They approached the guildhall after Ryuji did his best to ascertain the situation. The woman next to him didn't seem too thrilled by what he was thinking.

“This is a big waste of time, and I'll have no part in it.”

“You said you would do any job. I highly doubt that a dark god running rampant and kidnapping kids doesn’t have a bounty. That makes this a job.” He expected a snarky response, but her lips remained sealed. “Ah, your silence is truly golden.” He tried his best to ignore the eat shit and die stare he was getting while they entered the guildhall.

After asking around for details on the situation, he was able to find out quite a lot. Apparently, a god had been going around for quite a while abducting and killing children. This sort of behavior is typical for dark gods to do. It's essentially a win-win for them. They get to spread fear, which in turn increases their divine power, and as a bonus, they gain any energy they can out of their living sacrifices.

The guild put up plenty of requests, but everyone who went never came back. Even a band of knights was reported missing after going after this god. Things were getting so desperate that they sent a request to the king of Dengal himself.

Ryuji had heard enough. He thought of just leaving and letting someone else take care of it. It wasn't like Ryuji had any real connection to these missing children, and if knights couldn't handle it, then there was about no chance he would be able to. But even knowing all that, there was something inside him that refused to let him run away. Maybe it was his conscience, maybe it was to prove a point to Marie, or maybe, it was because he was getting a big head after facing down Zephyr. Whatever his reason was, he asked the next question.

“Where is it?”

The hall master answered. “It resides just a few hours down the road from here. It makes no attempt to hide itself all so our fear of it will grow.”

“It's that close? We need to move out and take it down now!”

A drinking adventurer spoke up. “Don’t be ridiculous! Nobody here wants to risk their life for such a small amount of money.”

There was a general murmur of agreement from just about everyone listening in. Ryuji even agreed with it as well, so-

'Why is this making me so pissed?'

He knew that these people were right. You shouldn't throw your life away on something that's not even worth it. It's not their fault that bad things happen in the world, so there's no reason to be angry at them. Yet, he couldn't stop the rage from building up.

Ryuji slammed his fist down so hard, splinters flew from the desk. “Who cares about the money! This thing kills kids! Don't most of you live around here? Then you have to know at least one of them it's taken! Isn't that reason enough to get involved!?”

The guildhall went silent, and not a single one would meet his eye. Ryuji looked down at the cracked desk rubbing his head. He was in the process of calming down as the master started up again, this time looking a little sympathetic.

“Look, we have confirmation that the Sword Saint herself is coming down here to kill it, so you don't need to be so concerned. Just let the professional god slayer herself deal with it.”

What the master thought was good news had turned out to be the worst news Ryuji had heard in weeks. The person they were all counting on and waiting for had already turned around and gone back. There was no way to ever catch up with her now, and unless something was done, these people would sit around waiting for someone who was never coming. He didn't have the balls to tell them she wasn't coming, and he didn't want there to be panic, so he had to think of something else.

“So, while we wait for a person who may take forever to come, more and more children die!”

He wasn't even believing what he was saying anymore. Ryuji knew it was going to take more than just guilt-tripping to get these people moving. And while he stood there thinking of what to try next, an assist he never saw coming stepped up.

Queen grasped his shoulder and shook her head with sad eyes. “It’s pointless Hero, everyone here is spineless.” A simmering rise came from a portion of the people inhabiting the hall. "To think that adventurers had fallen so low as to drink merrily while a known child predator lurks but a stone's throw away. It's laughable really, whenever someone needs to find a missing book, you all jump up, but when duty calls, you stay as you are, sitting."

Even Ryuji was flinching at Queen's speech. He thought that her normal grating voice was miserable to listen to, but the venom leaking from her mouth was painful to hear.

"If no one else is going to shut this bitch up, I will!"

"While I would love to make the left side of your head into a ninety-degree angle, I have more pressing matters to deal with, matters that are infinitely more difficult because of cowards like you."

"Look, I don't need an army to go with me; I just need a good healer for the survivors."

A mixture of Ryuji's plea and Queen's berating caused a bald man to rise from his chair and step forward. "I'm Gile, the best healer we have in these parts. I can't heal fatal wounds, but I can do most of anything else, and I know non-miracle techniques too."

"Thank you!"

The momentum carried by Gile joining the expeditionary force led to quite a few more, and by the end of the wait, ten able-bodied men and women set out with Ryuji and Queen.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

On an open plain that stretched for miles stood a testament to cruelty. The sight caused Ryuji's stomach to knot up and him to physically retch. The others joining him had much the same reaction. Even Queen, who had been stone-faced throughout the horrors of the burning village, looked uneasy as they spotted the god's shrine. In the calmness of the plain resided crudely shaped crosses. Lined up in rows, each one condemning a child, each one stained by red strokes. It was these fifty crucifixes that made Ryuji lightheaded.

A cry shook him out of his stupor. Without telling the rest, he rushed forward to the edge of the crosses, and they followed cautiously behind. A hollow being that seemed ready to disappear at any moment was bent over the convulsing body of a small boy. Her hair was black, long, and frayed, smears of blood dirtied her face, but it was the purple eyes looking at him as no more than a nuisance that chilled his blood. He wondered what face he was making as her hands so dyed in red that they appeared to be black stopped rooting around in their victim's stomach. The cries from the boy halted, and any life that could be seen in those monstrous violet eyes faded, leaving them empty and lifeless.

Ryuji put his hand on the hilt of his blade, ready to strike, and then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Behind the kneeling god was another cross, but the figure on it was no child. Hanging on the crucifix was a blue-haired gunslinger. He couldn't help but think of her smile while looking at her visage that only showed agony.

“Get up and face your punishment, monster!”

Ryuji could feel his chest tightening and teeth grinding. If not for the boy beside her, he would have already sent a slice her way. The god looked up at him and sighed. She rose and stood a few heads taller than Ryuji. The way she strode forward, viscera flowing off her hand onto the grass, was enough to cool him down.

“Are you here to slay me, son of man?”

A cold voice that could freeze blood solid permeated through the field. The confidence he had fled his body completely.

“Y-yes.” Ryuji's determination faltered, and his rage all but evaporated. What was left could only be called dread and regret.

“Then, do it.”

She moved closer and closer to him. She showed no sign of defending herself. It was as if she was daring him to take that strike. But Ryuji did not and could not draw his blade. The battle-hardened instincts that he gained from his many terrible encounters were telling him one thing, run.

“Well?”

She was right next to his ear. Ryuji couldn't, wouldn't, and didn't dare move a muscle.

“Who are you?”

All he could do was make idle chatter hoping that someone behind him would step in.

“My name? I am the god of pain.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“It is my duty, my obligation to let others feel pain. And of course, I love watching them experience the wonders of bone gnashing, teeth sanding pain. It's the very reason I take children. Pain is so new to them, and reactions are just the cutest. That older one's only up there because she had the gall to try and stop me. Of course, she's alive so that I may indulge in her pain at a later date.”

Ryuji still felt like a statue. His fear wouldn’t let him move an inch. Try as he might to budge, he couldn't find the courage to do so. It wasn't as if this god was stronger than Zephyr. In comparison, she felt close to a small breeze when stacked up against that natural disaster. But this time, he had no Saint to help him out.

“How about you? Would you like to feel pain?” A single finger traced his cheek, slicing it open. Blood trickled down his face and onto the ground. However, Ryuji still did not move. “How boring. If that’s all you have to offer, then leave.”

She turned her back on him and walked back to her plaything lying on the ground. The little boy was still breathing, but the amount of blood he was losing frightened Ryuji. He knew that very soon it would be too late to save him.

'Pathetic...'

Yet all he could do was lament himself. The people behind him showed no signs of moving, which didn't surprise him. He didn't bring them along to do any fighting, only to take children back to their families. What surprised him was that Queen hadn't budged an inch. After all her talking, she was acting just the same as the people she noted as spineless.

'It's not like I'm any different. I talked and talked, but here I am motionless.'

Ryuji looked up at the gunslinger. The nails through her hands caused red flows to form down her figure. Her signature cowboy hat was nowhere to be seen, and most of her outfit had been ripped apart. He saw tears flow down her cheeks and her hazy eyes seemed to be focusing on him. That was when he noticed a red patch in between her thighs. Ryuji's mind went blank as he pieced together what the god did to her.

'---------------'

He felt sick. He felt anger. What he noticed last was Jessy's mouth moving. Her voice was too quiet to hear, but he could read her lips loud and clear.

“Help me”.

...............................................................

The god walking back did not feel his sudden burst of anger, but it did notice a blade that was adequately close to lopping its head off. The god blocked the strike with a mana-reinforced arm and was flung sideways a good twenty feet. Her forehead opened up with the blood she loved so much gushing out. The furious Ryuji faced down the unamused god while the spectators watched.

Ryuji swung wildly but with a purpose. Each slice was aimed at a joint, an artery, or a sense. The god met each attack head-on, uncaring about the new marks upon its body. But every counterattack it launched grossly missed its mark. Ryuji was fearful, but he was faster than this god.

“Lightning style final form: Raiden!”

A lightning-charged katana superheated by voltage surpassed sound and sliced two diagonal cuts down the god’s shoulders. He had never been more thankful that Elizabeth taught him the basics of lightning magic. He couldn't actually learn the skills, but he could apply the mana theory to his own sword.

A sidekick wooshed through the air, narrowly missing his head as he weaved. The fight was a delicate balance. If Ryuji dropped his speed for a second and suffered a hit, he knew he would be done. And so he weaved through the attacks, only ever letting himself be grazed. A punch that left herself wide open caught Ryuji's attention. With as much precision as he could muster, his blade sliced the retina on her left eye.

The monster stopped in her tracks. Her hand glided over the lost eye that was there only a moment prior. He “This pain… it’s quite lovely!" Ryuji and the bystanders couldn't help but notice that there was life once more in that eye of hers. "Would you like to feel lovely too?” A pit formed in everyone's stomach. “Pain Maxim!”

Ryuji's legs shook on impulse and that was when he made a rookie mistake. Instead of entering a defensive stance, he attempted to blink and regain his composure.

A fist connected with his jaw. A millisecond later, a crunch reverberated through his skull as the left side of his jaw shattered. His body was flung hundreds of feet back, rumbling and tumbling over the earth.

Ryuji's thoughts wavered, and all his brain projected was static. He could vaguely sense himself being punched again, and again, and another, and another. A volley of punches shattered his ribcage. The trauma brought his mind back to reality.

When his brain focused once more, he could see the woman in front of him, the thing. Her face of complete and total joy clashed with the blood leaking from her eyehole along with the splatters accompanying her face. It was only a second later that he recognized that was his blood. He had started involuntarily heaving it out of his mouth without even noticing. That was when his body finally focused on the state it was in. He felt the pain. He felt fear. He felt like he wanted to be thousands of miles away from here. A place where he wouldn't have to be afraid, where he wouldn't have to be hurt. And in the back of his mind, he heard a voice much like his own say-

'Why can't you be?...'

A maddening smile spread across Ryuji's face as newfound power from his blessing flowed through his body.

He felt happy.

He felt like having fun.

He felt nothing.

“God slayer: Exodus.”

What Ryuji did can only be described as the first move in kendo. He raised his sword and swung it down with both hands. On its own, the movement wasn't that special, but when coupled with super strength and an influx of mana, it became something even a god would have to respect.

A rift formed in the ground underneath the blade. The mark stretched until it had almost reached the kids, who were now about five hundred feet away from Ryuji. The god's arm faired no better than the ground. It had been severed and now lay twitching on the grass.

The backlash of such a move ripped apart the muscles inside Ryuji's arms. But even with this pain, he did not flinch. He wasn't currently fighting for his life; he was just playing a fun little game.

The god must have been in the same mindset as Ryuji as she didn't mind this development one bit. “Yes! Yes! More!” The god actually seemed rather delighted that her challenge was taken up with such vigor.

Queen, however, was mortified by the scene. He saw him not only stand up to the beast but do so with a smile. Even after having his lungs caved in, he continued on laughing like a giddy schoolgirl. She could only feel disturbed watching it unfold.

A fist made contact with Ryuji's good side of his jaw breaking it into pieces and launching him into the air. He kicked hard and sent himself spiraling downwards towards the god. She attempted to dodge, but Ryuji was faster. He landed in front, kicked off the ground, and with a slice, opened her belly.

The two kept attacking each other in a high-speed battle where instead of getting slower, the longer it dragged on, it got faster. Both fighters drew on power gained from self-harm, and both showed no sign of reaching their limits.

As the two psychopaths tore each other limb from limb, Queen turned on the adventurers and screamed. “What are you doing!? Get those kids down now!”

They complied, chopping down the crosses and taking them off as painlessly as they could. Gile saw to the boy who was in critical condition. Queen didn’t dare look at the boy too closely to see what was wrong with him. She instead chose to keep an eye on the horror show unfolding before her.

The area now looked like it had become the sight of a meteor shower. Countless craters and break lines in the ground now populated the field.

Ryuji prepped his blade, which was starting to chip, for another attack during the lull after dodging an attack. But thanks to the constant bleeding of her stomach and arm, the god gained another boost in strength. She lunged forward, her body barely above the ground, and with her momentum dented Ryuji's leg from an angle. Unprepared, he could do nothing skittering over the ground with a broken leg until his velocity zeroed out.

For once, the god didn’t follow up. Instead, she looked rather bored.

“Let us end this game while you're still functional.” Light enveloped her one arm as she coalesced divine energy into her fist. “Pain unload!”

All of the god's pain manifested into her fist as she threw it at the one she wished to destroy. Ryuji had no time as his shattered leg hampered his movement. His only option was to meet it head-on.

All thought left Ryuji's already vacant mind. The body standing on that grassy plain was no longer the man who had originally come out here in pursuit of justice; it was now just the same as any wild animal. And like an animal driven into a corner, his instincts screamed at him to kill or be killed, to fight or flight, and considering the shape of his leg, there was only one real option. For just a moment, Ryuji became a literal machine whose only purpose was to kill.

"?"

As her fist drew closer, the god of pain felt something that she thought would never enter her life again. A feeling that we all have, no matter how big or small. No matter how strong or weak. She felt the fear of her impending death. But it was too late. She couldn’t reverse her divine power or shut it off. Once pain unload was activated, she had to disperse all the energy she had accrued.

Ryuji assailed his sword towards the center of the incoming fist. “Death series: Torturous Dragon.”

A visage of a great dragon flew from the katana, and the blade buried itself deep into her hand. Ryuji was pushed back, and his knees buckled under the intense pressure. The fist gained more and more power. Ryuji was steadily pushed back, and the blade embedded itself deeper into her fist. Mana strings created on the edges of his sword seeped their way into the skin of the god. Pain circulated through her, and the blade inched closer. The god could now see her own demise.

Before she could be rid of her own arm, Ryuji held the blade firm and stood his ground instead of being pushed back. With a single thrust, the blade went through one end and exited the other of her skull. Ryuji's arms lay at his sides, both of them broken from the shock.

It took all he had to keep from falling over, but even then, he managed to keep walking forward, all for a single reason.

'Save.'

The adventurers seemed to want to congratulate him, but given his terrible state, they instead watched in solemn silence. Queen's mouth was open as if she wished to say something anything, but she couldn't. His crazed eyes were still burned into her memory. And even more terrifying than that were his eyes in those final moments. Empty and soulless.

He made his way over to the Gile and the young boy. “Whaths…. wrong?”

“The boy is in critical condition, and my healing isn’t good enough to outpace his severe wounds. More importantly, you need to stop moving so much you're just making yourself worse!”

Ryuji ignored him and leaned down to touch the young child’s face. “Sacred High Heal.”

With a smile on his face, Ryuji reached his limit and passed out on the ground. The healer looked at the healthy young boy and then back at the dying young man in shock. An unusually high-strung Queen stomped over to him.

“Why aren’t you healing him!?”

“Uh… right, sorry.” Gile began casting miracles on a quickly fading Ryuji.

Queen tapped her foot while she watched him work. “Will he make it?”

“Long term? No. Short term? Definitely. My healing can stabilize him for at least a week. All he has to do is wake up within that time and heal himself.”

With a sigh, Queen's tension faded. “Good.” Doing something Ryuji would never dream of happening, Marie carefully put Ryuji in her arms. “We’re going back. You follow and make sure he stays alive. Everyone else, grab two or three kids so we can get the fuck out of here.” Gile followed and did as he was told, casting miracle after miracle to ensure that Ryuji would continue breathing. “You better wake up fast. You worthless hero.”

An inaudible voice was drowned out by the wind.