There were more than a hundred anima standing between Mark and Kevin, and each of them was either a high or low-level calamity class. Mark just glared at the smirking Kevin with even more intensity.
The number of anima wouldn't be an issue for Mark to handle, but if Mark was dealing with them, he would be distracted, and it would be easy for Kevin to launch an attack when Mark wasn't paying attention.
"Oh, don't look at like that, KING. Don't you want to listen to what I have to say? This is my grand concerto, the culmination of my musical artistry. I believe I deserve an audience as I relish in its glory! And what better audience to bear witness to what I've accomplished than the man who stands above all others in humanity? The human KING!"
"I don't really care."
Kevin laughed at what Mark said, but he never stopped talking. Kevin really liked hearing himself talk, and Mark noticed that this trait was very similar to the Kevin that Mark knew from his class. Even though Kevin had absorbed all of Salazar's traits, it was obvious that Kevin still kept so of his original habits.
"You might not know this, KING, but this is not the first ti I've changed bodies like this. The first of these lives of mine is sothing I try not to rember since it doesn't bring up nice mories. As a war veteran during the Cold War, I was the best in my platoon. A veritable war machine. I lived that life like a true Arican.
I enjoyed the carnage that I brought to the world and found joy in knowing that my country was the very best with no competition. But that was foolish on my part. I was killed during the war, and my body was scattered into the sand like anyone else's. I was no different from the n I had killed.
"Then, ironically, I woke up again - this ti as a teenager in Africa during the period of the slave trade. I was taken from the coast of Nigeria and transported over the Pacific on a wooden ship like cattle. My body was incapable of withstanding the harsh winter, and my mind fractured under the intensity of my own mortality.
Do you know how nerve-wracking it is to go from the pinnacle of the world as a conqueror who only took from others to becoming a slave who didn't even have the strength to fight back against his own conquerors?
"I saw n and won that I had just been laughing with in my previous lifeti sneering at , glaring at , looking down on like I was trash. And I was able to see the results of my actions in the eyes of my fellow slaves. The horror that never seed to leave their eyes. And all this was made worse by the fact that I, too, was one of those conquerors only a lifeti before.
I was one of those who looked down on others without pity and sneered at them. That was when I first encountered the darkness of humanity."
Mark kept his eyes on Kevin as Kevin continued ranting, but Mark was only half-listening to what Kevin had to say. The other half of him was trying to think of a plan of action that would allow him to deal with all the anima down there while also handling Kevin at the sa ti.
For so reason, the anima that appeared didn't attack him yet, and Mark knew that Kevin was the one holding them back so he could have ti for his monologue, but once Mark moved, the anima would move as well.
'If I use the Fangs to capture so of the anima, then I can make a small space for to get through, but the Fangs are only as strong as I am, and I don't know how many of the calamity classes they can hold before they break. It might break, and I'd end up getting attacked from behind while trying to fight against Salazar. The best option would probably be to not give them a chance to react.
I need to go straight for Salazar and just ignore them, then when they try to attack , I'll use the Fangs and Aegis to block them. I just have to ti it right.'
Kevin had no idea about the plan forming in Mark's mind, and he just continued on like he was regaling the tale of his life to his grandchild.
"I died as a slave with whip marks on my back and hunger driving mad. From that point on, I had a clearer outlook on life. In my next life, I was a German during the Second World War between Arica and the Nazis. I lived as a subordinate of Hitler himself during his rise to power.
I could see firsthand how brilliant he was and how much people revered him, and that made despise the human race even more. Hitler possessed the soul of an artist—all that brilliance, all that power, all that ability—and all he could think to do with it was kill all the Jews like they were animals. Like they weren't humans just like him.
Erasing an entire race from existence like they didn't matter! There was no difference between him and the rest of the world! That life was a long one, but it was my most irritable. And then, I realized I was seeing things in the wrong way. I still considered humanity to be different entities that hated each other rather than what they really were—a virus programd for destruction.
After coming to this truth, I finally happened to et with a certain group, and they gave the tools I needed to bring an end to the madness. If the world refuses to do anything but destroy each other, then they don't deserve to live.
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"Once I woke up as Salazar, I began the task of ridding this world of humanity, one continent at a ti. I planned to erase the continent of Arica from the map and then move on to Africa, but then you appeared. You and your foolish ideology to save everyone. The superhuman KING. You are nothing but a thorn in my side. Do you know how long it took to create that Armageddon?
More than ten years of hard work went down the drain because you wanted to be a hero. Honestly, I thought you died against that Armageddon, so imagine my surprise when I saw you reappearing like so sort of bad dream. But this ti, I'm going to make sure I finish the job properly. I already began my plans in the real world, but it's too bad you're never going to be able to see it.
By the ti I'm done here and return, the continent of Arica will be no more."
Kevin smiled as he raised a hand and ran it through his long blonde hair. Once more, Mark noticed that this was not sothing Salazar had ever done before—it was a trait that the forr Kevin had.
'Is there a way to return him back to the forr Kent? No, that wouldn't solve anything. I don't want to kill Kent if he's just a victim in all this, but I don't think I have a choice. There might not be a way to separate them, so I'll just have to kill them both if I see an opportunity. But would that even solve anything? He would just reincarnate again.'
Mark cursed in irritation.
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