Serum

Dirk wasn't happy as he appeared before the final general. 

Although he kept moving, Dirk had continuously recovered as each minute passed by. His nanites had sealed any wounds and realigned his bones, so his combat ability rose back up to decent levels. 

But it all seemed for naught in front of this last general. 

It wasn't that the general was massive and savage. No, although it was massive, it was quite far from savage. 

It was a turtle. 

A large turtle that just sat there on the ground. The peak of its shell was about 4 feet tall, and each segment in its shell was thick like plates of armor. 

The turtle also had 12 guards around it. It didn't even seem like it could fight. It just sat there, while the guards waited for any prey to approach.

Dirk slaughtered his way through the armies. And with the second general gone, this turtle was able to take over the rest. 

The entire monster population was under its control, and everything converged upon Dirk. 

For a while he continued to push. But when he got closer, the guards went out to meet him. 

All 12 guards surrounded him. The armies backed up with their arrival. 

But they didn't immediately attack. 

The 12 guards just took up positions around Dirk. Even as he shoved his shortsword into the neck of a large feline, they didn't attack. 

Dirk dropped the corpse of the last unfortunate monster to attack him. Obsidius was drenched in blood, giving the originally black armor an eerie, dark red hue. 

He observed the guards around him that refused to bombard him with spells and attacks like all the others. Although they seemed like they wanted to attack, they were being held back. 

"I'm on my way."

Suddenly, he heard Pandora's voice that came through the spell on his hand. Even she had realized the odd situation. And beyond that, Dirk was reaching his limit. 

He had been planning to pull out. He couldn't kill another general, let alone a turtle, with how injured he was. He simply didn't have the mana or energy. 

But now, there was another development. 

Dirk spun around until he laid eyes on the turtle general. It still sat in its original position, but now, its eyes were cracked open, observing him with intelligence. 

The guards continued to growl at him as the turtle cast a light spell. Four overlapped magic circles appeared in front of its mouth. 

"You, strong. You, kill others."

"...Telepathy?"

Dirk tilted his head as a voice appeared in his mind. It sounded like the voice of a very angry man, like a soldier yelling at something. 

But Dirk didn't sense hostility. Instead, he was thinking about the spell. Telepathy was an advanced light spell. It took at least a Tier 5 light mage to learn and cast it, allowing them to sense messages into someone's mind. 

The fact that this turtle could intuitively develop the spell on its own was rather shocking. 

The turtle rose from the ground. After standing, it towered over Dirk like a walking fortress. 

Dirk couldn't imagine actually trying to break through that shell in his current state. 

"You, me, no fight."

"You don't want to fight me... Why not?"

"You, kill army."

"Heh."

Dirk smirked. He really was killing the armies. Over a thousand had fallen in the short time he's been out here. Seemingly endless endurance allowed such fantastical feats of strength to occur. 

And that wasn't mentioning the several thousands he'd killed the days prior. 

But then, he frowned. 

"If you don't want to fight, then you can't destroy the city. Otherwise, we can only kill you."

"I no destroy. I leave, army follow."

As if proving his words, the armies all around suddenly stopped moving. They all halted in their tracks. Even the ones who were eating each other could only freeze in submission. 

It was a terrifying level of control over the remaining thousands of monsters. If the turtle coordinated all of them like this, then sieging the city wouldn't be an issue. 

Coming to that point though, Dirk questioned things. Why were the monsters destroying the city in the first place? What drew them here? Why did the other generals insist on constantly attacking the city, even when busy with their own civil war?

Fortunately, the glint of desire in the turtle's eyes wouldn't leave Dirk guessing. 

"I have... demand."

"A demand?"

The turtle turned its gaze to the city, as if it contained the holy grail. 

"I demand mana source, inside city. I leave, army follow, mana source follow, city safe."

"...What mana source?"

Dirk felt odd. Looking back at the city, he couldn't see this so called mana source that was so attractive to the turtle. All he could see was the faint fluctuation of dark mana, but it wasn't big enough to warrant such extreme actions.

"What'd I miss."

As Dirk was wondering though, Pandora finally arrived. Her entrance was accompanied by a mist of frost crystals, making her look like some kind of ice princess. 

Dirk's face went neutral as he recounted everything. 

"The turtle here wants to make a deal."

"A deal? It holds more intelligence than I thought."

Pandora smiled at the turtle, which looked back at her warily.

Dirk glanced at her. 

"It says that it'll take the armies and leave, but only if it gets a mana source within the city. Whatever that mana source is, it's attractive enough for these generals to wage war over."

"Mana source... Oh, it must be talking about the mana crystal being used for the teleporter."

Pandora quickly figured out the identity of the mana source. 

"Teleporters, especially long distance ones like the one being built in this city, require a powerful mana crystal as the foundation for its mana circuitry. The mana crystal needs to be at least a Tier 7. They even use Tier 8 crystals in the teleporter nexus of our Dark Kingdom. That crystal runs every teleporter in the capital. So I can imagine why this monster wants the crystal. After all, they evolve with those crystals."

"Right."

Dirk nodded. They had surmised something like this while driving to this city. 

"I've observed how these monsters operate over the past few days to confirm this thoery. All magical monsters have mana crystals. It's where they draw their mana from. If a monster wants to get stronger, they eat other mana crystals. I've seen several fight over mana crystals as they tear each other apart. So it's not the meat that makes them stronger. All these monsters kill each other for the crystals."

"And the biggest crystal is being used inside the city."

Dirk caught on.

"But how did they even know about the teleporter crystal?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Its housing is supposed to contain it, preventing the mana from leaking. This means that something happened that exposed the crystal, basically turning it into a monster beacon, before imperfectly sealing it once more. That's why there's a faint shroud of dark mana within the city. I don't know everything about how Horizon constructs teleporters, so this is my best guess. But regardless of all that, I'm not going to give this turtle the mana crystal. I'd rather take it myself before feeding it to a monster."

Pandora smiled at the turtle with those words. 

Naturally, the turtle understood her like it understood Dirk. It responded with a small hiss. 

"I demand... crystal. Or, I destroy city."

"I don't even care about that city, let alone your demand. Shoo off, turtle. Before I brew you into food for my poor Dirk here."

Pandora waved at the reptile dismissively. 

Of course, the turtle didn't like that.

"I... destroy city!"

With a roar, the turtle retreated into its shell. 

Then, all 12 guards that had been sitting around jumped at Dirk and Pandora. 

Despite the declaration of war and the sudden threat though, Dirk merely took a seat.

"I'm tired."

"Yes, yes, I'll take care of the rest. Cause I have to do everything around here."

"..."

Dirk didn't even respond to Pandora's exhausted remark. He was more so astonished by the sheer audacity to say such a thing. 

The next moment, a dome of ice spikes surrounded them. 

*Slice!*

5 of the monsters who jumped forward impaled themselves on those spikes. After being impaled, the spikes began to grow, engulfing the monster guards in ice. 

That ice was drenched in blood. And as Dirk observed, it seemed like the ice was devouring the blood, dying the ice red. 

Vampiric ice. 

The guards who were able to retreat or dodge all distanced themselves from Pandora. 

"Pay attention, lazy boots. This is real magic."

Pandora smiled as she brought up her hands. Dirk continued to lay around, but his mana vision was focusing on her. 

Above each hand, magic circles began to construct themselves. 

One circle, three circles, five circles. 

Two five circle spells formed atop her hands. Then, she brought them together, merging them into an 10 circle circuit that glowed with a deep white light. 

Then, like a bird set free, she let it go. 

The 10 circle compound spell unfolded, spreading above her head like the world's most complex chandelier. Each of the circles spun with elemental activity, pulsing faster and faster. 

Dirk could sense earth, air, water, and light mana. She was utilizing all of her attributes. 

Then, the air started to chill. 

The temperature dropped, and the moisture in the air began to accumulate, forming little droplets of water. Those droplets froze with the freezing temperature, turning into small bits of ice. 

Like a conductor, Pandora guided the ice as the air was kicked up in a vortex. The ice chunks began to thin out, becoming thousands of tiny razor blades that flew with the winds of a hurricane. 

Blood was drawn as the surroundings became more chaotic. It was like a storm had descended upon them, all the invisible razors flying through the air and shredding the monsters around them. Anything within 100 meters wasn't spared the brutal barrage. 

All the ice that looked like snow began to dye red as it absorbed the blood of its victims. This seemed to fuel the storm further as it got darker and darker. 

By now, the turtle had retreated. Its guards could only helplessly get reduced to a blood mist. They didn't even have a chance. 

But the turtle felt safe. This hurricane could only shatter on its invincible shell. It even created metal fortifications around it, revealing its metal specialization. 

It felt safe... until the spell formation finished. 

Dirk was shocked as the 10 circle spell circuit, which had been pulsing this entire time, suddenly stopped with a bright flash. 

With that flash, the spell collapsed and dispersed into the storm. 

The hurricane of ice began to converge, going from a hurricane to a tornado. 

And then, it conglomerated in the middle. 

All the ice combined, forming a massive blood crystal suspended in the air above the turtle. The blood crystal rotated at unbelievable speeds, spinning faster and faster as it narrowed further into something like a needle. 

Then, with a satisfied sigh, Pandora brought her hands down. 

The blood needle dropped. 

*Shing!*

The turtle shell didn't even crack as the needle punctured straight through it. The entire needle disappeared into the turtle itself. 

Pandora's brow raised in expectation. 

*BOOM!*

The momentum in the spinning needle was released not a second later. The turtle exploded from the inside out, the blood crystal composing the needle rapidly expanding without anything to keep its insane angular momentum compressed. 

It was nothing but a red mist that shot out of the holes in the turtle shell. If not for Dirk's numbing to all things gore, he'd find that sight awfully gut wrenching. 

Pandora smiled once things settled. The turtle was far more than dead. It seemed so easy for her to kill that biological fortress. 

"Hey."

The princess glanced at Dirk, who had been rather enraptured with her display of magical prowess. 

"Take the shell. That's good stuff, paid for exclusively by 65% of my mana."

"..."

65% of her mana. Dirk wasn't sure if that was a lot or a little. While he wasn't able to accurately gauge the turtle's strength, it was a strong Tier 5 at minimum, and almost entirely devoted to defense. 

Along with over a thousand nearby monsters and 12 guards, she had killed that turtle with a single spell. She really was on another level. And this was his first time actually seeing her power personally. She had never cast anything other than small spells in front of him. 

After gazing at her for a second, Dirk pulled himself to his feet and walked over to the shell that was dripping with liquid. 

It disappeared into his pocket ring. Then, he walked back over to Pandora. She was facing the city walls, atop which were hundreds of soldiers. 

"I called them since the monsters would go berserk. They'll take care of everything else. If they can't, then we'll take the teleporter's crystal and leave as they crumble."

"...Let's just go back and eat."

Dirk sighed and started walking. Pandora was with him. 

As for the monsters all around them... none of them were paying the duo any mind. They all rushed the city walls like their life depended on it. 

Dirk and Pandora used a bit of magic when any monsters got too close. Other than that, they looked to be on a nice stroll as they walked back with the hordes. Without any context, one might think they were leading these armies to siege the city. 

A war broke out on those walls. Not only were the monsters coming in full force, but the City was responding with everything they had. It was do or die. Only one side would stand by the end of the night. 

With a bit of magic, Pandora created a tunnel under the city walls for the duo to walk through. They surfaced within the city, continuing to their car. 

It was there that they ignored the chaos around them. Dirk was at the end of his rope, and while Pandora could fight more, she wasn't planning on doing anything. Only Dirk's peril and a monster general talking to them had gotten her to move. The days prior, soldiers would die right next to her, and she would only lift a finger to brush the attack away from herself. 

Well, they had defeated the generals and killed thousands of monsters by themselves. Pandora would argue they had done enough. 

The war raged, but nothing could be heard inside of the truck. Dirk had taken out a massive platter and started filling himself up with food. His injuries healed by the second as his body received mana and nutrients. 

Pandora sat there with him, also eating bits of food off his plates. She also occasionally observed him, staring at him randomly for several seconds at a time. 

Dirk noticed. He noticed everything around him through mana that gave him eyes. But he didn't care. Instead, his mind was a bit occupied. 

That 10 circle compound spell. Dirk had never seen anything like it. It was so exceptionally lethal and devastating. 

Dirk had finally seen Pandora's power. With all her mana and using the power of that hurricane, she could probably kill all the monsters currently sieging those walls outside. Dirk had to take his time as he killed monsters one or two at a time. But she could kill a thousand in a mere minute. 

Dirk didn't like it. 

She was too powerful. 

How many more spells did she know? Along with her Stigma, just what kind of catastrophic spells could she cast?

Could he keep his life should she try and kill him?

It wasn't likely. This wasn't Earth. 

Dirk still didn't like this world of insurmountable power gaps. 

Perhaps his stress was shown through his eating, but Pandora began to smile as she gazed at him. 

"I can still teach you magic, you know."

Dirk momentarily slowed in his motions, before resuming. 

"I'll take what you give me."

"Mm. Don't be so anxious over my power. I don't need you fearing me. That's not conducive to an equal relationship."

"I don't fear you."

"Tell that to your mouth."

She chuckled as Dirk inhaled more food. 

Suddenly, Dirk dropped a utensil. He had cleared all the plates. 

His gaze then settled on Pandora. 

"Why are you being so friendly with me?"