Chapter 35. Execution "Execution." Everybody paused. Even the sobbing man stopped and just stayed silent. That declaration, that word was not what you would expect to hear in such a serious situation. The trial was like a simulation, you kill people there but you know they are not actually dead, most of these people had died in there, so killing doesn't really matter there. You just lose a few years of time, that you gained as a bonus and some levels. Now that everyone was out, you were actively conscious about death. You knew that if someone died now it was going to be permanent, they won't ever come back. "You," I said to the man as he slowly looked up. "I give you a chance," I threw a sword that landed right at his feet, "a chance to kill the man that took your wife." It was like a whisper, that clouded your judgment, a whisper that gave you a false sense of security. He didn't say anything and just kept staring at the sword. He reached out and picked up the sword as he slowly stood up. "Wait, our friend Hendry isn't conscious yet." I kicked him on his rib and he coughed. Probably the first time he had ever been woken up like that, and the last ever waking up of his life. "Wh- Where am I?" he stuttered with half-closed eyes. "At an execution, your own execution." He looked towards me, the origin of the voice. "What the fu-" He screamed next. "Don- Don't come near me!!! Go away, I don't want you near me!!!" He was more traumatized by me than the current experience. "You demon, don't come near me!"' *Is this all necessary?* ^Time for some sweet torture.^ "Stay there." A bit of my bloodlust leaked out, and he froze. I turned towards the 'executioner.' "Now or never." He slowly walked up to Henry and raised the sword up above his head. Henry looked at him pleading, right in the eye. No one moved for a second and the audience held their breath. Pin drop silence. "I- I- I cant." He dropped the sword. "I know he is the reason my wife is dead, but I can't do that." Everyone released their breath, even Henry had a relieved look on his face. But they forgot this was an execution. Thorn took shape in my hand the next moment and was swung at Henry's nape. The sword slid right through, cutting skin, flesh, muscle, bone. I felt every sensation as Thorn ended the man's life. Some blood flew and landed on my face, but I didn't flinch. I couldn't. This was the result of my action and I had to carry the burden it brought. "This is an execution. It doesn't matter if the 'executioner' wants to kill the sentenced person or not, the one being held on trial will die." I turned around and left, only when I was out of sight did my hand come up to wipe the blood. I looked down at my hand, blood stained it. Blood that was not mine, but of another human. I knew there would come a time when I would have to kill a human, but that it would happen so soon, and not just one. 'What am I?' *A human.* ^A demon.^ I stood in the garden, the place where I taught my three students, before them but none of them looked me in the eye. It was heartbreaking but what had already happened could not be changed. "Did you get the masteries?" "Yes, just yesterday," they replied softly. "And you also learned meditation?" "Yes," "For the next three days we won't be having practice sessions, we all need time to sort out our emotions. So instead of coming here, you all will meditate and practice your masteries. You will understand what I am talking about once you start meditating, just remember to physically practice the moves too. Dismissed." I sat down after they left, it was a rough day for them. Killing, or even death you don't think about it much unless it happens to someone who you know on a personal level. Your super distant relative dies, there is sadness but it doesn't affect you much but if the one dying was your best friend or your parents, the whole world just falls apart. And I never wanted to feel that. So I had to get stronger to keep them safe, for them and for me. No one will even be able to think of harming them. Due to the continuous use of my skills to find the enemy camp, my two passive skills did level up quite nicely and they were both level six now. I didn't notice when this notification came up, but [Blood Mage: Level up] [Blood Mage: Level up] [Blood Mage: Level up] I leveled up thrice for killing Hendry and the other six. They were weaker than the wolf I fought in the forest but still, I leveled up more. And my thoughts were slowly leading me to the conclusion that maybe, maybe sentient, intelligent beings gave more 'experience'. If this was true, which I hoped not, the world was going to go through another change. A bad one. My skills were slowly leveling up, both general and class skills. Sword mastery had been adapted to the mastery training in my mind palace and was leveling up quite fast. Another thing that changed about Bloodthirster was that it would stay in my body, only coming out when I wanted it to. This gave me a hint on how to eject mana out of my body. My weapon came out through pores present in my skin, the same pores that would be blocked when mana tried to pass through. So I tried to pass Thorn and mana at the same time, at first nothing came out. But after continuously trying it felt like the barrier was getting thinner. 'This should work,' now I just need time to thin out the barrier and see what is inside that ring. But now there are other matters that I had to take care of. There were a lot of projects coming up, like moving out, finding a new leader for the camp as I doubted people would wholeheartedly agree on me as one. We also needed an army of sorts that could at least protect the people when I am not around to prevent accidents such as the previous one. But still finding people for that was going to be tough.