Strongest Conqueror of the Beast Domain

Nick exhaled through his nose as he reached his apartment building again. He realised while stepping through the entrance, that the rest of his building, he barely even knew.

Actually, forget barely, he just straight up knew nobody who lived in the same building as him.

He only returned home once every few days to take a break from the Beast Domain, and catch up on some sleep and food. While Luna was basically the same but with school instead of the Beast Domain.

Both of them didn't stick around long enough to even catch sight of any other tenant in their building.

So, before heading back into his own place, Nick stopped in front of the apartment directly opposite his own.

He'd passed the door quite a few times ever since moving in, but never once though to knock, or in this case, ring.

Never once did he think he'd need to either, since he wasn't really one to make friends with neighbours.

Neither was he planning on making friends — he was just planning to ask them a few questions about Whitesteel and company, since the duo from earlier had already made it clear that the whole apartment building, and even the whole neighbourhood, were basically their victims at this point.

He glanced up and down the corridor.

Then, he rang the doorbell.

Ding!

Ding!

There was silence for a moment.

Nick was just about to turn and walk away, thinking whoever lived there was out, when the sounds of locks turning caught his ear.

The door creaked open a few inches, held tight by the chain lock.

A single, cautious eye peered through the gap.

It belonged to a woman — mid thirties maybe, with simple brown hair tied back in a messy bun. She looked like she hadn't been sleeping much lately.

"…Yes?" she asked warily.

Nick raised a hand in a non threatening wave.

"Hey. Sorry to bother you. I live across the hall and moved in just a couple weeks ago."

The woman blinked.

"You're the one who lives in 8F?"

Nick nodded. "Yes, me and my sister just moved in."

The woman seemed to have eased her tension slightly when she heard that Nick lived their with his sister.

"I, uh… haven't seen you around before, sorry…" Even still, the woman's speech was rather… simple, as if she had spent a while in isolation, without interacting with another person much.

Or… like someone who was used to dealing with not so normal people — like gangsters, perhaps.

"Been busy," Nick answered simply. "I'm a full time Altered. Anyway, I came here because I wanted to ask you something."

The woman hesitated when she heard that Nick was a full time Altered. Unlike him, any all the other people he saw in the War Beast Sanctuary on a daily basis, a large amount people only ever entered the Beast Domain once in their lives, and that was the first time they entered and received their blessings from the Beast Domain.

They simply entered, became an Altered, with an increased lifespan, gained a talent, a useful one if they were lucky, before immediately exiting through the teleporter and never stepping foot in the realm again.

So, hearing that Nick wasn't such a person, made the woman nervous.

She seemed like she was on the verge of quickly slamming her door and locking it, so Nick hastened things.

"Have you ever heard of someone named Whitesteel?" Nick asked.

Her face paled instantly.

Nick caught it, since it wasn't really hard to miss.

"I-I've already paid this week. P-please… please, I can't afford to spare any more!" She stuttered, about to hurriedly close her door.

Nick sighed when he saw this.

"I don't mean any harm, I'm not with those freaks…" he slowly uttered out, trying not to alarm the poor lady any further than he had already.

But what he had seen already had already made his mind up on dealing with the matter.

"Wahhh! Wahhh!"

The two were interrupted by the sudden crying of a baby coming from the woman's apartment though, as the woman's hurried and nervous cries seemed to have awakened the baby.

When Nick realised that she wasn't just living alone, but taking care of a baby as well… his mind was already dead set.

Sure, he couldn't care for seeing any random person in the Beast Domain suffer injustice, or even be killed at the hands of people like Beast Slayer.

But things were different when children were involved.

He had a soft spot for kids, thanks to him practically bringing his younger sister up and acting as her parental figure, and seeing the timid woman in front of him reminded him of himself, and the hardships he had to go through just to live their day to day lives.

For this Whitesteel gang to even pick on single mothers, and ones who were clearly struggling as is, Nick wasn't going to stand for it any longer.

His original plan was to annoy them to the point they stopped coming after him completely.

But now?

Hell no.

These people were going to get what they deserved.

Now, after seeing that they didn't even have the decency to leave this mother and child alone, he was planning on seeing it through to the end.

As long as it was within his means…

If it were the Nick from a few weeks ago, such thoughts would have never crossed his mind — for one, because he was a coward, and secondly because he was simply too weak back then!

His confidence in his own strength had grown significantly ever since he'd obtained the two Radiant beast Armaments, and after seeing just how strong he was in the Altered testing centre.

And it was this confidence that made him want to act.

Nick couldn't care if anyone called him a hypocrite for the way he thought, or for showing such bias.

They were his own thoughts, and his own opinions.

"How long have they been doing this?" He asked.

"…A few months. They weren't around when we moved in, but after the old building manager disappeared…" It took a few seconds before she responded to Nick, still clearly a bit suspicious.

Nick caught the implication.

Disappeared… it didn't sound like a transferal or a retirement like Kai thought.

He nodded once. "Thanks. That's all I needed."

It wasn't, but he could see from the outset that the woman probably knew just as much about them as he did — so basically nothing.

She started to close the door after seeing Nick turn around and start to head back into his own apartment, but stopped.

Her voice was quieter now.

"Listen… I don't know who you are, but… don't poke too hard, okay? M-my husband… he hasn't come home for over three weeks, ever since he went to go confront them face to face…"

Nick's face became even more stern after this warning.

He gave her a small smile.

"Thanks for the warning, but you don't have to worry about me."

She closed the door gently after that.

Nick turned around, with his eyes hardening as he walked back into his apartment.