Vincent stood still amidst the shattered corpses. He looked on with frigid eyes when the remaining legionnaires pulled themselves out from the valley. Proud were they when they first set foot inside the crimson vale, but alas, they were proud no longer. Their entire ranks of hundred were now butchered down to only a few. A rotten stain was now ushered upon the long-standing history of the golden legion, who were regarded as the loyal hounds of the tyrannical Emperor.
He did not give chase to enact his one last undoing verdict onto them. He could not, but that was not because he was kind, no no, that would be quite hypocritical indeed. The scorching bloodlust hammering inside his mind still ordered him to give chase and slaughter them all to the every last man, but his body thought otherwise. And instead, he knelt down on the ground and coughed out black blood. His azure eyes dimmed and his arachnid limbs withdrew inside his spine from pushing his worldly body to the limit. Blood leaked out from the lacerations that marked his thumping chest, which was right on the verge of bursting out and spilling a deluge of red once again. He then clenched his teeth and channelled what remained of his aether to converge towards his ruptured front. Fleshy tendrils grew on the ends of his flesh and attached to themselves, just enough to seal off the wounds miring his chest.
Standing beside him was Nathaniel. He plunged his sword deep into the ground and leaned onto its hilt, all the while taking deep breaths to calm his restless heart. The man was much better off, save for the deep gash that spread across his left cheek which almost stole his eye, and nearly earned him the title of the one-eyed hawk among his peers.
“You doing alright?” Nathaniel asked and offered a hand.
“Just some minor inconveniences,” Vincent replied, holding onto the arm and standing back up on his feet.
“You look… much worse than I expected,” Nathaniel said as he surveyed his ghastly wounds.
“Well, I also had to protect my little daughter from any possible danger,” Vincent said and looked over his shoulder.
Celeste gave a cheeky smile and stretched her arm across, patting his head just like he did to her before during the eve of the onslaught.
“Oi,” Vincent said and raised an eyebrow.
She quickly withdrew her hand and hid her face inside his cloak, refusing to even take a peek at her father for her own mischief.
“Haha… so what should we do now?” Nathaniel asked.
“Ready the horses, we must leave this place at once,” Vincent replied.
“Horses? Where did they run off to? Hope they are okay,” Nathaniel said and surveyed the edges of the valley as far as his eye could perceive.
“You have seen for yourself, the heavenly calamity that befell these lands when my daughter was born, so don’t get your hopes too high up.”
“Alright,” Nathaniel nodded and commenced his search.
Vincent watched Nathaniel vanish among the upturned trees that outlined the sunken valley and took a step towards the only two women that remained atop the blood-soaked battlefield. Right at the moment, as if feeling restless with her father’s leisurely pace, Celeste jumped down from his back and made a dash at her mother, who was lying unconscious on the ground. One would expect the little girl to throw herself at her mother and kneel down in grief, but no, she did not do that, not at all. She instead grabbed onto the tome clutched in her mother’s grasp and pulled it away.
She moved the tome close to her eyes and brandished it against the air, expecting something to break out, but nothing of the sort appeared. Then she tried to pry open the tome, and once again the tome refused to comply with her whims. Running out of any other ideas, she eventually opened her mouth and chewed on its cover. It tasted nothing as she had hoped, nothing like the savoury little critters she ate back at the cave, and nothing at all like the chunk of beastly leg she devoured quite a while ago. She spat out and threw the tome away in annoyance.
The tome travelled the air and stuck the head of the other woman, who was still trying her hardest to awaken her dear mother.
“Ouch!” Hertha touched her forehead and fell down on her back. “You little girl! Behave yourself!”
Celeste scratched her head and circled around Hertha, ignoring her words through and through. And instead of helping the poor woman to get on her feet, she went past her and delved deeper into the battleground laid with corpses. Picking up pieces of weapons and armour along the way, she scoured the entire ruined fields and hoarded any shiny items she took fancy of in her eyes, just like a cunning bird stashing away its treasures from greedy sights.
Vincent smirked after watching his daughter’s antics and walked next to Hertha, who was still lying on the ground for reasons only known to her. He picked her up by the waist and placed her back on her own two feet. A mention of thanks did not arrive, as Hertha looked at the dirt and grime that stained her gown and furrowed her brows at Vincent.
“Vincent! Your little daughter is too rude!” Hertha said.
“What do you expect a day-old child to do instead?” Vincent asked.
“I… don’t know! Humph!”
“Why don’t you try to teach her some manners yourself instead of complaining?”
“Vincent! Now you are the one being rude all of a sudden!”
Vincent grinned and ignored her words as if mirroring the actions of his mischievous little daughter just the same. He picked up the fleshy tome and sat down beside Selena, holding onto her body and resting her head atop his lap. Moving her dishevelled golden hair to the side from obscuring her face any longer, he revealed her elegance and gently stroked her forehead.
Movements appeared behind her eyelids, following the rhythm of his gentle caress. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she finally opened her weary eyes and looked up at Vincent. Their eyes met. Her gaze conveyed the buried thoughts that stabbed her mind ever since she left the Empire to do her father’s bidding. And now, she refused to keep them buried any longer, she opened her mouth to spill out all the sentiments that chained her repentance.
“Shh,” Vincent was faster, he placed a finger on her lips and hushed her away. “Selena, now is not the time for this. Everything can wait for later.”
But there was someone else here quite unpleased by his acts.
“Vincent! Why are you still acting as if nothing happened?! She betrayed you! I told you time and time again that she cannot be trusted!”
“Hertha! I never… truly betrayed Vincent… not after I conceived his… child,” Selena said.
“How can anyone believe what you say after everything that happened? Humph!” Hertha said and glared at Selena with her angry eyes.
“I don’t… have to… prove anything to you,” Selena said and closed her eyes, probably because she was tired or it was just that she wanted to hide from her relentless nagging.
Hertha sat down next to him and hugged his arm, “Vincent! Vincent! Why are you not saying anything?”
“What is there to tell? She did release me from the chains of the Empire even if it was all part of her father’s plan, so there is no denying that,” Vincent said.
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“I... could have also… done that! It’s… just that--” Hertha said.
“It’s just what? How exactly? How could you have undone the seal without being a direct descendant of the Goldbloods?”
“I would have found a way!”
“My dear Hertha, you do realise you are just spouting nonsense to make an argument,” Vincent said and flicked her forehead.
“But… but… what about when you... still left the Empire without even letting me know! I was so worried!”
“So we are finally having this conversation? Still surprised that it took you this long to bring this up. Is it because you already knew the answer to that?”
“How could I know? I just want to hear it from you!”
“You would have just been a liability to me when breaking past the defences of the Empire.”
“No! Don’t say that! Not in front of Selena!”
“But then again, I would not have taken you with me even if that was not the case,” Vincent said and held her chin. “I don’t to want my sweet Hertha to get hurt, would I?”
“Hehe,” Hertha giggled and blushed away. “I like that… answer more.”
Selena opened her weary eyes once again and smirked, “Heh, such a fool.”
“You! Selena! Why are you talking again!” Hertha clenched her teeth and said. “Vincent! Vincent! You must do something about her!”
“What do you suggest?” Vincent asked.
“You must leave her for her treachery!”
“Are you telling me to willfully abandon the mother of my child? And let Celeste grow up without a mother? Or is it that you propose to leave both my child and her mother behind? That’s a bit cruel, don’t you think?”
“I… No! I did not mean that!” Hertha said and shook her head, all the while purging the thoughts that festered her mind. “I really do not know what to do. I am sorry for even implying any of these. Please forgive me.”
“That’s the Hertha I love and care about,” Vincent nodded and ruffled through her long raven hair.
“Hehe, thank you Vincent,” Hertha said and leaned herself upon his shoulder. She relished his touch with all her heart and closed her eyes, but it was cut short when a meddling hand appeared and pulled at her hair, moving her away from Vincent.
“Ouch! Selena! How dare you! You still have the strength to do that!” Hertha fumed.
“I will always have… all the strength in the world to… protect my Vincent... from other women,” Selena said.
“Why you!”
“Alright, enough of you two,” Vincent said and stood up. “Selena, can you walk or do you prefer I carry you like a princess?”
“I would... prefer to choose the latter… but that would be selfish of me... since I am not the only one who was injured,” Selena said and tried to stand up on her own.
Her legs shook as she got on her knees and pushed off the ground. Just then, a light breeze flew across, nudging against her swaying figure and crumbling her balance. She grasped onto Vincent and clung to him, refusing to collapse back into the foul terrene right beneath. Vincent placed his strong arms around her waist and pulled her next to him. Selena responded in kind and buried her face in his chest, but alas, this was also cut short when a grievous hand appeared and pulled her away by the hair.
“Hertha! Stop that this instant!” Selena shouted.
“Why are you the only one who can do all this but not me!” Hertha said.
“Because… because Vincent is already mine!” Selena said.
“No he is not! Just because you had his child does not mean that he is all yours!”
“Heh! Who are you to say otherwise?!”
The clashing of metal against metal pierced their ears and broke off their petty arguments. Their body tensed up and their eyes narrowed to vigilance. They looked on and about to find the origin of such clamour, but they found nothing of the sort, for everywhere their gazes fell, their eyes met nothing but fields sown with mortal remains. The sound appeared again, ringing very close and creeping towards their ears much deeper than before. The two women suddenly looked beneath them in unison and exhaled a sigh of relief as they finally found the culprit that ravaged their nerves to no end.
It was Celeste. She jumped up and down in excitement and carried a shield atop her head. Within it laid weapons, armours and other trinkets that she scoured from the fields. Placing them all beside her father’s feet, she puffed up her chest in pride as if she had done the most arduous task ever known to all within the world of mortals. But if one were to tell her that all she did was nothing more than the most mundane acts done by looters and thieves, then she would still smile in satisfaction and want praise from her dear father. For such was the blinding innocence of a child unblemished by the world beyond.
She picked up a rather long dagger and gave it to the dumbfounded Hertha. She then picked up a severed finger with a ring attached and passed it to her mother, and finally, she picked up a belt adorned with silver and handed it to her father while keeping all the other ‘treasures’ to herself.
“Thank… you?” Hertha said and looked at her own image reflecting off on the blade.
“You silly girl! Why did you give me this? Disgusting!” Selena berated and threw the finger away.
“Hmm? This belt should come in handy, thank you, my child,” Vincent nodded and bound the belt around his waist. A series of small chains were strapped on the side. He opened them all one by one and placed the otherworldy tome at the centre. Then rebinding the chains in a criss-cross pattern, he hooked the tome against the belt.
Celeste looked at his actions and clapped her hands in delight. But as always, her happiness turned to discontent when she realised her ungrateful mother did not share the same sentiments as her dear father. The severed finger that she gifted was thrown away as quickly as it was given, sparing not an inkling of thought for her feelings.
“There there,” Vincent patted her head and calmed down her sorrows. “It’s alright my child. I am very pleased with the ‘gift’ you presented me.”
Celeste tilted her head and gave a beaming smile. She knew not what his words meant but she understood all the same, for such were the wondrous ties of blood between them. And to bless her dear father for sharing the same sentiments once more, she rummaged through her stash of ‘treasures’ to find an offering that befitted her father’s grace. Her deftly hands passed through swords, pouches, and helmets and crept dangerously close to an eyeball that dangled on the edge.
Vincent broke into a frown after seeing it all unfolding in front of his eyes, and so before she could grasp the eye and subject him to the same consequence as her mother, he picked up his daughter in his arms and pinched her nose with a smile, all in an attempt to shift her attention away from her innocent knavery. It proved futile in the end as she still looked down and stretched her arms, trying her utmost to grasp into the dangling eye. Before she could throw her temper once again, the sound of hooves battering against the earthen soil chimed in her ears, diverting her thoughts toward the two humble beasts that came marching into the fields.
Nathaniel led two white horses by the reins and arrived in front of them. The horses appeared restless and out of breath. Faint burnt marks spread across their bodies, scarring their pristine skin to match the tone of their black mane shimmering down from their crown. Their saddles remained intact to an extent but some pieces of their saddlebags were torn off from the sides. The look in their drained eyes recounted the horrors they went through, the terrors unleashed by the heavenly wrath in this twisted valley this morn, for even the slightest stray bolts from the empyrean caused them incomprehensible anguish upon their beastly minds.
“Hmm? Only two? What happened to the rest?” Vincent asked.
“One of them is still missing, while I only found the charred remains of the others,” Nathaniel replied.
“Well, better than nothing I guess. Hope they can at least get us close to our destination,” Vincent said.
“Vincent… where are we going?” Selena asked.
“I want to return to my birthplace, back to my lands, back to where it all started,” Vincent replied with a faint smile. “Now that I think about it, I left that place when I was just a child, captured and taken away by your father no less.”
“Vincent… I am sor--”
“Selena, my dear, you know very well I don’t need anyone’s sympathy. And it was a long time ago, so no need to unearth old wounds.”
“Still, I am sorry,” Selena said.
“If that makes you feel better, then so be it,” Vincent said and jumped onto the saddle. He placed Celeste at the front and offered a hand to Selena, who graciously took the proposal and elegantly sat behind him. Hertha waited for her turn to arrive, but Vincent did not extend his hand as she expected. Seeing no other way, she acted in haste and tried to climb the horse, but she was quickly shoved away by Selena.
“Selena! Why are you not letting me in!” Hertha said.
“Look at this poor horse! Do you expect this poor thing to carry the four of us? Go and travel with your brother,” Selena said.
“Humph! I will remember this! Just you wait!” Hertha said and jumped on the back of the horse driven by Nathaniel.
Right then, Celeste jumped down and tugged at her father’s feet. She pointed at her sea of treasures lying beneath, urging him with her pearly eyes to bring them all atop the horse.
“My child, those are too many to bring alongside us,” Vincent bent down and caressed her long silver hair.
One would have thought that the little girl would throw a temper tantrum at his response, but no, she did nothing of the sort. She simply picked up a wooden club from among her ‘treasures” and climbed back up atop the horse.
“That’s a good girl,” Vincent said and patted her head. Celeste smiled from his praise and leaned the back of her head against his chest. Then curling herself like a tiny kitten and wrapping her arms around the wooden club like a pillow, she fell fast asleep.
“Let us move, shall we?” Vincent struck the reins and the horse galloped towards the valley’s end, spiralling down from the twisted mountain range and back onto the verdant plains at the outskirts of the Empire. No blades greeted them as they descended, except for the abandoned supplies and wagons that littered the path they undertook. Their horses galloped across the scenery and soared through the winds, leaving the lands conquered by the Empire further and further behind. Day turned to the dreaded night, and night paved the way towards shimmering dawn as they embarked on their pilgrimage towards the Frozen Dominion, towards the icebound grounds upon which entombed the enigmas of his otherworldy kin.