Gabrielle watches in horror as Zak ruthlessly kills knight after knight.

Wh... What?

Her pampered life as a princess hadn't prepared her for this. Blood everywhere, decapitated heads... and above all else, taking away the ability for the knights to go into the afterlife. I thought he was somewhat human... How foolish I was. Seeing him in action, he's a monster. An utter monst- She catches herself as she remembers how he saved her. A complex feeling arises as two emotions fight against one another. One being fear, the other... Something else...

Two knights each go for Zak's left and right, two come for the front, and the last melee knight goes straight for Gabrielle, running past Zak's right flank. Zak kills the two knights to his right, and mercilessly grabs then rips apart the man going after Gabrielle. Since he left himself undefended, four swords cut deep into his body. Zak cries out in pain, thrusting his arm out at the four knights, pushing them back several feet.

He turns to the knights, and using his monstrous voice says, "I am your opponent, not the girl."

Gabrielle's heart flutters for a moment, but the ruthlessness of his monstrous voice catch her off guard. What am I to him? Why is he protecting me? I never did anything to deserve this... Is he going to ea-eat their souls, too? She feels like her heart is going to be torn in half as her two conflicting emotions leave her speechless.

Electricity begins to form between Zak's fingers as he reaches towards the men coming at him, a bolt of lightning flying out from his hand. The bolt strikes down two of the men and injures the remaining three, including the mage in the back.

Is this what I think it is...? Gabrielle's mind enters a state of confusion. No chant, no item... How?!

"[ Lesser Lightning ]? Chantlessly? What is this beast?" The commander falls down from the shock, attempting to force himself back up. As he looks back up at Zak, his body is engulfed in a fireball, along with the remaining two knights wielding swords.

Gabrielle covers her mouth with her hands as she sees the men get engulfed in flames.

After exchanging some blows with the mage in the back, Zak walks up and thrusts his hand through the mage's chest, killing him and taking his soul in the process. He swallows the soul, then smiles.

He's smiling? He's enjoying this? Enjoying killing these people, then taking away their right to the afterlife?

As Zak turns to her, she looks up at him and says, "Z-Zak... Please don't tell me you ate the souls of those knights... P-Please."

Zak plainly responds, "Yes, why? It allows me to gain their powers."

Her face turns to one of both horror and disgust. "They can't go to the afterlife... You just robbed them of the afterlife!" Gabrielle runs up to Zak and begins punching with all of her strength, though it has no effect on him. Her heart feels dead from the exhausting emotions. She can't control herself any longer.

"Is that an issue?" His voice yet again invades her mind. She feels anger boiling up due to his calm demeaner.

"ISSUE?! THEY LOST THEIR HUMANITY!" she yells at him as she backs away. "ARE YOU GOING TO DO THE SAME TO ME WHEN I DIE?! HOW CAN I TRUST A BEAST THAT EATS THE SOULS OF OTHERS?" As her heart finally feels dead, she turns to the forest and begins running, crying and sobbing.

Running through the forest isn't the greatest idea when you can barely see due to tears. Cut after cut, scrape after scrape. Gabrielle can barely hold her own balance, and trips multiple times. By the time Gabrielle reaches the cabin, she can't tell what hurts more, her body, or her heart.

She enters the cabin and sits on one of the chairs, pulling her knees in as she holds them.

Why? Just why?

Her head aches like crazy due to her crying. Her closed throat begins to dry up, as do her eyes. Crying really did a number on her.

Gabrielle gets up for a moment, almost falling as the blood rushes from her head. She catches herself on the coffee table, and takes a moment before searching the kitchen for water. She finds an odd, white, rectangular box. As she opens it, cold air seeps out from the multiple shelves inside. She sees an ice rune in the back that seems to be feeding off of a nearby Gaia Crack.

She finds a pitcher full of water inside, and chugs all of it, most of it running out of her mouth and drenching her body. She doesn't care though, it feels calming and cools her down. Curiosly enough, the pitcher doesn't empty of water, but she feels slightly more tired. Putting the pitcher onto the counter and walking back into the main room, Gabrielle notices a large, framed picture slightly high up on the wall of the fireplace. It's of Alastair, Maria, and Charles.

I wonder if they've survived the attack...

Her heart feels heavy as her mind begins to again think about the attack. She sits on the chair and goes back to holding her knees.

Is it so bad...? He is a shadow beast. Maybe he needs to eat souls to survive? Her heart again feels heavy as she's trying to justify it in her mind.

Is he going to be mad at me? Is he going to... Kill me too? She begins crying, imagining Zak using his body as a shield, and disregards the latter portion of her thought.

As she sits there crying, the door creaks slightly as Zak enters. He has a somber look on his face as he notices Gabrielle, as well as her cuts and scrapes all over her body.

"Are you alright...?" He says softly in Gabrielle's mind.

She motions for the other seat, "We need to talk."

Zak prepares himself, doing a monstrous sigh as he activates [ Deception ].

"First, what happened at the village? Did anyone make it? Did... Alastair, Maria, and Charles make it?" Gabrielle looks up at Zak as he sits down, worry covering her face.

"I'm sorry to tell you, but they all died. They were killed by the knights. As for the village, all of them were killed by... the knights. I wasn't able to stop all of them, and some of them got away."

Gabrielle looks down as her brain processes Zak's statement. "I see... As for the soul devouring... Why? Why do you do it?" She looks almost desparate, wanting to forgive Zak despite the horrific act.

"Though I can eat food, I do need souls to survive. If I don't eat souls, I could die. It also gives me their power and abilities."

She looks down, tearing beginning to form.

"I don't like it either, but I need it to survive. It's how life is. Also, I'm sorry you had to see such violence. I can tell you're not used to it." Why am I used to it? Zak thinks to himself, pondering the question as Gabrielle sits there. She begins to cry, and as she does so, Zak stands up and gets onto his equivalent of knees right in front of her. His monstrous claw softly wipes away her tears as she looks up slightly, being careful not to hurt her at all. Due to her eyes being overly wet, they glisten brightly, only enhancing the striking beauty of her lively, stunning, green eyes.

She sniffles, "I'm sorry, Zak... For everything I said. It was... uncalled for."

Zak smiles "It's alright." Deception is quite the powerful skill...

For the first time, he seems almost human to Gabrielle. She chuckles slightly, "You're one weird beast."

Zak stands up, holding out his monstrous hand... paw? claw? A mix of all of them, to help up Gabrielle.

She takes his hand and stands up. "So as for what we were talking about earlier, how are we going to make it back to my kingdom?"

Zak contemplates for a moment, "Let's look for a map, and I'll be able to answer that question. However, first, let's tend to your wounds. I'll be right back."

He exits the house, returning soon after with some herbs.

[ Skill Learned: Gathering ]

Zak tends to her wounds with herbs and leftover tourniquets from when he was injured. Odd. Now that I think of it, even though I went on a rampage and killed everybody, I don't have a single scratch...

Gabrielle smiles, "Thank you, Zak."

After searching the house for about half an hour, Gabrielle comes across a map. "Zak! Zak! I found a map! It's pretty detailed, as well, but it's a bit out of date."

Tilting his head, curiosity fills Zak's mind, "Outdated? Did a recent event cause a change in the environment?"

Gabrielle nods, "Yes. There was a great war, and two of the kingdoms on here in the Midlands fell, as well as the battle between the Hero Kaisen and the Demon Lord that destroyed a whole mountain range on the map.

She says this so matter-of-factly that it catches Zak off guard. A whole mountain range? Is that normal in this world? If so, I need to get strong, and fast.

After placing the large map onto the counter and checking it over, Zak deduces that it is around the same size as North America, except shaped a bit like Finland, Sweden, and Norway combined.

"Where is your kingdom?"

"My kingdom is over here." Gabrielle points to a kingdom on the top left of the map.

Zak nods, "From my estimates, if we have a carriage, it'll take use half a year to a year, depending on how fast we go and the weather conditions."

Gabrielle looks up at him, surprised, "Zak! You're so smart! How'd you figure that out?"

Zak smiles on the inside a bit, "The length per square... lhan? Is right here in the bottom left. It seems that 5 lhan on the map is equal to 500 khan." Good thing they have the length of a lhan on the bottom left... It seems like a little less than two inches. "As shown on the map, we're right here." Zak points to a small, pulsating circle on the bottom left of the continent. "Though it's a measurement system I'm unfamiliar with, judging by the topography and distance between landmarks, it seems similar to a mile. That means that the continent is around 9.54 million square miles, or somwhere between 9.3 to 9.5 lhan, if I had to estimate."

As Zak was talking, several popups almost distracted him. They seemed to be passive skills.

[ Learned Skill: Map Reading ]

[ Learned Skill: Arithmetic ]

[ Learned Skill: Parallel Thinking ]

[ Upgraded Skill: Arithmetic ]

[ Ranked Skill: Rapid Calculations ]

[ Earned Title: Genius ]

Quite a lot of skills just for a map explanation, don't you think?

Gabrielle looks in amazement, speechless at Zak's explanation. "I'm not quite sure what all of that meant, but Zak! That's impressive! You're a genius!"

If Zak could blush, he would be doing so right now. "The only issue is how we're going to get horses and a carriage..."

"Oh! I saw some horses in a stables near the back of the cabin when... Alastair carried you in." A somber look crosses Gabrielle's face. Zak uses his monstrous hand to pat her head to cheer her up.

"Good job Gabrielle. We can use those. Get together anything useful, like clothes for you, spare food, magical items, anything you can find. I'll go prepare the carriage."

Gabrielle nods and begins searching the house while Zak leaves. At first, when he approaches the horses, they are completely terrified of him. They freak out, neighing and trying to force their way out of the stables. Zak puts the [ Taming ] skill to use and successfully calms them. After Zak pulls out the carriage and prepares it, Gabrielle exits the house and makes her way to him.

"Zak! I found some clothes, some food, and a few cool items. Sadly, most of the food is parishable..."

He does a monstrous smile, yet everytime he does so, it seems more and more human to Gabrielle. "Good job Gabrielle, now let's pack it and be on our way."

They pack the food and clothes, as well as a few of the items. However, Zak kept the Magic Compass and Magic Map out to track his destination.

Items found:

- Magic Compass. Unequipable. Always points towards your destination. Point to the destination on a map while pouring Mana into the compass to activate.

- Magic Pitcher. Unequipable. Turns imbued Mana into water.

- Scroll of Magic. Equipable. Casts from a set list of spells.

- Charm of Martial Arts. Equipable. Casts from a set list of Martial Arts.

- Magic Map. Unequipable. A well-made map that shows its current location. Updates every time Mana is imbued into it.

Satisfied and ready to move forth, the carriage begins to move as Zak drives. He imbues the map with a small amount of Mana, and sure enough, the two destroyed kingdoms as well as the mountain range disappear from the map. Gabrielle sits next to him on the front, watching the setting sun together as its orange hue envelops the sky, their figures slowly disappearing over the bend as they prepare themselves for the adventure ahead.