“Much better.” Stretching for a moment, Christoph stepped forwards and haphazardly whipped his sword out around Emilia’s body to launch the errant Paladin back into a nearby tree. “I always feel great after absorbing that much mana. After the brutal agony I mean, but it looks like I skipped that part this time so that’s a plus.”

“Dane!” Claude’s knuckles went white as he slammed into the gigantic tree, fingers taut around the handle of his straight sword. Ignoring the beast-woman, his stare was directed across the clearing at where the blood-soaked adventurer was bouncing on his toes. “You!”

“Me?” Re-absorbing his sword, Christoph reached a hand up to point towards his own face. Was it his imagination, or had the crystals that studded his body become a little more pronounced? “Can I help you with something?”

“In the name of my brothers,” Claude said, “I will slay you.”

“You know,” Christoph replied, “if Liam hadn’t filled me in I wouldn’t have guessed you and Dane were actual brothers. He has, sorry, had a much thicker build and you know, the hair is different and-”

“We were all brothers!” Claude’s sword shook with rage, and he took a step forwards as Christoph waved Emilia to the side. “We were FAMILY!”

“Family?” Christoph cocked his head at the knight’s words. “What’s family? Can you eat it? Can you sell it? Does it keep you warm at night?”

“What is it?” Claude raised his sword, gripping the handle with both of his hands. “Don’t-”

“No, tell me,” Christoph said. “I mean, I wouldn’t know. Is it really something that important?”

“Henry should have killed you when he had the chance.” Claude spat the words through his teeth as he gathered his mana once more. His body might be worn, but his spirit wasn’t weary, simply dyed red with rage.

“He was going to, until he thought about what his family would think…” Christoph’s blank look seemed to shrug the knight’s anger aside, and his mouth warped into a cruel smile as the Paladin’s eyes widened in shock. “So really, isn’t it your fault that both of your brothers are dead?”

“You lie.” Claude said.

“Why would I?” Christoph shrugged his shoulders, turning aside as if he’d suddenly lost interest in their fight. “I don’t care about your family, or your church. Henry might not have been your fault, but this mess most certainly is.”

“Christoph…” Emilia called out to her companion, stepping towards him as he approached the defeated knight.

“After all,” Christoph said, face twisting with disdain as he came to a stop in front of his opponent. “That isn’t even your real body is it?”

Silence stretched out over the forest floor as Claude cast his eyes downwards, his sword falling to his side as he looked away in shame. Suddenly turning back towards his enemy, the knight twisted his body into a slashing swipe, his gleaming steel sword coming to an abrupt halt before it could reach Chrisoph’s exposed neck.

“No?” Christoph shattered Claude’s blade with the gemstone gauntlet covering his left hand. Forming his weapon into a wide-bladed sword, his counter-attack sent the Paladin flying into the bark once more. “I didn’t think so.”

“Be quiet.” Rising to his feet, Claude lashed out with the jagged blade of his broken straight sword. Smashing through the sluggish blow, the adventurer blew him back against the tree yet again.

“The first time we met, I thought you were such an incredible existence, calm and deadly – the ideal knight.” Christoph shook his head with a sigh. “This? I thought the Creator’s Willful were supposed to be paragons of justice, protectors of the people. Is this really the pinnacle of human virtue? Hiding behind your clones, sending your brothers to an early death? You know, you might have even been strong enough to kill me if you weren’t such a coward,dragonslayer.”

“Shut up!” No matter how many times Christoph knocked him back, the Paladin refused to stay down. Uselessly swinging his broken sword, Claude was forced to the forest floor again and again and again. “Shut up, shut up and just DIE ALREADY!”

“Never.” Christoph’s hissed his reply as he ran the knight through, his crystal blade bursting bloody from the Paladin’s back with a wet thunk. Leaning into the thrust, the adventurer moved forward until he was close enough to whisper into his opponent’s ear. “Tell your church if they ever send someone else after me, I’ll send them back a corpse, cold and empty.”

Twisting the blade between the Paladin’s ribs, Christoph slashed out sideways, cuting the bloodied knight nearly in half. Claude’s body was thrown into the air for a moment before it disappeared in a flash of light, the mana soaring skywards to return to the Kingdom in the south. Watching silently as the spectacle played out, Emilia nearly missed her partner’s next words as they were caught in the sudden onrush of magical wind.

“And I’ll be all the warmer.”

…

“They were actual brothers, then?” Emilia made a face as she glanced down to where Dane’s corpse lay cold upon the leaves

“Apparently,” Christoph replied, brushing twigs from a patch of earth with his feet before thumping down bodily on the dirt. “Henry would have been something like an adoptive brother to them, I guess.”

“And these are the only two you’ve ever…”

“Killed like this?” Lying back, the adventurer stretched out at the cat-girl’s feet, glancing up towards her flickering ears. “Yep. It’s not something I really want to do if I can help it”

“Because of the mana?” Emilia asked.

“Mostly,” Christoph replied with a shudder. “Well, I’m pretty sure people don’t reincarnate in my world, so even though it might be significant to destroy their souls here, that’s just ‘death’ to me. The mana though, it’s a strange feeling… slimy, almost. It’s like I have another body part that isn’t quite mine just yet.”

“That’s why we’re going after the dragons, then?” Sitting down cross-legged next to him, the beast-woman reached out to pet at her lover’s chest.

“That’s right,” Christoph said. “The crystal beasts aren’t just easy to absorb, though, they’re actually pretty delicious as well.”

“That explains why you didn’t want to just rampage through the orcs then,” Emilia replied. “That’d probably be the fastest way for you to get stronger, though.”

“Probably, but, I-” Coming to a stop, the world traveler sat up suddenly, right hand clutched to his chest. “Did you feel that?”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I can see it.” Flattening her palm against his chest, Emilia blinked as she slid her fingers past his ruined tunic and onto the skin below. From within the center of his being, she could feel a warmth pulsing with irregular rhythm, and the crystals on his body flashed with every wave. “What is it?”

“Ahahaha…” Chuckling softly, Christoph slowly rose to his feet. “Hahahaha, AHAHAHAHA!”

“Christoph?” Following her lover to a stand, the cat-girl made no attempt to hide her worries as she looked up at where he was cackling wildly. “Christoph, what is it?”

“Hahaha…” Holding up a hand, the adventurer waved off her concern as he doubled over in mirth. Taking a deep breath, his laughter returned to a soft chuckle and he drew his sword. “It’s nothing, we should get going though. But first…”

Runes wriggled into existence on the blade of Christoph’s crystal sword, an arc of mana flashing out into the forest as he gave it a swing. A muffled cry sounded from deeper into the trees, a rustling thump following the exclamation as his target was knocked from their feet. Dashing after her partner’s attack, Emilia pounced upon the figure before they could recover, one of her poison-coated daggers at the ready.

“The pirate?” Wrinkling her nose, she turned to where Christoph had appeared nearby. “He’s the same elf as earlier, isn’t it?”

“The one and only,” Christoph replied. Tapping the beast-woman off of her prey with the flat of his sword, he leveled the weapon to keep the pirate from rising to his feet. “Plume, was it? Don’t tell me that you had something to do with our shiny friends over there?”

“The church doesn’t cooperate with the non-human races.” Leaning away from the sword hovering in front of him, the young man glanced between Christoph’s blade and Dane’s body in the clearing beyond. “They passed me by back in town.”

“Jesus Christ.” Lifting his left hand to cover his face, Christoph sighed into his palm before sheathing his sword. “You ran into them, and what? You thought it would be a good idea to follow them here? Didn’t I tell you to snap out of it? Didn’t I say that I didn’t want to kill you?”

“How could I?” Plume asked, eyes widening in disbelief. Leaning forward, he demanded an answer from the grimacing world traveler. “Snap out of it? What do you expect me to do?”

“I don’t care what you do,” Christoph said. “Just don’t do it here, I don’t want to be forced to drain you too. It’s bad for my soul.”

“Do you even have a soul?” Plume’s retort was punctuated by the clenching of his fists as he lay helpless in the leaf-covered dirt.

“I don’t think so, actually,” Christoph replied.

“What?!” Shrieking in surprise, the volume of Emilia’s outburst drowned out the half-elf’s own reply. “How?!”

“Calm down, Emilia,” Christoph said, raising his left hand once again. “To begin with, a soul is like… the spiritual vessel – our body is the physical one. If our bodies harbor energy, the soul has mana instead.”

“You really are a monster.” Shifting backwards, Plume tried to distance himself from the duo in front of him.

“Don’t you dare,” Christoph said, drawing his sword once more, stopping the half-elf dead in his tracks. Turning back to Emilia, he tried to speak more deliberately. “Someone like me, who has no mana reserves outside of my body, can’t be said to have a soul. Instead, I have the crystals.”

“The crystals are your soul?” Wrinkling her nose, the cat-girl reached out to brush her hand against the protrusions on his back. Her frown transforming into a smile, she gave the shining gemstones a knock before wrapping her arms around him. “Well, that’s different to having no soul at all.”

“I don’t know about that,” Christoph replied, shrugging his companion off his shoulders as Plume began to move again. “Would you stay still for a minute?”

“Why? So you can kill me, like you killed the rest of the crew? ” Defiance rose in Plume’s narrowed eyes. Was this some kind of divine joke? Had he followed the knights into the forest for this? Sitting up further, he spat towards Christoph’s feet. “I hope you die a slow and painful death.”

“You didn’t seem to care about your crew that much back when you thought you’d be living the good life as part of the adventurer’s guild.” Christoph shook his head at the half-elf’s actions. Stepping forward onto the pirate’s left leg, he shifted his weight onto it, his sword slowly lancing out to pierce into the younger man’s unprotected shoulder. “But if you want to be like that, you leave me no choice.”

“Fuck. You.” Spittle sprayed over his tunic as Plume gave his reply, hands bloody where they were trying in vain to stop the advance of the crystal blade. Diggin trenches in the forest floor with his right heel, the half-elf scowled up at his enemy with an almost tangible hatred. “Are you going to take my soul, too?”

“I don’t think so,” Christoph replied, twisting his sword to prevent the elf from speaking further. “Cannibalism doesn’t sit all too well with me. Besides it’s more poetic this way.”

“Poetic?” Emilia glanced between the screaming pirate and her blank-faced lover. “Christoph?”

“He’s the second half-elf I’ve met since coming to this world,” he said, looking up at where the beast-woman stood holding her dagger nearby. “I killed the first one by taking his mana, so doesn’t it seem fitting that I should give something back in return?”

“Fuck YOU!” Repeating his curse, the half elf tried to wrench the sword aside, succeeding only in severing the fingers on his left hand. Lashing out in frustraion, Plume beat his head and arms against the ground, his mouth opening wide in a wordless scream.

“Brace yourself,” Christoph said, leaning down on his sword to look the pirate in the eyes. “And remember that if you survive this, it’ll be the third time I’ve let you live. You should have just gone back to the guild and made the most of the life you have.”

A blinding light burst forth as a sudden warmth began to build in Christoph’s shimmering blade. Radiating outwards, the mana surged into Plume body and saturated his very soul, his screams growing louder with every second before they came to a sudden stop.

…

“Hey,” Coin said. “Aren’t the pirates gone by now? Can’t we just go back to breakfast already?”

“As if,” Lily replied with a roll of her eyes. “If there was another semi-capable party here we could send them out to have a look, but as it is…”

“We have to protect the people!” Eyes shining with conviction, Regal thumped the end of her staff down on floorboards of the guild’s wooden porch. “Ah, look, there it is!”

“Stay back!” Ruth held up his axe, stepping out in front of the guild building as the skimmer came to a halt. Regal blinked, taking a step backwards before she realized that the words had not been meant for her.”There’s nothing here for you.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Plume replied, staggering as he half fell, half dismounted from the elven craft. Reaching out with his left hand, he stared for a moment at the bandaged limb before using his right to rummage through one of his saddle bags. After a moment he raised his hand, a Bronze medallion dangling down to sway to and fro. “You can put that axe away, I’m here to see the guild.”

“You’re a Bronze ranker?” Lowering his weapon, Ruth held up his palm instead, urging the former pirate to a stop. “Tell me then, what was your business with the Gold rank Christoph?”

“It’s already over.” Ignoring the higher ranked adventurer’s hand, the half-elf stumbled up the guild steps, bloodied shirt brushing against Ruth’s armor as he went. “It’s done, I won’t be bothering him any more.”

“Did he do that to you?” Regal asked, eyes wide beneath the wide brim of her hat. “Is… is he dead, then?”

“Hmph.” Passing the Sacrilegious Shield, the former pirate leaned heavily against the receptionist desk and shook his head. “Good luck with that. Not even the Paladin could take him down.”

“The church is here?” Coin made a face. “We have to inform the guild.”

“If that demon is really a Gold ranker, there will be definite consequences,” Lily said with a frown. “It’s a shame they couldn’t finish the job, though.”

“Enough,” Plume said, gesturing to where the guild employee had taken refuge with the other citizens in the corridor further in. “I’m not a pirate, can I get my guild registration checked now please?”

“Ah, sure.” Stepping out from around the corner, the receptionist spent a moment searching under the counter before producing a pale blue crystal of some sort. Holding it up, she urged the half-elf to place his good hand upon the object. “Let’s see… ah, I can confirm you as a member of the guild. Wait, are-”

“That’s all I wanted to know.” Cutting her words off with his own, Plume did an about-face and limped back down the stairs to his skimmer beyond. “If Christoph comes back, tell him I received his message, loud and clear.”

“What was that about?” Lily’s frown deepened as the elven ship rose into the air and sailed gracefully off into he distance. “Who was that elf?”

“Half-elf,” the receptionist replied with a frown of her own. “He-”

“A half elf?” Narrowing his eyes, Coin turned to stare after the retreating form of the floating crystal-wood craft. “I thought the church elf was the only one in the guild outside of the Knights Sanguine. What’s a bronze ranked half-elf doing on the Kingdom’s side of the Plains?”

“Actually,” the guild worker said, “it says he isn’t in the probationary ranks at all. The medallion might have been Bronze, but the records we have say that he’s meant to be in Silver.”