Cthulhu Gonfalon

“Hey!” Ray shouted and jumped up. He stood on a big tree that a giant with one eye used as a stick. Then Ray began to run, and didn’t stop until he got close to the giant’s head, and cut it off with his sword.

The giant let out a terrifying shout, and then began to breathe heavily. The dark red blood flew and spread everywhere. The giant shook a bit before collapsing heavily onto the ground. Even before it fell, Ray had already landed back on the ground and looked around, holding his sword in his hand. Everything around him was a mess. There were the bodies of various monsters, businessmen, and bodyguards strewn everywhere.

Since the giant, the leader of these monsters, had been killed, the monsters dispersed with an uproar. On this arena where an intense battle had just ended, only the crying, injured ones were left.

Seeing the monsters had been killed or run away, the terrified leader of the commercial corp who had been hiding under the carriage crawled out and gave great thanks to Ray. He insisted on returning him the favor.

Ray didn’t refuse since it was only natural for an adventurer to receive a reward from one he had helped. The leader gave him a small bag of gemstones, to which he was very surprised.

This is too much. It is against the rules, Ray thought.

Ray had indeed done a great job in helping this commercial corp. The defense circle was destroyed by the Ogres, lead by the giant, and all the members of the commercial corp were to be brutally killed by them. However, Ray appeared and knocked down a great many ogres with a sword, all by himself. Ray even killed the leader of these ogres, the giant with only one eye, and managed to save the whole circle.

A small bag of gemstones was still too much a reward to receive. However, the leader of the commercial corp was very persuasive, and at last, Ray accepted the gemstones rather worriedly. After, Ray decided to temporarily proceed with this commercial corp until they safely arrived at the next town.

At night, Steele, who had been taking care of the injured all day, finally came back to the carriage and began to complain.

“I am exhausted!” she said. “I have treated over 20 people. Among them, six are seriously injured. I even managed to bring one man back from the dead… I feel like I have become the priestess in a temple!”

“An able man is always busy,” Sui Xiong laughed. “How does it feel? I mean, saving someone? Do you feel the happiness at the bottom of your heart?”

Steele thought for a while and smiled. She didn’t say anything but went straight to sleep. Sui Xiong knew how she felt though, and smiled when he saw the blue fire dancing on the back of her hand.

A while later, Ray, who had gone out to patrol, came back. He smelled like blood. Obviously, he had gotten into a big fight.

“What have you killed this time?” Sui Xiong asked.

“A Chimera,” Ray said.

“Oh, which kind?”

“Chimera” was a general term, as well as a very famous creature. If a monster’s body was made of more than one monster, then it was called a Chimera. There were both good Chimera and bad Chimera, most all of them very strong.

Ray handed the space bag to Sui Xiong, and said, “Its body is still inside the bag. I plan to sell it when we arrive at the town.”

Sui Xiong used his spiritual sensing to scan the bag, and found that there were two bodies inside. Next to the body of the single-eyed giant, there was a huge monster as tall as two men stacked together. Most of its body was covered with a thick black carapace. It also had a dragon head, the body of a wolf, and two feet from a goat. Its body was very smooth. Sui Xiong could tell it was very agile, and that its teeth were sharp enough to bite off steel. It had a powerful weapon as well: three long tails, which acted like three terrifying chain-swords. The joint of the tail was very sharp and the skin very elastic. The smell left in its mouth proved that it could breathe fire.

If it hadn’t met Ray, who was almost stepping into the legendary world, it would not have been defeated as simply as this. As a terrifying monster, it could destroy a small-sized town all by itself. Meanwhile, the single-eyed monster could be easily defeated when a few brilliant adventurers worked together. Although it had great strength, the giant was not as agile.

“What does saving someone feel like?” Sui Xiong asked.

“It feels really good. I feel like a real knight,” Ray smiled. Then he got very serious. He said, “Just now, though, I felt like there was someone staring at me with bad intentions. It seems that man is extremely powerful and very terrifying.”

“Really?” Sui Xiong was surprised since a man that could scare Ray was never someone ordinary!

“I meant to catch a Chimera and mount it since I am very good at combat when I am riding a horse. A common battle horse is very weak and cannot survive heavy battle, so I have no choice but to fight without a mount. Besides, a Nargakurga is really rare, and one cannot buy it from the market either. When I saw a Chimera which could be my potential mount, I became very excited,” Ray said. “But that man made me feel very uncomfortable, so I wanted to leave quickly and killed the Chimera instead.”

Sui Xiong nodded and asked, “Is he still staring at you now?”

“Not now, I no longer felt his existence as soon as I walked close to the commercial corp.” Ray thought for a while and said: “I guess…he is afraid, Your Majesty.”

Sui Xiong contemplated for a bit and spread out his soul so he could carefully sense the immediate surroundings. After a while, he finally found some clues. There was a very tiny mark carved on Ray’s soul. It would do no harm to Ray. It was simply a mark which helped others locate Ray’s whereabouts.

When Ray was staying with Sui Xiong, the mark was not activated and didn’t send out any signals. As soon as Ray left Sui Xiong and was not under his protection, the mark was activated and sent out a message showing Ray’s location. Then the man who left this mark on Ray’s soul would know where Ray was. That was why Ray had the feeling he was being spied upon.

Since Sui Xiong didn’t know what this was all about, he didn’t try to activate the mark and instead confronted Ray about it.

“A mark?” Ray pondered for a while, then asked, “Can you tell me when this mark was carved on my soul?”

Sui Xiong examined it for a while with his spiritual sensing, and gave an approximate time. It hadn’t bee too long. It was a month at least, and a year at most.

“Well, I know what is going on now.” Obviously, Ray had some idea about this mark. He compared his guess with Sui Xiong’s examination. “It was left by the Brutal Hunter, or the God of Hunt and Holocaust,” he concluded. “I attacked his temple, maybe it was at that time he left this mark on my soul.”

Not long ago, Ray did business in the west wilderness. He spent almost all his money to bribe an evil organization called Black Axe to help him to fight against the followers of the God of Hunt and Holocaust. Then, he tried to sneak into the temple to steal a crystal hidden in the temple when the two sides were fighting with each other.

Inside that crystal, there was a bit of magical energy left by the God of Life. If Ray managed to get this crystal and examine it carefully, he might be able to have a grasp on Life. It would also lay a solid foundation for him to become a demigod in the near future. If he was lucky enough, he might even be able to become a real God, who was in charge of the priesthood of Life.

Unfortunately, Ray didn’t manage to get the crystal right away, since the cunning managerial personnel were always on alert and ran in a secret tunnel. But Ray couldn’t let them go so easily. He followed them all the way to the big Gobi, killed them all, and got the crystal at last.

It was also at that time he met Sui Xiong. The crystal was confiscated by Sui Xiong, and Ray had become his mount since then. In fact, this all happened quite recently; but Ray felt like it was almost century ago.

During this journey, Ray was having a really tough time. Still, he was also living each day to the fullest. When he gradually reclaimed his childhood dream and realized that he was back on the way to becoming a knight, he was deeply touched.

Just like Sui Xiong had already put before: he felt all the things that happened in the past were already over, while the things happened at the present were ongoing.

Now Ray was confident enough to confront anyone, and dared to fight in the battlefield or go to hell!

If he had still been a sole bandit wandering in the west wildness, and knew that the Brutal Hunter had left a mark on his soul, he would be terrified and run away like a coward. Ray knew that he was sure to be slain by the killers lead by the Brutal Hunter, and there was only one way left for him: killing himself.

Now, although he was still a bit worried, he never even thought of running away.

He had reclaimed peace in his mind again, and was no longer afraid of death!

Sui Xiong would never allow the followers of the God of Hunt and Holocaust to kill Ray. Sui Xiong believed that the God of Hunter and Holocaust himself was pure evil. The God of Hunter and Holocaust’s doctrines claimed that the world was simply a huge hunting ground, and that all creatures were prey. He usually pleased himself by killing as many creatures as possible. Anyone who chose to believe his doctrine was never a good person. Compared with Ray, who had abandoned this depraved way of life and returned to the path of virtue, these followers should be killed!

“I see.” Sui Xiong sneered, and said, “That God’s real body can’t step into the Main Plain, and he could, at most, send a few killers and a messenger. Don’t worry. I’ll back you up!”

“You don’t need to do this. I can just as well defend myself, and this is my business.”

“Nonsense. Don’t forget I have got the crystal, so it’s my business, too” Sui Xiong laughed. “And… to be honest, I have always been curious about other God’s priesthoods.”

“You mean?”

“I feel hungry, and want to eat another oracle,” Sui Xiong laughed. “Last time I gained so much information and energy after eating the oracle of the God of Conspiracy. In fact, I am very much looking forward to tasting the Oracle of the God of Hunt and Holocaust. I hope it will taste good.”

Ray was silent for a while. Then he got down on one knee, put his right hand on his left chest and lowered his head.

“Although I don’t clearly know Your Majesty’s doctrine, and can’t give you my belief, please accept my oath,” Ray said slowly and firmly. “I, Leon Igor, hereby swear to you that I devote Your Majesty my life and soul, I will praise you, fight for you, and never stop being loyal to you. Even if I die!”