The stench hit first.
Rotting blood, torn flesh, old death.
A cavernous chamber.
Green crystals dripping sickly light.
In the center: a lone robed figure, back turned, cradling a glass jar full of hearts like precious gems.
He was humming.
Excited.
Eight small bodies lay in a perfect line.
Chests carved open.
Faces frozen in terror.
Eve made a broken sound behind me.
I had already known.
My last rat had seen this hours ago.
Still, seeing it with my own eyes made something inside me snap cold.
I turned to Eve.
"Resurrection is possible. Ten-day window. Souls are still here.
But they're terrified. Fading fast.
We kill the source of that fear, and I can bring them back."
Eve's eyes lit up with desperate hope.
"I'll keep their souls anchored. You just have to end that thing."
She nodded and ran to the bodies, staff glowing white.
I walked forward alone.
Concealment still active.
The robed figure never noticed.
I stopped right behind him.
Raised my hand to his skull.
"Die."
An explosion of pure mana.
His head and upper torso vanished into red mist.
Easy.
Too easy.
A voice came from behind me.
"Hey.
I was having fun.
Who the hell are you?"
I spun.
Ten meters away stood a boy—thirteen, maybe fourteen.
Skinny. Sunken cheeks.
Hood low, shadow hiding most of his face.
The corpse at my feet was already rotting into black sludge.
A puppet.
The boy bit his thumb until it bled, grinning like a cracked doll.
"Shit, shit, shit… I'm gonna kill you so bad."
He laughed, high and wet.
"Those brats screamed so pretty when I took their hearts.
One begged me to kill him faster. Hilarious."
My voice came out flat.
"Why the academy students?"
He shrugged.
"Saw the uniforms. Same age as the trash that used to bully me.
Just felt right."
He spread his arms, ecstatic.
"And my beloved master told me to summon him an Evil God.
Needed fresh hearts. Simple."
Evil God.
The word sank like ice.
I raised my left hand, mana gathering.
"One last thing.
Why?"
The boy's grin split wider.
"Because I was asked.
By my dear, dear master—
Gluttony Gula-sama!"
He threw his head back and screamed the name to the ceiling.
The air tore open.
Something vast and hungry looked through the rip.
My left arm—from shoulder to fingertips—vanished.
No pain at first.
Just gone.
Like it had never existed.
Then the nerves caught up.
White-hot agony.
Blood sprayed across the stone.
I stared at the empty space where my arm used to be.
The boy's laughter echoed.
Somewhere behind me, Eve was still pouring light into dead children, oblivious.
I clenched my remaining fist.
Fine.
One arm or two.
Didn't matter.
I still had a promise to keep.
And a monster to erase.
Completely.