The red-eyed creature crawled forwards with its clawed arms, heading straight towards me. Ignoring the sword-wielding adolescent ahead of me and the little girl to my right.

“What the hell is this thing?!” Tavarius sprung to block the creature’s path and launched a skyward stab aimed directly at what he guessed was the creature’s head. In reaction, the creature subtly tilted its head, Tavarius’ sword barely missing the mark.

Not allowing the creature the opportunity for counterattacks, Tavarius jumped back, took a moment to examine his enemy, and dashed back forwards, his sword becoming a blur. Gashes and wounds opened by the attack on the creature’s arms, but the creature remained aloof under Tavarius’s assault.

Seemingly uninterested in engaging in a fight with him, the creature pushed Tavarius aside with a swipe of its claws. Its glowing eyes refocused themselves on me.

In an instant, the creature loomed right above me, eager to claw me to death. I conjured an earthen shield in front of me, protecting me barely in time.

My teeth chattered involuntarily. A moment later and I would have been mauled to death right here and then.

“[Deadshot]”

Lucia shot powerful invisible pulses of air, piercing and injuring the creature. Some of the air pulses chipped away at the razor-sharp claws that remained hacking away at my earthen shield. No matter what she did though, the creature paid her no mind.

Why the hell is this thing so fixated on me?

< You… you… I devour. Belong to me. Return. >

A strategy came to mind.

I collapsed the earthen shield in front of me. The creature seemingly excited, it made to pounce right on me.

“[Barrier]!”

A magical barrier formed around me. The creature’s face forcibly smashed against this invisible barrier, splattering its dark blood all over. I felt ethereal cracks form in the barrier, but it held.

The creature staggered by its self-inflicted headblow, was now wide-open. With my right hand moved to touch the ground while my left hand pointed outwards towards the shrieking creature.

Double casting:

“[Freeze]; [Fire Lance]”

From my right hand, water formed, spreading from me to the creatures arms, before it instantly crystallized into rock-solid ice, holding the creature in place. Simultaneously, from my left hand, a formation of lances of bright flame formed before firing, raining down directly on the creature’s head and front body.

The ice holding the creature in place started to crack as it flailed to escape.

“[Freeze]; [Fire Lance]”

I continued my onslaught, putting more mana and mana into my magic. The creature persisted as its flesh and muscles burned away, its crimson eyes fixed on me with hatred. It broke through the ice restraining it and jumped forwards.

Shit!

“[Freeze]!”

I focused both my hands on completely encasing the creature in ice, but it smashed through the ice with ease, seemingly stronger than before. Those damned eyes… My will to fight escaped me.

< Eat… Die… Will die! >

This thing! What the hell does it want?!

The hairs on the back of my neck stood in utter fear.

< You >

My heart beat in my chest with deafening thumps.

< Must >

I… I don’t want to die.

< Die >

“Lucia, launch me up!”

“O-okay!”

From behind, all of a sudden, Tavarius was high in the air, his sword poised to pierce the creature. With his momentum propelled by Lucia’s wind magic, his sword descended from above, impaling the creature’s neck.

“Gaaaaaaaagh!”

Tavarius violently pulled out his sword and began hacking away at the nape of the creature’s neck. The creature stood on its legs to shake off the swordsman that threatened it. Pulled away from my terror-induced trance, I took a deep breath to ready myself.

Reservoir expansion.

Mana to the legs.

Mana to the arms.

Mana to the sword.

Calm down. Breathe. I can kill this thing.

The creature’s eyes followed me as I darted forwards and swung a wide slash from its shoulder to hip. Not good enough. Another slash ran across the creature’s chest. Not deep enough. One slash turned to another to another to a flurry.

“Hyaaaah!”

The creature’s body was turned into mess of tattered skin, exposed muscles, charred flesh. The mutilated creature collapsed onto the ground, but its eyes still looked at me unwaveringly.

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< Eat… You eat… me… >

I stood there, my legs paralyzed, my hands shaky.

“Hey, you good, Luqa?” Tavarius came running towards me hurriedly.

“…” What was that creature saying?

“Luqa, are y-you okay?” Lucia came over to me as well, her childish face filled with worry. “Here… [Heal].” She put her hand against my chest, using a healing spell on me without thinking.

“I’m… fine.” Physically, I wasn’t harmed. But that fight had shaken me to my core.

I had the urge to take a closer glimpse at what remained of the creature. At its crimson eyes. Stepping forward. One step. Closer and closer.

< Eat >

I lay a hand on the creature.

Countless sensations went through my head. Random glimpses of reconstructed memories. Mana was flowing from the remains to me.

Wait, no. That wasn’t it. It wasn’t mana. It’s as if the very remaining life of this creature, the very essence that made this creature whatever it was, the very soul driving it, was sucked into me and assimilated.

The burning sensation caused me to slip out of consciousness.

***

A middle-aged bearded man with a crown on his head stood before me in a large hall, with his sword drawn. Anything intimidating about him was negated by the fact that he was trembling, terrified of me. Of course he would be. Around him were the corpses of the soldiers that were guarding him.

“G-geh weg von mir, d-du Teufel! Du wirst für deine Sünden büßen!”

He yelled at me, in a language I couldn’t comprehend. I held in my hand a beautiful black sword that was eager to disembowel him, but I resisted the urge and sheathed it. After all, how could I sully something so precious for such an unpleasant man?

Seeing me sheathe my sword, hope shone on his face. Hope that I crushed as I slowly stepped towards him. I wanted to make this man suffer, to leave him no choice but to curse his fate.

“”

A hook from me sent him backwards. He covered his face with his hands, whimpering in terror. Blood dripped from his mouth, his lower jaw disjointed.

What am I doing? Why can’t I control myself?

“”

I stomped on his left leg, shattering his shin, completely crushing his bones. The shrill, painful cry that escaped his disgusting mouth evoked no sympathy. No, it was music to my ears. Eager to hear the continuation of his pitiful song, I continued on with his right leg. Yes, this was the natural fate of my enemies.

“Gyyaaaaaaaa!!”

My crimson eyes stared into his. His face begged for the mercy of death. Pathetic. He won’t be getting what he wants. No. My vengeance couldn’t be so quick.

***

“Luqa! Luqa! Wake up!”

Lucia shook the unconscious Luqa. Her cousin and her father looked on with worry. Ersham silently crouched down beside Luqa on the ground and listened attentively.

“He’s… breathing, thank the gods. You said he used a lot of magic right?”

Lucia and Tavarius nodded firmly.

“Well, he might just be really tired then,” Ersham said light-heartedly. He moved to carry the unconscious boy and laid him down on the cleaned wolf pelts they used for keeping warm.

“Seems like he’ll be fine, he’ll just need to tuck in for tonight. After all, you’re telling me he fought this… thing right here?”

He fixed his eyes on the corpse of the creature. Its ominous body seethed, as if slowly melting away, and its once animated red eyes now held only hollow emptiness.

“Yes, for some reason, this thing was after Luqa,” said Tavarius, puzzled.

“I see. I’m sorry for not being here to protect you guys,” said Ersham soberly. “But then, on the other hand, congrats on working together to kill this thing. If I tried to take on this creature all by myself, who knows what would happen?”

***

The return leg of our journey home was relatively uneventful.

When we reentered the village, everyone was shocked by the sheer amount of monster parts we returned with.

And their surprise was topped off by the fact that Ersham, the very instant we stepped back into the village, was willing to give away most of it.

“Are you certain you’ll be giving this away, Ersham? If you were to go to one of the cities in the far north… or even to the human nations, you could make a large fortune,” said an old horned demon who was the elder of the village.

“Well, lucky for you, I don’t have any plans to do that anytime soon!”

“Uh, I see.”

And our return to the village was anticipated by Clara and Helena, who had prepared a welcome-back dinner in my mother’s home, right in time for us.

“Welcoooome back, you guys! How was your first-ever adventure?” said my mother cheerfully.

“It was pretty fun! Though, I’ll say there were a couple of hiccups along the way…” said Ersham.

“Hm, what do you mean by that?” asked Helena.

“Well for one, there was the time that large scary monster went after the other three while I was off finding food,” said Ersham nonchalantly. “Glad they ended up not dying, phew…”

Um. Mr. Ersham. Are you sure you want to just blurt it out like that?

“Tell me more, dear.”

Helena has that scary smile again! Is Lucia going to end up like that? Oh, I fear for the future.

“We’ll talk about this later,” she continued.

Ersham flinched as he realized his mistake. Good job, champ.

We set ourselves down on the table, on which was an array of plates and bowls containing delicious food. The centerpiece was a whole roasted turkey, still very warm.

“Let’s dig in!” Tavarius said before proceeding to serve his plate full and to stuff his mouth.

“You got it right, Var!” Ersham wasn’t much more polite than his own nephew.

“Hey guys, be more polite! Clara cooked most of this, so let’s be more respectful, please,” urged Helena to the boys of her family.

“No, no, no need for that. I’ve seen far worse from him in the past. Remember that one time at the inn in Lefke. We almost got kicked out, remember?” Clara said.

“Ugh, don’t remind me, please.” Ersham stopped eating for a second to shudder in remembrance of the past.

These three are pretty close. I wonder what sorts of lives they lived before. I heard from my mother that they used to be wandering adventurers before settling in this village. A life like that, huh? Doesn’t seem so bad.

Still, I can’t shake it out of my mind. Those memories. I received even more of them ever since killing that red-eyed beast. Who the hell was I? And the memories themselves… what life did this previous me live?

“Luqa, what’s wrong? You’re not eating,” asked Lucia.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, just a bit tired,” I replied.

“Can I heal you so you’re not tired anymore?”

“Um, that’s not how healing works, unfortunately. If it did, you bet I wouldn’t bother with sleeping anymore.”

“Ya kidding me? A nice sleep after a long, hard day feels amazing! You’d give that up?” said Tavarius in between eating his food.

I chuckled, feeling the tension within me relax.

These two… I wouldn’t mind following after Ersham, Helena and my mother’s stead. Adventuring through this continent. Experiencing this world with them. Then returning to the village from time to time to relax. Not a bad life. These past memories, I’ll deal with them another time.

“Also, you guys, I have something that I want to say,” Helena suddenly said with a heavy tone. She met her husband eyes with a resolved look. Ersham made a difficult expression before slowly nodding.

“Tavarius, Lucia,” Helena said gently. “I’ll be leaving the village for a while.”

“Wait, why, Auntie?!” “Mama?”

What.

“I have something very important to do by myself. This is something only I can do. If not, bad things might happen to this village,” Helena continued. “Don’t worry, I’m tougher than you think. And it’ll take two years at most.”

Ersham and my mother sat silently as Tavarius and Lucia started to tear up.

“Oh, children. I’ll miss you during my journey. But don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it. And I’ll come back with souvenirs, too. For you too as well, Luqa.”

What happened? What’s going on?

***

Helena left the next morning. Lucia couldn’t stop crying the whole time.

The way Helena left with that forlorn expression, like she was about to go to her own death, bothered me to no end. I wanted to stop her, to convince her, to ask her to have someone accompany her, to do anything I could to help her.

But I couldn’t.