Chapter 8: Chapter 8: No turning back.

It’s been a few days since I returned from my little trip to another world. The whole time was spent getting down the new spell, and not much else. Lucifer wasn’t wrong when he said the spell was mostly the same as the dimensional one, but at the same time he was.

 

The spell follows the same principle as the other, but on a much grander scale and the amount of control you need over the spell is immense. That’s also ignoring the amount of mana this thing needs.

 

‘If I have the right feel of it, I’ll be able to activate the random hop “feature” if I unlock my first seal. But I’ve had no indication on what the unlock condition even is yet, nor do I have an idea of how long I must wait till it gives it to me.’

 

Sighing, I stop my internal bitching and focus again on the spell. I have made excellent progress these few days, and I fully expect to-

 

‘Oh! It’s done. I am glad Artoria had some training in magic, or I’d be fucking shit outa luck trying to learn this. But, I am taking to it like a fish to water.’

 

I was broken out of my musing by some footsteps and Maze asking me a question.

 

Maze: “Artoria, question for you. Why do you always have that armour on? I know you’re able to take it off.”

 

She bit her lower lip and wiggled her eyebrows to tease me a little. Giving her a wry smile I just shrug my shoulders and stand up.

 

Artoria: “It’s a second skin to me at this point, honestly.”

 

Reaching out and summoning my sword I continue, “Much like my sword. It’s a part of me. I am it as much as it is me. Make any sense?”

 

Maze hums in response for a few seconds before shrugging.

 

Maze: “Kinda? Still though, when you summon that sword your whole demeanour changes so much. It’s like you’re ready to snap at anything nearby, and only your will prevents untold death from being unleashed.”

 

Artoria: “Then you’d not be surprised when I say I feel the most at home in battle. Surrounded by hate, death, despair and determination. I was surprised, if I am being honest, when I found out just how much I loved to fight.”

 

‘Which was only a few days ago, but that’s neither here nor there…’

 

Maze gasped in mock horror and said, “No way! You mean to tell me a Spirit that was summoned constantly to fight in a war and was stained by evil actually LIKES to fight?! NO!”

 

Letting out a small chuckle I just shake my head and dismiss my sword.

 

Artoria: “Yea yea. Anyway, I am done with the spell. I can’t test it because of the lack of mana, naturally, but I thought Lucifer would want to check anyway. He is still out with his soul mate?”

 

Maze: “That cop lady? Yea, he’ll be several more hours. Got any plans then in the meantime?”

 

Artoria: “Well, I was thinking of going out and hunting. This world has some garbage that could be taken out.”

 

I frown and cross my arms in thought and mumble, “But I can’t fight like I did in that other dimension. Lucifer would probably not like it if this world was nothing but a smoking ball of rock…”

 

Maze: “That’s correct~. I remember you saying you hate holding back, or that you don’t, but I suggest you do somewhat. Lucifer can be damn scary when he’s angry.”

 

Artoria: “Yea, I agree. I think I’ll just watch the news and see if anyone shows up.”

 

Maze: “And just teleport there with your fancy shadow magic stuff?”

 

Giving her a nod, I asked if she wanted to join me. She declined saying she has some things to take care of outside of the bar.

 

Maze: “I won’t be back till late tonight. Don’t get into too much trouble now~.”

 

Waving her off I say, “No promises.”

 

She barked a laugh and left the bar. I turned around and sinking into my shadow I disappeared from Lux and reappeared in Lucifer's penthouse. Heading over to his living room, I flopped down on the couch. Looking around for the remote, I was disappointed to see it all the way across the room.

 

‘Magic for the win!’

 

Simply using magic to imitate telekinesis, I threw the remote to myself. Catching it and turning on the TV I started to flip through channels looking for any signs of some villain I’d like to fight.

 

‘I feel like some anime protagonist who just got their powers and is eager to set the world right. Wait a second… that is exactly what I am. Kinda?’

 

Leaving the channel on some random news show for now, I put the remote down and leaned back into the coach and really started to think.

 

‘What exactly do I want to do? Well, the first thing is the seals naturally. I want them gone. My power will explode when they are all removed. At that point, I will be able to expand my power to match even One Above All maybe? If not, maybe close. But, what do I want to do with all that power?”

 

Crossing my arms, frowning while closing my eyes, I tilted my head as I tried to find an ultimate goal beyond just power.

 

‘Love is off the table. At least for now. I don’t feel like conquering and ruling anything. Fighting sounds awesome though. Like, really awesome. I had no idea I was such a battle junkie. Wait, am I just Priere from La Pucelle but with an Artoria skin?!’

 

Before I could delve deeper into panic about how I was actually Priere, the TV caught my attention.

 

News: “This just in! The Police are in a firefight in downtown Gotham with the notorious super villain Bane! We have someone on the ground and will be switching to them soon!”

 

Unknown to myself, a dark smile appeared on my face.

 

Artoria: “Perfect.”

 

Sinking into my shadow the second they showed the firefight going on, I appeared in the shadow of one of his goons.

 

Summoning my sword as I was raising out of his shadow I brought my arm backwards. When I was fully out of the shadow, I pushed my sword through the grunts back and through his heart.

 

???: “What?”

 

As blood was starting to drop from his mouth he looked down in confusion. He couldn’t see anything but an outline of an object covered in his blood that seemed to pierce his chest.

 

I violently twist my sword sideways and lift the trash off the ground, causing him to release a blood curdling scream.

 

This caused everyone to pause what they were doing and look towards us. But all they could see was a man struggling with something, floating in the air screaming.

 

???: “Help, help me! I don’t want to die, not like this! NOT LIKE THI-”

 

Moving my sword to the side, I easily cut through him and before gravity started to claim its victim back I cut off his head.

 

Officer: “What the shit…”

 

Turning my head to Bane I could tell he could see me.

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Bane: “I don’t know how you’re making yourself transparent Chicka, but you picked the wrong day to play the hero!”

 

He turned around and got a rocket launcher from the stash of weapons from the vehicle near himself. As he was taking aim, the cops were starting to freak out.

 

Officer: “He has an RPG?! What the fuck, everyone clear out!”

 

Bane: “Die!”

 

He shot the RPG at me with a smug smile on his face. That smile faded quite fast when I caught the projectile with no effort. I looked down at the explosive and mused.

 

‘To be able to catch a rocket. Why does this feel like more of an achievement than tanking hits from Ultraman? Ha.’

 

Looking back up at Bane, I just crushed the rocket causing it to explode in my face.

 

Grunt: “What is going on?! Why did that rocket just stop and then suddenly explode?! Bane?!”

 

Bane: “What do you mean? You can’t see the Chicka that killed our man and caught the rocket?”

 

Grunt2: “Bane, there is no-one there!”

 

Bane: “What?”

 

I then waved my left hand and dispersed the smoke. Bane’s eyes widened in horror at seeing me completely unharmed.

 

Bane: “Fuck this then!”

 

He started to pump himself full of Venom. I watched in interest as he bulked up a lot. His muscles became even bigger than his head.

 

‘With drugs like that, how is there even sickness in the world, honestly… And, why does he think he can do more than a rocket?’

 

With a roar, he started to charge at me after he was done doping up. I made note that the pavement was lightly cracking under him while he was running.

 

‘Damn, he must weigh a lot now to crack pavement like that. If I don’t activate my Mana Burst, he’ll be able to overpower me as I am now in terms of strength. It won’t hurt, but it’d hurt my pride. But doing so will kill everyone around here because of my aura. Is my pride worth more than their lives?’

 

Time seemed to slow down as his fist was incoming towards my face. Centimetre by centimetre his fist slowly moved. As his fist was closing in, I had an epiphany.

 

‘I am Artoria Alter in all but the mind. But my mind is also changed because of “All the World’s Evil” that corrupts me. This is the new me. The new me loves fighting. The new me loves power. And the new me…’

 

Just as Banes fist was about to connect to my face, I erupted in black light with red-black flames. This immediately caused Bane to be crushed into the ground, while out right killing everyone else around me.

 

‘...refuses to let an ant like this think he has a chance. My new pride refuses!’

 

Bane: “What… what is? Argh.. What is this? What are you doing Chicka?”

 

‘I won’t use Burst Air, because I don’t want Lucifer to kill me. But just this should be fine.’

 

Looking down at the garbage struggling to even raise his head I simply raised my sword and with a swift motion cut off Bane’s head. I dismissed my sword and turned to leave when all of a sudden I felt something inside me click open. Words appeared in my mind.

 

~Accept the new you, embrace it. And the first seal will be undone.~

 

I then felt a massive amount of power flow through me. Or rather, I felt more of my power return.

 

‘Oohhhh shit. That feels awesome. What a rush. So this is what unlocking a seal feels like? Damn, that is addictive.’

 

A pleased smile made its way onto my face as I sank into my shadow to return to Lux.

 

— P.O.V switch 3rd —

 

A few minutes after Artoria had left, two heroes arrived at the scene. As they walked through the bodies the woman spoke with some sorrow in her voice.

 

Batgirl: “What happened here, Batman? Everyone is dead. Everyone.”

 

Batman: “I don’t know, but I have a guess.”

 

Batgirl: “Who?”

 

Batman: “Artoria.”

 

Batgirl: “That ghost of King Arthur you spoke of? Why?”

 

Without answering, he just pointed to the decapitated body of Bane. Looking at the body, Batgirl frowned.

 

Batgirl: “Okay, so… why did she kill everyone?”

 

Batman: “Wrong place, wrong time situation. From her own admission, anyone with a weak soul near her when she stops holding her power in check will die. I can confirm that when we fought on the space station, it felt like my entire being was being crushed.”

 

Batgirl gulped in worry.

 

Batgirl: “How do we fight someone like that?”

 

Batman: “We don’t. We need to do this smart and unconventional, or this happens.”

 

He waved his hand around the area.

 

Batman: “There is also a very high chance we have a lot more dead than this. Her aura, as she called it, ignores things like walls.”

 

Batgirl gasped in horror when she looked to where he was looking.

 

Batgirl: “Bruce! That’s a dayca-”

 

Batman: “I know. I am going to call Fate and the others. We need a solution for Artoria yesterday.”