Einstein, Newton and Maxwell… heed my call!
Jinju Wan's flightless body was airborne, no longer touching the rooftop nor any other solid surface over the Hon mansion's garden.
A barrage of bullets raced along the horizon of the ceiling of air over the city block, sizzling with heat and pulsating with the intent to kill anyone who dared to obstruct its momentum. Specially developed by Sirutov technology in collaboration with many European research centers to be as lethal as possible, to deliver more pain than mercy so that the monsters who even manage to survive any firing rounds would remain traumatized for the rest of their lives.
But Jinju wasn't on the list of guests that the bullets were expecting to meet.
His friend Bain could only expect watching in horror as a percentage of the gunfire penetrated through human flesh and turned Jinju into a mess of meat bleeding as red as the blood moon watching from above.
The world seemed to have slowed down to nearly a halt.
The shocking moment perhaps made Jinju experience his final moments at a rate of 0.01 seconds per second instead of the usual 1 sec/sec.
So this is what Einstein meant about the relativity of time?
Jinju gleefully saw that the cluster of bullets hovering midair had all become stationary stepping stones for him to conveniently use for traveling around without needing any external engines for lifting himself.
And by the mad lad British apple philosopher's third wheel, I should be able to rest my feet above these objects. Hmm… Good thing I've put my three years of training into partially increasing the rate of my neural synapses and adenosine diphosphate synthase enzymes. Though I should be thanking that alchemist I met for teaching me the recipe on crafting the potion for allowing my body to function at such speeds
.
Jinju stably stood on top of two bullets at a time under his feet, putting his hands in his pockets as he took a chill stride under the moonlit sun.
Flying bat-winged monsters were moving like snails from his perspective. Everything had become quiet, as even the loudest vibrations would take hours to reach Jinju's eardrums at such high speeds that he was moving at. As for his own organs, years of practice and a highly adaptive biological metabolism allowed Jinju's own body to function normally while everyone and everything else ran slowly.
He continued walking forward, making his way towards Sayan, whistling softly, calmly taking his time to approach his target who didn't have the slightest clue about who he had dared to be rude towards, a while ago.
It's hard to hide my powers. Not that I wouldn't have too many issues if I didn't, but there's just something good about doing things on a scale of a regular person. Something satisfying
. Jinju used a few higher and lower altitude bullets to climb up or down like using them as a staircase.
Sometimes I really do miss my previous self. Or… maybe not. My past self would have been proud of who I have become now. Wouldn't he? Why not? …..Those stingy Akamine people have bought my soul. I wonder if I'm doing the right thing by being grateful to them.
Sayan Dor was floating motionless right in front of him. His chauffeur vampire demon's wings were flapping at a slower pace than any sloth's arm.
It's been so long since I saw my parents. My brother. I wonder what they're doing now. How might their lives have changed without my presence in their hearts and minds. Just WHY can't I go and meet them again?
He thrust his spear glaive into the demon's left wing, slicing through it and making further cuts to it like carving out his name on sand. Jinju's mind was busy laying out the deck of cards of thoughts and self-inquiries, while his subconscious nerves casually played with his prey.
I thought I'd be able to go back to my life of being a demon hunter once I become strong enough. Look at me, now. Am I not strong? Am I not powerful enough? Why am I still running errands for some headless organization? Ah, maybe it's my respect and gratitude towards their leader? But why would they want me of all people?
He remembered shuffling through Cairo's books in his room once, stumbling at the sight of some notes and dossiers about the Kghinsktaxvik (Gargonians).
*Sigh*
I almost forgot. Those days. Those moments. Of when I saw that vile creature at Ichin Serko. Was it really God's plan that I had to be the one to survive? And how considerate of those demons to not openly attack our world as long as I, an eye witness who had seen their true forms, walked freely under the starry sky
. Jinju closed his eyes and thought for a moment. The tip of his glaive spear was wet and sticky with monster blood wobbling around like jelly at this outstretched speed of time.
This world is running out of surprises for me.
His arm swung his weapon in an arc, with a tangent at Sayan's neck.
Something unexpected happened, making him snap his eyes open wide and gasping simultaneously.
The necromancer Sayan's eyes met his.
But he saw no life behind them. Someone else had already taken a step forward and shot him on the back of his head, with a blob of blood expanding out of Sayan's forehead.
!!! What! How?? A bullet wound?
Wan immediately searched around the cityscape spread out below and to the buildings surrounding him, hoping to trace the shooter's location. The question wasn't who shot his target. The question was who was this individual faster than Jinju?
At that moment, he also noticed a strange painful sensation around his shoulder. Feeling around it with his fingers, he could feel a small cut where an extremely fast-moving bullet had managed to zip right past him
. Well, that gives us a clue about the projectile motion and direction vector. By the bloody moon, I cannot even understand how someone could manage to move or even fire a bullet that even I couldn't see! Must've been the wind…. Or maybe my fault for letting my guard down and jinxing my own luck, I guess
. His mental calculations and Fermi questions led him to one of the Sirutov helicopters as the apparent source of the shooter.
In the darkness, it wasn't easy to make out the details of the people boarded inside, but Jinju could swear he saw a soldier inside Bald Eagle no. 5's vehicle pull a neck gaiter mask over his face.
Jinju decided to stop wasting his energy on his "fast mode" of perception, decelerating back to the normal rate of time again.
All this time, only 5 seconds had elapsed in real-time.
Bain and the other Sirutov soldiers saw Jinju move around like a blurry shadow of the same color of his robes, now plummeting down towards the ground together with Sayan and a vampire demon at non-terminal velocities.
"Damg, who am I kidding?"
Bain focused on taking out some of the other creatures nearby.
"That's Jinju Wan after all. Why should I even be worried?"
A shade of envy was stamped into his admiration for his friend. A friend so trusted, that he was one of the few people alive on Earth who knew Jinju by his real name. To everyone else, he presumed a codename rather than his own. '
I still wonder why he insists on calling himself Masayoshi. Is there anything he's trying to hide? Hmm…. Nah, that dude is a heck of a storm. No way he has a bad past.
'
Meanwhile, Jinju grabbed his enemy's falling body like carrying a princess as they both were hugged by their home planet.
SLAM! CRUNCH!
"
Aaaaah!
" Jinju cried out as his knee caps shattered into crumbs and his legs' shin bones split like a long brittle noodle strand breaking off into smaller chunks. But he wasn't all too much worried about the injuries. Thanks to the dark ritual performed by his savior, his body would constantly repair and regenerate itself. Each of his body cells' DNA had become mutated, allowing them to behave like stem cells and undergo rapid mitosis at will. Sure enough, the pain faded away as quickly as it had arrived.
The person in his arms, however, wasn't equipped with such self-healing abilities.
"
Akhooxhh, Akhhxh, khxxh
," Sayan coughed, blood streaming out of the front and back of his head.
Wan wiped off some of the blood with his own clothes, his mind confused why he was suddenly showing leniency to a person he was himself trying to eliminate some time ago.
Ah, but why should I be confused? Dor was supposed to be useful in locating and subduing whatever greater problem remains beneath us. I must not let him die.
"
Shemai!
" Jinju brushed Sayan's forehead with his hand while his head rested on his lap, now sitting on the ground. The palm of his hand displayed a circular disc of magical runes. The glowing light from the spell reflected off Jinju's cornea as his eyes became eased with relief. "
Phew! I thought the world almost lost a necromancer of your skill level
."
Sayan's hand reached out for grabbing Jinju's neck, clasping it tightly while holding onto it as a climbing tool for getting up from his makeshift healer's lap, standing back up to his feet. He let go of his hold, noting Jinju's skin showing red marks where his fingers had been.
Sayan was unimpressed. Wan, too.
Around them, the storm of bullets continued to pelt the ground like hailstones, some of them bringing body parts of demons attached. Sayan's own favorite one lay on a pool of its blood on the grass, having landed on top of an exotic orchid plant. The Hon family wouldn't be impressed by knowing this either.
The screams of bystanders were nearly absent now. Everyone had fled the compound, including Takira Hon's friends and family. The Arkain guild leader was probably awaiting reinforcements of his own to join the scene as soon as they could.
For now, only the dry rain of metallic droplets remained.
Jinju's shoulder had healed up but his robe still had a slit where an unidentified shooter had outraced him.
"
Why did you save me?
" Sayan asked, ignoring how Jinju's minor scratches on his neck had faded away already. "
Well, whatever…
Don't think of receiving even a polite word of thanks from me, scum. You and your gang of murderers are the reasons why I still live anyways. The people you work for… have killed someone I loved dearly.
"
What's he on about? Killed someone he loved? I better hope he's not talking about that vampire pet he's been hitching a ride on. Eh, we'll see what he has to rant about, after I'm done for the night.
Jinju reached out and grabbed his glaive spear trapped into the ground with its pole sticking up like some Excalibur sword trapped in rock. He didn't look away from Sayan's eyes, not even for a splitsecond.
The awkward silence demanded a reply to what Sayan said.
"
After you are done helping us with our mission, I'll listen to your side of the equation
," Jinju offered. "
I don't know about the others, but atleast I have all the time in the world. Rest assured, Dor
."
At the next blink of his eyes, Sayan Dor saw that the sharp tip of Jinju's spear was threateningly close to his neck.
He scowled with his eyes, one of them burning with a blue fiery flare.