CAINE POV
He held my face in his hand, his rough palm pushing into my nose. Confusion overcame me at his inexplicable action, followed closely by an immense amount of fear as I thought about how easily he slaughtered those demonic beasts just now.
He could crush my entire skull right now and not break a single sweat.
I looked into his eye through the gaps in his fingers, he was staring down at me, his expression almost pained, and quickly averted his gaze. He let go of me, and spoke to me, slowly and loudly, but regardless of that, I still could not understand him.
He tried for a few minutes, and I was frozen in place just looking at him. He let out an exasperated grunt before moving a few steps away, continuing to mumble to himself, his tone sounding entirely annoyed.
Suddenly he stopped and looked up at the sky.
He turned to me, slowly walking, and every step he took made me more confused; this man was strong, unbelievably strong, he should frighten me, and he did, but for some reason, I felt the desire to remain close to him as if I was supposed to.
He was my best chance at survival in this place, and I did not think he wanted to hurt me. In fact, he saved me against those winged wolves.
He now stood in front of me, gently placing his hand on the top of my head. He spoke once more, and although I still couldn’t understand what he was saying, I could tell something was different: his tone changed, he didn’t sound annoyed and his voice was soft and reassuring, almost apologetic.
His words were still a mystery and all I could feel was a growing sense of bewilderment at his behaviour. His silver hair covered in blood rested gently on his shoulders, and his green eyes began glowing, turning into a bright white light.
A burning sensation engulfed me, a pain greater than anything I had ever felt, and I found myself frozen in place. It was as if someone had set my mind on fire, taking control of my body.
Suddenly my mind was overcome by memories; memories of when I was younger, of when I used to play with my father, of my mother taking care of me, of meeting Saintsworth, of fighting with my parents.
I remembered so many things, all at once, my head felt as if it was about to explode, and then, as abruptly as it began, the pain stopped.
The relief I felt was short-lived as I looked up at the man who had saved me, and who made me feel the most pain I had ever experienced; he wore an apologetic look, his face was contorted in pain, and he kept his hand on me, holding me up as all strength abandoned me from the pain.
I heaved, each breath I took bringing back a bit more clarity; he knelt in front of me, resting me on the ground, the long grass being strangely comfortable. His mouth trembled, and he stuttered as he spoke, but I could not even hear what he was saying, my mind being somewhere else entirely.
I did not know what he did to me, but it made me remember everything. My chest burned, not in pain, however, but because of the rage and desperation that resurfaced. I remembered that monster, Ranork Saintsworth, the way he spoke about mother and father as if they were worthless.
One day, I will kill him. I swear it to the Gods, New and Old, I will kill him.
I swore with tears flowing down my face and I held onto my necklace, grabbing it as tightly as I could, the rusty chain digging into my palm and making me bleed slightly.
I stood on my feet, somehow managing to push the man’s hand away and wiping my tears.
The Forest was alive with unsettling noises surrounding us, only giving me a faint idea of how many demonic beasts there must be. Only now could I notice the constant howling, screaming, and hissing coming from all directions, each sound keeping me on edge.
But more than anything I was wary of the man before me. After I pushed him away, he stood back up, just staring at me with the same pained expression.
“I’m sorry, Caine, I did not mean to hurt you.” He said, his tone remorseful.
I instantly looked away, scoffing at his apology, finding myself at odds with whether I should trust him or not. Despite what had just happened, the undeniable truth was that he saved me from the demonic beasts, and if he wanted to kill me, he could have done it already, with extreme ease.
I looked to my left, seeing some trees having been knocked by the wolves, and finding an opening, enough open space for me to run, and I looked back at the man. He was covering his eyes, and I took the opportunity and ran as fast as I could towards the trees.
“Wait!” The man shouted and I could hear his footsteps chasing after me.
Suddenly I was stopped by a large human-like beast, covered in white fur standing tall in front of me; it was taller than any person I had ever seen, more than twice as tall as my father, and had large hands, completely out of proportion with its already large body. I fell to the ground as I nearly bumped into it and stared at it with terror clenching my heart.
The beast let out a screeching noise as it shrieked, and tried to grab me, its large hands reaching for my head, but before it could even touch me, the beast vanished from my sight; what remained in front of me was a path of destruction, everything that was there mere seconds ago was nowhere to be seen. The trees, the beast, the grass itself, all of it was gone, leaving behind a trail of barren land.
I slowly turned my head around, looking at the man, still in position from having thrust his sword. I couldn’t help but be scared of this man, but in that moment, more than anything I was left in awe of him. A simple thrust of his sword was enough to change the lay of the land, but his control was even more impressive.
He controlled his power so as to not hurt me: he swung his sword from behind me, but the destruction began from the ground right in front me, completely avoiding me.
“Caine, please stop running, it’s dangerous.” He said as he walked slowly to me, resting his greatsword on his shoulder.
“How do you know my name?” I asked suspiciously.
Wait.
How could I understand him? Earlier he spoke a foreign language, but now I understood him. How was this possible? Countless thoughts ran through my mind as I tried to explain this, it was possible that he always knew our language, but if that was the case, then he would have said something earlier.
The only thing that made sense was that when he touched my head, and the pain I felt, was for a spell, all the memories I recalled, that was my entire life.
Did he learn everything about me, and did he use that to learn how to communicate?
“How did you look into my memories?” I asked, trying to keep the man at a distance.
“That is a secret, Caine.” He replied, his tone amused. “Why do you think I looked into your memories?”
“I remembered things I had forgotten; things I wish I’d forget. You must have used a spell to do that, but what kind of magic would let you do that?”
“Smart kid.” He chuckled. “But now is not the time for questions. There are countless demons drawn to this place. We should leave.”
He walked towards me slowly and sweat beaded on my forehead; my legs trembled, but I was too frightened to move. The fear I felt was different from when I first met him, his every action convinced me a little more that he did not want to hurt me, but he was just so overwhelmingly strong,
I couldn’t help but be scared. Not to mention that there was a single thought that constantly came to mind: how could I be sure that he wouldn’t turn out like Saintsworth?
So many thoughts ran through my mind, so many feelings hitting me in waves, and I didn’t know what to do. Should I run? Should I go back to Arzamac? Should I try and find another place to live? Do I even deserve to live?
The memory of bumping into Saintsworth replayed in my mind since the man’s spell, what I did caused my parents to die. It was all my fault.
Tears streamed down my face, somewhat surprised that I had more tears in me.
“Caine.” The man called out to me, snapping me out of my thoughts. “My name is Oliver. Are you alright?”
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I nodded mindlessly, looking in his direction, yet focusing on nothing, feeling the pain and despair crush into me; my breathing became heavier and heavier, I struggled to breathe with every breath becoming more and more shallow.
Throughout all this, the only image that was on my mind was that of my parents, which made it difficult for me to calm myself; I just couldn't take one deep breath, and I fell to the ground, my hands firmly holding onto my throat.
The man held me up, gently resting me against a tree as the ground vibrated; behind him, three more of those humanoid beasts appeared, each larger than the other. Their pale fur was dyed red in blood, and they stared directly at us, their eyes both mindless and full of malice.
One of the beasts roared loud enough for the trees surrounding us to shake, but before it could even charge at us, the heads of the beasts fell to the ground as a solemn silence overcame this place.
Oliver was now standing behind the humanoid beasts, he had moved at such speed I only saw him appearing behind them, with his sword in hand. He vanished again, now appearing right before me.
He grabbed a large leaf from the tree I was resting on and used it to wipe my face; a gentle stream of warm water shot out of his hand over my head and used the leaf to wipe the blood off my face.
Initially, I flinched at his action, but strangely felt at ease fairly quickly; I looked at him, staring directly into his eyes, and soon my vision blurred as seemingly endless tears rolled down my face.
Oliver sat beside me after stabbing his sword in the ground before me, and warm air surrounded me, drying me. I couldn’t understand why, but it felt easy to trust this man, despite the distant voice in my mind shouting at me that he would just end up just like Sir Saintsworth.
A deafening screeching noise exploded behind us, and two more beasts threw themselves in front of us, completely ignoring us; instead, they were fighting amongst themselves, trying to claw and bite each other.
They were two new humanoid creatures, strangely looking exactly like humans; they had no fur, instead, they just had flesh and skin covering them, but they wore no clothes, and they possessed the heads of some goat-like creatures; their heads, like their bodies, were stained with blood, and they kept trying to ram into one another.
They had long, sharp horns that curved upon themselves and pointed outwards, in whatever direction they were facing, and they kept trying to use them to stab the other.
Oliver grabbed his sword, but strangely, he did not try to kill the demons but threw his sword as if it was a spear high in the trees. He picked me, holding me gently in his arms, and leapt upwards, landing on a large branch in the trees, large enough for the two us to rest on it comfortably.
His eyes wandered to the beasts, as did mine, and we spent some time just watching the beasts fight mindlessly, completely ignoring everything around them.
“Fucking demons.” Oliver mumbled under his breath, and yet his words seemed especially clear to me. I was lost for words for a moment, for the first time I heard genuine hatred in his voice, even his eyes were glued to the beasts with obvious disgust.
Before I even realised it, he clapped his hands, and the beasts below us burst into flames, killing them instantly as their bodies fell on top of the other, and turned to ashes. All around us, multiple fires ignited, there must have been more than thirty, and just as quickly they stopped, alongside their pained shrieks.
My body trembled as I realised that all this time we were surrounded by monsters, at any point I could have lost my life, and the only reason I hadn’t was this man.
Oliver stared down at The Forest, his presence larger than this place; his eyes were full of hatred and a sense of superiority as if everything and everyone in the world was beneath him, and then he turned to me, his expression softening, and his tightly clenched jaw turning into a gentle smile.
“Sorry. Language.” He chuckled to himself. “I am sorry, Caine. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
I stared at him blankly, his presence felt overwhelming, so much so that I struggled to think clearly, with only a myriad of vague emotions flooding into me.
This man, Oliver, was powerful, beyond anything I could imagine.
I always dreamed of being a knight, of coming into this place forsaken by the Gods, New and Old, but I always knew how dangerous this was. I may have entered the outer edges, but that was only because I knew it to be safe.
I had always known that people would easily die in this place. Those demons are extremely powerful, and yet, this man killed them as easily as one would breathe; I was in awe of this man, jealous of his strength, terrified that he would be like Sir Saintsworth, but more than anything I wanted to be strong like him.
“Caine.” He called out to me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
He knelt and stared deeply into my eyes, but I couldn't look back at him. instead I turned my head away.
In the distance, there was the path of destruction left by a simply swing of his sword. These trees that have stayed for millenniums vanished, now revealing the sky. The dark blue sky was slowly disappearing, bringing an end to this cursed night, and the first rays of sunlight began shining through the giant gap in the trees.
“How are you so strong?” I asked, after what felt like an eternity.
“Pain.” He replied, coldly. “Pain made me strong.”
I turned and looked at him, he was still looking at him, and yet I could tell his mind was someplace entirely, his gentle smile disappeared, and he wore an emotion I had not experienced.
“It’s not your fault, you know.” He said. “What that man did – you can’t blame yourself for that. You didn’t make him do anything. He chose to do that.”
“You heard what he said, you looked into my memories. ‘Actions have consequences.’ Had I not bumped into him, had I not been so desperate for his approval... they would still be alive.”
He sat beside me and placed his hand on my shoulder; my whole body was engulfed in a familiar green energy. Healing magic. Memories of my mother healing me any time I had the faintest bruises flooded in my mind, and a smile escaped my lips as I basked in this familiar feeling.
Little by little I felt my body grow stronger, the pain I was feeling was leaving my body, and I exhaled.
“What do I do now? They died because of me. Is it fair for me to continue living when they can’t?” I asked as the pain escaping me was leaving me feeling empty.
“I cannot tell you what to do, and why would you even want me to? It’s your life, only you are in control of your action, no one else.”
“How am I in control!?” I retorted, slightly raising my voice. “I am not in control, there is nothing I can do! I can’t go back there, if I do that man will kill me, I can’t survive here, these monsters will kill me, I can’t be with my parents anymore. I am not in control! You Demigods would never understand, you could just kill any of us whenever you’d like. You are the ones in control.”
The man silently waited for me to stop breathing heavily, my outburst made me realise how powerless I truly was, and that realisation was nothing but suffocating.
‘You’re not strong enough yet.’
That was what my father told me. He said I would eventually become strong, but now I just could not bring myself to believe this.
“Tell me, Caine,” he said as I managed to compose myself, “these Demigods – do you think they can kill me?”
“Demigods would never kill each other.” I replied.
“I am not a Demigod. I am not a God. I am no one, nothing. Nothing but a man.”
He was... just a man. That could not possibly be true. No mere man could be this strong.
“How are you so strong?” I asked, desperate for an answer.
He gazed at the path of destruction he left behind, or rather at the sunrise we could now see. Sadness overshadowed his face as if he was recalling a painful memory, and throughout all this, I just couldn’t comprehend how a man could be so powerful without carrying the blood of a God.
‘Pain made me strong.’
I recalled his words, and unsuccessfully tried to think about the sort of pain he must have gone through to achieve this strength.
“Caine,” he said, still staring at the sunrise. “You need to decide on what you are going to do from now. I know it’s difficult to think about that now, considering everything that just happened to you, but you have to decide. Maybe not in this moment, or today, or even this month, but you need to choose. If you don’t move forward you may as well be dead.”
I didn’t know what I should do, or even what I wanted to do. All I knew was that there was one thing I didn’t want: I didn’t want to die.
“I want to kill Saintsworth. Is that something I should do? Would that be moving forward?”
“I... don’t know.” He replied dejectedly. “This path you think of walking... you will find no peace. Trust me, it will leave you alone and surrounded by destruction.”
He now looked back at me, a hint of regret in his eyes. I wanted to ask him more questions, but the atmosphere felt strange, and I couldn’t bring myself to do anything besides awkwardly nodding.
More growls came from below us, making me alert of my surroundings. I couldn’t tell how long we rested here, but it seemed we were surrounded again.
Oliver stood up, extending a helping hand; as I held onto it to stand, he picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder, and then he jumped off the branch we were standing on.
I unwillingly let out a yelp at the thought of falling from his height, but to my surprise, it felt like we were floating... or rather we were being thrown at a great speed. The wind screamed in my ears and suddenly stopped as we landed on something.
He was now standing on the blade of his greatsword but soon leapt off it, now seemingly flying for an unnervingly long time; throughout all this, I remained thrown over his shoulders, constantly looking down at the ground, occasionally managing to see a demonic beast.
Giant centipedes, strange humanoid creatures, wolves... the beasts were endless, stuck in fights amongst each other.
Oliver outstretched his hand behind him, and his sword flew towards us at great speed, slamming into his hand, and then turning thinner and thinner and entering into his palm, completely disappearing.
I was lost for words, dumbfounded at what just happened, but more than anything I felt disgust at my lack of knowledge: there was so much to know about magic, and yet I knew nothing.
All my dreams of being a knight, of being a powerful mage, they were nothing but stupid dreams of an ignorant kid. The world was full of things I did not know.
So much time was spent in the air, I felt nauseous, but somehow managed to hold myself together, mainly by focusing on the beasts below. So many different demonic beasts, most of which were mindlessly fighting one another, growling and bellowing.
As we were flying over the demons, their numbers decreased, turning few and far between. Even the trees seemed to grow smaller and smaller, with their dull green colour visibly brightening and becoming full of life.
Even the noises in these woods changed, the growling and screeching turned into soft chirps and occasional howls, but the most noticeable change was the air. The strong sense of mana I felt in The Forest was weakening, I could no longer feel its presence in the air, and before I realised it, we had stopped, now standing on the ground nearly outside of The Forest.
Oliver gently put me down, and the two of us turned our back to that place, and we silently walked out. I would occasionally glance at him, the lack of mana in the air somehow made him seem even more powerful than before, and then he suddenly stopped, staring at the crimson, red sky, letting out an annoyed grunt.
“I don’t like you staring. Enough.” He said, his voice commanding and cold.
“I-I’m sorry.” I replied hesitantly.
“My bad, I wasn’t talking to you.” He looked down at me and smiled.
Not knowing how to reply, I carried on walking behind him, following him closely, unsure of what to do, and then we finally reached the end of these woods, the last tree mere steps away.
And beyond that, the familiar wooden walls of Arzamac came into view, now looking disgustingly small.