Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"Hm...? What the...? Where am I?" Muttered Raven groggily, his eyelids slowly fluttering open as a light breeze blew across, the sound of birds chirping and leaves rustling echoing out around him.

He let out a slight groan and squinted as rays of sunshine hit his eyes, before sitting up and looking around in bewilderment. Greenery surrounded him as far as the eye could see, with a lake in front of him.

A sense of confusion and bewilderment came over the young man as he looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings he found himself in, his confusion then confounded as he noticed that his senses were strangely sharp, much more so than usual.

His eyesight was a lot more clear and he felt like he could see much farther away than usual, he could hear every small sound in his vicinity, and he was picking up dozens of various scents that he couldn't recognize or identity.

He then let out a slight cough, clearing his throat as he noticed that his mouth was dry, turning his attention to the lake before crawling towards the edge of the body of water and thirtily leaning over to take a drink.

"Huh? What the hell!?" He yelled in alarm, hurriedly backing away from the water as he caught sight of a Monster looking back at him, before freezing as he raised his arm up in front of himself instinctively.

It was an unfamiliar sight, a monstrous arm covered in jet black scales with a streaky pattern of purple scales across it. It took him a moment to come to the realization that the Monster he'd seen in the lake...was his own reflection.

A brief moment of added confusion came over him, before all the memories came flooding back, his eyes widening as a swell of various emotions bubbled up inside him, before an immense, burning rage took over.

However, his memories of what had happened only went up to when he effectively died while in the pit of Monster corpses, he didn't remember anything that happened after that. In other words, he had no idea that he'd destroyed the church and killed nearly every single person in it, including Priest Dietre Opal.

"Those...those bastards! Wh-what the hell have they done to me!?" He exclaimed furiously as he approached the lake to get another look at his reflection, his chest tightening at the sight that met him, as he clenched his fists and snapped, "I-I'll...I'll kill them. I'll kill every last one of them!"

He then stiffened as an important thought crossed his mind, his anger and resentment momentarily fading as a sense of worry and immense concern clenched his heart.

His sister, Ravella...what had happened to her? Where was she? What did they do to her? Did they turn her into a Monster too?

He clutched his chest as countless questions and scenarios played out in his head, his breathing slowly but surely growing ragged and panicked, before he gritted his teeth and shook his head, taking in a deep breath and slowly exhaling to compose himself.

"Calm down, j-just...just calm down. It's...it's okay, it's going to be okay. I-I just...I just need to calm down and think," He muttered to himself, continuing to take in deep breaths.

Having somewhat composed himself, he began walking over to the lake, kneeling down by the edge and splashing water onto his face, before gathering water in his palms and gulping it down, quenching his thirst.

He clenched his fists as he caught another glimpse of his reflection, before biting his lip to keep himself from getting agitated again.

Over the years, he'd gotten into the habit of thinking with a responsible and logical mindset. Rather, he was left with no choice but to do so, in order to keep his more impulsive and short-sighted sister from going too far off the rails with her whims.

That experience was in no small way making a difference in helping him stay calm right now...despite the mess of volatile emotions churning in him, he was keenly aware that letting his anger drive him would be foolish, so he did his best to swallow his emotions and assess the situation with a calm, collected head.

"Okay, think back...that nun came to get us, we arrived at the church and then those men in the hooded cloaks knocked us out. After that, I woke up in that pit filled with dead Monsters, there was something lodged in my chest, a collar around my neck and chains wrapped around my body. Yeah, and then someone then stabbed me in the stomach, another man wearing a hooded cloak...wait, what happened after that? I...I remember being in a lot of pain.

That Priest from our appraisal was there too, it looked like he was in charge. I remember him saying something, what was it...? Something about a...Homunculus Ritual, I think he called it? Okay, that must be what they put me through. What else did he say? I feel like there was something else important-...wait, that's right, he said something about Royal blood, and then something about it being tainted with Commoner blood. Does that mean that I have Royal blood in me? Come to think of it, mom never did say anything about who our father was before she died.

No, don't get off topic, I'll think about that later...what happened after that? I...I don't remember. I feel like everything went dark at some point, but I'm not sure. Seriously, how did I end up out here? Wherever here is. Yeah, I have no idea where I am.

But I doubt I'm all that far away from Ruby Village, so...I'm probably in either Pearl Forest or Kyanite Grove. If it's the latter, then this lake might be Kyanite Lake...no, I think it's too small. I can't be sure either way, but I'm most likely in Pearl Forest. In which case, I need to head northwest to get back to Ruby Village...and I have no idea which direction that's in. Which means...I'm lost," Sighed Raven, flopping onto the grass in frustration.

He then turned his gaze left as the rustling of leaves echoed out, his eyes widening in alarm as he quickly scrambled back onto his feet, a threatening growl echoing out as a large, looming figure emerged from the trees, eyeing him ravenously.

It was a Monster called a Death Grizzly, a large bear-like creature. Monsters are classified by Threat Level; Low, Mid, High and Critical. This particular Monster was classified as a Mid Level Threat, not weak but not all that dangerous either.

However, the Threat Levels are a reference for the Knights, even Low Level Monsters are dangerous to ordinary civilians. And Raven, despite his new power, had never encountered a wild Monster before, a creature that was very undoubtedly here to kill him. So, understandably, he was afraid, and the Monster could sense his fear.

As he took a nervous step back, the Monster let out a roar and charged at him, the ground shaking under its heavy footsteps as it barreled towards him, leaping forward with a ravenous snarl as it closed in on him.

Thanks to his improved vision, Raven was easily able to duck under the swing of the Monster's claws, though he didn't realize it in his fear, before he clenched his fist and swung it out in desperation with all his strength, slamming it against the Death Grizzly's stomach...and bursting right through, the Monster letting out a deafening roar of pain as Raven stared in disbelief at the sight of his fist lodged inside the creature's body.

He then pulled his arm back out and shakily backed away, as the Monster stumbled back with an agonized snarl, blood pouring out of its mouth as it clawed at the hole in its stomach, before shakily falling over with a thud, bleeding out profusely.

Its blood formed a puddle on the ground, slowly seeping into the dirt and grass as the large creature's breathing began to slow down bit by bit...

"W-woah, uh...pretty sure I couldn't do that before," Muttered Raven, before shaking his arm to try and get the blood off his hand, taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling as the Monster succumbed to the blood loss and died, "Okay...whatever they did to me, it looks like it made me pretty strong. I need to get back to the village and get some answers from the church...most importantly, where they took Ravella. I may not know where I am, but I should be able to find my way back."

He began pacing around while mulling things over, stretching his arms up before noticing for the first time that he had a pair of wings on his back.

He tensed his shoulder blades, the wings spreading out before he tentatively and clumsily flapped them, getting lifted up off the ground before quickly stopping, figuring that it probably wouldn't be the best idea to fly too high when he's never done so before.

Having calmed down and experienced the new sensation of possessing wings, he then began noticing other unfamiliar feelings in his new body, as well as a sense of intricate, complex control over his body that he didn't have before.

He then closed his eyes and focused on that sensation, carefully experimenting with it...after a few minutes, he noticed that he was able to control the sensitivity of his senses. He was able to dull his sense of hearing and smell, both of which had been overwhelming him and making it hard to focus properly.

"Okay, that's good...I felt like I was getting a headache," He sighed quietly, feeling much calmer without the excessive noise and stifling number of scents overloading his senses.

He continued analyzing the new sensation in his body, they felt strangely natural to him despite being so unfamiliar, as if they'd always been a part of him.

After a few more minutes, he figured out how to produce flames in my mouth, lightning around his body and beams from his eyes...which resulting in accidentally setting a few bushes on fire, forcing him to scramble to extinguish the flames before the entire area was set ablaze.

With that taken care of, he then focused on a strange sensation he could feel all over the surface of his body, concentrating on it...his eyes then widened in surprise as channeled his energy through that sensation, the scales on his left arm receding, his normal human arm coming into sight.

Feeling galvanized by this particular discovery, he then moved towards the lake, staring at his reflection as he began trying to recede the scales on his face, a glimmer appearing in his eyes as the scales over the left side of his face disappeared, his left cheek growing back and most of his teeth turning white and retuning to normal.

Suddenly, as he relaxed and lost focus, the scales reappeared, his face going back to its monstrous form, as he let out a frustrated groan.

"No, stay calm...it's okay. This is good, I can control my outward appearance, I'm not stuck looking like this. It's a bit tricky, but I think I should be able to get the hang of it with some work. And then there's all these other new abilities, and maybe more than I haven't yet noticed, I should figure out how to use these new powers properly before going back to the village.

Yeah, those bastards at the church, they turned me into this Monster...I'll make sure they regret it. I'll use these powers they forced onto me to kill every last one of them. Just hold on a little longer, Ravella...I'm coming for you, sis, I promise. And I'll make them pay, every last one of them will die for what they did to us," He growled with a sense of determination, clenching his fists seethingly, completely ignorant of the fact that he'd already accomplished about half of his new goal...

...

...

The following night, back in Ruby Village in the site where the church used to be, now completely burned down to the ground, a group of five people were roaming through the ashen wreckage, surveying the area in fascination.

"Ugh, everything's so sooty, I just got this outfit too, it's going to get ruined."

"Yeah, I don't think we're going to find anything here. Everything's been burned to ash, and that aside, the Knights already searched the place this afternoon. And the Inquisitors probably did a sweep of it last night too. So if there was anything left worth finding, they probably already found it."

"Keep your voices down, and don't forget to keep an eye out for the Knights or Inquisitors. If we're spotted, we'll definitely be attacked, and that'd be a serious pain to deal with."

"I wonder who or what could have done this? Whatever it was, it was clearly too powerful for the Inquisitors to handle."

"Eh, I don't think that's saying much. The stronger individuals usually opt to join the Knights over the Inquisitors, since there's a lot more fame and glory to be had in the former, while the latter tends to involve more covert, secretive work...most Inquisitors are just Nobles who weren't strong enough to join the Knights."

"Yeah, true."

"I went around the village and talked to a bunch of people this afternoon, and I came across a few who'd witnessed the church burning down last night. They said they saw an ominous figure flying out of the church and heading in the direction of Pearl Forest while the church was burning down. They described it as a humanoid figure with wings, horns and a tail, but it was too dark to get a clearer look at it."

"Okay, so it must have been some kind of Monster, right? Maybe an Aeroraptor? It's not humanoid, but it's the only flying Monster I can think of that's more or less human-sized."

"No, Aeroraptors can't produce flames. Speaking of which, the witnesses I spoke to said that the flames were purple in color."

"Purple flames? I've never even heard of that, let alone know of any Monster that can produce such a thing."

"Maybe it's a Monster that was, like, experimented on or something?"

"I guess that's possible..."

"Hm, I have to say, this is pretty intriguing...an unknown, powerful Monster, huh? I say we head to Pearl Forest and go check it out. Our hideout is located in that forest, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to search the rest of the forest bit by bit."

"Seems risky, but you know what, this has really piqued my interest too. So I say we go for it and find out what this thing is."

"Ugh, could we not? Pearl Forest is massive, not to mention full of dangerous Monsters. And this particular one is probably especially dangerous, at least a High Level Threat, if I had to guess."

"Hey, we've taken down Critical Level Threats, you know. Sure, they're super powerful, but so are we."

"Alright, looks like it's settled, then. We're going to go out on a Monster hunt."