On Jerrim’s farm, a sea of flames engulfs everything on its path. Jerrim’s mansion, and all the fields and buildings got burnt and turned to charred black, not only that, all the farmers, and the servants were all brutally slaughtered. A vivid representation of hell.
“Hahaha, kill!!, take everything you saw and capture all the woman!!” said the bearded man, he wore a leather jacket with hoodie, he had an eyepatch, his red long hair, his long scar on his face and his muscular physique made all the people around him cowering in fear, he is the leader of the bandit troupe, Don Rogue.
“AAHH!!…S-STOP!!” the screams and the helpless voices of the servants resonating in the air, Don’s henchman keeps pouring the gasoline to keep the fire bigger and more devastating, they also forcefully take all the valuable things they found, searching all the hidden place and kill everyone who tried to flee, no one is able to escape from this hell. The laughter of Don’s Henchman slaughtering everyone fills the air until there is not a single scream that can be heard again.
“Boss, I think we hit a jackpot with this one, *kekeke*.” said one of the men while laughing, he is dragging the helpless woman by grabbing her hair, it’s Conny’s mother, the tan skinned woman with black hair and thin body.
“*Keugh*… Let me go… you scum…the goddess will pun-.” Conny’s mother struggled a lot trying to break free from the restraint, but then-
-*Plack*.
Don slaps the woman’s face and he looks at her face while grabbing her chin forcing her to look up to Don’s face, then moving his face to get closer to her pained face, a wide grin appears on Don’s face.
“We don’t fear your goddess or shit like that, it’s fake… we have Mother Earth, The Goddess of Nature, she is the true god, the one and only!!Today is the harvest day, rejoice humans for I will bring her benevolence to your ignorant goddess.” Don look at the sky and he felt elated when he boasted about his faith towards Mother Earth, Goddess of Nature, by extending both his hands to the night sky; his hoodie fell off and his pointy ears were revealed.
“Y-you… are Elf?” said the woman, she made a blank expression on her face.
Elves were said to be resentful towards human, because they believed in Mother Earth, the Goddess of Nature, and humans labelled them as heretic, moreover human did a deforestation quite often that results in elves tribes territory got reduced by a lot, as such humans and elves can’t coexist, some elves groups banded in and formed a groups of mercenaries, but in human society, that group of mercenaries is called bandit, like Don Rogue’s troupe.
“Why… did you do this...you murdered my husband and all the people here for… blind faith?” the woman said in a low voice, she lowered her head, biting her lips and clawing the dirt, to express her anger and her frustration towards all of this.
“Mom!!”
Suddenly, a young lady appears from the burned wheat field, her wolf white hair flutters, her eyes were white, to be exact all of her existence is white. She is Silvie, she holds a pitchfork pointing at Don and his henchman, her cloth is full of dirt, it seems she was crawling through mud to avoid being detected.
“Silvie!!! Why are you here?! GO… I told you to leave! run, run away from here!” Silvie’s mom shouts to Silvie to abandon her, meanwhile Don looks at Silvie, he seems to be realizing something, then his breathing becomes erratic, he clenches his fist, his eyes pop out of his head, then he shouts loudly at Silvie while pointing his finger at her.
“IMPOSSIBLE, THIS…THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!…A HUMAN…WITH WHITE SKIN ALL OVER HER BODY…YOU… YOU ARE ALBINO!” Don shouted, all the people looked at Don with shocked expressions to think he would react like that all of the sudden by looking at Silvie’s figure.
“B-boss calm down, it's just a kid.” Don’s henchman tried to calm Don Rogue down by stating the obvious, but it just made him angrier, as Don Rogue grabs his shirt collar and keeps pointing at Silvie.
“Just a kid? She is an Albino…do you have any idea what that means?...we have no choice, we need to kill her and her mother… shit, I thought this was a good harvest… but it was the opposite, I can’t let that albino bastard escape and live from here.” Don closes his eyes and his vibe turns solemn, he grabs the lying scythe near him and begins chanting a prayer in elven language, his henchman immediately protects him.
“W-what is he doing? it looks ominous…Mom, we need to get out from here…” Silvie said, while helping her mother to get up. Unbeknownst to Silvie, her mother’s eyes were lifeless. And soon her body fell like a doll which the string got cut off from it, not just that, Don’s henchman too experiences the same thing.
“M-mom? Mom…” Silvie checks her mother's pulse by touching her wrist, she can’t feel her mother's pulse, her mother died just like that. Cold sweats start dripping from her face, her whole-body trembles and she stumbled back to ground, looking at Don’s body that slowly rotted like a corpse, his hoodie leather jacket changed into long black robe, dark hue enveloped his body and the scythe he held, he became a grim reaper.
“Oh Mother. I offer you my offering, a soul of the living.” Don finished his chanting, and in an instant, his body moved extremely fast like he’s blinking. He stopped in front of Silvie and he began to swing his scythe to behead her. Silvie froze in her spot, unable to lift the pitchfork because she was terrified and that scythe is too fast.
Time seemed to slow down when Silvie saw the sharp scythe in front of her, she saw the reflection of herself on that sharp scythe and she thought,
Ah this is it, this is death. Dad, Mom, Brother Conny… I'm sorry…
Silvie bitterly bit her lips and closed her eyes. Then, something unimaginable happened.
-*Clank*
A dull metal sound reverberated through the air. Silvie opened her eyes only to find her brother, deflecting the scythe with his bloodied horns on his forehead. Don widen his eyes, he did not expected his attack to be deflected like that as he took a step back by Conny's sudden interference as he took a step back by Conny's sudden interference.
Is that my brother…? Silvie could not keep her eyes off from his brother’s face since Conny’s face is not a human’s face; it contorts into male sheep face, with both long bloodied pointy horns. He turned his body, and looked at Silvie, who was sitting on the ground. Then Conny began to pat Silvie’s head and knelt in front of her,
“I’m sorry, my cute little sister Silvie. Your brother couldn’t arrive sooner.”
“B-brother…Dad and Mom... they…they are dead…they protect me…I-...I…”
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Silvie stuttered, her eyes were bawling in tears. She grabbed her brother's shirt and cried silently on her brother’s chest, her sobbing continued until she couldn't shed a tear anymore then she passed out.
“Well~ well~ well~… to think tonight I encountered such ugly being…. A human sheep? This is so absurd, Mother of Earth didn’t like your soul, she keeps begging me to slice you and turn you into a skewer.” A wide grin appeared on Don’s face, his hands were busy playing with the scythe like a toy, Conny turned his head and looked at the night sky, then he said.
“Kind sir Herlan, I know you’re watching please get my sister away and keep her safe.” Suddenly a giant red eye appears, that giant red eye reveals the silhouette of a man with a long black coat and a top hat, he is levitating in the air. Don Rogue didn’t notice anything amiss he thought that Conny was talking to himself.
“*Sigh*… just call me Herlan, kid…I’ll promise to protect your sister with my life, but you need to come with me after this, you’re under arrest.” Conny nods his head after hearing Herlan’s word, then he focuses his attention back to Don again and makes a side stance movement from a lost martial art, Herlan approaches Silvie who’s lying down on the ground unconscious.
She is… an albino, seems like this is a serious case, and Conny… how did he notice me?... I was sure I’m in incognito mode, yet he knew that I’m observing him. After I woke him up, something must’ve happened to his soul, his physic improved and his head can transform into male sheep… could it be the real mask of existence?... interesting.
Herlan lost in his thought, he decided to have a talk with Conny after all of this, Herlan tap his silver cane and the four little hands come out and became bigger, it envelops Silvie’s body like trying to form a shield, then Herlan stand in front of it, watching Conny fight with Don, a wide grin appear on Herlan’s face.
Show me, show me that you’re not afraid of death, kid.
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A crackling noise of the flames, the poignant scent of blood and waste, the moonlight shines brightly and a chilling air night feels perturbing. Two individuals keep exchanging blows after blows with swift movements full of killing intent, the one who resembles a human sheep is Conny and the other one who looks like a grim reaper is Don Rogue.
Conny struggles to deflect any attacks from Don, if Conny carelessly blocks it with his horns, Don will swiftly change the direction to his neck, it is too dangerous, Conny just has one chance, he can’t screw up or else he will be dead in a flash. His eyes relentlessly tracking Don’s arm movements, his body bleeds a lot just from a few scratches of small contact with Don’s scythe surface that is enveloped with dark hue.
He is so fast even though he is swinging that big ass scythe… if this goes on I’ll get tired and I’ll be killed…I need to create a momentum…
“Is this all you can do? dodging my attacks? you truly turned into an animal, huh?” Don on the other hand seems irritated and even say that remarks to make Conny upset and lower his guard, but Conny didn’t care about it and keeps dodging all the incoming attacks like a slippery fish, the only thing in Conny mind is to create a momentum to end this barrage of attack in one shot.
Don had enough, he extended his left hand and said, “Death grasp!”
Conny felt a tight grip around his neck all of the sudden, he couldn't breathe, his instinct screamed at him, the next second, he saw Don blinking and then appear in front of him. Conny vividly feel it, the chilling sensation of death, facing with the cold death in front of him, Conny squeeze out all his willpower to not succumb to despair, he grits his teeth until it’s bleed, twisting his body to unhuman degree to avoid being decapitated then raising his left arm trying to deflect the incoming attack.
Unfortunately, Don’s scythe sliced Conny's left arm like a knife slicing a smooth butter, but Don didn’t realize that Conny purposely made that risky move to close the distance between them, with one more twist Conny delivered a powerful blow with his right arm. Conny strikes connected!! He punches Don’s lower abdomen with every power he has.
-*BAM*
Don's body flew and hit the burning hut nearby, as the burning hut got wrecked from the impact, and Don got buried under the rubble and flames.
“AAHHHH!!” Conny screams as blood spurts and keeps pouring from his left arm like a water fountain, he rolls on the ground pathetically while grabbing his left arm with his right hand.
Don rises from the rubble and the flames, he is not in a grim reaper state now, his body condition was worse, he didn’t expect a single punch to be that powerful, he threw up gallons of blood as he approached Conny.
“You…little shit… YOU!!… I’LL KILL YOU!” Conny helplessly looks at Don from the ground by supporting his head with his chin, he can’t do anything, even staying conscious is taking a toll on his body, Don dragging his own feet to get closer to Conny, both of them were on the brink of death, when suddenly, all of the sudden, a streak thin red-light pierce through Don’s skull, his body fell cold, Don Rogue died just like that.
“What an interesting match, but I hate it when the elf wins… I’m sorry kid.” That’s what Conny heard, he turns around only to find Herlan with his red left eyeball shining, Conny forgot about that, the fact that Herlan is the Watcher, then Conny passes out.
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2 weeks later…
Conny slowly opens his eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling greets him, the room is small and damp without any windows and lights, Conny wants to get up but he can’t, his left arm isn’t there, his body fully wrapped in bandage, even his mouth.
-*Creak*.
The wooden door opened up, then a man enters the room, he was none other than Herlan Reawed, with his casual outfit he looks like an ordinary old man now, but Conny can’t be fooled, he knows that this old man wasn’t ordinary at all, then Herlan grab a chair beside the bed and sit on it, he looks at Conny’s messed up condition with concerned face.
“Hey you, you’re finally awake.” Somehow Conny felt this situation seems familiar, but he can’t figure out why, Conny wants to say something but he can’t, he just makes some grunts, Herlan bursts into laughter when he hears Conny’s grunt.
“Bahahaha… you look like a corpse, kid, who would have thought you are still alive, well this will make things smooth, oh we are in the church basement by the way.” Conny looks at Herlan with confused expression, like he is saying he wants some explanation, lighting up the lantern on the table near him, Herlan explains everything to Conny in a hoarse voice.
“I’m sorry about what happened to your parents, oh I didn’t tell your sister, Silvie, the fact that you are alive, I told her that you were dead bravely saving me and her. She got recommended to enroll at the Stella Ethereal academy, she seems to be 15 years old so she is the youngest student there, but you on the other hand… the church wants me to execute you, because of what you did, trespassing the forbidden area. But I can’t do that, I had a great plan, you will be my assistant, my free assistant.”
Herlan purposely deepened his voice when he uttered the last sentence. Conny felt a sudden chill when he heard that last sentence, but Herlan didn’t stop and kept talking.
“You know, after I check your body, turns out you possess the mask of existence, the most dangerous item, it’ll let you become anything you want and use whatever imagination you have, and your sister is also an albino, an albino means she is a goddess incarnation…you’ve gained a freedom both your sister and you, one more thing, that fat-bastard Jerrim, turns out he collaborate with that elf, Don Rogue, the church and the kingdom execute him afterwards. I work like a horse after I report the whole situation that night, interrogating the henchman of Don Rogue and making Jerrim confess his sin, god that was awful, I’m now old you know, I want to retire so much.”
After rambling about his work, Herlan pulls out a tiny flask containing a black liquid from the wooden cabinet near him, and offers it to Conny.
“Unfortunately, kid, your freedom is a hell, it will be filled with curse, terror and some fucked up things. That elf was adorable compared to what you’ll experience from now on, drink this to survive, this is the blood of that elf, it’ll tamper your soul and turn you into…I don’t know because I don’t possess the mask of existence.”
Herlan put up a warm smile on his face, he really looks like a friendly neighborhood old man, if not for the fact that he forcefully choked the black liquid into Conny’s mouth.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, hope you have a terrible nightmare, kid.” Herlan closed the door and left Conny alone in the room.
He is not kind at all!!
Conny cursed that old man and his slyness, he couldn’t imagine he would find himself in this absurd situation. He looked at the ceiling again, then his vision slowly turned to pitch black darkness. Conny passes out again thanks to the effect of the black liquid Herlan gave earlier.
Goddamnit you!…old man!