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The three figures took away their hoodies as they greeted the duo.
"Veronica… It has been a while…" said Lucas timidly.
"It has really been… a while," said Natalia while averting her gaze from the two, she seemed to not be able to look them in the eyes.
"It is… good to meet you two…" said Mason.
Ervas and Veronica analyzed all three of them for a few seconds with their crimson red eyes, which made the trio in front of him paralyzed out of nervousness.
"It is nice to meet you," said Ervas politely.
"Indeed. Long time no see… Hm. I am resisting the urge to crush your skulls right now," sighed Veronica.
Veronica's bold remark made nothing but scare the living shit out of the trio, who almost jumped out of the ground they were standing on.
"W-What did you say?" asked Natalia.
"V-Veronica…" muttered Lucas.
"W-Was that a threat?" asked Mason.
"She's joking," said Ervas.
"Not completely a joke… But I did not mean it. I am more eager to eat Bestellen's soul than anything else. You three are nothing much at this point…" sighed Veronica.
"I am Ervas, nice to meet you three. I lived here for two years. Although I was Veronica's soul fragment, I developed as my own person, and my mind seems to be calmer than hers due to our emotions splitting up. I wanted to tell you this straight away." said Ervas.
"I was proving your reaction, although you asked me if I was serious, you didn't try to attack us… So, do you want to join us or what? Or do you want to fight? If so, tell us straight away so we can end this quickly," said Veronica with a sharp gaze.
"I-I see… And no, we don't want to fight… W-We want to join you!" said Lucas.
"Indeed. We would like to join you… Hekaton had sent us here to kill you, but we are aware that such a thing would be incredibly selfish and shameless… We are at fault for many things… We want to amend for these sins by serving you and helping you if that is possible," said Natalia.
"…We know that you might have already forgotten our previous lives on Earth, so I don't think there is any point in bringing that up. I also felt the same as my comrades, and want to bear their burdens at their side," said Mason.
Ervas and Veronica nodded at each other as they glanced once more at the trio.
"Very well then. We can let you join us," said Ervas, as the faces of the three former coworkers showed bright smiles and hopeful eyes.
"However, we will have to reeducate you three…" said Veronica, quickly erasing such expressions.
"R-Reeducate?" asked Natalia.
"W-What do you mean?" asked Lucas.
"…" Mason remained in silence.
"Do you trust us or not?" asked Ervas.
"So? We will meddle with your souls and possibly even change your entire mind perception… Are you still willing to join us?" asked Veronica.
Lucas began to doubt for a moment as he felt his entire body stiffen.
He glanced back at Natalia who seemed doubtful as well, and at Mason who glanced at the two directly into the eyes with a frown.
"I knew it… Lucas… Do you really want to die for them?" said Mason, surprising Lucas and Natalia!
"M-Mason?" asked Lucas.
Ervas and Veronica quickly began to silently prepare for battle.
"I wanted to join them but… they don't seem to be nice at all. And more importantly, they want to do things to us which they are openly admitting. I wanted to amend things up, not to become their slave," said Natalia.
Mason and Natalia slowly began to coat themselves in the powers of their Cheat Abilities… feeling the enormous bloodthirst coming from Ervas and Veronica.
"Hahh…" sighed Ervas, he was the one that was expecting things to not end in a fight, but it seemed that these two "good" people were still rather arrogant.
"I guess there is no other way," said Veronica, coating herself in an abyssal aura of eternal darkness, as a phantasmagoric and spectral presence began to grow bigger within her.
"This power… they are indeed monsters… There is no point. They had long lost their real selves, they are no longer the Veronica we knew about…" sighed Natalia.
"The Veronica you knew about? You didn't even know me, please," said Veronica.
"…Fair enough," said Mason, as his eyes suddenly flashed with purple light, generating several spheres of gravitational energies, and making them rotate around him, generating a loud impact that reached Veronica and Ervas in a millisecond!
BOOM!
"MASON! What are you doing?!" asked Lucas, feeling betrayed by his own friends.
"Sorry, Lucas, but this is as far as we go with this farse. We tried, but I will not go as far as dying to them! Not you, either!" said Natalia.
"We had talked things by ourselves, if they treat us like this, we might as well not join them and escape! We really tried to please you, Lucas, but this is as far as I go!" said Mason, as he quickly gathered his powers around his friends and began to fly up into the sky by manipulating the gravitational forces!
Natalia quickly used this opportunity to unleash several draconic heads out of her body, showering Ervas and Veronica's position with an enormous barrage of beams of fire!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Now, let's go!" said Mason, flying away.
"What are you doing?! We should have agreed! You idiots! I really… wanted to apologize!" cried Lucas.
"Lucas, they are monsters! I have been pretending and forcing myself to want to cooperate with you, I really tried! But I cannot… I can't even speak to them without feeling chills run through my spine, they are no longer people!" said Mason.
"Their presences are as repulsive as Demon Gods. Whatever they are now, they had long stopped being the same woman we knew from Earth," sighed Natalia.
"Y-You two… Why? Why do you have to be… like this…." sighed Lucas.
The smoke dissipated within the large crater where the attacks from Mason and Natalia hit, as Ervas and Veronica were standing there completely unfazed.
"How dull, so these are cheat abilities?" sighed Veronica.
"…Such powers will be way better with us. Let's do this quickly," said Ervas.
"Alright," said Veronica, as both of them suddenly hit the ground with immense strength, flying high up into the air through the use of the Levitate Spell!
BOOOM!
Mason and Natalia had already thought that they would not be able to quickly recover from such a powerful all-out attack where they spent thousands of mana, but to their surprise, two dots of darkness and bright light began to quickly approach them from the ground.
FLASH!
"W-What?! They are completely unfazed?!" asked Natalia in surprise, not even she expected this!
"I was expected as much! Gravitational Domain. Gravity Reversal Barrier!" said Mason, suddenly employing his Cheat Ability masterfully, creating a large, spherical barrier made by gravitational electromagnetic forces that we're able to completely negate any impact, even throwing it back from where it came from!
Veronica and Ervas quickly reached the barrier in less than ten seconds after having jumped from the ground.
"As repulsive as Demon Gods, huh?" said Veronica, as her hands quickly grew like enormous spectral claws made of abyssal darkness, hitting the barrier but feeling as the forces of gravity tried to throw her away!
"No matter how strong you are, you cannot fight against my gravitational forces," said Mason nonchalantly, confident in his own abilities which he had polished for very long.
"Oh really? I wonder how you got killed then…" Veronica smiled as she suddenly gathered all of her soul around her body in a millisecond, unleashing an enormous blast of pure darkness!
BOOM!
Mason's barrier quickly began to… simply fade away!
CRASH!
The barrier broke in an instant, as Mason and Natalia's faces grew paler.
Another second after, Veronica flew near Natalia like a flash of pure darkness, suddenly, countless blades emerged out of her metallic body, aiming at her!
"Did you think we would let you go with such juicy abilities? You will make a sizable meal," laughed Veronica, as she licked her lips!
Natalia gnashed her teeth as she fought against the sudden despair she felt, falling off her position and unleashing all the power of her Dragon Soul against Veronica!
"GROOOOOWL!"
The enormous breath of flames impacted Veronica once more, as she let it hit her as if it were absolutely nothing, and quickly reached Natalia once more!
"Unfazed?! ARE YOU IMMUNE TO FIRE OR SOMETHING?!" asked Natalia while freaking out.
"Not really, your attacks are simply too weak," said Veronica, as a shower of blades coated in black, blue, and purple flames began to fall over Natalia!
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
"Nnngaaaaggh…!"
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