I always feel better after a massacre, is that what you thought I would say? Every time a battle ends it sucks donkey balls. As your adrenaline ebbs and you focus fades you find your body aching with innumerable pains and your heart starts to break. In the end the joy of victory burns away like the fog under in the midday sun and all you are left with is a burning sense of loss, loss of comrades, loss of family, even loss of self.

As I turned to the three remaining survivors, what you thought I killed them all? You insult me this isn’t my first time in battle, even when enraged I can think clearly enough to take appropriate action. All I said was that no one escaped; I did not say that they all died… immediately.

The rule of information gathering and interrogation is the rule of three. Take three prisoners and firmly secure them. Then you torture the first in front of the other two. You don’t even need to ask any questions just do the cruelest evilest shit you can imagine after all he is merely an example for what will happen to the other two. If they give you information trying to make the pain end so be it, but do not stop not for a second not until they finally die. Then you separate the other two and torture them separately making sure not to kill them till you verify the information one gives you against what you learn from the other.

This is a fantasy world of magic and I had tools at my disposal that I had never had before so I used that to my advantage.

“Have you ever deboned a fish before? Have you ever wondered what would happen to a human without bones? Let’s find out.”

Saying that I selected one of the three a burly man with clouded blue eyes and short red hair grabbing him by the shirt still dyed red in the villagers blood. I dragged him a few meters away from the others and positioned him where the others would have a good view of what I was about to do. I then set about removing the bones cutting, pulling the bones free, and then healing him.

I actually wasn’t sure if I could heal him. I actually got the idea from my wings, if the magic in my wings could flow though and then outside my body before activating why couldn’t my other magic it would be a fascinating experiment. So channeling magic into the healing runes I forced the energy along my arm and out of my hand directly into his body.

The work was quite tedious and since I was constantly healing him there was no danger of him bleeding out there wasn’t any particular reason to stop for breaks to let him recover.

“You are a sick little bastard, you know that right like there is something wrong with your head.”

“Shut up Jack or would you rather I lived up to my name of Sir. Ass Slayer? I could always let you see how their assholes compare to a dragon.”

“Hahahahaha I don’t think there is any need for that, I think you are doing a fantastic job on your own. Also I have no real desire to add implement of torture to my already extensive resume.”

I was sure it must be an illusion of some sort but I could swear he was sweating. I had to pause for a moment though this world had resumes?

Well whatever this man wasn’t just going to debone himself, or could he maybe there was a magic for that? I quickly dismissed the thought, even if there was such a magic I didn’t know how to use it so tedious though it may be I should do it myself.

With no more interruptions besides the man’s own strangled screams and his companions frequent vomiting I quietly went back to work in deboning the man. As I would remove a bone I would quickly clean it with a shirt I had taken from one of the dead men before lining it up next to him letting him watch as I rebuilt his own skeleton piece by piece right next to him.

There are a total of two hundred and six bones in the human body but so far I had only removed up to his legs. With lots of work left to do I found myself lost in thought, what would be running through this man’s mind as he saw his own skeleton being assembled right next to him? What would he think of the fact that his horrible torture that was being inflicted on him was being done by a little child?

These men were surely the lowest dregs of scum that could be found. Yet surprisingly even men like them often had trouble harming children. perhaps he even had a family of his own, was he imagining what it would be like if his own son that was doing this to him? Could he be trying to deny that there could ever exist any child capable of such cold hearted cruelty? What if he thought I was demon possessed? This is a world with magic right surely there is some monster somewhere that could control a human body.

Lost in the methodical nature of the work I failed to notice when he died. Shit; even though I had healed him so much, he must have just given up on living since there was no reason for his body to just shut down. Well whatever I had still accomplished my goal with him.

Grabbing one on the two men by the hair I dragged him away and I tortured him. Then on to the other man finally rinse and repeat.

In the end the enemy had some sort of failsafe magic to keep people from talking about whoever hired these men. They both said only one word “Tartarus” immediately after speaking this one word their bodies burst into flames.

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What the hell was Tartarus? Did he hire them, was it a place, an organization, or was it like spies taking a cyanide pill to kill themselves before they revealed any information?

Walking back to where I had left jack leaned up against the charred stone of what had been the fireplace of Sins house. It was all that remained of it now.

Goddamn it was that it? I had lost my family, my home, my friends, and I gained what in return from the people who took it from me; a single word.

Telling Jack what little I had gained from the two men I had hoped maybe he would know something, anything that could help me take the revenge that my family deserved.

The long silence that followed was not what I was hoping for.

“Oldor remember that shit storm I said was coming? Yeah it is a lot bigger that I ever thought it could be.”

“Oldor Tartarus is a man if he could be called that he is more of a monster than any magic beast ever could be. We should probably head back to the castle before I explain any further he was always a cautious one he surely has observers placed all around to report back to him with any information. Oldor as bad as it was before me being here might have just signed your death sentence. Tartarus won’t stop till I and all the other relics of Oldor have been destroyed. ”

“I would fly slowly though you will need to think of how to tell Sin and the others about what happened.”

Ow shit Sin…I had forgotten all about her. This was her village too her parents were probably in that mass grave too. Unlike me Sin was always very sociable she would often hang out around the adults in the stores and tavern as much as she would play with the other children. She had always been well liked and she would certainly take that particular loss harder than I would. She was after all only a ten year old girl and while I may have the body of a five year old I still had my memories of thirty-three years of pain and loss to harden my heart. Even then the icy fire of vengeance in my heart burned bright over the loss. At least Sin was safe…sin was safe only because she left the village; what if I hadn’t let her come? Then her charred corpse would be buried in that mass grave along with the others. That realization made the cold flames in my heart drop a few degrees closer to absolute zero.

“Well you could always tell her one of your patented dick jokes Sir. Ass Slayer that would break the tension.”

I think some small part of me realized that Jack was only trying to prod me out of my depressed silence. Too bad that small part of me didn’t realize that until I had beaten him against the ground a couple of dozen times.

I also had to wonder, this world had patents?

“I can’t do that Jack how I interact with sin has to change I can’t just be this foul mouthed perverted asshole anymore. Not to her…we are all each other have left Jack.”

“Look Oldor I have been around for a long time so when I say that when you find somebody who can like you for the foul mouthed perverted asshole you are that’s great. Don’t try to change a thing that’s not broken besides you too kids are cute together.”

“It’s not cute Jack its fucking creepy as hell after all you aren’t the only one who has been around for a long time.very well since you are sharing your story when we get back to the castle i will share mine”

I couldn’t help but sigh at everything that has happened so far it kept showing me that I wasn’t a child, sure with my five year old body it’s not like I would get a sexual reaction even with sin teasing me.

That said I really did like her and I wanted to do those kinds of things with her as soon as I could. Yet I was a man not a child infatuated by love and just curious about a girls body. My recent actions clearly showed that; if you added my ages from both lives together I would be thirty-eight and I was falling for a ten year old girl.

I had always had bad habits let’s credit it to my fucked up life but I had never considered myself a pedophile. Looking at it objectively though that’s exactly what I was.

“Look jack if this Tartarus guy is as bad as you say then we need to stay as far away from Sin as we can if he is fighting the Allister’s then he is the one who sent the boar horse, and when I killed it he probably hired those guys to take Sin as a warning to me to stay out of his way. Then I killed his dragon and he had them slaughter a village to get back at me. Now if you were right about those observers and he does want you crushed into magical talking dick powder he won’t be leaving us alone.”

You know Oldor for a sick little bastard you can actually be quite thoughtful can’t you.”

Yes I could be quite thoughtful and I found it much easier to be thoughtful after slamming Jack into the ground another dozen times. I don’t know if the dick on a stick could even feel pain but it was nice to think that he could.

As I flew like lightning to the village last night it had felt like it took an eternity but now as I flew as slowly back towards the castle as I tried to compose my thoughts it seemed that time was flying by far too fast and I had arrived before I knew it.