Sovereign of the Karmic System

The entire square quietened down instantly. Warriors that had joined the Navi family’s effort to rob Daniel’s company of their formula for a quick profit, were now looking at this young man, which they thought they would easily manage to kill, with deep alertness.

The parts of Alana’s body that had been touched by blade had been cauterized instantly, and not a single drop of blood had been spilled even after she fell lifeless on the ground. The sight was terrifying to say the least.

Of course, these people were all experienced warriors, and other than the surprise of seeing Daniel’s sudden actions, they did not lose their composure in the slightest. What changed within their minds, was how seriously they were going to take Daniel and his two scorching swords from now on.

The old lady, completely unfazed by what had just happened, quickly waved her scythe once again towards Daniel as a follow up to her previous attack, but it took a simple flick of Daniel’s arm to cut the scythe’s wooden snath before it could even reach his body. *Clink* The large poisonous blade fell on the ground with a loud noise, leaving the woman defenseless.

Now out of his mind, Daniel turned to look at the old lady, which after seeing the look on his eyes, felt the cold embrace of a swift death loom over her old neck. Luckily for her, it was not her time yet.

His stare, at the moment, appeared like a perfect presage of death. The old lady was expecting him to wave his hand and send her old head flying in the air, but what had happened until now had given enough time to the other fighters to dash towards Daniel, and attack him.

Dozens of arrows had forced Daniel to turn his attention elsewhere. Specifically, to a woman that was standing on a roof about fifty meters from his position. Each of her arrows were precise and deadly, and pointed at each of Daniel’s vital points without missing once.

Her main objective was to keep him focused on protecting the most important parts of his body, while the others would use the various moments of distraction that she created to kill him, but Daniel was not going to fall for it that easily.

As a heavily armored man approached him while wielding a sword and a shield, Daniel turned his two swords into metallic extensions of his hands, which he used to grab the shield, and clutch his fingers around the wrist of the hand which was holding the sword.

"AAAARRGH! ATTACK HIM!!" Shouted the man in pain, as Daniel’s hand quickly cooked the flesh of his wrist.

Daniel hit the man with two powerful headbutts.. causing the impact with his cranium to shatter the man’s nose. Once the man was distracted by the piercing pain on his face, he pushed the man’s shield aside, and stepped forward to grab the man’s breastplate, then, he pulled him in between himself and the archer.

Any sort of resistance abandoned the man as three arrows quickly perforated his chest.

A second melee fighter had approached Daniel from behind during his clash with the previous heavily armored warrior. He was a martial artist which fought with no weapons. His fists were covered in flames, and emanated a warmth powerful enough to melt one’s clothes and skin with a single touch.

He was able to use Daniel’s moment of distraction to grab him from behind, and put him into a headlock.. but before he could snap Daniel’s arms or neck from behind, or allow the archer to finish the job, tens of metallic spikes pushed through Daniel’s clothes, and penetrated the chest of the man from side to side, killing him on the spot.

Unfortunately, one arrow had managed to reach Daniel, and perforated his left biceps.

Ignoring the burning pain on the back of his head, and the wooden arrow that pierced his arm all the way through, Daniel looked around for his next targets. What appeared in his field of view, were three identically dressed middle aged men which used the same kind of weapon.. A classic spear.

On his way towards them, Daniel deflected various arrows that were relentlessly shot towards him, and picked the shield of the heavily armored man he had just killed from the ground.

Once in front of three, at least a twenty piercing attacks arrived in a matter of a second.

Daniel kept the shield high and his head low, parrying each attack while he advanced.. forcing the enemies to retreat in order to keep distance.

Now close enough, Daniel moved the shield aside, and exposed his body for the three spearmen to attack. As he expected, three attacks arrived instantly, but he was prepared. He deflected them with the shield’s rim, and caught the bodies of the spears under his arm, then, with a rapid motion, he wrapped his free hand around all three of the metallic heads of the spears, right where they touched, and melted the metals of which they were made, welding them together.

Finding themselves with a single spear with three bodies, the three spearmen turned into harmless chicken for Daniel’s sword to decapitate.. Or so to say.

Daniel pierced his sword through the chest of the spearman in the middle, then twisted the blade until the sharpened edge pointed left, and directly cut through the body of the now deceased spearman, and towards the one to his left.

As the third spearman saw the head of the second one roll on the ground, he fell into panic. He turned away and desperately tried to run away from Daniel, but before he could go far, he felt two big metallic and scorching hot hands grab his head from behind.

*TSSSSSSSS* "AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHH!" *CRUNSSHH* Shouted the man in excruciating pain as Daniel’s hands squeezed his head to a point where his cranium directly fell to the powerful pressure, and caved in.

With a couple of cuts on his skin, an arrow pierced on his left arm, and a severe burn on the back of his head, Daniel turned to look for more prey while listening to the sound of the man’s blood and brain matter sizzle on the molten metal that was covering his hands.

While all of this takes a lot to describe, in reality, it all happened in less than fifteen seconds.

Daniel’s reason and sense of self preservation had become marginal, and only took over when his life was in extreme danger. For the rest of the time, blind rage dominated his behaviour.

For the following two minutes, he cut one life after the other with no remorse, no hesitation.. Until only Serf’s grandmother was left.

He was currently standing in front of her.. Covered in the blood of the woman’s daughter, family members, and subordinates, and yet, the woman did not show any fear. It looked like she had accepted her fate at some point while spectating to the minutes of carnage that had took place in front of her.

"Why did you have to kill him.. He was a good guy. He never hurt anybody.. What was so wrong with not wanting to be a monster?" Asked Daniel with deep sadness, as he approached the woman. In his hand, was a severed hand armed with a bagh nakh.

"He was weak. Kindness would have never taken him far." Responded the old woman with odd calmness. There was a sort of resignation in her old eyes. She was old enough to know that she was going to die soon.

"HIS KINDNESS!!" Shouted Daniel in rage, as he approached her. Once the two were in front of each other, Daniel moved his head in front of hers, and said "His kindness was powerful enough to destroy your family."

It was true.. And the woman could not deny it. Her late grandson’s kindness had not allowed him to gain personal strength, but a different sort of strength that was wroth just as much.. With it, he had gained friends powerful enough to overpower his entire family.

Daniel looked at the old woman’s indifferent expression, and once again felt anger grow in his chest. He wanted her to apologize to her grandson.. To be desperate, and admit that she was wrong.. But that never happened.

His immortal essence took once again the shape of a sword, before turning into a mixture of metal and fire essence which, once formed, Daniel pointed at the woman’s chest. The tip was only millimeters away from her body, and he could have pierced her heart in an instant, but then..

"AMAZING!! TRULY AMAZING!! I told you that he would have made it!" Said a disembodied yet familiar voice that came from behind Daniel.

He turned to look back at the square, and there, he saw the middle aged couple from the poisonous rose that he had met a few days before. The woman in the white dress, and the grey-haired man.

"Well, you were right." Said the woman with a faint smile. "But stop gloating, or I’ll cut your throat." She then added with a loving tone.

"Don’t be a sore loser, my love.. Anyway, back to work." Said the man in response.

"So this is what you meant.." Muttered Daniel while thinking back at the warning words of the middle aged man. "This is what I was supposed to survive to.."

The woman smiled at Daniel, and said "Exactly! And you have done it magnificently!.. But now that you’ve proved your point.. We are going to need that you let her go."

Daniel’s eyes immediately narrowed as he heard the last few words uttered by the woman. He then said with a visceral anger "Why would I do that?"

"Because we say so.. Look, your friend is a lump of meat now.. A big one.. You can either do as I say and piss off.. Or kill her, and piss me off. Trust me, I suggest you follow the former suggestion, lest you’d rather lose a couple of limbs."

"That’s not good enough." Responded Daniel before looking back towards the old woman, and preparing to thrust his sword into her chest, but once again, he was stopped by the man’s voice.

"For as pathetic as their family has become, they are still an old family of the poisonous rose, and the poisonous rose isn’t willing to lose their knowledge for a petty revenge." Said the grey-haired man with an unusually serious tone.

Daniel stopped the motion of his arm for a moment.. before directly pierced his sword through the woman’s heart, killing her on the spot. He then turned towards the middle aged couple, which were looking at him with expressions mixed with shock and anger, and said "She is a lump of meat now.. Are you going to cry about it?"

The two looked at Daniel with dumbfounded expressions, then.. "HAHAHAHAHAH!! The balls on you, kid.." Said the grey-haired man after laughing heartily "We should adopt this brat.. He is too funny."

"Alright alright.. Enough joking." Said the white dressed woman to her companion. "I guess that we should officially welcome you to the poisonous rose, then."

Daniel ignored the two, and turned to look at the body of his friend. He walked towards him, and once next to him, he placed a hand on his chest, and moved it into his spatial ring. He did not want to bury him here, in his home. He would bury him in the castle’s cemetery.. Where his friends could visit him.

After taking a deep breath, Daniel turned to look at the middle aged couple, and asked "What now?" His voice was devoid of emotion, as if he could not be bothered with receiving an answer. Of course, that was all an act. He was in the poisonous rose now, and if he wanted to become powerful enough to destroy it from the inside, he had to play the part.

"Now?.. Now you come to the headquarters.. And hope to get out of it alive." Responded the middle aged man while showing the brightest smile he could muster.

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