Ok so first of all, I would like to apologise for not posting yesterday.  I was about halfway through writing the chapters for that day when I got a phone call from my mother telling me that my uncle had just passed away due to a car accident.

So I dropped what I was doing, called in to work to let them know that I would not be there and me and the wife headed out to kentucky, which is where we are right now. I do not have access to my computer seeing as it is back in kansas where I live so there will also be no chapter today(sorry, I am writing this via my iphone)

Once again I am sorry for the chapter delays, this really was an unexpected event and I hope you all understand.  I should be back home wednesday so I will try my damnedest to get a chapter out for you by then.

I write to help relieve stress, so trust me I will be doing a lot of that once I get home.

On the weekends I don't post anything that doesn't mean I don't write, as an apology have a sneak peak(first half of chapter 1) at a fiction I have been writing in the past month or so, it is called Penance and it is a little different from what I normally write, think spice and wolf meets Demon’s souls and you will have a good Idea of what it will be like.

I am really sorry, I will hopefully see you all again tomorrow with some chapters...

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[http://i.imgur.com/oyTJblF.jpg]

The road lay out before him was a long one, with the sound of a rustling leather, he rose to his feet.  His paint horse looked over.  A slight pang of loneliness crept in, but he brushed it aside with a shrug and a sigh.

His red hair was close cropped, as he might have to go many days between baths, it was easier to keep short hair. On his chin was a short red beard; he remembered his father having one and felt that one suited him as well, he didn’t let it grow to far as to be a hassle, but it was a noticeable length.  Coupled with his blue eyes there was no way anyone would mistake him for anything other than a Kalrnian from the northern country.

He put his left foot in the stirrup and swung his right leg over the horse.   Every time he mounted he remembered his training.

‘We mount from the near side, do you know why boy?’ In his memory, he remembered his meek self as almost another person; it had truly been a different world and life back then. ‘It is so that you don’t get your sword stuck. If you mount from the off side your sword will prevent the movement of your leg over the horse, thus making it so you cannot mount.’

A small smile spread across his face as he remembered the gruff old Knight; the man that had taken him from his life and forged him anew. It was all just another reminder of what had been lost.

Of the sins he had committed and those he had done to him.

He shook his head clearing the thoughts out of it, they would do him no good here, in this moment.

The horse snorted as though it understood and he patted the beast’s neck in appreciation.

Due to the hot summer day, he wore only a hardened leather and chain gambeson, greaves, and boots. Opting to leave the heavier, thicker iron plate in the bags behind his saddle. The bastard sword he had tied to his hip however stayed where it was. Though the weight and size of the blade made movement more difficult, he refused to have it leave his side.

He and the paint moved at a slow canter as they crest the ridge. The path on which they traveled had not to long ago been frequented by peddlers He could tell the merchants had been through here by the wagon marks in the now dry path.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Now however. Now there was not a soul in sight.

This was to be expected however, no one would ever travel this close to a demon’s lair willingly.

Well, almost no one…

At the top of the hill he pulled back on the reins, slowing his horse and looking out over the plains before him. About halfway down the hill, the forest suddenly disappeared into flowing into waves of gold. Had there been people living here, they would have gotten a full harvest of wheat this year.

Over the crest of the next hill the tip of a spire could be seen, its white wash peeled away revealing the clay and straw bricks underneath. At the top of the building a large copper bell gleamed in the sun.

It struck him as gaudy to be this far from a large town and to have such a tall chapel in the middle of no man’s land. The bell stood out defiantly as though tempting anyone to attack the building.  The knight had the upmost respect for the men of the forward churches, as they went to spread their faith into lands that were hostile to them.  This however was not a forward church; this establishment was much too grand to be the home of an errant priest.

Though its coloring was peeling from the walls, this church was quite well off.

Large double doors backed with steel bars stood wide open, almost like they were opened from the inside instead of breached.  Scars marred the wooden surface, telling tales of the valiant defence of the wall.

Of humanity's last stand here.

The courtyard was filled with peach and hawthorn trees.  The once kempt lawns and walkways told of the skill of the groundskeeper.  All of this however was juxtaposed by the dried stains of dark reddish brown and the scattered remains of its inhabitants. Dismounting he lead his horse over to the stable found on the left side of the entrance.

He pulled the blade free from the leather scabbard, it made a hushed sound as the blade slid free.  He propped the blade on his gambersoned shoulder and started looking around, it was his job to return this area to humanity.

He pulled the armor down off of the horse and went about putting it on.

He was clothed in cotton over which he wore a leather gambeson greaves and boots, and over that he put on the iron plated armor; all in all he was wearing three layers of protection. The layers were heavy, but their purpose was to protect, not for comfort. Picking up the bastard blade he rested it on his shoulder and made his way inside.

He had work to do.

[Inside the fallen church.]

She sighed as she leaned up against the bars of her cell.

Honestly , how had she gotten here? How had she, the most powerful demon to walk the lands in the past 150 years gotten captured by some upstart?

The simple answer?

She had been cocky.

This place drained her power away, not all of it but the holy places of humans definitely weakened her, couple this with her underlings supposed loyalty to her and her cause, his betrayal had caught her by surprise.

It shouldn't have, he was after all like her, a demon.  

If she was being at all honest with herself she would have to admit the plan he had set was indeed a great one. It had almost all the bases covered, she had come out here to congratulate the young demonlord,  it was important to keep her troop's morale up during this long and arduous war with the humans.

Humans.

They may be one of the lesser races, neither their strength nor their numbers gave them any advantages.  Rather there ingenuousness, there tactical savvy, and the unbelievable determination they possessed were the reasons they were so hard to deal with.  

This war between human and, well, everyone else was one that was started long before her time, it was one passed down to her from her father.

With a sigh she pressed her head against the bars of her cage, she had to get out of here and punish that little bastard who thought he could not only take her place but also that she would submit to him, both physically as well as sexually.

As if she would ever lay with a bastard like him, even in this weakened state he would never try to lay a hand on her, lest he lose the hand.

She was looking around her cell for any means of escape when she felt it. The presence of someone, of someone human. Though dampened her sinces might be there was no way she would have missed that feeling, it was something that had been drilled into her from childhood.

A human was here?

Why? To reclaim the area? It couldn't be, how would one human mange to do that? It was not possible.  

Was it?

She shook her head, perhaps not, but if he could make it this far, maybe she could tempt him to open her cell door…

Sighing and shoved aside the pride that was in every fiber of her body she opened her mouth and shouted, for the first time in her life she called for help.