warning: this is a time skip, it's roughly in the middle of the time line, it's not the start of the time line.
a normal, brown haired, average height young man has lived his life as a lumberjack.
He did not have many relationships and disliked alcohol, so he was not a common customer as taverns and bars, which was known to always being filled with common folk from all professions and lifestyles.
He didn’t talk much either, and liked being alone. He was such a lonely, but hardworking person.
He had lost his family in a raid made by bandits in his childhood; in that same tragedy, his childhood friend was captured by the bandits, and was probably sold off as a slave to some noble or rich merchant or adventurer, or maybe worse…
However, he didn’t want to think about it, even though he remembered her face and his family’s faces every few days, as they were haunting his dreams.
He was trying to forget.
Therefore, he lived his life as usual, cutting away at the trees of the nearby forest.
Until one day, soldiers came to their village, and started conscripting the youths and the able-bodied men from the village, as per the feudal lord’s orders.
As they were conscripting all the working men, which would obviously cut away at their productivity and thus food for meals will lessen, they also grabbed some of the young women of the village. They had the same eyes as those bandits who ruined his childhood – lust, and arrogance were perfectly given away by the glint of their eyes, and their grins.
He couldn’t stand it anymore, so he took out his hatchet, which was on him as he was cutting trees at the time the soldiers came, and plunged into the group of soldiers.
He could only kill 2 of them, and injure several more before being stabbed from behind by a swordsman, afterwards being pierced by all other soldiers’ weapons, and the first swordsman cut off his head.
Ahh… I’m a pitiful and weak man, aren’t I…
I couldn’t do anything to save my loved ones a long time ago, and even now, I couldn’t stop these pathetic excuses of soldiers take more of our men into a war, from which most will not come back from, and the women, who would have the same fate as those taken by those damned bandits…
If only…
I had one more chance.. I might have been more successful…
…and why does this feel so familiar? This sensation of coldness, silence, emptiness…
And as he had those thoughts, darkness finally enveloped his consciousness.
*****
On top of the village’s church, stood one figure.
It had black clothes, reminiscent of the thieves and assassins that lurked in city streets at night, with a hood covering his head and his face, in addition to a mask, which was portraying a smiling human face on its right side, and a smiling, eerie human skull on its left side.
This figure held what appeared to be an unusual writing utensil which didn’t require being dipped into an ink container, yet it had the ability to write with ink, and a stack of papers held together by twisted chains. On its side.
- Hah, so that’s how it was. I have forgotten a few things, but now it’s ok… (mysterious figure).
The figure nodded to herself, whilst not stopping to write something in one of the pages of the open stack. It might be an unnecessary detail to mention that the stack of papers had “#21” written on the cover.
- Well, now that the current task is over, should I have some fun? (mysterious figure).
The mysterious figure tucked the writing utensils into her clothes, and leapt from the roof of the church, and right into the group of soldiers who had already reorganized themselves and were planning to continue their “recruitment of willing citizen” into their soldier and “female support” ranks.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
- Wh-who the fuck are you?! (vict-, soldier #1)
The sword-wielding soldier who had cut off the lumberjack’s head was the first to react, slashing – more like trying to slash – at the person who suddenly appeared from above.
He didn’t succeed though, as his sword shattered on contact with the hooded figure’s fist, its fragments flying in all directions, most of them hitting the swordsman’s fellow soldiers, or into the swordsman himself.
- Aagh! Fuck, how did- (soldier #1)
The soldier could only stare at his broken sword and at his enemy, being shocked, unable to comprehend. As he tried to ask his enemy how he broke his sword, he got his head pulverized, without having enough time to end his question.
He died instantly, not even noticing his own death.
The surrounding soldiers had got restless upon their best fighter’s insta-kill, and weren’t sure whether to push on or withdraw.
They decided to try and gang up on him.
- You monster! You will pay for th- (soldier #2)
A second soldier tried stabbing the assailant on his back, by using a long spear. As he thrusted it forwards with a yell, his target disappeared from its original place, and the soldier felt a sharp pain as something sharp had passed swiftly and flowingly through his back, and came out from his chest, as if it was a sharp knife passing through butter.
It was a human hand, clenching something red, pulsating, with blood spilling out from tubes coming out from various places of that object.
He was terrified after a second of being unable to realize what that object was. That was his heart.
His face quickly became pale, his consciousness fading, as his life source had been taken away from him, literally.
As the hand crushed his still pulsating heart, splashing blood unto nearby soldiers and unto the ground, the figure withdrew her hand from his body, causing his limp and lifeless body to fall unto the ground.
That had alarmed the left over soldiers, making them not withdrawing earlier.
- Shit! Run, it’s hopeless! (soldier #3)
- Uaaahhhh! What the hell! (soldier #4)
They started running away, not keeping any sort of formation, just scrambling to get away, some of them tumbling and falling, but standing up and running again right after.
- Hmmpf, how pointless. Are these really the same guys? It makes me depressed. (figure)
The figure had pulled out a knife from a hidden pocket in her clothes, and threw it on the closest soldier.
The knife had passed right through its intended target’s throat, continuing on, passing through the right chest of another soldier, and stopping only when it penetrated into yet another soldier’s back.
Just that one knife only, had killed 1 more soldier, and gravely injured 2 others.
As the other soldiers saw this, they started sprinting even faster, not even stopping to help their two injured comrades.
No, actually, they even threw down their weapons in order to decrease their weight, and increase their speed, two of them had decided that the best way to get rid of their weapons would be to throw them on the incomprehensible monster in human’s clothing.
However, that also proved itself a poor choice. As their bodies suddenly burst in an explosion, sending a small shockwave and very hot looking flames to their surroundings, injuring 3 more soldiers, and killing one more because of the shockwave throwing a sword which was just being thrown down into his chest, passing right through his heart, albeit a lot less clean and swift as it was with the figure’s hand.
- It’s the 3rd recruitment platoon from greenwood village, we request immediate reinforcements! a fucking monster is here, we can’t do anythi- (soldier with comm orb)
Unable to just look and do nothing, one of the men had taken out a small, blue orb, and started yelling a request for reinforcements, as it started to glow in a faint light.
A shame that his speech was also interrupted, when the orb shattered without an apparent reason, and a shadow was casted on him from behind. Unable to control his curiosity and feeling of dread, he peeked over his shoulder, to see a mask staring right at him, just a few centimeters away from his face.
- Shi- (soldier with comm orb)
He didn’t have enough time to end his curse, as he fell limp unto the ground, his skin, hair, and clothing withering away, as if someone had sped up the man’s aging by several tens of time. In the end, only bones and object made from metal were left, such as a sword’s sheath, a few coins of various colors, and his sheath’s belt buckle.
- Well, this is easy. I guess I’ll be done in a minute or 2, and afterwards, I will start my work, huh. This is a bit anticlimactic come to think of it. (masked figure)
The masked figure nonchalantly mumbled to herself, as if she was busying herself with house chores, while planning her next house chore to be completed in a loud voice.
*****
After killing all the soldiers present, reviving them, killing them in new ways, reviving them, torturing them and only then started interrogating them.
The masked figure found out that the feudal lord had been preparing for war, and because he knew that he wasn’t really respected within his subjects, he decided to use however much peasants he can as cannon fodder on the front lines of his battles, in order to weaken the possible future revolt force, while keeping his war force relatively safe.
The feudal lord even promised his commanders that they could even take young women from villages where they “recruit” and have “some fun” with them, excluding very beautiful ones, which will be “played with” exclusively by the lord.
After that, the figure got some more information about the enemy forces, and a few of the feudal lord’s plans for confronting the enemy.
Noticing that the soldiers don’t have any more useful information, he killed them swiftly and mercilessly, all the while humming a song known only by him.
- well, I guess it’s time. [tempus imperium]! (time control – in Latin).
A flash of light suddenly appeared, engulfing the masked figure, followed by a swirl of shadow, whirling around counter-clock wise, and then – the whirling shadow, the light, and the figure all disappeared, as if it all was but a hallucination.