Chapter 132 The Butcher's Masquerade

"You name yourself 'Forsaken'? Aren't you aware that such names are illegal? The Valorious empire would have your head!" cried one man.

Hiro then leaped into the air and stomped that man into the ground. The intense force caused flesh, bone, and blood to ooze out like a bloody pancake. The butcher then picked out what remains of the late man's skull and used it as a stick.

"Anyone else wants to point out the obvious? I have a lot of pent-up rage I need to let out. You fuckers treated my daughter like a sack of meat earlier let me return the favor.

The reincarnator then pulled bone swords out of thin air and armed himself. He had two long-sword-sized ones on the back of his upper shoulder, a small curved one on his lower back, and a giant greatsword one he stabbed on the ground.

"Right, let me explain the rules. Everyone here but my people will participate in the game. There will be two teams, the defenders and the aggressors. The game is simple, all the aggressors have to do is kill me. The defenders on the other hand are to protect the aggressors."

"Who will we be protecting them from?" asked another.

"A monster known as the Wolfen Butcher." At that moment Hiro covered himself with the same Wolf pelt he used before meeting up with Alan. Unable to comprehend what the rules intended to do, the majority of the people here got surprised when floating Chevrons of two colors appeared on top of heads.

"Red is for the aggressors, defenders are blue. Ladies and gentlemen, Let's dance!" With the games beginning Hiro charged at the strongest person in the room a level 78 [Adept].

The adept pulled out a mace and attempted to defend himself, only for the butcher to cleanly bisect his top and bottom parts. Numerous aggressors took the moment to strike and stabbed their weapons into Hiro!

A sword to the heart, a dagger to the right eye, an ax to the shoulder, and multiple spears to the back. Blood flowed out of Hiro like a waterfall. One of the aggressors shouted in glee when he saw the damage they inflicted.

"HAHA! You aren't so tough! So what if you have above-average calibers? Even at level 51, you don't have anything on me!"

The entire hall burst out in cheers at the sight. Many breathe sighs of relief knowing the commotion has ended. Well, the ones celebrating were the novices and Initiates, the ones above level 60 all grew anxious.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha" a bone-chilling laughter drowned out all other noise. The original naturally was the gutted man in front of them with a wolf pelt. He continued to express his delight as sounds of his amusement filled the entire hall.

People grew unsettled, the man had life-ending injuries, especially the sword to the heart and the dagger to the eye! How can he continue to move like nothing is wrong?!

"This is all you can do? how pitifully weak. Tell you what. I will remain unmoving for 60 seconds. If you can kill me in that time you all go free. If you cannot, then I will have some fun."

As the face mired with blood spoke, numerous bodies charged at him and slammed their weapons on him. More and more people joined when they noticed that the man's eyes still moved.

"Slice his head off! He must have the skill to regenerate his heart!" "FUCK! IT'S LIKE HITTING MONSTER ARMOR!" "BURN HIM INSTEAD!" "HURRY!" "HOW IS HE STILL STANDING!" "REMOVE HIS LIMBS!" "WE CAN'T! IT'S TOO HARD!"

Due to the number of attackers, Hiro's arms got shredded like meat in a butcher shop. His dark gray skeletal bones became visible to everyone.

"What the hell is that some skill?" "Why are his bones gray?!" "WHO FUCKING CARES! KEEP ATTACKING!" "I'm running out of Aura!" "I am too!"

"We are all going to die!"

Even when they used Calibers, none could break the bones of the transmigrator. Burning, freezing, electrocution. The flesh left on his body gradually became nonexistent.

With even his skin charred and destroyed. Hiro didn't have the suit Alan prepared, so aside from the costume he wore as Sabacthani he wore nothing else aside from simple black trousers.

Scared beyond recognition, his limbs were all barely hanging on with tendons and sinew that would not tear no matter what the people did. Luckily they also used spells and skills that torched his body so no one could recognize him. Not that it mattered.

"Not enough."

Despite having his voice box pierced, and his neck nearly decapitated, Hiro continued to speak. Numerous people stepped back when he started to move.

"Rilu endured so much more than this. Living over twelve lives in nothing but battle. How much has she suffered."

"CHOP OFF HIS HEAD! HURRY!"

Numerous Adepts used their most powerful skills to strike Hiro's neck in an attempt to fully separate his head from the rest of his body. Caliber-infused magic weapons slammed on both sides of his neck.

"My girls, how much injustice did they have to endure? How much pain and hardship did they experience? How can I who lived almost my entire life free of hardship say I had it rough? I am far too naive."

Four to five blades all were pushing on Hiro's neck, and despite their best efforts, the bones did not even move or fracture a little bit. It was like smashing thousand of eggs into a steel door. Utterly useless.

"Suffering will always be present, just as pain never leaves the living. If so, then until the day I win. All suffering and pain are mine to command!"

- Alert: Reality Defined: [On the Other Side of Suffering] Heart's Dogma now harnesses the pain felt by the host into power. An Attack buff coefficient will be awarded based on the pain endured. -

- Alert: New passive skill learned: Insanity [E]! -

- Alert: Secondary active skill learned: Revenge blow [B] -

Hiro felt lost. Prior to coming into this world, the reincarnator always felt he had led a hard life. Of course, that was debatable depending on who you ask. But with the general population in Japan, it could be considered hard.

Diaz instilled in him, an outlook that focused on the future. The reason why we struggle is to get to the end of the rainbow. To achieve the dream, the ultimate life everyone wanted to live. But it didn't happen for him.

He died and rose back only to continue suffering. He thought this was something he asked for. Hiro met his girls after all, if he didn't suffer he might not have met them. So if given the choice he would do so without question.

But what about those who never got their reward? Rilu lived twelve lives. Twelve fucking lives. She lived and died twelve fucking times. In each life, she must have given her all to survive. Assuming that the heir of dragon blood is a strong warrior, her life would have been nothing but a string of defeats.

Hiro grew wary just from the dissonance in reincarnating once. The good thing about never knowing what comes after death is that some can see it as the end of everything. After that there is nothing. For those that suffered, this gave them comfort.

Yet what if you were told, you would repeat such a hard life ad infinitum? It's not like every life you get would be perfect. What is a certainty is you will experience pain. You will experience loss. You will suffer setbacks. That is what it means to live after all.