Venfir’s mother who had been standing still like a statue suddenly screamed as if she had gotten out of her stunned status. She screamed and fell to her knees, clutched his father’s leg, and started to wail.

Just then, the running sound reached near and stopped. Venfir, who had already given up escaping, looked at their imminent killer but was stunned to see that their killers were not bandits.

There were seven people, two of whom were in the lead, and they were very young, even younger than him. While the rest of the people following them were middle-aged.

But what he heard next made his mind go blank.

“I told you to control your force while you are shooting. What if the creature you had to kill had some important parts that could be used to create other items? What will be the point if your arrow explodes them?”

“Tch. I have already said that I am working on that. And isn’t that exactly why I’m practicing right now.”

The girl who was the youngest said that and then shot another arrow.

Venfir was horrified to see that the arrow shot by the girl was too fast and, in an instant, reached his mother, who was on the ground sobbing while holding his father’s legs.

But he had somehow already pushed his mother to the side even before the girl shot the arrow, but still, it pierced his mother’s left hand, which made her scream.

Suddenly, he felt immense pain in his left shoulder but was horrified to see his left arm flying away. It had been cut before he could even understand what the situation had turned into.

He turned, his body still trembling from the shock and pain, and saw a hooded figure standing behind him, holding a glistening dagger, the very weapon that had severed his arm. The dagger had no blood stains on it, clearly indicating how sharp it was.

The second Venfir saw the hooded figure, he instinctively knew that whoever it was was a killer through and through; the reason was that the figure’s presence was cold and menacing, something that he had seen a lot in his previous life.

“You insolent lowlife!” the figure spat, their voice sharp and dripping with disdain. “How dare you interfere with the mistress’s practice?”

The voice was clearly feminine, confirming that his attacker was a woman. But it wasn’t the searing pain in his shoulder or the blood pooling beneath him that stunned him the most; it was her words.

“Practice?” Venfir roared, his voice raw with fury and disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about? Are you out of your mind?”

Instead of giving a reply to his question, the woman simply plunged the dagger into his chest, piercing his heart with brutal precision.

Venfir’s breath got choked in his lungs, and he felt as if his body was on fire.

The woman twisted the dagger, sending unbearable pain coursing through his body, and then pulled the dagger in an arc, making the blood gush out like a fountain.

But the people with the woman were astonished for the time because instead of screaming, they saw the boy looking at the woman with anger and rage.

Suddenly, Venfir saw his mother being pierced by an arrow from the corner of his eyes, and he felt like his soul left his body.

He turned around to look at his mother but was flung away by a kick from the woman and crashed into the wall of a nearby building. He almost fainted but somehow managed to stay conscious.

He saw his mother lying in a pool of blood while an arrow was struck in her chest; she was still spasming.

Seeing this, Venfir roared, but not due to pain, but due to anger, due to the pain of seeing his mother on the verge of death.

"You bastards. I'll kill you. I'll kill you all. I'll slaughter all of you. I'll..."

Before he could say anything, the woman who kicked him appeared before him as if she had teleported.

Venfir, out of instinct, threw a stone that was lying next to him. But the woman deflected it easily with the dagger she was holding.

The woman's eyes met with Venfir’s, who was glaring at her fiercely.

The only emotions Venfir was feeling right now were overwhelming anger and sadness, while his mind was being consumed by raw, unrestrained hatred and rage. All of it was directed to the woman standing before him and her companions.

The woman's eyes met with Venfir’s, who was glaring at her fiercely. The only emotions he was feeling right now were overwhelming anger and sadness, while his mind was being consumed by raw, unrestrained hatred and rage. All of it was directed to the woman standing before him and her companions.

"What are you doing, Etil? Just finish him. I don't want to spend any more time than is needed."

Venfir heard the young boy's commanding voice while the woman standing before him looked visibly shaken as if she was reprimanded.

By this time, Venfir's vision had already started to blur, and his body had begun to grow colder, but one question still burned in his heart, and he refused to die before getting the answer to it.

"Why? Why did you do this? You clearly aren't bandits, so why do this?" He asked in a hoarse voice that had started to grow fainter.

Before he could get any answer, Venfir's vision darkened, and the world around him seemed to slow, but instead of a reply from the woman named Etil, he heard the young boy's cold and commanding voice once again.

But it wasn't the reply to his question but another order, most likely to the people who came with him.

"You all get started and follow the plan, I do not want any mistakes. Destroy this village completely, pile up some of the bodies in the center of the village and set them on fire while cutting the others, but be as crude as possible. I want this to look like the bandits ravaged this place."

With those last words that Venfir heard, he lost his consciousness.

*****

Two eyes, blazing like the sun, suddenly opened in an unknown part of space, and just this action alone caused the surrounding space to tremble. The eyes narrowed slightly as if focusing on something distant.

The gaze pierced through the veil of space, locking onto a swirling vortex situated in the middle of nowhere.

The gaze lingered on the vortex for a moment before peering inside it, a feat only those as powerful as its owner could achieve across the entirety of the cosmos.

The vortex was actually a portal that led to a different dimension, filled with multiple galaxies. Soon, the gaze focused on one of these galaxies and then focused on the surface of a small planet situated in one of those galaxies, where a village was burning.

The owner of the gaze was not interested in the burning village because it itself had destroyed multiple dimensions, so something this insignificant didn't even register in its mind. However, what caught its attention was a glowing pendant on a burning corpse.

Suddenly, the fire vanished, and the charred remains transformed into a teenage boy, as though time had reversed for him. Not only the burned flesh was gone, but even the missing arm, seemingly being chopped off, was also restored.

After a few moments, the boy opened his eyes, staring blankly at the sky.

Soon, a voice echoed inside his head.

"I have fulfilled my promise by bringing you back to life. And with that, any and all ties I had with this dimension are now over." Saying that, the voice fell silent.

Venfir didn’t reply because he was still unable to process what had just happened or what was currently happening around him. The only thing that he was certain of was that he had died, yet here he was, alive once more. But instead of being reborn as a baby, he was still Venfir.

He lay on the ground, the fire still burning around him. He lifted his hand and saw the arm that had been chopped off by the woman was now restored.

As Venfir was still trying to piece everything together to understand his current situation, the voice spoke in his mind once again.

"I’ve seen what has happened with you and as I am feeling generous, I’ll give you a piece of advice. You are in your current situation simply because you are too weak.”

Before the voice could continue, Venfir coldly interrupted: "What do you want?"

"Oh, straight to the point. I like that," the voice spoke, sounding slightly happy.

"I asked you, what do you want? You clearly want something because whoever you are, you wouldn't be speaking to me if you didn't.

Venfir's voice was ice-cold.

By now, he was absolutely sure about one thing: he had died alongside his parents, but somehow, the owner of the voice had brought him back by the looks of it.

He wasn’t really sure whether the part about the promise was true or not, but one thing was clear: whoever this being was, it was powerful. At the very least, it was strong enough to not only heal him completely, but even restored his arm that was chopped off.

"I can give you a way to become strong, but how strong you'll become will depend entirely on you."

"And what do you want in return? My soul?" Venfir replied to the voice with his own question.

The voice sneered.

"You think too highly of yourself. Even though you remember your past life, you're still too weak to even get noticed by me. If I hadn't promised to help the holder of the pendant one time, let alone I would be speaking with you right now, I wouldn't even have known that you even existed. That's how insignificant your existence is to me."

Venfir was clearly shocked when he heard that the owner of the voice knew that he remembered his past life. One thing was now crystal clear: the being that was speaking to him was not someone ordinary.

He could clearly sense the disdain in the voice, but even then he didn't back down, he just repeated his question.

"You still didn’t answer my question. What do you want from me?"

"Relax, kid, I’m just in a charitable mood right now. There is nothing much else to it. And even if I wanted something, are you even capable of fulfilling it? Or do you even know who I am?"

The voice spoke in a mocking tone.

"I still want to know what you want in exchange." Venfir said, his voice still calm yet cold.

"Sigh. You’re one stubborn chump. But you know what? I like that. So for now, let’s just say you promise me that you'll do one thing for me in the future."

"I won’t!" Venfir rejected the help without any hesitation.

Making a promise to a being he knew nothing about, without knowing what it entailed, felt like giving away his freedom.

But now that he was alive again, he wanted revenge on the people who had killed his parents and it felt like he was heading toward a life similar to his previous one.

If this wasn’t a joke of epic proportions, then he didn't know what was.

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

This time the voice clearly sounded angered 

Suddenly the sky darkened, while an enormous pressure descended onto Venfir, making him feel as though he were being crushed by a thousand tons. Every bone in his body cracked, and he struggled to even breathe.

"Just because I am talking with you kindly, you think I’m someone insignificant?"

"Kid, I can erase you like the insignificant bug you are in my eyes. Just be glad that I’m in a good mood right now."

The pressure vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving Venfir gasping for air on the ground.

***********