It all had happened too fast, too suddenly for the baron to react.

Aveline had jumped out of their wagon, and the next thing he knew… She was attacking some weird old man in armor. Though she seemed to have an advantage at first, she somehow ended up getting a considerable distance away from their group; about a hundred and twenty meters away, or so the baron guessed.

‘Isn’t it dangerous for a pregnant sow to be acting like this?’ The baron wondered, following Aveline’s figure with his eyes. ‘And of all things… The stupid bitch is yet to realize that she’s blocking the crossbowmen line of sight.’

“Fuck!” The rotund baron shouted, unable to hold back his anger at Aveline’s thoughtless outburst. “Stupid fucking piece of…! Forward men, forward!” He growled, motioning for his men to advance. “I need that bitch alive!”

But It was too late…

The old knight’s sword came down, in a swift, vertical motion. Accompanied by the sharp, metallic, and slightly wet sound of a blade, as it cuts its way through meat and bone. A spurt of blood gushed forth; Aveline’s insides spilling over the ground.

At last… She was dead.

“FUUUCK!!!!” The baron howled, bashing a fist against the side of the wagon. “You incompetent pieces of trash! Why the fuck am I even paying you!?” His face now reddened with anger, the baron kept hurling curses at his men, for failing to keep Aveline safe. Her death would cause him no small amount of trouble, that’s for sure…

The two of them had been working together for over a year now, with the intent of taking down house Taylor. Aveline was the one who had approached him first, offering a deal that was simply too good for him to refuse. She knew about his ‘special’ interest towards lord Taylor’s daughters— the twins, and offered the both of them, as well as a lot of money, as a reward for his help. He was to provide the means and manpower, she was to provide the plans and connections necessary to take down their family. That would grant him ‘ownership’ of those two girls, through the imposition of a political marriage.

The baron didn’t know why, but it seemed like Aveline had some sort of grudge against the Taylors, even though she was their son’s fiancee. In any case, he didn’t really care about the motif behind her machinations. Even if he had nothing against lord Taylor, nor against his family, he would still be taking them down. After all, he wanted those delicious twins for himself.

He wanted to own them, to humiliate them, to break them and turn their bodies into toys for his exclusive pleasure. How could he not? Such beautiful, delicate and innocent little girls… Though they were about to turn eighteen soon, they still looked every bit as small and fragile as they did all those years ago. As if age meant nothing to them, as if time itself had decided they should remain unchanged, forever maintaining their petite, angelical forms.

Though they might have grown a bit taller, and their hips a bit fuller, not much else had changed. Was this perhaps caused by having an extraordinarily large mana pool? If so, the baron couldn’t help but wonder how massive of a lifespan the twins may end up having. The very thought of owning those perfect little angels made his member grow harder, engorged with blood.

Since the very first moment he laid eyes upon them, in that ball so many years ago, he had awakened the desire to thoroughly and utterly ruin them. He wanted to see them weep, beg and plead for his mercy. He wanted to corrupt them, to break their minds and turn them into beings lower than dogs. He wanted to sully them, to make them succumb to the ecstasy of pain and depravity, until nothing but a shell of their original selves remained. And then, once they are completely broken, he will simply dispose of them like common garbage. ‘Ah… Isn’t it marvelous? To take something so pure, so precious… And then ruin it, until it becomes nothing but trash.’

Indeed, for what the baron sought was a more complex kind of pleasure. He wanted to fuck them up, sure. But that was beside the point. The apex of his bliss was not in the process of breaking his ‘wives’, but in the very moment moment that he opened a trash can and dumped their broken, ruined bodies inside. To him, the parting was the conclusion of a masterpiece, and what he yearned for the most. Could there be anything more delightful? Just thinking about that soft ‘thud’, the sound that their petite bodies would make as they hit the bottom of a trash can, was enough to bring him to the brink of an orgasm. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the twins, to start violating them… He lived only for that day.

And he was so close now… Just a little longer and they would belong to him. They would become his toys, to dismember and pump full of his foul seed as he saw fit. Until the day in which they would break and end up going into the trash can.

But that dumb bitch, Aveline, had to just messed up his plans… ‘Useless sow… Went ahead and got herself killed like a fucking idiot!’ Though he had bought the Taylor’s debt, and could use to force a political marriage, without Aveline’s help the others lords would surely denounce his actions.

And that would definitely cause some problems for him.

“Stupid bitch!” He cursed at the recently deceased woman. “Men, go ahead and see if at least her child can still be saved!” He howled his orders at them, pointing at the direction of Aveline’s corpse. “If it ends up being female, I’ll raise it as a pet or something.”

His men complied, three soldiers quickly moving to check up on the body.

“Damn, what a shame!” One of the soldiers remarked, as he moved towards Aveline’s corpse. “She had such a nice piece of ass…”

“Yeah, she was a very good fuck too…” A second soldier agreed, walking closely behind the first one. “Wish I could have banged her a couple more times.”

“And for all we know, her child could even be from one of us.” The third soldier mused, following the other two.

“Ain’t no way I’m fathering the child of a whore!” The first soldier barked, and the others laughed in response.

Though their merry chatter quickly came to an end once they had finally reached her body.

“W—what the fuck is that!?” The second soldier flinched, panicked at the sight of Aveline’s remains.

There was no child, or at least, there was nothing that resembled a human child. Aveline’s body had been completely cleaved through, her entrails spilled all over the place and—

“Ugh… Blaaaarhhhg” The third soldier started vomiting, and the other two seemed like they would soon follow.

Aveline’s body was full of maggots, and even though she had just died, her flesh had already started to rot. A disgustingly foul stench was rising up from her corpse, quickly spreading through the air. But the worst of it all was that… Her ‘pregnant’ belly had nothing but maggots inside.

“Baron!” The first soldier shouted, turning his face to look at the baron. “You should have a look at this—“

And it was then that he saw it, just out of the corner of his eyes.

The figure of woman, a very tall woman. Her skin was unnaturally white, like a sheet of waxed paper. Long nails— nay, claws, of about 5cm each. Her hair was absurdly long, and easily reached the ground, trailing behind her like the tail of a luxurious wedding dress. She was naked, showing off a body with proportions so perfect it would amaze even the most talented of sculptors. She was beautiful, truly beautiful. But also terrifying, the scariest thing that he had ever seen in his whole life.

The woman smiled, raising an index finger in front of her mouth, as her lips let out a silent ‘shhh’. Was she telling him to be quiet? To keep his mouth shut? The baron did not seem to notice her, nor did any of the other soldiers for that matter…

He blinked for less than a second—

And then she vanished. Like a mirage, that had never actually been there.

##

From within the darkness of slumber, light suddenly poured in.

Her tired eyelids slowly opened themselves, taking in the sight of her surroundings. A roof of white canvas laid before her, a bonnet that stretched across the arched wooden bows of a horse drawn wagon. She could still hear the comforting sound of rain, as it repeatedly tapped against the canvas.

“Sister!” Alice jumped on top of her, hugging her so tightly that it almost knocked the air out of her lungs. “I was so worried!”

She had just woken up, so her body still felt somewhat sluggish, weak even. Her throat felt dry, her stomach empty, as if she hadn’t eaten for the last few days. She couldn’t really tell where she was, nor what had happened. The last thing that she remembered was drinking the anise tea that Annie had served them.

“Help me sit up…” She requested, her eyes pleading for Alice to release her. For now, it seems like she is safe, and thankfully, by her sister’s side. “What happened?” She asked, her gaze wandering around, scouting the wagon’s interior.

Letting out a rather long sigh, Alice went on to explain all of the things that had happened ever since Iris fell asleep.

Sir Gareth had come up with a plan to sneak the two of them out of the kingdom, but he knew that their pride would never allow them to agree. In the end, he decided it was best to just put them to sleep with some sedatives. It seems like Iris ended up drinking more of the tea than they had expected, so she had been asleep for the last couple of days. Though there’s also the possibility that she might have a weakness against sedatives, and for that reason slept for more than it was intended. Something to watch out for, in the future.

“I see…” Iris muttered, trying to fix her rumpled clothes. “Where are Annie and Leila?”

“We split up yesterday.” Alice answered, rummaging through a wooden basket that sat close by her side. It was filled with sandwiches and a few bottles of water. She handed one such bottle to Iris. “Annie went to get her family, and Leila followed her to help. They said that they would meet up with us in Alcara.”

Iris took gulp from the bottle, her dried up throat slowly coming back to life. “That’s… Pretty far.” She mused, raising an eyebrow at the thought. Alcara was a relatively big merchant city, located in the Kingdom of Arum, a very long distance away from Eastshire. Arum wasn’t even a neighboring kingdom, far from it. While Valtia was located in the westernmost part of the continent, Arum was in the central region, and bordered the Great Asterian Empire.

It should be a little over 3200km to reach Alcara when leaving from Eastshire, and that is if they crossed all the mountains along the way. ‘Surely they don’t intend to cover such a distance with an old horse wagon… Right?’

“And where are we now?” Iris asked, returning the water “Have we left Eastshire already?”

“Hum… I don’t think so…?” Alice half answered, not exactly sure of what to say. “Have we, Camille?” She then turned the question over to Camille, who was sitting outside the wagon’s canvas, exposing herself to the rain.

“No.” Camille responded, both her hands holding the horses’ reins. “The rain has delayed us greatly” She was the acting coachman, the one guiding the horses— driving the wagon.

“This damned rain… How many days has it been now?” Camille complained, eyebrows frowning as she did. She seemed to be in a bad mood, or perhaps grieving in her own way. “You two just sit tight back there. Father has arranged for a ship to take us to Alcara, we just have to escape from Eastshire first.”

Though the Earldom had no access to the sea, it’s northern neighbor, Trentin, had plenty to spare. If only they could make it there safely… Escaping would be more than a possibility.

“So… We’re off to Trentin, I assume?” Iris asked, playing with a lock of her golden hair. “Will sir Gareth be meeting us there?”

But her question was met with silence…

“I… I don’t think he will, sister.” Alice whispered back to her, a sad smile taking over her face as she did.

And that brief exchange was more than enough for Iris to understand. “I see, so sir Gareth has...” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her heart tightening a little. She would likely never see sir Gareth again, the man that was like a grandfather to her. “I am sorry, Camille. It is our fault that—“

“Don’t.” Camille cut her off. “All my father did was fulfill his duty as a knight.”

An awkward silence fell upon them for a few minutes, until Alice broke it by clapping her hands loudly. “Well! Now that that’s out of the way… I’m feeling a bit peckish. Anyone care for some sandwiches?” She smiled while holding the wooden basket, showing off the many sandwiches that laid inside it.

What followed that, however, was not exactly the kind of answer that Alice had expected.

“Shit!” Camille cussed, pulling at the horses’ reins. The two animals reared in response, their loud cries indicating their displeasure at the sudden stimulation. The wagon didn’t have brakes, so it slid in the mud for a few more seconds before finally coming to a full stop. Thankfully they were not going fast, else that could have caused a serious accident. Though thanks to effects of inertia, the twins still went tumbling all over the place inside the wagon— Alice’s sandwiches as well.

“Owiee!” Alice complained, though it was Iris that ended with a cheese and ham sandwich plastered over her face. Once they found their bearings, the twins poked their heads out of the wagon’s covering, to try and see what had happened.

The first thing that they saw was an infuriated Camille, her face all red as she cussed out at someone who was standing in the middle of the road.

There, under the rain, stood a lone little girl. She wore a black turtleneck dress with long sleeves, black thigh high socks, and knee-high leather boots. Her hair was raven black and her eyes deep crimson. She was a little bit shorter than the twins, while Iris and Alice stood at 148cm tall, this little girl seemed to be somewhere around 143cm at most. She was also holding a large black and white umbrella, using it to protect herself from the rain.

“Hello.” She bowed politely. Her voice was very smooth and sweet to the ears. Different from the twins, that were older than one might firstly assume, this girl gave off the feeling of being genuinely young. What was a child doing in the middle of nowhere, on a rainy day no less? Also, her clothes most certainly did not belong to a peasant, nor to anyone that would live on Eashire, for that matter. They looked high grade and expensive, not the sort of thing you would wear when wandering around the countryside.

“Are you fucking retarded?” Camille shouted, chastising the little girl. She seemed really pissed about the whole incident, one could even imagine the sight of smoke coming from atop her head. “Are you trying to commit suicide or something!?"

“It’s just a child, Camille.” Iris noted, jumping out of the wagon. “There’s no need to get that mad.”

“Such a cute child!” Alice followed her sister out of the wagon, running straight towards the little girl. “Are you lost, little one?” She asked, offering her a warm smile.

“I am Bruna.” The girl said, her eyes wandering over every member of the group, as if analyzing them. “I am not lost, I came to help you.”

““Eh…?”” The twins reacted in confusion. What was that child talking about? If anything, she almost caused them harm.

“What helping!?” Camille growled, clenching her fists tightly. “You almost killed us!”

“I am very sorry.” The girl bowed once more. Not only was her speech extremely sweet and polite, but she also had impeccable manners. “I was waiting for you to stop, but the situation is getting far too dangerous.”

The girls frowned in confusion, not clearly understanding what Bruna was talking about.

“We do not have much time, so listen carefully—” Bruna spoke. “Look at me, straight at me. Do not look sideways, keep your eyes focused solely on me.” The girl’s confusion only grew as Bruna continued. “No matter what you hear, no matter what you feel. You must focus solely on me.”

Bruna approached them, now the three girls were standing side by side, all of them looking straight at her, though still showing absolutely befuddled expressions on their faces. “And the most important thing, if you think you saw something out of the corner of your eyes, just ignore it. Keep focusing on me.”

“Are you fucking serio—” Camille was about to complain, but before she could, a terrifying shiver ran down her spine. Her carefully trained senses could clearly feel something, or someone, standing right behind her.

“Do not turn back.” Bruna warned her, in a very stern tone.

At this point, the three girls were already trembling in fear. They all felt some presence moving behind them, and sometimes they happened to catch a glimpse of it, just out of the corner of their eyes.

It was a tall female figure. She seemed to be naked, and had extremely pale skin. She also had very long colorless hair, that trailed behind her as she moved.

“I do not know what you want with them, but they are under my protection.” Bruna spoke with absolute confidence, her beautiful crimson eyes glowing as if ablaze.

But there was no answer...

“Leave!” She demanded, raising the tone of her voice.

Yet, the ominous presence still lingered.

“I see that you do not take me seriously...” Bruna crossed her arms, her tiny eyebrows frowning as she seemed angered at the unknown presence. “Would it change your mind if I told you that my second brother came here with me?”

A few more seconds passed, then, as sudden as it had appeared, the presence vanished completely.

Bruna let out a very long sigh, her stance relaxing as she did. “She left.”

Camille fell on her bum, hitting the muddy ground with a loud ‘splosh’. Alice ran to hug Iris, like she usually does when she’s scared. Their faces were all pale and their eyes moist with tears.

“W—what was that!?” Camille asked, her legs fiercely shaking.

“It is something rather complicated…” Bruna explained. “Does the name ‘Daughters of Nemethea’ ring any bells?” She asked, while moving to the twins’ side and sheltering them with her umbrella.

“The name sounds familiar…” Iris replied, while hugging her trembling sister. “They are a coven of witches, aren’t they?”

“Oh my… A coven? Well... I guess we can go with that, for now.” Bruna mused for a brief moment, index finger cutely pressed against the side of her chin. “That ‘thing’ was a witch, and a rather powerful one at that.” Everyone’s eyes went wide with a mix of both surprise and fear as Bruna continued. “She is called ‘The Mother of Maggots’, if I remember correctly. Luckily for us, she still remembers the time that my brother messed her up, else we would be in for very troublesome fight.”

Iris’ face went twice as pale as before. She remembered that name from one of the many books that she had read about magic. The Mother of Maggots was a witch famous for her cruelty during the fifth holy war. Wherever she went, plague and misery soon followed. Her name came out from the fact that her very presence made things rot and grow filled with maggots, as well as her preference for planting her cursed maggots inside the wombs of pregnant women. The book also mentioned that she had something called a ‘brain maggot’, that she could use in order to turn someone into a ‘meat doll’— a thrall, of sorts. Being controlled by her certainly doesn’t sound like a pleasant fate, to say the least.

“But how could she still be alive? The fifth holy war happened over six hundred years ago!” Iris questioned, still trying to make sense of things.

“My… You seem to not know much about witches…” Bruna muttered, covering her mouth with a hand as she let a slight giggle escape. “Even though you are one yourself.”

““Wha—!?”” Both Iris and Alice gasped simultaneously upon hearing Bruna’s words, color quickly draining from their face.

“What else is there to say…” Bruna just shrugged, shaking her head while her lips curved into a smile. “Your mother is a witch, therefore, if you are a female born from her womb, you will also be one.”

By now the twins were extremely confused, and also very panicked. Even Camille felt a little distraught after listening to their conversation. Their mother was a witch? Preposterous. How would they not know that their mother, someone whom they have lived with for the entirety of their lives, was a witch? How would they not know that they themselves were witches?

“You seem to be confused.” Bruna observed, assuming a courteous posture while holding the sides of her dress. “Allow me to introduce myself once more, perhaps it will shed some light to your questions.” She bowed, as politely as she had done before. “I am Bruna Ashwall, daughter of Ingrid Ashwall, your mother’s childhood friend.”

The twins blinked twice. They knew of the name Ingrid Ashwall, it was someone their mother often spoke about. A friend that she had grown up together with, or something like that. But how does this have anything to do with witches? How that even supposed snap them out of this confused state?

“Hmm… How to explain this...” Bruna closed her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing herself to give a long winded explanation. “You see, mine is a family of witches. Meaning that every female of our household is a witch. Your mother was a student under one of our elders, but she ended up abandoning her studies halfway through because—.” She stopped for a couple of seconds, her cheeks blushing pink. “Well… Let us just say that once upon a time, she met a handsome nobleman that was out and about, traveling around the world. And that for some reason she ended up falling in love, and secretly following him back to his hometown, halfway across the continent. Let us also say that her belly had already grown quite large by the time that they eloped.”

Alice blushed as well, an awkward smile on her face. Iris cringed hard, covering her face with both palms. They understood the meaning behind Bruna’s explanation, somewhat. It seems like their mother had gotten pregnant from a random man that she met— which just so happens to be their father, lord Taylor. Then, she just went up and abandoned her studies to elope with him. ‘It actually feels like something that she would do…’ The twins shared the same thought. Their mother was a bit of an airhead, and a rather impulsive one at that.

“That’s… Not what I expected.” Iris said, still covering her face.

“That about sums things up. My mother got mad because of what happened to her dear friend, so she sent me and my brother to clean things up and bring the two of you back with us.” Bruna explained, patting Iris on the back.

“But… How did you learn about what happened to our family?” Alice asked, her face still a little flushed. “And how did you find us?”

“Ah… About that…” Bruna grimaced, biting her lower lip. “We should head inside the wagon first, let us get out of this rain.”

And that’s what the girls did. All but Camille, since she still had to sit outside and guide the horses. For some unknown reason, this wagon’s cover did not extend to the driver’s seat.

“You see… There’s this witch back home…” Bruna started explaining, gently sitting across from the twins. “Her name is Saga, she’s my great-great-grandmother’s daughter—”

“Wait, what now!?” Iris questioned, interrupting Bruna’s explanation.

“Ah, don’t misunderstand, please, she’s only nineteen.” Bruna explained. “Witches have very long lifespans, and my great-great-grandmother just happens to still be… Uh…” Her face blushed like a tomato as she continued. “Very youthful when it comes to her nightly habits.”

The twins were astonished by what they had just heard, such was the level of absurdity contained in Bruna’s words. Even Camille was looking inside the wagon, as if she was about to ask ‘what the actual fuck?’.

“Well, Saga can use psychometry, so we…” Bruna’s grimaced once more, then shook her head and continued. “Ah… There is no easy of saying it, so here—” She pulled out a piece of paper from inside one her dress’ pockets. “We had her use her psychometry on this, then I cast a tracking spell by using the leftover blood… Blood always finds blood, or so they say...”

She handed the piece of paper over to the twins.

It was a photo, a bloodied, crumpled photo. You could barely make out the image anymore, but the crimson letters were still vivid, like they had just been written.

‘Help. Save. Sisters.’

“Ah...” Iris whimpered, tears falling down from her eyes. Alice, on the other hand, was already fully crying— and rather loudly.

There’s no way they would not recognize that photo, even if not much of the image had remained. It was taken on their sixteenth birthday, with their brother, Leonard. Happier days, from back when their family was still together.

Half an hour passed in silence, it seems like even Camille had cried a little. They had finally received the dreaded confirmation that Leonard had indeed died, and they were never going to see him again.

“I am really sorry it took us so long to get here…” Bruna bowed her head apologetically. “Not only is our home very far, but also lots of weird things happened along the way that ended up delaying us.”

“What do you mean by ‘weird things’?” Iris asked, eyes still wet with tears.

“Just that, weird things.” Bruna explained, offering her a cloth handkerchief. “I do not know how to properly explain… There are battles happening everywhere— wars even, and all for no apparent reason. Rumors of a deadly plague are floating around, and I also heard about the existence of a cult of demon-worshipers.” Bruna paused and let out a sigh. “There is also the brigands, thieves, rogues and bandits… Those fools have such small brains that they cannot even discern when their target is far beyond their meager capabilities”

Well… It certainly sounded like they had gone through no small amount of trouble in order to get here. Were all those events unrelated, perhaps? Though from her latest experiences, Iris had come to expect things to not be as simple as they initially seem.

“Come to think of it… Didn’t you say that you came here with your second brother or something?” Iris asked, wiping her eyes with the handkerchief that she received.

“Ah, yes. You don’t have to worry about that.” Bruna showed them a smile, a very cute one at that. “We came here with different missions. Mine was to find and protect the both of you, his was—” Bruna paused for a second, her showing a subtle change that went by unnoticed by the twins. “To clean up the trash.”

And thus the girls followed the road north, now with a new companion in toe. The little witch, Bruna, who had come from a very far away land, in order to help them.

Though saddened by learning of their brother’s death, and not knowing what the future held in store for them, the twins were still able to lay their heads down and fall asleep on that night. Unlike before, this time they at least had some hope for the days yet to come.

##

The baron fell to his knees, hyperventilating and with cold sweat running through his face. He was scared, like never before in his whole life. He tried crawling. He tried running away. He even tried begging for his life. He wanted to somehow escape from this nightmare, this hell of his own making.

But he couldn’t. His legs were unresponsive, though he could still feel them... Or rather, he could feel as the warmth of his own piss pooled inside of his trousers and leaked across his legs. He was going to die, and he was sure of it. He felt like not him nor anyone else could change this undeniable truth— he was going to die here, tonight. Such was his fate.

How did this happen?

A day after checking on Aveline’s maggot filled corpse, his soldiers started behaving more violently, more short tempered than usual. It also seemed like their libido had increased a thousandfold, since they were even ‘frolicking’ among themselves.

Thinking it was just some pilled up stress, the baron took that opportunity to raid some of the nearby villages, with the excuse of searching for the runaway twins. Maybe, if his soldiers could kill some men and rape some women, everything would go back to normal.

At first, they ended up finding nothing but abandoned villages, but eventually happened upon two women that were traveling alone. One of them was dressed like a maid, while the other just wore some casual clothes. It seems that the maid was called Annie, and the other woman was called Leila. They were nothing extraordinary, really, just about what one would call ‘average-looking’. But for the baron’s sex starved soldiers… Oh, the two of them were a gods-given banquet.

They roughed them up a bit, just to show who’s boss. Can’t have the bitches biting once you have your dick inside their mouth, so you better beat some sense into them first. It’s not like they’re gonna all of their teeth, right? Rather, it would probably feel better if they had no teeth at all!

The maid had some family members that lived in one of the nearby villages, a husband and all that. So the boys decided to drop by and murder everyone, just for kicks, nothing much. Of course, they fucked the maid in front of her husband before killing him. Who would even miss such an opportunity? They had show him how a ‘real man’ pleasured his dear wife. Dude even popped up a boner before dying… Truly pathetic.

Once they were done with the slaughter, they dragged the girls through the middle of the village, taking them inside a small wooden shack that they soon started calling the ‘fuck-house’. They kept going at it until late that night, nonstop fucking the captive women.

It was around that time that things started going to shit...

A man showed up out of nowhere, fucker was almost 200cm tall. He did not seem to be from around these parts, since his armor was too different. Darkened steel, lined with fur on the insides— gray fur, likely from a wolf. His hair was dark brown and his eyes were green, cold and emotionless. He held a long sword, the kind that can easily be wielded with one or both hands. It too, was made out of darkened steel.

He didn’t so much as blink before he started cutting through the baron’s men, his face showing no emotion at all. It was ridiculous, and quite honestly, made no fucking sense. Every time he swung his sword, he effortlessly cleaved them in half— armor and all, blood and entrails spraying everywhere.

At some point, the men started trying to run away, rather than fighting, even going as far as to leave the two women behind. But the fucker was just too fast… It did not even seem like he was running after them, but he still managed to catch up and slaughter every single one of the baron’s men.

It took him only five minutes… Yes, in five minutes that fucker had slaughtered all forty four of the baron’s soldiers. And now he stood before him, covered in blood and guts from head to toe… Looking like some sort of dark wraith, a vengeful, bloodthirsty ghost. He stared at the baron with cold, uncaring eyes— as if he were looking at an insignificant piece of trash, that laid abandoned on the side of the road.

He sheathed his sword.

The baron let out a relieved sigh, somehow thinking he would be spared. Perhaps that man knew of his societal standing? Sparing someone such as himself has its merits— and its rewards, after all.

But then, when the baron least expected, a kick struck him on his right side. A loud, nasty crack came out from inside of his own body, as he was sent flying away from the impact.

The fat baron flew a good fifty meters back, until he crashed through the wall of a nearby house. He wanted to scream but he couldn’t, his voice would not come out no matter how hard he tried. His body was all bent out of shape, his spine broken in several places. His ribs shattered far beyond what even magic could heal. The kick had been so strong that several of his internal organs had ruptured, and his vision soon grew completely dark.

Baron Braumen was no more.

##

End of Chapter 2: They Come From The North.