Hunter:

“Hunter” Hunter turned in the darkness as the voice said his name again “Hunter”

“Who’s there?” Hunter squinted trying to see through the darkness “Who are you”

A woman appeared, Hunter’s eyes started to tear up as the woman smiled and extended her arms. “Mom?”

“How have you been dear?” As he embraced her, Hunter realised she smelled just as he remembered, Lemon with a hint of the Vanilla “Have your brothers treated you all right?”

Hunters anger felt as if it was drifting away, he didn’t want his dear mother to worry, he clenched his fist and forced a smile “Yeah, I’m just a little lonely without you”

“That's good dear” She smiled as she ruffled his hair, her eye’s looked focused into a distance as she sighed “I know you want revenge for me, but please Hunter, live your life happily, don’t spend your life achieving something you don’t want”

“This will make me happy mother” Hunter grinded his teeth as his anger seeped in again “They deserve this, every single one of them”

“A’ghor” She said to something in the distance “She is saying that we have little time with our power”

“What do you mean?” Hunter was confused “Who is that?”

“That is the spirit that has granted me my powers when I was alive, and it has allowed me to stay as me throughout death” She gestured herself, then wrinkled her nose “I don’t trust the one that has given you abilities, however your father insisted”

“Dad? Why would he make any decisions for me?” Hunter said, still confused “He hates me!”

“No dear, He hates the future you will bring to this world” She said gazing back at Hunter with a sad smile “He hates what you have become the incarnation of”

“He can screw himself” Hunter said between his teeth “Even as a dead man he wants to screw with me”

“He wishes for prosperity” She said suddenly stopping to raise her hand, she realised she had started to fade “Oh, it seems our time has come to an end, it's time for you to wake, Hunter, please live a normal life away from this danger. Your father and I leave three gifts for you when you wake”

She smiled one last time as she hugged him. Then Hunter woke.

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His sword was sticking out of Oakira’s shoulder. He turned to his surroundings seeing a group of people surrounding him holding all types of weapons. His arm was shaking, his head felt concussed, he cracked his neck and turned to Oakira.

“What happened” Hunter growled”Is there a reason you point your weapons at me?”

“Look around you filthy sacrifice” Oakira hissed at him “Look around you, you angered our lord, caused this destruction”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Surrounding Hunter was the bodies of undead the imposter had brought to the earth as well as corpses of the villagers that had tried to sacrifice him, It was sad that they were blaming him, Hunters anger turned to pity, “Well I guess you should have died then”

“We will appease our lord!” Oakira howled charging at Hunter with a pitchfork “You will be the first sacrifice to calm him!”

“Bassa… It's a little loud don’t you think” Hunter said sitting down on a piece of the altar that had fallen off during his fight with the imposter,

“It sure is…..” Oakira struggled as Bassa appeared and grabbed a hold of his neck, Bassa was growling his eye showing was dripping in a black red substance “Like a lamb to the slaughter eh?”

Hunter looked at the crowd who had stopped their advance when Oakira had gotten captured, Each one of them looked more tired than the other, Hunter felt tired too, he was tired and sick of the amount of effort he had to put in to save someone, to avenge someone. He was sick of trying to avenge the people dear to him, maybe he should listen to his mother. NO, he couldn't, his vengeance would be so sweet when he heard the screams of the ones who had brought suffering on him.

“Bassa, I am going to open the first act of The Hanged King’s Tragedy” Hunter said a smile formed on his face, it didn’t reach his eyes, he was going to purify this crowd of the filth of this world with the ultimatum of salvation, Death. “Commence the first act!”

“Dramatically so my liege!” Bassa bowed to Hunter and turned to the crowd and extended his arms “My little lambs are you ready for the slaughter?”

One by one black chains emerged from the ground, the confused crowd started moving away from the chains where they formed. Bassa flicked his wrist and the chains snaked latching on to every single person within the vicinity. Bassa, like a conductor for an orchestra, swung his arms and every person was pulled to their knees. Horrified expressions erupted from every face, panicking, they begged for mercy, which Hunter laughed at. Hunter raised his hands and clenched it into a fist, the change was slow but suddenly the crowd started with one laugh after another as if they had forgotten the position they were in, the crowd started with one person laughing, then three, then twenty, then most of the crowd.

“Laughter is contagious, is it not Bassa?” Hunter dismissively as he raised his sword, a zweihander designed after a half demon half angel race that had originally populated the land of Alagadda, the handle was formed by a pair of angelic wings formed the right half while a devil horn and devil wings formed the left, the blade itself was completely black. “I believe laughter was also one of the signs of madness?”

One by one people started to entangle their bodies with each other, as if oblivious to the living beings beside them they tried to link with the chains that held them down, bones snapped, blood started dripping from every mouth, but the crowd didn’t stop. As if it were all a game they continued laugh as their ligaments and bones were bent in positions that were definitely not natural, a man snapped the neck of the woman beside him before ripping a bone from her leg out and stabbing himself and several others with it, many followed him the laughter filled the altar square. Hunter watched as two siblings hugged each other unaffected that the madness that Hunter had induced on the villagers, he smirked and watched as the maddened Oakira started mutilating the sister of the sibling with a horse whip, a mad smile had formed on his face Hunter watched as he continued until the sister had stopped breathing and moving. The brother was in tears crying while laughing, unable to stay composed he bit Oakira and ripped the flesh off Oakira’s bones. Hunter turned away laughing, breaking someone felt better than he had expected.

“Let them do their thing or end their suffering?” Hunter walked up to a woman who seemed to be just as unaffected “The choice is dependent on you”

The woman looked up and a single tear dropped from her eyes as she mouthed the words “Please”

Hunter felt sick, the same thing his mother had said when six of his brothers tried to sacrifice him, He was a demon, but he didn’t want to be… why did he have to be the bad one? All he wanted was to be happy with his mother, it was all he wished for, the image of each of his brothers taking turns stabbing his mother still seared into his mind, her crying face as she begged for them to spare Hunter angered him.

“Finish it” Hunter turned to Bassa, his mood ruined by the unnamed woman “I’m not feeling it anymore”

“Very well” Bassa bowed again, put his hand to his neck and sliced across it, every person started to shake, their eyes popped out of the sockets the interior organs came out of their mouths one by one, and as if in unison, they stopped breathing and moving.

Hunter didn’t have time for fun, this precious time could be used for planning his attack on the capital, the place where three of his brothers would be in order to keep their so called piece. Hunter felt something warm trickle down his nose, without hesitation he wiped the blood as he turned to Bassa.

“Go scout this area,” Hunter pointed at the edge of the capital where the barrier was the least powerful, or Hunter predicted that this was the area “Come back when you find out the location of all three King’s”

“What will you be doing?” Bassa said turning the map, blood continued to trickle through his bandages.

“Practicing…” Hunter said as he pulled his sword from the ground. “On some villages that Fervor has control over to lure him out”

Bassa nodded and dove into the shadows of the buildings, Hunter sighed and walked on the bodies of the crowd that had just been alive half an hour ago, his headache was getting worse, and the blood was still dripping out of his nose, but he didn’t have time for this. His siblings knew he had been released from the prison he had been put in, and this was a race against time before they found or forged new chains to contain him again, before he was chained again Hunter needed the head of his six siblings to rest peacefully with his mother in the afterlife. Hunter spat a mouthful of blood at the corpse of Oakira as he slowly marched towards the forest, this fight had been the beginning of his era, Hunter felt it in his bones, his mission had just begun.