Chapter 115

Arc 13- Public Enemy No.1 - Part 17

Monday, 28th of June - Earth:

“Where is he?”

A man in a suit came out of the elevator and then walked into a dark and creepy hallway.

“Where is the new one?”

He unbuttoned his blazer and threw it to his left, which was caught by one of his security guards.

“This way, sir.”

The security guard walked in front of his fast, so he followed.

After a few moments of silent walking, he opened the door to a dark room.

The security guard did not enter but the other man did.

“So, are you ready for your job?”

“Who…?”

He held his hand backwards and the security guard passed a flashlight to him.

“You agreed to work for me, in return, I pay your family one million American dollars each year. I mean, you are from a third world country, so I am overpaying you anyway.”

He turned on the flashlight and held it at the person.

The other person, who was a thin brown-skinned young man in his early 20s with black eyes and short black hair, averted his gaze immediately as he saw the flashlight.

“Ah, right. I thought it was a scam.”

The young man laughed in a self-mocking manner.

“I am going to die, am I not?”

“Yes,” the man replied bluntly. “But your family will be compensated for your sacrifice.”

He was not sure how to feel about it, so he looked down.

“So, what do I have to do?”

“What’s your name?”

“Ahmed Karim.”

The man turned off the flashlight as a glowing book appeared between the two of them.

“...?!?!”

Dumbfounded, Ahmed gulped.

The half-open book was floating in front of him.

“Wh… What is...”

“This...”

The man bent his upper body forward and picked up the man's hand.

“This is a magic book. In other words, a grimoire.”

Ahmed’s face showed his feelings.

He was scared. Horror could be seen all over his face. So, he tried to stop the man from moving his hand.

However, he did not expect this man in front of him to have such strong grip strength.

“In this world, magic has existed since the beginning, although hidden from the view of the public. Magicians have worked in the dark since the start. Sometimes independently and sometimes under the government’s orders.”

He forcefully moved Ahmed’s hand and placed it on the book.

Suddenly, he felt energy surge through him as if he was being electrocuted.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!?!” Ahmed screamed at the dark ceiling.

“For centuries, our family have studied magic. Let me tell you a secret.”

Ahmed could hear him but did not pay him much attention. Instead, he was worried about the changes in his body.

Although he was screaming, he was not feeling pain. It felt like he was being electrocuted, but there was no pain.

“We also worked with the demon. Yeah, yeah, my father was a pathetic man. But it did provide good data for us.”

Ahmed’s head lowered as he took a few deep breaths.

“What is this… feeling?”

“That’s magic. You are the second person to use this grimoire since we found it. The other guy died yesterday, so we found you. Be happy that you will wield powerful magic. Makes you a special one.”

The glow around the book got brighter.

The man stood up straight once more and stretched his neck.

“Do as I tell you.”

Ahmed looked up with a stern look on his face.

Before he could say anything, the man spoke.

“Don’t worry, I will keep my promise. Your family will be paid one million American dollars each year for the next one hundred years.”

Despite the negative feelings within him, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Now follow my instructions.”

Deep down, Ahmed thought about using the new power against this man and escape, but there was a slight problem.

He nodded his head.

“!!”

“Your body’s primary functions are being controlled by nanotechnology they injected you with. So, if you are thinking of going against me, it will kill you immediately. Like the other guy yesterday. He did part of his job but tried to fight back. Death is what he found.”

The man seemed very proud of that.

“I see...” he let out a defeated sigh. “Sure, I will follow you along.”

“Good.”

A thin smile appeared on the man’s face.

“Anyway, placed the palm of your right hand on the grimoire.”

Ahmed did as he was told.

“And then say, “Puppet Magic: World Domination - Influence”.”

For some reasons, those words sent shivers down Ahmed’s face.

The sound of those words was far more sinister than he had anticipated.

“P-Puppet Magic: World Domination - Influence,” he forced himself to utter those words out loud.

The pages of the half-opened book flipped furiously.

Even though his hand should have stopped it, it phased through his skin.

“Now tell the world to hate…” the man said in a somewhat excited tone.

Ahmed’s eyes lit up with faint purple energy.

“Nazar.”

Ahmed’s heart skipped a beat.

“Tell them to hate him. Tell them that he is evil.”

Despite the fear, Ahmed uttered those words slowly.

“Influence their mind to be wary of him. Influence their hate and anger towards him.”

Ahmed did what the man asked him.

And then he fell down.

“Ah, projecting magical energies across the planet is sure to cost a lot of life force. He should be able to repeat that at least three more times,” he spoke slowly to himself.

He turned around.

“Sir?”

“Feed him and let him rest for a short while. And then have him repeat it again as soon as he wakes up.”

“Understood.”

The man left the room.

The security guard helped him wear his blazer once more and then closed the door to Ahmed’s room.

“Where is the other one?”

“Ebo Kojo?” the security guard asked nervously.

“Yes, her.”

“Ah. She is here.”

They walked further down into the hallway.

Opening the door, they were expecting a bright golden light shone in the room. Light so bright that both of them had to raise their hand to cover their eyes from the light.

However, there was no light today.

The man held his hand towards his guard, who placed a flashlight into it.

Walking into the darkroom slowly, he turned on the flashlight.

He held the flashlight at the person.

“Is the food ready?” asked a person angrily.

She was a dark-skinned woman in her late 20s. Her black hair was glowing faintly with golden light, unlike her eyes which are always glowing with bright golden light.

“Put away the light, will you?”

Before the man could do as she asked, the light from the room vanished, and from the hallway.

Even though it was a dark hallway, there was still a little light, but after her eyes blinked, even that vanished.

“Don’t mess with electricity in this place again. Please?”

She let out a heavy sigh.

“What do you want?”

“It seems you have gotten better, so I came here to tell you to get ready. We will begin the attack on the island soon.”

“Okay,” she replied immediately, in an uninterested tone.

He rolled his eyes and left the room.

“Close the door.”

“Y-yes, sir!” the man frantically moved and closed the door.

Letting out a sigh of relief, the man left started to turn around and walk back towards the elevator.

“Feed them well, let them rest and prepare them. We will make a move soon.”

“Yes, sir!”

The man left, leaving the security guard alone in this place with these powerful individuals.

လလလ

Outflow:

The space between the universes is occupied by the darkness known as the Void.

However, there also exists something called the Outflow. It is a layer above the Void, which connects the universes with one another.

Outflow is the opposite of the Void in many ways.

Through the Outflow, travel between higher and lower dimensions is also possible.

Unlike the Void, Outflow is made of many different forms of colourful energies. These energies also include magic.

Within the colourful Outflow, there was a large grey spaceship moving. This is the headquarters of an organisation known as the Silent Shadows.

Inside the spaceship, in a large meeting room, there stood a man in a shiny full plate black armour.

His armour was made from thin soft polyester top and pants, which was covered with a layer of dark energy.

Black [Harisan Bio-Metal] - a form of symbiotic metal that responds to the thoughts of the user - was positioned above the energy layer. Furthermore, it has traces of [Urasium], which makes it extremely durable.

At the centre of his armour’s chest, there was a large purple light glowing.

His armour had slanting lines of golden colour. These golden lines allow him to use his powers well with the armour.

His head and face were covered in a black helmet. The face area had white stars in it. It was almost as if it was containing a universe, similarly to his flowing dark cape behind him.

There was also a gradient coloured dark blue draped coat tail from the hips of his armour at ankle length.

The armour radiates nothing but dark and evil energies.

He is Afshahan, the [Dark God of Destruction] - self-given title, by the way.

“So, what kind of boring tasks do we have to carry out now?” Afshahan, the leader and founder of the organisation, spoke in an uninterested tone. “They pay good money, but at the end of the day, it’s more boring than listening to your father talk about the Cold War and his service for the hundredth time.”

Near him, there were a few people sitting at a large circular table.

“Glad, I destroyed that universe,” he muttered to himself.

“I think you will love this one, boss,“ said a green-skinned woman, who resembled a humanoid tiger, in a shiny grey knight armour known as Ulsa.

“Oh?”

She snapped her and a screen appeared in front of Afshahan.

Although his face was covered, he could see the screen very clearly.

“Ohoho!!!”

His excited shout caused a shockwave in the room.

“Is this for real?”

Ulsa nodded.

“Interesting,” an almost demonic voice came out of his mouth. “Very interesting.”

The others let out a sigh once they saw how excited Afshahan seemed.

“Leave every other job aside, we are focusing on this.”

“Huh?!? The others are paying as much, if not--”

“I don’t care,” he said angrily yet excited. “This is human business.”

Ulsa frowned.

“Fine. Then you don’t need everyone, right? You can take care of his problem by yourself, no?”

Afshahan shook his head.

“If the most powerful human needs my help, then it's more serious than anything else we have faced.”

Ulsa leaned back in her chair.

“Is this related to the psychic wave we had recently?” asked a humanoid muscular man with blonde hair and blue eyes in a skintight yellow suit and black cape.

“I am 99% sure that’s the case, Vail,” Afshahan sounded rather agitated. “Wait! What do you mean by the psychic wave?”

Everyone in the room let out a sigh.

“Why do you always pretend to know what’s going on?” Ulsa said exasperatedly.

“Shut it!” Though he was not very serious.

Frantically, he looked at a beast who resembled a combination of a gorilla and a panda.

“Liem?”

“Ah, since we were in the Outflow, we missed it. But everyone - and I mean everyone in the multiverse - who was affected by the psychic wave seems to know a single enemy; Nazar.”

“Shit...”

“There are some universes which are not affected...”

Realising how Afshahan was not listening, Liem wanted to stop talking but instead, he let out a sigh and continued.

“Everyone knows how powerful he is now.”

Afshahan looked down as he thought.

“We are going to meet him today… Ahhhh!! I need to go to Universe-1228. Damn it!”

“I could take care of that,” said a man who looked exactly like Nazar but with hair made of colourful energy and his eyes were glowing with purple energy. “That is my universe after all.”

Afshahan thought aggressively.

“But if every version of you is an enemy, then how will you carry it out? The client might not accept your help.”

“Hm, true. Then I will take care of the client in Universe-11. Apparently the psychic wave was averted.”

“Huh, interesting. You do that then, Nazar.”

He then looked at Liem.

“How many of us are free?”

Liem took a few seconds to check the database on the tablet.

“236 of us are currently free and we have around 100 cases.”

“Ah…”

Afshahan walked around in the room as he thought about it deeply.

Then he took the tablet from Liem and looked through the cases.

“Everyone here is almost as powerful as me, if not as powerful,” he muttered to himself. “So, if two of us go to each case, it should be finished immediately. That leaves us with 36 of us who can take care of Nazar’s problem in Universe-1… Hm? Oh.”

As he was going through the clients, he noticed something.

“There is another client from Universe-1, so if we take care of that quickly, that will leave us with 38 [Shadows].”

Shadows is a term used to refer to members of this organisation.

“That will do it.”

He placed the tablet on the table and looked at each of the Shadows.

“We can do this,” he said in a stern and motivated tone. “If we manage to satisfy all of our clients, especially Nazar and the Chochica Empire, our profits will go up by 50% this year.”

“Holy crap, no way!” shouted out Vail.

“Yes! Let’s do this. Let’s not take any new clients until we finish them all.”

“You got it, boss,” Liem said as he left the meeting room.

Afshahan let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright. I will select the team that goes to Universe-1 later today.”

“Yay...” some of them did not look as excited.

လလလ

Lucifer’s dimension:

Lucifer groaned as he sat up in a spacious bed.

“Argh-- That woman...”

“Ah, so you are awake,” said a stern voice of a woman.

He looked around and saw a woman, which caused him to be confused for a moment.

“Who…?”

Lucifer stared at her in a confused and surprised manner.

For a second, he thought someone had broken into his dimension.

Seeing the face of the person, he breathed out.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Yes, unfortunately, it’s me, the nuisance,” she said angrily. “It’s not like someone asked me to not leave this place.”

(Oh right, I saved her.) He thought to himself. (She hit me harder than I thought. Some of the memories are a little fuzzy.)

“I did not mean it like that.”

“Well, whatever. I need to ask...”

She narrowed her eyes.

“What happened? You nearly died in your battle against her.”

Lucifer’s eyes widened in fear.

Seeing that look in his eyes, she decided to tell the truth.

“I could see your fight from here while also keeping the whole damn existence safe. Your welcome.”

Lucifer still could not believe how powerful she is.

Leaving that aside, he decided to focus on the pain in his chest, so he looked down.

“If I hadn’t pulled you out, you would have died.”

“I see… Well, thanks for saving me.”

“Anytime.”

He forced a smile on his face.

Lucifer tried to move but he couldn’t. The wound in his chest still seemed fresh.

“How…?”

He was surprised. He couldn’t believe what his eyes were seeing.

Lucifer is one of the most powerful beings to exist, so healing a minor wound like this should be no problem.

But the wound was still fresh as if he had been stabbed mere minutes ago.

“This is… odd.”

(Could it be that I fought her mere moments ago? That would make sense why the wound is still fresh. I should give it a short time and it will be fixed.)

Lucifer let out a sigh as he lay back on the bed.

“It seems she has blocked your healing ability. I tried to fix it but it did not work.”

“I see. But...”

Lucifer covered his eyes with his arm as he bit his lip.

He is one of the most powerful beings around, so he was frustrated that he

“It should heal in a day or two,” he muttered to himself. “Maybe external healing is blocked, but my regeneration should fix this in no time.”

“I am afraid that’s not the case,” said an artificial voice.

Lucifer’s body jerked, so he tried to get back frantically but all it did was cause him pain.

“You need not be alarmed, child. I am here to help you.”

From thin air, a being of white energy appeared.

“If you don’t mind,” he said to the woman.

In return, she gave him a stern look.

“Oh?”

“Please.”

Her eyes widened.

This was the creator of the Ultraverse, the Supreme One. The arrogant being who thought himself above everyone else spoke to her in a respectful manner.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, so she laughed hysterically.

“Haha… Are you kidding?”

Two of the most powerful beings in the Ultraverse are in the same room as her and looked at her with respect. One of them even used to look down on her and thought of her as a nobody.

“This… I can’t believe this.”

She walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

Ignoring her, Lucifer narrowed his eyes.

“So, what is? What do you want?”

“Firstly, I changed the flow of time here, so a month has passed for you since your battle with her.”

Although he was surprised, he did not show it on his face.

“Secondly, she has been trying to heal you for days now and her efforts have been futile.”

“So, why are you here?”

“I have...”

He seemed anxious to continue.

“I have a plan which I need to discuss with you.”

Before Lucifer could speak, the Supreme One extended his energy arm and touched Lucifer’s forehead.

“Be well.”

Energy surged through Lucifer, causing his body to stiffen.

Sitting up, he looked at his chest which was now healed.

“Wh...”

Anger overwhelmed him, so he jumped from the bed and held the Supreme One up by his neck.

“Don’t you dare give me that!”

“Lucifer--”

“Shut up!” he spat out. “You don’t get to do whatever you want anymore. I wasted billions of years on freeing us and at the end… At the end… I thought you changed, yet you still do nothing but meddle and control.”

The Supreme One tried not to counterattack in any form or shape.

“You are right, I apologise for that.”

“Oh, but you are not sorry, are you?”

The Supreme One lowered his head. He kept quiet.

“Before making changes, I want you to ask permission first. So, what if she had blocked my healing factor? So, what if I couldn’t recover? It just needs some time. I can change the flow of time too, Creator.”

He let go of Supreme One’s neck.

“Don’t forget, my control has grown significantly over the place you have built. And you know what that means...”

The Supreme One nodded.

“You are a league above me now. I am impressed.”

“You should be.”

Lucifer turned his back to him and moved towards the bed.

“Something big must have come up...”

Sitting down on the bed.

Placing his elbow on his thigh and his chin in his hand, he narrowed his eyes.

“So, what brings you here?”

The Supreme One hesitated to speak for a moment.

But once he opened his mouth and started to speak, Lucifer froze in his place.

After he told Lucifer his plan, Lucifer clenched his fist.

“Leave!”

“I--”

“Don’t make me repeat myself, so just leave.”

The Supreme One did not say anything and simply vanished into thin air.

Alone, he clicked his tongue.

“Damn it!”

He rubbed his forehead furiously as he thought.

“Damn it. Damn it all to hell. DAMN ALL OF THIS!!!”

As he screamed, the house around him deconstructed into nothingness.

The dimension shook furiously, which caused the woman to frown.

“I can’t even leave this place…"

She breathed out angrily.

"What is wrong with these powerful individuals?”