Zephyr’s POV

“… nothing stood in its way, and the very survival of every living being was at risk. Wherever the veil of darkness passed, no sunlight would touch the shadowy remnants. Without light, the temperature dropped, the animals died, and the plants dried. The sun eclipsed and darkness consumed Elmore.”

“When all hope was lost, and the last remnants of Elmore could be taken, a lone hero emerged. Inside the darkness where the sun couldn’t shine, He was there to replace him. With a halo around His head and the twelve brilliant wings that stretched wide in the sky, He brought the light in the middle of the eternal night, shining through the fear and despair of the people and sparking the ashes of hope into radiant flames.”

“The hero, brought by heavens themselves alone, was enough to disperse the darkness and bring light—and life—back to Elmore. People loved Him, and word spread, however, once everything was over and Elmore was safe, He vanished just as abruptly as he appeared.”

“Though no one has ever seen or heard from him ever since, the flames of hope inside the people’s hearts linger to this day. Many believe that, one day, the darkness will return once again, however, they are not afraid because they know, once it does, He will return and protect Elmore once more.”

“The End.”

Closing Elmore’s Myths and Legends, my eyes shifted toward Cain, the candle’s soft glow casting a dance of shadows and light on his serene face as he peacefully slept, the flickering flame highlighting the smile on his face. He loved listening to this book’s stories right before bedtime.

Swaying lightly on the chair, I took in the silence.

The more I looked at him, the more I was reminded of my younger self. While he was only five and I’m well over fifty, the similarities were right there: the chestnut hair, the same hazel-colored eyes... What? Hey! That’s more than one, okay? When he gets older, we’ll share the same beard, just wait!

Ever since returning to Asmit’s End, the furthest outpost of Asmit’s Kingdom—go figure with such a name—I have taken it upon myself to care for all the orphans in the village. At first, the number was a little more than a dozen, but over the past eleven years, it has dropped drastically. Now, the only remaining orphan is Cain.

Honestly, it’s not as amazing an achievement as one might think. Asmit’s End wasn’t very populated to begin with, and once I introduced the orphanage, the people refrained from abandoning their children.

‘These bastards, if it weren’t for me...’

Sigh, anyway, the reason Asmit’s End not having a sizable population has to do with the Ashen Heights, the volcano a little outside the village, historically known for its disastrous eruptions. It is said that it was one of the first volcanos that erupted and shaped a substantial portion of the Rhineheart Kingdom.

On top of being so close to such a natural disaster, the surrounding forests are filled with wild beasts. The beasts might not be that scary, but try telling that to the common people.

Hey, would you be interested in living in a village surrounded by beasts next to a volcano that can erupt at any moment? About the beasts? Nah, don’t worry, they won’t bite... much. Volcano? Pfft, just because it can erupt at any moment, doesn’t mean it will. Come on, what do you say?

Yeah... Considering all that, it was a miracle that so many people lived here in the first place. If it weren’t for the rare materials one could find in the volcano (when it didn’t look like erupting), and the trades with the dwarfs, no one would remain.

One might ask, why am I here then, and to that, I say mind your damn business.

Making my way to the ground floor and putting the book back on the bookshelf, my reflection in the mirror caught my attention. Sigh, my body was catching up to my age. More than a few wrinkles took place on my face, and my once brown hair was mostly grey now, along with my beard.

While checking me out, I noticed the low light present in the room. Looking through the mirror behind me, the window was darker than usual and a chilly breeze entered the room once I opened it. With a deep breath of fresh air, I gazed outside, finding the reason behind the low lighting.

Today was a moonless night, and on top of that, thick grey, almost dark clouds covered the stars, thus darkness taking hold of the night. Frowning slightly, something didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

‘Damn it, no wonder I got so many wrinkles. Orion told me to stop frowning so much.’ To calm myself before going to bed, I decided to go for a walk and clear my mind.

Taking my way through the village, Asmit’s End wasn’t that advanced compared to other places. Big cities like Malberk had actual roads that didn’t hurt the feet of the horses, making transportation within the city a lot easier. In stark contrast, Asmit’s End instead of roads had dirt trails and big gaps between buildings for tents to be set when merchants and salesmen arrived, mainly for rare metals from the volcano, but others bringing common necessities to sell to the bastar- I mean villagers.

Eventually, I found my way to the plaza, the only actually good establishment in this forsaken place. It was situated in the heart of the village, and as the most visited spot, it was kept generally clean, with a fountain in the middle. In a twenty by twenty square, it was almost completely open, so that people could have space to showcase their products and around the square were located most of the village’s shops, ranging from taverns to inns, although calling them ‘taverns’ and ‘inns’ was a big exaggeration on their part.

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Sitting on a bench, I looked at the cloudy sky. There were bits and gaps between the clouds, allowing freckles of light to pass through. Pointing with my finger the lightened places to shape them out, I paused. Just as I was mentally connecting the dots, something flashed through the light. If it wasn’t for the split second the light vanished, I wouldn’t have noticed it. Alerted by this, the distant drowsiness that was reaching me vanished.

Looking left and right, I decided to follow the light's trajectory, to see where this little dot game will lead me.

‘What was that, and most importantly, where did it even come from?’

Instead of getting an answer to my questions, another one came to mind when, from the corner of my eye, another light flickered in and out to my right. ‘Is it a what or is it a who?’

Reaching for the next location, the same phenomenon repeated and, a little later, again.

‘What the hell? Are these bastards pulling a prank on me? Did they forget who I am over the years?’

After a while, I paused, and instead of following whatever that was, I waited and watched. Maybe I could catch a glimpse of it. Soon, more and more lights flickered, but I couldn’t identify it, only that it led to a specific location: the orphanage. The more I walked, the thicker the clouds became, and by the time I made the last turn for the orphanage, there wasn’t any starlight beaming down.

In complete darkness, before the orphanage door, a figure stood darker than the silent night, its silhouette outlining by the wooden color of the door. It stood in the average human height, however it was anything but.

‘Is that a ball…? No, a cacoon…?’

I blinked and squinted my eyes.

The orb of true darkness fidgeted. It fidgeted! Changing, shaping form, wait no…

‘It’s… bending down?’

Suddenly indiscernible whispers reached my ears. Shivers ran down my spine and it felt like I was going crazy. Mad ravings reverberated in the walls of my ears like shattering glass, and clenching them shut did nothing to soothe the pain. I dropped to the ground, choking for air. My heart pounded as the sense of touch felt more and more alien, a watery sensation touching my fingers. I tried to scream, however, I couldn’t even do that, my mouth moving up and down, but no breath could be drawn, much less my voice.

Suffocating in pain, my eyes darted in every direction, but they would always refocus on the figure as if I were forced to watch. My vision became increasingly blurry, and I could feel my consciousness slipping away. Just before my eyes could roll back, the ravings stopped, my breathing returned, and my senses came back to normal. Breathing heavily, the figure fidgeted and rose back up again.

My eyes refocused. No, it wasn’t fidgeting; it was transforming!

From a cocoon of darkness, its shape changed; extending far beyond the door’s shape into something akin to multiple raven black wings. Before the veil of darkness, time seemed to freeze and for a split second, a face was revealed.

My eyes widened and converged as the figure disappeared into nothingness right before them.

I gasped and forgot how to breathe.

No matter how fast it disappeared, I saw it. I saw her.

I was stunned, her features repeating over and over in my mind, already forgetting the hellish experience from a few moments ago. She was so beautiful…

In the midst of the night, her pale smooth skin seemed to emanate a gentle radiance, a moonlight that replaced the absent moon. However, what made me lose my breath were her eyes. Those crystal-clear blue eyes, holding both the sky and the ocean within them; capable of drowning one’s soul with a single glance.

‘What was that...? She was so beautiful... She was... She...’

A chilly breeze passed, making me shiver. I frowned, rubbing my arms.

‘What was I thinking, going for a walk at this hour?’

Yawning, feeling the drowsiness coming back, I stretched but stopped abruptly when a basket full of blankets moved up and down in front of the door.

“Huh? Weird.”

Bending down, I reached for the blankets and my drowsiness escaped as—

“What the...?” I blurred out. A baby was revealed through the blankets.

‘Who could have placed a baby here in the middle of the night?’

The baby shivered, and tears edged in its eyes from the uplifted blankets. Quickly taking it inside, I set fire. As I cradled the infant, a metallic sound came from within. Reaching closer to the fire, I lifted its blankets to reveal a chain of intertwined obsidian and silver dangling by the baby’s neck, holding a pendant at its end.

The pendant seemed to be made of polished onyx, but I could tell it was something much darker and much sturdier than any ordinary black metal. It was as if it absorbed the light out of the room, with the fire stretching in its direction, casting an inky shadow. The combination of the chain together with the pendant created a captivating contrast of darkness and shimmering radiance. At the center of the onyx’s surface, a calligraphy was written. The writing was difficult to identify, but it wrote a single word.

“Apollyon.”