008 (2/2)

After the fire had subsided, I ran forward and swung the sword overhanded at the altar, breaking it into two. The bishop rolled to the side, escaping my blow.

Tch. But this way, it will be more interesting.

Immediately, a golden barrier like the one he had used that day  enclosed me, sealing me in. The barrier didn’t budge when I hit it with the sword. A sharp metallic sound rang out when I hit it again and again.

“Ha..hah..hahah! A lowly sc.u.m like you can’t break a barrier made by me!”, he had regained some of his composure.

Shadows flowed from my arm and transformed it into the black clawed forelimb. Unlike earlier, I could freely control it now. I pushed at the barrier with the black left arm, dragging the claws across it. It stung like h.e.l.l.

This is nothing compared to how Arin must have felt when she burnt.

With the sound of breaking gla.s.s, the barrier shattered.  Andalus’ face went ashen when he saw his precious barrier break. I jumped forward, driving the top end of the sword into his chest. The blade didn’t go through as it was blunt, but it broke a few ribs, caving it inwards. He tried to crawl away, dragging his white robed fat body. I let him go.

He dragged himself to the far corner of the Church, and started chanting. I could feel power concentrate from his words, so I used the Black hand to s.h.i.+eld myself. But…nothing came.

Andalus gave a cry of anguish, coughing up blood, “Why hast thou forsaken me…Talaviel!”

I approached him with a wry smile on my lips, “The G.o.ds never were on anyone’s side, priest”.

I stepped on his legs as he was trying to get away and cut it off at the ankles. Bright red blood flowed like a river from his cut stumps as he wailed like a gutted pig.

“AAaaaaAaaa..why is this happening!”, he wailed, “Spare me! Spare me!”, he cried in deep anguish. His eyes had gone white in fear, as he clutched at the ground.

“Did you spare Arin when she begged for mercy, priest?”, I asked him, stooping to his eye level as the thousands of candles burning in the hall reflected our shadows on the walls. Without waiting for his answer, I separated his arms from his body.

The bishop sobbed and begged. He cried, pleaded for mercy. He threatened, just like how I had tried to when they were burning my Arin. “The G.o.ds wont stand for this! They will kill you!”, he screamed between sobs and tears.

“Then let me send you off with your G.o.d”, I said as my lips curled up in feral glee. I picked up the hymn book that he used to preach to the people about his G.o.d. It was a leather bound monstrosity, gaudily decorated with gold and silver. I smashed the book on his face. His teeth caved in, b.l.o.o.d.y and broken from the blow. I kept hitting him with his G.o.d’s words till his head became nothing more than a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp, deformed and crushed. I didn’t stop even after he died, spewing grey matter all over my face.

Then I dragged his body, devoid of its limbs under the picture of his G.o.d, Talaviel. I swiped a tri-headed candelabra that was as tall as me. With a monstrous throw from my black arm, I threw his body upwards while at the same time, grabbing the candelabra and stabbing him through the chest with it. He hung from the wall, a few feet above the ground, the candelabra piercing him like a ma.s.sive trident. I staked him just like he had staked her.

The bishop hung dead pinned on the picture of his G.o.d, as his blood dripped on the alter from where he preached about his words.

His dripping blood reddened the pages of his G.o.d’s teaching.

I washed my face with the holy water kept at the entrance in a basin.  Couldn’t go to a n.o.ble’s house with such a dirty face, could I?

Lord Icchvarion had a lavish house. Golden light spilled from the windows into the garden outside. The house was pretty quiet, given his penchant for regular b.a.l.l.s and parties. Maybe the guy was taking rest after systematically raping and killing a girl? The dozen odd guards standing outside the mansion had already lost their limbs or heads, sometimes both. My clothes now smelt of iron from the blood of people and ashes of Arin. I savagely pulled at the sword that had gotten entangled in the intestines of the last guard while he twitched feebly staked o my sword. I jerked the blade to dislodge the dead guy. The few more guards inside the mansion didn’t prove to be much difficult. The only thing that I was having problem with was the invisible wave that jarred me whenever I killed a person. The sensation was greater than killing a monster.

“Good Evening, Lord Icchvarion. I hope you are in good health”, I said while I strode into his room with my best smile. Just because I was there to torture a person didn’t mean I should forget my manners, does it?

“Th…the..demon is here!”, he screamed hysterically. Another round of frantic guard calling ensued. These guys stupid? How would I be here if I hadn’t already met them? Surprisingly enough, two guards strode forward from corners of the room.

I didn’t even bother with the sword. I just punched the guy in the face with my black arm before holding his head in a death grip. He screamed as I kept crus.h.i.+ng his head. His eyes grew clouded with blood discharge as I pummeled the other guy with my free hand. Icchvarrion just wept in a corner, unable to move. Finally unable to hold the pressure, the guard’s head burst with spraying blood and brain matter. I dropped the body and approached Icchvarrion.

“Sp..spare me..I will give you gold! Lots and lots of treasures…just let me go!”, he wept.

I was growing tired of the spare me  charades. I didn’t even bother replying. I used a mace picked up from the dead guard to smash his limbs. His fingers grew distorted as the joints broke with cracking sounds. The proud lord wailed as his limbs grew b.l.o.o.d.y and shattered. Bones jutted out from his broken hand, at impossible angles. These were the hands he tortured Arin with, weren’t they?

I could hear myself laugh with a manic glee. When his limbs had grown more twisted than a wire puzzle, I chopped them off with the sword. Each time my sword sung its song of whistles, the man flinched and begged me to kill him. He started bleeding out from the stumps, the puddle of blood grew under my feet. I left the guy and went to his fireplace where logs were burning. I picked up a  poker that was glowing red hot.

When I came back, I saw him trying to crawl towards the door. He left trails of blood as he tied to wriggle and writhe. He wasn’t very successful as his limbs were absent. I dragged the guy back and cauterized his wounds with the hot poker to prevent him dying of bloodloss. He whimpered every time the red hot poker seared his stumps.

I got tired after all the fighting and torturing. Revenge is hard work, y’know? I sat down on a plush chair while looking at the limbless lord. I poured myself some of his fine wine. d.a.m.n. That really was very fine.

“…th..the kingdom will find you! My fa..father will burn you on a stake you filthy demon!”, he still had the energy to whimper curses at me.

“You will be killed like the girl! Like a dog! Ahahha!”, he seemed to have lost his marbles by this point. But what he just said…

I noticed the guard I had pummeled with my normal right arm still writhing on the floor. I called him, “Oi old man! Do you want to live?”. He whimpered and flinched when he heard me. “Old man!”, this time I said in a loud voice.

“Ye..yes please!”, the guard croaked while he p.i.s.sed his pants. Pungent smell wafted through he room.

“Then come over here and cut off this guy’s d.i.c.k”, I ordered in a cool voice.

“Yo…young masters!..no no…”, he whined an objection. I swung my blade, and it whistled. The whistling gave him s.h.i.+vers. He crawled over to the p.r.o.ne body of Icchvarrion.

“No..no! anything but that! Please!”, Icchvarrion went mad, apparently understanding what was going on.

“Didn’t Arin plead like this too, eh Icchavarrion?”, I was surprised at how ugly my voice sounded.

“Stop! I will gi…give you everything in my vault…please don’t cu…cut it off!”, he screamed desperately.

“Oh? Where is the vault?”, I asked. Icchavarrion showed me a picture on the wall. Sure enough, there was a safe in the hole in the wall under the picture. Nice.

“Old man, please castrate him from the roots”, I ordered while I went to loot the vault in the next room. I could hear whimper and screams from behind me. He talks a lot, this is annoying me.

“Stuff it down his throat after you are done”, I told the guard, “I don’t want to hear his voice anymore”. The guard looked at me as if I was deranged or some demon. Hah! gotta live up to my reputation, ain’t it?

The vault had a large amount of gold coins and high powered magic stones. Magic stones were crystals of highly condensed form of monster cores or pure magic supplied by a caster. I found another interesting thing in the vault. A scaled leather pouch that seemed to have no end. Like those bags with unlimited carrying capacities you see in RPG games. I swiped it and put everything in it. It didn’t have much weight.

When I was turning back, I saw something deep within the vault, hidden. A b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword with a deep blue guard and handle, inlaid with a few magic gems. The sword looked sharp enough to cut even air. I couldn’t recognize the metal the blade was made of. For some reason, I could read the inscription on the blade, written in an unfamiliar language. It said the name of the blade, Thirst. Needless to say, I pocketed it.

When I was returning, I saw something s.h.i.+ne at one corner of the room. When I went to check it out, I saw it was the Kivala necklace that I had given Arin. It was smeared with blood. I didn’t want to imagine what it was used for. I picked it up.

The lord was still breathing after getting his manhood cut and stuffed down his own throat. This is one tough b.a.s.t.a.r.d. I decided to end the farce. I swung my executioner sword, taking his head. His head rolled away towards the corner like a spinning top, if a spinning top could have a contorted expression.

“Leave old man, this mansion won’t be safe anymore”, I told the guard who I had promised to let live. I didn’t mind of he couldn’t move and died here though. He scampered and crawled towards the exit door.

I opened Lord Icchvarrions liquor cabinet. Wines and other otherwordly liquors were displayed rows upon rows in expensive looking decanters. I took one and sipped. The rest I carried back. I unstoppered the decanters and doused Icchvarrion’s body with the high grade alcohol. Then I lighted it on fire. I didn’t forget to light the dude’s silk curtains and clothes either. The guy had an obscene amount of silk curtains.

Smells of burning meat and hair were wafting out when I came out of the mansion. The lord’s mansion was on fire in a few moments. I walked out of the compound when I saw a tall man leaning against the outside walls. He had a white toga wrapped around him, with golden edges.

I swung my blade and made it whistle, but then put it down.

“Prudent choice”, the figure said.

“Well, I am not stupid enough to try fight a G.o.d”, I said with a guarded expression. Yes, the guy gave off the same feeling of oppression and cold detachment as Zain and Astria.

“I am Talaviel, the G.o.d of righteousness and justice”, he declared with a lofty voice, “and you just killed my priest”.

“Are you here for revenge?”, I asked.

“No, to thank you. That priest was corrupt and drunk on power. It is well that he who strayed far from the path has been killed”, Talaviel replied.

“Why didn’t you stop him yourself?”, I asked.

“Do you think G.o.ds have much choice in who wors.h.i.+ps them? Besides, we can’t directly interfere in affairs of the mortals in this world. My priests are chosen by the clergy, not me”, Talaviel said in a somewhat heavy tone.

“You interfered in the fight, didn’t you?”, I asked to confirm my suspicions.

“G.o.ds cannot interfere, unless his wors.h.i.+pper asks for a wish, tapping into the G.o.d’s power. I couldn’t stop him directly, so when he asked for a spell bestowed by me, I refused him”, a small smile flashed across his well featured face, “Otherwise you would have been a smoking crater by now”

“Don’t expect to get thanked, Talaviel”, I said. s.h.i.+t, do I have to fight this guy now?

He seemed to have been expecting my reply. “However, mortalkin, no matter how corrupt the priest, he was mine. By killing him, you have made an enemy of the Holy Order of Talaviel and me. Expect no mercy, mortal.” A cold chill ran down my spine. My hands slick with blood, started to sweat.

A loud crash sounded behind me and I turned to look. When I turned back, Talaviel was gone. I resumed walking down my path, in the light of the burning mansion.

The moon was high in the sky, the ring glowed at its edges. Under it, a man walked with his blade. He swung the blade as he walked, as if that was a game. Whistles came from them, but no one knows if it was the man or his blade.

Author note: Guys please support me on royalroad too! please post reviews on the fiction page so that I know what you people think about the work.  Honestly, this story needs reviews and ratings so that even more people can read it. Please help me! thanks in advance!

Link to RR- HTSAS1o1 on Royalroad

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