The air reeked of death. Sizwe sighed, feeling a wave of relief wash over him. He gazed at the star-filled sky, wishing for a cigarette.
"I bet they only have cheap stuff that would kill me after a few puffs," he thought. He stood in a field strewn with corpses and beasts, finally basking in some well-deserved silence. Fate had thrust him into yet another unfavorable ordeal.
Was it so wrong to dream of a life where he woke up to flying cars and fat humans spoiled rotten because hunger was a myth? A world where people joked about the past and ate ice cream for dinner and chocolate for breakfast. That was the life he deserved—to die fat and full of diabetes.
Seeing what this world had become bummed him out. He looked down at the brain matter by his feet; it was disgusting. He stood victorious against all odds, glancing at the bodies of the men of God who had unwillingly sacrificed themselves for his cause. They would be missed—having meat shields was convenient. Maybe he should become an Acolyte and always have these shields with him. That would be nice.
Sizwe stood there for a while, everyone too afraid to approach. The hyenas had fled after their Alpha died, leaving him alone as a Beast Slayer. Mandla watched this man with awe, but the Acolytes looked at him with fear. He had the gun of an Enforcer, brown eyes, and dark skin. He matched the description of the man the church had a bounty on. Greed gripped the Acolytes' hearts. If they could kill or capture him alive, they'd be handsomely rewarded.
Sizwe moved, mimicking the act of smoking. Disappointment struck again; there was nothing. He just exhaled plain old oxygen like a peasant.
"No wonder these people are so depressed. There are no unhealthy drugs here to keep them occupied. I'm depressed too now."
He walked toward the inn, ready to escape. The church had seen him with a gun; the jig was up. Two Guardian Recruits stood in his way. While doing his dance of death, he had avoided the village warriors to prevent unnecessary enemies, using the Guardians as his shields. He glanced at the two battered Guardian Recruits. One of the Acolytes, Dante, spoke up.
"It seems you're the demon the Citadel is looking for. I hear you're worth quite a lot of money to whoever kills you."
Dante's loud proclamation aimed to rally the warriors against Sizwe.
"You call me a demon and still stand in my way. Has the meaning of 'demon' changed in the last 100 years?"
Dante, middle-aged and looking older than Sizwe, was getting agitated.
"Young man, you don't want this smoke."
"Do I look like a young man to you?" Dante fumed.
"You look quite old, but I thought maybe it was your skincare routine. Look at me, 135, and still looking so young."
Sizwe was taunting them. To be honest, he missed conversation, especially sarcasm. Throwing jabs at the Acolytes was just what he needed.
Dante, red with anger, commanded, "Kill him." The Guardian Recruits moved, but Sizwe was already upon them. He didn't wait for Dante to finish; he was as rude as he was crazy. His dagger, a pointed snake, claimed lives swiftly. Ironically, it bore the Citadel's engraving. The last thing the Guardian Recruits saw was the Citadel emblem before eternal sleep.
As soon as he slaughtered one Recruit, he swiftly attacked the other before the first body hit the ground. He was a killing machine. The recruit saw Sizwe's eyes, cold as ice, calm as a cucumber. There was no remorse or hesitation. Death soon claimed him.
The Acolytes barely processed what happened before Sizwe was upon them.
"Stop!" Mandla shouted. Sizwe paused, looking at him.
"Aren't you a fellow man of God? An Enforcer? Why are you killing other men of God who uphold the Codex?"
Sizwe was confused. "Who are you?"
This question threw him off. How could this man not remember him?
"It's me, Mandla. I did the Sermon today; you asked me a lot of questions."
"Oh, the young Novice." He continued and slaughtered one of the Acolytes like it was nothing.
Mandla's mind raced. "What the hell? Did he not hear me? Is this man crazy?" As he thought this, Sizwe pounced on the other Acolyte.
"Stop!" Mandla shouted again.
Sizwe turned to him, holding the Acolyte by the collar, dagger ready to strike.
"Can't you see I'm busy, Young Novice? We'll talk once I'm done."
"What do you mean? You can't kill him."
Sizwe stabbed the Acolyte several times, letting him drop to the ground.
"Why not?"
"WHAT THE HELL? You just killed him."
"That's pretty obvious."
"Why couldn't you wait for me to finish?"
"Okay, sorry, please speak." Sizwe wiped his bloody dagger on the Acolyte's clothes. Mandla was dumbfounded. Was this a man?
"Why did you kill them?"
"Because they ordered my death. What's there to explain? They chose their fate."
The warriors listening nodded. You can't show mercy to an enemy. If you want to kill, you need to be prepared to be killed. Mandla was speechless.
Some warriors approached, having given up on killing this man; they were not tired of living.
Tafa, a young warrior, approached Sizwe but kept a distance. "Thank you for saving the village, sir."
Sizwe smiled. "You're welcome. Helping the poor is my passion."
Tafa was confused. Was he poor? Or did he mean the village? In his head, Sizwe still spoke in 21st-century memes. He said things these people didn't understand, perhaps a coping mechanism for losing his old world.
"You killed an evolved beast. That is an amazing feat. Few can claim that."
"I'm happy to help." Sizwe knew in his heart that he wasn't. He had been forced to help. His plan was to run after assessing the risk, but the risk wanted him. He wanted nothing to do with these people and planned to leave, don a new persona, and hide from the Church until he could fight back.
"Okay, I should be heading out. Thank you for your hospitality. Goodbye."
Sizwe left them in disbelief. But they understood; the jig was up, and the church was after him. Mandla followed Sizwe, not even knowing why.
"So you're not an Enforcer?"
"Why are you following me?"
"You're not?"
"Why would I join the Citadel? It's a place for nut jobs. Who would believe their stupid doctrine?"
That felt like a personal attack to Mandla, who devoted his life to the Church.
"No, it's not. The Church is here to save the world and restore order."
"By monopolizing things that could help the masses? The church is just a dictatorship with a fancy name. I've seen organizations like it in my past life. They justify the bad they do by claiming moral high ground and being the greater good."
"We are the greater good. The Church helps those who follow their teachings."
"What society can there be when men only help who they know? It's my way or the highway."
"What is a highway?"
"Point is, the church is using the doctrine as a front to amass power and oppress the weak."
Mandla was quiet for a while and just followed. He didn't know why he was following this man.
"Why are you following me?"
"I want to learn about the old world," Mandla suddenly said. He believed in the Church's doctrine, but what kind of doctrine would it be if it went unchallenged? He sought knowledge and wanted to believe in something he was sure about. He knew the old world from the Codex, and now he had someone who'd lived it. He was eager to learn.
"Why?"
"I only know the old world from the Codex, but you know it from experience. I want to write about the old world as you saw it."
Sizwe glanced at him and kept walking without saying anything more.
---
Morning came, Mandisa came to the village gate that ricked. It was the smell of death. The gate was litted with man a beast corpse. The villagers were busy, moving and burying the dead and moving the beast corpses. One of the beast corspes that the villegers were struggling to put on the trolley cause Mandisa Attention. She moved clese and asked the people.
"Is this an evolved beats."
The Villagers looked at her as if she were dumb.
"Clearly."
"I'm surpresed you survived such a beast attack. Did the church help put down the beast?" Mandisa was too exited by the beast and it started to annoy the villagers.
"No, all the Church members died expect for to Novices. The beast was killed by a single man, the Phantom of Death. "
Mandisa's eyes glowed hearing such a cool nickname.
"This man must be evolved."
"What? What the hell are you talking about? That many was ordinary, he killed the beast with his own skills, I saw it myself. "
"What? A mortal killed an evolved beast?"
"He did, he was like a phantom using the Guardian Recruits as shields slowly injuring the creature until he used a Divine Relic to put it down."
"But you said he was not from the Citadel."
"Afterwards the Acolytes wanted to kill this man because he has a bounty plaved by the church calling him the Red eyed demon."
"The brown eyed demon? I finally found him."
"Are you after the bounty too? You best give up, that man is not normal... Maybe he is an evolved. "
The Villager began to think.
"But either way, you will just die like those Acolytes, that man is crazy."
The Alpha was finally louded into the trolley. The villagers pulled it away.
"Brown eyed Demon." Mandisa murmured.