"Hey drink some water, it will help," Blondie said and took out a leather sac.

"No, I don't want to."

Right now, the mage was sitting on a stone and staring into the distance. His eyes, which were black to begin with, seemed to have turned even darker.

"Why not," he urged.

"I don't need it, it's poisoned."

"What do you mean, stop with this nonsense already."

The mage clenched his fist and trembled.

"It's toxic, it's not toxic, everything is toxic. What are you hiding from me," he grabbed

his friend, "why can't you tell me the truth," he screamed, "just leave me alone."

"Fine then, do what ever you want," he spoke and walked away. Specifically, he walked towards me.

"What the hell did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," I replied.

Suddenly, he seized my throat with his large hands and began squeezing.

"Don't forget, you are in no position to be cheeky. I will ask you one more time, what the hell did you do?"

I gasped for air, and held on to his arm, with my feeble strength, I was able to squeeze out a single sentence, "maybe he's scared of the dark?"

Enraged, he threw me on the ground.

"I swear, the moment our captain is back, I'll ask for permission to kill you," he paused, "enjoy what's left of your life until then."

I lifted myself up and began walking away, "sure whatever, empty threats are all you guys are good for," I said and waved my hand.

"Where are you going."

"To sleep. Wake me when you are ready to kill me."

Ignoring Blondies intense glare, I walked towards a tree and laid down and slowly, my eyes closed.

Too tired, I was simply too tired. Soon, I fell into a slumber.

While sleeping, I had another dream. The dream wasn't long, but I found myself immersed in it.

In the dream, I was in a room. It wasn't a room in the medieval ages. Instead, it was furnished like a modern room. An old television was constantly flashing and the worn out air conditioner kept buzzing. In the middle was a table made out of old wood, barely supporting the leftover dishes on it.

It was my old room.

The room, which was slightly stuffy and had no ventilation was where I had spent most of my life.

I dreamt about my old life, how I was living with my friends and our experience. It was like the last flash of memories before I left the world.

I dreamt about how my life started, every decision I made, and then how I died.

I dreamt about my happiness, my sadness, and finally my indifference to everything.

The only regret I felt is that I would never know what happened to the people that followed me. However, if I think back about it, dying was probably the only option that was left to choose from anyways.

Still, fate had a slightly different view it seemed.

Instead of vanishing, I transmigrated to another world.

My sight grew foggy and suddenly, the setting changed. I was standing in a white empty space. In front of me were two paths for me to choose from.

One was brightly shining, decorated with rubies and gold, and at the end stood Estella, waving at me.

The other was equally dazzling, like a current of electricity, it lead my gaze towards my sister waiting for me to get over to her.

I sat a the fork road, unable to choose were to go. Plagued by my decision, I sat there while time flied by. And slowly, without me realizing, they both withered away.

I opened my eyes and woke up from my hazy dream.

When I stared into the sky, I saw that it was almost morning. The moon had left, with nothing to replace it, and the darkness, which engulfed everything began to disappear, leaving a tinted blue.

"What a bitter dream," I muttered to myself.

Even in this world, I wasn't able to protect my happiness.

I sighed and stood up. I scanned the surroundings and saw only the mage still staring into the distance. Neither the leader, the other guy nor Blondie could be seen. Where exactly did these people keep going.

But since the night was almost over, and I had a promise to uphold, I decided to end the game right here, right now.

I made my way towards the mage. He was so caught up in his delusion that he did not even realize I was already next to him.

"Had fun staring into the distance," I whispered.

Surprised by the sudden voice, he shrunk back and with a low voice snapped, "where did you come from?"

I chose to ignore his question and instead replied, "I came to fulfill my duty."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Questions, the only thing you know is asking questions." I grabbed his hair, and pulled his head up, "I'm done answering."

He clenched his teeth, and didn't say anything anymore.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"The scene, you can't get it out of your head, right? How the fire swallowed everything in it's path. Not discriminating between a corpse or a tree."

The black haired mage covered his ears and screamed, "shut up, I'm not listening to you, you demon!"

I peeled his hands from his ears, "no, you will keep listening, whether you want to or not," I stared into his eyes, "because you can't help but want to hear it."

His arms, which were struggling at first, lost all resistance, "you monster," was the only thing he managed to release out of his mouth.

"You, you're scared of death- Wait No, that would be wrong. You are terrified of it. It sends your skin crawling doesn't it. A genuine phobia," I declared," yet, you keep killing and killing others. For you, every human is already a walking corpse isn't it? Quite the irony."

"What's it got to do with you?"

"Nothing, I'm just warning you. If you keep walking that path, retribution might just come your way, " I cup back his head lightly and press his forehead, "for example, if you are too fixated on one thing, it will keep haunting you. Perhaps you might just start seeing things from the perspective of the dead?"

His eyes rapidly moved and his pupils rolled up his head. For just a split second, he lost his consciousness. The moment his mind came back, he retreated as far back as he could. Holding his mouth, he felt something welling up inside his stomach and puked.

"you, you're already, you're a co-corpse," he let out shriek and ran, "fuck this, I'm not dealing with this."

From now on, he will see everyone as a Zombie.

"hey, it's almost morning, you know."

The moment I said that he stopped. He swallowed once and screeched, "disappear, just disappear already, don't come near me you devil."

"If that's what you want, I can do it for you. Just like the fire turned these bodies into ash, the dead will also disappear from your world. But remember, I said you'll die tonight. The nights almost over, so see you soon."

Afterwards, there was a short silence. Carefully he turned around and saw nothing. Even though I was standing right in front of him, he couldn't tell.

The mage gripped his shoulders in fear.

"Where have you gone, I'll kill you," he said, silent but determined, "I'll kill you."

I watched him frantically running around, searching but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find anything. At his wits end, he let out a soul piercing howl.

"So that's how you did it."

The sudden intrusion of another voice, made me reflexively turn around, only to see the mages friend unsheathing his sword and pointing it towards me.

He wasn't the easy going Blondie anymore, what was left of him was only a determined face to kill.

"You are a dark mage, aren't you?"

"Huh, I have no idea what you are talking about."

"You don't have to hide it from me, I saw everything that happened, " he squeezed the hilt, "there's a myth that has existed since the break of dawn. People who once pursued magic, but lost their will being tested by the devil. They sacrifice their soul in exchange for power. Instead of following the divine, they turn towards blasphemy."

"Well, it seems like you know your stuff."

"You could say I had an unfortunate encounter with them before, " his eyes turned ferocious, "using dirty tactics, like deceit and hypnosis, they turn you into a puppet. Luckily, I know just the way to break the spell," he inhaled, "and that is to kill the caster."

"Try it and see if you can then."

"I can't wait for the captain anymore. I'm executing you right here," he asserted and ran towards me, his speed was astonishingly fast, I could hardly follow him with my eyes.

In an instant he closed the distance between us. Just as his sword was about to connect, something surprising happened.

His arm disappeared.

It was being sucked in by an unknown force, and started bending into different shapes, until it turned into nothing more but just mincemeat.

In the distance, I could hear the mage mumbling, "I found you."

"Woah, how were you able to dodge that? You must have quite the reflexes,"I said sarcastically.

Unable to comprehend what just occurred he let out a, "what the fuck."

"Don't swear, it's not elegant," I told him, but he wasn't listening, as another round was fired towards him and he lost another limb. Even though he was moving and jumping around, he couldn't avoid it.

"Hey, are you retarded, look where you are shooting," he screamed and turned slower, as the wounds have gotten to him. Desperately, he tried communicating with his friend, but there was no reaction.

"He can't hear what you say. He can't see you either. In fact he probably doesn't know you are here in the first place. All he sees and hears is the rustling grass and the howling wind, caused by your rapid movements."

Blondie stared at me in astonishment.

"You're kidding me."

"Oh watch out, if you don't pay attention, he will hit you."

Right when I warned him the third round hit him square in the chest. Just like everything else touched by the twisted ball, he himself began to twist. His waist down went into one direction, while his upper part went into another direction. Like noodles on a fork, he twisted and twisted, until he was no more. No time to scream, no time to cry, his life had ended.

And then, the silence came back.

"I've done it, I've finally killed that girl," the mage muttered and suddenly started laughing hysterically.

"Oh, why would you think that, when I'm still standing here with my two feet."

His celebratory laugh stopped abruptly, and he stared at me.

"But, but how?"

"Oh you can hear me again. That's nice, looks like the curse was lifted when you thought I was dead. See for yourself if I really am, though."

Hearing what I said, he gulped and went towards the thing he had just created. It didn't take long for the realization to dawn upon him and he fell on his bottom. It wasn't like the other times, where he was fighting against the poison. This time his body gave way towards gravity without a resistance. He crawled away and gazed at his trembling hands,

"I, I killed him, oh god, what have I done."

"Yeah, you did."

A single tear fell down his face, like a dam, it then broke through, and soon he began wailing like a kid.

I walked towards him and gently embraced him from behind.

"See, this is retribution, because you, who was scared of death, would still kill other people. Do you see where you went wrong."

"Y, yes, I shouldn't have killed."

"False. It's because you are a hypocrite, " I assured him.

Without emotions, he replied, "I see, you're right."

Turns out, it all went as planned. Taking advantage of his inherent fear, I amplified it and used it against him. Just like a magician leading the audience, I led him towards his doom.

Now, for my last magic act, I took the dagger hanging from his waist.

"Kill yourself," I told him, and put it in his palm.

"Huh, but why."

"Do you wan't to escape this darkness, or do you want to be swallowed by it. Show the heavens that you aren't afraid. Show them, that death means nothing to you and only by that will you overcome this tribulation." I held his hand that was grabbing the dagger and smiled softly, "relax, your friend is waiting for you."

The black haired youth gripped the dagger tightly, and the fire which had vanished from his eyes returned and burned fiercely, "yes, you are right," he concluded and promptly stabbed himself in the heart. Like he was petrified, he sat there, unmoving with the blade digging into his flesh. Without a warning, he slumped into my arms.

And so it has ended. I let go of him and laid him on the ground.

"Wa... wait."

Oh he wasn't dead, yet. How tenacious. He tried glaring at me, but his vision was already gone, as he was looking in the wrong direction.

"How, how many times," the boy coughed some blood, "urgh, how many times could you have killed us."

Unexpectedly, that was what he decided to use his final words for. I rest my hand on my chin, so I could think.

"eight times, I could have killed you both eight times tonight."

"I don't understand, then why," he tried saying, but the thick blood leaving his orifices rendered him unable to do so.

"Why I killed you that way, is that what you want to ask," I pulled the dagger out and more blood started oozing, "because that was the most interesting," I smiled in a way that I myself could only describe as grotesque, "two friends and companions as they began to kill each other and the survivor, ridden with guilt, decides to take his life, doesn't that sound charming?"

While I was immersed in the tale, he started struggling intensely, and I heard him choking on his own blood, with his last breath he left the world accusing me, "you're mad," and then turned motionless.

He didn't even let me defend myself. That reminds me, I never found out their names.

I looked up and saw the distant sun appearing in the colorless sky. The night was over.