Aggressive Predator: If I'm Reborn, I'll attack every girl-Chapter 36: Curse Those Skill Costs!

Boros gave a thin smile. "Still optimistic as always."

"Naturally," Arahabaki sank into his throne. "That is one lesson my first friend, Alexander, taught me."

His expression then darkened. "And he was rejected by the world he saved... Ah, speaking of Alexander, I discovered something drastic tonight..."

Everyone’s attention was caught.

He continued, "I saw Seraphina. It appears she has allied herself with the Predator."

"What?!" a man with a lion’s head yelped. "Seraphina as in that indifferent System Administrator?!"

"Yes. And it seems she’s taking orders from the Predator."

"What?!" the lion head shrieked. "That arrogant System Administrator?!"

"Yes. They tasked her with eliminating Yam and beating me up, apparently."

"What?!" Lion Head again. "That self-centered System Administ—"

"Shut up, Simba!" Yuuki yelled from her Arahabaki tree.

"I told you not to call me that!!"

Arahabaki raised a hand to settle them down.

"Simha’s surprise is understandable," Arahabaki rested his chin on his knuckles. "Seraphina is an extremely dangerous being—one who particularly harbors destructive intentions for mortals. So it brings up the question: why is she serving one?"

Everyone in the space began to exchange glances.

"Maybe... she fell in love?" Starlight shrugged.

"You’re right," Rashomon scoffed. "In fact, maybe she’s living in its house as a nanny!"

"Starlight might be correct," Arahabaki interjected. "Seraphina had almost fallen for a mortal once—Alexander, my friend."

"Alexander again?" Yuuki scrunched her brows.

"Ah. Alexander made massive impact in the world that time. And Seraphina, Lord Arahabaki, and many others supported him," Simha explained.

Arahabaki made a wry smile. "She always bullied me whenever he was absent, frequently forcing me into dangerous games and sports. In a way, she contributed to my unusual strength."

Yuuki pouted. "Was that why she was kicking you like a football throughout the city?"

At her words, everyone gasped.

"It’s war, Arahabaki-sama!" Nadeshiko brought out a katana, her aura spiking. "Whoever this Seraphina is, I shall cut her down!"

Arahabaki calmed her down and further explained.

"If anything, I think she went easy on me this time around... I was certain she was not going to slay me. But I expected to receive nigh-unrecoverable damage. But Yuuki came at the right time," he rubbed her hair as her face turned red.

"I-I’m sorry I came late," she snuggled deeper, a blue vein bulging on Nadeshiko’s head. "I couldn’t get a good chance to come close. Considering what she suddenly did to Yam."

"Hm?" Boros looked up. "What happened to Yam?"

Yuuki turned to the audience, her blue eyes suddenly gleaming with something grave. "Seraphina touched him and he was flooded by some alien goo that melted his skin off his bones—then the rest of him—while he groaned in what I identified as ’Help, I’m dying,’ but it sounded more like croaking beneath mud."

Boros and the others flinched.

"Oh... Oh..." He scratched his chin.

"And I was also being wary of the Arrogant Elf," Yuuki added, going back to hugging her Arahabaki tree. "For some reason, she was hurt and bleeding, being attended to by her eccentric servants, Mai and Donnie."

Arahabaki sighed. "Well, it would be more efficient if I showed you all what transpired, yes?"

The moment he said it, he whispered something—and everyone present had their entire eyes turn pitch black, like his.

A moment passed.

A few more moments came and went, but everyone’s expressions remained frozen.

Then their faces began to twist in horror. A few of them started to shiver.

"Wh... What is that...?" Rashomon whispered, as though the foe would hear and arrive.

"Is that not a Titan?" Illumi asked, his hand trembling slightly. "I cannot think of any other being at that level."

"Arahabaki-sama!"

"Araha!"

Nadeshiko and Yuuki embraced Arahabaki, palpable concern etched in their eyes.

Nadeshiko even cried.

"Hmmm. This one is unlike any I have ever faced," Damian mused—he was the only one not shaken by the revelation. "This just goes to show, in retrospect, the kind of Principality you are, Arahabaki. To have survived that kind of storm."

"Please, do not flatter me, Damian," Arahabaki murmured, slowly rubbing the girls’ heads as they clung to him. "Even I am curious about the abundance of fortune I possess. If Vaelora had not enclosed the space with Original Magic, even this world would have faced extinction."

A moment of silence—and soft sniffles—prevailed...

Until Arahabaki began again:

"We shall hasten our mission. The plan to reform this forsaken world. The plan to invite the Invaders should commence as soon as possible... before we particularly get on the extermination radar of the Aggressive Predator."

"I still think that’s a lewd name..." Starlight muttered, still holding his trembling arm.

"Well," Rashomon sighed, "at least that muscle-head, Yam, is dead and out of your hair..."

"Hm?" Arahabaki raised an eyebrow. "...Yam did melt into nothing at his encounter with Seraphina... but he is not dead."

A dimly lit room with green lights...

Fairly wide, with various pods—each housing identical corpses—scattered everywhere...

In one of them, the body began to stir: its dead, pale skin warming to a faint flush.

Its lifeless eyes softened into warm brown; long black hair faded into a smoky grey; intricate, almost artistic scars traced its back and sides.

Its eyes closed, then snapped open. It drew a breath, then sat up, surveying its surroundings.

"Ah..." it rasped. "I forgot I had these. The last time I died was hundreds of years ago."

[Yam!! Are you awake?!]

[...No... I’m still dreaming. A wonderful and exhilarating dream I’ve yearned for so long.]

[Goodness, Yam, again with this battle-junkie nonsense! At least ask if I’m fine too! Holding that {Isolated Area} was like balancing a boiling pot with an elephant on it!]

[Hm? But you can hold a boiling pot with an elephan—]

[Don’t you get my point?!]

[Ah, I remember now. Vaelora, when I was being consumed by that alien energy... one thing flashed in my mind... You.]

[Eh? R-Really? Well, that was going to be, uh, a torturous experience. So maybe your brain was latching onto someone you deeply cared abou—]

[I remembered what you said before the battle. About how I love carnage? You were right! As I felt every burn, every dissolution of my being, I couldn’t help but feel alive. I wish I could marry AP now and duel him till our bones creak— Huh? Vaelora?]

[...]

[Are you still there?]

[...Bzzt!]

"Ah. She cut the transmission."

Seconds after the mental call ended, Yam hoisted himself out of the pod.

CLICK.

A door opened. Footsteps echoed across the floor.

Yam didn’t turn—but a wide, unrestrained smile spread across his face.

"Good morning, Lady Asherah," he said. "...Or is it afternoon or evening? How long was I out? Is Arahabaki dead too? Wait, did you miss me while I was gon—"

"Silence, or I’ll drive my heel into your skull and send you back to sleep."

***

Three days later, after Alexander’s first battle in Dokai, he—she—returned to normal...

Well, except for the third, pale figure floating in the room, thick with dark emotion, and—

"So you mean I’m stuck this way?" Alexander asked, hands clasped, a small smile playing on his lips.

"I can’t say," Seraphina replied. "If it’s truly the result of skill overuse, then you should become male again. Besides, you still look just as cute as before."

"Cuteness is not the point!" Alexander snapped. "My gender suddenly shifting after I wake up from a city-destroying task is no joke!"

He tried to summon his Ultra skills—[Jericho] and [GOD]—but they responded poorly, only flickering weakly.

With a gloomy expression, Alexander sighed.

"Hmmm. If Yam and Arahabaki decide to pay me a nice visit right now... I’d be left with only one option: poisoning their tea."

"Fret not, Master!" Seraphina declared, puffing out her chest. "Those mortal fleas won’t lay a hand on you while I’m around!"

"Hai, hai..." Alexander muttered, flopping flat on the bed, doing his best to ignore the ghostly figure pointing at him with blood in its eyes.

Cradle-san had been banished again, by the way, following Alexander’s awakening.

"Ah, thank you for the other day," Alexander turned to Seraphina. "You distracted those war machines posing as people for me, right?"

Seraphina’s eyes drifted to a random bulb.

"Y...Yes, Master. I just played around with them a bit."

"Mhm." Alexander nodded. "Because it’s going to be one hell of a problem if we hurt them or any more people.

Despite my claim of becoming a villain just to be happy, I’m still a wimp at heart.

I can’t take on a dozen Yams and Arahabakis."

"So..." He sat up, resting a hand on his knee like an underworld boss. "Where’s my reward for defeating the demons in Dokai?"

"Ah, of course," Seraphina responded. "With the completion of the mission, a messenger of the gods was sent with the reward. They actually arrived previously, but you were acting like a normal baby. He’ll return today."

Alexander clicked his tongue. "Curse those skill costs!" He swung his fist.

"I can’t believe I peed and shit myself, cried and laughed like a dumb baby, then even let you carry me around like a doll without protest!"

"It was one of the most enjoyable moments of my life," Seraphina said, genuine glee in her voice.

"Really? You better cherish it, then. It’ll be the last!" Alexander growled, then sank into thought.

"I presume the gender swap was the cost of [GOD], and that accursed fragile mind I had was the cost from [Jericho]."

"Hm? How so, Master?" Seraphina asked, sitting on the bed and placing Alexander on her lap.