008 (1/2)

“ There are no heroes, little one. With each swing of the sword, two people die, on each end. The only difference between a hero and villain is how the people wors.h.i.+p them to be. Never pick up a sword, little one, unless you are prepared to be both the hero and the villain, the slayer and the slayed”

– Old Kruruvath saying, Tales of the Wild, Silax Gorosh,1125 A.C

I had ridden for a full day without stopping. By the time I neared Shrafings.h.i.+re, the Serrad had grown ragged. Serrads were like Velociraptors that were a little smaller than horses. They generally had deep green backs with bellies the colour of rotten hay. Even though they were meat eaters, they were very tame and obedient and were used to pull carriages due to their strength and speed.

Night had already fallen when the Serrad finally broke it’s leg. I was catapulted violently forward when it happened, smas.h.i.+ng me into the ground. The Serrad was frothing at the mouth and its eyes were clouding with blood. The beast had done its work well, bringing me almost to the village. I wish I could do something for such a loyal steed but right now, I could do nothing. Rather than letting it suffer, I soothed it by cradling it and closing its eyes. Then I drew a dagger that I had got from the mercs across its neck. The beast died twitching as blood gurgled out of its slashed throat.

May you be reincarnated as an overindulged otaku in our world, my friend. I s.h.i.+vered at the unpleasant sensation of the invisible wave hitting me every time I killed something.

I skirted around the village in the soft moonlight. There was eerie silence through the village, permeating its very air. I walked through the oft visited roads to where I had seen the dream. There lay the X, with something barely recognizable nailed to it. Arin had turned into a black, charred ma.s.s. Apparently, they had decided to finish the trial quick and spread false information about its deadline to prevent demons from rescuing her.

Even though I had prepared myself for this scene ever since I ran with the Serrad, I still couldn’t bear it. I broke down in choked sobs and animal groans. However, things were needed to be done. There was no one near the body. A wooden sign planted near the site explained why.

“By the Order of the Church, no one is allowed to approach the site of the Witch Trial for 7 days and 7 nights. The body would be left to the natural elements for spiritual cleansing and the punishment for colluding with the demons for all the world to see. At the end of 7 nights, the public are free to cut parts of the Witch’s body and take them as wards against evil. Praise be to Talaviel”, said the sign.

I clambered up the X and cut Arin down. Crows had pecked out her eyes and tongue. Most of her body had charred black, carbonized. They hadn’t given her peace even after she had died; driving a wooden stake through her chest. When I tried to carry her, her poor body broke down into pieces, ash and dust. I couldn’t even hold her for one last time. The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds had taken even that from me.

I gathered her body parts and ashes onto the jacket I had bought from the mercenaries. Then balling it up, I made an impromptu pouch to carry her. I knew what I wanted to do. I carried her to the secret place we had made love in, beside the river.

Today too, the moon was high up in the sky, its soft light playing games of shadows with the forest. Today too, the Sellanerna flowers bloomed in the hundreds, soaking up the moonlight. Today was exactly the same as that day, only the girl wasn’t alive. I burnt the rest of her body in a small pyre I made from wood and oil I had gathered on my way here. When her whole body was turning into ashes, I gathered all the Sellanernas on the bank. After that…I scattered her ashes in the river she loved so much.

“Flow with the river, Arin. Flow till you reach the seas where your parents lie. Flow till you get your hearts desire”, I heard myself say in choking sobs. I floated the Sellanernas in the river after her. Hundreds of flowers followed the girl in her last journey, as if they were guiding her to the seas.

The girl who had river in her hair and the seas in her dreams…finally merged with the river.

I cannot follow you yet, my Sylvanna. I still have work to do. Wait for me at the seas, I will follow you soon enough.

“There you are, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d”, I heard a half-cry behind me. I turned around an saw Karro inching towards me with a naked sword. He looked…ghastly. Unkempt hair fell over his face in lanks, his beard overgrown and slovenly. The clothes were tattered and covered with filth. Only his eyes shone deep red in the moonlight.

“Karro…why didn’t you stop them?” I asked, unable to keep my fury.

“Stop them from w

hat? It is you who caused this! You are the reason she is dead!” He shouted. He came forward, swinging his sword at me, “You filthy demon seduced her and made her your servant! She died because of You ! You! You!”

I tried to reason, “I did no…”, “Shut up you mongrel. I knew she had chosen you when she had wore Sellanerna in the festival. But you just used her for your depravity, you demonsp.a.w.n!”, Karro cut me off, not wanting to hear.

I swung my sword to block his blade. We exchanged furious blows. Oddly enough, Karro had grown much stronger than I had last seen him. Maybe too strong. “ Every night I had dreams. Dreams that I knew to be true! Do you know what they did to Arin? They maimed her! Burned her!”, he couldn’t speak without sobbing, “They raped her day and night, till she forgot she was human! When the lord was done with her, the guards had their share and f.u.c.ked her like a pig!”

With every word he said, I could feel my head swim. My body grew hot due to anger, my fingers tightened their grips  on the blade. “All because of you! Why couldn’t you keep your claws off her, f.u.c.king filth!”, Karro was totally manic now, frothing at the mouth, “I saw her being tortured every night in my dreams, I waited outside the gates but was beaten by the guards…all I wanted was for her to be happy…but you ruined it all!! She was killed like an animal!”

By now, my breath came in rugged gasps, as my knuckled tightened enough to their breaking point. I couldn’t hear anymore, but I had to. Karro was slowly overpowering me now, his blade aflame at this point.

“I asked for power to kill you, to make you suffer like she did…and he gave it. HAHHAHA, now I will kill you, maim you, torture you f.u.c.ker! You will die like the s.h.i.+t you are! HAHAH I have power to kill a demon now!”, Karro had an insane look on his face, his facial expression twisted beyond recognition. A manic light played in his red tinged eyes. He took a deep breath and spat out fire.

Yep. Spat out fire, I repeat. He didn’t pay heed that it burned his own mouth and his lips but he spat out fire to kill me. His fist went aflame, as it punched and cornered me. I had no chance of winning, now that he could use higher level magic.

“Die, b.i.t.c.h!”, He laughed like a deranged person, paying no heed to his burning hands. Smells of burning meat came from him, but he didn’t seem to be in pain.

It has come to this. I will kill the one responsible. “Karro, I am sorry but I can’t let you win”, I knew what I had to do, I had known this for a while now.

Karro’s eyes went wide when he heard me. He backed off and started chanting an unfamiliar spell. Too late I thought as I completed my invocation in my mind.

The power that clads the powerless in their journey. The power that rises from corruption. The power that sullies the sullied, come forth as I offer you my sacrifice; Hand of the betrayer.

Shadows swirled up my left arm and covered it in jet black armor like skin, the fingers sharpening into tough claws. The freezing sensation was worse than the last time, threatening me to lose consciousness out of pain. However, this time, the hand was in my control. I closed the gap between me and Karro, and before he could complete his chant, I thrust my black hand deep within his chest.

Bones crunched as my hands pierced him. Karro spurted blood out of his mouth as his flames died down. He flailed  weakly as he was staked by my arm. His lifeblood dripped and flowed down my arm, as if soaking it up. I held his heart in my hands as I squeezed it, the sharp claws perforating the drumming heart and finally bursting it. Red blood flew everywhere inside the hest cavity. It felt like squeezing a lemon.

I had given my first sacrifice for power, the life of my best friend.

I gently laid Karro’s body down. After a while, spontaneous white flames erupted from his body and claimed it in few seconds, as if it was paper. However, my suspicions were confirmed. The same wave that hits me after I kill monster hit me after I killed Karro, much more stronger.

I laid down, leaning against a boulder. I needed answers, and for that I needed sleep.

Sure enough, I was where I wanted to be. Rather, who I wanted to be with. The landscape had turned even more violent. There were X poles everywhere, littering the red earth as far as the eyes could see. A cloudless, angry red sky spread through the horizon where four black moons hung. Countless hands  rose up from the ground, clawing the earth around them, as if trying to rise out of a grave. Fire burned over streams of bright red blood.

Yep, my dreamscape alright. So inviting.

And a few feet from me stood who I wanted to see, Astria. This time, she had worn a torn black gown that billowed behind her.

“Nice clothes”, I offered, “Now, answers”.

She knew what I was talking about. Astria sighed and spoke, “Nice to see you too, Rigel.” I scowled at her which just made her a.s.sume a somber expression, “I a.s.sume you are asking about why they called you a demon and about the…girl?”

“Yes”, I replied.

“Origin of all magic is the same, the Magic of Ancients. It is the power of all immortal beings. G.o.ds and Demons are not so different from each other; only which side of the fence you are looking from”. She took a deep breath, “The current magic used by the Aesvegr, the younger races are degraded forms of the ancient magic, weak and crude. From that perspective, the magic of G.o.ds and demons are not that different. You didn’t have any magic in your previous world, so never wondered how you could use it now? When you contracted with Zain, a magic circuit was inscribed on your body”.

Astria came forward and took my left hand, tapping it with her fingers. The black pattern from before resurfaced, however this time, it wasn’t freezing. “This, Rigel, is the circuit that lets you manipulate Ancient Magic; the magic of G.o.ds and demons.”

“I can understand that you gave me some unusable tools, but why was Arin able to use it!”, I shouted, unable to control my anger.

“Life and death, creation and destruction, is the strongest of all magics. Even immortals are not exempt from it. You had s.e.x with a woman, Rigel. The younger races have forgotten about the power of the most ancient of all  magics. The act of s.e.x is the birth of new life; the crux of life magic itself. It holds unbelievable power; the power used by every race since the dawn of time.”

Astria continued after a pause, “When you spilled your seed inside her, it invoked the life magic; the sharing of emotions and your very being with each other. It set up a conduit, allowing you two to exchange each other’s powers. However, she was a human who didn’t posses any magic, hence you got nothing, while she got access to the Ancient Magic inside of you. That is why, she was able to invoke the spell to teleport you and heal you, in accordance to her intense desire to save you.”

f.u.c.king G.o.ds and their machinations! What the actual f.u.c.k!

“Doesn’t that mean every time someone f.u.c.ks someone, they will get magics?”, I asked, anger making my voice quaver. My knuckles were clenched beside me.

“No. The degraded magic of the younger races cannot do that; they have forgotten the importance of life magic. However, you possess the circuit of Elder Races, making you able to do that” She replied in a serious tone.

“So you mean the Arin died because I made love to her?”, I couldn’t keep the despair clouding my voice, the sounds came in half-sobs.

“Yes Rigel. She died because of you. Her blood is on your hands. You doomed her by loving her and she suffered because she loved you. You are not alone, immortals have descended throughout the ages in the mortal realm and lain with mortals…to invoke the magic”, Astria delivered in a cruel tone, devoid of any mercy.

This broke me. A blade materialized in my hands while I throttled Astria. Then I plunged the blade in her heart. Astria did not stop me. She caressed the blade with her fingers and with the other hand, touched my face, propping up my face towards her.

“This is just a dreamscape. If you really want to kill me, grow powerful and then do it. That is the only way to kill us, the G.o.ds you hate”, she said in a soft murmur, looking straight into my eyes as I sobbed like a child, tears dripping down my face.

She turned to leave, the blade dropping out of her chest in its own accord. While she was walking away, she turned towards me and said, “Know this, the girl really loved you. Magic from the Exchange cannot be used by a human unless she really gave her everything to you; heart, body and soul”.

I crawled up in a fetal position and sobbed, my breaths choking and mangled. I lay under the red skies and in a land of a thousand crosses, where no one could hear my silent screams for all eternity.

I woke up after sometime. The discussion with Astria weighed heavily in my mind. It was as if I condemned Arin to die myself. I had taken the world lightly, not learning its inner workings. I felt hollow enough to die, but I had work to do. Something that Karro said interested me. He kept talking about gaining powers and that someone had told him to kill me. His dreams of Arin were also probably the work of this ent.i.ty, seeing how I too had got visions. Moreover his remains vanished without a trace. Yes, the G.o.ds were involved.

I stood up and wore the jacket I had carried Arin’s remains in. The thing still had some of her ashes stuck to the inside. I picked up my bloodied sword and swung it to disperse the blood droplets.

Tonight, G.o.ds and men needed to die.

The Church of Talaviel was situated not far from the village. When I reached there, I saw a few guards in front of  it. The Bishop was in there. I walked up to the guards.

“Who goes there!”, a guard challenged me, pointing his pike. I didn’t give the guard a reply. He didn’t deserve one. I recognized that face for being one of the soldiers who had disgraced Arin in her pyre. I swung the blade with both hands aiming at his torso. He tried to guard using his pike, but the thing broke in half, the sword continued its slash and cut the man in half from the waist. The top half toppled forward while the bottom shot backward towards the second  guard. Blood and intestines dangled forth the severed torso. The bottom half hit the approaching guard, disrupting his balance. I strode forward and slammed the blunt tip of the weapon down on his face, smas.h.i.+ng it in. A violent sound of crunching metal reported his death.

The last two guards were shocked at the spectacle. The stood dumfounded, s.h.i.+vering in fright. The moonlight was too weak to let me see their expression but I doubt it spoke of bravery. I swung my sword to make it whistle, and the guards ran away, screaming. I strode forward towards the church, slamming it open with a kick.

“What is this unG.o.dly commotion!”, the bishop Andalus stood in front of the altar, his face indignant. His face changed colour as he saw me, b.l.o.o.d.y and smeared with brain matter. “Gua…guards!” He shouted, scrambling backwards behind the altar of his G.o.d.

“They are dead, bishop”, I was surprised at how cold my voice sounded.

“Wha… Talaviel wont stand for this affront, lowly demon!”, he screamed in fright, throwing a large fireball at me from behind the altar.

I raised the large s.h.i.+eld I had picked up from the equipment the guards threw away when they ran in fear. Heated flames washed over me, singing my hair and coat.

“Talaviel won’t stand at all, priest”, I chimed in, “When I am done with him”.