Chapter 2: Ch 2: The First Fight
"Oh, already one of them dead? Perhaps we have a potential member in our hands." His gaze shifts towards the city below him with a sinister smile. "I wonder who will be the first person to lose themselves?" He covers his mouth as he giggles as if thought of something fun. "Hehe, very interesting question indeed."
…
"Ugh! Start working you damn scrap of steel!" Abella yells in frustration as she stares at the engine of the train with almost outright hatred. "What's wrong?" Daan asks from frustrated Abella. "Why is this thing not working?! The reason I like engineering and mechanics is that it always follows a clear logic. But I just can't figure this one out! So frustrating!" "Did you try to add fuel?" Daan comes beside Abella.
"Of course I did. But it won't just work for some reason." Abella clenches the wrench in her hand. "Maybe it isn't your fault that it isn't working." He glances at Lucas who is observing them from a little distance but it seems like his focus is mostly on O'saa man from the East.
"If what it took to make a whole damn train useless is a little bit of bibbidi-bobbidi-boo then might as well they took over the whole world already." Daan looks at Abella and whispers in his mouth. "I think this isn't just simple magic as you think." Daan's mind couldn't help but wander whenever he heard the word magic.
As far as he can remember magic always followed him around like a shadow. But it hardly gave him anything compared to what it took from him. His childhood, his parents, his father-in-law, fiancé, and now it seems like it's coming after his life too. To cope with his traumas he always told himself that magic wasn't real, the world could be explained by clear logic, and what his parents and father-in-law did was just… them going crazy.
But now? He saw something supernatural happen with his own eyes. Lucas summoning his weapon and the dream is too realistic to be a dream. Just why does the supernatural haunt him so much?
"Daan! Calm down." Abella's scream calls him back to reality as he sees his nails digging into the palms of his hands. "Ah, sorry it happens sometimes." He takes a few deep breaths to calm himself down as he can feel Abella's eyes looking at him worriedly.
While they were having somewhat their moments some extra eyes were observing them. 'Hmm, they seem like a potential protagonist and heroine or tragic couple that forms here and dies here.' Lucas scratches his head just thinking about that. 'Whatever, if things do not work out I'll just kill everyone and become the winner of the festival. But most importantly what or who is with O'saa?'
Someone is with O'saa he could tell that because whenever he gains an EP from him there is another one nameless EP following after his. System said as long he learns about their true identity whenever they give him EP he could see who is giving him. So this additional nameless EP comes out most when he communicates with O'saa so it must be with him.
'It might be something like ash. The enhanced sense of smell I got from Hannibal Lecter is telling me there is something burnt with him. There is also something strange with him that doesn't smell like anything I know of.' This starts bothering Lucas more and more because for him to gain more EP he needs to create a clear plan. And any information he could find is crucial to him.
'Should I go to the city? What did they say its name was again? Hmm… Prehevil was it.' It seems like he has no other choice but to head to the city. Well, he can't really cage them in here forever so this was inevitable.
…
"Just a little more… soon… I will achieve my dream." A man dressed in yellow is walking through the sewers. The smell of waste and blood has already filled this place but to him, it doesn't bother him slightest. All his five mortal senses already weakened to the point it's nigh-useless.
Ascending to the godhood as a new god is similar to leaving your mortal body. First, the connection between your new godly soul and mortal body is stronger than ever granting you almost use your full power in the mortal realm. From then on every passing moment, you will feel it you are ascending to a higher realm getting farther and farther from the mortal realm.
The connection between your mortal body and godly soul gets weaker till the end only thing you can do with it is silently live in darkness. 'Throne… it was never meant to create a god… it was only meant to create servants for them… incomplete accession to godhood that never meant to complete…'
Godly souls can't die so are their mortal bodies even if they are tattered, rotten, burned, and aged they will never die. New gods… title that almost seems like insulting those who tried to ascend. Trapped between accession and mortality destined to be trapped in that stupid hall created by the old gods.
As he keeps walking his surroundings change into a familiar hall. With a familiar black and white tile floor, filled with familiar hooded figures staring at him, and familiar voices whispering to his ears reaching directly to his soul.
"Give up…" "Join us…" "Your struggle is useless…" "This is destined to happen to all of us…" "You aren't one of them…" "Our ascension was meant to fail the moment we used that throne…" "You can't escape from the circle…"
Every passing moment is pushing him towards this inescapable abyss little by little. Visions are getting more vivid… more real sometimes it felt even more realer than… here. It is a matter of time before he ends up trapped in that damn hall forever.
'Don't make me laugh… I'll never end up like you guys… Logic… as long I activate her I can get rid of being trapped in that hellhole…' "Why not give up now? You struggled long enough." A male voice that is filled with warmth and love echoes inside his mind. 'Shut up! This isn't trouble something like you should care! Alll-mer!'
"Just a little bit longer…" he whispers to himself as he keeps going forward. "Soon… with Logic I won't need this weak flesh body to keep me in this world…"
…
"I don't know what to say other than disgusting. Don't you think so Tanaka?" Lucas looks at stiff Tanaka next to him. Tanaka looks at him back stiffly with a forced smile. "Y-yeah, it's a really disgusting sight indeed."
[+199 EP from Kida Tanaka.]
Lucas circles the abandoned shack and looks at the two corpses before shaking his head in disappointment. "It's truly lacking in artistic sight as much as the killer is skills." Perhaps it's because he is merged with Hannibal he felt disgusted by such a crude and rough method of killing.
"I-I think it's done by a wild beast." Tanaka said as he looked at the corpse which Lucas shook his head. "No, no, Tanaka killer is clearly someone who can walk on two legs look at the footprint. Also, look at the wound of the guy it's clearly cut by something sharp, and stabbed the woman before nailing her on the wall. Animals can't do that so the killer must be human or humanoid just like us. I'm truly disgusted by the fact even though they took their time while killing them in the end they created so a crude murder scene… so disappointing and disgusting."
[+211 EP from Kida Tanaka.]
"Let's go, killer shouldn't be far away. I wanna have a few words with them." With that Lucas starts following the footprint. Seeing this Tanaka shakes his head in almost fear. "I-I'll stay here. Maybe some of us might come after us and need a guide." Lucas looks at him with a blank look. "Do you know this city?" "N-no." "… just say you don't wanna come with me." 'Guide my ass.'
[+467 EP from Kida Tanaka.]
As Lucas starts walking Tanaka's shaky figure gets left behind and disappears in the mist. 'Kida Tanaka… nothing notable about him but also everything about him is notable. But Shiva inside me is telling me he has a lot of untapped potential. He is almost as if a blank piece of paper waiting to be doodled on. Maybe he was born somewhere like the medieval period he might have been a great warrior.'
'Should I perhaps train him a little bit?' Just as he was caught in thought he heard a scream of a girl and a man. He quickly rushes there to see what's going on and sees Marina one of the passengers getting chased by Woodsman. He was wearing quite revealing clothes revealing his private part it's just it seems like he doesn't have any.
'The heck?' "Leave! You filthy outsider! Don't you understand?! I'm warning you! No one who takes part in the festival of Termina will able to see tomorrow is sun!" Woodsman keeps screaming while swinging his axe. Marina dodges from it in fear and yells at him back. "I'm trying to! If you stop chasing me then I will leave!" "Leave!" But it seems like her words only reached deaf ears.
'I could help I guess.' With speed almost invisible to the naked eye he comes behind Woodsman and kicks him on the back making him kiss the ground before summoning his trident. And stabs him directly to his heart from behind cleanly. "Tsk, perhaps I should have taken my time a little more before killing him." 'He said the name of the festival was the festival of Termina. Finally, I learned the name.'
[+1200 EP.]
[+236 EP from Marina.]
[EP: 8677.]
'Should I perhaps blow up the part of the city?' He looks at Marina. "Hi again?" 'This is awkward.' Marina looks at the corpse of the woodsman and then at Lucas. "Thanks." "…" 'This is awkward as fuck.' After a little bit of awkward silence, Lucas said hesitatingly. "Do you wanna check his house?"
"I guess." Soon they enter the abandoned house and are greeted with well not the nicest-looking house. "If I remember correctly. An old couple used to live in this place." She touches the wall as if recalling old memories. "The old lady was always nagging at her hubby. The old geezer just took it all in without a complaint."
"Sounds like that old geezer loved his wife at least to some extent." Lucas then heads towards the barrels to check them. "I felt a bit bad for him, not going to lie." Lucas finds an egg from the first one, then a carrot, then a bottle of beer. "Seems understandable. Also who the hell puts an egg in a barrel?" Marina picks up a candle and then checks the refrigerator finding a bottle of white potion. "Someone that gone mad?" Lucas then finds a few books that become unreadable because of how poorly they are taken care of. "Do you think the wife of the woodsman is still alive?"
"Not so sure." Marine and Lucas come in front of the stairs. A door that leads to the basement is sealed by chains so they decided to go upstairs first. Lucas saw Marina packing candles with herself. "Why pack them? Aren't they dead weight?" Marine shakes her head. "I'm not that proficient in magic to the point no need to use circles like you. Useful spells demand me create circles first before storing them just in case."
'Hmm, it seems like she mistook me as some kind of mage like her. That's not a bad thing though.' They stumble into the only room on the second floor the bedroom. Marina checks the bookshelf while he checks the luggage finding a bottle of yellow liquid that smells disgusting. "Is this a fucking piss?!"
Marina looks at the vial of yellow potion picks it up from you and smells it. "No, it smells like golden chanterelle. It's a pretty well-known edible mushroom in Europa. I'm surprised by the fact you don't know about it." Lucas shrugs his shoulder as he comes in front of the bookshelf he sees a few interesting books related to this world before putting them back because they were unreadable too. "You could say I didn't bother care about things like that before."
[+100 EP.]
"Hmm." She looks at him before continues searching the room for anything else that's useful. She picks up a few glass shards to use as a distraction and Lucas finally finds something useful from the bookshelf. He found a map of Prehevil which is really useful to him. 'Hmm, I wonder what is O'saa doing. I wanted to follow him but Shiva's instinct told me things with him aren't something easy to take care of.'
[+120 EP.]
"Shall we go to the basement?" Marina takes a few steps forward the stairs before getting stopped by Lucas. "Before that, I need to do something." Marina prepares herself for a fight just in case but to her surprise, Lucas runs past her and jumps down the stairs turning into a shadow and directly flying through the wall of the first floor.
[+200 EP.]
"Ahh!" Soon she could hear the scream of a girl as she quickly ran down the stairs. Lucas was lifting a girl from her collar with a smile on his face. "Now, now, I know I saw you on the train so you must be a passenger just like us so can you tell me why are you tailing Marina around?" Lucas indeed could remember he saw her on the train but she was an even more forgettable character than Tanaka who he forgot and didn't even notice he left. Hearing this made Marina shocked as she glared at a girl with black hair. "M-Marina please don't look at me like that! I meant no harm! I swear! I love you!"
[+300 EP from Marina.]
[+400 EP from Samarie.]
"Aww, sweet love indeed, but can you answer my question first, or else I might as well eliminate another contestant right here, right now." Lucas's words make the stalker girl even more nervous. "I-I was following her because I love her! I-I fell in love with her the moment I met her! Marina tell him! It's me, Samarie!"
[+199 EP from Marina.]
[+399 EP from Samarie.]
Only silence replies to a girl who is desperate begging Marina to say something. "Do you know her Marina?" Lucas asks her while still lifting Samarie from her collar. "I don't know her." Was the only answer Marina gave before heading to the stairs to open the door to the basement. The smile on Lucas's face grows as he summons his trident but in truth, he wasn't planning to kill her. After all, she is a precious EP course that must be kept alive as long as possible.
[+699 EP from Samarie.]
"N-no… it can't be… Marina…" Samarie's hands wrap around her head. "…why… why… why… why!… WHY?!…" then her crazed eyes land on Lucas. "It's because of you! You did this to Marina! You damn bastard! You! You! It's because of you!! You damn blank! Why can't I read your mind like others?!! Why are you getting between Marina and I?!!" Sadness of Marina not acknowledging her and anger towards Lucas for exposing her pushes her towards her madness.
[+1200 EP from Samarie.]
Suddenly she starts glowing seeing this Lucas directly pierced her with a trident before throwing it towards a tree and nailing her on it. With a white flash of light, her figure starts distorting into something terrifying. Her body grows almost doubling in size, her skin turns black with some strange pattern almost resembling armor, and most importantly her head. Its skin is peeled off onto a rim encircling her head making her lose one of her eyes and always having an expression similar to smiling because of exposed teeth. To tell you the truth, her head resembles a somewhat traditional fairy tale drawing of the sun it's just a really badly drawn one.
"This feeling… I feel amazing… I feel like… I am radiating!" A distorted female voice escapes from her mouth somewhat resembling previous Samarie's voice but looking at this creature that girl is no longer there. Suddenly trident that was stuck on its chest pulls itself out from it and comes back to Lucas's hand.
"Not gonna lie, you look quite artistic in that form." Lucas spins the trident a few times to clean it from the otherworldly blood on it. "You! It's all because of you! I will kill you then that damn old man for the pain he inflicted on Marina!!!" It swings its hand sending an invisible wave of otherworldly energy Lucas jumps into the air to dodge but unexpectedly creature already comes below him and catches him from his leg. "Fell before my radiance!"
[+200 EP.]
Suddenly red spiral of energy spins around his leg before getting inside it and the next moment a lot of blood bursts out from his leg as the creature slams him on the ground. Raising its arm preparing to smash Lucas's head as otherworldly energy wraps around its fist. Seeing this Lucas quickly stabs it in the eye with a trident successfully blinding it. "Aghhh!!!" Its distorted scream of agony echoes through the forest, Lucas using this moment turns into a shadow body slamming into it resulting in it flying a few meters away.
The creature's arms spasm violently as from ground rotten corpses crawl out. Dozens of corpses without lower body crawls towards him with surprising speed. "Oh, we are using summons now? I can do that." With bright light beside him [Death Angel] materializes itself. Lucas jumps on its back as [Death Angel] rushes towards the creature, head clashing with its undead minions.
Its summons couldn't harm [Death Angel]'s shell leaving them no other choice than being slaughtered by it. Once the distance between him and it closes Lucas launches himself toward it clenching from the trident and repeatedly stabbing it on the head. Every time he stabs it faint green glow covers his body slowly healing his wound.
[+799 EP.]
The creature tries to use its otherworldly power but Lucas is just too fast for it to hit as he repeatedly turns into a shadow and arrives behind it. Soon [Death Angel] finished cleaning the summons and slammed itself to it sending it flying.
[+999 EP.]
"I.. I'm… radiating… Marina… please... see me..." Lucas emits a faint blue glow as several illusionary clones appear beside him. "I don't think so bitch." He and his clones rush towards it leaving a trail of afterimages behind and lands their finishing blow. Being directly stabbed by several tridents on its vital points simultaneously was enough to finally end it once and for all.
[+5666 EP.]
Soon several people arrive at the battleground they are Abella, Daan, and scared Tanaka. What they saw was Lucas standing on the corpse of a strange humanoid creature covered in purplish red blood as behind him [Death Angel] stayed still creating the impression of it silently observing them. And the most disturbing thing was the big grin on his face as if he had just a moment of his life.
Abella wipes out her wrench preparing to fight if Lucas does anything suspicious seeing this Lucas gently wipes the blood from his face. "You guys finally decided to leave the train?" He pets [Death Angel] on the head before returning it to system space as it shatters into white particles.
[+399 EP from Abella.]
[+415 EP from Daan.]
[+699 EP from Tanaka.]
"What was that?" Daan asks in a somewhat amazed tone. "My summon of course. Have you seen a mage without a summon before?" Lucas said jokingly as walks towards the abandoned house. "Don't stand there like an idiot. Let's go inside Marina should be waiting for us in the basement."
Trio hesitatingly comes beside the corpse and Daan goes on his knees and examines it. "… it's almost incredible. What is this even supposed to be? The skin has gone through some kind of metamorphosis. It's very thick and sturdy. Almost gives it an armor of sorts… the head… it's her face, only peeled open. Method of killing it is brutal almost torture even… how terrifying." With that trio decides to follow Lucas for the reason? Who knows maybe they thought it might be safer with him on their side.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
M_M_05
M_M_05 So, I know I’m changing quite a few things because I didn’t understand the game fully even though I finished it several times myself and I hope the fight scene wasn’t too disappointing. Thank you for reading! Have a great day!
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