“Ever heard of the Robber’s Cave experiment?” asked Ed.

Noel raised an eyebrow, turning her gaze away from the fire.

“No.” She said.

The dancing flames illuminated her sharp features. Her long dark hair was pulled up in a careless pony-tail.

“You know I didn’t go to college, right?” She added, rolling her eyes.

“Mm.” Ed nodded, and poked at the logs burning in the flame with a stick.

Embers flew up into the night sky as the rest of the Tribe dug into the day’s dinner around a few campfires, faces illuminated with the reddish glow of the flames.

“I was just thinking…” He continued.

“Why would the System put us in Villages? Humans have been unable to get along since the dawn of time with each other since the dawn of their existence. ‘You worship bears. I worship rivers. Therefore I will kill you.’ Because they thought they were different, even though they really weren’t.” Ed said, looking into the fire. Noel was listening intently.

“The Robber’s Cave experiment showed us how easy it is to think we’re ‘different’.

Psychologists took a group of boys camping, and separated them into two groups… and that was quite enough for them to hate each other and fight over everything.”

“Uh huh.” She replied, picking up and biting into the skewer of fish.

Ed glanced at her and grinned. She was a simple girl, Noel. But not stupid. She was listening, eyes gleaming carefully.

“Getting rid of the goblins won’t be the end, Noel.” Ed said.

Noel grunted through a mouthful of fish.

Ed gazed into the fire, dancing red flames reflected in his eyes.

---

Mustafa, Blessed of Öd-Ögöd, plucked his sword from the chest of the wildling girl. This kind of work was never enjoyable.

Such was life, in this new world.

He watched as the orc roared in anger and charge towards him, only to be blocked by Juan.

The reptilian Blessed laughed as he jumped in the orc’s way and locked hands with him. A wave of manna shot out at their impact, and though the young Mexican drug lord skid back a few feet, that was it. The youngster was strong. Stronger than he had expected, even.

It would be a problem for after they had seized the Vault’s weapons.

Mustafa looked back at the sound of a heavy blade cutting through the air, and had to slip through time to dodge the axe coming down on his head.

Ah. It was the girl, eyes bloodshot and seemingly unimpeded by the gaping hole in her chest.

Was she frothing at the mouth?

---------

Ed watched as Mustafa plunged his sword into Noel’s chest. He watched as Harundal charge, and Juan intercept him.

He had almost swallowed his heart when he saw Noel take a blade to the chest, but it seemed she’d be able to hold on until he did what he needed to do. He had hoped... But no matter.

He had to move, now.

---------

A wave of men and women who had not been present for the battle flooded into the battlefield. Around fifty of them, either sporting tattoos or dressed in black garb. They looked grim, and fell in place with their more battered compatriots.

The Den and The Pit were in it together, then.

The Hunters had quickly made their way to Ed, forming a circle around him, and he made a quick eye contact with one of the squadron leaders before he sat down cross-legged.

Much blood had been spilled today, and the air was thick with blood manna.

“Sacrifice.” He uttered, and most of his blood essence evaporated, leaving just a sliver that he needed to keep his body functioning. Ed could feel his Body literally shrivel, felt the grooves and wrinkles forming in his face and hands.

He would have to end it quickly.

He felt his consciousness expand as all of the blood manna hanging in the air became his.

For the price he had paid, he would be invincible on this battlefield, at least for a few minutes.

An invisible pressure crashed down onto everyone on the battle-field with the force of a battering ram, leaving all the fighters belonging to The Den and The Pit falling on their knees. The Hunters and the Squires fell on their knees as well and were shaking, but the brunt of it seemed to be borne by the traitorous group of fighters.

Some of them began bleeding from their eyes, nose, and ears as they keeled over completely, unconscious before they hit the floor.

And not even the Blessed were safe.

Dodging yet another of Noel’s axe strike, Mustafa had put quite a distance between him and the Berserker girl when the air suddenly changed.

Seemingly caught off guard, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and staggered back.

In the next moment, his figure flickered back into the position he had been in a second ago. There was no sign of blood.

“Ah. You are rewinding yourself in time somehow.” Ed said, smiling. It didn't reach his eyes, which glowed coldly.

Mustafa coughed up another mouthful of blood, and this time, he was a bit slower to flicker back into an uninjured state. He glared at Ed, with hate in his eyes. He still couldn’t move, as the entire battlefield had taken on a red-haze, and the thick red mist hung like an unbearable weight upon everyone’s shoulder.

"Wha- what are you do- doing?" He managed between his tightly grit teeth.

Not even the Hunters moved, and Noel and Harundal were seemingly recuperating as well. Juan lay on his knees, muscles bulging but unable to budge an inch.

“Hm.” Ed turned his red gaze towards the men and women of The Den and The Pit. With the brunt of the hobgoblin force being tanked by the Knights, there were still many of them.

He could feel the blood manna of the goblins whisper into his mind.

Eat. Anger. Weak. Prey. Betrayal.

And he could smell their fear.

The fear of men and women, humans, just like him. He had been that afraid once. Not just when the rifts had first opened. When he had sat by his father's bedside, holding his withered hand.

They would have killed him and his Hunters on the battlefield today, turning upon them as soon as the goblins had been wiped out. And for what?

It would be easy, right now, to rip their blood essence from them like the hobgoblin shaman had done with the goblins for their betrayal and insolence. Because they had dared to risk their own humanity for a grab of power.

But.

He really did believe what he had told his own villagers that night around the campfire, hunched around each other like a bunch of primitive cavemen. There were things out there that would only laugh and eat them alive if the humans continued to fight amongst each other.

And surely, it had been Mustafa who had fanned the evil in the hearts of these men and women. But even if that wasn't the case, Ed realized, he would spare their lives. He didn't know if he would have to turn into a monster in this new world, but if he did, today would not be the day he did.

He had no time to waste on the short sighted fools like Mustafa, however. Mustafa... he had seemed so smart. What could he have possibly been thinking? He would rule the city, but then what? What about the other demons, lurking in the outskirts of the city, or the other humans-

He’d find out from someone else.

“Die.”

As if moving under great pressure, Mustafa rose to his feet and opened his mouth to speak, flickering in and out every second now, seemingly mustering his energy for-

Ed’s wrinkled hands grabbed the blood-red dagger, and some of the red energy gathered around it and formed a blade as long as an outstretched arm.

Ed moved like a blur of red lightning, and Mustafa’s head fell to the ground.

As his now headless body fell to the ground, so did a necklace around his neck.

It began spewing out a black smoke that surrounded his body, and all of wolves dispersed into black smoke as well, leaving their riders to drop from a height of five to six feet unceremoniously.

The smoke crawled out from the body and necklace towards the head, and after a few ominous seconds in the squirming smoke, Mustafa arose anew.

Ed could see that it wasn’t him behind his eyes. his instinct, True Sight, the complete lack of human emotions told him so. In fact, his eyes were completely black, with no whites at all.

“Interesting. Not… bad, disciple of Hekamuth.” He spoke.

With his words, the pressure in the air seemed to double, and even Ed flinched a little at the effort needed to keep a straight face. All of the humans who had barely been maintaining their consciousness dropped to the ground, eyes rolled back and frothing at the mouth.

Ed smirked painfully.

“Thank you, but… I’m no disciple of Hekamuth.”

He could see that Mustafa’s body was deteriorating, being eaten inside from the dark mist spewing out. It was in no condition to move. All of the red mist suddenly contracted down in a dense dome as if to bind the black mist and came bearing down on Mustafa’s body and the being inhabiting it.

“I’m just me.” Ed said, and drove the dagger-sword through Mustafa's chest.

The being stared into his eyes… and smiled. Even on the man's handsome face, the smile was something primal. Feral.

“We’ll meet again. Not all Turuks are ruled by The Hunger, you know.”

An enormous amount of essence, some of blood and some… of something else, came flooding into the dagger, and Mustafa exploded into a blob of black mist that quickly dissipated.

Ed fell to his knees, and felt all of the strength leave his body.

He felt his consciousness beginning to flicker, but bit himself in the lip viciously to keep himself awake, just for a little longer. He could feel his control on the blood-manna slipping away, but if he left things as it was now, he would be stuck in an old man's body.

Not that he had anything against old people, but...

Ed drew in as much of the blood manna back into his body as possible, and began condense the raw energy. When he thought he couldn't condense it any more, he drew in even more of the manna in the air and condensed it again.

Much of the manna had been spent, actively suppressing the fighters from The Den and The Pit, even more on the strange form that the dagger had taken. But today, the blood of thousands had been spilled, and it hung in the air like thick clouds.

Ed fell into a rythmic breathing while on all fours, trying to maintain control of his breathing as he condensed the energy again and again.

He felt something physical beginning to take shape inside of his chest, not quite in his heart, but...

He held on to his consciousness, forcing blood manna into his body over and over now again for what felt like an eternity when suddenly, there was no more blood manna to absorb. The sudden lack of pressure in the air around him shocked him out of his concentration, and he finally let himself collapse completely onto the ground.

Everything faded to black, but Ed wasn't worried. The last thing he saw was Noel walking towards him. There was no hole in her chest.

"What'd I fucking tell you, Noel." he couldn't resist muttering with a smile.