Previously..

As if Fhin hasn't said a thing, Benedict comes in next after Renji got knocked away. This time, Benedict charges in with his shield in front of him. The demicorpse simply wraps his tongue on Benedict's feet and knocks him down.

"Tch.. these little brats are no better than toddlers, how the hell did they pass the exams!?"

Luckily, Fhin managed to keep the pace against the demicorpse. Sneaking in a few vital hits of his spiky mace yet the wounds kept regenerating in a few minutes. Unfortunately, the burdens of their tasks simply doubled when they hear the woman grunting in pain from the house about to start a delivery.

"A newborn child.. tastes better... than one that is still in the womb...~!"

With the demicorpse's keen sense of smell, he became fueled with hunger and strength as he salivates and takes down Fhin in a single claw strike.

"N-NO! HE'S COMING FOR ME! GOD PLEASE! HELP MEEE!!"

Benedict suddenly woke up from being knocked out earlier and gets up. Fhin notices this and tried to stop him, but Benedict lightly shoves his hand away and gets a good grip on his sword and shield. The Demicorpse pounces on the pregnant woman but this pounce was blocked by a young man with a shield with shining, bright purple eyes.

"You just don't know when to give up do you!? Fine, I'll eat you first myself!"

"KID, GET BACK!"

"And he shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit."

...

Several hours earlier, when they asked around town about a mysterious series of murders they also came across a family that sold meat and poultry. They weren't rich but weren't that poor either and they looked like they were hardworking. They implied that they knew that the suspect always attacks at midnight when everyone is asleep and sneaks into houses and takes advantage of windows to make his prey easier to catch. Fhin instructed the pregnant woman to spread salt and other bronze materials around her house. Salt seemed to also work against the demicorpse because it burns their skin like how sunlight affected vampires and nightwalkers. Renji helped the woman spread the salt on her windows, doors and other openings around the house including pillars and staircases. It was well defended overall and Benedict started a prayer in secret before nightfall.

Benedict sets his footing a few inches backward and performs a downwards slash, piercing the demicorpse's skull in half and exposing his brain. Benedict drops his weapons and forcefully shoves his hand inside the demicorpse's chest.

"Y-YOU...!"

"B-Benedict!?"

"T-This kid.."

"In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation... Amen."

Benedict grasps the pulsing heart tighter until it pops and bursts into blood like making a water balloon explode. Benedict seemed completely unfazed by his actions and looks up to the moon while he kept marching forward outside the house while dragging the dead body of the demicorpse that he just brutally slaughtered.

"Wait! Kid! Where are you-"

"Fhin- I mean captain. There's more of them approaching."

"Ugh.. well I guess that means additional cash for us. Might as well deal with them too."

A small group of demicorpses of what seemed to have very familiar faces. It was the same family that helped them with their investigation. They saw the salt spread around the fences and to everyone's surprise, all of them leaped over it one by one. Their eye colors change to yellow and black as they sneer at Benedict who held and threw the demicorpse's dead body at them.

"Y-YOU KILLED MY BROTHER! YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'M GONNA MAKE SURE I SAVOR YOUR INSIDES AND NEVER LEAVE A PIECE OF MEAT IN YOUR BODY!", one of the younger members of the family yelled at Benedict with the mother stopping him from charging in completely.

"Y-You killed my firstborn... I never thought it would come to this. I gave you the information you needed because I thought he was strong enough to kill only a few armed men like yourselves."

As the father speaks, the other family members were roaring and snarling at Benedict. He simply stands there and glares back with his bright purple eyes and blood dripping from his arms.

"This is your fault from the get-go. You were the one terrorizing the innocent and worst, pregnant women! Think of all those children that could've been born into this world!", Renji shouts back, starting an argument.

"You're young and oblivious to the fact that it's pointless to be even born into this world of ours we have. It's an eat or be eaten place, there's nothing in this world worth living for! "

"BUT I'M GODDAMN SURE THERE ARE REASONS WORTH DYING FOR! SEEING THOSE PEOPLE GRATEFUL AND SMILING FOR SURVIVING AND BEING PROTECTED, THAT IS WHY WE ARE HERE! TO PROTECT THEM FROM SCUM LIKE YOU!"

"Renji..."

"LOOK AT YOURSELF, KNOWING THE FACT THAT YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO FEED ON THE INNOCENT IN ORDER TO SURVIVE, YET YOU ALSO DECIDED TO START A FAMILY AND USE THIS AS AN ADVANTAGE TO STEP ON THE WEAK! I.. NO, WE! WE ARE MANKIND'S SALVATION! WE ARE..."

"THE SYMBOLS OF HOPE AND PEACE!"

The family has finally had enough and charges in, mostly focusing at Renji first. Benedict positions himself in the middle, protecting both sides with his shield. Renji takes one deep breath and grabs a hold of his katana. This time, the grip was firm and focused. Like a flash, Renji disappears with a smoke bomb from underneath. He attacks the father and starts running towards him at incredible amounts of speed but at the same time blending in with the night. He moved and blended in so well that the father's vision of him became somewhat distorted like he was going in and out of existence.

The father prepares himself as he sees Renji doing a forward thrust after a tumble, but he vanishes again and jumps high up, performing a flawless helm splitter by slashing vertically downwards from above.

The father's wounds regenerate in a few seconds while the other members fought Benedict. Fhin goes in to help as he swings his mace in a circular motion around him, creating space and gaining balance again. Benedict charges in, blade in hand and shield upfront. His first swing was dodged and counterattacked with a claw swipe onto his chest. Fhin follows up with his mace about to bash the skull but it was just caught with bare hands and swept away.

Benedict goes in once more and this time he let go of his shield and held his sword with both hands. He successfully managed to bash the demicorpse away by bumping him away with his shoulder and sticks the serrated part of his blade onto the demicorpse's eyes. Fhin gets back up and grabs his mace, charging in while the demicorpse was blinded and finishes him off with an uppercut bash.

Renji's fight against the father was tied. All the damage he tried to inflict just wasn't lethal enough to overcome the father's regenerative capabilities.

"How can my damage overcome that state of healing? Am I still doing this wrong? Think.. think..!"

"Still hoping for the best? Your optimism irritates me! Stop being stubborn and lay down your weapons."

".. tell me your name, creature."

"Leopold. Why do you care?"

"No particular reason, to be honest..."

Renji takes another deep breath and prepares to fight once more. The father rips off his top off and slams the ground with his fists, pounding his chest like a gorilla. Renji was shocked and didn't notice the father run towards him and this eventually led to a brutal punch onto the stomach and an elbow slam.

"What's wrong? Come on, stand up! I thought you were the symbols of hope and peace!"

To his surprise, the body which seemed to be beaten up was merely an illusion and the real Renji was behind him already. The illusion left an explosive shuriken as the father takes all the explosion without moving out of place. He turns around and notices Renji already holding his blade.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN OUTSMART ME LIKE THAT!? EAT THIS!"

"YOSOKU DEKIRU!"

(PREDICTABLE!)

The father extends his claws and slashed downwards. Renji lets out a small smile before parrying the attack by raising his blade diagonally against the claws. By doing this, the claws just slide against the blade, dodging it effortlessly and then proceeding slashing every inch of the father's body. Due to his size, it was difficult to miss any random attack swung even blindly. The father gets knocked down, losing his strength and becoming exhausted.

"B-But how!? My healing capabilities.. even against bronze..."

"You may be strong, but you don't use your brains more. My plan wasn't to deactivate the healing factor. I simply overwhelmed it by draining it out like water going through a funnel. Everybody has a limit, and you are no exception."

"So w-what..? Heh.. are you going to kill me like the rest of your barbaric regime comrades?"

"It has to be done. I won't forgive you for ordering your son into killing all those innocent women and children. But first, answer this question."

"Who is the leader of the Weeping Rose? I'm sure you know who they are, don't you?"

"Weeping... Rose... Gagh!"

The father started acting weird, he starts to shake frantically while grasping the sides of his head.

"What the hell's going on there?", says Fhin as he finishes up and approaches Renji.

"I don't know either, a seizure?"

"Weeping..... R-Rose!"

The father seemed to have flashbacks while hearing loud voices in his head.

"I.. must not tell.. must not tell... must not tell... m-master!"

The father then proceeded to forcefully bash his head repeatedly against the ground, eventually leading to extreme blunt trauma and his own death. Unfortunately due to this, the young men weren't able to extract proper information out of the target. Yet his reaction is always open for theories and speculation.

Fhin barely managed to catch Benedict who collapsed down due to unknown reasons...

"Renji.. is this kid always this powerful? He just managed to donut our main target before his family showed up. Better yet, not showing signs of fear or panic! Seriously!"

"Well... Benedict is normally extremely squeamish. Seeing sharp objects or blood makes him feel pretty uncomfortable. This is the first time I've seen him fight like this, no wonder he barely had any injuries during the exam."

"Bad news then. When either of you two shitheads gets hurt I'll be the one to blame because I'm the one with the high rank. Next time, try not to act as reckless. Remember, we're a team. Don't play hero, understand? Please... I'm tired of seeing people die."

That last sentence from Fhin showed a very powerful sign of sorrow. Through his tone and facial expression, Renji knew that this guy has been through a lot. Sometimes, the experience can also give us scars, not only lessons and knowledge.

Kaiyn and Lorenzo's goons continue to travel for survival and the safety of the prince. Occasionally, they would stop by when the weather wasn't in their favor in order to camp and take a rest. This time, Lorenzo noticed the prince's butler continuing to treat the prince as a little child, spoiling him and being overprotective.

"We cannot rest in the woods like this! What if the Weeping Rose catches up or what if the infected catch us off guard!?", the butler implies yelling at one of Lorenzo's goons.

"Calm down, old man. We've dealt with literal zombies or whatever countless of times. How did you think we got Kaiyn in the first place? And besides, all of us are getting our ass beat and being tired while you sit on YOUR ass beside that princess. Give us a break, will ya?"

Kaiyn comes back, dragging a dead deer by its antlers with his left arm while also dragging a dead human by his right arm.

"You guys might wanna see this before I eat him."

Kaiyn throws the dead body into the middle of the crowd. His eyes were open but didn't show any signs of life. It appeared to be that the man was a runaway slave from an aristocrat from the walled city. He managed to escape but was later killed by wild animals.

"Hmph. An apocalypse happens and people are already starting to bring back slavery. Seriously, it feels like I'm growing up a little bit too fast.", Kaiyn says as he scratches his head and dragging the body back to his tent.

However, the prince's butler calls him...

"H-Hey.. is that a dead deer?"

"Yeah. What's your business?"

"I-I was wondering if we could cook it together with his Highness. That's an impressive catch, by the way. Even experienced hunters have difficulty killing one."

"Ugh, fine. I won't be able to taste normal food anyway, but you do you."

"Oh trust me meals are gonna be much tastier when eaten with other people. It's always better than eating alone!"

Kaiyn gasps for a second upon hearing the butler speak. It reminded him a lot of his father always encouraging the whole family to eat meals together.

Umbra...

That is what they call those elite soldiers of war.

Wearing a deer skull as a symbol of fear.

Their moment of death is chosen by fate.

So what have they used of armor?

Led by the mysterious widow, Samantha Delacroix.

These people...

Used to be surrounded by fear.

But now?

They are fear.

.....

Several hours earlier, when they asked around town about a mysterious series of murders they also came across a family that sold meat and poultry. They weren't rich but weren't that poor either and they looked like they were hardworking. They implied that they knew that the suspect always attacks at midnight when everyone is asleep and sneaks into houses and takes advantage of windows to make his prey easier to catch. Fhin instructed the pregnant woman to spread salt and other bronze materials around her house. Salt seemed to also work against the demicorpse because it burns their skin like how sunlight affected vampires and nightwalkers. Renji helped the woman spread the salt on her windows, doors and other openings around the house including pillars and staircases. It was well defended overall and Benedict started a prayer in secret before nightfall.

Benedict sets his footing a few inches backward and performs a downwards slash, piercing the demicorpse's skull in half and exposing his brain. Benedict drops his weapons and forcefully shoves his hand inside the demicorpse's chest.

"Y-YOU...!"

"B-Benedict!?"

"T-This kid.."

"In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation... Amen."

Benedict grasps the pulsing heart tighter until it pops and bursts into blood like making a water balloon explode. Benedict seemed completely unfazed by his actions and looks up to the moon while he kept marching forward outside the house while dragging the dead body of the demicorpse that he just brutally slaughtered.

"Wait! Kid! Where are you-"

"Fhin- I mean captain. There's more of them approaching."

"Ugh.. well I guess that means additional cash for us. Might as well deal with them too."

A small group of demicorpses of what seemed to have very familiar faces. It was the same family that helped them with their investigation. They saw the salt spread around the fences and to everyone's surprise, all of them leaped over it one by one. Their eye colors change to yellow and black as they sneer at Benedict who held and threw the demicorpse's dead body at them.

"Y-YOU KILLED MY BROTHER! YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'M GONNA MAKE SURE I SAVOR YOUR INSIDES AND NEVER LEAVE A PIECE OF MEAT IN YOUR BODY!", one of the younger members of the family yelled at Benedict with the mother stopping him from charging in completely.

"Y-You killed my firstborn... I never thought it would come to this. I gave you the information you needed because I thought he was strong enough to kill only a few armed men like yourselves."

As the father speaks, the other family members were roaring and snarling at Benedict. He simply stands there and glares back with his bright purple eyes and blood dripping from his arms.

"This is your fault from the get-go. You were the one terrorizing the innocent and worst, pregnant women! Think of all those children that could've been born into this world!", Renji shouts back, starting an argument.

"You're young and oblivious to the fact that it's pointless to be even born into this world of ours we have. It's an eat or be eaten place, there's nothing in this world worth living for! "

"BUT I'M GODDAMN SURE THERE ARE REASONS WORTH DYING FOR! SEEING THOSE PEOPLE GRATEFUL AND SMILING FOR SURVIVING AND BEING PROTECTED, THAT IS WHY WE ARE HERE! TO PROTECT THEM FROM SCUM LIKE YOU!"

"Renji..."

"LOOK AT YOURSELF, KNOWING THE FACT THAT YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO FEED ON THE INNOCENT IN ORDER TO SURVIVE, YET YOU ALSO DECIDED TO START A FAMILY AND USE THIS AS AN ADVANTAGE TO STEP ON THE WEAK! I.. NO, WE! WE ARE MANKIND'S SALVATION! WE ARE..."

"THE SYMBOLS OF HOPE AND PEACE!"

The family has finally had enough and charges in, mostly focusing at Renji first. Benedict positions himself in the middle, protecting both sides with his shield. Renji takes one deep breath and grabs a hold of his katana. This time, the grip was firm and focused. Like a flash, Renji disappears with a smoke bomb from underneath. He attacks the father and starts running towards him at incredible amounts of speed but at the same time blending in with the night. He moved and blended in so well that the father's vision of him became somewhat distorted like he was going in and out of existence.

The father prepares himself as he sees Renji doing a forward thrust after a tumble, but he vanishes again and jumps high up, performing a flawless helm splitter by slashing vertically downwards from above.

The father's wounds regenerate in a few seconds while the other members fought Benedict. Fhin goes in to help as he swings his mace in a circular motion around him, creating space and gaining balance again. Benedict charges in, blade in hand and shield upfront. His first swing was dodged and counterattacked with a claw swipe onto his chest. Fhin follows up with his mace about to bash the skull but it was just caught with bare hands and swept away.

Benedict goes in once more and this time he let go of his shield and held his sword with both hands. He successfully managed to bash the demicorpse away by bumping him away with his shoulder and sticks the serrated part of his blade onto the demicorpse's eyes. Fhin gets back up and grabs his mace, charging in while the demicorpse was blinded and finishes him off with an uppercut bash.

Renji's fight against the father was tied. All the damage he tried to inflict just wasn't lethal enough to overcome the father's regenerative capabilities.

"How can my damage overcome that state of healing? Am I still doing this wrong? Think.. think..!"

"Still hoping for the best? Your optimism irritates me! Stop being stubborn and lay down your weapons."

".. tell me your name, creature."

"Leopold. Why do you care?"

"No particular reason, to be honest..."

Renji takes another deep breath and prepares to fight once more. The father rips off his top off and slams the ground with his fists, pounding his chest like a gorilla. Renji was shocked and didn't notice the father run towards him and this eventually led to a brutal punch onto the stomach and an elbow slam.

"What's wrong? Come on, stand up! I thought you were the symbols of hope and peace!"

To his surprise, the body which seemed to be beaten up was merely an illusion and the real Renji was behind him already. The illusion left an explosive shuriken as the father takes all the explosion without moving out of place. He turns around and notices Renji already holding his blade.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN OUTSMART ME LIKE THAT!? EAT THIS!"

"YOSOKU DEKIRU!"

(PREDICTABLE!)

The father extends his claws and slashed downwards. Renji lets out a small smile before parrying the attack by raising his blade diagonally against the claws. By doing this, the claws just slide against the blade, dodging it effortlessly and then proceeding slashing every inch of the father's body. Due to his size, it was difficult to miss any random attack swung even blindly. The father gets knocked down, losing his strength and becoming exhausted.

"B-But how!? My healing capabilities.. even against bronze..."

"You may be strong, but you don't use your brains more. My plan wasn't to deactivate the healing factor. I simply overwhelmed it by draining it out like water going through a funnel. Everybody has a limit, and you are no exception."

"So w-what..? Heh.. are you going to kill me like the rest of your barbaric regime comrades?"

"It has to be done. I won't forgive you for ordering your son into killing all those innocent women and children. But first, answer this question."

"Who is the leader of the Weeping Rose? I'm sure you know who they are, don't you?"

"Weeping... Rose... Gagh!"

The father started acting weird, he starts to shake frantically while grasping the sides of his head.

"What the hell's going on there?", says Fhin as he finishes up and approaches Renji.

"I don't know either, a seizure?"

"Weeping..... R-Rose!"

The father seemed to have flashbacks while hearing loud voices in his head.

"I.. must not tell.. must not tell... must not tell... m-master!"

The father then proceeded to forcefully bash his head repeatedly against the ground, eventually leading to extreme blunt trauma and his own death. Unfortunately due to this, the young men weren't able to extract proper information out of the target. Yet his reaction is always open for theories and speculation.

Fhin barely managed to catch Benedict who collapsed down due to unknown reasons...

"Renji.. is this kid always this powerful? He just managed to donut our main target before his family showed up. Better yet, not showing signs of fear or panic! Seriously!"

"Well... Benedict is normally extremely squeamish. Seeing sharp objects or blood makes him feel pretty uncomfortable. This is the first time I've seen him fight like this, no wonder he barely had any injuries during the exam."

"Bad news then. When either of you two shitheads gets hurt I'll be the one to blame because I'm the one with the high rank. Next time, try not to act as reckless. Remember, we're a team. Don't play hero, understand? Please... I'm tired of seeing people die."

That last sentence from Fhin showed a very powerful sign of sorrow. Through his tone and facial expression, Renji knew that this guy has been through a lot. Sometimes, the experience can also give us scars, not only lessons and knowledge.

Kaiyn and Lorenzo's goons continue to travel for survival and the safety of the prince. Occasionally, they would stop by when the weather wasn't in their favor in order to camp and take a rest. This time, Lorenzo noticed the prince's butler continuing to treat the prince as a little child, spoiling him and being overprotective.

"We cannot rest in the woods like this! What if the Weeping Rose catches up or what if the infected catch us off guard!?", the butler implies yelling at one of Lorenzo's goons.

"Calm down, old man. We've dealt with literal zombies or whatever countless of times. How did you think we got Kaiyn in the first place? And besides, all of us are getting our ass beat and being tired while you sit on YOUR ass beside that princess. Give us a break, will ya?"

Kaiyn comes back, dragging a dead deer by its antlers with his left arm while also dragging a dead human by his right arm.

"You guys might wanna see this before I eat him."

Kaiyn throws the dead body into the middle of the crowd. His eyes were open but didn't show any signs of life. It appeared to be that the man was a runaway slave from an aristocrat from the walled city. He managed to escape but was later killed by wild animals.

"Hmph. An apocalypse happens and people are already starting to bring back slavery. Seriously, it feels like I'm growing up a little bit too fast.", Kaiyn says as he scratches his head and dragging the body back to his tent.

However, the prince's butler calls him...

"H-Hey.. is that a dead deer?"

"Yeah. What's your business?"

"I-I was wondering if we could cook it together with his Highness. That's an impressive catch, by the way. Even experienced hunters have difficulty killing one."

"Ugh, fine. I won't be able to taste normal food anyway, but you do you."

"Oh trust me meals are gonna be much tastier when eaten with other people. It's always better than eating alone!"

Kaiyn gasps for a second upon hearing the butler speak. It reminded him a lot of his father always encouraging the whole family to eat meals together.

Umbra...

That is what they call those elite soldiers of war.

Wearing a deer skull as a symbol of fear.

Their moment of death is chosen by fate.

So what have they used of armor?

Led by the mysterious widow, Samantha Delacroix.

These people...

Used to be surrounded by fear.

But now?

They are fear.

.....

"So.. Leopold is no more. Shame, he would've been much more useful if he wasn't always hiding in the shadows with his so-called family to protect him like the coward that he is."

"Why did we even hire that guy in the first place, I mean just look at him! He's a scumbag! Though, I can't say I'm really better than him but who gives a shit!?"

"I want to give the Regime a false sense of hope. If we crush them with our brute force, where is the drama in that? Making them feel accomplished ignites more raw passion and that is what I love to see from people who deserve to be crushed under our foot."

"Nyeh, I don't get your stuff but hey, you do you. Oh yeah, what do we do with Umbra on our tail? I heard their activity's been rising non-stop."

"That will be your task. I will be sending you and the new Virgo to deal with them. Do not disappoint me."

"The only people I'm excellent at disappointing is my parents! Though they're gone sooooooooo yeah."