The seemingly instant cycle of death stopped for a moment as the mastermind stopped in his track, leaving the mentally drained otherworlder, simply falling down on his own, his ability removed all ailments of any kind every time he died but the mental charge wasn't completely alleviated.
Grayson had noticed his ability somewhat weakening, slowing down or seemingly, hesitating before bringing him back to life.
"It is quite a shame really, I guess your survival instinct is not easily tricked by the whole life after death shtick, that is truly unlucky but be proud! You didn't let my words affect such a pillar of your survival, even if not being affected means true death, I can commend it" Grayson's eye widened as he realised why the mastermind had stopped.
It had been one million already, it was a wonder how he was still sane but his ability and the speed of the death might have had something to do with it, ever since he had gotten this ability, death hadn't seemed so scary since his death wouldn't result in his actual end but has the prospect of an actual death was brought up, he felt his face wetter and wetter as he sweated bullets.
His body temperature suddenly rising as he grasped his sword for the first time since this whole sequence, the only time he had had time to unsheath his weapon.
With his heart beating at a never ever reached speed, blood flowed through his veins rapidly, his muscles soared as he desperatly brought his blade down on his enemy.
Did he truly believe that it would work? No, he did not but there was no thinking in this action, it was pure instinct and desperation.
Animals were always at there most dangerous when desperate and cornered, a quality that seemed to be lost for certain when attaining greater heights of intelligence.
This had been one of the first things Ithelisemou had ever studied.
The sword made contact, striking right between two fingers but stopping without a sound, there was no recoil nor resistance, it simply stopped the moment it touched the mastermind, not even slicing the soft skin between the two fingers, no even slightly cutting through his glove.
"That's good, you probably didn't consider begging for your life but out of the two options, this was the most likely to succeed, after all, you could have gotten a power boost out of nowhere and sliced me in half, alas, no extraordinary events today" remaked Theli with a small smirk placing the index finger of his other hand on the otherworlder's forehead.
"It isn't very difficult, killing you permanently I mean, your ability is subpar after all, useful and powerful but still subpar..." Grayson dropped down like stringless puppet, he didn't revert back before death and remained as a corpse on the ground.
The corpse vanished without trace and Theli brought back the other two unwanteds, from their perspective, barely a minute had passed since they had been sent away.
Aiden's and Jake's abilities were useless against him and without the ability to evade death, they were unceremniously killed without any grand spectacle or speech.
The white hallway disappeared, revealing the simple forest the three of them had been in beforehand, the mastermind dusted off his shoulders and stretched a bit before deciding to walk a bit.
It was still summer and today was going to a hot day, clouds were in the way since the morning but Theli could feel that four suns had decided to show up today, three medium sized ones and a large one, although the number of suns wasn't always a good indicator of heat since there were cold suns, it tended to be fairly accurate and none of those four were of the cool variety.
He listened to the sounds of nature, the creaking of the trees, wildlife hunting and surviving, birds singing in an attempt to find a partner to reproduce, flowers blooming in expectation of a bee to pollinate them.
Something attracted his attention and he pulled out a somewhat pyramid shaped object from his cloak, which had no inside pockets at all.
He listened to a voice telling him something, the device was pretty good but understanding the words wasn't something everyone could do, it was like speaking through a cheese grater after using it to grate your own throat out.
"Those three? Sure, I can train them a bit" he said outloud.
"What does that mean? I won't do anything objectionable by your standards..."
The device soon stopped making any sound and Theli put it away, instead taking a look at a pocket watch before teleporting away.
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"What is the matter great magus? You look sick.." Nilrem was worried since the great magus shouldn't be able to catch anything as small as a cold, making him fear that it may be serious.
"Nilrem, I am fine, it is but the effect of stress..."
"Nilrem, I did my best, I truly did but I am not talented enough to measure up and it does not matter anyways, I messed up, I made an elementary mistake and tried to facilitate fate" revealed the magus, staring into the distance, inside of the large room where his throne resided, only darkness was visible in the distance for every lights had been extinguished, the magus prefered darkness.
"Is it about that Ithelisemou?" asked Nilrem, despite the warnings of the magus he had tried to look into him but had found nothing very conclusive.
"Oh, he is involved but what is he not involved into? No, that's not the issue, everything is uncertain, I have made many prophecies Nilrem, some very minor, some major and other whose meanings anyone has yet to decipher but I am unable to make any peeking too far into the future, the access is barred, it is beyond my abilities..."
"Can you believe that? The great magus speciality is beyond his abilities, this can only mean one thing, something major is about to go down, it might be something no one hears of or it might be the end of the world, it is impossible to tell" the magus stood up.
"Do not fret over what I said Nilrem, there is no need to worry about the unknown future, be wary of the unknown in the present rather" the magus left the area, vanishing in the thick darkness.
Nilrem was at a loss for words.
When would it happen?