The Once Bright Flame Wavers in the Dark

It took a week for the remains of the cultists to be gathered into the pile I started.

The now twelve executives said their goodbyes to the dead bodies were once their family and friends during that week.

By the end of the week, all the goodbyes had been said, and the bodies had piled up. And with all twelve executives ready, each of them took a torch and simultaneously lit the pile ablaze.

That flaming pile of bodies raged strong for three days before it had finally extinguished. Leaving nothing but embers of what used to be humans behind.

Pyo Kang had not yet returned.

I had hoped he would return before the burning had commenced, but it seemed like he would need a bit more time to get over the4 death of his twin brother.

Where had he gone? I knew not.

When would he return? I hadn't the faintest clue.

But too much time has been wasted, the Namgung clan was surely plotting their next move against me. If I, no, If we don't start training soon, then next time instead of an Orthodox clan or sect attacking us, it would be the Namgung.

Before the bonfire of bodies died out, I gathered the twelve executives before me.

They seemed to have known why I gathered them, as their eyes held a newfound vigor that wasn't there before the onslaught.

"I assume you know why I have called you all forth?"

"Yes, Master!"

"I assume you all want the lives of your fellow cultist to not have gone to waste?"

"Yes, Master!"

"Are each of you prepared to train? Giving your all in every movement you make?"

"Yes, Master!"

"Good, then today we will finish mourning and rest. But tomorrow at dawn, we will train harder than you ever have in your lives!"

"Yes, Master!"

"Now, dismissed!"

The rest of that day passed like a breeze of wind at sea. And dawn would arrive that much sooner.

All twelve executives stood outside the cult leader building as the morning sun rose behind them. I stepped out from the remains of the building with a smile on my face.

"Everyone has gathered, good." I spoke with a hardened tone. "Now, everyone is to run around the demolished headquarters two hundred times, ready?"

"Yes, Master!"

"Then begin!"

As the words left my mouth the executives began their run, leaving me alone to bask in the warmth of the rising sun.

---

'It should have been me... Not him...'

The depressed thoughts of a man who had lost his only brother.

As he marched with his brother's decapitated body in his arms, he held one location in his mind.

The place where he and his brother had been born.

The reason he and his brother always refused to speak of where they were born, or what clan or sect they used to be a part of, is because of the notoriety of the clan or sect they had been a part of.

Notoriety that even the Namgung clan look tame, notoriety that even made the Orthodox Alliance and Unorthodox clans want to team up with each other. After all, both Orthodox and Unorthodox were full of humans, but only the Demonic Cult was filled with those considered inhuman.

The southern mountain range, otherwise known as the Ten Thousand Mountain range, was the place Pyo Kang and Pyo Yong had been born. The reason why they were kicked out, despite being the sons of an influential cult member, was because they had sinned.

They were weak, that was their sin.

As Pyo Kang trudged the mountain peaks toward the sub-clan he had been born too, the bitter emotions he felt began to grow. With the memories of being thrown out like a wounded dog being burned into his mind, the only thing that kept him from snapping and destroying the sub-clan was his dead brother.

As he arrived at the gates of the sub-clan, he let his energy flare and attracted the guards to open the door. His arrival would be anything but welcome, but now that he was in the Supreme Realm, they wouldn't be able to turn him away.

As the gates to the clan cracked open, a feminine voice all too familiar to Pyo Kang called out to him. "Who dares arrive at one of the four great demon's abode without notification!"

Pyo Kang spoke as he forced the clan gates completely open, "Pyo Kang and the deceased Pyo Yong have returned, alert my mother of our arrival. I won't speak twice."

Pyo Kang forced all but one of the guards to stand still with his energy, the one left able to move was none other than a lavishly dressed woman, known to be the right-hand woman of one of the Four Great Demons of the Demonic Cult.

"Pyo Kang! You know you're not allowed back here, now leave before you lose your hea-"

Before the lavishly dressed woman could finish her sentence, a sword flew through the air and stopped just before piercing her nose.

"I said I won't speak twice, don't make me kill you so I can keep my word."

Pyo Kang drew back the sword he controlled with his energy and let the woman walk away unscathed, he had came here to bury his brother, nothing more nothing less. If blood was spilled, it would only make the agony inside of him boil.

The lavishly dressed woman walked away in a hurry toward the giant building in the rear of the clan headquarters. A stream of tears trickled down her face as she walked, within the clan, she was treated with respect because she was the right-hand woman of one of the Four Great Demons.

But to be given such cruelty by her master's own banished child, however, was an embarrassment she wished never had happened.

Pyo Kang, with Pyo Yong's dead body still in his arms, walked through the clan headquarters until he reached a plot of land with swords sticking out of the ground.

Each sword sticking out of the ground represented a member of this clan killed in combat, or those who died giving their life for the honor of the cult itself.

"Don't worry brother, I'll make sure your grave won't be defiled here." Pyo Kang murmured to his brother's corpse as he sat him down, only to grab a nearby shovel and begin digging a large hole between two of the swords.