As I was watching the garbage Reincarnators soul get destroyed, a small smile threatened to escape onto my face.
'How hilarious. To get killed by his own lovers. Though, finding out that they can't be corrupted was a nice bit of information. As well as what a system looks like attached to a soul.
Tearwyn was right though, easy to see em. A ghostly digital human shape draped behind them, clinging to their neck is hard to miss after all.'
As the last flicker of his soul was snuffed out, I suddenly felt my connection to the waters become even more solid. It was an unusual feeling, but not unwelcome.
Shaking my head a little to get my bearings back after such an odd feeling, I looked up at the three people who were just standing there waiting for the boy to come back.
Artoria: "All Might, can you hear me?"
All Might turned his head from the spot the boy sunk in, and looked at me.
All Might: "Ah, you can talk after all. I can hear you, yes. But you sound very far off, it's unsettling honestly."
Dismissing my sword, I give him a shrug.
Artoria: "Your soul just isn't strong enough, but no matter. The boy you three sunk, will not be coming back. His soul was stained by the gods of Light, and couldn't be converted. So he was obliterated instead."
All Might: "Ohhh. Well, no real loss."
Momo: "All Might?"
All Might: "I'll explain in a bit, girls, but it looks like young Hopewell will not be coming back up."
Both girls: "Awee…"
All Might: "So, who are you anyway?"
Artoria: "My name is Artoria Alter. I was sent by the Dark Goddess that watches over this world to rid it of an invader. That thing that just died. I'll be leaving now. This black water will be staying, so use it however you want."
All Might: "Wait, Dark Goddess?"
But before I could even think of answering him, I found myself back in the beautiful sakura forest.
Tearwyn: "Artoria! Welcome back!! You were so fast!"
Hearing Tearwyn from behind me, I dismissed my armour and turned around giving her a smile.
Artoria: "Told you I would handle it! Was this outcome okay for you?"
Tearwyn: "Yes! Thank you so much, Artoria! As soon as that Reincarnators system was killed, I was able to see into the world again and everything! Your plan to use your AWE like that was awesome!"
It was adorable as she went on about how I handled things, waving her hands all over and jumping around.
Tearwyn: "Oh! You look different too. I like it!"
I blink in confusion.
Artoria: "I do?"
Tearwyn: "You don't know? Here!"
She waved her hand, and a full length mirror appeared next to us. Turning slightly to get a look at it, I was a little surprised at what was reflected back.
The sclera part of my eyes were no longer white, but now black. And the dull gold eyes strengthened to a more solid, vibrant gold. My eyes seemed to very faintly glow now as well. I also had a few more red corruption lines on my face. Summoning my armour, it was much the same, with more red lines.
Dismissing my armour again, I turned to Tearwyn and smiled.
Artoria: "Well, I like it. I am glad you like it as well."
Tearwyn: "Yes! I love it! You are making more of a connection to the darkness inside you. I am happy for you!"
She cheered a little and was jumping around a bit at that proclamation. But then she suddenly stopped and got a serious look on her face. The instant transition almost made me laugh at how cute it was.
Tearwyn: "Now, for the next target! I got good news!"
And her serious look lasted all of five seconds. Letting out a light chuckle, I made my way under a tree and sat down with my legs crossed in front of me. Before I could even blink, Tearwyn was suddenly sitting on my legs with her tails wrapping around us several times.
'Holy fuck, this is comfy as shit. Such fluff…'
Without even meaning too, my right hand started to gently give Tearwyn headpats. Her adorable giggle brought me back to reality.
Artoria: "Oh! I am sorry, Tearwyn. Did you want me to stop?"
She caught my hand as I was taking it back, and placed it back atop her head.
Tearwyn: "Nope! You give great headpats! Anyway, as I was saying. I have good news! The next Reincarnator actually made a mistake."
Artoria: "Oh?"
Nodding, she summoned a stick of cotton candy, and started to nibble as she explained.
Tearwyn: "The Reincarnator, a woman by the way, was originally in a world much like the one you were summoned to all the time when you were chained to the Throne of Heroes. By that I mean, only humans. This world only has technology, and is actually almost about to kill off its humans to try and regenerate itself."
Taking a bite of her candy, and bouncing around a little bit she continued.
Tearwyn: "Thing is, this world is connected to another world. A video game called YGGDRASIL somehow managed to transfer some of its items from the digital plane to the normal plane on another planet. This caused the denizens to try and summon more of them. Which in turn managed to summon every player that was near or connected to said items. But magic between worlds is finicky at best when cast by mortals, so some stuff happened and they were all summoned at once, but arrived at different times."
As she was taking another bite, I remembered the anime that this was linked to.
'So, the next universe is Overlord eh? Nice, I always wanted to meet the Bone Daddy.'
Tearwyn: "Anyway, the point is this. When the woman and her system transferred worlds, I was able to see into the world she left again. And I was able to see everything she did and planned to do. She went and turned herself into a High Seraphim Angel. A little on the nose if you ask me. Stupid gods of Light…"
Artoria: "Still, if it's the game I am thinking of, she won't be powerful enough to hurt me."
Nodding Tearwyn said, "Yep! Well, maybe a super tier spell, or a 'world item' would be able to tickle you? I don't really know, because your magic resistance is absurd! Honestly, you won't have much of a problem till the last three Reincarnators I think. They are 'scouts', and have limited systems, but said systems are able to power them up quite a bit. But they have a hard cap on potential."
Artoria: "So, anything special I need to do in this world?"
Tearwyn finished off her candy and shook her head.
Tearwyn: "Nope! This world is already headed towards a dark future. Just stopping the Reincarnator is fine this time! Ah, but I am still trying to find the last of the three growth system users. So, even if you finish super fast again, I won't have anything for you to do most likely. There is no rush for the 'scouts' as they are already done growing, and can't get anymore powerful. So, enjoy your time down there!"
Giving her a nod and a final head pat we both, reluctantly, got up.
Tearwyn: "Oohhh, your headpats are dangerous."
I barked a laugh at that.
Artoria: "So are your tails and hair, Tearwyn. So fluffy!"
She beamed a smile at me.
Tearwyn: "Thank you, Artoria! I try really hard to keep them fluffy and silky. Are you ready?"
I summon my armour and give a nod.
Artoria: "One more dead thorn in your side, coming right up!"
Giggling at me, she opened a portal.
Tearwyn: "Have fun!"
Smiling at her, I walk through the portal. After a few seconds of comfortable darkness, I step out of the portal and onto a roof overlooking a massive city. As I was wondering how I should go about finding where I was I suddenly felt some killing intent coming from what looked like an inn near me. It was pretty pathetic in the grand scheme of things, but from what I could sense it was coming from humans so it was kind of impressive?
'Well, since I am in Overlord, I'll do a bit of roleplay.'
Jumping off the roof, and making my way to the inn, I started to think how I could mess with the people there. For them to have such "strong" killing intent, meant they were at least semi strong. For humans anyway. Entering the inn, and ignoring everyone's gasps at the seemingly empty area with the door opening by itself, I walked up to the stairs and made my way to the room with the intent leaking out of it.
As I was nearing the room, I noticed the intent disappear, and I could feel the attention was now on the door.
'Interesting, so they can at least sense me?'
Opening the door and stepping inside the small room lightly, I took in everyone present.
'Nice, I got lucky. The Black Scripture meeting with Blue Rose. So now I have a timeframe of when I appeared.'
Panning my head from left to right, I stopped and looked at Evileye. Everyone was silent, and looking at me. At me.
'Even better, all their souls are strong enough to see me.'
Artoria: "None of you are the one who has summoned me, wishing for my power. But worse yet, several of you are stained by the Light. But you…"
As I said that, everyone got a look of confusion on their face, and the Blue Rose party looked at Evileye as I continued.
Artoria: "But you are stained by the Light, while also being Blessed by the Dark. How interesting of an existence you are."
After I finished talking, the Black Scripture woman spoke up.
???: "Who… what are you?"
Looking at her I scoff and say, "And what right do you, mortal, think you possess to have such knowledge given for free?"
Everyone frowned at that, while the Scripture people got into combat stances.
The man with the blond hair, Clementine's brother if I remember, started speaking.
Quaiesse: "I think it is in your best interest that you answer… thing. Before we just decide to kill you like the creature you are."
Artoria: "Oh?"
Before anyone could even blink, I was in front of Quaiesse, with my hand through his chest holding his heart.
Artoria: "Such big words from a corpse."
To their credit, the rest of the Scripture went into action relatively quickly. The woman with the stupid witch hat started to cast a spell, while the muscle man was already swinging down his axe towards my neck. Their rogue was making his way to my right, expecting me to dodge towards him.
Dropping the heart in my hand, I simply withdrew my arm from the chest of the corpse, and turned around to stop the axe blade with a single finger from my left hand.
'Always wanted to do that, heh.'
This action caused the entire room to still. Even their mage had stopped her spell.
With a voice full of mockery I said, "Is that your best?"
Grabbing the axe's blade with my hand and crushing it a bit, I pulled on it. This caused the large man to lurch towards me, as he was not expecting anything remotely like this to happen, and was still stunned.
As he was coming towards me, I punched with my right hand as hard as I could. The man's entire top half exploded into mist, and painted the walls behind him a wonderful red. All that was left of him was his part of his arm holding the axe, and his lower half.
Tossing the axe down onto the ground I say, "Then your best won't do."
Turning to look directly at the "stealthed" rogue, I vanished. Appearing behind said rogue, I stabbed my hand into his back and ripped out his spinal cord. Unlike in Mortal Kombat, his head didn't follow.
'Wonder if I could work on that, and actually pull that off?'
Turning to look at the mage who now had a horrified look on her face, I tossed the garbage in my hand aside and started to slowly make my way over to her.
This entire time, Blue Rose were at the ready with their weapons, but wisely did not try and help the Black Scripture members.
Scripture woman: "[Holy Ray]! [Freeze Lance]!"
As the two spells hit me they seemed to just fizzle out, causing her to panic even more.
Scripture woman: "[Dragon Lightning]!!!"
A neat little dragon appeared out of the spell circle, and roared as it made its way to me. Sadly for the woman though, once it hit me it also seemed to just fizzle out.
Stopping right in front of her, I bring up my left hand and caress her cheek.
Artoria: "Were those supposed to be spells? Here, little mage. Let me show you a spell. Blood Boil."
As soon as I uttered those words the woman started to scream loudly, and crashed to the ground on her back. She began to wildly kick and thrash about as if she was on fire. Soon, her skin started to turn red and bubble. Seconds after that, she stopped screaming and thrashing as all her organic bits liquefied and left nothing but a burnt looking skeleton sitting in a pool of bubbling goo.
'Yup. That is as nasty as I thought it would be. Pretty painful too I bet.'
Turning my attention to the rest of the people in the room, I slightly tilt my head to the right.
Artoria: "Now, what should I do with you, who are stained by the Light…?"
[author] New chapter for you~. Hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you in the next one~![/author]