Chapter 9: Transformation and Escape
Dion and Mei stood up. Luna, who had just woken up, climbed down from her bed with a bewildered look on her face upon hearing the knights screaming outside the door. What shocked Luna even more, however, was seeing Mei in her room. Still, she simply picked up her staff and said nothing. Dion kept thinking hard, weighing how to draw the guards’ attention away and protect the two girls behind him.
He uttered "recall" in his head and scanned through his list of Personas. Checking the Shadow Assassin, he saw its cooldown still had 15 hours left.
"Ugh... the Black Knight doesn’t fit this situation... I want to escape, not engage head-on... besides, he moves way too slow... Shadow Assassin still has a long cooldown... Mechanical Crafter and Gunner are out of the question... Ancient One, I don’t want to flatten the city. The only option left is to use this one, since I don’t want to kill them," Dion muttered in his head.
He then read the text "Berserk Monk" on his screen. Slam... slam... slam! The pounding on the door grew even more violent, backing Dion into a corner.
"Ah, whatever... fine," he thought.
He immediately pressed YES on the Berserk Monk selection menu. Instantly, a deep, heavy voice resonated in his head:
["There is no one in this world capable of stopping me."]
A dark reddish aura suddenly swirled up around Dion’s body from the bottom up, lifting him slightly off the ground. The bright light caused Luna and Mei to take a step back, shielding their eyes. A holographic display materialized right in front of Dion’s face:
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Name : Dion von Oswald.
Persona Class : Berserk Monk. [change]
Rank : SSSS
Weapon : Black Claw Orihalcum Gauntlet.
Armor : Black martial art warrior garb.
Passive : Martial arts mastery, charging energy, air walk, healing energy.
Active : Brutal palm blast, claw barrage, mirror image, energy explosion.
Given : Goddess Hestalia Blessing.
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Using transform mode ? [Yes] [No]
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Without second thought, Dion pressed "Yes" to transform. The light grew blindingly bright. His physical form expanded into a massive, immensely muscular frame, causing his armor, which resembled martial arts attire made of leather and fur, to tighten slightly. His arms filled out the triple-clawed gauntlets, and his boots, which had previously been loose and oversized, now fit snugly. Finally, a mask latched onto his face. Once finished, Dion landed, a wide smile forming as his red eyes stared straight ahead.
"Huh?"
Luna and Mei opened their eyes, startled to see an imposing, mighty figure wrapped in a dark red aura behind him.
"Wait here," Dion said in a deep, masculine voice.
"Okay," Luna and Mei replied simultaneously without thinking.
Dion strode toward the door with firm, confident, yet deliberate steps. Meanwhile, behind the door, a knight who appeared to be the commander turned to look at the soldier beside him with a dark look.
"Break down this door... the prince’s killer must be inside," he ordered.
"Understood, Commander," the soldier replied.
Before the soldier could even move, "crash!" the room door suddenly exploded outward. Two palms slammed into two soldiers, sending them flying back into the wall behind them, embedding them directly into the structure. The commander turned and gasp, he stared at a massive man who appeared to be in his mid-30s, immensely muscular, dressed in martial arts attire crafted from fur and leather, and wearing iron gauntlets fitted with claws.
Half of his head was bald, with the back styled into a long braid reaching down to his waist. A demon mask covered the upper half of his face, leaving only his glowing red eyes and mouth visible as white steam exhaled from his breath.
"W... what?!" the commander screamed, breaking out of his shock and drawing his sword.
Dion’s hand clamped over the commander’s mouth and hoisted his entire body into the air. Terrified, the commander dropped his weapon as it slipped from his grip. Dion brought the commander’s face close to his own and grinned broadly, sending a shiver of horror down the man’s spine.
"I’m the one who killed your prince, and his girl is mine now, so I’m the one you’re looking for. Now let’s take this outside. Don’t go wrecking this inn," Dion said in a deep voice.
Without further ado, Dion dragged the commander downstairs to the first floor and exited the inn, followed by the troops who watched their leader being held hostage. Once outside, Dion was immediately surrounded by Eredor Kingdom soldiers pointing spears directly at him.
Casually, he tossed the commander back toward his men, who scrambled to catch him. Dion then scanned his surroundings once more; roughly twenty Eredor soldiers surrounded him.
"Haaaaah!"
Dion stomped his foot, releasing a massive wave of energy. Whooooosh! The surrounding soldiers were blown backward in total disarray. A few remained standing and rushed forward to attack with spears, but Dion effortlessly flicked his claws, severing the spearheads from their shafts and leaving the soldiers stunned as they fell back.
Seeing the troops gather themselves and rise once more, Dion leaped high into the air toward the first tier of the city, seemingly walking on air as he left the inn behind, descending toward the lowest district, specifically toward the slums. When the commander got back up and saw Dion leaping far off into the distance, his jaw clenched tight and his teeth ground together. He turned to face his soldiers.
"Pursue him... pursue him! Everyone, on your feet!" the commander bellowed, trying to help the nearby soldiers to their feet.
"Sir, yes, sir!"
The soldiers scrambled up and fell into formation, chasing after Dion as he leaped from roof to roof and occasionally sprinted through the air. Meanwhile, watching from the window, Luna and Mei stood transfixed, their jaws practically dropping to the floor.
"Was that... Dion just now?" Mei asked, seemingly learning about Dion’s true power for the first time.
"Yep... that was him. Don’t worry, just leave it to Dion," Luna said with complete confidence.
"So the person who fought Yugo in the academy arena to save me back then... was that Dion? It wasn’t someone he asked for help?" Mei asked.
"Oh... did he tell you he asked someone else for help?" Luna asked.
"Yeah... at the time, I thought he just knew someone influential, and I was already grateful to him for that. You know Prince Yugo had been bothering me for a long time, even though he was two years ahead of us and our senior," Mei answered.
"Yeah... I know," Luna replied.
"Incredible... Dion is truly amazing and powerful," Mei muttered, watching Dion bounding across the distance with eyes full of admiration.
"What actually happened, Mei?" Luna asked, looking at her seriously.
Mei fell silent for a moment before recounting the entire story to Luna from start to finish.
"I see. So, what do you plan to do now?" Luna asked earnestly.
"I don’t know... I can’t go back to the kingdom or to my home... I’m a wanted fugitive now," Mei replied, looking down.
Luna thought for a moment. She looked at Mei, who kept staring out the window without making any move to flee from her or Dion. Luna reached out and placed a hand on Mei’s shoulder, causing Mei to turn and look at her.
"Hmm... why don’t you come with us? Dion and I are on our way to our territory to build a life there and live in peace," Luna offered.
Mei really look at Luna, who was watching her with a calm, smiling face.
"Is that really okay? You two are childhood friends and couple, right? Can I really join you?" Mei asked, feeling awkward.
"Of course it’s okay! The more, the merrier. Besides, you don’t really have a choice right now, do you? Given your situation, you can’t exactly work as an adventurer either," Luna answered.
Hearing Luna’s words, tears began to swell in Mei’s eyes. In truth, she had been prepared to die tonight and hadn’t given a single thought to any future plans. Receiving an offer like this touched her heart deeply. She turned around and clasped both of Luna’s hands.
"Alright... I’d love to. The two of us will live a quiet life together with Dion," Mei said, her voice trembling slightly as she held back her emotions.
"Hehe... great! Now we have another strong traveling companion with us," Luna replied cheerfully.
Mei kept staring in the direction Dion had gone, though he was now out of sight. She glanced at Luna standing beside her, then looked outside once more as a blush flushed her cheeks.
"Okay... just like Luna, I’m yours too now, Dion, just like you said in front of those Eredor soldiers," she thought in her head.
Meanwhile, "Achoo!"
Leaping down through the city tiers, Dion suddenly let out a deep, booming sneeze.
"Huh... why did I sneeze out of nowhere? Oh well... I need to draw these Eredor Kingdom troops away so they forget all about Mei," he muttered in his head while in his Berserk Monk form.