Beta-Reader: DannerisCringe

[Arrival - Part 4]

He couldn't remember the last time he had seen so many bodies gathered in one place before. Maybe it was back when L'manburg had been destroyed, maybe it was far earlier than that, but regardless, the fact of the matter was that out of all the things he had expected to see, seeing a mutilated family that wasn't his fault was something he had not been used to seeing.

Now, that's not to say that he wasn't happy at seeing that, far from it, Technoblade was glad that this wasn't his fault, but the point still stood, these people were dead. To make things worse, he had no idea why, nor did he know who or what did this kind of atrocity.

He glanced over to Dream, and for a moment, he considered it to be his fault, but one good look at him showed to Technoblade that he was just as mortified, if not more so, by this tragedy than he was. He might've had a blank expression on his face like he usually did when it came to things like this, but his eyes told a wildly different story.

His eyes screamed with rage, almost as if he had felt the same feeling he did when he saw this massacre.

Anger. Pure, raw, anger. Though not as potent as Technoblade's, it was clearly there, and it seethed within the man of green. And while he most likely would play the long game, Techno would not.

He glanced down to see that the girl had passed out, probably from distress, which he couldn't blame her for – had the half-piglin been in her position, he would've collapsed just like she did.

And when he looked back at the bodies inside the house, he felt as if something in his mind snapped like a switch being flicked or a button being pressed.

He didn't know what it was that finally pushed him over the edge. Perhaps it was the baby in the woman's arms that had been split into two, or perhaps it had been the fact that a boy that matched the description Dream had given to the girl was dangling on the roof, held up by his intestines.

Maybe it was the large amount of blood smeared on the walls of the house, the claw marks on the walls indicating that the beast who did this was most certainly still alive, or maybe, just maybe, it had to do with the fact that the child that had laid on the floor in front of him had lucked out being with them, lest she met the same fate.

Or perhaps it had to do with the fact that the voices were chanting Blood for the blood god in the back of his head.

Now, of all times, was not a good time for him to sink into depravity, and the voices knew it. But they didn't care. All they wanted to see was carnage, and the moment even one spec of Blood was caught into his peripheral vision, the voices would chant as if it was some sort of rarity.

However, that didn't mean he was going to give in so easily. He wasn't going to let the voices control him, just like they had for years on end. He refused to allow them to control his movements, thoughts, actions, and his very state of being. The last time he did that, an entire race of people were slaughtered needlessly, all to fill his eternal lust for Blood.

Right now, they were nothing to him. Nothing but echoes in the back of his mind. They could not control him. They would not control him.

He was the pilot, and they were the passengers aboard his vessel.

He was the captain, and they were the crew.

He was The Blood God, and they were the ants he controlled, not the other way around.

But that raised the question. If he didn't do this, then who did? Just who or what could've done this? He shook his head. That was for a subject for later. Right now, he needed to focus on the now rather than the future.

Currently, there was nothing that the half-piglin could think of that could help them find the monster who did this, but even still, Technoblade knew that he had to do something.

It was about time he respected the dead for once, instead of joking about it to alleviate tension. But there was something about this scene that didn't sit right with him, and as he looked up and into the starry moonlit sky, something clicked in his mind.

It was a predator of the night that had done this deed.

Something waited until nightfall to attack. Something came here and attacked this girl's family. Something came here and devoured this innocent, peaceful, loving family. And that something was going to die by Technoblade's hands, no matter how long it took.

And as he looked back down at the house, that sentiment only further cemented itself in his mind. He didn't care how long it would take, how many people he would have to cut down, or how many people stood in his way.

That thing was going to die, and it was going to die painfully and slowly.

"Techno… you good there, pal?" Dream asked, absent-mindedly placing a hand on his shoulder as Technoblade gripped his axe tighter, the veins on his hands becoming more prevalent as he squeezed. Dream took his hand off the half-piglin's shoulder upon seeing this, knowing full well the man didn't like being touched.

As he looked back at the house, he could feel the anger bubbling in his blood once again, his teeth gnashing against one another as he stared at the blood-soaked house.

It was a god-damn mess. It also hit way too close to home for him, but for other reasons. Dream had seen this kind of carnage before. However, this had been far before the time of the SMP, far before his little pet project had started.

Far before he had been stripped of his immortality by his father so that he could learn some humility.

During a war he and his father had overseen, as the people of the nation in question prayed to them to watch over it, he had seen scenes like this before. He would watch as the knights from the attacking nation would come in and kill anyone who even directly opposed them, or even if they were random civvies who had done nothing wrong.

They were raped, murdered, and those who weren't were sent to the opposing kingdom as slaves.

His father told him repeatedly that their actions were wrong, and he believed him wholeheartedly. He was right. It was wrong. That didn't mean that it wasn't interesting, though. Seeing humans fight like that, not giving a shit who they hurt or who they slaughtered. So long as their goals were completed.

Prior to all of this, had he been in this situation, staring at this house, he wouldn't have thought twice about it.

But now, having lived through the hell that those humans must've gone through, having fought in wars himself, having become a prisoner himself, he knew just how awful it was. Just how unjust it was.

And even though he hated Tommyinnit. He wouldn't even wish that kind of hell on him. Death was a much more suitable punishment than that. At least that was a mercy compared to the torture he received.

And to think, he was going to send Tommy to that kind of hell… he shuttered. Just as he was about to make a comment, the half-piglin, finally no longer in his stupor of anger and rage, spoke, albeit softly.

"Dream… watch the entrance to the forest. Make sure no one comes by here until I'm done investigating. I need to make sure if there are any… survivors in there," Technoblade stated grimly as Dream looked at him with a look that said, 'what are you, stupid?'

"Techno… are you seriously going to-" Dream stopped as a glare filled with vitriol and rage bore into his emerald eyes, which made him look away. "Ya know what, just ignore me, I said nothing…." And with that, Dream went to go do as he was told.

The half-piglin took in one last breath of fresh air, and with a determined glint in his eyes, he marched his way into the house.

Stepping into the fairly quaint home, the smell of death was prevalent all around him. The bodies were mangled and distorted beyond belief. No one survived. That was clear from the start.

He didn't know what made him think there would be any survivors in this slaughter pit of a house. Perhaps it was the blind heroism he felt in that moment, but regardless of what made him think such stupid things, it clearly had been disproven.

There were eyes hanging out of sockets, jaws missing from faces, and deep, deep stab wounds the likes of which only a netherite sword could cause. Had he seen this type of brutality before? Yes, in fact, he was the cause of 90% of it. But usually, it would be an entire army worth of people, not a hermit family tucked away in a peaceful corner of the woods.

But something had caught Technoblade's eye. It seemed unimportant at first, but his eyes sparked with interest when he laid eyes on it, or should he rather say… them.

They were seemingly the eldest siblings of the ones that died, one male and one female. But there was something about them that struck him as odd. The male one had a knife in their hand, while the female one loosely held a fork. But why? Why hold those weapons in their hands? And that's when Technoblade's eyes went wide… That only meant one thing.

They tried to fight back.

Whatever had attacked and killed them was something that a knife or a fork could hurt, or, seemingly so, at the very least. Meaning that either the attacker was a person, or… perhaps it was the fabled Demons that he heard about from that kid that Dream had kidnapped.

This opened up far more choices than even Technoblade could think of. Either it was an animal who killed them, a person, or a Demon. But without solid enough information, he wasn't going to get anywhere with his hunt for the beast that did this.

But then, a thought struck his mind. A thought that, admittedly, he felt as if was one of blasphemy, but how else was he going to get information on what this monstrous creature looked like?

He had a choice to make. He could use them on the bodies, or… he could let them stay dead. He only had two left to begin with, but he knew that he wouldn't need them. He only needed the original one because of the execution event in L'manburgs town center nearly seven months ago.

And since he was The Blood God, did he truly need them? No, not really. He didn't need the power of divine magic, not when he was practically unkillable by normal standards. He had yet to die, or even come close to being threatened, aside from the attempted execution, that is.

And that was because he was stripped of his immortality there, back at the SMP, where all sorts of supernatural abilities were blocked by DreamXD.

He may have become slightly weakened thanks to what Sam had done to him and for what DreamXD stole from him, but he would eventually recover, and when he did, nothing short of DreamXD himself could stop him.

As he stared at the limp, mutilated bodies of the two kids, he felt the power of them surge slightly within his inventory. They begged to be used, and as such, he complied.

He walked up to the two children in question as his axe disappeared. With a motion of his hand, he brought out the two totems of undying from his inventory. He remembered working hard for them, getting them from raids and mansions that he had raided back before he had earned his status as The Blood God. So basically, nearly eight million years ago.

But now, he no longer needed them.

Usually, when a Totem of Undying is used, it requires the user to be in the midst of dying for them to work. But these Totems were different.

Back before the previous Blood God had gifted him his powers, he had reversed engineered them so that if he were to fall in battle, he could get right back up and continue the fight. But now that he no longer needed such a thing, he could use them on those he had cared for.

And he would've used them on those who he had lost in the SMP had it not been for DreamXD. But now that they were back to their original state, that meant he could use them the way they were intended to be used.

And he was going to use them to revive these two kids, regardless of the consequences.

Placing the two totems on their bodies, he watched as the eyes of the totems exploded out into a green-coloured spark that wrapped around the two siblings. The golden statues then began to float in front of the bodies and dissolve, the dust of which went to each wound and began to heal the bodies.

Flesh meshed with muscle and bone. Any strewn-out organs were returned to their original places in the body. Any damaged organs were also healed. The spilt Blood was pulled back into their bodies, and broken bones were fixed and healed. This even extended to their clothing.

Afterward, the bodies rose slightly from the ground, and with a thump, they landed back in the spots where they had been found. They had been completely healed, and as time passed, Technoblade began to worry that the effect didn't kick in and that he had wasted the totems for nothing.

But that's when one of their hands twitched, and he knew that they were alive once more, despite what logic would dictate to be possible.

Since they were now healed, he could get a better look at them, starting with the boy. The boy in question had short spiky black hair, a round-ish face, and tan skin. He was wearing a green robe of sorts with a white shirt, though perhaps calling it a shirt was wrong. The boy also wore a green and black plaid scarf around his neck, which was a smart choice due to the freezing cold. Along with that, he wore a pair of baggy black pants.

Then there was the girl, who was clearly the younger of the two, based on height. She had shoulder-length black hair, and similarly to her older brother, she was wearing a robe, this one being pink, with a light brown shirt. Again, he didn't know if that was the correct term; he'd learn later. She was also wearing a similar pair of baggy pants, these ones being white instead of black.

Letting out a deep sigh, he grabbed both of the kids by their arms, the boy's left and the girl's right, before shouldering said arms. He dragged them out of the house and outside, into the blistering cold. He quickly set them down on the porch of the house before turning to see Dream, who had decided to pick the girl out from the snow and lean her against the tree and drape his hoodie over top of the girl.

For the first time, Technoblade saw Dream shirtless, and to say that the man seemed to have been through hell and back was an understatement. His upper body was covered in scars. It was to the point that 90% of the man's chest was pure scar tissue. Most of the scars looked like they belonged to deep wounds, but there was one that stood out the most.

It seemed to be where he had taken an arrow to the chest, straight through his heart. The man seemed to be unaware of Technoblade's staring, either that, or he knew, and he just didn't care.

Each scar told Technoblade a story. A story of someone who fought many battles and lost a majority of them but came back stronger as a result. He didn't want to count the scars, seeing as there were too many of them, but he would have to ask Dream where he got his scars.

Due to Technoblade's self-healing and Healing potions, he never kept many of his scars, except for a few he refused to abandon.

So seeing Dream covered in so many scars led him to question his mortality. Was Dream a mortal? Or was he like him? Was he a Demi-god? Or maybe a Demi-mortal, like that of Wilbur or Philza?

Or perhaps he just happened to get into a lot of fights?

Truth be told, he didn't know much about Dream, and he would have to rectify that mistake soon. Maybe over some cooked wolf? Or maybe when they decided to train. Since they were stuck here, he had to do something to pass the time until they found a way back, of course.

He looked back at the kids, the male of whom was stirring from unconsciousness. Technoblade knew that if he were the one to greet them, they might mistake him as the one that killed them, but he was willing to take that risk.

The girl had yet to show signs of waking up, but the steady breathing that was displayed to him via her rising and falling chest told to him that she was alive. He turned back to face Dream, who had shifted in his stance, staring down the mouth of the forest.

"Hey, Hey you! Stop, stay right where you are! Don't move another inch!" Dream shouted, drawing out a crossbow from thin air. "Move, and I'll shoot you!" Dream demanded as Technoblade was able to hear the crunching of the snow.

Glancing back at the kids, he knew that if they woke up, they'd be fine. With that thought in mind, he willed his axe to appear as he grabbed the hilt of it firmly and stood. His eyes narrowed as Dream aimed down the sights of his ranged weapon. The crunching of the snow continued.

"Last time, Stop, Stand still, and don't move, or I'll shoot! You really don't want this arrow plunging into your neck!" Dream shouted as the crunching of the snow stopped. Technoblade began his advance towards the mouth of the forest as he sniffed the air. The mysterious individual wasn't bleeding, so he wasn't injured. That was a good sign.

As he stood at the lip of the forest, he narrowed his eyes as he tried to make out who was standing in the darkness. He could just barely make out the tips of a green and black robe. Everything else was hard to see due to the darkness.

He turned to see Dream, aiming his weapon steadily. His eyes were squinted, meaning he also must've had a hard time seeing the person in question.

Deciding that enough was enough, he sighed, clearing his throat, which caught the man's attention.

"Lower your weapon, Dream. Give me a torch," Technoblade whispered as the man complied, lowering his crossbow as he passed Technoblade the light source. Taking slow steps, he kept his eyes narrowed. As he walked, he could see the slight shine of an iron axe. It was rusted, as he expected. It meant that whoever wielded it wasn't a fighter but a humble hermit.

As the half-piglin kept walking, the light allowed him to see the person in full. As he expected, the person wore a green and black robe, accompanied with a white shirt, similar to that of the other two children, and he wore similar black pants to the other boy. His skin was tanned, and he had what looked to be a massive scar on his forehead.

On his ears were earrings, and his hair had a slight red hue to it. Around his neck was a blue scarf, and on his back was a simple empty basket, woven out of wood. His eyes widened upon seeing Technoblade's pink skin and pig legs. He could see the visible tension on the boy's hand increase as he gripped the axe.

And the first words out of the boy's mouth to him was something he had heard far too many times. But it was something he had been used to hearing.

"What are you?"

Tanjiro Kamado. What was there to say about the boy? Not much, really. He lived in a house with his family far off into the woods as coal suppliers to the nearby village. Every month or so, he or Nezuko, his younger sister by a year, would walk down to the nearby village and deliver a basket of coal to those who needed it.

But, this time around felt… different. The air smelt different, like something bad would happen when he left his family behind to do his monthly task. Yet, he went on regardless, chalking it up to nothing but superstition.

But on his return trip home, after he had taken rest with the old man, par the old man's request, who told his crazy folk-lore stories about man-eating creatures, he hadn't expected to come home to someone shouting at him, threatening him with death if he walked any closer to his own home. He would've called it for a bluff had he not seen the shine of an arrowhead.

And to add to such crazy things that one could only possibly dream of, he now stood in front of a creature with pink skin, pig legs, long braided pink hair, a king's cloak with a white shirt and red baggy pants.

His eyes were a deep crimson, and his pupils seemed to be slit like that of a cat's eyes. He had two massive canines poking out of his bottom jaw as he huffed out a massive cloud of breath from his nose. Tanjiro instinctively clutched his axe harder in fear as he swallowed back his fear.

"What are you?" His voice came out dry and scared, which he was. He wasn't going to deny that, but what he didn't expect was the creature grabbing him by the wrist of the hand that his axe was held in. His grip was tight, and his eyes narrowed at his lack of a reaction.

"Drop your axe, and state your name." The creature's voice was something he was caught off guard by. It was rough and cold, and it held no compassion at all. Almost like he was bored. Bored of everything, but his eyes told him differently.

His eyes told Tanjiro that this man… no… that this thing, seemed interested in him. His eyes seemed to be searching for something in him, digging through his mind. He knew that wasn't the case, but, for lack of a better word, the creature's eyes felt as if they were digging around for something.

And to add to that, warnings were going off in his head as if this… thing… it was dangerous. But its ironclad grip on his wrist wasn't letting him go any time soon, and it wasn't going to give him a chance to run either, judging by its glare.

So he did what it told him to do, and that was dropping his axe to the snowy ground. Its eyes let up from its suffocating glare. "Good. Now, what's your name," The thing asked as Tanjiro swallowed again, either out of instinct or out of fear, of which he didn't know.

Did he bother to answer it, or did it already know?

The logical side of his mind told him it obviously didn't, but a part of him warned him against telling him. Almost as if his mind told him that this encounter was not right, something was wrong here - that this wasn't supposed to happen.

Yet here he is, staring down this monstrous thing, and as he continued to be silent, its eyes told him that it was growing annoyed. Fearing that it would kill him, he stammered out his answer.

"Kamado Tanjiro…" As he spoke, the thing nodded and let him go. The sudden change in mood made Tanjiro think that either this thing was either one that didn't like focusing on something for too long or that it just simply didn't care all that much about the boy's answer.

"Pick up your axe and follow me. Keep an open mind when you pass the scarred man. If what I think is right, you'll probably have a panic attack," the thing said as he started walking, only to stop briefly. "Oh, and my name is Technoblade," the thing, now identified as Technoblade, told him as he continued walking.

Two things confused the red-haired boy. The first thing was this 'Technoblade' telling him to pick up his axe, even though it said to drop it moments before. So either one out of the two things was possible. It didn't see him as a legitimate threat, or it only told him to drop the axe to ensure a fight wouldn't have started. Not that Tanjiro would fight the thing, even he wasn't stupid enough to fight it.

The second thing that racked the eldest Kamado sibling's mind was that it mentioned that he might have a panic attack.

What could possibly give him a panic attack? He was home, and his family was probably waiting for him, either that or scared out of their minds with this guy being there. Regardless, he followed, and as he walked, he felt a chill run up his back.

Something was horribly wrong.

No, more than that. Something was more than just horribly wrong. It was beyond that. But why? Why, what was going on? The air had begun to become pungent with the smell of death, and the flags in the back of his mind were rising again. He began to pick up speed as Technoblade began to slow down.

He didn't know why that was, but for whatever it had been for, the eldest Kamado sibling didn't expect what he saw. As he saw the lip of the forest become more visible, the panic and fear began to rise exceptionally so.

As he passed the aforementioned man with many scars, who had glanced down at him with slight curiosity, his eyes widened as he peered into the open doorway of his house.

Bodies. Lots of bodies.

But they weren't just anyone's bodies, far from it.

They were his family's bodies… all except three. Hanako and Takeo were on the porch, free from injury and harm, and beside him, slumped against a tree, was Nezuko, who was also unharmed.

He could feel his senses die, his vision hyper-focused on what he saw. He dared not get close to the bodies lest he saw what remain of them. That was something he was not prepared to see. In fact, he'd rather it if he had never seen it in his lifetime.

Yet here he was, staring down at the doorway, at his house.

He was so entranced with what he saw that Tanjiro hadn't even noticed that he had fallen into the snow, knees first, with his hands outstretched into the snow. He had been so shocked at what he had seen that the red-haired boy also had failed to realize that he wasn't looking at his house anymore. Rather, he was looking at the snow that his hands gripped into.

And as the tears fell from his face, he hadn't even begun to realize that he had been screaming. His family, a majority of it at least, was dead.

Dread overcame him. Despair washed over him like a wave of pure emotion, and with it, his anger began to flood through him.

He slowly began to stand up from the snow as he glanced over his shoulder. Was that thing responsible for this? Was his friend also responsible for it too? He gripped his axe, and without thinking, he turned around and threw it at the pig-man, only for it to catch the axe with lightening like precision.

But that didn't mean Tanjiro was going to just stand there like an idiot. He rushed towards the man, but just before he could make another move, he felt a pain surge through his body as he fell, an arrow protruding from his knee.

"Forget it, kid, try that again, and the next arrow will be in your skull," The scarred man said, his emerald eyes glaring daggers into the boy's own dark red ones.

"Now, now Dream. You didn't need to do that. Kid, this is a big misunderstanding. We came here and found them like this if you-"

But Tanjiro was having none of it. He wasn't going to believe the obvious monster in front of him. That was what his mind was fretting about. This thing had killed his family or was in the middle of doing so, so when Tanjiro showed up, he had planned to make him watch for interrupting him.

He got up from the ground, despite his pain, and just as he was about to charge at them again, he fell again, but this time because he hadn't realized just how close he had gotten to the pig-man, who had slapped him so hard, that he went flying back, blood spewing out of his mouth as he landed in the snow below.

As his vision began to darken, he could feel himself being dragged, and as he lost consciousness, the last thing he heard made him go numb with fear.

"Get the others. Let's bring them back to camp…."

-To Be Continued-

Damn, not gonna lie. Writing the Tanjiro bit made me feel conflicted. I didn't want to make him seem too OOC, but since he wasn't greeted with his demonized sister, I had to change the scene. Also, for those who were expecting Giyuu to show up, sorry to disappoint. That is a firm NO. He will show up soon, don't worry, but it won't be till AT LEAST the next chapter.

Until next time, see ya later, peace!