Prologue:

  This is a story about many things. One man’s betrayal, the price of greed, and the despair of fighting to save your own  humanity. Most of all I believe this story is about how the reckless actions I took ended up in worst, best case scenario. Not everything went right. We all have our ups and downs, but this ride is a bit different from most because I am not the Hero of this story.

Chapter 1:

  I awoke next to Mira an hour before my shift was about to start. I watched her for a few minutes before I started packing up to leave. I loved everything about her. I loved her golden, almost white, shoulder length hair, her face without a single imperfection, her fierce blue eyes, her personality, and she also had a nice body too. Next to my almost shaggy looking appearance she was an angel. She stood about five feet four and probably weighed less than, one hundred-sixty pounds, but she didn’t eat like it.

  I had known Mira for over seven years and we had never gotten into an argument while we were together. Mira was far too nice to me to argue even if she knew I was in the wrong. For that she was far too good for a soldier like me. I’m sure it made her happy just being with me, but I wished she would ask for more. I never felt I was doing enough.

  I got up from the bed gently and felt around for the lamp on the oak table next to my side of the bed. The ornamental lamp was a gift from my mother. My parents both moved across the country when I was young so I didn’t remember them well. The silver lamp was cold against my hand since it had burned out many hours ago. It was a cold morning because it was nearing november. I picked up the lamp and felt around the table for matches. Once I found the box I lit the match and relit the candle.

  The room was now illuminated enough I could see. Over next to my dresser to the bottom left lay my armour, folded, and my silver short sword which was sheathed. It was a special blade that I bought from a shop. It was very heavy and durable, which was odd considering it was a shortsword. However as much as I had used it, I’ve never had to sharpen it. I picked up both my armour and my sheath in my right arm. After grabbing them I walked into the kitchen and set them on the old ash table. It was in need of polishing. Refurbishing the table might cost a lot though because the surface was splintered and uneven.

  I glanced up at all the dishes that Mira had made through her time working in ceramics. They all lay neatly in the cabinet and unfortunately were rarely used. Most of them were ornamental and all of the ones we owned had intricate hearts carved out in the center.

  Thinking of the dishes reminded me I was hungry. I wouldn’t have time to make breakfast though. I still had to go trim my hair. I walked into the restroom and took the razor off of its place next to the ivory soap bar and basin. I looked in the mirror which had been recently cleaned by Mira.

  I looked skinny in the mirror, but I was close to about one-hundred-eighty pounds even and stood six-foot three. My hair had to be tied back in a ponytail, because my sideburns had grown to the base of my chin and the rest of my hair had grown to my shoulders. I took the razor and started cutting my sideburns and bangs unevenly till they were about four inches. Once I finished cutting my hair, I grabbed the red clothed wrapped scissors, from a metal chest at the base of our bed.

  Although I had cut my hair I still needed it to be trimmed. However, I wasn’t really that great with scissors. As I returned to the kitchen I found Mira in a plain yellow dress preparing my lunch. I looked over at her and said “Honey can you trim my hair, or are you going to be busy with lunch?”

  I made careful movements around the table as to not spoil Lunch for myself. I had never liked seeing what she would cook for me before I ate it because it only made me hungrier. Mira turned to me and smiled. “Darling, sit in the chair at the table and I’ll trim your hair for you.” I do as told while handing her the scissors in the process. “Shaggy?” Mira asked me.

  “Yeah, just try and keep it straight if you can.” I responded. She snipped my hair for a few minutes and I watched the black strands fall to the ground. She finished up and said excitedly “Check for yourself I think you’ll like it.”

  I headed to the bathroom. My hair was neatly trimmed and it came just a tad bit above the eyebrow. It was cut a little shaggy and unevenly like I had asked. It would grow out and look better I thought. I took a glimpse at myself in the mirror before I decided to head back. I had always been fascinated by my emerald green eyes, because they didn’t match my hair. Now that my hair was shorter it complimented my soul patch, and looked a lot more natural. I then glanced at the scar on my forehead. My scar came down from the back of my right jaw and stopped just under my right eye. It had been covered up by my hair, but it was now visible.

  I stepped out of the bathroom and left for the kitchen. I put on my olive green banded leather armour. Over top of this I covered myself in my ragged, black linen, cloak. I then slipped my sheath strap through my leather belt buckle and tightly fastened it. By this point Mira had finished my lunch, and in addition had already packed my bag. “I’ll be back later Mira.” I told her.

  “Have fun Ruthven” she said smiling innocently.

  Upon leaving my house I walked through the cramped neighborhood alley’s and headed down to the marketplace. All that was left was to head by Henry’s store and grab my daily potions. The ones I didn’t use would be stored. I had decided I would buy fresh ones each day so Henry could make enough money to keep his shop running. As I walked into town the stand owners were setting up, but I didn’t see the old man I liked to buy from.

  I walked into the Daily Brew which was a nice victorian style shop with shelves on all the walls and a couple tables up front for window shopping. Henry had went all out, even having polished redwood flooring and a tightly wound rug in front of the counter. “Ruthven I’ve already got your potions up here.” Henry called back to me.

  “I wanted to check out your new potions before I finish up. You aren’t trying to run me out of your store are you?” I joked.

  “Yeah you’re a bore.” Henry retorted sarcastically. “I do have this new potion though. Wanna take it for a test run?” Henry asked leaning forward eagerly. I could never see his eyes though because it was always covered with his hazelnut colored hair. The other weird thing about Henry was he always looked like a child, never seeming to age. He was rather scrawny for being seventy years old or so. At least that’s how old he claimed he was.

  “I don’t have a choice in this matter do I?” I said with a sigh.

  “Nope. It’ll get you out of a jiffy though if you drink it though.” Henry replied grinning wildly.

  “Alright then.” I went up front and paid thirty-five for a healing potion and forty-five pecunia for the fortification potion. Henry then slipped his extra potion which was a blood red color, into my satchel. I adjusted the potions position over to the left so they didn’t touch Mira’s Lunch just in case a spill happened.

  “Have a nice day Henry. Good luck in your endeavors.” I said.

  “You too. I think you’ll need it.” Henry responded.

  As I walked the cobblestone road to the front gate the stands were almost finished getting set up, but the old man was still nowhere around. I headed outside and began my morning patrol of the outer wall. I wouldn’t have to meet up with Captain or do any group training today. I just had to explore the wall.

  Although it was difficult life being a soldier I always had Mira to look forward to. I smiled at the thought and looked up towards the walls of Carlisle. The brimstone walls were over seventy feet in height, which made it virtually impenetrable. The demons that plagued us had trouble scaling it since the wall was perfectly straight, and was so well made it was difficult to keep a grip. Carlisle was a small country, but it had one of the best army forces I had ever seen. The soldiers were trained to fight tooth and nail. They were resilient, strong, and trained not to give up a fight unless told otherwise.

  I stopped gawking up at the wall and continued walking the outside of the city. As I came around to the front gate I decided to take my break. I couldn’t eat Mira’s Lunch yet, although I wanted to because it was still morning. I walked into the marketplace thinking ahead of things Mira or I might need back at the house.  I could only afford a five minute break to look through the marketplace though.

  As I looked around I admired the Carlisle Castle which towered over the rest of the city and neighboring forest. It was almost three times as high as the wall which I thought was crazy. I saw the flag with a lion’s head symbolising our country’s pride which reminded me of my job as a soldier. It was even further more important I did a good job since I was the Vice Commander.

  I decided to check through the shops to see if they have anything worth buying as I was limited on time. I came across a vendor I liked buying from and like usual she pulled away from the counter at the sight of me. Most of the shopkeepers were afraid of the Carlisle soldiers because many of them were violent and took out their anger on the citizens. I personally tried to keep a good reputation, but even the stand owners occasionally spat at me.

  As I was looking around I finally spotted the old man by his white hair and greying goatee. I wanted to get along with him. He had unfortunate encounters with the soldiers and didn’t trust them too much, but never minded doing business with me. He was rather frail looking so I couldn’t imagine him being able to fight back. He however, had a different look in his dull grey eyes like that of a trained killer. I have only seen it a couple times from mercenaries of the Rumen provinces out south.

  I looked around to see if his food was fresh. Of course as always it was. He always somehow got the freshest food. I wish I knew his name or the name of his shop so I could track him down. However, the shopkeeper didn’t speak much and the sign was in some other language I didn’t understand. Everytime the market opened shop the stands were moved, so I never knew where his shop was at. As I was looking through his selection when I started noticing people were glaring at me. I ignored them and continued with my selection.

  The stand was u-shaped in order of food type with fruits on the left followed by bread, cheese, and then confections, and spices. I looked through and saw a couple fresh red apples and some honey in a jar. I lifted the lid to check the honey and it’s just the right consistency. As I peered into the jar to look at the honey the shopkeeper seemed to be mad at me for touching without asking. “Sorry about that sir. I was just curious” I said politely to him while rubbing the back of my head with a nervous grin.

  He simply nodded his head as if to “Carry on.”

  Mira used a lot of honey so I thought I might want to buy a small jar of it. Although I didn’t have time to get it right now because I needed to get back to work. The apples costed around twenty pecunia and the honey costed fifty seven pecunia. I decided to throw in an extra five pecunia because I would like to get along better with the shopkeeper as a regular.

  I pointed at the three apples and the smaller container of honey and then slid eighty-two pecunia across the table. “I can’t pick these up right now. Would you mind keeping them here until I come back later?”

  The man smiled at me and nodded. “Alright well see you later then. I’ll probably be back around dusk.” I walked away and started to head out on patrol again. As I started heading out a child ran out in front of me and tripped on my foot. I bent down to help the kid back up, but his mother came by and snatched him away from me. “I’ve got him” She said almost shrieking.

  “I’m sorry ma’am I should’ve watched where I was walking. Sorry about the inconvenience.” I said forcing a smile.

  Right before I exited the gate to return back to patrol I heard Marcus a couple of stands away from the front entrance arguing with one of the stand owners. Marcus was always out to cause trouble. Over top of the other lady he looked ominous like he was some kind of thug. His hair jet black hair only added to the effect he was giving off. If he weren’t a soldier though, with his thin frame a lot of people would have probably beat the shit out of him.

  The lady he was arguing was older about mid-life with white hair and was standing hunched over holding a cane for support. I walked over to him and asked the stand owner “What’s going on here ma'am?” The lady looked intimidated and immediately shut up. “Lady I’m not here to start anything. I want to know who is at fault for the dispute and get it quickly dissolved.” I said slumping my shoulders with a sigh.

  “He came over here in a fowl mood and started complaining about how he should get a discount, but these are the lowest I can drop the prices.” The lady told me speaking in a shrill almost scratchy voice.

  “Marcus stop being a hard ass and so loose with your money. Then you might be able to afford it.. Besides you are in the quality goods segment of the market. Everything here is more expensive than normal.” I explained calmly. I looked at prices and they were rather low for what she was selling. He really did have no reason to complain.

  “Ruthven, the Captain gave me less than usual.” Marcus said matter-of-factly.

  “Marcus why would the Captain do that? It wouldn’t have anything to do with you frequently screwing around or causing trouble would it?” I said indignantly.

  “Of course not.” Marcus looked away from me. “I wasn’t screwing around.”

  “Marcus head to the South Wall and resume watch on the wall.” Marcus turned around and slowly started walking in the direction I told him. He was purposely dragging his leg to slow himself down. I pulled back my foot and kicked him in the ass and said “Marcus hurry up.” Raising my voice. Marcus sped up and took off down an alley. It’s always been a pain dealing with Marcus ever since I was promoted to Defense Squadrons second in command. Marcus always had a problem with it and constantly was causing trouble for me.

  I looked back to the lady and said “ I apologize for his behavior he seems to have had a stick up his ass.” I smiled at her sincerely and then politely slide my leg back and bowed to show my sincerity. After that I headed back to go on patrol. The woman didn’t say anything, but she did stare at me until I left.

……………………………………………………………………….

  The day passed fairly uneventfully. As I was making my last round I noticed the front gate which was currently shut, had been shut, without anyone ringing the bell. This was already odd considering that I hadn’t seen anything on patrol. I  jogged up to the gate and almost lost my footing because the grass was uneven. Once I reached the gate I called out to the guards on the other side and asked what’s going on. I recognized Fram on the other side. He must have changed positions. Fram was a skinny ginger with pale white skin. He didn’t seem all that strong, but he was. However, Fram was a complete coward and I hated dealing with him. Even worse I oversaw his whole unit so evading him was impossible.

  Fram was my friend back when we were sixteen. Fram and I trained and sparred a lot, but we grew apart when our jobs started to differ. I was adventurous and wanted to explore the outside world and guard Carlisle. He wanted to stay safe inside the walls as a wall monitor. His job paled in comparison to mine. He walked along the top of the walls and noted anything he saw. When he wasn’t doing that he was supposed to make sure there was no discord in the city which he seemed to fail at doing. Whereas I kept the city safe on patrols and commanded a smaller unit of people who would listen to my word and die for me if I so asked because I had saved many of them in the past.

  Although I had a lot of control over the military forces of the city, we all had to listen to Captain Gen, who was one of the Eight Holy Knights that had direct orders to protect the King. Each was assigned their own role in the City to oversee and Gen was responsible for the Military because of quick wit and his ability to influence our soldiers.

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  Fram looked up and saw me after I called out to the guards. Fram said to me “Ruthven, we closed the gate because of a potential demon sighting over in the north west edge of the city. It didn’t actually come near the city, but it was spotted and they think it might have been calling reinforcements. That’s why the bell wasn’t rung.” He finished reporting.

  This made sense to me, but I didn’t understand why the demon didn’t attack. Unless of course it was by itself. I wasn’t given any ranking to identify the demon so it could even have been a small imp. I told Fram “I’ll check it out.”

  “Do you want any support? It may take a minute or two, but I’m sure I could get one of my buddies to do it.” Fram asks.

  “Fram I’m not about to take help from a subordinate. Thanks for the suggestion, but seeing as how we don’t know what it is I’ll go ahead and scout while you prepare for an attack.” I pull out a smoke bomb and show it to Fram to make sure he can see it. “I’ll use this to run if things get to deadly. So don’t worry about me alright?”

  Fram looks down and says “Ruthven, you can’t do everything by yourself or one day you’ll end up hurting yourself and others.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever Fram. I’m supposed to be some caring person, but if I got emotional I would be a bad soldier wouldn’t I?” I mocked.  I follow up by telling him “Fram I’ll be back in twenty minutes or so. If I’m not feel free to move in.” I turned my back and started walking away from the front gates.

  Fram calls out to me “Ruthven, come back in one piece alright.”

  Without turning around I continue and yell over my shoulder “Tell Captain Gen I left my station.” As I walked away I thought about how much I hate Fram. While he never actually betrayed me it almost disgusted me he joined the Inner Guard after we had both agreed to join the Defense Squadron. I couldn’t stand talking to him. The worst part was every time he saw me he would just pick up where we left off like we were still great pals.

  I started jogging over in the direction the demon was spotted with my hand on the scabbard. As I entered the forest I slowed down to a walk and tried to keep a low profile. I tried  avoiding the evergreen’s branches and the extra brushes in front of me. As I got further in it became impossible to avoid the brush and leaves on the ground.

  Each crunch felt as though it echoed forever. I wanted to stop moving, but I couldn’t. I felt a little weaker and I knew I had entered the demon’s miasma. This would be a tough battle. Only the strong demons had big miasma fields and further more could drain you of your strength. The only way to get rid of the miasma was to kill the demon. Right now was when the real battle started.

  I stopped moving so I could listen for it. My senses were already screwed up and disoriented. The sound resonated sounded from all directions. However as I listened I noticed a pattern. First the noise came forward towards me then it backed away. It moved to another side and shuffled a little bit and then I started hearing it next to me. After that I hear it from behind running and then it restarted.

  I tried containing my laughter, but failed. The more I thought about the demons lack of control the more I laughed. This demon was so stupid that it didn’t even know how to properly use illusion magic. There were many useful ways to use it, but it had failed every one of them. I already knew it was going to circle around from behind so I pretended not to notice so that I could bait it in.

  It followed behind about seven meters or so because It was unsure how to approach after my outburst. I heard it scuttle forward. It got closer and closer towards me. Finally it was about two meters behind me and about ready to lunge. I pulled my sword and purposely tripped so that it could have an opening of attack. Of course the demon fell for it and lunged at me. I turned my sword in its direction and watched as it impaled itself.

  It howled with pain and pulled itself back off the sword. The demon was about four feet tall with sharp teeth and claws that measured about three inches. It had orangish skin and seemed to have small horns protruding from it’s head. Nothing to be afraid of especially not after it was injured.

  It turned to run realizing it was outmatched and the illusion dropped. As it turned to run away it tripped on a tree root that was sticking out and I remorselessly shoved my sword through it again and watched it burst into ash and ethereal powder.

  After this excursion I figured I should probably report back to Captain Gen. I continued thinking about it when suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by an abrupt crack to my lower spine and I went flying into a nearby tree. Upon impact my shoulder popped out of place and my arm broke because of how I hit it and I stumbled inevitably falling on the ground. My back burned and I knew my spine must’ve been moved from the impact.

  I looked back over on my shoulder to see what had hit me and saw a red demon holding an iron club. I couldn’t really move in my current predicament because my spine was out of place and my sword arm was currently broken and dislocated. I had potions, but none of them would work unless Henry had give an extra healing potion.

  The demon stood about eight feet in height and seemed to be almost one hundred percent muscle. It didn’t armour however it did have cloths wrapped around it. In my current predicament I was probably going to die.

  Mira I’ll see you later. How many times had I said that to her? Even if I meant it I also realized the more you say something the more it loses meaning. Every time she told me she loved me it meant less and less. Eventually I got her to mutually agree it would be unspoken and we’d both just accept it.

  I had potions in my bag, but they probably couldn’t fix this. Unless of course Henry’s special concoction was another healing potion. I pulled them out as the demon lumbering over to me certain of my defeat. With my good arm I pulled all my potions out at once and drank them. I always carry three potions with me: One healing potion, one fortification potion and a random potion that Henry would make for me.

  Henry was a genius potion maker and never ceased to impress. He had come up with crazy concoctions and the random potion I got from him always pulled me out of fights alive. It's almost like he knew what I’d be up against. I remember one time in his shop he gave me a potion he had finished brewing right when I walked in. I gave him the usual greeting.

  “Henry, how’s the potion coming along?”I asked nonchalantly.

  “It actually just finished. I’d like you to take it with you.”

  “Henry you’ll never make a profit on these things if you keep giving them to me you know.” He was crazy to give me free potions all the time. It did keep me coming though.

  “Ruthven you frequently buy from me you’re practically one of my only customers. It’ll help you on your next mission for sure!”

  “I don’t know what crazy things go on in your head, but thanks. You have gotten me out of many jams.”

  “Of course and you’ll keep supplying me with money to save you in the future.” Henry chuckled. ”Alright serious talk though Ruthven, do not drink the potion. If you are in danger drop it on the ground.”

  “Yeah,...I’ll remember that. Well I’ve gotta go. Talk with you later Henry.”

  We had been sent over to the Southern Border when a Goliath demon attacked us. A third of our men were killed and were losing ground. I remembered I had the potion and dropped it on the ground and our whole group of soldiers were safely warped away.

  I got back to The Daily Brew Henry’s shop and found him relaxed on the seat with his feet kicked up on the table. When I walked in Henry gave me a crazy grin and asked “How did it work? Did it totally save your life? Please tell me all the details.”

  “Yeah it warped us back to Carlisle. How did you even think of this? This was some high scale stuff. I may need to keep one with me in the future.” I said with a sigh.

  “Thanks for being my guinea pig. If it worked that means i can start selling it after a few minor adaptations. I really give you these potions so that you can test them out for me. I typically test them before I give them to you, but every so often I don’t.”

  “Henry was the one you tested good?” I tried to mask it, but I was afraid.

  “Nope, you may have even been warped via body part. You could have ended up all over the place literally.” Henry said with a straight face.

  “You’re kidding me!” I almost fell over.

  “You caught me Ruthven. I make sure they all work out before I distribute them to you. I can’t risk my only customer.” Henry slaps his knee and starts laughing. “I can’t believe you bought that though.

  “Real funny Henry” I turned around to leave the store.

  “Ruthven it was just a joke come on.”

  I opened the door and walked out and hear him yell “Ruthven come on dude don’t leave me.”

  Back in the real world my wounds were aching and for some reason that always reminded me of Henry. As I chugged the potions down I felt all my bodily problems fixed and start to feel a lot stronger. I no longer felt any pain. I would have to thank Henry again after this. I stood back up on my feet and pointed my sword at the Demon.

  I cracked my neck and looked it right in the eyes. “I need to be honest with you. I feel a little pissed off you just took an open swing at me while I wasn’t looking. However, you made one fatal mistake, and that was not killing me.” I said mocking it

  The demon pondered what I had said for a few moments and made a confused face. It then got pissed off after it realized I was mocking it. It charged at me, slamming its club down aiming straight for my skull. I side stepped it and threw a dagger into its lower rib.

  It swung the iron club to the left at me. I couldn’t dodge it without sustaining a worse injury so I put my arm up to defend it. Fortification would stop the blow, but my arm would still get fractured. It hit my arm and I felt pain course up my arm like lighting. While his club was resting on my arm I stabbed forward through his stomach and started forcing the sword up. With his open hand he punched me in chest and I slid backward.

  Even though my arm hurt like hell I had to accept something. I was enjoying this fight. My left arm was definitely in a bad shape, but I would still be able to fight him. With the injury I just gave him I was certain to win this. My sword was still in his stomach so if I could just get to it I’d be able to win the fight. Fortification still lasted three minutes. So I had until then to beat him. I pulled out two of my knives in my right hand and got ready to throw them at him.

  He released miasma around me. The area was covered in purple smoke. Suddenly he grew bigger and looked more ominous. He was twelve feet in height. His horns now protruded two feet instead of one. He was far more muscular and his club had spikes on it. I of course knew this was a mere illusion.

  It was then that I came to a realization. There was an illusion caster beforehand. If he was the one that used the illusions, there might be more enemies, that I needed to watch out for. I needed to make my escape. I ran outside his miasmas range and threw down the smoke bomb so he couldn’t see me.

  He rushed forward trying to grab for me and missed me grabbing my item bag. As soon as he grabbed it I threw both my knives into his left arm. Mira’s Lunch was in that bag and I would be damned if anything happened to it. I wasn’t in a situation to run either. He was clearly faster than I was.

  “I pissed you off a little and now you won’t let me go? Well I’ll make you a wager then. I’m going to come out of this fight on top.” I told him confidently. The demon started roaring and rushed at me.

  I followed suit and charged right back in him with two daggers in my hand. He swung down at me aiming for my shoulder with the club. I rolled under his attack, and stabbed my dagger into his hip, then proceeding to twist the blade. He writhed in pain and smashed his club against my ribs. I spit up some blood and reached for my sword  shoving it up further up through his body. Once again he smashed his club into me. This time the club struck me in my thigh.

  I felt my left leg buckling under my weight, but I would not let this demon live. It probably wouldn’t survive its injury, but if it called reinforcements Carlisle might be in danger. Especially if the reinforcements were as strong as him. I continued forcing it up through his lungs fighting the muscle resistance. The demon sprayed blood from his mouth and slumped on his knees further impaling himself on my sword. It coughed up a bit of blood before finally succumbing and exploding into ash and ethereal powder. My knives dropped to the ground and I picked them up.

  Before I could do anymore my leg gave out and I fell sideways onto the ground. The blood from my rib injury started making its way up into my lungs and I started choking on it. The bitter taste consumed my mouth and I started trying to cough it up.

  Before I choked on my own blood I wanted to see what Mira had cooked for me, so I could imagine the taste. I opened it to see my favorite tied in the leather pouch. Two sandwiches with pork and Mira’s Secret Sauce. Then there was a slice of french bread that must have been imported and my favorite pomen berries. A shame it would go to waste, but I couldn’t eat it. It was becoming hard enough to breathe as it was. I put the sack off to my side.

  My body started becoming cold from blood loss. I was continually spitting it up after all. As I lay on my back I looked to the sky and noticed how lovely it was. The light seemed almost more beautiful now that I was dying. My head was getting fuzzy and I couldn’t really focus on all that much anymore.

  I heard footsteps coming closer to me which snapped me back to reality. I looked around for the figure and saw him approaching me from my left. The man was covered in a dark red cloak and shadows surrounded him. He had dark brown hair and I could see that he had a dark aura. He looked down at me and pulled out a book.

  I felt something dreadful coming from my right side. It was a figure coming towards me about twenty four meters away. I couldn’t make out anything about them except for the fact they were wearing a black cloak and carrying a sword. It must’ve been death coming for me.

  The man to my left spoke to me. “You have a choice to make.”

  I looked up at the man and asked “What do you mean.”

  “Simple do you want to live or die? If you want to live you must accept my curse. You may not end up being same person afterward though. The curse will take root in your body as soon as I give it to you. If you are ok with dying however, she will be here soon enough to collect you.” He said pointing at the cloaked figure approaching me.

  I looked to my left and the cloaked figure was a little over eighteen meters away. I wanted to live clearly for Mira, but what was the curse? I didn’t have much time to decide, but I didn’t like the prospect of dying that much. “What will the curse do to me?” I asked.

  The man laughed. “It will give you permanent immortality with a few conditions. You’ll gain immense power and aptitude, however, you will lose a portion of your humanity and a bit of other side effects come with it as well.”

  “What are the side effects?” I looked over to my left to see that the cloaked figure was less than ten meters away.

  “I would tell you, but I don’t think you have the time for me to fully explain it. Will you accept it or not?” He asked me with a grim look on his face.

  The figure was less than five meters. I looked back to the man and said “Yes, I accept.”

  “Good that saves me quite the trouble.” He bent down and burned a mark onto my right hand. I saw the figure to my left swing the sword at me, but they vanished before it hit me. The mark on my hand was a symbol much like the ouroboros, but instead of a dragon it was two snakes and through the center of both was a spear which formed an x-shape. Outside of the symbol was the number one in the position where the one would be on the clock tower. One spear became bigger than the other and spun to face where twelve would be on a clock and the other faced the one.

  “What is your name sir?” I asked confused as to who he might be.

  He said “I’m Inferos God of Calamity and Chaos. I have to go find more specimens to give my blessing to Ruthven. I’m glad you accepted, but I have to go now. I’ll see you later.”  

  “Wai--” He left before I finished and disappeared. As soon as the curse had appeared the blood stopped flowing into my lungs, but my other injuries weren’t healed. Somehow I knew focusing on them would heal them. I started concentrating on all of the parts on my body which hurt and slowly I felt them mending.

  They were still damaged, but it would work well enough if I could fix my leg too. I focus on healing it. My leg has recovered enough I could use it. This had intrigued me since I had never been able to self heal before. I wondered what else he gave me. I started rushing back to Carlisle. When I emerged from the forest I saw three small groups of demons heading to attack the front gates and another group scaling the walls from the side I was facing. I needed to get rid of these guys. I couldn’t chance Mira getting hurt.

  I wondered who Inferos really was, but I didn’t have time to think about it. Carlisle was most likely being attacked. I ran as fast as I could with my injured leg slowing me down. Once I hit the edge of the forest I saw a two small groups of demons at the main gates and another three attempting to scale the wall.

  I’m was not capable of doing anything about the demons on top of the wall, but I could fight the demons at the front. I ran towards the group of demons and pulled out my sword ready to engage in combat. I saw two knights from my unit doing a good job of keeping them back since the gate has been ripped open. All total there were five small orange imps, one gargoyle and two hell blazers. As I was approaching them from the back I decided to go after the hell blazers first as they used fire magic and were capable of collateral damage and long range fighting.

  I shoved my sword through its back as it was sucking in air to belch out fire. I slide the blade up with ease and cut it in half. I then cut off one of the imps heads and sliced down another two. The hellblazer turned fire on me and I evaded causing it to set fire to the gargoyle. “Ruthven as pissed as I am you left on your own I’ll reprimand you later. Track down the demons that just got in through the North West Wall and subjugate them.” I looked over to see Captain Gen there. “Hurry I’ll deal with these demons upfront.” I nodded and ran past him heading down the main street towards the less populated areas.

  Captain was a remarkable person. He was medium build all muscle knight with a passion for dishing out punishments. He could easily keep our squad in shape and all though he was a bit of a hard ass he was not a bad guy. He had blonde hair that was always combed back and dark blue eyes. I should say eye though because he lost one in a fight with a goliath. He had to wear an eyepatch which only furthered his intimidation. He always proudly wore his silver chainmail which was given to him by the King of Carlisle.

  I didn’t want to get yelled at any more from him so I needed to just find these demons. One of them was a hellblazer the other two were gargoyles. It was fortunate though they sent the lesser versions to attack and nothing truly dangerous. As I made my way to the back end where all the housing was I heard a scream from my left down an alleyway about thirty yards away. I ran down the alley way to see a women being attacked by a gargoyle. I couldn’t stop it from killing her from here so I threw three of my knives into its back. It howled and turns around.

  I ran up and jumped off the wall cutting it down the chest. I then buried my sword in it and continued my search after helping the lady up. As I was running away I heard her yell “Thank you sir.”

  “No problem, just doing my job” I replied which made me grin. I pulled my knives out of the gargoyle. Up ahead I saw a flash of fire coming from down another alley. Upon entering the alley I threw my sword at the hellblazer hitting it in the leg. It pulled the sword out and tossed it to the side.

  It got ready to shoot a fireball. I was prepared to dodge, but I noticed a kid behind me. He looked frightened.”Kid don’t worry you’re safe.Just find some place you can hide, while I clean up the streets ok?” I said with a smile to show him everything was taken care of. The kid understood and then backed of and ran down the alleyway. It was a bad idea to disarm myself, but hellblazers were weak as far as physical strength went. I would be able to overpower it if I could get close.

  The Hellblazer fired its shot at me. Since the child was no longer there I rolled to the side, but took a partial burn from the explosion on my arm. It stung to move my arm, but I needed to kill it.

  I pulled a knife out and threw it at the hellblazer. It dodged my attack and prepared another fireball. I once again threw another knife. This time I threw it a little off course to lead it. It moved right into the path of the blade and erupted in flames as the blade sunk into its throat. I picked up my knives and sword off the ground. I looked around and began hunting the last gargoyle.

  I looked around for it in the nearby area, but it was nowhere in sight. As I was running through the cobblestone streets I noticed blood in front of Henry’s Shop. I ran in to find the place was destroyed. The shelves were all knocked over and potions were spilled all over the ground. In the middle of the mess I saw the melted figure of the gargoyle which laid on the floor underneath one of the shelves.

  I looked around for Henry to see him propped up against a wall with his hand covering an abdominal wound. I saw Henry up against a wall holding a wound shut. I rushed to his side. He looked up at me and said “Ruthven you look like hell.” With a laugh. His hazelnut hair was covering his eyes again like always.

  I responded to him by saying “You don’t look any better yourself.” Henry chuckled.

  “There’s a potion over there on the wall probably the last healing potion. My wound is pretty severe, but you can have it.”

  “No, Henry you need it more than I do. I have mere burns and a broken arm you could bleed out and die.”

  “Then what the hell are you waiting for.”He said feeble kicking my leg. “Looks like you saved me this time.” He laughed with a pained expression.

  “You saved yourself. You killed the gargoyle afterall” I said while I retrieved the potion.

  I hand the potion to him. His wounds soon healed and he looked vibrant. “I’ll stop by here later for a potion I’ve still got some work to do.”

  As I walked out of the shop I started feeling weak. My adrenaline had stopped flowing and my wounds were catching up. I walked out a couple alleys away from him and then out of nowhere the pain from all my injuries started to repeat over and over like a current going through my body. I continued walking using the wall as a support until my vision started getting hazy and I passed out.