A Choice

"Maste- ackkk! I mean brother Toshio?" Lily was trying her best to adjust to the new name. Toshio was sleeping soundly, covered in his blazer. His body had been through a lot. 

"Five minutes more..." He mumbled. The sun was shining softly through the tree leaves. 

"You have to wake up, we don't know who's following us!" Lily reasoned while shaking his shoulder. 

"Oh hey, good morn-" Toshio couldn't finish his greetings. The bright yellow text was still on top of Lily's head.

[ LILY ]
[ 100 SP ]

"You are sweating too much! Are you okay?" Lily was worried about him. She wiped his forehead with a small handkerchief.

"I'm fine! It is just too hot." Toshio looked at his watch, it was almost 6 in the morning.

I definitely shouldn't tell her anything about the SP points. She will only worry needlessly.

Toshio looked at his own status window.

[ CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE 196 SP ]

It's been nine hours since last I checked. By this calculation I roughly have 32 hours and 40 minutes left.

Just a day and few hours! Toshio realized his fate was grim.

"Lily, we need to move now. Gather you stuff," Toshio got up by patting the dust off his shirt.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to wake you up but we should probably start moving. We don't know who's following us." Lily had already taken a bath before Toshio woke up. 

"Want me to use 'clean' on you? I can only use it once a day though." Lily raised her hand over Toshio's chest.

Lily had explained Toshio about these household magic spells. He was fascinated by them.

"If you don't mind, I haven't cleaned myself in two days!" Toshio raised his arms like he does in security checkups. For an Ace Salaryman looking good was must.

Magic sure is convenient. Toshio started thinking about a solution for his cursed Soul Point system.

What if I can get Soul Points from the animals? He was never going to harm Lily just to save his own self.

[ GRASS RABBIT ]
[ 0 SP ]

His hope was crushed by a rabbit they saw along the way. 

After that he tried on bunch of different animals, but every time he tried to check the SP, it showed zero. Toshio was getting more and more worried.

I need to calm down! 

First time in his life, the deadline was an actual death-line.

"Look, there seems to be some wooden walls!" Lily pointed at a settlement in the forest. They were happy but careful. They didn't know who could be after them.

It was a small area surrounded by tall walls made with tree trunks. They walked around it to find the entrance.

"What is this?!" The whole village was empty. Not a single person on sight. The village had 7 to 8 small houses and one big central building. 

The clothes were still drying outside and some houses even had night lamp burning inside them, even though it was day-time. 

The place was dead silent.

"I don't feel good..." Lily was clutching her chest, a place supposed to filled with people was completely empty. 

"Let's go inside that huge building in the middle," Toshio pointed as trying his best to reduce Lily's anxiety,"They might be gathered there, we don't know!"

"Yeah, you are right, it's still early in the morning. They might be there for a group prayer." Lily also tried thinking positively.

They started walking towards the center building. It was two story building with huge wooden roof. 

"It looks like a church of Goddess Freya," Lily clasped her hands together in respect.

"What makes you say that?" Toshio was curious. They stopped right outside the closed door.

"See here," She showed a carving of texts written the wooden door,"It means 'Everyone is welcome and Freya is watching.' It's like an old saying among them." Lily was feeling better knowing that village had a Church of Freya. 

"Pardon the intrusion..." Lily spoke softly as she pushed the door open.

WHAT.... Toshio was speechless. 

Lily started trembling by the glimpse of what was inside.

She couldn't control herself and puked right there at the entrance.

My Goodness...Toshio was shocked, despite looking calm on the outside.

The huge dining table in the middle of the mess hall was covered in dead bodies. Some tried to run-away but died before they could even take two steps. Everyone was bleeding from their eyes. There were approximately thirty people. The food was still fresh on their plates.

It doesn't seem there are any kids among them. Toshio felt a small relief, but immediately felt bad for thinking like that. Every life is precious.

It was a horrific sight. 

Toshio gathered his courage and started checking for survivors. 

No one had any wounds anywhere on their bodies, just the bleeding eyes. There were no signs of any struggles. It was like they all died from the inside.

Poison? Or could it be a curse? Toshio started thinking.

"Ughhhh...." A man's voice was heard from within the corpses.

"Someone is alive!" Toshio rushed to him. It was a man in his mid-forties, he had a short beard and was wearing some merchant like clothing.

"What happened here?" Toshio asked as he lifted the man and put his head on his lap.

"Ughhh..." The man was in incredible pain.

"Lily! Go get some water from the well, hurry!" Toshio ordered Lily who was still shacking at the entrance.

"Y..Yes!" Lily gathered her courage and ran towards the village well.

Toshio unknowingly activated his skill towards the dying man.

[ PAUL ]
[ 50 SP ]

huh?! 49 SP... 48 SP... With each passing second the SP was going down.

So the Soul points can be taken from any human!?

Toshio was shocked with this new information. Does every human have them then?! 

43 SP... 42 SP...

A dark sinister thought crossed Toshio's mind. 

What if I kill this man now? Will I get Soul Points? It's not like we can save him. He is going to die anyways. 

Toshio slowly wrapped his hands around the dying man's throat without even realizing. 

Just a bit and I can get some SP points. I need them!

NO! Toshio stopped himself. I can't do this... I can never live with this...

"Brother!" Lily rushed from behind with a bucket, splashing water all around. 

Her hands were red. She had rushed to get the water out of the deep well without thinking about the rough rope. The rope had bruised her soft palms.

[ 0 SP ]

The man died. 

Lily was still holding the bucket. She felt really bad for not being able to do anything, for not reacting sooner.

"It's not your fault..." Toshio stood up and tapped Lily's shoulder.

"We need to move now!" He was passing by the bread and food but they can't risk eating it. We never know what killed these people.

"We don't know what or who did this," Toshio stood at the door. Th sun was finally up and shining right behind him,"We need to leave."

Lily clenched her fists. She put the bucket down and stared at the small statue of Freya to pray for a moment.

She kept thinking Why... Why would anyone target these people. 

Toshio was walking ahead with some distance between them. They were walking deeper into the village. 

Maybe the kids can be alive.

"Lily...Don't come closer..." Toshio said as he suddenly stopped. Lily was following him.

"What is it?" She tried walking faster to see why Toshio had stopped her.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" He ordered without looking back. He was standing near a hole in the ground right outside the church.

Lily felt a chill down her spine. Toshio turned around and they started walking in the opposite direction. They were right back at the entrance.

Lily wanted to ask why Toshio was acting that way, but she trusted him.

"We need to leave this area as soon as possible," Toshio hurried out the village gate as he grabbed Lily's hand.

What the heck was that?! This world is too much. 

This was becoming too much for a modern day salaryman.

"Umm..." Lily sounded in pain. Toshio was still holding her hand as they walked a bit farther from the village.

"I'm sorry!" Toshio realized he had left bruise on Lily's wrist, he was holding it too tightly.

He bent down to look at her face. She was barely holding back her tears.

I'm stupid! If this is too much for me, it is also too much for her!

He pulled Lily closer. Lily was shaking and crying. Toshio just stood still as she buried her face is his blazer.

"You better not leave any snot..." Toshio said while looking away. He was slowly getting used to Lily.

Hehehe...Lily smiled while tears were still rolling.

"Let's go and survive okay?" Toshio said as if telling himself.

"Mhm..." Lily wiped her tears. Lily was a strong-willed girl.

They walked like 20 minutes when they heard a soft rustling sound. 

"What was that?" Lily walked closer to Toshio. 

"Stay near..." Toshio was trying to use his Core Eyes.

[ ??? ]  [ ??? ] [ ??? ]

He saw bunch of question marks surrounding them. They were still hiding in the bushes.

"Reveal yourself..." Toshio ordered in a confident tone. 

Where's that white haired idiot? I really miss his overwhelming presence at times like these.

"Grrrrr..." A fairly huge shadow came out of the forest, followed by more similar beings.

They were covered in bandages from head to toe, they had ragged clock on their head.

"DEMONS?!" Lily shouted while grabbing Toshio's shirt. 

"Ah wait but you-" Lily almost said 'you are the Demon Tanaka.'

Toshio shushed her with his hand,"We need to keep my identity secret for now!" He said in serious tone,"Okay?"

"Got it!" Lily said with shining eyes. For some reason she wasn't scared anymore, in her eyes Toshio was the strongest.

The demons had surrounded them. They all were different sizes and shapes. Almost twenty of them. 

They were not speaking anything. Just slowly revealing themselves from the bushes one by one.

Lily was confident, almost smiling. 

Wait till these demons realize who's my Big Brother. She even started glaring at the demons.

Toshio froze with fear. His face was still showing no emotions.

He remembered what he had witnessed at the village.

The hole in the dirt was filled with human bones, clothes and even smaller human bones...