The rain poured endlessly in the lands of Jiaguo as the leafless trees provided little to no shelter for Hua or Rina. Trudging through the mud, Hua continued to sniffle as she remembered what happened in Guancheng. “Please let me help you!” She still had to be leashed by Rina to ensure she wouldn’t run off to find Xiaojun.

The whole journey was silent. Neither of them knew where they were going. Hua was just following where her leash dragged her, and Rina was just scouring the land for a single place of safety. Cities were full of criminals and gangsters that would salivate upon seeing Hua, even if she hid her tails. Countrysides were full of monsters that feasted on any human foolish enough to reach their domain. And the woods were just that: dead trees and creatures blending with those trees.

“Rina,” Hua suddenly said, “I think you’re heartless.” With the two sitting in a cave for a break from the wet mud and rain, Rina initially ignored the statement as she made a fire. It was initially hard, since wet wood doesn’t make good fuel. “Maybe you’re right,” Rina responded, “but Xiaojun is just the same.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Hua retorted. She bared her teeth as she prepared to transform, but Rina responded by just giving a good kick to her gut. Hua returned to being a normal girl. “Xiaojun is a warrior. Warriors don’t need heart.”

“What are you talking about? Of course warriors have a heart! People have a heart, and warriors are people!” But Rina just shook her head, her eyes watching the wet wood smoke with vapor. The rain continued to pour outside as Rina focused her eyes on each dot of water. “Having heart was a weakness.” Then her mind went to its own hell.

Rina was atop a hill with her bayoneted gun holding her exhausted weight like a cast. Bodies and banners lay around as different coats of arms decorated the battlefield like a banquet fit for a god of death. Suddenly, a wounded soldier charged at Rina, one of his arms being literally missing as he lunged at the warrior.

Rina quickly responded by cocking her gun and shooting the man down. With a grunt, the man fell and rolled down the hill, joining the many other piles of corpses as Rina’s hyperventilated breath hoped to find stability. She looked around. The battle was somehow over.

“It was an absolute hell,” Rina said, “my first real battle as a mercenary.” The wood finally caught good flame as the fuel finally dried. Her memories continued to play like a show where she was the only attendant. If it were a stage write, it would be nothing but a tragedy.

“I was covered in blood and the stench of black powder,” Rina stated. “my hands were covered with blisters since I had to keep shooting and reloading my weapon. Since I was the only one with a gun, I managed to kill scores of armored soldiers. I can still remember their faces.” Rina said all this with blank eyes and a blanker heart. “My bayonet was dulled since I had to continue stabbing at the enemy soldiers that broke into our line. People may not be monstrous centipedes or titans, but they are still monsters nonetheless.”

Hua kept her mouth silent as Rina spoke on. The fox girl began to notice the many scars on Rina’s body, as they were covered only by her light clothes and armor. “The lord who hired me died,” Rina added, “and that was when I realized I was the last soldier in the army, for the rest of the soldiers fled far and wide.”

On that day, Rina was staring right at the body of the lord. Still donned in his armor, the lord stared into nothing as his corpse lay atop a hill of bodies. He looked like he was the last to die as his arrow-laden corpse looked like a porcupine. It had started to rain when Rina looked at this disheveled corpse. Rich and poor die alike.

The exhausted soldier hobbled herself to the body and turned it over. She turned the bodies over until she finally found what lay at the bottom: the lord’s treasure: a chest filled with gold. “Like coin, he spent his life for material,” Rina said to Hua, “and many other soldiers died just for a chest of spoils.” Being the last in the battlefield, she took it has her payment.

Rina had the same blank face that Xiaojun had. Though the two didn’t have the same life, they had similar experiences and brushes with humanity’s evil. “He is the strongest person I have ever seen,” Rina stated, “both for fighting monsters and people. It is the to the point where we cannot even hope to come close to his strength.”

Hua remained silent as she curled herself together. She knew that this experienced soldier was correct, even if her mind wished she could disagree. Rina, with her blank face, sat herself back. “When it comes to fighting against those ungodly creatures, we cannot even hope to get close in terms of his strength or speed. He is the envoy. We are just people.” With that, they slept with one eye open.

The next day, they returned to their travels. Though still tied with a rope, Hua didn’t make a single utterance of resistance. She just glumly accepted her fate as she carried herself forward. “Why did you become a mercenary?” she asked Rina.

“Money.” It was a calm and simple answer as they continued walking. “A lot of people choose between being a mercenary or just being a footsoldier.” Hua cooed with curiosity. “Is there a difference between the two?” she asked.

“Foot soldiers get money, bedding, and longer job security since you’re more tied to a lord and his army. At the same time, leaving is not as much of an option and the stipends are minuscule since the lord usually considers housing and feeding as an expense. That being said, mercenaries are different because we have skill. Like how a doctor is skilled in medicine, we are a commodity in war. We have more say in whether or not we stay in an army, we can barter for higher wages, and we have more liberty to leave.”

Hua’s head shook as she attempted to comprehend all the words. “You get cool stuff, and foot soldiers don’t,” she summarized to herself. “Okay, that makes a lot more sense.” Rina snickered a little as she watched the foolish girl. “I’m surprised Xiaojun kept you as long as he did. You must’ve been a real bastard to care for.”

“What?” Hua yelped. “I’m not that hard to care for! I’m low maintenance!” Rina laughed some more as they continued walking. “Low maintenance unless you two were attacked. You already remember what happened in Guancheng. He had to go out of his way to protect us when we were in danger.”

Words like that hit into Hua’s mind. Even though Rina was still laughing, Hua was more than despondent. “Every time… he was the one protecting me…” Part of her mind wandered back to when she was under the care of Zheng Qiang the torturer and doctor. Though his experiments on the huli jing were despicable, he had always protected Hua from the horrors of the world and of reality. That all humans were weak creatures who cruelly projected their little strength onto anything they could. In short, Xiaojun was the one thing separating her from being another corpse.

“I wish I was strong,” she suddenly said. Rina stopped and looked at the girl. Tears fell from Hua’s eyes as she sat onto the muddy ground. “This whole time I’ve just been a weak girl leeching on the strength of others. First, I relied on trickery to bite unsuspecting humans. Then, I relied on Xiaojun to protect me from the creatures of the world. And now, I’m relying on you to protect me. I’m tired of being weak!”

Rina sighed as she looked around, making sure it was safe to have a break. She then patted the girl on the back, caring for her as she continued to sob. “It’s alright. I understand how you feel.” Hua sniffled as she looked up with her teary eyes. “You do?”

“Yes,” Rina replied. “I left my home because I was tired of being weak as well. In fact, part of me still feels weak because of how strong the beasts are. But, in the end, the only thing you can do is grow your strength and power. You may never get to the level of Xiaojun and be capable of contending with the Four Beasts, but you can at least be strong enough to feel good about yourself.”

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Hua sniffled and stopped crying. She wiped her tears with her sleeve and stood up. “Yeah… you’re right Rina. Thank you.” The soldier gave a gentle smile to the girl as she untied the rope from her. “I don’t think you need that. Besides, it feels humiliating,” Rina said. Hua was able to laugh a little.

They continued moving, ascending up a muddy hill. It was a steep one, but it looked to be unavoidable. Heaving up the sludgy earth, they ascending upwards. “This weather sucks!” Hua panted. But when they eventually made it up, they witnessed a horrid sight: a cold battlefield.

Banners everywhere. Bodies everywhere. Spilled blood which mixed into the moist earth, enough to keep the mud eternally soaked. “Oh my god! What happened here?” Hua screamed. As for Rina, dozens of memories flashed into her mind. “War is what happened.” With no where else to go, the two of them descended to the cold battlefield.

“Rina,” Hua asked, “why are there so many wars?” They stepped around the bodies, hoping to preserve their sanctity. “Wants and needs,” she replied, “people have wars often because of their wants than their needs. A lord wants to consolidate power behind the emperor’s back. Soldiers and mercenaries want to have glory, money, or women. At the same time, merchants want the business and the wealth. With the emperor’s power being equivalent to a child’s, all of these lords have their wants and needs in an insatiable lust for more.”

An arm suddenly grabbed onto Hua’s leg. The fox girl yelped as the dying soldier mouthed his final words to the girl. “Kill… me…” The bottom half of his body was severed as he was left to bleed himself to death. Rina, calmly, kicked the arm away and lunged her bayonet into the man’s throat. Finally, and with a gurgle, the man passed from the cruel land of the living.

Hua struggled to regain her composure as she stared at every body around her. The ones that were dead had died with the greatest amounts of both fear and pain while the ones who were barely alive could only beg for the cold kiss of relief. In a strange contrast, Rina was calm and cleaning her bayonet as she helped Hua to her feet. “Let’s keep moving,” she said.

They trudged around the bodies as different banners of different lords weakly floated with the wind. Few of them were clean as most of them deluded to tattered rags stained with blood and mud. Neither Hua nor Rina could tell what character was being written on it. There gets to a point in war where these identities lose meaning. Men and countries die alike.

In the distance, Hua could see figures moving over the bodies. “Are those monsters?” she quietly whispered to Rina. The soldier shook her head. “Looters. They wait until a battle ends and then they scour for anything that has value.” Still looking, Hua was curious to the disgusting nature of the lowly profession.

The looters picked against the bodies, grabbing anything worth value. One of them opened a corpse’s mouth and dislodged a golden tooth from it, grinning with a wide grin as he looked at the shiny thing. Another one of them called to the others, pointing at a heavily armored horseman who lay wounded on the ground.

Hua shrieked as she continued to watch. “Rina! That guy’s alive!” She watched as the horseman struggled to scamper to his feet as his wounds and heavy armor compiled to his sluggish movement. Swinging wildly, he struggled to hit any of the incoming looters as they jeered and laughed. “You stupid bastard! With skills like that, your sword and armor would be much better off in our hands!”

With knives in their hands, they simultaneously jumped onto the horseman and stabbed him in anywhere that was vulnerable. The neck, the armpits, the calves. Screaming like a gutted pig, the warrior could only feel and watch his own demise as the knives continued to jam against his body. “Rina! They’re killing him!” Hua screamed. But the soldier was moving on.

“As I said earlier, we are not strong warriors like Xiaojun. We are only people.” With that, Rina walked on. Hua followed, though she couldn’t dismiss the cold and hard weight that now bear within her heart and chest. She knew very well that evils within the world were ever present. Hua hated it.

The walk was quiet as they avoided any looters and bandits that were left scouring the battlefield. It reminded Hua more and more how weak and helpless they truly were. She wished she was like Xiaojun, a warrior who was both brave and strong enough to challenge even the Four Beasts with his might. In comparison to that warrior in armor, Hua was a frightened girl who didn’t even have the strength to defend herself. It was humiliating.

Suddenly, the two of them stopped. Rina perched herself down as they looked at a distant figure. “What is that?” It was a large cloaked skeleton who looked around with a smile. Crowned with jewelry constructed of bones and adorned with an equally dreadful smile, he looked around with marvel as his eyeballs, the only visible organ in his body, squirmed and stared.

What was worse than the profane sight was the aura felt by just looking at him. It was as if they were staring at a complete colossus which had been compacted to the size of a tall man. No, it was worse than that. It was the feeling of dread that one feels when brought to death’s door. The feeling of when one begs the gates of hell to remain closed only for those fiery pits to open wide. That was the right way to describe it: like staring at the mouth of hell.

“Meat. Flesh. Bone. When put to life, you humans engage in the most debaucherous of sins. But this is the one that I love most: pure hatred.” His words echoed despite not even coming from his mouth. It was as if someone were speaking words that could travel for miles without having any sort of origin. “Even in this graveyard of the dead, you dead soldiers still crave hatred. You still crave the death and destruction of your fellow man. That is why I cannot help but allow you to relive your fantasies.”

The skeleton raised his hands of bone, his fingers adorned with a series of rings constructed of small bloody ligaments. With that motion, the dead began to rise. With their eyes glowing a ghastly hue, their bodies stood upright as their severed parts rose with them. Crunches echoed abundantly as these limbs returned to their owners. “Disregard your vows of fealty! Disregard your hopes for love! With this decree, I allow you to resume your bouts of hatred! Fight!”

The dead soldiers, without care for what side they had once taken, engaged in the most terrible of battles. They slammed their swords, hammers, and even their fists into each other as they were consumed by the idea of pure violence. All the while, the cloaked skeleton watched with glee. This was an unequivocal evil. This was the Beast of Hate.

Hua and Rina, touched with fear, struggled to escape as they found themselves surrounded by heedless violence. This was the epitome of war: a battle without justification or need. A battle of pure hate. “Hua! Stay close to me!” Rina called, “we have to stick together and find a way out!”

They began to run through any opening they could. Looters, who were once preoccupied with stealing, found themselves at the forefront of the violence. With the dead soldiers attacking anything in their sight, they butchered the bandits like sharks gutting fish. Their blood leaked like water as their agonized bodies screamed, though the sounds sank right into the void that was present in the swarm of fighting.

A circle formed around Hua and Rina as if the violence refused to permeate into that radius. Then, entering this circle, was the Beast of Hate himself. Grass burned with every one of his steps as if his mere presence was a volatile one. “The fate of the one I possessed was a tragic one,” he said, his voice echoing like a living scream inside an entombed coffin. “His name was Bei, and he was dying when I found him. He had nothing but pity for both the enemy and his comrades, which is why I had to inject him with hatred instead.”

Shaking, Rina pointed her gun at the skeleton. She cocked it back and the beast watched as Rina pulled the trigger. The bullet launched quickly as it tore into the beast’s skull. The beast laughed as he placed his finger in the hole, touching the human brains with it. “That is an effective weapon. I watched from the heavens as many from Vesterland used this technology to exact their hatred. Sadly, this body is but a mere vassal of my presence on this world, as my primary position is somewhere far from here.”

Rina began to frantically reload her weapon as the Beast of Hate continued to stand there. “Why are you here?” Hua demanded. One of her hands instinctively held onto Rina’s shoulder, like how a frightened child clutches to their mother. “The reason I am here is because I wished to speak,” he said. “After all, there is no joy in speaking to corpses.”

“But why?” Hua furthered. “What do you have to ask?” She stood back as the beast smiled, frightening the girl even further. “How close is Xiaojun towards the path of hatred?” he asked. Rina finished reloading and fired another bullet into the skull. It had the same futile effect while Hua clutched the soldier ever tighter.

“I can see it in your faces. He is full of malice and hate. He cares not for lust or power, nor the power of others. That must mean he will be mine, and mine alone.” The beast cackled as Rina reloaded another bullet and fired it. Bone shattered but the beast was still alive. Fighting continued around them just as fighting continued through eons of human history. “Good. This meeting was good. I now know that I can transform the Envoy of Humanity into my dogged slave.” Rina fired her last bullet, and finally, the beast vanished.

The bones clattered to the ground as did all the other bodies. The fighting, yelling, and clashing of metal went silent just as quickly as the violence had begun. Rina and Hua, still frightened, once again remembered their place in this accursed world. They were not strong. They were human.