New chapter!!! This one is the regular update XD
I'll try to put my regular updates on Sundays, but as I'm on a holiday now, it was kinda pressuring to actually get this chap done in time.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter!!
Love y'all!!!
_________
Toru' POV:
All four of them were unconscious. I took a few steps back. The ground was soggy due to all the blood that flowed on it. It was not only my boots that got bloodied. My clothes, my face...
Its warmth had already long disappeared, and now it was just cold and sticky.
I didn't feel it. The relief I was expecting wasn't there. Nor did the anger against them.
Was this the right decision?
Was beating the shit out of them and giving them the same treatment as I got the right choice? Doesn't it make me as bad as them?
I had my doubts.
I just stood there. Without I even realized it, it had begun to drizzle. The soggy ground became wet, and the blood got washed away. Even my clothes and face got cleaned.
Nothing indicated that torture just happened here, except for the four unconscious bodies lying on the floor.
But I felt it. The water could cleanse the ground all it wanted... I would never be healed.
I saw that now.
"huuu-"
I sighed.
Still, the situation had helped me in some way. I've had my revenge. I've surpassed the ones who used to shackle me down.
I was free now.
Free to do everything I wanted.
To do anything I wanted.
I raised my head and let the rain fall freely on my face. Flashes of the past appeared briefly before my eyes.
Whenever I felt alone, or my parents were angry at me, I'd go outside.
It didn't even matter what the weather was like.
Each time, I would go to the small park near our home and sit down at a different place. To convince myself it was just the first time something like that happened. To convince myself every single time I went there, the situation was entirely different.
There was only one time I sat at the same spot. The exact same one.
I saw a puppy at the side of the road. It was dead. And I felt it resonate deep inside of me. I wanted to die.
No matter how much I tried convincing myself everything was okay, I wanted to die.
Once more, I sighed.
I tightly clenched my fist, a soft mumble escaping from my mouth.
"It's different now..."
Yeah... It was different now.
It didn't matter if I wanted to die in the past, or even if I still wanted it today. I couldn't. There were people waiting for my return. People who loved me.
The corner of my mouth curled up a bit. I smiled. I smiled a sad smile.
To protect them, and give them a place where they feel at home...
"I'll work hard for it."
I glanced at the four bodies next to me. The slight smile I had became a tad more sinister.
"And you will too."
________
Zent's POV:
Tu-dum
My heart beat fast.
Tu-dum
Magic Power, of an amount I had never experienced flowed through my body, enhancing it. My muscles squirmed with every step I took, as if each one determined whether I lived or died.
Tu-dum
"Hahahahaha!!"
A crazily excited laughter escaped my lips. I ran madly, green and brown flashing by. Leaves and branches bent when I passed, like they were trying to evade me at all cost.
Tu-dum
This strength... This power... It was all I ever wanted.
________
"Daaaad!!!"
My cries shed apart the eerie silence that hung everywhere.
Darkness enveloped the lone little house in the woods. Fog, of a blackness that swallowed light, crept along the mouldy tree trunks. I struggled and bit and shed more tears than I had ever done in my entire life. But, the fog kept advancing, and my dad never came back.
_______
Spit
Seeing how more than half of my phlegm was blood, my complexion turned a shade darker. Trying to keep my wounds from bleeding too much, I crept away from the winged corpse near my feet.
I had exacted my revenge, but I felt it. I didn't have much time left. Each second I forced my body to move forward to a chance of survival, the pain in every part of my body got worse.
Finally, I couldn't stand up anymore. I fell on my back. Stretching out my hand in the air, darkness snuck in my view, from the corner of my eyes. Yet this time, I welcomed it.
My death certainly wasn't painless, I thought, before closing my eyes one last time.
_______
"This will be your new home"
I looked around the room, to the five people who looked at me like a chimpanzee in the zoo. Their eyes were filled with curiosity, yet also, and even more, contempt.
I'll show them... what I can really do.
_______
"What do you want?"
Without turning around, I questioned the young woman creeping up at my back.
"Mmm~"
I wasn't sure if she was pouting or trying really hard to hold up her pee.
"You aren't fun at all, Zent"
Woosh~
A swing, which should've been playful, flew right past my head, as I quickly fled to safety.
This woman... With her damn orcish strength, she could behead me with a single touch...
"Gertha, I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to behead me every time I have my back turned to you"
"It'd be more fun if you actually died at least once, you know"
As if trying to offset the death-wish she just said to me, she hit her head with her balled fist, while looking apologetic.
Where the fuck did she learn weird things like that?
"Gertha, you tried to kill lil' Zest boy again?"
To accompany the voice, a pale figure appeared out of thin air.
"It will never work-"
Vvvooooommm!!!
"Fuck it, Zest, how can you even dodge that?"
Tristan's disappointed voice entered my ears as I slowly got back up from the all-fours position I was in.
"Maybe I'd be caught off-guard if you didn't round-house kick every time you attack me"
I dust off my clothes.
"Tch~"
Tristan clacked his tongue.
"You've just become too strong! I still remember when you were this little..."
_______
A pitying smile forced the corners of my mouth up.
Tristan, if only you knew how strong I was now...
Fffoooosshh~
The dim light that shone through the foliage made way for a bright white flash.
I left the forest behind me and saw movement in the distance.
"There you are~"