A village is hidden deep within the mountain range of the northern continent with very few residents.

It was a quiet and eerie place surrounded in all directions by forest and river.

A group of teenage boys was arguing in the middle of the village. It seemed like the rest of the 5 were ganging up against a single skinny boy.

'Should I just bash their heads in'

The name of the skinny boy was Arsh. Due to his rude personality and weird facial feature, he was the outcast of the village.

Arsh is 12 this winter. He is short and has white skin with his features abnormally sharp in the face. His canine was grown out of his gum, which made him look like a real demon. 

"Don't Insult My mother"

"You are a bastard. If not tell me the name of your father or your last name"

One of the kids from the group shouted, with a mocking grin on his face.

He returned to his house, all the questions still ringing inside his head. He quickly went through all of the rooms in search of his mother. Only to find her doing calligraphy on the ceiling.

'Again?'

"Mom, What are you doing again? At least leave the ceiling clean"

"You are home, where were you?"

"I was with Edward" 

"Hmmm.... okay, It's time for dinner, help me prepare it. Today I only found mantises on the hill, so we have to make do with them"

"Whaaat, that thing again, you know mom that thing stinks  like poop"

"So, you want to eat poop then?"

'..... I guess not'

After 2 hours of cooking Arsh was at the dining table with his mother.  When they started eating silently Arsh murmured in a low voice-

"Why we don't follow any gods? Mom. The villagers say every person is born to pray to the gods"

His mother's face turns expressionless, as she shouted enraged-

"So, it was your presence outside the cottage. I thought it was Edward. There is a reason why I told you to stay out of the cottage"

She looked at him. Arsh was unfazed by her shouting and had a determined look on his face.

"Sigh, if you want to know then listen closely"

Samantha's tone changed to complete seriousness.

"There are no benevolent beings in the world. You are curious as to why we don't pray to gods, it is because they abandoned us long ago" 

"They are not the kind of beings you heard from other people. And I don't want you to know, how they really are. At least not yet"

"You asked in the morning why we live in the faraway wasteland. It is because we are forsaken, by humankind and being hunted by the churches of those filthy creatures"

She looks him straight in the eyes and asks with a completely serious tone-

"Promise me arsh, you will never leave this village"

Arsh stays silent for a bit, then lift his head.

"I will promise it if you promise me to tell everything about it. Otherwise, I will do my best to get to the heart of the matter. This is not the full story"

A pained expression appears on his mother's face. While holding all the bitterness inside, she responds.

"Ok I promise, I will tell you everything"

...

The next day came. It was early in the morning Arsh woke up from his slumber and moves out of bed to wash his face.

"Hey mom, I am going to get the firewood for today"

Arsh says as he leaves the house behind.

'Why do the other villagers pray to gods if we are forsaken, why were we forsaken anyway. Are mythical beings even exist?'

Arsh asks himself all the questions on the top of his head but never be able to get a hint of the answers. He knew this was all connected to him somehow.

From the previous conversations, he knew something is about to happen in the village as his mother and most of the adults of the village always seemed restless every day.

He moved deep into the forest. Only to find Edward, camping there with the corpses of monsters. He had piles of monsters around his camp, some were big enough to swallow a human whole.

"Is this some kind of picnic spot"

Arsh asked Edward with a smile while moving toward his camp avoiding the corpses lying around.

"You can also camp here if you want. I just have to see, how many seconds you are going to survive. I bet 40 sec."

"I am here for firewood. Help me out"

"Kid, we are in a forest. Go cut some trees and go back home. I have something to do"

Edward started moving toward the village at high speed leaving only afterimages behind.

Arsh sighs, and due to his weak physique, He was only capable of taking a day's worth of wood with him.

After cutting some branches and collecting them. He started moving towards his home, still curious about what his mother was going to tell him.

'Gods huh?'

He starts moving back toward his home. It was then that he heard the sound of lightning coming from the village.

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'What the hell was that?'

Panicked he starts running back towards the village while leaving all the things behind. 

'Shit! I am too far away. I have to run quickly'

When he reached there out of breath, he saw the most grotesque sight a human can ever hope to see. 

Blood and body parts are all over the Village. Corpses of more than 15 people lying there. Some with head, some without it. There was not a single complete corpse it was all slashed into several pieces making the sight even more dreadful.

'Wh...What is this?'

Arsh moved between the corpse with pure terror. Trying to avoid the body parts lying everywhere. He saw a familiar head lying around decapitated from its body. It was the kid that used to bully Arsh every day. With Horror dawning on his senses, he started running.

'Please be safe, mom. Please be safe. Please be safe'

He ran toward his house which was slightly outside of the village. He reached there and his heart stopped beating for several moments and all of his life force left his body. He fell to his knees and mumbled in a voice full of terror.

"m....mo...m"

He saw five people with different white robes standing in front of his house with her mom's body parts. While her head was in the hand of one of those men. They had an extreme aura of bloodlust around them, which made even breathing harder for Arsh.

The man with Samantha's head in his hands turned towards arsh and said with a smile.

"You are late to the party kid"

"Arlo we are here for a reason, not for your entertainment" 

The other man says in an emotionless way his voice full of authority.

Arsh broke down on the floor with sobs and tears. His mind went blank. His body felt powerless and every bit of light started leaving his eyes. 

"Hey cutie, you should stop your crying it's annoying. And it is your fault we have to kill our old comrade--"

"CURSED CHILD OF THE UNKNOWN"

"Your very existence is a stain on this world. Now tell me from where I should start tearing you apart. It took us 12 years to find you. So you can be sure that you are not going to get an easy death"

The man said again, A clover drawn over his robe.

Arsh was in the deepest pit of despair. He can hear everything but his mind was completely blank. He was just lying on the ground, barely breathing.

It was at that moment a wind of black fog started blowing at very high speed around the house and every village started attacking the intruders in a matter of seconds. Spells began to fly around everywhere while some of them were using swords and daggers.

The remaining villagers started getting slashed apart by the intruding 5 men. Arsh was lying there just watching this massacre with no emotion on his face.

"Save Samantha's kid, Edward" The chief shouted at Edward who was busy blocking one of the intruders with his swords.

"Stop this bastard. I will take care of Arsh" 

Edward picked arsh up and started running towards the highest peak of the mountain while every bit of chaos leaped everywhere around him. Fire, water, and cracking all around the little part of the mountain. It was like all calamities of the world came together.

Edward ran with a frantic speed he turns his head towards Arsh and ask him in a worried voice.

"Arsh, you are alive right??. Answer me"

But he got no response from the kid. He knew the kid was alive as he was breathing in his hold. But Arsh's eyes were hollow and seemed to lost every meaning of life.

Edward gritted his teeth together and grabbed Arsh's collar. While slamming him down on the forest ground. He looked straight into his hollow eyes and shouted at him.

"Stop your mopping this moment. Samantha died for you over and over again for years. If she just has abandoned you, she could have got a safe and luxurious life. She still chose you above everything. For you, she died the most gruesome death. Just to keep you safe"

"For the last 12 years, she always goes out to keep you safe from your death in the name of the hunt. Killing emissaries of those churches in the forest while you sleep soundly on your bed"

"You are going to let them walk free after what they did to our village and Samantha. I know I am not going to. I am not going to let them live, even if I have to sacrifice every single limb of my body. They will pay for everything they did to Samantha"

"Be strong Arsh, they are going to keep coming after you until you are dead. And this time Samantha won't be here to save you. Be alive that was Samantha's greatest wish, don't let her sacrifice go in vain"

"Listen to me kid. You and only you, still have a chance to save Samantha and the villagers. We just have to reach the highest peak"

Edward started running again and added in a sad voice.

"She always loved you for what you were Arsh. Never forget that"

Edward ran frantically to the peak of the mountain where a beautiful building was situated. Out of breath, he put Arsh down on the ground in front of the gate, of the beautiful Temple.

"What I am going to tell you may sound like bullshit, but there is still a way to save Samantha and the villagers"

"You have to pray to the god inside of the temple, He is not benevolent. No god is. Just plead to him, he is the only being that can help us now"

Arsh nodded silently and entered the temple. Edward started running back towards the village or whatever is left of it.

Arsh was silent his eyes had no lights in them. Just a faint glimmer of hope, for his mother to be saved again. He walked in the corridor made of black marble, which was perfectly devouring every bit of sunlight coming to it.

He moved to the crest at the very end of the temple. 

It was terrifying to look at the crest, it contained a face that was certainly not human. It had 4 eyes and hair covering the sides of its face. It looked like a painting of some kind of Monstrosity.

Arsh denied his inner fear and started pleading while shouting his lungs out.

"Please save my mother, you can take whatever you want from me. I don't care if you are benevolent or not, just please save my mother please"

He started pleading with the silent carving of the Monstrosity. He kept pleading for hours until his legs gave out, and even then he didn't stop pleading. 

The light around Arsh started to dim and his vision turned completely blurry. He never felt something like this, but he knew what this feeling was - he was nearing his death. 

Everything around him turned dark. It was peak afternoon, the time for the sun to be brightest but it was all dark in the temple, with no light inside. 

Arsh didn't want to die like this. Not until those 5 are alive. He ground his teeth and jerked himself awake, from all the tension pent up inside of his body. 

[Death is eternal, even the death god can't go against the order of nature]

Arsh heard something and it sounded very ominous. He lifted his head to see the source of this ominous voice.

What he saw was pair of 4 eyes looking directly at him from the darkness. It was at that moment, primordial fear took hold of him. His very body is compelled to bow in reverence to this being. 

He tried to speak but it didn't work, his body was frozen stiff with fear of the ominous being.

He started thinking back to his conversation with Edward and remembered what he promised him. He tried to overcome the fear with willpower.

'I don't care what you are. I will make you help me'

He took a deep breath and started shouting with every fiber of his being at the darkness with eyes.

"What the hell you mean you can't save my mother? You are a god, you created this whole universe. Every human pray to you, there should be nothing impossible for you"

The eyes blinked one time and the darkness remained quiet for some moments. He again heard the voice of the ominous being.

[Let me rephrase it then - I won't help you whatever you are ready to sacrifice. I don't need it. Go back to the other side of the mountain. Go and live there for the rest of your life, away from the eyes of the other god]

Arsh again dropped to the ground with his face hitting the ground. The whole temple was surrounded by darkness and it was eerie and silent everywhere.

It was like death itself have descended there.

The temple rang again. But this time it was due to the voice of the child. Which contained enormous rage.

"Edward and mom were right. Gods are not benevolent creatures"

"The crest carved on the clothes of those men was of the churches, I saw in the books of village chief"

"Now I know why Mom hated Gods. You were our enemies from the start. You are the reason my Mom died that gruesome death. You are the reason for all the misfortunes fallen on the villagers. Also, I was the reason. I was too weak, to protect what was important to me"

He took a deep breath and lifted his head. He stared the darkness right into its eyes.

"I am going to kill every single one of you. You are playing gods from above and doing whatever you please. I don't care what any of you are, demons, myths, or the god itself. I am going to live and butcher every single one of you. In the most grotesque way possible"

"I swear that on my mother's name. I'll kill the death itself if it means I can revive my mother. Just wait and see, any being in the universe will not be able to stop me. You can try and stop me, I am coming for every single one of you"

The 4 eyes of the ominous being were still staring Arsh in the eyes. The dark voice again rang throughout the whole mountain.

[Death is eternal]

[Beginning is the start of the end]

As the darkness started to fade, the whole temple started rumbling. It was then the temple had a loud explosion. And Arsh was flunked into the river flowing through the mountain.

While he was drifting in the river he opened his eyes again. 

Now his eyes were not hollow; they contained meaning, rage, and Tenacity. As he drifted in the cold river and his consciousness started to wash away. He again declared in a low voice.

"I s..w...ear I a...m gonna kill ev...ery sin....gle one of you."

[Prologue--End]