Kael was still staring at the floating screen in front of him, his mind buzzing with thoughts. He had barely processed the fact that he was alive, and now this.
"I... leveled up?" He muttered again, almost absentmindedly.
Makima, who had moved away for a moment to inspect the giant goblin's corpse, shifted her attention back to him, her eyes half-lidded. "Who are you talking to, kid?"
Kael quickly closed the system window with a subtle gesture, trying to act casual. "Nothing, just thinking out loud."
Makima scrutinized him with a look of suspicion but shrugged. "If it's madness, keep it to yourself. I've got enough problems dealing with idiots."
Kael took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts. 'So... only I have this system? Is this from that Zero Two? But... why me? What does she gain from this?' He ran a hand over his face, covered in blood and dirt, feeling the weight of the unknown pressing down on him.
He glanced furtively at Makima, who was still distracted, examining the remains of the goblin. 'She seems ridiculously strong, but... she's talking about restrictions. Is this world limiting her somehow? Or better yet... does this world have its own power system?'
Kael turned his attention back to the ground, clenching his fists. He knew he couldn't rely on anyone—neither Makima nor anyone else who crossed his path. It was him against the world, and the system was the only advantage he had.
"Alright, Kael. Focus. Surviving is the priority."
Makima, now carrying a piece of the goblin's axe, glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "If you're done talking to your ghosts, move. We're not staying here waiting for the next monster to show up. Let's go."
"Go? You want me to come with you?" Kael asked, clenching his fists.
"And do you have anywhere to go? I'm sure you don't." She said, sizing up the young man. The tension rose, but Kael decided not to respond... after all, she had just saved his life. He turned his attention back to the system window and sighed.
"Alright, three status points... I need to decide where to invest them."
While pondering, Makima approached him, observing the system window as if it were an everyday thing. "If you want my opinion, invest in something that keeps you alive longer. Strength won't help you if you're dead."
Kael ignored her, but part of him knew she was right. He clicked on the distribution tab and started allocating the points.
+2 in Vitality to improve his physical endurance. +1 in Agility to increase his chances of avoiding attacks.
[Current Status]
Name: Kael Alucard
Race: Inferior Vampire (Level 0)
Class: None
Titles: None
Level: 2
HP: 30/30
MP: 5/5
Strength: 6
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 6
Vitality: 6
Charisma: 1
Active Skills: [Mortal Gaze (Level 1)]
Passive Skills: [Survival Instinct (Level 1)]
Resistances: None
"Come on, are you just going to stand there?" She questioned, seeing the boy still occupied with his updates.
Kael blinked, snapping out of his thoughts as he heard Makima's voice. She was standing a few meters ahead, the piece of the goblin's axe casually resting on her shoulder, as if it were a weapon that weighed more than he did.
"Are you just going to stand there, or are you waiting for another giant goblin to come make us some company?" She asked, her tone filled with impatience, but with that enigmatic smile that made him feel uneasy.
"I'm already going, calm down," Kael replied, hastily closing the system window. He was still processing his attribute and skill choices, but the last thing he wanted was to seem even more incompetent than he already looked.
Makima tilted her head, eyeing him as if she were trying to read his thoughts. "You seem like someone who's hiding something."
"I... was just adjusting my strategy," Kael answered, trying to sound confident.
Makima chuckled quietly, a cold and unsettling sound. "Strategy? How cute. You barely managed to deal with the goblin's death, and now you think you have a 'strategy'?"
He gripped the improvised mace in his hands, feeling the heat rise to his face. "Look, I'm just trying to survive here, okay? I don't have the luck of being... I don't know, some superhero like you."
Makima smirked slightly but didn't respond. Instead, she turned and started walking again through the clearing, not bothering to check if Kael was following.
"You seem to know me quite well," she suddenly said... "Ah, you have no idea... Makima, the Demon of Control," Kael replied, and she stopped immediately. She turned to face him...
Kael felt a shiver run down his spine. Makima's gaze was piercing, the spirals in her eyes spinning with such intensity that it felt like she was trying to tear out his deepest truths. He couldn't look away, feeling an overwhelming weight on his chest.
"How... how do you know who I am?" Makima asked, her voice soft, but laden with an imminent threat.
Kael swallowed, nervousness flooding his body, but he couldn't falter now. He couldn't show weakness in front of her, not after everything that had happened. He forced his voice to come out firmly, though his heart was pounding in his chest.
"I... I know you from... stories. Legends, you know?" Kael said, trying to stay calm. "You're famous. The Demon of Control, the one who manipulates everything and everyone... total control. You show up everywhere. Anyone who's into... stories like that ends up knowing about you."
Makima studied him for a moment, her expression cold and calculating. The spirals in her eyes still shimmered with a faint touch of curiosity, but there was also something darker, something more sinister. She didn't seem convinced.
"Stories?" She repeated, her tone lower now, almost disdainful. "You really think you know who I am just because you read about me in some fiction book or on some website?"
Kael didn't know how to respond. Had he lied? No, what he said was true. But the way Makima was looking at him, as if she were trying to dismantle him from the inside out, made him question even his own words. He swallowed again.
"I..." He hesitated. "I didn't know you were here. Or that it was you."
Makima stepped forward, closer to him now, and Kael felt the tension in the air, as if the entire universe had stopped breathing. She extended her hand, and before Kael could react, she touched his chin, lifting his face.
"So you don't know... how much I can do with just one command?" She asked, her voice now softer, but with a latent threat behind every word.
"Well... right now, nothing," Kael answered suddenly... [Survival Instinct] activated in a peculiar way...
"I mean, you're currently nobody, right? Aside from your experience... you're nothing. If you have any restrictions that prevent you from controlling a simple goblin... You're just a regular human now, aren't you?" The words were so precise that Makima's face shattered into a thousand pieces...
That answer, which seemed to come out of nowhere, was enough to make Makima's "command," her famous manipulation of everything and everyone, dissipate like smoke in the air. Makima's face, which had been unshakable before, started to transform in a bizarre way. Her facial features began to crack like glass breaking, line by line, without any explanation. Every piece of her face shattered into floating fragments until she looked more like a crumpled cardboard mask.
Kael, not knowing whether he was seeing an illusion or something this absurd, fell silent for a moment, watching her "facial disintegration."
Makima stood still, her body unmoving, but now with the expression of a grotesque caricature. What was left of her face seemed like a mosaic of disconnected pieces, a jumble of eyes and eyebrows in completely wrong places.
"You... You're messing with me, right?" Kael said, almost laughing involuntarily. "I thought you were immune to jokes, but now you look like a Halloween version of Voldemort."
Makima, now with a face broken like a shattered puzzle, made a sudden movement, and her facial pieces began to slowly reorganize. She tilted her head in an odd way, like a puppet, trying to piece her expression back together.
"No... Don't do this. I'm not laughing, seriously," Kael continued, now completely losing control over the scene. "But… okay, I admit it. This is amazing. You have this control power... but one thing at a time, right? Who knows, maybe there's a bug in the system."
Makima, now fully recomposing her face, glared at him furiously, but the way she blinked, with one eyebrow higher than the other, made the situation even more surreal. She was trying to maintain composure, but her eyes still glowed with an intense fury.
"This is not... funny," Makima said, her voice still threatening but a bit hoarser, as if she had swallowed a laugh along with the poison.
Kael let out a nervous chuckle. "Sure, sure. I was just kidding. I know you're powerful, but it seems like her willpower ran off with her expressions."
Finally recovered, Makima made an impatient gesture, wiping the "gaps" in her face as though adjusting her hair. She made an obvious effort not to seem as out of control as her appearance suggested.
"You're lucky to be alive, kid..." Makima murmured, but Kael couldn't help a mischievous grin.
"Not for long, right? If that was just one of your 'abilities,' I'm sure it's going to be a long night of comedic failures. Just another proof that you can't control the uncontrollable."
Makima shot him a lethal look, but Kael, now filled with renewed confidence from the grotesque scene, merely shrugged and stepped back a little, still chuckling under his breath.
"You're still trying to piece yourself together, but I've seen a lot of strange things in my life," Kael continued, no longer bothered by her threats. "By the way, that supervillain look is completely wrecked."
Makima didn't respond, but her smile, although forced, was there, as if calculating her next move.