Mud. There was mud all around him. Mud and soldiers crawling in it, spilling blood and guts and flesh to make more mud. Kreig cut them all down with certainty. They were nothing but fodder, useless trash there to keep him from killing anyone else anywhere else. But they couldn’t keep him here forever.

He was tired of the red sky. He was tired of the mud. He was tired of the death.

But if he only killed this one, then…

“STOP!”

His sword stopped. Before him, a woman stood, her chest rising and falling. He blinked at her. Who was she? What was she doing on the battlefield? Had she been brought as a slave? Perhaps killing her would be for the best.

But his sword wouldn’t budge. He knew she should die, so why couldn’t he kill her?

“P-, please, Kreig… No more,” she sobbed.

…How did she know his name?

He shook his head. Something here was strange. Stumbling back, he felt his grip on the sword weaken, making it clatter to the ground. The mud below his feet swirled like a sinkpool. He felt sick, but he had nothing she regurgitate.

And then the world flashed in blue and he wasn’t in the mud at all, he was standing in some strange cave lit by magical torches. What in the-,

Something in the depths of the cave glinted and he only just barely had time to throw himself in front of Sam and cross his arms before a concentrated stream of black acid sprayed from its throat.

Protect (X)

The acid parted in front of him, half hitting the cluster of corpses and body parts and the other half striking the soldier Sam had tried so hard to protect. He didn’t even have time to make a sound of pain before his entire body was melted into black charr. “-NO!”

Kreig turned towards the detested creature.

Wyrm, Lv.701

A rage burned in his chest. Not because the creature had attempted to kill him, or even because it had ruthlessly killed a defenceless soldier. Rather, Kreig hated it because it had dared to attack someone under his protection. For that, it deserved nothing but a painful execution. Kreg knew just how.

The wyrm only barely had time to give a hiss before Kreig was upon it, stabbing his gloved hands into its eyes. It gave a roar of pain, but Kreig didn’t care. From his hands, a white fire spread.

Purge of the Holy (X)

But it didn’t spread quickly. With all the restraint of a professional interrogator, it carefully spread from cell to cell, lighting every non-fatal organ on fire before moving on to the next. Skin, flesh and fat all burnt into white snow, leaving the wyrm to writhe painfully on the ground, its massive tail whipping to and fro, bashing into the walls with enough might to fell a skyscraper. But the walls held fast.

And the fire ate. It ate and it ate and it ate until nothing but snow remained.

The battle was over. Then, all that was left was to return home.

Kreig glanced up and down the cave. Which way was home anyhow?

A small hand took his and he glanced down to find Sam looking up at her. Had she always been so pale?

“Th-, the exit is this way, so…” She stepped around the pile of snow that used to be the wyrm, heading towards where it had come from. “Come along, won’t you?”

Kreig nodded. Thank God Sam always knew things like this. Without her, he may very well have gotten stuck or gone the wrong way or something, assuming there was a wrong way. He couldn’t know, and in all honesty, he didn’t want to, either. The less he knew about this, the better.

Assured that his times of fighting monsters was soon over, he followed Sam. She didn’t speak a word, but somehow, she seemed more tense than usual. He wanted to ask her about it, but he certainly didn’t want to off-put her. Thus, he chose to simply keep quiet. If she wanted to talk about it, she would say something. Otherwise, it wasn’t his place to ask. It was as simple as that.

A soft, melodic hum brought him out of his thoughts. A bit ahead, a portal gleamed at them.

For just a second, Sam paused. Then she continued walking, giving a quick glance back to make sure Kreig was following. Kreig was pretty sure the expression she tried to give him was meant to be reassuring, but it didn’t feel like it.

They stopped briefly right before the portal. She smiled strangely. “Okay, let’s go!”

With all the confidence of a man going to war, she stepped inside the portal, disappearing within its depths. Shrugging, Kreig followed.

He stepped into mud. When he glanced down, he found that it was mud. Looking further along the ground, it was mud.

When he looked up, he found the cityscape gone, replaced by a red sky that glared at him like an old friend. He felt his heart beat faster.

“This is…”

It had to be a hallucination of some sort. It had happened several times before that he had suddenly found himself back here where all that was and all there ever would be was mud and red skies. This must have been something like that. Surely, stepping through the portal had simply roused a memory, surely…

Looking down, he found Sam on her knees in the mud. She sat up. Turning, she peeked over her shoulder at him. Tears streamed down her eyes as a trembling smile played at her lips. “I’m sorry,” she said. “We couldn’t have you stay there. At home, you’re too dangerous. The things you can do… Even if you don’t want to, you can kill anyone. As long as you’re in it, the world will never be safe.”

Kreig’s heart sank. The red sky above seemed to chuckle down at him.

Her smile trembled, faltered, and only barely recovered. She wiped at her eyes, streaking mud across it. She hiccuped. “Are you going to kill me now?” Her eyes were so big. “It’s okay. I was ready to die when I agreed to this, so…”

Kreig turned around. The portal was gone.

But a scent in the air pulled his attention from Sam. Fresh fear.

An arrow whizzed through the air and he was only able to block it by using his body to shield Sam. Well on the ground, she stumbled back, eyes filling with fear once more. “D-, do it! Kill me!” He felt his teeth gritting together. Glancing towards where the arrow had come from, he found an archer shouting in a language Kreig didn’t understand. Damn it. Damn it.

Grabbing the arrow from the muddy ground, he threw it at the archer so hard his chest exploded. But it wasn’t enough. People were closing in on him from all sides, ready to attack, ready to…

A hand took his and he found Sam on the ground, trying to force him to stab her with his sword. He jerked his hand back and she fell back into the mud, splashing it everywhere.

His chest felt so hollow.

“Please,” she whined from below. “I don’t want to live here.”

His grip on the sword tightened. He had to kill them, and he had to protect her. He couldn’t let her die. Without her, he had nothing left to live for.

Nothing at all.

Reaching down, he picked her up by the arm. She groaned in pain and begged for him to just end it but instead, he threw her on his shoulder. Her entire body was trembling. Maybe in cold, maybe in fear. She was being hysterical and he couldn’t calm her down while he was being attacked by these people. He just had to kill them and he could make her relax again.

And then maybe they could figure out a way back home.

But he had no patience for these… things.

He whirled on his feet, but after not standing on mud for so long, he found himself stumbling. Yes, he had forgotten how to act as he once had. It had only been a month and yet he had grown lazy and slothful with the relaxations of modern life. He had to steel his heart. Right now, he wasn’t only fighting for his own life - for his own faith. He was fighting for Sam’s sake, too. He had to make sure she survived.

On his shoulder, the younger woman sobbed, her face pressed into his large shoulder.

He had to concentrate, to remember how he had fought these past 30 years, before everything changed and he got a taste of paradise.

Mind sharpening into a cool, cold dagger, he placed one hand on Sam’s back to keep her safe. In his other hand, he held his shield. Sword on his back, he knew he would need nothing more to end this.

The far north was not an especially bright place, despite the fact that the sun shone all day and all night, though hidden behind a veil of red. In this dim light, Kreig surveyed his enemies. There were less than a thousand. Ordinarily, such an encounter would require him no preparations or efforts. He could have killed them in his sleep without either sword or shield, but now, the situation was a bit different.

He had someone to protect.

Someone shouted something and arrows began to whizz through the air once more. Dodging was out of the option since moving too quickly might harm Sam. Protect (X) required two hands.

He turned his body towards where the arrows were coming from and angled his shield to protect Sam and Sam alone.

Arrows hit him in every conceivable area, some sneaking their way in between the chinks in his armour, others weaving into his eye-holes. Not a single arrow did any harm. The only ones conceivably able to do harm were stopped by his shield, leaving Sam safe and sound.

The projectiles fell to the muddy ground. Taking a step forward dislodged the other arrows.

Under the cover of arrows, the other soldiers had begun their attack, running towards him with the mad desperation of people facing death. A single slice or bash with his shield was enough to kill any one of them. In such a situation, where each enemy went down in a single hit, one might normally grow careless, but Kreig could not allow himself to lose focus. If he let down his guard for a second, a single well-placed thrust of the spear would bring an end to Sam’s life. The blessings he had placed on her had surely run out by now, but he had no time to replenish them.

In a flurry of movement, Kreig destroyed the nearest soldiers, watching with detached coolness how they all fell. Lost in the trance of battle, he was unable to see how Sam angled her eyes to view the battle, her face growing despairing at taking in the carnage.

One by one, the people around him began to fall, each new soldier becoming less and less certain in their conviction. And when the soldiers began to turn and flee against the wishes of their superior, Kreig took the chance to end the battle once and for all. With a well-placed shield-bash to the head, the man who had been shouting orders fell to the ground, now lacking a skull.

Knowing their commander had died, the remaining soldiers began to make an effort to escape, but Kreig was far too used to hunting down stragglers to allow them to. With well-practised ease, he ended the lives of each of them, letting their scents of fear guide him to them.

But right as he was to end the life of the final one, a fist flew at his face. It didn’t hurt, but he was shocked and hurt to find that it came from Sam.

Stunned by her attack, he was unable to stop the lone soldier from running away. As he stared at his sister with pain, she hit him again.

Unsure of what to do, he removed her from his shoulder and tried to place her on the ground. She simply fell. It was as though she had lost all joy for life, and head dim eyes reflected that as well. He hated to see the flare of life that used to shine to brightly now extinguished. How had this happened? Who had done this?

With his enemies banished, he gently removed his helmet, finally meeting her face-to-face again. “Sam,” he breathed.

“Shut up,” she hissed, still lying on the muddy ground.

He bent down to her. Whether it was to pick her up or get on her level, not even he knew.

She tried to punch his face again, but he simply caught her fist in his hand. She snarled, “Let go of me.” But what if she tried to hurt herself again? As much as he hated it, he couldn’t trust her to calm down on her own. In response to his stubbornness, Sam’s face twisted into a grimace of disgust and apprehension. She spat at his face.

Slowly, he wiped it off.

“Come on,” she said. “Don’t you get it? You’re never going back to Earth! And-, and even if you do, you’ll just be considered a monster - and rightfully so! You-, you’re…” She shook her head violently. “If I had a choice in the matter, you would’ve been executed. Nobody wanted you back.” She whimpered, “Why couldn’t you just have stayed dead?...”

Despite the hurtful words, despite her scornful face and painful eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to hate her. He held her hand gently in his. “So long as you, and brother, and mother and father all live, I cannot leave Earth behind.”

She gnawed her teeth, eyes burning. “Well, then you can just stay here, cuz’ mum and dad are dead, and in a matter of minutes, I’ll probably go the same route!”

Kreig’ skull echoed with white static.

“Yeah, didn’t expect that, huh? They died the day after you supposedly did! All you’ll return to is a brother who hates you, together with a sister who wants you dead! Is that any life to li-,”

His insides froze over and he unconsciously clenched his hand. Within it, a series of brittle bones all broke at once. Sam’s mouth gaped open as she floundered for breath. But at watching her pathetic attempt to remove her hand from his, Kreig realized something very simple. He should have known it the moment she started acting strange, but he was petty daft, so it was no wonder he only figured it out now.

Silently, he released his grip on her crushed and mangled hand. Groaning, she stumbled back, falling into the mud and grasping at what remained of her hand.

“I see that an evil influence has come over you,” he said solemnly. Her eyes widened.

Reaching out towards her, he cast every single high-tiered healing magic he knew. Every cleansing spell, every poison-removing chant all befell Sam.

Unlike what most might think, healing was not a pleasant experience. In many cases, the pain was somewhat dulled by the death and rebirth of nerves, but oftentimes there was no such pleasure. Oftentimes, the feeling of one's bones mending and flesh twisting and tendons rejoining was an extremely painful one.

“Gg-, gaaahhh-,,” Sam groaned, writhing in the mud like an oversized dying slug.

Mind-cleaning spells went over her inner workings with a fine comb, searching for anything to right or remove. But there was no spell cast on her, no magical serum to make her act the way she was. That left Kreig with only one alternative.

“...Someone has poisoned your soul with suggestions. Whether you forgive me for this is up to you, but I do hope that you understand my need to change your mind.”

She brought up her hand, now healed as though nothing had ever happened. “Y-, you’re not going to kill me?” She gave a pathetic whimper of a laugh. “I-, I really thought that’d work. Please, I…” Tears streamed down her cheeks anew, mixing with blood and mud alike. “Whatever you’re about to do, please leave me unconscious. Or braindead. Or-, or just regular dead.” She shook her head violently. “I don’t want this.”

Kreig’s mind felt nothing but calm. “With this, you will go back to normal. And all these lies will end.”

He placed his hands on either side of her face. Her eyes were trembling, but she wouldn’t turn away from him.

“Please-,”

Change Will (V)

And with that, Sam’s mind went blank.