POV: Kern

I felt a warm, sticky sensation around my groin. I had pissed my pants like a baby, unable to produce enough strength to stand up again, all I could do was scream at him, at the young-looking boy with dagger-like long ears, crimson eyes, long white, wild hair and a smile on his face that made him look like a maniac, which he was.

My breathing was heavy as I looked upon the dead body of Lara, my friend since I was a child. He had crushed her entire neck as if it were nothing, he had punched through the stomach of my closest friend as if it were paper. There was mana swirling around him, violently. And now, now he was holding the head of the strongest hunter in our village in his hand like a play ball.

Tears were running down my face as I looked over to miss Halma who had died the moment the mana pressure had intensified. Her lifeless eyes were looking at me, asking for help, help that would never come, because I knew, I knew that I was next in line to die.

Through the wide-open door, I could hear screams from the people watching from outside. I could see old man Gilbert drop the food he had brought for the boy. He had brought potatoes, meat and bread. I could see him get caught by the mana pressure, pressure on the level of powerful magical beings like the garlmas that was haunting the woods around the village.

I began chuckling a little, coughing up some blood from being hit into the hard ground as if I was nothing. I could now see him move towards me, he wasn't fast, but everything else seemed so much slower than he was. Elves really are superior to humans. And this one, in particular, was scary as fuck.

I saw his foot rush down towards my head and then...

POV: Altair Oberon Lyrius

Rage was boiling within me, rage, hatred and anger, all at once. I slowly stepped away from the bloody mess in the room and walked towards the door where the audience was already pressed to the floor.

"This is no fun... they're all weak and pathetic," I said, never losing my smile.

That's right, the weak need to die for what they did to you!

Ira's words echoed through my mind. I hadn't heard her voice in nearly a month but what she said sounded too good to pass up.

Slowly I stepped over the corpses at my feet and stepped out of the house. The screams of the people filled the air, louder than any roar from Terror. The old man that had brought my food was already dead, just like the old woman, he died when my mana pressure hit him.

I looked to the others, some had tried to run away, others had taken weapons with them, so different in their approach to handling me, but one thing they all had in common. They all lay on the ground, at my feet.

"Now what should I do with all of you?" I asked a man close to me.

"Please, spare us," he said, pleading with me.

"Oh, I'm sure my neighbours asked the same of the knights, but they didn't listen. SO why should I?"

"You filthy heretic!" a woman a bit further back yelled, trying to throw some fruit at me.

"Heretic? Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm no heretic," I took a deep breath, making me feel the mana that circulated through my body, even more, it felt... good, like pure power that was channelled through my veins, "I'm not a fucking heretic!" I shouted, "I don't worship any fucking deity! I worship nothing! None of us did! Yet you led them to us, told them where to find us, it's the fault of you people that my family is dead, my friends..."

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I saw Alyra's dead, lifeless body before my mind's eye.

"It's your fault that she is dead!" Spit flew out of my mouth as I yelled. "SO I dare you," I said, leaning down to the woman. I hadn't even noticed that I had walked up to her, "call me a fucking heretic once more!" I stared right into her brown eyes.

"Heretic!" she exclaimed before spitting me in the face.

"That's it!" I yelled.

The mana swirling around me suddenly became more violent, it extended further and the pressure it created was so strong that I heard the cracking of bones, stone and wood from all around. The wall of the house behind me cracked and began falling apart.

Yes! Kill them! Use this rage! Use this wrath! Become stronger!

Ira's words egged me on even more. The wind was strong. And there they were, the voices, familiar voices, mocking me, making me even angrier, making the mana stronger as it crushed these pathetic creatures at my feet. But I also felt light-headed, as if I was about to fall unconscious.

At that moment my vision changed, and my body began moving on its own.

"I'll show you how it's done boy," my body said with my voice, "just sit back and learn!"

I noticed that the pressure on the environment disappeared and some of the people began standing up.

"He's weaker now, charge!" a man with a sword yelled as he charged at my body.

A few others followed him but most, even those with weapons, stayed away despite being able to stand again. Something else had them rooted to the ground, unable to move. It was fear, they were afraid of me. That knowledge made me feel good and made it all the more fun as I watched my body slaughter its way through these lowly creatures.

It was over in seconds. My body grabbed the sword, bent the blade and hit the wielder with the hilt right in the face, leaving behind a bloody opening in the man's forehead. Then my body grabbed the spear of another, twisted it to make the wielder let go and threw it right at her face, pinning her to the ground.

After a while, I lost count of how many people lay on the ground and whether they were dead or alive or somewhere in between. I just watched the bloody mess unfold before. My body moving on its own with a speed that I could never produce, with strength that I could never muster up, with a rage that didn't feel quite mine.

My body moved on its own, controlled by Ira. And with it, she slaughtered everything in the way. Hunters charging at us with their knives or swords or bows or whatever weapon they had chosen for the occasion, all of them fell to the ground, missing arms, their head, legs or their throat, some had holes in them. But no matter what they all fell.

There were the normal villagers, running away, protecting their children. All of them died as well, fell to the ground, their blood forming a red puddle beneath them. And then there were the children. I felt bad about what was happening, after all, they were children... but at this point, I had already crossed the line, I already had no empathy for these people, or maybe for humans in general, I hated them. I hated that I was a human in my past life just as much as I hated the humans from my past life. And that rage, along with the activation of [Blood High] allowed Ira to slaughter her way through the village in my body. She was helping me with my revenge.

And she used my body for far longer than the few minutes she said she was capable of using it.

Once she was done my body was covered in blood, more blood than I had ever seen. Limbs laid around on the ground, some heads were rolling down a small hill in the middle of the village, the paths were all painted red and there was a distinct smell of blood and piss in the air. Everyone in this village was dead, well everyone except for the young boy now standing in front of me, pointing his wooden sword at my body.

I... I can't do this anymore, you take over.

Without warning I was back in my body, feeling exhausted and nowhere near as powerful as before. This whole thing had taken everything I had, every bit of mana except these last few slivers.

"I... I will kill you!" the young boy screamed as he charged at me.

For a moment I hesitated, but then I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up.

"No, this is the end for you, boy," I said calmly, but with a wide smile on my face.

I tightened the grip around his throat.

"You see, I really hate people that take my things away, and you people took my whole world away. All because you told the knights were to find us," I said, with the same calm voice and the same crazed smile.

The boy was about to say something but at that moment I crushed his throat with my fingers. A chuckle escaped me.

"The first step, towards revenge..." I said before I fell to the ground and lost consciousness.