A quiet hum of insects and the chirping of various birds whirled through the dense silverwood forest filled with massive purple flora. In a segment of the forest with a small clearing, Lurioku(YA) sat atop a bolder, with an unnaturally flat top, overlooking a glistening pond as he rested the sheathed Hakai-no-Michi on his lap.

"One must... steel themself against immancabile odds if they wish to find the-," Lurioku mentally recited before pausing mid-sentence as a kid Winter Lily flew in front of his face with a peach in her mouth.

"I suggest you skedaddle, peach holder," Lurioku stated as he grabbed the handle of his sword. Winter Lily blankly stared at Lurioku with such intensity someone might believe she had a single brain cell.

"Huh?" Winter Lily uttered with a muffle before a musical shing echoed from behind. A red opaque crystalline octopus tendril shot out from the dense forest. Within a split second, Lurioku unsheathed Hakai-no-Michi and the tendril split in half. The sliced halves shot off beside Lurioku and pierced into the ground. It took Winter Lily a second to register what happened before she frantically stuttered and swiftly booked it.

Lurioku contently smirked and rose to his feet as Hakai-no-Michi's sheath floated behind him while being covered by teal telekinetic energy. He slashed his sword to the side, and a volley of blade after images raced over the tendril before it exploded into cuboid chunks.

"Honestly, Zalroth wasn't kidding when he said these things show up at the most inopportune times," Lurioku uttered as he raised his hand before the heathen chunks morphed into antimatter (a pitch-black material with a bold glowing azure blue outline). A musical watery gurgle murmured from the forest as tree-size fire-type heathen emerged into the clearing. Lurioku glanced around and noticed the faint glow of the many smaller fire-type octopus heathens hiding in the forest.

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"Let's get started.". Lurioku stood behind the large heathen in a finished downward sword slash stance. The large heathen leaned sideways before splitting perfectly in half and bursting into floating clusters of antimatter. Lurioku rose to his feet and clicked his neck.

"I said let's get started, didn't I?". The surrounding heathens angrily screeched at Lurioku before they bursted out from the forest to try and swarm Lurioku. Lurioku scoffed while muttering heathens have no sense of honour. He hopped backwards to avoid multiple tendril smacks before unleashing a torrent of speed-blurring sword slashes to shred the tendrils to pieces.

At appearance flickering speeds, Lurioku dashed around the heathen swarm while evading their whip attacks and countering their barrage of fire attacks with floating antimatter shortswords. From a distance, Winter Lily watched a blurry Lurioku speeding around with the heathen he passed exploding into pieces a second later.

Lurioku backflipped slicing the heathen in front of him horizontally in half. He spun around mid-air and slashed the last heathen into multiple pieces. Lurioku landed on the ground as all the heathen chunks turned into antimatter before gathering and swirling around Lurioku.

"If Zalroth were here, he'd say: good grief before Chronia'd pretend to run her fingers on the brim of an imaginary hat.". Lurioku smirked contently, but his smirk faded as he heard another crystalline murmur. He sighed and turned in the direction of the murmur before he raised an eyebrow. Lurioku stared at the faint grey glow and piercing grey eyes hidden amongst the trees.

Lurioku flinched at the sound of a rustle before a grey blur blasted out from between the trees. Lurioku frantically raised his sword to defend himself, but the blur easily knocked Hakai-no-Michi out of his hand. The blur lunged at Lurioku before a sickening squelch echoed through the forest.