C58: Killer In Disguise

I stopped asking questions as this might be another one of the conditions he might need to fulfill. Someone who explained his special ability likely had some condition where his ability would become stronger if he explained it. In other cases, it was just stupidity.

Normally, I would go for the Ord battle, the first choice.

If the game counted all my Ord, even the portion I sent to Carpy. Then my inner energy was at a stage only Agon reached, at least in my generation. Sei would probably catch up in the future.

But I wasn't sure my opponent's ability would take max Ord into account. Even then, I usually wasn't used to controlling that much inner energy. So while I was confident, I wasn't 100% sure of my victory.

I wasn't going to choose the first option. Instead, I planned to choose one where my victory was assured. "I choose Wheel of Torture."

"..." the man stared at me. He tried keeping it hidden, but I knew he was surprised.

No matter. Now wasn't the time for regret. I was cautious about him. Since if he created an ability like this. Well, it wasn't a good ability in general.

It might sound good on paper, but Special Abilities were supposed to let someone weaker defeat stronger opponents.

In short, when monstrous people came around, this ability was useless. That's if it doesn't have some drawbacks where the user would suffer penalties. Then it would make this ability trash. Undoubtedly, it would be strong until the opponent was an Elite Exorcist. Though I guess for this time, he must have gotten confident at defeating people with a touch for this time.

The white area around us darkened. Whips cracked, a cage manifested around us, and chains sprouted. The metallic chains tightened around my arms and legs, almost causing my limbs to pop out of their sockets.

Fuck! This hurts!

I was about to scream. But I held it in and gave a mental command.

'Order: Survive.'

'[Order Received]'

'[Perfect Me — Activated]'

I moved to a third-person point of view of my own body. It felt as whacky as always, as I could still feel everything happening to my body.

Right, Perfect Me doesn't eliminate the pain. But from what I could understand from the game's conditions, it didn't matter whether someone felt pain. But it was more about how well they handled it.

..

I was beaten, pierced, burned, scalped, and skinned. My organs got ripped out and pulled by chains. Even if I wanted to scream my throat out, I couldn't make a noise. Crying was impossible too.

It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts like a fucking bitch!!

I regretted my decision for the first time since coming to this world. It wasn't a bad decision per se. Like always, logic had ruled my reasoning, and I tried not to take emotion into account.

But right now, I would give everything if I could just go back in time and choose an Ord clash!

The worst was that I couldn't even enter unconsciousness due to the pain in this world. Also, torture could be administered in countless ways that would have killed a normal person.

"Ahhhhhh!!" Reiss, on the other hand, was tugging at his chains and screaming like a madman.

With how thoughtless his ability was, it wouldn't be surprising if he never activated the torture side of his ability. He was probably trained to handle torture. As a royal guard, that sounded like it would be a requirement. They knew a lot of secrets about the royal family that shouldn't be spilled.

In a world like this, secrets were worth more than a man's weight in gold.

The pain stopped, and the dark space around us turned white. It felt like we were standing on semi-solid water.

Reiss was kneeling, breathing heavily, the Ord around him weakening. "No! No! You're my own ability! Don't do this to me! I -I don't want to die!"

He then turned toward me. "Kid! P -Please save me! I don't want to die! I didn't mean to do all those horrible things and kill people! I just had no choice!"

Yeah, I didn't care. My mind was shaking due to the tortuous pain.

Screw yourself with a pitchfork, buddy. Sadly since I was still in Perfect Me state, I couldn't speak.

Damn it! I wanted to punch the bastard in the face so badly!

But of course, Perfect Me wouldn't do something like that. It would be just an unnecessary risk.

As Reiss' Ord got sealed up, the world around us crumbled, and I opened my eyes again. Reiss had his hand over my forehead. His eyes were wide.

"No way-"

He didn't get to finish whatever he was going to say as two short swords pierced through his chest—splattering the man's blood on my face.

His exoskeleton shattered, and an ant the size of a fist emerged. It screeched toward me, trying to protect its master. But it was useless as the ant slowly started dying too. The injuries Ress got when they were fused were also transferred to the ant.

Seeing that the man was dead, my body started heating up. It felt like I was burning up. My hands were red like a baby's irritated skin.

What the hell was this?

***

Delia only heard the beeping sound. Her vision was lopsided, and she couldn't stand up. She felt like throwing up but held it in.

Reiss fell as soon as he touched Kon's forehead. His Ord suddenly went silent out of nowhere, and the swords Delia had thrown, with no hope of them hitting anything. They pierced through Reiss, and he flopped to the ground.

Though what she saw next worried her even more. It was Kon; his skin was red. He was sweating crazily, and she could swear he was steaming up.

He took out a talisman and used Ord on the paper to turn it into water. Then he stuffed that water in his mouth.

He did that with a dozen talismans as if he was hydrating himself.

Then his body turned even redder. His eyes went bloodshot.

'What was happening to him?!' Delia worried.

Then his skin suddenly started turning paler. His eyes were emotionless throughout the whole painful-looking process. Then he lay down on the ground and closed his eyes.

Did he just fall asleep?

Delia concentrated Ord on her pinky finger and stuck it in her ear. Pain shot through her ear as if someone had stabbed her eardrums. Though the technique was crude, it cleared her ear canal, and she could somewhat hear things by using Ord in her ear.

"It seems like he lied about his ability being only to make him calm and resistant to pain," Paris said.

Damn!

Delia immediately realized their predicament. The only one amongst the three of them who was unharmed was Paris.

Normally Delia wouldn't worry about Paris, as her Special Ability was very strong. She herself wasn't that strong in a head-on fight.

"An ability that can control the body to a level where it can heat itself and boil any poison inside the body. He can control every cell in his body, even the immune system. Quite a versatile ability." Paris commented and then turned toward Reiss.

The man had a foot in the grave, and a pool of blood formed around him. He looked at Paris with pleading eyes. "I -I am from the royal guard. Those horrible things I did, are from one of the royal family members! Please spare my life!"

Delia wasn't surprised by such a revelation. Since the royal family held so much power, it wasn't weird for them to act cruelly with it. That was human nature; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

She heard that quote from a cartoon, but it wasn't wrong.

"Oh, is that so?" Paris had a chilly look in her eyes.

Instinctively, Delia knew what was going to happen next. But she didn't know how many witnesses Paris would want to keep. Would the Special Exorcist kill them to keep everything quiet? Also, she didn't want to get involved in such a thing and said. "Paris, whatever you want to do, don't be selfish. Even if you activate your ability, it won't work since you must read the rights to a royal family member. That would be a dead giveaway."

Also, such actions would put the Dark Sword Clan in a dire position. But Paris couldn't seem to care less about any of that.

"I do not need to read out the rights of the target if they can't use Ord," Paris said as she wrote something. Then she stared at the ex-royal guard. "Whether it is a street sweeper or the King themselves. Justice is blind. My investigations show that the one responsible was Cornaled, the second prince of the Sun Kingdom."

Clap!... She closed the book. Just like that, she killed someone. Paris turned toward Kon.

Delia's heart shook. Was she going to kill them?!

"Hey!" She called out to the Special Rank Exorcist. "If you touch him, I will fucking kill you and everyone you have ever loved! I will torture them all to death!!!"

Paris only smirked at her threats, and Delia's heart dropped.