid my king doesn't accept," the Wind Djinn commented.

Goap raised her brow.

"Why not?"

"Because, Amihiha conquered the dungeon, and she's King Vessel material too,"

She looked at me and waved at me with childish joy.

"Hi Magi Anima," she said,"You look different... WAY different."

What the heck is she talking about? Could it be possible I'm like Titus? I widened my eyes from her greeting.

"Are you saying I'm a reincarnated Magi?" I questioned the girl.

"Yep," she floated to me and put a finger on my head,"But, the fact that you don't have much of her memories is questionable,"

She turned to Franklin and she blushed deeply. She quickly teleported to him, much to his surprise.

"It's as if you're Sinbad. You're Magoi quantity exceeds everyone's aside from Anima's, but the only thing you lack is your developing mastery of your Djinn. But I choose yo-"

"Nope," Franklin said with a serious voice.

"I wasn't here to conquer it for myself, I was here to help Amihiha conquer it," he pointed at Amihiha,"Look at her, she has an above average Magoi capacity, she's a sturdy hunter, and her swimming and Magoi Manipulation can work well with your abilities."

Franklin is really selfless. He's a bit too humble in my opinion, but what's wrong with that? This is why I like him.

She turned to Amihiha and grumbled to herself.

"Geez, I was just building up suspense," she said as she floated away from Franklin. She looked at Amihiha as she grew to her size. She transformed her tailfin into two pairs of luscious legs. She talked seriously this time.

"I already knew I would choose you. I've seen your Rukh, and I'm glad that you converted your envy to willpower. You even took on the Rampaging Unicorn and put mortal wounds on it despite it being able to be beaten easily by a King Vessel. You're adaptive, you're strong, and you're persistent, and you are able to lead as well as comply with other leaders."

The dungeon started to crumble. All five of us grabbed as much treasure as we could and Goap produced the portal out of here.

"Damned Judar and his dungeon destroying antics,"

"Are you saying Judar escaped without your portal?!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, Magi can do that, especially experienced ones like Yunan or Judar,"

How?!

"Amihiha, my Vessel, hold out your weapon,"

She unsheathed her Unicorn Horn and Goap instantly shifted into a stream of water that entered Amihiha's weapon. The eight-pointed star engraved itself near the guard of her weapon.

"Know this Amihiha, the King/Queen you wish to be is all up to you,"

Franklin's View. "Elevator" to the world.

Emiline, Ramses, and Amihiha rested on a large sack with golden artifacts inside. I put on my Limiter Gem and ate some of the few food that Emiline brought. I needed to replenish my Magoi, and also keep my body healthy to maintain my strength. Amelia slithered to me and sat down beside me with a sad face. She was still injured, but she could still move albeit ruggedly.

"Amelia... it's so surprising that you became my Household in just a few hours," I said.

She nodded, but she had a skeptical look on her face.

"What's my special connection with you? I'm not so sure myself," she said.

I thought about it for a moment, gathering the memories of when we were in the dungeon. She's been here before, but didn't reach Necropolis. Perhaps she explored it, then she got mutated and was put into the lake in the first level. She helped maybe because we were both from each other's world, and maybe she put her trust in me after I saved her from that kraken and she saved me too when I was helpless underwater.

"We kept saving each other," I said,"And we also had faith in each other. Also, I think it's because I never saw you as a monster, but as a human being, and you did the same despite my zombie physical makeup."

She put a hand on me. She blushed from feeling my returned body warmth.

"You're...warm," she whispered.

"Yeah... I've regained half of my humanity through a gem lodged in my chest," I smiled warmly at her,"Now, can you tell me about your past? I'll tell you a bit of mine too,"

Turns out, Amelia came from a rich family that were involved in crime. During her time as a criminal, she was more malicious and evil, using her skills learned from her feather to threaten others and get what she wants. When she reached a prosperous state in her crime life, she was enticed by a lady to find riches in a recently built palace near Disneyland. It seemed suspicious at first, but she was kicked in before she even wanted to enter. She survived nearly every obstacle by herself, but in the end, she was mutated by the aqua hydra (which I killed rather easily via the Hercules method. Much to my surprise, it worked(with the help of our Magi).

I told her mine, and she laughed at how pathetic and meaningless my life was. I laughed too at hers, much to her confusion.

"You know, it's kind of weird that our lives our kind of have a sort of reverse. While you lived a good life back in our world, you became miserable when you came to this world, due to your Lamia form. Also, my life was miserable in our world because of my loneliness, but I'm guessing I'm living a good life here in this world," I closed my eyes and gathered my memories. I saw the faces of the people I befriended. Mu, Titus, Shambal, Toto, Myron, Rohroh, Emiline, Ignatius, Amihiha, Ramses, Sinbad and the Eight Generals, Alibaba, Aladdin, Morgiana, and the former Aum Madaura pirates.

I heard sniffling. I looked at Amelia and she had a teary face. She cried on my shoulder.

"You're my first true friend, Franklin. My life was only full of betrayal, and deception," she put her hand on her snake tail,"I think me becoming a gorgon, or a Lamia is a symbol of my deceit,"

She dug her face into my chest and cried.

"I was planning to betray you, but you never showed any signs of regret or thought I was just a burden," she held my hands and inched her face close to me. I widened my eyes and a pink blush shaded my face.

"I'm eternally grateful, and as your Household, or whatever it is, I will follow you and I'll fight with you,"

I pet her blue hair, causing her to smile warmly. I pulled her in for an embrace, and she returned it shortly.

"You don't have to be alone anymore. I'm here, as well as Emiline, Amihiha, and Ramses. Oh, and you're Household spirit is with you, signifying that I'll always be with you as long as I still have my Metal Vessel,"

A burst of Rukh spiraled around both of us. Amelia was confused and scared, wondering what's happening.

"What are these birds?" she said in a panicky voice.

"Rukh. They are souls of previous fallen men, and whenever the Rukh adore us, they are visible and guide us to our fate. When men die, the flesh return to dust, but their souls go to the One great Rukh,"

"Do Rukh happen to be trolls?" I knew what she meant, but I shook my head in response.

"White Rukh were never meant to be malicious," I smiled to myself,"That's why Rukh guide those who are adored by it, and to be adored by it is to have faith in our destiny,"

She sighed as she let go of her embrace and lay on the large treasure bag behind her. She closed her eyes and her tense sad face was now relaxed and carefree. She opened her eyes and stared into the astral expanse. She sighed and smiled as she basked in the beauty of the stars illuminating the abyss.

I spun my scissor with one finger and pointed it toward a distant star. A relaxed smile was on my face. It seemed like the end of a journey, but it's not over yet. I haven't even mastered my Djinn Equip, and so did Amihiha. The Kou Empire, and possibly the Parthevia Empire are still hunting us, my brother may have started a dystopia, and I haven't found a way back home.

Sasan

"Well well. Look at that blonde hottie," Leila said in a flirty voice as she sat on top of the church tower, stalking the arrival of Alibaba Saluja. Kristina sat beside her and twirled her balisong knife around.

"That man seems like an obstacle later on," Kristina said,"And there's a Magi with him too."

Leila snickered.

"They can't find us, I set up a veil to block out your Metal Vessel presence,"

"I know,"

Suddenly, another lady appeared before Leila. She turned behind her and saw the lady standing before her.

"That's not a nice way to introduce us..."

The lady had an Egyptian styled bob cut colored in white. She had Caucasian skin and her eyes were bright red. She had a rather voluptuous yet toned build and there were some stitches on her. She wore a small leather vest that reached to the bottom of her chest, and a white t-shirt underneath. She had a pair of hot pants and wore knee-length leather boots. She had two fingerless gloves with three knife-sized claws protruding out of the knuckles. Both had the eight-pointed star, meaning she held two Djinn.

"Owner of the Djinns, Marchosias, and Stolas, Serket Brishika,"

She remained silent.

"Now that you're here, I'd like to give you a mission,"

She opened up a portal. An image was formed and it showed Franklin and Amelia, washed up on a beach.

"These people have grown stronger, and while Kristina will stalk the Magi of Life, you shall stalk her Kings. Gather information from them, but don't encounter or attack them,"

Serket silently nodded and entered the portal. The Magi of the Void smiled to herself and looked up into the sky.

"My greatest stage will be set in time,"

To be continued...

Yunan's view.

I was sitting inside my home and sipping on tea I made using my magic. It was a relaxing day overall, but then something caught my attention. A disturbance.

"Those four Magi are here now?"

I started to get worried. This situation might be more scarier than the Medium's summoning. A series of Rukh surrounded me and I allowed a few of them to perch on my finger. The sight of them made me smile.

"The aliens may have started this event..."

I closed my eyes and envisioned the first alien that came in. Franklin was his name. He lead his group with many Kings and their Households by his side against another group of Kings, led by a young Magi. But this young Magi wasn't that chibi with the blue hair. A fight that is birthed from an escalated sibling quarrel. But then I saw another group standing to Franklin's right. Another faction. The numbers were small, but their aura was scary. Despite this foresight, I had hope for this Franklin kid.

"...but the alien that came here first, may be the one to stop it, but he won't be alone, for his other Kings and his Magi will help him too."

Edit 2

So, I'm working on my upcoming fic with Theo as the central character. This fic will show Theo's journey to learning his true powers, and the shenanigans he has to deal with. Theo, as mentioned in this chapter, is affiliated with the Kou Empire.

Edit 3

Extended the Kougyoku scene a bit.

Edit 4

Decided to make this the main storyline. ApoTheosis is just the story in Theo's eyes. It will be shorter than Abra Cadaver though.

Edit 5

Removed the Hinode Kingdom parts and the Kou Empire parts. I decided Theo's path will be different.