Chapter One
Fire raged through the forest, devouring everything it touched. Mothers screamed as children trapped in their homes burned. Rain came as the sky cried its sorrow to the world. Its tears came and banked the fire from hell, soothing the earth below.
I looked through the burnt village from my hiding place and saw that nothing was left except a few burning embers.The hellfire had taken all else. Nothing remained in the once vibrant city except the stench of burnt flesh that secreted from the soil.
"Pitiful," I muttered. "They died without lifting a sole finger,"
I walked across the scarred ground with my katars and two chakrams strapped to my waste embellished with the divinity of the sun and moon. The quarter moon shone from up ahead as the clouds moved across the sky. As I walked around the village I took in each casualty in its turn from where the houses used to stand to the grains of soil that might never bear fruit again.
I hated it but the new world order damanded it. All those who seek to upsurp the the new code amd scourge the name of the Upper Level, where to be put down and eliminated with all those who stood beside them.
I turned and headed toward the marsh grounds to see if any of the villagers had escaped the fire in the marsh.
I looked across its great expanse to see it unscathed. A flicker of movement crossed my vision. A man and his family were running through the mud and debris toward the forest on the other side.
"Tch," I frowned. "They're going to make my job harder,"
I raced down the hill my long legs eating up the ground between us. The woman noticed me first. She pointed at me and screaming, tugging her husbands shirt.
What a noisy woman.
I plunged in the marshy ground moving diagonally to cut them off at the obtrusive rock in the middle of the swamp. The family were now pushing madly against the mud sinking themselves farther into its depth. I reached to outcrop before them .
I climbed to the top and looked down on them, my legs swinging over the edge as I sat down. The man held his wife close to him but what really caught my attention was his lack of a beard.
It was just weird for a man not to have one. On his belt was a long hunting knife. His free hand moved towad it slowly as if not to draw attention to it, like I wouldnt see that.
"I would'nt do that if I was you," I said to him. He froze for a second considering my words and finally brought his hand back to his side. I looked over the group and noticed that the family was made out of the man, his wife, and their kids, two boys and a little girl.
My eyes went back to the man and we stared at each other. I had a feeling that he was my target but I had to make sure. I already had too much blood on my hands.
"What do you want?" he asked me, breaking the silence.
"What makes you think that I want anything," I asked back.
He contemplated this for a moment before saying, "Then can we pass?"
"Maybe," I said shrugging.
He looked frustratingly at me, his face turning into a frown. "Why not yes?"
I cocked my head to the side. "Depends,"
"Depends on what?" he asked suspiciously.
"Depends on your answer to my question," He stood quietly waiting. "What is your name?" I asked him curiously.
"Kieran Lipan,"
Kieran Lipan. The Beta to one of the biggest underworld vagabonds. He was known not for his strength but for his cunning. The say he took the import city, Yölex, in one night before help could arrive. They wanted his head for 7 thousand gűronës that first time. If you killed him now you'd be set for life.
I sighed. "That was the wrong answer for you," I told him.
He took a step back, slightly frightened. "How?"
"Because," I said standing up. "Kieran Lipan is the man I was told to kill,"
He gasped and his wife took the chance to slip out of his grasp and step forward. "I dont care who sent you but you better get the hell out of here!"
"Emi, darling, please stand back," Lipan pleaded to his wife.
"No, Kieran we have-" she was cut off by Lipan," I am prepared to die," he said to his wife. He looked at me, "But I have one request and that is can you please keep care of our little girl,"
"What!" Emi and I said simultaneously. Why in the world would he want me, a killer no less, to look after his kid. What was I, a nanny?
"You cant do that Kieran," screamed Emi at her husband, tearing beginning to spring from her eyes.
"I must," was all he said in a sepulchral, sepulchre?, voice. He turned to me, "Will you?"
I never really had mercy for others but this was something different. All my life everyone I hunted has given up their love ones for their own benefits or to save their own skins but not this one. He was sacrificing his own life for his kids.
This was something I have never encountered before. I decided right then and there, I was going to find out why this man cared so much for this little girl. What was so special about her that made him give up his whole family for this one.
I nodded. "I'll keep care of her,"
The man nodded and stepped forward with his sons and I quickly ended their lives. My chakrams sliced threw their skin and bones erasing their existence from this world and all of this was in front of this little girl. I was not going to hide what I was.
She was going to see me as me, as the killer I was and I was proud of it. As their blood dripped off of my blades I looked at the girl and noticed tears swelling up at the edges of her eyes.
"What is your name?" I asked her. She stook quietly not saying a word. "If you shall not tell me then I shall call you Erza," I began to walk away but I stopped and looked over my shoulder at her. "Oh and welcome to the new world order,"
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This chapter was shorter than I wanted it to be but I think it was still an heartfelt chapter.
