Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Tengoku first tried Atama, but when he did not pick up his call (which was not a surprise, it was turning into a regular thing, he never picked up his calls) he decided to enter the game with his men.

"It is me," he said, and the man on the other side went crazy.

"S-Sir! You are alive! Are-are you okay? Are you kidnapped? Where are you?"

"Calm the shit down. I want a backup, I have planned an attack today. So send the reinforcements to the border, and I will take it from there."

"Sir, what about your safety?"

"Look, I don't have even a scratch of me. I decided to disappear for a few days, I am fine."

"OK, sir. I will prepare a backup for you." He hung up.

Tengoku looked at the forest in front of him, he was still sitting on the Mage Prefecture's border wall.

Then he tried Atama again, but still no reply. He sighed. "What are you doing, old man? This was your idea, remember?"

He was waiting for Hitori to come so that he could cut Hitori to pieces, but when he saw that he had company, Tengoku decided to move back. Atama wanted it to be a murder, but with the support Hitori has, it was difficult.

He needed a plan, and over a project plan, he needed men to help him. Since his best man was gone and the others were just trained soldiers who were not emotionally connected to Tengoku, it was difficult for him to find loyal support like Hitori.

But the advantage Tengoku had was, well, he was strong. His men were stronger than Hitori's and outnumbered his group.

He was unaware of the ongoing battle at Onogi's fort.

Atama was busy solving this Massacre case. He knew he knew that man's killing style. It was getting late, he had skipped dinner, and now it was time for him to sleep.

He wrapped the papers into a bunch, then pinned them. He kept a paperweight made of rock over the pile of paper and got off his table.

He stretched and yawned, still worried about the Massacre case. "He must have left something. I must have something in my mind, but I can not seem to remember it."

He held a troubled expression, his eyebrows were down, and so were the corners of his mouth. The usual Headmaster Charm had vanished. He went to the back of his office, opened a door, and entered his room.

A bed in the corner, a water jug right next to it, a few windows on both sides, and a tea table in the other corner.

He took a seat on the corner of his bed, still hoping to find anything about the case– or at least, the man who was committing the crimes.

"Saiko Ningen, sure as hell that is not his name. Not only his name, but the whole person is a duplicate. He is not real."

At the moment, he was unaware of how paranormal he sounded– curses? Duplicates? A ghost? That only happened in fiction. Something was wrong with this Ningen person.

He fell asleep.

In his sleep, he saw a dark sky, under the dark sky was a man with a tattoo on his face. It read: Soul (Tamashi). They were staring at each other.

"Are you sure, Atama? If you come—"

"I am not a traitor. You should know that."

"I know that, that is why I want you to turn yourself to me."

"I won't. Do whatever you want. You know you can not do anything to them, not to me either. We defeated you, you are weaker than us. But your ego and pride are bigger than us."

Tamashi's slight smile faded. "You should not say that."

"But it IS the truth. You are scared of us, you could not take it when Hiro surpassed your weak realm without even fighting you. He was BORN that strong.  But because of your miserable ego, you want your reputation back. But hear me, this way, you will only lose your remaining respect and reputation."

"You do not know anything, just shut up. If you do not want to help me, then get lost."

"See? You are a bad person. To gain respect and reputation, you should respect others. Which you don't. This will mess you, know this. Drop your ego and lead the way in cultivation. Get strong."

"I do not want to Cultivate. I am best the way I am," he shouted.

"Best? Best how? You feed on the emotions of innocent people! You kill mercilessly and enjoy doing it. You are a psychopath. I will leave you, but if you return, I will be the one to end you."

Atama turned around, and his white robe followed him. Tamashi jumped from his place and grabbed Atama by the neck.

"It does not hurt." He inserted his dark magic into Atama.

Atama threw his neck and moved his hand robotically to grab his hand, but Tamashi was exerting his strength.

Somehow, he extended his hand and grabbed Tamashi. He tried to struggle out, but then he churned Tamashi's hand and pulled him forward.

Atama kicked Tamashi in the face, crushing his head against the rocks. Blood poured from the back of his head and his nose.

Atama's heart jumped when he saw blood– he did not intend to kill him– he was shit scared. He looked around, but no one had seen him, so he decided to make a run for it.

He did not glance back even once, he left Tamashi on the ground, bleeding, struggling with life, and ran away.

Behind him, dark energy surrounded Tamash's head. His body moved and he rose from the dark smoke.

His nose was alright, and the blood had vanished. But something else had crept on his face.

As the smoke left his face, it revealed his lips stretched to the corner. They opened and revealed his white teeth.

The smoke could not hurt his eyes, so he kept them wide open. He gave his head a little tilt and smiled at Atama's back.

It was a sign that his comeback will swap their places, and that he had been successful to plant that parasite in Atama's neck, which would slowly climb and get into his head.

Atama snapped from his sleep and jumped to the corner of his bed. He was breathing hard, but the tension due to the case had gone, right now, he was bearing an angry frown.

The parasite was in charge. He looked at his thighs and sighed. "So you are back… Tamashi," he muttered.

Kyoryu tossed the metallic hand down the staircase, then turned to the man who appeared from the dark hallway.

Hitori took a step due to the intense fear Onogi's father, Kamino, was exerting. His serious eyes appeared before his body did, and then he swung his eight metallic (now seven) arms.

"You have to leave this house right now, or I will fill you with bullets!" His warning sounded unnatural to Hitori, he thought Onogi's father was not an experienced killer, he was just an adventurer.

He pulled two arms from behind, they were wielding machine guns. Eya jumped forward and created a shield while Kakashi threw a spell at him.

Kamino swung his arm and blocked the spell, even the metal of the arms was high-class, out of this world.

"Your stupid spells can not hurt my incredible metal! I have worked hard and experimented on it for months!"

Hitori was truly scared, but not ready to step back this time. How could he? Akira was standing already, Eya was protecting them, Kakashi was firing spells, and Kyoryu… ah… he was staring at Kamino.

"Eya, take them and leave," Kyoryu said, which disappointed Eya way too much.

"What? We can not do that! We can not leave after we have—"

"Not that leave, stupid! Go upstairs! Find that billy boy and end this, I am bored!" he groaned in an annoying tone.

"What about you? Those machine guns are really dangerous," Kakashi said.

"Just believe me." He glanced at Akira, who nodded back. "Let me take care of this octopus."

Kyoryu took a step back, Akira grabbed Hitori's hand and raced forward. "Hurry! We need to leave before he casts that spell!

Hitori was halfway glancing at Kyoryu and Kamino. The whole thing was confusing, just how could a mage fight that octopus when his spells can not even harm him?

Eya turned and Kakashi fired the last spell before running to the stairs. Hitori, on the turn, saw Kamino's groin area. But to his surprise, it was covered with an external level of metal. Perfect.

Hitori could do nothing but run and find Onogi. "Wait, they must have cameras, right?"

"Of course, they do!" Hitori shouted.

"Then how about we just check the cameras and find where Onogi is?" Akira suggested.

Eya turned and asked, "Where are the cameras? Where is the control room?"

"Probably…" Hitori hesitated, "downstairs." He sighed.

Kakashi scoffed. "So continue running. We need to wrap this before the police decide to show themselves."

"Do not worry," Akira said, "I have watched in movies and stuff, police always arrive after the crime has been committed. They are always late. I don't know if they do it deliberately to get attention."

No one said anything. They kept quiet and ran to the next floor after checking the current floor. It took them another ten minutes to search every floor and finally reach the rooftop.