The Thieves, and The Next Stage

"So it's just down here?" I asked as we approached an entrance to the sewers. The stairs were sleek with moss and sludge, and the walls were degraded slightly from the years of awfulness. "Lead the way."

I sat the foxgirl down and nudged her down the first step, and she grumbled something under her breath as she descended. I followed behind her, our steps echoing in unison with each other.

"It's left down here," she said, her voice low and defeated. "Are you gonna let me go now?" She asked, looking at my face hopefully. I shook my head no, and she sighed- she probably knew the answer before she asked the question anyway.

"Not just yet," I added as we veered left. The stench of an unknown substance lingered in the air, and a door was cracked open at the end of the tunnel. "Are there a lot of places like this down here?"

"These tunnels were used by the Resistance- back when they were fighting the Sins thousands of years ago, when they fought for the first time," she informed me, rubbing her bandaged eye. We reached the door, and I swung it open.

"Ava! We were wondering where you went, boss," a man with a mace in hand called out as soon as he saw us. A crowd of men and women looked in our direction as the man called out, eyeing me carefully. "But who's this? A new recruit? We don't have any demons here."

"No, I think he's an adventurer, judging from this," Ava said as she appeared beside the man holding my sword. I felt- futilely- at my waist where it usually hung to feel that it was empty. She was good. "Get him, Garret."

The man holding the mace was called Garret, it seemed, as he stood and grabbed his weapon. "No hard feelings, kid," he said, though the smirk on his face said otherwise. He swung his weapon down at my head, and I tried to activate 'Wind Manipulation' to boost my speed, but felt no magic being cast.

"Shit," I tutted, dodging his mace so it skimmed by my nose harmlessly. I grabbed his head and drove it into my knee, then hit him in the temple with my elbow.

'Water Manipulation' didn't cast either, no matter how many times I tried to activate it. 'Vine Control' was useless too, as there was no response from the plants like there was during my bout with Asmode.

"Hurry up, Garret! You're used to this, and this kid's still wet behind the ears!" Somebody called out from the crowd. I looked for the source of the voice, but my sight stopped when I saw something else.

Ava,the foxgirl thief, had removed the wrapping from her face, and both of her eyes were now visible. The one I had seen before- a pool of green that somehow complimented her tanned skin- was now accompanied by a fully white eyeball with a symbol resting in its centre.

"I'm still here, prick!" Garret yelled, driving a fist into my cheek. My head snapped to the side, and his blow felt even stronger than Asmode's did. 'Thick Skin' seemed to soften blows, and I was sure that Garret was not stronger than Wrath. Garret brought his mace up beneath me, and I tried once again to use something, anything, to block it from driving into my stomach.

I couldn't, though. I felt the small spikes on it pierce through my skin, and the block of iron that drove into my bones afterwards felt like a tree had just fell onto me. He withdrew from me, and I could taste metal in my mouth. Blood.

'How many fucking times will I throw up blood,' I thought to myself in anger as I managed to get to my feet. "Oi, Ava," I said, the words sounding submerged as they made their way through the pool of blood in my throat. "That eye seems useful."

"Shut it," was all she said in reply before she nodded to Garret. He moved closer, and I took in my surroundings quickly. Twenty thieves? Thirty? I could take care of them, but Ava was the issue. It was a life-or-death situation, and their testimonies wouldn't hold up too well.

I had come to an understanding with myself that 'Transform' was a last resort. This seemed like a point of no return already. I cast it, and instantly felt its effects much greater than I had the first time.

I felt a searing pain where my heart was. As though my heart was ripping to pieces. Then it was my vision. I couldn't see clearly for a moment, only the blurred image of Garret recoiling from me as I morphed. My arms were now boneless, formless, but more under control. It wasn't only two, though. Four more erupted from my side, then my vision cleared. I could see, but it were as though the past, present, and future had collided.

"W-What the fuck?!" Garret asked, his question falling upon many others who had the same thought. Ava scampered from her chair and moved behind the group of thieves. "Y-You lot, give me a hand," Garret ordered as he tightened his grip on his weapon and began chanting.

I couldn't think straight. Thoughts- visions, even- of Garret and the rest of the thieves crushed by my arms, impaled by their own weapons, and lying in pieces ran around my mind.

"I just want what you stole," I said, my voice sounding like it echoed up from the bottom of Hell itself. "I want it," I repeated, and one of my new tentacles launched at Garret's face. There was a wet thud, then he was launched back, knocking over chairs and his comrades as he went. "Give it to me."

"You're not getting shit," a shadowy figure informed me, the voice coming from behind me. I turned to see him, only a strand or two of brown hair poking from under his full-body wrappings. He melded with the shadows, then I felt something pierce my leg, though it couldn't get far in as my legs had thickened to support my transformation.

I spun in circles for a few moments before I spotted him. Before I had eeven thought to attack, two of the tentacles had shot at him and coiled around his thin frame. He looked… pathetic? No, his stealth skills were good. They were miles above what mine could ever be. I wanted them. I wanted them so bad that I began tightening my grasp on him, finally feeling tension as cracks and pops began to sound from his body.

"Eret!" Another man yelled as he flew towards my face with his foot. It was swatted away by one of my free arms, and he tumbled as he landed, his leg bent at an obtuse angle.

"Even I can kick better than that," I scoffed as I looked at the man. He was holding his leg at the knee as rushed breaths went through his teeth. "Nobody wants to be like you."

My attention turned back to the ninja in my tentacles as he squirmed in a feeble attempt to escape. "Please," I heard him mutter under his breath. "Please let me go. Please."

"Why?" I asked as I brought him closer. Nobody dared to approach me any longer. They knew I was stronger than them. I was mightier. I was better. In every way. "Your skills seem quite useful."

"Please," Eret gasped through baited breaths as he repeated his pleas. "We'll give you the stuff. Please. Let us go. Please." I looked around the room and reached one of my tentacles toward Garret. He was barely conscious, and could do little to avoid me from suchh a distance.

"Any lies," I warned as I pushed my tentacle against his throat sharply. He scrambled to push me away. How adorable. "And he dies. As do you all."

I let go of Eret and released my tentacles from around Garret's throat as 'Transform' wore off. My vision focused, my arms regrew bones, the extra limbs retracted, and my head cleared. Eret was mangled and everyone around me was looking with disgust.

No time to wallow in pity for them. I did what I had to.

I followed a wary young man who led me to the treasure room, and grabbed my sword that Ava had dropped in her escape. I held it in hand, worried that the shock would wear off and the thieves would gang up once again, but we made our way to a small hole in the wall where gold and silver shone against the open hole.

"T-This is everything from the Guild," he informed me as he moved further and further away from me. Had I really been that imposing? That terrifying? "P-Please take it."

"I want your money, too," I stated as I approached him. I stood an inch or two smaller than him, but he still seemed to look up at me. "Go and fetch it."

[Name: Envy (Levi Elbrus)

Species: Leviathan.

Level: 18

Magic Skills: Devour, Electric Discharge, Electricity Resistance, Water Manipulation (+5), Web Secretion, Vine Control, Wind Manipulation.

Physical Skills: Transform, Night-Vision, Thick Skin.

Innate Skills: Mountain-Splitter Style Swordsmanship (Advanced), Ancient Blood (Not Manifested) ]