I entered the building about a minute after the purificator and two minutes after Erian entered.

A wooden window and the front door had both been opened forcefully, I could feel light mana around the window and demonic mana near the door.

I entered through the door and focused on my enhanced hearing, trying to understand where she was.

I heard light footsteps coming from my right and walked through the aisle, looking out for the purificator.

The building didn't seem like a guild hall or a public building, I checked some of the rooms and I only found bedrooms with hay beds, it probably was a barrack.

I arrived at a ramp of stairs going down, there was an open door and I could feel light mana hovering around it.

I went down the stairs, and as soon as I entered the door, I heard a scream, it was Erian's. She probably was already screaming before I entered, but a dark spell was blocking any sound out.

I heard another person's voice.

“Who's there?”

I was trying to be stealthy, but I was found out right away.

I entered the room without hiding my presence.

The first thing I saw was Erian lying on the ground with a leg bent in the wrong direction. The purificator was bent over her and was looking at me, he had a pale face with expressionless eyes and a large mouth twisted in a grin, it probably was supposed to be a smile. Behind them, illuminated by a lamp, there were a bunch of children and kids clinging to each other, two women and a man were standing in front of them, behind them there were all kinds of vegetables, sacks of flour and some meat, and I could see anti-deterioration runes around.

It seemed this was an orphanage after all, and this room was a pantry used as shelter. I didn't know how she knew it, but she probably wanted to help in some way, but she didn't pull it off very well. As for the purificator, I had no idea why he was here, although I could guess it.

“I am David, a hero, and what are you doing here purificator?”

“Oh, a hero, I am honoured of having your eminence the hero as a guest during my banquet. Please don't mind this humble servant of yours and do as you please, what's mine is yours, your holiness.”

He said while smiling cruelly, it was hard to say if he was mocking me or inviting me to join him in whatever he was about to do, probably both.

“So, are you here to kill her?”

I asked while pointing at Erian.

“No, no, her time still hasn't come, your holiness, I am just playing a bit with her. You see, I met her in the Twinmounds Fort and we became friends right away, so I wanted to play with her some more. Someone as lowly as me can't do anything more but break her legs, but someone as great as you can do anything he wants, so don't restrain yourself, mister hero, this is our banquet now.”

He said as he opened his arms in a welcoming gesture, he then enhanced his leg with demonic ki and smashed his foot down on Erian's only healthy leg.

Crack.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”

Her scream of pain filled the big room completely, the children clung to each other with squirms of terror.

“Sigh, sigh.”

She then tried to hide her pain, but still couldn't help crying.

I looked at the purificator with an emotionless face.

“What's your name?”

“Oh, my name is Yerion, your majesty.”

“Yerion, I do not think it will be today, but I will kill you.”

“..........”

“..........”

He looked at me, with a surprised expression, he didn't seem scared though.

“Ahahhahahaha.”

He started laughing uncontrollably.

“Sorry, sorry, that caught me off guard. Anyway, I offered you my prey and that's how you thank me you little shit? Someone should teach you some manners. So, what are you gonna do little hero, trying to save the princess and kill the baddie?”

“You are too important for my bosses, I won't kill you, probably. Just go away and no one will risk his position, otherwise, I will have to beat you up.”

“Beat me up? You're lucky I can't kill you, you fucking brat. I'm sure the boss won't have any

problem if I break your legs tough. Some discipline always helps unruly child, I'll show you what happens to the weak in this world, David, you better remember what you are about to see and pray it doesn't happen to you.”

I sighed, it seemed I just put myself in trouble again, I better prepare an escape plan as soon as possible, at this pace Ces's proposal will become unavailable soon.

I readied myself to fight, I was feeling the demonic energy boiling inside me, but I couldn't show it to the kids, if they survive they'll know I can use demonic magic. If they did, whoever was watching me would kill them for sure, it wasn't my priority, but I didn't want that to happen.

I enhanced my body with fire and took out my sabre and wand. The enemy took out two maces, then his body filled up with hellflame ki.

He did the first move and launched himself towards me, I dodged it and his maces struck the ground, I tried to hit him, but he struck me with a kick before I could hit him.

I flew for a few metres but managed to roll and land on my knees. He launched himself towards me, but I jumped away, using extra ki. Then I tried using the illusory smoke to blind him, but he didn't seem affected at all, he swung his maces with precision, and I had to jump around while paying attention not to clash onto the children.

He swung and swung again while laughing, I couldn't find an opening, I also had too much pressure on me to use Phantom Limb, this was making me incredibly frustrated.

I wanted to kill this guy so bad, I wanted to torture him and reduce to shreds his pride as I did with the hero from Zaven, but this time he seemed too strong.

His attacks were slow, but one would be enough to knock me down. I was dodging everything, but I was spending all my ki to do that, I couldn't continue like this.

I created an illusory Dark Bullet and threw it at him, he didn't budge and just took it. I dodged another strike and then used a real Dark Bullet, I was now able to shoot them while fighting. But he just took it, he was just slowed down for an instant.

His swing hit the air again, then I launched another Dark Bullet, which slowed him down for an instant, I infused my sabre with dark mana and swung it, it hit his arm. But he smiled, my sabre was stuck a few centimetres in, and he then just hit me in the stomach with his other fist.

I bounced a few metres away and fell on my back.

The bastard then jumped on me right away and punched my face a couple of times while laughing, I blacked out for an instant, and an excruciating pain brought me back.

I grinned my teeth, while the pain in my legs settled in.

“Here we go, now we're all settled. Enjoy the show, hero.”

The bastard walked towards the children, they had a terrified expression and were screaming while trying to get away from him as much as they could by pressing themselves to the wall.

He just cut the three adults' heads off and started examining the children.

The pain in my legs was about to make me faint, but my will was enough to stay awake. What hurt me the most though was the sense of powerlessness I was feeling. I couldn't do anything but watch what was about to happen.

The bastard was singing cheerfully a song while swaying his pointing finger among the children, trying to decide which one to start with, and I couldn't fight him.

I felt disgusted by my weakness.

I closed my eyes, I wanted to just faint and not think anymore, my demons were probably waiting over the door of consciousness, but I didn't care anymore, I just wanted to surrender and flee from this sense of powerlessness.

Then I felt something touching my leg and a groan coming from near me.

I opened my eyes and saw Erian, her hairs were all over her face, she was gasping, and she bit her lips so hard she was bleeding, but her eyes were still firm.

She whispered:

“Do it, Use hellflame magic, kill him.”

Then her hands were enveloped by golden mana, and a torrent of healing mana reversed in my legs, it wasn't a spell, she was just pouring a stupidly big amount of mana in my legs.

It was very inefficient, but like this, the effect took place instantly and the bastard didn't notice until it was too late.

She must have guessed why I wasn't using it, but she asked me to do it anyway, maybe she wasn't hopeless after all.

I felt my legs recompose in the right shape in a matter of instants, I could fight now.

I felt rage course through me, and let it do.

The bastard noticed me, smiled at me, and tried to approach me, but I threw a Hellflame Fireball at him, he didn't dodge and just took it.

Since he used the attribute himself he was pretty resilient, so he didn't take too much damage.

He tried to punch me in the head while I was still kneeling, but I dodged it and grabbed his arm, then infused my whole skin with hellflame mana and set it on fire, this technique was called Immolation and it was one of the few simple techniques I could learn on my own.

I felt Erian's hand retracting, I probably hurt her too, but I didn't care.

I was hurting my skin, but most of the damage was absorbed by the enemy, he soon started to use immolation too.

“Now I also have to teach you how to use hellflame magic, you little shit.”

I tried to grapple him, to force him into submission, but he let go of his maces and started to fight back.

We then started to fight at zero distance, exchanging punches and grappling techniques. He seemed stronger than me, but my technique was superior, the training paid off.

I was about to force him into a submission grab, but he unexpectedly disjointed his arm to get out of me and kicked me away.

I took the hit with my arm and I felt a great amount of pain.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see a mace, it was the nearest weapon to us.

I tried to reach it desperately with the arm I could still use, but he was faster.

He raised the mace high.

“Now just breaking your legs won't be enough, prepare for the worse nightmare of your life.”

“Enough.”

An arrow hit his weapon from outside the entrance, making it fly away, Alua then walked in.

“Enough bickering, you purificator stop right there and go somewhere else, I'll punish the hero personally, you David, calm down right now, and you saintess, heal yourself quickly.”

“Hell no, that's my game I can't let them go now.”

“I can't bother waiting for you to do your biddings, I'll kill them right here and now.”

“You bitch, just because you let some big shot into your pussy you think you can tell me, Yerion the Smiling Terror, what to do?”

Alua didn't budge and just continued to stare at him coldly.

“Cease this right now.”

The bastard then dashed towards Alua, he dodged one of her arrows and tried to hit her with a kick.

She dodged it easily and tried to hit him with a jab to the face. He grabbed her hand in mid-air and tried to pull her towards him and headbutt her.

She took the headbutt, but at the same time, she stabbed him in the arm with an arrow she had in the other hand.

She managed to resist the headbutt and pushed him away. He tried to get close again, but she pointed her arrow right to his head, he stopped, and stood still.

Alua then looked at me.

I got closer, walking unsteadily, but when I got close to her, my arm swung towards the bastard, Alua hit it with an arrow, but all that she hit was smoke, I just used Phantom Limb.

My arm actually threw a hook to her bow, sending her bow in the air.

I then dashed towards the bastard with all the ki I could put in my legs.

The bastard tried to move, but golden chains rose from the ground and trapped him in place, it was Alua's work.

I thanked her in my mind, then grabbed the bastard's neck with my only usable hand left, Alua grabbed my ankle with her hand, trying to stop me, but I put an excessive amount of hellflame ki in the other, and jumped towards him, breaking my leg, I didn't even feel it.

I didn't have enough strength to break his neck with one hand, so I did the only thing I could do to kill the bastard, I lowered his head, and then bit the back of his head.

I put all the ki I could on my jaw, and I felt something breaking inside my mouth and a funny taste spread inside my mouth.

The bastard fell to the ground, dead, I looked at Erian, and saw her looking at me with her mouth open and eyes captivated by me.

I spat the human flesh in my mouth and smiled at her.

'Did you see?'

Then I felt something hit me in the nape of my neck and I blacked out.