Within the darkness of the forest, dimly lit by the beams of moonlight that pierced through the thick canopy of leaves, they ran. Frightening forms raced through the forest, chaos trailing in their wake.
The ground shook, the very earth itself trembling as if an earthquake was splitting it into two. Birds abandoned their nests as they flew away in large flocks, and the small critters that made the forest floor their home ran away in terror at the encroaching storm. Trees toppled over, the sheer amount of weight stampeding on top of them splintering and crushing the centuries-old wood like a human crushed twigs underfoot.
They bound and leapt, meters of lands traversed as an afterthought, their speed enough to seem like a blur to the naked eye. They almost trampled over each other in their haste, their bodies becoming almost a singular twisting and churning mass of flesh and bone. Despite being pack creatures, all intelligence had been abandoned in their minds, leaving only a wrathful and mindless husk.
Demonic, crimson eyes dotted the sea of black, a malicious, primal hunger burning in their depths. Not a hunger for flesh or blood but for destruction and chaos, caused by something else far more instinctive, a deep-rooted feeling ingrained within every living being, one that superseded all thought and priorities.
Fear.
Every living creature fought for survival. It was a fundamental rule of nature, as immutable as how the sun and moon rose and fell with each passing day to the tune of the unstoppable march of time. Living beings longed to live, and any threats towards that goal overrode all logical processes, leaving behind nothing but one command:
To destroy.
And so they ran, not away from the danger they sensed but towards it. Every fiber of their being screamed at them to tear apart whatever threatened their continued existence—to rend it apart piece by piece, run it through with claws and fangs until the screaming within their soul stopped.
Finally, they arrived, the origin of the energy they had felt. A singular beat, that was all it had taken, and they had converged at this location without a second thought. Even to the monsters, the bane of humanity and the enemy of civilization, what they felt here grated upon their soul, an incorrigible wrongness, a despicable stain upon the world.
They broke through the last barrier of trees, about to burst into an open clearing to find—
THUMP!
A large, black mass flew through the air towards them, smashing into a tree they were about to run past with a thunder thud. The sizeable dark form turned out to be one of their own, one of the leaders of their packs, a Terminate Boar.
The monster was enormous, easily eclipsing any man. Long, jagged tusks angrily curved upwards into a sharp point, easily deadly enough to gore half a dozen men upon their length. Similar bony protrusions grew from atop its head, ivory spiraling around itself until it formed a pair of gruesome, devilish horns. Its hide was pulled taut over its broad frame, bulging with thick cords of lean muscle embracing its skeleton, and arms bigger than a human torso ended in claws almost the length of swords. Various bonyspikes ran alongside its spine and limbs almost like makeshift armor, only adding to the menacing image.
The monster was also very dead.
A length of wood pierced through the giant monster, impaling its cursed heart. The shaft continued all the way through until bloody steel, the tip of a spearhead, sprouted from the other side of the tree trunk, the weapon completely skewering the monster. The boar twitched once, then twice, its extremities jolting occasionally, but the shudders were more akin to the death throes of an animal which had not realized its death than any real sign of life.
Its mouth was agape, once frightening jaws hanging open as a long and a pink tongue drooped limply from between rows of dagger-like teeth. A thin stream of blood ran down its mandible, joining a much larger pool of red leaking from the fist-sized wound on the monster's chest.
The swarm of incoming monsters stopped, the need to observe overcoming the fogginess of their minds as they uncharacteristically paused to look at the corpse of one of their brethren. The primal gears of their simple brains turned as their gaze turned from the fallen monster to where it had been launched from.
A human, barely older than a child, stood in the center of the clearing. His stature was small and diminutive, not even reaching the shoulders of one of their pack members. He stood underneath the moonlight, his posture relaxed and his expression pensive. The scene would have seemed quite serene if it wasn't for the severed head of an Assault Dog grasped in one hand, hefting the gory body part like he was examining vegetables at a market. In his other hand was an ordinary sword, albeit one that seemed custom made for his size, nothing that would have been out of place on an adventurer, but something told them that its edge was far sharper than any typical warrior's blade.
Scattered all around him were more bodies of monsters, strewn about the clearing in varying states of disfigurement. Some were killed with extreme precision, a single wound to the heart having ended their life in a swift stroke. Others were more brutally ended, limbs or heads sliced and split like meat at a butcher's table or torsos perforated with stab wounds and gutted open. The most unfortunate ones could barely be called corpses at all, more akin to bloody chunks of flesh and bone haphazardly littering the area, their bodies sliced to thin ribbons.
If the child held any reservations about the disturbing scene, his countenance held no indication of it, amber eyes staring both distantly and intently into lifeless crimson orbs as if it held the answers to life itself.
"It looks like my theory was correct."
A voice, quiet yet resolute, pierced through the silence of the night. There was an almost uncaring tone to it, a simple frankness that betrayed little else. Despite the boy continuing to twist and turn the head, his eyes fixated upon it, the newly-arrived monsters knew that the words were meant for them.
"You all seemed to be attracted to me," he continued pensively, "and yet I've haven't seen any of you before. You've all avoided me and this village before. Paul said none of you ever attacked, but here you are. How strange—why is that?"
The question was rhetorical at best, and if the monsters understood human speech, they would have wondered why the boy was asking them such questions with such an air of indifference.
"The ones here seem to be a cut above the rest. I can sense the weaker ones running away. I guess my magical energy has that effect on monsters below a certain grade," he stated. "You all though, you would rather step forward than run away?"
Despite the presence of the monsters near him, the boy still remained unconcerned about anything else, and the creatures took the opportunity to fan out, slowly spreading around the perimeter of the clearing to try and surround their quarry. Their prey was distracted, and this opportunity would not present itself again—
"But that still doesn't explain the most important part."
The boy discarded the bloody skull, contemptuously tossing it aside as he finally turned his gaze towards the approaching beasts. Twin copper orbs glowered with an icy fire, embers of gold smoldering in his irises. His lips were set into a thin line, but if one looked closely enough, they curved downwards into a scowl marring his otherwise frosty visage.
"You all have its stench."
The words were almost spat out, an undercurrent of cold accusation cutting through them, and the monsters, despite not understanding human speech, could feel the smoldering anger in his tone.
And then the air itself turned against them.
Energy emanated from the child, flooding the area with the same repulsive aura that tortured and scraped their souls. The oppressive atmosphere was crushing, an almost tangible force threatening to annihilate them then and there. Every animalistic screamed at them to act—to lunge forward, to rip out his throat, to do whatever it took to end the torment and erase the aberration of his very being. Yet, that same voice told them they would be cut down in an instant if they even moved from their place.
Indecision and hesitation paralyzed them, the monsters caught between the overwhelming need to attack and the certainty of destruction if they dared.
Within every living being laid the innate instinct to protect their life. The monsters' drive to live is what had brought them here, to bring down their combined might upon whatever had threatened their existence.
However, there was another side to the very same impulse.
Flee.
Fight or flight was the fundamental basis upon which the living evaluated conflict. All decisions, once rational thought and logic were stripped away, boiled down to either choice. There was an invisible line all living beings instinctively drew, one that dictated the level of strength required to forsake all delusions of struggle, to turn around and flee and leave nothing behind.
And for the monsters that surrounded the boy—the source of the aura that shook the core of their souls and threatened to unravel their very existence, the very presence that had provokingly called them here—they were quickly discovering where their own lines had been drawn.
"Running away?"
High-pitched shrieks and helpless yelps rang throughout the clearing as explosions rocked the area. Swords, uncountable and innumerable, hovered in the air above the boy, phasing into existence one moment before streaking down like meteorites the next, rays of light tracing through the air. They smote down the escaping monsters like lightning bolts from an angry god, not letting a singular beast leave the area with its life.
They all took an involuntary step backwards, every fiber of their being screaming at them to look the other way and flee. However, the scent of their own blood wafted through the air, and the cries of agony and anguish were fresh in their minds.
Fear gripped their minds. Hesitation halted their bodies. The two voices within them, to fight or to run, went silent, the scales determining the best course of survival no longer functioning.
"You all seemed so eager earlier. What happened?"
Blue flashed, and more swords, plain and mundane, coalesced into existence. They hung in the air, a second painfully passing by before their tips lowered until they were aimed right at the vanguards of the packs.
Booms echoed, shockwaves ringing through the air as steel rained from the sky. Blood spilled, limbs and heads flew, and through it all, the boy did not move, looking at the carnage with disdainful indifference.
Their numbers were dwindling. Escape was not possible. If they continued as they were, they would only continue to be slaughtered. They were like livestock, plump and ready, simply waiting to be killed. It was a hopeless situation, one with no route to victory.
Then, through the fog clouding their minds,with the pressure of their inevitable doom bearing down upon them, something snapped.
A symphony of sharp howls and screams, harmonious and united, pierced through the air, their combined number enough to simulate a continuous, endless, desperate wail.
Then the attack began.
They came at him all at once, tactics and strategy tossed to the wind and forgotten, their thoughts filled with nothing but bloodlust. Each beast may have been individual in their mind but in this moment, the voices of their brethren poured strength into their frozen bodies. Their souls briefly lit aflame as one, a singular, hopeless cause overcoming the haze and unifying them all to fight one last, desperate battle with a result long since decided and their end inevitable.
On clawed limbs they charged, bursting out of the forest with monstrous ferocity. The force of their stampede created tremors in the ground, their combined might equivalent to a natural calamity. They descended upon the boy, a sea of bladed paws and serrated fangs longing to bite into his soft flesh.
The figure in the center of the clearing cast an even glance at the incoming monsters, bronze eyes showing neither concern nor disinterest, regarding the wave of evil with nothing more than a small, terse frown before closing his eyes.
Dozens of meters separated the beasts from their prey. Fang over fang, claw over claw, muscled legs powered their advance. They saw no movement from the boy, no efforts made to evade the swarm nor combat it, and the observation only spurred their assault, their hunger intensifying with each stride they took.
They felt it before they saw it, another pulse of sickening alienness, and then suddenly, the sky itself turned to steel, a curtain of swords numbering far more than the earlier volley materializing high above the child. Sharp steel flashed with a deadly luster, their sheer number almost enough to blot out the night sky. They were merely ordinary swords, nothing but the useless trinkets of typical warriors, but something made far stronger and sharper than they had any right to be.
Their instincts finally roared to life once again, breaking their silence to scream and plead and beg for them to stop. However, it was far too late, and the giant swarm of bodies were far too close to try and run away now.
At this point, there was only one option left for them, a grim reality they all accepted: to fight —
And to die.
Golden orbs opened once again, and a shudder ran through all their bodies at the icy gaze they emanated. The screaming in their heads only became louder, but the knowledge that the sliver of hope they sought only existed forwards spurred their bodies onwards.
And then hell was let loose.
Sound warped. Booms rang through the air. Whelps and cries followed soon after before they were drowned out by the thundering sound of steel crashing against the earth. Clouds of debris and flesh and blood flooded the area, and bodies fell from the sky like dying birds as the force of explosions threw them upwards into the air. Each projectile fired spelled certain death for anything in its path.
It was a massacre—a slaughter beyond comprehension. Monsters charged forward only for their offensive to be halted in its tracks by a rain of blades. The distance to the boy wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but in the moment, that gap was insurmountable, a seemingly near-infinite space they could not even hope to cross.
The first line of Assault Dogs was gone, their corpses broken and decimated on the ground only a few steps out from the forest line. In just a few moments, they had been decimated beyond belief, heads hitting the ground before the realization of their deaths caught up with their brains. Lengths of steel were lodged in every single monster, some fortunate to have been impaled in the head or heart while others were skewered from head to rear like gruesome sticks of meat. Their bodies crumpled like puppets with cut strings, muscles grinding to a stop as they died.
In a sense, their resistance was meaningless. Nothing they could have done would have swayed the tides of the battle, their actions ultimately an exercise in futility. They were simply not strong enough, a fact that was forced upon them in the most brutal of fashions. Their hides were easily punctured by the endless swords, and their bones shattered and broke underneath their peerless edges. Their minds and muscles simply could not react nor move fast enough to evade any of the deadly projectiles, steel moving faster than thought.
They died without achieving anything of use, reaching death's door empty-handed—their efforts a fruitless endeavor.
However…
Through the falling bodies and from the fog of dust and blood, they burst forth.
Their fur was even darker than the ones before them, slabs of muscle and bone bulging and rippling underneath. Their claws were longer and sharper, and their teeth stained with even more innocent blood. In comparison to the monsters underneath their paws, they were stronger through and through, a different level of strength without a shadow of a doubt.
They prowled forwards, the deaths of the fallen providing them with the smallest of opportunities, a miniscule gap in the barrage of steel that any living being would have been suicidal to try and exploit.
They ran forwards, the line of bodies that marked the previous furthest point they had reached now behind them. They saw the boy still far in the distance, a lone figure calmly standing amidst the storm of blades and shadow, and the sight of their enemy, tauntingly distant and seemingly unreachable, only fueled their ardor.
One meter turned into two. Two meters turned into three. Three turned into ten, unnatural strength propelling them onwards in the blink of an eye, and the monsters could not help the bud of hope blooming within them as they eyed their goal.
Their journeys ended as their chance closed in an instant, and their blood spilled out onto the ground as the next volley of swords finally arrived, striking down the monsters before they could further approach and creating another line of bloody bodies.
However, it had been enough.
Lifeless eyes remained opened, watching blankly as the next line of monsters, stronger and faster, pushed forward, trampling upon the dead and dodging flying corpses as they charged into the tiny opening created.
Those same orbs dully observed as their replacements met the same fate, impaled into the ground like ghastly gravestones, morbid monuments to their extinguished existences.
The once peaceful forest was now anything but, the clearing having become a macabre stage where the drama of their existence played out in visceral detail. Each monster knew its fate the moment it surged forward, yet the collective will drove them forward relentlessly. They were born into this grim dance, and one after another, they sacrificed themselves, their lives the only currency they had to buy the precious time needed to close the distance between them and the boy who stood unwaveringly, his swords flashing in the crimson-stained battlefield.
With every step forward, another barrage of swords met the monsters of black, cutting them down mercilessly. Yet, for every monster that fell, another took its place, driven by a primal urge to overcome the insurmountable obstacle before them. Their numbers seemed endless, a ceaseless tide of darkness and fury.
Goden eyes narrowed ever so slightly as more swords appeared, each one finding its mark with unerring precision. A bead of sweat trailed down his brow, and the once calm breathing had become slightly labored. Each wave of weapons came ever so slightly slower, the barrage of swords not able to fully repel the incoming horde.
Weakness, that's what it was.
The invincible aura of the once-unassailable figure before them dimmed by the smallest amount, an observation that none of the monsters missed. Predator instincts ignited, and with renewed vigor, the onslaught of darkness continued to throw itself into the rain of steel. Finally, the daunting task ahead seemed less impossible than before.
The distance between them and the figure continued to diminish, meter by hard-fought meter disappearing, the distance seemingly infinite yet undoubtedly shrinking. The monsters' bodies piled up, forming grotesque mounds that their kin trampled over in their blind pursuit. Blood and entrails painted the battlefield, mixing with the churned soil to create a grim tapestry of morbid defeat.
The monsters did not falter. They pressed on, their claws scraping against the earth, their growls and cries filling the air with a sinister symphony of death and desperation. Hearts raced, their own heartbeats a final reminder of their fleeting lives before they were inevitably struck down.
It was, by all accounts, a terrible strategy, and without their sheer numbers, such a scheme would not have been possible. However, with the insurmountable cliff before them, there was simply no other choice, their lives the fuel for the fire blazing deep within them all, all only for a sliver of an opportunity to finally present itself.
Then, at long last, the storm was nearing its end, the monsters' seemingly vast numbers having been exhausted. In the end, they did not manage to reach the boy, their relentless assault faltering at the very end. Bodies crumpled mere steps from their target, the unreachable boy standing as a silent testament to their futile struggle. Their grand offensive had met a tragic end, falling short of its mark.
However, just when it seemed like the flames of hope had been snuffed out, they stepped forth.
They were the final wave, the last remnants of the swarm, the pillars of strength among the horde. They were the strongest, the indisputable elite among elites, almost another breed of abominations altogether, more akin to the nightmares the prowled underneath the human psyche than any real living being.
They stalked forward on disjointed legs, the bone underneath their hideous hides jutting out unnaturally in jagged patterns. The bony protrusions that ran all long their bodies were far larger than their brethren's, growing out to form plate-like armor that protected the vulnerable flesh underneath like grotesque knights from hell. Wisps of shadow trailed behind them, crimson orbs burning with a malevolent hellfire that caused the boy's eyes to widen before narrowing further.
Everything else had been ultimately an expendable asset, nothing more than fodder to tear open the smallest of openings in the wall of impossibility before them. With a shrill battle cry, a storm of claws and teeth and tusks bore down upon the solitary boy, a united cry ringing out in one final desperate attempt at victory.
The first Assault Dog finally reached him, maw snapping open as it sought to rip out his throat. Its fangs missed its target as the boy twisted to the side, almost materializing away from the attack.
With a contemptuous flick of his wrist, the sword in his hand flashed forward, briefly glowing with magical energy before puncturing the plate that covered its side and tracing a bloody line across the length of the monster's body, its momentum only causing it to carve itself open along the blade. It landed, legs wobbling as it precariously swayed twice before collapsing, its organs spilling open from the wound in a waterfall of gore.
Two more approached him, attacking from both sides to cut off any escape paths. There was a whimper as an arm shot out like a bullet, fingers digging into flesh like a steel vice-grip. Another yelp rang out as one monster was thrown onto the other, bones cracking in a resounding snap before the sword reappeared once again to skewer both beasts through their hearts.
A shadow loomed over the boy before a pair of arms, two black and white columns of pure muscle, slammed down into a cloud of debris of dust. The Terminate Boar lifted its arms back up, the black appendages preparing to smash the figure into a red paste on the ground.
There was the soft ringing of steel pervaded the air, and the monster's face became speckled with crimson droplets as both arms exploded in a shower of blood, the limbs suddenly disappearing from the elbow down. It looked at its arms puzzledly, confusion coming before understanding, even more so when two feet softly landed upon the base of right tusk. Red orbs started to pan upwards towards a pair of legs and a small torso before the motion was interrupted by virtue of the steel sword stabbing through the gaps of the bones that adorned its head like a helmet, impaling one of its eyes with a sickening squelch.
A deafening roar echoed throughout the forest, and the immense monster thrashed around in anger and pain. Small hands pushed the weapon further in before twisting, and the writhing stopped altogether, the giant behemoth crashing to the ground and twitching twice before finally lying still.
Dust settled, and twin jaws of razor-sharp teeth clamped down onto the figure's right arm that wielded his weapon. The Assault Dog towered over the boy, and the arm in its mouth might as well have been a toothpick in comparison.
"I suppose some level of injury might be a bit more believable. Still, it's good to know that this sort of attack is not an issue."
Muscles flexed and tightened, but the jaw that could snap a sword in half like a twig could not summon the strength necessary to drive the canines down to pierce flesh.
On the other side, two Assault Dogs leapt at him, intent on using the diversion to finally deliver a lethal strike.
The sickly sensation filled the air once again, and the arm that was trapped in the maws of the monster tensed before wrenching itself free. Teeth scattered at its feet as the monster's jaw hung limply, blood streaming from where its now-missing teeth used to be, and the monster took a step forward before an axe fell from the sky, smashing into its skull and littering the area with bloody fragments of bone and brain matter.
At the same time, an enormous greatsword materialized, almost two meters long and wider than the boy himself. It launched itself at the two monsters, cleanly slicing both and leaving the halves of the dogs to gush blood at the boy's feet.
A second Terminate Boar, even larger than the first, barreled towards him, each step almost an earthquake on its own. An arm, almost as thick as a tree trunk, came towards him at blinding speeds. The boy suddenly reappeared on the thick limb, carefully balancing himself before racing towards the monster's head with sword in hand.
However, his movements were not quick enough. Another pack of Assault Dogs leapt up at him, jaws snapping open in a vicious snarl as they intercepted his path. The first one was easily swatted aside, brain pierced through before it could land. The second dog came from the other side, and it flew at the boy before latching on its jaws around his leg.
There was a click of a tongue, eyes that looked more haggard than before narrowing, and the monster's head became estranged from its neck as the resistance abruptly vanished. However, its intent was only ever a distraction, and two more mouths clamped on the boy's arms.
The sudden weight caused a shift in balance, and the figure tumbled down towards the ground.
A fire erupted within the few monsters left, the predatory senses within them blazing to life as they all sensed the opportunity that laid before them. Hoarse screams echoed throughout the clearing, a primal cry that could only mean one thing:
Attack.
Snarls and growls roared throughout the clearing as they converged upon the small boy lying on the ground. They charged with an animalistic ferocity, hunger and hate blazing within crimson eyes.
A large foot, attached to legs each the size of fully-grown men, reared up and hung in the air for a moment before it smashed into the earth.
A breath later, and the same limb rose again, slamming back down with even greater force.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Soil and rock scattered, and the small crater below the monsters spread outwards with each ground-shattering strike. The foot, taloned with claws the size of swords and just as deadly, did not relent in its attacks, leveraging the tremendous mass behind it to crush its target.
Blood flew through the air, but for the first time since the night started, it was not spilled from the monsters. The Terminate Boar prepared to continue its assault, but a flash of light caught its attention. It briefly looked away from the figure sprawled on the ground to see a large longsword materializing next to the boy. It quickly shot towards the monster, and only lightning-quick reflexes managed to divert it away from its heart and into its stomach.
Black sludge seeped from the wound, but the injury was far from fatal. Ignoring the embedded projectile for now, the boar bent down and pick up the boy in its oversized hand. The small figure was now a bloody mess, face contorted in pain as he remained slack in its grip, the sight almost pitiful. Combined with his diminutive stature, and it was hard to believe that the puny thing in its grasp had been responsible for the carnage
Lips curled back in a snarl, and the blackened hand began to squeeze, the full might of the monster bearing down upon the frail body in its grasp.
Bones creaked, and a groan escaped the boy's lips as he bore the immense pressure crushing him. A second hand joined the first, and the force killing him doubled in an instant.
Bones cracked. Blood and spittle flew. Eyes almost popped out of their sockets. A gaping maw opened, lowering itself towards the boy.
And then…
BOOM!
Fire erupted, the sword impaling the monster exploding in a burst of heat and light. For an instant, blood rained from the sky, showering everything in the vicinity with speckles of red. A thunderous impact shook the earth, the upper half of the Terminate Boar landing with a loud crash somewhere in the distance, glassy eyes fixated upon its still-landing lower body. Those remnants wavered for a few more moments before finally toppling in a resounding thud.
The boy struggled to his feet, his face contorted in pain. Each labored breath was punctuated with harsh coughs, and a thin trail of blood ran down from his mouth and nose. He staggered unsteadily, but despite his state, the intensity in his eyes did not fade in the slightest as he eyed the remaining monsters charging towards him.
A volley of swords appeared, launching themselves at the horde. A series of explosions engulfed the group, dust and smoke obscuring his vision. However, from the haze emerged the monsters once again, their numbers obliterated but still present.
They swarmed him, a storm of teeth and claws buffeting the solitary figure. His arms were a whirlwind, the steel sword in his hand almost invisible. Each swing of the blade severed limbs and head, and bodies crumpled as blood cascading like waterfalls all around him.
However, his retaliation was not one-sided, and each life he wrenched away from their grasp exacted a toll upon the boy. Jaws full of jagged fangs bit into his shoulder, and this time they found purchases within his flesh. Claws raked over his arms and chest, leaving behind shallow but bleeding trails.
It was a losing battle for the figure. He had lost his greatest asset, his range, and now the enemy was engaging him in melee, the place where their overwhelming numbers had the biggest advantage.
The monsters knew this as well, and their increasing fervor reflected in the desperate frenzy they crowded him with. Any second now, just the slightest of mistakes, and it would be over. His margin of error had disappeared, and it was only an inevitability for fatigue and exhaustion to spell his doom.
For the boy, there was one option remaining.
"I am…"
The monsters froze, a cold, numbing sensation overtaking them. The alien feeling returned, utter wrongness that permeating from the boy intensifying several times over. The air itself shook at his words, as if the world was fracturing and distorting around the child before them.
Deep within, a primal instinct—the very essence that marked them as children of this world—thrashed and howled, urging them to flee at any cost.
Because whatever was going to come next was something not meant to exist here.
As one, they pivoted away, their will to fight extinguished like the last flickers of candlelight.
By then, it was already too late.
Golden eyes lit ablaze.
"… the bone of my sword."
I used to dream of a scorched earth.
Of seas of blood and mountains of corpses—the path of the hero that I had sworn to cross.
At some point, I knew that I would meet my end at the end of that road, and even though at one point I had decided to choose how I reach the end, choosing to be a hero meant there was no other fate waiting for me.
I was born in fire and blood, and I would die in it as well. My journey would end just as how it started, and even though I was now in a new world, there were some things that simply couldn't be changed.
The smell of burning flesh pervaded my nose, the foul odor something I was well-acquainted with at this point. My footsteps were punctuated with splashes of sanguine fluid, puddles of red covering nearly the entire clearing. Giant mounds of burning dogs and boars littered the area like morbid bonfires, their festering carcasses gazing lifelessly at the sky.
I cast an impassive look at it all, my visage as blank as a marble statue.
I had resolved myself to kill people. I was not naïve enough to believe that achieving my dream would not have come without cost. Bloodshed ultimately was a necessary price, a lesson that humanity continually taught itself over and over. After all, to nurture the flame of ambition that dwelled within humanity's core meant to accept that it would eventually engulf everything in its way.
So I was not surprised that I stood in the center of this macabre scene. It had been something I was long anticipating. However, the fact that the bodies piled high around me were monsters and not people was a slight comfort. In that respect, I had not needed to steel myself for the fight that had come. There were no hopes and dreams that needed to be crushed today. There were no wishes to be trampled upon just to fulfill the ones that already resided within me.
It was mindless slaughter, as simple as that.
I let my body relax slightly, and Kanshou and Bakuya, modified to fit my current body's proportions, dissipated into motes of blue light. I walked over to a Terminate Boar, trying my best to endure the searing pain that pervaded every portion of my body with every movement. The battle had not been without difficulty, and if I had not used the more potent parts of my arsenal, I would have been overwhelmed. There were far too many of them, several hundred by my count, my attempt at drawing the monsters to me perhaps succeeding a bit too well.
I coughed, the pain of crushed rib bones stabbing into my lungs lighting a burning fire in my chest. Blood trailed down from the corner of my mouth, dribbling down my chin before I wiped it away with my hand.
In addition, this body was not as used to physical exertion. My combat proficiency with tracing and other magecraft was dependent on my soul and not the body, so those areas were not affected by my rebirth. However, my physical stamina was still developing, and my body still had to get used to outputting so much magical energy. My spar with Paul and usual training sessions had not pushed me as far this night had, combining constant applications of magecraft alongside physical combat taxing my body more than I expected.
Still, it was not all bad. Testing out my capabilities was an unexpected benefit from this night. Had I been so adamant on training at every possible opportunity, then handling the assault would have come at a greater cost, both to me and the surrounding area.
However, all this effort was ultimately to save Laws, his survival the main reason I was willing to go so far. Repaying his kindness by casting aside my doubts and hesitation was the least I could do. If nothing else, regardless of the consequences that would befall me later, I saved one life today, the only thing that mattered.
Of course, I had no doubt that the man was injured in some manner. I was confident in his skills to survive until I was ready to call all the monsters in the vicinity away from him and the village, but everyone had their limits. I would need to find him soon and bring him back to the village.
My lips curled into a small smile.
What a familiar feeling. Perhaps this was the seductive sensation that had allured me so long ago. It had been so long that I had almost forgotten it.
However, just as quickly as it came, the smile faded. The sight in front of me was far too repulsive to ignore.
Tendrils of shadow smoked from their bodies. Their flesh was as black as the night sky. Blank orbs stared back at me, but even in death, their crimson hue radiated a chilling malevolence that would not have been out of place on a demon's.
An uncomfortable feeling swelled up within my chest, and I could feel hints of bile racing up my throat. The pit in my stomach was a gaping chasm, and my lungs burned as I let out a breath that I did not even realize I had held in.
Fear is not the word I would have used.
I did not feel fear when Berserker's monstrous presence dragged my body across the streets of Fuyuki nor when his jagged blade had nearly torn my body in two.
I did not feel fear when Gilgamesh had towered over me with a sky brimming with gold, judging the worth of my existence with haughty ruby eyes nor when the symbol of her authority tore reality itself asunder.
I did not feel fear when my own servant stood across from me in that desolate cavern, the weight of the world falling upon my meager shoulders as I dueled with the blackened knight to write the ending I sought.
This emotion though… I had only felt it once before—when I finally saw the grotesque trophy we had all been fighting for.
Countless lifetimes could pass, and I would not be able to forget it. It was etched into my mind as deeply as the wishes engraved into my soul. I was born in its taint—an inescapable part of my being.
The sickening aura that caused my stomach to churn was only a passing memory, but the feeling of wrongness emanating from the surrounding corpses still served as a foul reminder of the past. What I had sensed earlier as the beasts approached paled in comparison to this overwhelming, corrupting presence I bathed in.
It was wrong, plain and simple. Even back on Earth, I could sense that it was something that did not belong. Here, in this new world, alien could scarcely describe the feeling.
But even this much could not make my skin crawl and my innards writhe like it did before.
The taint of the Holy Grail.
This was not just a passing resemblance. It was the real thing, without a shadow of a doubt.
I wanted to turn a blind eye to it, to deny its existence outright. The grail had been the cause of Sakura's misery, the poor girl suffering as a tool in a fool's quest to attain the corrupted power. Saber herself had blindly pursued its temptation, and the revelation of its true nature had nearly broken her. Whatever sweet nothings it whispered into the ears of its victims only brought about nothing but agony and destruction.
And most of all, if the grail was truly present in this world…
Then it meant that Illyasviel's sacrifice had been meaningless.
I ground my teeth together at the futility of the girl's final, meaningful choice, and the red orbs that stared back at me served as a mocking reminder of that fact. My fists clenched, and my shoulders trembled at the thought of it all.
The revulsion I felt transformed into something I could describe far easier.
There was a bitterness in my mouth, a vile, festering sensation blazing within my chest. It felt completely foreign, the raw, passionate anger swelling within me not something I had never felt before.
Hate.
Justice?
Fairness?
To think that reality could not even spare her even that much—that the incarnation of all the world's evils was granted a second chance, while an innocent girl whose life was never her own was denied—it was the ultimate irony.
And I hated it.
At one point, I had empathized with the corrupted being, knowing exactly what it felt like to be crushed underneath the burdens of others, to be the martyr that the masses desired, to live an existence not for your own sake but for others. In some sense, I knew it was illogical to hate the grail, Angra Mainyu never being given any sort of choice—the dark god only fulfilling the function it was given.
However, such sentiments did nothing to smother the flames within my heart, and empathy would not stop me from doing what needed to be done.
It was strange, feeling such a rush of emotions. Such a thing would not have been possible in the past. It was only when it came to them that I could feel the hints of normalcy that were denied to me from birth.
Perhaps that is why I was born in this new world. Maybe this is what Illyasviel and the others had in mind— a purpose given to me, the last survivor of a forgotten war, and one last chance to make things right.
I could feel them, the listless pieces of my resolve coming together once again, and with them, the tranquil, languid life I had lived up to now was set aflame, leaving behind nothing but ashes.
Rage bred acceptance—acceptance of life's cruelty, of past failures resurfacing to haunt me once again. Acceptance birthed defiance—against fate, against the ending I had once written.
And from defiance, purpose emerged.
For the first time in years, both halves of Emiya Shirou—id and ego—were in complete and utter harmony.
And the flame that I had lost since coming to this new world was lit anew.
Tongues of flickering flames lashed out at me, golden fire licking my skin but leaving it unmarred. It was not surprising considering what this body was made out of and what it had been forged in, a useful side effect of the past.
I looked all around me, noting the large number of bodies completely filling the clearing as if it was a landfill for corpses, and a displeased frown appeared on my lips.
I would need to get rid of all these bodies somehow. Most were already in the process of being incinerated as an unintentional side-effect of my earlier efforts, but perhaps there was a flaming mystic code or noble phantasm I could use to hasten the process. There was a chance that the magical energy from this amount of bodies would attract more of monsters, and if they somehow grew stronger from eating their dead kin, then a horde larger and stronger than this one would come barreling into Buena Village, and I would definitely not be able to hold off that sort of attack without any sort of preparations and massive collateral damage.
One of the mounds twitched, the large mass shaking and rumbling before with a pathetic whine, a singular body crawled out from beneath the pile of flesh. It looked more like an abandoned puppy than the fearsome wolf it had seemed like earlier. The ominous black fur was dingy and slick with dirt and blood. Its front right leg was missing from the knee down, and both ears were torn off, leaving behind only bloody stumps. Jaws that proudly sported over a dozen fangs were now down to half of that, and its lower mandible hung limply as its tongue lolled out from the side, the muscle no longer able to sit properly within the monster's mouth.
It stumbled onto its feet, weakly propping itself up and trembling for a split second before gravity won, the beast crashing back to the ground. Another attempt was more successful, the monster swaying unsteadily as it precariously balanced itself on three limbs.
I watched as its head panned from one side to the other, the sole remaining eye scanning the devastated battlefield. The monster took in the sight of the pack, brothers it had charged into battle with, now lying dead all around it.
Their once fierce and frightening forms were reduced to lifeless heaps, stacked high in columns like trash as they slowly burned to cinders. Each burning body was a testament to the failure of their attack, and the flames dancing over their remains cast eerie shadows that seemed to reach out towards the lone survivor, as if trying to drag it down to join its fallen brethren.
For the monster, the sight must have been its personal hell. The last remnants of crimson light, which once burned with rage and determination, were slowly ebbing away from its eye, leaving behind a dulled orb—a window into an empty soul, devoid of the primal fury that had once defined it.
And perhaps that fact only made it more surprising when the monster turned towards me. Battered paw placed in front of paw, it began to stumble its way over. There was a listlessness to its stride, an emptiness in its gait. Each step seemed to extract a toll from the beast, nearly causing it to topple over. The ground beneath its feet barely registered its weight, and its massive frame seemed to sag underneath an invisible burden.
There was a listlessness to its stride, an emptiness in its gait. It moved like a puppet with cut strings, its body going through the motions of life while the mind and spirit were broken and gone. Each lumbered step brought the monster closer to me but also further from itself, and I could not help the rising pity in my chest.
Was this how I had looked like all those years ago?
I continued to let the monster come closer, interested in what it would do, if it would do what I had done.
The broken beast was in front of me now, and I watched it closely with a keen curiosity.
There was a murmur off to the side, and then I sighed, taking a step backwards.
A sword lanced through the air, blue light tracing a line through the darkness of the night. The last Assault Dog did not even have the time to notice the projectile as the sword buried itself into the monster's head, destroying its skull in a gory explosion of blood and bone before stabbing into the ground.
The decapitated body managed to move another two feeble steps forward, its momentum undeterred by the loss of its brain until reality caught up to it and it fell over at my feet, the monster finally joining the rest of its family.
It seemed that my visitor had enough waiting.
I had felt a presence make it way over to the clearing just a bit earlier, but whoever it was had decided to sit back and observe as I had idly checked all the bodies. I was sure that the sight in front of them must have been quite shocking, seeing a young child wading through the corpses of so many monsters. Truthfully, I had been so engrossed in my musings that I had not even noticed the presence until it was too late, and now all I could do was act nonchalant and wait until they approached.
I glanced to the side, looking at the magical weapon. The design of the sword itself was fairly nondescript, nothing more than a standard longsword. Its blade was almost the length of my height, and no decorations adorned its pommel or cross guard. However, the remarkable qualities of the weapon did not lie within its shape but in its construction.
Undulating frosted vapors wafted from a blade of crystal rime, dense hoarfrost spreading from where the sword was embedded into the earth. The grass within a few meters of the blade was frozen solid, a carpet of icy spikes blanketing the area. The length of ice shimmered in the moonlight, capturing ethereal motes of white and refracting it to cast an iridescent glow over its surroundings.
I let out a breath, watching as it turned visible in the now chilly air, the white mist rising until it disappeared.
I hummed in approval.
Not bad. Whatever spell conjured the weapon had an impressive amount of power behind it.
The sword itself was a manifestation of magecraft and was not a true weapon. There was no history or memories for me to analyze; for all intents and purposes, it was just magical energy transformed into ice and molded into the shape of a sword.
I glanced at the corpse at my feet and crinkled my eyes wryly.
Simple but effective. I had no complaints.
Grass softly crunched as footsteps approached me from my periphery. It had taken them quite a while to cross over from the clearing's edge, though perhaps that only made their aim more impressive.
"You shouldn't be playing around with monsters."
An even voice cut through the air, and I instinctively stiffened. It was undoubtedly feminine, perhaps one that would belong to a younger woman. However, there was a depth of it that belied its apparent youth, a certain quality that spoke of wisdom and experience beyond her years, and the words she had uttered were said with no small amount of insight.
I frowned, my senses beginning to fray at the voice. Memories flashed through my mind, the sensations vivid yet fleeting all the same. I scrunched my eyebrows as faint pin pricks assaulted my mind, trying to remember where I had felt this before.
And then I finally turned to meet the owner of the voice.
She was shorter than I expected, shorter than every adult I knew, and had I not known better, I would have mistaken her for a teenager. She was garbed in a white tunic and black skirt, the clothes well-kept and meticulously maintained, scarcely showing signs of use. They hugged her petite frame, subtly highlighting her delicate frame.
Draped over her entire body was a two-piece brown cloak, starkly contrasting with the pristine clothes underneath. Where her tunic and skirt seemed barely touched by time, the cloak wore its history openly, almost proudly. It bore the marks of countless adventures, mismatched patches and stitches covering numerous tears and missing pieces littering the entire piece—someone who had weathered innumerable storms but had emerged victorious. The marks did not detract from her image but added to it, seamlessly weaving together a tapestry of seasoned experience that complimented, rather than diminished, her youthful visage.
In her hand was a long staff, the weapon taller than the wielder herself, and various scratches and blemishes dotted the metal shaft. A small blue gem levitated mystically at its tip, radiating enough magical energy to pique even Tohsaka's interest. Sitting even higher was a black witch's hat, its tip lazily drooping downwards and the brim serving to emphasize the face underneath.
Blue strands fluttered in the wind, the curtain of hair seemingly taking on a life of its own as it rippled and flowed, vividly shimmering against the muted surroundings. Azure locks framed a youthful face, and despite knowing she lived a life far from comfort or luxury, there was not a single blemish I could spot. However, all that paled in comparison to the shining gems on her face.
Sapphire orbs even icier than the sword she had launched glimmered in the night, the polished blue sheen of her irises glowing like twin stars in the darkness. They rooted me on the spot, the frostiness of her gaze almost stopping all my thoughts, the depth of those pools sending my brain into an endless loop of fascination and enchantment.
Under any other circumstance, perhaps I would have been content to do so. However, no amount of mesmerizing lights could have stopped my realization from shattering the illusion in front of me.
The gentle nighttime breeze picked up into a strong gust, rolling across the forest and searing my skin with its cold air. Clouds drifted across the sky, and the moon appeared once again, bathing her in a column of soft silver as if she was a performer on stage. The moonlight only further heightened her presence, wrapping around her to create an ethereal aura that only highlighted the almost otherworldly sensation I felt.
It was just like that night, when my whole life had been turned upside down, when the eyes that had been closed off from the world had finally opened, when the fate that I had been beholden to no longer seemed to be the only way forward.
When I met her.
Memories came flooding back, the sixteen days that had irrevocably changed my life and destiny forever playing through my mind once again. I felt burnt soil between my fingers, and I realized that my legs had collapsed from underneath me. I was now sitting on the ground, looking up at the woman.
Her eyes were wide open, her mouth agape as she looked down at me. However, it was not from my sudden lack of composure but something else entirely.
I watched as her elegant features twisted through a myriad of emotions, changing from amazement to surprise before settling on a complicated expression of fearful bewilderment.
"You… the same as back then…?"
Her voice was quiet, barely louder than a whisper, as if she couldn't trust herself to speak any louder. Dainty eyebrows furrowed, and the grip on her staff tightened as I sensed the magical energy within her threatening to surge forward.
Time seemed to slow, each second stretching into eternity as we stood locked in a silent confrontation.
My blood ran cold. My heart hammered against my chest, threatening to explode. I was immediately on edge, puzzled captivation morphing into heightened wariness.
Not because the woman in front of me possessed a firm and commanding presence, combining both ability and experience into a singular, powerful force.
Not because those azure orbs shone with enough magical energy to make my hairs stand on end, swords flashing through my mind as I suppressed the instinct to call forth my blades.
"Mystic Eyes? No… something else…!"
There was no doubt about it.
This meeting was no mere coincidence. It was a fateful convergence of paths, one that I would not fully understand until I reached its end.
It was exactly like how it was back then, an echo of the past returning once again to change my destiny.
And a single thought crystallized in my mind.
"This woman is dangerous."
A/N: Ugh, this chapter is so jarring but I legit can't find a way around it. I don't like stuffing two important story beats together like this back to back but I could not find a way to blend the two together without making another ~3-4k worth of words just to do so. I think maybe I could have had Shirou and Roxy meet where Laws was, but Laws is passed out so the only thing to fill in there was some Shirou monologue, but I would have just been talking in circles at that point. Not that Shirou doesn't already, but most of mine is intentional and by design. Doing what I suggested is drabble for the sake of drabble, and that doesn't read very well. Still, for what it is, I don't think it's the worst thing ever at the very least. Not like I didn't forcefully write in Hitogami like 3 chapters ago and no one seemed to give a flying fuck apparently.
Okay, enough yapping about storytelling mechanics no one cares about. After about… *checks notes* … ~166k words, we have finally arrived to the "point" of this story! The Holy Grail came over to the new world! Wow, what a surprise! Shocking, I know.
Anyway, with that, I've finally given Shirou immediate long and short term goals. The rather tranquil and slice-of-life ness to the story so far was completely intentional and mimicked Shirou's mindset. I'm sure you've all thought "So what's the point?" when reading all the philosophy and family drama in this story, and I've now introduced the actual big bad that needs to be dealt with at the very end. Not now though, my boy needs to plan.
I think when I first started writing this story, I wanted to essentially transplant Shirou and nothing else to Mushoku Tensei, almost like starting from a clean slate. Unfortunately, I'm way too lazy and jaded to read the rest of the MT light novels, so I rewrote the prologue to justify adding in more fate stuff, which I have now deliberately showcased here. Well, it's probably better anyway; it certainly fits in with the theme of redemption if Shirou has to physically deal with the failures of his past that are chasing him now. The story should "feel" like more of a crossover now, not just Shirou randomly waddling around in Rudeus's place. I think there should be some interesting things I can cook with, though intertwining the two canons is an ambitious project, I must admit.
Okay, let's talk Roxy. She's received some… changes, as you can see. I've repeatedly referenced her and Saber together, and it's not just because they're best girls. Why does Shirou call her dangerous? Well, think back to what happened the last time a cute short girl appeared to him in the moonlight and connect the dots. Going back to the beats, hopefully it's clear why their meeting isn't necessarily something he wants. The only unfortunate thing is that the tone of the chapter is a bit different ending it off with Roxy instead of the grail reveal, but like I said, not much I can do unless I want to stall the story longer.
Oh and don't read too much into her introduction. A common beat this story shares with the original MT canon is the fated meeting with Roxy. A lot of the words there are just fluff. Roxy isn't Saber's incarnation or anything like that - that's Eris (jk, or maybe not?)
One thing: with Roxy's introduction, I can finally start tinkering with the magic system in Mushoku Tensei. Maybe this is a hot take, but I straight up think that the magic system here is very barebones and not very well thought through. With that in mind, I'm going to be using Roxy and Shirou to help… advance the magic stuff. I don't personally like changing how things innately occur in Mushoku Tensei, but there are some questionable choices the author made that straight up don't make sense (looking at you, silent spellcasting). Honestly, I think a lot of my dissatisfaction of the magic system stems from the characters' lack of understanding of how magic even works, so I'll be using our mildly overpowered protagonist to help resolve that. Expect new spells, a general power increase (Roxy is definitely way stronger here than in canon, I spent like 2k words describing her eyes for a reason!), and some new ways of doing things.
Speaking of overpowered, hopefully this chapter wasn't too much. In my defense, I already set a clear power level in the beginning of the story (fighting Saber isn't exactly easy) by removing a lot of Shirou's mana issues and generally enhancing his projections (no, the whole memories stuff isn't strictly fluff). The physical stat increases already have some precedent with Sparks Liner High and Miyu!verse Shirou, and unless my understanding of magecraft is faulty, Shirou being physically four years old doesn't affect his proficiency with his magic. I tried to counteract that by having him being at a disadvantage when he is in melee range of the monsters, but everything before that was playing exactly into what Shirou is good at, which is long-range bombardment. No noble phantasms were pulled out, so no need to fret that Shirou used Excalibur on a bunch of fodder.
Speaking of noble phantasms, don't ask why a certain shiny sheath hasn't appeared yet. I don't have an explanation, it just slipped my mind while I was writing the prologue and I can't let Shirou have access to it unless I want to trivialize the conflict further.
Anyways, back to the chapter, the fight scene was quite edgy, even for me. Writing it from the monsters' POV was certainly a choice, but it helped to illustrate the power dynamics and the other background stuff happening between Shirou and the World. Again, let me know if it worked or not. This is also probably our last action chapter for a while. Enough shounen shenanigans for now—I need to attend to Zenith. I almost have all the things I need to finish this arc. Roxy and Alice are set up and ready to go, just need Ghislaine (and maybe a certain feisty redhead who wants to spar with a certain other redhead she heard about in some letters?) and all the pieces should be in place. Zenith should be coming into focus soon. Honestly, all I need is for Shirou to sit still and it should be smooth sailing. Unfortunately I'm not quite sure how to justify him staying out as opposed to getting himself killed out there somewhere.
Yikes, that's almost a 1k word A/N. Anyway, that's the last "fast" chapter. The past three chapters were all originally 1, but I think this worked out better. Pace wise, I think that's about 33k words I started writing since I started writing Ch6, so roughly 3 chapters in 4 months and about 8k words per month. Not bad at all to be honest. I'll be back at some other time to cook. As always, thank you for your time, please consider leaving a review (anything helps!), and I hope you are all having a wonderful day!