[Mom-my… it hurts…?]

[Mom…? Why… you don’t… don’t hurt my mom…]

[Mom-my? Will you… be happy… if it rains?]

[Mom-my… it hurts…? It hurts…?]

[Mom-my… don’t cry… I will listen… to you?]

Like the knells of a bell, strange noises pounded my head. Heavy breaths left me as I slowly opened my eyes.

I still couldn’t move… Not yet. I hadn’t died. Slowly, I forced my body to roll over.

The crackles of a flame in the deep night covered my blurry gaze. Around a pyre, all the villagers had gathered.

[Don’t… hurt my mom-my?]

The inhumane words came from a figure behind them. All the villagers save for Bella were prostrating on the ground.

I saw it.

The giant snake. A monster beyond humanity. Its red eyes were trembling. Even through my blurry vision, I could see the blood and flesh that stuck to its skin. Bones, flesh, and organs of people. Of the adventurers and mercenaries before us. Of the children they had made that being swallow.

A gasp left me as more blood spilled from my mouth.

“Oh?” Someone heard it.

Bella heard it.

“You are alive? What a great surprise.”

She suddenly walked over to me. My eyes watched her figure approaching.

Bella crouched next to me.

“Isn’t it splendid? Just by meeting my eyes clearly, anyone without mental magic listens to me. That is a gift our lord gave me for birthing his vessel.”

She grabbed my chin and forcefully moved my head. Away from the giant snake that kept screaming cries for help, away from the villagers prostrating in front of it.

To the other side just gently lit by the flames of the pyre.

“Look, that beautiful sight.”

A blonde man held a blunt dagger. The refreshing smile that used to light his face was replaced by a face of helplessness.

Tears and snot dripped from his mouth. I could hear, even over the screams of the monster and the villagers, I could hear.

The sound of sawing.

“Can you see~?”

Bella forced my face up and pointed at the two. Evans, crying, moved the blunt dagger over and over.

He was straddling her… he was on top of Rimi. The dagger made screeching noises.

I could see it.

Three of her limbs were spread on the ground, and Evans… was cutting through the bone of the last one. He was slowly chipping his blade through her bones.

Through Rimi’s bone… Her eyes were hollow, a puddle of blood and tears had formed below her face.

She wasn’t breathing.

She wasn’t breathing.

The shock made it clear. My vision focused on her.

She wasn’t breathing.

Rimi was dead.

Dead.

A snap resounded as Evans finally cut through her bone. The last of Rimi’s limbs were on the ground. His mouth hung open, but he couldn’t move.

“Great! Finally!” Bella dropped my head and stood up. Once again, I couldn’t see them and my eyes went to the snake.

“Now take her limbs and offer them.”

Evans’ powerless figure stepped into the corner of my vision.

What was this?

What the hell was this?

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even die.

Evans slowly strode the ground and stopped in front of the snake. In his hands were the limbs of the person he loved.

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This fucking ability that brought me back every time I died.

Why couldn’t it activate?! Why wasn’t I dead yet?

I could do nothing but watch.

My only family…

My heroes…

My everything in this world was being taken away.

No matter how much I tried to scream or move, nothing happened. No matter how bad I wished to die and wake up right now.

That fucking skill did not activate.

I was forced to just watch.

The snake lowered its mouth.

[Mom-my? I will… listen to mom-my…?]

“Yes, yes… go and feed the lord…”

Evans slowly raised his hands. He offered all the limbs to the snake—

The snake smacked its tail down. In a single moment, it crushed Evans under its weight. It then lowered its mouth and grabbed something in its teeth.

It had bitten through the limbs and the upper half of Evans.

Just like that. It was over.

They died.

Both of them died.

“Ooh!” Bella exclaimed. “The lord must have been hungry. It’s your turn next~”

Bella walked over and grabbed me by my feet. At once, she dragged me away.

I couldn’t think of anything.

Not about the trail of blood that was left behind me or about the suddenly pounding heart due to the movement.

“You’ll make good food for the lord. Be proud.”

A small stone came in the way and bumped under me. The stone lodged itself into the wound on my chest, more blood spurted out from my chest and mouth.

And my vision darkened again.

What was the point…?

Of dying now?

I had no more will…

***

“Woah did you look at that? He tanked it.”

“I am worried about you”

.

.

.

“How disappointing… a person like you becoming the hero.”

“Be grateful in death—The pain will disappear soon”

“You’ll be a good subject”

“Die again?”

“Give me your eye”

‘’SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP!”

“Dying so much would make your mind that of a monster.”

“Do you not feel pain?”

“Please let us go…”

“We are all victims…”

“Aren’t you… human?”

.

.

.

“Psst… Psst… boy. Listen. There is a panacea for all of your problems.”

“What is it, sir?”

“Violence.”

***

“HAAH!”

A soft groan was muffled over the screams of the giant serpent. None of the villagers noticed someone—something, wake up again.

That ‘creature’ looked around with a calm gaze as he was pulled away by Bella. His eyes fell on the blunt dagger that had been held by his friend mere moments ago.

”Lord… here is… Damn, this brat is heavy!” Bella turned back and saw the boy lying on the ground.

There was no hole in his heart, nor was there the despair in his eyes which she had seen all this time.

It was quiet.

Still.

Like a still lake in a land still untainted by humans.

As if no ripples, no emotions existed in there. Fear took over her entire body as Bella tried to use her skill of mind control—

‘He’ raised a dagger and forced it into Bella’s thigh with all his strength.

“AAAAK!” A scream escaped her as the pain traveled up her feet. In a swift move, he used his hands to kick off the ground and stood up. His foot landed on the back of Bella’s knee and she fell.

He then raised his feet and kicked her head into the ground. The shock sent her ears ringing as her brain pulsed with pain.

“I am saving you for the end.”

As if he were walking in a park, he strolled over to the other side. His eyes were fixed on his luggage that they had tossed away.

“W-what are you looking at!?” Bella screamed. “GET HIM!”

He grabbed the bone ax on the ground and turned around. At that very moment, one villager pounced on him while holding a hammer.

The villager pinned him on the ground. The villager’s weight was pushed all over him.

Instead of flinching in pain or crying out, he opened his mouth and sank his teeth into the villager's neck.

A gruesome sound echoed—a crunch, a tear, and a feral scream.

“AAAAAAH!”

That creature spat away a giant mouthful of the villager's flesh. The villager pushed off his body and tried to stand, but ‘he’ wasn’t going to allow it.

He sank his hand in the villager's exposed flesh, dying it with blood. Without as much as a tremor in his eyes, he pulled out the veins and nerves of the villager and yanked through it.

The veins and nerves tore off as a geyser of blood erupted from the villager. He was in for a quick yet extremely painful death.

Even as their victims hurt each other, all the villagers saw them cry. They saw them moan and scream.

They saw humans.

At the sight of something that did not even blink an eye killing someone, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, all the villagers couldn’t help but take a step back.

Apathy.

That was what he felt towards death.

Apathy.

The creature in front of them could no longer be called a human. No. What stood in front of them, was a monster.

“I see,” the monster named Ian glanced at the sky, and then at the villagers. “The stars… huh?”

He wasn’t talking to them. Even though his eyes were on them, the villagers knew he saw them like they saw livestock. Something to slaughter and never think about again. Something insignificant.

Fear coiled around their legs and hissed next to their ears. They were rats that were facing a being far beyond their level. Cornered rats that lost their sense and reason in front of a calamity.

The instinct of an animal facing its predator kicked in. Their sense and reason muddled as the villagers all raised their weapons.

“Ah…”

“AHHH!”

“Kill him!”

“Don’t let him go!!”

“DIE DIE DIE!”

Yet, that monster did not bother with their words. He couldn’t. No matter how much a chicken clacked, did a butcher ever stop?

No.

He raised his hand and gathered his mana. The circle around his heart spun furiously as an ethereal magic circle etched itself into the air below his palm.

Four points on it glowed, reflecting the same sight as the constellation of Corvus in the skies.

“The strongest necromancy that raises the dead with their original power…” The magic circle formed completely. A purplish hue emerged from the circle as the spell activated.

“But it only works on the user. Even if you come back, you’ll be a mindless drone without someone to control the spell. Hah…” Ian scoffed.

The villagers were upon him. One raised a sword high and others swung their weapons at him, any moment now, he would be hit and killed.

Yet, he did not care.

“I apologize for prolonging your suffering.”

The sword came down to his neck—

“[Return To Hell]”

A hand emerged from the ground and pulled the leg of the villager. Then another, and another. Dozens of hands crept out of the ground and yanked away the villagers close to attacking that being.

The other villagers stepped back in shock and surprise at another sudden turn of events.

The ground turned over as skeletons draped in a cloak of shadows slowly came out of the ground. Some lacked limbs, some had cracks in their heads, and some were so weak they couldn’t do anything except crawl on the ground.

Yet many.

Dozens and dozens of them were standing like staunch soldiers of the underworld.

The villager with the sword was kicked by a skeleton, and another snatched its sword. In a swift movement, it stabbed the sword in the villager’s neck and killed him.

‘He’ raised his hand at his targets. Pointed at them.

And then, their fate was announced from his lips.

“Slaughter.”