Sigh, I was honestly leaning towards never coming back here and deleting this failure of mine. I apologize to any who were kind enough to wait for me to continue Criminal Lord but I have decides to drop it. Although, I do have some news to share. I have been working on another series known as Unbreakable Vessel that I plan to post later on. I am still developing as a writer and so I want it to be as best as I can make it before posting it. If you're interested, it'll be a novel of a man returning to the past in order to live his life in peace. (Except we all know that he's not going to get a peaceful life.) I'm still working out all the details but I at least feel good about this prologue. I will post this once I make the novel itself as well but consider this a free sample. And If you're wondering, I will not delete what I've posted for Criminal Lord even after starting another novel. Criminal Lord may have ended up poorly, but it was a learning experience for me and as I like to say, "A physical mistake allows for an intellectual success." I'll be quite now, and I hope you enjoy the prologue.

Prologue. Shattered Vessel

“I can feel you guys tearing me apart from the inside. Calorg, Bertram, Rajaion, Lilith, Roxy, Quaelo, and the rest of you. I may have endured great pain from you all, but I still treasure our memories and will hopefully remember them even after I am driven insane. But then again, I should make one final effort before I go as Syed suggested, shouldn’t I?”

[Soul Pledge has been formed: Not even the strongest curse or cure may break a Soul Pledge unless directly specified in the pledge]

“Haha, my remaining strength is seeping out of my body and taking my consciousness with it. I wonder, was there any way I could have changed this outcome? Nah, I don’t even care about that. Whatever comes next will undoubtedly be better whether it be heaven, hell, the void, or wherever else I’m sent. Unless I happen to win the lottery, allowing my wish to be granted…”

A black beast stood on its hind legs. Its neck extended high into the air while everything surrounding it couldn’t even reach to its knees on account of its surroundings of seemingly humans having all been severed and left to soak the ground with blood while flesh and organs fertilized the soil.

The creature stood quite massive, at around 3 meters but was oddly thin for something so large, making the creature look even more horrifying due to its demented shape and form as well as the ominous aura that radiated from it.

Boom!

An ear-splitting echo boomed from behind the beast where a large army could faintly be seen. It ranged in the thousands. With a grunt of annoyance, the beast lunged towards the army and as it grew closer, it took notice of the large differences in the soldiers with its powerful vision. There were large beings of metal and bolts, all forms of armed beasts and demons from goblins and dragonkin to vampires both lesser and elder alike, and then there were the massive circles of magic, each sustained by numerous individuals in robes and protected by massive golems which stood proudly in the defense of their masters.

One circle flashed from over a kilometer away yet reached the beast in an instant. The beast twisted to one side but not without leaving its lower body to be incinerated by the massive beam of white light.

The beast wobbled around on the two arms which were its final limbs as the charred flesh making up its lower body squirmed to close the wound and then recreate the removed legs which were tested in the coming seconds as the beast continued its mad dash towards the army.

2 more shots occurred, the latter managing to consume the entire body of the beast save for a gleaming orb that was seen for a fraction of a second. It was beautiful and radiant, only offset by the numerous carvings and cracks throughout. A black mist soon surrounded the orb and the beast was again materialized which allowed it to finally reach the outermost layer of the army.

Claws tore against steel which tore against flesh at blinding speed. Wherever the beast went, it was surrounded by blood, both its own and that of its enemies. Weapons lay covered in the blood and flesh of their wielders, allowing the beast to launch some of them at far away enemies. Despite the somewhat large size of the beast in comparison to those in the army, it carried unreal strength and speed, breaking the sound barrier several times over.

The beast was continuously impaled, incinerated, and battered all over but never wasted more than a second before returning with exponential retaliation. The only things that could slow it down were the strongest of the soldiers, encased in brilliant armor and mounted atop great beasts. But doing so only prolonged their suffering before they were finally put to rest at the end of some blood-covered weapon or other.

The army which had originally numbered over fifteen thousand, had quickly been reduced by a fifth with many injured and even more dead. Still, those who remained managed to consistently hold off the beast while keeping themselves and allies in fighting condition. Yet after a half hour of fighting, when both sides had slowed a bit, a massive tower of light shot up from the ground to impale the beast, which had somehow entered the center of the army.

The orb once again appeared as all that remained of the beast, suspended in air, but as the tower remained standing, the orb had become dormant. The army cheered at its accomplishment.

“That must’ve been the new boss that I heard about.”

“Right?! I heard that it slaughtered even the Demon King and absorbed the souls of it along with most of the other demon generals.”

“Really?! No wonder it was so tough. It’s regeneration was incredible, it’s a good thing that we managed to raid the final dungeon before this.”

“Yeah, The Celestial Labyrinth gave us weapons that were exponentially better than anywhere else. If anything, it must’ve been some bonus area to speedrun the Demon King. I mean, it was seriously tough, but we still managed to do it after spending just a few years."

“I still don’t get how he was this strong though, not even the final boss of the labyrinth was that strong, even in his rage state, and he was a literal god!”

“Well, now that he's dead, we should be able to make our wishes to that Grandmaster guy. We were summoned here nearly twenty years ago but will finally have the chance to make our wishes to be granted. We can each rule this world as well as Earth.”

The remaining members of the army cheered and raised their gleaming weapons into the air. The weapons were each unique in size, shape, and color, signifying the great amounts of power that slept within. The army continued their cheers until they somehow went silent as the pillar of light began to fade.

The crystal that had been suspended thus far had been severely weakened by the looks of the large cracks all over. The cracks however, had now begun to leak out large amounts of a black mist, consuming the pillar of light, and allowing the orb to rapidly expand before finally exploding, burying several of the fragments into those nearby.

The members of the army again raised their weapons in triumph until the clouds grew murky above them from the black mist, they expanded larger and larger until creatures began to fall from the sky. They ranged in size and shape even more so than the remaining army and began a full-scale war from within their midst.

Some creatures bore large wings to control the wind, some could control the elements with their bare hands, and some simply used their incredible size and strength to obliterate their enemies.

“These are all monsters that have become demons! I can even see a few demonized bosses!”

“There must be thousands of them, and their strength is genuine too!”

“What in the hell is up with these things?!”

The army struggled to resist the onslaught of both the massive and miniscule black creatures which, while much weaker than the original ones, had the advantage of their sheer numbers and size. Before long, the armies were completely wiped out and those who remained had begun their frantic retreat back to the large castle walls which stood in the distance.

The black creatures attempted to pursue but somehow melted into the ground at the introduction of more massive, white light. The light flashed brightly, blinding all for a few seconds and seemingly engulfing everything all around. When the light dissipated, allowing sight again, all signs of the battle had disappeared, leaving long, healthy blades of grass throughout the once bloody and flesh-covered plains.

“Damn, I never expected a trial to go this badly. To think that people would go so far as to overload the Unbreakable Vessel with that many souls. And of monsters too… good thing that he died before he could actually cause any problems to me. Since all of the other participants have been killed, I have nobody to reward but him, the victim and perpetrator in all this. Too bad his soul will be too far beyond repair to make a proper- what? Wow... He made a Soul Pledge in his last moments to control his wish in the case that this actually happened. Whelp, I guess I’ll meet him in his next trial considering how I shouldn’t overstep my bounds by fixing him here. Now then, ahem! With my authority as Grandmaster, I declare this trial void and request a reset!”