HP: The Arcane Thief

Chapter 248: Shouldn't Have Gone For the Head

The explosion was so strong that both the Axel's shield was torn open. And the shockwave even reached the ground, shaking both the armies.

Brain matter rained everywhere, along with the wreckage of the aircraft that had been hidden perfectly this whole time high in the air.

The Kraken's army, that seemed to have been fighting like a single elite unified unit, suddenly turned disorderly, as they began looking around in confusion, seemingly no longer even knowing what to do.

And the Kingdom's army seemed to feel like a load had been taken off their minds, along with their emotions no longer being influenced.

The targeted mental attacks on Akiko, Martina, and Antilla also stopped, making them slump in relief.

Everyone, now suddenly having the room to breathe, turned to looked up at the sight of the explosion, now beginning to understand what had happened.

"Did he really…?"

"He… killed the Third…"

"THE THIRD IS DEAD!"

A wave of cheers spread throughout the battlefield. The Third Overseer, Scitius Marcelus, had turned the battle completely one-sided with his involvement.

No one had imagined that aside from being extremely cunning and devious, Scitius could also be this powerful, to the point that they wondered how was he only the third overseer.

A person who can control every Kraken member on the battlefield and make them fight like that, and then also have the leisure to read the opposite forces moves and influence their state of minds? Just how much mental capacity would that need?

Scitius had quickly become an object of terror in the minds of the Kingdom's forces, making them wonder if they'd lose after all.

But, now that they saw the charred remains of brain matter falling to the ground, and it felt like they were seeing pies dropping from the sky.

The unexpected gain made them cheer in jubilation, feeling like they had been saved from what seemed to be a certified disaster.

But, at this moment, as the distortions of the explosion cleared up, they saw a faint light coming through the explosion cloud.

The intensity of the Light increased and all the smoke was cleared up, revealing an armor clad figure.

And on the forehead of the armored figure, an eye with a crystal iris glowed, changing colors and patterns intermittently.

"Of course you're still alive," muttered Axel in annoyance, now seeing Scitius for the first time.

The blast was quite powerful. Powerful enough to make him thing that perhaps, he had easily managed to kill the third overseer without even having to put any effort into it.

But, looks like that mental power isn't only for controlling other.

With his single eye, glared directly at down at Axel.

"You! Do you have any idea what you have done?!"

A concentrated wave of mental power fell on Axel, burying him into the ground.

"Those brains had been developed and interconnected over decades!"

Scitius was genuinely angry now. The Mind's Eye was the most powerful relic. But only when the Wielder can actually bear it's load.

It had taken a substantial effort for him and a whole team of researchers to develop those brain to the point that they could help him handle the processing capacity of the relic.

But Axel just casually blew them up, using the dimensional bombs he had developed himself, no less. And the person who knew the key technology behind it, had already fled, living under the alias of Jacob Gorski.

Of course, Scitius was now mad, trying his best to make Axel cry out in pain.

"Cry about it." Despite being sunk in the ground, Axel laughed, blood coming out of his nose. "Don't think… you had… an insurance for that, did you?"

That didn't help the situation. Scitius descended, to the ground, increasing the pressure on Axel with the decreasing distance.

"First your parents, and now you. You. Always. Ruin. Everything!" He said, burying Axel further down with each word.

"Stop!"

Antilla, Martina, and Akiko were already barely holding their onto consciousness. But General, who hadn't been able to heal from the Fatal wound he got from the King hurled himself at Scitius, launching an aggressive onslaught.

"NOT NOW!" But, Scitius wasn't in the mood to be interrupted right now, activating his domain.

The Mind's Eye shined, and a mental forcefield appeared around him, blocking everything from coming with 10 meters of him.

"Prince!"

"Not Him!"

"No way!"

Along with the General, the rest of the Kingdom's forces also tried to pierce the barrier, including Ender and the relic wielders, but to no avail.

"No one can save you from me today," he said, finally reaching Axel. He couldn't keep this domain up for long due to the strain it was putting on his mind. But then again, he didn't need to, with First having awakened early.

He was trying to finish things up here to make things less troublesome for the First, but since everything is already messed up right now, he can no longer cares.

"And who will save you from me?" Asked Axel, launching himself at Scitius with the Trident blades wrapped around his hands.

With Scitius's mental pressure, he couldn't concentrate enough to use magic attacks, but he still pushed himself to break through the Telekinetic pressure.

"Nice try." But, the a crystal eye glowed, and another wave of mental power fell on Axel.

As it turned out, his Physical body's power was simply not enough to break through Scitius's telekinetic powers as they pinned him down, while the pressure on his mind also increased further.

"You have no chance against the Mind's Eye right now," said Scitius, pressing him down to the point that his bones began making crackling sounds.

Without the capacity of those numerous Artificial brains, the Mind's Eye was pretty taxing on Scitius's mind. But still, even if not for long, he could come up with power far stronger than any relic, even the Royal Trident. That's why, he was invincible for atleast a few minutes now, even without the artificial brains.

"Now, the moment of truth has arrived. Tell me your secrets!"

With Axel finally pinned down, even if temporarily, Scitius force him to make eye-contact.

The Mind's eye let out a radiant light as a Scitius's mental consciousness went into Axel's mind, breaking through his shields.

'Shit!'

Axel was able to take on all the mental attacks Scitius threw at him, but this… this one he found trouble dealing with.

With a huge force, Scitius attacked Axel's mental shields.

Now, with someone with as good Occlumency as Axel, it would normally be pretty much impossible to break his occlumency barriers.

But, right now, all of his mental energy was pretty much drained. And the person who was trying to breach his mind was Scitius was the person with the Relic called the Mind's eye.

This thing could help him control so many people at once, it could let him use highly taxing skills like Elemental combinations with ease, and even help him defend against physical attacks like that explosion and the General's assault with just using his mental power.

So, this time Axel found it really difficult to keep up his defenses against Scitius's legilimency. It was like an overpowered tsunami that he had no way of resisting with his small boat.

Very soon, cracks formed on his shields, before getting entirely broken through as Scitius got access to Axel's mind.

"Didn't I tell you? I would find out one way or another." Scitius laughed triumphantly, looking down at Axel. "You should have told me your secrets when I ask you civilly. But you just had to be a smart-ass and insult me with your taunts!"

Scitius quickly began scouring through Axel's mind, in search for the secret's to his strength and his other secrets, like how he managed to ensure the Soul Extinguisher.

Axel's mind was built like a train, with different memories arranged in different compartments.

Scitius began looking through them all one by one. The first few compartments had memories of his childhood, which were basically gloomy and dark.

"Truly amazes me just how bad your luck is," Scitius couldn't help but comment.

Then the further compartments contained his memories of Hogwarts. These compartments were noticeably brighter.

There Scitius even found one compartment dedicated to his training. But, he still didn't find what he was looking for.

He didn't find HOW Axel was getting all that knowledge. Neither did he find out HOW Axel had managed to survive against things like Soul-Extinction.

Then, he came across the next compartment. This was a luxury compartment, installed with the finest door and interior.

"Yes, this must be it."

But, contrary to his expectations, this compartment only contain happy memories, almost all of which only came after he had entered Hogwarts.

Many of them contained Martina and Akiko, but most of the others contained a blonde girl Scitius had next seen.

"Ah, your girlfriend, perhaps?" Asked Scitius. "Don't worry. I'll kill her the first thing after I'm done with this Kingdom, just like I'll kill Akiko Matushima and Martina Valentino. Oh, and no need to thank me. You deserve that much after all the troubles you've caused us," said Scitius.

!

But, he realized he shouldn't have said that. The whole train began shaking, and at that moment, despite having the Strongest mental Relic on his side, Scitius felt a hint of danger in Axel's mind.

But, the danger was gone as soon as it came, as if it was never there.

'Must be hallucinating.' thought Scitius to himself dismissively. After all, there was no way Axel could do anything to him with just the mental power.

But, he didn't dare to taunt Axel anymore, nor did he look at more memories of this compartment.

Moving on to the next one, he found himself in front an completely different compartment.

It was bigger than any other compartment, and it was emitting an ominous aura. Moreover, it had an additional layer of security, locked down with multiple chains.

"This must be it, huh?" Asked Scitius. Of course, the additional defense was useless in front of him as he was able to break through easily.

But, when he went inside, he found nothing but darkness. Going further in, he began to see the memories stored in this place. They were, actually the memories of all the pain Axel had endured.

"Huh?"

BANG

Suddenly, the compartment door was sealed shut, and the familiar feeling of danger returned in full force, this time not going away at all.

"What?" Scitius was alarmed. He tried to opened the door with his mental power, but found to his utter disbelief, that it wouldn't budge!

"Surprised?"

At this moment, Axel's apparition appeared in front of him, startling him. It was not because of his presence, but because of his appearance.

This Axel was not like his well-built and healthy looking outer appearance. This was an Axel who was injured throughout every part of body, making for a terrifying appearance.

"HOW?!" Still trying to force the door open, Scitius failed to process the situation. This was a mental plain, meaning it was under Scitius's domain. It should be impossible for Axel to be able to hold against his will.

Axel smirked, showing his bloody teeth. "This place is able to hold all of my pain, including the experience of my soul itself being torn to shreds. You think it can't hold a nerd like you?"

"It CAN'T!" Exclaimed Scitius, releasing his mental power. But, it seemed to have no impact on Axel, or the place.

"You wanted to know how I managed to survive the Soul-Extinction, right? Well, you can now see for it yourself."

Said Axel, showing him the memory of himself being hit with by the Soul Extinguisher. Along with it, other memories also began playing around Scitius.

But Scitius wasn't affected. "So what if you've trapped me here? That can't stop me from killing you."

Scitius had had enough. Despite his mental avatar being trapped here, he still increased the pressure on Axel's physical body, intent on killing him right now.

"Actually, I can," said Axel, as suddenly, Scitius felt a burning pain on his cheek.

Scitius suddenly found himself lying on the ground, held down by many men, as a man with numerous scars on his face slowly ran a knife through his cheek.

"You—! How can you—?!" Scitius tried to speak, but couldn't with his face being cut apart right now with a knife dipped in acidic poison.

"How I can hurt you despite you clearly having superior mental power?" Axel asked his question for him. "Well, I once read in a children's book."

"If you look into the abyss…. the abyss stares back at you."

"Pretty funny, but its actually true in this situation," said Axel, overlapping another memory on top of the ongoing memory.

And now, Scitius found himself put under the Crutiatus for the first time in his life, making him scream in agony.

Axel spreading his arms, looking down at Scitius writhing on the ground. "This is a place where I hold in pain that you can't even imagine. This is a place that contains the power of my will. This... is the part of me that never gives up."

"So, in this place at least, I alone, am the Superior one!"

The memory of the painifera memory floated into Axel's hands.

"Despite all your genius, you are a flawed being too, Scitius. You couldn't focus on simply killing me without showing off your superiority and learning all my secrets. You still had a chance when you hadn't entered this place."

"But, by walking in without even me having to invite you, you sealed your own fate," he said, as the painifera memory also overlapped with the ongoing pain, making Scitius almost mad due to the pain even with his high mental power.

"You clearly had the upper hand. You could have gone for my neck, my heart, my lung, my limbs. But…" he paused, finally taking the [Soul Extinction] memory into his hand. "You shouldn't have gone for the head," he muttered as he pushed the memory down as well.

This time, Scitius's pain knew no bounds as he lost all the control he had managed to hold on for so long.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Axel's physical body leapt up. His hand glowed before plunging straight into Scitius's forehead, pulling apart the Mind's Eye.

Scitius screamed, this time in real life.

Still not wanting to take any chances, the Trident's blades flashed, cutting Scitius into a thousand pieces within the blink of an eye.

Now bathed in Scitius's blood, Axel wiped the blood his brows. "And this, is how you make sure to kill the enemy when you get the chance."

Utterly exhausted, Axel slumped to the ground, looking up at the sky. His mind was shutting down. He really needed a break.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom's forces blankly looked the scene, still processing the situation. This time for sure, the third was dead.

Six Overseers in a year... all killed by the same person.

One time, could be called luck.

The second time, could be a coincidence.

But six times?

The General knelt down on one knee, laying down his sword. "All hail! KING AXEL! THE STRONGEST KING IN HISTORY!"

Turning towards, Axel every soldier on the battlefield slowly started to kneel in awe, acknowledging Axel's sovereignty. Those still fighting the remain forces of Kraken knelt right after finishing off the enemy in front of them.

Axel's who still had his eyes close, was hugged from front and back by Martina and Akiko, who were crying right now, making him almost lash out in reflex.

But when he saw it was them, he just sighed. "Long time, huh?"

"You... you aren't going anywhere alone again!" Said Martina firmly, which was quite unlike her usual pushover self.

"I don't need revenge... Let's... just go back now," said Akiko.

But, Axel didn't have the time to respond to them. Because the alert came from the system again.

[Emergency Mission: Take back the Royal Throne right now. The FIRST is coming]

....

A.N.:

I'm back now, would be posting regularly!

Give me POWERSTONES everyday!