Chapter 1: The Crimson Blood Covering The Sky And The Earth
Translator: Park Nambyul
“I-is this is the ending for me? Am I going to die just like this? Is this the ending waiting for me? I don’t want to die, not-not like this! My eyes… ugh.. they are hurting… too heavy for me to let them open I-I ju—”

…

“Kill anyone who is still breathing. No one can leave this war ground on their own feet. Even if the war has ended, we must not let anyone escape”, said the soldier in a very commanding and loud voice. He looked a little upper-class soldier than the rest of them.

The group of five or six troops who were still searching the ground of crimson color blood nodded together to the command of their leader. Everyone was searching that lifeless ground. So that they would kill anyone who was still alive. Those soldiers were killing mercilessly even the dead bodies to make sure. After the terrifying war, everywhere the mountains of the corpse were laying down, it was looking like a place of hell on earth, no matter how far human sight can see they’ll only see the ocean of scarlet blood, dead bodies or those who were still struggling because of their deep wounds. Humans of all ages, all genders and of all status were dead or dying with every passing second.

The overwhelming stench of blood was in the air. No one can tell that this hell used to be a green and lively place with hundreds of humans, where those people’s cheerful voices filled the whole place with happiness in the past. And now, by the look of the land, you can tell that the war which happened here must have been frightening to death. The scenery could make even demons tremble like leaf in the windy season.

In that chaotic zone, there was an awkward silence surrounding the whole place. That silence was awkward and had strong killing intent. It looked like there wouldn’t be any living person left there, it was lifeless without any sign of any life!

Abruptly a very loud but clear sob started coming from a nearby dump of dead bodies, it was the cry of a child, he looked very young maybe just three or four years old kid who had never seen any war before, filthy clothes and wounds were all over him, blood was rolling down from his head, he was crying while searching those dead bodies with terror in his eyes and shaking limbs. He was insanely searching to find someone who he called “Daddy.”

“Daddy, daddy where are you?” In a very broken and woeful voice, he was shouting for his daddy. But even after so many times calling no one answered him. His crying grew up louder and louder with more and more tears in his small eyes. In his tiny heart, he knew that his daddy is no longer here. He knew that now no one will ever going to answer his call for help. Now his daddy has left him for eternity. Despite knowing this fact he was still searching that place as if he will find his daddy for sure. But he didn’t stop crying maybe because he was aware of the scary situation of his.

Just some fifty or so meters away from the child a body that seemed to be dead started moving. It was moving but there was no strength left in the body, “Wh… Who’s cry…ing?”

It was the body of a handsome man who wasn’t that much of age, his eyes were closed, he looked young like eighteen or nineteen. Even so, he had a strong aura around him, it was like its saying that this person is powerful who would not die that easily.

His clothes were shredded to the point that only some part of his body was covered, which made his pure white-skinned body more visible to eyes, he was lying on his stomach. His right side face was also buried in the ground of blood. Even when only half of his face was showing, he still looked attractive, his sharp features which were covered in blood made his looks more striking, he looked like a prince or extremely powerful cultivator even with that kind of appearance, the clothes were soaked in vermilion blood, who knows how many people’s blood was on him.

He opened his eyes slowly. The sound of a child’s weep made him look around, he wanted to see who was still alive in this graveyard. So he pulled together his little remained strength to move his head a little higher to see in the direction of the weeping child, his long limbs were broken badly, some blood was coming from his mouth, he had blood in his eyes which made him little scary, it also made his sight a bit blurry. With the last strength in his broken hands, he tried to look a bit higher, supporting his body with his hand while balancing his upper body he looked around. At first, he couldn’t look even the closest corpse but then after blinking his eyes for two or three times, his eyesight becomes little better than before, it was still blurry which made him only see some silhouette of the entire place. He slowly rubbed his left eye with his left hand then right eye with the same hand for a more clear vision.

Those cry of that child was still as loud as before. After rubbing his eyes his sight finally became clear in some seconds. He saw that child who was crying like there’s no end to his cry.

“Clang”

His eyes become widened by hearing that sound, he was shocked, that was the sound of unsheathing a powerful long sword. The person who unsheathed the sword was wearing clothes of high-class silk with many beautiful embroideries all over the clothes which were made of real gold thread, that person could be described as an attractive young man, but he had a dark face like he was ready to kill anyone without even blinking an eye.

He was standing behind that kid. The child didn’t notice him because he was still searching for someone.

“Swish”

Just like cutting the air with just one swing of his sword, he cut off the neck of that miserable child.

“No”, the man stretched out his hand as he wanted to stop that swordsman but he was late. He had no strength to even stand on his own legs anymore, so he fell on the ground like his soul was snatched out of his body after witnessing the scene.

“Thud, thud, thud”, in frustration he punched the ground until his left hand started to bleed more than ever, tears were falling from his eyes like a waterfall.

Some time was passed after the incident. After calming down a bit, he noticed that that swordsman was gone. He again tried to see that child’s body but he couldn’t because that child’s headless body was fallen somewhere on the ground he didn’t know about. Maybe that child’s body was surrounded by many adult’s dead bodies which were bigger than the child’s body, which made it impossible to find that little child ever again. He was glancing around to find that child’s head which was ripped off, however, he couldn’t find it either.

Suddenly, some noise started to come to his ears, it was the sound of birds. It was not the ears pleasing sound which small birds make rather it was the sound of big man-eater vultures flapping their wings over some dead bodies. They were coming to the war zone because of that smell of blood, they were just five in counting. So it wasn’t a big threat to everyone there. And those vultures were just eating some dead bodies far away from him.

That white-skinned man was laying down on his stomach like before, eyes were shut. He was feeling useless because he couldn’t even save a small child from dying. His tears were still falling from eyes, mixed with blood. So it looked like he was crying out tears of blood.

A drop of something fell upon his left cheek. His eyes were still shut so he thought that that was the drop of rain. He caressed that drop with his left hand, he felt that the consistency of it was little different than of rainwater. He opened his eyes to see his hand which touched that cheek of his. “Blo…blood?”, he wasn’t shocked but surprised to see blood on his hand because it was not the blood he had on him because of the war, it was the drop fell upon him from the sky. He tried to look upward in the sky to see where this blood on him came from.

This time he was shocked. He was so shocked that he even forgets to blink his eyes, one of those vultures was carrying that child’s head which was cut off. That vultures was carrying that kid’s head by his ponytail in its huge mouth, the blood was dripping down from his neck!

Seeing that horrifying scene he became a statue. A teardrop slightly fell down from his right eye, the tear slowly rolls down touching his cheek, no words came out from his mouth. He felt a heartache in his chest, He hadn’t felt that useless in his whole life.

After a while, the entire war ground was silent. Those vultures and soldiers were also gone. It was evening, even the sky started to cover up in red color, the sun was setting, now it was vermilion everywhere, no matter whether you look up or down. It looked beautiful, dreadfully beautiful.

“Ad… Ad… Ad…Vik…”

It looked as if someone was calling someone’s name, the voice sounded very sorrowful and painful. That voice reached that white-skinned man, “Is… ugh… is someone calling my name? Did I hear it right?” Mouthful of blood came out of his mouth. The man hastily started to look for the person who was calling when he heard that person’s voice.

At first, he thought that he heard it wrong but the voice again came to his ears. That other person kept calling for someone. After hearing so many times he was sure who that person could be. It looked like the white-skinned man knew who that person is, he tried to look around again to see where that person might be. Happiness could be seen on all over his pretty face, it was like every time the other person called they sent some energy or hope for him. He was happy, anxious, desperate, he was feeling so many mixed emotions together in his heart, it brightened his whole face, he was still an attractive man even with so much blood and wounds but now he becomes a lot more handsome than ever cause of his huge smile and tearful eyes, this time those tears were of happiness. He was extremely happy just by hearing that voice.

He tried to get up on his feet but he had no strength left in him. He kept trying, again and again, he desperately wanted to go where that person was, who was laying down ten or so meters away!

“Thud”

With a loud sound he again fell down, it was his tenth time trying to get up, though his broken body couldn’t support him any further, every time he was trying to stand up again he was falling down.

“I have to go where Your Highness is. I can’t stop right now. I don’t want to stop right now”, He thought. He was staring in the direction of that familiar voice while he was on the ground, laying down on his stomach. He clenched his hands, “I want to see Your Highness. I want to make sure that Your Highness is alright” In frustration, his tears again started to fall. He started hitting the ground with his head, he was so angry with himself.

“What was the meaning of having that much power when I didn’t even protect Your Highness” He rested his head on the ground, tears were stopped but his heart was thumping like a thunderstorm.

“Ad… Ad… Ad…”

The person was still calling his name. The voice was lower and more sorrowful than the last time but he heard it crystal clearly.

“I have to see Your Highness’s face. I want to see Your Highness’s face”, He thought while he was gazing in the direction of the Your Highness he mentioned.

He put his right hand in front of him then the left hand to pulled himself up in the direction of Your Highness. On the path to Your Highness he sluggishly started to creeps, with grave struggle and endless efforts, he was slithering towards the person who was calling his name.

Some of the soldiers dumped a few bodies somewhere else to walk that’s why the road to Your Highness was not that much of mess or difficult for him to slither yet the road had some sharp rocks, human fleshes, weapon and blood, and lots of blood on the ground. His face was showing his unbearable pain but he was enduring it like he was perfectly fine.

“Ouch!”, he accidentally put his left hand on a pointed rock which he didn’t even notice, he was just nonstop moving in the direction of the Your Highness. “Y-Your Highness, where are you, I-I am coming, do not worry… everything will be fine. So please-please h-hold on a bit”, he murmured these lines, the red blood which was stopped, again started to leave his mouth. “I.. I will make everything correct. Everything will be alright” He thought while going towards Your Highness.

“Your Highness”, he shouted when he saw a familiar figure which looked like Your Highness to him, “I am coming you just wait”. His speed became faster than before, seeing that figure which was just a little far away from him, if he could he would have flown towards that person but he could never do something like that. Tears of joy filling his eyes, he had a very big smile on his face, the light of setting sun made his eyes shine like stars. Even his deep brown eyes were smiling seeing that that person is just some distance away, “Your Highness, see I am here… ugh… I am coming”, he shouted.

The person was laying down on the uneven and messy ground, “Ad… Ad… Advi…k?”, Your Highness’s half-opened eyes were gazing at him, Your Highness tried to reach out for him as Your Highness wanted to hold Advik as soon as possible.

In the war ground, the only thing which was looking beautiful was Your Highness. Your Highness’s eyes were closed, with a pretty face Your Highness was facing the sky.

The evening sky looked dazzling, it had a cold yet gentle breeze. The warmth of the sun was still there, however, not the sun. The yellow, orange, pink, red, and purple color was covering the sky as if they were painted by a talented painter.

The light of different colors in the sky was making Your Highness’s whole body covered by enormous colors, Your Highness had some teardrops on the cheeks, some blood was coming out of Your Highness’s mouth, the long jet black hair of Your Highness was spread beneath the slender back, Your Highness’s face structure was so beautiful that it looked like it was a precisely crafted sculpture, the extremely rare beauty of that person was just straight out of heaven. No one can tell whether the person was an angel or a human, a man or a woman! Hairs of Your Highness were dyed with the blood, no, the person head to toe was soaked in blood and dirt, except some part of the clothes the whole body was red, filth was mixed with that vermilion fluid, the pretty face was also covered with mud.

The blood was slowly rolling down from the cuts and wounds from Your Highness’s stomach, which was pierced by a pure silver sword, it was like glass – clear and colorless, it seemed like it was made from freshwater or crystal clear glass, the brown hilt of it was glittering like it was carved from diamonds, the sword had strong spiritual air around it, it was as if the sword was crying because it didn’t want to kill this person who was dying below it.

“Y-your… Y-your Highness! Look I-I am here!” Your Highness sluggishly opened the eyes hearing those words, those eyes were sparkling having Him so close.

The image of Advik was in the eyes of Your Highness, “A-Ad… Advik!!” Advik was there beside Your Highness, laying on the right side, facing Your Highness with great euphoria in the eyes, Advik’s left profile was touching the ground.

Your Highness’s left hand caressed his right cheek, “Y-you, indeed, are here!”, tears were on the edge of Your Highness’s eyes, the hand which were touching Advik’s cheek were stained with blood, still the warmth of this hand – which were gradually fading with every passing second – was warming him.

Your Highness slightly curved to see Advik. Advik put his hand on the hand which was warming his cheek, ” Ha!” He grinned while looking in the eyes of the person in front of him. Both were diving into the eyes of each other, the blurry reflection of them was the result of those tears in their eyes, yet it was pleasing; the image in their eyes, the droplets and the light reflecting in their eyes. Maybe both knew that this the end for them, which was why, even in that horrible situation they didn’t mind anything around them; not their filthy clothes, not the sea of blood, not their wounds and not the strong smell of dead bodies rotting everywhere in the destroyed place.

“I am dying, Your Highness!”.

“Me as well,” Your Highness said as if it was a joke.

“I apologize for before, Your Highness”, he whispered with sincerity in his low voice.

“Back there, it wasn’t your fault”. Your Highness sighed, “I was at fault too, so, it’s even now”.

“Your Highness, just tell me already that you’re in-in love with… me, aren’t you?”, he joked.

“Please! D-don’t joke at a time… like this”.

“Argh… But why didn’t you told me the truth!?”, Advik asked looking in those deep eyes.

“I-I… Cough… Apologize!”, Your Highness removed the teardrop from Advik’s cheek. ” A-Advik… Can I request you for something… Cough!?”, a mouthful of blood came out form Your Highness’s mouth, he was clearly in agony.

Advik nodded and said, “Yes, whatever you want… Shwet!”, he smiled lightly when he said the name.

Your Highness aka Shwet was surprised hearing the name as well. “C-can you sing that song of yours which your parents taught you, I-I know I’m… being… Cough… stupid for asking you to sing in this situation but please…, if-if you could…!”, Shwet requested.

Advik’s lips curved upward a bit when he heard the request. “Why not!”, he took a small breath and started to sing, in the beginning of his singing his voice wasn’t pleasing at all to ears, it was cracking often and those wounds of his didn’t let him breathe properly to sing well, he was coughing so many times during singing the song, the song was as if someone who is tone-deaf was trying to sing!

Even so, the fading smile on Your Highness’s messy face was priceless, with the closed eyes Your Highness was listening to him, attentively! Somehow, it was a strangely relaxing melody which was helping Your Highness to endure the unbearable pain! After a while, Advik got a hold on his singing, thus, that made his voice better than before! The cold wind was getting stronger than a few minutes ago, the deep blue sky, deeper than the ocean itself was all over their heads, having many stars above them which were making the whole night sky divine.

Though the sun was gone long ago, still the milky-white moon was there glittering like a pearl in the sea. It could have been a perfect moment only if those dead bodies weren’t decomposing there while the smell of them was mixing with the breeze.

The pin-drop silence was everywhere, everything looked dead, everything was motionless like someone has put some magic spell out there or the time might be just too slow to notice anything. “A-Ad… Vik… did you–“, the tension was all over Your highness’s face.

“Y-yes!, I heard the sound… of something coming in… in our direction!!”, Advik stated with a worrisome look. “We-we should pretend to be dead or it may be more dangerous for both of us!”, he mumbled.

The sound of wheels coming towards them grew up louder, it was indeed coming at a rapid speed. The sound of the vehicle, the footsteps of horses was the only thing echoing in that dead place, the noise was piercing. Advik thought that whoever is coming at this late would be just here for the last check on the ground and they’ll leave soon, If they didn’t get noticed by them! However, the sound didn’t stop even after some minutes, it was as if the vehicle was straight coming for them, the thought of it made Advik a bit worried and afraid. He saw a rath heading towards them from the right side, a big but not that fancy type of rath which some royals or nobles would never choose to ride, it looked like the rath of a soldier who wasn’t that of high rank.

“YOUR HIGHNESS!!!”

Advik screamed, yet he was late, the speed of those black horses was tremendous, even when they weren’t of high breed horses they still got some extraordinary legs, Advik didn’t even get the time to think before the rath walked over them, crashing their every single bone by those heavy wheels and those powerful legs of horses, it crashed them like an ant. First Your Highness then Advik was crushed ruthlessly by it.

A few seconds later, Advik opened his damaged eyes again, the only thing he saw was those grave wounds on the person in front of him, the injuries were graver than before, deeper than before, the blood was flowing out of the body like it was raining, the sword was bent deeper into the person, it ripped off the arteries and internal organs of Your Highness, those organs were showing out of the body, it was unspeakable! it was a mess! It was just as if it would be better if the person simply dies rather than suffering like that, maybe that should be more peaceful and painless death than this tragedy.

Advik’s situation wasn’t any better, he was heavily bleeding and injured as well, his whole body was in agony, way more shattered – dislocated than before. Just some inches away from them the rath stopped after crossing over them. A man in turquoise clothes, smooth white skin, long brown hair, wearing an evil smile – may be pleased with what he just did. He hopped out from the rath, one saber and one sword crossing on his back, having evilness around him, with a disgusting look filled in his eyes.

“Phu…AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..!! OH GOD!OH GOD! OH MY DEAR GOD! JUST LOOK WHAT I HAVE FOUND IN THIS DUSTBIN! Hmm, SO, The world-famous Thief is here. How-how tragic! Shh… Your situation, aww…. poor you! I am sad very very sad seeing you like this that it’s breaking my heart!!”, he walked closer to put his leg on Advik’s head, he pushed his head in the land like he was killing some bugs, it was powerful enough to break one or two head bone of Advik. “I THINK WHATEVER HAPPENED TO YOU WAS WRONG, DEFINITELY WRONG. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN WAY MORE PAINFUL!, WAY MORE TRAGIC!, WAY CRUEL AND WAY MORE EVIL! Don’t you think!!?”

He sat down in front of Advik’s head, he grabbed Advik’s hair and looked in his eyes, “That’s why! That is why I am here, to make you pay for what you did to MY FAMILY! Hahaha… Look closely at ME! The table has finally turned, “Thuu”, he spat on Advik’s face. “YOU DISGRACEFUL ANIMAL! YOU SON OF A BITCH! I AM HERE TO KILL YOU WITH MY OWN HANDS!!!”, he tightened his grip on Advik’s head and forcefully shoved his head deep into the ground.

Advik was a little unconscious because of anemia, he didn’t know and also didn’t care for whatever was happening with him. His weak and lifeless right hand was just trying to reach Your Highness’s motionless body, “Y-you… Y-your… H-High… Ness…!!”. There wasn’t any distance between them, at least not that much for others, nevertheless, for him, it was like Your Highness was miles away from him.

The person in turquoise clothes saw his hand. “Huh!? Are you reaching out for someone!?”, he crushed the hand as well and looked at the direction where the hand was trying to reach, “SO!!, this person is someone important to you?! Hahaha… Seriously! I can’t take this anymore! You… are caring for someone else in this circumstance!?! My! FUCK!! I am very happy right now!!” when he turned to see the other person, he was surprised. “Huh?! I am familiar with this glorious sword! Ain’t you? Advik Arya The Diabolic Thief!! Don’t you think that this sword is more familiar to you than to me!?!”

He kicked Your Highness, but the kick wasn’t powerful enough to move a strong cultivator much. “Well! Well, I came here to give your life the last strike which your pitiful life needs right now, however, I have changed my mind seeing this!”, he smiled. “Do you agree if someone wants to hurt their enemies, they should just simply kill or hurt their enemies most important people and their enemies will surely die in the most pathetic way! Right?”, he demonically laughed.

Advik worried face looked at the insane person, “D-don’t! Please! D-don’t hurt Your Highness or you’ll die by me!”, he glared at him with rage in his eyes.

“Huh!? So YOU can talk! How interesting”, he giggled, “Awesome! Much interesting! You can talk and you want to kill me when you can’t EVEN stand! Fufufu!!!”

With a woeful and desperate voice, Advik begged, “P-please… I.. I am begging you..ahhh! S-spare Your Highness! General!! Please!! Your Highness is the only… friend I have!! P-Please!!

“NO!! I won’t spare anyone! Why should I spare him when you didn’t spare my family at that time!” He pulled out his sword, just one move of his sword and it slashed off the head of Your Highness like humans abruptly cut animals for their meat.

“YOUR HIGHNESS!!!!!”, Advik screamed with every last breath inside of him but that scream never leave his lips!

“LOOK AT YOURSELF!! YOU ARE CRYING FOR SOMEONE ELSE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…!!! I AM EMOTIONAL, VERY EMOTIONAL!”, he sheathed the sword.

“Why… W-why!! WHY… WHY… YOU!!!”, Advik cried.

“YOU ASK WHY ME? Hahaha, I simply think it was fun that’s why. BUT NOW I AM THINKING I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU FIRST!! WELL, it’s still not late! Is it!?!, he grabbed Advik’s hair and hauled him forcibly towards the edge of a mountain, it was just some hundred meters ahead from them, He was moving him like small kids move their toys with ropes, without caring for Advik who was half dead.

He pulled him nearly at the end of the mountain to look down in the abyss, the depth of it was endless, “Take A Look! This is the place where you are going to die! Hahahahaha!! I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN THAT I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING!!” He clutched him to look down in the abyss, ” This is Narak Dvaar, down there is Hell’s Flame, it’s said that if someone is thrown into it, they will die and they’ll never be reborn ever again in any universe! Amazing isn’t it?!!” He threw Advik on the ground, “But before sending you in that place, I personally want to give you a reward”, he smirked.

On the other hand, Advik was unaware of his situation, laying down near the mountain’s edge, after been through so much, his eyes were still half-opened, he could only watch whatever was happening with him, he not had any strength left to fight, after that much torture he was used to the unendurable pain.

General touched Advik’s dry lips with his feet, “Aww, you still got some blood to flow out of your miserable body… hmm!”

“You know!? I love seeing you like this but I hate seeing you in pain! So, let me end this, LET ME END YOU!!”, the insane General raged.

He put his left and right hand close to his broad chest with only index fingers and middle fingers of both hands pointing at the sky while remaining others were closed down. He chanted some mantras, “THE SEVEN HOLY STARS OF ABOVE, JUDGE THE DEMONIC SOUL OF THIS HUMAN! KILL HIM IN THE MOST FIERCE WAY!” The unstoppable purple lighting from above fell down straight upon Advik, in just a moment it burned his entire body like charcoal. Like that horrible death wasn’t enough. The General unsheathed his both saber and sword only to cut off Advik’s burned corpse into small pieces of dust. “HE IS DEAD!! THE DIABOLIC THIEF ADVIK IS DEAD!! I KILLED HIM!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA…!!!” He collected those pieces of Advik to put them in a small pouch and he threw it down in the Narak Dvaar!

Author’s Note :

Rath: a chariot, especially one used to carry an idol in a ceremonial procession.