Chapter 661: Not what it looks like

“I wouldn’t say awfully curious, maybe just a little bit? But don’t people do that often?”

The demon woman smiles, and something audibly cracks, likely another bone breaking.

“That’s true, people ask about us a lot, but you asking brought my attention. Can you guess why?”

“Is it this?” I ask as a tiny black orb forms over the palm of my hand.

As always, its oppressive presence fills the area, and even though I haven’t used that much mana to create it, it starts hungrily sipping on the mana surrounding me as well as mine.

“How terribly predictable I must be when even an attendee can guess that,” she breathes out in a playful tone and then tilts her head as if listening to something.

“This body isn’t that bad, actually. I picked it because it seemed stronger than the others, but examining it now, it’s quite impressive. This demoness would likely become a Champion candidate just through the power of her body alone.”

I look at it. One eye burst, bleeding tears, twisted arms, and bruises covering most of the pale skin. All that just from the presence of the Ruler, and likely a limited one.

“How do you guys even move around if even a fragment of your power causes that?”

Kindness straightens up again with a movement as creepy as it is elegant, at least as elegant as it can be while shifting her broken body. “There are different names for them. Some call them Apostles, others Heralds, but the term we use most often is Vessels. Usually, it is one of our Masters who serves us by offering up their bodies. Others tend to use Projections, Avatars, Clones, and Duplicates.”

“Wouldn’t a Vessel die if you were to manifest yourself through them?”

“They are very durable, but most of the time, yes.”

“So you guys just stay on your planets?”

She smiles, and the corner of her lip tears. “I like the many questions you ask and how much you try to exploit the opportunity. I still think you could have been a great Greed if you had decided to pick that subclass. You must have also sensed Greed nudging you towards it, greedy as always. As you said, we rarely move ourselves, often keeping to our own domains, the most durable planets.”

“What do you mean, durable planets?”

“You seem to suspect something already, don’t you?”

“Planets that’ve been through a lot of pairings?”

Her laugh spreads through the room. “When I watch you sometimes, I still find myself getting surprised by that instinct you have regarding the system’s functions. And yes. The more pairings the planet goes through, the stronger it becomes and the…”

She cuts her words and then shakes her head. “I think I’ll keep that one to myself for now.”

"So, which floor is yours?" I ask her directly.

She stares me down with the same gentle expression she’s worn this whole time.

I count three seconds before she answers: "Not telling."

Taking a few steps, more cracks sound, and her blood flows down her body, dripping onto the floor with every movement. From up close, she stares at the tiny black orb.

"Can you tell me what it is?" I ask directly. I know the body she’s possessing has a time limit, so I try to ask a question that hopefully won’t annoy her so much that I don’t get an answer.

Looking at the black orb for a bit longer, she stands and shakes her head. “It has many names, but no one knows which one is the correct one. Or maybe all of them are. Someone like the Warden, the Last Elf, or the Magi could probably tell you a dozen or so.”

“That answers nothing,” I say, pushing a little more.

“The best answers are like that.” Her smile turns more gentle, and she squints her good eye a bit. “I know Greed likes to think of you as her own ‘secret’ project, but I hope there is a little chance you could help me as well.”

“How could I even help someone like you?” I ask, genuinely curious.

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“You probably can’t, but like Greed, I like to spread my webs even if the chance of success is low. Tell me, Nathaniel, do you know what she wants from you?” Her voice turns to a whisper, and she steps closer, only to come to a halt.

I follow her eyes and look down at Biscuit, who is calmly resting in my arms, his eyes now open. There is a slight purple glow to them. He’s not even doing it in a threatening manner. There is no mana, no primordial energy.

He just looks at her.

The Ruler of Kindness smiles wider and stays where she is, meeting my gaze.

“I'm sure Greed is listening, and she would get angry if I said any more, so I will keep her hopes and desires to myself. I have but one request. Only one thing I have longed for through the millennia. Something even Pride could not give me.”

She opens her mouth to say more, and the leg supporting her cracks. She falls to the floor backwards.

Slowly, she turns onto her chest and then uses her single unbroken arm to crawl around to face me. Blood covers most of her face now.

“I want someone, anyone, to extinguish what remains of me and let it be over.”

Her mouth curves into one last gentle smile before she twitches. Her lips begin to move, as if to speak, but no sound follows. Then she goes still, and the presence vanishes.

I wait a few seconds longer, just to be sure, but the body doesn’t move again.

Looking down at Biscuit, I say. “There is no way I’ll be able to do that anytime soon. Do you think she was just trying to ‘preorder’ my help, perhaps she asks the same thing of every particularly capable Beyonder?”

(Food.)

“I think so too. Most of the time, these people don’t even give it much thought. It’s just like those guys telling you to ask 100 girls on a date and hope one says yes. Like a numbers game. The thinking is: the more you try, the better your odds, and rejection, or in this case, my failure or death, just becomes part of the process?”

(Asshole. Food?)

I lay back on the bed and put Biscuit on my chest, where he sits in his puppy form, looking down at me.

“Maybe? They-”

The wind moves again, the side of my room explodes, and barging in through the hole is a petite black-haired girl, a gray mantle swirling around her. In her hands, she holds two axes made of bone. She breathes heavily, and her eyes first land on the dead demon at my feet before looking at me.

"It's not what it looks like," I say.

At first, her face goes blank, then confusion follows, and finally, it settles into a smile. With a groan, she lets go of her axes, which thump heavily onto the wooden floor and crack it with the impact. The mantle around her disappears, and she slides down against the back wall, landing on her bottom. There are wounds all over her body, quickly healing, almost fully closed already.

"Did she speak to you as well?" Lily asks.

"A bit, if you can call it talking. You know the type, mysterious, hiding behind

'it's too dangerous to tell you more'

or

'such and such person wouldn't like it if I said anything.'

That kind of stuff."

Lily gives a quick laugh, brushing sweat from her forehead. "She popped up out of nowhere, talked for a while, and disappeared heading in the direction of our base."

Another person steps through the hole, Tess, surrounded by lightning, with a crown floating above her head. "I've never seen anyone move so fast just using their body. That goes for you, too, Lily. You must have broken some kind of record."

"I was worried she was after the others, so I rushed back, but I couldn’t catch up at all."

"I’d have given you Biscuit if you had been able to catch up to her," I tell Lily.

When Biscuit looks up at me, eyes wide open, I whisper very quietly,

"I wouldn’t."

He chomps down and bites my finger, then continues chewing on it as I look back at Lily. Tess, meanwhile, is in the room now, sitting on the windowsill.

"Did she say anything interesting?" I ask.

It takes a moment for Lily to take her eyes off me. She shakes her head and smiles wider. "Something about wanting me to extinguish what remains of her. And that I did something before to pass her test. I don’t even know what it all means."

I shrug. "It makes sense. You've just met the Ruler of Kindness, who took over one of the natives. And if I'm right, we've met her before. On the third floor."

Tess blinks, and while Lily seems even more confused, she says, "The Saint."

"Yup."

Lily looks between me and Tess, then briefly at Biscuit, still chewing on my finger, and back at me. "The Saint was dead. Only the body lived."

"And she also has black mana. That would explain why the King recognized it," I say aloud, thinking. "She’s looking for someone to kill her. So maybe the third floor’s setup wasn’t her getting assassinated, but it was her trying to kill herself. She probably failed and became a Ruler later. That floor might be designed to help her find people who might have even a small chance of killing her. Then there’s Greed, who wants to kill Pride. If someone kills Pride, it means that person is strong. And such a person might also be able to kill Kindness as well, and that’s why Kindness seems to be working with Greed. Pride couldn’t kill her, apparently, by the way. I don’t think she’s stronger than he is, though. I think he just literally couldn’t kill her. Lily, she might be an even more cracked-out healer than you. Scary stuff."

I pull my finger from Biscuit's mouth and wipe the saliva on his tiny nose. He scrunches it, woofs, and starts biting me again with more enthusiasm.

Thinking a bit more, I continue, "She didn’t seem all that great at handling mana, but who knows? I think that unkillable maniac brute-forced her way into compressing mana into black mana. Just abused her body and mind until she figured it out. I gotta say, I kind of admire the spirit of that. I’d love to see how her use of it differs from mine. And oh, Lily, we’ll run a few tests and see if you can learn it too. I mean, I don’t really think you need more terrifying abilities in your arsenal, but I’d die of curiosity if we didn’t at least try."

I look at her and wait. It takes her a second to realize I’m expecting an answer, and then she nods. "Absolutely!"

I grab Biscuit and hold him tightly with one hand while pulling my finger from his mouth, now even more soaked with his saliva. As if sensing what’s about to happen, he twists and hurriedly tries to get away. But I move quickly, stick the tip of my finger into his ear, and give it a twist.

Biscuit howls long and loud with that tiny mouth of his puppy form until Tess walks by, takes him from my arms, and holds him close to her chest protectively.

(Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole! Asshole!)

I stand up from the bed and come to a stop in front of Lily, who’s sitting there on the ground looking up at me. She grabs my hand as I extend it to her, and help pull her to her feet.

As expected, she takes the opportunity to pull me into a hug. I try carefully to get out, but I can’t even push against the strength of her body and the grip of her arms, not without reinforcing myself or using kinetic energy. A part of me thinks it might almost be a threat or a reminder from her.

When she finally lets go, I’m about to step back, but she keeps looking at me with those big eyes.

"You haven’t pinched my nose," she jokes with a big smile.

I glance at Tess, who just watches in quiet amusement, then go ahead and pinch Lily’s nose, making sure to use the finger Biscuit was biting.

Lily hisses and jumps back, wiping her nose with her sleeve while I step toward the body on the floor and glance down.

"Let’s examine it a bit before the others get back," I say.

If it was good enough for the Ruler of Kindness to bother with possessing, it’s good enough for me to take a look at.