You Killed Him?

None of them had expected the current state of events. Neither had they been able to follow the speed at which this unknown creature moved.

"Bright!"

"Sir Bright!"

"You bastard!"

The Sword Hero and the Devonne twins yelled simultaneously in disbelief as they charged forward, disregarding their fatigue.

"You will pay for this!" They all pulled out their weapons, ready to attack the creature.

Sweeeiii~

The unknown creature's figure blurred and in the next instant, a dark streak zig-zagged across the vicinity.

What happened next left the sword hero visibly stunned...

Two heads were lopped off in less than the speed that an eye could.

Following the trail of gushing blood from the heads which were still spinning in mid-air, the sword hero spotted two headless bodies falling to the ground.

These bodies belonged to the Devonne twins.

Both their heads kept spinning across the air before ramming into a rock ten feet behind.

Bam!

The rock was instantly drenched in trails of scarlet liquid.

Sword Hero Morningster's eyes widened as anguish overtook his fatigued body.

He swung his sword at the dark creature, who effortlessly evaded the strike.

Icy winds suddenly gathered and turned into a glacial storm as Princess Valerie raised her fingers.

She swung them downwards, causing a hail of icy spikes to rain down upon the creature.

The outline of the dark armored creature appeared as though he had gotten pierced as the projectiles rained down.

However, Valerie soon noticed that there was no contact. The icy spikes had only pierced through dark afterimages.

She suddenly felt chills run down her spine as she turned around while chanting; "Blessings Of..."

Before she could complete her sentence, the creature who had appeared right before her, grabbed her neck, muffling her words.

She wanted to retaliate with wordless magic but she didn't get the chance to...

Puchiiiii~

The creature drove it's entire fist into her chest, causing Princess Valerie to spit out a mouthful of blood.

Sword Hero Morningster was in a state of shock as he watched the creature mercilessly pull its arm out.

Princess Valerie's innards gushed out of the hole along with blood. The dark creature had turned her into a human doughnut.

It proceeded to slash her multiple times with its long dark claws, tearing her to pieces.

Princess Valerie body parts rained from the air along with a fountain of scarlet liquid.

A strong metallic stench filled the air instantly as the surroundings got doused in buckets of blood.

Sword Hero Morningster's eyes clouded with despair as he stood amid the corpses of his party members.

It was as though the creature wanted to torture him by letting him watch everyone else die first before dealing with him.

He suddenly recalled the young teenage boy who was also a member of his party and looked around, 'At least he is safe,' He let out a small sigh of relief.

"Stay alive, kid... I'm going ahead first," He muttered while driving his dim five-foot-long sword forward.

The creature watched him approach quietly without moving an inch.

Sword Hero Morningster could spot a glint of ridicule in its eyes which further enraged him.

"Arrrghhh!"

Morningster thrust with all his might but the creature grabbed his sword like it was nothing more than a cheap toy and pulled it from his grasp before whooping him with it.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It whacked Sword Hero Morningster's face repeatedly with the hilt, causing blood to spill as he staggered backward.

This soon became a humiliating sight as Sword Hero Morningster kept trying to charge forward only to get smacked backward multiple times.

The creature was toying with him at this point.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Ghiaarrhhh!" He yelled and charged forward once more despite his swollen face.

This time, the creature grabbed his face, lifted him into the air and slammed him onto the ground.

Bam!

Spiderwebbed Cracks spread from the point of impact as the sword hero got buried in the ground.

Unfortunately, the creature didn't stop there... It began to stomp Morningster's chest.

Bang!

Again...

Bang!

And again...

Bang!

And again...

Bang!

And again...

The sound of crushing bones constantly rang out as the Sword Hero's chest caved in and he spat out a mouthful of blood for the umpteenth time.

At this point, his entire body was bathed in a pool of blood.

His eyes turned blurry and he could feel life slipping away from his body with each stomp.

'I didn't achieve much, not in my world nor this... but I hope the other heroes will be able to rise to the occasion...' A resigned smile appeared on his face as his vision began to fade.

"Enough!"

A loud masculine voice echoed across the severed mountain.

Sword Hero Morningster was already on the verge of death but he still managed to make out the faint outline of a teenage boy in raggedy clothing.

'Ingal...?' This was his final thought before succumbing to the jaws of death.

~sigh~

"You killed him??" Ingal questioned from up ahead with a tone of frustration.

The creature's foot was still slightly raised above Sword Hero Morningster's corpse since it had paused upon Ingal's appearance.

It didn't even realize that it subconsciously stopped when the young boy uttered the word 'enough!'.

The creature slowly lowered its leg onto the ground after noticing that the being under its foot had been crushed to death.

It seemed confounded as it stared at the teenage boy with raggedy clothing.

What bothered it the most was why it didn't sense the presence of this young boy till he spoke.

This teenage boy was, of course, none other than Ingal.

However, it was almost like he was currently a different person.

His voice was much deeper and mature than usual.

His eyes were sharp, and his expression bold. It was like his personality had undergone a complete 180. His overbearing demeanor was the opposite of what anyone who knew him would recall.

The creature's head tilted to the side slightly as it studied the teenage boy. It could tell that this boy wasn't ordinary.

"You caused a mess here, didn't you?" Ingal voiced while stepping forward with an intense glare.

~silence~

"Cat's got your tongue?" Ingal questioned with an offended expression after he didn't get a response.

"Seithu masia vri teh," Ingal suddenly spoke in a strange tongue.

The creature's eyes constricted in response as intense fear suddenly gripped its heart, causing it to jump back instinctively.

Fwwhwiii~

It landed over twenty feet away from Ingal, with its eyes still widened in shock and panic.

"Eki... sahetu... jolu...?" The creature communicated back with a mixture of masculine and feminine voices in the same strange tone.

"Tsk tsk, you didn't know? That doesn't excuse your incompetence," Ingal voiced in response.

The creature suddenly turned around and fled for the gate.

Fwwwhoomm~

Ingal's figure vanished and reappeared before the gate, instantaneously blocking it's path. "You should have thought twice before coming to disrupt my plans over here."

He stretched his hand forward with the intent to grab the creature but instead....

Boom!

The sound of an explosion went off as the creature got sent flying by an insurmountable force before Ingal's hand made contact with it.

"Guoorh!" It screamed in pain as its body ricocheted across the ground, causing cracks to appear across the severed mountain.

After crashing into multiple rocks, the creature's eyes suddenly widened as it spun its body in mid-air and landed on its feet.

The attack was powerful but fortunately it had put a good distance between himself and Ingal.

It immediately began to flee in the opposite direction.

"I said you're not leaving. This blunder is punishable by death."

Dark flames suddenly appeared on Ingal irises.

It looked like his eyes were burning but his face remained impassive as he pointed a finger in the direction of the fleeing creature.

A dark flame the size of a baby's fist, appeared in mid-air.

It radiated with so much heat that the air in the surroundings began to twist.

The ground beneath Ingal's feet got charred, and everything in the vicinity started getting incredibly heated up despite the tiny size of this flame.

"Return to the ashes where you belong," Ingal muttered before releasing the dark flame.

Thwoouuusshhh~

It shot forth with unparalleled speed, causing the surroundings to reverberate with a whizzing sound.

The creature who had already crossed a distance of more than than a thousand feet suddenly felt the incoming force.

The moment it turned around, a dark projectile streaked past it.

Twhooom!

The dark projectile ripped through more than twenty thick trees behind, leaving massive holes in them. Its momentum remained undeterred as it burrowed through a mountain in the distance, obliterating a large chunk of it.

A hole, the size of a building was left in the mountain, allowing rays from the moonlight to filter through.

From a certain angle, one could see the moon through the massive hole left in the mountain.

The creature almost let out a relieved look, grateful that the projectile missed it until it smelled cooking flesh.

Upon lowering its head, it noticed a large gaping hole in its body. The projectile didn't streak past it... it bore through its insides.

And now its center was ablaze.

"Giarrrhh!" It roared in agony as the dark flame spread from the hole and consumed the entirety of its body.

A few moments later, only a small pile of charred corpse was left... and a few seconds after that, every single bit of the creature's body was completely obliterated by the dark flame.

Not even its ashes were spared.

Ingal stood atop what was left of the other mountain behind, while deeply gazing in the direction of the forest ahead.

The entire forest was burning down.

"I used so little, and yet it won't stop till it razes the whole forest down... the neighboring towns will be affected," Ingal muttered.

Pah!

Ingal snapped his fingers and the black flames instantly died down.

The swirling black gate behind slowly turned back into purple and began to dim.

A few moments later, it closed up completely, returning the environment to tranquillity.

Ingal rolled his eyes with a slightly annoyed expression before turning to the side.

He stared at the corpses of everyone, which were mostly incomplete and scattered across the place.

He stepped forward and paused before Bright's corpse.

"I don't really like this one, but I must revive him as well."

Ingal then moved towards the Sword Hero's corpse and squatted.

"You can't die until I achieve my objective," He said while placing his thumb in between his lips.

With a bite, he pierced his own skin, causing blood to gush out.

He then proceeded to stretch his thumb forward, and a drop of blood fell from the little cut he created.

Pit!

The scarlet droplet kissed the dusty ground of the severed mountain, and a weird phenomenon occurred.

Thiiiiiihhhhhhggggg~

A bright violet light surged forth from the ground, and a circle with unknown runic figures appeared across the mountain.

"Goddess of death... heed my command... REVIVAL!"

Ingal's domineering voice rang out loudly, causing the violet circle to glow brighter as a massive shadowy female figure with strings like that of a puppet holding her in place, appeared behind him briefly.

Zzzhiinnnnnn~

The corpses sank into the ground in the next instant and phased out after a second completely restored.