Not knowing how much time passed by, Shin continued walking towards where he started at. What he found was a village. Shin slowly rose from the ground and glanced down at the village, what he could see were farmers, old people and children being slaughtered by red-robed beasts in human skin.

Shin’s expression didn’t change, but a hint of brutality could be sensed from his presence. He closed his eyes for a moment, a darkness approached the village from within of Shin.

Everyone stopped in their tracks, no one screamed, no one knew what to do. They could see a young child in the skies, and the darkness around his body spread out like a tsunami which enveloped the whole village.

Not sure of what had happened, Shin opened his eyes. Not knowing when, he had appeared in the middle of the village.

Shin walked slowly step by step, his eyes were half-opened, but he continued walking. He had no idea where he was or what he was doing, but that didn’t matter to him, he had a clear goal.

“huh…?”

It was quiet, but he could hear some splashing noises whenever he walked forward. He tried glancing around, he could see simple houses everywhere, but no one to be found. When he thought of something, Shin glanced down to his feet, only to see a red liquid everywhere on the ground.

“Blood?”

After shaking his head for a bit, he continued walking while muttering.

“Time is limited…”

Just like that, Shin left the village silently.

“Waaaaahhh!!”

After a few minutes, a scream could be heard in the village.

The survivors of the massacre were shocked and didn’t know what to do. The attackers – the red robed beasts were all ripped into thousands of pieces and only their blood was left, flowing like a river through the village. The stench the blood left nauseated most people, half of them paled and puked.

“What just happened?”

A middle-aged villager asked in surprise, his eyes were widened, and he could barely talk.

“A hero…”

Someone yelled it out, not knowing when, more and more started yelling it out.

“Hero…!”

Worship and awe could be seen in their eyes, some even knelt down towards where Shin had left.

Of course, Shin had no idea these things were happening. He walked step by step towards his next destination.

Slowly but surely, his balance worsened and barely managing to keep walking without falling.

Shin raised his head, not sure when, the sky had darkened, and the sky was blocked by the dark clouds.

“Rest?”

He muttered, glancing around, luckily, he spotted a small river. He walked towards it and crouched near it, he cupped his hands and let the water flow into his palms before he raised it and drank it.

“No…”

Not sure why, Shin shook his head, he stood up slowly. His legs were shaking, barely keeping him up, but Shin forced himself to walk again.

Shin’s bones had been crushed tens of times in the few hours since he left the city of Jormun, but the bones grew stronger for every time it mended itself. Not long after the bones were restored, a force within of Shin crumbled and crushed the bones again.

His muscles ripped thousands of times, but more muscles appeared, and they were tougher than the last.

Shin had forcefully refined his body with the energy he took from the beasts. With each step Shin took, cracking noises could be heard from within his body, but he continued walking.

“Not enough.”

Shin felt bitter, he knew that as of now, he was merely a weakling that couldn’t do anything.

City of Jormun

The night enveloped the sky and the whole city of Jormun became eerie.

In the middle of the city, a camp fire could be seen, surrounding it were; Aria, Kali, Peutoa, Anaj, Azane and Eline.

Aria and Kali sat silently, thinking deeply of something.

Anaj had his eyes closed, but he wasn’t asleep, his fingers were twitching every few seconds and his mouth opened, leaving only a few mutters no one could hear.

Eline couldn’t sleep, she was glancing around anxiously. She wasn’t afraid of the eerie feeling, or if they were going to be attacked by ambushers. She felt anxious about Shin being alone right now.

Azane sat there silently with her halberd in her hand, she softly caressed it while thinking about Shin.

Where are you now?

Are you safe?

Peutoa was laying down, her breathing was calm and steady, and her eyes were closed.

Not long after, Peutoa’s eyes trembled a little before they opened. Her feelings were in shambles, she had just stayed with the other Guardians, they had been telling her what they knew about the situation.

“Well?”

The first one to speak was Aria, Peutoa was in a closed state for a few hours, she should at least have some information.

Everyone else reacted and glanced at Peutoa.

Kali raised her eyebrows slightly, not letting out a sound.

Eline calmed down a little and watched Peutoa with hope.

Anaj didn’t respond much, but he opened his eyes and glanced at Peutoa nervously.

Azane peeked at Peutoa and she held her halberd with more force.

“The situation is very bad.”

Peutoa said it plainly, not waiting for anyone to comment, she continued speaking.

“Shin is forcing his body to become stronger.”

Kali frowned, not knowing why, but she had a bad premonition.

Not only Kali, everyone had a bad premonition regarding Shin forcing his body to grow stronger.

“There has to be a reason for him to do something like that, did you find something out about that?”

Kali asked after thinking for a second.

Peutoa’s expression changed, her lips twitched, a frown appeared on her face, she squinted her eyes and the presence around Peutoa became a little colder.

She opened her mouth and tried her best to say these words without becoming angry.

“His soul is crumbling…”

Aria opened her eyes widely, her face turned ash-pale and her lips turned blue.

“No way…”

Azane’s fist made cracking noises as he used more force into holding her halberd, she squinted her eyes and held her breath.

“Humph…”

She coldly gazed upwards towards the sky, before slowly calming down.

Kali closed her eyes, her breathing was calm, and she didn’t show and expressions. Not long after, Kali opened her eyes and stared at Peutoa before opening her mouth.

“Are there any ways to supress his soul from crumbling?”

“Where’s Shin right now?”

“What are the Guardians planning as of now?”

Not waiting for an answer, Kali asked three questions in succession.

Peutoa lowered her head for a moment before raising it and staring at Kali.

“They have been trying, so far there has been no way to supress it.”

“Shin is moving from one place to another in high speed, trying to kill as many enemies he can.”

Peutoa stopped for a moment to think before answering Kali’s last question.

“They can not do much as of now, but they said some remarks which I did not quite understand.”

“Hm…”

“What were they?”

Kali raised her eyebrows and asked.

“They mentioned something about shattering their soul marks.”

Peutoa tried to say it plainly, but unknowingly, her voice had a tinge of fear in it.

Kali lowered her eyebrows and tapped her knee with a finger a couple of times.

“Soul marks…”

Her finger froze for a moment and she asked another question.

“The Guardian which passed away, he shattered his soul mark, right?”

Peutoa nodded calmly.

“This is more troublesome than I thought…”

Kali said in a whisper, but everyone could hear it.

In an unknown location

A male sat on a throne, his appearance was hidden as a white light was shrouding his existence.

“You did well to come back.”

He said in a deep voice as he glanced beneath him.

“Y-Yes, Lord.”

An afraid and weak voice sounded out. A young maid with black hair and green eyes responded, looking up towards the male in fright.

“I haven’t seen you since you were born, what’s your name?”

The male asked without interest, like anything in this world was a speck of dust.

“Lord, my name is Laura.”

Laura tried to reply respectfully, but she barely managed to speak fluently.

“Laura, is it…?”

The male spoke without caring about Laura.

“Tell me the reason for your return.”

“Yes…”

Laura hesitated a little before answering him.

“The Child left the group.”

For once, the male seemed to be interested and asked another question without thinking twice.

“And?”

“I could have gotten the news from others, why did you leave that group?”

His tone turned deeper, and his aura spread from within his body. The air around him was splitting open just by the pressure of his aura.

Laura shuddered for a moment, she lowered her head even deeper, replying respectfully.

“I felt threatened, the Witch and the Empress were starting to find about my identity.”

The male sight and waved his hand.

“Leave…”

Laura bowed down and walked away.

When she was a hundred meters away, a voice entered her ears.

“Find the Child and kill him!”

Laura trembled for a moment before she squinted her eyes and they turned ice-cold, her fingers were twitching as they wanted to rip someone’s head off.

“Just you wait…!”