Riaz beheld a scene unknown to him.

He found himself within a gorge, sunless, with the exception of few stray rays of sunlight breaking through the cracks.

A winding, small creek stretched between narrow pathways of which the sounds of trickling water entered his ears.

The murky water, flowing peacefully, bounced back what little light reached down, creating shimmers that formed an illusion of stars dancing in the water.

Within the cold shade of the gorge, there was a teenage boy. He sat atop a flat rock, throwing pebbles into the water.

Wailing winds blew against his hair, tousling it and delivering the bustling noises of a nearby city.

A dreary atmosphere reigned over these parts, yet the boy remained unaffected and mostly indifferent to the discomfort.

Soon after, a young beauty skipped over with her hands interlocking behind her back. The sound of her soft steps reached the ears of both the boy and Riaz, yet the boy did barely react to her presence, unlike Riaz, who asked himself the many whats, whos and whys.

Taking a closer look at the girl, it was plain to see that she dressed well. Draped in a fine, embroidered red robe, with neatly styled black hair, she stood in stark contrast to the sordid appearance of the boy.

The boy, he was dirty, his clothing filthy and his black hair unkempt.

The flat rock, that he was sitting on, was spacious enough for two and so the girl took the opportunity to sit down next to him.

She re-adjusted her robe and dangled her slender legs back and forth. The boy merely gave her a cursory glance, then took another pebble and threw it.

"Hm..." The girl crooned softly, then asked, "Are you still upset about earlier?"

Having picked up another pebble, he paused while clenching his hand around it and replied, "No, I'm not." He then tossed the pebble into the water.

"Idiiooooot!" The girl pouted childishly, but it was apparent from her intelligent eyes that she was being playful.

Riaz, observing the scene, felt that she was quite a cute character and pleasant to look at.

It wasn't just the way she behaved or her flattering make-up that made him unable to take his eyes off. The girl had a particular eye color that was bound to make her the center of attention anywhere she went.

Her eyes, red like rubies, were unlike anything he had ever seen before.

Riaz was positive that he recognized neither of the two, so how come he was here? The situation felt no different from how his dreams did, as in that he usually had no way to influence anything and merely played the part of an observer.

He felt like he wasn't there, but at the same time wasn't.

As the scene played out before him, he grew conscious of the fact that he no longer understood a word they were saying. The details grew murky and he felt like his existence, formerly anchored in place, was being pulled, slowly.

The boy and the girl continued interacting like nothing changed, but no matter how much he focused, he still didn't hear a thing.

In the end, he gave up and just settled for observing them from afar.

He took note that the boy kept distancing himself from the girl and yet she persistently remained close to him.

Riaz wanted to shake his head after seeing how withdrawn the boy was, despite the girls attempts to cheer him up.

He asked himself how the boy came to be so dejected and gloomy.

At some point, the boy sat down cross-legged and beheld his palm. A black orb hovered above and began to shift its shape. When he swiped his hand across the air, a curtain, deep and dark as the night unfolded before the pair.

Riaz felt amazed, unlike the owner of the power. The boy's expression remained gloomy. He didn't seem all too thrilled to show the girl his power.

The girl gently brushed her hand against the boy's face. To Riaz, it appeared like the two were sharing an intimate moment; he didn't need to hear a word to know that much.

Still, he felt a little awkward standing around and watching. So far, the 'dream' was quite the immersive experience, but he really wished it came to an end.

It was then that the boy's eyes shot wide open and he yelled out, "Who?!"

His eyes left the girl and moved towards another area as though locking onto a target.

Surprised, Riaz felt like the boy was staring directly at him for a brief moment and then, the very next instant, the boy stood right before him.

The boy asked, "Who gave you permission?"

Riaz was at a loss for words as they stood face to face with each other. He could clearly see his eyes, dark and deep like two black marbles; they seemed bottomless. He felt like he was being sucked into a dark maelstrom as he looked.

A sensation of danger washed over him and then the boy lashed out with a palm that was imbued with his powers.

Riaz felt horrendous pain as the palm landed on him. His mind reeled from the shock and then everything in his mind went black.

---

Back within the village, Riaz opened his eyes.

The life in his eyes was completely replaced by a pitch-black abyss.

The bandits collectively shrunk under the aura that leaked out from Riaz. The scarred bandit in particular, feeling most affected, released Leria from his clutches and stepped back.

All the hairs on his neck stood on end, for fear had doused his earlier arrogance to the point that he felt like a hare in wolf's territory.

In the distance, even Misaf, Lorenz and Boffu were forced to temporarily stop what they've been doing. The unexpected variable required that the experts carefully re-examined the situation, something people of their caliber were used to.

Though the rest of the bandits were just amateurs, they knew to retreat in face of great danger. They gathered next to each other and stepped back, observing the situation from the other side of the road.

The air trembled under a sudden surge of mana; a surge that seemed to drown every other existence within its space.

Riaz finally stirred and pointed his right arm towards the bandits. An illusory golden shine appeared on his arm, forming a complex sigil.

At the same time, somewhere on his person, the crystal pendant hummed, feeling extraordinarily hot to the touch.

Riaz opened his mouth to utter a cryptic chant, like a series of words uttered in an unknown language. It sounded like no human language, not when a baleful overlapping voice spoke them, bearing similarities to Riaz's original voice while sounding like another person altogether.

A black colored layer of mana covered his whole body and pulsated in waves. The nearby surroundings all shook along with the waves.

"Rez Lumos Va'l Rhu T'hu Malis Eridum Zar." His chant coming to a close, Riaz swept his outstretched arm towards the side.

His eyes swept over his enemies with cold indifference. "Cover all, hide nothing. Purge the vermin in your light. Caligo!"

The air stirred for a few seconds after Riaz finished his chant for Caligo. The experts within the plaza simultaneously felt the danger deep within their bones. Alarms went off in their heads, urging them to flee.

In a blink, the entire plaza became shrouded in darkness; not by a mere fog, nor shadow, but a truly pure and profoundly deep layer of primordial dark, encompassing everything within its space.

From outside it appeared as a flat dome that covered the road connecting to the square, no taller than the buildings stood. All vision inside was blocked and within the space not even a single sound would reach one's ears.

As the ones closest to Riaz, the three bandits were swallowed whole before they could even react.

Just as the darkness encroached upon the plaza, three figures immediately mustered their strength to leap away, quickly fleeing towards the higher rooftops. Those three were namely Boffu, Lorenz and Misaf.

Looking down at where they had stood just moments ago, they found no traces of anything other than a black void. The image reminded them of the proverbial abyss that stared back.

'How terrifying!' All three of them came to a silent consensus within their hearts.

Standing within the dome, Riaz coldly stared back at the three individuals outside, holding a blood-dripping dagger in one hand. In this dark void, he was king. His body seemingly merged with the dark and his senses did too. He could clearly see the experts while they couldn't see him.

For the three experts there was no time to face their surroundings properly, for the darkness had subtly ensnared their minds.

Misaf was the first to notice something amiss and quickly protected his mind, fully alert to the tiniest changes. The other two were less astute and their gazes lingered on the void, slowing their reactions.

They finally snapped out of their trance as soon as the figure of Riaz shot out from the dome, flying directly towards them.

His body looked like a dark shadow, wrapped in a black fog. Judging by the path it took, the target seemed to be Lorenz.

Realizing that the ominous shadow was after Lorenz, the other two didn't bother sticking around and each retreated towards the buildings on the opposite of the plaza, jumping from house to house.

"Stay away!" Lorenz roared fiercely. His blade was fully drawn in its expanded, monstrous form and he instinctively slashed towards the flying shadow.

In a quick succession, he connected three enormous strokes that sent out gigantic wind blades with a red hue. Together, they linked to form a triangle and traversed the air.

The shadow figure facing the wind blades didn't dodge, but flashed a wicked smile instead.

Lorenz's attack landed and the shadow split apart, yet Lorenz didn't dare to let his guard down. His intuition told him that there was no way it would be that easy.

He was right not to relax. The sliced remnants of the shadow started to wiggle in the air and transformed into hands that stretched towards him from multiple directions.

"Ah..." Lorenz came to understand the attack's nature and performed the Prancing Demon Technique to escape. He stepped along the same path as the other two experts and evaded the incoming shadows while slashing at the ones that drew too close.

The faces of the other two experts turned sickly pale as they realized that Lorenz was leading the foe towards them.

"If you're gonna die, die alone, you fool!" Boffu yelled towards Lorenz, then swung his right arm and, anticipating the path his technique would take, sent his katar flying towards Lorenz who was about to catch up to them.

"This enemy is too much of an enigma. Be a good brother and die, so I can escape." Boffu's words were icy and bore no sense of comradery.

Lorenz saw the katar closing in on him and momentarily stopped in his tracks. Both his hands swung down the enormous sword to block against the katar.

He yelled out towards Boffu, "What are you doing, you bastard?" and then turned his head to discover that one of the black hands had gotten dangerously close to him.

Boffu's interference and the counterattack all happened within a short time window, but it bought enough time to let the playful shadows catch up to Lorenz.

Before he knew it, he had already been grabbed by a black hand. Lorenz wanted to do nothing more than to cut Boffu to pieces for this betrayal.

"Aghhh! Just you wait!" He roared angrily.

The black, hand yanked Lorenz all the way back, towards the void at the center of the square.

What happened next was far more terrifying though, prompting both Misaf and even Boffu, who was preparing to flee, to turn their heads towards the center.

Riaz, within the darkness, once more caused the surrounding mana to pulse and the dark space making up the dome transformed into hundreds of black spheres.

As Lorenz reached the center, floating amidst the many spheres, he finally saw the real body of Riaz, connected to the other end of the vine by a black cord. That boy looked at him with a pair of black eyes that held no trace of humanity. To Riaz, Lorenz was nothing but an ant in that moment.

Lorenz, suspended in the air, bellowed in terror, "Don't! You and I share no grievances!"

About a dozen of the spheres transformed into spikes and extended in a flash, piercing through Lorenz's body from a multitude of angles.

Blood gushed out in large quantities; however, the spikes retracted and extended many times more, piercing his body over and over until he was shaped into a bloody, torn rag with the remains of his insides grotesquely spilling out.

Under the barrage of thrusts, Lorenz didn't even have time to utter more than a faint cry before his life was obliterated by dozens of needles. Each needle ate more and more of his body until he breathed his last.

Until the bitter end, Lorenz asked himself how he had ended up dying at the hand of a monster in disguise, but sadly, the dead had no need for answers.

Further down the road, Misaf was startled by the excess of brutality and chose to distance himself further, not to speak of Boffu who was the first one to run off with his survival instincts warning him of a stronger predator.

There was but one figure remaining among the spheres; that person was Riaz. His face showed not a hint of emotion, clearly unaffected by the death of Lorenz.

Lorenz was merely the warm-up and his eyes turned towards his true prey: the beastman, Boffu.

Riaz's eyes locked onto his silver back. He couldn't recognize Boffu and yet he had clearly designated him as a mortal enemy. There no doubt remained a vestige of Riaz somewhere inside of the darkness and the emotions the boy held for Boffu bled through in this moment.

"Stay behind." Riaz pointed his finger towards Boffu and needles shot out from dozens of spheres, flying towards his quarry.

"Grrr." Boffu growled seeing the countless needle shots. He inhaled deeply, then stopped and faced the needles head on.

"Arh-WHOOOOOOOO" His wolf's howl shook the space in front of him and the majority of the needles was repelled by the strong force of his soundwave attack.

The howl wasn't enough to defend against all needles, but to block them all was not his intention in the first place.

He wanted to create an opening so that he could hurl his remaining katar towards Riaz, which he succeeded with, at the cost of his arm being hit by multiple needles.

The needles dug deeply into his flesh, numbing his arm and disabling most of its motoric functions.

Boffu bellowed in pain, "Argh! Fuck. You'll pay for this, you lil' shit!" He had suffered greatly, but it would all be worth it, if only his attack connected.

And yet, to his dismay, Riaz stopped maintaining the spheres and nimbly dodged the katar.

Boffu cursed inwardly, surprised by the extent of the boy's nimble movements.

Not giving the beastman a moment of pause, the possessed boy moved with great ease and pursued Boffu with a dagger in his hand.

Boffu, having assumed that Riaz was a mage type, foresaw higher odds of winning in a close range battle, thus he bared his monstrous hand against Riaz.

Although he initially felt terrified, he felt more confident now, knowing that the spheres were gone. He was going to make the mage regret looking for a close-range fight.

As he came face to face with Riaz, he came to recognize him from before. A part of him regretted letting him go that time, but even more he hated being pushed this far by a mere human brat.

He began to wonder whether he had been toyed with all this time. Just thinking of that possibility ticked him off and stocked his ire, which added to his bloodlust.

Riaz, seeing that Boffu no longer had any intention to escape, couldn't help but sneer.

"Impudent dog." He stopped his pursuit and quickly jumped backwards to escape Boffu's quick charge.

Riaz narrowly dodged the claw twice, which grazed him by the chest and arm respectively and ripped at his coat of dark mana. A web-like pattern of glowing blood vessels surrounded the marking above his heart, visible through parts of the torn shirt.

It became abundantly clear to him that his protective measures were useless against Boffu's immense strength, thus he decided on a different approach.

Boffu noticed that he had regained the upper hand and dictated the rhythm now, with Riaz forced to take a passive stance.

Those bestial eyes turned into crescent moons as he laughed, "Ghaha, you had me scared for a moment. But it looks like you've used up all of your tricks, human."

He wasn't entirely wrong.

Something strange was happening to Riaz and only Misaf realized that the shadow before them wasn't the real Riaz at all.

After exerting so much power, it became increasingly difficult for Riaz to maintain his current state, as it felt like two minds were in conflict with each other and wrestling for control.

As Riaz retreated backwards while clutching his head with both hands while Boffu seized the opening and drew closer.

"Enough... no more games." Riaz uttered, his body reeling back and forth.

He unleashed another dark spell against his opponent before the latter could approach.

"Feast on flesh and feast on bone. Dark Swarm." He widely opened his mouth and a swarm of black locusts spawned from within, seeking out Boffu.

Boffu found himself quickly surrounded by the swarm and began to claw his way out.

He wanted to avoid overusing the howling technique, conscious of the potential drawbacks of permanently damaging his vocal cords.

And so he slashed and slashed and slashed against the swarm, but their number didn't dwindle in the slightest. Riaz had inserted every last drop of his mana into this spell and even his protective cloak dissipated while his eyes gradually regained their usual color.

Boffu felt like he was reaching the end of his ropes.

The longer he stood there, the more damage he incurred. He didn't see any other choice but use another of his howls to deal with the locusts.

He broke out of the swarm and howled as they chased after him. The subsequent shockwave crushed Riaz's spell, but, as a result, the beastman felt blood rise up his throat.

Finally free, Boffu took a quick look towards a certain spot. He expected the human to be there, but that was not the case.

He sharpened his senses and raises his eyes towards the rooftops. Riaz had leapt onto one of the buildings while the beastman wasn't looking. Meanwhile, Boffu was still on the ground and riddled with many tiny bite wounds.

His mangled arm allowed for a lot of blood to escape. Lorenz was dead while he was in no shape to fight a prolonged battle.

Boffu felt pressured to act. Right now, he was bleeding all over and the battle was bound to turn disadvantageous if the old human decided to step in and kick him while he was down.

Boffu taunted loudly, "Is running all you can do?"

He had failed to kill Riaz and currently there was plenty of distance between the two. He could still close the distance within a moment, but, if he put his all into escaping, he doubted that the boy could catch up with him.

"See if you can take my ultimate move, human." Boffu took a low stance, prepping to kick off the ground. His face turned extremely vicious, clearly about to see things to the end.

Riaz prepared to counter-attack, but things turned out differently than he expected. Just as he thought Boffu would charge him, the beastman completely subverted his expectations by turning around and fleeing at high speeds.

There was no shame in choosing to postpone the fight when he wasn't sure of a victory, Boffu thought. This human was too abnormal after all.

Against his hopes, he didn't get far when a large club-shaped staff descended in front of him. The old man Misaf steadily held onto it and shouted, "You thought you could come and go as you please?"

"Ah!" Boffu gasped. He managed to narrowly avoid the staff, but that wasn't the end.

Boffu grimaced. He looked down at himself and saw a blade protrude from the area around his abdomen. He recognized its unique features; it was Lorenz's magic sword, Mountain Cleaver, though it was currently in its dormant form.

It was unknown when Riaz had gotten his hands on the sword, but Boffu knew that he had missed his chance to flee. With a trembling body, he viciously glared at Misaf who stoically created some distance between them.

Boffu was about to run, but sensed the approaching Riaz. He wanted to strike back, but the incoming enemy was too fast.

He roared out, "Wait!"

Like an arrow, Riaz whistled past him with a gleaming dagger and claimed his lame arm.

The beastman's startled eyes looked on as his separated arm whirled through the air.

The broken-minded Riaz still had his back turned towards Boffu, letting out a dry and distorted laugh, then slowly turned around and licked the blood on his dagger; he maintained eye contact with Boffu as he did.

The sight shocked Boffu. This boy mirrored what he had done earlier. Back then, he was the predator and the boy was the prey. Had the tables turned so quickly?

"Ahah... ahaha. I protected her... see... I am not weak. Ahaha... haha. I am now... the one in control." A tinge of madness flashed across Riaz's eyes.

He was overcome by a deep craving for slaughter. The strong presence within him demanded more blood, more suffering. He wasn't allowed to rest until he gutted those who he had deemed his enemy.

Riaz raised his dagger and, with expertly swift stroke against Boffu's legs, brought him to his knees.

"No more! The boss won't let you off if you kill me, human." Boffu dragged himself across the ground with his remaining arm. He tried to bargain with a raspy, damaged voice. "If you let me go now, we'll return everything, we'll leave them all behind and forget about all this."

"Leave... your life behind." After making his intentions known, Riaz raised his dagger with a trembling hand.

He was just about to execute the beastman when a sonorous voice rang throughout the area.

"You should quit while you're ahead." The male voice was accompanied by a torrent of metal weapons crossing the air and aiming for Riaz's position.

Riaz barely dodged to the side and fell with his body undergoing spasms.

A hooded figure descended next to Boffu and jabbed his fingers against multiple points around the beastman's shoulder and chest, which temporarily stopped the bleeding.

The hooded man said, "We are leaving. Old man, I expect that you have no complaints."

Misaf who was observing from nearby didn't say a word, essentially giving his tacit agreement.

Riaz pulled himself onto his knees and directed his gaze at the hooded man. "Who... are you? Ene...my?"

His voice sounded bizarre, alternating between his original voice and monstrous echo of something else entirely.

Old man Misaf shouted towards him, "That's enough, boy! You have done enough. There is nothing to gain from further bloodshed."

Misaf, still clad in his wooden armor, tightly held onto his staff. When the old village head looked at Riaz, he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed and even fearful. This was not the bright and polite young man he knew.

'Just how did it come to this?' thought Misaf.

His hand, holding the staff, trembled. He felt truly regretful. This intense bloodlust coming from the youth almost made him throw up blood. It was far too heavy an aura for such a youth to have.

'I have failed you, little sapling. The last I can do is make sure you don't fall any further.'

Misaf resolved himself to fight Riaz, should the boy insist on provoking the hooded man. As an expert, he could naturally sense a few of the mysteries surrounding the man. He was clearly not an opponent the weakened and hurt Riaz could take on.

"Kill... vermin. You... must pay... all of you... Caligo!" Riaz jumbled up words and the core of mana in his body formed cracks. Riaz coughed up blood as he tried to draw mana from his empty core.

Misaf took a few steps back and exclaimed, "Mana exhaustion!" His tone grew more urgent and he yelled at Riaz, "Your life will be at risk if you keep going. Stop, you foolish boy!"

But no words could reach Riaz's ears any more. The hooded man, who intended to take Boffu away, saw that Riaz wasn't going to drop the matter and planned to attack him. However, once he did, Riaz would certainly die.

It was then that the silhouette of a man manifested behind Riaz.

"Let's end it here, disciple." With a swift chop to the back of his neck, the blade king knocked Riaz out.

"So it was you, Roa." Misaf breathed out in relief. He recognized the mysterious man. It was he who had come to the village not long ago and bared his fangs at him over the matter of Riaz.

Having calmed down, Misaf took another look at Roa and the unconscious Riaz. Roa had picked the boy up and flung him over his shoulder.

Misaf knew that nothing bad could happen to them anymore, now that the blade king was here.

The markings on his body faded and the wooden armor peeled off on its own, then finally even his staff shrank. Misaf approached the blade king and they both faced the hooded man together.

The hooded man didn't show any reaction and just coldly asked, "Are you intent on keeping me here, blade king?"

But, contrary to what he thought, the blade king was not intent on pursuing the matter any further.

"Go, I am not in the mood." Roa replied dismissively and turned around.

The hooded man nodded saying, "You have my thanks."

He then picked up Lorenz's sword and helped Boffu up while supporting him.

The matter was over, but, despite everything, Boffu wasn't ready to call it quits just yet. He bared his fangs at the others.

"Boss, that human. Are we letting him go? I am unwilling!" He growled furiously.

The hooded man looked towards the unconscious boy on the blade king's shoulder and gave a sigh.

"Boffu, he is not someone we can touch, even if we wanted to."

Then, without giving Boffu time to complain more, the one called "Boss" took him away and blew into a thin, metallic whistle.

As the sound of the whistle spread through the village, all attacks throughout came to a halt and the bandits quickly withdrew.

A the boss of the bandits leapt from roof to roof, he looked towards a faraway spot at the outskirts of the village and frowned.

He whispered, "Is this your doing?"

Boffu looked at him with a face full of question marks.

The boss shook his head and said, "Nevermind, we have achieved our purpose. Let's go back now."