Dark Divinity

As Kan prepared to take Omen away, another figure emerged from the shadows of the bushes. The newcomer's eyes were wide with a disturbing madness, an unsettling gleam that spoke of deep-seated psychosis. He seemed barely able to contain his eagerness, his unblinking gaze flitting sharply between Omen and Isolde with an unsettling hunger.

"Let's hurry up," the man said in a hoarse voice, his smile twisting into something almost grotesque. "I'd love to have a taste of the pale damsel." His side eyes lingered on Isolde, and his eagerness to inflict harm was intense.

The newcomer had entered the area and glanced at everyone, but his attention was fixed on Omen the entire time. Whenever he attempted to get a short peek at Isolde's nearly naked body, Omen's binds would sporadically loosen and then his body would stiffen again.

'It's him? This skill—it's an attribute of this guy's eyes,' Omen deducted alarmedly.

"I would prefer to keep my head from Jacobi this time, Clay. So, keep an eye on him!" Kan ordered as he gave the man a furious look.

The scrawny man fearlessly replied, "Oh come on, just a tiny bit of fun," making the muscular man tsk angrily.

Kan carefully untied Isolde and placed her on his shoulder. When he was finished, he simply turned to face the only female in their group and said in a blank tone, "Make sure he does not fuck this up," referring to the insane man who was still staring at Omen to keep him still.

"Don't worry Kan, Jacobi will be happy with us today" Chenaira, overjoyed to have found the stranded weak couple together with still-fresh squirrel meat, cheerfully approached Omen and grinned seductively, she grabbed the dried meat and hoisted it on her shoulders.

…..

Isolde had never felt this helpless in her life, both weak and blind. There was little she could do even now as she was bound with thick ropes on the muscular shoulder of one of her captors. She felt her ass occasionally being groped as the man whispered cold, vile words into her ear, his breath hot and reeking of decay. Her mind raced with terror, defensively shutting down as a coping mechanism. She was completely terrified, her heart pounding so loudly she could hardly hear anything else.

Through the haze of her fear, she realized Omen was unconscious and being dragged on the forest floor, his near-lifeless body bouncing over roots and rocks. Blood smeared the path they took, a ghastly breadcrumb trail leading to their doom. She knew there was no hope for her anymore.

Meanwhile, as Omen felt himself being dragged like a ragdoll on the forest floor with the scrawny madman holding his leg he finally decided to act. His intent spiked as he suddenly kicked the man's hand forcefully.

"What the fuck!" the man yelled, turning angrily and instantly glaring at Omen. Omen felt himself suddenly becoming immobilised again.

'Oh, not again,' Omen thought, as he could do nothing but watch the scrawny man's fist smash into his face violently, knocking a tooth out. The beating continued until Omen's face was entirely bloody.

"That's enough, Clay," a deep voice resounded through the cave before them. Despite his bleeding face blinding him, Omen refused to give up the fight and quickly devised a plan.

Through the haziness of his battered face, Omen had not even noticed they were already at their destination. He heard Isolde's muffled cries, which only made him more enraged. As soon as Clay blinked, Omen used [instant dash] launching himself forward and giving the scrawny man an uppercut. Before the man could even fall, Omen increased the acceleration of his hands and violently pierced his fingers into the unblinking eyes of the scrawny man.

The man yelled in pain as Omen further packed a lot of forest dirt and choked it down his throat in an attempt to cruelly suffocate and kill him, but a punch unexpectedly flopped him a short distance away.

Omen got into position right away, ready to dash over to Isolde. He knew he could not win this fight, but then a huge hand suddenly clamped down like a vice around his neck holding him in place.

It was their leader, the dark man from the cave...Jacobi.

Omen made pathetic attempts to break free, but the dark, muscular figure was simply too strong.

In a deep, calm voice that startled Omen, the man pointed out, "You're a feisty one, but you are not the one I need, so behave yourself and you'll be free soon enough."

"Jacobi, let me kill him the bastard!" Clay angrily shouted, while clutching his left eye, the only one that had sustained significant damage. "Let me end his pathetic life!"

Omen struggled against the vice-like grip as Clay glared daggers at him. His vision was sharp enough to see his captor's reflection through Clay's bleeding eye. The man had dark brown skin and was two meters tall with a muscular build even larger than Kan's and had intricate golden tattoos around his entire body.

Jacobi released Omen with a smile and watched as the latter desperately tried to catch his breath, then turned his gaze to the scrawny man who was bleeding on the floor.

 "I'm disappointed in you Clay, today you just proved how incompetent you are"

Clay didn't respond, afraid he'd suddenly be staring at his own beheaded body. He knew how strong Jacobi was, this wasn't their first purge Afterall. Omen however wasn't listening to them, there was only one thing left to do. Omen staggered on his feet as he faced the amused grin on Jacobi's face and sneered in disgust. "This…is my judgement",

At first, Jacobi frowned in confusion before laughing his heart off, he even snickered and slapped his knees a few times. Then he paused just as abruptly before turning serious.

" Judgement? What nonsense are you talking about", He turned back in annoyance noticing no one shared his humour. "Looks like I need to kill you afterall" He took a step to eliminate the weakling once and for all but then he felt a sudden terrifying aura and immediately looked around in dread.

Gulping in fear he turned his gaze at the bleeding boy who stood with shaking feet and cold obsidian eyes.

'Is it not from him?' he turned around in alarm. His accomplices, noticing his unusual demeanour, turned towards him, but Jacobi wasn't paying them any attention. 'Where is it coming from, then?'

His answer soon came from a booming screech that seemed to splitter the heavens. The river bird was back, and its malice was stronger than ever!

"What did you do!", Jacobi said in shock terrified of the fact such a weakling could summon such a powerful beast. They had been avoiding this particular beast for the past few days now and knew battling it head-on was suicidal, so it was no surprise that Jacobi felt intense terror.

But he was wrong though, the beast wasn't summoned by Omen in the way he thought, in fact, the creature was full of malice for the annoying roach who had ensnared him among those despicable vines. Its torn and mutilated body was booming through the sky at alarming speed with the full intent to destroy.

Taking note of the confusion, Omen used instant dash once more to resume his initial rescue plan and it would have gone well if not for the sudden vice kick that smacked him back into the ground. Angrily he glared at his assailant.

Chenaira!

The bitch was grinning as she glanced at him in amusement "Where do you think you're going, sweetheart? You brought the beast here; you be its bait"

Omen grinned in return as he stared past her into the sky because the beast had already sighted him from afar and its prideful malice would not allow any other creature to dare kill his prey…not before him at least.

The annoying bitch discovered the creature's arrival too late as the next instant she heard something land behind her, her upper body disappeared instantly, and the only thing left was a bleeding torso with fresh blood spilling down to her legs. It was as if her entire upper body had simply vanished…

…Vanished into the mouth of the ever-angry bird.

"Nice to see you again, friend!", Omen said with a smile, but the beast replied by piercing the earth where he laid a millisecond ago.

If it wasn't for [instant dash] Omen would have died multiple times, he hoped his limitless energy was actually what it was...Limitless.

As if the world despised him and his thoughts, his knees buckled against each other as he suddenly rolled on the ground, fate was even a bit merciful for the bird which had been following its movement and stabbed the place where Omen was supposed to be if he had remained running.

"Oh shit!", Omen turned in alarm as he looked around the chaos. The three men were gone, leaving Isolde lying helplessly on the floor, she was so still that Omen knew the only possible explanation was that she was either dead or dying... could anyone even survive being ripped in half? His eyes met the corpse of the bitch, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He needed a distraction though.

He looked back up and froze in dread, the river bird's beak was above, staring directly at him. Its entire body cast a shadow around him Omen knew that at that moment there was simply nothing he could do.

'am I going to die without even accomplishing a single one of my goals, by the gods, my father was right', his thoughts wondered as he accepted death, but a sudden pained screech brought him out of his misery.

Looking up he saw a small knife protruding out of the giant bird's left eye…Isolde's knife!

He turned to her in joy and quickly took off towards her while the beast struggled to pull out the small blade with its massive talons. He reached her and the closer he got the more his smile grew, she was alive. She was bleeding but she was alive, as her hand remained posed in the position with a radiant smile on her face, Omen had never felt so much relief in seeing her beautiful smile.

Like a sudden flash of lightning, the next thing he saw was the river bird's claw tearing across her chest in its mad painful dance of rage. The blind girl lay on the warm forest floor below the sun's glare as her body convulsed violently and blood seeped out of her body in wild gushes as she trembled in pain.