The land was once green, colorful, and full of life. Deer and wildlife would populate the woods as children would play in the grass. The men would work the fields while the women would work the homes and mills. “Come back before it’s dark!” the parents would call as their children would continue to laugh. “Got it mama!” But those fields are gone now.

Dead grass. Dead trees. Dead animals. A dead world. Ever since the War of Sin, the world had become a dying one. Carrion birds would feast upon corpses only to fall suddenly dead and become the meal of another carrion bird. Anything which was left in this world was left as either broken or breaking, and humanity was being broken.

Zhao Xiaojun walked through the dead fields, his eyes looking to the left and right as he marched with his heavy cataphract armor which wrapped around him like dragon scales. There were many dents and scratches, just like the dents and scratches notching his heavy guandao. The glaive was clean, though the stench of blood and horror still reeked from the weapon.

His journey had been a long one, though he knew he was still far from his destination. It was said that a march of a thousand miles begins with one step. But even though he had marched that thousand, he had many more thousands to go. It was one man against an entire world far larger than him in strength and size.

Looking in the distance, he saw the thatches of a sacked village. Ever since the War of Sin, and the spontaneous appearance of monsters around the world, villages without walls and warriors became nothing but eating or breeding stock for the monsters and creatures who viewed the once arrogant humans as nothing but prey. Men who tasted delicious to bite, and women who felt pleasurable to plunder. Monsters see people as mere meat.

Xiaojun usually avoided these destroyed slums. Though they were usually desolate, there was the chance that monsters were still living within them. That would distract him from his mission, and definitely add a few more scars onto his already scratched face. But Xiaojun felt a little hungry, and his bag was awfully light. Perhaps a stop here for a moment would allow him to scavenge some extra food. He began to approach the damned village.

There was the stench that every corpse had. This village was rotten with it. Compiled with the smell of dead ash, he knew that this village was somewhat recently attacked. The likelihood of survivors was low, as it was for anyone who lived without an army or castle walls. With his guandao in hand, he carefully walked himself through the deserted community.

He checked house by house, finding neither bodies or supplies. Perhaps most of the peasants were lucky, and managed to retreat to a nearby castle. Or the monster got to them first, and ate every last thing in order to satiate its hunger and lust. This was just one of many desolated villages throughout the land.

Xiaojun checked cupboards, shelves, and even the floors themselves. Nothing, other than the stench of death. Maybe it was because of his long time as a warrior that he knew this smell very well. The awful fragrance of sin and pain as someone was subjected to an anguishing demise. No doubt about it, someone had died here.

“Ma ma! Ma ma! I’m scared!” a voice cried outside. Quickly, Xiaojun froze. He held onto his weapon, readying to cut heaven in two if needed. “Ma ma! Please help me! Ma ma!” No doubt, it was the crying of a child. Without a sound, Xiaojun made his way out the back of the home, making sure that even a rat wouldn’t hear his footsteps. Outside, he peered to the front. He saw no children, only monsters.

The creatures looked like dogs from hell. Human hands instead of feet. A distorted face of a human instead of a dog. Eyes in their pits which darted at any semblance of movement. “Help me! Please!” the dogs continued to cry, mimicking the sound of children. Xiaojun understood what happened. These dogs killed all who were left in this village, and used their cries as further bait for anyone who dared to enter this village. Hell had ascended onto earth.

Then suddenly, the crying stopped. The eyes looked right at Xiaojun. From the faces, the warrior could discern a clear sign of gluttony: the watering of mouths and the hunger for flesh. Immediately, the dogs began to charge at the warrior, the false cries of children still echoing from their bodies. “I don’t want to die! Please! Please spare me!” the calls continued.

Xiaojun didn’t say a word when he stepped back from the house. He simply prepared his weapon. He had already killed plenty of demons. These would just be a few more to blunt his weapon. He watched as the dogs charged towards him. But he was doing more than watching. He was waiting.

The dogs jumped at him simultaneously, hoping to bite off his flesh just as they did for many others. But this wouldn’t be Xiaojun’s demise. This would be the moment he was waiting for. He swung his weapon with incredible force. It was time to put down these dogs.

He had sliced them in half. Dark blood oozed about as the crying got worse. “Ma ma! Help! Please! Agh!” The dogs were using the literal cries of the children they had eaten to enunciate their current pain. But Xiaojun felt no empathy. He only felt disgust. With his heavy boots, he stomped the remaining dogs into mush, silencing their falsehoods forever.

“Ma ma? Is that you?” There were more dogs right behind him. The warrior readied his glaive. It was time to kill more dogs. Immediately, the dogs began to charge at him. With each swipe of his weapon, a dog would be cut down and stomped into dark gibs. Xiaojun always finished what he started. His entire body became showered in blood as he cut these gluttonous creatures down. One by one, he covered the entire village in more and more blood as he culled the creatures into piles upon piles of corpses.

When the last creature was killed, Xiaojun was barely panting. These monsters were nothing but demons who hunted the weak. In the face of someone with true strength, these dogs did nothing but die. Calmly, the warrior walked to another one of the houses. Looking inside the pantry, he was lucky to find a bag of untouched rice. Perhaps because it was high up, the dogs were unable to reach for it. Putting it into his bag, he exited the village. The warrior still had a journey to continue.

He continued to march on, making distance from the further decimated village. Xiaojun wanted to finally get some rest, something he seldom received. The world was a dangerous place, and even in the moments he blinked, he had to hold onto his weapon with a tight grip.

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Finally, making his way atop a hill, he finally set himself down. He created a radius of stones, placed down the wood, and made himself a fire. Sitting down, he finally found a respite from his journey. Xiaojun cleaned the blood off of his blade, just as he had done many times ago. He made repairs on his armor, though he kept the large thing on. He could never truly be safe.

Finally, after ensuring he was ready for another battle, he began to cook the rice. Allowing the pot to boil over the fire, he gave a deep exhale. His entire body was roaring with pain as wounds he had not yet healed continue to burn throughout his body.

Years upon years of violence had made his body into a large and war-blessed machine of destruction. With his tall shape and muscular body, he had turned entire companies into stumps. Back then, Xiaojun was a decorated mercenary serving a mighty noblewoman of Vesterland: Nina Wagner.

Nina was the opposite of Xiaojun in almost every way. Xiaojun was a man who fought with force and the mere idea of survival. Nina was a woman who fought with tactics and paramount ideals. “We do not steal or sack from local people,” she decreed to her forces. “If we ever need supplies, we shall pay for them with coin.”

But now, Nina Wagner was not the same. She could never be the same. Now, she was not Nina Wagner. She was simply the puppet of the Beast of Corruption. Not a beast in the physical sense, but a spiritual creature capable of moving heaven and earth.

Kill all of the puppets to kill the beasts. That was the ultimate goal of Xiaojun. That was why he had walked many miles. That was why he slaughtered anything in his path. If he killed the beasts, perhaps then the world would be fixed, and there would be no more need to hide behind castle walls. No more need to hide from monsters. No more need to stay as a warrior.

Suddenly, there was the sound of feet hitting grass. His eyes jerked awake as he grabbed his weapon. But instead of seeing another godless demon, he found something different: a young woman. The last time he had seen someone who didn’t want to kill him was an era ago. But he kept his weapon high, refusing to back down.

“Hello? Are you a human as well?” the girl asked. She kept her hands up and open. The woman was wearing a red silk dress, perhaps one that belonged to royalty of some kind. Nonetheless, she maintained a severely pacifistic aura. “I have been running for several days. Would it be possible for you to spare some food and rest for me?”

There was something strange about her, that primarily being the sudden trust in a man who could easily kill her. But at the same time, he couldn’t just slaughter a completely innocent person. Slowly, he sat himself down. The woman, accepting this as an invitation, approached the fire. “Thank you!”

Without even asking, the woman delved for the pot which had been boiling. She took handfuls of rice, stuffing it into her mouth. “I have been starving! Good lord!” She continued to eat from it as Xiaojun just continued to look at her with suspicion.

But he had journeyed for a long time, and this was nothing but a pompous young woman. There was no need to maintain his guard. So, calmly, he closed his eyes. It was finally time for him to embrace some gentle rest. After only a moment, he looked to be fast asleep.

That was when the woman stopped interacting with the pot, smiling like a knife who no longer needed a sheath. Moving to all fours, her body began to transform as she inched herself closer to the sleeping warrior. “Hungry…” she began to mutter. Eventually, her body transformed into a white and furred creature: a nine-tailed fox.

She crouched up to the warrior, opening her mouth and preparing to sink them into the man’s neck. Surely with one strong bite, she could fell the strong warrior into nothing but another meal. In her mind, it was all his fault for allowing someone like her to get so close. This was just nature.

Suddenly, she was grabbed and thrown to the ground. She immediately changed back to her human form as Xiaojun placed his boot onto her chest. He placed his blade right in front of her neck, forcing her entire life to flash behind her eyes. “No! Please! I’ll do anything!” she begged. “Just don’t do it!”

But there was nothing behind his eyes. In fact, they were more inhuman than any pair she had ever seen. “M-my blood! If you drink my blood, you can become perfectly healed! I swear on my life! Just don’t kill me!” She closed her eyes, expecting the cold blade to enter her throat and end it all. But, instead, there was nothing.

Opening her eyes, she watched as he grabbed her hand and used a knife to cut a small gash. It stung. Afterwards, the warrior licked the wound. Surely enough, his body felt revived as the many wounds he had began to close and heal. There was now a reason for her to be alive.

The next morning, he dragged her around like a man driving cattle. With a rope tied around her hands and a leash tied around her neck, she was walked through the dark field as the warrior continued his journey. “Heaven have mercy! Are you just going to use me as a source of quick healing?” Xiaojun didn’t respond, but the unsaid answer was simple enough.

“Fine then,” the woman said, “since you plan on having me as your personal pet, then I should have you know that my name is Hua! So, if you plan on calling me anything, call me that please!” But the warrior didn’t say a single word. Instead, he just kept tugging her along as the rope continued to roughly tangle on her neck.

They continued to move along the rugged paths. Perhaps in the past, they were proper roads. But after years of overgrowth and a declining empire, they were nothing but patches pitifully collecting rainwater. As their feet gently pressed against the mud, Hua shivered and groaned as Xiaojun continued to drag her along. “You are a bastard of a gentleman!” she cursed. “I know you almost caught me trying to have a bite of your neck, but understand that you smelled so delicious and—”

She was interrupted by a sudden tug, which only added to her irritation. “You really have to learn how to treat a lady right!” she demanded. “Even if I’m a huli jing, I’m still a woman! One that just happens to feast upon humans and have magical blood.” There was still not reaction from Xiaojun, other than the routine tugs to pull her along his journey.

Hua growled in irritation, preparing to transform back into her wolf form. But before she could even got to her fours, Xiaojun kicked her in the liver. Reverting back into her human form, she keeled to the ground with a wheeze. “I was only joking…” she coughed. “I wasn’t going to even do anything…” Xiaojun just kept tugging on the rope. He still didn’t have an ounce of care.

The sky was bleak with clouds which shrouded over the muffled sun. The dead trees wheezed and crumbled with every gust of wind as the dying world continued to decay around them. Parts of the woods shrieked with otherworldly creatures, as some other traveler probably met a terrible doom. But that wouldn’t be Xiaojun, for he had a destination to reach.

Dajing: the great capital of the Jiaguo Empire. Though not at its pinnacle, the powerful city was home to all of the most powerful figures in all of the empire. Most of all, it would be the one place he would find the Beast of Corruption. It wouldn’t be long until that deity would use Nina’s body and mind to reach the pinnacle of power. At that point, all of the world would fall to shadows darker than anything mankind could even imagine. They would snuff out heaven itself.

But that was many miles away. For now, he had something to do. Tugging Hua along, they made it to a tall cliff. Before them was a view of the world before them. A world crumbling by its very frames and seams as shadow, darkness, and plain gloom occupied the once bountiful and green land. It was the kind of view that could give you nightmares as each shadow and shade of darkness evoked the most disturbing thoughts of the imagination. “Are we looking for something?” Hua asked, looking beyond. Xiaojun, once again said nothing, before kicking her off of the cliff. With a scream, Hua fell into the chasm below.