“Stitches, can I ask you about your eyes?”

  “You might not like the story I tell you,” Stitches replies.

  “I see the scars on your face, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  “Of the few people I would tell, you are one Mateo.”

  Within the homes of many nobles lies a darkness. An indulgence in evils that are hidden behind sacks of coin, or fear. Exercising their wealth and power often means tormenting those less fortunate than them. It’s something that makes them feel above the laws of man, and sometimes, even gods.

  Stitches scurries to the back of her cage frightened as a large man grabs at her. He’s well dressed, his cuff links show he’s nobility. She claws at him, and he drags her from the cage forcing a collar around her neck. She claws at him again and he slaps her unconscious.

  “Is it ready,” a raspy voice asks.

  “Yes, lord Ferras, I hope she’s to your liking.”

  Ferras is a crooked man, with a crooked nose, a crooked smile, and crooked eyes. Hated by many, even his wife and children, only his coin keeps him afloat above the waters of disdain.

  “Bring her in,” Ferras says.

  Two large men toss a crate on the floor before exiting the room. Ferras steps over to the crate pulling a large sheet off it and a frightened Stitches scurries to the back of a cage. He smiles letting off an ominous grin at the reveal of his new toy.

  “Oh, this will do, this will do nicely,” he says grabbing a key from his counterpart.

  Stitches screams as Ferras cuts the eyes from her face. He tosses her in a room and laughs as she stumbles into things holding her face in agony unable to see.

  Weeks pass and Stitches falls to despair as hope fades from her being. Captured and collared she is afraid of spending the rest of her days as a blind slave. By some way of chance a young adventurer completing a bounty for Ferras notices the young blind Neko stumbling around a room on the second floor of his employers mansion.

  “Ferras, one of the adventurers would like to see you,” one of his servants says.

  “Send him up.”

  A tall ironclad man with the ears of a rabbit steps into the room as Stitches stumbles into a nightstand.

  “You wanted to see me?” Ferras asks.

  “Yes, while I was eradicating the goblins from your property, I noticed a Neko stumbling through this room from the outer window, might I ask what she is to you?”

  “My toy, she’s none of your business,” Ferras says angrily.

  “I beg to differ,” Uzuki says shoving his sword into Ferras’s knee.

  Ferras cries out in agony as Uzuki pulls his sword from Ferras’s knee and kicks him to the floor. None of his servants come to his aid.

  “When you hire beastmen for bounties, make sure you don’t keep other beastmen, we aren’t toys or slaves,” Uzuki says raising his sword.

  “Wait, you don’t understand,” Ferras says raising his hands.

  “You cut out her eyes so you could laugh at her, you’re a monster and I kill monsters, there is nothing to understand,” Uzuki says his voice as absolute as his actions.

  Ferras looks toward his servants and guards. Unwilling to try their hand against an enraged adventurer they abandon him.

  “Wait, you can’t just-.”

  Uzuki’s blade comes down hard and fingers litter the floor as blood sprays across it. Cries for mercy are cut short as they are drowned out by screams of agony as he dispatches his former employer without mercy or remorse. Covered in blood Uzuki approaches the blind Stitches touching his hand to her soft cheek. She quivers in his presence. Afraid he might be her cruel master.

  “My name is Uzuki Kitsune, what is the name of the beautiful woman before me?” He asks running his hand across the stitches on her shoulder.

  She glances toward him unable to see him, her face covered in dry blood where the noble cut out her eyes.

  “I’m afraid to tell you, it was my name that got me hunted, the name of a realmwalker,” she says her voice shaking with fear.

  “Me and my friends will protect you, I need but your consent to travel with us,” he says kneeling down to cover her naked body in his cloak.

  “Why are you helping me?” She asks pulling the cloak tight to cover herself.

  “Fairytales would have you believe that knights save princesses and make them their queens when they become kings, but knights do not fight to protect those which already have the protection of a thousand soldiers, knights live among the people, they protect the people, they do not seek princesses, true knights seek the honor of protecting those that need protection, and have none.”

  Mateo runs his hands over Stitches’ ears as she leans into his chest continuing her story. Her whole body shakes with fear as his hand glows calming her.

  “Now, what is your name?” Uzuki asks.

  “Keeliyah.”

  “I’m going to call you Stitches, I think it will be better for you if I do,” he replies.

  Stitches leans up, too unsettled to continue her story in too much detail. She gives a quicker explanation.

  “He burned the whole estate to the ground, and everyone who wouldn’t leave it, the eyes I have now are from a wyvern and a harpy.”

  “I’m sorry Stitches, there is a young woman in peril, and I need your help to save her, will you help me?” Mateo asks.

  “Uzuki would want me to,” Stitches replies.

  It’s a half a day's ride by hoaram to Mount Brokenrock. Small fires dot the rugged terrain as Stitches and Mateo approach. The air is full of screams of agony and suffering. Mateo pulls his dagger readying himself for combat.

  “Stitches, I’m going to separate some parts, take what you will.”

  “Gladly,” she replies.

  Dark smoke rises, but it doesn’t mask the severed limbs and dismembered parts being drained of blood over large barrels and collection pans. Mateo steps up to one of the cultists and taps their shoulder.

  “Who are you?” They ask turning around.

  Mateo shoves his dagger under their chin and extends it. The dagger forces its way through the top of their head and blood erupts like a fountain spewing from the top of their skull.

  Mateo pulls his sword from the deceased cultist slinging blood into the dirt. He raises his blood covered blade with a maniacal grin.

  “I’m looking for Juliana, the first person to tell me where she is doesn’t die screaming,” Mateo says.

  The cultists charge him, and the bloodbath begins.

  Void lighting severs the arms of the first attacker. Mateo freezes the ground beneath the second and they scream as they fall over their frozen legs shattering mid shin. Rayo stomps on their head crushing it like a cherry tomato spraying blood and brains over the ice covered ground.

  Mateo steps up to another cultist gripping his throat.

  “Where is Juliana?” He asks.

  “The virgin, she’s inside, ready to be sacrificed,” he chokes.

  Mateo places one hand over his mouth and incinerates his throat with void lightning. The man falls to his knees clawing at his throat as he struggles to breathe through his charred esophagus. Mateo proceeds into a large chamber with several cultists hovering over a beautiful maiden with long dark hair. He approaches them extending his dagger.

  “My name is Mateo Ryusane, relinquish the girl and I’ll kill all of you quickly, actually, I don’t care, I’m going to kill all of you however I please,” he says with a smile.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  The cultists stare around confused as Mateo disappears.

  Blood and screams fill the halls of the cultist’s cave. Mateo reappears behind one of the cultists slicing his dagger through their wrist, and the crude short sword in their hand makes a clank against the floor along with their hand. They raise their arm staring at their severed hand as blood pours down their forearm.

  Another cultist strikes at him, but he vanishes into the void. The cultist swings a large club wildly yelling in a panic. Mateo appears infront of the first cultist and grabs their short sword off the ground. Their severed hand still clutching it. He holds it up to them.

  “I think you dropped this,” Mateo says with a cynical grin.

  The cultist lunges at him as his severed hand falls off the sword. Mateo stabs the sword through the cultist’s left foot down to the hilt pinning in to the ground. Reaching for the blade the cultist screams in agony as Mateo grabs their severed hand by the wrist and slaps them across the face with it.

  “Why you hitting yourself?” Mateo asks slapping the cultist several times with the hand.

  “Die!” The second cultist yells.

  Mateo rolls out of the way tossing the severed hand as the second cultist’s large club slams down on the skull of the first sending blood spraying from their nose and eye sockets as eyeballs roll across the floor. The first cultist lurches forward slumping onto the ground their skull flattened.

  Mateo void steps in retrieving his sword and holds it out as two more cultists join the second after retrieving their weapons.

  “You can’t hope to defeat all three of us by yourself, and this room is too small for your wyvern to enter,” one of the new cultists says raising a long halberd.

  “Rayo is a dragon, and I don’t need him, I have Sapphire,” Mateo says holding out an empty flask.

  Small puddles on the floor rise into female figures pulsing with violet electricity. The man with the halberd makes the mistake of striking first, the last mistake he will ever make.

  The halberd stabs into one of Sapphire’s lesser slime avatars and void lightening shoots down the shaft of his halberd into his body. The smell of burning meat fills the air as he falls to his knees lifeless, blood pouring from his eyes, ears, and nose. His heart continues to beat, but his brain is fried.

  Stitches steps into the fray seeing an opportunity to obtain a still beating heart from a deceased host. The remaining men approach her weapons drawn, but she is on a mission to collect pieces.

  Skill activated: Harvester of the Mortal. Ally Keeliyah has activated harvester of the mortal. Harvester of the Mortal, when activated the Scythe of Damnation is used as a tool to harvest mortals for their usable limbs and organs.

  The scythe in Stitches staff folds out and she spins turning into a giant blender. The cultists scream as they are torn limb from limb and their organs sliced from their bodies. In mere seconds the cultists turn to two small mounds of meat. What is left of them is what Stitches didn’t want to keep.

  Stitches retracts her scythe and steps over to Mateo.

  “You can never have enough livers, you should see my collection sometimes,” Stitches says with a smile.

  “Your bag stores things in the afterlife doesn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “The afterlife might want to keep me this time,” Mateo replies.

  Stitches lowers her ears sad that she can’t show off her collection of severed parts. Like a bug collector with exotic bugs, but, pieces of people and monsters instead.

  Mateo, covered in blood and gore, steps up to Juliana, who is tied to a stone ready to be sacrificed.

  “It’s you, the pervert, have you come to defile me like these monsters or,” she turns her eyes away, “maybe you came to save me?”

  Mateo, so covered in blood he’s almost red, steps toward the girl raising his dagger. She closes her eyes frightened, and he cuts her bindings. She turns her bright blue eyes toward him with a faint smile.

  “Thank you,” she chokes out, her soft young voice veiled in fear.

  Mateo lifts her naked body helping her to her feet. He pulls a robe from his inventory draping it over her shoulders so as to cover her very desirable young figure. His blood-soaked arms motion to Stitches and Rayo.

  “Is that a dragon?” Juliana asks.

  “Yes, now hold on tight while he brings us back to your father.”

  Thoramere still seems worse for wear as Mateo returns his untainted daughter to him. Rafael accommodates Thoramere with one of the better rooms.

  “Father, what’s happened to you?” Juliana says gripping his hand.

  “The beast girl did something to me,” he says coughing blood.

  Juliana looks over at Stitches angrily, but her father pulls her gaze back to him.

  “I would be dead if not for her, if I don’t die, it’ll be in no small part to her help, Juliana, stay by my side, Rafael and his patrons will make sure we are safe, and you, what god has sent you?” Thoramere says his gaze turning to Mateo.

  “Would you believe me if I said a pixie named Natalia brought me here?”

  “Natalia Starbreaker, the pixie that was banished to this realm after obliterating her own realm by destroying its star?”

  Natalia floats above Mateo pressing the tips of her fingers together nervously.

  “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

  Mateo smiles plucking Natalia out of the air and placing her on his shoulder.

  “And she did it with the cutest smile, can’t say my enemies will enjoy the same courtesy, she’s the reason your daughter is safe and unmolested by the way,” Mateo replies.

  “My apologies, I am ever grateful,” Thoramere replies.

  Natalia floats off Mateo’s shoulder and hovers over Thoramere staring down at him.

  “I wasn’t banished to this realm, this realm was created because mine was destroyed, I made a choice between life and death,” she says lowering her eyes to the floor.

  “And you chose death?”

  “For me yes, but the ultimate choice was life,” she replies.

  “How so?” Thoramere asks.

  “Everything around you exists because my realm was destroyed and reborn into this, our star was dying, we were doomed, I had a power that could turn that doom into life, and so against the wishes of my brethren I sacrificed what little time we had left to death, and so the death of my realm brought life to this one, so is the cycle of life, things die and as they decay they give way to new life,” Natalia explains.

  “You were exiled by the other pixies and your name slandered, titled Starbreaker, so that all would know that you were the one that broke the star that obliterated your realm, but none spoke that the catalyst that created the realm of Gottes was that star breaking and being born anew?” Thoramere says curiously.

  “It is so, but I hardly think on it now, I have been given new life at the side of this realmwalker, Mateo Ryusane, and I aim to aid him in protecting this realm from the same forces that led to the downfall of mine,” Natalia replies.

  “And what forces are those?” Thoramere asks.

  “They have yet to be revealed.”

  Thoramere coughs blood and Juliana comforts him.

  “He needs rest, Juliana, if you need me, I’ll be nearby,” Mateo says stepping away.

  Quest complete: The beautiful young maiden has been abducted by blood cultists. Fly to the aid of the beautiful young maiden before she becomes a virgin sacrifice.

  Quest reward: Title unlocked, Lady’s Man.

  Quest reward: Experience.

  Quest reward: Book of Sanguine.

  Quest updated: Scour the realm of Gottes in a near endless search for a cure for the ‘Sanguine Curse’. Study the Book of Sanguine to unlock the secrets of curing the Sanguine curse.

  Quest alert: Your rank is insufficient to study the Book of Sanguine. Unlock at rank ‘Ten talon’.

  Mateo joins Stitches at another of the less popular taverns in Heroldin. She’s adorned in her usual dark cloak and pleated skirt. Her shirt is more revealing of her breasts, which are exposed except for a woven cord that runs over them. Mateo sits grabbing a drink.

  “Your tits look nice today,” Mateo says jokingly.

  “Thanks for noticing, it’s taken this long for them to fade to my ivory skin color,” Stitches replies kicking back a drink, her dark hood covering her catlike ears.

  Mateo pulls a basket of fried sweet-salt potato crips toward them before sliding a few copper coins across the bar. He seems elated at their flavor having not eaten anything all day.

  “Our friends will be returning soon,” Mateo says offering her a crisp.

  “You mean your friends,” she says pulling a crisp from his grasp.

  “No, Serenity formally invited you, we are all friends, I know the bounty with the Devastator didn’t go well, but don’t think for a moment that it weakened our bond just because I needed to get stronger, honestly, after saving Juliana, I think I’m almost ready to earn my fifth talon,” Mateo says.

  The tavern grows somewhat quite as a below average height man with pointed ears takes charge of a lute that’s been laying at the far end of the room. He plucks the strings turning dials that adjust their tension as he tunes the instrument. A couple of slender females with dark skin and pointed ears stand at his flanks, their height dwarfing his.

  His fingers dance about the chords artfully as the women begin a low hum that turns to a harmonious melody. The sounds they make are soft, but present. Filling the air as if to begin a heavy ballad. Near a minute passes building suspense before the would-be bard speaks the first lyrics.

  Dragons sing the songs of time. Men sing the ballads of mortals and maidens. Orcen the epics of war. And the elves live forever unto a time no more. Gods play their game putting mortal powers to shame. A hero rises, a hero falls. The innocent hide behind the walls. From death life is born anew. Even from the corpses of me and you. Life is bleak, death is the only lie that is true, and it comes for all granting peace with its grace. We expire in its cold embrace. So what have we but time? Until our time is no more, and we return again to the crimson shore. Over blood we sail, to no avail.

  The harmonic humming of the women stops, and the bard sets down the lute approaching Mateo. He gives Stitches a not undesirable look stopping at an empty seat beside Mateo.

  “Is this seat taken?” He asks, his two female companions joining him.

  “No, by all means join us,” Mateo says taking a drink of his mead.

  The short elf climbs onto the stool beside Mateo and motions to the tavern keep for a drink. He’s only about five foot tall with brown hair and caramel skin. His eyes are a deep piercing jade. His female companions hover over him, both are scantily clad with a thorned whip hanging from their hips.

  The two females are near six foot with dark charcoal skin. Their ears pointed and their facial features not unlike the beauty of Serenity. Their skin is less scarred though. Leading Mateo to believe they are more performers like their male companion, than adventurers. The shorter elf introduces himself in a friendly manner.

  “My name is Oliver Lovelier, and these striking young ladies are Trisha Morenia and Presta Harmoni, we hail from the far north, very far north, in the wilds of Argustus Kiln,” he says laying back against the bar.

  “It’s nice to meat you Trisha and Presta, my name is Mateo, and this young lady is Stitches,” Mateo replies.

  Oliver takes a shot and slides the glass back to the bartender for a refill. The girls both grab alcoholic drinks infused with the sweet fruits of Gottes. Drinks more to enjoy than get drunk. Mateo inadvertently gives them a lustful gaze. Beautiful women are beautiful women after all, and Mateo is just a man.

  “You don’t have to worry about looking at the ladies, they are attractive at the least, and dare I say, arousing,” Oliver says in what Mateo recognizes as a Spanish accent.

  “Do you know me?” Mateo asks.

  “You are the archon killer,” he glances over at Stitches, and when his eyes return to Mateo, Mateo’s dagger is at his throat.

  “If you’re looking for me, then don’t look to her, I won’t kill you for threatening me, but I will if you threaten her,” Mateo says his hazel eyes a murderous glare.

  The two women grip their thorned whips, but Oliver raises his hand to stop them.

  “War is coming, the treaty between men and elves will not be enough to stop the powers that stalk the shadows, evil will rise, and the true hearts of men and elves will be revealed, when the other races realize there is a conflict, Gottes will be engulfed in blood and hate, the past will return trying to steal the future away from us,” he pauses taking another shot of alcohol, “choose your path wisely, for all paths lead to death.”

  Oliver stands holding out his hand. Mateo stands giving him a confused look but grips his hand firmly.

  “Vaya con dios mijo,” Oliver says retracting his hand.

  “Wait, how do you know that language?” Mateo asks.

  “You are not the only one who walks the realms mijo,” he answers with a sly grin.