Before I knew it, I was in front of the Golden Dewdrop. I breathed. I’d sunken deep into [Single-Minded]. The talent helped me focus. This time, I focused on walking, apparently, because everything else had faded into the background.

Now I stood and looked at the building. It was two stories tall, made from wood and brick and clay. There was a hole in the wall, and blood on the half of the door that was still left. I heard snoring from upstairs.

I pushed open the door and it fell off its hinges, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. I hardly heard it. The smell of blood hit my nose. The bodies had been taken away. I didn’t know who died, but people had died.

The blood had not been scrubbed. The floor was covered in dried, flaking, once-puddles of red. Residue clung to the wooden boards, clots of red held together by sawdust. Some tables and chairs had been broken.

It was so strange to see. From a certain angle… it looked like an entirely normal establishment. All the tables and chairs in that corner over there were intact. In their normal arrangement. The bar was mostly fine, only the bottles behind it having been raided.

Then I turned, and red filled my vision.

I breathed again, the smell of iron in my nose, and I almost choked on my disgust.

Heavy steps carried me to the back, to a door that had already been entirely torn off its hinges. This was the horror of superhumans, I supposed. I dimly took note that some of the blood in the staircase up wasn’t red.

Some kind of shifter. Was the barkeep a shifter? I thought I remembered, but my mind seemed a bit foggy.

A blink later, I stood at the top of the staircase. Right. I had to do something.

Gently, I sunk into [Single-Minded] again. Focused on delivering a rightful beatdown.

I opened followed the noise of snoring into a room of four Reflectors. They were humans, all. I barely registered what they looked like.

One of them was awake, staring at me. “Morning,” she mumbled. It was a girl, younger than me. I think. She carried a small staff and wore robes. Clearly a mage, using a beginner staff.

“Your boots are bloody,” I said.

She looked down at herself, confused. Then she saw the blood staining her pants until her knees. “Ah. They appear to be.”

“Don’t they now.”

“Why are you here?” She asked. The large man who was snoring slowly rumbled awake now.

He was a hulking goliath in plate armor. The kind you bought if you started with more money than you should. Sponsored? “Who’re you?” he rumbled at me.

His voice was deep and gruff and annoying enough to wake the other two. None of them clerics. A swordswoman with wild hair, stained in just as much blood as the goliath’s armor. Then another mage, an older man, around fourty, the only one clean of blood.

The swordswoman grinned as she saw me. “Aren’t you a lovely sight to walk up tah?” she said. I grimaced. The blood in her hair made it red, but it was a mockery of the colour that I loved so much about Ann.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” the young mage asked me. Her mouth was shaped into a perpetual “o”, staring curiously out into the world, as though everything was new to her.

The older mage looked at me. He seemed clean, and the most lucid, right now. His eyebrows scrunched up. “Why are you inside our room, young lady? You smell of trouble.”

“I love tah toussle with some trouble!” the swordswoman commented. The older mage, though, shot her a glare, and she shut her mouth.

“Identify yourself or we will engage hostile action,” he said.

“So businesslike,” I commented dryly. “You killed some people yesterday.”

The goliath scoffed, then spat onto the floor. “Calls ‘em people, she does.”

I got a frown from the swordswoman. “Eyecandy is what they are, not real at all.”

The younger mage simply tilted her head at me. “What? We did nothing like that at all. I barely even remember yesterday.” She had the audacity to follow it with an unsure giggle.

Then, the old mage spoke, the party leader, it seemed. He sighed. “I told you all to not get blood on yourselves. You use icicles to kill. The murder weapon melts itself away.”

“Bah. Ice’s no fun,” the goliath said, picking up a mace.

I felt a vein pulsing on my neck. “Do you regret?”

They looked at me like I was being ridiculous.

“No?” the goliath asked, confused. The swordswoman chuckled and shook her head. The old mage simply frowned, deeply, and the young mage tilted her head further, confused.

I reached into the air beside me, withdrawing my spear. I wore no armor. My spear looked simple, because I controlled that shape. I spun it, gingerly, with an amount of mastery I would wager none of them could appreciate. “No regrets?” I asked again, just making sure.

“Bah. Piss off, you piece of shit. They’re npcs, stop fucking around-” the goliath rumbled, lifting his massive frame. I waited. “Leave, now.”

I waited.

He stepped closed, trying to intimidate me.

“Leave,” he growled, this time. He was right in front of me, two heads taller than me and twice as wide, too. Then he frowned. “Blank-faced bitch. Get lost or get hurt.”

This time the edge to his voice was real. They were sponsored, for sure. Lightly dangerous.

I waited.

Only half a second passed before he move, a blur to the normal human eye. The mace on his shoulder descended so fast-

Not nearly fast enough. Casually, I reached out with my off hand, catching the handle of the mace, and stopping the swing.

The goliath looked at me, a confused expression on his face. He pressed down on the weapon with both of his massive arms, and the weight was like lifting two treetrunks.

Not much trouble at all.

With a flick of force, I stepped aside, and assisted his motion, pulling the mace down, throwing him off balance. He recovered remarkably quickly and tried to stop the swing, but I was faster.

Before he could blink, I had pulled the weapon down far enough to bring his face to the same height as mine.

I dropped my spear, staring into his dark eyes for a moment, before grabbing his cheeks. I squished his face, and for a second I saw fear begin to build. Then I didn’t see him anymore, because I threw him through the wall.

The room was quiet.

Three people looked at me, the sound of wood splinters raining to the floor the only one accompanying it all. I was [Single-Minded] on dealing with these people. Any little twitch I took note of.

I saw a grin flicker onto the swordwoman’s face. She licked her lips, then brandished her blade, and it shifted-

A thin rapier lashed out at me with whip like speed.

My spear was in my hand where I’d dropped it, and the rapier blade shattered against the wood. The swordswoman was confused. Before that expression shifted even slightly, I lashed out, and suddenly she laid on her ass on the floor with a broken leg.

There was a weary sigh from the old mage. The curious, young one, seemed entirely unbothered by this.

“Why are you doing this?” oldie asked. I breathed deep.

“You hurt others. You get hurt.”

“Yeah fucking right,” the goliath grumbled, tumbling through the door. Blood dripped down his forehead, where the splinters had dug into his skin. The swordswoman reached out into the air, drawing forth another sword. I saw the old mage brandish his staff.

The young mage simply watched. I looked to her.

“Kid. You there?”

She blinked at me, then nodded.

“You killed people.”

“I guess I must have,” she said, breathing out.

“Any remorse?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Hard to tell. I’m trying to figure it out still.”

“Allow me to give you a helping hand. This is what happens when you hurt people.”

When I finished speaking, I moved. Their martials, who had been catching their breath, tried to stop me, but… that didn’t work out. I was faster.

Within a fraction of a second, I had shattered the young mage’s staff, and given her a dozen bruises, as well as a handful of cracked bones. I was very soft on her, but there was only so much a human could do to hold back in battle.

A moment later, the goliath and the swordswoman were onto me again, and before I finished breathing out, they were both on the floor once more. Their blood now mixed with that of their victims.

I used the tip of the spear to cut a few long lines into skin, never going quite deep. It reeked of blood. Bile rose in my throat, and I sunk deeper into my focus.

The older mage looked at me with scrunched up eyebrows, yet didn’t seem afraid.

“I’ll break you next. Do you have a preferred arm, or do I break them both?” I asked. My voice sounded husky to even myself.

He scoffed at me. “Fuck off,” he said, raising his much more expensive staff. Lightning lashed out at me, crashing into my skin, searing my nerves and-

It impacted a barrier of Qi on my skin. Metal Qi. That was the truth of my golden core. The metal easily directed the electricity into my spear instead, holding the charge in itself. Then I tapped it against the old man.

His robes almost caught fire, patches of them burnt, and he curled on the floor in pain. I broke both his arms. Then, they were all on the floor.

Some were groaning in pain. I breathed in, leaning further into the focus. Then, I spoke as if on autopilot.

“Quiet your moans or I hurt you more,” I said, calmly. My voice was so deadpan it was scary.

Well, having just wiped the floor with their whole team in my morning shirt and a loose pair of pants probably helped. I kicked the goliath anyway, just to make my point, when he huffed at me.

“Let me make myself clear. You hurt Edians, this is what happens,” I said.

They were silent.

“You,” I said, pointing my spear at the throat of the old mage. “You knew this. You hurt them, though. Why?”

He frowned. “Their lives are worthless, they should be happy to-”

I stabbed his leg.

He didn’t scream.

“You’re not cruel. You’re just unscrupulous. You don’t care. That is acceptable, but you need to control yourself. Let me explain it in a way that happens: You acted, these are the consequences. You see them now, yes?”

He nodded.

“Step out of line again, and it will be worse.”

Then I turned to the goliath. “You, on the other hand, are just cruel. That is fine, too. Bad people can do good things. Do good things, and we have no trouble. Save your cruelty for the monsters - they deserve no mercy.”

He glared, but I moved on.

The swordswoman. “You, though, take pride in what you did.” She grinned at me and nodded. “That is a problem. I’ll get back to you.”

I pointed my spear at the young mage woman. “You. You’re clueless. Testing the limits. You found them. Overstep one more time, and you die. Simple as, clear?”

“Yes, clear,” she said. Her voice was calm, didn’t even quiver. The fearless kind, the kind to get… sponsored. I knew that already.

Then I turned to the swordswoman again. “Name?”

“Olivia,” she said, sticking out her tongue at me. Her bright blonde hair fell into her face as she did so, the blood flaking from her hair, and parts sticking to her cheek.

“Okay, Olivia. I understand I cannot get through to you with pain. The next time you do this, you will be barred from Eden. Permanently. You’ll lose all memories from here, all powers, and your soul will be hurt, badly. You will be in a haze on the other side for months, barely aware of what’s happening.”

I saw her face fall as I spoke. “This is not a threat, it is a simple truth. The only reason you aren’t back on Neamhan again yet is because I don’t like killing. Let me repeat that. I don’t like killing. Understood?”

She swallowed.

“Alright then. You batch of filthy murderers. As a sanction from the divines, I will be stripping you of any and all magical equipment you possess.” Within a moment, my spear separated their weapons and armor from their body. Anything with magic in it was taken into my inventory, until they all sat there, in thin, common clothes.

“Your money will be confiscated.” The coins were lightly magical, so I’d already taken them all. “Who sponsored you?”

“Zinnic,” the goliath said, wearing a cruel grin.

I looked at him. His shit-eating grin. Then I gave a smile myself, as kind and warm as I could manage. I kicked his broken leg, hard, and there was another crunch. He doubled over into himself, groaning in pain.

Then I took a long breath. “I expected as much. This might get me in trouble with Zinnic. I suppose that much was inevitable.” I smiled again, at the freedom. I hated that piece of shit corp anyway. Who gave a fuck if the hated me? Now I was just gonna act against them more openly.

“I know you’ll go crying to the big dogs. Let me be clear. If someone comes for me, I’ll kick their asses. Anyone Zinnic sends at me will be sent back in just as poor condition as you all. Bring me Reflectors and I’ll return broken goods.” I heavily struck the floor with the butt of my spear, making the whole building shake with a resonant wave of Qi. “Clear?”

The goliath didn’t smile anymore. Olivia seemed conflicted between frowning and grinning with elation. The clueless mage blinked at me multiple times, but I knew she got the message. The old mage seemed resigned, like he’d known this would happen.

I breathed deep again. The smell of iron sent more bile into my throat, but I forced it down.

“Don’t let it happen again.”

I headed home.