1 Blood Sea

"Mom... Dad... where have you gone? Elder sister where are you? Where has everyone gone?" A small boy said in confusion as he walked through his village. This boy lived in a very small town in the middle of nowhere, a place that outsiders barely visited.

The boy and all the villagers had lived a peaceful life since the boy was born but the place was completely different this time. As the boy walked through the village he no longer saw the smiling faces of those waiting at their doors. The boy hadn't even seen the stern-looking guards at the gate that normally nodded toward him.

The only thing the boy saw in this place was a sea of red.

The doors to every home had been ripped off or left wide open. In the opening of these doors laid some people's bodies while some homes just had the remnants of what looked to be a human.

The scene was far too much for this small boy but he continued forward with the one thing left in his brain that kept telling him to go, his family. The boy, his mother, father, and older sister all lived together in a home at the end of the town.

The boy believed and hoped with all his heart that his family would be ok but as he reached their house his hopes were shattered when he saw the bloodied corpse of his mother laying in the yard.

"MOM! NO MOM WHY?! MOM, PLEASE WAKE UP! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" The boy shouted as tears flew out of his eyes and hit the cheeks of his now passed mother. If the boy were to look closely he could see his mother's body had been killed quite brutally as she was missing half of her lower leg and much of one of her arms.

However, the boy ignored all this as he continued to try and wake the woman up. He continued like this for a few minutes before moving inside the house where he found the similarly bloodied corpse of his father who was still grasping a small iron sword that was used as the protecting item of his family.

His family was happy but by no means were they rich. They had spent a summer getting that weapon so that in case of an emergency when a beast invaded their land they would be able to help the rest of the villagers.

"D-dad.." The boy said stuttering with each word as he barely walked into the house. He stared at the body of his father for countless minutes letting the tears run down his face before he forced himself to turn away and find his sister.

His heart was beating out of his chest as he tried to find any signs of his sister or even a corpse to point out. However, no matter how hard he looked he couldn't find her. The boy even dared to look in the other villager's homes at even more gruesome scenes in the hope of finding his sister but in the end, he found nothing.

In his mind, his sister had been given a fate worse than death rendering her to not even have a body which gave the boy's mind an even harder shock damaging his already broken consciousness. At that point, the boy felt he could go on no longer and passed out in the middle of the bloodied village.

*****

"Hey, there's a survivor over here!"

"What kind of kid could survive an onslaught like this?!"

"I have no clue but he seems unharmed. Go get the patriarch so we can figure this out."

Voices started going on around the boy causing him to stir from his slumber. Not remembering what had happened before he passed out the boy rubbed his eyes before saying, "Mom, Dad? Is that you?" He said as he rubbed his eyes until he could finally see but what his eyes met was the bloodied walls of his house once more letting the memories come flowing in like a tidal wave making the boy start crying once more.

The memories were so intense that the boy didn't even pay attention to the foreign man also inside the room. He wore large robes covering most of his body and was adorned with some jewelry showing his higher status.

"CHILD STOP YOUR CRYING NOW!" The man shouted as he exuded a sudden kind of force. This force couldn't be seen with the naked eye nor could it be touched. However, the boy quickly felt the force take control of his body forcing his tear ducts to stop working and his vocal cords to no longer let out a single cry.

Only at this moment did the boy finally see the man in the corner and he immediately became fearful as he was let go from the force, "W-who are you, sir?!" The boy shouted as he ran to the corner of the room where his father's body was.

"I am the third elder of the Martial Sword sect, Hunter Blaque. We have come here to investigate what happened here since this village happens to be under our territory. Now the question is, who are you boy?" The man asked seriously.

"M-my name is James. My family name is Blood." The boy otherwise known as James introduced himself.

"Blood? What an interesting last name." The third elder said out loud to himself as he waited for the rest of the people from his sect.

"Ummm, sir. What is an elder and what is a Martial Sword sect?" James asked the third elder making him immediately do a double take in shock.

"What is the Martial Sword sect?! What is an elder?! Boy, have you been living under a rock your whole life? You should know this as a fellow cultiv- wait you have no foundation?!" The third elder said in shock as he looked at James.

James had no idea what the man was talking about but whatever he was saying seemed to be something serious to him, "Sir me and my family have lived here peacefully our whole lives only farming to get food and get by. I have never heard of any of these terms." James explained to the man who was still in shock.