It’d been 12 years since he left the Trial, and Ryu still saw the monsters. They were everywhere. He saw them in the streets bickering with merchants at their brightly colored stalls. He saw them marching off to forts with their arms and armor. He saw them tucking their children into bed at night with a tender kiss. Aye, Ryu saw the monsters, and it was his duty to slay them. One by one.

Tonight, he was after a monster named Count Margrave. The Count was a noble in the Premier Aristocracy of some standing, a leader of men, and a father. He was also a murderer, a villain in the wrapping of a noble. Noble. The word could hardly describe such a man. Before Margrave met his end, however, Ryu had to escape his own home.

He smiled a false smile on his false face. So false was he, one could say he was truly false. He wouldn’t say that, however. Ryu said little of value these days, if he was honest.

"Yes, I’m fine,” he said, that fake smile written large over his face. “Just going out. For air.”

“Hmm… Air, right,” Bonny said, her brow raised in… not disbelief. It’d gone long past that. So far past, he could use the excuse of going out for air. It was so flimsy he wondered why either of them pretended. Pretended he could be happy with peace. Or happy at all.

He leaned in to kiss her. She turned her cheek. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Uh… See you later, I guess,” he managed to say, walking to the door of their home. He opened it. “You know Bonny… I do care. About you.”

“Then why?” With two words, she nearly broke him. Her voice was tired and confused. Much like himself.

Why? Well, he didn’t know why. A shitty answer maybe, but more and more, shitty answers were the only ones he had to give. “I wish I knew,” he said. He closed the door behind him.

“Oh, you know why,” a voice whispered into his mind. Ender, the devil who resided in his mind. “You like doing this.”

Ryu didn’t like it. He hated it, hated himself. He put his hood up, stepping out onto the dark cobbled streets. In front of him, great buildings of swirling spires and intricate stone carvings dominated the streets. Small houses like his own were few and far between. The Sixth didn’t want modesty. It wanted kings. More importantly, it wanted people to fight for these grand buildings. He snorted. It wasn’t as if they needed much motivation to fight anyways.

He walked down an alleyway, pulling gear out of his storage ring as he went. First came his armor. The black metal plates interlocked like scales, rippling and conforming across his body. Then came the mask, a plain piece of metal that covered the lower half of his face. His knives came after, and they found homes in the various sheathes scattered around his body. He stopped to look around. Nobody. It was why they’d chosen to live here. Few came to this part of the city.

A leap brought him to the roof of the building. The moon hung above him, its faint red casting a crimson light across the dark city skyline. It reminded him of blood. Of the screams of the dying. Of the grasping fingers, the splitting of flesh. Of his nightmares. Of his-

“Enough,” Ender said. “We have a man to kill tonight.”

Ryu ignored the devil. All men- all people, for that matter- died in the same ugly way. It didn’t matter how. Or so he told himself. He remembered the note he’d received. The command.

“Count Margrave,” Ryu whispered. He tasted the words, rolling them over his tongue like a bite he didn’t want to swallow. His lip curled. The man had to die, he knew. What sort of man would Ryu be if he let a monster like this live?This was his penance, his way of righting his many wrongs, yet in trying to rid the world of monsters, he’d only birthed a new one. Ender's dry cackle filled mind. Ryu leapt from the roof.

He watched. He watched, and he wished he’d been lied to. Wished the list of the Count’s misdeeds had been false. He’d done this with every note, and so far, they had never been wrong. It seemed tonight was no different. Margrave was guilty.

He reached into his inventory. “Warhammer. His defensive Skills resist blades,” Ender said, excitement lacing his voice. Ryu bit the inside of his lip, pulling out a heavy warhammer of dull grey metal. Not for the first time, he wondered if he could be doing something different. Why did he have to kill men? He should be able to buy them dinner, talk to them, and convince them to stop their cruelty.

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No. It was easier to kill a man than fix him. Himself included. He rested his head against the cool metal of his weapon, looking through the window of his prey. Maybe violence was wrong, but at least it provided an end. The same couldn’t be said for peace.

His hammer smashed into the door. It made little more than a dent. He gritted his teeth. The buildings of the Sixth were quite durable and rightly so; the Classers would break the buildings with their inhuman strength, otherwise. He needed more to break through, so he burned a soul.

Battle Technique- Soul Eater

The Shinigami stores the power of his fallen enemies. The souls can be burned later, used as fuel to multiply the power of physical abilities. One soul equals one second of use.

Power flooded his body. He swung the hammer again. The door shattered. He felt sick, the memories of the soul flitting through his mind. He’d had a family. Children. A wife. It was too much. He needed to-

“Kill,” shouted Ender in his mind. A man in armor rushed at him, a sword in his hands. Ryu’s hammer smashed into his knee. Then his skull, popping it like a smashed grape. Not his target. An innocent, maybe. [Whisper Step] carried him up the stairs that dominated the grand room. He entered a hall. He passed paintings and art, grand arches making up the ceiling high above. It was beautiful. Too beautiful. A stained soul like the Count had no business claiming it.

A guard crashed into him from a hidden doorway. Ryu stumbled, fell, and scrambled on top of the armored figure. A gauntlet smashed into his face. Ryu pressed the length of his hammer on his enemy’s exposed throat. The fist hit him again. He snarled something. Not even words, just a guttural sound. The guard struggled and flailed. The fist struck him once more, but it had lost its strength. The man’s struggles grew weaker and weaker. Ryu pressed down harder. His teeth were clenched. Blood pounded in his temples. The struggling stopped.

A blade scraped across the armor on his shoulder, the red glow of a Skill catching his eye. He burned another soul. The memories were from a woman this time, a murderer of some renown. Ryu spun, ignoring the tears in his blinking eyes. His hammer cracked a breastplate, caving in a ribcage. The red glow sputtered, died out. Another blow splattered his armor in dark red. Three bodies, now. How many had to suffer for one man?

He continued his mad rush. Margrave couldn’t get away. He had to pay. He had to… Ryu’s thoughts were frantic as he kicked a door. Another soul burned. More memories came. He kicked harder. The door flew inwards. He ran into the room, ignoring the carved marble archways and large stained glass windows. He passed statues, faces trapped behind layers of stone. His eyes were only for the man in the center of the room.

The count was a robust man, his figure even larger with the stone plates growing over his body like armor. A great window rose behind him, its shape like that of an eye. In front of him, a woman stood encased in stone, her hand outstretched.

Margrave opened his mouth to speak. Ryu ignored him. His hammer cracked a stone-covered arm, smashed a granite chest, and then caved in a knee. He burnt more souls, ignoring the memories. Margrave wasn’t even a Master Class.

The rock armor started to crumple, leaving only bare skin. The count begged and offered. He pleaded for the mercy he had denied his own victims. Metal met flesh. The count turned sideways, broke in a way a body should never twist. Blood leaked from his quivering lips. Ryu continued. He smashed. And smashed. He was yelling, screaming, cursing. He stopped only when the monster looked his part, all mangled and twisted. That made four.

His chest heaved. His feet carried him out of the room. The head of his hammer drug behind him, leaving a crimson trail on pale marble. The eyes of the statues judged him. He’d failed. He hadn’t saved them, hadn’t helped them at all. What did the death of a man do for them? Nothing. They were dead, long gone from this poor existence. The count had used his wealth to capture them. To harvest their Qi. To kill them. He passed the statue of a small boy, one who couldn’t have had a Class. Why? What spawned such cruelty?

Power. It was Skills and levels that allowed a man to wreck such havoc, to have such control over life and death. It was power that had killed these kids and robbed them of a future. Ryu clutched the hammer in his hands. It was power that brought him out every night. Not vengeance or justice. He was no vigilante, no hero. He accomplished nothing, saved no one. He only killed. His body moved mechanically, leaving the house. He found an empty square, the List filling his vision.

Name

Rank

Points

Ender

100, 515

-2,000,115

The Big Seven. He snorted. He was part of that group. No. Ender was part of that group. Seven men and women. The strongest Master Classers of the new generation, only weaker than the old monsters who only lived from high cultivations. Of the seven, six held the highest scores on the List, fighting off the threat of the Bugs. Fighting for humanity. The seventh was dead last on the List, his number brought down by the massacre of important and rich figures. Humans all.

He let his armor fade into his storage ring, as well as the hammer. He was left in his hooded jacket and plain clothes. He looked at his hands. They were awfully clean for a stained soul.