Chapter 5

People in big black cloths started pouring in, they’re trying to use the darkness and advantage in number to get to the girls, they aren’t even trying to stealth it. The maids threw down small stones that had some white glowing letters on it. The maids, Fael, and Hor all looked away right before the stone hit the floor. There were several flashes of light and the peoples in black tumbled around blinded. I didn’t bother looking away, the light doesn't hurt my eyes. As they fumbled confused the vines started wrapping around them and the maids started flinging seeds on them. Upon contact, the seeds burst out vines and started wrapping the invaders.

Some of them recovered their witts and realize that a full-on charge will not help them. They took out something, ranging from stones with red letters carved in them, scrolls that glowed red from the inside, other just plain torches that they lit with magic and lighters. It was obvious what they are trying to do so the maid started pulling levers on the walls and the water runes started glowing and showering the place. Their clothes grew damp and as a result, where heavy. It seems like Fael and Hor are handling the bottom floor really well. But now it’s my turn to get rid of people who are smart enough not to step through the front door. I stood upon the railing and stepped back landing once again on the floor. The invaders crouched in the dark, they seemed to have climbed through the windows and are now crawling towards me with their blades ready. I unsheathed my two swords and twirled them a bit.

“You know if a guy has glowing eyes you should guess that they can see in the dark.”[Ultimias]

“...”[???]

“Well, come to me.”[Ultimias]

They lunged at me at full speed, looks like they’re done with stealth. I slowly wind up my blade making it clear that I was going to do a vertical cut, the one in front just lifted his dagger, he seemed confident he could stop it. If only he knew that the dust that makes this body also gives me incredible strength. Just when they were about to get into my ‘range’ I suddenly lunged forward with tremendous speed. The first assailant was caught by surprise and flinched, then my blade went right through his dagger, cutting it in half, and straight down on his head. The other assailants jumped back, now aware how fast I can be. I twisted my body and swung my other blade at the nearest person. This time he reinforced his blade with magic but that didn’t stop me from smashing him through the railing and sending him falling to the bottom. The two other invaders separated, one was going for the vault and his dagger was etched with a purple light on the edge and mist billowed from it. The other stood in between me and the one with a dagger. he has a clear crystal that had a magic circle inside. I threw one of my swords at the crystal stone, the man pulled back his hand and the sword barely hit it. Instead, it struck the man behind him and he died on the spot and he dropped the dagger and a box. Whenever my dust leaves my range of control, it will still retain its shape, I just can't control it. Though I really should’ve taken the time to at least put a soul star in it. The assailant looks back at his fallen comrade and back at me before he tightened his hand. The clear crystal shattered and the circle that was inside now glowed in midair. It started sucking the assailant dry, killing him. Then there was a bright flash and a fissure appeared on the floor. Even darker shadows started spreading from it and a hand reached out and pulled itself out of the crack. When the creature got out, the crack sealed itself and the thing simply stood there. I looked at what was probably a demon that can be controlled by that box, but he's dead now. So why did the assailant sacrificed himself?

“I see that you’re a strong opponent.”[???]

I looked behind me and spotted another man. This time he didn’t bother wearing the long cloth like his friends. He was simply dressed in a suit and a tie, with his white hair in complete view. He isn’t even trying to hide his identity.

“Hello, my name is Behn, I see that you're a skilled adventurer, it’ll be a shame if you have to die. I do hope we can reach a consensus.”[Behn]

“Consensus, yeah, walk out of here and you don’t come back ever again, I know why you’re trying to get the girl.”[Ultimias]

He sighed and took out a cube that looked like the one that the assailant dropped. It had a bunch of machinery that’s holding itself together. Oh, so that’s why the assailant still bothered to sacrifice himself. The gear inside the cube started spinning and he gave an order.

“Shadow demon, go and kill this adventurer.”[Behn]

The demon's eyes glowed purple and it lunged at me. I didn't give it attention and started running towards Behn. That demon was definitely being controlled by that cube, smash it and it’ll probably retaliate against him. I ran towards him but when I reached closed I noticed that the dust that covers me was slowly detaching from me and melt into a liquid onto the ground. Great, it turns out that that man also knows some sort of acid magic which I guess why he was fairly confident in himself. He smiled smugly, as he sees me now trapped between a choice of being mauled by a shadow demon or melted by an acid cloud. Unfortunately, he didn’t expect me to keep running without hesitation.

“Why aren’t stopping, your suppose to be melting, dying! Why isn’t you shape changing, I can see the acid slowly melting pieces of you off, but why do you still have everything on?”[Behn]

“Well, I’m more confident in my armor than you with your acid.”[Ultimias]

Really I’m just releasing some dust in my storage stars and was using those dust to replace the ones that melted off. I’m not worried about the ones that do melt off because they can’t be destroyed, I can always gather them again. The demon gave up chance and was slowing down because it couldn’t chase me into the acid cloud. Behn now looked really panicked and finally decided to retract his acid cloud. I was about to reach him with my sword until I heard,

“{summon: Acid snake}”[Behn]

And it was blocked by a stream of acid. The acid circle around him like a snake and the sword got stuck inside of it. Before I could react, the demon came and hit me on the side. I smashed through the railing and off the third floor. A few of my stars on my suit also detached and landed on Behn. He looked down at me who managed to grab a vine before falling to the second floor.

“Shadow demon, go and occupy that man.”[Behn]

The demon walked off and flew towards me as I tightened my grip on the vine ready to confront the demon. Behn turned around and ran through the melting mess that used to be part of my armor. He wasn’t affected by his acid along with the cloth that was specially made for him. He brushed off the stars that attached to him when I was hit and proceeded to the vault. The snake then slithered off his body and slowly but surely, started melting through the thick giant leaves that blocked the entrance.

Those leaves grew on the trees from Friaca and they have a high amount of resistance to physical attacks. It has evolved as such because it didn’t want animals to feed on their leaves off and as a result, it has a high amount of physical resistance. Unfortunately, that means those leaves don't have any magical resistance.

++++++++++

The snake was halfway through the leaves. When it goes completely through I can start pouring acid cloud into the hole and threaten the girls to open the vault. Though I need to be quick, that star man might actually be able to single handily take down the demon on his own. His armor must be a special armor with a high amount of self-repairing ability if I was able to melt off that exorbitant amount from his body.

Then suddenly I felt something enter my body. He looked down to find a long blade that pierced him through the gut. I looked back to find the star man looking at me dead in the eye, his eye shining in the darkness. Did he already kill the demon? The man in black snapped the blade and walked back. I turned with my back against the leaves. I saw another man in black fighting against the demon, but that one has more stars, is he able to create clones of himself? I looked at the floor and spotted that the mass of melted armor that was supposed to be there was now gone. So that suit has regenerating property and create more copies of itself the more it’s damaged? I laughed as I pulled myself up, I may have a blade in me but that man broke his weapon for some reason and I can still turn the table against him.

“Well, it's too bad I can't start my own melting process until your basically already dead.”[Ultimias]

I paused and looked at the man with confusion.

“But despite that, I can’t disintegrate you right now, I can do this.”[Ulitimias]

He snapped his fingers and the broken blade retracted into me and started churning inside of me. Before I realized what he meant the black mass inside of me grew into spikes and pierced all of my organs. I looked at him as the spikes slowly started liquefying along with my pierced organs. I only managed to squeeze out,

“What are you.”[Behn]

Then I lost consciousness.

++++++++

Once the man was entirely melted I got my second body to join the fight with the first body. Although now the demon was trying to escape since his master was now dead. When I was about to catch he turned and went down on his knees and bowed, his head touching the floor.

“Please spare me, Thazeloc, the shadow demon, oh immortal.”[demon]

I looked at him with a bit of surprise, I certainly never mentioned that I was an immortal.

“What makes you believe I’m an immortal?”[Ultimias]

“The demon king of this era is on his way to gain his immortality but your soul has already reached the end of the path. Along with the multitude of versions of yourself.”[Thazeloc]

“Alright, but you’re not allowed to tell anyone that I’m immortal.”[Ultimias]

He nodded and one of my body went and picked up the cubes. One from Behn and the other from one of the assailants. I didn’t attempt to absorb the dead assailants because I need to make up a story and I’ll need proof.

“For now we’ll wait for this mess to finish, while at the same time guard the vault with me. Oh, and change into a more human-like form.”[Ultimias]

The demon changed his appearance into Behn which kind of took me by surprise a bit and I fused two bodies back into one. In the end, the battle was cut short because their main objective had failed and the fact I bought my dragon body to the front of the mansion, blocking them between the defenders of the mansion and a dragon. They understandably surrendered on the spot. The invaders were revealed to be the city guards and the other guards that Fael and Hor had kicked out, along with some unknown faces. When they saw me standing next to a demon they were wary of it but I explained the situation. I told them that the two assailants tried to summon Thazeloc against me but I killed them before he could do anything. I made sure not to mention Behn to them. In the end, Thazeloc agreed to serve the Elanvitals as long as I destroyed the cube, though he agreed to bind himself in a contract instead. Once the mess was cleaned I waved goodbye to them because I needed to return home. However, I needed to make one more visit.

//////////

Behn failed.

I sighed and served myself some tea. It was a shame, Behn had potential but he was rash and rushed things. I suspected that the adventurer was powerful since he had a tamed dragon. Behn could’ve waited much later because I knew adventurers don’t tend to stay in one place for a long time. The Elenvital family also wouldn’t be hiring guards anytime soon because they'll be too wary in hiring more guards. If he waited patiently and constructed a better plan he would've had a better chance, after all, there really was no deadline. Though now I’m interested in this Ultimas, he managed to handle a demon and Behn on his own. He shows much potential, especially since he already found this hideout.

“Bass, sire! The intruder is slowly approaching here, we need to evacuate right now.”[Soldier]

“No, continue to defend the hold your ground.”[Bass]

“But…”[soldier]

I filled my right eye with a bit of magic and gazed at him. He stopped talking with his entire body shaking. He bowed and went out the front door. I sat back and listened to the cry of the fallen soldiers, the sword through flesh, and the clanking of a metal boot. I was told by my master to serve Behn but now that he’s dead, I can go back at my own leisure. I sat there humming and took out the sword by my side. It wasn’t my favorite sword, my master didn't want me to carry such a treasure everywhere, but it was still good enough. I noticed that it was silent and I smiled, then the door burst open and a man wearing a black trench coat decorated with stars, a knights helmet, and metal boots stepped in.

“Killing everyone in this facility uh…”[Bass]

I stood up and bowed to him and introduced myself.

“My name is Bass and you must be Ultimias. I’ve heard of your feats and us, the Night Return wants to recruit you.”[Bass]

“I’m not interested to join an organization that has people willing to kill every single one of his soldiers for silence.”[Ultimias]

I smiled. He’s smart, he saw through me despite being the first time seeing me. I don’t know how but he somehow knows my personality, I wonder how.

“I don’t want the noise of running soldiers ruining our silence don’t we?”[Bass]

The man sighed and drew a sword out of his arm. Interesting, it seems he can form blades because he was bending that arm a few moments ago, so the blade couldn’t be there at that moment. I snapped my hand and then the silence became deafening. He put his hand against his ear and tipped a bit, but managed to balance himself. I smiled, this man is experienced.

“{Silence for the music king} is a fun spell. The ones affected cannot use their ears at all, not even their vestibular to keep their own balance. The only voice that your ears will listen to is my voice and music.”[Bass]

He looked at me with a look of despise.

“Oh don’t misunderstand me, I can still hear everything and I wouldn’t want to hear the sound of running soldiers.”[Bass]

He twirled his sword, positioned himself and launched himself towards me. I took out my sword and was about to make contact before the sword turned into a black mist. My sword swung through it and the now empty-handed man tried to land a punch my sides. I breathed out intensely and cast {melody of the wind} and tried to blow him away. My magic is amplified by the effect of {silence for the music king}, but his boot locked him in place and he didn’t budge. The blow hit me and I heard a few of my ribs snapped. I smiled through the pain and cast {melody of snapping bones}. The spell created a giant a pulse that flew at him, he put up his arm to block it but instead it entered his body and started bouncing everywhere inside him. He staggered a bit and I heard one of his bones snap. I smiled and cast {melody of snapping bones} again and another giant pulse traveled at him. I saw him look up in time and noticed his whole body seemed to blur. Don’t tell me he can turn his whole body into a mist just like his sword. Before the pulse hit him his entire body exploded into a cloud of black mist and I stepped away from it while covering my mouth. Then a black snake decorated in stars emerged from the shadow. It was made entirely of liquid but when it made contact with the floor it hissed and created a purple mist. It almost looked like Behn’s magic… I shook my head and cast {melody of hissing acid}. The entire snake started hissing and sputtering but it didn’t slow down. I sighed, I don’t believe I can face this persistent man with my current set of equipment. I strengthened my leg and smashed the ground scattering debris everywhere. With the sound of rocks hitting the floor, I cast {melody of falling rocks} and the entire hideout started shaking. The snake paused a bit while it was still bubbling and looked at me. I smiled and took out a scroll. It seemed to realize what it was and lunged at me, but I was already gone in a bright flash before it even reached me.

I stepped on a pillar and looked at the caved ruin of my hideout. That man is still probably alive but it’ll probably take some time for him to find out whether he is climbing up or down under the effect of {Silence for the music king}.

“I hope to meet you again, perhaps with better equipment and a better time. But we’ll see, we’ll see…”[Bass]

I stepped away and left the ruins.

++++++++++

“...We’ll see…”[Bass]

Stop whispering in my ears got damn it.

I created some pillar that started pushing the rubble around me up or away. I don’t know if I’m sitting upright or not. When the pillar pushed away enough space for me to take my human form and I coughed a bit. Accidentally got some actual dust inside me when I reformed. I took a few pebbles and dropped them to determine where’s up and down. Then I turned into a mist and went through cracks until I got out the mazes of rubble and reformed myself. Once I formed my eyes I looked around the mess. It seems like Bass left, but I don’t believe he and Night Return will attempt to capture Lania for a long time…

Anyway who was that Bass fellow? I don’t know him at all. He was casting his magic without saying a word so he definitely must be a powerful figure, or so I hope. And that area effect magic is definitely troublesome, if only for the fact that my boots literally held me in place by locking itself on the ground. Though I probably never heard of him because Llya must’ve wrecked him in my past life before I even met her.

I gathered myself and looked at the rising sun. Yeah, I definitely need to start going home now or else my mother is going to go on a rampage as she did in my past life.