Speech = ``...´´
Thoughts = [... ]
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Dolion was not sure what was going on…, it was not unheard to go in deep silence in the cults operations network.
They were everywhere and with so many operators and cells doing their own things, though rare, it was not impossible for everyone trying to keep things down for a bit. Not like he was high enough in the status to know much at all…
Not after being demoted thanks to that bitter old man once he fell from grace from the Rounds.
He clenched his fist, the memory was still bitter to him.
From being stationed in the city of Laugus to be thrown here in the Midgard kingdoms wilds as a mere runt...all while Lutheran got to still stay there even when he lost the seat at the high table.
This was not a perceived insult.
It was one.
The old man had screwed him over as if it was his own fault that he became sick…, well, perhaps….if he had found out that he had been bought to poison him that is, but if that was the case...it was surprising that he still drew breath instead of lingering without direction in the wilds.
The Knights of the rounds were a backstabbing lot, and the Loki faction had offered a lot. Too much for him to deny and get away with his life when the very master of the faction reared their ugly head into his life.
In a sense he had been screwed either way.
Deny the offer and die.., no one liked a snitch.
Accept and possibly die…painfully most likely, but you could perhaps get something out of it.
He bristled at the memory like an old man when confronted with an old foe…
Damn them…
Damn them all and their schemes...
A good servant would have stood steadfast against all sort of temptations…, even if their lives would be forfeit in the process. When one chose to follow a round, one was meant to do it for life..or until said round was kicked out or died.
They were their paws…, the manifest of their wills and the cults goals. As such, they were the representatives of their prides.
He was not such thing…
He was a coward at heart.., craven and greedy, for he had been left starving for far too long….
Could he be blamed for it when he took his chance? When he threw the dice and accepted to carry out the deal? No…, he knew that anyone else in his position would have done the same. They had been groom up from the dirt to be competitive above all things, to stand over the corpses of their fellow rejects, the climb...it was all that they believed, all that it was engraved into their brains.
To serve..
To fight..
To serve..
To fight..
Always for their betters, for the end goal, for the new world to come, and so….. this was no different.
It was not like they fulfilled any of their promises anyway, which he should have see coming a mile away. And yet the sting of the deceit and later discarded of his uses was still there, eating him inside…
He clenched his jaw, balling his hands into fists.
By all means he should have been grateful to be alive…, but he was not. There was nothing to be grateful for...
He had been taught to do one thing. ONE thing only! Which he had done with zeal. Dutifully dedicated himself to the cause. Throwing under the rug his own vile betrayal...
That was his duty…
His debt…
And what his service to Sir Gaunt granted him..? Ridicule and empty promises as the man was more focused on his own private investigations that he had not shared with even his shadow. What had Loki given him for his troubles? Nothing….nothing but shoving him out from the board, perhaps hoping to use him later on...
He could only grind his teeth, frustrated...
Did a blade cry out in frustration when it was tossed aside in the shaft when the promise of blood was so close? Was it appeased if promised for future use..?
It probably was the case…
Tools were meant to be used, that was their whole point for existence...to discard them with no thought in mind was borderline criminal.
Surely he was not the only one thinking this way...
So why should he have to languish working with bandits..!? Fuck, life wasn't kind to even a first child.
Even if he got away to draw another breath, this was just too lowly for the likes of him. Bandits were also a lowly bunch of company to have. Weak and useless...he was sure he could run rings all around them and they would not realize what was going on.
Sadly, he was meant to keep at least a few meat-shields with him...if only for appearances.
But no, even if it galled him... the silence of his superiors was not what bothered him at this given moment, or the endless chatter of the people he was force to drag from one place to another, or just the humming sound of his teeth grinding against one another.
It was the silence of the countryside that was startling him.
It was…, it was just devoid of life.
No other bandit gangs to mile the area…, no birds singing or the barks of dogs or wolfs. No sound of distant carriages going by the dirt paths carved into the ground.
Vast fields of lustful green and dark, shaded forest that only offered the soft descending sound of leafs falling down or the way branches creaked under their boots to fill anything in their way.
It was all empty.
Where..where was everything? Where was everybody..? True, he had not dared wander too close to actual towns or counties where the nobles and their personal armies resided, though he knew his bang of misfits would at least be able to take on some of them for a time.
But here…? At least there should have been at least a minimum of activity in the country side..
Yeah, he had known there had been a storm...a big one at that, such things were capable of pulling trees from their roots and flattening even buildings into pancakes…, but this was getting ridiculous.
He had tried to ignore it, and yet what vexed him continued on…, until they reached the outskirts of a ruined town.
It wasn't much, broken and desolated as it was..it didn't offer much but the very bones of what could have been a boring town in the middle of nowhere. Finding it had appeared to be a strike of luck, but what could it offer to men of action..? To him?
Nothing but boredom…
Still, caution demanded a careful handling of the situation. Abandoned or not, the last thing he wanted to deal with was ghosts to suck his soul form his marrow bones..or a nest of monsters to chew at his flesh.
Sending a party ahead was not just a good idea, it was the most sensible choice. Cultist now turned bandit may have been a downgrade of his abilities, that did not mean he had not forgotten what he had been taught...
And yet.., he had not heard anything that would suggest that such events may have taken part...
It was, if nothing else...a silent affair.
Strange.
Very strange indeed…, a matter that was made him ponder about it.
Could they be alive? Had they become too lost in their own wandering that they had not realized how late it was getting. Was he just becoming overly paranoid after all those strange events occurring around him?
There were too many questions and he had no answers to give to put those thoughts to rest, which only lead him to one conclusion. Enter the town itself and find out…
That was the first mistake.
The town, just as he expected… was deader than a door-nail, broken wreckage everywhere, the skeleton of countless buildings hanging by a thread under the cool nigh breeze. But alas... no sight of his men or even the sound of their meaningless chatter.
Bereft of no signs of battle that could tell what happened. Instead...they found something far more interesting.
If not more bizarre...
A girl.
A little, adorable looking girl...
Standing tall, and giving them her back in the middle of the road leading to the center of the town was a small, blonde haired girl. The stiff and elongated ears attached to her head speaking of her true heritage.
He blinked in confusion, then amusement as he took in her form. Dressed in a simple yet eye catching dress, not so dissimilar with those of a small ranked noble or an enriched peasant. Not questioning why would someone like her be doing there in the middle of the nigh in this forsaken place and deciding instead to approach.
That was his second mistake.
His eyes squinted in contemplation, a strange sensation of wrongness trying to settle down in his senses. Focused on the elf as he was and wondering what was going on one of his men, with more balls than sense approached the girl…
``Hey girly, what are you doing here in your lonesome? Star gazing? Well, I do have something worth looking after..´´
Everyone around him started to chuckle at the crude joke, as if it was actually funny. She however did not respond. She did not move, did not flinch. Her golden mane continued to float in the air each time the wind tried to toy with it.
Dolion started to reach out for his blade, graving the handle, his hand clenching it tightly. Something felt terribly wrong about this scene playing before him, he trusted his guts to warn him of danger, but...but what could it be this time? He had tried looking around, taking glimpses of their surroundings in case something or someone was encroaching on them while their attention was focused on something else.
But there was nothing, just more shadows and debris...the clouds covering the moo casting their surroundings in an even more shrouded darkness..
There was nothing that could harm them, technically speaking..and yet, for some reason the bitter sensations of fear crawling through his skin continued to grow. Clawing, chewing, poking at him from within…
And it was coming much to his surprise from the lone figure of that little girl.
…
He pulled the sword...
How...?
Why..?
``Hey! Didn't you hear me!? Or are you just deaf..?´´
The voice idiot number one almost brought him out of it, a fleeting mercy perhaps, had he not immediately taking notice of the annoyed expression now warped on the bald mans head now that his stupid smirk was gone. When fools believed they were slighted, whether it be by real or imaginary reasons...they could only do poor choices.
He knew what the idiot would do next, she however did not answer much to his surprise, though by now he should have come to expect it. Silent and still like a statue whose looks were too much lifelike than even the gods themselves could even manage to craft.
``You think that silent crap makes you tough!? Bah! Let me show you girl what passes for toughness among Real men..´´
And without waiting for any sort of answer he lunged forward his left hand and graved her right shoulder. His callous, dirty hand landing on the soft, velvet like fabric...
Dolion felt something shifted in the air, a change in the mood that he couldn't quite get right…, but in that very moment he felt a surge of realization struck him from nowhere.
This was bad…
This was very bad.
Like witnessing a few brats tossing rocks into a pond where a vicious monsters nest laid underneath, counting the seconds before one of those rocks would draw the wrong kind of attention. Only that this time around the monster may not have enough with chewing the bones of the first bunch of brats.
He took a step forward, raise his sword up before he stretched his other towards the idiot. He tried to call him, to warn him..
In the next following seconds he found himself staring at the fallen form of the still shrieking idiot who held on onto dear life to the bleeding stump where his hand had been before while the elf remained deaf to his screams..
Dolion blinked, confused… like everyone else not understanding how that had come to pass. How did she do that without seemingly moving at all..? From where did that sword came from..?
By the time he blinked again the mans right and left arm had fallen down into the floor as he was some sort of wooden toy which limbs were being picked and pulled apart.., the cuts too clean, too quick and nimble to see them.
Then his head fell down with a soft thud into the soil.
He bit his tongue, feeling the copper taste of iron reach his mouth. She was fast…
She was really fast…, like a first child..perhaps even higher.
Was the cult making warriors out of the other species already? Had they sent her here to hunt him down? Was Loki cleaning loose ends or was his former Knight wishing for his head to be sent in silver platter and she was the one sent to deliver..?
He took a step back.
He didn't know…, the only thing that was clear to see was that she was trouble. He had no plans in dying here today either.
He took a briefly glimpse on the faces of the men around him. They were startled, shocked, fearful...their simple minds not yet registering how their fellow idiot had just died.
Dammit! That was not a good sign-...
Only then did he realized what he had felt a miss in this idyllic picture that had stood before him, something that he had mistaken by rubble under the shadows cast over them by the ruins around them given that their whole attention was mostly settled in the small, pretty looking elf standing still in the middle of the road.
He did not need to smell its iron, coppery scent to know what he was staring at.
Bodies…
A fucking lot of them...
Torn apart into oblivion, cut to ribbons that they appeared more like sushi rather than former, living breathing men. Their guts and gore splattered all over the ground and walls of what used to be homes. Their faces marred with the horrified expressions of agony and terror that not even death had managed to shake off.
Cold sweat started to trail down his forehead, sliding down his skin and into his chin. He found it a little hard to breath.
``What the actual fuck….?´´
He could not help but curse through his teeth in fright, his eyes bulging as more and more corpses appeared before him now that he was actively searching for them. The white in their eyes stuck in one point, gazing at their direction. Looking at him in silent condemn...
He took a second step back, his body feeling numb.
Those men, they were the vanguard of his group….the one he had sent ahead so that they could get a grasp of anything useful in this little ghost town before they tried to settle in for a time.
She had killed them all..!? How!? Was that even possible...!?
There had not been any sound whatsoever, no alarm or scream of pain. True, he and the rest of the boys were not precisely close by when their fighting may have taken place, but they were not that far away either!
Did that mean that she had killed them before they could fight back!? Was she just that fast..!? The image of idiot number one being sliced into pieces came by for a moment, souring his mood even further.
He took another step back, having a little trouble to breath.
It was a dreadful thought to consider…, to believe that..that "things" could even be possible.
He shook his head, no..., that could not be. The idiots had to have found a treasure of drinks and got drunk out of their asses. Easy picking for even a little girl with a sword.
[Yeah, that has to be it...she was just lucky and with some quick thinking and a nimble hand managed to dispatch many times her number. She truly had been lucky..and with her childish appearance perhaps even more.
Besides, how dangerous could she really be..? Ignoring everything he had witnessed of course. It was not like she can crush a man skull with her bare hands…right? Right?
Yeah, that made a lot more sense in his mind…
He almost wanted to pat the back of his head and laugh a bit at how stupid he must have looked just a few moments ago. He? Scared of a little girl? Ha! Not even in a million years..
Balling his hands into fist and grinning wickedly he took step forward. Gesturing the rest of his men to approach as-well. Making them feel more embolden by it.
``Nice trick girl, you really gave a scare just now….but the games are over.
She cocked her head to the side, her left ear twitching slightly.
``Yeah, you heard me. So why don't you drop that sword and come with us? You really don't want to get cut...it would be bad for business. Besides, you got that idiot and everyone else I sent before killed...so don't expect kindness from me or the boys..´´
At that some of his men chuckled as they started to approach the girl from various directions. Weapons drawn, muscles tensing, yet their composure was a bit lay back. After all, it was just a simple little elf-ling that stood in-front of them…, nothing they could not really deal with, right? Right..?
One word made him stumble on his own thoughts.
``Pathetic….´´
Soft spoken, yet no less filled with seething disrespect and dismay which was not aimed at anyone in particular. And yet he felt them claw at his heart.
He blinked, once..then twice, taking him more than a moment to realize that it was the girl who had spoken just now. Realizing in that very moment, that he had not heard her since they had set their eyes towards her...
``What..?´´
``Is that all you have to say? The same weak minded dribble from your fellow murderers and thief's..? Your lies and foolish trickery would not deceive a child..´´
He did not know why, but he had the feeling that her lips had pursed downwards in a frown.
``Lie, cheat, steal...murder…..that is all you do, all you will be able to do. How many souls have you thrown down the pits of hell because of your wickedness? Hundreds? Thousands..?´´
``What is it to you...´´
He did not know why did he answer, but the words just slip through his mouth before he realized, a lapse of judgment most likely...
She however remained silent, tilting her head to the side. The wait was agonizing...
``Everything….and nothing.
He blinked in confusion. What sort of answer was that..? How could someone speak with such vitriol about a group of bandits actions..and then say that you do and don't care at the same time with such honesty in your voice..?
Something was wrong...or he was not understanding something.
`` It doesn't matter.…, because it ends here. Your tale ends now…´´
``Hey! Who do you think you are brat!? You may deceive the eyes, but your voices betray your true nature...´´
One of his men snapped out in outrage, but he may have been speaking to a wall for she did not even flinch, her body did not sagged or tensed in anticipation of what may be the fight for her life.
She just... stood there…
The silence between her words growing heavy, even loud to his own senses. Wrong..as if she was the silence. And even in this, her desire to drawn them out was almost deafening. A malicious blood-lust which ran off the petite little girl like water running from a spring.
And like water, it was filling the area around them, subsuming anyone else in an aura of menace that made even the steadfast of them shiver and second guess.
His sword started to feel heavy in his hands, his fingers numb and unresponsive. His mind starting to go out in a holiday when he was almost made to believe he heard her sighing.
``It seems that you refuse to pull off this charade…, how unbecoming..even for a bunch of unhinged demon cultists such as yourselves. I expected more...´´
``Wait, wha-how did you...´´
His words died out in his throat when she rose her sword wielding hand to the side, energy starting to trickle and flow through the whole length. Not staining the cold edge of steel in bright red..which though dangerous as it was, it was the norm when pouring ones own magic into a weapon of sorts.
This was not the case.
This was far darker…
A purplish, blue like ethereal glow given birth through the very connection of her hands to the pommel and illuminated the area around them in a cold, freezing light that threatened to claw its way through the air.
To look at it felt wrong, painful...as if the very colors were clawing at his retina and chewing them up. He was not alone in that thought when he heard the following groans of discomfort of his men.
And yet...he could not help but feel the raw exotic beauty it exuded.
``Like vermin, it doesn't take much to draw you out from whatever stink hole you came….it makes my work much more easier...for nothing but ashes will remain´´
A bad feeling started to dawn on him as he felt the ice of her voice crawl into his skull. The apathy seething through those lips he could not see depicting something that should not be a mere, young and afraid little girl..
Like a blade in the dark, a distant yet ever closing howling of a monster he could not see, a darkness that threaten to swallow him whole...his stomach could not help but tie itself into knots.
``Your...work?´´
He really did not know how such a simple word was capable to startled him that much.
He did not notice the way her grip on her sword grew tighter…
He did not realize the way her hair started to glow a little more brighter, and it was not the moonlight shining above their heads.
``Your sins...you will pay for each and every one of them you have committed. Those who you have stolen from, hurt and killed for your wicked goals. You will all burn and be condemn to the fires of damnation to be judged in his name...´´
It was then that she turned around…
Whatever thoughts may have been brewing inside were quickly dispelled like morning fog when he took a good look at the little elf face. And the first thought that came to mind was…
That was not an elf.
Not with those red, glowing like lines that were more akin to living, breathing tattoos warping all over her exposed skin which was now more pale than fresh spilled snow. Eyes glimmering with the glow of twin burning suns, yet only served to freeze his blood in the spot.
Eyes filled with anger and righteous fury...
He took a step back, something which she noticed as she barely cocked her head to the side. Her lips stiff, yet slowly receding to reveal a toothy, fanged grin..that reminded him more like the razor sharp teeth of a shark.
If he had not been trembling before, he definitely was now.
[Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck….]
``Wh-at the hell is that thing?´´
``Boss, has you seen anything like it?´´
``Is that even an elf?´´
The voices of his men started to ring out all around him, for just like him, they were startled by the reveal of the elf not very elf like girl they were about to handle. And though they were in either need of directions or words of reassurance he could not care two shits about what they were talking about.
He had not lived this long without realizing two things when it came to the life of a bandit or a member of the cult: When he was outmatched... and when it was the time to get the fuck out.
And right now it was both of them.
So he did the next best thing he could do. Allow others to deal with the problem…
``You idiots, she is clearly using magic to alter her appearance, don't stand there fumbling like idiots and do something about it!´´
He snapped more liked barked at the men around him, hoping to gall their attention away from that witch and towards him. And they did…
They stared at him as if he had grown a second head, doubt in their eyes...then they switched their attention back to the elf, then back to him, then back to her..
Each time a change could be spotted in their stupid faces…nuanced as it was, he knew he had won them before they finally looked back at him.
``Magic?´´
``Well, if you think about it...elfs are rather proficient on it, no?´´
``So it was another trick..?´´
``Oh man…, this is bad´´
``What...?´´
``I think I soiled my pants for nothing...´´
``Haha, that sucks...do you need mommy's touch to change yourself..?´´
``Dude, shut it...´´
The tension started to die out as humor made its way in back again. Sometimes it surprised him how easily idiots could find the time to joke about..
``See? She has taken you all for fools! Are you gonna allow this to happen..!? Are you men or not..!?´´
``Yeah, we are!´´
He almost smiled, the fools. This was almost too easy…, too bad that he would have to look for another bunch of brain dead idiots after this, he had serious doubts they would make it out alive. Not if she had anything to say about it.
Funny enough, she had been staring at them for a moment, crouching to a position, her eyes closed, her blade raise towards them. Allowing them those precious seconds…
How kind of her.
…
Well, who cared..?
``Then now take that bitch down and teach her a lesson or two about what real men can do. A hundred gold for the first that puts her down where she belongs!´´
That seemed to entice many, the prospect of easy gold pushing them forward. Allowing him to easily sneak away.
He was not really going to wait and find out who was gonna win. Something told him that it was not going to end well for anyone stupid enough to approach that little demon.
He started to run...
The sound of metal clashing and flesh being torn up started soon enough, but the still lingering presence of his men voices told him that they were still kicking. Loosing badly, but still drawing breath..though who knew for how long.
It didn't matter, every second spent in blood would be another he could get to see another dawn.
That was the point. The end goal….
Easy right? Right..?
Well, it was suppose to be that way….had fate decided not to throw the largest balling ball in history at his face at the last second, with him coming to stumble and slam into the cold, sharp edges of a wall that had literally pop out into existence in the middle of his path.
The ringing bells inside his skull were a dazzling experience that almost numb the excruciating feeling of having parts of his skull crack or the nausea that it was to feel your entire body shudder from a hundredth to a zero with the sudden stop of his motion.
What he thought was just a wall.., in reality had been nothing but a dark, towering monster in midnight-clad warped in-front of him in a cloud of living darkness.
By the time he managed to grasp on what he had come across…. it was too late.
A large, clawed hand lunging forward and seizing him by the throat in an instant. Pulling him up like a string-less puppet instead of a well built grown man.., his feet dangling in the air uselessly as he tried to grab the arm that was threatening to snap his neck like a twig in the midst of the panic that clouded his mind..
He could feel his grip tightening, the monstrous hand closing in around him. The air slowly, yet deliberately being crushed out from his windpipe. His eyes widened in terror...his attempts to free himself redoubled in earnest.
He hit him.
He slammed his fist into that hateful skull…
He splattered his blood over the blacken Armour like skin and hood and bones as the skin of his fists crumbled and reveled the muscle below. Ignoring the sound of his bones breaking with each attempt.
Because he could not die…this was not fair.
He could not die, not here, now now...he had plans! He had plans to pull through! A debt in blood to be paid!
This was not fair! He needed vengeance! He needed-
But with just one look from the now blazing eyes of the avatar of death his resolved crumbled and died. Snuffed out from existence, like a sudden cold wind pouring down all over a weak and fragile bonfire.
And with it, his life…
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A/N
Here comes another chapter, I hope you like it. Feel free to comment to give some feedback. Any commentary will be appreciated.
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Its been a while, but this arc is about to end, I was planing to end it here..to make it coincide with the same length of the prologue arc, but I will have to do two more chapters to do so.
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Alpha preaching her first speech and yet still kind enough to wait for the other side to be ready for ass whooping of their lives...ah, how fast they grow.