Chapter 62: Despair

After a few hours of traveling in silence, Saito's group of friends finally arrived at the entrance to the Elf Kingdom in Gallia. Before going through it, they decided to take a break, knowing that they may be attacked upon entering the kingdom.

"How do you feel, Saito?" Sasha asked.

"I'd feel better if those two dragons were with us." He replied. "How about you?"

"Terrified." She said.

"Listen, Sasha. I need to tell you something." Saito said. "Last night, I spoke to Lífþrasir."

"Fascinating." She replied.

"That's not all." He continued. "She told me that he was coming for her and her siblings, then she disappeared."

"What?" Sasha said, looking slightly alarmed.

"I don't know what happened to her." Saito replied. "She may have been captured."

"If he adds their power to his own..." She said to herself. "We have to find him quickly."

"We should leave now, then." Mariel said as she had been listening to their conversation.

"Very well." Sasha said. "Tell everyone to get ready."

Within a few minutes, everyone was on their feet, prepared to depart. When everyone was ready, Sasha opened the gate to the kingdom. They all walked through the bright ovular portal.

When their eyes adjusted, they widened with shock at the sight that greeted them. Most of the forest was flattened. What few trees were left standing were on fire. The once beautiful cities that floated on lakes were nothing more than smoldering rubble. The sky was red as the light from the fires reflected on the smoke that filled the atmosphere.

"What happened here..." Olivière asked himself.

"Your father happened..." Mariel said, her emerald eyes reflecting the blaze in front of her.

"I don't sense anyone." Sasha said. "It is safe for now."

They walked down towards one of the towns. The smell of smoke filled their noses, making them burn. It was eerily silent, with no noise from anyone or anything.

"This is strange." Saito said.

"What is it Saito?" Derf asked.

"There's no one here..." He replied, using his eyes to find anyone.

He looked throughout the city, but it was completely empty. They kept walking through each of the cities, but found no clues. There were no bodies, no signs that anyone may have died other than the burning buildings. As they kept walking, Saito's eyes finally picked up several weak sources of magic far away.

"There are some people in that direction." He said, pointing in the direction he saw the magic.

"How many?" Sasha asked.

"A few dozen." Saito replied.

"Let's go, then." Vittorio said. "Perhaps they know what happened."

After a few minutes, they arrived at the place where the magic was originating from. With her magic, Louise could see that it was a bunker hidden several meters underground.

"This is where we left your family." Sasha said to Saito. "If there are still people down there, then they may have survived."

"How are we supposed to get down there?" Louise asked.

"I have hidden a stairwell nearby with magic. I'll remove its concealment, then we can enter." Mariel said.

She spoke a few words in her Elfish tongue and soon, just as she had expected, a staircase seemed to be created from the ground. Following Mariel, they all started walking down its stone steps. They walked at a normal pace, not knowing what to expect at the bottom.

When they reached the bottom, there was a stone door which led into the room that Saito's family should have been. When they opened it, they found hundreds of people crowding a massive room. Many were injured, with those who were well enough attempting to heal the wounded.

Unfortunately, there were also several bags laid in neat rows across the floor, which Saito immediately knew contained dead individuals. When people noticed Sasha and Mariel had arrived, their faces expressed both relief and anger.

"Where were they..?" Some people muttered under their breaths.

"We're saved!" Others exclaimed.

"How many are wounded?" Sasha asked in a voice that wasn't loud, but echoed clearly throughout the room.

"About 250 injured. 81 still healthy." A dwarfish man said.

"So little...what happened to everyone?" Mariel asked.

"A human came and destroyed everything." One of the elfish women painfully recounted. "They had no intention of letting anyone live, be it women, children, or men. We few managed to escape whilst they slaughtered everyone else.."

"Why is there no one in the city?" Sasha asked, feeling sorry for the woman, but choosing to show no emotion.

"While we were fleeing, we saw several winged...creatures taking away the dead." She said.

"Winged creatures? What did they look like?" Mariel asked.

"Bony. Decomposed. Horrid." The woman replied.

"What could those be?" Saito asked Mariel.

"I...do not know." She said. "There are many winged creatures in the world, although I know none that fit that exact description."

"More importantly at the moment, three humans were left in this bunker." Sasha said to the woman. "I have no doubt that you know of their location."

"The humans?" The woman asked, having trouble remembering.

"Yes, two females and one male. This boy's family." Sasha said, pointing at Saito.

She stared at Saito for several moments, taking in his features. Obviously, his eyes wouldn't be able to identify him as a member of their family, but his facial features made him look quite a lot like his sister.

"Oh...yes, I have seen them." The woman said.

"Please lead me to them." Saito said, feeling relieved.

As they walked through the crowd of injured and healthy people of various species, Saito and Alex felt uncomfortable, as they were being stared at. Shion, too, was attracting attention due to her status as half human. However, because of the four wings that protruded from her back, people seemed to dismiss her humanity.

For several minutes, Saito could feel several pairs of eyes staring at him, making his magic become slightly unsettled. Many of the people there, especially the elves, looked at him with faces of contempt and, rather strangely, satisfaction.

As they followed the woman, Sasha, her sons, and Louise went a separate way in order to find out more information about the events that had transpired.

"Saito..." Alex whispered.

"Yeah, I know. They don't like us very much." Saito replied.

"Its been 6000 years. How much of a grudge can you have?" He said, gripping his dagger.

"Most of these people were probably children when it happened." Saito replied. "They're scarred."

"But elves live for so long. They'll practically be hating us forever." Alex said, looking around at the crowd.

"Well, we'll have to prove them wrong, won't we?" Saito said, although even he was on his guard. "We're good people. We can show them that humans are capable of good."

"You better be right." Alex said.

After a few more minutes, they reached an area which seemed to be designated as the "hospital" of the room. Several makeshift tents covered groups of injured people who were being healed by doctors.

As they kept walking, Saito could hear people murmuring when they saw him and Alex. Some even snickered when they saw them, but made sure to avoid making eye contact with them.

"Filthy human and his half breed mutt." He heard a man say quietly.

"Don't say that! If he gets mad, he could kill us all!" He heard a woman whisper.

"Like a human could kill one of us alone." He replied.

"That's no normal human." She replied. "Word has it he single-handedly won a war in the human world. Some say he even sparred with Sasha."

"Rumors are just that. Rumors. Either way, as a human, he deserves what's coming to him." The man replied.

"No one deserves that. Human or not..." The woman replied silently.

Saito wondered for several moments what they meant. He at first assumed that they intended to try and kill him, in which case he wasn't afraid. After a few moments, the woman stopped walking and pointed in a direction.

"Over there. Your family is there." She said before quickly walking away.

"Where are they?" Saito said to himself, looking straight ahead but seeing no one but various other species of people.

"Maybe that lady mistook them for some other people." Alex replied.

However, Saito wasn't listening. His eyes had become transfixed by three bags on the ground in front of him. Alex looked down at the bags as well and saw that they were specially marked in red writing.

"Mother, what does that writing say?" Alex asked.

"It says...human..." Mariel said, already feeling the pressure coming from Saito.

He slowly knelt down and placed his hand on one of the bags. Slowly, he began to unzip it. Alex began to back away, not wanting to be next to Saito with his magic so unsettled. When it was finally unzipped, Saito's eyes widened as he saw the face of his father devoid of color or temperature.

Quickly, he opened the other bags, where he saw the faces of his mother and his sister which he held so dear. His face was blank, staring into nothingness. Alex stared at him, shielding Shion in case of any sort of outburst.

Suddenly, everyone in the room felt as if their whole bodies were forced into the ground, like gravity in the room had spontaneously increased. The air began to chill and they began to feel like they were short of breath.

Elsewhere in the room, Sasha was speaking to a soldier who survived the attack. He was the only soldier that had survived the attack, as every other one had been killed.

"What happened to the other council members?" Sasha asked.

"I fell unconscious before I could see what happened to them." He said. "They fought, but seeing as they are nowhere to be found, I fear they suffered the same fate."

"I see. I will see to live up to their legacy and fight with as much bravery as they did." She replied. "I'm sorry for not being here earlie-"

She was suddenly unable to speak as she felt like she was going to suffocate. Her body felt heavy and weak, a feeling she didn't recognize. She immediately felt the air become cold, making her hair stand on end. Her sons and Louise too felt the same strange feeling.

"What happened?" Bartholomew asked.

"Find Saito." Sasha said, slowly getting up and making her way towards the epicenter of the intense pressure.

The closer she got, the worse the feeling became until finally, she saw Saito kneeling on the ground. She wondered what could have triggered this reaction out of him. However, this curiosity soon disappeared when she saw the bodies that he knelt over with tears flowing down his still blank face.

Her own heart ached when she realized she failed to keep them alive, although she briefly wondered how they died if she left them in such a secure place. Braving the feeling that was already causing several people to fall unconscious, Louise crawled towards him, unable to stay on her feet.

After a great deal of effort, she managed to get close enough to him to wrap her arms around him. The ground around him began to crack and disintegrate as hi magic flowed into it. With the last bit of her strength, she finally managed to wrap her arms around him.

For several moments, nothing changed. Eventually, after about a minute, the feeling they had slowly disappeared. When it was gone, the room was silent. Saito looked to be in a state of shock. Just before Louise was going to talk to him, the orange color in his eyes and tail disappeared, leaving them pitch black. His body began to cool rapidly, making Louise worried. Immediately afterward, he fell asleep, his now black eyes still flowing with tears. Sasha, still catching her breath, looked at the sleeping boy, feeling very sad for him.

"He is dangerous, Mother." Vittorio said. "His powers are great."

"He has a good heart." She replied. "Do not speak ill of him."

"If someone like him were to be twisted, we could all be killed!" He whispered into his mother's ear. "Don't you see what just happened? That's a power even I cannot handle alone."

"Speak nothing more of it." Sasha said, making sure Louise didn't hear what was being said.

"What should we do?" Alex asked.

"We should do nothing until he regains his consciousness." She said. "Until then, help anyone who needs care. Allow him to rest."

Louise refused to move from her position, holding his head in her lap and stroking his long hair. Tears flowed from her eyes as well, both from the loss of her new family, and from the pain her husband felt from it.

"Little sister, his tail..." Mariel said to Sasha, noticing that the formerly glowing orange appendage was now pitch black.

"I know." Sasha said. "I don't know what happened, but it is certainly related to what he just felt."

"I hope he's okay." Alex said, staring at his unconscious friend.

"Yes, I do as well." Sasha replied, turning away to leave Saito in the care of his ailing wife.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys! Surprise! They're dead! Lol.

Sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I had some things to deal with in my boring life, so I had to put it off for a while. I hope you guys understand. Anyway, I hope you also enjoyed the chapter. See you next time!