The twin thrusters of the four wheeled vehicle, the Night-stalker roared, the sound swallowed quickly by the dense, obsidian-barked trees of the forest.
The night-stalkers were special vehicles designed after the fall of the eclipse, for travelling in the dark nights within the eclipse beast dense world. The car was a sleek, armored beast of black poly-steel and sharp angles that looked like it had escaped the Dark Knight’s blueprint, powered by the world stone’s energy fuel.
The driver hunched over the controls, his gloved hands gripping a wheel studded with jagged, cursed silver, as the car tore through the underbrush.
Moonlight, weak and sickly-green in this part of the realm, glinted off the car’s canopy as it fishtailed around a massive, petrified root.
"Come on, you useless piece of junk." He muttered, pushing the vehicle harder. The pursuers were close. Too close.
Suddenly the roar of the car was dwarfed by a sound like a mountain collapsing. An impossibly dark silhouette plummeted from the sky directly ahead.
He slammed on the brakes hard. The night-stalker dug its reinforced claws into the forest floor, skidding sideways as a cloud of pulverized earth, crushed rock, and stinging, acrid dust erupted where the figure landed.
The vehicle shuddered to a halt mere feet from the swirling vortex of grit. The man inside squinted through the dust-streaked canopy, his heart hammering against his ribs.
Then, a figure began to emerge from the settling cloud. It was tall, draped in tattered. Shadow-woven armor. A featureless, midnight-black mask covered its face, two pinpricks of icy-blue light burning through the eye-holes.
It moved with a slow, predatory grace that spoke of impossible strength. In its hand, it held a weapon of pure void: a black dagger. Its edge seeming to drink the light of the moon.
The driver barely had time to tense, his hand snatching for the gear to pull it back for reverse.
The masked enemy didn’t run or leap. He simply shifted. In a flash, he was pressed against the armored side of the night-stalker. Without hesitation, the dagger rose and descended.
SCREECHHH!!
A horrifying, shearing screech of metal being cleaved accompanied the action as the black blade slid through poly-steel shell as if it were wet paper, carving a clean, vertical line from the roof down to the ground plating.
The night-stalker was cut perfectly in half, its sophisticated systems screaming and dying with a final shower of sparks.
The two halves of the car settled, leaning away from the cut. Before the driver could move a muscle, the enemy was inside the cockpit, straddling the driver’s seat. The cold tip of the dagger was pressed firmly against the exposed skin of the man’s neck, the pressure just enough to make a pinprick of crimson well up.
The enemy didn’t speak, he didn’t need to. The silence, broken only by a hiss of cooling metal, was a promise of death. The two icy blue lights of the mask stared into the man’s wide, terrified eyes.
"Y-You traitor! You fuckers of the cinder cult, betraying your own races to bootlick the beasts. You all will face the heaven’s wrath!" the man screamed, cursing at the masked man unhesitant, even with the dagger at his neck.
"Heaven? Gods? You believe in all this shit?" A cold, hoarse voice escaped from the masked man.
"Where were they when we needed them the most? Where were all the races when we were groveling for a piece of bread to live?"
"Let me tell you. They sat in their lavish gold thrones, reveling at the finest wine and food. Tucked under their warm blankets when we froze in the harsh winters."
"This heaven, this god of yours, and all the races, they don’t have the right to judge us. We’re not betraying them. It’s retribution you fucker."
The man’s face went pale. He opened his mouth to retort, but no words came out to counter him. the masked man couldn’t be reasoned with, he couldn’t be bribed or exploited in the name of justice, he was an embodiment of hatred, with only a single aim, destruction of the world that abandoned him.
"Go to that God you love so much then."
SHING!!
The dagger slashed forward as blood splashed, sizzling on the hot metal of the engine. His eyes opened wide, blood poured out of his mouth, gurgling sounds came as he choked on his own blood.
After a few seconds of struggle, his body went limp. His static eyes staring at the crescent moon above.
He wiped the blade on the sleeve of the man’s limp body and put it back inside his dimensional ring.
Just then, a small round coin like chip inside his long coat started flickering bright red. He pulled it out and stuck it on his earlobe. It was the transponder chip.
"Did you get him Shade?" The man from the other end asked.
"He’s gone to meet his God."
"Alright. Clean up the scene and come back. we’re almost done here."
"Understood." He pressed the small flickering button and removed the transponder.
The small stone on the dimensional ring flashed as a small vial filled with shimmering black liquid appeared in his hand.
He removed the cap when the liquid started floating out and formed a sphere, suspended in front of him. Murmurs of a chant escaped his mouth when the liquid sphere caught fire. The liquid slowly changed its state into dark black flame.
He waved his hand forward. The black fire then darted towards the body lying below. Just when the fire touched the body, it became frantic, voraciously devouring everything it touched.
Within a blink of an eye, it spread from the body to the night-crawler. Slowly, the body, the vehicle, not a trace was left. The earth below charred black, leaving not a single blade of grass before the fire extinguished.
Ensuring everything was taken care of, Shade turned back, as he started walking forward, a shimmering aura began to emanate from his form. His figure started turning into smoke. With each step more of his essence converted into smoke, until a faint, human like silhouette remained.
With one final, almost imperceptible breath of wind, the last vestige of smoke diffused into the darkness, leaving nothing behind except only the unsettling quite of the empty forest.