Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 850: Released From Prison

"I need to take this."

Kiernan walked away with the phone in hand, and looked at the name on his phone screen with a puzzled expression.

It felt odd for Azer to suddenly want to call him, but maybe he just wanted to catch up, as his roots grew deep in Irio.

With a button press, he accepted the call, and put the phone right next to his ear.

"Hello, Azer?"

He sat down on the lobby chair.

"Hello~"

A voice came from the other side of the phone.

It wasn’t Azer’s voice—and how could he tell that?—because the voice was a woman’s, which he had never heard of before.

"Who is this?"

Kiernan asked with a frown.

"Search your heart. You will know who this is. And once you figure that out, then we can continue talking."

The woman said with a giggle.

She sounded really playful, but there was something really off about this as well, Kiernan could feel it in his gut.

"...Mercedes?"

Kiernan said coldly.

"Bingo~ Hello fellow Earthling!"

Mercedes laughed on the other side of the phone.

"Why do you have Azer’s phone with you? You are in Irio? What the hell do you want with that place?"

Kiernan asked with a frown.

There was a feeling of urgency, and he already wanted to rush out of the door, and start heading for Irio.

"I am not much of a technology woman. How do I put this into FaceTime... Hmm~ Hmm~ Hmm~"

Mercedes fiddled with the phone, and then the phone call turned into FaceTime, and Kiernan was able to see Mercedes’ smiling face.

She then turned the phone around, showing Kiernan the sight of all of Irio’s citizens sitting in the stadium.

They looked afraid. No one dared to speak. They looked like prisoners.

It was hard to fit all the Irio’s citizens inside the same stadium, so some were sitting on stairs, on the ground, and even standing in the aisles.

"...What the hell?"

Kiernan frowned.

"Remember this place?"

Mercedes asked as she showed the stadium to him, and the place felt very much familiar—it’s where his new beginning started.

"...Yes, I do."

Kiernan frowned.

"When one reincarnates, they leave behind a "rift" in the location where they first appear after their reincarnation. The rift stays open for a couple of hundred years.

"There had been a couple of reincarnators, but their rifts have already closed—including mine—so only yours is still open.

"Paradise World had a rift. I used that rift to sacrifice all Paradians. I will now use this rift to sacrifice everybody in here.

"I’ll be waiting for you, giggle~"

Mercedes giggled and ended the call.

Kiernan lowered his phone and then slowly pocketed it with a heavy look on his face.

There was a reason why Mercedes called him, and it was obviously a trap—she needed him for something.

’It is a trap, but... I have to go to stop her. If she isn’t stopped now, there isn’t a place where my family could live at.’

Kiernan walked back to the hospital suite and, from the window, was able to see Ellie laugh and smile with Aoi.

’Last push...’

He turned around, left the hospital, and took flight across the rainy skies of Montrael City. The rain just bounced off his body.

With a quick flight, he was soon out of the range of the rain clouds, and the sun shone brightly on his face.

Since he started his martial arts career, he had always been bothered with chronic nervousness whenever he fought.

It was sometimes so bad that he felt like he couldn’t breathe or just wanted to puke.

There were times when he just wanted to stop fighting because he couldn’t handle the nervousness and just leave.

Today.

He wasn’t feeling nervous anymore.

Even though he was about to face the biggest challenge of his life, he was surprisingly calm and confident.

’Will I get to fight today finally?! You promised that I get to fight in the Afterlife. You lied to me!’

A voice inside him raged.

’I’ll let you start the fight, but if your performance isn’t satisfactory, I will take the control back, and handle it by myself.’

Kiernan thought.

’Heh, fine!’

With that, he sped into the distance and disappeared.

...

The skies of Irio were dark and gray. No clouds for some reason. The air was heavy with the smell of rain.

There was a sun, but it was small, like a faint glimmer of hope in a world full of darkness and uncertainty.

Streets were quiet and empty. The schools were closed, leaving the playgrounds eerily abandoned. And the cars were just abandoned on the roads.

It was like the whole city had disappeared somewhere.

Swoosh~

At that moment.

Kiernan landed in the vicinity of a stadium—looking at the structure with nostalgia—it felt so familiar.

This was the place where he first appeared in his reincarnation—when the former Kiernan Hunter died in the hands of the referee.

’That’s the alleyway where I beat up Jonathan, and his friends, where I also awakened my Martial Soul.’

Kiernan thought with a deep look.

’Kiernan Hunter suffered his biggest loss in this stadium, which ended his life, but I will not let that happen to me.’

Kiernan straightened his back, and strolled into the stadium.

He walked through the hallways—the walls had framed photographs of the stadium’s former tournament winners—and he felt a sense of determination building within him.

In that moment, he saw light at the end of the tunnel, and he walked right through it with his head held high.

The heads of every single soul inside the stadium turned to look at him—many familiar faces were among them—and they started to look hopeful.

Azer... Julia... Karma’s friends... Some of the former classmates... Teachers... The neighbors of his childhood home... Everyone was here.

"You are here!"

Mercedes laughed.

She was standing in the middle of the ring, clapping her hands, and smiling widely with big chipmunk-like cheeks.

Kiernan walked up the steps and arrived at the ring.

"I am sure you are curious, so let me explain—back on Earth, I was a good girl, always helping others, and never causing any trouble. "A saint," many called me. How funny.

"I clearly earned enough karma, or so I thought... My life then ended in the hands of a person who I helped, and that... broke me.

"I guess the Head Reapers felt pity towards me, and they gave me a gift of reincarnation—how funny is that... They didn’t notice the anger that was building inside me.

"I lived most of my early life in ignorance. Had no memories. Old me got the system and got pretty strong.

"When the system turned Expert, my memories came back to me, and I remembered it all... And I realized one thing.

"Why be good when you can determine what good is?"

Mercedes smiled and clenched her right hand into a tight fist.

"So, you’re planning to kill everyone here and become an actual God. And then what?"

Kiernan asked.

"I do have a plan. I want to reset everything. I want to reduce all the realms to the atomic level and rebuild them. I’ll teach all the creatures to be truly good. Then we won’t be in need of Hell."

Mercedes said softly.

"There is a thing called "free will," and I don’t think you can change that. In the end, there will always be good and bad."

Kiernan slowly moved into his defensive stance—the Iron Style Stance—and calmly breathed out from his mouth.

"But one thing is for sure—I don’t trust your version of good. You have a twisted mind, Mercedes Rosburg.

"And I will not let you kill anybody in here."

Kiernan said coldly.

"Sigh... Well, there is a reason why I wanted you here. I will use you as my first sacrifice, and that sacrifice will be good enough for me to finally absorb the rest of Starfather’s divinity.

"When I am done with that, I can also sacrifice the rest of the world. They won’t even know that they have died, except when they arrive at the doorsteps of the Afterlife."

Mercedes said, and she also moved into her fighting stance—she touched hands with Kiernan—the back of their hands brushed against each other.

They looked into each other’s eyes.

"Go Kiernan, beat her ass!"

"Kiernan, you can do it!"

"Please, win!"

In that moment, the entire stadium started cheering for Kiernan Hunter—who was born and raised in these streets of Irio.

SWOOSH!

In that moment, Mercedes and Kiernan clashed for the first time—their hands moved faster than the eye could see—neither moved back or forth.

It was just their hands—slapping and clashing with each other—and it wasn’t clear who was winning between the two of them.

In that moment, Kiernan’s spearhand pierced through Mercedes’ defenses, and grazed past her cheek.

Trickle~

A thin line of blood trickled down Mercedes’ pale and flawless skin.

"Hehe~ I now understand how you were able to reach the 100th floor in Master Dungeon when I never could."

Mercedes smiled.

She then noticed that Kiernan was quiet and raised an eyebrow in confusion, but then Kiernan looked slightly different.

His eyes had turned black, and his flesh was changing colors to crimson.

"...What is this?"

She asked.

’You’re now in control.’

Kiernan whispered inside his mind, and then his consciousness disappeared, and was replaced by someone else’s.

"Hahahahaha!"

At that moment, ’Kiernan’ started laughing with a mad-looking face, and he threw a punch—Mercedes quickly blocked it—but it still sent her flying backwards.

[Uncontrollable Demons Released]

It was something that shouldn’t be done, but Kiernan decided to finally release his Uncontrollable Demons from their prison.

It had to be done.