If it weren't for the nearby noise, result of the confrontation between the inhabitants of the city and the Katrydes, silence would have reigned in the middle of the street. The five guys in front of me even seemed to have stopped breathing. They were just looking at me with stupid expressions on their face.
'Another damn nuisance had to appear.'
I started walking towards them, slowly. After taking a couple of steps those retards finally reacted. They shut their mouths and raised their weapons, becoming on guard.
"What the hell are you?" The one who seemed to be the leader of the group asked me.
"I am…"
I wasn't able to finish that sentence. My mind had been a mess since long ago. To begin with, could I even be called "I"? It was impossible to answer this question for me. I had no idea about who I was or what I was, and trying to find the answer only managed to fill me with a terrible feeling of emptiness.
'What am I?'
I raised what dubiously could be called my right hand and stared at the smoke coming out of it, at the same time I asked myself that question over and over again.
'What am I?'
My focus was lost in the smoke, and for a moment I felt a chill run through my body, as if the most primal fear had assailed me, but it was just that, a moment. That instant of dread was quickly replaced by rising anger that began to fill that void. I clenched my fist, dispersing the smoke, and looked up at those Katryde again.
"Who cares?"
I squeezed the hilt of the sword, which immediately changed its form, and raised it to rest on my shoulder. A distorted smile crossed my face without me noticing.
"Just come to me!"
Perhaps it was because of my expression or perhaps just a precaution, but the Katryde were hesitant to act.
"You are only human, you are nothing in front of us!"
Well, at least four of them. The fifth seemed to lose his patience and decided to attack me. It didn't matter how one looked at it, his speed was incredible, but my perception didn't seem to match with the real flow of time. Before my eyes, he looked like a child slowly running towards me.
"Moron."
I simply moved the sword horizontally from my shoulder. The tip of the sword passed through his neck unobstructed, separating his head from his shoulders. The body fell to the ground before reaching me. I took a couple of steps forwards and kicked the head that had fallen next to the body back to the group of Katrydes. They all stared at it in silence as trying to process what had just happened.
I glanced sideways at the sword. A drop of blood fell from the tip of the curved blade onto the pool of blood that slowly spread at my feet from the headless body. A pair of circles of the same color were clearly reflected above the black blade, my eyes.
'These are not the eyes of a Silphen.'
I had no idea who or what I was, but it was easy to acknowledge that what I just had done was not something anyone could easily do, be it human, Silphen, Katryde, or any other being, and less do it undeterred.
'What am I?' I wondered again.
I raised my left hand again and stared at it. The smoke kept coming out, but this time I ignored it and focused on the dark energy that was hiding in my body.
'Let's see if I can control this.'
The dark energy reacted to my thoughts and moved through my body until it was right above my hand, where those shadows were still rising. The smoke-like energy stopped coming out and a compact black mass soon replaced it completely. Unlike the smoke, which barely after lefting my body dispersed into the air, this energy moved under my will.
'It seems that I can control it without a problem.'
Little by little, it accumulated like a liquid in my hand, forming a sphere. A moment later I compacted it, turning that sphere into a solid object.
'It really is a truly versatile power.'
I closed my hand, dispersing the dark energy that had accumulated on top the same way as the smoke. The sphere simply lost its hardness and vanished into thin air.
'Vurtalis… was that what they called you?'
My attention shifted to the sword. Many thoughts flooded my head to the point that it started to hurt. The dark energy was originally from the Silphens, but there was no doubt that I was not a Silphen. Still, I had no difficulty using that dark power in the same way that Raidha did.
'Right, Raidha…'
It was clear that that power was not originally mine. That particular dark power was undoubtedly Raidha's dark power, but somehow I had managed to make it mine. She herself said that had lost her power, and the most logical was to think that who had stolen it was me, although I did not know how I had done that. The only thing that came to my mind was that it would have been through this sword.
As Raidha said, this sword had the ability to channel the power of its wielder into it. The dark power had passed from Raidha to the sword and from the sword to me. It was more than obvious that there was some link between it and me.
'Am I a part of this sword?'
The sword itself practically felt like a part of my body, so it was not unreasonable to think that. Perhaps, my existence could be quite simple after all.
'Yes, that's it. I am a sword, a weapon… her weapon… A weapon doesn't need to question who is, it doesn't need to question its function… the reason for its existence is none other than…'
A ghoulish smile spread across my face. I didn't need to think, just remove the thread before me. I leaped toward the Katrydes with all my might. I raised the sword over my head and slashed vertically towards the first to step in front of me. Stunned by my sudden and fast attack, he was not able to react and was easily cut in half. Each of those halves parts fell to different sides.
The other three finally understood what situation they were in and rushed to me, trying to surround me. They seemed somewhat more skilled than the other two who had stupidly died without even doing anything at all.
They glanced at each other and nodded silently before charging at me at the same time, but I didn't let them get close. Before they got within three meters of me, I released a large amount of dark energy, sending them flying in the opposite direction.
At that moment I heard the noise of footsteps behind me. I turned and saw a group of ten new Katrydes approaching. A number more than enough to replace the two who had just died. The three I had sent flying did not hesitate to run towards them.
"This is like facing a swarm of terribly annoying insects… I wonder if I can do like them…"
I raised a finger, not moving from my position, and pointed to one of the Katrydes running toward the reinforcements. I concentrated the dark energy on the tip of my finger, mimicking what one of those guys had done earlier. Once I felt like I had gathered enough I released it, shooting a black beam that pierced through one of them. His body fell to the ground like a dead weight, leaving another red pool around him.
"It was easier than I imagined."
I walked briskly over the corpse and grabbed it by the wing. I put my left foot out and stomped on while pinning the Katryde to my back. I lowered my body's center of gravity a bit and, like someone throwing a baseball ball, I threw the corpse at the other two who were still running toward the reinforcements.
"Hey, you forgot this!"
The body slammed into them just before they reached the group. The faces they put were a good show. Anger, fear, confusion, all kinds of feelings could be seen on their faces.
'So many morons can be difficult to control…'
I looked down the street from end to end. I found Raidha half-hidden in a house portal, staring at us with clear terror on her face. There were no other Katrydes near her, so for the moment, she would be fine as long as she didn't attract attention. I just needed to keep that whole group focusing on me.
"Oh, and don't forget to pick up the other two!" I yelled at the group.
"You… will pay for this!" One of them answered.
"I'm sorry, I do not have money."
All of them started to slightly tremble. Apparently, my answer bothered them.
"Kill that thing!" One of them roared like an enraged lion.
The whole group charged at me at once.