Rhys grinned madly watching as the plane shot toward the school with a cold gleam in his eyes, he hunched over slightly and then leaped forward. He blasted out through the window headfirst, an iciness in his heart as he came to a halt outside his classroom. Shards of glass flew as he stood there, his students speculating his actions. He sighed internally at this — there was little wrong with it.
He reached out his hand — a tiny stick in comparison to the approaching plane — and grabbed its nose cone without hesitation. The force from the collision rocked throughout the plane, shattering glass as the screams of the people inside the plane pierced through the skies. Rhys listened calmly to their pleas, wondering how much of an arsehole he would be if he hurled it right back.
"I guess your name is Rhys Nicolas?" The masked man glared down upon Rhys, glaring down on the grinning teacher with a bright red light in the eyes of his mask. Its nature drove Rhys to believing it was not awakened of the natural means, and there were two ways to this — either the threat was a being very strong or a being very weak. There was no in-between.
"You can call me whatever you want…" Rhys replied calmly. He did not bothered wearing a mask to deal with this villain wannabe, he was sure of his capabilities and believed he could beat it up with no need to weak his mask! He hovered in the air, glancing over his shoulder to the students and then he added, "Millie Gilmore, kindly alert the authorities. I will be sure to deal with this threat myself."
A student nodded amongst the speculators, her short bubblegum coloured hair bobbing. As she turned around and bolted out of the class with a few other students, Rhys returned his gaze back to the threat before him. This kind of threat was normal — like, he handled these everyday — sadly for him today, there was something strange with this one. It unsettled him greatly.
His phone vibrated in his pockets and he sighed. He lowered himself to the ground, dropping the plane calmly as he stared at the notification he had received. His grin turned into a cold frown as the people in the plane rushed out, and he opened the notification. Rhys stepped back, releasing his grip from the crushed nose cone as he read the notification.
⦗Urgent Quest!⦘
⦗Quest Type: General⦘
⦗Quest Title: Something Weird at the Persona Academy!⦘
'Now?' he wondered internally. The situation in front of him looked much more urgent than what he was receiving now, but he opened it nevertheless only to discover someone had published this as a quest on the servers. Rhys narrowed his eyes, but every time he did, he would see ⦗Reward — $50, 000⦘ and sigh internally. That was quite a lot of money, and all he needed was to kill one end spawn.
Whatever that was.
Rhys pocketed his phone, and grinned again. He had left his dagger for a good reason but it was dropped off in the classroom so he needed to resort to using his bare fists. The figure observed him for some time but it seemed to have grown bored. It swooped down, and in an instant it landed with its fist smashing down on Rhys' face only to be caught mid-air.
There was an explosive shock wave that ripped through the grass field they stood on, sending a few patches flying into the air — okay more than a few. 'That can be shit expensive.' Rhys thought to himself as he dragged his assailant towards himself and pushed them in the face. The force knocked their heads back and they nearly snapped their neck, but Rhys made sure that id did happen.
He grabbed the head of the assailant with his other free hand and smashed it into his rising knee before grabbing both shoulders and driving the head of the assailant into the ground. 'Man, they are so weak sometimes…' Rhys mocked as he smashed into the back of the assailant with his foot, until a weak gasp was heard and they stopped moving — either unconscious or dead. He could care less.
Rhys sighed, taking out his phone again and placing a call, "Headmaster. If the students have not reached out to you yet, I have secured a terrorist. A masked but I perceive this one to be of bad faith given the evidence before me. Oh no, it did not cause me any trouble — no need to send me any aid."
He nodded and cut the call, frowning as he grabbed the back of his victim's head and dragged its body out of the ground. They were quite durable with very little wounds sustained from his blows, it was not much but a very great feat to survive that. Although there was something strange here, why would anyone send someone to kill him? He — Rhys Nicolas — was not much of a calamity magnet.
"Who would want me dead?" He held the side of his head calmly, shaking it as his grin faded. He was confused as to why he was even grinning, he needed to keep himself together. His eyes gleamed in a strange light as he sighed, shaking the victim he beat to a pulp in his grasp until they woke up to his cold crimson red eyes staring down upon them menacingly.
"Worthless mortal, let go of me at—" Before it could speak its mind, he grabbed its face and then smashed the back of its head into the ground. The earth cracked in a three metre radius around them before exploding in grass, debris and dust. Rhys stood there, calm as a river whilst he pinned down a stunned victim to the earth. Their muffled protests rained on deaf ears.
"I don't think you understand the situation you are in, insect but let me explain. If you are unable to provide a reasonable answer to my questions I will rip you apart limb from limb and ensure that it is quite the excruciating experience…" Rhys' eyes were cold and empty but the grin returned, he held the arm of the victim as the students watched. He asked his first question, "Who funded this stunt?"
—
Zara walked down the streets with her hands in her pockets, staring off into her phone's screen as she weaved through the crowd. As she walked down a dark alley, she felt a huge hand rest on her shoulder and she walked to a halt. She looked out through the corner of her blood red eyes, looking quite innocent as it clenched on her shoulder, feeling like iron.
"Hi, beautiful. I have been noticing you take this path quite a lot lately, mind if you join us for—" She saw his face — hideous — and noticed the group of sickly men standing behind him. It was not strange for this to happen, but she had been taking this route for months now and had never seen a group like this around her or else she would have done something — anything.
She turned around and stared him into the eyes. Her lips curled into a smile that wasn't any less hideous than his face, and before he could react she stepped forward and punched into his face with her hand. He was shocked, standing there with his skull shattered and her fist driven into her face. A silence prevailed, torn apart in the next instance by the sound of his body crashing to the ground.
"Man what a bummer, now I've got blood on my hands." Zara withdrew her fists calmly. She took a step forward and the other men staggered backwards — they were going to run! Before they dash away, she took another step and appeared right behind the last man in the group. She lifted her arm and smacked his head right across the darkness, sending blood flying, "Oops. That was a mistake…"
Naturally homicide was a punishable offence. Yet the world had changed greatly after the chasm had appeared and the rules ha grown quite lax over the years. She wondered why but something the gang carried along with them unsettled her so greatly she was disgusted with their living. It was as if their existence revolted her, and she acted upon it without hesitation.
Heads flew in the darkness as bodies crashed down to the ground, limp and headless. She took a few calm steps to their 'boss', lifted her leg and crushed his head under her feet. She wondered what if they weren't actually human. Most monsters from the chasm carried this revolting feeling and even some summoned abominations from enemies encountered in the past carried this feeling as well.
"They were too easy to kill. Most of my victims in the past would naturally try to fight when faced with despair, and others would beg and wail in futility. Only few would stand and wait for their death and with no one of these groups at least showing differing reactions to despair, I can assume that—"
She tilted her head to the side, staring down and tracking the movements of the foot that grazed her cheeks with a cold gleam in her pupils. She staggered back, spinning around and dodging a blade that tore through the side of the blouse she wore. Zara's eyes twitched as she glared at the blade that shot forward — one that would have impaled her if she was too slow.
"—Some fool is behind this…" Zara cursed, staggering back and staring off into the darkness. All she saw was nothing but that which was absent of light, and locating her threats in the dark was one of the most annoying tasks she wanted to deal with. She clenched her fists calmly. This was not hard.
A fist tore through the darkness, and she blocked it — having it smash into her crossed arms. It gave her the chance needed, and she grabbed the one that hid in the darkness. She cursed, spinning to the side as a blade grazed the side of her abdomen. She staggered back calmly, breathing heavily.
—
With two arms twisted out of position, a leg tore off and Rhys' left hand buried into their chest, a sorry state was all that could be said of it. Rhys was emotionless as he stared down upon the messed up figure, wondering how pathetic these self-proclaimed villains could get. Everyone had returned to their business, and only his students watched him carry out his 'investigation'.
He could be reported for this to the authorities and would face jail-time, but what police force in the current state of the world would want to hold a hunter accountable for this issue? If a chaos was to arise from that, then the city would be driven into chaos. The military would face wipe out in mere months and the police force in an even shorter time frame. No one interferes in matters of a masked.
Much less in the matter of someone who could rip a masked apart without wearing one. None of the students were bold enough to report this and the few teachers dumb enough to do so in the past paid the price. The world evolved to the point where the masked were considered a just a branch of the human race with their own approach to their various affairs — their own ecosystem and beliefs.
"God sent you?" Rhys dragged his arm out of his victim's chest, wiping the blood on their clothes with a cold gleam in his eyes. 'Which god?' he wanted to reply but restrained himself. He was meant to act shocked and surprised that some God was send their followers after his life. It was not like he was secretly hiding some hidden identity or something… or was someone a God would hate or fear.
The victim gasped for breath as Rhys lifted it off the ground, opening his mouth to speak with an icy tone, "He will purge your worthless existence from this earth… vile demon…" its arms were bent into a sorry shape and were healing at a weak pace. It wanted to grab Rhys by the neck, but couldn't.
"Ah, you clueless fool." Rhys withdrew his grin, lowering his face so her could whisper his words into the ears of his enraged victim. They were cold, piercing and full of a great emptiness "I want you to answer this question honestly," Rhys tightened his grasp, "Have you ever heard of the God Eater?"