Tale of Discovery

Chapter 41: Gift ; Battle

As I am watching the touching reunion of the sisters, Juno who's beside me whispers,

"Among them is an Anomaly."

That word. She used it to describe people who could travel from one Platform to another.

"Does that mean they've been to the Mete?", I ask her.

"Not necessarily. Someone with high enough spacial powers could link Platforms or they could've been pulled into a spatial crack by an outside force."

The first one is interesting. There is someone with such power among these people? Look at them, they're still glaring daggers at each other.

"What will you do with them?", Juno asks me.

What indeed. I've been thinking of it for a while...

I remember looting an ability called Gift. Isn't this the perfect opportunity to try it out? But, what ability should I Gift and to whom?

"You will be fighting each other!", I declare, surprising everyone except the two girls from before. There is something wrong with these two.

"And why should we listen to you?", asks the black-haired guy with emerald-green eyes tauntingly.

I take a good look at him and don't see any worth in keeping him alive other than not ruining the image I've been trying to build up.

"What is your name?" I ask him.

"You're supposed to introdu-", before he can finish what he wants to say, I punch him in the stomach and send him flying into a wall.

Cracks form on the wall as he drops on the ground, blood flowing out of his mouth.

"Yoichiro!", a blonde guy screams as he runs over to him.

The rest of the group are glaring at me and have entered a fighting pose. As if they could stop me.

"Should I finish them all off?", Juno asks me in a voice loud enough for all of them to hear her.

They shudder in response to her words as they back off a step. I do need to mention the fact that the only one that hasn't reacted to what just happened in their group is the girl with ashen hair.

Intriguing.

"What is your name?", I asked her in the same way I had asked the guy.

"Shinoa Hiiragi.", she replies almost instantly with a neutral look plastered to her face.

Much better.

"You see...", I say as I look at the guy who is struggling to get up with the help of his friend.

"You aren't in any position to demand anything from me. I ask you something, you reply."

I do understand why he did it though. A hot-blooded teenager was sent away from the world he lived in, how would it affect him? Depends. This guy, his rationality was taken away, that's if it ever existed.

"I won't repeat this again. You will fight each other, however, you will be trying something out."

Gift:

-Insight

-Organic Constructs

I use Gift on the only two blonde girls here and tell them to introduce themselves.

"Mitsuba Sangu.", says the one on Shinoa's side.

"Yuriko Sada.", says the other one on Veronica's side. (OC)

They seem a little confused as they look at their own bodies for a few seconds. Suddenly, Mitsuba's arm begins to change shape into a black blade that seems to be about 2m long.

On Yuriko's side, her arm begins to change form into claws.

Yuriko shifts herself before propels at an amazing speed towards Mitsuba and slashes at her.

Mitsuba reacts by swiftly blocking it with her blade and kicking her leg and destabilizing her. Not wasting the opportunity, she splits Yuriko open horizontally.

Wanting to finish her off, Mitsuba dashes at her, but before she could reach Yuriko, black whip swings in her direction.

Dodging it, she stops in her tracks as she looks at Yuriko's arm that has now changed from the blade before into the whip.

Something interesting then happens.

Yuriko's bottom half re-attaches itself back to her upper body. I wonder if chopping their head off would kill them...

The next moment, something catches my attention. Mitsuba's legs have started to change shape as well, now resembling the legs of a monster.

She dashes forward at a speed leagues above what she was capable of before.

Yuriko reacts to her speed movements by changing her arms form to a shield as she blocks the slash aimed at her, however, Mitsuba shifts her body and kicks her.

Yuriko coughs out blood as she flies across the room into the wall, shattering it.

It's obvious that Mitsuba has way more combat experience than Yuriko... What was the world they came from exactly like?

"That's enough.", I state, making Mitsuba freeze in her spot.

"Just when it was starting to get fun. Gee~ thanks Mr. Demon.", Mitsuba says as she looks my way.

"What did you call me?"

"Mr. Demon. Are you not? You're not going to tell me that you aren't one after you've done all this, right?"

Why would she think I am a demon?

"Granting powers and making a race fight another.", she says as if she could hear my thoughts.

"You're mistaken.", I say with a cold smile.

"I'm just checking whether you guys are worth keeping alive or not."

------

It was decided that we were going over to the Angevin household.

On the way there I explained to them my purpose of being in the facility and how I am seeking ability users to put an end to their misery.

Veronica's sister, Emily, said that she would help me out, by taking me to where most of their members are at. She trusts me a lot now that I've saved her sister.

I told them about being able to send them back home, but will only do so if they support me in my battles.

Supporting, I say, but more like a distraction for the others, allowing me to reach the Unknown.

The vampire faction immediately agreed, but the human faction thought about it for a while before they also agreed.

Having formed a group, I decided to name it. A simple name would do - Slaughterers.

It will serve as an example of what we're supposed to do and how we are meant to handle things.

The human faction was against it, but once I reminded them of how the ones we are going to be slaughtering have been experimenting on children, they shut up.

------

"How old are you?", I ask Veronica who's sitting beside me.

"Older than you.", she replies nonchalantly.

I laugh at her response and state confidentially,

"That's impossible."

Taking it as if I'm mocking her, she glares at me as she says,

"I'm over a thousand years old. Is it impossible now?"

Yeah, I would've normally thought that she's older than me, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So I say to her,

"I should be over eight millennia old."

She immediately looks my way with a doubtful, yet, anxious look on her face. Oh? Did my age come as that much of a surprise? I wonder if she's trying to figure out what I am.

{Detected: Code - Abbadon}

Irene's voice suddenly resounds within my mind. What? There is someone with a code nearby?

Focusing my senses, I can't sense anyone else other than Veronica and myself.

Hold on a moment...

Focusing my eyes and on Veronica's petite body, I see a bright violet glow on her chest. Great! Finally found someone with a Code.

{It's a newly formed one.}

I see... But Abbadon? I wonder what it is. I feel like I've heard that term somewhere before, but can't remember it.

Now that I think about it, I don't know how strong she is. Alright, let's do this,

"Veronica, fight me."

Her eyes widen at my statement as she looks at me with a calculating look before saying,

"You aren't allowed to fly or transform into... other forms."

I agree to her request as I wasn't planning to harm all that much anyway.

---3rd POV---

Under the moonlight in the open plains, stand Victor and Krul face to face. Their height difference doesn't seem to make the air any less tense as they both prepare for their battle.

As soon as the battle begins, they both dash at each other and throw a punch. Victor uses his other hand to smack her arm away, meanwhile Krul dodges his punch with amazing speed.

Krul immediately sends a roundhouse kick at Victor, which he blocks with his body. Victor steps back twice from the sheer force contained in that kick. He then slams his leg into the ground, causing several rocks to lift up.

Using Telekinesis to launch them at her.

Krul doesn't seem to break a sweat as she swats the rocks away with ease.

Victor immediately dashes in her direction as flames protrude from his palms as he sends a flaming punch at her.

Krul seems to bend at an impossible angle as she dodges and sends a kick towards him, forcing him back several steps.

Deciding to take her more seriously, Victor increases his speed and the strength as he dashes at her once again before kicking her in the side, sending her tumbling across the floor before she elegantly gets back on her feet with a manoeuvre.

Kicking the ground, she launches into the air and dashes at him mid-air. Victor wants to block her assault with his body, but suddenly, he notices that Krul's body seems to be emitting a purple light as her speed increases and the magnitude of her aura multiplies several folds.

Not taking any chances, he immediately uses Organic Constructs to form a shield with his arm and take on a defensive posture.

However, what happened next shocked him to the core. He felt like half of the bones in his body were being smashed as he found himself propelled from where he stood.

Stabilizing himself, he grins as blood flows out from the corner of his mouth. He says in an exhilarated tone,

"I can finally have a proper fight..."

A split-second later, Krul is already in front of him and sends a punch toward his chest. He immediately dodges her attack and uses his Healing Factor on himself while doing so.

Having healed up a little, Victor feels blood flowing to his legs, arms, and head. A voice resounds within head,

{Berserk: Tormenter unsealed.}

His hair changed from brown with white streaks to a complete blood red as his eyes are covered in pitch-black. His fingers change form to dark-red sharp claws.

His movement speed seems to have multiplied as he lunges at Krul with enough momentum to break the sound barrier.

They both attack each other, with both of the attacks landing on the other.

Victor grunts as he's launched backwards, while Krul lets out a scream as she holds onto her bloodied neck.

As if the punch hadn't affected him at all, Victor gets up and moves toward her again.

Krul slams her leg into the ground forming a wide crater, but Victor jumps and before she could react, he pierces her sides and breaks several of her rib cages, and then proceeds to smash her leg with his own.

In a dire situation, Krul attempts to move away from him, but before she could do so, she feels her spine breaking as a kick directly lands on it, sending her rolling for dozens of meters.

{Berserk: Tormenter deactivated.}

---1st POV---

Having come back to my senses, I feel an extreme amount of pain all over my body. Looking at my bloodied clothes, I shake my head as I move toward where Veronica is at.

Damn, her body is in a mess, even though she must've healed in the short while it took for me to get to her.

"Impressive.", she says while lying on the ground, panting.

"Well, thanks. I must say you're quite impressive yourself, as you're quite strong yourself.", I state.

I'm being honest. Although I didn't use my Holy Effects other than Healing Factor, she did give me a pretty hard time, which in itself is an impressive feat.

"For impressing me, you may have an award. What do you wish for?", she declares arrogantly.

Woah. She must've been quite the princess in her world. What could she even give me? Oh...

"How about a kiss on the lips?", I respond with a grin.