"Hahaha, you must all be wondering how I ended up like this."
Olivas said as he spread both arms wide in a grand gesture.
"Well, it's quite simple... I heard his call, and I answered."
"Now I possess a level of strength that you ants couldn't possibly comprehend."
"Hahahaha!"
He continued to laugh hysterically, peeling strips of flesh from his own face as he did.
A few minutes ago...
When Olivas was still bound and unconscious...
"Olivas Act."
An unknown voice called out from somewhere deep within his mind.
At first, there was only darkness.
A suffocating, endless void.
Then Olivas found himself being forcefully pulled, and the scenery around him shifted.
"Where am I?"
He looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings.
"Olivas Act... it seems you find yourself in quite a bind."
The voice echoed again, layered and distorted... as if countless whispers were speaking in unison.
A powerful presence entered his line of sight.
Olivas lifted his head and found a mysterious figure seated upon a throne, its face obscured and unreadable.
"T-the... A-Almighty..."
Recognition flashed through his eyes before he could even question it.
The words stumbled out of him in a stutter as he immediately lowered his head, gripped by instinctive fear.
"You stand at the edge of despair. Broken and weak."
The words struck something deep.
Images flooded Olivas' mind uninvited.
His failures.
His defeat.
His humiliation.
The moment he had been forced to acknowledge how insignificant he truly was in the face of real power.
He clenched his teeth, his consciousness trembling.
He tried to speak, but no sound came.
His body refused to respond, shackled both physically and mentally.
The darkness stirred.
Something vast shifted within it... a presence so overwhelming that his own thoughts felt microscopic by comparison.
"But I can change that."
A sensation like countless fingers brushed against his soul.
"I will lend you power."
Olivas' breathing grew erratic, even within his unconscious state.
"Power...?"
"Yes."
The whisper drew closer.
"Power to crush those who looked down on you. Power to tear apart the ones who chained you. Power to stand above all others."
A pulse throbbed through his entire body.
His heart convulsed violently.
"But there is a price."
"I have created a new spell, and you will serve as my test subject. Whether you lose your sanity or suffer any other side effects in the process is of no concern to me."
"Knowing this... will you still accept?"
Silence followed.
For a brief moment, something resembling hesitation flickered on Olivas' face.
Then...
"...If I accept."
He uttered weakly, desperation bleeding through every word.
"Will I never be humiliated again?"
At his question, the figure laughed.
A sound so deep and vile it felt like it was being carved directly into the fabric of his existence.
"No."
"Then I accept."
The moment those words left his lips, something answered.
"Argh!"
Black veins surged through his body, twisting unnaturally beneath his skin.
His heartbeat doubled. Tripled.
Bones shifted. Muscles tore and reformed. His scream never reached the surface.
"Good."
The voice whispered one last time.
"From this moment on... you are my vessel."
Back in the present...
Olivas' laughter echoed unnaturally through the pantry.
"Rejoice."
His eyes burned with an inhuman light.
"You are about to witness the power of the one who answered his call."
The moment the last word left his mouth, his figure vanished and reappeared directly in front of Alise and Kaguya in an instant.
Both of them were caught off guard by the sheer speed, but reacted immediately, swinging their swords toward him in the same motion.
Two deadly silver arcs threatened to cut him clean in half.
Olivas simply grinned.
"What?"
Kaguya's eyes went wide as Olivas let the blades connect, making no attempt to block or dodge... simply standing there and taking both hits head on.
And yet their swords barely sank a few millimeters into his flesh.
It felt as though they had just struck solid adamantite.
"Were attacks from first-class adventurers always this soft? Hehe... now I understand how Gluttony felt."
"This kind of strength is simply intoxicating!"
Olivas cackled, his expression completely unhinged.
But Alise and Kaguya refused to be deterred.
They pressed their assault, striking with everything they had, targeting vital points without hesitation.
Even after hundreds of slashes, Olivas absorbed every single one of them without so much as flinching.
"Tsk... nothing is working."
A bead of sweat traced its way down Kaguya's face.
"It's useless, you Astraea Familia bitches. Everything you do is futile."
"Soon, both of you will join the rest of your familia that died five years ago."
Olivas said with a mocking smile.
"Kaguya, work with me. We're taking this guy down."
The two exchanged a glance.
Their figures blurred as they each gathered their mind, preparing their magic simultaneously.
Sensing the shift in their magic power, Olivas' grin stretched so wide it nearly reached his ears.
"Bring it on!"
He spread both arms open.
They came at him from both sides.
With the years they had spent fighting alongside each other, their coordination was seamless... precise in a way that only came from absolute familiarity.
Even Olivas felt a flicker of genuine danger from them.
"Agaris Alvesynth!"
"Gokou!"
Both spells landed simultaneously... a combination that would have pressured even a Level 6 and potentially dealt a fatal blow.
However...
"Was that all?"
Against what Olivas had become, it wasn't enough.
"Damn it!"
Kaguya cursed as Olivas seized both of their blades with his bare hands.
He had done it with ease.
His posture hadn't even shifted.
"I'll give you both credit for that... if it were the old me, I would've gone down right there."
He said as he tightened his grip.
Cracks spiderwebbed across both blades as they began to deform under the pressure.
"Now then... prepare to face my wr-"
A fist connected with his face before he could finish the sentence, cutting his words short and sending him skidding several meters back.
"Your opponent from this point on is me."
Judas said in a cold, even voice, having already finished healing himself.
He glanced back at Alise and Kaguya, both of them bent over and gasping for breath.
"Thanks for holding out."
"Heh... shut up. I don't need your thanks. Go deal with that freak."
Kaguya spat, wiping the sweat from her brow.
"Don't let your guard down just yet, Kaguya. We've still got work to do."
Alise said as she turned her head and locked eyes with Revis.
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