Chapter 70: Cheating against the Cheat

Chapter 70: Cheating against the Cheat

May 21th, 2089

Rin, time for the failsafe. At my words, Rin materialized and immediately turned into an ominous dark cloud that enveloped me and was quickly absorbed. As far as spirits go, demons are not the strongest subcategory. But they are among the most intelligent and they have a special ability unique to them: possession. With Rin possessing me, our strengths were merging and my body changed. If this was an anime, I would get a cute pair of fox ears and tail and that would be it. But this isnt an anime.

My hands elongated into talons and black tentacles grew out of my right forearm. My teeth sharpened into fangs and a large eye with a bloody maw where the pupil should be appeared on my swollen left bicep. My eyes turned pitch black from iris to sclera and eerie, jarring red tattoos appeared all across my skin.

Possession by a demon means the demon gives up its form to inhabit the new body. The excess negative emotions that make up the demon can cause random changes depending on how much control the demon gives up, since the host has no way to suppress the negative emotions. Rin possessed me yet gave me total control of my body, leading to this abominable form. If I am careless and lose control of this power, the possession could cause irreparable damage to my mind and body, which is why it is a failsafe.

Jupon had finished stabilizing the ritual and spoke again So you allowed a demonic possession to strengthen yourself. What a desperate maneuver. Youve evaded death thus far, but no longer! He brandished Liberator and charged towards me. I took advantage of my rhomphaias longer reach to strike first with a vertical slash. Jupon blocked and then sent a horizontal swipe to my side, which I parried.

We had a furious back and forth with no spells cast. Jupon couldnt use magic anymore because the ritual had progressed to a point where he needed all of his mana to control it and I was focusing all my remaining mana onto body reinforcement magic. Soon however, I lost our exchange and was sent flying again.

I became a bloody mess, but not as bad as before, with only 2 ruptured organs and a dozen broken bones. I tossed out faerie dust at Jupon, which bought me a few seconds as I frantically drank another Elixir. My armor and apparel had by this point turned into tattered scraps, exposing more of my hideously altered body. *Sigh* Based on appearances alone, anyone would think that I am the monstrous villain trying to destroy the world rather than Jupon.

I recovered and charged Jupon. I twirled my rhomphaia around, leaving trails of cutting light in the air that tried to wrap around Jupon. He dispersed it with Liberator and swung at my knees. I didnt jump, choosing to keep my footing instead and evade with quick steps backwards. I kicked up sand at Jupons eyes as I did so. I then did a vertical chop while he was blinded. But of course that level of trickery would not phase a Hero. He sensed my oncoming blow and stopped it with Liberator. It turned into a contest of strength, which I lost.

I managed to recover my balance in time to dodge a killing blow from Jupon. My right arm was sacrificed instead and the rhomphaia it was holding went soaring along with it. I transformed my left forearm into the front half of a lion to hold Jupon off while a tentacle grew from my back to grab my amputated arm and the rhomphaia. My hand became the lions mouth and it roared as I tried to bite Jupons throat with it while the claws struck at his torso.

Finally, the rent in the sky burst even wider open, showing a glowing mass similar to a sun. Jupon froze as the magic circle on his skin started synergizing with the mana sun. I did not miss this opportunity and my rhomphaia whistled as it barely decapitated Jupon in one strike. I finally managed to do damage to Jupon, although my rhomphaia shattered at the stress of doing so. The corpse of the Hero fell and disappeared in a flash of brilliance as the magic circle on its skin dissipated. Only the sword Liberator remained behind.

I had no time to rejoice in my underhanded victory, since without the magic circle to control it the ritual would rampage out of control. I have to use Liberator to cut off the link between the two worlds before too much damage is done to my world. The streaks of mana shooting out of that dimensional rift looked like lightning and the ground was starting to shake ominously. The mana sun above me looked like it was soon going to go supernova and I doubt my world would survive if it did that. Out of curiosity I tried to sense for the other world like I always have before traveling there, but I didnt feel a thing. It was gone. That mana sun must be all that is left of it. Surprisingly, I felt neither relief nor regret at its disappearance. I was completely indifferent.

I walked over to Liberator and picked it up. And it hurts. I can feel the sword rejecting me with all its might. I most certainly do not have a pure and noble heart, and the feedback from the sword is doing major damage to me. I swung it upwards into the air while resisting the pain. I forcefully overloaded Liberator with my own mana and stopped it from channeling mana to the other world.

The rent in the sky started to close, and the mana sun behind it which was all that was left of the other world soon left my vision. But now the near infinite mana being gathered started to fill the sword instead and even a god artifact like Liberator could not store that much mana. It exploded, sending one last pillar of white light upwards that enveloped me. The desert was dark and ordinary once more.

I was on my back, seeing a clear view of the stars as I was slowly dying. I am suffering from a mana overdose and my body is shutting down. It is something way beyond my ability to heal. Rin has released the possession, thus returning my body to normal. She was exhausted, but unharmed since it was my body taking all the damage. *Sigh* My eyes have closed and as the darkness slowly creeped upon my consciousness my thoughts have turned to my girls.

I hope they can eventually move on, but I fear they will not when they find out Ive died. I dont want to make them sad. No, I wont make them sad. If I die theyll be sad, so I cant let myself die. That line of thought made me maintain a tenuous grasp on life. The darkness stopped encroaching on my mind, but it wasnt receding. So there I laid in the desert, unable to recover but refusing to die, until the first light of dawn started showing on the horizon.

The warm light fell onto my body and thanks to my augmented cells drinking in the solar energy, I was able to break the stalemate I was in. Slowly but surely I started to recover to the point where I could stand once more. Relief, joy, excitement were all emotions I was not feeling right now. I was simply tired.

All I want to do right now is to go home and get back into bed with my girls. I painstakingly drew a teleportation circle and vanished. I appeared in the apartment living room, where I removed the little ragged clothing that remained and stumbled over to the bed. There I saw Veronica, Hikari and Kira all sleeping together peacefully. I inserted myself among them and started to fall asleep. I can finally become a normal high school kid again. Well, almost normal. Im sure that there will be no major fallout in this world from a botched cataclysmic level magical catastrophe, right? *Sigh* Whatever, Ill deal with it tomorrow.

END OF ARC 1: THE REDEMPTION PROJECT