The man was lifted from the ground like a puppet pulled with strings. It looked unnatural and twitchy. The skull eye sockets glowed with a now red light. The half flesh-covered skull knitted over part of his face, but stopped once it ran out of energy. Zuel tried to move his body and kill what was left of the man, but his body wouldn't obey his commands; the red light froze his very soul.

The man's spine was visible out of his back, discs completely torn and vertebrae misaligned. Somehow, he remained standing and alive. There was a constant clicking noise as his femur healed, broke, rehealed, broke, rehealed...over and over.

Most of his intestines laid scattered on the ground, having been reduced to mush from the blast. The only remaining organs he had left were a single lung and a heart, visibly beating from inside his displayed ribcage. His left arm was gone, blown off entirely, laying on the ground a kilometer away. His right arm was cracked and charred, flaking off layers of black bone bits with every move.

Zuel had seen some disgusting corpses in his life, he had seen people come back from limb detachments and fight as if it never happened, he had even seen a decapitation that resulted in the head simply taking over another body. But this, this was beyond his knowledge base.

The body was far too destroyed for any semblance of life to continue inhabiting it. The red glowing eyes also proved to be a new experience. They pulsed with a murderous power, like a serial killer in wait. He was still frozen there, watching as his time slowly decreased. 1 min 20 sec.

The skeleton body moved its legs like a newborn deer, taking uneven strides and waving due to the floppy spine. It slunk towards the immobilized Zuel like a zombie.

I saw the creations of a necromancer once, but even those obeyed basic biology. This is just beyond me.

The creature stood in front of Zuel. It raised its remaining hand and ran it along his face, like a loving gesture. It freaked him out. The creature couldn't smile, you needed face muscles for that, so its jaw chattered in excitement. Every second he was frozen, fear was rising back up from within Zuel. No skill to his knowledge was so powerful as to restrain him this long.

To his total surprise, the creature spoke. The words were directly inside his mind, reverberating through his skull, "That hurt." The next moment, the repeatedly broken femur was stabbed through his chest and spine. The creature watched at Zuel fall to the ground, groaning in pain.

It stood there, balancing on one leg, silently, staring down at him with its red eyes. Even in all his pain, he couldn't pry his vision away from those red eyes. They pierced his mind; seeing everything in him.

It replaced its femur-knife and let it heal, back to sort-of-operational. The bone then continued to make its clicking noise. It kneeled down in front of Zeul, placing its hand over his heart. He thought the worst the creature would do is stab him again. He never could imagine that black tendrils of vile mana would pour out of its fingers and into his body.

The moment the mana touched flesh, it burned worse than fire; unlike fire, the pain didn't stop when it burned enough. The black mana ran through his veins, spreading to the entirety of his body due to his powerful heartbeat. His amazing physique bit him in the ass.

"You feel that? Pain...It's such a fickle thing... It comes and goes. One moment you feel it, and once it is gone, it is like a foggy memory."

The mana reached his lungs, causing bronchospasms that made him feel like he was drowning. He hadn't felt this much pain in a long time; it reminded him that he was still just a person, just a man. All he did was run fast, that was his schtick, he wasn't inherently special. These thoughts penetrated his mind, corrupting it.

"You burned the soul of this champion, you just moved too fast. A miscalculation, won't happen again. Now, I need a new soul; a reaper to collect the seeds I have sown."

What? This champion? Is it not him talking? The voice did seem a bit different, but it was still so mechanical. OWWWW! IT HURTS!

Zuel felt something in his chest dislodge. With every bit of strength he had, he looked down. There, above his still-beating heart, was a small orb of light. It pulsed with the desire for speed, it pulsed with his name, and his history. It was his soul.

What the...

Without his soul, his body stopped functioning. It was like all his biological processes simply stopped. His mind went into a coma, now existing only within the small ball of light in the creature's hand.

I thought the soul was just a myth. No skill could ever touch it.

Zuel's mind ran extremely slowly in his little soul ball. He formed his thoughts and tried to speak them, but he was just a ball of light sitting in the palm of the creature. Then, the pain started again. Instead of a burning pain, this was a claustrophobic one, like he was being gripped in a vice.

Why do so many of you mess with my stuff?

The creature wove mana with extreme efficiency and skill, creating ethereal chains. These magical chains wrapped themselves around Zuel's soul, binding it in a tight prison it could not escape. The creature waved its hand a single time and brought Zuel's body back to perfect condition. It then waved it again and placed the chained soul back in his body.

Zuel's eyes opened once again, this time they were golden and pierced everything he looked at. His body was wrapped with silent black and white lightning, creating an unsettling sight. The creature waved its hand for the third time and created new armor and weapons for him, all out of thin air. Zuel, donning his new gifts, immediately knelt in front of the creature.

"I am at your command, Master"

"You are this planet's reaper. The only reason you exist is to kill the oldest person on this planet once every hundred years; as the man before you had. Adhere to my plan perfectly, I order you."

"I will do as you command."

The walking skeleton turned around and started to walk away. It looked up at the endless stars, a sight it no longer cared about; they were boring to it. A sight seen so many times that it lost all majesty and wonder. There were fewer stars than it last remembered.

Why can't they just be complacent? Giving themselves labels like 'Catagory # being'; they are all delusional.

The creature's eyes snuffed out, collapsing into a pile of charred bones. Zuel, or whatever was left, rose from the ground and looked around at the horizon. This world was now his to monitor for his master, killing the oldest. A massive lightning bolt struck, but he vanished from the spot, appearing a million kilometers away, permanently able to go 40 percent the speed of light.

In the deepest part of his soul, behind the chains, Zuel cried out in pain. Every moment was torture for him, constantly ripping and tearing and healing him.

That isn't me! I don't want to serve that... THING! Let me go!

His cries went unanswered. His pleas fell on deaf ears. He was trapped, and he wouldn't be able to escape. He had managed to win the fight, but lost the very essence of who he was. He lost the pitiful amount of control he thought he had in his life. And now, he sat in darkness, inside his chest, fueling his own body that was controlled by something that wasn't him. It had his memories, it had his thoughts, but it wasn't him.

---------

Yual looked to the horizon. He felt the death of his friend. It was a bond only they could feel, something forged over a lifetime.

I can't believe he lost.

Yual had no idea what kind of monster his friend had just become, replacing the old hunter with his own flesh and soul. Out with the old, and in with the new; as they say. Now, none would be escaping death when the new reaper came knocking. The old and worn better count the seconds to their death.

Yual looked down at the two Otherworlders.

Only a few minutes had passed since the battle started, and Zuel was already dead. Knowing him, he stretched it out to 3 or 4. And he still fell... He killed him... He... What's the point in fixing the Empire if there is a glass ceiling?

"I... need some time alone."

Yual summoned his shadow creature. The moment it appeared, he disappeared. Its eyes of energy stared down at the two Otherworlders, from an even higher point than Yual had. Its razorblade construction of a body was not pleasant to be near. Every moment, it made them feel like they would be injured just by being close to it. The massive solid shadow spoke into their minds.

I will resume your training. I may not be as efficient as Mr. Zuel, but I am more than qualified to deal with a bunch of 'low-level' creatures.

Rupert and Veronica hadn't processed what just happened. Their stats were still a little low to deal with even the casual thinking and movement speeds of the Harbinger Elite. They were like dolls, moved around in a playhouse, pulled from one thing to the next, just trying to understand the world they were dumped into.

The shadow creature grabbed the two and flittered through the shadows, appearing at their same hunting spot of the canyon. Neither knew of the conflict that had just occurred, only that Yual looked troubled when he left. Since they couldn't figure it out, they put it to the side for the moment and focused on the same killing of hairy minions as before; striving to raise their level.

---------

Yual sat in his big black leather chair. It was carved from a tree that grew in his hometown, many eras ago. It wasn't enchanted in any way, the wood wasn't strong enough for such an endeavor. As such, he kept it simply adorned and enjoyed the little piece of home he was able to save.

He looked out the window of his office, with a view of a mountain. The mountain was never named, just one more pile of rocks in the endless mountain range around these lands. The view didn't elicit any deep memories for him, it was just a nice natural landscape to stare at.

His mind was both chaotic and empty, actively destroying any attempt at new thoughts to form. A dried trail of a tear ran down his right cheek. He only allowed himself one tear; any more would make him weak, unworthy of leadership. Yet he couldn't find it in himself to wipe away the trace that single tear left.

His mind was so preoccupied, he hadn't realized that the purple-haired woman had entered the room. Her pure black eyes stared at the back of Yual's chair. She considered how to go about this conversation; if she should have it at all right now.

"Sir," Teall spoke directly, "The thousand annihilation cores have been made and are ready for use. How should we go about the attack?"

Her hair waved gently even in absence of a breeze. Teall held her breath, respect for their leader was of utmost importance. Every moment that passed, she wondered what ingenious scheme he would come up with. He had always pulled brilliant plans out of thin air, always turning disaster into focused destruction against their enemies.

After a dozen minutes of waiting, she walked towards Yual. The ten step journey was a breathless one. Teall wasn't used to seeing her leader like this. He was historically full of rage, fury, intellect, and endless hungry shadows. Natural calm was not in his repertoire, only conversational calm, the kind that eases people.

"Sir?" She asked with hesitation in her voice.

Yual continued to stare out the window, finally unable to hold it in. The second tear rolled down his cheek. He tried so hard to hold it in. He tried to think of anything else. He failed miserably; a third tear.

Teall shouted in shock, "Sir!"

Yual wiped his eyes and looked at his subordinate. She had genuine shock on her face, a sign that he was busted. There needed to be a good recovery or else there would be major ripples going through his organization soon.

He quickly cleared his throat and played it off like he hadn't done anything, "Ah, Teall. Yes, what do you have to report?"

Teall herself started to question her vision. It wasn't always perfect, sometimes on accident seeing into the past. It made her a fantastic historian even though it impeded her daily life quite some bit. There were clear markers that it hadn't been a vision yet she still marked up the event as something in the past. The reality of Yual crying was impossible to accept.

"As I said, Sir," Teall regained her assistant-like demeanor, "The thousand annihilation cores have been made and are ready for use. How should we attack?"

Yual didn't think it over much, "Just give them to the main forces, we'll use them in our next battle."

Teall didn't agree with his plan, the cores were meant to be used for strategic bombings of important buildings and trade routes, not in armed conflict. She held back her reservations and ticked it off on her mental checklist. The only other thing she had to ask was who to rotate in for the Otherworlder's teacher.

"Zuel dropped off the map, leaving behind the Otherworlders. I was just wondering who would be the next trainer for them. The rest of the council is at your disposal."

Yual didn't hesitate this time, "I'll be taking over for a bit. Zuel had...something to take care of. I will make sure to make use of the old kooks once their initial leveling is complete."

Teall nodded her head at the completion of her task and left the room. Yual remained sitting, turning his chair back to the window. No more tears fell; they didn't dare. The rest of the world wouldn't let him rest for just a few minutes to mourn his friend, and that left him livid.

Fuck this world.