Chương 20: Chapter 18 - Showdowns

"No! Please! I'll do anything, just not that!" the imp begged. The other demons were remorseless. It was either that imp face the ultimate punishment of the demon army or someone else, and no one would willingly take its place. They dragged the imp, kicking and screaming, and then, without a hint of hesitation, tossed it into the boss room. It was "play time."

The unseen aftermath of my command regarding Kerby I had an archangel bearing down on me while I was seated, hammering at a sword that was glowing with enough mana to wipe out the entire island. I couldn't use a weapon. My hands were busy. I could try to cast magic, but targeting would be a problem, and the more mana I used, the more likely I would destabilize the sword I was crafting. Fortunately, I wasn't completely helpless.

"This wasn't meant for you," I growled at the angel who had brought back his sword to attack.

"Activate initial dungeon setup!" I shouted. I didn't have time to enjoy the look of shock that came over Mishael's face as a rising wall of dungeon stone suddenly blocked his sword swing. He flew around to the other side, but the original wall sank back into the ground, and another grew and blocked his path. I would have loved to have just sealed myself off entirely, but my [Dungeon Master] senses told me that enclosing something entirely was off-limits. Not that Mishael understood what was going on yet.

"What trickery is this?" he shouted as he kept trying to find ways around it and even tried attacking me from above. Hastily erected dungeon walls met him at every turn, and when he flew above me, I created a partial dome that blocked that as well. If that sounded like things were going well for me, they were not. My mind was buckling under the strain of keeping the mana in my sword in check while doing the dungeon shenanigans, and I knew I was working on borrowed time.

That was doubly true as I fell for one of Mishael's feints, and he made it around the wall to stab me with his sword. I stopped hammering. My free hand grabbed his burning sword without conscious thought while all mental effort went to stabilizing the magic that had gone wild from my brief lapse. I'm not sure how long I sat there holding onto the sword that was burning me with its holy fire.

It felt like an hour, but I was sure that it was a few seconds at most, given that Mishael hadn't pulled the sword free and stabbed me again. I made good use of Mishael's shock at my actions, though. After I clamped back down on the mana in my crafting, I pulled down on the sword for leverage and then jumped and kicked Mishael straight in the face with an [Air Strike]. He flew backward, unfortunately with his sword still in his grip, but that gave me the space I needed. Need to know his next move.

I thought as I quickly pulled my wand out of my inventory.

"[Foresight]!" I cast. Then, I didn't even notice what I did with it afterward. I may have stuffed it in my inventory or simply let it drop to the floor. Either way, I was back to hammering away at my sword as I struggled with yet another source of information pounding my brain. With the minimal heads-up from [Foresight], I blocked Mishael much more effectively. Unfortunately, he had a good point that he brought up.

"Whatever trickery this, it will not stop me forever!" he shouted. And I knew he was right. There was only so much dungeon shenanigans the System would let me get away with, and I was sure that it was only a matter of time before my abuse of first-time setup would come to an end. But the problem was that I wouldn't know when the impending patch was coming until it was too late. And it would be too late because if I could no longer finish the setup, I would be thoroughly hosed.

With the amount of distraction going on, I would need some new sub-class levels, or more likely, a new skill, if I wanted any chance of succeeding the craft. And, unfortunately, I could only think of one very stupid option to ensure that I would get the timing right. I cast [Foresight] again. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked. I had 3 versions of Mishael in my vision now. One from the present, one from a half second into the future, and one from several seconds ahead.

I also had a splitting headache and belatedly realized my nose was leaking. My brain barely comprehended the red drops that fell except to say, that's not good. From there… well… it's almost easier to explain by saying what I didn't experience. The clanging of my hammer on the metal might as well not have existed. I was watching Mishael, three of him, but everything else was forgotten in my severe tunnel vision.

My mind was so busy with the craft, both casts of [Foresight], and even arguing with the whispers in my head that I ultimately failed to process what Mishael was doing when he stopped going after me. That was answered by the portion of my brain keeping the mana in check when a part of the supply suddenly cut off. I stared uncomprehendingly at Mishael as he hovered over a sundered mana-gathering array that I had hooked up with mithril lines to my anvil.

And then, the part of me in charge of the craft screamed to the other parts to stop him as he flew to one of my seven others. With the new threat identified, I quickly raised walls to block him. Unfortunately, he was more clever than I expected and instead severed the mithril lines connecting the array to my anvil. I threw up more walls and even a maze, but I was too late. The part of my brain that was watching Mishael several seconds in the future gave me the warning. He had clutched at his head.

System patch incoming. I deactivated the second [Foresight] and [Flash Stepped] over to the obelisk with my glowing hunk of metal that was supposedly a sword in my hand. System: Assign a dungeon boss and finish setup? System: Warnings- No mimic assigned Very few dungeon traps detected My brain couldn't comprehend the words I was seeing. I only knew that I needed some kind of response.

"Sword. Yes. Sword," I rambled out.

"Upgrade. Sword. Upgrade!" Fortunately, it somehow worked that out through the error messages that followed. System: Please design dungeon boss System: Error. Bosses must have at least one unique trait System: Dungeon boss assigned. Teleport to entrance? The last prompt was overridden by my entering into the upgrade menu, so I knew that it had worked. I closed out of that and frantically flipped open my status, scrolling to the subclasses and begging that I had gotten the levels and the skill I needed.

The mana stored in the sword was unraveling, and I knew I had to complete the craft immediately. I also knew that if I tried without any additional System help, it would blow up in my face. Meanwhile, the only reason why Mishael hadn't turned me into a [Demon Lord] shishkebab was because of the boss health bar that appeared, and the newly formed and awkwardly named boss, Upgrade Sword, flew over to do battle. The flying sentient sword swung at the surprised archangel, who immediately blocked it. …

And that was about all that it could do for me. Mishael immediately gave a mighty cleave through its handle that sent it reeling, and then he flew straight for me, ignoring the level 15 boss. Meanwhile, my sword was seconds from undone. One more hit from Mishael, and it was game over. However, I found the skill that I needed.

"[Unique Craft: Herobane]!" I shouted as I slammed my hammer home. The resulting shockwave hurtled both the archangel and me into opposite walls, and for a moment, I was worried that after all of that, I had failed. My fears were abated when my now-functioning brain, courtesy of a quick [Restore], told me via the new skill that was expected behavior upon completing the craft. I immediately [Blinked] to the sword. I couldn't have Mishael beat me to it after all that.

I scooped it up and just took a second to admire it. It was a thing of beauty. It was a blade of pure sanguinite, and the runes etched into it shifted between different variations as I watched. There were also dark spikes sticking out of it at various places along the blade and the crossguard that I couldn't fathom where they had appeared from. It was undoubtedly the edgiest piece of equipment that I had made, which is why I wasn't calling it beautiful because of its appearance. No.

It was beautiful because of the stats, of course. Herobane A weapon forged by the combination of multiple masterwork swords. It is bound together by the malice and blood of the Demon Lord.

Materials Sanguinite and the blood of the Demon Lord Tier Legendary Base Damage 25 sla VI Damage Scaling 1 per 1 Enchant Superposition (0 of 2 active) Enchant Sharpness (Inactive) Enchant Health Drain (Inactive) Enchant Mana Drain (Inactive) Enchant Stamina Drain (Inactive) Enchant Hero Slayer (Inactive) Enchant Angel Slayer (Inactive) Enchant Boss Slayer (Inactive) Enchant Infernal Enchant Ominous Superposition was the enchantment that made this my magnum opus.

I could switch between any of the two other enchants at will depending on my needs. In this case, I needed to beat the everloving crud out of an archangel, so I quickly selected sharpness and angel slayer. I was ecstatic with my new weapon… Well, with most of it. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about the fact that my blood is considered a high-level crafting component. I thought. Then, shrugging that off, I began my prep. My gloves came on, and my armor set effect activated.

My sword went into my left hand, and Singularity into my right. And then, it was time for buffs.

"[Haste] activate. [Strengthen] activate. [Foresight]," I said and cast rapid-fire.

"Bring it, archangel." I said as I pointed my sword in his direction. Mishael, meanwhile, frowned as he looked at me. Then, nonchalantly killing the boss as it tried to stab him again, he turned… and flew away from me? I had no clue what he was doing until he cleaved through yet another one of my mana-gathering arrays.

"What are you doing!?" I shouted.

"[Blink]!" I cast to get in front of him as he went towards the next, but he stopped on a dime, spun, and targeted another. I sputtered as he simply slashed through another crystal as if it were made of paper. I needed to get him to actually fight me before my buffs wore off. I flared my wrath aura and taunted him.

"Fight me, coward! What's the matter? Can only hit things that can't hit back!?" He completely ignored me, and I could feel my wrath slip past him.

"Depriving an enemy of assets is a well-known part of war," he stated offhandedly as I [Blinked] in front of him. He juked around me, and another crystal was a goner.

"I have no need to fall for your childish provocations." From there, I tried to go on the offensive, but it didn't work out. His superb swordsmanship easily blocked all of my swings, even ones I took after repositioning with a [Blink]. Meanwhile, his wings absorbed all of the damage from my spells without apparent impact on the archangel himself. My buffs also didn't last nearly long enough for that type of game of cat and mouse, and I had to refresh them just to try to keep up. It wasn't enough.

Soon, all the arrays I had used to make my sword were down. Unfortunately, those weren't the only available ones. He finally spotted the offshoot room where I had several more, all plugged into a central pedestal. He flew toward that, and I barely [Flash Stepped] and blocked his sword strike in time.

"You maniac!" I shouted.

"You're going to kill us all!"

"With death temporary for us both, you should know that holds no weight," he stated as he pushed harder into our blade lock, and I was forced back until I was leaning up against the pedestal with the blade inching ever closer.

"Maybe for us, but what about all the merfolk you'll kill?" I snarled. The momentary shock of that statement gave me enough breathing room to land an [Air Strike] kick on his shin that successfully got him off me. Then, a brief look of rage stole over his face that had nothing to do with my wrath aura.

"Taking mortals hostage again, I should have known," he scowled. Stolen story; please report.

"They're not-" I started. Then, I realized the futility of explaining the entire nuanced situation to the archangel who wouldn't believe a word I said. And my buffs were also running out.

"Sure, we'll go with that," I stated.

"Destroy any more of my stuff, and they'll get it, understood?"

"Very well, then," he replied.

"It would seem my time here is over." He started floating upward, and I watched him with a blank expression on my face.

"Just like that?" I finally asked before he could finish his return to Heaven.

"You're just gonna leave?" He paused and looked at me.

"My mission has failed. Why would I not?"

"I'm still alive!" I protested, which… to be honest, I'm not quite sure why I did.

"You can't just leave without even trying to kill me!" He didn't reply, and the heavenly light that usually indicated he was about to peace out showed up.

"I get it!" I called out.

"You're afraid to fight me!"

"No," he scowled.

"It would simply be foolish to fight you and increase the time until I can be summoned again when-""Which would only happen if you lose!" I taunted.

"You are afraid!" He shook his head and began to disappear… And I don't know whether it was lingering brain trauma or the simple fact that I hadn't gotten to try out my sword yet, but I was really not okay with Mishael just wrecking all my stuff and leaving like that. With a loud snap, his exit was [Disrupted]. He gave me a look. He didn't even need to say it out loud. I knew that he was thinking, "Seriously?" However, I was too ticked off to care.

"You came barging in here, almost killed me, almost blew up an entire frickin' island that I spent so much time on, and then you think you can just leave!? Just like that!?" I shouted.

"No! No frickin' way! I don't care who the frick you think you are, but you get to pay for what you pulled here today!" I took a single deep breath and got my flaring wrath aura a bit more under control.

"So, fight me, archangel!" I sneered.

"Or maybe I will take it out on those hostages after all!" That was obviously a bluff. First, I wouldn't do that just because Mishael had ticked me off. Second, I couldn't do that because of my oaths. However, given that he didn't know about the latter and his opinion of me was low enough that the former wouldn't seem too bizarre, I knew I had him.

"Very well then," he stated slowly.

"Just know that-" He cut himself off mid-sentence as he launched himself at me. Initially, I was confused by his odd behavior. Then, as my [Foresight] cut out and the last of my [Strengthen] and [Haste] buffs deactivated, I realized how cunning the archangel actually was.

"[Foresight]!" I called out as I threw up an awkward block for his first strike, which quickly solidified into a guarded stance once my future vision kicked in. He kept track of my buff timers while flying around the room and used the first two casts to get a read on when the third would expire. I thought as I parried an overhead strike off to my left and cast a [Hell Blaze] at him with the staff in my right hand. He blocked the black blaze with his wings, but I followed up with a quick thrust with Herobane.

Unfortunately, without [Haste] active, Mishael was faster than me. In the blink of an eye, the wings flew back into place, and his sword batted mine to the side. Meanwhile, his riposte was aimed to take me in the chest, and I was off-balance after my strike. [Foresight] should have let me dodge the attack, but I had gotten too greedy. Now, the best I could do was let it hit me in the shoulder instead of center mass, which made no difference in a world like Placeholder.

"[Blink]!" I cast without hesitation. The sword passed through the area my chest just vacated while I reappeared 20 feet behind and to the right of Mishael. This isn't working. I need a better plan. I thought as Mishael quickly located me and began the offensive once again. I blocked strike after strike, but I knew that my stamina would give before his and that I would make another mistake again soon. Come on! Think! You have to do something different before you run out of health or mana!

And that was my lightbulb moment. Mishael was sure to win the war of attrition… but only if I kept Herobane on its current settings. Quickly swapping both enchantments, I allowed Mishael's next slash to hit me straight in the chest… in return for one of my own striking him just the same. He grunted in pain and surprise and then pulled back. Meanwhile, I was examining my health bar. HP drain stole back less damage than I took. I can't keep making trades like that.

I grinned as I started going on the offensive myself. But that just means that I have to get some free hits in. I left myself open for another thrust. Then, as it was coming, I made my own opening.

"[Blink]!" I cast, reappearing behind the archangel with my sword poised for a swing. He took the attack across the back, but one was all I got. The follow-up swing was quickly parried, and he even had a chance to attack me himself. Fortunately, he hesitated, and that let me regain my balance. I allowed the situation to repeat itself. Once again, Mishael had an open thrust to my chest. Once again, I called out, "[Blink]!" … Only this time, I didn't actually cast the spell.

His hesitation cost him as I was able to slash his outstretched arm as I spun around his strike to get to his side. From there, a real [Blink] repositioned me out of the horizontal slash that he used to clear space and let me score another hit on his unprotected side. The fight continued like that for a bit, but Mishael proved over and over again why he was the archangel of Placeholder.

He quickly adapted to my unorthodox tactics, and soon, he started getting reads for when I was faking him out versus actually casting. Meanwhile, I kept upping the ante by throwing in other tricks like casting both real and fake [Hell Blazes] before and after my [Blinks] and then also throwing in [Flash Step] to confuse him whenever it was off cooldown. While I was definitely doing more damage to him than he was to me, that wasn't a huge comfort.

His health bar was much larger than mine, and while the health drain of my sword was doing fantastic work, it was just barely losing out to the occasional strike that he was able to get in. With my health bar down to about a quarter, I [Flash Stepped] away to get some breathing room and then cast a different spell.

"[Appraise]." Mishael didn't give me long to review the data it sent back, but the top line was the most important one. 1235 out of 3000. I thought as I parried another strike and bought some space with a fake [Hell Blaze] and [Blink]. That's too much HP. I can't keep this up for that long. I need to end this quickly… or see about sending this boss fight into phase 2. My mind immediately jumped to [Lightning Spear], but I had my misgivings.

He can block it with just his sword, and I'm a sitting duck while casting it. Maybe if I could cast [Blink] at the same time, but- I paused mid-thought as Mishael and I traded slashes across the chest. Maybe I can? I can do a wordless cast or- One eureka moment later, I [Blinked] as far across the room as possible and stowed my sword.

"Lightning become my radiant blade that will pierce the darkened heavens," I cast with the requisite motions as Mishael flew towards me. Seeing that he wouldn't make it in time, he stopped midflight and readied his sword to parry the lightning once again. Good luck. I thought as I pulled one of my [Blink] wands from my inventory.

"[Lightning Spear]!" I thrust my staff forward, but just as the spell was about to shoot out, I quickly activated the stored spell in the wand and appeared above the archangel. My spell crashed down like a thunderstorm concentrated on a single point, but even so, Mishael was too fast. In the split second between my disappearance and the spell cast, he managed to locate me and thrust his sword at the spell. He once again split the bolt, and it crashed down on either side… or at least, most of it.

My spell wasn't entirely wasted as he took a small portion of the thunderbolt to his left shoulder, but it wasn't quite the showing I was hoping for. Not that I got to see much of the aftermath. I didn't have a plan for sticking the landing after teleporting into the air above him, and even more importantly, I couldn't exactly cast [Ground] when I was in mid-air. As I convulsed with electricity coursing through me, I had to remind myself that this was a part of the plan. System: Critical HP Detected.

Sufficient Level Detected. Demon Lord Form detected. Auto-activating Demon Lord Form. System: Attempting to activate Wrath Form"Ready for round 2, archangel?" I managed to ask with a laugh. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"It would seem our fight will end here, then." System: Wrath Form Activated The transformation began, and I felt my body stretch and grow into the molten incarnation of the demon lord of wrath. Meanwhile, Mishael prepared his finisher. He slammed his flaming sword into the ground.

"For your crimes against the people of Placeholder, face the [Judgment of the Light]!" he decreed. … And nothing happened.

"What's the matter, Archangel? Out of mana?" I taunted, even through my transformation.

"What!?" he asked.

"How!?" However, I was past the point of being able to talk… not that I would have revealed that information anyway. Herobane's ability to steal mana wasn't something I wanted broadcast to the world after all. As rage engulfed my mind and my transformation was completed, it was time for round 2.

Initially, the small rational part of my mind thought I might have made a mistake. Wrath was huge, strong, and had a massive HP bar… none of which helped against the flighty angel that flew circles around me and kept chopping up my ankles. If that was the only case for that form, I would have died there for certain. However, with that form being pushed by an opponent that could damage it but not one-shot it straight away, I finally learned what the other gimmick of the form is.

Like a [Berserker], it gets stronger as its HP decreases. More importantly, it gets faster. And while I would have been perfectly fine with Wrath taking out Mishael for me, Mishael realized what was happening and made a sound tactical decision. Specifically, he flew out of the makeshift dungeon and into the open air. Wrath, of course, followed him. However, Wrath didn't have much in the way of weapons that could hit a small target flying at high altitude.

So, what followed was around an hour of Wrath chucking giant great clubs up into the sky that the angel easily dodged. While it technically wasn't the most useless transformation I ever had, it came close. Especially because of what came after.

With the hour up, I regained my normal form, full resources, and a sound, non-rage-filled mind. I quickly looked up at the descending archangel and realized I should find out how much damage was left.

"[Appraise]!" I cast. His information popped up, and I let out a litany of censored curses. He was back to full resources as well. He had used the time that I was transformed to "rest," which he could apparently even do while flying. With how much he had learned from our first round, I was under no illusions that I would be able to win round 3. I quickly scanned through my status, looking for something, anything that I could use to tip the scales in my favor.

It was looking like my best bet was to somehow convince him to use [Judgment of the Light] again but do a return-to-sender with [Reflect Attack]. Then, I spotted the wands I had crafted while planning my trip into Hell. I still had some [Blink] ones left, some [Cure] ones that would likely never get used, and one last one that gave me a plan as I laid eyes on it. I'm going to have to time this perfectly. I've only got one shot. And I'll also have to be on the ground, or I'll just fry myself to a crisp.

Only having one shot meant that I had to make it a good one. So, I started off by just doing the same game plan as before. Trade blows, use both fake and real [Blinks] and [Hell Blazes], and try to score hits from his blindsides. It, obviously, went terribly.

"Your cheap tricks will protect you no longer, [Demon Lord]!" Mishael called out. And that slightest hint of overconfidence meant that it was time to initiate my plan. I [Blinked] away to get space. Herobane disappeared, and in its place, I held a wand in each hand while also clutching Singularity. … It was pretty awkward holding the wands directly against my staff, but I had no choice. I needed both of them.

"Lightning become my radiant blade that will pierce the darkened heavens," I chanted once again. And just like before, Mishael stopped in place and got ready to parry the lightning.

"[Lightning Spear]!" I finished as I reappeared above him. He immediately pivoted and prepared to thrust upward… but I had [Flash Stepped] up there, not [Blinked]. Then, I [Blinked] behind him as I let out a torrent of lightning in his direction, with my foot slammed home to [Ground] me. Even at the minimum distance where he couldn't reach me with his sword to knock my staff out of the way, he was still fast enough to turn and slice that lightning bolt in two… Which is why I had started with the smaller one first.

In the split second where he blocked the lightning fired from the wand, I adjusted my aim slightly downward and unleashed the [Overchanneled] [Lightning Spear] from Singularity. The dual stream of bolts was finally enough to catch him off guard, and he took the full force of the second spell to his abdomen. Meanwhile, lightning coursed through my veins, and I had never felt more alive… or more exhausted. I had poured out every point of mana and stamina into that spell and banked everything on it.

For a moment, that seemed like it may have been a mistake. The spell finally cut out, and we were left there, staring at each other. I'm done for. I thought as I stared at the archangel and realized I wouldn't last a second without resources. Then, with one final spasm, Mishael coughed out.

"Heaven… rebuke you… [Demon Lord]." And he vanished in a pillar of light. I collapsed to the ground and let out a laugh that was one part relieved, one part unhinged. I did it. I frickin' did it. I thought. I knew that Mishael would be a problem since the first time I met him… or I guess the second time if you counted when he was brought back into the past to fight Titania. What was that spell that boss used? [Summon Future Nemesis] or something? I thought. That had been proving all too accurate.

My fight with Mishael had been far too close, and it wasn't one that I ever wanted to repeat. I had some ideas for how to avoid it in the future, but at least this one fight had ended up actually being worth it. System: New Achievement. Slayer of the Light. Innate Holy Resistance Unlocked"Innate holy resistance?" I blurted out. When I saw a new achievement, I had already started rolling my eyes, imagining that I got even more useless perk points.

Instead, I had gotten something that shored up one of my greatest weaknesses. Assuming that healing damage counts as holy damage. I thought. I had a mind to test that out immediately since I still had some [Cure] wands stockpiled, but I was interrupted by a different message from the System. System: A new Hero has been summoned"Aw, frick," I muttered.

Slightly earlier The OmniverseEngine watched impassively as the archangel was summoned directly to where the Demon Lord was doing his latest dangerous ritual. If it had emotions, it would have been frowning. This was a very poor attempt by the admin at balancing the situation, and while it would give credit and possibly reduce the number of demerits, the attempt was too little and too late. So, the Demon Lord completed his weapon, battled with the archangel, and even managed to win. …

Which, from the System's point of view, just meant that the [Demon Lord] had finally made good enough use of his unbalanced class. The sword was nothing new, honestly. The fact that this was an ageless Demon Lord capable of crafting and using his own gear had gone into the calculations of the class's power level long ago. Either way, as the System impassively watched the showdown, it also retriggered its search for a new Hero.

As expected, no candidates would be strong enough, even disregarding the Demon Lord's new weapon. The subroutine was almost finished when an event triggered. The System's thoughts, if they could be called that, were then akin to, "Oh. He's back. That should work." And without further ado, the next summoning was scheduled.

Thomas Mckay was a grumpy, old man. Or at least, he was old right now, which was part of what made him grumpy. He returned to his senses on the side of the road and then tried to remember what he had been doing. I wis gaun tae a diner… Richt. Tae ma birthday. Eighty-five years auld. He sighed. Sae mony years an yet sae few. The birthday that followed was nothing special. Loved ones and relatives surrounded him… many of whom he had to pretend to remember.

Luckily, his less convincing acts were easily dismissed as him going senile. Which might not have been too far off. His mind felt like a steel trap these days… rusty and illegal in at least 7 states. However, he kept up his fake smile and pretend enthusiasm for the sake of his family. In the meantime, he couldn't help but wonder how much longer he could take it. Sure, the last time had been only a few years, but what if the next one was longer? What if it was a decade, or Heaven forbid, an entire century again?

With those thoughts in mind, he waved his family goodbye at the diner entrance and then began walking to the bus stop. As always, he checked both ways before crossing the street… and as it happened far too often, it didn't matter. A familiar vehicle appeared, honking its horn. However, Thomas did take note of the fact that this one's bumper was caved in. He knew it wouldn't matter if he tried dodging, so he sighed.

"Och, awa' to Hell, ye stupid truck," he muttered as the truck hit him, and the world went dark.

As Thomas reappeared in another world for the umpteenth time, he went through the usual checks. Placed in the body of a youngster again? Check. Had a status screen he can look at? Check. The only thing was that was missing was- System: Congratulations! You have been chosen as the new Hero of Placeholder! There it is. He nodded in satisfaction. He was still getting a general feel for the world and could tell that this place felt… weak. Very weak.

That just made him all the more surprised when a shining armor set appeared on his body, and the glowing weapon appeared in his hand. The armor quickly solidified into a shiny metal that he had to assume was this world's version of mithril. That stuff seemed like it was everywhere. The more amusing thing was that the weapon seemed to be confused. It rapidly shifted between multiple glowing forms, and Thomas couldn't help but chuckle.

"Ye should just be a halberd. That'll dae," he stated. It was probably just in his head, but he would've sworn there was the briefest hint of gratitude as the weapon solidified into his favorite form. He gave it some test thrusts and swings and then nodded. The least he could say about this world was that they outfitted their [Heroes] well. Then, Thomas paused with a frown. Haud on, did that say Placeholder? He thought.

His frown deepened slightly as he realized that this world might be even more unstable than he thought.

"Och weel," he shrugged.

"I'll kill the villain an' be hame before dinner." It was then that Thomas decided to look around at the surrounding area. He was in a courtyard with a large blue obelisk, and all around, staring at him in awe, were a group of normal-looking medieval citizens. He picked one at near-random.

"Ye'll do," he said as he approached the guard.

"Tell me, whit's a [Hero] supposed tae dae in this warld? Are there ony evil tyrants, or arims o' demons tae defeat?" The man became a bit of a babbling mess, but Thomas gleaned most of the information he needed. First, Thomas learned that they didn't speak English because his automatic translation from the System had to kick in. That at least upped his estimation of the world slightly, though he didn't have very high hopes for a Placeholder.

Second, he learned there was a demon army, but they were mostly a non-issue. Finally, he was told that there was a [Demon Lord], and as the man started yammering about how no one could ever seem to find him and that he could appear whenever and wherever he wanted, Thomas got tired of listening.

"Awricht, I'm aff tae kill the [Demon Lord]. Wish me luck, but I winnae need it," he stated. The guard looked at him in confusion, and then Thomas activated one of the skills that he had carried over… and his most verbose one. <Secret Tunnel Through the Aether to the Source of Calamity>. It was a skill worth its weight in gold, but he really wished that a fairy queen had been in charge of naming it. Then, all of a sudden, it completed, and he appeared in front of the [Demon Lord].

The monster in question was clad in wicked-looking armor composed of large scales and black metal, and he was bent over with a frown, examining some pieces of metal and crystal.

"What the frick!?" he shouted as Thomas charged forward and thrust his halberd.

If I had a nickel for every time that someone impossibly showed up inside of my secret pocket dimension, I would somehow have had 10 cents just for that day. That was about 15 cents too many. Fortunately, my reactions were up to snuff, and I dove out of the way of the thrust. I rolled and came up with Herobane in my left hand. And it was good I did. My sword barely made it into a guard position before the devastating chop from the axe part of the Hero's Halberd crashed into it and nearly wrenched it from my grip.

I instead had to roll with the blow, which nearly caught me a spike to the chest from his follow-up stab. The fight was already going incredibly poorly… and the only thing I was full on was health thanks to [Health Regen – Fast]. It hadn't even been a half hour since I defeated Mishael, but somehow the [Hero] was both summoned and found me. It was time to get the heck out of there.

"[Panic Button]!" I cast… only for the spell to fizzle.

"Aye, ye'd better panic," he stated as he made two more thrusts that I barely dodged and parried.

"Ye winnae be getting' oot o' ma <Spatial Lock> alive," he continued as he tripped me with the back end of his halberd, and I landed heavily on the floor. There were several things that I could have focused on: the fact that the [Hero] had seen me and immediately started swinging or his weird skill that had an "out of place" feel to it for starters. Instead, I focused on perhaps the least important detail at that time.

"You're Irish?" I blurted out. He paused, and a deadly scowl came over his face.

"Definitely gaun tae kill ye noo," he stated. Oops. Wrong one.

"Scottish, then!" I said with my right hand up placatingly.

"Aye," he said gruffly.

"An' hou dae ye happen tae ken about Scotland?" I cocked my head a bit, not quite tracking the question, but as his scowl deepened and his hand twitched on his halberd, I figured I would just have to guess with the context.

"I know about Scotland because I'm from Earth," I said slowly.

"And I take it you are too? So, we don't need to fight."

"I'll be the judge o' that," he replied.

"<Eyes of Guilt Detection>." His eyes widened for a brief moment after using the skill, but they then quickly narrowed. The readied grip on his halberd told me all I needed to know about the results. I stowed Herobane, just so I didn't accidentally lose it or something, and then sighed.

"Ye seem awfae calm despite the fact I'm gaun tae kill ye," he said with a hint of suspicion.

"Well, I mean, it's not like you'd be the first one," I couldn't help but quip. I watched a complex set of emotions flit over his face, but then I closed my eyes. There was a very good chance I was dead here, but most [Heroes] had qualms about killing an unarmed opponent, so I figured that would at least maximize my abysmal chances of survival. … My abysmal odds that somehow came up all aces.

"Up on yer feet. I winnae kill ye today, but ye owe me some answers an' a drink," he said gruffly.