23 Well Met Enemies

The crowd outside was stunned when they heard a voice from inside the house. They all thought that just by firing a lot rounds at him, Aurum would definitely die there. However, they could still hear Aurum's voice from inside. They could not hide their panic and confusion as they realized what kind of being they were trying to kill.

"H-he survived that?! No, I don't believe it! He must have hidden somewhere inside the house that we didn't shoot thoroughly!" all of the people armed with guns thought.

They reloaded their guns as their hands was shaking. While they were still doing that, Aurum began to slowly walk out of the house and just stood in front of the surprised crowd. It looked like he didn't want to do anything to them and just watched what they were doing. When the crowd saw his actions, they couldn't help but feel relieved. At least now, they would be able to hit him directly without any doubt.

"Are you guys done yet?" Aurum asked without hiding his bored expression.

The people who were armed became infuriated and their trembling stopped. Anger took over their fear as they started firing again.

"FIRE!"

As soon as one of the person in the crowd said that, the armed group opened fire without hesitation. They were extremely glad at the thought of Aurum not being able to handle those firepower. However, fear once again filled their hearts when they saw Aurum kicking the ground as they continued to shoot, showing how bored he was.

"Let me ask again. Are you done?" he repeated his question once again.

This time, instead of being infuriated, the crowd in front of Aurum began to feel hopeless. Now that they opened fire at him, they thought he wouldn't hesitate to kill them all. All they wanted to do at that moment was to escape. They were already running even though the cross fire still hasn't finished. When Aurum saw this, he felt shaken as he wouldn't be able to enjoy the punching that he will be going to give later.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" Aurum bellowed.

Immediately, all of the people who were trying to escape found themselves stuck in the ground. They couldn't move their bodies as they wanted and it seemed as if they weren't in control of themselves anymore. They felt like they were puppets in front of Aurum as they can't move without his command. Everybody thought that this was the work of the devil residing inside his body. However, when some people saw the shock of Aurum, they couldn't help but be confused.

"Is Satan unable to fully control over his body? Is the real Aurum Est still alive inside that body?"

However, they didn't know that Aurum's surprise was because of how effective his『Weighted Words』 skill is. He didn't expect that even though there is only a low chance that it would activate, it would be so powerful that it could influence the crowd that was trying to escape. In his opinion, the skill was so overpowered that he started to doubt it.

"Is this really a powerful skill or is it just because my opponents this time are ordinary humans?"

The crowd, who mistook his shock as the retaliation Aurum against Satan, started begging him and encouraging him to fight against it.

"Boy, fight that demon inside of you!"

"Don't fall into the temptation of that wretched demon!"

"Resist the demon inside of you! I know that you are still in there, Aurum Est!"

Aurum was stupefied when he heard what they all just said, "What do they mean by 'fight against the demon'? 'Resist the demon'? 'Temptation'? What the actual f*ck are they talking about?' Aurum thought as his face began to turn sour.

Dmitri knew what the crowd was trying to say. He was already thinking different kinds of ways to counter the move that the gods will make. However, when he saw Aurum's face, he immediately started to panic. He didn't know if Aurum is able to go along with his plan without him saying, so he started to talk to him telepathically.

"Aurum, just go with the flow! Release them from your restrain and let's see how they would react. If they are going to let us off, then we will continue on our way, but if they don't then don't leave anyone alive." Dmitri tried to convince him telepathically.

However, Aurum wasn't listening to him anymore as he heard a notification from the system.

[DING! A new quest is available.

Kill three Celestial Beings in one fight.

Rewards : Unknown

Time limit : Five hours

Will you accept the quest? YES/NO]

"Hah?! Three Celestial Beings right off the bat? Well, I have five hours to complete this one. Might as well take this. If it becomes dangerous, then I'll just leave immediately." he inwardly thought.

As soon as he accepted the quest, he was startled when he heard Dmitri's voice calling out for him.

"AURUM! Listen up! I need you to remove the restrictions that you put to them! If you want things to become more interesting, I need you to go do your part!" Dmitri said with a hint of exasperation.

"Hmm... Judging from his tone, he must have been calling me since earlier. Oh well, might as well go along with whatever he is thinking." he thought.

"If this is not going to be interesting, then I'll tell Mazda that you are being a b*tch in front of me, when he gets out." he said while smiling mischievously.

When Aurum said that, Dmitri started to tremble non-stop. He could already imagine what Mazda would do to him if he heard what Aurum would say. Aurum was the protege of Mazda, his Master, after all.

Aurum, who saw Dmitri trembling, laughed inwardly. He was surprised as he got one of the weaknesses of Dmitri so easily. He released his 『Weighted Words』 from the crowd and he put on a stupefied look in front of the crowd. As the crowd was released, they slumped on the ground, powerless.

"Well done, boy!"

"You fought the demon inside of you so well!"

"You prevented us from going into the depths of hell, for that we thank you."

They immediately expressed their gratitude towards Aurum for 'fighting the demon inside of him' and releasing them. Aurum just smiled sweetly towards them and went to Dmitri. Then he asked him with a voice, loud enough for the crowd to hear.

"My good friend, do you know where we are?"

Dmitri was amazed at the dazed expression that Aurum was giving out right at the moment. He knew that he was acting but this act was too stupendous. If he weren't accompanying and scheming with him, he would most likely fall from this act.

"We are at the remote village near Nanga Parbat. You were possessed by Satan himself and he said that he wanted to end humanity. Fortunately, your spirit is powerful enough that you resurfaced and banished that demon out of your body." he replied while making sure to watch how to crowd would react.

When the crowd their exchange, they felt relief. However, even though they are showering him with praises earlier, they still have the thought of killing him regardless of he being a demon or not.

"This should be the chance to kill that boy. Hopefully that damned demon won't resurface when we do it." all of them thought.

Naturally, their thoughts didn't escape Dmitri's attention. He sneered inwardly while maintaining his facade. All of the villagers were slowly trying to get closer to Aurum so they could just stab him with a knife. Every single one of them were carrying a kitchen knife, so whoever could got close enough to Aurum can get the promised reward by the Almighty One. When they were about to get close, they all stopped on their places as they heard someone shout.

"STOP! THAT DEMON IS JUST FOOLING YOU AROUND!" a voice shouted.

However, it was a futile effort to warn them. Those who were close enough were killed on the spot as they were still trying to figure out whose voice was it. Instantly, Aurum killed ten humans who were near him. The others were brought back to reality when they heard a lifeless body fall on the land. They immediately backed out as they were thinking on how naive they were. However, there was one man who stepped forward without any fear.

"Little boy, I never thought you were the spawn of Satan... Let me kill you so that I could set you free right at this moment!" Kyle slowly walked forward.

"Hahaha! You think you can kill me even if I just stood here? No matter what you do, even if I stand here, I wouldn't be killed even if you try to behead me. So stop trying to act like a hero, old man!" Aurum chuckled.

"Yes. If I was still the same as before, I really couldn't kill you let alone hurt you. However, the Almighty One gave me his blessings to control the Heavenly Fire and Heavenly Lightning. He gave it to me with the intent to send you back where you belong!"

As soon as Kyle said that, he immediately used his fire on one hand while lighting on the other. When the people saw this, they were jealous at how Kyle was able to get the blessing of God. Kyle charged forward with the intent to kill Aurum. He started to punch Aurum alternately between the fire and lightning.

Aurum was panic-stricken when he sensed that he would sustain large amount of damage if he is going to take it head on. Aurum used 『Time Stop』 to gain some distance between them but he realized that even though he froze time, Kyle could still continue and attack him.

"All that mana and nothing good came out of it... Hais, I need to save some mana to kill the other two if I can finish this. Hopefully the other two Celestial Beings wouldn't come here while I'm dealing with this piece of sh*t."

Dmitri, who was watching the fight at the side, was dumbfounded when he saw that Kyle's attacks were getting fiercer as time passed by. He saw that Aurum was looking at him like he was asking for help, so immediately helped him by shooting out his light beams.

Aurum was relieved when Dmitri distracted Kyle for a bit. He adjusted his posture and he got his 「Sword of Creation」. He used 『Blink』 to shorten the distance between them and swung the sword down when he appeared in front of Kyle.

Kyle was surprised when he saw that Aurum suddenly appeared in front of him. When he saw the sword was descending upon him, he clasped both of his hands and both fire and lightining immediately fused. He shot out a fire bolt towards Aurum, which made him back for a little bit.

"I didn't know that you could do that. You just got this power now, right?" Aurum asked while maintaining his distance.

"Unlike you boy, I am creative and innovative. I can create something new if you keep on pushing me to my limits." Kyle said while shooting out another fire bolt towards Dmitri.

Dmitri dodged the fire bolt within a hair's breadth. He stood beside Aurum and tried to kept his bearing. His heart was pounding as he felt like the fire bolt from earlier would end his life in an instant without being able to do anything.

"Hmm. You're interesting, old man! But, I wonder how long you can keep up!" Aurum said while doing dashing towards him.

Aurum activated 『Wind Walk』, 『Rampage』, and『 Thunder God's Wrath』 simultaneously. His body was immediately covered with whitish red thunder. He was trying to end Kyle's life in one strike as he wanted to save some energy to fight the other Celestial Beings. However, his momentum was stopped when he dodged a dagger headed towards his direction.

He immediately stopped and looked at the direction where it was thrown. Unfortunately, he couldn't see any traces of the person who threw the dagger even when he used the System's map.

"Who's there?! Come out you, little bastard!" Aurum furiously shouted.

When he said that, a laughter was heard not so far behind him. He felt a chill run on his back when he heard that. As soon as he turned, he was baffled as he saw two silhouettes coming towards him. As he got a clear vision on them, he froze at his spot.

"It's you again!" Aurum slightly trembled while pointing at them.

"Hahaha~ I didn't thought you would remember us, you little bastard."

"It's time to settle the debt that you owed us!"

Steve and Yuu said while standing side by side with Kyle.

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Afterword

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...or should I say, 'a blast from the past'?

-Sic Parvis Magna