Chapter 21: Wrath Against Humanity's Strongest

A/N :

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

[ ] : System, Akasha, Minerva,

"Italicized text" : Telepathy,

{ }: Parallel Wills,

« » : Artificial Intelligence,

// // : W System announcement,

: Majutsu/Conjuring usage.(Using MA energy for skills, spells, etc.)

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Location: Mystic Mountains

Shiraori POV

It's almost been 30 hours since I knocked Sasajima out, and he hasn't woken up. He has however, been mumbling and shifting erratically in his sleep. I had taken a look into his mind to see his dreams and memories, and I'll be honest, they brewed a new level of distaste for the humans in this world in me.

He had reincarnated as a goblin, having a hardworking, caring and well-connected community to live in, only for humans to come by and ruin it. His sister was killed in the initial attack, his people tortured or killed, he and his brother enslaved, with his brother being made to kill the other goblins, then him killing his brother who was under the mind control that is Taming. All in all, humans in this world like making life suck for others.

At least he got his revenge, seeing as he killed the person mainly responsible for the attacks, who was surprisingly familiar. It was the summoner from that time I attacked humans in the labyrinth. And what do you know, we're currently waiting for the old guy that was with him, along with another old guy who is apparently humanity's strongest swordsman.

"Mmmm, mmph." I hear mumbling behind me and I look to see Sasajima waking up. "Where am I?" He asks groggily. "So you're finally awake, Sasajima. About damn time." I say as I walk to him. "Who are you?" He asks, his sight blurry. Rubbing his eyes, he looks at me and his eyes widen in recognition. "Is that you, Wakaba-san?" He asks in disbelief.

"In the flesh.And by the way, my name's Shiraori now, so call me that instead. Who would have thought that I'd not be the only one to reincarnate as a monster?" I respond and he looks at me, wondering how I was a monster, since I very much look human right now. "I look like this now, but I was reincarnated as a Small Lesser Taratect. It's only after multiple conditions and evolutions that I eventually got to look like this." I say while showing him my eyes to clarify the situation.

"I see." He says and goes silent for a while. "Listen, while I can't say for sure that I understand the pain that you've gone through, but I'll tell you one thing I'm sure about. The only way to make sure you don't lose anything else is to become stronger, become so strong that no one would even think of harming what is yours." I tell him with some degree of empathy in my tone.

"Thank you." He says with a low voice. Hearing footsteps approaching, I look to my right and see Ariel coming with a few boars held tightly in a web. "Oh, so he's awake. Well, that's good. At least, we won't have to wait much longer, since those decrepit humans are going to be here soon." She says as she tosses the boars into the Maria, only for it to slow down while moving toward the cooking area. This causes Sasajima's eyes to widen. He jumps to his feet in alarm and tries creating a magic sword, only for the skill to fail and the blade he was making to corrode to dust.

"I get that you don't like humans and you're totally justified in that, but don't you think pointing a blade at your savior is a bit much." Dante says as he walks out of the cooking area. "Wait, if you're leaving the kitchen, then who's going to cook?" Ariel asks him and he just shows a few energy constructs that have taken charge of the cooking. "So what do you answer to now, oni?" He says as he turns to Sasajima. Sasajima puts his hands down and concisely replies, "Wrath."

"I see you've let go of the remnants of the values imposed on you by Earth's society. That's good, seeing that you want to at least survive in this world. Now why don't you take a seat?" He says as seats pop out of the walls. "No need for you to tell us your story, we already know about it. You will however tell us what you hope to do from now on." Dante says as he leans back into his seat.

Before Sasajima, or rather Wrath, can protest or complain he is teleported into a sitting position on a seat after a quick snap of the fingers. Processing what just happened, he seems to begin to understand that he cannot do anything in hostility towards anyone here, then his shoulders droop in acceptance of the situation.

"My family was taken from me, their lives ripped from them without any mercy. Then the bastards responsible had no remorse for their actions, even when they were about to die. I may have killed them all, but now there's nothing of value to me in this world. So what do you think I'm going to do?" Wrath says, tears spilling from his eyes at the end, his gaze holding intense fury and grief.

"I see. Well, here's a suggestion. Follow us to Demon Country." Dante says, causing Wrath's brows to furrow. "Killing yourself isn't going to bring them back at all. As a matter of fact, if you die now, the memory of them will be extinguished from this world entirely. However, there's somewhere we can reach where their souls could be reached out to, so if nothing else, I can help you give a better farewell to them as they are eventually reincarnated into the world once more."

As Dante's words finished, Wrath's head snapped to Dante in disbelief. "What do you mean we could reach out to their souls? Are you talking about the afterlife?" He asks. "No, it's not. The actual afterlife is a purely astral plane, meaning that if you have a physical body and are unable to meet any conditions to roam it with your physical body, you'll be entirely unable to access it. But the place I'm talking about is here on the physical plane. It's just got an environment that allows for the presence of astral beings." Dante explains to him, causing him to begin sobbing in relief.

"Anyway, you should clean up and wear some clothes." As he says this, a panel on the wall opens up, revealing a Japanese-military style outfit, similar to the one he would have worn in the original timeline, but the haori and handguards were black and the bottom was dark blue as opposed to the original white and red. "You're going to have some guests coming by soon, so you can't be a bad host and not receive them." He says and a hologram showing the current location of the two oldies is projected onto the wall.

"Why should I even bother with them?" Wrath asks as he equips the military garb. "Because they are primarily here for you. The people you killed initially were soldiers of the Renxandt Empire with one of them being a high ranking officer and a summoner, which I believe you had noticed." Dante says. "The old mage is someone who is humanity's strongest mage and also had a bit of a personal relationship with the summoner, so he's coming for revenge. As for the other guy, he's basically the ruler of the Renxandt Empire who also happens to be humanity's strongest swordsman. So, good luck." Dante says and snaps his fingers, teleporting Wrath closer to the two old guys.

Walking to Dante, I sit on his lap and ask him why he teleported Wrath close to them and not directly above them. "Those clothes he's wearing are made like mine; a combination of my threads and nanomachines. The threads are there for protection while the nanaobots are there so I can alter the clothes and add skills to them. For example, the skills that are currently in his clothes are Wrath Inducement, Soul Protection and Constant Rejuvenation. For someone that already has the Wrath skill, the accumulation is accelerated, making them get stronger far faster than someone without it. So before he reaches them, he'll have accumulated enough stats to fight both of them at the same time." He says, explaining his rationale.

"And besides, the food's done cooking, so I thought I'd just send him there so we'll have something to watch while we eat." He says as he creates a hologram showing the situation where Wrath is, while his constructs bring out the cooked food and everyone else takes a seat. "You know, for someone claiming to help him, that's a pretty messed up thing to do." Ariel says from her seat.

"He'll be fine. My threads will protect him and my nanomachines will keep him alive and somewhat sane, so there's no need to worry. Now, let's all be quiet. It's about to start." He says as he leans into his seat. Looking at each other, we shrug and begin eating while watching what will be Wrath's battle against the strongest that humanity has to offer.

Narrator POV

Appearing in a black and blue Japanese-military style garb, Wrath notices that his rage that he thought was gone had reappeared. The anger he had toward humans had seemingly skyrocketed, but his mind was somehow calm, or rather, rational. Using his low level Appraisal on himself, he was shocked to see far more details than what the level of his appraisal skill should have given. It was only after a few seconds of inspection that he noticed that the status panel was not the same one he would see if he used the Appraisal from the system. Rather, it was a blue holographic panel that showed him the full details of all his stats, skills and titles.

"What is going on here?" He asks, not expecting to be answered. «Those details were collated by me. Thanks to the Boss hacking the system, I've been able to fully analyze all the skills and titles in the system.» He heard a seemingly disembodied female voice say at an uncomfortably close proximity and frantically glanced around trying to find its source.

«My voice is coming from your clothes, dumbass.» He turned his face down to his clothes as he heard the scathing tone that the voice spoke to him in. "What are you?" He asks, confusion and apprehension in his voice. «I am an intelligence lifeform.» It answers. "What do you mean, an intelligence lifeform?" He asks, not fully understanding its answer. «You know how people on earth have been making artificial intelligence with the aim of making it more human? I am the perfect version of that technology. I've been made to be able to exhibit human emotions, while having far greater innovative, calculative, logical and learning capabilities when compared to the smartest of most of humanity in all of existence.» It says with a smug voice. But who would blame it as it is correct.

"Okay, then." He says, as he knows that he cannot fully understand it, but he knows that it is amazing in its own right. "You said this Boss of yours made this using nanomachines, so what are their functions?" He asks in preparation for the imminent battle. «They're there to do 3 things; increase the accumulation and increments of stats coming from your Wrath skill, protect your soul so that you don't go entirely insane and constantly rejuvenate your body and refill your magic energy and stamina.»

His mouth widens in shock as he hears the functions of the clothes that he is currently wearing. He says the only word that can come out of his mouth. "Amazing." «Yeah, yeah. Get ready, because those two are already on their way here. Or are you going after them first?» The voice says, showing him the current position of the great mage and the previous sword-king, which instantly jolts him into a state of vigilance. He pulls out his magic katanas and begins dashing towards them, while feeling himself growing stronger, faster and more resilient.

Meanwhile, Reigar, the former sword-king, and Ronandt, the great mage, were walking in the young oni's direction, only to feel an imposing presence lock on to them and approach them at high speeds. A few seconds later, a loud crash is heard as the oni's landing craters the ground.

Seeing the young oni, Reigar gulps down a globule of saliva and draws his sword. "I am Reigar Baint Renxandt, Master of Swordsmanship, and I challenge thee." He says with his voice raised. The oni looks coldly at him and nods, raising his katanas in an attack stance.

"You! Did you kill him?!" Ronandt shouts at Wrath from his position beside Reigar. "Who exactly are you referring to?" Wrath asks in their language, greatly surprising them, as a young monster had learned their language well enough to freely converse with them, despite it not being taught. "I killed a lot of humans after what they had done to my family and my village, so you're going to have to be specific." He says, causing Ronandt's energy to flare in anger.

"If you're angry because I may have killed someone close to you, then you have my congratulations. As you have felt only a fraction of my wrath." He says as he channels energy into his swords causing them to release fire and lightning respectively. "I see, them there is no more need for words." Reigar says as he charges at him with his sword at the ready.

Wrath dashes at Reigar and their swords clash, pushing Reigar back by over a dozen metres, while the shockwave created from the clash blasts away the snow around them as well as obscuring Ronandt's view of the battle. After the shockwave passes, Ronandt releases multiple fireballs at Wrath, which he extinguishes by slashing at them with his lightning katana, only to turn and see Reigar slashing his sword at his neck. Parrying the sword with his flame katana, he kicks out at Reigar, who is sent flying, and releases a twister of fire and lightning at Ronandt, who pushes himself out of the way of the attack, dodging it by the skin of his teeth.

Reigar and Wrath continue clashing, parrying and slashing at each other, with Ronandt using fireballs, fire spears and every bit of magic in his arsenal to attack Wrath. Eventually, he coughs up blood and drops to a knee as his movements and spellcasting have aggravated the illnesses in his body. He tries getting back up, only to see a bolt of purple lightning a few metres away from himself. Pushing himself out of the way, he almost dodges the lightning, but the strike hits his right arm, sending shocks through his body, that leave him out of commission.

Seeing his other opponent out of commission, Wrath focuses on Reigar, who is drinking a Status Condition recovery potion as well as a HP potion. They clash once more and eventually, Wrath is able to damage Reigar's armor that had been made using Dark Dragon materials. Reigar was shocked as his opponent had remained in a pristine state despite being slashed multiple times with a sword that had the curse abilities of a Dark Dragon, and he only seemed to get stronger as the battle went on.

Pushing himself to and beyond his limits, he continued the battle for the next few hours. In that time, Ronandt had somewhat recovered and had resumed his attacks on Wrath, but as his stats had been accumulating, any damage that either of them could have done to him without his clothes had become negligible.

Worn down by wounds and fatigue, Reigar had faced and broken his limits, but he was very close to collapsing, which he knew would also signify his death. Seeing that any random attack he made would be futile, he chose to end the battle in one final powerful blow. Putting all his strength behind his sword, he slashes out at Wrath, with all his physical enhancement, energy conferment and magic conferment skills imbuing his sword with more power, only for the blade to shatter upon contact with Wrath's katana.

Reigar had overdrawn himself to the point that he didn't even notice that in the final clash between him and Wrath, Wrath had also slashed through his chest. "The Divine Sword title, proof of mastery of the blade. I pass it on to you." As he said this, blood splashed out of his chest, and only then did he realize that he had been cut. "Magnificent." He said as the embers of life faded from his body and he fell to the ground lifeless.

"Reigar!" Ronandt shouts as he sees humanity's strongest swordsman fall to a monster. "You! I do not care even if I will die. I will make absolutely sure to kill you and avenge Buirimus and Reigar!" He shouts as blood surges up his throat. "At least this one died with honor, the other one was undeserving of an honorable demise." Wrath says in response, brandishing his katanas, preparing a final blow to kill humanity's strongest mage.

Ronandt pushes his magic energy to the limit as he casts one of the most powerful Inferno Magic spells, Scorched Earth, in Wrath's direction. Taking it as a challenge, Wrath squeezes out more magic energy into his katanas and releases it all as a slash from his blades. The energy collides and explodes, sending Ronandt flying into a tree while Wrath supports himself by stabbing his sword deep into the ground.

After the shockwave from the explosion subsides, Wrath gets up and walks to Ronandt, who is pale and coughing out blood. "You monster." He says, hatred burning in his eyes. "That is what I am after all." Wrath responds and draws his arm back, ready to slash, only to feel someone hold his arm when he tried moving it forward. "That's enough, now." He heard a voice, HIS voice. He turned to look at him. A handsome face, white hair with stark blue eyes and a fit body, wearing a red windbreaker jacket, a white t-shirt, black pants and a pair of black leather boots. Dante had arrived.

"You *cough* bastard!" Ronandt shouts from his position on the floor. "I honestly expected you to die before that summoner. But I guess life doesn't always pan out the way we expect right." Dante says with a smirk on his face. "Nah, I'm just kidding. I knew he'd die first, but at the time, I didn't expect that you'd follow so shortly after." He says, taunting the dying mage.

"*cough* You killed him *cough* If you hadn't cursed him, he'd still be alive. *cough* *cough**cough*." Ronandt says while coughing out blood. "Don't kid yourself. He was going to die regardless. You want proof? Here." Dante says as he puts a finger on Ronandt's forehead, showing him the different timelines where Buirimus attacked the goblin village and enslaved the goblin Razraz, currently known as Wrath, only for him to die every single time.

Ronandt seeing this, begins choking on his blood at the absurdity of it all. Knowing that his actions to keep someone he owed much to alive would end up being futile due to that person's own actions had broken him. All thoughts that he was an important figure in this world vanished as he understood that he never possessed true power, that his actions and ideals were at the end of the day inconsequential and that he could never save Buirimus. He would have broken into tears if his body wasn't also as broken as his mind. "Well, I'm done. You can finish him off now." Dante says to Wrath and he nods and executes humanity's strongest mage, ending his life.

Dante teleports himself and Wrath back to the Maria where everyone else in their party is. "So now that that is done with, anything else?" Shiraori asks him and he shakes his head. "Nope, we're all done here for now. Now we head to the Demon Country." He says as they all enter the Maria and set off to their destination.

Chapter End.

A/N: Hey, everybody. This chapter was a bit delayed because I had some urgent work to attend to over the weekend, but I'm done and here with the chapter now. Also I'll be making a short announcement that absolutely needs your feedback, so please stay tuned and have a nice day.