Another Round

"I owe you a debt I can never repay till the day I die. From now on you are my master."

Amanda remained in a kowtowed state and sunk her head into the dirt.

"I am not your master." George indifferently denied her statement. "I do not control the lives of others nor do I make them serve me. That goes against my morals."

"T-Then I am the employee and your are the employer! Please, you freed me from this life of torment. At least let me return the favor. If anything, tell me to commit suicide. I would rather do that than not do anything."

Amanda dug her fingers into the ground and pleaded with a hoarse voice.

"I have always been told what to do in life. I never thought I would be freed until my main body died of old age. I have nowhere to go and no clue of how to proceed from this point on. You are the only light I see in this darkness. Please, let me return the favor."

George opened his mouth but nothing came out.

Hearing the emotions in her voice, even someone as emotionally numb as him could not help but be slightly moved. Those emotions formed a vague image of himself overlapping her.

'She is not that different from me.'

...

"*sigh* Alright, no need to grovel." George bent down and forcefully pulled up Amanda whose beautiful face was stained with dirt to her feet. He patted the dirt off her clothes for her.

"I'll accept your sincerity."

"You mean..." Amanda's empty eyes widened and turned bright with livelihood.

"I don't accept master-servant relationships nor do I think you owe me anything, but you can work for me if you desire. That's the least I can accept." George grabbed her hand with his available hand and shook it.

"T-Thank you so much!" Amanda tried to kneel only to be stopped by George again.

"No kneeling is allowed. We're both human. I'm not above you. That's an order."

"Yes master!" Amanda frantically nodded.

"Not master. Just call me George."

"Y-Yes George."

The usual cold and indifferent Amanda was expressing a sincere smile.

"ROOOAR!"

The ground trembled and the trees shook after a tremendous roar came from the flaming ape who had awoken again. Tremendous amounts of flames began to be emitted from it's body as the area of melted ground rapidly expanded.

"This is bad!"

Amanda's face turned to fear.

"Sir George! That flaming ape has a powerful anomaly core implanted into its heart! It's starting to receive energy again!"

"And?" George indifferently turned around to face it.

"You don't understand Sir George! You see..."

Amanda did a quick explanation of everything that has been happening.

...

The one behind the series of events from the upgrading of anomalies to the flaming ape is known as the Finis Order, a mysterious evil organization that appeared shortly after the end of the Great Demonic War.

They were not the ones who enslaved Amanda, but purchased her at a black market auction two years ago in order to use her for their means.

During these two years, she was forced to do their bidding. These ranged from assassinations, hunting enemies of the Finis Order, defending them, and carrying out underworld activities.

She learned a lot about them during this time because she is a mere doll in their eyes who can never escape. They were never worried about her leaking information because they can easily command her to never talk about it.

Their main goal is unknown because this is known as 'highly classified', but they have been involved in illegal research operations in the Northern Mountain Range regarding the anomalies.

Their research and experimentation has already borne fruit.

They now have the ability to 'link' anomalies to each other to exchange energy, and forcefully upgrade the danger level of an anomaly several levels. This is mainly what they have been doing for the past several years, linking anomalies and upgrading them.

A month ago, Amanda was tasked with observing, recording, and gathering information about the flaming ape. She was instructed to eliminate anyone outside the Finis Order who approaches.

At the time, they had just successfully completed their first operation of implanting an anomaly core into a living being.

For some reason, the experimentation had transformed a regular frost ape into a flaming ape with terrifying potential and a high mutation rate. The price for this was most of the ape's sanity, causing it to be in a very unstable state that makes it highly irritable and susceptible to going berserk.

Their plan was to send it to the edge of the Northern Mountain Range and see if it could escape the mysterious influence of the mountains that prevent anomalies from leaving.

Unfortunately, the flaming ape had run into George Foster.

...

"You expended most of the original energy of the flaming ape after fighting it, but the Finis Order has likely noticed the very low levels of the flaming ape anomaly and has already deployed energy through the links to compensate." Amanda looked over at the flaming ape with fear on her face.

As she said that, some of the clouds in the sky began to dissipate.

The air began to visibly ripple like it was extremely hot, and these ripples rapidly descended upon the ape at an incredibly speed.

"ROAR!"

The flaming ape let out another roar as it began expanding in size. Intense heat radiation left the body of the ape and caused the molten surface to turn a glowing white. Plasma fumes escaped from the surface into the air.

"Can I destroy it enough to remove the anomaly core?" George asked indifferently, adjusting his body to an attack position.

"Theoretically, yes, but it would be extremely difficult." Amanda hid behind him like a kitten as she replied with a mild voice.

The growing hot atmosphere surrounding the flaming ape was pushed back a little by an abrupt force of dark magus and an atmosphere.

George and Amanda glanced in surprise at the nearby mountain.

A pillar of dark magus ascended to the sky and enveloped half the mountain. The amount of pressure being emitted caused the laws of reality to shake.

Out of nowhere, the pillar of darkness ascended down the mountain at such an insane speed that it was like a meteor.

"AMANDA!"

A loud yell of hate came from the pillar of darkness, startling Amanda and causing George to frown upon recognizing the voice.

"Hold onto Abe and bring him up to where you fought with him so Bernice can heal him. Before that, back away to a distance so I can calm down Melissa first."

"Y-You trust me?" Amanda's eyes lit up in delight seeing him entrust her.

"I don't think your emotions were fake. If you were lying, I would've killed you already. Now hurry."

"Yes!" Amanda grabbed the severely-injured Abe and backed away to a distance.

"[The Tenth Gate of Insanity]!"

George released his [Aura] once again.

This time was different compared to the earlier fighting.

His [Aura] expanded over a thousand meters in all directions and ascended far into the sky.

The amount of demonic magus condensed into a raging river of essence that swirled around him like a tornado. This essence turned into demonic flames that incinerated everything in the vicinity.

The laws of reality trembled and warped to suit his demonic magus, creating strange phenomenon that resulted in black demonic lighting and the ground turning a corrosive black.

This alone pushed back the rapidly expanding flaming ape who roared in anger in response.

With his two iris glowing red, George stared at the rapidly approaching Melissa while putting away his dagger.

When she was close enough, George appeared right above her and sent a kick down.

*Bang!*

Melissa was instantly knocked into the ground, leaving a cloud of dust and a hole.

"Ouch! George?! What the hell are you doing?! Why'd you kick me?"

She crawled out of the hole rubbing her head in anger and confusion.

"Leave Amanda Bliss alone." George indifferently stared down at her with his arms folded.

"What?! Did you not see what she did to Bernice?!" Melissa's anger nearly exploded seeing him defend Amanda.

"Yes, and she was under an [Enslaved] enchantment to eliminate anyone nearby. I have removed that enchantment and she is now free. Amanda deeply apologizes for shooting her and injuring Abe like that. She was forced to do that against her will. Do you understand?"

"B-But-"

"I understand your anger and frustration, but now's not the time. Right now our main priority is dealing with the flaming demonic ape. If you want to vent your emotions, then I suggest you do it on that ape until you've calmed down. Understand?"

George's cold gaze caused Melissa's heart to freeze and sober her mind a little. Even with all her power, she still felt inferior to him as indicated by how much larger his [Aura] is comparably.

"Y-Yes George..."

Her voice turned timid.

"Good, then let's get started."

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Notes:

* From now on, I will sometimes have the MC say [Gates of Insanity] because it is an ability which he is required to use to operate demonic magus and his [Aura]. It is part of the ring's function. I have had this skill as part of his abilities for a long time but I never had him mention it for some reason when he has to fight.