Chapter 44

Castiel P.O.V.

I hate this.

"Run! You got to run faster! Do you want to be roosted or what?!" Zelretch said.

As I feel the magma approaching my back as I ran for dear life I could only think two things. One is that I hate all of this, the second is…

HOW THE HELL DID IT END UP THIS WAY?

Let's go back a few minutes.

I saw my godfather Zelretch for the first time in almost two years, and I can honestly say that those were good years.

As Zelretch swung me around like a baby I saw a flash of steel coming toward his back at high speed. I tried to stop it, but before I could say anything a multicolored barrier made out of magic surrounded the old bat and thus protecting him.

As the figure trying to give Zelretch a new hole came to a halt I saw who it was, and honestly, I am not surprised. She was likely the only one here that would do such a thing, as the others know I am not in completely mortal danger and getting mixed with Zelretch is not something to be desired.

"And who is this one, another girl from your harem?" Zelretch said with a smug smile that made me want to kick his ass out of sheer principle.

Seeing that she was also confused about all this, if her eyes that refuse to look at my direction but look at me from the time to time with a wishful look, I decided to explain what is happening.

"*sigh* You can stop trying to attack him Serenity. His name is Zelretch, he is the strongest master of a space-time magic capable of traveling through dimensions and everything. And he is also my Godfather." I then looked at Zelretch and said. "Uncle Zelretch" he scowled a bit at those words, if memory serves me right he prefers being called 'my favorite person in the world Zelretch', but I prefer to die than call him that. "her name is Serenity. She is someone that I am helping due to her problems."

He smiled mischievously and said.

"Is the problem a 'special' type of itch that she wants to be scratched?"

At this, my face has probably turned blood red, if it is for embarrassment or outrage I don't know. I mean Serenity doesn't feel that way about me at all so hearing this is offensive for her.

"Of course not. I am helping her due to her body generating an extremely dangerous poison at all times and my purification abilities being capable of helping her. She suffered enough for many lifetimes and after seeing what she went through I decided to protect her for as long as I breathe." At that, she looked at me, her eyes with a small glister of tears. "And she definitely doesn't like me on a man and woman way so we obviously ain't doing what you just said." And just like that, the look she was giving me was transformed into a deadpan.

Seeing this Zelretch released a sigh. He then turned to look at Serenity for the first time (ignoring the fact that he is scaring me as a sack of potatoes on his fucking shoulders!) and was about to say something, when he stopped and started looking much more intensely at her.

"Interesting. Very interesting." Is what he said, and it honestly terrified me. It was a well-known fact that Zelretch is always looking for things that he might find interesting so knowing that he found her interesting really did not sit well with me.

"What is interesting, uncle Zelretch?" I asked, trying to act as a 'good little brat'.

He did not seem to notice my question for some time and, after a few seconds, he finally said.

"Her condition, my dear godson, is very interesting. She seems to have somehow connected with an ancestor of hers and fused with it."

Hearing this I instantly felt terrified. Messing with souls is always complicated and fusing a soul with part of another is BEYOND dangerous.

Serenity did not seem to care about it, I don't know if she had already known that or if she did not understand it, but I need to ask one question first and foremost.

"I-Is she going to be okay?"

Zelretch looked at me and then smiled and said.

"There is nothing to worry about. She had already fully stabilized and will have no problems with it anymore. What I meant for interesting is the fact that her soul connected to someone that should not even BE possible to connect." He explained. At first, I was relieved, but hearing the fact that her soul connected to something that should not be possible made me feel terrified all over again.

"A-and who did she connect with?" I asked.

Zelretch opened his mouth to speak, but the one to answer was not him.

"The one that is fused with me is the assassin servant Hassan of Serenity, she once served as one of the Hassan-i-Sabbah and was the origin of the legend of the 'Poison Girl'." Serenity said, shocking me.

Did she know about all this? And, if so, why did she not tell me anything?

And, if there was some danger still involved, how could I even try to help her if I did not know of her circumstances?

"Since when did you know all this?" I asked, trying to be as dignified as a teen lying on the shoulders of an old man can be. Which means that if she was not laughing at this I was already a winner.

"I knew this since the moment that you manage to fulfill her and my wish. That was the moment that the two of us finally 'became one'." She explained.

I could not help but tilt my head at that. What wish was she talking about that her and the heroic spirit desired that I manage to fulfill?

"What wish is that?" I asked, my curiosity not being contained at all.

"To find someone that we could be with without fear of dying just because of our presence." At that, I could not help but act like I swallowed a fly. That particular fact about her past was not one I took pleasure to remember and if anything I just wanted to go back in time and help her before things went to shit. "And not only that, you even gave me the chance of living like a normal girl, even if only when close to you. For that, both of us decided to serve and be with you no matter what."

As she finished I saw her completely earnest eyes looking straight to me and I could not help but look to the side bashfully. Hearing this from her was embarrassing on its own way.

However, it was not just me that was there, and if the clapping sound was anything to go by Zelretch quite approved of Serenity.

"Wonderful. Simply wonderful. To see such pure emotions of love blooming is just so wonderful, no matter how many times I had seen it." He then put a serious face and said. "I approve it. You can be with my dear godson. I give you my blessings."

As he said that I wanted to protest, but for some reason just decided to roll with it. It is not like she wants to be with me in this sort of situation… right?

Honestly, I don't know what to think for sure. I don't have any experience with a girl NOT being extremely and absurdly direct in their advances or being engaged to me before I can even say anything about it so anything like subtlety is beyond me.

Zelretch then straightened up and said.

"For as fun as this, all is I have something that I have to do now." I could feel sweat rolling down my back when he said that as I can imagine what he has come to do. He didn't do it last year and it is approaching this year so I can only think of one thing that he might be after this time.

"It is time to give you your present, my dear godson!"

And with those words, I was blinded as a flash of light surrounded me on all sides.

///---///

When I managed to see again I realized that this must be what Zelretch planned for this time. As I see all those metal blocks fluctuating and an insufferable heat all around I could only imagine that he transported me to some dimension with lacking physics and even went one step further to send me on an active volcano.

As I started looking for clues about what I should do I noticed a metal box on a rock not far from me. Inside there is a communicator so as to let him talk to me. I reluctantly put it on my ears and waited.

"Test, test, do you hear me?" I heard his voice on the communicator. Not even bothering in containing my sigh I just let it out and said.

"Where did you take me this time, uncle Zelretch?"

"Well… you know how I enjoy anything that can distract me, right? Well I decided to do something special for this time around and this is the result, go ahead and you will probably understand what I did."

Fearing what he did, and seeing no point in avoiding it I went ahead.

After walking for about 500 meters I saw something. I can only say that I am trying not to twitch seeing this, I mean…

WHY THE HELL IS THERE A MECHALOID HAT ROBOT FRIM MEGAMAN IN HERE?

Wait, don't tell me?

And then one of the theme songs of Mega Man started playing, the music from the lava mission.

I hate all of this.

///---///

After dealing with that robot, and a thousand more (they just kept appearing, it is like a zombie apocalypse with robots), I can only say that I now respect the Mega man a whole lot more. Those little fuckers are tiresome to defeat and the fact that they can do sneak attacks using PLASMA GUNS really unnerves me (and that Zelretch imbued the hats from those robots with some strange magic to repel any and all attacks did not help AT ALL).

And that was not even the worse part. I had to run away from the periodical fire explosions that happens every three minutes and escalate jumping from floating stone to floating stone so as to go ahead without touching those rotating pikes that are releasing a dangerous amount of energy while also being fast enough to avoid the recurring vulcanic eruption that also happened every once in a while.

I honestly can say that this was not how I visualized my day going.

As I walked into a part made of metal with the boss room vibe approaching I could not help but imagine what I will get out of this shithole. It is always depending on 'luck' as I once got a spirit bone and other times I had a stinking bomb right to the face.

The fact that I am now on a lava pit makes me wonder what is going to happen to me next? Who is it that I will face.

As I approach the door that will let me in to see the boss of this dungeon I start to look over myself. I got no more phoenix tears and other restorative items due to a need to heal myself of many plasma shots that punctured my body, my battle uniform is also in tatters and my hair is burnt in the tips. I also am almost entirely covered in volcanic snot and can't even see properly due to it covering my face.

I can only say that if I have a stinky bomb to my face after all that I will make my life objective to hunt down Zelretch.

As I see the door to the boss fight I take a deep breath. Being out of breath and nervous will accomplish nothing here.

Looking inside I see something that made me at the same time terrified and eager to fight. It is Magma Dragoon, a maverick robot that has dragon claws and head while maintaining a body closely resembling a human. If memory serves me right he was the fire boss from Mega Man X4.

As the robot sees me he smirks and says.

"Finally a challenger has come. This place has been desolate for far too long and I need to fight someone already." After saying that he immediately jumped and punched me, or at least tried to.

I ducked to the side and used Kupriotes to try and cut him up, but it did not go so well since at the moment the blade touched him it failed in cutting the metal he was made of and the sword started going red due to the heat liberated by its body. Seeing this I abandoned the thought of using this sword since it obviously would not work well against him.

I could not use Clarent due to it refusing to be used by me right now (it is a fickle blade that only listens to me when it wants to) or Hruting (this one is an even worse combination for robots since they have no blood for it to fest the blade would be just a regular one and if this one is damaged in any way it would be a disaster for me). Gandiva is even more out of question since any strong attack of it carries flame energy which would be rendered less than useless against this guy.

Seeing no other choice, I decided that the best I can do right now is to depend on magic. Luckily I managed to reach low high-class, and every time someone reaches a new class their reserves and quality of energy is raised by many times, so now I can finally start using some of the stuff I learned from Caster and Lancer without that much problem in live combat situations.

When I finished thinking this through I realized that I stopped moving for two seconds, a bad idea that I regret as I failed to evade a spinning kick delivered by the robot. My clothes that are already tattered get even worse as now there is a hole right on the belly where this robot hit. Not only that as I also feel that some of my organs were shacked in a not gentle way which is causing me some pain.

At least this kick managed to give me some space between the two of us.

I decided to ignore all of that and instead put my hand in front of myself and started writing runes at the fastest speed I possibly can. The robot did not understand what I was doing as it continued rushing towards me.

Fool.

When he got three meters I finished the runes that I wanted, launching the magic on them. Instantly afterward he was surrounded by a dome of water, and not just any water but a heavy special type that had an ebullition point of 200 degrees due to a higher pressure it has. Runes are just way too useful, a reminder to self: study more of it and witchcraft the first chance I got. Before my advancement, to low high-class this spell would cost me a fourth of my reserves but now it only costs less than 3%.

Honestly, if I was like this before my fight against those monstrosities I could have defeated them much easier.

As the Magma Dragoon was releasing a torrent of flames to evaporate the water dome I started chanting at high speeds. I know that the dome will not be capable of keeping him in place for very long, but I don't need it to. I also started scribing runes with my feet directly on the ground, just as a precaution.

What can I say? I learned to multi-task long ago.

As the robot finally managed to release himself from the dome I was about to finish the spell I intended. Seeing the fluctuations of magic, I was releasing it made a pose not so different from a Kamehameha and shouted.

"Hadoken!"

It is a proof of my concentration that I managed to maintain the chanting even after hearing those words. Another note to self, never let Zelretch see something like One-Punch Man. If he can do this with the mega man alone I don't even want to imagine facing the serious series, I'd die way too fast.

As the robot used the attack three giant fireballs where released from his hands. Even when they were far from me I could feel a heat that would not lose out even when compared to Raiser's flames.

Realizing that this attack would be bad news for me I activated the runs I just made, making the floor in front of me rise in the form of a shield so as to protect myself. I understand that it would not be enough for me to be fully protected against those flames, but I never hoped for it to be enough to fully protect myself I just wanted to weaken them and give me the time needed for the chanting to complete.

And it worked. The wall holds up for four more seconds, plenty of time for me to finish the spell, and so I formed four magic balls on my surroundings that released laser at those three flame attacks, vanquishing them.

I smirk seeing that, that is until I feel that something is wrong. I realized that the robot is no longer in front of me, actually I don't even see him. My instincts are the only thing that saved me as I jumped back without even thinking, avoiding a Dive Kick he has made.

I can only sweet drop when I see the damage made on the ground. A crater was created on the impact zone, clearly showing how strong the attack was. It did not stop there as the robot crouched a bit and then did a follow-up attack.

"Shoryuken!" A jumping uppercut that resembled a fiery rising meteor was executed. I managed to evade it somehow, but my chest still got more burn marks which hurt quite a lot.

However, it did not deter me as I started releasing a torrent of magic lasers at him. Seeing him with many scratches and kneads really warms my heart.

Revenge is so sweet.

After exchanging a few attacks, he releasing a torrent of flames unto me one after the other and I used a magic laser on him. We both are covered in wounds now, but my situation is a bit better since I casted some healing blessings that continuously heal me. The healing is not nearly as powerful as a Raiser or the others from the Phoenix Clan, but it still is an advantage that my enemy doesn't have.

The problem now is that maintaining this energy influx is hard for me as I can feel that I now have just about 35% of my original reserves. The enemy is not faring any better since the flames he is liberating are not coming with an equal frequency of before and the power behind them is also not the same as before.

I can, however, realize that this fight is coming to an end now since he seems to be accumulating his power to release a final all-out attack. If I beat this I win, if not… well, I think Zelretch will come and take me away before it is too late.

The Magma Dragoon then looked at me, clear disdain on his eyes as he said.

"Not bad, inferior creature. If you were a maverick like me you might have been made a general possible above me, but you are just a lowly inferior life form! Now, I will make you pay for daring to face us Mavericks!" He then started shooting a giant torrent of flames for his mouth directly to the top of the cave, an amount clearly much greater than anything he has done before.

Seeing this I remembered what that meant, and could not help but fear it. Especially when those flames that hit the walls forced them to fall in my direction, all covered in flames that would resemble meteors. If it was just one or two, heck even if it was ten or twenty of those I could deal with them easily enough. On the other hand, those two FUCKING HUNDRED were NOT something I could deal with easily enough.

If anything it was WAY above what I would normally be able to handle with ANY safety.

I released my FIELD at max power, all so that I can try and evade as many of those meteors as possible. It was not enough as I was hit head first at least 8 times with rocks that made me think of my survival training with Berserker.

I am now covered in bruises and burn marks, at least half my body is wounded to some degree and the other half is burned by the magma and heat from those rocks. If it wasn't for the constant healing of the healing blessing I could very well have passed out or worse.

Luckily I had a blessing helping me there so I managed to survive that attack, even if barely. If there were just a few dozens more I would have been defeated, no questions asked.

On the other hand, I could see that the Magma Dragoon was far from alright. He probably used that as a last ditch attack in hopes of finishing me off and failed.

I then looked at him as I walked in his direction. Even when I was walking quite slowly due to the many burns and cracks on my bones on the legs he remained in place, no energy to move right now whatsoever.

I decided to say a few words to him before I finished this for good.

"It seems that I am not that inferior after all."

He just hung his head, clearly accepting that he lost. I then used what I have left of energy to direct the magic bombardment to his head, ending this fight and his life for good.

CLAP CLAP CLAP

I heard the sound of someone clapping behind me, and I knew perfectly well who it was.

"Was this good enough, uncle Zelretch?"

The old bat simply nodded his head, clearly happy with the results.

"It went even better than I expected! I am glad to see that you have grown stronger now, and here" He made a box appear on top of his hand. "Is your birthday present."

Dreading this quite a bit I took the present.

As I opened I saw something I recognize.

Something I already got two of. And that I honestly can say that is most likely extremely useful.

It was a dark object, beautiful designs all over it and exuding an extremely powerful energy fluctuation.

It was a left arm spirit bone.

Feeling its power, I feel something resonating with it, a clear sense of desire and expectation was born from Hruting as soon as I had this object in my hands.

"This is a spirit bone born from the world-devouring wolf that I had slain a few years ago. I know that it will be useful to you" Zelretch said with a smile and then a dangerous glint was on his eyes. "Now I know you are tired, so off you go, you have other things to take care of. I will come to see you when I have the time. Maybe I could even take you to a special place I was making some time ago to pass the time, it is almost finished and when it is I will show you."

As he said that I saw a flash similar to the one before and I then saw myself falling from 300 meters above the building I was watching the game before.

I did not scream as all I could do was fume in anger, I mean I already am more than spent, am tired as fuck, and now I have to deal with this BS.

I can honestly say that being with Zelretch is NEVER that good.