I was, as usual, fulfilling my daily quota with the "Ones from Above," a simple, little job of harvesting souls and, in this case, that of an eminence, nothing more and nothing less than that of a King. His welcome to the kingdom was very warm; I mean, an entire army was waiting for me at the entrance to try to finish me off; it was too much for a simple guy looking like a villager. Unfortunately, it didn't work out too well for them. -

"RETREAT! RETREAT! TO THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE NOW!"

These were the shouts of the cavalrymen I heard, running at full speed from the scene down a cobblestone street; these knights knocked down any obstacle that obstructed their path over barrels, wagons, building debris, and much more. I remember hearing a second soldier reply to the previous one, panting, gasping for air to speak with.

"WE'RE CLOSE! WE'LL BE SAFE WITH THE TEMPLARS!"

They kept running until they finally reached the trenches where the Templars were, a species of high-ranking knights who carry halberds with blades made of concentrated magic, huge armor of tempered Damascus steel, and the ability to erect a magical barrier in front of them. -

In the trenches, I saw several knights in a panic, trying to calm down, which was normal, considering that the only thing they had faced were some wild creatures. Once calmer, the first knight asked the other, his voice trembling at the thought of what he had witnessed...

"Do you think they can stop him...? You saw what he was capable of... it's unbelievable that only one person is capable of killing so many soldiers alone, no... it can't be one person, it's impossible."

To which the other knight replied, in the same conditions.

"At this rate, he will finish off everyone and everything in his path; the only way I see to win is to warn the Templars and have them help us; there is no other way."

The second knight came out of the trench, approaching one of the Templars to chat with him. He raised his voice and, at the top of his lungs in desperation, he exclaimed.

"TEMPLAR! WE REQUIRE YOUR HELP! THE MENACE CROSSED THE LINES OF DEFENSE! AND IT IS APPROACHING FAST; IT HAS ALREADY SLAUGHTERED MORE THAN HALF OF OUR TROOPS! YOU MUST HELP US BY GOING AHEAD!"

The templar had been all this time observing his surroundings; he saw some houses being demolished and an emerging dust cloud slowly approaching the trench. He never thought it would come to more, so after listening to the knight, the templar answered.

"One man against a thousand soldiers, who would have known the telegram the king received was true."

-Suddenly, in the distance, a huge bang was heard that made the dust cloud reach the last line of defense; debris flew through the air, and visibility was almost null. The knight, curious about what the templar was referring to, asked him. -

"Telegram? A real telegram?! At what point did they tell you that; why didn't they warn us?"

-The Templars adopted a defensive position, anticipating a possible surprise attack. When he was sure everything was secure, the templar replied. -

"You are not told a lot of things... If you had been shown that writing, you would have gotten out of here without a doubt. A couple of hours ago, a telegram arrived at the castle; it said that someone would come for the king and that he would do so at all costs. The king still ordered us to protect his life, so as a Templar, I must follow his orders no matter what."

-The knight was astonished by the templar's words; his loyalty to the king was absolute, even somewhat... obsessive, although now that he knows the truth, he felt as if he had been used as bait, a combination of mixed feelings left him next to the templar for a few minutes when suddenly two bright lights appeared from the cloud of dust. -

"IT'S HIM!" The knight exclaimed, taking shelter behind the templar.

"Templars! Barriers now!" Shouted the templar to his companions to erect a combined barrier covering the entire front, with 4 templars securing the battlefront.

-The threat was not moving, just like the templars with their barrier; they were waiting for the right moment to act; minutes passed and in the blink of an eye. The figure vanished. Confused, the templar wondered-

Where did it go?! It couldn't have gone that far! Knight, make yourself useful for something and look for him!

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- "Wait. Wait a minute, how the fuck do you know all that? Weren't you back there causing mayhem and destruction in your wake? Mercilessly murdering people? Causing explosions and all that?."- Hunter interrupted me while he drank water and covered himself from the sun with part of a cloth we found lying there near the well.

- "The explosion was a mere coincidence, and the lights they saw were from the reflection of two barrels, and the truth is that I simply battled at most five or seven of the knights. I dodged the others. I never killed any of them; they killed each other. Since the knights reached the trenches, I clung to one of the castle's walls and stood listening. While I did cause chaos when I arrived, what followed afterward had nothing to do with me."-

- "Wait... That means..."

I looked up at Hunter and smiled at him as I said.

- "The barrier was useless for them. Allow me to continue."

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It was then that something covered the sun; the Templar looked up only to find that the shadow covering him was caused by a surprise attack, courtesy of me; surprised, he raised his halberd and tried to block my attack. -

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Were you looking for me!?" I shouted at him.

Little did he know that I positioned my sword with the edge pointing straight down, so when he raised his halberd, it collided with my sword, bits of the concentrated magic from its edge flew off, destroying the sharp part of it and still protecting him enough so that it did him no harm.

The templar turned his gaze from me while the knight returned to the trenches like a coward.

In an attempt to attack, the templar, with what was left of his weapon, tried to impale me, and yet I was able to dodge all his attacks without any problem; it was as if he was attacking in slow motion.

When I got tired of that senseless, deadly dance, I stopped his halberd in its tracks with my sword, and from so much force exerted, the halberd tube broke in half, leaving the Templar completely open in defense; in fact, he stumbled towards the sword and split his body in two.

The other Templars arrived instantly to try to liquidate me, aiming their halberds at me, wanting to leave me as a skewer. One by one, I defeated them without even using my sword; I used their own attacks against them, dodging in uncomfortable positions for them, causing them to kill each other.

With the matter of the Templars settled, nothing was going to stand in my way, so I went into the castle of the kingdom and with three slashes of my sword, I opened a hole in the main door of the castle.

The first thing I saw when I entered was an enormous hall with decorations carved in marble, a velvet carpet, and a stained-glass window showing a mosaic of the first king at the back of the hall, and right in front of it was the throne.

"There's no point in hiding, King Indigo; show yourself!" - I exclaimed.

My voice echoed throughout the castle, while from behind the throne came a man clad in armor and a sword that I can only describe as "the sword inherited by the royal family." The king stood up straight and leaning on his sword, he looked up and said to me loud and clear.

"You are the one who wishes to take my life, are you not?

To which I replied.

"That's right, Your Majesty, a thousand apologies for my tardiness.... I had a couple of mishaps."

I reached into my right pocket, pulling out the badges of the four templars I collected after they died.

"I remember writing in the telegram not to resist, that I would come to you come what may."

The king took a step back, and the expression on his face became one of disgust as if I were the worst scum on the planet.

"The Templars...! They... are..."

And without letting him finish his sentence, I replied.

"They are dead. Including more than half of your soldiers, it didn't have to be this way, and yet you sent them to die."

The enraged king raised his sword and exclaimed.

"You wretched... bastard!"

And from his sword, an edge of fire was hurled towards me, which I blocked with my sword in one swift movement. Then I returned to my position and answered him.

"I only carry out the will of the "Ones from Above" Your Majesty. And their will dictates that your life must be taken."

The shocked king froze still after seeing me block without a scratch his attack; he could not believe that anyone could even do that. So, with courage, he proceeded to utter the following words.

"If you want to take my life so badly, come to me and take it!

With his two hands, the king took his sword and raised it in front of him; some red symbol inscriptions appeared on it, and then he pointed it at me and said.

"On guard!"

I pointed mine back at him, taking it with my left hand using a reverse grip while smiling slightly at him.

"If that's what you want... Then that's what you'll get."

We both lunged at each other, clashing with our swords directly, causing a big roar that echoed throughout the castle; sparks of metal flew like tiny fireworks, lighting up the castle that’s now a battlefield.

The king, immediately after the clash, retracted his sword and set it ablaze in the blink of an eye, then proceeded to attack me over my head diagonally, seeking to attack my right arm first due to it being my exposed side as I am left-handed.

Seeing that he was approaching from my right, I moved out of his way quickly, dodging his attack, but the king, at the last second, changed direction, as if the weight of him and his sword changed place, making his pivot not himself, but the sword redirecting the momentum of it to my chest.

Quickly, with my two hands, I grabbed my sword and brought it upright so that it blocked the king's impending igneous blade; the impact of such an attack knocked me backward, tearing the thin velvet carpet beneath my feet.

The king lashed out at me again, this time with an upward swing from his left side, followed by another overhead attack in the opposite direction to the initial one.

I blocked the first attack without any complications, but in the second one, the king used his technique again; he moved backward, taking momentum to give me a lethal thrust to the heart. And when I least expected it, he had pierced me.

"Not bad, Indigo. You've got your tricks up your sleeve." -I said with my last breaths.

The sacred flames of his sword quickly scorched my insides, charring the area closest to the wound; he pulled his sword out of my body and left me lying there, feeling the victor in the face of my defeat.

Or so he thought... since he did not know I was immortal. So, a little later, I got up from the ground as if nothing happened with the hole where the sword had entered; you could even see it inside me. I approached the king from behind quickly and said closely.

"My turn."

As he stepped back to deliver a powerful upward swing, I had my sword poised above my head to send a downward swing in the same trajectory as his.

Once again, our swords collided with a great roar, but this time, my sword managed to split his, breaking it on impact due to the enormous force we both applied to them.

The king's fingers had been broken by such an impact, and with no way to defend himself directly, the only thing left was for his armor to withstand the blows.

I gave him a kick that lifted him into the air, almost grazing the roof of his palace, and in one leap, I reached him to give him a punch that would smash him to the ground, causing his armor to shatter. And his body, buried in the ground.

Once I landed, I slowly approached the king with my sword in hand and an expressionless face, looking down at him carefully. The king lay on the ground with pieces of his armor that had become embedded in his body. I moved closer to him and said. -

"Now, stay very still."

Thereupon, I ran the edge of my sword through an implant in my right hand, and from it came a kind of phosphorescent green energy that gradually built up on the edge of my sword.

I raised my sword above my head and pierced his chest, but I did not cut him in half like the templar. That green energy allowed me not to cause physical damage in exchange for extracting from it an orb of a color similar to the energy in which my sword was imbued.

The king, confused by what he had just seen, asked me.

"What...have...you...done...to...me...Am I...still...alive...What...is...that orb...?"

"Answering the last question, it is your soul, your majesty; it will go straight to the "Ones from Above" when I leave here. I must thank you, Your Majesty."

The king was still confused, and his speech was at a rather low volume

"The "Ones from Above"? You... you speak of religion... just now..."

Suddenly, his hands began to dissolve into minuscule particles as if dust was falling off him, to which he replied.

"What's wrong...with my...hands?"

"Souls are the fuel of life. Without it, your body fades from existence."

-Contemplating the end, the king, with his last strength, finally asked-

"Who the hell are you?"

But just before I answered him in that instant, he vanished in a cloud of dust; my condolences to his family if he did have some, but that was of no consequence. My work was done for the day, and that was all I thought.

"I should get going; it's getting late."

And so I did. I leaped through the stained glass window of the palace and slipped out of the kingdom, vowing never to return there again.