Inside

Rah broke free from the ice locks but it was exactly as he timed it. A massive metal blade rushed down from the sky and slammed into the tongues, the metal blade he made with Gul while he was in the air. Rah tried to stand up and throw it aside but a second block made from the heaviest material Gul could conjure onto the blade, nearly cutting the tongue off and keeping its head locked in the ground. Zeeth grabbed his sword and hopped into the air powered by water and flames, and then used the same propulsion to charge himself into the neck of Rah. his sword hit the shell and dented it but he knew his sword would take more damage than he wanted.

Rah shot a jet of molten metal from his skin at Zeeth who realized he couldn't dodge in time to avoid it. The hot iron was already on his face and he only had one choice. His face turned transparent and slowly into the water like his slimes. It became liquid and created a large hole in his face, moving out of the way.

During the year of training, his affinity with water and slimes had grown so much, he was taking on some of their properties and could turn portions of his body into the water. The only downside was the amount of energy it took to perform such a task, changing the property of his living body and felt exhausted after as well as pain in the area that changed. His face returned but it ached sorely.

"I really hate doing this." Zeeth said to Rah, "but I'll have to use Discord."

He clicked a magic circle, another addition he made to the sword, and the other blades slid off onto the hilt so it made a dual sword and black katana hybrid and dived back at Rah's neck. Discord slid easily through the shell and cut the neck. Blood came pouring out onto him as the rest watched in awe at his battle tactics and movements. Hidden weapons coming from the sky, spinning drills, and propulsion systems that targeted the wounds, and some mystical black sword that cut through Rah with ease.

Rah's cry died down as its eyes closed and its body stopped working. "Am I going to be the first to kill Rah without dying?"

"Get back!" the monks yelled. Zeeth jumped back, cautious of some kind of self-destructive function, but Rah simply stopped moving.

"What?" Zeeth asked, looking at the monks. But the monks were gone. In fact, everyone was gone, not a single person remained. He looked back but Rah was gone as well, there was nothing but whiteness. It was like God's place but there was a limit to the room he was in. He didn't know how, but he wasn't in the monk's place anymore.

Back at Rah, the monks and all previous fighters that were healing in their healing bubble watched as Zeeth fell down, his sword closing back up and his slimes poking him.

"Dammit." the monks yelled. "Another. Taken. How do they all die?"

"What just happened?" Nadaho asked.

"That's how they all die," answered Dealu, "any who kills Rah simply passes like that. Their body stops, not dead or alive, simply like all of its functions were frozen or paused but their minds simply… dies."

"So… what happens to him now? He's not dead, you can't bury him, can you?"

"No." the head monk said. "He will be honored as a hero of warriors and his body will be preserved by us, as it has been for centuries."

Two monks carefully went to his body and lifted the ground beneath him, disgruntled at the weight they were lifting. It was the combined weight of all his condensed slimes, his body, and his massive sword.

Back at Zeeth, he was touching the walls, trying to find an exit while yelling, "HEEEEY!!"

Soon, he heard voices from behind the wall. "C.M.? is that you? How did you trap me, that was actually impressive."

"We aren't C.M. nor did we trap you." the voice replied. It belonged to a young man, as well as the fist that broke through the white wall. He pulled his fist back and watched as the wall crumbled down, creating an exit for him. He asked, "I assume you killed Rah?"

"Yeah, I did. Who are you? How did you know?"

"My name doesn't matter, but we know you killed Rah because we all did."

"We?"

the man stepped back and revealed a room full of creatures. devils, Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Demihumans, and all sorts of beings looked at him. The man told him, "Welcome, number 101. To heaven on… well, we don't know where yet but we just call it Area."

"What do you mean? Where am I and who are you all?"

"Come, sit down and relax, you have a lot to learn," Said a devil. Zeeth sat down but tried to prepare some attacks but he noticed all his slimes and even his sword was missing. He was wearing a plain white unitard, "First of all," the devil took a sip of some orange drink, "you shouldn't try to fight in here. No one can die."

Zeeth looked at them. The man who brought him in threw an arm around Zeeth's shoulder and said, "let me do this, I think we might have the most in common. First of all, hi, my name's Kezmerald, and I was the last one to kill Rah. Before you, that is, so I was the hundredth killer of Rah."

"Kezmerald? But shouldn't you be dead then?"

"Yeah, I was a little famous back in the day. And yes, to the outside world, I am dead. But for the past hundred years, I've been living here with the other 99. Heroes who have killed Rah before we have. They are like us in that aspect and all of them have amazing stories. Sit down and we can talk for a hundred more years until the next one comes."

"A hundred years? Of just talking? I don't doubt your stories, but do you not want to leave?"

"Leave? Hah, I almost forgot that I wanted to leave a hundred years ago. Trust me, once you stay here a little you'll never want to leave. Within this place, we can make anything we want, any food or drinks are exactly like what it is in the real world and we never age or die. This place is basically heaven."

"What about the people you left behind? The people hundreds of years ago that were waiting for you."

The devil swallowed a whole chicken and said, "Listen, we all wanted to leave, trust me. We were all freaked out, but even if we did want to leave, no one can. We've all tried and freaked out but you should just listen to the guy and see the silver lining because, at this point, many of our dead ones are dead. Kez just wants to make you comfortable, take the advice, man."

"Thanks for the advice but I can't. I need to leave, I have friends and unborn birds to take care of."

An old woman with pure white hair and an elegant walk came to him and asked, "Then what's your plan? What's something that you can do that none of us have thought of for the past ten thousand years? Hit the walls? Break them like how yours were broken? We've all tried that before. Just relax, have fun. I'm Jakarta and I'm the 50th killer."

Back outside, viewers and reporters were scattering, some excited that Rah was dead for the century, others talking about the mystery man who killed it.

"This is reporter Otera, the killer of Rah this century, an unnamed person, came flying down from the sky," a reporter in a green suit said to her orb, "yet he had the signature robe and look of our small hero, Zeeth, who was later revealed to be Zenith, who made a small name for himself after saving Knight Arnold in a black market accident. But it was rumored that he died a little over a year ago yet no body was found, believed to have been destroyed in the explosions. Could he possibly be alive? And if that is him, why hide all this time? And is he dead for real this time?"

Otera. The name caused a few heads to turn, she was a minor celebrity amongst the people for being the bravest and best reporter who was able to get the best shots of the biggest incidents, rising to fame by recording fights with epic angles and an amazing voice and face. Her recordings were always famous despite the amount she charged to watch them. And even those too poor could hear it from their friends or get it from secret recorders, who were rare. Many reporters asked similar things.

The monks moved his body down their main building, each monk trying their hardest not to drop him. Many of his slimes began unraveling themselves, something they learned to do during the year and hopping off.

Zeeth was going around the room creating hammers and tools to break it. Nothing except the walls that each person came through broke but those walls led nowhere.

Zeeth finally sat down and thought, 'maybe it's better to just sit for a while and create things. This is the perfect place to experiment on circles, after all. What do you think, Black?'

But there was no response. Black wasn't with him anymore, just like his slimes or weapons. 'Oh, right. He didn't kill Rah, I did. So he must still be in my body then? Wonder what he's doing.'

The monks propped Zeeth's body in a single large room where all his slimes could watch as they did what monks did every century. Wrap up the unconscious killer of Rah and keep the body safe until someone can fix it. Page and the red followed the monks down and were watching his lifeless body with worry.

"Damn! I knew I should've just let someone else kill it like last time. You grew too fast, Zeeth," muttered Page.

Zeeth created a shield with fangs that bit when he charged forward and his mind cleared after the satisfying result. 'Wait, I shouldn't be doing this! I need to get out, Cuddles and Page and all my slimes, I can't just leave them all. I can't give up like the rest of them.'

A tiny hairy creature approached Zeeth, looking at the shield. "Hey, giant." The creature said, " gotten used to this place yet?"

"Not really."

She sat down, her chubby hamster-like body bouncing, "my name is Skwil Heynmaster. Do you want to know something about magic circles? They don't need to be carved or anything. It's just that you need the mana to flow a certain way and it's hard to control it that way unless you create physical barriers, but for people who can control it really well, like me," she waved her hand in the air like she was drawing and a violent ball of wind burst out. Zeeth could tell it wasn't due to any skill, she had conjured that ball of wind using a circle, a circle he would have carved onto something so that the item could conjure wind. "See that? That's how I killed Rah. I summoned a large ball of wind using several mana vessels into its mouth and tore it up from the inside."

"I killz it using my Burning Torch." another woman said with a harsh accent. Her clothes were red and spiky, reminding him of flames.

"The Tinted Weapons?" Zeeth asked.

"Yes! So you kno' of zem! We call zem Colorful Weapons but yez, Tinted too. Powerful torch, burn right zrough. I'm sure my daughter keeps it on ze moon for safety."

Zeeth conjured his normal robes as well just for familiarity, but he spent this time trying as many things as he could think of. It was an unprecedented time of perfect trial and error without any form of death. He could try to create the dangerous circles he always wanted or make weapons with things he's always wanted. In the midst of all his thinking, the hundred others kept asking him about the state of the world, how much has changed since their time, and since the hundred years when Kezmerald informed them. But that was the downfall of being from another world, he simply had no clue. He spent more time learning from their days than his own.

"What happened to the Gilded Bellum?" a man named Rustran Cultick asked. He was covered in red and spikes, a fashion choice he put on to "show power and strength", but his massive body was no fake.

"Sorry, I've never heard of such a place."

"Never HEARD of it? What are you talking about? Gilded Bellum, the strongest warrior nation on the face of the planet, don't tell me it fell."

A man in purple spiky armor replied, "yes, they are mighty warriors, the only few who can stand on equal footing with Vasatros. Although you can easily be crushed."

"Yeah, right. We've been through this, you wouldn't've won, Vasatros was losing resources faster than we were."

"Vasatros?"

The man in purple gasped and stared. "You haven't heard of them? The most loyal citizens, the proudest soldiers, and strongest leader?"

"Sorry, no."

"Yeah, why would he hear of Vasatros and not Golden Bellum? So then, they could be anywhere doing anything by now."

"Last I heard they were still at war," Kez said.

Back outside, people were leaving by the dozens while a few left behind to stay with those who had fallen or been injured. People in suits were trying to recruit new talents while monks held reporters back from seeing Zeeth. Underground, where he stayed, his slimes were trying to tap back into him. The skill was still active since he wasn't dead, just in a frozen state.

But a single factor made him different from the rest. Once everyone else has left his body except his slimes, his eyelid fluttered.

Inside his mind, Black was staring back out into an empty body. His forehead wiggles and a black eye stared out. The eye merged with his normal eyes as Black realized this body had no consciousness other than himself anymore.

"It's… a body of my own," Black said with Zeeth's mouth. The natural mana that oozed from Zeeth uncontrollably before continued again after stopping itself from his temporary death. "I feel so... POWERFUL! AHAHAHAA! I'm free! And in possession of a fantastic body."

The slimes were watching him, this was definitely the body of their master, but even they were intelligent enough to realize this wasn't really him. The skill didn't activate either, Black was controlling the body and his own mana was being used which didn't react with Zeeth's skills. He crept out of the room to avoid detection and spotted a room just like his in front. He peered through the small window in the door and spotted a body held up and preserved almost perfectly. His skin and body were kept in a large glass container filled with a green liquid without a single blemish or discoloration on the skin.