The sun is up in the clear sky, shining its light at full blast as it scorches the Earth unforgivingly. The birds chirp happily as they take shade from the tall trees; and the grass would sway along with the tiny breeze that passes through the thick forest.

There's a road that led through the forest, on that very same road, travels Axel with his hood over his head and with his whole body hidden underneath the black robe. His eyes stare into the great beyond as his face is sweating profusely. His white as snow skin doesn't fare too well against the hot rays of the sun, and his robe doesn't do much better either as the color black absorbs heat. His walking pattern grows uneven as he continues to walk an endless road. The path is hot, so hot that visible heat begins to rise from off the dirt and back into the sky.

Ever since the events of yesterday, Axel left Northrade town and headed down South in the middle of the night. With his current objective now being to kill Yokubo, the Warlord of the South. He has two reasons behind this goal, one is because he wants to become much stronger. Strong enough to be able to storm the capital and murder the son of a bitch who made him suffer in cold blood. Since he's now able to steal the stats and abilities from the dead, he can easily take advantage of this and kill powerful opponents to become stronger quicker. And two, he wants to screw over the kingdom by leaving a giant entrance in the border for the demon race, their sworn enemies, to enter and attack the kingdom.

A pretty solid plan to get back at the royal family, however; there's just one problem with this. .

Axel grunts as veins start popping out on his forehead. The heat only serves to amplify this as he quickly grows irritated by the second. He stands right in front of two pathways leading to the opposite directions. .

"Dammit all!!!" His shout scares most of the little critters around him.

He has been encountering this exact same predicament ever since he has entered this forest, no, ever since he started the journey to the South. It's a maze of pathways, some of them did have signs that were still readable, but most of the time, the signs are withered away beyond useability by the environment and the sun. He's been walking for over 16 hours now, throughout the night and day, without any kind of rest whatsoever. The last meal he had was over a day ago in the form of Martha's stew, and although he has money in his pockets, by stealing it from the knight's he's murdered. There's just no way he can use it without finding a town.

The once escape fantasy world Axel had pictured in his mind when he first arrived here quickly becomes nothing more but an absolute hellish nightmare. He hates this world with a burning passion, and the worst part, is that he could never return back to his old world, since he's now bound to the same destiny as the same creatures his classmates are meant to destroy. Once again, fate cruelly toys with his life as they laugh at the pathetic attempts Axel has tried to prevent it.

He goes with his gut feeling and chooses a path. He continues to walk despite the throbbing his legs are enduring. His calves begin to cramp up really badly as it tears and pulls on the individual muscle fibers on his legs. His legs burn immensely as the sinking feel of lava burning his legs increases by the second. He's undergoing a lot of pain in his body as his legs are begging him to stop and rest, but his face doesn't have any kind of reaction whatsoever, because he just doesn't care.

His breathing slowly begins to get heavier, as the air becomes thinner. His stomach growls like a hungry lion as his mind becomes light headed by the constant heat blistering his head. Even his own eyes begin to play tricks on him as his vision starts confusing his imagination for reality.

"Hello Axel . . ." An all too familiar voice calls out to Axel. His whole body flinches as he stops right in his tracks, slowly turning around . .

There they stand . . . his two best friends . .

Axel eyes begin to tremble . . as a blood drop falls from one of his eyes . .

" . . .No . . . ." His body begins to shake as his heart starts to race. .

Tom and George wave at him with big joyful smiles. They gesture Axel to come over to them as they point to the other direction with a happy go lucky expression on their face.

"Let's go play Axel! Just the three of us!" Says Tom as he welcomes Axel with open arms.

"It will be like the good old times! The three musketeers!!" Shouts George as he invites Axel.

He freezes in place as a dagger pierces his heart, and begins to twist it. His hand instinctively reaches out towards his family with great pain in his eyes . . . but he quickly bites his lip and forcibly retracts his hand back. He pulls his hood forward to mask his face, and starts walking the other way . . With his heart . . . crumbling apart . .

" . . . Y-you're not here . . . You're dead . . . You're . . dead . . ."

He knows this is just an illusion, he knows he'll never get the chance to actually see them ever again . . But, it still hurts like hell whenever he sees them through his illusions, or his necklace . . . And what hurts Axel the most, is the fact that he can no longer mourn for his friends. He can't cry for his family . . No matter how hard he tries to cry . . . He can't let out his sorrows . . Everytime he sees his friends through the necklace he has, or through his illusions. He's always on the verge of breaking down . . . but he can't. . . All of his emotions that are bottled up inside, can never reach the surface. .

With the exception of one emotion . .

His friends scream from out of nowhere! Causing Axel to instinctively turn around!

His eyes widen as he witnesses his friends die right before his eyes . . . Blood squirts everywhere as a blade cleaves them through their backs! They reach out to Axel for one last time with tears in their eyes as they fall down . . In the pool of their own blood . . .

And right behind them . . stands Blake, smiling at Axel as he swings his blade to clean off the blood stains.

Almost like a volcano erupting!! AXEL BREAKS THE GROUND AS HE CHARGES STRAIGHT TOWARDS HIM!!

"BBBBLLLLAAAAKKKKEEEE!!!!!!"

VEINS POP THROUGHOUT HIS BODY AS HE GRINDS HIS TEETH EXTREMELY HARD!! HE CLUTCHES HIS FIST TIGHTLY!! TO THE POINT WERE HIS HANDS BEGIN TO BLEED AS HE THROWS A PUNCH!!!

Blake's smile only rises as he easily dodges the attack.

"You're still alive? . . Well, it matters not. Your power doesn't even hold a candle to mine. Comparing our strengths would be the equivalent of comparing the dirt to the sky, no, my power is much higher than the sky . . It's unreachable."

Axel continues to barrage Blake with a flurry of punches!! He uses the last bit of energy his body has left to at least scratch Blake! But he effortlessly dodges every swing Axel throws at him and he begins to toy with him by smirking from ear to ear.

"You may direct all this anger solely towards me . . but let's not forget . . . You were the one who let your friends die . ." He continues to play with Axel's regrets.

"SSSSHHHUUUUTTTT UUPP!!!!"

He breaks his own limits as he chucks a massive fireball towards Blake as he falls!! Blake begins to laugh as the fireball passes through his body and nearly avoids hitting the forest! Axel collapses onto the burning ground as Blake's laughter continues to become louder, his body begins to shut down as he starts to faint in the darkness that is his mind . . . But, before he loses consciousness, his eyes glance over to Blake for one last time . . . And he finds himself standing where Blake stood, smiling back at him . . .

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His mind slowly begins to recover as from within the darkness, a tiny light starts to illuminate. The light slowly consumes the darkness, until he eventually becomes surrounded by the blinding light.

As his eyes slowly begin to open. He instantly notices a bonfire right in front of him. Most of the firewood is already burnt with a tiny ember at the very top, struggling to survive. He's inside the thick forest with the night sky being a dark shade of purple. He also quickly realizes that his back is laying upon a tree instead of him being on the ground.

"So you're finally awake," says a female voice which causes Axel to snap his head towards where the voice comes from.

Although the forest is vastly dark, Axel is able to see clearly thanks to his Night Vision ability.

(Night Vision: Allows the user's eyes to adjust to the darkness and see clearly by enhancing the amount of light particles that can enter his pupils.)

Right next to the bonfire is the same female knight Axel spotted over at Northrade town, sitting down on a log. She's hugging her sword as she faces Axel with a welcoming smile. Her hair is a bit messier than he last remembered with a few light bruises running along her skin.

He just stares blankly at her as he tries to get up, and walks away.

But just as he gathers the energy to get up, his legs quickly give up on him and he stumbles down onto the ground. His stomach growls, reminding him that he's extremely low in energy.

Even though he had just rested, his body is still dangerously low on energy to sustain his body. Ever since he became the Grim Reaper, he's been using his own arm to satisfy his hunger and thirst. Even though on paper, it sounded like a good plan to never run out of food, eating his arm was the equivalent of eating his waste. He'd just keep recycling his own energy over and over until it eventually degrades over time, and he'll get no nutrition from eating his arm. Hunting is also difficult for him, since the scent of death immediately warrants off any potential prey he can catch. The only real source of nutrition he's received so far was Martha's stew, but that was over a day ago with most of that energy spent on killing the knights and walking all the way to the forest. Basically, it's nothing short then a miracle that Axel is still conscious.

"Here you go, it's a bit cold though," the knight goes through her bag and offers Axel a roasted rabbit leg.

His stomach immediately begins eating itself as his eyes feast upon the food with drool coming out of his mouth.

He snatches the leg from her hands and turns around, devouring the leg in mere seconds!

She lets out a surprise, "woah . ," before she fetches even more food in her bag and offers it to Axel.

"You can have some more if you'd like."

Axel continues to devour the food she brings out as the sky slowly becomes lighter in color, then, a sunrise begins to set in the horizon.

She just continues to watch him in curiosity as he bites down on the food like a savage beast.

"You're the same person I found getting harassed by the thugs in the alley, correct?" She asks a question as she places her head onto her close hand and tilts her head.

Only the crackling of the tiny fire fills the void of silence as he continues to eat without answering her question, but he abruptly pauses and glances at her once her question reaches his ears. Giving her more than enough of a confirmation to answer her own question. Now the only question that rose to mind is why did she find him here of all places, with his face buried in the dirt.

"Why are you here in this forest?" She asks once more, but this time Axel gulps down his food and places the food on his lap.

". . . I was heading towards Southrade town, but I got lost along the way," he responds.

To his surprise, his reply makes her react as she stands up with her face lighting up and with her wolf ears patruting straight up.

"No way! I was just heading there too! Hey, how about I guide you there!" She beams with her tail swaying side to side as she offers her hand to him.

"My name is Alice! What's yours?"

An awkward silence fills the air as Axel just stares at her hand. If he was the old Axel, he would have accepted it in a heartbeat as the saying goes, more the merrier, but he wasn't the old Axel. Even though she has just saved him from starvation, that doesn't mean anything to him. He doesn't feel obligated to repay her back in any kind of way or to accept her offer out of being a good samaritan. Kindness such as that will only get exploited by a harsh world such as this one, it's a dog eat dog world, and he refuses to work with somebody for that very same reason.

However, the offer she brings to the table made Axel think twice about rejecting her. Declining her offer can lead to his death if he gets stuck in this forest forever, not to mention the news of him being alive is traveling to the throughout the kingdom, including the capital, his plans would be ruined if he takes too long to make it to Black Shield Castle and ends up finding a whole army ready to kill him. Although it pains him to do it, he reluctantly reaches out his arm and they both shake hands.

"My name is Josh, and I accept your offer."

Her smile brightens as she firmly grasps his hand back.

"Great! We'll go once I'm done cleaning
this place!"

They quickly put out the fire and start cleaning up. Once everything is ready to go, they hit the road with Alice being his personal guide.

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Three days later.

Inside Black Shield Castle.

A butler walks down a grand corridor. He has his head up high as he passes the countless knights that are standing against the wall, acting almost as if they're statues.

However, not too long after he nearly reaches the end of the corridor. A woman's cries begin to escape through the wall along with a man's laughter. Her screams gradually become louder as the butler approaches a humongous door that leads to the Warlord's room.

Nobody bats an eye as the woman shrieks in pain and calls out for anyone to help her. As he reaches the door, the woman lets out one final scream at the top of her lungs!! Before a man's laughter follows suit and everything goes quiet.

Suddenly!! The two massive doors fling wide open as a beautiful, naked lady gets thrown into the corridor with laughter rising inside the room. She's heavily mutilated with several bruises on her body and with her two arms broken. She cries onto the ground with her body traumatized as two knights pick her up from floor and drag her away. With the doors still open, the butler walks into the room.

There's very tall person who is easily over 10ft tall, who although laughs like a man, he doesn't appear in the slightest human. Monster would better describe him as he has a frightening, monstrous build to him with long black hair, and razor sharp teeth that resembled a lot like the teeth of a Great White shark. He pulls up his pants with a satisfied smile on his face before he glances over to the butler.

"Master Yokubo, if you keep breaking your toys like that. Soon, there won't be any young woman in the South," says the butler, making Yokubo let out a massive chuckle.

"Hahaha!! Oh Franky, nobody would want her anyway. That stupid bitch couldn't satisfy a man even if she wanted to. The only good thing she was good at was screaming, so I took the liberty to enjoy it by slowly breaking her arms. Anyways, what brings you here? You're not usually here this early in the morning," says Yokubo as he puts on a shirt.

Frank stands up tall and proud while having his arms behind his back. "Master Yokubo, one of the knights from Northrade town has a message for you, he's currently waiting in the audience room," says the butler as he walks away.

The audience room.

Yokubo sits on his throne with a smile creased on his lips as the castle's knight escorts the messenger and makes him bow before Yokubo. He's quivering under the presence of Yokubo as his body shrinks. It's the same knight Axel had encountered earlier on with multiple bandages covering one of his arms. Yokubo gestures to him to stand up as he coils his head in an amusing fashion.

"Haha, have you guys already brought what I've asked for?"

His words make the knight tremble even harsher as he closes his eyes, and reluctantly shakes his head, all while sweating bullets as his heart begins to race.

"M-my apologies, sire . . . B-but we came across an i-issue that prevented us from gathering the rest of the women over at Northrade town," says the knight as his voice begins to squeak.

Dead silence fills the air, as Yokubo's smile drops down into a frown and he stares into the knight with displeasure radiating from out of his eyes . .

"What issue. ." His voice becomes stone cold as his hand slowly curls into fists. . .

"He goes by the name of Axel the Reaper, and he has his sights set on you s-sire," he quickly lowers his head down apologetically as his body shakes uncontrollably.

"What happened to the rest of your squadron?" Yokubo asks with an irritated expression on his face.

The knight's shoulder jumps as he lifts his head towards Yokubo with tears in his eyes.

"T-they all been slaughtered by Axel sire, I was the only one he allowed to live."

Yokubo grinds his teeth as he lifts one hand towards the knight.

"And who gave you the right to live?"

Some unnatural force begins to pull on the knight as he gets fling into the grasp of Yokubo. He smiles creepily as he begins to strangle the knight with one hand.

"I don't need cowards into my army. Consider yourself free from my servitude."

He lifts the knight off the ground as he watches the knight flail his body around in pure desperation with great pleasure in his eyes.

"Please sire!! . . . H-have mercy!! I beg of y-you!!"

The knight's body begins to twitch as blood begins pouring down his mouth. His eyes roll to the back of his head as Yokubo laughs out loud, crushing the knight's throat completely.

He throws the knight's corpse across the audience room as Frank comes in the room, awaiting his orders. Yokubo's smile only becomes wider as he begins to titter.

"Things have just gotten a whole lot more interesting. . ."

His veins become bursting with excitement as the castle knights drag the corpse away. Something exciting is about to happen, he can just tell, he licks his lips in anticipation as he waits for that day to come. Axel, the traitorous hero. He has just declared war on him, and he's ready to respond to him.

A new era, is about to commence . . .