The longest Day V

10:30

Mari

120 Days in the void.

The axe came crashing down into another savage cut. I managed to evade it, but the next was coming not even a split second later.

I avoided that one as well, but that left me open for the third, I tried to deflect it with my dirk but could only minimize the damage as it burrowed itself into my left shoulder.

I suppressed the urge to scream. This was nothing. I need to be able to stomach at least this much pain.

Then came the fourth slash and I was disemboweled.

"Not bad, boy", Minerva praised me with a sneer, twirling her four axes effortlessly. "You survived a whooping ten minutes against me."

Of course, that wasn't the actual Minerva. It was Femto using an illusion. The injuries weren’t real either, but that didn't stop the pain.

"Fuck", I cursed, gritting my teeth, as I was unable to suppress my frustration any longer.

"You are getting better", Femto tried to cheer me up. "In the beginning I slaughtered you in under a minute."

"Not fast enough", I said, a sense of dread rolling up inside of me.

We have been doing this for months now. And outside, noon was already approaching. Progress was slow, too slow. Even these ten minutes were only accomplished when I was under Hebi-san’s hypnosis. And this connection did not last long, the moment I start taking hits I am forcefully snapped out of it.

“You were harsher with me last time.”

The devil gave a chuckle at that. “Well yeah, but making you go insane isn’t part of the training regime this time.”

“Maybe it should be”, I argued. “This is too slow.”

"Your progress is within the projected estimates.”, Femto assured me. “Out there you will have me helping you out. All I need you to do is act as a diversion.”

“For an hour”, I pointed out. “What if we can’t get her to surrender in that time?”

“That would be unfortunate, Sir. I am the type of investor who has no problem cutting her losses. Or to put it in more baser terms: If that happens, you’re fucked.”

Figures.

“Can I at least ask for one thing?”

“No.”

I continued anyways. “...if it looks like Minerva would get me to surrender..."

She seemed to be well aware where I was going with this. "This again? I believe we talked about it, didn’t we?”

I shook my head. “It’s not that. I get that you might not be able to take my soul immediately. That’s fine. But in that case, please teleport my girls to safety. You can at least do that much, can you?”

Femto stared at me with blank eyes. “That is not part of the contract.”

“But you want me to win, right?”, I countered.

“Of course, Sir! Neither of us gains much from your defeat.”

“Then please help me out here!”, I pleaded. “The thought that I might doom them...it’s horrifying. I can’t concentrate on the fight like this.”

“It’s the opposite”, commented the devil. “That means you will fight tooth and nails.”

As expected of Femto. Her logic was utterly twisted. “I won’t just stop giving it my all just because my girls are safe”, I defended myself. “It’s not like I want to become a ****.”

"Really?", Femto vanished and next I felt her tail was poking me in the butt. “Because I am getting some mixed signals here.”

I slashed towards the tail with my dirk but obviously Femto was much faster. She casually grabbed me by the throat. “Sir...begging your pardon for asking, but I do wonder, are you aware of your own potential?”

My confusion must have been evident as the devil chuckled.

“No, of course you aren’t. Well, bottom line. It’s big, Sir. Very big. I wouldn’t have agreed to this risky venture if my potential gains weren’t positively tremendous.”

I wasn’t sure how I should react to this, so I simply nodded.

“Let me put it very, very simple for you: You are a bunch of ingredients, Sir. An unbelievably delicious bunch of ingredients that I am currently preparing for my meal.” Femto smirked and squeezed. “And hell will sooner freeze over before I let that Dark Lord Bitch steal my first class dinner.”

Still with that same smile on her lips, she released me. "Surrender is not an option. Do that and all your girls will suffer a horrific fate.”

I coughed, rubbed my throat and looked up in the cold, unfeeling eyes of the devil.

“For their sake, please be a tasty meal, Sir.”

Femto’s estimate on victory over Minerva

Amber Dominator Mari Beta (1%/0.5%)

steel dirks (0.4%/0.2%)

Devil of time(1 hour) (13.6%/6.8%)

Sylphid is doing something (1%/0.5%)

Sanakia is doing something (-2%/-1%)

Gilbert’s hypnosis (+2%/+1%)

Bea is researching (+8%/+4%)

Amber Dominator Mari Beta Void interim (+3%/+1.5%)

chances of victory by kill: 26,0%

chances of victory via surrender: 13%