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I could never understand, just why?
A stream of blood was running down my way, like a river.
The smell of iron was heavy, as I slowly took each step forward, the smell of blood became even stronger, that was until I found the source of this blood.
My eyes widening in horror and outrage, I looked up at the Julius' back, as he stood atop a mountain of corpses, his feet and arms oddly not visible from my view.
A mountain of children corpses...
I looked down at the blood river, as I plunged my hand deep within it, before grasping onto this soft squishy something I had oddly found. Pulling it out, I suddenly stopped thinking.
As what I pulled out, was the mangled, squished disk-like corpse of my own child.
Dropping to my knees, a myriad of bloody hands came from beneath me, as they suddenly started grasping onto my body as it tried pulling me deep within the depths of this river of blood.
I looked towards the peak of the mountain of corpses, as I once again saw the back of Julius, a frail old man.
This was all his doing...
I screamed out towards him in fury.
Julius turned to face me, as my eyes widened in horror once more.
His eyes were gouged out as blood flowed down them.
His hands were cut off, as blood flowed out of them.
His feet were cut off as he levitated off the surface.
But what bewildered me, was the smile on his face.
He was smiling towards the massive star made of pure light.
A star that was constantly flickering...
"Wake up Vale"
---
At a decrepit small farming settlement, a carriage had halted in front of the dusty town square, and within were three men, Valentine, Heathcliff and Julius.
"Wake up Vale, we are here." Heathcliff gave Valentine a friendly reminder as he nudged his shoulder.
Valentine whose body was shaking erratically, abruptly opened his eyes, before observing where exactly he was, as his eyes landed on Julius' face in bewilderment. Until he slowly realised that he had accidentally fallen asleep during the carriage ride. Shaking his head out of embarrassment, Valentine hopped off the carriage as he begun stretching.
Once Valentine was done with stretching right in front of the exit of the carriage, Heathcliff followed from behind.
"What were we here for again?" Valentine curiously asked, as he looked around, the sun had just begun to rise, as it shined down it's warm rays on his sickly pale face.
Heathcliff shook his head out of disappointment, as he reminded him once more, "We were given a tip from a trustworthy source that members of Pandemonium were found to be lurking within this small farming settlement."
"So, all we are doing is scouting?" Valentine asked out of confusion. It made no sense to send members of their status to a mere scouting mission.
Heathcliff shook his head, "It is not only a scouting mission, once we find the members of Pandemonium, we are ordered to combat to kill or maim them at sight."
"And if they lower their weapons, or wasn't hostile to begin with?" Valentine sharply questioned.
"We still combat them to kill or maim." Heathcliff slowly answered. As he glanced at Valentine's face only to see a silver of gloominess on his eyes before it quickly disappeared.
A slight smile appeared on his face, as he grinned mischievously, "It's not like they would know if we accidentally let them slip."
Heathcliff let out a sigh, as he patted Valentine's back, "Good luck, don't lose your composure again," before leaving. Staring at Heathcliff's back which was getting further and further away, Valentine shouted out, in this silent settlement, "Pandemonium, don't be cowards and come out and face me!"
From within the wooden houses, the settlers had begun getting out of their houses to see what the shouting was all about, as they crowded around Valentine in confusion. An old man, who looked to be the Elder of this settlement gave Valentine a quizzical look before asking, "May this humble old man know what the Sword Saint of Salvation, Valentine Salutis, is doing here?"
Valentine gave a salute to the Elder, before explaining himself, "I've come here to check on the status of your settlement. Has there been any cases of starvation, freezing or crime here?"
The Elder shook his head, just as he was about to open his mouth, a young boy suddenly ran out of the crowd, as he tripped in front of Valentine, however, that did not matter to him, as he looked up at Valentine's face in pure admiration, "V-Valentine? The man who spent several years butting heads with his majesty?!"
Valentine laughed vigorously, "Who did you hear that from?"
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"The Elder of course! I love hearing about your exploits, it's so... Awesome..." The boy's pure eyes were sparkling.
Valentine could not help but feel as if his miserable mood today had been lifted, as he patted the boy's head. Causing the boy's eyes to widen due to this pleasant surprise, as he began grinning happily. However, he noticed something weird, the young boy was too skinny for his age, and his fingers were extremely boney.
Having only noticed this, he looked towards the Elder once more as his eyes widened in horror. The Elder looked as if he were a walking skeleton. In fact, everyone within the settlement seemed as if they've been starved for weeks.
Valentine asked out of bewilderment, "Why didn't you request for assistance on the grounds of Human Compassion and the Right to Survive?"
The Elder let out a weak smile, as he explained, "We did, many times, for weeks... Yet no help came, instead, they kept asking for our most beautiful female..." The Elder added as he mimicked a voice, "'If you would just send me your most beautiful maiden, I will send you the resources you need to live, and don't worry, I will return her once I'm done with her.'"
Valentine gritted his teeth out of embarrassment, shame, as he continued to question, "Then? I do recall smelling cooked meat, did some generous travelling merchant share his food with you?"
The Elder shook his head, before moving towards him and whispering into his ear, "Pandemonium, a woman appeared out of the thickness of night. She came with a whole carriage full of food, and when we asked her, why she came to our aid, she simply told us, 'I could not bear the noise of children crying because of hunger, no mother would want to hear her child cry because of starvation.' she was so understanding, that she refused to even go near us, as if fearing she would unknowingly harm us I have never encountered such an empathetic corrupted before... "
Valentine quickly corrected him, "They are human too, why wouldn't they be empathetic?"
The Elder smiled, "Indeed, they are human too." before adding, "I need to go help with the breakfast preparations, if you still require my assistance, you can find me in the Dining Hall Kitchen."
The crowd quickly dispersed, until it was only Valentine and the young boy who was left.
"She really was an angel, sir, an angel that came from the heavens." The young boy giggled before running towards the Dinning Hall.
Valentine grinned as he watched the boy enter the Dinning Hall, before trying to search for Heathcliff, but after several minutes of searching, he found no trace of him, so he returned to the carriage, thinking they were inside. Yet, once there, he found no one. It was just an empty carriage.
Thinking nothing of it, Valentine mischievously grinned, as he manned the carriage himself, and rode it himself, leaving the two of them behind. "Unlike the two of you, I have a family to return to." Valentine whipped the horse, as he laughed towards the rising sun.
From within the settlement, Heathcliff placed a few golden coins down before carefully wiping his clean mouth with a napkin, "I appreciate your hospitality, I look forward to eating your cooking once again in the future." Heathcliff remarked.
The Elder bowed his back, as he suddenly remembered something, "Oh, your friend has already left with the carriage, awhile ago."
Heathcliff's eyes widened open as he rushed out of the Dinning Hall, only to find the carriage no longer there. He could not help but rub his forehead out of exasperation.
However, his pupil's suddenly constricted as he heard a muffled crackling noise coming from far-far away.
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Far-far away from any human settlements, within a gigantic vibrant forest Julius Medici was chasing after a deep blue glint that kept darting away from him, it had been several minutes, and he still haven't reached her.
Abruptly stopping in his tracks, Julius stomped down on the ground as an abnormally powerful downwards pressure began shattering the enormous trees apart as the shattered pieces of wood continued to be pushed downwards, leaving dents on the ground.
The mysterious force encroached behind the darting deep blue glint as it contained its body within a single area. A smirk appeared on Julius' face, as a drop of sweat ran down his forehead, yet his eyes soon widened in astonishment, as the deep blue glint suddenly transformed into an ever-expanding aura of swirling azure clouds as static electricity covered the exterior of the clouds which went outwards.
Solemnly observing the situation, Julius understood he couldn't let this expand any further. Clasping his hands together, he kneeled down as he looked up at the sky, as he solemnly spoke, "The earth which floats upon the endless expanse of space, I beseech thee to form a sword which thrusts down to slay these endless expanding clouds of destruction!" the instant he finished this short sentence, he suddenly spat out blood, yet his eyes were still crazily glaring up at the sky, as if waiting for something to appear, and that something did appear.
An unimaginably gigantic ancient-like sword formed from the specs of meteorites within space, had begun falling down from the heavens towards the swirling clouds of static electricity. The instant the tip of the sword begun piercing down into it, a clear crisp crackling sound reverberated through every direction. The sound only becoming even more deafening as the sword pierced deeper into the swirling static clouds which had formed a barrier-like dome as birds, foxes, wolves, all of the forest's inhabitants began escaping from the chaos. Escaping from their home.
However, for the first time in a long time, Julius felt as if he was a weak human once more, an insignificant human that cannot defy fate and change his own destiny as he watched the massive sword made of earth get enveloped by the swirling static clouds crush it to pieces, shattering it into thousands of small fragments which began raining down on the former vibrant gigantic forest which now looks more like a broken battlefield.
Lifting his visibly shaking arm towards the raining shards, he madly grasped onto the empty space as the previously falling shards had come to a halt, every single speck of it. Julius watched as the deep azure glint began escaping once more, however this time, Julius allowed it to leave. Once it went out of sight, Julius heaved a sigh of relief before glancing at the fleeing animals.
Crackling noises started coming from his pale thin boney hands, as veins started popping outwards. Blood slowly running down his eyes, as his solemn voice reverberated throughout the whole forest, "Inhabitants of the Verdant Forest, I beseech you, escape for I cannot hold out any longer!"
As if they understood him, even more animals began fleeing from the forest, and within minutes, the whole forest was silent. Just when Julius had thought every animal had left the forest, a whimpering adorable small golden wolf began limping towards him, a long thin sharp shard had pierced through his body. The golden wolf stopped by his side, rubbing its fur against his leg, it continued to whimper weakly, as if seeking warmth and love.
Julius lowered his left-hand as he patted the wolf's head gently, "Have you come to keep me company? How admirable, yet foolish." Julius shook his head in disappointment, yet he continued to cherish the wolf, "There, there, my dear child, as long as you seek it, it shall be provided upon you."
A bright smile appeared on his previously solemn face, as his right-hand which had been visibly shaking as it tried fully gripping onto empty space, finally completely gripped on it as his hand formed a knuckle.
Within an instant, every single floating stone had turned to meaningless dust, however, his right-hand had suddenly become a mangled mess as blood flowed down his frail arms. Gazing at the flowing blood with her clear eyes, the wolf looked up at the sun which has now risen, and howled sorrowfully.
The last thing Julius could remember before fainting, was the cries of one of his dear children, as he called out to him.
"Father!"
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