Chapter 105. Two Servants
Gomi couldn’t believe his luck.
The Death Raiders were a band of pirates, outlaws, and just general do-no-gooders. Originally a crew of five, they had expanded their numbers significantly ever since the country plunged into war. Now, there were twenty-six of them, most being ex-adventurers or ex-soldiers of some sort. As it turned out, when people starved, they turned to crime. Adventurers were no exception. In fact, they tended to take to piracy disturbingly quickly – but hey, Gomi was no man to judge.
Born and raised in a pirate family, he’d been breaking laws since before he could read. Was it really any wonder that he grew up to lead his own crew? He was sure that one day, he’d face karmic retribution. Not today, though. Today, the gods were smiling on him.
First, they’d unexpectedly come across a small island that recently saw a terrible battle. Gomi didn’t use the word ‘terrible’ very lightly. Every inhabitant had been massacred, their bloody bodies strewn across the streets. Corpses of Resistance members hung by the dozen from tall palm trees. As per usual, the imperial military had shown no mercy to dissidents, collaborators, or any poor sod unlucky enough to be trapped in between. They must’ve left just hours before Gomi and his crew arrived. The bodies hadn’t even begun to decay yet. Another tragedy to be added to a very long list.
Well. One man’s tragedy was another man’s treasure. Gomi and his crew proceeded to gleefully loot and plunder the whole village. Food, coin, jewelry, medicine… It wasn’t like the villagers needed it anymore.
Of course, Gomi wasn’t entirely heartless. He made sure to set fire to the village after they were done. An impromptu cremation beat rotting away in the elements, after all.
Flush with loot, the Death Raiders then began making their way back to a nearby island for celebratory drinks. That was when they came across their second stroke of luck. One of their scouts spotted a tiny ship sailing across the water. Naturally, Gomi ordered his crew to attack.
The moment they boarded the ship, Gomi knew he’d struck gold. There were only four people aboard: two men and two women. Gomi liked women. His crew liked women. And the two in front of them were very beautiful.
“Well?” Gomi said when none of them moved. “Let’s not waste time now. Money, valuables, women – it’s not that hard to understand.” He leered. “Don’t worry ladies, I’ll make sure you have a good time–”
“Death Raiders,” the young man in front said, interrupting him. His voice sounded strained. “That’s… that’s who you are?”
Gomi blinked before grinning. “Our reputation precedes us, eh? Ah, guess I can’t blame you if the name alone is enough to make you freeze in fear. But yep, I’m Gomi, the leader of the Death Raiders.” He smirked. “You can call me a servant of death.”
At those words, a violent tremor ripped through the young man’s entire body, his muscles spasming and his teeth grinding against each other. Huh. Gomi had never seen someone react with such debilitating terror to his introduction before.
Next to him, the other man and the black-haired girl looked confused, but the golden-haired girl also began trembling. She kept on rapidly glancing between Gomi and the kid. Probably worried that he’d have some sort of panic attack.
Deciding to take some pity on them, Gomi tried for a softer approach.
“Hey, kid, relax,” he said. “What’s your name?”
The kid took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to calm himself enough to respond. He failed. Damn, Gomi actually felt kind of bad. The kid was scared so shitless, he couldn’t even speak.
Instead, the man next to him spoke up. He wore a blank white mask that covered his entire face and spotless robes of white and grey. “I am Phantasm,” he said. For some reason, the golden-haired woman also reacted to that. She jerked back, glancing at Phantasm in alarm, before looking back at Gomi and the other Raiders with what appeared to be… pity in her eyes? “Do forgive us, but I don’t think we’ll be complying with… your… request…” He slowly trailed off and looked over at the kid. “What did you do to him?” he asked in genuine bewilderment. “Levi, what’s the matter?”
The kid, Levi, drew in a deep breath. “I…” He hesitated, before giving a single nod, as if making his mind up on something. He turned to Gomi. “One chance.”
Gomi frowned. “What?”
“I’m giving you one chance,” Levi said. “Lower your weapons, surrender peacefully, and”–his left eye twitched–”renounce your band’s name.”
Gomi stared at him for a long moment. Then, he and his crew around him broke into loud uproarious laughter. “Hah! Good one! Looks like you do have some guts. But nah, I’ll have to pass on that.”
Levi smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. Phantasm, mind sitting this one out?”
Phantasm sighed. “Rather greedy, aren’t you? Oh, very well. It’s all yours.”
“You can’t be serious,” Gomi said. “You’re going to fight us? Without any help? Have you gone mad?”
For a single moment, he wondered if he’d miscalculated somewhere. These four were out sailing in eastern Yukihasa with no guards. Perhaps they were strong enough not to need them?
No, unlikely. Gomi prided himself on his inherent ability to judge how dangerous someone was. It was an instinct honed from a lifetime of deadly situations and perilous fights. And right now, the kid in front of him radiated absolutely zero danger at all. Not even the slightest bit. This was either desperate bravado or full delusion–
“Death Raiders, huh?” Levi mused idly. “Then, you can’t complain if I send you tomeet him.”
DangerdangerdangerdangerdangerDANGERDANGERDANGER–
Gomi froze as the kid’s presence suddenly shifted. He didn’t move, his expression didn’t change, but nonetheless whereas before Levi barely even registered to Gomi’s senses, now he shone like the fucking sun. Icy fear shot through Gomi’s veins as his back broke out in cold sweat, his mind reeling with panic and his lungs struggling to take in air.
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In retrospect, Gomi shouldn’t have blinked.
It wouldn’t have changed the outcome, of course. But at least he would’ve seen it coming.
One moment, Levi Ironwood was surrounded by twenty-six pirates.
The next moment, Levi Ironwood was surrounded by thirteen pirates and thirteen corpses.
Gomi choked on his own spit. What – what just happened? Did – did the kid just–
He flailed backward, nearly stumbling over himself as all around him, his fellow Death Raiders collapsed in two. Literally – their bodies split apart like sliced watermelon, viscera and blood splattering the wooden deck.
“What the fuck?” Joko, Gomi’s second-in-command, cursed in shock. He surged forward with his sword, afterimages blurring behind him from his blistering speed. A massive boom echoed out as in the blink of an eye, he was in front of the kid–
Levi didn’t even bother looking at him. His hand lashed out like a whip and Joko’s entire body broke, his bones shattering like glass with a terrible sound. He dropped limply to the deck as Levi casually strode forward, the same mild expression on his face.
The other Death Raiders recovered quickly, unleashing all of their most powerful attacks. Arrows that streaked faster than sound, spears of lightning, heavy axes that could carve through mithril… It didn’t matter. Levi just kept on walking forward at the same leisurely pace, as though he were taking a stroll through the park. Arrows deflected off an invisible barrier, the lightning he caught with his bare hands, and the axes fell to pieces mid-strike, with their wielders promptly following suit.
One by one they fell, getting cut down like wheat in a field. Kenji, who Gomi had personally seen wrestle a minotaur to the ground, rushed Levi with an angry, desperate roar, swinging his club wildly. Levi swayed through the strikes with fluid, dance-like movements, before stepping in and lightly pressing his hand against Kenji’s torso.
Kenji’s back exploded in a shower of gore. It was like all the stat points he had in his Constitution didn’t matter. Some of the blood splattered onto Gomi, who stood ten paces behind.
Alright, fuck this. It was time to get the hell out of here.
Gomi turned to run–
“Ah, ah, ah,” Phantasm said, materializing in front of him. Gomi didn’t even see him move. “No leaving the party early. You came to us first, remember?”
Gomi gritted his teeth and switched directions, rushing toward the golden-haired girl with a burst of speed. She blinked, looking startled as he barreled toward her. Good, it looked like he found the weak link.
“Out of my way, wench!” he snapped as he pushed past her–
She reached out, grabbed him by the back of the head, and slammed him into the deck.
Gomi lay there, the wind knocked out of him. W-What? Did she just lift him into the air with one hand and smash him into the deck with enough force to paralyze him? She had practically no muscles on her arms! And why was her form faintly glowing golden?
“Don’t be rude,” the girl chastised, looking down at him. “There’s no need for insults.”
“He insulted you?” Levi said, coming to a stop next to Gomi’s prone form. “Now, that just won’t do. Come, servant of death, let’s have a talk.”
He grabbed Gomi’s shirt, and then suddenly they were five thousand feet in the air. Gomi yelped as they hovered in midair, Levi holding him up by his collar.
“D-Demon!” Gomi shouted, abandoning all pretenses of composure.
“No, that’s Selene, actually,” Levi said. “I’m just a normal human. Technically. Probably.”
“How did you just…” Gomi swallowed thickly. “Who are you?”
“I already told you. I’m Levi Ironwood. But once, I was the servant of Death.” Levi’s eyes glinted with a dark, menacing light. “And unlike yours, my Death is capitalized.”
And then Gomi was falling, and falling, and falling–
“That was a bit overdramatic, wasn’t it?” Phantasm asked as Levi returned to the ship. He was examining the pile of corpses strewn about the deck. He sighed. “This is going to take ages to clean…”
Levi snapped his fingers. The sea rose up to swallow the deck, and in a few seconds, all the corpses were washed away.
Phantasm stared at him. “... did you loot the bodies yet?”
Levi stared back. “... oh. Uh. Shit.”
Phantasm snorted. “You really don’t behave like a normal adventurer, do you? Well. Explains why I can actually stand you.”
“I-It’s fine,” Levi laughed nervously. “The ship’s still there – we can probably find some stuff.”
They did indeed find some stuff. A lot of stuff. The pirate ship was, as expected, filled to the brim with loot and treasure. Piles of coins, enchanted items, raw ingots of precious metals…
Anastasia collected it all. Levi didn’t have an inventory, Selene didn’t care about mortal currency, and they sure as hell weren’t going to let Phantasm have any. The man didn’t protest. He just watched silently as Levi told Anastasia to donate all the treasure to the Church orphan fund or something.
They set sail once more. Then, around thirty minutes later, Levi caught sight of smoke in the distance. A lot of smoke.
Anastasia tensed up. “There’s an island over there,” she said, her eyes glowing. “That amount of smoke… It can only come from a massive fire.”
Levi nodded. “Let’s check it out.”
Phantasm tilted his head. “I thought we were trying to avoid people?”
But he acquiesced anyway, turning the wheel and navigating them toward the island. The moment they arrived, Levi and Anastasia leaped off the ship, landing with soft thuds and hurrying toward the village inland.
The stench of burning flesh hit them first. Levi hated that he recognized it immediately. It filled the air, cloying and sickly-sweet. As they neared the village, the heat became sweltering as red-orange flames devoured what remained of the village. Burnt bodies littered the ground in droves, some of them reduced to mere teeth and bones. Dozens, hundreds of them, of all varying sizes.
“I don’t sense survivors,” Selene said from behind them. Demons had a particularly attuned sense of smell, especially for humans. “Everyone in this village is dead.”
Levi released a magical radial pulse of his own to confirm her statement. He nodded, clenching his fists.
“This island was under Resistance control,” Phantasm said. “So the imperial government has reached here as well… Recent, too. The fire must’ve been started only a few hours ago.”
“This is terrible,” Anastasia whispered, staring at the bones on the ground. Some of them were large. Too many of them were small. “Why… Why would they kill everyone?”
Phantasm shrugged. “Standard imperial policy. Killing everyone is easier than rooting out spies and sympathizers.”
“But…” Anastasia swallowed, her eyes filled with sorrow.
“That’s evil,” Levi murmured.
“Huh, how so?” Selene asked. “That seems perfectly reasonable to me.”
Levi stilled, his head snapping over to Selene.
“What?” he hissed dangerously.
Selene stared back, her expression impassive as ever. “If they were left alive, then they might join the enemy again. Especially the young; why risk them growing up to hate your guts?” She shrugged. “It makes logical sense to kill everyone. It’s what I’d do.”
Slowly, Levi narrowed his eyes.