25 - A God

Mutah glanced at Salem, clearly puzzled.

"Huh? Must not have been deep enough. Press it harder, MUTAH!!" Salem commanded, his tone firm.

Mutah then turned to Van, pressing the seal onto him once again with even more force. Yet, the seal dissipated immediately upon placement, just as before.

"...What the..!?" Salem uttered in disbelief, while Van maintained his stoic demeanor.

"Salem Dyke, was it..?" Van said with a deep sigh as he effortlessly pulled apart the chains binding him.

Both the orc and Salem stared in shock. Mika and Rika clung to their master as Van casually stood up, his body still covered with runes intended to seal his prime strength.

"Your appraiser died for nothing..." Van stated softly, his voice flat as he looked down.

"MUTAH!!! KILL HIM!!!!" Salem screamed at his orc servant.

In a frenzy, Mutah swung his iron staff. But before he could complete the movement, Van reached out and snapped his neck as if it were brittle twigs. In an instant, the orc fell to the ground, the slave mark still present onto his now lifeless body.

"I-IMPOSSIBLE..!!! H-HOW!!!? I SEALED YOU!!! EVEN WITH OVER 200 STRENGTH AND RESISTANCE, THERE WAS NO WAY YOU COULD HAVE BROKEN FREE FROM THAT AND RESISTED THE SLAVE MARK!!!!! WHAT ILLUSORY TRICK IS THIS...!!?" Salem shouted, collapsing to the ground as the two master assassins still embraced him.

[Background Music: God of War - Ragnarok Theme]

Van looked down, his expression weary, defeated, and hollow.

"Misinformation. No more, no less. Your appraiser was just wrong about my stats, that's all," he reasoned, his steps measured as he slowly walked toward Salem.

"HE COULDN'T...!!! HE COULDN'T HAVE BEEN WRONG!!! HE SACRIFICED HIS LIFE ESSENCE TO MEASURE YOUR STATS!!! YOUR RESISTANCE PEAKED AT 999!!! I AM CERTAIN OF IT!!!" Salem continued, his voice trembling as he shivered.

"Yep... It definitely showed 999... I won't deny that one," Van replied, looming over Salem as the two looked up at him in disbelief.

"...But that's because 999 was all it could show." Van continued, a somber smile crossing his face.

Salem's face went pale as Van's figure suddenly seemed as tall and grand as the horizon, unreachable for mere mortals. Van brought up his status window, glancing at it briefly.

"Hmm... Those runes did take a lot of my stats though... If it weren't for them, my Resistance stat would have been well over 15,000..." He murmured, eyeing his stats:

VIG: 999 (+9521) [HYPER SEALED]

STR: 999 (+6252) [HYPER SEALED]

RES: 999 (+7876) [HYPER SEALED]

DEX: ... [HYPER SEALED]

MANA: ... [HYPER SEALED]

....

.

Salem's jaw dropped as Van revealed the true extent of his stats. His grip on Mika and Rika loosened, and in his terror, he lost control, urine staining his robes uncontrollably.

'Even with these stats, Alicia killed me like it was nothing. So, they just kept rising every time I died at her hands... Honestly, I also expected the stats to peak at 999. But then they just... Didn't,' Van mused internally, reflecting on his continual resurrection and growth.

'And when I killed that dragon... The stats increased even more due to the huge leap in my level...'

'That makes sense, I guess.' He concluded calmly.

"Ah... Ah...!" Salem stuttered, his words caught in his throat, too weak to even move his eyelids.

'H-have... I... A-angered... A-a... God...?!' He thought in utter disbelief, trembling as his hair seemed to whiten in real time, his breaths short and panicked.

"I shall give you that, however; I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable about runes and magic... Or life essence as you are, nor about traps and drugs as these two," Van continued. His voice was hollow and weary as he briefly glanced at Mika and Rika.

"I... I... I-I Apologize...!! I... I shall grant you everything that you want...!! J-JUST SPARE ME..!!! SPARE MY SOUL, OH... DEAR GOD...!!" Salem's voice quivered with fear.

'Not even the holiest of runes could stop him... The goddess herself would need to intervene to even the odds..!!' he thought, cowering in fear.

Van looked at him calmly.

"...Fine. I will spare you. I give you my word..." He said with an empty smile as he addressed the trio.

Relief began to wash over Salem.

"...But I would appreciate if you were honest with me now. Mika and Rika... I see no slave marks on them. Stop the deceit and make those slave marks visible," Van instructed him calmly.

'H-he knew..!! He knew they were slaves despite the lack of the SLAVE MARK!!! N-No... It must just be a hunch of his...!! I cannot let him take away... MY KITTENS....!!' Salem thought in panic, recalling how he had branded Mika and Rika slightly over 10 years ago.

"T-THEY REALLY ARE NOT MY SLAVES!! AS THE TWO BEST MASTER ASSASSINS AND INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS OF MY DEPARTMENT, THEY ARE JUST THIS LOYAL T-TO ME!!! I KNOW, I KNOW!!! I SHALL MAKE YOU THE DEPARTMENT HEAD OFFICER!!! THEN, THEY WILL BE COMMITTED TO YOU—" He argued desperately, sweat streaming down his face, as Mika and Rika clung tightly to their master.

But Van then started to squeeze Salem's foot with his palm, slowly; Salem began to scream in agony.

"I asked you to be honest..." He muttered with a tired sigh.

'Hmm... I suppose that will work...?' Van mused, recalling Varlog's demon-tongue lessons.

Van then began to speak in a dark demonic tongue, and the entire room seemed to darken, shadows dancing ominously around them. "I shall indulge myself in tormenting you. And, as I stand above your lifeless body, I shall send a dark prayer as I converse with the Archdemon of the embers below. Ensuring you suffer through each cycle for all eternity as you learn the way of the demon and be reborn as one of us... That is... Unless you tell me the truth, thus saving your sinful human soul." Van intoned in the foreign language as he crushed his foot. Blood began spurting out as Salem roared in agony and tears.

'T-This... is... Demonic tongue...!!! Even *I* Have limited knowledge...!! How does he know this language...!?' Salem thought, his expression—and that of Mika and Rika—darkening. They could feel their life essence being forcibly extracted as they listened to the demonic incantations.

'Demons would never teach their tongue to a mere human... He must be in league with the Queen of Darkness herself... A demonic god!'

Van then resumed speaking in his normal tone. "Unless you wish this curse to befall you for all eternity... I command thee to be honest with me," he demanded as he applied further pressure to his foot, bones now protruding grotesquely as blood gushed out like a fountain.

In desperation, Mika and Rika leapt up and unleashed their full arsenal on Van—kunai, poisonous smoke, and drugs—while their master screamed in unbearable agony.

"Mika... Rika..." Van mumbled, seemingly defeated and exhausted, yet unaffected by their onslaught.

'Good... Good, my kittens...!! You just need to stun him as you did earlier... That actually worked on this monster... Then we will run... run as far as we can... I will use all of my contacts to hide from... from this... evil god...' Salem thought desperately, clinging to a flicker of hope as Van maintained his grip on his mutilated foot.

"...The reason your drug worked on me earlier..." he mumbled, his voice tinged with sadness.

"Was because I allowed it to," he concluded, indifferent to their continuing attacks, inhaling the poisonous gas and absorbing the drugs.

"It was because I chose to let go... Because I genuinely believed you wished to be with me," he said quietly, even as they persisted in their assault.

"But don't you worry," he added, lifting his head slightly.

"...I don't repeat my mistakes, remember?"

"...And trusting you is a mistake I'll never repeat," Van asserted firmly, intensifying the pressure on Salem's foot while beginning to grasp the other.

Mika and Rika's faces twitched ever so slightly, their expressions reflecting a mix of sorrow and guilt, unnoticed by Van. Despite this, compelled by their master's commands, they continued their assault on him.

Salem was on the brink of fainting from the intense pain.

"Now... Salem Dyke. Be honest. And if you pass out, you will wake up in the embers below..." Van warned coolly.

This jolted Salem back to alertness.

"M-MIKA, RIKA...!!! USE YOUR ADRENALINE DRUG ON ME...!!! MAKE SURE I STAY CONSCIOUS NO MATTER WHAT!!!" He screamed desperately.

They immediately ceased their attacks and rushed to his side. Mika supported his head, while Rika gently administered the adrenaline drug, pouring the liquid into his mouth.

Revitalized by the adrenaline, Salem's pain momentarily subsided, sharpening his focus.

"Now... Do as I ask," Van commanded.

"Appeuhurs, Vark Melaver!!" He chanted in a commanding tone. Instantly, slave marks appeared on their chests.

Van observed Rika and Mika, noting the slave crests now visible on their bare chests.

"I... I WILL GIVE YOU OWNERSHIP OF THESE TWO KITTENS... J-JUST SPARE MY LIFE...!!" He pleaded in agony.

Van merely met his gaze and nodded silently.

"...S... Sifuruah, Malovus... Mika Dyke Te... Rika Dyke... Re Van Hellix..!!" Salem muttered reluctantly and remorsefully. Moments later, Mika and Rika's gaze shifted from Salem to Van.

"Do I now have ownership of these two?" Van asked, noting the change in their focus.

"Y-YES... S-SINCE DEMONS ARE BEINGS OF THEIR WORD... Y-YOU PROMISED... YOU WOULDN'T KILL ME...!! THESE KITTENS... A-ARE NOW YOURS... YOUR KITTENS..." Salem muttered, frowning as tears welled up in his eyes, like a child weeping over lost toys.

"Yeah," Van acknowledged,

"I did promise that." He stood up and approached Salem, who sighed in relief.

And then Van stomped on his head. Salem's head burst upon impact, scattering like a watermelon smashed with excessive force.

The slave mark on Mutah's body then dissipated alongside Salem's death.

'...I often hoped that my adventures with Magus would be filled with nothing but excitement, like something out of an Isekai story. Unfortunately, reality hit hard, and we found ourselves in situations where we had to kill others to survive. I had never taken a life until I teamed up with Magus. Accepting killing as a necessary part of this world was a grim reality we had to face to keep moving forward. As for the curse... it was just a bluff. According to Varlog, only a demon can place a curse, and even then, it requires very specific conditions. Despite everything, I still hope that pig ended up in hell.'

After giving Salem a final, weary, and hollow gaze, Van turned to Mika and Rika, who were once again focused entirely on him.

"...Now then..."