Double-Cross After Double-Cross (1)

Sonic and I headed for the rendezvous where I'd agreed to meet Avalon. There was no sense drawing eyes by cutting through a crowd, so we slipped through wheat fields that stood taller than I was.

"Put out the fire!"

"Aaaagh! Somebody help me!"

"Why the hell is this happening?!"

Voices poured in from every direction — people trying to smother the flames, people under attack by enemies they couldn't even see, people staring at their burning crops in blank, broken despair.

"From here on, we take it slow."

"Yes, Master."

The meeting point was already on fire. I eased off the pace and closed in carefully.

Six people — men and women — were standing there. At their feet, the Blood King's subordinates lay scattered in grotesque heaps.

"Ghhhk…"

"M-Master…"

Ordinary soldiers and the lower-ranked Masters were already dead. The ones at 5-Star and above — Masters and Fairies alike — had been left alive, if you could call it that: arms and legs ripped out or hacked off, collapsed in the dirt, moaning through the pain.

The flames surged, and in the sudden flare of light a man's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠face came clear.

Holy shit. That's terrifying.

Harsh breathing, like the taste of blood had wound him up. Eyes glittering with murder. A thin, wet smile hanging at the corner of his mouth. Anyone looking at him would have called him a genuine psychopath, and the killing intent rolling off that firelit face was enough to make even me flinch.

Part of me wanted to pretend I hadn't seen a thing and walk right back the way I'd come. I couldn't. He was the whole reason I was here.

"Let's go, Sonic."

"Yes, Master."

We stepped toward him.

The moment we came out of cover, the women around the man snapped their weapons up and leveled them at us. Sonic's hand found her sword hilt, ready to answer if it came to that. I put both hands up.

"Whoa, whoa — easy, friends. It's me."

They recognized my face and lowered their blades. Behind them, the man threw his arms wide, grinning, and walked straight toward me.

"What took you so long? I was starting to think something had happened."

"Something? Looks to me like you're the one who had something happen."

"This? Please. Trash like this could come at me in droves and it still wouldn't be a fight."

He pointed at the bodies on the ground, that same thin smile on his face, playing it off like it was nothing.

Yes. The man who had turned this place into a slaughterhouse — the man who, for one tiny, tiiiiny second, had actually made me flinch — was Avalon.

"Anyway…"

His eyes slid past me to Sonic. His brow furrowed, like something about the picture didn't sit right.

"Where the hell are the rest of your Fairies? You've only got this one?"

"My party's holding the zone I was assigned. Too many people trying to put the fires out. What about you, though? You sure you can just walk away from yours? What happens if the enemy starts putting the flames out?"

"I've got Izabella."

Avalon shrugged and pointed her out. The white-haired Fairy met my eyes and gave a small nod.

"Right. Of course you do."

Among Izabella's skills was one called Wind Barrier.

The utility on that thing was absurd. She'd even used it once in a tavern to keep our voices from carrying outside. Avalon had her locking down the wind over every place they'd torched, so the fires wouldn't die — they'd just keep burning.

Come to think of it… my party doesn't have a mage, does it?

We didn't. If you stretched the definition, I was the mage — but every spell I could use was built for killing, which meant I couldn't do the kind of work Izabella did.

If Izabella filled that hole in the party, it'd be perfect.

Except even if I made her my Fairy, I couldn't just slot her into the party. A Fairy whose Master was gone, turning around and working for someone else? That was not a situation you could lie your way through.

Shame.

Even after I took her, I'd have to use her on the side. In a party this starved for a mage, that was a hell of a waste.

"More importantly — what's the plan? Purge or Krakson. Who do we hit first?"

"Krakson's closer. We take him first."

"Fine. Then let's finish these ones off and move."

"Whoa, whoa. Hold it."

"Hm?"

I drew my sword, ready to put the dismembered Masters and Fairies out of their misery. Avalon stopped me.

"I caught them. I'll handle them myself."

His eyes flashed as he waved me off. The look said that if I so much as touched a Master or Fairy he'd claimed, he would not let it go.

"…Suit yourself."

Faced with that kind of finality, I shrugged, slid the blade back into its sheath, and stepped away.

"Kanna. Go deal with them and catch up."

"Yes, Master."

"You're not going to kill them yourself?"

"No reason I have to. Besides, Kanna's the lowest level in the group. She needs the growth."

"Ah. Fair enough."

I nodded, keeping my face flat.

"Ghhk— l-let me go!"

"Please! Please, I'm begging you, don't kill me!"

"Master! Masteeeeer!"

Avalon's Fairy, Kanna, dragged the prisoners off into the wheat. With death that close, they started screaming.

"We'll go on ahead. Kanna will catch up soon enough."

"Yeah."

I took Sonic and followed Avalon as he turned and walked away. Watching his back, I couldn't help a thin little laugh.

That bastard Avalon… the second he opens his mouth, the lies just come pouring out on their own.

We moved in a way that kept us off the enemy's eyes.

Avalon — certified psychopath that he was — would have happily murdered every last person we passed. I talked him down. If Krakson caught wind that we were coming, the whole approach was shot. He seemed to accept that I had a point; he clicked his tongue, disappointed, and nodded.

We cut straight across the wheat and came out in the zone Krakson was supposed to be holding.

"Ghhhhhk—!"

A wet, ugly crack of bone.

"AAAAAGH!"

"Wow. He just folded a guy's spine in half with his bare hands."

Krakson and his Fairies were in the middle of tearing through the Blood King's men. I'd heard the Blood King had pulled his core people and left the field, and it looked like that was true — the Blood King's side had the numbers, and they were still getting slaughtered.

"That's not a man. That's a monster."

Krakson's class was Great Warrior, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the rare-rank evolution of Warrior. He'd clearly invoked the class's power; his body had swollen to nearly twice the size of anyone around him. Those log-thick arms whipped through the air, and since the body itself was the weapon, he was beating people to death with nothing but his fists.

"Kanna and I will take Krakson. The rest of you handle his Fairies."

Avalon was already breathing hard, like his blood had started running hot just from looking at the fight.

"Let's go, Kanna! Time to hunt!"

"Yes, Master!"

The two of them charged straight at Krakson.

"Grrraaah—? Hm?"

Krakson had been rampaging like a mad animal. The second he spotted Avalon and Kanna coming at him, a nasty grin split his face.

"Khhhahaha! Krakson! Kill! GRRAAAAAAH—!"

He must have taken Avalon for one of the Blood King's men. He bellowed like a monster and barreled toward them, speech thick and clumsy, like there wasn't much going on behind the eyes. One long, ape-like arm shot out and locked around Avalon.

"Ghhhk—! This bastard's strong as an ox!"

"Uuh?"

Krakson had meant to crush him in a single squeeze. When Avalon held, he just tilted his head, confused.

"Be my meal, you gorilla son of a bitch."

Avalon weathered that brutal pressure with a thin, ugly smile and called on the power of his class — Demon-Worshiping Swordsman.

A sick, black energy erupted around him, crawling through the air as if it were drawing a magic circle. Then it locked into shape: a pentagram, flipped on its head.

"U-uuhhhhhh!"

Something about that inverted star must have set off every alarm Krakson had. He swung a fist bigger than a boulder, the flesh glowing red-hot — a skill, on top of the raw strength.

A black arm exploded out of the pentagram and caught the punch cold. The arm was enormous, easily a match for Krakson himself.

"Master!"

"Your fight's with us."

"Damn it! Out of the way!"

Krakson's Fairies finally realized something was wrong and tried to break through to him. Sonic, Avalon's Fairies, and I stepped in and cut them off.

So that's a mid-rank demon.

I kept one eye on Avalon's fight while I traded blows with one of the Fairies. Out of the inverted pentagram at his back came a screaming thing with a goat's head and a pair of bat wings — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the mid-rank demon he'd called.

"Khhahahaha! Die! Die! Die!"

"Haaaaah!"

The demon shrieked, a raw, bleating howl, and in a heartbeat Avalon, Kanna, and the creature had Krakson boxed in.

"G-GROOAAAH! OOOOAAAH! KRAKSON! WILL NOT LOSE!!!"

The ground erupted — boom, then another, then another — but Krakson was a 6-Star in his own right, and he was not about to fold for three opponents. He answered with the brutal physical power unique to a Great Warrior, fists and skills hitting like bombs, the earth blowing apart under every strike.

"Khhahaha! Kanna!"

"Yes, Master! Dark Charge!"

Avalon barked the order through a burst of laughter, and Kanna drove in with her shield up, a black aura boiling off her like a second skin. Charging head-on into that storm of wild, indiscriminate blows was as close to suicide as a tactic could get. She was a Fairy, though. The moment her Master gave the word, she moved without a flicker of hesitation.

Krakson's fist smashed into the shield. The metal caved. Kanna screamed as she went flying.

"Kh—! Haaaaah!"

She'd been launched a long way, but the black aura ate most of the impact, and the damage wasn't as bad as it looked. She popped back up like a roly-poly and charged him again.

Come to think of it… Krakson's attribute is Void, isn't it?

I pulled up his status window and confirmed it.

His stats sat below mine. His rank and level sat above. My Greed attribute had the power to rip the attribute off anyone stronger than I was, which was how I'd ended up holding all six of the major elements — and why two of them had already climbed a tier, Fire into Flame and Darkness into Black.

If I was the one who killed Krakson, Void would have room to evolve.

No way I'm letting a chance like this slip.

I watched. And I waited for my opening.