“You! YOU!” An ishkawtan man came up to me on the street and suddenly began shouting.

  “Yes? Me?” I tilted my head, confused, irritated, angry, and mildly amused, all at the same time.

  “Yes, you! Haell Zharignan! I’ve heard the stories about you and I don’t buy it! You don’t feel like a good person, you’re suspicious! I can feel it now, there’s something sinister about you! Something like you is no follower of the angels!”

  I stared at him. My gaze darkened. I agreed with some of what he had said, and that was the problem. No one should know that. My secret should have been safe. But if this level 10’s senses could see through the layers of disguise and armor that I wore…

  “Hey! What’s going on here?” A guard in their typical uniform armor came. He was questioning the ishkawtan, and not me. I looked around our surroundings and noticed the crowd that had gathered. They were appalled and disgusted, and none of that negativity was aimed at me.

  My hands unclenched. There would not be a fight after all. He was more sane than anyone here, but he would be the one seen as crazy.

  “I’m so sorry about this!” The guard bowed. “We’ll get this scoundrel out of the city immediately.”

  “That will not be necessary–”

  “No, no! He accosted the Haell Zharignan! The next hero of the Empire! This punishment is light in comparison!”

  I narrowed my eyes. I did not appreciate being interrupted or being talked to in this tone. He ought to be grateful that I had so much self-control.

  “Do what you want,” I dismissed. That ishkawtan man was likely going to die. No one would investigate or care about his death. But I had tried hard enough to temper his almost certain demise. He did not treat me like a friend, so I would certainly not be a friend of his.

  “What was that?” Angerly asked once the screaming guy was out of earshot. The rest of my friends looked at me questioningly.

  “The hell should I know?” I shrugged. “Now come on. We have a play to see later, so let’s go pick out a quest.”

  ~~~

  “Are you sure you want this one?” I looked at the piece of paper in my hand, and then back at Moonwash. It was a quest to take out the bandit leader Sharon, and in exchange we would gain access to Duke Astro’s library of rare and hidden books.

  “Yes. I’m very curious about what’s written down in the True Angelic Scriptures.”

  That particular book was emphasized in the quest rewards. The True Angelic Scriptures was the original holy book written by the Angelic God himself, and was a scripture for all the worlds of the heavenly hegemony, instead of just for one particular world, like our own Varyala.

  “Ehhh. But fighting against bandits is always too… complicated.” I would never hesitate if they were in front of me, but there was a big reason why I never took those quests. “And why do you even need that holy book? It’s just going to be some guy with an overinflated ego jerking himself off for a thousand pages.”

  “I bet that’s the kind of book you’d write,” Angerly snickered. I rolled my eyes but ignored her.

  “It’s still a highly influential book, and you never know what important information might be hiding there,” Moonwash actually explained. “Did you forget how you were able to figure out how to evolve in the first place?”

  It was by seeing an illustration on the Varyalan version of the Angelic Scriptures of how the ishkawtans and fountans came to be.

  “...I stand corrected. You’re right. It could be useful. You’ve convinced me. I’m in!”

  “Thank you, Haell.” She held my hand, and I smiled.

  “Though… I would honestly feel bad if these weren’t actually bandits.”

  They could very well just be a bunch of exiles who had never harmed a single fly.

  “No. That’s not the case. They’re real scumbags,” Granuel answered, like he’d eaten a particularly sour fruit. “I’ve heard about them before. They’ve done some truly heinous and terrible things. And… New Grandera might be helping them do it.”

  “Ah. Well, in that case, let’s kill em and reap all the rewards!”

  “Yeah!”

  “Okay…”

  “I’m glad.”

  My friends cheered, to varying levels of enthusiasm.

  ~~~

  We arrived at the Licarl Manor. The quest we had taken required us to meet with the count who issued it first, before we could be approved to actually take it.

  A servant led us through the gates, and I noticed the larger force of templars within. The courtyard was well-maintained, with plants that were vibrant and artfully arranged. Inside the main wing was an opulent mansion of many different sculptures, armor stands, and other kinds of artworks. We took a needlessly long and circuitous route to see it all, but I did not complain because I actually enjoyed looking at all the pretty things.

  Finally, we arrived at the sitting room set aside for us. I, Therick, and Moonwash sat on the couch, while the remaining three stood behind. Refreshments were served, and we waited for needlessly long before our host arrived, and this time I wasn’t quite as happy for the delay. I didn’t much like people who were late, especially those who did not even acknowledge it.

  “Ah, the harvesters,” the other door to the room opened, and our eyes snapped towards the well-dressed shepherd man. Well, I was more focused on the level 40 human man behind him in shining resplendent armor. He carried the classic shortsword and shield combo. “And Lady Haell Zharignan. My name is Licarl, and it is a pleasure to meet you all.”

  I didn’t know I became a noble, I held back the retort. I could at best become a knight if they kept assuming I was a human, but I certainly did not want that either.

  “The pleasure is all ours,” Therick answered for the group. Licarl’s gaze traveled across our party, and it quickly became clear that he wasn’t equally as pleased to meet all of us.

  “Charmed,” he sat down on the couch across from ours. The templar stood behind him without ever saying a word. “Tell me, how has my city been treating you so far?”

  “Oh, it’s been wonderful. The peace is well-kept, and the streets are always clean…”

  The small talk continued, and I nearly tuned it all out.

  “What about you, Haell Zharignan?” his eyes bore down on me, but his gaze was way too weak to ever inspire a reaction. “What does the granddaughter of a hero think?”

  “It’s alright,” I shrugged.

  “Alright? You think the war with this so-called New Grandera is going alright?”

  “We’re winning, aren’t we?” I shrugged again. I did follow the conversation, but I was admittedly very uninterested.

  “I… see,” Licarl chuckled, and then laughed louder, until he coughed and stopped for decorum. “That is certainly a fresh perspective. Yes, we are indeed winning. Of course we are. We act in accordance to what is righteous and holy, so how could we not be!?” He coughed into his hand again. I started to wonder if he was actually sick. That would be nice. “So, what brings you all here? Do you wish to sign up for the army? Or do you wish to go as adventurer auxiliaries?”

  Therick glanced back at us. “We came for… a different task today.” He placed the quest we wanted on the table.

  Licarl glanced at it, and frowned. “Ah, that vulgar bandit. Her band captures and enslaves anyone they can catch, without any regard for their station. They do not care to hold anyone for ransom, and they’ve even managed to take a shepherd!” He breathed deeply to calm down. I almost scoffed at how he had almost lost control. “They’ve only laughed at and attacked any attempts to negotiate. And then those godforsaken heathens did something even more disrespectful by defacing the corpses of the most important people they’ve managed to capture and putting them on display along the road!”

  “I understand,” Therick nodded empathetically. “Then these outlaws must be brought to justice. Please, allow us to serve it.”

  Really laying it on thick there. I’m glad I don’t have to be the one brownnosing like that.

  Licarl glanced up and looked at Therick with a critical eye. “We have sent many adventurer parties against them, and they failed. We have even mobilized templars before, but they escaped and killed all of their slaves on their way out. Very little of the victims could be saved.”

  “I understand the danger. But please, trust us with this. We have the heir of a hero on our side, and while it is for your wisdom to decide whether we are worthy or not, I believe our achievements speak to our capabilities beyond our heritage as well.”

  “Hmm.” Licarl rubbed his chin. “Haell Zharignan here is the only one of you with heritage, but you are correct. I have heard great things about you, and how you are already the equivalent of a gold rank party.” He looked at the level 40 templar behind him. “Grust. What do you think?”

  The massive human looked at us. “Most of them are only around level 20 or 30.” He gestured towards Moonwash. “She’s Level 40. And she’s achieved gold rank before that so she should be good.” He then turned to me. “Almost level 40. But there’s something about her that feels… sinister and dangerous. I think I’d rather fight most gold-rankers than her.”

  He wasn’t wrong. Moonwash had evolved around half of her Mutations already, and I was indeed very fucking strong.

  “Oh? So she’s really the next big hero then?” Licarl asked.

  Grust just grunted non-committaly. I would certainly not be a hero for them. Not for much longer.

  Licarl turned back to us with a smile. “I will accept your party for this quest. But ah, just one thing, Sharon and her ilk have been beaten back several times, even if the slippery bitch hasn’t been caught yet. Last we’d heard is that she’s been terrorizing a village by the name of Aful. It’s one near Sidarin city, I trust that you would be fine tracking her down?”

  I looked at my friends, and we quickly conferred silently. Therick accepted the offer, for we were already invested.

  ~~~

  Our wagons left Licarl city and headed back west from whence we came. We made it to Aful Village after almost a month straight of travel, and they spoke of the damages Sharon had wrought, but we were informed that they had most likely moved on. So we went back to Sidarin City, where the mall incident had happened a while back, and Granuel went off to investigate in the darker underbelly of society. That was when he asked me to come with him, because he just had a bad feeling about this, and I agreed. Gut instinct wasn’t to be ignored, and I did not mind losing an afternoon if it turned out to be nothing.

  We traveled to a different village, whereupon Granuel and I disembarked along the road between. I wore a dark leather armor covered by a large black cloak, and a semi-stylish helmet that differentiated the presence of my horns from my usual attire. Granuel was also decked out in suspiciously large layers of clothing, as we wanted to travel in secret and in disguise.

  We had realized, hopefully not too late, that we had been too liberal with revealing our identities to spies and other operatives. Oh, I rarely talked to them myself, and I usually only got involved with the truly high-level operatives, but it was still a massive security risk. They were well-trained, and possessed a way to kill themselves, but that was the biggest issue as if someone were to be taken alive then a shepherd could get them to spill their secrets. Mind-reading was an extremely rare skill, but mind-control was not.

  The biggest reason for our change in attitude, however, was a growing distrust for the forces of New Grandera. I was sure I would get along quite well with a lot of them still, but a betrayal was not out of the question at all. Someone might betray our identity to our shared and most hated enemy, and it was truly fortunate that nothing like that had happened so far.

  I walked deeper into the rainforest with my friend as he led the way. Granuel stopped at a seemingly random point, and we waited there in the rain for almost an hour before he informed me that someone finally arrived. I found it very rude for them to have been this late. A hooded woman walked out of the treeline.

  “So, you want to know about Sharon and the bandits?”

  “Yes, we do,” Granuel confirmed.

  “Why?”

  “We just wanted to… make some corrections.”

  “Corrections? Tell me and I shall pass the message along. They’ve been doing a wonderful job so far.”

  “...A wonderful job? How?”

  “Splitting our shared enemy’s attention and disrupting supply lines, of course.”

  “They’re doing slavery. Is that not exactly what we are fighting against? What makes us any better than the empire if that’s what we fucking resort to!?”

  The woman sighed. “A bleeding heart. This is why our movement cannot make any fucking headway. Thankfully, that same naivete has led you to come here with only two people.” She scoffed, then raised her hand and gestured. “Attack!”

  “Okay!” I answered. Granuel immediately hunkered down behind his shield, and I was given free reign. The rude woman in front of me was cut down, and then I immediately dove into the treeline before the spells and arrows could reach me. Granuel had already informed me of a potential ambush long before the dead woman ever showed herself, so I was unsurprised. Their projectiles found it difficult to hit me in this terrain with all the trees in the way, and I quickly made it to my second victim of the night. He died while trying to nock another arrow to shoot me with.

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  The slaughter then continued. Some tried to run, but none could match my speed. Others stood their ground, but their defenses could not stop the inexorable force of my sword. Their screams echoed into the rainy night, but it did not stay my hand. Those who thought they had actually managed to flee were found by Granuel, and he led me right to them.

  “Is that everyone?” I panted, once there was no one left to cut down. I felt pain all over my body, but few of it was inflicted by my now-dead enemies.

  “...It should be,” Granuel sighed. “We should’ve been on the same side, so why did it have to end like this?”

  “I know. It sucks. But that’s life for you.” I shrugged. “I think the rebel forces around these parts are fucked.”

  “It is,” my friend confirmed.

  ~~~

  Perhaps not all was fucked.

  I found myself in another secluded area of the forest. Granuel had somehow navigated this confusing mess of subterfuge to find someone from within the bandit camp who was wavering. Apparently, this mystery person was not the only one, and today he would tell us of their plans.

  The first group of bandits we found was hostile, and we killed all of them.

  The second party of bandits threatened to rape, but I doubted they would ever be able to do that on account of being dead.

  The third group was still full of the same kind of idiots, but I did not have to kill all of them this time! There was one who hesitantly stalked behind everyone else, but never threw a single attack nor made a hostile action while his fellows were being killed. That alone might have still prompted me to kill the coward just to be safe, but it did stay my hand long enough for the disheveled centaur to get out a few words.

  “W-wait! Please don’t kill me! Are you the operatives! I’m the contact!!”

  And just like that, we had found our target.

  “I am,” Granuel confirmed.

  “G-great! Thank you!” He sagged and slumped onto the ground.

  Granuel and I glanced at each other, and then my friend sat down in front of the bandit man. The stranger was surprisingly well-dressed, and his gear looked to be of decently good quality, if a bit ill-maintained. All the bandits were like that, come to think of it. It was hard to notice the difference when they all crumbled like dried-out shit all the same, but they did seem a bit… stronger than what I was used to with their ilk.

  I crossed my arms and remained standing. From the flinch of the stranger, it had the intended effect.

  “First of all, we’re grateful that you’ve even come out here to talk. I know it must be dangerous for you,” Granuel reassured the bandit to get him to talk.

  “N-no… I’m the one who’s thankful. You spared my life. I honestly didn’t think anyone would help us at this stage. I don’t know if we deserve the help…”

  “Now, now. I don’t know what’s going on, but everyone deserves to be helped.”

  “Maybe them, but not me. I joined the actual bandits to protect myself, but I have since… done things I’m not proud of. And I had to or they’ll grow suspicious! But…” He looked at the fresh corpses around us that I had made. “I deserve to join them for the things I’ve done.”

  “I… see. I understand. We all do things to survive in this cruel world. But what’s important is that you’re here now, trying to change.”

  “Do you really think so?” The thinner man reached out and grabbed my friend’s arm. Now I readied myself to react, even if I knew the stranger was weak. Underestimating someone was a road that led only to death. I had been on the other end of that many times. “I’ve… I’ve murdered people. I captured them. Enslaved them. Raped. And I helped torture them to the point of death or suicide. Is that truly something that can be redeemed!? Can I still go to heaven!??”

  Granuel pulled back. Now we were getting a clearer picture of how this bandit camp was run. Then again, the only thing in question was the severity. This was always the common outcome.

  What I was more surprised about was how he still believed in the angels and their god, but it didn’t matter. We were only here to use their own plans for our own gain. There were no heroes in this story.

  “I don’t know,” Granuel admitted. “That will be up to the Angelic God to decide.”

  Unsaid was that neither of us cared much for heaven, nor did we even believe such a place existed. It might, but if it did, then I doubted that it was truly a paradise. It was certainly not my paradise.

  The stranger in our midst spoke more about how things were at their camp. It seemed like he just really wanted someone to talk to about all of the things he had heard and seen, and I found myself conflicted as to whether or not I should even empathize. I was no saint myself, nor did I ever desire to be one, but lines had been crossed that I would never tread. In the end, I decided to just listen, for any information about our enemy could be important.

  Apparently, he was exiled for being unable to afford rent after being fired from his job. That was about the common origin for bandits that I knew of. Entire families had been driven away from civilization in this way, and some struck out on their own to not attract attention, but they died anyway to the dangers of the wilderness. Others, like the bandit in front of me, banded together and built something marginally more survivable. That only resulted in the guilds taking attention, and they feared the day that adventurers finally came to end them all.

  That was when Sharon arrived. She was a level 40 ogre, who should not be there at all because someone so strong would not be exiled. She took charge, she took control, and for a time, people were happy. They were better fed, and their enemies were dead.

  Sharon then started to demand more of them. She formed a core bandit group, and she started to take slaves from the passing travelers and caravans. She did not care what was done to them, and she allowed all of the camp’s frustrations to be unleashed upon the people they’d captured, no matter who they were. Sharon reveled in all the cruelties unleashed, and she rewarded all those who participated. A rift formed, between those who joined her and those who did not. The latter group was treated worse and worse as time moved on. They were sent on dangerous and difficult errands, sent out to hunt, and forced to build and create whatever the inner circle wanted until their hands literally bled. Magic was a rarer commodity among the bandits, because they had few fountans among them. People of their species rarely wanted for work, and the few they had (usually slaves) were monopolized for the use of the actual bandits.

  Still, the common civilians managed to build a respectable town by the time a large enough force came to drive them out.

  And then things got worse.

  They were attacked, and the combatants of their group were left more frustrated as they fled. They also lost a lot of their slaves in the conflict, so being the… outlet for those frustrations fell on the regular people among the bandits. Their workload also increased, as Sharon and her lackeys demanded to live in the same paltry luxury, even as they were on the move. They began to lose more and more people as they traveled through more isolated and dangerous terrain. Worse, there were never enough slaves to replace those who had been lost, but the supply completely dried at some point in their journey. As a ‘solution,’ the bandits started to take completely from the regular civilians with them.

  And they never truly stopped.

  Some tried to flee at this point. Others had even succeeded as they had left long before things got this bad. But now, those that remained could not even choose to die to the many monsters of the rainforest, for Sharon and her people would catch and visit upon them even greater cruelties if they tried.

  “It was only those with her! They were the ones who were safe! Which is why we joined! Which is why I joined! I never wanted to do those things!”

  I pried him away from Granuel, and my friend spoke.

  “We are here to… hear your story. And potentially do something to help this rebellion of yours. But we cannot tell you if you have been redeemed or not. We have no right.”

  “I… Right. You’re right. Sorry. My panic got the better of me.” He looked at us, and then came to a decision. “Three days from now. At dawn. I hope it makes up for even just a little bit of what I’ve done.”

  Finally, I almost blurted out. This entire conversation had taken needlessly long when it could have been over with just those two sentences.

  “Alright,” Granuel said and stood up. “Maybe it will.” We both turned around and walked away, never once having revealed our faces to the centaur bandit.

  I would’ve silenced him, but Granuel signaled me to stay my hand in the end.

  The attack might be called off if he were to never return.

  ~~~

  It was time.

  The entire party was together, and we marched as one for the bandit camp.

  We met several parties of the bastards along the way, and I did not let a single one escape.

  We arrived at their village boldly and openly, and I took a second to look at what they had. There was a crude short wall of stone, with taller wooden spikes embedded in them. There were houses inside, and while they looked uneven, they seemed to be functional enough. Nature was already starting to retake everything, but I gathered that they were regularly fighting the rainforest back.

  Finally, the guards noticed that we were here, and that we were not invited.

  “Hey! There are intruders here!”

  “Call the boss!”

  “Fuck!”

  “Too late,” I strolled into the wide open gates, and killed the sentries inside. The whole settlement smelled quite bad, and I noticed a few corpses just rotting in the hidden alleyways beside the street. People screamed, they were actively being tortured, and the bandits did not stop even as there were outright invaders in their midst. I killed them all, and those of us who could heal fixed the victims up just enough for them to potentially run. This place was about to descend into sheer and utter chaos, and it came just as another pair of bandits tried to charge us… by themselves. People in dirty clothes and tunics burst from a nearby alley, and the bandits cut them down with swords as they too were crushed under the weight of heavy rocks and sharpened wood.

  The… rebellion didn’t actually know about us, so some rushed to attack me afterwards. I punched and knocked out one of them.

  They stopped. They finally realized that they did not recognize me.

  “We are here to kill Sharon. Move or die.”

  They gulped, and then ran off to kill more of the regular bandits. I beheld the greater conflict, and it was all utter chaos. “How do we even know who to kill or not?”

  “Go for the better-armored people,” Angerly suggested, and I thought that made sense. The true bandits had the better gear, and while some of them had sided against Sharon and her goons, it was easy enough to see who was being predominantly targeted by the regular denizens of the bandit village.

  It wasn’t a perfect system, but I was willing to take that risk.

  A woman struck an armored human with a frying pan, and he snarled condescendingly when it bounced off his breastplate. He was condescending no longer when my sword hit the same spot and pierced through the chitin with ease. I moved on to my next target before he was done collapsing.

  Another battle happened nearby, and it was an ogre man being swarmed by a handful of grieving belfegors. Granuel tilted the fates firmly away from him with a few choice pebbles.

  A crustecar bandit then tried to run away, but Angerly cracked his shell and spilled the flesh underneath. An ishkawtan mage roasted a bunch of crustecar slaves alive, and Therick stabbed her from behind. Moonwash fireballed a bigger gathering of bandits who were hunting down some escaped slaves. Berry then found a bunch of slaves still bound and kept in pens and cages.

  The six of us converged, and we charged right for them. Some of the slaves flinched in fear, but the larger group of bandits guarding them had a lot more to be afraid of.

  “W-who the fuck are you!?”

  “Who put you up to this!”

  “Sharon won’t forgive you once she gets here!”

  “Surrender now!”

  Those threatening shouts turned into uncontrolled screams once the hellfire and curses reached them. We came in fast like a tornado, and we did not give them the time to even consider killing the slaves on the way out. Those closer to the pens were killed first, and then the whole lot of them was wiped out. A few managed to run away from us, but they were set upon by the remaining angry denizens.

  I heard a crash, and slaves started to destroy the gates to their cages, while others just straight up jumped over the fences. We helped some of them break free, and the others I freed from their cuffs and chains with my cursed mythril greatsword.

  I sliced a little bit too deep and injured a belfegor man, but he was already running before I could say anything. The slaves had taken rocks and pilfered whatever weapons they could from the dead bandits as most of them rushed into battle. Vengeance was clear on their faces, and I approved of their rage.

  “WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. HAPPENING!”

  I heard a shout, and I knew that Sharon had finally arrived. The ogre woman found a small gathering of civilians, and gutted them all with one slash. She wielded two blades that could be either daggers or shortswords in her hands, but they were larger than most regular swords for she was over four meters massive.

  She spotted us, and began to walk our way. The ground shook upon her passing, and a building tilted and began to collapse. She was big, but the effect was not only due to her weight. We had gotten more information about her, from both the guild and Granuel’s own efforts. So we knew, that those spiky boots of her were not just for show. They were a magical apparatus for earth magic.

  “That’s her,” Therick said, and held his sword resolutely even as his hands shook.

  “That it is.” I stepped in front of him, in front of everyone, and together we walked towards the filth named Sharon.

  “Haell Zharignan. The Harvesters.” Her voice boomed, and she snarled as if to taste the words, only to find the flavor terrible. “I’ve heard you were in town, and now you dare to come here!?” She made a show of looking around, then clicked her tongue. “What a fucking mess you’ve made of the place. You’ve made the trash set themselves on fire. Which is weird because we’re evil bandits, all of us.” She grinned. “Is little miss perfect hero making deals with the enemy!?”

  I frowned behind my mask, but did not reply. Banter was useless, and to lose control of myself would be worse.

  We continued to walk towards each other, and the distance between us shortened, as we hurtled towards the inevitable showdown.

  “What? Are you ignoring me, you pathetic mutt? Do you think you are better than me? Because are not. You are nothing, and you will never be anything, because you are a slave and a tool to be wielded by queens and angels of this world. You suckle on the teat of a dying hero, but they will never let a human like you rise as high as you can. The only way to win is to not play their game, yet here you still are, an obedient little bitch trying fruitlessly to kill someone who's actually fucking built something instead of feeding upon the scraps they are allowed!"

  “Or so you say,” I gestured at the chaos around us, and right at that moment, a building crumbled to ash, “as your ‘empire’ burns to the ground.”

  It was really truly better not to engage, but I could not hold back the very obvious retort.

  Her face darkened, and she roared. The ground shook as she charged, and I ran forward with my greatsword raised high. The ground underneath my feet lurched, and I lost my balance as our blades met. I lost that exchange badly, and I was forced to scramble back to defend myself as a flurry of strikes from double my own blades came. A few slashes made it through as I struggled to fight through the earthquake, and my mythril armor dented and gave out in places. Blood poured from many cuts and stained the ground under my feet. Separate blasts of wrath were released unbidden from the wounds, and I saw them slither past Sharon’s blades to injure her arms, but she only grunted for a moment before continuing her swift assault.

  “Well!? What’s the matter!?” Sharon laughed. “My empire crumbles, and it serves me as it does!”

  I could not retort, for that was when spikes began to shoot out of the ground. I narrowly avoided some, but one managed to crack my hoof and ravage through my leg. Sharon’s next blow came mercilessly, and her heavy dagger shoved aside my greatsword. The other one swiftly followed after the first, and it sheared through my armor to slice open a hole into my guts. That encouraged a more rabid mass of wrath to throw itself out of my body and flay the flesh off Sharon’s hands. Great rivers of blood flowed from the wound in my stomach and soaked the both of us before I could burn it close with my hellfire. The gesture would not truly heal the damage, but I wanted to prevent my internals from spilling out anyway.

  Sharon grinned and was about to continue her assault, but then her brows suddenly furrowed in concentration. The quakes stilled, and I did not let this opening go to waste. Sudden explosions of fire and curse originating from my blood broke her already fraying concentration, and I charged for the short distance between us. She met my slash with both of her blades, but this was the confluence of wrath. Her defenses were pried open and I shoved inside a massive mass of black flames. It was what I had been working on this entire time, and it enveloped her body in the hug that she never had as a child!

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

  Sharon screamed, and it was the most eloquent thing she’d said so far. My friends continued to suppress her earth magic, for three of them could wield the element. I stepped in and never allowed her to recover. Wrath magic leaked out of me, and mangled her body from all sides. Moonwash attacked with the occasional lightning bolt so as to not disrupt my own flames. I sacrificed my blood inside to fend off and overcome her two blades. Sharon was left with no recourse as she very quickly succumbed. No one came to her rescue as she was forced to kneel with the weight of my blade carving a path through her masive legs, and then through her even larger torso.

  She looked down at me in those final moments with defiance in her eyes. “Y-you win. But you will amount to nothing in the end, huma–!!”

  “I am more than a mere human.”

  Her head went flying, and it landed with a thud that was barely noticed.

  Bandits and civilians alike were too preoccupied to notice the death of their tyrant and leader.

  Whew! This chapter kicked my ass! I hope it was worth it!

  One thing that I honestly think I didn’t depict quite as well, is all the spy subterfuge stuff. It makes sense that I’m not good at it, because I rarely ever consume that type of media. Especially if it’s explicitly that type of media, like crime thrillers, or some sort of heist. I do still see it from other works, like dungeon cores and such, but I do not seek it out specifically. One has to wonder why I even wrote it at all, but just like Haell, it’s a necessity I don’t like!

  So uh, I made it so Haell realized some of her subterfuge mistakes here. Fixed, I hope…?

  Please consider subscribing to my if you can. I've recently written chapters that clear 5K words back to back. It's apparently a good skill to learn, to have consistent chapter lengths. But I have only gotten worse!!

  Oh hey wait. This chapter is 5K words too, I just realized. Maybe I'm consistent after all!

  ...No I'm not.