73 K v D & Progression

Kasdeya watched as the Director lowered his hand, the confident smile never leaving his face, though he also never took his eyes off her, who had slid off the wall and was glaring at him from a crouched posture.

"Unfortunately, I don't believe your capabilities will allow you to survive this dance, so I suggest you go." The DIrector's eyes flickered to the aid for just a second as he delivered his warning, but a second was what she was waiting for.

All at once, Kasdeya shot forward, the mana she had gathered in her legs instantaneously being expended to give a massive burst of movement. The Director didn't seem phased in the least with the surprise attack, calmly sidestepping just enough to not get harmed, but performing the action so quickly that it looked like he hadn't moved at all.

Adjusting her balance as she rocketed past, Kasdeya plunged one clawed hand into the solid material that made up the floor and carved 5 grooves as the sudden break flipped her back towards the Director's raised hand.

Barely having a split second to comprehend what was about to happen, an insurmountable force slammed into her body, launching the devil-turned-ragdoll back the way all of them had come from, away from the multitude of people who somehow hadn't noticed anything was wrong.

Slamming against the ground and rolling, Kasdeya felt the severe protest of her body towards its current treatment and, while her skin had yet to split, the same couldn't be said about the weaker material which her 'clothes' were made out of. Glancing down at the fur covering her arms and the lower portion of her legs, she scowled at the torn remains, especially since it cost her one means of attack.

The gentle but consistent clicking of shoes against the floor announced the oncoming enemy.

"How the heck do I beat him? Any ideas?" Kasdeya murmured, so quietly as to make one question whether she actually spoke, or simply moved her lips. "It seems impossible…"

Kasdeya was not disillusioned as to her chances, but the fact that she hadn't even felt the presence of an overpowering being scared her more than the being itself. It made her think that he wasn't even trying.

"What I need the most right now is a method to see his-" Kasdeya widened her eyes slightly at her discovery.

---

Continuing to walk at a leisurely pace, the Director closed in on the current Devil. He had briefly entertained the idea of getting her onto his side, but from what he had heard and seen thus far, she, like most Devils before her, had gone well and truly insane.

'But I guess there's no surprise there.'

The Director chuckled lightly to himself, thinking about the massive sham that the entirety of existence had been turned into.

Looking up, he could see the Devil in the distance, gazing at him warily, like a cornered beast, desperate to find some weakness or escape route.

'I suppose that she's just unlucky to have been brought here… but I do wonder how she got here in the first place, potential glitch in the summoning? No matter, this works for me, the three tend to be wildcards anyway, with far too much growth capacity to be left alone, and when dealing with uncontrollable variables, the best solution is to remove them from the equation before they become… unmanageable.'

With that concluding thought, the Director raised his hand again and exerted his will into reality, once more utilising a simple, but extremely effective wave of kinetic energy, and she dodged it.

"Hmm?"

The Director couldn't help but raise his eyebrows slightly, he was practically certain by this point that the Devil had no way to detect his attacks.

'I wonder…'

He sent out another pulse of energy, and the Devil nimbly rotated her body around the approaching projectile with all the grace of a professional dancer, completely confident in her actions.

The Director's smile became more genuine, but it wasn't a smile one would direct at an equal or friend, or even a smile of someone looking at a subordinate or underling, it was the smile of a scientist who had found a particularly interesting guinea pig.

The Devil shot towards him again, but instead of moving directly, it seemed she was aimed at the wall to his left.

'So she's not a complete fool.'

The director sent out another burst in her path, it was avoided, but by now this was expected. The Devil reached the wall and sprung off it, utilising the much shorter distance to quickly execute an attack. The Director still didn't care. His legs seemed to be the target, but he just hopped back and watched as the Devil missed and instead carved a single line along the ground, creating a shallow groove where his foot was.

She didn't stop, shooting off the opposite wall and coming at him again, still aiming for his legs. The Director just twirled back the way he had come and the clash had the same result. Watching her rebound again, he started to get bored and launched a few pulses, but they were evaded.

"Are you just going to keep trying the same thing dear? I do believe there was a scientist in this reality that said 'insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result', or something along those lines."

The director assumed she heard because the follow-up attempt produced three gashes on the floor, but it was still pointless.

'This is getting tireso-'

He saw a small object, a bone, fly up to his face, an orange hue adorning it and cracks scattered across its surface but, despite the fact that it seemed harmless, the DIrector still responded appropriately to the unknown and grasped the bone with his will. This almost instantly appeared to be the right decision when the invisible sphere cocooning the bone was spontaneously filled with a blazing fire.

"Well this is fascinating, how did you produce thi-"

The DIrector had only removed his attention for a second, but sometimes a second is all that someone needs. The Devil had appeared right behind the director, but instead of swiping at him, she pressed a hand to the floor.

---

Kasdeya was eager to wipe that smug look off of this bastard in a suit as she gleefully poured mana into the rune she had messily carved at his feet. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything complex and had simply stuck with a fire rune, but she made up for that by pouring in an astronomical amount of mana, and in response, a roaring inferno appeared so suddenly that it blinded her for a second which, paired with the slight lightheadedness from the rapid mana drop, caused her to stumble a step back.

Kasdeya didn't expect this to finish him off, if she wanted to give a pessimistic guess, she'd assume it to do nothing at all, but this possible truth didn't stop her from grinning like a pyromaniac as she listened to the blazing inferno, basking in the pleasant warmth.

"Well, that was unexpected."

The sudden, cheerful voice dampened her mood slightly, and she watched as a gust of… something, probably that strange force, instantaneously extinguished the flames.

"I'll give you that one, I guess I had grown a bit careless there. But, in the end, you still didn't manage to even ruffle my clothes so-" The Director suddenly cut off his cheerful monologue when he noticed Kasdeya's ever-widening grin, to the point where it was no longer in the realm of 'cute' or 'charming' and more borderline terrifying.

Kasdeya's gaze wasn't even on the Director's face, but quite a ways lower. Following the line of sight, the Director also looked down at his shoes, which were stained black along with the very bottom of his well-tailored dress pants.

"You got me there."

Before Kasdeya could even respond, the Director's hand shot out and a familiar ripple reverberated out from his hand. The ability she gained from infusing her eyes with mana included the capacity to see spatial distortions, and his strange ability caused one, which allowed her to roughly grasp its velocity and size. While it wasn't particularly noticeable in her basic view, now that she was actively looking for it paired with the mana buff, they were easy enough to track. Dodging it much like all the others, Kasdeya was about to launch another attack when her entire vision distorted, giving her no time to move away, and her body was locked in place.

Kasdeya was not expecting this, she'd made the mistake of assuming that this enemy could only extend the force from his body, simply because up to this point that had been all he had done.

"I liked this suit, and yet you come along and have the nerve to burn it."

The hypocrisy of what he just said wasn't lost on Kasdeya, but she didn't say anything as her mind was distracted by the Director gripping the air a fraction tighter, and following the motion, she felt the force entombing her body press in on her with seemingly no effort or resistance.

"I have gotten bored of this warm-up, if you haven't prepared any more moves then, I guess this is over."

Kasdeya tried to fight back against the ever-increasing force pressing into her, but it just kept increasing as the Director slowly closed his hand. He didn't finish her off immediately, opting to increase the pressure over time. Kasdeya figured that he was curious to see if she had any other last-minute tricks, or it could be that he was simply a fan of torture.

'If I could attack him from here, then I may be able to escape his grasp, but since my premade runes got smashed earlier and I can't reach into my bag, the only potential method I have left is inscribing a rune into the air, and I can't accurately do that yet, maybe after significantly more practice, but that doesn't help me now. I guess that just leaves one option, I didn't want to attempt this due to becoming helpless the last time, and it might not even change anything, but since I'll die anyway…'

---

The Director watched as the Devil's form was slowly being constricted, any second now, her body would give way beneath the overpowering force, ending her.

'Is this really the best course of action though? The trials that failed the quickest tended to be those in which the three died before they had a chance to realise their potential, or ones where they stupidly progressed off of their original paths, leading me to believe they have some unknown role.'

The Director was unsure, up to this point he had been certain that all his actions were right, but in the last second, before he completely collapsed his hand, he hesitated, which gave him the chance to notice something odd. The Devil's aura had started to pulse, and with every cycle, it became more powerful. The change was so drastic that he'd almost thought that she had begun evolving, but that wasn't quite right.

Shining through the blood caking her arms, the Director noticed a strange pattern lighting up and, in less than a second, her strength seemed to have more than doubled.

"What the-"

Experiencing something he had never seen or heard of before, despite his abnormally long life, the Director couldn't help but mutter his confusion, but it wasn't until a strange light appeared in front of him that he dropped his grasp on the Devil. Almost instantly, the light morphed into two distinct yet blended patterns and poured out a torrent of fire.

The Director frowned as he patted out the slight embers which had ignited on his sleeves, he was a second late in protecting himself.

"Well, that was a nice trick-"

The Devil was behind him, the Director barely had the time to react and just managed to bring his arms up in defence as a clawed hand speared towards, rebounding with a metallic sound.

The Director jumped back, putting significant distance between himself and the demon before him, quite cautious of the very drastic increase in strength. She didn't waste any time, immediately rocketing towards him again so fast that he was caught off guard, the difference between her from just five minutes ago and her now was insurmountable.

Ducking beneath the lightning-fast claw swipe, the Director threw a fist into her exposed abdomen, augmenting his own exceptional strength with that of his will, causing an impact that reverberated down the hallway.

"You might've gotten more powerful, but you still fight like an animal." The Director scoffed, preparing to intercept the Devil who was once more charging at him.

The Director timed his attack and then manifested a solid boundary utilising his will, blocking the Devil's path which, despite her immense speed, she managed to avoid by stopping her movement in time.

The Director smirked again and, much to his shock, given his conception that she'd lost most forms of compressive intelligence, he could've sworn that she clicked her tongue in response, though he didn't have time to think about it as a sudden pulse of mana behind him alerted him to the new attack.

He dodged the column of fire launched from behind but, with his attention diverted, the barrier vanished and Kasdeya lunged at him. Raising an arm, he diverted the attack by pushing the Devil's wrist, opening her guard for another attack. However, before he could follow through, another strange shape appeared in front of him which he recognised to produce the fire, and he jumped to the side but widened his eyes in shock when his feet hit the floor and couldn't find traction.

The Director had a brief moment to recognise the frost having spread over the floor as the demon once more lunged towards him. Raising both his arms, they shimmered and morphed, dropping the human facade which previously covered them, just in time to halt the claws aimed for his head, but not without injury.

'This is not going as expected at all.'

Feeling far too pressured, the Director cycled his mana for the first time and projected it from his skin, sending out a pulse of brilliant, golden light, which had an immediate result as the Devil jumped back and stumbled slightly, a good portion of her coat got heavily scorched and both her revealed lower arms and legs seemed badly burned.

Standing back up again, the Director and Devil cautiously observed each other, they were both wary, the Director of the multitude of tricks and sudden increase in power which gave her great versatility, and she was most probably cautious of the fact that he finally started fighting properly.

The stalemate barely lasted for more than a few seconds. A symbol appeared behind the Director, Kasdeya ran from the front, he responded by backflipping over the symbol as it erupted. Cautious of the ground, he split his attention slightly to ascertain its safety before landing, then shaped the mana within himself and expelled it out his hand, shooting a devastating beam of golden energy which the demon only barely managed to evade.

Clicking his tongue in irritation, he shed more of his human disguise as an even greater amount of his mana broke through the self-imposed restraints, forcing his legs to revert to their original form.

The Devil appeared before him again, and the two traded blows, her attacks were aggressive and unrefined, however, while her preternatural speed and strength was something to be wary of, it was not enough to truly panic him. She attacked his head, he ducked, she sent a knee into his stomach, he raised a leg and repelled her with a metallic clang. Each exchange, while defensive, left him on top, resulting in him gaining an opening and slamming a knee into her stomach with enough strength to slightly lift her smaller body into the air, before utilising a roundhouse kick to send her flying back down the hallway at an angle before slamming into the wall once more.

She didn't remain down for long.

Closing the distance once more, the Director raised a palm, cycling his mana then moulding it into five brilliant spheres which floated next to him, then each one launched a beam.

The demon before him ducked the first one, then spun left and jumped to avoid the second and third, but couldn't fully evade the fourth which burned through a portion of her upper right leg, causing her to full and tumble across the ground, then she was struck by the fifth which burned a hole through the side of her abdomen.

He took a step further forwards, she didn't move. He took another step. On the third step, she suddenly plunged her left hand into the ground, causing spontaneous cracks to arch across the floor and subsequent formations started appearing all around him, lining the tunnel and turning it into a blazing inferno, much stronger than the initial one he had been caught in.

The Director felt the heat, even through the protective shell he formed with his will, but it wasn't enough to scorch his metallic, inhuman limbs, and the human-like skin utilised as a disguise was subsidiary, so its damage would not affect him all to greatly

"You tried this already."

The Director raised a hand, planning to finish her off without worrying about the flames. When he noticed a manic smile once more appeared on her face, and a light chuckle escaped her lips, followed by her coughing up a small amount of ichor.

A new array appeared intertwined amongst the existing four, and the rapid cracking of the tunnel was the only indication of what was about to happen. With a sound so deafening that even the Director was worried about hearing damage, the hallway broke down, and all of the formations erupted with uncontrolled mana.

—————

Forcing open his leaden eyelids, John groggily surveyed his surroundings. His entire body felt drained, and he almost couldn't be bothered to muster the energy to check his status page.

[Current Effects: Corruption, %error%

%error%:

Current user capabilities outside of error margin.

> analysing cause…

> analysis failed

> outside influence possibility... 79%

> effects...

> System connection unstable

> Resolving…

Corruption:

> Foreign property contamination detected…

> Analysing…

> Inverse relation to user…

> Negative impact deduced…

> Calculating corruption level… 012%]

"Yup… that'd be… why…"

John could barely focus on what was written, not even noticing that corruption had increased, he was more bothered by the fact that even speaking felt impossibly exhausting, but the feeling of a desert in his mouth encouraged John to muster the effort to sit up and take a better look around in hopes of finding something to drink. He was lying on a bed that was not located in the most ornate of rooms but, compared to what he'd been in since the world was flipped on its head, it was almost 5-star. Unfortunately, the atmosphere was slightly ruined by an extraordinarily creepy doll sitting on a table in the corner of the room.

"You're finally awake."

John's attention was drawn to the door when a crisp voice announced a new presence in the room.

"…yeah."

The man let out a slight chuckle at the raspy sound of John's voice and walked over, placing a tray with a drink and food on it beside the bed.

"This should help you recuperate. Now, the base leader has requested your presence, but he isn't a cruel man, and given your current condition you are permitted a few days to recover."

Despite the commanding, almost rude way in which he was spoken to, John couldn't muster any emotion apart from confusion, such that he fought through the overpowering sensation of weakness in order to immediately take a drink to moisten his throat so he could ask a question.

"Why does he want to see me?"

"I'd imagine that to be obvious."

John just looked at him with very apparent confusion so, with a frustrated sigh, the man continued.

"Why wouldn't he wish to see the one who single-handedly took down the atrocity? Now, if you'll excuse me."

His confusion was expanded to even greater heights, but the man was already opening the door and seemed like he didn't intend to say anything else. Yet, John had to ask one more question, even if it was only for his peace of mind.

"What's with the doll?"

The man raised his eyes slightly as he peered back into the room towards the corner that John was observing.

"I'm sure it's just some decoration a maid with strange tastes brought in earlier. Good day."

Any potential future conversation was cut off by the sound of the door shutting, and John was left on his own.

—————

"This… it ain't right." The silence of the void was penetrated by a wizened tone.

"Whatever could you mean?" in response, a boisterous intonation transmitting mirth and joy. "I don't believe anything of concern has occurred."

Despite the very concept of assurance and confidence seeming to be projected across reality, the other's concerns were not availed.

"You think…? No. 'Tis something wrong… ya might not want to take this seriously, but even so, a sec of ya time is required… look at this."

"…What am I meant to be concerned about?"

"'Tis not the same, too early… I can't figure out why. See the amount of movement here? And glitches have started occurring... Even ignoring the trial, the anomalies have become active far too soon!"

"Well, they are anomalies. Though I think I get where you're coming from… hmm, but if you just rearrange the events in this order, and then factor in the lowered capabilities of each faction, doesn't it result in the same conclusion? Yeah, see? So what's the problem? I'm sure it will sort itself out, that's why it was made so flexible in the first place."

"Hmm, ya maybe right. Perhaps it is truly nothin'."

Silence reigned once more.