The sky was of morning dew, fresh off the mountain's rise. The animals in the area had woken up, starting their day. It seemed like an image straight out of a fairytale. The sound of the river crashing against the rocks, and the slight hum of the morning bugs, almost overwhelmed the senses.
A man could be seen down by the river, drinking the refreshing water of spring. Although he was young, he had deep eye bags and had a large cloak over his body. It wasn't often he had the time to enjoy himself, so he took it graciously.
That was until the scream of a girl broke through the calm of the forest. The sound of leather boots against the dirt, dashing against whatever chased. The man had his guard up, ready to strike at whatever creature entered his line of sight. After a few seconds, a young girl, around the age of 11-12, came out of the shadows in the forest. She noticed the man and immediately called for help.
"Help, please!" The girl shouted, and soon a giant beast appeared from behind her.
It stood at around 182.88 cm (6 feet), only slightly shorter than the man. It was covered in fur from ankle to skull, besides the skin above its more used muscles, with sharp, ferocious claws for hands. Its jaw had dozens of short, needle-like teeth. Its jaw creaked open showing its bloodied saliva dripping down its teeth. Its feet were surprisingly human-like, with sharp, toe-like appendages that dug into the dirt. The eyes of the beast were a bright red, almost as if they were mechanical, locking onto the girl. Its hands were covered in fresh, warm blood.
"Mr, help me, please!" The girl shouted again, running across the water as the beast chased.
The man stood up slowly, a shadow appearing beneath his hand. The shadow grew more expansive as the beast got closer. It raised its hand, ready to strike down the girl as it had done her family. The girl closed her eyes, accepting her death.
In one quick motion, a longsword had jutted straight out of the shadow, into the man's grasp. He flicked it upright, slicing through the air and into the upper arm of the beast. He applied pressure, effortlessly cutting through its steel-like skin. The beast cried out in pain as the man had taken its left arm. It growled, changing its target to the threat in front of it.
"That's it, keep howling like a mutt lost in the rain." The man said, smirking while giving the beast a smug look. It ticked the beast off, so much so that it sprinted full force, using its right arm to try to swing down at the man.
The man brought his sword above his head, meeting the beast's arm before it could hit. Its right hand came clean off, blood gushing into the river below. The Beast howled out to the world around it, stomping into the shallow water underneath it. Its glaring red eyes looked directly into the man, its blood tainting the water; slowly spreading through it.
The girl didn't know what to think; she had just seen her family get slaughtered and wasn't used to the sight of blood. The beast began to whimper sickly before it seemingly realized its weakness and changed back to a growl.
It clenched its teeth before opening its jaw, preparing to bite the man.
The beast wasn't stupid, at least in terms of battle. Its kind had evolved to combat the bipedal races that conquered the world. The beast suddenly raised its arms, using the gushing blood to blind the man by throwing the blood in his face.
He let out a quiet 'fuck' as the beast charged forward, feet blasting the water and rocks beneath it out of the way. It opened its jaws till they were wider than the man's head and chomped down.
Or it tried to attempt to, but the man quickly brought his blade down, going through both its upper and lower jaw. He slammed the sword through the beast and into the rocky floor below, pinning it there. In another explosion of speed, he tore it out of the beast's head and decapitated it.
He turned to the girl, who had a combination of emotions on her face.
"What's your name, kid?" He questioned, his voice graveled and weary.
"D...Danna Winstrom..." The girl said in subtle amazement. The light of dawn had begun to shine over the man, covering him in a warm glow. She glanced up to see his face, seeing its mix of cold but caring eyes.
"I see." He said plainly, before crouching to her level. His hair blew in the wind as the blood on his blade washed in the river.
"I'm Tokita Oziro."
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..
...
The wails of the girl could likely be heard for miles as she observed the man bury her family. The two of them had walked back to her family's home, a small but cozy wooden house in the middle of the forest. Tokita had unearthed holes to set their bodies in after the girl requested them to be buried next to their home.
"Why did your family choose to make a house out here?" He said while grunting and chucking another mound of dirt out of the excavation using the family's worn-down shovel. "It would have made more sense to get a house near Farkeeth," Tokita said, referencing the Kingdom of Farkeeth that existed a couple of miles down from here.
"Dad never liked their majesty...S...So he wanted to make a house out here." The girl answered, sniffling with her tears beginning to dry up as she rubbed them from her eyelashes.
"Was one of your family pregnant?" Tokita said frankly as he placed the final body, Danna's younger brother, into the hole and stepped out.
"W...What?" She said, slightly alarmed.
"Dire Beasts are attracted to the smell of fresh children, either in or out of the womb," Tokita said with a few grunts as he finished filling the younger brother's hole with dirt and stuck the shovel down into it.
"M-My mother had just given birth. M-My mom and Dad were going to tell us as a reward for living two years out here by ourselves..." She said in a sad murmur. She tried her hardest not to show her tears, but she was devastated like anyone would be. She lost her mother, father, younger brother, and younger sister, who had just been born.
"I see," Tokita said again, keeping to himself. He dusted his hands and walked past the girl, pointing a mile down the road. "If you go down this path and follow the road, you should reach Farkeeth." He said calmly.
"W-What!? You're just going to make me go by myself!?" The girl cried out, fear shaking her to her core.
"We only just met today, and I saved your life. I don't have any moral obligation to you." He said while scratching the back of his head. He had a goal, and he couldn't let some orphaned kid get in the way.
"B-But..." She quivered. The tears she thought had dried rushed back.
"Look, I'm sorry for what happened to you, but I can't just-" Tokita was cut off.
"PLEASE, DON'T LEAVE ME!" The girl cried out at the top of her lungs before her cries replaced them. She fell to her knees, crying her heart out.
Tokita was simply going to leave, but those words reminded him of something from his past, something he had seen only a year or two after he had awoken in this world. He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"Fine, I'll come with you to Farkeeth, but that's as far as I go." He crossed his arms as she looked up in joy. She ran up and hugged him, although she only hugged his waist.
"T...Thank you, Mr!" She said, her tears drying and a smile on her face, or the best smile she could give right now.
"Now hurry up; I'd like to get there before dark."
The pair had been walking for an hour at this point, or rather, Tokita had been walking for an hour. Danna had begun to rest on Tokita's back after she complained her legs had hurt and she didn't want to walk anymore. Even if she didn't mean to, her arms wrapped tightly around Tokita's neck, like how she and her father used to play around. Before she could start another episode, Tokita heard the sound of horse steps and wheels turning behind them.
She slowly opened her eyes as she and Tokita turned to see a carriage going toward them, which stopped when it got close.
It was a pretty standard carriage, with the driver being a light-skinned man wearing a scarf wrapped around his head. His eyes looked kind but also showed no other emotion at all. Which made Tokita squint his eyes in questioning...
"Why, Hello, young misses!" The driver said to the young girl on Tokita's shoulders. Her eyes got wide, and her lips turned into a smile.
"H-Hello!" She said, lifting her body off Tokita's head. Her pearly blue eyes looked happy to see someone less threatening.
"Are you two heading to Farkeeth? If so, I could give you a ride!" He exclaimed.
"Sorry but, were fi-" Tokita was cut off by the girl again.
"Yes, we are; we would be so thankful if you could take us there!" She said, happy to get a free ride.
"Well, hop on board then!" The driver said, expression unchanging.
Tokita was skeptical but chose to get on to avoid Danna getting upset. The two got into the back, Danna sitting across from Tokita. He decided to let his guard down for a little bit and lowered his head till his cloak was just above his nose. He closed his eyes and drifted off into sleep.
...
..
.
By the time he had awoken, the sun had begun to go down. He looked outside the carriage and noticed it was still moving. He thought it was weird. The area around Farkeeth had been completely trimmed of all trees, and yet there was still an entire forest around them. He turned to the Driver and asked a question.
"How far till Farkeeth?" Tokita asked, slightly more on edge. For a full minute, he got no response from the man. He simply kept quiet and continued whipping the horse. Tokita's eyes squinted and noticed something odd.
The horses looked malnourished, and there were several deep markings from the whips. Something that only happens to a horse that had gotten whipped hundreds of times in the same place.
"Hey, I asked you a question," Tokita said, getting up and pulling the curtain that separated him and the Driver. "Hey, did you hear me-"
The Drivers' face had changed; his entire face from his nose, eyes, skin, and lips had gone to a pale white. Skin stretched from around his lips, almost as if he had only just opened them. He looked directly at Tokita, screeching like a banshee, also waking Danna up.
The girl was startled as she woke, only to see the Driver who had changed into its current twisted form. She screamed, loud enough to scare any birds in the next few miles.
"Ghoul!" Tokita stated. He spread his arms out as a shadow appeared underneath the carriage and came out of the ground, wrapping around the wheels and horses as if they were alive. The sudden movement stop caused Tokita and Danna to fly out of the back, as Tokita caught her mid-air, and they both tumbled to the ground.
The Ghoul flew forward, slamming into the dirt below as the horses passed out from exhaustion.
It walked past the horses and to the back where Tokita and Danna stood, screeching again.
"W-What is that!?" Danna asked, hiding behind Tokita.
"A Ghoul, one that can use a Catalyst, which is even worse," Tokita stated; he clicked his tongue as he looked around him. They had barely moved since the now apparent Ghoul picked them up.
"What do you mean he's using A Catalyst?" Danna asked.
"He uses his ability to warp space to continuously reset our position to the same spot, to keep us here while acting like we were getting taken to Farkeeth." Tokita created a shadow beneath his hand, his longsword popping out of it. "I could tell when the horses looked like they had been used for much longer than a few rides, almost like they were being used for decades," Tokita grunted as he pointed the sword at the Ghoul.
"B-But why!?" Danna asked, still not understanding why the seemingly nice man had turned on them.
"Simple: Ghoul's only feed at night," Tokita stated clearly.
Danna understood then; the Ghoul constantly looped their position to delay the carriage ride until it had turned night, where it would feast on their sleeping bodies.
"Smart Human." The Ghoul stated. The stories of Ghouls using a Catalyst hadn't been heard of commonly; not even the Ghoul itself heard of such a concept other than himself. "To my knowledge, I have been the only Ghoul to be using a Catalyst. Are you saying you've encountered another one like me?" The Ghoul asked.
"I've encountered one other like yourself. You're a rare bunch." Tokita says flatly. He gets into a stance, gripping the hilt of his sword with two hands.
"To encounter one of my kind and survive, you must be quite strong..." The Ghoul states as it smiles. "The Strong ones taste the best!" It screamed as it charged, blue energy coursing through its hand. The Ghoul swapped a rock in its hand with the long whip used on the horses. It struck near Tokita, a small boom coming off the 'crack' as the whip broke the sound barrier.
The girl covered her ears and got down; It was happening again! She thought.
Tokita suddenly dashed at the Ghoul, his body seemingly moving with red afterimages of himself behind him. His speed surpassed that of the Ghoul's whip, which hit the speed of sound on its tip.
He appeared in front of the Ghoul, swinging the large sword upward before the Ghoul could react. It screamed as the entirety of its left arm was cleaved off, not even leaving a stump. Blood poured like a fountain onto the dirt path the two fought on. The Ghoul screamed out, blue energy forming in its right hand once again.
This time, The Ghoul swapped the whip in its hand with Tokita's sword. It attempted to swing but was easily parried as it didn't expect its weight. Tokita brought his arm back, and with a firm crack, the tip of the whip broke the sound barrier again, hitting the Ghoul in the chest and sending him back into the dirt, making it cough up black blood.
"You seriously eat people with this sloppy of a performance? You sure you weren't eating donkeys?" Tokita stated as the Ghoul tried to get up but was hit with another crack of the whip, sending it back into the ground.
"W-Who are you?!" The Ghoul spat out.
"Tokita Oziro." He said simply once again.
The Ghoul's eyes widened again; how could a man such as him be here!?
"T-The Devourer! W-What are you doing here!?" The Ghoul screamed. Danna perked her head up as she tilted her head in confusion.
The Devourer? Danna thought to herself. She had never heard of such a man, mainly because her father only told stories of himself...
"Nothing you need to worry about. It's time for you to get put to rest." Tokita said. The Ghoul tried to make a quick protest, but the whip hit the Ghoul's head at the speed of sound, shattering its skull and blowing brain matter all over the place.
Danna screamed as she saw blood get spilled again. She watched as Tokita nonchalantly called the whip 'neat' and placed it into his shadow.
"Get up, kid. If we want to make it to Farkeeth before every creature of the night is on our asses, we need to high tail it." He said, turning his back to her and kneeling.
"What are you doing?" She asked while getting up.
"Get on my back. I didn't want to do this since I wanted to avoid getting spotted, but if I run I can get to Farkeeth in roughly three minutes." He said simply. Danna said nothing as she climbed onto his back and Tokita started sprinting.
Soon, Tokita had run just a mile away from Farkeeth's door. He let out a breath of air and placed Danna down. He turned to look at the girl. She looked sad because she knew what was going to happen.
"If you continue down this way, Farkeeth is nothing more than a mile down." He said with a slight smile on his face. The only one he had shown all day.
"B...But you can't come with me?" The young girl asked.
"I can't risk being spotted; besides, you should be fine once you get inside." He said, kneeling to her size and rubbing her head.
"Is it because you're 'The Devourer'?" Danna asked.
Tokita sighed before returning to his smile.
"Yeah, that's exactly the reason." He said while standing up. He took out a small pouch of coins and passed her a handful. "This should be enough for the guards to let you inside, then you can ask for directions to the orphanage."
"T...Thank you, Mr. Oziro." She said, tears in her eyes as she walked to the gate. After a few minutes of standing there, Tokita watched the sun finally go all the way past the mountain.
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..
...
"It wouldn't hurt...To peek into the future." Tokita's eyes glowed a bright red as he saw glimpses into the future of Farkeeth. He saw Danna getting accepted into town, getting directions to the orphanage, and being welcomed with open arms. She was fed food and got an excellent place to sleep.
He had a thankful sigh; everything was going to be okay-
Then he saw the fire. Then the blood. The Death. Screams of man, woman, and child plagued the city as they tore each other's flesh apart and ate it. They viciously swarmed in large groups, tearing apart anything they saw. The fire spread across the town, burning the capital as some knights tried to fight off the swarm.
The final vision he saw was a pack of infected humans charging at Danna as she screamed in terror.
He left his vision in a cold sweat, looking up and sprinting in Danna's direction. His vision had taken a lot longer than he had anticipated, as when he reached the gates of Farkeeth, the door had been broken open, and something had hung the two guards outside on the gate, their corpses cut in half and their guts spilling down the wall. Tokita rushed inside, longsword in his grip.
His speed increased as the red aura from when he had fought the Ghoul returned. While he was running, in front of him was a group of humans who had all been bit.
"Zombies!" He screeched as he brought his sword to his side, sweeping it and cutting through the zombies in the front. This put him to a halt, making him stop with zombies grouping up around him.
They all immediately took notice, like a hive mind. They charged him in every direction, but he simply spun and cut down the first wave that circled him. He placed his hand on the ground, shadows sprouting out from his hand and going from 2D to 3D, as they went out of the earth and impaled the zombies. They lifted them, tearing them in half as they chucked them away.
"I'll adjust it to nine seconds." He said to himself as his future sight changed to nine seconds in the future. He could see a zombie rushing him from the front, to which he stabbed it before it moved. He brought his sword back, cleaving through every zombie until they were all dead. By the end, he was covered in blood.
He continued his search until he found the orphanage, and he saw zombies trying to break through a boarded-up door. Tokita rushed ahead, his shadows following him as tendrils sprouted out, impaling the zombies and simply crushing the remaining ones with multiple tendrils.
He slowed down as he walked to the orphanage, knocking on the door, and trying to get anyone's attention.
"Danna, you in there!?" He spoke loudly, as he could hear talking on the inside. Soon the door opened up to Danna and a woman who was most likely the child's caretaker.
Danna ran up and hugged Tokita, to which he did the same.
Tokita looked past the woman and saw multiple other kids hiding behind a shelf.
"Are you the caretaker?" Tokita asked the woman.
She suddenly got annoyed and scoffed.
"Caretaker!? As if. I'm the owner, I came to collect my cut, and suddenly these creatures swarmed the city!" She scoffed again, almost disgusted by the children.
"I see. What happened to the caretaker?" Tokita asked.
"She turned and tried to get at me, but I pushed her outside. She was probably one of the damn things you killed out there." She said as she put her hands on her hips.
While her hands were on her hip, Tokita noticed a mark on her hand. He pointed at it and said, "Could you show me your left hand?" Tokita asked, his tone changing from calm to strict.
"W-What!? W-What are you some kind of pervert!?" She screamed, hiding her hands behind her back.
"M-Mr Tokita It's fine!" Danna stated. Despite being a bit agitated, the woman was still the only thing Danna had as a mother left, and she wanted to keep that.
"You're bit," Tokita said plainly, raising his long sword. He pointed it directly at the woman.
"W-What are you talking about!?" She screeched, her teeth turning more yellow.
"M-Mr. Oziro, please put the sword down!" Danna screamed.
Tokita looked into the future and saw the woman turning. He saw her mutilating and tearing the kids apart before he could react.
Tokita steeled himself, raising the sword and cleaving her down in one fell swoop. Her head rolled on the wooden floor as her blood seeped through the cracks.
The kids, including Danna, all screamed. They all began to cry as Tokita got annoyed.
"Quiet!" Tokita yelled as they all stopped. Danna pulled on his leg, tears in her eyes.
"Mr. Oziro, how could you!?" She stated that the glare in her eyes was beginning to get past Tokita's stern demeanor.
To Danna, the things Tokita had been killing so far hadn't been human, and they all tried to kill them. But if Tokita started killing humans, how was he different from the beast that took her family?
While Tokita was distracted by Danna's glare, he wasn't using his future sight. He heard a growl and turned to see another of the caretakers suddenly bite into one of the child's necks, turning them instantly. All the children had turned in a few seconds but without any visual changes.
Tokita charged forward, with Danna letting out a 'Stop!'. He cleaved through the first group of children, their eyes ridden with sadness, despite their mouths wanting to tear him apart. Three more went at him, and they were all impaled in the ceiling by shadows.
He was covered in more blood, but the infection hadn't changed to a black color like the other zombies. It was still bright red.
"Mr. Oziro..." Danna stated, her eyes suddenly looking more mature, just to glare at him.
"If I hadn't...you would have died." He said simply, wiping their blood off his face.
Despite her trying to get out of his grasp, he picked her up. He put her under his arm as he ran through the city, trying to find the exit.
Soon he reached the town square when he was suddenly surrounded.
That's right! Tokita thought they were all connected via a hive mind, so the Zombies at the orphanage would alert every other zombie where he was!
He put Danna down, and with his free hand, he picked up a shortsword that one of the knights used.
He was duel wielding a longsword and a shortsword, with shadows moving around him. He could feel his blood pumping faster as his body was cloaked in a red aura.
The zombies, in the thousands, charged at him. He let out a battle cry, charging into the fray. He chopped, cleaved, diced, butchered, impaled, strangled, ripped, and shredded, anything he could think of to these zombies.
When four were to his right, he killed all of them with a single cleave. He threw his shortsword, impaling two through the chest and tearing their weakened bodies apart. Blood flew everywhere, covering his entire body.
Some of them hit and scratched him, too many for his future sight to keep up. He pushed past, using shadows to drag the zombies into it like quicksand, before crushing their bodies in them.
One zombie rode a zombie horse with a lancing spear in its grip. It charged at Tokita, but Tokita simply punched the zombie straight in the face, bursting through its helmet and killing it instantly. He grabbed the Lance, twisting around and impaling multiple zombies into a wall.
The shadows wrapped around several buildings before chucking them into the crowds and sandwiching a couple of hundred zombies beneath them. He continued to slice through them all until none remained.
Covered in blood, sweat, and other rotting bodily fluids, he was able to get a small break. Despite knowing what had happened to the people, Danna still saw them as living people who could be saved. In her eyes, Tokita had butchered an entire city.
Before he could say it was over, Tokita heard the steps of something massive. Turning his head down the rocky degrees, he saw a behemoth.
It stood at roughly 487.68cm (16 feet), made up of several humans. It had one arm which looked like it could punch a hole in a castle and a smaller, weaker arm. The muscles in its leg bulged like it was ready to start sprinting. And it did.
The Behemoth started sprinting at full speed, reeling its arm back and slamming it into Tokita's chest before he could react. It sent him spinning into the stone wall. Getting out of it, he feels the blood leaking down his head and tells Danna to hide.
She runs behind a wall, avoiding the corpses along her way.
He grips his longsword, and shadows begin to run along with it, covering his hand with his other hand. He charges as does the Behemoth, as it crashes its fist down into his sword. The weight causes the ground under him to crack and dent, making a crater. He moves the blade forward, stabbing it into the Behemoth's foot. It reels in pain as Tokita jumps up and launches the shadows on his hand at the Behemoth. The shadows turn into a large spear mid-air, stabbing into the Behemoth's chest.
It's hurt, but not dead. With his sword and foot, and being out of shadows, Tokita brings his arms up in a stance. He'll have to beat it to death!
The Behemoth and Tokita charge at each other again, both punching each other full force. Tokita hits the Behemoth in the chest, making it reel in pain. This doesn't stop it though, as the Behemoth strikes back, its fist meeting Tokita's forehead. Tokita leaned his forehead forward, stopping the Behemoth before its fist could reach its full velocity causing its force to get negated.
While the Behemoth is stunned, Tokita gets another punch in its side, making it gasp for air. This only seemed to get it more pissed, as it brought its fist down and up, uppercutting Tokita right on the jaw.
This caused his brain to slam into the sides of his skull, making his vision blur.
But this didn't stop him, as he dug his hands into the ground, so much so that it cracked, he punched it again, and again, and again, until it stopped punching back. He leaped into the air, bringing his head back and headbutting the Behemoth into the floor. The Behemoth hit the ground so hard it nearly pulverized as the Behemoth's head was torn open.
Tokita breathed hard as he got off it and walked to Danna, who got out of her hiding spot. She looked at him, ready to speak of her mind, but noticed one more zombie as the sun came up.
It was her father, the body already decomposed, an eye missing, and covered in dirt from being buried. He wandered seemingly aimlessly, going to his daughter.
"D-Daddy?" Danna stated, walking towards it. Tokita used his shadows to get his longsword from the Behemoth's body and gripped the handle so hard his hands bled, his blood running down the edge of his blade.
Danna ran to the zombified corpse of her father before it began to run. She closed her eyes, imagining she was running back to her family, back where she was safe.
"Daddy!" She screamed before she felt blood splatter on her face. She opened her eyes to see Tokita in front of her, with her father's head rolling off his zombified body.
She screamed louder than any other time today. She cried louder, too.
The city they had spent so much energy to get to was now in ruins, with neither of the two knowing the reason. Buildings were destroyed, fires spread, and lives ended.
"I...I want to die; I don't want to live anymore!" She screamed out. Her head hit the floor as she continued to cry. "I want my mommy! I want my daddy! I want my family back!" She continued to cry.
"You want to die?" Tokita said quietly. He had wiped the blood off his face as he looked down at her, grabbing something from his pocket.
He threw a knife down at her feet, with it landing in front of her. She got up and looked up at him.
"Go ahead and kill yourself." He said blankly. His energy to care was slowly slipping away. "Nothing can bring back your family, and nothing can fix what happened in this city." He said with his tone more dead.
"So, if you want to quit, go ahead." He stated, looking at her almost insultingly. He didn't want her to kill herself; his intention was the opposite. "If you're that much of a coward, to end your own life whenever there is a bump in the road, I guess It was just pure luck you didn't die with your family."
Danna clenched her teeth, anger seething from her body. She ripped the knife out of the ground and pointed it at Tokita.
"I...I hate you...you Murderer!" She screamed. "I hate you Tokita Oziro! I swear it, I will kill you!" She called again, this time invigorated with a will to live, with her mission to kill Tokita.
"Good Luck, Kid," Tokita stated as he turned around, and when he was far away enough to where he knew nobody was around him,
Tokita cried.