"The misfortunate weep."
Callous.
"The fortunate rejoice."
Cruel.
"Yet, all die."
Cold.
Such were good words to describe the young man standing in Sea Spring's plaza wielding a long, sharp executioner sword.
The second most feared man in all of Sea Spring Province.
He who dealt out the punishments for the innocent and guilty alike.
"I wish you good fortune, traveler."
His final words to those he killed were always the same.
Never wishing to incur bad karma or anything which could stick onto him like a curse bundled unto him alongside the ill-will of those he slew.
This executioner who could be said to be the man with the greatest number of sins and the greatest accumulated evil in all of Sea Spring Province now stood on his own platform, to be executed.
His words rang out to all the onlookers, the same words they had heard him say a thousand-, nay, ten thousand times.
Yet, even as he spoke for himself, it was void.
The young man who had been set up for the job trembled.
Seeing his fate in the man who he would behead.
He took off the executioners mask, in their line of profession it was the norm to always conceal ones identity so as to protect onself from revenge, yet he would not need to anymore.
Many of the citizenry of Sea Spring Town gasped as they recognized him, some from having walked past him or even shared a word or two.
The executioner glanced up at the young man who would take his place and grinned from ear to ear, making him flinch involuntarily as his eyes seemed to see through him into a place no one else could see.
"I pity you, young traveler." His tone was neither here nor there as though he'd long reached a far place, "Clan lost. Trail walker. Demon. Your names will be many, but never forget…who you are, lest you become what you must never be."
He looked forward to the crowd.
He would not close his eyes no, not this man.
Shou Xin, the young executioner, looked bewildered and frightened at the disposition he'd hardly seen, even in his own father now radiating off this man.
No one chooses this line of work, they are always chosen from death row prisoners who would be killed anyway once they could no longer serve their purpose.
Noticing the trembling in the boys hands, the wizened executioner understood, but also because he understood, he gave him no quarter.
He let loose beastly roars and struggled relentlessly threatening to break his restraints!
"Execute him."
The call from above where the town's lord stood upon his balcony overlooking the city square snapped Shou Xin to his senses.
He hesitated, though only for a moment, but he hesitated.
The old executioners killing intent brushed Shou Xin's mind and scared him almost to death.
With trembling hands he gave the old executioner a cut but his blade got stuck forcing him to cut again as blood sprayed all over landing on Shou Xin's face due to him being forbidden from wearing a mask.
Again and again he chopped as blood splattered everywhere, the crowd now all too used to clean, single cut executions, recoiled in horror and others, more depraved folk, in excitement at the sudden brutality.
The old executioner gave out cries of pain as the job was sloppily done, yet Shou Xin could not stop and only forge ahead.
Once the head was detached and fell into the bucket below, Shou Xin took a step back and wiped the blood from the long blade.
"I'm sorry."
Shou Xin said feverishly beneath his breath, repeating it over and over again, as he dropped the sword from his trembling's.
Bending down to pick it up, he fell to one knee, blood had dripped into his eye and he had to cut off his own scream, instead shakily picking up the sword again.
He shuffled down from the top of the executioners platform.
Passing through the crowds, many looked at him coldly, there was no love for an executioner, one who took life.
No one pitied the shivering boy.
Passing through the cobbled streets and tall houses, there was nothing for one to see but the eyes of the townsfolk following the crumpled figure trying to leave as quickly as possible.
The large town gate was always open from dawn to dusk, and in a moment, once he'd left the town, he broke into a dead run, the scream he was holding in ringing through the forest just outside the city causing the birds to fly off the branches.
Soon enough, throat ragged, he entered the cabin the woods assigned to him.
Not allowed to conceal his identity, he could only life in isolation for the rest of his life.
It was such a thing, the fleeting life of an executioner.
Now.
One might ask, why is it that he did not run?
No guards, a place outside the city, food, why not escape?
Because he was not truly free even if he left.
Tears fell from moist eyes on his knees at the sensation of being so helplessly trapped because he knew.
There were beings of great power more than willing to hunt down a rogue executioner in the name of virtue and justice seeking favor with heaven, besides, he was just a death row inmate, right?
Who cared about him?
He wailed incessantly for a while, until it fell to a light sniffle, the desperation in his eyes thickening as he stood up.
He put away the blade which had been used to cut down criminals for centuries into the inner room of the small shack, a place dedicated to the item alone.
He thought that, perhaps, if he were to die, he should just use it now and end an otherwise decades long journey yet as he brought the sword to his own throat, he faltered.
He couldn't do it.
He was afraid.
However, as he attempted to put down the long sword, it shone with darkness which sucked away every light within the room, causing an abyss.
----
Amid a battlefield within the Chaos Realm between the worlds connected by the Great Path upon which the Dao flowered, a single being noticed a fleck of light descend.
A grin appeared on the otherwise expressionless face.
As though all it's features were non-existent save for it's leer, the being radiated a sense of dread to all around it with such sharpness one would be bereft to look just slightly up for fear it's eyes alone would cut them down.
Yet, it soon vanished.
------
It appeared in a small, cramped room for it's size.
"So that's how those smug bastards do it? Filthy cheating little…?"
A voice so chilling that it would make babies die upon hearing it, caused Shou Xin who was in the midst of backing up to a wall freeze feeling something had bumped into him… or perhaps he'd bumped into something.
"…you must be joking, this talentless little waste?" The voice seemed remorseful, a strange sensation, "This unfairness… I'm going back."
These mutterings did not escape Shou Xin's ears nor did the final piece about, 'who cares about waiting a few more hundred years for another shot'.
Not understanding, Shou Xin felt his heart beating faster by the second.
He knew it in his bones, his soul shouted!
An opportunity.
A deal with the devil.
"I-, I do not know what it is you seek, but I assure you, if you tell me what you want, I will help in exchange for…" Shou Xin did not get to finish as a howling laughter rang in the small shack blowing the walls down.
"You? You want to make a deal with me?! A talentless scrub like you couldn't learn the most basic of sword stances if you spent your whole life. Why would I pin my hopes on someone like you?" The voice switched from hundreds of known languages, he shivered as he only understand the final sentence, "Can you defeat a god?"
Shou Xin bit his lip, but his gaze burned.
After everything that had happened this last month, from his appointment of executioner to the first kill today going horribly, or the fact he was stopped from hiding his face.
All of it burst out in a fit of courage.
"I can't right now. Though, I've heard that a Master of their art can raise any pupil, I guess you are not a master as you need a heavenly gifted disciple to teach a simple sword stance." Shou Xin gathered all of his courage to provoke the thing in a taunt.
He did not wish to live a long life of executing people only to be executed himself when his time had passed!
He wanted to truly live, by any means necessary!
He did not want to survive!
"Hu… hu…. Huhuhu-, Kahahaha-!" The voice ripped the sky with it's thunderous laughter, "Your futile attempts to taunt me are in the end, futile."
He felt a claw rasp against his throat, blood splurging forth all over the darkness to a place he could not see.
He tried to scream and fight, but was incapable of either.
Blood drained from his body, his mind rattled to near breaking as cracks appeared all over it.
"But, I will not take a hit to my pride as a Master of my art, so lightly," The beings tone changed into a far more subtle one, "If you feel today was unfair, know that it will only become far worse. I will turn you into a Master. By any means necessary, so don't go regretting."
Shou Xin's color began to return as the cut on his throat healed!
He felt that something crucial had changed within his body, his mind sinking involuntarily into the abyss as though being dragged until he found himself in a vast emptiness.
A tiny little speck of light so small if not for the void one would easily miss it, giving off the smallest amount of warmth that if not for the chill in the abyss one would overlook it.
"That is your talent."
Shou Xin felt his mind pull back and his view widened to see a massive dark star like those at the center of solar systems beyond his little speak which could no longer be seen.
"That is the talent required to reach above Master."
His mind pulled back once again, this time revealing hundreds of such dark stars all collapsed save for a single one.
"That is how many who have this talent still fail despite it."
His mind moved and he appeared back before his tiny, little bit of talent which he now clutched tightly for fear of it being blown out by a gust of wind.
"I, The Chaos Being-, hm, not quite right anymore." The being laughed dryly and continued.
"I! The Sword Deity Vienna, hereby declare you-, you…"