Fire consumed the once beautiful landscape into a burning hell, mens of different sides clashing swords and exchanging spells to take each other's lives.
Amidst of all this pandemonium, Leo appeared with Ophis. He looked at the Phenex estate razed by flame as his heart sank low.
"Mittelt! Ravel!" He screamed as he raced into the estate looking for them.
His mind becomes clouded with countless negative thoughts. What if they were harmed? What if they were captured as hostages just like Ophis?
Many tried to stop him. Some from Khaos Brigade that target him purposely. Some were allies but they didn't recognise him and think he is an enemy. He cut them down regardless. In his mind at that moment is the girls own safety. None other matters to him anymore.
His heart beating hard and painfully as if the beast inside him sensed something ahead. Enemies, it conveys.
Just as he arrived at a large room. He saw the Lord and Lady Phenex, two more men that share similar features as them, Riser who is fighting with rage as the body of his Peerage members scattered around him dead. Finally Ravel and Mittelt who is unconscious in the grip of a monster.
All the dead one share one similarity and that is viscose blackish pus bleeding out their wounds including Riser. The Phenex clan boast great regeneration but for them to die easily like this can only be one reason, they are poisoned.
Unlike the Great Ones blood that contains the property of healing, the Phenex is immortality of one's own self. Their differences are like between medicine and natural regeneration. Medicine can cure but regeneration can only regenerate.
When Leo stepped into the room, the killer noticed him and stopped playing with its prey and hacked away Riser's head, decapitating it. But what interests Leo isn't Riser's death but the weapon used by the killer. Just like Leo, the killer wields Saw Cleaver. His clothes also a recognisable one from Yharnam, Hunter set commonly worn by Hunters throughout Yharnam.
*Bang!*
Leo didn't hesitate nor think, he shot his gun and swung his Saw Cleaver that transformed mid swing. Neither does the killer need any other words as his face is decorated with a wide grin when he sees Leo.
*Clang!*
Leo's cleave stopped by the other's Saw Cleaver in retracted mode which can offer to stop blades as it's a thick piece of metal.
*Bang!*
The Hunter fired his firearm, A double barrel pistol. Leo instantly turns into a mist and reforms to the Hunter's side and fires his Hunter Pistol to stagger his opponent before slashing down with his cleaver covered with lightning and electrocuting the Hunter but instead of turning into a charred corpse, it didn't look affected at all.
The other Hunter kicked Leo in the chest and aimed with his pistol again and pulled the trigger.
*Bang*
Leo swerved under and slashed up diagonally with his Saw Cleaver but blocked by the other Saw Cleaver.
It was like a dance of high speed combat where everything became a blur. The sound of gunshots and blade clashing accompanied their dance of death.
The longer Leo fought this Hunter, the more he felt something was odd. Whenever he dug into his opponent's flesh, it bleeds out blacking sticky pus that want's to trap his blade in its flesh and also the fact he can't feel any bones underneath the flesh. He cut the chest, the arm, the shoulder and the thigh. But the consistency is always the same, there are no bones that should be harder than the flesh to cut.
After the last clash, Leo retreated three meters away and stared at the Hunter. He eyes the Hunter very closely as the time around him slows down and when the Hunter prepares to dash towards him to open an attack.
*Bang* *Thump*
Leo shot his Hunter Pistol and staggered his opponent. Without any delay, he used Quickening and transformed his right arm into a beast-like claw and plunged into the Hunter's abdomen.
Leo's arm fell around inside it, trying to rip out an organ like he always did. But instead of a soft organ, he felt like he plunged his arm into an insect nest. The hard carapace of the insects and their many limbs is the only sensation he can feel.
"Argh!" Leo cried when he felt his arm being bitten and devoured. He instinctively created lightning and tried to zap those offending insects to death but it didn't stop the insects from continuing eating his arm at all.
Leo intensifies his lightning and quickly ejects his arm from the Hunter's body. When it was released, he saw his mangled arm with dozens of bloody red centipedes hanging on his arm, continued feasting on his flesh and even tried to burrow into his arm before Leo made a split second decision to use his Saw Cleaver with his left hand and cut off his right arm before the centipede got past his arm into his body.
"You aren't a human at all!" Leo finally realized and declared while he stabbed a syringe next to his right arm's stump.
"Haha…hahaha! My true nature has been revealed." The Hunter laughed and curled his body down as if resisting something that was breaking out from his body. "Indeed. I am not. This is just a clone."
The Hunter's body swells like a balloon before it pops like a water balloon filled with blackish blood that spills all over the floor and immediately sizzles up like it was acid.
Leo glanced to the side. Ophis saved Mittelt and Ravel. He did well distracting this Hunter but he is afraid what will happen next. The sense of premonition grew stronger and he almost skipped a beat as his body froze from a goosebump.
Leo quickly grabbed three Oil Urns and a Molotov cocktail and threw them all at the Hunter to create a smokescreen of short while trying to reach Ophis but a large centipede as thick as his arm, shot out the wall of fire created by the Molotov and Oil Urns, open it's jaw wide with four mandibles ready to latch on Leo's flesh. The vile insect with its opened bloody maw hissed and tried to bite Leo but he cleaved the vile insect in half.
*Boom*
A large explosion from behind the wall of fire tore open the fire and a cannonball of Quicksilver Bullet hit Leo on the stomach before it exploded and threw him all the way to the wall on the opposite end of the room. Turns out, the insect was a distraction all along.
"Leo!" Ophis saw Leo lay on the broken wall with a large bloody hole on his abdomen.
She is debating if she should follow his earlier order to run away with Mittelt and Ravel regardless of what happened or help him. She should have left earlier but she stayed because she is worried. The enemy is much stronger than Leo and she can feel it.
"Hnn… Whe- Leo!" Mittelt suddenly woke up and escaped Ophis' hold before frantically flying towards Leo.
Seeing that there is something tending to Leo, Ophis shifts her gaze to the Otherworldly Invader. It shoots centipede tentacles at Leo's direction but Ophis moves to its path which looks like instant teleportation because of her speed and swats the centipede away with her bare hand. Then she summons a large snake phantom which swallows the Hunter whole.
Meanwhile Leo weakling took out a syringe filled with blood and tried to inject himself to heal. Mittelt instantly relieved when his injury healed rapidly until it's gone.
Leo looks at the Hunter killed by Ophis very easily. Maybe he should have let her take care of it from the start. He sighed and then looked at Mittelt.
"I am glad that you and Ravel are alright." Leo said and caressed Mittelt's face.
"Idiot, look after yourself first before others." Mittelt snorts but immediately smiles and hugs him.
"Anyway, what happened here?"
"The Old Satan Faction attacked the Underworld." Mittelt said.
"Old Satan Faction?"
"Yes, they suddenly ambushed the Maou Leviathan. But after hearing that news, that guy suddenly appeared in the Phenex estate and led the soldiers of Old Satan Faction to lay siege on the Phenex mansion. We were listening to a nationwide broadcast when they suddenly appeared and attacked." Mittelt recalls the event leading to now while tightly hugging Leo, seeking for security from his presence.
Ophis approaches Leo and hands him Ravel before she looks around, checking for any remaining hostiles nearby.
Seeing Ravel, Mittelt's expression becomes complicated and says, "She blacked out from shock after seeing her family killed by that guy. But he leaves us alive saying he will use us as bait to lure you out." Mittelt explained.
"Do you know who is he, Leo?" Mittelt asks because obviously the similarities in weapon and outfit, it's definitely rouse curiosity in Mittelt.
Leo thought for a while. The words 'Vermin' and 'Pestilence' aren't far apart in what the words represent. He has a feeling that this Hunter is closely related to the one that killed him.
"An old enemy perhaps."
"Old enemy?" Mittelt chimes in with Ophis looking like she is taking note on the topic which is rare considering she isn't really interested in anything apart from sleep and sweets.
Leo nods but while he nods, he sees something behind Ophis. A bloody centipede positioning itself before it launched at Mittelt. He finally understand why the feeling of restlessness hadn't faded away. He pulled Mittelt to his back and jump forward to shields her from that attack with his body.
The centipede plunges into his flesh before it glows more vibrant after devouring Leo's blood and suddenly explodes.
"For you to be able to dispatch my clone is commendable for a fledgling. However, this is your end, Vermin." A voice echoes through the air. "I cannot kill you here with a strong guardian besides you. But I can, however, make your life very miserable, Raynor Ulbricht Reginald."
"Or perhaps it's Rayford William now. It didn't matter anymore. I hope you have a pleasant life after this. Hehe…Hahahahaha!"
"Leo!" Mittelt came out of her shock and quickly checked on Leo.
"M- *Cough!* *Cough!*" Leo couldn't form proper words as he was hacking out blood profusely.
Leo took a syringe filled with Healing Blood out and Mittelt immediately knew her assignment as she jammed the syringe on his right thigh and pumped the blood in. To Leo's dismay however, the blood did nothing.
'Why it isn't working!' Leo yelled in his mind as he felt his body grew colder by the second and his head became light.
Not just Mittelt, Ophis also try her best to help despite healing not being her specialty. But everything they did couldn't cannot stop Leo from dying. Only delaying the inevitable. His ability was also sealed. Everything he worked for became useless at this exact moment. He became nothing more than a weak and frail human.
His breath became labored. Each breath he draws becomes more and more shallow.
"That's… enough Mittelt. There's nothing that can be done." Leo weakly held on to Mittelt's hands.
"No! There has to be a way!" Mittelt bawled and refused to accept this outcome as in her hand was an empty Phoenix Tear bottle that had been emptied out on Leo's wound.
"Listen to me, Mittelt. I have somet- *cough* something to confess."
"No! I don't want to hear it! Not now. I don't want to hear it now. I want to hear it from you later." Mittelt stubbornly refuses to listen to Leo's dying words.
Leo didn't have the luxury to wait. He can feel his body almost as cold as ice right now and all the Phoenix Tear manages to do is to buy a little bit more time.
"I… I had been… tricking you all this time." Leo said while his vision is becoming blurry. "I am not God. I… lied to you… so, you will like me…" Leo exhaled and inhaled his last mouthful of air. "I…am sorry Mittelt."
When the heavy words left his lips, Leo can feel the knot in his heart become undone. He can finally leave this world with a peaceful mind.
His vision was already nearly all black and his ears barely able to pick up the sobbing voice of Mittelt.
"I knew it already, idiot."
Leo heard a whisper by his ears and smiled.
"Ah… Since when did-" Leo was forced to stop when he felt a pair of warm lips on his own and warm droplets fallen onto his face.
[Congratulations, Host reached Level 5 Affection with Mittelt. Host obtained Mittelt's personal 'Light Spear' and 'Fallen Angel Wings']
The notification was the last thing he saw before everything went to total darkness. All he can see is the System display. He can't even feel his body as if he was weightless and formless.
[Evaluation]
Number of Successful Conquest: D
Conquest Route Completion Rate: A
Conquest Target's Affection: B
[Final Evaluation Rating: C+]
[Please claim the rewards.]
Leo simply stared at the automated notification made by the System. Rewards? Can it give him Ophis, Mittelt and Ravel? Nothing else can make him feel satisfied. Instead, all he felt is an ever-consuming void growing and gnawing at his heart.
Such an unreasonable end. Unfair. Unjustified. It's just not fair. Without any warning… perhaps it did. His instinct were trying to tell him all this long but he simply cannot understand it.
Still…
"Fuck! Why! Why must it be like this!" Leo screamed and cursed. He wants to swing his fist and hit anything just to release his pent up emotion but he didn't even have an arm to swing. He is just a floating soul.
He can't even throw a fit. All he can do is to wallow in his miserable stats. Everything is because of that man. If only he never exist.
If only that man never killed him. If only he never meet them. He would never loved them. He would be staying in his room and play games without care of the world. He would never become hurt like this. His heart pained like it's being gnawed inside out by hundreds of centipedes even when he lack a physical heart.
He remember the man's words very clearly. "I cannot kill you but I make your life very miserable."
All the man wants is for him to suffer. There is no other reason. He didn't even know who he is. But that didn't matter anymore to Leo.
"What have I ever done wrong to deserve this…"
There is no one to answer his questions as he stays there in the void, floating in the endless nothingness.
"Hahahahaha." Leo suddenly burst out laughing but his eyes were closed with his palm over it, hiding the tears flowing out from his eyes.
[Beginning revival sequence…]
—————
(Hold on people. Put down the pitchfork, the cross, the nails, mallet and everything. Let me explain. Let's not be hasty and burn me on a crucifixion like a Heretic.
So, I am going with a theme here. You probably should already know. Bad end.
Yeah. I definitely didn't write this on purpose for my sick and twisted gratification. No, definitely not.
He will not be having miserable luck. Instead he will not have a good end because of the hidden strings in the background that manipulate his life. Of course, he can resist it. That is if he knows his life is being toyed by higher beings.
So, until he can notice these secretive plotters and strong enough. His life will be miserable for quite a while. But no worries, that won't be long because next world his power level will be taking a lot of steroids.)
If you readers feel generous or want to appreciate my work and effort, feel free to tip me here.
https://ko-fi.com/lazy_kat_aoi