They had arrived late, and that wasn't really surprising.
They had been informed of the coming attack by the aberrants and had set out at once, but each and every one of them knew they would not make it in time. It didn't matter how hard they pushed their horses, that they didn't take any rest or that they came with what was strictly necessary to make their journey faster.
They simply would not arrive on time and they turned out to be right.
They got off their horses, drew their weapons and approached the burning village, a common course of action of the aberrants: burning villages, raping and kidnapping women, killing and eating the men, a sight they had seen hundreds of times already, though it never got easier to see or smell.
"Search for survivors," the captain ordered. His men nodded and dispersed in groups consisting of a minimum of two, beginning to scour the town, searching through the burned houses and rubble.
Leonhard, the captain of the knightly order known as the Sons of the Goddess, looked at the town with a grimace of disgust.
Aberrants are not an orderly force, they know no leadership, and while some are capable of speech and logical thought, they are incapable of unifying on their own. He never bothered to try to understand why, just accepted it as a welcome advantage.
Even so, they were quick in their attacks. The person who alerted them of the attack had arrived at their camp at noon, asking for help as a horde was approaching their village. The poor man had almost killed his horse to get to them as quickly as possible.
They did much the same to get to town quickly, though they knew they would not make it. They had a vague hope that somehow, by some miracle, the aberrants had been delayed in their advance, but that almost never happened.
When the man reached them, he told them that the aberrants were only a few hours away from the village when he left. It was obvious that they had already reached the town when he managed to get to them.
Leonhard looked around, walking with one of his brothers at his side. "Is anyone here alive!" his companion shouted, trying to get some response from a survivor.
Although paying attention to his surroundings, Leonhard's mind was already thinking about hunting down the aberrants, rescuing any possible women they had captured and slaughtering them to prevent them from reaching another village. It was the least they could do.
His brother continued to scream at the empty streets and burning houses. Between his brother's screams, the wind, the flames, and the noise of buildings being destroyed, Leonhard felt his heart shrink when he heard the indistinguishable cry of a baby.
"Silence!" cried Leonhard, shushing his brother. He ran in the direction from which the cries came, moved by a newly developed paternal instinct; after all, it had been only a few moons ago that he had had a daughter. Duty kept him away from her, though he always kept her in mind.
He quickly arrived at a burning building, a church dedicated to the goddess. He pushed the door with his shoulder and the flames licked his skin painfully as soon as he entered the building. Still, he paid no mind to either the pain or the heat, just focused on crying and reaching out.
Using his sword, he smashed the fallen wood in his path and, with his almost superhuman strength, pushed away any furniture or debris too large to cut. Amid the smoke and flames he saw it, wrapped in a wet blanket, and beside it the mangled, naked body of what could only be a nun, something he could recognize from the remnants of her clothing.
Although Leonhard was not the kind of man to look at corpses for long, let alone those of a woman who had clearly been raped and murdered, he could not help noticing that an umbilical cord linked the nun and the baby covered in the blankets.
He didn't think too much about the fact, cut the cord with his sword, picked up the baby and ran out of the place, protecting it with his own body. He could hear the structure screeching, probably pushed to its limits by the flames and also by his own cuts; he had probably severed more than one support pillar as he made his way through.
That only made him quicken his pace even more, and, thanks to the goddess, he managed to get out of the church before it collapsed, saving them both, although he had a slight thought for the nun's corpse, which would probably be charred.
"Brother!" cried one of his brothers, running to him. It was the healer of his order. Quickly, he pointed both palms of his hands at Leonhard and began pouring his mana over him, healing the wounds caused by the fire. Leonhard had barely noticed the damage to his body, but, looking down at himself, he saw that his armor was red-hot and several parts of his body were so badly burned that he could see his muscles. That made him grunt in pain.
Another brother took the baby from his arms, pulling him away from his red-hot armor. The brother pulled the wet blanket away from the baby's body; Leonhard had to admit that the mother had been smart. Covering the baby with a wet blanket had enabled him to resist the fire more than he could have on his own, but he knows that a mother's instinct is a strong thing, both for his own mother and for his wife.
But so is parental instinct. His brother dropped the baby after revealing his face, and in one swift movement Leonhard lunged, catching him before he hit the ground, though it made his still unhealed burns hurt like hell.
"Brother, what's the matter with you!" he shouted, angrily, at the brother who had dropped the baby.
Said brother pointed to the baby with his face pale with horror, and Leonhard looked at him.
The skin, of an olive green tone. His eyes, an intense yellow. His hair, a fiery red. Two prominent fangs protruded from his lower lip. An aberrant. An aberrant baby.
Fury consumed Leonhard; he had been about to sacrifice his life for a filthy aberrant, a fruit of the abuse of a sacred nun of the goddess. He took his sword himself with both hands and raised it above the baby; he would not tolerate one more aberrant walking the earth, much less one born of the act of defiling a nun of the goddess in her own church.
Although his body did not follow his desire, his hands trembled as he tried to make his fury bring the sword down on the baby. He had killed hundreds of aberrants, children and babies included. He had never had a problem killing them; they were aberrants and the only good aberrants were the dead aberrants. So, he wonders, why is he hesitating this time?
The baby had stopped crying; now he was just looking at him with those yellow eyes covered with fear, as if he knew exactly the danger he was in and was begging him to stop. Leonhard bit his lower lip hard enough to make himself bleed when he realized that in that baby's face he was seeing the eyes of his own daughter.
Fatherhood had made him weak. He put aside his sword and looked at the aberrant baby.
"Brother... what do we do?" questioned one of his brothers, looking at the baby.
The healer had approached him again and began to heal him once more. Leonhard was about to give an order when the remains of the blanket covering the baby fell away, leaving them all to see the baby in its entirety.
The surprise was such that even the healer stopped using his magic. They all fell silent and looked at the baby in front of them with open mouths and eyes.
"It's... it's a girl," whispered one of his brothers.
"Impossible... aberrants... aberrants are only males," said another of his brothers, completely baffled by what he was seeing.
The baby seemed to squirm uncomfortably under their gaze. It seemed as if she was trying to hide her private parts, and at that Leonhard could not help but cover her again with the blanket and lift her up for a closer look.
Now he noticed, her features are much finer than those of any aberrant baby I had ever seen before. I would even say it is adorable, something no aberrant baby is.
"Brother... what should we do?" a companion asked again, at this change of event.
Leonhard swallowed saliva and looked at the little aberrant in his arms, looking her straight in the eye.
"A group will follow the aberrants. I...I...will go see mother with this baby," Leonhard said, moving toward the outskirts of town where their horses awaited them, his body still aching from the unhealed burns.
His brothers did not question his orders; such was the degree of trust and respect they had for him. His second in command quickly began to organize the group that would follow the aberrants, while he sent a few with Leonhard to serve as his guard and also the healer, so that at last he would finish his work.
As they did so, Leonhard looked at the little aberrant in his arms. A girl... this is the first time in his entire life that he has ever heard of a female aberrant. This must mean something, and the only one who can know is his mother, the reincarnated goddess.
