P.O.V: Morgan Key Blackwood
I executed a backflip, narrowly dodging a bolt of sickly greenish lightning that whizzed right past my face. Upon landing, I clapped my hands and slammed them onto the ground. A massive wave of solidified earth pillars, shaped like sharpened lances, shot upward, piercing directly through the chests of all the undead scattered across the ground, whether human or beast.
The mastermind behind this reanimated catastrophe was a necromancer wearing the typical ratty robes. I could see the distinct features of his face and hair—or rather, what was left of his hair. His skin was an unhealthy, pale color, and he was nearly bald, with only a few unkempt, patchy strands left. He looked more like a walking corpse than the people he was raising. He had barely survived my initial attack by hiding behind a much larger, heavily muscled zombie he was using as a mount.
"You little brat! Don't you dare interfere with me! I, Mauricio, am going to be—!"
"Wait, wait, wait... You're a damn necromancer, you're trying to raise an army of the undead... and your name is Mauricio?" I asked, cutting him off. The guy looked visibly confused and thrown off by my sudden inquiry.
"I mean, if I were planning something like conquering the world with corpses or triggering some sort of apocalypse, I'd at least change my name to something a bit more dramatic. Like 'The Future God of Death and Lord of the Dead, Zarnock the Pale King,' or something along those lines," I said, casually dodging a flaming skull that shattered a tombstone right behind me.
"Silence! I am the one who speaks here! And as such, I will use your corpse to add to my ever-growing army!"
Deciding that this had already taken up more time than it was worth, I decided to use one of Killua's signature moves. I began walking slowly in a circular pattern around the giant zombie. From the necromancer's perspective, my image seemed to blur, disappearing and reappearing several meters away. Sometimes it looked like I was moving backward. I was employing the technique that allowed Killua to move at varying intervals of speed to create the illusion of afterimages, but I enhanced it by blending in Miles's invisibility, making myself unseen and appearing at much greater distances, almost as if I had teleported.
Before he could figure out what was real and what was an illusion, I seized the opportunity to slip into his blind spot. Flexing specific muscles in my hands, I forced my nails to grow. With a single fluid motion, my hand pierced right through his chest as if the flesh weren't even there. I pulled out his still-beating heart and held it up to his eyes so he could see it.
"H-how... you..."
Right before his eyes, as he clumsily and slowly raised his hands to try and retrieve his organ, I crushed the still-beating flesh. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and I could feel the dead weight of his body. With a sharp flick of my wrist, his corpse collapsed to the ground, bouncing a couple of times.
"Interesting... apparently, I don't mind killing people as much as I thought I would," I muttered to myself, holding the zombie's disproportionately small head compared to its massive body, twisting it 180 degrees. With a simple hop, I pushed off its back as the giant creature crashed onto the dirt.
For my very first assassination mission against another human, I had assumed it would bother me or leave a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, sure, a part of me—likely the part that was assimilating Sheldon—wanted to douse my entire body in bleach to remove any possible bacteria and diseases I might have contracted from touching these things. But Killua's side easily kicked that thought to the curb as trivial. Still, just to quiet that nagging urge, I looked at my filthy clothing and began to reminisce...
"Let's see... how did the formula go again?" I tried to recall how to use the human magic of this world. During my first week after arriving and completing small assignments, I had locked myself in the library to learn the basics.
Human magic is incredibly complex. Not only do you need a steady pool of mana to cast it, but you also need to understand a programming language of sorts to utilize it, as everything is based on numbers, formulas, and data that you bring to life using mana. It's like making a computer recognize a predefined set of data to execute an action. Except, in this case, the computer is the real world, the code consists of the magic circles you draw, and the energy is your mana to make it run. That is something that, for any ordinary person—including myself—would be extremely difficult and intricate, which is why human mages are quite rare, and the few who exist are considered first-degree geniuses.
I conjured a few magic circles using my mana, giving them shape, and began to structure them across the entire designated area. However, I focused strictly on the surface level; I didn't want to accidentally erase the buried remains of the townspeople's deceased family members and friends.
"Set coordinates: Central axis, biological mass, surrounding zone, 1.32-kilometer radius.
Surface scan for biological matter.
Filter: Organic matter and dead cellular residue, ignore living matter. Command: Molecular compression and displacement to zone F32-54-02.
Execute: Cleanse Protocol!"
A bright light enveloped me and the surrounding area. When the light finally faded, all the zombie bodies, bloodstains, gore, and leftover body parts had vanished completely. I was no longer covered in blood, and my germophobic, manic side finally shut up. Not far away, I could see a compressed ball of flesh and blood, roughly the size of a yoga ball. All the accumulated filth from the corpses and the man I had just killed was compressed right there. I reached into my pocket and took out the pendant the guy had been wearing. It was what amplified his powers to reanimate such a large group of bodies, though after scanning it with magic, I realized it was also the reason he had looked like a walking mummy or zombie. Well, it'll be good for some extra money and proof of his death.
I pulled out my phone and leaned back against a stone statue shaped like an angel to check my pending missions... Let's see. I've already eliminated the gargoyles at the abandoned church... good. My purchase of church-issued items was approved, which will make killing stray devils much easier. I killed the idiot necromancer... okay. What else? Giant crocodiles? Let's check. Apparently, they fed on the remains of a stray devil that another hunter didn't bother to clean up, and now they're super mutated crocodiles. Alright, my next stop is South Florida.
While looking at my mobile screen, a notification suddenly popped up, making me smile. Seriously? Has it already been three months? Time really flies when you don't have to worry about whether your next meal is going to taste like crap.
[Gacha Tickets Available: 3 Tickets available.]
Normal Gacha [PULL] {1 Ticket}
Item Gacha [PULL] {1 Ticket}
Character Gacha [PULL] {1 Ticket}
Oh? New options? This is interesting. "Gacha, how do these new options work?" I asked, leaning against the stone angel statue.
{The Gacha system will gradually provide new options for you to pull from. Currently, in addition to the Normal Gacha, which has a bit of everything, the Item and Character Gachas guarantee that you will only pull from those specific pools. That is, the Item Gacha yields only items, such as consumables, weapons, artifacts, or equipment. Meanwhile, the Character Gacha will only yield beings from throughout the multiverse.}
"Well, honestly, I'm not entirely interested in items right now. What I really need is more characters I can assimilate." With that, I looked at my own stats and smiled to myself.
Name: Morgan Key Blackwood
Assimilated Cards: Miles Morales (100%) - Edward Elric (100%)
Assimilation Slots: 2/3
Killua Zoldyck (79%)
Sheldon Cooper (83%)
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Edward was less rapid, but after using alchemy extensively for combat, his percentage went up quickly. The same goes for Killua; using his techniques—and above all, killing thinking beings like stray devils or arrogant mages—boosted the rate significantly in a short time. On Sheldon's side, running so many complex calculations for human magic forced my brain to work overdrive, and Sheldon is, above all else, incredibly intelligent. Annoying, but brilliant.
So... why not test my luck?
[End of Chapter]