Episode 2: The Diablo Oath

Two steps of footsteps followed behind his statement from the same direction as the doppelganger. Two soldiers dressed in royal gold and white metal knight armor holding the hilt of their swords called out. “Hail! Monster!”

The Diborn held his sword with the head of the doppelganger until he softened his grip. He recognized the voice of the man calling out. A silky soft voice that eased the eardrums with a soft beat every time he spoke. The two soldiers turned the corner and so did the wanderer turn his hips, holding the head like a lantern.

The soldier calling out, halted the other soldier. He wore a golden-plated helmet, one fitting for a brave knight. His cloak covered in dusty snow bits flowed through the forest. His boots cackled with a radiating golden glow flowing from the head of the man. He removed his cap and his luscious silk-gold hair flowed like vibrant daises in the garden. He sheathed his buster great sword on his back with a small nod of approval.

“We had that Malakai. Shouldn’t Diborn be at ease with creatures of their kind? Not ripping their heads off like a bag of bread?” The knight questioned Malakai the Diborn.

Malakai hesitated to answer the question. He only looked to the head for answers and turned his head in annoyance. The other soldier, a pale scrawny weakling compared to the literal giant muscle head standing next to him, felt uneasy. His armor was two sizes bigger holding him down. He kept his black hair to the side where young couldn’t see most of his face. His eyes couldn’t match Malakai’s or look at the dead body. He put his short sword and shield over his back and took a deep breath.

“Cap… captain. He got em. So good…?” The young soldier questioned the brave knight. The boy barely out of his teenage years, looked to his captain, who had more confidence in him than himself.

“Hush Rorke. No one gives a damn what a pathetic runt like you thinks or should ask. Do as you are told and that is all, boy.”

“Yes, Milord. I wouldn’t fail you once more Lord Leonidas.” Rorke commented, with his head down. He could barely mutter the words out.

Malakai looked at Lord Leonidas with an unexpressive grin. You couldn’t tell if he was either angered or pleased. The Diborn are the types of creatures many try not to pry with. Lord Leonidas of the Edindale Empire understood the usual mannerisms of this specific Diborn. He shunned him away like always treating him like they were not both living creatures. Yet, Leonidas smiled at the Diborn.

Leonidas approached Malakai taking the head lamp Malakai created. Leonidas examined it while Malakai sat beside him watching. His expression went from a pleased aptitude to irate. “Amazing how creatures can try to deceive you and still fall to your might. If you were not such a profound fighter, you would be dead. You damn monster. We lost three men for this operation alone to the deceiving doppelganger.”

“Mm. So you expected more?” Malakai questioned with a sarcastic gesture. His eyes shut as he shook his head.

Leonidas chewed on his blistered lips. He became more frustrated. “Focus on the mission perhaps. Your job is to ensure my men don’t die to your kin. You already have failed. The least you can do is ensure we capture our target.”

Malakai turned around grabbing the body of the doppelganger and dumping it into the campfire. He let the corpse melt entirely into the flames, as he grabbed a potion bottle from his pouch. Dumping an unknown black elixir back into the fire, creating black flames once more. The entire frame of the creature melted from the elixir. From the pale skin to its bone marrow. The fire silenced into a large black smoke, with goo resonating from the wood.

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“Capturing a superior isn’t an easy task. But seems I don’t have a choice.” Malakai stared at the goo, muttering to himself. A faint black glow on his right wrist popped out.

“Focus Diborn. Let us move, then.” Leonidas ordered.

“Sir!” Rorke responded.

Malakai nodded his head, grabbing all his supplies. The three made their way towards the part of the forest both the creature and soldiers came from. The snow began to fall like hail plundering the three, but not enough to cause any battle wounds. The march seemed forever. All that continued to pass by them were dead trees and the same terrain as before. A parallel cycle.

…

Malakai followed the soldiers behind, with a notebook and pen in hand. His normal walking pace equaled the jog of both soldiers.

“Day three thousand and fifty. I continue my duties as a captured Diborn soldier of the Edindale Empire's Militia. Not much has changed in ten years… all I can bring into account is the punishment of old wounds. A life of being treated beyond trash is a way to answer for my sins. Yet, I still work within the shadows of the empire, yearning for the search of the Lotus Blades.

The Lotus Blades and their Superiors wield a shard of the blades. It is these damaged souls who have forsaken the glorious realm of Eurafalia and turned it into a pitfall of war for power. Every country fights for its power. Rokia, Edindale, Grand Bay, and Glamis all spearhead the battle in the Lotus Wars. So what can a pour Diborn like myself do, outside assist one country? Destroy the Shardbearers of the Lotus Blades perhaps. Hell… I am not even in the Prime Lands. The guard makes me serve outside the border. But ultimately what place am I in to free the world of absolution and ambitious men?

This world needs change. Maybe, one day some strong powerful individual can come and save us all. Let me be honest with myself. A lowly Diborn doesn’t possess that kind of power. Only a royal does. An – “

…

“Malakai!” Leonidas screamed out.

Leonidas and Rorke made their way towards a pathway to a mountain, hiding behind a rock. Swords out, with both trembling in cold sweats. Malakai put away his journal and immediately grabbed his silver longsword. The rumbling footsteps of something grand came from the area. Malakai made his way to the rock.

“Rorke cast golden barrier,” Leonidas ordered.

“Um. Um… I –“

Malakai grabbed the boy's shoulder. “Do it, child. Have faith in your skill!”

“Okay…” Rorke calmed down, clearing his throat. He held his hands above the two beside him. His hands began to glow gold, as his eyes shut and reopened to golden nuggets. “Reilog!”

A faint golden orb formed around the three soldiers. Harvesting just enough above their heads and to the ground. The golden orb feels like a thick stone wall when a person touches it. One of the basic protection spells for any person to use in their lessons is magic. Every person in Eurafalia possesses some form of magic, whether it is strong or simple. All forms of life are blessed by the Lotus crystal which is the center point of all things magic. Even with its pure glow missing these days, its aura still blesses everyone.

“I did it.” Rorke smiled and laughed.

“That you did my boy. But whatever is coming from beyond that mountain certainly mustn’t step on this or we all die!”

Malakai continued to observe their surroundings from below through a small crack in the rock. His eyes caught a whim of something unusual. He focused on alert to superstition something created the uneasy feeling, but he couldn’t figure out what. “Hmph?”

“What is it Diborn?” Leonidas asked. “Speak swiftly.”

Malakai ignored the question and put his face to the mountain’s muddy trail, sniffing the ground. He shut his eyes and turned on all his senses, allowing himself to feel everything around him. Rorke looked puzzled after putting up the barrier. The rumbling from the other side of the mountain came harsher by the second. The young soldier tensed up. Worries of dying crossed his mind repeatedly like the change of a song during a ballroom recital.

“What… what is he doing?” Rorke asked shaking.

Leonidas sighed. “The Diborn have keen senses. Like that of an animal. Maybe even superior. They can sense danger from miles out with no problem. Anything with Loki magic. Magic from the lotus crystals. They are trackers if you will.”

Malakai rose from the muddy ground, with scuff marks from the trial on his face. He took a big sniff of the surrounding air before the rumbling echoed his hearing. His dark obsidian eyes opened to the truth.

“We’re surrounded,” Malakai muttered. “Were pinned between both targets.”

Leonidas and Rorke’s eyes widened greater than the easter caverns of Glamis. You could create a full moon from the intimidated eyes of the two soldiers.

“Then that means – “