After all of the alcohol and food, everyone consume the previous night they couldn't do anything but sleep so that's what everyone did, many fell asleep on the table, some inside the bar, and others on the floor but ORION was responsible enough to go back home, they slept peacefully on their bed
"Hahahahahah!"
Teras heard a man laugh like a maniac
"What's so funny?"
He asked, but the man still kept on laughing his soul out, he couldn't catch a breath
"Shut up!"
Teras yelled but the man just barely managed to contain himself
"Sorry, sorry! I just couldn't believe that you thought you won!"
Suddenly the dark surrounding where Teras and the man stood turned into an arena formed by many people, the man had blood on his head and Teras was holding the blade that caused the bleeding of the man
"You are bleeding I don't see a reason laughing this much"
Teras replied as he inspected the sword in his hand
"I'm laughing at you kid! How can you be this stupid? To think that you actually think you can be free. You will never be free T###s!"
The man screamed as he charged at Teras, Teras tried to counterattack with his sword but before he could hit the man Teras woke up all sweaty from this weird dream
"What the hell was that again?"
Teras wondered as he got up, after dressing he took a walk to the bar, people were still sleeping on the ground and at the outside tables but inside the bar, everything looked alright, Teras sat near the bar and saw Zak and play a game of cards
"What are you doing?"
Teras asked as the man played the game
"Have you ever heard of solitaire? It's a game when you try to stick the cards of the same kind together"
He told him as he continued to play, Teras closely inspected the game, after some changing of various cards Zak slammed the bar, Teras got scared because it was out of the blue
"Damn it! I lost again, why can't I have a good run once!"
Zak said angrily, he then gathered all the cards together and was about to pack them up
"Can you play it again? It was very entertaining to watch"
Teras asked him, Zak could easily see the interest in Teras's eyes so he decided to try once again
"Here, you shuffle so it turns out lucky"
Zak said as he handed Teras the deck, Teras began mixing cards quickly, he then gave them to Zak so he can set up the game, as he was serving his cards he saw joker in it
"Hey Teras you have to take the Joker out of it before playing, every card game has this rule!"
Zak said as he slid the black and red joker away from his game
"If that's the case then why do these cards exist?"
Teras asked confused
"Because that's all of the cards the game master created, it would have been disrespectful to not create them because don't forget he also has the Joker card too"
Zak said as he continued to play the game, Teras watched with excitement and to his and Zak's surprise Zak ended up winning
"Woah! Your shuffle really was lucky"
Zak said as he began to pack the cards up and for real this time
"Does that mean I get a free drink?"
Teras asked with a smile, Zak stuck his head with a beer cup
"You drank enough yesterday, you don't have to drink again! You are still young so don't go around ruining your health"
"I get that but you don't have to hit me!"
Teras said as he tried rubbing the pain off his head
"Also you shouldn't be wasting your time here, some people have already started rebuilding the houses, so please try giving them a hand, you are super strong after all!"
Zak said as he started cleaning some remaining bottles and plates from yesterday's night
Teras then quickly exited the bar and searched around to find the people rebuilding and he quickly found them, he then started collecting rocks so he can help with the building of the house's walls, as the men did that the women collected wheat so they could temporarily create roofs for the houses
the process was silent but full of life at the same time, Teras felt amazing helping at such a simple yet important work and the villagers appreciated Teras's try to help, they were never familiar with an outsider willing to help as much as Teras because after finishing their job Orion could freely leave but they didn't
After some time Har arrived at the workplace place
"It was about time you lazy ass woke up! How about you create mud or a wall since you have the ability to?"
Teras jokingly told him
"You better correct the way you talk to me friend or I won't create a shelter for you when we go adventuring again"
Har said as he started raising supporting walls for the house
"You never did, to begin with, so why would I be afraid to lose this "privilege"? Plus after we finish helping with the houses we will go to the Heart kingdom's capital to find quests that will rapidly increase our rank and power"
Teras said as he stacked big rocks on top of each other
"Really? I bet the girls will be excited when they hear about this!"
Har said with a smile
"They won't learn about this, it will be a surprise"
Teras said as he winked at Har
"You got it"
he said as he continued to work on the supporting wall
As the boys worked on the wall the girls helped the female villagers at fixing the roofs, they all collected wheat and striped it off so they could use the plant fiber and tied them together with small pieces of sticks and they then covered those tied pieces of sticks with wheat, it wasn't the same as the previous roof tiles the houses used to have but they were fine for now
After some hours of hard work, all the basic work for the houses was done so they left the remaining work for the next day because the villagers had something more important to do today, and that special thing was to farewell Orion, they remained long enough and they all had a good time there but it was time to say goodbye
Even though Rex had complicated moments with Teras he was still sobbing
"Stay here Teras, you still haven't taught me how to make explosions with my hands!"
Rex said as he was sobbing
"Come on you are a big man you can learn such things easily! Plus you have your father with you, he is a beast so he will surely make sure that you become a great swordsman"
Teras said as he patted his head, Zak then picked up Rex and placed him on his shoulder
"I'm thankful I got to meet you all! You save our lives and allowed us to stay here and raise our children in the same place we did"
Zak said as he bowed his head
"Thank you all!"
said a big group of villagers as they all bowed their head
"It was nice meeting you too! Stay strong!"
Har told them with a smile
"We will never forget you!" Lia told them
"I will make sure to get them all to return here occasionally!"
Cara told them as she too bowed her head
Everyone then exchanged goodbyes and Orion started taking the road to the kingdom's capital, Teras didn't say goodbye to anyone he felt like he didn't have to for some reason
The crew then took the long road while they were ready to face whatever the world brought up to them
The time then passed and this beautiful and filled with emotions evening quickly became a quiet and calm night, locusts around the village started playing a requiem for themselves and all of the other locusts that died, winter was slowly coming and the cold would slowly kill them and they couldn't do anything but play this symphony, the winter in the Heart kingdom wasn't as harsh as on the other regions of the world but was still enough to force people to wear heavy clothing
In this cold weather, all of the bandits were gathered into a corner and tried to warm each other, they didn't have clothing or any type of cover, Marco was on the outside of this circle warming everyone with his fire powers, he couldn't start a fire since they had no wood
In this dead silence the imprisoned bandits heard footsteps approaching them, they thought it was one of the villagers but once they turned around to see who it is they left a loud gasp
"You pigs really got defeated by those stupid idiots here? I expected you to have a bit more skill than this"
A man dressed in a big coat said while laughing, his face was hidden in the darkness of the night
"Please forgive us we tried as much as we could!"
Marco said as he fell on his knees, begging the man for forgiveness
"Come on don't make me laugh! I told you to get them out of here and you failed, I even went out of my way to capture a gold-rank monster for you but you still couldn't accomplish one simple task"
the man told them as he kept walking back and forwards, the men behind Marco were trembling, Marco saw that so he had to act
"It was not them that beat us, it was a group of adventurers! They went this way not long ago, if you start now you will probably catch up to them in about 30 minutes"
Marco told him as he pointed in the direction Orion went
"Oh, I see!"
the man said, he then with a swift swing of his dagger he sliced the bars that kept the bandits inside
"I will set you free if one of you fights me"
he said with a smile, the bandits hopelessly stood there
"Why are you doing this?"
Marco said with a cracking voice, he tried to hold back his tears, and the man then started laughing uncontrollably
"I wouldn't do that if I was not entertained!"
the man said
"So this is like a joke for you, right?"
Marco said as fire formed in his hands
"So people of the Heart kingdom have backbones?"
the man asked as he pulled another dagger out of a belt he was hiding under the coat, Marco tried attacking the man but both of his hands had been chopped in a flash, he fell on the ground screaming but before he could make more noise his head was bushed by the man's leg
"Loud bastard! Some people are trying to sleep"
the man said with a smile on his face, he then turned his head to the other bandits, everyone manically tried to run but the man killed everyone with no remorse before the man could clean his daggers with the clothes of the dead he heard a noise approaching, he quickly hid on a tree
"I totally hear it, dad! Plus I saw something shiny this way!"
Rex said as he dragged his dad close to the cage, it was too hard for them to see anything
Suddenly multiple crimson lights appeared out of nowhere
"Are these..."
Zak wondered out loud
"What are these dad? They are like a butterfly but they shine!"
Rex said as he pointed at one of them
"They are crimson butterflies, they are mystical beings that can look into the future, but they shouldn't be here, because they only feed on blood..."
Zak told Rex, but when Zak looked at Rex he saw something scary, a drop of blood fell on Rex's face
Zak then instinctively pulled his sword and blocked the man that fell from the tree, he tried to sneak attack but it was unsuccessful, Zak could barely block the attack of the man and before he could do anything he was kicked multiple meters away
"Hey kid, run as far away as you can and make sure to deliver a message"
the man told Rex but before he could finish what he wanted to say Zak launched himself at the man
"Don't come near my son, you bastard!"
Zak screamed as he attacked but the man easily blocked his attack, the man then grabbed Zak's head and threw him at his bar, where a lot of people were gathered
"What the hell happened!"
they all wondered
"Grab your weapons! A bastard just arrived"
Zak said as he quickly got up
"So about you, now run as far as you can, and when you find someone, tell them to stop looking for me! I'm tired of this little hide-and-seek game"
the man said as he helped him get out of his state of shock
"Oh and if they ask tell them that my name was..."
"...THE JOKER"
As soon as he revealed his identity Rex started running fast, his life was depending on it
Every man in the village surrounded the joker, after their fight with the bandits they had high hopes but if they knew who they were fighting then they would have never acted like that
"Make sure you all attack me at the same time! I don't want to have an advantage over some weaklings such as you"
All of the villagers charged at the joker, but by doing that they all fell right into his trap, the joker charged his mana-charging sword, and with a swift move he released a huge amount of air slashes that chopped to pieces everyone there, Zak was the only one that made it out alive but he was bleeding heavily, the joker slowly walked up to him and watched him die with a smile on his face
"Please don't kill my son..."
That was Zak's last words, the joker laughed, even more, he then started destroying all of the houses one by one with his mana-enhanced dagger
nobody survived
besides the lonely Rex that was running away, he couldn't stop his tears from falling, he had already reached the forest but he didn't stop running and he couldn't either, his legs didn't allow him to
As he was running he hear the trees make a weird noise, when Rex looked up he saw the joker jump around the trees, Rex then stopped
"What are you doing? Run away!"
joker yelled, Rex then whipped his tears and started running with D E T E R M I N A T I O N in his eyes
"RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"
Joker screamed as he manically laughed, his laughter scared all of the animals around the area
After chasing Rex for minutes Joker stopped he was bored
"Now where did he say the adventurers went?"
Joker wondered as he licked the washed-in-blood daggers he had...