The fear he felt at that moment would haunt him for as long as he lived, but it would haunt him more if he didn't save the girl he loved. Leon tried to save Erin, but he wasn't fast enough. He had failed. The assassins surrounded him and his group. They were powerless in the face of so many foes, but in a split second, they were all killed by a man in a tattered hood.
Leon awoke from his dream in a pool of sweat. He sat up and realized he was just recalling the past. That was everyone's first encounter with Alastor, a day Leon would never forget. Leon got ready for school and left his dorm.
The sun was barely rising when Leon made it to the cemetery outside of the city. Leon spent every morning at the cemetery visiting Erin's grave; he could never bring himself to let her go. Leon felt he should have been the one to die that day instead of Erin. Leon was finishing his prayer when an unexpected figure appeared beside him.
Leon was startled at first but then realized who it was, "You scared me, Alastor. What are you doing here?"
"I was in the area when I saw you enter the cemetery. Is this the girl?"
"Yeah," Alastor picked up on the sadness in Leon's voice.
"You know I'm sorry for not being fast enough that day. If I was, I could've saved all of you."
"You tried your best. Because of you, Lilith, Benjamin, Lillia, and I are alive."
"Yeah. Listen Leon I have been trying to find a way to explain this to you without freaking you out, but Erin is alive."
Leon turned towards Alastor; he was struggling to find something to say, but he kept choking on his own words. Alastor continued, "The reason I didn't tell you or anyone else was because I didn't want to warp your memory of her. But if you agree to listen to me and think rationally, I will tell you everything."
Leon was still taken aback, but his curiosity got the better of him, and in the end, he agreed. The two made their way to the tree where Alastor usually spent his time. Once there, the two took a seat, and Alastor started explaining what he knew.
"Long before I met you guys, I had a mission in which I was to watch over Lilith and keep her safe. I watched her every move from far away to keep myself from being noticed. This went on for a while until one day, when I noticed Erin joined your group, I instantly realized what she was after. Lilith's magic is near limitless, and being the last of her kind would make her a target. Erin was after this power; for what reason I still don't know, but this went on until the day when you guys were ambushed. Erin was the one who outed you guys to the assassins. Erin didn't realize that the assassins would turn their backs on her. In truth, Leon, I let them kill her in order to protect Lilith."
Luckily, Leon was already sitting, because if he wasn't, he would have. Leon was trying to process what he had just heard. Not knowing what to say, he asked the only thing that was on his mind, "But Erin is alive?"
"Erin is a part of a group of people that specialize in black magic. They call themselves 'The Pentagram'. They are knowledgeable in certain resurrection techniques, but they also have effigies that can be used to revive without any negative effects. The reason she hasn't come back to take Lilith's power is because she now knows I protect her."
Leon was still trying to process everything, but he finally found the words he was looking for, "Why are you telling me this? Why now?"
"I fear someday you all will face Erin as a foe, and I wanted to let you know before this would eventually spring up on you."
Alastor got up and left Leon to try to come to grips with what he was just told. Alastor still had time before class, so he ended up making his way to Lilith's dorm.
The sudden knock so early in the morning shocked Lilith, but seeing that it was Alastor, she let him in without hesitation. "What are you doing here?" Lilith asked.
"Is it so wrong for me to come and see you?" Alastor always knew what to say when it came to Lilith.
"No, not at all."
Alastor let out a sigh and then proceeded to turn around. "Lilith, I wanted to ask you something, but first I would like it if you put some clothes on."
Lilith looked down and realized she was still in her nightgown. She scurried to change her clothes into her uniform, but not before feeling extremely embarrassed.
"What did you want to ask?" Lilith was still very embarrassed.
"I wanted to join your group for the next couple of missions," Alastor stated.
She agreed but asked why.
"I want to make sure you guys are carrying out the mission properly, and I also wanted to see your leadership skills with my own eyes."
Lilith again agrees. She looked over to the clock and noticed class was about to start, so she got her bag and left for class with Alastor.
The walk to class was always boring, in Alastor's opinion, but today he noticed it was more so. The usual students walking alongside them were gone, and the quiet atmosphere was strange for a school filled with so many students. Alastor and Lilith met up with the rest of the group as they headed to class; they all talked except for Alastor, who was paying attention to seemingly nothing.
Benjamin was the one to ask, "You noticed it too, huh?"
Benjamin's words caused the group to stop walking; seemingly, once Benjamin pointed it out, they understood what was going on. An ambush.
No one but Alastor noticed the barrage of arrows flying towards them. Alastor's group training really paid off because, with just one word, the group scattered and took defensive positions. Alastor summoned a sword of fire and proceeded to destroy all the arrows before they could hit their targets.
Alastor suddenly thrust his sword behind him. The sound of gurgling became audible. A fresh corpse appeared in front of Alastor, his sword piercing the throat of the assassin. Before the corpse could hit the floor, Alastor's sword exploded, revealing the rest of the assassins.
"How did you get rid of the invisibility?" One of the assassins yelled.
"My fire burned it away," Alastor responded.
An assassin appeared behind Alastor while yelling, "Now you don't have a weapon, dumbass".
The assassin swung his blade towards Alastor; however, a well-placed kick to the head sent him flying to the wall behind him. Loud screaming was let out, which caused the other assassins to look at Alastor. Alastor was holding the sword with the arm still attached.
"You bastar-" Before the assassin could finish his sentence, Alastor threw the arm like a spear, which pierced the man's skull with little resistance.
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The other forty-eight assassins jumped to attack the others; however, Alastor killed most of them in one go, leaving only five assassins. "So you guys managed to dodge that? Impressive."
One of the assassins jumped towards Alastor and proceeded to fight. The assassin on top of the roof unleashed a magic circle that encapsulated the two, leaving only a gem on the floor.
Lilith jumped toward the gem but was stopped by one of the assassins. She pulled out her blade from her bag and started fighting. Another assassin tried to attack her from behind, but Benjamin was quick and landed a strike with his shield. Benjamin gripped his hammer and jumped at the assassin; upon impact, the force from his hammer instantly shattered the assassin's leg.
Without hesitation, Benjamin dropped his hammer, crushing the assassin's skull. Benjamin looked around the yard; the others were engaged in their own fights. Benjamin recalled his hammer and threw it at the assassin fighting Leon. The hit disoriented the assassin long enough for Leon to finish him off.
Benjamin jumped in front of Lillia, shielding her from the hit she was about to receive. Benjamin recalled his hammer once again. The hammer hit the assassin on the way back, knocking him to the floor. Without hesitation, Lillia jumped into the air and fired multiple arrows, pinning the man to the floor.
Lilith swiftly finished her opponent before Benjamin could step in. "Good thing we trained so hard; if we hadn't, we probably wouldn't have won so easily," stated Benjamin.
Lilith picked up the gem and threw it into the air. Lillia's arrow shattered the gem, releasing the seal. Alastor had the assassin in the air by the throat. He slowly pierced the heart of the man, tossing him aside once completed, leaving him to die slowly.
Alastor walked over to the pinned assassin and started 'questioning' him, "Who sent you here?" The assassin remained silent until Alastor started breaking fingers. "We were hired by the kingdom of Sol to capture you and the girl." The assassin was talking fast, trying to stop Alastor from causing more damage.
"Why?"
The assassin responded quickly this time, "They want to overthrow Angel's province. With the girl being held hostage, the council thought you would comply with their demands."
"Why me?" The assassin could sense Alastor's patience wearing thin.
"The council saw you had power that exceeded the captains; they saw the fight against Captain Amaya and realized you were holding back a lot; with your strength, they had hoped to take over Angel's province."
Alastor summoned a blade and gave the assassin a quick and painless death for his cooperation.
Shortly after executing the last assassin, the students rushed toward Lilith's magic aura to provide aid. When they reached her, all they saw was the massacre. The accounts of the students told Alastor that the assassins grouped all the students and faculty and sealed them away to not interfere in the fight.
Alastor began walking away from the scene as soon as the police came to clean up the mess. He, of course, started thinking about his next course of action. They would surely try another attempt on Lilith, and he couldn't allow that. Alastor contacted Gord and told him his next course of action. Gord wasn't pleased, but he understood what had to be done.
Lilith came running up to Alastor as he was leaving the school. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to take care of some things; I won't be gone long, so you don't have to worry about a thing."
"You're going to Sol, aren't you?"
"Yeah, if I don't, they are going to keep trying to come after me and you. But don't pay too much attention to it; just keep practicing while I'm gone."
"No. I'm going with you; I don't want to leave your side, and if we do get attacked again, then who is going to be able to protect me? We only won because you killed most of them; even the other students and other faculty couldn't stop them."
"Then go with Gord."
"I'm not leaving your side, Alastor." Lilith's tone was serious, and Alastor knew he couldn't change her mind no matter how much he tried. Alastor let out a sigh and gave in to Lilith's demand. He agreed that it would be safer if all of them were there. "All?" Lilith asked
Alastor pointed behind Lilith, and she turned around to see her friends all ready and packed up to go to Sol. "You were taking them, but not me?" Lilith asked curiously. "Are you going or not?"
Lilith went to pack, and they all met at the tree when she was done. By the time they were leaving, it was already midday. "So how are we going to get there? Even on horseback the trip is still ten days, and that's nonstop," asked Lillia. "Leave that to me," said Alastor
Using his fire Alastor summoned a pair of wings, the wings expanded encapsulating the group in what looked like a bubble. The bubble lifted into the air and started flying in the direction of Sol at a rapid rate, the bubble allowed for free movement, and its transparency allowed for the others to look at the world below. Although the group was carefree moving around inside the bubble Alastor was still the one controlling the bubble.
Within two days the group made it to the border separating Sol, and Angel's province, Lilith had heard stories but she didn't think they were true. Sol got it's name because the entire country sat on top of a mountain which made it the country closest to the sun. Alastor landed on the edge of the mountain and retracted his wings while saying, "We have to walk the rest of the way. We'll bring all kinds of unwanted attention if people see a giant fireball heading towards the capital."
Everyone agreed; the walk wasn't too bad at first, but after hours of walking in the hot sun, everyone except Alastor started to falter. Alastor noticed the group wouldn't survive long if they kept walking without water, so he changed directions and told the group to follow. After another thirty-minute walk, the group stumbled upon a lake. The lake was completely surrounded by trees, and the branches of the trees extended above the lake nearly covering the water except for a spot in the middle.
The group immediately ran towards the water and started drinking as much as they could, Alastor took a seat underneath one of the trees and began thinking about how they would put an end to their problems. Lilith's voice was the one to break his concentration, "You're not going to drink water?"
"No, I'm not really thirsty."
"What are you a dragon?" Lilith let out a laugh
"Yup"
Unlike Lilith, Alastor's tone was completely serious. She knew his tone meant that he was telling the truth, this revelation of him being a dragon only shocked her but still, she was hoping that he was just messing around.
"You're kidding right?"
"Nope," The two stood silent until Lillia broke it, "Lilith, want to go for a swim?"
The question brought Lillia back to the real world, "Sure."
The two girls enjoyed the feeling of the cold water on their skin after a long day in the sun, and they swam about without a care in the world, Alastor, of course, used his fire to create a barrier of sorts that prevented the girl's privates from being exposed.
Alastor himself sat under a tree, staring into the lake like he always did, ever since he showed up at the school Alastor always stared into the school lake as if he were keeping an eye on something.
"What are you staring at?" Benjamin sat down next to Alastor.
"Nothing really, every time I see a lake I always find myself staring at it."
"How come?"
"I don't really know. Also, I have to say your training has really paid off hasn't it? I saw how you protected Lilith and Lillia; For that, you have my thanks."
"You saw that?"
"Yeah"
"Hey Alastor I have a question. Are you really a dragon? I kind of overheard you and Lilith talking about it, the curiosity has been really getting to me."
"Yeah, it's true."
"Oh"
Dragons were feared in every nation, a singular dragon could destroy half of any nation and with the altitude they fly at it is very hard to kill. The bad part is dragons never fly alone. If the secret of Alastor being a dragon were to get out it would definitely throw the nation into turmoil.
"Don't worry about it. It's not like I'm your enemy."
Alastor looked forward at the dark world that was slowly enveloping him, this sight was becoming more and more common for him to see, "What do you want this time, Abel?"
"Telling people your secret? That's surprising, in all the time that I have known you, you have never opened up to anyone besides Me, Kimber, Laura, or Rose."
"What can I say times are changing. Plus if I don't trust my companions then who can I trust?"
"Your companions? Then what does that make them?"
Alastor knew exactly who Abel was talking about, "A group that was under my command."
"What a terrible L-"
"I don't like that name"
"Regardless, you know what you're doing is going to cause a coup d'état, right? If you don't go along with what we planned you could cause a lot of casualties in Angel's Province."
"Relax nothing is going to happen to Angel's Province. Not yet."
Abel's laugh faded away with the darkness, and the world surrounding Alastor returned to normal. Alastor looked around and saw Leon cooking a deer that he caught, the girls swimming, and Benjamin training hard. Alastor stood up and released his dragon wings, the wings were black in color and tattered, and the sound of cracking became audible as Alastor started stretching his wings.
Everyone could sense the tremendous amount of power Alastor was releasing just by stretching his wings, once Alastor was done stretching he retracted his wings. "Oh man, that felt good."
Alastor walked up in front of that lake and said, "The plan to stop the council is to kill the council."
Everyone had the same reaction, "WHAT!"