Towns in this world were either desolate or overcrowded. The overcrowded ones were jammed with refugees and villagers as each one brought their own set of grievances to the local lord or king. “Sire! My village! A group of headless monsters attacked it!” some would scream as they attempted to rush towards the keep with their news. “Back away!” the guards demanded, shoving them off as they held them at spear point. “The lord does not need to hear your mindless nonsense!” As a result, the monsters of reality were simply dismissed as creatures of legend.

Chao and his band of exhausted riders settled themselves within the tavern. The male server brought them their drinks and food as Chao grumbled in irritation. “Where are all the women? And where’s the good booze?” he demanded. The server gave the same answer he gave to the others. “Too much competition within the slums. With this economy, they’re nothing but extra cooks.”

Chao gave a deep sigh as he drank his lukewarm alcohol. The tavern, itself, was sparsely populated as less and less people visited the business. With higher quality alcohol getting expensive and with the price of even food and water being at a pinnacle, there was no need to get a good drink.

“Good lord,” Chao said to his men. “Look what’s become of us.” He placed a small and nearly empty bag onto the table as only a few coins bled from the sack. “We’ve become nothing but lowley bandits in the countryside, and we still barely make anything. One day we’re glorious mercenaries, and the next day we’re just plain crooks!”

A figure in a hood and cloak remained silent as they eavesdropped on them. They kept their ears open and their hands ready as they waited for more information to spew. “It all started because of that demon warrior,” he scoffed. Another one of his men chimed in as he added to the depressive discussion. “You’re right, boss. That’s what they’ve been calling him now: The Demon Warrior.”

Chao shivered at the mere utterance of that name. “I still remember the day when we tried getting that foxgirl.” His eyes stared blankly as his memory churned. “He burned one of our faces into the fire and just tossed him like an object. He stabbed one of us and threw us into another. He even threw his guandao into my horse, holding me captive as if I was some damsel.” He took a hard sip from his drink before giving a teary exhale. “That warrior is no man. He is truly a demon.”

The cloaked figure shrugged as they stood up. There didn’t seem to be anymore important information. First, they fixed a straw hat to their head and left a generous tip. Then they drew a long barrel of steel: a gun. Engraved with dragons to glorify the barrel, the gun was immediately pointed to one of the men. Inhale. Exhale. They pulled the trigger.

The gun gave a thunderous blast of noise as lead penetrated into the man’s skull. Immediately after he tumbled to the ground, the figure clicked a knife-like tool into the barrel of the weapon. It was a bayonet. Without a moment to lose, the figure gutted one of the men before disarming the other and knocking him out with the butt of her weapon.

The remainder of the soldiers began to flee as they immediately went for the door. “This job was a mistake! I should’ve become a farmer like my father!” They sprinted out as Chao was held at bayonet point by the figure. “Hey, take it easy,” he calmly said, his hands in the air. “You got me fair and square.” The figure responded by just tossing a rope to him.

“Tie yourself.” The voice was deep, but Chao immediately went wide eyed when he realized it was the voice of a girl. “God dammit! First the fox girl and now this? Another girl ruining my life!” He binded his hands as the woman grabbed him by the ropes. “What are you?” Chao asked, “the police?”

“No. Just a person making some money.” After a short walk, she handed him in to the local guards. “I’m here for the bounty on him.” The official handed her stacks of paper money, but she just scoffed upon their sight. “You realize those are worthless, right?” she said. The official stumbled back as the intimidating woman’s eyes were enough to frighten him. “It’s all we can pay! If you would like, I could pay half as much in silver pieces!” The woman scoffed some more as she slammed her fist on the table. The nearby guards didn’t know if it was even safe to reprimand her. But finally, the woman subsided in her anger. “I’ll take your damned silver.”

She was back on the streets of the town with her pockets barely any heavier than they were previously. Perhaps she could join up with an army as a mercenary once more, offering her services to the highest bidder again. “No,” she thought to herself, “wars aren’t nearly as profitable as they were before.” Looting burnt villages only brought ash instead of treasure. “Bounty hunting it is,” she sighed to herself.

She went into the market, visiting one of the smithys. The store was mostly empty, as business was clearly not going so well. When the owner of the place saw the cloaked visitor, he was ecstatic with energy. “Hello! How may I help you?” he asked. The woman looked around, as if her eyes were searching for something specific. “I need a few ingots of lead.”

“Oh, we have plenty! Are you planning on building something?” the storekeeper asked. The woman lightly nodded. “Something like that.” In moments, the keeper handed her the ingots. “Here you go!” Holding onto the heavy lumps of metal, she began to count. “Twenty-six… twenty-seven…” She was considering how many bullets she could make with each.

In the end, the storekeeper got some silver and she got to have her lead. She didn’t need to shape them right now, since she already had plenty on her person. What she did need, though, was a new job. If it had as little payout as Chao’s bounty did, then she’d be homeless.

The woman explored the different billboards which had different criminals. “100,000,000 Qiang for Huang the Butcher.” “8,000,000 Qiang for Hong the Thief.” “10 Qiang for Long the Annoying.” The woman scoffed at these worthless posters. The worth of a Qiang was only good enough to wipe the ass of a cow. What she needed was something in silver.

Suddenly, someone placed a large and terrifying poster over all the others. Plastered there was a large and terrifying image of an armored titan wielding a heavy and lethal guandao. He looked like some kind of monster in the clothes and armor of a human. The woman read the title of this being. “The Demon Warrior.”

“Excuse me,” she asked the person placing the poster, “who is that?” Looking up, they whistled through their teeth. “He’s a real brutal one, that’s for sure,” he said. “People say that wherever he goes, evil follows him. Whenever I hear a story about a monster, I also hear a second story about he kills them. Not like those things exist, and he’s probably worth more bark than bite, but he does seem strong.” He went to the point. “He’s charged with the murder of Lord Luo as well as the destruction of his keep and army as well. Whoever he is, he’s someone you want to take down quick.”

The woman gave a smirk as she looked at the payout. “500,000 pieces of silver for anyone who takes him dead or alive.” That would be enough to let her retire extremely early. Undeterred by the stories from both this man and Chao, she snatched the poster from the board. “Sorry. I’m going to need this one.” Afterwards, she turned to leave the city.

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The woman saddled onto her horse as they returned to the dead fields of the land. Holding up a map, she used her intuition to determine the next move of the Demon Warrior. “Guancheng” was a city not too far off from where Lord Luo was allegedly killed. Last she remembered though, the city was enduring a long and brutal siege. “Wherever he goes, evil follows him,” she remembered. Sieges are pretty evil. She set her horse off.

For days, she continued her travels as she continued to ride. It was strange, however. There was little to no sense of life for this entire time period. The grass was dead. The trees were dead. And the villages which used to bustle with activity were utterly silent with pure nothingness. It was as if a veil of evil had swallowed the world in a sudden, yet unsung manner. No lord had even put a question on what happened, even as dozens of refugees flood their castles and towns. “Royal ignorance I guess,” the woman thought to herself. “Not like I know what’s going on either.”

The sun finally set as she tied her horse down and set up her campfire. Setting up a pot over the flame, she placed an ingot inside. She was making some bullets. With thick gloves and good care, she watched as the metal melted into a soup of reflective liquid. She removed the dross and poured the lead into ball-shaped molds. With the lead cooling fast, she soon retrieved her new bullets.

With her down time, she cleaned her weapon. Taking good care of her gun was like taking good care of herself. If her weapon was dirty, then she was dirty. If her weapon was ready, then she was ready. Scraping the dirt out of the barrel, she blew air into and clicked the parts. It was in perfect order.

Then she heard sounds: the breaking of twigs as if someone stepped on them. Quietly and quickly, she poured in black powder and rammed a lead ball into the weapon. She stood up and cocked her weapon. Her eyes darted about as they hunted for movement. Then she turned. There was a face.

“Get her horse!” Springing around were numerous different bandits who immediately jumped towards her. Using her bayonet like a spear, she jabbed at them. Cuts and thrusts maimed different bandits as they stood far from her. “Just get the horse and go!” One of the men went to untie the steed. Immediately, a gunshot went off as the woman shot him. “She has a gun! Just get the horse!”

They rode off with her horse and disappeared like apparitions. With nothing but her campfire and her bag, she lowered her gun. Unlucky. The first interaction she had with humans in a while was getting robbed. “Shit,” she cursed. The rest of her journey would have to be on foot.

The walk was brutal as her feet beat against the hard ground. With her paranoia piquing from the robbery, every light wave of motion caught her full and complete attention. She got less and less sleep as the chance of being attacked invaded her mind. Even as an experienced soldier, she was still susceptible to the paranoia that comes from traveling like this.

In the distance was a village. Strange. Not a single puff of smoke came from it, meaning that there were no fires and no sources of activity. With her back hungering for a bed and some good rest, she decided to venture towards the village.

There wasn’t a single sound other than the sounds of the wind. No children playing. No adults working. Just the whistle of time. The woman held her weapon ready, her bayonet already fixed and attached. Patrolling through, she found almost nothing but a deserted town.

She looked into the houses and found not a single villager either. There was furniture. There was equipment. There was even food, though it had become stale. The only thing this place was missing was people. The woman, with a disappointed sigh, returned outside.

The sun was setting and the day was getting late once more. Venturing in the night was foolish, since one could get easily lost or attacked. Looking into the village, she shrugged as she went into one of the houses. She just wanted a bed. Resting herself on the mattress constructed from hay, she found it much more comfortable than the cold ground. She closed her eyes. She was tired.

It was in the middle of the night when the door creaked open. The woman was still asleep as the creature stepped inside. It slowly hobbled as it stiffly shuffled along the ground. Flesh. It smelled flesh and blood. Looking at the slumbering woman, the creature realized it had its chance. It readied to take a delicious bite.

The woman opened her eyes to find a pale face right in front of her. With her instincts kicking in, she kicked the monster away as she reached for her weapon. Without a moment to lose, she fired a shot into its torso. Black bile exuded from the wound, but the creature was still alive. It was at this moment she knew that this creature was not human.

Jiangshi. It’s a tale popular with many children. That when people die within a drought, their shriveled bodies come back up into the world of the living. Hobbling around, these jiangshi crave the taste of meat and blood that was deprived of them when they were alive.

The creature lunged towards the woman. Reacting quickly, she stabbed her bayonet into his neck. Pinning him against the wall, she reached for her knife and sliced the neck in two. With the head tumbling to the ground, the jiangshi was truly dead.

“Food… I want food…“ Piles upon piles of the creatures crowded from the door as they shuffled inside. The woman grabbed her weapon and bag as she jumped out from the window. Rolling onto the ground outside, she began to quickly sprint.

She managed to make it to the forest where it was finally quiet. The jiangshi must’ve been hiding, waiting for unfortunate travelers to rest in the quaint village before pouncing upon them. The woman got to her feet, ensuring that nothing followed her from the village. Then she turned to find another figure. Illuminated by moonlight, the figure stood perfectly in her sight.

It had no face. There was only a blank circular plate of skin as if the eyes, nose, and even the mouth had just been taken. It looked like it wanted to scream, but didn’t even have the mouth to do so. Its ears, being one of its last remaining senses, wriggled as the figure jumped at any sound. Even when a tree creaked, the figure lunged at it, clawing and scraping at it. Perhaps it was just trying to find its face.

The woman made sure she was silent as she went through the forest. More and more figures passed around her as they scampered at noise. With fear slowly bleeding into her bones, the woman ensured that she wasn’t making a single sound. She had to make it out of here.

There were miles upon miles of dead trees and faceless people. So for miles, the woman tip toed around them. When there was a crowd of these faceless wanderers, she threw a rock at a tree distant from her. Upon the mere thunk, the crowd charged towards the sound, punching and scratching the tree as the woman made her movement around them.

She looked in the distance as she thought she saw a strange looking hill. It was a large lump which resembled the look of smooth dark steel. “Strange, is it related to the monsters?” Then the lump moved. The sound of simpering and scattering feet clattered against the dirt like millions of different ticks of a clock. The woman stood in horror as the beast made its presence in front of her.

So many faces. They integrated into the lines upon lines of hard armor as the centipede slithered around. It was at this point when the woman realized what she was standing against was something beyond the idea of mere monsters and beasts. This was a titanic creature that no imagination could conjure in both horror and magnitude.

The giant centipede looked right at her as each face began to smile. Their eyes locked right onto the woman as she aimed her musket. She shook as she kept the gun up like how a priest clutches and prays with a rosary. This was the only thing stopping her from running: the hope that this gun would do something. “You have a pretty face.” The centipede said.

The faceless charged at the centipede, narrowly avoiding the woman as they began to pound their fists and hands against the thick shell around the centipede. One by one, the faces on the centipede began to laugh as the faceless continued to grab at them, wishing and hoping they could have their face back. “Faces are so pretty. Porcelain things which are so fragile, and yet so beautiful.”

The woman continued to shake as she aimed her rifle. She aimed it at one of the faces, not knowing if this monster even had any weak spots. She yearned for a return to the days where things were normal and impossible things like this existed onto in myth. When her gun was something that could tear through armor and win an easy victory. But this was no longer that time. This was not the age of man, but the age of gods and monsters. The woman fired her gun.