In his previous life, Hanzo hadn't started as a monster. He'd been a quiet, almost gentle young man tired, but tolerant of a cruel world. He'd seen its rot, its hypocrisy, yet he endured. Power didn't corrupt him overnight; it enlightened him.
And on one particular day, everything changed.
He realized something simple something terrifyingly simple.
The world was out of balance.
The good were corrupt, and the wicked were honest about being wicked.
So, he decided he would stand above both.
He would be the villain who corrected the world.
That conviction led him to the Eternal Essence, and to a war that ended with a single man, Him! By annihilating an entire kingdom's battalion.
Now, reborn as Harian, that goal hadn't changed.
Balance. Order. No matter how "evil" he had to become to achieve it.
So when he killed the guard, he'd expected terror maybe trembling silence, maybe gasps of horror at the boy who'd just committed cold-blooded murder.
Instead....
"How old are you, boy?" a gruff voice called from another cell.
"Seventeen," Harian answered, caught off guard.
"And your name?"
"Harian."
"Seventeen, huh?" The man barked out a laugh. "Then that's even more impressive! You went head-on against a Divine Knight and won!"
Harian blinked. "...What?"
"You did us a favor!" another inmate shouted, voice cracking with emotion. "We've been planning his assassination even collected our life savings to hire men from the ravage guild. We've been planning for months, now that bastard's finally dead!"
Voices piled on, raw and furious:
"He killed my wife!"
"He killed my son!"
"He wiped out my village!"
"He killed my dog!"
That last one made Harian twitch. "He killed a dog? Bastard," he muttered automatically because even villains have standards.
The cheers grew louder, echoing through the stone halls.
They weren't afraid of him.
They were celebrating him.
Muliad stared at Harian, still pale, muttering under his breath, "A seventeen-year-old… killed a Divine Knight... and lived…"
And George, poor George just looked between the corpse and his best friend, his voice cracking. "Harian… what the hell did you just do?"
Harian, meanwhile, stood there as the crowd chanted his name, his grin fading into quiet disbelief.
"...What the hell," he whispered.
Balance, apparently, worked in mysterious ways.
[ IT SEEMS YOU'VE GAINED SOME EARLY SUPPORT]Vex remarked dryly inside his head.
Harian didn't respond. His grin was gone replaced by a pensive look, his eyes unfocused as he thought.
He had miscalculated.
The man he'd killed clearly had enemies… too many, apparently. But would that have stopped him? Would knowing change his decision?
No.
Not really.
He exhaled slowly. "Vex," he muttered internally, "do you remember the name 'Gremlo the Tyrant'?"
There was a faint hum, the sound of digital thinking.
[ACCESSING MEMORY ARCHIVE... COMPLETE.]
[NO RECORD FOUND. IN YOUR PREVIOUS LIFE AS HANZO, YOU NEVER ENCOUNTERED SUCH A NAME. HOWEVER...]
"However?"
[...THAX PRISON AND THE KINGDOM OF NEZIA WERE DESTROYED DURING THE CIVIL WAR ONE YEAR AFTER YOUR DEATH. IT IS POSSIBLE THIS INDIVIDUAL PERISHED THEN.]
"Yeah," he said quietly. "That tracks."
If he remembered correctly, the ones who set fire to Thax Prison weren't outsiders… they were the inmates.
A fitting end for someone like Gremlo.
He was still lost in thought when the old man approached, shuffling with a tremor in his step. His eyes were wide, his voice shaking.
"What you just did, boy… I've lived a long time, but I've never seen anything like that. If anything you shouldn't be able to use essence as you were holding the othril chains"
"Me neither," George muttered beside him, his face tight, his tone serious. "And believe me, I've seen you do a lot of stupid things, Harian."
Harian looked at them both. He could tell they wanted an explanation, maybe even reassurance. But now wasn't the time.
Before he could say anything, the door at the far end of the prison creaked open.
Everyone froze.
"...Gremlo?" a deep voice called out from the entrance.
No answer.
The sound of heavy footsteps followed getting closer, slow, deliberate.
"The body—" the old man hissed. "We have to hide the body!"
"Wait." Harian said flatly.
He reached down, picked up the dead guard's sword, and without hesitation, swung once.
A flash of motion and every shackle in the cell fell apart, sliced cleanly. Even the unconscious red-haired boy's bindings hit the ground with a soft clink.
Harian turned to them, expression unreadable, the blade still humming faintly in his grip.
"Didn't I tell you already?" he said quietly.
"We're all getting out of here."
Muliad let out a long, weary sigh, rubbing his bruised wrist.
"I have a hard time trusting you, boy," he said finally. "After what I just witnessed and considering you killed a man in cold blood at that."
He glanced at Harian's face. "You don't even look like you regret it. Not one bit. Which, frankly, is… concerning."
George winced, glancing at his friend. Harian didn't flinch, didn't defend himself he just met Muliad's gaze, expression unreadable.
The old man from the corner spoke up, voice rough. "That man was trash anyway. Nephew of an Archduke, thought himself untouchable. He killed for sport, abused his post, and the nobles turned a blind eye because of his bloodline. Who knows how many died because of him."
Muliad nodded grimly. "Aye. I knew of his reputation too. But it's unfortunate. He was one among the many bad apples in the guard."
Before Muliad could respond, the echo of boots grew louder. The guards were coming closer shouts from the corridor, metal clanging, the sound of torches being moved.
"If they see the body," Muliad said sharply, "they'll kill all of us on the spot. What's your plan, boy?"
Harian's smirk widened. "Simple."
He knelt beside Gremlo's body, stripping off the armor with efficient movements. The breastplate clanked as he adjusted it to his size, the metal hanging slightly loose on his thinner frame. Then he grabbed a torn rag from the ground and tossed it over the corpse, covering it halfway.
It wasn't perfect, but it would do.
He stood, now wearing the guard's uniform, his expression calm and composed as if nothing had happened.
"Quiet," he whispered, turning back to them. "Not a word. I'll handle this."
And with that, he stepped out of the cell and pulled the door shut behind him.
Inside his head, Vex spoke immediately.
[STATUS: ESSENCE LEVELS LOW. RECOMMENDED ACTION: LIMIT COMBAT ENGAGEMENTS.]
"I can feel that," Harian muttered under his breath, taking a slow breath as the fatigue hit him. "This body isn't used to channeling Essence yet."
[CONFIRMED. THE ENERGY ABSORBED FROM THE TARGET WAS MINIMAL. THIS HOST'S CAPACITY IS STILL DEVELOPING.]
Harian adjusted his grip on the sword. "Null Steps and Void Slash available?"
[AVAILABLE, BUT LIMITED. ADVICE: UTILIZE DEVOUR FIELD FOREMOST FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY.]
He smirked. "Advice acknowledged."
The grin that followed was wide, sharp, and dangerous.
"Let's test how far this body can go."