Arthur The Charleton

"Wait, wait...easy, easy, I want no trouble." The man swiftly raised both hands.

"How'd you find this place?" A loud muddled voice came from his back. He guessed whoever was behind him had a piece of cloth to his mouth, maybe a fugitive? Otherwise, who would bother going as far as hiding their voice in these godforsaken times?

"Hey man, relax. I wasn't looking for you or anything; I just happened to stumble by. Now, if it's not any trouble, I'll be taking my leave." He suggested while rising slowly to his feet. Seeing as the person behind didn't say anything as he stood, he sneered, 'Heh fool, in your next life, try not to trust people too easily.' He quickly spun and swung his arm backward in an attempt to slap the man's firearm away while still positioning himself to throw a kick to follow up.

"BANG BANG."

"Arghhhhh..ghhhhhh...ahhhhhh." 'He wasn't the only one here!'

The bald man was back on the floor, only now there were two holes in his thighs generously leaking out blood, one bullet per leg.

"I had it."

The man whispered softly, but the bald man seemed to have heard as he looked at him, and his eyes widened. The man in front of him was donned in military-like garments, those black leather boots, that black and violet uniform, those masks that only covered half their faces, and especially that emblem.

Immediately, he realized who he was up against; he immediately forced himself to withstand the pain and started begging. He knew it could only take a miracle and a lot of bullshitting for him not to die today.

"Esteemed young man, please have mercy on this old man; it seems my old age is getting to me. You see, these days I've been doing some stupid things. I think my brain has started failing...hmm what do you call it...dementia yeah?...you see sir I don't even remember what's wrong with me."

"Enough, old man. Why are you here? These grounds are restricted."

Another man wearing similar garbs walked out of the shadows. He had sharp brows, red hair, and eyes that starved for murder. On seeing the newcomer, the bald man became even more frightened and started stuttering his words.

"I'm telling the truth; I didn't know-

" Sigh~ "

BANG

"Arghhhhh."

"Shuuush~ see old man, that wasn't the answer I wanted."

The old man couldn't ignore the pain anymore; the new addition in his arm broke any will he had to suppress the pain. 'But what's with these bullets, shouldn't I be losing consciousness from blood loss or something or doesn't even hurt as much anymore...what'd these devils do to me?'

"...Arthur, he might be telling the truth. Let's just give him some equipment and send him away."

'Of course I am, you bastards.'

"Hmm...."

The roguish man known as Arthur twisted his neck backward at an angle that allowed him to catch a glimpse of his comrade, and safe to say his expression wasn't pleasant. Turning his body completely, he approached his comrade.

"So what do we do, give him some food and ammo, and send him back on his merry way...hmmm that's indeed an option, but what if he was a spy and say we randomly were ambushed, or here's a better one, his wife comes along, then his daughter, then his brother, we give them some goodies and send them on their way, WHY NOT OPEN A FUCKING PHILANTHROPY THEN?"

"I say, junior, your track record isn't looking too nice now."

Arthur uttered, but Gideon could see it, even through his mask, that shit-eating grin on his face, but surprisingly he only smiled and responded.

"I'll try to do better, sir."

"Tsk, bastard."

BANG.

"Arghhh...bastard what are yo-

BANG BANG BANG BANG

The old man was shocked at what happened in front of him; sure, Arthur didn't really seem like a good guy, but this, isn't this too much?

"You know, if he'd just shut his mouth a little more often, it wouldn't have ended up like this; we could have even been the best of friends. I mean, sure, he kinda looks like a thug, but I'm sure we could have worked things out."

The Nexus soldier seemed to have entered his thoughts as he kept talking while staring down at his 'fallen comrade.'

"Oh, you're still here; I'm sorry you had to witness that. Let me help you with that."

The bald man was still confused and apprehensive; what was he talking about, help him? Mfker just killed his teammate, and I thought Arthur was the bad guy.

However, he couldn't react as the soldier yanked something from the back of his neck. Suddenly he couldn't feel all the bullet wounds he thought he had; he looked towards the man and saw him tossing and catching a mechanical bug that looked like a spider.

"Non-lethal torture device, pretty handy, don't you think?"

"Can... I... go now?"

"Well sure, I had to kill my friend for you y'know."

The man still scared of what just happened here was ecstatic to leave, so he stood up and turned to the window, not daring to spend more time in the building climbing the stairs. However, he froze when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You never did say what you were doing here, though."

"That, the village near the forest was attacked by a beast; I saw it lying in the flames from afar but didn't dare to approach. I plan on reaching the capital from here; I heard some rumors I gotta go through this city. I swear I'm not a spy; I wasn't following you; I just stumbled on you guys."

Unsure of what to expect, the old man's eyes kept darting between the soldier's 'smiling' face. He couldn't say for sure with the mask covering half of it and his grip on his shoulder. After what wasn't less than half a minute, the soldier finally responded.

"I guess that'll do."

The instant the soldier finished speaking, a long mirror-like crack ran through his face and the background behind him. The old man was shocked; cracks of different sizes and directions ran through his surroundings, almost like reality was shattering, and indeed it was. Eventually, the whole scenery shattered, and he found himself kneeling on the ground with both hands up with a familiar sensation at the back of his head.

BANG.

Before he could even try to deduce whatever the hell was happening, his head exploded into mush and brain matter.

"THAT WAS DISGUSTING."

"Hey relax; I'm still not used to it yet. It'll probably take a while to get a hang of it."

"YOU FOOL, thats not the problem, you're the evoy of Belphegor, how can you be this stupid, how In nine hells were you even selected, you're supposed-

"Bastard if you're going to live rent free in my head, you might as well teach me rather than shout till your balls break"

"YOU- I'll have you know I was once hailed as one of the 9 princes of hell"

"WAS, now you're a parasite stuck in my head"

"Tsk, bastard child you have potential but your thought process is too cumbersome, the prompt eventially becomes muddled and the results would be subpar, don't try to spin up a whole event you're not at that level yet"

"The strength of the charletons reality is to create a reality where your opponent is compelled to believe your deceit, while you can't affect their mentality 'not yet at least', you can create a reality where your lie is believable. Like I said the simpler it is the stronger the effect, merely making yourself look approachable and trustworthy would work if the opponent's mentality isn't that strong-

"Oh....so I just need to make myself look like a Loli princess"

"BASTARD DONT INTERUPT ME"

knock...knock

A knock came from the door to the room Arthur was in followed by a gruff voice

"Arthur, briefing in 5"