Chapter 60: PSYCHOPATH
Eriksen tore downward in a heartbeat, his spear blazing with plasma as he thrust toward the beast’s head.
The beast leapt backward, letting the spear drive into the earth it had just vacated.
A crunch echoed through the air as the spear entered the earth’s crust.
Beams of plasma erupted from the ground in the next instant.
The surface was reduced to ruin as the plasma melted everything around it.
Azrael was busy weaving through the aftermath.
"He is so strong, he must be at least tier seven," he muttered, dodging another pillar that erupted from beneath him.
[He is tier five.]
The system replied with a sigh.
[From this point forward, stop guessing tiers. Just ask me.]
Azrael let out a wry smile at that.
But he refocused quickly.
"He is this strong and only tier five?"
[Your brother can steamroll a tier seven. That much is obvious from just one exchange with this beast.]
"An overpowered family I have ended up in," Azrael said with a smile.
But he could not hold the smile for long.
The space around the area seemed to constrict, shrinking under the weight of something he could not see.
A crazed smile crossed the beast’s face as it hurled a spatial orb at Eriksen.
Eriksen did not bother to dodge.
He met it head on, his spear carving a silver line through the air as he slashed through it.
The orb exploded, releasing waves of pure spatial pressure into the surrounding space.
Like walking through a light breeze, Eriksen pushed forward.
His body was wrapped in a cloak of plasma as he stopped in front of the beast.
The beast was about to attack when it felt it.
A searing heat that enveloped its entire body.
It bypassed the dimensional barrier entirely, as though the barrier had never existed in the first place.
Eriksen slashed upward before it could react.
The spear tore through its chest like paper, spraying white blood through the air.
The blood vaporized before it could travel far.
Azrael watched in a mixture of awe and disbelief as the beast that had nearly killed him was being systematically dismantled by his brother.
"Why is he not finishing it?"
[Psychopath.]
The system replied with a wide eyed emoji.
Eriksen pulled his spear back, then drove it through the beast’s upper left arm.
The beast’s face went ashen from the pain.
"Kill me already," it moaned.
Its blood had begun to boil.
Literally.
Everything inside it seemed to be igniting toward combustion.
Eriksen shook his head at the request.
"Where is the fun in that?" He asked, pulling the spear free.
A swarm of small black constructs formed behind him.
In the next instant, they flew into the beast’s nostrils.
The beast’s eyes widened as something snapped inside it.
The swarm was eating through its organs one piece at a time, designed to make it as agonizing as possible.
The beast raised its hand in an attempt to end itself.
Eriksen shook his head slowly.
In the next instant, the swarm burst through all four arms simultaneously, shredding them before any sword could be lifted.
Azrael nearly gagged at the scene.
"This is too cruel," he said, his expression twisted.
[Then help it. Kill it and end its suffering.]
The system said.
Azrael shook his head.
It was none of his business.
Eriksen was drenched head to toe in the beast’s white blood.
The beast’s body was swollen, but it was very much alive, feeling every moment of being devoured from the inside.
That was when a lance of pure darkness tore down from the sky and pierced through its core.
Time seemed to slow as Azrael registered two things at once.
The beast’s grateful eyes.
And the punch that landed squarely in his stomach the next instant.
"Know your place," Eriksen said, grabbing Azrael’s leg before he could be sent flying.
The next thing Azrael felt was the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth as his head was driven into the earth.
The ground broke into rubble beneath him.
Eriksen snorted and walked away.
He did not take the beast’s core. He did not even look back at Azrael.
As he walked, he said something just loud enough to hear.
"If you had been strong enough to kill it yourself, would I have needed to step in?" He asked.
In the next breath, he launched into the sky like a rocket, rings of wind exploding outward from the force.
His spear, which had been impaled into the earth beside the beast’s body, shot after him in a streak of black and silver.
[Well then.]
The system said in Azrael’s mind.
His head had already healed, but he stayed on the ground.
"I thought he was my brother. Why was he so cruel?" He muttered.
[Perhaps that is his way of showing brotherly affection.]
Azrael shook his head with a sigh and stood up.
His body was battered, courtesy of Eriksen.
"At least I managed to save this," he said, looking at the beast’s corpse.
That was when something unexpected reached his ears.
"Please, take care of my child," the beast said with ragged breaths.
Azrael looked around slowly.
"Which child?" He muttered.
But he went quiet almost immediately.
A white light flickered out of the beast’s body, condensing into a creature roughly three feet tall.
Azrael stared at the small beast with furrowed brows.
"Why would you entrust your child to someone who killed you?" He asked.
Even if he had no intention of harming it, that did not mean others would be so considerate.
[That is because a tier six dimensional beast and above can read a person’s intentions. That was likely one of the reasons it asked you to leave in the first place. The child was probably the other.]
Azrael nodded slowly.
"I suppose I can look after it then," he said.
But the small beast eyed him warily, and he sighed.
"You can form a contract with it," another voice came from behind.