Butcher's Graffiti

"This is failure in my part, do pardon me for the inconvenience. My servants shall provide our guests with the best accommodations to make up for this blunder.

I thank you for understanding and I swear to resolve this matter as quickly and efficiently as possible."

One by one the hologram illusions of the leaders were extinguished as they signed out of the call. More maids dressed like Miko escorted the representatives to the said accommodations.

"What shall we do, Mistress?" Althea"s monotonous voice sounded, asking the Empress for orders.

"As far as I"m concerned, this Baptism is the doing of that accursed wretch, Ivan." Amira"s blind eyes were blaring with mana, reflecting what she saw like a mirror while observing the transpiring chaos with her own Original Skill.

Laplace"s Demon; The Clairvoyant.

"He likes to make an appearance. Always establish his presence as the preparator and will take credit for his "Acts" without fail. Prepare to capture him, dead or alive I don"t care. You may a.s.sist Professor Gregory along the way but the objective comes first."

"Acknowledged." The shade responded.

Amira"s image blipped out of existence as she too signed out, promting the group do her bidding as they awaited for one of the servants to lead them.

"You are Mr. Nikolai Elliot, I presume." the Professor called out, reaching for a handshake after he caught their attention.

"I"m Gregory. I believe we"ve met before...?"

"...Mm. We have." Nikolai answered, politely returning the gesture as they shook hands.

"Well, how should I go about this?...I have a special guest that I feel you would very much want to meet."

The giant"s eyes lit up as he understood what he meant.

"No, let her...stay...for now. Please."

"...oh! So you knew? Why"d you allow her to tag along?" the professor was pleasantly surprised.

"Keep her...close. Much...safer." he stammered trying to explain himself in signs. Nikolai looked down on the ground, conflicted whether or not it was right to ignore the sneaky child.

"Very well. Then might I be so bold to suggest myself as the handler of her future education?" the professor"s tone was serious and pa.s.sionate.

"That child is incredibly gifted, more so than any mage I"ve ever met. I wish nurture her to the best that I can as that is the oath I have taken as an educator. Do consider it, please."

The sudden proposition caught all of them off-guard, Nikolai shifting his gaze towards the vampire as if asking for his opinion. But Phillis merely brushes him off by shamelessly walking away, whistling as went.

"I"ll think...about it." Nikolai sighed.

"That would do."

"Pardon me, but shouldn"t you be checking up on the missing part of your kingdom right now, Professor?" Althea interrupted the discussion,  finding it irrelevant to her orders.

"Worry not dear, it is being taken care of as we speak." he said, activating one the beads in his bracelet. "My colleagues and other faculty members are well-prepared for this sort of scenario. The citizens outside should be on their way into my Sanctuary."

Multiple hologramic screens displayed live footage of what was happening in the western district, the talismans placed on top of each Tori acting as an all-around surveillance.

Upon seeing the figure at the epicenter of all the destruction, Gregory frowned as he recognized a familiar face.

"...not good." he had a troubled look as he paced himself, trying to think of a reason as to why and how.

"What happened to you...brother?"

.

The amount of strain of suppressing the consciousness of billions of souls while at the same time receiving the full force of the raw flames of wrath left Geisler mentally exhausted. His baptism was instant yet in his perspective he"d just gone to h.e.l.l and back, renewed with the overwhelming malice concentrated within him.

He gazed at his molten hands gleaming in an ominous purple in between the earthen cracks that ran up his limbs. Bizarre was how he felt, feeling like he was about to break out into a sprint yet there too was the feeling of an incoming yawn.

u003c"How strange, indeed."u003e he thought, examining himself more.

"Marvelous, I"d say." a raspy voice called out from afar, a man with his long unkempt black hair swaying in the wind. "Quite a befitting form for one so unrecognized."

"You..."

"Was the stone to your liking?"

There were recurring mechanical footsteps as the man approached, two h.e.l.lhounds by his side like bodyguards. He wore a simple black polo shirt, tucked under his tight white pants with sleeves folded to the elbows.

Up to his lower lip, Ivan"s body was replaced with a synthetic material that was metallic in nature but was fluidly mimicking the skin"s elasticity depite the rough edges.

"h.e.l.lo, Geisler."

"Ivan."

"I suppose we"ve reached a consensus." Ivan said as he stood face to face with the exile.

"...very well. I shall entertain your delusions of grandeur." he sighed, observing the purple flames dancing in the palm of his hand.

"Music to my ears. Yet you and I both know that my plans are plausible enough to graduate from being mere delusions. But first..."

Ivan went past Geisler looking towards the gigantic Sakura Tree in the middle of the Inst.i.tute. He brought out some sort of compa.s.s with strange mystic and mechanical contraptions, a disk with multiple symbols drawn rotated around 4 arrows placed in their respective directions.

"...we must obtain the second piece."

DWIZZ—WSHOOOM

.

A 7.62×51mm rifle bullet boosted to the limit with Wind and Thunder Arts zoomed from over 4000 meters away with terrifying headshot accuracy, though it was immediately intercepted by Geisler"s Promethean Flames that acted like an extension of his reach. It shattered the bullet into shrapnel but still made it"s way to put a gash on Ivan"s cheek due to the momentum.

"Tch! There goes my raise." Althea murmured while reloading the rifle. It was one of her creations, an anti-material sniper designed to handle the eletric charge supplied by the mystic inscriptions carved on it"s barrel.

RZN Dragonslayer-056, a handheld railgun made to pierce through even the scales of a dragon.

PADOOOM

Each shot broke through the sound barrier and emitted a whistle before once again colliding with the flames.

.

"...how annoying." Ivan said under his breath.

"You don"t like it? I was really looking forward to seeing your brain matter scattered on the concrete, too bad." the vampire"s tone oozed with sarcasm.

Phillis was sitting atop a pile of debris not too far from the two, wearing a velvet tank top that emphasized his perfect build as he tied his long hair in a bun.

"Was one death not enough for you, Adrenosk?" he teased lowering his gla.s.ses.

Ivan"s cool visage was warped into that of pure unbridled rage and hate towards the bloodsucker, literally fuming as he clenched his fists so hard it bled. But almost instantly like a switch was flipped off, his calm and collected image was back.

"Vladimir...all I ever asked for was peace. True, untainted peace that would allow all to live carefree and meaningful lives. But I was naive, too ambitious even with the talents I"ve been bestowed. A simple and foolish mistake that I should never have neglected."

He retrieved another Flamel"s Stone from his pocket, after which three black cards with summoning circles popped out of his other hand.

"I shall be the only evil necessary in the world"s path to peace and all others shall be eliminated, unneeded mistakes that must be undone.

You people are those mistakes.

You are those who hinder others from salvation.

Tis" you...! You are the sickness that plagues this world." he declared, whisking out the cards.

KRRRR

Phillis watched as three Manticores crawled out of the crimson summoning circles crackling with energy on the ground.

Manticores were six-eyed lions with venomous spines that made up it"s mane, large and membranous bat-like wings, and its most prominent feature was its tail being that of a scorpion"s. They are Catergory 3 Abyssal Fiends that grow larger the more it is exposed to the manrich air of the middle realm.

GROWL

"Wow. Cla.s.sic. What is this a history lesson? These guys are nothing but overgrown mosquitoes, you"ve got to have something better." the vampire rolled his eyes.

DWIZZ—TWHACK

One of the creatures fell lifelessly with a gaping hole brutally drilled by a bullet into it"s midsection, crumpling dry like burnt paper as it"s Mana Nucleoun was shattered.

.

"They"ll have to give me a bonus for that." Althea thought out loud as she confirmed the kill, loading in another bullet.

.

Seeing one of his summons get instantly eliminated p.i.s.sed the h.e.l.l out of Ivan, forcing him to call for reinforcements.

"Rogul, Sabbath, protect me!"

The remaining Manticores and h.e.l.lhounds charged towards Phillis, full of savagery and hunger. Two beings emerged from the portal that had materialized behind Ivan, A Wraith and a Lich, more commonly known as "Aberrants".

Unlike Abyssal Fiends, Aberrants are not creatures of the Chaos Dimension. Rather they are the natural sp.a.w.ns of acc.u.mulated malice and death within places rich in mana like Dungeons.

Rogul the Wraith was a ghost-like warrior clad in armour glowing green like the rest of his translucent body. He was wielding a mace connected to the chains that was wrapped around his torso. The bloodcurdling sound that his ghastly breath made under that rusty helmet was enough to cause most soldiers to shake in their boots.

On the other hand, Sabbath the Lich levitated from the ground while his ragged black robes swayed around like he was underwater. It"s movements were mystifying and hypnotic as it held a wand in one its skeletal hands.

"Blood Arts, Etude 12; "Blitznadeln"." Phillis casted his Unique arts, slicing his wrist with a swipe of his nails.

The wound did not bleed normally as only a certain amount of blood oozed out of the cut. It divided into 2 thin needles that whirred through the air as it spun, shooting through the charging fiends and pulverizing their nucleouns instantly.

The blood needles made their way towards Ivan with blinding speed, only to be intercepted by a colorless barrier casted by the Lich. The needles shot back to their owner and was sucked into the open wound, healing as soon as the final drop reentered.

u003c"That flame guy is a bad match for me so it"s a good thing I"m up against two aberrants, everything is going as planned so far."u003e the vampire thought, recalling the strangely precise planning the professor had made on impromptu.

u003c"How terrifying~! No wonder he was the one to end the war."u003e

DWIZZ—CLANGGG

Althea fired another supershot but this time it was was met with the mithril chained-mace launched skillfuly by the wraith.

"You may have halted me before, but I am different now." at those words, Ivan signaled for Geisler to burn the bloodsucker. "I am more than mortal! I am the incarnation of salvation itself—"

"Geisler!" Gregory called out, saving Phillis by the skin of his teeth. "Is that you brother?"

The clash came to a standstill as the siblings walked towards each other. Gregory had left the safety of his Sanctuary and stood before his brother, compa.s.sion and regret seething in his chest like cinder.

"I have made my choice, Gregory. I"ll stay firm within this path no matter what, even if...even if I have to kill you."

"I know...and I won"t. If this is what you truly want then I"ll be happy for you, because that"s what family does." the younger brother"s smile was sad and distraught.

"But you are being deceived—!"

WHACKKK

"GUHAA—!!!" A giant fist came smashing by Geisler"s side with the force of train, shattering his arm, ribcage and spine simultaneously before blowing him away like a ragdoll even if he managed to brace himself at the last moment.

Following the surprise attack, the professor widened the portal enough for Nikolai to go through and performed five other military-grade spells in unison.

Thunderstorm, Infernal Tornado, and The Sand King"s a.r.s.enal all combined with perfect harmony into a giant flaming tornado of crackling lightning bolts running through the endless golden arrows shooting out of the ground and back. Reverse Polarity and Weightless caused Ivan and his minions to be swallowed up by the ravaging storm, all going according to Gregory"s predictions and strategy.

"That should hold them." he said, gazing at the direction his brother was sent flying to, amazed at the physical capabilities of the Ogre next to him.

"No! We kill, not...contain." Nikolai exclaimed.

"He"s right, Professor. It"s better for all of us to kill him now rather than take him into custody. You"ll only be giving him more soldiers." Phillis joined them, tapping on another one of his earings and retrieved his furcoat from his Pocket Dimension.

"...very well." he reluctantly agreed, increasing the intensity of his spells to the limit.

In the middle of the storm, the golden weapons, the lightning and the scorching sand were enough to slaughter the Wraith and the Lich, tearing them to pieces. But somehow, rather than avoiding him, the chaos around missed Ivan the breadth of a hair.

It took his entire focus but Ivan"s Original Skill, The Poltergeist; Haunt, affected the incoming projectiles by slightly altering their course of action and thus, preventing any harm to befall him.

He held the Forbidden Stone tightly in his grasp and retrieved a raggedy leather scroll. There was a huge yet finely detailed summoning circle drawn on it.

"Hail to Ye, The Gluttonous One!" He chanted, his eyes bleeding from the strain of withstanding the intensifying barrage.

"Oh Eater of Worlds, I summon you!" his blood dripped down on the scroll as he placed the stone he held in the middle.

"APOPHIS!!!...devour this earth."

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