Meanwhile, the foolish buffoon praised to high heavens by Paul Ballitz was easing out of his dreamless sleep. Samuel had been stuck in a conscious state of pitch darkness for an eternity before light finally shed its grace on his wretched mind once again. Perhaps the awakening was not a favorable occurrence, however. A macabre sight greeted his blurry eyes, while screams and sounds of battle thundered in his ears. Millions of dead and decaying bodies conjuring a smell most foul brought Samuel out of all the drowsiness he retained. Going from one nightmarish situation to another in the blink of an eye will always remain confusing, much less when they become weirder as you progress. Why was he on a battlefield? How was he alive?

From dying, to dead, to being surrounded by death. Samuel was truly creating a tale of death made for the books. A concept most distant to all living creatures—the very opposition of life—found itself covering him in its shadowy claws. For an ignorant and blissfully unaware youth such as Samuel, it created a burden. The burden of knowing, of seeing, and of comprehending. Stuck in his reverie, Samuel was unable to react to the arrow piercing the smelly air in its path towards him. With its sharp barbed head, sleek golden body, and phoenix feathers all stained in blood, it was abundantly clear it had tasted the blood of countless men before. Now, Samuel was about to be another victim on its path to ascension. Akin to a pencil through paper, the arrow pierced a hole through his chest. Detecting its victim not to be dead, it magically altered its trajectory to pierce Samuel’s head from the back. The death of its victims is a must in helping its master. With this one added to the ever-shrinking list, it would inch closer to ascension. When it ascends, its creator and wielder, the smith and general, Kang, will join it. There is no room for mistakes, lest all be lost. However, as the arrow plans, God laughs. Or, rather, Samuel laughs.

Rudely interrupted in his adaptation to the waking world, Samuel was furious at the perpetrator. A mere arrow dared pierce his magnificent chest? Although the pain was muted to a minimum, the healing created a nefarious itch he could not scratch. He would be forced to suffer such torture because of a meager, pathetic, and unsanitary arrow piercing his energyless, defenseless, and temporarily mortal body. It was unacceptable. Terror rose in the immature awareness possessed by the arrow. It would indeed deliver death today. Not to its target, but to itself.

“Animus Imperium”

An extensive extermination of everything labeled “self” in the arrow commenced. Turned tangible via the technique, Samuel slowly, particle by particle, erased the core of the arrow. He was unsure if it could feel pain or not, but he figured this to be the most pertinent route to pursue for his goal. It deserves to suffer. Not only for his own ego’s sake, but for the countless minds he found stored inside it. Millions, if not billions, of mortals and countless cultivators have perished at its foul head. Its evilness, too great for him to ignore, led him down the path of justice once again. Once only a concentrated strand of the arrow's core remained, however, he encountered a roadblock. A much mightier presence permeated its rotten matter. Evil countless times greater than that of the arrow; it was a trace of its master's mind.

The technique of the Bloody Empire of Endless Weapons was an unorthodox creation stemming from the chaotic era of distant times. A time where morals were but a distant dream and all means to power were pursued. The BEEW, or eugh, as many have referred to it, requires you to harness the minds of other creatures weaker than yourself to superficially inflate the size of your own. You will then proceed to forge a weapon where you will place a severed part of your inflated mind. With your mind returned to its normal size, you begin shaping the severed, yet connected, part. You form it into a consciousness that aligns with yours while simultaneously aiding in your endeavors. Usually, you create the weapon to be either a vessel capable of storing minds for your own use or allow it to harness their power to replicate and enhance themselves, similar to a pyramid scheme. If enough parts of your mind ascend, then no matter how weak and tainted you are, you will ascend together with them. This person, the smith and general, Kang, was a different beast altogether. He chose not one of the paths but rather combined them into one final abomination of evil. On every kill, the weapons will grow closer to ascension, while he receives most of the power for himself. In this way, he can continue to forge more weapons. However, Kang clearly found the lost way of converting the power of minds into cultivation and progress. What little Samuel could perceive of the owner's power astounded him greatly.

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“This person is superior even to the Overlord of Time. What mess have I become entangled in?” Samuel was capable of erasing the mind strand within the arrow but was hesitant. What were justice and revenge worth if he were to perish as a consequence? He found the instantaneous transmission ready to occur in case of the arrow’s destruction equal to the summoning of death itself. Samuel possesses not a single comprehensible way of escaping with his life intact in a confrontation with this mysterious smith. Yet… he was unable to leave. As much as Samuel is a terrible person with no regard for others due to his willful ignorance, seeing this horror unfold hurt him. When you don’t know, you can’t care. But when the veil of ignorance lifts once and for all, it becomes the greatest terror. Anger rose from within him. Not necessarily at the suffering subjected to the scarce warring cultivators around him, but at the fact he could not ignore their plea. Their suffering.

“The opposite of ignorance truly is hell,” he lamented before rising from the bloodied soil, arrow in hand. With a crisp sound, it broke in half before crumbling into dust. The clash paused momentarily. The array of weapons slaughtering the army all came to a halt simultaneously. One thousand weapons bathed in blood all mustered a cry. Through resonance, the soundwave created a tiny, portal-like rift. From which a graceful, sleek, yet menacing hand emerged. The hand, covered in dark tattoo-ish markings and purple nail polish, grasped the portal’s edge to pull the rest of the body across. A meek, slender, and moderately tall woman emerged with poise and grandeur. The weapons all shifted in her direction before prostrating on the ground, making for a grand welcome. The portal closed after the lady fully emerged.

“Such a mesmerizing smell emitted by such a barren desert. How magnificent. Even the most decrepit and abandoned areas of the universe are good for something, I suppose.” She took a breath to collect her bearings, shortly continuing speaking, but to the crowd this time. ”Who here was capable of destroying one of Emperor Kang’s esteemed weapons?” From the mild and delighted tone she used when talking to herself to the cold and murderous demand towards Samuel was too great a change. He became torn. On one hand, the woman was unstable and scary; on the other, it was not this Kang man. Samuel spotted her regality instantaneously upon laying his eyes on her. She was clearly important, but not as powerful. If not deceived through illusions, then Samuel estimated her to be an easy match for himself. Her appearance also provided him with a much-needed reprieve. The power Samuel could sense from her was tearing at the world’s limit, barely allowing her presence. Meaning that no one stronger should be capable of pursuing him here. If not for his weird situation, he would be expelled himself, much less someone stronger than him. “It’s time for justice,” he mumbled under his breath before exploding with immeasurable speeds towards the floozy.