章節 15: Hero who kills

The storm outside was raging on without showing any signs of slowing down. The sound of Timothy's forge working couldn't be heard over the sound of the raging storm. He worked hard in silence while Draven sat on the ground with his eyes closed. Sarah was unable to tell whether he was sleeping or just sitting there, eyes closed.

SHHHHHHHHH!

After forging a contraption that had several nuts and bolts, Timothy placed a black chunk of clay into a pot. He placed the pot directly on the fire as the chunk slowly started to lose its rigidness. While the chunk of clay was melting, Timothy took out the contraption he put above the fire, placing it on the table. The contraption was still smoking when Timothy pressed it against the armor's right gauntlet.

The contraption merged with the gauntlet as Timothy fitted the broken sword into the gauntlet. Then, he turned his focus back to the pot which now had black goo bubbling inside.

Before taking out the pot from the fire, Timothy grabbed a wooden sprayer from his work table. He cleaned the insides of the sprayer using a cloth. Then he carefully poured the thick black liquid into the sprayer.

"He don't wear these" when Timothy was about to spray the cowl, Sarah reminded Timothy,

"Just paint the armor and the utility belt," Draven said. He was still reminiscing the memoirs of his family because apart from the broken sword, that was all he had of them.

Timothy put down the cowl as he began to spray the armor. The armor already looked darker but the spray gave the armor a shining metallic black coat.

Almost thirty minutes later, Timothy completed spraying the armor. For his next task, he gently rotated the armor. To let Draven's wings spread open freely, he needed to cut out the back of the armor.

Not any blade could cut open the armor. Luckily for Draven, Timothy had a veridium blade to do the task. Obviously, Draven knew this. Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen Timothy. Today wasn't the first day Timothy met Draven. He met Timothy at the UFH headquarters almost ten years ago. Timothy knew him as the Angel of Lotus.

The veridium blade looked nothing special, one would easily mistake the veridium blade for a silver dagger just like Sarah did. When he grabbed the blade from the work table, Sarah had no idea it was a veridium blade. He held the blade above the fire pit for a long couple of minutes until the silver blade turned bright orange.

First, Timothy drew a few 'x's on the back of the armor. Then, he began to carve out the armor to let the wings spread open freely. While he was carving the armor, his muscles bulged up. Looking at the sweat beads breaking out on his forehead, Sarah could tell how difficult it was to cut the armor using the blade.

Still, with great difficulty, Timothy managed to carve out two long rectangle pieces of the armor.

"I'll be right back" Timothy said before walking into the house leaving Sarah and Draven behind. Sarah expected Draven to stop or question Timothy yet he did neither.

"You're going to kill a lot of people arent you?" Sarah asked, standing beside the empty suit of armor. Just imagining Draven in this metallic dark suit gave her chills.

"Not people '' She heard Margoth's voice instead of Draven's. The etherial head of Margoth which looked like a snake and a human had a baby materialized over Draven's shoulder,

"Monsters, we are gonna kill monsters and eat their souls"

Sarah shuddered at the words that came out of Margoth's mouth.

"There was a woman" Margoth and Sarah turned their gazes to Draven as he began to speak,

"When the Scarface and the Clown broke into the guild, the brutes placed an explosive near the door so they could create an explosion on their way out. She was one of the few adventures laid near this explosive. She had a ring and she was pregnant" Draven narrated what he saw in the guild to Sarah without opening his eyes,

"If they had activated that explosive as they intended to, she along with several adventures would have blown to pieces. But you wouldn't have heard that news, instead you would have only heard Scarface and the Clown escaped the hands of the law" Draven paused for a moment before continuing,

"Or if the Black Knight appeared and apprehended them, Black Knight caught the villains yet again, good triumphed over evil. Every time a so-called superhero fights a supervillain, it either ends up with the superhero throwing the supervillain into the prison or the supervillain escaping the clutches of the superhero. That would be the news you'll hear. No one cares or talks about the collateral damage, the innocents who die in the crosshairs''

Timothy, who went to take something, heard Draven's words from the doorsteps. He couldn't agree more. Moreover, Timothy sensed pain in Draven's words. Somehow, he felt as though the youngster might also be in the same pain as him, the pain of losing his loved ones.

"When you murder a murderer, the number of murderers in the world remains the same"

"Hahahaha"

Sarah was surprised to see Draven break into laughter after hearing her words. This was the first time she had seen him laughing. But it wasn't laughter of joy, rather, it was laughter mixed with anger and bitterness

"Who said this, your favorite hero, the Black Knight?" Draven opened his eyes, lowering his head to look at Sarah. Then he smirked,

"Just like the rest of the superheroes, Black knight is an incompetent fool who fights with maniacs literally dressed like clowns and throws them in prison so they can break out of prison, resume their life of crime where they left off, and murder more people"

Draven stood up as Margoth's etherial form vanished into thin air. Sarah saw Draven walking towards her,

"Tell me, how many people you think the heroes indirectly killed by being too righteous and high horse not to kill these fools who clearly need to be killed once and for all. How many innocent lives could have been saved if they had killed the supervillains when they got the chance?"

Draven walked to the armor and stared at the empty suit of armor,

"When these so-called superheroes hit them, they get back up. I hit them, they stay down"

As he said, he turned around, leaning back into the armor. He strapped into the armor. Timothy came pushing a sarcophagus and pretended he heard nothing.

Sarah guessed the sarcophagus might have something to do with the armor. Without asking a question, Draven walked into the sarcophagus after Timothy tilted it upside. Draven just nodded at Timothy as though he knew what was the sarcophagus for. Returning the nod with a nod, Timothy closed the sarcophagus. Then, what he did stunned Sarah. He pushed the sarcophagus into the fire pit

"What are you doing?!"

"It's the only way to make the armor fit his body"

Sarah's body was shivering. She saw the metal sarcophagus turning its color from brown to orange little by little. Just standing several meters away, she could feel the heat being radiated by the sarcophagus and the fire pit. She couldn't even imagine how he would feel stuck inside it.

The amount of pain he was prepared to go through was mind-blowing. She failed to understand that this pain was nothing compared to reliving the day his family was murdered again and again in his head repeatedly.

Sarah waited for Draven to make a sound from inside or Timothy to pull him up. Neither of those things happened until the sarcophagus started to burn.

"Do something?!" Sarah grabbed Timothy's hand,

She was prepared to pull the sarcophagus by herself as she couldn't see him burn to death. Just as she was about to move, the sarcophagus flung open. From within, Draven rose up. He stepped out of the sarcophagus and the fire pit. The armor now perfectly fit his body as it was tailored for him. He felt one with the armor.

Sling!

Draven flicked his right-hand wrist as the broken sword extended from the gauntlet and reached his hand. He swung the sword and when he let go of the hilt, the sword slid back into the gauntlet with the aid of the spring-loaded mechanism in the contraption Timothy forged.

Whoosh!

Draven then summoned his wings. As he expected, this time, the armor did not stop the wings from coming out.

"Stay like this" Timothy grabbed the two carved-out armor pieces on the table. He began to fit some nuts and bolts onto the pieces. Timothy hadn't planned this initially but after hearing the words of Draven, he decided to add a little extra to the armor.

"Close your wings," Timothy said as Draven pulled the wings inside him. Currently, after the wings disappeared, the armor had two exposed places. Timothy placed the two armor pieces on each exposed area, fitting them with nuts and bolts.

"Now open your wings"

This time when Draven spread his wings open, the place where his wings came out slid open letting the wings out. Then when he closed the wings, the armor pieces slid close.

"Done" It was not his best work yet Timothy felt like he did something that mattered.

"It's time for us to leave," Draven said to Sarah,

He then turned to look at Timothy,

"Every minute you spend drinking is a minute you're putting your daughter in danger. What if the heroes don't exist, you be the hero to your daughter"

[Does the host wish to leave them a calling card?]

When he was about to leave, he heard the system,

[As the name suggests, the calling card can be used to call you]

[The host can buy a calling card from the system for 50 Legendary points]

"Okay"

Draven hadn't heard of a calling card before yet he went with his instincts and bought one. Just like before, he felt something materialize in his hand.

He looked down at his right hand and saw a black card with a red skull embossed on it.

"Take this"

Draven gave the card to Timothy,

"What is this?" Timothy asked doubtfully,

"Ask this bloody system how does it work" Margoth shouted in his head,

[The user just has to press the red skull and the host will be notified] the system informed them,

"If the time comes, press the skull," Draven told Timothy what the system told him,

Since Draven got everything he wanted from Timothy, he found no reason to linger around. Giving Timothy a nod, Draven took the sack of ethereals and armor pieces and walked out of the shed with Sarah.

"Next stop, thieves guild"