Johan stood with his foot on the man's chest, smiling madly. The room was filled with bodies that had been hacked to pieces and the air sang with the wonderful scent of blood.

Johan's skills with a gun were incredible, but when possible, he preferred to use a pair of swords. It felt much more satisfying that way.

Tall and strong, with long, dark hair and brutal features, Johan would have made a phenomenal subject for a Norwegian death metal poster. Unfortunately for death metal enthusiasts, he was busy.

"Tell me who it was," he said, "If I have to ask twice, you know what will happen."

The man under his foot was shaking in terror, but he managed to stammer, "If I tell you, will you let me live?"

Johan began to laugh.

Not even bothering to hide his insincerity, he barely managed to stop laughing for long enough to say "Sure. Tell me and I'll let you live."

Then, seemingly no longer able to hold it in, he again burst into deranged laughter, raising his twin swords.

"Go on, tell me."

"..."

At this point, the man knew he was definitely going to die.

"If you're just going to kill me anyway, I won't give you what you want!"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Johan grinned, "After all, you do have a family. If you stress me out like this, I'll need to relieve it somewhere, right? And besides, it'll be a lot less painful for you."

Johan started prying off the man's fingernails. The man was screaming, calling him a monster.

Just then, they heard the sound of helicopters. The police had surrounded the building.

Sighing, Johan chopped the man in half and walked to the roof.

While he enjoyed his job quite a lot, ever since he had done that, his life had felt quite empty. He wondered why he had ever thought it was a good idea. True, he had been in a heightened state of emotion and wasn't thinking straight, but he should have known better.

They told him to put his hands behind his head and surrender. He instead opened fire with a grenade launcher.

Bullets from multiple machine guns riddled his body while helicopters exploded in the air above him.

Covered in his own blood and the blood of his victims, his body torn to shreds, Johan died, still laughing madly.

"If this is hell, you don't make for a very convincing devil," Johan said to the priestess, cocking his head.

He stood in the middle of the summoning circle, taking a moment to assess his environment.

Then, he smirked and started confidently walking forward.

"W-welcome, hero," Lenore said hastily, recovering from her surprise.

"So, I'm a hero, now?" Johan laughed, "Then where are my swords? A hero should have swords, right?"

"Ah, yes. We'll get those to you later-"

Johan stopped in front of Lenore, towering over her.

Now that she looked at him from up close, his face looked somewhat familiar. His rough features were far from the first hero's beauty, but she would never forget the color of those shockingly blue eyes.

Did people with the ability to be heroes tend to have eyes of that shade? It was strange.

"Why'd you bring me back?" Johan asked.

Seeing how Johan was close enough to the high priestess that he was essentially threatening her, one of the priests approached him and politely asked him to back up a little.

Johan punched the man in the face so hard that he immediately fell to the ground unconscious.The other priests immediately raised their staffs, gathering mana, but Lenore told them to stand down. She told Johan they had prepared a feast, and they could talk after.

"So," Johan said to her, as they walked directly to the dinner, "Who did you want me to kill?"

Lenore looked mortified.

"We don't want you to kill anyone! We just have a job we need you to do."

Johan nodded, then grabbed Lenore by the neck, lifting her into the air. If they weren't going to let him kill anyone, there was no point to him being there.

"Make any false moves, and I'll break your neck," he said, "By the way, I can feel the energy in the air. If I feel it shift at all, I'll also break your neck. It'll snap like a toothpick. If you understand, take me outside."

But Johan had underestimated Lenore. It wasn't for nothing that she was the high priestess.

Mana shifted. Johan snapped Lenore's neck, but it repaired itself instantly. Then, with mana-strengthened arms, she pried his hands off of her.

Mana shifted again, and Johan felt his consciousness slip away.

When he woke up again, he was restrained.

"Go on, torture me," he said with a smile that wasn't quite a smile, "Let's see if you can make me any more broken than I already am."

"'I'm not going to torture you," Lenore said, "We just want you to cooperate with us. We won't ask you to do anything too-"

"Let me go, you fucking bitch!"

"We'll let you go once you agree to our terms."

"You know, you really should kill me now." Again, that awful half-smile. "Otherwise, when I get out—and I will get out—I'll kill you and everyone you know."

"It's unfortunate you feel that way," said Lenore, "We're willing to compromise on a lot if you agree to negotiate with us. Tell the guard if you change your mind, and I'll come see you immediately."

Several days passed with no change in Johan's attitude. Even drugging him didn't help.

Although Lenore kept her word and did not torture him personally, there were several times where a mage who specialized in sensory control attempted to help 'persuade' Johan.

While Johan had gone white from the agony, he had just continued to spit curses and scream that he wanted to see blood. Even the mage torturing him had to admit he was a bit scared of Johan.

The restraints on Johan also severely interfered with the prisoner's ability to control mana, but after spending a while studying the effects, Johan was starting to figure out how to work around them.

Soon, he would have the power to break free. This time, he would make sure he wouldn't be knocked out.

He would rampage to his heart's content until he was slaughtered in kind. He wondered how many hours of violence he could get in before his death. He hoped it was at least a few, but even if they killed him in minutes, it didn't matter.

Meanwhile, Lenore was revisiting the possibility of somehow reclaiming the first hero. It was certainly not good that he had run away and killed members of their order, but compared to the utterly insane and bloodthirsty Johan, he was starting to look a lot better.

Although the odds were low, she decided to ask Johan if he happened to recognize the first hero. With the first hero's looks, it would've been unsurprising if he were a celebrity or something.

Perhaps Johan could give her a lead. If she were really lucky, Johan might even know his name. At the very least, it wouldn't hurt to try.

But when she showed Johan the first hero's face, his reaction was different from expected.

The madness that had always dominated his countenance disappeared into the depths of his eyes like water going down a drain. Instead, his expression became sharp and intelligent. Somehow, that scared Lenore far more than his uncontrolled murderous insanity.

"This person is alive? He's in this world?" Johan asked.

"Yes," Lenore replied.

Johan's look was now that of a well-raised gentleman from a good family. Lenore absentmindedly realized that when his face wasn't distorted by crazed emotions, he was actually quite handsome.

"High Priestess Lenore, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I had just died, so I wasn't in the right state of mind. I'm sure we could both benefit from cooperating, after all. I have a few conditions, but I doubt we'll have any trouble coming to an agreement."

Deeply surprised, but cautiously optimistic, Lenore nodded her head.

"Alright. We have some traditional rituals we need you to participate in first, and then we'll release you. You'll work for us as an official member of the temple."

"That's fine by me. But first, there is some information that I want. Also, I'm going to ask you to make a binding oath to not interfere with a few things in my personal life. Don't worry, it won't be anything unreasonable."

They talked for a few hours, drawing up a contract. Lenore made an oath.

Then the priestess placed a silver circlet on Johan's head as he pledged allegiance to her. The circlet dissolved into his skin, taking on the appearance of a tattoo.

"Can you teach me how you instantaneously healed your broken spine earlier?" Johan asked casually, as Lenore removed his restraints.

"Sure," said Lenore, "We'll teach you everything you need to know to become a fantastic cleric."

"Oh, and by the way," Johan added as an afterthought, "I want to see that sensory control mage. I think he and I have a lot to discuss."

For some reason, I'd been having a bad feeling that I couldn't shake all day. Unfortunately, while I trusted my instincts, without knowing the cause, there wasn't much I could do to directly address it.

That didn't stop me from increasing the protections and traps inside my residence. It was already quite secure, but it could always be more secure, right?

It was getting hard to find space to draw more runes, so I bought a few more sets of carpeting and wallpaper. If there wasn't enough space, I would just have to stack the wards in layers.

I also added more physical traps and alarms. I didn't want to fall to the first person who strolled in with anti-magic.

As I was finishing the fifth additional layer of runes, I heard a knock on the door.

A well-dressed man handed me a beautiful envelope.

Apparently, I was invited to Valentine and Professor Delaney's wedding.

They moved fast, but I guess it made sense. They'd probably been pining after each other for decades.

Professor Delaney really valued my contributions to his research; I was currently his direct disciple in all but name. We would probably formalize it soon, so it was appropriate for me to attend his wedding.

It would be a grand affair, held at the royal palace, as fitting for two high-ranking mages.

I wondered what sort of defensive runes I should draw inside the lining of my formal wear.