"System...?"

[Let us talk later.]

"!"

Suddenly, Mika felt weird. He had trouble standing straight. His head was aching and he got dizzy. His vision blurred until he had to close his eyes.

"What’s happening to me...?" Mika muttered softly as he was about to fall on his face.

But before he fell, he took a huge and heavy step forward.

And as if nothing happened, Mika straightened his now-relaxed body.

"..."

With an empty gaze, he stared at the demon girl.

"The heck...?"

She raised her guard even more after she noticed not only the change inside of Mika but also outside of him.

It was just one change but his hair grew longer all of a sudden.

Her whole body got goosebumps and her instincts told her to run away, however, her pride as a demon did not let her do so. Thus, she charged at Mika although she was trembling.

"..."

She perceived the sound of flesh getting slashed. But it took her a few seconds to realize it was her own flesh. To be more specific, it was her head that was cut off.

Effortlessly, the long-haired Mika, or rather the system who took over, beheaded her with Excalibur before she could even touch him.

It was a quick death.

Then, the system-controlled Mika directed his gaze at the wolves who, however, already ran away from him.

"Good decision."

He heaved a sigh.

"His body will not hold on much longer." he stated apathetically as he looked at his trembling hand.

However, before he decided to rush out of the forest, he sensed the presence of a young girl in the vicinity.

"No, I have to escape first or else, this boy’s body has to face some heavy consequences."

Therefore, he ignored that girl’s presence and looked in the direction of the village.

He spread his white wings and was preparing to take off until he was stopped.

"?"

His right foot was still on the ground as if it was resisting the system’s commands. And as much as he tried to get away from the spot, the foot remained planted to the ground.

"Are you perhaps telling me to save that girl...?" he asked with a sterner gaze.

Then, the body slowly turned in the direction of the girl.

"Understood but there is a price you have to pay for this, are we clear?" he sighed.

Seeing the boy’s goodwill, a slight smirk crept onto his face.

Following that, he rushed to the girl’s spot where multiple monsters were lingering.

"This is indeed troublesome."

Standing now in the center of the area filled with monsters, he headed to a certain bush where he sensed a young girl.

What happened after that was already history.

The next morning.

"..."

Finally waking up in his bed at home, Mika stared at the ceiling for a while.

"I’m alive...?" he muttered softly.

It was in the middle of the day when he woke up.

[It was about time that you woke up.]

"?!"

Mika’s eyes widened. He abruptly got up and looked around himself frantically, missing out on the rusty sword beside his bed.

[Calm down. Only you can hear me.]

"You’re the one from yesterday...!" Mika said nervously.

[Yes.]

"W-w-what do you want from me...? I-if you want money for saving me, I can give you that...!"

[I do not need money. Instead, I want you.]

"H-huh?!"

[I want to make a contract with you.]

"C-contract?"

[If you form a contract with me, you will one day possess the strength you always wanted.]

Words began to appear in the air, stating the details of the contract, including the point of being able to use Excalibur only three minutes every 24 hours.

"W-w-what is that?!"

Of course, the young Mika was shocked by those words.

"A-am I hallucinating...?!"

[I guess I should have expected this reaction...]

Mika was trying to touch the words which would just let his finger pass through.

[Mika.]

His body stiffened after hearing the seriousness in the system’s voice.

[Will you accept it or not?]

[Do you want power?]

"..."

Nervously, Mika was pondering.

"W-will I really become strong...?" he asked cautiously.

[Yes.]

At that point in time, Mika was not aware of his wish but he unconsciously wanted strength in order to protect his current lifestyle and the people around him.

"T-then..."

Mika clenched his chest.

"I-I want to form a contract!" he declared firmly.

[Good.]

The system was pleased.

Thus, the two entered a pact and unbeknownst to him, it was the start of an angelic system that would soon turn his life into hell.

The present day.

Sunlight shone through the roof.

"..."

Perceiving the chirps of birds, Mika woke up.

At first, he looked down on his body.

"!"

His eyes slightly widened in surprise when he saw his unharmed and spotless body. Even his arms were back without any signs of having been cut off. Aside from his torn clothes, his body was perfectly fine.

It was more than just fine. Strangely, Mika felt more strength flowing inside his body.

"..."

Then, Mika walked out of the building.

He closed his eyes once he stood before the villagers’ corpses again. However, he did not feel as much anger and sadness as yesterday.

Mika just took a deep breath before he stepped forward.

It was a sunny day. It was a day that Mika would usually use to relax in the village under a shadow-spending tree on a grass field. However, today he used the day to bury every single corpse, including those of the Sacra siblings and his parents.

And as he did so, he did not change his apathetic expression once.

The sun would slowly begin to set when he was done with creating their graves before the chief’s building. Mika even picked some flowers to place them on their graves.

"..."

He took one last glance at all the graves before he turned his back on them.

Mika took a short stroll around the village until he walked past the Sacra’s house.

Instinctively, Mika entered the house, whose door was already open.

His gaze turned grimmer at the sight of their partly chaotic home which showed signs of a fight.

He looked around shortly and then went up the stairs. Then, he entered Eric’s room first.

Compared to the living room, Eric’s room avoided any mess.

"?"

Then, something caught Mika’s attention.

"This uniform..." he muttered pensively.

He walked over to the bed where a uniform was neatly placed. That uniform resembled that of those from the knight academy.

Mika himself did not interact with those students but he would sometimes see them scattered around Loogam whenever he was on the streets strolling aimlessly.

"..."

Beside the uniform, he also noticed new clothes which appeared cleaner and more elegant than the clothes Eric would usually wear.

Mika unconsciously bit his lower lip as he left the room.

He entered Ain’s room next, albeit he entered the room more cautiously than Eric’s.

And just like in Eric’s room, Mika found a new set of clothes.

Ain was a girl and more interested in clothes than Eric, who only had training in mind, but Mika was still surprised. After all, those clothes also resembled clothes girls would wear in a bigger town, like Loogam.

Seeing that was enough so Mika left the entire house.

He put his palm on his face after he connected the dots.

After resting shortly, he made his last trip to his parent’s house.

There, he sat solely at the dining table after changing his shirt to a white-buttoned shirt of his father.

Normally, there was always a happy and peaceful mood in that house but now, those times could not return.

It was silent.

It was silent because everyone here died.

"..."

Even the system, whom Mika called out multiple times today, did not reply.

Mika clenched his fists tightly before he stood up.

"So you’re really gone, huh?" Mika murmured as he left his home.

Last night, Mika and the system, Mikaela, confronted each other despite not seeing each other’s faces.

During their talk, Mika roughly got the feeling that Mikaela was bidding farewell and the lack of responses confirmed it because the system would always reply or announce in time if the system would be absent for a while.

"You think that by giving your power you can go without a care?"

He was frowning lightly.

"In the end, you still confused me with all your talk...!"

After all those years they spent together, Mika expected their parting to be a lot more different. Mika did not even know how he should feel about the end of their partnership, considering what Mikaela gave and took from Mika.

"One day, I will let your colleagues and boss know what will happen if you mess with me and my people...!"

He was determined to get to the heavenly realm and vent out his pent-up anger on all of them, including Mikaela’s superior, God.

"However, before I do that, I have to take care of my business here."

There were still individuals he had to confront in the human realm.

And those on top of his priority list were in Malnor’s Great Jungle.

"Dreyar, Martha, Xander..."

Mika emitted great pressure as his gaze turned stern and vengefully.

"I will come for you now."