"W... who are you?"
The pot-bellied giant rushed his axe down, a clean cut separating the man's head from his body. He licked the splatter that hugged his chin, delighting in the warm, refreshing taste of his kill. He prodded the corpse once more, encouraging it to generously offer that maddening, tasty iron-scented delicacy. He checked out all the boxes that any hellish being would be.
And his friends weren't in any sense better, all three cut from the same cloth.
"These ones were by far sweeter than anything I have ever imagined," "Just heavenly," quipped the other, as he tossed his own into the heap. They had stacked their bodies on top of each other, the two slender men grabbing at their nethers in memory of such a wonderful moment they had experienced.
"He's really happy with his boys."
The spirit smiled at the unfolding spectacle, his life's greatest work right before his eyes. Park blankly stared at the flames, the amount of evil fed into his brain shutting it down. He silently watched, from beginning to end, as the raging orange tongues licked the assembly of flesh and bone to char.
"I wish I would have gotten this one instead," the spirit stretched out his palm in greeting, ready to be absolved of his sins, "too bad he's already dead."
"..."
[Absolution of the lost soul will now begin.]
"..."
"Do you think he's going to be okay?"
Geometric sequences flawlessly carved in chalk occupied a large portion of the room. Multiple series of shapes and lines connected intricately to one another, depicting a mastery unlike any seen before. There were no wiggles, just a sharp and disciplined art without a part out of place or absent.
He reached over to his bed, retrieving a note, "Of course he will." Skimming through the roughly written objectives in a one-of-a-kind lettering, his pen stroke across all in-waiting tasks that had to be met before he could even think of initiating the spell.
He reached into a corner, pulling out the bowl of sinews. Lily opened her mouth, a cloud of black smoke gratefully accepting the sizable offering littered atop Gionne's palms.
"You might have gone a bit overboard with the salt," she said with a pained face, sticking her tongue out. He guiltily assumed her and went round, filling each one of the smaller, well-distributed, nine circles right at the very edges of the outermost circle, with the remaining batch of salt-crusted tissues left.
"Now that that's settled," he tossed away the bowl into oblivion, "I just check right here," the lock was in place just as he told Park, satisfied, he walked into a chalk patch opposite Lily's and made a beckoning gesture to her, "Let's begin."
"..."
[The First Law of The ----- Print will now be activated.]
He was back. A very successful log in coupled by his skill's ability to return rationality at a moment's notice. He should have been broken, the earlier gruesome scene shattering his mind into innumerable pieces but no, his state, now even better, didn't make him feel like he had just seen hell a couple of hours ago.
"So how was it? Your first "true" evil?"
Park tilted his head towards the origin of the voice. From the right tear fall, a figure, more like an old man, came into being.
"Who are you?"
He had a gruesomely distorted back, bandages hugging his wrists and feet, the only barrier that might have just been the ones preventing the heavy, overlaid chains from sinking deep into his flesh. On his head, a large straw hat, hid his facial features from view, perfectly shrouding them in pitch darkness. It may have been similar to the dilapidated, lifeless, tattered clothes that he wore but it did its job right.
The old man walked over to the floating piece of paper, each footstep that he took, staining the solid white space with dark, inky, smoldering footprints. He reached out for the paper, Park suddenly remembering how badly that turned out for him the first time he tried it out, briefly flashed with a scene of him bouncing back into the white nothingness.
"You were not ready yet back then..."
"!"
He gently brushed his thumb over the yellowed surface, revealing underneath the first law, a new line of words, "I hope this counts as viable remuneration."
[A new update has been made to the ----- Print.]
"Hope you enjoy it."
A flash of light instantly drew in Park's attention to it, as the old man slipped back into the red fall, his straw hat the last to submerge beyond the red depths. He took a seat at the table, staring at the beautiful lights, waiting for the wonderful change to occur.
"..."
"I think this is where our class is?"
7:00 AM
He turned back, catching the tentacles ball up, sealing the entrance of the building.
"Pick a weapon, join the rest."
"I thought we were supposed to be learning curses? Shame. Heard the teacher was a babe."
Hah. I'll just begin class before I hear anything else... Hmm?
He danced its handle between his palms, amused by something beyond that moment. To the teacher, his build did not look right and he definitely didn't meet the qualifications for such a weapon. Despite seeming as if he might have had some experience with it, the instructor could only pity him.
"He's going to have it rough..."
He raised his arm up, the students getting in order.
"Single files according to the weapons you have chosen," briefly pausing to pointing at the highlighted boxes, he continued,"you'll be picking a book from the box before you, understand it, assimilate it and make it your own."
"My name is G'yonna your D&O instructor and now you may begin."
A hand shot up.
"You'll be aware of the new timetable at your own time."
The hand collapsed.
"It's a whole field in here."
"Your friend looks like a fool."
He was motioned to a batch of students in the sword queue that were mocking Gionne.
"If you want to, you could sort them out. Given that now you're sort of a whiz...", the apparition sighed, "... unbelievably so."
The apparition appeared right besides them, and with a glowing construct similar to the weapon that the giant held, swung at their heads lopping them off their bodies. The "victim's" heads along with the "murderer's" weapon fizzed into nothingness just before they hit the ground.
"Just my 2 cents."
...
Now his turn, he reached into the box, immediately feeling a sharp pain travel up his arm. He dropped the book back into the box, leaping back a bit. He rashly revealed his forearm, catching sight of something dark receding deeper into his sleeves.
That was somewhat a good reaction.
"You, take it."
He handed Park's book over to Gionne who stacked it atop his.
"Next."
"..."