Chapter 187 - You Should Be Careful

I fell down onto my knees, clutching the side of my head.

"What the... what is happening?"

The black figure was slowly being consumed, but after it coursed through my entire body, I heard its voice.

"So, apparently we were supposed to be separated to protect ourselves, but then-"

Before it could finish, I blacked out entirely.

...

I could feel that the floor was shaking. Upon opening my eyes, I found myself on top of a piece of stone. There were countless cracks within the ground around me. The various fragments of earth both rose and lowered, almost like they were ships in a storm.

High above in the sky was a red sun, coloring the rest of the sky a dark orange. It was as though the sun was laying its gaze on something that it found interesting.

In front of me was a familiar old man. He was down on his knees with his head down on the floor.

It was then I remembered this was the person I saw long ago, the one that I saw from a dream. He was the person that asked me if he should give up his life to save the rest of the world.

Being the very helpful person I was, I said, 'I don't know'.

Then, the old man came to a decision.

I wondered... what kind of decision would he make?

If someone asked me if I was willing to give up my life to save the entire world, I would imagine my answer was yes. However, it was quite different when someone asked me if they should give up their life to save the world.

It felt like it was out of my jurisdiction.

I walked towards the man until I was standing to the side of him. My eyes didn't focus on the prostrating figure, but the chaos that this world was in.

"Hey."

The old man was silent for a minute. Right when I thought he was just going to stay that way, he spoke up.

"Hey."

I scratched the back of my head.

"So um... I was just wondering what kind of choice you made."

The old man remained still. If it wasn't for the fact he talked just a moment ago, I would think he just died.

Eventually, the old man slowly took a deep breath.

"I've realized something."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

"What is that?"

The old man slowly raised his head to look at me. With a solemn expression, he spoke.

"We've been lied to."

I furrowed my brows.

"What?"

Before I could ask him to elaborate any further, I was pulled out of the dream. For a moment, I thought that I was awake, in the real world.

However, it only took me a few moments to realize I was mistaken.

Rather, I was in a vision.

Though I was conscious, I couldn't control my body. When my vision cleared up, I saw a bright blue sky up ahead. And below, was a humble village. It was quite small and looked like just some random village with people casually living out their lives.

The sun was shining peacefully, up high in the sky.

It was a gentle day.

Well, it would've been, if it weren't for the demons wreaking havoc in the village. Screams filled the air, as did blood. It was a massacre.

The people weren't even able to fight back against the one-horned demons, which there were plenty of. However, as if that wasn't enough, there were several two-horned demons and one three-horned demon.

The once peaceful village was destroyed.

As for me, I was standing on top of a tree. It was a tree that had its top cut off, thus giving me a flat trunk for me to stand on.

I was looking at that village.

And I had my finger raised, pointing at them.

There were various victorious hollers among the demons as they continued to charge into the village, rampaging among it. As for where the demons were coming from...

It was behind me.

I pointed my finger towards the village, and the demons behind me charged in.

There was nearly no emotion on my face as I pointed my finger forward. Like all of this was completely normal to me, something I've done countless times before.

I simply kept my finger up, watching all of this happen.

I did not move, nor did I speak. Other than blinking every minute or so, I apathetically watched it all.

Though I didn't really want to believe this was happening, it was hard to deny.

I was commanding the demons to destroy the village. However, what was strange to me was the fact I was human.

At least, as far as I could tell. My skin was still a healthy shade instead of being pure black. Why were they even listening to me in the first place?

Eventually, the entire village was destroyed.

The loud clamor from before was now replaced by an uncanny silence.

None of the structures remained standing. The only things that did were the various flames and embers scattered about, making a few crackling sounds.

For a while, I simply looked at the wreckage. Until I finally lowered my finger. The demons from before gathered around the tree, but were otherwise silent.

Suddenly, I heard a voice coming from behind me, which was rather unexpected.

"How many more should we do?"

It was the voice of a girl.

I turned around to see a four-horned demon laying on the ground. One of its legs was missing, replaced with a makeshift one made out of some wood and twine.

A low tone escaped from my lips.

"Eleven should be enough. Fifteen to be on the safe side."

The four-horned demon slowly nodded.

"Alright..."

It was only at this point I realized I didn't have one of my arms. Instead, there was a thick layer of bandage covering it along with some metal thing covering it.

I slowly lowered myself down. The four-horned demon grabbed onto my shoulder and got up with my help. Like that, the two of us jumped off the tree. Upon landing on the ground, the four-horned demon held onto my shoulder a little more tightly to regain its balance.

With how fluid the motions were, it was clear that this was done several times before.

The two of us began walking straight through the wreckage, stepping over the embers and scattered broken planks of wood.

The four-horned demon kept looking around, taking it all in. Eventually, she sighed.

"For how much longer will we have to do this?"

I shook my head.

"Until we find a way to solve the root of the problem."

The four-horned demon rested its head on my shoulder.

"But... do we truly need to do this? It is not as if we must take responsibility for all of the things we didn't do."

I closed my eyes.

"...Someone has to take responsibility."

The four-horned demon rubbed its cheek against the top of my shoulder.

"But nothing says that we have to be the ones."

I reached over to pat the four-horned demon's head, tactfully avoiding the horns.

"I'm sorry. Once... once everything is over we should have plenty of free time."

The four-horned demon sighed.

"And how long will that take?"

I blinked a few times.

"...Not too long."

With the four-horned demon and me in the lead, the army of demons followed from behind. We continued to siege several villages, but as for why, I could not understand.

However, for whatever reason it seemed like I thought it was a necessity.

After five or so villages were burnt down, some people came to stop us.

There was a man in black robes, sprinting across the field, leaving large divots in the ground every time he pushed off.

To his side was a man who seemed to be running across the air. He was wearing white robes and had a staff.

As for the last person, it was someone that was wearing red robes. Currently, the tips of his bright red hair were singed black while his face was covered in some ash. For some reason, his mode of transportation was shooting out these smokey flames from the back of his hands which then propelled him in the air.

I tilted my head to the side ever so slightly.

"Hm... I suppose it's natural to be meeting some people that wanted to stop us sooner or later."

The man with the black robes shouted.

"Stop right there, demon! I will get revenge for that day! Just you wait!"

As for the man running across the air, he pointed his staff at me.

"You won't get away anymore! I've developed several spells for that very purpose!"

Lastly the man flying via some sort of fire spell narrowed his eyes when he looked at me.

"The despicable will always fall!"

As for me, I let out a soft sigh and raised my hand.

"You should be careful...."