*AAAAAAAARRRRGHH* *AAAAAAARGH!!* Shouted the king of monsters as the enormous amount of spiritual essence started to fight against his very existence as a being of corruption.
His body was completely engulfed by the white energy, which seeped into his lungs and stomach, and burned his skin.
Daniel immediately noticed the effect of the karmic retribution, and observed the spiritual essence devour the body of the King of Monsters.. But the more he watched, the more worried he became.
Despite the fact that the king was being severely injured, it appeared that he could actually survive the experience.
So, before the spiritual essence could dissipate in the air, Daniel, whose immortal essence was quickly regenerating, teleported behind the king and hugged him tightly.
He rapidly wrapped one of his arms around the king's chest, his legs around his waist, and finally, forced his mouth opened by pressing at the sides of his jaw with his hand.
Then, he pushed large amounts of immortal essence down his throat at the same speed it was regenerated.
*AAAAAARGHHH* Screamed the king in pain, as his eyes started to melt, his dark blood boiled under his skin, and his body was liquefied from inside.
After two full minutes of agonizing screams, Daniel fell on the ground right above the unrecognizable body of the deceased king. He quickly stood up, and noticed that his clothes were drenched with part of the king's liquefied remains.
Of course, everybody had noticed what had just happened.. But before the army of monsters could surrender, or explode in a murderous rage, two very familiar portals opened right above the ground.
From these two portals, the Third Spiritual Emissary, and the Herald of Corruption calmly came out.
Differently from the last time, the Spiritual Emissary wasn't annoyed, and instead, showed a derisory smile on his face which he directed at the Herals of Corruption.
On the other hand, the Herald of Corruption was still as calm as ever.
"Well, it appears that we have lost." Said the Herald of Corruption with a peaceful and casual tone.
The Spiritual Emissary smiled at him, and said "Spectacularly so, if I may add."
"Don't forget the manners, boy. A sore loser is as ugly as a petty winner.. This was just a game after all." Responded the Herald after narrowing his eyes slightly towards the Spiritual Emissary.
"Of course."
These last two phrases reached the ears of each and every monster, warrior, or cultivator in the wasteland world.. Which didn't take them kindly.
They had already learned that their lives meant nothing for these two individuals, but after fighting a war for them, hearing what kind of consideration the two had for their lives, hurt them deeply.
The same was for Daniel.
"Very well, the Domain of Corruption gives up on the possession of this little world.. If the champion of the Spiritual domain takes out from his little trinket this world's inhabitants, I'll get rid of the world's corruption and be on my way." Said the Herald of Corruption with the most amiable smile he could muster.
Daniel turned to look at the Spiritual Emissary, which appeared completely uninterested by the matter. He then watched at the faces of the tribal warriors and leaders, on which expressions of happiness were starting to appear.
They had long dreamed about this moment.. Despite not having the best chances, or any particularly high hope about winning this war.
Now that what they had always dreamt about was so close, they didn't dare question if anything bad could happen.
Daniel waved his hand, and teleported all of the inhabitants out of his pocket dimension, which once out, rapidly joined with their family members and friends that had fought in the war.
The Herald of Corruption smiled at the scene, and said "Such a sweet moment.." He then simply waved his hand.
In just a moment, the essence of corruption which polluted the world disappeared completely.
The sky went back to its original light blue color, the seas became clear and limpid, the grass turned back to a healthy green color..
But something else happened.
Every single monster, warrior, civilian, child, and old man.. Essentially each and every living being present in the world which contained the slightest bit of corruption.. Was turned to dust.
A collective senses of shock appeared on the faces of the couple dozen thousand people which Daniel had purified from corruption himself.
"But I like grief better.." Added the Herald of Corruption while keeping on smiling.
This last few word lit something inside Daniel's mind.
The very next instant, a sharp dagger appeared in Daniel's hand, which he pointed at his heart.. And pierced without the slightest bit of hesitation.
"DANIEL!!" Shouted Edmund before teleporting next to him, and grabbing his body as he fell weakly on the ground.
Everyone that belonged to Daniel's group approached him immediately, while the rest of the warriors, and leaders were still deeply caught by shock of seeing the majority of their race being exterminated from the face of the world.
The Herald of Corruption and the Spiritual Emissary looked curiously at Daniel, but the very next moment, they turned around, and walked back into their portals.
Daniel's organs were strong, which caused the deadly injury to take a few seconds to actually kill him. Due to this, he was able to witness the reaction of the two emissaries to his actions.
Inside him, he felt a deep hate grow faster than the feeling of impending death.
Second after second, time kept going until finally, it started to rewind.
Tears started to stream back in to the eyes of the crying warriors, the grieving faces of Edmund, Emelnie, Jerigh, Roley, and the rest of his group members went back to worry, as Daniel's slow breath went in reverse..
His eyes were directed at a particular point in space, in which two large portals suddenly reappeared, and form which the two emissaries came out walking backwards.
The looks of contempt, the herald's vicious words, the indifferent expression on the face of the emissary.. Daniel witnessed them all once again.
Even the scene in which he fearlessly thrusted a knife through his own heart, followed by its disappearance from his hand.
What hurt him the most, was seeing the shocked faces of the warrior as they turned back into expressions of joy.. A joy that accompanied the view of millions of small clouds of dust that condensed in just as many points in the area, and recreated the deceased population of the wasteland world..
"..tnemom teews a hcuS" Once again, Daniel listened to the words of the Herald, which only made his hate grow bigger.
A couple of seconds later, the millions of people disappeared back into Daniel's ring. Leaving only the powerful warriors, tribe leaders, cultivators, and monsters outside.
".. If the champ-wha.. It happened again." Said the Herald of Corruption in confusion. He then turned to look at the just as surprised Spiritual Emissary, and said "This is the third time."
The Spiritual Emissary shrugged his shoulders in with indifference, and said "There is no point in thinking about it. Time has been behaving oddly for the past few years.. That's just how it is. Now, do what you have to do so we can go back."
"Are you discarding free information?" Asked the Herald of Corruption with derision.
"What information?"
The Herald showed a nasty smirk, then said "The first time it happened, it was four seconds.. The second time, it was eighty.. The experts of your lord haven't predicted that the next one was supposed to be over fifty minutes long?.. Whatever is causing this, it hasn't worsened."
Visibly irritated by his lack of attentiveness, the Spiritual Emissary rolled his eyes towards the grey sky, and said "Who cares.. It's just a bad feeling every now and then, it's not that big of a problem.
The two of them had both felt the rewinding of time, just like they had felt it twice in the past five years. Luckily for Daniel, even they could not understand where it came from.
Following the emissary's suggestion, the herald put the matter aside, and after turning to Daniel, he said "Kid, take rest of the inhabitants out, so that I can get rid of the corruption."
"There is no need." Responded Daniel right away "I'll purify them myself."
Everybody turned to look at Daniel in confusion. It clearly seemed that he didn't trust the herald's words.
The expression of the face of the Herald of Corruption became stern. With a deafening voice, he said "I don't like to repe-" Instead of finished his sentence, the herald closed his mouth out of the blue, and together with the Spiritual emissary dropped on his knees.
Before anyone could notice it, an old man had appeared between the two of them.
This old man was quite fat, detail which caused his tightly fitting clothes to struggle slightly around his body. He had a chubby and amiable face, on which a peaceful look could be seen. He had a full head of white hair, and stubble of white beard.
"We humbly greet the Judge." Said both the herald and the emissary in unison.
This peaceful-looking old man sniffed the hair a bit, then he started to move in Daniel's direction.
After reached a distance of a couple meters from him, he sniffed the air again, and said "Say kid, why do you smell a bit like a Spatial Parasite?.."
"I'm afraid I am not sure what you mean, sir." Responded Daniel with respect and confusion.
"You know.. Tentacles, mountain-sized.. Slimy.. They come out of large spatial rifts."
"Oh. I think that one of those rifts appeared in my word of origin.. It caused the world essences to stop, and from it, vine-like tentacles came out." Said Daniel, remembering his encounter with Dorgeo, and the monster that had pulled him into the large rift.
The old man took out a pen and a small parchment from one of his pockets, then, he wrote a few words on it.
He then turned towards the still kneeling emissaries, and said "Okay, what is going on here?"
The first to talk, was the Spiritual Emissary, which said "Just a regular competition for the control over this world, which has already ended in favor of my lord, the Spiritual Emperor."
The old man turned to look at the Herald of Corruption, which immediately said "The words of the Third Spiritual Emissary are correct. We will leave right after I keep my word as the losing party, and rid this world of corruption." He then snapped his fingers, and made the corruption within the world disappear once again.
The only difference, was that this time, he hadn't killed the corrupted warriors and monsters, and instead, had simply purified them. The only one which hadn't been purified, was the last of the ten commanders, which instead was forced into a portal, similar to the one the herald used to travel.
After the herald finished, the old man turned to look at the two emissaries, and said "Is your business finished here?"
"Yes Judge" Responded the two in unison.
"One moment!" Said Daniel from behind the three.
The judge turned to look at Daniel without the slightest bit of irritation, and said "What is it young man?"
"There are millions of people which still require the herald's help to be purified. Can he finish the job, so that they can peacefully live in the world free of corruption?"
The moment these words came out of Daniel's mouth, extreme worry appeared on the face of the Herald of Corruption. Internally, he was hating Daniel like he had never hated anybody else before in his long, long life.
It seemed like the herald was about to say something, but before he could, Daniel added "Also, I still haven't received the promised reward for fighting as a champion for the Spiritual Emperor.
The color drained from the face of the Spiritual emissary, as he looked at Daniel with deep shock.
For the first time, the amiable and peaceful face of the old man turned cold, as he turned to look at the two of them, and sasaid "You've lied to me.."
Naturally, the old man's apparition wasn't a coincidence, but an event caused by the double use of Karmic Retribution directed at both of the two emissaries.