Nanomancer Rising: Divine Alchemist Reborn as Academy's Worst Teacher
Chapter 104: ’I leave it all up to you’ (Warning: Gore)

Chapter 104: ’I leave it all up to you’ (Warning: Gore)

Whoosh!

Without the need to stay hidden like in all the times when Theo dispersed them in the form of a thick cloud, his nanites took on a slightly gray hue, like a whiff of freshly created smoke.

A smoke that coiled like a snake only to decompress forth and bite into the chest of the leader of the assassins, sinking into his body before the man could as much as twitch.

Tap.

The flat of Theo’s hand pressed against the man’s chest, as if to cover the invisible hole through which his nanites sank into the man’s body. And in that very moment, the time appeared to stop.

Obviously, it didn’t. Nevertheless, something as simple as the physics of spacetime or the laws of the universe weren’t enough to tell everyone around how to act.

Whether they knew what happened or not, they could all sense that something major just did occur.

Within that moment of still silence, Theo’s eyes met with the stare of the man. A short, silent connection, so fragile even a whistle would be enough to tear it into pieces.

A delicate, fragile understanding.

For strictly a second, the two men simply stared into each other’s eyes. Then, while Theo’s eyes opened further up, the attack leader’s eyes closed down.

Pssst....

A strange noise started to fill the area, as if air was escaping from an inflated entity through a small, hard-to-find hole. And as it did, Cassian’s body started to... deflate?

The whole process lasted up until the end of the silent shock that held everyone hostage, with the man’s body somehow shrinking by a tiny margin.

"KILL!"

Breaking the tranquility of the moment, another attacker screamed out as he lunged, swung his arm before leaping forth, his blade already aimed at one of the critical veins at the back of Theo’s thigh.

’Pity,’ Theo thought, turning around to face the attack, dragging his hand away from the chest of the corpse he just made, his entire arm struggling to move as if there was a great weight attached to it.

Yet, as his palm left Cassian’s chest, a shadowy link appeared between the two, only growing bigger, thicker, and denser the further Theo stretched it out by moving his hand away.

This time, as the shadowy cloud around Theo’s hand grew in size, the body of his victim now visibly deflated, as if something was eating the man from the inside out, turning his insides into more of whatever it was that Theo controlled.

Which was precisely what happened.

’You could’ve saved your lives if only you surrendered,’ Theo thought, weirdly shaken after the moment of connection he went through with the man right as he was killing him. ’And now, you are going to become the weapons I will kill your friends with, ugh...’

The moral weight of what Theo was doing was heavy enough to make his shoulders tremble. But in the heat of the moment, he couldn’t afford to hesitate.

He couldn’t afford to let the experience of claiming the very first life in both of his own lives affect his decisions, speed of judgment or movement, or any other part of the complex mosaic of the ongoing combat.

Which is why, rather than relying on the fickle biology, Theo decided to turn his fate into the hands of the cold-hard math... and the infinitely complex algorithms based on its principles that were the foundation upon which the hive was built.

’It’s better to just play it safe,’ Theo thought as his expression darkened, his thoughts turning somber while his face slightly relaxed, filling with nothing but a mix of guilt and regret. ’Hive...’ Theo gulped his saliva down, watching how the sharp end of a knife was about to reach his own chest.

’I leave it all up to you.’

In an instant, a glint appeared in Theo’s eyes as the nanites heavily reinforcing his brain finally came active following his very own command. And the very moment Theo lost control over his body, his flesh became nothing more than a physical extension of the hive.

Pac!

An ugly, vomit-inducing sound filled the whole auction hall as Theo’s casual slap squashed the attacking shadow’s head into a flat pancake, before the laws of physics woke up from their slumber and sent the mixed scraps of skin, hair, skull, hoodie, and brain into the air, scattering them across the stage and a part of the terrified audience.

The body itself continued to advance for a few more steps, taking an unsettling moment for the last signals from the brain to die off, the delay between the man’s death and the body catching up with the fact only making the whole situation all the more upsetting.

"There’s no glory for you here or in the afterlife," Theo’s lips moved... but it wasn’t his voice that came out. It was a voice much deeper, older... denser than the one he spoke with.

Thump.

The headless corpse fell down to the stage, blood splurting out in a picturesque splatter out of the severed jugular and all the smaller veins and blood vessels exposed on the severed neck. Yet, before anyone could get a proper look at this gore sight, the corpse started to... melt down, not unlike the very first man Theo openly confronted.

"Last chance."

Theo - or rather, the hive - satisfied with the cinematic effects of its actions, stood still rather than pressing the advantage.

The brutality of his actions was enough to stun everyone, be it the attackers, spectators, Theo’s disciples, or even Celeste herself.

Heck!

Even the auction house guards could only stand still in the entrance to the hall, frozen in shock over the sight they encountered the moment they forced the doors open.

"Y-you...!" another shadow mumbled, struggling to get the words out of his mouth.

His hand trembled, forcing the man to use his other hand to stabilize his right arm so that he could properly point his knife at Theo’s face.

Right in this moment, the situation didn’t look anywhere as what it really was, with the supposed victim now turned into a likely instigator.

"Do not falter!" another shadow chimed in, gritting his teeth and swallowing his fear before taking a step forward, a task he found suddenly a lot harder than all the running he did just before. "He’s just one man!"

Prompted by the words, the four of the five remaining shadows pushed their fears aside and relied on the long years of their training to rush ahead anyway, ignoring the threat openly hidden in Theo’s bloodied yet perfectly still figure.

Step.

The shadows advanced, somehow forcing themselves to jump into a dash.

Theo closed his eyes and took a breath, giving the group enough time to make three more steps, cutting the distance between the closest of the attackers and their target, Theo, in half.

Theo pried his eyes open and raised his hand, staring at the darkness gathering within his palm for just as long as it took the terrorists to take another step.

Just two more steps, and his vital points would get within the reach of their blades.

Before they could close this super short distance, though, Theo merely swung his hand forth, as if swatting the fly that dared to fly too close for his comfort.

WHOOSH!

The darkness in his hand surged forth, splitting into four equal parts, one of which shot straight ahead with the remaining three twisting into a perfect curve that connected their point of origin - Theo’s palm - and where the hearts of the four shadows happened to be in the instant it took the surging nanites to travel.

This time, there was no sound, terrifying splatter of blood, or any other effect one would expect if they only knew death from movies or animations.

The four shadows... just died as they ran, their arms falling as their bodies moved with the momentum, only to all fall flat on their faces before they could take the very last step.

<Combat Completed>

<Warning: 82% of the nanites depleted>

<Substituting depleted nanites with temporary ones>

<It is ill-advised to keep temporary nanites due to the residual...////>

Theo squinted his eyes the same moment four corpses smashed into the hard wood of the stage, making it seem as if he was lamenting over all the unnecessary death while staring directly at the only remaining shadow.

’I could understand if the hive couldn’t figure something out due to its extremely foreign nature that has no connections to stuff I knew from Earth, but...’

Theo pressed his teeth together, hating the unexpected in regard to his hive more than anything else in the world.

’But how come is it struggling to communicate to me?’

<Combat takeover completed>

Poof.

With the chains of the hive’s control over his flesh now lifting, Theo wavered on the spot, taking a second to properly regain the control and the ability to support the weight of his body with its muscles. A task that, after a moment of perfect leisure, turned out surprisingly exhausting, now that he actually knew the difference.

"What will it be then?" Back with his usual voice, Theo raised his eyes to the lone survivor, too scared to join the attack with his brethren and now left as the only one still standing from his entire group. "Are you going to stubbornly stick to your pride?" Theo asked while squinting his eyes before gently raising his hand and pointing at the unsettling mosaic of corpses below his feet, "Like them?"

Ultimately, Theo didn’t voice the last question. He didn’t ask if the remaining attacker would choose otherwise instead.

After all, this whole spectacle already implied it.

"I..."

WHOOSH!

Once again, a power surged through the air, this time perfectly blank, vibe, color, or presence-less. A power that then morphed into room-temperature ice that instantly encased the one survivor in what looked like a massive crystal of perfectly clear ice.

And as Theo turned his head, it wasn’t the auction house guards that stood at the entrance of the auction hall.

No, those had long since moved down, rushing to either support or apprehend Theo. And with them gone...

It was no one else but the constantly morphing headmaster standing over there with his gaze locked in on the man he just imprisoned and a small smirk dancing on his lips.

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