Chapter 101

(This chapter is a bit different. We get an interesting POV. Remember to vote with your stones. Loving the update schedule so far.)My mind spun a thousand miles per second. How had I not seen this coming? Of course, the Knight and the Shield guys would combine if they had the chance. It'd happened before, for fuck sake.

This was on me. My only hope of coming out of this alive was a one-shot. Luckily, I had enough explosives underneath the platform to level an apartment building. Whether or not he'd allow me to get it off was another question, however.

Could I even outrun him at this point? My hand trembled as doubt flooded me. Drawing in a deep breath, I reviewed my resources again.

HP: 400/830

AE: 120/530

DE: 230/690

They were not as high as I needed, but I would've had to make due. Energy flooded my legs and hands as I activated several techniques: two bursts for each leg, Gust, and Cloak.

If speed wouldn't help me here, how about Density?

The Homunculus Knight scrutinized me with all four eyes, tilting his head to the left as a flickering aura billowed out of me. It alternated between smoke and fire before it finally settled on fire.

It swung the Moon veil straight at me, sending a wave of blue magical energy forward.

---

Shin

I was impressed that he'd managed to hold on for this long, but Axel had always been different. I thought some Outerversal asshole was playing a prank on me when I found his soul in his universe. A planetary-level soul dwelling in the body of some no-name kid.

It took a great deal of self-control not to pluck him immediately. My mouth salivated at the possibilities. I eagerly wanted to consume his soul but understood that creating a bonded servant was better.

I only had a handful of Planetary-level servants in my employ, and most of them started substantially weaker. Axel was incredible straight out of the gate. His potential was frankly staggering—which is why I was convinced there had to be some trap lying in wait.

And that was my biggest mistake.

My paranoia cost me his strength as Axel's soul adapted to his body by discharging his sweet-sweet soul energy to not only bolster his fragile human body but also reduce itself so that the body and soul could survive.

Oblivious as he was, Axel benefited greatly from this. His enhanced strength made his frankly average body into a machine of war. Watching the energy waste away was a hair-pulling experience, but I couldn't afford to tip my hand just in case.

Eventually, I had enough and incarnated two servants to test his limit. One in a championship fight that sneakily bombarded him with soul attacks. The second was a seductress who lay with him and tested his soul.

One the night I intended to claim him, he did half of the work for me by tripping. My servant only had to bash his head in a few more times before I could pluck his soul from his body.

That, as it turned out, was the second mistake I made…

His soul fought back vehemently. For some reason, it could sense that I was a real threat and spent most of its energy fighting me. When I eventually overcame him…Axel had the soul of an enhanced human, but a remarkable one nonetheless. For even in his weakness, Axel's soul was not mine to completely manipulate. He made alternations to ensure that access was only possible by exchanging substantial resources.

At this point, I was just about ready to extinguish him when a spot opened up in the universe I'd been trying to invade for a long time. Dante Sparda was on the brink of death because of get this—alcohol poisoning and choking on his own vomit. I had a few servants orbiting that world, putting certain things in place for me.

It was startlingly easy to ensure Dante Sparda died. I swapped out one soul for the other and gave him a mission that should have been impossible to accomplish—acquire the Phoenix flame. I expected the bird to torch him so I could scoop right by and pick his soul, but the kid was more resourceful than I anticipated.

His soul grew to inherit all of Dante's abilities and enhanced them in ways he didn't even recognize. The system, as he was currently using it, was window dressing—only there to record his success and bolster skill acquisition mildly, but he took that minor enhancement and exploited the fuck out of it.

His skill acquisition and growth aptitude were head and shoulders above most of my servants. His instant Weapon Mastery skill was a thing that the ultimate version of Dante possessed, not this current version of him. And he shouldn't have been able to access his Angel side the way he has.

Time and Dimensional affinity? I scoffed. Where the hell did those come from? And why was his soul growing so fast?

I sensed the changes in him long before Yao did, and that was why, after his success, I offered him a nugget of power.

He'd swum when I expected him to sink, and it was only right that I rewarded him by bringing him into my employ sooner rather than later. Normally, I would've settled for him spending his way into servitude. 

I was used to my servants chomping at the bit for the smallest morsel, so Dante's resistance threw me for a loop.

I even went so far as to threaten him.

The entire situation horribly backfired when Yao saw through my machinations. I'd seen a thousand versions of her, and not one of them delved into the depths of Soul Magic. Suddenly, I had to expedite my plans, which brought me here.

"Your servant is more resourceful than you shared," Quellitrax's Avatar said beside me. I was a long humanoid thing of void and eyes.

"He's more than meets the eyes," I said. "That's why I chose him, and that's why you want him so much."

The avatar laughed in a thousand voices. I was not a fan of the rest of my ilk, and it was a huge risk showing Dante off in the first place, but Quellitrax was predictable. The only unknown in the equation was Dante, who had predicted the trap.

Fortunately for me, he had the sense not to drag the Phoenix's Avatar into this or the sorceress, determined to go it alone. While certainly admirable, it made it all to easy to spring my trap.

From his perspective, both options were equally terrible, but he's always been level-headed. He certainly hated me, but not so much that he'd suffer for all of eternity to prove a point.

Of course, this assumes Quellitrax let him choose in the first place. This is also why I underreported the threat. I had to strike a delicate balance—introduce enough difficulty to make Dante seriously consider his options but not enough to instantly kill him and give Quellitrax the upper hand.

It was why I seized the skills I did. Unfortunately, it was also the full extent of my control over him as of now—a fact that Dante had already sussed out.

I watched in mild amusement as Quellitrax's homunculus punted Dante back, skipping over many platforms before he started hacking blood, most of which was absorbed by his clothes. His red armor gleamed in the wind.

He was down to about 200 health points from the sole hit, and I flicked my finger at him, offering another order, satisfied that I'd—what!

He rejected the offer…again!

(Support the story by reading ahead on Patreon.com/Artandcreativewriting.)