บท 15: I am no demon.

I felt a drain on my body. I guessed this was the cost of activating the new {fates} I had. My soul count dropped by 300. So, the cost of the four new ones was exactly 300 souls.

It was a novel feeling, like feeling different temperatures in your body all at once. Somehow, I knew which {fates} belonged to Bella, and which were from Josephine and Jasmine.

Aside from {Rewind}, I knew I had an additional three {fates} active. Isabella granted me {Code} and {Connect}. The former digitized some things I saw, while the latter couldn't be used due to being in Hellsgate.

Josephine's blood granted me {Listen} and {Interpret}. From the downloads, {Listen} allowed me to direct my hearing towards a specific direction, like a directional microphone. The second seemed to…

"Bella, talk to me in Brazilian."

Her angry reply came less than a second after. "Fuck you, you racist bastard! I told you I speak Portuguese!"

However, it seemed different. Her "fuck you" wasn't in English but I understood it as if it was.

I turned to Josephine and made the same request. "Josephine, speak in Europe."

"Speak Europe? I am from Sicily, there is no speaking Europe. I can speak in Italian if you want. Ehem… Hello, I am now speaking in Italian, can you understand me? What is your favorite food?"

"I can and its fried chicken," I replied.

At that point Bella grabbed me by my shoulder and eagerly pulled me towards her.

"Wait! You can understand her? You can understand Italian?"

Her curiosity and surprise were obvious. But even the skill owner, Josephine, was surprised. Why? Didn't she tell us her skills? Before I could reply, Jasmine was the one that explained the matter for me.

"We only taught you {Listen}. If we didn't teach you {Interpret} it should not have activated. You are breaking the common sense of how {fates} are loaned. The only way to learn everything about a {fate} is to use saliva or sexual fluids."

"Oh." Unsure if this was a big deal, I checked with Bella. She nodded her head like a head banger in a Bon Jovi concert. When I saw her expression, I wanted to tease her more. I stepped away and took a pebble from the ground. I threw it in the air like a baseball.

With my gun trained on the small object, I focused my eyesight on the stone. Like I was using a pair of binoculars, I could now "zoom" my vision to the target. This was the effect of {Perceive}, a passive ability that granted superhuman eyesight.

As the pebble flew in the air, in my eyesight a white crosshair followed it. I moved the crosshair a little lower by moving my arm to account for the bullet speed. I then squeezed the trigger of my pistol.

The bullet fired and followed the trajectory of the crosshair. It then blasted the stone into smithereens. Satisfied, I looked back to Bella only to see her flabbergasted.

That itself was expected. What I didn't understand was why even Josephine had a hand covering her mouth while the stoic Jasmine looked beside herself. Wasn't this ability from them?

"What? Why are even the two of you surprised?" I asked in annoyance, unable to understand their reactions.

Bella quickly grabbed both of my shoulders roughly. With me being taller than her, it looked weird, but her eyes were lit with a feeling I didn't expect. Fear.

"Honey. I am now speaking in Portuguese. Can you still understand me?"

I silently nodded.

Isabella didn't get scared easily. This short woman could fight toe to toe with even Bigfoots with nothing but a knife and her body. For such an exaggerated reaction, I knew something was up.

Suddenly I heard blades unsheathed and a bowstring being drawn. Josephine pointed her weapons at me as she shielded her sister. Jasmine had a fully drawn arrow aimed at Isabella. That escalated way too quickly. What was going on?

Josephine had a troubled expression while Jasmine's eyes looked sharp as a hawk. Bella pulled her knife and stood in front of me. Jasmine's stoic words brought the tense atmosphere to 11.

"John. No matter how good Isabella is, at this distance, I can send an arrow through her heart. {Aim} allows for such as it predicts the target's movements to a degree, you understand, right? If you value your lover's life, answer me. Tell me why a demon like you would save us?!"

Demon? What the fuck was this bitch going on about? Before I could even understand what was going on, my partner shielded me while she brought her knife to the front.

"Jasmine, calm down. I know what it looks like, but I can tell you that he is no demon. Honey bleeds blood just like the rest of us. He is a wraith!"

Josephine then shrieked at us, her voice lacking the characteristic cheerfulness she had displayed so far.

"Then explain how he is able to use more than one {fate} aside from his own! Reapers are only allowed one kindred! This was why Soulgears were created. A reaper…even a Revenant can only have two {fates} in his body! You betrayed us!"

Ho? So, kindred were the ones that reapers usually got their loaned {fates} from. And normal reapers were only allowed one at a time. If me being a demon was the only reasonable explanation in their eyes, then I agreed with her assumption.

"He learned {fates} we didn't teach! I can understand if that is a fluke. But {Perceive} and {Listen}, if he has your {Code} and his {Auto}, this man has four {fates} active right now! If he is not a demon, then what is he?!" Jasmine demanded.

So, they believed my {fate} was {Auto} with {Save} being an evolution. I could see what Bella withholding information looked like as well. With the information gap, the odds of their side winning against Bella and me were low. But how should I go about this?

It seemed that being able to ingest multiple {fates} broke the norms of the reapers. Josephine said she was from the EU battlefront while Isabella was from the South American one. So, even with the cumulative knowledge from two different continents, my ability could not be deemed normal.

I never considered them actual allies in the beginning, so I was not saddened by the distrust. While I could understand their reasons, I did not appreciate being threatened like this.

'Do not place your limits on me. If we cannot come to an agreement, then I will kill you right here,' I thought.

While my heart felt warm as I saw Bella stand up for my sake, I could not become the top reaper if I hid behind her for every little thing. With that in mind, I stepped forward.

"You bitches got two things wrong. One, I am no demon. I died and came back like any reaper. My goal is to become the strongest Revenant and close Hellsgate."

Right, if I already came from hell there would be no need for me to die. I could not tell them about Roland but I was sure I was no demon.

"Two, betrayal only works if both parties trusted each other from the beginning. As a thank you for granting me your {fates}, if you wish to leave, I will not stop you. But if you decide to fight, know that I will show you no mercy," I warned.

I felt like this was becoming a habit. Well, what would happen if I became a worse asshole? I was already in hell, right?

At that point, Jasmine started to laugh uncontrollably, easing her bow while asking her sister to stand down. Surprised, I couldn't help but wonder if I said anything funny.

Both women laughed at my serious goal. While it did defuse the situation, I couldn't help but get irritated. Unable to stop myself, I asked what they found so funny.

"What? You guys think I am making a joke?"

Jasmine then stopped laughing as her eyes became sharp once more. Complex emotions clearly shifted in her mind, judging by the uncertainty in her gaze.

"I do. You are either making a joke or are foolish to the point of insanity. Jo and I are 10th generation descendants. We have personally seen Virtuous, his majesty Clive in combat. Even with such a powerful force of nature and generations of the best reapers of the continent, the European battlefront is stuck at the 39th floor."

The black beauty from Italy then scoffed as she made a face, warped in anger.

"You are too arrogant, you imbecile! A few tricks could help you. But claiming to close Hellsgate as a Formless is a delusion! The Formless are trash! And you wish to close Hellsgate? With what? Bullets? No true demon would be this stupid. Josephine, come, we are leaving!"

Jasmine tried to leave but her sister didn't follow.

"Josephine? What are you doing?! We will die if we stay with them! Let's go!"

"Jas, enough. Please stop," Josephine begged.

"What? What are you saying?" Jasmine then grabbed her sister's forearm and tried to drag her away.

Josephine started shouting hysterically.

"JASMINE DENEL! Wake up! We were born and trained to be reapers for as long as I can remember. You and I tried our best. We did everything we humanly could! Yet when everyone found out we were Formless, we got disowned! Our own parents threw us to the streets!"

Women were emotional creatures. Almost dying probably left them all emotionally unstable. It seemed the stress became too much for her and she couldn't take it anymore. Right, now what?

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Yinghuo_392

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