DING!
– QUEST –
[Kill All Demon Goblins]
[0 / 50 Eliminated]
The forest stilled.
Ethan stood at the center of it all, cloaked in shadow, eyes glowing like molten blood beneath his hood. He didn't flinch. He didn't speak. He simply raised his hand.
A pulse of black lightning cracked the air, fssshh! and in an instant, a sword materialized in his grip. Not forged, not summoned. Born. Like it had always been part of him, waiting.
DING!
– SYSTEM MESSAGE –
[Weapon: Black Blade] – Access Granted
The sword radiated hunger. Its jagged, obsidian edge pulsed like it had a heartbeat of its own.
Across the chamber, the Goblin Leader broke from his stupor, eyes wide with fear. He shrieked something guttural, a command.
Every goblin obeyed.
They surged forward, blades flashing, fangs bared. The archers at the rear fired without hesitation, dozens of arrows slicing the air toward Ethan.
And still… he didn't move.
Not until the first arrow was an inch from his face.
Then...,
Everything changed.
With a sound like tearing reality, Ethan moved....vanished, reappearing mid-air in a blur. His cloak whipped around him like black flame. The arrows burned to ash before reaching him.
And then the slaughter began.
The Black Blade howled.
Ethan blurred through the battlefield like a reaper wrapped in shadow.
Goblin heads flew clean from their bodies, silent, shocked expressions frozen on their faces mid-scream. Blood arced through the air like crimson paint, splattering trees, stone, and soil.
He moved again, faster than eyes could follow.
A crack like thunder split the sky as his feet struck the ground, leaving craters with every step. The shockwaves rippled outward, toppling lesser goblins before his blade ever touched them.
The system rang in the chaos, cold and relentless:
[12/50 Eliminated]
[14/50 Eliminated]
Arrows rained down from above, dozens, maybe hundreds, blotting the moonlight.
But it wasn't enough.
In the blink of an eye, Ethan appeared before the goblin archers, his cloak snapping behind him like a banner of death. His blade moved without pause, without pity, each slash a blur, cutting through flesh, bone, and steel alike.
The goblins didn't scream long. Their bodies collapsed before they understood they'd been hit.
From the flanks, snarling Hellfang Foxes lunged, jaws wide, fangs gleaming.
Too slow. Too predictable.
Ethan didn't even look as his blade cleaved through their metallic jaws, splitting them in two mid-air. They fell in pieces before their blood hit the earth.
The system chimed again:
[18/50 Eliminated]
[23/50 Eliminated]
And Ethan kept walking, one step, one kill at a time, his rage silent, cold, and unstoppable.
Ethan was no longer human.
He had become a force; pure, merciless, unstoppable. Consumed by the void of bloodlust, his mind was blank, heart drowned in shadow. No fear. No hesitation. No morality. Only instinct. Only destruction.
The Black Blade pulsed with each step he took, as if feeding off his rage, devouring the lives it stole.
The Goblin Leader stood paralyzed, his knees buckling beneath him. He watched in horror as Ethan butchered goblins like weeds beneath a storm. Limbs flew. Screams turned to gurgles. The ground drank deeply of crimson.
"Q-Quick," the goblin king stammered, bile rising in his throat. "Put on the Reverse Armor, now!"
The remaining goblins scrambled into the armory, dragging out twisted, spiked metal plates etched with dark runes. These were said to reflect all physical attacks. Indestructible. Untouchable.
But Ethan didn't move. He simply stood, his cloak flaring in the wind, the unconscious Lisa behind him like a sleeping symbol of why he fought.
A goblin soared overhead, roaring, wielding a hammer larger than Ethan himself. It crashed down like a meteor—
CLANG!
Ethan didn't flinch.
He caught the attack with one hand, one, his sword raised effortlessly. The goblin's eyes widened. A blink later, the goblin was split clean down the center, his body sliding apart like butter. The hammer clattered uselessly to the blood-soaked ground.
Then came the rest, fully armored. Fifty? Sixty? It didn't matter.
They charged as one, blades out, screaming war cries.
Ethan stepped forward.
A flash of steel. A blur of death.
The Reverse Armor shattered like glass.
One by one, goblins fell, screaming, disbelieving, dying. Their so-called indestructible protection sliced open like paper by the cursed hunger of the Black Blade.
The slaughter didn't stop. It couldn't. Ethan no longer saw enemies, he saw obstacles to be erased.
The system barely kept up:
[27/50 Eliminated]
[34/50 Eliminated]
[41/50 Eliminated]
The goblin leader stumbled back, his voice shaking, "That's… not a boy…"
Gore painted the chamber walls. Severed limbs, split torsos, twitching remains, all that was left of the goblin horde. Blood soaked the stone floor like a curse that would never wash away.
DING!
[49/50 Eliminated]
Only two figures remained.
Ethan.
And the Goblin Leader.
The chamber fell deathly silent. The leader's hand trembled on his weapon. He could feel it, this wasn't just mana, it was something else. Something ancient. Unnatural.
Still, driven by desperation, he let out a guttural roar and charged.
CLANG!
Their swords met with an ear-splitting shriek, sending out a shockwave that split the earth beneath them in violent pulses. Stone cracked in rings around their feet. Dust swirled like a storm.
He pressed forward.
The Goblin Leader attacked again, slashes, stabs, heavy swings meant to kill. But Ethan matched each strike with ease, his movements calm, almost bored. The Black Blade danced like death itself, parrying and cutting with mechanical precision.
Then, an opening....
The Goblin Leader's blade sank into Ethan's side. Ethan was thrown backward, smashing through a stone wall. Rubble collapsed around him in a thunderous crash.
Silence.
Then the goblin turned, snatching Lisa from the ground, his blade now trembling against her throat.
"You want to protect her, don't you?" the Goblin Leader hissed, dragging Lisa up like a broken doll. His jagged sword pressed against her bloodied throat. "Take one more step, and I'll end her."
But it wasn't a threat.
It was desperation.
Because Ethan... was smiling.
A slow, cold grin that didn't belong on a human face. It wasn't pride. It wasn't madness. It was *certainty*. The kind that made even demons flinch.
The Goblin Leader blinked.
Suddenly, his hands were empty.
His sword clattered uselessly to the ground. Lisa collapsed beside it, untouched, her breathing faint but alive.
The Goblin Leader staggered back, a sharp, wet pain in his wrists.
Blood sprayed. His hands… were gone.
"AHHHH!" he shrieked, stumbling as crimson poured from his stumps. "What... what the hell.. ?!"
He looked around wildly, but Ethan had vanished. The room pulsed with silence. Fear. Power....
Step.
A slow, deliberate footfall echoed behind him.
Step.
The Goblin Leader turned. Every inch of his body rebelled at the idea of facing what was behind him. But his head moved anyway.
Ethan emerged from the gloom, his black cloak stained red at the hem, his blade dragging lines through the stone floor.
Eyes glowing like coals in the night. Empty. Eternal.
"No… no… stay back," the Goblin Leader whimpered, crawling backward on knees slick with blood. "Please.... don't.. don't come any closer—"
Ethan didn't speak. He didn't need to.
He took one final step.
The Goblin Leader opened his mouth to beg.
SHNK.
His words never came.
Because his head was no longer attached to his body.
It hit the stone floor with a thud, eyes wide in terror.
DING!
– QUEST COMPLETE –
[Kill All Demon Goblin: Success]
[50/50 Eliminated]
The black cloak unraveled from Ethan's body like smoke, dissolving into the shadows. Piece by piece, the Black Blade fragmented into dust, vanishing from his hand as if it had never existed.
His eyes, once glowing void-red, endless and cold, flickered out.
And the real Ethan returned.
He blinked slowly, his chest heaving. Silence surrounded him now, oppressive and heavy.
The smell hit him.
Blood. So much blood.
It painted the walls in streaks. It soaked the stone floor like a flooded river. Severed limbs twitched in the periphery. Corpses, dozens of them, lay strewn around the shattered chamber, some split clean in half, others too mutilated to identify.
"What… what happened here?" Ethan whispered, voice trembling.
And then, like a crashing tide, the memories returned.
The goblins, the slaughter, the smile.
The Goblin Leader's head, rolling across the floor.
"No," Ethan said, staggering backward. "That wasn't me. That couldn't have been me."
But the system didn't lie.
DING!
– QUEST ALERT –
[Executioner Mode: DEACTIVATED]
[Kill All Demon Goblins: Success]
[Reward: Lifestone Elixir]
[Quantity: 7/10]
His breath caught. His vision swam. He dropped to his knees and vomited. The bile hit the stone with a splash. His hands shook uncontrollably as he stared at them, bloodstained, twitching, unfamiliar.
He didn't feel like a hero.
He felt like a monster.
Then— he remembered Lisa.
He scrambled to his feet, slipping in blood. She still lay at the chamber's edge, unconscious, her body battered and soaked.
"Lisa!" he shouted, rushing to her. He grabbed one of the elixirs from the system's inventory with shaking hands and uncorked it.
A soft green glow wrapped around her as he poured the contents over her wounds. The gashes sealed. Color returned to her face.
She stirred.
Relief flooded Ethan's chest. He cradled her in his arms, holding her close, not caring that both of them were drenched in blood.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, more to himself than her.
With effort, he rose, carrying her across the carnage. The Goblin Chamber vanished behind them as the trees of the forest closed in once more.
Sunlight began to spill through the branches.
Morning.
They had survived.
Ethan let out a long, shaking breath. "It's over," he muttered.
But the words were a lie.
Crimson leaked from his nose.
Then his ears.
Then his eyes.
He stumbled. His legs buckled beneath him.
"Wh—what… is this…?"
He couldn't speak clearly. His mouth filled with blood. His vision blurred, the world spinning around him.
Lisa slipped from his arms.
He fell to the ground, clutching his chest. His breathing was ragged. The trees above twisted and churned like they were alive.
DING!
– SYSTEM MESSAGE –
[Executioner Mode: Deactivated]
[Cost of Use: Fatal Bleeding]
The realization hit him like a hammer to the skull.
Nothing from the system… ever comes free.
Darkness clawed at the edges of his vision. Everything went black.