If there was one thing every single living being in existence should know and come to terms with, is that life knew how to ruin one’s plans in the most baffling and shocking ways.
Who would have thought that Pellin would have a family, and this family arrived when he was torturing the head of the house.
It was something Simon never expected, and he could not be blamed. Pellin was a twisted demon who loved inflicting pain, why in the world would he have a family?
If Simon were to take just one positive from the sudden and shocking appearance of the family, it would be that the family appeared at a time was not the worst possible time.
They could have come at any other time, and they might have never arrived at all, making Simon to believe that Pellin was all alone.
But since they arrived, it was also a sort of relief because killing them meant killing the two main individuals who would want revenge and want to avenge Pellin’s death no matter what.
And then there was Pellin’s son.
Killing Pellin’s son did more to his heart and mind than he’d love to admit.
He was not going to lie or act like a saint and say that he had never killed children in his past life.
He had.
But that was accidentally and as a result from some of his battles which caused immense destruction to his surroundings, and all of these children he indirectly killed were demons.
In his past life, he always used the fact that he never directly killed children and that the children he indirectly killed were demons, to soothe his conscience.
Even though he hated demons, killing children was just something he could not do in his past life.
But now... He willingly killed a child, and he did that to cause more pain to somebody he hated.
A small part of his remaining human heart wanted to console his conscience that he only killed a demon child, not a human child.
And since it was Pellin’s son, there was a high possibility that Pellin would want to teach his son his sick ’craft.’
Which father does not instinctively want their son to follow in their footsteps?
This small part of Simon’s human heart tried to use this to console and soothe his conscience, but Simon knew that he could not lie and deceive himself.
He had killed a child who was not even up to six years old. Most likely a three or four year old child.
Sure, he made it painless and did not needlessly torture the child, he had still killed a child with his two hands.
And this was something he never expected to do even in this life.
He believed there were some lines he’d never cross. Some lines that should never be crossed, and killing a child was one of them.
But in the situation he was put in, he had no choice.
He couldn’t allow Pellin’s child to live, but another aspect that further darkened his heart and drowned his human heart was that even in that moment, even when he decided to kill the child, he wanted to benefit from it.
At the back of his mind, he still thought about what he could benefit from killing the child.
And the biggest benefit was making Pellin watch his son die before his very eyes.
He could have killed the son the moment he entered the house, just like what he did for the mother.
But he refused to do such a thing.
If he was going to cross a line he believed should not be crossed, then he had to at least gain some benefit from it.
And this benefit, was seeing Pellin in agony watching the death of his son.
’But rape... No... I must never rape. Even if there comes a situation where raping a female would save my life or grant me a power I need, I must never rape. I must never rape.’
’The world forced me to become a killer, but it can never force me to become a rapist. A rapist is somebody that deserves a thousand painful and slow deaths, and I must absolutely, never cross that line... No matter what.’
Simon knew that life loved teaching him things the hard way, especially his second life.
He had never been put into such a difficult situation in his past life, and he was not mentally prepared for such a thing.
But now... He knew that he had to set boundaries for himself in his heart, boundaries he must never cross.
He could kill when he needed to.
He could betray when he needed to.
He could torture when he needed to.
He could deceive and lie when he needed to.
He could manipulate when he needed to.
But he would never rape, even if he needed to.
That was one thing he would never do.
That was a line he would never cross.
" Sigh... I can’t believe spending just sixteen years in the demon realm has changed me so much to the point that my sixty plus year old self would never recognize and believe the current me."
"In a single night, I killed a child, then I killed a demon I could consider a friend. I stabbed him in the back all because of being cautious and fearful."
"These are things I wouldn’t even think of doing as the Halo of Earth, but now... My heart is calm and my mind is clear."
"My goal is to reach the peak of power, and my revenge is to live and make sure that those who betrayed me see me at the peak."
"They should experience the utter foolishness of the decisions they made, and see me at the top before I end their miserable lives."
"If I have to become a demon amongst demons, then so be it. A devil amongst demons, then so be it."
"If I have to stand on a mountain of corpses, then so be it. If I have to drench the earth, the demon realm, and the heavens in blood, then so be it. If I have to fill the seas and oceans down to its deepest depths with bones, then so be it."
"I would reach the peak of power so that none can even think of betraying me, so that all would tremble before me. And so that I can fulfill my revenge, so that they can see the foolishness of their decisions."
"Simon is dead. The Halo is the past. The Hero no longer exists."
"From now on, I am Blackmoon. I am... The Broken Halo."
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[END OF VOLUME 1- BIRTH OF THE BROKEN HALO]