If you want to read up to 20 chapters ahead go to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer

As for the surprise, it's coming soon. Just working on the details. ​ ​

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As the group of unknowns advanced to kidnap me, I smiled, and pointed to the north, "I'll be waiting for you," I said, teleporting to the location I had pointed. Soon enough the group was chasing after me, I could feel them, with Sebas tailing them close behind. "This will be fun," I chuckled, taking a seat on a rock nearby while I waited for them.

The first one to arrive was a girl, her power surpassing that of her colleagues by far, there was no way she was a human, if I had to take a guess, I would say the girl was around level seventy or eighty, quite a lot considering the standards of this world.

"How polite of you to wait for us here," The girl smiled, for a moment reminding me of Albedo with her deranged smile. "My name is Zesshi Zetsumei, a pleasure to meet you."

"My, my, how polite of you," I smiled, clapping for dramatics.

"It will take them a while to catch up, would you mind waiting?" Zesshi inquired.

"Oh no, by all means, take a seat, and let's wait for your associates," I chuckled, amused at her, she was underestimating me, I could tell by the way she looked at me, she was certain she could kill me should I refuse her offer, amusing and infuriating at the same time.

"What a gentleman," Zesshi smiled, taking a seat in front of me. "Do you really not know where your brother is?"

"Who knows?" I winked.

Five minutes later, her group arrived. The old lady, being the last one to do so, said, "Foolish of you to think you can run away, foolish child." the old lady commented.

"Run away?" I snorted, "Oh sweet ignorance, I'm not running away." I smirked, as I stood up from the rock, "I'm setting the battlefield for our little party,"

"Such hubris, such calmness in the face of certain death, how " the old lady sighed.

"Calmness is the hallmark of those who are mighty," I replied as I started to walk towards them, "You said you were looking for Alastor, well… you found him," as soon as I said this, I felt how Zesshi changed her entire mood, from uninterested to full-on psycho.

"I see, thank you for telling us then," the old lady grinned as she turned to her allies, "Attack! And keep him busy!"

The first one to attack was a man with a big shield on one of his arms, "I find the fact you all don't attack me at once, quite insulting." With a quick movement of my wrist, I exploded his head, leaving nothing but a decapitated corpse on the ground, "Frankly, this is underwhelming."

"Attack all at once!" one of the enemies shouted, judging from his looks and position in the battlefield, the leader of the bunch.

"It seems one of you has a brain." I clapped, dodging their attacks. They were all weak, except for Zesshi who simply stared at me with a rather problematic smile on her face, besides her, everyone was at much level forty, with the captain being around level fifty. "So… how did you guys think this was going to play out?" I asked, wondering what the old lady was doing, she was chanting something, but I couldn't really tell what.

"Die!" a man with a giant axe shouted, bringing his massive battle axe down on my head, only for it to stop in my head as if he had hit me with a pool noodle. "What?"

"Well…" I chuckled, breaking his axe in two in a finger, "That was embarrassing." I added, ripping his heart out with my bare hands. "I have yet to use magic, please… make this interesting."

Smiling at their expressions of terror, I couldn't help but chuckle at the scene, so with my eyes closed, and a smile on my face, I took a few steps forward, but as I did so… I felt something, something I shouldn't have felt, fear. I was afraid of something, my instincts were telling me to change my focus or lose this battle. Turning around as fast as I could, I focused on the old lady, and how this feeling seemed to come from her. I could feel as she tried to pry into my mind, as she tried to modify who I was to her will, there was no other explanation… She had a WORLD ITEM.

Opening my inventory, I equipped PENANCE to block the effect of her WORLD ITEM, and almost growling said, "You were trying to brainwash, didn't you?" my blood was boiling, I don't think I have ever been this mad.

"Is… the effect has been blocked!" The old lady shouted.

"I will show you there are fates worse than death, old lady." I hissed, closing our distance with a single step, grabbing her by the neck. Immediately from a closer look, I noticed her dress, and the energy it emanated, this bitch was wearing it, there was no doubt the dress was the WORLD ITEM. Grabbing the dress, I ripped it off and put it on my inventory, leaving the old lady in her underwear, in the meantime as her colleagues tried desperately to attack me to no avail, for all of their attacks were being reflected. Penance had various skills, one of them being a passive skill reflect, it allowed me to reflect any attack from enemies weaker than me. This skill was one of the weakest Penance had, but it was useful every now and then, especially to instill fear in the hearts of others.

"He has our WORLD ITEM! We must recover it!" the old lady shouted, biting my hand only for her teeth to break.

"I wonder… will the suffering you are about to get worth the mission you had at hand?" I asked the old lady with a sadistic smile, "I will hear you scream, and I will never let you die, for your life will be an endless nightmare of perpetual suffering."