"Get up and move. We won't ask again." Warned a young man, aiming his gun at Girium's head. Who just glared at them while silently picking bits of flesh from the fish and eating it.
"Is this guy a retard? Not even reacting to guns?" The other man asked, looking at Girium as if he was a lunatic.
"Guess so. There must be a reason he lives away from the village."
Seeing that Girium was harmless, they put down their gun. And after glancing at him, just said. "Listen… don't go down… see that place?... It's a no! No!." The man explained in a condescending voice. Truly treating Girium as if he was slow in the brain department.
But anyone in their situation will think the same. This is how Girium has acted since coming to the village borders.
"It doesn't seem he understood a thing." Looking at him enjoying his food without the care of the world, this was the conclusion they came with.
"Hmm, he still seems to have three more, let's take one each. I haven't eaten since this morning."
"What about your boss? Won't he send others if we take time?"The other pointed out that they didn't have the time to waste here. Leaving this place as early as possible was important and they might get left behind if they didn't reach the village on time.
"We can see the village clearly from here. We will move once we see their work is done." He said, lifting one of Girium's fish and slowly starting to eat it, unlike GIrium who took time.
He also didn't ask Girium, it was as if this fish was his own, to begin with, nor did Girium complain. He just silently ate the one in his hand. Much to the fish stealer's surprise.
"See, he doesn't even mind. Just pick one up"
"Well if you say so."
And so, Girium was only left with one other fish and it was the smallest among the four.
He was neither sad nor angered by these men. He knows that they never intended to kill him. He couldn't even feel any kind of bloodlust. Which meant the villagers were not in any danger as well.
But things changed when Girium hunched over to pick the smallest fish. A bright light burst from his backside, causing his body to shake under the stimulus.
A familiar feeling, one he felt a long ago, was washing every part of his body.
Even the two fish stealers on the side dropped their fishes under the awe of what they saw.
"*Creeee…"
A giant bird made of thunder cried out loud. Causing the sky to be blanketed by a thick veil of clouds.
"This… this is the power of an artifact?" The man beside Girium stammered in his words as he backed off in horror at what he was witnessing.
Then he felt it, a desire to obtain the construct rising in his heart. A desire, his companion also felt, both moving toward the village in tandem.
But then their steps stopped. It was more like that even after trying, they just couldn't move one inch. And when they looked down below, they saw giant dark hands were gripping their feet tightly.
And before they could react, they heard a loud crunch sound. And then both of them fell in pain.
"Stay here." Ordered Girium, ignoring their curses and pain they shouted at him. Before entering his hut once again.
'I shouldn't have waited.' Looking at how those men acted the moment the construct came alive. And the desire to obtain it rose in his heart as well. He knew the promise he made to himself all that time ago was the right one.
"It's time." He spoke to the crudely made spear, but picked it up and left for the village.
A village that has turned into a hellhole.
A scene he was very familiar with.
In the village, there was a scene of carnage.
Bullet holes everywhere, on trees, on walls, and the bodies of the dead.
Friends turned on friends, brother's killed one another and the society that suppressed human desire was annihilated. Only those with strong minds and children were spared. But even among them, there were casualties as only a few children could escape in time before their parents started biting and killing each other to obtain the small knife floating in the middle of the village.
Girium only felt a little sorry for these deaths, the villagers themselves were to blame for this to happen. If they were not so greedy and had accepted the offer before, none of this would have happened.
He knows what was originally in the mind of the village chief, he didn't deny the offer because of tradition, he just wished for more from the offer, and others in the village had the same thought.
But now it was too late.
"Stop right there." The man shouted, tired from all this fighting. But he was among the rare few who had been able to maintain their ego.
Even if tired and injured all over. He still aimed his gun at Girium's head. Feeling threatened by him and his spear.
Not to mention the muscular and tall body that towered over everyone in the village.
"You don't seem to have lost yourself… There is still time. Take the remaining kids and run away." He warned, regretting the choice of taking this job.
They were too late, the first of the massacres after the artifact awakening had already happened, and more of those that desired these constructs would arrive in the village, making it a graveyard not so long in the future.
Girium can see that the man was not evil. He even felt some jealousy toward him. If only men like these were there, the disaster he had to face wouldn't have come to pass.
But it was all too late, same as for now, this man, even with his good intentions hasn't been able to change a thing.
"*boom"
And then a bullet was fired at Girium, much to the man's surprise. He never thought someone among the madmen had still survived.
The scene he imagined never came to pass, as Girium easily swatted the bullet out of the air with a single swat of his spear.
That was not all though, after the first bullet, more of them rained down on him. But as easily as the first bullet, he deflected the following ones without much struggle while closing in on the man who was shooting at him.
In Girium's eyes, there was a pity as he looked at the fallen young man, bleeding from his abdomen while madness clouded him.
So he lifted his spear. An action that made the boss of these men named Teerath, close his eyes. Already aware of what Girium intends to do.
But it was not like he would not do the same in Girium's position.
Things have fallen too far. He was too late to save these men.
"*Pulk"
Then the sound came, the Teerath, already aware of the state his men would be in when he opened his eyes.
But that didn't come to pass, as the only thing destroyed was the gun in his man's hand. Before the man once again ignored the struggling man and moved toward the center of the village, where the dagger floated calmly.
And above that dagger soared a bird made of thunder.
"Who is this guy…" Teerath was horrified to find how easily Girium walked in while using his spear to absorb the lightning raining down on him.
And that lightning that he couldn't deflect left a burn mark on his skin. That's it.
"A transcendent?" This was the only reasonable answer that Teerath could come up with.
A transcendent was the special designation given to those that have left the limits of the human body and obtained supernatural powers.
And being a transcendent is the lowest requirement to wield a divine weapon properly. This would explain why the man was inching towards the dagger with no care in this world.
"We were too late… But it doesn't seem this man is bad." He said while looking toward his men who had fallen on the ground.
If Girirm was a normal man, he would have still killed a man who had shot at him. But Girium did none of that, instead, he just destroyed the weapon. Meaning he was a man with a good heart.
So a weapon of that caliber falling in the hands of Girium won't be so bad.
And there were already a lot of other weapons of this ilk hiding and biding their time.
"Just take it and get out of here…" Teerath shouted towards Girium, but whether Girium listened or not, it didn't matter.
Because now Girium stood next to the dagger. The bird above him watches him curiously, waiting for Girium to hold his vessel.
It had waited for a new owner for years and it felt it was lucky to have found one so early after waking up.
The man in front of it was strong and liked people like this who didn't speak much.
But what it desired didn't come to pass. As Girium lifted his spear-like he had done countless times before And pounded it like a hammer on the body of the dagger.
Much to the thunder birds' surprise and horror of Teerath.
"*Scree"
The bird cried in anger over the blasphemous action of Girium, causing the intensity of the thunder to increase tenfold, making the whole village seem like it was going through the festival of thunder.
Which scared the surviving people who hid in the hut and the children who started to cry louder at what was happening.
Even the hilltops that have stayed there for hundreds of years started to break down bit by bit under the onslaught.
It was an apocalypse.
None could survive this if nothing was done on time.
"ARE YOU MAD… DIVINE CONSTRUCTS ARE INDESTRUCTIBLE. STOP THAT MADNESS OR NONE WOULD SURVIVE.' Shouted Teerath.
As usual, Girium remained unfazed by the words while he looked at the thunder dancing and striking him with all its might.
Besides a few patches of burnt skin, those attacks didn't affect him much. Much to the horror of the Thunderbird.
Then, like before, he lifted the spear in the same fashion. But using two hands this time. Then, he struck it harder, causing the whole village to shake under the impact as if the whole village suffered through a small earthquake.
"STOP…"
The cries came pouring in as much as the thunder on his body. But After the second strike, he didn't stop.
He started beating it, causing the whole village to shake under the might of his attacks.
Slowly and surely even those cries were drowned by his strikes.
It was the event in which an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.
And then it happened, a small crack appeared on the body of the dagger. Causing the bird to winch in pain.
It was horrifying, the body that has remained indestructible for millennia was showing signs of destruction.
Causing panic to fill the thunderbird's head.
It could do nothing at this point, it has tried everything to stop Girium. But everything failed.
The only thing it could do was watch Girium striking its body with the last blow, which shattered the body of the dagger into countless pieces. And the force which pushed Girium to the entrance of the village where Teerath was barely able to stay alive.
And the bird, all it could do was look at the figure of Girium with an accusatory glance before with one last of its screech, his body disintegrated into smaller electrical arcs and got absorbed by the clouds above.
This was the end of it, a pathetic end of a weapon that had existed before mankind was even a thing.
"Who…. what are you." On the side, Teerath, who had seen everything that happened in this place, asked.
There was not anything he could do. The things he witnessed today were too crazy. And what was crazier was the man who joined the battle way later.
"Hmm…" Girium just looked at him, falling into his thoughts. The people have hidden in the huts which mostly comprised youngsters slowly pouring out towards him. Intending to thank him.
Some of which were those that pelted stones at him.
But he was not here for glory.
He was here for one thing only.
"Girium, Girium Vel." He had just made a new choice today.
"And if you don't mind, I would like to meet whoever you work under."