I Reincarnated As A Stick

“Huh?” Naturally, the reason the town leader gave made the young boy even more confused than he already was, not knowing the town leader’s train of thought. In response, the town leader could not help but scratch his head as he said, “Once you get back to the information center, don’t tell them I told you this, okay?”

“A-alright…” Seeing that the town leader was going to make him privy to one of his secrets, the young boy swore to never ever tell the secret to another person. Nodding, the town leader then said, “I haven’t told anyone about this yet, but…I have the ability of divination. It’s the reason why our town is as prosperous as it is.”

“Is divination that ability where you could predict the future, leader?” the young boy asked, to which the town leader replied, “That exact ability.”

“So, you can actually see the future of our town, leader?” the young boy asked yet again, this time his expression was that of wonder. In response to the boy’s question, the town leader shook his head. “I can’t see the future of the town per se, but I can see the general things that are going to happen to the town in the future. Using your words, I can only predict the future, not know it.”

“How is your divination ability related to the situation with the reinforcements, leader?” the young boy asked yet one more time, but the town leader only smiled in response to his question. Naturally, the young boy was curious as to what the answer was, but seeing as the town leader only smiled at him, the young boy went silent as he wracked his brain to think up of a possible answer, eventually realizing what the town leader had done…he thought.

Unsure of his thought, he asked, “Did you use your divination ability over the remaining villages in our vicinity?” The town leader nodded in response.

“Did…you not see any incident of more villages being destroyed while using your divination ability?” he continued, to which the town leader replied, “I’ve got a feeling that person would only destroy a couple more, and that would be all.”

“So, other than those couple villages you’ve mentioned, the remaining villages would be left unharmed?” the young boy asked to clarify his doubts. In response, the town leader nodded in agreement. It was only then that the young boy finally understood why the villages wouldn’t need reinforcements…only to recall the couple of villages that would still be destroyed by the person according to their town leader’s divination.

“Wait…that doesn’t make sense. Leader, you told me that a couple more villages would be destroyed, yet you’re not sending reinforcements.” The more the young boy thought about it, the more peculiar it felt. Eventually, another thought formed in his mind, instantly returning his expression to that of panic as he asked the town leader, hoping it wasn’t true, “Did the town leader predict that the person would come to our Red Juniper Town.”

In response, the town leader only nodded slowly, his expression gradually turning grim. As for the young boy, he could not help but get down on his knees, losing grip over his sanity for a while before coming back to reality. After that, he made his way back to the door leading to the town leader’s room, asking before he left, “Should I also tell the other towns about it?”

“Go ahead,” the town leader said as he nodded.

With that, the young boy nodded in response to the town leader’s words before he took his leave, allowing the town leader to be alone once more. Though, rather than returning to read his book, he instead looked out the window behind his office table, letting out a sigh as he muttered, “There may be a chance that this town won’t exist in the morning.”

“I guess I should start enacting that plan, then.”

…

While that was happening in one of the nearby towns, Aurus had fully destroyed two more villages before the sun peeked out of the horizon. At the moment, his strength was far greater than what it had been the day before, his comprehension over the Epiphany now being at Level 30.

Standing on a road filled to the brim with shards of bones, Aurus soon infused his one of his hands with Wind energy particles, clenching it before punching out. In an instant, a large shockwave had appeared as a result of the punch, destroying half of the houses in the current village he was in before utilizing his teleportation skill to disappear from the place. Surprisingly, he didn’t bother destroying the remaining half of the village houses at all.

In any case, Aurus now had the confidence that he would be able to eradicate all of the beings in a town in one move if need be now that his comprehension was at Level 30. Sure, he could have headed to a town first before a village at his previous strength and there would be no problem for his survival. But to the mind of his primal instinct, doing such a thing would just alert larger and larger towns to help a town out and eventually, a reinforcement that had the ability to eradicate him would appear.

That was the reason why Aurus aimed for the villages first rather than heading straight into a town. He wanted to assure that he had a chance of survival against beings that had the ability to kill him in one hit.

Placing those thoughts at the back of his head, he eventually arrived at a nearby town, appearing in front of its entrance gates as he read the large sign on top of the gate.

“Red Juniper Town…” he muttered, his voice hoarse and grim unlike his previous. After that, he used his teleportation skill to dart around the hidden areas of town, deciding to take a safer approach for now since it seemed that the town he entered had not been alerted of his existence yet, unlike the previous villages he had destroyed.

With that, he lured most of his victims through the manipulation of Wind energy particles, using the same technique he used back then in Verdant Breeze Town wherein he used the wind to blow away an item or an important thing farther and farther away from the person that carried the item, eventually bringing them into an alleyway or a secluded corner of town.

Since it was daytime, he had to be more careful than ever before since he wasn’t being shrouded by the darkness of the night anymore. Not only that, but his body was covered in dried-up blood, which would definitely make anyone looking at him shiver in fear. Nevertheless, he was still successful in killing a few people using the technique, eventually instilling fear into all of the townspeople in Red Juniper Town within an hour or so.

To Aurus, it would be beneficial if he could kill all of the townspeople one by one since that would not alert any other towns of his existence, allowing him to do the same thing on other towns. Though, as if the heavens did not want that to happen, one of the town’s guards doing their usual patrol around town had come across Aurus decapitating an innocent person at the end of an alleyway. Without hesitation, he chased Aurus, only to fail as the latter teleported away to another part of town.

Surprisingly, even though the guard had not been able to capture Aurus, he was not dismayed. Instead, a layer of fear slightly covered his body as he grabbed a special device out of his pocket to contact someone, telling the person that was listening on the other side of the device, “The culprit the town leader has placed his eye on has finally arrived at our town.”

After a few seconds of silence, a voice resounded from the special device, telling the guard, “Alright, good work. You can head back to the manor now. Also, tell the other guards to make sure the townspeople are in their houses at all times. Make sure to tell the town leader what you saw.”

“I will,” the guard responded before placing the special device back into his pocket. After that, he used up all his strength to head back to the manor as fast as possible, making sure to use the communication device they had as guards to tell the other guards to alert the townspeople of what was about to happen.

…

As time passed, Aurus eventually noticed that the number of people he could lead into alleyways to kill them was gradually decreasing. By the time an hour or two had passed, no people were strolling through the streets anymore, as if someone or something had alerted all of the townspeople of his presence.

Fortunately for him, after waiting for a few more minutes, watching for people to kill along the wider streets of the town, a seemingly lost young man had finally appeared in front of him, with Aurus instantly eyeing him as prey.

Utilizing the same tactic as before, he was able to lead the young man to one of the alleyways, having great confidence that he would be able to kill the young man within one hit. Though surprisingly, just as he was about to swoop down and end the young man’s life with a simple slash to the neck, Aurus felt a presence standing behind his back, radiating an imposing aura befitting that of a leader.

Gradually looking behind him, the sight of a middle-aged man with an amicable smile soon appeared in front of his field of vision, with the middle-aged man even going so far as to tell Aurus, “Hello there.”

Bang!

Without hesitation, the middle-aged man threw a straight jab at Aurus’s face, not holding back on his strength whatsoever. Surprisingly, Aurus was sent flying by the attack, surprising the middle-aged man, as well as the great number that had accompanied the man as they surrounded Aurus. Naturally, the middle-aged man was the town leader, while the people that accompanied him were the town’s guards.

Since they were a prosperous town, they were able to invest a lot of resources into their guards, with all of them being peak level Rank 3 class holders. In fact, some of them had even broken through the barrier and reached the level of a Rank 4 class holder. As for the town leader, he was in a class of his own, being a Rank 5 class holder!

If one were to compare the various strengths of the town leaders in Maerr-viki Continent, then he would definitely be amongst one of the top, being only one step away from breaking through the so-called “Heavenly Barrier”.

Seeing that they had the advantage against Aurus since they caught him off guard, the town leader instantly dashed to where Aurus would land being going ahead and pummeling him down to the ground, slowly but surely making a crater in the process. Eventually, the town leader was finished with his barrage of attacks, allowing the town’s guards that came along with him to land their attacks on Aurus, deciding to release the rage they felt from what the villages had gone through in the form of these attacks.

Eventually, all of the guards had unleashed their attacks. With Aurus not moving whatsoever after all of those attacks, the guards, as well as the town leader, thought that the other towns would be safe from the problem that was this person in front of them. But, in a rather cliche turn of events, Aurus gradually stood up from the crater, moving as if he had not accrued any injuries from multiple attacks at all.

In an instant, the great confidence all of them amassed from seeing Aurus being beaten down was shattered with one move. Even the town leader was not exempt from this feeling, even going so far as to feel great horror while looking at the being in front of him covered up in dried blood.

After looking at each other in silence for a bit, the town leader eventually decided to ask Aurus, “Who…are you?”

In response, Aurus went silent as a blade of wind manifested around his right hand. Then, with a swift slash, the town leader was quickly decapitated as a hoarse yet grim voice resounded from him.

“You can call me…”

“The Great Calamity.”