Only less than five days before the Red Mist legion came to the doorstep of Tolemac. Five days before the potential end of Avalon itself. Everyone was on edge because of the obvious reasons. However, on the night that the legendary Durandal sword was lifted, the king of Avalon, Henry Leon, had another reason to be on edge. Meeting face to face with an accusation from the mysterious young man, Azar, the king did not look wavered, even for a second.
“What do you know about them ?”. Henry asked with a cold and chilling voice.
The curious Azar tried to act as nonchalantly as possible.
“You know the usual … the truth”. Azar chuckled a little. Then his voice gradually turned more and more serious with each word “Like how you let envy and fear cloud your judgments or how you fear your father would choose Perseus Leonidas to be the next king rather than you. And how you massacred the entire Leonidas bloodline, even the infants and servants… you know all the fun and casual stuff….”
The human king just laughed for a second before asking Azar, “Where did you hear such nonsense?”
Azar dryly answered, “ Liam Leonidas, Perseus Leonidas' third son.”
Henry was pushed back a little bit. And for the first time since the conversation, the king looked worried. “He is still alive !?! How did you even meet him ?”
“You like to ask a lot of questions, don’t you ?” Azar calmly answered, “But the answer only matters when you ask the right question ….”
The king stoically stood there for a few moments before finally asking Azar.
“Why is a story that happened 25 years ago suddenly so important that you have to sneak in here and ask me yourself ?”
“Now you’re getting it” Azar smiled and slowly walked deeper into the garden. The king would soon follow after him.
“Your past is coming back to haunt you, Henry….” Azar dropped all possible respectful words and addressed the human king by his name.
The king got offended, his eyes narrowed, and he stared at Azar like a predator looking at his prey. But at least for the moment, he had to swallow his pride; Azar had something he wanted.
“My past !?!” Henry grunted, “My past is as clean as a whistle. I have nothing to regret !”
“That’s not what Liam told me,” Azar shrugged. “And he is coming back for vengeance.”
“Coming back for …”, suddenly something sparked in his head. “You mean all of this is the boy's doing ?! All of the death and destruction ?! The whole Red Mist army ?”.
Azar just smiled and nodded his head.
“HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT !?!” Henry lost his composure and grabbed Azar by the shirt.
“Does it matter now ?” Azar was unhinged by Henry’s action. As a matter of fact, Azar felt a little amused that this little human thought he could harm him. Azar easily pulled Henry’s hand off and smiled like it was no big deal. “Remember Henry, you may be the ruler of Avalon, but I’m not one of you. I don’t have to answer you !”
“Who really are you !?!” Henry's voice turned threatening
“Just a lonely soul stuck in this hell,” Azar replied. “What about you, Henry. Who are you ?”
The human king took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. “I don’t know how you know about this. But you’re wrong !”
“Interesting, I can’t wait to see how you try to spin this.”
“I don’t need to. I just have to tell you the whole truth.”
“So you admit that you massacred Liam’s entire family, right ?”
“Yes, I did” The king swallowed his pride, “But not for greed or envy like he told you. I did it for Avalon !”
Azar laughed out loud. It was such a generic thing that a manipulative and cowardly human, like Henry to say, Azar could not help it.
“Do you know what's funny !? Trusting the story from a five years old boy !” Henry’s words cut Azar’s laughter short. Azar tilted his head, face filled with curiosity.
“Here is the real story. 25 years ago, my father was ill, his time with his beloved kingdom was running out. As such, many factions in and out of Avalon were making moves to try to take over. Liam’s father Perseus was among one of the highest ranking members of Avalon’s council. Indeed he got the support of many in the kingdom. As such when the time came and my father revealed that naturally, I would take on the crown as king of Avalon, he refused to accept. Behind everyone’s back, Perseus tried to call for the support of foriegn forces like Citnalta and Arcturus. He wanted to take the crown by force. Luckily, one of our intelligence forces caught his spies red handed. There was a lot of undenying evidence, so his punishment was ordered. As the prince and soon to be crowned king of Avalon, I was given the task to march toward his residence and execute his whole family, the punishment for treason.”
“You expect me to believe your words !?” Azar smirked, rolling his eyes.
“It’s the truth. And I don’t care if you believe me or not !” Henry replied with a firm and confident tone. Enough to make Azar rethink for a little bit.
“I feel no shame for what I have done. It’s my duty to my nation !” The human king added.
“So you’re saying that Liam lied ?”.
“No, …” A surprising and out-of-the-ordinary answer from Henry left Azar confused. “Liam believes what he believes. He was just a child back then, how could he comprehend what was going on. And, of course, Perseus wouldn’t tell his five years old son what he was really doing. He was a hero to many and to destroy his legacy like that ….”
“And what makes you think you did the right thing ?” Azar coldly questioned Henry.
“Like I said, it was the law. Perseus committed treason ….”
“I’m not talking about the punishment. I’m talking about the conviction !” Azar’s amber eyes pierced through Henry’s mortal soul.
“Conviction ?… Didn’t you hear what I said, we have found a lot of damning evidence supporting …”
“From who ? What exactly did you find ?”
“Documents, letters even the seals of the Leonidas’ family, not to mention ….” The king confidently answered.
“So easily forged material with no hard evidence. And you did not have conviction out of Perseus himself. You didn’t even give him a chance to explain himself.”
“We have got all the evidence we need ! And my sources all came from a reliable one, and not from the mouth of a five years old.”
“You mean like what happened not too long ago with me ?” Azar smirked. Henry suddenly felt a chill running down his spine. “Reliable sources, you mean from people you trust, someone like good old Harold ?...”
Henry was shaken to his core. Like what he just said about Liam, Henry never questioned what he believed either. However, that slight moment of wavering soon faded.
“And you, little boy, are basing all your argument from the fact that I was wrong. Back then things were different, people were different. You weren’t there !”
“And you’re so confident in yourself that you never even considered that you were in the wrong !? Even though we both know that you have been betrayed and blindsided by your right hand man. And who knows how many more and for how long !?” Azar shouted back.
“You weren’t there, BOY ! You’re just a child listening to a narrator without ever questioning if he is making it up or not ! You are so sure that you’re the smartest person in the world, yet you haven’t learnt the first lesson about mankind.”
“And that is ?!” Azar arrogantly replied.
“Everybody lies !!!”
“Oh, trust me,” Azar stared into the human king’s eyes, “I know humans lie !”
And at last, Henry had enough of Azar’s utter disrespect.
“This meeting is over !!!” Henry turned to the castle and shouted, “Guard !!”. But when he turned back, Azar was already gone.
**************
With each moment passed, Azar felt like he understood even less about what was going on between Avalon and Liam Leonidas. As much as he hated to admit it, Henry did have a point. Azar did not know the truth himself. All he knew was what Liam and Henry told him. No real hard evidence, no reliable eyewitness, it was a simple case of ‘he said - he said.’ Liam had no reason to lie to Azar, and Henry did admit that he killed Liam’s whole family. But if what Henry said was true, he had all the right to execute Perseus and his family. Treason was the highest and most incriminating crime a person could commit. And the penalty for it was death. Azar based most of his logical thinking on the fact that Henry was in the wrong. He was a coward of a king and somewhat of a liar. However, based on Henry's reaction to Azar’s accusation, Henry did not look like he was lying. Henry truly believed what he said. But still, it did not exclude the possible chance that Henry himself was blinded by a third party.
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Azar wanted to clear his mind. He urged for some peace and quiet, far away from all humans. And one place popped into his mind.
“Ahhh …” Azar lay comfortably on the grass field next to the hidden lake that Sasha had shown him a few days ago. “She is right, … It is peaceful here….”
Azar closed his eyes and covered himself with darkness. He did not know which side was telling the truth. However, at that exact moment, underneath the watchful moon and the ever-shining North Star, a flicker of memory sparked into his head.
“Does it matter, who really starts it first?” That was the lesson God had taught him the first time Azar met him. Azar was not there. He couldn’t judge which one was right or wrong. That was in the past, and Azar couldn’t change the past. All he could do was judge them for what they were doing. And no matter how Azar could understand where Liam was coming from, what he did was unacceptable. Henry may not be suited to be king, but judging by Avalon, he hadn’t done such a bad job himself, even though Azar doubted Henry did all of that on his own.
“Tomorrow … I will think about this tomorrow….” Azar told himself. And off to slumber he went.
***********
4 days before the Red Mist legion arrived, Tolemac had done whatever it could to prevent the potential downfall of Tolemac and the nation of Avalon. All reinforcements had come; within the wall of Tolemac stood 10000 of Avalon’s soldiers, around 4000 volunteers, and 1000 mages. The royal family still remained within the safety of the castle wall and was guarded by a couple hundred elite soldiers. Preparation was all done, and next came the excruciatingly painful and nerve-wracking waiting period.
With the Red Mist’s marching method, no one could tell where they were and how close they were. They would dictate the when. All Tolemac could dictate was the where. Azar could see it in the eyes of all those puny humans, the fear of the unknowing. The dark circles under their eyes, the rumbling in their stomachs, and the little uncontrollable trembling in their fingers were clear indications that most of them had not eaten or slept well for the last few days. And that fact wasn’t going to change anytime soon. The closer the day came, the even more nerve-wracking it became. They were facing what they thought was a legendary army, entering a battle that they already believed to lose before it even began. Azar could not blame them for feeling that way.
Tolemac felt so strange now that it was mostly deserted. It gave Azar a blast in the past. Back then, Azar had seen many abandoned villages and even a whole region just like this each time those humans came. Azar first thought that seeing humans suffering just like how he and his people did would bring him some joy, a sort of poetic justice. But that feeling never came. Instead, there was only a feeling of emptiness, just like the street of Tolemac was.
“Why can’t I feel joy anymore …” Azar frustratingly punched through a wall.
“Curse this human form! Curse these human feelings !!!” Azar furiously knocked down another stone wall. Azar hated himself for even having an ounce of sympathy for these humans, for all they had done to him; they deserved this and more. So why was he not feeling happy?
Azar felt ashamed of himself to even feel like that as if he was dishonouring his own heritage.
“Heart and duty … fuck my life !”
3 more days passed, and Azar still felt nothing. Seeing how those humans rapidly crumbled mentally like dried breadcrumbs was not as satisfying as he had hoped for, to say the least. Those dreadful faces, those forlorn soulless eyes, they all reminded Azar so much of the past, and Azar hated it.
One more night before, Liam and the Red Mist legion of undead came knocking on Tolemac’s door. 15000 humans were about to defend against 70000 undead summons, and they didn’t even know what to expect. Azar could already predict the ending of this siege.
“These humans don’t stand a chance.”
Yet to his surprise, even though their current morale was at an all-time low, throughout the last five days, none of them ran away. Even though they had not seen the enemy themself, based on the fact that they easily passed the Eastern wall and from what that human survivor told them, every one of them knew the scale of the army and the creatures they were controlling. Tolemac was going to fall, and it was only a matter of time. But still, all of them were ready to die for it.
Perhaps it was because they understood that if Tolemac fell, then Avalon would not survive anyway, but still, it was another similarity Azar found between those humans at the moment and his kingdom in the past. Back then, even though the human army came in vast numbers, and a lot of the time, they carried powerful relics and mastered powerful magic, his army’s will never waver even for a second. That was how his kingdom could still stand for so long.
However, some faces were more stressful than others. Azar spotted Sasha roaming through the halls of the castle. After that day, Sasha became a beacon of hope … but it was very short-lived. She got the sword alright, but she had shown no special power since she got it, and before, Sasha was known as only a good fighter, nothing more. Everyone first got excited about the news, but when they found out who actually lifted the sword and learned her background, that fire of hope dimmed down. And all the pressure from the Red Mist and expectation from the other humans had clearly gotten to Sasha. She looked like a walking dead herself. Sasha’s skin colour looked pale, her breathing was heavy, her legs just could not stop moving, and her fists were always held tight.
“If she only knew …”. Azar had already made his decision before the incoming war. He might not know if he would step in to help defend Avalon or not, but he wasn’t going to let Sasha and Elly die like that. If Munir was to stay behind as well, Azar would save him too. The fact that Munir left early made Azar’s job a little easier. However, Azar still did not know how he was going to do that while concealing his secret.
“Master …” A gruff voice reached his ears. But no one was around Azar; he was very certain of it.
“Master … why do you look so worrisome !?”. Azar took a look at the black quill on his side.
“You !?”
“Yes master …” The Soul Taker scythe answered him.
“I thought I told you that I’ll summon you when you are needed .”
“You did, master …” It replied. “And it seems like you need my assistance right now ….”
“I’m not in any danger.”
“But the one you care about does, isn’t that right ?”
“Don’t let your imagination run wild….” Azar coldly replied, “And it’s not what you are insinuating. This particular one is just ….”
“That still doesn’t explain why you looked just as nervous as she is.” Azar could sense a little bit of sarcasm in the scythe tone.
“You were saying you could help ?” Azar leered at the weapon and spoke in a more serious tone.
“Ah yes, don’t get angry young master. I was just having a little fun after such a long sleep.” The weapon’s voice grew more humble and obedient. “I can help her, master. Just like how I can give you my power, I can give it to her as well. If you command me of course.”
“Is there any side effect I should know beforehand? Magic and power like yours and mine usually come with a hefty price.”
“That’s the beauty of it, master. She may wield the power, but you’re still the one controlling me. Anytime you want to stop, you can just call for me and I will be right back on your side. You will control when she receives the power, and when she has to give it away. No draw back, no penalty, nothing.”
Azar stared at the scythe for a split second, then gave a menacing grin.
**************
The sun had risen once more to the city of Tolemac, but unlike a week ago, the streets were quiet, not a sound to be made. It was the seventh day and based on intelligence, that was the day the legendary Red Mist army came to siege Tolemac. Everyone was at their battle station, and the whole place was stench with the smell of sweat at that point.
After the brief discussion with the Soul Taker scythe last night, Azar could let his mind at ease. He had a plan. Easily sneaking past all the unimportant and nervous humans, Azar caught up to Sasha, who was stationed alongside her own squad of Royal Guards. He then tapped her gently on the shoulder and greeted her with a bright smile.
“Hey ! I got something I need to give you !” Azar waved his hand like a little child saying hello to his childhood friend.
“AZAR !?!” Sasha was understandably shocked to find Azar not only still in Tolemac but somehow got through so many others without getting noticed before reaching her. “The … What !?! Why are you … What are you even doing here !!!?”
“Come on, …” Azar gestured to Sasha to follow him. “I have something for you.” Then just like how he came, he casually walked away without anyone even bothering to question him.
Everyone alongside Sasha also looked baffled at how comfortable and nonchalantly Azar was acting.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING !?!” Sasha’s face was red with anger. “Don’t you understand the stake here !!!”.
However, it didn’t look like Azar cared about what Sasha had just said. Instead, he just took out a black quill and then gave it to Sasha.
“What’s that !??!” Sasha curiously asked while looking closely at what Azar held in his hand.
“Just take it. It’s … my lucky quill !”. Sasha could almost see the smile in his bright amber eyes with every word he said. She felt amazed, not just by Azar’s seemingly absolute optimism despite facing the uncertainty. But more because Azar said he had a lucky quill.
“You … have a lucky quill ???”. Of all the lucky items someone like Azar may keep, a quill was the last thing Sasha would have guessed.
“Yep, that’s my lucky quill. But I'll let you have it for now”
“I don’t need luck, Azar.” Sasha tried to put on a smile and give it back. But Azar held her hand tight, not allowing her to let go of his quill. And when Sasha took a look into his warm amber eyes, she had a feeling that this was more for Azar than for her.
“I am not giving you my quill. I’m letting you borrow it, for good luck. And I fully expect to get it back. After all of this.”. The little playful nonchalant voice of Azar was all gone. Instead, his voice sounded warm and sincere, something Sasha did not ever think she would get to hear.
“Alright then …” Sasha put the quill on her side and smiled gently. “I promise I’ll return it to you.”
“You better be …” Azar pulled back. “You’re about to face a large number of enemies, stay in position, retrain yourself from going too much on offense. Focus on counter and parry instead, with the advantage of number, they will come to you instead. And always, ALWAYS fight in groups, DO NOT get isolated….”
Sasha was baffled by how much this guy was trying to do.
“Stop !” Sasha set Azar straight. “I don’t need your saving Azar. I can handle myself quite well.”
“Oh I know you don’t need any help …” Azar was actually talking about how she just received the Soul Taker, making her potentially the strongest human in the battle. “I know that you’re strong. But remember, strong fighters don’t lose to powerful oppponets, they lose to weak ones because they underestimate them. Do not get careless out there !”. And the last part was mainly because Azar did not want to show off the scythe's power too much. He only wanted to activate it when and only when necessary. So if Sasha suddenly charged right in the middle of the enemy’s line, forcing Azar to activate the weapon’s power, it would immensely change the battle's tide.
However, the soft, warm, husky voice, the all so unintentionally sweet words, and the caring gesture could make everyone who saw it have a very different idea.
Sasha responded only with a smile. In her eyes, she thought she had figured out something about Azar. All of the playfulness smiled and no-fuck-given talk. It was just all part of the act for him, a way to make him look like a tough guy. Yet, behind all of that, he still cared, even perhaps just a little bit overcaring.
“Aw …” a strange, mysterious noise suddenly appeared. Azar instantly recognized where it came from. It was the Soul Taker. But for Sasha, it took her by complete surprise.
“Wait, did you hear that !?!” Sasha rapidly looked around. However, no one was even close to them.
“What was what !?!” Azar played it as if he did not hear anything. “Don’t let your head get the better of you now ! Stay focused alright ..”
Sasha scratched her head. She could have sworn she heard something. But Azar was right; it was not important right now. And just before Sasha was about to say goodbye, the sky turned gray. A thick red fog smothered the air around Tolemac. The time had come. Sasha quickly went back to her post and saw what was going on.
The red mist got thicker and thicker, almost to the point of swallowing the whole city. Then out of nowhere, the sound of footsteps and horse hooves shocked the walls of Tolemac. And slowly, one by one, the entire undead army of the Red Mist army showed itself.