I woke up inside an unfamiliar tent, I checked my body and found nothing wrong with it, but my spiritual body didn't feel all right.

I concentrated on my spiritual body and found it battered everywhere, with holes leaking magical energy on the arm and the legs.

The spiritual body was harder to heal than the physical body, I didn't know how much time passed, but it was understandable for it to need some more effort to recover.

The inside of the tent was pitch black and no light came from outside, I activated Dark Vision and got up.

I noticed I wasn't wearing my armour anymore, I was wearing civilian clothes, whoever healed me probably also changed my clothes.

I could feel a faint presence standing outside the tent, I got out and found two soldiers standing guard right outside the tent.

“Hey soldiers, how much did I sleep and where are we?”

“Oh, mister hero, you have slept for half a day, we're still in Cail. Most of the army is still camped outside the city but the commander is now preparing the city for the occupation that will take place by Hossian troops. We'll stay here for about a week, until the troops arrive.”

“Thank you, soldier.”

“Now, I'll go tell the healer you are awake. She saved her energy when you were asleep, thinking you would be asleep for longer, but she should be able to heal you completely right away.”

The guard was about to go inside the big tent in front of me, but I recognized the tent right away, and after seeing the numerous wounded civilians amassed inside and outside the numerous tents, I said:

“Don't bother, I'm fine. Instead, tell me where is my maid.”

“Oh, she's helping the healer inside the big tent.”

“I see, now you can go away, I'm fine on my own.”

The soldiers saluted me and then went away.

I entered the big tent and saw Erian run around busily, trying to heal the worse wounds while saving as much mana as she could, then the light wounds were being bandaged by Lae and a few other volunteers.

As I walked toward her, Lae noticed me. She quit what she was doing, letting a dumbfounded man with half-done bandaging and ran towards me.

“Master, you're awake, I was so worried, why do you always have to get yourself in trouble?”

It didn't happen often that Lae rebuked me, she must have been really worried.

“You don't have to worry, there was someone I needed to kill, just that.”

I then pat her head.

She looked at me with a worried look and said:

“You have to take better care of yourself master.”

“Don't worry, don't worry, I'm not going to let myself be killed.”

“If you say so.”

She averted her eyes and then said:

“So, shall we return to your tent?”

“Weren't you busy?”

“I just helped the saintess because there was nothing I could do for you, and to repay her for healing you, although she didn't heal you completely.”

“Then you can still do it some more if you want, I want to speak with her for a bit.”

“Yes, master.”

She said, taken aback.

I went towards Erian as she was treating a boy who seemed to have been damaged in the pelvis. As I waited for her to finish I looked at the boy.

Their physical body seemed fine, but his spiritual body seemed consumed and about to fall apart in that area. I could feel faint traces of light magic from him, there was a certain light spell that forcefully stimulated an erection, it was a simple spell, but it could still do damage if overused on weak people. It probably was the work of some soldier or purificator.

Erian mended his spiritual body enough for him to not die immediately and passed on to the next one, I took the chance to grab her attention.

“Hey.”

“I'm busy right now, if you want me to heal you completely then you'll have to wait until I finish the worse cases, which could take a while. Otherwise, you can go to the medical team of the army, they'll heal you right away.”

“I just want to repay you for healing me,”

I got closer to her ear.

“I can give you some of my blood if you want.”

Her eyes flickered and she paused her hands for an instant.

“I don't want such a cursed thing, and you have nothing to repay me for, in the end, I managed to save two orphans by shielding them with my body until Alua got tired of threatening me.”

“I didn't do it because I wanted to help you, I did it because I wanted to kill that man and take his soul.”

“Whatever, anyway I don't need it.”

I got my lips near her ear again.

“So, are you gonna abandon your patients like this? I saw some people whose body was wounded but with a spiritual body in good conditions.”

The golden spell she was casting flickered, and she bit her lip.

What I was talking about was a thing called Demon's Blood, it was nothing but the blood of a demonic attribute user with as much condensed ki as possible and had to be drunk fresh to retain its effect.

Its effect depended greatly on how much was the difference of strength between the drinker and the source, it didn't do much to someone with the same strength, but if drunk by weaker people it had strong effects.

It damaged the spiritual body, but enhanced greatly the circulation of ki and made it possible to use great quantities of it at once. It also caused intoxication, exhilaration, and sometimes visions, on top of a strong addiction with repeated use.

It was a drug and was illegal, but due to the enhancement to the ki circulation, it also hastened the regeneration and could save those with wounds on the physical body and a healthy spiritual body.

By the way, Angel's Blood, made from holy ki, also existed. It had opposite effects but the same grade of addiction.

Alua's hesitation was probably only due to her religion though, the guys I saw had nothing to lose anyway.

“All right, do it.”

“Good decision, you are starting to understand what you need to do, finally.”

“Shut up, I'm only doing it because I have no other chance, I don't have enough mana for everyone.”

I smiled and took an empty canteen from a table nearby, then walked outside, I couldn't let this many people see me.

Lae stopped half-heartedly bandaging people while continuously sneaking peeks at me and Erian, left another man half bandaged, and followed me outside.

I returned to the tent I was sleeping in and started concentrating demonic ki in my sane hand, I continued the process for a couple of minutes, I fused as much ki as I could with my blood and then I cut the palm of my hand.

I gathered my blood in the canteen and when I felt that my already low magical energy was getting too low, I stopped.

I then returned to Erian and gave her the canteen, she took it with hesitation.

“You've done the right thing.”

She sighed, then put the canteen away, then looked away from me and said, with an embarrassed tone:

“Thank you, maybe even your methods can be useful, sometimes.”

Then she looked at me:

“But don't get too carried away, like this you may become like that madman, one day.”

“Oh, You're worried about me now?”

“N-no, I'm worried about the people you might hurt. And who's the one that worry about the other when you saved me from that madman?”

“I-I saved the children, not you, you would have fine.”

She looked away again.

“I'm not sure about that.”

I remembered that time when I almost killed her, she didn't seem too unwilling about being killed, maybe I really saved her.

It was hard to admit it, but the thought of having saved her life made me happy, I didn't know if it was because it was her or for the same reason why I enjoyed killing people like that bastard.

Killing and saving were two faces of the same coin after all, and maybe saving people like Erian and killing people like that bastard had the same value. No, they probably had, it hurt to admit it, but Mark and Erian were showing it to me. They didn't need to know that though.

“Anyway, my priority was killing that bastard, nothing more, you were just there by chance, I saw him following you, and knowing the purificators' fame I thought he was worth killing.”

She was about to reply to me again, then stopped, with the face of someone that just remembered something, and looked around.

“I have a long queue of people that need my help, now give me your hand and then go do your hero things.”

“My hand?”

“You were already in a bad condition before, I won't let you get out with your spiritual body put like this and a wound on your hand.”

She took my hand between hers and chanted a spell.

My hand then was enveloped by golden mana and I felt her magic coursing through my body.

My wound healed right away and I felt the damages that circulating demonic ki was doing stop, then her magic healed a little more of my spiritual body.

Her magic gave me a sweet and tender feeling like I was being held by my mother. It was a scary feeling since it made me feel small and weak, but I endured it. At a certain point, my mind was also enveloped by it, and I felt at peace, but then it stopped.

I blinked twice and retracted my hand, I didn't know what expression I was making, so I wore my usual expressionless face again.

“Done, now you can go, remember to return here tomorrow so I can check you up, or go to the medical squad, it's not like I care or anything.”

“I'll be sure to give you some more of that when I return.”

“Do what you want.”

She then looked at the next in line and started examining him.

I walked outside, but when I was about to get out, a wounded in the queue called me.

“Mr hero, please take these flowers, they are to thank you for saving those children, I was a friend of the caretakers.”

He was handing me one of the two bouquets he had, he probably heard about it from the kids and picked the flowers for me and Erian. I didn't care about flowers but had a reputation as a hero to keep, so I smiled at him, thanked him, and after checking no magical energy was present in them, and enhancing my hands to keep any non-magical object to penetrate my skin and poison me, I took them.

I could feel nothing inside them, but there seemed to be a small piece of paper inside them, maybe it was a letter of thanks.

Once out I gave the flowers to Lae and walked to my tent.

I measured my affinities and told to Lae to read the letter.

In the meanwhile, I measured my attributes and energies.

mana ki 794 772 attribute water earth wind fire light dark demonic holy hellflame affinity 25 21 28 90 52 102 119 30 102 attribute spells and techniques fire Firethrower, Fireball, Fire Mine, Fire Wall dark Dark Bullet, Dark Vision, Shadow Leap, Phantom Limb, Illusion, Silence demonic Ruin's Dart, Ruin's Mine, Murder Strike hellflame Hellflame-thrower, Hellflame Fireball, Hellflame Mine, Hellflame Wall, Immolation

I looked at the numbers with satisfaction, I had gained a huge amount of strength from the recent battles, that bastard also gave me a huge gain in strength, I thanked him in my head for his foolishness, he should have retreated when he could, maybe I would have forgotten about him. Or maybe not, who knows?

I was getting nearer to the one thousand mark, the number that in the east signed the passage from wannabe fighter to warrior, it was something that in the west also represented the passage from the status of normal to special. I looked forward to reaching that number soon, although for us magic swordsmen the number considered was the 750 since we developed both mana and ki equally and my training also put me one step forward from everyone else.

Still, one thousand sounded much better, even being considered special wasn't enough for me, I wanted to be special among specials, and then become even stronger and become a fearful presence that couldn't be messed with.

I started to imagine that future, but soon remembered the mutilated bodies of the civilians I saw on the battlefield and slowed down my delusions. But still, how bad was it to dream a little?

“Master, I think you should read this.”

But Lae didn't seem to agree.

I took the letter from her hand and read it while grumbling, but soon stopped and read with attention.

“Dear David, we know you are in quite a pinch right now, we value greatly being on friendly terms with heroes so we would like to offer you a way out from this situation. You don't need to decide right now, one of our agents is working in the brothel Tranquility Base, her name is Arabella, we can assure every conversation with her will go unnoticed. If you desire to know more about the Hollows and what we can do for you, feel free to contact her at any time, the brothel is now frequented by Imperial soldiers so no one will find anything strange with you going there.

If you deem it too risky to befriend us and decide to denounce our agent we won't hold any grudge against you

Best regards, Claire, First Of The Hollows

Ps. The one you are seeing is an illusion that we made impossible to detect, if you erase the magic in this letter it will turn into a letter of thanks.”

'Claire the What?! Did I just receive a letter from the Dark Lord?!

The empire always depicted the Dark Lord as an entity that took over Claire's mind, but if this was really her she didn't seem to agree with that.

Anyway, it was quite a risky piece of paper the one I was holding in my hands, I used my dark mana to erase any magic on the letter and it turned into a common letter of thanks. It seemed the Hollows could elude my perception capability, I had to keep it in mind.

I started to consider whether to go or not while Lae looked at me worriedly.

If the Hollows really contacted me they must have really wanted to talk to me, they put two of their spies at risk after all, and maybe others were caught while trying to contact me.

I read the two individuals known as Demon Kings, which devastated the central and western continents, were both heroes who have been at the Dark Fortress, but I didn't know if it was true, maybe the empire wanted to discourage us from having any contact with them.

Anyway, there is no recording of a hollow killing a hero, and the empire didn't benefit from this information, so I probably wouldn't risk anything going there.

She might try to kidnap me, but how many chances were there that they would succeed in kidnapping a hero in the middle of the enemy base?

I decided to go talk to Arabella for the time being, if worse came to worse I wouldn't contact her again. I wanted to finally listen to someone else's perspective on the history I read.

--Erian's pov--

After David got out of my tent I sighed in relief, I didn't know how to feel about him anymore, and having him around made me uncomfortable.

I started to think while doing my job as a healer.

I considered him the symbol of everything I hated, selfishness and cruelty, he pushed his friends into a war they didn't want to partake in and tortured a kid that got involved in the conflict, although he killed Jane.

But the recent events made me see him in a different light.

In a way he was also sacrificing himself, the more he helped me, the more he was at risk, but he still got me out of situations I couldn't handle on my own.

But why was he doing that? I thought he only cared about getting stronger.

Well, he said he wanted to get stronger to change fate, but what did he mean by that?

I recalled what he said the first time I saw him, at the time I felt pity for him, no, I still do, but that doesn't justify what he is doing. I'm sure he killed other people other than that madman, and they probably weren't as bad as him.

But maybe there was a logic in what he was doing, maybe he was one of those people that thought you can fight fire with fire.

That seemed better than someone acting out of selfishness, but I saw people like that eventually become much worse.

Some lost faith in their ideals and became like that madman, and others eventually started identifying the bad guys only with those who were convenient for them to keep the grand vision they had of themselves intact.

Ces belonged to the second group, he thought that climbing through the military was the only way to change it, but eventually lost sight of his objective and started growing closer with the people he once wanted to fight.

He and his brother purged some of their old allies, including me, and started pursuing whoever didn't align with them and taking a stance favourable to the empire's militaristic politics.

David could become like that, or worse, he could lose sight of himself and go crazy, or start identifying everyone as expendable.

But now I started to think there was hope for him, but I wasn't sure Mark would be enough to keep him grounded, he wasn't good at understanding people.

I wondered if I should try to set him in the best direction, I would see him soon anyway and I had to admit that thanks to him I started considering drastic methods such as killing people as a possible way to change things.

Maybe if I befriended him enough he could help me out with my plan.

My heart felt heavy just by thinking about it, but it was something I had to do.

There is a blade I managed to sneak into the camp, I received it not too long ago and it is here in my tent.

It was a dagger I bought on the black market when I knew I had been banished here by the church.

I spent all the money I saved in my entire life, but it was due since I had to reach for an organization strong enough to get one and bring it here to my unnoticed.

It was a Red Knife of Doom, it was a dagger that hadn't any special power in it, but it was infamous for being the dagger that was used to kill political enemies when the Agentes wanted to make an example out of it.

If the target was strong they would just leave the dagger there after killing them, but anyway, the dagger was a symbol of the Agentes and only the most trusted among them would get one entrusted to them.

There was always a peculiar attribute on them, supposedly from their leader or a high-ranking agens. It was an attribute unique to them, and no one knew what it did, since no one survived to tell the tale, so everyone called it Doom attribute.

I planned to kill someone for the first time in my life with that knife.

And that someone was me.

I planned to kill myself and leave my corpse in public or run out while dying so that my corpse would be found with the knife in me.

Like this, I could use my life and my reputation to warn the world about the empire and not let them use me for their purposes.

If I could find someone to help me it would be much easier to get my corpse to be found by the soldiers before the empire did, and David seemed the right person to do that.

It would also be difficult to kill myself, so maybe he could also help with that, like this he could take my soul's fragments.

The thought of him killing me made me feel strange, I wondered if he would cry for me, for some reason I really wanted him to do so.

But the current him wouldn't probably do so, he helped me only because he wanted to save those children after all.

I decided, I would make him cry for me, I never did anything selfish in my life, but I would do this.

I decided I try to put him on the right path and to awake his empathy for others.

I have always been alone, but maybe in death someone would finally care for me.

Attribute in the unlocking process Charm attribute Necromancy attribute ??? components 2/3 dark + 1/3 demonic 1/3 dark + 2/3 demonic 2/3 demonic+ 1/6 dark+ 1/6 light