In the Blue Pine town guardhouse, guards were busy with work. The chaos of losing their captain and various other casualties had burdened them all. Now it seems that work is moving swiftly and smoothly as it once did not even an octant ago. Two guards chat between each other before beginning to go on shift to patrol the town.

  “Okay, so, the influx of prisoners has dimmed down now. We’re reorganizing the town guard. Mayor Ursted has taken on the responsibility of appointing a new captain of the guard. We’re almost in a stable situation.” a guard said.

  “Finally. We’ve almost weather this mess.” another said.

  “I think we’re in a position where our patrols can be manned by 2 guards for each patrol group.”

  “Isn’t that a bit small? What if something actually happened? Like a riot or massacre? Would 2 be enough to settle the situation?”

  “Not a problem! Watch, we’ll go on a patrol right now and we’ll handle anything this town has to throw at us.”

  The guard rolled his eyes as his partner patted him on the shoulder. They both leave for what they hope to be a routine patrol of Blue Pine town. After 20 minutes of taking up the patrol route, one of them is crying into his hands, while the other pulls a whistle from around his neck and blows into it. A clear signal for backup that they could only hope would be answered since there were very few guards that could be called on.

  What the two had stumbled onto was a scene out of a horror theater production. Bodies littered the streets and blood ran like a river. The cries of men and women who were begging for mercy and praying for salvation. There were some fires. Not any buildings, but some people and street stalls that once had meat on grills were the very definition of being on fire. At the center of it all was a girl in her mid to late teens cutting down a man who rushed her with a meat cleaver. Some townsfolk with makeshift weapons are frozen in fear or outright fleeing. When the guard blew the whistle, all the townsfolk stopped to look at him. Except Ren. Ren followed through with a sword swing after the whistle sounded and killed a man.

  “This is going to be our entire day.” the guard said. “Anyway, let’s just hope backup arrives.”

  Backup would not in fact arrive to help them and these two guards had to sort through a massacre for up to an hour before any amount of backup arrived.

  “Ah! That was so refreshing!” Warumasa sighed in relief. “There’s nothing like slaughtering untrained fighters and basking in their blood.”

  “You are very lucky that Ren is unharmed.” Apherward spat back. “And that was the most pointless fight I had the displeasure of taking any part in.”

  “Well, excuse me for enjoying some quality slaughter when meaty victims point sharp tools at me.”

  “Ugh! This is why I don’t listen to demons.”

  “Pfft, you’re talking like any demon would want to bother talking to you.”

  “I’ll have you know that demons wouldn’t stop knocking on my door! Always arriving in fine dress shirts at the foot of my wizard tower offering supreme power and knowledge. It wasn’t even anything special. Just stuff I would’ve learned after becoming immortal and undying. You lot are like flies buzzing around me and I couldn’t kick you and your ilk off my front porch fast enough.”

  “Well you are not the proud owner of a wizard tower, you don't have land you can call your front porch and there are certainly no demons knocking at your door.”

  “Yes, it seems that I am now trapped in a mind with a demon. And with no means to cast you out or dump you by a ditch. Even then, give it a minute. Demons will be lining up my door soon enough to pester me.”

  “You mean us. It’s our door now.”

  “Well, it’s Ren’s door. Even if it's a room at the inn, it’s hers as long as she’s paying for it.”

  “Yes. Yes. Oh! You know, I’ve never been on this side of the door during a temptation! You know what, I can’t wait for other demons to come to me and try to tempt me with something.”

  “What did you even do to tempt mortals?”

  “Eh well, when I was a young demon I just pledged to be a small little demon that bit at the toes of some men’s enemies. I also offered the deal to a child, but you know. The Pact Prime Evil has an age requirement. But the girl stuck to the dark arts and when she grew up and contacted me again, I was more than happy to do her bidding. After I grew to be an oni, I offered the strength of a demon. You know, the strength to snap career samurai in half with your bare hands. That sort of thing. When I became associated with the sin of envy, I was able to start offering the strength of a demon in addition to the ability to turn the competitive nature of some people into more power than before and the ability to regenerate wounds.”

  “I see. And what if the girl wanted such power?”

  “Oh, I’d give her everything I have to offer in exchange for her soul. Or at least I think I would. I haven’t been able to find her soul.”

  “You haven’t?”

  “I haven’t. Like, I know it’s somewhere in here. She shouldn’t be this… Well how do I describe it? We’re sort of puppeteering her, yes?”

  “Yes. I know. Whether it is at a subconscious level or her soul is influencing her, she is somewhat in here.”

  “Yeah! We’re both speaking into her mind, but I haven’t seen nary a hint of her soul anywhere. But the way we puppeteer her, there are gaps that need filling and she is filling it. Her soul is here somewhere!”

  “Ugh! The girl is giving me no end of grief.”

  “What happened?” a guard asked one of the townsfolk.

  “A bunch of people tried to attack the Iron Church!” he responded.

  “What happened here?” another guard asked another townsfolk.

  “A bunch of people were really mad at bodybuilders for some reason. Then they pulled out pitchforks and knives and tried to kill ‘em.”

  “What’s going on here?”

  “A guy tossed over my food cart and Blue Pine’s Favorite Adventurer came by and, well, didn't save my business, but certainly put a stop to whatever these guys were doing.”

  “Can you hear me? What happened?”

  “A monster. She was a monster. Like a whirlwind of blades that just kept going. She dyed our fair streets red with blood. No. I understand now. Not a monster. A demon!”

  As bodies are being piled onto carts and statements are being taken, a man slowly walks over with the help of a boy. He isn’t in armor, but he wears a badge of rank. The man is Corporal Falock, who is still recovering from various gunshot wounds. The boy accompanying him is Halerd Albrinter. The aspiring doctor helps a man as he walks up to the street that sprawls out before the Iron Church.

  “Thanks for this kid.” Falock says.

  “No problem, sir.” Halerd says back. “I need to be responsible for my patients. Even if you’re really busy and have people coming to put you to work.”

  “I don’t think you needed to go this far.”

  The man and boy keep walking until they find the aftermath of a massacre. Bodies and blood litter the street as the afternoon sun begins to head to the opposite end of the sky as if not wanting to bear witness to the scene of the crime. Halerd looks on in shock.

  “What happened here?” Halerd speaks in a shaky voice.

  “Not a clue.” Falock says. “Anyone want to tell me what happened here?”

  At those words, a town guard rushes up to Corporal Falock and speaks.

  “Some crazies tried to stab some other people. Then Ren came by and… well Ren’d all over them.”

  There is a brief moment of silence as everyone sorts out the guard’s words.

  “That makes way too much sense.” Falock shook his head.

  “Anyway, people said the wackos are in the wrong and Ren saved the day.” the guard said.

  “Look, the day I have to arrest Ren for doing something is probably the day I look like… well… that.” Falock points at the wagons of corpses that are still being loaded with more bodies.

  “Y-you're saying Ren did that?” Halerd hesitantly asked.

  “Oh yeah.” the guard said. “Hang on. Hey! Ren! Can you come here for a second?”

  A girl familiar to Halerd rushes over after being called. Ren was drenched in human blood.

  “Hey! How’s it going?” Ren asked.

  “Oh my gods!” Halerd screamed.

  “Oh! Hey Halerd.” Ren said.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Wow! You alright?” Falock asked.

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. Not one drop of this blood is my own.” Ren said.

  Falock massages his temples as she speaks.

  “How do you keep doing this?”

  “Anyway, I want to ask a friend why people are talking about the god of nobility doing funny stuff. Can I go ask a friend?” Ren says.

  “Yeah, sure.” Falock waves her off.

  Without another word, Ren heads off still covered in blood.

  “We uhh… we probably should’ve told her to take a bath first.” Falock said.

  “I honestly didn’t think that needed to be said.” the guard said.

  “Fall in line or be excommunicated!” the new head priest Parnidot proclaims to the temple staff.

  The priests and nuns of the temple have gathered at Parnidot’s summons. He is seated on a wooden cushioned chair that bordered on a throne.

  “You want us to flog, lynch and burn people at the stake because they’re not dedicating 6 hours a day to praying here.” a priest said.

  “Yes, so do it.” Parnidot spat back.

  “No! We serve the gods. We’re not going to do that because you said so.” another priest said.

  “Weren’t you the ones that the town guard turned to for assistance when a demon was stomping through the city streets. What answers did you have for him?” Parnidot gave him a bored look.

  “Look, I tried my best, but I don’t know.” he said.

  “Well I do!” Parnidot stood as he spoke. “It is because the people lack faith in our god. A god above all others! Yerl! The noblest of the gods. The God of Nobility! Because the people don’t worship nobles like the divine messengers that they truly are, demons have run amok on land that nobles so graciously permit the peasants to live on!”

  “What are you on about?” a priest asked.

  “What I mean to say is, you are all to pledge yourself to the fall of demons and the sole worship of Yerl God of Nobility!” Parnidot said.

  There is a moment of silence before someone speaks up.

  “Uh, no!”

  “Then you shall all be executed and excommunicated! I don’t care which comes first!” Parnidot shouted.

  At his words, all the doors in the temple’s main hall shut, except for the main entrance. He pauses for a moment as he looks over for a moment.

  “Uh. You’re supposed to close the doors.” Parnidot calls out. “Hello?”

  There is no response.

  “Alright, just kill them all.” Parnidot says.

  This time, his words summon a swarm of men and women in makeshift weapons and armor. Mostly pots and pans tied by thread to make armor and tools like cleavers, knives, chisels and a variety of others. They swiftly surround the priests and nuns.

  “Well, it would appear that I owe Mona some money.” a nun said.

  “You bet on this happening?” a priest asked.

  “No, I bet against this happening. Mona won the bet.” she said.

  “Wait, where is Mona?” another nun asked.

  “How should I know?”

  “I think I found her.” a priest points to some of the men who were blocking the main entrance to the temple.

  The priests and nuns were once surrounded, but now everyone between them and the main entrance are flailing as blood droops from their necks. Their throats had been slashed without anyone noticing. Some of them have already hit the floor while others have gone wide eyed and panicked as blood gushes out of their necks. Despite the men and women dying from slashed throats, Mona herself is nowhere to be seen.

  “I think she wants us to leave.” a nun said.

  “You’ll hear no argument from me.” a priest said.

  The crowd of priests and nuns begin to rush out the door.

  “Stop them! Kill them all!” Parnidot screamed.

  The people in homemade armor rush at the crowd until Parnidot screams again.

  “Wait! Save me!!!”

  The crowd of people look back at Parnidot. He had gone wide eyed and he is gripping on something with his hands. He looks completely fine until he is lifted off his feet to reveal Mona Hazel is standing behind him. She is pulling on something unseen. Whatever Parnidot is grabbing is also being pulled by Mona.

  “Our savior!”

  “Our deliverer!”

  “Stop her!”

  The crowd ignores the priests and nuns to rush at Mona and Parnidot. Mona pulls harder and an impossibly thin tread presses up against Parnidot’s neck. Before she could end his life, a figure appeared above her and swung down with a sword. Mona put Parnidot between her and the sword. Before the blade could touch Parnidot, it stopped just short of his shoulder and cut the thread. In the next moment, what appears to be a spiked flail swings at Mona, but she has already vanished from behind Parnidot.

  “Damn!” a gruff man’s voice said. “She’s good.”

  Parnidot falls to his knees to catch his breath. A tall masculine figure in armor stands over him and offers him a hand.

  “You should not be kneeling. It is unbecoming of a noble. You must stand above the crowd or they will lose faith.”

  “Gah! You’re right!” Parnidot takes the hand and struggles to stand before straightening himself out.

  Mona has landed some distance away. She looks at her attackers to see new people standing beside Parnidot. The crowd speaks in excited glee.

  “Is it them? Is that them?!?!”

  “The four holy generals!”

  “I can’t believe four such elites emerged in just 2 days.”

  A tall older man with gray hair stood in armor before the crowd. In his hands, he has an elaborate sword that gleams with embedded jewels and artistic decorations.

  “It’s Ronkorell Hayman! He has the Sword of Penitence! They say that the sword brings all your enemies to their knees in prayer.”

  A thin man with a flail of some kind looks over the crowd.

  “Forter Plomk! That’s the guy who was awarded the Venom Censer for his work with the people!”

  Another man covered from head to toe in bandages peers through and looks at his next target. The only other defining feature to him is some kind of red and yellow burnt scarf he wears around his neck.

  “I- that… uhm… I have no idea who that is.”

  “Dude, that’s the Martyr’s Sash! It turns anyone who fights with it into a walking fireball! Everyone who uses it dies a martyr’s death for the sake of the divine. It has the power to make anyone a fighting powerhouses.”

  Finally, a woman who wears fine leather appears before the crowd. Her hair is tied in a bun and her clothes are skin tight and leave little to the imagination.

  “Hubba hubba! I didn’t know we were blessed with such a fine woman.”

  “Show some respect, you horndog. That’s Maloon Pras. She was a nobody until she joined us to fight for a cause greater than herself.”

  Mona was decidedly not impressed by the new challengers. Parnidot stands up and pointed at Mona.

  “Kill her!”

  The four holy generals prepared themselves for battle. Notably, the man covered in bandages erupts into flames. He screams and rushed at Mona with inhuman speed at pivots to try and bash her with a shoulder charge. Despite the insane speed, Mona dodges it. The man in fire cannot stop his momentum and crashes into a wall far away from Mona.

  Before she could counter attack him, a spiked flail swung in a large arc at her. Mona leapt over it and observed the spiked head of this flail. It was made from a silver like metal and each spike was tipped in a green liquid. The flail also left behind a gray smoke trail wherever it swung through the air.

  Mona pulled at the pommel of her dagger and a seemingly invisible thread sprawled out. She prepared the thread, but was stopped when a man in armor came at her with a flurry of sword swings. Mona handily dodged all of his strikes.

  “Tch! How is it you only got faster?” the man called Ronkorell Hayman said.

  “You know her?” the man called Forter Plomk asked.

  “I sense a bit of history.” the woman introduced as Maloon Pras said.

  “Aye.” Ronkorell said. “When I was discharged from the military for using a sack of enemy babies to kill all the orphans at an enemy orphanage, I was saved by a noble family. They were the Leostriders. A noble house broken and scattered to the wind because of one Mona Hazel. And the system, made by the gods, awarded her for the assassination of the family who took me in. I couldn't do anything before, but now I can protect the people from her.”

  “Ah! I see.” Forter said as he rubbed his chin. “She has the title of Thorn of Leostriders. A shame that the system awarded her for such blatant disrespect for nobles.”

  “AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!” the man on fire screams.

  He leaps up to try to slam his fists down on Mona. The problem was that he jumped so high that his head hit the temple ceiling. His leap attack fails before he begins to fall. With their discussion interrupted, Forter shrugs his shoulders and swings at Mona with his flail. Unfortunately for her, she handily dodges it. Observing the situation more carefully, Mona figures that most of these four generals are much weaker than her. Forter and Maloon are around level 30. They’re definitely above average, but unfortunately for them Mona is over double their level. The man who is on fire is around level 7. He is also dying on account of the fact that he is on fire. The problem lies in Ronkorell. Mona still has a higher level than him, but level 50 is still concerning.

  Even then, none of them can match Mona’s level and skills. The issue they pose comes from their equipment. They all use weapons that elevate them as threats. Or at least she thinks that’s what they do. The sword is practically, brimming with holy magic. The flail is also strange. It seems like the spikes are tipped in poison, but that still doesn’t explain why gray smoke is seeping out of it. The sash also made a level 7 move with starling speed and gave the man’s jump height a boost. So much so that he has become a valid threat to Mona despite his level. Then there’s the woman. She hasn’t revealed her hand yet. If she does have something like the others, she is keeping it up her sleeve. There also seems to be a pattern emerging, and it’s not a good one.

  “You know we were entrusted with the safekeeping of holy artifacts, right? Not their use and abuse.” Mona said.

  “For the sake of the dominion we strive for, we will use every tool available!” Parnidot said.

  “You really mean nothing is sacred. That’s kind of a bad attitude to have in a holy place.” Mona said.

  “You could say that.” Maloon said as she suddenly appeared behind Mona.

  Maloon thrusted a dagger out at Mona, but it was not nearly as fast as it needed to be to make contact with Mona. Mona parried Maloon’s dagger. In that moment, they both decided that remaining in striking distance of each other’s daggers was more beneficial than leaping away. In a flash of movement, both women engaged in a lightning speed knife fight. Despite the level disparity between the two and the magical qualities of Mona’s dagger, Maloon managed to keep up without issue.

  “Oh bullshit!”

  Mona used a skill to suddenly appear behind Maloon. Unfortunately, for her Maloon had already started front flipping away from an attacker from behind. It’s clear that something is closing the gap between the level 62 phantom assassin and this assassin nearly half her level.

  “What’s your secret?” Mona eyed the woman up and down.

  “Oh? You are indeed the prior beneficiary of the voice.” Maloon chuckled.

  “The voice? Wait! You can’t mean-” Mona was taken aback by those words.

  Mona paid special attention to Maloon’s hair. A jeweled silver hairpin with a silver and blue color scheme tied Maloon’s hair up.

  “You’re shitting me!” Mona had gone wide eyed. “We sealed that for a reason! The voice in there will drive you mad!”

  “Oh bitch, please.” Maloon spat back. “Nothing is sacred!”

  “Hey Mona!” a familiar voice cried out.

  Everyone turned to look at the source of the voice. Standing at the entrance of the temple was a red haired girl in mage robes, but sports a book that hangs from a chain as well as a sword at her hip. It was Ren. Her clothes were also stained red with blood, so even if nobody knew her personally, they figured her to be dangerous.

  “Hey Mona!” Ren called out. “I had a question for you, and a nun said you were here. Anyway, do you know-”

  “Kill her!” Parnidot screeched.

  At those words the man on fire bolted at Ren like an arrow loosed from it’s bow. Ren stepped to the side, drew her sword in one hand and cut the man in half at his midsection. His upper body flew and twirled in a fiery dance while his lower body grinded to a halt.

  “Do you know why some people are doing weird things in front of the Iron Church? They were talking about holy purges and junk like that.” Ren asked. “Also, why was that guy on fire?”

  “I- uhh. Well… Basically, it’s his fault.” Mona pointed at Parnidot.

  “Wait, the weirdos or the man on fire was his fault?”

  “Both.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “Also, why are you covered in blood?”

  “Oh, you know the bunch of weirdos in front of the Iron Church I was talking about? I killed them.” Ren confessed to the mass killing in a flat tone.

  “Okay, next time you kill enough people to soak your clothes in blood, you have to get washed up as soon as possible.”

  “Okay. Anyway, what are you doing here? There seem to be a lot of faithful, but the temple staff aren’t here. Did something happen-”

  Maloon appeared behind Ren and tried to slash at her throat. However, Ren blocked the dagger strike with her sword without looking. Maloon was still behind her and Ren still faced forward.

  “Did something happen here?” Ren asked. “Also, should I be killing this person?”

  “No! She’s too dangerous. Leave her to me!” Mona said.

  “I think not.” Ronkorell said.

  He leapt through the air to close the distance between himself and Mona. He brought his sword down at where Mona stood. She leapt out of the way and the blade impacted into the ground to form a crater. Mona landed some distance away. She looked at the battle around her.

  “Ren, the other priests and nuns have fled, right?” Mona said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Then let’s leave.”

  “But I haven’t killed this person for attacking me yet. I need to kill people who attack me.”

  “C-can you do that later? I mean, I would love to kill them now, but I think you should take care of yourself first.”

  “Okay. I’ll kill her later.”

  As Ren spoke, Maloon lashed out with a flurry of dagger strikes. Ren blocked these too without looking at Maloon. Maloon looked visibly frustrated at the fact that Ren had her back turned to her and managed to block everything without even looking. It was the fact that she didn’t care to leave her back open to someone who has the assassin class. It wasn’t until Ren turned to face her. Ren lifted her foot up high enough to come up to her waist and brought her foot down on Maloon’s foot in a hard stomp.

  “Ah! Shit!” Maloon stumbled back as she yelped.

  Ren sheathed her sword and socked Maloon in the face with a punch.

  “Okay, bye guys. I’ll kill you all later!” Ren said as she waved goodbye to the 3 remaining four holy generals, Parnidot and the crowd of zealot faithfuls.

  “Stop them!” Parnidot shouted from way in the back.

  Everyone who could still move rushed at the temple entrance.

  “Ugh. Why are you all so troublesome?” Ren scowled in the flattest tone imaginable.

  Ren learned Magic Lock Level 1.

  “Magic Lock.”

  Ren waved her hands in the air and the massive double doors of the temple began to glow in a blue light. The doors began to close by magic means. Despite everyone inside rushing to catch the door, they closed before they could reach it. Once they reach the doors, they try to force it open. Despite their best efforts, they couldn’t force them open.

  “Damn!” Parnidot cussed.

  “What do we do?” a man asked.

  “They are heretics. The answer is simple. Destroy them!” Parnidot spoke aloud. “We are charged with the divine work of destroying heretics and slaying demons! It is clear that the threats are physical as well as spiritual. We must smite these fools! We must be more! We must become a holy order!!!”

  Everyone still inside cheered at Parnidot’s words. Their uncertainty and questions vanish. Their excitement was like a river breaching a dam with his words alone. He walked through the crowd and picked up the Martyr’s Sash from the man who was on fire.

  “Now who wants to be my next holy general?”