"J—Jason... You bastard..." With his last words, Damien lost consciousness, with a drop of tears falling off his eyes. Jason took the lives of the people that mattered most to him, and now. He took away the only one he had left in this world, his brother.
[System Activate.]
..
"Big brother's eyes turned white for a moment, what was that?" Jake asked, he had never seen his brother in such state, not even when he was angry.
Jason tore his shirt into two with his good arm, then carefully wrapped it around his injured arm like a makeshift cast.
"That was the legendary prowess every bounty hunter out there has strived to attain, the Hunter's Instinct." He responded, tending to his wounds.
"Hunter's Instinct? What is that? How come I've never heard of it?" Jake raised an eyebrow, a part of him felt remorse and guilt for killing his brother, but the other half was strictly loyal to the man who saved them.
"Because Jake, the Hunter's Instincts is not an ability most hunters can learn or awaken. Not even I have been able to fully grasp the concept of that technique." Jason paused, then turned his attention to the deceased boy he was considered a son.
"But somehow, he was fully able to grasp the technique and almost killed me."
"What?" Jake turned his attention to his brother. "Big brother did?"
..
Damien's body hovered in a vast, empty void. It was dark, quiet and stretched endlessly to infinity. It felt like a bottomless pit, but instead of falling, he just floated there.
"Where am I?" He examined the dark pit carefully.
"Is this..the after life?" He spoke to himself, and his voice echoing softly throughout the bottomless space.
"Damn... To think my life ended in the hands of those I looked I trusted the most and grew up with, I just wished I'd gotten the chance to see the beautiful moonlight and break of dawn once more before I left the world." He sighed.
[System Activate]
"Huh?" His attention was quickly caught by a notification that appeared on a holographic board, or more clearly, a HUD right in front of him. "What is this?"
[Searching...]
[Devil System.....0% error]
[Almighty path System...2% error]
[Demon System....1% error]
[Neurolink System.....20% error]
[Vampire System.....30% error]
[Werewolf System.....40% error]
[Martial System....50%error]
[Dragonic System...600% error]
[Bounty System...100% success]
[Synchronizing host with the bounty System...]
[The host has successfully bonded with the system!]
[Transmigrating....]
——————————————————
WHOOSH!
Damien felt his body pulled into a surge of energy. And it felt like he was falling into the center of a spinning vortex, and before he knew it, his eyes shot open. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the brightness, but when they did, he saw himself lying on the ground in what looked like a battlefield.
"What is this?" He asked himself in his thoughts as he sat up slowly, looking at all the dead bodies surrounding him. Judging by the state of the bodies and the blood smeared on the ground, it seemed almost a full day had passed since they were slaughtered.
He had been a bounty hunter in his previous life, so encountering scenes like this—things that would disgust a normal person—was actually normal for him.
He got up to his feet, examined this alien like environment like one would do if they ended up stranded in the unknown.
"Where am I?" He muttered under his breath.
He stared into his palm and at his body, he was more paler than usual. His body was perfectly toned with a lean build, and not as bulky as his body was in his previous life.
"Woah woah woah...it can't be, can it?" The more he tried to understand what happened, the more clearer it became.
"I... transmigrated? Or was it reincarnated? Whatever." No matter what it was, one thing was for certain. He was pretty sure that he was supposed to be dead.
"I can't get shot in the heart and head several times over and still be alive right?" He asked himself, refusing to believe that he was going crazy.
He heard noises from a distance, prompting him to turn around swiftly, and his eyes met a horse moving fast toward him.
His instincts told him to lay low. "Bounty code 1: Never engage an unknown target without knowledge." He could hear the voice of his parent's murderer, teaching him the 100 principles a bounty hunter lived by.
At this point, the only way he could get answers to his questions was to face them, and so he did. He waited until the horse reached him.
An woman hurried down from the horse as she laid eyes on Damien. "A survivor!" She shouted in excitement.
"What?" Damien blurted out loud.
"Are you hurt? I can't believe someone actually survived that invasion." The woman spoke thoroughly, examining his body, and violating his personal space.
"Look lady, as much as I enjoy these and the resulting outcome, back up." Damien spoke with an intimidating voice, which made the woman give him some personal space.
"First tell me who the hell you are and where I am." He demanded for answers.
"You don't know?" The woman asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Know what?"
"This town was invaded by the paradoxes." She glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes settled on several houses in the distance. Trails of smoke rose slowly into the air, twisting and spreading, as if a huge fire had broken out there.
"The what now?" He became even more confused.
"The paradoxes, They are a group of demons who invaded our world from the infernal realm." The woman's explanations made everything even worse. Now she was talking about demons?
"Oh..k I think I'll stick with questions that makes a little more sense, who the hell are you?" Damien switched it up.
"I don't have time to explain to you, we have to move now before the paradoxes retu-." The woman was cut off by the rough, menacing sounds of several creatures closing in around them. Their growls and snarls echoed through the air, making the atmosphere tense and dangerous. "Oh good Lord... They are here."
They all shared the same features, red bodies, two sharp horns on their heads, long serpent-like claws and tails, and sharp fangs. Each creature was massive, standing as tall as ten feet.
"What the hell are these things!?" Damien shouted in disgust, they looked like characters out of a horror movie, and not the good kind.
"It's too late...the paradoxes have arrived..." The woman spoke with a trembling voice , and Damien could see it clearly. She fell to her knees, covering her mouth with her hands, and her eyes flickered nervously as she stared at the approaching creatures.