Chapter 27: Power

"Say my name, Aria. If you still respect me as your elder."

Aria gritted her teeth, she held her sword tightly as she felt the gaze of something behind her back.

She could not make this fight last long and let "Him" wait. She must think of a way to kill this man off swiftly.

The man looked at her with eyes filled with pity, "So you are bewitched by Him too. I wonder what he said to you for you to follow Him with everything He says."

"?" Aria's eyes narrowed into a slit, she could not understand what the motives of this man was.

That was always the case.

He was the most mysterious of all elders, just as mysterious as the Charlatan of the Holy Church.

These two existences were a mystery to her, she had met both of them only 5 times in her life yet they left some big impacts on her during those 5 meet ups.

He was the blade of the Church of the Crimson Moon, the one who slayed countless beasts and traitors, the one who had enough influence over the elders that they would follow his commands.

He was also one of the oldest generations of the Church, just as old as the Charlatan, who had been living for countless years. He was rumored to have lived even before the spread of the disease.

That was all she knew about him.

She had thought that after drinking the "Holy Vial" that her God had given her, she would be as strong as those old monsters but she was terribly wrong, so so terribly wrong. She had thought very wrong.

The vial had increased her entire strength by ten folds, yet he could overpower her as if she was just some fly.

The man softly pushed his long hair away from his face and took out a black hair band, putting it on and braiding his hair into just a simple ponytail. His long hair went until to his knees, he took off his robe, leaving a white dress shirt as well as a grey vest with white slacks behind.

Behind him was his great sword and his two hands softly gripped his two daggers, one burning with purple flame, the other filled with poison.

"Well let's start with a little talk, shall we?"

Aria held her sword tightly in her hand, the wings behind her back slowly formed into an armor created from flesh and muscles, it looked like worms were crawling under her skin as it formed into a protective shell that kept her safe from any attacks.

"What kind of talk?"

The man chuckled as he looked at her determined eyes, he had once had those eyes within him, now it was lost because of the despair that the world had caused.

"A talk that might just change your mind about how you view this world."

The man threw his dagger while Aria focused her entire power to end this once and for all.

***

Rueben stabbed his sword towards the neck of a beast and softly tilted it to the side before finishing it off with a kick to its eye.

He then looked at the scene infront of him and calmly took out his handkerchief from his pocket before wiping his hand.

The handkerchief was already drenched in blood and when he used it to wipe his hand off, it became even more bloody and dirty. His eyes narrowed into a slit and threw the handkerchief away before walking to another hallway with a sword on his hand.

He had been aimlessly wandering around for god knows how long it has been. He had also been killing beasts left and right every time he met one, he used each beast as a training tool and made himself move more efficient and more simplistic than before.

He was training to become more sharper and more durable, he had drunk quite a lot of blood and injected quite a lot of God's Blood into his Blood Organ, making his physical ability more refined and stronger than before.

He could not yet grasp how strong he truly is but he felt that he should be able to kill an S Rank type of beast or monster by now.

But that was just based on feeling alone, he needed to kill an S rank beast or monster to get an accurate information on his real strength.

Something crashed and fell as he looked towards it.

There was a beast that had eight eyes, two limbs and resembles a duck with wolf like features.

He calmly looked at it, then opened his mouth, "Your name is Jerry from now on."

He then dashed towards Jerry and proceeded to grab it by its neck and threw it to the ground, he then made his weapon into a whip and stabbed the whip inside its stomach before pulling it out.

He gently stabbed the whip again into the neck of the beast and wrapped it around its spine and pulled it outwards, dragging its spine along with it.

Jerry shrieked and convulsed from the lack of a spine before dying.

Rueben softly sat down on Jerry's stomach and took out its heart and looked at it, blood was dripping from his hand as he did so.

He then opened his mouth and took a bite off the heart and chomped it for a while, tasting it before spitting it out.

He then threw its heart back inside and got down from Jerry's stomach and grabbed his whip before grabbing the spine and stabbing it back on Jerry's head and walked away as if nothing happened.

Rueben saw a marking on the wall and his lips curled on the side as he held his chin with his hand, "This one's another loop. Well, let's go to this side then."

He looked at the other hallway and started walking towards it, screeches and grunts could be heard in the halls of the cellar as Rueben lightly tapped his feet on the floor, preparing to hunt down more beasts.

His face emotionless as he did so, he had his sword ready, his blood stained boots leaving markings behind as more and more beasts were attracted to the scent of blood.

A Hunter does not hunt for food, but for the glory of the hunt.