[chapter 18 - part 2 of 3 ]
.
= This chapter might contain some graphic imagery of violence and war injury. =
.
.
≃2000 years ago
[ The birth of the Original Titan ]
- Signe
The small girl was absolutely lost, in a completely different world. A different reality, Ymir had been a princess before, heir to a beautiful island, her paradise. But all that seemed so far to her now, she almost forgot it. Her past felt almost like a dream now, a long lost dream.
Ymir ran around that forest for almost two weeks, the eldian people in the village near started to tell scary stories about some lost child in those woods. All to scare the village children. But the screams were real. The lost princess cried for her mother, she cried a lot. The tiny girl had almost no voice by the time she was found.
Not that it would matter, for Ymir would immediately be sold into slavery, as it was customary for foreigners and unclaimed children, like her. And eldians didn't believe slaves had any use for their tongues, it just made them unnecessarily argumentative. At the age of only four, the eldian heir herself became a mute slave, and was placed in the market.
It all felt like a nightmare for the small child, she didn't understand what was happening. She cried for her parents, she cried only very quietly now, to avoid admonishment. Ymir thought of the monsters in her imagination, the things she thought she could see late at night in the darkness of her bedroom. And how she would run fast through the palace, at night; she would run to her parents aid. She now cried for her father to send these monsters away too.
'I will never let anything hurt you. Never,' she remembered her father promising her, and her parents embracing her. The small girl missed their warmth more than anything.
Ymir could also remember her brother, her twin. The only true companion she'd had so far in her short life. The small girl sighed, she was miserable. All of her family, the palace, the gardens, the people and the island; all she knew her whole life felt so distant now, she felt defeated. Ymir could still feel the taste of blood every time she swallowed. Old, noxious blood from the not completely healed wound in her mouth. They had cut her tongue.
This poor little girl had been through a lot in a month only. First she had become extremely emaciated while lost in the woods. And she was not given nearly enough food to compensate for it while in the slave market. Even with what she was given Ymir had trouble with, she couldn't keep much of the food down, for the awful taste of old blood in her mouth made her nauseous and the wound in her mouth was still painful. She was scared, this nightmare wouldn't end, she felt so weak and so powerless, hurt. The girl had no escape.
All these people felt like monsters to her, they were odd, brute, uncivilised. They treated her and the other slaves as they were nothing, worse than nothing. The eldians were extremely unkind and inhumane, Ymir was sure they were just monsters, demons in disguise, they couldn't be human.
She also couldn't understand them, they spoke something familiar to her, but she couldn't make out the words properly. It felt more like they were grunting than enunciating and her failure to understand simple commands resulted in many beatings.
Ymir not only had to smell the blood of her never fully healed mouth. Eldians were infamously known for being cannibals, and they were constantly eating their fallen enemies in rituals. The little girl could also smell blood in the awful breath of the eldians around her, which left Ymir in a perpetual state of nausea.
The soldiers had come back from a small but successful campaign to secure some of their borders. Signe walked around the market, looking for goods before returning to his small farm. The tiny and extremely thin girl was on display at the slave corner, like she had been every day for the past week. No one had interest to buy such a small and weak human, who clearly couldn't do any hard labour, even if on sale.
"Why is this one here? She's just a child," the soldier asked the vendor. Children weren't common in the market, especially the weak or the ones too small. Not because Eldians were kind, but because those weak children weren't worth much.
The man grunted. "That's the one they found in the woods," he explained.
"Where are her parents?" Signe asked.
"Don't know, don't care," the vendor callously replied. "Wanna buy her?"
"If she was found in the woods surely she must be from a village nearby, did you look?" the soldier insisted.
"It's been a month, no one claimed her," the vendor argued. "Do you want to buy her or not? I can make you a good price," he offered.
The vendor wanted to get rid of the girl quickly, before she died - or just in case.
Signe looked towards the tiny, emaciated child. The girl was looking down to the ground, miserable. "I'll take her home," the soldier announced to the vendor.
"Come on," Signe said softly, he offered his hand with a sweet smile. The man could see the child was broken.
Ymir looked up, it was the first time a human had shown compassion towards her, since she'd arrived in that cursed land.
"Go, go with him," the vendor carelessly ushered the tiny girl out of the slave corner, while counting his new sack of gold coins.
Ymir reached out and held the soldier's hand. Signe could feel her bones, and he felt extremely upset, he couldn't imagine what this little girl had gone through.
They walked hand-in-hand around the market, the girl was wearing rags and was barefoot. Signe raised her up and sat the four-year-old in his cart. "First we need to get you some shoes, and clothes, then we head home," he told the girl in a fatherly tone. Ymir couldn't understand what he was saying, as she still didn't know the language. But she could tell he was being kind to her, something she hadn't experienced in a while. The girl finally started to feel safe again.
Ymir grew up happily in that tiny farm. They had no animals for the lonely soldier was always out on campaigns and couldn't care for those, so he'd gotten used to only grow plants instead. And Ymir loved taking care of the crops, she loved the fields and the open bright skies. They had a good life. Signe and Ymir had to quickly figure out a form of sign language, he would always talk of course, but the mute girl could only respond with signs.
Signe was a childless and widowed man. After many unsuccessful tries, his wife and only full-term baby so far died together during childbirth. The broken man never thought he would have happiness again in his life after the tragedy. So he focused on his job as a soldier instead, for those battles were easier to fight. But after two decades or so of mourning, he saw that little girl in that market. She was broken and alone, just like he was, she needed help and he wanted to help her.
He taught her about the crops and about the land. He taught her how to cook food and bake bread and cakes, baking bread was Ymir's favourite activity. Even if she couldn't speak, Signe still taught her the eldian language with care. So she could understand others and respond accordingly. He even taught her the marlean language, and a few eastern words he had picked up in his travels. Signe loved to talk and to tell the girl many stories and she loved to listen, and sign back to him with joy.
After the girl was nine, Signe decided to go back to the army. Five years had passed and the soldier had taught his daughter a lot. Ymir had developed quickly and had shown him to be an extremely intelligent and clever girl. He felt she could take care of herself and of the crops while he was away. The soldier then started to teach her how to defend herself. He trained her on how to be always on alert and he also instructed her to hide in the basement in case of intruders. Good skills that Ymir never needed to use, to his relief, for their tiny farm was very remote and didn't have much goods to steal. Still, Ymir was always prepared.
"If you need anything, there's always the neighbours." As always, Signe advised Ymir before he left for yet another campaign.
Ymir was thirteen now. She had grown quite a lot in those past four years and she didn't care for that particular advice very much. 'I can take care of myself,' she thought, but she just signed happily and gave him a goodbye hug.
Signe left and the teenage girl watched him go, waving and smiling at him from the distance. The soldier then sped up on his white horse once he left the gates of the tiny farm.
At this point Ymir was very much used to staying by herself. She enjoyed the extra freedom and she'd rather be alone than deal with those 'neighbours'.
Although Signe always told her to go to that neighbouring farm if she ever found herself in trouble, Ymir actively avoided those brutes. Their countless devilish children had the pesky habit of throwing rocks at her whenever she was tending to the crops closer to their fence.
The nasty children would laugh at her while throwing the rocks and yell loudly that she was just a dirty slave. They deeply taunted her.
'I'm a slave?!' Ymir thought while watering the crops and hoping those rocks wouldn't hurt the saplings. 'Do you even know why your parents have so many of you little demons? Slaves are expensive. They are actually getting hard labour for free.' she laughed to herself, quite joyously; which just added to the notion of mad those brute neighbours had of her. The children ran off, and Ymir laughed even harder. She was getting older, smarter and more confident, she was tired of their bullying.
'We are thirteen now,' Ymir thought as she entered the small farmhouse. She walked towards the mirror and looked at herself, at her full image. Ymir sighed. 'I wonder where you are now. I think about you every day, you know?' She mouthed the words, even though she couldn't speak.
She looked through the window, to the endless fields outside. 'Do you remember how Mama would tell us about the farm and how she grew up? She made it all sound so magical.' Ymir wondered back. 'I am on a farm now, and I quite like it,' she smiled. 'And you are probably still in the Palace,' the teenage girl sighed again. 'I can barely remember that place, I can barely remember anything from Paradise. I hope I won't ever forget what Papa and Mama and you looked like.'
Ymir looked deeper into her reflection in that mirror. 'I just hope you're alright,' she wished of her twin. Her eyes shone a purple energy for a split second.
-.-
'I just hope you're alright,' the teenage boy could hear it deep in his subconscious. Exactly two thousand years in the future, to the second. His eyes slightly shone a purple energy in that moment.
"Yes, I'm alright," Ezra replied, out loud, sounding a little miserable. He sighed.
"I'm sorry, dear?" his mother inquired from her table.
"I'm sorry, mother, what did you say?" the prince asked, confused.
Ezra thought he had misheard his mother, for the voice in his subconscious was similar to hers.
"I did not speak, darling." Queen Historia maintained. "But for what it's worth, you don't really seem quite 'alright,'" the mother pointed out, looking over from her endless stack of State papers.
The thirteen-year-old looked a bit saddened and distant. He sat on the sofa, near his mother, with one hand holding his face. Ezra looked miserable and tired. The teenager sighed.
"I know the trip wasn't exactly a success," Historia proceeded.
"Success?" The teenager questioned. Ezra looked towards the unhealed scar in his palm.
His mother was already very much aware of the fight he'd had with his father in the remains of the old crystal cave. The two of them had just come back from their trip to the Reiss lands. He didn't want to bring it all up again, as he was tired of all the bickering with his old man. Ezra was maturing.
He reflected on it. "I suppose it was successful in one thing," Ezra noted. "It made me realise we are supposed to be what we are, not what others expect us to be."
Queen Historia smiled. "How philosophical, dear," she noted. Historia tilted her head. "You are becoming very wise," she complimented her boy.
Ezra stared at the scar a while longer, passing his other hand through it. The boy sighed again, he stood up. The prince came over and kissed his mother on the cheek. "I'll withdraw to my quarters now," he told his mother.
"Are you tired? It's quite early," she noted to her son.
Ezra scratched his head. "I am. I'm a little tired," he replied. That wasn't entirely true, the boy just preferred to be on his own after all that ordeal. He was also avoiding his father who he expected to be lurking somewhere near at that hour.
"I hope you're not coming down with anything," the Queen added and he just gave her a half-smile before leaving the room.
Ezra was deeply confident he had won that war. He carried that scar with pride. The prince firmly believed he wasn't cursed, therefore he concluded he could never be. The thirteen-year-old walked joyously and confidently around the palace. But he was deeply mistaken. Sheer willpower alone could never contain the titanic otherworldly power within him. And in only a few days the prince would be proven wrong. Wrong to the extreme.
-.-
In only a few days, but also exactly two thousand years prior Ymir had set up for yet another mundane day's work.
After walking a long way into the plantation the girl saw her hideous neighbour herding his cows out of Signe's land. The small girl was outraged. By the time Ymir reached the area, the herd had completely wrecked that section and was already across the low fence. The hideous man thought nothing of it, as he knew Signe was away in the war and his tiny slave was too weak and small to defend herself.
The man met with his equally hideous wife and they continued to herd their cattle into their land. Ymir gave the pair an angry and dirty look, as she stood on the other side of the fence.
"You should tell your master to build higher and better fences once he comes back," the awful woman challenged her. "We don't want to lose our precious cattle for some weeds," the neighbour added in scorn. They acted as if it all had been Ymir's fault.
"He probably has no money for that," the man argued and laughed. "With this tiny land; one would expect to earn more in the Army," he added with hands on his hips.
The couple believed Signe to be extremely poor, because he barely had land to farm. But they were very wrong, the veteran soldier owned a lot more land than they did. Only he rented the majority of his fields for others to farm since he was not physically able to farm it all himself.
"I heard he spends all on whores and liquor," the woman added with disdain, "still, he will have to pay for any cattle of ours that runs off, these fences are ridiculous." She complained.
'Your fence, your problem. My herd doesn't have legs.' Ymir thought. 'You should be the ones to stop those brainless things from eating my crops,' she also thought, but the girl couldn't sign any of those words at them as she knew they wouldn't understand her. Ymir just maintained her angry stare.
"Whores, huh?" The man gave the small teenage girl an odd and malicious look while adding to his wife's ugly and unnecessary comment: "He probably spent the last of his gold in buying a whore he could grow for himself." The man laughed.
That was an awful and evil suggestion, but Ymir only maintained a stoic look as she watched them walk further into their land. The girl was plotting.
Ymir had been scared of crossing over that fence ever since she had been a small child. For not long after she had moved into Signe's farm, she had been accused of stealing a small piglet from those horrible neighbours. It all gave her father quite the trouble and his relationship with those annoying neighbours just soured even more. But that gave her an idea.
The lost princess could see the sty in the distance, she knew those pigs were all mostly grown and set for slaughter.
'You are all so fat,' Ymir thought. 'Maybe I should deliver these little ones, they will be happier in nature rather than in those disgusting bellies.'
She crossed the low fence.
Ymir waited patiently until the family was inside the house, setting things for their lunch. She freed the pigs from the sty and chased them all the way to the woods, making sure those annoying humans wouldn't be able to retrieve them.
The family was appalled as they watched it all from the distance, from their farmhouse windows as they were setting things for their lunch. "Get her!" the hideous woman exclaimed. They ran outside, the entire family. Those annoying humans chased after that dirty slave child.
"Go after those pigs, boys!" the man shouted to his countless sons as they reached the small slave, Ymir had nowhere to run.
The hideous man held the teenage girl by the ear. "You are going to pay for all that," he threatened, quite angrily. The woman crossed her arms. "Let's take her to the city," she added.
- The boy
"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" Fritz asked the girl.
Ymir didn't have much to say, even if she could. After all those years in that nightmarish environment, she'd gotten used to not thinking much. Her mute state and all the trauma she had suffered made her mind stagnate. She lived in a state of wonder, and sadness, as if she was still a young child. The girl felt very lost.
One of the Chief's advisers leaned over to his ear to explain that the girl being questioned was a mute slave.
"Oh, I see," Fritz said while scratching his chin. He wanted to know what motivated the young girl to set their entire month of food supply free into the woods.
"Meat is a very delicious provision, my dear. Pig flesh is extremely tasty, almost as good as human flesh." The old wicked man laughed. "Were you upset and vengeful because your owners didn't give you any? Is that why you set the pigs free?" he asked.
Ymir didn't respond. She didn't even engage with the old Chief. The girl just stayed there, kneeling, looking down at the ground. Ymir was staring at a group of ants, in line, carrying their food, and thinking how small they all were and yet how those small creatures had an organised society. How they lived in peace and order, following and serving their queen.
"Or maybe you were looking for the glory of the chase," the wicked man presumed. Ymir looked up at him, confused, and Fritz laughed.
"You are my kind of girl then. Pigs are animals set for slaughter; they die depressed, and you can taste it in the flavour. Chasing wild boars at the height of their survival energy, or killing a glorious warrior at the height of battle always makes for a better, much juicier meal," Fritz said with a wicked look on his face. He was bored; maybe he finally had an opportunity to make this afternoon more interesting.
The Chief held his chin with one hand and thought for a moment, then he leaned over to his best warrior:
"What do you think, Lud? Are your boys ready for some hunting? I believe we will eat well tonight. We have good game," he told his right hand man.
"Always ready to serve you, Chief." Lud gave Fritz an evil smile and adjusted his best sword.
The poor innocent girl understood who was the game in question: it was her. Ymir started running. She ran towards the open forest.
"I told you we have good game. She's fast." Fritz laughed. "Get the horses," he ordered.
-.-
She was racing through the woods, running up the forest. Running as fast as she could, further and further away from the village. She was panting, her heart was racing, it was almost beating out of her chest. But she couldn't stop: she could hear the voices, the laughs. They were getting closer. She was bleeding; those wicked men had been shooting arrows at her. She was desperate, but she would not give up. The girl wanted to live, she was a survivor. The pain in her shoulder and in her leg, it was too strong - she'd been pierced by two arrows and the blood was streaming down fast.
The girl lost her balance and fell to the ground. Her mind was as if in a trance, barely awake. Ymir finally saw a place to hide; for some reason, she felt that giant tree was there just to help her, to protect her. The girl walked slowly in its direction, like it was calling her. She would finally be home. It was waiting for her. As she walked, her blood stained the flowers below her.
The tree was giant, and it felt out of place in that forest. The innocent wounded girl walked into it. The hole in the tree was much taller than the girl, showing just how ancient that wooden cave was. Ymir looked down the hole; she couldn't see anything, there was no light in there. She was disappointed, she couldn't hide in that, but it was still calling for her, like an evil spell. The girl was smart enough not to throw herself into a sinister black hole. She didn't know how deep it was, or what lay down there.
Unfortunately, she wasn't careful enough. She didn't notice the dirt giving way under her feet. Ymir fell down the hole, and hit the water at the bottom. The poor innocent girl could feel her life leaving her; she was fading, drowning.
Sinking deeper and deeper into the water.
-.-
There was a thunderous noise that could be heard all over that area and beyond. A giant explosion, an inexplicable explosion arising from the heart of the forest.
The villagers were in awe as they saw it in the distance. It was like the forest had given birth to a monster.
-.-
"All you need to know is this: save the girl. That is all that matters."
Nine years earlier, the boy arrived in that very spot. He was coming from the future, a very dark and broken future. 'All that matters,' Azzy thought of the good witch's words. He knew the girl he had to save, but where would he find her?
Azymondeus startled. The fifteen-year-old could see the small princess running around the woods. The tiny girl was chasing after a tiny piglet, looking very cheerful. The sight frightened the teenager, Ymir looked the same as when they were little children, when he had seen those bright green eyes for the last time. Azzy felt a chill running up and down his spine. He turned behind him to see that ancient giant tree: it was the same as the one in the crystal dimension.
"You nasty, nasty thing, you're here too?" The time traveller questioned, walking closer to the cursed portal.
Azzy passed his hands closer to the force field and it gave out electric sparkles, shocking his hand, reminding he wasn't welcome. "I guess you and I don't go together, do we?" He noted. Azzy looked up to the tree's peak and down to its dark cave, analysing it.
"I wonder what would happen if she fell through this thing once again. Would she go back to that dimension and I could grab her there or would she fall further into the past?" Az wondered it, he gently walked backwards. He kept slowly walking backwards and thinking about it when a very small thing ran into his black boots. Azzy turned to look.
The tiny piglet had stopped and the tiny girl stopped too. Ymir noticed that the barrier stopping the piglet was a pair of boots, a kind of boots that she hadn't seen in that place, but she had seen before. She looked up to see a person dressed in modern attire, akin to what she would expect to have seen in Paradise. Ymir froze.
Azzy reached down to hold the piglet, while smiling at the small child.
"Is it yours?" the teenager asked. "He is very cute." Azzy held the piglet in his arms and caressed the poor, frightened animal.
Ymir was stunned; she had no response.
"What did you name it?" the boy asked. Az was trying to start a conversation, but it was fruitless; the only reaction the girl had was to run, and she ran. Ymir ran away from him fast.
Azzy just stood there, next to the old tree, caressing the small pig, contemplative.
He tilted his head and brought the piglet closer to him. "She does like to run, doesn't she?" he commented. Az put the small thing down again and tried to follow Ymir with his eyes.
The four-year-old was quite fast. He was fearful that he would lose her trail, so the boy naturally did what he was born to do: he Jumped.
Az reappeared on top of one of the trees further into the direction the girl had been running, he was just trying to get a better look. But the girl was nowhere to be seen, and Azzy found that odd. He looked back down to see the ancient tree there, but the pig had also vanished.
After inspecting better that environment, something started to daunt on the boy. Some of that forest seemed much different than what he remembered from seconds before. A lot of the more recognisable trees were much taller and some were just stumps. He became fearful.
"No! Did I jump in time again?!" Azzy realised. "It can't be! When am I now?" he questioned to himself. "I can't believe I did this again!" the teenage boy let out in frustration. The good witch had trusted him to fix things, and he had botched it all in only a few seconds. He felt himself to be so careless. Azzy was immediately frustrated.
But it hadn't been his fault, not this time. His otherworldly energy was synced to that cursed portal the moment he arrived in that time. And once he jumped, his energy followed the ancient tree's energy. The portal was linked to the girl and it could hear Ymir calling for help - nine years later; so the tree followed her there and Azzy was dragged to it too. But still, this all could have been avoided, had he not Jumped.
He could hear laughs, wicked laughs and dogs barking. He could see horses coming through the trees, and knights in ancient clothes riding them. Azzy was immediately annoyed, as he had told his friend Patrick multiple times: he hated Ancient History. "Eerrgh, now I have to deal with those idiots," the teenager complained from up the tree.
Azzy noted they were shooting arrows, as if they were hunting something; and the future Ackermann quickly identified the ancient Ackermanns' target.
The teenage girl was running fast and she had already been shot. Az tilted his head, she looked a little like his aunt Historia. "It better be you again," the boy hoped. "Otherwise I just screwed up this whole thing very badly."
He noted the girl speeding fast into the tree cave. It was like Déjà vu. Just like when they were little and she ran into the cave in that crystal dimension. Azzy knew, again, that this would end very badly. He had a split second to decide if he should go down that height and ran towards the girl as a regular human would, knowing full well he wouldn't stop her in time; or if he should just Jump again, running the risk of arriving in a different time again.
Before he could decide the girl fell into the cave and Azymondeus instincts kicked in immediately. He Jumped.
And again, and again. And again. Azzy found himself in a complicated loop: every Jump followed by an immense explosion. He didn't know what the explosion was, he only cared about saving Ymir from falling in that cave.
"I was falling. I was drowning. And you didn't save me," the beautiful woman confided to him in their shared bed. Az was an adult now, he was his adult self looking into those bright green eyes, Ymir's melancholic and disappointed eyes. Az was frightened and confused as his teenage brain became bombarded with those memories. As these were the strongest memories the time traveller had: his biggest regret.
He jumped again.
"You never saved me," the woman maintained.
And he jumped again, and again and again. The immense explosion always catching up with him, the giant tree always there. Ymir always running and looking back. Her green eyes full of desperation. He could never reach her in time.
And again.
"You let me drown," Ymir reminded her lover time and time again.
There was nothing he could do.
And again.
The boy had reached his limit, he finally understood: he stopped Jumping.
There was a thunderous noise that could be heard all over that area and beyond. A giant explosion, an inexplicable explosion arising from the heart of the forest.
Azzy was thrown very far in an impressive high trajectory. The explosion was intense and the fire burnt away a lot of his skin and some of his muscles. He hit many trees on his way down and also hit the ground extremely hard, which added to his list of injuries as it meant he broke quite a few bones.
The Original Titan was extremely large and it could be seen by anyone in and out of that forest. The boy couldn't see it however as his new eyeballs were still growing back - as his previous ones had been burnt away. Azymondeus' whole face had melted away, in fact. But he had no idea, he was exhausted from all that had just occurred and his brain wasn't functioning properly yet.
The amount of energy he had spent had been so intense that even the Original Ackermann's extreme rapid healing factor was impaired. Az tried to raise himself up, but he had no strength to do so; so he just slowly crawled over the dust.
There were a few villagers in that part of the woods, like many others, they were curious to see the big monster up close. They noticed the person crawling somewhere further in front of them and decided to investigate; the group expected it to be a victim from that explosion, so they wanted to help the poor soul.
They approached to see a horrid sight.
It was a hideous creature. Dressed in burnt rags, with red muscle and white bones sticking out and a mixture of its red blood and entrails and that strange otherworldly blue energy coming out of its insides. And credit for said blue energy for it was rapidly stopping any more blood loss and quickly patching up the Ackermann from his inside to his outside. Of course, any human healing could never be so proficient, he'd be dead otherwise.
It also had no face, no eyes, but it seemed to be very much alive: truly a creature from nightmares.
"Devil!" They screamed. "Devil!" the group kept screaming loudly as they ran away very fast.
Azzy couldn't hear them of course, for his ears hadn't healed back either. So for the rest of his life, he had no idea where his nickname originated from.
He eventually stopped near a tree, and laid his head gently over the large trunk; panting. He needed a little time to heal. Azzy concentrated on his lungs and his eyesight, the more important things he needed at the moment. The time traveller tried to find peace within, he needed his mind to stop spiralling so his healing could work properly.
Az thought of his mobile swirling over his crib, it was one of his earliest memories. The thought of it made him smile. The sweet noise it made as it gently swirled with the winds, and also the noise and smell of the ocean. He remembered his mother's warmth and his sister's laugh. Azzy thought back to his toddler self collecting small seashells on their lighthouse shores; his father's gentle smile. All things that were close to his heart, his loving memories. He thought of Ymir's bright green eyes, and also other lovely eyes: Az saw a small baby boy with curious big blue eyes, same as his.
It felt as if his own eyes were staring intensely back at him. Azzy tilted his head in confusion as his eyeballs slowly grew back into his eye sockets. "Where did that came from?" the teenager questioned. He couldn't place that particular memory anywhere.
The young Ackermann continued to run through the woods. He wanted to go back to where all had begun.
"Devil!" he heard in the distance. "The devil is in the woods!" he could see some of the villagers telling others and those others than passing this information further. He could see a much bigger huddle of villagers down the forest, closer to where he intended to go. The curious people were all gathering closer to the explosion site, and this was a problem.
Azzy was starting to think of a way of getting to the girl again. He looked down his arms: his regeneration was almost complete. He had skin now, most of his body anyway, and he was considering Jumping once more. "Devil!" The villagers continued to pass the information down. Azzy tilted his head. "What are they talking about?" he questioned, baffled.
There was someone else walking near him in those woods: a brave and very famous warrior, who also happened to hear all those villagers' cries about this devil lurking in the woods. They had seemed to have connected this giant monster and all the fire and explosion and now this devilish appearance with the end of days.
Ludvík quietly walked with his sword raised, looking around for any signs of anything unusual. Everything was quiet, until he heard the sound of old leaves breaking.
The boy was focusing on plotting a way to get back to his girl, he knew she needed him more than ever now. Azzy was so distracted with his own thoughts that he didn't even notice the Ackermann closing in behind the tree he was leaning over. Ludvík swiftly grabbed the teenager by his badly scorched collar.
"What are you-" the eldian warrior stopped himself mid-question. He was horrified to see the boy's face: half of it was still melted into the bone, just as the fire of the explosion had left it. For Azzy did not prioritise the healing of his facial features, cosmetic adjustments weren't as crucial as life support organs.
The boy looked at the old soldier with scared eyes. The Ackermann had really gotten him by surprise. Ludvík saw how that otherworldly blue energy shone from under the boy's bones, muscle and skin as it was slowly sewing his face back together. Ludvík would never forget that face. He recognised that glowing light, it was as if those cursed glowing rocks from long ago had now made themselves look human. The man was frozen.
The younger Ackermann took the opportunity and quickly overtook the giant-sized warrior. Az removed Ludvík's hands from his collar and shoved the man - who was twice his size - quite a distance. Lud landed against an old trunk and over many old leaves, that rose up in the air with the dust as the impact of that giant's fall had been a great one.
Ludvík was confused as the dust got into his eyes. He knew immediately that boy wasn't human, not after that show of his otherworldly strength. Of course, the old Ackermann himself was extremely strong, and he definitely was not used to being overtaken by a small teenager. As the man tried to find his bearings again, still cleaning dust from his eyes, Azzy took the opportunity and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Fleeing from the forest.
The irony of Azymondeus' first encounter with a person from the Ancient Era was great. For this would be the man to one day kill him. In thirteen years, Ludvík would make the gruesome decision to perform the ancient eldian ritual with that same teenage boy. And give his flesh as prize to his five sons. One day his sons would have all this power and strength too.
-.-
The boy ran across the forest, trying desperately to find his way out of it. Azzy was scared of people seeing him while regenerating, he knew it couldn't be a good thing. His uncle had warned him about it many times since he was very little. People are evil and he felt very vulnerable, specially with the way that strange soldier looked at him. He was afraid people would hurt him and try to get his powers some way. And he was very right to fear that, his uncle's warnings had served him well.
Azzy stopped near a flowing river, and leaned closer to the margin, trying to see his reflection. He passed his hands around his face and looked down to his arms, torso and legs. It seems he had finally regenerated, so he proceeded with his rapid running, to leave the forest.
Once he reached the tracks of a dirt road, near an open field, Azzy could finally see beyond the giant trees. He gently walked backwards, looking to the top of the forest, to see the gigantic form of the Original Titan slowly appearing in the distance as he proceeded to walk backwards. The Titan was enormous, much much taller than the tallest trees surrounding it, it was an impressive sight.
"Oh," the boy let out. He finally connected the dots of what had happened. Azzy could also tell the Titan was badly formed and it seemed confused. It just stood there, motionless. "I forgot you were one of them," Azzy let out, reminding himself that the 'princess' was obviously from the Royal Fritz Line. "You probably don't know it either," Az concluded. "You must be terrified."
He was ready to build up his energy again: all fully regenerated. 'I'm getting you out of there,' Azzy thought. Readying himself and looking closely to the giant thing in the distance - analysing the Titan structure so as to be sure of where he should land. He was ready to jump. Ready to save the girl.
The boy was so concentrated that he didn't notice, or didn't pay enough attention to the cart coming down the road, and the odd people riding it. The carriage was speeding up quite fast and the experienced trader quickly reached out with his odd contraption and trapped the boy by the neck.
-.-
Fire was everywhere near the area where the Titan had transformed. The villagers were terrified but they also couldn't help but watch, it wasn't everyday something like that occurred. The otherworldly creature wasn't moving but the eldian soldiers were already swarming it, trying to trap it as they would trap any big animal. Of course, they never had to trap something that big, so they were a little out of their wheelhouse.
- Vengeance
One of the Ackermann boys, in fact, the oldest one, made the decision to kill the beast. He thought it was better than to threaten their village with that immense creature. For now, the thing remained motionless, but they couldn't be sure if it would just remain this way. The risk was too great, the thing was unknown and unpredictable.
So, the twenty-year-old expertly climbed the thing's neck, Axl was very daring. He looked down to his brothers with a smirk; they were climbing the thing as well, but he was the fastest, most enduring and strongest one.
He went around trying to cut the throat of the creature, struggling with the intense heat. The young soldier got some bad burns out of that, but he was more concerned with the creature's reaction.
The reaction wasn't what it was expected, the creature didn't get agitated with that sword going through its throat, no, not even a little bit. It just remained in that same strange state, almost like it was in a trance. But they all got scared when the thing moved slightly and the young Ackermann soldier raised his eyebrows, he wasn't expecting to see that. What a surprise: the little slave girl came out of the thing's nape.
He went over and she looked up at him for a moment, still in a slight trance. Ymir closed her eyes again, she was exhausted. The girl lost consciousness as the Ackermann pulled her out completely out of those Titan fibres. And once she was disconnected completely from the Titan, the whole thing came crashing down, destroying even more of the forest.
Axl came over proudly as he and his brothers showed the rest of the eldian soldiers and to the Chief how they had found the tiny girl responsible for all that Titan mess.
Fritz looked at the small slave girl very contemplative. He knew she had been the girl found in the woods all those nine years ago, only a few days after his last ritual.
"Put her in a cage," the Chief ordered.
-.-
"Where were you, dad? You missed all the fun," Klaus turned to ask his father. Ludvík was coming from the woods, walking slowly and with his head down; he seemed distracted and slightly frightened. The old warrior raised his head to see all the commotion with the soldiers and the more curious villagers.
"Ah, Ludvík!" Fritz raised his hand as he stood closer to the cage, calling his right hand man. He too had been wondering where Ludvík was.
"Watch her," Tara ordered to Elke, her only daughter. "Closely," the Chieftess added.
Ymir was still passed out, completely unconscious. She slept with hands holding her knees - in a fetal position, which made her seem even smaller in the giant animal cage they had locked her in. The cage was made of wood and metal and was on top of a large cart, but at the moment, not attached to any horses; for it was one of the cages they used to transport cows and other big animals.
Ludvík approached, trying to understand the scenery, he too could recognise the slave girl as the one child from the woods.
Fritz took him to the side. "I know who bought her," the Chief tried to remember. "The reclusive one, that unlucky chap," he added.
"Yes, I know who you mean," Lud replied. "The young widower."
"Right." The Chief looked towards the small slave girl in the cage, analysing her. "I think he pampered her too much," he considered. "But perhaps some good can come of that." Fritz was already forming his plan. He needed a way to control this new monster.
"Do you know where his troop is? Are they already returning?" the Chief questioned.
"Probably, most of the troops are returning, or have already returned. I could check," Lud replied while scratching his head.
"No, not just check. You can do better than that," Fritz told him while raising his eyebrows suggestively.
They both looked back towards the cage.
Ludvík tilted his head. "Understood," he replied.
-.-
The boy woke up with a shock. He had been knocked unconscious after the slave trader violently grabbed him from the side of the road. The trader had grabbed him by the neck with a makeshift iron lasso and had thrown him violently inside the cart. Azzy remembered hitting his head on the dirty wooden floor of that cart, but he woke up sitting down, not lying as he were. Azzy felt confused. He looked around to see a couple of dozen people sitting in that large cart as well, all tied with iron chains.
The slave trade was a lucrative market at that time and these traders had a good business by kidnaping random people to be sold. The boy knew instantly he wouldn't be staying there, Azzy hated being trapped. It was a shame for he had just regenerated, but he quickly broke his hand bones and swiftly removed the metal chains. To the surprise and fear of the people sitting around him.
Azzy swiftly stood up, as all those unfortunate and weak people looked up at him in pure confusion.
The boy came over rapidly and without warning and hit one of the men at the front violently in the head with the metal chain that he held with his right hand; and shoved that trader out of the side of the moving vehicle. All while taking the leashes from the men and wrapping it around the second trader's neck with his left hand. Az pulled him down by the leashes, choking him violently and the man then fell in between the horses, to then rapidly be run over by the wooden cart - which helped the thing to slow down.
The horses came to a halt and Azzy swiftly came down from the carriage. He wasn't done yet. He walked to the men as the unfortunate people watched, scared and confused. The young Ackermann swiftly snapped the neck of the man that had fallen further away in the trail and then started looking through his clothes. The boy seemed disappointed, so he leisurely walked back, in the direction of the second.
He first kicked the man's head with his inhuman strength. Azzy let out a small laugh. "This one was already dead," he added comically to the frightened and chained people and they just maintained their scared looks. "Right, you probably have no idea of what I'm saying," Azzy concluded. They didn't speak the same language after all. He then proceeded to go through this second trader's jacket.
"There you go," the young Ackermann swiftly threw the keys to one of the poor, chained men. He made a hand gesture around his wrists, as if showing them they should unlock the chains with those keys. "You are free now," Azzy added before turning back and walking away, and he walked with open arms for a moment. 'Free,' he thought.
"Where am I?" The boy stopped and questioned, after a while. He had no idea of how far he was from that initial forest.
The young Ackermann noted that the people he had just freed started to run in the opposite direction from where he had decided to go as soon as they released themselves from those chains.
"Huh," he wondered why for a moment but he kept walking the way he had previously decided anyway. He would soon realise this had been a very bad decision.
Not even a kilometer down the road and Azzy found out what scared those poor people more than the slave traders. He had just stumbled upon a giant Marlean camping site. Hundreds if not thousands of soldiers camping, just waiting for their next campaign.
"What are you doing here?" One of the sentinels asked, sneering.
The giant man looked the boy up and down, analysing him with some disdain. The teenager was wearing badly scorched clothes and melted down boots. But he could tell the boy wasn't burnt himself, it looked like he was just poor and had stolen those clothes from a dead man.
Azzy couldn't understand what the man was asking, this was an ancient marlean language that would only last a couple hundred more years, for a lot of the marlean culture would be completely eradicated by the now rising Eldian Empire.
The soldiers quickly huddled around the teenager, surrounding him to a point he could not run, he couldn't escape. They all looked at him, laughing to each other and saying words he couldn't understand. The boy was trapped. Azzy was feeling very threatened now and his Ackermann instincts started to build inside his entrails. He swiftly grabbed the sword of a slow soldier next to him and raised it, showing he was ready to defend himself. So all the soldiers surrounding him raised their swords as well, showing they were ready to attack. And the bloodbath began.
-.-
"He killed fifty men," One of the advisers told the General as they brought the boy to him. "In only a few minutes," the adviser added.
Azzy was drenched in blood and he looked at the old man with some disdain and anger. "Impressive," Severus congratulated the teenager.
"We could send him to the arena," another adviser suggested more quietly to the General. The whole thing had been very entertaining for them to watch.
But Severus just raised his hand in a dismissive manner and turned to focus on the boy again. "You must be feeling very tired," the General suggested and the boy said nothing, he just looked like he was about to eat the old man's soul. "Or perhaps you're not," Severus retracted. "Release him from the chains," the General ordered.
And the soldiers all looked concerned, it had taken a lot to take that teenage boy down. "I know what I'm doing," Severus added firmly and they obeyed, reluctantly.
Azzy was confused. He was having a hard time trying to read that room without knowing what they were saying, but he was also intrigued by that old general.
They released his chains and he stood there, looking around the room. The men were all scared. "Come on," Severus said to him while gesturing with his hand and Azzy followed him.
"You were lucky to catch me during my dinner time," the General added as they arrived in the next room to see a beautiful and luxurious table, bursting with all kinds of meats and cheeses and fruits.
Severus threw one of the towels at the teenager and he swiftly caught it. "Clean your face, we are about to eat," the General added while making the motion with his own hands and face. And Azzy clearly understood, he had forgotten how he was drenched in blood.
They both sat down at the table, it was all very quiet and a little awkward for a moment.
"By the way you killed those men, so brutally and uncoordinated, you must be from one of those savage small villages here in the north," the General concluded and proceeded. "An eldian, perhaps?" he questioned while drinking some of his vintage wine.
Azzy couldn't understand much of what they said, but he understood that one word. And he shook his head negatively. He knew he shouldn't admit where he was from, it wouldn't be wise.
Severus tilted his head, analysing him. He then decided to pour the boy some of his expensive wine. "I think you have a lot of potential. You could serve us well," the General began to argue as he gave the teenager the glass. "I'd rather be friends than enemies with the likes of you," Severus raised his glass. "Friends?" he proposed.
"Friends," Azzy repeated, perfectly imitating his accent.
"See? You are already learning." The General replied with a fatherly smile.
-.-
Elke hit on the metal bars with anger, to scare the slave girl. "I know you can talk," she proceeded in a threatening tone. "You have your tongue."
Ymir was very quiet ever since she woke up. She was scared but she was also very stoic, just like she would act with those annoying neighbours. The small girl just sat very quietly, with her hands on her knees, reflecting about everything. She had a lot more memories now and a lot to think about. The girl was now connected to the paths of that cursed dimension and she was starting to see the world very differently.
"Tell us how you conjured the beast!" Torin exclaimed, more softly but still in an equally aggressive and authoritarian tone as his twin.
"Ah! Imagine being up there," Torr thought out loud, crossing his arms and leaning his back on the metal bars of the cage. "High up in the sky," he continued while staring up at the open skies. "It must be quite a view."
"People must look like ants," Torin added in wonder, while staring viciously at the slave girl inside the cage.
Torr looked down at him with a smirk. "You look like an ant from up here," he joked. Although two years younger than his brother, Torr had already passed Torin's height by a lot.
"What?" The firstborn asked back in anger.
"Calm down, shorty," Torr replied, caressing the top of Torin's head in mockery.
Torin wasn't a short man, he was above average and the same height as their father. But Torr was already a giant, he towered over his brothers - and he hadn't finished growing yet.
"How dare you?" Torin exclaimed and shoved him with much force.
Torr fell backwards, slightly hitting Jari and Osmond. "Hey!" Jari exclaimed, indignantly.
"Guys, come on," Osmond tried to appease his older brothers. Torr and Torin were about to fight.
"Stop it," Elke ordered, holding her twin's shoulder. "Both of you." She added while staring Torr down as well. "You are getting too old to still act like children," the sister argued. Although still teenagers, the twins were already nineteen and Torr was seventeen.
"Even those two already act more mature than you," Elke argued while pointing to the younger teenagers: Jari and Osmond.
Jari was fifteen and Osmond was fourteen, ages that Elke considered more probable to present this kind of behaviour, but as she had argued, the younger teenagers did not bicker like their older brothers did.
'Idiots,' Ymir thought. She had to watch those idiot siblings arguing and bickering about senseless things. She thought very little of them.
"Will the monster come back to get us, mummy?" Ymir overheard the small boy ask to his mother. She turned her head to watch that instead.
"No, darling, the monster is gone," Tara told her smallest boy very softly, as she finished feeding him some berries. "Go play with your brother," she told the seven-year-old Tait, pointing at her second smallest child. And Dorian looked back at Tait with some disdain, crossing his arms. He was reluctant to play with his younger brother.
"Dorian," Tara warned in an admonishing tone. "Go," she quietly mouthed to Tait and kissed him on the top of the head.
The two smaller boys went over to play closer to the twins, Ralph and Raleigh who were sword-fighting with their small wooden swords; further away from the cage.
"You spoil him," the father complained to her and Tara only rolled her eyes at her husband.
Fritz was inflating it, for they both spoiled their younger child equality, and he knew it. He just needed to have something to blame her for the day. They had been married for many years at this point.
"Where is Ludvík?" Tara questioned. And Fritz only gave her an evil smile.
The two parents stood there, near the cage, both side-eyeing the small slave girl inside it. And surrounded by the more curious villagers and most of the soldiers that had already returned from the last campaign.
"The monster will eat us, it will start by eating you," Tara overheard one of her smallest boys scaring the other unnecessarily. Dorian was even making scary faces at Tait. "Mummy!" The small boy yelled.
"Dorian!" Tara yelled in an admonishing tone again, for the boy to stop.
"No, no, no. Stop that." Fritz also started admonishing one of the small twins, as he walked over. Their play had transformed into a proper fight and Raleigh had Ralph in a headlock.
All while the teenagers were still bickering around, closer to the cage. Ymir was tired of all of them. 'Idiots,' she thought. She was starting to think her neighbours weren't so bad after all.
The night was following and the girl remained there, silent. Ymir hadn't had any form of interaction with the eldians outside. She was starting to loathe them more and more with each passing hour. For she hated being trapped.
Those first few weeks in that village - back when she was four and had just arrived in that strange world - had been terrifying to the small girl. Ymir carried that scar in her mind.
She had never left the farm to go to the village on her own before, she always went there with Signe. He was her protector. And she knew going to meet those savages on her own now would have ended in her being trapped again. Ymir expected that. From the moment the neighbours took her there to be judged by the Chief, Ymir knew she would end up in a cage somehow. The girl had been proven right, so, she stared them all down, with arms crossed. Ymir didn't say a word.
The eldian elders were all there, at the edge of the village, discussing what to do about the nightfall. They knew this small slave girl was dangerous and they couldn't just leave her unsupervised. The question was: who was going to stay with that monster in the darkness of the night.
Most of the curious villagers started to crack at sundown. They had been there all afternoon just watching this tiny girl stare back at them from her giant cage. All they wanted was to know her secrets. Was she really a witch? Or some kind of goddess? All she appeared to them was as a small and frail slave girl. How did she conjure that gigantic monster?
"Talk!" Some of the villagers started to yell. "Show us your power!" They insisted. "Tell the secrets!" Some of those annoyed and frustrated villagers and soldiers started to not only complain with their screams, they walked closer and started banging on the metal bars with their swords or other metal objects, to scare the small slave girl. "Tell us!" They yelled and banged louder and louder.
'They are going to overturn the cart,' the Fritzs and the village elders all thought, worriedly. The animal cage was still set on wheels and those villagers were putting too much weight on it from the side. They all yelled and banged on the metal, vexed.
Ymir was tired and annoyed with that incessant noise. She'd had enough. The girl rapidly stood up and ran towards the metal bars, confronting the idiots. All the eldians around quickly moved back, looking absolutely terrified by that girl's sudden movement. Some of the more coward villagers started to run away in fear the moment the girl stood up and reached the metal bars, but most of them just froze after walking only a couple of steps back.
There was sudden silence.
And Ymir started laughing maniacally. She thought hilarious of how those terrible people who had done her some much harm all those years ago; those brute devils in human disguise, were now absolutely terrified of her. Ymir laughed loudly. She dropped down on the cage with her joyous laugh. The irony was too funny for her.
The girl had tears of laughter, this had been the best joke of her life so far. Their terrified faces as she laughed just made her laugh even more. 'You are all a joke,' Ymir thought. 'Cowards in hiding.' She laughed. 'Weren't you so loud before?' Ymir questioned, they were all very quiet now.
She sat back down again and signed the word 'idiot' to them, with a smirk. Of course, none of those villagers understood. They just thought she was cursing them with her witchcraft.
"What we need is a priest," one of the elders suggested and the Fritzs could hear many in the crowd agreeing.
Tara could hear some of the villagers in the crowd start to mention Vékell and how he would know what to do if he were there. Many more agreeing and also telling others how they missed him and his wisdom. Tara looked back at Fritz with fiery angry eyes.
The mother had had enough.
"It's about time you all left," the Chieftess yelled firmly to the crowd.
She firmly walked towards the cage and stood in front of it. Fritz went to follow her, he wasn't sure of what she would do, as his wife could be very unpredictable sometimes.
"I'll stay with her," Tara declared and Fritz walked slightly forward raising his hands as if to make his next argument. The mother swiftly took her sword from her scabbard and directed it straight into the Chief's throat. Fritz stopped dead on his tracks, startled and still with hands raised.
"No one touches this girl," the Chieftess ordered very firmly. "You can all go," she maintained to the soldiers and the other villagers still in that area.
"Elke, you stay with me," she told her only daughter, and Elke gently nodded. This decision for Elke to stay was not only for the teenager to make her company in the night, but because the mother never trusted Fritz enough to leave him alone with their daughter. He was a deviant and sadistic man after all.
Tara and Elke stood in front of the cage as they watched the mob disperse. Fritz walked away with the boys last. For the night, the three women were alone at the edge of the forest.
Ymir couldn't sleep, but she pretended to, she instead quietly watched Tara sitting down there, firmly watching her only surviving daughter sound asleep. There was complete silence in that night, nothing beyond sudden gusts of wind and the random small cracks and flickers of the bonfire.
After a few hours, the sun was finally rising again and the Chieftess could see some movement in the village. Tara could tell her husband was walking back with the boys again, she could make out their figures forming in the distance.
She also noted the slave girl slightly moving, she could tell the girl was awake. Tara stood up quietly and started to observe the small slave girl more attentively. So far they hadn't been able to get through to her, perhaps they should have tried a more softer approach. Tara became more contemplative, considering it. She then started to walk closer to the cage.
Tara softly put her hands in the metal bars and started to talk to Ymir.
"You called me mother once," Tara said very softly. "I never forgot that."
Ymir turned to her with sad eyes, and a little more interest but quickly turned her head away again.
Tara continued. "When I found you in those woods, in that dark night." She reminded the small girl. "You were so alone and so frightened, so small." The mother justified: "I'm sorry we didn't keep you. But my husband has the nasty habit of sacrificing my younger girls," Tara added more brokenly. "I couldn't risk you too."
"That's not how you deal with wild creatures, dear," Fritz interjected in a softer tone as well, as he stood next to his wife, leaning over the metal bars.
"You do know well how to deal with wild creatures," Tara reminded him in disdain. She knew her husband to have a deviant interest towards animals.
Fritz smiled evilly and came closer, to whisper in the Chieftess' ear. "That's how you deal with wild creatures," he told her in a very small and quiet whisper.
"Mama, look!" Dorian exclaimed, the nine-year-old pointed into the distance.
Tara turned to see Ludvík finally arriving back, entering the village in the far distance. And his older sons following him, carrying a corpse in a small cart. The body was respectfully covered by a white sheet, just as it was customary for any fallen soldier.
Some of the villagers were already gathering again as the Ackermanns slowly made their return. They were getting closer to the forest edge now, so they stopped in the open field and started to remove the body from the cart. Ymir stood up inside the cage, she slowly walked forward, placing her small hands on the metal bars. She watched the proceedings attentively and with this horrible eerie feeling in her entrails.
"I'm sorry my dear," Fritz told her, leaning closer to the bars. And Ymir looked down at him with fear in her eyes. Ymir looked up into the distance again, her eyes fixed on the corpse under the white sheet, her hands anxiously holding the metal bars.
"This battle was truly a tough one," Fritz proceeded. "My condolences," he added, callously, and Ymir immediately understood: that was Signe.
Her eyes were speaking for her. The Chief could tell her desperation and he couldn't hide the joy in his face.
"Open the cage," Fritz ordered. And the eldian soldiers finally did.
The gate swung open and the girl ran out desperately.
Ymir reached the field and dropped down near the body, she removed the sheet, already crying. Signe was lifeless, with a giant and horrid scar through his throat. The girl became more desperate, she cried immensely but also quietly. Ymir felt lifeless as well.
She held him in her arms, and cried, she just cried. Ymir remembered their last goodbye. She hadn't expected it to be their final one, she remembered his smile. Ymir cried even more.
"Father," she said softly as she held Signe. The first word Ymir spoke in those past nine years.
She held him close. 'Who did this to you, father?' The small girl questioned in her mind, horrified.
Fritz and Ludvík were walking closer but quietly so to not disturb the girl in her grieving moment. Fritz slowly and softly kneeled down, to speak to the girl as she held her father's corpse.
"He was an amazing man. A good soldier," the Chief declared passionately and Ymir looked up at him. "This is truly a tragedy. And it is not the first nor it will be the last. This cursed Marlean Empire has taken many lives, many fathers," he proceeded as the girl gave him her full attention. Ymir looked down at her father again and caressed his hair, lovingly and in pure grief.
"They were the ones who killed him," Fritz proceeded, telling the girl what she wanted to know: the culprits. Now she had a target. "As long as they are around, dominating this world, there will be more deaths. More and more deaths. But you - you can do a lot," Fritz argued. He had finally gotten to what he wanted: "You, with all this power. You can destroy them all. You can kill them all."
Fritz smirked at her, evilly. "You can have your vengeance," he told the girl.
'I will.' Ymir thought. 'I will kill them all.'
She nodded to Fritz with fiery eyes.
The Chief stood up. He walked into Ludvík's direction with a wide smile on his face. He came over as his friend just seemed guilty and a little confused with his expression. Fritz stood near Ludvík as they both watched the small girl grieve over that corpse. Ymir seemed devastated but also getting increasingly angry, Fritz was very glad to see his whole plan work.
He leaned over towards Ludvík so as to expertly explain.
"That's how we create a monster," Fritz gloated.
-.-
[ to be continued... ]
