After draining three more blood-bags, and dumping their worthless bodies to the side, the Strangers target had been restored back to her complete self. There was not a mark on her, yet even still she remained completely still and unresponsive to any stimulation.

This naturally caused the stranger some deep concern. He was tasked with bringing her back alive, it was of the utmost importance that she remained alive. If he returned empty handed, it would be thousands of times better than if he returned with the target dead.

However he consoled himself, that if she was truly dead then her regeneration wouldn’t be working. It was just that he could truly not explain what was happening with her, so he decided to push it to the side and ignore it in the sheer hope that the issue would resolve itself.

That usually worked. Sometimes.

From his back pocket, the stranger took a metallic mask that he quickly fixed over Belladonna’s mouth. Completely sealing off her ability to speak, while still allowing her to breath. Then he bound her hands and legs, before lifting her off of the ground with one hand like she was weightless.

Tossing her over his shoulder, he strolled through the crowd of hypnotised guards.

"Kill any witnesses, then yourselves." He muttered to the guards, who immediately turned towards their employers and comrades hiding behind their protective shields, and slowly drew their weapons.

Those who had been bashing at the shields, desperately trying to get their friends attention, now backed off in horror, as those friends now bashed back. Although they did so with much more cold, robotic bloodlust as they tried to crack the shields like eggs.

The protected individuals muttered classic phrases such as ’you don’t have to do this’ or ’it’s me, don’t you see that it’s me’ and other such phrases that people would often use against the mind controlled in hopes that their true self would wrestle free in the last moment.

But when the first, and weakest, shield fell no amount of power of friendship saved them from the slaughter.

Those who still hid behind their flickering shields, could only watch on in terror. Flinching at every sword strike and listening to every horrified scream, as they were slaughtered by those they knew, loved or employed.

At the same time, the only merchant not hidden behind a shield, and who had hidden himself beneath the blanket and underneath his ramshackle cart, where he was promptly forgotten about, slowly stirred awake to the rousing sound of slaughter.

As for the Stranger, he did not flinch or react in the slightest. His pace remained completely even as he strolled away without a care. He raised his hand to his lips, letting out a sharp whistle, and a few moments later a cart trundled out of the forest.

On the back of this cart, three metal crates sat with only one of them bound tight with silver chains. The lone bound cage shuddered as the Beast within fought desperately at its confinement. But it would never be free of its cage.

The Stranger didn’t consider the cage in the slightest, as he strolled over to the cart when a bone-spike suddenly tore through his leg.

The Stranger grunted, in more annoyance than pain, as he stumbled from the sudden interruption. The spike had pierced completely through his calf, tearing through his Achilles tendon, where it was now stuck.

He whipped his head towards the source of the spike, to see two more shooting towards him. He twisted his body, avoiding the first completely, before catching the second before it could pierce his head. With a clench of his fist, he completely crushed the spike to dust, before tossing the remains to the side.

But whilst the attack hadn’t been deadly, it was effective as a distraction, as the stranger did not notice his shadow shifting and growing.

A large paw lunged from the darkness, its black claws extended as it smacked into the Strangers back. He was thrown from his feet, dropping Belladonna in the process, as he smashed into the wheel of his own cart.

The wheel cracked in half where he impacted it, before the shuddering of the Beast became too much for the broken cart to handle. The wheel snapped, tilting the cart over and spilling its contents across the ground.

The crate slammed into the Strangers shoulder, yet despite its robust and weighty design, it was the crate that bounced off of the Strangers body as if he was as solid as steel. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

The Stranger let out a low, tooth-gritted groan as his shoulder hissed and smoked from where it had contacted the chains wrapped around the crate.

He slowly rose to his feet, swaying slightly before righting himself properly, and let out an irritated growl at the Shadow Demon that rose from the shadows in front of him.

"Look at what you did..." He muttered coldly, as Beans lunged towards him.

With a single hand, he caught Beans’ head mid lunge, before slamming the Shadow Demon down head first. They were like an elephant and an ant, yet this ant was easily overpowering the elephant.

Beans struggled under his grasp, clawing at the ground and trying to pull himself back. But the Stranger kept him pinned down with just one hand, like he was punishing a rowdy child.

"Look at what you did, you stupid beast. I can’t believe something like you is related to the originals. This is the difference between us.... Between a superior being, and a beast that got lucky with its birth."

The Stranger casually batted away the bone spikes that flew towards him, in Beans’ desperate attempt to free himself. Then he clenched his fist tight before slamming it into Beans’ face.

The impact of the punch shook the ground beneath them, as did the next one, and the one after that. Each punch was like a miniature earthquake, and was delivered with the cold, eerily calm anger of the psychopathic stranger, like someone crushing a bug beneath their boot.

After the fifth strike Beans’ tail fell, and after the seventh his movements became sluggish and weak. By the tenth, he barely moved at all, as black blood coated the Strangers fist.

"What an absolute waste of a Shadow." He muttered, raising his fist again to deliver the final blow, when a chain wrapped around his wrist and began to sizzle against his skin.