HP: The Arcane Thief
chapter-148

There was only one thing Nerio couldn't understand. "Y-You... How did you... manage to control water?" That's what he wanted to know. It was an ability that a few members of the royal family could awaken. And that too after a lot of special procedures. How did he do it?!

Axel shrugged. "Well, to be honest water has always been good to me. You saw my memories, didn't you?"

Whenever he'd get beaten up, and sick, he would take a bath in the Thames. It would always make him feel better. So to say, his affinity with water has always been high.

Axel shook his head. "But I still wouldn't have been able to do it without your help. You were so eager to torture me with that jellyfish that you delivered me a container full of deep sea water along with it, that helped me in my recovery."

!!! Nerio's gaze went to the container which used to contain the tormentacle, and sure enough, it no longer contained any water.

"Yep, and then you also helped me learn it by generating the need."

The two of them looked at Axel in confusion, but Axel didn't explain further. The ability to control water, it was generated not because he had had any special training for it, or anything. It was generated out of sheer anger and will to crush these two. It helped him take his concentration to the absolute peak and make the connection with the water element in the atmosphere.

That's why this notification was being showcased in front of his eyes.

[Congratulations! {Water bending} has been upgraded to {Water Monarch}]

Until now, he had been on the first stage of it, in which he could summon and manipulate water using his magic. But he needed to go further in order to wield water like Voldemort could wield his darkness. He just had this intuition that he could do it.

Theron stood up. He was done patching up Nerio the best he could. At least the man shouldn't die of bloodloss before they get his arms reconnected.

He exhaled, glaring at Axel. "You shouldn't have done that to Nerio. You are done for now."

As if to confirm that, Axel used his water blades on Theron, only for them to be broken harmlessly against the impenetrable defense of Theron's armor.

Theron laughed. "You see that? Your blades might work against Nerio, but they're completely useless against me. Your situation hasn't improved at all. In fact, it's worsened! You can't escape since the space is locked, and you can't break through my defenses. And you still haven't recovered your physical and magical strength. It's a completely hopeless situation," he said, coming closer to Axel without fear.

It was the reason why he hadn't bothered immediately trying to subdue Axel, instead focusingon Nerio's life. Because he knew Axel can't hurt him, neither can he escape.

Theron seemed to be telling the truth. Axel couldn't escape since he couldn't use magic, and his water monarch skill still wasn't strong enough to defeat Theron. But. Axel covered his face with his hand in exasperation.

"Is he really that dumb?" He asked, looking at Nerio, who sighed,

"What did you say?!" Theron decided to attack Axel, but then he saw the water blades resting against Nerio's neck and paused in his steps.

"Did you forget your own words? My blades CAN hurt Nerio, you moron. Move forward, and I kill him," he said.

With the leftover water, a hand was created, which picked up his space pocket and brought it to Axel. Another hand picked up Nerio's fallen relic as well.

"Gentlemen, as you already know, I am also called the Arcane Thief. I do hope you don't mind if I take this Relic with me," he said, as the blades got closer to Nerio's neck just in case if they needed more convincing.

Theron and Nerio could do nothing as Axel stole the priceless relic right in front of their eyes.

Patting his pocket in satisfaction, Axel sat leisurely in his chair, looking completely at ease in the tense situation. Though, in retrospect, he seemed to have been at ease from the very beginning. Only they were foolish and arrogant enough to attribute it to false bravado.

Axel looked at them mockingly. "Well, the two of you were very fond of the hostage situation, weren't you? You kept trying to create it. Well. hope you are satisfied now."

He had been enduring until now. Even if he didn't show it, these two had managed to anger him to levels his occlumency was having difficulty controlling.

Well, it was his turn now. Somewhere in the gangs, he had heard a chinese saying: Give 1000 times what you receive.

Well, he liked it. And now he intended to follow it.

"How does it feel? Getting outsmarted by a 13 year old? Did I tell you guys that I only started learning magic 2 years ago? You lost to a complete beginner."

Axel didn't know it, but his words were similar to a gamer's trash talk, something extremely deadly to the victims.

Sure enough, Theron and Nerio looked downright murderous right now. If looks could kill, Axel would be dead a hundred times over. His words were hurting them more than getting stabbed by a 1000 knives.

Of course, Axel wouldn't stop just yet.

"What did you guys say? That you were the Overseers of the Kraken? Well, it's more like overdosers of crack! Maybe that's why you are so fucking easy to beat."

"You," He turned to Nerio. He was now going to target them individually. "You cut my hand, right?" Axel grinned. "You fucking idiot, that hand had the key clutched in it!" He said while laughing.

!!!

Nerio's eyes popped out of their sockets. What did he just hear?! The key… was in the hand he cut off? He couldn't believe it!

But no matter how much he wanted not to believe it, he could tell that Axel was telling the truth.

"Haha, you lost the thing you wanted the most due to your own actions." Axel was still laughing. "And you thought you were so awesome for doing that," he wheezed.

Indeed, Nerio WAS proud of that shot. And now, upon realizing that he had lost the key due to it, he felt extremely frustrated.

"You… did you plan it?" He asked, thinking of a scary possibility. Axel already knew they would come, and then he was captured quite easily. So, Nerio wondered if this came here willingly.

Axel shrugged. "I will neither accept nor deny that. Anyways, I settled the score. You cut one of my hands from wrist down, I cut both of your hands from shoulder down. Far more fair than two adults ganging up on a child."

"You know what? You should thank me instead. I took so much weight off your shoulders!"

Axel was absolutely butchering them.

"I will ask for a handshake. Too bad, you don't have a hand to shake."

He didn't even leave out such petty jabs. He was absolutely enjoying the situation.

Nerio couldn't take it anymore. The blood loss had already made him feeble and the extreme anger and frustration made him temporarily pass out.

"Nerio! Hey, wake up! Nerio?!" Theron turned to glare at Axel as the dark flames he had absorbed Akiko started to burn on his glove. "You bastard! I'm going to kill you!" he said, but just as he was about to attack Axel, Nerio groaned in pain.

"Don't even think about it. Well, not unless you want him dead," he said, as the water blades made Nerio's arms to start bleeding again.

Theron gritted his teeth. "You… you're so much more infuriating than your father."

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Axel, now turning his attention to Theron. "I'm curious. Why do you hate my father so much? I don't think it's because of his talent." he said as his eyes bore down on him.

"Judging by your ugly-ass face, I bet because he would always get all the bitches, right?"

Theron's face contorted at that.

"Damn," Axel laughed. "I'm actually right, aren't I? You're so ugly you could never get a girl to like you."

"Shut up, you bastard! You don't know anything!" Theron yelled.

"Oh? And what don't I know? That your crush liked him too?"

It seemed like he was right again, as the veins of Theron's neck bulged out, a sign he was holding back a great amount of anger.

"That's not true!"

Axel raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I think it is, though. But you shouldn't take it personally. I'm sure the better man got the girl."

"YOU BRAT! YOU HAVE NO IDEA!" said Theron, stomping his foot. "It was supposed to be me! It was me who first came to know about the Princess's assassination! It was me who included him in my plan to save her! It was supposed to be me she was supposed to fall for!"

Theron really hated that memory. He had always admired the crown princess. So when the Kraken had made an elaborate plan to kill her, he had decided to betray the organisation to save her. But he couldn't do it by himself, so he had asked for that righteous fucker's help.

Who knew that the fucker would take all the credit, and the princess's heart along with it. Theron ended up getting a simple thank you 'for his trouble'. It wasn't enough for the fucker. He got himself killed, and got the princess killed along with him when he destroyed the second key.

Axel was silent for a moment. Then a chuckle escaped his lips. "Sorry, Hahaah... I know I shouldn't laugh, but… you're such a loser…Hahahahahahaha...."

"Man, how the hell did you end up becoming an Overseer at Kraken? Are they full of virgin losers like you?"

That was it. Theron couldn't care whether Nerio died or not. All he wanted was to kill this bastard who was mocking him while having so much resemblance with his parents. He began advancing towards Axel, step by step, his eyes bloodshot with anger.

Nerio's screams echoed throughout the room, but Theron didn't turn back. "You can kill him. But I swear I'll thoroughly avenge him. I'll give you a slow and painful death. Then I'll go and do the same to your girlfriend back at Hogwarts."

Theron came to stand in front of Axel, who still hadn't moved. "Well, not so chatty now, are we? You thought I'd let you walk all over me just because of Nerio?"

He raised his hand to grab Axel, but then—

Theron suddenly found himself in a different place altogether. He knew this place! It was Atlantis.

"What the—"

Then he heard a sigh that echoed all around. "Well, you didn't think I'd base my entire safety on your loyalty to your friend, did you?"

"It's you! You bastard, how did you bring me here?!"

Axel's chuckle echoed all around. "I didn't take you anywhere, Theron. It's all in your mind. Literally."

"What?!"

"Your mind, Theron. We're in it. You were right. You have a good physical defence. But you don't have much in the way of Mental defense, do you? I mean, yeah those defenses were strong, but nothing I couldn't breach."

"You," Theron gritted his teeth. "You could actually do something like this all along." The more he knows about Axel, the more horrified he gets.

"Yep, now you understand," said Axel. As mentioned, even when he didn't have his physical and Magical ability anymore, his main speciality, his mind, was still completely intact. He can still depend on it when all else fails.

"You were never the problem from the beginning. Nerio was. I can only do this trick on people with weak minds for now, and that guy's glasses were also blocking my access to his mind. Damned sub-relics."

Nerio had always been the more dangerous of the two. His reaction speed was extremely fast, and all the guy had to do was pull the trigger, and it would be over. But aside from that, his glasses, which were a sub-relic, were also preventing him from properly invading his mind. That's why Axel took him out first.

At this moment, Theron saw something in the distance that made him freeze.

"Princess…"

He now realized. This was his memory! A particularly bad one. In the distance, he could see the silhouette of the woman whom he had betrayed the organisation to save.

The princess of Atlantis was walking towards him.

'So, that's what she looks like,' thought Axel, looking at his so-called mother for the first time.