Chapter 157: Why? Revenge of Course?

Three people emerged from one of the many holes in the ground. Well, two people and a robot. Unlike the robots that were going on a zombie swarm-like rampage, this robot was designed like a woman and had the same face as the one I melted last time.

There was no way I was going to deal with these three from the aerial position. In an instance, I adjusted my position and flew at max speed towards my targets. The me missile was on target, but it would take a couple of tens of minutes to reach the destination.

The three of them obviously didn't have the little old record headed towards them. Which gave me plenty of time to think about ways to torture them, terrifying them, and just what would be the best method to melt them alive, really.

Hm… Perhaps the fear, then the melting, would be best? A little play should be fine… But I do need to make sure they don’t escape. I don’t want a repeat of what happened last time when I fought Thomas, any of it.

When he escaped, Varias's interference, all of it. There was a lot that made me angry simply by thinking about it again.

Espr had said nothing about their reappearance, and apparently, other Spiritual Beings were on the lookout, but I wasn’t taking chances. With my enhanced senses and detection abilities, I was completely alert, ready for any disturbance.

Though a repeat of last time wouldn’t be the worst… An evil smirk appeared on my face, nearly wanting me to be stabbed by an arrow to show them how ineffective their main weapon was going to be. Of course, it would still hurt; it was a weapon designed to tear apart souls, but my new form wouldn’t be harmed in the same way anymore.

Before I got close enough, I did one pass over everything to make sure all was well, firing a few arrows at enemies when the opportunity was good. Lila was doing a good job, working alongside her team and even using the artefact I gave her. I was worried she wouldn’t use it until later due to some notion of it being supposed to be used as a last resort… which, to be fair, was supposed to be for that scenario because it was very destructive in its full form. I probably could have explained it better, but ehh, she was doing a good job.

Nina was also doing great. It looked like the assault force had finally broken into the underground area, but she was still on the surface fighting against an ungodly number of robots and Dominous Hood assassins that were vanishing and repairing. There was a large moon projection over the entire area, which messed with my [Star Mapping] when I looked at it directly.

Based on the mana within, it is likely Nina’s, likely to do with the artefact in her eye. After becoming a Spiritual Being, it was hard to notice the strange artefact in her left eye, but I didn’t ask about it. It would be strange if I did; plus, she was allowed to have her surprises.

It should only be a moment now until they notice that I am headed towards them. Covered in a shell, I did very much look like a burning bullet.

They were pretty far from the main combat but close to one of the cannons I had shot at earlier. It did seem like they were just chatting for a moment, not the biggest surprise based on the little I knew of his personality.

Thomas asked, “Is that a missile headed towards us?”

The robot replied, “Unknown… The life force sign is giving mixed readings.”

“Thanks, Kelet.” Thomas nodded. “That makes me more confused.”

“Just shoot.” Said the other person.

They immediately began shooting at me, and even after I crashed into the ground and stood up, none of them stopped the gunfire. I blocked it all with a reinforced Starlight shield as I slowly got out

I am so happy to see you… Joy and infernal rage were building up inside of me.

“Finally, you have decided to reveal yourself,” I said with a clear childlike glee in my voice. For a moment, Thomas stopped shooting. My voice was slightly distorted, so it would match my voice when I fought him last time.

“Of course you ain’t fucking dead—can never trust reports.” Thomas shook his head, and the robot that had been reconstructed handed him another black arrow.

“Target Solarious…” I heard the other man whisper under his breath.

“Oh, you had a name for me? How cute.” I took a step back and announced, “Oh, thank you, Thomas, for reconnecting with your friend.” I clapped. “I didn’t know your name, so it was so hard to find you.”

That caused the second man to flinch; from my memory, he was much more composed than Thomas. Trying to reel in his teammate back then, and now nothing had seemingly changed. I didn’t know who he was since his name was never used, but purely based on the reaction, it did appear to be the same person.

What a wonderful situation! There were probably other people involved in the attack from that day, but I only saw two, two who decided to torture me and left me to rot. Of course, thanks to how the Universe rolled its dice, it was luck that allowed me to become who I am, so as the story came back around, it was time for me to have my revenge for that day.

I looked over the three of them: hesitation, confusion, and annoyance. I asked, “Did you not like my announcement from earlier?”

I was taking this slow so they could feel the dread build up. Already, I had countermeasures activated to prevent their escape and communication. Starlight strains had spread across the entire area, only at the level where comms would be blocked, but it was ready to increase intensity at a moment's notice.

He glowed a red light. “I didn’t know I was so popular.” Splitting into various copies, he began shooting at me from various directions.

That’s new.

He had a weird thing with colours last time, each doing different abilities. So I had to thank him for colour-coding it at least. Purple speed, green something, black disappearing act, and now red for cloning? The bullets from each one were definitely real; the fact that he had so many colour abilities made me think it had something to do with his Vocation. I couldn’t do Espr’s trick yet, or read other people's Soul Pages yet, and it wasn’t on my top priority of skills to immediately learn.

“By the way, what’s the name of your friend? I actually don’t know his, and it would be unfortunate to just call him Thomas's stupid friend this whole fight, no?” I deflected the large bullet with a Starlight shield fired from the friend in question. Aiming at all three of them, I was constantly shooting [Fire Arrows], keeping it simple, and so they stayed caught up in the fight.

“Eh, it would be fine if you called him that.” Thomas's clones all shrugged. The robot, whose name was apparently Kelet, was launching various drones and devices at me. They clearly were meant to disengage and restrain me, but my starlight destruction was doing quick work of the pathetic devices.

“Master, the plan isn’t working.”

“I can see that.”

“Understood, your optical functions are still working. Good to note.”

“Thanks for writing that down.”

I asked, “Did you programme your robot to give you sass? Were you in need of a girlfriend?”

“Nah, but it is funny.” Then he complained, “Fuckin’ hell. What are you made of?”

I just replied with, “You were having difficulty last time as well.”

“And last time I was forced to run away from a tidal wave of fire.” He glowed green and dodged an arrow I had turned around to attack from behind. “So it was a little harder to notice all your damn shields. What, are you trying to do your best Nina Clarwood impression?”

“She does have some powerful shields.” Suddenly in a large domain around us, we were all trapped within a domain of fire. It was sudden for them, but I had been spreading my energies around waiting for this moment; all I needed to do was ignite it. “But I can’t compare mine to hers, since she has refined hers to an art and mine are just blocks in comparison.” Hidden within the flames was a shield of Starlight to block people’s exit. “Very thick blocks at least.”

“...So I guess you are a little mad about what happened last time?” Thomas said with a little laugh.

So I joined him, which he didn’t appreciate. “What? Don’t like people laughing at your joke?

“You seemed more serious last time.”

“Pretty sure I was very insane at that time as well.” I giggled once, deflecting their attacks and making sure they were contained.

The area began to heat up.

“I have waited for this day for years, after all.” I stepped towards them, flames appearing behind me like a cape. “You know, Thomas, I was a little sad after you left last time.”

My voice was cold, and the world knew my emotions as my anger was expressed across the entire area, felt within their souls; they knew my rage.

There was confusion about how they were feeling this, but from their mumbles, they just thought it was a stupid item. Idiots. They had so many artefacts that did so many things that they just assumed all strange abilities were artefacts.

“It was the second time you left with such a filthy gift after all.” My words were like a bomb exploding next to the bell right by their ears. I mean, no one should have such a gift twice, right?

My [Disruptive Starlight] had fully swallowed the area. The robot maid was jittering, which made it clear to me that it was more than just an AI in a box.

Perhaps they wondered if it was some figure they had gone to assassinate. They had done plenty of that after all, but they probably made sure those people were dead, and it was like they were together for every mission.

I said, “I have a few more abilities since the last time we fought, and since we first fought.”

I spoke with my soul so the words would be engraved into theirs.

“Well, are you glad you ‘tested those puppies out right?’ All those years ago?”