“Grooooooaaaaa Where are you? aaaaaaaah!”
The boy…was crying.
“Rrgh… Rrooo Where did you go? oooooogh!”
Behind that feral noise. Between each harrowing beat…
“Groooaaaaa I have to aaaa protect you! aaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
…was his pain.
“Roaaa I will aaaaaa protect aaaa my sister! aaaaaaaah!”
Then, after dodging countless blows, and with his eyes still closed, Leon spoke.
“Exhaust thy passions and be silent, for the Lord invites you into His presence. Let thy soul be purified, and receive His forgiveness. Then shall the Lord take and cleanse thy sin, and thou shalt be saved.”
It was a passage from scripture. A prayer for the soul of a wretched criminal about to depart.
Leon slowly opened his eyes and looked at the approaching ogre.
“Groooaaaaaagh!”
As the beast swung its massive limb, the corpse lowered his eyelids.
“Let anguish be my guide. Fist of Apollogeist. The fire’s glimmer. The red monkey’s eyes.”
Leon’s steel right arm responded instantly, with geometric patterns appearing across its surface. The next moment, in the darkness of the night, one of the dark limb’s powers was revealed.
“Arts of Steel, Deploy. Abominable Armament Number Two: The Fire King’s Cleansing Flame, Shining Finger.”
Responding to his call, the steel prosthetic melted and adopted a different shape: that of a giant lance. It was covered in shimmering shapes and was composed of many ringlike segments.
Then the rings began rotating, spinning. The immense friction turned the lance a burning red, and it radiated such heat that Leon’s skin soon started to bubble and melt, battling the ghoul’s unnatural regenerative abilities.
Anyone who saw him would think the same thing. He was killing himself, over and over again. And they would be right. This was the power that dwelled within Leon’s false arm. This was the reason it was created.
It was a tool for a monster to kill a monster.
Now, with that power at his hand…
“…I shall impale you.”
The creature’s hide was tough as steel, but it was no match for Leon’s superheated spike. The boy once lost his home under his father’s crimson flow. Now he would lose his life to that same hue.
“Ah…ah…”
From his open mouth came a voice. And then, the ogre wept.
“Gloria…”
His whole body slowly melted into a fetid puddle. A shining green Testament Stone lay in its center. Leon picked it up, and…
“May your rest be eternal salvation.”
He prayed. For the misery-stricken boy and his sister. May they meet again in Paradise.
“Look! The goblins are running away!”
It seemed the goblins all instinctually knew of the death of their commander. They fled the village in a mass exodus.
“…It’s over.”
Leon staggered. The powers within his false arm and leg were great, but their costs in Source consumption were great also. Unable to stay upright, the ghoul fell to one knee.
“Mr. Hero!”
“Are you okay?”
The children he protected came rushing over to check on him. Just as he was about to answer them…
“Look out!” Alice cried. “He’s coming from the right!”
From out of the bushes, one smaller goblin leaped at Leon, sword drawn. But the ghoul didn’t register him as a threat. Instead…
“…You’ll make a fine meal.”
He turned and gripped the creature’s face with the fingers of his steel right arm.
“Ghh! Geh…gah!”
The goblin’s brave attack sliced a tear in Leon’s coat, lacerating his pallid skin. But the ghoul paid no attention to his own dripping blood. He only drew the trapped beast closer while lowering his mask.
Leon Crossheart was not only a human, he was also a monster. That was why no matter what he did, society treated him like one.
The look in the villagers’ eyes was proof enough.
“…What is that?”
They stared, shocked, and muttered among themselves, watching the ghoul partake of his meal. Leon sliced the fiend’s belly and consumed his entrails while the prey still lived. From the goblin’s lips came constant screams of agony, almost as if he was saying, Just kill me already.
It was such a horrifying sight that even the villagers started to feel a little sorry for the fiend.
“Urgh…!”
Several people vomited. The ghoul continued feasting on his catch…until about one-third of the way through his meal, when the goblin finally expired. The corpse immediately deteriorated into a rotting puddle.
“Damn… I was enjoying that.”
Leon lifted his face. Wet chunks fell from his red-stained mouth. His crimson, glowing eyes scanned the crowd and fell on a small girl. One of the children who called out to him and Alice shortly after they arrived in the village.
The goblin ambush just now must have rattled her. She had fallen to the ground, shivering in fright.
Poor thing.
Leon slowly walked over to her and held out his hand.
All he wanted to do was help a girl stand herself up.
However, the other villagers could only see one thing. Even the children who had been kind to him at first.
All they saw was a monster choosing his next victim.
“G-get away from her!”
The children stood in his way. Their teeth chattered, their knees rattled, but still they stared Leon down.
“I-if you lay a finger on Atolie, I’ll…!”
His face was fierce and determined. Seeing it, Leon was overcome with self-pity.
“What am I even trying to do…?”
Who would ever accept his hand? The hand not of a fellow man, but of an inhuman brute?
Nobody. His mind clouded in red mist, Leon had forgotten that. And so he had made a mistake. He had allowed himself to think, for one small moment, that he could live among them.
“…I’m sorry.”
Leon apologized and turned away. The villagers saw him not as the savior of their home, but as a new foe, to be treated with fear and revulsion.
Amid a wave of pitch-dark hate, Leon replaced his mask, hid his face, and turned to Alice.
“Do you still…?”
He had meant to sound uninterested, dispassionate.
But Leon couldn’t stop the emotion leaking through the cracks in his heart.
“Do you still want to stand with a monster like me?” he asked.
Alice must have noticed it, for she shone back a smile brighter than the sun.
“You are not a monster,” she said. “You are the Hero of Salvation.”
The sincerity of her words was clear in her expression.
The ghoul scoffed, then began dragging his left leg as he walked toward her.
“…Let’s go,” he said.
“Yes!”
They walked side by side.
“I ended up leaving everything to you this time, Leon. But I promise you I’ll pull my weight on the next job!”
She walked slowly, keeping pace with the crippled ghoul. Then she took his hand.
His crimson-stained hand. The one everyone else rejected.
“…You’ll get blood on you,” he said.
“I don’t mind.”
Leon made no attempt to free himself from her grip. He could shake her off no longer.
Alice seemed to take that as validation…and acceptance.