Life Doesn’t Go According to Plan (3)

Zzzzzap!

Crack!!

On the street where a fierce battle was raging.

“Die!!!”

The two were attacking each other as if to kill, in a way that couldn’t be seen as a battle between heroes.

Splash!

Spark kicked up a puddle on the ground while simultaneously sending a high current through his foot, scattering the electrified water towards Ice Queen.

In response, Ice Queen simply froze it, clumping it together and manipulating it to naturally veer away from her.

“Is this all you’ve got?”

Whish-!

“Urgh..!!”

The swirling snow around them transformed into blade shapes and aimed at Spark all at once.

“Aaaaaargh!!!”

Bzzzzzzzzt-!!!

Spark momentarily increased his ability output to defend, but he started to get overwhelmed by Ice Queen’s continuous attacks.

Since the snow particles were small, there wasn’t much major damage.

However, the accumulation of minor injuries could gradually wear down Spark’s stamina.

“Hah… ha… aaaaarrrgh!!!”

As the battle started to shift to one side, Spark brought the fingertips of both hands together and further increased his ability output.

-Crack! Zzzzzzzap!!

At that moment, Ice Queen’s ice started to shatter and break all at once.

Spark had intentionally generated a magnetic field to clear away all the ice around her.

“Ha.. haha!! How’s that, you bitch!!”

From the start, Spark’s ability was specialized for attack rather than defense.

In terms of speed and attack power, Spark had the upper hand, even if Ice Queen had awakened.

As Spark, realizing this point, became more aggressive, the battle seemed to be gradually becoming more evenly matched.

“Hah..”

“……”

At least until Spark saw Ice Queen’s eyes, still calm as ever.

Anger boiled in Spark’s head.

“Ice Queen..!”

That woman was always like that.

A woman who always acted as if she was the best on her own.

Bang!

Spark didn’t admit it to himself, but deep down he was jealous of Ice Queen’s talent.

A brilliant talent that he couldn’t even dream of reaching.

And the sight of Ice Queen using that talent as if it were natural was so annoying to Spark.

“You damn bitch!”

It was also disgusting that she had such a weak mentality while possessing such power.

Spark remembered when Ice Queen first started her hero activities.

The sight of her losing her mind just because a mere child died in front of her.

At that time, he thought it was just the limit of a stupid bug, but as he learned of her talent and saw her surpass even himself, his thoughts changed.

‘If it were me.’

If that power had been mine, it would have been different.

I could have used it more efficiently.

He greatly coveted her power.

“You, who used to just pathetically cry in the back when someone bullied you!”

If it were him, he wouldn’t have to worry about being mentally shaken, whether because of people or anything else.

“Just because you couldn’t save a few people! You, who tried to kill yourself alone in depression!!”

He wouldn’t act naively just because people die.

He would thoroughly use people.

Step on them, discard them, and climb up laughing.

That’s what he’s doing now, and what he’ll continue to do.

Bzzzzzzzzt!!

As Spark’s emotions intensified, his ability started to go out of control, and Ice Queen calmly encased herself in ice, creating a massive ice barrier.

Spark’s lightning bolts were all fired towards Ice Queen.

“You stupid, idiotic bitch!”

If I were stronger, if I had strong power, I could have done everything I wanted.

He wanted it but couldn’t have it.

Her talent was something Spark could never overcome.

Gulp-

That’s why Spark made a deal.

He became a follower of some unknown extraterrestrial entity and gained power.

That’s how she wanted to imitate her talent, even at the cost of giving up being human.

She wanted to become strong.

“You act tough while rotting inside, you bitch!”

Spark hated Ice Queen.

Zzzzzzzap!!

“How can such a pathetic bitch..!!”

He hated her for being a different type of person despite having strong power.

Boom-!!

It irritated him that she acted pitifully, pretending not to be alone.

“Why..!!!”

Bang!! Boooom!!

He hated her for being so straight-laced.

“Why.. are you stronger than me..”

And what angered him most was.

Despite all that, Ice Queen was stronger than him.

He had merely started earlier.

Not once had he ever beaten her.

“—Freezing of All Creation (萬象凍結).”

“Ha.. shit.”

Whoosh—

A bone-chilling cold enveloped the area.

Everything froze in an instant, and Ice Queen removed the ice surrounding her and calmly walked out.

Spark, his whole body turned blue, glared at Ice Queen while shivering.

“After all that.. attacking.. how are you.. unscathed..”

“I filtered out as many impurities as possible in the ice. Pure ice doesn’t conduct electricity, you know.”

“……”

“And your attacks stopped having an impact the moment electricity couldn’t flow.”

Though she spoke calmly, it wasn’t that she hadn’t been in danger.

The process of filtering out impurities from liquid was not an easy task, even for an awakened Ice Queen.

That’s why, while fighting Spark, Ice Queen had been getting the hang of the impurity extraction process, and at the end, she created a situation where Spark could never win.

“D-damn it..”

With this, Ice Queen had completely become Spark’s counter.

Spark spat out curses in frustration.

Regardless of her actions, Ice Queen merely spoke the formal words before arrest.

“As a special criminal who has violated Article 3, Section 5 of the Ability Users Special Law, you can be arrested on the spot without the need to perform the Miranda warning.”

Ice Queen created handcuffs made of ice in her hand and put them on the frozen Spark.

“Until your treatment is decided, you will be detained in the Association’s temporary prison, and if you engage in any disrespectful behavior inside, it may be disadvantageous for your subsequent punishment, so please be careful.”

“Hah..”

And so, the A-class hero, who had tormented Ice Queen for years as a vile villain,

And the follower of the extraterrestrial entity known as ‘something’, Spark, was captured by the woman he despised.

And somewhere outside the world,

[……]

The ‘something’ that had been watching this scene merely closed its eyes languidly.

---

Alpha was unable to hide his bewilderment at the situation unfolding before his eyes.

“..Akaoni? Is that really you?”

“Is there another guy besides me?”

“……”

Alpha’s mind was spinning for a while.

He couldn’t understand.

He was sure he had just died.

Suddenly, he was lying in bed, and Maker was sitting in a chair next to him, leisurely reading a book.

‘Hmm.’

He soon came to one conclusion.

“..Did you die too?”

“Wouldn’t you normally ask why I’m alive?”

“But..”

But it was strange.

He had sustained quite serious injuries.

They were completely healed now.

It wasn’t something that could be treated in a day or two,

And judging by his appearance being the same as before he lost consciousness, it didn’t seem like much time had passed.

It was then, as questions were piling up.

“Except for feeling a bit heavy, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly wrong..”

“Ah, that?”

Maker’s nonchalant words were quite surprising to Alpha.

“You were self-repairing, you know?”

“What?”

“The hole in your brain filled up neatly while pushing out the bullet, and the damaged parts were repaired as mana made a hole in your stomach, drained out, and filled up again.”

“What are you talking about..”

It was quite an interesting sight.

Looking at Maker, who chuckled, Alpha couldn’t hide his confusion.

What’s this? Did I actually have one more ability?

Recovery, no, regeneration.

But he had never heard of regeneration at a level where even brain damage could be repaired.

‘Of course, there’s the variable of awakening, but..’

“……”

For some reason, he instinctively felt that this phenomenon wasn’t due to an ability.

“..Do you really think it’s an ability?”

Alpha had excellent intuition, but he was a bit lacking when it came to theory and explanation.

So it was only natural that his gaze turned to someone who seemed capable of properly explaining the current situation.

Feeling Alpha’s gaze, Maker chuckled and closed his book.

“How much do you know about Mystery?”

And the words he suddenly uttered were a bit out of the blue.

“Mystery. Beings that were said to have definitely existed in ancient times. All the people, objects, plants, and animals that appear in old mythological records are known to be either Mysteries or traces of Mystery left behind by them.”

Alpha made a puzzled expression as if to say ‘so what?’, but he decided to listen quietly to Maker’s words for now.

“..To put it simply, traces of Mystery can be people, not just objects.”

“What?”

“It’s not particularly strange, is it? Even Zeus, a god from Greek and Roman mythology and a representative Mystery known to have existed, had children like crazy by mixing with various humans and gods.”

“……”

“At that time, they all became Mysteries due to Zeus’s blood being very strong, but anyway, the point is this.”

In cases where a ‘Mystery’ and a human mix, the child born between them becomes a trace of Mystery.

Maker was still grinning.

And Alpha seemed to gradually understand the meaning of what he was trying to say.

Alpha asked him with a somewhat serious look.

“..Then, what about a child born between a ‘trace of Mystery’ and an ordinary human?”

“That would still be a trace of Mystery in the end. If you trace it all the way up, it ultimately comes from the root of Mystery.”

Grinning as if finding it amusing, Maker was met with another question from Alpha.

“..Then I am..”

“You yourself are a trace of Mystery, that’s what.”

A trace of Mystery.

“Ha..”

Only then could Alpha understand the questions he had felt about his body.

The reason he was alive even after Viktor cut off his breath 40 years ago.

The reason he could live without eating food or drinking water even when confined in Tartarus.

The reason he didn’t go mad despite being with traces of Mystery that drive people crazy for 40 years.

And the reason his appearance didn’t age, and why he could come back to life even after dying at Maker’s hands today.

Alpha could finally understand.

“So I was a trace of Mystery.”

“Not all people who are traces of Mystery are like you, so I think you’re probably related to the origin of resurrection and regeneration.. for now, I’d say there’s a high chance you’re a phoenix.”

“Why?”

“It’s the most famous one when it comes to resurrection, and above all, when you resurrected, you were enveloped in fire that then disappeared. And now the tips of your hair are slightly red, see?”

Maker created a mirror and showed it to him.

In the mirror, as Maker said, the tips of Alpha’s hair were dyed red.

With such a strong characteristic, it seemed quite plausible even though it was just a rough guess.

“Well, if that’s the case, your ancestor and a bird had a… Ow. Too open-minded.”

“……”

“Anyway, that’s just a manner of speaking, it could actually be different, so don’t worry.”

Glancing at Alpha’s darkening expression, Maker cleared his throat.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“..What do you mean?”

“Just about future things. It seems you can’t die, from what I’ve seen.”

Of course, it won’t be eternal immortality.

Alpha’s immortality is less than half, a quarter of immortality.

As far as Maker knows, his ability weakens slightly, albeit imperceptibly, every time he dies.

Alpha probably doesn’t remember, but he actually died and resurrected hundreds or thousands of times due to the Association’s experiments.

That’s why when Maker helped him escape, his power was permanently weakened.

In this way, Alpha weakens gradually the more he repeats death.

In the end, either his ability will completely disappear and he’ll die, or his immortality will come to an end for some other reason.

‘But there’s no need to tell him that specifically.’

Alpha.

Even though he had weakened further due to this death and the side effects of the potion, he was still an S-class hero and an awakened ability user.

“Want me to introduce you to an amazing job?”

“..A job?”

Maker had no intention of letting such a man go easily.

“This could also be seen as living the next life after dying, right?”

“..Don’t tell me.”

“You wouldn’t go back on your word, would you?”

“I’ve completely fallen into a trap..”

Maker grinning and Alpha sighing deeply and nodding reluctantly.

With this, Maker was able to gain a very reliable and strong subordinate.

It was a win-win relationship where both? parties benefited.