Another group of angels was sent into the air as an explosion shook the battlefield.

“Disperse! Don’t stand in a formation!” The commander kept on yelling as he saw another thick tentacle crash into a group of shield bearers.

It was an utter catastrophe. This time their number was a disadvantage. The creature perfectly abused its size and ability to nullify each of their attacks while delivering vicious counters.

One of the spearmen jumped on the axe-wielding torso of a beastmen. The creature, instead of defending, raised the weapon over its head preparing to deliver a powerful strike from above - completely giving up on defense. The angel was faster - its strike was sure to land. The commander’s heart skipped a beat, awaiting for the first clean hit for their side since this gruesome battle began.

But, the reason why it didn’t decide to defend became clear very quickly - the colossal mass shifted in place. Tentacles squirmed under it when all bodies changed their place. The snake-headed torso covered in scales with an already raised shield took the attacked body’s place masterfully deflecting the attack. At the same time, the wolf-headed savage body delivered an earth-shaking blow to the ground, decimating another group.

The shield must have been imbued with magic, as the angel upon attacking it was pushed back with enormous force, flying dozens of meters away. Bodies changed their place once again, this time the body with the shield was replaced by the torso of the bow-wielding bat, who let out a quiet, resonating shriek before launching his arrow and sending it directly to its victim’s heart.

A perfect unison. The spear-wielding torso was fending the attacker off, gathering time, the axe wielding one was inflicting formation-shattering strikes paying no attention to defence which was provided by the shield-bearing one. Once it would deflect the attack and send attackers far away, the bow user would take them one by one, and once you would chase on it, the spear wielder would appear again, making them keep their distance with its medium-ranged weapon.

Not only that. It’s lower body tentacles granted superb mobility and attack force as well. Each time a single unit would drop his formation his nimble limbs were quick to grab that unlucky angel and throw it into the air, just so he would end his life in one of four beast’s mouths.

Apparently, all torsos shared senses as well, for despite constantly changing the groups they were fighting with they never wasted even a split of a second to adjust their blows or change their trajectory. They landed... Every. Single. Strike.

Armored in golden weaponry, the angel had a dreaded look as another of his faithful companions perished. By now, he had lost a fourth of his comrades, and beast-god didn’t even break a sweat. Actually, guessing by his expressions, he was having a great time! To him, they were but a way to relieve his frustration!

His name, the Beast in Black, could never be more clear and obvious than now… One of the ways for him to save his comrades was to surrender, bend his knee, and bow his head accepting his superiority, but, there was no way he could do that. The whole reason for their existence was to serve the Illuminated and to fight in her name. If they were meant to perish, so be it. It was the fate they accepted, no, that they were born with.

“What… is happening here?” a yell from the upper chambers could be heard, and even though he knew to whom that voice belonged, though his whole existence wanted to give a proper answer, he couldn’t, for yet another tempest of blows flew upon them like a fiery rain of the judgment day. “What’s the meaning of this!?” “Your little lambs decided to challenge me for a duel…” one of the head’s responded not even looking in her direction “... and I merely granted their wish.”

One of the torso’s stopped being attacked due to chaos which appeared on the battler ground, yet, instead of giving them a break, it started singing the verses of the darkest magic.

Torso of the panther raised its spear high and pierced the air, and with it, one of the angels who used stealth ability to conceal its presence to deliver strike from above.

“Good idea, poor execution… You are not familiar with gods of other universes, ain’t you? This form, Sviatovid, is named after an all-seeing god. His heads looking in all directions of the world, having no secrets, his gaze pierces through everything. Wolf and panther have wonderful eyesight which let them precisely estimate the distance from the target as well as a sense of smell to hunt their prey. Bat’s hearing is second to none and lizards can even sense body heat. On top of that, I am quite mana sensitive, so unless you can completely erase your presence, such silly attempts of assassinations will be simply futile...”

Another vertical slash pushed attackers back.

“Stop it! They are my children!” The Lady of Light begged loudly. “Funny, Aster also was someone’s child. Even more, the only child.” “Why are you doing that? I know that you are hard to offend! You could just let them be!”

In that moment all four heads grinned in a vicious smile.

“Why indeed? What would I want to achieve butchering them one at the time instead of just evaporating all of them in an instant?”

One of the Three bit her lip with an angry expression.

“What do you want?” She was quick to understand his motives. He wanted to make a deal. “You know very well. Just say aloud that you accept me!” “Can’t do that. We predicted that you would try abusing your principles to make us do this, so together with my sisters we oathed one another that we wouldn’t do that unless you win The Game.” “Sneaky bunch… very well…” he said pushing another celestial off his blade “... how about it, when the time would come, you will grant me… let’s, three wishes… I won’t ask for much, I promise...” “I am not a genie!” “Very well, then two wishes!” “...So be it…” She said after a moment. “Ok, so how about one wi… wait, are you for real? Two wishes it is!” he smiled even wider “... very well, little angels, I accept my defeat. I forfeit. Collect your wounded and celebrate your victory… I already have what I came here for… or actually, maybe even more. Hey, Luxi, you shouldn’t show me your weakness so quickly, I might use it in the future again, you know?”

Beast-God, as if he didn’t notice groans of wounded angels all over the celestial domain, started heading back towards the mist, and as he stepped over its edge he turned into a long wyrm and slided down into darkness.

Elize was cleaning glasses when she suddenly straightened her body in shock, letting glass-mug off her hands making it shatter on the floor. Her mother quickly rushed from the other room to check what happened.

“Elize!” Jagna jumped to her daughter “... are you all right?” “I am sorry… the mug…” “I don’t give a damn about the mug! Show me yourself!” she grabbed her hands checking them from all sides “... good, you didn’t cut yourself… but you are so cold! And pale! What happened?!” “I don’t know, I just… was cleaning mugs and sundely I had this feeling… as if a needle made of ice pierced my heart. It was so… real. Painful… even now I can feel it melting, spreading cold across my body… I… I need to sit…” she almost collapsed, only at the very last second she managed to catch the edge of a counter and rest on it. “Maybe you should take a day off? You don’t look too well.” “I am fine, I just need…” she tried getting up, yet she fell one more time. “A-ha. Fine my ass! To bed! Now!” “No, no, no! I need to help you! There is so much to…” she froze in place looking at her finger “... my Oath…” “What happened?” “My Oath-mark used to be black… it was literally black a few minutes ago, now it’s… grey. Dull…” “What, he cheated on you already?” “It’s not funny!” She yelled back at her mother. “Yeah, let’s not think about the worst case scenario, maybe he just died?” “You are terrible!” “That’s the way I am!” she kissed her daughter at the top of her head.

Jagna couldn’t know how dark her joke would appear in the next few hours.

You have slain [Wild Forest Rabbit - Level 2] You have obtained [4 EXP] Level progression [79/100]

Blood was supposed to have a thick, disgusting, taste of iron, yet to me it was sweet and refreshing, like a drink of a cold apple juice after a long day or working in the field during a hot summer. As I walked through the forest I could feel my strength slowly being drained, yet no physical strength, no! Physically, I was in the best condition. No matter how much I walked or how many times I fell, I could keep on walking.

Instead, with each touch of sun I felt as there was less “me” in “myself”, as if my existence was evaporating through my skin.

After a few hours of marching I took a look at mystatus, I noticed that I had lost a few points of vitality. That must be the effect of this whole passive ability of an undead - death by sunlight. Yet now, after eating those miserable rabbits I would feel so… energized… so, oh the irony, alive - that I thought I would start jumping from joy.

Many times scholars in noblest universities would dispute the reason for undead attacks. Some said that they just envy life, and attack with pure malice and hatred, some say that they are being controlled by devils which feast on chaos…

…. if they would only know this taste, their disputes would end fairly quickly.

I shook my head getting rid of this drunk-like sensation. I slapped my cheeks and focused. Even though I might be a simple peasant I was not dumb. After seeing someone’s behaviour a few times, learning their pattern was rather easy, especially, when they were thinking that I was dead.

It was my turn to set a few little traps on Mr. Diederik. This bastard will soon join me in un-life!

First thing first though. I need to “justify” the other hunters death. Just a kilometer or two from here there was supposed to be one of the mating grounds of iron-hides. If fortune would smile at me, I could use their help… In that case, further north. Deeper, into the Deepwood.

It was already getting dark and the other hunters haven’t come yet. Michael asked the leading-one, Jack, where his underlings were a couple of times now. At first, he kept on laughing at those question repeatedly calling the young noble impatient or saying that making a good blood-bath scene is a form of art and virtuosos needed time to do their deeds, yet as the time was passing, ex-criminal was less and less prone to jokes. Actually, at some point, he started cursing under his nose and finally he himself got up from under the tree where he was sitting and started heading back into the forest.

“Why now? Are you perhaps afraid that your men deserted?” “Ha! These dogs would never do that. Because of numerous reasons. One - your father gave us a pardon and saved us from a noose only if we would pay our debt to him… which we didn’t do just yet. Running away would only make your father send the Black Guild’s hunters after us! No, that wouldn’t make sense.” “Maybe your wasn’t as dead as you thought him to be…” “What do you think… sir… why was I sentenced to death? Animals and monsters aren’t my prey of choice. I know how to cut, slash and pierce to kill. When I am saying that he was going to die, then, he was going to die. Period. And even if! Even if he, perhaps, he had a flask filled with water from the Well of Life - they were my boys there. Do you really think that one weakened peasant would win versus three strong men? No. That’s out of question… but…” “But?” “What is more likely to happen, is for Rockpaw to have family or another kinsmen. If there was yet another bear lured in by the smell of blood, and if it would attack them while they were busy butchering that kid into pieces… Aye. That would be a rather justified reason for their absence, won't you agree?” “I would. But, your tone, you better watch it. I don’t like being addressed so casually by people of your sort.” “Apologies, young master, my apologies.” Hunter Jack kneeled and bow, yet Michael knew that behind that act there was no courtesy nor respect. “Lead the way.” “Hee? You want to come as well?... My Lord…” The hunter added at the very end, almost forcing himself to address Michael properly “... let me warn you, if my boys started their job, that won’t be a sight for someone with a weak stomach.”

Another reason for him to go. Mike wasn’t proud of his action and he didn’t want to repeat what he did today. Quite the opposite, he hoped for his crime to be as gruesome and shocking as possible. He begged for it to be so disgusting, that he would feel terrible knowing what kind of crime he commited - so he would never, ever, feel tempted to do that again.

“Lead.” He said with a strong, almost threatening tone. “As you say, my Lord, just as you say.” Once again he bowed his head before heading into the Deepwoods.

Of course, it wasn’t just the two of them heading into the Deepwoods, all personal guards of Michael got into loose formation all around him.

They walked for a good hour or two before reaching the clearing close to Ol’ Rockpaw’s den, and what they witnessed was a terrifying sight. The entire part of forest was destroyed, trees were felled, stones shattered and plants trampled into brown mud and sand.

“What in Heaven’s mercy happened here…” One of the knights whispered under his breath. “Ironhide boar…” An assassin said kneeling in the mud checking tracks left in the dirt “... but, according to our information, the traveling herd shouldn’t be even close to this place! Also, they are actually peaceful so as long as they are not agitated… and nothing dares to irritate them. Nothing sane at least… They wouldn’t attack. Also, I think I know what happened to my boys.”

He pointed at the top of one of the trees, where indeed human remains were hanging, broken and twisted in silly directions.

“What about Aster? Are you sure his body wouldn’t just appear somewhere with a clean stab wound?” “Have you ever seen how big and sharp ironhide's horns are? Even if his body would be in the best possible condition, we just blame it on them. Small change to plan, that’s it.” “...Very well.” “Also, we should take some villager with us to see this… beautiful landscape. The dumbest one, so we could tell him whatever and he would believe in everything, later repeating our version left and right. And I think I already have a perfect voloutire. The blacksmith’s apprentice. I have never seen a person this dense.” “Are you sure that he won’t join threads together?” Michael cautiously asked one more time. “That moron wouldn’t even join two bread’s slices into a sandwich.” “Very well… Tonight we return to the inn and tell all of them that we killed Rockpaw, but the smell of blood lured in Ironhides. We can even make Aster a hero, say that he pushed me to safety. His death together with the death of your men will make it more believable.” “Great idea.” Jack duly nodded. “Good. Let’s leave this god forsaken place already…” The noble was ready to leave, but was stopped by the ex-criminal. “Just a moment, your noble-hood.” He said, and then, he did something that no one would ever thought he was able to do.

Hunter kneeled in the dirt and bowed his head, praying quietly.

“...May the mistwalker guide you through the gates of nothingness, Heaven is not for us, I hope to see you in the Shadeland, where we shall hunt forever…” “You never struck me as a man of faith.” “With all due respect… fuck you, Your Majesty.”

This time, Michael didn’t rebuke him. These people must have been close to him, apparently even scums have those that they hold dear to their hearts.

They didn’t know that they were being watched. A pair of dead, cold, eyes which didn’t even have to blink were watching them from afar. Covered in dirt and mud Aster was lying in a bush not letting out a single sound. He wasn’t breathing, his heart wasn’t beating. He kept on listening to the conversations in Michael's group. That sadist Jack was hurt knowing that his companions died? Good. Not enough to state Aster’s hunger for vengeance, but it would do… for now. As an aperitif.

As the sun was setting down on the horizon, together with his group, Michael returned back to the village. They made sure to look almost traumatized, all of them were dirty, some even with leaves and twigs behind their chainmail. The group was marching slowly, as if exhausted to such an extent, that they were barely standing. In this almost mournful mood they entered the inn.

As always, everyone inside became quiet seeing the next Lord entering, even more as they noticed in what condition they were and the kind of expressions were painted on their faces.

“People of the village… unfortunately, I bring bad news.” Michael started. They all were still standing in the middle of the room, with their heads low “... in the past few days we were asking you about the animals and beasts living in your forest that would prove to be challenging in hunt. Young Aster… No, Asteruse, offered his services to us as a guide to the den of a creature you named Ol’ Rockpaw. His knowledge and skills were priceless and let us quickly bring an end to the beast's life, thus saving your village from the threat that this creatures possesed…”

Crowd around them thickened as people started gathering closer and closer to better hear his words. Elize also came, making herself way with elbows when Aster’s name was mentioned.

“...unfortunately, the Rockpaw earlier enraged a pack of Ironhides, probably by killing a few of them. The pack followed his scent and arrived on the scene when the creature was already dead. They charged in, blinded by the smell of his blood… Four good men died in that encounter, all of them bravely sacrificed themselves saving their companions and… and me. I regretfully announce, that among this men was Asterouse… who shielded me with his very body and pushing me to safety…” “No...NO!” It was Elize. She pounced at Michael despite everyone’s attempts to stop her. She crashed into his chest and started pounding him with her fists, but, because of the difference in their bodies sizes, they delivered little to no damage “... You are lying! LYING! Aster would never go into the Deepwood! He was afraid of the Rockpaw more than anything else! There is no way… no way… no…”

The noble didn’t react. He let the woman throw all her anger and sorrow on him.

“I am sorry…” He said, and these words were actually spoken with undeniable truth “... he came to me asking for as many books as a reward as it was only possible for me to deliver, apparently, he was ready to face his fears in order to gift them to you…”

“If there only was any other way…” His mind would follow “... to see your sorrow breaks my heart…”

“My… condolences... “ he kept on talking “... I know that this is barely any comfort… but I will not forget about his sacrifice… and I would reward it to the village the best way I can…” “HOW CAN YOU REWARD ANYONE HIS DEATH! WHY DID YOU EVER COME HERE? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO COME? IF YOU WOULD NEVER APPEAR THEN…” “Enough!” Jagna pulled her daughter back “... forgive my daughter for her words, Your Majesty, as you can see, she mourns her fiance’s death.” “I have nothing to forgive, rather, I am the one who should be the one begging for it… The truth is that Aster died because of me…”

Even though he confessed in front of everybody his heart knew no rest, for nobody truly understood what he said.

“My lord, please, you must be exhausted. Rest as much as you need, I will surely tell some of my girls to prepare all of you a bath to wash your tiredness away… but now, excuse me, I need to…” “We understand. Please, feel free to tend to your daughter's needs. We will be fine on our own.”

Elize shut herself in her room, refusing to leave. Only her mother visited her whenever she had some spare time to check up on her, bring her food, and provide as much comfort to her broken heart as only she could.

The rest of the village would start bringing flowers and put them under the Oaths Stone, as they were unable to give Aster a proper burial due to lack of his body.

On the next day’s morning, the son of the local Lord asked loudly for someone in the village to “volunteer” to help him retrieve the bodies from the deepwood, as ironhides must have already left the den and returned to their natural habitat areas. He asked for a young, strong man, preferably Aster’s friend who could honor him in his journey… and as he was saying that, his gaze fell for quite some time on young Eric - blacksmith’s apprentice. Under pressure of his gaze, Eric indeed raised his hand.

And so, they once again entered Deepwood and located the area, this time with a much smaller group. Micheal took only three of his bodyguards along as he knew that there wouldn't be much to carry. Eric, with his mouth wide scanned the clearing with his eyes. Never before has this young village boy seen this much destruction.

They didn’t know that someone spent the entire night preparing a “little” surprise.

An entire night of setting ambushes. Being dead has its own advantages and disadvantages. I tried digging holes using sharp rocks, but, because of my state the tool kept on slipping out of my grasp, but, because I was tireless, I was able to keep on trying the entire night. Even more, when the sun finally dipped behind the horizon I became stronger, slightly faster, and much more focused. Eventually, I gave up on using stones and started digging with my nails. One of my fingers broke, or actually, almost got cut into two. I felt no pain, just irritation and anger that the final result of my work would appear later than I anticipated. But, by the middle of the night, it was finished.

Eight, over one meters deep, holes filled with sharpened sticks and stones carefully covered with leaves and branches. I still had lots of time till morning and Michael's return, it would be foolish not to use that time to prepare surroundings to maximize my advantage.

My dead cold heart actually beat a few times pumping purple ooze through my veins after a mere thought of my revenge. Just a few more hours.

Few more hours and these dogs would be dead… A few hours, and Liz would be safe. And then, I will have nothing more to worry about. I will embrace whatever fate would await me… Who knows, maybe I would even find some nice clearing in the forest and let the sun end me…

That would be a fitting end, yes…

No. I can’t do that to Zariel. We had a deal. He wants me to do something for him in return for his action. I might be a peasant, but I will not go back on my words. Whatever he asks, I shall deliver… and then… and then… I will throw away this suffocating body and my soul will find rest.

Ah, how much would I give to see Liz one more time… but there is no way I can show myself in this state to her. No, it’s better to let her move onward. To a better life…

… Maybe, I will make another deal with Zariel? To secure her future? He might be crazy, but he keeps on repeating how few followers he has and how he cares about them… Haha, I will not know it till I ask him, but that can wait.

For now, I need to stay focused.

Michael walked over a random part of the clearing, close to the bushes, before saying:

“It was here. I stepped aside from the bear’s corpse to let hunters strip its body when the ironhides came. Aster pushed me to this bush, taking the impact head-on… unless the pack didn’t carry him away, he should be somewhere around thi…”

He didn’t finish his sentence when one of his men let out a short scream before falling down the hole.

One down, three to go.

Other knights, checking their footing, quickly jumped to the noble’s side.

“Did village hunters build these?” One of the knights asked. “Impossible…” said Michael “... they would never come this close to the Rockpaws’s den! Not to mention these weren’t here yesterday! Someone must have dug it very recently.

The knight that fell down the hole didn’t die. Still his legs were pierced in numerous places by thin spear-like twigs, greatly restricting his movements. In the coming fight he would prove to be useless.

The noble with his escort started moving closer towards the trees, avoiding all suspicious looking packs of leaves and branches. Yet, the unseen predator seemed to only wait for it.

Eventually, Michael stepped over a single rope-like vein to which he paid no attention before. Yet, as he did, something moved, something snapped loudly, and from the branches of the nearest tree a log tied with vines fell down, guessing by its trajectory, it would perfectly hit the young noble.

One of heavily armored soldiers managed to push him off the log’s path taking his place. The impact sent him flying over two meters away, till he eventually hit the nearest tree with his back. A sound of a bone or two being broken filled the air.

A second later, a whizzing sound came from behind them. They didn’t manage to turn back in time.

An arrow dug in the last remaining knight’s shoulder, making him fall down as he grabbed his damaged joint.

The shooter’s silhouette finally became visible as he was standing in the open field, in one of the trees' shadows.

“Ffffuuuck. I misssed…” his voice appeared so strange, alien even, as if he had problems moving the tongue in his mouth excessively prolonging his words. “Step into the light, coward! Do you know who you raised your weapon against? This crime will not be pardoned easily!” “Aaand what will you do to mee? Kill meee?” The shooter did what he was asked.

With bloody clothes and hole in his stomach exposing his insides, his fingers were awkwardly tightened on the bow, which moment later he cast behind himself.

“Micheaaal… I trusted you…” He said, as he kept on walking towards him, slowly, almost dragging one of his legs behind “... you were supposed to take care of uuus! Not kill uuus! Hooow dare you… speak about… crimeees?” “You… you are dead.” The noble quickly regained his composure “... you should have obediently walked though the mist!” “I will… soon. But fiiirst, I need to saaave Liz’... from you.” “If you only didn’t force your stupid Oath upon her… Don’t you want her happiness!? I will be able to give her anything she would ever desire! What kind of fate would she have with you!? Be a good corpse and go back to the earth! There is nothing you can offer to her! You are but a corpse!” “And soooon, you shall be one as weeell.”

Micheal raised his blade taking a stance, Aster from behind his belt picked a dagger, took three more steps reducing the distance between them and threw it at him.

The Lord’s son thought that this dagger was his only weapon, so he didn’t think that his opponent would so quickly get rid of it. Only when the dagger dug deep into his thigh, only then, did Aster pounce.

Like a corpse that he was, Aster completely missed his footing, falling on the ground fairly quickly. That didn’t stop him though, he continued his mad charge on all four at a quite frightening speed, paying no attention to joints he was dislocating in the process. During his attack, he picked yet another dagger and once he was close enough, he pierced from above while trashing his body into the noble and tripping them over.

At the very last moment, Michael managed to move his head to the side avoiding the blade which dug into the ground, his sword was thrown away and now was lying outside of his reach, but, at such a short distance his weapon would have barely any use.

Aster was strong, much stronger than he was before. Years of working in the field made him superior in terms of raw muscle strength. After turning into an undead that difference became even more noticable.

They grappled for a moment or two, Aster landed two more punches on his opponent's stomach, which caused him to lose his breath as his muscles flexed, he used this opportunity to once again rise his dagger and try piercing down one more time, this time, aiming lower - at Michael’s chest.

But, something unexpected happened.

Aster was attacked from behind, but not by wounded knights, no. The one delivering the attack with a huge stone was Eric.

Michael used that time to kick the Walking Corpse off himself. In the next second, he got up, raised his blade and pinned his nemesis with it to the ground, the blade got stuck in his body up to the hilt. For a few more moments Aster kept on stretching his hand toward the noble, as if in a last desperate attemp of inflicting his vengeance, but to no avail. Only then did he look at the blacksmith’s apprentice.

“Whhhy?! Why, Eric, why?! Dooon’t you understand? He killed me… I am like this… beacussse of him!” “I am sorry, Aster, I am so sorry! You have always been good to me! You protected me from other kids who bullied me… you always praised me in front of Mister Jonson… But… if Lord’s son would die here… The whole village would suffer! Aster, you are already dead! I am so sorry about you… but… you can’t be helped! You are a monster! Blinded with rage! Who would you attack after killing Sir Michael? Me? Your father? Elize?” “Fool… I would… never…” “I can’t believe you… I am… sorry… please, find rest. Go through the mist and never return! Please, think about your family! What would they think knowing that you have turned into this abomination… nothing will bring you back to life.. let them think you died a hero!”

In the meantime, all the wounded knights managed to get up, now, they all were standing around the helpless victim of their schemings.

“My Lord… I will never say what happened here… I couldn’t, so please…” Eric lowered his head to the noble. “I know. You have shown your loyalty just now. You and your village will be greatly rewarded…” “That’s not what I ask for, my Lord, please… let him rest.” He said with crying eyes while looking at Aster with a pained expression. In his mind, he was the one doing Aster the favor by sending him through the mist. “So be it. Burn this… abomination.”

His soldiers were quick to comply.

Aster kept on yelling, letting out the most gruesome and vicious sounds, he kept on biting and scratching even as oil was being poured on him.

“Michael! I will never stop chasing you! Not for all of eternity! If I have to, I will hunt you as a spectre! I will be in your shadow till the end of days! You will never know rest! NEVER!” “May the Three forgive you your offence against all that is alive and holy…” said Michael as he dropped an ignited twig on his body.

For a short moment, the Deepwood was illuminated with a blue fire in which the undead burned.