Kenji lay flat on his back, staring up at a sky that no longer had fog covering the night sky and no longer glowed with the sickly, rhythmic pulse of purple light. The ash falling from the atmosphere felt like cold snow against his blood-stained cheeks.
It was quiet.
When Barbara died, and the Shard was finally secured in his inventory, the collective psychic link she held over the vampires snapped. Every vampire under her control had dropped instantly, meaning every vampire in the city, which was what allowed him and the others to just lie there without a worry.
'Lucky', Kenji thought, his lungs wheezing with a sound like sandpaper on glass. God, it hurt so much just trying to breathe. He felt himself already healing, so there was no need for a potion.
Vandalieu sat beside him, his legs folded neatly in a meditative pose. His torso was still faintly stitched together with visible, writhing threads of black mana where he'd been bisected. It was a gruesome sight that would have made a lesser man vomit. Erza leaned against the remains of a charred tree, her armor dismissed as she reverted to her simple cloth bandages and trousers.
Kenji had given them both the last of his high-tier potions, so right now he didn't have any left. He could buy more, but the fight was over already. 'Just have to find time to grind in the ID and refill his supply.
The sound of an engine cut through the heavy silence. A car screeched to a stop nearby, its tires kicking up a cloud of grey dust. The door flew open, and Sora jumped out, his bow slung over his shoulder as he ran toward them with frantic desperation.
"Are you guys alright?!"
Kenji didn't even bother lifting his head. He just raised his right hand, heavy as lead, and gave a tired thumbs up.
Sora stopped ten feet away, exhaled sharply, and dropped his shoulders in relief. He had been watching the battle from a distance, and truthfully, he hadn't been able to see half of what happened.
To his eyes, it had been a blur of teleportation, tearing, and explosions that defied physics. The only reason he had been able to land that Holy Arrow was because Kenji had held Barbara in place, turning a god-tier target into a stationary practice dummy for a split second.
Sora clenched his fist, looking at his shaking hands. If quests were going to be like this going forward, his current strength was a joke. He needed to get stronger, to be more than just a well-timed distraction. He knew his main thing was his mind, but he won't survive with just that if all missions were like this one. He sat down beside Van, joining the silent, exhausted vigil of the survivors.
Kenji wasn't resting, though. Not really. His mind was frantic, replaying the fight, and the more he reviewed the fight, the more he wanted to scream until his throat bled.
He had fucked up. Badly.
He should have killed Barbara the moment the Shard appeared. He should have treated her like the world-ending threat she was instead of a "pacing" boss fight. He was a Satan-class being, for God's sake, and he had struggled with a woman who started the fight at low class before jumping to High-class.
He was the reason she had even reached the power to challenge him, his own curiosity and hesitation had given the Shard the time it needed to adapt, evolve, and ultimately become the threat she was at the end.
Sure, the literate part of his brain argued that the Shard was "bullshit." It was pulling out powers from her ass like it was nothing. It canceled [LAW]. It bent and manipulated reality in small fractions. But those were excuses for a man who knew better. He could have done better. He should have done better.
And then there was the strength issue.
His brow furrowed, eyes narrowing behind his closed lids. He should have been overwhelmingly stronger after killing Superman and Shazam. The [Player Reward] boost alone should have made him an unstoppable force of nature, a physical god in his own right.
But he had discovered a horrifying flaw in his nen ability mid-fight, [Player Reward] didn't activate while [LAW] was active. Seems that the two abilities don't work with each other.
He gripped his hair, covering his face in genuine, burning shame. How did he not know that? Why was he finding out the limitations of his own Nen abilities after killing three god-tier entities? It was a rookie mistake, this was something he should have learn a while ago, this was something he should have noticed.
But worst of all, the realization that actually made him feel like he should crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment was his [Stat Shift].
He had used [Game Field]. He had used [Contract Chain]. He had used [Savepoint] since he came to this world. But in the heat of the chaos, he had completely, utterly forgotten to use [Stat Shift]. He could have shifted his entire pool into offensive power to crush her in a single hit, or into durability to ignore the life-drain lightning.
Instead, he had struggled. He had bled. He had nearly died. Because he forgot his own skill. It was the equivalent of a grandmaster chess player forgetting he had a Queen on the board.
He exhaled a long, tired sigh. 'I guess at the end of the day, I'm still just human. I can forget my own name if the world is exploding loud enough. God, I'm an idiot.'
"Are you alright?" Erza asked gently, sensing the sudden change as she watched him covering his face.
He waved a hand dismissively, his voice muffled by his palm. "Don't mind me. Just dying of regret and shame over here. Thinking about how much of a moron I am."
She gave him an odd, concerned look, her brow arching. "Oh? What happened?" Sora asked with a wide grin, one of those predatory, mischievous grins that told Kenji if he spoke the truth, he would be teased for the next three lifetimes. Even Van turned his head curiously, his empty eyes searching Kenji's face.
Kenji shut his mouth tight. 'Not happening. That secret goes to the grave. I'd rather fight Superman again than admit I forgot'.
"Anyways," he dragged the word out, desperately changing the subject. "Everyone received the notifications?"
They all nodded.
"Yes," Erza said, her voice heavy with relief. "The quest is complete. We got the shard."
"Yeah," Sora stretched his arms, the tension leaving his frame. "Finally. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not wasting another second in this graveyard. I want to go back to Shiro. I want a bed that isn't made of rubble."
Like subquests, the system allowed them to remain in the world for a few hours after completion to "clean up," but none of them wanted to stay. The air smelled of ash, ozone, and the metallic tang of blood everywhere.
Sora stood up, looking at the group with a genuine, weary smile. "It was nice meeting you all. Getting to know you and fighting together... despite the circumstances. But I really need to get back."
"Talk to you guys later." Flash. He was gone.
"See you all later," Vandalieu said quietly. In a flash, he too was gone.
Kenji turned to Erza, who was standing now, brushing the dust of a dead world off her bandages. "Well, as the others said... it was good fighting beside you. You're quite formidable. Maybe we'll spar properly next time if we have the chance."
Erza gave him a firm, respectful nod. "I would like that, Kenji. Until we meet again."
Light enveloped her, and she was gone, leaving Kenji alone in the silent ruins. He stood up slowly, his bones clicking and popping in a rhythmic protest. He looked around once more, at the broken skyscrapers of Blüdhaven, the ash-choked sky that was reducing, and the total absence of life.
"Well. Guess it's time to return," he muttered to the air.
"Leaving so soon?"
The voice froze his blood solid. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run, to hide, to cease existing. His body tensed, his hand flying to the hilt of the Yamato.
"You didn't even say goodbye."
He turned slowly, his heart hammering in his throat. There she stood, looking like a goth girl in a park, pale skin, dark clothes, an ankh around her neck, looking exactly the same as when they met all those weeks ago.
Death of the Endless. Lady Death was back for him.
"Lady Death," he spoke carefully, his voice a dry rasp. He had just survived one apocalypse, he wasn't looking to throw his life away by offending the personification of the End.
"Relax," she said, waving a hand lazily as she sat on a piece of jagged concrete. "Like I said before, I'm not here to collect you. I just came to see you off. It's rare to see people from so far away do so much cleaning," she said as she looked around.
He exhaled, though his muscles remained coiled. She looked around at the battlefield, her expression shifting from casual amusement to something deeply serious and somber.
"You have my thanks," she said, her voice serious, something he had never seen before in any comic, nothing as serious as this anyway.
"My… thanks? For what?"
"That thing," she said softly, nodding toward his chest. He had a feeling she was gesturing at his inventory. "The Shard. Whatever it was, I didn't even know it was here. I doubt anyone knew. It was truly a dangerous item, even by my standards."
She stepped closer, and the world around her seemed to grow dim, as if light itself were bowing to her presence. "To think something could hide even from me… it had a primordial scent. Old yet Wrong. I could feel its power growing while I watched the fight. If it had continued to grow in secret, feeding on the chaos and life of this world without anyone knowing…"
She didn't finish the sentence, but the implications were cold. If the personification of Death was "thankful" that it was removed from her reality, it meant the Shard wasn't just a powerful but far more than Kenji imagined it to be
Kenji swallowed hard. "I'm glad we could help, then. I think."
She studied him for a long, uncomfortable moment. Then, she lifted her hand toward him. A chill passed through his chest, not a painful one, thankfully, but it was a cold, stillness that made his heart forget how to beat for a second.
[You have received a Blessing from Death of the Endless.]
Kenji's eyes widened to the size of saucers. His jaw nearly hit the cracked asphalt. This wasn't some minor god from the DxD universe. This was Death of the Endless. He bowed again. "Truly, I am grateful, my Lady."
He wasn't one to suck up, but he wasn't a fool either. He would be as respectful as humanly possible to someone who could blink him out of causality.
She just smiled at him, a faint expression that even reached into his soul. "Well, I guess this is it."
"Kenji," she called out his name as he prepared to trigger the return.
"Yes?"
"I would prefer not to see you or your friends again for a very, very long time. Is that clear?" She smiled, but the chill behind that smile was a warning that seemed to bypass his [Gamer's Mind] and inflicted terror in him.
He nodded immediately, the message carved into his brain. 'Understood. DC Universe is officially moved to the 'Do Not Visit' list until I can punch a hole in the source wall.'
He gave an awkward, respectful wave. She waved back cheerfully. He hit his [Return] button.
Light swallowed him, tearing him away from the dead world.
Kenji blinked. The smell of ash and ozone was gone in an instant, replaced by the faint, comforting scent of his own home and the hum of the refrigerator. He was back in his kitchen, standing in the exact spot he had been when the quest started, a half-finished glass of water still on the counter.
He slumped forward, his body and mind finally acknowledging the sheer, bone-deep exhaustion. He dragged his heavy limbs to the living room and dropped onto the couch like a bag of stones.
He closed his eyes, wanting to drift into a sleep that lasted for a decade.
"Welcome back."
The monotone, ethereal voice snapped his eyes open. He sat up with a jolt, scanning the room with wide, panicked eyes.
There, sitting on the opposite side of the couch, watching him with those unblinking, obsidian eyes that contained the void itself, was Ophis. The Dragon God of Infinity.
She sat perfectly still as she watched him.
Kenji stared at her for a long, silent minute, the weight of the day crashing down on him all over again.
"...Fuck," he whispered.
———————————————————
If you want to read ahead and access 40 advanced chapters, check the patreon. $4 Dollars
Link:patreon/Phantomking785