Arrival

In the middle of the night, a haunting laughter could be heard inside an abandoned building in the middle of a thick forest. People living in these parts of the forest consider this building to be cursed by some kind of evil spirit, and the source of the disappearance of many tourists that went into this building to "Investigate Paranormal Activities".

While the town officers had put up signs and barriers to warn people from going inside, that didn't stop some people from entering the cursed building.

No one knows what happens to the people that disappeared into this building, but many have guessed that an evil monster lives there, eating any living thing in it, and some have speculated that there are ghosts in the building that take the lives of many.

But in reality, the monster that lives there was nothing but a man in his thirties… His name is Shoki, a half-japanese and half-american man. An insane individual who has claimed the lives of thousands upon thousands of innocent people.

He was hunted by dozens of expert detectives and FBI Agents, that's why when he was 27, he fled towards a rural area near florida, and he has been here for 10 years. Not once has anyone seen him, and even if they did see him, they wouldn't be alive to tell the tale.

Shoki was once an American soldier, starting at 18, fighting wars in Afghanistan at 20. He was a famed killer on the battlefield, slaughtering hundreds, if not, thousands!

He was talented at the art of murder, that was noticeable. But the higher ups decided to retire him at an early age, 24 years old, due to the fact that he has become a liability after assaulting one of his comrades.

He was then sent to a psychology expert to answer some questions regarding his mental health, and he passed each and every single one of them, perfectly… well, too perfect, some might say.

And not a year later, he became a renowned serial killer…

His tale truly says something; what is the difference between a soldier that has killed hundreds, to a serial killer that also killed the same amount?

It's simple; it's because the country allows soldiers to kill "bad" guys, while the serial killer kills only innocent people.

And yet, what is the difference between an average person to the "bad" guys? In the eyes of the world, nothing. In the eyes of this unforgiving world, there's not a single difference between them.

They'll die anyway, right?

"So what's wrong with killing them a little bit earlier, eh?" A bearded man said, no, convinced himself, with his place littered with the burning smell of flesh.

As he stared at the bright orange flames of the burning bodies in front of him, only the light of apathy and insanity glinted inside his eyes.

Shoki has done it again; he has killed another. But this time, it was different.

With his body nude, he smiled, not like the smile of a psychopath, but the smile of happiness, pure happiness, as he threw himself into the fire.

As the greatest murderer in history bathed himself with the flames of the dead, he simply laughed with no emotion in his voice, as a realization hit him that only himself and himself alone can kill him. At that very short moment, he felt invincible, high above the skies.

And with that, the greatest killer has done his final act of murder; himself.

The greatest of all…

(In Some Place in The Realm of the Dead)

"Ugh, why can't these mortals accept the fact that they are dead and not whine? How hard is it not to whine in front of the death god himself???" The Death God, Thanatos, couldn't help but say that with annoyance in his voice.

But you can't blame the god for not saying that because of the thousands of mortals in front of him saying stuff like 'No, no, no! I can't be dead!', 'My family! I need to be alive to support my family!', 'Fuck! I need to get back to help my sister get a life, or else she'll just become a neet for the rest of her life!!', 'Holy shit! Mom and Dad might see the countless child porn I have on my computer! I need to delete them, asap!'

… Okay, that last one might need a bit more punishment than the others. He'll call Lucifer for that later.

But as Thanatos surveyed the dead mortals in front of him, he spotted a single man away from the group of spirits, simply smiling to himself. Interested in him, the death god snapped his fingers and a transparent screen appeared in front of him, and there, the entire life of the man was presented to him like a web novel.

And slowly, as he read the file, his eyes grew wider and wider, and after a few minutes, his mouth also started to grow wider as it curved up.

"Kami will torment me for thousands of years if I do that, but damn will it be one of my greatest, and most interesting projects ever. If I send him to that world, mayhem will ensue. But I need to give him something, something that will help him grow stronger. Hmm…" The pale god thought about it for a second, and then an idea popped in his head, "That's right! I still have that artifact!"

A ghostly orb appeared in front of him, floating. This ghostly orb is something that he was given by a higher being, someone that can kill every god in the universe with a single breath. This orb is mysterious in nature, even the death god was hesitating whether to give this orb to that man or not due to its nature; if used just right, this orb, along with its wielder, can grow as strong or maybe, even stronger than the gods.

But if it pisses off Kami, he'll do anything. He's the only god to ever get under that cold goddess's skin, and he'll be damned if he doesn't take this opportunity to completely enrage the apathetic deity.

Well, this might spell death to the gods but bah! Who cares? Not him, obviously.

If the death god could smile, it would've reached both of his ears. While the price for becoming the deity of death is to cast every single flesh in his body, it was still worth it. Now he can do stuff like this, and mess with beings he couldn't have hoped to mess with millions of years ago.

He took a deep breath, well, cold breath, and said, "Haah, I love my job." He made himself comfortable in his throne before snapping his fingers, and the soul of the man named 'Shoki' appeared in front of him, insanity affecting him even when he was just a spirit.

But then, when Shoki realized that he was not where he was before but instead standing on a black and blue carpet, in a large chamber made only for monarchs, his face got a little bit serious as he focused his gaze at the pale god in front of him.

"Who are you?" The murderer asked, his voice containing cautiousness.

The death god snorted, "You better not look at me like that, mortal, or else I will eradicate your soul to its last strand."

By force he could not recognize, Shoki looked away, not out of fear, but due to the sheer power coming from the being in front of him.

The deity nodded, and then continued, "You need not know who or what I am, your only concern here at the moment is whether you accept my offer or not. If you say yes, you will be reincarnated or transferred to another world, completely different from yours. And if you say n--"

"I accept your offer," Shoki said, without even trying to hear the rest. But as soon as he finished saying that, he suddenly found himself facing the ground!

"Daring, are we? To interrupt me while I was speaking, you must have a death wish. If so, I'll gladly fulfill that wish for you," The death god's voice was on its edge, and Shoki knew that one single mistake could cost him his soul here! He cannot have that!While he did kill himself, it was something he had planned for a very long time. The only reasons he ever joined the army was to strengthen himself and battle stronger opponents. Childish as it was, it's still the only thing closest to a dream for him.

When he found out that even if he grew stronger than everyone, grew his skills to the point of perfection, they were not enough to defeat the strongest weapons mankind has. A single rifle can tear him to pieces, and even the weakest missile the army has can completely obliterate him.

Monster that he was, there was nothing he could do for he, too, is just a human.

His suicide was needed, for he had been studying the after-life for many years now. He came to the conclusion that there's a 50 percent chance that the after-life is real and the other 50 is not real.

He gambled, and he won, but he didn't think that he would catch the attention of some sort of deity. Must be the death god, if he must think so for himself.

And he managed to pissed off the deity himself.

The best course of action right now is to apologize, he decided.

He tried to kneel, as degrading as it was, and failed but he still said, "I-I humbly apologize, I didn't know any better. I promise that it will never happen again."

The pale deity then just waved it off, and said, "Then let us continue. As I said before, if you say no, which you obviously wouldn't, I would've obliterated your soul completely."

"So there was no choice to begin with, huh?" Shoki said in his thoughts, though he had no problem with it.

"Since you have no problem with being thrown into another world, I'll give you two options; do you want to be reincarnated, or transferred to another body?" The death god was at least kind enough to give him the options, and he had no problem picking the latter.

"Transferred to another body, if possible, my lord," Shoki said respectfully.

"Stop your bootlicking, or I might incinerate you where you stand," The pale deity warned him, and he decided to obey, "I'm not just sending you there for my amusement. You have a special mission, and that mission is to bring as much chaos as possible. I'll have to warn you that there are beings in that world that are powerful enough to disrupt space and time, so I'll have to give you this," A ghostly orb appeared in front of the deity, before it floated towards the mortal man.

Confused, Shoki asked, "What is this, if I may ask?"

"That is an orb given to me by a very powerful being, though it's original purpose was to entertain masochists, nonetheless it's a very powerful artifact. You can wish for any kind of power you are able to think of, but that's only the nice thing about it. The more powerful it is, the more sacrifice it will need," He explained, kindly…

"Sacrifice? As in human sacrifice or something like that?" Shoki said in his thoughts, wondering what the deity meant.

"Ugh, you complete fool. You can't even figure that out yourself? It's pain, and a lot of it. I don't know how or what kind of pain you'll suffer through, but each and every user of that orb has died a terrible death. I hope you won't be just another one of those fools." The lord of death said as if he was complaining.

"Pain, huh? I wonder…"

He's suffered all kinds of pain, even having his nails removed, slowly, and one by one. But that's not even the worst torture he's ever had when he was a serving his country. Pain has been his friend ever since he was born, to the point that he was almost immune to it.

He wonders if this orb will give him more pain than ever before… he wonders…

Just as he was about to try it, the deity's voice rang.

"Trust me, you wouldn't want to suffer the sacrifice in your current form. The pain in your physical body could be tolerable but the pain in your soul is a thousand times stronger," The pale god warned him.

For all its worth, he decided to trust the deity and not try it, at least until he obtains his physical body once more.

"Anyhow, it's getting late. Are you ready to be transferred?"

"Yes," He confirmed.

And then everything went black.

(Elemental Nation)

[Location: Somewhere Near Kirigakure]

"Do not leave anyone alive! For these scums to be harboring these demons, they must die!!" Civilians ravaged an orphanage somewhere in the misty woods, as the cries of numerous children were heard.

They carried pitchforks and kitchen knives, normal everyday equipment, now used for murder.

Children were screaming, as each adult carried sharp weapons with them, used to stab the life out of these poor souls.

"Die! Die! Die!! DIE!!!" A woman continuously stabbed a little girl no older than 5, with her knife. Even when the child was dead, the deranged woman did not stop.

Everywhere, this scene happened, and it was hell. No, hell would never punish the innocents like this, no, this is… insanity.

And this is what Shoki woke up to, seeing a man raising his pitchfork to stab him dead. He rolled away, and the man missed, but this only aggravated the adult.

Seeing this man was a threat, Shoki saw no time to assess the situation, so he decided to quickly disarm the man by quickly standing up and punching the man in the groin.

The man keeled as he let go of his pitchfork… wrong move.

Within a few seconds, the man was pierced in the head with his own weapon, killing him swiftly.

Shoki immediately looked around, only to see chaos everywhere. Children were being killed by savage men and women, and he wondered what might these children might've done to incur their wrath. But that's not what he's worried about at the moment.

He remembered earlier when he picked up the pitchfork, and it was heavy, heavy enough for him to take a few seconds to kill the man. Normally, that would only take him a fraction of a second, and then, he realized, when he looked at his hands, he was a child.

A child…

He didn't know whether this was a sick joke or not, but he didn't have the luxury to think about it before another man lunged at him with a knife.

While sluggish, he managed to dodge the man's attack before countering with an attack of his own. He stabbed the man's foot with his pitchfork, and the unknown man then screamed in pain, buying Shoki more than enough time to stab him in the neck. Blood spurt out of the man's neck wound as he pulled the pitchfork out, and then finished the man off after he fell to the ground.

It was swift, though Shoki still frowned at that performance. Back then, he would've been able to completely break this man's neck easily without any weapons.

He shook his head, and decided to think about it later.

For now, he needs to escape this place. With his body at the moment, even with all his skills and knowledge, he wouldn't be able to kill this many people. While they're busy killing the other children, he'll make his escape.

It was easy to get away from the people, he just dodged them as they tried to hurl themselves at him; their pathetic attempts to kill him.

Seeing that the orphanage is covered by a thick forest, he decided to go deeper into the woods, towards the nearest mountain. Going to a civilization right now would be dangerous for him, especially since he doesn't know if these people seek joy in killing children, though that would seem a bit far-fetched. But being over-cautious is still better than not being cautious at all.

As he got deeper into the woods, he heard footsteps coming behind him, and they were fast.

"Three? Four?" He roughly guessed their numbers.

In his condition at the moment, it would be quite difficult to kill 3 people on his own, much less 4. But they were fast, faster than him when he was at his prime. Fighting them right now could result in his immediate death, judging by their speed.

Looking ahead of him, he saw nothing but the thick woods and leaves, with water made from the mist dripping from the leaves. In the distance, he saw a clearing. If he fights them on that clearing, he will definitely die. The trees, at least, cover him a little but in an open space like? That's a death sentence waiting to happen.

But he has no choice. He either fights them in the woods or on an open clearing; he'll die either way.

Just as he was about to run into the clearing, he heard something whish behind him, and instinctively, he tried to dodge but it still hit him directly on his right shoulder.

He grunted as he stumbled down on the grass, and his body rolled right onto the clearing. He immediately stood up, not minding the pain he was feeling, as he finally faced his pursuers.

They came out of the forest, and all three of them were wearing purple vests and had various pockets all over their clothing. They all looked exactly the same, except for their hairs. He couldn't see their faces because they were all wearing black face-masks.

"You're good, for a brat," The one on the middle of them spoke, and his voice sounded extremely hostile.

"Most children would either cry from their wounds, and yet here you are, not even flinching from the kunai I just threw at you," The one on the right sounded kind of impressed.

"Hmph, looking at his red hair, he must be an Uzumaki. They are rumored to have extremely high-regeneration and long life-spans. That's why he's still probably standing, even after getting stabbed by that kunai. Cockroach-like bastards," The one on the left said, clearly having some sort of grudge against this "Uzumaki" name.

"So they speak japanese? Judging by their clothing, I must be somewhere in the feudal period of Japan, or something similar. From their appearances, I think they are some kind of ninjas, as ridiculous as that sounds. But all kinds of things can happen, seeing that I'm in another world. If they are indeed ninjas, then I'm screwed," He said in his head, analyzing everything about his opponents.

"Giving us the silent treatment, eh? I thought you were gonna do something to entertain us, but you're just a brat after all. I'll just kill you to spare you the misery of living in this world, heh," Without an ounce of hesitation, he threw numerous shuriken at Shoki.

They were so fast that he barely had enough time to react, and as they were about to hit him, they suddenly stopped right in front of him, as if they were stuck in time.

Suddenly, a transparent screen appeared before him,

In it, there were words written:

[Level of Control Towards The Orb: 1]

[Powers Able to Acquire at Current Level: {Options}]

"Curious," He muttered, "What is this? In my entire life, I've never seen something like this."

Out of curiosity, he tapped the {Options} button.

And then, a large screen with various names of superpowers appeared next to the other screen. If he counted them all, it would probably reach a couple thousands!

Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, etc, all of them were there!

"Is this what that deity was talking about? All the powers I could wish for are here, and the only thing I need to do is to suffer? What a deal…" He said in his thoughts, thinking about all the kinds of things he could do with this. He was like a child, excited over the prospect of gaining a new toy.

With this, even ruling the world is not that far-fetched!

But he needs to pick the most useful power he could get in his current situation because, he realized, time has stopped moving everything, including him… well, mostly. He can move his arms, and he can think. But it is preventing him from moving towards his opponents, and finishing them off.

So, the most he can do in his current position, is to pick a superpower that can turn this entire situation into his favor. He looked at the screen very carefully, and just like that, he found it. He tapped it with his finger, and another transparent screen appeared to his right, but it was smaller.

[Metal Manipulation: If you choose this power, you can bend all kinds of metal to your will. Even the sturdiest and strongest metal would bend to your will] [Note: You will have complete control over metal, remember, but you'll still have to train it so that you can use it effectively]

[Pain Level: 1] [You'll mostly experience extreme body pain for an hour, and it will feel like something is sawing your limbs, peeling your nails, removing your eyeballs, and having the feeling that something is eating your from the inside out] [Would you still like to choose this superpower?] {Yes} or {No}

[Another Note: Time will still be stopped but you'll experience the pain without being able to move, to add more horror to the heart]

Without hesitation, he tapped {Yes}.

[You have been warned. Good luck]

And just like that, he felt it. Oooh, he felt it. First, he felt something moving inside him, and then it started eating something around his stomach.

He grunted, withstanding the pain. He's dealt with with worse, he can endure this. But just then, he lost sight in his right eye as he felt it being removed, slowly, and painfully. It was a step-up from earlier, but it was nothing he couldn't handle.

Faster than he can think, he then felt his nails being removed from his fingers. This kind of torture was used on him many times by his enemies when he was in the army, and you'd be surprised how common this kind of torture is.

And then, it came; the sawing of his limbs.

"Guh!!" It was painful, so painful. More painful than the other tortures he's dealt with before. Even he couldn't just scoff at his limbs being removed from his body; no one can.

"Gah!" This time, he felt it sawing deep in his bones. All four limbs, at the same time, were being sawed slowly.

But he just smirked at it as sweat dripped from his forehead, and fearlessly said, "Do your worst."

For an entire hour, this was what he felt. It was hell, but he endured it. It was painful, but he persevered. His screams of pain, his tears of suffering, were the only things that accompanied him. But in the end, he never regretted it. Why, you may ask? Because...

"I have dealt with worse," He said, reasoning with himself. Soon, it would be over, soon, he would get his desired power. And nothing mattered to him at the moment, than that.

[Congratulations! You have endured for an hour, and now, you may get the power of your choice! Enjoy!]

He felt his vision returning to him, and the screen appeared before him, bringing him joy more than anything.

He felt kind of drained, mentally. But it was worth it, and the things he endured wouldn't really affect him that much due to the fact that it didn't really do anything but let him feel pain.

He tried to move his hands but he frowned as he felt the phantom pain grating his very bones. But that was okay, since he won't need his limbs for his next course of action.

[The time stop would end in 3… 2… 1… 0]

And then time started moving again, but faster than the normal eyes can see, the numerous shurikens that were directed at him shot towards the 3 ninjas injuring all of them since they didn't expect something like that to happen.

"What was that!?" The one in the middle yelled after getting two shurikens plunged deep into his shoulders.

Shoki was standing but barely. The phantom pains were fucking up his senses but he had to do this or he will die.

Even though he had no prior knowledge how to use his current power, he felt like he knew everything about it. With hesitation, he turned all the metal on their bodies into liquid before transforming them to extremely sharp objects, and piercing all of them.

Almost all of the metals piercing them came from the pouches on their waists, and without letting them realize they were going to die, he transformed all the metals into a sharp orb that continuously pierced every parts of their bodies.

And soon, nothing was left of them, except, maybe, their heads.

Shoki then compressed all the metals into a sphere the size of a golf ball. That was the smartest thing to do, at the moment, to always have metal around him.

Just as he was about to relax for a bit to rest his body, he heard a voice behind him.

"Amazing…"

He turned around to see a blue haired boy, accompanied by a red haired woman in her early twenties.

Not wanting to make enemies at the moment, he started by saying, "Who are you two?"

"Fufufu, such a cautious boy," The red-haired woman said, having some kind of amusement over the fact that he was currently being overly cautious, "I am Terumi Mei, and this is Chojuro, my cute and adorable apprentice. Say, boy, would you like to join our cause?"

He frowned. He wasn't used to dealing with this kind of person.