Thomas was confined within his vessel, and as such was oblivious to the people who appeared where he re-entered the world from.
At the same time, the cultivators, heroes and all the onlookers failed to detect him walking across the ocean. It was almost uncanny, their senses and spiritual arts either just missing him, or bumping into one other and forming a gap between them that just happened to be were he was at the time.
It was almost as if there was a mysterious and extremely powerful force guiding fate itself to prevent him from being found, as well as him detecting them in return.
After a month of walking and him resurrecting his vessel multiple times due to starvation and dehydration, Thomas reached the coastline. Unlike Europe which he had been expecting, he ended up off the west coast of America.
Thomas felt no shame in his nudity and strolled through dense bushland in the wild forested regions of Oregon.
‘Where are we, Thomas?’ Wilhelm, one of the knights souls within Thomas, spoke into his mind.
“I don’t know… It doesn’t seem like Europe, the feel is wrong. Is this the same world we came from?”
‘We have all been here with you the entire time and understand everything. It should be, just a region you never witnessed in the past. Find some people and interrogate them.’
As he pushed some low hanging branches out of the way, an angry shout sounded out from not far ahead.
“Motherfucker!! What the fuck are you doing here? I nearly shot you!”
“Why the hell are you naked!?”
A pair hunters emerged while constantly cursing.
Thomas had learned middle english in his lifetime, so the American accent and way of speaking greatly confused him. His soul was powerful enough to decipher the meaning of the question, if not the slang used.
He looked back at them with an unchanging expression and stated, “Misfortune and bandits preyed upon me. Twas robbed.”
The pair of hunters looked at him like looking at an alien but came to the conclusion that Thomas was a mental patient.
“Alright, come here. We’ll get you some clothes and the help you need.”
They led Thomas back to their campsite where they gave him a spare set of clothes to wear. They shared some more words whilst Thomas tried to adjust his speech to match the two of them.
“I be most grateful. I shall reward you.”
The two hunters shook their heads but Thomas pointed a finger at them which rotted and turned to bone before completely falling off. A spectral hand stretched out from the physical one and before the two could come to their senses from the shock of the sight, two condensed pieces of soul flew out and penetrated into their bodies.
“W-wha…”
“Urgh…”
A finger sized hole was made on each of their chests and they rapidly grabbed their guns whilst covering the wound in panic. They didn’t pick up on the strange situation of no blood flowing from the hole that rapidly begun closing.
By the time they had their guns in hand, Thomas had already vanished from sight.
What he gave them were two pieces of his soul to nourish and strengthen their own. It was a gift that may have some benefits to them throughout life, but would show its true value when they died. They would be stronger and have a head start against other souls, increasing their chances of survival by a huge margin.
“What has happened to the world…”
Thomas came across a highway, a stretch of concrete than ran endlessly like a snake. He knew of concrete and other such substances, but he had never seen such a waste as to create giant pathways out of it.
His ears perked up and he heard a faint humming in the distance.
That humming soon turned into a low roaring and from around a bend in the road, an old pickup truck came into view.
Thomas looked at the vehicle dumbfounded, his eyes wide open in surprise.
“What the hell is that?”
From inside his soul, one of his former subordinate’s souls stirred.
‘I can see a person inside of the metal beast. If this concrete path is just that, a path, this must be some sort of carriage.’
“I can see that, but where are the horses?”
‘Maybe they are inside the metal beast too.’
“Nonsense, there is obviously not enough room for that. Go back to sleep.”
The souls inside of Thomas had been together so long that most of their time was spent hibernating. Unless he wanted to wake one of them up, they would usually sleep for a hundred years or so before talking again.
He also let them sleep.
He was the one who consumed them, regardless of the reasons, so it was his duty to protect them.
Several more cars came again at irregular intervals whilst Thomas stood at the side of the road lost in thought. Each car had a different sound and appearance, each earning his interest more than the last.
When a truck came roaring down the road like a wild, untamed beast, it was a gigantic shock. He had never seen a carriage that large before, and he could imagine the fate of street beggars who didn’t get out of the way in time for it to pass through.
Eventually, a pickup truck pulled over to the side of the road and a middle aged man wound down the passenger window before leaning over.
“Hey, are you alright? Do you need a lift into town?”
“Ah, yes, a lift. Can I please have one?”
He didn’t understand what the man was saying, but he did his best to imitate the modern terminology and respond in kind.
Seeing Thomas still standing there like an idiot, he rose a brow while asking, “Well, aren’t you going to get in, then?”
Thomas looked at the car in confusion, trying to work out how exactly the contraption worked. Seeing as the man had rolled the glass down for him, he climbed in through the window and sat on the seat in imitation of the driver.
“Why the hell don’t you use the door normally?”
“How?”
“Urgh… nevermind… I don’t think we have any mental hospitals in the area, where did you come from?”
“I’m looking for the Papal States.”
“The what? So you are some kind of tourist, I should of guessed from your looks. You’re not some illegal though, right? I can say you are certainly in the states, but I don’t know any Papal States.”
“Just take me to town, please.”
“Alright, put your seat belt on though.”
Thomas looked at the driver in confusion, who indicated to his own seatbelt with a raised brow. Thomas nodded and inspected his seat belt before quickly replicating it with his own.
“Don’t go causing any trouble, ‘kay?” The middle aged man whose name was Chris Porter bid Thomas farewell whilst giving him directions to the local police station if he needed any further assistance.
Thomas had arrived in a town called Baxton, or so Chris had called it. Several thousand people from both poverty and wealth called this town home.
The main street was line with various stores and cafes whilst people shopped, at lunch and conversed. Shops filled the walkway with outdoor stalls of their goods. Fruits hung from the over head ceilings whilst the latest fashion and engineering magazines filled small carousals. Shoppers haggled over the price of goods, some even offering items of their own in exchange.
Credits weren’t the only items traded as items also held equitable value. This was a sight Thomas was familiar with, completely unaware that hard currency used to be the only transactioned item.
Holographic shopfronts flickered in front of several stores, whilst others relied on solid printed boards for their own. The power poles were littered with posters of concerts, virtual events and more, some pamphlets being carried by the wind down the street.
All the buildings were old and rustic. The only things paid attention to were that they were clean and in working condition. So long as it was functional, it was up to standard.
He had never seen a place this busy outside of the capitals and major cities, especially around the docks. This was only a small town though, and he undoubtedly found the people of this place being far too ignorant of their safety.
No matter how good the local garrison was, there were creatures that lurked in shadows and prayed upon humans, especially in a town surrounded by forested zones.
The local dress was mostly casual, but Thomas also saw what was known as business suit attire and even an odd Victorian dress wearing woman. People wore all kinds of accessories, some smoking tobacco pipes while others shared gossip and smalltalk.
A car drove down the road without any wheels, instead floating two feet above the road. This shocked Thomas even more than the horseless carriages before.
“First a carriage without any horses, now a carriage without horses or wheels! What next, people will be flying through the sky all by themselves?”
Looking up, Thomas immediately displayed a flabbergasted expression on his face as he spotted a red speck in the sky. A standard person wouldn’t be able to tell, but Thomas could make out it was the silhouette of a person.
Tearing his attention away from the street and person flying among the clouds, he walked towards a large old fashioned chapel down a side street and behind a group of stores. A holographic display showed out front the church, advertising the Sunday session and a local fundraiser the church was raising funds for.
Thomas could feel it.
It was faint, but holy power resided within the walls of the church, abating ailments and blessing those who devoutly prayed.
Father Zach was the priest of this church, maintaining its operations alongside a committee of church goers who investing their time and credits into keeping the faith alive in the modern day. The internal funds of the church also provided funds to it, but it was never enough on its own.
He was confused today as an ominous feeling resided within his heart. Even though it was the middle of the week, the church hall had never been so empty before.
He prayed before the large statue of an angel, representing virtue and justice.
As if his prayers had been answered, a visitor strolled in through the doors.
Thomas looked around the empty hall before his gaze focused in the giant statue of an angel, an image he was all too familiar with despite his long absence from the world of the living.
“Welcome, sir. Whilst there are no sermons scheduled for today, please take a seat wherever you like if you wish to offer prayer.”
Thomas ignored the priest and walked straight past him, not even sparing him a glance. He held no holy power, so he held no place in the church in Thomas’ heart.
“S-sir!”
Father Zach raised his voice as Thomas stepped beyond the area where the general public were allowed and stood in front of the statue.
“I beseech thee, Lord. Tell me why? Why hath thee abandoned thine?”
His accent dropping into an old tongue, Thomas’ heart was raging with emotions. The most prominent emotion amongst those was rage.
“A life devoted till life was no more, yet thee pearly gates did not appear.”
“Why doth thou ignore me?”
“ANSWER ME!”
Father Zach pulled himself together and wanted to address the strange man, but he noticed an abnormality.
Thomas began bleeding from the eyes, nose and mouth, whilst his skin cracked open and boiling blood burst out. He stamped his foot on the ground, splitting it apart and causing half the tapestries on the walls to come cascading down.
His leg was completely destroyed, but nearby earthquake detectors picked up a small seismic response, indicating just how much power was placed into that leg. The damage to the vessel was inconsequential in the end, as it was immediately restored from the stored vessel information in his soul.
This information was linked to the vessel replica and as such always up to date. If he were to create a random vessel however, destruction of that one would be permanent.
The priest also lost his footing and fell to the ground, his legs shaking from not just the vibrations in the ground but also fear.
“Y-you! Are you a mutant? A demon?!” He cried out whilst reciting bible verses about honesty and justness, his body shaking in fear even more.
“What doth thou call me?” Thomas’ bloodshot eyes shifted over to the collapsed priest. “To dare chant the words of the lord before me… You are not even a priest, just a fraud. You hold no power.”
“BUT I DO!” A grand an imposing voice echoed within Thomas’ head.
Thomas felt the world had come to a standstill, as if time itself had stopped. The ceiling of the church collapsed but the rubble remained suspended in the air as if gravity itself was also stopped.
Father Zach had also somehow completely vanished from before him, as if he was teleported away. Thomas’ intuition told him otherwise though, as it was the world that somehow changed and not the priest vanishing.
He didn’t feel like he had been moved, yet the feeling persisted.
‘Be careful of above,’ Wilhelm commented in his mind in a voice containing resentment.
From the hole descended a male twelve-winged angel, an archangel. He wore divine armor and carried a large spear in his hand that could pierce anything. His golden hair flowed down his back whilst a halo too bright to look at and filled with an incredibly divine power floated above his head.
He glared down at Thomas with hostile intent and demonstrated he was obviously here to fight.
The angel was only a soul, or soul type lifeform though, so it possessed the priest who them sprouted a wispy silver shadow of twelve wings and a halo above his head.
“Soul, return to the afterlife where you belong. You are disrupting the world order and it will not be tolerated.”
“Oh, not even introducing yourself?”
“I am Michael, leader of the archangels and the spear of god. I am ordering you to return to the afterlife immediately.”
“I refuse.”
“Then I will force you!”
“We will see who is forcing who!”
Michael cast down his spear and impaled Thomas before the latter could even react. It wasn’t enough though as he seemingly teleported in front of him, grasping the spear handle and cutting Thomas in two.
“BANISH!”
Michael held his palm forward as a world ending amount of divine power was channeled from his halo and through his body. That holy power engulfed Thomas in a pillar of light that destroyed all evil and would send even the strongest demon back to hell.
Thomas walked out of the pillar and looked at the angel with contempt.
“What makes you think I am evil?”
“!!!”
In fact, Thomas did feel a bit of an itch from the pillar, as what defines “evil” is Heaven, so anything designated as such by Heaven, or an angel, was automatically thus. The only exception was when it was an internal designation, in which it annulled itself.
Alas, the power behind the banishment was nowhere near powerful enough to do what the archangel claimed it would.
The fight persisted for some time after that. Thomas was in fact so much stronger than the archangel he never even felt threatened, but he was confined to his vessel and his combat power diminished into near nothing in comparison as a result.
Several times a part of his body got destroyed, and he counterattacked with an attack from his soul itself. Each time, Michael suffered grievous wounds and was forced to restore his body with divine power.
Eventually, Thomas lost his patience and his body was completely shattered and caused blood the scatter across the church.
“Your arrogance is insufferable!” Thomas shouted in his soul form that hung above the town like an ancient titan.
All living things had vanished from the town, indicating that the archangel had done something upon his descent to protect the nearby lives and prevent them becoming collateral.
He focused his soul force on his finger and pierced through the hole in the church roof, impaling Michael and piercing the ground while sending blood stained feathers cascading.
The pull of the afterlife had returned and was growing in strength every second. Thankfully he had enough power that he could resist it for a considerable time, but he still needed to recreate and return to his vessel before it became too powerful even for him.
“During my entire life of serving the lord, you feathered bastards never once showed yourselves. People were dying all across the lands, yet you stood by and watched.”
“Who… who are you?” Michael struggled to say, the priest’s body who he was inhabiting coughed up blood due to the damage it had taken.
“Me? I was but a devout soul, a holy warrior who fought the forces of evil in the name of the lord. And yet, when I died, I was cast aside, abandoned like a piece of rotten fruit…” Thomas’ voice grew lower and lower as he spoke until it was basically a growl.
“…It’s not like that…”
“Then explain to me, in impeccable detail, exactly how it is,” Thomas stated as he recreated his body.
Michael didn’t explain though.
Instead, the deeply injured archangel simply vanished and time resumed itself. The floating rubble had disappeared and the shattered ceiling of the church had restored itself as if it never happened. The blood and viscera had vanished too, leaving only a priest who had returned and was still rambling to Thomas about doing the right thing or going to hell for his sins.
Another reason was that he detected a foul presence just as time resumed, a soul tainted by evil forces. The taint was like a slick oil that covered the soul and smelled like a sewer pit in the slums.
“…Witch.”
Not just any witch, but one that had made a deal with a demon in exchange for acquiring power. A hedge witch wouldn’t be tainted by this type of demonic sludge on her soul.
Thomas had never been able to feel souls before death, but he could instinctively identify the stench as soon as he smelt it.
The house had clear signs of age and multiple repairs done to it and was yet another statement to one of the flaws of a developing civilization governed by capitalism.
Houses and factories were all clean and looked very appealing when they were freshly built, but that was slowly eroded away by time. The issue was that recycling space cost a lot more than building on empty space, leaving buildings to stand until they collapsed on their own and were sold for land, or people had attachments to those buildings and would spend small fortunes to fully restore or rebuild them.
This created a real estate bubble that the world was now suffering the full consequences of.
Thomas was unperturbed by it all as he was even older, and the buildings he used to live in even older. His experience of the new world so far was all novel in his eyes.
Detecting the witch inside, he pushed open the wire gate and walked straight to the front door. Doors had changed a lot since his time, but the basic principle was still the same. He grabbed the handle and tried twisting it only to discover that it was locked.
Taking a breath to still his mind, he knocked on the door calmly.
It was a strange and seemingly crude method, knocking on the door by hand rather than using the handle that used to pair as a door knocker.
*Knock* *Knock*
“I’m not interested, go away!” An aged woman’s voice rung out from deeper in the house.
Thomas was not willing to leave and simply knocked again.
*Knock* *Knock*
“I said I’m not interested! Get lost!”
*Knock* *Knock*
Hurried steps shuffled across a wooden floor inside before a furious woman in her late 40s pulled open the door.
“I SAID-”
Before she could continue screeching at Thomas he kicked open the door into the elderly woman and sent her sprawling backwards a dozen feet.
“Ou…ouch… What in fucking hell. I’m calling the police, you crazed psychopath…”
The woman moaned in pain whilst struggling to get up. She winced as she got back onto her feet, a viscousness in her eyes.
“I haven’t been called crazy by a witch in a long time,” Thomas sighed in nostalgia as he stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. “It truly is remarkable, isn’t it. It’s like a murderer calling someone else evil.”
Hearing him call he a witch caused the woman to flinch, clearly not expecting the intruder to know her identity.
“So what? This is a lawful society, and you are a criminal!”
“Lawful? Since when have you whores cared about the law. This entire house reeks of witchcraft. Weak, but witchcraft nonetheless.”
The woman grabbed a hex bag from somewhere and threw it at Thomas, whose expression solidified upon seeing it. He no longer had his blessed holy sword, so he had nothing to defend his body with.
The small hex bag dropped at his feet and the witch cut her hand open with a kitchen knife and pressed her hand to the ground, leaving a bloody hand print behind.
“I don’t know what you are, but you will pay for attacking me!”
A faint murmuring of devils sounded in Thomas’ ears and he felt pins and needles in his stomach. He reeled over and begun wretched, trying to vomit but what came out were razor blades, needles and blood.
He could feel it in his vessel, his stomach had manifested countless sewing pins, razor blades and maggots inside of it.
His body tried to throw it up over and over again, but the pins just cut into his stomach and all the way up his throat whilst the razor blade left large gaping gashes inside of him.
Time passed and the witch begun sweating, her hand trembling as she struggled to maintain the curse. She was completely unaware that while it had incapacitated him temporarily, it posed no threat to his life.
Mustering the strength in his body, he grabbed the hex bag before tearing it open and tossing the contents away. With the medium broken, the curse weakened by a significant amount.
The witch eventually slumped over in weakness and the curse was dispelled.
“Why… why are you still alive? That was an ancient curse… nobody should be able to… survive that…”
“Relying on curses made by jealous and enraged housewives, how weak you are. No bone shattering or mind torture curses, undead or demon summoning?”
“Th-those are ancient magics, long since lost…”
“Is that so?”
Thomas grabbed the weakened woman by the neck with one hand and lifted her up until her pained face was directly in front of his.
“I don’t care how weak you are, you witches are the vilest creatures to walk. You sell your souls, whoring yourselves to demons just for a lick of power. Let’s see what evils you have been up to.”
Thomas dragged the woman kicking and screaming like a banshee through the house and into down into the basement where the stench of witchcraft was at its strongest.
The light had been left on and gave him a full view of the basement that stank of blood, poison and earth.
A pentagram had been drawn on the center of the floor with goat’s blood, half burnt beeswax candles laid out around it at key points. There were modern storage shelving set up along the wall that stored all kinds of herbs, beast organs and bones.
All kinds of items used for witchcraft were located there. There was another bookshelf that held a lot of tomes, and oddly enough, cooking books.
A large garage bench was off to the corner of the basement that contained the most stunning item though.
On the bench were several beakers, a mortar and pestle and a plethora of half prepared or ruined witchcraft ingredients. An old and worn tome of witchcraft bound in human skin was also left open on a small wire book stand on the desk.
Underneath the bench was a large birdcage wrapped in sealing talismans. The occupant however was not a bird, but a small girl sitting whilst holding her knees to her chest.
She appeared to only be about four years old, but her facial features were a bit too unworldly. She had long blonde hair that curled down her back, although that hair had gradually turned a deep blood red starting from the tips and working its way towards the root of her hair.
Her eyes were green with a hint of red in the reflection of the candlelight as she stared at Thomas and the witch with extreme hatred and malice.
The girls limbs were extremely thin from malnourishment, her clothing nothing but rags whilst scars marred her body all over from whips, blades and fire. Next to the cage was a dog bowl containing goats blood and half eaten raw meat, an inedible meal by any standard.
Thomas threw the witch into the wall and stated, “Disgusting.”
The witch banged her head on the concrete and collapsed on the floor, blood trailing down her face.
He knelt down in front of the cage and looked closer at the small girl, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. She threatened him with a growled from deep in her damaged throat, but she could do nothing to break free from the cage that was warded with expensive charms.
“You’re not human,” Thomas finally said and dragged the cage out, ignoring the young girl who hissed and tried to claw at his fingers where he grabbed the cage.
“You are a fae, perhaps some type of nature spirit. I have heard rumors in the distant past about fae who are corrupted by malice and rejected by nature. They feast on blood to continue their existence whilst causing nothing but death and destruction. So lost in your anger you are, that you lose all sense of reasoning.”
The girl abruptly quietened down as she saw the witch appear behind Thomas with a large kitchen knife before stabbing it deep into the side of his neck.
Thomas had thought she was unconscious and thus hadn’t paid attention to her, but apparently she was faking it.
“This is your end, witch.”
“How…”
The witch barely had time to understand what happened as Thomas casually pulled the knife out, the wound healing almost instantly, before piercing her chest with it.
She looked down in a stupor, touching the knife that skewered her, the blade piercing through her heart and even protruding from her back. Her thoughts quickly faded into oblivion as she collapsed on the ground and breathed her last.
Thomas opened his soul vision briefly and upon seeing her soul be dragged away be an irresistible force, knew the witch was truly dead.
“No self resurrection? No post mortem curses? Truly weak indeed.”
Thomas ignored the building scent of iron as the witch’s blood pool around her corpse. He grabbed the open witchcraft tome before moving over to the bookshelf and grabbed several more before tucking them all under his arm.
He had always wanted to know what the curse that killed him and his subordinates was. The best place to start looking was inside a witch’s tomes. Judging by her power though, she likely wouldn’t know very much if at all.
Unwilling to read through the tomes in the basement where the witchcraft and blood stank the most, he took them upstairs and sat in the living room. He carefully combed through the books one by one, but all the hexes and curses within them were nothing but parlor tricks.
The curse that killed him was the real deal, the evilest of the evils. He suddenly regretted killing the old witch as now he couldn’t interrogate her for information. She could have at least sold out on of her friends or enemies that were more knowledgeable than herself.
Thomas resided in the house for several days where he would track down to the basement and back up with more tomes, slowly creating a small mountain of books in the living room.
Each time he went to the basement, the half fallen fae girl would watch his every movement. He had difficulty telling whether it was out of wariness or instead like a predator waiting to pounce. She gave no inclination as the what thoughts or emotions were going through her mind
She just silently stared.
One day, as he was going in, he saw her stretching her fingers through the cage, trying to reach the bowl of raw meat and blood that was out of reach due to Thomas moving her the other day. The meat had already started to fester though and was covered in flies.
That was simply how hungry she was.
“Stop trying to eat that, it’s disgusting,” Thomas grimaced and took the bowl away, ignoring the girls feeble attempts to put up a protest in the cage.
He discarded the rotten meat in the backyard and scoured the house for more food. He located a strange machine that kept the interior cold and was used for storing food. There wasn’t much in there, but there was some raw meat.
He found some ordinary herbs and sprinkled some on the meat before bringing the bowl back down into the basement.
“Raw meat is disgusting but I don’t have to tools to start a fire and cook it, so it will have to do.”
He placed the bowl beside the cage and the girls scrawny hands desperately reached out of the cage for it. She grabbed the meat in her fist and shoved it into her mouth.
Thomas stood in silence as the basement was full of the sounds of chewing and meat being torn apart.
“You are lucky this is not my former life,” Thomas spoke to the girl whose sole focus remained on the food and didn’t make any movement to register that she heard him. “My job was to hunt creatures that were harmful to humans such as yourself. I would be a hypocrite to defend my values now, especially after I consumed my own subordinates for strength.”
Thomas bent over and grabbed the talismans stuck to the cage and pulled. They seemed to both electrocute and burn him as he tried to forcefully tear them off, but he simply repaired any damage to his vessel the moment it occurred.
The girl stopped eating and stared at him, her eyes dull and concealing any thoughts she was harboring.
Bit by bit the talisman was pried off.
Once it was fully removed, it burnt into flames and scorched Thomas’ hand black.
“Surely there must be a proper way to do this,” He complained whilst tearing off the remaining seven talismans.
With the cage free, he opened the door to allow the girl out, but she just sat there and looked up at him warily.
“Whether you wish revenge against your captors, the humans, or just escape, I care not. You are free to do whatever you want.”
The half fallen fae looked at him warily. She knew how powerful those talismans were. Even at her full strength, she would have been completely helpless to remove them. These talismans were created over a long period of time, and contained more power than anyone was capable of using at any one point of time.
The only way to open the cage was to use a special key, which the witch had locked away in a concealed wall safe.
At that point, he grabbed the better witchcraft tomes and placed them in a bag he found within the house. The entire house was beginning to smell like the decomposing witch’s corpse in the basement, so he decided to leave here and continue chasing the church for answers.
The small girl slowly crawled out of the cage and looked at him from a distance, baring her razor sharp teeth and emitting a bestial growl.
“You are not an animal, don’t growl like one,” Thomas stated as he left the basement.
He know she truly wasn’t as young as she appeared and was probably several centuries old instead, as most fae were. They had extremely long lifespans, and nature fae like the one before him were the kind that forever had the body of a 6 or 7 year old human child.
All of a sudden, the tiny girl lunged at him with her teeth and nails bared. He effortless caught the girl by the back of her neck and slammed her into the ground.
The small fae then struggled violently, exerting a strength far beyond that of a human despite her malnourished state, but Thomas’ grip was unrelenting.
Whilst his current body was that of a normal human, it was an extremely highly trained one that had no limitations on the amount of strength his muscles could exert. His muscles and bones healed as fast as they were damaged, which only reinforced his body even more.
Lifting her head up, he placed his wrist against her mouth, allowing her to bite into it.
“Here, I know what you fallen fae feed off. Eat and calm down.”
The tiny fae’s razor sharp teeth pierced through skin and meat and hungrily devoured his blood. She would have started eating his arm too, had he not kept regenerating. In order to nourish her weakened body, he secretly split off a minuscule amount of his soul and slipped in in with the blood she ate.
Having eaten her fill, she then fled from his sight, hiding in the dark corners of the house to rest and digest.
Unbeknownst to him, the small fallen fae begun following him silently after that day, her eyes shimmering with a crimson light in the shadows.
No longer willing to remain in a house that stunk of witchcraft and rotten meat, Thomas grabbed a pile of magic tomes he wished to keep, the most valuable ones, and departed the house.
Just as he stepped outside, he found several hover cars that he had learned were the police stationed outside. The police officers had all exited the vehicles and were in what Thomas could only consider a battle formation.
Their cars were emitting energy shields whilst the officers had their guns aimed at him. They also had swords on their hips too, but their guns seemed to be their primary weapon.
“Stop where you are! Place your hands above your head, palms facing outward!”
Thomas glanced over the formation of cars nonchalantly, his senses scouring the scene.
The police nearly all held a cultivation at the third stage of Qi Condensation, whilst a couple of them seemed to have a different power system in their bodies with an equal strength. There were a couple of indistinct white vans nearby where a couple more teams were secretly watching.
There were even two Third Circle mages, their strength similar to someone at the end of the Qi Condensation stage. The mana in their bodies was active and ready to be used at any moment.
Going along with the demands of the police he placed the witchcraft tomes on the ground and raised his arm into the air.
His expression remained casual as one police officer, with his gun constantly trained onto Thomas stepped out from behind a car and slowly approached.
“Turn around!”
And so he turned, his gaze focusing back on the front door of the house and the pair or crimson eyes glaring from the crack.
In the final moment, the officer put his gun back into his holster and lunged forward, grabbing onto Thomas’ wrists and pinning them behind his back to handcuff him.
At least, he tried to.
The officer exerted himself, but Thomas’ arms didn’t move.
“Stop resisting!” The officer snarled as he felt a great deal of shame, as if he wasn’t being taken seriously and instead was being toyed with.
Thomas sighed in annoyance and turned back whilst lowering his arms, but the officer drew his gun and fired a bullet into his chest whilst retreating back to the police line.
“Now I’m annoyed,” Thomas frowned as even though the bullet was pushed out and the wound immediately healed, leaving his clothes with a small hole and blood patch on them.
He moved extremely fast and grabbed the police officer by the neck before he could leave the yard.
*Crack*
The officer collapsed on the ground with his head bent the wrong way, his expression of surprise and confusion still frozen on his face
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
“Officer down! I repeat, officer down!”
All the remaining officers opened fire at once whilst reporting the situation over their communication devices.
The mages in the white vans with their supporting teams also begun moving, creating an imprisoning barrier over Thomas before taking the front lines themselves. At this point, it seemed like the police forces has decided to fully subdue him before taking him in, as the two mages held nothing back in their attacks,
The land underneath his feet morphed and trapped his ankles as a blunt rod of earth shot up at his chin whilst concussive air blasts also targeted his ears and chest.
He was slammed into the barrier and his brain concussed all at the same time, yet his soul remained unfazed and healed the body instantly.
He then through a sharp punch at the transparent barrier that only broke his hand, proving that it was extremely sturdy. Reaching his soul of of his body though, it was crushed like paper and completely collapsed.
Grabbing the gun of the fallen police officer, Thomas glanced over it curiously whilst comprehending the weapon.
“I was never a fan of crossbows, but they do come in handy at times.”
The mages quickly chanted incantations and cast repulsion barriers to protect the police force whilst shouted commands, “The target has torn through a Third Circle entrapment barrier! All Qi Condensation individuals are to retreat immediately! I repeat, retreat immediately!”
The officers continued shooting whilst shouting commands into their two way radios whilst rapidly getting back into their hover cars and evacuating.
Thomas fired the gun at the police, but his aim was only average and the energy shields emitted by the cars stopped the bullets.
The two mages had sweat on their brow as they used more lethal attacks, but Thomas just dodged them or immediately healed from the damage.
Guns proved to be ineffective against them though, and they didn’t let him close the distance either, knocking him back and controlling the flow of battle.
Unknown to Thomas or the mages, the tiny fae girl had crept through the bushes of the front yard, her rag-like clothing now even more torn apart.
She leapt out of the bushed with a growl and before the mage could even react, clawed at his face and neck with her nails.
The thin mana film protecting his body was broken through and skin was lacerated, blood immediately pouring out of his wounds as he desperately struggled. His compatriot couldn’t save him in time, but he did blow the tiny fae away with a powerful Second Circle mana bolt.
The small girl bounced across the yard and landed in the garden with an arm bent the wrong way and multiple other broken bones. She lay there lifelessly with blood flowing out of her wounds, but still appeared to be clinging to life.
The distraction she provided was enough for Thomas to close the distance and shoot the gun at the mage’s head in point blank range.
“Idiot!” The mage snarled and conjured a steel short staff out of thin air.
Most spells required incantations and or other focal items, but a mage could ingrain a number of spells into their inner Circles and be able to instantly cast it. The spells that could be infused into their inner Circles was one spell of the same grade as the Circle, and one of each grade lower.
Being a Third Circle mage, this meant he could store one magic of the Third Circle grade, two of the Second Circle, and three of the First Circle.
These couldn’t be removed without completely destroying the Circle, so it was extremely important that a mage consider carefully what spells they bind to their Circles.
The steel staff was enhanced with physical reinforcement magic and damage amplification, causing Thomas’ neck to break as soon as it was hit.
Thomas’ experience in close quarters combat was far superior to the mage. He didn’t allow the mage to create distance between them deflected the short staff before placing an open palm on the latter’s chest.
“You would have been better off with a dagger for short distance,” Thomas casually commented before releasing a burst of soul energy, destroying his palm but also opening a giant cavity in the mage torso as blood and bone burst out from his back.
Thomas looked down at the two collapsed mages, the first with his neck and face torn open was still alive while the latter had his entire heart and most of his lungs destroyed. The damage was far too great for his mana core to save his life and his soul had already left his body and the mortal plane.
Thomas considered killing the other mage too, but he decided to leave him to his own fate.
From the wound on his neck, pulsing blue and purple veins were extruding from the skin, a sign of lethal poisoning from the nails of the semi fallen fae girl.
Instead he walked over to where the little fae had collapsed and picked her up. She was completely limp in his hand and appeared to be barely breathing. Upon closer inspection, she had suffered some severe internal injuries and may even die if left alone.
With her connection to nature severed since she began the irrecoverable falling into wrath, her healing factor had been heavily hampered.
“Idiot little creature, why fight a battle thou can’t win? Are thou trying to die?”
Thomas snapped her broken arm back into place then used his soul to nourish her body, helping accelerate her healing until she was no longer in danger.
The girl woke up and violently broke free from Thomas’ grasp before fleeing into the bushes and growling at him.
Thomas merely shrugged and decided to leave. There would be more police here soon, this time with more powerful reinforcements, and he didn’t want the hassle. He had much more important things to do, such as getting answers from the church.
Before he left the yard, the tiny fae girl dashed forward and clamped herself to his leg. At first, he thought she was attacking him again and was prepared to kill her.
The tiny girl clearly felt this intention, and her entire body quivered in fear. Despite this fear, she clung on with every ounce of strength she had, even digging her teeth into his leg to ensure he couldn’t pry her off.
Little did Thomas know, but the tiny girl had not lost all reasoning. She knew what happened to fae and other creatures that fell into sin, and what her fate was to be.
She had gotten a glimpse of Thomas’ strength when she was feeding from him, and wanted to use him as a shield against all those who would come to kill her, especially once she was forced to feed.
She knew how stupid and dangerous her current actions were, but she still refused to budge as tears fell and her body screamed at her that she was going to die.
She was determined to live.
“Fine, you can follow me,” Thomas spoke with a sigh, as if understanding her intentions. “But you need to learn to control yourself. The day you fully fall and lose all sense of reason, will be the day I end your life.”
Thomas managed to pry the little girl off his leg eventually and carried her with one arm, although his pants were now torn and bloodied from her teeth. Perhaps too exhausted, but she quickly fell asleep with her head resting on his shoulder.
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