The prey.
That was what they were.
Lin Wen recognized them the moment he laid his eyes on them. There was a scent about them, the kind that he'd smelled plenty of times before; the weak, the cowardly, the way they shamble on their feet without confidence.
How this entire city was when he arrived.
It was... a miracle. Truly a grand miracle.
He'd come here prepared to beg on his knees for forgiveness, but instead he found a city rife with death looking for someone to stabilize it. And who better than he? A whisper here, a touch there, a song over yonder... it just a few days, he was the king. And they were the prey.
Just like the little group of lambs strolling casually through the gates.
But Lin Wen was no fool; though they smelled like prey, clever ones oft disguised themselves as such. Put on a mantle of the meek, but beneath they were lions and dragons, ready to leave ashes in their wake.
So he approached them, and he taunted them, and he recognized immediately that they weren't pretending. Someone strong... no, someone simply not weak would not have so readily fallen to such an obvious provocation. The strong bear pride in their bones, and see it beneath them to engage in such mortal means.
Though Lin Wen was a bit surprised that they'd managed to resist his illusionary arts, he was fairly certain it was simply because he didn't have enough time. The nature of his arts wasn't to quickly put someone under an illusion, but to persistently create a reality they begin to believe in over the course of days, if not weeks.
And thus, he ordered.
"Kill them," his voice was a hiss, his heart stirring with desire.
After such a long time... he finally had his kingdom, and he could reign without anyone to punish him.
A flurry of arts encroached onwards as his shadows leapt, and he could see it: the sight of them lying gagged and tied up on the ground, begging him. Begging him to let them live, to let them go... just like they all do.
... hm?
A streak of red flashed and a head flew upward, causing him to frown. Though he said 'kill them', that wasn't the actual order, more a way to scare them. They were supposed to subjugate them.
But maybe it was an accident?
A pair of arms soon flew up and another head, and the reality of it finally reached him--those were the heads and limbs of his people.
Before he could fully understand what happened, a teenage boy drew his sword in a singular stroke from a shoddy-seeming scabbard. It was an ordinary strike, yet was not; Lin Wen felt his heart choked up and seize, and felt the blood in his veins freeze.
That single stroke... it was as if the raging gods had descended from the firmament above to punish the sinners. Sword Qi was so overwhelming that it tore through the entire city, leaving behind a hair-wide gash in the ground... but also about fifty or so sliced-up bodies writhing and convulsing on that very ground, soaked in their own blood.
He glanced to his side where his dearest Fairy Zhenya stood, the light of his life, only to witness her body split in half down the middle as blood sprayed out horrifyingly, splashing over him.
It was then that he finally caught wind of the screams--horrible, haunting screams.
His gaze drew over to his most elite guard, those that even the former mayor employed, only to see them obliterated by a few punches from a few young girls...
--his Shaman! That was right! There was a Shaman in this godforsaken place, and even Lin Wen struggled to properly subjugate him! A word or two from that man, and they'll all be groveling!
... but he was dead already, his body wrapped in blinking colors of gold, that young man standing above him with a curious expression.
Run.
The thought emerged in his mind like a bolt of thunder.
He was wrong.
Terribly wrong. More wrong than he had ever been before in his entire life. Those people... they were no prey, no. They were apex predators, donning the skin of sheep and letting the world believe they were meek and broken. The most terrifying sort, the sort that he was desperate to become.
Run.
His feet spun in place and he used every last mote of Qi in him speed away. Alongside his illusionary arts, he was most confident in his movement arts--no, in some ways, he was even more confident in them. After all, they were what saved his life on more than one occasion.
The world around him blurred as he began bounding dozens of yards with each step. Before a few seconds had passed, he'd reached the city's--or whatever was left of one, at least--edge and crossed it, heading for the mountains. He only had to get away and hide, just like he did for decades prior. He still would have been hiding had those infernal things not come and scorched the entire mountain range, leaving it bereft of life.
How was he so damned unfortunate? To have run across apex predators twice in such a short span of time?
It didn't matter.
All he had to do was simply run away and wait it out. Just like those before, these ones would be gone soon enough, too. People like them... this pond was far too small for them.
"Boo~"
"AAH!" a face appeared rather sharply in front of him amidst the blurring trees and boulders, causing him to loose his footing and slip, rolling into and over the dirt repeatedly for a few seconds, just barely managing to stabilize himself and jump back up.
Opposite of him, standing some ten yards away, was a boy--a boy that he recognized. He was in that man's group, blending into the background. When did he come here? Did the man anticipate he'd go this way and sent ahead a child to slow him down?
"... don't a fool, little boy," Lin Wen said. "That man send you ahead to buy him some time. But we can just go our separate ways. You can tell you never saw me come through here, and I can let you live."
"Really?"
"Of course, of course; unlike that man, I'm not a monster. I--h-huh?"
It was all a blur.
One moment, the boy was over there... then the next, he was in front of him. So close that he could make out the individual eyelashes.
Lin Wen felt his knees and legs give out as his entire body began to wobble; falling down, he saw red spatter out in front of him, and saw the boy extending his arm toward him.
Maybe he was trying to help?
No.
The boy was holding something.
Something raw, scarlet, and moving.
As Lin Wen fell further and further back, the sky beginning to overcome his view, he saw what it was.
It was his heart.
And it was still beating.