"Alice. Are you okay?" he said to her; it sounded so strong and gentle at the same time.
His voice was soothing to her ears, a contrast to the horrors she experienced minutes—seconds just before his arrival. His presence was like peace in the storm—a rock that shielded her from that very storm. "Brings back memories, right?"
Alice began to reminisce about the first time she had met him. A moment similar to this one, where he had shielded her from a punch by a mech from that night. And how he shielded her from trash that the crowd threw at her. He took it all.
She began thinking back to Ryo's words from just the other day… When someone is genuine, it makes them easier to like. It also means they will genuinely have your back… always.
When she saw that infamous, messy black hair, those dangling silver cross earrings chiming with the breeze, that black attire, jacket, and of course, that logo of a wolf's head in the back—it still felt like a dream even though she knew this was her new reality.
She cried loudly when she uttered his name, but it was no longer out of fear. It was one of alleviation, one of comfort.
It was almost like a contradiction with the way he bore the name of a sin, but it was the person she—without realizing—wanted here most of all.
***
Greed:
I stood between Alice and this giant of a man's fist, which I had stopped with my left arm merely raised, holding it there.
Alice wailed behind me, and I couldn't help but smile as I glanced back to witness her. The large fist to my side was shaking, all the while.
"Greed!!" Alice cried as she threw her arms to the floor, catching herself mid-fall.
"Sorry I'm late," I said as she bawled. "You did great. I am so proud of you."
"N-No! I wasn't great at all! B-B-Because of me the house is wrecked a-a-and Kiki, Milo, and Ulrich… They're hurt! All because of me! All because I'm so weak—"
"Stop," I said, cutting her off with a stern voice, like I was reprimanding her. "You listen here…"
She halted herself. Even stopping her whimpering as I spoke.
"Do not put yourself down, you fuckin' pipsqueak! You did great, goddamn it! Give yourself some damn credit for once," I shouted.
She was taken aback from my response, and I could have sworn I saw goosebumps on her skin after that.
When I saw her eyes from my glance, they gleamed like a weight had been lifted—torn off her shoulders. It was the look of someone who had devoted their life to the Keeper.
"I don't care how the place ended up," I continued. "I don't care if you finished the job. Never… Never put yourself down. Not when you've made so much progress. I never wanna hear those self-depreciating words come out of your mouth ever again. Do you understand?"
Alice sniveled; at any moment she could lose it. And it was my next words that had done the trick. "You and those foolish maids… you all did great. Thank you all for protecting our home."
She wept. Uncontrollable tears pooled from her eyes as she shook her head in a desperate attempt to contain them. Her cheeks puffed, becoming rose red, and she cried for a good minute.
This was not my moment. It was hers.
I could feel her relief as she sobbed. Still on her knees, bent over with her head nearly touching the floor, tears staining the red carpet, and hands clenched tightly to her chest—aching with emotion. That was all the reassurance she needed then. This flower. This was all the water she needed.
"Now who the fuck are you?" the large man interjected.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to forget about you there…" I turned my head back to face forward, eyes wide with hostility like the mood had just been ruined. "You're so weak I hardly noticed."
His brow twitched, assessing me with his fist still shaking.
When my eyes met his, he winced. It was only for a second, but I saw the flash of fear in his eyes at the sight of me.
"Heh… This has to be some kind of joke… I sense no mana from you at all! Even an infant would have more mana than you! What can you possibly do here that she and those other pathetic maids didn't already try? Don't make me laugh!" He mocked, bolstering false confidence.
"That's some tough talk for someone who can't even finish his attack," I said with a bored look overtaking me. Holding his large fist to my side like it was nothing at all. He ground his ugly teeth, darting his eyes to me and his fist repeatedly. "What's wrong?" I went on. "I was trying to make you laugh. That wasn't funny?"
He struggled. I could feel him trying to move me, but the floor cratered instead.
"Come on!" I shouted. "If you can't even move a measly mage like me with 'no mana,' what does that make you?" My hand gripped his fist, and I began moving it back. "Is your size just a front? It's no wonder you like preying on young girls. 'Cause deep down—"
He gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked from frustration. His eyes trembled so intensely, the veins in them began reaching his pupils.
"—You're the pathetic one," I ended. And that genuinely pissed him off.
He exploded in vehement rage, provoked at my mockery. He withdrew his fist from me and then threw his other one down. I let his punch connect, testing his strength, then he sent back his other fist again, over and over until a barrage of strikes flew my way.
"How dare you mock me, you fucking worm! Die!" he roared.
Fist after fist struck. By the way it looked, something like this should have been a devastating volley of attacks, but it wasn't as strong as I was expecting it to be.
I yawned. I probably didn't even need to block that first punch when I arrived.
Alice watched in awe as her tears dried, completely stunned while I continued to take his heavy blows without even batting an eye.
Drakthor sent his last fist flying, and I swatted it away with the back of my hand like a fly, glowering with a dissatisfied look on my face.
"Truly pathetic," I said, with no hint of remorse.
How!? How is he unscathed? It's impossible… I heard him think. "Are you using?—" he got out before I dashed at him so fast, he could barely process it. Right there, in the air before him, right at his chest—I was there with a single punch—a direct hit.
BANG!
The air cracked as I shattered his proud black armor, exposing his pale chest. And he flew out into the middle of our large clearing over a group of his grunts.
The motion was so fierce and sudden, his underlings did not even register him flying over them as he crash-landed one-fourth of a mile out of the Wolves' Den entrance.
Alice's mouth gaped when she bore witness to someone whom she had struggled so hard with just moments ago, being tossed across their court as if he were a mere ragdoll.
I landed gracefully on the wrecked floors with hands in my pockets, and I began strolling to the open entrance.
Before I went any further, I said one last thing to Alice, who still sat on the staircase landing behind me, "You stay put, squirt. You can leave the rest to me… okay?" I took one of my hands out of my pockets and gave her a corny thumbs-up. I wanted her to etch this in her mind. She could put her faith in me.
Alice sniffed, nodding after those words.
I was probably the last person these thugs expected to see coming out of the Den after their leader was tossed out to them.
My vision adjusted to the morning rays, and the sky couldn't have been any clearer. It was a beautiful day once again in the Valley. We just needed to take out the trash first…
As I exited the blown-out wall, to my right was a male in a Black Wolves jacket casually smoking a cigarette, minding his own business. On my left, another male, in his morning gym attire—compression shirt and joggers—sitting atop three thugs who were all completely out cold. He sat with his legs wide apart, cracking his knuckles as I walked onto the clearing with them at my sides.
And all around at their feet were multiple unconscious bandits, eating the dirt.
"Hey—" was all I said with a solemn tone as the male who was smoking interjected, already knowing what I was gonna say.
"I know, I know. I'm sorry. This one is on me. I have no excuses. I will take the blame for this one," he said, not an ounce of insincerity found in his tone. And I trusted him fully with his word.
"Good. I'm glad you know, Code."
The male to my left spoke then, followed by a bark from a large wolfdog who was by his side, "Yeah, yeah, we get it, Cap. Our bad… so why don't you order us to take care of this mess now that we're here?"
"Not a bad suggestion, Havoc," I said as our wolfdog howled in excitement to me. "Tell Yuna to go inside first."
"Go on, girl, you heard the man."
Yuna barked and headed inside with Alice.
Lastly, I slowly made my way to a large crater in front of us where the three Arabella maids had lain unconscious. I kept walking until I got to the nearest one—Kiki.
The other grunts ahead in black armor backed away as I got closer—all of them being extremely cautious with the three of us there. Though, I paid them no mind.
Once I arrived, I knelt to Kiki and said gently, "Thank you for protecting the Den… and most importantly, Alice… I'm extremely satisfied and grateful for your services."
Kiki, who had seemed to be passed out, had somehow barely awakened at the sound of my voice. When she saw me kneeling beside her, her pink eyes glinted in the light of the sun. "My… Love… You came…" she said weakly as she tried to reach for my face.
But before she could even touch my cheek, I pointed downward, signaling to Code, and in an instant, they disappeared and were replaced by mere rubble from inside the Den.
I stood up slowly, shifting my hands back into my pockets, and began surveying the massive horde of mage bandits ahead of us that solicited our home.
When I finally paid attention to them, my presence and glare sent an invisible shockwave throughout the place, hitting each and every one of them, and sending shivers down their spines.
I felt their fear. Felt the sweat that trailed down their necks. And just like that time in LeHarla, I thought I was hearing their thoughts like I had heard their leader's literally moments ago.
They were petrified as they feasted their trembling eyes; unable to grasp the thought that the one who had sent their leader flying was but a single mage without a lick of magic.
Not only that, but the two beside me now, Code and Havoc, had their own presence about them, too. Code with a stern and condescending look, even with the glare that reflected off his thin, round glasses, still smoking his cigarette, and Havoc with a wild, psychotic kind of charisma as he stood up from his throne of bandits, smiling with that nasty scar displayed on the left of his face.
Our mere standing alone made many of them wince.
At last, the big one got up from where I had sent him, somewhere amid a condensed group, and staggered as he did. He didn't even care that he had crushed some of his underlings as he picked one up and threw them to the side like trash in his way. He was the tallest among them, all flaunting that same black armor…
"You lowly piece of shit! I will fucking annihilate you from the face of fucking existence!" he shouted violently.
I homed in to where he was. He and only him—was my target. The rest were fodder.
As I stood side by side with Code and Havoc, we faced an army. They stood before us, with numbers and physical sizes well larger than our own. And though there were only the three of us and hundreds of them, there was one clear difference.
"An army versus three men and yet…" I spoke, eyes still locked on my true target. "You're the ones backing away from us. If you're planning to run…" My glare rippled through them, gazing only at their leader, but to those who caught it… the feeling was mutual.
"It's too late for that."