[Warning! This chapter contains blood & gore depictions not suitable for everyone. Also, this is the first and last warning regarding this trigger. Be advised that more will come in other chapters!]

Hope got up without adding anything and returned to the exit to leave the hut and this cursed village. She knew it was very likely that her birth parents would be here, but she had no interest in meeting them. The woman wouldn't have had anything to tell them even before discovering the truth about why they left her.

The moment she turned her back on him, the old man made a humming sound, immediately followed by a desperate scream. He started screaming with all the power of his lungs, pointing his finger toward her back. Several people stormed into the hut, and many more others were waiting at the entrance. "Aegis has been corrupted. The Beast marked her and corrupted her irreparably. His symbol is already on her shoulder blade and will slowly influence her. This is the beginning of the end. Kill her! Now!"

The first man to approach her had three white pigeon feathers in his ebony-black hair. Hope's instinct kicked in and her fingernails immediately lengthened and sharpened when she thought of the magnificent claws of Handsome, the tiger in the arena. The man's blood was now under her fingernails, along with pieces of flesh from his torn chest.

Hope wanted to go out, but two other men grabbed her both arms, flanking her and holding her tightly between them. The image of Handsome came to mind again, as did the huge fangs he showed when he roared. The woman's canines grew, and she immediately thrust them into the arm that held her right hand, and then in a single jerk of the head, she snatched a whole piece of meat, and blood began to gush from the man's torn artery.

Hope felt the sweet smell of blood and began to get drunk on it, but she calmed her feral bloodlust because she still needed to keep her mind clear. An animal was much easier to trap than a human with animal powers.

The next men who approached were already afraid; their eyes were hesitant and were no longer so determined after seeing her bloody face and animal eyes looking at them with hatred and disgust. But one of them had an improvised spear and was going to attack with it from long range. He forcibly pushed the tip of his spear toward her while three other men surrounded her to limit the woman's movements and options to avoid the fatal blow.

Hope didn't hesitate for a second. A leap launched her over the spear that was headed horizontally for her, allowing the woman to land onto the shoulders of the one holding the spear. She grabbed his head with both hands and pulled hard until his body fell to the ground, and she stood above him with his head in her hands.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The bleeding head rolled at the old man's feet, red drops bouncing on his clothes. His eyes were terrified and his jaws trembled with horror. Hope growled. "Don't look so scared, old man! Your hands are much more stained than mine, only you were too coward to kill with your own hands."

Now, everyone outside was panicking. A wave of astonishment spread through the crowd, and Hope most often heard a single word above the murmur. "The monster!"

When she emerged from the hut, everyone stepped out of her way. It was a sea of people splitting in two, making her way. Some were utterly motionless; others threw themselves on their knees and apologized; others cried, and others prayed. It was so easy to cross the threshold between being a savior and a monster.

The goddess born of blood and who had to step on corpses to earn her life and freedom finally understood human nature. She would have preferred to spend her whole life with wild animals because their primary instincts were much easier to understand.

For humans, hope could be a harmful thing. A legend gave them hope, and they were able to do terrible things to keep their hope alive. Now their hope was there, and they were afraid of it. What strange beings people were!

Aegis stood in front of the crowd, the shield of humanity full of blood as it served its purpose, to defend itself from monsters. The legend had a name, a face, and a voice that she would use for those who had ears to hear. "A shield is meant to protect. He who attacks is at a disadvantage. Aegis will defend whoever deserves it and will crush whoever will attack it. You live here in the middle of the wilderness because you long to be one with nature, and yet the most terrible human attributes taint you. You live your life from one day to the next, killing your children while waiting for the salvation promised by a legend. You are worse than the monsters in your stories, and the very nature you adore will turn against you. I give you two days to scatter in all parts of the world and never return. In two days, the forest animals will invade this village and feed on whoever is still here. The wild animals will track anyone leaving the forest, but you will not be harmed. Remember, if you ever hurt another being again, an eagle will take your eyes off, a bear will tear you apart, or a wolf will devour you. It's your choice!"

The blood flowed drop by drop from her inert fingers lying beside her body while the woman walked away and faded into the woods. Was this village her home? Was she born here? Had her birth father been among the men she had killed now? All these questions were meaningless, and so were their answers.

It is said that the law of nature is to kill or be killed. Yes! The reason that wild animals kill is survival, feeding, and continued existence. But people kill for obscure reasons and find absurd justifications for all the horrible things they do and then live their lives as if nothing has happened.

She had killed some living beings for the first time in her life, but she did not feel the slightest trace of remorse. They had attacked her, and the result had been a direct consequence of their choices. She looked at her bloody hands and was not impressed by the sight of them. Was she a monster now?