42. The First Flame(3)
Rena climbs out of the mass of snow. Something in the air is suffocating. When the mountains blocked her view, she climbs to the tip and oversees Chael.
"No...No..." She mumbles, frozen in time. "Young Master..."
==================================
"Huff huff...Damn it..." Ruisan spits blood on the cold snow.
He leans on a tree as support to take a breather. "That crazy bastard..." he says.
Ruisan and the few remaining demons are the only survivors. Luckily, Ruisan was quick enough to escape the entire blast but the shockwave still hit him.
Occupying Chael was supposed to be a piece of cake. They had 2000 demons, although inexperienced, against 200 puny humans with a broken defence.
Now, not only had Ruisan lost most of the young demons, the main objective of occupying Chael failed as there are no more Chael. The land now becomes a demonic mana pollution.
Not even Ruisan can handle the immense energy.
"Then that black soul gem...must be...the esteemed tenth son..." Ruisan mumbles. "Damn it...that bastard elf king...he kept the information to himself..."
...
Ruisan has to admit defeat. He has no choice.
Samuel has created a partial "Wall" that can block the demons from attacking: the polluted land of Chael. No ordinary demon can walk through the immense energy unscathed.
Many promising young demons were sacrificed as well.
Ruisan looks around and searches for any survivor. Suddenly, he felt a malicious presence behind a rock.
He quickly turns and shoots a blade of demonic energy into the rock, directly cutting through.
...
However, nothing seems to be there.
?
*PSSST!*
!??
A sudden blade protrudes from his chest.
"W-Who...what?" Blood stains his black suit. Ruisan grips the blade with trembling hands and forcefully pulls it through. Some organs and blood splatter on the floor along with the knife.
Ruisan's wound attempts to regenerate but the new tissues repeatedly die.
"Poison?... Ugh...who..." He turns around to notice a black figure descending into the shadow of a tree.
"Cough cough...My lord...apologies..." Ruisan mumbles. He collapses on the snow to take his final breath. His body cracks and disintegrates into dust.
What is left of Chael is a dark purple sky with a constant acidic rainstorm. The land is nothing but a huge bowl-shaped crumbled hole surrounded by dark contamination of demonic energy in the air.
Twisted nature has grown in place of ordinary ones and the snow is black.
A masked individual with a large baggy robe covering the entire body enters the dead land. The mask has a large "X" across it.
The individual walks to the middle of the chaos where Chael used to stand and sees a black gem resting on the ground. It's Jared's black soul gem.
"Young Master..." The individual says and picks the gem up.
A magic circle appears below the individual and the person teleports away.
After the events, the words of Samuel's deed spread like wildfire. The majority of people's view of him turned 180 degrees; It will never justify what Samuel did in the past but they acknowledge his valiant sacrifice.
On the north of Elvis is a relatively smooth land with little mountains, granted to the Duke family Turner.
The head of the Turner family, his father William, a tall man with board beard and short swept-back black hair, sits at the end of a long table. With utensils in his hand, he munches on some steak.
Different kinds of sophisticated palates are neatly arranged across the table. At the sides of the table are three women wearing elegant dresses and at the other end are young men and women. They are in a long dining room.
William officially has three wives and five children, each eligible and fighting for the seat of the heir to the Turner authority and fortune.
Maile, Samuel's mother, was William's lover but due to her commoner status, was unable to be his spouse. Rumours of Maile being William's true love were aroused when William sent them to live a carefree life near the capital after their affair was exposed instead of denying it.
Despite Samuel's bastard status, he technically still has the right to fight for the throne. Yet his foolishness assured others he is of no threat and they left Maile and Samuel alone.
A blonde woman wearing a blue dress that matches her eye colour drinks a sip of soup before turning to her left. Her name is Kate, the second wife of William.
"That bastard Samuel went to Chael and caused a ruckus. He should thank his lucky stars that joining a lowly group of knights is his punishment. He fits right in." Kate says, snickering.
The woman beside Kate sighs. Her brown hair is wrapped back up into a bun with a small hair tie. Her iris has a similar gradient to her hair. She is Ashley, the third wife of William.
"Don't talk about the scoundrel. It breaks my appetite," says Ashley.
"No no, this is hilarious. After he was released, he went straight back to Chael for more trouble. Haha!" Kate replies.
The final wife, Kalina, a beautiful woman with curly brown hair and purple iris clears her throat. "Ahem."
...
Kate's smile subsides. "Tch."
A butler knocks on the door. "Sir, I have news of utmost importance."
"Come in," William says.
The butler scutter to William's side and whispers something into his ear.
!
William jolts up from his seat. "Is that really true?"
The butler nods. "I have confirmed it."
William stands up and wears his coat resting on the armrest of the seat. He then leaves the room.
?
"What?" Kate mumbles.
The butler passes the news of Samuel's death and feat to everyone in the room when granted permission. Kate is the only one dumb enough to express her joy.
She brings her two sons, both twins, along with her to see William.
"Dear, what's wrong?" Kate asks when she sees William in the living room, staring out the window.
...
"I lost my appetite." William simply replies and left the room, he walks up the stairs into his office.
He sits on the couch and stares at the table.
...
"Rail." He says.
"Yes." A man appears behind William.
"Investigate Samuel's death."
The man nods and disappears again.
William lowers his eyes and grips his palms firmly together. "I'm sorry," he mumbles.
At the first level, Kate smirks and walks around in ecstasy.
Her two young sons, Juil and Justice, who looks similar to Samuel glance at each other scratching their head. Both of them have only seen Samuel once in their entire life when they were just an infant.
Kate stops in her tracks and turns around with a bright smile.
"Ah! Let's visit his funeral. Alright? I want to see that bitch's face. Hahaha!" Kate says.