Burning Flame

A deep burning sensation welled up inside of me... along with a deep-seated anger. Both sensations ignited within my body... burning in my soul. I slowly stood up, almost falling to my knees. I hung my head low as I felt those burning sensations...

I could hear another mechanical sound coming from beneath the steel platform... the signal of another cannonball onslaught about to begin. Then... the sound of cannon firing echoed, but... I didn't bother reacting. I didn't even bother looking up at the upcoming cannonballs hurtling toward me...

First hit. I was pushed into the wall. Second hit. Embedded deeper. Third hit. Embedded even deeper. Fourth hit. Even deeper. Fifth hit... the fifth didn't hit me.

I had anticipated the fifth cannonball hitting me, but the impact never came. How? It was simple, really... because the fifth cannonball... was destroyed... by me.

I suddenly realized what I had done. Before the fifth cannonball could hit me, my right arm had subconsciously thrown a punch into it, shattering it into a burst of metallic fragments. The force of my punch caused the steel ball to explode into a shower of twisted metal shards, spraying in all directions. The remnants of the cannonball flew apart, pieces clattering to the ground like shattered glass. I looked at my fist, now surrounded by a cloud of metallic dust, the heat from the impact still radiating from my knuckles.

I slowly pulled myself out of the wall. I could still feel the burning sensation inside my body... and it was growing stronger by the second... the burning sensation of anger that had been welling up inside me all this time. But suddenly... a voice could be heard, speaking directly in my head. A familiar voice...

"Unleash your anger."

I heard a familiar voice. It was the voice that I still vividly remembered... a familiar voice that had destroyed the normalcy of my life... The wicked and mischievous entity that had plunged me into this new, unfamiliar, cruel world...

"Unleash your desire."

The voice... it was the voice of the 'Witch'... the 'Witch' from the dark alleyway. The same 'Witch' that had given me a "token" through her "branding," with searing, burning flame... the same burning sensation I was feeling right now. The same painful burning sensation welling up inside me, within my chest... and I did not reject it.

Another set of mechanical sounds could be heard, signaling another impending cannonball onslaught. But... I did not care or worry a single bit about them. In fact, I welcomed them to try. Then, the sound of cannon firing could be heard yet again.

"Unleash your flame."

The burning sensation spread throughout my whole body. I could feel the searing sensation all over... I looked down at my body... and realized it was enveloped by flame... dark flame. I could feel the searing, painful sensation of them... but it did not bother me. Not one bit.

I finally lifted my head... and saw the cannonball onslaught that should have been hitting me by now was slowly approaching me instead. It was like seeing a bunch of hovering balls slowly floating in the air. It was almost comical how slow they seemed to be hovering towards me. I soon realized... rather than the cannonballs moving slowly... it was me moving fast. Fast enough that those balls, which had been impossible for me to dodge before, now looked like a row of giant metallic balloons hovering.

I began to casually walk forward toward the cannonballs heading slowly toward me. As I finally reached them, I casually swiped my fist at the first cannonball, shattering it into a million steel fragments. The shards floated in mid-air as if confused about why they had suddenly turned into pieces. Then, I moved forward to the second cannonball and swiped my fist again, and it suffered the same fate as the first.

The third cannonball received another swipe of my fist and shattered just like the first and second. The fourth cannonball met the same fate as the previous three with a casual swipe of my fist. Then, the fifth cannonball... I channeled all my anger into my right fist and punched it. It shattered not just into a million pieces but into a fine dust that floated in mid-air.

I walked past all of them, and then the speed of the world suddenly felt normal. I heard the sound of steel fragments & shards scattering and dropping onto the steel platform behind me. Then, I heard the familiar mechanical sound reminding me that another cannonball onslaught was incoming. But as I said before: it didn't matter anymore.

The sound of cannon firing could be heard once again, and I saw another barrage of cannonballs hurtling fast toward me. Just as those cannonballs were about to hit me, they suddenly began to slow down. The same fate as the previous cannonballs as I began to move with extreme speed. But instead of destroying them like before, I had another idea in mind.

I touched the nearest cannonball and lifted it with one arm. It was so light that it felt like I was holding a large ball made of solid rubber. I felt the light cannonball in my hand... then I threw it towards one of the box-cannons. It flew quite fast. Maybe even faster in reality if not for my sped-up perception. Regardless, the steel cannonball crashed into the box-cannon, and they both shattered into a million pieces. I could see a small fireball forming in the middle of the crash, as if it was about to explode.

Then, I continued with the second cannonball. I lifted it playfully before chucking it into another box-cannon, crashing it and shattering them both. Then the third one met the same fate as the previous two. Then the fourth one, also the same fate as the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd cannonballs.

And now... the last cannonball. The fifth cannonball. I lifted it casually, even spinning it on my fingers as if it was a basketball. For this one, I did not just instantly throw it into the last box-cannon sitting in the middle of the path, no.

Instead, I casually brought the cannonball along with me toward it. It was a casual walk that felt like a few seconds of walking. But eventually, I reached the last box-cannon. I let out a snort of laughter, finding humor in what I was about to do with this last box-cannon.

Then... I slammed the last cannonball in my hand into the last box-cannon. Both of them shattered into a million pieces, just like the other four sets of box-cannons and their cannonballs. The shards remained suspended in mid-air as I casually walked past them. When I finally planted my feet on the other side of the long, narrow path, I felt the speed of the world gradually returning to normal. Then... a multitude of explosions erupted behind me. I didn't bother looking back at them as they were now meaningless to me.

I had finally reached the finish line platform. I could see the large finish line arch with a cartoonish drawing of Max Brain on top. As if my desire had been satisfied, I felt the burning sensation that had enveloped my whole body gradually fade away. I looked down and saw the dark flames covering my body slowly dying down as well.

Eventually, the burning within my chest was replaced by a feeling of happiness, as if I had entered into a "sage mode."

I began to walk casually toward the finish line... but then I noticed a few people waiting there. These people were most likely the ones the mad scientist Victoria had mentioned—those who knew me well and would greet me with my reward. I couldn't see them clearly, because an intense light was shining through the entire finish line platform, as if welcoming a champion. Thinking that way made me feel good about myself as I continued moving closer.

There, I finally saw that three people were waiting at the finish line. They were still obscured, not just by the intense light slightly blinding my vision, but also by the shadows under the arch bridge, effectively hiding their identities but not their silhouettes. But eventually... as I got a few inches closer to the finish line, I finally saw who these three people were.

The standing-up straight grunt lieutenant, Lieutenant Grunt No. 443, the mad scientist Victoria "Mad Star" whom I had just mentioned before, and then the last person... a quite unexpected person...

The infamous No. 1 supervillain, Max Brain.

I was confused. I had never thought that these three people would be the ones to greet me personally, especially the last one, who was supposed to be the top leader and owner of this Evil Empire bit. Was he here to greet me personally too?

"Well done, my loyal grunt," Max Brain suddenly praised me with a wide grin on his face. I had never expected that he would actually go out of his way to praise a newbie grunt like me. It was... nice to know.

"Thanks... I guess," I replied awkwardly, which earned another huge grin from him and even a giggle from Victoria. The lieutenant, however, remained silent throughout this whole exchange.

Then Max Brain cleared his throat to get my attention. "Now then... take a break for a moment, my loyal grunt," he calmly ordered with a smile.

"... huh?" I responded, dumbfounded, not understanding what he was saying.

I heard another giggle from Victoria. "Hehe~, good night, Grunt No. 703~," she suddenly bid me good night out of nowhere, which further confused me.

But then I realized too late... as I saw the lieutenant Grunt No. 443 pointing something at my head... and it was a gun. With a few sharp clicks coming from it, the lieutenant then pulled the trigger.

And everything turned dark once again.