Painter

Lisa couldn't really describe what she was feeling. She was over her depressed and miserable state, for sure. However, her young mind still couldn't process the loss of her sister, yet. She was still grieving.

But while her mother was coping with the reality by shedding tears non-stop, Lisa chose to vent her emotions in a different way. After she was done moping, she asked TJ to be her training partner; Magnus was nowhere to be found, for some reason. She started with a bit of physical training to enhance her Strength and Agility, followed by learning [Wind Bullet].

At some point, she realized she wasn't thinking straight and probably should've waited until Magnus was back so he could prevent the gods from being nosy. However, TJ dismissed her concern, stating that Magnus wouldn't have considered much of it. She was too weak for the gods to be curious about her powers.

TJ might not mean much by stating his opinion, but his words managed to land a heavy blow on her shaky confidence. Her helplessness in the face of powers greater than hers had resulted in the death of her sister.

It frustrated her to no end. Her emotions were all over the place, and she became much more irritable. Every time her [Wind Bullet] failed to hit the intended target—a circle she had drawn on the wall of a nearby building—she would get upset. It would be fine if she was just mildly annoyed and able to shrug it off. Her aim practice would eventually bear fruit.

It was a different story when she felt like screaming and throwing a temper tantrum after the slightest mistakes. Every little thing that didn't go her way agitated her, and after a while, all her accumulated vexation drove her to lose focus. In the end, she failed to show any improvement in her skill. She stormed off right when Magnus returned.

She knew he was receptive to people's emotions, so it was no wonder his questioning look instantly shifted to present an expression mirroring one shown on her face. She ignored him and decided to cool off her head in her room.

Being alone and surrounded by deafening silence, her emotions deflated like a punctured balloon. In its wake, sorrow resurfaced. It filled her heart to the brim. And like a dam bursting, she started sobbing. The sobs then turned to wailing.

She thought she had run out of tears and was ready to move on. Alas, she couldn't bear the void left by the absence of her sister. And crying was all she could do when not even anger was able to assuage her grief.

It was like missing a limb. For the longest time, she and Luna were inseparable. Her very first memory was of them both frolicking around as toddlers. The bond between them was stronger than steel, and cutting it off in such a merciless manner shattered her heart.

How was she able to continue living without being able to feel her presence again?

A couple of soft knocks could be heard from the door. "Lisa, can I come in?" Summer's tender voice traveled from the hallway outside.

Lisa hesitated at first, but then she acquiesced. "Sure," she answered while wiping her tears.

The door slowly opened, revealing a teenage girl Lisa had regarded as her big sister. There was a soft smile on her face, although Lisa glimpsed a shadow of weight behind her eyes. The girl took a seat on the bed, next to Lisa. She touched the younger girl's back and opened her mouth, but then realized she didn't really know what to say. After pondering a bit, she ended up not saying anything and moved to pull Lisa into a warm hug.

Leaning her head on her big sister's shoulder, Lisa let go of the last remaining tears she had left. The two stayed like that for the next ten minutes before Summer held Lisa's hand and said, "Let's go."

Everyone was about to start their training, and the two girls didn't want to waste too much time being drowned in grief. Every second was precious, as the world and the gods wouldn't want to wait for them to get stronger before attempting to inflict more pain to their lives.

---

About three hours ago…

Magnus' regretful expression after witnessing Matt's departure didn't remain for long. His face hardened as he casted [Sonar].

The wave of mana traveled through the air, sweeping the area of around two hundred meters in radius. The way it hit every structure and living beings in the vicinity provided him with a rough mapping of the area. He was able to perceive his parents still awake and snuggling in bed; Summer, Garrett, and Katja sleeping soundly; the Haysmith couple chatting with a serious expression; Henry trying to sooth his crying wife; Nikolai snoring as if not even a bomb going off could rouse him; and Patrick offering comforting words to Mrs. Wang while her daughter was asleep.

Everyone could sense a subtle and invisible wave brushing past their bodies. However, most of them were either asleep or too preoccupied with their thoughts to pay further attention to it. Besides, they believed that if it were something dangerous, Magnus would've sprung to action immediately.

They were not the only people in the area, though. Magnus was certain about this. That was the reason he had used the skill in the first place. Finally, the detection net he'd spread out managed to catch a lurking shark.

Well, baby shark, to be exact. In the face of Magnus' might, this guy was nothing but a bug he was able to easily squash. However, before he could do that, he needed to don his detective hat and sit the guy down for interrogation.

The guy must've felt some invisible force hitting his body, prompting him to sneak away.

As if Magnus would let him.

He calmly strode outside the apartment and didn't even have to use a skill to catch up to his target. His Agility was far beyond a normal human's limit, after all.

A few minutes later, Magnus finally sighted a skinny and short man with long brown hair scurrying down the empty street of the neighborhood. He was wearing a loose T-shirt and worn-out jeans. Suddenly, the man felt fear that was intrinsic to a prey being stalked by a predator. But when he looked over his shoulder, he saw nothing that warranted any alarm. He then turned around to resume his escape.

Only to bet met with a blond guy who towered over him.

"Hi there! Where do you think you're going, sir?" Magnus asked, a cold and ominous smile plastered on his face. After spotting the man, Magnus had used [Subtle] to prevent him from hastening his escape.

Seeing the smile that was anything but friendly, the man trembled in his boots. His instinct was screaming that the young man before him was the predator who intended on preying on him. "A-are you the Protagonist of that boy called Matt?" he asked in a shaky voice.

Hearing Matt's name being mentioned, Magnus' eyes exuded a look as cold as a frozen sea. However, his smile was unfaltering. Such incongruity, plus the intense Aura coming off of him, caused the man's legs to give in. He plopped down on the asphalt pitifully.

Magnus knelt in front of the frightened man, looking straight into his eyes. "It was a good thing you decided to linger around the area after inducing my friend with a false dream, Painter. You gave me ample opportunity to catch up so we can have a nice chat."

Realizing his identity had been found out, Painter stuttered, "Please, I-I couldn't resist—"

"Shut it," Magnus ordered. His voice carried a contained anger that immediately suppressed Painter's feeble attempt to defend himself. "Tell me what Azrael intends to do with my friend."

The commanding tone in his voice didn't leave any room for the frightened man to remain silent or tell a lie. "I-I don't know. I swear. The Objective o-only told me to give him a-a dream…"

Magnus had already anticipated this answer. Informing a used pawn of a new pawn's future movement just wouldn't make any sense. But it didn't hurt to ask. "Alright, that's fine," he said, his face softened.

Seeing that Magnus accepted his answer, Painter almost sighed in relief. Almost.

"Now, tell me," Magnus continued. "About that skill of yours, what was it called again? Ah, [Dream Painting], was it? Fun fact, I found out about the name after asking around…" his voice trailed off after seeing the confused look on Painter's face. "No yeah, I know you just recently debuted as a Protagonist. You know what? There's no need for you to know how I discovered some things about you. Now please, enlighten me about how the skill works."

Even though Magnus said 'please', he clearly wasn't asking. Painter had had the audacity to steal Matt from him, so he might as well harvest any useful knowledge out of the man in return. Magnus knew the real culprit was Azrael, who had exploited the man's fragile mentality to do his bidding. However, at this point Magnus didn't care that in a way, the man was essentially innocent. He had had enough of the gods' scheming, and he had used up his patience reserves for the day.

Using the anger from having his friend slip away from his fingers, he resolutely stomped on his conscience as well as the fear his emotional receptor was currently taking from Painter.

Magnus saw value in the man's skill. He didn't know what he could use it for, yet. However, he had always been fascinated by it, curious how the skill exactly worked. Besides, wouldn't it be fitting for him, who was aslo called Dreamer, to adopt a skill called [Dream Painting]?

Even if the skill was too intricate for him to learn, Magnus 2.0 could use manual narration as long as he roughly knew the workings of the skill.

Painter was about to spill the beans when he suddenly felt a strong urge to shut his mouth.

Magnus, of course, noticed this. 'Damn. You're pretty quick, Azrael. However, let's see who will win; a god with his narration or one emotionally manipulative boy.'

Magnus released the dampener of [Depth of The Heart]. After that, he slowed down his breathing and basically cleared out the surface of his emotional landscape, allowing a calm atmosphere to descend over it. He wore the tenderest smile he could muster before saying, "By the way, may I have your name, Painter? Your real name."

Painter, feeling the intensity in the air rapidly lessening, answered without hesitation. "It's...Peter."

Magnus used emotional manipulation! It was very effective!

His smile widened, showing his appreciation. At the same time, he began planting seeds of relief and comfort on his infectious calmness. "Nice to meet you, Peter. Listen, I really need to know how you were able to use that skill of yours. Would you be so kind as to tell me?"

Receiving a sudden wave of comfort, Peter's mouth formed a little smile. He easily began answering Magnus' request. "I use mana, light element mana, that also carries this energy called Aura to penetrate the defenseless mind of a sleeping person. After that, the light elem—" Peter suddenly felt the urge to keep quiet again. It was stronger this time. His mouth was sealed tight, and there was now contempt coming from his eyes. He raised his chin as if declaring, 'I will never tell you, puny mortal'.

Even Magnus was almost affected by the narrated emotion for a second. However, he was unrelenting. He decided to change his strategy this time. If gentle persuasion didn't work, how about the opposite?

He took a deep breath and recalled the most devastating moment of his life—Alana's death. Immediately, his emotional landscape was tainted with the feeling of fear, despair, and hopelessness. He maintained these feelings while looking Peter in the eyes. "What did you do with the light element after that, Peter? Please, tell me," he said with a sad look on his face.

Being hit with a storm of devastating feelings, Peter felt as if he had lost any hope for a chance to escape and get back to his normal life, and was burdened by the guilt of handing an innocent boy over to the hands of a god whom he knew had malicious intent. Receiving a feedback loop of such emotions, he found himself unwilling to resist answering the young man's question. "The light element…" he finally spoke with a weak voice, "...after leveraging the light element's Aura to make it easier to enter the target's mind, I used the mana itself to construct a dream. I basically copy-pasted the image I received from the god into the target's head."

'I guess that means Azrael, and Atlantis in the past, narrated an image into Peter's head. So that he could transfer it to their target.'

Suddenly, Peter looked angry. No, he looked furious. It was obviously Azrael's doing.

However, before the man was able to do anything, Magnus yanked him up, pulled out [Wayward], and then chopped his head off. He also used [Unbreakable] to shield his clothes from the blood sprays. "Sorry, dude. Can't have you go around planting funny ideas in my people's heads," he said, watching the man's head roll on the asphalt.

After experiencing an extreme emotional roller-coaster, the poor Protagonist lost his life. Perhaps this event would incur the wrath of Azrael. However, Magnus didn't want to take any risks. He knew how alluring the dreams induced by Painter were, especially when paired with a god's narration.

Case in point, Magnus' strange obsession with the yellow light and the paradise depicted in his dream. Now that he knew how the skill worked, he was inclined to think the place might actually be real, considering that the image originated from Atlantis' mind.

Or maybe the god was just that creative. Honestly, Magnus couldn't care less. He had given up on that place a long time ago.

After putting the dampener of his passive back on, Magnus then proceeded to carry Painter's body and head and burned them at an isolated area, the same place where he had cremated Officer Hernandez's body.