As the town descended into chaos, the Prefect calmly walked through the screaming crowds.
His aide by his side, however, glanced around nervously.
"Sir, shouldn't we be helping? I am sure with your power you could help put out the fires."
The Prefect glanced at his aide, and continued walking.
"It is a shame, but I must leave the mundane matters to the Lord. My job is not to deal with the symptoms, but to deal with the root of the issue. To solve that problem, I require information."
The aide frowned. " I can understand that, however... people are dying. With your situation, that must be a heavy burden to ignore."
The Prefect marched on, reaching the town's grand plaza. "You learn to deal with it."
Even here, far away from the fires, the smell of ash and burning flesh permeated the area. People here were behaving orderly, and the town's militia and guard had turned it into a base. From here, they were drawing water from the well, and carrying it off to deal with the fires.
Wherever the Prefect walked, people backed away, looking at him with awe and fear.
Eventually, the Prefect found who he was looking for. He waved his hand, and his aide stopped walking. Then, the Prefect walked forward alone.
A burly girl with pink hair and horns leaned back against a statue, her arms crossed.
As she saw the Prefect approaching, her eyes widened, and she started smiling creepily, revealing a set of jagged, sharp teeth.
"Finally, someone found me! Buddy, with that wacky ass suit, you have to be a player, right?"
The Prefect smiled and shook his head. "Heavens no, I am nothing so special. Just the Prefect of the Guard, here to ask you some questions."
Immediately, the excitement in her eyes dulled, and she leaned back, scowling.
"Fuck off, then. Thanks for nothing, asshole. Just had to go get my hopes up..."
The Prefect studied the dense, wrathful souls swirling around her.
'What an impressive repertoire. Many of her victims had been quite powerful, so I can understand her cockiness. Still, she must not know who I am, for her to act so nonchalant. She is just like the others we interrogated.'
The Prefect bowed his head. "My apologies, miss. Here, how about I make it up to you. You must be bored, so why not engage in some light conversation?"
She gave him a deadpan look, and then sighed. "Well, Oniichan says I should work on my manners... So, yap away, I guess."
The Prefect cocked his head. "Oniichan? What's that?"
Shaking her head, she chuckled. "It's an anime thing, you wouldn't understand. Though..." She stroked her chin, a contemplative look on her face. "Now that I look at you, you would make a great femboy! Damn, just imagining your tight bussy in a catboy maid outfit... Hey, you interested in joining my harem?"
***
Raven trudged through the burning town. The buildings near his fight were poorly and hastily constructed, and had collapsed down onto the streets below as they burned. The unnaturally powerful fire had left few survivors.
Currently, Raven's ears could not hear anything but the raging flame, his eyes were filled with nothing but smoke and death.
In mere minutes, thousands had perished.
This was what it meant to take the Quest: Shadow Guild's Battle Royale.
Raven was grinning from ear, marveling at the vast destructive power he was witnessing.
'That was fucking awesome! This must have been caused by the same power she used to surround me with fire. What is the secret behind it, I wonder? There must be some drawbacks, or restrictions, surely? The thought of having power like that is so exciting!'
Crawling through some rubble clogging the street, Raven found a mother and her daughter cowering in fear.
Raven held out his hand to them.
"Here, hold my hand! Come with me, I will bring you to safety!"
The mother grabbed her daughter, and then moved to grab Raven's hand.
"Sir, thank you! Please, save m-"
Raven quickly kicked at the mom's kneecaps, shattering her leg.
She suddenly collapsed, screaming and sobbing in terror.
Raven hummed to himself, while breaking the other leg. After doing the same to the daughter, making sure they can't escape on their own, he brought them to a relatively intact wagon. It was filled to the brim with other survivors, and they all had their legs broken.
Raven wiped the sweat from his brow, grinning as he admired his collection.
"Perfect~ I really lucked out! I didn't expect to run into all of them huddled together like this! Man, I can't wait to use them..."
All the NPCs stared at Raven, frozen in terror. Some of them sobbed, some of them stared blankly with all hope lost, while others tried to bargain for their lives.
Raven ignored them all, and resumed pulling the wagon with a rope tied around it. It was an immensely difficult task, but Raven was sure it would be worth it.
Eventually, Raven brought his wagon to a wide clearing, where several streets had intersected. The roads were relatively clear of rubble, giving him a wide range of sight.
After scanning his surroundings, he jumped on to the wagon, pouring poison aura into his blade.
Then, he turned back to the road he had traveled down.
"Hey buddy~ You must be curious, surely? About why I am gathering up all these NPCs?"
Hearing his words, a massive and ripped man walked out from behind some rubble. He was easily 8 feet tall, with bulging, rippling muscles all across his body. He was dressed only in a shredded pair of shorts.
Raven had long ago noticed the person trailing him. He didn't even need to use his [Blindside] senses, because the large man was quite terrible at hiding his presence.
The man picked his nose, staring at Raven with a dark gaze.
"I am curious. Please, show me."
Raven smirked. "Gladly!"
Then, Raven began massacring the people in the wagon. First, he stabbed everyone a single time in either an arm or leg, whichever was easier. Once they all died from the poison, he hacked them up into a pile of severed limbs and chunks of meat.
Wiping sweat, and blood, from his face, Raven looked back at the massive man.
"Aura is very interesting stuff! Have you looked into it online? Apparently, when living things die, they release aura into the atmosphere. The type of Aura released depends on how they died, as well."
Raven raised his arms, posing dramatically. "For example, look around you! The hundreds of people burned to death has caused the air to swell with fiery Aura!"
The man stood still, silently staring at Raven.
Raven pointed his sword at the bodies around him. "I actually got this little idea of mine after watching the girl I was fighting. As the people around us burned and perished, she seemed to be sucking up the fiery Aura released into the air. Isn't that interesting?"
Raven inhaled deeply, as streams of sickly green, purple, and black Aura poured into his body.
"As long as you have people available, you can just keep on killing them with the element of your choosing, saturating the air around you with Aura!"