In a faraway pine forest, a bright blue teleporting matrix appeared in midair.
Three children fell out from the magic circle to the ground. Fortunately, the magic circle was not really high so they did not bruise their bodies.
“Are you guys okay? Where… where are we?”
The pink haired Noori asked in uncertainty. She had never been to this wilderness before.
“I’m… I’m not sure…”
Azriel’s voice became smaller and smaller as he did not know where he had teleported them as well. He quickly analyzed the surroundings.
“There are still a lot of pine trees around. It means that we are still in Northern Lumovas.” – said the prince.
Noori helped Rigel to sit up. The boy was dizzy from the teleportation.
The three children sat exhaustively in the dark forest, remembering what had happened.
Tears of sorrow rolled down on Rigel’s cheeks. He tried to wipe them with his sleeves but he could not stop sobbing. Influenced by his cry, Noori also started to snuffle.
Kole fort was in chaos. Rigel saw with his own eyes that Alos Solinue had stabbed his aunt - Astraea Solinue with a knife in her stomach. After that, the knights betrayed Rigel and the fallen Duchess. They tried to catch Rigel but Azriel saved him. When two boys were under the blades of the assassins, Noori saw them so she screamed out loud to distract the enemies’ attention. Azriel and Rigel escaped death for that, but the little girl was also caught in the chaos when the assassins tried to silence her. Eventually, the three children escaped Kole fort by Azriel’s teleportation magic.
Rigel did not know if Astraea could survive, but despair led him toward the negative thought. For some reason, Rigel could not contact Eithne, and the War priest who came with her said that she must go elsewhere urgently. The War priest later entered the battlefield in Kole fort and went missing in monster tides, so there was no one left to protect Rigel against Alos Solinue. He must seek help from his friends - the crown prince Azriel Daneva and Noori Gynren.
Azriel scratched his head in frustration.
His bodyguards had betrayed him!
When Azriel was dealing with the assassins, his bodyguards were nowhere to be seen. His first teleportation’s destination was in a remote village, so he sent them his location through a confidential messenger. Nobody else should have read the information except his bodyguards, so when the carriage was ambushed, Azriel knew that his information had been leaked.
‘When I can get out of here, I’ll deal with them.’ – Azriel thought.
His eyes were filled with anger. If his mana was not exhausted, he might have teleported back to the Imperial Palace. The fact that he could perform teleportation was also a secret, so they had a chance to escape when the assassins did not take him seriously.
The young prince took the magic staff in his hand. The brownish staff was hideous. It had no embedded jewelry or a defined shape, just like a long block of clay that somebody casually threw in a corner. With his status as the crown prince, he could have hundreds of better-looking equips. However, this ugly staff was the best magic medium that Azriel ever received.
‘I can perform teleportation with this staff in only two month of learning magic. Most people need more than ten years of practice.’ – Azriel clenched the staff. ‘Thank you… Alipes.’
He pressed on the staff’s hidden button.
A ray of red light shot from the head of the staff toward a direction.
“That direction should be the temple of Death. Let’s move now.”
Azriel told the crying Rigel and Noori.
“Can I send the location to my parents?” – Noori asked.
She had her own messenger device on her necklace.
“Are you sure that there is no spy among your family’s knights?” – Azriel asked.
“No… but I…” – The girl was reluctant.
“Please don’t do it until we reach the Death temple, it’s for the safety of the three of us…”
The prince said. He exhaled heavily.
“Okay.” – Noori felt dejected.
Rigel pulled her to stand up.
“I’m sorry. It’s all because of me that we are stuck here.” – He said.
“Don’t be sad about that. I will be in greater danger without you guys.”
Azriel consoled Rigel. Thinking about his betrayed bodyguards, Azriel shivered. They could have silently killed him before he intervened in the mess of Solinue Duchy, he would not have a chance to be here with Rigel and Noori.
“My mom told me to help people in need. So if I ever get back in time, I will help you again anyway.”
Noori held Rigel’s hand, trying to speak positively with her tired voice.
“Alright, let’s go.” – Azriel said.
The three kids embarked on their journey into the dark wood, following the faint red light ray shining from the prince’s staff as their last beacon of hope…
Darkness brought despair for the young lambs who were afraid of it. The worst monsters in the fairytales always came from the dark, so they could not help but shiver before the lurking horror during the night. The bark of old pines seemed to distort into menacing ghostly faces. Howls of animals echoed like a calling of devils. Any rustle of dry leaves could startle them, as if it was the sound of witches sharpening their chopping knives for a feast on children meat…
…
As Noori’s body was tormented with stress and tiredness, she started to feel depressed. The sounds of wild animals triggered her imagination of horrendous figures, thus a fear in her naïve head. She clenched Rigel’s hand tightly and sometimes shut her eyes so that she did not have to see the forest’s scary darkness, but closing her eyes brought the same darkness so the girl was struggling in between. The girl earnestly prayed to the Peace Goddess to save her out of this place.
Similarly, Rigel and Azriel could feel a depression creeping to their hearts. The road ahead was still so long, nothing seemed to have changed even though they had been walking for an hour. The pines were still growing densely and there was not a single sign of human, but they were already so weary to the point that lifting their feet was painful.
It was the first time that the kids had ever been in such a wilderness without an adult. They had no torch, no food, no water, no blanket to shield them from the coldness of the northern atmosphere.
The silence between them was increasing over time because they had no energy to talk. They were hungry, sleepy and terrified.
“I think… I’m going to faint…”
Noori limply fell down on her knees. Her body was not in her control anymore. The girl’s eyelids eventually closed.
“Noori! Noori!”
Rigel shook the girl. Because of the strong shaking, Noori could not fall into slumber right away.
“Stop… stop shaking. I’m awake!” – She waved her hand to tell Rigel that she was still alive.
Azriel sat down beside them. He was also tired to the point that he could not see the red light properly. Thankfully, Azriel could still gather mana to endure the fatigue. Mana could temporarily substitute food energy, but Rigel and Noori could not use mana yet.
“Let’s rest here for a bit.” - Azriel said.
The other two kids completely agreed.
“How long do we have to go?” – Rigel asked.
“I’m not sure…”
After walking for so long, Azriel started to doubt if heading to the Death temple was a right decision. To go the Death temple in the north from the capital in the south, they must travel pass Kole fort. What if he accidentally teleported them to a place that was further to the south direction from Kole fort?
‘I wish I could have a map that mark my current location…’
Azriel squeezed his forehead.
“I have restored a bit mana on our way. Let’s make a campfire.”
He flicked his fingers. A small flame appeared on his finger’s tip. The prince then dropped the fire onto a bunch of dried leaves which burned slowly.
The small kids looked at Azriel with expectations. It was clear that they wanted to see something greater.
“Don’t look at me like that. I have no more mana.” – Azriel scoffed. “Also, I’m not a fairy that can turn air into food.”
“…”
The obvious disappointment was shown on Noori and Rigel’s faces.
The children were trying to warm up their body next to the fire. Suddenly, they heard loud noises from the bush nearby.
Rustle! Scratch! Scratch!
“!!!”
The children were startled so they stand up right away.
Scratch! Scratch!
The tree bush shook. From the bush, a pale woman suddenly stood up.
“Hello.”
She greeted.
“Who are you?” – Rigel warily asked.
Noori hid behind two boys.
The woman’s facial features were common. She had brown eyes and brown hair, just like any random villager in Northern Lumovas. Her hair was tied up into a low bun behind her head by a white cloth, while her outfit resembled a commoner’s midwife with dark dress and white apron.
Suspiciously, the woman’s face was lifeless. Even the light from the campfire could not light up her eyes that were so dull. She stood in the bush, with her feet were covered by leaves.
“Are you alright? You look tired.” – said the woman.
Her words sounded like she wanted to help.
The children glanced at each other.
“Do you know the way to the Death temple?” – Rigel asked.
“I don’t know.”
The woman replied. Her voice was emotionless, while her dead-looking eyes were not focusing on the people that she supposed to look at while talking.
“It was dangerous in the wood. Do you want food?” - She asked.
Azriel stopped Rigel from saying anything. The prince shook his head.
“No. We don’t want food.”
“Do you want water?”
“No. We don’t want water.”
“Do you want money?”
“No. We don’t need money.”
“Do you want warm clothes?”
“No need.”
“Do you want a house?”
“No.”
The conservation between the woman and Azriel went back and forth, until the woman listed out the last thing that she wanted to offer.
“Do you want whores?”
The woman asked. Her face was still devoid of emotion, as if she was just repeating a script prepared beforehand. Everything that she offered were common desires of normal people, including sexual desires. However, it was not logical anymore when she wanted to give the children prostitutes. As if she had recognized the error, the woman quickly changed the topic.
“You’re injured. Let me treat you.”
She spoke tonelessly, then she bended down to get out of the bush.
Azriel quickly pulled Rigel and Noori away from the woman.
“RUN!” – He yelled.
The three kids gathered the last bits of their strength to sprint. When they turned their heads back to look, they saw the woman had gotten out of the bush. Her lower body were bloodied.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The ground shook violently.
Azriel, Rigel and Noori stopped running. Before them, the darkness behind the pine trees was strangely trembling. The children could see a hazy cave was slowly opening up at about twenty steps away from them. A strong wind suddenly blew out from the cave that almost blew the three children away. That wind had a repugnant smell of rot.
“What’s happening?” – Noori cried.
Azriel bit his lower lip.
“Monster.”
His voice was hoarse, as he was trying hard to press down his weep of fear.
Rigel withdrew his sword. It was the heirloom of Solilnue Duchy – a short hiltless blade with a white gemstone in the middle. Azriel pointed his staff toward the mysterious cave. The young prince suddenly realized that there was a black wall around them.
The wall was very hard to see in the dark. It started from the cave and extended toward the strange woman standing far away.
Azriel used his mana to create light. Using the light, the children finally saw the true nature of the wall around them. It was a pair of grotesquely huge arms that enclosed the entire area within its hug. The corpse-like woman was at the end of an arm, while her lower body was controlled by a gaunt hand like a ghastly puppet show. Whereas the mysterious cave resembled a huge opening mouth, where rotten flesh and saliva were seeping down from the cave’s celling.
Turned out… they had always been in the monster’s trap!
“Slek… slek… slek…”
Loud whispers echoed from the monster’s cavernous mouth. It sounded as if there was a bustling town hidden inside the cave, luring lost victims to enter the monster’s stomach themselves.
“Hic! Hic…!”
Noori could not contain her fear anymore. She broke down in tears.
“To the left!” – Azriel shouted.
The boys picked up Noori and ran as fast as they could to the left elbow of the monster. The woman corpse was controlled by the left hand so the monster could not use the puppet to attack them.
“Huff… huff!”
The children panted. They ran without looking back.
Behind them, a long black tongue creeped out from the cave. It carefully touched the ground like a newborn worm, then abruptly stretched out toward the children!
“!!!”
Rigel widened his eyes. He let go of Noori’s hand and swung his sword to their back.
Slash! The silver blade easily sliced the tip of the tongue.
The cut-off tongue segment fell to ground and bounced up like a living fish. A white fire suddenly flared up on the black tongue that quickly spread toward the rotten mouth of the monster.
“Shreekkkkk!!!”
A horrendous scream came out from the cavernous mouth.
“Good job, Rigel!” – said Azriel.
“Thanks.”
Rigel nodded. The heirloom of Solinue had a special characteristic that he had yet to completely master it. The dukedom’s legends stated that the hiltless blade contained a powerful energy that could erase all the filths of the world. It was the strongest weapon against darkness and corruption.
“Ah – !”
Azriel was gathering his mana when he saw the monster’s arm moved.
“The monster is retracting its arms!”
“Shreekkkkk!!!”
The cavernous mouth fiercely shrieked. Two colossal arms then started to narrow the enclosure around its three measly preys. The monster did not plan to reveal all of its camouflage originally, but the strange white flame had completely provoked its violent temper.
Crack! Crack! Bam! Crack! Slam!
All the pine trees that stood in the huge arms’ way were knocked down and collapsed on each other. Together with the monster’s arms, they became a deadly meat crusher to the tiny children that could not escape the enclosure.
‘My mana isn’t enough to teleport!’
Azriel clenched his magic staff and closed his eyes. The prince gritted his teeth to create the last shield barrier with his last bits of mana. He barely had any power to take them fly out of this place.
“I’m sorry, mom… dad…” – Noori murmured.
She looked at the tall pines covering the sky above her head. The thick trunks were falling down onto them from every direction, there was no way to escape. The crushing of trees ahead, the cavernous mouth of the monster behind was cornering them step by step.
Crash!
The mana shield of Azriel was broken.
“Cough!”
The prince coughed off blood. He had overexerted his power limit.
Rigel used his sword to slash one more black tongue that almost ambushed them. Even so, the rotten smell kept coming closer no matter how much tongues that he had sliced off.
A huge shadow loomed over their heads. Drops of saliva mixed with gore drooled down next the children. The monster’s mouth now appeared above them, slowly descending to swallow them all.
The children closed their eyes.
When the pitch dark was the only thing in their vision, the rotten smell filled their noses, the desperate children hugged and cried to say goodbye to each other.
…
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Four loud noises suddenly exploded next to the children’s ears.
They opened their eyes and saw a faint crimson light in the dark. The mysterious red light came from four columns that rose up from the ground around them, steadily pushing the monster’s mouth up.
Crack, crack… The monster’s jaw was forced to open.
“Got ya!”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The children had yet to recognize the situation when they fell into a warm hug. Quickly, the three kids were lifted up and brought out of the monster’s mouth.
“Ah!”
Noori shouted out in surprise. She looked back to see their savior was a woman whose hair and eyes were jet black. The woman had a confident smile on her face, and her eyes seemed to contain the stars of hope for the kids.
“Hello! I’m Pristine! Hehe, you’re saved. Surprise?”
Pristine carried Noori and Rigel on one arm and Azriel on the other arm, still she was full of energy. The woman agilely kicked on the collapsed tree trunks to spring up like a skillful squirrel, just within three seconds, she had taken them out of the monster’s closing arms.
“Huh… Ah!”
Rigel shouted when Pristine jumped down from a very high tree branch to the ground. His heart almost fell out of his chest because of the landing shock. It was at least six meter high!
Pristine only let the kids down when she ran quite far away from the monster that its arms could not reach them.
“Huff… huff… thank you… thank you so much…”
Azriel hugged his chest and sincerely thanked her. He had thought his life had ended in the monster’s stomach. The boy sat on the ground exhaustedly, same as Rigel and Noori.
“Thank… thanks for saving us… Hicc…” – Rigel and Noori cried.
Pristine wiped her forehead.
“Phew! I’m almost late. Haha!” – She laughed, waving her hand. “Anyway, wait for me here. I still need to deal with that monster.”
The woman withdrew two machetes from her back belt. She ran all the way back to the monster.
“Wait… wait…”
The kids could not stop her fast enough when Pristine already snuck in between the monster’s arms again.
“Why is she so fast…?”
They could only helplessly look at her disappeared figure.
Pristine jumped on a tilting pine tree. She could see four crimson columns had temporarily stunned the monster.
“Hm…”
She squinted her eyes. Pristine raised her machete in front of her eyes to estimate the distance.
Black holy power gathered in her hands, augmenting the blades that she held.
“Your brain must be here!”
The woman bent her knees then launched herself from the tree like an arrow toward a point above the monster’s mouth. She fiercely stabbed the machete inside. In the crimson light, Pristine could see the true appearance of the monster.
“Tsk! Just a pile of dirt with a large mouth!”
The monster resembled a hill with a cave as its mouth with two huge arms grew out from its sides. Currently, it was stuck with four thick columns stabbing in its mouth’s roof.
Dark holy power exploded from the tip of Pristine’s machete. It formed a larger blade overlapping the machete which allowed her to stab deeper into the monster.
“Ha!” – She shouted, lifting her blade to slice open the monster’s skull.
However, it felt like she had only cut through rough soil with nothing between.
“Huh?”
Pristine’s pupils shrank. She quickly leapt backward when the huge hand of the monster slammed at her previous spot.
Bang!
The hand chased after Pristine to catch her, but her quick feet did not let her down.
Bang! The hand slammed on the ground again but they missed the target.
Pristine circled around the collapsed tree trunks so that the monster could not reach her through small gaps.
“Tsk! It can mobilise its brain!”
Suddenly, Pristine saw a pale woman thrust toward her. The lower body of the pale woman was replaced a grisly huge hand drenched in blood. It was clearly that the monster had just obtained the corpse puppet recently as the smell of blood was still fresh.
The corpse puppet swung its dark claws toward Pristine. She nimbly bent backward and flash-kicked in the puppet’s face, then launched another side kick to the puppet’s stomach.
The machete in her hand spun and quickly cut through the puppet’s arm.
Slash!
One arm of the puppet fell out. Instead of blood, there were squirming black tongues falling out.
“Urgh, my Lord this is disgusting!” – Pristine frowned.
She quickly got out from the small space under the collapsed tree.
“It is useless to fight the puppet. I need to kill the main head.” – She thought.
Pristine sprang toward the monster’s mouth again.
“Shreeek…”
The monster grumbled. It used two huge arms to lift its mouth off the four pointy columns. Its body was now able to freely move.
In an eyeblink, a human figure appeared in its vision.
She climbed on one of its arms and jumped toward the monster’s gaping mouth. Pristine rose the long blade manifested from holy power above her head. She intended to slice the monster into two halves!
Suddenly, Pristine saw a magenta fluid coming out from the monster’s mouth.
“Holy shit!”
The monster was about to vomit poison in her face!
Pristine quickly changed her posture into defense. A monster arm swept through and smacked her like a fly.
“!!!”
Bam!
Pristine was sent flying and slammed onto a pine tree.
“Urgh…”
She slid down from the tree and unsteadily stood up.
Not waiting for her counterattack, the monster directed its mouth at Pristine again. Foul magenta fluid with a putrid smoke quickly flew out of its mouth out in the air.
“Shit!”
Pristine was about to run when the ground beneath the monster suddenly shook. An eruption from the earth broke out at the monster’s feet.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Crimson spikes rose up from the ground and punched through the monster’s jaw, completely sealed the mouth with the poison inside.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
More large spikes emerged constantly to skewer the monster’s body and arms, not letting the monster have a chance to struggle. Even the menacing shrill of the monster was overwhelmed by the eruption of thick spikes that gruesomely drilled a hole through its stomach.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
More and more dark red sharp spike rose up. They crushed through the last layer of defense before the monster’s brain.
“Shriee… Shril… Shriek…”
The arms of the monster slowly dropped down on the ground lifelessly. Its shrill became quieter and quieter until nothing was left. Poisonous blood trickled down from the large spikes and melted the ground. Nonetheless, the crimson spikes stood still like a sturdy fortress of cold blades.
Pristine looked at the scene. She sighed.
“Oh well. It’s the end.”
She stretched her body. The monstrous slap before felt like a hard massage for her bones. It did not hurt much.
Pristine then heard some light and messy footsteps. She turned back to see the three children she had rescued before were rushing to her place.
“Are… are you ok?”
The oldest boy with blonde hair and azure eyes asked her.
“How considerate of you to come all the way here. I’m fine.”
Pristine smiled. Her eyes curved up like two crescent moons.
“You… You are so cool!!! Fighting and killing monsters!”
The dark-haired boy with golden eyes excitedly said.
“Yes! You are so powerful! You can - you can summon things from the ground! And-and kill the monster!”
The six-year-old pink haired girl with her humble knowledge for describing words also excitedly talked.
Hearing their words, Pristine sheepishly scratched her head.
“Oh I didn't kill the monster.”
“Huh?”
The three kids titled their heads, looking at Pristine. They were bamboozled by her words, as they saw with their own eyes that the monster had died.
“Uh… Is he not here yet?”
Pristine turned her head around to look for somebody. When she realized something in her head, Pristine beamed a smile on her face.
“Ah ~ His legs are short so he would arrive late. We should wait here for him.”
She reached into her pants pocket for a handful of candies. Pristine offered the candies for the hungry kids.
“You must be hungry. Have some of them!”
“Thank you!”
The kids cheered up. Although they did not really understand what Pristine said, they were quick to receive the food. They put those sugary blocks into their mouths at the speed of lightning.
“Hicc… I’m so hungry.” - Noori sniffed.
Azriel observed Pristine. Their savior wore neat garments, light armor with a short robe for easy action. He recognized a symbol on her robe. It was a round bell with a sword horizontally crossing the bell’s handle.
“You are a priestess from the Death temple?”
“That’s right.” - Pristine happily nodded.
“My name is Azriel. They are Rigel and Noori.”
The prince introduced his group to Pristine. The priestess rubbed her chin.
“You must be the responsible oldest brother.” - said Pristine.
“No… we are just friends. We were chased by kidnappers to this forest.”
Azriel told a partly true story of what happened to them. He did not want to reveal everything to a stranger, even though she was their savior.
Pristine expressed that she had understood.
“The guy who is coming is Fen. Let’s just sit down, you all seem too tired. I will lead you to the Death temple when Fen finds us.”
The kids agreed and sat on the ground. Pristine took out some healing potions to treat their wounds while waiting.
…
After twenty minutes when the children almost dozed off, the monster corpse almost went cold, they finally saw a boy running over. He was panting heavily on the way, looking like he had pushed all of his power down to his legs to run.
“Huff… huff… huff…”
“Oh he’s finally here.”
Pristine smiled.
The boy stopped running and stood with his hand holding on the pine trunk to support himself. He was still gasping for breath in the next few seconds.
‘Fen’ - as Pristine had told his name - had black hair and a pair of bright sanguine eyes. His eye color closely resembled the color of blood, which slightly startled the children who had yet to overcome the trauma of gory monsters.
Ignoring his eye color, this boy’s appearance was exceptionally handsome. He wore the same kind of robe like Pristine, and he seemed to be around Azriel’s age.
“He-hello Fen…”
Azriel greeted first.
‘Fen’ who nearly crouched down suddenly stiffened his body, he looked at Azriel with widened eyes. The boy trembly took out a notebook and a pen to scribble on the notebook’s paper.
At that time, Azriel, Noori and Rigel realized that he was muted.
The boy showed the notebook which had two lines written:
‘How do you know that name?
I’m Frandaline.’
“And I’m his babysitter.” - Pristine grinned.
Frandaline quickly flipped the notebook to a page with a big ‘NO’ in the middle. He showed the page to the three children with a burning gaze. It seemed that it was not the first time Pristine had said that.
“Okay. Since Fen is here, let’s head to the Death temple. We will go on the same way which Fen has come from.”
Pristine pointed at the direction that Frandaline ran over from. The temple was in that direction.
“?????” - Frandaline stared at the priestess in utmost bewilderment. His hand furiously wrote on the paper then shoved the notebook in Pristine’s face.
‘Why didn’t you go that way sooner??? Then I didn’t have to run all the way here????’
Pristine rubbed her nose and diverted her gaze away. Her mouth’s corners curved up.
“I forgot to bring the messenger. I’m worried that you couldn’t find us. Children tend to get lost in the forest.”
The three rescued people could see a vein popped up on Frandaline’s forehead. Azriel fake coughed and pretended to understand nothing. The boy named Frandaline likely had a prankster as his caregiver…
“Alright, let’s go. I’ll carry you all in my arms, is that ok?”
Pristine asked.
“I don’t need to be carried. I can walk.”
Azriel immediately refused. Although he was tired, he was at the age that his honor was more important than his life.
‘I’m already an adult!’ - The prince thought. ‘I don’t want to be carried like a baby.’
Frandaline raised his notebook to Azriel.
‘If I were you, I would agree.’
Azriel did not get what Frandaline meant. He had yet to ask when the red-eyed boy showed the notebook page with a big word ‘WAIT’ to everyone. After that, Frandaline ran toward the monster’s corpse.
The priestess realized something. She explained to the other children.
“This monster has a core! It’s super rare to find one. Their core is quite useful.”
Frandaline approached the corpse which was as big as a hill. Multiple thick spikes had deformed the foul beast. The monster’s flesh and spikes had clutched together to form a fortress of horror that was shining in dreamy red light. The boy’s small figure was completely engulfed in the shadow of the great monster, but he showed no fear.
Frandaline pointed his index finger toward the centre of the corpse. Astonishingly, the huge spikes quickly spread out as his command, brutally tearing open the monster’s corpse into pieces.
“Ah!”
Noori covered her eyes before the bloody scene.
The children finally realized it was Frandaline who violently murdered the monster by those huge spikes.
Azriel gulped.
‘He took a long time to arrive here, so he must have used magic over a very long distance. How powerful!’ – He thought.
Frandaline entered the center of the bloody mess. He picked up a strange heart-shaped rock and put it into his belt pocket.
‘Let’s go!’ - The boy held up the notebook page.
Pristine picked up Noori in her arms and carried Rigel on her back.
“Let’s head to the temple.”
-
Soon, Azriel understood why Frandaline had told him to accept Pristine’s offer.
He and Frandaline stood on the road that was devoid of any other human’s sight.
“…”
Pristine with her quick feet had abandoned them behind.
Azriel heard a long sigh from Frandaline.
Thankfully, he knew the way, otherwise they would just stand there helplessly.
Childcare was not in Pristine’s capability, it seemed. If Rigel did not remind Pristine, she would not remember that there were two other boys left behind.
She slowed down to wait for Frandaline and Azriel to catch up. Like usual, Frandaline just stared at her with disappointment in his eyes. He could not nag and writing was arduous sometimes.
“Sorry!” - said Pristine.
“So— tell me about you guys. Where do you come from?”
The priestess asked the children in her arms and on her back.
“We came from the Lumovas capital in the South. I went on a vacation to Kole fort but they had to do missions.” - Noori answered.
“What kind of missions may I ask?”
“Uh… I need to prove myself to be a worthy heir.” - Rigel answered woefully.
Pristine slightly squinted her eyes. Indeed, they were children from large noble families. They all wore expensive clothes, despite being scruffy for all the troubles they had gone through, the children did not have a timid attitude that commoner kids usually had. Especially the oldest boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, who Pristine guessed that he might come from a very high noble house. She did not think that he could be the Imperial Prince because the prince had yet to officially debut in the society.
“You sounded sad, Rigel, what’s wrong?” - Pristine asked.
However, none of them answered her. Their spirit was downcast evidently.
Pristine sighed. She decided not to press them more, instead, she changed the topic.
“Speaking of the capital, I really missed that bustling place. Everyone was so fashionable, the houses were tall and colorful, even the food was so good too!”
“You’ve been to the capital before?” - asked Noori.
“Hehe, I have lived in the capital for nine years before I went back to my hometown, this Northern Lumovas. I used to study there.
I graduated as a cadet from the temple of War before I joined the Death’s priesthood. See my weapons? They’re all custom made by the War temple’s priests!”
Pristine proudly showed her shining machetes.
“Ooh!”
Noori and Rigel were captured by the special weapon.
“If you came from the War temple, perhaps you would know about Priestess Eithne Noceur?” - Rigel asked.
His eyes brightened when Pristine nodded.
“Eithne Noceur… Hm, I know her. She was my senior. I haven’t heard about her for years.”
“She is my relative!” - Rigel said.
Pristine laughed in nostalgia.
“Ah, I remember when I was in training, she and a guy named Hesata were always being dragged to the High Priest’s office after causing trouble. Haha! They used to be the notorious wreckers of the War temple.
I wanted to join their play too, but the Vice High Priestess was so scary so I didn’t dare to do that…”
Pristine recalled that one time many years ago when the two troublemakers had blown up a whole quarter of the War temple. Eithne and Hesata had run away after that, which angered the Vice High Priestess so much that she hunted them down to the last house of the capital city. Up to this day, Pristine was still unable to understand how those two people’s destructiveness could be that scary. They were all kids at that time, nobody could have thought that two kids somehow had destroyed the toughest wall of the War temple.
Pristine still remembered the scene when the troublemakers were caught by the Vice High Priestess. Eithne had desperately looked at her, probably asking for help.
The Death priestess silently clasped her hands in remorse.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t save you at that time.’
Even if Eithne asked for her help to escape from the Vice High Priestess now, Pristine would still be helpless.
Rigel did not expect to hear about Eithne’s crazy childhood.
“For some reason, I cannot contact Eithne recently, nor with Hesata.”
The boy said worriedly.
“I don’t know about Eithne, but priest Ragnar came to Kole fort last week, didn’t he?” - Pristine asked.
“Yes… but he went missing in the monster tides in Kole fort.” - Azriel answered for Rigel.
“Also… can you please protect us from the assassins?”
Azriel was hesitant, but he eventually decided to gamble his safety. After witnessing the power of the Death priests, he had decided to reveal his and Rigel’s true identities, as well as the truth of what happened in Kole fort.
Frandaline and Pristine glanced at each other.
“This is a serious matter. We will contact the War temple’s headquarters right away.”
Pristine said. Her face turned solemn.
…
The sun had not risen, yet dawn already appeared at Kole fort. The warm light all came from the burning battlefield around the fort, where fire and corpses fused to become dark ashes.
About fifty meters away from the Kole fort’s main gate, there was a prodigious mountain of monster corpses, and the monsters were stepping on each other to enter the center of that mountain. Whenever a monster lost their life, it would become the next meal for another monster.
Half of the cannons on the Kole fort’s wall had stopped shooting, while the rest were decreasing the frequency of firing.
It seemed that they were exhausted, or was it not?
The dying soldiers in the fort were not killed by monsters, but by their fellow humans. There was a battle between power figures in Kole fort, resulting in high mortality of innocent Kole fort’s knights. The winner of that battle had demanded the cannons to be stopped.
Nonetheless, the monsters were more attracted to the strange mountain of corpses. It was fortunate that the Kole fort could take a break while the monsters were fighting against each other for something in mountain’s center.
A fire broke out on the corpse mountain. The monsters did not pay attention to it and continued to slash, bite, smack, crush other monsters. The snaked-head monster swallowed the rat-like monster, the mutated tiger tore the limbs of a winged spider, the lanky human-faced one bit on the red-faced monkeys... They were professional beasts who excelled at aiming weak spots on their fellow beasts. The intense madness linked from one to another, forming a circle of hellish carnage.
Soon, the fire erupted into a huge explosion.
BANG!
The screams of monsters were all erased in the explosion, so did their bodies. Their gruesome fighting was now only a piece in the history’s memory, if someone were to record it down, otherwise it was just meaningless like ashes that blew away in the wind.
The cardinal fire broke out and swirled up into a large cyclone. It eradicated all the traces of ether monsters or humans on its way, almost resetting the land back to its primordial birth.
A figure of a man slowly walked out from the fire cyclone.
His right hand held a spear that was as red as the fire, while his left hand clenched a strange heart-shaped stone.
His body was drenched in so much blood that his red hair did not look genuine anymore. However, his gaze was still as fierce as ever.
This – was his true strength unleashed.
It was destructive and unstoppable like a natural catastrophe. Even if he died, the fire would still burn.
The missing War priest – Hesata Ragnar singlehandedly tore down the mountain of monsters. He returned to Kole fort – which was now protected by a few guards that luckily survived from the massacre of Solinue’s knights.
The man stepped in the large mansion of Solinue, where human bodies scattered on the grand stoops and main hall.
Astraea was half-lying on the cold ground. She was pouring the most precious healing potions onto the large cut on her abdomen. However, the injury only closed for a few seconds before it burst open again. The woman turned pale after losing so much blood.
The knife that Alos used to stab her was blessed with holy power. Astraea had no idea where he got that knife from, but his intention clearly was to stop her from using healing potions.
The Duchess saw the blood-soaked War priest coming close. She tried hard to make a smile to him.
“Glad that you return… Huff… Can you hear my last word? My will is…”
“Keep that for yourself.”
Hesata coldly cut off her words. He held the heart-shaped stone above Astraea’s injury and crushed it.
Crack… crack… crack…
The stone crumbled into chunks of dust that dropped onto her opening stomach. Miraculously, her flesh started to crazily regenerate, that her injury closed itself after just a few seconds.
Astraea was dazed in surprise. She had yet to feel happy when the War priest’s next words reached her ears.
“It’s a block of cancer. Take care of yourself. Don’t turn into the next monster.”
After saying, Hesata turned his back to leave.
Monster’s core was the only thing that could bypass the ‘punishment of God’. The price that the user must pay to live was that they could turn into a monster at any moment, given a strong stimulus.
Astraea touched a newly formed bump of skin on her stomach.
Her mind replayed the apocalyptic scene when the monsters started to invade. So many monsters came like flowing tides that she could not even see the ground anymore. The smallest of them was as big as an adult buffalo, which were just puny to the horrendous monsters behind. It was usually very rare to see them appear in the wild, and they always stayed in their individual territories. Astraea never knew that they would actually stand together to attack Kole fort.
This phenomenon never happened before. Astraea remembered that the worst which the Kole fort used to face in the past was just annoying armies of goblins.
The leader of this monster invasion was a crawling volcano of gore. It kept pouring out rotten substances to nourish the surrounding monsters. After seeing this monster, some people had fallen on their knees, because this monster had been mentioned in the ancient text of Kole fort.
Such an ancient monster was at least three hundred years old. It was unknown why the quiet monster had decided to awake and attack humans.
Astraea had decided to report this back to the Imperial Palace. When she was focusing on contacting the Queen, Alos stabbed her and cut off all the calling lines. It was too much of a coincidence when the War priest was also caught in the monster tides at that time. Astraea believed it was a scheme made by Alos to isolate her - the current Duchess of Solinue.
Astraea gulped.
“There is only one monster that has the highest chance to create a core.”
Only a few people remained in the Kole fort. If this place had not fallen, so the monster tide was likely stopped. However, the invasion only stopped if the monster leader was eliminated…
The Duchess staggered out of the mansion.
She looked at the sky that could not go dark because of the raging fire on the battlefield. The cannons were firing nonstop, causing loud noises that rang in her ears. She saw a red-haired priest standing straight on the fort’s wall. As he rose his hand, a magic circle was formed above his head. Thousands of fire spears then shot out toward the monsters below like a fervent waterfall.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The explosions blasted on the very last monsters…
One War priest himself was equivalent to a cannon brigade.
Astraea tiredly sat down on the ground. She laughed bitterly then murmured to herself.
“No wonder… His title was the Saint of War…”
_
The red-haired priest coldly looked down at the burning hell beneath his feet. At that moment, the messenger device in his chest pocket buzzed.
Hesata took out the small cubic device and hit the open button. A transparent screen appeared in front of his face with an announcement from the War temple:
“Priestess Eithne Noceur has sacrificed in the battle against foreign enemies.
Time of death: 5:32 PM on 11 December, Year Daneva 24.”
END CHAPTER 16.