~ Chapter 51: The Ritual ~

[Alexandre Damascus' point of view]

 Struggle as they might, little children, especially little girls, had no way of fighting against me. I was more powerful than them. I had the strength and speed of an adult body as well as more Blessings than they believed anyone could ever possess. A total of 64 were at my disposal, and now I was going to steal three more.

Who could stop me? No one!

The girl's parents were away from their estate and never even suspected that in their absence tragedy was going to strike. The adventurers in Briston couldn't be relied upon. The town's guards were far too weak when compared to me. This brat's aunt couldn't even stop me, and her maid was most likely panicking because of how severe the boy's injuries were.

Even if there was someone powerful enough to stop me, they wouldn't be able to find me. The moment I entered Chedelle Forest, their chances of tracking me down turned to ZERO! If they tried to discover my real identity, they would find none. Alexandre Damascus was already dead.

“Ah, yes! Everything falls into place just perfectly! Of course, it does! All the gods are on my side!” I spread my arms to the sky and laughed out loud.

Looking back at the little girl, I saw her glaring at me. There was still some fight within her. If not for those precious Blessings of hers, she would have started to cry like all the previous brats I had killed before her.

“You don't think so?” I asked and showed her a big grin.

She knitted her brows and glared at me.

In a split second, I moved right in front of her and then slapped her hard. The girl's body was tossed to the side like a rag doll and rolled on the ground a few times before it came to a stop.

Unlike her, a normal child would have had her neck broken, but she was trained well. Beneath that frail appearance of hers, she was building up enough muscles to fight on equal footing with an adult.

The moment I slapped her, I felt the resistance she put up and saw her muscles tense. Thus, I knew this much wouldn't kill her, but it would hurt her.

At a calm pace, I walked over to her and lifted her up by her golden hair.

“Ugh!” she groaned, but she didn't scream or cry as I had hoped.

She was a tough one.

“Who do you think is going to come and save you? No, even if there is someone... how fast do you think they can find us?” I smirked as I looked into her blue eyes.

“You won't get away with this...” she said glaring at me.

I couldn't abstain.

I tossed her on the ground several meters away from me, and I burst out into a loud laughter. So loud I was that I scared off some nearby birds perched up on the branches of the trees.

It was never tiring to hear this old line from my victims. So many times I was told those exact same words, yet here I was... still hunting, still killing, and I was never caught.

Now came the fun part!

“Actually, I already did. Alexandre Damascus isn't my real name. That guy's dead already. As for my real name, I abandoned it... no, I forgot it. A simple tradeoff for a remarkable Blessing.” I began to walk around her as I spoke, circling her like a hungry predator.

I was letting her know that she had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from me.

This was a habit I had picked up from watching wolves and Dayuks hunting down their prey. It was a trait I found in many other monsters as well. For some reason, it worked wonders on anyone, man or beast.

“Look, we are in the middle of the Chedelle Forest!” I spread my arms wide. “I ran here in a zig-zag pattern and was careful not to leave any sign of my tracks behind.” I made a polite bow as my performance continued, circling around her like a vulture in the sky. “Yes, eventually someone will find this place, but... will you still be alive by then?” I asked and showed her a triumphant smirk.

“Why do you do this?” she asked.

Oh? Even after all of this, she's still not crying? Impressive. I thought.

She was the first child out of all those whom I have killed who didn't try to beg, run away, or cry after I told them this.

“Why shouldn't I?” I replied with a grin, but she didn't answer, she just glared at me.

Stopping in front of her, I crouched down and grabbed her head. She tried to dodge, but I was faster than her.

I squeezed hard.

“Ow...” she winced.

“Listen, brat! I have no reason NOT to kill you. What do you think your value is? I can't even sell you as a slave because the traders aren't allowed to sell those of noble blood. You come from a house with almost no influence at all within this kingdom. From what I heard, your family is even hated by the king and his family!” I spat next to her.

Of course, if legal slave dealers didn't buy her, black market ones were always eager to get their hands on such a lovely... pure specimen. As for what I said about the king, it was a well-known fact that the Drakarys family and the royal family were at odds with each other.

“You want to know another reason why your pathetic life has no value?” I asked her.

“W-Why?” she asked as she struggled in my grasp.

Oh goodie! I'm getting to her! I thought.

“You are just a ten-years-old girl. You have no power, no impressive feats, no results in anything. Socially speaking, you're only good to be married off to some poor sap so your family can gain a bit more political power from his family, but even then, your value is far below that of your brother because you were born a woman! You can't inherit your family's name. If you were to die in some ditch somewhere, you parents wouldn't even bother to find the killer, they would just make another kid. After all, they are still young, they can make another two or three kids.” I said and showed her a big grin.

The girl was glaring at me through my fingers, but I could see tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. I was slowly getting to her.

“Do you understand, you brat? You are expandable! Garbage! Hahaha!” I laughed and then tossed her away from me.

She rolled a few times on the ground before she came to a stop. Now all of her clothes were dirty, and she had a few cuts here and there.

“If I kill you now, people will just feel sad for a while and then you will be forgotten by everyone! You are that worthless! You have no value! No one knows you and no one cares about you! And if you believe otherwise, those are just your childish delusions!” I said and then walked over to her and took off my right gauntlet.

The shroud of darkness around me was slowly extending, and its tendrils were surrounding the little girl, but none touched her so far. They were there just to scare her off, just to make her realize that she had no escape and nothing to hope for.

The [Blessing of the Thief] was a very peculiar one. To activate its power, I would normally need to fulfill several conditions. One of them was for me to be alone with my victim or victims. This was the easiest one to fulfill. Then I had to release this shroud of darkness with wriggling tendrils coming out of it.

Once I fulfilled these two conditions, I had to step onto the third one, which was to tell my victim what I was about to do to her. It was a bit idiotic in my opinion, but I couldn't question why the God of Darkness chose this thing as a condition, maybe it was to better nurture the mentality of a deranged killer?

Of course, how I did it this depended on me. I could even tell her through a letter or by writing a story and letting my victim read it. I tested out both options and they worked perfectly. That was why the ritual was important, it gave a certain 'flavor' to the whole deal. It made it... less boring, especially once I learned how to activate my Blessing without needing to fulfill all of those conditions. Sometimes, just the darkness shroud and telling them that I was going to kill them was enough.

Then again, I was quite surprised to see how stubborn and strong willed this little girl was. She still maintained her cool despite me looking like a walking nightmare. It was absolutely incredible, but this also meant that her Blessings were going to be exceptionally good. It was an unspoken rule that those with powerful and unique Blessings had personalities which reflected them.

I simply couldn't wait to get my hands on them and test them out for myself!

“The only value in you... are your Blessings, and I am going to take them from you by ripping your heart right out of your chest and eating it in front of you!” I told her with an evil smirk on my lips as fear finally dawned upon her.

“W-What? E-Eat my h-heart?” she asked in a trembling tone of voice as she clenched a fist over her chest.

I showed her a smile.

Seeing her like this reminded me of all of my past victims. All those who tried to put on a brave act in front of me ended up like this once they heard what I intended to do.

Mankind's fear wasn't one of the dark and spooky but of the monster who lurked inside each and every one of us, waiting for the right moment to jump out and eat them alive.

What mankind feared the most was to become the food of others, especially that of fellow men.

“Yes... I'm going to eat your heart raw, and this isn't the first time I'm doing this, little girl. You are merely one in a long long series of meals I had. And I have always gotten away with it.” I said and looked into her eyes.

Shadows of darkness covered my hand, turning it into a fiendish claw meant to dig into her flesh.

“Now... die.” I said in a calm tone of voice before I unleashed my attack.

Her Blessings were going to be mine. They were going to make me more powerful... Yes, more powerful...