At the same time, on the opposite side of the island—
A wrecked ship lay half-submerged at the shoreline. Broken crates, scattered luggage, and corpses littered the sand.
A man with a black cobra tattoo on his left arm crawled desperately across the shore, terror carved into his face. His left leg had been sliced clean off. Each movement left a thick trail of blood behind him.
The beach was a slaughterhouse.
Bodies lay torn apart—some split in half, others reduced to mangled chunks of flesh.
No… no… no… I don't want to die.
How did that demon find us?
Captain… what did you do?
Out of them all… why did you anger this one?!
Screams echoed behind him.
Pleas for mercy, calls for help, cries to gods that never answered. This was a nightmare most would never dream of.
He crawled desperately toward the treeline, Why? Anywhere was better than hell.
When crawling desperately he noticed, the shore was now quiet except for the sound of the slow crashing of waves.
A thud sounded in front of him, figure had landed.
He raised his head hesitantly, trembling as he looked up.
Black boots, a long coat brushing them. This wasn't even a fully grown adult or even a teen, no this was a child.
Short, hooded.
In their hand they held a long sword snapped in half, it's blade still dripping with the blood of his latest victim.
The man sobbed, despair and fear slowly taking over.
This was the same child who had slaughtered 24 awakened men alone. The same child who wrecked a ship apart alone.
There was a reason they called this child a demon.... and this man and his crew had been fools to not believe it.
The child sheathed their broken sword.
Hope flickered in the man's eyes he be spared, the brat must be tired from his blood frenzy.
He may be let go.
The child pulled out a sharpened wooden stake, he then dropped down to the man's eye level. The child moved to grab the man by his hair and yanked his face upward.
With a brutal speed he shoved the stake into the man's eye.
Once more the silent shore heard a pained scream, the man couldn't even begin to explain the pain he felt at the moment.
He grabbed the arm of the child that was holding him, his finger's pressing down on the arm.
The child unbothered pulled out the stake, blood running freely down its tip. The child looked down at his handy work, then shoved the stake once more into the remaining eye.
Another scream ripped from the man's throat.
The child rose from dragging the man by his hair back toward the see. They left the stake still plunged into the man's eye socket.
"NO PLEASE!" He cried. "I BEG OF YOU! I HAVE A WIFE! CHILDREN! THEY NEED ME!"
The demon did not stop.
Cold seawater touched the stump where his leg had once been.
They they stopped.
A voice spoke
"You said you have children. How many?" The voice asked.
The man froze briefly stanned, by the voice. He quickly recovered to answer, desperation flooding his words.
"S-six! Six children! Four boys, two girls! They're all young-not even ten!"
"Where do they live?"
"Southwest... the Lawless Nation of Kachra, in the Western Continent," he stammered. "You know how dangerous it is there. They need me."
He smiled nervously, through the pain. The stake still where the demon had shoved it, blood staining his face.
The grip on his hair tightened.
"Listen carefully," The demon whispered. "I will hunt your family, same way your leader hunted me."
The man's breath caught.
"I will kill them slowly and painfully, one by one, from youngest to oldest."
The demon's voice moved closer, colder.
"Your wife will hear her children's scream in your place, as i torture them right in front of them, a pity she's blind unable to witness what i will do to them."
The man broke.
The demon continued softly, his voice held amusement, a small smile forming. "I'll make sure the kids watch their mother do nothing, as they suffer. i will make sure she hears them beg, and plea for mercy. The same way your men did."
The man trembled violently, the threats came in a voice so gentle it felt like mercy, each word smooth like the cruelty mentioned needed no effort at all.
"But just so you know everything is your fault, the reason your little girl who draws pictures, your middle child serving in the military, your eldest who just married and your blind wife are about to die..."
The demon whisper directly into the man's ear. "It's all your fault."
A pause, the demon pulled out the stake in the man's eye, blood splashed down into the cold sea. He had no response to it, he was frozen.
"I'm quite kind to let you experience a little of your wife's blindness before you die aren't i?"
The man was about to curse at the demon, but with a sharp twist.
His head was torn from his body.
The corpse collapsed into the sea, blood staining the water red.
A pendant float of the man's headless body toward the surface.
The locket was already open, revealing a family portrait:
A smiling little girl holding a drawing of a ship, a man in Knight's uniform, another woman who looked like the woman with bandages but younger. Her hand out to show off her sliver ring.
The demon looked down at the sea, then he turned away.