Dead Men Tell No Tales

Hiro’s POV:

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We appeared in front of them and after activating our battle forms, we swiped our claws at them. Although their symbiotes reacted quickly and covered their bodies, but it didn’t matter. They were only at the middle and late ninth stages, which meant that the difference in our strength wasn’t much bigger than twenty Crypt.

Their symbiotes turned into the shape of a shield, but it was futile since our opponents weren’t quick enough to react. Our claws cut through their flesh and bones with ease. They weren’t prepared and we attacked out of nowhere, so they naturally didn’t have enough time to react. Three of them had their bodies cut into two halves since I cut another one with my tail. Hiro also crushed the head of a girl, so out of the five, only one was left. Our dear Rin~

She appeared behind the person in question and tore off his head. They didn’t have mind powers so they couldn’t shout. But we were naturally noticed by the elders. What was the most ridiculous that they simply turned away as if they ‘didn’t notice it’. We used Soul Eater and after killing them, we stored their dead souls in our storage space. No one can destroy a soul completely. Probably, that’s something only the creators can do.

Souls were supposed to fly away and disappear into who knows where after death. But we robbed them of such a possibility. Now that I think about it… this is like an evil art. Well, who cares? We aren’t saints just because we helped out a few people. It was good that the elders didn’t look either. Maybe they would have sensed that something was wrong with the souls' disappearance. Feeling happy that we killed our enemies, we were about to go back where we were, but at that time, a random guy appeared in front of us.

He pointed his finger towards one of the corpses, which was cut into two halves. His face turned pale white in… despair? I think. “W- What have you done!? Tell me that you didn’t destroy their souls as well!?” The guy shouted fearfully, catching the attention of many people. The mob effect came alive and everyone started walking closer to us to see what was going to happen. Obviously…

Alice had a few locks of hair on her shoulder. After wiping those off with an uncaring face, she said with a shrug of her shoulders - “Ehm… we killed them. Cya~” She finished and then turned around to leave with me in tow. That guy was at the ninth stage as well. As we turned around, I felt a powerful aura coming towards our backs. We turned around and after turning Blank into glaives, we swung them towards the incoming attack. It had a lot of force behind it, but not even that helped. Our energy filled attacks crushed the guy’s.

His face turned surprised, though I don’t know why. The other five were also at the ninth stage. “Rin” I only said that much to Rin and she disappeared. The guy took a position this time and formed a palm attack. It was much stronger than what he used before. But exactly when he wanted to release it, Rin jumped out of his shadows and tore off his head in one swift move. After a somersault in the air, she landed on all fours and then elegantly came back to our side. She was welcomed by our clapping. Fearing that we would be found out - because the elders were watching us this time - we didn’t use Soul Eater and simply killed the guy.

[Shit… that’s one less powerful soul!] Alice whined in her mind, knowing that I felt the same. We petted Rin’s head and then looked at the people in our close surroundings.

“Anyone else wishing to talk?” I questioned with a smile on my face. The elders also knew that we were worth more than this whole group altogether. This made it so that we could loosen a few strings when it came to regulations. I also shot balls of Hydra Qi towards the corpses, completely destroying them. Next time I should try something out… Can we put dead souls into dead bodies? We should look for a victim… I thought with my hands on my chin.

At that time, a guy with golden eyes and golden hair came closer to us. He had weirdly similar facial features to Weston, which also made us remember that he had a son! [Could it be?] Alice thought questioningly. I looked at her and then shrugged my shoulders.

He checked out Alice’s body, which caused me to dislike him immediately and then with a smile on his face, he said - “Are you that Hiro and Alice? I heard of you from my father. Haha- Thanks for saving my mother, I guess?” He said with a shrug of his shoulders and then continued. “Out of goodwill, I’ll tell you one thing. One of the four people you just killed was the little brother of Anest Glace and she is a cultivator at the ninth stage of the Temporary Law Realm. You might want to reconsider what you do after this because they were in a good relationship.”

We were slightly surprised to hear such a cliche line, but… whatever? We couldn’t help it. With a shrug of my shoulders, I answered - “Well, that’s quite unfortunate, but we can’t change the past. Though… honestly, we would have killed him anyway. At most, we would have waited for the right moment. I’m telling you… dead men tell no tales. So is there anyone with a big mouth? Ah! No, I know it! Those who don’t make an oath to stay quiet will be killed!”

This caused many people to start frowning. Under these days, the news of us killing two monsters at the sixth level also spread like wildfire. They knew that we had a way to kill all of them and they also saw that the elders were on our sides. Since we had such an option, why would we leave it to fate?

“Hahaha, that’s also a way to make them stay silent,” Weston’s possible son said while laughing. After seeing that we were looking at him curiously, he bowed politely as he said - “Oh my, I’m so rude. My name is Jason Gold. It’s my pleasure~”

That fake smile. Those hand gestures. Those evil eyes. He was such a faker. [Not to mention that he still keeps checking out my body. Though he is doing it very sneakily. His only luck is that he is Ellery’s brother and that Weston told you how much he was liking his son…] Alice added her thoughts while feeling a bitter taste in her mouth.

I frowned slightly as I answered - “You visibly know us already. Can I have a question? Where were you when your mother needed help?”

He made a thoughtful face and after shrugging once, he turned around to leave, but he found himself facing Rin. “What is this supposed to mean?” He questioned while turning around with a frown on his face.

“Hmm~ Who knows? But… on one hand, you didn’t take the oath yet, and on the other hand, you didn’t answer my question either. Though… you can say that the latter isn’t my concern. But the first is a must,” Alice answered with a cold smile.

“Hoo? Would you kill me if I were to leave without an oath?” He questioned us with an unfearing smile. Knowing that now it was the time to act, Alice said with her finger on her chin, that she too was wondering about that.

“Hahaha, then I better take it,” Jason said with a laugh. He too was only at the ninth stage. Killing him wouldn’t be hard. He continued with his right hand on his chest and his left hand pointing towards the skies - “I’ll take my oath. Let the heavens take my life if I were to communicate about anything that happened here to anyone.” A lightning stuck down on his body and then everything turned silent. We were looking for loopholes in his words.

If he had said that ‘anything that happened here to an outsider’, then we would have made him repeat the oath because in that case, he could have talked loudly with someone who took part in this test and make everyone in his surroundings hear his words. His oath was good enough because he said communication, which means that he can’t talk or write about it. He can’t use his mind power either, which leaves him mute. We looked at the people present and then indicated for them to come. Naturally, there were people who were seeking death.

After taking care of those, no one dared to disobey. I feel like an antagonist, but I wouldn’t risk my dear Alice’s life for something stupid like this. After everyone took the oath, the elders finally ‘noticed’ us and then they shamelessly told everyone that we were leaving. I couldn’t help but laugh at this. Strength was all it took in this mad world to be respected. We literally broke the rules, but none of the elders cared. We left through the Star Formation and we finally felt that our mind powers were back. [Ah~ Much better. I felt so much restricted without it. It’s good that we were able to talk through our bond at least.] Alice said happily through our bond as she rubbed her face on my right arm.

She is so cute~ Hearing my thoughts, she told me that she was loving me. I knew it, but I always felt so fucking happy when I heard it from her mouth. We left on Rin’s back and then we had lots of sex. After doing so, we looked at our own world and inspected how things were going. It was kind of… wrong. The monsters with powerful souls were too clever and they were advancing quicker than the humans! This was probably because their souls were originally much more powerful. There was a monster, which started taking the shape of a dragon. I guess we could call it a Wyvern for now.

The problem with it was that it was already at the first stage of the Space Founding Realm! If this continued on, then these weak cultivators would get killed… This meant one thing. We needed weaker dead souls to create normal monsters. [Fumu. So the stronger the soul, the quicker it will advance. The only good side of this is that we can command them since they were ‘created’ by us. You could say…] Alice thought happily. Well… our allies aren’t going to be just humans. It seems. But we still had to do something to upgrade these humans.

Shi Fu reached only the late second stage. Not even the leading human had a chance against these monsters. After thinking of a way, we were left with one thing. Pour our skills into the humans. Two balanced sides were necessary! We didn’t want to kill off every human just to turn our world into something filled with monsters. Though it would be more… useful.

Alice hit her right fist on her left palm as she realized something at the same time as me. We smiled at each other, feeling happy. But… test subjects were necessary. We looked for a few rapist trash people and teleported them in front of us. They fell to the ground powerless in front of us. They made terrified faces upon seeing us from the corners of their eyes. One of them struggled to speak under the pressure of our auras. “W- What do you want from us? Please, I beg *pant* for your forgiveness!”

Not caring about his pleading, I took out the weakest soul from our soul ring and pushed it into his body. As the soul touched his embryo-like thing… his body and soul exploded. We stopped his blood before it would splash on us and then made it disappear. [Let’s try it slowly…] Alice advised. Since we still had the same soul, we used that one. We slowly moved it towards the next test subject. These people were dirty rapists. It was natural that we would kill them.

Alice coiled her tail around the guy’s neck and raised him into the air. After pushing a newly made Soul Restoring Pill into his mouth, I started pushing the other soul into his body. Slowly and carefully. This guy didn’t explode upon contact, but he started screaming and sweating in pain. “Uh… Yuck. My tail is getting dirty with his sweat. I better wash my body after this so that I can serve you, dear~ Hehe,” Alice said with a disgusted face, which turned into a happy one after mentioning me. But I had to focus!

The more minds I had, the more minds were thinking of Alice… “I’m sorry… I’ll let you focus,” She realized her mistake and instead of talking, she too started controlling the soul. It slowly coiled around the soul of the guy and engulfed it completely. Suddenly, the guy turned mute and his eyes seemed dead.

“This is quite creepy… I really feel like an antagonist…” I said with a stiff face. Well, it was alright. These people were worthy of my wrath. I hated rape the most. His lifeless eyes were looking straight ahead, into Alice’s eyes. She leaned closer to him with a curious face. After poking his face, she said.

“Fumu… their souls are fusing and assimilating. I wonder what’s going to happen with him once the assimilation finishes.” I focused on the soul and felt that it was almost done. At that time, the guy started breathing slowly from time to time. His heart also started moving once again. The light slowly started returning into his lifeless eyes.

“AHHH!!!” The guy screamed out suddenly, which startled my dear Alice. She jumped back in her surprise since she didn’t expect such a thing. The guy had difficulties breathing with Alice’s tail around his neck. After looking around, he pointed at us with his mouth and eyes opened widely as he shouted. But he didn’t say anything. This was the soul of a monster we killed. He was flailing his arms and legs in the air.

“Fufu~ he is cute,” Alice laughed at his cute little struggling. Why was he cute? Because after completely merging, he turned into a beastmen. He had the features of an ape. He looked like a monkey, but seriously. He coiled his tail around Alice’s trying to free himself. Maybe I should call him, ‘it’.

Alice put him on the ground but still held him in place. His body transformed into a monkey, which was only about a hundred and twenty centimeters tall. What came next was even more surprising. Although he couldn’t stand in front of us, but instead of randomly lying on the ground, he kneeled with his head down. He was a new creature, created in OUR world. That was the reason why he had a natural affiliation towards us.

“Hiro… this is nice and all. We can turn people into stupid beastmen, but what about the humans and the monsters…?” Alice questioned, pointing out that we actually didn’t find anything good. In this case, it was better to combine these souls with animals. The same way we have been doing it up till now.

“Ehm… Argh! But what should we do with the humans? We should have put them into a mortal sector and keep them there. In that case, we could have spread these monsters through the whole world! The only monsters they can kill are the normal monsters, which don’t have their souls mixed,” I said while thinking about the tragic life of the humans.

“Well! We have only one choice left~ Make another sector, turn it into a forbidden one and fill it up with these kinds of monsters!” Alice exclaimed with a smile on her face. We didn’t have better ideas. We divided our world into two halves and teleported the normal monsters and humans out of the left one. After doing that, we teleported these super monsters into the left, while the normals were in the right. Of course, we also told the mortals what was going on, which caused a clamor.

They started whining that they lost many planets and such, so we turned a few planets to look the same as in the other half. Afterward, we moved the buildings to those. “There… now you can stop whining before I get angry!” I talked through my world grumpily. Though now that I think about it, I was in the wrong… They didn’t have their own worlds where they could go to. I guess I’ve got too much used to it.

Alice chuckled and petted my head. We teleported this monkey beastman away and then looked at the others with cold smiles. They saw the whole thing. A few more appeared of Alice and after holding up everyone into the air, I’ve got to work. I guess we can utilize these rapists in the future! Though they aren’t going to know about that.

“Fumu… shall we introduce this way of penalty?” Alice said after we finished transforming these humans.

“Good!” I exclaimed happily and then added. “Now… What were you talking about earlier? You turned me quite horny… Come and take care of me, hehe,” I said with a commanding voice while looking into her eyes playfully.

With everyone gone, she kneeled before me and looked up into my eyes deeply, with similarly playful eyes. All I felt was that my weapon was released from its cage. Before getting to work, all Alice said was - “Let’s play~”

---------------------------- Third Pov: --------------------------------

When Alice and Hiro left the area of Star Formation, everyone felt bittersweet in their hearts. They were supposed to be geniuses, yet they were commanded like chickens. Hitoshi was also among those people. He too performed very well, along with the whole class. All of them finished the task in just two days! Yet Alice and Hiro? Only one and half an hour! Anest a few days later also realized that something was wrong.

Her brother didn’t return. Knowing a few people who were members of her brother’s class, she went up to them and questioned them about it. After a beating up, they told her that they can’t talk about it because of an oath, which was taken by everyone. Knowing that she can’t look for information within the class, she looked for an elder. There was one, whom she knew better than most. That elder also guided the cultivators at the fifth level.

Anest flew straight towards his place. She found herself in front of a huge tree, which had a house carved out in it. That elder was none other than an elf. She knocked on the door and after hearing the elder’s answer, she entered. The room was tidy and cozy. There weren’t people other than the elder. After bowing slightly, Anest said - “Good afternoon, Elder Onas Sharurah.”

“Oh, Anest. Hello. What brings you here?” The knife-ear guy questioned with a gentle smile. Anest’s face suddenly turned much colder and cruel. She said with a serious face while frowning. “My little brother was probably killed. You were with him. What happened?”

He swung his arm and cut themselves off of space. After knowing that they were safe, he said with a sigh. “I wanted to help him, but I couldn’t. We can’t fail our mission here. I’ve been a member of this school for hundreds of years. Only a little more and we will be able to cause a riot! In the forthcoming war, we will be sure to destroy Genotin Academy! So I couldn’t step up against the other elders…”

“Your brother was killed by that pair of True Divine Beasts. You probably heard of them by now. They are very powerful and dangerous! Their souls are so powerful and they were able to kill a monster at the sixth level! Not to mention that they came only a few week ago… yet they advanced two stages already! This school has a Turtle God, but he is nowhere near as good as these two. I seriously don’t get what’s wrong with them…”

“The worst is that if this continues, then they might cause harm to our plans. Although they wouldn’t affect the cultivators at the sixth and seventh level, but they would surely win the war on the fifth level. Which would have catastrophic effects!” Elder Onas explained unhappily. Anest’s eyes opened widely upon hearing his words.

They have been conspiring against Genotin Academy for years. Onas contacted Angelwood Academy secretly and made an agreement. In case he helps beating Genotin Academy, he will be rewarded handsomely and he will turn into the most respectful member of Angelwood Academy after the director. Anest was lured to the other side with the same method. She was promised many benefits. What invited her the most was the hope of getting her hands on a Law Crystal.

Onas gathered quite a lot of members, who would fight against Genotin Academy in the forthcoming war. Naturally, they had to take an oath. He didn’t leave it to luck. Those who said no? They are under the ground… He wanted to scale the war on Angelwood Academy’s side by winning the fight between the fifth level cultivators easily. If that were to happen, then they could easily overrun the sixth and then the seventh level cultivators. That was why he wanted to take care of Hiro and Alice. He knew that they had the power to tip the balance.

“Anest… Listen. This is very important. I know that you hate them, but we can’t garner attention. We must stay low until the war. If you go and attack them, then the other elders are going to notice it. They aren’t idiots. They will know that one of them is a traitor. Although that would be quite good, but they would surely kill you as well. In their opinion, the next war would end in a stalemate at most, like always. But as those two would keep growing, they would win more and more battles for the academy. They would never risk losing them.”

“If you were to openly turn hostile against them, then they would rather kill you to please those two. You are a cultivator at the ninth stage of the Temporary Law Realm. We can’t lose you. You too are a key to our victory! Instead of raging, calm down and cultivate. Once the war begins, you can backstab those two. Not even they can stay alive after your attack and of that, I’m sure! There are only two weeks left until the war. Please bear with it and train as much as you can!” Elder Onas tried to persuade Anest. This was really important to all of them.

Anest frowned upon hearing his words. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth in her wrath. Suddenly she sighed loudly and slumped down her shoulders. “*Sigh* Okay… I really want to take my revenge, but I can wait for only that much. I’m not idiot enough to mess up our plans. Don’t worry, my brother. I’ll have your revenge!” She exclaimed in herself while looking upward.

She looked straight into Onas’ eyes and then said. “I’ll go and enter the Abyss. It’s better if I don’t see those two or I might lose my clarity. I’ll be sure to win something good in the hall of the Abyss. I have one million a hundred and fifty thousand points anyway. Only fifty thousand more and I’ll be able to buy…”

“What!? Wonderful! Truly Wonderful! If you can buy that, then we will have a much greater chance at winning!” Onas cut into her words happily since he knew what she was talking about. The Abyss had a point system. They didn’t exactly know how it worked, but when a person was killed, they always gained points. All Anest had to do was to go and start slaughtering. With the treasure she would gain, she would have a lot of chance at tipping the scale.

Anest nodded and then with a serious face, she said - “Alright. I have a lot to do. I’ll take my leave.”

Elder Onas nodded as an answer and swung his arm. Space returned to its original state and Anest left his house. He put his hand on his chin and started thinking of the possibilities. After calculating many times, considering Anest’s new treasure, the result was always the same. With a smile on his face, he sat down to meditate. The result would be none other than that…

They would win!