-----

In a secret room somewhere in the Mioldri Empire....

THUD!

A pale fist crashes against the light oak wood of a gold-embossed regal desk, a desk that takes up most of the room with its sheer size.

"What do you mean you saw a raven in the Wildlands!?"

With fear in his eyes, a younger man, a servant, standing ready to the side rushes forward with a white handkerchief embroidered with gold thread in the shape of a roaring dragon.

The handsome blonde man who'd hit the desk takes the handkerchief and rubs his smarting hand with it. He had a face handsome enough to make any beauty-loving elf sigh with admiration, except for the livid expression that marred it now.

"You told me that every last one was exterminated. Every. Last. One." The regal man closes his eyes, using his thumb to smooth the anger out of his face. He didn't want to get a frown wrinkle because of a damned raven.

A priest in white robes kneels before him,doing his best to maintain his calm as his robes spread out around him like a flower. It was important that a priest look respectable at all times, especially when it came time to pay respect to the highest-ranking Minister of Light, their Emperor.

He was finally ordained a High Priest, and he didn't want to disappoint someone that held so much sway over him. With eyes quivering like a puppy's, the priest controls his urge to dryly gulp before the man whom everyone worshipped.

"Your Imperial Majesty, the ravens were cleansed. At the battlefields, from all the towns, fro-"

"I don't want to hear what happened. Remember, nothing of the old gods can remain."

After thoroughly wiping his hand with the new handkerchief, he drops it on the ground. Another servant swoops in to remove it, taking it away to be burned in the fire. The Light of the Mioldri Empire only used things that were new.

"Who am I?" The man asks, voice low and exuding an awe-inspiring atmosphere with the way he stands, in full golden outfit

Bowing even lower and not daring to look up, the priest replies, forehead banging against the cold marble floor.

"You are our Light. The True God of the Mioldri Empire."

Anything once used by him, would be taken away. This was a privilege to only this man, the man who was Emperor.

"Good. Remember that. I shan't remind you again."

The priest keeps knocking his forehead across the ground, hard enough that the skin starts to break and a small smear of blood trickles down his brow.

"So go get rid of it."

The priest sucks in a breath, the quivering eyes shining like tears would fall out at any moment. His Emperor was making things so difficult.

"My Glorious Light, that would require sending priests and paladins into the Wilderlands-"

"Yes, yes, I know what that would require. Or would it? Hmm..."

Tapping his finger impatiently against a sharp jawline, the Emperor smiles. That smile was powerful. Overwhelming enough to make the flowers kept in a beautiful blue vase lean towards him, attracted to the beauty of the smile.

"How's the new shipment coming along?"

"They've been delivered in the condition we have requested."

"Good. Send a few of them into the Wildlands with tracking magic and over-charged mana stones."

A pause, as the priest lies prone against the white floor, not moving a muscle as the Emperor moves around him.

The long, poignant silence continues. It makes the older priest shiver in a mixture of fear and delight. What was his Emperor thinking right now?

Raising a perfectly arched golden eyebrow, the Emperor taps his foot on the ground before the priest's head.

"Hmm?"

"R-Right Away, My Venerable Light!!"

The priest touches his forehead to the floor, eager to carry out his Emperor's plans. Then, sliding backwards to never let his back face the Emperor, he exits the room, doors silently opening behind him. The other servants follow his lead, emptying out of the room.

"Really. Making me come up with all the plans."

Sighing, the young, handsome Emperor leans back into a golden throne, one leg over the armrest, an arm propping his head up on the other arm rest.

He snaps his fingers, and his shadow twists, forming a mouth and two eyes carved out of the absence of light.

"You called?" The rasping voice rattles as the mouth moves in time with the words.

"Get rid of that priest once he conveys my orders."

An orb of light appears between the Emperor's fingers, weaving in and out between the thin fingers with ease.

"I don't like him. Too slow."

The shadow's mouth ripples open, ripping wider into a large smile.

"Understood"

No sound is made as a part of the Emperor's shadow detaches itself, melding into the shadow of a nearby chair.

-----

Lightning thunders across the sky, the skies growing darker as the rain continues to fall.

Leaping off Greenie's shoulder, I enter the fray of running Subterranean Rats, talons stretched out towards the nearest rat. I was going to take as many of them out as I could.

I'd flown over the rats and checked inside the cave. Everything was in shambles. The items trampled into the dirt, the two new spears broken, the clay shards ground into dust.

I wanted to smash something. Anything. Peck it into tiny pieces. Feel the blood running through my talons, dripping off my beak.

The need to kill, destroy, because of the overwhelming anger was pulsing within my brain.

Who said you could ruin our home so easily and get away with it!?!

"CRAWWWWWWK!"

The battle cry almost booms out of my chest as I dive bomb, talons out towards the bodies of the squirming rats struggling to get out of the entrance.

Hisssssssss!

My first swipe at a rat's head misses. The rat runs on by as my claws catch air, not noticing me flying above it. When my next swipe cuts open its snout, it screches, claws and teeth snapping up as it stands on its hind legs towards me.

We get a good look at each other, and I glare into its eyes in anger, hoping it sees how upset I am. Except it doesn't.

The Subterranean Rats were blind. All their eyes, barely perceptible as is, were covered with a grey film that were similar to cataracts. It snuffled it's nose as it cocks it's head, and then faces me. Grabbing the nape of the rat with my talons, I fly up again, as high as I could go in the pouring rain, and then drop it.

It makes no sound as the rat falls swiftly to the ground and disappears into the masses of its brethren. One down. Around 300 more to go.

Wheeling around to make a sharp turn, I attack a smaller rat, this time digging my talons into its furry grey back and cutting it open. Dropping every single one from the sky was time and energy consuming. My talons were sharp enough to cut through the skin like butter, revealing red meat under the fur.

Two.

I hop from it's back to the next rat running shoulder to shoulder next to it out in the forest.

『Peck』!

The skull breaks open under my sharp beak as it digs into the grey brain matter like a drill.

If they couldn't see me coming, I could-

Hopping onto the back of another rat, I pop open it's skull before it has time to register that I was there.

Crrack!

Pop!

Crack!

Pop!

Crack!

Pop!

Pop!

It gets easier with every new kill I make. One swift piercing motion into the space between the eyes, and finished. Grey gunk spills out and squirts onto me. I didn't mind, since the rain would quickly wash it off. I was too mad to mind anyways.

I'd killed 20 rats before they somehow caught onto what I was doing. They started to give me a wide berth, making sure I couldn't hop onto the next rat.

Cheeeep! A shrill cry from the largest grey rat of the bunch stopped near me, then-

AAAAARGHHH!!!!!!

Horrible, burning pain in my butt. It felt like someone had just ripped off a piece of me.

A rat had just ripped off a piece of me. They'd missed biting into my muscle, but the bundle of feathers they'd yanked out of my skin was mind-blowingly painful. I could see bloody bits of skin attached to the black jumble of feathers hanging out of their buckteeth.

Somehow, they'd climbed on top of each other so that they could get to my level on top of a dead rat and sneak attack me from behind.

"Kiiiek!!" Greenie howls into the rain, throwing his spear at the rats, it hits one, but the others scatter.

SQUEAAAAAAAK!

In unison, they all hiss/squeak at me.

I was the target, since I'd killed 30 of their number so far.

Blinking the rain out of my eyes, I give my best death glare at the multiple unseeing, now red eyes that seem to stare into my very soul.

"Croaaaaawk!"

I open up my wings wide and menacing and rumble a threatening croak at them.

I'm going to take you ALL down!

HISSS!

I hear a hiss from behind me, and I turn around to see that I'm surrounded by the huge rats. Fine, I can just fly up-

!?

I can't fly!?

My wings flap, but they weren't catching the air like they were supposed to. Because a monstrous rat had clamped it's yellow, curved teeth into my tail feathers.

CHOMP!

Another one bites with relish into my wing, twisting the fragile bones.

Fwwwwsh-

Splatter!

The spice bomb makes a satisfying mess atop the squirming brown and grey backs of the rats. It didn't matter how small their eyes were. Several rats with yellow jelly streaming down their faces as the rain spreads it all over break off from the straight line of rats headed deeper into the forest.

Greenie had lobbed his belt, spice bomb and all, at the rats. Since we hadn't buttoned the pockets closed, the contents of each pocket, green flare berry pudding mixtures, flew out and hit the subterranean rats in a wide area around me.

One hits the brown rat biting into my wing square in the face, forcing it to release its grip as it rolls about in pain. The other large grey one, I peck and rake across the snout with my talons.

Squealing in pain as blood drips off it's face, one black feather stuck between two large buck teeth, the rat retreats. Rrrrrip! Blood sprayes out into the air as I rip off a waving pink tail. I didn't know whose it was, but they'd lost it now.

The rats with Flare Berry Pudding congealed on their faces seemed to have completely lost their sense of direction. Running around in circles, they would bump into each other, get back up, and then bump into each other again.

Greenie easily picked those rats off with his spear with one quick stab. The more rats he killed, the more blood soaked into his spear, making his hands slip.

His feet couldn't get a firm grip in the mud as the rats trampled up all the grass in the area, slip sliding around as he chased after the ones who'd broken away from the group.

I could still fly in the rain, though I'd been making sure not to because of how exhausting it was.

My anger was influences Greenie too. He would roar each time he killed a rat, jabbing away at the rats on the side closest to him.

He had more courage now. I was proud of him.

But the waves of rats keep coming and coming, as the ground continues to rumble under our feet. The darkness of the sky worked against me while the rats unaffected by the berries knew exactly what they were doing.

I grab one small rat by the neck and shake it hard until its neck breaks, snapping like a twig. Another incoming rat that launches itself towards me meets a 『Peck』straight in the snout, and another between it's tiny eyes.

Die rats!

Die!!

Die!!

As I peck and kick, swipe and bite, Greenie gives a mournful cry.

"Kkeeeeeikkk,"

No!

A rat bites off the meat of his leg, and another latches itself onto his thigh. His eyes, glowing now as the skies grew darker, seemed to dim as another rat, and then another climbed on top of him.

Come on Greenie!! I fight my way through rats that throw themselves towards me, flapping hard to get the momentum to take to the skies.

Wait for me Greenie!

But he was too far away for me to reach.

"KIFEAIADGJ!!!"

Greenie pulls at the rat chewing on his face as he horridly screams in pain.

In slow motion, moments that we shared together flash through my mind. Greenie, green tongue hanging out as he focuses on healing me. Greenie bringing me to the Ice Cavern. Playing soccer together.

No!!

[Special Skill: Berserk Activated]