4 Loss

Quincy's parents brace themselves, forming a seamless guard above his body as they block the blood rain from touching his skin.

"Mom! Dad!" He cries anxiously. "What's happening? Why did his body explode?"

His mom stretches her neck down to kiss his forehead as his dad replies, "Demonic cultivators feed off of the vitality of others. If they don't have enough energy of their own to fight, they'll absorb energy of others"

Quincy's brown eyes start to grow cloudy as the words sink in. Above him, the color of his dads hair slowly starts to turn from pitch black to a pure white. His mom grips his hand tightly. "We love you Quincy. You have to be strong." She says, her voice becoming more hoarse and fragile by the second. Tears stream down his face as his parents, who are only in their twenties, visibly age in front of him. If he were stronger, they wouldn't have to use their lives to protect him!

The blood rain stops and a with one last smile from them both, their dried bodies fall to the side. Quincy remains on his back as tears stream down his face, wetting the dirt beside him.

'How can the sky still be blue.'

A gust of wind can be heard as the celestial cultivator flies back. "That was a close one." He grumbles while scanning the dried bodies on the ground.

"Hey brat, get up."

Quincy turns his head towards the voice to see the man standing over Kellie. He lifts her by the arm. "I'm sorry for your loss. As compensation, I would be willing to take you into the sect as an outer court disciple."

"Leave me alone!" She cries reaching for the bodies of her parents. "This is your fault!"

He frowns with an annoyed expression and lets go of her arm, causing her to fall to the ground. "That's why I'm offering compensation. I don't care what happens to mortals in the first place. I just thought that with your talent you could have a place in my Sect. Since you're so ungrateful I won't even bother asking again." He kicks her away from the bodies of her parents and snaps his fingers. Their corpses catch on fire.

"Stop!" Kellie shrieks.

Seeing this, Quincy can no longer stay still, he puts his own grief to the back of his mind and jumps up, running over.

"What are you doing?" He yells, while standing in front of her. The man ignores him as he walks toward another family that had failed to protect their kid as all three are mummified on the ground. He snaps his fingers again, setting them ablaze.

Quincy clenches his jaw in anger and swings his leg at the cultivator from behind, landing it on his calf.

Unfazed by such a weak kick, the man turns towards him. "I'm doing this for you guys. Their vitality was absorbed so they'll soon turn into ghouls. Once that happens, the spirit of the demonic cultivator will possess one of them and then there will be no protecting you."

Quincy clenches his jaw and turns to look at Kellie with uncertainty. "What do we do?"

The man shakes his head. "You're mistaken. You don't have a choice in this matter because I only care about preventing this demonic cultivator from coming back."

He snaps his finger and all of the other corpses catch of fire. Without another word, he flies away. Leaving the two children behind in an empty village.