Memories
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“How much army did you face?” I asked Celine who was emptying the morning breakfast that was brought to my room. “Did you see the demon king?”
“No king. No general. It’s almost as if they wanted us to get that village.”
“What’s with the blood?”
“Blood of demonkind. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“Celine…”
“That’s all Ceron,” she gave me an annoyed look. “For god’s sake when are you going to start believing me?”
“That’s not it,” I edged closer in my bed, hushing my voice to a whisper. “I feel like the Union is hiding something from me.”
Celine stopped eating. She dropped the chicken leg she was tearing from her mouth and wiped the grime off her lips.
“You’re thinking too much.”
Perhaps she was right. But recently the council had been deciding to let me stay inside more and more. I was rarely sent into battle. Whenever there was something either Celine or another military commander would be sent to eradicate the threat.
“They are waiting so you could face Dalos in a final battle,” Celine said after hearing my explanation. “Stop overthinking Ceron. There’s nothing more to this than a simple war with demons.”
“You’re right,” I said, falling back to my bed. “All we have to do is kill demons.”
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There are three stages to dealing with a battle - handling the defense, preparing the offense and chasing after anyone that is fleeing. But during a sudden battle like what unravelled before me, there was no time for plans.
“They can break through your defenses,” I yelled, kicking my horse and galloping towards the front lines.
Ekta rode beside me, drawing her blade. “Spearmen, stand behind the shields.”
I could have called one of my formation patterns if the soldiers were mine. But all of them had new faces, and I was the demon king. I didn’t know what powers I had in my arsenal.
“Ekta,” I yelled at her over the shouts of the tribesmen. “Tell me how to use my powers.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t know? How are you not supposed to know?”
“There’s no time to be surprised. Just tell me whatever that I need to know.”
“It’s all on your skin,” she pointed at my tattoos. “Use them.”
“It’s not that easy-”
“Stand behind me!” she yelled, jumping out of her horse and drawing her two blades.
The tribesmen hit the shields at the same instant, breaking all the defense in the front lines and sending the soldiers scattering at them. But the spearmen who stood behind their backs extended their spears, greeting the approaching army with the edges of their weapons. The first few tribesmen charged right at the blades like idiots. A few piereced their hearts, and some their heads, but the rest kept moving, bringing their scythes to block the blades and charging at the spearmen wobbling behind.
Ekta was in the front lines in an instant. She cut through the tribesmen with ease and swift precision. I saw a few heads flying, another few running around with their arms flaying blood. Ekta’s blades reached the legs of the horses, cutting the creatures down and toppling down the riders.
Behind the spearmen were the swords, who started charging at whoever that managed to break the second line of defense. But even as their swords grazed their skin, the tribesmen moved past them, jamming their hands and into their hearts and skulls, and squeezing the blood out easier than squeezing lemons.
I dropped down from my horse and stood at the village entrance. If I had a damn rune near me I could have easily called upon fire, frost or even an illusion. I looked at my tattoos. The drawings were different from the ones in the runes.
I pointed a finger at one of the tribesmen hacking a soldier into pieces.
Ignos.
Nothing happened. No fire. Nothing.
Just then the tribesman turned to me. He gave a mad grin, and pulled back the scythe from the soldier.
I heaved a sigh. I’ve never fought one of them. But there was a first time for everything.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I picked up the sword of a fallen soldier and held it in defense. I thought the large man would be slow in his movements, but he was beside me in an instant, bringing the weapon to my lower leg, hoping to tear it off. I brought the sword down just in time to deflect the attack.
Damn tribesmen, always aiming for hands and legs so they can slice them off.
They might as well give their weapons to animals.
But as soon as I started deflecting the rest of the attacks that landed on me, I realized the demon king’s body had so much agility. My eyes witnessed the blade landing on me in half time, giving me easily enough time to deflect the attack and even launch an offense on my own. I blocked three more attacks, before elbowing the man in the face, and bringing my sword up to slash through his neck.
I stepped back as blood gushed out and fell down on my body, and the large man fell to his knees and embraced the ground.
One dead.
He was a man of the Union. A man who fought in the side I once belonged. But he was also a murderer. I couldn’t let him past the village.
I looked at the battlefield only to see more bloodshed, and a clear loss to our side.
Our side… I laughed at the thought. This was never my side. I should be happy to let the demon king’s army be dead. But not at the expense of innocents.
“Ekta,” I called her. She was slicing a tribesmen across the stomach. As soon as the corpse fell to the ground she was near me. “Is this our best army? Wasn’t there supposed to be reinforcements?”
“This wasn’t the plan,” she said. “But don’t worry, Malek is somewhere in that village casting his spell. Soon it will be-”
Before she could finish her sentence two tribesmen were right above us, with their weapons coming down to our heads. Ekta and I jumped in the opposite directions. I nearly skidded along the mud and fell upon the corpse of another soldier. I was back on my feet again to deflect an attack that sent me to the ground.
My opponent was larger than the last one. And he howled as he brought down the sword for a second time.
I jumped sideways, and the blade went grazing my arm. My blood boiled and I sent my sword slamming into the man’s leg. He howled in pain, but brought his fist to me at the same time. I dodged for a second time, but felt another corpse under my feet. I skidded and fell back to the ground.
The tribesman gave a grin mixed with agony and fury as he brought the blade up again.
Anytime now…
In that single moment the sky split open. Blue energy arced across the clouds before they started to swirl around. Cracks opened at the very center of the clouds and a demonic hand of a gargoyle crept out of the rift that opened. It emerged slowly - first its hand, then its twisted head, and finally its body, wings and legs.
A wingedling
It swooped down to the battlefield, giving a shrill scream as it flew above the soldiers.
That wasn’t all.
From each of the cracks that appeared at the sky, wingedlings escaped out, all swooping down towards the remaining tribesmen.
So this was what that bastard mage was doing. Is he responsible for the demonic summonings?
My thoughts shattered as I heard the tribesman in front of me scream. One of the creatures had plunged its claws to his shoulders while taking a clean bite off his head. It continued to tear off the rest of his head before dumping him back to the ground and flying towards another.
“Are you hurt?” Ekta was beside me. She helped up and I looked around to see the tribesmen dying one by one.
Ekta had a demonic smile in her lips. “The original plan at the council was to let the Union’s forces attack as first, let them think they are victorious, before summoning the demons and devouring them. But I never thought the bastards would send a murderous tribesmen in the first round. That damn hero is getting cockier each day.”
“He is,” I said, looking at the demons rip apart the last of the tribesmen. Now I needed answers more than anything. But I felt there would be another attack. If Celine was leading the charge then she wouldn’t accept defeat so easily. She’ll be back with her army. “What do we do now?”
“I recommend you take some rest,” Ekta said, wagging her blades to let off the blood. “In the meantime I might be able to teach you some magic.”
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After the fight was over the villagers started popping out of their houses like chickens out of eggs. They all came with tears of joy, waving hands and screaming my name.
“DALOS!”
“DALOS!”
“DALOS!”
I couldn’t believe what was unravelling in front of my eyes. These villagers loved the demon king. Some even came forwards with their children, raising their hands, hoping I would bless them with good luck.
I vaguely remember Ekta dragging me through the crowd to the village headman’s house. He was a man in his late sixties with a hunched back and a wrinkled face. He had his two grandchildren living with him - a girl and a boy not older than ten. When I walked into the house they walked at me and stared in awe.
The village headman on the other hand, nearly touched the ground trying to bow to me.
“Oh my lord, I don’t have words to describe what you’ve done. We are saved because of you and your armies once more.”
I looked at Ekta, who shrugged her shoulders. “His lordship is tired after the battle. We plan to rest until the next fight. Bring us some meals old man.”
He kept bowing as he dragged the two kids by his arms and walked away.
I sat on a half polished wooden bench, recalling the events that happened till then.
“They love me,” I said after a long silence. “How do they love me? I’m a monster.”
“You didn’t talk like that before,” Ekta leaned on a wall and started playing with her blades. “You’ve saved this village countless times. All of them owe you your life.”
“But why me? Shouldn’t they be going to the camp of the hero?”
“They are Legins. A race disgraced by the High Council. Even if they go in there they’ll be killed. A few years ago you saved them when the Union soldiers found this village. Ever since then they’ve been under your protection.”
Legins. I’ve heard of them. They have been a race of mages cast out since ancient times. One of my friends Jabel even had a prison full of them.
But why does a demon king protect Legins?
I looked at my hands. Was the demon king one of the Legins?
The council had hid information about the Legins for some reason. There was even a civil war that went on years before. But the same council had told me the Legins were an extinct race.
Was the council lying to me?
I shrugged away that thought. I needed to meet Celine as fast as possible before more mysteries start to spring up. But up until then I needed a way to fight whatever that came my way. If I could stop the army before they attacked the village I could save both the villagers and find a chance to talk to Celene.
But that required me to know about my powers.
“We’ll have a few hours before battle,” I said. “I need you to do two things. One, teach me how to use these tattoos. Two, give me an update on how much man power…or demon power we have.”
Ekta gave a nod. “Do you plan to fight them?”
I grimaced. “At this point, fighting back is our only option.”