Whoosh.
Whoosh.
"Ugh... what's happening?"
Whoosh.
Before the bandit could finish his sentence, a blue arrow pierced through his head at an invisible speed, and he collapsed where he stood without another sound. Then, beneath the dark night sky that covered the large bandit village, the surroundings suddenly lit up as countless blue arrows rained down from above in an endless barrage. Every arrow found its mark, piercing each bandit in every corner of that cursed village.
For a time, the only sounds that could be heard were broken screams, each cut short by another blue arrow in cold, calculated succession. Cries would begin but never finish, only to be replaced by complete silence.
After a short while, the rain of blue arrows came to an end, and a heavy silence settled over the entire place. Only then did the one responsible for this assault .the one who had cleansed this evil band of bandits from the world . walk into the village.
Thorne slowly made his way through the criminals' village with calm, measured steps, all the while looking at the scattered corpses lying around him in every direction. Although they fully deserved this fate for all the evil, violence, and murder they had committed, and although they had become nothing more than a malignant tumor upon this region, attacking peaceful villages and leaving behind nothing but ashes and corpses, he found no satisfaction or comfort in taking the lives of human beings.
He murmured quietly to himself beneath the black cloth that hung over his face, his voice low amid the dead silence.
"Taking a life is evil. Even if I do it for a greater purpose, that doesn't mean I haven't committed evil... or that I myself am not evil."
He spoke as though continuing an internal debate with himself, one that had yet to reach an answer capable of satisfying him. Then he continued walking toward one of the large houses located at the center of the village, a house that clearly belonged to one of the leaders of this gang.
As soon as he calmly forced the door open, he found a huge man with a savage face, now filled with unmistakable fear that he could not hide despite his imposing build. The man was holding a child whose condition clearly showed signs of having been tortured for a very long time. Pressing a sharp dagger against the child's throat, he shouted at Thorne in a voice that tried to sound threatening and strong but failed to conceal the terror hidden beneath it.
"Don't come any closer! Stay back, or I'll kill him!"
Thorne stopped where he was, calmly looking at him before shifting his gaze toward the other children inside the house. It was painfully obvious from their appearance that they had endured torture, starvation, and disease.
At that moment, a wave of intertwined emotions surged through him all at once—burning anger, profound sorrow, crushing disappointment, and fear born from the very nature of what he was witnessing. He then raised his head toward the huge bandit before him, whose face was consumed by panic despite his threats, and spoke in a calm yet heavy voice.
"Just tell me... how can you commit such evil against your fellow human beings?"
"What are you talking about, you bastard?! I'm warning you! Let me leave, or I'll drag this dagger across his throat!"
The bandit's voice trembled slightly despite his desperate attempt to appear in control. Thorne continued, his tone remaining calm but carrying something much deeper and more serious.
"Is there nothing in your heart except evil? Has your heart become so consumed by evil that you feel no remorse, even in your current situation, and all you desire is to save yourself? Answer me."
Then, suddenly, his voice rose sharply as he shouted,
"ANSWER ME, YOU FILTH! ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN?!"
An overwhelming wave of chakra erupted from him, causing the bandit to freeze completely in place, as though time itself had stopped around him. Even the hand gripping the dagger against the child's throat loosened and released it. Yet the child himself remained frozen as well, unable to move. Nor did it stop with the two of them even the other children inside the house became motionless in exactly the same way. The entire house had become a frozen image, devoid of all movement.
Then a blue light appeared in Thorne's hand, gradually taking shape until it transformed into a massive black greatsword. He approached the frozen bandit, looked at him closely, and said,
"What did you feel... when you tortured and killed other people?"
The bandit's expression suddenly changed in a strange and unexpected way, as though he had entered a state completely free of fear, as if something inside him had been rearranged in that very moment, allowing him to fully accept his fate. He spoke in a calm, flat voice devoid of any noticeable emotion.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I'm strong, and they're worthless weaklings... so I do whatever I want to them."
Thorne's expression beneath the black veil changed instantly. At first, there was shock. Then something entirely different appeared upon his face . fear. Yes, genuine fear. Not fear of the man standing before him, but fear of what he had just heard and what those words truly meant. Fear of human nature itself, and of what human beings could transform into, and eventually grow so accustomed to that it became completely normal to them.
In that very moment, the image of the bandit before Thorne changed. It was as though he no longer saw a human being in the sense he understood, but rather something twisted a terrifying monster that bore no resemblance to what humanity was meant to be. That horrifying realization left him frozen for a brief moment as he struggled to regain his shaken composure.
Then he thrust his sword through the bandit's heart. The man fell backward, dead, his blood spreading across the floor of the house. Yet this ending brought Thorne none of the relief he had expected or hoped to feel after putting an end to someone consumed by such overwhelming evil. Instead, it left him with a heavy, nauseating sensation and a foul taste lingering in his mouth that he could not properly describe.
It was not regret, for he knew with absolute certainty that what he had done had been necessary. It was something else . something deeper, something far more difficult to define than simple regret.
Hello, dear readers.
I think many of you have already noticed or at least guessed the direction of Dan's long-term plan for this world. In short, it can be summed up in one word: Hell.
Yes, his goal is to create a hell on Earth, a world filled with suffering and tragedy. Not out of cruelty for its own sake, but because he believes that such hardship will become the whetstone that sharpens human civilization and prepares it for what lies ahead.
Dan believes that true progress can only be achieved through sacrifice, war, bloodshed, hope, despair, good, and evil . all existing at the same time. Only through enduring these trials will humanity continue to evolve and bring forth its very best in preparation for the coming threat from the aliens.
As for the details of his plan, I'll leave that for you to figure out yourselves. I think many of you have already started connecting the dots from the hints scattered throughout the previous chapters, especially those involving the darker worlds that indirectly inspired parts of this story.
I'm looking forward to reading your theories. Some of you may already be much closer to the truth than you realize.
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