The orange glow in eyes of the corpse faded as Irene cut her connection with the undead. I dropped the limp body and looked out at trees beyond the clearing that surrounded our camp. All of the other undead under Irene’s control had collapsed to the ground, screams of terror and pain echoed through the dark forest. A smile flittered across my lips as one of the nearby undead, hiding in the tree line, froze and fell silent. The orange in its eyes did not fade like the corpse on the ground, but its movements seemed more stiff and robotic than before. It was clear that Irene was no longer in control.
I motioned toward Esben and the mercenaries with a casual wave of my hand. “If you want to get rid of the undead following us, you will not get a better chance than this.”
Esben had a big smile on his face as he shouted, “Everyone spread out in teams of three. Cut them all down! I do not want a single one of those orange-eyed carcasses left standing!”
The mercenaries roared as they fearlessly charged into the shadows of the forest. Without Irene to command them, the undead did not try and flee like before. After being unable to do anything about our stalkers for so long, the mercenaries were overjoyed to finally be able to vent their frustrations.
For the first time, I really got a good look at the skills of all Esben’s mercenaries. He had not been exaggerating when he said that his men were worth ten normal soldiers. The mercenaries were like beasts in human form. The undead in the area did not even have a chance to defend themselves as they were shredded by the mercenaries.
I watched with admiration as one of the mercenaries leapt at one undead. This mercenary was carrying a large halberd, and with a single swing, he literally bisected the undead straight down the center. The two halves of the corpse fell limp and collapsed as the rune on its back that was powering the corpse was also cut through with that single blow.
This one mercenary did not seem to be an outlier either. All of them attacked with powerful blows far above anything a normal soldier could accomplish. With every strike, limbs went flying and corpses were torn apart before the glyph on their back was destroyed.
The most important detail I noticed was that despite the unnatural strength of the mercenaries, not a single one had glowing eyes. Instead, their skin had a dim bronze sheen that covered them from head to toe. This was not the effect of an innate talent. It was something else I did not expect to see here.
I glanced over at Esben, who had stayed behind in the camp, and narrowed my eyes. “Where did your men learn the Seventh Division’s body enhancement system?”
Esben looked over at me with confusion. “Seventh Division? What are you talking about?”
“The bronze glow enhancing their strength, where did you learn it?”
“Oh, that, Svend the Great teaches it to all the warriors willing to swear fealty to him. It is how he was able to unify the scattered tribes and create the Kala Kingdom. It is the only reason we are able to stand against large empires like Novus and Ciel.”
I furrowed my brow as I watched the mercenaries jump from one dismembered corpse to another. A few of the undead attempted to put up a fight, but without Irene to guide them, the corpses only had brute force without any forethought or teamwork between them. I could not help but think they seemed to be stupider than my own undead were when I was not in control, but I did not know if this was due to some flaw in Irene’s imitation of my talent or because of the mental attack I had just used disrupted their normal behavior. Regardless, the mercenaries instantly noticed this weakness and took advantage of it. The mercenaries followed Esben’s command and stayed in teams of three that worked together flawlessly. One of the mercenaries would draw the attention of the undead while the other two circled around to attack the glyph or hack off the corpse’s limbs. Within just a few minutes all the undead following us had been dealt with.
As the last of the undead fell, I silently turned back towards the campfire. I sighed in disappointment as I noticed the vegetables, I had been searing in the pan, were already charred black. With a sigh, I dumped the charred remains into the fire and reluctantly started nibbling on travel rations instead. I was no longer in any mood to cook.
My dad patted me on the shoulder with a knowing grin as he spoke, “Do not worry about it. You will get another chance.” I glared at him with annoyance and he dropped the smile, turning serious. “What do you plan to do now? Are we going to make another detour to go after Irene and make good on your threat?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “No, I will let her cower in Novus for a little while longer. Getting to Kala is our first priority. This little incident has allowed us to clear out most of the undead following us, but it will not last long. It is only a matter of time before more show up. She would not sit quietly and let us waltz into the Novus Kingdom. All we have done is delay Irene’s attack a bit.”
“Then we had better use this time to put some distance between us and whatever she has planned,” my dad said while rubbing his chin, “We will leave at first light tomorrow and switch to a different road north at the first split. With any luck, we can throw her off our trail before more undead show up.”
I nodded quietly while trying to think of other ways to deal with Irene’s undead when they showed up. I knew a few other tricks and weaknesses that worked against my talent, but I was not sure if it was such a good idea to let Irene find out about them just to deal with an annoyance like her. If she told Envy one of them, it could cause problems for me later.
Donte still had a sparkle in his eye and was practically bouncing with excitement after watching Esben’s men clear out the undead so easily. “Can’t we just use that giant snake of yours to deal with anything this Irene throws at us? Surely, it can handle a few undead.”
“Assuming all her undead are only human corpses,” I mumbled softly while shaking my head, “I left Naga behind with different orders. Just because we safely escaped the blood mist and killed a Demon does not mean the threat they represent is gone. There were millions of humans in that country before it fell, countless animals, and more insects than I want to even fathom. We entered the mist days after it formed, hardly anything had time to mutate yet, and already there were more than ten thousand Demonkin there. Imagine how many more there will be once the mist finishes corrupting everything that lived there.”
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I saw Donte shudder and even my dad fell silent as I gave them a moment to consider just how much of a threat the mist really represented.
“I had to leave Naga there, otherwise the mist would continue to grow as more and more Demonkin are born. If left unchecked, the blood mist is a cataclysm that can destroy a realm. Once Naga has cleared all the Demonkin and the mist fades she will rejoin us. Until then, we are on our own.”
Donte swallowed nervously as he stared out into the dark shadows beyond the light of the fire. “I did not know…”
My dad rested a hand on Donte’s shoulder with a smile. With his other hand, he reached over to our wagon and pulled down one of the training swords strapped to the side, before handing it to Donte. “It just means we have to train harder. If we were as strong enough, none of this would be any threat to us.”
Donte nodded as he took the training sword and squared off with my dad. Soon, the clearing was filled with the sound of clashing wood as the two of them fought. With the undead gone and nothing else to distract them, my dad and Donte attracted a crowd of bored mercenaries with nothing better to do. It was not long after that before I heard the mercenaries placing bets on how long Donte would last through each round of the training, or even if Donte would win this round with my dad.
While the two boys trained, I heard my mom sigh as she cleaned up the leftover rations from dinner. “Those two can’t think of anything other than fighting, can they?” I failed to hide a chuckle, which drew my mom’s attention. Without looking, she reached over and flicked me on the forehead. “You are not any better. If anything, you are worse than either of them. When was the last time you did anything that did not involve fighting or taking down Envy?”
“I went to those awful social functions with Grandma,” I mumble while rubbing my forehead.
“We only did that to gather influence and information while we were in the Free Cities. It was part of your mission, so it does not count.”
I frowned slightly as I tried to remember the last time I did something that was fun and did not involve fighting. Memories of Donte and me laying on a hill, watching the stars, flashed through my mind, but I did not want to mention that to my mom. I might get in trouble again if I mentioned it. Other than that, “I danced at Carnivale…” I said softly.
“And how long ago was that?” my mom asked, placing both her hands on her hips.
“I… don’t remember,” I mumbled quietly, unwilling to meet her gaze.
“My point exactly,” my mom said with a nod, “your father and I are accustomed to military life and have no problem adapting it to our circumstances. Donte’s life was always hard, so he does not have any problem with our current lifestyle, but not everyone has is able to adapt that easily.”
I saw my mom make a small motion towards Charly, who was sitting at the back of the wagon furiously drawing runes into a glyph. I clenched my jaw, remembering how little he had spoken to me since Bastya Fortress.
My mom sighed as she shook her head. “Go sit with him. Listen. Remember, not everyone is a soldier.”
I nodded silently. My legs were stiff felt like logs as I slowly walked over. Charly stopped drawing as I approached, but he did not look up from the piece of paper. I saw his knuckles turn white as clutched the brush in his hand.
I bit my lip as I sat down next to Charly. The two of us sat in silence. I did not know what to say, but I knew things could not stay like this, so I broke the silence first. “Charly… please talk to me. I want to understand.”
The ink on Charly’s brush dripped onto the piece of paper he was working on, ruining the glyph. With a sigh, Charly crumpled up the useless piece of paper and chunked it into the woods. “It is because you do not understand that I am upset,” Charly said while staring at the ground without looking up. “Everything we have been through, did you never once consider that there might be another way? Everywhere we go there is violence and death. I know you are not the cause of most of it, but that does not explain the smile on your face when you fight… when you kill. Never once have you ever tried to reason with your opponents or try and dissuade them from fighting. Instead, you purposefully incite them to attack you!”
I crossed my arms and glared at Charly. “They are our enemies. If we do not kill them, they will kill us. what is there to talk about? Words cannot be trusted. If I do not deal with an enemy, they will simply stab us in the back later.”
“You don’t know that!” Charly shouted, standing up from the wagon and meeting my glare with one of his own. “When was the last time you gave anyone a second chance? I know you are skilled enough that we could have gotten Donte back from Bastya without anyone dying. Do not try and pretend all those soldiers didn’t die just because you wanted revenge. Going back, the only reason Donte was called a murderer and captured in the first place was because you did not stop a fight that should never have happened. Even back when we were in the Free Cities, you constantly went out looking for trouble, and because of it I…” Charly’s shout fell down to a quiet mumble as all the energy drained out of him. “You can do so much with your innate talent. Why do you only use it to fight and kill?”
I blinked a few times as considered his question. I was silent for almost a solid minute before finally speaking. “Do you know the story of the very first time Aurielle died?”
“What? No, what does that have to do with-”
“A few years after she joined the Fifth Division, Aurielle was sent out on a mission. It was a simple routine mission compared to the normal larger-scale operations she was accustomed to. All she… I had to do was use my undead to keep an eye on a city rumored to be infiltrated by a Demon. While on this mission, I met a crippled orphan boy. He was small, weak, and half-starved, but also clever. He knew how to listen and when to talk. I took pity on the kid. I took him with me and showed him the grand allure of the golden city that he could only stare at from the alleys below.” I took a breath as I remembered the amazement on the kid’s face the first time he saw the great golden towers up close, and the joy I saw when he ate till he could not stomach another bite. “For weeks, my new assistant and I scoured the city for the Demon hiding among its population, but the more I saw of the awful place the more I knew I had to do something about it. I decided then and there that I would do everything in my power to help the people in that city and started using my undead as a workforce to help the people there. This was something the local government was not too pleased with. I tried to ‘negotiate’ with them, but I was still young and inexperienced. I was just pushed around without being able to do anything. I had to send my little assistant away just to keep him safe from the government that was supposed to be protecting him.”
I paused here as I looked at Charly. He was listening with rapt attention, waiting to hear what happened next. I gave him a small smile as I continued my story.
“A few days later, I got a message from my little assistant. He had found the Demon hiding in the city. Naturally, I rushed to the location only to find the entire thing a trap. The city’s government had gotten tired of my antics and decided to eliminate me permanently. They trapped me in a room with hundreds of Demonkin, hoping there would be no evidence that way. It was then that I found my little assistant. When I arrived, his weak constitution had already begun to succumb to the mist released by the Demonkin in the room. I fought desperately to save him, but it was too late. By the time I killed all the Demonkin, he was already gone. My cute little assistant was no more. Only the Demon remained. Already exhausted from my fight with the Demonkin, I was not able to resist the power of the Demon that had once been the cute little kid. Maybe… maybe I did not want to resist. Until the very end, I still saw him as that little kid I rescued from the streets. I could not see what he had become. The hatred that burned in his eyes as he ripped out my heart was something I will never forget… It was that day I met Envy.”