Book Three – Chapter Ten – Part Two – The Banquet of Death

A sudden breeze blew by, cooling Servi’s bloody and naked body. Like before, Servi took an impromptu shower and dressed herself in the closest fitting clothing and armor she had. Again, it wasn’t much at all. Personalized armor would have to wait. She started to jog towards the closest ‘cliff,’ but doubled back to pick up her nadrium greatsword.

“I can’t forget about you,” she said. Now equipped with everything she needed, Servi took a running start and effortlessly vaulted up the cliff. She landed with a roll and met the eyes of thirteen people. Homeless and scraggy, they weren’t different at all from a plethora of other beggars Servi saw in Arcton. She didn’t know why they showed up in an area they knew must’ve been inhabited by the Mafia. The lifeless eyes each of them had signified the harsh life they lived and the uncertain future awaiting them. Slowly, all of them moved their heads from Servi to the bloody sword she held.

It was quite possible the crowd of thirteen all agreed on going to a specific location, but the odds were stacked against it. On the other hand, perhaps it was Servi’s wide-scale destruction that pushed them over the edge. Only 24 hours ago, Servi summoned a massive hurricane filled with sharp blades of water that killed hundreds. Such a thing, even if it only lasted a short while, was sure to send fear in the hearts of anyone who saw it and doubts in the ears of those who heard about it.

Or perhaps they believed her actions were a gift from the Gods Above, who sent an angel to relieve them from the hell they were living?

Servi remained silent and twitched her arm. A second later, she rested her weapon on her shoulder and walked past them. The sound of thirteen heads uniformly hitting the ground behind her entered her ears.

But where Servi saw something to be proud of, ending their miserable lives who'd helped sell out Arcton to the Mafia, Itarr only cried harder at thirteen people who didn’t need to die. Their souls flowed into the ring, and she begged for them to leave.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!? YOU DON'T NEED TO DIE!!!!!! GET BACK TO YOUR BODIES!!! Even though souls were practically her playthings, Itarr lacked the ability to return a soul to the body it came from.

“Now, let’s move on to the next one.” Servi took out her map and noted the next closest one. “Nova, eh?” She looked up at the moon, stared down at the ground, and turned around to fill her eyes with her destruction’s aftermath. In most cases, someone passing by would wonder why she was staring at an empty lot. The chances were high that after a few days pass by, there wouldn’t be anyone alive who knew that a warehouse used to stand in that empty lot.

In one way, Servi even destroyed the warehouse's history with her assault. And if things went to plan, that was going to happen a lot more. Hopefully, the Mafia would be something lost and forgotten by everyone. She couldn't wait for that to happen. Servi practically skipped through the town, leaving large holes behind her as she hopped over buildings, searching for her next target.

Sure, she was spotted multiple times by Monotonia addicted druggies-- homeless scavengers with nowhere else to go. And the few guards who were lucky enough to be elsewhere when Servi slaughtered their companions, but she killed them the same as everyone else. A part of her wondered how many ‘guards,’ she used that term lightly because she thought they were all gutless cowards, remained alive.

Slowly but surely, the entire population of Arcton was slimming down. Their guard force was next to eliminated, and she didn’t know if they had a core commander that led them. The number of people she saw on the streets while traveling to Nova was a far cry from her first night in Arcton. Either she had killed most of them, or they valued their lives enough to find shelter.

In any way, they all would die when she took her revenge upon the shitty city. Until they, Servi was content with letting them keep their lives for the time being. The city was her prey.

After all, she was the Mad Dog, and a Mad Dog never allowed its prey to escape.

“Hey, Nova!!! Knock knock!!!!” In a dark alley trapped between two buildings so tightly packed not even a rat could squeeze through, Servi bashed at the buildings’ corners. Bricks stained by years of maltreatment went flying if they didn’t disintegrate from her powerful punches. Slowly, she ended up creating a pathway that contained an excellent view into the two buildings.

From the map, she saw that Nova was made up of two buildings. As she walked around, Servi noticed the lack of windows, guards, or doors to enter. There was only a single length of space between the two buildings. An adult couldn’t squeeze through. And since Servi couldn’t, she decided to make her own entrance.

“I must be... here?” she murmured when she saw matching stairs to her left and right. Unlike Turner, Nova was very well lit by a combination of candles and fluorescent lights. “Wait, why the fuck am I doing it the hard way?” Servi stopped punching, allowing her thoroughly crushed fists a chance to rest and retraced her steps. Even though she had gotten several meters deep, no guards were coming to investigate the disturbance Servi was making.

And as Servi thought that, she was more sure than ever that each base went by its personal modus operandi. Perhaps Turner contained the fighting force and most of the guards because they were relativity well trained. The idea of using two guards to use Create Water and Chain Lightning was one thing, but they were equipped with gear to eliminate any danger the skill posed to them. With how big the two men who held Servi down, she believed only a Kobold could break away from their tightened grasps.

If she was anyone else, Turner’s guards would’ve won. Perhaps if she wasn’t Servi, the Mafia would’ve totally destroyed her.

But she was Servi. She was the girl who held the power of a Goddess at her fingertips, and she was going to use it.

She retraced her steps until she emerged into the street. The pathway she made between the two buildings stood in front of her. Throwing down a random sword from her ring, she used Metal Wall to create a platform below her and used it to propel herself upward until she towered over Nova. She ascended so fast that when the Metal Wall suddenly stopped, the momentum she carried sent her bouncing up about two meters. Her black hair fluttered upwards as gravity took its toll.

“It’s almost like the two are mirror images of each other.” Servi looked down over the edge. “I wonder...” She took out the thickest pieces of concrete Itarr absorbed. They floated motionless in front of her. Instead of looking down, Servi turned her red eyes up and watched as the large pieces became smaller. Once they were about sixty meters up high, Servi canceled Telekinesis and enjoyed the show.

Instantly, the left building’s weak roof caved in as soon as the concrete hit it, but it didn’t do as much damage as Servi hoped. In retaliation, she took out even more debris.

“No! I need more!!!” she roared out with a voice not like the one she had only a few moments ago. The joyous feeling she felt after destroying a base didn’t last long. Itarr momentarily returned to her senses and shook with fear.

No!! No!!! SERVI!!!!!!! Itarr cried. Returning from being a sniveling mess, she did her best to find comfort in the good memories the two shared. But that was easier said than done. With a full 360 degree view, Itarr could see all around Servi. Perhaps it had to do with her missing memories, but she couldn’t find a way to shut herself off from the world around her.

Roaring once more, Servi pelted the two buildings that made up Nova with her debris. Roofs and walls crumbled and caved, but she only received a few souls.

Servi needed to go further beyond in her destruction and really stress test the power she had.

That was what she did after doing a quick check on what could be collateral damage. Usually, she wouldn’t account for anything but total destruction, but any harm or damage to Arcton’s Warden office was strictly off-limits. At least, it was until Momo completed the quest and ascended to Rank 9.

Servi completed her surveying effort and used Earth Wall and Metal Wall in conjunction to create hundreds of pillars all around her. A jungle of dirt and metal trees formed in the middle of the city. Then the next moment, every single pillar launched into the sky. Servi cried out at the mental strain of controlling hundreds of heavy objects at once. In terms of capacity, Servi still had the telekinetic capacity to hold around 3,000 more objects.

The problem was the pain her brain suffered when controlling many items at once. Each pillar needed a portion of her mental capacity to fully control. If she only needed to make elementary moments like moving up and down, she could manipulate more than the standard five. In such cases, her limit was around ten or eleven, maybe twenty if she pushed herself.

But 261 objects? Her brain literally tried to split apart into multiple pieces to even began to have the power to send out commands. The synapses in her brain fired faster than they were designed to do, which increased the temperature in her head. Then suddenly, her brain failed, dying as it cooked itself to death.

But another brain grew, and Servi continued the process all over again. The new brain sizzled out of existence, turning a disturbing charcoal black, and True Immortality returned her to fighting shape, healing her wrinkled organ until it contained no imperfections.

That only lasted two seconds at most, then True Immortality was needed again.

“GUUUHHHH!!!” Salty tears flowed from Servi’s eyes, instantly evaporating as her body temperature substantially grew to the point where her skin sizzled like bacon in a hot pan. Her bones were the next to heat up, becoming brittle. Then her muscles became hot and relaxed, forcing the feeling in her legs to give out. She fell down, breaking her brittle bones into pieces. Sharp shards of white easily punctured her weakened skin, yet her armor prevented them from completely breaking through.

But not once did she give up on her mission. The bases were going to be destroyed in any way possible. She continued to suffer through the agony until the last pillar finally reached the proper altitude.

“DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!!!!” she screamed as she cut every telepathic link. Blood spurted from her mouth as she simultaneously used Create Water to douse ice-cold relief all over her burning body. The steam explosion that erupted from hot and cold interacting did little to hide the hundreds of falling pillars. Falling back out of relief, Servi knew her plan had worked because the very earth rumbled with the force of an earthquake. She then heard the sound of tens, if not hundreds, of homes collapsing all around her.

People screamed. People shouted. People died. Heirlooms were destroyed. Histories were erased.

With a single attack, Servi accomplished more solo than an army wished it could. A strange feeling filled her body as the water continued to drown her.

It was souls. And not just a few hundred. Thousands of them flowed like a red tsunami, almost battling each other to be the first one to give power to their new owner.

Servi’s breathing calmed down, and she felt her body temperature drop down to normal levels. Canceling Create Water, she licked her lips and doused her tongue in sweet, ice-cold relief. The Metal Wall she rested on shook, prompting the girl with black hair to stand up.

“Might as well see the results of my attack,” she murmured as her wet boots squeaked against the metal below her.

It was a vast crater, big and wide. Servi figured it belonged to Nova’s underground portion, but even she couldn’t believe how colossal it was. The total length of the two buildings put together didn’t even equal a quarter of what she saw. But with how her self-made meteors fell and exploded upon impact, trash and debris covered everything. She couldn’t tell how many supplies they had stockpiled.

“Then again, I suppose it would make sense for there to be a lot of people. The big event is tomorrow, so might as well have everyone together,” Servi sat down, dangling her legs over the edge like a schoolgirl about to leap from a small wall. Her eyes turned to the hundreds of cracks spreading out like a spider web. They led directly to the destroyed houses, and if Servi summoned another barrage of ‘meteors,’ she wondered how large of a hole she would make. Metal weighed a lot, and tightly compacted dirt, when formed into a pillar shape, wasn’t exactly on the lighter side.

She would love to find out, but she didn’t have the time. There were more bases to destroy and more enemies to kill. Leaning forward, Servi rolled off her platform and used Feather Fall to gently land. Now that she was closer, her eyes took one final look and saw just how much the Nova base had prepared.

Large barrels full of swords waited to be used. And those broken containers of bread and fruit must’ve been the main food supply. Perhaps there was meat? With how much blood covered the filled the hole of death and destruction, salted chicken and steak might have been hidden amongst them.

But it wasn’t Servi’s task to separate everything.

“But there might be some survivors. Better take care of it,” Servi produced a Fire Wall via thinking and forced it to grow as wide as the hole in front of her. “Burning it all to ash is the best way to get rid of something, isn’t it?” She kept speaking to herself as the heat radiating from flame grew in both size and intensity. Brick and stone melted instantly, followed by skin, blood, the remains of whatever food they had stored, and wood. Glass and metal were the next to go, and all the smells, when combined together, produced a horrid stench. The black smoke radiating upwards tantalized the more destructive side of Servi. She fought against allowing the fire to spread. Consuming the entire city and burning it to ash sounded very seductive.

Servi turned on her heels and away from the fire bordering on rampancy, forcibly stopping the skill. Like snapping, the ever-hungry flame flickered out of existence. A smile appeared on her face as she checked the location of the next base, but that disappeared when she stored it inside her ring.

She didn’t receive any bad news, nor was there anything worth getting angry about. The joy Servi felt when destroying did little to soothe her incredible anger, but it didn’t last long. The endorphins emitting from her brain decreased with every murder committed and each base destroyed. It was almost boring her like a child who only had a single toy to play with.

Servi wanted something more. She needed a challenge to bring her the thrill of death! Even if she couldn’t die, she desired to fight against a strong opponent who could kill her.

“FUUCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!” Servi shouted and ran off, following the mental map she had laid out in her mind. Her sudden cursing broke Itarr’s crying session. She looked around, and the wails continued.

Servi… She tried to say her beloved friend’s name, but her voice choked up.

Shepard was the next base she went to. The name implied that it had something to do with animals. Perhaps dogs or livestock? Servi stood atop a tower and verified her surroundings.

“Sheep, cows, and horses; they’re breeding them here,” she growled through her teeth. The trees towering to her left and right surrounded and reminded her she wasn’t in Arcton. To properly care for farm animals, one needed to have a farm. That required a good bit of open land full of grass, and that was something the city couldn't provide. That also meant they weren't known to what was going on in Arcton. Or at least Servi thought that. If they had heard any of the disturbances, there should've been something going on. Perhaps a task force could quickly left to investigate, but there was nothing of that sort.

A thousand different things ran through Servi’s mind. She wanted to shout and yell because she didn’t see that many guards, but they might have slept in the five barns off to the left side. Then she wanted to jump down and fight the men that she could see in combat to find a worthy challenger. A near-infinite amount of wants and needs flooded her desires. It was like a war inside of herself was fighting without any rules of which armaments to forbid. The damage her psyche and mind were receiving from her revenge-filled mission to destroy the Mafia was taking its toll.

At the end of it all, Servi had to make a decision. She couldn’t just stand on top of the grain tower without doing anything. Her eyes stared at the moon, but she didn’t know why. Was it to beg for forgiveness because she knew how she wanted to go about destroying Shepard? Maybe, but if that was the case, then why did she feel the need to have someone forgive her for only killing her enemies? No, it wasn’t her foes she felt sorry for... It was the farm animals.

“I’ll make it up to you. I promise I will.” Servi whispered in a voice so silently it couldn’t wake a sleeping dog. Then, she held out her hand in front of her. Looking down, the red flame that would become one of the most damaging Fire Walls in existence sprung to life. She grasped it with her palm and threw it like a rock until it landed in the middle of the sheep farm. Even though it was clearly past the time for grazing, all of the sheep, cows, and horses were out on the farm.

Even worse, they were confined to a single, fenced-off area that didn’t have any separators. Life for them had to be miserable. Living with different animals with different needs, fighting over the few spots of green grass left while avoiding the numerous piles of feces was a hell not many could claim to have endured. Yet Servi felt something growing between her and the poor animals. Maybe it was a faint memory? Regardless, Servi didn’t want to waste any time entertaining something that was probably wrong.

Her mental connection to the speck of flame grew exponentially and achieved Servi’s result so fast that she wondered if she imagined the entire thing. Not even a microsecond passed between a cow mooing out of annoyance and becoming something less than ash. For that fraction of time, the brightest, hottest, and most destructive Fire Wall in the history of the world sprung to life. The light it gave off looked like it illuminated the entire world. It was so bright that Servi had to wait a short second for her eyes to heal up.

The important was that the animals didn’t suffer. Death was a far better alternative than letting them live out the rest of their lives while being abused by worthless cowards. But as she watched the souls floating to her ring, a tinge of regret sprung up.

“AAAAHAHAHAHHHAAAAAA!!!!” Servi’s psyche nearly cracked again. In short, she was a mess. The actions she took, the words she spoke, the things Servi said she wanted to do and didn’t do; nearly everything conflicted in one way or the other. Servi's actions couldn’t be trusted any longer. Any words coming from her mouth or thoughts from her mind had to be taken as a lie.

Did Itarr know that? Possibly. Did she want to believe it? No. She didn’t. But she didn’t know what she could do. Those animals didn’t need to die! She knew if Servi was her old self, she could have wiped out the bad guys while leaving the innocent animals alone.

You even killed the horses… Momo loves horses…She loves cows, too. Why did you do that, Servi? Why did you kill the things she loves? I… I have to do something. I want this killing to stop. It’s just annihilation without—

Suddenly, Servi jumped down from the grain tower, cutting its tall metal legs as she rapidly approached the earth. She noticed it, of course, but Servi didn’t feel the need to use any skill to prevent herself from dying. Her body regenerated the broken bones and shattered limbs as rotten feed rained upon her head. Maggots and other insects that feasted on spoiled food surrounded her. She exterminated them along with all of the food with a Fire Wall configured to not injure her. The flame glowed, illuminating the current state of the farm, which was nothing. The numerous barns which held a large number of people, likely the Mafia, were all gone. Whatever equipment or food they contained also disappeared with everything else.

In a few days, no one alive would be aware that this smoldering chunk of black ash used to be a farm.

“Didn’t Old Man say some bullshit about a fucking farm?” Servi’s filthy mouth loudly asked a question loaded with expletives. She couldn’t answer it. The ground couldn’t answer it. The blood she sat on couldn’t answer it. Not a single person in Lando could answer that question. And like that, another piece of history was forgotten to the world.

The universe was full of things that carried history. It was also full of things that didn’t care if something and its history were destroyed. Servi fell into the latter, and she thought that was fine. Her role, after all, was the Mad Dog. That’s why she spent the last days constantly calling herself that like it was a form of hypnotism. If she believed it long enough, even a lie had the potential of becoming a truth.

Her life was full of lies with very little truth to correct the imbalance created by the two.

Perhaps she needed the Mad Dog title to keep a grasp on what little psyche she had left. The only one who knew for certain was Servi, and she wasn’t in the right position to spill the truth.

After a few seconds of remaining motionless, Servi suddenly pulled the map out of her ring. And just as fast, she stored it and stood up.

“More! More! More more more more!!!! MORE MORE MORE!!!” Only a single word escaped from Servi's mouth as she ran in search of the remaining bases.