POV: Alder Elbrus

The world is mine, yet I am lonely.

Feared by the weak. Praised by the powerless. Mightiest among the mighty.

Rarely does one dare to oppose me. Many have tried, all have failed. Today will be no different.

A reckless kid, no older than twenty, has come to challenge me. Brimming with confidence, the boy smiled broadly at me. He has sharp features and long, black hair that reaches his shoulders. He wore no armor as if to flaunt his perfectly honed body. Wearing flashy garments that accentuate his muscles. At first glance he seems like an arrogant muscle-head, but their lays a certain intensity behind his light violet eyes.

Truly this boy is the epitome of a babe magnet.

“My name is Sir Elliot Vellen the Third and I am here to destroy you, Alder Elbrus!” he proclaimed, sword drawn from the scabbard on his hip.

What country is this boy from?

Sir Elliot’s maturing voice echoed throughout my throne room. He stood on my red carpet, leading to the throne which I was sitting on. Bored, I watched with a resting head on my hand.

“You killed my father, and my grandfather before that. Today, I will avenge their deaths!”

This guy really likes his theatrics.

Sir Elliot pointed his sword at me. It seems like a longsword of fairly good make. Not many people have approached me with a sword, but it is easy to tell he is a skilled swordsman. It would be a waste for him to die here.

“Revenge is a fool’s errand,” I spoke. “I do not remember any other Sir Elliot Vellen before you, but I am sure you are correct that I killed them. Don’t make the same mistake as your father and grandfather. If you want to live, go back to where you came from and never come back.”

“Were my father and grandfather so insignificant that you would forget their names after you killed them?!”

“I forget all the names of those who have challenged me.” I responded, matter-of-factly.

The boy’s face twisted, probably from disgust, before he grinned again.

“You are the type of person I hate the most. You have no honor and look down on those you deem lower than yourself!”

“All are lower than myself, so of course I look down on them. You speak of honor, but why should I display that if I am already the greatest?”

If this was a decade or two ago, I would have killed him already. Luckily for Sir Elliot, I have become more bored and merciful since then. Even talking to this fool provides some entertainment. I am even willing to let him live if he leaves me without getting hostile.

“Who knew that one could be so arrogant,” Sir Elliot responded, sword still drawn. “All these years of seclusion in your castle has made you overconfident. Do you not think that there are people stronger than you in this world?”

It is amusing that this boy thinks I do not know that he is stalling for a time. I have felt the presence of the other since Sir Elliot entered the castle. This other person is currently behind the wall of my throne. Probably waiting for a signal to attack. For now, I will act as if I am unaware.

“As far as I am concerned, there are none that are more powerful than me. Strength is irrelevant in the face of immense power,” I replied, sitting straight up.

“You may be right, but I believe that the one with a stronger will can achieve victory over a more powerful foe.”

“Only an immature and inexperienced boy, such as yourself, would make such a claim. Now leave, before I am forced to make you regret your actions.”

I could feel the presence behind the wall get closer. Whoever it is seems to be planning to break through the window to my left. Is that how they are planning to catch me off guard? Maybe I gave too much credit to Sir Elliot’s intelligence.

“I am sure you understand that there is no way I am leaving. I came here for one reason, and that was to kill you!”

I do not hate guys like this. Blinded by passion and pride. It is a shame he has chosen to challenge me though.

Sensing the presence abruptly move, I figure that Sir Elliot has given the signal to attack. A moment later, a figure with a sword burst through the glass window to my left. Before the resonating sound of the glass dancing on the ground ended, the figure already landed and jumped towards me with his sword above head and to the side. A perfect setup swing to decapitate me.

Too bad for them. If my power did not give me the abilities to sense anyone who is in my domain and slow down my perception of time, then this attempt may have worked.

Already expecting this type of attack, I shifted my entire throne to the left. Reconstruction, another ability of mine, allowed me to do this. Anything I touch, I can reconstruct to my will. And since I created the throne out of the same rocky material as the wall and ground, a slide was simple.

The figure swung their sword where my neck had been a moment ago. Resulting in them chipping the sword by slicing the wall, leaving a large gash. This figure, now identifiable as either Sir Elliot’s twin or clone, is definitely physically strong, but that seems like that is it. This move actually does remind me of a fight I had before.

To end it quickly, I shifted my entire throne back towards where it had been. The second Sir Elliot is off balance from his failed attack. As I approached him, I took pleasure in his expressions of horror and bewilderment. Noticing his left hand quivering on his scabbard. Stretching my right arm out, I caught his face in my hand as the throne stopped. Only to be further disappointed.

“You’re not the real one,” I divulged.

My power of reconstruction works on anything non-living and living. Although, how and what I reconstruct differs between the two. With non-living things, I can only manipulate its structure while the elemental properties remain the same. It is more difficult, but not impossible, to manipulate the structure of a living thing, so I normally use another method of reconstruction for the living. Once I am in contact with the living, I can obtain any information pertaining to their physical condition. Including their genetic code and cell type. And while I can not directly affect their genetic code, I am able to alter the cell types in their body. For example, I can copy the information of their kidney cells, and then rewrite the heart cells into kidney cells. Resulting in my opponent’s death, as their heart will have changed to a kidney.

The only downside to using this power on the living is that it takes time. Even when I reconstruct my perception of time to be thousands of times slower than normal, obtaining the necessary information can sometimes take too long. As my reaction speed does not change when time slows down. Being only a few hundreds of times faster than the common man, my reaction speed is slower than my perceived time. So, if a quick opponent attacks me out of sight, there is no way for me to look at them before their attack lands. Though, I can decelerate time to come up with a plan of defense or a counter-attack. Against a tough opponent, I tend to only reconstruct non-living material, as it is much quicker.

Sir Elliot is not such an opponent, which is why I grabbed his face. The goal was to end this fight quickly, and I was confident that he would not be able to resist once I got a hold of him. However, to my dismay, there was no information to gain from this second Sir Elliot. Confirming that this one, whose face is in my hand, is a clone of the Sir Elliot who challenged me. It is nearly impossible for there to be anything that I can not gain information from. The only exceptions have been…

“Ah, yes. Now I remember.”

I could not help but blurt out. Sir Elliot’s clone smiled, the corner of his lips peeking past my fingers. Lifting the sword with his right hand, he prepared to swing at me again. A futile gesture, for if my memory does not deceive me, the Vellen’s clones can be easily destroyed.

Using my left hand, still resting on my throne, I pierced his back by forming a spike from the ground and pushing him into it. The clone popped like a balloon. From my past experience, I know that these clones don’t pop immediately unless hit in vital spots.

Looking back at the real Sir Elliot, who is still standing strong in the middle of my throne room, I spoke to him.

“Your grandfather and father both tried the same sneak attack. All three of you failed. Except your grandfather used his clone to greet me, and attacked me himself. I killed him quite quickly. Your father put up more of a fight. He did the same thing as you, but rushed me, along with two other clones, while I was dealing with the first one. Of course, I still ended up killing him in the end. Honestly, I am surprised you did not do the same thing as your father. You chose to not approach me at all while I was distracted, even though you seem to be quicker and stronger than them both.”

Even though I mentioned and confirmed that I had killed his father and grandfather, Sir Elliot did not waver. Instead, he smirked and glared straight at my eyes.

“Unlike them,” he responded, “I wanted to test your strength and power before confronting you myself. I also doubt a single clone sneak attack is much of a distraction to you. If I had charged, I would probably be dead now.”

I see. This is the real Sir Elliot Vellen the Third. Although still young, he took a better approach than both his father and grandfather before him. He knew that I would be able to sense his clone from the start. For that, he has earned some of my respect.

“I also now know that it is not wise to engage in close combat with you.”

Sir Elliot fluttered his sword around before sliding it completely back into his black-leather scabbard.

“Which is why…”

I did not notice the attached pouch sewn to the outside of his scabbard until Sir Elliot reached for it. Unbuttoning the flap of the pouch, he then reached in and pulled out a gadget I have never seen before. It looks like a short wooden cane, but with metal pieces welded onto it. One piece being a metal tube that is about the length of the gadget, and another odd-shaped piece that extends upward from the side. He raised it up, holding the curved end with his right hand and pointing the tip of it towards me.

“…I’ll use this to end your life!”

Suddenly, a dozen clones of Sir Elliot appeared. Six on each side of him, and every one of them was pointing the gadget towards me with a finger on a small metal piece underneath the gadget. Using their thumb, they all pulled back the odd-shaped metal piece that extends upward from the side.

Sensing danger, I slowed down my perception of time. Consecutive loud bangs went off the next moment after they all pulled back on the small metal piece. Small explosions seemed to escape from the tips of the gadget. At first I thought that is all they did, but then I noticed small silver balls traveling towards me at an alarming speed.

They are already half of the distance between Sir Elliot and me. It’s risky to not defend against this. There is no way of knowing how damaging those projectiles are. However, they are moving too quickly to create a barrier from the ground. My only option is to evade by shifting my throne to the side again. If they are explosive, it could be a problem, but it is too late to worry about that.

Quickly, I shifted my throne to the left. Based on the trajectory of the projectiles, I can see an opening in this direction. All of the small silver balls drilled into the rocky wall around me. Producing a high pitched squeal at impact. None of them exploded afterwards, but being hit by one of those things would definitely cause some harm.

As I was pondering this, another loud bang went off. I had let my guard down, thinking that they had all fired that weapon. There is no dodging it. My perception of time is speeding up. The opening had been a trap, so they could know where to fire that last ball. A piercing pain engulfed my right shoulder. My blood sprayed and a scream escaped my lips. The projectile has stuck itself in me, allowing more blood to escape out of the wound.

I need to stop the bleeding before it becomes serious. It seems like Sir Elliot is fiddling with the gadget now and can not create any more clones, so I should have time to heal myself. I will remove the ball later, since doing that right now would take too long, and I just need to stop the bleeding. My vision is already getting blurry.

To start the procedure, I put my left hand over the wound. I can’t create new muscle, but I can relocate and rewrite other muscle from my body to match the muscle that was destroyed at my shoulder. It is a very painful procedure, but I refuse to let the suffering overcome me. No matter what, I will stay sitting up on this throne. This pain is nothing.

Sir Elliot will pay. He refused my mercy, and paid me back with pain.

The pain… my thoughts wondered.

How I have missed the pain that supplies my anger. The anger that consumes me when unleashed.

The world around me darkens as Sir Elliot and his clones blaze like fire in front of me…

…And I love to put out fires.