Treborn

"You're rather calm for someone pressed into this situation Sar. Perhaps you're unaware of the predicament that you're in; this is Sir Nado, captain of the 8th division of Royal Knights, he's been informed about your satanic spawn and has agreed that we must take the child in and make sure she's properly raised and will not infect the rest of humanity with her plague."

Stella's head was spinning a million miles an hour with a thousand thoughts. The Chief brought a Royal Knight over something as trivial as this? The Guard was entertaining this? What happened to settling this diplomatically later on, why did he have to get the entire village involved, nothing made sense.

"Sir Nado, is this true? Are you here to take my daughter?"

That's when it occurred to Stella that the Royal Knight hadn't even spoken yet, perhaps he was here for another reason.

"Mister, I would like to say, congratulations on successfully giving birth to your daughter and I send forward my condolences over the death of your wife. This is a stressful time for you and as such, it's been deciding that we will be taking the child off of your hands, she's dangerous, please accept my apology"

Those words were the nail in the coffin for Stella, they were really here to take Artemis. After all the hard work Eva and Sar put into growing and keeping her alive, that she herself did to keep Eva alive long enough to get the baby out and make it as painless as possible; all of it would be for naught.

She couldn't figure out what to say, she wanted to speak out and how unfair this was, how cruel. The words wouldn't leave her mouth, before she could just yell something, anything, Sar handed Artemis to her and placed his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye and whispered

"It'll be alright"

The same words he said to her, all those years ago.

"I see, Sir Nado, you plan to take my daughter from me and disrupt my family so soon after it formed, unfortunately, that makes you, my enemy.

So, this village will be your and the chief's burial site, I put that on my daughter's life."

Silence washed over everyone present, but Nado was the first to speak.

"I was really hoping that it wouldn't come to this, don't make me take your daughter by force and leave you dead where you stand."

In response, Sar unsheathed his katana, coated it with crimson flames that entranced Stella's eyes since she first saw them, assumed a battle stance and firmly stated at seemingly no one in particular, "Go"

That was her cue to run into the forest as fast as she could and run she did.

"Go catch that wench!" The chief shouted in a rage, only for Sar to summon a flame barrier between the forest and everyone present, stretching far in all directions.

"That must've sapped a lot of your energy, how are you going to go through with your boast of killing me," Nado remarked as he unlatched his battle axe from his back.

"Come find out"

And the sound of weapons clashing could be heard miles from the village, like explosives being detonated.

Meanwhile Stella was trying to get as deep into the forest as possible. The nearest village was a day's walk out, she wouldn't make it under these circumstances. Finding a safe place to hide took priority.

Stella was fearful for Sar's life, that was a Royal Knight, they were a person division of guards that directly serve the King and no other. They were the talented selected amongst the talented and thrown into a grueling training process to fish out the beast amongst them. Only the survivors were chosen to be a Royal Knight, and this was a Captain.

But every clash that she heard, brought her heart a little relief, that he survived a little longer.

It was actually on his way to take the exam to become a Royal Knight that Stella met Sar, properly at least. It was almost 10 years ago, he was 15, she was 13.

She had always admired him from a distance; however, he never noticed her. So, when she heard he was leaving, Stella attempted to follow him, to prove herself worthy of his notice.

Long story short, she ended up nearly being kidnapped by a slave caravan that was in the area, where we found Eva, trying to keep the spirits of the other kidnapped girls up.

He walked us all back to the village where he decided to stay and join the Village Guard instead of pursuing his dream to be a Royal Knight.

Bringing her thoughts back to the present, Stella noticed the distinct sound of footsteps rapidly approaching her.

"Damn it, must be the Village Guard"

She saw the wall of flames that Sar erected, no normal person was capable of getting past that in such a short period of time, but the village guard was an entirely different story.

"Oh tree, where do I even put you."

Desperate for a place to hide, she decided to hide the baby next to some tree roots in a bush.

"This is the worst hiding space ever; I'm just going to have to fight them off or lead them away"

Eager to put distance between her and Artemis, she tried to sprint off, only to feel something heavy strike her head and knock her down.

"You've run far enough"

Her assailant hauled her up by her hair and dragged her to the tree she just left.

This allowed her to get a good look at his face; it was Darl, she used to tutor him every day when he was behind in his studies.

Still holding her captive, he shifted the bushes around and pulled the branches, leaves and twigs in the surrounding area up and found nothing.

"Where's the kid"

However, Stella was similarly stunned as he was. She just put the baby there and now she's gone

"Somewhere, you'll never find her, you heartless creature"

He just looked at her and rolled his eyes

"yeah, yeah. I got caught her right here, she won't tell me where the kid is, taking her back!"

Scooping her up in his arms despite her best efforts at fighting, Darl ran towards the village that was dead silent, not a single clash to be heard.

Stella's worst fear aroused in her heart as she dreaded making it back to the village, and upon arriving, it was all confirmed.

There was Sar, on his knees, with a cut across his abdomen, leaking blood profusely.

The entire village outskirts looked a mess, buildings and houses were crumbled and charred with huge burn marks scattered throughout the entire area.

It was barren and depressing, not as if 24 hours ago, people were living their lives peacefully.

Yet, despite Sar's condition, one thing Stella took note of, was the Royal Knight's charred figure implanted into a wall and the beheaded corpse of the village Chief.

Darl simply sighed, "This is all a mess, all he had to do was hand over the kid"

His lack of empathy for the entire situation made Stella's blood boil.

"No, all you had to do, was leave him to raise his kid in peace after his wife died giving birth to her"

Darl didn't bother responding, but only turned one of his fellow guards.

"What's the condition on the Captain?"

"He's dead, so is this Chief and the knight."

Darl just looked toward the sky and heaved a huge sigh, "This is a huge headache, what should we do about the kid?"

"My honest opinion, it's a newborn, it can't survive out there on it's own, so I say we kill our last witness and come up with a different story for when the Capitol starts asking questions."

He seemed to turn the idea over in his head a few times before deciding.

"Good plan, let's go ahead and take care of her now bef-"

Interrupting his statement was a sizzling sound that seemed to be coming from Sar, who was visibly melting at a rapid pace.

"What the tree"

In response, Sar's head cocked back to the sky, and he released a deathly scream, while his body began to glow.

"Everybody get down!"

But it was too late, and the last thing Stella saw, was a wall of inferno engulfing both guards in front of her before haze took hold.