Hanna felt weak, weak in a way she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Her head and limbs were heavy with exhaustion, her breathing was short and for the first time since waking up in that ruined library, she felt like just closing her eyes and sleeping for as long as she could, but of course such luxury wasn’t reserved for her, no she needed to get rid of the bodies first and clean herself up.

She didn’t want to risk getting found out, getting found had only ever led her to terrible, terrible situations, one time leading directly to a meeting with the personification of Death, she would not get found this time! So she kept on dragging the body of that stupid knight through the dirt and grass towards the river.

In the distance she could see the sun appear on the horizon, she was running out of time and she felt more and more exhausted by the moment, it was a terrible feeling leaving her angry and frustrated, it didn’t help that her mind was also plagued by countless questions that had been left unanswered after her encounter with that ghost, or whatever he had been, because clearly he disappeared, though she couldn’t know if he was actually gone or not, something that only deepened her frustrations.

What did he mean by that title he had called her and why was it that she was getting evermore angry whenever she heard it? No one else had ever called her by such a title before and it clearly wasn’t an insult, so why was it causing her such anger? Had it something to do with that time she had been unconscious in the forest? Very clearly a long time had passed between her meeting Death and waking up, so clearly something must have happened during that time as well, but she just couldn’t figure it out, all she ever remembered was a black abyss of nothingness.

And even then, the fact she supposedly met Death personified still boggles her mind so much that she unconsciously still doesn’t belief it actually happened, because there was no way she actually did so right? But then again neither was the fact she had a Demi God inside of her, nor could her presence in itself be called normal, considering she very clearly remembers not being from this world and the fact she was a normal human before she had woken up in that ruin.

Hanna stopped briefly to shack her head, feeling a migraine coming she stopped the train of thought she just had, she had things that needed sorting out and questioning her entire existence did not contribute to getting it sorted out, maybe it was her inner philosopher that had also caused her to actually try and get a degree in the subject as well, that made her ponder such questions. She had given up her entire past life at this point, but just couldn’t help to keep that one specific part about herself, she didn’t know why, but she did.

Continuing with her task of pulling the body towards the nearby river, she tripped over a root of a nearby tree and she almost feel over, only barley managing to keep upright, but just as she was about to curse her heart out she heard something behind her, and it was very clearly coming closer and she soon after recognised it as talking.

Hanna panicked, the river was close by she knew, but if she were to rush over there she would most definitely be spotted before hand and even if she got lucky, she highly doubted that the people behind her were headed anywhere but the river and there was no way she would be able to hide the body in time, or clean herself up enough to not make her look incredibly suspicious.

She was running out of options and her incredibly tired and exhausted mind and body didn’t feel like fighting again, but what other option did she have?

"Hey, you there, what are you doing out so early? Trading doesn’t start for another few hours and we have fishing rights this week you know!"

A young voice called out and sealed her fate, now there was truly only one way of getting out of this, she remained perfectly still, or at least as still as her exhausted allowed her to be and kept her back turned to the newcomers, from the way she had been called to, they hadn’t noticed the body or her body being covered in blood and they only assumed she was Someone from the village that wanted to fish in the river.

She hadn’t ever interacted with anyone of the village except for the demon family, so she didn’t recognise the voice calling out to her, so she decided to pretend to not have heard him in the first place, instead slowly kneeling down to make it seem like she was checking something.

"Hey! It‘s our turn today get lost already-"

“Come now Fitz, there is no need to get angry. It‘s all just a misunderstanding, nothing more, honestly you start to worry me, after claiming to have heard something in the night and now getting angry for no reason… You aren’t the son I remember raising…"

Clearly undeterred, the man continued his way forward, if anything, he seemed even more resolut in his approach, as Hanna could hear his footsteps even louder then before, or was that because he was just closer? She suddenly felt one of her legs giving out and she stumbled forward into the grass and mud, clearly she couldn’t keep this up much longer.

"Hey, what do you think your doing? No more sudden movements like this or else I will…"

"Fitz! Honestly, you can see the poor fellow is on the brink of complete collapse! Go help them and stop it with your superstitious behaviour! I didn’t raise you like some sort of savage!"

There was a sound of metal in the air, Hanna couldn’t quite place it, though she definitely had heard it before, when suddenly the older of the two people screamed in surprise and shock.

"Fitz what the hell are you doing, put away your sword this instance, are you completely out of your mind?!"

"You have not raised me like that, I know, but the horrible war had taught me one thing and that is to recognise your enemy and this thing is no HUMAN“

Hanna, recognising the hatred and anger in the man‘s voice, stumbled forward in a hopeless attempt to dodge the incoming slash of the man‘s blade, but she was to slow and the cold steel of the blade easily sliced through the flesh on her lower back.

Her black blood squirted outwards and onto the ground, causing a loud hissing noise as it burned through the grass and mud, Hanna released a blood curdling scream into the morning air as pain wrecked her whole body.

Her assailant didn’t get out scor free however, as drops of her blood found the man‘s sword arm and face, he himself releasing a scream of pain as the blood started to burn through his flesh, causing him to stumble backwards.

“Fitz!"

Hanna gritted her teeth and slowly turned herself around, being greeted by the forms of her assailants, just as she expected they were both male, one being clearly older then the other, both of them wearing simple brown shirts and pants, the older also sporting an impressively well kept brown beard, while the younger one was covered in many bandages and was also clearly missing a finger finger on on both of his hands.

The younger scrambled around his pockets while his other hand was still smoking away as her blood started to burn away his flesh, eventually he found what he needed, a vile filled with a glowing yellow liquid, he bit off the cork and downed the liquid in one gulp, before throwing the bottle to the side.

"Fitz, wh-what is going on?"

"We don’t have time, run back and warn the people, a demon sneaked into our village!"

The old man‘s face went completely white.

"B-but what about you? You need to come with me!“

"There is no time to argue, I will keep it occupied now go! If I can’t keep it at bay, you need to get the knights here quickly!“

The man hesitated, clearly not willing to let his own son risk his life like this, but before he could bring up a rebuttal, his son charged forward.

"I WILL NOT LET THEM COME TO HARM YOU DISGUSTING BEAST!!"

And seeing his son‘s resolution, the old man turned with a tear in his eye and ran back towards the village.

————————————————————————

With tears continuously rolling down his face he ran as fast as his old body allowed him to, never once did he turn his head despite every instance in his body telling him to do so. He just got his son back and here he was separating himself from him once more, he could feel the ache in his heart at this gross betrayal after he had promised he would never leave him again.

In his mind, he knew he should be proud no? His son had fought in the war and survived right, he was one of the people, the King had called heroes of freedom, the brave souls who had defended everything from the greedy hands of those who sought to only exploit and destroy, but he knew the truth, his son had told him so.

Claiming that any human held any sort of good will towards the Demons was a fools opinion after the war had began and even before the war the popular consensus was that they were untrustworthy allies at best and many had spoken of an invasion sooner or later, but even then he never had seen such unadulterated hatred towards them before seeing his son after the dust had settled and he returned.

The things he had heard from his son were horrors he had never even imagined in his worst of nightmares, he told him of horrible tactics ranging from nightly ambushes to catapulting mutilated corpses of their fellow soldiers into their camps, and on one day it was Frank who landed before his feet.

Frank had always been a truly close friend of their family back home and even closer to his son, he remembered the times when he and Frank would play hide and seek in the woods, how they build their very own little hut near the outskirts of the village together when they were just 12 years old and he even remembers the time his son snuck out in the middle of night and open the next day he was limping and was covered in bite marks that one time.

When asked about it, he told a great story of how he and Frank went late at night into the woods and fought a Brownwolf that they had stumbled across, as a father he had obviously scolded them both, but privately he knew the truth and in his heart he always saw Frank as his second son.

The news of his gruesome fate had been the first time in his life that he openly cried in front of his son, as he himself wept into his tight embrace.

His son wasn’t a brave hero upon his return, he had turned into a broken and terrified version of his former self, plagued by nightmares and phantoms only he could see, he was paranoid and convinced anyone could turn traitor and threaten their lives.

And no matter what he did to help his son, the nightmares and screams would always return.

With his entire body aching and him completely out of breath he finally reached the end of the short tree line that separated the village from the river and he came face to face with the open marketplace, where the first signs of life were starting to form. He could see Hellen preparing the first few batches of baked bread to be presentable for purchase near the center and he saw Karter preparing for his first hunting trip of the day, someone he failed to notice however, where the three people clad in black robes, approaching him from behind.

"Excuse us mister, whatever has got you in such a hurry on such a beautiful morning?"

He turned around in shock at the sudden voice and as he turned around he was met with three people, one male and two females who all wore the same dark robes, obscuring most of their appearance except for half their faces.

The man was noticeably taller when the others, however were it not for the deep voice, he never would have guessed he was male in the first place, despite the deep hood covering the man’s face he could see a large smile gleam at him, the men’s companions on the other hand were fully covered and he could only see a few strands of hair falling down their faces.

"Wh-whoareyoupeopleIdon‘thavemuchtimeleftmysonisunderattackfromablondehairedmonsterandIhavetogetthevillagealarmedbeforeitstolate."

A glove hand on his shoulder was what got him out of his speaking frenzy.

"A monster you say? Well Lady Fortuna is clearly smiling upon you friend, we just so happen to be experts at dealing with such things, please lead the way."

"Oh- please there is no need for that, we have the fortune of having a few Knights of the capital around right now, I wouldn’t want to endanger you so unnecessarily my good friends." The old man turned to leave, but when he tried to move his legs, he found them completely unresponsive, he looked down in shock.

"Oh but we insist on it, what good would we be for this village if we wouldn’t do the one thing we are good at no? Beside have you not heard? The knights are in a complete frenzy right now, one of their ranks suddenly went missing after all."

The shock on the man’s face turned to horror, but not at the man’s words, rather because of the ink black tentacles that were keeping his legs completely still and he could also see more creeping up his body preventing him from moving all together. And just as he was about to scream another one covered his mouth.

It was a strange sensation, he could see something clearly holding him perfectly still and no matter how loud he tried to scream no noise would leave his mouth, yet at the same time it felt like there was nothing actually touching him or restraining him.

"Please good sir, would you be so kind as to show us the way? We promise you to let you be after that, we simply want to fulfil our duty after all, nothing more."

The man whispered into his ear and he could see one of the tentacles slowly releasing his his left arm and the moment he was able to he pointed back the way he came, tears slowly falling down his face. His cries muffled by the unfeeling tentacle covering his mouth.

Then he suddenly felt the pressure of the tentacles increasing and it became ever more difficult to breathe and suddenly one more tentacle covered his nose and he could breathe no more.

Realising what was happening his cries only intensified and he struggled ever more strongly against his restraints to no avail, his old body had already difficulties after his long marathon back towards the village and his vision slowly became dark around the edges.

"I must thank you kindly my good friend we will be on our way now, I wish you a most beautiful farewell."

The man and one of the other two turned towards the wood line that led towards the river, but before either of them could get away to far, the third one spoke up.

"Where do you think your going? We aren’t done here yet. Or did I gave either of you permission to leave yet?“

"B-but master didn’t you yourself say that time is of the essenc-"

The man suddenly fell face first into the dirt and mud of the ground before he was pulled back by an invisible force, the other one released an exasperated sigh as she turned around and simply accepted her fate.

"Could you at least keep it more clean this time master? Why not just skewer the guy and be done with it?"

"Because it’s so much more fun this way." She raised her hand and clenched it shut, there was the sound of bones breaking and blood splattering in every direction, before the tentacles receded back into the shadows and they released the crushed and mangled corpse of an elderly father.

The two apprentices slowly raised their hands and removed the blood that was now covering their respective faces, their master however simply grinned in manic glee. Though it only lasted for but a few moments, before she cast her gaze down upon the dirt.

"Stop standing around you two, we have a monster to slay don’t we, if everything goes according to plan we will be in these idiots good graces in no time."

"What about the corpse master?"

She shot a glance at the male apprentice, who shrunk back in fear.

"Get rid of it in the river later you idiot. What else do you think we should do with it, or are you suddenly capable of necromancy with out me knowing about it?"

And with that she stomped off towards the direction the old man had pointed towards, the shadows dancing wildly around her.

The two apprentices quickly picked up the remains of the man as best as they could and went after their master, realising that their mast was very clearly reaching at her last strains of her patience.