Can you tell me your name?

After a moment to breathe and think about how to finish off the monster, Kane jumped and rolled on the ground, dodging the projectile-like maggots and avoiding being touched, knowing that a single wound from those maggots would be fatal.

On the other side, Bert and his group, standing in the building, watched in shock and disbelief. They could not believe what they were seeing.

Xyla, who was recording everything with her cell phone, exclaimed in surprise:

"Leader, who is that person?"

Bert, equally surprised, shook his head and replied:

"I don't know... If I knew, we wouldn't be here watching him fight that monster."

Edgar, sitting on the edge of the building, commented, "I wonder what his level and class are? He seems pretty special."

"Why don't we go and help him? He seems to be in trouble with those projectiles. Besides, we might make a good first impression," said Alice, standing next to Xyla, watching the fight in the street.

"Don't you think it's too late to make a good impression?" interjected Leon, a little apart from the group, as he smoked a cigarette. "He noticed us from the moment we arrived, and we didn't do anything. Do you think he'll have a good impression of us?"

Alice, with black hair and brown eyes, was silent momentarily. She looked back toward the street, saw that the aura surrounding that person was still intact, and sighed.

"I don't know, but there's no harm in trying, right?"

...

Meanwhile, Kane created another white flame in the shape of a tennis ball and threw it at the monster to distract it so he could breathe and gain some strength again.

The monster that had not stopped attacking with the worm projectiles for the prolonged attack, while the object glowed again, creating a shield of worms that blocked the attack.

Boom!

Kane could breathe again. His stamina was running out; besides, he was only level ten. The monster seemed to be evolving again, becoming a calamity for this city.

Feeling dizzy, he thought, 'I have to finish that monster quickly before everything becomes more complicated.'

He lunged again at the monsters, who began attacking with the projectile-like worms. He made it look like he had a machine gun, moving sideways and dodging all attacks.

The object began to glow again in a much darker hue as if it had swallowed all the light. The three mouths began to mutter rapidly, and the eyes of its entire body also began to glow brightly.

And the monster's body began to transform again, becoming much more terrifying than it already was.

At that moment, a small white sun hit the monster's body, preventing it from finishing its transformation.

Having seen this, Kane would not let that thing finish its transformation and complicate things even more, so he quickly attacked it with his "White Sun" ability.

The Fabula-ranked history-devouring monster let out a loud, piercing scream of pain, which caused the windows of the buildings to shatter with its scream, and its body began to twist and swell as its transformation was interrupted.

Seeing this opportunity, Kane stopped. Holding a dagger in his right hand, he first positioned himself as if to throw a spear, transferring much of his strength to his arm.

He held his breath and attacked with almost all his strength; the dagger flew rapidly towards the monster's head like a bullet.

Stab!

The dagger pierced the head of the history-devouring monster, destroying it in the process; brain juices with brain pits began to fall to the ground with black maggots recategorizing disgustingly and letting out baby cries.

At that moment, the head was reconstructed while the object glowed brightly, increasing its reconstruction.

Kane, seeing this, gathered most of his last strength in his legs and jumped like an arrow towards the monster, cutting the body into multiple pieces and the arms where he had the cursed object.

The monster again let out a bloodcurdling, pain-filled scream as its body crumbled into many oil-black maggots. The cursed object fell to the ground, returning to normal as if nothing had happened.

After crumbling, the monster's body became a prominent black puddle filled with writhing maggots and many eyeballs. Multiple distorted screams could be heard. In seconds, it quickly evaporated as if it had never been there.

The strange altar made of worms that let out baby cries, let out a loud distorted scream, before a black puddle and quickly evaporated.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Your senses are getting sharper!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

Kane sighed with relief. He was finally done with that damned monster. He looked at the object before him but didn't dare touch it. He didn't want to suffer out of mere curiosity and muttered to himself:

"This was more dangerous than I thought... Who the hell is behind this?"

He removed the black crown, stored it in his inventory, and deactivated the trait "Mark of the Emperor of Calamity." The cloak, which seemed to have a life of its own, disappeared along with the violent, oppressive aura and his majestic presence.

Returning to normal, Kane dropped into a sitting position, breathing heavily from physical and mental exhaustion. From the ground, he looked up at the nearby building and asked:

"How long are they going to keep looking at me?"

At that moment, three men and two women appeared before him. They all wore the symbol of a silver hand on their chests. Kane immediately recognized the Silver Hand guild but wasn't in the mood to think too hard.

"You guys... weren't you supposed to be the help? Why did you stand there looking down from that building?"

Bert, the group leader, didn't know what to answer. He wasn't about to admit that they didn't have the strength to support in the fight against that monster.

"We thought you didn't need help."

Kane let out a small, contemptuous laugh.

"Really, you thought I didn't need help? Well, this is no time to argue."

"Can you take me to the nearest hospital? I have several broken bones and some damaged organs, and I'm about to pass out.... Ah, I almost forgot; behind that wall is hidden my pet."

Bert, listening quietly, asked, "Can you tell me your name?"

Kane glared at him, annoyed. He'd just killed a Fable-ranked story-eater, and they asked his name. What kind of crap was that? Still, he answered:

"My name is Merlin Hermes."

After saying that, Kane lost consciousness due to blood loss and physical and mental exhaustion, leaving the five members of the Silver Hand guild silent.

"Merlin Hermes... what a strange name," muttered Bert. Then, he ordered his group, "Xyla, take His Majesty to a nearby hospital. Alice finds her pet behind that wall and accompanies Xyla to the hospital. Edgar, Leon, and I will stay here in case another monster appears to prevent it from attacking civilians."

"Understood. But, leader, why do you call him 'your majesty'?"

Bert smiled slightly. "Don't you see how he spoke to us? If he weren't someone important, he wouldn't have spoken to us like that after seeing the symbol of our guild."

The others said nothing more and began to follow Bert's instructions silently.