"Abomination!"
"Devil, you are the devil?"
The men muttered as they pointed their swords toward Finn, who had just risen after being beheaded. Their voices trembled despite the weapons in their hands. Fingers tightened around hilts slick with sweat. Their feet shifted slightly, instinctively creating distance even as they threatened him.
Finn, however, stood frozen in awe.
His knees felt weak, not from injury, but from disbelief. He slowly lifted his hands, turning them over as if seeing them for the first time.
"What the… my hands are back, and my head is intact," Finn said, touching his face and body.
His fingers traced his jaw, his throat, the place where cold steel had passed through without mercy. His breath came unevenly as sensation confirmed what his eyes already saw. He wondered if everything he had experienced was real. The torture. The blood gushing out from his decapitated hands. The certainty that he had been beheaded. He had felt life leave his body.
He remembered that moment clearly. The sudden emptiness. The silence.
Yet here he stood.
"Wow, so I do have powers, yes. A fantasy is no fantasy without superpowers, but… what is it?" Finn said as his awe faded and curiosity took over.
The fear in the men's eyes only deepened as he spoke casually, like someone admiring a new toy rather than standing in the aftermath of death. He began talking to himself, completely ignoring the two men pointing swords at him.
"Is it regeneration, or was I reborn like a phoenix?"
His mind raced faster than his heartbeat. Every story he had ever read, every ridiculous trope he had mocked, suddenly felt dangerously real.
He finally turned his attention to them.
"Can you tell me how I came back to life? Did my body regenerate, or was I on fire and rose like a phoenix, huh?"
The men flinched as if his words alone could harm them.
"You abomination. You are the result of a cursed fruit. I must kill you instantly," one of them said as he slashed at Finn.
The sword whistled through the air.
Finn dodged the sword immediately. His body moved before his mind could catch up. One moment the blade was aimed at his neck, the next it cut through empty space.
It was so fast that even Finn himself was stunned.
"Whoa…"
His heart pounded as his feet shifted again, effortlessly, instinctively.
Dodge. Dodge.
Both men swung their swords at the same time. Steel flashed in the moonlight. The sound of blades cutting through air overlapped, sharp and violent. Yet Finn slipped between them, his body weaving through danger as if it had practiced this a thousand times.
Neither blade touched him.
"Super reflexes. That's cool," Finn said, realizing he was talking far more than usual.
The realization came with a strange mix of excitement and dread.
"I normally say things in my head, but now they're coming out. I think out loud now. Cool and weird."
His voice sounded too calm for what was happening.
"Tree parkour," he said as he dodged one sword and caused it to get stuck in a tree.
The blade sank deep into the trunk with a dull thud. The man holding it cursed, yanking uselessly as bark cracked around the metal. This was Finn's moment.
Time slowed. His breath steadied. His eyes locked onto the opening in front of him.
He saw an opening and threw a punch at the man's face. He clenched his fist and struck, but not the way he expected.
There was no resistance.
Mm
His hand came out the other side of the man's head. The world froze.
"Oh my god. Oh my god. Ohhhh my god. Shit, did my hand go through your head?" Finn said, breathing unevenly as he tried to process what had just happened.
Warmth coated his fingers. Something thick slid against his skin. The body in front of him went slack, yet remained standing, held up only by Finn's arm.
The other man didn't give him time to react.
He came forward, swinging his sword wildly, panic overriding technique, while Finn's hand was still stuck.
"Hey, don't come close to me. Don't you dare," Finn said.
His voice cracked, half warning, half plea. The man didn't listen.
Finn used the man whose head his hand was stuck in as a shield. The weight was awkward, unnatural. Every strike of the sword landed on the human shield, steel biting into flesh and bone. Each impact sent vibrations up Finn's arm, forcing him to grit his teeth.
The strikes came again and again until Finn finally found a way to pull his hand free.
"Huuu… that's a real brain."
The body collapsed at his feet.
Finn staggered back, staring at his hand. Blood dripped from his fingers, thick and dark. Bits of flesh clung to his skin.
He gagged, trying to control his urge to vomit as he stared at the brain matter on his bloody hand.
"Eww. No need for a brain anatomy lesson. I now know how it looks and feels," he muttered as he looked at the man in front of him.
He threw the brain aside, the motion clumsy and desperate. His chest rose and fell rapidly. A strange courage stirred inside him now, mixed with curiosity, and at the same time he was still shocked by what he had just done.
The last man stared at him in horror.
"You saw what I did to your accomplice. He is brainless now, gone. If you don't want to end up like him, leave. I will never tell anyone about what happened here tonight. You are with the Vincent guy, I won't report you. You go your way and I go my way," Finn said.
The words spilled out faster than he could think them through. Part of him still hoped this could end without more blood.
"You are the devil. You must be killed at all costs," the man replied, his sword ready to strike. The blade shook slightly.
"So you are determined to fight me? You saw me die and come back to life. You saw what I did to him, and yet you won't run," Finn said. He genuinely didn't understand it.
"I am no coward. I will fight to the death," the man said.
Judging by the way he spoke, by the way he held himself despite the terror in his eyes, he was likely a knight. If he were a noble, he would have probably shit his pants and run the moment he saw death itself standing in front of him.
Finn smirked slightly.
"Do you know one thing about the devil? The devil can't be killed," Finn said.
The man roared and charged. The final strike came fast but desperate.
The man foolishly attempted one final strike. Finn didn't even put in any effort. He stretched out his hand, and as the man rushed toward him, Finn's hand pierced straight through his chest.
Blood splattered across Finn's face, warm and sticky. The man's eyes widened in disbelief as his sword slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground. Finn pulled his hand back out, leaving the body to collapse lifelessly at his feet.
"Well, Mr. 'I am no coward,' looks like you've got a hole in your chest," Finn said.
Silence returned to the forest.He then looked around at his surroundings, taking in the scene before him. Two bodies lay broken on the forest floor. Blood soaked into the dirt. The campfire crackled softly, indifferent to everything that had just happened.
"Holy shit. I really am a devil. Well, you killed me and I killed you, so let's call that fair," Finn said as he gently stepped away, trying to find his way home.