Without thinking twice, he rushed out of his room and down the stairs to see what was happening. He didn't even bother to change his clothes. But when he reached the bar, the tavern was empty.
"Veloria..?"
Another explosion thundered from outside, followed by human screams. He instantly summoned Crownbreaker and rushed out.
The sight made him stop. The whole village was a pyre—houses burning, roofs collapsing, some already gutted by flame and rubble. Neptune had no clue what was going on. Had the war reached them? The front lines were supposed to be kilometers away.
The war had started almost a decade ago, when the gods vanished for unknown reasons. Gates opened from the Oblivion Realm to Earth, and corrupted creatures poured to Earth, destroying everything in their path. Humanity tried to resist, but failed. Continents fell everywhere but Asia.
The rich fled like rats to the Aether Realm and lived in safety, their fears swept away by wealth. Earth had become a battlefield; the survivors were either killed or were forced into an army that just led to their death afterwards. The royal family abandoned the planet and fled to the Aether Realm, leaving the rest to rot.
Neptune was thinking about that for a while now; what about the rest—those without money?
Born into poverty? Poor eyesight? Cheerful temperaments? Low IQ? Pretty faces?
It's just not fair.
We all get different hands, and we use them to navigate in a world that wasn't fair either.
Ironic, wasn't it?
Neptune's face went dark as he moved through the smoke-choked streets. Oddly, the roads were nearly empty. His new charm should have been picking up corrupted creatures, but he sensed nothing. Either they carried more Soul Vessels than him, or they were gone.
He rounded a corner into a narrow, shadowed alley and froze.
A corpse. Dismembered. Gore splattered across the cobbles. The worst part was who it was.
Veloria.
Neptune couldn't move and he felt a sudden urge to empty his stomach.
"N-No… this must be a nightmare" His voice trembled. Tears welled up in his eyes. His expression, unreadable.
Veloria had been one of the few people who treated him like a person. He'd kept his distance, never wanting the villagers to think she was as strange as him. But he would have preferred to spend more time with her.
Now it was too late.
Grief and regret washed over him, but also hatred.
But something moved way deeper in the dark alley.
Crack.
Neptune raised Crownbreaker on instinct and readied himself for the fight.
Crunch. Crunch.
Something was feeding—
Before he could finish the thought, his instincts slammed into motion. A fist struck Crownbreaker, sending him flying a few meters.
An ugly creature stumbled into view from the shadows. Humanoid, its skin a waxy gray, it stood nearly two and a half meters tall and was unnaturally thin. Long limbs ended in oversized hands; its veins ran green beneath the skin, pulsing toward an ugly, tooth-filled mouth. Two small, milky eyes sat above a cavernous maw lined with razor teeth stained green.
His hands and mouth were covered in blood – an obscene, disgusting sight.
The same thing probably killed Veloria, Neptune thought, bile rising. It was likely a demon—two Soul Vessels, a whole rank above him. Rage boiled his veins.
"I'm gonna rip you apart, bastard," he snarled.
Neptune was about to launch at the creature but it opened its mouth. A long, foul tongue shot outward, coated in a green-red slime. The world narrowed to red. Neptune swung a clean upward cut with Crownbreaker, severing the tongue before it hit.
The humanoid shrieked a high, piercing sound. Neptune didn't hesitate; he lunged. He held his sword low, preparing another upward strike, but the creature wasn't finished.
It raised both oversized fists and brought them down in a crushing arc aimed to pulverize him.
Neptune didn't dodge. He planted his feet and let the blow come.