Violently being woken up with a stinging sensation on my cheek, “Ah what the he-!”  

I saw it, but couldn’t react. The wrinkly hand approached me too quickly, as it struck me on the opposite cheek. Shielding my face to avoid more slaps, “I’m awake, you can sto-, ooooof!”  

The air escaped my mouth, pain spreading from my stomach to my chest.  I curled myself into a ball to avoid further onslaught.  

“Hmph, you deserve far worse for what you’ve done,” the granny voice entered my head from above.  

“A-and what is it I’ve done wrong, but try to survive,” I choked out my words from my safe curled up space.

“Survive? You massacred the people on that ship,” she shredded my logic.  It was true. I was the hunter at that moment, but still…

“Those nobles treated slaves with indignity and were party to the Viscount Demon!  I was told to survive immediately after waking up earlier today!  It has been nonstop for me!” I pleaded to convince her. 

“Oh, told by whom? Hmm, it must have been him.”

“Who is this ‘him’? He keeps coming up, but I have no clue what is going on!” I yelled out, slumping down.

“He calls himself, The Librarian, but… he is just another demon,” she seemed to be hiding something from that pause.  

I took a quick peek out between my elbows, and finally saw her.  She was wearing black pants, black boots, black long sleeve shirt, black belt with a black hunting knife on her side.  Her pale face filled with wrinkles and thin white hair flowing past her shoulders.

“Why are you dressed like an assassin?” My curiosity got the best of me.

Ah! The stinging sensation attacked my bum, she showed no mercy!  This old hag is a bully!  Wait, I don’t feel any pain in my spine, neck, or anywhere from before.  I moved my arms a bit and looked around.  It seems I was lying down on hay in a stable.  Slowly getting myself up, I saw a small cabin with smoke coming out of the chimney nearby, and a bunch of chopped wood organized next to it.  Turning to the other side, I saw a lake nearby and tall mountains in the distance.  A morning fog was glowing on the water from a soft sunrise behind the cabin.

“Where are we? Did you heal me?” 

“That’s not important right now.  I only tried to deliver you a warning.  But your dumbass was already on the wrong path,” her words bore needles into me.

“Warning? Wrong Path? What are you talking about?” I was lost.

“You let hatred consume you,” she stared at me with her scary brown eyes and continued, “Hatred is a key that could destroy the world” her words stabbed at my heart.  The destruction I just caused was done on my first day awakened, what would happen after a week?

She stood straight, then turned her back to me with a ‘hmph’, and walked off.  I froze, just blinking at her.  ‘You let hatred consume you’, her words echoed inside my bones.  My heart was torn, I felt justified in my actions, but maybe I went overboard.  

I yelled out while walking towards her, “Why do the demons want souls?”

“What does everyone want?  …Power,” she quipped.

I needed time to mull this over, so I switched subjects, “And who are you? Why are you helping me?” 

She turned her head slightly and smiled, “Oh right, it's time for you to leave.”

She approached me in a steady walk, a smile still on her face, and raised her hand.  I flinched to guard my face, but she disappeared. 

“Goodbye,” she spoke behind me.  

My vision instantly changed scenery, and I found myself falling in complete darkness.  That damn old hag!  Quickly catching myself from falling further, I paused in the air to scan my surroundings, still angry about that wrinkly demon.   How did she teleport me when I didn’t see any aura?  

My thoughts were interrupted, when my eyes steered up towards the sky and found the moon was in the… waning crescent phase?!  I had to force my mouth closed, it was morning back at her place.  It felt like only five minutes, well who knows how long I slept, but this is roughly a two week difference!  Is there something special about the place that old hag was living at?

My blood felt like it was draining out of me.  I left the ancients alone for too long with Harry, hopefully he performed his duties properly.  The world below was dark and I needed to find the capital.  

In a rush, I bolted up higher into the sky reaching for the stars.  Slowly coming to a stop, I glance down to search for signs of a city.   My eyes spotted tiny lights dancing in the air, and I quickly darted forward in their direction.

As I reached closer, my heart skipped a beat, seeing an array of soldiers laying siege onto the capital.  Arrows drenched in flames were flying through the sky, but they collided in the air against an invisible dome that glowed and rippled upon impact.  Flaming boulders followed splashing into the dome, as the forcefield violently rippled and flickered.  From atop the city walls, flashes of light tinged with different colors shot outwards to the fields and collided against the soldiers, exploding, and sending bodies, armor and weapons flying.

Anger was welling up inside my blood, but the words of the old hag echoed in my head.  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  I must learn to fight without hatred filling my soul.  

Scanning the battlefield, I spotted up to three trebuchets each surrounded by soldiers preparing payloads.  Rushing in from above, while simultaneously drawing in mana from the air, as a swirl of wind builds around me.  I focused my mind, drawing up three fireballs, processing their size and trajectory.  Sensing the mana compressing into my hand, as I split it into three parts.  Channeling more mana into the blobs, feeding and growing to my target density, as I  concentrated on compacting their diameter smaller and smaller.

Locking on to my targets, while crossing over them at a high altitude, I shot out the three fireballs.  They criss crossed each other, zipping towards their targets whistling in the air, while leaving a trail of light tracing behind.  Landing at the same time, three bright flashes appeared, each spawning a bubble of compressed air.  The battlefield lit up, as the shadows of surrounding soldiers grew and shrunk.  The trebuchets exploded, sending their cores flying high into the sky, as shrapnel flung in all directions.  

Soldiers standing close, were sent flying in all directions, further out, others tossed backwards to the ground.  Flickers of arrows reached towards me in the sky, but could not catch me as I sped away, heading towards the capital.  A shadow popped into my peripheral, but with no time to react, I felt an impact hit my ribs.  Grinding my teeth to chew away the pain, squinting at the object glued to my body, as I reached out my hands to push it away, but I felt a rough texture of hardened skin.  

A screech roared in the air, as I realized this was a flying creature.   Without hesitation, I stabbed my pointer finger into its belly, and extended out a beam of plasma.  An ear scratching squeal rang out, as the creature went lifeless and began falling in the air with me tangled up on its body and legs.  

I navigated the swirling mana circulating my body towards my arms and legs, using all four limbs to push myself away from the monster.  As its corpse flung outward, arrows could be heard whooshing by.  I caught my silhouette and headed up higher into the sky.  The glowing lights from below shone on the creature for a moment, where I saw a figure sitting on its back, anxiously trying to do something.  Ignoring their fate, I sped away reaching high above the capital walls, hearing the roar of the crowd below.

Settling above the city, hovering up and down to avoid being targeted easily, I scanned the battlefield below.  There were three columns of soldiers sieging the city from the farmlands in the east, each column with roughly three-thousand or so men.  

Were they here to attack me?  The ancients have been battling these forces on their own.  My arms felt stiff, my hopes for peace were being trampled on.  It would be easy to wipe them away from this world, but my destruction may cause too much collateral damage to the people hiding behind these walls.  

Perhaps, I can take a different approach.  Feeling the mana flowing in the wind, my thoughts called out to it.  Dragging it towards me, as the gusts quickened, funneling the mana through my skin and circulating around my chest.  

Guiding the mana towards my palms, I stretched my arms out, pointing towards both outer columns of the army.  Focusing on my palms, I find each hand’s silhouettes.  Gradually increasing their size.  

Five meters.  

Ten meters. 

Twenty meters.  

Fifty meters.  

I lifted up my hands level to my shoulders, then faced my palms downward.  After taking a deep breath, I slammed them to my waist's height.  

The displacement of air whizzed, as an enormous handprint stamped onto the land, violently squashing the soldiers into the ground, staining the land red.   The ground forcefully shook, making the nearby infantrymen lose balance and fall to the ground.

I continued my onslaught, as I raised my hands and slapped them down.  The thundering echo from smashing the Earth, reverberated, flickering the dome, and shaking the walls.  

The soldiers were bouncing around uncontrollably, unable to reach their feet. Ensuring the walls held strong, I began conducting a symphony of death, slamming down at the army, showing no mercy.  Slowly my hands approached closer together, until I reached the center of the army.  With both palms side-by-side, I tensed my muscles, slamming them down with all my might.  

But resistance reached my wrists, blocking my palms.  A forcefield lit up the battlefield above the remaining soldiers in the center, aggressively glowing and flickering lime green against the bloodstained earth below and to the sides.  A heavy draft of wind escaped from the collision, blowing away loose dirt and debris of the siege.

Swinging my hands up, I drew in more mana.  Mist grew in the atmosphere, enveloping around me, as the current of mana increased, reaching to my chest and guided to my palms.

Focusing on my palm silhouettes, I increased their size again.

Sixty meters.

Eighty meters.

Ninety-five meters 

One-hundred meters.

Driving my palms downwards, moving mana into my biceps, elbows and wrists, as I increased the torque and force of motion.

Vortices of wind screamed through the air, as the palms slammed into the forcefield, shattering it as if it never existed, driving past, staring down on the soldiers waiting for their demise.

A ferocious earthquake reverberated through the ground, as the walls trembled.  Left behind were deep palm imprints cratering the land. The scenery was filled with a sea of death, with guts and blood molded into the dirt.

Ding!

 

 

I was a bit shocked how close my estimation was of the army size, but now wasn’t the time to stay in this void.  

“No!” I called out.