I did it again- I fucking did it again-

I felt my lungs start to get heavy, and my breathing turned ragged as I try to move away from the hero b-but- I can't move- I- I- I just stood there, in shock of what I had almost done. AGAIN. Oh sure- me- help the hero by telling her that she has a Sanguine Pledge- That's a good idea isn't it? SURE- A very good idea-

LOOK WHERE THAT GOT YOU!

I heaved and recalled my Pledge, Fafnir's trying to tell me something through our telepathic link- I couldn't hear it, the voices were starting to get muffled- the hero and her support- her friend- is standing in front of me, saying something I couldn't hear because my breathing is getting too LOUD-

“S-stop-” I begged, my voice starting to crack, my throat felt like it was being choked from the inside, the pain starting from my chest and up my neck- “please.” I begged again, why? I don't know, I really didn't- I tried- I did- I did my best- told the first Hero how to get stronger quickly- gave this one the opportunity to realize that she has more potential than she thought she had- I mean- I don't get it- why- why is the playthrough- no- this is real life- so why- why does she have a Sanguine Pledge? That's only reserved for hard mode isn't it?

Is this world doomed? - I felt my knees go weak and started clawing at my throat- I can't breathe- I can't breathe- I can't breathe-

“NEOPHYTE!” The voice broke through the haze and I looked up- I met the reddened eyes of Lucille, her tear stricken face was starting to look puffy- how long as she been crying? Her cheeks are streaked with tear marks- like a parody of a waterfall that's only there to mock me- I felt something hit my chest and something else wrap itself around my back, something hot buried itself in my neck- then warmth went through my very being- does Lucille know what she's even doing right now? Does she realize that she's calling her innate capacity as a Saviour to use this world's best healing spell? And she's using it to what?

…Heal me?

No- why- you- why- why-

“I'M SORRY!” I flinched.

Then giggled- wow- for- for someone who was trying her best to console me, she really didn't think things through huh? Why bother screaming at my ear? I laughed- and Lucille noticed it this time so her head moved away from my neck and she stared at me, we locked gazes, she rubbed her cheeks with her sleeve, “I'm sorry,” she apologized needlessly, “I- I should've- I… maybe- I don't know what to say-” I giggled and she stared at me, concern hidden underneath her shocked eyes, “y-your majesty are you okay?”

Does she think I went mad? I rubbed her head, “... yes,” my voice came out weaker and more unconfident than I wanted it to be, “I- I'm sorry for worrying you-”

She hugged me again and started crying, I don't know for how long and I didn't care, I sat there, rubbing her back and comforting her and when she was done, she parted the hug and while sniffling said, “I-I- I shouldn't h-have c-come here,” she apologized, “I didn't know that- that there's a horde coming-”

I lightly hit her head, “why did you even come here?” I asked, knowing full well why- I'm a fucking liar- a piece of shit-

The warm gaze full of admiration that Lucille shot me made my worries disappear-

“I- I want to be like you,” she admitted- better her than me for being honest- and then she giggled, pushing out my depressing thoughts, “u-uhm so I thought that hunting monsters-” and there it is, Neophyte you would've murdered her again- her blood would've been in your hands again- humanity's doom and extinction would've been your fault and it's because you're so STUPID- “Princess?”

I flinched- “y-yeah?” Why did my lungs feel like they're burning? Why- why am I breathing heavily- I sucked in a lungful of air, “I- I'm fine,” I did my best to smile but Lucille didn't look like she believed me, “I- this just happens sometimes, from… overexertion.” ANOTHER LIE- I laughed lightly, it sounded forced but if Lucille noticed it, she didn't let it show or call it out, “I'm sorry for worrying you,” I stood up and dusted myself, ah, Zath is gonna be mad for this later won't she? I shook my head- “uh… you two should go,”

They needed to, they needed to be kept safe- I schooled my expression and eyed both Lucille and her supporting childhood friend- Nickos.

The latter had remained silent throughout the entire thing, he met my eyes and something flashed in his gaze before his expression looked conflicted but eventually, he decided on something and he said- “you're hurt,”

I didn't respond, simply pushing Lucille up and fixing the creases of her shirt, Nickos didn't care about my willful ignorance of his words and continued, “you need help,” he said, tolling his bell, which caused it to disappear… hm. Did he use two of his charges already? When? - vitality washed over me, it felt as though something heavy was lifted from my shoulders, “y-you shouldn't carry everything by yourself,” he said, “even the heroes of the past needed the help of everyone else and you're just…”

“I know,” I nodded at him, that's why I'm helping their territories- I know that people who do physical labor day in and day out would be more helpful than the ones staying in Everlast, who live comfortable lives without any physical work, those guys… will be useful as ranged supporters while carrying guns but even then, I still doubt if they're even going to help, or train to fight Demons for that matter. I hope they do. Humanity needs all the fighting chance it can get. I sure as hell can't get them to do what I want, I just… need to support them. Bit by bit. I- I shouldn't interfere with the territories personally, I- I'll just ruin things if that happens.

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“I know already,” I growled when his pitying look was still directed my way, I closed my eyes, “L-leave,” I grit out, “please, you won't help me now, train in the Academy and… fight against the Demons when the time comes,”

Lucille nodded resolutely but Nickos’ gaze was still directed at me, never leaving, “come on-” she ran over to her friend and grabbed him by the sleeve, “we need to go- I'll tell Dad that there's a horde forming,”

I nodded, “that'll be a big help,” I smiled and Lucille ran away, I watched her disappear from my view, idly noting that she's wearing the explorer's gear that I gave to everyone in the Flora and Fauna territories, a shirt and a long-sleeved vest as well as a pair of pants; leather and woolen, brown in color, and capable of minor protection against damage.

When I knew she was out of earshot, I sighed, “keep an eye on them,”

‘I'll make sure that she returns home safe,’

I… didn't know if Fafnir cared about the fact that there's a new hero or not- about the fact that I stole her from Lucille- ‘calm down,’ I heard her say, and I did, sucking in lungfuls of air that calmed me down, ‘you can tell me if something is wrong, you know that right?’

“... do you regret making a Pact with me?” I decided to be honest and asked- she's never judged me until now and only listened so- why- why is my heart hammering my chest and making me feel like shit? Why am I anxious of what she's going to say-

‘No, of course not, you've been great and… even if I think the Hero needs every help she can get, I'll probably only be a burden to her,’ Fafnir said, ‘... if I didn't meet you, I would've been nothing but a self loathing wreck hellbent on fixing the past,’

I chuckled, “are you hinting at something?”

‘Take care of yourself, Neophyte.’ And the connection got cut off.

I ran my hand through my scalp and sighed- I… am making things worse by staying near the hero aren't I? Should I just let her go on at her own pace?.. I considered internally and concluded that- yes, yes I should, Lucille isn't a kid that needed guidance nor is she someone that needs my personal help, me providing aid for the Flora and Fauna territories practically guaranteed her growth and the result of that became obvious when she used a Technique that's far advanced for her current level.

Or power- I don't think levels exist here.

Or even limitations on what kind of “Technique” can be used- there's no such thing as level caps, and proof of that are the endgame Techniques currently in my arsenal- which by all means, I also shouldn't have because I'm only around level 31ish in terms of power.

I sighed again and closed my eyes, silently, I calmed myself down with deep breaths and when I felt fine enough, I opened my eyes again and walked forward- the forming monster horde won't end itself after all.

My speed is something that I am very proud of- it's my main method of offense as well as my greatest weapon, most of my build revolves around it; and most of my Techniques- save for the standard stat boosting ones, - are either ones that add more speed, increases my power based off of my speed, or are attacks that uses speed as a basis for their power output- when all of that's combined, I can confidently say that I am one of the fastest Pledge bearers in not just Everlast, but across the world.

There are only a handful of people out there that I can say either matches me or surpass me in that particular stat- and that's why I didn't feel threatened by the monsters surrounding me at all, and their large numbers don't really matter to me at the end of the day because even with that, their attacks are simply too slow.

Case in point- I took a step to the side and walked around the downward slash of a Grisly Spider, its two gigantic forelimbs looking like scythes thanks to the sharp claws growing at the end of each arm, not that those helped in reaching me obviously.

I slashed once, then twice, three times and its forelimbs turned into mincemeat, torn apart with the ease of a hot knife going through butter, the spider's screech got cut off when I ran forward and executed a downward slash, slicing its head directly at the center- it fell down, dead- the monsters around me didn't even react to its death, running forwards like I didn't just kill one of them with ease, in fact, they seem to be over eager to go ahead and die to me so you know what? Let me oblige-

Pledge in hand, I dashed forward and started slicing the necks of all the Iron Tusks that were coming my way, their bodies fell halfway through their charge, dead and with their heads hanging on their body through nothing but a thin layer of flesh- Bullet Bees started firing their stingers at me and I moved before the first one hit, running through the rank and file of the monster horde as the bees’ shots followed me, the gunners uncaring on whether or not they committed friendly fire on their fellow monsters- most of which started to die from the myriad of bullet holes forming across their body.

I ran to the nearest tree and jumped, grabbing a branch before swinging myself sideways until my feet met the tree trunk and once my soles found the wooden bark, I kicked myself off and shot towards the bees, using their fellows as platforms as I jumped off of them while slicing their kin.

They continued firing relentlessly and honestly, these guys were fucking reckless- more of them died from friendly fire instead of my own attacks.

Once the air was cleared out of the bees, I moved on and went back to attacking monsters on the ground and started a massacre, slaying Iron Tusk- the most numerous of the monsters by far, - after the next while occasionally murdering a Dire Wolf or two that thought they could catch me off guard.

Ground Shakers, for some reason or the other- probably because they're slow and thus were at the back of the horde, - couldn't be seen but the speedier, smaller, adult version of their cousins- The Manhunter Epomis Beetle, - kept pestering me with their speed, they were fast enough to mostly keep up with my unboosted speed and if I was only fighting one then I would have been fine but there are over 30 of them running around me, threatening to cut off my legs with their sharp mandibles before ganging up on me and starting a feast.

I looked to the direction of Lucille's village and gritted my teeth, a few of the monsters were splitting from the horde to continue moving, choosing to ignore me so that they can make their way to a larger number of victims.

I used a Technique to increase my speed and proceeded to murder the rest of the beetles before shredding through the large number of monsters present across the Inner Forest, blood started to dye the ground red as I ran through the horde, slashing and killing like there's no tomorrow, everywhere I went, monsters died out, their numbers culled and if someone were to view what I was doing from above, then they would only see a white blur passing through the horde and wiping out anything it was coming across.

I refueled my Technique and continued the slaughter-

I was panting by the time I was done.

Sore and exhausted, I made my way to a nearby tree to rest my back against its trunk- I started breathing heavily, taking in lungfuls of air as I tried to calm my beating heart, my brain was pulsing and my mouth felt dry- after using a Technique that'll regenerate my body, I closed my eyes and started breathing, waiting for the effects of Maximum Regeneration to put me back to full health.

I spent so much time recovering that the people from Lucille's village- including the heroine herself, - managed to catch up to me, I felt them approaching me but I didn't react, opting to continue refueling Maximum Regeneration until my body no longer felt sore- “Your majesty?” A male voice said and I opened my eyes to stare at who I assume is the leader of the hunting party, he sighed in relief, “I'm glad that you're alive, if you need help-”

I stood up and the effects of my Technique immediately lessened, “I'm fine,” I waved him off, I called Fafnir through our pact and earned feelings of agreement in response, I looked at the hunting party that was supposed to “exterminate” the forming monster horde and failed to hold back a chuckle, “sorry-” I started, “pretty bad of me to laugh at you like this but you should've evacuated,”

I knew that they wouldn't be able to do anything, after all, the horde that I just wiped out is meant to be The Call of the Hero's Journey, which followed after a common cliche of the Hero's hometown getting wiped out by a slew of monsters to give them the proper motivation to get stronger.

Most of the time, this would've been impossible but a lot of people from Everlast- the game, - have dialogues that told the Player that the atrocity could've been prevented with the right amount of firepower and you know what? They were right.

I eyed Lucille, well, at least she didn't have to hopelessly suffer against the horde of monsters and be forced to run as her village got massacred, Goddess knows that playing through that is already bad enough, and that was only with a limited number of monsters that spawned, let alone the entire horde- I stretched and cracked my knuckles, “Well, I'm going now,” I started walking away, “see you,”

What the villagers do with the information that the entire Inner Forest has been littered with monster corpses and dyed in blood is up to them.