Chapter 4: The Fallen Heroine.
Valley Ridge, Observation Peak.
...
On a rocky mountainside, Eristia watched over the mountain roads in the distance with her telescope. It had been two days since they followed the trail of the Silver-Blue Knight and the human refugees. She mused to herself at the skill that they avoided the patrols despite the heavy presence of her detachment all across the North-Western Region of Lescatie.
The last report she had received was when scouts from a nearby detachment saw a single wagon full of humans taking an alternate path to Valley Ridge. One of them had reported a knight garbed in silver and blue among the refugees. There was no doubt that it was him.
"So... do you know when they are coming?" Eristia asked a harpy as she landed nearby her side.
"They have just arrived." The Harpy quickly replied.
"Ah, so they've taken the hard way."
She replied as she caught sight of a wagon in the distance through her telescope and then she saw him, the Silver-Blue Knight was rumoured to strike fear into the hearts of the mamono.
"The paths of the mountains are treacherous but I applaud their bravery."
Then again, it was not enough to escape her; she mused to herself with a sinister smirk before looking back to a group of Hellhounds. "Linda, scour the paths and follow their trail while we are going to give them a surprise."
"What about the harpies, ma'am?" Then Linda asked curiously. "We might need an extra hand, you know?"
"The Valley is notoriously foggy," Yuriy replied. "The Harpies would risk crashing into something."
Eristia then looked back to the Valley through her telescope once more and saw the carriage within a distance disappear under the foggy clouds of the mountainous region. She smiled wickedly, thinking to themselves that they could not escape their clutches and could not wait to crush their hopes for freedom.
"There is no way for you to get away, Silver-Blue Knight~!"
...
Lescatie North-Western Region, Valley Ridge.
...
Valley Ridge is the most treacherous route within the North-Western Region of Lescatie. Many stories spoke of desperate merchants and travellers who came to this route and had lost their wagons full of valuables and riches that fell from the cliffs to the canyon below. Unlucky accidents occurred often due to landslides, bandits, and driving rainstorms. Then, of course, this place is extremely foggy which limits travellers' vision and blinded them to the dangers of the path.
However, this was the only alternative road heading towards Gaul as the other roads they would have originally taken are blocked by more mamono outposts and a lot of patrols that were guarding the major roads out of the kingdom. Ash wouldn't risk going there as they would likely get detected and Sasha and the kids may very well have ended up captured, thus he took the difficult way.
Sasha sat nervously while trembling once she saw a few pebbles roll down the mountain in front of them. Thus, the massive fast-moving boulders caused the ground to tremble before they rolled down the mountain towards the cliffs and disappeared into the mist, swiftly followed by the smaller rocks. It was indeed a hazardous place where many people who had tried to cross here died.
'Oh, please grant us your mercy, Chief God!' Her mind gave out a prayer for their luck.
She heard this route was meant to be a safe passageway for Lescatie's refugees to escape the doomed Kingdom! The warrior nun wondered what the monarch of Lescatie, King Castor, was even thinking about risking his own people's lives by going through here?! In the meantime, Ash carefully steered the horses to take sharp turns and took caution when looking for paths.
While roads in the mountains were indeed dangerous, there is a high probability that some parts of the roadsides would collapse and lead to their deaths, some parts would not. Just then, he caught a glimpse of cracks on the path before pulling the leash to stop the horses just as a huge chunk of the road crumbled away. Fortunately, it didn't collapse entirely, but only half of the road was left.
"M-Miss Fullmoon, I'm scared." Squeaked a young Bear Mamono in tears while looking over the edge of the cliffs.
"There's no need to be afraid." Sasha hushed while carrying the young monster in her arms. "It will be alright, Mr Cyrus knows what he's doing."
Once again, the carriage took another sharp turn to the left. Ash cursed when he saw a dilapidated wooden bridge. Most of it was worn down and looked prone to collapse at any moment. The Knight tightened the leash and led the horses to carefully cross over to the other side. As the horse stepped in, sounds of creaks and wooden groans filled the tense atmosphere.
Sasha closed her eyes and prayed to the Chief God, along with the children. When the carriage was halfway through, he heard a loud snap and glanced back. A section of the bridge was beginning to collapse. The children screamed and Ash cracked the horses' Raines frantically. The horses set off at a gallop, neighing in fear, knowing doom was upon them, so they gave it their all until they reached the other side before the entire bridge collapsed into rubble.
"That was close." Ash muffled under his helmet before glancing back at the group. "Are you alright?"
"Are we... Are we dead?" The nun said slowly, opening her eyes and looking around in confusion.
"Sounds like you're alright." Ash then turned around and steered the trembling horses to the near end of the valley.
"H-Hey Mr Cyrus, can we do that again?" spoke a young girl while raising her hand.
"Yeah! That was awesome, Mr Cyrus!" replied a boy who jumped up with excitement.
"Henry! Jemma! How can you say that?!" Sasha suddenly raised her voice, scolding the two. "Don't you know how extremely dangerous that was?!"
The knight just shrugged as Sasha continued to lecture the two children behind him after they'd said such a statement, which made Sasha very disappointed in them. But they're just children and they're still too young to understand how dangerous the world can be. Ash simply tilted his head sideways in annoyance before he felt something odd as if someone was watching them.
'It feels we're being watched.' The Ashen One thought as he glanced upwards, and he swore he glimpsed two silhouettes moving through the mountain cliffs, but just as he was about to get a proper look at them, the fog descended and they disappeared.
'... I don't like this...' he muttered to himself. 'They're already here.'
….
Once they reached the end of the valley, he stopped the wagon and saw two individuals standing right in front of them. The two individuals were blocking their path, making their intentions clear. Ash let out a frustrated sigh and cursed himself; he hated situations like this.
One of the two individuals barring their path was an orange-haired succubus. The other was a male with grey hair and red eyes. Those red eyes on the young man showed that he was an Incubus, and both of them were holding swords. Ash had a gut feeling that they wanted something from him, and he had a good idea of what that was. Slowly he reached for the hilt of his Broadsword not taking his eyes off away from the two monsters.
"Finally! We've finally found you~!" The Succubus spoke in a sultry voice before making a polite bow toward him. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Silver-Blue Knight."
"I demand who you two are," Ash spoke stoically. "Before I can cut you down where you stand."
"My goodness~! Such hostility. I am Eristia Vitral and this is Yuriy Karelstein, my assistant and also, my dear husband." She politely introduced herself and her partner. "We came here under the orders of the Fourth Born to search for the rumoured Knight. And you fit the description."
Her partner did not speak a word but gripped his sword. While the Ashen One was cautiously staring at them. He as well never let go from the hilt of his broadsword. Sasha was stricken with anxiety at seeing one of the fallen Heroes of Lescatie, who was supposedly missing, had come to search for them. Eristia glanced over to Sasha, who peeked behind the wagon driver's seat before licking her lips seductively.
"My~ My~! Sasha Fullmoon. What a surprise to see you~!" the orange-haired succubus smirked as her tone mocked the priestess. "A former heroine-turned-traitor and now what I see here she's willingly escaping the country? How awful for you after what you've done to the entire Kingdom~?"
"What does she have to do with this?" Ash stoically asked in a cold voice, all the while glaring at them.
"Oh, my, still feisty, are you?... Do you want to know why you want to hear more of that little nun's secret?" Ash turned to glance at Sasha. He caught the warrior nun is hyperventilating, with beads of sweat rolling down her face, gripping her staff tightly knowing that her actual secret was about to be revealed. "She sold the entire nation to us. She was sending us information about their military movements and their weaknesses, and it is the reason we have a successful invasion. That, my dear Knight, is you're carrying a traitor through the borders."
Ash steered silently towards Sasha for a moment while she hung her head down in shame after the corrupt heroine revealed the truth of her most guarded secret. The Ashen One doubted it at first before seeing the truth in her eyes; the emotions on the nun's face did not lie, only it, he knew. So does that mean she's the reason how Lescatie fell was because of her?
"What a shame. After all, you did everything for the Fourth Born... until you stepped back... like a coward." Eristia mocked the warrior nun. Ash then heard distant howls that sounded like wolves coming from behind. Turning his head behind him and spotted a group of Hellhounds from afar that were scouring the mountainous paths, he cursed to himself before turning back to the couple, blocking their way. "I've heard from Druella that your wish is the coexistence between the Monsters and Humanity. Then look how much we've achieved and is that not what you want?"
"N-No! That's not what I wanted! A-After you turn those citizens into monsters with demonic energy, that's no coexistence at all!" The Warrior Nun cried until a sob broke out from her lips as she slowly turned to Ash with a pleading look. "Mr Cyrus... please forgive me... I... I-"
"...We'll talk later after I sort this out... take the leash," Ash said, cutting her off as he stood up from the couch seat and handed the leash over to the Nun before she tried to protest.
"B-But-"
"I promise. I will come back and when I do... you will tell me everything." Ash spoke in a bitter tone before jumping off from the carriage. "Leave now, while I hold them off."
Sasha looked to the Knight, much to her surprise at his reply. Despite the secrets that have been told, and Ash knew that this is an obvious trap. A typical distraction to prevent them from escaping. Once the Knight drew his broadsword and his crest shield, she wiped her tears away and nodded to him before cracking the leash, and the horses ran for their escape.
"Stop them!" Shouted the orange-haired succubus, pointing at the wagon.
The Hellhounds heard Eristia's orders and focused their attention on the carriage that was about to escape their grasp. When the first three hellhounds passed through the knight. Ash quickly drew three throwing knives. All of them crashed to the ground: two died immediately and one screamed in pain with a knife lodged in the monster's spine.
Eristia felt a single pulse of fear shoot through her spine. The human-turned-succubus normally forgets those feelings of fear after monsterization, but yet it happened and saw how he took down three Hellhounds with a precise throw of his knives without hesitation. The remaining Hellhounds gained their attention to the Knight, and they encircled him while prowling, but Ash remained stoic behind his helmet.
"How brave of you, saving their lives and that traitor," Eristia then spoke with a prideful smirk but with a hint of fear in her voice while unsheathing Darkleim. "Are you not angry for what she has done?"
"Well... not quite. But somehow I noticed that there must be a justification, and I still need an explanation from her once this is over." Ash took a defensive stance. Then replying coldly. "But enough talk. Your business is with me, and I knew your leader wants me. If you want to get them, then you have to get through me first."
Eristia raised her right eyebrow in curiosity. An ordinary human would normally be awed and hesitated by the sight of a succubus due to their unbearable attractiveness that even veteran heroes and the most experienced warriors would fall to their charms. But this man does not react like the soldiers of Lescatie during the siege and still gripping his sword firmly.
"Very well, then... pound him to the ground."
The Hellhounds heard her orders and leapt towards Ash. Just before their paws would touch him, he immediately ducked and rolled sideways before he stood up quickly while raising his shield up. One hellhound recovered from her confusion and attempted to pounce on him again, only to receive a blade through her neck.
The hellhound's head was cut off with an upward swing, her body falling to the ground, dead. The Mamono hesitated at the swiftness of their comrade's death and the Knight took a step forward while Hellhounds tensed before another three of the monsters found their courage and leapt at the knight, who responded by cleaving one in half. He then twirled his blade to meet another Hellhound coming from the right and cut her from shoulder to waist.
The last monster tried to come from behind but Ash turned on his heel raising his shield to block the mamonos attack. Linda mentally cursed while trying an attempt to pin down the knight as she landed her feet on his shield while Ash stood firmly on his feet. Keeping his balance and his stance until the monster left an opening he could exploit.
Fast as a viper, the knight slammed the blade into Linda's throat.
The mamono made a blood-gurgling noise before the knight pushed her to the ground. Ash twisted his blade to finish the job and turned around to see Eristia and Yuriy taking up fighting stances. The former heroine scowled while gripping her sword tightly as her hands shook and Yuriy swore to himself quietly.
The former squire of Lescatie couldn't get it. Ever since he was turned into an Incubus, their feelings of fear and worry were instantly gone after monsterization. But now they came back and only Yuriy had the feeling that they would have done well to heed the warnings of the unrelenting Knight before this mission even happened.
"So the rumours are true," Yuriy said feeling sweat running through his face. "This man... has no hesitation in killing us. I will suggest that we should retreat."
But despite his warning, Eristia took a step further before leaping out and swinging her sword down at the knight's head. However, her attack was blocked by his Crest Shield and Ash with a horizontal swing of his sword. Eristia jumped back from the lethal swing before lunging forth to counter his attack, but that, too, was blocked. Soon both combatants exchanged blocks and blows with the sound of ringing metal in the air. Every time their blades clashed, she noticed his blows became stronger and stronger, forcing her to give ground until she was pushed back to the edge of the cliff.
'Just what the hell is he?!' Eristia's mind raced. 'Despite him having no Mana. He is pushing me back even further!'
For her first time being a succubus, she felt frustrated and felt the dread starting to well up. Eristia swung her Darkleim once more and sent a powerful wave of force at the knight. But Ash stepped aside to avoid her attack and bashed his shield against her face with enough force to stagger her backwards, sending her sprawling onto the ground.
The succubus cursed herself before she quickly lept up, pointing her sword towards the knight.
"Just... what are you?" She scowled, her bravado somewhat ruined by her trembling hands.
He did not reply, but his answer instead leapt forth and swung his blade. He missed his target as she jumped aside to avoid his attack. Ash heard rushing footsteps behind him. He quickly spun his head around and saw the Incubus jump in with his sword raised in the air. The Knight rolled away before the Incubus hits a powerful blow to the ground and released a minor shock wave that sent dust and debris into the air.
Ash knew that the inhuman strength of an Incubus is not to be underestimated as the former undead felt a reminder that he was fighting those things back in the Undead Settlement in Lothric and their strength is that comparable of a Hollowed Manservant.
Ash knew he wasn't an Undead anymore, he was human and despite his strength, one fatal mistake might cost his life. Yet luckily, his experience of fighting hard-hitting and agile monsters, of many shapes and sizes, made the situation trivial. Yuriy swung his blade several times in an attempt to hit him, but Ash strafed most of his swings and blocked some of his attacks before he raised his shield.
"Take this!" Yuriy yelled while raising his sword.
Then the Knight made his next move. Ash immediately swung his shield sidewards and a powerful blow parried his attack, sending his sword arm and sword to the side, breaking Yuriy's guard.
"You're easy to read."The Knight spoke before plunging his broadsword through his opponent's chest, sending a vast amount of blood and spilling to the ground while Yuriy made a bloodcurdling scream of pain.
Eristia widened her eyes while she stood in horror to witness her partner, who had taken a lethal blow to the chest before his body went limp and got tossed to the ground with an ominous thud. His body lying in a pool of blood.
"Y-Yuriy?... YURIY!" Eristia's voice screamed out in horror. She flew off and landed on the ground by his side. Checking his body's conditions, her husband is beyond help. "No! Please! Don't die on me!"
Her hands tried to cover his gaping wounds, but a lot of blood flowed out and felt the warmth of his body becoming cold. Yuriy is already through death's door.
"E-... *cough* Eristia... I-I'm sorry for being reckless *cough!*" Yuriy's weakened voice called out to her with his hand, trying to reach for her delicate face. Which is his wife he loved the most. "Run... I-I beg you... this man is dan-... generous..."
The succubus watched as her lover's hand fell, and his eyes went lifeless. She looked up at the Silver-Blue Knight in shock while her hands are gripped tightly on Darkleim.
"Y-... You killed him... H-How could you?!" the succubus screamed while tears ran down her face as her body trembled with a fury that was swelling and washing over her.
"... We're enemies, that is the reason enough," Ash addressed her as he walked forward. His tone was as cold as ice. "I don't care about your plight you both made. Your choice is to come after me while I am just carrying out my promise for his death, then now it is on your head as well as his."
The succubus's face twisted in anger at the knight's words, and the emotion completely overtook her. She raised Darkleim and unleashed the powers of Demonic Energy that engulfed the entire blade before releasing it in one swing. Ash saw the incoming attack and rolled aside before leaping up to see the Succubus charging at him, screaming at the top of her lungs. He raised his shield and took a powerful blow that sent him backwards. He recovered in time to see her dashing towards him again with even wilder swings.
"You will pay for your actions, monster!" She roared. Ash mused himself towards her statement that sounds seemingly rather ironic.
'Right, left, left, duck under.'
As the fight continued, Ash received minor blows to his armour from her blade, but despite that, his elite knight armour held strong. Which made it easy for him to avoid her much more lethal blows, as he could safely ignore the rest.
'An overhead attack. Roll back.'
The Knight rolled back once he saw her jumping up in the air with her glowing sword. Slamming into the ground, Eristia unleashed a powerful explosion that rocked the ground with dust and rocky debris covering the entire area.
...
Sasha was worried when she heard distant sounds of clashes and explosions coming from the Valley's exit. The curious orphans looked up to hear the distant sounds of battles as birds take flight into the air.
"Is Mr Cyrus going to be alright?" Jennifer asked with a worrying expression.
"Don't worry, he's the Silver-Blue Knight!" Michael stood up full of confidence. "He fought many mamono before, so there is no way he's losing!"
"But are you sure?" Ralph then asked with his eyebrow raised in question. "He's fighting against a Fallen Hero! I'm scared that he might get defeated somehow!"
While the kids were talking, Sasha prayed. She prayed for Ash in her hopes that he made it out, but yet it made her anxious as well. If he made it back, then she has a lot of explaining to do.
She'd hope for one thing: will he ever forgive her sinful crimes, or will he just forget it?
"Will he ever forgive me...?"
...
Eristia panted heavily before her eyes glanced down at her blade. The blade edge of Darkleim was in critical condition, as minor fractures had begun to appear. She didn't understand it at all. Her opponent was using an ordinary-looking sword, but she doubted it was a normal weapon. His sword somehow damaged Darkleim greatly and her mind comes up with a question. What kind of ordinary blade would exist to damage her magically enhanced sword?
She looked up at her opponent again and saw his sword was still in pristine condition. It made her mind freeze in disbelief that such a normal-looking sword was capable of cracking Darkleim. She wasted no time on such thoughts, lashing out once more until she swung her blade and Ash countered it with his broadsword.
Once again Magically Enchanted Demon Silver and Reinforced Titanite clashed. Eristia gritted her teeth as she poured Demonic Energy into the weapon to increase its strength. But despite this, she was still slowly but surely being pushed back from the Knight's physical inhuman strength.
'From where did he gain such strength?!' Her mind yelled in frustration. 'This doesn't make any sense at all!'
Ash was thankful that his broadsword was heavily reinforced with a Titanite Slab to deal with such punishment, but something was amiss.
'Weird. I never felt this strong before.' Ash mused himself. 'Something is empowering me, but from where?'
And thus the impossible happened. Ash saw cracks spreading on his opponent's blade and with one firm and swift kick, he sent his enemy stumbling. Then a swing of his broadsword shattered the succubus' blade into pieces in an instant.
The succubus couldn't believe her eyes. The legendary sword of truth, which she had been tracking down in the lost ruins for days, was destroyed by an ordinary-looking sword of her opponent.
Upon the shattering of her blade, the remains of the demonic energy from her broken sword spiralled out of control and formed a black sphere. Within seconds, the sphere exploded, and the blast sent the two opposing combatants flying, landing a good distance from each other.
Eristia grunted in pain before she staggered to her feet. She felt weak. Her body was battered and bruised. She looked out for her enemy and saw him rise to his feet, completely unharmed. She needed to flee and warn Druella that this person she was interested in. Was a threat to all the Mamonos and the Demon Realm itself. The succubus spread her wings in an attempt to fly away.
*SHAK!*
She felt a sharp pain and fell to the ground, near the very edge of the cliff. She glanced to her left wing and saw a knife embedded in one of the critical joints. The fallen heroine turned around to see the Silver-Blue Knight standing with his left arm reaching out, realising that he had thrown a knife on her wing to prevent her from flying away.
"N-No! Please!" The orange-haired succubus pleaded with an innocent look as her entire being trembled. "I-I'll do whatever you want!"
The knight ignored her cries as he walked over Yuriy's corpse, still wielding his broadsword. Eristia desperately tried to move away until she reaches the very edge of the cliff.
"I beg you! I don't want to die!" She pleaded once more while tears flowed even more profusely down her cheeks. "Please! Have mercy!"
But there was no induction of mercy and Ash kept marching, raising his sword lazily as he prepared to strike. Eristia look down behind the cliff and swallowed a lump in her throat. She needed to escape fast and only two options lay before her:
Either she stayed here and died or choose to jump off of the cliff and hope the fall did not kill her.
The succubus took the latter, and with enough strength in her arms she could muster, dragged herself to the edge and flung herself off into thin air. She fell from the cliff, hoping to survive death. Ash reached the spot where the succubus had been and saw her body falling through the mist, disappearing from view.
The Knight stood quietly for a few moments before sheathing his sword back into his scabbard. He must not waste any more time and followed the carriage's trail where Sasha and the orphans left off.
"I hope she stays dead and does not come back alive like Midir," Ash remarked and shrugging off his thoughts. "And by Gwyn's beard. Why do those memories of that damned Dragon keep coming back to me?"
Then he heard a sound and spun around. The knight looks up to an injured Hellhound with his throwing knife still embedded in her. She groaned in pain and cursed at the sight of the knight standing right in front of her. The mamono growled before she leapt towards the Silver-Blue Knight. But alas, it was futile. In one horizontal swing of his broadsword cleaved the mamono open.
Hopefully, that was the last of Eristia's Subjugation Group, as he thought.
...
...
The sun began to set and felt like a few hours had passed by. Sasha sat on the driver's seat of the wagon while her eyes stared up into the sky, wondering what happened to Ash since the distant sounds of sword clashing and explosions had stopped. The orphans on the carriage were bored and some of them went to sleep. The two boys, Henry and Ralph, fiddled with their small wooden sticks while playing a small swordsman's duel. Ralph caught Henry off guard and knocked his stick up in the air before it was dropped to the ground.
"Hey, no fair!"
"Nu-uh, you just lost."
"Take that back!"
"Hey! Would you cut that out?" The two boys froze and turned to the girl who was the same age as Ralph and facing them with a glaring look. "Some of us are trying to sleep. You both might wake everybody up!"
"None of your business Mary, a girl can't tell us what to do," Ralph replied with a stubborn look while crossing his arms. "We can make noises what we want!"
"Oh, hey look! I see someone's coming!"
Both Ralph and Mary saw Henry pointing his finger, directing to a person walking down the road. As they looked closer and saw someone in a familiar Silver-Blue Armor.
Mary widened her eyes in surprise. "Is that..."
"That's Mr Cyrus!" Ralph jumped in joy before turning to the Nun. "Ms Fullmoon, he made it!"
Some children slowly began to wake up from their sleep at the commotion going on before their eyes laid upon Ash. They cheered excitedly at his return. Sasha roused herself from her thoughts before turning around to see the knight walking up to the driver's seat.
She was glad that he has not fallen to corruption, but she felt saddened to think about the fate of Eristia.
"I'm glad you're alright." She sighed in relief.
"Likewise." He replied nonchalantly while embarking on the carriage. "How near are we?"
"To the borders?" She raised her eyebrow. "It will take only one night before we get there."
"I see. Then we must set up a camp to rest once we depart from this place." He stated before facing her with a stern look behind his helmet. "And after that... we need to talk."
Upon hearing his words made her body stiffened like a knifeboard. Her smile slowly fell. She knew that she needs a lot of explaining to do.
...
At the bottom of Valley Ridge, a group of mamono are searching for their missing commander. Hours had passed and night had already fallen, but yet she still had not been found.
"Dammit, to think that the Silver-Blue Knight manage to slip through this ridge." The High Orc cursed.
"Even one fallen heroine isn't enough to stop him."
Eristia's detachment force had sent several teams to search throughout the valley to find the missing Subjugation group and only to find corpses of Hellhounds and a dead incubus at the end of the Valley Ridge road. Before they've found drag and boot marks leading towards a cliff. Confirming that Eristia was not among the corpses, the patrol determined that she must have fallen to the bottom.
"Any signs of her?" Asked a High Orc while looking around.
"We haven't found her yet." An Orc replied. "She must be here somewhere."
As they searched the area, one Orc caught her sights on a batwing exposed among the rocky debris.
"Hey, I found her!"
The mamono grouped up to her location, and it shocked them to see the succubus was bruised and bloodied with an arm and a leg twisted at the wrong angle. There was bone poking through the skin. Her right wing was mangled. An Echidna slithered her way through the group and carefully checked her pulse. She's still breathing, and it's a miracle how she survived that fall.
"Cleo, how is she?" A high-ranking Amazon asked.
"She's still alive." Cleo sighed in relief before turning to the Mamono group. "Quick! We must get her to the infirmary!"
"Yes, ma'am!" The Orcs understood before they went to make an improvised stretcher.
"Y-Yuriy..." Cleo turned to the battered fallen heroine, who muttered in pain. "My... husband... where is he?"
The Echidna grabbed her left hand and clutched it tightly.
"Don't worry, you'll be alright." Cleo hushed while carefully caressing her head. "We must bring you back to the nearest camp."
"Wh-where is Yuriy...?" Eristia then sobbed. "My husband... I need to see him..."
The Echidna couldn't respond and looked down at the ground in sorrow. Realising the corpse of the Incubus they have found earlier was her dearest husband. Yet Cloe forced herself to be silent and there was no need to tell her what had happened to him until Eristia recovered and was mentally fit enough to know his fate.
Or else she might lose her will to live.
...
Viola Region, Kingdom of Gaul.
...
In the uncharted places within the Viola region stood a certain village that was hidden deep within the mountains and covered by a dense forest. The Amazons were performing a ritual by placing gifts on an altar. Some of them brought jars over that contained semen.
Nearby stood cages and there were several men, sitting behind sturdy wooden bars. Awaiting their fate to become a husband for the Mamono. One of them was brought forth by a couple of Amazon Guards and placed on the altar, where he was to be raped by the shaman.
When the ritual ensued, several Amazons were to patrol the surrounding areas to keep their watch so that no intruder would interfere.
That is until someone stepped from some bushes with the clacking of metal. The Amazon Guards tensed and raised their spears as someone coming out from the darkness. The Figure took the shape of a peculiar knight with white armour shaped like... an onion?
"Oh? Why hello there, fellow gals!" The Knight greeted them in a jovial manner. "Pardon me. Mind if I ask that two of you knew the way towards the Amazon Village? I'm searching for the missing men that got lost in this dense forest."
The mamono raised their eyebrows in question. This... weird onion knight was blatantly asking them amazons where their village was. And unlike any men they've encountered. The men they usually captured were shy, scared, and weak, but this man did not seem fazed at all, unlike the ones they brought them to their village.
"Should we bring him to our village?"
"I think so. The Chieftain might be pleased."
As the two Amazons muttered themselves to come up with an idea. The Knight just patiently stood there with his arms crossed before letting a small cough, gaining their attention.
"Ahem, pardon me. I was absorbed in thought." The Onion Knight apologised in an almost embarrassed manner. "Perhaps I might ask if both of you are from the Village I'm searching for?"
The two dumbfounded Amazons stared at each other for a while until one of them stood out haughtily in pride.
"Yes, we are!" She spoke out loud. "And you, my dear man, shall become my sister's husband!"
And at that moment, the knight stepped back in surprise.
"Oh. Uhh, sorry milady, but I'm already married." The knight said dejectedly while waving his hand. "I'm sure your sister might find her lovely husband one day."
"And who might you be?" The second Amazon Guard furrowed her eyebrows with a hostile expression while pointing a spear at him. "Although, you seem too familiar... wait, could you be?"
"Oh me? Let me introduce myself." As he was about to introduce himself, the knight raised a humongous wooden club and leaned it over his right shoulder. "I am Siegward of the Catarina Family, and I have a mission to release those missing men under your captivity. If not, then there will be dire consequences."
'S-Siegward Catarina?!'
'The actual Onion Knight of Gerth?!'
The two Amazons stood back in horror as they realised who they were dealing with. The Onion Knight of Gerth in flesh has arrived and his sole reason? He came to get the men they've captured.
"I presume that your dear friends are forcing them to marry without their consent," Siegward said while tilting his head sideways in disappointment.
"Indeed, it is shameful while it's not true love you're giving them. Then I supposed to gladly take them back to their families."
The Amazons furiously grit their teeth.
"Over our dead bodies!"
The Mamonos charged forth with their spears raised, and the Onion Knight of Gerth sighed silently. Unamused by their desperate actions and knowing that this will be a long night to finish his job.
...
Chapter 4: Ends.