Chapter 63: The hunt begins

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"Don't make a sound, they are already sleeping..."

"So they are at that inn, right? All we need to do is kill them without them noticing"

"Everyone be careful, their strength is still unknown. We already had a few casualties a few weeks ago when those from the Marine came to investigate"

Outside in the streets of a village at Darieru Island, dozens of people could be seen walking towards a certain building with savage and dangerous-looking weapons at their hands.

Be it swords, sabers, katanas, guns, shotguns, pitchforks, or even bazookas. It was obvious that these people weren't doing anything good.

At the end of the crowd, a bald man with glasses walked calmly with the crowd while glancing at his surroundings with an attentive gaze. Soon enough, he noticed a certain black shadow following him and bowed his head respectfully as his gaze turned submissive all of the sudden.

"My lord, everything is already set. We will attack the inn and bring those spies to be sacrificed in the name of "him" as you ordered!" The bald man kneeled and explained the situation to the black shadow standing besides him, to which the shadow simply nodded its head and said a few words with its low voice.

"Perfect, the awaken of "him" is near, I can feel it... At most two years until he can finally awake from his slumber, and if we somehow manage to provide him even more vital energy than what we have been doing until now, then the process will accelerate even more!"

"Two years?! That's marvelous sir!!" The bald man nodded his head as a smile full of happiness filled his face.

"However, at this rate, the Marine might end up sending more powerful foes that even I might not be able to fight. We need to switch locations after we perform this week's ritual, probably to another highly populated town where we can find high concentrations of Vital energy..."

"Yes sir, I will arrange a meeting so that we can select our new objective right away after we deal with these intruders! But I suggest that we find the last survivors of this island before that, as it could be too much of a loss to leave them to die of starvation and lose that much vital energy..."

"Indeed, after we deal with them I will personally go and look for them. They have been hiding for too long, and it's getting annoying"

Just as the black shadow and the bald man were talking, one of the men looking at the inn signaled at the people with bazookas to begin attacking.

Soon enough, the people started pointing their bazookas and prepared to fire, while the others simply receded a bit to get out of the destruction range.

*Boooooooooooooom!!!*

However, for some reason even when the people with bazookas did not fire, the building exploded and was blown up to smithereens. Leaving all the people there astounded, as they couldn't understand what had happened.

The black shadow, who noticed that something was wrong, tried to talk to the people to not approach the area. However, before he even blinked, dozens of people had already been killed in just a mere second.

Out of the debris from the inn, seven people came out wearing masks covering their faces and holding weapons in their hands. These people were exuding power and energy, making all of the people watching them tremble slightly at the view.

Only the black shadow, who was watching everything with wide-open eyes, prepared himself to fight. 

"I thought it was the Marines, but it was the dangerous new pirate Shadow raven... What do you want in this place?!"

He pointed his finger at Shadow Raven while narrowing his eyes in anger, after all, his army of people had been almost completely obliterated in just a few seconds and all thanks to him.

Shadow Raven, who was until now silently watching everything unfold, turned to look at the shadow and moved swiftly in front of it, before he grabbed its throat and slammed the whole shadow onto the ground.

*Booom!!*

"Gah...!" The shadow vomited blood after receiving the impact and tried its best to shake the man of Shadow Raven away. Only to fail miserably and notice that he had been completely nailed to the ground.

Shadow Raven squatted in front of him and soon brought his sword right next to the shadow's throat.

"Now then, shall we talk properly?"

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At the north of the Island...

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Inside a dark and humid cave, a little girl was lying next to her father with a pained expression on her face as she grabbed her stomach with strength.

"Dad... I don't think I can hold on for longer..."

"..."

"Elder... Dad isn't moving!" When she noticed that her dad wasn't moving, she immediately got worried and tried talking to the elder that was sitting in a corner of the cave.

"Hngh... oh no, he lost consciousness! Someone feed him immediately!" The elder stood up and examined him for a few seconds before he talked with another person that seemed to be looking at the situation as well.

"We don't have more food elder, if we wanted more we could need to go out, but just now I heard some explosions and probably those people are looking for us destroying the whole island upside down..."

"Goddamnit...!" The elder punched the ground with anger. After all, ever since those blacksmiths appeared, everyone started changing into evil people, and soon they found their group of people running away from them to an isolated part of the island.

Those evil people had inhuman superstrength he had never imagined a human could have, and they looked exactly the same as before, only with red-colored eyes instead of their usual black.

"Elder... When will the marine come and save us...? I'm hungry..." The little girl sitting on the ground and cried silently while looking at the void with empty eyes. Her tummy making hungry noises from time to time.

"Soon, I'm sure of it. They will come soon..." The Elder gritted his teeth while looking at the ground, after all, he couldn't tell the little girl that the person the marine had sent had already died at the hands of those evil people.

They were like pirates... no, they were worse than pirates. They butchered them alive and hanged them as if they were animals ready to be served as a meal.

*Crack*

Suddenly, a small sound came from outside the cave, and everyone there got incredibly startled and fearful. Most of the people inside it grabbed their weapons and prepared themselves to fight until the end.

"Anyone inside there? I'm a doctor, I came to treat the people that are injured and sick..."

The voice from outside was one they had never heard before, just this small difference, gave the people there a tiny hope that they could be saved.

Soon enough, the whole group of adults came outside and looked at the intruder with suspicious expressions on their faces. They had already told the children to hide in case it was a trap, However, seeing that most of them would die if they didn't do something, they decided to embrace this last opportunity that life had given them. As ridicule as it seemed.

When they came out, they saw a very tall man with a strange V-shaped hairstyle wearing a robotic mask that hid completely his features standing outside the cave with a suitcase in his hand.

"Who are you?"

"My name? I'm Asclepius, The God of medicine"

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Back at the battlefield.

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"Impressive... To think that a pirate like you could ruin everything...!" As the shadow trembled in anger, Thanatos simply looked back at him with a calm expression on his eyes

Soon enough, Thanatos ripped the clothes on the face of the shadow and revealed his true appearance. The man had long black hair and glasses on his face just like any other person could do, however, what differed him from others was the horrible scar on his face that covered an enormous part of it and made it look like a monster's. 

The man's red eyes, which were until now filled with viciousness and evil, soon started glowing brightly and an aura started appearing around his body. The aura was filled with darkness and bloodthirsty that could even make the bravest of men flinch in worry.

"But don't worry, I will end this problem right here! With the power bestowed by "him", even you won't stand a chance"

"Let's see then"

*Booooooooooooooooom!!!*

 An enormous explosion happened, and the whole body of the man turned slightly bulkier and stronger, his eyes were filled completely with blood, and his dark hair danced beautifully around with his aura dark-colored aura enveloping his body. 

The other people around the village soon suffered the same transformation and lunged towards the small crew with ferocity on their eyes as they prepared to turn them into shreds instantly.

The man, who right now looked like a demon incarnated from hell, floated towards Thanatos and stopped right in front of him.

"It's over for you pirates, you entered somewhere you should have never taken a step in. Now with your Vital energy, "he" will definitely awake very soon, and this whole world will become part of him"

"I think you are having a misunderstanding here..."

"Hmm?"

*Booooom!!!*

From inside the village, dozens of people were sent flying away as blood spurted out of their bodies, as six figures moved swiftly and attacked them with ease using their strange weapons.

"I-impossible, how can a mere pirate crew withstand the power of those blessed by "him"?!"

*Shiiiing-* A crimson-colored sword covered in small flames suddenly appeared in the hands of Thanatos and pointed at the man with its sharp blade. Injuring the man's cheek on the process, as only the sharpness of the sword was enough to hurt him from the distance.

"That's the thing fool, we are not pirates. We are hunters, and we came here in order to hunt you all down... Now... embrace the darkness and face your retribution"

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Jarron7

Next chapter will be the last of this investigation, and after that, it will probably be about more Power in the Shadows-type of adventures.

Dunno though.

Anyways, that's all for today.

Goodbye!