บท 18: Kill

Slowly, the eerie power increased, and 'Boom!'

Mark suddenly opened his eyes, releasing large shock waves of deadly energy.

The sudden change shocked Apollo, as he felt that the aura of Mark had completely changed, like that of an entirely different person.

There was an unpleasant evil aura on him, and the look in his eyes was full of killing intent.

"Uncle Mark, are you okay?"

Apollo asked as a pessimistic thought came into his mind, seeing those subtle changes in him.

But Mark didn't ask, as he seemed to not hear him and instead was looking at himself with curiosity like everything was new to him.

"Uncle Mark!"

Apollo again shouted, hoping to see some answers from him, but his expectations were immediately destroyed as Mark replied without looking in an unexpected way.

"Brat, stop babbling."

"If you continue to annoy me, I won't even give you a chance to run."

"Uncle Mark, what are you talking about? What happened? Why are you acting like this?"

Apollo continued to ask as his voice seemed sad, but Mark seemed angered by these naggings.

"Brat, do you want to d..."

Hmm!

Splat! Splat! "Wha???"

He could not say any more words as the moment he moved his head, a sword pierced his neck, and blood started gushing out, splashing around him.

"Look, it's not my turn to die."

Splash!

Mark's dead body fell to the ground with open eyes as the unknown soul in the body couldn't believe that he would unexpectedly die at the hands of a kid.

"Sigh."

Looking at the dead body, Apollo could feel a little uncomfortable and sad, as he was a good soldier; he had seen and even talked with him a few times before.

But, sadly, he had to kill him with his own hands.

"It still feels uncomfortable to kill."

He could not help but remember the first time, when he was just ten years old, his grandpa took him to kill a prisoner. That time, he felt so horrible that he threw up many times, did not eat or sleep for three days straight, and even had nightmares about it.

But it didn't stop, as to make him accustomed to the feeling of killing every month, he had to kill at least one prisoner, and this continued for a year. So, in that year, he killed twelve humans.

Although most of them had committed heinous crimes and were not good people, it still had a great impact on his mind, which at that time still had the mindset of a lawful person.

But after a year, his mind adjusted and got used to the feeling of murder. After coming to this world, he almost forgot that even if his family is good and loving to him, that doesn't mean this world is the same, as no matter how loving his family and others were to him, outside this castle, they have taken the lives of dozens or hundreds of people.

Whether it's a man or woman, they would not hesitate when facing the enemies, as showing mercy might bring disaster to them and the whole Fletcher family.

So, with that in mind, from an early stage, most noble heirs are trained to control their emotions and kill without burden.

Apollo snapped out of his previous memory, as now he had a bigger problem to face. It seemed that all the people caught might be facing the same problem.

They all have to battle the enemy and defeat it in their minds; otherwise, their souls will be swallowed and their bodies will be taken over by others.

There might be another possible way to save them, but he did not have any idea about it, so the only thing he can do is kill them, as this invader occupying other bodies will not leave him alone, and he believes they also did not want someone to take over bodies and kill their loved ones.

Although he duped this person with his acting and sneak attack to kill him swiftly, it will not always succeed, and there should be many more like him, as the shadow caught two dozen soldiers with him.

He cannot be sure he can defeat so many of them, as the souls that seem to have taken over the bodies are not weak. He needs to be as careful as he can and kill them without wasting his energy, as he is still not fully recharged from the battle in the dream that somehow seems to have affected his body and mind in the real world.

Apollo cannot transform into 'Ice Lord' form with the current condition of his body, so he is going to try to stay away from them if possible and do some sneak attacks when necessary, and if it fails, he will run with all his might.

He checked Mark's body and the tomb, and like before, he found nothing, so he checked the dead skeleton's body in the tomb but still didn't find anything unusual until a golden ring with an inlaid small black crystal on his finger caught his eye.

He felt the ring was a little different but didn't know how it was different except for the unusual black crystal.

Apollo knew that various treasures and artifacts needed life energy to activate them, so he quickly started to pour his life energy into the ring.

The ring rapidly started to absorb his life energy and started to glow, and instantly, a bow and armour appeared in front of him.

"This!"

Seeing this, he was surprised, and why wouldn't he be?

"Space treasure!"

He instantly knew that this ring was a rare space treasure that could not be bought with money alone.

Apollo didn't expect that he would get such a surprise on a dead skeleton's body.

Now, even if he finds nothing ahead, he will still make money by getting this single space treasure.