A strange wave spread out from Alnea Oathkeeper. It was not a wave of Oren, or Mysteries. Neither was it a wave of his Aspects. The fluctuations he released… they were entirely different. And they were enough to startle the Heterodox Wanderer. Having already learnt his lesson, the man did not continue to entangle with Yuri, and stepped back to see where the strange fluctuations were coming from. Yet, all he saw was Alnea, with his sword poised to strike. Thinking that he had been tricked once again, the Heterodox Wanderer put on a dissatisfied face, and glared at the boy persistently making trouble for him.
“…Are you feeling energetic so soon?” the Heterodox Wanderer said. “I thought that you would stay down for a little longer. Looks like I went a little easy on you.”
Instead of answering the scum, Alnea Oathkeeper looked towards Yuri. She was panting, with blood, and sweat staining her robe, but she refused to show weakness. On the other end, no matter how much it pained her, Cecilia kept struggling to remove the dagger from her thighs. And when she saw him get up, her struggles only increased in intensity… These girls were so silly… But they were silly for him. They were his Heart. His Oaths. And anyone who dared to touch his Oaths—
The earth itself cracked, and blasted apart from the pressure that Alnea Oathkeeper put on it, as he pushed himself towards the sinner. And for the first time, the Heterodox Wanderer failed to react to his speed. Before he could realise what was happening, a sword was already heading towards his stomach. But he was not afraid. The Nectar of Blood was—
The ‘Sword of Oath’ pushed past the barriers of blood, sin, and death, as if it was passing through water, and stabbed into the Heterodox Wanderer’s stomach. And if not for the man retreating in time, then the sword might also have passed through his stomach. Still, even when he withdrew in time, the man could not avoid getting wounded. Not enough to render the man helpless, but enough to make him feel pain. And to consume some of the blood red glow surrounding his body.
“How did you do it?” the Heterodox Wanderer said, with shock, and disbelief written on his face, as the wound on his stomach closed up with a speed visible to naked eyes. “How could you get past the Blood Filed?”
Alnea Oathkeeper stepped forward, and answered the scum with a swing of his sword. Not with his Aspects, or any Martial Styles, but just with the power of his Oaths. With the ‘Sword of Oath’. And once again, the Heterodox Wanderer failed to react in time, while the Blood Field surrounding his body failed to protect him, leaving another wound on his chest.
“What are you?” the Heterodox Wanderer hissed, rushing into the darkness. Yet, no matter how fast the man was, he could not escape the edge of his Oaths. In the end, with no other option, the man chose to fight against him. However, how could a sinner bear the might of Oaths? How could someone who had never kept his word ever hope to understand the weight of Oaths?
With the chains of his Oaths wrapped around his body, Alnea Oathkeeper moved faster than the winds, arriving next to the Heterodox Wanderer before he could even urge his Aspects, and added another wound on his body, only for the Wanderer to retreat in a hurry. However, no matter where the Heterodox Wanderer went, Alnea Oathkeeper would arrive next to him in an instant, and leave another wound on his body. And another. And another.
Soon, the number of wounds on the man’s body reached to a point that even the blood field surrounding him was beginning to show signs of wear. Its defence was already meaningless in front of his Oaths, and in a few moments, it was also going to lose its healing effect. And yet, Alnea Oathkeeper was still not satisfied. The sinner had dared to defy his Heart… The man had dared to toy with his Heart. Even a thousand deaths would not be enough for the man. How could he let man be after just giving him the taste of the appetiser?
Wielding the sword in his Heart, Alnea Oathkeeper appeared next to the Heterodox Wanderer, and swung down his sword. This time, however, he did not aim for the man’s chest’s, stomach, or legs. Rather, he went for the man’s hands. The same hand which had stabbed Golden Yearning into Cecilia’s thighs.
In the next moment, the man’s right hand separated from shoulders, and dropped on the ground, along with the man’s blood, and screams. Not even the blood field could heal such a wound. All it could do was stop the blood leaking from his shoulder. The Heterodox Wanderer paled, and cursed, hastily retreating into the darkness. He did not even bother picking his hand up. But how could Alnea Oathkeeper let the man leave so easily?
“Treat this as your win. I will no longer pursue you, or the girls. Let us end things here, and be on our way. Or neither of us will have good result.”
Pushing against the ground to make it crack around his feet, he rushed into the darkness, and swung his sword at the Heterodox Wanderer once again.
“Don’t push me too far, kid!”
Slicing through the blood field, Alnea Oathkeeper sent another hand to the ground, while the Heterodox Wanderer fell into hysteria. And rage.
“You asked for this yourself, you bastard! Don’t think that you have won! I will show you—
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
With another swing of his Oaths, Alnea Oathkeeper severed the man’s left leg, sending the man tumbling down to the ground, finally ending the senseless chase. However, he was still not done with the man.
“Don’t deceive me too much, brat! Do you think that if you do this, I will cry for mercy? Dream on! You may be able to kill me today, but let me tell you, you have chosen to provoke the wrong person. When Lord Ghost Fire learns of what happened to me, he will surely have my revenge. And then, you will know what true terror is. You will know pain, and suffering. You will know—
Alnea Oathkeeper reached down to the man, and pulled out his tongue, before severing it with his sword. A tongue that dared to insult Yuri… There was no need for such a tongue to exist. The man though… Suffering such grievous wounds, one after another… if not for his blood field, the man might have already died from blood loss. Even the blood field though, was only able to delay his death. If he lost even more blood…
No, he thought. Death would be a relief to the man. And so, instead of finishing what he had started, Alnea Oathkeeper slipped his sword into the only limb still attached to the man, allowing gravity to pull his sword, and part through the man’s flesh, and bones as if they were water. And once his sword emerged from the other side of the leg, he withdrew the sword just as slowly as it had sunk, before repeating the whole process. From the feet, he slowly made his way up, poking countless holes in the man’s leg. And when—
“It’s enough, Alnea. There is no need to go through this mindless—
“Mindless,” Alnea Oathkeeper said, turning towards his back. There, in the distance, some twenty or so metres away, he could see Yuri Faed, and Cecilia Serpia making their way towards him. They were both exhausted, and tired. Cecilia was even injured, wrapping one hand around Yuri’s shoulder to support herself, while using the other hand to hold the limp cat to her chest.
“None of my actions are mindless,” Alnea Oathkeeper said, stabbing his sword into the man’s groin with much more force than what gravity could pull. “He dared to think with his groins… It is only right for me to give him his due punishment. Do you not think so?”
“…Stop it, Alnea.”
“Stop?” Alnea Oathkeeper said, shaking his head, before turning back towards the Heterodox Wanderer, crying in tears of blood. “But I am just beginning.”
Withdrawing his sword from the man’s groin, he poked the man’s eyes one by one, with just enough strength to make him blind, but not kill him by accident.
“These eyes, which dared to look at you with such vile intentions… there is no need for them to exist.”
“…Alnea!” Cecilia said, panting, huffing. Just saying that one word took all of her strength. But it garnered his attention. And when he turned towards her, he found her looking at him with concern, and tears in her eyes.
“Worry not. I have already taken your revenge. The hands which dared to hurt you… I have long severed them.”
“…Alnea…”
That was all that Cecilia could say. And even what she said came out in a hoarse, and rough tone. As if something had reached deep into her throat, and scratched it with knives. To make her suffer so much…
“I understand,” Alnea Oathkeeper said. And for a moment, the girls had a look of relief on their faces. That was until they heard the rest of what he had to say. “Just two hands are not enough to compensate for how much he hurt you. He needs to pay more.”
The girls were still staring at him with wide eyes, when he stabbed his sword at the top of the Heterodox Wanderer’s thighs, before running it down to the end of his feet, splitting the man’s last remaining limb into two equal halves.
“That ought to compensate for all that he did to you,” Alnea Oathkeeper said, nodding to the symphony of pain, and cries escaping the from the blind man’s mouth. “Or do you think it is not enough? Should I—
“Enough!” Yuri said, half in rage, and half in worry. “Get yourself together, Alnea!”
“Get myself together?” Alnea Oathkeeper mumbled. “But I am perfectly fine. In fact, I have never been better. Not even before experiencing my first death. The only thing lacking is my power of Oaths… but I can make up for it in time. As for the rest… the Origin Sea—
“Alnea!” Yuri said, biting her lips in frustration. She looked hesitant, worried, and concerned. But what was she worried about?
“Should you not be happy? We beat three Heterodox Wanderers together. As a team. We—
“…Do not say ‘we’,” Cecilia said from the side, with blood leaking from the edge of her lips. Probably form forcing herself to speak. But she paid no attention to herself. “You are not my—our Alnea.”
“…What are you talking about? I am the same Alnea that you met in Anneve. I took so many Oaths for you. I—
“That is why you can never be our Alnea,” Yuri said, shaking her head. “For our Alnea, it is not his Oaths which are important, but the people he took his Oaths for. And he is not so cruel as you are.”
“…I am only cruel to those who are cruel to me,” Alnea Oathkeeper said. “That is my path. My Clarity. And you know it. You—
“Killing the Heterodox Wanderer, maybe. Torturing him… that is not the path of the Alnea we know.”
“Fine, do you not just want me to kill him?” Alnea Oathkeeper said, shaking his head, before swinging his sword on the Heterodox Wanderer’s neck, separating his head from his body. “Are you happy? Now, can we go back to being normal? I am tired—
“…I thought that becoming an Intermediate Stage False Wanderer would delay your curse, but it looks like the curse has only become worse.”
“…Your imagining things. I am perfectly fine.”
“…Since you are not willing to return our Alnea to us, then I will have to take him back on my own.”
“…I think you have misunderstood something. I—
Alnea Oathkeeper felt a sting from his left hand, as if something was burning his fingers. The sting was so intense that he was forced to look down towards his hand. All he saw though, was the black ring adorning his finger of fate glowing with a white light, bright enough to burn his eyes. And the more he looked at the ring, the brighter it glowed, until the entire world was drowned out by a white light, leaving just him, and a strange, eerie voice.
“…It is time that you came, Son of Chaos.”