I will return

51

He was at the bar, comfortably using Tom's body. It was perfect cover, one of the many benefits of my experiments with the Daemon Ritus. No one would suspect anything, and it also gave me the opportunity to move without attracting attention. As I looked around, I noticed Zarkos sitting at a table in the back, drinking and chatting with N' Goo Tuana. I got close enough to listen without being seen.

"I've been hurting myself a lot lately," Zarkos said, rubbing his shoulder with a wince. Titan... those blows... I can't believe it, he's stronger than I imagined.

I smiled to myself. Of course he was. Titan was not the same dumb and weak fighter as before. He was now an unstoppable beast, but not by accident. I made sure of that. Zarkos' words continued to flow, and I delighted in listening to my plan unfold.

"A few months ago he was nothing more than a clumsy fighter," Zarkos continued. An idiot. How the hell did he learn so much in such a short time? It's like out of nowhere he knows all my weak points.

N' Goo Tuana leaned back in his chair and gave a mocking laugh.

—Maybe he was just pretending to be a fool. Getting fooled, playing weak... and then, bam, he destroys you when you least expect it.

Zarkos shrugged nervously. I knew something wasn't right, but I couldn't figure it out.

"If this keeps up," he muttered, looking at his glass resentfully, "my agent will leave me." He's already talking about canceling me, cutting sponsorship. If I lose that... I'll be left with nothing.

My smile grew as I heard those words. *Ah, Zarkos, your agent is also under my control*. He had absorbed it a long time ago, as had the organizers of the fights. In this way, everything was orchestrated for Titan to destroy him. Every fight, every blow, everything planned to humiliate him.

N' Goo Tuana, always ready to pick at wounds, leaned towards him.

—But you are Zarkos, right? You've taken down other fighters before. What about the last ones you've beaten?

Zarkos mentioned five names quickly, as if seeking consolation, and I smiled even more when I heard that three of them were, of course, under my control as well. Titan had walked over them like they were rag dolls, and Zarkos didn't even know it.

-Know? Zarkos said, drinking the last of his glass, "you could come to the next fight." See how I destroy it once and for all... if I can.

I laughed silently. *Perfect*. Every word that came out of their mouths only reinforced my success.

"Oh, yes... perfect," I murmured to myself. Because now, N' Goo Tuana, you will regret kicking me that night we were arrested.

The two continued chatting, oblivious to the spider web that surrounded them. Everything was progressing just as I had planned.