《Revive Unlimited: War of the Paladins》


 Prologue - The reason for suffering

    Prologue ¨C The reason for suffering


    I died. It was a rather unspectacular death. Nothing out of the ordinary that would make you raise an eyebrow and say, ¡°Now that¡¯s interesting!¡± or, ¡°That¡¯s the kind of Goodbye, I¡¯d want for myself, too.¡± Simply speaking: I chocked on a fishbone. It¡¯s kind of a classic move, I might add.


    The only interesting part about it might be that I had my pants down, when I met my unfortunate demise. As to why I had them down? That''s easy. I...was watching porn. I admit it. I am a useless person. Overweight, at the lower end of the wage scale, and unpopular.  It¡¯s a combination of traits that could be found quite often these days. Though, i was already so far down the road, that I didn''t even care anymore for the kind of visual stimulation that would fill my screen, as long as it provided some kind of change in scenery. Just imagine, what kind of person eats through a scene aimed at sexual arousal.


    This kind of life was the worst. I already knew it, without anybody telling me.  I was half-assed with everything I did. I had neither the balls to go into full-blown NEET mode, since I was still working to provide for the minimum necessities in life, nor did I have the courage to face myself and work towards a greater goal. The ideal I was following was to become a ¡®person who doesn¡¯t need anyone¡¯.


    ¡°Haa~¡­ how depressing.¡°


    Yet, even when i¡¯m saying that it¡¯s depressing, i¡¯m still being half-assed about it.  You can see it yourself. More than anything, I am a lethargic bastard. Even though I never saw anything of the world, there was nothing that could surprise me anymore. I¡¯ve seen it all, even though it was only through a monitor and a computer connected to the internet. Being bombarded by everything the world had to offer through the medium of a couple of pixels turned me into a smug and cynical character. Childishly trolling teen sites with gore pics, laughing at the misfortune of others, and wishing for the nuclear war to come, so I could finally let out some jubilations.


    Towards such a story one can only sigh.


    ¡°Haa~¡±


    Although I dropped that part about looking forward to a nuclear explosion, because on one of the rare occasions when I spoke to someone face to face ¨C it was another NEET ¨C he mentioned to me that he only wishes to see that blazing mushroom, so he could feel connected to other people around him. That would be an occasion where social standing would not matter anymore and everybody would be the same. It would be an occurrence where he couldn¡¯t be possibly left out and thus being part of a special community. Even if it would be only for a couple of seconds until the shockwave would hit and obliterate everything. He believed that in those precious seconds he would finally experience the happiness of being a human. He dubbed it ¡®The extraordinary league of radioactive ashes¡¯.


    Needless to say¡­I felt disgusted. I even went to such lengths as lying about myself being a NEET, so we could have a discussion on the same level. Not, because I wanted to connect and make friends, I simply feared the scorn of true NEETS for my being a part of the working force.


    But more than anything, I was disgusted with myself for riding on that bandwagon. You see, part of being a smug character contains to have a completely baseless feeling of superiority. I am above all. Not based on my achievements, intelligence or (of course) my looks. Nope, definitely not my looks.


    Sadly, only now I know,that it¡¯s sole purpose was to seal myself off from others. Otherwise I might¡¯ve listened to the people in my life that cared for me. Without this I wouldn¡¯t have been able to completely ignore all the goodwill I received from others and translate it into ¡®annoying interference from people who had no business with me¡¯. I shouldn¡¯t have told my family that they were useless idiots.


    Remembering the face of my mother now, fills me with endless pain. At a point where most parents would have already given up on their child, she still had not shown even a single sign of annoyance towards the kind of person I had become. Upon realizing this I raised my hand and hit her. That loving mother.  The one, who always stood by my side even when I dropped out of college, didn¡¯t show up at the funeral of grandfather, which she dearly loved, by saying, ¡°It¡¯s bothersome,¡± or when I started to go completely out of control by being unfriendly and hysterical whenever I would meet my parents (I actually had my own small apartment and wasn¡¯t a basement dweller).  The sole reason for that was to turn me into as much of an unappealing person as possible, so they would distance themselves from me out of their own accord.


    How naive I was. During the week of my 29th birthday I purposefully booked double shifts at my work (which still amounted to only 6 hours a day), so I would have a legitimate excuse as to why I couldn¡¯t hold any kind of celebration, yet my parents and my four siblings, being concerned about my loneliness, decided to come over to hold a little surprise party.


    By now you should have already grasped what kind of routine a person like me would follow in this kind of situation. I will spare you the ugly details, because I already know how much you hate me, even if I wouldn¡¯t have told you that last part. Suffice to say, it ended in an argument where I told them that this kind of attention was unnecessary and that I¡¯m completely fine. Truly¡­how naive I was.


    My mother saw right through me.  She knew I was being unreasonable. There was no major incident in my life that would¡¯ve allowed for the kind of behavior I have shown towards them. I wasn¡¯t bullied, nor had I the classical problem of being an unsociable drunkard.  There was simply no real stress in my life. She knew that, just as well as I did.


    I couldn¡¯t even put the blame of my borderline NEET-tendencies on the modern society that sometimes forces the individual into the sort of existential crisis, where the massive amount of freedom we experience today, wasn¡¯t a blessing and the way to self-fulfillment anymore, but rather the reason for a complete feeling of being lost. Yeah, that kind of thing exists. It doesn¡¯t come with a bang. It¡¯s more like a swamp slowly devouring you. That wasn¡¯t my problem either, though.


    I only wanted to do one thing: Under the full possession of my mental capabilities, i wanted to waste every free minute by engulfing myself in every possible non-productive activity, one could imagine.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Yeah¡­in the end it was just this kind of thing. I didn¡¯t want that rollercoaster trip through the internet to end.


    But instead of blaming me for being such a leech on society she calmly told me:


    ¡°You know¡­being a lazy bum is one thing. But I am truly ashamed of you that you are willing to push your family away, because you can¡¯t face the accompanying critique from others that comes with your lifestyle. You decided to quietly drown, but you are still frightened with the decision you made.  You sought the easy way out, yet it¡¯s not easy enough for you¡­or is it too easy and you simply want bad blood between us? You can¡¯t stand your parents just trying to be your parents?¡±


    Her calm voice didn¡¯t induce any rage in me. I didn¡¯t have a blackout and threw a tantrum. In this moment I simply decided to become true trash.  Blinded by the notion of a non-existent NEET-pride, I thought the true way of a social outcast lied in complete social self-destruction. So i clenched my right hand and beat her. That¡¯s the kind of trash I am. Out of pride, I beat my mother.


    I won¡¯t ever forget the look in her eyes. It was the most painful expression, I ever saw on her. Not even when she mourned for grandfather, did she wear this kind of sad expression. She understood. I had chosen proudness over her. Every parent expects their children to rebel to a certain degree or even hate them. My mother was no exception in that department. What she didn¡¯t expect though, was the kind of wound I would inflict on her heart. What I did, was an action so immature, only an adult could think of it. It was a cold calculated act with the aim of cutting ties. That''s what I thought.


    Afterwards, i couldn¡¯t turn my eyes away from her. Not even during the complete beating I received from the rest of my family members that were present. They didn¡¯t hold back at all there.


    [Ha! Go all out. See, if I care¡­]


    That was the only thought I could muster to distract myself from facing what I had done. Clinging to that useless pride.


    Upon realizing that I wouldn¡¯t talk to them, they left and never bothered with me again. Six months later I died.


    ¡°My soul, it''s laid bare to you. I deserve to suffer here in hell.¡±


    -------


    It was a rather peculiar moment.  After dying from something as insignificant as a fishbone, I landed in a place, I thought not possible. A world situated in the underground. Fiery pits, an incredible amount of gadgets in all varieties, constructed for the sole purpose of inflicting pain, unbreakable chains, wrapped around my arms, legs and neck, as well as a number of souls in a similar situation such as me.


    Hell, that mythical correction facility for those who have sinned. No chance for parole. Dante wasn¡¯t that much of a clown with his imagination. I hope he landed here too for creating a world renowned piece of poetry based on the suffering of others.


    It was my first vacation from pain after constant torture for more than two years. To be honest, I didn¡¯t even notice any difference. After the first month in here, every cell in my body had already been destroyed a number of times. I have been sliced, smashed, hung, drawn and quartered. If the torturer was lazy he¡¯d simply put me in a lava bath.


    Yo, you over there. ¡°Do you like Onsen?¡± There are even little monkey demons running around, throwing lava at you. Judging from his expression he actually did think of it as an Onsen. Good guy. He¡¯s fighting back. Or he already went beyond his mental capabilities. I don¡¯t know.


    Now, after two years, my body probably just didn¡¯t realize yet, that the torture has stopped. Or maybe it concluded that my natural body-state was now one of constant pain and it would never stop anymore?


    Back to the peculiarity of the moment. The reason for my unexpected break from my job as a tortured being stands right in front of me. A little demon girl was watching me in silence. After telling her my story she had yet to show any kind of reaction. She has a small slender figure, around 1 m of height, long pointy ears, and blue skin. This demon child was missing any wings or horns. All in all a figure that promised death. Though she was just a low level denizen with no authority other than killing those who are captured here.


    [Did I pique her interest? It''s weird.]


    Usually they get down to business without further ado. Sometimes they''d make fun of me, at other times they''d be completely emerged in their tasks without taking further notice of me.


    [Maybe she¡¯s new? Did someone finally come who could be tricked into helping me? No, don''t be hasty here. There are all kinds of demons and it just might be, that I finally reached a point were they decided it was finally time to up their game and use psychological terror against me. I have started to show somewhat of a tolerance, albeit still weak, towards pain, after all. I''ll go try and amuse her instead of trying to connect with her through our life stories. That only ever worked with the other inmates anyway.]


    ¡°Oi, newbie! What kind of service is that supposed to be? I checked in for an eternity of anguish. My bill has already been paid, as I have already explained to you just now. So what¡¯s the reason for the hold up? I still haven''t been brutally killed even once, since you showed up.¡±


    Somewhat anxious, I waited for a response. It was the first time a demon reacted to me in a way other than laughing hysterically upon inflicting wounds on my body. 2 years of suffering couldn¡¯t have possibly prepared me for what happened next. It wasn''t so much the pain and the conclusion that I didn''t manage to gain an ally, but rather the words she spoke to me, that would let me fall into true despair. She lashed out with her long black tail, impaling my heart, came one step closer, tilting her head to display a devilish smile full of sharp teeth, and said:


    ¡°I¡¯m here for the experience.¡±


    My eyes widened in pain,


    ¡°Ahh...so it was possible to feel a greater sorrow, after all.¡±


    End of prologue

 Chapter 1 - Welcome to Hell

    Chapter 1 ¨C Welcome to Hell (Flashback)


    ¡°I am dying. Halp!¡±


    Right now I am spasming in my last moments, chocking on an fishbone that''s stuck in my throat. It began quite innocent with a slight feeling of discomfort that gradually evolved into fear and finally resulted into my surrendering to the situation after all of my efforts have proven to be in vain (such as excessive beating on my breast or trying to gulp down some water).


    Pants down, I fell from my chair, grabbing onto my computer in front of, and tearing it down with me. I absentmindedly notice that my kicks and spasms hit a shelf resulting in further mayhem.


    Slowly falling into unconsciousness, i saw a light.


    That is how I died.


    -------


    ¡°Uahhhhhh!¡±


    Screaming with all of my might, I woke up only to realize that a spear was struck through my abdomen.


    ¡°Arghhh. Helpppppp...¡±


    I died again while my own blood was silencing my pleas.


    The next time I woke up in a similar situation, two swords impaling my lungs. It was a vicious cycle. Whenever I would regain consciousness I would be immediately hit by an outdated tool for killing.


    [Seriously, who''s using medieval weapons in this day and age? Couldn''t you come up with something more original?]


    Just as I was thinking this I noticed that a big pot with a blazing hot liquid was emptied on top of my head signaling my next death.


    ¡°Oh...a lava shower. That''s new...¡±


    It''s not that I was completely unaware of my surroundings, except for the momentary weapon of choice from my torturers. After a number of deaths I grew somewhat accustomed to the constant hacking, slashing, decapitating and burning. My consciousness wouldn''t immediately fade into darkness anymore the moment something hit me. Usually people are able to hold onto their senses longer but here you are hit with such a power that you would immediately become unconscious, so it took some time to learn how to hold out longer. The trick to it is steeling your mind. I am not talking about anticipating the pain, that makes it only worse. What I am talking about is the will to witness everything until the end, rewriting the natural safety mechanisms of the human mind that force a shut down to safe one from further harm.


    Obtaining such a will was a difficult task for someone like me who had lived his live in as easy a way as possible.


    In the beginning, I tried to shut out every information that my senses would try to convey to me, falling into a catatonic state. Sadly, that was not possible. I guessed it was not allowed to find peace in a secluded point inside your mind where you could withdraw yourself into, in here.


    Oh, how I longed for a place of solace inside that psyche of mine. I tried to imagine a serene place, a forest with big trees where single rays of light would break through, creating a beautiful atmosphere. The wind would play a relaxing tune passing through the leafs and fireflies would fill the air. Under the biggest tree I would picture myself, in a kneeling pose. I don''t know why I came up with this particular scene. It just came naturally to me.


    It took me one month to accept the fact that closing my eyes would never bring the freedom from pain I was so desperately trying to find.


    [There is no escaping. I died and I continue to die. There comes another blade. Where will it hit?]


    ¡°Uarghhhhh!¡±


    I felt an incredible pain when my right arm was cut off. And some more when my other arm was hit.


    [I''m being toyed with. This time it''s a slow death.]


    Next were my legs and I fell on the stumps, while I was being held in place by chains. The chain around my neck started to strangulate me after I lost my legs. This time it''s a mix of blood loss and strangulation.


    [Just why is it so painful? The fishbone was nothing compared to that. Damn! Now i''m already starting to remember less painful deaths to distract myself from the current one. Don''t fade away. There is no escaping. I already know that. Keep looking.]


    With time I started to observe my surroundings. I was astonished, upon finding out, that I was wrapped in chains. Until then I only vaguely noticed them. But is is something entirely different if you open your eyes and willfully observe something. Not giving much thought to it I just simply accepted them as fitting to the ambience. It was like consciously taking notice of a tree in a forest. Although the better comparison would be to take notice of a grain of sand during a tornado or a single drop of water in an ocean. Once I noticed them, though, I couldn''t take my eyes off of them anymore. They gave off an ominous feeling. Whenever I would get killed, they''d start glowing in a dim blue light.


    For the next couple of weeks (yes, it takes such a long time, because as soon as you wake up you would usually be already hit by a deadly strike) I concentrated all of my attention towards those chains. I found out that it was actually just one long chain. I followed it''s path around my body, arms, legs and finally the neck. From there it would stretch out left and right and restrain other souls in a similar manner like me.


    One would ask why the first thing I tried to ascertain wasn''t the source of all those spears, swords, flails, arrows, hammers and so on? That wasn''t necessary. When you die, the figure of your executioner is etched into your eyes. When I was finally able to notice more details, hundreds of faces were already ingrained into my soul. The fact is that those creatures occupied my attention for the most part so I wasn''t even able to look at something else until I decided to force my eyes to do so.


    The place of my continuous suffering was Hell. Not like hell. It was literally Hell. How did I come to this conclusion?


    [Demons, brutal imprisonment, and never ending torture. There''s only one place like this.]


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    I followed the path of the chain, holding other people captive, enduring the same kind of treatment like me.


    [Obviously souls.]


    I didn''t think something like a soul did exist in the first place. Not because I wasn''t affiliated with any kind of religious teaching. Rather, the concept of a soul didn''t really appear that convincing to me.


    One of my hobbies while I was still alive was to troll the shit out of forums or chats. The easiest way to do so was to drop one single sentence. Either ''God exists.'', or ''There is no god.'' If the comment wasn''t immediately deleted it had always proven to be a successful tool to lure in some prey. The more you knew about the topic, the higher the theoretical number of people you could get agitated. Those discussions had only one purpose after all. Nothing noble like standing up for your convictions, no...it was a simple dirt throwing contest. Nothing else. Everyone knows this, yet a lot of people still willfully take the bait because they think the kind of dirt they can throw is bigger than the rest. The fun part was to make them forget about belittling others and actually defend their beliefs in all sincerity. - Ha! Trolled -


    I know it''s petty. Me, that is...


    Still, I invested a surprising amount of time into reading up on those topics, all for the sole purpose of not getting virtually thrashed by people who actually knew their way around that metier.


    The term soul has all those religious connotations but in reality it is just a philosophical concept of ancient greek philosophy. You can come pretty close to understanding the idea behind it, if you compare it to an inanimate object. What makes a chair a chair? Is it the form? Maybe, but when the chair is broken you still have an understanding of that particular chair. From that the philosophers derived that the core of one''s existence isn''t bound by appearance or time. Voil¨¢! A soul.


    I simply couldn''t connect such a thing to the religious promise of salvation. Why were religions always bothering with a crude notion such as the ''soul''? In my eyes it was an abomination of a thought. Neither completely in a philosophical, nor in a theological realm.


    Yet, here I was witnessing an existence after death, resembling my former appearance as a human being, constantly losing limb after limb and barrels of blood just to magically reappear after a moment.


    The rest of hell looked just like you''d imagine it. Situated in the underground, streams of flames slowly making their way, occasionally swallowing a group of souls and releasing them again after a change in flow. I was also hit by that a couple of times, dying over and over again in the manner of two heartbeats. Later that number was raised up to five.


    Everyone who lands in Hell has probably the same train of thought sooner or later.


    [Hell is reserved for the sinners...i can''t say that I don''t know what I did to deserve this.] No, I really couldn''t. ¡°I beat mother.¡± It didn''t matter to me what other sins i''ve committed. Oh yes, in the beginning I did try to remember all kinds of past misdoings. Stacking them all on top of each other and determining the time when the scale was tipped in favour of Hell. After a while I stopped doing this, though. That was just a foolish way of thinking. In the end it is the crystallization of a single act that brought me here, because it was a reflection of my inner being.


    This place forces you to look things straight into the eyes. There was no more room for sloppiness simply because nothing would have been gained by it. Closing your eyes from the truth only holds some kind of merit, albeit a questionable one, when you stand to gain something from it. Similar to it nothing could have been gained by accepting the truth, either. The specialty of Hell is to not offer any kind of redemption. You weren''t inclined to face yourself. You were tortured no matter what.


    There probably isn''t a moment I remember more clearly, than when I came to that conclusion.


    [How long has it been that i''ve harbored these thoughts now? I see my next death coming already. A young demon with a club.] He broke my bones with a look in his eyes telling me that he was eager to saviour every bit of the experience. A natural sadist.


    ¡°Is smashing my bones that fun?¡±


    Not even reacting to my question he proceeded with his brutal act. If anything, it made him even more vigorous. For him I was nothing else than an animal. Begging or even mockery only added to him enjoying the situation all the more.


    Finally he aimed the club at my head, marking the opening to the grand finale. There''s always a certain kind of look reflected on the faces of those demons in anticipation of the kill during these moments. Another pair of eyes burning their way into my memory...


    After around seven months I had started to experience this particular moment in slow-motion. He raised the weapon above his head forcing the blood and skin of mine that was sticking to it to fly away. The club then followed a perfect vertical arc that would lead it''s tip right towards my forehead. I looked straight at it while thinking.


    [Yeah...i know. There is absolutely no merit in accepting it now. It''s only...it''s only...the only right thing left to do. I did a horrible thing to her. All this pain I experience...what does it matter in the face of this?] Realizing this the pain didn''t disappear. It didn''t even become a little bit more physically bearable. However, it was a difference like day and night.


    I whimpered:


    ¡°M-mother. I...am at fault. I''m so sorry. I love you. I LOVE YOU!!!¡±


    Splatt!


    -------


    Death couldn''t bring out the usual fear after while. But I dreaded facing myself for a long time. Hell just had this kind of effect on me. I learned to love my mother and it filled me with regret.

 Chapter 2 - Meeting with the Lord

    Chapter 2 ¨C Meeting with the Lord


    There is only one death that holds any meaning. It''s the first one. Why? - Because this one fills you with nothing but regret. It doesn''t sever any ties, it only splits your heart apart, knowing that you won''t ever have a chance to meet your loved ones again.


    After I have learned to more or less take the torture head on I was able to multi-task. The only true suffering that matters comes from within, after all. Physical pain pales in comparison to that. I''ve wasted seven months being preoccupied with myself.


    Sure, getting shredded to pieces is a good excuse. But it it was still just an excuse. The wounds that matter were completely...


    Crushhh!!!


    ...ignored by me for such a long time. I was oblivious to them because they only manifest themselves through the passage of time. In an environment with omnipresent death and destruction my eyes were opened for the true tragedies in life. Growing estranged from family...


    Scrisshhhh!!


    ...members, never reconciling; hurting others without much thought. Those are every-day occurrences; pretty common stories. Everyone comes across those experiences sooner or later. I grew accustomed to those things and accepted them as the natural flow of things, never realizing...


    Splatt!!


    ¡­.that my existence as a human being was decided right there. So I have...


    Pfrghhhh!!


    ...i have...


    Khriiiiiieeeegh!!!


    ...i have decided...Frggigigg


    ¡°DAMMIT. YOU ARE ONE ENTHUSIASTIC BASTA¡± - .....cccccrrrrriinnch!!!


    ------


    Learning how to pick up from where you stopped last time is a necessary skill in hell. You need to stay focused and don''t mind the small stuff. Even if it''s a two metre long broadsword like the one that''s about to behea-


    Swushhh!!


    Wow. That was a flawless swing. He went straight for the kill without any unnecessary movements. I think that demon will be graduating soon from here. That happens at quite a regular interval. New ones coming, old ones going.


    There isn''t really any contact between them and me. Sometimes they''d say something, but I don''t understand their language. I knew that they were trying to tell me something and weren''t just producing random sounds.


    Often enough a whole group of demons would appear in front of me. Although they have different physiques they obviously belong together and communicate with each other in some kind of devil language. It wasn''t Latin, though.


    Their behaviour was not what I expected. They would casually chat with each other while only paying the minimum amount of attention needed to randomly slice at me. Suffice to say they seemed like they had better things to do than killing me most of the time. It appeared as if they had a real culture.


    There was one group that stayed for a particularly long time at my place, enjoying picknicks or a barbecue with refreshing beverages. Naturally, I thought that was also some kind of psychological torture. After arriving at Hell I hadn''t had one meal.


    At first, I thought Souls wouldn''t have the need for food, but this existence proved to be a close replication of my physical one.


    My own appearance transformed into a malnourished skeleton-like shadow of my former self. It went as far as that I even started to lack the necessary weight for the chain to strangulate me when I would lose my legs. They couldn''t possibly provide a solid footing for me anymore. That task was already forwarded to the chain wrapped around them a long time before I could really think about it.


    At one point in time I even asked myself how I could still regain consciousness, seeing the state I was in. Wouldn''t I have to immediately die because of lack of nutrients? But it wouldn''t be logical for Hell to have such a convenient way out.


    Longing for some interaction I still wanted to communicate with them. Not the usual pleas for peace; I was already long past that stage. Neither did I actually want it anymore, because I arranged myself with the pain. It was the necessary mirror to face my own self.


    So I observed them.


    The first expression I was definitely sure of was ''Nice one!''. They''d often comment on each other when the killing was done in a beautiful and swift manner or when the first hit would make the victim lose consciousness. From there I gradually started to grasp the meaning of other generic terms like ''food, water, shit, boring and so on''.


    The first time I really had an exchange with one of them was when I witnessed a demon asking another one for a smoke. I catched on to that phrase and asked with a wry smile for the same thing. Regretfully, they didn''t lose an ounce of countenance at my question. Both of them looked at each other and a ugly smirk appeared on their faces. They lit a cigar and I was already full of anticipation to experience my first contact with a more ambivalent nature.


    I wasn''t foolish enough to misinterpret the meaning of the gesture of giving a smoke to the guy you are about to kill. But still... The demon''s way wasn''t as shameful as the human one where you pretend to be on a somewhat equal footing by giving out a cigarette and then shooting the prisoner. Nope. They didn''t let the slightest chance of doubt emerge between us on who held the reigns. One of them pulled out a Stiletto and stabbed my lung creating a large enough hole to put the cigar in.


    Amused by their own achievement of ingenuity they called the rest of their group and showed off in front of some female demons. That kind of behaviour didn''t need much of a translation and seems to be pretty self-evident in every culture. They proceeded to mock me for a while.


    What made that encounter strange was the appearance of a higher ranking demon, one of those who usually didn''t bother with the tiresome task of torturing souls. He said two short sentences whose meaning I couldn''t get, which had a visible fear-inducing effect on the group. Then he finished me off before I could even notice what had happened. I never saw that group again.


    As humiliating as that whole attempt at connecting was, I was still able to learn something from it. Personal contact with us was not welcomed and the adherence to that rule was quite rigorously enforced.


    Thinking back I realized that the demons who were talking to me before, didn''t stay long.


    -------


    While I wasn''t able to hold a conversation with one of the torturers there wasn''t much of a success in getting to know my fellow neighbours, either. The guy on my right wasn''t able to focus on anything else than himself. From time to time he''d open his eyes but they would only fixate on the demon in whose care he currently had the misfortune to be.


    Talking to him had no real effect and I couldn''t get his attention no matter what I did. The language of his stammering was unknown to me and had an exotic ring to it. His physical features weren''t all that different from mine. He was all skin and bones.


    From watching him I was sure that he was at a place where I too, once was. Seeing his conduct I could guess what I must have looked like before.


    The inspection of the person on the left hand side had also proven to be futile. Someone with female features in a similar state like ''righty'' (tentative name).


    The distance between each soul was around three to four metres. From my place I was able to see the next three people on the right side and only two on the left side before boulders would obstruct my view and none of them showed any signs of recovery.


    I was alone. For the longest part of my life I wanted to be left alone and here I was, trying to stretch out to others without any hope of reaching them as long as they themselves didn''t try the same thing. There was no irony in that, though. My behaviour in my former life was baseless, whereas the people here where truly victims.


    At this time the only thing that was left within my power was to pray. Not the vulgar kind of prayer, that stated some terms or concessions towards a deity. Here I understood why people truly pray. I did neither believe in the chance that my prayers would be answered, nor did I expect any miraculous effects from them. Fully realizing my own helplessness and the futility of my action I was still praying.


    I prayed for my mother and the rest of my family and for the pained souls next to me. In the state of complete helplessness it was the ultimate confession of my own inability. Yet, I still needed to voice my own protest against the situation they were in no matter how useless or unreasonable it seemed. I''d rather leave reasonability behind, if it meant that the reasonable thing to do was to stay apathetic to their suffering.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    -------


    For the next year the only thing I did was listen to the demons'' chatter and then retorting with a prayer of my own whenever the agony of the other souls seemed to peak. By then I could understand around 50% of their babbling.


    From that I learned how to measure the flow of time down here. The stream of lava, which I had already experienced would come in constant intervals. Every three months there would be around 3 days were the lava-stream would flood my section of the chain. This wasn''t really their way of measuring time but in a world that has become as small as mine such a natural phenomenon was enough of a major event to justify my creating a calendar around that. From the sediments I was able to roughly estimate the time I first arrived here.


    From grasping a sense of time I understood that they were operating on some kind of schedule. The demons weren''t allowed to stay indefinitely here and had to move on after a while. This was some kind of holy ground for them where the coming and going was strictly regulated and they had to pay a large tribute to be granted permission to enter this section. Their main reason for coming here was, of course, the torture. The act of killing a soul over and over again held a significant importance that resembled a religious background at times. On the other hand side, it was all performed in a very unceremonious and crude way that lacked any form of organized protocol. If there were any religious gestures performed I was unable to discern them. Their sole motivation seemed to be focused around the number of kills they could accumulate in the limited amount of time they were given.


    The highest record I was able to witness was achieved by one certain demon who went on a rampage in my section for around 2 days for a whopping 31789 kills. I knew the exact number because they were quite obsessed and held meticulous count.


    The day he came was special. Normally there was not one moment without someone practising their skills on us. Instead of rejoicing in this moment of peace I grew suspicious. Even before he appeared there was a foreboding of the coming terror present in the air.


    He was a truly horrific existence. Long red hair, black skin with the face of a beast and four arms, and three and a half metres in height. It was the first time I saw a high noble of the demon race. I heard the others talking about them in a tone of admiration and fear.


    Now I understand why. Every step he took was oozing with the intent to kill; an aura that emanated the definite promise of death. A promise I thought I had grown immune against.


    He came with one female attendant carrying a 2,5m long double-bladed axe.


    ¡°Nertiri, my weapon.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Mylord.¡±


    The way he handled his weapon was on a different level compared to others. It wasn''t so much as the complete lack of useless moves (which other demons would show at times) but the will behind each swing. He took some practise swings while swiftly interchanging the grip between his four arms.


    These swings instilled a natural terror in everyone witnessing them. It seemed as if they weren''t meant to inflict wounds on flesh but were rather aimed at the very core of one''s existence.


    The souls around me started to scream in agony, which he didn''t pay any mind.


    ¡°I will begin. Do not let anyone disturb me.¡± There was no compassion in that voice.


    ¡°As you command.¡±


    He started from my left and proceeded in a swift manner. I wavered at the thought that I had to watch this through the end and was tempted to close my eyes and imagining the serene forest again. His movements were so fast that I needed to go through 50 deaths or more, just to end that thought.


    Even though I learned to stay conscious until death despite being cut in half or losing my limbs during these past one and a half years, in the face of this demon all resistance seemed futile. There was no pain. My mind went blank again. That showed me just how much of a gap there was between his strokes and the ones I experienced until now.


    The true horror of his swings came in the form of an after-effect that wouldn''t go away even after reappearing.


    After a while he stopped to inspect his weapon with a pleased look.


    ¡°I have to give Arandis my regards. Truly, a magnificent weapon.¡±


    ¡°Yes, even the minds of the tormented ones are obliterated upon contact. In these realms they witnessed the greatest pains and should have developed a surprisingly high tolerance against it for such lowly creatures.¡±, commented his attendant.


    [So we are just guinea pigs for him?] My neighbours screamed out an aria of agony. [Have their minds finally caught up with their damage?] My own screams were a prayer for them and I shouted out:


    ¡°STOP IT! THEY CAN''T ENDURE!!¡±


    ¡°You lower lifeform, know your place! You are in the presence of Lord Bagrat Ver ''do San, do not address him directly!¡±, shouted Nertiri in hatred. She quickly pulled out a long slender sword and cut off my head.


    Just as she was about to repeat her action a second time Ver ''do San stopped her.


    ¡°Mylord?¡±


    I wasn''t granted the grace of an answer. He simply lifted his axe and struck me down. Over and over again. Whenever I would regain consciousness I would get a moment to relive the previous strike, and then he would cut me down again. There was curiosity in his eyes. He wanted to clearly test something.


    Screaming at the top of my lungs I would force myself to watch the movements of the sharp edge.


    [I will not yield! Watch it! I need to stay awake! There is no running away from this. There is no running from this. THERE IS NO RUNNING.]


    I was closely observing the axe. Silently, Ver ''do San would always follow the same path cutting me in half, only adjusting the arc of the swing in a small way to prevent overlapping with a prior strike. The pain of preceding cuts would long manifest itself even after reviving.


    There was a change after a while, though minuscule, it still came. Compared to the long process of adjustment in the beginning of my time here, it happened at a lightning speed. After two days I was able to endure his murdering me until the blade would reach my spine.


    The curiosity in his eyes was already gone and replaced by a look of annoyance and disappointment.


    Then.


    ¡°Nertiri, how many strikes does this make?¡±


    ¡°31789, Lord Bagrat.¡±


    ¡°It is not what I expected. Surely, the edge didn''t dull only after this  number of strikes?¡±


    ¡°Should I set up a letter of protest for Lord Ber ''Vo?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Send Arandis this axe back and convey to him my wish for a better weapon.¡±


    ¡°I will arrange it immediately.¡±


    ¡°Keep the tone civilized, though.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Mylord.¡±


    She bowed and they left.


    -------


    Addressing his new attendant, Ver ''do San said:


    ¡°Nertiri, he is showing signs of resistance. Arrange for only the weakest to train on him and then send a guard every three days to destroy him. This cycle should be enough to prevent his mind from growing too accustomed to the pain.¡±


    ¡°Mylord Bagrat, may I inquire why you are concerning yourself with this fairy? Will that really be necessary? He is just a lower lifeform.¡± She was using a condescending way to address the tortured ones.


    For humans a fairy would be a weak little object posing no harm whatsoever. Such a mocking analogy was only appropriate when it came to demons.


    He decided to not directly reprimand her for that slip of tongue, for it was below him. An elite attendant should know by herself, when a mistake was done. Some of his anger was still conveyed through his choice of words and cold tone.


    ¡°Do not question me, Nertiri.¡±


    Ashamed by her slip of tongue ¨C ''fairy'' was only used by children and low-level demons ¨C Nertiri bowed. She had just been promoted to the position of a personal aide to one of the most influential demons in this realm.


    ¡°My deepest apologies Lord Bagrat. I will do as you command.¡±


    ¡°I won''t mind it this time. I picked you up for your competence. But you need to adjust more quickly to your new position, now that you are one of my representatives.¡±


    ¡°I will not betray your trust in me.¡±


    ¡°I am sure you won''t.¡±


    End Chapter 2

 Chapter 3 - Connecting souls

    Chapter 3 ¨C Connecting souls


    ¡°Ughh...they left¡± - it was a brief moment and some weaker demons appeared soon after, but it changed my life dramatically.


    Still heavily breathing I was recounting the past 31k deaths I had just experienced.


    I mumbled a prayer:


    ¡°Mother, be well; father, be well; brothers and sisters, be well...I pray for your happiness. I pray for the lost ones in here. Let their loved ones find happiness...¡± - I chocked on the next words I said:


    ¡°L-let their sins be mine and grant them salvation...¡±


    I knew it was a foolish thought and I damned myself for voicing it. Nobody can shoulder the sins of others. I am no Son of God. That sentence let me feel ashamed of myself. Their pain is endless yet it does more harm to think this way. Taking over their sins for them would be akin to robbing them of their humanity.


    It would be a far greater pain to let them suffer the loss of their human nature. I understood this because physical pain means nothing compared to true agony. Everyone has to shoulder their own sins and the comfort of the body is not something that could ever outweigh this.


    -------


    The after-effect of the demon''s axe was still noticeable and I realized that during the last two days I was completely concentrated on Lord Ver ''do San. In an attempt to regain my former field of vision I began to count the chain links one by one, starting with the ones around my legs and then going up to my left arm, following it''s path until it started to envelop the arm of the soul next to me. Counting every chain link was impossible because I couldn''t see them all. Nevertheless I still continued with the task. From her right arm the chain would lead down to her leg, enwrap it three times and then go up towards her neck again.


    I was not able to proceed with the exercise to that point. She was looking at me. Our eyes met and it was not by accident. There was no dullness visible in them like before. She had a clear gaze and was unmistakably focusing on me.


    That was the first time I had connected to another soul. We simply looked each other in the eyes, both frightened at this sudden exchange not knowing what might happen next.


    That Ver ''do San made a mistake. He was so immersed with his guinea pig (me) for two days that he completely forgot about the others. That gave her enough room to collect her thoughts.


    Her eyes conveyed understanding (as probably did mine, too), sorrow and...gratitude?


    I looked away in shame.


    [Why are you thanking me? It can''t be because I took on the torture of the last two days for you?]


    I moved my eyes up to meet her gaze which was still upon me. Looking into her clear grey eyes I was once again forced to look down in shame. This time because I realized that I had misjudged her. There were tears in her eyes


    [Why are you crying? No. It isn''t because you are thankful for me taking your place.] These eyes didn''t belong to such a petty person.


    [Ahhh...I understand. Thank you for being here. You are...I am not alone any longer. What is this? I am crying, too? Is it because I don''t have to endure it by myself anymore? No...]


    I saw the sorrow in her eyes.


    [So that''s what''s forcing the tears out of my eyes. Those tears, you are shedding them for me, aren''t you? Do my eyes look the same way as yours, so full of sadness? Most likely they do.]


    ¡°Th-thank you.¡±


    -------


    Her POV


    I was born as the sole heir to the squire of the mid-sized village Bruna in the Serota Principality. It is a weak little country in the Original Demon Continent and probably the only place there that uses human feudal lords in it''s ranks. Our liege was just that kind of eccentric person.


    My father gained this title as thanks for his achievements as an adventurer after successfully finishing an S-Ranked Quest for the Prince of Serota. Naturally, he was a loyal vassal and when a large monster incursion threatened our southern border he followed the marching order of our sovereign without hesitation.


    I was to act in his stead during his absence. There were no concerns regarding my political abilities, though he was still somewhat anxious. With nearly 21 years of age I had already to deal with the gossip that I was still unmarried. Father wanted cute little grandchildren. With 15 you were eligible for marriage.


    Being a human noble in the sphere of influence of demons, we had to adhere to some rules. It wasn''t allowed for us to found a dynasty. The Prince was good friends with father and also showed concern for our situation, was even willing to bend the rules for us, but father didn''t want to trouble him because the demon-race lords from the neighbouring kingdoms would have surely voiced their objections. He''d handle him with an ominous phrasing like:


    ¡°My Prince, please do not show favouritism to a lowly vassal, such as I. I would lose all loyalty towards a lord that can''t abide by the rules.¡±


    [What a funny tou-san.]


    It wasn''t also possible to simply cancel my right of inheritance, for one of the paragraphs in the ancient treaty of Gresta (which all demon countries more or less accepted) demanded that titles in the demon realms had to be given to the closest descendants. For the countries under this treaty those were iron-clad laws. Breaking them would incur the wrath of others since that document was the only common ground between demon realms from one and a half continents, after all.


    We had two options. Either I would have to officially cut ties with father or he had to give up on his title. He often proposed option number one and explained that our way of life wouldn''t really change. It would have just been for appearance''s sake. Granted, I''d never considered this for even a second.


    That''s why he felt guilty, thinking his work was standing in the way of my happiness and was ready to step down from his position when the call to arms came.


    The talks were interrupted by this, but I wouldn''t have let him step down anyway. So he went to fight and the safety of the village was left in my hands.


    I was perfectly capable, or so I thought. Mother had died on said S-Ranked Quest 1 year after giving birth to me. That''s one of the reasons why our Prince felt so inclined to bestow a title on father, but the main reason was him simply being a capable man, of course.


    Against father''s wishes I took up the sword at a young age. Traditionally the daughter would train in the type of weapon her mother used, which was a spear in this case. As a child I didn''t understand that this was disrespectful to her memory. I just wanted to be closer to the father I so dearly loved.


    Occasionally, some lesser monsters would appear and I had opportunities to test my skills against them. First, under the watchful eyes of father and then, after I turned 15, with the assistance of the local militia. I had become quite proficient.


    He would usually sit in his office, calmly hearing out the reports of the scouts and then state in a proud voice: ¡°Let my capable and beautiful daughter take care of things.¡±, only to follow me in secrecy.


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    [Such a worrywart.]


    My carefree days ended there.


    Ten days after father had left a wounded scout rushed into our mansion and reported the sighting of four, possibly five lesser undead spearmen. I had heard on other continents such a force would result in an evacuation and the dispatchment of a knight with ten to fifteen footsoldiers.


    Here, such an overreaction would lead to an inquiry by either the village council or the local magistrate, endowed with special rights by the Prince, in the next town, and your abilities would be questioned. Probably both.


    So I only took 3 men from the militia as an escort and headed out. Usually I would have taken 6 guardsmen with me but I didn''t want to leave the village too unprotected in case of an emergency, since father took so many men with him.


    Bruna lies in the north-eastern part of the Serota Principality bordering a desolate wasteland that belongs to the realm of one powerful demon-lord who was contempt with wandering around his lands and not bothering anyone except for those who made the mistake of crossing his territory without paying proper tribute.


    The report placed the undead only around half a day''s worth of marching away from the wasteland''s border and a good day''s march away from Bruna in a dried up part of the forest. Our party kept up a vigilant attitude during the travel and we sent one scout out ahead to warn us of possible dangers.


    He was supposed to warn us. I don''t know whether he got killed first in the line of duty or simply fled into some kind of hole to hide in. We were ambushed by a highly organized military unit with no insignia, but it was still clear as the day that they belonged to the Eternal Black Demon Empire. Only the strongest military powerhouse of all known demon nations could dare to blatantly ignore national borders and get away with it.


    Officially their own territory would not begin until the Cross-of-Death mountain range 270 km to the north. That does not matter much to the self-proclaimed protection force of the Original Demon Continent.


    They spearheaded the Great Pacification War over the Continent of Verol 2730 years ago. If you''d ask the other side they would call it the Black Incursion. Basically, after a time of inner turmoil in Verol with multiple wars they grabbed their chance and used their weakness for their own benefit.


    Needless to say, nobody believed in the part about the pacification attempt but the high nobility still laughed upon hearing that phrasing.


    They honestly believed that they deserved all the known lands but the rest of the world had other plans and they lost a great deal of power in the aftermaths of that war. Now they are bound by treaties to never leave the Original Demon Continent or they would have to face an ''Excursion of Peace'' by a coalition of 17 nations. (Seriously, that''s what the treaty says).


    Nevertheless they still derived a supremacy doctrine towards all demons from this and conduct themselves as if their culture was the godfather of all demon nations.


    Those people attacked us. And some high-level ones at that.


    Riding on giant direwolves, nightcrawlers, and other tamed beasts we were suddenly surrounded by 30 or more riders. Facing such odds I didn''t even want to resist and rather solve the matter through negotiations. But their steady aggressive approach, an perfect encirclement, and more than anything, the professional demeanour that well trained soldiers would only show right before a bloody confrontation didn''t leave us any other choice then to defend ourselves.


    To be honest, even then I would have probably tried to talk it out first, but my scout was nowhere to be seen which could only mean that he either didn''t do his job properly or that the soldiers of the Eternal Black Demon Empire once again didn''t take any prisoners.


    So I decided on:


    ¡°The moment of death has come! I die with my father''s name on my lips, Wolfcleaver! I die with my prince''s name on the lips, Rasion! Know the names of the people that will avenge me!¡±


    ¡°Kekeke...I''ll make your death swiftly as thanks for facing us directly and not playing the clueless fool.¡± (Rider-Lord)


    I had already a ''Spell of Fog'' prepared and let it loose even before the enemy officer had finished with his retort. My move was immediately countered by a ''wind spell'' and was followed up by three different kinds of attack spells. In that brief moment I saw that none of them had been confused by the fog at all. [Too many mages]


    Their combination was perfect. The attack magic (two ice missiles and some form of light beam whose origin I didn''t know) forced each one of us in a different spot. They aimed for those spots and some soldiers threw their spears and fired their arrows even before we were there, perfectly displaying a show of mockery through their supremacy.


    One guardsmen was hit by three arrows in the head and a spell from the ''School of Earth'' impaled him with an ''Earth-spike''.


    The other guard and I saw that development and used an ''Earth-Tidal-Wave'' to catapult ourselves towards the oncoming riders instead of moving to were they wanted us.


    This is a move father has taught us. It''s highly effective as a surprise tactic but the drawback is that you can''t easily stop the movement once it''s initiated. A direct frontal assault with one''s life on the line. Safe landing would be accomplished through a body strengthening technique or some kind of cushion. It''s a way of fighting only an adventurer would use and can be effective in one-on-one fights.


    Regretfully, we were facing a charge from a mounted enemy. Going for a direct collision with them was definitely not the right decision but it was the only option left. In mid-air I put my shield in front of me and held it at an angle that would hopefully deflect the impact of the oncoming lance from the wolf-rider instead of letting it break through (the shield) and directly hitting me.


    That somehow worked but I was still vaulted towards the ground, breaking my arm as well as some other bones in the process. I would have probably overturned myself a couple of times upon hitting the ground but there wasn''t even any time for that, for I was crushed under the heels of the following mounts.


    The fight lasted ten seconds at most. It would have been nice to know whether the last guardsmen was able to take someone with him but that is a useless sentiment.


    There was no need to recapitulate on my life a last time. Father properly raised me with the mind-set of a warrior expecting death at any moment.


    My actions at the end weren''t shameful and, even though of a futile nature, I hope my enemies will remember them well so they can properly tell my father how I met my end, when he comes for them.


    I didn''t expect them to revive me from my grave, though.


    End of Chapter 3

 Chapter 4 - Where love is born

    Chapter 4 ¨C Where love is born


    Still Her POV


    Endless pain and no escape from it. My mind is forced on the horror in front of me. At times, the image of a beautiful forest would enter my thoughts but would soon be replaced by the terror of death again. I try to hold onto it but there is no use.


    Death has put his hand around my heart and is tightly clenching it. He does not let go of it no matter what.


    I have heard that the Undead have no souls. Did that happen to me, too? Are my remains already a wandering skeleton that destroys the living wherever it goes? Had I known of their suffering earlier...I would have devoted my life to release them from this state.


    But now I have become a pained existence myself. My death left me helpless, I have no control over myself anymore. The only hope I have left is that maybe someone would cross my path and smash this unholy existence into pieces.


    Isn''t there someone who could cleanse my soul and free me from this vile curse? Atleast burn my bones to ashes so I could not hurt others; because I fear this pain will force me to become a slave to darkness.


    I hear someone screaming. It is not me. P-Please, please let it not be a victim of mine. Anything but this...I don''t want to come closer to the source of these screams but they are so alluring. Is this how it feels for an Undead to kill others? It is irresistible, I''m drawn to them against my will. Please run! I can''t hold on to me any longer. It feels as If I could find peace, if only I could reach the person that this voice belongs to. How can screams of pain hold such a promise?


    There is such a warmth to them. Why aren''t you running? Don''t you see that I am lost? Ahhh...I can''t fight it any longer. Forgive me...


    ¡°Ara...? I''m awake?¡±


    These legs...are those mine? There is no flesh to them, only skin and bones. My voice...it sounds so hoarse, no life to it.


    ¡°So I did become an Undead, after all...¡±


    There must have been an acolyte of the ''School of Death'' with them when the ambush happened. Binding a soul to an inanimate object is only possible at the moment of death. That much knows everyone.


    There is no other explanation, because when I was born I received a minor blessing from a Beast-Race Shaman to prevent my turning into an Undead from simply rotting away. It cost my father a small fortune.


    I closed my eyes again out of fear upon realizing the nature of my last thoughts right before waking up. I still hear his screams. They are broken, stopping from time to time as if he finally had his last breath only to re-emerge again after a while. An undead slave is forced to follow every order of his new master. Was it a command to feast on him?


    Why was I released from my madness; did the acolyte want me to take notice of what I had done? A cold feeling is spreading throughout my body. It wasn''t enough to curse my bones, he had to drag me to the deepest and darkest place imaginable.


    But what is this? Those screams of agony...they are fighting the coldness inside me.


    ¡°H-How...just how is this possible?¡±


    Those screams...they are words. I do not understand them but they are definitely words. What is he saying? Are you blaming me for my actions?


    ¡°I don''t mind if you do.¡±


    Oh...I understand. You are saying I should atleast show the courage to face you, aren''t you? That''s probably it. Even under my eyelids I can feel the tears flowing out, they will definitely block the vision. I can''t even wipe them because my arms won''t move; I have most likely been ordered to stand still and witness everything without running away...


    ¡°WAIT! Tears!?¡±


    Since when do Skeletons cry?


    Opening my eyes, I force myself to watch around me. I failed. I notice nothing, except for the man screaming to my right. Even though I didn''t want to look in this direction without first checking my surroundings like a proper warrior. His existence naturally drew me in. Just laying my eyes upon him puts me at peace.


    It''s a terrifying experience that makes me lose faith in myself once again. Before my eyes is the most grotesque scene of my life displayed and I am mesmerized by it. I have never felt such shame before.


    In front of him is a high noble of the Eternal Black Demon Empire. I have never seen one before but there are enough stories about them floating around. The only demons with black skin and four arms, not bowing to anyone but the strongest Demon-God-Emperor of their realm, demanding absolute obedience from everyone else.


    Only numbering a few hundred they are the ''Will of Destruction'' and bring despair for those who blaspheme against their emperor. It is said that they are the only ones who can lay their eyes upon the Demon-God-Emperor without withering away. Nobody else has been able to do so but them. Their presence is what gave birth to the name of their empire and is the strongest know fighting force easily equalling the dragons. Utter helplessness is the sole feeling left inside you after even as simple as seeing the path they have walked upon.


    There are no words to describe what is happening. From the outside, this absolute being is silently tormenting the man by constantly cutting him in half. Just seeing one of his swings brings agony to my body.


    ¡°I see...this axe has also sliced through me.¡±


    I have been hit by a weapon that is said to directly attack the mind. A cursed axe. The two pillars behind the strength of the Eternal Black Demon Empire: The High Nobles and cursed blades.


    Even with those two pillars combined into one menacing existence, the centre of my attention is clearly the man kneeling before the demon. He has a devastating appearance; malnourished, no muscles or hair. If not for his screams I would have surely believed he had already died a long time ago.


    This is an otherworldly scene. I do not understand what is happening. What kind of magic is used here? Is this a spell from the ''School of Life''? How can he be healed from a deadly strike with such easy? Just reattaching a lost finger costs already a great deal of Mana and recovering a lost limb is only possible with the highest level spells, whose secrets are kept hidden with a burning vigour by the followers of the ''School of Life''. But he is constantly revived. There is no denying that he dies and then, one heartbeat later he is alive again.


    I can''t question my eyes, I am not a victim of an illusion, either. There is a truth to this display that makes it undeniably real. Maybe he is dead and is just being re-summoned? I still have the suspicion that we are undead. Yes, we probably are.


    Is this the kind of punishment the Eternal Black Demon Empire has developed for it''s objects of hate? Death is not enough? They wish to hold the power to crush you even in your grave? Just what do you need to do to incur such wrath?


    ¡°I...need to help.¡± Even though it will be my doom.


    Thinking of a proper way I can only come up with a measly fireball. The thought of preparing that spell alone was enough to completely deplete all my Mana, though. How weak have I become?


    ¡°So I am forced to watch...¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    I want to scream in anguish, begging the black demon to stop, offering my own soul in exchange but something won''t let me do it. Why? Why can''t I stop his torment?


    ¡°Moshkashte...?¡± Did I misinterpret the situation?


    Yes, clearly, the high noble is performing a flawless piece of torturing and the man is screaming in anguish. But those screams, they have such a serene feeling to them despite their obvious reason; it''s mythical. Beyond my ability to reason...How could I be so blind?


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    ¡°It''s a battlecry!¡±


    Under constant torture he is besting the demon, not yielding although his body is being destroyed and the cursed weapon is attacking his inner self. What kind of power lies in the words he''s throwing at him? It''s not horror forcing me to watch, it''s hope!


    The high noble is disappointed and leaves. He won! Against that opponent.


    He is in deep meditation, reciting a Mantra in a foreign language and gathering his strength. He''s concentrating on the chain following it''s path, soon his eyes will be upon me. What will they look like?


    [Deep blue...] There''s something in his gaze...It''s as if he can see directly into my soul. [''Mind reading magic?''] No, there''s no deception in his eyes, only sincerity. It''s captivating. I don''t want to look away but I believe even if I wanted to I wouldn''t be able to do so.


    He looked away in shame? Why? There is no need for it. You defeated the demon, I saw it all. Or is it because I am naked? I am thankful to you trying to defend my chastity but this is no place for it. [Please look up again.] I have the feeling that if I look long enough into those eyes of yours, I might be able to survive.


    [There!] He looked up again. But why is he crying? [It is because I am crying myself.] Those tears are for me?  It''s that, isn''t it? I probably look the same way you do, completely destroyed. You are crying because you couldn''t free me from this place. You already did, you just don''t know it yet.


    He''s saying something:


    ¡°#¡ä^2€¡±


    Words of a foreign tongue but it''s alright, I understand.


    ¡°I love you, too.¡±


    -------


    His POV again


    I didn''t understand her answer. Her words hold a special meaning, I know despite the language barrier. If I had heard such words from the mouth of a woman when I was still alive I could compare and be certain about it but it is dangerous.


    I try the demon language:


    ¡°Do you understand me?¡±


    ¡°Why are you talking in the black tongue?¡±


    ¡°The what?¡±


    ¡°The black tongue!¡±


    ¡°Not Latin?¡±


    ¡°The what?¡±


    ¡°Forget it.¡±


    What a comical exchange. I fear, if I would have said something meaningful I wouldn''t be able to bear it. I am a lost soul, it would be a shame. [Somewhere in my mind the words ''Don''t bother yourself with me'' floated around but I stopped that thought. Such a thing will never leave my lips ever again.] I still want to know more about her.


    As if reading my mind, she said:


    ¡°I am Aoi, Aoi Wolfcleaver. Could you tell me your name?¡±


    ¡°I am¡± - krrrrieeeeeghhh!!


    A guard has come. Can''t he see that I''m busy?


    ¡°I am¡± - fliishshh!


    ¡°I¡± - hrushhhhh!!


    ¡°I...¡± - splatt!! ¡°am...¡± - crruushhh! ¡°Lucius...¡± - thrieeshhh!! ¡°Faber!¡± - Frgrggg!!


    ¡°Do you know where we are?¡± she asks, not minding the useless interference. There is something more important  than physical pain going on right now.


    Four minutes ago, before I could look into her eyes, I would have immediately answered with ''Hell''. But now I need to assess the situation anew.


    I obviously belong here. But why is she here?


    ¡°D-d...¡± I didn''t end the sentence and looked down again. The question I wanted to ask was whether she did something wrong that deserved to be punished. It is clear that she didn''t. The only possible explanation I could come up with was that a demon dragged her down against her will.


    -------


    Her POV


    [¡°D-d...¡±]?; and he looked down in embarrassment. Was that supposed to be:[¡°D-do you have a boyfriend?¡±]


    Don''t worry, I don''t.


    Ah, no. This isn''t embarrassment, this is shame. He thought of something rude.


    -------


    His POV


    ¡°I''m sorry.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°As long as you understand.¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°As long as I understand.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°What was it you wanted to ask just now?¡± (Aoi)


    I looked at her, unable to say anything.


    ¡°I will answer it honestly.¡± (Aoi)


    [Talking to her is such a soothing experience.]


    ¡°It was a foolish thought. There is a reason why I didn''t end it but if you want I will say it.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°There is no need to make a fool out of yourself for me.¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°You looked happy at first. What did you think I was going to say?¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°Nothing...¡± (Aoi)


    [It''s funny how two people can tease each other with honest intentions.]


    ¡°I-Is it OK to call you Lucius?¡±


    [Why are you asking me this now? Is it your way of leveling the ground again; to show me that you don''t mind my blunder?]


    ¡°Please do so, Aoi.¡±


    [Judging from her choice of words she puts an emphasis on proper manners. It''s better to meet her halfway and also watch out for my tongue.]


    ¡°So do you know how we got here or where we are, L-Lucius?¡±


    ¡°I died.¡±


    ¡°I was also defeated.¡±


    ¡°I wasn''t defeated. I just...died.¡± My feeling of regret must''ve been carried through my voice so she didn''t further inquire and continued with her own story instead.


    ¡°Those demons dragged me here, after they defeated me.¡±


    ¡°You fought against them?¡±


    ¡°Yes, 30 of them ambushed me.¡±


    [Wait a moment! You fought against the demons and you are important enough for them to send out 30 guys? The logical conclusion would be that you are an exorcist. No...most likely an angel. At this point I''m about to believe anything.


    Let''s go with ''innocent being in hell'' (and my only light here) I can sense it after all; that her circumstances aren''t that romantic. Am I just sugar-coating our discussion? No, how could I? There are blades chopping us up right now. She is obviously in pain. We are only putting up a tough act. Is that the true reason why it is called the ''Divine Comedy''? Following the baka-couple routine under these circumstances...playing a lovely comedy while tears of blood are flowing down our eyes. Good that I realized it. There is no need in running from myself; no need for imaginings of random forests.]


    Here goes all or nothing.


    ¡°I-I love you.¡±


    A fog of anxiety was lifted from Aoi''s eyes, which I didn¡¯t even notice up until now.


    End of Chapter 4


    A little afterword. There are still five months left in the story until it finally catches up with the two year mark in the prologue where our MC will learn some ''greater sorrow''. Out of this some even greater anger shall be born, for lawful good needs a just reason to smite evil without becoming evil in the process itself. I swear they will gulp on the term ''fairy''. So please bear with me until i can go into the story for good. For now there are some other inmates to wake up from their slumber first, though.


    I am sorry for my punctuation. Even in my mother tongue I''m lousy this. Please feel free to comment on anything you can think of. (if you want to (but you don''t need to))


    I have not a schedule planned for now. As long as i can come up with a satisfying way to mess with the MC (or his foes) I''ll bring it immediately to paper. I agonized over this chapter for 12 hours to get a good ending (i hate filler) so it can take a little longer from time to time. I am slow compared to others...


    PS: I love baka-couples.

 Chapter 5 – Assessing the situation

    Chapter 5 ¨C Assessing the situation


    It was love at first sight for the both of us.


    [Aoi, I''m sorry that it took me five minutes longer than you to muster my courage and confess. Please forgive me!]


    During these couple of minutes I humoured myself with thoughts such as: ''I am a lost soul; I do not deserve any love.'', or ''You are too good for me.'' - I would have most likely kept up with it but you had me cornered with your sincerity. In front of that I couldn''t possibly play the fool.


    I still do think that I don''t deserve it but the love you have shown me is greater than this. I was illogical. Only hate can equal love and not some petty notions such as the state of the soul. It would be demeaning for your feelings if they had to deal with that. Feelings should only have to deal with feelings and not with logic, for logic can''t possibly compare to them.


    And the truth is my feelings for you are undeniably those of love. There''s still something bugging me but I''ll let it slide for now.


    There''s something else I want to know.


    ¡°Aoi, why did you fight against demons?¡±


    ¡°As I said, they ambushed me.¡±


    ¡°I get that part. But why would they ambush you?¡±


    ¡°I don''t have any idea, either. They just stormed out of the woods when I was on my way to take care of some lesser skeletons.¡±


    ¡°Lesser skeletons?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Four or five skeleton spearmen.¡±


    I have an ominous premonition so I need to clarify it now.


    ¡°Aoi, could you please tell me a little bit more about who you are and where you came from?¡±


    ¡°Hai! I am the daughter of Droght Wolfcleaver, squire to Prince Rasion and the Lord of Bruna.¡±


    [A noble''s daughter?]


    ¡°M-mylady?¡±


    I''m outclassed in all regards here.


    With a sad look in her eyes she said: ¡°Please...call me Aoi.¡±


    She''s right. How could I be intimidated by titles when I decided to cope with the fact that I''m a sinner and she is an innocent soul, which is by far more important? But I don''t want to deceive her.


    ¡°Aoi... I-I am of low birth.¡± She gets an angry look at that.


    [No, that''s not the right way to put it.]


    ¡°What I mean is not my status in society. It is about who I am.¡±


    A...confession...of sins. Usually it is done to cleanse yourself in some regard and you go to a professional (priest) for that matter. It''s easier to do this with a stranger who''ll keep things confidential and you are not obliged to meet afterwards.


    But it is so much harder with the one you love. You shouldn''t do this with your partner. Not only will it shift the balance, it will also force her into the position of forgiving me for being who I am. She might force herself to do so, even if she''s disappointed. Yeah, I know that she will forgive me but that''s not the problem.


    The problem is that she will feel bad for being disappointed in me. I don''t want to do this to her. That''s why it''s so much easier with a priest. They won''t be disappointed in you no matter what. They''ll only see someone in need and do their job (hopefully).


    Still...she needs to know. I won''t lie to her. I might''ve been lying to myself all my life but I don''t want to do the same with her.


    ¡°I''ve done bad things...to my family. That is why I am here.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± [Here it comes. I wonder which words of comfort she''ll choose?]


    ¡°Lucius, don''t be a fool. Problems with your family should be resolved inside the family. This here...this does not seem to be a place where things are resolved.¡±


    [I said it already once. Talking to her is really a soothing experience.]


    ¡°Ahh...thank you, Aoi.¡±


    ¡°What for?¡±


    ¡°For not saying empty words of comfort.¡±


    ¡°You''ve been thinking something rude again, haven''t you?¡± (like thinking she would be disappointed)


    ¡°I did; but not anymore.¡±


    ¡°Won''t you say ''sorry''?¡±


    ¡°I won''t.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°Because I''m not sorry for talking to you.¡±


    A smile appeared on Aoi''s face. There is a magnificent beauty to it despite the sorry state of her body. [Ah...I would do anything for her.] It''s not a bad feeling, having this as my raison d''etre.


    -------


    Aoi''s POV


    Lucius is troubled by his past and it has to do with his family. It would be a wrong thing to force him into spilling the beans now. Did he steal money? It does not seem so. That look points towards a greater form of betrayal.


    He knows what he did, but he''s just feeling sorry for himself. Baka. Ah no, I''m the Baka. [Why would he say ''That is why I''m here?''] There seems to be something else. I should probe the waters.


    ¡°Did the problems at home force you into slavery and you were sold to the demons as a blood sacrifice?¡±


    ¡°What? Why would you come up with that?¡±


    ¡°Well...we both died and are now forced to be the undead slaves of some acolyte or lich.¡±


    ¡°Aoi, I think you misunderstand the situation. When you die you are automatically sent to hell for your past wrongdoings.¡±


    [What, in the name of the Dragon, is he talking about?]


    I must''ve had a seriously perplexed look on my face, so he continued.


    ¡°Well...it''s a sort of punishment.¡±


    ¡°Does your nation send people to this kind of jail? I never heard of it before? Is it the Kingdom of Endron? I once read that they proud themselves in developing the cruellest forms of punishment. Those bloody elves.¡±


    ¡°Erm...no it''s not that kind of thing. You see, this is the end of all life. It''s the point of no return. After you die you don''t get a chance at being human again because you are forced to leave everyone behind. A human being is a social creature after all. Without interaction with others you cease to be human. The annoying thing about hell is that you don''t lose your self-awareness. Something like that?¡±


    [Is he a philosopher? Sometimes philosophers say the deepest things and seek out mysteries beyond comprehension...but this is...yes. It''s truly beyond comprehension...]


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    He''s still going on...


    ¡°This is a really cruel state. You are a human by nature but here you are not allowed to be a human. I would''ve really liked to damn someone but the fact is that I seeked this state out of my own accord.¡±


    ¡°You..are here out of your free will?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. I am here because my will is not free...of sins...¡±


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    Aoi lets out a really deep sigh and says:


    ¡°You are right that our wills are not free anymore. We have been resummoned as undead servants and will be forced to fight in the future.¡±


    [I get that you''re a warrior-angel who has become a prisoner of war in the conflict between Good and Evil, but Aoi...angels can not be forced against their will.]


    ¡°Why would you think you are an Undead?¡±


    ¡°First: We died. There is only one way to come back after that, and that is through the teachings of the ''School of Death''. They developed a technique to massively infuse the residual Mana inside a corpse with their own Mana to force it into a moving state again.¡± She made a gesture with her eyes to ask whether I understood and if she could continue.


    I nodded. Ironically, in that moment my head was cut off and it seemed as if I had shown my neck in anticipation to make it easier for the demon kid that has come after the guard. He''s such a joke compared to the others. He seems to be really young, but that had never been a reason for the pain to be more bearable, yet now it is.


    It''s mysterious. Just having her by my side eases the pain. I wonder if it''s the same for her?


    ¡°Second: Just look around. We are skeletons! Soon even our skin will disappear and the only thing left will be our bones.¡± She made a clacking sound with her teeth in an imitation of a skull.


    [I thought you weren''t that easy-going judging from your sophisticated demeanour. Are you loosing up around me? It''s a cozy feeling.] After telling me of her origins I finally understood that she has a noble air around her and I thought I would have problems with proper behaviour. [She''s probably being considerate of me.]


    -------


    Aoi''s POV


    [No, my love. It''s not only out of consideration. I just want us to go all dere-dere. With you I feel at ease. Even the pain becomes more bearable the longer you look into my eyes.]


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    [Ah, OK. Got it.] I answered with my eyes.


    We still need to go on with the discussion, though.


    ¡°There is a problem with your theory, Aoi.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I know. Skeletons aren''t supposed to feel any pain or be sentient. It might be a new spell.¡±


    ¡°It''s something else. From the way our conversation went on, I fathom we were both born in very different places. Two different worlds, so to say. And I am not talking in a metaphorical manner of speech here. In my life there was never such a thing as magic, only humans and their daydreams.


    When I died, I died alone. There was nobody there to perform any kind of spell, even if such a thing was possible.¡±


    She has a look of disbelief in her eyes.


    ¡°You want to comprehend the situation in a logical way so I will try to be methodically here. We are not in our bodies anymore, we are souls that are bound to this place. Our appearance just resembles our former bodies. We died and need to accept it. That is why I have been so anguished until now.¡± [It''s weird to describe hell in any other way than the philosophical one.]


    Her disbelief didn''t go away in the least. If anything, the look in her eyes tells me that she is even more confused. [Are there no stories of the underworld in her place?]


    ¡°Lu-Lucius...did I understand you right?¡±


    There was no sign of contempt when I told her about my sinful state before, but now there is. [Why? Please don''t look at me like this.] In just a heartbeat there had been an anxiety built up inside of me I could not have imagined before. [I see...you are already able to crush me with just a gesture. It is that kind of love.]


    ¡°...a different world...¡±


    [So that''s what it was. I''m an idiot.]


    ¡°You don''t believe me?¡±


    ¡°I...I do. I obviously need to.¡±


    ¡°Don''t force yourself out of obligation to do something you don''t want to.¡±


    ¡°I''ll do it nevertheless. I was just thinking for a moment that you were playing me for a fool or you were plainly lying. This thought hurt me and it would hurt you because I doubted your story, although I could only see sincerity in your eyes and no deceit...so I felt contempt for myself.¡±


    [It is that kind of love...]


    ¡°We both can crush each other with just a wink.¡±


    Her expression tells me that she understood. It would have been bad if it was only me, but it''s mutual. We were both just needlessly anxious.


    ¡°Aoi, won''t you say ''sorry'' for doubting me?¡± I invite her into that routine.


    ¡°I won''t.¡±, she said with a faint smile.


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°Because I...¡±


    -------


    Aoi''s POV


    It was a smart choice to go with that routine. We know each other for only a moment, after all. The anxiety was just a misunderstanding. Such things will happen less often the more we learn about each other.


    The moment I wanted to answer I realized that the man on the far right was looking into our direction.


    End of Chapter 5


    On a personal note. I wanted to say three things.


    1st Today i had a revelation. After many years i noticed that Horo is actually a nekomimi


    2nd He should stop being an idiot and just go for Albedo.


    3rd The other one should kick Eris out if she hits him again.


    Oh and...fourth: I hate it that he lied to Da''in and didn''t tell her the truth.

 Chapter 6 - Blood Brothers

    Chapter 6 ¨C Blood Brothers


    Aoi''s gaze wasn''t directed at me anymore.


    [What has it been? 30 minutes, 35?] This is for how long we have maybe talked, and in this time we have become the centre of attention of each other''s respective worlds. It might only be a little while but it is more than enough for me to realize that this is the most important moment in my life. [How could I have been able to live until now without her eyes upon me?]


    If the meaning of a person''s lifetime could be crystallized into a moment, it could only be something like this. It''s as if all my past life is drawn into this moment and defined by her anew. Would I compare my life to a book with the most horrible poetry on the first pages, then the page on which she appeared would have the power to rewrite the beginning. You could read it a second time and be amazed by the beauty of the words. That''s the kind of existence she has become for me in this mere moment of a lifetime''s crystallization.


    [So would you please look at me again? I''m not begging but it''s something like water in the desert. Yes! That might work. She seems to have a radar for thoughts like these. (when I think rude things) That comparison lacks finesse so she will sense it: Water-Desert, Water-Desert, Water-Desert, Water-Desert]


    ¡°Lucius, stop it. You are the light of my life and don''t need to tease me to get my attention.¡±


    [I knew it''d work.]


    ¡°How did you know my name is translated as ''light''?¡±


    ¡°It is?¡±


    ¡°It is.¡±


    ¡°Do you know the meaning of my name?¡±, asks Aoi with somewhat of an expectant look on her face.


    She is mature enough to understand that I might not know the answer and won''t mind it but she''ll also be happy if I know it. [I can completely read you.]


    -------


    Aoi''s POV


    [Says he.]


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    ¡°Your name is a reflection of the colour in your eyes.¡±


    She smiles knowingly at that.


    ¡°Lucius, you need to turn around. Someone is looking in this direction.¡±


    ¡°I can understand why he''d watch you.¡±


    ¡°He is looking at you, not at me.¡±


    ¡°Wait. You are not talking about a demon here, are you?¡±


    ¡°No. He''s just like me. I think you released him, too.¡±


    ¡°I...didn''t release anyone.¡± As I whisper this I turn my head around and ¨C Pflegggg! (an iron bat hit)


    After reawakening I see him. [What a pained expression...] If Aoi''s expression was a result of the horrors she experienced here, his would be more similar to mine, I guess. But his eyes aren''t full of regret, it''s sadness. [Where have I seen something like that?]


    ...


    [Ah...mother had the same look on her. He was betrayed by a loved one.] I would have normally felt guilt for seeing through someone like this, as if I''m prying, but he wasn''t hiding it. Aoi''s case is different. It''s a fated meeting. We couldn''t hide things from each other, even if we wanted to. He on the other hand side has simply no will to hide anything.


    [The pain seems to affect him more than us.] Of course, I have Aoi and she has me. He might fall back into the dark again at any moment.


    I talk to him in the black tongue:


    ¡°You broke free from the terror. There is no way your mind is that weak that it can be preoccupied by physical pain for an eternity. You know the truth, don''t you? At some point you realized that this pain isn''t amplifying anything inside yourself, it is just a hindrance in facing what you try to hide. It might be your momentary will to engulf your wrenched body, in an attempt to run away from greater agony, but it is not mine. See yourself the way I see you; someone who came to the same truth as I did: a broken body ¨C it means nothing. You don''t want to run away.¡±


    He was at a point right before the abyss, a moment akin to standing on top of a building and looking down, wondering what would happen if he''d jump. [What would I do if that would be the first thing I''d see as the full world? I''d probably be blinded. So it''s that. He''s just like a new-born, waking up and finally taking notice of his surroundings.] In a sense he became self-conscious again. It is wondrous how fast the both of them could do it compared to me, who had to gradually come to this point. I wasn''t fully aware of everything from the beginning. Step by step I widened my world, accompanied by constant torture and slowly but surely seeing myself.


    In the moment where I stopped talking to think, he started to fade away again. So I go on:


    ¡°True strength isn''t defined whether you have the courage to go into the darkness. It is defined by whether you understand that darkness can''t stand where you go because it has no meaning. Do not back away. Let the abyss back away from you!¡±


    I do not know whether he heard or understood me. There was just a need for me to say these things to him. Although I see him in pain and agony, there is also strength, and gestures of understanding and sharing the pain together don''t seem right. It would have been an insult to him so I decided to see him walking by himself.


    The one who clearly catched on to my speech was his tormenting demon, though. He had an interested look on his face and was just about to say something. [Maybe he wants to switch out with the iron-bat swinging boy that''s working on me right now and initiate a conversation?


    It is obvious that he would talk through the power of his sword.]


    Deciding on another course of action he didn''t answer and instead went on by showing greater zealous in the abuse of his original victim.


    As I started to scream at him in anger and telling him to come over to me I blamed myself for talking in the foul language of those demons. It was Aoi who noticed it:


    ¡°Lucius...it''s alright. Don''t be blinded by your anger and let them hog all of your attention on them. Just watch. Don''t you see it?¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°It''s as if you used a spell, although I couldn''t see any Mana, it clearly worked.¡±


    ¡°It was no spell. It was my honest opinion.¡±


    ¡°Nevertheless it helped him. Can''t you see it? Even though the demon uses much more strength than before, he isn''t able to inflict as much pain anymore.¡±


    Certainly, she''s right. His behaviour shows now more signs of resistance, mainly noticeable through the change in his screams.


    [It can''t really be that a sorrow shared is a sorrow halved, can it?]


    I try to talk to him again, this time in my own language. He''s still not answering and seems to be in deep thought. Even Aoi tried it in her language but it was still to no avail. Still not answering, I start to wonder, if he does not wish to talk.


    There''s something; his gaze doesn''t seem to be focused on me anymore.


    [Is he falling into the darkness of his mind again?] Following the path his eyes are taking I see that he is staring at the ground. [What might he be looking at? Is it his past?]


    Yet, he does not fade away. There! He''s opening his mouth, finally willing to say something. It is just one thing whose meaning I do not know:


    ¡°2&%)=¡±


    It''s the same again as with Aoi?


    ¡°Did you understand him, Aoi?¡±


    ¡°I know what language it is, although I am not able to speak it. I only understood one thing. He is dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Dangerous? In this place?¡±


    ¡°There is only one kind of people in the world who would use a ''Blood Oath'' to promise death to others.¡±


    Even the demon in front of him put a hold to his actions in surprise.


    -------


    New guy''s POV


    The woman I loved killed me. It was a dirty betrayal for money. We''ve been in the same party for three years and I thought we had something real going on. To find someone special at the age of 44 is truly uncommon and I felt like a youngster of 16 again.


    But...at first I didn''t want to believe it. In the night before, we were at a tavern with rooms for adventurers. Our party of six had just finished with preparing for our departure in the morning to go on an A-Ranked Quest in the outskirts of Endron.


    I went early to bed so I''d be in top form for the next day. There I found it. It was a letter with instructions on how to lure us into a trap and kill me. I didn''t want to believe it. I DIDN''T WANT TO BELIEVE IT. Was I prepared to go to my doom to test her loyalty? I was. But at the same time I prepared for the worst case scenario. The thought of escaping didn''t cross my mind. I wouldn''t have permitted that kind of ending.


    The next day I woke up early and went out to conclude some affairs. The first and the hardest thing was to meet with a proxy of the Assassin''s Guild on such a short notice. As someone who was in the business for many years I had a good enough reputation to get to the necessary people.


    Throwing money around left and right as bribery it was obvious that I was desperate and thus my case was deemed sincere. With him I deposited a large sum and left instructions to send someone after her if I wouldn''t show up after a week''s time.


    For the next thing I bought poison. Just in case. I didn''t know how many of my party members were in on it so I might have needed to put them out of the game early on. You should never cross the cook in your group.


    So when we went out I was full of anxiety, not able to do the right decision and hoping for the best outcome, that it was all just a joke or a big misunderstanding. On the way I was watching her carefully, observing every move she made. She was obviously all tensed up.


    My fears became real when she suggested to make an early camp at the very spot that was described in the letter. Preparing the food, I put the poison in every serving ¨C hers had the largest amount in it. It was a good poison, no smell or taste, a white powder just like salt. The effect would only paralyze them but her dose would be lethal if no antidote was applied fast enough.


    When the effect became apparent and my ''friends'' started to choke on their food and fell in a state of panic I didn''t move a finger. Watching them as they fell over I calmly ate until I was finished. The whole time I was watching her.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Why?¡± , I asked her with a calm tone.


    With tears in her eyes she answered:


    ¡°I-I wanted you to stop me! I gave you so many hints, not even hiding the letter.¡±


    That was no answer to my question.


    ¡°Why?¡±, I asked again in the same tone.


    ¡°P-please! I love you. I beg of you.¡±


    ¡°WHY?¡±


    ¡°Th-th-they have my brother.¡±


    ¡°Lies.¡±


    ¡°Please....¡±


    ¡°You will die here. As for the others: The poison will wear off in a couple of hours. If you ever cross my path again I will kill you. Consider yourself lucky that I don''t know whether you were in on it or not. It''s my last gesture of gratitude for the years we were together.¡±


    ¡°Why didn''t you...stop...me?¡± Her voice was already faint as she drifted into unconsciousness.


    ¡°Because it was you.¡±


    Clap! Clap! Clap!


    From the background I heard three slow claps. In an instant I grabbed my two-handed sword and turned around. [How did I not notice him?]


    There was an arrogant Endron-Elf standing without the slightest hint of being alarmed in his posture. His two swords were still sheathed and he showed no signs of hostility. Yet, there was no opening in his stance. No chance of victory. A high level opponent. [The letter said the time of the ambush shouldn''t be before midnight.]


    ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°I''m her employer.¡±, said the bastard and tilted his head a little in her direction. ¡°A magnificent display, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Why would you want me dead? I don''t know you.¡±


    ¡°Don''t play the fool. You know who I am. I am the last person you''ll ever see alive.¡±


    [Fighting is suicide. I need to get out of here.] Probing my surroundings I eventually understood that I was already in an encirclement and that there was no room to escape.


    ¡°You finally noticed?¡±, asked the bastard in his tentative tone.


    [I doomed myself. But I don''t regret coming here. Nobody crosses me without paying for it.]


    I took the last stance of my life and readied myself, but I would not be the one defending.


    The bastard also knew that playtime was over. He didn''t give me the honour of a fair fight, though. Upon a wink of him demons appeared out of the woods. [What are THEY doing here?]


    That was something I didn''t expect. [Why would an Eldron-Elf use demons as subordinates instead of other elves? A mercenary unit? Useless thoughts. There is something more important to do.]


    And that was attacking him. I was never good at attack magic. The only magic I ever showed any talent in was from the ''School of War'' the Beast-Races developed. Body strengthening techniques and mind-magic, befitting of a natural born predator.


    There was no hesitation in my jump; at the same moment the demons around began with their charge but they are not my target. My aim is to unleash a powerful side-swing from the right at the eldron in front of me. The classical move of a two-handed sword-fighter. I knew it wouldn''t connect with his throat I was aiming at but I still forced him to take out one of his swords and to deflect it. Not stopping in my movement I changed to a one-handed grip and rotated my body for the second strike, which he evaded through an acrobatic manoeuvre in jumping backwards, kicking my arm in the process. That did not make me lose my momentum. Until now the fight has been going as expected so I changed to a two-handed grip again and upon my next rotation I charged once more at him, this time by using my weapon like a spear and aiming at his heart. I scratched his armour.


    By now the look of arrogance disappeared from his face but the one of confidence was as strong as ever.


    It was now my time to defend. He followed in the path of my sword with an unimaginable speed when I had to draw it back to regain my stance. The most crucial moment for someone without a shield like me and he preyed on in without mercy. With the sword in his left hand he hindered me in my defence ¨C I was wide open ¨C and he pierced my heart with the blade in his right.


    I wanted to close in on him, now one of his weapons was stuck in my body, after all. Maybe a last headbutt to break his nose but he didn''t let me and used a headbutt on me instead. [Who would''ve thought something like that of an elf? Truly, a high level opponent.]


    I fell backwards on the ground. His last words to me were:


    ¡°One move more than I anticipated. I had to use a headbutt. Really, it''s such a shame...¡±


    ¡­.


    I was not allowed to rest in peace. I thought I had died but when I woke up there was another demon in front of me. [What a weak little child, I''ll break your neck.]


    ¡°Uagghhhg.¡±


    There is no power in my arms, I couldn''t move them. [A strike from an inexperienced hand is closing in on me and I can''t evade, simply forced to watch him.] And it happened again and again. [The pain is greater than it should be. I''ve had many injuries in my life but I never felt something like this before.]


    The torment never ends. My thoughts are bound by it.


    What kind of vile curse has been put on me? Is this the doing of that witch? Her revenge on me for poisoning her? Even if that elf has given her an antidote, she will meet her end. I have made sure of that.


    I was betrayed...love, what a rotten thing.


    ¡°You there, the demon in front of me. What is this strike supposed to be? Is this your attempt at hate? If you don''t try harder I might mistake it for love. And you do not want that. ¡±


    I have been really betrayed by her...


    I had my revenge but why does it still feel as if nothing has been gained and only loss is there? Ah...solitude is a bliss. There! I see a serene forest without anybody. Such a place would be wonderful to live in, with only nature as my companion. It''s not like I fear betrayal, I''ll take it head on if it comes. It''s just...that I''m exhausted by it.


    But what is this now? This curse, it''s weakening and the horror in front of me isn''t binding me anymore. How did I break free from this?


    There...it is...I...I smell love!


    ¡°Argh!¡± I didn''t break free from the curse, no! It is much worse than I thought ¨C it''s the next stage of the curse! I need to fight it! Concentrate on the pain again. Yes, go back to a prior stage of this curse.


    ¡°Damn!¡± I can''t escape; it must be a curse of the highest grade. I didn''t ever notice you were such a powerful witch, my love. Just you wait, you wench. I will come and find you, even if your survived the poison and the assassins. It wouldn''t be the first time a spirit haunted the living.


    ¡°Grrrr....¡± This foul stench of love, where is it coming from?


    There! It was you two! How dare you perform such an vile act of indecency right in front of me? I will hear your excuse (pleas) first, and then I will administer punishment. The demons are already dead but I''ll give you a chance, because I see that you are also victims of the curse.


    ¡°Ahh...!¡± Is that your excuse? You have been tormented here for what seems to be an eternity and now you just comfort each other out of loneliness? The evidentiary hearing is closed. Now hear my judgement: Death.


    I will kill the woman first. They are the more dangerous ones. Any last words?


    ¡°¡ì%&^¡±


    The language of the demons? No, your plea for mercy has been rejected.


    Now that I decided upon it, how will I do it, considering the state I am in? I don''t have any attack spells at my disposal, nor am I able to move any of my limbs.


    ...I know! Executing them might be impossible for me at the moment, but I can at least inflict a wound. There is one spell from the ''School of War'' I know of that hast a damaging attribute to the body. It is a mind attack, which is amplified through the voice of the user: ''Roar of the beast''. Now, feel my wrath.


    ¡°Uagh..¡± Just by trying to gather my Mana I fall into a state of mental exhaustion and nearly lose myself in the curse again...


    There is so much blood on the ground, I didn''t notice until now. How many litres must there be? The whole floor is covered with it. The blood of the tormented is mixed together; we are basically standing in it. Oh...I see. I can''t kill you that easily.


    Turning to them again I say:


    ¡°We have spilled our innards at this damnable place together, so we have become blood brothers. It is a battlefield on which we stand together and I will honour this. But I swear on my blood that is now flowing through your veins, if I witness any betrayal between you I will kill the both of you without mercy.¡±


    End of Chapter 6


    Afterwords.


    That Chapter was a pain. Initially i had the idea to put in another history lesson to explain the origins of the ''Blood Oath'' but i scratched that. I think it''ll become a sidestrory.


    I hope you like the dark cupid I came up with. He will bring happiness to many couples. Although i feel like he might be too shallow. There is an idea on how to make him a realistic stereotype, but only in the far future.


    For the next chapter i plan to cover those damn five months so i can finally move on with the story. Or more like start with it...


    Last time I said Horo is a nekonomimi and someone pointed that mistake out to me. I stand corrected. I wanted to say kemonomimi but the other one rolls easier from the toungue so I wrote that.


    It was Spice and Wolf, Overlord, Mushoku Tensei and LMS. I hate Legend of the Legendary Heroes on completely forgot about that Eris. If they love each other they should also show it.


    My opinion for the best series of this season:


    Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu and Psycho Pass 2

 Chapter 7 - The true reason for suffering

    Chapter 7 ¨C The true reason for suffering


    Flashback


    In a dark unventilated room, there sits a 25 year old man in front of a computer. Unshaved, he''s only wearing an undershirt and shorts. It''s Lucius Faber.


    Currently, he''s engulfed in a MMORPG and has been sitting there for the past 24 hours non-stop.


    <table><tbody><tr><td>Your session has been automatically terminated after 24h of being online. Login will be possible after 1h.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡°Dammit. What is this shit? Are you fucking kidding me? I was just getting to the boss of the dungeon.¡± He''s throwing a tantrum, not even noticing the spit that''s coming out of his mouth and landing on the monitor.


    ¡°Argh...gotta take a shower then. Haven''t had one in days...¡±


    After the one hour mark, he logged in again and nearly got a heart-attack.


    ¡°WHAT??? THERE WAS A LAG WHEN I DISCONNECTED AND I DIED?? BITCH!¡± He was forced to respawn at the nearest town. Still angry, he left it to vent some steam and found immediately the right target for it.


    A number of new players were at the fields in front of the town and grinding levels.


    ¡°Noobs! There they are, just what I have been looking for!¡±


    Right when he was about to unleash an AOE spell, that would let a rain of flames go down on a dozen players, a unexpected thing occurred. He watched the beginners, happily chatting with each other and fighting with rabbits, foxes, and other low-level creeps. Seeing this sparked a rare feeling of sentimentality in him. He remembered his first days in the game, when he was still overjoyed upon every level-up or item-drop.


    It was a peaceful and honest scene of a beginning adventure. They were just like him, back when he started the game, and he somehow lost the will to PK (PlayerKill) them.


    ¡°Che...I''m not in the mood to show them the harshness of the gaming world, anymore.¡±


    So he left for a high-level dungeon.


    Flashback end


    -------


    Five months in hell, watching Aoi getting killed over and over again ¨C it breaks my heart apart no matter how often I see it. I scream at the demons in anger, spewing out my hatred for them and promising them death. At times Aoi, me, and Crence, the other man who has awoken, would tune in into an aria of wrath.


    The demons only snort at our behaviour and show an even greater passion in their activity of destroying our bodies. Somehow I wish, that if I could agitate them enough, they would only concentrate on me and let the others rest. Never though, have I witnessed a change in their routine. Always one demon ''processing'' one soul.


    But I am powerless. I can''t protect her, nor am I able to stop the pain of the other tormented souls. The only thing I am able to do, is to pray for them. On the second day of her awakening, Aoi asked me to explain the nature of my actions:


    ¡°I hear you always reciting the same thing in your own language. What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°I am praying.¡±


    ¡°It sounds just, as if you''d perform an incantation. Didn''t you say there was no magic in your world?¡±


    ¡°It''s quite the opposite of magic. Magic follows the logic of action and reaction. I, on the other hand side, am doing quite the illogical thing. It is an action, so useless, that you''d laugh, if I explained it to you.¡±


    ¡°Then make me laugh. Seeing you ''praying'' fascinates me.¡±


    I smile at that compliment and decide to use a comparison.


    ¡°Often, we are screaming at the demons, sometimes in anger, sometimes while begging, to stop them from tormenting the other one, don''t we?¡±


    She nods at that.


    ¡°It''s quite useless, as we have seen, nothing really changes upon us doing it, yet we are still not stopping with it. Why do you think, that is?¡±


    ¡°It is unjust. I will not be silenced because of the futility of our actions. And I am not going to beg anymore.¡± said Aoi.


    ¡°Exactly. It is a protest against the world.¡±


    ¡°Was it that, what you were doing?¡±


    ¡°No, the opposite. I was only thinking of you...and the others. Why should I damn the world, when it is so much more important to sanctify you instead?¡±


    It was a discussion, born out of curiosity, but it saved me. Some time later, I realized that the guards would come for me, and destroy me on a regular basis. Calling it excruciating would be an understatement. I understood that they would specifically send in the younger demons for some time and then switch out with the guards, in an attempt to break me. It would have broken me, I believe, if not for the tranquillizing voice of Aoi that reached my ears. She prayed for me.


    -------


    There were also some things I learned during these five months. It surprised me that Aoi and Crence were both born in the same world, just as well as they were surprised by the fact that I came from another one, although Crence doesn''t believe me. He thinks I''m just hiding my past.


    Talking about him...first it was hard for us to communicate with him. He was speaking in a different language, called verol. Here you never sleep, though, and we taught each other our respective languages (on a rudimentary level). Aoi already knew two demon languages: ''Black tongue'' and Demon-language (the imperial demons usually call that the vulgar tongue). Next to those three, their world also had another major language in the far western continent were humans mostly reign. Verol is somewhat of a transit-continent between the human continent and the demon-continent.


    It was frightening. They both had knowledge of the demons in front of us. Their world was basically infested with them and judging from our talks they were able to evenly fight against them because of their magic. There was everything present: Mana, Adventurer''s Guild, different races, medieval-style hack and slashing, and monsters manifesting themselves.


    Monsters...their world, overflowing with Mana would give substance to living nightmares that would only act on instinct, as if nature was trying to keep the population in check. What surprised me the most, was the fact that demons weren''t considered as monsters. Although hated by many, they are a not outlawed, and the same applies to the other races. Aoi even came from the ''original demon continent'' (they call it like that because half the countries on Verol have demons as the reigning class after a massive incursion happened in the past)


    Monsters are considered as natural disasters and most nations have laws that enforce their eradication, more or less. The strength of a person would be even measured by the amount of monsters, one had slain.


    Truly a disturbing thing for me to find out, although, that explained their ability to swiftly adjust to the situation, when it took me so long.


    What kind of connection had their world and this place? And what kind of connection had my origin and this place? I feared the answer and didn''t want to think about it. Childish obstinacy? No, I had a reason for it.


    Slowly but surely the information I accumulated, though, would force me to accept a truth that would destroy that reason, that pillar of support, I had created.


    -------


    ¡°Crence, did you know you were a fairy?¡± (Lucius)


    Somewhere along the lines we noticed that the demons were mockingly referring to us as fairies. The analogy was rather distasteful. It came from the fact that real fairies would give of a pleasant sound, when happily flying through the woods. Our screams are supposed to be the equivalent to that.


    A very sadistic way to make fun of us.


    ¡°Lucius, did you know that your arm is about to break from that strike?¡± He retorted by pointing out the torment I was receiving at that moment.


    ¡°Yes, I did. There isn''t even a need to look at him directly, anymore. I have seen so many deadly strikes aimed at me that I can immediately tell where it''s going to hit and how high the damage to my body will be. Sometimes, I would move in a way to mess up their supposedly perfect strike. This chain is preventing that most of the time, though.¡±


    ¡°Don''t get arrogant. Those are weaklings. They are just novices, honing their skills at us.¡± (Crence)


    ¡°I fathomed as much already. But look at the state we are in. We are the weakest, trapped in a body with muscles that aren''t even able to support us without that chain around. Who else, other than novices should take care of us?¡±


    ¡°They are getting worse at it by the day, though. Their strikes are getting weaker and weaker.¡± (Aoi)


    She said that in my original language. Although the demon guards enforce the rule to not talk to us quite strictly, they still hear in on our conversations. Aoi started to show interest in my language, because she felt obliged to learn it and I had the same reason to learn her mother tongue.


    It brought the advantage to keep things confidential with it.


    ¡°Pah! It never hurt in the first place.¡± (Crence)


    Crence isn''t really a bad guy. When he told us how he died, he threw intense looks at us. The reason for his ''Blood Oath'' seems comical to me, though: He swore to kill us, if Aoi and I ever betray each other. It''s just bitterness speaking out of him, I know that. Otherwise I wouldn''t have forgiven him for that threat.


    He has a character that won''t compromise. Life has forced him in that direction. From what I could gather, he won''t take shit from anyone anymore.


    The input he had given in our discussions only raised more questions. His and Aoi''s death shared too many similarities to not be taken aback by it. If Aoi''s case could still be considered an unfortunate incident, Crence''s case was more obvious. It seems both of them were lured into an ambush and then finished off for some reason. The method used indicated the same party to be responsible for both incidents but none of us could come up with anything more than mere speculations.


    I went on with the talk:


    ¡°I can''t really tell. Whenever I think they got weaker a guard would show up and prove me otherwise.¡±


    ¡°But I can tell because I see it from the outside. Even the guards need to use more strength every time they come for you.¡± (Aoi)


    I look at her. There''s no need for me to tell her that she''s the reason why I can hold up. She knows how I feel about her.


    Signs of resistance are emerging and both of them seem overjoyed by it. My answer to that was of course:


    ¡°It''s only natural. Physical pain means nothing.¡±


    ¡°There you go again with your philosophy.¡± It was Crence who answered. ¡°A blade in the stomach is a blade in the stomach. Stop playing the tough guy. You are just saying that because we are experiencing it constantly, without ever completely dying.¡±


    ¡°Then would you back away from this pain if you''d know that the next swing would end it all forever? Cower in fear and unable to do what you need to do?¡±


    ¡°Grrr...are you calling me a coward?¡±


    ¡°I''m calling you a blockhead who''s full of anger.¡±


    ¡°Now you''ve done it! ''Roar of the beast''¡± - and he fell into a state of exhaustion. Of course it only lasted until he was killed and revived again, but he didn''t give up and tried it a second time. [He never learns...]


    I enjoy these kind of exchanges. Having a lover and a companion. This is truly a remarkable thing. Crence''s camaraderie towards us stems from his culture. They seem to put great value into communities of fate. He comes from a country with two races that banded together to fight against their enemies.  A human-dwarven kingdom that brought both races together through the constant wars on Verol.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    [Who would''ve though that? Fun times in hell do exist...]


    -------


    And then that day came. What do you think true despair is? I''ll give you an example:


    It began with an innocent question from Aoi:


    ¡°Crence, what do you think was the level of the Endron-Elf that defeated you?¡±


    ¡°I can''t say for sure, but he was a strong bastard. Atleast 20 or more levels higher than I, so around lvl80, I guess.¡±


    I just listened in silence at this exchange. The implications this conversation held would have been just too nonsensical for me to simply believe it. Or...more like I feared them.


    ¡°Someone with this high of a level was attacking you?¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°Yeah, he didn''t even needed to use any magic attacks on me.¡±


    [This...I need to clarify it.]


    ¡°Aoi, Crence...when you told me that in your place strength could be even measured by the amount of monsters you defeated, you weren''t talking about ''levels'', were you?¡±


    ¡°Of course, we were.¡± (Crence)


    [No...it can''t be...]


    ¡°Please...this level-system...how would you explain it? And how would you measure it?¡±


    Aoi answered to me in a lecturing tone:


    ¡°There is a  magic spell that can be cast on a person. It reacts with the Manaflow running through your body. If cast correctly, it can be used to measure your strength. Then another spell is used to display that strength in a numerical value for everybody to see. Though it hurts to do so and we''d rather use rings, infused with the blood of the wearer, to display our strength through a ''light spell'' into the air.¡±


    ¡°Levels...¡± [Is it that? Was I mistaken?]


    Hell...you are sent here for your sins...the thought of being here gave me a weird sense of comfort, despite the constant pain. I thought there was a reason for my being here. It would have been much harder to think that the crime against mother went unpunished. I wanted to repent, to somehow make it up.


    ¡°It was all...for naught?¡±


    There was no greater judgement going on. Being judged might sound scary, but in it''s essence it is an act of healing. It is much more cruel to be left without judgement, because then you''d have to face the fact that you are beyond saving.


    Utter and complete senselessness.


    No greater justice was at work here. We were just slaughtered over and over again for the personal benefit of others. This place...it wasn''t created for the sake of the souls to serve them justice. It was created for the demons to train!


    [This was the reason why Aoi had to go through all of this? For something...something like raising your level? THIS WAS IT?]


    Would you cry? Would you laugh? I did both, of course.


    My actions disturbed Crence and Aoi; even the little demon girl who appeared in front of me was perplexed by it.


    In an last attempt to keep my sanity from falling apart I tried to bargain, still somewhere hoping that it might be hell, after all. I told the blue little demon my story and ended it with:


    ¡°My soul, it''s laid bare to you. I deserve to suffer here in hell.¡± [Please let the others go. I will take their place.]


    I tried to play it cool, to not let my insecurity show.


    But what she said made it unable to deny it any longer:


    ¡°I¡¯m here for the experience.¡±


    My eyes widened in pain.


    ¡°Ahh...so it was possible to feel a greater sorrow, after all.¡±


    -------


    That sorrow...it could destroy a person. The sorrow that your torture had no greater meaning; the sorrow that I was too preoccupied with my own self to see the greater injustice in front of me; the sorrow that I didn''t move a finger for so long.


    [How foolish I was to believe that justice will be served by itself, that it will all work out without me doing anything.]


    I looked at the humans chained in here.


    ¡°You are not lost souls.¡±


    I looked at Crence.


    ¡°I swear on my blood that is flowing through your veins: I will give you a chance to point your blade at them.¡±


    Finally I looked at Aoi. [My angel, my love.] When I thought I wasn''t allowed to be human any longer, she gave me love, peace, and my reason for existence. The one that healed my soul.


    [How could they do this to her? How dare they?]


    ¡°Unforgivable.¡±


    Flaming anger surged inside of me. Anger at the demons, anger at myself for not acting. Anger...


    ...Anger is a strong fuel in a fight, but it is not good enough. There is something greater, more powerful. Something that has brought doom to every known oppressor in the world: The wish for freedom, the will to free others from injustice and slavery, born out of love for her.


    [There will be no more hesitation.]


    I look at the demon - she has a look of euphoria. I order her in a low and demanding tone:


    ¡°Free her, you vile creature, or meet your end here.¡±


    -------


    Little demon girl''s POV


    There are two secrets to the strength of the Eternal Black Demon Empire that are kept hidden at all costs.


    1st: The secret on how to forge cursed weapons.


    2nd: A certain dungeon, they use as a training facility, were the young elites of the future are allowed to train on living humans. No matter how often you''d kill them, they would always reappear again. A seemingly endless supply of victims that would allow to hone one''s skills in the shortest amount of time.


    It is said, that this is a present from the Demon-God-Emperor to his people. The magic used to accomplish this feat is unknown to most and only serves to further show the greatness of this divine being.


    Giving information about this national treasure to outsiders will not only result in death but also in the eradication of the whole traitor''s house. Their names would be erased from all imperial annals and the graves of their ancestors would be opened to put salt on their bones.


    Entry is only granted to the houses of trusted retainers of the black demons. Even then, there is still a fierce competition among the nobles to receive the permission to enter these wonderful grounds. That''s why it has become a custom to bribe your way into there.


    Father is one of those nobles that wishes to make the name of his house known to all people. For that he spared no expenses and paid the entry fee to the ''grounds'' for all of his 7 children, using up a great amount of his personal fortune in the process.


    But it was worth it, because all of my elder siblings received a high position in the imperial army at a young age, and now it was my turn to go through this school.


    To be honest, I didn''t want to go. I''d rather play and have fun. Irresponsible? - No way! I just don''t want to become a military officer. The heart of this young maiden yearns for the fine arts. Beautiful pictures and captivating music. There is nothing greater than this. How I wished to be a maecenas and have my own private legion of artisans. [A handsome musician is what i want.]


    Yet, here I am, forced to do this tedious task, going through the fast-paced regimen that is dominating this place.


    Even though it''s hard training, it was supposed to be without any risks.


    [Then why is this happening?]


    My brother told me about a place with really strange fairies (father doesn''t like it, when I talk like this). All the other ones would only scream in terror and do nothing else. But there was a group of fairies in a secluded place, that would talk with each other or even with us demons. I wanted to see this. Strange and uncommon things are what true lovers of the art seek out, after all. What a mistake that was...


    When I arrived, the fairy in question showed me a sight I wouldn''t have expected. He was crying and laughing at the same time. [What a sight..] I thought. Wonderful and disturbing at the same time. [True art.]


    Then he even spoke to me. It was a weird story about his life. I didn''t really care about the contents, but I understood he was in great distress and didn''t know a thing about this place.


    Yes, it is forbidden to talk to the fairies, however I just had to witness the show he''d display upon realizing the truth. So I told him why I was here: For the experience that slaying living creatures would give to me.


    At first, his face was truly an inspirational sight to behold...but then it became scary.


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    ¡°Free her!¡± An unreasonable demand but I won''t budge.


    [What power do I have to force her? Only my will.]


    Slowly, the look on her face changed from one of euphoria into one of fright and wisps of smoke emerged from all over her body; signs of burns could suddenly be seen.


    I ordered again, ¡°Free her!¡±


    Tears started to come out of her eyes, but I won''t be fooled. [She still won''t move.]


    ¡°FREE HER OR DIE!¡±


    I didn''t even pay any attention to the two demons who were striking at the other humans and started to cry out. Their bodies were set ablaze. They fell on the ground and tried to extinguish the flames but to no avail. Their death cries could be heard.


    Purifying flames are oozing out me, stretching on the ground towards the demons. Those flames are listening to my will. They are my will.


    Four demons are left here, full of fear because of what is happening. One tried to run away but with each step he took more flames started to engulf his body and he fell on his knees, dying miserably. The others didn''t move.


    ¡°You won''t move? Then die!¡±


    Hearing this they ran towards Aoi, trying to free her from the chain. Touching it inflicted pain on them and they wanted to back off again, but I did not care.


    ¡°Do not let go of the chain.¡±


    With sobs coming out of their mouths and tears out of their eyes, they began to unchain Aoi. I feared that she would despise me after knowing about my sin. However, there was only trust shown on her face, as if something happened which she had expected. She always believed I would free her.


    Combining their efforts they freed one of her arms, then the leg, and then came her neck. It took them more than 1 hour to free the rest of her body and she was about to fall on the ground.


    ¡°If you let her fall you will die.¡± So they supported her.


    Aoi told them to carry her towards me and they followed her command.


    Her trembling arm reached out towards me, firstly touching my cheek but then embracing me. It was the first time we could caress each other, even so it felt so natural. It''s as if we had embraced each other for a thousand times already, yet it felt like the first breath of my life. Everybody knows how to embrace others, but she knew how to hold me with her soul.


    She let go of me again, looked into my eyes, and said with a strong voice, ¡°You need to free the others.¡±


    Aoi was right. This wasn''t the time for this.


    I pointed towards Crence.


    ¡°Now him.¡±


    It was the same painstaking task and took them even longer to finish with it. This time I didn''t need to remind the demons that they should support him but he didn''t want any help and simply fell on the ground.


    At last it was my turn to be freed.


    End of Chapter 7


    Afterwords:


    Chapter 8 will have a skill description. Stats will be introduced three or four chapters later.


    PS. I hope you''ll feel bad the next time you go farming XP.

 Chapter 8 - The fog of war is lifted

    Chapter 8 ¨C The fog of war is lifted


    Freedom. Being imprisoned for a long time people usually react in two different ways when they leave their captivity. They either take a deep breath, realizing that they are finally free and fall into a state of joy or they don''t react at all, suspicious that everything might simply be a dream, and won''t dare to feel any hope.


    I did not waste any time on either of these thoughts. There were others to free.


    We watched the demons as they were releasing the other three in this area from their confinement and laid them down on the ground one after another.


    Just when they were done with the second prisoner a young demon walked in on us. His face reflected his confusion upon seeing the scene in front of him and he needed a couple of moments to collect himself. When he finally realized what was going on he turned around and immediately ran away.


    It was Crence who noticed him first.


    ¡°Don''t let him get away!¡±


    I shouted at the demons:


    ¡°Carry me and follow him!¡± They did as ordered and we went after him with me on their backs.


    It was a wild goose-chase and he had a good head start of about 50 meters. We followed him through the dungeon along the chain and a lava-stream. [It is impossible to catch up to him with me weighing them down.]


    I told the demon carrying my legs:


    ¡°You! Let go of my legs and run ahead.¡± Truly, I feared that the demon boy would take this chance to flee, too. However, I had to take that risk. I could just hope that the abnormality of the situation wouldn''t allow him to think straight.


    [He''s still getting away. We are not fast enough. I can''t let him escape and call the guards.]


    My feet were already bloody from being dragged along the stony ground. [I need to move them!]


    But they wouldn''t move. My underdeveloped muscles were only able to produce pitiful movements and it had no use. I had to come up with something else.


    ¡°Where does this path lead to?¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°S-Soon there will come a bridge connecting this chamber with the main floor.¡± (little demon girl)


    ¡°If he passes that bridge I will erase you from existence.¡±


    ¡°Hyaaa!¡± This incentive seemed to have worked and both of them picked up a notch. We were getting closer to him but the boy I sent ahead had already collapsed from exhaustion and we left him lying. [I can''t take care of him now.]


    ¡°Faster! You need to run faster.¡±


    [It will all end if he manages to escape.]


    Slowly, the three of us were able to get closer to him. I tried to use those flames again but they would only stretch ten meters at most. [He''s still 15 meters or more ahead.]


    ¡°Just a little bit more!¡± [Faster!] I thought to myself.


    Getting closer to him, he was only one step ahead of those purifying flames that would end everything. The bridge could already be seen, it wasn''t far. [I don''t want him to escape. You flames of mine, you are my will and my will is to not let him escape. I can''t let Aoi go through this any longer.]


    Finally, finally a single tongue of fire reached him. The sudden pain made him stagger and he touched the chain upon falling down, which inflicted even more damage to him. He wouldn''t be able to get away anymore. More and more smoke started to raise from his body, his hair and clothes started to burn. He was finished. The bridge was just in front of him and with his last strength he tried to crawl towards it where his strength left him and he stopped moving.


    My two bearers fell down on their knees and were heavily gasping for breath. I let them rest for a moment and then said:


    ¡°Take everything of value and then throw his body into the lava.¡± There wasn''t much left that had survived the fire. Some food and a little bit of money was everything that could be of use.


    [Food...we need to be careful and eat slowly to not throw it up again. I don''t know how long we can survive without any nourishments. Judging from our state not too long.]


    Then I faced the girl:


    ¡°You, on what kind of schedule are you operating? When are you supposed to be replaced?¡±


    ¡°I-It depends on how much you paid but usually no less than ten hours.¡± She said with a stuttering voice.


    ¡°When will you have to go?¡±


    ¡°S-Soon.¡± Her lie was obvious.


    ¡°I will ask again, and only once again. When will you have to go?¡±


    ¡°In half a day...Please, l-let me go. I won''t tell anyone.¡± I didn''t need to answer that. Instead I motioned them to go back again.


    The other one said his departure was due in eight hours. We didn''t had much time to waste.


    ¡°Bring me back to the others.¡±


    On the way back we found the third demon, still lying at the same spot were we left him. At first he looked with a little bit of hope at the other demons but the look in their eyes told him that we were able to stop our target. [So he decided to neither flee nor help us. I need to watch out for him.]


    The whole endeavor only lasted for about 20 minutes and we returned to the anxiously waiting Aoi and Crence. They had questioning looks on their faces. I could allay their fears.


    "We managed to get to him before he could alarm anybody. Crence, from now on please be our lookout. You were the first to see that demon just now."


    "That would be wise. Did you leave any signs of combat behind?" (Crence)


    "We dropped the body into the lava." He just nodded at that and told one of the demons to carry him to a suitable place.


    The two others were told to continue with freeing the last person.


    Aoi noticed my bloody legs and said "We need to take care of them. "


    "Oh, you are right. It seems like those wounds won''t simply disappear like they always do."


    "They will only disappear after reviving." The one who answered was one of the men we freed. He regained consciousness and tried to sit up but failed.


    "What happened to my body?" He looked at us and said, "Do I look the same way you do?"


    Aoi simply nodded to his question and asked him instead while bandaging my feet, "Who are you?"


    "I''m Randalph Druent, and that would be my question. I know who they are." He pointed towards the two other men here. "But I don''t recognize the three of you and I know everyone of the 1000 ''Children of the Dawn''." He stopped here and went on with a more inquiring tone, "So who are you?"


    "This is Aoi Wolfcleaver, that man over there is Crence, and I am Lucius Faber. What are the ''Children of the Dawn'' and why would you think we belong to that group?¡±


    ¡°The ''Sanctuary-Aura'' you both use to clad each other in tells me you belong to us.¡±


    ¡°''Sanctuary-Aura''?¡± asked Aoi.


    ¡°Don''t tell me you don''t see it? It''s the aura the both of you are using to protect the other one from physical and mental harm.¡±


    We both just showed a dumbfounded expression at that.


    ¡°So you did not know...you must''ve been doing it unconsciously then. That would also explain why the both of you have it active at the same time. You have to know that auras of the same type are not additive. ¡°


    ¡°It''s protecting us from harm? In which way?¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°It''s functioning like a barrier akin to an armour. Seriously...you''ve been using one of the highest grade defensive-auras without knowing it? A normal ''Defiance-Aura'' would simply  protect your body but a ''Sanctuary-Aura'' also grants protection against curses. That must''ve been the reason why you both could withstand the curse trapping our minds. Are you family members or lovers?¡±


    We both said at the same time without any hesitation.


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    ¡°¡±Lovers.¡±¡±


    ¡°It''s very rare for something like this to happen but that would really explain it. Were you both captured at the same time? Is this how you could withstand the curse? How long have you been here already?¡±


    Aoi said to that.


    ¡°Lucius here freed my mind.¡±


    And I added:


    ¡°We only met here. Crence had also the same idea that there seems to be some kind of mind magic involved but I don''t know anything about a curse. I just forced my mind to take notice of my surroundings. It took me quite some time, though. So Crence was right? There was a curse involved?¡±


    Now it was Randalph''s turn to look perplexed.


    ¡°You...are you telling me you broke free from it by yourself?¡±


    ¡°Physical pain means nothing.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°Are you belittling me? Of course I know that but that is no explanation to how you could simply break fr-¡±


    Crence interrupted us.


    ¡°Someone''s coming.¡±


    Before I could do anything Randalph had already let the same kind of flames I used earlier ooze out of his body. His flames, however, reached far wider than mine. [Now that he said it...it does resemble somewhat of an aura...]


    The moment the demon appeared behind a boulder she was already surrounded by Randalph''s flames, although he did not directly attack her. She pulled out a scimitar and was in a combat stance but there was nowhere to run. Randalph successfully captured her and it was obvious that resistance was futile.


    ¡°Drop your weapon or die.¡± (Crence)


    With her eyes she looked around and tried to assess the situation. Her gaze stopped at the blue little demon girl. Ignoring us she said to her instead. ¡°I always knew you were useless, Areti, but I never thought that you were low enough to commit treason.¡±


    The little demon girl was visibly shocked by that remark and her face showed a even greater devastation than before.


    Randalph didn''t discuss long and simply reacted by letting the fire close in on her even more and she finally dropped her weapon and put her hands in the air with a sour look on her face.


    [He''s reacting fast...]


    However, when Crence got close (on his demon-ride) to search her, she pulled out a dagger in a swift motion and held it towards his throat.


    ¡°If you don''t want him to die then-¡±


    She wasn''t able to finish the sentence because Randalph reacted again without any hesitation and engulfed her in flames, which only harmed her. Disbelief, pain and surprise could be heard in the scream she let out but she lived up to her promise and slit Crence''s throat before falling down and wringing in pain.


    ¡°NO!¡± I crawled towards him. ¡°No, Crence! Stay with us. You, demons! Do Something, do not let him die!¡± It was all futile. He died by bleeding out and I looked in anger at Randalph.


    ¡°Why did you do this?¡±


    Randalph just looked at me in surprise at my outburst.


    ¡°Calm down. He''s going to come back, soon enough.¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± I had thought the act of revival was only possible when the chain is touching you or something like this, hence my reaction.


    ¡°You don''t know? We ''Children of the Dawn'' have the power to revive upon death. Just like the sun is assured to come out at dawn, we will rise from the dead. Though, there is a price to pay for it. Just look. It''s already happening.¡±


    Crence''s body did emit a silver-bluish light and disappeared right in front of us only to manifest itself again. He was captured by the chain again as if nothing happened.


    [Just what is happening? The revival wasn''t done by the demons?]


    ¡°Crence. Are you alright?¡±


    ¡°I''m chained again? Did this happen because I died?¡±


    ¡°Explain yourself, Randalph. I thought the chain didn''t let us die. And you!¡±, I pointed towards the little demon girl. ¡°Make her stop.¡± The new arrival had been screaming throughout the whole exchange, because of her burns. I didn''t really care for her but she could be used as another mount, even with her injuries.


    ¡°Those demons...they have destroyed our blessed ground. It was such a beautiful grove and now it turned into this dungeon. We are bound to this land. Whenever we die we would revive here again. They have used our greatest strength against us. This vile chain must be a cursed object. There is no other explanation. Trapping our bodies and our minds at the same time...¡± (Randalph)


    ¡°So we can''t die in the end? Is it that what you are saying?¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°Oh we can die...of old age or when there is no strength left in us, for every time we come back we need to pay with a little bit of our strength. I reckon we have been somehow kept just above the bare minimum of strength so we wouldn''t completely die.¡±


    [There''s no advantage to that if the moment we die we are sent back to this place.] There was also something else that needed to be clarified.


    ¡°So why not kill us until we are no more?¡±


    ¡°That is a good question. The black demons probably want us to keep here. The peculiarity of the ''Children of the Dawn'' lies in the fact that there are always 1000 of us. No more and no less. If one of us dies for good, another child bound to this land will be born. My best guess is that they want to control us all instead of letting us roam free.¡±


    [Certainly, his explanations do make sense, but I can''t just believe everything from one source.]


    ¡°Aoi, did you ever hear about such a power? Also, what do you know about auras?¡±


    ¡°I have never heard of bringing someone back to live before. It doesn''t seem to be a form of necromancy. As for auras...I have heard there was such a thing, but never that they are this powerful. They are based on the wisdom of people and work by using up the ambient mana. However, it is said that the only ones using something like an aura are liches. Randalph-san, you are saying we do the same as undead sorcerers?¡±


    ¡°Our auras are innate abilities. Think about it for a moment. It was only natural for us to develop a skill that benefits from the wisdom of the mind and bypasses the mana-requirements usual spells have. This ability wouldn''t degrade upon dying like everything else. That seems also to be the reason why our minds were kept occupied by a curse so as to seal our powers. Otherwise we would have already escaped a long time ago. I am grateful to you for releasing me but there is something I have to ask of you. Please rescue Godmother, our leader.¡±


    ¡°I know that we should free as many as possible but I can''t give preferential treatment because of rank. We do what we can. Nothing less and nothing more.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°You do not understand. She has a way out of here.¡± (Randalph)


    End of Chapter 8


    Afterwords:


    Yes. It has been that kind of setting all along. Transported upon death into a game-like fantasy world...it''s just that the endboss didn''t want to wait for our MC to become lvl100 with OP legendary gear and sent out his minions to camp the spawnpoint to farm some XP. Vile creatures!


    Please give me feedback on this chapter. I feel like it was more or less boring and only explanations have been done. That''s why it took me so long to decide whether I should bring it out or not.


    Auras are wisdom based. You don''t lose any wisdom when you die, however, you lose strength, manapoints and so on. Only the ''Children of the Dawn'' know this because they are the only ones who can experience multiple deaths.


    I do not plan to integrate healthpoints. Your body stays more or less the same as long as there are no strenghtening techniques used.

 Chapter 9 - Its not revenge, its justice!

    Chapter 9 ¨C It''s not revenge, it''s justice!


    The act of killing. Let''s count! During this day I have already killed four people (four children). Now I can proudly call myself a battle hardened warrior. Under most adverse circumstances (I was completely immobilized) I was able to crush my foe and grasp victory in my hands. Let''s not think too deeply into this. It was the first time for me. I''m not a virgin anymore. From now on I can also brag about my fights.


    Four little children... How could I ever brag about such a thing? What excuses do I have? Legitimate self-defence? Or was it because I used a new-found power and am still unable to use it properly. Involuntary manslaughter? No... I stand to my actions and don''t want to relativise them. At least this much should be done for my enemies. [Oh! Enemies... I understand.] Coming from a society that teaches to love thy enemy we developed a doctrine that there are no real enemies, only the lack of dialogue exists. The concept of an enemy has been lost due to an effective police and overwhelming military might. An enemy can only be someone who has the power to kill you and is also willing to use it.


    Declaring someone an enemy seems much more honest than declaring them mere casualties of war. War is not the continuation of politics by other, more drastic, means. Calling someone a casualty of war is like saying, ¡°I''m sorry. I didn''t really want those soldiers dead. But your government made the mistake of putting them in front of me and I had no other choice.¡±


    I did have a different choice. For example I could''ve adhered to absolute pacifism. Standing up for myself in a peaceful manner. However, I know this anime. Countries that follow absolute pacifism will inadvertently get invaded by Gundams. It''s like an invitation for them.


    Everyone who doesn''t fight oppressors will lose something in the end. Mel Gibson also had to lose his wife in Braveheart before he was allowed to stand up for himself.


    It''s so weird. His case might''ve been just right from the beginning, but he himself wasn''t a just character until he didn''t experience personal loss. It seems modern society is not interested in a just cause, instead they only want to see a MC that has been brutally wronged. After that he is allowed to run wild.


    Have I been personally wronged by an overwhelming opponent?


    Checked!


    Now my conscience is clear. Even the Sibyl-System would give me a clear HUE. The requirements for rightful anger have been completed. It''s good that I can turn towards the entertainment industry for moral advice.


    Sadly, I feel that this kind of route only serves to divert me from the real problem. People died by my hands. In the end the only thing I can come up with is an interpretation about the story of how Moses split the red sea and God let all Egyptians drown in there. How very brutal and not peaceful at all, is what I always thought. Nevertheless, if you disregard the part about the historicity you understand that it''s a metaphor for the fight between two different systems of justice. The Egyptians represent Darwin''s law of the jungle while the Israelites believed in the existence of a higher justice for everybody. In the face of the Pharaoh''s might the weak Israelites came out unscathed, against all odds. A higher justice is a weak justice. That is why it even needed protection by divine intervention.


    Funnily, they never considered this as another form of might is right. The Israelites didn''t think that God was bullying the poor Egyptians with absolute power. Instead, they understood the story in a way that says God was smashing the law of the jungle symbolized by the Pharaoh and his minions and establishing a universal justice this way. A justice that isn''t defined by the strong but rather defines those who are strong just as much as it defines the weak, too.


    It''s interesting to note that destroying the Pharaoh''s army also served as a warning for the Israelites. It''s not that they won some kind of war and are now winners...it was more like the message suggested that the same will happen to them too, if they ever go a similar way as the Egyptians.


    Yes...this seems more right. Weak justice needs to be protected, for it protects those who are weak. I see...


    There is no reason to act humble in front of oppressors, to let them roam until their actions become unbearable. There is a need to stand up to them.


    Am I tarnishing my love for Aoi because I won''t say that I simply wanted to protect her? No. I am arguing in such a manner out of love for her. I do not kill in her name, even if it is in legitimate self-defence. I would gladly throw myself in front of her and use my body as a shield, but I will not put any blood on her.


    Although I can''t possibly deny that my sense for what is just has only been born out of my love for her. I, myself, would have been only another bystander if not for her.


    -------


    Little demon girl Aretis'' POV


    [This is bad. This is really bad. If I don''t do something soon I''ll get beheaded.] The situation was dire. I had listened in on their talks. [Those humans can revive?] That meant it was not the power of the emperor. [Damn! Simply for knowing this I''ll get silenced.] Those were state secrets and being the daughter of a noble wouldn''t save me.


    [What should I do?] The first problem lied in front of me. Right from the start this baroness pointed out the act of treason. Luckily she was critically wounded and her survival was not guaranteed. In that regard every other demon here was a liability for me, too. [He said to stop her crying...


    This has to be done. That''s the best chance I have, anyway.] The thought itself was rather impulsive and everybody would know about it. Still...I took one of her daggers out and was about to stab it right into her heart. Flames were immediately all around me. It was this man, Lucius, who did it. He said to me in his uncompromising tone:


    ¡°Drop the dagger and get slowly away from her.¡± I did as ordered. Everyone''s eyes were now on me.


    ¡°Y-You told me to make her stop.¡±


    ¡°Do not even think about playing it out like this. I told you to tend to her wounds, not to kill her. You deliberately misinterpreted my order for your own sake. I heard what she said to you, Areti was it? If anyone of us gets captured again we''ll make sure to tell the guards everything about you. There is no chance for you to cross us. Do not try something like this again.¡±


    The other demons were looking at me in disdain for my attempted murder. [Idiots! I was also trying to save your skin there.] Lucius did not miss the looks we exchanged and asked,


    ¡°What are your names?¡±


    ¡°Jarimas.¡±


    ¡°Ghulen.¡±


    Said both of them after a moment of silence. Then he turned towards me again.


    ¡°What are their names?¡± [This bastard...] Anxiety and scorn for me was reflected in their eyes. [I decided to get rid of them anyway.]


    ¡°This one is baron Vo ''Rin''s son and that one belongs to the house of the Black Guardian Seb ''Onra. I do not know his name, only the crest on his jacket.¡±


    Without any hint of anger he addressed the other two again.


    ¡°What is her full name?¡±


    This time there was no delay in their answer and both said in one voice, ¡°¡±Areti of the house Sa ''Wa.¡±¡± [Bastards.]


    ¡°Good. Did everyone remember their names?¡±


    ¡°¡±¡±Yes.¡±¡±¡± (humans)


    ¡°Now to make it clear Sa ''Wa, Seb ''Onra, Vo ''Rin,¡± He looked at everyone of us, ¡°I do not want any more deaths because they will only slow us down. We also need to take more of you as... I don''t think you are useful hostages, even though you are nobility. I know what happens to those that talk to us. You are going to carry us and if you don''t want to be the only ones to fulfil this task you should not kill any more.¡±


    He ordered us to free his companion who got killed by the baroness and they continued with their talks.


    -------


    Lucius'' POV


    [What a ruthless demon. She was also happy to see my suffering. This personality makes her hard to control but easier to predict. Such a character will only act for his own benefit.]


    My actions should have been enough to keep the demons in line for now. Druent is also able to use this flame-aura and could handle them, if necessary.


    ¡°Randalph...before we talk about Godmother,¡± I went on in as low a tone as possible so that the demons wouldn''t hear anything, ¡°This flame-aura...can the other two also use it? We need more people to keep the demons in line.¡±


    ¡°No. It''s a skill that needs rather high wisdom to be used. I am pretty amazed that you could pull it off without anybody showing you how it''s done and without any prior training of the mind. It''s name is ''Aura of the blazing Sun''. Your partner Aoi should be able to use it. The ''Sanctuary-Aura'' needs much more training. The will to protect someone is not such an easy thing to obtain as the will to stop someone by force.¡±


    ¡°Would you show it to her?¡±


    She had a determined look at my remark.


    ¡°No. One needs a lot of training before the aura manifests itself.¡±


    ¡°Today was the first time I tried it ,too, and it worked already. I also need to hear about it in detail from someone knowledgeable. It would not only help her.¡±


    ¡°Wha-? That is rather surprising again...Usually you are only able to unleash that particular aura to such a degree as yours after years of training. Even if I showed it to her it wouldn''t account to much.¡±


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    ¡°So you and me are the only ones with any offensive power at the moment.¡± [Not to mention that I have no real understanding of my abilities.]


    ¡°Tell me...this ''wisdom''. What do you understand as wisdom? Before you ask... I come from a place that does not know the concept of stats. I just learned about it here.¡±


    ¡°Must be a pretty far away place. Are you a country bumpkin?¡±


    ¡°There is no need for profanities.¡±


    ¡°Very well, then. We translate the state of mind as wisdom. The easiest way to describe it would be to call it discipline.¡±


    [It''s not knowledge?]


    ¡°Why is it called wisdom if it doesn''t have anything to do with knowledge?¡±


    ¡°It''s wise to know the value of discipline.¡±


    ¡°But I don''t have any discipline. I was lazy all my life. Why am I able to use auras then?¡±


    ¡°The way you just handled the demons showed some kind of wisdom to me. Wisdom refers to the way of how to deal with all living things in the world. Intelligent people know how to deal with inorganic problems. That''s the difference¡±


    [He''s saying divide and conquer tactics are supposed to be wise?]


    ¡°I would argue that a wise person isn''t just ''dealing'' with other people, but I think I get the idea. Still, how is that connected to a disciplined mind?¡±


    ¡°That''s what I''m talking about. An intelligent person wouldn''t really qualm about my choice of words. Then how about this...dealing with yourself in a disciplined way, wouldn''t you call that also a form of wise behaviour towards a living being?¡±


    ¡°I see...thanks for the information. Now please explain the ''Aura of the blazing sun'' in detail and show it to Aoi.¡±


    ¡°Didn''t you hear what I said? One needs a lot of practice before it''s usable.¡±


    ¡°We have been concentrating on each other for the last five months while demons were killing us and a curse was attacking our minds. If a disciplined mind is needed, we both have it.¡±


    ¡°I get it...then listen up. The theory behind the ''Aura of the blazing sun'' is simple. Auras can only affect living things since it''s wisdom based. They won''t have an affect on inanimate things such as rocks and so on. Generally speaking it''s a particular way in dealing with people. Sometimes they need to be stopped with a beating. The flames are a manifestation of that.¡±


    He stopped to think about his next words and took a deep breath.


    ¡°Don''t try to use your own Mana reserves or you will just end up summoning a magical fire ball. Our innate ability transforms the surrounding Mana into an attacking force without your direct control. If you create an aura you manipulate Mana outside of your body to react with the Mana of a different person. That is what is technically happening there.¡±


    ¡°I have a question. Is Mana something animated? I thought we could only affect living things?¡±


    Aoi was the one who answered this question of mine.


    ¡°It is not known. Some say it''s some kind of universal life-force, others say it is not.¡±


    [It can''t be a universal life-force, since there is no magic on earth and there are still living people there.]


    ¡°She''s right. But that is not really important for us, since no matter the answer, the effect we generate can only target the Mana of an animated object and react with it. Well... I hope you now understand why an abnormal ability to focus is necessary to use an aura.¡±


    ¡°No, I don''t understand.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°Yes, I understand.¡± (Aoi)


    We looked at each other. Then I saw Randalph''s annoyed face.


    ¡°You really are a country bumpkin...don''t you get it?¡±


    I looked at Aoi for help and she thankfully explained it to me.


    ¡°Lucius, not using Mana in any kind of action is incredibly hard. No, it is more or less impossible. I once read a quote from a famous sage who said that not using your own Mana willingly is akin to reversing the flow of blood inside your body by sheer willpower. I am pretty amazed about the fact that an innate ability is able to do such a thing. That sage tried his whole life to master the technique of reversing his blood flow only to die in the end because of a heart-attack.¡±


    ¡°Oh...¡± [So it wasn''t because I practised to concentrate on my surroundings but rather because I never used any Mana to begin with, considering that I wasn''t born here. I wonder if I even have such a thing as a personal Mana-pool?]


    ¡°Aoi, would you try it?¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°I have been trying to do it the whole time after I had already understood the concept.¡± she replied with a displeased tone.


    ¡°Who have you been aiming it at?¡± (Randalph)


    ¡°That blue Areti over there.¡±


    ¡°Aye, she''s a worthy target. However, the important part is not the person you want to stop but you yourself. The reason why our skills manifest themselves as auras lies in the fact that the first person the Mana outside of your body reacts to is actually you. Try to not use up any of your own Mana while the outside Mana interacts with it. Your Mana-pool has to become a mirror that only reflects but won''t react itself. The less you use up, the stronger the aura.¡±


    [So I do have a Mana-pool, too. Otherwise I couldn''t use auras.]


    Aoi closed her eyes and was in deep concentration. We both waited for her to do something while looking at her in eagerness. To Randalph''s and my surprise she actually manifested a visible aura after a couple of minutes. It was rather small compared to the flame aura and only stretched around five to ten cm from her body. What was unexpected, though, was it''s form.


    ¡°Ice...¡±


    ¡°You really weren''t lying when you told me that your ability to concentrate was abnormal. I didn''t expect her to accomplish anything, not to mention an ''Aura of the silent moon''. Truly exceptional. Usually you need to start out with weaker auras and I was just trying to see if you could pull off some kind of weak resistance-aura and here you go and bring forth an offensive oriented aura,¡± further he addressed her, ¡°You must have been proficient with fighting and water magic even before coming here, am I right?¡±


    At that she opened her eyes again and stopped the aura. Randalph was really surprised. Aoi and I, on the other hand side, looked at each other and had the same thought.


    ¡°¡±It''s useless for now.¡±¡±


    ¡°Hey! Only I was supposed to say it out loud.¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°Sorry. It slipped my tongue...nevertheless, he says you are amazing. It''s good that he finally understood it but it may become a pain if he falls for you. And why ice?¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°As he said...I''m good with water magic.¡±


    Even though I said it''s useless, it''s only for now. I understood how good she must be. If I used the moment she gained her consciousness as a reference point it took me probably one year and seven months to bring out my ''Sanctuary-Aura'' that freed her. Then it took me another five months to finally manifest this offensive ability. She did both in just five months, no matter if they weren''t as powerful as my auras. [I''m proud of you.]


    -------


    Our talking took quite some time and Crence had nearly been freed from the chain again. It was time for a plan.


    ¡°Randalph, what kind of escape route does your Godmother know of?¡±


    ¡°She''s also your Godmother, too.¡±


    ¡°I didn''t vote for her.¡±


    ¡°Yet, she voted for you. Through her existence our blessed ground chooses the ''Children of the Dawn''.¡±


    ¡°She brought us here?¡±


    ¡°Not exactly. The ground itself will choose like-minded people to the reigning Godmother.¡±


    [That''s a good way to prevent distrust and dissent. But that sure is suspicious. If I was chosen based on my personality at the time of my death, I fear that all hope for the ''Children of the Dawn'' is already lost.]


    ¡°Anyway...so what is this way out now?¡±


    ¡°Teleportation.¡±


    [I could''ve guessed as much...]


    End of Chapter 9


    Afterwords:


    The reason why I''m writing this FF is because in nearly every other Light Novel or story ''Holy Warriors'' or Paladins get shit for their righteousness and are depicted as self-centered bigots. The main purpose of this FF is to let the readers fall in love with this character class to the point were they won''t choose anything else than a Paladin in every other RPG in the future.


    I had finals so it took me a bit longer to bring this Chapter out. I do need to finish an important paper until the 31st so expect a new Chapter in January. I might bring out a short side story, though, if my head is about to explode to distract me.


    Initially i planned this Chapter to be longer (until they found Godmother) but I hope you understand...


    I also noticed that some of you have voted. Thanks for that. I do appreciate it because then more people will notice this story...but it isn''t really expected of you. What I do really care for are direct replies in the threads. I take them very serious and try to implement your suggestions as much as possible. Even if there''s no reply from me I still take them to heart.

 Chapter 10 - Sidestory: Origins of the Blood-Oath

    Chapter 10 - Sidestory: Origins of the ''Blood-Oath''


    Ten year old Crence


    ¡°Crence, did you listen to me?¡± (Shishou)


    ¡°Of course I did, my Master.¡± (Crence)


    Master was one hot dwarven babe, a little bit higher than me, but that would change in the years to come. Strong but tender muscles, beautifully braided red hair, and the voice of a goddess. I''ve completely fallen for her.


    She was hired to be my tutor and taught me how to fight, and - what was most important to my parents - some common sense, which I apparently lacked.


    [Father, Mother...thank you for this wonderful present. I found the woman I''ll lose my virginity to. There is the matter of the difference in age but it isn''t that important.]


    ¡°Then please recite what I just told you.¡± (Shishou)


    I did as asked. The topic was the national epic of the war that gave birth to our country nearly three millennia ago.


    The Continent of Verol is home to a multitude of different races. Originally it was the domain of the demi-humans; elves, dwarves, beast-races and some other, more unintelligible escapades of nature. Fighting for supremacy over the lands, the Dwarven Alliance had a tough time fending themselves off against the Elven Kingdom and the Beast-Warrior-Tribes who formed a pact against them. Their natural disposition as denizens of the forests created a mutual understanding between them regarding the matter of who the enemy was: The damn bastards who''d burn down their habitats just for the sake of mining ores.


    In this desperate struggle one dwarven lord made a decision with serious consequences after the other lords came to the conclusion that his province was not defendable and had to be abandoned. He sought out aid from overseas.


    It was a scandal. Up until now the Continet of Verol was considered a closed space and, even though they fought between each other, they''d band together against foes from the outside.


    In his search for help he could only turn towards a race, so ugly that you''d want to puke. The same height as the elves, yet with a somewhat more sturdy build. Although they resembled the vile tree-worshippers they had the heart at the right place, for they understood the true meaning of life: Silver, gold, and the best of all: Mithril. The three metals embodying the three great virtues of camaraderie, passion, and strength.


    When the lord was first searching for help, all human kingdoms turned him down. Not oblivious to the political situation, they had no desire to sacrifice their troops on verolean soil. Each time an envoy came back, the only thing in his package would be an official letter of sincerest apologies and the utmost respect for their people as well as a question of whether a trade agreement would be possible after the war.


    However, just when the lord in question was ready to give up, a certain human delegation came back with the promise to help if they''d get a place to settle in. It was a tribe of nomads, warriors who''d use two-handed swords and axes in battle. Initially, the lord didn''t want to accept that offer, since he only wanted soldiers and no settlers. The emergency of the situation didn''t leave him much of a choice though, and he was pressed to welcome them in the end. Nearly 2800 people came to his aid. Not that much of a number but it was still enough to unsettle the other demi-humans on Verol.


    Using human mercenaries in their bloody wars was not uncommon up to this date. But inviting troops from a foreign power was a novelty that shocked the entire continent. The dwarven lord in question was shunned for his decision by his allies and enemies alike. A temporary truce was signed until the humans, who dared to set foot on Verol, and the traitor who brought them in, were punished.


    Their armies were closing in, convinced of a swift victory and filled with the belief that this would only be an intermezzo until they could slash at each other again.


    The people of the dwarven lord were already cursing the name of their liege and had lost all hope. But they were dwarves and would meet their end with pride and not on the run like cowards.


    The lord himself was in anguish over the tragedy that has befallen his life. His wife committed suicide out of shame for him and his sons were already slain in battle or by the hands of assassins; the end was nigh.


    They didn''t know who they had invited...the first wave of humans sent out word to the rest of their people: ¡°This land has been given to us by our new brethren. Let us honour them. Come and help.¡±


    And they came. The shores were full of their ships and masses of humans landed on Verol. More than one hundred thousand souls heeded the call, the nomads were here.


    During the siege of the last citadel they finally arrived, on their white banners nothing else than the lettering ''Redness from the West'', stating their origin. Swinging their mighty swords they rushed into battle and freed the encircled stronghold.


    With their help the coalition troops were repelled in one massive battle and had to withdraw.


    After this, the dwarven lord officially cut ties to the other dwarven brother-nations and welcomed the nomads as well as giving the hand of his last remaining daughter into the hands of the most powerful nomad.


    ¡°With this our human-dwarven Kingdom of Brenai was born.¡± said Crence while taking a edifying pose.


    ¡°So...did I do good, Master?¡±


    ¡°I''d say you get about 60 points. Up until now you have more or less only recited the ''Brenai-Epoch''. What I want to know is whether you have internalized the true historical circumstances besides the romanticism displayed in the epoch?¡±


    ¡°Oh yes, I did. I even remembered the exact words you used.¡±


    ¡°Then please go on.¡±


    ¡°That''s what they tell their children...¡± began Crence once again and went on with the task.


    First of all, there wasn''t a landing of 100000 nomads on the shores of Verol. In reality they came over the course of three years and in the end accounted for such a huge number. This is what really set the other factions on the continent off, after they realized the enormity of what was happening. In the beginning they only demanded from the dwarven lord, whose real name has been lost with time (we just call him Brewion), to send the humans back.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Brewion didn''t listen to the demands at all. From the beginning the reason to invite the human nomads wasn''t to save his lands but rather to use them as a cheap labour force in his mines.


    Naturally, battle ensued over this and he was swiftly brought into a tight position. Only at the very end did he propose to arm the humans as a last resort. Up until then the humans hadn''t really fought. In exchange he''d grant them citizen-rights and freedom. This is why the stories would always tell about the sudden appearance of a one hundred thousand man strong army during the last siege.


    Also, the battle wasn''t swiftly decided either.


    The reality was a bloody massacre on both sides. The nomads were desperate to find a new home because there was no future for them on the human continent, which they had fled in the first place. The war would have went on if the Eternal Black Demon Empire didn''t invade Verol and thus everyone was forced to turn their eyes towards this new enemy.


    It is more reasonable to say that the formation of Brenai was only possible because there was an even greater threat to fight against and their participation in the war against the demons eventually earned this new human-dwarven kingdom it''s right of existence on Verol. Not to mention that the continent''s integrity had already been lost through the occupation of the demonic invaders from the east.


    ¡°Crence, I am pleased to notice that you listened to me. Did you know that your parents actually warned me to be strict with you? They said you weren''t much of a student...how wrong they were.¡±


    ¡°Master, I ingrain each and every one of your words and actions into my memory. Don''t worry about me not paying attention to you. That won''t ever happen.¡±


    I put on my most boyish and sincere face to underline my words. A technique I learned by watching my father when he wanted to do it with mother.


    ¡°That is really good.¡± replied Shishou with a knowing smile that would tell every onlooker (in this case me) that she clearly knew about my intentions. Her right hand was tilted in a certain degree to display the classical gesture of a femme fatale willing to toy with her prey without ever touching it. [Just you wait...I''ll make you acknowledge me as a real man and not only a mere toy.]


    ¡°Then listen very well to my next words.¡± she said in a vexing tone. ¡°This regards the ''Blood-Oath'' that everyone having his coming of age ceremony in our kingdom has to know by heart, since at the age of 15 he or she has to pledge to fight off any threat to the crown and the people, if he wants to be a Brenai.


    The reason why it''s a ''Blood-Oath'' in particular is two-fold.


    There is a historical reason. The war didn''t end with the interference of the human nomads at the last siege. It continued on for quite some time after this.


    What happened here was the creation of a new human-dwarven kingdom through continuous battle. The two races fought together and shed their blood on the same battlefields until their were literally wading through the blood of their fallen comrades.


    That experience gave birth to the ''Ballad of the Deceased'' and the more macabre song ''I mistook my hacked off hand with my right hand man''s one'' that are prominently portrayed in the ''Brenai-Epoch''.


    Having two different races merging together into one country isn''t as easy as it sounds and there was a need for a unifying legend that somewhere deep down we shared the same blood to somehow compensate for our differences and prevent future conflicts along the racial borders. That is the second reason. The Brenai as people can only exist because of this ideology.


    The ''Blood-Oath'' isn''t just a compilation of pretty words. These are the words you say when you accept that you are part of a new race: The Brenai. Everyone not willing to say these words has no place in our kingdom and has to leave us when he turns 15. Remember that well.


    Now tell me the ''Blood-Oath'' as it is demanded in the coming of age ceremony. You know it, don''t you? These words are essential for our existence, after all.¡± (Shishou)


    Of course i knew those words. To do it right you also had to follow a strict ritual.


    ¡°On these battlefields, we have spilled our blood and our innards together until it mixed and started to flow through our veins again. I hereby pledge on my blood that is flowing through the veins of my brethren: Honour be upon them through my actions.


    I swear loyalty towards the Crown, which defends the name of the Brenai and their peace. My name is Crence Ohnwald.¡± [I also swear to make you my woman.] This part she didn''t hear. It was only meant for me.


    I even performed the right gestures and intonations while reciting the ''Blood-Oath'' and was sure that I got it right. Visibly anxious, I watched her assessment of my recital.


    ¡°Not bad. But you have to get rid of the lecherous look in your eyes. The oath will be held in a demure atmosphere. It is very ceremonial and you will also perform a ritual of blood-bonding with the people present. There is no room for such thoughts there. Keep that in mind.


    By the way, next time we will talk about the elven involvement in the Black Incursion. For today we have talked enough about the topic.¡±


    I bowed after Shishou finished the lesson. Just when she was about to leave the room I stopped her and asked:


    ¡°Master, can I get something as a reward? You said it wasn''t bad.¡±


    ¡°Hoo~...what do you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°I-if possible I''d like to touch the fluff on your face.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    End of Sidestory


    Sorry it took me so long. I have the next chapter already more or less written. i just need to come up with a good way to connect the separate parts with each other.

 Chapter 11 - The numerical value of strength

    Chapter 11 - The numerical value of strength


    Randalph''s POV


    I really enjoyed going for a walk through our grove with Godmother. Especially during the afternoon, we would go to a clearing and I''d lazily take a nap on her lap. Those were wonderful times.


    We earned them. Our blessed ground was a secluded place in a valley, surrounded by high mountains and that allowed us to keep our peace for a long time. We ''Children of the Dawn'' created a small sanctuary, a town that cherished a slower approach to life. Those, chosen by the ground, would bring their families and watch over them as they flourished.


    How did we earn our peace? By staying neutral, of course. Verol is a place plagued by wars. Every race would fight for supremacy, but our natural borders and the remote location of our town gave us that opportunity.


    It wouldn''t be precise to call our town hidden in the classical sense. However, we followed a policy of political invisibility and kept to ourselves. It went even as far as that our town wouldn''t appear on many maps.


    Such a thing was necessary for various reasons. Though, we had always lived on Verol we were still humans and thus many considered us as outsiders. Therefore we gave ourselves a name that wouldn''t point to our origin.


    If you would want to summarize our standing in one word it would be ''tolerated''. The great powers knew about our peculiar ability of resurrection and understood that we could not simply be banished, so they allowed our existence under the condition that we stayed low. What helped was the absence of natural resources or major trade routes in our vicinity so nobody was vying for our territory.


    In the last years things changed drastically, though. The neighbouring dwarven kingdom got destroyed by the mighty elves and one of their factions held an aggressive attitude towards us.


    One of their leaders fell in love with Godmother, when she visited him as our political representative. He took her hostage and wanted to keep her as one of his concubines. Instead of abiding, she threw herself from the top of a building to revive at our grove again.


    Enraged with this development the elven leader put a blockade around us and over the course of one year numerous raids and attempted abductions occurred.


    Staying neutral preserved our peace but at the same time it also hindered us in making any substantial allies so we had to fend for ourselves.


    And we did fend for ourselves.


    One thousand women and men who do not fear death are manageable, though. Many feared the ability to revive from the dead so they had prepared numerous strategies to deal with us from afar without putting themselves in danger. They basically faced us as if we were an undead legion. However, they knew all too well that we could die, for each resurrection demanded a price to pay and whenever one of us died for the last time, he would only be replaced by a novice.


    What they did not account for were our auras. A magical ability that could be sustained indefinitely, because it didn''t deplete the user''s Mana. It taught them true horror. Warriors who would storm an enemy formation without regards to their own life with nothing more than a simple knife or a spear in their hands emitting flames, ice, lightning and various other deadly forces. At times one of us would simply lay in ambush and activate his aura when he was surrounded, burning everyone in the vicinity to a crisp.


    Nevertheless, our strive for independence was still only a secondary arena in the turmoils of Verol up until a certain event. Full of anger, the elven leader summoned his vassals and assembled a subjugation force of more than 10000 soldiers...which we defeated. It was a hard fight and more than half of us were put to their final rest.


    Godmother personally killed the man that abducted her and laid waste to our lands. Although we had no other choice, this victory would also seal our downfall.


    The personal conflict between one elven leader and us turned all elves hostile towards the ''Children of the Dawn''. For the first time in our history the threat that our existence embodied was clearly visible to everybody. An army of one thousand untrained and under-equipped farmers was able to defeat 10000 veterans.


    This defeat came as a great shock to the pointy-ears and they tried to cope with it in various ways. A survivor of the first subjugation force rose to prominence with his spiritual explanation for the loss. He mistook the grove we nourished and cherished as our blessed ground instead of realizing that we are linked to the land itself. Elves have an elemental connection towards nature, especially when it comes to forests. That''s why it must have seemed as if nature itself had turned against them, which was unimaginable, for their very self-understanding was that of a race connected to the woods.


    His answer was simple. Whilst our grove had the complexion of a naturally grown forest it couldn''t possibly be natural, otherwise it wouldn''t have turned against them. The term he coined was ''Un-nature''. The blessed ground was deemed ''Un-nature'' in disguise and he proposed a hitherto unthinkable deed for elves: Burn everything to ashes as to not allow ''Un-nature'' to get a foothold in this realm.


    It was highly controversial and he only had little support. Still, he amassed a small force of volunteers with the sole purpose of burning everything down. This is where we made a mistake. Most of us lost nearly all the family they had and our ability to revive resembled more of a curse for those not allowed to rest with their loved ones. Still remembering the destruction that the last war brought, we decided to strike them pre-emptively, as opposed to seeing our home burning once again.


    What we did not know, was the fact that this group of elves mostly consisted of spiritualists and other socially highly regarded figures. It was an army of 400 people at most but we attacked them anyway.


    Nobody escaped, not even the one who initially called for the destruction of our home. The elves were outraged and deemed it a massacre on defenceless clerics. We turned them into martyrs and the teaching to banish ''Un-nature'' gained many followers. Our actions only appeared as proof for this theory.


    A new faction inside the elven lands rose and we were their target of hate.


    The next years were even more horrible. Constant fighting and bloodshed became our natural way of life, the peaceful days just a distant memory. Ironically, we ''Children of the Dawn'' were never really mentioned. Their teachings didn''t consider us as a truly sentient species. We were deemed to be proxies of ''Un-nature'' without any free will and thus their main target was never our own existence but rather our blessed ground.


    How did it end up like this, though? Albeit, we were despised by the elves they were never able to assemble a large enough force to dispell us for good, due to being preoccupied with the wars in the west of Verol.


    It seems in the end some of them couldn''t wait any longer and decided to side with the demons, of all things to stage another attack on us. We had only little time to prepare after they basically appeared on our doorsteps. An army of 40000 demons and elves attacked. There was no chance this time.


    Thinking back, we really shouldn''t have killed those spiritualists and instead made some prisoners...


    And now I''m met with this situation here. Our blessed ground has turned into an underground dungeon and we are trapped.


    [Just how long was I under the influence of this curse?]


    What was even more perplexing was this person right in front of me, Lucius. [How should I deal with him?] He was able to overcome the curse by his own and even used high grade auras. Quite the natural. If this person was used in the right way, freeing Godmother might be possible.


    [Leaving our home is something I don''t like at all, but considering the circumstances there is not much choice.]Escaping wouldn''t be easy but there was a chance. First I had to take charge of the situation and there was a simple way to do so.


    One of the demons had a rather elaborate stats-ring on his finger and I called him over. [What was his name again...?]


    ¡°You, baron Vo ''Rin''s son. The markings on your stats-ring indicate that it can display a lot of information. Show me your stats.¡±


    The boy in question took a glance at Lucius, but he and the others were only following with interest at what I was about to do.


    ¡°W-why?¡± The frightened small boy asked.


    ¡°Don''t argue and just do as told. Nothing will happen to you, that is if you do as I say.¡±


    With this little bit of incentive he complied and held his hand into the air to activate the ring on his middle-finger. Blue glowing letters appeared in the air in front of him and displayed information on the owner of the ring.


    <table><tbody><td colspan=''3''>Name:</td><td width="25%">Aonel Vo ''Rin</td><tr><td colspan=''3''>Age:</td><td width="25%">12</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Level:</td><td width="25%">9</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Strength:</td><td width="25%">24</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Agility:</td><td width="25%">29</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stamina:</td><td width="25%">21</td></tr>[<tr><td colspan=''3''>Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">19</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">12</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Mana:</td><td width="25%">37</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skills:</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>''Seven spears''</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>''Leaf in the wind'' (School of War)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>''Fireball'' (School of Sun)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    [As I thought. That ring can display the skills of a person and their origin.]


    ¡°Hoo~...you are already level 9 at the tender age of 12. It seems you were quite diligent with your training here. You can even cast a fireball and know a foot technique to hasten your steps.¡± (Randalph)


    Aonel was devastated at my remark and lowered his head. His shoulders were shaking in fright, a tear ran down his cheek.


    I looked at the other people. There was no compassion reflected in their faces, but there was also no hatred. They were simply waiting to see the purpose of my questions. Faces of people who have seen too much. The other demons did not dare to show anything else than anxiety for what was to come. [It seems I am rather feared by them...good. But that wasn''t what I wanted to confirm.]


    ¡°Can you cast a stats-spell on my companions and me?¡±


    ¡°I can''t...hick...b-but Nrewen can.¡± The whiny boy pointed at the other demon.


    ¡°Then get back to work. There is still one more left for you to free.¡± I waved with my hand towards the last prisoner. ¡°Nrewen, you come here and cast the spell on every one of us. Begin with me and then go on with the others.¡±


    ¡°It''s only the simplest stats-spell, though. I can''t show any skills and it will hurt. Will that suffice?¡± That demon was talking in a rather composed way compared to his friend. He didn''t cry but was smart enough to lower his head, while he was already preparing the spell.


    However, Lucius interrupted him.


    ¡°It is good that you learned to ask before you are going to inflict pain on us again. Do not worry. We do not mind a little ache.¡±


    Upon this, he lost his composure and stopped in his tracks but I raised an eyebrow signalising him to go on.


    My stats were:


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Level:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Strength:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Agility:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stamina:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">37</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">91</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Mana:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr></tbody></table>


    I took a deep breath.


    "I feared as much...just like i said, whenever we die we have to pay a hefty price for a revival. Usually it''s around 1/10th of our strength and when you hit stats like these you know that the next death is your last. The only thing that couldn''t be stolen from us is the power of the mind. Be that as it may, it seems that our intelligence didn''t deteriorate either, although it should. That is what has perhaps prevented our final death."


    "Isn''t that also a power of the mind?" (Lucius)


    "No, Lucius. The intelligence-stat is a derivation of your mastery in magic. There are animals proficient in sorcery that are not intelligent in the classical sense, but this stats-spell would still translate their ability as intelligence. It is a debate why it is even called ''intelligence''. Some have suggested to change the name into ''Mana-mastery'' but it could never really be established. By the way, that is an amazingly high wisdom-stat you have there, Randalph. I think I only ever saw one other person with that much wisdom in my life, and he was the head court-magician of my country."


    It was his woman who answered him again. She was quite knowledgeable and I realized that she would often comment on his questions. On the other hand side, it can be seen from her answers that she didn''t really dwell on the deeper meaning behind those spells. [Maybe I should put her in the category of a knowledgeable fighter, but not a thinker. Still, she did help me there by pointing out how high my wisdom is.]


    That is when his other companion, Crence, suddenly added:


    ¡°This system of stats has been created with humanoid species in mind. It wasn''t made to universally project the abilities of every living being in a uniform manner. If you''d rename the intelligence-stat into something else you would lose out on the natural connection between intelligent people and Mana-Mastery present in humanoids. Remember that well, Lucius.¡±


    Aoi and Lucius looked at him in disbelief.


    "What?" He said with a hint of anger. "I had a good tutor." Not minding their patronizing gazes any longer he continued. "Well... only one point in Mana. That explains why we could never use any spells and would faint whenever we tried to use magic. That''s what saved you both from my punishment."


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    [Those three really like to go off-topic.]


    "It doesn''t matter. Go on with displaying the stats of everyone else."


    This time it was Aoi.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Level:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Strength:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Agility:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stamina:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">31</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">71</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Mana:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "When did i attain that much wisdom? Before i got here it was only at 26 and that had already been considered high."


    "As i said. A disciplined mind is a wise mind. We don''t have the time to further dwell on these things right now. We should go on. Next is Crence."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Level:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Strength:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Agility:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stamina:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">13</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">79</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Mana:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Crence''s only reaction to his stats was a "Hrmm.." But he didn''t say anything else.


    Finally it was Lucius'' turn. It was important to show him the difference in our abilities so as to naturally establish a chain of command.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Level:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Strength:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Agility:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stamina:</td><td width="25%">2</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">14</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">124</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Mana:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr></tbody></table>


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    The look on Randalph''s face could only be described as flabbergasted.


    "Th-that is even higher than Godmother..."


    "Lucius, that''s amazing..." (Aoi)


    [Praise from the woman you love. Now that is amazing.]


    I had already guessed what Randalph was trying to do. Needless to say, there was no way I''d let take him over. If I could have been sure that he would also try everything in his might to save Aoi, I would probably have followed his lead, but he''s only focused on his leader.


    ¡°Randalph, we will help you save Godmother but first we need to find out her location. Would you take those two demons and search for her? You could also come up with a rescue-plan while surveying the surroundings. Also, please try to capture one or two other young demons to allow us to send out another scout. In the meantime, we would stay here and wait for your other men to wake up. Is that agreeable?¡±


    He obviously didn''t expect that answer from me. It was the only logical thing to do. Just because that little attempt failed, it didn''t mean that he was not the strongest out of all of us. Keeping him down would be impossible and I had no desire to do so, to begin with. [Why should I stand in his way?]


    ¡°Sending out two scouts doubles the risk of exposure. Still...we have no other choice. I''ll go.¡±


    Nrewen and Aonel were chosen as his mounts. Before they put him on their shoulders Aonel asked Randalph.


    ¡°Didn''t it hurt? The spell is rather violent and forces the body''s secrets to the outside, yet you didn''t even bat an eye at that. None of you.¡± Nrewen gave his friend a look of disdain. He was smart enough not to ask but apparently the other boy was of a different calibre. Randalph didn''t bother answering him and just said.


    ¡°Carry me well.¡±


    After he left there was one other thing to do.


    ¡°Now Crence, you are awfully quiet. You know what''s going to happen, don''t you?¡±


    ¡°I had hoped you didn''t notice it.¡±


    ¡°How could I ever miss such an important thing?¡±


    ¡°What are you two talking about?¡± (Aoi)


    Taking a deep breath I held my head up high in an arrogant way.


    ¡°Bow before your intelligent master, Crence!¡±


    He didn''t say anything at that but the red face wasn''t just the result of the yellowish-red glow the lava in this place exuded, his eyes were screaming for revenge.


    Aoi came to his rescue.


    ¡°Only after you have bowed before your even more intelligent mistress, Lucius.¡±


    ¡°You assisted him and not me! How could you?¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°Ufufu...¡± (Aoi)


    -------


    While Areti was still occupied with freeing the last person I called out to her.


    ¡°Areti, don''t stop with your work but could you tell me something about this place, while you are at it?¡± Just to make sure that she wouldn''t lie too much I added. ¡°I''ll ask the other demons later, too.¡±


    ¡°What do you want to know? I have no knowledge about the location fo this dungeon. It''s kept a secret. The only way to get in here is through a teleport-circle and this place is warded against attempts to magically determine your position, so the only way is the circle.¡±


    [Do we also need to make some kind of circle to use Godmother''s ability? Randalph left too soon...]


    ¡°This teleport-circle, where is it?¡±


    ¡°If you go to the main road and follow the path for about 1 hour you will reach a small underground village. This is where the guards have their garrison and the teleport-hall is located. There is also housing for us trainees.¡±


    ¡°How many guards are there?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know.¡±


    ¡°Give me an estimation.¡±


    She hesitated.


    ¡°I can''t. If the number is wrong you will punish me!¡±


    ¡°Yes, I will. Now give me the estimation. And don''t stop working.¡±


    The blue girl let out a small sigh. Her hands were shaking in pain that came from touching the chain.


    ¡°There are one thousand of you and around one thousand trainees. The guards duty is to mainly look after us and they have a really high level. One of them is enough to keep dozens of us in check. My best estimation would be between 60 and 80.¡±


    [60 to 80 guards. With 1000 demons here there would be one guard for every 12 or 13 of them. There is probably no need to look after us so that number of guards seems too high. Would an escape by foot be possible? We would need more demon-mounts for that and a better understanding of our surroundings.]


    Because I fell silent in my thoughts and didn''t move a muscle in my face, Areti started to beg. For her it must''ve seemed as if I was evaluating her last answer negatively. ¡°Please, I don''t know any better.¡± [Hoo~...I had heard that silence can be frightening. Maybe this is a chance.]


    In a stern tone I started to ask.


    ¡°With how many people did you come here?¡±


    ¡°What? None.¡±


    ¡°Don''t lie!¡±


    ¡°Really, I came alone.¡±


    ¡°How many days have you already been here?¡±


    ¡°Only one day.¡±


    ¡°How long are you supposed to stay here?¡±


    ¡°Three weeks.¡±


    ¡°How many trainees are here?¡±


    ¡°O-one thousand!¡±


    ¡°Are you going to try and murder the other girl over there again?¡±


    ¡°O-of course not!¡±


    ¡°How many guards are really here?¡±


    ¡°50!¡±


    My barrage of questions had the desired result. [She is still a child after all...]


    The instant she realized her mistake I used the ''Aura of the blazing Sun'' to surround her with flames. As if to reflect my own thoughts some tongues of flames would draw closer to her and then retreat again. The image of a lion standing in front of his prey came to my mind. [What should I do with her?]


    It wasn''t necessary for me to make this decision. In that moment Randalph returned from his reconnaissance trip. With him two other humans, five new young demons, and he even had some clothes on. That was terrifyingly efficient.


    ¡°What''s going on here?¡± (Randalph)


    ¡°Blue Areti over there was caught lying.¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°Notwithstanding, I still got something out of it, so it doesn''t really matter.¡±


    Randalph turned towards her.


    ¡°Well, there is still one last man to free. How about our new arrivals show you how it''s done? They seem to be quite good at it.¡± He patted one of them on the shoulder while saying this and a visible chill ran down the boy''s spine. ¡°We don''t really have the time to waste on a useless demon. If she does something like this again I will simply get rid of her.¡±


    ¡°Very well.¡± I answered and they immediately went to work. Probably because they didn''t want to stay close to Randalph any longer. Areti did neither greet the new demons, nor did she even look at them. A little apart from the others, she simply concentrated on her tedious task. The others didn''t want to associate with someone whose life had just been threatened., also welcoming the distance.


    -------


    After this, we reported our findings to each other.


    ¡°These two are called Bransek and Fillion. I specifically freed them because both can use an offensive oriented aura. They are both good men. Sadly, I couldn''t locate Godmother yet. The dungeon is too spacious. I found a main path that split into three but couldn''t follow it further, else I would have risked detection. It seems most of us are held captive in that direction. The demons told us that there are vast caverns with hundreds of us in one place. I did find other small caverns with ''Children of the Dawn'' but attacking them alone would''ve been too dangerous.¡±


    ¡°Could Godmother have been there?¡±


    ¡°Not that I could tell, no. But I had only a rudimentary look on them. What did you find out?¡±


    ¡°There''s a settlement an hour from here with a teleport-circle. From what I could gather it''s the only way the demon trainees have been allowed to use. 50 of those guards are stationed there.¡±


    ¡°Not bad. You got that all from the young girl?¡± (Randalph)


    ¡°Yes. We should ask the others to confirm this as soon as possible, though. You can''t trust her after all. What I''m concerned about the most is this business with the teleport-circle. Do we need to prepare something like this too, for Godmother to be able to perform her magic? She also mentioned something about a ward disturbing any attempts at locating this place or using a different method of teleportation...¡±


    ¡°That doesn''t matter to us. A circle is not needed for Godmother and our means of teleportation still work. I confirmed that earlier.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡±


    ¡°Remember when Crence reappeared after dying? His body was teleported, wasn''t it? That told me that our spacial transport was not hindered. Godmother''s teleport-spell is based on this.¡±


    [Right...but there was something else.]


    ¡°Wouldn''t she need Mana to perform the magic? Her stats are likely the same as ours. That''s bound to be a problem.¡±


    He pulled out a ring upon this and showed it to me.


    ¡°I know. Good for us, one of the demons had this here.¡±


    Raising an eyebrow I asked.


    ¡°That is?¡±


    ¡°A ring with a magic stone embedded. Still, I can only hope that it can provide enough Mana for a spell. Our worries aren''t gone with only that. It would be better to have more. Those demons are rather rich to carry such things around with them. There might be a chance to find another one.¡±


    What I was actually asking about was the finger still attached to it. On closer inspection I noticed a bloody bandage on one of the new demons hands. [There is no sense in further questions, I guess.] Remarkable how little uneasiness I felt about such a thing.


    ¡°Now then, I assume it would be best to head out again. For now we shouldn''t free any others and focus on gathering more informations. Otherwise we will be found out before we can reach Godmother.¡±


    ¡°I suggest to use Bransek. He''s an experienced scout.¡±


    ¡°No. I will be taking two demons to look around. If anything happens to me and I should die we would atleast immediately know about, since I would revive here. You should go on with your search for Godmother. Bransek and Fillion can defend our camp. I will try to search for a way we could use by foot, if worse comes to worst.¡± I would have asked Crence to do this, as he was an experienced warrior and I had nothing like his skills. Be that as it may, an offensive aura is needed to keep the demons from running away, so I was the only one left.


    -------


    There was this one long western with this boring actor. The movie climaxed in a scene where a redneck misused the MC''s diary as toilet paper. Personally, I think that the Oscars would have been justified if the redneck had used Kevin Costner''s face to wipe his ass, instead of his diary.


    There was one noteworthy scene, though. An indian woman used her clothes to let a horse grow accustomed to her scent and tame it that way.


    Randalph and I prepared to leave. My chosen mounts were Areti and Nrewen. They had been fast during the chase earlier that day.


    ¡°Blue demon Areti, come over here!¡± Aoi called out to her.


    ¡°W-what is it?¡±


    ¡°You are going to carry Lucius, aren''t you?¡± She grabbed the little demon''s shoulder and used her newly acquired ''Aura of the silent Moon'' to give weight to her next words.


    ¡°I will hold you responsible if he gets so much as another scratch on his legs again. Understood?¡±


    Areti''s eyes widened and she looked at my bandaged legs.


    ¡°Y-yes...¡±


    [So it is true...a woman''s charm is better suited to tame beasts.]


    After taking another glance at Aoi, I left for my reconnaissance mission.


    End of Chapter 11


    Afterwords:


    I hate Kevin Costner.

 Chapter 12 – A good attack requires a steadfast heart

    Chapter 12 ¨C A good attack requires a steadfast heart


    Reconnaissance ¨C that is something done by moving cautiously and takes up a lot of time. You shouldn''t move aimlessly around, while doing so. It is important to have a clear target in mind, to which you then draw closer with care. Another thing not to forget would be to always have an escape route to get back after you managed to find out what you came for. Taking chances isn''t the right way to do it.


    Even if you follow all those advices, there are some things that come only with experience. For example entering unknown territory that is known to be frequented by enemies but has no one to be seen at that time, demands caution. If a scout uses such paths, he should first stay hidden and search for patterns of movement before venturing on. Otherwise his precious escape path might be cut off.


    [Alright, that''s something I have to remember for the next time...]


    The situation I feared had happened. My lack of experience had shown. Although we were still hidden, we had to take many detours to avoid enemy detection. This forced my mounts and me deeper into the dungeon that was frequented by more demons. Now we were basically stuck at once place, neither able to go back, nor able to move on.


    I had crossed the bridge where we killed the fleeing demon and followed the lava-stream. Thinking that it might lead to the surface, I had hoped to find an exit. Somewhere along the way we met a group of trainees with a guard and had to turn around. The same thing happened a couple of times and now we were currently somewhere hidden on the main path towards the settlement. Atleast I remembered the way we took.


    [Should I just kill myself and get back that way?] Then I had to kill the two demons carrying me, first. A very cold-blooded decision not to mention that I would have then waisted their two lives for nothing.


    Yeah...their lives were in my hands. That meant their blood would also be on my hands, if I did this. This is what Richard Lionheart must have felt when he ordered the execution of the 2700 prisoners in Acre so he could move on. [What a rotten feeling.]


    I looked at Areti. She''s a smart girl who had lied to me about the number of guards present here. Probably because she feared we would have tried to reach the demon''s teleport-circle to get out of here. From her point of view our next obvious choice would have been the settlement, which was bound to be a failure. She couldn''t have possibly known that our means of transportation wasn''t affected by the ward she had spoken about.


    [Really now...] Such intelligent eyes she had, always looking for an opening so she could finish me off, if the need arose. Only the threat of me telling the guards everything about her, kept Areti in check.


    ¡°Areti, Nrewen, any suggestions?¡±


    It was useless to expect any good input from Nrewen. While he was smarter than Aonel he probably thought of our current situation as a chance to flee. Areti, on the other hand side, dawned what only alternative I was left with.


    ¡°We are not far from the main cavern, a vast training ground with more than 500 of you inside. With them are an equivalent number of trainees and the appropriate number of guards.¡± (Areti)


    [Yepp! I should have killed her earlier.] Withholding such important information until the last moment. Threats that are not fulfilled are useless. Otherwise people will just grow accustomed to them and still do what they want. Randalph shouldn''t have interfered. Now it came back to bite me. [Such a mistake won''t happen again...]


    ¡°Close by is a small pathway which leads to a secluded spot with a good view over the whole cavern. We could stay there for a while.¡±


    ¡°How do you know this? You have only been here for one day.¡±


    ¡°One of my brothers told me about it. He said it was a sight I would surely be able to appreciate.¡±


    ¡°Spare me from your twisted ideas and get moving.¡±


    Right now there was no one around in the vicinity, but the path would often fork off and had many curves out of which a demon could suddenly appear. Still, from her description the passage was supposed to be only around 200m away from us. Staying hidden, only sneaking from one cranny to another one, we moved on.


    Reaching the entrance took us two whole hours. It was covered by a pair of stalagmites and the path led us to a vantage point above a vast cavern illuminated by lava-streams and torches. We were greeted by an appalling view. Hundreds of demons slicing at chained humans, their shadows would melt into one giant spectacle on the walls.


    I whispered to Areti.


    ¡°It isn''t as secluded as you said it''d be.¡±


    Three demons had prepared a picnic at the spot with the best view and were enjoying themselves, two adolescent girls and a boy. Going back was impossible, one of them had already noticed us and pointed towards our direction.


    However, they weren''t immediately able to switch from a cheerful atmosphere into a vigilant stance. The situation was too confusing for them to do so. We were the first to react. Areti put on a smile and waved at them to set them even more off-balance.


    ¡°Hey! Look at what we found.¡± she drew slowly closer to them, readying her sharp tail to strike at their hearts with me on her back. 15 metres were still between us. [Good. She knows all too well what will happen if we are found out.]


    ¡°That''s a fairy! How did you get that?¡± The adolescent boy said. They stood up and also came closer towards us, with no hint of hostility.


    ¡°That? Didn''t you know? You can rent them if you pay enough money.¡± 10 metres were now between us but I didn''t dare to use my aura just yet.


    ¡°Wow! You can rent them? That''s amaz-¡±


    ¡°Orwion, get back! They are enemies.¡± One of the females shouted. Something must have tipped her off. Whether it was the insecurity on Nrewens face or her own wits, I did not know. Despite her warning it was too late. All of them were now within range and I created three fiery cages with not an ounce of space between their skin and the flames.


    ¡°Silence! If anyone of you makes a sound, it will be the last action of your life.¡± I hesitated burning them to death. Even with the other prisoners screaming down below, there was still a chance of someone noticing the turmoil up here if they suddenly started to shout out in pain.


    On a hunch I said.


    ¡°Areti, explain the situation to them.¡±


    She was a little bit startled but still began to talk.


    ¡°You and us are his hostages. Do everything as he says or you will die. These flames are his. See those burn marks on my arms and legs? That was his doing. He already killed four of us in a matter of moments like this. Don''t even think about going against him or else he''ll tell the guards about us. Killing him won''t help either, since he''d just revive again like they always do. You know what happens to those that associate with the prisoners, don''t you?¡±


    Then she paused for a little bit and watched their reactions. It seems she wasn''t satisfied with what she saw and went on.


    ¡°Just to make sure... in case you thought of explaining the situation to the guards, I''ll give you a piece of information. The power to revive is theirs and not the result of the emperors magic. We will surely be executed if the guards find out about our knowledge. The only way to survive is to not let anybody know of our participation.¡±


    Areti warned them in advance. It''s questionable if they''d thank her for that, though. [So they believed that this was the doing of their emperor.]


    There were two reasons why I let her do the talking. For once, I wanted to hear their perspective and it already paid off.


    The other one was that something had caught my eye and I had been drawn to.


    While the blue demon was still talking I motioned Nrewen to bring me to their viewing spot where they had prepared the picnic. From there I saw it clearly. Scratch what I said about reconnaissance earlier. It''s all about dumb luck. This is why you send out multiple scouts; to heighten the chances that someone stumbles upon something.


    ¡°That...is probably Godmother.¡±


    In the middle of this vast chamber was one prisoner who stood out. Her body was completely engulfed by the chain from neck to toe, with only her head visible. It wasn''t the elaborated  way of her imprisonment that convinced me. The moment I saw her, there was this indescribable feeling. I could feel her. About this world or magic, I didn''t know much about. But if someone was the leader of the ''Children of the Dawn'' it had to be that woman over there.


    [Freeing her is going to be a problem.] Surrounded by hundreds of demons, there was no way to do this sneaky. Did we have to give up on her, after all? Randalph wouldn''t be happy about it. What was important now was to tell the others about it. That led me to my earlier thought again. How would I have to get back to our camp unnoticed? [Do I really have to kill them?]


    I took a good look at those demons again. Areti and Nrewen wore resignation on their faces while the three others were still trying to cope with the situation. [Wait...]


    ¡°You are rather old. How big are you?¡± I had addressed the boy who approached us without much thought earlier.


    ¡°N-nearly two metres, sire.¡±


    ¡°I have seldom seen such a high demon with a face as young as yours.¡±


    ¡°My house is known for it''s height.¡±


    [That might work...]


    ¡°Is anybody of you able to seal wounds with fire magic?¡±


    ¡°I know a fire-lance spell that could be used this way. B-but why would you need that?¡± One of the girls in the back said that.


    ¡°Can you use it often enough to seal four wounds?¡±


    ¡°P-probably...¡±


    ¡°Good. I have an idea. Cut off my arms and legs, seal my wounds with fire, then disguise me as a back-pack with that blanket and carry me to our camp. It shouldn''t look too weird if someone as big as you would have such a package on his shoulders.¡±


    ¡°Cu-what?!¡±


    ¡°You heard me right.¡±


    -------


    Orwion''s POV


    That damn fairy! He said I had to cut off his arms and legs. [How about I''ll just miss and hit his head instead?] Gripping an axe with both of my hands I took aim. This is when he said.


    ¡°Oh, Areti, Nrewen, you two girls behind there, too. If I should die here I will give you one last chance to come back to me by yourself. You would have time until I was freed again. After this I will consider you as traitors. Needless to say, do not let him return with you.¡± He pointed towards me at that.


    [Traitors? We weren''t on your side to begin with. Damn!] There was still another way. His idea wasn''t bordering on idiocy anymore. It was far beyond this state. In the end he would just pass out from those wounds. Was he a madman?


    His eyes showed no hint of insanity at all.


    ¡°Stop shaking so much. I want clean cuts.¡± Said the mad fairy to me.


    I hadn''t even noticed my shaking. Yeah, I was shaking in fear. It should be a chance for me, yet I didn''t get that feeling at all from this situation.


    ¡°Do you want me to put some cloth in your mouth? To weaken the screams.¡±


    ¡°I want you to stop wasting my time and finally start.¡±


    ¡°One clean cut, as you demanded.¡±


    [Just you wait...] With a snarl I took my swing. His eyes were calmly following the arch of my axe''s path. It was only for an instance but I could see a small smirk on his face, as if to tell me ''So it''s going to be that.'' [Damn!] At the last moment I changed the course of my weapon to hit his arm instead of splitting his head.


    Not only did I miss my chance to kill him, I also couldn''t sever his arm cleanly. It was a bloody mess around the shoulder. What made me lose the grip on my weapon and the belief in my survival if I ever crossed this man was his reaction, though.


    Again, with calm eyes he looked at his shoulder, not even a sigh leaving his throat. With a tone, even colder than the one of a lich, he said.


    ¡°Nrewen, this one is useless. You do the task.¡±


    Piss was running down my leg, I fell on my butt. My mother was right. I shouldn''t have used up fathers inheritance to get here. Signing up for the imperial army was a mistake if I was to fight against enemies like these.


    Damn. No wonder we were told to never talk to them. It was for our own safety. [Fairies are scary.]


    Nrewen did a better job. With his first swing he was able to cut off the bloody stump I left and my companion could immediately seal the wound. There were no signs of pain reflected on his face.


    After asking for permission to go on, he gave Nrewen his consent with a nod. The bizarre shadowy play on the walls of the cavern caught his eye. Did he trust him more than me, that he would turn his eyes away? Just as I had that thought he moved his left shoulder a little bit in a way that would allow for a cleaner cut.


    [No, he clearly saw where the axe would hit.]


    At this point I wasn''t even ashamed of me pissing myself anymore. Nobody could blame me if he saw the same thing as I did. Even worse, he started a conversation with the blue coloured bitch from the house Sa ''Wa.


    ¡°Areti, why would your brother think that you could appreciate such a view?¡±


    ¡°H-huh? Aa-erm...I...¡±


    She could only stutter. I wasn''t the only one who was thrown off track by what was happening right now. The insane fairy waited until she regained her composure.


    ¡°I like art of all forms and varieties. Instead of training for a position as a military officer I wanted to enrol in the High-Imperial-Academy with it''s course on the fine arts. That brother is the only one who supports this side of mine and often helps me out.¡±


    He let out a laugh that sent chills down my spine. I could barely hold my bladder so as I wouldn''t leak for a second time.


    ¡°Art, you say? I understand that this view is breathtaking and certainly moves the onlooker. But that is hardly art.¡±


    ¡°What would you understand about art?¡± She retorted in a hurt tone. Then she gasped at her own blunder and waited if the man would get angry or even hurt her. He did neither and simply overlooked her mistake.


    ¡°Art isn''t just defined by beauty. It always follows a purpose, a message that the artist wants to convey. The summit of art is only reached by those that are either working out of their faith or by those that are working to criticize the society. How could you regard a random view such as this as art? That''s as idiotic as calling the beauty of nature ''art''. Would you go and say: ''Oh look at that mountain! Such beautiful art.''?¡±


    The blue girl looked at the display in front of her in silence, obviously not expecting an answer to her question. After a while she said.


    ¡°But doesn''t it seem as if this particular view was made by somebody? From your talks with the others I understood that this wasn''t always a dungeon so someone had to make this.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...perhaps you are right.¡± It was his turn to fall in silence. After Nrewen was done with his arms and one of his legs he suddenly whispered in thought.


    ¡°Some day I am going to crush this dastardly piece of art and the one who made it.¡±


    [Did he just declare war on the emperor?]


    -------


    Lucius'' POV


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.Of course I wasn''t so tasteless as to develop my intentions after a discussion about differing opinions on art. My decision to destroy their emperor was concluded the moment I understood what this place was truly about. But that had to be planned very carefully and was a thought reserved for the future. Right now there were other problems to deal with.


    ¡°You...why are you doing this?¡± (Areti)


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Hacking off your limbs, disguising yourself as a package, this!¡±


    ¡°I shouldn''t have to explain the nature of this action to a smart little girl like you.¡±


    Deep in thought she fell silent again, visible deliberation over her next words could be seen on her face. Then she said.


    ¡°I don''t owe you anything for that.¡±


    [Hoo~...]


    ¡°That''s where you are wrong. You owe 999 others and me their freedom. Enough talking now. We need to get going.¡±


    Nrewen and the other girl were finally done with their task. Surprisingly, it hurt a lot less than before. The curse truly did increase the pain by a manifold. By now I was able to cope with it in a way that would let fakirs appear as crying newborns if they were compared to me. Something that would be beneficial. The loss of blood was a serious problem, though, and I had to fight against the dizziness.


    I quickly ordered the demons to pack me tightly into the blanket so they wouldn''t notice my weakness, a small hole was left for me to look through. After the big boy (Orwion) put a rope through the blanket and heaved me on his back I gave the sign to move on.


    ¡°Go! Yip, yip!¡± Carrying me through the ranks of the demons in such a disguise was as if we were flying. It took us more than half a day to reach that spot and in less than an hour we were back at the bridge again.


    When Randalph had returned from his first scouting trip his demons were visibly frightened by his ruthlessness to hurt them without much thought. They had shaken and were close to crying.


    When I returned, my demons had lost all colour from their faces and weren''t even able to cry, nor able to utter a single noise. My action had a different impact on them, altogether. The will to inflict pain on others is indeed effective. However, my display to sacrifice myself for what I want left them simply speechless. Without much reacting to the orders of the other humans in our camp they unpacked me and then made room.


    Aoi lost it when she saw me. An intelligible scream left her throat.


    ¡°A-RE-TI!¡±


    From somewhere she got a mantle and a dagger and was now crawling towards the blue little demon with murderous intent, a small icy aura was oozing out of her. Areti didn''t move, still too much shaken by what I had done.


    ¡°Aoi, please stop it.¡± Contrary to her insane look she immediately reacted to my softly spoken words. It was amazing how fast she could switch from a murderer to a loving face. Reaching out to me she asked with a caring tone.


    ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°It was necessary.¡± Was the only thing I said and she nodded with a pained expression.


    ¡°Areti, pierce my heart!¡±


    -------


    After reviving (and getting my limbs back) I began with my report. Luckily, Randalph and the others were there.


    ¡°We don''t have much time, so I''ll keep things short. I think I located Godmother.¡±


    ¡°What? Where? How?¡± The ''Children of the Dawn'' were in an uproar and started a barrage of questions.


    ¡°I took the main path. There I found a vast chamber with 500 of us imprisoned. She was among them.¡±


    ¡°How would you know it''s her? You never saw her.¡±


    ¡°That''s true...how should I put it? There was this indescribable feeling I got when I saw her and I thought it had to be her. It sounds vague, I know, but I had hoped you would understand what I am talking about. I fathomed it was something all of you had in her presence.¡±


    ¡±¡±That has never happened.¡±¡± The ''Children'' Bransek and Fillion both denied. It was Randalph who had fallen silent upon hearing my words. It was obvious that he knew something.


    ¡°Randalph?¡±


    ¡°You are most likely saying the truth...there are some ''Children'' who can feel the presence of our leader.¡±


    ¡°Really Captain Randalph? I never heard of it.¡± (Fillion)


    ¡°Yes, it happens...from time to time.¡± His tone and demeanour gave me enough hints that there was something else behind these words but he didn''t give me a chance to ask.


    ¡°I am going out to confirm this now.¡±


    He left in a hurry and only took one demon with him. Was it a mistake to not talk him out of it? Most likely. It greatly affected the chances of our escape, if we had to reach Godmother under these circumstances. Still, Randalph would go anyway. I just had to take a look at Aoi and I knew how he felt. So much I understood now. There was no sense for him in escaping without her.


    While I was freed from the chain once again, Aoi spoke to me.


    ¡°That was a really idiotic way for you to move around, Lucius. It was necessary, you say? How did you come up with that?¡±


    ¡°Why are you still angry? Is it because I went out of my way to keep those demons alive?¡±


    ¡°No, I am angry that them keeping alive meant for you to cut off your limbs. Couldn''t you come up with a better way?¡±


    This is when Crence interrupted us.


    ¡°A long time ago I had a war-dog. I really liked it and when a battle broke out during a monster-subjugation, I had to jump in front of and take a strike that was meant for him. The wound was severe and I failed the quest, but it was alright. The dog was more worth than the reward.¡±


    ¡°So what? You are saying he was right?¡±


    ¡°No, I just told you a story about my dog. I also think that this was a retarded thing for you to do, Lucius. Not so much because of the wounds and the pain but because you lowered your head to keep them alive. They don''t deserve it. ¡°


    [So he''s saying that my dignity is more worth than them? However, I said it myself. There is no need to be humble in front of oppressors. Did I really already forget? No!]


    ¡°When the time comes that I become weak enough, so I have to kill prisoners, this is when I will really have lowered my head! I said I am going to let them live as long as they follow my orders and that''s it. If I can''t hold my word here, then I wasn''t meant to take them prisoner in the first place. No more discussion about this!¡± I got angry and raised my voice.


    ¡°Well...I guess it''s not that bad, after all. Your stamina probably fell from two back to one, after dying. It had been bugging me all this while. Now we are even again.¡± Thankful for the change in topic with which Crence provided me, I continued in a calmer manner.


    ¡°Where did I get that point anyway?¡±


    ¡°By killing those four demons, of course.¡±


    [Oh right...]


    ¡°You can have that point. I don''t care for this.¡±


    During our conversation the other ''Children of the Dawn'' just listened in on us and didn''t engage in a discussion of their own. There were now four of them here, Bransek and Fillion aswell as the two who were with us here and had finally awoken. I got curious about something so I asked Fillion.


    ¡°Say...are there ranks between the ''Children''? I heard you calling Randalph with the rank of captain.¡±


    ¡°Yes and no. During times of battle we have some ranks. There are four captains, each commanding 1/4th of us with Godmother above them. Since we were fighting for the last couple of years it kind of became the norm. Before we had to fight against the elves we pretty much had no need for any ranks and structures. Godmother was enough.¡±


    ¡°You fought against the elves? Was it the Kingdom of Endron?¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°What is the Kingdom of Endron?¡± (Fillion)


    ¡°It''s also called the kingdom of traitors. The elves that sides with the Eternal Black Demon Empire and split off from the others. That Kingdom of Endron that even fought against their own brethren.¡±


    ¡°They were allied with the demons but I didn''t know they were called Endron. Wait! So their alliance resulted in a civil war? Ha! Serves them right. It was really a shock when they suddenly appeared together with the black demons to attack us. Demons on Verol...really.¡±


    Crence and Aoi looked at each other, realizing something that neither I nor the other ''Children'' had yet been able to understand. Then Crence carefully probed.


    ¡°Do you know about the Kingdom of Brenai?¡±


    ¡°This term sounds vaguely familiar. Didn''t some dwarves in the west start to call themselves lately like this? They are also fighting against the elves. Good guys.¡±


    ¡°I am a Brenai. In our kingdom humans and dwarves live together.¡±


    [What is this about?]


    ¡°Aoi, Crence, would you care to tell us what you are thinking? You seem a little bit out of it.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°There is really no easy way to say this without sounding idiotic...but I believe you are older than you think. Verol was attacked by the demons 2700 years ago. The Eternal Black Demon Empire was pushed back to it''s own continent, but a lot of demons stayed here. Some are even reigning as monarchs.¡± (Crence)


    ¡°There really is no way to say this without sounding idiotic, you were right. We are humans, we don''t live that long.¡± (Fillion)


    ¡°What did you just call me?¡±


    ¡°Crence wait! Didn''t you listen to them? They say we are on Verol. Don''t you understand what that means?¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°This dungeon, it is on Verol and led by the empire. I even saw a black demon here once. Did you forget about the peace treaty and what it said regarding the matter if the empire were to ever set foot on Verol again?¡±


    You could see that Crence was trying to remember something, his face was wrinkled in thought. Then it lightened up and he made an ¡°Ohhhh!¡±-Sound. A bloodthirsty smile appeared as he said.


    ¡°Wouldn''t that be a nice reason to declare war on them now, would it?¡±


    This time Orwion, who was tasked with freeing me, did not only piss himself, but also managed to fill his pants with some shit.


    -------


    Location: Imperial Embassy in Endron


    In a room functioning as the ambassadors office, a large muscular figure was seated in a throne-like chair. Black skin and four arms, the typical appearance of the ruling class in the empire, he was Lord Bagrat Ver ''do San, entrusted with the affairs on Verol by their supreme immortal leader, thus making him the most important imperial representative on this side of the ocean.


    Officially his position was to act as a diplomatic liaison between the empire and the Kingdom of Endron, aswell as some satellite-states on Verol. However, there was a second standing order that he had to follow. Bound by treaties that wouldn''t permit imperial troops other than ceremonial guards, he was to ensure that a long kept state-secret would remain undiscovered. It was the prison for the ''Children of the Dawn'' that functioned as a military facility.


    Once again he was asking himself why there was a need for such a risky operation. Certainly, it''s usefulness as a training facility for the young was not to be overlooked. But it had already lost it''s value for the elites and veterans a long time ago, because the captured prisoners were the weakest beings stuck at lvl1. The accumulated rise in power sharply dropped for killing one of them, after somebody had reached lvl20 and there wouldn''t be much of a benefit even after putting thousands of them to death.


    What made him sure that there lied another purpose even hidden from him, was the fact that Arandis Ber ''Vo, the man responsible for creating new magical weapons, had to be allowed entry into the prison at all times, if he ever wished to come.


    While he was harbouring such thoughts a knock on the door could be heard.


    ¡°Come inside!¡±


    His aide Nertiri stepped in and bowed. After the lord gave her permission she began to talk.


    ¡°Lord Bagrat, a message from Lord Ber ''Vo has arrived.¡±


    [Speaking of the devil...]


    ¡°What has the master of the forge to say?¡± [The cynical old fool.]


    ¡°The message says that he finally finished forging your new weapon, Mylord.¡±


    ¡°So he completed my request? It has been already more than five months, since I asked for it. Let us hope that it is of a better quality, this time.¡±


    ¡°He writes that you will surely be pleased by them. It seems they are not normal cursed weapons. He didn''t clearly explain it in the letter but he says you would understand, once you held them in your hands. They are supposed to be masterpieces.¡±


    ¡°Well, if he praises them this much I guess, I should try them out. When are they supposed to arrive?¡±


    ¡°He already left them at your 3rd mansion after testing them personally.¡± Nertiri had used the codeword for the underground prison. Even though this embassy was highly guarded, it was still a foreign country so they had to stay vigilant at all times. The building was very well warded against attempts at magical spying but you could never really know whose servant''s ears had been bought to listen in on them. Being too cautious was a term Lord Ver ''do San did not know of, so he insisted on such measures.


    [So he went there again without notifying me?]


    ¡°I haven''t been there for quite some time. Maybe I should go and visit it...¡±


    [The dungeon is due for an inspection in three weeks. I could prepone it.]


    ¡°Postpone the appointments of the next two weeks and prepare everything for my departure. I will go and visit my mansion.¡± It was a rather unusual decision for the Lord, who put his duty before everything else. But five months ago he had met a prisoner that dared to stand up to him. Behind all his sophisticated and elegant demeanour Bagrat Ver ''do San was a petty person whose pride could easily be hurt.


    He couldn''t do much if the emperor decided to not tell him everything but he would never let a mere human look down on him.


    ¡°Before I forget Nertiri, I didn''t give Arandis any specifications. What form do the weapons have?¡±


    ¡°Mylord, he said it was a set of two weapons, a halberd and a mace.¡±


    ¡°Oh... is that so? A little bit inelegant for my taste but it does not matter. You can take your leave now. I want to depart by the third hour in the afternoon.¡±


    After his personal aide left, the black demon''s face twisted in anger, a fist pounded on the table, another one was tightly gripping the elbow-rest until it gave in.


    ¡°Is this supposed to be some kind of mockery?¡±


    [This fool expects me to use weapons meant for peasants?]


    Bagrat Ver ''do San was truly angry. Angry about the things he didn''t know about, angry about being stuck on Verol instead of serving in the capitol, but mostly he was angry at the old weapon-smith Arandis for taking him for a fool. Thankfully, he just knew on which prisoner he could vent his anger.


    End of Chapter 12


    Afterwords:


    I have been thinking of changing the title to something like: Revive Unlimited - ''Birth of the Paladins'' or ''The might of the Paladins''


    What do you think about that? The main reason for this ff is to depict the construction of a paladin order, after all. So i thought I should tell the people what to expect.

 Chapter 13 – A steadfast attack requires a good heart

    Chapter 13 ¨C A steadfast attack requires a good heart


    Randalph returned by reviving next to us.


    ¡°Where you discovered? Why did you die?¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°I managed to avoid discovery. The demon carrying me was lost, though.¡±


    ¡°Did he run?¡±


    ¡°No, he simply attacked me, but I was able to burn him to death before I died. It seems, taking only one of them was the wrong choice. I didn''t want to risk more than a single demon, in case I was found out. Most likely, he thought this was a chance to escape for him. However, I was able to confirm it. You were right, it is Godmother.¡±


    Considering where he went it wasn''t a wrong thought. Still, his thinking showed me that he was prepared to sacrifice the demon right from the start. A scenario I had tried to avoid. Nevertheless, I didn''t dare to blame him. Not only would it be na?ve, it would''ve also been hypocritical. While I thought of sacrificing them to cover for my mistake of getting stuck, he simply calculated the risk and tried to minimize his eventual losses from the start. [So that is one of the fine differences between a murder and collateral damage, huh?] I was supposed to be wiser than him, yet I didn''t think of that. That just showed me a wise person could still be inexperienced. [Lesson learned.]


    ¡°What are your thoughts, then?¡±


    ¡°Honestly, I have no clue how we would be able to rescue her. But I will try it nevertheless.¡± Just as I thought. He had no intention of giving up on her. Well, while he was out to confirm my findings I had some time to think.


    ¡°I might have an idea, though I would need some of your men for it. Volunteers...¡±


    ¡°Volunteers?¡± Randalph made a wry face at that. ¡°I don''t like the sound of it, but lets hear you out, Lucius.¡±


    ¡°Basically, we have three options. Escaping this prison by foot, rescuing Godmother, or trying for the demon''s teleport-circle.¡±


    ¡°You aren''t suggesting that we should abandon our leader, are you?¡±


    ¡°No, I realized that she''s our best option. However, the demons wouldn''t know of this. So ask yourself this: What would happen in case of a breakout? I am talking about the demon''s reactions.¡±


    The captain brought a hand to his chin and thought for a bit, before answering my question.


    ¡°They would increase security at their circle and the entrances, if there are any at all.¡±


    ¡°I am pretty certain that there have to be other exit-routes, besides the teleport-circle. How else would the air be able to flow? For such a big dungeon there should be appropriate caverns to allow for some ventilation.


    Regardless, you are still right. They would increase manpower at those spots. That would leave the cavern where Godmother is more vulnerable.¡±


    ¡°You are talking about a diversion, I see.¡±


    ¡°I am talking about two diversions. One at the garrison and another one at the entrances.¡±


    ¡°Now I know why you asked for volunteers. Mate, you are saying some pretty nasty things. Those two groups would have to sacrifice themselves to allow the escape of the third...¡±


    ¡°Exactly. Naturally, I will be with the group attacking the settlement.¡±


    ¡°What? Why do you have to go?¡± (Aoi)


    ¡°I understand your concern. Be that as it may, I already once broke free from the curse and might be able to do it a second time. There will be a day I could try another breakout, now that I have the knowledge about auras. I am not helpless against them, anymore.¡±


    Aoi wasn''t convinced. Asking the others to give us some space, I was thankful when they were thoughtful enough to crawl away. I drew closer, put my forehead on hers and whispered.


    ¡°I beg of you, please go with the group aiming for Godmother.¡±


    ¡°I will do so.¡±


    With my mouth agape and my mind going blank I asked.


    ¡°Wait! Why was that so easy? I thought you''d be absolutely against it.¡±


    ¡°Should I explain to you why I said it?¡± I was completely baffled. Usually I had a decent amount of insight into people but this time I had no idea what was going on. Was she angry about something?


    ¡°D-did I do something wrong? Did you start to hate me? Why wouldn''t you want to stay with me?¡±


    ¡°Now you want me to go with you on a suicide attack? Very well, Lucius. I will abide.¡± [Oh no she tricked me...]


    ¡°Did you honestly believe that would work? I changed my mind. Go and rescue Godmother! It''s an important task that I can''t give to anyone else.¡±


    ¡°My love, why would you think that I am capable of doing such a thing? Leaving my man behind, what kind of woman would I be?¡±


    ¡°The kind that would honour his wishes.¡±


    ¡°Even if he wishes for me to betray him?¡±


    [Doesn''t she understand the concept of manly chauvinism? It''s the man who protects the woman when it comes to fighting. The woman can protect her man by lying for him in front of others.] Then it dawned to me. She was lying without a single untrue word leaving her lips!


    ¡°Ohhh! Now I get it. You are planning to go and save Godmother, then you want to immediately head for my location without leaving with them, am I right?¡±


    A smile appeared on her face.


    ¡°I just love how smart you are, Lucius.¡±


    I started to put some force with my forehead onto hers in an attempt to overpower her, showing my displeasure that way. However, she dared to fight back. Having both only one point in strength, we were evenly matched and neither of us wanted to yield. The unexpected duel went on for some time and I felt the veins on my head started to become visible in my anger.


    ¡°You stubborn woman, why are you doing this to me? Do you think I would propose such a thing if it weren''t for saving you that way?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I think you would still do the same to save the others. I''ve come to know you over the past few months.¡±


    [Aoi, I love you but I hate you...]


    ¡°This isn''t over!¡± If she wouldn''t listen there was still the way of simply forcing her. I had more allies than her, namely the demons. They feared me more and if I told them to keep her with the main group they would listen to me. Otherwise I will kill them with no questions asked. A rather underhanded method but it had to be done.


    So I went on with our meeting with the others. There was no way Aoi would think she won there.


    ¡°Randalph, you should belong to the group going for Godmother. It seems you have a greater attack power than me. We should send our strongest people with this group to heighten their chances of success.¡±


    ¡°We do have three problems, though.¡± As often, Crence had been silent and only started to talk when he had something of value to say. That was one of his good points. He seldom said something without thinking it over, first. He was impulsive but at the same time there was a well of knowledge hidden behind his anger.


    ¡°First, we would need more men for this. Second, we need more demon-mounts, thirdly we would need a way to persuade those demons to carry the men, responsible for the diversions. I fathom they won''t be too happy with this and might start rebelling no matter the consequences.¡±


    ¡°I already thought about this, too. How many ''Children of the Dawn'' are approximately captured on this side of the bridge?¡±


    ¡°Exactly 65 without us. Also, there were no guards to be seen anywhere.¡± Brensek was the one who surprisingly said this. [They weren''t idling around either, when I was out.]


    Then he looked at me and added.


    ¡°I would like to volunteer for your group, Lucius.¡±


    ¡°Me, too.¡± (Fillion)


    ¡°Are you two sure about this?¡± Both of them didn''t give me a verbal reply, just a simple nod with determination in their eyes. They knew exactly what would happen to us.


    ¡°Very well. Glad to have you with me. When we attack the guards we should shout something like: ''Go for the teleportation-circle. It''s our only escape!''. The group trying to leave on foot should also frantically yell: ''To the exit!''. That might fool the demons a little bit and hopefully distract them from our true objective.¡±


    At this point I realized that we were already talking about some details when Randalph hadn''t even given his consent yet.


    ¡°Randalph. What do you think about this?¡±


    ¡°From the beginning I knew it was impossible to rescue everyone. We might have been able to deal with the trainees but when I saw some guards it became clear that they have too high of a lvl for us. Thankfully, our auras are as strong as ever but they wear equipment that provides them with high resistance against elemental-based magical attacks. One or two at once could be manageable but any more than this and they would simply overpower even 20 of us before we could do any real damage.¡±


    ¡°There is a way to protect yourself against auras? I didn''t know this...¡±


    ¡°Nearly every magical attack can be countered with the right means and it''s obvious that their gear has been chosen with our peculiar abilities in mind, though the effectiveness can vary a lot. Well, back to your question. I don''t like it but we have always been fighting by sacrificing ourselves over and over again. I won''t hinder anyone who volunteers...¡± (Randalph)


    Resistance against auras and a high lvl. Our task was impossible to begin with but I had failed to take these facts into account. It was a different world, though it''s rules weren''t completely unknown to me, it was still something I hadn''t been able to internalize into my way of thinking, yet. That had to change fast if I didn''t want to go under. Sadly, I had no secure tomb and myriads of servants that would allow me to safely learn everything I needed. We had to act fast. [Well, our objective isn''t to win against them anyway. It is just to stall for enough time so the others could escape.]


    It was never wrong to gather more information so I asked.


    ¡°What is the lvl of the guards supposed to be?¡±


    ¡°From what I''ve seen I would put them around lvl60. In their case they could survive inside the range of your aura for two minutes or longer before any real harm would be done to them.¡± (Randalph)


    ¡°Lvl60 would make them captain in most armies. That is as strong as I was, before coming here. You are telling me there are 50 of them? That''s going to be rough...¡± (Crence)


    ¡°Our objective still stands, though. There was no chance of winning a fight to begin with, we knew that already. Nothing really changed. Or do you have a suggestion on how to better our situation?¡±


    ¡°Not really, just that the group attacking the teleport-circle is done for. Have fun, Lucius.¡± Crence said that with a smirk on his face. Good for me I had already been prepared for him.


    ¡°Oh, I have to tell you that the group trying to leave by foot will be accompanied by you. No teleport for you. Just go already and run while I entertain the guards. There won''t be anyone left to notice you. You are only the back-up plan. The idea for that group came to me with specifically you in mind. I figured your character would know how to appreciate minor duties.¡±


    ¡°You bastard, I was starting to have some respect for you because you''d willingly storm the enemy place to let us escape. So you won''t let Aoi go with you but you''d sacrifice me without a second thought?¡±


    Joking around with a comrade before a violent fight to lessen the stress. Who would have thought that I would ever do this? Harassing him was fun but we began to waste time. [Though I had started it...


    How should I answer him?]


    If I were a side-character in an anime about clapping your hands and getting shot by homunculi I would have now tried to overact the situation by saying something like ''I don''t want to be the only one left after this. Keep me company!''. The reality was much harsher, though. Even without the ability to use an aura, Crence''s skills were just too valuable to leave him without a task. I wasn''t able to find an exit but he could.


    Before I was able to say something serious to him he stopped with his act and shrugged his shoulders.


    ¡°I guess I''ll go with that group then.¡±


    Just like this. [You already knew it would be like this, didn''t you?]


    With this our planing was concluded and we started to aggressively free the prisoners and capture demon trainees on this side of the lava-stream. Randalph positioned some ''Children'' at the bridge to cover our backs and also stop any demons that might have been able to slip through our grasp while we were doing our work. It wasn''t really hard. With the element of surprise we were able to use the same method as always: getting close unnoticed and then activating a fiery prison for them. Cavern for cavern we cleaned up that way until we reached the second last one.


    Brensek''s information was wrong. A guard was there with 3 younger demons. From afar we could hear him scolding the trainees for some kind of mistake. Demons came in all forms and varieties. This one was more than two metres tall, had red skin and a set of barbed antlers. I could imagine that if he used them in battle they would have a similar effect as a saw. His upper body was clad in an armour with excessively long shoulder-plates, below it a leather tunic that would stretch over his inwardly-bent knees. On his back, a two-hander.


    Was this a chance? Absolutely! Randalph and I were together with nine other ''Children''. After he motioned us his desire to attack and confirmed it with me, we readied ourselves. Reaching their position in a sneak attack was impossible, it was one straight line of 40 to 45 metres towards the end of the cavern. Eleven of us faced of against the elite guard with each ''Child'' on top of two demons. In a crescent formation we stepped into their line of sight and moved towards them.


    The bloodlust in our eyes was enough to tell the guard everything he needed to assess the situation in a heartbeat. He reacted immediately and barked out an order to the three trainees.


    ¡°You three, form up a line! On my command, fireball!¡± It took the three a couple of seconds to react but they followed his words .


    Randalph let out orders of himself.


    ¡°Demons, if you want to live, counter those spells! Fillion, a ''Defiance-Aura''! Support the demons! Move steadily forward until we are in range for an offensive aura.¡±


    ¡°Fire!¡±


    Upon this, the rookies performed sweeping arm movements as if they were throwing rocks, while the guard put his two arms above his head, drew a circular arc away from his body and ended the exercise when both of his palms where stretched out in front of his breast. With this, three small fireballs and an excessively large one were aimed at our direction. In the middle of it''s path the large fireball had to split off in six smaller ones, of all things and for a moment I understood why cluster bombs had been banned by the Geneva Convention. Panic could be seen from our demonic mounts but they still frantically fulfilled their task.


    Each one of them had a different understanding of how to counter a fireball. Five let out fireballs of their own, while three others used something akin to an incredibly piercing jet of water. One even erected a wall out of earth. The most impressive one simply held out his finger and a barrage of small explosions appeared at the spot where he pointed towards.


    Even then it was barely enough to counter the six smaller fractions of the fireball which had been cast by the guard. Although they were hit by multiple other spells during their flight, they didn''t completely vanish and where about to hit us. I could already feel the heat as the fiery death drew closer but some ten metres in front of our position they were suddenly clad in a white bluish light and began to disperse. Only small bits of flames were able to reach us in the end to inflict minor wounds.


    ¡°Lucius, good work with the ''Sanctuary-Aura''! Keep it up and lets move forward before he can cast another one!¡±


    He said it himself. It was a defensive aura of the highest grade. Instinctively, I understood that we would need the best defence possible against this kind of attack. After Randalph had explained to me the nature of an aura I realized what he meant, when he was talking about me using a ''Sanctuary-Aura'' unconsciously. Somehow or the other it had a similar sensation to the time when I realized that physical pain means actually nothing in the face of true agony. Feeling my own Mana-pool and turning it into a mirror was something I was not able to do. But if the same effect could be created by recalling this sensation, I was more than content with it at the moment.


    The guard snarled at us and showed his teeth. After this first violent greeting a fierce fire-fight broke out with magical spells and counter-spells. We didn''t only concentrate on defence. Surprisingly, some demons fired off their attacks at what were supposed to be their allies. [Areti wasn''t lying when she said that one guard could keep dozens of trainees in check] He handled the countering of our spells completely by himself, calmly covered for his trainees, gave out orders for targeting, and shot magical attacks of his own towards us. Despite his appearance he wasn''t a beast, but a trained soldier. In one word: it was incredible. When he failed to counter an attack he was still able to simply kick a small-sized magical projectile away or punch it with his hands, protected by gauntlets.


    Still, our formation steadily approached them in a way that three men would move up, while the rest covered for them. then the next three and so on. We had already closed half of the distance.


    This is when the red-skinned guard suddenly let out a shout: ¡°Defend!¡± And began with the same movement as in the initial moments of the battle. He had obviously been waiting for us to draw closer so we wouldn''t have enough time to chip away at his fireball''s strength. His three rookies weren''t able to counter all of our spells and some hit the guard and managed to hurt him badly but he didn''t stop in his tracks.


    Fillion and another ''Child'' both spurred their demons to move faster so they would be in range for their auras to stop him from finishing his movement but they came too late. Another one of these excessively large and deadly balls of fire came out of his palms.


    Our two companions in their advanced position had no chance. Them and their four mounts were hit straight on and got shredded in the erupting explosion.


    Now I understood why they would still fight in a tight formation, despite the obvious destructive power of those attack spells. A close formation allows you to counter them easier. Would the wars on my old world look the same if such a formation allowed for protection against grenades, rockets and artillery fire?


    [Oh wait...they died and I''m calmly analyzing the situation. Well, not that it''s forever...]


    We lost two men but it was finally the time for us to seriously strike back, now that we were in position. The guard made a mistake by aiming at our two men in the front instead of the whole group. Randalph''s fiery aura was the first to give our four opponents it''s regards.


    I had thought the battle was now decided but the elite still didn''t give up. When he realized with wide eyes what was happening he clanked twice with his left arm''s bracer at his breast-plate and the stone embedded in it began to glow, signalizing the activation of some kind of defensive barrier for him and his three demons who were already visibly exhausted from casting all those spells.


    [Why didn''t he use that from the beginning?]


    The answer came in the form of Randalph''s next order.


    ¡°Varying offensive auras, now!¡±


    The ''Children'' abode by using auras of different elements. Fire, ice, and lightning auras hit the barrier in quick succession. However, only fire was held back and even then it wasn''t negated completely. Then, whenever a different element would hit, the guard would clank his bracer once, twice, or thrice to change the type of his barrier, but was hardly able to keep up with us. Like this, he was immobilized himself, could only defend and had to hand over the task of attacking to the three young ones after barking another order. This barrier only allowed for a defense full of holes. [So that is why he had waited with it until there was no other choice.]


    Backed into a corner, the three rookies were the first to die. Shocked and frozen they fell on their knees, their eyeballs had long been burst.


    The reaction of the guard was truly astounding, though. In the face of a superior enemy he didn''t give up. When the three demons fell and the stone in his bracelet crumbled into pieces he gripped his weapon and charged boldly forward. With billows of smoke following his movements he ran towards another human as he burned to death. In his last rise, the already burning demon let out a dreadful shout and performed the miracle of an incredibly fast swing that cut through both, the ''Child'' and one of his slowly reacting mounts. They could have survived it the other demon-mount wouldn''t have panicked and abandoned them in his desperation.


    The fight was finally over. We had lost three men and five demons, although we were 33 against four.


    [How long will my group be able to hold out against dozens of those guards? So this is a high lvl opponent with superior gear...]


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°He never gave up. Rather disciplined.¡± (Lucius)


    ¡°We had luck. Despite his high lvl it seems he wasn''t really experienced. If I were him I would have cast three or four of those splitting fireballs in the beginning without any break to crush us. I also wouldn''t have covered the three rookies for that long. He probably counted on their support instead of realizing how little difference they made in this fight. The moment we were in range for the offensive auras he should have abandoned them and simply rushed towards us with his two-hander. However, they have their drills down, that much credit you have to give them.¡± (Randalph)


    ¡°We still lost three men.¡± If you counted the demons, too, the number of casualties rose to eight.


    ¡°Well, he had the superior firepower and the advantage in terrain. We had to attack without cover, so I''d say it was within expectations. Rather, we only lost three men. Though the number could have been lower if our demons had attacked him with more vigour. The second splitting fireball could have been avoided...¡±


    I inspected the remains of the demon, he was burned beyond recognition and his armour was badly damaged.


    ¡°Can we use some of his gear? He has another bracelet.¡±


    ¡°Yes, it''s really another one. The idiot used his first one too excessively. Usually you''d only put a barrier around yourself. Then the Mana-stone could hold out longer. You should take it, Lucius. You''ll definitely need it.¡±


    ¡°It works by clanking it to a metallic object?¡±


    ¡°No, see those runes here? Just draw them in the air with a finger to cast the respective barrier. It takes longer than clanking, so the guard didn''t use it. This rune is for fire, this one for water. However, it can''t fend of against lightning. Still, a high grade object. Normal soldiers wouldn''t wear such a thing.¡±


    I somehow expected him to give me another snarky remark at my question, just like he did when I was asking about auras. It was a pleasant change of pace but I suspected a certain reason for it.


    ¡°How much did Aoi and Crence tell you about me? Where I come from, specifically.¡±


    He realized what gave him away and had to smile wryly at that.


    ¡°Honestly, I can''t believe it. Regardless, it seems you believe it, so I''ll simply take it as it is. It wouldn''t be the first time I had to deal with insane people. If that insanity was the reason why you could free us, then I''ll take it as a blessing.¡±


    [Those two windbags will get a scolding later...] The only answer he got from me at that was an honest laughter. I had no desire to further discuss the topic, nor was there a need for it at the moment. That is why I moved back to the equipment of the elite guard.


    ¡°What''s with the armour and his weapon?¡±


    ¡°Too heavy to carry for us in our situation. A real shame...the carvings in it indicate that the wearer could replenish his personal Mana with the one outside of his body. So this is why he could fire off so many spells...it deformed anyway so there''s no use in crying over spilt milk.¡±


    The fight was a disillusioning experience altogether and showed me clearly what to expect in the upcoming confrontation.


    Notwithstanding, this engagement taught me a lot. We lacked long-range attacks and had to use our demons to cover for us, who were barely able to hold out. Melee was out of the question, either. With the intelligent use of our auras, however, we were able to overcome a high lvl opponent, despite our shortcomings. Mid-range is where we excelled during this combat. [If we had the strength to fight in close combat situations and a strong armour to keep us alive longer, it would enable for the full use of our auras. Bring in a possibility that allows to hastily approach the enemy even under a barrage of magical attacks...then the ''Children of the Dawn'' would turn into a truly fearsome force to be reckoned with...]


    Without taking the fight against the elite guard into account only one other ''Child'' died during the operation and had to revive, while 7 demons fought back and had to be killed, three others were injured to a degree that they couldn''t move any longer. Altogether, we were now 73 humans and 89 demons. The squad at the bridge alone, caught 26 trainees. Freeing the prisoners from the chain still took some time but they were wide awake. A ''Sanctuary-Aura'' had to be simply activated for their sake to dispell the curse and they were immediately ready to be carried away.


    73 humans against 900 trainees and 49 elite guards. Matters were complicated further by the fact that not everybody had the ability to use offensive auras. After counting, the final number of attackers amounted to 64, which was still high, according to Randalph.


    What impressed me a lot was the fact that all 70 ''Children'' (including Randalph) volunteered for either suicide mission after the situation had been explained to them. Self-sacrifice was something none of them feared. If you counted Aoi, Crence and myself in, then every one of us was ready to give himself or herself up to allow the others to flee. [Just what kind of a community did I become a part of?]


    After two hours of rest, it was finally time for our main attack.


    -------


    Location: The not so secluded vantage point above the main cavern.


    A young demon, maybe around the age of 14, was there together with a female representative of his species. Of course, his only intentions right now were to sweet-talk himself into her pants. He had asked her out with the promise to show the lady a wonderful view and a picnic. Unbeknownst to her, he even prepared a love potion to smoothen the process.


    The training in this facility was rather hard and he was already close to the end of his time here. In his opinion he had earned himself some fun to alleviate the accumulated stress. There was still another day left to reach his desired goal of lvl 20. In two months he would have attained adulthood and was already strong enough to be considered for the position of a petty officer.


    The plan was in it''s final stages, the love potion had been secretly administered long ago; his pubertal instincts were at their maximum and ready to take over.


    This is when something unexpected happened. From what the adolescent could gather some other trainees barged in from the other side of the cavern and produced a commotion. Not long after, the sound of a horn could be heard. He didn''t know it''s meaning but the fearsome guards obviously did. They gathered and quickly left in the direction of the garrison, which only resulted in further agitating the situation.


    By now all rookies had stopped to find out what was happening. The girl on the lecherous boy''s side began to show more interest in the situation than in her date. She looked over the 50m high cliff and shouted down.


    ¡°Oiiii! What is going on there?¡±


    Someone was kind enough to not let her out of the loop and answered back.


    ¡°Some humans escaped and are now attacking the settlement!¡±


    The female was all ears at that, her lust completely gone. Not even the potion was able to bewitch her any longer. Their position allowed them to overlook the whole cavern and they saw that a number of young trainees had already left for the settlement and many more were just setting off in that direction.


    She grabbed the shoulder of the boy that suddenly appeared a lot less attractive and spoke to him.


    ¡°Ne, ne...should we also go to the settlement and watch? It''s bound to be interesting!¡±


    The boy, worrying that his quality time might be cut short, was quickly rebooting his brain that was sent into  snooze mode. Searching for an answer that would sound convincing and could prevent the girl from leaving, he began to think.


    In this facility the only real harm to the body ever came from the guards and the occasional dispute with another trainee, but basically it was a very safe place to be in.


    ¡°Don''t! Stay here. Mingling in the guards business is never a good idea. We might see something that we could regret and there has been no order for us to mobilize, too. See those hundred or so that are staying back to train? These are the smart ones who know that nothing good ever comes out if you stick your nose into things that do not concern you.¡±


    He waved his hand over the people that stayed back and made an approving gesture.


    Certainly, the boy''s thinking wasn''t wrong. You could even see some kind of intelligence in them. Granting all this, no five minutes later his words would be proven fatal, though.


    From the entrance, opposite to the one leading towards the settlement, a stampede of particularly weird figures appeared.


    Humans, carried by demons as if they were riders. Unparalleled consternation was reflected on the faces of their unlikely mounts. With tears and screams accompanying their charge, they stormed into the crowd of confused young recruits. His pubertal instincts were blown away by this sight and a more primordial one took over. The will to stay alive. Behind them some sounds could be heard.


    ¡°This must be the vantage point that the Captain has spoken about.¡±


    ¡°Someone''s there. Clear them out!¡±


    Leaving the girl behind the boy''s head was only filled with the thought of fleeing from all of this. In his helplessness, and because of the lack of escape routes the only thing that he could come up with was to climb down the steep cliff. He heard his date begging for her life but paid it no mind, worrying for his own survival only.


    ¡°Someone climbed down! Throw rocks at him!¡±


    Hearing such a thing, the near-adult doubled his already frantic pace and lost his balance. In this short moment, where weightlessness would soon merge into gravity, he vaguely noticed that for the first time the shadowy play on the walls would display the death of demons.


    -------


    Randalph''s POV


    I saw the idiotic demon that thought it was a good idea to climb off the cliff, violently rolling down and landing on the ground. There were no motions from his body to be seen.


    The attack itself was a success until now. I had moved the main camp close to the bridge, positioned another team to watch out for our escape route, and sent a third team up to the vantage point so they could tell us about how the situation looked from up top.


    The team at the vantage point gave a sign that everything was secured, a finger was held up high to tell me that they had one captive.


    [Good. They followed my order to capture them alive if possible.]


    We went on with our attack. The demons were more or less caught off guard by our assault. There was no telling what drove them to stay back and blindly follow their training, despite the case of an emergency. [Was it the greed for an extra ounce of experience?]


    My tactic was rather simple. Every possible advantage was on our side. The enemy was unprepared, unorganized, not in any kind of formation, and was slightly fewer in numbers. Our wedge formation split them into two groups, one consisting of a third of the demons and the other one of the rest.


    There was practically no resistance at all when we took care of the smaller group. All they could see was a fiery wall that came closer and we drove them like cattle with whooping cries against the end of the cavern and into their death.


    The tactic itself wasn''t all that important. It was just something I came up with in the spur of the moment. The important part of the assault was to present the enemy the steadfast and spirited approach of a closed formation. Such a sight should induce them with enough panic to not put up any resistance and that was my aim.


    Lucius did a wonderful job. All the guards and most demons had been enticed away. I couldn''t believe my ears when he proposed the plan earlier, allowing the rescue of Godmother. Certainly, his actions do have a logical basis, but they only supplement his reasoning. He is mainly driven by his ideals.


    That thing where he came back from the scouting trip with his limbs cut off made it absolutely clear. After that I couldn''t possibly tell him that I simply killed my demon to get back as fast as possible, hence I would risk a serious rift between us. Such a useless debate couldn''t be afforded at this time. [Well, it wasn''t a lie that he attacked me. He just did it after realizing what I was up to...]


    It would be also good if he never found out that I killed five demons before the attack to set an example and heighten the morale of the other captives. If my suspicion about him is right, and he was really able to feel the presence of Godmother, then I have probably already sealed my demise. Still, if I could save anybody by sacrificing all of our demons, I''d do it in a heartbeat.


    But I don''t despise this new ''Child''. Admiration, I believe, is what I actually feel for him. His actions aren''t the result of a na?ve kindness like the one you could find inside a man who has never seen any true horror. Instead of kindness, he has morals which he upholds in an ironclad fashion, even if it hurts himself. Yes, he was simply a better man than me.


    [Our ground has chosen...]


    The first third of the demons wasn''t completely annihilated yet, but most of them had serious injuries and none had the will to fight. For a moment only, I humoured the thought of making no prisoners here to break the morale of the bigger group which had started to organize a weak resistance, but decided against it.


    Closing their door to life would have only motivated them to seriously fight back.


    I detailed two ''Children'' to keep an eye out on those injured trainees and made my way towards the other side of the cavern where the confrontation was still going on.


    The two groups didn''t really engage each other. We had split of a portion of our men with the task to  stall for time until we defeated the smaller pack of demons. From time to time some spells came flying through the air that were mostly blocked by our defensive auras. During the fight against the elite guard only Lucius'' aura was able to give some kind of protection. Against these weak spells a ''Defiance-Aura'' was more than enough. Though, with Aoi and her ''Sanctuary-Aura'' present we had absolutely nothing to worry.


    Still, I didn''t like what I found. Content with their position, none of our demons were actually shooting out any attack magic. [It might be time to negotiate. We have no time for a prolonged fight.]


    I went forward into the first line and let out a shout.


    ¡°Demons! Ground your weapons and live! You have ten seconds! Otherwise we will begin with our attack.¡±


    It was useless to say anything else. A group that lacked any structure or representative was best pushed into a mass hysteria as a whole by proclaiming an ultimatum. They might also mistake the lack of attack spells coming from our side as a calculated act of mercy that would soon find it''s end.


    A couple of demons began to study the reactions of their comrades, some to seek out advice through sharing gazes, others to see if they weren''t the only ones willing to give up. I had no patience for this.


    ¡°Ten! Nine! Eight! ''Children'', ready yourselves! On the count of five, activate the offensive ''Aura of the blazing Sun''! Demons on our side, on the count of one, a barrage of magical attacks. After that you will move up in an orderly fashion! Comply and live!¡±


    A visible shock went through our opponents. Movement could be seen, some demons tried to get behind others, a first weapon was thrown on the ground.


    ¡°Seven! Six! Five!¡±


    It is an impressive sight if a space of 15 metres in front of a line of men suddenly begins to exude fire out of nothing. It is even more impressive if those people are not harmed by it in the least but the opponent would begin to imagine what would happen if they came in contact with that fire.


    68 demons surrendered in that instance.


    After this, they were searched for Mana-Stones and other helpful items. Altogether, we were now in possession of five of those precious marbles. [That should be enough to teleport a hundred of us out.]


    Ten trainees were tasked with freeing our leader as fast as possible. The attack had only happened eight minutes ago and we were already able to proceed with the most crucial part of our plan.


    Positioning a lookout at the main path to warn us if anything happened, I began to worry about the situation in the settlement. How long would they be able to stall for time? Ten minutes? Fifteen?


    The more time went past, the greater my anxiety became. Freeing Godmother took nearly half an hour. Just when the last bit of her skin was unshackled from the chain, a messenger riding on two demons arrived. Those who couldn''t fight were left at the camp to observe the reviving spots of the ''Children'' with the two diversionary teams. Like this, we would have been able to immediately know it if those groups had been defeated, and the messenger''s duty was to inform us of this.


    [We were able to free her just in the nick of time...]


    ¡°Captain Randalph!¡±


    ¡°Speak! Have they finally been defeated?¡±


    ¡°A message from the attack team has arrived. Lucius Faber sends his greetings. He has laid waste to the enemy settlement and is currently engaged in a fight with the remnants of the guards.¡±


    [He did what?]


    Then the whisper of a female voice reached my ears.


    ¡°Randalph...explain the situation to me. Also, who is Lucius Faber?¡±


    The messenger and I reacted at the same time. Both of us went down on a knee. The greeting we had longed to say, was finally allowed to leave our lips.


    ¡°I am yours to command, Godmother.¡±


    -------


    Location: Original Demon Continent


    The route from the embassy to the underground dungeon was rather roundabout. If one wanted to take this visit upon him, he had to first use a teleport-circle to transport on the original demon continent, go by carriage for three days, and then you had to enter a specially made circle that would connect to the one in the main hall of the settlement.


    All this had to be done in order to prevent the accidental discovery of the prison, if the embassy was ever invaded.


    Entering this special circle was accompanied by many inconvenient bureaucratic formalities. However, for his personal use Lord Bagrat had installed a private teleport-circle that would lead directly to his mansion in the settlement, situated beneath the surface.


    His entourage counted 20 ceremonial guards and his aide, Nertiri. It was the usual amount of soldiers he took with him on official inspections, adhering to the credo that a sufficient number of visitors would always have the right effect on the inspected.


    With a glass of fine wine in his hand he gave the order for the first ten men to teleport over. It was a standard measurement. They would inform the servants on the other side of the lord''s arrival so they could prepare for everything.


    Going by protocol, he waited five minutes and entered the circle himself.


    When the black demon left the magical portal on the other side he couldn''t believe his eyes. The ceremonial guards were in an uproar and shouting violently orders at each other, confused as to what the next course of action should be. From somewhere outside, the familiar sound of multiple attack spells buzzing through the air could be heard.


    Lord Bagrat Ver ''do San slowly left the teleportation chamber and went to a balcony. From there he had a good view over the garrison and the whole settlement. It was a complete war zone. The garrison was gone, half of the buildings were burning, and dead demons were lying around in the streets. Those weren''t just nameless peasants but the offspring of aristocrats and civil servants. Explaining this debacle would be hard.


    He gripped one of his ceremonial guard''s neck with a muscular arm, held his face down towards the floor and used enough force to nearly break it. His usual elegance gone, he said with a voice that barely contained his anger.


    ¡°What, in the empire''s might, has happened?¡±


    ¡°W-we are under the attack of human prisoners, Milord!¡±


    ¡°Then stop shaming the empire any further and lets begin to collect their heads.¡±


    End of Chapter 13


    Afterwords: You can''t imagine how often I accidentally wrote ¡°Paladin Lucius sends his greetings.¡±? Damn! I, myself can''t wait for the moment when I can finally use this line.


    I also hope some of you got goosebumps at Lucius''s thought of what the ''Children of the Dawn'' might become if you clad them in full body armour and give them close combat skills...


    Question: Could anyone tell me the right english term for the leather part of the elite guards armour? I couldn''t find anything, despite searching for 20 minutes. Initially it wasn''t supposed to be a tunic but some kind of skirt with metallic plates on it, somewhat resembling a scottish kilt.


    Before anybody asks. They do not need to sleep, yet. Only Aoi took a nap. She was the one who was freed from the chain the longest and didn''t revive for quite some time.

 Chapter 14 - Why guard duty should be taken seriously

    Chapter 14 ¨C Why guard duty should be taken seriously


    Lucius''s POV


    There it was, our target. A settlement beneath the surface in a gigantic cavern. It had a distinctive beauty to it. On the one side, it was an installation with functionality in mind. The largest buildings were hewn in stone at the edge of the hollow. The rest of the structures would narrowly follow like a cascade towards a plaza in the middle of the village. The four main roads would lead right towards it and would bring every visitor inadvertently in front of a massive black obelisk with carvings in it.


    Areti told me that obelisks such as these represented the emperor and the different carvings were blessings and greetings from his people towards him. If one entered the settlement for the first time it was custom to go there and recite one of these blessing while infusing some Mana into the respective lettering, which would then start to glow.


    The function was obvious: the exhibition of the imperial might. However, such an ever-present display of power would have soon had the reverse effect on the minds of the people and thus the obelisk was encircled by stony imitations of trees with glowing marbles representing fruits in it. That gave the act of bowing towards and greeting a lifeless stone a somewhat mythical nuance.


    Not only this, but over the years a lot of influential people stayed and trained in here. Even if it had always been only for a short while, many aristocrats remembered their time here dearly and donated either statues or commissioned engravings into the building''s walls. It was probably the most beautiful village I ever saw in my life.


    [Hmmm...how should I best burn it down?]


    Basically, my plan was to set fire at multiple locations in an attempt to produce as much of a commotion as possible. We then would wait in ambush for the guards who would rush to the scene. The deal I had made with the demons was to set them free after we were in our respective positions.


    On my way here I had made a list of hard and soft targets in the village. From various books I knew that attacking a city required a set of targets. In this occasion hard targets would be the barracks and the teleportation-hall. [ What would a soft target be...]


    Right now we were hidden behind stalagmites. 18 humans and 33 mounts. On our way here we didn''t try to hide, though I sent two people out ahead to warn us of any enemies. Five trainees had the misfortune of crossing our path, which we defeated in the time it took for our auras to reach them. That is, in an instant.


    Being so close to the edge of the village, I couldn''t help but notice a peculiarity. The building with the teleport-circle was quite close to us. It had three floors with one big balcony and was one of the largest buildings with it''s back going over into the cavern''s wall. Two guards were at the entrance in front and one trainee was just leaving, heading right for our direction.


    ¡°Hmm...¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± (Brensek)


    ¡°We are going to ask that demon for some informations about the inside of the hall. Areti, you are going to stay on the road, while we hide here. Try to get some informations out of him but do not fight.¡±


    ¡°Me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you.¡± She shouldn''t have already forgotten that her only option was full cooperation with us, so I wasn''t too concerned with giving her such a task. I didn''t want to fight and risk exposure, hence such a way was chosen.


    As he came closer Areti changed her posture from a little arrogant noble into that of a frightened girl. It was amazing that she had enough courage to walk like this when she was merely a captive. With a somewhat shaken voice she greeted him.


    ¡°H-hello! You just came out of the teleport-hall, didn''t you? C-could you tell me if the guard with a scar instead of an eye was in there?¡±


    She played her role well. There was no hint that the young trainee noticed the 50 people hiding behind the massive amount of stalagmites. Still, I never let go of her sight, searching for any kind of treacherous signs in her behaviour. If there were any, I was not able to see them.


    ¡°Greetings! The guard with the scar? Why would you want to know that?¡±


    Areti, looking down and touching her elbow with the other hand went on with spinning her tale.


    ¡°Please don''t laugh, but when I first teleported here I accidentally gave him some orders, not knowing that they would only follow the emperor''s chosen, the black demons. I made him really angry...¡±


    ¡°Let me guess, you want to teleport out but are too fearful of another encouter with him. Is that why you asked? Ha! Don''t worry, he''s not in there.¡±


    The young demon''s face showed amusement over what seemed to be a fun display of weakness combined with a little bit of cuteness. She caught on to it and brought an index finger to her lips, even letting out a small tear.


    ¡°A-are there any other guards in there?¡±


    ¡°Hahaha....you don''t have to cry. I only saw the two guards at the entrance and a receptionist in the main hall. You don''t have to be so fearful. But say...if I am not mistaken that crest on your shoulder belongs to the house Sa ''Wa. Since when are they so whiny?¡± [Considering it''s importance as the only life-line of the settlement, it''s rather lightly guarded...]


    Areti immediately dropped her act after hearing this, the look in her eyes changed. It was the same kind of look she had when she was about to kill the baroness. I knew what was going to happen. Just like with me, she used her tail to impale his heart. To the surprised boy she only had to say one thing.


    ¡°Never let your guard down around a Sa ''Wa!¡± [Something I''ll keep in mind...]


    When I came out she preemptively apologized.


    ¡°He knew who I was.¡± Then she ripped the insignia of her house off. The other demons, witnessing her actions did the same, not even one commenting her murder. I didn''t had the time to reprimand her either. It seems her modus operandi was getting results through defiance and I wouldn''t waste my energy on a demon with which I would part ways in the next hour, anyway.


    Instead, I addressed her and Nrewen. The hall seemed to be a much easier target than initially thought.


    ¡°How does a teleport-circle work? Is it a one-way-type of transportation or can you summon something with it, too?¡±


    ¡°Summon? Not exactly. Just for a moment such a circle turns you aetherical and then gives you enough of a boost to instantly catapult you to the other side of the world, if necessary.¡±


    ¡°Aetherical? Very impressive.¡±


    The possibility to make things go through walls. That was truly remarkable in my eyes. Nrewen and Areti, on the other hand side were a little startled over my remark. I got the distinct feeling that I said something ignorant, though they were to fearful of me to say anything about it. They knew about our difference in power and most likely regarded me as a tyrant who didn''t want to hear any differing opinions.


    ¡°It will be worse if you keep things hidden from me when I say something wrong.¡±


    For a moment, Nrewen looked at the ground, unsure whether he should answer but he still mustered his courage and said.


    ¡°Turning something aetherical isn''t what is impressive about them. Even I can do that. The impressive part lies in the mathematical equations used to determine the desired destination. You don''t want to suddenly become solid inside a mountain again.¡±


    ¡°Or you might be sent into the ocean without anybody ever seeing you again. There were a lot of such stories when the first teleportation-circles were made without proper knowledge of coordinates.¡± (Areti)


    ¡°Yes, when my father set up a circle inside our mansion we had to calibrate it for two months, sending aetherical packages through it, until we had the first successful transport.¡±


    Somehow or the other, their means of transportation seemed like it was closer to a certain sci-fi series, than a fantasy world. One other question wasn''t answered yet, though.


    ¡°Why is there a need for another teleport-circle then? Couldn''t you just use the coordinates of a known location to exactly teleport without a circle?¡±


    ¡°How would you be able to pinpoint such an exact location? The necessary equations would be incredibly complicated. A circle functions as a beacon that pulls aetherical beings towards it, as well as a starting point.¡±


    [So their problems lie in determining the exact coordinates. Something that isn''t impressive for someone from my world, at all.] When I was talking to Aoi or Crence there was no need to hide my lack of knowledge. I could trust them and there were no real detriments in showing it. From now on I should be more careful about such remarks, though. It would be wiser to keep my ignorance regarding this world hidden.


    It''s more like high-speed movement instead of teleportation. When I heard teleportation, I thought it was something like ripping space apart and stepping through a dimensional rift to come out at the desired location...


    ¡°I have two last questions. Answer this one first. Will a circle attract all kinds of aetherical beings and give substance to them?¡±


    ¡°Yes. But there is a certain insignia that defines the maximum distance to 50 metres. Otherwise you might attract spirits and ghosts.¡±


    [50 metres. It is shorter than I had hoped for...] My plan to set fire was bad at best. The buildings were out of stone and chances were high that we would be discovered too soon. There might be another way, though.


    [If they have no shields I should simply teleport a photon torpedo onto their bridge.]


    ¡°This insignia...can you erase it so that it would pull aetherical beings from a wider range towards it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but why would you need that?¡±


    ¡°For something special...¡±


    Anxiously waiting for an answer, Nrewen followed the path of my eyes and saw what I was looking at. They widened in realization and he stuttered with a fearful tone.


    ¡°A-are you going to ask me t-to make lava aetherical?¡±


    ¡°Exactly! Change of plans, folks. We are not going to set fire in different locations. Instead, we are going to take over the teleport-hall and then redecorate it with a lava-stream. This should be better than anything we could do. Demons, you are free to leave after this.¡±


    Out of the 33 demons present, four (including Nrewen) were able to use the required spell ''Whisper of the Aether''. Those were the lucky ones who were too valuable to use in direct combat.


    ¡°Alright! Brensek, take five men and ten demons with you and get as close to the hall as possible. Then become aetherical and teleport inside. I will lead the frontal assault and attack from the outside at the same time. This should overwhelm the guards quickly enough. You two...¡± I motioned two other ''Children''. ¡°...After we were able to secure the building, you will take the four demons who can use the ''Whisper of the Aether'' and go to a lava-stream...We also need a contingency plan. No matter what happens, if the four demons have any Mana left after turning the lava aetherical, you are to collapse as many passage-ways as possible. If we fail to take the teleport-hall, you will pour everything into this plan. After you''ve blocked the way, you''ll let the demons go and wait in ambush there to disrupt any attempts at clearing the way. If any of the guards miraculously know about an ambush you are free to tell them everything about your four friends here.¡±


    Atleast one of the four demons was able to use earth magic, so much I verified during the attack on the guard earlier. It might buy Randalph''s group some precious minutes, though I saw how destructive the guard''s magic could be and didn''t cling to any delusions on how long a collapsed ceiling would stop them. I also had to let go of my trusted mount, Nrewen. Before this, I confirmed that another demon knew which part of the circle had to be destroyed. He would also stay in the second line during the attack.


    ¡°Any questions before we attack?¡±


    ¡°Why aren''t we simply concentrating on destroying all the corridors?¡± (Nrewen)


    ¡°Nobody asked you, demon!¡± Brensek came closer and gave him a blow to the head.


    Initially, I also had the same thought as Nrewen. However, using such a tactic would tell the guards that we were trying to buy time. Our aim was to focus all of their attention here and entice them into leaving the main cavern alone. There was also no telling how many other unknown routes exited, so we could suddenly be in a position where we would be attacked from behind. Lastly, I simply had no confidence that our demons could destroy the corridors faster than the guards could clear them out. No! We had to act aggressive in order to fool them.


    ¡°He''s right. Nobody asked you! Alright then, let''s move out!¡±


    ¡°¡±¡±Understood.¡±¡±¡±


    It''s really wondrous how the ''Children'' agreed to my taking command, despite my lack of experience. A high wisdom stat seemed to hold that much of an authority to them. On the other hand side I made it to Randalph unmistakably clear that this was my operation and some might say that I coerced him into going through with it. However, I only took volunteers and they all agreed to my command.


    The dungeons interior, plastered with stalagmites and stalactites, as well as the location of the teleport-hall at the edge of the settlement,  really proved to be working in our favour and allowed for a rather covert approach. It was akin to walking through a dense forest. We waited for Brensek and his men to turn aetherical and disappear in a flash. It really resembled the way Gene Roddenberry imagined it. Turning transparent first, then disappearing with some glitter.


    At the same time 10 humans and 19 demons went calmly forward out into the open. Us humans were covered in cloth. Though we were obviously a suspicious group, the guards did not immediately attack us, though still readied their halberds. Furthermore, the sound of fighting could suddenly be heard from inside and they were at a loss on how to react for a moment. When they were about to move inside and protect the more important circle, I gave the order to fire a volley of magical attacks to the idiots who would turn their back towards us and storming forward with the prepared battle-cries leaving our throats.


    ¡°To the teleport-circle! It''s our only chance of escape!¡±


    The prior fight against the single guard showed me how to gain victory against them. Neither desperate, nor heroic actions were necessary. What was needed was a calm and steadfast, but aggressive approach. Randalph told me that such a tactic would force the enemy to fall back on their trained patterns and didn''t let them enough time to come up with anything else. Like this, their behaviour in combat became predictable to a certain degree and you could prepare for it. He called it the importance of taking the initiative.


    So far, so good. The problem lied in the fact that their trained reactions were incredibly well. My force consisted of pretty much the same number of people as in the fight before, when one guard was enough to cope with all of the demon''s attacks.


    One of them erected a five metre high earthen wall as cover. From behind this barricade two fiery beams came out left and right, probably the attack of the other guard, and both bent in mid-air to aim directly for me.


    [It took them only a glance to distinguish the leader. If that''s the case, then...]


    ¡°Concentrate all your efforts on attacking! Do not defend me!¡± I took the comment of Randalph to heart, when he said that a more spirited attack by the demons would have prevented the second splitting fireball. We would occupy them until Brensek would hit them from behind.


    I was more than ready to sacrifice myself here. Everything was already set in motion and I wouldn''t really be needed any longer.


    ¡°I can deal with their attacks by myself!¡±


    Actually I couldn''t, but I hoped my blatant lie would coerce the demon, whose field of vision was obstructed by their own wall, into another attack aimed at me, thus buying the others more time to get close and use their auras.


    To Areti and my other mount I whispered.


    ¡°Throw me off and get out of here. You''ve earned your freedom.¡±


    Understanding what I meant, she didn''t abide at all. Instead she threw some kind of glassy ball that shattered into glimmering dust which functioned as a deflective barrier of some sort, bending the two beams once again towards a path slightly above the demon''s heads. The other mount created a tiny ramp in front of us that led into the ground. It wasn''t much, only 50cm at most, but the combination of their efforts barely allowed for our survival. Even then the heat was fierce enough to leave a burning mark on my bald head. I felt blood flowing down into an eye.


    ¡°If we had thrown you off just now the other humans would have killed us.¡±


    [Right...]


    ¡°Do you have more of those balls?¡±


    ¡°This was the only one.¡±


    Two other beams were already coming. This time, however, they bent completely upwards, began to uncontrollably spin and hit the ceiling 60 metres above. Brensek finally decided to interfere, as the sudden explosions behind the wall indicated.


    ¡°Rip his barricade apart! You and you.¡± I motioned four ''Children''. ¡°Come in from the sides!¡±


    Concentrating fire on the wall would either force one demon to continuously renew it or ultimately break open a direct path towards them. In both instances we already won with Brensek behind them.


    ¡°Do you have magic that can be thrown over the wall like a stone? If so, use it now!¡±


    One demon took my words literally and forced a small boulder out of the floor that he tossed over the wall, while another one had an archaic type of grenade with him that he threw. The instance it flew to the other side the earthen blockade disappeared and we could see that one guard had created a hole in which the grenade landed and enclosed it. A small eruption could be felt throughout the floor.


    [Can''t you just give up already?]


    The two of them were simply defending at this point, hoping for the other guards to arrive soon. A clear mistake. Surrounded, already hurt from Brensek''s attack, and in range for offensive auras, they were already dead. It would just take them a couple of painful seconds longer to finally accept that fact. [This is the end for you.]


    As if to mock my thoughts a third guard, decoyed by the noise of battle, appeared on the balcony. [The intel was wrong...]


    ¡°Shoot the balcony, destroy his footing!¡±


    I should have ordered this from the start so as to drop it on the two guards below. Nevertheless, it had the desired effect and the rubble buried those two beneath it, though the third guard elegantly jumped on a not yet broken part of the balcony. Unfortunately for him, we also shot it without allowing him to take a break, so he frantically leapt to the next one but still gained a considerable speed through his efforts and got close to the entrance.


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    ¡°Block off his path with a volley!¡±


    More than 15 trainees were shooting at it from below in a massive salvo. Having his path cut off he simply began to jump from one falling piece of debris to another and ultimately pushed himself off the wall with his feet. Pivoting around his own axis, he drew a large arch away from it. His agility while wearing an armour was already astonishing but nothing new, considering the acrobatics that they showed during their defence against magical attacks. Granted, I never thought he would have the confidence to safely land from the 3rd floor.


    [If he so wanted...] Down here only death inside our auras waited for him. A demon was thoughtful enough to create sharp spikes at his presumed place of landing, which the guard immediately flattened again.


    Still, his end was decided. He knew it, too. Earlier he had already created a barrier around his body against the proprietors of fire magic, only blocking around 1/3rd of all spells. If I were in his position I would have used my last strength to shoot a final magical attack at my enemies. He, on the other hand side, brought a horn to his lips with his last action and blew it, telling everybody in the vicinity of the impeding emergency.


    [Not as if anybody in the settlement didn''t already notice the explosions.] When the fighting broke out, I had already seen a couple of demons sticking their heads out of the windows in the adjacent buildings, only to quickly hide themselves again after they realized what was going on.


    Still in mid-air, as the guard was hit by multiple spells, the tension of somebody who would land safely left his body. In the end he dropped like a sack with a nasty noise. One of the ''Children'' commented on it.


    ¡°Damn persistent! Their mastery of body strengthening techniques is really a pain.¡±


    [He really could have landed safely...]


    We had no time to admire them, though.


    ¡°Brensek, take your men and search the building for other guards. What about the receptionist?¡±


    ¡°Dead.¡±


    ¡°Good. Then go.¡±


    ¡°Fillion, take some demons and create pitfalls with earth magic in the vicinity. But don''t take too much time.¡±


    Then I pointed towards the trainee with knowledge about the insignia.


    ¡°And you...disable the circle''s safety mechanism!¡±


    The entrance to the building was cleared from the debris. Surprisingly, a guard was still somewhat alive. Despite his various wounds and broken bones his will to fight was not gone. Dazed and lying on the ground, he held the broken staff of his halberd and tried to keep us away. For a moment only I hesitated but then decided to use the ''Aura of the blazing Sun'' to give him his eternal rest. They were simply too dangerous to be kept alive, even in such a state.


    The teleport-circle was a five metre large installation on the ground. For the most part it depicted a pattern, which was embedded with gold that vaguely reminded me of an old nautical map from earth. Respectively, the gold had also elaborate carvings out of silver in it. Everything was encircled by another 10 cm broad golden ring.


    [This massive amount of riches was only guarded by three men?]


    The trainee knew where to look for the insignia and found it without further ado.


    ¡°We just have to destroy this ward here.¡±


    He pointed towards a scripture of about one metre in length in the outer ring.


    ¡°Do your work! As for the others, create a path with earth magic from the circle towards the entrance so as to guide the lava on to the main road. Hurry!¡±


    Every demon that had no task was ordered with silently creating a hole in the wall leading into an adjacent house, that would serve as our escape route. Sending three men and six trainees ahead to clear it from any occupants, I ordered them to prepare everything so we could make our last stand there.


    Brensek came down with his men. He was walking on his own two legs! In his hands he held a weapon. The staff was black with inscriptions out of obsidian. The blade itself had a detailed pattern cauterized in it. It''s appearance was completed by a spine and a spearhead. A halberd.


    He noticed my gaze and performed a swing through the air. I had once already witnessed a similar weapon. The black demon Bagrat Ver ''do San tortured me with an axe. That gave off the same ominous feeling.


    ¡°It seems you have found something interesting.¡±


    ¡°I found two interesting things. This one is for you.¡±


    From his belt was a flanged mace hanging. Swords, spears, bows...such things I had already seen in museums. Various martial arts and cultures have been formed around these weapons. However, none of them became a symbol of political power as much as the mace which evolved into a sceptre. The one that Brensek presented me with was not such a ceremonial one, though. It''s purpose was clearly visible. An 80cm long metallic shaft with a brutal looking head, made for smashing the enemy''s bones underneath a shield and armour; a tool for war. Areti was the first one to speak out.


    ¡°Cursed weapons...beautiful.¡±


    ¡°It''s even better than this. I can''t believe I''m holding such a thing in my hands. Not only is it a cursed weapon that would damage the opponent by adding magical attacks, but it has also a blessing. It''s as if I would use a body-strengthening technique. Whoever created this was a genius! I thought you could only ever have either a cursed or a blessed weapon but never a combination of both.¡±


    ¡°Is that so?¡±


    ¡°We obtained some blessed weapons from the elves during the war and questioned them about it...¡±


    I put out my hand for Brensek to lay the mace into it. The moment my palm touched the grip I felt the distinct sensation of strength. How could I explain it better than with the word ''enticing''? Holding it, trying out a swing...this weapon itself promised it''s bearer to serve well. A dangerous feeling, since you could easily get drunk on this power and overestimate yourself.


    Magical weapons... The one in my hand had nothing of the mythical radiance one would expect from such things if he, for example, heard of the legend of Excalibur. There were no fateful strings attached to it like becoming a king, no epiphany either. The man holding it would define this weapon, not the weapon it''s owner. Still, I was able to walk on my own legs, though somewhat shaky. There was a definite increase in my body''s strength but only to a degree where I could barely jump 30cm by my own. [Better than nothing...]


    On a hunch I ordered a demon to perform the spell that could display stats on me. The luminescent letters in the air confirmed my assumption.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''3''>Level:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Strength:</td><td width="25%">11</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Agility:</td><td width="25%">11</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Stamina:</td><td width="25%">12</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">14</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">124</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''3''>Mana:</td><td width="25%">1</td></tr></tbody></table>


    The weapon itself seemed to increase Strength, agility, and stamina by 10. [My stamina rose by a point again. Crence will be devastated]


    ¡°A body-strengthening technique will give you an increase in stats?¡±


    ¡°Not always. Some will also make your skin more resilient against natural attacks, though these are admittedly the most difficult ones. These weapons seem to grant you a minor rise in stats, which is exceptional in itself but nothing compared to a properly cast spell. Notwithstanding, this blessing will not lose it''s effect as long as you hold onto the mace.¡±


    Fillion barged in to interrupt our talks.


    ¡°A column of soldiers is coming! 30 men and counting. They will be here any minute now.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Demon, what of the insignia?¡±


    ¡°D-done!¡±


    Barely a second after he spoke those words a glowing mass appeared inside the circle and materialized into a constant lava-stream. Exuding great heat and toxic gases it took the prepared path out of the hall. Our work was done and we left into the next building.


    There I turned towards the demons. I had captured them against their will, basically used them as slaves. Finally standing on my own to feet and looking down on them, I realized how small they still were but there was no place for sympathy towards them inside of me.


    ¡°You are free.¡±


    My business with them was done. Not even waiting for their reactions I went upstairs to observe the situation. Our demons barged into the outside, running in a panic onto the road in the direction of the plaza straight towards the soldiers Fillion had spoken of.  Areti was smart enough to not follow their example and forced herself an entrance into a different house. 25 guards were coming in two columns with one officer in the front. Five others were organizing an improvised squadron of 50 to 60 trainees somewhere further behind. Numerous alarm sounds could be heard throughout the settlement.


    [That''s it, huh? Maybe I can negotiate and stall for some time this way.]


    As I was quietly watching this scene, something strange happened. Firstly, the guards stopped in their approach. Obviously irritated by the suddenly appearing lava, the officer ordered them to spread out and create a dike with magic. Secondly, motivated by the arriving guards some servants left their houses and frantically pointed towards our former mounts while yelling something. It seemed they wanted to warn the soldiers of a possible sneak attack from treacherous forces.


    The result was bloody. Without hesitation he ordered a barrage of magical attacks and forced the young trainees to flee right back towards us. Some tried to find security inside other houses but the officer was merciless and bombed every building they entered. If he decided to do the same with our position, we wouldn''t be able to hold out longer than a minute.


    Hurrying down I looked the returning remnants of the trainees into the eyes. Only half of them made it back, one or two began to cry, they had lost all hope. The demon who destroyed the ward was also with them, though his arm was uselessly hanging down due to injury and half of his left ear was missing.


    From my perspective I just regained extremely valuable resources.


    ¡°All right, Listen! The guards turned against you, however...there is still a chance for you. You will help us blast our way through the walls from house to house! They have not yet identified all of you and you might be able to abscond along the way.¡±


    Little other choice did they have, they immediately understood and followed my command. This is when suddenly a glowing blob of 30cm in diameter emerged out of thin air and fell on a ''Child'', as well as a demon in a fiery mass, killing both of them.


    ¡°Get moving! We can''t stand here any longer! Stay close to me and my ''Sanctuary-Aura''!¡±


    Forcing our way into the next building I witnessed another one of these blobs burning down a resident that didn''t belong to us. Initially, I had thought this was the doing of the guards, but glancing out of the window I caught sight of numerous such occurrences on the outside, too, starting fires everywhere. Even the guards were hit and had to defend themselves.


    Ordering everybody to stop, I turned towards the earless bastard of a demon.


    ¡°Why didn''t you tell me that the lava would start to materialize all over the place?¡±


    ¡°I-I didn''t know! T-The circle must''ve been damaged by the lava and now went out of control. There is no other explanation.¡±


    Looking outside again, the guards were in serious trouble, collecting their dead and wounded after an enormous mass of lava had materialized itself over their heads. They were still preoccupied with fending off against other, smaller drops of lava and shot them down.


    [What an extremely fortunate turn of events...] I couldn''t help but smile at this chaos.


    ¡°Listen up! Gather at the windows and let out a volley of magical attacks at the guards while they do not reckon with it. Then immediately move up to the next building!¡±


    If I saw correctly, the officer was hit by a violet beam at the back of his head.


    -------


    Randalph''s POV


    The messenger gave his report while we were on the move and left after he finished. Godmother commented on it.


    ¡°It seems that this is a very resourceful ''Child''. Tell me about him. Why did you let him lead such an attack?¡±


    We freed as many captives from the main cavern as possible and made way towards our camp at the bridge. More than 100 of us were on our way.


    What should I have told her? That I was simply swayed by him? That I saw no possibility to overrule him? That he may be possibly the next in line for command?


    ¡°He was the first one to break free from the curse and forced the trainees to help us.¡±


    ¡°Breaking free from the curse? Not even I was able to do this. How did he accomplish this feat?¡±


    ¡°I do not know. It might have something to do with his incredibly high wisdom.¡±


    ¡°For you to praise the wisdom of another one. How high is it?¡±


    I hesitated with a response, for I could not bring it over my heart to tell her everything about him. Aoi, who was right behind us and noticed the deferment of my answer, took that decision from me.


    ¡°124.¡±


    Godmother turned towards her. She didn''t mind the interruption by an unfamiliar ''Child'' and instead, with surprise in her voice, replied.


    ¡°124, you say? Randalph, can you confirm this?¡±


    ¡°Aye, Godmother. It is as she says. This is Aoi Wolfcleaver, his beloved.¡±


    Aoi performed a slight bow with her head at my introduction and began to speak again.


    ¡°This is where I will part from you. We freed you but I will go to him.¡±


    Lucius had asked me to keep her with us at all costs and warned me in advance that she would surely follow him. [I can atleast do this much for him.]


    ¡°Aoi, you want to go despite his explicit wish for you to stay? I won''t allow such a thing to happen. He made me promise to him that I would not let you go.¡±


    ¡°Nevertheless, I will go.¡±


    ¡°I order you as a captain to stay. If you do not abide out of your own free will, I am prepared to tie you up and force you to come with us.¡±


    It was a blatant threat that would have offended most people. Most likely it would result in her hating me but she just mildly smiled and reacted in a composed way.


    ¡°I don''t want us to part on bad terms. We have suffered too much together for any bad blood between us. However, please don''t be mistaken about one thing. You do not hold such an authority over me. If anyone has it, it would be Lucius. That is why I will answer to him directly for disobeying his wishes, not to you.¡±


    Godmother had followed our exchange in silence up until now but decided to speak up after Aoi''s rejection.


    ¡°''Child'', do you understand what you are about to do? He freed you and you are going to betray him in such a way?¡±


    ¡°It would be a much greater betrayal if I were to leave him alone in this place. Randalph, you weren''t awake then, but he once overcame the torture of a black demon. Since that time he had been destroyed on a regular basis by the guards. Lucius might think that he can survive this on his own but you and I should know better. We should not harbour any delusions. They will not let him allow to revive ever again. Therefore I won''t  spend our last moments apart from each other.¡±


    With this she forced her two demons to turn around. Albeit her ''Aura of the silent Moon'' had a small radius it was still effective enough for her mounts to abide by her commands.


    Completely speechless, I couldn''t stop her. Although Lucius said that he could dispell the curse again, he knew all too well that his fate was probably eternal death. That is the reason why he insisted for Aoi to flee with us. As I was about to go after her, Godmother stopped me.


    ¡°Wait Randalph. We''ve been together for far too long to hide things from each other. There has been something that you have not told me, yet. Your eyes speak of it.¡±


    [I could never hide things from her...]


    ¡°It isn''t import-¡±


    ¡°It is important. Otherwise you wouldn''t have made such a grim face, although we were finally able to see each other again.¡±


    There was no turning back now. I knew what would happen if I told her. With endless sadness, I looked into her eyes and said in a low tone.


    ¡°He was able to feel your presence.¡±


    She was enraged.


    ¡°You foolish man! And you let him go?¡±


    This is why I loved her. Not a single thought did she waste on herself, always thinking about the ''Children of the Dawn'' first.


    ¡°I will take 20 ''Children'' and go after him.¡±


    ¡°Take 30! I just noticed that someone teleported in from afar.¡±


    Sending a suicide commando to save another suicide commando. We could not afford to wait for him to respawn and go through the effort of unchaining him again. It would just take too much time. So I assembled my men and prepared to leave. I would fulfill her order and bring him back even if I had to stay back.


    The reunion with Godmother was far too short, overshadowed by the impeding threat of the demons and the foreboding of her end. Turning towards her once again I said with a voice that reflected all of my desperation.


    ¡°Alpheia, your time is not yet up. How cruel can the world be if it would let us finally meet, only to wrench you away from me again?¡±


    With her anger softening after hearing my words, she gently caressed me with her hand.


    ¡°Randalph, my love. Look at what my leadership has done to you. You don''t even have the strength left to walk on your own feet. Please, bring him back. We will need him.¡±


    Then she gave me a kiss and sent me on my way.


    Our blessed ground had chosen her as the next Godmother just two months prior to the death of her predecessor.


    [Just how much time does she have left?]


    End of Chapter 14


    Afterwords:


    I know that you can''t beam photon torpedos. I also know that imperial star destroyers have some shields.


    Whoop! Whoop! 400 Followers! I hope I can make you all happy. I read every reply at least three times, even if it''s just a simple ''Thanks for the Chapter''.


    Merame, did you think I wouldn''t notice that you did not reply for Chapter 13? Have you stopped reading? I''m anxious.

 Chapter 15 – The drawbacks of teleportation I

    Chapter 15 ¨C The drawbacks of teleportation I


    Areti''s POV


    I quickly ran into a house and hid myself in there, so as to avoid the oncoming fight. A servant with a knife in his hand saw me, first wondering which side I might belong to but ultimately deciding that it was better to act and ask questions later. Though still young, I already underwent training from the age of 7, befitting someone of higher birth, such as me.


    As I killed him, I remembered my family''s secret credo. ''First the Sa ''Wa, then the empire, and then everybody else.'' Though of course these words were to never be uttered outside of our house, otherwise we would get serious trouble.


    [Well, I am in trouble.]


    Killing other demons wasn''t that much of a problem. Engaging in personal feuds or even as much as going into open battle against other houses wasn''t that uncommon in the empire. Such a behaviour was encouraged to a certain degree, enabling new houses to rise to power and ensuring the influx of new noble blood that way. My father once told me that we can only bow down to the emperor and accept his absolute existence as the reason to the prosperity of the empire, because in the end we all knew that in times of danger we would have to stand up again and fend for ourselves without his help. He would only move for the benefit of the empire, while we had to take care of ourselves.


    Only the strong are allowed to bow before him. Everybody else was to simply perish. That is why we Sa ''Wa bowed down to him in acknowledgement of his strength, not out of loyalty. A rather treacherous doctrine that my father taught me there, but he said to move inside the limits of this philosophy in order to boost the prestige of our name.


    However, what happened now was something completely different. Certainly, he said to act ruthlessly when the need arose, but he also said to never defy the emperor, his strength was too absolute.


    [That was a serious mistake.]


    The mistake was not my obedience towards this cursed man until he set me free again, I couldn''t help but to follow his orders. No, this time I just took something insignificant as a wrong turn and ended up right inside the battle zone again.


    After the lava began to materialize everywhere and after the first surprise attack on the guards, they decided to act defensively. Instead of rushing in, they used the other trainees to block the streets and houses along the main roads and now one fourth of the settlement was cordoned off.


    From time to time Lucius sent out a couple of attack spells from inside the houses, which was immediately answered by enemy fire in return, so his group had to move on in a zigzag course.


    How did I know this? The house I had chosen to hide in was currently occupied by his group. They hadn''t found me yet, but if his presence attracted another barrage of spells, I''d have to leave the crack I was in and he would not let me go again. I was certain of that.


    They were discussing their next course of action right now.


    ¡°Lucius, the first surprise attack was successful and killed three guards...however they adapted quite fast and our last two attempts cost us a demon and two ''Children''. It might be time to send everybody into hiding at different locations and just wait for them to come. I don''t think that they will act so reserved any longer.¡± (Bransek)


    ¡°I also thought about this. However, if I gave the order for us to disperse now, we would lose any ability to act, no matter how small it might be... though you are right to a degree. From now on we will leave a ''Child'' in every house we rest in behind. The demons are already quite exhausted and can''t carry all of us any longer.¡±


    Just then a lookout announced himself.


    ¡°Now I''ve lost it.¡±


    Everybody stopped in his tracks and Lucius answered him.


    ¡°I know I can kill it.¡±


    After this countersign was given, the human came into the room and gave his report. It was Fillion.


    ¡°They have dispatched at least 100 trainees in the various houses around the main roads. I saw no chance for us to cross them or break through with our current strength. We are trapped in this district.¡±


    ¡°We knew that already. Anything new?¡±


    ¡°Another group of 30 trainees is headed this way. They will soon reach their HQ at the obelisk.¡±


    ¡°Was a guard with them?¡±


    ¡°I saw none.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡±


    ¡°Although I have known you only for a short time, I already learned that your ''Hmm'' always carries a meaning. What do you have in mind?¡± (Bransek)


    ¡°It depends.¡± Lucius then turned towards the assembled demons and asked them.


    ¡°Can anyone of you make my voice louder? It would be also preferable if you could change the direction of where it''s coming from.¡±


    One of them raised his hand. He was fairly exhausted and had a head injury, yet he still answered him.


    ¡°I can make your voice louder, sire. Changing it''s direction is impossible, though.¡±


    ¡°Understood. Everyone, leave now. They will most likely bombard this place as soon as they hear my voice. We will meet up three houses down the road from here. Bransek, you are in command.¡±


    [Bombardment? If that really happened I would have to leave my hiding place and he would see me again. I can''t let him do this.]


    There was a way. I had three particular spells at my disposal. The fireball from the ''School of Sun'' and two spells from the ''School of Wind''. Waiting for everybody except him and the demon to leave, I silently came out of my hiding place by using ''Steps of the Spider'', a magic used for a concealed approach. Looking out of a window his back was turned towards me.


    If I wanted to kill him I had to do it in one strike. Otherwise he would use his aura and that would be the end for me. Not to mention that he was now in possession of a cursed weapon. That is why I had to get close to him, since he could deflect a simple fireball with it. What was most important though, was to end his life without being seen. His threat to tell the guards about me was still his strongest weapon.


    [Only five steps left...] But suddenly he said without turning around.


    ¡°Areti, you should know it yourself. Killing me here won''t save you. When the fighting broke out most residents fled this part of the settlement so they will assume that anybody left is an enemy and mercilessly finish them off.¡±


    A chill ran down my spine. I just remained there, caught between two steps, without saying anything. The other demon turned around and looked at me in surprise. Then he looked with fear at Lucius who was able to notice my approach. Everything was over.


    ¡°Do as I say and I will forget this.¡±


    A tone that would not allow any dissent. He held me in his clutches again.


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    That was an otherworldly scene. Without making any noise, she came out of behind a cabinet and calmly walked towards me with ghostlike steps ready to strike me, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She must have been there the whole time. If I hadn''t seen her reflection in the glass of the window, I would have been dead by now. [If she just silently would have walked away...i wouldn''t have stopped her.]


    Areti and the other demon were visibly shaken by my noticing her approach. [I''ll let her think that I have eyes behind my back.] It would be better this way.


    ¡°Are you ready to perform the spell I asked you for?¡±


    ¡°Y-yes, sire.¡±


    If I had been the enemy commander, I would have immediately ordered every trainee to put on some kind of markings like a red cloth around the arm after they had realized that their own people were attacking them. Now, I would capitalize on them not doing it until now. The 30 or so new trainees were just arriving at the main plaza.


    Filling my lungs with air, I let out a shout that was magically enhanced.


    ¡°You reinforcements that are approaching the obelisk right now! Quickly hide inside the buildings! The guards know that you belong to us and will attack you!¡±


    Areti and the demon let out a small yell in realization of my little ruse and I motioned them to move on. I could already see attack spells approaching our house. They turned it into dust and the debris of the explosion hit my left shoulder hard. My scapula was broken by it. After years of torture I had a pretty good grasp on the various injuries a body could receive so it was easy to tell. Nevertheless, I didn''t mind it and just went to the next rendezvous point with my two demons, while other magic was still hitting our old location.


    Bransek greeted me with a smirk.


    ¡°Nasty.¡±


    ¡°I would call it necessary. Did it work? I couldn''t confirm it because we had to make a run for it.¡±


    ¡°The guards didn''t fall for it but a nervous trainee still shot at them and that led to a chain reaction.¡± He held a hand to his ear. ¡°Can you hear it? Not every spell is landing in this district. They are still fighting. What''s with your arm? And where did you pick that blue girl up?¡±


    He was right. It has only been a day since I saw my first magical attack but I was already able to discern some of their proprieties by the sound alone. [Fire, Water, Some kind of magical beam...]


    ¡°Nothing serious, I can still somehow move my arm.¡± With pain in my left arm I put a hand on Areti''s shoulder and felt her shivering. ¡°My blue little mount volunteered to help. It seems she grew fond of me and couldn''t part just like this. Notwithstanding, we need to think about our next step.¡±


    ¡°The lava created a lot of havoc and the enemy commander must have thought that such a destruction could only be the source of quite the large force. Good that they don''t know how little our strength really amounts to. Under the cover of magical spells the 30 demons would have moved into this district and tried to engage us. He most likely wanted to probe our strength with this, though you foiled that plan.¡±


    That was a reasonable assessment of the situation. After losing so many guards, they would rather use trainees and approach with more care.


    A young demon suddenly jumped up and came to Bransek.


    ¡°S-sire, one of my wards has picked something up.¡±


    ¡°Is it an enemy tunnel?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they are already past the main road and are making their way towards the centre of this district.¡±


    ¡°What is he talking about, Bransek?¡±


    I was genuinely curious. The term ward was pretty much self-explanatory but I would have never guessed that you could use it in a way to create a sensory net on demand as their exchange just now had indicated.


    ¡°While you were out there, I asked the demons if they could create a tunnel for us, so we could get behind the enemy lines. They had not enough Mana left and told me that the guards had already erected magical wards to tell them of any such attempts. I don''t know much about urban fighting but I thought it would be a wise idea to do the same.¡±


    [A tunnel...I should have thought about this, too.] Now it was too late for such things. Their plan was most likely to attack us from below while we were occupied with the 30 trainees above. Bransek turned towards me.


    ¡°What should we do, Lucius?¡±


    Only the trainees could help us here.


    ¡°You said you are low on Mana...but can you somehow collapse their tunnel with earth magic?¡±


    The demons in question looked already pale. One of them, the one who carried me together with Areti on our initial assault at the teleport-hall, thought for a moment and said.


    ¡°I might be able to do it, though they will notice and prevent me from doing so. I would just waste my last bit of Mana.¡±


    His answer meant that we needed to distract them first. [Hmm...the only good bug is a dead bug.] After I saw the devastating effect of those archaic grenades earlier, I took the last one in the possession of the demons for myself.


    ¡°Will you be able to create a hole, maybe 10cm in diameter, towards their tunnel? I''ll drop a grenade on them. This should put them in enough of a panic for the other trainees to collapse it.¡±


    Even if they would seal off the hole instantly, the explosion should still be strong enough to weaken their tunnel considerably and shake them through. Judging from the reaction of the guards earlier, they were fairly frightened of such non-magical devices to a degree that they gave up on the wall in order to protect themselves from the blast of the grenade.


    The trainee gave me a positive reply and we made our way into the basement of a house that lied right above their estimated course. If you were absolutely quiet and listened closely you could hear their approach. It couldn''t be more than three or four metres below us. I signalised everybody to keep their mouths shut and held a hand up high for a slow countdown. Right after I closed my last finger, the trainee created a small hole and I threw the grenade inside it.


    A surprised shout was transported towards us along it and the hole quickly closed itself again. Two seconds later the awaited eruption came, was even strong enough to knock a demon off his feet.


    ¡°Do it now!¡±


    Three trainees followed my command and poured their Mana into the ground. An immersion of one metre appeared on the surface and the hollow screams of the demons, which we heard after the explosion, disappeared. Waiting anxiously in silence for some other sounds, we only allowed our tension to leave us after five minutes.


    That last attempt had been thwarted but now all of my demons had depleted their Mana. Only Areti, who hadn''t participated in the most recent fighting had some of it left.


    Everybody was fatigued but I still ordered to move into a new building, since I feared that they would bombard the house above the tunnel soon enough. When we got there everybody just sat down and tried to catch their breath. The end of our strength had been reached.


    It had been two hours since we stormed the teleport-hall. At this point it was probably the best idea to order one last salvo of magical attacks towards the enemy''s positions and then hide in the ruins until they decide to march in.


    The only thing that filled me with concern, though, was the fate of our trainees. [What could I do to keep my word and give them a chance at survival?] From the beginning we ''Children'' had no escape for ourselves planned, so letting them stay with us would only lead to their demise. It wasn''t as if I had much sympathy for them, rather I wanted to fulfil what I promised them.


    ¡°It might be time...¡±


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± (Bransek)


    ¡°Do you have any suggestions? If not, I''ll soon call it a day.¡±


    ¡°The demons are exhausted and the enemy''s next move will be a massive one. The commander of the guards should be fed up by now and probably wants to take control of the situation as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Where''s the suggestion?¡±


    ¡°There is none.¡±


    Looking at the fatigued faces of the demons I noticed the distress reflected in their eyes. One of them was even frightened so much that he couldn''t stop shaking. [Wasn''t that the one who set up the wards?] Considering the situation, it might be that he finally gave up but his behaviour was still far too damaging for our morale. Just when I was about to reproach him I asked instead.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    Completely frightened, the little trainee was not able to speak up first, he only buried his head in his hands.


    ¡°I-it''s over...¡±


    ¡°Well...for us it is. You can go and search a place to hide in.¡±


    ¡°That''s the problem. The tunnel gave me the idea to create a pocket with earth magic somewhere for myself to hide in. That is why I set up a ward to search for a suitable location and noticed two other tunnels, one of which is already far beyond our current position.¡±


    Now I understood his reaction. The first tunnel was just set up by the guards to catch our attention and to conceal the approach of the other ones. It was the same as we did. Giving them something for everybody to see, while working behind the shadows.


    Fillion, our lookout, also came in at this time.


    ¡°New demons have arrived, 50 heads. They have already reached the plaza. I couldn''t spot them earlier because they used the narrow alleys.¡±


    Moving with him to his survey post, I wanted to personally take a look at it. Areti also followed me like a shadow.


    The guards had formed a new squadron filled with trainees and organized them into five blocks. A trainee was in front of them, holding a two small pennons into the air and guiding their movement; another one had an 18th century style military drum to give additional acoustic guidance. Marching so openly, they obviously didn''t fear to put themselves into the range of our own spells very much.


    ¡°How come they all know how to perform drills with such ease? Is this supposed to be normal for demons?¡±


    ¡°We are nobility. It is custom for us to begin training when we turn seven. Of course we would be able to do drills.¡± (Areti)


    That explained a couple of things. Though the daily practice in this training facility lacked any military discipline, they were still able to follow it if there was any need for it. Mostly, the trainees were around the age of twelve so all of them had already five years of combat training. Well, a page or knave to a knight had also to start at such an age in medieval times. Every culture with some militaristic prowess sent their children into battle from an early age. It wasn''t too surprising that the countries here would follow the same train of thought.


    A trumpet''s sound resounded which marked the beginning of a new manoeuvre. Ten demons in one block moving all at once, it reminded me of an exercise performed by Tibetan monks. First, stomping on the ground with their right leg only to be followed by the left leg, bringing them into a straddle-legged stance; it''s as if their combined action filled the air with tension. Next, moving their hands from their hips towards shoulder height.


    With each step a different kind of shout left their lips in unison with the rhythm of the drum. Finally, a red glowing sphere formed above their heads, an attack spell. However, instead of sending that mass of death on it''s way towards us as I initially suspected, they performed one last movement with their right hand and smaller bits lashed out from the sphere in rapid succession towards the direction of our last know location.


    [Rocket artillery...] With my mouth agape I followed their path. Around 20 of those fiery bits hit the area around the house and turned everything into dust. The ''Child'' I left behind there had no chance to survive this kind of impact, no matter how well she hid herself.


    The sound of the trumpet echoed again and a wind blew the dust away. Such a forceful usage of magic raised a lot of dust which we could have used to covertly approach the enemy''s position. Though the existence of the tunnels told me that they were thinking we would use it to cover our escape and were thus trying to cut that path off for us.


    With the trumpet giving another sign and the drummer beginning the rhythm for another firing sequence anew, the next block of trainees began with the exact same spell.


    [Damn!] After losing their officer, the next in line for command of the guards prepared his troops for this kind of development from the beginning. A more experienced man would have noticed this. Slowly cutting us off from the rest of the village and possible escape routes, he first tried it in a conservative manner by sending in 30 trainees. After this had failed he must have had decided that it would be better to simply sacrifice this part of the settlement altogether.


    On the one hand side I forced the guards to take my group serious enough for them to not simply try and overpower us and use tactics instead. So far my plan had worked perfectly, but I failed to come up with a proper way of fighting during the combat itself. If I were better prepared I could have bought more time for Aoi to flee...


    Soon the bombardment would reach our current location. We couldn''t even make our way into the ruins of already destroyed houses, for they sporadically shelled them again to prevent this.


    At the end of my wits, I was simply forced to watched this frightening spectacle. [They got me good. Seems like I was not wise enough to see this coming.] This is as far as I could go on my own. The rest was up to Randalph and Crence.


    Just as I was finally ready to give the order to disperse, salvation arrived. It was in the form of a fireball that had been cast from the other side of the settlement to land right in the midst of these living artillery batteries.


    ¡°That was no accident, Lucius. See that? Another one is already raining down on them.¡± (Fillion)


    [Reinforcements? But who?]


    -------


    Crence''s POV


    [Auras be damned!]


    ¡°Grrr...¡±


    [I''m sorry Crence. You seem to be a capable man but I will give command to my Sergeant here. I can''t give it to someone who has no auras.]


    My bad habit of parroting people in the back of my mind resurfaced again as I recalled Randalph''s words in a spiteful way.


    Though I wasn''t given command over this group, I was still tasked with finding an alternative escape route out of the dungeon. So far so good, I was able to do so. The problem lied with the leader of our group. He wasn''t willing to attack it, despite our clear orders.


    ¡°Why are we still hiding and doing nothing? The warning horn resounded more than an hour ago! We are supposed to produce a commotion here!¡±


    ¡°Crence, take a look at this situation. We were tasked to keep the guards at the exit occupied. For me it seems we pretty much fulfilled this task. They aren''t going to go anywhere. It''s better to search for another possible exit and see what we could do there.¡±


    Somehow or the other, I could understand the reluctance of the Sergeant to attack. We did find what seemed to be a way out of here. However, what we did not expect was it''s impenetrable form. In a lake of lava, one single island with a tower was standing. On each side were drawbridges and they were both pulled up. If that weren''t enough, it also had a clear view over the area in as much as 180 metres around it.


    [They must have standing orders for a lock-down if anything happened inside the dungeon.]


    Any sort of turmoil we could have produced would be over in mere minutes. Five our ten guards were enough to hold it for hours, if not for days. Taking this tower would have required 200 men and more. Sadly, we were only the smallest out of the three groups with only 26 men, including the demons carrying us.


    ¡°Sergeant, we didn''t even show ourselves to the enemy. I understand that we will be obliterated, but survival was not an option from the beginning. If we would attack here, the guards are surely to use another signal and inform the rest of the dungeon about it. That would relieve the burden on the other two groups.¡±


    ¡°We went over this already. I see no way to keep them occupied or lure them out in a meaningful way.¡±


    The Sergeant was a blockhead of a solider. Being given command by Randalph, Lucius couldn''t argue much against it because of my lack of any auras. [Oh, I see! It isn''t ''auras be damned'', it''s ''Randalph be damned''!]


    ¡°He...¡± I let out a small laughter.


    ¡°What is it, Crence?¡±


    ¡°Nothing much. I simply had a revelation.¡±


    ¡°If it isn''t about another way out of here, I don''t want to hear it.¡± Falling back in his thoughts he murmured in addition. ¡°Maybe we should try to capture a guard?¡±


    ¡°The next group of guards would be in the tower...¡±


    Disrupted by my words, he looked up and showed for a moment his anger before calming himself again.


    ¡°Why are you so eager to attack, if it isn''t necessary?¡±


    ¡°These are our orders.¡±


    ¡°Crence, your loyalty towards this Lucius honours you, but we have better things to do with our lives than to throw it away in a senseless suicide attack. We were ordered to perform a meaningful suicide attack.¡±


    Visibly trying to hide the erupting sense of accomplishment on his face over the play of words, the Sergeant still hit the mark with his answer.


    [Me and loyal towards Lucius? When did this happen?]


    He was right. I didn''t even consider a different approach, simply because Lucius said it had to be done this way. Certainly, he and Aoi were amusing fellow captives, but I hadn''t noticed the amount of trust I put in their words up until now. [When did I stop thinking for myself?]


    Sure, Randalph, the arrogant schmuck, be damned. Lucius on the other hand side, I''ll show him what this ''hell'' he so dearly likes to talk about is really made of. Aoi, his partner in crime, will get it, too. Otherwise it would be too sad if they couldn''t share the same fate.


    First I had to regain my sense of self. Talking with the two love-birds for the past months had the surprising effect of calming my anger. Since long ago, I was best able to think when filled with anger. Others would lose themselves in a mindless rage at times. In my opinion such a thing was only reserved for direct combat. There was a different kind of anger, one that would allow you to come up with the most effective way to force your enemy to kneel before you. This was my source of strength.


    [Remember the witch. Remember the witch. Remember. The. Witch.] Recalling the memory of the woman who betrayed me had the desired effect.


    For a moment, the Sergeant became uneasy looking at me but I began to speak first.


    ¡°Sergeant, you asked for a meaningful target at which you could throw your life at, didn''t you?¡±


    ¡°Did you come up with a way to find another exit?¡±


    ¡°No, I just thought it was strange that we didn''t see any other demons since the alarm. It would be prudent to say that most of them rushed to the settlement.¡±


    ¡°It just shows the success of the other group. What''s your point?¡±


    With my hand I pointed towards a tunnel.


    ¡°Judging from the interior of this dungeon, this tunnel will most likely lead us to the settlement. We could take another way and see what''s to find there...but considering the situation it would just be a waste of time. And please don''t make a mistake. Our task was to make our presence known to the enemy here so as to lure them away from the main cavern with Godmother in it.¡±


    Two other ''Children'' nodded in affirmation as they listened to our dialogue. I wasn''t the only one who was unhappy with the Sergeant''s decision. He also noticed this, which only made him more open for my next words.


    ¡°We have yet to fulfil this task and our time frame to take action is exceedingly small. I understand that we can''t do much here but as I see it there is a much better target for us.¡±


    Taken aback by my suggestion, the Sergeant leaned backwards and his gaze went towards the ceiling. [Just another push and he''s ready.]


    ¡°We could leave one or two ''Children'' as well as three demons here and let them feign a jailbreak. They don''t have to come close, just enough for the guards to see them so they would warn the others about it. That''s bound to put them into more of a confusion.¡±


    Soldiers are best dealt with by tickling their sense of duty without being too rude about it. I was a freedom loving adventurer for the most part of my life but over the years I came in contact with many of them. They are mostly good guys, though you should never let a bad word about their liege fall in their presence if you wanted to keep your tongue. Not that I didn''t like that kind of people.


    As he focused his eyes on me again, I knew that he made a decision. After he ordered two people to stay behind we made our way towards the settlement. I was tasked to scout ahead together with another ''Child''. Around five minutes later we heard another one of those deafening signal horns from the direction we came from. Now it was our time to act.


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    ¡°Everybody! We will break through their encirclement! Demons, just bring us across the main road into the buildings and we will do the rest.¡±


    The order I bellowed brought everybody on their toes. The last attack aimed at the enemy trainees at the plaza brought them in disarray and prevented them from dispersing the dust after their own spells. It was the only time for us to make our move.


    Bransek and I formed the vanguard. The rest followed behind us in two lines. Those cursed weapons were useful until now, as they allowed for the two of us to freely move by ourselves. Finally though, the time to put them to real use would come.


    As silently as possible we approached the main road by following one of the many narrow passageways. Reaching the end of the way, the dust still hadn''t completely settled, though the other side was still somewhat visible. The road itself was 20 metres broad, split in the middle by a part for colourful crystals of maybe 30cm height, functioning as adornments.


    I could see the heads of demons looking outside the windows from time to time. Luckily, the visibility was so poor that only the nearest buildings were visible. It was obvious that we wouldn''t make it over to the other side unnoticed.


    ¡°Alright. I want those with some Mana left to shoot at these windows. Then we will run over as fast as possible and force our way in.¡±


    After those words, a mere three magical attacks, two of which came from Areti, flew towards the enemy.  Poorly aimed, they could only inflict some minor damage to the facade but still bought some precious moments of confusion for us to use.


    After reaching the crystals, some windows were frantically opened and arms were outstretched to indicate their will to fire magic at us. Others were simply violently blown apart by spells from demons who did not bother with opening them.


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    Areti tried to give us as much cover as possible, but she couldn''t possibly intercept all of the enemy magic. Thankfully, the level of the trainee''s attacks was nowhere near the guard''s ones and their fiery spells lost a lot of their their power inside my ''Sanctuary-Aura''.  Nevertheless, one of them still made it''s way over my head and hit someone behind. The screaming of a trainee could be heard but I had no time to look behind me. I had no doubts that if a ''Child'' would be hit, I would never hear something like a shout uttered in agony. Their tolerance towards pain was just as high as mine.


    With only a couple of steps away from the enemy position, the nearly from point-black range fired spells became increasingly powerful. Bransek however, showed me an incredible feat. Jumping forward with a vertical swing downwards of his halberd, he split a fireball in half and dispersed it into a small lump of heat. [You could do this with a weapon?]


    As I saw this, I straightened my back to boldly walk into the path of one of those slow moving beams that would have hit Bransek. I took a swing at it and redirected the beams trajectory to force it into a building behind us with all the strength that was available to me. While I averted his death, the beam''s heat still hurt my arm and left a mark on it, though it wasn''t as serious as the one on my head. Not counting the smaller bruises and scratches, it was already the third major injury today. Such a refreshing change of pace, compared to the days of constant hacking and slashing during my captivity.


    Five metres before we reached a two-story building, I saw that the front door and windows at the ground floor were barricaded so I shouted backwards.


    ¡°Areti, blow the door open!¡±


    As contradictory to her character as it seemed, she was right behind me. Behind Bransek and me was the safest spot, after all. Her fireball came flying two seconds after my words reached her ears. Though I understood that their damage-output was on the lower end of the scale, nothing could beat their practicality, as the required time for casting them was as long as it took someone to perform a throwing motion.


    The moment her magic passed my head I brought my left arm before my eyes to cover them from the explosion and simply ran with the little strength that was available to me into the newly created entrance.


    My ears rang, the lungs were filled with dust, and I felt multiple new bruises from the debris on my front side but I still jumped without a moment''s hesitation through it, as I didn''t want to give them any time to recover.


    Releasing my ''Aura of the blazing Sun'' and opening my eyes in time to witness a small magical projectile missing my head just by an inch, I saw five trainees hiding behind another makeshift barricade of tables, couches, and cupboards. One was already lying on the ground in pain, as the wood from the door found it''s way right into his face.


    Trails of smoke were already emerging from their bodies as my aura reached their skin. Auras would always search their way around natural objects and never went through them. Given the rooms dimensions, it seemed as if each wall, the ceiling, furnishing, and decoration had caught fire all at once. Obviously not prepared to counter such an unusual type of magic they sought shelter by ducking down behind their barricade. A female trainee tried to blindly shoot over it to only hit the ceiling in her panic.


    She was my first target. Bending her arm backwards again to cast another spell, I could see that she would hit me directly with the next one if I didn''t stop her. With a sideways swing, my mace and her wrist met mid-ways.


    Recalling the touch of the black demon''s axe, I imagined her to fall unconscious immediately. Instead of losing her consciousness, however, the mace had a completely different effect on her. On impact I could literally hear the bones in her arm breaking and forcing it into an unnatural position. My strength alone wasn''t enough of a reason to explain that amount of damage. It must have come from the mace itself.


    Bransek who came in right behind me, had barely enough room for his two metre long weapon. He couldn''t see over the barricade and just took a blind, vertical swing over it, scratching another trainee over his back.


    The other two found their demise through the effect of my aura. This was the perfect distance for it''s usage and produced quick results. Looking at their bodies, I noticed that they finally put some kind of markings on them to distinguish friend from foe. As I thought, they wore simple blue ribbons around both of their arms.


    The whole attack, from crossing over the road and eliminating the demons downstairs, took only a little bit longer than half a minute. But for all that, it was still exhausting enough for me to long for immediate rest, if you took the prior fighting into account. Fearing that I would topple over if I took another step, I stood still and caught my breath after shouting a: ¡°Clear!¡±, and signalizing everybody to come in.


    Our rest was only short lived, though, as we heard noise from a hallway and upstairs. There wasn''t even enough time to take count of the survivors. Bransek and I forced ourselves over the barricade. Communicating with each other through hand signs because we were still trying to catch our breath, we agreed that he would take the hallway. As he was making his way I gasped more than I said with heavy breaths towards his back.


    ¡°Prisoners...to blast...through walls...¡±


    His affirmation came through a simple nod. With any other man it would have bordered on the delusional to even think about obtaining prisoners. Completely exhausted, with no protective gear, and alone, our dominance through the auras was still absolute as long as we faced young trainees.


    The stairs towards the second story were contorted. With little strength and heavy steps I went up.


    -------


    Random trainee''s POV


    Suddenly, I found myself in the middle of a war zone. Some time after numerous warning horns resounded, we ran to the settlement only to be told by a guard to prepare for battle. Who the enemy was or what kind of strength they had, such things we weren''t informed of. Judging from the destruction of the settlement, it must have been a massive force, though. [Who in their right mind would dare to do such a thing?]


    Our makeshift squad was ordered to hold a position at one of the main roads inside a building and either capture or kill anybody who tried to cross it. As I understood it, we were part of a blockade to prevent hostile forces from entering the rest of village.


    Marching towards our destination, we saw from far away that the district occupied by the enemy had already received heavy damage and that their return fire only amounted to maybe a sixth of the scope of spells our side cast towards them, so we went on with high morale that was enough to surpass the confusion of suddenly being thrown into such a battle. Someone even stroke up a marching song in which the others gladly tuned in to keep our minds occupied from thinking too much.


    That morale easily plummeted as we walked across a place where an enemy attack had it''s point of impact and our singing came to an abrupt halt. Dead guards in full armour were lying on the street. Their remains implied the usage of an original spell that seemed to be a mix of techniques from the ''School of Sun'' and the ''School of Earth''. I had heard that some of the greatest casters could meld their magic and create devastating spells that would send incendiary shells at you just like a catapult. However, I had never heard of someone summoning lava over such a wide area. The faces of the other trainees turned as pale as mine, as we realized why our presence was needed. The guards were in trouble and our enemies had to be elites.


    Taking up position inside a two-story building, we barricaded ourselves in. Information was scarce, so the others and me went upstairs to observe the situation from there. After a while we heard a warning shout from the enemy towards their friendly forces, and somewhere behind our lines the sound of fighting erupted. Soon after, a messenger brought some ribbons and the order to put them around our arms because there were traitors amongst us. He also told us a codeword to identify each other. If someone would shout ''Black'' the other party would have to answer with ''Rogue'' or otherwise we were ordered to attack without holding back.


    The battle went on without us doing much. From time to time we let out a magical spell at the same spot everybody else was firing at until we heard the familiar sound of artillery drills from the direction of the plaza. The grim atmosphere in the air and the anxiety around our hearts was somewhat lifted when we followed the familiar silhouette of the spell ''Siren of Calamity'' making it''s way to the occupied district. Some of us jubilated, clapped on each other''s shoulders with a smile on the face. I found myself amongst those who congratulated the person next to them, as if we were the ones who did all the work.


    ¡°That will show them to betray the empire!¡±


    ¡°The emperor''s might!¡±


    ¡°We did it!¡±


    Not thinking too much over the stop in artillery fire, we were too relaxed and began to debate over the identity of the enemy. The fact that other trainees were involved raised the question of a power struggle between two black demons or the rise of a rebel faction.


    Right in the middle of talking, our position was suddenly hit by magical spells and forced everyone to drop on the floor. A trainee who was close to a window peeked outside and let out a shout.


    ¡°E-Enemies! They are coming here!¡±


    I quickly let a blindly aimed fireball out of the window, crawled towards it and tried to take a look at them for better aim after I realized that no other spells were coming. [They must be low on Mana.]


    Seeing the approaching group, I could not understand their composition at first. Through the dust I could make out two figures covered by brown cloaks and some trainees carrying other people with the same attire.


    ¡°They are carrying their wounded and are easy picks on the street!¡±


    Preparing another fireball, I aimed it at the person  with a mace in the very front. Strangely enough, it lost a considerable amount of power and speed on it''s way. The figure had no problems to duck under the weakened magic, which hit the arm of a demon behind him who screamed out in pain but didn''t dare to stop or drop the person he was carrying.


    From somewhere else another magical attack came flying at them. One of the two figures leapt forward and simply intercepted the spell with his halberd. It was foolish to use a weapon this way as it would quickly wear down. I was amazed that it didn''t break apart after this first try. The guards had the ability to disperse low grade magic with their bare hands and feet by hardening those body parts to the extreme with spells from the ''School of War'' but they would never commit such a mistake as these people.


    This movement created an opening, which I wanted to capitalize on. Taking aim again, I let out my most powerful magic. It was a highly condensed beam of fire that was saturated with enough air so as to turn it blue in appearance. Yes, I was already able to use a melded magic with the proprieties of fire and wind. It would turn him into ashes.


    In the following couple of moments, though, my mind went numb. I had the ability and knowledge to clearly tell what was happening before my eyes, but still didn''t utter the logical conclusion, simply because I never imagined that I would have to ever do so.


    Everybody talked about their future and that they would surely possess such a weapon,


    without wasting a single second to the thought of what would happen if they ever had to face an opponent with these things in their hands.


    At first I thought the other figure wanted to throw itself in front of it''s comrade in an attempt to save his life. Already imagining the scene where both of them would be hit by my beam, I couldn''t have wished for more. This short foreboding of euphoria was destroyed the moment it came into existence, as the lack of any desperation in the movements of the mace wielding person gave birth to an incredible fear. All these things went through my head during the four heartbeats it took for my magic to come in contact with the head of his weapon.


    This fire that had an incredible heat at it''s centre was easily redirected and stopped following the will of it''s caster.


    [Bearers of cursed weapons...]


    Not able to believe my eyes, I poured all of my Mana into sustaining the beam until I ran out and fell backwards in exhaustion. Still during the motion of falling, I remembered a lecture in advanced combat tactics. If you ever come across someone with a cursed weapon, you should only ever engage this person with either large scale magic, or in direct combat if you have the confidence that you are faster, and only after you have discerned the nature of the additional attack type that the weapon grants. Given all this, usually the only ones who were able to fulfil these conditions were bearers of cursed weapons themselves.


    That was the true terror of these arms. Their appearance on the battlefield always indicated the existence of someone with enough strength to be a Captain. All the guards here were eligible to wear them, if they ever decided to serve somewhere else than this dungeon.


    A person who was able to kill so many of those guards was making it''s way towards me right now. Even worse, there were at least two of them.


    I cursed myself for exhausting my Mana resources to a point where I would nearly faint as I tried to stand up again. From downstairs the sound of fighting and violent yelling was carried towards our ears. All of which ended abruptly and was exchanged with the nauseating smell of blood and burnt flesh.


    The trainees around me went into confusion but still managed to ready themselves somehow. First, they wanted to take up a favourable position near the stairs but were quickly forced to retreat as a sudden fire found it''s way upwards.


    ¡°They laid fire downstairs. We are going to die up here!¡±, one of them said but it was drowned by the screams of someone who was set ablaze.


    The wall of fire slowly crawled closer. No, it didn''t crawl, it approached with intervals of five seconds and more. This wasn''t a natural fire. It was clearly the work of a magical caster. With all my might I yelled downstairs.


    ¡°B-black!¡±, and again, ¡°Black! Black! Black!!!¡± No answer was coming.


    [Oh emperor, please no...]


    In my fear, I grabbed the talisman I got as a present from my mother that hung around my neck. It was a small metallic cylinder with inscriptions telling about the strength of the emperor. In their ignorance, many demons of my age laughed at me for my blind faith in someone who never appeared in public. For me, it was only natural that the emperor - his rule may be eternal - would not allow the unworthy to lay their eyes upon him.


    The older ones, especially my grandfather, knew it better and commented me on my maturity in this regard. I decided I would meet my last moments by reciting the Mantra on it. If I had enough strength left I would have tried to flee through the window like the guy next to me, but as it stood now I was about to meet my end.


    All demons here tried to put as much of a distance between them and the approaching fire as possible, pressing their bodies against the walls to gain even an inch more of space. It still drew nearer.


    The first thing that could be seen was a thin, wrinkled hand grabbing around the corner. Usually, we would have had all fired spells at this without any hesitation but my comrades were either backing further away or had already been caught in the enemy''s spell.


    Such a conduct was completely unbefitting for warriors of the empire. If I hadn''t known any better, I would have believed that we were all under the influence of hostile mind magic. Because my eyes were glued at the hand the whole time, I didn''t notice something very important at first.


    The fire was not effective against me. Though it looked as if a hundred fiery tongues were licking all over my body, there was no damage.


    [The talisman...]


    The inscriptions on it were glowing, the emperor - his rule may be eternal - was protecting me. Not wanting to shame him any further, I mustered all of the strength left in me and forced myself to meet my enemy, while standing on my own two feet. I wouldn''t be running like the others.


    The rest of the person''s body came into view from behind the corner. He had less of a bulky build as I initially assumed, wasn''t even as big as I thought. I couldn''t look him in the eyes since his head was turned in the other direction, most of which was still covered by the hood of his cloak. Then, he slowly turned after he had made sure that the trainees were either running, or lying on the ground while futilely trying to beat out the fire around their bodies. Finally, his face turned towards mine and I finally understood the situation.


    [I-It was a fairy?]


    I still had a chance...


    -------


    Lucius''s POV


    Going upstairs, I fully intended to wreak havoc amongst the trainees that fired upon us just now, despite the order I had given to Bransek.


    From the noise upstairs, it was obvious that there was quite a number of them there, so I let the ''Aura of the blazing Sun'' ooze out as much as I could. That brought them into a state of panic.


    One of them even jumped outside through the window. He would rather risk a broken neck than certain death here.


    However, there was one very disturbing sight. A single trainee was standing in the middle of a room, visibly not bothered by my aura as his whole body was covered by flames. If he hadn''t had a humanoid appearance, I would have assumed that he was a piece of furniture, seeing that the aura''s fire moved just the same way around him as it did with all inanimate things.


    He was rather shaky on his feet but there was a will to fight in his eyes.


    [Then I will respond in kind...]


    We both approached each other calmly and readying our weapons; his was a shortsword. That would be a hard fight.


    From my perspective the increase in power coming from the mace was phenomenal. Still, if the stats of the little demon Vo ''Rin were any indication as to the trainee''s level of strength, they were all at least three times as powerful as me. Besting them in melee combat wouldn''t be easy. Especially in my state.


    A mace wasn''t exactly made for parrying, so I picked up the leg of a broken stool with my other hand. I planned to use it as some sort of shield and held it in front of me.


    Drawing closer, the little demon switched into an over-head stance with his sword, while putting one arm in front of him. As I had already seen hundreds of thousands of stances, I figured he wanted to end everything with one swing and was ready to sacrifice an arm for it. My own stance was a similar to his, with the exception that I had a chair leg and a slight bent in the arm holding the mace.


    [You ran out of Mana and are just as exhausted as I am, aren''t you?] That was the only logical explanation for his choice. His athletic abilities were far beyond my own and he should have also known it.


    Only three metres away from him, I threw the leg into his face and rushed two insecure steps forward. With the kind of weapon I held in my arms, one strike was more than enough.


    His reaction was commendable. Instead of evading the piece of wood as I had calculated, he let it hit his face straight on without losing his balance. There was not enough strength behind the toss.


    Entering the demon''s range, he swung his sword downwards with a battlecry. From my experience I could tell that he would hit me first. It was really a mistake on my part, to have thrown the piece of wood away and not used it to parry him.


    Having gained some momentum through my advance, I let myself fall sideways to the ground in evasion and hit his knee to let my mace do it''s destructive work. If he had anything else than a shortsword and me anything other than a cursed weapon, he would have cut me down.


    This way, he let go of his blade and we both fell down with him on top of me. His face in my ear, he  screamed his pain into it. From this unwieldy position I just clobbered at him aimlessly until he finally stopped to move. The force of the cursed mace was strong enough that I could feel it even through the body of the demon.


    Hurting all over, it took me some time to catch my breath and free myself from him to get up again. During the whole fight, I hadn''t eased up on my aura. The strain on the mind was great, but my time in chains was enough of a preparation to not lose myself in such a crucial moment.


    Looking down on his deformed remains, I asked myself why it didn''t came to me to simply wait it out. Those protective barriers used up Mana-stones and the smartest way to fight this trainee would have been to let his item run out of it''s source of power, so as to let the aura do the rest. The answer to this was overt. He stood before me and I chose the most direct way of combating him.


    I realized that this was my very first duel to the death. It ended anticlimactic and as those last seconds flashed before my inner eyes again, I saw that it was decided after the first two steps. Furthermore, the only kind of understanding we had, was the respective will to end each other''s lives.


    [A merciless way we chose to meet one another.]


    Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on the greater picture again. The upper floor didn''t had any trainees left that were in the position to stand up to me; most of them were either dead or right on it''s doorstep. It seemed that this was the only one with a protective item so I let go of my aura and made my way downstairs again to see how Bransek was doing.


    Before this, though, I did two things. First, I took the protective item from my defeated opponent. It had been glowing around his neck.


    Secondly, I bent down towards one of the half-dead demons and whispered in his ear.


    ¡°Black¡±


    With severe burns all over his body that were already leaking liquids, heavy breathing, and the eyes closed, the demon opened his mouth to sigh in delusion.


    ¡°Rogue...¡±


    [It''s as if they thought that nobody would catch onto these things...]


    -------


    Coming down, I met Bransek midway, who was about to check up on me. He also gained a couple of new cuts and bruises.


    ¡°Any trouble downstairs?¡±


    ¡°Nothing I couldn''t handle. I was able to capture one of them alive. He tried to hide in a cupboard. How did it go on your side?¡±


    ¡°No prisoners but I can return the favour with the mace.¡±


    He raised a brow in curiosity and I put the talisman into his hand.


    ¡°It can erect a protective barrier around your body. It''s a pity that the previous owner didn''t explain to me how it can be activated. Ask a trainee about it.¡±


    Jokingly, he answered me.


    ¡°How did you know that I like such trinkets?¡±


    Both of us made our way down and I allowed a few minutes of rest, during which I tried to find a shield in the remains of our enemies. For all the weapons they had, there was very little protective gear to be found. They never assumed to have a use for it here, after all. In the end I had to settle for a cooking top.


    The houses in the vicinity, particularly those next to the road, were occupied by other demons and our fight had most likely attracted their attention. I let our trainees put on some of those blue ribbons and informed them of their codewords. Being right in the middle of fighting, their chances of survival had still just risen by a lot. Especially, if we could breach deeper behind the enemy lines were they could abscond more easily in all the confusion.


    Our new captive was asked to create a hallway through the buildings for us. My aim was to get as close to the point of origin of those allied attack spells, as possible. On the way there we had to clear out another group of five trainees, which was considerably easy since we tricked them into deadly carelessness with the right codeword. Otherwise, we tried to move covertly without searching for a fight.


    It was the fifth house after the main road. There was movement in the next building. I ordered a demon to yell the codeword.


    ¡°Black!¡±


    Hearing the noise of a surprised group of people that suddenly went silent, some time later the correct answer came.


    ¡°Rogue!¡±


    Bransek, who was next to me strengthened the grip around his halberd in anticipation of the next fight. Tension could be felt once again from the rest of my group.


    I, on the other hand side, wasn''t agitated in the least as I recognized the voice. The blockhead didn''t even use a demon with their younger voices to give a reply. Still, it was an indescribable feeling, thinking that you were on your own, only to suddenly hear a friendly voice. In an amused tone I yelled back.


    ¡°That was the correct countersign for the empire, which means you are our enemies. We will now calmly go into your building and blast you into obliteration! Goodbye, Crence!¡±


    This time there was no delay in their answer and a shout filled with rage came from a window of the building.


    ¡°Lucius you damn bastard. Just you wait, I''m coming for you!¡±


    A sigh of relief left the mouths of the young demons. The ''Children'' simply let their expressions ease up a bit after having realized the presence of comrades in the vicinity.


    ¡°Don''t bother. I know you are old and bedridden and that you can''t move without the help of others anymore. We will come to you. Just order some of your mounts to provide cover for us in the eventuality that there are real enemies here.¡±


    ¡°I am a real enemy!¡±


    ¡°You are your own worst enemy!¡±


    We quickly made our way into their building with Bransek and me staying at the ready to deflect any possible magical attacks that may come from someone hiding close by.


    ¡°Lucius, you look like crap. And what''s with this lousy shield?¡±


    His glance only stopped for a heartbeat on the cursed weapon, but he deemed it not necessary to comment on it in any other way than letting a short expression of admiration appear on his face.


    Letting go of the lid, I grabbed his shoulder with a hand and could not hide my smile after seeing him. He didn''t look very differently. A large cut was on his chest that only had been tended to in the most rudimentary way and multiple smaller wounds covered arms and legs.


    ¡°I will always look better than you.¡±


    We both had to laugh at that.  This heartfelt reunion, though, was interrupted by a lookout from Crence''s group that came downstairs.


    ¡°We are in trouble! A black demon has appeared.¡±


    End of Chapter 15


    Afterwords:


    I just realized that the makers of Starship Troopers probably came up with that line because they threw fireworks into anthills as children.


    I''d like some input from you. The most important part I wanted to know about, is regarding the length of the chapters. The last couple of chapters have become increasingly longer with this one being the longest as of today. I try to follow the rule of thumb that would make people forget the beginning of a chapter by it''s end. A long chapter gives me enough room to further the plot a great deal, though I wasn''t able to wrap up things nicely this time. If the chapter had been as long as intended it would have amounted to 30 pages. This one was 19 pages long. I would have liked to finally implement the encounter with the black demon but decided to do it in the next one. I''ve already written their meeting one month ago and have been sitting on it ever since.


    The drawbacks of those long chapters are longer release dates. I thought that I couldn''t let you allow to wait longer for some paladin action this time so I decided against an ultra-long 30 pages chapter.


    As strange as it sounds, though, I believe that the dialogues have suffered because of these long chapters. Comparing them to the first ones (with maybe five or six pages) I feel like I couldn''t put as much care into the thoughts of the people as I would have possibly done with shorter chapters. Like letting them talk with each other but each one of them still having a different understanding of what had been said. Those aren''t exactly misunderstanding, just simply how inter-human relationships truly are in my opinion. If the rankings on the site are any indication as to the quality of the ff, it might be true because I dropped like 15 places in the last month. Though I absolutely understand that it''s not about the rankings, but rather to provide those that follow the story with an enjoyable read.


    Also, I''ve loathed the lack of possibilities to implement my philosophical brainfarts lately. Granted, I think I came up with something good that will cement the true nature of paladins, after providing them with the necessary foundations. But that is something that will come after this fight.


    So basically the question is as follows: Longer chapters with longer release dates in between them or shorter ones? If you''d like to get a better understanding of what I regard as a shorter chapter...with this one I would''ve put it online after Crence''s POV...


    If opinions on this are too differing I''ll simply go with what I see fit, though I would greatly appreciate some input on this.