“Mister… Uh…”

“You don’t need my name…”

“Y-yes… U-uhm... We have considered your offer and… Uhmm… W-we accept…”

“Good, I’m sure you’ll find that my services aren’t cheap, especially for a threat of this kind,” A man chuckled darkly, a glass of red wine being swirled around in his right gloved hand.

The sinister voice stood before a man who looked like a poor farmer, he was sweating and shaking nervously. They were both in a dark and dimly lit building, small streaks of light did peer through tiny cracks of wooden boards.

Suddenly a roar echoed through the sky outside and the voice’s figure stood up.

“It burns your crops and demands payment hmm?”

“Y-yes! S-so please, fight it off!”

“Alright, I guess this will be a decent warm-up for my trait,” The voice’s owner exited the building and let streaks of light in as he walked out.

The area was a farm, filled with now burning crops, fiery buildings and a grain tower that was now torn to shreds.

“You ants!” A loud and mighty voice boomed, “I honour you with my presence but all you have to show is this! Not even a scrap of meat for one as great as I?!”

The source of the powerful voice was the sky which seemed to roar with anger and fury, though the smaller, more sinister sounding voice watched with some sort of twisted amusement on his face.

He wore a dark blue overcoat which spread out at the waist, black gloves, a dark blue top hat, a pair of dark blue pants and black shoes.

He had deep blue eyes and black hair accompanied by a handsome face, he carried himself with a tone of superiority, even as a colossal behemoth descended from the sky in a rage he smiled, hints of dark intent radiated from him.

The figure landed right in front of him and snarled, breaths of fire came from its mouth…... A dragon…

“You!” It screeched, “Who are you?! Are you the one responsible for this utter disrespect?!”

“Oh? Is my aura disrespecting yours? Am I pissing you off? Are you mwad because a poor wittle viwage didn’t feed de bwig bwad dwagon? ~” He mocked, smiling maliciously with a glint in his eye.

No words were exchanged next as a sea of fire erupted from the dragon’s mouth, straight at the man in a dark blue overcoat.

Though he did not flinch as it hurled towards him, he didn’t frown slightly, nor did he even utter a word as the fiery attack raced towards him.

“Checkmate,” He said calmly and solemnly, seeing the fire now meters away from him.

The fire immediately stopped, and the dragon began to howl in pain and writhe around in agony, stopping a few seconds after a good portion of the area around it had been destroyed.

The man whistled, walking up to the body of the mighty beast which lay dead, kicking it slightly with a smirk of victory.

“A heart attack, that makes it sixty-two, c’mon you can do better than that!” He laughed, apparently talking to someone.

“I-is it dead?” A farmer asked, peeking out from behind a half-destroyed barrel.

“Does this count as dead?” He rubbed the corpse of the dragon and called it pet names, patting it and treating it like a dog.

Soon more and more farmers came out, all wearing smiles and some even dancing, they all ran up to the man and thanked him, many bowing and a few ladies even throwing him winks.

“Thank you, kind sir! You have freed us from a horrifying rule!” One cried out.

“Please! Stay and let us treat you to a hearty meal!” Another yelled.

“Take my daughter’s hand in marriage!” An elderly man screamed.

He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, seemingly pulling out a blue rose from nowhere.

“Now that I think about it, I need to be somewhere soon. So, keep the rewards and rebuild your farms, if anyone tries something then you can contact me again,” He spoke, chucking the blue rose out to a crowd of girls.

“But what’s your name? Kind stranger,” The farmer which spoke with him before.

The man smiled, shaking the dust off his sleeves.

“Rekiel, call me Rekiel,” He spoke, turning around whistling in an odd and unusual tone.

Suddenly, a few meters away, the skeleton of a horse appeared, though purple flames seemed to come off its bones, and its saddle was as dark as a coffee with gluten-free, lactose-free, veganized soy milk.

The horse came from a sudden distortion in space, immediately the distortion disappeared as fast as it came, though the horse remained, its mane being made of purple fire and its bones moving flawlessly in almost mesmerizing motion.

Its skull made horse sounds as if it were alive and the bones looked tough and new, not old and worn. Rekiel hopped onto the saddle and gave the farmers one final nod before riding off.

The skeleton horse rode as speedily as a racehorse without losing stamina or gaining fatigue, leaving horse prints which soon faded seconds after being made as if they were memories and nothing more.

“Let’s see, Unitos huh, I wonder if she’ll be surprised I decided to come a few days early,” He laughed to himself, riding past signs and lodgings for travellers.

The time for an average horse to travel from the small farm to Unitos would take several days, maybe two if it were running day and night. But this skeleton horse wasn’t an average horse, it was a powerful entity in the form of one, and the dark-blue overcoat wearing man was its rider.

Thus, in around a minute, it had crossed miles upon miles of land, easily stopping near the gate as well, Rekiel pulling out an envelope which held the royal insignia within it.

He rode a little bit closer before his horse was noticed and he was beckoned to the entrance of the city by the many, many guards at it’s arch and around as well as in.

“Halt, is that a summoned creature or an attempt at smuggling a monster in, if so you’ll need a licence of registration for it, as well as proof you can control it,” A guard explained, walking up to him.

“Sure officer,” He whistled, and the horse disappeared in another distortion, he fell to the ground onto his feet and passed the envelope smoothly.

The guard opened it up, looked at the insignia, went into a part of the wall and confirmed it with a magical orb before coming back.

“Alright, you're free to go in,” The guard confirmed, Rekiel smiling as he waved and walked through the entrance of the city.

The entrance itself was a large arch with guards along hallways within the arch watching carefully, any suspicious activity would be recorded, this was also where the shield was, a guard would make someone come forth, making them move past the barrier, if they were confirmed to be evil by the guards then a lighting shot would hit them and they’d die instantly if they were lucky, if not then they’d be interrogated by a secret guard and dragged into fabled depths.

Of course, there were ways to get past this barrier, but they were expensive and… Less secure…

“Now, first things first, where’s the royal alchemist,” He said to himself, walking into the civilian’s district, where most mid-class citizens lived, with some inns, houses and many stalls selling fruits and common items.

“Hm, so she’d be in the adventurer’s district, probably hanging out with her boyfriend Ark or something, actually where does Ark live?” Rekiel hummed to himself, recounting his paths and recalling everything before he snapped his fingers.

“Ah right! He’s an alchemist, he’ll be in the adventurer’s district, gods Rekiel you’re stupid!” He playfully scolded himself, summoning his horse again.

Said alchemist of said district was in very big trouble with his little sister, particularly because he had become a vampire for a little bit and had taken a vampire home with him, now he was washing the dishes every night and had been banned from making any sort of potion with any sort of cauldron for an entire week. Which, for a man who loved to experiment and create, was complete agony, and he had to do house chores on top of that as well.

Emthrall, the vampire, on Ark’s words, however, wasn’t killed, but she was restrained via holy power, which in essence, was the alchemist stealing part of the church’s floor and the entire magic array with it. So now in addition to having a ball of catgirl they also had a vampire in the back who spent most of her time either cursing them or pretending to have given up so one of them would get close.

And Ark was currently doing the chore of setting up a quest, grumpily and grouchily sending it in with the receptionist, who, in many opinions, was a beautiful young woman.

She was Elris, and she secretly had a crush on the potion-brewer since he had come to the city, though despite the hints she gave to him, he somehow misinterpreted them as ‘girl behaviours’ and didn’t react in a lovey-dovey way as she wanted.

The alchemist himself was in no way dense, it was just that whenever she tried something, it would somehow get messed up, whenever she tried to flirt it would sound like she was trying to make small talk, whenever she gave body motions it looked like she was trying to remember her childhood.

And she rarely had break days to top it all off! She wanted to desperately tell Ark how she felt, call her lovestruck or a girl chasing boys, but she loved him! Although she knew about how he liked Atra, the royal alchemist, Atra didn’t like him back and for some reason that mildly irritated her.

But, the one thing she feared most was his sister, Armi, there wasn’t any law in Unitos that prevented siblings from marrying and having children, and more often than not, the result was surprisingly better than those who weren’t blood-related.

The two had known each other since birth and Elris feared that his sister would eventually become something more than family… Oh by the gods! What if they had done it already?! What if that’s the reason why Ark was doing everything now! Because Armi was pregnant with his child and needed to take it easy!

The receptionist found herself hyperventilating while the alchemist held a request on the counter, looking discomforted while she looked like she was having a heart attack right there.

“Um, Elris, you dying?” Ark asked, waving a hand in front of her.

“AHIMNOTJEALOUSOFTHEFACTYOUGOTYOURSISTERPREGNANT!” She screamed, silence following in the guild as everyone turned their head to look at her, even the other receptionist peeked out from her place to look at the woman.

Elris had blonde hair, brown eyes and had, in Ark’s words, the physical appearance of ‘an older sister’, though the way he said it when he first met her unnerved everyone who heard it.

“Wut,” He asked blankly, the woman who was only older than him by a few months groaned and leaned forwards.

“Ah, sorry, I just had a lot on my mind,” She admitted, face into the counter, taking the sheet while hiding her red face.

“Oh, makes sense. Though why did you mention me, my sister and pregnancy?” At this Elris started to panic immediately and she started to hyperventilate again.

“Eh, I guess I was hearing things,” He shrugged a few seconds after, making the receptionist breathe a sigh of relief.

She looked over the quest and its requirements, nodded and put it up on the board.

[Quest: Herb Finding]

[Rating: E]

[Desc: An alchemist needs some herbs for his potions, help find them and gain a reward]

“Anyway, I need to get back to the shop so…” Ark began inching away before turning around and running.

“Wait-“ Too late, Elris watched him leave and she sighed in desperation, hearing the other receptionist laugh.

“Really? You keep going after him and he keeps going after that royal girl, and she goes after nobody,” She laughed, giving the blonde a blow to her self-esteem.

“Well? You don’t have a sense of love at all, you can’t say anything,” She replied, feeling a little bit better now.

“Dear, I’m a forest dryad,” The other receptionist giggled, “Boys crawl all over each other to have me even look at them~”

Elris sighed and slumped back into a chair, depressed now.

“I just want him to notice me as a woman and not as a friend, is that so hard? If he is the one for me then let the Berserker hero himself come into this building and proclaim he’s looking for Ark while covered in animals,”

Suddenly, Relziem blasted into the guild, tearing the door off its hinges with a look of rage and utter fury etched onto his face, covered in rabbits which were humping his armoured limbs, his legs, his arms, the back of his unarmoured head, everywhere.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS ARK!” He roared, his skin constantly changing into various colours of the rainbow.

Though his voice wasn’t of a male, it was of a female, and it was quite soothing, unlike his trademark deep and intimidating voice.

“Uh, he just left,” An adventurer with a bow on him answered.

“THANKS!” She screamed, unaware she was holding the side of the doorframe, turning to close it as she turned, and in turn, the doorframe which was interpreted as the door which was going to be turned was turned which meant that it was torn from being turned.

Or, in simple terms of turning something that shouldn’t be turned, the doorframe was ripped from the building by the hero who was now blasting down the street, looking for the alchemist.

Elris, in the process, had a smug grin as the dryad receptionist looked at her with a shocked expression.

For the hero, on the other hand, it had gone just any day, she had decided to go and train, in the process she had received a cake from Armi who said it was an apology from her for putting up with Ark.

The cake was then left in the cold rooms for her until a few days later, she found it again.

She was quite hungry from training and decided that a bit of sugar would help, it was then she realized that something was wrong, all the animals in the area who were afraid of her immediately charged at her, and some of the guards who were with her began to look at her with a lustful gaze.

Immediately she had gotten jumped by a horde of rabbits who were intent on mating with her, then her skin colour began to go rainbow and now she had to be constantly running or else she’d get groped by some pervert.

Ark was definitely behind this, he couldn’t bake a good cake to save his life, so it was put in good faith, but he had probably gotten to it and poured something into it, and that effect had stayed even through the freezing magic of the royal cold room.

“ARK WHERE ARE YOU?!” She roared, blasting past people who seemed to suddenly have their libido increased, though that was about it.

“Oh, hi Relziem,” She heard a voice and turned to see the alchemist waving to her, she slammed a hand into the ground and turned with fury, the rabbits still on her despite her speed.

Ark himself watched as the hero flew towards him in anger, he also felt the two hands of the hero grab him and slam him into a brick wall, breaking a few bones.

“Oh, hi Relziem…” He laughed a bit, seeing her body change colour.

“You, fix this, now!” She hissed in anger, grabbing a rabbit, and crushing it effortlessly.

“Why? In my opinion, this version of you is much better~” He gave her a thumbs up with a hazy look on his face, probably from having himself slammed into a wall.

“You...” She spat in fury.

Her female self now had long hair down her back, though she had tied it into a ponytail, she had two deep crimson eyes and her hourglass figure was perfect even under her armour.

“Yes? Y’know you’re gathering attention like this,” He looked over to the people who began to get a lustful gaze in their eyes, “So how about we come to a proposal?”

Relziem narrowed her eyes and looked into his confident ones with a hint of murderous tone.

“What kind of proposal?” She asked with reluctance.

…

Atra wondered if what she saw was real, she had to rub her eyes in a slight hint of confusion, just to be sure.

There, sitting at a café smiling with a cup of tea in his hands was Ark, and across from him was a girl in a sundress she had never seen before, her white long hair into a ponytail with red eyes that seemed familiar, she was happily chatting with the alchemist and conversing with him.

Although she didn’t know who this new mysterious girl was, she could at least tell something was up, for as long as she knew him, Ark had a crush on her, and for him to just start talking to this girl randomly was… Uncomforting…

So she decided to approach the duo and see what was up with the alchemist, maybe he was just trying to scam her into buying a potion or something, she wouldn’t put it past him to ignore a legal warning.

“Ark, I hope you not trying to restart your scam arts again,” Atra said, butting into the conversation, “Or else I’ll have to send you another warning and give you the long-awaited jail time that you’ve been avoiding,”

“Ah, Atra, welcome. We were just mentioning you,” The alchemist replied, sliding her a seat from another table, “Join us,”

The royal alchemist sat down with a suspicious gaze and watched as the other female reacted, it was impassive, and she didn’t seem uncomfortable… Though there was something odd about her…

“As I was saying, Atra is a good friend of mine,”

“Bullshit, you have a crush on me,” She commented.

“But that was the past,” Ark took the white-haired girl’s hand.

“Atra, meet Relmiem, my girlfriend,”

Something, somewhere within the depths of Atra’s soul, somewhere within the deep chains of her conscious, broke apart.

“W-what…?” The royal alchemist said, not expecting that reply.

“I’ve done as you’ve said, I’ve moved on from an impossible goal and I’ve found someone else, and she understands alchemy just like me,”

‘W-what’s this uncomfortable feeling...? Welling up in my gut...?’

“Prove it,” Atra demanded, ignoring her inner thoughts, pointing at the girl.

“Well,” Relmiem said, looking away awkwardly, “People often mistake alchemy and alchemy, one is the brewing of potions and such while the other is the transmutation of certain ores into better or different ones. Just like your trait,”

‘Ark, this better work you bitch!’ The genderswap potion afflicted male internally screamed.

“Oh really? How does my transmutation alchemy work then?”

“Well, at the base of everything are small particles which can determine what they make up, like a potion mixture, a lot of something creates an element like iron while a deficiency of something creates something like gold,” She nervously laughed, closing both eyes.

“Okay then, let's see if you know your potions then! Tree Root combined with Elder Seeds boiled at one hundred and twenty-six degrees equals what?!” Atra challenged.

“A potent tracking potion!”

“Swap the two with Dryad Leaf and Fly’s Pleasure!”

“A drunken effect!”

“Gnat’s Brew and Giant Wood!”

“Bone weakening effect!”

“Umin Toadstool and Fermented Sunroot!”

“Uh…. Strength effect...?”

“Wrong! An increase in poison and fire damage!” Atra yelled, slamming her hands on the table.

“Uh… Atra…” Ark said, his face concerned, “Why’re you so hung on challenging her? It’s not like you to do this….”

The royal alchemist stopped dead in her tracks, just now noticing her heart racing in her chest from… Anger…?

“I-uh-wh-“ The words stuck in her throat, the words she could casually throw at the male alchemist whenever he tried something were now refusing to even form, and now she was making the mood uncomfortable.

“I-it’d b-be better if I j-just leave th-then,” She said, finally forming enough words to speak, though she stuttered.

The uncomfortable feeling was now consuming her in the gut, it hurt and frustrated her, though she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Ark holding his right hand to her.

“Hey, at least we can still be friends, right?” He said innocently with a smile.

Atra’s world broke.

She slapped him in the face and ran off to a random alleyway, using her right arm to wipe away tears that were starting to form in her eyes, she knew perfectly why they were forming, she knew perfectly why she was acting like this.

When she got to the alleyway, she leaned on a wall and using her left hand, punched it, creating quite a sizeable indent with what appeared to be a normal-sized fist.

She let one tear fall and soon she was crying her eyes out, it hurt her to see Ark, the man she had rejected many times over, fall for someone else.

She hated to admit it but, amid her rejection, she had silently accepted him without knowing it, and yet when he found someone else and actually listened to her advice, she was heartbroken.

‘Great going, you fell for someone you rejected many times over, how pathetic can you be?’ Her inner voice mocked.

“Sh-shut up…” She sobbed.

‘You felt so high and mighty but now you feel like dirt, why? Because a guy took your advice!’ It shouted in her ears, making her close her eyes while tears fell through her eyelids.

She had gotten so used to Ark just always being after her that she had subconsciously made an attachment, both emotional and romantic, to him, and now that attachment had stabbed her through the heart.

She couldn’t even be mad about it, he had genuinely taken her advice, he had done as she had been saying for years upon years, and for some reason, fate had decided to kick her in the gut with this scene.

Atra felt cold and empty, she curled up into a ball and cried into her knees, using her trait to encase herself in a ball of iron while she sobbed to herself, she just wanted to be left alone, she just wanted to forget…

“Hm? What’s this I see?” A voice asked, a familiar voice which caused her to look up with puffed eyes, the ball of iron being lightly tapped on, “Dear sister, are you possibly crying?”

“R-Rekiel…?” She asked weakly, feeling a lump in her throat at her brother’s voice.

“Hm… It does seem your crying, tell me, why do you cry?” He asked from the other side of the dome of iron.

The encasing was slowly opened, and she saw a man who had an overcoat like hers, but it was different in areas, being more scuffed and less refined, yet somehow still maintaining its elegance. She had seen it many times before, she had made her blue overcoat after his in fact, and now he was here in one of her weakest moments.

Her brother truly had impeccable timing.

“I-I…” She couldn’t say anything, the lump still being there.

Rekiel kneeled to her and looked at her face carefully, wiping away a tear with his gloved hand.

“Ssshh, it’ll be alright,” He hugged her, and she hugged him back, letting him run a hand through her hair as he said comforting words to her, slowly calming her down.

“Now, let’s see what’s wrong,” He looked into her blue eyes and began to frown as she looked away.

“Atra… You seem to have troubles with love, and it involves Ark... Doesn’t it?” His tone grew dark and he stood up, radiating a dark power.

The royal alchemist froze and that was all he needed, it was a natural talent to him, to be able to read someone by looking into their eyes, it had taken practice but he could see someone’s true intent by peering into what connected their soul to the world.

And now, his sister had most likely been cheated on with another woman… Well… Too bad for that alchemist.

“Wait! Rekiel don’t-“ Atra cried out, though she was ignored as her brother, who as quickly as he had appeared, stormed down the street, unleashing a crushing aura of power.

Meanwhile, with Ark, he was leaning back with a sigh as the genderswapped Relziem sipped from a cup of tea peacefully.

“So, how do I undo this effect? Take a potion? Wait it out?” She asked, raising a brow.

“Both those actually, and if you receive enough damage you automatically get transformed back, so don’t send it into battle,” Ark replied, holding a concerned face, “Anyway, with that being said, I’m surprised Atra reacted like that, I just expected her to get a bit huffy or not even react at all,”

“Well, I guess you finally got the answer of whether she likes you or not,” Relziem responded, “Now fork over the antidote,”

“Fine, just don’t break it, I can’t break into Terin’s shop anymore to use his cauldron and Armi’s keeping a tight grip to make sure I can’t create any sort of concoction either. Essentially, I’m on limited supply,” The alchemist laughed.

Relziem lightly chuckled as well, the sundress she was wearing was her armour in disguise, being able to morph itself into different things was an ability he had made use of very well with attending balls or formal occasions.

She lifted the antidote to her mouth and suddenly it smashed open, its liquids spilling everywhere as she froze in mid-shock.

“Wait wh-“ Ark found a fist in his face and was slammed into the floor, his jaw barely being able to avoid breaking.

“Hello Ark,” Rekiel spoke with a twisted grin, “I recently noticed you got a new girlfriend…”

“Who the fuck is you?” The alchemist spoke from his spot on the floor, rolling away and feeling up his jaw.

“Well,” The brother of the royal alchemist shrugged, “I’m Atra’s brother, I recently came here to see how she was doing and to help her with a vampire case but I also came here to see how she was doing in a romantic sense,”

“So, you’re a sis-con?” Ark asked, standing up, “I mean, nothing wrong with it but…”

“Eh, I don’t love her romantically, but her health is very important to me as her older brother, and because you seem to have caused her distress, I must take care of you, and with my trait,” The dark aura around him grow more violent as he pointed to himself, “You’ll cease to exist,”

“Situational Nightmare…” The alchemist said, making Rekiel smile, “You can lock it onto as many people as you want and if you don’t take it off them, they’ll die from the environment around them or from an internal failure…”

“Analysis… That trait sure it useful,” He commented, “Though with my Situational Nightmare, I only have to sit back and wait, and even if you get too close,” He pulled out a blue rose with thorns on it, “This’ll take your limbs right off,”

“Rekiel stop!” Atra yelled, around 10 meters away from the trio, “It isn’t like that!”

“Don’t need to defend him, sister, he’ll have a painless death, if he doesn’t fight back that is,” Ark’s eyes dilatated at this as Rekiel stepped forwards, smelling the blue rose.

“Now let’s get down to buis-“

Relziem came flying in, still in her sundress as she ploughed her sword down onto him, her face full of anger and emotion.

Yet, defying all odds, Rekiel raised an arm and effortlessly grabbed the blade, stopping it with a yawn before delivering a swift punch to her gut, winding her as she fell back.

Her body instantly reverted to her original, her sheath becoming a sword as he gasped for air and fell to the ground.

“Oof, quite a defence you have on you, though I did get you off guard, didn’t I?” He snickered, shaking his fist for a bit and rolling it around, a slight hint of redness on it, “Guess you never encountered someone like me then?”

Atra watched with what equated to a now stupid looking expression, the girl she had seen with Ark was Relziem, and Relziem was never one to work with people unless he needed to, so essentially it was Ark who was in control of the situation, it was Ark who made her feel like that… It was Ark who planned to see her reaction… He had planned all of this, Relziem, her reaction, he had planned all of this to see what she truly thought of him.

And now his karma was coming back to bite his ass harder than ever…

Said alchemist watched Atra have an epiphany and sighed, he’d have some explaining to do after this, but currently, he had to beat her protective brother… Great…

“So, Rekiel huh? Quite a trait you have, being able to kill anyone you want while keeping your distance…” He spat, rolling his shoulders and stretching, “I may not be physically adept, but I might be able to outsmart you,”

The brother of the royal alchemist chuckled darkly.

“I’d like to see you try and beat me,”

“Alrighty then!” Ark charged straight at Rekiel and attempted a right hook which resulted in a sharp blow to his side, knocking him onto the street.

“Situational Nightmare is active dear Ark, anything around you can kill you, a brick, a breath of wind, hell, even your heart can stall, and you’ll die, what’ll it be? What’s your move?” He laughed, smelling his rose once more, “My trait is nigh unbeatable, it can even activate automatically when I don’t know danger is present!”

“So, in other words, to put an opponent in absolute checkmate… That’s the power of your trait?” The alchemist questioned, standing up in the middle of what appeared to be a road.

“Pretty much,” Rekiel agreed, looking to the side “And it seems I’ve gotten you cornered,”

Ark looked to his left and saw a carriage carrying barrels of gunpowder, and on his right, a wizard who was sneezing, slight amounts of fire coming from his nose.

“Go on, try to escape,” Atra watched from a distance as her brother and the alchemist fought, she could see her brother smiling maliciously… Then she saw a gleam of a red-eye from the alchemist.

“I really need a cool catchphrase,” The heterochromia affected potion brewer sighed, straightening his empty satchel, “Or else I’ll just look dumb,”

Rekiel raised a brow before seeing Ark charge at him again, his fists getting ready to swing at a moment’s notice.

Suddenly the mage sneezed, and a fireball came flying in their direction while the carriage went over a bump, breaking a lock and making several barrels fall and roll over to them as well.

“Ark it's over! You’re dead!” He exclaimed in delight, but he saw the alchemist smiling, suddenly avoiding a punch to the face and sliding under to his legs.

“Are you sure?” Ark asked, on his knees, grabbing a leg, “Because last I checked, gunpowder affects everyone in an area,”

The blue rose holder’s eyes widened in surprise as he realized what was happening

“And your trait doesn’t discriminate once the killing process begins…”

Rekiel immediately slammed the spiked rose into the alchemist’s back, moving his legs up and down as the rose’s thorns grew out and into his back, digging into his spine and ribs, slowly displacing and tearing them.

Ark clenched his teeth and held even harder as the thorns tore out muscle and bones, he was having a fair day with his body being torn apart by entities.

The barrel rolled at shocking speeds and the fireball, although only a moment had passed, was certain to hit the barrel right where the potion-brewer was, inevitably killing him and the person he was latched onto.

“Ark! Get off!” Rekiel kicked the alchemist to no avail, his body was already consumed by pain, no other such injuries would affect him due to the rose’s neurotoxins in its thorns.

“You know how to survive this,” Ark said, feeling the thorns puncture a lung painfully, reaching for his heart, “Disable your ability!”

The barrels rolled closer and the man screamed in anger, disabling his trait, causing the barrels to suddenly break and the fireball to dissipate mid-air, removing the certain and unavoidable death.

Though he had disabled his trait, he looked at Ark with victory, looking snide while peering down at the alchemist on his leg, the rose was doing very good work with affecting his body.

“Ark, the rose has already taken its place! You’re now dead!” He laughed, seeing the thorns draw lots of blood.

“And so are you,”

Rekiel’s smugness turned to horror as Ark leaned back, revealing the rose’s thorns which had gone out of his chest and into its user’s leg, currently at his abdomen and rapidly reaching up to his own heart.

“What?!” He roared, “How?!”

“Easy, once it got to my chest since I was leaning up against your leg, it went for the next blood flow, most likely a strategy which allows it to consume multiple people at once. But once it went into your leg, it stopped going for my heart and went for yours instead, meaning that right now I’m attached to you!” Ark explained, the thorns draining both of the men’s vitality.

“You can put someone into absolute checkmate, but I can do the same to you!”

Atra, realizing what was happening, looked on with a now stunned gaze, a gaze she never would think to give to Ark in a battle against her brother. The rose-weaponizing man she had grown up with had never been put into a circumstance where his opponent made demands, sure he’d humour them first and let them brag before he pummelled and possibly killed them, but never had she once heard of him being in this kind of situation.

“If I die then you’ll die as well Rekiel!” Ark shouted, “So you’re either gonna disable this plant or you’re gonna try and out bluff me by bringing yourself to the very edge!”

Rekiel himself was internally calculating, he needed to get distance from this man and then reactivate his trait, he could feel that if he tried to reactivate it now he’d die a painful death at the hands of the thing he’d used for so long.

What’s worse was that his rose didn’t discriminate either, that was a flaw it had along with his trait, and this duel-eyed motherfucker had managed to find both out in mere moments of experiencing it, what the hell was with him?!

He could partly control the rose to restrain and imprison, but he couldn’t get it to attack a certain target nor could he make it grow faster without taking nutrients from various sources.

“You…” He scowled, seeing Ark slowly pulling himself from the leg, he was planning to pry the rose through him and pass it on to its user who was now finding the thorns dangerously close to his chest.

“Disable it and we’ll still be alive by the end of this, you’re in control of the situation, not me,” The alchemist spoke, managing to get half of the main flower painfully through his stomach, it had a very potent effect and he was certainly feeling it right now.

“Ark… You’ve truly pissed me off now,” Rekiel hissed, moving his hand down in such a way that a knife came out of the wrist area.

“Damn, you really took after you sister’s weapons huh?” The potion-brewer mocked, “And you’re supposed to be the older brother,”

With a quick motion, Ark had successfully pulled himself off the rose’s grip, and with that, had fully freed himself from any influence against its user who was now just painfully letting it seep into himself.

“Ark Andrason, a man of your intelligence seems to have very potent genes within your body, yet you threw away my sister’s love and cheated on her with a woman who was a man in disguise… Truly disgusting what arrogance does,” He seethed, letting the rose infiltrate his body, “And now you’re out of options,”

Rekiel now had thorns emitting from his chest, then he threw off his overcoat.

Turns out he had a dark blue T-shirt underneath which was now shredded to pieces from various thorny roots coming from his chest and heart.

“See, I grew these flowers,” He spoke, his right arm swelling up with thorns that dripped with toxins, “Using my blood cells, can you guess what a result of what happens when I get too much toxin in me?”

“You get stronger…” Ark huffed, the holes in his body were going to kill him if he did too much movement and pushed himself too far.

“Indeed, sure I was afraid the thorns would pierce my heart before then but then the toxins kicked in, and now I feel great, and those injuries of yours sure look bad,” Rekiel giggled, “Though I’m sure you still have an ace up your sleeve right? Come on then, use it!”

The alchemist stood up once more, shaking a bit as his blood spilled from his wounds and he shuddered from the feeling of it.

“Yeah, I go one left, one last ace which can only be used when I’m truly in trouble,” He spoke, blood coming from his mouth, “One final ace which gives me total control of the entire area around me,”

“Ooo, what is it? You’re secretly a god from killing another god? You’re an alien from another planet? A half-blood born from an arch-angel and an arch-demon? Go on! Tell me!” The shirtless Rekiel encouraged, “Do it! I wanna see what you could pull out at this moment!”

Ark sighed and look the rose’s user in the eye, clenching a bloodied fist which looked sickly from touching the thorns of the blue rose.

Blood dripped from the fingers and palm, but the alchemist took a step forwards, then another, each moment growing more intense.

Relziem was out of the game, apparently, it was just more than simply getting winded and he was unconscious, the various brambles over him spoke for themselves… So, a hit from powered up Rekiel would annihilate our main character.

“You really wanna do this?” The potion brewer spoke, putting his left hand to his chest.

“Hm? A last question and you give confirmation?” He sneered, “Go on, try and persuade me, it won’t work,”

The overgrown with thorns right arm was now equipped with a set of spiked blades around it, from consuming the knife he brought out earlier.

“Well then,” Ark said, closing his eyes, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,”

What came next was a burst of killing intent, a mental pressure so strong that even Atra stepped back in a hint of intimidation and Relziem filched in his unconscious state, such a strong flavour of bloodlust echoed through the area yet Rekiel remained unfazed, in fact, he began to laugh joyously.

“Ark, to think that you had such an aura within you! To think that a mere alchemist has the aura of a serial killer!” He exclaimed in delight, “Just what in the gods are you?!”

“And I’m done,” The aura flared down immediately, and everyone could breathe again, the alchemist falling forwards face-first into the paved street, “I’m ready to die now,”

“… What? That’s it? No fight or big scene or anything…?” The powered-up man asked, surprised, “C’mon! Get back up and pull an ace out your ass or something!”

“Nah, I’m good, kill me and make it quick,” Ark spoke, the various wounds in his body letting blood ooze out, “I’m gonna die and let my soul wander the earth,”

Rekiel stopped and then grew mad, blasting towards the alchemist with anger.

“Fine! I’ll kill you and then-“

The sudden emergence of a wall and the demanding scream of Atra knocked both boys out of their combat.

“LET ME FUCKING EXPLAIN DIPSHIT!” She roared at her brother who stepped back in surprise, not expecting the royal alchemist to butt in.

…

“So, you cried not because he broke your heart but because you were stressed?”

“Yes, Ark’s antics can be overwhelming and I just needed to vent, and as for why I was so moody Ark, Relziem’s female form was too sudden and too fast for even you, so I just broke thinking you were about to do something that would endanger another person,” Atra explained, sipping some tea outside the front of the café.

The floor had been fixed by her, the alchemist’s wounds had been healed by her and her brother’s plants had been removed by her. Singlehandedly she had saved the situation from outright murder, but despite that, she had also explained the situation and managed to avoid the court of guards that had come in replies to the onlookers.

Relziem also sat there, out of his sundress and back into his armour’s proper look, he sipped some coffee though, savouring its taste begrudgingly since Ark was next to him with a brow raised, the alchemist wasn’t sold however, and had a small but subtle grin on his face.

“And here I thought you were a bad guy, turns out you’re just an ass,” Rekiel snorted, leaning back in his chair, tempted to put his feet on the table smugly.

“So, you’re her brother then? That’s neat,” The potion-brewer said, watching said man grow thorny vines from his wrist to get a cube of sugar.

“Yep, and I’m also a florist, I grow flowers and plants,” He responded, seemingly pulling out another rose, though this one was a dark blue instead of the normal light blue, “Though I have a passion for growing and breeding plants too, they go hand in hand,”

“Speaking of which, how did you catch my blade? It's supposed to cleave through people easily,” Relziem asked, putting down his coffee.

“Just because you’re a hero doesn’t mean there aren’t people stronger than you, I thought someone as mysterious as the Berserker hero would know that, or is your privileged ass too soft now?” The florist snickered, the vines retreating under his sleeve once they had finished their purpose.

“Hm, you control them with magic then?” Ark questioned, yawning and rubbing his eyes afterwards.

“Nah, magic isn’t as good as a honed skill, and speaking of skills, what was that aura you emitted hm? What was that murderous intent?” Rekiel hummed, noticing that, along with the alchemist he was asking, everyone had names that either started with R or A at the table.

“Well you see, I-“

Ark’s face was caved in by a random fist and he was sent barrel-rolling in the air as a mysterious woman with the same colour eyes as him, in a different order, stood in a huff.

“Ark you honestly fucking need to learn to take things slow!” Armi screamed in rage, “I banned you from making potions for a reason and what happens?! You get in trouble and Atra has to bail you out!”

“Who’re you?” The florist asked, not caring the alchemist had been punched or that is question was seemingly irrelevant.

“I’m his sister, Armi, you must be Rekiel,” The woman put some of her hair behind her ear to make herself seem more presentable, though she had an irritable face when she glanced at her brother.

“Hm, you seem like his better half,” Rekiel mused with a smirk, “I am indeed Rekiel, a certified florist with a big ego and brother of the royal alchemist of Unitos,”

The female alchemist looked at the flower-user and stepped back a bit upon seeing a glimpse of thorns underneath his coat sleeve, they were wrapped around his forearm and down to his wrist, slowly snaking around it.

He seemed to notice where she was looking, and still holding a grin, he rose a brow.

“Interesting isn’t it?” He asked, sliding his sleeve down to give her a better view, the result was his forearm wrapped almost completely in the vines, “I bred a species of highly durable vine and a species of extremely fast-growing thorn grass, the result was this, of course, it took a few generations to get it right but you know how genetics works,”

“Who’s mentioning genetics?” Ark got up, still slightly dazed.

“Me, I mentioned genetics, though I guess an alchemist would know more about chemicals than biology,” The florist sneered.

“Biology? Do you mean the study of DNA, RNA and a bunch of weird traits that are passed down from generation to generation of living creatures? Yeah, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” The alchemist nodded with a smug, eyes-closed grin.

“Ah, so you know a little bit, tell me oh infamous destroyer of Unitos,” Atra flinched slightly at those words, “What makes you so special that my sister even acknowledges your presence?”

Ark took a seat from another table, sat down, stole Relziem’s coffee, took a cube of sugar and dropped it in.

“Your sister flinched when you mentioned me being a destroyer of Unitos, ask around and figure it out yourself,” He mused, drinking the tea before putting it back on the Berserker hero’s plate.

Said hero took the cup and chucked its contents into the street, putting it back down onto the plate once he was done.

“Hm, but where’s the fun in that when you could just as easily explain it to me? I am a busy man after all,”

“Well… Let's see, I almost broke the array protecting Unitos itself, I committed scam arts when I first arrived here, my red eye makes people think I’m a half-demon or something, I need to input a detailed description of each potion I made at the end of each month to the royal guard, they also ask my sister to make sure the stories align,” Ark recounted his various offences against the kingdom, “I fought Atra at one point, as well as committed defecation and destruction of public property multiple times, that’s about it… That I can remember anyway,”

“So, you fought my sister? How did that pan out?” A few vines signalled another waiter to bring them some more tea and coffee.

“Well, it was a fight that was kept hidden and I may or may not have stolen her trait for a small period…”

Silence filled the area, Atra’s gaze was dark and she was immensely silent, Rekiel was silent as well. Armi sipped the rest of her tea awkwardly and Relziem looked like he was about to tear the alchemist to shreds.

“You… Stole her trait…?” The florist’s expression went from dark to psychotic, “You… You stole her trait…?”

“Of course didn’t steal it, I moreover copied it and applied it to myself,” Ark explained, oblivious to how crushing a certain aura was becoming.

“Ark Andrason… In all my life, I have never met a man more sickening or dangerous than you,” Rekiel’s voice was threatening and sharp, he looked up with a blue eye full of resentment and hatred.

Suddenly he took the alchemist’s hand with a cheerful grin.

“You have my approval to marry my sister,”

“Same to you,” Said alchemist greeted back with an equally cheerful grin.

“WHAT?!” Armi screamed, slamming her hands on the table.

“Excuse me?!” Atra roared, accidentally sending her adamantium blade through the table as she slammed her hands on the table as well.

A sign of a sibling approving another to marry their sibling was essentially saying you wanted them to marry and have kids, so you can imagine how the two females felt as their brothers shared smug looks while being yelled at.

The hero sat awkwardly, covering it up by sighing and closing his eyes, trying to appear less like he was awkward and more like he was thinking about something.

“So we’re just going to ignore the fact that Ark over here was keeping such valuable information in a time like this,” The Berserker said, interrupting the squabbling group, “In a time when Spite is trying to gather the resources to steal and amass traits this very alchemist has done that,” His crimson eyes gleamed angrily, “How?”

“Spite’s trying to amass traits?” The male alchemist asked curiously, “I thought they were tryna sabotage the alchemy competition that’s coming up in a few weeks so they could hijack a few alchemists and turn them over to their side,”

Atra sighed and looked at Ark, explaining to him what she had told his sister, about how Spite was most likely trying to lessen the competition to get a spot as a royal alchemist and then steal her trait to build weapons and gather funds.

One would see the alchemist’s pupils on his happy face dilate as the words sunk in, specifically the word ‘funds’.

“Spite?” Rekiel scoffed, “You mean the grunts I have to beat up whenever I go anywhere? Those guys are just imbeciles trying to act tough,”

“Not necessarily,” The royal alchemist corrected, “Spite’s just been sending low-class rookies at you to try and gauge your power and trait, it's surprisingly a big organization that could make Unitos have a headache if it tried anything right now,”

“So, it’s trying to gather powerful traits and items which can steal traits?” Ark questioned, “No wonder you wanted the fight to be classified information, I thought you were just salty that I fought you and almost won,”

“Wait, you ALMOST won? How?” Armi asked, “In the story, the public was told, you got annihilated horribly,”

“Exactly what they would say, Atra’s trait isn’t just transmutation, it’s also reconfiguration and realignment of particles, its why she can make blades and stuff, transmutation is just what the public sees, though despite having a limit on how far her range of influence goes it's still a form of changing the sub-atomic particles and matter it makes up,” The alchemist explained, “I just took her trait and turbo-boosted it to allow me to overhaul the surrounding area, that’s why it looked so disfigured and twisted,”

“But how did you copy her trait?” Relziem pressed, “A potion? An unlikely but entirely possible second trait? How?”

“It was less of a purposeful potion and more of an accidental method I stumbled upon when trying to boost my trait a few years back, I have it all recorded in my alchemy journal,”

The Berserker stood up immediately.

“Where is your journal?! We need to get it to the council immediately!”

“How about no,” Ark crossed his arms, “I’m not gonna allow a bunch of higher-ups to browse through my history, you know how judgemental they can be when they see what you’ve been doing. Although I would have every right to judge them back...” He said the last part under his breath.

“Ark, Spite is most likely trying its hardest to collect items which can steal traits, if they get their hands on your alchemy journal then it's over for everyone,” Atra agreed, “You need to hand it over to the council,”

“No, call me stubborn and prideful but my journal has personal memories in it as well as some funky recipes, I’m not entrusting it to some council who’ll probably use its power for evil,”

“Its power? Are you implying that the journal has a different power than just alchemy?” Rekiel asked, quite enjoying the argument that was playing out.

“Bruh, I’ve had it since I was ten, what do you think? It’s just full of random recipes of just regular potions? No! It’s a journal that I used to record everything! Traits and the ways they can be evolved is a massive part of that journal!”

“Hmmm, how about we just let you keep the journal then?” This suggestion made everyone look at Rekiel as if he was insane. The florist scoffed at them.

“What? Don’t look at me like that, Spite is more likely going to raid some ancient tomb than set foot in a random alchemy store that’s located in the adventurer’s district. Besides, even if we did secure the journal, there’s still the fact that whatever he used to copy Transmutation is extremely rare, meaning that there’s barely any point in taking it,”

“But the fact is that he HAS found a way to copy traits! We need to secure it rather than take chances!” The hero reasoned, “You should be aware of the consequences a powerful potion like that can yield!”

“Who said it was a potion or that Spite would be able to fulfil the criteria?” Ark laughed.

“What? There’s a criteria?” Atra asked, slightly intrigued at this. From what she remembered at the fight; the alchemist had just jumped around in a frenzy before levelling the world around her.

“Yep, and there’s also a risk!” He gave a thumbs up.

“A risk? Of what?” Armi asked, the waiter coming over with all the cups of hot liquids.

“Of losing your trait of course!”

The table went silent and the waiter rose a brow, replacing the empty cups with the filled ones, if they were discussing traits then he was out.

“L-loosing your trait?!” Relziem sputtered, “What kind of move is this?!”

“Equivalent exchange my friend, a law of alchemy is that you cannot gain without first giving something in return,” Ark explained, “I give my trait and then boost-copy Atra’s, but in the process, there’s a chance I may have my trait permanently damaged or even destroyed in exchange for the power enhancement. Thankfully during the fight, the process went smoothly, and I did it correctly,”

“So, it’s a form of alchemy?”

“Yep, it’s a spell!” The alchemist stood up, “Congrats, you managed to discover what it was!”

“But Ark, you can’t use magic,” Armi spoke up, unconvinced.

“I can’t use elemental and defensive magics like lighting and fire,” He corrected, “Magic arrays, non-combat spells and other types are all fine,”

“So, it’s a spell then, I’m assuming you’d tear out the page and burn it if we tried to grab it then?” Rekiel asked, sipping his hot tea.

“Not really, you guys can try and read the spell if you want, I just don’t want you poking around my potion history, that’s my only source of privacy that my sister doesn’t share with me,”

“Oh? So you two still bathe together?” Rekiel questioned, leaning back in his chair.

“It saves time, water, I get to torment my sister and we wash each other’s backs,” Ark listed off on his fingers, “Plus we discuss what our plans for the day are,”

“Hmm, well, here’s the thing: you two, bathing together at your age, it’s kind of… Incestuous,” The florist said smugly, Armi immediately stood up, summoned a bucket of ice and vomited into it upon hearing what came out of his mouth.

“I dunno man, your sister complex seems kinda incestuous to me,” The alchemist responded, “Especially because you could use those vines for some pretty kinky stuff,”

Atra’s expression was utter mortification etched onto her face, seemingly automatically she made her own bucket from the floor and vomited into it.

“So? Last I checked incest was allowed in this city, though dating a female who’s a genderswapped male isn’t,” Rekiel looked over to Relziem.

“You’re just jealous I can make a vagina out of anything I want,” Ark retorted.

“Please stop!” Armi begged, the sounds of ice cracking accompanied her voice.

“Wait, hold on, hold on!” The florist raised his hands in a stopping motion before lowering them, “Seriously? You can make a pussy out of anything you want?”

“Well duh, it's easy, I perfected the potion for it when I was sixteen after all,” The alchemist answered as if it was obvious, “Though back then what was between my legs told me what to do,”

“Stop!” Atra yelled, “For the love of the gods stop!”

“Not right now dear sister, me and this kind fellow are having a gentlemanly discussion,” Rekiel put his index finger up to silence his sister, “Anyway, what does it feel like? Like an actual female genitalia or like some sad substitute?”

“Eh, I’ve never had sex before so I couldn’t tell, though it feels very goo-“

“SHUT UP!” Relziem slammed his hands on the table, “You both are so immature!”

“Shut the fuck up edgy hypocritical simp! I see you with women every day!” Ark insulted.

“Obviously, you lack cultural understanding. Virgin,” Rekiel brushed off, sipping his tea with a rich aura around him.

“You…” The hero was unable to respond to the duo’s responses with a cool head, “You both never grew up, did you?”

“You’re just realizing that?” The alchemist jeered, “Mental type enemies are gonna mess you up,”

“Nope, I’m still a boy, I never truly matured and I never will,” The flower user laughed.

The Berserker sighed and turned his back before leaving, the two wouldn’t be fazed by anything he verbally insulted him with. 1. Because he knew Ark’s dominance was in that area and 2. Because Rekiel was the manipulative type who schemed and used others, words would just be meaningless against him.

The two boys soon calmed down from their fits of laughter, though at the cost of their sisters’ sanity and wellbeing, they eventually stood up, smiled in enjoyment and looked to each other.

“Y’know Ark, you ain’t half bad, I take back what I said about your sister being the better half,” Rekiel put out a hand.

“You too, its been a while since I’ve had a friend,” Ark shook the hand with his own, the duo making a handshake with genuine grins.

“Anyway, it's getting late and I need to be off to solve a vampire case,” The florist said, looking at an imaginary watch on his wrist once he took his hands back.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around then,” The alchemist pushed in his chair, downing the coffee Relziem had left behind.

“Oh yeah, and Ark,” Rekiel said, making said alchemist looked up, “Call me Revile,”

“Eh? I’ll just call you Rekiel, Revile sounds to antagonistic for me,”

“Suit yourself,”

Each male took their sickened siblings and went off in their separate direction, the brother of the royal alchemist headed into the castle’s direction and the brother of a magic potent girl towards the alchemy shop.

“I kinda liked him, good chap,” The male alchemist commented as they went inside the store and opened it again.

“Yeah well, he was… Less than I thought of him at first…” Armi replied, taking charge of the counter.

Ark was busy stacking potions until a horrifying realization hit him

“We didn’t pay the café bill….”