3 Isaac Newton would be proud

"Leave us," I told the innkeeper who was still on her knees. Obeying me, she left the food tray on the nearby tea table and exited the room. "Edith and Devon, we need to talk." As much as I hated being in the situation that I was in, I wasn't about to lash out on Devon who was clearly responsible. That's because I had never bothered to explain my goals and intentions to them, so I was partly to blame.

Edith and Devon stood before me as I took my seat on the chair by the study table. I explained, "Look, I have two primary intentions in this world, more specifically here in this kingdom. One, gain control over my boundless powers which is literally capable of erasing everything from existence. Two, avoid any and all conflicts on the way. That being said, Devon, were you aware of the religious practices in this kingdom?"

He seemed overwhelmed with guilt, but I didn't feel bad. As my companions, they needed to learn what not to do. "Yes, master Zenith. I learnt that the kingdom worships their 'one true God' and I couldn't accept that it wasn't you. I deeply apologize for not considering your intentions."

I obviously valued my companions. I wholeheartedly believed that I would be worse off without them. "Apology accepted," I forgave his actions. "The fact is what's done is done, and the situation right now is simply abysmal. We need to figure out how to solve this." The intention was to have a brainstorming session, but Edith and Devon were unable to contribute anything. I thought perhaps their reasoning would be coupled with human emotions like empathy and benevolence. So, I had to think outside that spectrum; I am malevolent and logical as per my own analysis skill after all.

Before I proceed with my thought process to find a solution, let's recap and summarize the situation at hand. In this kingdom, where the citizens follow one religion, a new religion was being spread with me in the center. The worst part however, was the rumored existence of a more extreme following for the existing religion whose practices were abolished by the current emperor. I absolutely did not want to be caught up in a three-way war between the religion based around me, the rumored radical religionists, and the kingdom.

The solution has to be a way for me to undo this completely. But what made it difficult to do so was the rate at which my religion was spreading. The reason for this was Devon's magic skill: Aura of Faith. An A+ complexity skill that messes one or more people's brain to give them an out of body or spiritual experience. If you think about it, religion generally starts with the founder experiencing something they can't explain; it could even be a dream or hallucination. With enough charisma, they can convince people into sharing that belief.

But with a skill like 'Aura of Faith,' there is no need for convincing, because the person in question can spread their beliefs by making others experience the same out of world experience. That's how a religion spreads among more than 40 people in a single day. Rapidly processing scenarios in my head, the first priority was always to stop the spread as soon as possible. So I figured we will start with that and come up with something to proceed.

If you're thinking why not I teach memory loss magic to Devon and make him perform it on my 40+ followers, you are not taking all the variables into consideration. Although it is completely within our abilities to wipe their memories like Men In Black, it won't resolve the conflict I'm trying to avoid. You see, if the rumors about the radical religionists are true, there is a probable chance that they are aware of a new religion spreading in their turf. So, even if my followers forget everything, the radicals will follow the unrecoverable traces which will eventually lead to me.

The biggest problem, as you could guess, was the fact that I had no idea regarding those radicals and therefore no strategies to stop them in advance… that's when it struck me, "Wait, I know what we can do." The situation before me suddenly became very solvable. "First thing's first. Devon, I want you to stop the followers from spreading this religion any more. Secondly, appoint the most gullible person among them as the leader. And finally, schedule a gathering for them in a secluded place within the kingdom this evening and relay that information to Edith. Edith, I want you to go to the library and make contact with that examiner who measured our mana capacity yesterday. Talk about something irrelevant and as casually as you can, tell her that you overheard someone talking about a new religious gathering in the said-location. And that's it, I think that should solve this cleanly. Also, if you see Martin, tell him to come and meet me here; I want to experiment something and could use his assistance."

Edith didn't raise any questions, but Devon understood my plan. And with hesitance, he said, "Master Zenith, are we…?"

"Yes," I replied calmly. Based on this, I confirmed that my initial assumption about them being benevolent and empathetic in the process of thinking up a solution was correct. It's like if they are in a hypothetical situation where they can either save one life or five, they would hesitate and let them all die. Because although they were biological robots by definition, they were apparently designed to be humane. The reason for that is probably so that they don't end up ruling the human world with an iron fist given how powerful they are.

Anyway, my companions left the inn to do as instructed. I suppose I should explain my plan at this point, because I would also be curious how an absolutely terrible situation suddenly became trivial. The realization that struck me earlier was that when I was examined at the library the previous day, I unconsciously analyzed the examiner. I did not pay it much mind because her capabilities were fairly normal for someone working in the academy. But the one thing that did stand out, which I should have noted back then, was her character trait: extreme believer.

If the radical religionists really exists, she is sure to be a part of it. Moreover, based on Martin's story, it made sense why the examiner would be one of them. Because apparently, they are only staying hidden because they haven't accumulated enough strength to face the king, which means bringing talented people to their side has to be one of their key priorities. And the examiner, who is the first to know about such rare talents would easily make a great insider.

Now that Edith will unsuspectingly relay the information about a new religious gathering within the kingdom, the radicals will definitely send a group to stop them. By 'stop them,' I mean they're going to slaughter my followers, but that's not important. At the end of it all, this new formed religion will be gone without a trace because the set up will be like this: a religious gathering with all their 40+ members including the appointed leader. From the radicals' perspective, there would be no reason to suspect another person being responsible for the creation of that religion.

I was fairly confident that this plan would work, so I figured I could focus on the next step in getting my powers under control. I already had an idea in mind since the moment I successfully converted my biology to contain mana. But I was a bit hesitant to experiment on it without consulting Martin, who clearly knew more about mana biology than me or anyone in this kingdom. That's why I told Edith to send him to me if she sees him, but it looks like I have to wait to find out whether he would show up or not.

What could I do meanwhile? I asked myself as I looked down at myself. I needed better clothes. More accurately, I needed to find my sense of fashion. I left the inn on my own, which wasn't a very wise decision, and went in search of a good boutique store. I eventually found one, where I browsed through their collection for a good 15 minutes before buying a set of clothes that suited my taste. A neat full-sleeved white shirt on the inside, a thin full-sleeved buttoned black overcoat with its coat tail extending till my ankles, and a black pair of boots with medium sized heels. I felt like my clothes suited my natural appearance well, as in my smooth pale skin, rose lips, black pupils, and long black hair.

After that, I went straight back to the inn. Luckily, I didn't have any misadventures on the way like you would have expected. When I arrived, I saw Martin exiting the inn. It seemed like he was just leaving after not finding me in there. It was good timing. "Hello Martin," I greeted as I approached him.

"Oh you're back," he said. "Nice outfit."

I smiled at his compliment and welcomed him inside. We settled in my cozy room after ordering room service. Sitting by the tea table with a cup of tea each in front of us, I opened with the topic of conversation. "I want to learn about the theory on mana capacity reduction." If you remember, I explained that mana capacity is constant for an individual once it is fully developed. The only period it changes is during the development process, and that too, the capacity only increases. So, the theory behind reduction of mana was not only non-existent, it was never posed as a question. Until now, at least.

"It's positively impossible," Martin chuckled. "Mana capacity is part of growth. It's like how you grow taller with age. At some point you stop growing but you never get shorter. However, there could be other ways to achieve similar results depending on why you want to reduce mana capacity."

"I don't think 'why' would be relevant. Just imagine there is a source for infinite mana, and a destination with infinite mana capacity. So, once the mana starts to transfer from source to destination, it will become a never ending process because of the nature of infinity. The question is how to break this deadlock."

Martin thought about it for a second. He was probably not even thinking about the solution, rather my intentions for asking. But he answered anyway, "Well logically, you would think about setting a limiter in the destination, say 5000. This way, the mana flowing from the source to destination will stop once the destination has 5000 mana. But in theory, it doesn't make sense because of the nature of infinity."

What he was trying to convey, I already knew. Imagine an infinitely long scale orderly marked with numbers, and you are required to identify the number 45 on the scale. You would think it's easy because all you have to do is go to the 45th position from the beginning. But the problem is that the scale doesn't start from 1 or any number for that matter, because that's the nature of infinity; there is no beginning and no end. In fact, you won't be able to identify any numbers at all even though they are ordered. Logically you could pick a random position and subtract or add the remaining numbers to get to 45, but that random position will not exist in actuality. Because, any random position would still be a definitive point on the infinite scale, and paradoxically, a definite point cannot exist in something that has no beginning or end.

"However…" Martin's eyes looked up to his left, compiling a new thought idea. "You can make it so that the destination becomes a secondary source. That way, you can create a final destination that has limited capacity. Basically, the infinite mana will flow from the source to the infinite capacity destination, and from there it will flow to the limited capacity destination. Although this technically will not break the deadlock, it does solve the problem if your aim is to conserve and control a limited amount of the infinite mana."

And that was exactly what I was hoping to achieve. "That could work," I muttered to myself.

"Are you working on a thesis or a book perhaps? Or do you actually have an infinite mana source?" he jokingly said that last sentence not knowing that was actually the truth. I did not directly respond to that, and there was a period of silence. "Is there anything else you wanted to ask, Zenith? If not, I got to head back to the academy."

"That's all for now, Martin. I will be needing more of your guidance in the future."

"Will be glad to help. Unless of course, you're doing something questionable." He once again jokingly said the last sentence, but this time he meant it as a warning. I had no plans of getting on his bad side. I can deal with powerful magicians with the help of my companions, but a smart man like Martin would make a much dangerous enemy.

Anyway, after I saw him off, I began with the experiment, sitting alone in my room. With his idea as the basis, it was time to develop the most important skill yet — the seal. The idea is self-explanatory. I basically intended to create a passively activated skill that will alter my status in regards to mana control and mana capacity. To achieve this, according to Martin's idea, I have to create a new place for my mana to flow in. Currently, the mana is sourced from the virus and it flows into my nervous system.

However, as I started experimenting, I ran into a problem. As you know, I converted my biology to that of a native human here in order to harness mana in my nervous system. But according to this biology, mana cannot exist anywhere else within the body. So, there cannot be another place for all this mana to flow to. I racked my head on this issue for quite some time, and it was a dead end no matter how I looked at it. But then I realized something that made me feel like an absolute idiot.

The substance called mana is scientifically a particle, hence it has mass. In fact, people with higher mana capacity will weigh slightly more, because if you remember, the device that the academy used to measure mana capacity measured it based on the mana density. Now, here's a question for you: how is my mana capacity infinite? The mana inside my body is no different, and infinite mana capacity means infinite mana density. By this logic, I should be a walking black hole.

The answer to this is simple. My analysis skill measures mana capacity differently than Martin's device. I reviewed the program for the biocontrol skill, which I used to transform my biology, and I found a bug. It would appear that even after my transformation, there was no mana in my nervous system, or anywhere in my body for that matter. As a matter of fact, if the academy were to test my mana capacity again, it would still show that I'm mana-impaired. This led me to believe that my analysis skill is way more complicated than I thought; after all, it was created by the creator of the universe himself. I don't know how exactly it calculates mana capacity, but I could assume that it somehow estimates the amount of mana that can be released from a person's body at full capacity.

But the important takeaway from this was that this bug in biocontrol could be used to successfully develop the seal. You see, although there was no mana in my body, the analysis skill proved that mana can be released and harnessed infinitely. That could only mean that the energy that the virus is providing is being explicitly converted into mana. So, the analogy of the infinite source to the infinite destination became irrelevant, because there was only the source and no destination. A very happy accident indeed.

I reworked the seal skill to make it so that mana flows into my nervous system, which was a limited capacity destination by nature. I set the capacity to 1500, and executed it. 15 minutes passed and I hoped to see my status altered… there was no change. It didn't work. My level and mana capacity remained infinite. I hate this universe.

I still didn't give up though. I tried executing the program with different capacity values, because I assumed that the mana supply was too excessive for a small number like 1500 to be accepted. But even that didn't work. Eventually, it became so tiring that I jokingly assigned a null value to capacity and executed it. Then something interesting happened.

> Level: 1

> Mana Capacity: 54000

> Mana Control: F-

> Skillset: Analysis (Complexity - S) ; Biocontrol (Complexity - S) ; Seal (Complexity - S , Activated)

> Character Trait: Logical, Malevolent

> State of Mind: Confused

It worked… but why? Besides, the mana capacity 54000 didn't seem randomly generated. I had a hypothesis that was a bit ridiculous to consider, but I decided to test it anyway. I remembered an E level complexity skill that I read about during the night I spent at the library, which can be used to defend against low level offensive magic. Practically, it was one of the more useless skills I found there, and that says a lot because none of them were particularly useful. Anyway, I executed the program for that skill.

> Skillset: Analysis (Complexity - S) ; Biocontrol (Complexity - S) ; Seal (Complexity - S , Activated) ; Shield (Complexity - A)

Figures!

The virus was belittling me. Or rather, it was being annoyingly overprotective of me. The original Shield skill which I programmed and executed was an E complexity skill and only worked against low level magic. But the virus interfered and made adjustments to make it an A complexity skill, which works against all offensive magic without limitations.

The reason I was annoyed by this is obviously because I wouldn't be able to develop skills without the virus interfering to make it 'safer' for me and not caring what happens to my surroundings. I don't want to accidentally destroy Earth, but the virus doesn't care about that. And the virus having more control over my skill set was clearly a bit bothersome. But at the moment, there was nothing I could do except complain.

On the bright side of things, my seal was successfully in place. I can now safely use skills that require mana control without causing mass destruction. And more importantly, I can raise my mana control and level steadily.

I looked out the window to see the orange sunlight coming through. It was late afternoon when I realized how long I had been cooped up in my room. That's when the door to my room opened, and my dear companions entered. "How did it go?" I asked them regarding the plan.

"The preparations are complete, master Zenith," Devon opened. "Our followers and their newly appointed leader will be gathering in the eastern forest near the academy this evening."

"The same information, I have relayed it to that examiner woman, master Zenith," Edith added.

"Very good, Edith and Devon. I was planning to take a walk around the kingdom, so I might as well go and check if everything is going smoothly over there." As soon as I said that, my companions stiffened up, ready to come along. However, I insisted on going alone since I now had my powers reasonably under control; I also wanted them to relax for the rest of the day.

They hesitantly let me go alone. For being the most powerful entity in existence, you wouldn't think there would be so many people and entities being overprotective of me, but you'd be wrong. Anyway, I exited the inn and on my way out, I confirmed the absence of the innkeeper. As my follower, she should be on her way to the eastern forest. So was I, walking through the crowded marketplace. The smell of fried food occupied the air. The noise of shopkeepers advertising their merchandise overlapped each other with that of the customers bargaining. The lanterns shined brightly outside the shops while the magic tools that were being showcased shined brighter.

Most of the shops in the marketplace sold magic tools, which were unsurprisingly the attraction to the customers. Magic crystals, magic staffs, enchanted robes, and a lot more. Some of the sales were clearly a scam, but there were genuinely valuable items being sold, most of them being magic crystals and magic staffs. Magic crystals are an external source of mana, which could be refined into potions, drinking which will replenish mana within minutes. The better the quality of the magic crystals, the higher the quantity of potions that can be refined from it. Magic staffs serve a lot of purposes, but it's mainly to improve a person's mana control. With a magic staff, you can perform magic in a more controlled and efficient manner.

These goods were very popular among the mages. Most of the customers, who were mages, already owned a magic staff and were wearing enchanted robes. They were scouring the marketplace in search of better equipment for a good price. It was a refreshing sight to see, but at the same time I also saw an opportunity. The enchanted items that were being sold, or the lack thereof, was of poor quality. With Devon's S complexity enchantment skill, we could monopolize this market easily. However, I needed to think it through to make sure there wouldn't be any political issues arising from it. So, I put that idea in the back of my head for the time being.

Leaving the marketplace behind me, I reached the eastern forest and calmly entered without second thoughts. I had two intentions going to the place where my followers were gathering. One, confirm the existence of the radical religionists. Two, identify if any important people of the kingdom are part of it. Because, in the future, there will be a conflict between the kingdom and this group. And I wanted to estimate how much that conflict will escalate. If there are enough people with political influence in the group, it could lead to a civil war, and when that happens, I will have to step in to preserve the kingdom's peace for my own sake.

"Welcome to the followers of the true God that has descended to the mortal plains," a lady whom I recognized as the innkeeper announced loudly. Apparently, Devon appointed her as the religious leader, which made sense because she was the only person who had physically seen me. She continued with her opening speech, which she probably prepared for the entire day, "The one who favors the good people who long for peace while others favor power and cause destruction. We are the chosen ones to know about lord Zenith. From this day onwards, we will not fear the strong and corrupt. From this day onwards, we will walk with our heads up high for we are stronger and pure." There was more to her speech, but I stopped paying attention.

My goal was to wait and see if the radicals would show up, and I had to ensure I don't get spotted by them in the process. So, I started working on my first non-passive skill.

> Skillset: … Camouflage (Complexity - A+) …

I only spent a minute or two developing it and it was originally supposed to be D complexity skill, but since it is a kind of defensive skill, the virus interfered and made it unnecessarily effective. I used the skill and I completely blended into the dynamic environment to the point where I was invisible. The way this skill worked is quite simple. Mana is released from my body and scans my nearest 360 degree surroundings. The mana then surrounds me and transforms itself into tiny prisms which reflects light as appropriate colors to suit my surroundings. It basically photoshops me out of the picture in real time.

Anyway, I continued waiting and the sun was almost about to set. What were my followers doing all that time? I have no idea, they were probably praising me endlessly for no reason. The radical religionists showed no signs of arriving. At that point, I was ready to leave the area, not wanting to waste any more time. I could be doing so much productive work instead—

"Ignorant fools!" a strongly arrogant male voice shouted from behind me. It almost startled me, but luckily I was composed enough to stroll away from the scene without alerting anyone.

I should let you know at this point, that just because I had my seal skill activated doesn't mean the virus was going to remain dormant all the time. If that was the case, I could kill myself and end this web novel. The seal skill only helps me in controlling my powers so I could use offensive skills without having to worry about destroying the cosmos. Which means, the virus would still interfere if I feel threatened.

Getting back to the situation at hand, a group of 17 mages, all wearing enchanted red robes, walked in on the gathering. The man who initially yelled was in the front, eyeing my followers. I was a decent distance away under an apple tree, observing the red mages; I continued to refer to those radical religionists as red mages there forth. I wasn't concerned about the bloodshed that was about to happen, rather I was trying to identify the mages using my analysis skill. But the status information wasn't very useful for identification as you could imagine, and I ended up identifying only a few of them.

One of them was the examiner, whose capabilities I recognized. Another one was probably a governor of a nearby city, identified based on his governing based skills alongside a high complexity fire magic. The last one I identified was by far the most shocking.

> Level: 65

> Mana Capacity: 12000

> Mana Control: B+

> Skillset: Royal Blood (Complexity - S) ; Wind Magic (Complexity - B)

> Character Trait: Ill-tempered, Boastful

> State of Mind: Pity

There was not a single book in the academy's library that had an S complexity skill, let alone a skill called Royal Blood. I wasn't able to understand what this skill was, but I knew that it was a special skill only accessible to the royal family. The owner of this status was a young girl, whom I correctly assumed was the royal princess.

This was the worst scenario possible. You see, the royal princess being a part of the red mages meant that there was no chance for the kingdom to win in a battle against them. From what I already knew, the king's strength was the red mages' biggest threat, which was why they had been amassing talented magicians. But with the princess on their side, strength doesn't necessarily matter. If they can't overpower the king physically, they can do so emotionally. Seeing how much influence they already had, just based on identifying 3 members of this group, I was certain that these people were serious about taking over the kingdom. At this rate, a civil war will be inevitable.

Unless of course, I involve myself into this. If the red mages take over this kingdom, my hope for a peaceful life will be unattainable. I can imagine burning innocent people alive becoming a daily occurrence if these barbarians gained control. Even if I don't mind people getting murdered unjustly, that's not an ideal image of a peaceful life.

"Woman!" That same loud man in the front of the group called out the innkeeper, the religious leader. "How dare you spread the notion of a fake God in the kingdom of Eden, blessed by our one true God?"

Sigh…

Change of plans. It's time to develop my first offensive magic. There are a lot of offensive skills that can be effective and not require much mana control. But for some reason, I was still picky about it. Fire, wind, and lightning based skills were out of the question because with my mana control, I would very likely burn or tear my brand new clothes. Dirt based skills were also skimmed over for the same reason; I loved my outfit and I didn't want it to get dirty. I would have considered water based skills if it weren't incredibly inefficient as an offensive skill. Ice magic was probably the best option due to its power and ease to perform, but it reminded me of the sociopath princess, so that was also denied.

"This will be your last day on Eden, for you and your fake religion will be sent to the very depths of hell!" That same loud man continued with his taunts. Based on analysis, he was the strongest mage in the group, so nobody was stopping him from wasting everyone's time. An idiot being in charge of my enemies gave me time to come up with a quick offensive skill of my liking. By the way, I just realized that this kingdom's name is Eden. I never bothered to find out. Come to think of it, I never found out what the name of the charcoal kingdom was.

Anyway, focusing on coming up with an idea for an offensive skill… "Witness the supreme power of a man blessed by our one true God!" The surrounding ground shook as he finished. Earth magic, and a powerful one at that. But it wasn't directed at anyone; it wasn't even an attack. This guy was still not done taunting.

The effect of the ground shake reached my area as well, which caused an apple to fall from the tree beside me. The time I spent pondering for an offensive skill came to an end. I picked up the apple with a smile; I had an idea. Isaac Newton would be proud, I thought to myself before deactivating my camouflage. I didn't want my camouflage skill to interfere while I'm trying to perform offensive magic, because it might affect my already worse mana control. However, I still wanted to hide my identity to some extent.

> Skillset: … Pigmentation (Complexity - B)

A simple skill to transform my appearance enough for humans to not recognize me. With the pigmentation skill, I changed the color of my hair white, and my pupils red. Finally, I started developing the offensive skill that I had come up with, all the while that loud moron was still taunting my harmless followers. 45 seconds is what it took to successfully code it in my head. It was yet to show in my status because I hadn't used the skill yet.

You would think by now, some sort of attack on my followers would have ensued. But no, the only interesting thing I spotted happening among the red mages was one of its members yawning.

I stepped into the scene from the darkness, my red eyes glowing ominously, while holding on to the ripe fallen apple on my right hand. "Why are my followers being bothered by the likes of you?" I rhetorically questioned loudly to grab their attention. It worked. All their eyes instantly turned on me. I stopped in between my followers and the red mages, both sides equally confused by my appearance.

That mouthy idiot was probably about to say something disrespectful to me, but I had no intention of hearing him out. I used the newly developed magic on the bright red apple. My status updated.

> Skillset: … Growth Spurt (Complexity - A) …

I dropped the apple on the ground and it cracked as the seeds within it germinated. Within a span of 5 seconds, it had grown into a combined tree as tall as me, and I grabbed on to its top branch as it continued growing at the same pace. I was elevated to about 2 meters at which point, leaves grew and a strong branch grew from the trunk below me. I comfortably took my seat on it. The tree had fully grown, producing ripe apples above my head. I plucked one of them and took a bite while the spectators watched in shock.

Magic skills in the field of farming are very common, but growth spurt is not a skill that fully falls into that category. You see, all the magic developed to grow crops and plants follow the same approach, which is to speed up the natural growth process. For example, a farmer can use their mana to fertilize the soil or directly on the seed and enable it to absorb nutrients more efficiently. These skills are of B complexity at best, and if all of them are used together, an apple tree can be fully grown in the span of 1-2 months as opposed to 2-3 years. So, how did I manage to grow mine within seconds? It's the power of incorporating magic with proper science; apart from me, Martin was the only one studying magic in that manner.

Anyway, coming to how I made an apple tree grow at such a never before seen speed. The three things a plant needs to grow are light (from the sun), food (from the nutrients in the soil), and water. But as long as you know how each step in this process works — for example, photosynthesis — you can use mana to achieve it all. That's exactly how the growth spurt skill works. Additionally, there are three variables which I can control when performing this skill — the speed of growth, the mana input which determines the extent of the growth, and the delay for when the growth should be initiated.

"Who are you?" that same loud man asked, but there was a slight fear in his voice, which was understandable. I was still in the process of chewing on the juicy bite of apple, so I ignored him and savored the taste. It was the first time on this planet that I had eaten solid food, and there were many more apples hanging above me. So…

I used my skill again, and threw the bitten apple on the ground right behind him. This time, I adjusted the speed of growth to be thrice as fast as before and mana input to ensure the tree doesn't grow beyond the height of a man. But with my poor mana control, the speed ended up being 7 times as fast. A small apple tree the size of 1 meter burst into existence, its stem, branches, and even roots penetrating the red mage all over his body. One of the branches cleanly pierced the back of his skull and grew more branches inside, a splinter of the wood was seen poking out from the bottom of his right eye lid. So yeah, he's dead.

I plucked another fresh apple hanging above me, while still comfortably resting my butt on the tree branch. The other red mages were paralyzed in fear, some screamed and stepped back with their pupils dilated in terror. Even my own followers were shook. "Will you fight and avenge your comrade, or will you run away and disgrace your 'one true God' who blessed you all with 'power'?" I taunted the red mages. I wanted none of them to run away, and as predicted, they prepared to attack me with magic.

"Death time," I muttered to myself and launched my attacks. By 'attacks' I mean the only offensive skill I had, which was more than enough. Out of the remaining 16 red mages, 3 of them died before they could cast their first offensive magic at me or perform a defensive skill. Why? Because, they are required by their religion to praise their God before performing the spell, which took about 3-4 seconds. Stupid and fatal mistake. They ended up with an apple tree growing through them.

The rest of them were successful in casting their magic at me. Note that I had no good defensive skill prepared for this battle (the Shield skill doesn't count because it's a manually activated skill and not a passive one). Because, there was no need. The virus inside me was way too overprotective of me to even consider developing a defensive skill. Based on past experiences, I figured that the virus simultaneously reacted to my state of mind and offenses launched against me. For example, if I felt threatened by low temperatures, the virus would release energy from my body in the form of excessive heat and cause a disaster. But what if I remain calm while knowing what's about to hit me? It should nullify the effect of the attack instead of overperforming a counter. That's exactly what happened.

The examiner lady whom I recognized attacked me with her fire magic, and I remained calm. The virus nullified the effect instead of counter attacking. With a satisfied smile, I threw another freshly picked apple at her. "Argh!" She screamed in pain before succumbing to her inevitable death. I was in control of the counter attacks, while the virus took care of the defenses. It did not matter what offensive magic was thrown at me, as long as I knew the general effects of those magic. Wind magic? Denied. I threw an apple at them. Fire magic? Also denied. And apple. Ice magic? Apple!

Those who specialized in fire magic were initially hesitant to attack, so as to not cause a forest fire. But not long into the battle, they ignored damage control. The water and ice magic specialists took initiative to extinguish the fires, so naturally, I left them alive till I dealt with the aggressive ones.

Soon enough, only three red mages were still standing. Two of them were defensive magic specialists, and the other one was the only person whom I intended to let live — the royal princess. Obviously, I couldn't kill the princess, because then nothing would change in terms of the red mages having an emotional tool to use against the king. If the princess had died by my hands, they would use that information to turn the king against me and my followers, and they would take over the kingdom effortlessly. Lucky for me, during the entire time I launched attacks at the red mages, the princess was separated from others, either because she was too scared to come into my field of view or figured that sticking together was not the best course of action to take against my attacks.

I hopped down from my apple tree onto the grassy ground with two apples in my grasp. The sun had fully set at this point, and the only source of light was the milky way and the half moon visible in the night sky. My red pupils still glowed in the dimly lit environment as I mercilessly threw apples at the two unneeded survivors. Plop! One of their eyes popped out of the eye socket, stuck to a branch that had grown through the mouth and curved out from the eyes.

I made my way to the princess, walking past the dead and dying people. Those who I noticed were still in the process of dying from organ failure — because of a tree passing through it — I wanted to put them out of their misery, but I couldn't give the princess her chance to run away. "Hello there, princess," I greeted her.

The last time I interacted with a royal princess… I don't even want to talk about it. Hopefully, second time's the charm.