A Monster in a Child’s Form

"That about does it, oh looks like Dusk came back!"

Stigma was tending to the fire when he felt Dusk's presence then stood up, and saw Dusk dragging something heavy as it made it way to where he stood.

A little while ago Stigma found a bag filled with food that was buried under the rubble, other that the fact that it was a little crushed, he still found it edible especially when he considered the time he hasn't eaten yet.

To make sure the food he found was cooked, Stigma collected some dried branches beforehand, and tossed it in the remaining fire to make sure it won't go out.

As Dusk got closer, the object it was dragging was flailing around, out of its way he slammed the object to a nearby tree and the object stopped moving, eventually Dusk continued towards his direction, and stopped about three feet away from where Stigma was standing.

'Huh? Why is there is an axe on his face and what was that thing being dragged?'

Stigma took a closer look and found it was the fat one from before, Gus, only this time he looked like he was in an accident because he had been swatted by the tree. He wasn't sure of his condition, but it appeared as though he had a broken spine which made Gus had a bizarre posture as he laid down.

Not only that, Stigma saw that there were some wooden spikes on his legs and stomach, which he believed belonged from the pit trap he set not far from here. He also found that Gus' limbs appear to be broken just like he ordered, and blood was dripping out of his mouth, the colour of his skin was pale but he was still breathing.

Looking away for a moment, he looked at Dusk who had an axe on his head so he moved closer and tried to remove it, fortunately is was already removed by Dusk when he thought about it and gave it to him.

He then turned his head on the figure on the ground.

"Looks like he's still alive, throw him against the wall and dig out the other one" Stigma turned back to the food cooking by the fire, while Dusk did as he was ordered to. Out of curiosity, Stigma looked at Dusk as it dragged the crippled figure away.

'It was able to hear my thought from far away, even when I was unable to see or hear him, pretty convenient since I can't order him when people are looking at me like a lunatic.'

Eventually Stigma turned back to tend to the food being cooked by the fire, placing the axe beside him as he ate a piece of hard bread.

----

"Ugh! Hah!? What the hell?!?! Where am I!?!!"

Gus woke up from his concussion, despite the injuries he had sustained he was able to at least sit up and look around only to find himself facing a small child's back with his axe by the fire eating like he never noticed him, while he was up against a collapsing wall.

After calming down for a moment, Gus immediately assumed that he was captured, and the boy must be a follower and was ordered to keep an eye on him, while that thing was looking around for more prey.

Thinking about what would happen next, he made a plan to escape.

"Hey, you brat! Get over here and feed me!" he noticed the kid was alone, so he wanted to use him, for his escape plan.

If that monster comes back, I can use him as a hostage and get away from here.

Thinking about what to do next was what kept him preoccupied but the child didn't pay attention, much less turned to even look at him.

Gus was irritated from the child's inability to hear and said his order multiple times only to be replied with being ignored again, finally he had enough and threatened the boy.

"YOU BRAT! GET OVER HERE! IF NOT, ONCE I CAN MOVE, I'LL BEAT YOU TO DEATH!!!!"

Gus was already trying to keep calm, but with the lingering fear of that monster coming back anytime soon, made him lose his patients, if his arms and legs weren't broken he would have killed the kid for ignoring him grabbed everything here and ran back to the Mordan, spread the news to the Naga's to get his revenge.

When the boy turned around he had a look of annoyance like he was the important one, Gus who was in rage a moment ago was in shock.

He looked at the boy's face and immediately recognized him, it was the corpse that he threw in the valley not long ago he thought. Before all of this happened, Gus had peeked at the copse out of curiosity so he had immediately recognized him, and although his overall appearance had changed drastically, he could at least recognized the face.

His clothes were full of wear and tear like before, his injuries like his broken limbs were completely healed, his hair was now black, his face that was pale like he was a ghost but now he was healthy as if he was never dead, and looked like a starving child, and his aura was making feel Gus feel uneasy.

Then it came to him, before he got the corpse, he heard a bunch of rumours circulating about a crazy individual named "Corpse Eater" going around killing random people, and day by day he received their corpses the same time.

Afterwards the "Corpse Eater" was found out that he was only a child so he was exiled, but the gates never opened for days, except for Gus and Frank who were allowed to leave with the corpse disguised as a gravedigger.

Then he realized, he had received the corpse the same time the news of exile was announced.

Fear started to takeover him when he remembered, he thought he was dead he was sure of it.

The monster must have been him! He really was the "Corpse Eater", and I have offended him by throwing him in the valley, but instead of dying he was woken up from the fall!

Gus was starting to lose control in front of the monster child before him, and all he could do was try escape, but with his limbs broken his weapon beside the monster, his henchmen was buried from who knows where.

He started to hyperventilate with all that was happening at once, and all of a sudden he heard a horrible cry like a person was in pain, then the wall beside him started falling apart, he started to struggle fearing he would be crushed under the weight but to no avail debris started falling on him.

Gus can't see it clearly from his view, but Stigma who was in front of the cave was actually looking at Dusk, who was digging to look for the other one, and it looks as though he found him.

A few moments later, a large amount of rubble fell creating a dust storm, later a figure was seen on top of the rubble which appeared like the individual named Frank, who was unfortunately in a state of shock due to intense pain, but Gus wasn't even aware of the result so he screamed in delight.

"Frank! Thank the heavens your all right! Get over here and get me out of here!"

To his perspective, Frank was climbing out of the rubble, he might be weaker than him but the rubble was not enough to kill him.

But Frank didn't even move, from where Stigma sat, he was the only one able to see Dusk, who was grabbing the one named Frank by the neck and his arms were dangling making it look like he climbed out, he also saw his lower half was bleeding heavily.

'Looks like it listened to the order, but since I couldn't see what was it like inside, Dusk pulled the other one with his legs still pinned down ignoring the weight and pain he was in, hence he fell into shock after having his legs pulled by a such a force.'

Stigma analyze the situation that Frank had been in with sympathy.

"Huh? Why are you not responding!???!!!!" unable to relax for a moment, Gus yelled at Frank to the top of his lungs enough that he was coughing blood.

Unable to understand what was wrong, he saw Frank or more accurately Frank's body floating in midair, instead of landing on the floor he crashed to the floor in front of the youth.

Gus then saw Frank lying face up in front of the monster, he then saw what state he was in both of his legs, both were torn from their place, what was left was his body without his legs and a lot of blood was flowing.

The youth was calm, not even caring about Gus's frantic outburst, which terrified him even more, he then turned his eyes to the boy, only to hear stomping sound from above.

*THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP!*

He started hearing heavy stomping like he heard before, and a heavy impact of an object landing, then he turns looking at where the object had landed, Gus was then looking at the boy with foot prints in front of him, uneasiness came to him when they appeared but something else happened.

The space in front of the boy started to reflect like a water like a concave lens, at that moment it felt like looking at a transparent surface of water when a rock falls on it, but instead of having to look at your own reflection a figure started appearing, Gus was then scared out of his wits.

It was the same monster from before, only this time it was looking at the youth like it was waiting.

Gus then didn't care anymore and crawled away from the bizarre situation that was transpiring before him, he only cared that he would survive, and that he was only viewed as small fry that they would ignore him.

But reality was worse than expect, he wasn't allowed to leave yet.

*THUMP**CRACK*

'Ugh!' Gus had felt something heavy landed on him, he turned with difficulty to look behind him, only to find the monster on top of him, its fangs were opened growling at him.

"Dusk, bring him here, I need to ask him somethings." The youth called the monster, Dusk, Gus then realized that the youth was the master and Dusk was a familiar, a very powerful one at that.

Dusk did as it was told and dragged Gus by the leg, ignoring the pain and protest he was experiencing as his wounds started to get worse from the way he was pulled.

---

'Ah, the other one is going to die, well that leaves me with the fat one, hope he's smarter than this one or I'll get nowhere' Stigma then looked at Gus who was trying to get away, so he silently ordered Dusk to stop him.

Dusk then turned towards Gus, then jumped at him and landed on his back, it sounded liked he cracked a few ribs from landing on him.

"Dusk, bring him here, I need to ask him somethings."

He looked down then realized that his mentality has completely changed, before he would have at least be shaken from seeing a mangled corpse like the state Frank was in.

When he was still alive he only saw these types of situations on T.V. so it never felt quite real to him. He looked down at the disfigured corpse named Frank.

His face was pale due to the blood loss, and both of his legs were ripped in the opposite direction were they shouldn't be bent, and his eyes were completely white, he must have fainted from the pain.

'Not only my appearance, but also my mind has changed completely, now that I think about it I only freaked out when I didn't expect a corpse was in the mat.'

Stigma looked at the corpse again and had an idea.

Stigma then closed his eyes and started pondering.

'Wait, could it be that I was already prepared what would happen, so I wasn't fazed this time. Now that I think about it most of the time when my parents were alive, I spent it on the web, watching films and playing games with a lot of dead bodies and blood, so I was kind of evil in the way.'

'Maybe it was because I wasn't the one who killed them, this time.'

Stigma then turned to get the ax beside him and lifted it. He then activated his 'Essence Reader' to see any changes.

*

[Name: Frank

Age: 38

Rank: Common

Skills: Spear Proficiency, Throwing]

*

A skill he never had before appeared, but then he saw a strange color in the body and the same light like he saw in the cave from before.

Remembering about what was the cause he took a deep breath, grabbed the ax and then made a stance where he would swing downward, what happened next was that he swung it down, at Frank's neck.

Ugh!!Blood was spilling on the neck, and Frank was shaking with his face in pain choking on his own blood.

To be sure of the effect, he looked at his hands and found that they were shaking a little. Moments later, Frank wasn't moving anymore and his soul was floating out of his body.

*BING!*

[You have just killed a cultivator, you have gained his Zen energy]

[Zen energy: 10%]

'This time it's Zen energy, wonder what the difference is? ' Stigma was pondering for a moment with a calm face, but there was an individual who was taking the situation differently. Gus who saw what had happened was panicking with bloodshot eyes, at his point of view he was looking at a child lunatic with an ax, and killed Frank without mercy.

Stigma then turned his head to Gus, he lifted the ax again and repeated the action, only this time he had a look of indifference, like was unsatisfied.

'Looks like I really am not fit to kill for pleasure, it's unlike a game where you know it's fake, but I have to confirm if I'm capable of hurting anyone.'

He then had a satisfied look, he was glad that killing wasn't his calling, he would only kill if he had too, that was his only rule.

"Now then, I would like to ask you some questions."

Stigma then turned his head at the panicking Gus, who saw his changing expression from sorrow to delight, thinking the child was insane and wanted to kill him next if he didn't satisfy his curiosity.

"Ye…esh, pl…ease a…sk m…e any…th,ing!" Gus was panicking and had spoken in a broken sentence, he would only hope what he asked weren't that difficult, and he was allowed to live.

Since he was facing a monster in a child's form.