Jack looked at the others. Everyone seemed to be unable to move or talk, did they experience a much heavier pressure than what he felt? He returned his attention to the figure above.
“Just comply with whatever he wants,” Jack heard Peniel’s voice again.
“A high fairy?” The man uttered, then he lifted his hand.
Peniel who was invisible turned tangible beside Jack. Jack looked at her in surprise. From her expression, she was clearly forced out of her hidden dimension against her will. The man moved his finger and Peniel floated towards him.
“S–Stop…!” Jack uttered. Aren’t Peniel supposed to be unaffected by anything? She was perfectly fine even on the occasions when she was flying around the area of AOE spells during his combat. Jack tried to move but realized now that his body was heavier than he thought.
The man lifted one of his eyelids and said, “did you just give me an order, outworlder?” He floated down and was now floating directly in front of Jack. A wave of fear gripped Jack’s mind and caused him to tremble.
This made no sense, Jack thought. It was unlike him to fear someone this much. Not when he knew nothing about said person.
“How about you tell this outworlder who I am?” The man said to Peniel who seemed to be held by an invisible force beside him.
“He… he is Fear,” Peniel said. “The God of Fear, who was worshipped by the Cult of Phobos.”
“Yes, my cult. Useless as they are, they are still mine. And I heard that you have given them troubles more than once,” Fear said as he returned his attention to Jack. Jack felt those dark eyes were pulling him into a bottomless abyss, he tried his best to avert his gaze from those eyes.
“More than I am comfortable with,” Fear added. “Dealing with you outworlders and these mortals were normally beneath me, you are but an infinitesimal existence to me. But some disturbing knowledge had come to my attention and irresistible bargains were made. One of those bargains required me to help in gaining these divine treasures. Hence, here we are.”
“You can’t do this, Gods and Goddesses are prohibited to meddle in the matter of mortals,” Peniel said.
“Did I give you the permission to speak, fairy?” Fear uttered without sparing her a glance. He then gripped his hand into a knuckle.
“Aaahhhh….!!!” Peniel screamed as black smoke coalesced around her.
“Penieellll…!!!” Jack yelled out.
Peniel’s scream soon stopped. The black smoke dispersed and she fell to the ground. Not moving.
“Pe… Peniel…?” Jack called, but the fairy’s body stayed still.
“Now she won’t be able to disturb our conversation any longer,” Fear said coldly.
“Y… you bastard…!!!” Jack gritted his teeth as he commanded his body to move. His body was shaking heavily from the effort.
“Hehe, are you trying to break away from my influence?” Fear snickered. His dark eyes then gave a short glint.
Jack felt that his vision went black. He could see nothing but infinite darkness. The darkness however was not vast, it was cramped, and it was enclosing. He had a difficulty in breathing in this enclosed nothingness. In this space, all he felt was fear. Irrational fear. All the fears he had ever experienced in his life, pain, loneliness, being not good enough. All the fears he might experience in the future, death, losing the people he cared about, failures. All the fears he thought never existed, the fear of the unknown. All commingled into a single simple thought, terror.
This thought made him lose any other thoughts. He could not think of anything as he sank deeper into the sea of helplessness. Unable to swim back out to the surface. He was losing his breathing and he was drowning. His only thought was to accept this fear and sank further into the dark and bottomless abyss.
In his fractured mind, Peniel’s face suddenly fleeted by. Jack then remembered her voice. The voice that had accompanied him all this time through this game world. The knowledge of never hearing her voices ever again, it brought about a feeling other than fear. It brought about anger, which turned to fury, then grew into a rage. A rage that swept aside all the fears that were currently gripping his heart.
Jack’s eyes snapped open and saw the object of his rage in front of him. His Storm Breaker came out as he executed Flame Strike. The trail of blaze went towards Fear who was directly in front of him.
When the flaming sword was only a few inches left from Fear’s head, it abruptly stopped. The flaming explosion which followed the skill’s impact was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the flame died down with a whimper. Fear’s two fingers were gripping Storm Breaker’s blade.
Fear furrowed his forehead. “You broke my fear domain?” He asked. His face was still indifferent despite the furrow, but there was a tint of astonishment in his tone. This tone, however, soon turned into annoyance, “you lowly creature dares to defy me…?”
He tightened the grip on his fingers. There was a loud snapping sound as Jack watched with disbelief as his Storm Breaker, which was supposed to be unbreakable, broke into pieces right in front of his very eyes.
The broken shards of the black blade fell onto the ground. Fear watched his handiwork with a smile, he then looked back at Jack, fully expecting to see the outworlder’s eyes filled with surprise and fear. Yet, what came into his vision was the tip of a magic staff.
Jack fired a Mana Bullet point-blank. Though Jack was indeed surprised by his Storm Breaker’s fate, it only lasted for an instant. His rage over this God was still prevalent. All he cared about right now was to give this supposed supreme being a slap on his face.
The Mana Bullet hit Fear’s face and popped like a burst balloon. Damage number of 1 appeared on Fear’s head.
Despite the overwhelmingly insignificant damage, Jack was grinning savagely while Fear was scowling.
“What God of Fear? Even an infinitesimal existence like me can touch you. You are nothing!” Jack said loudly.
“You ant!” Fear was clearly angered by the provocation. His hand shaped into a claw and dark clouds materialized and gripped at Jack, restraining him.
“Your Almighty, please do not kill him!” Gridhacker called out.
“Silence!” Fear proclaimed and Gridhacker was seemingly slapped by a tremendous force, he was thrown away due to the force and had his HP hanging by only a thread.
“No one talks to me as you did, so I will grant you a proper reward of death,” Fear said as his hand gripped into a knuckle.
Everyone expected Jack to lose his life then and there, but a green light enveloped him, eroding all the black smoke on his body. Before anyone could make sense of what had happened, an otherworldly beautiful woman with long golden hair and blue eyes came out of thin air behind Jack. Her appearance was that of a young woman but yet also gave people the impression that she was centuries old. She made a pull and Jack was dragged to her back.
“G–Goddess Serenity…?” Jack uttered when he recognized the woman that had come between him and Fear.
Fear was frowning as he glared at Serenity, “what is the meaning of this?”
“That is what I should ask you, Fear. You know the rule set by the Creator was that none of us Gods and Goddesses are to interfere in the affair of mortals. Yet, here you are, interfering.”
Serenity’s voice brought about calm into the hearts of all who presented. The fear that was holding them immobile was dispelled. Finally able to move, Duke Alfredo and the rest quickly gathered behind Goddess Serenity with Jack. They remained silent as they knew that the affair between these two beings was not something they had the power to involve themselves with.
“Creator? Rule? Hmph, if only you knew the truth. Such a joke,” Fear uttered.
“Do not make excuses. You know if you continue to involve yourself, I will also not stay impartial,” Serenity said.
“Heh, so what? Do you think you can do much against me?” Fear asked.
“What if I also demand you to stay your hands as well?” Another voice was heard. This one boomed as if a loud thunderclap. Everyone looked up to the source of the voice and saw two figures floating down. One was a middle-aged man with a clean and handsome face, his hair was blue. His body was geared in full golden armor that constantly shone and gave a feeling of hope in all that laid eyes on it. The other one was an old man with a long white beard that Jack also recognized. He was Honuren, the Demigod that presided over their passing from the Tutorial world into this one.
The two landed beside Serenity, it was clear from their stance that they were in opposition from Fear.
“Do you think you can take me on?” The man in the golden armor asked. Jack surmised he had to also be a God to dare to talk that way to Fear.
