The world called me the strongest being, but all my strength and wisdom couldn’t see one dagger coming: a dagger held by my beloved wife.
The one person I trusted in the world and believed would have my back till the end... betrayed me to bring about my end with her own hands.
As she dug the dagger deeper into my heart, I pathetically fell to my knees, as though I was admitting my mistakes. To make my soul hurt more, my head soon touched her feet.
“Oh my-sweeting, Myles,” she pitied, her fingers touching her mouth. “Even in death, you try to lick my feet. You really are such a feet-person.”
Yeah, I liked clean feet. And I licked my wife’s feet many times, but now, her words made me regret all those times I thought I was making love with her, thinking she loved me back the same. Now, I realized that I hankered after her like a moth seeking flames.
“Myles, you are so strong yet so dumb,” her mother’s sneering voice stung my dullening ears. “You’ve saved the world, but you can’t even save yourself. Talk about the irony of life, huh.”
To think those would be the last words that I, the strongest warrior-mage the world has ever seen, would get to hear as I die… can a person’s life be any more ironic? Can fate be any more cruel?
It very much can.
Because I didn’t die.
I opened my eyes again. The clouds were moving low and fast, with raindrops hitting me all over without any mercy. The Grrs and Wrrs of dogs reached my ears, making me realize that they were digging their mouths into my abdomen, competing with each other to get the juiciest parts for themselves.
“Begone!” I yelled, and the dogs bailed with blood and meat chunks in their mouths, but they couldn’t run for long as they collapsed, convulsed and died pathetically.
My blood and flesh must be poisoned.
I sat up, and my intestines spilled out onto my crotch. The intestines were black in color. My skin was also scaly and dark grayish. It was an ugly sight to behold. Not enough to make me frown, though.
I moved my hand over my belly in a slow and steady motion. All the physical wounds got healed instantly, but I could still feel something stinging my heart. (This is… spiritual poison! What a headache to carry.)
I looked around, and it was a desolate shore with rotting sea creatures for company. I stood with effort. My body still felt stiff.
I checked my arms, and then I touched my face. Everything felt quite the same, be it my arms or bone structure, but the difference was… I felt younger.
I waved my hand, and a magical mirror appeared before me, floating. I looked at it, and behold, I was indeed younger. Probably by ten years? I am only around 25 now. Strange, to say the least.
“How strange… Did someone use forbidden magic on me? But they were very clumsy at using it, and I got poisoned because of that.”
Suddenly, a horrible pain gripped my head. I clutched my head and groaned. I ordered it to go away, but it pretty much escalated, and every nerve in the head ached. Bits and pieces of memories kept pouring into my conscious mind like the unpleasant saliva from my mother-in-law’s mouth everytime she talked.
“What the hell is this?” I squeezed my head so hard, pressing my palms against the temple, hoping the pain would subside, but it kept on at it until the memories played in full.
It was a full one minute of torment that felt like a thousand minutes of torture, though not as soul-trembling as when my engorged penis had once got stuck in my wife’s contracting vagina for many breaths. That was truly one of the scariests moments of my life because I thought I was in the safest place in the world, and then I wasn’t.
The torturous pain kept at it for a little while, and then it stopped. I was sweating, panting, with saliva and snot coming out from my mouth and nose. It was disgusting, to put it mildly.
But right now, I was worried more about something more than my appearance. It wasn’t about the sharp pangs of sadness swirling in my heart because I got stabbed by the person I trusted the most, either.
I jumped and flew into the sky and stopped in midair at about ten thousand feet high.
Shock took over my eyes as I saw a world completely different from what I know.
“I’ll be damned. Am I seeing things, or… what are these odd vehicles, and why are there so many people walking the streets like ants?”
A missile was launched in the distance. And it came flying at him fast.
“What’s this thing that’s winging to meet me?” Myles wondered. “I don’t remember my wife ever flying so fast toward me.”
At the mage headquarters, a skyscraper kissing the clouds, on the 450th floor.“Sir, the automatic missile didn’t hit the target and fell in the sea, but the explosion seems to have annoyed some beasts. We’ve identified a C-rank threat, Gale Shark, approaching the eastern shore!” one of the hundreds of guys working on that floor yelled while staring at a projection that showed the shark speeding toward the shore. “It’s not something the border guards can take care of. Should I send a Confronter?”“Wait… Did you say Gale Shark? If we can extract its blood even once, we can make millions out of it!” the officer in blue ordered. “Send a Beta Squad to bring it alive if possible.”“Yes, sir.”[Dispatching a Beta Squad to the Eastern Shore.][Requesting all of our subscribers to come on live if you want to witness our Adept Beta Rabbit Squad fight a C-rank monster real-time.]At the shore, Myles was sitting on the edge of a broken building, as cold winds whipped at his face. He could hear t
“Heal.”A word from Myles’ mouth cast the sickness in the man’s body away all the way. His limbs went back to how they were before, and his strength was restored.In shock, he stood. And in unbridled happiness, he jumped and hugged Myles and cried and shed tears cooked with warmth and gratefulness.The guards who witnessed this were left speechless for a good few seconds.“H-He healed the Black Doll disease just like that?”“Only top mages can possibly heal such a serious disease, not to mention it’s in a late stage.”“He must be an alpha mage from another city.”No matter how many times they rubbed their eyes, the scene before them stayed the same. Their once fellow guard who had fallen sick now looked so healthy and energetic he could go for a wrestling match. It was a miracle. No. It was something much more than that. It was beyond words.“I’m Justin. Justin Alves,” the once sick man introduced himself, wiping his tears away. “May I know my savior’s name?”“Myles Mertzel, and I’m n
“I don’t think so,” the guard pulled the trigger without a second thought.Justin slapped the guard’s wrist, and the spiraling air bullet went scraping past Myles’ ear while he stood unfazed, without even blinking. The air bullet struck the sand and left a hole in the ground, lifting up a lot of sand particles in the process. Myles slightly scratched his chin.“What the hell, Justin?” the guard furiously glared at Justin. “Why did you touch me before you got the clearance certificate? Do you want to die?”“I’m sorry,” Justin lowered his head and quickly apologized. He was no longer a border guard but someone with authority lower than a citizen until he was given clearance of being free from the blacklisted diseases.“You think your half-assed apology would cut it? You also interfered in a guard’s actions!” He pointed his gun at Justin. “If you want to die so badly, I’ll grant your wish for not knowing your place.”He pulled the trigger, but the air bullet blasted inside the gun and de
The border walls were over 100 feet tall and fifteen feet wide, and they helped shield from the threat of the sea monsters to an extent. The walls also had missile launchers installed in them.Justin and Myles had to pass through another gate of inspection before being allowed entrance into the city.With almost half-million square miles in area, Cobra city boasted as being one of the largest cities in the world.The first thing Justin saw after stepping into the city streets were the buildings and felt good to be back inside the walls.Myles was watching toward where dead bodies were being burned to crisp. Not far from there, rotten beef was being sold with the poor and the wretched waiting in queue.“This is the eastern border, where the monsters attack the most, so this is where the waste of the city lies,” Justin explained, rubbing his forehead as he felt an itch. “In case the monsters breach, they first have to go through these poor folks.”Myles stayed silent.“How is it in your
“Excuse me, is Casey inside?” Justin asked politely, his eyes filled with mild excitement.“Yes, what do you need my wife for?” asked the man licking the pink ice cream.Justin’s expression froze at once. Something in his chest sank down into his stomach and swam in the gastric juices virulently.“Who is it, honey?” Casey’s voice came from the inside and stirred Justin’s heart. Her familiar voice sounded sweet, and for a second, he thought she was calling him. The reality, however, was utterly opposite.Justin turned around and walked away without looking back. Myles silently followed him, leaving the man at the door to ‘seemingly’ wonder what this was all about. By the time Casey, a beautiful blonde, came to the doorstep, they were gone. “Who was it?”“No idea, dear.”A few minutes later.Justin sat at an open cafe, fighting his tears.“You should have at least talked with her,” Myles said, taking a seat. Justin took an electronic wristlet from the worker and video-called his lawyer
Cobra city was known for its snaky roads as well as for the eccentric job opportunities it provided.Justin had heard many citizens say along the lines of: “I scratch pimples for a living.”There were always people who would hire other people to keep their ugly houses clean, keep their rebellious brats quiet, to mourn at funerals, to taste the beta-food they made, and to bring their runaway pets home and what not.There was always someone hungry and jobless in the city, so there were plenty of people gravitating toward even the strangest of jobs like moths to a flame.Justin was also thinking of being a street cleaner. He would then get to officially clean the streets at night, and he was hoping, maybe, he would find some valuables. In the mornings, however, he could look for better career opportunities. Since every city block had its own street cleaner, the chances of him getting a job were not low. He just needed to find the one with openings.Justin thought of all these things whil
Many of Justin’s bones broke in the face as he got utterly knocked out of his senses. Kong was still going, even though blood was flying everywhere.“Hey,” a chilling voice entered through Kong’s ears and penetrated his heart like the sharpest needle out there. Even his bones felt the sting and shivered a little. Before he realized, he had already stopped punching.“What the—” he looked to his left, and there was this young man in shitty clothes staring at him with not-so-friendly eyes. “Who the fuck are you?”“The water of a river is for everyone to drink,” Myles stated calmly.“What?” Kong looked more annoyed than puzzled.“The cheek of a crook is for everyone to slap,” the moment the words flowed out of his mouth, Kong felt a slap that shook his brain. His feet moved a couple of steps back, and his hand touched his cheek in response. His ear made a nonstop buzzing noise. He looked at Myles who was standing still. He knew for sure Myles just slapped him, but he couldn’t even see the
A heavy truck fully loaded with second-hand clothes stopped in the outskirts of the city. Children and adults swarmed in and emptied the truck in a matter of seconds.Among those who obtained clothes for themselves, Justin was also there. He managed to snatch three pairs of clothes, but one was a woman's, so he gave it away to a needy lady.They asked the same woman for towels before putting on the remaining two pairs. They were just simple T-shirts and jeans. Nothing too fancy.Myles had removed his underwear and tossed it away.“Why did you throw it away?” asked Justin, unable to control his curiosity.“Isn’t it obvious?”“No, it’s not.”“These pants are too tight,” Myles complained after putting the jeans on. “How’s air going to pass through the pants at this rate?”“Heh, why do you need air to pass through your pants?” Justin chortled.“To keep your hair and skin healthy,” Myles replied. “And this is also highly uncomfortable. It’s too tight for me.”“Well, if you call this tight,