Massacre 4 : Intermission (Arthur)
[A/N : I would really like to thank you guys for waiting. I just graduated and turned senior few days early, and went on vacation while forgetting to bring my phone... That's why it took long enough for me to upload this chapter. As a token of apology, I made this long chapter for you guys to enjoy]
[2:52 P.M.]
After taking the life of their companion, I went and flew forward to the guy from earlier.
"This planet doesn't need any more trouble, so go back to where you belong." Both our swords clashed at each other as I said so... Why does this feels like I've already said this before?
He bought his sword up to the side of his face and deflected it to the side, the sword sparkled as they clashed.
"Haaa!! This is for killing Roxia!"
"I'll make sure to wipe the five of you off this planet." This too.... Just what the hell is going on?
I ignored my thoughts and focused my attention forward. I wasn't planning on blocking his attack as I faced him head-on.
"Take this!"
I thrust my sword forward after letting his sword pass above my head, and aimed it towards his chest. However, before my attack could even reach him, I noticed a bright beam of light behind him coming towards us.
"!!?"
Thankfully, after I hit the man on his cheeks, I was still able to react quickly as I slashed my sword downward to cut it.
Shoo-!
Both attacks passed by my right and left side missing me a hairbreadth.
With my swords at the ready, I eased back a couple of meters away as a girl stepped out in front of him.
The man turned to her. "Thanks for backup, Nina."
"Humph!" She pouted her lips as she reloaded her futuristic-looking shotgun. "Oliver, be careful when dealing with him. He's from another world like us. It should be obvious that he, too, had been granted a benefits like us. A special abilities, for example."
Squinting her eyes, she continues to speak. "Also, you need to be careful of that sword. I've already tried to use appraisal on it, however, it only shows brief details like two of it's title, it's real name not included."
~~~~~
Name : ???
Title : The Law Defying Sword, The Third Eπta
Item: Great sword
Type: Weapon
Damage: UNSCALABLE
Stats bonus:
>> ???
>> ???
>> ???
>> ???
>> ???
>> ???
Rarity: UNIDENTIFIED
Description:
A sealed sword that was owned by the first hero.
The weapon had been enchanted and imbued with unique abilities and effects.
Effect(s):
• ???
• ??? (MAXED)
• Grants the user a passive effect: .
~~~
"What are you saying, Nina, he only managed to hit me through luck... I'm going to defeat that kid right now." The man named Oliver's hand shook a little as he took a deep breath. He slowly raised his head and feebly stood up. Using his sword to support himself, she rubbed the sweat off his cheek while staring in amazement. He probably still hadn't grasped the situation.
"Wait, I'll give you some buffs just to make sure..." Using two of her fingers, she stroked across the length of the blade. The magic formula characters engraved in the sword began to light up from where she'd stroked them.
"... Thanks." Saying this, I saw him stepped forward with his muscles bulging like they were out of control.
Before I realized it, the man's sword was already a few inches away from my face.
"It's my turn!"
"!!?"
Foosh-!
The sword moved forward at a terrifying speed that my eyes almost couldn't match. I was too thankful enough that I was able to react on time by twisting my body to the right to avoid the incoming slash by a hairbreadth.
His strength... It's been buffed by tenfold!!
Even though the slash didn't hit me, I was still blown away by the strong wins that his attack had caused.
"Gah!" My back hit the wall hard, that I coughed out blood from my mouth.... Everything that was happening, I certainly felt that I've already felt this before. I wonder why?
I wasn't able to stand up on time. By the time I noticed it, I saw a sword come up in front of my face.
"You're dead!!" He roared loudly, thrusting his sword towards my face.
Splurt-!
I felt my face reaping apart. My brain bursted in blood as the sword penetrated my head to the wall.
"It's your lost, child."
"Way to go, Oliver!"
I heard his companion cheer.
But wait a minute, this definitely happened before... Why does it feels like I've already repeated this before? Anyway, let just get this over with.
Naturally, since I had no time to dodge or react to his attack, the attack would have killed me after cutting the top part of my head... Or so they thought.
"I really hate it when something hit my face."
Hearing my mumble, the man, Oliver, with the other three behind him all looked at my direction with mouth opened, as if they were too stunned to speak.
A moment later, "I-immortality!? That ability is cheating!" One of them exclaimed in shock, breaking the silence air within the surroundings.
"Immortality...? No, I'm not completely immortal." Taking advantage of this moment, I took my sword that was on my side and thrust it forward in his heart.
"Thanks to a certain someone, I became a guy who had more lives than a cat."
***
Somewhere nearby.
After Evangeline left the mirror world to investigate who the aura came from, she found a man wearing a red bandana walking around while glancing to watch the students that was being killed by true demon soldiers.
She didn't immediately tried to deal with him, but instead, Evangeline went and flew to kill those soldiers in annoyance as well as helped the students and people escape.
After leading them to safety, she went back to where she last saw the man.
"Looking for me?"
Hearing a voice coming from behind her, Evangeline slowly turned her head to the side to take a side glance at him.
The man was grinning playfully. She saw this, making her expression turn ugly. Evangeline somehow felt too annoyed just by seeing his face.
"You... You must have came from the portal, aren't you?" She was about to send him to her «Mirror World», but stopped herself after remembering about the two. She was worried them that they may get caught up in the battle if she does bring him.
"I don't have time to deal with you, so I'll wrap this qui--"
Fuuu-!
Before Evangeline could even finish her sentence,
Pluck-!
Her head suddenly flew up in the sky before landing on the hand of the man.
"It seems you're mistaken, Missy..." The man turned her head to face him and looks at her straight in the eyes. Slowly, he saw the light in her eyes disappear.
"I'll be the one who'll be wrapping this shortly."
Splurt-!
He proceeds to crush her head without hesitation.
Chuckling, the man looks up the sun before turning to face the direction of the academy.
"Now, for the final show, I'll be dealing with two kids the leader was talking about." Saying this, he left his post and walked towards one of the building to wander around.
...
....
....
Inside the Mirror World.
Crumbles!
The two suddenly felt the world collapsing without knowing why.
"Athena, what the hell is going on!!?" Lilian placed her hands on the wall as support.
"I don't know either!" While holding onto one of the pole, Athena said so while showing an anxious expression on her face.
As the world around them collapsed, the only way out they know was already gone without them knowing a thing.
They were now sealed in the Mirror Plane...
Forever?
***
After I defeated and killed two of their companion, there are only three left I have to deal with.
Bang-!
The girl who had the ability to buff weapons and people shot her laser gun towards my direction multiple times in anger. Now, the beam wasn't able to hit which was quite a thankful part, but when I saw that the beam managed to completely obliterate a person "accidentally" without living any dust or sort, my became drenched in cold sweat.
"That boy mentioned that he's not immortal but only have few extra lives that was more than a cat." The girl named Nina said. "If we kill him multiple times, we'll be able to completely end him."
Fuck, I shouldn't have mentioned that... Oh well, it already happened. It's better to leave it as it is and finish them quickly.
[Arthur! In front of you!]
I quickly snapped back after hearing the system's warning me inside my head. Turning my attention back in front of me, I ducked my head to dodge the incoming ice blade that one of the three had created.
The blade managed to cut a small part of my hair, but I ignored this and went forward to attack.
"He's coming!"
I attacked the man who control the blade and plunged my sword into his heart.
"Three down-!!?"
Splurt-!
The beam caught me by surprise and obliterated my whole body.
"Raniella, get near me before he revive!" Nina said, "We need to leave now. Turn on the teleportation device!" She orders her in desperation while scouting the area.
When the system was finally able to recreate my body,
[Next time, be careful!]
"Sorry..."
The moment I was able to see my surroundings, I saw a portal appeared behind the two before they entered it.
I tried to move my body, but I couldn't because of one of the drawback of the being revive after being completely obliterated... Still, it's not like I didn't try hardly to move at all.
Wait, who am I talking to anyway? It's not like someone is watching me while being able to read my thoughts... Anyway!
The portal closed a second after the drawbacks finally disappeared.
Now, I was only left with the screams and plead of the students, professors and parents that was suffering inside the academy.
Step
Step
Step...
I was about to walk when I heard faint footsteps coming right directly from my left side. Curious, I turned my head to the left to look at the person who was making the footstep noice, and became shocked after seeing who it was.
"This freak is here too?"
I mumbles under my breath as my grip became tighter. I felt myself being overwhelmed with emotions. It wasn't the first time for me to feel this, yeah, no... Anyways, why do I always have to run into him in a bad situations.
I guess I have no choice but to fight him...
I took a deep breath as I felt my heart beating fast. My blood was being pumped at an abnormal rate after thinking about how many times I regressed because of something related to him. He did not kill me, well, technically, probably, no.... But, he always make my life shorter by killing me simultaneously before I could defeat him.
«Time Point»
The ability to skip time three seconds in the future while being able to move or attack any of his target. It is a powerful ability, indeed. However, it's only weakness is that it can cause him a lot of strength to use. He had to use his herculean strength just to be able to move while skipping time, which takes a huge toll in his body, giving me a slight advantage for being able to revive.
And also, his other weakness is that as long as I could give him a surprise attack before he could activate his ability, the only thing I had to deal with were extremely fast attacks.
Although tricky, they weren't impossible to defend and counterattack against. Considering my advantage for being able to revive without him knowing a thing, my plan could practically work if things went as planned.
"Huuuup!"
With a wave of his hand, the sword in the man's hand carried a ferocious force as it slashed vertically towards my front. I wasn't able to dodge on time, for he activated his ability to advance the pressure of his attack three seconds in the future.
Riiip-!
The pressure coming from the attack caused my upper clothes to get ripped and flutter strongly from the wind.
"Fuck...!" I cursed through my gritted teeth, using my whole remaining strength to remain standing. But eventually, my body gave out from the attack and fell on my knees after feeling the heaviness of my body.
Thud-!
"Haaaaaa...." The man took a deep breath, feeling negative signs of slight exhaustion from using his ability. Soon after, he walks towards me and slashed my head off cleanly.
Since it was a clean strike, I didn't feel any sort of pain whatsoever. I know that I shouldn't be thankful for this because he killed me, but I'll thank him for not making it feel painful.
"I'm done." I heard him say this while touching something in his ears, as my head continues to spin on the air while falling.
Drop-!
My head finally landed on the ground, and rolled towards the other direction. On the other hand, I felt a strong breeze of wind behind my head that cascaded my hair while it continuesly to spin.
Fooo-!
I was able to get a quick glance to where the wind was coming from. Not from afar, a black portal emerged at the gaping abyss, as the figure of a tall man over three meters, with pale white skin, crimson eyes, and long obsidian-black hair wearing formal clothes that someone like a duke of medieval times would wear greeted him.
"Oh, duke, what are you doing here?" The man wearing a bandana asked curiously at the man before him.
The duke glanced at him for a brief seconds with a sigh. "I'm merely looking for a nice sight to see. There's no need for you to think of my sudden appearance for something bothersome. I am not planning to interfere."
"Meh... That's good to know." Said the man, "Anyway, why do I feel like I've already repeated this before...? It's kind of like a deja vu experience."
The duke didn't answered.
When the man was about to heave out a sigh, he suddenly heard a creepy laugh from the distance.
The true demon soldiers around them also heard the same thing as they turned their direction to where the laugh was coming from... This scene feels oddly familiar.
After my head finally stopped rolling, I squinted my eyes to see who the laughing boy was. Instantly, my jaw froze when I saw who it was.
"Athan...?" I mumbled under my breath. I didn't noticed the man from behind made his first move.
I was about to call out for his name to warn him when I felt something weird.... why does it feel like this really happened before? If my guess is correct, Athan will die at this mom--!?
Surprisingly, it wasn't him who died.
"Let's exchange our death, shall we?"
The man's head who wore a bandana suddenly was cut.
[A/N : Just me casually killing off overpowered characters in a matter of second out of boredom. Lol.]
It wasn't an ordinary cut, because the cut almost look similar to how Athan died previously. With his head suddenly falling from his body, his body followed next.
Seeing this, I stunned with my jaw opened widely.
"Did I... Did Athan and I just got sent back few minutes before he got killed?" Mumbling this, I stopped pretending that I was dead and moved my headless body to pick up my head that was on the ground.
But...
"Real question..."
Feeling the strange gaze coming from Athan, I couldn't help but feel weirded out from this as I noticed his wide grin.
"Is this guy really Athan?"
***
The duke looks at Athan in the eyes, completely ignoring Arthur's existence after thinking that he could erase him at any second.
He felt some danger coming from the boy that had red eye on the right. He wasn't sure why, but he was honestly afraid of what he can do after seeing it in action; Athan being able to kill the man earlier without lifting a finger. Just how could he do it? He didn't know. Most of all, he was already weirded out by the situation, added by the fact that he felt a strong sense of deja vu from earlier.
"You... Who are you?" The Duke asked the boy, who had his arms spread wide while laughing like some sort of a maniac.
"Hahahahahah!!!" Athan continue to laugh, "You're the duke, aren't you? Well, not that it matter since you won't be living to see your king later~" He grins, bowing his head slightly in a respectful manner with a twisted expression.
The duke felt something crawling around his back. However, he managed to remain composed and give him a cold glare in response to what he said.
"You fool, do you think that I'll take your words lightly?" He raises his hands and pointed his index finger towards Athan like a gun-
Bang-!
As he shot out a beam, it hit Athan in the heart but he remained standing.
He then laughs again, "Killing me is not enough to erase me~" The hole in his chest suddenly healed at an abnormal rate as his left hand glow brightly. At the same time, both Arthur and the duke became stunned again.
This definitely happened many times before...! Arthur said to himself. He was about to speak up when Athan spoke up. What he said next made his expression turn grim.
"How many times have I said this again...? Hmm..." Athan playfully thought for a moment, "Ah! I remember now. This should be 27th time we did this."
27th time...
They had regressed at that same exact moment for about 27th time without him noticing up until now.
An ability to regress at a certain point each death...
What kind of twisted being would give someone an ability this overpowered...? Then again, Arthur had the same abili-or more likely, this curse that whenever he finally reached to the point where he die, he'll be forced to regress to zero.
Is this some kind of play by the twisted fate?
"Do I really have to commit suicide to restart once again?"
Now, he finally understood why he could feel a sense of deja vu about everything that happened earlier. Also, how the bandana guy had killed Athan many times before this round.
During the 1st to 27th round of Athan's ability, regression, he must've thought and remembered every move that everyone here will do next, and would think of a plan that he would execute to counter everyone.
However, one thing Arthur wasn't sure...
Did the previous him from the 26th or below regained some of their memories about what his ability was about? If they did, did the him previously tried to attack, causing Athan to find out that his ability can't deal and make everyone's memories about what happened?
One thing for sure, he could only hope not.
If he did, he's definitely fucked...
Athan seemed to have finally noticed him. He took a glance at him, his eyes suddenly becoming cold and deadly looking at him like a dagger.
He mouthed something, however, Arthur couldn't hear it.
When he was done, Athan extended his hand. Seeing him like this, a familiar person suddenly overlaps Arthur's mind.
Whether if Athan did know that Arthur managed to recover his memory whenever he regress or not, Arthur already know that he is indeed-
"Fuck... he's back."
The boy before him was no longer the Athan he knows.
However.
If Athan and the current Athan before him meet, he would have recognized who this Athan was.
Because....
This Athan was the original.
"Let's play again, but this time, I'll be on top and you'll be on the bottom, Arthur~"
[A/N : It sounds weird, not gonna lie.... Hey, remember how Arthur killed him back in chapter 2?]
...
..
.
Somewhere.
"I lost my contact on one of my colleagues back in the academy..." One of the professors stopped to tell the others about what happened.
"Really? Maybe, something happened back there..." The professor beside him replied.
"..."
"...."
While the other four continued their conversation, Cossette leaped towards one of the trees and looked at the direction of the academy at the far distance.
While doing so, she noticed a smoke forming above the sky. Cossette became curious about this while at the same time, she was worried about what could have been happening while she was gone.
And so,
"Let's hurry up!"
She announced to the four before continuing without waiting for their next response.
***
Back at the academy.
"Urgh..." William finally opened his eyes after falling unconscious for about twenty minutes. When he woke up, he became confused after Athena and Lilian was no longer to be seen.
"Did they survive...-ack!?" He suddenly felt a throbbing pain in his shoulder, causing him to grit his teeth. He looks at his left arm and saw that it was bleeding.
"It hurts..." William said through his gritted teeth. While feeling tired, he slumped his body to the wall and used his other hand to support his body by plunging his blade to the ground.
He does this as he walk forward to look around. William didn't happen to encounter anyone nearby as his surroundings went silent.
After a while, he heard a loud clashing sound of metal from the distance.
William took a deep breath and inhaled a lot of air before releasing it to reduce the tension that had been building up in his body.
When he was done, he stood straight and slapped his right cheek, then took his sword from the ground as he walked forward.
"I need to help... them..."
However, what he saw next made him all confused.
"Kukukuku...." Holding the Duke's hair, Athan looks at him in the eyes while showing a playful grin on his face. His other hand was holding a sword that was covered in black miasma. With this, he stabbed the duke in the head that directly penetrated his temples.
"Athan...?"
William was stunned at this scene. He couldn't help but look at him anxiously after seeing him being able to kill the duke without any sort of scratches in his body.
"Athan..." He once again called out his name, causing Athan's attention to divert towards him. Athan's eyes suddenly grew cold as he spoke.
"It's you...."
Swoooosh--!
William could only hear the sound of the sword coming before twisting his body and blocking the attack. His eyes couldn't catch what happened so he went and trusted her instincts.
'You shall not pass!!!'
He cheered on his mind as he heard the sound of his sword blocking. Unfortunately, his assumption wasn't right. It wasn't the sound of her blocking Athan's sword. No, it was the sound of his sword breaking in half, flinging just past by his head.
Schick-!
His eyes widened as something red trickled down her cheek. Wondering what the sensation was, William lifted his right hand to touch it... only for it to fall off.
" a- agh...a- AAAAAAA!!! "
He lost his ground and fell on his butt humiliatingly. He held his arms tight instinctively, hoping for the aching pain to go away, but it only made the blood gush out further.
"A- aaughh... A-Athan... why?" William stuttered as tears continue to stream from his eyes. Hundreds of thoughts swirled around in his mind. But only that particular question was able to come out from his mouth.
"Why...?" Athan's response also came out as a question. He was befuddled by the way it sounded like he was enjoying this... And as if he was slightly confused why he would ask that.
Then he heard laughter. A spine-chilling laughter.
" Haha... HAHAHAHAHAhahaha.... Oh.... Why. Why, why, why indeed. "
Athan touched his cheeks who laid there powerless, shaking in fear. He then slowly moved his hands towards his right eye.
"Now that I look at it, you have such pretty eyes, William. Though, it would be such a shame if someone- "
Pull-!
"–were to took them out, right?"
Athan mercilessly gouged William's eye out.
"AAAAA!" William yelled and thrashed around but Athan didn't just stop there. No, he pulled William by his hair and threw him to a wall.
"Gah!"
He slowly walked towards William who was coughing out blood. He stopped just infront of him and crouched down just few inches above his eye level.
"After causing me many suffering, you're going to ask why...?"
William noticed the shadow towering over him. It was struggling but he managed to look up towards Athan in the eye.
"I'm. Just. Having. Fun." He grins.
"Doesn't that feel... Excruciating, right~?"
Athan slowly lifted his foot and prepared to stomp on William's face,
"No, you don't!"
When Arthur finally interfered.
Arthur tackled Athan, catching him by surprise as he flew over and hit the wall.
"William!" He rushes over to William to check his condition and saw that he was in critical condition. His right eye and left arm was gone, while he was still bleeding on the ground.
"You always like to interfere, don't you?" When Arthur turned his head to where the voice came from, his vision caught an incoming hand towards him.
"!!?"
Athan grabbed him on the neck and roughly lifted him up before slamming him on the ground, then lifting him up again to continue this process for a few times.
Arthur tries to pry the hand off his neck to no avail. His eyes glow blue, as he lets out a blood-curdling scream of pure, unprocessed pain and rage. In the blink of an eye, he brings down his knee with his full force onto Athan stomach, hoping to kick him away.
"Really?"
Thud-!
Arthur was absolutely stunned at the ease with which Athan caught his knee.
"Weak."
His expression was one of pure confusion and disbelief. He is completely at a loss at to what to do next. Even his next move.
"Weak…?! Weak?! Why you! You- you…!" Arthur tries to shove Athan away, but is stopped mid movement by the iron grip around his neck. He is fuming.
"You bastard! Get out of his body!" Arthur tightened his fist and aimed it towards Athan's face. However, the moment it hit him, it was too weak to cause any sort of damage. It's not that Athan's body was strong, but Arthur could not bring himself to harm him.
"Get out of HIS body...?" Athan chuckles as his grip began to tighten more, to the point that Arthur's face turns red before quickly turning violet because of the blood vessels that was being trapped.
"I think he should be the one to leave." He said under his gritted teeth, "That person is the one who stole this body from me, trapping my consciousness while he continue to play around."
Raising his other hand, Athan gripped it tightly into a iron hard fist while both enhancing it with mana and dark magic, causing his arms to have few veins popping out and black mist to come out of his hand.
"If I remember correctly, in this world, you have many lives. You can get resurrected whenever you die until... It reached the limit." He once again begun laughing. "You won't need to worry about regressing this time because~"
Pulling him slightly closer, Athan whispered in his ears, "You'll never be able to live another life in this world next time."
For the first time, Arthur had never felt fear from dying because of the curse...
"Watch your face cause I'll be dealing a huge blow on it~!"
"Urk-!"
Not until today.
When Athan's hand connected to Arthur's face, Arthur flew away while destroying the path of where he flew up until his body hit the sixth wall. To him, his head felt like exploding but Athan prevented this by using his dark magic on Arthur when he punched him.
"Bluuerch-!!" Arthur spilled out lots of blood from his mouth as both of his ears and nose started bleeding from the inside. He couldn't hear anything, while at the same time, he couldn't breathe normally as he should because of the blood. His eyes couldn't see properly because of the dizziness and had a hard time on focusing his attention towards Athan.
He stayed in this condition until his body eventually gave out and died.
As soon as he revives, Athan grabbed him by his collar and slammed him so hard that his neck broke as the breaking sound of his bone was heard.
Again, he died.
Soon after that, his death once again followed after Athan decided to kill him by picking up a pole and threw it at him like a testbook olympian.
Dead.
"Gah!"
Dead.
Crack-!
Dead.
Foosh-!
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead..
Dead.....
...
..
.
By the time he died for about 13th time, Arthur was already on the verge of giving up.
However...
『Stand up!』
At that moment,
『Find a mirror...』
Arthur suddenly head a faint whisper in his right ear, causing him to be surprised as his hair cascaded from the strong breeze of a wind.
Mirror...
This was the only thing that came in his mind as he desperately look around, completely ignoring Athan who was confused by his sudden changes and was in front of him.
He immediately attacked Arthur after seeing him off guard slicing him into two.
Skriiet
Though he fell, Arthur's mind was only focused on completing his goal.
"There!" Seeing a broken glass of a window that was on the ground, he crawled towards it as if his life depends on it.
Athan was confused by his actions, but sensed that something was wrong.
『I've won this bet, bitch!』
He suddenly heard OUR Athan's voice speaking inside his head in a mocking tone.
"You!" Without wasting anytime, Athan vanished on spot. He reappeared just above Arthur, with his dark claws fully prepared to attack.
"Die-!?"
Athan's claw was only a meter away from Arthur's head when suddenly, Cossette appeared in front of him.
Splurt-!
"Damn you!!"
Cossette managed to stop him on time by using her own body as Arthur's shield.
"Didn't I tell you to learn how to control those power and keep yourself from berserking...?" She held Athan's arm with both hands with a bloody grin.
"I'll kill you two!"
With a sudden bursting noice, the air rippled and the effect was dispersed. Athan's claw penetrated more as it broke free from her hindrance and moved towards Arthur more faster.
"We've met again.... Whoever you are who's currently controlling Athan, you bitch!" Cossette pulls him into a hug to stop him from struggling as Arthur's hand reached forward towards the mirror.
『It's just like what I said... I won this bet.』
As Athan heard this inside his head, Arthur was finally able to reach the mirror and turn around to face him. With their eyes, they stared at each other for a second that felt like an hour.
"Put your mask back on, Athan!"
'Because this is much better than dealing with the real you.'
"We've won."
『We've won.』
Both the voice inside Athan and Arthur went synchronized.
"Fuck you!!"
With his face being reflected in the mirror, Athan's right red eye suddenly became dark like an abyss. He had no choice but to stare at his reflection as he couldn't control the direction where his eye would look or close them.
『«Mindscape»』