The Prelude To Hell

"Thats what happened," Tilith finished, her tone still slighty robotic. "Well, the system can't calculate everything into the equation or get the precise words that they said. It can however narrow down the word choice and factor in how each person would respond. In other words, while the data may not be entirely accurate, its at least less then a 17% chance that its off."

Max clenched his teeth as Tilith explained, only half hearing her. He should've known that Nozel would do something so despicable, that he would stoop so low just to get back at him. He didnt have any doubt that Nozel was responsible for making Mimosa come to him with tears in her eyes and sadness in her heart.

"Tilith, what would the probability of me defeating him in combat if I faced him as I am right now?" Max asked, as he turned around and set Mimosa's sleeping body onto the bed, pulling the covers up to her neck.

"Your chances of winning are 0%," Tilith immediately said not bothering to run it through the system. "Your magic may be strong and you may think that your pretty good in combat, but I assure you that you'd be no match for him as you are now. Even if you trained like crazy for the next three months, the likely-hood of you winning would only increase by 15%."

Tilith continued on with numerous of information, piling on the reasons for not battling Nozel. "The guy you want to fight is a captain level mage, one which is strong enough and almost on par with the wizard king himself. In truth, you cant even beat Kirsch as you are right now, and even if you trained for the next three months you'd only have a 45% chance of victory. Confronting Nozel wouldn't be wise at this moment as you have neither the powers nor the connections to deal any sort of blow against him. What you should do right now is wait for Mimosa to wake up and then ask what happen and comfort her as best you can."

Max turned around and drove his fist into the nearest wall, punching a hole through it but tearing his skin in the process causing blood to flow from his fingers. He was beyond frustrated and at the same time he was worried, anxious that Mimosa might actually take Nozel's words to heart. He sighed softlt and took a seat on the bed again, placing his head in his hands.

He didnt know what to do, he had never dealt with a situation where he had to console somebody, but he did have a couple ways to do it. Anime was filled with life lessons and inspirational speeches, and all he needed to do was use one of them, make slight alterations to it and simply act the part. It was much easier said then done though.

Mimosa was out cold, and Max didnt know when she would wake up. All he could do was wait for her to wake up as he wasnt about to force her to awaken just so he could ease his own uneasd. He wanted to wait for her to wake up on her own so she would feel comfortable enough to tell him waht happened. He figured while he was waiting, he might as well go through his sytem again to calm his mind.

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Max was in the middle of fiddling with his system when he heard a groan and felt movement behind him. He hurriedly swiped away the popup and placed his hands to his sides, turning around in time to see Mimosa sitting up in his bed and rubbing her eyes.

"Hey there sleeping beauty," Max said, a warm smile on his face. "Did you sleep well?" He tried to reach for her hand but she almost immediately shied away from his touch. Her eyes were filled with sadness and even a tinge of fear. It appeared that she had already taken what Nozel said to heart, which meant tht getting her back to her normal self would take a little longer then he originally thought.

Max retracted his hand reluctantly, his face turning serious. "Mimosa, I want you to tell me what happened, every last detail. No deals, no procrastinating, just tell me right now what happened."

Mimosa looked like she wanted to crawl somewhere and hide, but she eventually began to recall what happened to her. How Nozel belittled her and insulted her, how frustrated she was at being weak, how depressed she was because of the words he had spoken. By the time she had finished, Mimosa looked as if she was on the verge of crying once again, but Max put a stop to it real quick. He did something he had never done before, he pulled back his hand and brought it across her face with a resounding smack.

Mimosa's face jerked to the right, and her cheek began to turn a shade of red. Tears were in her eyes but she didnt cry about it, she simply stared at him with shock, confusion and a hint of fear in her eyes.

"Don't cry Mimosa," Max said sternly, lowering his hand. "Your strong but in your own way! You don't need attack magic to be useful, support magic is every bit as important as attack magic. Your strong in your own right and not just with magic, your strong emotionally, the strongest girl I've ever had the pleasure to meet."

Max reached out and touched the cheek he had slapped. "You don't need to prove anything to anyone, don't need to act like your beneath me, as if your too weak to stand by my side. If anything it should be ME begging YOU to stay with me. Your brave, smart, intelligent, and kind, and if you ever say stuff like being unworthy of me again, I'll have to slap you again."

Max reached out and pulled her against his chest. She struggled weakly for a second, but eventually gave in to his embrace, feeling a sense of security and warmth emanating from him. She let out a sigh and decided to overlook the slap he had given her, mostly because she felt that she had deserved it.

Max cheered mentally, having been scared out of his mind the entire time. He had no idea what he had been doing, he had simply taken a gamble and had managed to come out a winner. It was just a matter of pure luck that Mimosa hadn't kept trying to push him away because that would've meant that he had failed.

They stayed like that, enjoying each others warmth, before Max pulled away. He readjusted Mimosa's dress for her and wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes. "Feeling better princess?" He asked teasingly. Amazingly, she didnt punch him in the stomach but blushed slightly and nodded her head.

'Does slapping someone really produce such amazing results?' Max thought as he moved away from Mimosa and took off his hoodie. He slid back onto the bed and put the hoodie over her shoulders, smiling as it was slightly big on her 5 foot frame, but it would've probably evened out over the chest area.

"Okay, I'm gonna let you take this with you...youll have to go to sleep soon as you have to be up bright and early tomorrow morning or you'll be yelled at by Mereleona." Max explained all this as he took her by the hand and helped her out of his bed.

Mimosa looked at him in confusion, not understanding what he was saying. Why Mereleona would yell at her for sleeping in she wasn't sure and she felt the need to find out. "Why exactly would I need to be up early? There something important going on?"

Max smirked and led her to the bedroom door, opening it for her, now playing the part of a gentleman. "Didn't you want to start training with me? Or is that something you just said in the heat of the moment?" Max laughed quietly and leaned close to her face, intending to tease her a bit, and was, unsurprisingly, punched in the gut.

"Of course I'll start training with you," She said as she retracted her fist. "However, the next time you tease me just remember that there will most definitely be consequences." She then walked out the room and closed the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed Tiliths voice rang through his head. "You handled that well, though I do think slapping her was a bit overkill." Tilith had lost her robotic voice and resumed her normal tone, the one that sounded condescending. "However, you DO know that had just gotten lucky right?"

Max sighed as he ran his hands through his dark blue hair as he walked back towards his bed, suddenly feeling exhausted mentally and emotionally. "You don't have to tell me, that was super scary.....I was sure that she was gonna hate me for it."

"And she almost did, or rather she started to," Tilith replied with a hint of amusement in her tone. "If you hadn't hugged her and not let go, she would've most definitely held that smack against you. I actually have to congratulate you on how superb a job you did. You achieved both raising her spirits AND her affection level at the same time...quite feat considering you slapped her."

Max took off his shirt, throwing it to the side of the room before jumping onto his bed, ready to just go to sleep. However one thing still bothered him. "What the hell is affection level Tilith?!" Max asked.

"I'm glad you asked Max," Tilith answered, apparently waiting for Max to ask this question. "The System takes the emotions of others and calculates how they feel towards you. You hit one hundred then they basically love you, whether its familial or intimate depends on the person but the System can usually pick up on it."

Max nodded and rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. He got the gist of it, and was even curious about what Mimosa's number was, and he had a couple of other questions that he wanted to ask. "What about when the number hits zero? Also, what's the number of Mimosa?"

Though Max couldn't see her, he felt as if Tilith was smirking as she answered his questions. "Surely you can figure out both of those things by yourself. If a person who hits a hundred loves you then it stands to reason that a person who hits zero absolutely hates your very being. As for the other question, Mimosa's number is currently 89 and has been bouncing around the entire time you guys were in this room. Especially when you hit her, it dropped down to 34.....however for some reason, a bit after you pullled her in for a hug, it jumped up to the present number."

Max sighed gently, though he already knew the number was high, it was still a relief to hear that she still had affection for him. "So does the affection level work for everyone? Is there a catch to it?"

Tilith was quiet for a second before responding. "Well, you kinda have to touch them in order for it to work, otherwise nothing will happen."

Max laughed and closed his eyes, expecting that there was some catch to it. He had touched Mimosa countless times during the days that he knew her. If he wanted to get to know the affection levels of others then all he had to do was touch them, meaning that he could probably use this to his advantage.

Max drifted off to sleep thinking about all the ways that he could use it to his advantage, little did he know the hell that awaited him tomorrow.....