"Status report Codename: Jonah," a voice heavily distorted by static came in. The man could barely hear it over the booming coming from outside mixed with the panicked screams of unfortunate bystanders. Jonah was sitting in a dark crevice between two shops, listening closely as people ran by, only to be torn to shreds. He was waiting until most of the people had been eviscerated by his pet to put his actual plan into motion.
'Ahhh, the sweet sound of their screams and the symphony of flesh being torn from bone,' he thought to himself, closing his eyes and drinking it all in. It was like music to his ears. Eventually, the sound of footsteps died down and he deemed it time to step out.
He left the crevice he was hiding in and stretched, finally being able to move after an hour or so of hiding. His thought drifted back to the young kid holding the katana who had bumped into him earlier.
'I wonder if he was going to sell that decrepit old thing,' he thought, struggling to contain his laughter, 'Little did he know he should've held onto it.' Not that it would've mattered. His monster wasn't something that boy was capable of defeating, not with his soul capacity being so low.
'Maybe he was just selling a weapon,' Jonah thought, pausing, 'There's no way something that weak could be a paladin.' He thought back to the boy's face clearly, seeing the look of quiet acceptance on his face. This calmed him.
'No, he's been beaten by the world itself,' he thought, continuing forward, 'He's no paladin.'
"Status report codename: Jonah" the voice said again, clearer this time. Jonah raised his wrist to his mouth, the sleeve of his robe coming back and revealing a communication watch.
"Status report: the monster has been successfully deployed and the available witness count has been reduced to a negligible number," he reported, "Moving on with the second stage of the mission now."
He lowered his watch and made a beeline to a certain store on the third level, his boots making a soft squelching sound in the blood-soaked carpet. The atrium was truly a work of art. Shredded bodies lay everywhere, blood particles filling the air with a pleasant coppery scent. The carpet had been soaked with so much blood that it was completely red, blood splatters also coating the walls like a fresh coat of paint.
He walked until he found a shop called Pop's Old Fashioned Armory. The sign had been torn to shreds, the glass in the store front shattered beyond repaid. Shelves that had been full of weapons were now collapsed and laying on the ground.
However, he wasn't here for a meager artifact. He continued to the back of the shop until he found a door and tried the handle. As he expected, it was locked. This was to be expected of course. He shook his arms, causing two rusty sickles attached to chains to fall out.
Runes along the blades glowed as he spun them up to speed and embedded them on the door. He then spun around and pulled on both chains, infusing his body with soul energy. His muscles bulged and he ripped the door right off of its hinges, shattering it into pieces from the force. He retracted his sickles and continued forward, only to be greeted by the sight of an old man with a hammer. His face was stone cold, his piercing gaze seemingly looking right into Jonah's soul.
"Ah, you must be the owner of this pathetic little shop," Jonah said in a sickly sweet voice, smiling and holding his arms up, "Rejoice elder, for this shop now serves a greater purpose than selling trinkets and wares to commonfolk."
"I don't need yer 'greater purpose'," the old man growled, his grip tightening on his warhammer, "I knew there was evil afoot and who would've guessed that an Ashen would be nearby." The old man watched as the man's expression changed, falling into one of cold contempt.
"Do you pride yourself on being a standard paladin?" Jonah asked coldly, looking down at the short elderly man.
"Better to be a regular old man trying to survive in this world than someone who's abandoned their humanity all together," the old man responded, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead and dripping down his face.
"It's that sentiment that will lead to your death and the extinction of humanity," Jonah warned darkly, his sickles falling out from inside his sleeves, "With your attunement, you'd have a great place in the new world."
"Maybe so, but I find not just living among people but with them to be heartwarming," the old man said, a reminiscent look on his face as he smiled, "All of the people I've met in my life and had the pleasure of living with, they shaped me into who I am."
"And that person is a disappointment to all paladin kind," Jonah said, feeling anger well up within him. Why would the man reject the power he'd been given, the ability to live as gods.
"You keep saying paladin this and paladin kind that," the old man replied, smirking as the man in front of him got angrier and angrier, "You say those things like we aren't also humans." This seemed to send the man over the edge. He began to spin his sickles around, the chains beginning to glow a spectral green, runes along the blade activating.
"I'll show you why we're no mere humans," Jonah said angrily, a murderous glare in his eyes, "I'll show you so you can mourn all that you're missing out on."
"Come on then," the old man replied, clutching his warhammer tightly and shifting into a defensive stance. He knew he couldn't beat the man, not in his old age, but he still needed to try. For all human kind.
Iago watched in horror as the people around him who hadn't listened to his warning were eviscerated where they stood, shards of crystals tearing their bodies to shred. Blood splattered into the air, filling the shopping center with a fine red mist. People were reduced to hunks of flesh that hit the ground with sickening thuds. Shops were decimated, glass storefronts shattered, and walls torn to shreds.
Then, just as quickly as the onslaught had begun, it was over. Iago slowly stood up, the smell of copper and iron striking him in the nose, the pungent odor almost causing him to gag. Blood had soaked into the carpet, staining it red.
He looked around.
The shopping center seemed to be in ruin. Flashy store fronts had been reduced to rubble. Almost all of the people who had been standing around him were nothing more than hunks of flesh on the ground. It was horrific.
'How the hell, what kind of monster could have done this?' he asked himself. The memory suddenly hit him.
'Shit, the monster,' he thought, running over to the railing. A monster of that caliber could kill thousands of people in the city if it left the shopping center and went to wander the city.
'What the hell am I supposed to do?' he asked himself, clutching the handle of his katana. The monster was still down on the ground floor of the atrium, patrolling and looking for any victims that may have survived its onslaught. Its eye swiveled in its society rapidly, taking in every corpse that it had created with delight.
The atrium itself had been reduced to rubble, the floor destroyed, the walls riddled with holes. The fountain in the middle had been turned into swiss cheese, the water stained red with blood. The chandelier hung on to its mount by a threat, teetering over the ground dangerously. He looked down in horror, his heart pounding, his knees feeling weak.
'How could I ever defeat that thing?' he asked himself. He could barely handle low level monsters and rogues. How could he handle something that could demolish an atrium full of people in mere moments. He felt his determination slipping little by little. It wasn't the first time he'd found himself afraid of something, but this felt different. This was fear.
'I need to find a way out of here,' he thought to himself bitterly. He'd just leave it to the actual paladins to get the job done. He quietly stood up and backed away from the railing. However, before he could turn around and find an exit, movement caught his eyes. His heart skipped a beat, his eyes widening in horror. He sprinted back to the railing and watched as a little boy with blood smeared all over his face stepped out from behind the destroyed fountain. He was clearly shaking, his hand over his mouth to avoid making noise and attracting the monster. However, with the creature's eye swiveling about, it took no time at all for it to lock on to the boy.
The monster groaned, an inhuman sound leaving its body. The head leaned back, revealing a gaping maw full of rows of sharp, crystalline teeth, chunks of flesh and meat stuck in between each tooth. The boy gasped and began to back away, not making it far as he tripped on a corpse and landed in a pool of blood with a splatter.
'SHIT!' Iago thought, 'RUN KID RUN!' He was practically screaming inside his own head, only for the kid to remain on the ground, trembling in fear. If Iago left, there was no way any other paladins would reach the shopping center in time to save the kid. If he ran away now, what kind of paladin would he have ever been. Iago felt his body inexplicably move, his muscles and body acting on their own. If he ever believed in the ideals he spouted at the rogues he tried to intercept when they were committing crimes, he knew what he had to do. He stepped onto the rail and jumped, only one thing on his mind.
"I am… a paladin."