The Villain's Story

A giant that emerged from shallow water, larger than even the skies itself. A mountain taller than any other whose figure slowly became hidden in a deep, fiery storm of dreadful lightning and winds powerful enough to rip through a normal human with ease.

A being just inches below the epic rank, one that had almost grasped it, and it was merely a fragment of a dead supreme. The Oni of Lightning, that had crushed Alan in his fists, toyed with everyone else, killed Alexander in seconds, and made every one of their efforts futile…

Alice had been incapacitated the moment she had been brought into the Oni’s presence, the only reason she survived for so long had been because it didn’t even notice her. She was that insignificant. She could only see the damn being when its own lightning illuminated its figure in the intense storm. That was… a god?

‘Ye-yeah…’

That had to be a god, that wasn’t a monster. That was a deity of pure destruction. A god of evil and lightning. Someone that she was an ant compared too. She had studied monsters back on Earth, but never had something like that appeared on Earth, in no dungeon at all. Even the dungeons that had swallowed North-America and almost all of Africa were not like that… The dungeons that had eaten up continents had nothing that was close to that…

Even among the demons, Even among all the known demons that had invaded Earth and had been repelled… There was nothing like that. There was no god like that.

Even the dukes of the demons, while scarce information was available about them… would not be able to kill that thing. But she was unsure, after all… No duke had been spotted after Master Arken had gone on his rampage. Not one had been able to emerge from the Abyss after that.

Could Master Arken even beat that thing? What about Sage Oliver? Ragnar? She didn’t know… and she didn’t think they could. That was the impression Kizmal had left on her. It had scarred her.

And she hadn’t even fought it. She could only vaguely see immensely large spells being cast, lances of darkness piercing through the storm, a scythe, gray lightning and a Knight on top of a bird. Two dragons struggling to survive, one of them was Alan… Who had…?

She couldn’t even describe it. All she saw was light, meteors, and lightning. Alan was so high up, directly fighting the Oni Kizmal. Yet, even he, was helpless.

Alan was the youngest S-rank to ever be, Even Ezra was years older than him, and he had just gotten to the rank… Alan could take on all of Twilight, and emerge victorious… All three of the top guilds would be needed to bring him down yet that giant had crushed his head in minutes.

‘I’m this weak?’

She questioned herself, She may not have had any talent with combat and awakening… but she was still in the top ten percent of awakened… She was talented, but she was an ant here. And she was nothing to that… giant.

It was the devil itself, who used lightning to smite his foes and drag them into hell. How was she supposed to create anything that could help with killing that thing? Just how? Even if she had talent in alchemy, where would she be getting the materials? To even make an iota of difference to anything that devil could do… she would need the highest grade of materials.

She didn’t have those… She didn’t have anything like that. Furthermore, she couldn’t get anything like that.

“… I’m useless.”

“No, you simply lack intelligence.”

She looked up, to see Azmakul staring down at her, his height was frightening, and his mask wasn’t helping.

“AH!”

She jumped back, landing on her bottom as she started to scoot away, but an invisible force held her in place, frantically looking around, she noticed that everyone was asleep. The trial had taken a heavy price, and everyone was exhausted. Only she was awake.

“I thought I had done enough, but you humans lose hope very fast when faced with a slight hurdle. You lost hope incredibly fast.”

‘Slight hurdle?’

That abominable being, that god of destruction, was a slight hurdle?! In what way?! Nothing could beat that thing!

It ripped Alan to shreds, dealt with Kazikato as if it was nothing… it… it… was unkillable.

“What are the three most important skills of an Alchemist?”

But Azmakul wasn’t interested in any of her questions, He could read her mind and knew everything. He didn’t even have to, if he was being honest. Everything was written on her face. Her world was incredibly small, so he didn’t blame her, but it was still annoying.

“What are they?”

“Analysis, Assimilation, and Transmutation.”

“Which of them would help in this situation? To take the fragment down with everyone else in your cohort?”

“What?”

She didn’t answer for a while, and what disappointed Azmakul the most was that she wasn’t thinking at all how to defeat the fragment. She was simply revolving around:

‘Kill? Kill that thing?”

Impossible, the word was the only thing on her mind. Azmakul sighed, and Alice felt as if she was slapped. She was, her face had gone red. Thankfully, Azmakul had used his mana instead of his actual hand to deliver the slap.

He reiterated his question.

“Which of them would help in this situation, Analysis, Assimilation, and transmutation? Which one?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Define them, speak out loud.”

“Analysis, the process of using mana or aura to identify the rank and properties of any material, basically everything about it. Assimilation… usage of mana or aura to assimilate the mind of the Alchemist with the material, for an increased understanding and increasing the chance of transmutation. Transmutation, the process of turning materials into a desired product with certain attributes…”

“Repeat.”

Confused, she repeated it again, and again, and again… until Azmakul was finally satisfied.

“Good, and now, how would help your cohort in defeating the fragment?”

“…”

She didn’t respond for a while, but after sensing mana build up right beside her face, she hurriedly blurted out.

“Lightning resistance potions, Swift potions, Heal- no those would be useless… Basically that? Oh, who am I kidding… Those won’t even work. I don’t have any material to make lightning resistance potions, and even if I had… I don’t think they would help against anything there but the field of electricity covering the body of that…devil.”

Azmakul sighed, and she was slapped once more. The mana packed quite the punch… apparently. Azmakul tapped the ground.

“…?”

He continued to tap the ground, with increased frequency, and the mana started to build up again, afraid of the slap, Alice looked at his feet, or rather the ground and started to question.

‘What is he hinting at?’

And then it struck her.

Analysis, Assimilation, and transmutation, and most important of all, materials.

[Skill: Analysis has been used]

[Bones of A Supreme, Kizmal, The Star Eater, Lightning Giant God.]

[Material Rank: Supreme.]

[Description: The bones of the giant of lightning, the devourer of stars, The god of lightning Kizmal, with unmatched toughness by anything below the level of supreme, and electrical power below only by Kyrgar, Supreme Dragon of Lightning, and Miuko, God beast of Storms…

A flood of information unlike any other flooded her brain, and she struggled to stay conscious as her brain absorbed anything.

[Skill: Analysis has been used(50x)]

Analysis had to be used fifty-one times to even understand a fraction of the material that lay below her feet, she had to cut off the skill out of fear of overloading her mind or losing all of her mana and dying like that. She didn’t think she could come to life again out here.

“…”

Blood oozed through her gritted teeth and slid down her face, dropping to the ground, before being…eviscerated. Her eyes gazed at the drops of blood, slowly disappearing as she finally realized.

‘Materials… Ha.’

She had the greatest material to make lightning resistance potions… and a lot of other things as well. She gulped, but she didn’t think she would be able to do it. Furthermore, she didn’t have enough mastery to make anything good with this. She wasn’t that much of a genius.

Would she be able to transmute even a molecule of Kizmal’s dead corpse? She was certain she couldn’t. The amount of mana and concentration needed would be immense. But she had a feeling that wasn’t what Azmakul was hinting at.

“They say the dead tell no tales.”

He mused, as he looked down at the ground, it was as if he was…mocking it.

“But I’m certain.”

Alice turned his gaze towards the ground, the platform of bone once more.

“This dead giant has a lot of tales to tell.”

And then she understood, she finally understood what she had to do.

“Go, and be useful for once.”

“… Thanks.”

[Skill: Assimilation has been used.]