2: Limbo

The same three words again.

"What The Fuck?"

Mercer uttered the words when everything around him descended into darkness, like an endless void trapped in perpetual limbo. The Mercenary also felt something wet under his feet. Looking below, all he saw is a limitless abundance of water making up the surface of the entire area.

What's even more outrageous is the familiar armored figure of the Knight right in front of him, sitting at one of the four corpses lying lifeless on the watery ground. The same corpses of the Bandits who were slain a few moments ago.

Disbelief was present in the Mercenary's face as he took out Mortem for a potential fight. Mercer could have sworn that he murdered the Knight just a few moments back, life departing away from the Knight's body when he stabbed him in the neck.

Strangely, however, the Knight merely stared at Mercer with an unusual calm look behind his great helm. He even made no effort in reaching out to his greatsword that was found lying nearby.

"Being slaughtered by my own hubris. I should have expected much." The Knight spoke without a shred of emotion. "I always thought that I would perish from a glorious battle, not by a dagger of some unknown bandit assassin, all alone in the middle of the road. I supposed it's a fitting end for someone like me."

Seeing that the Knight was strangely relaxed in all of this, Mercer opted to do the same but still remained from a short distance in case the Knight tried something funny.

"Ah, so you are dead. Where are we? Some kind of limbo or purgatory?" Mercer questioned the Knight, having gotten the hint from what he was told.

The Knight shifted his head towards the Mercenary and merely nodded in response.

"I see." Against his better judgment, Mercer opted to accept the craziness of the situation that he is currently in. Having been transported into another world is already insane enough so what's one more bizarreness added to the mixture?

"The Knights have conscripted when they saw how I slaughtered a well-known noble and his band of bandit goons like the pigs they are. I had witnessed the bastard Baron's depravity as he and his men made their way with my wife and daughter before they eventually murdered them. Rather than be turned off by my barbarism, the Knights were instead impressed when I enjoyed butchering the evil-doers with reckless abandon. As a result, the Knights still accepted me despite demonstrating such attitude unbecoming of their Order."

Mercer remained deathly quiet and continued to listen to the Knight's confession.

"I'm not blind to see that they wish to take advantage and utilize my unrestraint, my callous disregard of carnage to further their goals… our goals. To purge every evil and heretic, no matter what the cost, like those whoresons who defiled my family. Thus, I volunteered to be their enforcer in weeding out the Bandits who prey to the innocent and weak."

The Knight stood up and made his approach at Mercer. Surprisingly, the Mercenary made no attempts in becoming defensive, seeing only nothing but a broken shell of a man.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Mercer finally asked and wondered what the Knight's confession's purpose served.

The Knight sighed tiredly in response. "It's only natural that one should confess their sins and allegations in the time of death. Something compels me as your aura obligated me to tell everything that has been stirring deep within my heart."

The Mercenary was still unconvinced but allowed the Knight to continue with his profession.

"There are moments when one must not hold back, disregarding the basic notion of what good and evil are. The ends always justify the means as one simply calls it. The Lord Commander of the Order gave me a new purpose when I was integrated into the fold. That I would do whatever it takes so no one will experience the same level of tragedy that has befallen upon me. Sometimes, in order to fight monsters, you have to be one, and most of them wear the same skin like you and I."

The Mercenary found the man's logic to be somewhat true, having witnessed the Knight's type of character back when he was doing mercenary work from his world. Ruthlessness knew no bounds when one found every angle in finishing a complicated task that would test a person's moral and sanity to their limits.

After all, Mercer himself was no different, at least if he really has no other choice.

Still, Mercer can't help but feel pity towards the Knight. His wife and daughter violated and slaughtered by a group of scum, leading him to a life of even more pandemonium.

Mercer took a deep breath and said to him. "The road of vengeance and violence, even tempered by good intentions brings nothing but suffering to those around you, especially to the ones you hold dear the most. Your family is most likely disappointed at the man that you become, an individual twisted by his lust for retribution as they descend further, consuming themselves in a state of utter madness and ruin."

Mercer then added, conviction present right in his two eyes. "Slaughtering every bandit that you see might be considered honorable in your perspective and I somehow agree as well, but your last mistake is letting your rage and demand for justice blind you. You have mistaken me as a common bandit when I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."

The Knight this time sneered at Mercer's response, all stoic manner gone in an instant. "So, you have murdered me out of spite? How utterly lowly, even far less than a bandit's pathetic reasoning."

"No." Mercer's expression remained unchanged, not even taunted by the Knight's remarks. "I merely saw a man engulfed in an aura of burning rage. Seems unnatural to project such unruly emotion for someone who he had just met. You overextended your boundaries, acting all too zealous while in the performance of your so-called duty. You did not even question or allowed me to speak, giving in to your shallow assumptions as you continuously ridicule me in the open for being a bandit. For that, I deemed you a threat not just to me, but also to the other innocent people who you might have killed in the future for the same reason."

As Mercer took a step closer to the Knight, something appeared right in front of him, in the form of a message.

Emeric of Flochester

(The Reaper's Judgement)

Absolve? – Pat him on his shoulder and compel your intent to pardon his sins, sending him to Heaven for a joyous epoch.

Punish? – Stab him with your dagger and let the devil claim another irredeemable soul to torment for all eternity in Hell.

'The hell is this?' Mercer was confused about the two choices allotted to him. He was baffled at what this Reaper's Judgement actually is. He can only say that it was for him to decide in which afterlife the Knight will be heading if the text is actually true.

Mercer was unsure what this whole Reaper business is all about but doing nothing won't resolve his confusion. As a result, he decided to play along and act as a judge in sentencing the Knight.

"Emeric of Flochester." Mercer uttered the Knight's name without hesitation. "Your horrendous warpath has brought you into tremendous turmoil that vastly corrupted your soul with malevolence. There is no doubt that sending you to the pits of Hell would be the logical option."

The Knight merely bow his head down and said nothing in return, an indication of acceptance of punishment for his sins.

"But, you have already suffered enough in life, and even when you acted all too violently in your endeavors, it is still fueled by a spark of goodness in your soul, fighting for what you believed is right and just, all for the sake of your departed precious people," Mercer added and reached out the Knight with a hand on the latter's right shoulder. "May you find peace in the heavenly afterlife, hopefully in the loving embrace of your loved ones."

"You have my thanks… Reaper." The Knight answered in appreciation before fully embracing his end, his body dropping to the watery ground with a loud thud.

As the deed was finally done, Mercer breath a deep sigh at this stressful predicament, hoping that things would return to a semblance of normality before going all mad.

Thankfully, his request was answered when the world returned to its intended state.

Although Mercer failed to notice a dark hooded figure staring at him from a distance before the dark world came to its end, its green glowing eyes radiating with utmost intrigue.

***