Vengeance fuelled me to wake day after day with a burning sensation in my chest. Without it, my vengeful quest would be useless. Although this factor had caused me to do some stupid shit, never have I regretted keeping it as my close friend. This is just who I am, a resurrected predator who wanted to get rid of my enemies and dominate Clown City.

I wanted all of it to be beneath my feet. As such, I had to first get rid of a lurking issue that was sticking into my ass like an annoying fart which refuses to come out.

“Those Unclaimed Souls are out there, waiting to claim my life.” The thing that got me slightly nervous was the fact that these Smokepires could go toe to toe with me in a raw brawl due to the influence of the resurrection Rubik’s Cube that they all had in their chest.

This pisses me off greatly. I was supposed to be the strongest cock in the coop, but now, even reanimated hens are trying to contend with me. What a bloody ridiculous situation. I couldn’t wait to find those bastards' weaknesses.

“I should get back to the estate where I can think properly about my next course of action.” I was on my way out of the park from where I had buried Himeko’s corpse. Now that she had joined the legion of Unclaimed Souls, an opportunity presented itself within a plight.

Earlier, I tried fishing for more information from the System on the topic. It didn’t quite affirm that reverting the Smokepires’ transformation was possible without them having the original Rubik’s Cube, but it didn’t entirely deny the argument. Which meant that there was a way out there to give Himeko a second shot at life; I just had to find it.

Not knowing where exactly to start, I wracked my brain continuously for answers as I approach my car. While I was pulling on the handle, a malicious entity suddenly made me snap out of my distraction.

Boom!

“Huh? What the hell!?” I was caught off-guard by a vicious Smokepire on the side of the street. It crashed into me like a bullet train, smashing me to the other side of the road.

“Ah…!” I didn’t allow myself to stay down for long for I couldn’t afford to be ganged a second time; definitely not in the open like that. Luckily, the day was still early so not many motorists were passing by on that avenue.

“GRAAH!”

Perceiving a hoarse roaring entering my ears, I immediately aimed my sight at its origin. What I saw was a wounded Smokepire balancing on one leg atop my car. It weighed so much that it sunk through the roof.

“How can this be happening right now?” I was genuinely startled by that Smokepire’s presence. As I looked closer, I noticed its mouth dripping with black saliva; thirsting for my flesh, or to be more specific, the ethereal object dwelling in my chest.

What puzzled me was the fact that there was a Smokepire attacking me in broad daylight. “I thought the System said that Unclaimed Souls only resurrect on the night of the full moon. Did I misinterpret something?”

It appears that I did misinterpret the context of what was conveyed by the System’s info log. It specifically stated that the persons that I’ve killed and didn’t claim their manifested Rubik’s Cube would come back to life on the night of the full moon with an untrammelled vengeance in their bones for me. However, it didn’t specify a rest period for them, which meant that once resurrected, these Smokepires were here to stay unless they were put to sleep again.

“Fuck me. These bastards have complete freedom to do what they want in the daytime. Does this mean that until I get rid of all of them I will have to constantly be looking over my shoulder? What a fucking messed up situation.”

I wasn’t fond of my current predicament, but I couldn’t bitch around all day and whined about it either. If I wanted to survive long enough to take Sharp Stepper’s head then I had to man the fuck up and take out the rubbish in front of me.

“Wait a minute… that ugly fuck looks familiar.” While observing the violent Smokepire finishing its destructive process on my car, I noticed a similar air about him. “No way… Rodent, is that you?”

“GRAAH!” He bellowed in response to me calling him out.

“So it is you? But how can this be? I thought I obliterated you back on that boat.” I began to reflect more keenly on what transpired that evening.

“Come to think of it, when I unleashed the Devil’s Cancer ability then went around the other side of the boat to check, all I discovered was his severed leg. Could the rest of him have fallen in the water? That must be why the System was capable of resurrecting him on the night of the full moon. For the men who I’ve melted entirely, none of them seems to have come back to life thus far, so it is firm to say that those dead are never coming back.”

“Eeeek! Oh my God!”

“Huh!” The echoing scream of a bystander coming down the street caught my attention. It was a middle-aged woman walking her dog. She hollered upon seeing Rodent’s monstrous appearance trampling across the street towards me. Her voice was much louder and more alarming than her poodle’s voice.

Bark! Bark!

“GRAH!” I noticed Rodent shifting his diabolical attention towards the lady and her dog. He used the permeating smoke around him to give himself a boost to where they were.

“Eeek!” The lady didn’t know what else to do but to pick up her dog and cower in fear as Rodent took a swing at her.

“Don’t even think about it, you bastard!” I wasn’t about to allow that poodle to get hurt. It reminded me of my best bud, Baxter. We used to go for a lot of walks before Sharp Stepper twisted its neck out of alignment. Now that my mind ran on that memory, Rodent was the backstabber who initiated that horrible trade.

My anger boiled to the peak as I took action to prevent Rodent from claiming the life of that innocent poodle.

I quickly transformed into a phantasmal trail of smoke that traversed the wind current onwards to my destined target. Within a split second, I arrived before Rodent with my Rigid Body skill switched on. It enabled me to stop his huge disproportionate hand from cleaving through the lady and her dog.

Rodent was displeased with my interference, but I didn’t let him get one over me. Looking him dead centre in his putrid eyes. I cursed him, “You ugly motherfucker. Now you resemble a rodent more than ever. I’m going to make sure that a traitor such as you get the punishment you deserve.”

I wasn’t just talking. Holding true to what I said, I equipped my Thirst Knife and tossed it into Rodent’s neck. This made him stagger backgrounds abruptly, moreover, executed bleed damage. Next, I clenched my fist to the point where I started hearing crackling noises. At the time, I didn’t know it, but I was about to unlock a new ability.

While my fist was clenched, the cavity in my chest popped open with a burning batch of smoke that gathered around my fists. Some mystifying shades of black were mixed in with the infernal vapours.

“Now I’m really pissed off!” A major part of me began feeling the rage of a thousand men. This just made my arms blazed even further.

“Your ass is mine, Rodent!” Being unable to restrain my anger anymore, I bent my legs to a suitable degree where I could drastically propel myself upward.

Whoosh!

I soared through the air like a smoking bird then landed moments later directly on Rodent’s broad chest. I was surprised by how small I was compared to his current self. When this bastard was human, he was like a baby to me who I could boss around as I please. But now that he had grown some length on his junk he thought he could push me around.

“You’ve made a futile mistake.” With that being said, I commenced the great onslaught by unleashing fully, my Rage Vapours.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

My fists were traversing at the speed of light back and forth from Rodent’s body. With each contact made, a category storm explosion was formed.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

I blasted up that part of the street with all the Rage Vapour I had in stock. Numerous spider web cracks spread out across the shattering asphalt as I pounded my adversary deeper and deeper into the crater.

“Die, you piece of shit!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

I never decrease my fisting pace one bit, if anything, it became faster with my roaring execution. This bastard was freaking tough too. I’ve given him a thousand-hit combo and he still had the strength to try and resist me.