The attack was fast. Almost too fast for me to react.

In the last millisecond, I docked, feeling the wind pressure above my head.

Glancing back, I almost puked blood from the chock.

The walls of the church that was behind me were cut which were inches away from the bomb.

“Hey, watch it! If you damage it, this thing we go off!”

“Proetus.”

He swung again, this time aiming at my feet.

“Specter Fire.”

By using the fire ghosts that I prepared in advance, I set the whole area ablaze, with a snap of my finger.

“Order up! Finely carbonized hero ready to be served!”

From the flames, I could see a silhouette.

It was him, walking through the fire as if they were nothing.

Damn, this guy is something. It seems like I need to get my back into it.

“Spirit Heads.”

I clapped my hands together as if I was praying. This served no purpose, it just made me look cool.

Around me, several ghostly faces appeared wailing in pain.

“Weeping Spirits Cry.”

At my order, the phantoms started to scream in an ear-piercing frequency shattering the glass windows. The shockwave even affected the hero, who seemed troubled with moving, while his ears started to bleed.

Yeah, as I guessed, you might have thought body but, it's useless against something that attacks the mind. But this is still not enough.

I snapped my fingers calling four blue light particles to me.

“Back allay around five blocks away. There is a dumpster. Behind it is a big black bag. Bring it here.”

the particles disappear, from my sight.

Good, they will bring it here in about a minute. I just need to hold on till its

“Proetus Ira.”

The green flames, my green flames, suddenly got absorbed by that guy’s sword.

“…Ok, that’s pretty cool.”

He swung it at me, creating a swirl of green energy in my direction.

“Phantom Shield.”

By concentrating a huge number of ghosts into one position, building a wall made from energy, I managed to deflect the attack, but I sacrificed 20 of them.

Around 10 left. Need to play this well. I need to be careful and precise…OR I can finally blow some steam off.

“Die! Ghost Hands.”

I sent my remaining ghosts at the hero, making sure that he couldn’t move. it would be a shame if I missed this.

“Bye-Bye! Don’t forget to rote! Telekinesis: Crush!”

By scarify my left arm, turning it into a mass of crushed flesh, and broken bone, I surrounded the hero with my power. Slowly, he was pressed to the ground. At first, he tried to resist but, I had more mana than him, so it didn’t take me long to bend his knees.

Then Finally he was completely on the ground his armor bending at the pressure.

“Goodbye, nameless hero. Hope heaven will be pleasant.”

With a final push, I could finally hear it. The pleasant sound of bones being crushed, organs ruptured. Life, slowly swallowed into pain, driven into madness by the fear of death.

Madness.

Yes.

“Yes, hero. Fight. Go nuts. Go insane with fear. Lose your mind and fall. Before you die, you will at least give me a nice meal.”

I noticed that ever since this fight started, I was hungry. I hungered for something, but it was not for substance. It was something…spiritual.

And I finally found it.

Madness had this …aroma. I couldn’t describe it in any way, but it was mouthwatering. It was something that I haven’t experienced yet, not with my minions or with the heroes. But only from this guy.

“Come one. Entertain me even more. We have only three minutes left, hang in till then. Oh, I know.” I lifted my right hand then, by manipulating my coat, I created a blade. “ I will slowly cut your limbs off, slice by slice, till there is none left, then I will move to your organs keeping you alive till I am satisfied. Now let’s start with your legs.”

I lifted my blade up and I swing when something hit me on the back of my head.

It was not strong, or dangerous but it made me miss my attack.

“Astera, I left you alone to witness this, but if you do this again I will-“

It was not her. There were several kids at the altar, two seemingly trying to defuse my bomb.

“Children? Did you kidnap them from their kindergarten or something? You really take people from all sorts of places, don't you? Bah, it dosen1t matter, I will get rid of them as well.”

I turned to them, but before o could walk there, something grabbed my ankle.

It was the hero.

Shit, I unconsciously stopped the spell.

“Tempo Redo”

before I could react, my body became a mess. cuts, burn marks, fractures, everything that I inflicted on this guy appeared on me. From my mouth, my black blood poured out as I fell on my knees.

“H-How?”

The hero slowly stood up, seemingly completely fine as if nothing happened to him.

“My power, Tempo Redo, allows me to reflect the damage I take to the one who caused it, with double of effect.”

He reflected the damage? This is quite a cheat power, no wonder he is the hero.

“Ha. Ha. Ha…This is so… unfair I can’t even laugh about it. But it's too late.”

While I talked, I sent a small amount of energy into the bomb that started to shine brightly, with a black spot at its center.

The kids panicked at tried to cast their spells on it.

“B-but there supposed to be 3 more minutes.”

“Immediate activation. Haven’t you heard of The Dead Man Switch? Your pal here practically killed me, so it is natural for me to do the same.”

While laughing, the hero came to me and with a precise movement he cut my head off.

I could feel the pain going through my body, burning my brain out.

But it was too late.

Not far away from my body, while no one was looking a huge, 1 meter X 1-meter, the black bag appeared, surrounded by the spirits I sent out.

It's time to test something out.

*****

The hero slowly walked to the altar, sheeting his sword, when he heard something.

He ducked in time, where his head was a second ago, a small projectile just pierced the wall.

Brutally he stared at the source of the attack.

It came from what he saw as a bag, surrounded by the black blood of the monster he just killed.

From its inside a pall arm was holding a metal rode-looking thing that had its end smoking.

“…I missed, didn’t I?”

Slowly, followed by the sound of metal grounding to metal something stood up. It was… an egg?

It had an oval-shaped body, with thin legs and arms.

It was wearing a white shirt with brown pants, that matched with its skin.

The creature's head was at the center of its body.

On top of it all, it had a nice hat that had two antlers poking out from it.

It had two smalls black eyes, that were almost invisible from its disproportions mouth.

“Not bad, ay? It’s an artificial body that I have been working on for a while. I am calling it the Egg-secutioner. One hundred percent nonorganic and equipped with multiple gadgets. For example, this little thing.”

He reached into his mouth and took out several vials containing several colorful liquids.

“Did you know that when I was an alchemist when I was young? It was so long, I forgot most of it, but I still remember some things. Like how to make fantasy mustard gas!”

He threw the vials onto the ground, creating a rainbow-colored cloud around himself.

“Don’t underestimate me, villain. You are already dead. Proetus.”

He unleashed several attacks at the clouds, but they just passed through them like nothing.

From the midst of this cloud, several holes appeared, letting pass through those small projectiles from before.

“Proetus Tempo.”

As if space around him slowed down the metal pears almost stopped in the air, only to fall onto the ground.

“ AAAAAAAGHHH!”

With a roar, the puppet ran to the hero with two swords in its hand.

The hero was calm and with a single thrust, he impaled the doll onto his sword, lifting him up onto the air.

The doll said nothing it just let go of its weapon and continued smiling.

“Sacrificial Gas.”

Like a balloon, the doll exploded into a dense smoke of rainbow smoke, surrounding the hero completely, who was not fast enough to hold his breath.

While coughing, he saw several monstrous figures in the smoke, each looking more hideous than the one before it.

He tried to slash them, but they were too fast and strong deflecting his attacks with ease.

“W-What is he doing?”

The kids who were working on the bomb glanced at the hero who was swinging his sword around while screaming and shouting.

“It’s the smoke. It made him see things. I can detoxify it but, I need to get close to it first.”

The one who just talked, a boy with raven black hair and glasses so thick it hid his eyes, left his comrades, and started to run to the hero.

“… Telekinesis: Mighty Push.”

An invisible force caught him by his side and yeeted him to the wall, which broke into several parts, burying him in the ruble.

The caster of the spell slowly walked to the altar.

It was the demon!

His entire body was covered in wounds and burns, while his neck where his head was cut of was bleeding, but it was still able to walk. Its mangled arm was replaced by a prosthesis that seemed to be made of metal and bones. with his other arm, he held his head in place.

His mask was gone, showing his bloodied face that was smiling like a madman.

The two skeletal arms on his back helped him walk forward, slowly, but steadily.

“Now… it's your turn, kids. Nighty-night.”

He lifted his strange arm that had a glowing circle in its palm, that seemed to gather energy into a single point.

“ Compound Magic: Fire Sp-“

Before he could finish a rock was thrown from at his arms making him miss his mark.

The blue beam hit the floor not far away from the kids, melting it.

“What now?! Can’t I kill someone without being interrupted!?”

He turned to the direction the stone was thrown.

It was the kid he just buried under the rubble. He was fine without any sign of wound, not even a scratch.

“ I forgot; you are also a hero. But you are still undeveloped, so just die already! Telekinesis: Pull.”

The invisible force started to pull him towards the demon.

“Weapon Call!”

While being pulled several swords manifested around the kid, that were covered in a golden light.

“Holy Weapons?! You bastard!”

he stopped the spell and made a black wall from his liquid clothing that blocked the swords, avoiding him to take even more damage.

But the kid noticed.

At points of impact of the swords, the barrier was smoking.

You can try everything but, in the end, you can’t hide your true nature. Even becoming a god won’t completely erase one's weaknesses.

Desmond did develop some immunity against it, but it was not enough to completely negate the damage.

“ Weapon Call, Box of Hephaistos!”

The demon let go of his head, dropping it onto the ground. From the wound, black blood bubbled, trying to take the shape of something that was not human.

“You want to play?! Then come at me! Nightmare Magic: God’s Breaker.”

At that instant, several golden projectiles flew at a dark vortex of nightmares. If they collided then the entire building, no, the entire block would disappear from the surface of the planet.

But then...

“Proetus Atomical!”

There was no sound.

No shockwave.

No anything.

It just happened.

The attacks were gone. Erased, with the hero’s sword and the entire left side of the demon’s body.

The half-dead monster collapsed on the spilling its black fluid onto the floor.

“W-Who are…you?”

Then it died.

The hero, who seemed to age a decade stood there before answering to the carcass that couldn’t hear him anymore.

“I am Vlad Von Elburn and I just settled my father’s debt.”

*****

I woke up.

I was back in my real body in the throne room.

“Damn, I can still feel it.”

The memory of the blade cutting me, separating my body in two remained, giving me the chiles, mixed with another thing.

“Hmm? You followed me?”

Next to me was a particle of light.

“…It wasn’t easy. This place is knee-deep in the void, it’s a miracle that something like this even exists.”

“…So, what, you came here to laugh at me?”

“…I decided to forgive you.”

What?

“Excuse me? Did you get a concussion or something?”

“You are too dangerous to have you as our enemy. it’s a miracle that the hero’s managed to defuse the bomb in time, and this sort of miracle won’t happen again. So, this is my only option.”

The particle of light flew a few meters in front of me and started to grow. Soon, it became a full-grown woman, in a white dress and a veil.

“I will forgive you for what you did. I will not judge you for your actions. I will even allow you to have your own world and help you become a fully-fledged god.”

This is crazy. Why do I get treated like this all suddenly? is it perhaps…?

“You found it in the basement, didn’t you?”

The bomb at the alter was fake or to be correct a distraction. It could explode but the damage that it would do was nothing compared to the one I hid.

I put almost 100 ghosts in that bad boy. I planned that when they destroy me and the fake bomb they will leave and when no one was suspecting anything, I will detonate it, erasing the city and a big part of the country with it.

“…That thing is toxic. The miasma around it killed one of the heroes when they inhaled it. If it blows up, it might open a breach in the system. I know that you don't care, but believe me, it's too dangerous. You are still young so you don1t know what’s behind the curtains that protect us.”

The curtain that protects us. Is there a threat that is behind the system? I need to think about it more.

“So, you want me to stop the bomb and in exchange, you will make me a true god with my own world? And I can keep this place as my own?”

“….Yes. Just don’t detonate it and you follow the rules laid down for us.”

This is too good to be true, but if there is even a sliver of a chance of it being true then I just can1t miss it.

“Fine. Here is what we do. You and I will go there now to make a contract. You and me and no one else, or that beauty will go off.”

“…Allow me to bring Sancas with me. She is the Goddess of Contracts; she will make sure that our accord will go smoothly.”

“…Very well. But I will bring one of my lieutenants. See you in an hour.”

*****

The city was quiet.

No, not quite.

Dead.

Corpses of monsters and man littered the ground, emitting a pungent smell while flies flew all around them.

The only thing that was left alive was at the king’s palace.

It was the most protected place in the city but, when the attack happened, he and his entourage disappeared, with his guards, leaving the place empty.

at the throne room, the heroes were waiting.

They received the order from the goddess to be prepared for something, but they were completely in the dark.

Then, it finally happened.

At first, they felt something…familiar.

it was warm and pleasant.

On the throne, a woman appeared wearing a white robe made of light with a white veil covering her face. Next to her was another woman with similar clothing, but hers were brown like the earth.

“He is here.”

As she said it, the heavy doors opened by a great force letting in a foul smell of rot and death.

Amongst the darkness a two-meter-tall human walked in wearing a white coat and a black suit. its head belonged to that of a deer skull with gems hanging on its antlers.

Under his white coat, several small arms could be seen appearing and disappearing in the shadows, like snakes, each having a mouth on its palm.

This being was terror. It was pure madness.

Even glancing at him, the hero and the kids felt something in the corner of their mind, trying to break out, wanting to go on a rampage.

“It’s a pleasure to seeing you today Astera.”

While talking, the nightmare took out a walking can from the darkness of his coat and touch the ground with its tip.

On contact, the ground chock and a stone throne emerged from the ground.

The demon comfortably sat in it and looked at the queen of gods as if they were equals.

“Shall we begin?”