A young boy was sitting in the front garden of a mansion. Inside his lower abdomen was an incorporeal black sphere of mana.

But it was not black anymore.

Most of the mana core was now white except for a small section which was now being eroded by a pool of mana crashing against it.

After a few minutes, this final section broke away and was replaced by the same white material as the rest of the core.

The completed structure started glowing brilliantly. Drops of mana started forming around the core and accumulating into a small spring.

“I’ve reached the true mage realm!” Drake exclaimed.

Ray opened his eyes and nodded his head in approval. Since it was the most basic stage, crossing the rogue mage realm was the easiest step. For someone with a single core aptitude, one month was a reasonable time given how much help Drake was receiving from Ray with his guidance and pills.

“Well done, Drake!” Ray complimented.

Drake bowed to his master, “It’s all thanks to your guidance, master!”

Ray smiled and was about to close his eyes to resume his cultivation but he was interrupted by Drake.

“Master, can you teach me to summon spirits now?”

Ray looked at him curiously.

I wonder how quickly he’ll learn this …

A few days later

“What is going to happen to the intruder, master?” Astoria asked. She was now in Henry’s room, serving him his meal on his table.

“As you know, he refused to give out any information till the very end. So, father has sentenced him to die. He will be executed tomorrow morning.”

“I see, that seems fitting for someone who tried to steal from you, master,” Astoria replied calmly.

Henry started laughing.

The treasury was not his property but belonged to the whole village and was headed by his father. Still, Astoria insinuating that the treasury was his, made him feel like he was the leader, and he became very happy.

“Yes, yes, you’re right as always Astoria! People who try to steal from me should be taught a strict lesson, haha!” He laughed.

“Of course, master! I was wondering, master Henry, Lord Byron said that the intruder was stopped by a puppet along with the twin blades? Forgive my ignorant self, but I have never heard of a puppet before. Do you know what it is master?”

“Of course, I do!” Henry beamed. “Puppets are not living beings. They are similar to a mage artifact, you can make them perform a specific task, anything from chores to fighting. For example, the puppet in the treasury is set to attack anyone who enters the treasury without an authentication badge.”

“Oh, oh I see! You are so smart master, you know everything! Thank you for telling me, I have never heard of this before,” Astoria exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement as she fawned over Henry.

“Haha, no worries. It’s no surprise that you don’t know about this. Ever since the Grand Calamity, the knowledge to make puppets has been lost. The only puppets in existence now are the ones left over from that era. Hence, they’re extremely rare,” he tried to reply casually.

“Wow master, you are really the most knowledgeable man I have ever met,” she said with a look of adoration. “But I have another question master, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Ask away!” Henry responded cheerfully, starting to eat his meal.

“Is it not possible for an intruder to create a fake authentication badge to trick the puppet in the future?” She asked worriedly as she refilled the side on Henry’s plate.

“That’s impossible,” Henry mumbled, stuffing himself. After gulping down the food, he continued, “There are only three badges that the puppet is programmed to recognise and detect. So, if it doesn’t detect one of those specific badges, then it will attack.”

“Oh, I see that makes sense! So, I’m guessing your father keeps all the authentication badges for safekeeping?” she asked innocently.

“No no, my father has one of the authentication badges, but the headmistress has the second badge. As for the third one…” Henry reached into his pocket with a smile and pulled out a small, circular, metallic disk with weird symbols carved on it.

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“Oh wow, master Henry! You have access to the village treasury?” Astoria asked in amazement.

“Of course! Who do you think I am? I am the future head of this village, it is only natural that I have these things,” Henry replied, nodding to agree with himself.

“Wow, master, you are actually too incredible!”

“It’s just a small thing,” Henry replied modestly.

“Still, I’m glad no damage was done, master. But what if someone else tries to infiltrate the treasury? If a tempered body martial artist was able to open the treasury, sneaking past two steel body martial artists, then what if a steel body martial artist tries in the future? Is Lord Byron not going to increase the defences of the treasury?”

“Dad would like to do that, however, currently we just sent out some of our best martial artists for the expedition. And moreover, the outskirts of the Beast Woods are becoming more and more dangerous each day so we are having to dedicate more manpower to protecting our village and are also having to send out larger groups for hunting to make sure no accidents happen. Hence, there isn’t much that we can do to increase the defences now. But after a few years, once the Beast Woods situation is dealt with, father will increase the defences.”

“Oh, I see, that makes sense, Master Henry,” Astoria said with a cute smile as she refilled his glass of water.

Later that night.

Astoria tip-toed her way down to the prison. The village didn’t keep many prisoners, so the security wasn’t too tight here. Still, she didn’t want to be spotted by all the prisoners and guards, so she kept to the shadows and hid behind corners whenever a guard was passing.

Finally, she entered the location where Sam was kept.

It was deep into the prison, and there were two guards always stationed in front of his cell. After running away the first day, she continued accompanying Henry during his interrogation of Sam. She watched the guards torture Sam without blinking.

Did she like it? No. Was it still painful for her? Absolutely.

However, she chose to watch anyway. Seeing him get tortured reinforced in her mind how cruel this world could be.

If she wanted to survive, she had to be worse.

So, every day after watching the guards interrogate Sam, she would then give the guards refreshments and compliment them for ‘working’ so hard. She would massage their arms and shoulders to make them feel better, so they could ‘work’ better the next day.

She hated the guards to the core and was disgusted and repulsed by their very existence. Yet during their interactions, she acted like the sweetest, kindest, and most loving and innocent young girl she could.

All for this moment.

“Who goes there?” yelled the guards, unsheathing their swords upon hearing footsteps. It was quite dark so they couldn’t see properly, but they couldn’t let anyone through.

They could see a figure forming in the darkness, carrying a dim lantern. They had their swords raised, ready to attack.

Out stepped Astoria.

Looking at the guards with their swords ready to cut her apart, she was startled and almost fell over.

“Sorry! It’s just me!”

“Miss Olivia!” gasped the guards and one of them immediately rushed to support her and prevent her from falling.

“What are you doing here at this time?” asked the second guard confused.

“Well, I couldn’t tend to you this afternoon as usual since I was very busy, which is why I wanted to make up for it now,” she said taking out two loaves of bread and some fruits.

“Oh Miss Olivia, you needn’t trouble yourself for us!” said the guard closest to her, but he took the food anyway because he was starving.

Both the guards dropped their swords and started munching the food like hungry wolves, feeling grateful.

“Thank you very much miss!” the second one said.

“Yes, thank you. This food is deli-” The first guard stopped halfway and started coughing.

“Ha! Eat slowly if you don’t wanna choke on your own food, stupid,” the other guard mocked.

But he didn’t stop coughing, and the coughing only became worse.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you ok-”

Suddenly, the second guard started coughing too. Then the first guard collapsed to his knees and coughed out blood. He finally realised what happened and looked at Astoria in disbelief.

“What… did… you… do…?” he gasped, trying to reach out for Astoria.

However, she just stood there calmly with a smile as she watched the light fade from his eyes. His hands numbly fell to the floor.

Soon the other guard fell to his knees too, but he was resisting.

Astoria placed her lantern on the floor and slowly walked to the unconscious guard. She picked up his sword and then, with the same smile on her face, stabbed him in the throat.

Blood splashed all over her lower body.

The remaining guard who was barely alive didn’t know how to make sense of this. He wanted to scream but no words would come out. He saw Astoria pull the sword out of his friend and look at him with a smile.

The same smile that she always gave him. Before, he found her smile to be beautiful and refreshing. However, now, as she walked over to him with that same smile, and a bloody sword dragging across the floor behind her, he was terrified.

That smile… that was the smile of the devil!

Whoosh!

That was the last thought he had before Astoria swung the sword across his neck.

Blood squirted all over her body, arms, face, neck, everywhere.

She didn’t have the strength to behead him in one go. So, she used all her strength to remove the sword, before swinging it again. And again.

And again.

Each time she struck, more blood squirted out. Finally, his head separated and rolled in front of her feet. She spat on his dead face and stomped on it with her foot.

This commotion woke Sam who was previously unconscious. After so many days of torture, he had already given up. He had no will to live. He just wanted one good night's rest before being put to rest forever.

So, he was surprised to hear a commotion outside his prison cell. The single lantern on the floor provided dim lighting to the dark prison. And just waking up meant his eyes were blurry. It took a few seconds for him to adjust.

But nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

The girl he was all too familiar with was standing outside, looking at him longingly.

But in that moment, she didn’t look like the pure, innocent girl he knew.

Covered in blood, with two dead bodies on the floor, a bloody sword in hand, a severed head under her foot, and with a deathly smile to boot - she looked like a goddess of death.

“I’ve come to save you!”