Mammon Greed Part Two [Kolme]

"Feeble?" The iron lady of greed speaks her chime. "Glorification? Neither, have it enough? Many subjugations, many prey, more food yet delayed. Automation, expenditure classification."

Heavy breathing, tremendous pain. The old man doesn't speak as he knows that everything will decide his fate, even the act of his tongue.

The fierce dragonoid only replies to the word gargling of his adversary with a stare. Kryuges loses both of his arms. The only way for him to fight is to use his teeth that clench a giant claymore. He is in turmoil, not because of the blood loss and pain, not by the searing fierce attack. He is deeply confused.

'What is this wicked woman saying!? Dear lord, it has been an hour and I have not a single clue!'

Mammon plucks the air as if it was an instrument, the wave resonant in a path slithering into the column above before lunging down onto the old man.

'The left! No! The ground!'

Suddenly, the wave travels in a loop as it stops advancing distantly in the air. No longer distracted, Kryuges leaps forward as the real attack travels through the ground to his foothold.

'As if! This old man has gone through many hardships!'

"Unifications?"

A portal suddenly appeared to engulf Mammon untraced, a small portal appears on top, left, diagonal angle near the right shoulder of Kryuges. Using his upper body strength, he jumps slightly before kicking the air to gain momentum and twisting his whole body with his teeth clenching tightly to his claymore. With it, he manages to slash all of the incoming drills from the portals into two fragmented shafts.

A surprise drill emerges from the platform, hidden beneath the fortified floor. Kryuges slashes the air using his neck muscle to retract his body posture while airborne, dodging the surprise attack.

'MY MAGNUM OPUS IS SAFE!'

The safety of his pelvis relieves him. Using pure instinct, the old man is too tough to die. He hurls the claymore in his mouth forward before shouting, "Devil! Show yourself!"

He can't run, the God-class Calamity was too attentive. She might be playing for all he knows considering that he hasn't died yet. Then again, the killing intent is huge, but something feels wrong. The Calamity of greed is torturing, she is by no means trying to win, there is no trace of any life within the skyline either, something is off by a huge leap.

Kryuges' mind races through every sense he has, analyzing every bit of detail before coming to a conclusion.

'So that is how it is.'

Kryuges forms a sword in the air, he grabs it with his teeth before throwing it midair, standing still until the sword pierce his skull.

He is dead.

But he isn't.

Both of his regenerate. No, it's more like the time has reverted itself. He is outside of the Skyline, the sky is red and everything looks like it's coming out of hell.

"What in the mighty is happening?"

He then notices something, an implanted formation within his heart. Curious, he appraises it before stabbing at his heart with another claymore after finding out that the formation was a curse.

He is dead for good now.

Until he opened his eyes.

He is back with both of his elephant-sized swords on his still attached arms. The Mammon is there, laughing.

"Luscious."

He is sure that this is the real thing, before everything progresses the same way as before. Weak on both knees, but no arms to cushion the weight that his mind is carrying.

"What in the world is happening?"

The Mammon isn't real, or is she? Kryuges noticed that he was banished into an artificial world by something unknown. The curse is etched on his heart, he then hurls another sword upward to wait for the sharp end to meet his skull.

Heightening his sense and soul perception, he finally found out that something was binding his soul through another ludicrously long array of patterns into the inside of the pocket space gate. Before he could finally make sense of what was beyond the portal, he is brought again to the same loop, being outside of the broken Skyline with the red sky and hellish scene.

But to make sure of something, he goes into the Skyline, the same place where the Mammon Greed was supposed to dance a harmonious melody with his skeleton partner.

There is no one waiting for him.

He stabbed his heart with a sword once again, but this time there is no gap in-between like the attempt before the last, there is no long arduous chain that is coming from a portal.

He is back to the moment he brandishes two elephant-sized swords. He forced his way out of the skyline to only find nothing beyond it, an empty space unlike the world where it was clear sky red.

Despite the loop, there is a repeating pattern. The obvious fact of Kryuges is that he is not within the original reality. Currently, he is in an artificial realm. A curse has been brought upon his soul through the heart to shift his present into the World X, the world of red, it might be hell as far as he knows it.

'So artificial realm, the red world, and artificial realm again.'

This might be a discovery, finding another similar world with different traits and laws can be considered as world traveling, something that was thought thoroughly by numerous researchers.

'If I die again, there will be a gap in the chain in between realities.'

And so he killed himself once more, traveling through the space time continuum. He shapes his consciousness strings into a dense spear, the moment the gap is in sight, he launches the spear to break the chain.

If the pattern repeats, he should be coming back to World X. But he isn't, his plan worked as he went back to his original world. Too bad that he's late, he finds his real body mutilated into pieces of meat already by the vicious Calamity. The gaze pierces him, the eyes of a maniac.

Is this the end?

'AS IF!'

Using every energy he can utilize with his dense consciousness strings, he precisely recreates his whole body using the materials within the hall, reinforced steel, concrete. Rebuilding his vessel in an instant. The Mammon take a huge leap backward, alerted by the fierce determination from the old man.

Apparently, the repeating world traveling has made his soul or consciousness to be hundred times stronger, a blessing in disguise. The old Aiseirighian snickers in nostalgia, as he is no longer a mortal.

"Backfired, didn't it? You have created a God-class Vagant operator." He once again brandishes his favorite sword, but unlike before, his face is full of anticipation. "So why not taste some flavor from this old man?"