There are consequences to every decision and a reaction for every action. Karma wouldn’t allow anyone or anything to escape punishment for their sins. However, it was difficult to tell who was good or evil, when everyone was being judged for crimes that they hadn’t even committed yet.

Quite often, because people are treated harshly early in their lives, they grow into brutal monsters like Captain Angelos. Yet, the reason he suffered so much when he was younger, was because of what he was doing now.

Anthony Rust was also a child once. He grew up in a small village in the middle of the wilderness, just like Robert. Eventually, there was a raid by the Kingdom of Northland. The people of that country would be considered ‘Asian’, if they were on Earth.

Northlanders treated every other human ethnicity as inferior and either killed or enslaved them. Other races were treated even more harshly. Thus, the seeds of Karma were sown.

Many generations had passed since the Kingdom of Northland was founded and they had reached the pinnacle of their power. They were constantly expanding, conquering all the other smaller territories. It was almost to the point where they could compete with the empires in the south…

However, they had no idea that their very existence was merely a whim of Sariel. They were pawns in a game that they were totally ignorant about, or perhaps rooks. Regardless of what divine chess pieces they actually possessed, their fate had been decided the moment that the twin angels of death appeared within their borders.

Of course, even the plans of deities are not infallible. Especially when other gods and goddesses start to interfere…

***

Captain Angelos was sitting at the edge of the bed, drenched in blood and gore from what used to be his niece. The log cabin was burning down around him, yet his brown eyes were glazed over. A pentagram was branded into his sternum and he was drooling, while muttering incoherently to himself.

His scar-covered abdomen bulged larger with every breath that he took. It pulsated, as black worms began crawling around underneath the skin. Finally, it burst open and a fully-grown woman emerged.

Her skin was pinkish, like a newborn baby. However, her appearance was identical to Christina, the young woman who had been raped, murdered and eaten only a few minutes prior. She stretched out her back, cracked her neck and then smiled at the dying man.

“Oh Uncle~, you’re such a bad man~, hehehe~… But I’m the Devil, hyahahaha~!”

***

After the naked woman left the burning cabin, the seemingly dead old man suddenly pushed himself up off of the floor and coughed out a decent amount of blood. He slowly and unsteadily stood upright, before pulling the gladius out of his chest and looking around at the conflagration.

“Arcana… Why can’t you just mind your own business for once?” He grumbled as he walked over to what was left of Captain Angelos. Then he reached down and placed both hands on the dying man’s chest. Dozens of green vines emerged from those wrinkled palms and started rapidly repairing all of the damaged tissue, while replacing the missing organs.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be resurrecting this scumbag again… The Silver Queen must be out of her mind… Well, it’s not really my problem.”

All of Sariel’s avatars tended to call each other by number or the chess piece that they carried. The old man carried a wooden pawn, but he typically went by the name ‘Triple-Nine’, because he was the nine-hundred and ninety-ninth avatar of Sariel.

***

When Robert opened his eyes, he screamed out in terror and quickly touched his gut. Although the inside felt like it was still ripped apart, the outside was merely covered in horrible scars like the rest of his body. That pentagram branded onto his chest remained though.

Then he started coughing violently and noticed that the cabin was falling apart around him. The fire was raging and he barely had enough time to grab his gear, before he rushed outside of the collapsing building.

His men were still enjoying themselves with the women in the village or simply looting the houses, but all twelve of his bodyguards were missing. They were supposed to be guarding his cabin. Once it burst into flames, they should have noticed that something was wrong. However, they were nowhere to be seen.

“Shit… Did I die again?” Robert muttered to himself as he started putting on his clothing and equipment.

Then he suddenly heard a familiar feminine voice whisper into his mind, “This is the last time… Now, complete your mission.”

“Yes, Goddess!” Once he kneeled on the ground for a few seconds, he began putting his clothing and armor on. His body was covered in blood and grime, but he was used to such filthy conditions… He was little more than a beast after all.

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