The rain was beginning to calm down ever so slightly, making the stench of fresh corpses more evident. It was clear that the elite warriors couldn't possibly protect everyone from the demons as the furthest corner of the marketplace, right next to a large hill was proliferating with those wandering fiends. In some areas the air was filled with intense screams of children weeping for their downed parents while some suffered from heart-wrenching silence of the anguished kin. Xiang, wearing his signature cloak, used the rooftops of the various houses to arrive at a large inn at the very corner.

The inn was devoid of any windows on the front and had a single door at its entrance. There was no decorative element in sight except for a small brown board with something written in black ink. The outer walls of the inn had cracks spread out evenly, giving it a repellent look.

"Akio's Kõnã Baishun Yado, this is the place. This is where that old bastard hired mother from," mouthed Xiang.

He opened the door and entered the place, slowly closing it behind him. He found himself in a dark lobby with all candles and lanterns blown out. The place hardly had any decorations inside either. It just had an old wooden counter with some writing utensils and a small green pot holding a dried up flower. On each side were old benches arranged in parallel leading up to two sets of stairs.

Xiang vaulted over the counter and began opening every drawer to search for a ledger. After a few minutes he found it and went through it as swiftly as he could.

"(What am I doing? I should flip it the other way around in order to see the most recent transactions)." Xiang froze for a second and flipped the ledger around.

"(There it is! Emiko. That's her name! I remember the king addressing her as this back then.)"

Using that very transaction, Xiang fished out the designated room and time of service of the woman he was looking for. Just as he was about to mantle over the counter once again, a demon jumped in from a window on his left. The loud noise of glass shattering alerted Xiang as he took cover behind the counter.

"What the hell?" whispered Xiang.

The demon wandered around the area before deciding to move towards the stairs. Xiang looked around the back of the counter and found a hidden serrated sword. He picked it up and silently raised his body to throw the sword straight at the demon's scalp, crushing it in the process. The dark monster fell on the floor and turned to ashes.

"Well that was easier than I thought," self-talked Xiang.

He moved towards the remains of the demon and picked the sword up before using the stairs to reach the second floor. Once there, he began walking through the fairly dark corridor with a dusty red carpet hiding the cracked tiled floor with a webbed up ceiling above.

"(This is it)." Xiang reached the exact room he was looking for and stood in front of its one wooden door for a moment before quietly opening it.

The room had one queen sized bed made up with white sheets and a red blanket. There was one bathroom, one side table and one window with yellow curtains covering it. A tall woman with long silver hair, glinting from a minute ray of light emerging from an exposed corner of the window behind the curtains, wearing ragged white clothes, was sitting straight on the far side of the bed.

Xiang took off his hood to reveal his burnt face which struggled to leak tears.

"Have you come to kill me because I didn't escape?" the woman asked.

"I have finally found you." Xiang's voice wavered as he prevented himself from sobbing.

"Are you? No, it can't be." The woman got up and rushed towards Xiang to take a closer look at his face.

"It's me, mother. I am sorry I took so long to find you."

"I... I thought you died. I didn't know what to do after you were cremated and the king threw me out. I came back here because I was unaware of what was actually happening. More importantly, what happened to your face, who did that to you?" the woman stammered.

"Slow down. Let's tell each other everything." Xiang opened his arms to give his hysterical mother a hug.

Both of them sat down on the bed to converse for some time and Xiang explained everything that has happened to him so far.

"You have been through this much alone? Oh my poor boy." The woman placed Xiang's head on her chest and comforted him.

"Compared to you, I have been through nothing. I am sorry, I was so caught up in taking revenge from the King than finding you that it never occurred to me that you changed back your name," Xiang said in a guilty voice.

"It's fine. You are here now and that makes me so elated." The woman let out a beatific smile.

"Can't I stay with you forever? I don't want to go out there anymore." Xiang held his mother's hand.

"Of course. but that isn't what you want right? You are my brave boy, you still have much to do in this world. You are the rightful king after all," the woman calmly said.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I don't care about all that, I just want to be with you."

"I know you more than anyone. I know that you want to make sure no woman goes through the same affliction as your mother. You don't have to hold back for me, I will always be waiting for you," the woman stated.

"I know." Xiang hugged his mother tightly.

The rain came to a halt as the strong winds swept away the heavy clouds, revealing the orange sky as it was reaching dusk.

Back at the center of the marketplace, right next to the fountain, Erashi was at his limit as his former wounds were all opened again due to the amount of strength it required to wield his Zweihänder and keep up with the elite demon he was facing. His vision was slowly becoming hazy as he dodged and countered each of Honghui's attacks. The demon was intentionally holding back its aura in order to save it for his rematch with Hoshi.

The demon's patience however was at its endpoint as it got aggravated at Erashi's persistence.

"What's wrong? Can't kill a single Warrior? I expected more from you, your highness," taunted Erashi.

"That's it! You have hindered our plans enough!" Honghui fumed and decided to charge up a significant amount of aura.

"(Yes, get angry. Use up all of that power.)"

The elite demon transferred the aura in its claws and launched a swift attack using both its hands. Erashi stepped back at the last moment and managed to evade the attack but was completely unaware of a surprise offense onto his back. He was impaled by the remainder of the demon's boney tail that shredded through his abdomen while he coughed up blood.

"(Damn it, I messed up!)"

Erashi held on to his weapon even after the demon elevated him. A huge amount of fresh blood leaked through the massive wound just introduced in his torso.

"It's over. You were a worthy opponent, I give you that much," conversed Hongui as he was preparing to slice Erashi's head off with his claws.

Before he could do so, a man wearing a brown cloak and holding a serrated sword in his hand leaped on the demon's back only to stab it vertically straight in its shoulder. The man pushed the back of the demon with his legs and flipped back to clear some distance.

"Never stray your eyes from your opponent, monster!" Erashi redeemed this opportunity and raised his Zweihänder to get ready to swing it horizontally at the demon's neck.

Honghui took notice of Erashi's next move and pushed his tail further through his adversary's torso causing an explosion of ruddy blood.

Erashi's face dropped for a moment but he held his sword in position.

"Nice try you little insects! Looks like you underestimated your great king!" boasted Honghui.

"Who's underestimating who? You big mummified bull!" the hooded man yelled.

Erashi raised his face again and spoke loudly with determination, "I didn't come this far to die for nothing! For my brother's sake! For my comrades sake! And for the sake of Pandara! I will show you the strength of a warrior who believes in everything he endears!"

He managed to connect the attack while enduring his extreme pain and sliced the demon's head off which fell inside the fountain just besides the two. The tail that impaled him lowered and allowed him to touch the ground with his feet and release his weapon.

Suddenly, the demon began crumbling to ashes and all the lesser demons faded away in a few seconds. They all screamed in sorrow and agony before they disappeared right in front of the warrior's eyes.

"All of the demons are fading away? That could only mean," Hirishima speculated as he joined in earlier with Subaru to finish his task.

"Let's hurry back to him!" said Subaru before both of them hastened back towards the fountain.

"(Is it over? Did the commander win? He must need patching.) Warriors! Let's retreat back to the commander!" ordered Kieri as she and her platoon decided to move towards Erashi as well.

"This can't be! Me, the great Abatu can't be defeated by a mere warrior! That bastard Honghui was a poor host, that's all!" A loud dark echoing voice filled the entire area.

"Shut it Abatu! You are a weak elite core that's why you failed," countered Dorian.

"Young master, that's not true," argued Abatu.

"It is but I am not mad at you. Because of you I have learned quite a lot about where Hoshi and The Warriors stand," stated Dorian.

"Wait, I thought you said that wasn't the boy's true potential. That's the entire reason I am in this filthy marketplace."

"I lied. Back at the lake, that was his entire current strength. A certain amount of anger is just the ignition to set his cursed state's torch aflame. The magnitude of his power depends on how much he learns about himself. Besides, he has already exhausted his cycle today," explained Dorian.

"Then why? Your stupid lie just costed me one of my cores and a high affinity host!" fumed Abatu.

"I just wanted him to finish you off and earn his first victory against a weak elite demon," jeered Dorian.

"You little bastard! How dare you!?" shot Abatu.

"Yes yes now begone." Once Dorian said those words, Abatu's voice faded away.

"I think that's it for now, I must go assess everything that I just saw today." Dorain's voice lowered as if he walked away from the source that was transmitting it.

"What was that entire conversation about and who was this young master that demon was addressing? Well whatever, at least it's finally over now. I fulfilled my promise, mother. That loathsome husband and dreadful father is no longer here to pollute our world. Now we can enjoy life as we dreamt, together," mouthed Xiang as he took off his hood to stare into the orange sky parting from the heavy clouds.

At this point, all of the elite demon's body turned to ashes and Erashi was free. He fell on his knees while he used both his hands to pressurize his sizable wound. The murky blood that was flowing from him had no termination. It was evident that his time remaining was cut short significantly.

The warriors just got in visual vicinity of their commander and were astounded to see him in such a deplorable shape.

"Commander!" the three elite warriors called out.

Erashi rotated his face and lifted it up slowly, revealing a faint smile.

"Pathetic right? I am supposed to be your Commander and look at me."

The three rushed to his side and began doing their all to keep him alive. Kieri and Hirishima placed him on a bamboo sheet that Subaru picked up from a nearby store.

"Please remove your hands from that wound, I have to apply medicine before patching it up," Kieri requested after finding that Erashi was reluctant towards getting treatment.

"Don't... waste medicine.. on me. The others need it more," Erashi spoke in a frail voice.

"What are you talking about? You are the most injured person here!" stressed Hirishima.

"We are sworn to protect you, our commander! So stop resisting and let us help you!" added Subaru.

"Can't you three idiots see I want this!? Let me go out in peace! That's an order!" Erashi mustered up the strength to scold the three which left them shocked.

"But, why?" asked Kieri.

Erashi smiled again to reassure them that out of all decisions he took in life, this one was truly his own. Tears leaked out of the three elite warriors' eyes while Xiang slowly closed in to hear the commander's last words.

End of chapter twenty-six.