"You have a lot of magical power, it seems that this time we attracted the right prey", one of them spoke before advancing toward her.
He rushed forward recklessly, with his arms extended, not attacking in any way, so Nino did not take him seriously.
She simply waited for him to get closer and, when he tried to grab her, she crouched, dodged him, and struck him in the face, making him fall backward.
On the ground, Nino hit him in the jaw before he could get up, hard enough to knock him out.
She turned with a kick, hitting the other man who was trying to grab her from behind, and elbowed the one approaching from her right.
"It seems there are quite a lot of them."
Nino looked around and saw everyone approaching her, moving erratically, like zombies.
As someone whose main ability lies in her body, Nino could sense that these people did not seem able to properly control their own bodies.
However, she did not give it much importance.
She kept striking everyone who came at her, easily dodging their attacks before knocking them out with one or two blows, moving like an expert with centuries of combat experience.
After five minutes, everyone had finally fallen, and Nino let out a sigh of relief, more mentally tired from the strangeness than physically.
"I did not even need his help", she said, remembering her partner, who had not even arrived yet.
"Ha ha ha ha ha."
But at that moment, she heard multiple laughs coming from all around. Nino immediately recognized the voice as the man who had spoken earlier, but this time there were more of them.
The voices came from everywhere, with the same hollow voice, full of echo and extremely raspy.
Nino watched in horror as all the Lords who should have been unconscious stood up from the ground like zombies and looked at her mockingly.
"It seems you are strong. It is a shame that it will not work against me", they all spoke at once before starting to run toward her again, trying to grab her.
Although Nino was confused, her body moved even faster than her mind, defending and attacking everyone. But this time none of them fell. No matter how much she attacked them, even against blows that should have been fatal, the most she could do was push them away or knock them to the ground for a few seconds before they stood up again.
"What are you?" she murmured, tensing up.
"Your worst nightmare", the voice sounded again from all directions.
Out of nowhere, one of them managed to grab her from behind, holding her head and leaning close to her ear. "And it will get worse."
The whisper sent a chill through her entire body, as the Lords began holding all her limbs until they finally pinned her to the ground.
"At last... the perfect body", they all said as they carried her toward the strange star at the center of the place.
As soon as they left her there, Nino was completely immobilized on the ground, before all the Lords once again formed a circle around her.
"What are you trying to do?" she asked, fear in her voice for the first time that night.
"I want your body."
"Do you not already have plenty?" Nino spoke, trying to buy time while she struggled to break free, but nothing worked.
"I am not from this world."
"Why should I care?" Nino ignored his monologue while continuing to struggle.
"I come... from what you call the tower of worlds", he replied with his raspy voice, while everyone around her held hands.
Nino began to feel her body grow weaker and weaker.
"How could a person leave the tower? That is impossible."
"Hahahaha", he began laughing loudly. "One? You do not understand. We are all. Versions of me... from other universes that I never thought I would see are standing before me.
I will not miss this opportunity. No. We will no longer be us, I will be me. We will all merge and create my most powerful version. We only need... you."
No matter what Nino tried, she could not free herself, so knowing that they wanted her body and would not let her go finally broke her, and her mind filled with fear. Hearing that they were beings who had even escaped the tower only served to increase her fear even more. After all, nothing frightens people more than the unknown.
Little by little, her expression visibly changed from her previous confidence to fear as she tried to defend herself. The Lords around her saw it and began to laugh.
"Hahahahaha."
But as their echoing voices resonated everywhere, each one of them fell to the ground, while their eyes returned to normal.
From inside them, something emerged too fast for Nino to see, until they all finally merged right at the center of the star, in front of her.
From their union emerged a kind of ghost. It was grayish, without legs, floating in the air with a sort of black and white tail. Its head was an inverted skull, monstrous, with a single eye, two deformed arms from which sharp claws extended, and long tentacles stretching out from its chest.
"Ha ha ha ha ha."
The figure continued the laughter that its separated parts had started before approaching Nino. With its face a centimeter from hers, it asked, "Why that face? Have you seen a ghost?"
"M-monster", Nino managed to murmur, unable to say anything more out of fear.
"Ah, this power", the being reveled, ignoring her. "It is perfect, but not natural. This form cannot endure." Then it turned its gaze back to Nino. "But once I enter your body, it will serve as a vessel. I will use your body and your power to merge definitively... But... who are you?"
It turned to look toward a dark area of the forest, where there seemed to be no one.
"You found me? It seems you are quite powerful in that form. What is it called? Supreme Ghostfreak?" Kaito asked, stepping out of his hiding place when he saw he had already been detected.
Phantasmatic grew furious upon hearing that name.
"Every version of me from every universe hates that name. My name is Zs'Skayr.
Since you know me, that explains why you were hiding. It is a shame that I found you."
Kaito chuckled softly. "Hiding out of fear? I only arrived when you were explaining your plan, so I decided to wait until you finished. And as for your name... I promise that the next time we meet, I will call you that."
Without wanting to speak any further, Kaito appeared beside Ghostfreak and grabbed his head.
Ghostfreak was surprised by his speed, then mocked him when he saw Kaito trying to restrain him.
But Kaito did not do it normally. He covered his hand with sacred energy before grabbing him and slamming him into the ground, about three meters away from the spot.
The only reason he did that was to prevent him from entering Nino's body and complicating everything. After distancing him, he no longer concentrated the sacred energy in his hand, but expanded it throughout the entire area.
A column of white light, sacred energy, fell from the sky like divine punishment, right on top of Ghostfreak.
"Arghhh, ahhhh, what is this? It is worse than sunlight! No! It burns! It hurts! Stop!"
While Zs'Skayr agonized and begged for his life, Kaito simply watched him, making sure he did not escape, until he finally turned into ashes and disappeared completely.
Only when he saw the ashes fully fade away did he deactivate his sacred magic.
"Are you alright?" he asked, approaching Nino and extending his hand to help her up.
Nino took his hand and stood up.
Once Ghostfreak was dead, the pentagram on the ground disappeared, so Nino could move again.
However, when she tried to stand, she staggered weakly.
"Sorry, my legs are still weak", she said, leaning against his chest.
"It is fine, do not worry", Kaito replied, not giving importance to the position, since he was used to that kind of closeness.
"...Thank you for saving me", Nino finally spoke after a long silence.
"It is fine, it just so happens that I can use the weakness of all impure things", Kaito replied.
"Even so..."
Clap, clap, clap.
Before Nino could finish speaking, they were interrupted by the sound of applause.
From the darkness emerged Makima, walking toward them.
"Very well, you completed your mission."
"Did you follow us the whole time?" Nino exclaimed in disbelief.
"That is right. It is my duty to ensure your safety during the test", Makima replied.
"Incredible, I did not notice anyone following us", Nino murmured.
"You did not notice that Kaito was following you either, so I am not surprised", Makima said mockingly.
"That was!... never mind", Nino said, hiding her face in Kaito's chest.
"You completed the mission, saved the damsel in distress, and then flirted in front of the examiner. Kaito, are you not impressive?"
"I am not a damsel in distress", Nino said, blushing.
"So we can become affiliates now, right?" Kaito asked, ignoring Makima's comments.
"That is correct. However, you saw it yourselves, right? This world hides many dangers. Even that thing that almost killed the little damsel in distress and seemed about to start an entire arc was only E rank. Are you sure you want to join?"
'Was Ghostfreak not originally from the tower and not from the supernatural world?' Kaito thought, somewhat confused, but on the surface he only nodded.
Meanwhile, Nino remained silent for a few seconds before looking at Kaito, who looked back at her and smiled. Nino looked away, blushing, and nodded as well, with some hesitation.
"In that case, Takayama Kaito, Nakano Nino, congratulations on officially becoming government affiliates. Let us go to the guild, and I will explain your duties."
______________________________________
I finished the other fic, so I'll start uploading chapters of this one every other day, since now I can dedicate all my time exclusively to it.
However, if I start writing another fic in parallel, the pace will go back to one chapter every three days.
In fact, if you have any ideas about something I could write, let me know to give me some inspiration. That said, it has to be something small, because even though I have ideas for Marvel and DC stories, right now I want to write something more contained, that doesn't escalate into large universes or anything like that, with a small, self contained world.
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
(They don't reach 15 at this moment, since there is a marathon of my other fic because it is ending.)
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)