Comics multiverse: Reborn as a special mutant

Keyaruga blinked. Well, this has turned to utter shit, he thought to himself. The heavy stench of blood filled the battlefield, and all his toys lay broken on the ground - he wasn't able to tell whether they were dead or alive. Various of his own limbs were lying around as well, having been torn off but almost immediately having been replaced by new limbs. He seemed to be in shock, moving his gaze from blood-spattered white fur to a charred corpse that used to sport pink hair. He was almost immediately distracted from looking however, as the unpleasant sensation of his body being flashboiled by a fireball came over him, followed by a hail of arrows piercing his body. Of course, within a few seconds he was good as new. At this point, the armies of multiple countries didn't even pose a threat to him – they couldn't kill him because he regenerated too fast, and they couldn't get close enough to restrain him due to [[deterioration heal]] and his superhuman speed.

They could, of course, kill the people around him. And that they did. Quite efficiently and effectively, it had to be said. And yet, Kaeruga felt calmer than he'd ever been. Must be the shock, he figured. While pondering, he got encased in solid ice and hurled into the air by a tornado summoned by the allied mages. When he crashed onto the ground, he had broken into large pieces, but his healing proficiency had become so great he was able to almost instinctively regenerate himself from his head, to the horrified gasps of the largest alliance this world had ever seen. While he shook his head to get rid of the last of the ice, some soldiers dropped their spears and he could see them getting admonished by their squad leaders. He was rather proud at the soldiers that they were clearly afraid, but not deserting.

He chuckled darkly, thinking that he never expected to be the person creating peace between the demihumans and the humans, making them forget all the past wrongs their former enemiese, now current allies had put them through. Of course, he united them unintentionally by turning into their common enemy. That moment, he felt a huge shockwave, while getting flattened to a pulp, followed by an incredible heat and explosion. For a moment he couldn't tell what had happened, until he saw the devastation around his (now naked) body. With his [[spirit eye]] he saw a regiment of collapsed mages in the distance, who presumably gave their life to finish invoking this meteor strike that had hit him.

The ground he had stood on had already became a mix of blood, ash and mud from the earlier attacks, but now had turned into a crater. Several regiments had their innards ruptured by the shockwave because they were too close to the meteor, and Kaeruga seemed to remember some regiments closer to the blast zone who had to have been vaporized. They really wanted him dead.

Well, that at least answered the question whether his companions were still alive – no one could have survived that impact but him. He couldn't even see their bodies anymore. A red glint caught his eye in the distance, having been thrown quite far from its original position by the explosion: Eve's heart, the perfect compound that was stronger than any material in the world – the philosopher's stone. While the rest of the demon lord had burned away, only her heart remained. He was shook from his dreamlike dazed state. He didn't have to accept this unacceptable outcome. He could try again. With the philosopher's stone, even novice mages could perform epic feats of magic and expert mages could literally work miracles.

For the allied soldiers, his sudden speed must have made it seem like he teleported. One moment he was standing, taking any attack they threw at him, the next moment he was crouching down at a spot some distance away. They saw him raise a red stone high, and at the same time they fired any arrows and magic they had left. Whatever he would do with that stone, it wouldn't be good.

The sky darkened from all the arrows flying towards him, but Keyaruga just smiled. It seemed like quite the sad smile. They were too late, and with a whispered [[world heal]] the world's reality was rejuvenated back to its state four years ago.

While losing consciousness and his memories, Keyaruga swore that this third attempt would end better than the other two.

Chapter 2: Another new beginning, yet again.Chapter Text

Keyaru screamed while his old memories burned themselves into his brain and he had to re-experience eight years of horrible memories in the spans of seconds. He curled into a foetal position, just beside the pool he had just looked into at his reflection with his newly acquired [[spirit eye]] and cried. He gnashed his teeth hard enough to break them, but couldn't even register the pain.

He was back at the point where he had convinced a star spirit to grant him the ocular power to see the true nature of things, the all-seeing eye. His memories had been erased, as the events covered by the memories had now never happened, but as soon as he saw his reflection in the pool he regained all the memories he lost.

First, the four years he had spent as the Hero of Healing, enslaved by three other heroes with drugs: The Hero of the Cannon Bullet, the Hero of the sword Blade and the Hero of magic Flare. The abuse he had suffered in those four years he paid back double to those responsible in the second set of four years after he used [[world heal]] for the first time, gathering a party of devoted lovers on the way. That had ended… poorly, too. Too many enemies he had made, and his clever plans for revenge finally caused his downfall.

His mouth was still bleeding when he was able to somewhat think again. He felt bile rising in his throat, but was able to keep it down as it would be embarrassing to hurl puke into the sacred lake of the star spirits right in front of them. Said star spirits were looking at him rather dubiously.

The star spirit wearing the blue robe of feathers who had given him the all-seeing eye asked him:

"Are… you okay?"

And then she cringed as she herself, possessing the same eyes she granted Keyaru, could see he was most definitely not okay and yet she asked such a stupid question. Even after millennia, spirits can still embarrass themselves with awkwardness. Keare looked at her, and while lacking the strength to stand up, he managed to squeak out:

"Sorry 'bout… can't process… hurts too much… can't think…"

His voice sounded unfamiliar to him, as his cracked teeth made it hard to enunciate. The spirit just moved towards him wordlessly and extended her arms to give him a hug, but then reconsidered after she saw him subconsciously flinch and enveloped him into a warm magical light instead, the golden radiation comforting his body while his mind was tormented by events that may not have happened yet felt more real than reality right now.

"I am the one who is sorry, child of man.", the spirit said, "I never intended to repay your ancestor by giving you a gift that causes so much pain."

Feeling like he was wrapped into a warm weighted blanket by the healing golden light, Keare returned to reality a bit and was able to answer the spirit semi-coherently.

"Not your fault… I need to know… so things won't go wrong anymore this time."

The old Keyaru personality – the one raised lovingly in a village, the one that only wanted to help people as much as he could - peeked through the torrent of madness raging in his head, and he got a bit of a guilty look in his eyes. Still stumbling over his words, he managed to say:

"Speaking about that ancestor… the one who helped one of you… I'm not related to anyone like that. I stole the knowledge from someone I healed… I am sorry."

But the spirit simply wove away his concerns.

"Child of man, we spirits see the true nature of things. We can see your pasts, so we know anything you wish to say to us. Although they might not be directly related by blood, are not all humans kindred, in the end? One of you saved one of us, and we repay kindness threefold without fail."

The spirit then got a complicated look in her eyes.

"However, even if no Material one apart from yourself remembers your pasts, we Ethereals remember. You used our favour twice, only one remains."

The aligned stars were slowly moving out of the precarious balance, closing the connection between the material world and the spirit realm, and the spirits observing the lake became more ephemeral, like a dream slowly being forgotten upon waking. The golden light slowly dimmed as well, leaving Keyaru with an intense sense of loss while he could feel the morning chill of the forest again. The spirit kissed Keare on his forehead to say goodbye, and left him with a last warning.

"Please… do it right this time so you have no regrets."

Keyaru just stared at the disappearing spirits. He stood still at the side of the pool for a few hours, then jerked his body into motion to start his journey. Once more.

Chapter 3: A happy (?) reunionChapter Text

Princess Flare tried not to show her discomfort on her face, while the desert sun was bearing down on her and being almost assaulted by the stench of all too quickly spoiling meat on the market. She had travelled quite far these last three weeks to meet someone, who somehow seemed to have just left any village or city she arrived at. But her journey to meet the new Hero led her to this city on the edge of a large desert, Aerankar, and it seemed like she'd finally caught up with her quarry.

However, the soldiers accompanying her didn't want her to visit the butcher's district personally, as they couldn't guarantee her safety in the busy throng of people. Yet somehow, she feared that her target would give her the slip again, if she wasn't there to track their trail as soon as they ran off. She didn't even know what her quarry looked like, as she could only tell the location of the new Hero symbol. But she suspected him to be a figure called the Saint of Pain, as every city they visited in search of the new Hero reported to have been visited by that 'Saint'.

So she pushed on, against the advice of her retainers. She walked past the butchers eviscerating various kind of lifestock, and got close to a gathering of beggars sitting in close proximity of an alley, most pockmarked with disease, or missing various limbs. The continued wars against the demon race and slaving expeditions to gather demi-human slaves had left a wake of impoverished ex-soldiers, who now had to live from other's charity as they missed vital parts of their body. They were wearing planks with nails embedded in them, bound together on each side of them, and pressing those nails in their skin the more they tightened the ropes connecting each board.

"Flagellants", Leonard the guards' captain whispered to princess Flare. He continued in a low tone:

"We were told that after this guy visits a city, he gathers the beggars with promises of salvation, if only they prove their devotion by mortification of their bodies. He arrives at dawn, leaves at dusk, and anyone joining him in this demonic ritual and continuing until he leaves gets all their ills cured. If any supplicant is not devoted enough in his eyes – proving devotion with pain - , they don't get saved. Only the truly desperate take his word for it that he can cure all, but up until now he seems to have kept his promises."

The princess raised an eyebrow at the mention of 'demonic'. The captain picked up on it and explained:

"In a figure of speech, your highness. Our intelligence is limited, but no actual demons seem to be involved. Although we can't be sure this 'Saint' is truly human. Normal healing magic can't do what he can do."

The princess nodded. She didn't want to open her mouth, as she felt she could almost taste the filth in this place. She motioned that she wanted to continue, and the captain send in some guards to secure the alley and prevent any assassins from attacking the princess. When he was done, the princess strode forward into the alley until she saw a figure sitting on the ground, with a cup filled with a red liquid on his left side and a wooden place filled with ash on his right. The figure didn't seem to have acknowledged the soldiers rushing in at all, but when Flare approaches he raises his head and turns to her to look at her with his eyes mostly hidden between filthy, long strands of white hair. Yet she was still startled when she saw the intensity he was looking at her. This person definitely wasn't completely sane. It was hard to tell with the pockmarks on his face, but he seemed around his early twenties. She could, as she expected, clearly see the sigil that marked him as one of the ten heroes on his left hand. She started again when he spoke, with a gravelly, halting voice that indicated it had been a while since the owner of the voice had conducted an actual conversation.

"Welcome to my humble abode, your highness. How can such a lowly wretch as I be of assistance to the first princess of the kingdom?"

He was perfectly polite, yet sounded like he was mocking her all the same. A disadvantage of being seen as the unfailingly nice princess of the kingdom, she assumed. Oh well, if he wouldn't obey her they had plenty of options to deal with that.

"Well met, my lord Saint! I seek out your assistance as the kingdom desperately needs your help! So many of our brave soldiers have risked everything for the human race, and yet we haven't been able to adequately repay them for their sacrifices. We have heard that lord Saint can heal any wound, and even restore limbs, so His Royal Highness the King officially asks your help to heal the soldiers of the kingdom. Will you help with their plight?"

Flare even managed to wrench out some tears to sell the act of the caring princess. Keyaru smiled. He had to separate his identity of the Hero of Healing from Keyaru the village boy, so this time the village couldn't be used against him anymore, and he had to gather XP as quickly as possible before meeting Flare to raise his level as much as he could. Wounded soldiers were a great source of XP, especially if they had hit their level limit – XP reserves kept accumulating through combat, even if the owner of the XP couldn't use it to level up. He had to prevent Flare from realizing he had been on the run from her, so he came up with an identity as a travelling monk performing miracles on the wounded. A carriage could only travel about 30 kilometers each day, while he himself could run 80 if he continuously healed his fatigue, which had allowed him to stay ahead of the royal procession. Now his preparations were almost complete, but he still had to acquire metal magic and Kureha's sword skill because of the edge it would give him over his opponents, both of which he could only find at the Royal Palace. So he responded:

"Yes, your highness. I will help any wretched soul in this kingdom I can. But please, I am but a simple monk so I'd prefer if no one would refer to me as any kind of Saint. It'd be the height of vanity to refer to myself as such, I am but a speck of dust in the eyes of the divine."

Flare smiled at him. Keyaru was honestly impressed at her acting skills.

"Please, there's no need for formality between us heroes. Just call me Flare, if you wish. And sir, how would a monk like you be referred to by the likes of I?"

"Thank you, kind Flare. I suppose you can simply call me… Dust."

Chapter 4: Meeting more old acquintances for the first timeChapter Text

It was a sight to behold, to see someone dressed as a beggar (and being as filthy as one) descent from the princess' carriage. Dust smiled when he felt the animosity of the soldiers in the castle, who were angry that the new hero turned out to be someone as low as he. How dared he share a carriage with their princess, while the soldiers couldn't even meet her eyes while they greeted her.

"I'm sure you must be tired, Dust. Let the servants show you to your room, and then we can discuss at breakfast tomorrow how you can help the kingdom."

Flare smiled at Dust, radiating innocence. Feigned, of course. Dust smiled back, with a smile that was warm on the surface but made Flare involuntarily think of a shark. Dust had complicated emotions while chatting with Flare – he couldn't forget how he had truly come to love her when she was Freya, but also couldn't forget the Flare that had treated him as a slave for four years.

"Rest and comfort corrupts," he said, "so please, I insist you start gathering wounded soldiers so we can fast together to get closer to the divine. I won't eat anything but ash, bathe only in unheated water and drink only a holy tincture."

The tincture in question was a mix of wood alcohol, monster blood and hemlock. He had started drinking it to build up his resistance to toxins (healing the damage it did every time he drank it) and improve his talent scores through buffs of the poisonous monster blood, but he now mainly kept a wineskin of the stuff ready simply to have access to a load of poison no one would expect to be poison - as he constantly drank from it.

Taking care of his own food and drink made also sure that he couldn't be surprised by any alchemist's ability to possibly bypass his poison and drug resistance. It was funny though: even though he suffered constant self-inflicted pain to build up his pain resistance skill and the effects of various poisons burning his innards, it at least kept the nightmares at bay as his mind was preoccupied by the self-induced misery instead of focusing on reliving old memories.

Meanwhile, after a weird look at Dust made it through her façade of niceness, Flare started giving orders to gather wounded soldiers.

"So kind Flare, after I instruct the troops on the proper way of praying for salvation and have cleansed my body of accumulated grime and sin, could I perhaps request an audience at a quiet place tomorrow morning?" Dust asked. Flare seemed hesitant, but after Dust whispered "It concerns a certain sister" to her, she quickly nodded her assent. Dust knew she couldn't resist anything that might give her an edge against her sister, princess Norn.

After securing an audience with Flare, he simply waited until most wounded soldiers were arriving in the courtyard. They must have started gathering them as soon as they heard the rumours of the new hero's ability, because there were quite many. He saw Kureha the master swordswoman as well, just like in the previous loops with her scars still intact and hand missing. He almost smiled in glee at his plans working out until now, but caught himself. He had to continue to play the part of a deranged religious fanatic – the key to a successful disguise is to make some details so noteworthy onlookers tend to forget any subtle details.

He instructed the incoming soldiers to kneel on the stones of the courtyard, and to keep kneeling with him until morning broke. It was hell on their knees and back, but almost all of them managed to keep it up. He was honestly impressed. He gestured at the soldiers.

"Please, when it's your turn get up and approach me, and we will pray together for your recovery." He said. He needed an excuse to be silent for a time after healing, as he wasn't fully used to the foreign experiences flooding into his brain during the healing process, even after these three weeks of practicing.

Some soldiers cried when they regained lost arms and eyes. Others just seemed mute in shock. There were some who looked outright suspicious, as if they couldn't believe he had truly healed them. But one soldier kept herself with silent dignity. Kureha alone was utterly calm while she flexed her new hand, and simply said:

"Sir monk, Kureha Claylet will not forget this favour. I will do everything in my power to repay it some day."

Dust just smiled, feeling tremendously happy as he had already been paid a handsome reward: He had been able to copy her divine sword ability. Not to mention the relief of seeing her alive again. He renewed his vow to do everything right this time and let no one take anything important from him.

Kureha was surprised at how intense the monk was suddenly staring at her. She thought she saw a few things in his expression: happiness, loneliness, hope, a certain kind of longing and just a touch of true madness. The look in his eyes made her involuntarily think of a fighting dog she had seen once in her hometown – the animal had been abused so many times by its owners to get it mean enough to fight that it seemed to have lost all reason, and simply wanted to hurt anything in sight as much as its owners had hurt it.

But the look disappeared after but a moment, quick enough to make Kureha think she was simply imagining things. Because there in front of her was the stern but calm look of a member of the clergy – with a hint of religious fanaticism visible in his eyes, perhaps, but hardly anything violent. The monk then replied to her in a kind tone, before moving on to heal the rest of the soldiers present:

 "Thank you, miss Claylet. Don't worry about repaying me, healing is its own reward."

Chapter 5: Reunion with a cosy fireplaceChapter Text

Dust healed people throughout the night, until his mana reserves got low. Fatigue wasn't a problem for him as he could simply heal the physical effects away – his record up until now had been three days without sleep. He was in a bit of a time crunch after all, as his schedule was filled with events he wanted to alter: after healing an alchemist who will carbonize his arms in a week, he had to rush to be able to save Setsuna's friends, who will get caught with her and die of poison after they reveal the location of her village. Hopefully saving her and her friends will allow him to skip the village defence event, after which the most time sensitive event left would be the impending attack on Eve's village.

Not to mention he somehow either had to reach an agreement with Flare to allow him to take time off this 'Hero' business, or else he had to incapacitate her so she couldn't track his movements. Sleep was therefore a luxury he could theoretically afford but didn't dare to do excessively in case his plans hit unforeseen obstacles. But apparently healing fatigue couldn't stave off all negative effects of excessive sleep deprivation – while he was setting his record of three days without sleep he started having waking nightmares, feeling Bullet's hands around his neck and hearing his voice one moment, but seeing nothing there the next. He'd see Blade in the corner of his eye drawing her sword, but when he took a closer look she'd disappear. He saw Anna lying on the ground in a pool of blood, her empty mouth without tongue somehow yelling silently how he had killed her. He had bashed himself unconscious by ramming his head into a tree after seeing her shade, as he couldn't calm down enough to actually go to sleep. Luckily the Healer class seemed to have a tiny bit of self-regenerating power, as generally brain bleeds severe enough to make a person unconscious would've given him 50/50 odds of never waking up.

Musing this over in his head, he trudged towards Flare's room with a servant leading the way and a guard protecting/watching over him. It was time for his audience with the princess.

"Hello S… Dust" Flare caught herself from calling him sir monk again. She smiled innocently at the monk and his two attendants then gestured him inside where they wouldn't be overheard. Leonard the guards' captain was already there, sitting at a meeting table. Her room had so much silencing magic cast over it that it was the de facto most secure room in the castle to have a discussion. Dust bowed then waited until the attendants closed the door. He then kneeled and bowed his head (to Flare's surprise) and said:

"Your majesty, forgive my rude behaviour until now. We all have our masks to wear and parts to play, as I'm sure you know perfectly well. So your lowly servant would like to get permission to have a frank discussion with the true princess, not her mask."

Flare seemed to lose her shock quite soon. She hadn't been shocked that the monk act was, well, an act, but more that he so readily admitted it. She dropped her smile and gestured impatiently for Dust to hurry up.

"If you want to play it that way… out with it. Why the monk act, and what kind of beast person are you?"

Dust smiled internally. He had used [[transformation heal]] to change the shape of his ears and teeth, plus a general reconstruct of his facial features and other traits, then applied a layer of makeup to finish the 'Dust' cosplay. The second rule of a successful disguise was to give people the impression they looked through it – when they feel clever about seeing through you, they tend to forget to keep looking. He had chosen rather ugly disguises as well – he found out the first loop that cute looks just made you an easier target for the monsters of the world, so he had chosen to emulate a naked mole-rat beast person. But still, he shouldn't admit to his disguise too easily or that would be suspicious as well.

"Oh it's simple, your majesty: for commoners like me there are two options to get powerful -Either you turn to crime or you turn to religion. Religion just suited me better, that's all. But what do you mean beast person?"

Flare just said: "Hit him for wasting time."

So Leonard did.

One, Dust counted. He was glad Leonard was still racking up revenge points even in this loop – he hadn't forgotten what he did to Anna, and although Bullet remained at a #1 spot on his shit list, Leonard came a very close second. He wiped a bit of blood of his mouth. At this point, he didn't even register the pain anymore. He had to quell his rage though, he still needed the two of them. He just looked a bit past Flare at the fireplace that he had such fond memories of. He managed to calm himself down by imagining introducing Leonard to a new friend that was currently glowing red hot in the fireplace. Imagining their introduction to each other filled him with a nice and warm feeling.

"My apologies, your majesty. I'm half mole-rat. Can I ask how you could tell though? I thought my disguise with clipped teeth and tail would be more convincing. Plus I thought I hid my ears quite well under my hair."

Dust even managed to put some sulk into his speech. Flare just smiled.

"The Royal family has ways to tell humans from demi-humans. That's all you need to know. Having gotten introductions out of the way, what can the magnificent princess Flare do for you, Hero of Healing?" she said with a sarcastic tone.

Dust subconsciously grit his teeth. He was going to have to manipulate Flare into wanting to manipulate him into doing exactly what he wanted in the first place. It was going to be a looooong discussion.

Chapter 6: Reentering the princess' serviceChapter Text

Dust thought he had some grasp of Flare's personality, at least. If he combined the knowledge of Flare's treatment of him during the first loop, and the personality of her when she lost her memories the second loop, he could make an adequate guess what made her tick. If he had to describe what he thought was her core personality, he'd say she was arrogant enough to want to see herself as the best, but insecure enough (due to the careful incitement of sisterly strife by the king) that she had to kick down others to make her actually feel like the best.

She was part sadist, but another part enjoyed being debased – he had 'serviced' her enough in the first loop to understand she liked his original looks, and he suspected part of her cruel treatment of him was simply her taking the frustrations of a royal liking the looks of commoner out on him. Smart but not cunning, she would solve problems with finesse but rarely think outside the box like princess Norn could. As Freya she had been a lot nicer and surprisingly obsessed with 'justice', which he had a hard time figuring out and probably needed some more data to fit in the overall picture. The king must've really messed up Norn and Flare. Oh well, he could use that sisterly envy to his advantage. He spoke up:

"So to get to the point: I wanted to offer a trade, and what I can offer is the country's complete devotion to the first princess alone."

Flare looked bored. "You're telling me the country doesn't like me now already? Preposterous."

"Oh no, they already love you. They would die for you. But I can make them regret that they only have a single life to sacrifice for you. Complete, fanatical devotion not to princess Norn, not the King nor the country, only to you."

 Flare looked a lot more interested when he told her he could give her an edge over princess Norn. She didn't feel totally secure in her position as first princess when she was up against someone as cunning as Norn. She simply said: "Do continue."

 Dust gestured to the outside of the room.

"Those soldiers who couldn't feed themselves and could only burden their families because they lost limbs that they now regained, they already venerate me - and by extension any Hero - because I gave them their life back. But just think about it: What if the miracle working priest was working miracles as your subordinate, on your orders? While extolling your virtues as the pious woman you are of course. With some careful sermons, we should be able to transfer most of their gratitude and devotion over to you."

In Princess Flare's eyes a fire was now burning, betrayed her enthusiasm. She loved not so much being at the top of the totem pole as being recognized as being at the top of the totem pole. But, she cooled off considerably when she realized he didn't tell her the price yet. She asked:

"So what's in it for you?"

Dust smiled. Flare had clearly taken the bait - he knew she wouldn't be able to resist being venerated.

"Well… beastkin like me don't survive long in this kingdom without a master, so I thought that if I had to work for someone anyway, it would be more pleasant if it was voluntary rather than in chains. Especially if I stop trying to hide I'm only 15 with makeup, I become a massive target for slavers. As you've seen through my disguise anyway, I'd like to be able to walk around and enjoy the luxuries of the capitol with my true face, so it'd be helpful to have some papers to prove I'm a beast person in your employ. I'd require a stipend for my troubles, but I guarantee I can be helpful with many issues more than proselytization in the future!"

His nose flared with pain when Leonard hit him again with a closed fist. Two, Dust thought. Leonard yelled at him:

"You *require* a stipend?! How dare you make demands of her majesty! Know your place, rat!"

Flare held up a hand to stop Leonard when he made to continue the beating.

"Stop Leonard, don't be boring. But Dust, that sounds great and all, but I distinctively remember a certain priest claiming 'comfort corrupts', and here I hear you talking about 'enjoying the luxuries of the capitol'? That simply won't do, there are people to save all around the country!", she said, while smiling sweetly.

Dust inwardly cheered while putting an expression of shock on his face. He knew Flare couldn't resist fucking with him (well, metaphorically speaking of course), so he had to casually make her believe he wanted to remain in the capitol being pampered as a servant of hers – joke's on her, he knew pampering servants was the last thing you could accuse Flare of. He weakly protested:

"But… but… not all wounded soldiers in the vicinity are healed yet, it'll take at least two weeks to gather all of them, plus another week to recover from healing them before I can hit the road to continue my travelling monk shtick!"

"You have a week. Make it work. Don't let me keep you from your work then." Flare said dismissingly, signalling the meeting was over and giving him exactly the time he wanted. It was nice being a manipulative bastard sometimes. He bowed, while giving a calculated shudder to signal his 'horror' at having to leave the capitol at such short notice, then moved towards the door to leave. But then, for the first time in ages, he received a genuine shock when Flare said as an afterthought:

"Oh, and there are some knights and servants who'd like to level up. You can contact the head butler to set up a sched…"

But her voice trailed off when a sudden but intense killing intent washed over her. It only lasted a moment, but she felt as if she had died right there, right then. Leonard was shaken as well, even in battle he rarely felt death approaching this clearly. This killing intent must've been honed by wanting people dead for years – not merely thinking the world would be better off them, but fantasizing every day about their deaths. But the only person apart from them was the boy standing in the doorway, who looked utterly calm. This calm boy spoke some calm words, calmly remembering the faces of the soldiers he had 'helped level up' by providing certain bodily fluids without having any choice in the matter:

"I'm willing to offer some of my blood for them to try to level up, but I think I'll pass on anything more involved than that."

Even Leonard didn't dare admonish him for refusing a request from royalty. The animal part of his brain refused to let him even think about doing anything that might set this person off. Flare just stammered:

"Yes… That's… understandable. And fine, of course. Simply tell Frederick, as I said he'll make the arrangements."

Dust was planning on taking a look at which servants wanted to level up to see if there were any cute ones he was willing to give a more personal treatment of course, but this way at least he could avoid most soldiers he remembered. It would be a waste to have spent so much effort getting into the position he was now if he was going to snap into a murder rampage anyway and burn this castle to ash. He took a deep breath, and smiled at Flare.

"Great. I'm glad we could come to an agreement, and I look forward to working for you."

Then he left the room.

Chapter 7: Meeting new people actually for the first time.Chapter Text

Dust's room was situated near the servants' quarter, as Flare believed he was just a hypocritical priest who preaches moderation but loves excess - and she simply wanted to annoy him. Pity for her that he didn't care, it served him quite well. He had grown a tail-like appendage, grown out his front teeth and made the hair on the back of his hands longer to complete his half-beastman disguise, and the location of his chambers meant he didn't run into too many highborn bastards, so he had less chance to flip his lid.

There was a small chapel too that he could use for the week to hold his services, and those services turned into a bit of a lottery – as the individual chance of increasing the level limit with blood was only 1%, he simply needed to give two hundred people a drop of blood to almost guarantee one of them would level up. As they needed to take the drop of blood from him directly, it also gave him the opportunity to quietly use [[looting heal]] on them to steal their leftover XP and look into their memories.

Those memories let to a meetup that night of him and three cute beast girls who had been enslaved with sorcery using their true names. As the castle officials were used to Bullet's frequent rendezvous with young boys, Dust's request to loan the beast girls didn't draw any attention – priests were gonna priest, what were the castle officials going to do about it? The beast girls (a vixen, a skunk and a tigress) in question didn't seem to question it either, and started unclothing as soon as the three of them arrived, as they knew what 'services' were required of them when a guest loaned them from their masters. Dust held up his hand with a smile on his face to stop them.

"Ah, I'm sorry for the confusion. You can keep your clothes on for now. Just take a seat, I got a bit of a lecture I was hoping y'all would listen to and give your honest opinion of after."

The girls looked at him with a surprised look. Dust was glad they could still feel surprise, the look in their eyes had quite dulled with every passing year in slavery. But they soon shrugged off their surprise and took a seat. They assumed it was a kind of teacher-student fetish thing of his.

"So, I was wondering if you three knew how enslavement magic works." Dust asked. The vixen looked at him incredulously. She seemed to be in her early twenties, with golden-reddish fur on her tail and fox ears. She replied in a rehearsed tone:

"Of course. You give up your true name, and magic makes you follow the commands of your master from that point."

Dust replied: "Well, that's only the basis. It's much more fascinating how it works at its core: Your master speaks words, you interpret their command, and then the power of your true name forces you to follow your interpretation of their demand. But depending on your interpretation, several actions are possible: 'get me water' either means your master is thirsty, or their house is on fire and both situations demand a different action."

"This is boring, I'm almost falling asleep." The skunk suddenly said, before slapping her hand on her mouth, horrified at what she said. The skunk was in her teens, with a glossy and incredible fluffy tail that was clearly well taken care of. Dust simply chuckled.

"Case in point: I ordered you to give your honest opinion, which so you did. But don't worry, I promise I'm leading up to something. Do you all remember the slaves' oath? 1. You will not cause harm nor let harm come to the kingdom or to the royal family. 2 You will not cause harm nor let harm come to your master unless it's necessary to obey rule 1 and finally 3. You will not cause harm to yourself as long as this doesn't clash with 1 and 2."

The three girls nodded, still unsure where he was going with this.

"This leads me to why I selected you three. You see, you three at your core truly believe the kingdom is better off torched to the ground with every inhabitant put to the sword, as its existence is a blemish upon the world."

The girls sucked in air as they suddenly grew fearful as their inner thoughts were exposed. But Dust simply continued with a smile full of mirth and just a tinge of madness.

"And I am the one who will require your help to put this kingdom to the torch and purify this stain with fire. If you truly believe my dream of destruction is the best for the kingdom, you're allowed, nay, required to help me with achieving it, no? Otherwise you're harming the kingdom by preventing it from reaching the best state it can be in – which is totally annihilated."

Dust spoke softly, but the words wormed their way into three pairs of ears, providing oxygen to some embers in their hearts of a fire they thought was long extinguished. Was this a man, or a devil whispering seductively in their ears, promising them their greatest desires? Then again, what did they have to lose, they would gladly discard the remnants of their souls to obtain revenge. They'd even light themselves on fire if it meant their masters would risk heatstroke. The vacant look in their eyes was gone, and for the first time in years they were really seeing again. Dust felt their gazes full of hope on him, and basked in those gazes. It wasn't hope for rescue, or salvation. It was the best kind of hope: hope for indiscriminate destruction of those who wronged you. He chose these three well.

"Just a fair warning: I have no clue when, where or how I'm gonna get around to destroy this kingdom. I make no guarantees, I might even give up on it halfway through. And I won't hesitate to sacrifice any of you to save my own skin. The only thing I'm saying is that if I get around to destroy the kingdom, I need pawns that are as powerful as possible, and that I can raise your level limit if you desire. I'm sure you know how."

The fox smiled, started slowly approaching Dust and said in a sultry voice: "Please mr. priest, make me your disposable pawn."

She unbuttoned her blouse and let it hang open in the front, putting her gorgeous voluptuous breasts on full display. She reached out a hand to grasp his and put it on her right breast. She moved her mouth close to his ear and whispered softly:

"Use me. Abuse me. Discard me. I don't care anymore, as long as there is a chance this kingdom will burn." Dust got rock hard in an instant simply from looking into her eyes and seeing the desire for revenge burning in there like a blazing inferno. He squeezed her breast, moved his mouth to hers and kissed her. He withdrew for a moment to tell her: "I promise I will do my utmost to give you a frontline seat to the carnage to come. We'll make them pay."

The skunk and tigress had been hesitating for a moment, but joined in on the fun soon after. Soon, four sets of clothes lay in a pile on the ground and Keyaru was enjoying himself immensely, putting his hard-earned skills to work to 'entertain' three ladies at once. Technically, there wasn't really a need beyond a basic pump-and-dump (especially as male Heroes can only help people level up a limited amount of times per day), but Keyaru wasn't one to neglect his partner's needs – as long as he liked his partner, of course. Having his chest tickled by the fluffy tail of the skunk sitting on his dick in reverse cowgirl position, while sticking his face (and tongue) deep into the wet depths of a tigress and using his fingers to explore every nook and cranny of the fox currently making out with said tigress, Keyaru almost really started to believe in Divine providence. Switching positions and partners often, a good time was had by all throughout that night and the subsequent nights.

But alas, all good things come to an end: a week later, Dust was asked to heal the arms of a certain alchemist, just as he remembered. Having acquired metal magic, he announced to princess Flare he would leave the following morning for his missionary work. He was quite pleased with himself: He acquired the powers he needed, levelled up a bunch, made contact with a lot of villagers steeping in discontent over the way the kingdom was run and taxes were levied for the 'defence of the human realm' that he could use for a bloody revolution later on, and obtained some pawns within the castle that would surely come in handy for said revolution too. His plans, in summary, were perfect.

However, when the next morning he arrived in the courtyard to officially announce his departure to the princess, he was startled to see her, Kuhera and Bullet of all people standing there, clearly packed for a journey as well. Princess Flare noticed him and his surprise and simply said with a smile on her face:

"Oh hey Dust, we figured that if you needed to travel for your work anyway, we could use the opportunity to eliminate some monster threats as well. Eight times the normal amount of XP through three hero's bonuses is nothing to sniff at. We weren't able to reach Blade yet, so up until we can Lady Kuhera will be our frontliner."

Dust screamed internally. How was he supposed to know this was going to happen?? And what was he supposed to do now? It took all his mental fortitude to get out a forced "Hello Mr. Bullet, nice to meet you. Hope we'll get along." Between his gnashed teeth.

Chapter 8: 'Enjoying' a carriage ride with old 'friends'Chapter Text

Bullet looked at Dust and seemed to recognize the discontent Dust had towards him.

"I'm sorry, have we met before? You seem to be upset about something. It's better to openly discuss issues than let them fester, but I won't force you if you don't want to talk about it", Bullet said with a gentle smile and comforting tone, the perfect picture of the reliable father figure he was so fond of projecting. Although Dust himself was quite adept at looking harmless while hiding an internal darkness, this man had taught him everything, and naturally the master was even more skilled than the student. Dust could tell when Flare was lying as he was intimately familiar with her, but even if he knew what kind of man (or rather monster) Bullet was, he couldn't pick up one shred of that. Bullet only oozed fatherly concern.

"I'm sorry I'm being rude," Dust said through gritted teeth, "but I have some… bad experiences with priests like you. I'll get over it, I'm sure."

Meanwhile, Dust was rapidly calculating whether or not it was feasible to kill Bullet here and now. He'd have to escape the castle of course. He had to do something about Flare as well, as she'd be able to track wherever he went. He probably would have to kill about twenty soldiers as well to get away, plus Kureha as she was too skilled to deal with if she wasn't alone. He didn't like to have to smash two of his precious toys before he gained possession of them. He could Transformation Heal Flare to disable her hero mark, possibly, but that would lead to other issues – knowing the king he wouldn't hesitate to turn his own daughter in a shadow monster, and he didn't know if that would let Shadowflare access the powers of the hero mark again. Whatever he would do now, it would be pretty sloppy. And he found out last loop how things would end if he settled for sloppy. For now he shouldn't be rash and just wait until he figured out a way out of this predicament he decided.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. It's awful how many predators are still walking around pretending to be holy men. At least they'll be sure to receive divine judgement for their sacrilege, at the end."

Bullet responded solemnly. Dust almost had to laugh. Bullet and he were to be each other's judges, not a divine being of some kind. Whatever way the fight between them would end, at least one predator in robes would be getting their just deserts.

He bowed to Bullet. "Such predators should hope never to meet righteous men like we, because surely the divine is on our side.", then he turned to Flare and said: "thank you for joining me on my journey, your majesty. How will we be travelling? I was planning on walking, but that's no way to travel for a woman, let alone royalty, of course."

He saw Flare smirk. "We'll be travelling by carriage, with a small entourage of eight soldiers as bodyguards. Don't worry about the corruption that comfort of the carriage will cause though, I'll make sure to arrange you can sleep in the stable of the inn tonight to even it out."

Dust smiled sardonically back. "Wow, your majesty always surprises this lowly priest with her thoughtfulness. Then, let us depart.". Flare smiled sweetly, happy she could annoy him just a tad, and started walking towards the gate where, presumably, the carriage was waiting. Dust started walking after her, and was joined by Bullet and a visibly surprised Kureha. She hesitated a few times, but after they got on the carriage asked:

"I'm sorry sir monk, but you look different today. Can I ask why you're wearing these glasses for example?"

Dust proudly showed his new spectacles. At heart he was still a 15 year old boy who loved showing off his toys.

 He explained: "Please Lady Kureha, call me Dust. And Molerats like me have trouble if our eyes are exposed too long to sunlight, so I had these smoked lenses made. ".

 A lie of course. He simply wanted to hide the green glow of his eye every time he used [[spirit eye]]. 

"Well, they suit you fine sir monk." Kureha politely said. Dust knew that his (deliberately) ugly mug wouldn't really be improved by any accessories, but he appreciated the compliment nonetheless. Plus, in this way he could pretend to be asleep while staring at Kureha's... bountiful assets. So he just let his body rest against the cushions and the wall, and pretended to fall asleep. He couldn't wait until he got the gang back together and could look at her assets from a closer range.

Meanwhile, Kureha and Flare were chatting, while Bullet was performing maintenance on his gun. First the girls discussed some serious topics like preferred battle formations and possible team tactics, but soon the conversation turned towards the latest castle gossip, quite unbecoming of the future queen and sword saint. Dust listened to the gossip, but it was mostly innocent rumours that couldn't even use to blackmail anyone, like the firstborn of the Duke and his future wife getting it on in the castle gardens before their wedding. As the wedding was happening this week, no one would care about that rumour getting out. As the rumours couldn't give him an usable edge, Dust wasn't too interested in them, and started falling asleep for real. Until the topic of the conversation turned to him.

Kureha was looking at him to make sure he was really sleeping, and whispered to Flare:

"Your majesty, have you heard the rumours concerning sir monk by the way?"

Flare bend her torso forward to Kureha a bit, clearly interested, and whispered back:

"You heard those too? I thought they were joking. I mean look at him."

Dust strained to listen. He was quite curious about what kind of rumours he caused that were amusing to Flare. Hidden wealth? Secret lineage?

"Well, May who cleaned the hearth in my room this morning confirmed it. There were a few beastgirls in a very bad mood because sir monk was leaving that day."

Ahhhhhhh. It was that kind of rumour. Although Dust really hoped his conspiracy wouldn't be caught even before it really began. But in the case they suspected any thoughts of a potential rebellion he guessed they would have tried to kill him already, so he should be safe for now.

"I mean… Frederick the butler mentioned that the other beastgirls were getting jealous that he only ever requested those three for their… services, and no other slaves. Normally they would just be glad someone else caught the eye of a guest. Do you think his face looks actually handsome to beast people? That it's just a race-dependent aesthetics thing?"

"May hangs out with the slaves quite often, and as far as she knows other beastpeople think he's butt-ugly too. But judging from the secondhand stories she heard, he's simply just very good at... 'entertaining', even when it is with multiple ladies at once. May heard that those three were free to either drop by his room or stay away, and yet they showed up every evening the last week. I wonder what his secret is."

Dust couldn't stay silent anymore, this was too funny. When he spoke, Flare and Kuhera were both startled, as they really thought he'd been asleep.

"It's not such a big secret, to be honest. Most men at the castle apparently suck at sex, except the sex slaves for the princesses' exclusive use. Who don't exist, of course, as it would be quite shameful for princesses to use the employ of such men."

Dust put a heavy tone of sarcasm in his last statement, then continued:

"Anyway, those non-existent sex slaves are not available, so most servants and slaves would appreciate even a mere moderately decent lay. Plus it's more fun when it's a choice instead of an obligation."

Of course, the three didn't come to his room only for entertainment, they also wanted to raise their level limit. But if that was all, only a single one of them would have to visit him each night, as he couldn't raise more than one level limit per 'session' anyway. The fact that they kept showing up with all three of them gave him a bit of bragging rights, he thought.

"Oh, and there's one last secret, I guess." Dust smiled, waiting for either Kureha or Flare to give in to their curiosity and ask. Flare just shot a look at Kureha, all but ordering her to ask so the princess could pretend to be above it all. When Kureha asked what the secret was, with an extreme blush on her face but unable to refuse the unspoken command of her liege, Dust simply responded with a broad smile:

"Your physical attack skill translates directly to feats of manual dexterity, too. And I happen to have a decent amount of stats, being a beastman without level limit and all. And as its dark, no one can see my 'butt-ugly' face - as Lady Kureha so aptly calls it - anyway."

Dust would have loved to continue humblebragging, but was interrupted by a noise outside the carriage; it seemed like a soldier acting as a scout had ridden back to the convoy in a panic. Dust couldn't remember anything noteworthy enough to scare a soldier on his way to the village where he would obtain Setsuna, but he guessed that as the timing of his travel was off, things wouldn't follow the same path as last loop and unexpected things would continue to happen more and more. He'd better check out what the problem was.

Chapter 9: Falling into old (new?) habitsChapter Text

With a quick bow and a murmured 'excuse me' to the princess, Dust opened the carriage door and asked the nearest soldier:

"Hey, what's the situation?"

The soldier gave a salute and told him: "Apparently a nearby village is being attacked by a horde of monsters. A few villagers could escape, and ran into our scouts. We're currently scoping out the situation and trying to evacuate the villagers."

Dust considered that this situation could work to his advantage. A battle meant people getting injured, and curing injuries meant people getting indebted to him. He should let the soldiers secure the area, then let Kureha charge in while Flare and Bullet provided backup from a distance. He could just cure the wounded, in that way he didn't have to reveal his exact strength to Flare and Bullet yet and still look good. But seeing as he didn't know how strong the 'horde of monsters' was exactly, he should delay his and his fellow heroes arrival to the battlefield. It would be stupid to lose two toys in an encounter such as this when it wasn't necessary to risk them at all. So he started talking to the soldier:

"Oh no, that's horrible! Please, do your best. Can you show us the wounded? We'll talk to them to hopefully get some more details."

And the soldier quickly responded: "Yessir! They're actually bringing the villagers who managed to escape to here. It's a group of three boys, one girl, two men and two women. They have various levels of injuries, with one woman in possibly critical condition. We rendered first aid, and when they're done they'll carry them to the carriage. They shouldn't take too long." He concluded. And indeed, Dust could already see some movement in the thicket. Two soldiers hurriedly came out carrying a bundle wrapped in blankets. But in their hurry, one stumbled and almost dropped the bundle. The blankets became undone, and Dust could see a bloody but definitely female arm, with deep gauges of claws and long chestnut hair spilling out of the bundle. His blood turned cold. He left her in his birth village. Surely there was no reason for her to have left that village? It didn't make sense. She should be safe. It must be another woman, surely. Light brown hair was rather common, surely.

He didn't notice the background was fading away into a red mist. The soldiers became ephemeral shapes as well, before totally fading into that mist. He only had eyes for the bundle they were carrying. He just had to heal whoever was in there.It didn't matter who it was or wasn't. He took a few uncertain steps towards it, and extended his hand. But then his arm was suddenly grasped by the bloody arm that seemed so devoid of life at first. He tried pulling away, but couldn't. He saw the bundle opening, and knew whatever was in there he didn't want to see. He pulled harder, but still the arm wouldn't budge. With a last pull, the only thing he accomplished was pulling the owner of the arm out of the bundle. He quickly closed his eyes, but it was too late. He had already seen the woman, and it confirmed his worst fears.

It really was Anna, again with a gaping mouth without tongue, with wounds all over her body where Leonard had tortured her. Somehow she could still gurgle a few accusatory words.

"Youuuuur faaaaaaaaulllltttt"

"No! I didn't want this to happen! I couldn't have known it was going to happen! And I reset time, it never happened! It's not my faulltttt." Keyaru was crying out hysterically. In her eyes he saw his reflection, saw his original face and saw the same predatory look he had whenever he took revenge on his face. But he was crying. Why was his reflection looking like that?! He decided not to dwell further on that, and just told Anna's apparition:

"I'm going to heal you Anna! You'll be okay. It's going to be like nothing ever happened."

But when he reached out his other arm to touch her, she disappeared into that same red fog that surrounded him as soon as he just barely touched her. Keyaru was startled. Where did she go? He had an all-seeing eye! She couldn't have disappeared like that! She couldn't have left him all alone!

All alone?

He suddenly heard an awful laugh. He recognized that laugh. He hated that laugh. It was a laugh that shouldn't exist. Not anymore. He yelled out:

"You! You never happened! I kept Anna safe, you were the one who failed her! How could you forget about her! How could you fail to protect her?!"

And out of the red fog, a figure walked into view. When he got closer, his features were unmistakable. It was Keyaru. Keyaruga smirked, a maniacal smile on his face and told Dust:

"You know we didn't forget about her. You know we just didn't want to think about her. You know we couldn't face her, not after what we did. So we tried to forget about her, but the kingdom sure didn't. How sad and pathetic of us. Being so ashamed about the blood on our hands and our accumulated sins we just kept piling sin on sin. How Slothful.", he murmured.

Those words tore a hole in Dust's heart. Of course he knew. He couldn't face the closest equivalent of his lost parents he had, not when he was as soiled as he was - through the actions of others and his own. But revenge felt so sweet, he couldn't stop. And then, it was too late. She was gone, because of his actions. She had bitten off her own tongue when she couldn't bear Leonard's punishment anymore, but Dust knew he all but had killed her with his own hands. But that never happened! He was the only one who remembered it happening. He just had to silence the only witness, and no one would ever know.

He picked up a rock, and with his level-enhanced strength he lobbed it at the area of the head where the skull was weakest. He was intimately familiar with the human body at this point, so unsurprisingly he scored a bull's eye and crushed Keyaruga's skull with the rock. Keyaruga fell down, with blood and some grey matter slowly oozing out of the wound. He did it! Internally he cheered.

He only then noticed the ground where he was standing on was getting muddy. He looked at his hands, and saw they had been dripping so much blood the ground couldn't absorb it all, and was getting turned into a quagmire. But he didn't have visible wounds, so where was all that blood coming from? He then heard that atrocious laugh again. That is to say, his own.

"Well… well… well. In denial are we? Lemme tell you: There's no escape from this cesspit of your sins. Your Pride is holding you in place;"

Dust noticed that indeed, he couldn't move. He had been chained to the bottom the swamp with chains of rusted iron, which were slowly but ever so surely pulling him down. Still, he lobbed a rock at the new Keyaruga, killing another one. But then his voice sounded from a different direction again.

"Your Lust robs you of thought;"

Dust noticed only then that the red fog stung to breathe, and that the more he breathed in the less he could think, his thoughts getting clouded and slow. Still, he didn't have to think. He just had to keep killing Keyaruga, and break free with brute strength. A third rock ended a third life. But more and more Keyarugas showed up to watch. Dust kept lobbing rocks, but Keyaruga kept coming.

"Your Sloth makes you weak;"

Dust's arms got heavy. He started having trouble lifting them. But still, he struggled. He just had to kill. But every corpse that went down simply added a trickle of blood to the mire.

"And your Wrath will, in the end, consume you."

He was almost entirely submerged at this point in blood and mud, which gave him no support to stand on to brace himself and break the chains. He realized that it was inevitable to be swallowed by this lake made from his sins. He could hear whispers of his victims begging him to stop, and his own voice cruelly denying them ringing in his ears. To punish monsters he had lowered himself to their level. But this was unfair!

"You did all of that! That wasn't me! I didn't do anything to anyone yet! I'm a good person!" he yelled, desperately trying to get words of protest out before his head submerged. He heard Keyaruga sigh. His alter ego then said, with a voice full of dark contempt.

"You are me, and I am you. You didn't do anything yet, but you will. I know it, because you are me. The only difference between you and me is that I've only lied to others that I'm good at heart, but never to myself."

And Dust knew it was true. Of course he knew. He knew he was fundamentally broken, and that he could never face Anna again as he was sure to regain the blood on his hands the moment something didn't go his way. Maybe it was better that he was getting swallowed up by this pit. The last thing he heard was Keyaruga saying something, almost sadly.

"Just…"

He was totally submerged now.

"Drown…"

He was still holding his breath, but the pressure from the water around him felt like a vice.

"In…"

It was getting really hard to hold his breath.

"Our…"

He let the last of the air escape his mouth. He was going to suffocate in these unbearable sins. At least he wouldn't have to think anymore. He was ready to go. He started getting his lungs ready to inhale the blood and mud around him.

"Madness."

But then, at the last moment before Dust let himself go and drown, he felt a gentle warmth, as if getting embraced. He noticed he was rapidly ascending. What was going on? He used all his willpower to hold his breath just a moment longer. All the while the warmth increased and he could now feel a figure hugging him tight, even if he couldn't see through all this mud. Then, at the last second before he couldn't hold his breath anymore, he broke through the surface of the lake. The only thing he could see through the red fog clouding everything was Keyaruga's face. Although there was a twisted smile on his face, it looked like he was crying. Keyaruga waved him goodbye while his consciousness faded into darkness, and just said:

"This is goodbye, not farewell. You'll come back to this place, I'm sure. When reality gets too painful, we'll be there for you. We'll be waiting."

Then everything went black.

Chapter 10: An outside perspectiveChapter Text

Kureha quickly bowed at princess Flare after she heard the soldier explaining the situation to Dust. She asked:

"Permission to join the soldiers in the melee, your majesty?"

Princess Flare just waved her assent. "Bullet and I will follow from a distance and provide back rank support. Please help the soldiers where you can, but be careful. We can't afford to lose you before taking on the Demon Lord"

Kureha nodded to show she understood, and stormed out of the carriage. She saw Dust and the soldier getting approached by two soldiers carrying a bundle. One of the carriers stumbled a bit, and a bloody arm was shaken free from the package, but the carriers managed to regain stability and continued carrying her towards the priest they knew could perform miracles of healing. She jogged over as well, but then saw Dust stiffly extending his arm, barely touching the woman, then walking off into the forest leaving behind three bewildered soldiers. She closed the remaining distance to the soldiers and asked:

"Hey! What is the situation? Where is sir monk off to? Are there other wounded who need his help?"

The soldier looked at her and quickly saluted. "Milady! Most of the villagers are still stuck in the village, so we haven't been able to tell how many are seriously wounded. There are no casualties with serious injuries among the soldiers, yet. And sir Dust has not informed us of his plans, Milady, so we're unable to provide his destination at this time."

While Kureha was getting updated on the situation by the soldier, Dust was gaining speed. The soldiers were trying to distract some monsters from the herd attacking the village, hoping to pick them off one by one, but the monsters who had easy prey didn't seem to want to give chase to targets that looked tougher. The situation looked quite bleak for the villagers, with most of them severely wounded or dead at this point already, only some of them still trying to hold off the monsters with farm equipment, desperately trying to protect a group of children. Then, a defender fell, and a monster could rush through the gap. A little girl could only stare while the predator spotted his prey, and opened his maw to devour her.

Kureha, having rushed over as soon as she was briefed on the situation, could only watch in horror. She was far away. Too far. She would never make it in time. But then she saw a small shape bound across the battlefield, jump over the monsters encircling the villagers and onto the back of the monster that had broken through. The monster roared in surprise, while the shape just clung on his neck, giving no indication the loud roar disturbed him in any way. She was horrified when she recognized the monk robes the shape was wearing, and the white hair. Why would Dust rush into combat like that?! They were supposed to be a team! She pumped her legs, trying to cross the distance as fast as she could. But as she had expected, she was too late. The monster flashed a claw and gauged out Dust's guts. A fatal wound.

A fatal wound for everyone who wasn't the Hero of Healing of course, but as it was the first time Kureha and the soldiers saw him in action, his next actions stunned them so thoroughly they froze in place, forgetting all about trying to get closer. Dust had namely just glanced at his guts spilling out of his abdomen, then drew back his arm, and punched his arm right into the eye of the monster, killing him instantly by reaching the brain. Dust drew back his arm that was now bloody and splintered from the force he put into it, but was immediately beset by a second monster biting his neck almost clean off. Arterial blood spilled on the black fur of the monster. But again, Dust gave no indication he even registered the pain, simply drawing back his arm again. The monster, having seen what happened to its companion, tried to get away but was too slow. Its brain too got a hole punched through it. And Dust just stared, his eyes invisible beneath the smoked lenses of the glasses he wore.

If anyone could have seen his eyes, they would only see a vacant look. Of course, in the instant the dead monster fell to the ground, Dust's abdomen and neck were whole again. The soldiers suddenly heard him yell to the monster:

""You! You never happened! I kept Anna safe, you were the one who failed her! How could you forget about her! How could you fail to protect her?!"

But before they had processed what he'd said, the next monsters ganged up on him. They recognized him as the most important threat on this battlefield, and knew that if they could just take him out they could escape with some tasty villagers currently hiding behind him. Kureha had managed to recover from the shock, and was battling the monsters from the rear, but noticed their hides were tough as steel. Her Claylet sword techniques still enabled to clean them up efficiently, but still more slowly than she could off less armoured enemies. But Dust just kept killing. When his limbs got bitten, he'd use them to launch himself to the head of the monster biting them. If a monster clawed off an arm, he'd simply continue his charge, knowing a new arm would be ready in no time. He had fought for over a week against allied troops of the entire world, and lost almost four thousand limbs. Most of his toys had been broken the second day, with only Eve lasting until the sixth. He had honed his self-taught style: Mutual Destruction Art technique to perfection, with which he would avoid giving any openings that would cause instant death but not shirking from giving opponents openings to vital spots – so he could capitalize on their openings in turn.

And so, Dust killed and killed, and killed some more. The soldiers stared in awe to the dance of blood and death happening in front of them. They had thought the monk was weird before. Some of them even hated him for looking like a beast person, but not daring to vent their misgivings as almost every soldier had a friend who could fight another day because of this weird monk. But this weird demihuman seemed even less human the more he danced around in those fountains of blood. His or the monsters', it was impossible to tell. They couldn't see his eyes, but they could see the maniacal smile on his face, gleefully laughing while tearing apart the bodies of the monsters. But they also saw tears streaming down from behind his glasses. It was clear to the onlookers that this graceful dancer - bringing joyous annihilation to anyone joining in on his dance – was not entirely sane.

And at long last, Kureha and Dust almost singlehandedly finished mopping up the monsters. The last ones tried to flee, but the duo gifted them a swift death all the same. Kureha was breathing heavily while she slashed her last opponent, and looked up to find Dust finishing his. She then heard him sob and yell to the corpse of the monster he just slaughtered:

"You did all of that! That wasn't me! I didn't do anything to anyone yet! I'm a good person"

She started to cautiously approach him. She didn't know what had triggered this episode, nor did she know what he was trying to say, but she hoped she could somehow snap him back to reality – she sadly had quite a bit of experience with family members sometimes dissociating themselves from reality when their experiences got too much to bear. But before she reached him, he simply collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut out of nowhere. She could just barely catch him before he hit the ground. She then realized that even though he had collapsed, he was still sobbing and shaking like a leaf in the wind, battling memories she couldn't see. She realized only then how young he looked. His demeanour normally made him look much older, but only now she could truly see that he was still a teenager, who was haunted by nightmares he couldn't escape from. He looked totally unlike the man humblebragging about his sexual conquests back in the carriage. She just held him tight, hoping she could comfort him, wherever his mind may have wandered. She kept holding him while the soldiers started the clean-up and rendering first aid to the villagers, and kept holding him until he finally seemed stopped shaking, his breath got calm and he entered actual sleep, in contrast to the waking nightmare he had been caught in.

When he finally slept, Kureha carried him towards the inn in the village and put him in bed. Even princess Flare didn't have the heart to insist he'd sleep in the stables when she heard what had happened.

Chapter 11: A nightly clerical conferenceChapter Text

Bullet, meanwhile, had his pick of cute orphaned boys that night. He managed to snare one to 'pray with him for the poor boy's parents' souls' and with the promise of food and a listening ear to the boy's sorrow, he managed to convince him to follow him to his room. The inn was quiet like the grave, and just outside the door of Bullet's room the boy got a bit fidgety and asked:

"Ehmmm… sir? You said we'd go to a church service to pray so my parents would find their way back to me to watch over me, but why are we in this inn? The church is a street down." He added helpfully.

Bullet grabbed his shoulder and shoved the boy into his room. He started to say:

"Ah my boy, you're simply too beautiful to control myself. So instead of praying in a stuffy church, let me worship you toni…" but then abruptly stopped when he saw someone sitting on his bed, clearly waiting for Bullet. Bullet froze, until he recognized the weird hero he had been travelling with. While he held his prey with an iron grip, he told Dust angrily:

"Hey, I'm glad you're feeling better, but this is my room. It's rather rude breaking into someone's room in the middle of the night, you know. I already have company, so scram!"

Dust simply got up, and while nodding to indicate he understood, he extended a hand as a goodbye. Bullet grasped the hand and tried to crush it in a vice-like handshake. He couldn't have Dust telling Kureha some weird rumours, so he had to intimidate him a bit. He then heard a soft 'Heal', and felt his fatigue melting away. Did that boy just enter his room to wake him up a bit? Bullet was just staring at Dust, his face full of incomprehension. Dust smiled, and told Bullet in an cold tone:

"I know it's in the middle of the night, but monsters like us are most active in the dark, no? But you're right, I'd better go to sleep. In fact, I'd suggest you let the boy go, and do the same."

Bullet extended his body to his full height, towering over Dust. He reached out a hand that was as big as Dust's head and tried to pat the crown of his head.

"Are you threatening me boy? I thought you were more clever than that."

Dust just dodged the headpat and simply said:

"In a month, you'll get the first obvious symptoms. In about two months, you're dead."

Bullet froze, then released his prey so he could use both arms to shove Dust against the wall. The village boy scampered away, but Bullet didn't pay attention to him, only to Dust: "You poisoned me you little twerp?"

Dust replied: "No. Do you think I was that stupid? Poison you could cure. Did you know that some parts of your body are constantly dying so you can live? It fascinated me the first time I figured out someone was dying from parts of their body being too alive, and growing and growing until they choked out the life of the rest of the body. So I didn't poison you, I simply spread some life around in your body."

Bullet was looking at Dust in horror, while racking his brain to figure out whether he was lying, and whether if there was anything he could do if Dust was actually speaking the truth. But before he came to a decision, Dust already made his offer:

"But I had an interesting head-to-head with myself recently, so I'm trying to be a better person in the future. Not to mention that killing you would put me in a bad spot with the kingdom, and perhaps most importantly with Kureha. So I would like to propose, monster to monster, that we both continue to play our roles as nice people. As long as I heal you regularly, you won't die. You won't even feel any discomfort. As soon as you think I'm not holding up my end of the bargain, you kill me. If you betray me, you just die. Sounds good?"

Bullet had recognized a fellow predator the instant he had met Dust, of course. But still, he hadn't expected to end up as prey.

"Oh, and don't worry. You can still pay for the 'entertainment' you crave. I would be a hypocrite to stop you completely, anyway. And when our paths separate I'll cure you completely. But no forcing anyone and no killing while we're travelling together, deal?"

And Dust continued speaking with a tone like he was simply discussing the weather, while smiling an innocent and sweet smile exuding a dazzling aura of purity. Bullet couldn't help sweating. He had known for a while he himself probably was insane. So meeting fellow lunatics generally didn't faze him. But what would have happened to this boy to twist him so? He shuddered to imagine. He looked in his eyes to see any weakness, any fear he could exploit to make Dust make this go away, or at the very least any hint about what had happened to a boy to turn him into this monster wearing the comfy skin of a person. But the only thing he could see was his own reflection in those dark, dark eyes.

He had no choice but to agree to get this… creature to go away. But that night, he could not sleep, being haunted by those eyes that seemed to be a direct portal to the abyss.

Chapter 12: The princess' new furnitureChapter Text

The next morning, Kureha was looking for Dust but had trouble finding him. She decided to go see the princess, if Dust had left the camp for whatever reason he should've told her, at least. With firm paces, she reached the princess' tent quickly. She nodded to the guards standing outside the tent, entered, and greeted its occupants:

"Good morning, your majesty. I hope all is well today?"

She saw that Bullet had joined princess Flare for breakfast, but he seemed uncharacteristically ill at ease. Captain Leanord was also sitting at the table. Princess Flare smiled sweetly at Kureha, and responded:

"Thank you , Lady Kureha, I'm quite well this morning. Found a piece of furniture I really like. My new chair is quite comfy, although it lacks much of a fur lining."

Kureha wondered for a moment where the princess had acquired a new chair. She couldn't imagine the village having much in the way of luxury fit for a princess, but perhaps the mayor had surprisingly fine taste? She moved closer to Flare to pay a compliment to her new chair. It was a bit irksome for a soldier like her that she needed to exchange pleasantries like this before she could move on to more pressing matters, but her experience at the royal court told her that if a royal had something new they liked, you'd better appreciate it too, regardless of what it was.

She then blinked and did a double-take when she saw Flare's new chair. She asked in a confused voice:

"Ehmmm…. Is that sir monk?"

Flare looked extremely self-content when she responded: "No, that's my chair". Regardless of her claims that where she was now sitting on was a piece of furniture, onlookers would have realized that, indeed, she was sitting on Dust. He was on all fours and had been sitting there for close to an hour now while Flare was eating breakfast. He didn't mind, really – he guessed Flare had earned some goodwill last loop with all the humiliation she put him through. And, he had to admit, knowing that deep inside Flare there was a core personality concerned with justice and freedom for innocents, made it easier to put up with the layers of twisted personality the king had carefully cultivated in her.

And most importantly, it majorly pissed off Leonard, who was fuming of jealousy just beside Flare. Dust was rather sure Leonard would actually like to use Flare as his chair, instead of the other way around, but still he seemed pissed off at the fact Dust was in such intimate contact with the princess' buttocks. Dust would happily act like a chair for months if it meant Leonard was at an increased risk of a rage-induced aneurysm.

That Bullet was looking uncomfortable didn't have to do with the chair situation per se, but had more to do with the 'friendly' chat they had the previous evening.

Meanwhile, Kureha was unsure how to deal with this situation. So she decided to ignore it and just continue like the person she was looking for hadn't been turned into a piece of royal furniture. She explained:

"Well… I just wanted to tell sir monk that everything is ready for the service. The supplicants have eaten the butchered monsters, as instructed, and have been praying for two hours while the symptoms are setting in."

Flare seemed a little ticked off that she'd be losing her comfy chair, but was pragmatic enough to know she'd better send Dust on his way. After all, the whole plan was for him to inspire a zealous devotion to her in the populace, which was rather hard to do when chairified. So she stood up and simply said:

"Chair, you're dismissed."

Dust stood up, bowed to Flare (while looking through the corners of his eyes to Leonard to bask in his envy), and said:

"Your majesty, I'm unworthy to act as a chair for royalty, but I'm honoured beyond belief you entrusted me with this task."

Leonard seemed ready to explode. Dust wondered what Leonard would do if he had said what he really thought: That Flare sitting on his back was nice and all, but that he really preferred it back when she used to sit on his face. The resulting explosion of Leonard's brain would probably have to be classified as tier 7 magic, he thought.

Flare just waved away Dust and Kureha with a smile. She would never admit it, but it was rather … 'enjoyable' to subjugate someone who was powerful enough to almost single-handedly slaughter a herd of monsters the previous day. Dominating the alpha dog shows the world that this alpha bitch is queen, and she loved to feel that she was on top of the world.

…Dust could tell Flare quite 'enjoyed' using him as a chair by the slightly moist spot on his back - that had spread when her panties could not fully absorb the accumulated moisture anymore -, but of course he wasn't crass (or suicidal) enough to mention that little tidbit to anyone.

Chapter 13: A trial of FaithNotes:

I wasn't too happy about the pacing of the last bit. It seemed that, like Keyaru, I was rushing to get to Best Girl (#teamsetsuna). So I rewrote the last part, which is why certain parts of the next two chapters might invoke a bit of deja vu. Sorry!

Chapter Text

At the local church, Dust was happy to find a pretty good turnout. And from their already queasy looks, they had actually eaten the poisonous monster meat as instructed.

Normally, he instructed his 'flocks' to mortify their flesh through ritual flagellation, as shared pain had the bonus of increasing the bonds between individual flock members. But after such a monster attack, chances of a failed harvest are rather high, and a small town like this probably wouldn't have extensive emergency food stocks ready. So when those small food stocks get even smaller, survival in a village like this became a free for all. The weak would simply be trampled into the dirt.

However, monster meat is actually quite nutritious, if you disregard the poison. And they currently had tons of it. By having the whole village fatten themselves up with monster meat, the emergency stocks remain for the harvest season. But although Dust could actually process the monster meat to remove the poison and improve the taste, this would also automatically mean a huge jump in combat utility – monster meat gave stat bonuses when processed correctly. And as he wanted to keep his aces close to his chest, he could therefore hardly teach the villagers how to process the meat. And as long as he was in the village, he could make his devoted flock gorge themselves on unprocessed monster meat, as he could cure the poison out of their system anyway.

After he arrived with Kureha, he left her behind at the entrance, and moved toward the back of the church hall where a primitive altar stood. The crowd's murmuring increased in volume, their low voices pregnant with anticipation for whatever wisdom their heroic saviour would impart upon them.

He raised his hands to quiet the room, and said solemnly:

"Welcome, all of ye who have sinned. All have sinned, all will be judged, all will be purified through sincere suffering. No one will escape the price of their transgressions, no matter their age, gender or wealth."

During a meaningful pause after his 'greeting', he took another look throughout the church. Dust could even see some attending beast people, which was rather surprising : he knew that in small towns like this there were always a few freed or escaped beastfolk, but they tended to hide whenever anyone connected to the royal family showed up – as the kingdom wasn't on the best of terms with beastfolk, to say the least. They must have seen another (seemingly) beastman killing hordes of monsters and being on relatively good terms with the first princess of the kingdom. They were probably hoping that he could offer them salvation from their wretched fate, as a 'direct conduit to the Divine', as he had heard the rumours call the Heroes.

Dust almost had to laugh – whatever passed for Gods on this world, you'd be much better off the furthest you were away from them. Turning to a priest to get closer to them was as stupid as going looking for a tornado to get a breath of fresh air. A benevolent deity would already have ended the world a long time ago, as it was a lost cause at this point and the world was filled with monsters and victims only. For the first group utter destruction would be their just punishment, for the second it would be a mercy. He continued his sermon while increasing his volume and the gravitas in his voice:

"Those unworthy will ask, 'But isn't to be Divine to forgive?!', clinging to the weakness of forgiveness without willing to pay the cost. But we, the gathered wretches that we are, know better now. Those monsters attacking and slaughtering your brethren, your parents, your children, do you think a forgiving God would have sent those? Nay, I say, not a chance!"

A few people in the audience had to bite back tears and unsurprisingly some seemed almost angry that he was insinuating those monsters had been sent to punish them. Good, he was an expert at using people's anger – including his own.

"There will be those who believe their loved ones were innocent of any crimes, and did not deserve to die at some monster's hand. That is irrelevant." He literally wove away such concerns with a sweep of his arm. Then his grotesque face split into a grin showing the entire length of his monstrous front teeth.

"Because I never said they were sent as a punishment for us. Nay, they were sent as a sign! We will be their just punishment, acting like wrathful avengers to make all monsters pay for their sins. Such is undoubtedly the will of the Divine!"

The murmurs in the church increased in volume, his audience was unsure what he was actually saying, but motivated by bloodlust to do something, anything, just the same. Dust quickly continued, all the while gesturing wildly. His voice picked up in speed, reaching a feverous pitch:

"Of course, you don't ask a butcher to bake your bread, so obviously we won't ask farmers to kill monsters. But that is exactly what proves that although the Divine beings might be strict parents to us, their children, but surely they are also most loving parents, as they have chosen a righteous avenger most fair. She is of most noble blood, and wields purifying flame of such intensity the likes of which us mere mortals could never even approach to emulate!"

He extended his hand to princess Flare on the first row. She, as the great actress she was, didn't miss a second and moved up to the altar where he stood with steps that seemingly betrayed a certain demureness and humility, yet that Dust could hear was, like one would expect from good ol' Flare, only calculated to be so. Still, the whole church started to erupt in frantic energy at the sight of this beautiful-but-'humble' royal, who would save them from the monsters. The villagers had wanted to love Dust - as he had saved them – but still found it hard to accept his current looks, as the church had disavowed beast folk for generations. As there were some beastpeople in this village, most prejudices were buried, but none of them were forgotten.

But Flare was beautiful. Human like them. Chosen by the Gods themselves. How could they not love her?

While Flare was approaching the altar he could read her micro-expressions like she was broadcasting her true emotions at full strength , as someone who knew her so intimately. He saw the slightly red blush extending from her bosom to her face from the excitement of being venerated.

To keep his claim on the throne stable and secure, the king had fostered an ugly sibling rivalry between Flare and Norn by drilling into them that both were inferior to the other. That both were lacking in talent and skill, and the other was just that much better. That the other sister wouldn't hesitate to remove such a failure from the royal family when given a chance. It worked: Treacherous nobles in both camps spent so much time battling each other that the noble faction that favoured the king was largely unopposed.

But it had left Flare with a nasty need for external approval. She loved it when she was adored by as many pawns around her as possible, but despised the fact that she needed the approval of those lowly pawns to feel good. As Dust could personally testify, this lead her to dominate those weaker than she was, so she wouldn't have to feel like she depended on them.

But this day, in this church, she didn't need domination. She had captured their hearts and set them ablaze. They were worshipping her as a Goddess made flesh. When she started speaking about her 'Holy Duty', and how she was going to get rid of all the evil in the world with a soft, gentle voice, some even cried. And then she even walked towards those crying, giving them a comforting hug and just excreting kindness from every pore in her body. In short, she was the perfect picture of a kind and benevolent princess, concerned with justice and yet humble enough to lower herself to the level of those commoners.

Dust smirked, quickly hiding said smirk as a kind smile. Both of them were great at manipulating others and getting undeservedly liked, but he could never have imagined what the team of them two could do. His plans had gotten massively derailed after the princess insisted on joining him on this journey, but if he could somehow turn her against her father and his kingdom, that would not only get his plans on the rails again but also upgrade the figurative locomotive driving his plans to one of a bullet train.

He spent the following hour curing all the followers of the monster poison they ingested. The paragon of justice that he was, he even cured those soldiers who had abused him in the dungeons the previous loop and the loop before that. He could see in their memories that even in this loop he may have escaped their 'attention' as he didn't give Flare a reason to throw him into the dungeon this loop, many other prisoners had caught their eye instead. And yet he didn't kill them on the spot as righteous vengeance for those they trampled upon. He was so kind, he almost astonished himself.

 Of course, he used [[life-infusing heal]] to spread some tumours around that would kill them eventually, but that was just common sense.

Chapter 14: A walk and talk with the Sword SaintNotes:

Andddd... I'm done with the rewrite. Apologies again for any deja-vu you might experience, the next chapters will be fully new again!

Chapter Text

After the service, Dust busied himself increasing the village's odds of survival in various ways. The farmers were astonished when he showed them that they could actually use the meat and blood of monsters in another way: if you boiled it until it dissolved into goo, it would be bland but harmless. If you then mixed it in with pig feed to fatten them up, you'd have a very cheap animal feed.

His vast stores of knowledge he build up with his [[looting heal]] over the span of about eight years were more than handy. He also helped the town set up new defences, and showed them how they could lure monsters to a nearby canyon where they could ambush them.

In that way, the villagers would not only get cheap food for their livestock, but also valuable XP and the necessary stats for survival. Their level caps might be low as farmers, but still few had reached the cap: There just wasn't that much killing that a normal villager would do over their lifetime. With increased stats from the XP gained from regular monster hunting, the villagers would have much less trouble with wandering monsters approaching the town by random chance than they have had until recently.

Plus, Dust and the villagers were happy to find out, one of his theories yielded fruit: Job classes generally didn't have much in the way of combat skills, but farmers generally had at least one skill that granted inherent bonuses when they tried to keep vermin of their fields. And apparently, it still counted as 'their' field if they just threw some seeds in the canyon. They'd probably have to harvest something later on from the canyon too, but it didn't seem like they needed to spend any effort maintaining those 'fields'.

Plus monsters apparently counted as the required 'harmful animals / vermin'-type as long as they were trampling anything on the farmers' 'fields'. And the great thing was that those discoveries were largely useless for the kingdom: the farmers likely had only a limited range near their hometown where seeded 'fields' would count as theirs, and the ability didn't work on humanoids.

Sure, the farmers would become ridiculously strong. But that was for farmers' standards. For the Royal Army's standards, even the strongest farmer would only be as strong as a mediocre officer. So there was hardly any risk the kingdom could utilize those farmers against him, but a major chance Dust could use them against the kingdom, somehow. Life was good.

…

Hours later, the day was ending, and the sun was setting. It had been quite the eventful day, Kureha mused. And it wasn't at its end, technically, as there was a feast planned to welcome the princess to the village, and more importantly: Thank her for saving it. Dust and Kureha were walking towards the feast together and although she didn't want to pry, Kureha couldn't contain her cumulative curiosity in the end, so she hesitantly asked him:

"Sir monk, can I ask you something?"

Dust just smiled and said: "Of course, but only as long as you stop using honorifics to refer to the likes of I, lady Kureha."

Having gotten permission, Kureha bulled right ahead. The Claylets were famous for many things, but subtlety wasn't one of them. She said:

"Well, Dust, I can't help but notice that you've been doing a lot for this town."

Dust nodded, confused to where she was going.

"You got up before I was awake, while I get up at 4 AM. You immediately go to heal the severely wounded, because 'it would be a shame if any of them were to die while you were slothfully sleeping'. After that, you have to act like a chair for breakfast, but after that you spend the whole morning healing a throng of people."

Dust just cocked his head. He asked simply: "And?"