“Come here.” He ordered. The demonic aura he was emitting completely disappeared.

But not one of the five dared to run away, nor did they try to fight. Because from what they had experienced the last two hours, they would rather commit suicide.

Four of them were before him in no time. The long haired archer, Sven climbed down and jogged before assembling with them.

“Harry Sol, Avila Greud, Cynthia Rose, Rave Heckler, and Sven Gaze.” He scanned through the five.

Everyone shuddered when their eyes contacted his abyssal ones. Even Harry Sol, the bravest and the most arrogant of them all, was not an exception.

“Did you think that you can just make a grand plan of killing half of us confederation students and get away with it?”

Everyone’s heart skipped a beat.

Rave Heckler, the pale faced young man opened his mouth. “Do you think the Empire will let you-“

“Shut up!” Harry Sol, their leader bellowed.

He then looked at Adrian before taking a deep breath. “We humbly apologise. We do not expect you to forgive us. I am sure that you know all of us here are from Duke and Marquess houses from the mighty Empire. We can assure you that you can get a hefty amount of ransom if you take us as prisoners.” He bowed.

The pale faced Rave took a step back and looked down on the ground. The other three nodded at the proposal.

“Hmm, not a bad proposal.” Adrian rubbed his chin. “Ouch.” He looked at his hands. He momentarily forgot he had the claws on his hands.

“But I got a better proposal.” He smiled, sending shivers down their spine.

“Wha… what do you propose?” Harry was having a terrible premonition.

“I am saying it is better because everyone of you ‘might’ survive and your families will get to keep their wealth.” He again scanned through everyone. “I want every potion you have on your bodies down on the ground.”

Everyone gulped but followed nonetheless. They took out potions of all colours- mostly green and light blue- from their pockets and purses before dropping them on the ground. Once they were done, they stood straight as before- but parts of their bodies were tremble nevertheless.

“You know I can see everything. If I find any potions on you while I check, you will face the same consequence as that of your ‘friend’ Valentina Ross.” Adrian smirked.

Cynthia Rose, the pink haired girl could not help but ask. “What happened to her?”

Everyone peaked their ears. Though they did not like her for her weird hobby, she was still their comrade.

“I had her raped through all of her holes before breaking her neck.”

Everyone quavered. Cynthia pulled up her skirt and plucked out a green potion from the side of her panties. She threw it to the ground and closed her eyes. But any sort of rebukes, what she was expecting, did not come.

Adrian simply said, “Anyone else?”

The others also brought out their hidden caches of potions before throwing them to the ground. Only Harry kept standing still. He did not keep any potions hidden with him; why would he? He was ‘supposed’ to be the strongest one participating in the Hunt. And this ‘monster’ came out of nowhere.

“Good.” Adrian praised. “Now, stand still. If anyone moves an inch from his or her spot, your condition will be worse than that ‘hand of bananas’.”

They felt a tingling sensation beneath their skin when he said ‘hand of bananas’. They knew who he was referring to.

Adrian first went to the latecomer, Sven, before crouching down and brandishing the claw on his right index finger. He pierced both of the archer’s feet.

“Aaaaaah!” He screamed in pain, but did not dare to move from the spot.

“Aaaaah!” Aaaaaah!” “Ah!” A plethora of screams followed as Cynthia, Avila and Rave faced the same situation. Only Harry stayed silent.

“Great. Now run as fast as you can and as far as you can. I will not move from this spot for half an hour. Once the time passes by, I will start to ‘hunt’ you.” He sat back on his chair. “Bon Voyage!”

They took a few seconds to process what he just said. Harry, the most competent of them all, was the first to run as he set off to the West. Avila was surprised but she composed herself and followed him.

Cynthia and Sven looked at each other. They nodded at each other with a determined face before heading East. Rave rushed to the North.

Adrian looked at the moon which appeared to be redder than before and closed his eyes.

Forty five minutes passed.

Both Harry and Avila had been running for three quarters of an hour, leaving bloody footprints on the ground. They did not even bother to wash their feet as every second was valuable. They had to go as far away from that monster as possible.

But they had yet to leave the Purplestar forest.

The wounds on their foot did not show any signs of closing down at all; if anything, they got worse. The pain was excruciating but they did not dare to stop and look back.

Suddenly-

*Neigh~*

A high pitched sound almost pierced their eardrums.

*Clip-Clop*

The hoof steps of a galloping horses raged like thunders in their already shaken ear membranes.

They looked back in alarm, only to find a jet black horse, upon which sat a person whose silhouette which was even darker than that of the horse.

They did not need to think of who ‘he’ was. They knew who ‘he’ was.

It was over. There was no more hope right now. But how did he get that horse? It was common sense that no beast in the Fleeting Lands was tameable- be it magical or not. And they were sure that horse was a magical being- a top tier one at that. Most importantly- what was that horse? Not anything about it existed in the records.

“Woah!” They could hear that same nightmarish voice from behind. “You can stop now. You know that running anymore is futile.”

Harry sighed and stopped, prompting Avila, who was a few meters behind him to stop as well.

Adrian jumped off the back of the horse and patted its head. Every part of the horse was black. Not a single spot on its body had a shred of any other colours- not even the eyes. Even the aura it emitted was dark.

Adrian approached them, step by step, flaunting the eerie claws armed to his hands.

The white haired Avila stood before her fiancé, taking a defensive posture. Harry did not stop her.

“I have a good news for you- only one of you will die.” Adrian stopped on his track. “Now, who wants to die?”

Avila suddenly felt a hard push from his behind. A cold voice entered her ears. “Your time to do your duties as my fiancée has come.”

But Avila only closed her eyes and smiled in response. Yes, finally! She could do something for him. She could finally show him how much she loved him.

Adrian charged towards her.

*Sphhhlt!*

She did not feel any sort of pain. She opened her eyes and frowned. Panic struck her as she hurriedly turned back.

Adrian was holding a fist sized ‘sack’ with his right hand; the five claws acted as prison bars to the moving thing, as if it were trying to escape.

The golden haired Harry’s eyes and mouth were open as wide as they could be. But what was wider was the gaping hole on the centre of his chest.

His heart- was missing.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” She rushed towards Harry and caught him before he slumped to the ground. Tears were streaming down her eyes.

She subconsciously guided her hand towards her cleavage. But she did not found anything there. That’s right. The high level healing potion was not there anymore; she had already dropped it back in the camp.

She covered the wound on his chest with her hands to stop the bleeding. But alas, every one of her efforts were futile.

“No… no… *sniff* NOOOOOO! PLEASE!” Her brown eyes were dimming. A layer of white appeared over the brown.

Harry finally stopped breathing. He was dead.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” She looked at Adrian with rage burning in her eyes- the eyes which were becoming whiter and whiter every second. “WHY?”

“I said one of you is going to die and asked who wants to die. But I never said I will kill the one who wants to.” He shrugged.

“YOU!” Both of her eyes became completely white, even whiter than whites of her eyes.

The trees around her started decaying. The purple leaves of the trees lost their vivid colours as they shrunk and fell to the ground.

*Neigh!*

Even the horse took a few steps back.

But Adrian stood right where he was, a few steps before her with her fiancé’s heart still in his hand. Unlike before, it was completely still. A smirk formed on his face.

“Just as I thought. You have the heart of a ‘Seamstress’- a being not any lower that of my own. But it’s a pity.” He shook his head. “You are too dangerous to be left alive. If you realise your powers- in my current state, even I will be nothing but a speck of dust to you.”

She did not care about anything he said. She wanted nothing more than tearing him apart.

She charged at him using all of her lifeforce; she did not care about her own life either. All she desired- was his death.

Adrian dodged her strike and drove his claws into her abdomen.

*Sphhhlt*

Her white eye reverted to brown as she fell down. She could feel death clasping her being. She turned back to the ‘heartless’ Harry before slowly crawling towards him. But before she could get any closer- she lost all of her strength in her lower limbs as she fell down on her face, she looked forward. His cold hands were not far away from her. She reached out her own to the fullest. But alas, an inch gap remained between their fingers no matter how hard she tried.

‘Is that it?’ She smiled wryly. ‘I looked up to you all my life. My colourless lit up the moment I was selected to be your fiancée. Even after engagement, I tried my hardest to walk beside you- hand in hand. But alas, nor could I reach you in life. And now, I can’t even reach you in death.’ She sighed.

That sigh was the last time she ever exhaled.

Adrian shook his head. “You were destined to lose him anyway, whether you met me or not.” He muttered.

“After all, the power to control the threads of fate comes at a price.”

He approached her and turned her face up.

*Rip*

He ripped her clothes from her chest apart- revealing her naked breasts. Adrian did not care about those as he delicately cut the centre of her chest. He brought out a small pouch from his pocket.

Opened the cut on her chest and cut all the veins and arteries surrounding her heart with utmost concentration. Once it was over, he carefully brought out her heart and gently put it in the ‘everlasting pouch’ which costed thousands of high grade magic crystals.

The treatment her heart received was completely different from that of her fiancé- which he threw away a few moments ago.

He closed the pouch and hanged it on his belt. The pouch would keep the content within safe.

This tool was something he received from the Academy- Principal Rastia Bell to be precise.

Once everything was over, he smiled and went back to the horse. Just when he was about to get up-

*Neigh!*

The horse backed off.

“What the fuck?!” He looked into the horse’s eyes.

“You want it? Now? But I rode you for fifteen minutes.” He frowned.

*Neigh!*

(Ride me or not. It has been half an hour since you ‘hired’ me.)

“You mother-trotter!” He cursed. But he sighed “Fine!”

He brought out a black flower from another pouch. The pouch was not as effective as the previous one, but it worked well in storing herbs.

*Neigh!*

(Now, we’re talking!)

He plucked one of the petals before feeding it to the horse.

*Neigh!*

(Delicious!)

Adrian jumped on the horse. This time, he did not get any resistance.

“Now, where shall we head?” He smirked. “The East? Or the North?”