“W-Wait wait!”

Selve was trying to stop me, standing in front of me, but I was already moving, heading out of the cabin. In front of me was a rich forest. I noted that I should be impressed and moved on. I glanced around and there was a simple dirt path. It most likely led back to the village. I began to follow it even as Selve started practically shouting next to me.

“W-what are you doing?!”

“Going to see the baron.”

I glanced around the forest, seeing if anything was different. I saw a squirrel and nodded, seeing a hint of normalcy, only to instinctively frown when I realized it had four eyes and two tails. Other than that, it seemed normal. That would be difficult in the future. New animals and creatures would mean new capabilities I couldn’t know. Every point further away from the world I knew meant that my understanding was lessened and my job was harder. What if the fur of that, or other, creatures were harder than steel? What if someone, namely the baron and his men, had a cloak made of it? What if there swords were impossibly sharp?

Questions and questions, and answers needed quickly.

“You! You! Isn’t this a bit rash?! You’re just going to… take care of him like that?!”

“Maybe.”

I wasn’t confident and it wasn’t smart overall, there was a much better way to do it. Sadly, the real world doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Theory died as it met practicality. I could wait, study, plan, but I’d know women I could theoretically save were being raped within walking distance from me. That would basically guarantee stress and mental turmoil. Sure, as I was, I wouldn’t really feel it. But the goal was to aid the healing process, not destroy it completely. Who knows what a few days like that could do to my already broken brain?

No, to stop the worsening of my mental wounds, I had to do it now. It was stupid, overall, but also the only option technically. Unless I wanted to risk remaining a lifeless robot for the rest of my natural lifespan, possibly even suffering mental collapse entirely and dying on the spot, I had to relieve the extreme mental stress the situation had put me under.

I picked up a twig and broke it easily. Alright, base strength was at least available.

“Can you really do it?!”

Selve was now actually shouting at me. But I really couldn’t answer that.

As I walked I leaned down and picked up a solid rock. I squeezed.

It shattered.

Even as I recognized my emotions reeling, I nodded and kept walking. Increased superhuman strength was an actual aspect I now had. That raised my chances of survival to a noticeable degree.

Selve had stopped behind me after I had shattered the rock but now ran to catch up to me.

“You’re, you’re really going to kill them!”

“Maybe.”

That was the ultimate goal of course, full murder. But I’d settle for solving the current crisis and revisiting that in the future.

After all, the deck was stacked against me. I was not well. I was not aware of what I could do. I knew for a hard fact that before my transmigration and transformation, I’d lose again one man with a sword, let alone a dozen or so. Speaking of,

“How many men are with the baron?”

Selve was quick on the uptake this time, seemingly growing more and more excited, kind of like a puppy.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Fourteen!”

Fuck. Huh. Apparently even the numb can curse. Hopefully that’s a good sign my mind is coming back together. Fourteen though, that represented difficulty. On the other hand, it was far lower than I’d have expected a baron to have. I already had a theory for what was going on with the village.

I expected that the Baron had been politically booted and was treating the village as both a vacation and possibly as a way to undo that. I wasn’t sure which was worse actually, whether it was just a vacation, or he also planned to make some money and political capital from it.

In the former, he’s going to act like a petty god and treat all the villagers like pets and slaves. Awful, and what was going on.

In the latter, he was going to do that, until he sold them to others for either political favors or money. That would ostensibly mean he probably wouldn’t needlessly kill and maim the villagers, but they would soon be scattered to the winds to other awful people.

I looked down at my hands.

“Derek? Are you okay?”

“Focusing.”

I hadn’t been doing nothing after my first two experiments. I had been feeling out my body. My wings were small and as I flexed them, noticed they could remain folded up in my shirt. Flight seemed unlikely given known physics but I couldn’t discount the possibility.

My horns seemed just like horns and would probably get me killed if I actually tried to use them for anything resembling combat.

My tail seemed like a natural born weapon and as I swung it side to side, slightly extending it, I realized my impression of it being whip or chain blade like, were more than accurate. It extended between the hard segments and seemed like it may actually be able to cut. I’d practice on the nearest tree I passed.

My hands though surprised me. I felt like, something was… available.

I flexed them while focusing on that sensation and saw all ten tips of my fingers transform into black claws. My fingers and nails fusing together into a black point but otherwise remaining the same.

I had absolutely no clue how that worked in any regard.

I focused again and my hands returned to normal.

Another natural weapon. Useful, if slightly surprising.

“Thank you.”

The words were spoken with such heart and relief, that I felt my focus fully drop. I turned to selve, who had tears in his eyes. If I wasn’t currently walking even as we talked, I had no doubt he would slam his head onto the ground and bow before me again. The palpable relief and hope in his features told a story better than any book ever could. The gratitude was so strong that I watched my emotions turn uncomfortable.

I wondered for a few seconds. I had never been thanked like that before. My life may have been somewhat interesting before, with its ups and downs, but no one had ever needed to thank me like that. That made my response difficult. I had no previous or past experiences to draw upon. My mind spun trying to figure out an answer as I continued to walk. “You’re welcome” my mind told me was too insincere in return. “It’ll be okay”, my emotions rebelled saying it wasn’t the right thing to say right now. Finally, the perfect words surfaced and my brain, soul, and self united together to form the perfect answer.

I looked back at Selve and made myself smile, knowing it would look broken and empty as I currently felt nothing.

“I’ll kill them all.”

Selve was not weak. He had buried his friends, possibly even his family. He had seen people he had known since he grew up, mothers and daughters, be raped and abused. Possibly even killed afterwards and then forced to bury them too.

He was helpless and suffering. But his decisions marked him in my eyes.

Had he died in a suicide attack? No. Had he given up and given into drinking or crying himself to sleep? No. Had he fled, trying to escape and leave it all behind him? No.

He had braved a ruin on the outskirts of his village, alone, where no one who goes in returns. He had risked certain death for even the slightest chance of revenge. There, did he find a legendary sword or an amazing guardian? No. He had simply found a red gem. Unique and powerful, sure. But who on earth knew how to use something like that? Selve clearly didn’t.

He had ransacked his memory, trying to think of any way to use the damn thing, before finally half remembering a demon summoning ritual, something that was such a taboo and crime in his country that it got everyone related to you in any way murdered.

A demon, which was known for killing their summoners. Selve had risked everything, again, and again, and again. Selve was not weak. He had the heart of a man better than me, a will like steel, and the drive to do the impossible. He didn’t need reassurance.

He needed a promise.

The smile he gave me in return was so vicious, so full of bloodlust and nearly mad hatred, that it sent a solid shiver down my emotionless spine.

Good.