Familiar Bloodlust

The mysterious man fell on the ground after bumping into the female sack of bones and flesh I threw at him. I managed to escape his range of vision at last and took another turn to the right, ending up in a new street again, three streets away from the inn.

This isn’t optimal, they will eventually find me if I stay here. The shouts of guards across the town caused my body to stress and sweat.

I settled at an empty alley that was between two long stone-brick buildings. The area still had people in it, which made me believe it was optimal for gathering my thoughts together before deciding my next step, that’s what I believed at that moment.

It didn’t take the guards long to corner me inside the alley. Three men on my right, two on my left. Their steel helmets and swords gleamed in the sunlight.

They’re more troublesome than a herd of raging demon dragons…

I felt stressed, somewhat scared due to my body’s potential unpleasing relations to guards.

What I was going through was something both humans and Hell guardians had in common, it was despair.

If I had my wings and physique, I would have flown out of here. My shoulder blades burned the instant the will of flying away dropped on my mind. Fire erupted from my back, shaping into what felt like wings. They carried my body through the air to the clay-tile-covered roof of the nearby building.

“What? An Abysmal?” the guards said loudly, their eyes widened in both shock and fear as some of them dropped their swords on the ground.

Abysmal? Sounds familiar. I didn’t give their words as much thought as I did concerning the living miracle that saved me from my demise.

That fire wasn’t any fire, it was Hellfire. Back in Hell, we guardians had mastery over Hellfire, we were one with it, possessing the ability to materialize it and manifest however we wished.

“It seems I didn’t come to this world with nothing,” I thought as the fire wings vanished from my back. I assumed that my soul swap with the sinner’s back in hell kept some of my abilities. Though, I guessed using them with ease would require more durability and strength.

I snapped out of my thinking and looked around me, looking for the closest gate that would lead me out of the town.

My legs moved on top of the rooftop as I walked after noticing the second entrance gate that was a couple of various types of buildings and streets away. The gate stood big and high, emitting the sunlight that reflected from the river.

I ran in its direction, leaping from one rooftop to another, vaulting across balconies, while scanning my surroundings, looking for any potential danger.

Minutes passed, the clear blue sky turned cloudy in seconds, changing the atmosphere. I jumped from the high rooftop I was originally on, my body midair about to land on the next building.

ZAAAAP!

A strong thin bolt of lightning struck from above, crashing and penetrating through the building the moment my foot landed on the rooftop.

What… Due to the impact, I ended up inside a room on the top floor of the building. It was mostly destroyed, flames feeding on it and spreading through the area around it.

Blood dripped from my left shoulder due to the impact and the shot I had received not long ago

What kind of coincidence is this…? I began questioning what happened in a state of immense fear.

Is the wrath of the Gods following me from the depths of Hell...? My impression was that of a slave facing the consequences of angering his master.

In Hell, such weather signified that the Gods were in anger and rage, lightning would split the sky and shake the realm while every living being even the unconscious prayed.

Suddenly, a man entered the room through the half-destroyed door, his hair was long and silver, pointy rough facial hair that shared the same color clung to his chin.

He wore a white cape trimmed with gleaming gold carvings, his white combat armor shimmered with the same golden adornments.

I sensed extreme danger from the man’s presence due to my natural instincts, but especially and uniquely due to this body’s memories. The moment my gaze landed on the obvious golden symbol drawn on the man’s armor, my heartbeats increased. Not out of fear, but out of hatred.

The man pointed his right hand towards me, it pulsed with blue light before—ZAAAP! A strike of lightning snapped inside the room, destroying the walls and causing the building to collapse. Embers feeding on its remains.

Before I could even realize it, my feet merged with Hellfire, causing my movement to be inhumanly fast. I managed to escape through the window milliseconds before the strike.

What was that? I thought humans were weak. The man’s power amazed me, being someone who always believed humans to be weak ants, I was utterly surprised.

This man’s bloodlust feels familiar. He probably knows so much about Veylen, he won’t allow me to go.

Due to my body’s reaction to the silver-haired man’s presence, I assumed he had relations with Veylen and that he came here with the full intention of killing him.

"Unless I kill him here and now, this man will definitely remain a nuisance." I made a realistic assumption, eventually deciding to eliminate the menacing figure before me.

I dashed towards him, my feet burning with hellfire.

WHOOSH!

I swung my sword, aiming for his neck.

PZZZZT!

A faint glimmer of lightning appeared for an instant. The man disappeared from my sight as if carried by the bolt.

Where in hell... I moved my eyes all around me, in a state of both fear and caution.

There! Eventually, my eyes spotted the white-clad man intimidatingly standing on the rooftop of a far-off stone building—

A thin spear of thunder penetrated through the air as it approached me from the distance at an unnoticeable velocity.

In a moment of confusion, fear and despair, I grabbed the handle of my sword tightly and swung it in an attempt to block the thunder spear.

KR-R-RACK!

The burnt remains of my metal sword fell to the ground, droplets of my blood painting them dark red. The thunder spear had pierced my left shoulder.

My flesh is boiling… The stinging, burning pain from the thunder spear in my shoulder fed on my body, agonizingly growing.

At this rate, he’s going to kill me. The fear of death crawled into my soul as the silver-haired man walked towards me.

Death… Not yet, I cannot accept losing my only chance.

There simply was something deeply buried inside my mind, encouraging me—no, forcing me to live my way out of any situation in this unfamiliar world. Even a desperate situation like this wasn’t enough to turn off that will.

I grabbed the spear penetrating my shoulder with my right hand and pulled it out. My blood gushed, and I felt a terrifying warmth spread across my skin.

It must work. It has to. An idea that could either assure my survival or lead to my demise flickered in my mind.

“ERUPT!” The surrounding atmosphere grew blistering and suffocating as my hellfire, devilish wings erupted from my shoulder blades.

My body isn’t in an optimal state now, I can't fly. I reached a conclusion based on my physical state. 

PZZZZT! The silver-haired man teleported, avoiding the thunder spear I threw towards him.

It’s not as fast as it was. Due to my critical state, close-range combat was not an option. To be more precise, combat itself wasn’t an option. I had to escape.

I dashed in the opposite direction of the destroyed building. Rushing away, I leaped to the top of a warehouse that took a vast space in the street. My Hellfire wings made the leap as easy as taking a step.

I went back to jumping from a rooftop to another, this time not seeking to leave the town, but to just survive.

ZAAAP! A strike of lightning dropped from above towards me, I dodged it, hurling myself from the already destroyed stone-steel roof of the warehouse. This wasn’t the last strike, another one followed it instantly.

“He’s really going to kill me,” I muttered to myself while dodging the successive lightning bolts that targeted me.

Where is he? My eyes didn’t catch a trace of the white-caped man anywhere. I saw a very high clock tower that stood in the middle of the small town. Its shape reminded me of the bell towers in Hell.

I need to get to its top to have a bigger range of view. I hopped on the balcony of the building to my right.

“Everybody evacuate! This is dangerous territory!” Shouts of guards could be heard across the area. They led civilians away to assure their safety.

With every jump I made, a building got destroyed. The silver-haired man’s bloodlust manifested in the rising power of every next lightning strike, making it harder for me to dodge.

Unexpectedly, I visualized two strikes coming down. One in front of me, and one on my right. The man changed the pattern of his attacks all of a sudden.

I'm going left. I dodged left, hopping from the high building I was originally on top of towards the shorter one that stood below to my left.

While my body was floating in air, I felt the temperature rising. Yellow light shone from above.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!

Before I even managed to look up, an extremely fast powerful lightning blast glowed yellow as it slammed the life out of me, crashing me to the ground and turning my surroundings into ash.

Flames and clouds of dust surrounded me, suffocating the environment. Before the strike fully contacted me, I managed to cover my body in a thin layer of Hellfire that functioned as armor. Though, that didn’t save me from the insane damage I beared, it only spared my life.

The white-caped man stepped out of the dust fogs that filled the air. He materialized a glorious spear out of lightning using his right hand, and approached me slowly.

I was afraid, and it wasn’t due to this body or anything like that. As a being that has been immortal since its creation, I never understood death. Though, it seemed that it was time for me to completely grasp its meaning, by the hand of a mere human. The thought made my immobilized body tremble.

He stood beside me, staring down at my destroyed burnt body that was lying on the ground like a pathetic corpse. The look of pity and disgust was painted on his face.

He raised the spear slightly on top of me, preparing to crush my skull.

“I have not the slightest clue how you stayed alive from that ambush. It must have been fate, I’ll make sure this puts an end to your journey.” He grinned and was on the verge of killing me, before hesitating. His sudden hesitation was followed with an arrogant grin, one that looked rather victorious.

In an instant, the silver-haired man's expression seemed troubled and bothered, it sharpened in disappointemet as he turned his head behind.

My ears caught the sound of footsteps approaching from the distance. The man stepped back, the spear in his right hand vanishing into the air in the form of blue light particles before the man’s body gleamed with blue light, turning into light particles too and fading with the sweeping wind.

I used whatever was left of my strength to turn towards the source of the footsteps' sound. I saw the mysterious black-clothed man from before approaching me, beside him was a young woman that wore the exact same clothes as him.

My consciousness faded away before I could even see their eyes that were covered under the eerie black hats topping their heads.