29 Our Spear Boy's Next Move?

(Cao Cao POV)

As I sat on the throne within the grand temple of time, I woke up to see Scathach staring at me as if I were some foreign entity that she wanted to study. 

As we stared at one another, I asked, "Are you alright, Master? I hope you are feeling better since the chains were removed." The woman just sighed and sat on the side of the throne.

"Don't think you can hide what just happened, disciple. When I fell asleep, you felt strong, yes, but now you feel like something more than human as while I am immortal due to the blood of the gods I bathed in during battle, you have become something else. But for now, I must ask what you are going to do now? As the permanent death of Ares and, by extension, Mars will have you in a difficult position."

Looking out into the endless expanse of the blue skies in front of me, I simply say, 'To be honest, it does not make a difference as those Gods would have targeted me anyways. For what reason, I do not know; if it is simply for my sacred gear, then I would understand, but it feels as if the world itself is against me. As for my next move, well, I am going to have to do what you do, Master. Wing it and see what works."

The witch then smirked as she said, "Are you not afraid? Other than maybe Shiva, Ophis, and Great Red, The whole world will desire you for your life, your knowledge, or other things. Simply winging it will not be enough. You need more allies, Cao Cao. You cannot live your whole life running, my disciple; I do not want that for you."

Her emotions show through her words as I simply stand up and bid her to follow me and as I stood on the edge of the floating island and as we stood there, I responded, "I fully accepted to live my life expecting someone to have a blade at my back and at my front, but you truly underestimate me, Master, as with every second and every battle I grow stronger and better. This world is but one of many thousands, and I will not allow some childish divine hypocrites to deny me my freedom."

My statement causes her to stare at me with a look that reveals thousands of thoughts, but she simply replies by saying, "So you're saying you are not a hypocrite yourself? I can understand your frustration, disciple, but you must understand that one wrong move is the end, and gods are endless in their creativity when punishing their enemies. Look to Mimir and Prometheus and Ixion and myself. To fight the world is a challenging thing to do."

"Difficult being the key word, there and not impossible, and besides, why run when they can't even know where I am in the first place." I then activated presence concealment, and my Master's eyes widened as she looked at me with a narrowed look.

"I assume this is some kind of new technique of ours. I can barely make out your presence from the rest of this place. Speaking of which, what is this place?" I then deactivate my concealment to answer her.

"This was a place referred to as the grand Temple of Time created by Solomon as his attempt to see the beginning and the end of time as a way to observe the beginning and the end of human history. This is by no means the original but a copy I created from my memory from a time long before I met you, as I've had dreams of this place for a long time. And besides, the Land of Shadows is not gone. Simply look below us." 

I then pointed downward, and she saw an endless black mist enveloping the ground.

"The Land of Shadows, while deadly, is the perfect way to train others or punish them, but even now, I can feel this place growing stronger as its connection to my being becomes more real. Do you see those other islands?" I then gestured to the other floating islands forming in the endless sky.

"Each one of those is going to serve a different purpose, from research to training and relaxation, for if I'm going to be the owner of this world, I'm going to make it one worth living in. This shall be my own paradise from the chaos of the outside. By no means am I afraid to step outside those doors, but it is a nice feeling to know I'm going back to something that I can genuinely call home." My Master then nods as if understanding my point and then grasps my hand.

She seems to want to touch me as she says simply, "It's nice to be able to feel again, but with my contract to the tree broken with my bonds to this land, there is little I can teach you now. It's somewhat disappointing. I can still use my runes, but I can't learn more than what I already know. I apologize if this is disappointing." 

Shaking my head, I began to cover the sky in front of us in endless runes, to which her eyes widened.

"You will never be a disappointment, my Master, and if you can't teach me more, then I shall teach you, and then you shall gain insights on how to teach me. But regardless of anything that happens in the future, I will always see you as someone important to me. And besides, you are still somewhat superior to me in terms of the art of the spear." As I say the last part, she seems to frown as she says.

"Only in the spear? I can still beat you in martial arts, you know? It seems my disciple has become more cheeky after beating his first god." Her tone practically oozes with pride and smug energy as I chuckle at her newfound expressions.

She then lets go as I ask her, "So, since we can leave, do you want to do something? The world is now our oyster. We can travel anywhere you want to go as long as it is not Japan or Brazil." Scatahch then looks at my face weirdly as her eyebrows raised in a questioning manner.

"Disciple, what is in those two places that is so terrifying?" I simply turned away and sat back on the throne as I pondered an answer, to which she walked over and sat on my lap. I had to use life return to make sure my hormones and blood flow to certain areas remained at normal levels as I am actively trying to keep myself calm.

"Well, for Brazil, we simply did not go or talk about Brazil, and for Japan, that place is cursed with Shonen and IQ-lowering energy." She seemed to want to question me more but sighed and continued to sit on my lap as we observed the forming islands.

"Well, if I wanted to do anything, it was going to Britain as I wanted to test myself against the Fay, but I could never find them as they left this plane after Excalibur was shattered during the Great War between the three biblical factions." I looked into her eyes with a flat stare as she smiled back at me.

"Master, I am not one to question your choices, but you do know that the Fay may take my presence quite badly, right as it was the faction that God had that shattered their sword and made them a laughing stock of the supernatural world?" She simply shrugged her shoulders and laid her head on my shoulders.

"Well, what better way to see how they would react than to find them and fight- I mean, talk to them." Master your words are about as controversial as this position right now. 

But I sigh to myself and nod, to which she then adds, "Well, I am not a controlling person, so we don't have to do it right away, but we will find them eventually as I always wanted to fight a fairy."

"Not after Lostbelt 6," but I did not say that out loud as we sat there and I observed my LP stores, and after my week-long nap, I had 22,507,800 LP left, and using it, I decided to buy a sealing defense for two million LP to allow for me to lower the powers of seals near me and at higher levels I will simply be unable to be sealed in any way. 

But then, looking at Scathach, I bought something else. Using the remaining 20 million LP I had.

A heavily diluted version of the essence of the binder, which will allow me to share my defenses and any skills I choose, but I won't have access to the revival or commands that the full power essence does, but with blank, it will grow with time. But said time will be a long time. As I went over the skill information, I saw that I am only able to bind one person every month.

I may buy other means of binding in the future, but I needed a surefire method to use that was not too invasive, and this felt like the right choice.

I did wonder why the price was so low for this essence, but I assumed whoever created the essence of skill creation made some prices lower. And as I looked through the endless lists of skills, I saw one skill that caused my expression to become completely flat.

[NTR Protection= One Single Point (NTR Is A Trash Fetish, From EA)]

So, with a bit too much fervor, I immediately bought it out of an irrational fear of that specific tag while sending a thankful prayer for whoever made this price so low. Luckily, I still had 507,799 LP left. So as I turned to my Master, I asked her a question: "Master, do you want a tattoo?"

Her look seemed to question my sanity, but she then nodded, which brought a smile to my face at her trust in me after our time together.

As I grasped her hand, a small symbol formed on her right hand, and I smiled as it took shape. I recognized the symbol.

(Great Red POV)

The Infinite and The Dream.

The Ouroboros And The Dragon Of Dragons.

Ophia and Great Red.

The Dragon Gods had been known by many names, yet none could truly define them, and so they took the names given to them as they interacted with the material plane. The world was in balance, and all was as it should be, but then a small change occurred within the dream as he could not see into the dreams of a person on Earth.

This should not have been possible, and as he looked through a hole he created in the dimensional gap, he tried to find the anomaly, but as he focussed on a position and looked into the boy's mind, he saw something that left him scarred.

A woman sitting upon a throne atop an endless shining city, and as she looked upon him as if he were but an ant, she stood from the throne, and her mere presence made him feel fear.

And then she took out an abnormal spear that seemed to shine with a light that should be impossible as if the world itself shook by its mere presence, and as the weapon began to shine, its power grew at a rate that was incredible and terrifying. Yet she did not strike him with its full power towards him as she held the spear in front of the dragon.

It was not a threat but a promise.

I, the Great Red, then retreated with my pride shattered by one slash of the spear, leaving a gash on my side that refused to heal faster than a normal human. And on that day, I great Red feared for my life.

It was a reminder that even with my status, other beings existed that could challenge me, as even I refused to look into the worlds connected by the Gap out of fear. 

And so I would close the hole and cut the connection and continue to fly across the endless space as that light appeared in my eyes every time I closed them to blink and hoped that the Infinite was not as stupid as he was.

But I knew that my counterpart and her curiosity and so he watched the infinite as she gathered her group that played her for a fool as was her nature as the infinite could never understand mortals but, not because she was stupid but because her own nature was so beyond mortal desire that she could not even understand mortal wants or even the idea of betrayal.

But I do hope that what occurs in the future will teach her a much-needed lesson, and I hope that she does not meet with that woman who holds the spear at the end of the world.