"Can you just remove it?!"
Alexander asked the butcher. He already asked a tattoo artist and a cook. They both refused.
"I usually work with animals... and honestly, I don't feel good about cutting the dreamer god's rune."
The butcher hesitated. Why wouldn't he? This young man came to him, a butcher, and instead of asking him to cut a cow or a sheep, he asked him to chop a layer of his skin.
Knife in hand, he looked worriedly at the blue-eyed oblate.
"So useless. Just give it to me!"
Alexander said and grabbed the knife from the butcher's hands.
Alexander placed the knife almost parallel to his hand. He was about to start cutting his rune, but he hesitated...
"Muriel!"
He called to the white-haired girl who insisted on following him around this day. They had a deal that she would be his supporter, and he would defend her, but she never seemed to like that agreement very much, at least not until this day.
"Yes!"
Muriel answered like a soldier, ready to take an order.
"I heard freezing the source of the pain can numb it, so the moment I cut the rune off, freeze the area I cut."
Alexander said, and Muriel was shocked. What is wrong with this guy? And right when she was starting to think he was dependable too. Nevertheless, she abided.
"Fine."
Muriel answered.
Alexander stood in the shop, the knife adjacent to his hand at a slight angle.
With a swift move, he cut the rune right off.
Blood gushed out of his hand, and the butcher looked at him with horror.
This butcher was a demon who couldn't care less to see an animal brutally killed, and in fact, he worked in a line of work where killing animals was required, but a human was a different case.
Several races count as intelligent races, such as humans, angels, demons, and beastmen. Seeing someone from an intelligent race being hurt and full of blood was something that this butcher did not want to see ever, especially not after lord Shual freed him from slavery.
On the other hand, Muriel didn't seem like she could care less. She quickly froze the area that was cut off. The butcher didn't see her even bat an eye.
After the pain was numbed, it wasn't much trouble for Alexander to recreate the part of his hand that he had cut off.
With a quick glow of his eyes, it was as if his arm was never injured in the first place.
"Wow, are you a healer from the dreamer god's temple?"
The butcher asked after seeing Alexander heal himself.
"I WAS a temple member, but I WASN'T a healer."
Alexander answered the demon's question. His emphasis on the past tense made Muriel more curious about his past. She remembered eavesdropping when he summarized his history to that Redfox, but she wanted to hear more details.
Alexander gave the demon a large sum of money, and together with his white-haired follower, they left the shop.
********
While walking through the town's streets, Alexander looked at the buildings being built, and Muriel was looking at him. Her curiosity grew by the second.
"So what is your connection with the dreamer god's temple?"
Alexander shuddered. He anticipated she would ask that, but he hoped she won't.
He opened his mouth to answer. His memory of these events was vivid, and it was no issue for them to be recalled.
"I was not older than four years old."
Alexander started. Even this first sentence was more than Muriel expected. He was so young when things began bringing him to where he is now.
"My family was happy. My parents, my siblings, me, and our dog. Life couldn't be better until they were all murdered by the head of the Oblivion branch, Ephialtes. The oblivion branch is one of the branches of the temple of the dreamer god."
Alexander's anger when he mentioned Ephialtes was so powerful that Muriel could feel his killing intent.
Muriel remembered Alexander mentioning the Oblivion branch at the city gates but didn't remember what he said about them.
"He tried to kill me too, but my gift was accidentally awoken, and it used an ability I am incapable of recreating. It brought me back to life. Ephialtes's sword cut through me, but I lived."
Alexander looked at the distance and not at anything in particular. To Muriel, it looked as if he was seeing what happened on that day.
"For some reason, that ability my gift used made the region where I lived into a wasteland. After four years, in which I couldn't move and was like a dead body with consciousness, someone found me. It was a temple knight from the dreamer god's temple, Morpheus, the greatest dreamer. The unbeatable."
Alexander spoke of this Morpheus with great admiration. He also mentioned him at the gate. Who was he?
"I still remember my eyes opening for the first time in four years and seeing that blond man with his soul-piercing glowing red eyes. He was huge compared to the average human and was closer in size to a brown bear. He wore a black knight's armor and a cape with the dreamer god's rune sewn to it. He had piercing eyes, but his overall atmosphere seemed uninterested. I remember shouting at him that he should either save me or die. That no one who leaves a small child behind should stay alive."
Alexander chuckled. He was so immature back then.
"Child? Is this what they call WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION these days?"
Alexander called out of nowhere. Muriel was surprised and looked around to make sure no one was looking at them with judging eyes.
"What are you...?"
Muriel started asking, but Alexander continued.
"These were the words Morpheus said when we first met. Aren't they rather cruel? Back then, I thought all the dreamer god's temple knights were scum that should either do their job or die. Morpheus noticed my hatred and chuckled."
From Alexander's words, Morpheus seemed emotionless.
"It's definitely not me you hate, so what is it? Were you betrayed? Sold? Was your family killed in front of you?"
He might be cruel, but Muriel couldn't call him stupid.
"Morpheus saw a slight change after his last guess and understood what had happened to me, and can you blame me? I was eight years old. My family was killed four years prior, and this damned bastard didn't seem to give a shit!"
After all these years, Alexander was still angry at Morpheus for that.
"After understanding my past, he told me he would leave me dead if I won't tell him which branch did that to my family. If you think he was kidding, then let me tell you. His tone became more severe, and even to this day, after knowing him better, I still think he would have left me to die there and then if I didn't open my mouth. So I answered him with a simple word, Oblivion."
Alexander said, and Muriel felt chills go down her spine.
"Afterward, I passed out from malnourishment."
Alexander added.
"Wait, the Oblivion branch? Didn't you tell the head guard at the gate that they took over the temple?"
Muriel finally remembered what Alexander told the head guard about the Oblivion branch.
To the sound of Muriels' words, Alexander's expression morphed into some weird mix of amusement and anger.
"After that, Morpheus saved me and took me under his wing. We rose in the temple's ranks as an independent unit, working separately from the branches. Even through those many years, my hatred has not weakened much, but it wasn't as great as it was about to be."
He gritted his teeth with anger.
"We reached high ranks, but three years before the tournament, there was a massive shift in the temple's leadership."
The hatred in his eyes only was clearer.
"The Oblivion branch took control over the temple, with Ephialtes as their leader. When the news reached my master, he told me to leave the temple. Not a month later, a rumor spread that Morpheus, my master, was killed. He was betrayed and ambushed by the higher-ups of the temple because he was unwilling to comply with their demands when he was ordered to massacre a village full of innocents."
Alexander's complexion darkened, and his killing intent grew.
"After I heard that my master died, my hatred toward the temple was reignited. I went on a murder spree against the oblivion branch and all their supporters. With every kill I got, I understood how unbeatable my gift was and that I was different from others. I was a higher being, a GOD. Of course, now I know I was wrong. Shu, a talentless, zero potential, nobody defeated me."
Alexander finished his tale. Muriel finally understood what brought Alexander to force her into that deal and what it was that he wanted.
"So you wanted me to be your follower so that I would help you take over the dreamer god's temple?"
Muriel wanted to make sure she understood his goals correctly.
"No, I don't want to take over the temple. I want to take down the dreamer god who allowed her temple to be corrupted."
Alexander corrected her perception, and she didn't know what to think.
This war they pulled her into was against a god. If they won this war, would this be proof that they could defeat the dreamer god? Or was Alexander just crazy?