System Change

“N-no! No, no, no, no… you can’t do this.” The City Lord begged as he stumbled backwards, away from the approaching Derek.

Derek smiled and shook his head. “Oh, I can… and I will.” He moved forward, step by step. Derek looked around at the City Lord’s remaining personal guards and noticed that they were all sweating bullets and stiff as boards. He chuckled. I’m guessing that display against Herrett is to thank for this.

Malcolm tripped over his own feet and landed on his back. From there, he tried crawling away. Derek took another step forward, getting closer and closer to the man.

“Attack him! Kill him!” The frightened City Lord shouted commands at his last remaining hope, his personal guards.

Derek could only guess that his personal guards had a much stricter contract or oath than the soldiers or even Herrett, because, even while terrified of Derek, they still attacked him one last time. And it was the last time, because Derek didn’t hold back. He gave them all quick deaths with his void covered hands.

After that, only Derek, Silvi, Malcolm, and the unconscious Herrett and Clay remained. There may have been some soldiers still close enough to make out what was happening, but Derek didn’t bother to check. It was probably better if they were watching, anyway.

The City Lord pushed and kicked the ground, doing everything he could to escape Derek. Unfortunately for him, it was all in vain.

“P-please don’t do this.” The City Lord pleaded. “I-I can give you money! My father can make you a wealthy man.”

Derek shook his head. “I don’t need money.” He took another step forward.

“Women then! I can give you women whose beauty you’ve never even dreamed of.” When money didn’t work, he switched to sex.

“Not a chance.” Derek took another step.

Malcolm widened his eyes. “What about men? I could find you all types of men. Beautiful, handsome, rugged, you name it, and I will find them.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “No, not men either.”

A glint flashed in the eyes of the begging City Lord. “If not men, women, or money, then children!”

Derek stopped and frowned. He looked the City Lord dead in his eyes. “Children?”

“Ah. I see, so that’s it. Of course, you hang around with that boy and are very protective of that little girl. I can get you more. Boys… girls… it doesn’t matter.” The City Lord seemed to think he figured something out. He was sorely mistaken.

Derek moved and was overtop the City Lord’s body in a flash. He reached down and lifted the man up by the collar of his tunic. With gritted teeth, he spoke. “And where do you get these children?”

The man squirmed in Derek’s grasp. “I cannot say, but you can have as many as you want.”

Derek reached down with his free hand and grabbed one of Malcolm’s fingers. He tightened his grip and twisted until he heard a loud pop. “Tell me!”

Unfortunately, the broken finger didn’t get much of a reaction out of the City Lord. “I can’t tell you.” He replied.

Derek watched as the man’s finger seemed to set itself and slowly heal. Ah, that’s right. These nobles come from a line of tanks. Derek clicked his tongue. The fear of death was what kept the man talking, pain wasn’t going to get Derek anywhere.

“If you can’t tell me, then I guess you don’t have any use left.” Derek brought his free hand up and channeled the void into it right before the City Lord’s eyes. He made somewhat of a show out of it.

“No, please. I can’t say. I’m under oath.” The man blurted.

“Better to break the oath than to die, don’t you think?” Derek slowly moved his palm forward, inching closer and closer to the frightened man’s head.

“No, no, no.” The man screamed. “I can’t.”

Derek sighed. “Fine. I’ll just ask your son when he wakes up, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll ask your father… politely, of course.” He pulled his arm back and shot it towards the man’s head.

“Father!” The man yelled and Derek stopped his palm just before the void made contact with the man’s skin. “It’s father’s business. He has other noble houses working under him. They… procure the goods and make the deliveries. That way, nothing is linked back to House Torith.”

Derek sat the man down and patted his tunic. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” He looked over to the unconscious Clay. “Your son, does he know about this… family business?”

The City Lord fell to his knees, crying. “My skills! They’re all gone.”

Derek took a quick look, and sure enough, the information on the man came back as him being an Oath Breaker. I guess that’s one good thing that came out of all of this. Derek thought to himself before nudging the man with his food. “Hey! I asked you a question. Does your son know?”

The man, still sobbing, shook his head. “N-no. I barely know. I don’t have anything to do with that side of things. When I found out, I had to make an oath and then my father still sent me to that damned city.”

Derek nodded. “I see.” He said. So the City Lord doesn’t actually know anything else about it.

“Can I go now?” The man asked.

“Go? Who said anything about letting you go?”

“B-but I told you everything. I broke my oath for it. Y-you have to let me go.”

“Why would I have to do that? Besides, I promised your guard that you wouldn’t live for more than an hour, and I wouldn’t want to break my promise, now, would I?” He replied. “For your cooperation, I’ll give you a quick death, how does that sound?”

“N-n…b-bu… please, no!” The man tried to turn away and run.

Derek kicked off the ground and caught up to the man in an instant. He held him by the back of his neck. Using his void covered fist, he punched him in the center of his back, right behind his heart. A spray of blood flew out of the City Lord’s mouth, but the man was still breathing.

Just how much Endurance and Vitality does this guy have? It wasn’t as easy to kill someone with high stats by destroying their heart as it was if you focused on the brain, but that was fine by Derek. He had promised the man a quick death, not a painless one.

Derek opened his hand and struck the man’s back once again. It still wasn’t enough. Derek’s Identify told him that the man was in critical condition, though, so he struck one last time. With three void covered strikes to the City Lord’s back, it was enough to put the man in a ‘Dying’ state. Derek nodded, but instead of waiting for the time to run out, he struck out one more time, this time to his head. There was no ‘Dying’ state when one’s brain was destroyed.

You have successfully slain an Oathbreaker of the Great System.

New Award Earned

That must be Award that guard talked about.

Lesser Enforcer of Oaths

You have slain an Oathbreaker of the Great System. It is of upmost importance to keep to your oaths to the Great System. For enforcing oaths and delivering justice to those who break them, you will be awarded with the following:

3 Skill Points

Eliminate more Oathbreakers of the Great System to earn more rewards.

Holy shit. What an incentive to kill people who break their oaths. Now I’m starting to feel a little bit bad for that other guard. Derek shook his head. There was nothing I could do about it. His oath was linked to her death, and she had to die. If I would have had my prison before meeting her, it could have been different… Derek sighed and removed his hand from the back of the City Lord.

With that, the City Lord’s corpse stopped moving as blood pooled around it, on the ground. His promise to Captain Herrett was finally fulfilled. Speaking of which, Derek walked over to the unconscious ex-guard.

He couldn’t get any information about the man, because his Identify skill wasn’t at a high enough level to use it on him yet. Derek reached down and cast Rejuvenation, along with Cleaning on the guard. He was still unsure of what to do with the man. Derek checked on the man one more time.

He was breathing steadily, and his heart was beating strongly. Doesn’t look like there’s anything overly wrong with him or his body. Most likely just strained his body and mind by using a lot of skill at once and running out of mana at the same time. Derek reached down and picked the man up.

With Herrett in his arms, he walked over to the carriage that the City Lord’s sun was in. Letting the boy keep his spot for now, he placed Herrett on the seat at the front and sat down beside him. Unfortunately, the beasts in charge of pulling the carriage had run away during all the commotion, and Derek didn’t feel like carrying two bodies at the moment.

He could use Void Prison, but he was still unsure of how it worked. He didn’t want to lock Herrett up, then come to find out he couldn’t get him back out.

‘Silvi, how bout you pull the carriage. I’m sure you’re strong enough to do it.’ Derek asked Silvi.

‘How bout you fuck off?’

Silvi’s reply left Derek aghast, then visions of cooking shows from his previous world flashed through his mind. I’m definitely going to regret leaving her in that restaurant kitchen. So far, her use of foul language was minor. Hopefully, I pulled her out of it in time. Derek sighed once more and shook his head.