77 - Survive!

Levi and Acnologia had spent the night in a room given to them by Sage, and to their surprise and delight it was the same room they occupied the last time they were here, and not only that, it was kept the exact same as if waiting for them.

Levi couldn't help but feel a warmth in his chest at this sight, it surprised even him as he didn’t know why at first, but soon he figured it out. It felt amazing to have a place to go back to, someplace to call home even if his real home was still intact.

So after spending a night in there enjoying the calm and coziness of their room Levi woke up Acnologia and headed out, before leaving Levi hesitated if he should bid sage farewell, he still remembered how the last time went.

In the end he decided to risk it and approached the throne room, and surprisingly enough Sage was just sitting there, with nobody else in sight, there were no weird noises or movements or anything out of the ordinary.

“We will be going now.” said Levi politely, “Thanks for having us, and for the room.” he said the last part without explaining how much it meant to him, he trusted Sage was smart enough to understand.

“Take care of your sleeves, you can come back anytime.” said Sage casually nodding and waving his wing dismissively.

Levi guessed that he was planning to have fun soon so he decided not to delay him any longer as he turned around and headed out, Acnologia had an expectant look as he looked at Sage, most likely waiting for him to conjure more food but he was bound to be disappointed as Sage just stared at him.

“Ha-ah, I indulged way too much” said Sage, sighing with a broken tone of voice after Levi and Acnologia left, it was as if he didn’t have anything else to live for, “Now I can’t even get it up.”

“Daddy, are you ready for some fun?” asked a seductive female voice from the side of the throne.

“No, leave me alone.” replied Sage shouting, almost crying.


***

Levi was done with his trip to the spirit world, he had actually expected it to last way longer but Sage had basically given him all the answers he came looking for and thus had rendered his trip useless, he could have just projected his spirit directly to Sage using spirit world projection if he had known that before, but what’s done is done.

Now he was heading towards his beloved personal battery to use it to go back into the physical world.

“No need to hurry, let’s enjoy our time here while we can.” said Levi to Acnologia who slowed down and kept flying at a leisurely pace. No matter how much he had suffered here in the spirit world and how much he had wanted to leave it the previous time he was still fond of it for some strange reason and he didn’t want to leave so soon.

Plus this was Acnologia’s home, he was sure he had missed it and didn’t want to take him away just as soon as they reached here.

Looking at the vivid colorful skies and the different colored grass and all kinds of spirits running around the place Levi couldn’t help but remember his time here years ago, and he didn’t miss the irony of it all. Before, he had been trapped here yearning to return home but finding no way back, but now he had come back willingly and was even reluctant to leave so quickly.

‘I hope this isn’t some kind of Stockholm syndrome where I get attached to a dimension instead of my kidnapper.’ thought Levi with a small smile at the edge of his lips.

Suddenly both Levi’s and Acnologia’s expressions froze as they stood rooted to their spot in the air, Acnologia’s expression twisted in fear, he could barely maintain his flight if not for Levi putting a hand on his head to calm him down.

Two figures, a man and a woman appeared in front of Levi and acnologia, they both wore golden shining armor, with a red cape hanging on their shoulders. Levi could feel a pressure coming from them like none he had ever faced before, not even the Avatar in the Avatar state was compatible.

But even then they were looking at Levi and Acnologia with a serious look on their faces, not making any moves as if assessing them.

“Looking at you now, so weak, so helpless, I can’t fit this image into my head no matter how I try. What a pity you’ll be dying today.” said the man, his tone a mix of hate, arrogance, anger, and even a little bit of fear.

“Who are you?” asked Levi, his eyes narrowing.

“You have no need to know that, just know that you brought this upon yourself.” replied the man in the same tone.

“Enough, we don’t have much time left, we need to finish this now.” said the woman from the side.

“Why? We can snuff him out as easily as snuffing out an ant, even with our power suppressed.” asked the man, hate clear in his eyes.

“You still underestimate him?.” asked the woman with a serious tone of voice.

Hearing her, the man seemed to have snapped from some sort of trance he was in before he spoke, “You are right, thanks for reminding me.”

“First we need to search his memories and extract everything we can. Should I do it or should you?” asked the woman casually as if she was asking what he wanted for lunch.

Hearing them talk about him so casually as if he was a test subject Levi’s blood couldn’t help but boil, even with Gamer’s mind active he could barely contain himself from rushing at them. In the end he managed to control himself, he knew from the feeling he was getting that they were way out of his league.

“If you’re going to search my memories the least you could do is introduce yourselves.” said Levi, forcing a slight smile on his face as if he wasn’t worried at all about them. He was, but he knew better than to show weakness to his enemies.

“Outstanding, even now in your helpless situation, when you could obviously feel the difference in our abilities you’re still not fazed.” commented the man with genuine wonder but Levi detected a hint of sarcasm mixed in it.

“Very well then, you can call me Orionis, the fair lady with me is Elysia that’s all you need to know, now die.” said the man as his gaze sharpened towards Levi.

…

…

…

Nothing happened.

Levi was confused for a while as he looked at them before a flood of system notifications appeared in his vision.

[Ding]

[Mental intrusion detected]

[Gamer’s mind active, mental intrusion resisted]

[Ding]

[Quest - Survive.]

On your way back to the physical world you were intercepted by a duo with power far beyond your reach. Try your best to survive and get over this crisis alive.

Objective 1: Survive.

Reward 1: ???]

Seeing the quest description dawned on Levi just how much outclassed he was, it didn’t tell him to win, or even to fight, there was only one objective, survive!

“Impossible! He developed his mental defenses this early?” came the man's shocked voice.

“Orionis” shouted Elysia at Orionis as if he had just committed the most unforgivable offense ever.

“It doesn't matter, he would be dead anyhow, although it is a shame we can’t extract his secrets.” said Orionis with a venomous tone in his voice.

‘Acnologia merge, NOW.’ transmitted Levi as acnologia immediately dived into Levi’s body.

In barely a fraction of a second scales grew on Levi’s hand and feet and lower face, his fingernails extended into sharp black claws a black scaly tail appeared behind him, and horns grew from his forehead, not only that, soon golden light covered his entire body and when it disappeared he was clad in shining golden armor holding a longsword in each hand.

Seeing this the man and woman’s eyes went wide in shock, “You’ve got divine armament this early?” asked the man in a weary tone.

“ORIONIS.” screamed Elysia.

Even Levi was startled as he heard that, nobody knew about divine armament except for maybe Acnologia, Sage and Tobirama, not even his siblings, and he doubted any one of them would go spilling his secrets around.

Before he could ask about it his vision shifted as he found himself hurling toward the ground, it wasn’t until he crashed that he felt the pain in his stomach and saw his cracked armor, it was mending itself at rapid speeds but the damage was already done.

‘Such speed! I didn’t even see who hit me!’ thought Levi in a mix of amazement and terror, he knew he had stirred the hornet's nest this time and there was no way out for him.

Before he could have the time to collect himself his danger sense flared like it had never before in his life, he flew backwards as fast as he could when a golden flash passed by his chess.

Looking down he could see his armour slashed through as if it were tofu, his blood dripping down like a fountain.

‘Limit breaker.’ Levi immediately used it without a second thought, and it was a full use not like he usually does.

He felt his vision grow clearer almost instantly, he could finally see what was happening.

The man, Orionis, was holding a golden sword and rushing towards him, his eyes couldn’t help but go wide and weary as he saw Levi tracking his movements clearly now.

Seeing him coming Levi’s face hardened as he activated an ability so sinister even he had preferred to kill people than use it on them, Koh’s face-stealing ability.

“AAHHGHH.” there was an immediate response as Orionis started screaming before pulling back from Levi. Sadly Levi could tell that the face stealing wasn’t successful even though Orionis was screaming like a little girl.

“Told you not to underestimate him.” said Elysia, a weary tone in her voice.

“I didn’t.” replied Orionis with an annoyed tone, he couldn’t help but reach his hand to his face and cress it gently as if feeling for anything missing.

“Let’s stop playing around and end it.” said Orionis, “Both of us.”

Elysia only nodded before both of them disappeared in a burst of speed, but for Levi, in his limit breaker state they were as obvious as the full moon on a clear sky, they might not be moving in slow motion like he is used to but they were still manageable.

Three golden light beams entangled in a fierce fight that destroyed most of their surroundings as they dashed through the spirit realm, moving so fast that just their speed killed most spirits and spirit animals around.

But none of them paid any attention to that, two had a mission to fulfill and one wanted to survive even more so.

Soon though it was proving to be a helpless battle for Levi, he could barely handle the man alone let alone the two of them together, his armor was breaking faster than he could mend it, the black scales on his skin were either cracked and bleeding, sliced through, or had been ripped apart entirely, thankfully he had made sure to protect any vital areas.

With Gamer’s body he wouldn’t die as long as he had enough health points remaining, even if he were pierced through the heart or the body, but injuries to these parts took a significant chunk of his hp away, way more than a mere cut or injury to other parts.

It took a while but the thing Levi feared most came to be, his Limit breaker was starting to finally wear him off, he knew he couldn’t hold on for much longer.

It was at that moment he finally decided to do something he had been avoiding ever since he reincarnated into this world, he was finally going to assign his free stat points, for now he had 315 points from all the quests and leveling up.

He immediately assigned them with no hesitation - except for charisma which was useless now unless he had a free one thousand points to dump them all there. With that he might be able to convince them to just talk it out and Willpower which was sufficiently high - he assigned all the other stats 10 points each.

One moment Levi was being pushed backwards unable to resist, the next both Orionis and Elysia’s danger sense screamed at them to retreat but it was too late as Levi materialized a golden hammer in each hand and swatted them both like flies sending them crushing towards the ground.

He finally had a chance to take a breather. It took a while for the smoke and debris to clear out but when it did Levi’s heart fell.

Except for being dirty, there wasn’t a single scratch or injury on them, they didn’t even seem to be mildly uncomfortable, the only reason he managed to push them down was that it seemed he had caught them off guard with his sudden increase in strength.

“This is the scariest thing about you.” said Orionis as he dusted himself up, a subtle hint of fear in his tone, “Your speed of adaptability, nothing can match it and nothing will.”

“You talk as if you know me.” said Levi even though he knew it was a stupid question, they obviously knew him and even had inside info on his powers but he had noticed how the man seemed to have a loose mouth, he hoped he will slip up and reveal something that might clear the situation for him.

He had his theories by now but he wished to confirm them.

Sadly he was bound to be disappointed, “Orionis, we don’t know if he is adapting as we speak right now, he might be buying time, let’s finish this.” said Elysia seriously as she started approaching Levi followed by Orionis.