The Bounty Hunter

Chapter 68: Threat Level 13

May 20th, 2089

Endless sand and a clear night sky full of stars.  That was the scene to greet my eyes as I teleported to the magic circle in the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia.  The desert air was fresh and cool.  I was in my full bounty hunter gear.  The light brown hiking pants with dark brown steel-toed combat boots and steel greaves were all enhanced with defensive enchantments.  Up top I had my green long sleeved shirt beneath a black chest-piece of a military riot armor along with some steel demi-gauntlets.  They too were all enchanted.  

I also embedded magic circles in various locations to aid with my magic casting.  My dark brown leather overcoat as always was worn over all this with a tan combat helmet on my head and my face was covered with my signature dark green bandana and motorcycle goggles.  The bandana had my white insignia depicting a single mountain peak piercing through a layer of clouds.  My rhomphaia was already out in my hand, my ninjato were freshly sharpened and my 9mm pistols were fully loaded. 

I stood on the northern edge of the barrier surrounding the magic circle.  I say northern edge because this magic circle is the largest I have ever seen, with a diameter of 100 miles.  It is also the most intricate one I have ever seen, with a plethora of shapes and symbols etched into the sand magically along with miles of script from the other world.  I can very well understand why it took the Redemption group nearly a century to draw and build it.  I can also see why they needed so many slaves and magic sources to gather the necessary mana needed to start the ritual. 

The placement of the circle was precisely on a junction of ley lines here in Earth that was also directly beneath an alignment of stars which would funnel an unimaginable amount of mana into the magic circle.  Yes, Earth has environmental mana even though magic is not used.  But unlike the other world, the mana on Earth is not evenly distributed.  It is nearly all trapped within the Earth or dispersed amongst the stars. 

This discovery has made me realize that magic once existed here on Earth.  It was not as powerful nor as flashy as the magic of the other world, but it existed.  It makes me wonder about the connection between my world and the other world.  There are simply too many similarities between the two for them to be completely unrelated.  Why else would the two worlds have myths and legends about each other?  Were they once one world that split apart in some catastrophe?  Or were they simply connected with a dimensional bridge at some point in their history?  These questions are something that have been bugging me.

But I can wonder about that later.  I made some attempts to get past the barrier, but it was to no avail.  The barrier surrounding this thing is impressive, but it will soon dissipate at midnight.  Jupon will certainly arrive before then.  Otherwise, I could just mar one portion of the circle to render it useless and Jupon would have to wait another 1000 years before the conditions are right for the ritual again. 

I waited calmly as the minutes passed into hours.  I dont have to worry about him avoiding me, on the contrary hell be looking for me so he can eliminate me before I screw anything up.  All I need to do is wait for his arrival.  I also took the liberty of littering this area with all the traps I could.  Mines, curses, concealed undead, hidden demons and other nasty surprises were set all around me. 

Its 11:45 PM and I see something that looks like a shining white comet headed towards me.  It landed a couple dozen yards away with a rumble and an upturned cloud of sand.  So thats Jupon Paw shit, I am going to die.  My threat level system numbers 1 to 13, and although it changes based on whether or not I am using magic, I have never met a true threat level of 13 until now. 

Jupon is fully armed and equipped.  His shining pure white plate armor was unblemished and matched his pure white hair.  He had two round tiger ears on top and a striped black and white tail poking out from behind. He was quite handsome and his overall appearance was rather heroic.  But that was not why I knew I was going to die.  It was the magnificent longsword he was carrying that made me think that. 

A masterpiece of metal, the sword was a brilliant white that glowed with holy power and shone brightly in the darkness.  The 5 Chains of Adligo are known as the most powerful magic artifacts in the other world, to the point where they are called god artifacts.  They were first wielded by the original Dutiful One in service to Adligo when he revived the world. 

However, there was one other god artifact on par with the 5 Chains that the first Dutiful One wielded.  After all the 5 Chains of Adligo only represent Duty, and Adligo is the God of Freedom and Duty.  The legendary sword called Liberator represented Freedom and it was supposedly lost in the war with the Treacherous Gods.  But here it is in front of me being wielded by Jupon.  Legends say that it would only allow those of pure and noble heart to wield it. 

Its aura of power was tyrannical, completely unlike the 5 Chains wielded by Erilom.  Which is to be expected, since a magic artifact can only display its full power with a strong wielder.  And Jupon was strong.  I could tell just by looking at him.  Shit, I am going to die.  I was wrong when I estimated Jupon to be a monster, hes something far scarier.  A cheat-level individual with a pure and noble heart wielding a legendary holy sword can only be one type of existence:  a Hero.