No mercy

The Four deadly eyes floated in the night sky illuminating the surroundings. The King's face was literally buried in the ground by now, looking up at eyes with every ounce of strength it could muster.

"My Lord!" all the villagers fell down on their knees, bowing before the eyes. This was the symbol of the Great Demon!

Although outsiders knew him as a demon, for the people of the Mei kingdom he was a savior, a patron saint! He was a commoner born in a random village, almost a millennium ago. He joined the military and one after another fought his way through bloody battlefields to victory. To his enemies, he never showed any mercy, ever. But for his allies, he would lay down his life without a second thought.

"General!" All hundred legionaries appeared one after another, baffling the crowd even more. No one even knew they were here, to them they appeared out of nowhere just to greet the general. They also fell down on one knee for his arrival. Only Hao Xuan was left standing.

*Woosh*

The eyes vanished from the sky, returning the night its darkness. But no one got up, not the villagers, or the foreign king.

"General," Hao Xuan finally said and bowed his head calmly. The air rippled in front of him and a small figure appeared. The figure was of an old man, somewhat transparent and barely discernible.

He walked up to the king and looked down on him without wasting any time.

"Senior, I had no idea, absolutely no idea he was one of your men! Please forgive me," the face said quickly and still with dirt in its mouth.

"Do you think this is Shia? Do you think a commoner from my kingdom is worth more than your sad little existence?" the old man spoke calmly, making the face sweat even more.

"Of course not Senior, of course not!"

"Then what gave you the right touch a hair on any of my soldiers? Do you think I would not slaughter everyone in your kingdom just for this?" The face was speechless. It had just threatened Hao Xuan and everyone knew it. All he could do now was admit his mistake and beg for forgiveness.

"Forgive me, senior. Please punish me however you like but have mercy on the kingdom of Shia," the face said as its forehead touched the ground.

"Where is that little bastard Jun?" the old man asked after a few seconds of contemplating.

"Great Grandfather is well, he has been in closed-door cultivation for a few hundred years now."

The old man went quiet for a couple of mins. Not a single sound could be heard in the meantime.

"You have trespassed on my Kingdom and threatened my Red Legion. Just these two offenses are enough for me to replace the Royal clan of Shia, but because of 'Jun' I will have mercy on you. Send your eldest born to serve 'Ninth' as a slave. If I hear of any other transgressions from you ever again, well, you know what will happen," he said to the face and turned around and walked back to Hao Xuan.

"Sir," Hao Xuan bowed his head once again when he saw the old man looking at him.

"Our people always come first. You are their protectors. Remember that," he said looking at Hao Xuan and patted his shoulder and then vanished like smoke.

"Yes," Hao Xuan mumbled as the figure in front of him disappeared. It was him that gave Hao Xuan the opportunity to join Red Legion and meet all his brothers and sisters. He was eternally grateful to him.

"Captain!" said Lt. Kuo with a slight bow and his right hand on his heart. That was the military salute.

"What should we do with them?" he asked pointing at the envoy and the soldiers. There was absolutely no doubt that this man in front of him was their new captain so he didn't ask for his badge.

Hao Xuan looked at him, and then all the other legionaries surrounding them. They all had their faces covered with the exact same mask, a red and black demon-like face with two small horns protruding from the top. (img in authors notes)

"Please, I have a lot of money, you can have it all if you let me go! I have a family and kids," screamed the envoy from the back. Everything seemed surreal to him. A few mins ago he was a celebrity, and now down on his knees begging for his very life.

"When you kidnapped these women, stole from them, beat them, did you not think of their families?" Hao Xuan asked as he started walking forwards.

"Actually nevermind. I don't give a shit about your explanation. You will all die," he reached the soldiers who were still sitting on the ground. They all looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Everyone has to answer for their own actions. 'I was ordered to' excuse won't fly. In the next life don't be such trashy beings," he said as he took out a sword and simply swung it once horizontally and all of their heads fell on the ground. He walked up to the fat envoy who was shaking from fear.

"You, I have something special for you," Hao Xuan said with a gentle smile which sent shivers down the backs of everyone present.

A sound of bones cracking came from Hao Xuan's back and two large bone-like structures came out, blood red in color, catching everyone by surprise.

They had small spikes on them facing away from the pointy end. They looked like insect arms, absolutely horrifying.

Ever since Hao Xuan could control the Wrath of Deimos properly, he started experimenting with different shapes and sizes, this was one of them, made only to torture and inflict pain.

If someone were to ask him why he came up with this design, he would probably not be able to answer. His thought process just naturally made him turn into some dark alleyways in his mind.

"Please, have mercy. Just kill me!" the envoy screamed in horror looking at Hao Xuan's extra 'limbs', but to no avail.

Hao Xuan sent both the limbs down the envoy's throat as horrendous screams came from his mouth. Without even realizing it a smile appeared on his face as he listened to the man's cries for help. A few seconds later he pulled them out quickly, pulling out the envoy's internal organs as well, killing him. He stood there looking at the bloody mess for the next min or so.

"Sorry, all out of mercy," he whispered as he licked clean some of the blood that was on his face.

The legionaries behind him were speechless. Was this twisted psychopath their new leader?