[Kai] "
The word seems to echo as the ground above the guild begins to shake. The stone trembles and cracks as it crumbles towards the heads of the guild members. the sounds of many yells of surprise with a few screams of agony mixed in fill my ears. I can't help but smile when I think about the kinds of things these guys have done for money. Am I a hypocrite? No, I don't think so. I do what I do to survive. For revenge. And I'll kill anyone who gets in the way of my revenge against the assholes that tried to trick me and hurt Lucile.
After things begin to settle down, I peer into the hole I created and see the bodies of a few dead, some trapped and others trying to move the fallen stones off of their comrades. Of course, some of them appear to be on their way here through the hidden hallway, for those people, I'll fight them. As for those down in the hole?
[Kai] "
From beneath their feet, a large geyser of flames erupts, burning their bodies to ashes as their dying screams fill the air. The flames shoot up through the hole, lighting up the night sky with bright red brilliance. Within the flame, a shadowed figure appears to be standing with its' head down and fists clenched. Its' body wavers in the light of the flames as it turns to look up at me.
[Kai] "Got a problem?"
I don't receive a reply. Instead, the figure leaps up at me, aiming to slam its' fist into my face. I jump back, avoiding the blow before getting a better look at the one who attacked. A male, with hair alight with orange flames. In fact, almost everything other than his face, which contains his piercing red eyes, and the gauntlets covering his hands, are covered in flames.
[Kai] "What are you?"
[Man] "Why did you do it?"
[Kai] "Hm?"
Is he seriously asking that? A dark guild, by its very definition, is considered evil. Assassinations, bribery, betrayal, forgery, theft, the list goes on but not a single one of them is particularly pleasant. Even if I didn't have a particular reason, no one would bat an eye at their destruction.
[Kai] "Your guild accepted a request to bring harm to someone I care about and frame me for it. You then refused to give me the information I require to take matters into my own hands."
The man seems befuddled by my honesty.
[Man] "If you're after information then why the hell did you burn everything to cinders!?"
Oh. Shit.
[Kai] "A place like this...is bound to have some serious measures against such attacks. You would be idiotic to, say, leave them in a storeroom."
The man begins to shake with what I believe is anger. I suppose that means my assumption was correct?
[Man] "You'll pay for this...I'll kill you!"
The man charges towards me with his fist raised, now covered in a raging flame. I suppose that just like the vampires have their regeneration, amongst other things, this is his races' ability. Demons are so varied.
[Kai] "
Moments before the burning man can slam his fist into my face, the flames covering his body vanish, leaving him as nothing more than an angry, powerless idiot.
[Kai] "You should have waited for your allies."
While the man is still in a stupor, unable to comprehend why his ability was cancelled, I open a storage gate beside me and draw a steel short sword. With a quick, horizontal slash, the man's head slowly falls from its' original position while his body follows shortly thereafter.
[Kai] "
The light blue barrier forms around me as a bolt of purple lightning strikes it from the side, carving up the stonework beneath it.
[Kai] "You're late~"
I turn to face the newcomers while dispelling my barrier. What I see before me is a group of around 15 demons, glaring at me with murderous intent. A group of around four mages stands at the forefront with their staffs pointed towards me.
[Mages] "Show Despair, Show unending darkness. Show this creature no-"
I dash forward with my blade at my side. My vampiric speed allows me to reach the four of them quickly as the first one falls. Red blood sprays outwards from the large slice in his neck. In one smooth motion following the first kill, I pirouette, slashing upwards at the second mage and slicing through his face. Next, I extend my hand out towards the third mage.
[Kai] "
Flames engorge upon the unsuspecting mage, devouring him with their heat and leaving him a charred mess. The fourth mage panics, which makes killing him easier as he turns his back on me. I throw my blade towards him piercing the back of his head and exiting through his mouth.
[Kai] "Who's next?"
I look around at the group of demons, now numbering eleven, as they draw their weapons in preparation for the ensuing fight. I open two storage gates this time and withdraw two blades. From the side, a female figure clad in dark blue slashes at me using a dagger sparking with electricity. Avoiding the blow, I strike out at her, carving through her shoulder before slicing off her arm. She lets out a scream that's quickly silence by my sword piercing her neck.
Turning my remaining blade around in my hand, I block an incoming slash from a long sword wielding man. His blade glows for a moment before slicing my own in two. Reacting fast, I twist, avoiding the blow, bending down and picking up the girl's lightning dagger. The dagger finds its' home in the man's unarmored neck as a shock causes his entire body to convulse before falling to the ground.
My senses manage to pick up the incoming attacks from two burly men, almost identical in size, stature and appearance. They swing their giant battle axes. One low and one high. Jumping and twisting myself between the two weapons, I withdraw a small amount of Bo-shuriken and toss a single one at each of the men. One of the needle-like weapons embed itself within the first man's eye, seemingly going all the way through to the brain as he falls back while the second pierces through, I'm assuming, his brother's forehead. As I land, I throw one last shuriken that finds its' target in the form of a mid twenties woman standing further back with a bow at the ready, stabbing through her heart.
[Kai] "You're the fearsome dark guild? Pitiful."
This goading seems to enrage three of the remaining six even more than the destruction of their base. They charge at me, each wielding a different blunt weapon.
[Kai] "Idiots."
A few quick slashes is all it takes to cleave my way through both their armour and bodies, leaving the three of them either limp or in pieces. Either way, they're now dead. I look over to the other two still standing in front of me, seeing the same black skinned woman that I gave quite a bit of gold to and a large man with a broadsword held in one hand. His silver coloured armour covers his entire body, leaving everything other than his size to the imagination.
[Woman] "You know, if you just hand over the rest of your money, we can let you go."
Is this woman serious? She doesn't know how much I have left on me, she has no guild and almost all of her allies are dead. She's either bluffing, trying to lull me into a false sense of security or stupid. I'm going to go with the third one.
[Kai] "Counter offer. Give me what I came here for and I'll let you live."
As I expected, the woman begins to laugh her ass off.
[Woman] "You couldn't even react to Josie's blade. What makes you so confi-!?"
As they say; he who strikes first, wins.
In the time it took for that woman to finish her belittling sentence, I picked up the previous warriors glowing blade and used it to cut straight through the woman's stomach. Moment's later, her shocked face fills with tears and her body splits in half, falling in two seperate piles on the floor as her insides begin to spill out.
Moments later, I'm around ten feet away with a shaking hand after blocking the large man's swing. His body is glowing with a faint, bronze light while his sword has a similar red glow.
[Kai] "Neutral magic?"
I'm getting excited, thinking about what kind of Neutral magic I might be able to witness whilst fighting this guy.
[Kai] "I suppose I'll take my time with you."
I hold my stolen blade up as it begins to glow once more. The two of us charge forward, trading blows between blades. I can feel the weight of his sword against my own and though I know he's not stronger, each blow continues to grow heavier than the last. Strength buff? Weight? Mass? Gravity? I'm not sure what's causing this but I think I've seen enough. He's not using anything else so it's time to end this.
[Kai] "
I strike his sword one last time and it shatters. The magic glow around the blade vanishes and the shards of the broken blade bounce off of his armour and my cloak, hitting the floor in a rain of sharp metal. As for the man himself...this will probably hurt both of us but it's worth the experiment.
[Kai] "
Imagining the sight I had once witnessed during a school experiment back in my old world consisting of a barrel with boiling water, then cooled quickly, prompting the air pressure around it to force the barrel to collapse inwards.
Looking back at the man in front of me, his armour begins to creak before crushing inwards. First to go were his arms and legs, spraying out blood as his limbs are crushed into paste. Next to go is his torso which slowly leaks the red fluid from his body. Finally, his head. It bends and twists in agony until it too, finally imploded. I stumble back slightly as my head begins to pound.
[Kai] "Awesome...but I think I'll avoid doing that for a while."
As I'm about to start walking back towards the still burning site of the dark guild, the figure of the receptionist appears, shadowed by the flames behind her as she holds a scroll of parchment over the raging flames
[Kai] "Is that what I think it is?"
[Josie] "A small piece of the answer to your questions."
[Kai] "Well then, it seems like you have the upper hand. What do you want?"
She smirks but not confidently. No, more like she knows that I could and would kill her in an instant and she only has one bargaining chip. One chance.
[Josie] "A trade."
[Kai] "Gold?"
[Josie] "No. something far more valuable."
[Kai] "Information."
[Josie] "Correct. I want to know who you are. Reveal your face and name."
I stand still for a moment, pondering the trade before quietly agreeing. Removing my mask and pulling down my hood, I reveal my blonde hair and blue eyes to the girl. Thank you
[Kai] "My name is Arthur Erickson. Now, hand over the parchment."
Josie quickly tosses me the info. Catching it in my hand, I can tell that it's true what she said. This is only a part of the information I seek.
[Josie] "What race are you?"
[Kai] "Human."
[Josie] "Why are you really after this info?"
[Kai] "Uh-uh. One question, one parchment. That was the deal."
[Josie] "Deals change."
Ah, her confidence is coming back. Is it because I said I'm human?
[Kai] "In that case, I might as well kill you."
[Josie] "You wouldn't. You won't be able to get what you want if you do."
I won't get what I want if I tell you my whole life story either at this rate.
As I'm thinking this, she pulls out a dagger that begins to glow with a high temperature. Following this, another piece of parchment appears in her other hand.
[Kai] "Don't."
She brings the two closer, threatening to burn the important parchment with the superheated knife. I'm about to take action when a green blur zooms past and Josie's head disappears. Standing nearby, is Ilima the Grave Keeper with her scythe held over her shoulder after swinging it, with Josie's head, mouth open in shock, perfectly balanced on the blade.
[Kai] "Impressive. But now what am I supposed to do?"
[Ilima] "Check her ring."
Hm? Doing as suggested, I walk over to Josie's body, taking the second parchment first, before then finding a single black ring on her right middle finger.
[Ilima] "It's a storage ring. You'll find what you want in that."
I take the ring without another second's hesitation before standing up and looking over at the small reaper. She holds her hand out for a moment and a green light appears quickly before fading away just as fast.
[Kai] "What are you doing?"
[Ilima] "My job."
I can feel my eyebrow raise in curiosity until I notice my own ring glowing a faint green. Lifting it up to my face to get a closer look, what I see in front of me, is the ghostly figure of one of the men I killed in the fire.
[Kai] "This is..."
[Ilima] "One of the ring's abilities."
[Kai] "Interesting."
Waving my hand towards the last scene of carnage I created, I witness what I believe is the souls of the dark guild members I killed, hovering above the ground as the sun rises behind them, illuminating the half destroyed city with the orange light of dawn.