Single for Eternity

With a devilish grin plastered across his face, Einar grabbed a fistful of thick, slimy monster blood and smeared it all over Laura's face and body.

"Ewww…!! You piece of shit, get away from me!!" she shrieked, flailing her limbs like a fish out of water.

But alas—her struggles were futile.

Einar, the scum of the earth, held her even tighter. His blood-soaked hand clung to her waist like a predator unwilling to let go of its prey.

"Ahahaha!!" he laughed maniacally, his voice filled with unrestrained joy. "Now that your clothes are stained, how about I paint your face too?"

"Don't you dare!" she snapped, her eyes widened in horror.

But he did.

With malicious intent, Einar uncovered her hood, exposing her terrified face, and with exaggerated theatrical flair—he smeared the blood and mucus all over her pristine face.

"HEHEHEHEHE!!"

"You—absolute scum!!" she gagged, trying to wriggle free, but his grip was ironclad.

"Whew… man, I feel SO relieved now," Einar finally exhaled, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow after thoroughly defiling her cleanliness.

A few feet away, Laura stood frozen—her face, hair, and robe absolutely drenched in grotesque fluids. Her mouth hung open in silent disbelief. Her mind was a blank slate of horror and disgust.

Anyone who would see her now would probably assume she had just survived some horrendous violation.

"…You're dead," she finally rasped, her voice hollow with shock.

Einar, as carefree as ever, patted her shoulder with a smug grin. "C'mon, don't make that face. I did you a favor."

"A FAVOR!?" she snapped, her fists trembling with barely contained rage.

"Yeah! I mean look at you! You blend with the environment now. No monsters will attack you."

Her glare could melt steel. "You absolute degenerate."

Before he could utter another word—

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Laura unleashed a storm of punches with her tiny, blood-soaked fists, raining down futile vengeance on his bare chest. "You piece of shit!! Bastard!! Rotten scum!!"

Einar simply stood there laughing, tanking every one of her cutesy punches like an unmovable wall.

After a solid minute of pummeling, he finally grabbed both of her wrists.

"Alright, alright! Calm down! I was just relieving stress!"

Laura's voice cracked, on the verge of tears. "I—I thought you were gonna kill me, you bastard!!"

Einar flinched slightly. "…Huh?"

"You looked like a monster! You didn't even flinch when that serpent gashed your back open! Then your wounds—y-you healed!! I-I thought you… lost your humanity."

His smile faltered for a second. Silence.

Then—

"Ah…" he scratched his head, his expression slightly awkward. "…Sorry about that. I kinda lost myself when fighting these little shits."

"LOST YOURSELF!? You punched a serpent's head off like it was nothing!!"

"Technically, it was nothing."

"…I hate you."

Einar chuckled. "Fair."

Laura, still traumatized, wiped the mucus and blood from her face—her expression one of absolute disgust. "And what do you mean you were relieving stress? You used me as your toy, you bastard!!"

Einar awkwardly laughed. "…I mean, technically yeah. But c'mon, I was in a killing spree and needed some… uh, grounding. You showing up helped."

"…Grounding?"

"Yeah." Einar sheepishly scratched his hair. "I was close to losing my mind. The monsters wouldn't stop attacking me, and I couldn't stop killing them. If you didn't show up… I think I would've gone full feral."

Laura blinked.

Her anger waned slightly upon hearing that, but she didn't let it show. Instead—

"Yeah, and your way of grounding was to harass me with monster guts?" she deadpanned.

"…Touche."

...

After a long moment of awkward silence, Einar finally sighed. "…So, how's the town?"

Laura, still wiping her face, sneered. "Oh, NOW you remember?"

"…Sorry?"

She rolled her eyes. "I managed the town pretty well while you were here playing war god. We managed to pay off a few debts, and the mining yielded good profit. The houses were slowly being repaired."

Einar smiled slightly. "That's good."

"…Yeah. Until I disappeared without a word. I can't guess what's the condition currently—hopefully good."

"…That's not so good."

Laura shot him a glare. "No shit."

Einar awkwardly changed the subject. "…So how much of the debt do we still owe?"

She scoffed. "A lot. But…" she eyed the mountain of dead creatures around them, realization suddenly hitting her. "…We're gonna be stupidly rich after this."

Einar quirked an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Don't you get it, you brain-dead meathead!? These monster carcasses are worth a fortune! Their hides, fangs, venom, and cores fetch decent prices in the market!"

Einar blinked. "Wait… really?"

"…You didn't know?"

He shrugged. "I just kept killing. I didn't really think about profit."

Laura slapped her forehead. "You're such a moron…"

Einar crossed his arms. "Okay, smartass. How do you plan to haul all these back to town?"

Laura squinted her eyes, genuinely confused. "You do remember we have spatial rings, right?"

"…Oh."

A long pause.

"You forgot about spatial rings, didn't you?"

"…Yeah."

Laura facepalmed. "God, you are hopeless."

...

"By the way," Einar casually mentioned as he led Laura up a dune. "I've killed more than just this bunch."

"…What?"

The moment they crested the hill—

Laura froze.

Before them lay a colossal mountain of corpses. A monstrous hill comprised of thousands of dead creatures of all species and sizes.

"…What the actual fuck?"

Einar scratched his head awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. That's like a month's worth of work."

"…YOU BUILT A MOUNTAIN OF CORPSES!?"

Einar shrugged. "I didn't build it, per se. They kinda just kept coming. So, I kept killing."

Laura's eye twitched. "And WHY were they coming to you!?"

"Ah…" Einar scratched his chin, a guilty smirk on his face. "…I may have smeared myself with their offspring's blood to attract them."

Silence.

"…You did what?"

Einar nonchalantly shrugged. "Yeah, I realized they get super aggressive when you kill their newborns and smear their blood on yourself. So I kinda… abused that."

Laura stared at him in abject horror.

"…You're disgusting."

"Hey, I was surviving, alright! I didn't have a choice!"

"You… literally massacred their entire ecosystem for sport."

"…It's not sport if they kept coming to me."

"…Oh my god, you're actually evil."

Einar sighed. "Can you stop judging me?"

Laura pointed dramatically at the mountain of corpses. "YOU SLAUGHTERED THOUSANDS OF CREATURES BY WEARING THEIR CHILDREN'S BLOOD LIKE ELIXIR!!"

Einar shrugged. "Efficient, isn't it?"

"…I'm scared of you now."

"…Fair."