A kick to his leg woke him up. He saw the same young woman from the inn staring at him.

"Don't tell me, you really slept here?", the young woman inquired.

"Well you woke me up didn't you?"

When the young man woke up, he noticed that it was still dark. The shops in town were already closed but the woman came out. "Maybe she went out for a walk?", the young man thought. It was odd for young woman to stroll around town at night. It could be dangerous even if the young woman belonged to the town. Anything could happen.

What he didn't notice was that there was a frown on the young woman's face when she heard that he had slept out in the open. "Follow me.", the young woman ordered. Without asking any other questions, the young man followed.

They had arrived back at the inn. "Stay inside. Don't come out until morning.", the young woman ordered. The young man just nodded and did what he was told. Although he was curious as to why the young woman had acted that way, he couldn't complain. He was now able to stay at the inn even with his monetary problem. The only problem was that he noticed that he was hungry. "Maybe I can find some food in here. I hope she doesn't mind.", the young man thought.

After finding some fruit and meat in the kitchen, the young man was now full. He was ready to go back to sleep but he was concerned about the young woman who had yet to come back. Deciding that the best thing to do was search for the young woman, he went out of the inn and went straight to the center of town. Deciding that the best thing to do at the moment was to search for the young woman, he went straight into town.

There was an eerie sound coming from the town’s center. Human voices could be heard which was odd since a while back, there shouldn’t be anyone outside. As the young man drew near, he started to see a group of people gathered. They were covered in long black robes with their faces hidden. A man was in front of the group. As to how the young man was able to discern the gender of the person leading the group, he saw that the person was fairly tall easily exceeding six feet and that person also had a big build.

“Now it’s been four years since the start of our mission. We have already infiltrated the local government and organizations of this town. We are one step closer to our goal. Hopefully, our lord will repay us bountifully for succeeding our mission.”

The rest of the group continued to listen to the man who was apparently their leader in their mission. “Tonight, we can start the massacre of this town’s people. We can now begin to create the Death Staff.”

The young man heard all this from far away. He had a keen sense of hearing. Apparently, the fate of the town was dreadful. They were all gonna die tonight and the young man didn’t want that. He knew that the town’s folk were innocent and they did not deserve to die. Surely enough, he also didn’t want the young innkeeper to fall to her death tonight just when she offered to let him stay at the inn. The young man wanted to stop the group’s mission but he was not sure if he had the power to do so. He would be required to fight fifty men but he had no weapon whatsoever. Maybe it was his sense of justice that motivated him to stop the massacre even though he had no chance of success.

“Kill them all!”, the leader of the group shouted and all of them began to move. They drew out their swords and started to go into houses. Screams could be heard from inside. Truly, it was a nightmare for those who were woken up and killed. The other people from the town were alerted by the screams. Lights started appear from the rest of the houses. Some of the people went out to investigate the noises they heard. When they saw the men who were covered in blood and had swords in their hands, they were frightened by what they saw. They ran back inside their homes and locked their doors but it was futile. The men kicked down their doors and killed them while they protected their children. The massacre had already begun and the young man started to think of a plan to stop the killing.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind. He was frightened but it immediately changed to relief. It was the young woman from the inn. "Didn't I tell you to stay back at the inn?"

"Well I was wondering why you hadn't come back so I went out to look for you."

"But clearly I told you to stay. Do you understand the situation you're in? You could die here and now. I want to run away as far as you can before they can kill you.", the young woman said.

Stolen story; please report.

"I can't run away now that I know that people are dying every second. I want to stop what they're doing and save the people of this town."

"Don't be foolish. You can't do anything towards these men. They have weapons while you don't have anything to protect yourself, no armor and sword. You're just gonna die so I hope you act smart and run away."

The young woman was right and the young man acknowledged it but he just couldn't turn away. It was his gut feeling to protect the weak from the strong, to help people who are in need and to stop acts of evil. The young man was being idealistic but the truth was he couldn't do anything. He would just help increase the death toll by one.

As the young woman and man conversed, they weren't able to notice that three men approached them from behind. The three men hit the heads of the two people and they were knocked unconscious.

When the young man woke up, he found that he was currently tied up. He saw the young woman beside him. From behind, he saw children all on the ground and tied up. The leader of the group was in front of the young woman.

"Were you trying to stop us? Leila Whiteknight." A look of surprise and anger formed on the young woman's face.

"How do you know my name?", Leila asked.

"Well, we searched through your belongings back at the inn and we found your Identification Plate. Apparently, you're a knight at the Bradford Empire."

Leila regretted that she brought her Identification Plate with her. She was supposed to be on an undercover mission, gathering information about this alleged dark organization 'Beel Group'. This group carried out the most heinous acts of murder. The Beel Group was currently one of the largest underground organization in Bradford Empire. They were currently expanding their territory.

"Men, we just found ourselves a culprit for the massacre of this town. The story will be that this knight of the Bradford Empire turned rogue and killed all of the town's people."

"You can't do this. I’m going to stop this madness.”, Leila told the leader of the group but it was all in vain. The men started to go near the children. They carried them towards an altar. This altar had magic runes written all over it. Clearly, this was for the creation of the Death Staff and the children were the sacrifices.

“With the blood of the young and innocent, let us start the ritual.” , the leader said. One child was brought up to the altar and a knife was placed on her neck. One of the men was about to cut the child's throat when an arrow was shot at the man's head. The man's body fell lifelessly down.

The leader was shocked. "Who's there? Come..." The leader's words were cut short as another arrow lodged itself on his head, he too had died. Now the whole group was alarmed and took up their stance preparing for battle but the enemy never came out. They remained hidden and kept shooting arrowd at the group. One by one each man fell until there was none left to kill. They were powerless against their unknown enemy.

The children were ecstatic knowing that they were saved. What they hadn't realized was that their parents were all dead and that they would become orphans.

"Leila!" It was a man's voice. Leila recognized the voice. It was her Knight Commander Greg Bradford. From her surroundings, twenty men came out all in their complete armor. It was Leila's squad. They had come to save her when they noticed that Leila no longer contacted them for four hours. It was her routine ever since she started the mission 6 months ago. She was supposed to inform them if there was evidence of the Beel Group in the town. Their squad remained at the campsite in the forest.

Leila was happy. She actually cried, for a knight that was unacceptable because they were suppose to be strong and emotionally stable. She forgot all that and turned to look at the children. She was happy that they were saved but sad at the same time because these children would become orphans. "Our empire will protect them.", she thought.

She momentarily forgot about the young man that was beside her. She looked for him and found him lying on the floor near the altar. There was blood on the ground and sword was impaled on the young man's back.