Mahō and Light

Mahō and Light chapter 8

Start of Chapter 8
The two swordsmen fall from the sky and swing their swords down in an attempt to stab the two. Nyx summons Ra to block the two swordsmen's attacks. Ra covered Akira and Nyx with its wings and then swatted the two swordsmen away. Akira got a good look at them and saw one of the swordsmen was wearing a black face mask, had white skin, brown hair, brown eyes, a black jacket, black pants, and shoes, and a sword with a green blade with a black handle. The other man had long black hair covering the right side of his face, he was also wearing knight armor and had a broadsword. "These are my apprentices. If you can beat them in a fight or come close I'll train you." Maverick said. "The one with a green sword is Ben and the one in the knight's armor is Ash, good luck." Maverick said as he sat down and the duo ran at Akira and Nyx. Nyx hopped on her bird and flew off as Ash ran after her. While Akria stayed behind to fight Ben. Ben's sword glowed and he charged at Akira. Ben swung his sword at Akira, but Akira blocked as their swords clashed. Then Akira kicked Ben's knee and caused Ben to fall to one knee and Akira pushed his sword down and pushed Ben's sword closer to his face. Ben kicked Akira off of him, but Akira quickly recovered and was getting ready to use heaven's light. "Quick counter!" Ben said as he started swinging his sword around him so fast it looked like he had multiple hands circling his body. Akira used Heaven's Light and dashed toward Ben at absurd speeds. Akira and Ben's swords clash and the impact causes a shockwave that knocks all nearby trees down. But Akira was far stronger and the impact knocked Ben over and fell flat then dropped his sword. As Ben tried reaching for his sword, Akira stepped on his hand and pointed his sword at Ben's neck. "That's enough!" Maverick yelled. Akira stepped off of Ben, allowing him to get up and dust himself off. "Thank you for the battle and my apologies for my actions. I was told to do this as a test." Ben said. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Call off the guy attacking Nyx." Akira said while looking over at Maverick. "Yes yes. Come with me. They should be west from here." Maverick said as he started walking. Meanwhile. Nyx was flying on Ra as Ash threw his sword at Ra's wings. The sword goes right through Ra, causing it to screech in pain and the two fall next to a large cave. Nyx retrieved Ra and looked over at Ash. Nyx summons hieroglyphs as they all fire laser beams from their eyes. Ash deflects them as he slowly walks toward Clover. One of the hieroglyphs creates a sword for a Nyx out of thin air as she runs to ash. Nyx rapidly swings her sword but Ash dodges the beams and Nyx attacks at the same time. With one hand Ash backhands Nyx, punches her in the stomach, grabs her by the arm, and tosses her into a rock. The hieroglyphs slowly disappear as he walks closer to Nyx. "If you're not fighting to kill you're not fighting right?" Ash asks. "Heh. I guess you're right...So I guess I should try killing you right?" Nyx said as her shadow grew and black streaks on her hair. "Twelfth shadow... The end" Nyx said as the shadow slowly started expanding and a powerful aura was felt across the entire mountain. Before Nyx summons anything she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Nyx chill out," Akira said. "Nyx stopped the summoning and got up. "My bad...I got carried away." Nyx said while awkwardly smiling. Maverick walks over and claps his hands. "Good job Akira, I think under my training you can be a great swordsman. And Nyx why don't y-" Before Maverick finished his sentence shushed him. "Listen. If your "Tests" are sending your students to kick my ass then I think i'll be fine not joining you on this one Akira. I'm heading home." Nyx says as she walks over to Akira then kisses him on his cheek and summons Griffin. I'm flying home, see ya!" Nyx says as she waves and Griffin takes off flying. "Understandable. About 90% of your students quit cuz you kept on making us fight each other" Ben said while looking at Maverick. "Well, that's why you two have gotten so strong with only 3 weeks of training. You are strong enough to survive my training" Maverick said proudly. Akira sat there stunned but quickly snapped back to reality. "So when do I start my actual training?" Akira asked. "Tomorrow! For now, do what you want. But I recommend you go to sleep at 8:00 pm. There is a hot tub in the cave." Maverick said. Maverick then moved so fast that it seemed he teleported away. "So....you like football?" asked Ben. Meanwhile Mark and Jaden have been training with Mark and Jaden looking like a sweaty mess. "Ok let's try one more time. You were so close!" Jaden said. "Alright alright!" Mark yelled. Mark closed his eyes and cleared all thoughts in his mind as he inserted Mahō into his brain. Mark's eyes open and his pupils dilate as he just stares at Jaden. "Come at me." Jaden says. Mark ran at Jaden at high speed as Jaden got ready to block the incoming. But Mark suddenly flips above Jaden and lands behind him. "Critical hit!" Mark yells as he lands an attack on Jaden's back and a black-and-white aura surrounds his hand as he does so. Jaden gets sent flying into a tree and falls flat as he struggles to get up. Mark's pupils turn into a black-and-white spiral. "I did it...I feel great" Mark said. "Perfect! You landed your first critical hit. Your current power has increased to about 1.5x it normally is. And the more critical hits you land the stronger you get. Most people only land 1-2 in their entire life. And almost every time it's on accident. Landing crits doesn't just amplify your power but it does the same for you battle iq. And allows you to become smarter in battle and understand Mahō better." Jaden says. "You said most...what is the most anyone has landed? " Mark asked. "Hmmm, I can give you the top 5. 5th is a girl named Ava with three critical hits landed. 4th place would go to me with four landed, 3rd would go to Jack with six landed. The second would go to Zachary with 10. And finally, the person with the most Critical hits landed is a man named Maverick with 12 critical hits landed. And the most in the world." Jaden said. "To be honest I thought you would say Deimos." Mark said. "No, believe it or not, but he only landed one in his entire life." Jaden said. "Wow, that's surprising. " Mark says, but suddenly Mark's phone alarm goes off. "Oh shoot I gotta go catch my plane." Mark says as his eyes turn back to normal. "Thanks for the training!" Mark says as he grabs his broken sword and runs off. "See ya! Don't die!" Jaden says jokingly as he walks off. Mark makes it to his flight and gets home back in the UK. When Mark lands he exits Junk City jumps up to Nobility City and walks over back to his base. As Mark walked in he saw Bianca talking to Deimos, Jack, and Natsu. "Hello, again Mark I came here to invite you on a mission with me." Bianca said. Mark takes a seat on the couch and looks at Bianca. "I thought we were still on break?" Mark said. "Well I'm sorry but I'm going to ask you to cut your break short. I'd like to wait for Nyx and Akira to get here. Speaking of them, can you call them?" Bianca asked. "Umm alright?" Mark said as he pulled out his phone and called Nyx. Nyx picks up the phone while being in the air. "Oh hey, Mark. Nice to hear from you again. What's up?" Nyx asked. "Bianca wants you and Akira at the base. She has a mission for us." Mark says "I thought most hunters were on a break," Nyx says. "I thought so too." Mark said as he glared at Bianca for a moment. "Anyways, can you make it back soon?" Mark asked. "I can. Akira is busy and likely can't show up for this mission." Nyx says. "Alright, I'll tell Bianca. See you soon." Mark said. "See ya," Nyx says as she hangs up. "Nyx can come, but Akira is a no-show," Mark says. "That's fine, we should just wait here." Bianca says, Everyone sat there in silence and looked around awkwardly. Meanwhile, Nyx was flying on Griffin until suddenly a portal appeared in front of her and she fell through and was transported to a new location. "What the hell? Since when can portals spawn in the air!" Nyx looks behind her to see the exit is closed. "Ugh...just my day." she says as she starts to look around and sees she's in some type of dungeon. Nyx retrieved Griffin and walked around and past jail cells, bones, and other torturing devices. "That's odd. There are no monsters...this place is complete. Nyx sees a door and opens it slowly and peaks into the room to see a broken blade shard on the ground. Nyx felt a powerful aura coming from it. Nyx picked it up and put it in her pocket. Suddenly, the same skeleton that fought Mark and Evan appeared and approached Nyx. "Oh, so there are the monsters." Nyx says. Nyx summons Scarab but before she can blink, Scarab is cut in half in less than a second. Nyx looked in horror as the skeleton just looked at her. Nyx summons Amphisbaena and Minotaur to fight back. The skeleton pulled out his sword and sliced open Amphisbaena in a split second. Minotaur dashed into the skeleton and crashed it into the wall causing it to drop the sword. The skeleton punched the minotaur in the face, then it grabbed the minotaur by the face and slammed against the ground over and over. The skeleton then ran to Nyx and punched her in the stomach "Ack fuck not again" Nyx says as she gets lifted in the air and swung around. The skeleton grabbed her by the face, and threw her into the other room, causing her to crash through the jail cells. Nyx tries getting up but before she can, the skeleton grabs her by the face and throws her head first into a wall. Nyx's head bangs against the wall and her body suddenly slumps. Nyx felt her blood drip down from her head and couldn't feel anything. The Skeleton grabbed its sword and slowly walked over to Nyx. Nyx saw her whole life flash before her eyes as she lifted her head up. "Well...I guess I have no other opinion..." twelfth su-...You know what...no... that's the coward's way out..." Nyx said as she got up and felt a huge flux of Mahō flowing through her body. Her vision got blurry and she started cackling. "Screw it! There is a first time for everything... right?" she said with a wide smile on her face. "Realm shift," Nyx says. Nyx and the Skeleton were suddenly teleported into a void of nothingness. It looked around until suddenly it felt its body being ripped apart. In 5 seconds, the Skeleton was left with nothing but a pile of bones by an unknown force. The realm shift fell with Nyx standing triumphantly. Nyx looked over to see a portal opening out of nowhere. Nyx stepped through and appeared in front of the base. "How convenient." Nyx thought to herself as she opened the door and wiped off the blood all over her head with a wipe she had in her pocket... "Hey guys I made it home," she says as she yawns and falls on the couch next to Bianca. "Also, what is this blonde lady doing in our house?" Nyx asked. "Hello, I'm Bianca. I've come to recruit guardians for a special mission. It's better if we head to my lab so I can explain better." Bianca said as she clapped her hands together and everyone heard a car park up front. Everyone looks out and sees a limousine parked. "I call shotgun!" Deimos said as he ran to the front seat. Everyone else including Bianca heads to the back seat and sits down. As Deimos got settled down up front he saw a robot driving the car. "Is this safe?" Deimos asked "As safe as it can be," Bianca responded. The car then started driving to Bianca's lab and as everyone waited Bianca clapped her hands 4 times and suddenly many tables full with a pint of beer sitting atop them appeared. "Oh I should have asked, can you all drink or do you want to?" she asked. "Nah, I'm trying to quit" Jack said. "I'm too young," Natsu said. "Same here," Mark said. "Hell yeah, gimme dat!" Nyx said as she grabbed the alcoholic drink and started chugging it. "Ahem, anyways. I've been researching the origin of Mahō and ways to use dimensional travel like the monsters do. You see, the monsters have a greater understanding of dimensional travel than we do somehow. Despite us being more technologically advanced. You see, I have some evidence that Mahō didn't always exist until about 450,000 years ago." Bianca said. "Wait but Mahō existed across the entire universe and even on other planets and planet-like objects like the moon for much longer than that." Jack said. "Indeed. But it seems our planet lived without Mahō for a long while. Until something brought it here. A meteorite." Bianca said. "A meteorite?" Natsu said in confusion. "Indeed. But not just one. Three of them. After some research, I can say with almost no doubt that Mahō came from 3 meteorites. My theory is that these meteorites came from space and landed on Earth. And when it did, It spread across the planet and seeped its way into everyone's body. And if you go from a religious point of view. Some people say that the Mighty One created these meteorites." Bianca said as she played with her hair. "And we have one of the Orbs." Bianca said. "So you're saying...that basically, we have the orbs of god and that these meteorites gave the entire world Mahō?" asked Mark. "Indeed" Bianca responded as she crossed her legs and sat back. "The locations of each meteor is one in the UK, one in the US, and one in China. Which makes sense. You see, across the world, these three places have the strongest Guardians in the world. 30% of the S-ranks come from the UK, 45% from the US, and 20% in China. Most other countries only have A ranks or very few S ranks." Bianca says. "What does this have to do with the mission you're sending us on?" asked Jack. "I want you to negotiate with China to let us study or take the meteorite. We already have one and we may learn something new." Bianca said. "That's it?" Nyx asked. "Oh, and there is a rogue guardian problem in China, so we are sending our best guild and a few others to help out." Bianca said. "Oh, that makes sense." Natsu said as the car stopped. "We are here," Bianca said as she opened the door. As everyone got out of the car they saw a huge Lab with guards, guardians, robots, and turrets all over the place. "Welcome to my Laboratory." Bianca said with a smirk as she fixed her glasses and smirked a bit. "It has been a while since I've been here Bianca," Deimos says. "Yeah, last time you were here you dumped me." Bianca said sounding annoyed as she walked over to the front entrance. Everyone follows her behind as Deimos has a guilty expression. Nyx walked closer to Bianca with a small smile on her face. "You and Deimos huh? Tell me more." Nyx said while poking at Bianca. "Maybe later. For now, let's focus on the task at hand." Bianca said as everyone walked through the Lab and went up an elevator. They reach the top floor to see a Large open room full of desks, papers, computers, robots cleaning, and a huge photo of Bianca, Deimos, Jack, Arthur, a girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, white skin, black fingernails, a white hoodie, black pants, and blue shoes, and Benji without his bandages. Benji has short brown hair, white skin, a scar on his lips, and red eyes. "Is that the bandaged guy? You guys knew him before he joined the guild?" asked Mark. "yeah...we didn't recognize him...at first. But that's not important. Bianca, why did you need to bring us here specifically?" Asked Jack. "For one, this place is closer to the airport so you all will be staying here. Also, I wanted to show you the meteorite." Bianca said as she clapped her hand 2 times suddenly the middle of the room opened up and suddenly a giant meteorite came up from the ground. "Whoa! It's huge!" Natsu said. The meteorite was about 30 meters tall and a perfect sphere. "Indeed. It is. Also, the Mahō inside this thing is 3x larger than the combined Mahō of the entire planet excluding the guardians. "That is...kinda scary," Nyx says. Suddenly Mark's sword starts shaking and the meteorite starts glowing with a blue aura and Mark's sword starts to reveal a black aura. Nyx feels a poke in her pocket as she picks out the shard. Suddenly, the shard flew over to Mark's sword and the shard perfectly snapped onto the blade. Bringing Mark's sword closer to completion. "The hell was that?" Jack yelled. "Your sword...it reacted to the meteorite...may I see that sword?" Bianca asked. "Uhhh...no..." Mark said while taking a step back."Mark, where did you get that sword? Asked Bianca. "From a portal...why do you ask?" Mark said. "Hey, I got that shard from the portal as well." Nyx said. "Strange...I must experiment with this sword later" Bianca said while writing down something on her desk. "I hope Eve doesn't get pissed," Mark thought to himself. Suddenly Eve appears. "Mark! You found a sword shard while I was asleep? Great job!" Eve said happily."You sleep?" Mark whispered. "I don't need to," Eve said. "Mark, who are you talking to?" Jack asked. "Ummm to myself I do that a lot." Mark said sounding guilty. Everyone was looking at Mark as he stood there nervously. Mark looked over to Deimos who wasn't looking at Mark. He was looking right next to Mark. Mark was confused and looked right next to him. But the only one there was Eve. Mark was confused until he got the sudden realization. Deimos could see Eve. "umm, Deimos..can we talk in private...please." Mark said nervously "Yeah sure...I think we should. Continue the briefing without us Bianca. We won't be long." said Deimos as Dimos and Mark walked out of the room and into the hallway. "You have a cursed blade?" Deimos asked. "Yeah...how can you see her?" asked Mark. "I'm me, that's why. Anyways, we need to get rid of the stupid sword." Deimos says. "Fuck you," Eve said. "EVE!" Mark shouted. "It has a name? What did it say?" Deimos asked. "She is not an it first of all and second of all...you can't hear her?" Mark asked. "No, but I can see her clearly." Deimos said. "Well anyways. She and I formed a contract. She keeps me alive and I restore her power by giving her pieces of her sword. If I ever chose to abandon the mission it would lead to my death." Mark said. "Well, that's quite the predicament." Deimos said. "Just keep it on the low ok? I don't need other guardians to be on my ass for breaking protocol." Mark said. "Alright alright. Your secret is safe with me. We can't have you dying on us now." Deimos said. "Ok but now I look mad suspicious." Mark said. "Uhhh. how about...uhh..." Deimos stood there thinking about what to do. Suddenly, Andre messaged Deimos asking him to send one of his guild members to investigate a nearby D-rank monster attack at an elementary school nearby. "Perfect! Mark you go over and handle the situation, I'll tell everyone you went to go help a school and by the time you back they will probably forget about it." Deimos said. "Alright, sounds great. Thanks Deimos." Mark said. "No problem buddy." Deimos says as he gives Mark a noogie. Mark then dashed off as Deimos went back into the other room. "Hey, Andre texted. There is a monster attack at a school. It shouldn't be too much of a problem." Deimos said. "Uh-huh. Anyways...you all can stay here for today. We are going to China tomorrow morning, I already did the paperwork and Andre handled the rest. I need you all at your best tomorrow." Bianca said. Meanwhile, Mark ran 50 miles in a few seconds and reached an elementary school. The sun started to go down as Mark walked to the front entrance. As Mark looked around he saw that the school door was broken and dead bodies were all over the place. Mark pulled his sword out and walked through the building cautiously. The lights of the building were out and there were blood and slash marks all over the floor and walls. Mark then heard the sound of children crying down the hall. Mark walked over and saw a child balled up down the hallway, the child's skin was missing and their clothes were scratched up and dirty. The child turned around and charged at Mark. Mark with no hesitation cut the kid in half before they knew what happened. Mark then heard other children screaming and running down the hall. Mark took a defensive position as a little more than one hundred kids started running over each other to get to Mark. Mark, with one swing, sent an energy wave to wipe out and vaporize all of the children. Mark continues walking down the dark hallways and makes it upstairs. "The hell were those things? Were those things...the kids?" Mark thought to himself. Mark had a flashback to him and Jack killing his younger sister. Mark felt sick and fell on one knee. Suddenly Eve appeared and crouched down to look Mark in the eyes. "Hey, Mark...there is no proof that these things are the kids from this school...these monsters could just be...coincidentally child-like." Eve said, trying to calm Mark down. "I hope so...I'm tired of children dying on my watch." Mark said as he made his way upstairs. As Mark started walking upstairs and down the hallway, he sensed something above him and looked up to see a teacher with spider legs and a melting face. The teacher jumped down as Mark dashed away. The teacher jumped towards him but Mark was quicker and cut the teacher in half. Mark looked sad and disgusted as he kept walking around. Mark heard a child crying once again in the art room. Mark swings the door open and sees a bunch of kindergarteners crying and hiding behind chairs as a 5th grader holding scissors and standing in front of them. "A-are you a guardian?" the 5th grader asked with his voice shaky and his body trembling. "Yeah, that's me." Mark said softly, giving the children a reassuring smile. Mark dropped his sword to make them feel safer. All the kindergarteners ran to Mark, held onto him tightly and were crying. Mark held them all tightly and patted their heads. "Shhh. you're all going to be ok. Follow my lead." Mark said as he got up and looked at the 5th grader and saw that his ankle was bleeding. "What happened to your ankle?" asked Mark. "T-there was a man holding a scythe. He tapped on the teachers and other kids and...and... they turned into monsters. I fought the teachers and got hurt." The child said. "What's your name?" Mark asked. "Oliver," the 5th grader said. "Well, Oliver, you're brave. A whole lot braver than I am." Mark said as he walked over and patted him on the head. Oliver cracked a smile as he looked up at Mark. "When I grow up I want to be a guardian like you...Do you think I could be someday?" Oliver asked. "Hell yeah. I don't see why not." Mark said as he took off his scarf and gave it to Oliver. "Take this," Mark said. Oliver took the scarf and wrapped it around his neck. "I can keep it?" Oliver asked. "Yep, keep it for good luck and remember to never give up and to use this scarf to remember this moment and use it as motivation to be a guardian when you're older." Mark said. Oliver smiled and his body stopped shaking. "Ok kids, let's go." Mark said as he started leading the kids out of the school. Mark contacts Law enforcement to come pick up the kids. Mark watched the entrance of the school as the children waited outside. After a few minutes, a bunch of police cars drove in and started to take the children and take them into the cop cars. Mark let out a sigh of relief until suddenly all the police officers were aiming at something behind Mark. "Put him down!" one of the officers yelled. Mark turned around and saw Grim holding Oliver by the neck with a smile on his face. "Hello, Mark Davis. I came to chat with you." Grim said. "Shit, I let my guard down. But Oliver was with the other group of kids...was he so fast I couldn't see him take Oliver...If so this is probably a S-rank monster." Mark thought to himself. "Everyone leave NOW!" Mark shouted at the officers. The officers got in their cars and evacuated the children as Mark pulled out his sword. "What do you want?" Mark asked. "Hand over the sword and I'll let go of the kid" Grim said. "Fine ta-" Mark suddenly felt as if his mouth was stitched shut. "DON'T YOU DARE." If you had finished that sentence you would have died on the spot. Remember the contract?" Eve said. "If you die then there is no telling what this thing will do. Also, whenever someone else tries touching me, I'll just return to your hand." Eve said. "Is that so?" Grim said. "H-he can hear Eve?" Mark asked. "And see," Grim said. "Hmmm. I guess the only way to get the sword off you is to kill you or force a switch... hmm how about this...Mark, you join my organization and make a contract with me so you can't leave. And I'll let the kid go." Grim said. Mark started sweating and didn't know what to do. Oliver was quivering and crying while Grim's smile grew. Eve still didn't stop smiling like always but her smile looked far more nervous and forced. "Mark, if you make that contract with him...and they get ahold of me. Believe me when I say, everyone and everything will end. Even Deimos won't be able to stop the events that could happen." Eve said. Mark was stunned and didn't know what to do or say. "If I use accelerate then maybe I can stab that thing in the face before Oliver can get hurt." Mark thought to himself. Mark's feet were enveloped in Mahō. "I only have one chance at this." Mark thinks as he dashes at Grim. Mark tries to stab Grim but Grim and Oliver disappear and reappear behind him. "Too slow." Grim said as black liquids poured out his eyes and lips and his smile grew. Grim's grip on Oliver tightens and Oliver feels his very soul being ripped and distorted. Oliver's body starts to melt into a weird slimy creature. Oliver's bones started poking out of his body and Oliver was bleeding out extremely fast as Grim backed away with a smile. "Oliver!" Mark yelled as he ran to Oliver and held him not knowing what to do. "Eve do something please!" Mark yelled as he looked at her. "I Don't have enough sword shards to heal the soul. All the damage I can heal is physical. I'm sorry." Eve said. Oliver tried calling out for help and crying. But his body's functions no longer worked. Tears started flowing from Mark's eyes until suddenly Oliver's body popped like a balloon. Mark was covered in blood as he sat there and looked at the bloody mess. The only thing that was left of him was his clothes and the scarf Mark gave him. Mark picked up the Scarf and enveloped it in Mahō. Suddenly the scarf's color turned blood red and Mark wrapped the scarf around him. Mark's skin had a tint of gray and the vine around his arm seeped into his skin and turned into a black tattoo. Eve's smile was much smaller as she disappeared as Mark got up and put his sword away. "Well, let's get this over with. I wonder...would dad prefer if I brought you in dead or Ali-" Before Grim could finish his sentence, Mark closed the distance and punched Grim in the face, sending him flying back. Mark then shot a large black vine out of his hand, wrapped it around Grim's body, and threw him into the school. Grim felt dizzy and got up to dust himself up. "That hurt..." Grim said with a bloody nose. "I can still take damage but I don't feel pain. My powers allow my soul to act on its own and heal my body even if it's vaporized into nothing. yet...I'm not supposed to feel pain...did he...harm my soul? Father said the only people who knew how to do that were Deimos and Ava...yet...this guy, he did it...Learning how to attack the soul takes people nearly a lifetime to do...and this 17-year-old...did it on his first attempt without knowing..." Grim thought as Mark walked into the school and stared at him down from the end of the hallway. "Is it because his soul is now one with Eve and he grew a better understanding of soul-based attacks? Is it because his raw rage unlocked a new ability... that is not completely unheard of...or maybe a mixture of both, Either way...I could die if I don't try...so how about I take this more seriously." Grim said as he summoned his scythe. Grim snapped his finger and suddenly 10 souls launched out of Grim's body and charged at Mark. "hate...I feel nothing but HATE! Monsters are nothing but foul, disgusting, evil creatures! The pain and suffering your kind has caused me is beyond your simple demonic mind's understanding .Hate isn't the right word...what I feel towards you is indescribable, If the word hate was written on every atom on my body...that still wouldn't even equal to 1/10th of the hate I feel this second. I swear...I'll be the one to end your entire race off of this planet and whatever dimension the rest of you live. THAT I promise." Mark said. The vine tattoo started growing along Mark's neck as he pulled out his sword then cut the souls in half with one swing and purged them from existence. "I see. Even with the contract, a cursed weapon is a cursed weapon." Grim said as he charged at Mark and Mark charged at Grim and the two clashed.As their weapons clash grim pushed Mark back then stretched his hand to unnatural lengths and grabbed Mack by the neck. He then slammed Mark into the wall and ceiling and threw him through the building and in the air. Grim threw his scythe at Mark but Mark dodged mid-air only for the scythe to turn into a Grim clone and it put its hands together and spiked Mark back to the ground. The real grim hands turned into shadowy claws and Grim went to stab Mark. Mark attempted to block the attack as Grim's claws pierce his skin. Mark headbutts Grim, grabs him by the hair, then bashes his face into the wall, drags his face against the walls, and throws him into the second floor. Mark jumps up and attempts to stomp in Grim's face but Grim slips away at the last second and spits black acid out of his mouth at Mark. Mark jumps up to the ceiling and stabs his sword on the ceiling to stick then launches himself off and kicks Grim in the face. Grim smirks with blood all over his face as the Grim clone comes from behind and tries to kick Mark in the back of the head, but Mark ducks the attacks and the clone goes back to the original. Grim turns it back into a scythe and summons a second scythe and duel wields them. Grim spun them like helicopter blades and ran at Mark. Mark blocks the rapid strikes while moving backward until Grim starts cutting Mark's hand in the shoulders. Mark jumps back and sends an energy wave that knocks him back. Mark runs at Grim and while Grim is in the air Mark places his hand on Grim. "Crumble." Mark says as grim and the entire building turns to dust. As Mark looked at the destroyed building Grim's body reformed and his smile grew wider. "That was fun. But no more playing, Grim said as he blitzed Mark and touched Mark's soul. Suddenly grim is transported into a void. With only Eve standing there. "GET OUT" She screeched with her voice sounding distorted. Suddenly Grim started bleeding from the mouth and a giant cut appeared across his chest. Grim was reeling in pain as Mark stabbed him in the neck 10 times and choked and slammed him. "Prominence Sun!" Mark stabbed Grim in the stomach and set Grim on fire. As Grim yelled in pain, Mark covered his hand in a Black aura then grabbed Grim by the neck and threw him against the school wall. Mark attempted to kick his head against the wall but Grim ducked and swung his scythe, stabbed Mark through the hand, covered his hand in Mahō, and then punched Mark in the face launching him back. Grim's fingers stretch out and wrap Mark and pull him back just to get kneed in the face. Grim grabbed Mark by his face and was dragged by the face and dragged across the floor and thrown in the air. Grim threw his scythe into Mark's stomach and Grim suddenly teleported to the scythe and pressed the scythe into Mark's stomach, swung Mark around by the scythe blade, and slammed him to the ground. Grim pulls the scythe out of Mark's stomach and attempts to cut Mark's head off. Mark rolled out and jumped up. Grim didn't stop the pressure and charged up a huge amount of Mahō in his hand and threw a punch at Mark. Mark blocked the attack but despite that, his hands were broken as a result of the attack. Then suddenly large Sparks shoot out of Grim's hands and they pierce through Mark's skin, his hands, and shoot out his back. Mark then bashes his head into Grims and drops his sword. Kick the sword in the air, jumps up, catches the sword with his teeth, then falls down and stabs Grim in the neck with his sword. Then Mark covered his blade in lighting and stabbed the blade deeper into Grim. Grim dropped his scythes, turned his hands into blades, and stabbed Mark in the chest. Mark quickly jumped back the second he felt a poke to avoid getting impaled. Mark felt his fingers twitch and looked over at them to see that they had somewhat healed. Mark pulls his sword out of his mouth and shoots an energy wave in Grim's direction, but Grim jumps up to the top of the school's roof. "So my assumption is right. Thanks to the cursed blade, Mark has traits of a monster like natural regeneration. Not on the same level as a monster but still very impressive. Not just that, but he's probably having an adrenaline rush. He probably doesn't know how much damage he has taken has he?" Grim thought to himself as Mark dashed over to him and ran up the building. "Now I realize. I can't hold back anymore. He's growing as the fight is going on." Grim says as Giant raven wings shoot out his back. Mark swung his sword at Grim but Grim blocked the attack with his wings. Mark was surprised by the wing's durability as the wings pushed him off the room and he landed back on the ground. Grim jumped down and tilted his head at an unnatural angle. Grim opened his mouth and his jaw extended 3x longer than any normal should be able to. "Souls hell" Grim whispers as suddenly Mark hears the souls of every person Grim has ever killed. Mark heard hundreds of souls screaming in pain and begging to be freed. "How many...How many did you kill...they.... They are all trapped within you...what are you" Mark said as his body was paralyzed and trembling. Grim moves at blinding speeds and appears in front of Mark. "Death," Grim says as he swings his scythe. Before Grim's attack lands he hears a snap and Mark disappears. Grim turned to his left to see Mark behind Zachary. "Mr Zachary?" Mark said in confusion. "Deimos was worried that you were taking too long with this D-rank mission. So he sent me here to check on you. Andre thought this was a simple breach but it seems that thing caused this" Zack said while looking at Grim. "Are you ok?" Zach asked. "Yeah, I just have a few holes in my body. I'll be fine." Mark says as he squeezes his sword. Zachary looks at Grim and sees that Grim is breathing heavily and is bleeding. "How did you harm it? No offense but I'm stronger than you. And my attacks didn't leave him like this." Zach said. "I don't know. I was just punching and stabbing him. Anyways, it doesn't matter. I want him dead." Mark says. Zach sighs. "OK then. I got your back. You do the damage and I'll play support." Zach said. "Got it.: Mark says. Mark swings his sword as Zach snaps his finger to stop Time, puts Grim right in front of Mark, and plays Time. grim took a direct attack from Mark. Mark then hit him with a point-blank sword energy wave, blasting Grim back. Zach grabs Grim by the hood and throws him at Mark, who punches Grim in the face and launches him back at Zach who grabs Grim by the hood again and throws him at Mark who greets a tornado using his sword to throw Grim in the air. The two jump in the air and in unison, they both kick Grim into the ground. Before Grim can fully stand up, Zach snaps his fingers and suddenly Grim feels as if he's been punched over one thousand times in the chest. Mark then comes from the left and punches him in the face. Zach comes from the right and punches Grim as well. Grim was then hit with a barrage of punches, kicks, cuts, and stomps. Not just that but Zach is continuously using Timestop to get hundreds of more punches in. Even though Zach's attacks did no damage, he kept on stunning Grim so Mark could do the actual damage. Until Mark landed a heavy attack on the back of Grim's head. Grim suddenly felt a large flow of Mahō pour out of his body. "Realm shift," Grim said. In 0.000000.1 after hearing that, Zack uses an anti-realm technique as Zack and Mark are teleported to a purple void with skeletons being impaled all over the place. "Welcome...this is your end." Grim said as he pointed at Zack. Zack suddenly felt a huge amount of pressure on his body and felt his anti-realm technique being slowly broken down. Grim was attempting to shatter Zack's defenses. "If I can break his technique, I can rip out his soul from any range I want...and If Mark is left alone then it's game over" Grim thought to himself. Suddenly, Mark hears Eve's voice in his head. "Tell Zach to lower his barrier and then stab him!" Eve said. "Huh?!?!" Mark said, confused. "DO IT" she screeched. "SIR LOWER THE TECHNIQUE!" Mark shouted. Zach lowered his technique as Mark stabbed Zach in his hand. Grim attempted to steal Zack's soul from long range, but Eve connected her soul, Mark's, and Zach's temporarily. Grim felt his soul suddenly getting cut like a Knife. Grim falls on the ground as his realm falls apart. Mark pulls out his sword from Zach's hand and apologizes as he looks at Grim's panic state. "Damn it...You..." Grim places his hand on his face and suddenly grows over 20 meters tall and becomes a large slime creature with huge claws. As Grim started dashing at Zack and Mark, Zack then gets on the phone. "Take the shot," Zack said. Suddenly a hole was shot through Grim's head and Grim shrunk back to normal and held his head. "That wasn't an attack on the soul...That was a normal attack...what did she do to me?!?!" Grim said. Grim looked over to see Aster hiding in the bushes. Grim turned himself into a Raven and flew off. Aster shot at him a few times but only landed one shot on the wings. Grim fought through the pain and flew off. "Get back here coward!" Mark shouted as his body felt lightheaded from all the blood loss and fell back. "I'm so...Tired" Mark said. "Thanks, Mark. you can rest." Zach picked up Mark who was starting to fall asleep. "I'm taking him home to Bianca's place so he can rest. You hunt that thing on the ground. He's weakened enough for the Average B class to be able to take him on" Zack said as he walked off. "You got it, partner." Aster said as he started running in the direction Grim went. Meanwhile, Grim was hiding in the woods as Eva stood there waiting for him. "Yeah yeah, I don't want to hear it." Grim said as she wrapped a vine around him and herself and they both got pulled into the ground and into the bunker. "Did ya win son?" Andre asked. "I'm sleepy." Grim said as he walked to a nearby couch and flopped on it. "Well, we need to get going soon. My life is on the line and I'd prefer if I don't die tonight." Arthur said with a smile. "How long do I have to rest?" Grim asked. "Two hours!" Kindle yelled from the kitchen. "Good enough for me." Grim said as he fell asleep. 2 hours later, Grim, Eva, and Arthur were walking alone in the woods in the middle of the night. "The moon looks pretty, I wish Kindle was here to see it," Eva said. "Like he would care, he's just a grumpy old dude you think all humans are pathetic," Grim said. "Don't you think humans are pathetic as well?" Eva asked. "No... they are just annoying pests." Grim said. "Now now everyone, you can't be talking down on humans. In fact, we are helping one right now." Arthur said. "And if I don't want to?" asked Grim. "Well... believe me. You will." Arthur said. "Was that a threat?" asked Grim. Arthur said nothing and just smiled as walked ahead of everyone. Grim sighed. "Benji was more fun to hang out with." Grim said as they climbed up a hill and stopped to see Lucian standing there next to a giant pod. Grim pulled out his scythe but Eva placed her hand on Grim's shoulder and shook her head. Grim put the scythe away as Arthur approached Lucian. "We had a deal," Lucian said in a robot voice. "And I'm here to fulfill that deal." Arthur said. "You said no one would get hurt," Lucian said with his robotic voice sounding staticky. "Sure I said that but that was separate from our contract. It was just something I said afterward. The only thing in our contract we had to follow is that you would let me hack you and gain access to your cousin Bianca's data. In return, we do the hack in public so the viewers see, you get more views and we restore your body. But neither of us can tell any living human." Arthur said. "Just heal me" Lucian yelled. "GRIM!" Arthur yelled. Grim walked over and rolled his eyes. "Why couldn't he drink a potion or get a guardian to heal him" Grim asked as a black aura surrounded his hand. "Healing soul-based damage is a lot more complicated than it looks. You are one of the only people on earth who can complete this task my friend" Arthur says. Lucian opens the Pod to reveal his real body. The body's skin was gray, he wore no shirt and was only wearing sweatpants and had his bare feet out. His hair had seemingly fallen out, He was so skinny that you could see his bones press against his skin, and he was breathing heavily. Wires and other strange tubes connected to him and stuck into his skin. "Do it" Lucian said. "Ewwww" Grim thought as he placed his hand on Lucian. There was a shining purple light coming from Grim's hand for a moment but the light faded and the real Lucian pulled out the wires and other contraptions from his body. Lucian's left eye was blue and the left was green, with white skin, nails painted black, fluffy hair, and his body was no longer skinny and he was quite fit with abs. "I didn't have abs or black fingernails," Lucian said. "It was my first time healing. I must have made a few mistakes. Anyways the contract is completed right?" Grim said. "Indeed. We shall take our leave." Arthur said as he started walking off. "Hold it!" Lucian said as he went back into the pod and then came out in his tuxedo and a top hat. "I'm sorry to say that I can't let you leave. Since I can't ever tell anyone what happened...I couldn't tell anyone to come help me...So I decided that I'm going to kill you three right here now." Lucian said with a smile. "Finally, I was hoping you'd fight us." Grim said while pulling out his scythe. "My dream was to go to the beach and hold Rose's hand...one more time...but I have to redeem myself...Because of me, I Harmed Mark and I inspired Arthur to create that thing...and that thing killed hundreds of kids and tens of teachers. So I'll fight till I drop" Lucian thought. Electricity started surrounding Lucian's hand as he lifted his hand up. "I've been planning for this for days you monsters. And I can say this for certain! Someone is not walking away alive!" Lucian says. Suddenly hundreds of Lucian robots fall from the sky and charge at the trio. Eva placed her hand on the ground and giant roots came from the ground and covered the group. Suddenly hundreds of more Lucian robots start coming from the ground. Arthur chuckled as his hand was covered in a red aura and he shot out a dragon that burst through the roots and flew the trio through the Lucian robots and into the sky. "You three can chill out and watch. I got this." Grim says as he crosses his arms and falls back and hits the ground. Grim gets up and dusts him off with a smirk on his face. "So you have chosen death," Lucian said as the robot's TV screen displayed an angry face. Lucian's robots all suddenly put their hands together. "Realm shift," they all say in a robotic voice. Suddenly Grim, the robots, and Lucian all get teleported to a destroyed reality. "When more than one realm is active at the same time, the realm that's the strongest wins. If they are equal then it's a stamina battle at that point. But these are robots. So now I have multiple realms active at the same time and that will last as long as I want." Lucian said with a Large smile across his face. Suddenly all the robots ask different questions but Grim can't answer all of them at the same time and suddenly he gets hit by hundreds of thunderbolts. As Grim was stunned, The real Lucian ran up and punched Grim in the face. And launched into the other robot who grabbed him and lifted him up. The robots ask another question but before Grim can answer them, he gets hit with hundreds of more thunderbolts. Grim gets thrown and hits the floor but before he can get up, all the robots charge an energy beam and blast him. Lucian smirked thinking he won until Grim got up taking no damage. Suddenly hundreds of spiked tendrils shoot out of Grim's body and all the robots were destroyed and the realm falls along with them. Black liquid starts pouring out of Grim's eyes and mouth as he starts running at Lucian, Scythe in hand. Lucian clapped his hands and suddenly a Lucian robot that was far bulkier and that was 390 feet tall popped out of the ground. Grim jumped back at the sight of the thing as Lucian jumped on the robot's head and gauntlets and strange boots materialized on him." I call the thing Big Man. He was made in case another Triple S rank breach happened or something worse. But I've made some upgrades and now I'm using it on you. Eva looked down in horror at the sight of the Machine. "Who is this man?" Eva said to herself. "He's Lucian, a former member of the gun guild, and formerly the 5th strongest S-Rank. After his injuries, he got a lower rank but despite that, he was only lowered to A rank. Most people would be dead or retired if they went through what he did." Arthur said. "Can Grim win?" Eva asked. "Yes. I know he'll win. But I can't be too careful. Do me a favor and go get Benji and Karma please?" Arthur asked politely as he hopped off the dragon and the dragon flew off with Eva. Arthur landed on his feet and Lucian quickly looked over. "Don't worry. I'm not going to fight yet, focus on my friend." Arthur said as Lucian looked over to see Grim grow wings and start flying to him. Lucian controlled the mech and swatted Grim out of the sky and into the ground cursing a crater. Lucian then picks up Grim using the Mech and throws him. Grim got sent flying and covered over 500 miles in 2 seconds and Grim started crashing through trees and into a mountain. Lucian didn't let up and suddenly the back of the Mech formed a jet pack and in 2 seconds, Lucian's mech flew over and punched Grim with its huge fist. "Rapid punches," Lucian says as the gauntlets are covered in Mahō and the mech starts punching Grim thousands of times in mere seconds. Suddenly the mech stopped and Grim was a bloody pulp. But Grim regenerated with no damage seemingly done. Grim places his face on his stomach and face then suddenly grows 400 feet tall. Grim throws a punch at Lucian's mech and knocks it over. Lucian used Mahō to stick his feet to the robot and made the robot get up and uppercut grim. Grim throws another punch but the Mech side steps it and grabs Grim by the neck and throws him across the forest. Lucian's mech's chest opens up and he fires a ton of machine gun fire and missiles at Grim before running up and stepping on him. Grim tried getting up but Lucian simply stepped on Grim harder. "This will finish it," Lucian says. The mech begins to Charge up an energy beam but Grim's head detaches and then the head shrinks and Grim regrows his full body. Grim now at his normal size, jumps up to attack Lucian. Grim lands on the mech and swings his scythe wildly at Lucian. Lucian dodges and uses the gauntlets to block some of the attacks. Grim then throws his scythe at Lucian, but Lucian dodges it and throws a punch at Grim. but Grim teleports to his scythe and stabs Lucian from behind. Grim's smile widens to the point his mouth nearly reaches his eyes. Grim reaches over and grabs Lucian by the back of his head. "Your soul is mine," Grim says with his voice sounding raspy and distorted. As Grim grabbed Lucian's soul suddenly, Lucian's life flashed before his eyes until it stopped when a certain memory popped up. A memory from 6 years ago. "What is this...this feels familiar." Lucian looked around and saw him still in his human body and Rose sitting next to Rose on a bench in the park. "Is...that me?" Lucian said. "Thanks for inviting me, Lucian. I ran out of things to do in the library" Rose said. "No problem Rose, I like hanging out with you. Deimos is annoying and Jack is so shy he barely says more than 5 words as a response. You are a very pleasant person to talk to" said Memory Lucian. "Why am I here...who is that lady?" Lucian says as suddenly he gets transported to a more recent memory. Lucian then saw himself in his robot body dragging the pod he was in moments ago. He saw himself talking on the phone. "Lucian, I feel like you're not telling me everything!" Bianca yelled. "I'm fine. Nothing is happening!" memory Lucian yelled and hung up. The memory Lucian let out a robotic sigh and put the pod down. "I'm making a contract. I declare that any damage to my soul will be transferred to damage to my memory. Is that acceptable?" Memory Lucian said as suddenly his body glowed for a moment. "I guess it is," Memory Lucian said. "Everything is working fine. It's time for me to enact my plan" Memory Lucian said. "I see...I'm forgetting everything...But that doesn't mean I'm losing!" Lucian said. Suddenly, back in reality, Lucian pushes Grim off him as the scythe is pulled out of his chest. Lucian fell to his knees breathing heavily. "I'm starting to regret making that contract. Contracts are accepted and declined by an unknown force when it is only one person. And it's up to the maker of the contract to figure out what is good enough...was there anything else I could have given up" Lucian thought to himself as his top hat fell on the floor and he got up. "As long as your soul is intact it automatically heals any damage and you feel no pain right?" Lucian asked. "Oh, so you know? That doesn't matter. You still have no way of harming it." Grim says. "True...but what if there is nothing to regenerate from?" Lucian says. Grim looked confused as a normal-sized Lucian robot pulled up with a jetpack and uppercut Grim and sent him up to the clouds at high speeds. "FIRE!" Lucian yelled as the giant robot fired the energy beam up in the sky. The energy beam hit Grim directly. The beam completely vaporized Grim at the atomic level and the beam shot out of earth and into space. As the attack ended, Lucian nearly fell back laughing and fell on one knee and placed his hand over his wound. Lucian then looked over at Arthur. "I hope you know you're next," Lucian said. "You know you can't beat me, Lucian. You couldn't do it then, how are you going to do so in this weakened state?" asked Arthur. "I've had a plan to take you out a while ago...I just wish I didn't have to use it so soon." Lucian said. "I declare that this next attack can't miss and it will kill any human or monster and in return...This will take away half of my life span." Lucian said with a sad tone as glowed for a moment. The Mech charged a beam of energy and fired it, completely wiping out the area around them. Lucian looked in complete horror as Arthur stood there unfazed. "B-but I glowed...which means the contract was accepted...SO WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD" Lucian yelled in complete fear and frustration. Arthur said nothing and just smiled. "Lil man! Scan Arthur" Lucian said to the normal-sized robot. The robot's TV screen displayed a loading gif as suddenly it answered him. "Non-human lifeform detected." the robot said. "So he's a monster?" Lucian said, confused. "Negative. Non-monster life forms detected." The robot responded. "Wait then what is he" Lucian said in confusion. "Unknown lifeform detected," The robot said. "What are you?" Lucian asked. "You could say I came from the stars. Also, you should pay more attention to your current battle." Arthur said. "Wait wh-" Suddenly Lucian felt a sharp pain in his back as he was lifted from the ground. Lucian then gets thrown but the robot catches him. Lucian looks over and sees Grim slowly materializing on top of the mech. "H-he can regenerate from nothing into something...damn." Lucian said as he clapped his hands and hundreds of more normal-sized robots came from the ground and charged at Grim. The mech then grabs Grim off its head and holds him tightly as the other robots charge at Grim. "hmmm if these robots can use Mahō...and Mahō is part of the soul...I wonder..." Grim says under his breath. "Realm shift," Grim says as all the robots including the Mech get teleported into Grim's realm. Grim then starts manipulating the Mahō inside of them. Suddenly all the robots including the all display a painting of a red eye on their TV screens. The robot holding Lucian drops him as Lucian uses an anti-realm technique. "Shit...I can't use a realm shift...I don't have enough Mahō...and even if I did there is no way I can beat him in realm clash in this condition." Lucian said. Grim sends Lucian's robots at him. Lucian was powerless as the robots were relentless with their attacks. Lucian was punched, kicked, thrown, zapped, and dropped. Lucian eventually dropped his anti-realm technique. Grim tried to manipulate Lucian's soul once again. Instead, Lucian's memories were fading, memories of family, memories of Jaden, memories of Benji, memories of Deimos, and memories of friends. "Now I get it. I took a peek into your soul, hope you don't mind." Grim says jokingly. "And I see you've made a contract that switches soul damage with memory loss. Well then," Grim started slowly and placed his hand on Lucian "Well then, how about I make you forget everything" Grim said as he continued his attempts to attack the soul. Lucian felt everything around him fade and his memories were blurry. Suddenly he heard a voice ". "I wasn't thinking about it. I just acted and hoped I could do something." Lucian heard in his head. It was Mark's voice. Lucian laughed and punched Grim in the face. "I've been overthinking things, I'm going to die here Either way! So why not risk it all!?!? I declare I can attack the soul and in return, and in return, I only have a year left to live!" Lucian yelled. Lucian glowed and he smirked. Lucian runs over and punches Grim in the face again. This time Grim flinched in pain as the other robots charged and pinned Lucian to the ground. Lucian slams his hand to the ground and a thunderbolt strikes all of them and shuts them down. Lucian Pushed them off, ripped off a piece of metal from one of the robots, and imbued it in Mahō. Grim pulls out his scythe and the two clash with their weapons. Both were swinging their weapons widely hoping to hit the other until. Lucian stabbed Grim in the neck. The giant Mech moves and attempts to crush Lucian, but Lucian landed a critical hit and uppercutted Grim through the robot's face. Lucian, with his power now amplified, jumped through the hole in the Mech and shoved the metal scrap deeper into Grim's throat. As grim gurgles in pain and drops his scythe. Lucian spikes Grim to the ground as the Realm is destroyed. Grim pulled out the metal from his neck, Lucian was coming from the sky to end the fight with a kick. Grim teleported to his scythe and grabbed it as he swung it and cut Lucian's hand off. Lucian falls back as Grim stabs him in the side. As the scythe is on Lucian's side, Grim swings him around and throws him into a tree. Lucian coughs up blood and looks up at the moon then back at Grim. Lucian then heard a female voice calling out to him. "Find Mark," the female voice said. Lucian looked over at Grim and used every ounce of strength to form a sentence. "someday, someone will kill you" Lucian said. "Sure. But you're dying right now." Grim said as he shoved the Scythe into Lucian's heart and Lucian's body went limp. Grim pulls the scythe out and licks the blood off of it as he walks over to Arthur. "Not bad. Not bad at all grim." Arthur said as Eva ran over with Karma and Benji. "Lucian?" Benji said as he ran over to Lucian's dead body. "Yep. he was much stronger than I was but I was more resourceable." Grim said while chuckling. Karma wasn't listening and was seemingly zoning out. Benji looked at Lucian's dead body and let out a sigh. "Alright, everyone. Let's head back." Arthur said. "I'll catch up...I want to bury his body" Benji said. "Ok don't take too long now." Grim said as the group walked off without him except for Karma. "I'm sorry," Benji said. "Hey Karma, you still got that knitting kit? I wanna see if I can reattach his arm" Benji said. "Why do you even care? Just bury his body and get it over with. Also, I'm not sure if that would even work" She said. "Just shut up and hand it over," Benji said. As Benji picked up Lucian's body a small TV robot started flying off. The robot flew out of the woods and all the way into Nobility City, into Bianca's lab, and into Mark's room. Mark woke up sleepily and looked around the room. "When did I get here?" Mark wondered as a small robot TV flew onto his lap. "Lucian?" Mark asked. "Greetings," said the small bot in a robotic voice. "What's up, man? It's been a while, and what are you doing here and where am I?" Mark asked. "You're back in Bianca's Lab. Currently, Nyx and Bianca are yelling at Deimos because of your condition. "Oh, I see. And why are you here?" Asked Mark. "I was killed," Lucian said.
End of Chapter 8.