First Blood

When Tales came to his senses, Quade had already seized him by the throat and lifted him into the air.

He wanted to break free, wanted to draw even one breath of air.

Suddenly, his nails sank into the back of Quade's right hand, as if they had found a hollow wound.

Tales did not hesitate. His face already flushed red from suffocation, he drove his fingernails in with all his strength.

"Ah!"

Quade cried out in pain, releasing his iron clamp-like hands and violently flinging Tales against the wall.

Quade clutched his hand. The wound Yala had nailed through with her knife had begun bleeding again.

"Damn Yala Saredon! Damn kid!"

Tales's vision went dark, and a familiar scene returned to his mind.

"Deviant behavior is our term for human conduct that violates social norms. Most people call it crime. But we must understand that crime is only a small part of deviant behavior—we are not concerned with the behavior itself, but with its meaning and interpretation on a social and collective level—Durkheim was one of the early scholars to propose the concept of social norms, and he also viewed deviant behavior from a functionalist perspective—"

"There is a view that law enforcement and punishment of those who engage in deviant behavior are among the fundamental means by which those in power shape the people and mold social structures—"

These were Fragments of Tales's memories from his previous life. Just now, he had recovered another piece.

"Demon! You demon!"

At that moment, Synti's furious roaring and kicking scattered the scene before Tales's eyes again.

"Yes! I am a demon!" Quade laughed. "Tell me, how do you think a demon will deal with you?"

Tales took a deep breath.

Tales grabbed a stone in the corner of the room and fiercely pried it up, reaching into a Concealment hole behind it.

"Forget it. Since you've got so much guts, I'll save you for last."

Quade threw Synti aside, then viciously stomped on his already dislocated leg.

Quade left the courtyard and headed into the house.

Lane hugged his arms around himself, his eyes fixed on the floor beneath him as he tried to shrink farther into the hole in the wall.

Kellit shakily crawled out of the hole, trying to pull Colia, whose voice had gone hoarse and silent, out with him so they could escape.

But Colia seemed paralyzed by fear. She sobbed without moving.

Kellit did not dare look toward Synti. He could only tug at Colia as if pleading with her.

Got it!

Tales found what he wanted and yanked it out with all his strength.

Then what?

Then Quade, wearing a pleased expression, grabbed his right arm from behind.

"You thought I'd overlook you, kid? I knew it. You're the slyest, most treacherous one among these little bastards! Hahaha!" Quade's grip gradually tightened as he grinned cruelly.

No.

Tales felt the pain in his tightening right arm. He struggled to turn around, trying at the same time to stab Quade with the object in his left hand.

"A—dagger! Hahaha! Kid, you actually think you can deal with me with a dagger? Hahahahaha! What were you planning to do? Stab my thigh?"

Quade yanked Tales upright and laughed wildly.

Despairing, Tales thought of the dagger—the sheathless dagger he had stolen from the Sunset Tavern.

That was his last hope.

"Oh?"

Quade looked behind Tales in surprise.

It was a coin that had been pulled out when Tales had used too much force while drawing the dagger from the hole.

"A silver coin! Hahaha, just as I thought, you damn kid! You hid a silver coin!"

Tales tried to struggle with his left hand, but a seven-year-old child had nowhere near enough strength. He could only pound futilely against Quade's abdomen, which was hard as Tin Hide.

Quade ignored Tales's harmless punches and kicks. Still grinning viciously, he used the dagger to flick up the silver coin, flipped it in the air, then caught it on the other side of the blade.

Quade balanced the silver coin on the dagger and spun the blade through a few flourishes. He nodded, pleased with his knife skills. Looks like he had not gotten rusty.

Then he dragged Tales a few steps outside and tossed the silver coin into the fire by the courtyard.

"As the price for lying—you can have that silver coin."

Watching the silver coin gradually blacken in the fire, Tales suddenly realized what Quade intended to do. He kicked and struggled even more frantically.

Just then, from the corner of his eye, Tales saw Lane—the Lane who had always been timid and cowardly—trembling as he crept behind Quade with a stone raised in his hand.

Lane was not strong enough. The stone only struck Quade on the back of the neck.

But it was enough to get Quade's attention.

"Run, Lane!"

"Run!"

Tales and Synti, who was clutching his right leg in agony on the other side, both shouted!

But Lane was lame. While begging, his leg had been broken by an ill-tempered thief. With no medicine or treatment, the beggar child had become a cripple.

Lane backed away in panic, turned around, and fled with a limp.

Dragged along by Quade, Tales followed as Quade chased Lane.

Quade quickly caught up with Lane.

Quade was so furious that he laughed instead.

"Cripple!" Quade opened his mouth, breathing heavily like a wild boar. "That hit really felt good, didn't it?"

"Thud!"

Lane was kicked to the ground. His eyes were filled with terror and regret.

"I—I—"

Before the terrified Lane could finish, Quade flicked the dagger in his hand and viciously drove it into Lane's right wrist!

"Aaaaah—"

Lane's screams were deafening. Even Tales shuddered.

By the time Lane's unbroken wailing had turned into pained groans, the numb Tales felt Quade grab him by the collar again.

A wave of scorching heat approached.

Tales opened his eyes and saw the dagger before him, with the silver coin balanced on it.

The silver coin had been burned black and red-hot by the fire.

"Open your mouth," Quade said harshly and coldly.

Beside them, Lane clutched his bloody right hand. There was no emotion left in his eyes as he lay on his side blankly, his body twitching from time to time.

Tales looked away and stared coldly at Quade.

"Won't you?"

Quade shook his head and chuckled. "Then your eyes will do."

With that, he brought the dagger, along with the blackened silver coin resting on it, toward Tales's eye.

Just as it was about to touch his eyeball.

"Ah!"

Tales roared, violently twisted free, and bit down on the little finger of the hand Quade was using to hold the dagger!

Quade hissed in pain and leaned back. The silver coin fell from the dagger and landed on Tales's bare chest.

A searing heat surged from his chest!

"Ah—no!"

The burning sensation was intense! It even brought agonizing pain!

Unable to bear the burning silver coin, Tales released Quade's hand and reached for the coin on his chest.

"You damn kid!" Quade erupted with rage.

"Then I'll leave you with a little memento!"

He knocked the boy down with one punch, then pounced and pinned Tales beneath him, using the dagger to press the blackened silver coin firmly against Tales's chest.

"Sss—"

Only cooled materials were not made of flesh and blood.

"Aaaaaah—"

Tales roared as the scorching heat seared into his chest.

The muscles throughout his body began to ache as though they were burning again.

Quade held the silver coin down for a full five seconds. Only after watching Tales's face twist continuously in pain did he feel satisfied enough to release him.

The moment Tales broke free, he violently tore at the silver coin that had already stuck to his chest.

The silver coin rolled onto the ground with a clink.

"What a pity. It would have been much better if you swallowed it, or if I pressed it onto your eyelid."

Quade carefully picked up the silver coin and tossed it back into the fire. "No matter. We can do it again next round."

Tales squeezed his eyes shut. The burning pain in his chest did not seem to weaken; it grew stronger, hotter and hotter.

It felt as though some power was surging within him.

When Tales opened his eyes again, he only stared at Quade with icy coldness.

Looking into those lifeless eyes, Quade suddenly found it a little boring.

"Hey, kid, don't want to play anymore?" Quade kicked Tales.

Tales lay rigidly on the ground, as though he had abandoned all hope. He did not move, his eyes filled with ashen despair.

Only his chest, where he had been burned, kept sending out waves of heat.

Quade let out a breath and looked around. Suddenly, he found this boring.

He should finish things here quickly and go find the other Kids.

As he raised his left hand, Quade suddenly felt something was strange.

At that moment, the despairing Tales lying on the ground seemed to touch something with his right hand, making him tremble slightly.

Tales shakily crawled to his feet, hiding his hand behind his back.

Everything happened just like that.

In Synti's eyes, Tales, who had been trembling on the ground just a moment ago, suddenly sprang up.

"Die!"

With all the madness of two worlds and two sets of memories, the tiny Tales reached for Quade's throat.

"So annoying!"

Quade had seen his movement long ago. He simply did not care, casually swinging an elbow backward.

Then Tales was sent flying by Quade's impatient elbow.

"Bang!"

Tales's head struck the edge of a broken hole, and stars burst across his vision.

But he still stubbornly raised his head and looked at his hand.

There, he held the dagger stolen from the Sunset Tavern.

A dagger with blood on its edge.

Everything seemed to freeze in that instant.

Quade paused, lowering his head in surprise to look at Tales, who had been knocked away and was coughing incessantly on the ground.

Quade's surprised look did not last long before he realized what had happened to him.

He suddenly released Colia, then incredulously raised a trembling hand to touch his neck.

His hand came away warm, wet, and sticky.

Both hands flew wildly to his throat as he tried in panic to press down on the great hole in his neck that was spurting blood.

But his trembling hands and jaw seemed to resist his will. Bright red arterial blood, like paint, gushed out unstoppably.

Quade clenched his teeth, feeling his legs weaken beneath him, and took a step back.

The burning pain in Tales's chest continued, but at that moment, he lifted his head. Under Colia and Synti's terrified, shocked gazes, and amid Lane's unreadable laughter, he looked at Quade with cold resolve.

"Go to hell," Tales said through clenched teeth, fire in his eyes, enunciating every word.

"You spineless piece of trash."

His eyes bulged as though they would burst from his eye sockets, glaring fixedly at Tales.

His neck was growing colder and colder. Even the pain had vanished.

Quade clenched his teeth in agony.

But Tales only looked at him coldly.

Nearly despairing, Quade painfully extended a slightly trembling hand.

He slowly stretched the hand Yala had pierced toward Tales and spoke hoarsely.

"Damn... Kid..."

His bloody hand passed weakly over Tales's face, leaving behind a streak of blood.

These were the final words of Bloodaxe Quade Luoda in Erroel World.

In the deepest darkness, how many people could still hold fast to the light?