"Alright, let's plan this out."
***
Near a waterfall on the edge of a grand cliff, a large group of armed soldiers stood.
At the forefront, a large hulking man stood, his presence overbearing and his gaze piercing.
He was tall, bald and had a face covered in scars as his auburn eyes emanated an aura full of hate and malice.
In his hand, he held a grand sword.
Quietly, the group waited, staring at the huge bush of trees and vines adjacent to the waterfall.
After a while, a rustle was heard and a duo walked out of the bushes.
Rylo waved his hand and instantly, a grand blue barrier separated the crowd of warriors.
On one side, all the tier one entities stood while on the other, all entities above tier one resided.
Adonis calmly walked through the barrier and faced the grand army of bloodlusted soldiers that stood before him.
They didn't wait as they roared out and charged toward him.
He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in as all his senses were turned off and he found himself in a world of pure and utter darkness.
After spending five days constantly fighting and being pushed to his limits, though Adonis hadn't discovered what the passive and active forms of his Gifts were, he'd advanced by leaps and bounds.
One of those advancements was related to [Order].
His discovery was threefold. First, he learned that while he could command other living beings, he could command himself too. This meant that if he wanted, he could force himself into a state of absolute focus or a state of enlightenment.
The second discovery he'd made was that beyond commanding living beings, he could command the world around him though that was practically impossible for the current him. Just lifting a mere leaf syphomed his entire stamina.
The third discovery was that the amount of stamina consumed by his Order was determined by how broad and absolute his command was.
So, for example, him ordering someone to kill themselves would cost him much more stamina than asking them to simply plunge their blades near their heart. It was a simple and, truthfully, stupid difference and yet, once he'd discovered it, his battle prowess shot through the roof.
{Stop Breathing.}
The momentum of the charging army was immediately broken.
[Layer: 350x]
Adonis shot forth, his gaze steady as his spear began to dance and weave across the folds of the world.
He moved with unmatched grace as with every swing of his blade, a life was taken and their experience snatched, added to his growing prowess as he only got stronger and stronger.
He didn't seem to care as wounds began to pile up on his body and his long hair became soaked in blood.
Soon, Adonis stood before a dozen warriors. The rest had either been killed or escaped due to the panic induced by Adonis' order.
Though now he only faced a dozen, these were the cream of the crop.
Two warriors charged forward, their bodies covered in qi as their blades simultaneously fell.
[Layer: 400x]
Adonis' strength surged and he parried both their strikes, his body torquing then rotating as he threw out a lateral slice that sent their intestines flying as his blade tore through their stomachs.
His spear spun as he advanced, his leg moving to kick one of the warriors he'd just killed into an incoming one.
'Fuck!'
The incoming bandit tripped on the body Adonis had just sent toward him, unable to react as a cold and sharp slab of steel dug into his skull and granted him a sorrowful death.
BANG!
Three of the warriors Adonis had thought had escaped suddenly returned, sneaking behind him as they landed a series of well placed punches.
Seeing this, the bandits that'd been either running or hiding suddenly grinned as they all jumped onto Adonis.
**
'So peaceful.'
After a while, Adonis had closed his eyes, his entire body numb as he allowed his instincts to guide his movements.
The blood that soaked him seemed endless and yet, he kept moving, his blade only becoming more and more deadly.
If previously, a single swing reaped a single life then now, a single swing, reaped ten lives.
The more he killed, the calmer he seemed to become and the calmer he became, the more he killed, forming a beautiful yet bloody loop.
'I wonder, why do I find peace in brutality?'
Ever since he fought Arel, Adonis had been having this thought.
'When I look back, am I the same person I was three years ago? If not, what changed? Did the torture change me? Did it twist who I previously was?'
Slowly, he reopened his eyes.
'It doesn't matter. The past is the past.'
***
Thyrn.
Like most men from his village, Thyrn decided to pursue the life of a bandit by joining his uncle's gang.
Just like that, he was embarked on a journey that lasted thirty years. In those thirty years, he travelled the five continents and explored the four seas of Ishva'al.
He managed to fully master his Gift and even got lucky enough to be pushed onto the path of elemental cultivation.
With this power, he continued to ascend through the ranks of bandits and as he did so, the horrors of the world were revealed to him.
He'd seen it all. Whatever horrible thing one could imagine, he'd seen it and in most cases, he'd partaken in it.
But strangely enough, such a man, such a hardened man, found himself trembling in fear as he saw the smile on Adonis' face.
To him, Adonis might as well have been a toddler and yet, the fear he instilled in him was beyond what words could express.
As he saw his brothers and sisters get killed one after the other, he slowly felt a sense of helplessness consume him whole.
The fact that he couldn't breathe didn't help either as no matter how much he tried, he couldn't seem to be able to calm down.
'No…'
"HELP! HELP!"