Reborn

It's a peaceful autumn. Zack got accepted into a college and was happy that somehow, for the first time in his life, he could see a way to escape his hellhole of a family.

His father was a notorious gambler and liked to spend all the money in the house doing so. Of course, he got nothing in return, making him even more depressive and abusive towards his own family.

A few years ago, he started by hitting Zack's mother, something which evolved into more regular and aggressive beatings.

Zack wanted to protect his mother, he often took defending her as something a child should do. But as expected, nothing in the world worked as he wished it to.

So his father also gave him 'special treatment' every week along with his mother. By a twist of fate, his mother blamed him for everything that happened.

"Only if not for you provoking him! You bastard child, just do whatever you want. For me, you are already DEAD!"

Imagine a 16 year old boy trying to protect his mother from his abusive father, to receive such words from the being he loved and tried to protect.

From then on, Zack developed a minor trauma and even had a few suicidal thoughts. The only thing keeping him going was that he was a good Christian who went to church every Sunday.

The fact that he was good at studying was a plus that made him see a glimmer of hope.

'I'll just have to study to get a better life and leave that house. I need a little bit more time..'

Three years later, when he finally succeeded, he felt the burden that suffocated him for so long, slowly getting smaller, almost like it wasn't there at all.

After preparing for the new dorm in another city, he wanted to make his way back home and clarify this with his 'family.'

Finally arriving home, he wasn't surprised by his mother crying in the kitchen with a few drops of blood on her lips. Seemingly not even bothering to look at her son, Katherine said to him,

"What are you looking at, you bastard?! Enjoying the fact that you are out of this shit hole? Don't worry. You'll still be back here." Without an ounce of compassion, Katherine shouted at Zack.

Seeing his mother talking like that, his already hurting heart started breaking bit by bit.

Hearing the commotion, a ragged middle-aged man entered the kitchen with a liquor bottle in his hand.

After seeing Zack, his eyes lit up,

"Kid, how much money do you have left after setting everything up? Don't lie to me. Otherwise, you know what will happen..." And that was his bastard of a father.

Looking at the man for a while, Zack was almost finding it funny what one of the last encounters with the duo would be like.

He said the last encounter because when he would become successful, he will come back and flex to them.

Still, he responded placidly,

"I have a few bucks in my pocket. Do you want them?" Zack said as if mocking him.

Hearing that, Zack's father Victor, was enraged, because he knew that his son had at least 300 dollars with him when he left.

"You fucking shit! Do you think I don't know much money you should have left on you?" He came in front of Zack and slapped him hard on his cheek.

Losing his stability, Zack fell to the ground and was enraged that not even in his last moments in this shit hole, he couldn't keep his dignity and was tossed and pulled wherever his father wanted.

After getting up, all of Zack's pent-up rage spilled out

"You crazy motherfucker! It will be one of the last times you see me! But remember my words, I will become successful in the future, and I will come back to flaunt it for you two to see!" With his last words, Zack turned away to leave.

Completely stunned by what Zack said, Victor was enraged to the point of seeing red. In a fit of fury, he dashed for Zack and after raising his liquor bottle, he smashed it to the back of his head.

Not believing what just happened, it was too late for Zack to react. He felt an impact so powerful that it shook his head. His last thoughts were despairing,

'Am I going to die like this? Being the protagonist of a shitty life. With my father beating me almost every day and my own mother treating me as if I didn't even exist. I didn't even manage to get a girlfriend...'

Just as he thought everything was over, feeling his soul slowly dissipating into nothingness, a voice resounded in his head.

'Vengeful one, would you like to start over and take the reins of your life in your own hands?'

Without missing a beat, Zack said, "Yes!"

°°°°°

After who knows how long, Zack opened his 'eyes' or, better said, his 'soul' as he didn't have a body anymore.

He tried to look around him, but everything he saw was in black and red, like a horror story depicted about the underworld.

'Is this hell? After everything that I endured and been through, I arrived in hell? After every prayer and my belief in God, going every Sunday to church, even to the point I left my abusive father to beat me as he wanted to and not handing him to the police, I was brought to hell?! FUCK THIS!!!

Fuck this unfair world! Fuck god! Fuck everything!!!'

"Kid... You are not in 'hell'; you are in my domain currently." A voice so powerful that it made Zack's spine chill resounded seemingly from everywhere simultaneously.

"Who is there?" Asked Zack after calming down.

"I am the God of Slaughter, the one who asked you if you'd like to start over."

After hearing that, memories before Zack's death resurfaced in his mind alongside his response.

Steeling himself, Zack asked, "Are you a God? No more importantly, will you revive me?"

"I'm not going to revive you." This short sentence plunged Zack's heart even further down the abyss.

"I'm going to send your soul in the reincarnation cycle and find you a new body in a new world. This world will be one fundamentally different from yours."

Hearing that, Zack's eyes lit up, hoping for the 'God' before him to continue talking.

"In this new world, there is magic, something you should have heard of before. There are empires ruled by humans, beasts, elves, and even ancient dragons covering the skies with enormous wings. You are not going there for free though. You must do something for me."

Talking to this point, the God of Slaughter was slightly surprised that Zack didn't say a word or even interrupted him. So he continued,

"What you must do for me is simple, kill. Just by killing, you're offering me a tribute. Also, by killing your body will become stronger.

If you continue killing to your heart's content, it won't be impossible for you to even reach the peak of Kavem World. Do you have any questions before I send you over?"

"First question does everything that I kill count, like even ants or birds? Or just humans and beastmen?"

"Second question, how exactly is killing going to make me stronger?"

"The third one is not a question, but I want information about this Kavem World..."

Zack fired a few questions as if waiting for his moment.

The God of Slaughter pondered for a second before responding to Zack.

"For your first question, yes. Everything you kill that has a 'soul' could potentially make you stronger.

"Of course, if you kill an ant, it will take forever for you to feel stronger. Killing ten million ants is worth as much as a dog."

"The second question is even more straightforward, the moment I reincarnate you, you will become like my 'Messenger,' my Slayer to be more precise."

"Slaughter, something my Slayer will gather by killing. After the slaughter energy gets collected from a body, it will be split 50/50 between you and me."

"In your body, it will remain as slaughter energy. As for me, it will convert to slaughter divinity."

"For the third one I won't say much because specific laws are stopping me from telling you, just as certain rules are preventing me from ever setting foot in the world to slaughter it myself."

"The Kavem World has seven continents, The Human, Beastman, Elven, Werewolf, Vampire, Dragon and another one you will find about it yourself."

"Three Empires rule the human continent. Each empire has tens of little kingdoms surrounding them. I will reincarnate you precisely in one of these little kingdoms."

"There are two paths for this world's inhabitants to take."

"One is the 'Magic' path that focuses on casting spells or even creating them. It's suitable for long-range combat."

"The second one which is also the most common, 'Power' path. It focuses more on the body and could eventually even negate spells after a certain level."

"Evidently, it's a close combat path that, just as its name suggests, has strength as the most crucial factor."

"Now...do you have any questions left?" Asked the God of Slaughter.

"Not really." Responded Zack, but despite his external behaviour, he was actually excited about his new journey that was close to unfold.

"Alright, then it's time for you to go." With a wave of his hand, the God of Slaughter split the space in front of him in two. One could only see a black, dark energy around it.

After seeing that, Zack was stunned, but not for long after he thought that the being in front of him had 'God' in his name.

'Will I reach that level one day...?' With this last thought, Zack disappeared from the black and red world.

Only dust remained behind...