"I had a dream last night," Malin looked up at the sky, which was overcast today. The birds were flying low, as if a downpour could start at any moment.
"...you tell me this, and I’m still in the dark. I haven’t studied much about parallel timelines, but to be honest, it seems like you kicked the bucket again in that timeline?"
While not savvy on other topics, the mentor Emmet Selch seemed to have a knack for bringing up the most uncomfortable subjects, leaving Malin no choice but to nod in agreement with his viewpoint.
With that, mentor Emmet Selch perked up: "How did you die?"
"Why do you ask?" Malin was curious.
"I want to know how a smart guy like you could meet such a foolish end." Emmet Selch laughed like a weasel that had just sneaked away with a chicken, and upon seeing the confusion on Malin’s face, he took off his sunglasses from his pocket, flicked them open, and put them on.
"Chaos invaded, and I, along with the souls I could save, accepted irreversible mechanization by a mechanical mind, and then we prepared to use the planet as a base to launch a salvation operation against the chaos-ridden worlds," Malin explained, noticing Emmet Selch’s awed "wow": "Sounds pretty formidable, full-body mechanization, even the mind, huh."
"Yep, it’s the underdog’s counterattack, if you’re not convinced, just fight it out," Malin felt there was a certain helpless resolve in such actions, but he was certain that if such a day came, he would do the same, even if it meant setting his mind permanently as a machine set on annihilating everything, he would seek vengeance against Chaos.
"This story is quite interesting, are you planning to write a novel about it?"
"The Magic Carpet and us are still in the same city, can’t we give it some face?"
The conversation between the mentors stopped there, as cheers erupted nearby. Malin turned to see the senior team from his Church celebrating their victory, while their defeated opponents looked forlorn, supporting each other.
The Church of the War God’s new lead mentor came over. This somewhat elderly female Bishop smiled and extended a hand towards our mascot: "Outstanding teamwork, your victory is well-deserved, congratulations."
The mascot lady seemed to take a moment to realize what was happening, and mentor Emmet Selch immediately stood up with a laugh: "Hello, ma’am, you see, our young lady here hasn’t quite recovered from the surprise of victory, my apologies."
"It’s nothing, to be honest, if it wasn’t for my subordinates waking me up, I wouldn’t have been able to come over to you. Your young people played too well, the interactions between the front and back rows, the spell formation cover, the pincer attacks, every step was just perfect. Undoubtedly, this team has the look of the champions of this competition." The lady was not upset by her younger counterpart’s impoliteness but instead firmly shook hands with Emmet Selch: "Congratulations again."
After that, she turned and left.
Emmet Selch sat back down next to Malin, a pained expression on his face: "That damn woman, she definitely used all her strength."
"Is your hand okay?" Malin looked at his hand, which was somewhat swollen.
"Just about managed in the power struggle, but it still hurts a lot. That damn woman, she’s definitely a high-ranked War Maniac," he said, handing his hand to Malin.
"For what?" Malin looked puzzled.
"Healing, duh!" the youngest member of the Quasar family said through gritted teeth, lowering his voice.
A healing spell for moderate injuries was cast, and the ailment was gone as if by magic.
The senior students from Carterburg, mainly seniors from the southern senior team, immediately rushed onto the field and dragged Malin out of the mentors’ seats. This time, Malin did not resist and let these little brats play catch with him again and again.
It was about time to let them have their fun after hammering them for so many years.
Faye watched Malin being tossed into the air again and again, feeling a mix of joy and even more so, satisfaction: "I thought Mr. Malin would be gloomy for a while, he was quite down for quite some time after he came back from the rift last time."
"People grow up, I guess," Matilda said.
"Do you even have the right to say that?" Jessica reached out and tugged Matilda’s ear: "You’re older than me despite being shorter, it’s really hard to imagine."
"It’s a racial thing, we big-eared, ahem, I mean us Fennec Foxes are !" Matilda said, obviously misshaped by Malin’s daily use of "Big-eared Fox."
"Don’t change the subject... ah, Mr. Malin has fallen to the ground." The girls in the stands watched their beloved man rise from the ground, then, wielding a giant Hammer (which had run over on its own), he set off in pursuit of those audacious senior students.
"Ah, Mr. Malin is indeed very happy," Clovis said, leaning on the stadium’s balustrade as she watched the chaser and the chased disappear into the passage one after another.
"Why do you say that?" Maya was puzzled.
"If Mr. Malin were really angry, a group human immobilization would’ve fallen on those guys, followed by a ’hammer flying’ session, I bet they’d fly high." Clovis said.
"No one’s going to take that bet with you," the girls answered in unison.
Everyone knew that when Malin seriously hammered someone, the best way to describe it would probably be just one character: brutal.
"Jiaxi! Jiaxi, come here a minute! For the love of any Deity out there!!"
Following the shrill screams of her old friend, Jiaxi, who had just laid down, bolted up from her lounge chair and ran toward the containment ward’s corridor.