WIEDERGEBURT Act V: Chapter 13

The arena had gone more silent than a grave. The people in the stands were all staring at me as I stood on the platform, my eyes narrowed in anger. I was glaring into the now destroyed wall, through which Fritz had disappeared. His legs were currently sticking out of the rubble, but I knew he wasn’t dead.

“Wha… what is going on here?” Silas suddenly asked into his microphone. Judging by the look on his face, he probably had forgotten he was even holding it.

“Why did you not call the match?” I turned to the man, who suddenly gulped as he found himself the center of attention. “The battle had clearly been won, yet you let it continue, and as a result, Karen almost had her spiritual cultivation crippled.”

“I… uh… that is…”

Silas was having a hard time breathing, which I realized was because I was unleashing my Spiritual Pressure on him. I hadn’t noticed it was subconsciously leaking out. Once I discovered this, I reigned my Spiritual Pressure in, causing the announcer to sigh in relief as his shoulders sagged like they were boneless.

“Announce the victor,” I demanded.

“Right… erm… right…” Silas coughed several times, cleared his throat, and then said, “t-the victor of this match goes to—”

“WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” a shout suddenly erupted from the rubble, which exploded in every direction as a figure darted forward. Several people close to where the explosion took place screamed in shock. It was fortunate no one was injured.

Fritz landed back on the arena platform. His body was a mess. Blood ran down the side of his face, cuts littered his arms, legs, neck, and torso, his clothing had been completely ruined, and he was covered in powder. That powder was actually dust created from the destroyed remains of the wall.

“Oh? You’re still alive?” I asked in a cold voice.

“I asked you a question, you little shit!” Fritz’s eyes had gone bloodshot as he glared at me. “Who the fuck do you think you are?!”

“Who I am shouldn’t matter to you,” I said, my voice still cold. “You won. Now get off the stage.”

“Don’t fuck with me, fucker!”

Fritz roared as he stomped on the ground. His shadow stretched out across the arena floor and turned into a stake that tried to impale me, but I erupted with a bright light as I used Kari’s light element. No matter how powerful someone was with the darkness element, light would always remain their weakness, and so the shadow stake was burned away before it could even reach me.

The golden light being released from my body was blinding, forcing everyone to close their eyes. Fritz and Silas, who were the closest, received the full brunt of my powerful technique. Their surprised screams echoed around the arena. However, while the announcer was merely surprised, Fritz began screaming in pain as the light seared into him.

I didn’t sustain the light element. The light eventually died down, and I used the Flash Step to close the distance between me and Fritz. He hadn’t even noticed I was right in front of him until I had raised my hand.

Pah!

A sound echoed through the arena, heard even over the surprised screams of the crowd. It was the sound of me backhanding Fritz. I didn’t hold back either. My attack was so strong the man’s body spun like a top. He stumbled backwards several steps to keep himself from falling to the arena floor, raised a hand to his face, and felt his now swollen cheek. There was a large red mark on his left cheek.

His bloodshot eyes became filled with even more rage.

“You little chicken shit!! I’m gonna—

Pah!

Fritz tried to attack me again, but I once more slapped him before he could move more than two steps. This time he could not right himself. His body fell heavily to the arena floor like a sack of bricks. Now there were two large red marks on his face, one on each cheek, and the swelling had increased to twice its previous size, making it look like someone had shoved balloons into his cheeks.

He didn’t move to stand up, and once I was sure he wasn’t going to bother me, I went over to Karen and scooped her into my arms. The woman was unconscious. Her left arm hung down and her legs swung limply as I turned to gaze at Silas, silently demanding he announce the winner as he should have done before Fritz had the chance to torture Karen. He seemed to understand because he held the shakey microphone to his mouth.

“T-the winner of this match is Fritz Anderson,” he said in a squeaky voice.

No one cheered. No one said anything. I took a moment to gaze at the crowd and saw that all of them were staring at me with bulging eyes and gaping mouths. Seeing this reaction caused me to snort.

I turned my back on Fritz and began walking toward the arena doors, but I didn’t get very far before the man screamed.

“YOU FUCKER!! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!”

I stopped walking and turned my head toward Fritz, who was screaming incoherently as he ran toward me, traveling faster than most people. That was someone in the Third State of Spiritualism for you. He moved very quickly. However, he was still far weaker than any of my wives, and he was far weaker than me.

Since this man wasn’t giving up, I’d let him know the difference between us.

Silas was screaming at Fritz to stop, that he’d already won, but Fritz was not listening. There was a madness in his eyes, which had become the color of blood. He must have popped a blood vessel. Either way, he looked like a madman now. Gone was the arrogance. Gone was the cockiness. All that remained was an inconsolable rage.

That rage would soon turn into fear.

With a simple thought, I unsealed the restrains on my Spiritual Power and let them run amok, and then I went a step further and unleashed my killing intent. Power erupted from my body. Cracks spread across the ground beneath my feet as lightning and water gushed all around me, creating a tornado with me in the very center. Arcs of pale lightning struck the arena floor, gouging out several chunks. Water swirled around my body like a whirlpool. I had not moved after unleashing this power, but the arena had been damaged a lot by me.

Fritz stumbled back as I glared at him. While a good portion of my Spiritual Pressure and killing intent was simply leaking out everywhere, I had focused most of it on this man. Fritz was unable to withstand the pressure. He fell onto his hands and knees, unable to remain standing, and his entire body started shaking. Sweat formed along his brown and drenched his back. His pupils became dilated.

I was not holding back as I released my killing intent, and I had directed most of it onto Fritz. It would not have surprised me if he was seeing himself being killed over and over again in a variety of ways at my hands. Killing intent could do that. Though it was also possible his mind had completely blanked. If that was the case, he might become a vegetable. Oops.

“You are very lucky you technically did not violate any of the tournament’s rules,” I said. I spoke softly, but my voice carried to everyone since the arena was so quiet. “Right now the only thing that’s stopping me from killing you is the fact that I would be the one committing a crime instead of you. Consider yourself incredibly fortunate that this is the case.”

I didn’t know if Fritz could even hear me. His eyes were sightless. I curled my lower lip, then wrinkled my nose in disgust when a sharp scent filled it. I watched as a puddle formed underneath Fritz. With a shake of my head, I reigned my Spiritual Pressure and killing intent back in, then floated off the arena floor and began flying toward Alexis’ private viewing booth—much to the shock of the crowd.

Alexis’ viewing boot did not have an entrance on the outside, so I landed on the arena viewing platform. The person I landed next to stared at me with wide eyes. I ignored him and walked toward the nearest archway, passed through it, and found the set of stairs I remember Alexis leading us to earlier. It wasn’t long after that I returned to her private viewing booth.

Alexis did not speak as I entered the viewing booth. Her eyes were hard like diamonds, but her face was pale and her fists were shaking. It looked like she was just barely holding onto her sanity. My wives, by contrast, did not look bothered by the sudden killing intent I had released at all. Even Raul seemed fine.

“Karen got booboo?” asked my son after waddling up to me.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Hurt bad?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry.” I gave Raul a reassuring smile. “Your daddy is gonna make her all better.”

Raul gave a reassured nod and watched me as I walked further into the room and set Karen on the soft carpet. Once she was lying down, I placed my hands over her body, sending the water element into her and using it to see what kind of damage had been done.

The most dangerous wound was definitely the hole in her body. It wasn’t large, but it did travel through her chest and back. Karen was fortunate Fritz had missed her vitals or she’d have already been dead. I didn’t know if Fritz had purposefully missed or if this was a lucky accident… but I was leaning toward lucky accident since that man didn’t seem like the type to care about whether or not he killed someone in the heat of the moment.

As I began channeling the water element to heal her, my wives came up and surrounded us.

“That was quite the display,” Kari said with an amused smile. “You realize, of course, that you basically just shocked everyone in the audience.”

“I know,” I said.

“People are going to be talking about this for a long time,” Fay added. “I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone who owns a guild is already scrambling to try and figure out who you are.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me either,” I admitted.

“Darling… what was your purpose in doing this?” asked Lin. She crossed her arms and stared at me with a small frown. “This princess knows you would never do something so spectacular and outrageous without a reason.”

As we spoke, I continued healing Karen’s injury. It wasn’t very hard, but it did take time. I wasn’t just healing a superficial cut. The darkness element had pierced her lung. To make matters worse, the darkness element had infected her organ and was spreading through her body, causing more damage the longer it remained inside. Had I been even a second slower, Karen’s lung would have become useless.

That Fritz was truly insidious.

“My purpose for putting on such a display was because—” I began, only to be interrupted when the viewing booth doors opened and several people walked in.

Rainere, Tungsten, Ming Shen, and Àn Shen had entered the room, but they were not the only ones. With them was an older woman with wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, gray hair, loose flowing but intricate robes, and a badge of the Alchemist Association pinned to her chest. She was standing next to three other people. One was a middle-aged man decked out in golden armor, another was an older gentleman with a compassionate demeanor, and the last was a woman with messy hair and dark robes covering her body.

These people were Cathrine Hildre of the Alchemist Association, Commander Ashten of the Midgard Spiritual Knights, Dagan Fauste of the Healer’s Sect, and Morrigan Arsland of the Spiritualism Research Sect. They were the remaining members of the Council of Six Sects, though the Midgard Spiritual Knights was technically not considered a member but the council’s overseer.

All of them were looking at me.

“Can I help you?” I asked. I had just finished healing Karen, so she would be fine. She only remained unconscious because her Spiritual Power was exhausted.

“Brat, do you know how much trouble you caused with that display just now?” asked Rainere.

“Of course I do,” I said. “Why do you think I caused it?”

I stood up underneath the stunned silence my response had caused. No one seemed to quite know what they should do, and Rainere, who had asked the question first, shifted uncomfortably as I met the stares all these people, whose power in the Northern Plains was undisputed, with an even gaze.

“Then you should realize you caused a lot of damage,” Commander Ashten said with a stern frown. “It isn’t just the damage to the arena either. Your Spiritual Pressure and killing intent caused damage to many citizens’ psyche.”

Were these people really coming to grill me? I suppose after seeing what happened, they understood I was a dangerous factor none of them knew about. Maybe I had been too heavy handed in my approach. On the other hand, I certainly was not willing to let myself be bullied by anyone.

“Then take these and distribute them to the citizens.”

I summoned a bag of alchemy pills from my storage ring and tossed them to Cathrine, who was so stunned she almost dropped them. She opened the bag and looked inside. Her eyes, which had already been quite wide, widened further.

“T-these are Mind Healing Pills!” she exclaimed in shock.

“My wife made them,” I said to her.

“Your wife?”

Cathrine furrowed her brow and looked at the women surrounding me, trying to figure out which one was my wife. I wondered what she would say if I told her all of them were my wives.

“This is Fay.” I took Fay by the arm and introduced her to Cathrine. “She is the one who refined those pills in your hand.”

From the moment I introduced her, Fay’s cheeks turned a healthy shade of red. I knew being the center of so much attention bothered her. It was one thing to fight in a tournament, but all she was doing was standing there right now, and the look in Cathrine’s eyes was admittedly disconcerting.

“Fay? Your name is Fay? Do you have any interest in joining the Alchemist Association?” asked Cathrine. “If you do, I can—”

“Have you forgotten why we came here?” asked Commander Ashten. It was good to see he was just as uncompromising now as he had been in my previous life.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I will also pay for the damages.”

Commander Ashten frowned, and it was easy to see that he was not pleased with my flippant response.

“There is more to it than having you just pay for the damage caused. I do not know where you come from, but you are clearly dangerous.”

“Aren’t most Spiritualists dangerous?” I asked.

“Not as dangerous as you.”

“Hmph. That is true. Then what are you going to do? Take me into custody? Arrest me?” I stepped forward and narrowed my eyes at Commander Ashten, who suddenly became tense. In a soft voice, I asked, “Do you think you have what it takes to arrest me?”

Everyone here except for Tungsten and Àn Shen had reached the Third State of Spiritualism, so they were all considered pinnacle existences within the Northern Plains, but they must have noticed how much more Spiritual Power I possessed than them. I think they were aware on some level that I had reached a higher state than them. Perhaps that was why none of them spoke. Even Commander Ashten looked uncertain now.

I was about to reassure them and state that I had no intention of causing them trouble, but Alexis finally seemed to recover at that moment.

“Eryk and his wives are my guests. You might be members on the Council of Six, but you cannot just take him away as you please.”

She walked over to where all of us were standing. At this point, Kari and the others had also moved to stand behind me. Raul was being held in Lin’s firm grasp, quiet as a mouse. I think he understood the situation here was serious. He’d always been fairly sensitive to the mood. Meanwhile, Alexis stood beside me and looked at the people who had gathered with a hard expression.

“Perhaps it would be best if we all calmed down,” Dagan intervened with a smile. “It is true that this young man caused some problems just now, but it is also true that he saved someone from becoming a cripple. I believe all of you noticed the same thing I did. Fritz was about to use an incredibly insidious Spiritual Technique that would have destroyed Karen’s cultivation. He was only acting to protect her.”

That was not quite true, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

“I suppose… you have a point,” Commander Ashten acceded. “Perhaps I was hasty in my judgement.”

Now that calmer heads had prevailed, the situation had taken a slight turn for the better. Commander Ashten decided I would get off with just paying a fine. I was also able to introduce Fay to Cathrine, which I had not imagined I’d be able to do for at least another few weeks. It meant we could move at least some of our plans ahead of schedule.

Unfortunately, the tournament’s schedule had been messed up. With the damage done to the arena, the tournament was put on temporary hold until the repairs were done. I ended up paying a two million valis fine. I suppose it was a good thing I had become so rich. Actually, I’d been wondering how I would spend all these valis. It was nice to see that I was finally able to use some of it.

***

“DAMN HIM! DAMN THAT FUCKING BASTARD! I’LL FUCKING KILL HIM!!”

A loud crashing sound echoed around the large room as Fritz slammed his fist into a column, shattering it as though it was made of glass. This wasn’t enough. With his rage-fueled strength, he punched and kicked the falling fragments, blasting them into even smaller fragments. His limbs were like blurs as he destroyed everything in sight. Then, as if to finish unleashing all the rage he felt, Fritz slammed his hands into the ground, causing a wellspring of black stakes to erupt from the floor and pierce the remaining shards.

Fritz’s once swollen face had gone back to normal. The two slaps to the face had only caused cosmetic damage and nothing more, but more than the wounds to his face, the injury to his pride was what really pissed him off. His pride had been hurt so badly that the moment he came back, he began destroying everything in sight.

This included several unfortunate sectmates.

The room Fritz was destroying contained a foreboding elegance. This might have been due to its size, but it also had something to do with the darkness that seemed to be lurking in every corner. As an entrance hall, it was so imposing that even the members of Thor’s Hammer disliked going inside.

Of course, this could also be due to who stayed there. The three men inside this room were the most powerful members of Thor’s Hammer. They were so powerful not even members of the Six Great Sects would dare mess with them, which allowed this sect to take a drastic rise in prominence. None of the other sectmates knew much about these three. They only knew that all of them had enough Spiritual Power to rival the greatest sect leaders in the Northern Plains.

“Must you really destroy everything?”

The man who asked this question with such a bland tone had the appearance of a handsome male in his early twenties. His pale skin and androgynous features gave him a feminine charm. He had dark eyes, a sharp chin, and thin eyebrows. These features may have been somewhat wasted on him since he rarely went outside, but he was at least aware of his own attractiveness.

He was sitting on a chair near the back of the entrance hall. The imposing chair was made from obsidian, blacker than even the dark surroundings that shrouded him in shadows.

“Ah ha ha ha ha! I can’t believe you got your ass handed to you by a human! That’s why you’re the most pathetic between the three of us!”

A second man laughed at Fritz. Unlike the pretty boy beside him, this man was large and imposing, masculine in every sense of the word. His square jaw was covered in pale scars. While the younger looking man wore black clothes that appeared soft and elegant, this man wore dark armor made from a substance that seemed metallic and at the same time not. Strange symbols of a non-geometric design covered the armor, sending off an ominous vibe.

“You shut your fucking mouth!” Fritz snapped. “There’s no way that fucker is human! How many humans do you know who have reached the Fourth State of Spiritualism, huh?!”

“The Fourth State of Spiritualism,” the youngest looking of the group muttered with an unusual glimmer in his eyes. “You are sure he reached it?”

“Do you think I would fucking lie about something like this?! Fuck! That little dipshit’s power was so surprising, I didn’t even have time to put up a proper defense!” Fritz’s angry expression became even angier, lips peeling back as he looked down at himself. “This weakass body doesn’t help. I can’t even use half my fucking power like this. Hey, Dunherr. Why did we have to possess these humans anyway?”

“It can’t be helped,” the young one, Dunherr, replied with a shrug. “If our goal was simply to slaughter the humans, we wouldn’t have a need for such disguises… but our goals are different. We need the humans alive… for now.”

“Ah ha ha ha ha! Speaking of, I hope you were doing your job and not just fooling around with women!” the imposing man said.

“Of course I was doing my fucking job, Unglück. Unlike you, I’m a hard worker,” Fritz snapped at the man in armor. Of course, Unglück didn’t seem to be bothered at all by how vitriolic Fritz sounded.

“How many more sacrifices do you need to complete the ritual?” asked Dunherr.

Fritz went quiet for several long seconds. The other two looked at him expectantly as he considered the question.

“Probably about a hundred,” he admitted at last. “Absorbing the Spiritual Power of humans isn’t an easy task. I have to find humans who have enough Spiritual Power to actually be fucking useful, which of course means I can only go after Spiritualists. It’s a good thing the tournament is underway. Lots of Spiritualists are in Midgard, which makes gathering Spiritual Power easier.”

Fritz went over and picked up an object that had been left sitting against the wall. It looked like a simple scepter, something royalty from the Endless Desert might possess, but this object contained an incredible darkness. The gem near the top teemed with Spiritual Power. Strange wisps of miasma seemed to be writhing inside, and every so often, an agonized face would appear on the surface.

“Still… it seems like such a waste to gather all that Spiritual Power and not refine it,” Fritz continued. “Think of how fucking strong I could become if I refined all the Spiritual Power I’ve been gathering.”

“Ah ha ha ha! Even if you refined all that Spiritual Power, you’d still be weaker than me.”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Dunherr stopped paying attention to Fritz and Unglück as they argued. He placed his right leg on his left thigh, leaned to the side, and rested his head on the palm of his left hand.

His thoughts turned toward the young man who had injured Fritz so much that his face had become swollen. Dunherr had felt the Spiritual Power and killing intent from here, which meant Fritz’s words about the young man reaching the Fourth State of Spiritualism were probably true. He had never expected to find someone in Miðgarðr who possessed that kind of power.

“I wonder if we can absorb his Spiritual Power?” Dunherr asked in a soft voice, though the two with him were not paying the least bit of attention. He shook his head. “No, a man with that much power would never let us absorb it. We will definitely have to kill him before enacting the ritual.”

Affirming this knowledge in his heart, Dunherr turned his thoughts toward their plans. Very soon, the gate would be open, and then this realm would finally become theirs.