PoV Ben
"Ben! Wake up!"
I heard my name being shouted in the distance. Everything around me was warm and comfortable; a lot of the usual noise had disappeared; I was now chilling in the shadow of a big tree near a lake; in front of me there were lots of different cute creatures that were drinking by the lake; there was even a bunch of quirrels resting on my laps.
"Ben please!" The voice was slowly fading away while I was finally resting.
As I imagined a table full of snacks, it magically appeared near me.
'A lucid dream?'
It didn't matter to me. Nothing really did. I was finally at peace.
"Ben…" The voice was now barely audible.
'After that hellish experience, I think I deserve some good night's rest.'
I then changed the scenery. The ground I was sitting on transformed into a golden throne with grimson pillows. The ground I was on changed into some sort of marble-like platform that quickly elevated itself, forming a massive skyscraper beneath it. All around, I made the same process appear, creating a more futuristic-looking city.
A city built by this candid white material, the only thing that I needed now was to give it a bit more life. So I started imagining flying cars, flying motorcycles, and many floating roads filled with normal cars. To spice things up, I imagined a police chase. First, there was the bank robber. I imagined they were using three cars, and in only one of them was the precious loot. The cars would then split to increase their chances of escaping the police.
'Time for some cool action and a cool explosion.'
I got up from the throne and slowly walked to the edge of the rooftop. I imagined a special suit on my body; it had everything I wanted. It had some cool shoulder cannons, heat-seeking missiles, a jetpack, and finally some machine guns on the sides just to increase the firepower.
Once everything was set, I simply walked off the edge to fall into the most badass stance, shortly after I activated the jetpack and started the chase.
'I'm so cool!' I thought while observing my reflection on the windows of the nearby buildings.
I then accelerated to catch up with the fleeing car that had the money. As soon as I got within a certain distance, they began to start flying weirdly. They began doing weird patterns around the many skyscrapers flying around it, slowly descending and then activating some sort of boost to rapidly descend as fast as possible.
I then tried to fire the cannon, but I missed the shot by at least a couple of meters to the left.
"These fuckers really think they can escape from me."
Many pop-ups warned me of the danger that those thieves posed, the weapons they had, and their identities.
As I accelerated to catch up to them, some of the thieves opened their windows and started shooting at me.
"Deploying Shield!" said the armor.
The armor suddenly changed without my input, and a shield made of tiny little hexagons appeared to be protecting me.
'What?'
I imagined the missile being fired, and sure enough, they started following the car until a strange wall appeared out of nowhere and got blown to pieces. Ignoring all the warnings the helmet was giving me, I pushed myself further and further.
Then a window suddenly popped up.
"Current objective, wake up!"
As if things couldn't get more confusing, a thunderbolt struck the fleeing car. Normally, that shouldn't really affect the car, but somehow it did, and they smashed against a nearby building because of that hit.
From the many sparks that were still floating in the air, a man appeared. He got brighter and brighter.
I fired everything I had against him, and he disappeared. He reappeared in front of me, his legs inches away from my face. Once again, the armor acted on its own and used the jetpack to avoid getting me hit in the face; that kick landed on my stomach. In a blink of an eye, my perfect world got destroyed, leaving only darkness and that man in front of me.
The pain felt too real to be a dream; I puked, I was screaming in pain, and I was slowly backing away on my knees.
The car then appeared again and tried to run over that man. He was now nothing more than a black silhouette in a completely white environment.
'What is going on? Why is everything changing all of a sudden.'
My body moved on its own, pointing the minigun at him, and before it could start shooting, he kicked the gun away and raised his hands, creating some sort of sword out of his mana.
I wished for him to disappear, but he didn't. I imagined him exploding from the inside, but that also didn't work.
'What's happening?'
Then, with another blink of an eye, everything changed once more. We were on top of some sort of tree, and there was this man wearing a golden armor with a sword made out of ice to finish me off.
The dragon made out of ice appeared from beneath, destroying the branch we were sitting in, grabbing the man with its mouth, and flying away as fast as he could.
"Ben!"
PoV Chris
Using one of the portals Daniel made, we came to monitor Kane's movements.
"Shit, at this rate, he's going to kill him." Said Hollis as soon as he got on the scene.
Kane was flashing left and right using his lightning, beating both the witch and her familiar and the tree-human hybrid. Kane's speciality was those lightning bolts; he once tried to explain to us how he did it, but no one got it.
'If I remember correctly, he lets his body get carried by that aura, but how can he move with such accuracy if he just goes with the flow.'
"Shouldn't we stop him before he-"
"I don't give a shit about this; we only need the witch!" I said to stop him.
"You're not strong enough to stop him alone anyway." I added.
"Plus, your curse works in weird ways; I would rather not have you go on a rampage in the middle of the city; there are some civilians that are still alive down there, you know?"
'I don't really care about his majesty's sick hobby; I'm not a slave trader for fuck's sake.'
For the first time in a while, I saw Kane using his lightning. It's a special aura created and developed by his family, and he rarely uses it in order to keep that lightning something exclusive to his family. The only ones he shared with were me, Hollis, and Areus, whom he considers to be his disciples.
'It seems he already scouted the area.'
Another portal appeared besides us, and a bunch of unexpected people came out of it. The indistinguishable green spiky armor gave the identity of the user away immediately. It was the hero of the Church of Madness.
The helmet resembled the skull of a dragon with glowing eye sockets. It was a bulky armor with special shields on the forearms, sharp claws at the tips of each finger, a spiky tail, and lastly, many small holes in the back of the armor that were used to enhance the speed of the armor.
It was a special armor fused with the special crystal that surrounded the hearth of the previous dragon lord. Its mere existence was an insult to the emperor's authority.
"You sure got some balls to present yourself on our land in that outfit." I said.
"Is our church not part of your, oh, so glorious empire?" he responded.
"This is a restricted zone; a civilian like you should stay out of this!" Shouted Hollis, drawing out his sword and pointing it at him.
"What, you think you can stop me?" He said it in an arrogant tone.
"You still won't understand your lesson; has Alice finally gotten better after what happened last time."
As soon as I mentioned her name, the air got tense.
"You dare-"
"Careful buddy; otherwise, the next one to disappear might be Jason."
With one quick glance, I noticed that Kane had stopped using his lightning and was now using mainly fire techniques.
'Your senses are as sharp as they were before; I wonder if you're just as strong.'
Before the hero could materialize his soul weapon, a lady appeared from the portal and covered his mouth with her hands to stop him from calling the weapon.
She was completely covered in black clothes, and her pinky finger was somehow merged with her index while also missing the thumb.
She whispered something to him in an unknown language before backing down.
"We're not here to argue with you right now. If you hand over the witch-"
I used my ability to stop time because I was curious about many things. First of all, I got closer to the girl and removed her mask and her clothes. Her face was disfigured; she was missing most of her teeth; both her eyes were sealed with stitches; and her mouth was also sealed in the same manner. Her body was covered in scars and injuries; it was a miracle she was even able to walk. Her breasts had been cut off, as had her nipples, and there was a massive scar near her crotch area.
Next, I tried to remove the hero's helmet, but it didn't budge, even after I stopped the flow of time.
'Those injuries belonged to someone who had broken the law in the first world; it was a punishment for those who murdered and went against the orders of the emperor himself, a traitor most likely. Judging by the fact that she travels with the hero of the church that operates mostly in the first world, I guess this means they're both acquaintances at the very least.'
"I should probably ask Nassus, and the fact that they got here pretty much at the same time they notified us about the existence of a witch means that there are spies in the golden army."
So I started to rewind time, and I stopped rewinding seconds after we landed in this area. As soon as the portal closed, I pressed the emergency button, and, counting each possible delay, Nassus and the others should arrive in about five minutes.
'I hate to admit it, but killing the hero is not an option. Why hasn't the Emperor destroyed that cult already? It's so annoying; those bastards are like cockroaches.'
One word of his would be enough for us to kill each and every single member of that corrupted cult.
I sighed, while Hollis was preparing himself to intervene in Kane's fight.
"Stop it. That tree thing is not our priority, so we don't need to save it."
' I should've brought Areus with me; well, if things go sour, I can always replace him.'
And just as before, a new weird-looking portal appeared.
'Whatever, let's just go with a more casual approach this time.'
"You've become pretty bold since you got your hands on that ability user; should I kill it to remember what your place is in the grand scheme of things?" I said before that he could even pass through the portal.
"Just like you did with Eugene?" He answered after passing through the portal.
"I did warn you at that time to keep a low profile; what happened after that was all your fault."
Just like before, Hollis took out his sword and threatened him, only for the hero to scoff at him.
"What were you thinking when you joined hands with that mass murderer?" He said it in his usual arrogant tone.
'He still thinks he knows better than me; what an incorrigible idiot he is.'
"You're too involved to get it; even if I told you, would you really listen to me? Or would you rather twist my words, ignore what I say, and berate me with petty little titles?"
He remained silent, as did Hollis.
"Just stay low, get your title and power from your adventure, and shut the fuck up. Have you ever looked back at your adventures? Where do you think all the money you so casually spend on clothes, rent, and taxes comes from? Some people are starving for this dream of yours. The bare minimum you can do is return their money and protect them from the curse."
"That will not solve the-"
"WE'RE WORKING ON IT! AREN'T WE! When you see all the land that we have conquered so far, who do you think we did it for? Who do you think we put our lives on the line for every single day for you to just insult our efforts? Who do you think you are!"
"Chris, I think that's enough."
"No! It's not enough! You call yourself a hero, but what have you done that's worthy of that title? You incited a civil war in our land, caused death and famine, stole the artifact that kept the floating land suspended in the sky, and you proudly wear it as some sort of accomplishment. Have you ever thought of the countless people who died because of you? No! Of course not! I bet you said, ":They had it coming, to justify it in your head."
"You, too, have killed countless people just in the name of your justice."
"You see, you don't listen to me; you just want to find a way to justify your mindless killing spree."
Immediately after, a massive portal opened in the skies, and many golden soldiers started flooding in, with Nassus in the middle of them. Everyone was wearing the golden gear and began surrounding us.
Before the hero could retreat back to where he came from, Nassus sealed it using his borrowed power, creating a strong barrier around the portal.
Nassus' specialty was his "borrowed power," which, as the name suggests, is not a power that relies on some innate ability or talent. It's the power of the elemental spirits, therefore it had no real shape and extreme adaptability.
"My, my. What do we have here if not the loud cockroach king himself?" Said Nassus while slowly descending from the skies.
From his back, a pair of fiery feathered wings appeared; they quickly turned into hands and started moving around him as if they were trying to catch a mosquito. Apparently, the assassin tried to sneak inside one of our portals only to be caught and burned alive by his borrowed power.
He also caught the invisible strings and set them on fire along with the users.
In a single second, the situation had drastically changed in our favor.
"I'm not here to cause trouble." He said this after witnessing five of his companions die in an instant.
"I'm not doing this out of pure malicious intent either; I'm just following his majesty's orders."
'Liar, you were the one who wanted him dead the most; if that is true, I bet you're resisting the urge to jump around like the pretty little sheep you are.'
I never liked Nassus because he has no ambitions. Without his powers, he's just a weak-minded little man that keeps rambling about his majesty this or that. That's why his majesty granted him so much knowledge and authority with the title of second-in-command of the army.
The last one to get out of the portal was Areus; using his ability, he teleported in front of the witch, grabbed both the witch, and the other variant, only to teleport back to Nassus and go back into the portal.
'At least we secured them for now.'
Now only one last obstacle remained in our path: the hero of madness.
"Aren't you going to activate that armor's special ability? You might die today." Nassus taunted him while looking down on him.
"You're not worthy of-"
I managed to see what happened because of my time ability, but the others probably didn't. Nassus used his power to create four floating limbs that ripped off the hero's limbs and then teleported in front of him. He placed his right hand on him to put him under a mental spell to weaken his mental resistance, and then after he was weakened, he started turning his body into a weapon. All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
"This will make a fine gift for his majesty." He said while checking the double-bladed sword.
'Just like this? Was I underestimating him the whole time? No, I'm sure he struggled against Kane. The hero in terms of power is a lot closer to the second seat than he is to Kane, so how could he lose so fast?'