It was the middle of the night, Rory having just left the second Prince’s home, was walking down a road in the royal yard. He had his usual smile on his face as he walked while humming.

He suddenly stopped and looked around. His eyes were sharp like daggers, as he stared into the dark.

“………”

He slowly lifted his hand and anima started dancing in his palm. The anima formed a ball and he threw it into the air. Rory then jumped and punched it.

*Bam!*

The ball split into bullets which fired into the dark.

“……..”

Rory stood with a frown when he heard nothing coming into contact with his attack.

“Was it my imagination?”

He said after a while. He then resumed his walk.

Behind him, something was seen cutting through the darkness and heading straight towards him.

“Like I’ll believe that!”

He spun around and caught an arrow that was shot at him, with his hands coated with anima.

“Come out, otherwise I’ll hunt you down one by one and slaughter you in the most cruel ways possible.”

He said after snapping the arrow. When the arrowhead touched the ground it caused the grass around it to decay, it was poisoned. This was the reason why he grabbed it with his hand coated with anima.

Soon he saw some figures dressed in white appeared out of nowhere. He immediately recognized the symbol on their cloaks, which was that of a shining blue star.

“The Sacred Church, huh?”

He showed a grin.

“What brings you roaches here?”

“Roaches? The only roach here is you Devil King.”

Said one of the members.

“As those tasked with keeping the world clean, we’re here to get rid you.”

Rory laughed.

“I knew you fanatics were vermin, but didn’t know you were garbage collectors too.”

He smirked.

“But isn’t it ironic? Trash trying to keep the world clean? Oh, the madness.”

“You bastard!”

Several of the cloak figures drew their weapons and looked like they were ready to charge at him.

“Stop it.”

The one at the front stopped them.

“Don’t let him bait you in. Attacking him without a plan will only result in our deaths.”

He said.

“Well, aren’t you a smart one?”

Rory said.

“But either way, you’re all going to die.”

His hands soon became metallic and sharp like blades.

“It’s my policy to slaughter members of the Sacred Church on sight.”

Anima started dancing around him.

“Men, women, children, the elderly; I won’t let a single member of your hateful religion go.”

He said with a savage grin.

“That’s how deep the hatred between us is.”

“There’s no hatred between us.”

Suddenly Rory heard a voice behind him. He quickly tried to turn around, but was slashed across the chest before he could turn around fully and see who was it.

“Our relationship is just that of a hunter and his prey.”

*Bam!*

Rory was kicked in the midsection and was sent flying back. He twisted his body, flipped and landed on his feet. Bloody dripped on the ground where he stood.

He looked and saw someone standing there dressed in white leather clothing and wearing a white mask with a 7 sided blue star on it.

“Aficionado? You pain in the ass are here too?”

Rory rubbed his hand across the scar on his chest and stained his hand in blood. He then licked that blood off his hand.

“It seems I’m low on sugar.”

He said after tasting his own blood.

“Disgusting.”

Said the masked person.

“Oh? I didn’t know that your mother was here.”

He said while looking around.

By the time he finished looking around the wound on his chest already stopped bleeding and showed signs of healing.

“You’re as insolent as the reports say.”

Said the masked person.

“The insolent ones are you bastards.”

He thrust his hand behind him and caught the hand of someone attacking him from behind. He then turned his head to the side looked at them from the corner of his eye.

“To think that you believe that you can even kill me with such stupid attacks.”

His eyes were ice cold and lacked even the slightest compassion for life.

“You’re pretty full of yourself.”

He then dragged the person who attacked him, in front of him.

“Oh?”

When he looked he saw that there was no one there.

“To be able to escape my grasp, impressive.”

He smiled.

“However, you won’t be able to use that arm again.”

Behind him, one of cloaked members had their arm swinging from side to side.

“All the bones in my arm have been reduced to dust.”

They said while trying to hold up the arm that was now like jello.

They then drew a sword with their free hand and swung down on their destroyed arm, and sliced it off.

They did it without hesitation, and only releasing a low groan afterwards.

“You were trained well.”

Rory said after seeing what the person did. He turned around and faced the masked person.

“What’s your codename? I want to add it to my list of Aficionados that I’ve killed.”

“Dex, and you’re the one who’s going to die.”

Dex stretched his hand to the side and a white blade appeared in it.

“With this blade, I will cleanse your soul.”

He then rushed towards Rory with a very fast speed, at the same time the cloaked people behind him rushed at him as well.

Rory smiled and welcomed the attacks from both sides.

He spun around, swinging his leg and blocked Dex’s blade. He then swung his fist and destroyed the attack of a cloaked person.

Dex stepped back before rushing him for another attack. Rory leaped back to avoid his blade. He was immediately attacked by the cloaked people, who were shooting at him, while advancing towards him.

His entire body turned metallic as he activated iron skin to the fullest. The bullets bounced off his body.

*Bam!*

He then stomped the ground and caused a massive earthquake to form in the surroundings. This caused several of the members to lose their balance while running.

Dex leaped after Rory and swung down his blade. Rory swung his metallic hand upwards and blocked it.

“?!”

Rory immediately felt a shockwave enter his body.

“He can use Quake attacks too?”

He immediately countered by releasing his own wave attack. The shockwaves clashed and caused the area around the two to shake vigorously.

The earth started bursting open, and cracks started spreading across the ground. This all happened while the two locked blades.

A savage smile appeared on Rory’s face and the anima around him suddenly had an explosive increase. The Black Orochi formed behind him, however this time it was far bigger than it normally was and its snake heads transformed into dragon heads.

This was Black Orochi: True Killer Edition.

The Black Orochi started attacking the cloaked people and even released flames from their mouth.

“My fight last night was one where I didn’t want to kill my opponents so I held back quite a bit, but since I’m facing you fuckers….!”

Rory leaped back into the air and lightning started dancing around his finger tips.

“I only have to hold back a little bit, to not destroy everything!”

He thrust down his finger and a bolt of lightning in the shape of a tiger descend from the sky.

“Tiger Bolt!”

*Bam!*

The lightning fell and struck Dex head on.

“Hm?”

Rory saw a golden shield appear above Dex’s head and blocked his attack.

“Looks you’re holding back too much. This isn’t nearly enough to defeat me much less destroy everything.”

Said Dex.

He lifted his hand into the air.

“This is.”

Rory looked up and saw a giant beam of light shining down from the clouds despite it being night.

The Black Orochi rose into the sky and intercepted it, which caused a huge explosion. Rory fell from the air and landed on the ground.

The moment he did, dex attacked him with his blade. He took a step forward and thrust out his palm.

*Bam!*

The palm and blade collided and caused a loud sound. Both Rory and Dex drew back their hands, before thrusting them forward again.

*Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!* *Bam!*

Rory’s palms constantly clashed against Dex’s blade, causing explosive sounds to echo through the night.

“His strikes are getting stronger with every one that connects? This is the Crimson Palms Arts.”

Said Dex.

“As expected, the techniques you practice are really gruesome.”

His anima erupted and he pulled his hand back, and avoided a palm strike. He then stepped forward and thrust his blade towards Rory’s throat.

Rory’s eyes glowed and his body moved to avoid it at the last second.

“Future Sight, huh.”

Dex’s eyes started glowing as well. He then moved and attacked where Rory was heading before he reached there. Rory stopped and faced him.

A blade of anima appeared on his hand as well. He swung his hand like it was a sword. The two blades clashed.

“In a battle between Future Sight users, its speed and reaction which decides the user.”

Rory said.

His body suddenly turned into a bolt of lightning which circled around Dex and attacked him from behind. Rory slashed his hand blade and cut through him, however Dex’s body faded with a spark. He too had turned into lightning and circled around Rory’s back.

The two then moved like lightning and started moving through the area while clashing every few seconds.

The cloaked members watched in amazement as electricity completely engulfed the area and zapping everything. They had to distanced themselves, in order to not get killed.

After a few seconds, Dex made himself appear again. However, there was a large X shaped wounded on his chest. The remaining bolt rushed towards him without mercy.

He waved his hand and his anima changed into orbs of light which fired lasers at the lightning the bolt.

The bolt avoided the lasers for a bit, but was hit after a while and Rory was made present again.

“I must be rusty.”

He said after looking at the hole in his shoulder.

“Normally, scrubs like you wouldn’t have last a minute against me, but here you are, alive and kicking. I guess this is what happens when you haven’t fought in a century.”

“Already making excuses?”

Dex said. Behind him the cloaked figures were getting ready to attack Rory again.

“Excuses? You think too highly of yourself.”

Rory took a step forward and a dark, oppressive feeling covered the area.

“?!”

When they felt this, all the cloaked members took a step back on instinct.

“I haven’t fought seriously for a while that’s why you’re still alive now, that’s all.”

The smile left his face, all that was left was pure emotionless bloodlust.

“I didn’t want to use too much of my strength too quickly because I feared losing control again….”

His anima suddenly turned black like the darkest night. It started moving in sinister, and creepy way. It felt like there was a world of death behind him, filled with rotting corpses.

“But you insects have been in my presence for too long.”

“Dark Anima…”

Dex said after seeing the changes Rory’s anima took. Just staring at him felt like his faith in the world was wavering.

“Lord Dex, this doesn’t look good. I haven’t felt such sinister anima in a long-”

“Who gave you permission to speak?”

Rory suddenly turned to one of the cloaked members and said.

“Don’t speak before me.”

He suddenly appeared in front of the group that was at least 100m away from where he was.

He stretched his hand out and grabbed the one who spoke earlier by the face.

“Let him go!”

The others attacked him when they saw that.

Rory stretched his hand to the side towards them.

“Disperse.”

*Bam!*

The four who were the closest to him suddenly blew up, leaving only their lower bodies and a piece of their spine.

“Ekkk!”

The rest of the group immediately fell to the floor after losing all the power in their legs.

Rory looked at them like they were the lowest existences in the world. At that moment, Dex came attacking from the side. He thrust his blade at Rory’s head.

“Ahhhhh?!”

However, the moment his hand touched Rory’s anima, his anima was devoured along with his arm. He screamed out in pain in response.

“Dogs of the Sacred Church, I, your lord, sentence you to death.”

Rory said slowly while looking them all in the eyes.

“Die.”

Suddenly his anima grew in volume and quickly covered the area. For those inside the anima it was like they were in a world devoid of light.

It felt like they were separated from reality. They all got desperate, and started to attack randomly; even resorting to using their anima. However, all of their attacks were devoured by the darkness, which showed no sign of weakening.

“Ahhhhh?!”

They all started to notice that their bodies were crumbling away before their very eyes. It was like they were slowly turning to dust. What made it scary was that they didn’t even feel pain, yet they were definitely being devoured alive.

They all started to panic but nothing they did stopped them from disappearing. Before long, only their voices remained, but those too disappeared a few seconds later.

Eventually, the darkness faded away and Rory was seen standing alone. The person he had grabbed, crumbled away in his hands.

“………”

He looked around and saw that he was standing inside a huge crater that was a few meters deep. He had even devoured the ground he stood on.

He also noticed that Dex had escaped.

“Well, whatever. I’ll kill him eventually.”

After saying that, he deactivated his anima and returned to “normal”.

“It’s still hard to keep myself under control, but it’s far better than before. I should be able to return to normal in no time.”

He then started to walk away.

“But still, I should avoid showing my true self around Amelia.”

Warmth finally returned to his emotionless eyes.

“Otherwise, I might kill her by accident.”