POV: Altair Oberon Lyrius

I looked around the village. It was mostly still intact, just a few broken-down doors and a few houses had holes in their walls but nothing too much in most cases. Only the house I had woken up in had collapsed.

All these corpses might actually make Terror want to swim over here... I should probably dump them all in the lake, might be a good workout.

Or you could just eat them.

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...

What?

It seems my attempt at making a joke wasn't appreciated, just throw them in the fucking lake already before they start smelling.

Right...

And so I began. I had nothing else to do anyway. Back on the other side of the lake was Terror, probably waiting for me to come back so he could finally eat me after all the weeks he has been hunting me already.

I began with the corpses in front of the house where I had woken up in. Some of the men were so heavy and bulky that it took me a while to lift them up.

Why don't you just use magic?

I can't improve if I use magic here.

Uh, determined to finally kill that overgrown cat?

I guess...

It took me a while, without using any type of magic. And that was despite me being stronger than the average human now. I could easily lift what felt like a hundred kilos, the only problem was that the people that weigh that much were either bulky or just plain fat. Why anyone in this village would get fat is a mystery to me, I mean, they are literary hunters and gatherers, they need to be able to run away from monsters.

Maybe the fat ones were the sacrificial lambs?

I chuckled.

Right now there were no voices, it made me feel at peace. But also uneasy. When would they return, when would they continue to torment me? Would I be able to sleep tonight or would they keep me awake? Would they come alone or would they be accompanied by visions and dreams? The fact that I had an answer to none of those questions outweighed the fact that there were no voices right now, completely overshadowing the feeling of peace I had before asking myself those questions.

The only thing that calmed me down somewhat and kept me from having a mental breakdown because of the absence of the voices was the hard labour if one could even call it that. It felt good to see the village becoming cleaner and cleaner, feeling the soreness in my muscles, this time not from running away for too long or from fighting but from actual hard work. I still felt weaker than I had back in the village and I knew that this bit of work was not enough to beat Terror, but it was my first step.

Another good thing about this new body that I hadn't noticed before was my stamina. Even when it turned dusk and I had thrown nearly all of the corpses into the lake I didn't feel exhausted. At that point I took a break and returned to the house where I had eaten earlier today, grabbed some dried meat, sat down on one of the wooden platforms on the water and ate, looking over the lake that glistened with the setting sun's light. It looked... magical, as much sense as that made in a world with literal magic. Through the surface of the water, I could see a few fish nibbling on the corpses. Their eyes seemed like they were looking at me, judging me. It made me uneasy, and angry.

"Don't fucking judge me," I whispered. "You people are at fault here. Not me. You, you are the ones who told them!" I got louder as I looked down at the corpses, their eyes looked like they were angry at me now.

"I'm just imagining things... that has to be it," I whispered as I forced down the last piece of meat and jumped up. My hunger was gone now that I had seen their eyes through the water. "Yes... it's just the water playing tricks on me..."

I slowly made my way over to the place where I had killed the last few people and began hauling them to the lake. And there was the kid again. I looked into the small kid's eyes, filled with determination.

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Maybe I should have stayed instead of running away? But would that have changed anything? Alyra and Ilmar both died anyway...

And what if you had died? Those bastards from the Ord- church would have just gotten what they wanted. They would have been able to kill all the supposed heretics and would have been done with their job. But now they have you to fear... or they will fear you once they find out you survived that fall. Believe me, there is nothing better than to know that people fear you!

Ira's words were strangely encouraging. She had a way to convince people easily. A smile crept over my face as I imagined soldiers falling to their knees before me, begging for their lives as I slowly approach...

You do have a point.

The smile stayed on my face for the entire time I threw corpses into the lake. Just the thought of seeing soldiers at my feet, begging me to let them live. Seeing the man that sat on his mount and commanded the knights crawling towards me on all fours, looking up at me with pleading eyes.

When I was finished I climbed up onto the roof of the tallest building and looked at my work. The city was fairly clean, there were still puddles of blood everywhere but that was beginning to dry already.

So what now?

Don't know. I should probably train my body in every way I can if I want to get stronger now. There's no use in laying around and waiting for Terror to come to this site. But for now... I guess I'll go to sleep...

As I lay down in the bed I had found in some random house I found myself almost afraid to fall asleep. It was rare that I dreamed, but whenever I did it was of that place, of my old, terrible, world. But even I had no choice but to do so. While my body wasn't exhausted my mind was and I fell asleep, dreaming of nothing.

The warm rays of the sun woke me, tickling my face in the morning. I opened my eyes and began my day. I noticed that I was covered in dried blood so I decided to take a short dip in the lake. I choose one of the spots where I hadn't dropped any of the corpses, just in case their fucking eyes would judge me again. Once I was clean I let my body dry in the sun as I meditated, trying to widen and expand my mana veins, pores and organ. It was an easy task but my process was slow. I had already done this a lot back in the village and my results haven't been all that great in a while... but this was all I could do for now.

As I felt mana course through my body Ira spoke to me.

We need to find a place richer in mana if you want to do this effectively... this place has barely any.

Ira was right, I felt mana in all around me but it wasn't nearly as dense as the mana up in the Ilvaldira forest. I thought often about my old village... and every time I was saddened by the thoughts, by the memories. But at least they didn't remind me of so much physical pain.

At one point the wind picked up and the voices returned, telling me how futile and useless everything I did was, but I ignored them as best I could, even though they did make me angry.

Once I was done meditating I ate and then went on to train my body. I did everything I could until it was dusk again. And so I spent my days. Meditating, eating, working out, eating, sleeping, meditating, eating, working out, eating, sleeping, meditating, eating, working out, eating, sleeping, meditating, eating, working out, eating, sleeping, meditating, eating, working out, eating, sleeping and so on and so on. I did so for days. Until one day I heard someone yell something from the other side of the lake.