Sorry this chapter was so long in coming. Real life happened and is still happening. I’ll keep trying to put out chapters in my free time as I work out my schedule. Thanks for reading.

As always, I appreciate suggestions and when you point out any typos or mistakes.

Hope this longer chapter helps make up for my absence.

Please Enjoy.

Chapter 4: The Baron

Dusty sighed for the hundredth time that day. He had been attempting to cleanse the town for weeks and felt he wasn’t making any progress. He had systematically murdered many of the thugs, criminals, and corrupt people in the city, but it seemed as though there were always more.

He had to eliminate the source of corruption in the town. As he sat on the roof of a building, he looked towards the small fort in the center of the large town. Some Baron lived there who was apparently corrupt as they come.

Everyone he questioned pointed to the Baron. Even in the early days, immediately after he had killed the fat crime boss, the thugs pointed to the Baron. No one mentioned the fat man, even though they couldn’t have known he was dead. They always just indicated the Baron. It was strange.

He did what he could to learn more but no one seemed to know much about the man. Apparently, he was once a good man but he had become corrupt within the last year. They all said he was corrupt, but no one could tell Dusty why he was corrupt or where the rumors started.

It was frustrating, but he had no other leads. There was only one option at that point. He would interrogate the Baron himself. It felt wrong though, as if someone was trying to get him to walk into a trap.

However, he couldn’t really imagine any situation in which someone would orchestrate the movements and responses of all of the town’s resident thugs to prepare such a convoluted trap just for him. Dusty knew that his effect on the crime in the city wasn’t really that impactful. He had decreased the crime in the city but it would be naïve to think that he could fully cleanse it of corruption.

Dusty planned to eliminate all of the sources of corruption in town, hoping that whoever would take over would be incompetent and less detrimental to the little city he had somewhat grown fond of. After taking care of the Baron, he would leave the city and repeat his war on crime elsewhere. He smiled as he lay back, watching the clouds lazily roll by as he waited for night.

Dusty jumped from building to building, only using his dark grey portals when the buildings were too far apart. After practicing with his portals so often, he could control them easily, instantly creating them when he needed to.

He opened a portal in front of himself and jumped through as he neared the small castle. He began falling through the sky because the portal opened up high above the fort’s grounds. He quickly picked a spot and opened another portal before he picked up too much momentum. He was thrown forward out of the portal and tucked himself into a roll as he landed outside an open balcony door.

His roll carried him into the building and he quickly looked around to see if someone inside had spotted him. There was no one around. It was somewhat suspicious. Why was the balcony door opened with no one around and the door to the inner building closed?

His fear that there was a trap was renewed and he became more cautious as he began to traverse the halls. It was quiet. He thought about leaving then and there, but his curiosity got the better of him and he continued moving to where he assumed the audience hall was. If they had prepared a trap, that’s where they would be waiting, right?

The few servants he passed ignored him, which only made him more suspicious that something was off. He eventually reached the audience hall, sweating from the nerves and adrenaline. He put his hand to the door and took a few deep breaths, anticipating a fight unlike any he had before. He charged in, throwing the door open as he drew his dagger.

The room was empty. He cursed at himself, thinking he was thinking too much of the stories and movies he had watched back in his world. He walked through a portal and back on to one of the higher floors. He walked quickly around until he found a servant. He was done fooling around.

He grabbed the man and growled at him “Where is the Baron?” The servant looked frightened and tried to point back the way he had come but Dusty turned him around and said, “Show me.”

The frightened man turned and walked in the direction he had pointed, bringing Dusty upstairs and to a room that was guarded. Well it was guarded at some point but the guards in front of the door were lying face down in a puddle of their own blood, which was still slowly spreading across the stone floor.

The servant’s eyes grew wide and he stood frozen, staring at the bodies down the hallway. Dusty, who was desensitized to blood and death moved down the hallway to the door. It was opened slightly and the room was dark. He pushed the door and it swung open silently. He stepped into the room, drawing a dagger in case the killer was still around. Moonlight poured in through the window, lighting the room just enough for him to see.

There was a body lying on the bed motionless, lit by the moonlight that shone directly upon him, as if it was intended. It looked like it was the baron, murdered in his own bed. ‘I guess that’s the baron.’ He thought as he wondered who had beaten him to the scene.

There was a sharp pain in his side as he was hit from behind, knocking him to his hands and knees. He turned to see the servant man grinning evilly and holding a bloody knife. Dusty created a portal beneath him to take himself away from the castle before the man could do more damage.

The “servant” with a knife grabbed him by his shirt and threw him into a wall before he could fall through the portal. He jumped on Dusty and shoved the knife into his stomach, the grin receding into a smug look. “Thank you, boy” He said the word boy as if it was something unforgiveable. “Now you can take the blame for all of this” He pulled the knife out and stabbed again. Dusty coughed up blood as he was stabbed again and again, until darkness claimed him.

Dusty awoke on a wooden barge that was little more than a wooden raft, staring up into a sky covered by dark clouds. He sat up and looked around, seeing that a beautiful woman with a pole was pushing off the bottom of the river to propel them forward to push the barge upriver. She was dressed head to toe in black cloth with grey lace and long, flowing silk hair to match her dress. The only part of her skin he could see was her face. Her skin was white, as if death had claimed it and he imagined she would be cold to the touch.

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Around them, red hills surrounded the river that meandered into seeming eternity while dark clouds were all that could be seen of the sky in any direction. Lightning struck in the distance but he didn’t hear any thunder. It was bleak and barren as though nothing had ever been able to grow there other than the red grass. It felt surreal and but he already knew what was happening.

“I died,” he told the woman.

“Yes.” Her voice was melodic and comforting.

“We haven’t moved an inch since I… woke up here.”

“That is correct,” she spoke softly.

“Are you death?”

She giggled. “No, this is merely a single interpretation of your perception of death, or at least the transition between life and death. This place is something like your mind’s creation, a figment of your imagination.” She gestured, arms spread out.

“Then who are you?” he asked.

“I am merely a god with wishes that only I myself can hope to grant,” She sighed.

“I see. You want to use me don’t you?” He lay back onto the barge, getting comfortable.

“Yes, I do.”

“Then you can reverse death, can’t you?”

“Yes, but there is a price, and there are rules, even if I am a god. No god I know of is all-powerful.”

“What are the rules?”

She gave him a look of pity. “One: there can only be one person that I can resurrect until he or she chooses permanent death.

“Two: A life for a life. You must surrender the life of someone close to you in exchange for your resurrection.”

“Three: You must ask one question every time you die and I will answer it as close to what you seek as I can.”

“These are the rules that must be followed.”

Dust looked at her with concern. How could he simply kill those he cared about just so he could live a little longer? “Even if I’m brought back, my body is still full of holes.”

“The life energy of the sacrifice will heal you. I can also tell you who will die each time you go back.”

“Who has to die if I go back?” If it were someone in his family, he wouldn’t accept the trade.

“Your companion. Your only friend in this world will be the sacrifice for your return.”

Dusty thought about it for a while as he considered what changes he choices he could make and the consequences of his actions. He thought of Steve and wondered about his thoughts. If he went back, he couldn’t allow himself to die again as his life was no longer the one he was living. He realized that he had already made up his mind.

“I accept.” He grimaced. “Send me back.” ‘Forgive me Steve’

“The question. Ask your question.”

“The man that killed that Baron. Where can I find him?”

She walked over to him and touched his forehead, causing images to flood his mind, taking root in his memory. He gasped, awakening to a dark, moonlit room wearing a shirt soaked with his own blood. He stood up and saw a girl staring at him from the doorway. His eyes widened in surprise.

She wore some kind of leather and cloth outfit, likely meant to protect her from animals and the hard ground. She had dark hair and bright blue eyes. She was pretty, and Dusty thought the outfit was quite flattering to her healthy body. She was staring in horror at the scene of death, tears spilling from her eyes.

She drew a short sword and screamed in rage as she rushed at him. He could tell that she wouldn’t listen to him so he sent a regretful look at her as he hopped backwards through a portal and was gone.

Elana returned home after a long hunt. She had been gone for nearly a week and missed her father. She entered the fort grounds and stabled her horse. She thought about taking a hot both and eating a hot meal but first she would go see her father.

Even though he had been acting strange for the past year, it didn’t matter. Even if old age was beginning to cause problems with how he acted, he was her only family and her beloved father. Her mother had died when she was young due to a sickness. She didn’t even remember her anymore. She made her way to her father’s room, thinking he was probably trying to arrange a marriage for her again.

She smiled at the thought that she had denied all of his matches after meeting with them. It was her right to do so and they were all arrogant jerks that expected her to kiss their feet and beg for marriage because they were higher ranked royalty. She couldn’t care less about their riches and power. She just wanted her and her father to be happy while they kept their territory safe. She trained to be a warrior and a lady at the same time. As she saw it, she was like a warrior princess as she imagined one to be. She was skilled with many weapons and also with politics. There were very few things that she actually feared.

She turned the corner and saw her father’s guards. They were dead, leaking blood onto the stone floor and she was instantly terrified for her father’s life. Why would anyone even want to kill her father?

Maybe it was her fault. Perhaps someone was trying to kill her father in order to scare her into marriage. She rushed to the door and looked inside. She saw him lying peacefully in his bed and immediately knew he was dead. She started crying silently, too shocked by his death to even move or cry out.

She heard a gasp and finally noticed the body at the foot of her father’s bed. The man stood up and looked directly at her. He was covered in blood as if he had been rolling in it. What kind of monster was this man to be so obsessed with blood? She drew her sword, rage clouding her thoughts as she charged him.

He looked at her. Was that pity? What an arrogant asshole. He hopped backwards through some strange gray doorway that appeared and then he was gone, her sword cutting through air. She screamed and began sobbing.

It wasn’t until the next day that she had gathered herself and put everything in order. She prepared her best hunting party and made sure the fort could take care of itself in her and her father’s absence. She wore her hunting gear and a determined look on her face. She knew what she was looking for because there was only one creature that could do something like what that man had done.

She had a demon to hunt.