The Plan That was Set in Motion

As Danso fell down to the ground he started to replay the memories of what had just happened. 

After listening to the story, Xeno looked at Marline, who was waiting for a reply. Danso was clearly intrigued by the story but judged its reality since if someone jumped off a floating island someone would have noticed. That was Danso's key argument against Marline.

Meanwhile Xeno genuinely looked interested as if he already accepted that Marline's story was true. 

"Thank you, pleasure doing business with you," said Xeno.

Marline just nodded before Julian escorted her away from Xeno and they swiftly started to leave the Black Market. Julian glanced at Marline, who seemed annoyed. He had never seen Marline showing this much emotion in his life so he was glad, yet also worried for her.

Suddenly a voice was heard from behind them. The tunnel echoed as Xeno's footsteps were heard. Danso was still at the main place and he was seated drinking a sip of a cold soft drink.

"Excuse me," said Xeno.

He lifted his hand up and created a dome of his avatars. There were so many faces of the different avatars of Xeno all staring at Marline and disregarding Julian. The bodyguards of Marline were startled and rushed towards Xeno and as soon as they moved, their heads exploded and their limp bodies fell down dancing with gravity.

The blood splattered on Marline's face as Xeno himself wiped it away while taking a napkin and wiping the red stain off his shirt.

Marline's expression was still unchanged as Julian's heart started to throb in fear. Sweat was drizzling from his face.

"What is your ability?" asked Marline.

"My ability is the power of the soul. I can create avatars by placing a percent of my soul in other people like a parasite," explained Xeno.

Julian tripped and fell down hearing Xeno's statement. Then he looked at all the faces as they slowly turned to watch Julian. He took a gulp as his throat quickly became dry. Julian crawled, stumbling away slamming his fist on the walls of the bodies.

Xeno slowly walked, his boots creating a noise as Julian glanced front and back.

Marline looked at the situation unfolding without anything. 

Xeno started at Julian and held his chin.

"Didn't I tell you not to move?" asked Xeno.

"Yes, yes it was on accident I swear it won't happen again, please don't ki-

Julian's head exploded. The blood drenched Xeno's shirt as his blue hair slowly turned purple with the blood staining it.

"You aren't Anon," said Marline.

"No I am not," replied Xeno inspecting the fallen body of Julian.

"Does your friend know?" asked Marline.

"He knows enough for him to die," said Xeno.

Xeno stopped inspecting the dead body and slammed it to the ground. He took a look inside the miniature dome as all the bodyguards died and Julian's headless body laid there.

"You are gruesome aren't you? Did you also witness the Northguard City Massacre?" asked Marline.

"My wife and children died to the Ghost," said Xeno.

"So now you are looking for revenge? Sorry to blow your bubble but the Ghost and the King are long dead," said Marline.

"How can you say the King is dead when he is right in front of you?" asked Xeno.

"You are… King Lance?" asked Marline.

King Lance was the king before King Cameron and the king after King James.

"I have many names now. I am everyone and everyone is me," said Xeno staring at Marline with vengeful eyes.

Marline kneeled in front of Xeno as he walked towards her and he held her hand and signalled her to stand up.

"I don't need your loyalty or respect now, the age of Kings is over. What I need to know is why did Xu kill my son, King James," said Xeno.

He walked towards Marline as she had a deep silence. She was probably thinking about the question Xeno was pondering about.

"Life is a book, maybe that chapter is something you haven't read yet?" asked Marline.

"I have witnessed more than you can ever think of," said Xeno.

Xeno touched Marline's forehead with his index finger. The dome of avatars started to fall down and go back inside Xeno as Marline started to float in the air and go inside Xeno alongside the rest of the avatars.

Danso glared at the scene in horror. 

He took a step back.

And then another step back.

He was just sipping his drink but he got curious to what Xeno was doing therefore he went to check what he was doing. Then he saw the scene. Danso's mouth opened in utter disgust. How could one man kill so many people without any remorse?

"Wh-what are you?" screamed Danso.

Xeno stared at him in silence as his blue hair slowly started to turn black again and his body resembled the body he had during the Ninjaro Raid.

"Answer me! Who are you?!" screamed Danso this time louder.

"Our deal is over…Danso go back to the hospital with your friends and live peacefully," said Xeno.

"How can I when you kill someone like that?" asked Danso.

"The bodyguards were mere obstacles in my path and Julian…I told him not to move," said Xeno.

Danso glanced quickly. Many people who were walking towards the same direction as the incident saw the dead bodies and started screaming in panic. They all started to rush to the exits. 

Danso stood his ground against the crowd rushing to the exit pushing and shoving him. 

"Where is Marline Hermes?" asked Danso.

"She is not dead. She is with me up here," said Xeno pointing to the side of his forehead with his index finger.

Danso unsheathed his sword.

"It's better for her to die," said Danso.

"I can't let her die, she is important for my plans," said Xeno.

Danso ignited his sword and ran towards Xeno. The blade slashed the body of Xeno but another body appeared behind him. Danso slashed that one too but more and more started to appear.

"You can't beat me," said Xeno.

Danso ignited his sword to the max and the flames turned purple yet again. He gripped the hilt as tightly as he could as he got into his stance. He closed his eyes.

He remembered the teachings of his teacher back at the Narahara Complex.

"The Stone Stance is for when facing an enemy who refuses to budge, the Water Stance is for when you need to be indestructible like water, the Wind Stance is for when you need to flow and adapt like the wind," 

Danso reopened his eyes and took the Wind Stance. He put the sword close to his body and kept on taking deep breaths. He spaced out both of his legs and relaxed his muscles. His left hand's wrist was limp.

Xeno's multiple avatars attacked him at once. Danso sliced them all. All of them. 

In a second he was covered in blood. Danso could feel he was rusty, maybe he had been relying on his 1st stage sorcery and sword art too much and not refining his swordsman skills that he had learnt at the Narahara Complex. 

He wanted to forget the Samurai but he could not. That was a part of him.

Xeno looked at Danso while being shocked. He did not think it was possible for him to kill those many avatars in a single second. Xeno knew that this was not his main body, the main body was in the cage with Chiro but if this body with 25% of himself dies here then the 25% of his soul dissipates and the 1% soul he lost by keeping 100 avatars in the 25% soul body by giving each body 0.01% of his true soul would be lost. This would weaken Xeno which could pave some ways to defeat him in the future. 

So Xeno had to win here. But how? Well the answer was simple. He did not have to win fairly.

Xeno took the body of Marline and made her walk towards him. He acted so perfectly that Danso thought it was actually Marline.

And then Xeno stabbed the knife straight into Danso and fell down straight to the ground as he closed his eyes.

"I guess we will meet again after you return from the Barren Wastelands," said Xeno, staring at the fallen body, then quickly disappearing.