In the instant they noticed me, I saw three pairs of eyes instantly lock to my own, then travel down my body, looking for something. In the next, I had a blade to my throat, and the three figures were all in different locations. Not invisibility, just raw, unfettered speed.

From what I saw, they were wearing purple robes with some light embroidery. Masks covered their face, and all of them carried a staff, and a sword.

"Identify yourself." said the one behind me.

"Asmodeus." I answered at sword point. They were looking for something, but not me.

"I don't feel divine power coming from him."

"Have you seen any paladins, templars, or clerics recently?"

"Do these people have a symbol of a line on their armour, with a shield behind it?"

"So you have?"

"Inside. They're all dead, Rustwraith got them."

"You walked out slowly, not hurriedly. If there was a Rustwraith, surely you should have been running." he said as a statement, not a question.

"Not much point running from a corpse."

I heard one of the figures shuffling behind me, then footsteps on stone as they walked inside.

"You will stay here until we can collaborate your statement." he said, touching my back. "I will know if you move."

"Can I sit, at least?" I asked, but the blade was gone from my throat and footsteps descended into the ruins.

It was somewhere around late afternoon, or early evening. I noted that there wasn't that many stars in this world. Either that, or something was blocking them from shining through.

I moved to a nearby crumbled, decaying wall and found a spot that seemed like it could at least hold my weight.

Now, what will happen. They'll see the corpses, they'll know it wasn't all done by the Rustwraith. Perhaps they wouldn't even care, since they seemed so single-minded towards their goal.

Either way, I wouldn't die. Can't kill off the protagonist.

I felt some small amount of guilt for killing them, but it wasn't my fault. Forces beyond me or them pushed me to do it. I looked up at the sky.

"Are you happy, Author-God?" I said. "For that matter, do you enjoy reading this? Do you get some sick satisfaction from seeing me suffer in this world?"

No response. Surprise.

"Just let me leave already. End the story, drop the idea. Before I have to kill more like that."

I shut up, hearing footsteps coming back. Running footsteps. Not just one pair, but two.

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A fat man emerged from the darkness, wearing a long robe and holding a cross in his hands. He made it up the last steps, then fell over onto the stone. His head bounced, and crimson blood oozed out. From his back spouted a dagger, glowing faintly red.

"One more down. That makes six rebels." said one of the figures to another, who wrote it down on a thin leatherbound book.

The one who just spoke looked at me, then spoke again.

"You lied. They weren't all dead."

"Apologies. All the ones I knew were in there, dead. I don't know if there's more."

"Lying to a silencer isn't the smartest move. Nor is committing murder."

"Murder?"

"I can piece together the scene well enough. A man stabbing himself through the throat, with his own sword? Highly unlikely. Further still is him then using that sword to kill another. You killed at least two. The others were desiccated, but your foot is cut up from glass. Which means you were the one who released the gas. The bag was cut, so it was taken forcefully, and the two that were desiccated were running in the bag's direction."

"That's pretty amazing. You forgot the part where it was a Rustwraith, and she could control swords from afar."

"We've studied apparitions, and there has been no records of Rustwraiths controlling swords."

"Are those studies complete, even about Matriarchs?"

"It was a Matriarch?"

I nodded.

"You killed it?"

Nodded was starting to get old.

"Yes, and the damn thing could control blades. The only way I survived was stomping on all the flasks at once whilst she was preoccupied. Even then she managed to kill my allies."

"You seem remarkably sound of mind, considering the events."

"I think I'm past the point of caring. Too much has happened, and I've not processed it all. But I am no murderer."

"Then you'll allow me to look into your soul. If what you say is true, then you will have part of the Rustwraith - but not much more."

I sighed.

"I needed to take parts of their souls too - or I wouldn't have had the strength to do what I did."

"So you openly admit to being a Soul-Drinker?"

I felt my hand curl around a nearby stone.

"Yes." I said, then the figure disappeared. In a flurry of action, I brought the rock up to my neck, protecting it. Less than even a fraction of a second later, a thin sword stabbed into it.

The look of surprise on his face was delicious. I brought the rock down, taking his blade with it, and sent my fist flying into his face. He stumbled backwards, and I wrenched the rock backwards. His grip maintained, so instead I brought it upwards, smashing it into his face.

He rolled backwards, then stood up straight.

"How did you see me coming?" he said, then looked to the other Silencer.

"It is impossible for you to see, hear, think or really control your actions whilst moving at that speed. You don't run, or move fast in a traditional sense - you just put your sword out in front of you and essentially rush forwards. You went for the neck earlier, so I guessed you'd do it again."

I gave that information freely, hoping to intimidate and avoid a fight.

They did seem more wary, now.

"I will not fight you anymore. Know this, Soul-Drinker. If we come across you, and we do not have fugitives to chase, we will exterminate you." he said, then withdrew into the shadow of the ruins. The others did not come for me, so I backed up, keeping them in sight until I was in the forest.

After collecting some camping supplies from out makeshift camp, enough to eat for the next few days, I started the long trek back to the city, which, by the by, is named Axasfield. No-one I asked knew why.

Though a more burning question in my mind was, why were Paladins being hunted?

Some kind of holy war, I would guess, but these 'silencers', damn what an edgy name, didn't seem faithful. More like assassins, and they used some kind of magic. I could feel it on my skin, even now. Some kind of small-scale tracking magic.

I was out of the area, now, and it doesn't seem to affect me anymore, but the residue was still there.

Of course, I'd have to explain quite a lot to the Guild Master. That'd be a fun conversation.

Still, power has been obtained, even if it doesn't seem like much. The Blade adornment seems like a decent ability - it should be, if the matriarch was as powerful as they all thought. Personally, I chalked it up to dumb luck that those vials were enough to kill her.

At least I had horses to keep me company on the way back.