23 Chapter 18: The Phantom Assault [Final part] (Bonus chapter) [Edited]

"Hubby!" Elena screamed and ran towards Hai.

The moment she saw blood dripping from his mask, she let go of everything else and ignored the strange sensation she was feeling.

*SWOOSH*

*TAP*

She caught Hai's back when he lost balance and supported him.

She quickly brought her hand to his mask and took it off.

When her eyes saw Hai bleeding from his eyes, mouth, nose and ears, her eyes started to become moist.

Hai who hadn't lost consciousness, looked at her and felt his heart ache seeing her almost crying, however, what he did was necessary so there was no way around it.

Getting up, he picked up his mask, put it on and hugged Elena.

"…"

"…"

Both of them said nothing and just stood there in silence.

After a minute or so, Hai's communicator beeped.

*BEEP*

"Hai! Do you hear me?" Hong Li-Wei's voice came from his communicator.

Hai brought his hand up and touched the side of his mask, the area close to his ear.

"Yes, I do. What happen-"

"DID YOU DO SOMETHING AGAIN!?!?!?"

Hai stopped for a minute, looked at where the hole was and looked back at Elena.

"No. I didn't do anything, why?"

The shamelessness of some people is really something else.

"…"

"You know what, forget it. To put it in few words, the world is going crazy."

"Again?" Hai asked while hoping it wasn't as bad as last time.

"Don't worry, it isn't as bad as last time."

He sighed inwardly in relief.

"Well, the thing is… We're being kinda of being invaded? I don't know if I can call it a invasion."

"Hold your horses. We, like, we in the whole fricking planet?"

"Y-Yeah."

"What are we being invade by? Aliens? Mutants? Robots? Cats? Santa? Bad singers? All of it?"

"No."

"Then what?" He asked annoyed at Hong Li-Wei doing all this suspense.

"D…"

"D? We're being invaded by Dicks or are you just that horny?"

"NO!" Hong Li-Wei screamed in frustration at his timing for jokes.

"THEN SAID IT ALREADY YOU DAMN WOMAN!" Hai screamed back at this slow woman. Is she a snail or something?

"We're being invaded by f*cking deities!!!"

Hai stopped mobbing and stared blankly at air.

"…"

"…"

"…"

After some seconds of silence, Hai blinked repeatedly.

"Say what?"

Elena and Chilly on the side stood there petrified.

Elena was shocked speechless.

As for Chilly…

It didn't understand what a "deity" is, but it's something that can shock the scary woman and the bad man.

Chilly wants nothing with something capable of such feats!

"Yes, right now, it's being noticed all around the globe. Statues of gods and deities suddenly moved, became real like a person or animal with skin and all and started doing crazy things! Even magic can't do something like that!"

"Have you ever heard of special effects?"

"I'M SERIOUS HAI!"

"And so am I." He said while trying to process the fact that they are being currently invaded by deities.

"Also, are you sure they are real deities and not something else?" Hai was having a hard time processing the fact that they were being invaded in mass for beings 'above' and that shouldn't even be seen by someone even in 100 lives.

How much misfortune does the world need for something so absurd to happen?

"W-Well, that is how the people on the Nexus Net are calling them because no being in our world is capable of doing the feats they're doing right now…"

"…"

*SIGH*

"Keep going."

"Y-Yes. Right now, these beings suddenly appear out of nowhere, say things about them being divine beings and that we should submit ourselves to them and be their worshippers and all. Though, not all of them act this way and there are some good ones that help people. Now, there appear out of nowhere, say a few things, bless some people and vanish. Their explanation is that they can't stay for long in the physical plane."

Hai looked to the ceiling.

"Why.....?"

[You brought it to yourself.]

'No, I receive an unwished package, that is it.'

Hai started to feel a headache.

"What happened after they all blessed some people and vanished?"

"They- What?"

Hai's brows furrowed.

"What is it?"

"I-I-I can't find anything about them. Everything got deleted. Even on the forums, nobody is commenting anything."

"…"

Hai's eye narrowed.

He picked his phone and sure enough, there were no news about them being invaded.

"H-Hai. I posted a comment about it on the Nexus Net and everybody is calling me a lunatic or madwoman."

"Nobody remembers anything?"

"Nobo- What?"

Hai furrowed his brows.

"What happened woman?"

"Hai, what were we talking about?"

Hai's eyebrows twitched.

"You forgot?"

"Y-Yeah. I mean, I can't remember what I was talking with you. Just that I was talking, I can't remember the contends of the conversation no matter how hard I try."

*SIGH*

Hai sighed.

How many plots is he going to get involved with just for the sake of completing his plan?

For f*ck's sake, this is the second time he nearly ended the world and this time even supposed deities got involved.

"Hong Li-Wei, don't bother with it. It seems that 'it' removed them and any traces of them from the public."

"'It?'"

"I will explain later, or maybe not. I'm too tired for this shit. I wanna sleep with Elena."

"Okay. I'll wait for you to explain it to me."

Right after, Hai hung up the call.

He patted Elena's head.

Elena feeling the soft sensation of her young master's hand on her head, woke up from her stupor and gazed absentmindedly at him.

"Don't worry hon, I'll protect you from whatever may come our way." Hai said with a calm voice.

However, inside he was a bit different.

'Oh dear lord, that was so cringe. I nearly died when saying that line.' Hai was cringing so hard internally, but he showed nothing on the outside.

And love being love, is really a marvelous thing.

Elena didn't find anything cringe with the phrase, but instead felt reassured with his words.

She hugged him tightly.

Hai also hugged her back.

Elena rose her face close to his ears and whispered.

"You know that was really cringe, right?"

Or maybe love isn't that blind anymore.

"…"

Hai looked at her.

"Do you know the word 'mercy'?"

Elena shook her head.

When Hai was going to say something, they suddenly heard some claps.

*CLAP*

*CLAP*

*CLAP*

Hai and Elena quickly separated themselves when they heard clap sounds.

Hai looked towards the entrance and saw a man leisurely standing there.

He was leaning against the door while he smokes a cigarette that had a golden fire in it.

He was dressed in a dark gray suit with black pants and a loose golden necktie hanging from his neck. He has short black hair going until his nape, a black stylish goatee, golden eyes with black sclera and a metal-like plate covering the area around his left eye.

Hai's hair stood on end and his danger senses shot through the roof.

This guy is dangerous, extremely so.

"…"

Hai's mind shut down and his whole being focused on combat.

The man seeing this, smiled at him.

"As expected from you. You're the oddest reincarnator whom I have ever come across with."

"…" Hai said nothing. Although he was shocked by his words, his mind quickly locked them away as dealing with this man comes first. If he lives to tell tale, then he can think about his words.

The man looked at Hai and then shifted his gaze to Elena.

He nodded.

"You really did well by choosing someone to be close with. Most of the others thought of themselves as the most pitiful, the most miserable, the most wronged and so on, so they were either extremely depressed or simply dicks. They all ended dying from losing their will to live. Vegetative state, you know?" His gaze wandered to Chilly.

"Don't worry big guy. You did your job well, so I won't do anything with you. Rather, you might like being his pet. He is a good guy if you ignore all the blood on his hands and his extremists tendencies sometimes."

Hai's eyebrow tried to twitch but his body didn't let it.

Puffing a small cloud of smoke, he turned to Hai again.

"I'm Chris, some call me The Wanderer." He said while lazily waving his hand in a greeting.

"Hai." Hai introduced himself briefly.

"Ok, introductions done. Now, I have to do one thing before I go. Hai, get ready to have your ass beaten. Try to not die boy."

*BAM*

Hai's eyes widened while he felt his arm stinging.

He gave a side-glance to his right arm and saw that it was going towards his back while being bent at an impossible angle.

*FUUSH*

He immediately froze the floor and where Chris was.

"I'm here, you know?"

Chris appeared behind Hai and punched his side.

*BAM*

Hai was sent sliding on the floor while his left side was aching like crazy.

"Young master!"

Chris stopped for a moment and looked at Elena.

"Sorry lady, I need you to not interrupt this."

Elena looked at Chris hatefully but her eyes soon turned hazy.

She struggled to remain standing but her feet slip and she fell.

Fortunately, Chilly used its head and picked her up.

"Now-"

*PUCHI*

An iron spike pierced Chris stomach.

"Oh? You're good, boy."

Suddenly, dozens of spikes arrived before him.

Chris smiled.

"It's useless."

All the iron spikes broke apart.

Hai had already decided on not waste time in being surprised and willed the mana inside him.

The floor suddenly turned into a crater filled with spears.

Chris looked below him at the crater and whistled.

"You have quite the nasty imagination, don't you boy?"

Seeing that Chris was standing while defying gravity, Hai threw the idea of using the surroundings to attack him away.

*SWOOSH*

Quickly zooming in, Hai made an ice katana in his left hand and slashed it at Chris.

Chris just smiled and sidestepped his slash.

Chris kicked Hai into the crater filled with ice spears that Hai had previously made.

Hai rotated his body mid-air, opened a space without any spears and used his mana to make a smoke screen.

Then, from the smoke screen, Chris suddenly saw several spears flying at him.

He picked up his lighter, opened its cap and then said:

"You know that you just screwed yourself, right?"

He moved his thumb and lit up a flame.

*BOOM*

The fire used the smoke as a fuel and exploded in grand fashion, thus also exploding all the spears.

However…

*PUCHI*

"Hoh?" Chris was amused when he saw he got hit again and that the previously dozens of ice spears were now iron spears.

When Hai did the smoke screen, he obviously knew it was inflammable and could backfire on him.

Hence, he made use of it.

He made his ice spears being only an outer layer for what was inside it: iron spears. Then, he put smoke while pressuring it in the small gaps that were left between the ice the metal.

The result was the ice being broke, the smoke exploded and boosted the spears' speed.

Hai did his attack thinking about if his enemy attacking him by blowing his smoke screen or doing nothing at all.

*WHISTLE*

"You're really good, boy."

Chris moved his lighter back and forth in a swing motion.

Suddenly, a flame dragon erupted from the fire of the lighter and opened its maw while going in Hai direction.

*BOOM*

Hai launched himself on air by generating liquid nitrogen on his feet and blowing with a simple basic flame spell.

Th dragon passed below him but even though he was over 5 meters away from it, the sheer heat made Hai start to sweat.

Chris pointed his left hand to Hai, stuck out his index finger and thumb, making a gun gesture.

"Bang."

*PUCHI*

Hai's right shoulder opened a hole.

His mind started to process everything even faster but no matter the conclusion, he can't see himself winning.

*THUD*

Hai fell on the ground while cushioning his fall by falling sidewards.

*HUFF*

*HUFF*

His vision started to get blurry, his breathing heavy and he was sweating profusely even though he was using his ice affinity to cool down his body.

"W-What was that?" He managed to say between his huffs.

Chris raised an eyebrow.

"You don't think I'll answer just because you asked, do you?" He asked while making a spear of white energy.

"Worth…. A try." Hai's mind was starting to black out but he held firmly onto being consciousness.

"Boy, I'll apologize before-hand. This will hurt, a lot. However, if you endure the pain, you'll be reborn when you wake up again. Also…"

He lowered his head to Hai's ears.

"The world's will is a bratty kid, there are more to worry than just it."

Hai looked at him with questions in his head.

"Wh-"

*PUCHI*

Sadly, Chris said what he wanted to say.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hai started to spasm and struggle.

The white spear piercing his chest was burning, freezing, shocking and causing every single sensation that is possible to inflict pain.

Chris started to walk towards the door once again.

He arrived there and looked at Hai spasming on the ground.

"Don't die, boy. I grew tired of waiting for someone who can flip the chessboard." He whispered and in the next instant, he vanished leaving only an agonizing Hai, unconscious Elena and a confused Chilly behind.

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A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!

So, what do you guys think about this chapter? Hai's first defeat in the novel and also a reminder that he isn't all-powerful and won't always win.

Comment what you think about this chapter, either you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you.

Well, that is all for today.

Thank you all for reading! 🍷😎