The Transcendent Godslayer

(Few minutes earlier...)

Kallen walked up the small hill, dragging a body larger than himself through the waist-high grasses.

It was considered waist-high when compared to the height of a 6'2 adult man, while Kallen was, well... just nine.

He was quite tall for his age, though, standing at about 5'5 — the average height of a fourteen- to fifteen-year-old.

As for why these grasses grew this tall — or rather, why they were allowed to grow this tall, considering there was a settlement atop the hill he was currently looking at — he had no idea.

The settlement was surrounded by high walls made from long, somewhat hollow trunks that reminded Kallen a lot of bamboo, with tall gates built of the same wood.

At first glance, there seemed to be nothing unusual about the walls, but under the active effects of Bladeful Soul, which he used to enhance his vision, allowing him to see way farther than usual and even with better clarity, he noticed tiny carvings.

Without even thinking about it, he knew within himself, that the carvings he was looking at, were runes.

These runes were quite different from the ones he was used to on Ares. Instead of palm-sized symbols shaped in circular formations when they were in a group, these ones were extremely small... like letters in a book, and even followed a linear structure, much like written words.

Fascinating as they were, Kallen forced himself to ignore them, focusing instead on two kobolds patrolling nearby. Both held long bows in their hands, a quiver of arrows strapped to their back.

Much like the village, as well as their kinsmen he had met earlier, they were clad in primitive beast hide as skirts, with bare torsos.

It didn't take him more than a minute of focused studying, under the effects of Bladeful Soul, to figure out their timing, the ground each could cover, and the brief blind spot where only one was in range.

The moment he saw an opening, Kallen rushed in, deactivating the effects of Bladeful Soul and tuning back into his other senses.

A familiar euphoria washed over him, with the return of his full senses... especially his hearing, that he even felt tempted to try it out again. But like with the runes, he suppressed the feeling.

There would be time later to indulge in that. For now, time was of the essence.

One kobold heard the sudden rush of footsteps and turned, spotting an alien figure charging toward him.

With the rushing speed of the alien, a chain whipped through the air towards him, at an even more dangerous speed. But, his reaction was far too slow.

The kobold was too shocked, that he couldn't even react.

For one, to the patrolling Kobolds, circling the village to guard against threats that almost never came, was more of a punishment than duty.

In fact, it was one of the ways their society kept order: offenders were sent to guard duty until someone else broke a law... a sentence that could last years, even a lifetime, supposedly nobody else broke one after them.

Also, he had never seen such a creature before, and not long ago, some of their kinsmen had gone out on an important mission, following an anomaly that appeared in their vicinity.

So his surprise was understandable... but it also sealed his fate.

The chain snapped tight around his neck, serrated links biting so deep they cut off his airways before he could even whimper. Blood trickled down his fur and shoulders as Kallen gave a powerful tug.

In an instant, with the serrated links lacerating his flesh and even spine, the kobold was beheaded in a silent, clean motion. The momentum pulling the body forward.

Before the body could fall, Kallen caught it, slipping it into his storage ring. He did the same with the head, not caring about the blood.

Time flowed so slowly in such storage treasures that neither the corpse nor the blood would as much as twitch in movement, let alone the blood flow.

He vanished back into his earlier position, grabbed the body of the kobold youth he'd killed earlier by the leg, and began to spin.

At first the weight made him slow, but as resonance built with the pull of the wind and air pressure, his speed increased until the corpse itself seemed to drag him along.

Then he released.

The body soared through the air, landing with a dull thud just meters from the gate.

From the force too, Kallen stumbled forward, dropping to his knees as a wave of vertigo hit him. Disoriented and swaying, he forced himself upright, and sped away, towards cover of trees that swayed in his vision.

Though the ground tilted beneath his feet, and more than once he felt as though he were stepping off a cliff, he pushed on. And not long after he had left, the second scout rounded up to the front of the gate and saw the body.

The moment he saw the body, and bloodied grasses as well, the second kobold scout froze in shock. Recovering after a few seconds later, he realized his companion was missing as well.

He immediately raised the alarm, and within moments, powerful kobolds gathered at the front.

Upon hearing his explanation, and with evidence there before them, they roared and howled in rage, knowing someone was deliberately provoking them into war.

At their lead was an old kobold... aged and somewhat hunched, as if he was returning to his quadrupedal origins, yet radiating a powerful, rich, and oppressive aura.

At his side stood a younger kobold, only slightly weaker, his massive frame towering over the others.

After a brief exchange that lasted barely twenty seconds, the kobolds organized themselves, and their elite warriors charged out under the lead of the younger powerhouse, while the elder alone retreated into the village, his cold eyes calm yet feral.

By then, Kallen had recovered, and was crouched up the very top of a tree, his breathing almost nonexistent.

He waited until they past his position and even way farther, before he followed from behind, staying as far back as possible and using his Will to suppress his presence to the utmost.

On the way, he noticed them stop, and his lips couldn't help but curl, as he knew his contingency was definitely coming to play.

With renewed vigor and anger, they rushed past that area, and not longer after under the effects of Bladeful Soul, he watched a shadow streak through the trees, heading with speed towards the village.