Mystical Fantasy : The Lazy Real Young Master [EN]

"Hahaha… you're still as impressive as always." Ayu's voice echoed again, yet it carried a tone that was strangely different. "I didn't expect you to be bullying these little ones."

Al turned around.

There, the five remaining members of Ordo Ferox had gathered behind Ayu, their postures slightly bowed. The air around them quivered faintly, as if the confidence that had been beaten out of them by Al was now slowly dripping back into their bodies. Shadows on the ground rippled unnaturally, swaying like disturbed water.

The man in the brown jacket was also there, tightly bound with his mouth gagged. It seemed the barrier Al had previously set to protect him had been broken by them.

His breath came in ragged gasps, and his wide eyes darted anxiously toward Al—carrying both the faint glimmer of hope and the heavy despair of someone who didn't believe salvation would come.

Meanwhile, Ayu's figure looked somewhat different. Her physical form remained the same, yet there was a faint distortion clinging to her, like an overlay of another existence. To anyone looking closely, it felt less like seeing Ayu and more like witnessing someone else wearing her skin.

A chilling aura spilled from her body, causing a thin layer of frost-like mist to gather in the air, raising goosebumps on anyone who dared to look.

The other face, hidden yet unmistakable, revealed itself only through fragments: the faint glimmer of silver hair streaked with violet and blue, and eyes that gleamed with a metallic, silvery light.

Every time those locks swayed softly in the night breeze, the moonlight caught them and reflected back with a sting sharp enough to hurt the eyes, weaving an illusion that was both beautiful and unnerving.

"I didn't think I'd see you here of all places… Axis," Al said flatly, confirming that the being before him was none other than the leader of the Brown Faction, Ordo Ferox—Axis herself.

"Oh… so you still remember me." Axis's tone was casual, her smile twisting at the corner. Ayu's lips, borrowed for this moment, moved with an expression that didn't belong to her calm and quiet face, but instead carried an alien arrogance. "I've been searching for you for a long time, Hell Phoenix."

"Hey, could you stop calling me that?" Al shot back, visibly irritated. His expression soured, his lips curling in annoyance. "So that ridiculous name came from you, huh? What a joke." He gave a small shrug, his lazy demeanor mocking the absurdity of such a title.

"Hah… hahaha. After more than two years of not meeting me, that's the first thing you want to talk about? A name?" Axis laughed as she began walking forward.

Her steps were slow, yet every footfall pressed heavily into the silence of the night. The sound echoed as if even the ground itself bowed beneath her presence, leaving her five subordinates kneeling lower and lower in reverence.

Al's gaze sharpened, following every movement. Their eyes clashed mid-air, invisible blades crossing, ready to cut at any moment. By the time Axis—still wearing Ayu's form—stopped, she stood barely two meters away.

"Of course that matters to me. At least give me a name that doesn't sound ridiculous," Al said nonchalantly. His tone was flat, unfazed by Axis's approach, but his eyes cut deep, as though peeling away the layers of his opponent's soul.

"Anyway," he added lazily, "since you showed up in person, it'll save me some time. Maybe you can answer the questions your lackeys failed to."

"Questions?" Axis tilted her head, her lips pulling into a smirk. "I didn't know you were the type to ask questions now. Weren't you usually the one who skipped the talking and went straight to torturing or killing your enemies? What a surprise." Her words dripped with playful mockery, her silver hair swaying gently, catching the moonlight with every move.

"Don't waste my time. I don't have much of it to spare. Huff.. I think you're no better than your underlings—impossible to interrogate." Al's voice was curt and sharp.

He crossed his arms over his chest, one foot pressing into the ground with a posture that was both casual and commanding, declaring with silent weight that he was utterly unimpressed by Axis's intimidation.

A flicker of irritation crossed Axis's stolen face. Her jaw tightened as she turned toward her five subordinates, her eyes narrowing into sharp slits. Instantly, they bowed even lower, spines trembling under the invisible weight.

Understanding the signal, Lagan stepped forward with his head lowered. He whispered into Axis's ear, explaining the situation and what Al demanded. His voice was almost lost, swallowed by the cold wind curling through the alleyway.

Axis listened quietly, then nodded. A low chuckle slipped past her lips, carrying an edge that echoed through the night like a blade dragged against stone.

"No wonder you needed me to appear. It makes sense now. Even if Fahruk himself were here, all of you would still be in danger against him." She spoke this to Lagan, her tone both mocking and casual, but heavy enough to crush.

Her gaze then shifted toward the man in the brown jacket—their intended target.

"So… he's the one carrying the item?" she asked.

Lagan quickly nodded.

"Yes," he confirmed, his voice firm but laced with respect.

Axis acknowledged him with nothing more than a slight nod, before casually waving her hand.

With that single gesture, Lagan stepped back hurriedly, his movements quick and almost clumsy, as though desperate to retreat from the suffocating pressure of his leader's aura.

"So, you want to know our secrets? Hah… you must be afraid of what our faction can do. Afraid of our threats, isn't that right?" Axis asked Al in a tone tinged with arrogance.

Her head tilted slightly, and on her face bloomed a proud, mocking expression, as though she found sheer amusement in this dangerous little game.

"Of course I want to know. I can't speak for the other factions, but you should realize this by now—playing with the emotions of the other DIAR will only worsen the situation," Al replied firmly, refusing to back down. He lifted his chin ever so slightly, meeting her arrogance with his own quiet defiance.

"Are you not afraid at all? Even knowing that three other factions are targeting yours?" he reminded her, his voice carrying the weight of warning.

He was all too aware of the reckless tendency of Ordo Ferox—Axis's faction—who often provoked other DIAR until they snapped into a berserk frenzy.

But Axis only chuckled under her breath, amused. The shoulders of the body she possessed—Ayu's—shook faintly with that laugh. Her lips curved upward in sheer arrogance, dismissing his warning as though it were nothing more than a pitiful joke.

"Afraid? Me? After splitting ourselves into at least four factions, do you really think my group would consider the rest of you as allies just because we share the title DIAR? What a dream. To us, you are no different from those pathetic, fragile humans." Her words carried the sting of mockery, her voice dripping with disdain.

Al's brows furrowed. Irritation flared across his face, and a faint wave of heat stirred around him, causing the shadows beneath his feet to deepen unnaturally.

"You… you really—!" he snapped.

"What about it? Isn't this how it's supposed to be?" Axis shot back, unflinching.

"Your weakness is our advantage. We may tolerate the other factions, but your faction… openly mingling with ordinary humans? That's an insult to us. It contradicts everything we stand for." Her voice turned colder, her hand slowly clenched into a fist, and tiny cracks shimmered in the air around her, as though reality itself resisted her growing pressure.

Raising her hand before her face, Axis extended her fist toward Al, her gesture deliberate and challenging. Her tone grew sharp, every word slicing through the night air.

"It only means one thing. We are destined to clash. Naturally, sooner or later, we will kill one another. I don't know when… but it will happen."

Her eyes gleamed with a dangerous sharpness, and the oppressive weight of her aura thickened the air. It pressed against the lungs, making each breath heavier, as though the night itself bent under her will.

Yet Al stood unfazed. He did not flinch, nor did he show the slightest sign of intimidation. He had known from the very beginning what the other DIAR factions truly were. To him, this was no surprise. It wasn't just their two factions—inevitably, all four would clash in the end.

Exhaling softly, Al let out a calm breath, as if releasing the tension. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips, his eyes carrying the serenity of the night sky, silent and endless as it drifted toward its final third.

"You all… waste too much time with ideologies. Conquering the world? To me, living a normal life sounds far better," he said, voicing the truth he believed in without hesitation.

Axis tilted her head slightly downward, a crooked smile creeping across her lips. When she raised her gaze again, her grin reflected the pale moonlight—mocking, scornful, and sharp as a blade.

"And what you just said… isn't that also an ideology? In the end, everything comes down to ideologies—and how far we're willing to go to realize them, isn't that so?" she retorted with chilling conviction.

Al gave a small nod in agreement. He leaned forward a little, his aura flickering faintly like embers of a restrained fire.

"Yeah, you're right… and in the end," his eyes sharpened, voice edged with steel, "the only thing you'll achieve is misery."

"Hahaha! Misery? Us? Let's see about that!" Axis roared in laughter. Her voice rang through the night, echoing against the walls of the surrounding buildings. The sound filled the narrow streets, pressing in on the silence, making the dark night feel tighter, more suffocating, and far more dangerous.

A brief silence stretched between them, a pause so dense it felt as though not even words dared to trespass. The air itself seemed to freeze in place, and the only sound bold enough to exist was the faint rustle of leaves swaying in the night breeze. Then, breaking that stillness, Al spoke once more.

"You manifested yourself as nothing more than a fragment of energy, using one of your subordinates as a medium. I didn't expect you to find a body suitable enough to be used as a medium… or perhaps I should say, a vessel?" Al commented, his narrowed eyes scrutinizing the figure of Ayu as though he sought to pierce through the illusion layered upon her form.

He gave a faint shake of his head before continuing.

"Hum… But whatever method you used, it won't matter. Your six subordinates will not survive this night. I don't make a habit of killing humans, but your group is far too dangerous to be left alive." His words fell like a whip across the stillness, each syllable cutting through the silence with a cold, merciless edge.

The tone was so sharp that several members of the Ordo who were kneeling nearby shivered involuntarily, as though their very spines had been struck by frost.

Axis responded with a low chuckle, mocking in its cadence. Her laughter echoed oddly, ringing bright at first before dipping into a sharp, biting tone that pierced the ears of all who heard it.

"You think I can't fight you even with just this fragment? For someone too afraid of using your own dark energy, you would still need thousands of years before you could defeat even a single shard of me. Hah!" she taunted, her voice dripping with contempt.

Al, however, only curved his lips into a crooked smile. Energy began to flow through his body, visible only in the way the ground beneath his feet cracked faintly and the air vibrated as though battered by an invisible storm.

"Are you so certain of that?" Al's voice was steady, his eyes glowing faintly with quiet conviction, while his fingers slowly curled into a fist.

"Of course I am," Axis sneered, her smile sharp enough to cut. "And you're mistaken about one thing… I don't only have six subordinates here tonight." Her gaze shifted upward as she spoke, her smirk widening into something far more sinister—an expression that promised an unpleasant surprise.

The night wind, which had lain still and quiet until moments ago, suddenly stirred into a violent rush. The atmosphere grew heavy, dense, as if an enormous tide of energy pressed in from all sides.

It was suffocating, dark, and unmistakably lethal. Street lamps flickered wildly, some sputtering out completely, leaving dancing shadows that writhed across the buildings like restless spirits.

Al followed her gaze upward. And there—emerging one by one from the rooftops and alleyways, from the ground itself and the edges of the darkness—appeared cloaked figures. Not dozens. Not hundreds. But perhaps thousands.

Each draped in coarse brown robes, their presence filling every corner of the area. Some stood high on rooftops, while others loomed at ground level. Beneath the shadows of their hoods, faint crimson glimmers flared in their eyes, glaring down at Al like the hungry stares of a thousand starving beasts.

"Oh… so that's all? Just calling for reinforcements," Al muttered, his tone deceptively casual. Yet his palm already pulsed with energy, a faint glow building as he prepared himself for the inevitable attack. His stance was steady, his eyes sharp—ready for anything.

Axis simply smiled. With a subtle motion, her body rose into the air, carried upward by the surge of energy that fueled her manifestation. The once faint and unstable aura that had kept her presence half-formed now solidified, layering Ayu's body with a veil of shimmering brilliance.

The aura pulsed like the heartbeat of some vast, unseen giant, each rhythmic thrum sending a sharp gust through the night.

Suspended in the sky above all others, she radiated dominance. Her figure was cloaked in a luminous shroud of silvery-blue light tinged with violet, shimmering elegantly beneath the half-moon.

That glow scattered across the night like spilled stardust, filling the heavens with a brilliance that mimicked a false firmament, as though the stars themselves bent down to serve her.

Below her, Fahruk had already arrived, kneeling deeply alongside the rest of Axis's followers. Then, in unison, every subordinate present bent their bodies until their foreheads touched the ground. Their voices rang out as one:

"Goddess Axis. The Axis of the World. The Sovereign of Existence."

They repeated the chant over and over, their cries resonating like a ritualistic hymn. With each repetition, the earth quivered faintly, and the air thickened, burdened with the weight of their fanatical devotion.

Axis closed her eyes briefly, raising her arms outward in a motion that was both graceful and commanding, as though welcoming their worship. A proud smile graced her lips, her silver hair fluttering dramatically in the night wind, the image of divinity tinged with cruelty.

Meanwhile, Al stood apart. In this moment, no one paid him the slightest attention. It was as if his presence had been reduced to that of an insignificant insect, unworthy of notice amidst the spectacle of worship.

His shadow stretched long across the ground, pressed down by the weight of their reverence. Yet his expression remained calm, untouched by the oppressive storm of faith and madness that roared around him.

The contrast could not have been sharper. Axis shone as the centerpiece of the night, deliberately portraying herself as a figure who stood above all—above the people, above Al, above everything. Moonlight fell perfectly upon her figure, painting her as the radiant star of the stage in the heart of the city's darkness.

"You will never understand what it means to be the center of everything, the sovereign who stands above all," Axis declared. Her voice rang clear, loud, and commanding, shattering the night's silence. It reverberated across the sky and the earth alike, carrying the weight of a divine decree.

---