Slowly, a mysterious figure pulled over his crimson red hood of his robe over his head. Unwittingly covering his shiny weaved charcoal black dreadlocks with the hood.
He turned around waving his crimson red fringes that covered his right eye. His face was completely covered with leather like mask with the exception for his eyes.His golden eyes so stern even a hawk seemed like a newborn child in comparison to his eyes.
If ever they could be compared to any being, they would compare to the eyes of an apex predator in the hunt.
Like his crimson red robe, his black arm guards riddled with blood. The very same blood that dripped of his throwing knives that in the battle he had just fought never got the chance to be used.He kicked his claymore that had stabbed the ground with his knee length boots and instead of flying off, it flew to his back as he turned to the castle atop the hill half a mile from him. The blood on his clothing vanished as the countless corpses lying on the plains around him for hundred yard started decomposing at the speed visible to the naked eyes.
He stomped the ground lightly and a ripple formed around him like the hard earth was water on a lake not solid earth. As the ripples recoiled the earth at his feet rose levitation him off the ground. He took one more step and vanished appearing right in front of the empty castle.
"Guardian tier magic." A woman with waist long white hair and so much sadness it looked tangible around her said looking at the battlefield from the tower above the gate. "How jealous am I of you."
The crimson robed man slowly floated up to her. His eyes devoid of any emotion but his eyes remained that of a serial killer looking at his mark.
"Do you even have to cast?" She asked as tears slowly slid down her cheeks as she kept looking at the plains beneath her little kingdom. All the men, over seven hundred of them had been wiped out by the demon in front of her. The dragons and other mystic animals she had raised and protected the city were also dead and decomposing. He had killed them instantly like they were flies.
"Oh wait, I forgot, you don't need to." She chuckled as she remembered something. "It takes only a thought and this planet can do everything for you. Even life bows."
"Are those your last words?" He asked in a voice that only death could match. Sweet, almost soothing and so melodious it sounded like the voice of an angel.
Angel of death.
"No," She looked at him as he landed next to her for a second before looking back to the slowly vanishing copses. "I'm sorry. This is what I'm supposed to say. All those souls, keep them for me, I will let them grow next time."
"Your curse…" he looked down to her trembling knees and saw urine flow down her dress.
"Let's not include more people than necessary in my punishment. It's growing hard to keep track of every soul I owe." She took out a knife and handed it him. "Next time, let me meet him once again. I miss him a lot."
"he won't be reborn here."
"Make me meet him again, please. I'll stop making you stain your hands with too much blood. Even mine. I promise."
She wiped her tears and took a deep breath as she tried to calm her bleeding heart. Her lips trembled as the dust on top of the battlement assembled itself and turned into a spear head. She smiled sadly as electric arc's shot out of the spear head that slowly grew sharp.
"You can still cast." He said as he watched her use creation magic without casting. "No, I can't. I'm just bending the little I can." she said as the spear heard developed seven runes that gleamed pale emerald light.
"It has a piece of your soul on it."
"I've died a lot by its tip." Her voice cracked a her hands trembled.
"I can make it painless for you."
"i miss him." she said before the spear head went through her heart and tears rolled down her eyes one last time as she fell down limp to the ground.
The red robbed man looked up at the darkening sky for a second as the spear head rose up from the her lifeless body.
"Erase."
Those were his last words as the spear head rose high up and started emitting sparks. He flicked his finger at the sky before vanishing.
Before two seconds could pass, the dark sky let thousands of blueish red bolts roll down one after the other. Before the thunder could sound, the entire castle, the hill and the town behind the hill overlooking the ocean was wiped out from existence. The women and the children never got the chance to cry or scream as a thunderstorm pulverized everything and everyone.
A minute later, not even a trace of the town remained. Not even a crater. Nor a scotch mark.
After the everything passed, a low whistle sounded, its melody as sweet as sweet can be as the rain started falling down in buckets, washing everything away.
Leaving nothing but a bald spot on the ground were a human civilization once thrived.
A dragon, its scales as green as the lushest tree leaves in the forest descended down the thunderous clouds. It's wings as large as an entire castle that once ruled the land and circled the hill.
Out of its mouth, sparkling green fumes rolled out of its humongous maw that could swallow a two room house without as much as opening its jaws beyond its limit.
As the fumes graced the ground, plants shot out of the ground, growing at the speed visible to the naked eye.
Before it returned back to the heavens, the bald spot was gone and there wasn't even the slightest proof that there used to be a settlement there. A few minutes later, where the woman was killed, the ground rose and took the form of a naked man without any features.
He turned around as if listening or looking for something.
He knelt down and took a handful of soil rich in the breath of the dragon and smelt it. He didn't catch any odd scent from it but his face, despite being featureless formed a frown. The clouds that were slowly clearing away reverted back to black.
He clenched his jaws and waved his hand back. The scene of the dragon ascending back to the heavens started showing in reverse along with everything that happened to the land.
He kept on waving his hand back until the
mirage of the woman messing herself up appeared in front of him.
He saw fear and pain in her face but also a mask. A mask he knew only meant that the woman was hiding her real appearance.
Maybe shape-shifting or… that!
He waved his right hand to the left and saw the most heart breaking picture he had ever seen. A naked woman bound so tight she couldn't even move or breath. The chains and lassos holding her in place so tightly they bit into her flesh.
Her entire body was maimed and bruised. She was bleeding and all her ribs seemed broken. Tears of blood rolled down her swollen eyes. His features formed as he frowned and looked at the woman up close.
Her face dissipated as he tried to hold it. He stopped and started moving around the crouching woman. Her back had bleeding stumps that looked like she once had crimson red wings but they were cut and the wounds left untreated until they were infected.
He tried the golden chains but a single touch from them blew his hand off, startling him and raising more questions than answers. How could an after image hurt him? He looked at his hand that bled as it slowly regenerated. Lines of runes glowing blue covered his missing fingers and formed from the bone to the skin. He took one more look at the woman and felt himself growing angry and compassionate.
The chains were thousands if not millions of runes woven together. He almost touched them once more to be certain it wasn't a mental attack when he felt energy shift.
Drops of water rose from the ground behind him and he quickly made the mirages vanish. He slowly turned as he shape shifted into his true form. A two and a half meter tall giant of a man with short hair wearing a tight fitting black tunic with a robe on top. His eyes were a bit golden while his skin was that of a light skinned African. He looked kind, but tired and a little bit sad. But he was still handsome and as fit as a light weight body builder.
"Was that you?"