The peaceful blue sky reflected down a clear large pond inside a secluded mountainous forest. Beside it was a young man sweeping the ground, holding a long broomstick with his calloused hands.
His dull black eyes darted onto the pond after hearing a splash from the water surface.
"You don't want me to cook you, do you?", he threatened the fish that interrupted his calm thoughts. It quickly swam deeper into the pond, out of the young man's sight, afraid that its life would end sooner than it expected.
He gripped the broomstick tightly, turning the upper base counterclockwise, and drew out a sharp sword.
"And the four of you, it seems like you want to die under my blade again."
Whimpering sounds echoed from the bushes not far away from the pond. Despite the muffled tone, the young man could discern the fear lingering within their voices.
The bushes rustled and four figures timidly revealed themselves.
The leading person was a tall man with defined muscles. A small scar was etched on his right chin, slightly disfiguring his brutish-looking face. He repeatedly rubbed his two hands with one another, carefully approaching the young man who was pointing his sword at them.
"This is your third time trespassing my private property. I wonder why Death hasn't accepted you into the Death Realm until now."
He flicked his sharp sword as if he was going to slice them in half vertically. Their necks shrank in response, afraid that they would 'die' again.
The girl on the right behind their leader opened her rosy mouth, "Sir, please don't kill us. We just want to talk to you…"
A cold glare was sent toward her. She jumped in fright and wimped.
"What sort of wizard or divine entity or god has blessed you with immortality, huh? I don't think you would be here to simply talk to me about the normal things in life now, would you?"
The young man was certain that he has killed this group of youngsters twice in the past. Once in the last three days and another one in the previous week yet they keep coming back here as if they were unafraid of death and have not died once in their lifetime.
Was his eyes playing on him or a higher form of being was toying with his peaceful life?
'I, Zeiros Morhal, have sworn to never shed blood again but if they force my hand, I will not spare a single life of everyone who is a part of this scheme, even if they are the Royal Regiment of the Order itself!'
Zeiros has seen enough blood and death that washing his hands for eternity would not remove all of the bloodstains or conceal the unending mountain of corpses that perished at his hands. And now, just as he was settling into his new life, someone was upsetting him.
The kids were perplexed and delighted at the same time. They were elated because they were able to make some headway in chatting with this strange man, but they were at a loss since they were unsure what they would say now that their relationship had progressed beyond the cold-shoulder stage.
"Erm… I-I am Seb, sir…"
"I don't need to know your name and you don't need to know mine.", Zeiros coldly dismissed Seb's introduction, brandishing his sword again and asking the youngsters, "Who are you working for? Is it a god? Is it the Royal Kingdom? The Purple Bloom Faction? The Death Stranders?…"
Zeiros blurted several other weird names of factions, some of which the four have not yet heard before or even know that existed in the first place. Their faces displayed a shocking expression that annoyed him, brutally smacking their foreheads using the blunt side of his sword.
They rubbed it and tried to ease the pain from Zeiros' sudden attack.
"It seems like you're not working with any one of them shown by that silly faces of yours.", Zeiros remained unimpressed, "But you have to tell me why are you still up and alive this day and the fact that you were strangely dropping some items after you died."
The tanned youngster beside Seb rushed in front and pleaded, "Sir, please! Can you return those items from us? They are really, really valuable, I don't want to risk my life in getting them again."
As he knelt, Zeiros could see that person's muscles bulge in the naked eye. This intrigued Zeiros since people at that age didn't have such defined muscles and a strong one at that.
"Aren't you risking your life now?", Zeiros was confused.
"Eh? About that…"
Seb panicked and yanked his kneeling companion away from Zeiros' gaze.
What a moron, can't he understand that certain things take time? There was no way they could expect this man to return those valuable goods just because his relationship with them had improved.
Seb was grumbling deep inside, praying that things wouldn't turn too badly. When they saw Zeiros' hands poised for an attack, they shook with fear. Fortunately, one of them spoke to diffuse the situation.
"Sir! Sir! Sir! Wait, wait! Don't do it! We'll tell you, we'll tell you what we know!", the blonde girl on the other side interjected.
They heaved a sigh of relief when Zeiros lowered his stance and chose to listen to their explanation. The blonde girl and Seb nodded at one another.
She stepped in front and narrated their side of the story.
"We were out in the wild, adventuring for monsters to kill and quests to complete, sir. It was just that we ended up facing a demonic beast in the middle of our journey so we were forced to retreat to the forest and hide our presence."
"Then we somehow ended up intruding on your private property and… well, you killed us instead… hehehe…", the blonde girl scratched her head in embarrassment.
"After that we…"
"Wait.", Zeiros suddenly grabbed her golden blue battle dress' collar, wobbling her thick shoulder pads, "You said that you encountered a demonic beast on your way here, right?"
"Y-y-y-yes…", the blonde girl was at the peak of fright. Zeiros' eyes turned red and emitted an extraordinarily vile and deathly aura.
She savored every feeling she felt as a result of her proximity to the now crazy Zeiros. Saliva spilled from his thin lips as he grinned side to side.
"Take me to it!", rigorously shaking her body, Zeiros coldly commanded her.
"W-we will but can you please let go of me first…?"
Zeiros snorted, tossing her to the side without a care. Seb and the rest went over to the blonde-haired girl and helped her up.
'You damn bastard! Just because I can't see your system panel doesn't mean that you can throw me around like this! We'll get to the bottom of your strangeness sooner or later! And once we do, you will a price!'
The four led the way down the mountain.
"Don't you think that the changes in his behavior were kind of weird?", Seb gossiped, "He was in a neutral stance a second earlier not until we mentioned our encounter with a demonic beast!"
His acquaintances caught up to his implications but didn't say another word. They were afraid that Zeiros would hear their gossip from far away.
The latter suddenly noticed that they were blankly staring in the air. He thought that the four were dozing off of their job.
"Hurry up!"
The four were jolted out of their stupor and were forced to go faster. They soon arrived at their destination and saw the demonic beast still lurking around the area without the intention of leaving at all.
It was a four-legged dog with a vicious face, red eyes, and slightly dirty brown fur standing at 2.5 meters high and 5 meters tall. The soft paws were larger than the average barks of the trees found nearby. Either one of the youngsters wouldn't dare to imagine surviving its assault should they be pinned down by such a large dog.
The demonic beast was idly walking around, sticking its tongue in the muddled puddle of water in front of it. The group quickly knelt and hid from the beast's view.
Seb pointed, "Sir, that's the demonic beast we were talking about earlier.", before turning his head around. He noticed that Zeiros' figure was no longer there, "Eh, where is he-?", then heard a cold shout reverberating from the distance.
"Slice of Perpetual Harvest!"
Sword light flashed in the eyes of the four witnesses. The trees were blown away, and the earth right beneath the demonic beast was pulverized, forming a 2-meter-deep pit.
The once-powerful demonic beast they were so afraid of was mercilessly sliced into countless cubic pieces. Blood rained down from above, quenching the thirst of the plants that have dried up due to the searing hot weather. They quickly absorbed the blood as if they were vampiric plants.
The organs weren't spared as well, violently rocking the trees as they exploded with great force.
Seb and his friends were aghast and paralyzed in place. How the hell did that strange man killed a demonic beast with one strike?
'Oh, dear god! This is a big boss we've encountered all this time!'
Zeiros' cackles worsened their engraved fear, wishing that they could leave this world right now and never go back to this area again. Out in the open, an otherworldly phenomenon was taking place.
The blood that the plants were attempting to absorb was snatched from their grasp and swirled around the sword in Zeiros' left palm. Runic lines flared within the sword, consuming all of the blood and remaining fragments, including the demonic beast's skeletal body.
Not a second passed and everything returned to normal. The runic lines vanished and Zeiros let out a satisfying burp.
"Did... he just absorb the vitality of that demonic beast?!", Seb was dumbfounded.
"Hey, brats!", Zeiros called out.
The four immediately popped out of the bushes and presented themselves, "Y-y-yes sir!"
"How about you take me with your adventures, eh? I could use some demonic beast blood for a while!"
Zeiros said while plastering a wide grin on his face.