Hel was the Goddess of Life and Death. Something that she took massive pride in as her sacred duty to take of those who have entered the afterlife and ready to take the journey of being the undead with grand wonders.

She could always sense the pride of whenever her Banshees are able to give a second chance to women who were quite unfortunate enough to succumb to their wounds or even other Mamanos whenever they die without being fulfilled, then her Banshees or herself would be there to help make it that they would enjoy their brand new lease on life.

After all, she could always sense whenever a soul dies, whether it’d be by an attack of a Hero from the Order or had severe injuries, she’d always be on the clock for them to be transferred back into the living in a new look for them to enjoy.

But something occurred last night while she slept, a soul had met its end, but unlike the others where she felt them being scared or confused, she couldn’t really feel the newcomer at all, almost like she was here but she couldn’t see her presence at all within hel.

She had taken her time and effort into finding this lost soul, she tried multiple methods on finding her exact location, even to a point where she called her fellow Banshees to help her find the cold lost soul, but always came out with that soul not being found, and the more time she spent trying to find the soul, it started to feel like the soul didn’t want to be found at all, almost as if the soul is too afraid and scared to even come out.

With this in mind, she tried to come up with reasonable explanations as to why the soul is acting like this in the first place, as this is never a normal occurrence at all. Was it because she got rejected with someone she had loved since childbirth? Did their husband die? Or was it because she hurt someone she loved?

She lost track of completely as she was still looking for that soul, something came up during the middle of the day, where one of her Banshees found. .something absolutely nightmarish to the point the Banshee sounded completely out of breath with her voice being so dry due to her crying for so long and how much she had cried.

Initially confused on why the Banshee sounded so distraught and horrified upon calling for her presence, she almost immediately placed herself to where her weeping Banshee was and when she was in the vicinity of where the Banshee was, she simply pointed toward one direction and. Hel saw something that in her entire existence on living in this world that she ever saw something utterly horrible.

What laid in front of her eyes was a corpse of a Merecat if the legs were any indication of what it used to be when she was alive. And Hel only knew this fact because her lower body looks completely untouched compared to her upper body.

Anything that was upper of the body looks like it was forcibly torn and bitten off at the same time, her arms looked completely skeletal as it lost most of its skin and flesh, her chest was forcefully torn open that left her insides exposed for the sky to see. And the werecats head. .

The Merecats head was torn off and what was left of it was completely unrecognizable.

It appeared that whoever the attacker was, ripped the head off of the werecat and began to rip the contents of the head apart to a point where the head had multiple bones exposed, alongside most of its features gone. Including the brain itself, almost like it was scooped out and ripped the brain apart from the inside before removing chunks of it from the head.

Hel herself felt sick to her stomach as she observed the corpse, to see a body in such a state was nothing short but absolute horror, she had tried to give herself any reason or anything as to why a person would do such a thing, but nothing came out, it just kept repeating itself.

Who would do such a horrid thing to a benevolent Mamono. . ?

And why would they do this. . ?

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Korbin knew the risks of being a farmer out in the open plains, as the risks of being captured and rapped by a Mamono, but the risk was more than worth it if the Order was paying more than triple than anyone that was buying from him.

After all, he needed an effective way to provide for his wife and their two children, one being a newborn child.

He calmly closed the door behind him after he received the charming good luck’s kiss from his wife Debbi. He looked across the field for a complete minute as he saw the progress he had made so far within the two months he had been here with his wife. With a smile imprinted into his face, he walked forward with his hoe in his right hand as he went forward to the spot he made yesterday. Which he would’ve had the time to finish had it not been for a Werecat that had been roaming around at dawn, and seeing how that Mamono hadn't been spotted this morning, he had the fullest of hopes that the Chief God scared it off from it ever coming back near his farm and family again.

And the fact he was doing this late in the afternoon was also something he really didn’t want to happen, but it wasn’t exactly his fault either. Somewhere close in the middle of the night, there was a sudden burst of light that had emitted from somewhere, and followed a few minutes after that. And by the chief god, was it the loudest and most blood curdling scream he had ever heard in his entire life.

The scream lasted for about a minute before it subsided completely but it was loud enough for it to wake up the entire family in the house, then he and his wife had to deal with the baby crying and having to take care of it for the entire night which led to him waking up later than usual.

Of course his wife was concerned about the scream that occurred in the middle of the night, but he dismissed her and stated that he had to finish his job or else he wouldn't get paid, but. . it did make him question what the hell was the reason for. Whoever that was to, scream the way it did sound.

Korbin simply shook his head, he just has to check the record for the next time a Group of Order Heros has to stay for the next couple days, and hopefully he would have his fears put into place now with the guaranteed protection of the order right above him to protect him and his family.

The farmer then went forward and placed the hoe down and began to sweep the ground floor to prepare it, far in the distance was there a figure that was sluggishly making his way towards the unexpected farmer. One pertaining to that of a blood soaked corpse with its signatured gas mask.

—-------------------------------------

The distance that the corpse had walked would’ve been considered ridiculous at most, and determinably stupid to some.

But the desire of flesh was a phenomenon that would never go away and only increase in hunger should it not meet its demands, not that the corpse was against it, as he was all too willing to comply with its demands.

It was quite an easy thing to find, as the building stood out within the landscape of pure emptiness as a spec of red within the valley of green. Almost as if the building was wishing to be found in the first place.

It didn’t know why the corpse had directed his approach to the structure, but something in his rotten memory was telling it to go toward the structure, almost as if it had found salvation. And there was a particular figure that made the description of salvation worthwhile as it did for the first time.

There in the distance laid a being of intelligence roaming around an enclosed location as it looked down on the very soil below.

The corpse had finally found someone that was walking and alive.

And there was only another that fully awoke.

Hunger

The corpse was hungry, after hours of roaming and roaming around the grasslands after leaving the empty maze like endless forest, it had finally found its prey, something that was moving, something that was fresh, something that had meat inside, something that was edible, something that was ready to be feasted upon.

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It wasn’t long before the corpse had reached the fence of the farm to which the next move was when making direct contact with the fence, its body moved inward and flopped over the fence with a loud thud as his body made contact with the grass as his eyes were concentrated on the man.

As the corpse slowly rose up from the ground, the man seemed to have finally taken notice of him as the indication of his hoe being ready at the swing and him yelling at him in a tongue that the corpse no longer understood was anything to take by, meaning that this man was ready to defend himself at any cost, even despite being momentarily shocked being covered in the blood of his last victim.

But the corpse didn’t take any note of this defensive behavior in the slightest, nay. The only thing it saw was a moving pile of enclosed flesh, one that was prepared to be opened by the corpses' very hands.

The living corpses' hands rose up as loudly growled as he tried to leach onto the man who had been surprised at the sudden movement and that when the farmer now took a swing at the corpses head to which the immediate response was its gas mask taken off by the hit.

There were two mistakes that the farmer had just made at that very moment. The first mistake was that the swing was completely half ass, there was no complete doubt about it. The angle of the swing was just wrong for all tense and purposes, and the effort for the swing was done poorly as well. And the second, was that his actions were controlled entirely in fear. And while in hindsight the fear would be a motivating factor for someone to fight.

That would be the case if the enemy was normal in any normal sense.

Because the simple look on the corpse's eyes was enough for the farmer to panic completely as the farmer dropped his only form of defense as his hanks shook violently from simply viewing the man's mushed black holes that are supposed to be occupying in the place of the eyes as the creature looked at him hungrily them the corpse took the opportunity to lunge itself at the scared farmer.

To which the farmer in response turned around and attempted escape and only got one foot in when his right leg was grabbed firmly by two gloved hands as he fell straight forward into the ground.

The living creature had pulled onto the mans leg and before the man could even kick or yell for yelp, there was a loud tear as the teeth of the corpse sank into the man's leg as the man gave out a loud yell of pain as began to kick the corpse off of his leg only for the corpse to not even acknowledge the kicks as he kept continuing his feast on the man's leg as blood began to sprout out with each being more and more as the corpse bit on.

The mind of the corpse would’ve been considered blank on that very moment as the priority focus was on the meat that it didn’t even acknowledge the sound of a pair of footsteps frantically going in and trying to help his prey escape, so his gripped was attempted to hold on a firm grip but was hit with what was sounded to be a shovel which knocked his head to the side where his teeth was no longer in the fresh meat.

As the Corpse looked up, it saw that there was a second pair of meat dragging his first victim away as it warped their arms around their victim and began to walk away from being eaten like it deserved to be,

Not wasting any time it had, the corpse began to crawl towards them as it groaned in what it can be describe in absolute anger, the second figure turned its blonde head and had a face of surprise, almost as if it hadn’t expected the corpse to be already giving chase after a heavy hit, but it did give her more strength to move the corpses prey farther away as they closed on the steps of the porch as the corpse ever so slightly neared itself.

By the time the corpse had reached the front steps, it heard a loud sound as the door was promptly shut with the blood of his bleeding victim under it, the corpse then slowly stood up as he approached the door dragging its feet up the steps.

The bloody figure looked at the door for a split second before it began to bash through the door in an attempt to break it, any other noise was nothing to the living corpse, he kept bashing and bashing a̸̢̫̎̚s̸̠̲̈͝ ̸̩͇̉c̷̬͑̌r̵̜̃ä̶͔̕c̶̗͆̚k̷̦̈́s̶̻̺̿ ̶̍͒͜b̵̯̥͂e̷̺̣͋̐ǧ̵͓a̴̖͌ń̵̦̥̈́ ̶͈̬͋͘t̶̨̼͛o̵̼͙̔ ̶̖̠͛f̷̡̞̿ö̶̞r̷̨̽ḿ̵̺ ̶̥͛̓o̵̦͜͠n̶̜̈́͛ ̷͎̒̓ṭ̷͎͂̋ẖ̷͆ė̶̟̐ ̵̠͎̎d̷̙͓͛̕ó̴͙͠o̶̦͘ṙ̶̭́ before Stanley eventually took a quick breather as he dropped the hatchet to the ground before leaning on the wooden structure.

He closed his eyes momentarily before going through his bag and pulling out a water bottle and drinking it all the way until the water bottle was now empty and he promptly placed the empty bottle in his backpack before kneeling down and picking up the hatchet before taking one last look at the wooden door.

One more hit and he might be able to access inside and open it from the inside.

He swung his hatchet one last time as the cut in the door's center was now big enough for his arm to fit right through and remove the lock. He looked at the hole before putting the hatchet in his fixed belt before waiting for a minute for one of those demon looking motherfuckers to show up.

And hearing that there wasn’t an ounce of movement, Stanley took a breather and put arm through the crack and turned the key on the door handle off before retracting his arm and placed his hand on the door handle before opening it slowly.

As the light filled the dark void of the empty farm house, did he finally take off his flashlight and beamed across the darkened living room and kitchen. He took a step inside looking at his surroundings before walking toward the kitchen with extreme caution as the wood floor painfully squeaked with each step he took.

As he reached the cabinets of the kitchen, Stanley took notice of the untouched cabinets and gardening hoe that was hanging on the wall and saw the counter. He was about to get his backpack from his back so he could lay it on the counter until he just realized there was a window near the door he just ripped a hole in to get inside.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Why wasn’t that there before?

He could’ve sworn that window was not there before, like he could’ve sworn to fucking god the window wasn’t there before until just now.

Stanley promptly removed his gas mask as he his gloved mask went across his face as to make some proper sense to the situation, like was his vision fucking with him to some compacity? Was it because he hadn’t fucking eaten for some fucking time? Or. . Was it because of the bite?

He looked at his left arm as his eyes narrowed across the bandaged arm as his right hand went across the surface of the bandage to see if he felt pain or anything. While the arm didn’t feel sore it hurt in any sense, he as well felt something was wrong, just something. Hell he was now tempted to just remove the goddamn bandage to truly see how bad it was, or how it already healed itself at this point. But he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to.

But Stanley wasn’t able to check his condition, not because he chickened out in last thought, but due to the sound of a low but inhuman groan right behind his back.

Moving to the side quickly, the infected slammed itself on the counter disorienting it for just a little bit for Stanley to quickly pull out his hatchet and took a quick and uncalculated swing to the head but not killing it. As the zombie-like being tried to grab him in its dizzy state only to be met with the same hatchet but ledged onto the now dead corpse's forehead as it fell onto its back as blood splattered onto the floor below.

But Stanley didn’t have time to recover from that interaction either because the moment he placed his hands on his knees to take a quick breather did he notice from the corner of his eye, a fucking skinny ass lady running towards him with their arms up to grab him.

Taking a spin and quick thinking, he grabbed the hoe that was hanging and when the women closed the distance did he take the hardest swing he could muster to which the sharp edge of the hoe made contact with the side of the demons head, the lodged in deep than he had expected as he moved to the side as the corpse feel to where he was a second ago.

He looked at the two pairs of corpses for a couple seconds before eventually crouching down and placing his handy hand onto the hatchet stuck on the farmer's head before yanking it out with blood dripping out of the hatchet.

Not wanting to risk the fuckers to stand up once more and possibly mutant even worse, Stanley aligned his sharp weapon on the farmers neck before he began to hack onto the corpses neck multiple times as each swing loosen the noose on the mans neck before eventually on the 8th swing did the corpses head finally come separated from the main body.

It was fucking disgusting as scent of decay entered his nostrils as Stanley felt like he wanted to barf but kept it in, don’t get him wrong, he felt strong distaste doing this deplorable act, but should whatever reason he decides to come back to this farm, he would rather not face any surprises upon his return.

His steps neared that of the dead skinny lady, and when taking a closer inspection of the corpse much to his disgust, it looked like the skin was slowly being torn off and growing weaker by the day. And then there was a sight that made his head lower.

Her face was that of complete fear, almost the same one of her mother had when he had to put her down.

There was always a part of him that always believed, no matter how much he didn’t want to think about it, that there was always a shred of the human consciousness still left in the bodies, even when they weren’t in control. Stanley always held this belief when his mother had that exact look on her face, just the amount of fear her moms eyes had when trying to bite him was just a confirmation.

As it was his method of coping when killing the infected. That he isn’t killing human beings, but he is freeing them from their own bodies. Or. . .He at least hopes so.

Stanley aligned the hatchet on the dead women neck as carefully as he could a̴͖͆ñ̷̙͈d̵̟̼̊ ̵̢̞̓̕yanked the head of the wounded screaming prey as it tried with all its might to remove the corpses grasp as she screamed in its tongue but then with a sudden rip as the head popped off as easy as it always was.

The corpse then began to feast on the newfound meal, taking apart the head bits by bits as it entered his sharp mouth and into its stomach. Time was frozen to the living corpse as his mouth was dug in too deep as its hands always pulled out new meat until it eventually went stale and tossed the head to the side as the corpses head turned toward his original prey who now lay dead on the wooden floor with a deep bites on the preys torso and head.

As the corpse crawled itself to the stale but still edible meat. The sudden sound of footsteps and glass breaking could be heard inside of the house. The corpse stood up sluggishly as it began to track the source of the sound it had heard.

His legs dragged itself across the wooden floor as its wood before it crept with each heavy step nearing the door it had heard the sound, its mouth was agape as it was now in front of the door it had heard the sound and was about to bang on the door to force it down until a certain wheel caught its eye.

The wheel was a doorknob, something that he wasn’t sure what it was. But. . .

Just like how he couldn’t leave the Forest without his Gas Mask, a lingered thought had entered the hungered mind, a thought that compelled his right hand to shakily move to perfectly align his hand on the doorknob before he pulled it down making the door slightly open and with that opening, the living corpse barged inside to see. .

A completely empty room that was devoid of any life whatsoever.

The corpse looked around slowly as its eyes tracked the room slightly until it had caught its sights on the opening of a broken window. The corpse dragged itself toward the broken opening as he stood mere inches away from the broken glass.

It stood there as its eyes saw a torn up shoe on the ground, as he directed his eyes to the window to somehow make a connection, his ears were met with the sounds of the distant winds coming in the window, making him forget his train of thought as the far distant pair of footsteps and cries of a baby dissipated away from his earring.

The corpse then turned and dragged its legs once more toward the last place he had seen his meal and he kneeled down on the corpse to observe the flesh that it had stored, while the meat is more than likely stale, the head was still intact, something that was about to change.

While normally the corpse would simply start eating the head right there without any struggle. The corpse didn’t start, as it kept looking at the dead prey's neck.

For whatever reason. The corpse wanted the head separated from the rest of the body.

So just like what it did with its previous meal, the same thing would occur with this one.

The corpse placed both its hands onto the head and began to pull on the head hard, hard to a point where unlike its previous victim, a couple of yanks was well enough for the head to pop out with blood spilling further out onto the floor.

It then proceeded to sink its teeth onto the prey head as he did the almost exact same thing it did to the last prey, ripping the contents it had, the nutrients that It had encompassed within the oblong shape.

long and dragging rips of flesh continued for what felt like an eternity to the walking corpse. As the time the living corpse had sluggishly dragged its legs to the steps of the front door, did it look into the sky once more as it saw it beginning to grow dark, signaling the amount of time the corpse took on feasting its meal.

Before venturing out to grab its missing mask, he saw something on the front steps of the building. Something that consisted of a smooth but slightly bloodied flat blade within a wooden handle.

As the Living Corpse went down as its hand went down toward the handle as it slowly gripped tight around the handle. The corpse looked at it with slight curiosity before taking its steps down dragging both its feet and the shovel with him as it made a quick stop on picking its gas mask with it failing on putting it on one time before getting it right.

The Corpse took one last look at the house before it flopped over the fence once more before getting up as it dragged its legs and shovel across the grass as it wandered off once more into the dark sky.