Last Day

After floating around in space for… who knows how long, Joseph eventually came back. I told him that I was able to unlock my Inborn Principle and the ability to manipulate space as well. After he congratulated me, it was time for Black Magic.

Black Magic was kind of simple but it took me a few days to master it. To use Black Magic, I needed to deplete the three-dimension space, allowing me to control the distance between two locations. The thing about Black Magic is that it is actually a little different for everyone.

To use Black Magic, the Inborn Principle must be used and that determines what kind of Black Magic you will be able to use. Joseph who has Erasure uses the type of Black Magic to erase the space he skips, the space he skips becoming non-existent afterward.

With Distortion, I can twist, distort, and cut through matter which is completely different than Joseph who can just erase it from existence. When I used it, what happened was the space that I had subtracted through the void distorted in the real world which appeared like shattered glass.

Traveling with Black Magic is activated with a trigger which is a hand motion. Joseph activates it by locking his thumb around his pinky and pulls it, triggering the action. The way I activated it was by clenching my hands together and shaking it.

Once Black Magic is used, the amount of energy used varies on the distance that has been skipped or subtracted. For example, 1 mile would equal 100,000 mana and 10 miles equal 1 million mana, and from there you can guess the rest.

For one day, I was alone since Joseph had something to do and I have been using that time to develop new techniques with Oppression and Banishment. Currently, all my attacks require a huge chunk of my mana in order to operate and that is the reason why I am always short on mana at the end of every fight.

I managed to make two new techniques, though one requires Caustic Blue to be activated.

The first technique which uses Oppression is called Scarlet Shot. Just imagine Piercing Red except I can rapid-fire with it. Costs 200,000 mana every shot and that is kind of cheap in my book. Though it lacks firepower, it is able to stun enemies for half a second.

My second technique is called Lapis Lotus. No, I didn't come up with the name, Yukie did. Really. Anyway, when I have Caustic Blue equipped, I can send blue and white-colored needle-like projectiles at my opponents and once they make contact, they drain that person of their energy and banish it. This attack has the same deadliness as Piercing Red as those projectiles can impale my opponents, though they disappear after a few seconds, but not before draining away some of my opponent's energy. It costs 100,000 mana every 10 projectiles fired and the amount of energy drained from my opponents depends.

I've also been practicing the techniques that have been given to me with my new Inborn Principle, Distortion.

After Joseph returned, I was taught some other form of martial arts by Joseph who managed to learn them all. If I recall, I haven't gone deep enough into the topic of martial arts in this world. Well, I'll explain them in simple terms, starting with North God Martial Arts.

North God Martial Arts is a form of martial arts focusing on countering enemies before striking them faster than the human eye can perceive. If it wasn't obvious, it mostly involves countering the enemies after they attack. From what I heard from Joseph, I have to be calm and free of thoughts in order to fully master this form of martial arts. This also helps with wielding weapons as this can remove the weight on a person's arm. Well, not that I really need that anymore since Distortion can do that for me but it is still helpful.

Next is South God Martial Arts, which is a form of martial arts that focuses on attacking swiftly and heavily. Most of the techniques focus on using the legs which have to be able to withstand even the toughest of blows. As a result, the legs will be indestructible. So… I had to suffer 2 hours of Joseph breaking my legs until he was unable to break them anymore. I managed to survive his onslaught with Instant Heal.

Next was West God Martial Arts which I already had but I'll mention it anyway. WGMA(Abbreviation for West God Martial Arts) is similar to SGMA which requires swift attacks except for the force of impact is very weak. This is to prevent any unnecessary stamina usage which is a problem I always encounter. It also focuses on swordsmanship as well but since I don't have a sword, it didn't really matter to me but I decided to learn it anyway. All of this was so I can get stronger…

I still hated myself for that event…

Lastly, we had East God Martial Arts. This one was different as it required simultaneous hitting, kicking, parrying, and countering. Basically, the user needs to be extremely quick on their feet and be able to process thoughts in the span of at most 0.79 seconds. If one were to use EGMA with weapons, daggers would be the most useful. That is where Raiden comes in.

Anyway, EGMA was the most difficult one to learn out of the others. By the time I had finished training with Joseph, it was already Dawn.

To Joseph's surprise, I managed to master SGMA quicker than the others. Actually, I managed to learn them all with ease. Though I had learned them, I was still far away from Joseph's level.

After sparing with Joseph many times, I was surprised at how fast he was able to move. His attacks were so refined and fast that my body was unable to process his attacks until after a second had passed. He was moving so elegantly that it was impossible to interpret what move he was going to make next, even though I could see him do it.

I asked him how he was able to do this but all he told me was-

"Don't think while you fight. When your mind is clouded with thoughts, your body must process the thought of attacking before moving and the nerves can only travel so fast. Let your body think on move on its own. It may be confusing, but your movements will be inconspicuous to your opponents, disallowing them to read your moves. With or without selfishness, the body will feed off of ego."

He almost sounded like an old sensei teaching his student puzzling philosophies. I didn't really understand it at first but if I were to say what it reminded me of, it reminded me of Stellar; having the unconsciousness control the body instead of the conscious mind controlling it.

I almost wanted to test it out but it was kind of hard to even go in the state of not thinking.

As I was sitting in the middle of the forest, attempting to enter this state, I was interrupted by Joseph who appeared in front of me.

"Joseph… what is it?"

"Hey Nero, since it's the last day, why don't we get a drink at a bar? You know, before we depart?"

"The last day?"

"Yeah."

…what!?

Wow… I almost forgot that I only had 6 days with Joseph. To think that that much time has already passed.

I've been so focused on gaining power that I nearly forgot what I was even obtaining it for.

Deroc… I'll show him…

Tch, I still get angry whenever I think of that guy… but I try my best not to because according to Seffirot, I lost because I chose wrath over pride.

If only I was just… thinking back then… but he did the unacceptable.

He'll pay… and once I get the chance for payback, he will suffer a fate worse than death, and I promise that.

"Nero? Something wrong? You are looking a little grim there." Joseph tilted his head, confused.

I snapped back to reality and shook my head.

"N-no, nothing is wrong."

"Hmm, alright then. Anyway, let's go get a drink."

***

Traveling with Black Magic, we arrived at an inn in Maroon city. Even though we weren't near it, the clamorous voices of the Inn's patrons could be heard from across the street.

As we entered inside, everyone stopped and turn to Joseph. The atmosphere felt odd for a few seconds, but then everyone returned to being loud and obnoxious.

We walked over to the bar and ordered some drinks. Since I couldn't get wasted, I just decided to drink some water since alcohol won't do much for me. Maybe if I could manually turn Poison Resistance off, then that would be good for when I want to get drunk.

After we drank a few bottles or two and left the Inn, Joseph and I had a little chat, talking about our past lives. Joseph already knew I was the "Inept Hero" and I knew he was the Warlock Hero, so it was already obvious we were from earth. Not this earth, but our previous earth.

I didn't learn much from him except he was from Italy and was also part of a mafia. I don't think he was lying, but I sure was. I wasn't comfortable speaking about my past and just made mine up. I only kept some things true but everything else was made up. Then I began talking about what happened after I arrived here and the backstory.

"Aah, so you suspect someone from your group was also associated with the king kicking you out and trying to get you killed?"

"Yeah."

"And you suspect that it is either the Archer, Warrior, or the Mage?"

"I suspect either one of them, but it could be all of them."

"Hmm… I guess that would make sense why you forwarded such a murderous intent to them."

I shifted my attention to Joseph before staring at the bracelets and rings on his arms.

"I wonder…" I began and Joseph turned towards me.

"Those are your limiter rings and bracelets, right? Why do you have them equipped?" I asked curiously.

"Well, it's a little obvious why I have to wear them. I'm not fully accustomed to my full strength. If I flood my body with everything I have, then I'll break down and die. I wouldn't want that to happen now would I?"

"I guess so."

Eventually, it was midnight and we stopped at an Inn where I will be staying. Joseph had other places to go and to me, it seems that he didn't really need to sleep at all even after drinking.

"Guess we can depart from here." He said before turning around to use Black Magic but I quickly stopped him.

"Joseph."

Joseph turned to me and raised an eyebrow with a puzzled look.

"Yeah?"

"You know I am the Inept Hero... right? So why haven't you done anything?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you know I'm a criminal right? If so why haven't you done anything?"

"Criminal? Is that what you are? So far all I've seen is a man desperate to gain power for his selfish needs... or should I say that this isn't for selfishness at all?"

"Wha-?"

"I can see through people easily, especially you. I wasn't the Consigliere of the mafia for no reason. You've been troubled by something. I don't know what it is, but I know it is about someone. Someone close to you. The powers I taught you were supposedly for your own ego but what it actually fueled was your drive to protect that someone. Also, your intentions were a little clear, but that is just me."

"...so you saw right through me from the very beginning?"

"Precisely, but I completely understand. I also felt the same way once but I got through it eventually. You can too... but do it your own way."

Joseph yawned and turned around, preparing to use Black Magic.

"Before I leave Nero," He began. "Do you think we'll be friends? Or enemies?"

"...friends... I would say."

"Wise choice," Joseph said before he vanished.

...me choosing a wise choice huh...? That's a first...

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