Dying Is An Act Of Imperfection

Ionia's Southern mountains.

A disfigured man could be seen laying on the ground. Both of his arms were cut off and put in the place where his eyes should have been. He had a giant hole in his chest in the form of a blooming flower and his mouth was extended with an external force, forming a smile.

"How beautiful! Excellent! But... It's still not finished... This is my special celebration. I need to make it even more...Magnificent."

A man in a mask shivered in excitement. He had a prosthetic arm and a giant sniper rifle on his back. He had numerous hidden weapons all over his body and while he loved to turn people into a piece of art with his sniper rifle, he loved his hand cannon much more. The name of the cannon was Whisper. They were together for more than 5 years. He had killed thousands of people with just his hand cannon alone.

This poor man was his 10000th kill.

Locals feared Jhin since they thought he was some kind of a demon. But he was not.

He was just a normal human who enjoyed his hobby.

The locals gave him the nickname of "Golden Demon." No one knew his real identity or even how he looked like since every person who saw him, died in a painful way.

Yet the man preferred to use his own artistic name. Khada Jhin.

Jhin was just a normal human but he was talented in every aspect of art.

Playing on the piano, playing on the violin, singing, drawing, and most importantly...killing.

The first time he had killed someone, was by an accident but it brought him so much ecstasy that he couldn't forget the feeling. Last 6 years, Jhin was killing citizens around the territory of Ionia.

"Don't be angry at me...Art requires a certain...Cruelty." Jhin knelt on the ground and looked up into the sky. He extended his hand towards the air and observed the stars with his hazelnut eyes.

"Life has no meaning, but your death shall. May your soul rest in peace. Your body has contributed to my perfection."

Jhin stood up and wanted to leave, but a shuriken flew towards him so he lightly tilted his head and it missed him by a few centimeters.

"To whom do I owe the pleasure? My performance has already ended. It doesn't look like you are my fans. It seems like I need to turn you guys into a piece of art as well."

"What did you say you bastard?!" a young masked man shouted. He pulled out his blade and marched on to kill Jhin. But before he could, he could feel his master's hand on his shoulder so he turned around and continued, "But master Kusho! We thought it was a demon, yet it is only a human! We can deal with him easily! We need to kill him to prevent him from killing other people! So many people have already perished at his hands and all of them died in such a gruesome way. It's only natural for him to die!"

Kusho shook his head and said, "Avoid killing people as much as possible. Kill only when it's necessary. Don't put yourself on his level. The number of people he killed, should be enough to keep him in prison till the rest of his days."

Kusho did a few hand signs and created a giant barrier around Jhin, rendering him unable to escape.

'A sealing array was set up in this place. It seems like they made preparations.' Jhin pulled out his hand cannon and shot at the barrier.

The moment the bullet touched the barrier, it instantly turned into ash.

Seeing that it had no effect whatsoever, Jhin just calmly reloaded his gun.

Kusho smiled and replied, "It's pointless. This barrier is my greatest trump card. You will never be able to escape. The more you struggle the less space you will have inside of the barrier until it squeezed you to death."

Hearing him, Jhin stopped moving. 'I can't do that. The world needs to know the name Jhin. I planned my death as a wonderful finale. It would be a disaster if I died too early.'

He placed both of his hands in the air and dropped his weapons.

"Alright. I surrender."

"That easily?! Master is amazing!" another young man exclaimed.

Kusho smiled and replied, "It's not that amazing, Shen. Those who have yet to reach the god realm can die easily. Everyone is afraid of death. Even I am. But such is the cycle of life. Every living being under the god realm has to die one day."

Zed snorted and replied, "Then why don't we kill him now?! It will take too long for him to die of old age! Let's make him regret that he killed so many people of Ionia! I can't look at him anymore!"

Kusho ignored Zed and told the guards to capture Jhin.

Guards quickly went into the barrier and apprehended him. They brought Jhin in front of him and Kusho commanded them, "Take off his mask! I want to see the face of a man who is capable of killing so brutally."

"I wouldn't do that If I were you... I am a bit... Shy..." Jhin whispered and struggled. The guards ignored him and took his mask off.

"Tch!"

Kusho looked surprised. He observed the killer's face and came to a realization. "He is so young...a 20 years old youngster was killing people in these mountains for 6 years. Unbelievable"

Shen looked at Jhin and couldn't help but say, "Master! Look at his eyes! They are changing colors!"

Jhin's hazelnut eyes changed into a pure blood-red color. You can't call him a demon, but if a vampire descendant saw him, he would surely think Jhin was a vampire.

Kusho observed his eyes and said, "Amazing! Those are the cursed eyes! He is a human yet he possesses the eyes of the devil! I have read about them in the forgotten scroll of Daruma which was given to me by my master! It says that his eyes change depending on his mood. Truly fascinating!"

Jhin put his head on the ground in an attempt to hide his real face. "You...Shouldn't have seen it yet...It was for my last performance! For my finale! You mongrels! No one should have seen my eyes! I will kill you all!"

Jhin violently thrashed around him and pulled out a hidden hand cannon out of his prosthetic limb. He shot the guards around him and whispered, "One...Two...Three..."

3 bullets tore their way through their neck, causing a few gaping holes in their wake that quickly filled with blood and gushed out.

All 3 of the guards who restrained him fell on the ground and a small pool of blood formed around them. They didn't die immediately but choked to death.

Shen and Zed became dizzy due to the sound of the cannon. They have never heard anything so loud. Jhin and Kusho on the other hand, were completely unfazed.

Jhin aimed his cannon at Kusho and said, "You don't deserve to be made into art! My art cannot be contained! FOUR!"

The fourth shot was a special bullet imbued with dark magics that could even make a hole into the Ionia castle walls. The power behind it was enormous. The same could be said about the sound after its activation. Just as it was able to reach Kusho, Shen barely stood up and activated his barrier technique which completely nullified his attack.

Jhin frowned and thought, 'That was my last shot. I didn't bring enough bullets and even if I had more...They wouldn't let me reload.'

He looked around him and saw that Shen was slowly walking towards him and Zed was already sneaking up from behind.

He sighed as he tried to think of an idea on how to escape this predicament but nothing came to mind.

'My best chance would be to surrender again but I don't think that they are that stupid. My last choice is to take at least one of them out as my last act. Even though it will be a poor display, it's still better than dying in an unsightly way.'

Jhin pulled out a stick of dynamite out of his prosthetic limb and ran towards Shen.

"Explosion is also a beautiful form of art! Now! You have a chance to experience my hobby in the front row! Isn't that amazing?!"

"Damn it!"

Shen was still dizzy from the sound and wasn't able to run away from him.

Kusho sighed and skillfully stole the dynamite from Jhin's hand. With a quick movement of his hand, he hit Jhin's neck and put him to sleep, following which he threw the dynamite far away enough so that they wouldn't get caught up in the blast.

He looked at his two students and said, "We are done here. Zed, pick up the bodies of the guards and the disfigured body of that man and put them into a giant sack. Shen, go and collect every equipment of the murderer Jhin. I will carry Jhin by myself to make sure he doesn't escape. We are returning!"

Both of his students nodded and together they arrived in the city.

20 guards were already expecting them and once they found out that they captured the infamous Golden Demon, all of them began celebrating.

Jhin was put into a prison cell where he would await his sentence.

Late at night, Shen woke up and saw that Zed wasn't in his bed.

'Where did he go?'

✱✱✱

Zed was boiling with rage. They have been investigating Jhin for a long time. For four years, he witnessed numerous gruesome and disgusting deaths that would make anyone puke.

Zed remembered the first time he had seen the body of someone killed by the infamous Golden Demon. He clenched his teeth as fragments of the unpleasant memory resurfaced from the back of his mind.

'I won't let him live! He needs to die...Now!'

He put on his mask and entered the prison.

One of the guards saw him and shouted, "Who are you!"

Zed quickly took care of him but made sure he didn't kill him.

He took the keys from the guard and entered Khada Jhin's cell.

"Well well...It seems like someone was too impatient to see me again. Shall I make you bloom?" Jhin's calm and psychotic voice echoed throughout the cell.

Zed frowned and said, "You know why I am here! I won't let you live! You are worse than a monster. You go around wearing a stupid mask and kill people!"

Jhin laughed and replied, "Everyone wears a mask. I just chose to create my own. I am not a monster...I...am beauty."

Zed took out his blade and said, "You are disgusting. For the greater good of other people, I will slay you!"

Hearing him, Jhin laughed and said, "That's just an excuse. To me, you look like someone who liked my art. It seems that I changed you into something beautiful."

"I am done with you!" Zed dashed towards him.

Jhin put his left hand on his waist and bowed, "You don't have to be so impatient, from what I've heard, I won't escape death anyway. The guards were talking about it a few hours ago. They planned on hanging me behind the woods. Those fools...That's not artistic at all."

He opened his blood-red eyes which shone in the darkness and gazed at Zed.

Zed didn't care what Jhin said. He just wanted to see him dead.

Zed grabbed Jhin by his face and whispered, "I have already decided."

He stabbed Jhin's heart and quickly escaped from the scene.

Jhin fell on the ground and whispered, "How shameful. I couldn't show my audience how good I truly am. It seems like my final performance...was a failure."

His vision faltered, and everything turned dark. Jhin could feel that his body became colder by each passing second.

'If there is hell, I wish to perform to my best. I am sure that they would like me there.' Thinking that, he closed his eyes and died.

Shen rushed towards the scene but he was too late.

'Just as I thought, Zed killed him. I need to tell my father.'