Tragedy

Eve looked at Petra's still head lying on the grass.

"Hey Petra, why is your head on the ground?"

Eve continued looking at her before moving his eyes towards the young man glaring back at him. He felt his vision go dark, and he started to stumble about.

"Hey. Hey. Hey. Why is Petra's head on the ground? Wha-"

The monster continued staring at the clumsy little boy and started bursting out in maniacal laughter.

"Your friend is in a better place now. You should thank me, honestly. I did her a favor. Become an Overlord, what a pathetic dream for a loser like her. Even if it wasn't for me, she would have died in a few weeks."

"Monster."

Eve looked straight into the man's red, burning eyes. He could feel something fiery well up inside his core. Strangely, he felt at peace.

"Oh, this is interesting. Usually, a newbie such as yourself would be pissing your pants just in my presence. Are you perhaps so trash that you can't even perceive how powerful I am?"

"Monster."

"Is that the only word you brainless oaf can utter? Oh well, whatever, I don't even know why I bother talking to food." In a frenzy, the man dashed towards Eve, closing in for the kill.

"Monster."

The man sliced Eve's neck off with a clean-cut, and his body dropped dead to the floor, his head rolling along the ground. Proud of his work, he picked up Eve's head and started to drink the stream of blood pouring from it.

"Ack, it's disgusting. This kid didn't have any talent for magic... And he dared to call ME the monster?" the man started cackling once again at the irony of the situation.

"Monster."

Although dismembered, Eve's mouth began to move and started speaking. In a distorted, demonized voice, Eve's voice resounded loudly across the plains.

"MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER MONSTER"

Startled, the man dropped the moving head and jumped away.

"What... are you?"

----------------------------------------------------

Eve opened his eyes. The only thing he saw was white. He sat up abruptly and saw that he was in a white room and stared at the ceiling. He scanned the room and saw a skull placed to the left of him. In front of him, he saw a lady dressed in a dark suit that contrasted with her blonde hair and the white room. She was sitting down reading a book with the figure of a devil and weird symbols scribbled on the cover. The first thing Eve noticed about the lady was her ocean blue eyes, the same color as Eve's eyes. Cautiously, Eve approached the lady.

"Who are you?"

The lady looked up from her book and seemed surprised to see Eve there.

"Ah, I see what happened," the lady spoke in a robotic monotone voice, and Eve instantly knew who it was.

"Antares?" Eve asked, confused.

"Yes, it is me, Antares."

"Where am I? Did I die?"

Antares looked at Eve for a second before putting down the book she was holding.

"Theoretically, you should have died. Your neck was cut off, after all. But, thanks to the girl over there, you lived." Antares pointed towards the skull that was lying next to the wall.

"Who... Is that Petra?" after reaching that thought, Eve began vomiting, but nothing came out.

"Yes, that was her name. I'll be brief. In her last moments, your power attracted her soul and absorbed it. She is now a part of you, and it is up to you to decide how to use her essence. "

Eve stared at Antares and then turned to look at the skull once more.

"She is part of me now? I'm not too sure I understand."

"You know what a token is, right? Now, do you understand what they really are? The token is the physical incarnation of the world's essence itself. Tokens are made through life itself. I'm not too sure how the Sanctuary creates its tokens, but the process is something along the lines of turning human life into tokens."

"Tokens are made from human lives?" Eve asked but wasn't too surprised at the matter. The world has always been cruel, and Eve was no stranger to its mercilessness.

"Tokens can be made from any creature that can use magic. Only the Sanctuary can produce tokens, and then they distribute them in exchange for monster bodies, which they then use to produce more tokens. However, there is one exception. You."

"Me?"

"I'm sure the Sanctuary didn't realize this, or they would have surely killed you, but you have the power to create tokens." Antares stood up and walked towards Petra's skull. She picked it up and crushed it into dust. She raised her other hand, and a mountain of golden tokens appeared.

"Petra's magic was mighty, and if she lived for a little longer to her full potential, she would have easily reached the 7th phase or even the 8th. More than enough to destroy the monster you face now, a newbie hunter barely in the 2nd phase." Antares nodded towards the tokens.

"Her soul was worth 100,000 tokens, and once you absorb them, you can easily reach the 3rd phase, far surpassing any starter that comes later on. In addition, you can also inherit all of her sword techniques and her unique abilities. However, you still won't be able to use magic because of your body composition completely rejecting it."

Eve continued to look at the pile of coins. He had never seen such a huge amount of tokens before, and he knew that he would become extremely powerful if he were to absorb them. Still, he was hesitant.

"Hey, Antares. Wouldn't it be better if I just died?

Antares turned to look at Eve, and when she saw he was serious, she grew confused.

"What do you mean? You are just at the start of your journey. I can reattach your head to your body with these tokens, and you can instantly ascend to the 3rd phase. Don't you want-"

"But my friend died." Eve turned towards Antares, and that's when he couldn't hold it back anymore. Tears started to flood his eyes, and he began sobbing uncontrollably. Antares stood helplessly and had no idea how to comfort the poor child.

"Didn't Petra have a dream? To become an Overlord and exact her revenge on the person who killed her sister. By absorbing her soul, you can also inherit her unique family smell. You can find achieve her dreams for her. If you die now, it would truly be a waste," Antares turned around and vanished into thin air, leaving the grieving Eve to himself for a moment.

Eve continued to gaze at the coins. It didn't feel all too real, the events that just occurred. Right, this could have just been a dream.

In a flash, a dark, hooded, slender figure materialized within the white room.

"Useless, like always," the figure whispered to Eve and then disappeared as fast as it appeared. Eve whirled around, knowing instantly who had just spoken to him.

Miguel, the boy who Eve considered his only friend during his time at the Sanctuary. There isn't a single word that can describe Eve's hatred for this one man, and he had just reappeared in the white room. Eve looked again at the pile of coins and felt a burning passion rise within him. He gritted his teeth and remembered all of his hatred, his rage.

"Petra, your dream. I'll make it come true. I swear on it. After that, I'll destroy this world."

Eve reached for the coins, and brilliant light surrounded him.