“Oh, what do we have here! You actually destroyed the mana reactor,” said the Bahamut, “I have some restrictions that prevent me from doing so on my own. Thank you!”

“Umm. You’re welcome?” I said, “So, are you suddenly going to become my ally and reward me for this? Oh, I want some larger mana stones if you can!”

“You’re insane,” he said, “My current power is more than enough to decimate a talking monkey like you!”

Then, he started laughing loudly like a maniac.

Suddenly, the mana started moving in the air haphazardly with great speed, and a system screen appeared in front of me.

[Estimated time for the creature to regain its full powers: 00:07:12

The countdown was decreasing at a much faster rate than it was supposed to, and I estimated that it would reach zero after about two minutes.

Oh shit, I might’ve fucked up…

The Bahamut started screaming and caught his head with his hands. More foam came out of his mouth, and his eyes lost their hint of intelligence. His injuries visibly recovered, and a new wing grew up to replace the destroyed one.

Did he go crazy? The great mana he absorbed in this short time must’ve driven him insane!

“Heee...Aghhh!Kill…” He muttered with a rough voice, “Ja…son…Jas…on...Die!!”

Suddenly, he sprung from his position and tried to attack me. He was too fast for me to fully avoid, as I suspected that he would launch an AOE attack as a follow-up.

Fuck! I have to use [Zoom]. My bag of holding is still in this area, and it has a lot of useful shit!

I didn’t have much time to think about my destination, but the area around the safe room seemed like my best bet. If there was any way for me to find clues about the current situation, then the fairies would know something.

Access to the safe room is restricted right now, but I’ll see what I can do.

Suddenly, a wave of disorientation hit me, and I opened my eyes to a new place.

The safe room was in front of me, and it didn’t look any different from usual. The surrounding area was intact, and the trees looked as beautiful as they were when I first arrived here.

I walked slowly and tried to open the door when I was close enough to grab its handle.

The door didn’t budge no matter how hard I tried, and I smacked a couple of times to grab the attention of the people that were already inside.

There was no reaction, and it felt odd. The fairies should’ve allowed me to enter the safe room at this point unless they could no longer open it for whatever reason.

The reason doesn’t matter. I know that they have to protect the hosts, and they are shirking their responsibility by leaving me to face a crazy creature on my own.

In fact, there was a decent chance that they were the ones who instigated this whole ordeal.

I was pretty sure that the Bahamut answered to the deities, and I knew that the fairies were in near-constant contact with those higher beings.

If that’s true, then it’s futile for me to stick around the safe room for longer. Oh well, I’ll do what I can to survive on my own.

Suddenly, I heard a loud bang coming from the north.

That’s where the Bahamut is supposed to be! Oh shit. My bag of holding!

I looked in the direction from which the sound came, and I saw a huge crimson mushroom cloud.

The surroundings got much hotter, but I could tolerate this temperature just fine. The problem was whether the monster survived the explosion or not.

If it’s able to cause explosions like that on will, then I’m fucked!

I increased the temperature of my body to two thousand Kelvin and started running in the opposite direction of the mushroom cloud. My current speed allowed me to cover more than five kilometers per minute, and I felt somewhat safe.

However, I heard another loud roar, and my heart dropped to my knees.

“Jason! Jason!!” a loud voice uttered my name repeatedly, and it was getting close to me by the minute.

Suddenly, I heard a whoosh of air above me. I looked up, only to see the Bahamut leisurely keeping up with my current pace.

“Target…Found!” he said as he opened his mouth widely and pure mana started gathering between his jaws, “Kill…Target! Leave…Hellhole!”

My intuition screamed at me to run away, but [Zoom]’s countdown still wasn’t over and [Shadow Assimilation]’s teleportation range was too small to save me.

I could’ve increased my flames’ temperature to improve my speed, but I was mentally worn out to endure higher temperatures than two thousand Kelvin.

I have no other options…

“[Plasmic Torch!]” I screamed; my last resort was to use that skill, and I had to use all means necessary in such a situation regardless of the consequences.

My body turned into plasma, and I moved away from my past location with supersonic speed. I heard a loud bang coming from behind, and I looked back to see a large crater in my past location.

There were no trees, no fire, nothing. Just a perfect crater with a diameter of around thirty meters.

I kept moving and occasionally looked up to see if my enemy was still keeping up. It kept chasing me even at my current pace, but I expected nothing less from him.

I hope lightning strikes this piece of shit or something.

All of a sudden, the Bahamut stopped chasing me. He flew higher instead and kept doing so for at least ten seconds.

I was curious about the abrupt change, but it wasn’t enough to stop me from running away.

“Av..oid…This…,” he said as he cackled, “Little…monkey...”

Pure mana started gathering between his arms, and the sphere was getting bigger and bigger. When its diameter got bigger than five meters, he threw it to the ground with great speed.

Oh fuck. Is this what caused the mushroom cloud?

Then, the lights went out.

.

.

.

I opened my eyes, only to find myself floating somewhere. My body was ethereal, and I wasn’t able to move around. I tried to look at my surroundings, but my vision was too hazy.

I tried to recall some memories, but I couldn’t remember much except the last moments before getting hit by a strong blast.

Oh shit, I should’ve invested the remaining points in VIT.

Then, I shrugged my shoulders. Mourning about the past would do me no good, and this situation was oddly similar to something that happened before.

This is just like that time when I evolved my class; I met the hooded figures.

Except, I didn’t see any of them in this room. I’ve heard many people speaking, and they all had the same voice.

Where did I hear that voice before…?

The surroundings were completely dark, except for the occasional light that would shine on the speaker’s face.

A person started speaking. He was sitting in a simple chair, and he wore a cape and a crown. I was stupefied when I looked at his face, as he had the same face as mine.

“Still, the threat is too high,” he said with a serious tone of voice, “Our only option is to destroy the bastard, and it would kill us if we didn’t act fast enough.”

Suddenly, the flashlight that was shining on the speaker’s face went out, and another flashlight shone on another person’s face. He was wearing a crown and a cape too, and his eyes seemed focused as he spoke.

Huh? This person looks just like me too!

“I agree about the danger that we’re facing,” he said with a more reserved tone than the first person’s, “However, we’ll have to pay a steep price to be able to stop the enemy with our current available skillset.”

Once more, the lights started shining on another Jason’s face, and he spoke.

“Yeah, brothers! It’s either kill or be killed,” he spoke, and his posture seemed rather relaxed, “We’ll just cut off the main body’s connection from the controlling unit of the soul for less than a minute. Some damage will indeed happen, but the duration is too short for the consequences to be permanent.”

Another Jason spoke, and this one fidgeted with his leg as he spoke.

“That’s true in theory,” he said, “But are we willing to risk it all on something that we’ve never tried before?”

Suddenly, many lights shone at the same time and each person said ‘Yes’. They agreed to do the thing that they were discussing, and all the lights went out once more.

There were too many people for me to count in that little timeframe when the lights were still on, and something else brought my attention.

Holy hell! My brain must be playing tricks on me before my death! I’ve never imagined that my last memory would be of a group of ‘Jasons’ talking to each other.

Then, I lost consciousness once more.