In the next moment, Abdin's figure blurred and he appeared with his sword by her neck. She tried to avoid it but Abdin was too fast. In the next instant, he already decapitated her.

The others withdrew fast in fear. The battle had barely begun and one of them was already down.

And it was the woman with the highest cultivation among them.

"Who are you?" Asked the man whom the now decapitated woman tried to save. He was visibly trembling.

"I am called Commander. You are in my castle, uninvited."

The intruders frowned. They had never heard of any cultivator with such a name. And they knew every cultivator walking this part of the world.

At that moment, the woman riding the serpent broke the window and came through. She flew straight to the woman lying in a pool of blood and held her. Abdin saw her body shaking, but didn't think she was crying until she turned to face him.

He saw the agonizing tears dripping from her eyes. She was probably related to the woman he slayed just now.

The young woman shrieked and charged at him, clasping her hands and chanting incantations.

"Photon jump."

Abdin chanted his new incantation, and before she could finish her chants, he had appeared at her back, the edge of his sword placed on her neck.

"You would be next if you move," he warned.

The girl was obviously out of her mind, and despite the cold steel of the sword placed to her neck, she still turned around to swipe at him with her dagger. But her head hit the ground even before her hand could reach her target.

The four men roared and charged him at once. Juwaira and her team leaped up to intercept them, but they were slow and before they could reach them, Abdin had appeared before the men. He languidly struck out to his left then to his right, in a move akin to a dance.

The last thing his attackers saw was a glow as the sword passed by, and the next thing was four additional heads lying on the ground in a pool of warm blood.

The black python, which was still outside, roared and shook uncontrollably as it lashed about. A few seconds later, it glowed and turned to ashes.

It was one of those demon beasts that bonded with human souls. That would make the beasts possess human intelligence, and their human familiars get stronger.

But the setback was, both would die if one was killed. The young woman died and the python followed.

No one spoke for a long time. Juwaira was used to seeing the odd with Abdin, and so were the others. But they were still surprised to see him singlehandedly kill five core formation experts within a short time.

That meant he could do away with them any time he wished.

For them, Abdin was some mystery they failed to decipher and it made them helpless. At any other moment, that helplessness would lead to anger. But now they felt secure around him. Anyone could be safe against any terror as long as they were with him. That was how they felt.

Abdin sighed. For him, most of the time, the skill wasn't the problem. The pol the skill would absorb was.

His adventures had earned him different tricks from many continents. And the lack of cultivation was the only hindrance. Using the sword would cost him fifty years' worth of pol at the very least. He wouldn't use it recklessly.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He checked his soul disc for the inevitable message that would tell him about his losses, but couldn't see any messages. The disc ought to be glowing and alerting him about the pol he lost right now. But, surprisingly, it wasn't.

He checked his cultivation. It was still 246 years. Nothing was missing. Did that mean he didn't lose anything just now?

Instead of a happy smile, his face clouded. He was in the best position of knowing how his skills worked.

There was no way he could use any skill without a price. Unless...

Abdin began to pant, as sweat trickled from his forehead. Juwaira became worried. She held his cold hands and asked, "What is wrong? Are you ok?"

The young woman quickly noticed the change in him. Cultivators would use skills beyond their levels and suffer the consequences. Did Commander do something terrible to save them just now?

Abdin could hear her, but his mind was elsewhere. Many things were going on in his mind. The one time he was the most powerful and had evaded empires and wielded so many skills indiscriminately, was the one time he slayed more than two hundred thousand men.

They were all innocent and did nothing to offend him. He also didn't mean to kill them.

Those nights still hunted him. His fear now was that the current situation looked exactly like the one that happened all those years ago.

First, the castle expanded. Then in the process, entombed about sixty-three thousand people. And now, he could use his skills without any cost. It sounded eerily familiar.

Abdin knew that going back in time would bring them back even though at the cost of sixty thousand years.

But there was something else that could hinder their return, and even the loop couldn't stop it.

This would happen if Abdin used the victims' souls to fuel his skills. In such a case, the victims would return with their bodies intact but with no soul, making them forever dead.

The victims would just be falling dead as soon as the loop reset. It would be a debilitating scene.

The government would investigate but wouldn't come up with any results for their cause of death.

Abdin would be the only one to know.

The castle would often consume many lives in the process of its expansion and wouldn't want to return them after the loop reset. It would sometimes give him a part of their souls without even his knowledge, just like what happened now.

That way, the victims would stay dead even after the loop reset. And only Abdin would be left to suffer in his guilt. For the stone would feel no pain.

He turned his attention to his core and inspected the soul disc again. His pol and cultivation were still intact.

Everything was now clear. He just didn't know how many were killed by his last S-rank sword skill. The rank of the skills he used would determine the lives that would be lost. Though the castle liked to act all mysterious in such situations.

Juwaira held his hand tighter and shook him hard. "What's happened? You are scaring us."

Abdin had been silent for a long while and it had become weirdly concerning.

"Princess," called Denyanu, as he ran to the window and pointed at a building a bit far from them. A man sat astride a silvery horse at that spot.

His face was hidden behind a silver-colored mask that covered even his eyes.

"Silver Mask!" Were the only words she could utter. They had all recognized the man. He broke the gate of the castle some days ago when they faced off with Will of San. And then he ran off without attacking them.

Abdin turned around with wide eyes, the name waking him up from his stupor. As if on cue, Silver Mask turned to look directly at their hideout.

Everyone was dumbstruck. What was the man doing there?

They silently stared at each other for a long moment before Silver Mask rode away and out of sight.

From the alley the man had just disappeared into, a horde of riders mounting both horses and demon beasts came.

Within just a short while, more than five hundred riders were assembled.

Abdin sighed. He was suddenly trapped in a difficult situation. If he kept on fighting, he would be taking more of the souls of the innocent villagers. Unless necessary for his survival, he didn't want to go that way.

Resetting the loop would be the only sensible thing to do at the moment. He was still puzzled about many things. The hidden horde of monsters and where they came from, their relationship with Nànata and Silver Mask, and so many other things.

Well, at the very least, he knew that Silver Mask and Nánata were fighting someone. He just had to find that someone and invite them into the castle. That way, he could earn extra pol and then use them to clear his obstacle.

"What are we going to do now? There are about fifteen core formation experts among them. Do you think we can take them on?" Juwaira asked.

"Why don't we ask them what is it they want?" Abdin said.

Through dialogue, he might glean something new to use in the next loop.

Juwaira glanced at the six headless bodies lying on the floor. She sighed. Making up their differences would be rather hard in the current circumstances.